Page:Grierson Herbert - First Half of the Seventeenth Century.djvu/376

356 The opening verses recall Wordsworth's "Up! up my friend, and quit your books," but the German proceeds to confess that Nature is not for him a sufficient stimulant— "Holla, Junge, geh' und frage,                  Wo der beste Trunk mag sein,                   Nimm den Krug und fülle Wein." What is true of Opitz is true of his followers. The ambitious societies, imitations of the Italian academies, which sprang up with the declared purpose of carrying out Opitz's principles ("Die Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft" under Prince Ludwig of Anhalt, "Der gekrönte Blumenorden" of Nürnberg, known also as "Die Gesellschaft der Schäfer an der Pegnitz," &c.), produced nothing of value beyond works on language and metre; but some of Opitz's imitators wrote good songs, secular and religious. Among them was the Königsberg poet, Simon Dach (1605-1659), author of                "Jetz schlafen Berg' und Felder                   Mit Reiff und Schnee verdeckt," and "Der mensch hat nichts so eigen,                 Nichts steht so wohl ihm an,                  Als dass er Treu erzeigen,                  Und Freundschaft halten kann," as well as the delightful Aenchen von Tharau. Jacob Rist (1607-1667) wrote the sublime hymn, "O Ewigkeit du Donnerwort"; but the best of Opitz's followers was Paul Fleming (1609-1640), who, after being