Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/294

 282 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE Besides the Mystery Plays, pieces taken from the comedies of the old classics were often played by the students of the colleges and universities as a means of acquiring fluency in conversational Latin. Joseph Griienbeck published in the year 1497 a collection of the pieces played by the students at Augsburg. At a still earlier date the comedies of Terence were adapted in Zwickau to the stage, with German introductions and explanations for those pupils who were not far advanced in the Latin lan- guage. A prose translation of the comedies of Terence appeared at Strasburg in 1499, and in 1486 Hans Nythardt of Ulm had already translated one play of this poet's, and had attempted in the Preface and in comments to set forth the rules of classic poetry with regard to the structure of comedy. In 1511 the canon Albrecht von Eyb published a good translation of two pieces of Plautus in Strasburg. We also find several original plays composed after the style of the old classics, the first of which was a humorous piece called ' Henno,' by Johann Reuchlin, which was acted at the house of Johann von Dalberg at Heidelberg. In it the mania of the lower classes, especially the peasants, for law-suits, the predictions of a soothsayer and the intrigues of a lawyer, are cleverly satirised. The religious and political anarchy of the sixteenth century, which stunted intellectual culture, was as unfavourable to dramatic writing as to all other arts. The general state of disturbance was destructive of all creative genius.