Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/314

 302 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE anecdotes, stories, historical deeds, and parables — brought over to the West of Europe by the Crusaders, and the advancing study of the ancient writings, is collected together in the ' Deeds of the Eomans,' which was published in 1489, and was the first work of pure High German fictitious prose. 1 ' The German nation,' writes Wimpheling, ' has an unquenchable love both for song and for narrative of all sorts.' Hence it was the habit of the publishers to enliven the contents of purely instructive prose writings by the insertion here and there of light or serious romance ; as, for instance, in the pamphlet by Albrecht von Eyb, of Bamberg, ' Whether or No a Man should take a Legal Wife ' ; in the ' Mirror of Virtue and Decorousness,' by Marquard von Stein ; and in that book of religious edification we have already so often referred to, the ' Seelen-trost.' In this last we find, amongst others, the well-known story of the < Gang nach dem Eisenhammer.' By the end of the century there were already three whole collections of tales with a didactic purpose compiled from the fields of history or romance. 2 Fables were also used for instructional purposes. Thus, for example, in 1483, Eberhard of the Beard, of Wurtemberg, had the Oriental book of fables, ' Bidpai,' ' Das Buch der Beispiele der alten Weisen,' translated from Latin. The fables of St. Cyril, or the ' Book of Natural Wisdom,' were published at Augsburg in 1490, and in 1484 the 'Book and Life of the Fable-writer Esop, translated from Greek into Latin,' was published in German by Steinhowel, ' to the praise of the Arcli- 1 Gesta Romanorum. 2 Wackernagel, p. 358