Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/545

l1te1'(1tl1l'C‘ of Study‘ of 15th century. POPULAR SATIRI-3.] they recognize is a world outside the limits of space and time, in union with which n1an rises to his true life. They are chiefly of importance in the history of speculative thought, but even from the poi11t of view of literature they were of high service in the development of a rich and vigorous prose. for the stir of new life had affected not only scholars but all classes of society, citizens and eve11 peasants included. It is surprising l1ow many books found their way to the public between 1150 and the outbreak of the Jleformation; every one seemed anxious that the newly discovered process by wl1icl1 writers could appeal to so wide an audience should be turned to the utmost possible advan- tage. Of this great 111ass of literature a comparatively GERMANY 527 and from the 11th to the 15th century they formed the subject of many works in Latin, French, and German. The epic to which allusion is now made appeared in 1498, and was probably by Hermann Barkhusen, a printer of Itostock. It is in Low German, a11d its materials were obtained from a prose version of the tale which had prose A plain narrative prose style was cultivated in the appeared some years before in Holland, and of which cl_11‘0- chronicles which began at this time to be written in Caxton printed m1 English translation. Originally, the 1110165’ different parts of Germany. The Limburg Chronicle story had no satirical significance; it was a simple ex- written between 1336 and 1398, the Alsace Chronicle pression of interest in what may be called the social life of about 1386, and the ’1‘huringia11 Chronicle, by Itothe, a wild animals. In the hands of the author of this Low Ger- monk of Eisenach, about 1-130, have all considerable his- man poem it becomes an instrument of satire on some endur- torical value; and the fact that they are in German, 11ot ing tendencies of human nature. He does not lash himself like previous chronicles in Latin, proves the rising respect into fury at the vices he chastises ; he laughs at while he among the people for their native speech. exposes the1n. His humour is broad and frank, and he The; During the latter part of the 15th century there was in did 1nore than any one else to make Reynard the type of ReD3iS- Germany, as iii the other leading European nations, a great the resource and cu11ning which overmaster not only brute sauce revival of intellectual life. And it was due to the same force but even truth a11d justice. There are several causes as prevailed elsewhere,—especially the rediscovery renderings of the poem into High German, the most im- of Greek literature and the invention of printing. The portant being the well-known work of Goethe in hexa111eters. movement was naturally most powerfully felt in the uni- Another popular satirical work was the Narre7zscIzi,(i'B1-andt versities. The first of these institutions had been founded (“Ship of Fools”) of Sebastian Brandt, published in Basel early iii the 14th century by Charles IV. in Prague. Soon in 1494. It is an allegorical poem of n1ore than a hundred afterwards others were established in Vienna, Ileidelberg, sections, in which the vices are satirized as fools. This Cologne, and Erfurt; and in the 15th century universities work passed through many editions, and was rendered into were set up also in Rostock, Greifswald, Tiibingen, Leipsic, more than one Low German dialect, and into Latin, French, a11d elsewhere. For a long time law and divinity were a11d English; it was even made the subject of a series of almost the only subjects studied ; but when the Renaissance sermons by Geiler, of Kaisersberg, a well-known preacher passed from Italy into Germany, university teaching be- of the day, who had himself some satirical talent. Brandt came the instrument of a freer and larger culture. Scho- was personally of a mild a11d unassuming character, and the lastic philosophy fell into disrepute ; the 1nost active minds fact that he became a satirist i11 spite of himself is a strik- oecupied themselves only with the intellectual treasures ing proof of the confusion which had fallen upon botl1 of the ancient world. The men devoted to the new church and state. Now that the occasion of his book has studies were called “ Hun1a11ists,” and they carried on passed away, it is diflicult to realize that it once enjoyed continual warfare with the more ignorant and intolerant almost unprecedented popularity. We cannot but feel that of the clergy. Unfortunately they knew nothing of the the writer was an honest man; but his allegories are with- value of their own language ; they wrote, as the scholastic out force or charm, and his moral lessons have been the philosophers had done, solely in Latin, and they gave but connnonplaces of every civilized society. A satirist of a slight and contemptuous attention to the movements of holder type was Thomas Murner, who, although he Murne popular literature. lived far into the age of the Reformation, belongs in spirit - Popular Yet the popularliterature of their time was quite worthy altogether to the preceding period. He was a preacher, and both in sermons and in secular writings attacked without mercy the classes who were the butts of his fellow-satirists. After the beginning of the Reformation he included Luther among the objects of his comprehensive dislikes. His laughter was lo11d and harsh, and can hardly have been favourable to any small buddings of charity that may have revealed themselves among the antagonisms of his ge11eratio11. small proportion was created in obedience to the free im- pulses of the intellect. The problems of the time were mainly social and practical; men were less moved by ideal One of the favourite books of this time was T 1/1! Tyll "ale-nspie_(/el. It was published i11 1519, and_the author (probably Murner) seems to have included in it many *1 C’ B eineke Vos. interests than by questions as to the tyranny of the princes, the greed and sensuality of the clergy, the worldliness of the papacy, the powerlessness of the crown to enforce peace and order. Multitudes of little tales in prose and verse appeared, in which the princes, the nobles, the clergy, a11d sometimes rich citizens, were held up to ridicule. The “Shrove Tuesday Plays,” which now became extremely popular, also expressed the general discontent; and there were even “Miracle Plays” whose object was to reveal the wrongs of the people. In one of them, the leading char- acter of which was J oanna, the mythical female pope, a clerical author did 11ot hesitate to pour contempt on the Roman see itself. _By far the greatest of these satirical writings was the epic narrative, Reiozeke Vos. It has been already stated that the stories of “Pteynard the Fox ” and “Isengrim the Volf ” probably belong to prehistoric ages. They became current, through the Franks, in Lorraine and France; anecdotes already well known. According to the preface, Tyll was a Brunswick peasant of the 14th century, who went about the country perpetrating practical jokes. The force of his hu_mour mainly consists in taking every word addressed to him in its 1nost literal sense, and in giving it applications altogether different fro1n those intended by the speaker. There are readers who still find amusement in his rough pleasantries. During the better part of this stirring period Maximilian .I_a:_ri- I. was emperor, and he interested himself a good deal in ""11-"tn the current literature. As in politics, however, so in poetry, his sympathies were altogether with an earlier age; a11d he attempted to revive the taste for mediaeval romance. From a sketch said to have been prepared by him, Melchior Pfinzig celebrated in Theuerclrmk the emperor’s marriage with Princess Mary of Burgundy. The Work was splendidly printed, and attracted much notice; but

romantic poetry, once so fascinating, produces 1n its pages