Dryden's Relation to Germany 3 



nection between this satire and German criticism, while Schmidt,* 

 Bernays/ Borinski,® and Meisnest^ only incidentally suggest a 

 relation between Dryden's Essay on Dramatic Poesie and Les- 

 sing's seventeenth Literaturhrief ; and no noteworthy attempt 

 has been made to show the influence of Dryden's dramas, fables, 

 and lyrics upon Germany. 



The purpose of this study is to present a connected investiga- 

 tion of the relation of Dryden to Germany, showing the manner 

 of entrance chronologically, as far as possible, and the influence 

 of his works. 



CHAPTER I. Satires 



I. "Mac Flecknoe" (1662) 



At the time of Dryden's introduction, Germany had not at- 

 tained literary independence. In consequence his critical works 

 first found favor, among which his satires,^" although poetical in 

 form, must be reckoned. Mac Flecknoe, a personal and liter- 

 ary satire,^^ was the first satire, and the first work of Dryden to 

 appear in Germany (1702), leaving of all his works the deepest 

 impression with the possible exception of his odes. 



® Lessing, Geschichte seines Lebens, und seiner Werke, I, p. 2>7^t 

 Berlin, 1884. 



'^ Michael Bernays, Schriften zur Kritik und Litteraturgeschichte, III, 

 p. 103, 2d Edition, Berlin, 1903. 



^Lessing, I, p. iii, Berlin, 1900. 



9 " Lessing and Shakespeare," Publications of the Modern Language 

 Association of America, XIX, p. 234 ff. (1904). 



^° Dryden seems always to have had a fondness for the satire. In his 

 student days at Westminster he translated the third satire of Persius as a 

 Thursday night's exercise. In 1662 he wrote a " Satire on the Dutch " ; 

 from 1681 to 1687 he produced six satires in poetical form, of which three 

 were political, one literary and personal, and two religious. In 1693 his 

 £^.^03; on the Origin and Progress of the Satire was published as a preface 

 to his translations of the satires of Persius and a partial translation of 

 those of Juvenile. 



11 Mac Flecknoe, or a Satire on the true blue Protestant Poet T. S. was 

 written as a reply to the gross personal libels in Thomas Shadwell's satire, 

 The Medal by John Bayes. 



291 



