6 Milton D. Baumgartner 



Wernicke with presumption, nor the ridiculous comparison of 

 him with a hare hopping about on the dead body of the lion, Lohen- 

 stein, succeeded in silencing Wernicke. On the contrary, even 

 though his literary work was so slight that he was regarded as a 

 layman of little consequence, he completely silenced Postel by re- 

 plying to the sonnet with his satire Hans Sachs"^^ in pamphlet 

 form, containing a foreword even more bitter than the satire it- 

 self. Shadwell's scathing satire warranted Mac Flecknoe, but 

 Postel's sonnet did not warrant Hans Sachs. Wernicke endeav- 

 ored to justify it on the ground that the sonnet was frequently 

 wrongly ascribed to (Nicholas von) Bostel, a contemporary, whose 

 name was confused with Postel. He sought to temper his criti- 

 cism somewhat by saying that the translation was made to furnish 

 the German reader an innocent pastime, designating it as a " lust- 

 ige Erfindung." 



Wernicke's theories of the satire which he sets up in the intro- 

 duction to his epigrams in the main agree with those of Dryden. 

 Under the influence of Boileau and Dryden he, like the latter, 

 amends his former criticism with the one difference that he frankly 

 acknowledges his change of viewpoint and justifies the change. ^^ 

 He now deprecates in the Silesian idols and their followers, the 

 fine figures of speech and insists that thoughts are the soul of 

 poetry just as Dryden insists on wit."- 



According to Dryden, " The function of the satire is to lash 



20 " Ein / Helden-Gedicht / Hans Sachs genannt / aus dem Englischen 

 ubersetzet / Von Dem Verfasser / Der Uberschriffte / und / Shafer- 

 Gedichte / nebst einigen nothigen / Erklarungen / des Ubersetzers 

 (Altona, 1702)." 



21 " Man hatte als man diese tJberschrifft schrieb, nicht allein keine 

 Englische und Frantzosiche Poeten; sondern auch sogar die besten 

 Lateinischen nichts anders als der Sprache halber gelesen. Wannenhero 

 es kein Wunder, dasz man sich damals in seinem Urtheil etwas verstiegen." 

 See Palaestra, LXXXI, p. 315 (Berlin, 1909). 



22 " Man halt davor, dasz wir bisshero in unseren Versen mit eitlen und 

 falschen Worten zu viel gespielet, und sehr wenig auf das bedacht ge- 

 wesen, was die Welschen Concetti, die Frantzosen Pensees, die Englander 

 Thoughts und wir fuglich Einfalle nennen konnen; da doch dieselbe die 

 Seele eines Gedichtes sind." Ibid., p. 120. 



294 



