24 Milton D. Baumgartner 



Bodmer sets forth his reasons for bringing Hans Sachs to light 

 again. He esteems this satire for its literary qualities, and not 

 because it is a controversial pamphlet (Zeitungsblatt). The many 

 witty jests, the instructive raillery, the manner of expression, the 

 ideas, and pictures (Gemalde) it contains per se appeal to him. 

 Then, too, he believes there are still many fools among the poets 

 of his own time who might profit by reading such a satire.^^ 



That he regarded Gottsched a " Stelpo," is evident from lines 

 39-40. 



" Schoch, Zeidler, Zes' und Titz, und andre Reim-Erfinder 

 Sind, wann man sie mit dir vergleicht, nur arme Sunder."^° 



Bodmer again in 1753 directly connects Gottsched and his school 

 with Hans Sachs, as is evident from the collection of treatises 

 published under the title: Ziircherischen Streitschriften — zvider 

 die GottschediscJie S chide. Hans Sachs is published in this col- 

 lection. The four editions by Bodmer bespeak the wide circula- 

 tion which this satire enjoyed during the time when the Swiss- 

 Leipzig controversy was in progress. 



The year following the publication of the first edition of Hans 

 Sachs, Bodmer published a prose satire, Das Complot der herr- 

 schenden Poeten against the Leipzig school of poets. Motives 

 for this were taken from Hans Sachs and the Dunciad. Bodmer 

 compares himself to Wernicke in the passage which he uses to 

 prove that the Gottsched school will be unsuccessful in the en- 

 deavor to shelve his own works. " Wernicke hatte in schweren 

 Tagen und unter einer Welt voll Pfuscher die Rechte der gott- 



tributed the renown of Postel's plays to the actors and singers. In a 

 footnote (p. 51) he cites sixteen lines from Hans Sachs (lines 58-64). 



59 " Er (the editor) zweifelt nicht, dass man nicht auf des. heutigen 

 Tag noch eine zimliche Anzahl solcher Stelpo antreffen werde, welche den 

 ersten Stelpo nicht verleugnen konnen." See Bodmer's introduction to 

 the first edition. 



^° In a note to Schoch in the first edition, Bodmer says : " Hr. Gottsched 

 leget diesem in dem Hauptstiike seiner " Dichtkunst fiir die Deutschen," 

 wo er von den Hirtenliedern handelt, ein grosses Lob bei, und meint er 

 habe in seinem Blumengarten viel Ehre eingeleget . . . Allein die Strophen 

 die er zur Probe anfiihret, und vor ungemein ausgiebt, bekraftigen viel- 

 mehr das Urteil unsers Satyrici." 



312 



