26 Milton D. Baumgartner 



(among which were many of Wernicke's) edited in 1780.*'^ Like 

 Lessing, Ramler had a great fondness for the epigram, and 

 together they had edited the epigrams of Logau (1759). Several 

 times before undertaking this edition,®* in which he was encour- 

 aged by Lessing,®^ he alludes to Wernicke in his criticism. 



Lessing wrote polemics which are unquestionably the most re- 

 presentative of the direct personal criticism. He usually contended 

 for a principle, attacking the opponent and pointing out the fallacy 

 of the principles advocated by him. At times he holds his oppo- 

 nent up to ridicule, as for instance Gottsched in the seventeenth 

 Literaturbrief, or Klotz in the Antiqiiarischen Brief en (1768- 

 1769). Of the latter the fifty-first to the fifty-seventh are entirely 

 personal and in the fifty-fourth he quotes from Wernicke.^® The 

 quotation is from Wernicke's most scathing epigram, " An den 

 Deutschen Moevius," directed against Hunold, which in spirit and 

 even in motives is akin to Dryden's most poignant array of Shad- 

 well in the second part of Ahsolom and Achitophel. Lessing's 

 familiarity with Dryden and Wernicke and his keen appreciation 

 of their wit make it probable that he knew both Mac Flecknoe and 

 Hans Sachs, but as he only planned to write a burlesque epic®^ 

 without really writing a satire, he neither quotes nor cites them ; 

 but after his combat with them, Gottsched, Klotz, and even Goeze, 

 were fit candidates for the throne of Mac Flecknoe or Stelpo. 



d. Criticism of Mac Flecknoe and Hans Sachs by Other German 



Critics 

 Mac Flecknoe and Hans Sachs are frequently referred to 



^3 Christian Wernickens Ueherschriften. Nehst Opitsens, Tischerings, 

 Andreas Gryphius and Adam Olearius epigrammatischen Gedichten. 

 Leipzig, 1780. 



64 D. A^. L. 39, p. 523. 



^^ See letters of Lessing to Ramler in 1779. 



66 " Mein wehrterster Herr, ein andres ist es einem Weihrauch streuen, 

 und ein andres, einem, mit Wernicke zu reden, das Rauchfass um den 

 Kopf zu schmeiszen. . . . Ich will glauben, dass es blosz ihre Ungeschick- 

 lichkeit in Schwenkung des Rauchfasses ist : aber ich habe dem ohnge- 

 achtet die Beulen, und fiihle sie." See Lessings Werke, D. N. L., XIX, 

 p. 241. 



67 See Pub. of the Mod. Lang. Assn., p. 579 (1909). 



314 



