Dryden's Relation to Germany 27 



throughout the latter half of the eighteenth century by German 

 critics aside from Bodmer and Ramler. Die Britische Bibliothek 

 (1758)*^^ says that the laughing satire is more biting than the seri- 

 ous, and that to the former kind Dryden has a just claim, as his 

 Mac Flecknoe crowns him with eternal laurels. 



Schmid in his Theorie der Poesie^^ (1767) emphasizes the per- 

 sonal element in Dryden's satires, which he illustrates by saying 

 that Mac Flecknoe was written against the wretched rhymer who 

 became his successor as poet laureate. 



Gerstenberg directly compares Klotz with Mac Flecknoe in a 

 review of the Lessing-Klotz controversy concerning Laokoon 

 (1769).'^° "Klotz der den Verstand der meisten Dingen so son- 

 derbar, wie mit Versatz verfehlet, dasz er gleich jenem Mac Fleck- 

 noe beym Dryden, ein Geliibde gethan zu haben scheint 



" Ne'er to have truce with sense." 



In his Geschichte der komischen Literatnr/'^ Flogel sketches the 

 life and satirical works of Dryden and attaches considerable im- 

 portance to Mac Flecknoe, giving the circumstances of its origin 

 and translating in prose lines 15 to 20, to which he adds: " Dieses 

 ist einer der besten und scharfsten Satiren im Englischen." By way 

 of illustration he quotes the characterization of Shadwell: 



" In prose and verse, was owned without dispute 

 Through all the realm of nonsense absolute." 



He states, however, that he is too cruel to Shadwell and oversteps 

 the bounds of truth. The chief motives of the satire are then 

 analyzed, and in his discussion of Wernicke he also gives Dryden 

 as the source for Hans Sachs. 



Herder admired Dryden as a lyricist, as we shall see later, but 

 was not favorably inclined to the satire. His criticism of Wer- 

 nicke is for the most part negative, but he mentions Hans Sachs 

 in the Adrastea (1801)," as the "Heldengedicht, das er gegen den 



68 In connection with the life of the Duke of Buckingham, p. 396. 



69 Chr. Schmid, Theorie der Poesie, p. 228, Berlin, 1767. 

 '■° In the Hamburgischen Neuen Zeitung, Aug. 7, 1769. 



''■1 Carl F. Flogel, Geschichte der komischen Literatur, II, pp. 363-368. 

 ■^2 Herders Werke, Diintzer, vol. 14, p. 735 flf. 



