Dry den's Relation to Germany 59 



ploys their iam'bic pentameter, but at times expands it into six 

 feet, or contracts it into four. Similarly he occasionally substi- 

 tutes alternating rhyme for their rhymed couplets. In a number 

 of his other fables and poems he uses the iambic pentameter 

 rhymed couplet throughout, or as in Philemon and Baucis, substi- 

 tutes it for the alternating rhyme.^ 



Like Hagedorn, Bodmer and his friends were also interested 

 in the fables of Dryden. Spreng esteemed Dryden as a poet and 

 fable-writer.^ " Seine Fabeln," he says, " verdienen den Beifall 

 aller Kenner." In 1742 Bodmer quoted and translated the first 

 six lines of The Floiver and the Leaf.^ He was also fascinated 

 by the idyllic character of Cymon, and wished Gleim to make use 

 of Bocaccio's Cyinon for a Schaferspiel." For the ensuing two 

 years in their correspondence Bodmer, Sulzer, Gleim, and Ramler 

 discussed the writing of a Schaferspiel on the same theme. Bod- 

 mer first suggested to Gleim that Hagedorn or Rost make use of 

 the material,^ but later himself made a prose sketch and wished 

 Gleim or Kleist to put it into verse. ° That Gleim seriously con- 

 sidered writing on the theme is apparent from his subsequent 

 .letter. " Ich las neulich den ' Timon des Dryden'; die Fabel 

 schien mir bequemer zu einer Erzahlung, als zu einem theatrali- 

 schen Stiicke. . . . entweder ich, oder einer meiner Freunde, den 



4 In Herrn Friedrich von Hagcdonis Poetische Wcrke hey Johann Carl 

 Bohn, 3 vols., Hamburg, 1757, the following imitate the meter of Dryden 

 and Pope: Der Ursprung des Griibchens im Kinne, II, 186-184; Der Falk, 

 II, 293-304; Aurilius und Belzebub, II, 122; Paulus, Purgenti, und Agnesi, 

 II, 179-185; An einen Maler, I, 152; An Murtzerpheus, I, 167; Auf einen 

 ruhraredigen und schlechten Maler, I, 170; Wohlthaten, I, 171; Unter- 

 richt fiir einen Reisenden, I, 205 ; Horaz, I, 100-122. For Horaz see 

 Muncker in D. N. L., XLV, p 31- 



5 See note to page 219 of his edition of Drollingers Gedichte, Frank- 

 furt am Mayn, bey Frantz Barrentrapp, 1745. 



^ See Bodmer's 1742 edition of his translation of Paradise Lost, note to 



p. 193- 



■^ Brief e der Schweizer Bodmer, Suher, und Gessner aus Gleints litter- 

 arischem Nachlass heraiisgegchen von Wilhelm Korte. Zurich, bei Hein- 

 rich Gessner, 1804. See Bodmer's letter to Gleim, dated July 11, 174S 



(p. IS). 



8 Loco citato, Bodmer to Gleim, July 11, 1745 (p. 15). 



9 Idem, Sulzer to Gleim, January 23, 1747 (p. 43). 



347 



