TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Introductory: The Idyl in Classic Litkrature. 



The four great periods of Idyllic literature. 

 The Idyl in Greek Literature. Theocritus. 

 The Idyl in Latin Literature. Vergil. 



CHAPTER II. 



Idyllic Literature in Germany before the time of Opitz, 



The Idyl of the Court of Charlemagne. 



Idyllic Literature in the Middle Ages in Germany. 



The Idyl in the humanistic movement in Germany. 



CHAPTER III. 

 Pastoral Literature from Opitz to Gessner. 



Introductory: The Renaissance; Pastoral Literature in Italy. 



State of Literature in German at the Beginning of the 17th Century. 



Opitz and Weckherlin. 



The imitators of Opitz. 



Sprachgesellschaften. 



Tendency toward Marinism. 



Reaction against Bombast. 



Literature descriptive of Nature. 



Brockes, Haller and Kleist. 



The Influence of Gottsched; Critische Dichtkunst and Atalanta. 



Patriarchaden. 



Writers of Idyls immediately preceding Gessner. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Gessner and the Culmination of the Pastoral Idyl. 



Life and works of Gessner. 



Characterization of Gessner. 



Gessner and Theocritus. 



The imitators of Gessner; Kleist and Rronner. 



