16 IDYLLIC LITERATVRE IX GKRMAXY HEFORE THE TIME OK OPITZ. 



serts itself more and more.* We see it in the very words: vihtnus 

 becomes rillnio, Dorfer degenei-ates into Tolpeh The awkwai-d- 

 ness and stupidity of the "booi"s" is the never-endina: subject of 

 jests, fables, and Fasnacbtsspiele: especially in these carnival 

 plays is he made the butt of rough- and obscene ridicule, always 

 di-ubbed, drubbins,- being one of the most indispensable parts of 

 old GeiTuan comedy. - 



Duiiog the fifteenth centuiy, in spite of the oppressed condi- 

 tion of the peasant class, the peasants began to feel more and 

 more conscious of their own worth. ^ Others, too. placed their 

 hope for the future in them. We find some echoes of this in litera/- 

 ture, especially in the Meistergesang.* When this feeling culmi- 

 nated in the uprising of 152.5. even Luther was terrified, and 

 attacked the peasants most bitterly. The revolt was put down 

 with much bloodshed, and the condition of the peasants was 

 woi-se than before. 



To sum up: The idyllic element in early German literature had 

 ever been but a small rivulet; we find now and then along its 

 course some inviting idyllic spots: but finally it is lost in the 

 swamps of contempt for mral life, and blindness to the beauties 

 of nature. 



1 Little or no influence was exerted on Grerman literature by the French pas- 

 tourelle. of which the drama Eobin et MarioD by Adam de La HaUe was a 

 development. Cf. Gosche, ALG, L, 219, fi. 



- This feeling is expressed in the old couplet; 



Der Bauer ist an Ochsen statt 

 Nut dass er keine Homer hat. 

 3 Cf. Bezold's Geschichte der dentsehen Reformation (Berlin 1890), p. 

 142, ff. See also A social Reformer of the J^V. century, a paper by Frank 

 Goodrich, in Tale Review, Aug. 1896. 



* Kosenbliit, who wrote from 14.31— '30 at Niimberg, turned from court 

 poetry to sing the praises of the lower classes: 



"Iche lobe dich du edler Bauer 

 filr alle Kreatur 

 fiir alle herm auf Erden 

 ■ Der Kaiser muss dir gleich werden." 

 Hans Sachs in his Gespracb zwiscben dem Sommer vnd Winter (Cf. Streitge- 

 dicbte, p. 6), shows a deep appreciation of nature and simple life: yet he, too, 

 made the peasant and his foibles the object of his jests. 



