2(5 PASTORAL LITERATURE FROM OPITZ TO GESS.NEE, 



poetry, while the pastoral drama took Guarini's Pastor Fido and 

 Tasso's Aminta^ for its models. All the stress was laid upon 

 form. The attempt to be original, however, led to conceits and 

 fantastic metrical schemes of the most varied kinds. As to the 

 contents, the poet was not supposed to express his own feelings in 

 his writings; everything was conventional. In the words of Bir- 

 ken: "Das Herz ist weit von dem was eine Feder scbreibt."^ 



Another characteristic, too, inherited from Opitz, added to 

 the conventionality of the pastorals: they were usually written in 

 honor of the powerful and wealthy, and hence thrived mainly by 

 the favor of the courts. To become a Hof-poet was the aim of 

 every writer of verse; every prominent man, every court festival 

 (births, marriages, deaths, namedays, return from journeys, etc.), 

 was celebrated in highsounding poems, Gelegenheitsdichtung m 

 the worst sense. ^ It seems as though this personal element 



1 One of the first is Daphnis u. Cbrysilla by Schere, Hamburg 16-38, tlie in- 

 terludes being mainly in low German. Five pastoral dramas treat of the close of 

 The Thirty Years' War, the stress of the times naturally turning the thoughts and 

 longings toward an ideal happy world. The authors were all members of the 

 Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft. Birken and Schottelins were also Pegnitz- 

 schafer. These dramas were (for full titles see table No. 2) : 



1. Lawentatio Germaniae Expirantis, by Schottelius, 1640. 



2. Das Friede-wiinscheude Teutschland, by Rist, 1647. It wentthrough 

 four editions. 



3. Teutschland Kriegs Bescbluss u. Fried en schluss vom Schafer Flor- 

 idan, Birken, 1650. 



4. Margenis, das vergniigte, bekriegte und wieder be fried igte Deutsch- 

 land, by Birken, 16.51. 



5. Das Fridejaucbzende Deutscbland by Rist, 1653. 



2 Se also note 1, p. 22. 



s Even Hercynie WAS written in honor of a court (see p. 22). Of the num- 

 berless poems of this kind we may mention the following of those that were 

 pastoral in form (for full titles and persons celebrated see table 2) : 



Der Elmen-Nymplien Lust.-Gebiiu by Glaser, 1750. 



Der getreue Hiirte by Geller, 1653, Verlibtes Gespenste byGryphius, 1660, 

 Pegnesiscbe Gespracbspiel-Gesellscbfift, by Birken, 1665; JaucbzeadeCupido 

 by Cronpusch, 1669; Der unbegliickte Scbafer hy Reich, 1686; Etlicbe Scbafer- 

 gedicbte by Wernicke, 1701; Scbafergedicht by Konig, 1730; An Friedricb II 

 by Lindner, 1741; Scbafergedancken by Neukirch, 1742 (1); Scbaferspiel 

 die Herbstfreude by Neuberin, 1753; Zdj' We a ufMarien C/jar/ottez; by Regel- 

 sperger, 1768; Der begliickte Friiblinghy Rantenstrauch, 1770. To show the 

 extent to which this tendency was carried may be mentioned the poems of Joh. 



