I'ASTOltATj LITHKATTlnB PTtOJf OIMTZ TO (UOSSNER. 27 



ought to have imbued their poems with some life; but all realistic 

 tendencies were entirely smothered by other elements: 1. the de- 

 sire on the part of the authors and those whom they celebrated 

 to withdraw as much as possible from the crude realities of life;' 

 2. the thought of a Golden Age, an ideal shepherd world, which 

 colored the character of the productions, even though in many 

 of them the shepherd garb was but a mask;'^ 3. the introduction 

 of the gods of Greek and Roman mythology; 4. the personifica- 

 tion of all the affections and qualities of man; symbolism carried 

 to the extreme. 



What made this ideal shepherd world so general in the litera- 

 ture of the time was the fully accepted belief that it once had 

 really existed. ^ In portraying scenes from an ideal pastoral 

 existence the poet felt confident that he was going back to the 

 very source and origin of poetry. This Arcadian life, however, 

 could furnish but few character-types, as they were all to be good 

 and virtuous, or, at least, not vicious. Hence the same charac- 

 ters and motifs keep recurring continually. There is a dreary 

 sameness in all these pastoral works, brightened by only an occa- 

 sional flash of individual genius. 



Many of these pastorals were after the model of Opitz's Dafne, 



Ulrich V. Konig. In his works published at Dresden, 1745, there are 98 poems of 

 which 82 are GelegenheitsdichtuDgen in the sense mentioned above. 



1 The founders of the Blumeaorden in the preface to the Pegnesische Schii- 

 fergedicbt state that the description of actual peasants' conversation and real 

 boorish manners would be more disgusting than entertaining, and that the 

 shepherds who appeared in their works denoted "durcb die Schafe ihre Bilcber, 

 durcb derselbea WoUe ihre Gedicbte, durch die Munde ibre von wichtigen 

 Stadien miissigen Stunden." (See Koberstein II 193—4) . 



2 So in Hercynie, under the mask of the shepherd dress we are expected to 

 recognize the poet himself, or some one he wishes to celebrate, or even the person- 

 ification of some quality. 



3 Cf. Scaliger, Poet. 1:4.— See Birken's Teutscbe-Redebind und Dicht- 

 Kumt (Niirnberg 1679), especially the Zuscbrift and Forret/e. The first sentence 

 of the Zuscbrift reads; "Dass die Dicht-Kunst in Feldern und Wiildern gebohren 

 und erzogen worden, erscheinet aus deme, was in nachst folgenden Vorrede hier- 

 von gesagt worden. Sie ist eine Tochter der ersten guldenen Zeit." ^ And page 

 293: "Die Poesy hat das Feldwesen zum Vatterland, und die Hirten zu ersten 

 Urhebern." 



