PASTORAI^ LlTKUA'rUUH KliOM OPIT/, TO (iESSXEH. 33 



mined the theory of the idyl, as well as other forms of literature, 

 till after Gessner's appearance; and his shepherd-play Atalanta 

 viSbS followed by such a mushroom growth of pastoral dramas as 

 is seen nowhere else in literature. 



Gottsched's Critiscbe Dichtkunst is the first complete treatment 

 of literary forms that I could find after Birken's Dichtkunst 

 (1679). It shows an utter lack of originality, treating the sub- 

 ject-matter in a superficial and conventional manner and does 

 not at all make any advance in the theory of literary forms. As 

 to idjdlic literature, he merely accepts the verdict of French crit- 

 ics, especially Fontenelle. ^ It is only a re-statement of the tra- 

 ditional theories of the seventeenth century as we see them in 

 Opitz and Birken.- Gottsched again repeats the old theory that 

 pastoral literature was the oldest in the world, ^ that it ought to 

 describe an ideal existence in a Golden age,* since the present 

 shepherd-life is unsuitable for poetic treatment; the only passion 

 to be described is love, but such love must be of an innocent na- 

 ture;^ the shepherds of Theocritus are too "grob und plump," Ver- 

 gil was "artiger," though his shepherds were not always virtuous 

 enough; fisher-idyls are not in good taste, as a fisherman's work 

 is too laborious; vintagers, however, are proper subjects for idyl- 

 lic description. 



Only in one point did Gottsched show any advance on Fonte- 



1 "Herr von Fontenelle, dem ich diese Anmerkungen mehrertheils abborge," 

 Grit. Bichtk. p. 589. 



2 Cf. Von der deutschen Poeterey by Opitz (Breslau 1624) pp. 23, 33. Also 

 Birken's Teutsche Redebind- und Dichtkunst (Niirnberg 1 679) , especially the 

 Z use b rift and Vorrede. 



3 P. 581: Man kann gewissernmassen sagen, dass diese Gattung (Idyllen) die 

 alleralteste sey." — To defend this statement he adds; "Die allerersten Poesien 

 Bind nieht bis auf unsre Zeiten gekommen." 



4 P. 582, Gottsched says: "Poetisch wurde ich sagen es (ein gutes Schaier- 

 gedicht) sey eine Absehilderung des giildenen Weltalters; auf christliche Art zu 

 reden aber eine Vorstellung des Standes der Unschuld, oder doch wenigstens der 

 patriarehalischen Zeit, vor und nach der Siindfluth. 



5 P. 585: ''Kurz, die unschuldige Schaferliebe muss von alien Lastern frey 

 seyn, die sich durch die Bosheit der Mensehen allmahlich eingeschlichen haben." 

 The shepherd, he adds, must be "ganz tugendhaft und vergniigt." 



