34 PASTOBAL LITKIiATUHE FROM OPITZ TO GKSSXER. 



nelle in the direction of naturalness; for lie criticises Fontenelle 

 for having made his shepherds "witty Parisians clad in satin."' 



The extreme development, however, in the theory of the idjd^ 

 appears in J. A. Schlegel's satire Vom Naturlicben in Schafergedich- 

 ten,^ published 1746. He intended this essay as a satire upon 

 Gottsched and his followers; jet his theory does not fundamen- 

 tally differ from Gottsched's A'iew of the idyl as expressed ia 

 Critische Dicbtkunst. But it goes beyond Gottsched, and shows 

 the extreme of the rococo taste in excluding everything that at 

 all smacked of realism. Sickness, sweat, ordinary labor of any 

 kind ("What have the Muses to do with household work?'") must 

 he utterly excluded.* Gessner's fastidious shepherds show that 

 this theory also influenced him. 



It is interesting to notice that The Guardian,^ translated 

 from the English by Frau Gottsched (1749), contains the first 

 beginnings of a sound realistic conception of the idyl. Especially 

 does it oppose the traditional cult of Vergil, and points out the 

 genuineness of feeling which is displayed by the shepherds of The- 

 ocritus, as compared with the rhetorical tone of Vergil's. Gess- 



1 Gottsched himself probably felt the unreal character of this kind of poetry, 

 as is shown by J. J. Schwabe's preface to Gottsched's Gedicbte (1736), his ec- 

 logues being omitted in this edition. Schwabe says (after calling the reader's at- 

 tention to the fact that there are no shepherd-poems in this edition) ; "Wo ist die 

 giildene Freiheit, die reine Liebe, und die tugendhatte Einfalt, die das Wesen der- 

 selben sind? — jetzt verzeih uns nur, dass wir euch mit keinem Hirngeburten un- 

 terhalten, denen ihr doch nicht ahnlich sein wollt." See Gottsched's Ged/c/ite 

 1751, pp. 20, 21, 



2 Among others who discussed pastoral literature was Christlob Mylius, Les- 

 sing's cousin, in an article on ScbS,ter Poesie, 1745. He makes the absurd pro- 

 position that "ein vollkommener Kenner des Charakters aller Arten von Schafer. 

 gedichten nach dem Inhalt der Muster der guten alten und neuen Schafergedichten 

 eine Geschichte von Arkadien als Richtschnur fiir die Poeten verfertigen und 

 herausgeben solle." See Netoliczka p. 56. 



3 Vom naturliehen in Scbafer^edichten, wider die A'ertasser der Bremischen 

 neuen Beytrage verfertiget vom Nisus einem Schafer in den Kohlgarten elnem 

 Dorte vor Leipzig.- Von Hanns Jorgen gleichfalls einem Schafer, Ziirich, 1746, 

 Nisus was J, A, Schlegel, Jorgen Bodmer. 



i Gleim's Bidder Schafer is criticised for making mention of "Heu und 

 Erbsenstroh." See Korte; Gleim's Leben, p. 41. 

 5 SePa^'e 59, Netoliczka. 



