GESSNEE AND THE CULMINATION OF THE PASTORAL IDYL. 41 



seen an age of innocence and perfect happiness, when pastoral 

 occupation was the most important? And was not the legend 

 of the Golden Age, which had come down from classic authors 

 corroborative evidence? In this ideal shepherd-world, too, all 

 poetry had its origin and source, and to this era of perfection man 

 must always go for his noblest ideals and highest aspirations. 

 Gessner tried to depict this era as he imagmed it had really exist- 

 ed, 1 and ardently hoped that it might again bless the earth and 

 usher in a new age of innocence and happiness. 



In' Gessner's idyls description of nature occupies the most 

 prominent place. Of the forty-two idyls of Gessner, twenty lack 

 dialogue altogether, and are purely descriptive or narrative; and 

 of the dialogues, fifteen or more come in this same category, 

 leaving but a few in which the descriptive element is of minor 

 importance. A Swiss and a painter, he seems to have been doubly 

 qualified for describing the grand nature of his native country; 

 but not even Haller's Alpen had opened his eyes to the beauty and 

 grandeur of the mountains. On the contrary, nature in his works 

 is too conventional and overadorned, like the ornamental French 

 gardening of the rococo period. 



Gessner intentionally made the descriptive element so promi- 

 nent, following the examples of Haller and Kleist, and more 

 especially of their predecessor Brockes, whose minute vapid de- 

 scriptions had charmed him in his youth. In common with these 

 great descriptive authors Gessner still labored under the theory 

 that poetry could and should vie with the landscape painter, and 

 in his idyls he entered into this unequal contest. In his Brief iiber 

 die Laudschaftsinalerei he says: "Die Dichtkunst ist die wahre 

 Schwester der Malerkunst. — Wie mancher Kiinstler wiirde mit 

 mehr Geschmack edlere Gegenstande wahlen, wie mancher Dichter 

 wiirde in seinen Gemalden mehr Wahrheit, mehr Malendes im 



1 Gessner says: "Diese Dichtungsart bekommt dalier einen besondern 

 Vortheil, wenn man die Scenen in ein entferntes Weltalter setzt; sie erhalten 

 dadurch einen liohern Grad der Wahrscheinliehlceit." 



Tlie Idyl in German Literature, 3 



