48 GBSSNEH AND THE CULMIXATIOX OF THE PASTORAL IDYL. 



Ewald Christian v. Kleist who had exerted a great iafluence 

 upon Gessner by his descriptive poem Der Friihling^ is now in 

 turn led by Gessner's works to try his hand at writing idyls. - 

 Even in his earliest idyllic works^ written before Gessner's idyls 

 he shows a tendency to turn away from the world of shepherds. 

 So in Amynt (1751) and in other poems the shepherd element has 

 almost vanished. Xow when Gessner's example led him to write 

 idyls, he endeavors to enlarge their scope. In the introduction to 

 his Neue Gedicbte (1758) he says, that the French by taking the 

 subject matter for the idyl from shepherd-life only, had made the 

 limits of the idyl altogether too narrow; Kleist thought that 

 other phases of country life were equaUy suitable for idyUic treat- 

 ment. However, as Kleist's aim was moral and religious, he 

 insisted that only pure and pleasing pictures should be given, 

 trivial and unenjoyable traits were to be carefully removed. In 

 his MiloD und Iris and Irin he contributed a gardener-idyl and a 

 fisher-idyl. These, like all his works, are fuU of pious senti- 

 ment; pray to God, rely upon him; He directs the world for the 

 best; He will bestow a lasting happiness upon all who obey His 

 wUl.* The idjds of J. Chr. Blum,' though written in a pleasing 



1 See page -32. 



2 In imitation of Gessner Kleist wrote the gardener-idyl Milon und Iris 1758 

 and his fisher-idyl Irin 1758. 



3 See note 2, p. .32. 



* So in Iria the son admires the beauty of the sea and shore, but the most 

 important part of the idyl are the moral precepts of the father: 

 i'O bleib der Tugend immer Treu 

 Und weine mit den weinenden 

 Und gieb von deinem Vorrat gern 

 Den Armen." 

 In order to complete the moral, even though it makes the idyl as such less 

 perfect, the death of Irin is mentioned, and that the son 



"folgete 

 Stets diesen Lehren. Segen kam 

 Auf ihn. Sein langes Leben diinkt 

 Ihm auch ein Friihlingstag zu sein." 

 5 See Koberstein V. 60- Several of Blum' s idyls written in blank verse had 

 been printed in the Gottinger Musenalmanach, before they were collected and 

 published in the year 177-3. 



