GESSNBK AXO THE CULMINATION OF THE PASTORAL IDVL. 51 



real character and their kinship to Gessner'ssheplierds: Clinias and 

 hardly astonished at meetmg a mythological incident, as when a 

 Naiad transforms the drowning Calmus into a water-plant. The 

 Tbeone, Palemon and A/jrsoTJj^sp/js/ion and Zyfc/e. The time of the 

 idyls is laid in a remote and hazy antiquity, wherefore we are 

 characters aU belong to the innocent Golden Age; if at any time 

 a fisherman does commit any wrong, no motive is assigned for his 

 action, and he immediately repents.^ Dramatic dialogue is lack- 

 ing and the action is stifled by the long descriptions and more 

 especially by the moralizing reflections. ^ The very titles are 

 often suggestive of sermons: Geniess im Stillen, MMssiguag, Die 

 wahren Reicben, etc. 



Real fishermen of his day Bronner did attempt to introduce 

 into two of his idyls, but with little success. He thinks it necessary, 

 however, to preface the first of these idyls with an apology to the 

 reader for thus rudely taking him away from the pleasing illusion 

 of a "better world", an illusion so necessary to idyllic jDoetry.^ 

 But even in this idyl, Der Fischer bey Hofe, ein modernes Fischer- 

 gesprach, the purpose is didactic, the fisher-element disappears, 

 and the idyl becomes a satire, in which Yeit describes to Hans his 

 impression of a visit at court. The second attempt at a realistic 

 idyl again shows Gessner's influence; just as Gessner had closed 

 his idyls with eine Sob weizer-idylle, in which the soldier with the 



1 So e. g. the idyl Die Racbe des Bedlichen. 



2 That Bronner considered these moralizing reflections an important ingredient 

 of his idyls we see by his own statement: "Vermogen die eingestreuten moral- 

 ischen Ziige, hier und da, eine schonere Empfindung in unverdorbenen Herzen zu 

 weoken, so halte ich mich doppelt fiir meine Arbeit belohnt." See Introd. to Vol. 

 I., 12. 



3 Brenner's apology which also shows the character of his work is as follows: 

 "Ich menge hier unter Gedichte, deren handelnde Personen alle in ein enferntes 

 Zeitalter zuriiekgesetzt sind, ein Fischergesprach aus neueren Zeiten. Zwar muss 

 ish fiirchten meine Leser dadurch auf eine unangenehme Weise aiis dem Traume 

 zu weeken. in den ich sie gern eingewiegt hatte, um ihnen desto bequemer Bilder 

 aus einer bessern Welt vormahlen zn konnen. Allein ich hoffe doch, das kleine 

 Stiick, eben well es modern ist, werde so viel Interesse haben, dass man mir die 

 geflissentliche Aufhebung einer dieser Dichtungsart so vortheDhaftes Tauschung 

 zu gut halten wird." See Bronner Vol. I. 98. 



