r>2 GESSXER AND THE CTLMINATIOX OF THE PASTORAL IDVL. 



wooden leg describes a battle, so Brouner makes a ballad celebrat- 

 ing the Smss struggle for liberty the chief element of his last idyl, 

 Sebwanau, eia Scbweitzeriscbes Fisebergedicbt. 



Other writers of little or- no original powers imitated Gessner 

 and Kleist in their idyls, losing themselves in reflections and vague 

 descriptions of an idealized and hazy world of innocence. Of these 

 authors Briickner is of importance only in so far as he in no smaU 

 degree influenced the first idyls of Toss, with whom he was inti- 

 mately associated. Briickner" s Idyllen aas einer Unscbuldswelt 

 appeared 1774 — 5 in the Gottinger Musenalmanacb.^ of which 

 Yoss was editor. These idyls also contain descriptions of innocent 

 precocious child-life (as Die Unschuld. Jesus als Kind) later 

 published under the titleot Kinderidyllen. — BriickaeT's Unscbulds- 

 welt together ^^ith works of a similar nature, "Wihnsen"s Samm- 

 luDg fur Geist und Herz. and Breitenbauch's Jiidiscbe Schafer- 

 gedicbte mark the lowest ebb which Gennan literatui-e of this 

 period reached."^ 



Meanwhile the new and vigorous era of a literary re-awakening 

 had begtm in Germany; literature became a genuiue reflection of 

 actual conditions and real life. The decaying literatui'e descrip- 

 tive of an imaginary Golden Ag-e, heard its doom from every side, 

 best expressed in the words with which Gryphius closes his iSciTvar- 

 mender Scbaffer: 



"Aus XyuxfenI Schaffer aus! Aus mit der Schiiffereyl 

 Man kehr auffs SchlossI Last Kleid und Hh-tenstab heim senden 

 Weil Lysis nun entbaumt, ist dieses Spiel zu Enden."" 



1 Saner in Gottinger Dichterbund {Deut. Xat. Lit.) p. -31 says: ■'■'Es maclit 

 keinen erfreulictien Eindruck dass dieser Almanach der mit Klopstock so kraftig 

 einsetzte, mit Briickner so sehwachlieh endet." 



- See .Julian Scliniidt Gesch d. Deut. Lit. 



