58 THE REALISTIC IDYL. 



period. They are also full of sparkling humor of which we find no 

 trace in Gessner.* In Mopsus, the counterpart of Polyphemus of 

 Theocritus, how ludricrous is the lament of the deformed satyr, 

 whom the nymph Persina, pretending to answer his suit with 

 favor, had decoyed into the brambles! The most humorous, 

 however, of his idyls is the second, describing the youthful eager- 

 ness of Milon to read his poem to Bacchidon, whose attention he 

 had to buy by offering him wine. The garrulous old man with 

 his unquenchable thirst continually interrupts him with: 



"Halt ein, Milon, keine Silbe weiter! Hierauf muss erst getrun- 

 ken sein!" 



When the reading is ended and the wine, too, is gone, how 

 droll is Bacchidon's elegy- to the empty wine-flask! ^ 



The third idyl of this group possesses the proper brevity for 

 an idyl, while the previous ones are too diffuse. It tells of the 

 lament of Molon at the funeral-pyre of his wife. His rough, wild 

 nature, his genuine emotion, his love for the wine-flask from which 

 he drinks repeatedly between his sighs and lamentations, is all set 

 forth in vigorous and choppy language thoroughly characteristic 

 of the micouth character depicted. 



The third group of idyls, volkstiimlich-deutscbe, Miiller treats 

 in a manner wholly independent and original. Here he describes 

 peasant life of his home in the Palatinate (Z?ie (Scfiaa/scAur and 



1 Though Bronner, in his introduction to his idyls, states that in private life 

 Gessner was exceedingly witty. 



2 "Todt, runzlicht, entstellt liegst du, zuvor so angespannter Schlauchl Gern, 

 herzliebster Sohlauch, wollt' ich langer bei deinei- Leiche weinen, stiinde nur, wie 

 sich's gebiihrt', neben deiner Bahre ein wohlgezogenes junges voUbackiges 

 Schlauchlein, deiu Sohn oder Enkel, der mir hernach mit seinem Balsam wieder 

 abwiische meiner Thranen Salz. Aber wehe mir TrauermannI Der erblichene war 

 sine Waise. — Leerl zu friih leer! Aeh armer Weinschlauchl" Hettner's Miiller, 

 p. 83. 



3 The review in AUgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek (XXXI. I 222) says: Die 

 Bescreibung der ganzen Scene, der Ausdruck der rohen ungeschminkten Natur in 

 der Trauerklage des Alten und des Kleinen hat etwas so Wahres, Charakteristi- 

 Bches, Eindringendes, dass es Herz und Sinn riihrt. Die Sprache ist hart, ver- 

 stiimmelt, hingeworfen, wie es tiir seine Faunen, die er einmal als ehrliche Wilde 

 bildet, geziemt." 



