THE RIOAI^ISTlf: IDYL. 65 



knechte and Dev Ahrenkranz, which in parts are characterized 

 by a tone ahnost savage.' 



This didactic and to some extent satiric element appears in 

 ahriost all the idyls Voss wrote while at Gottingen and Wands- 

 beck. Der Bettler declaims most bitterly against intolerance; 

 it is based on an actual incident which had come under Voss's 

 immediate observation: a rationalistic and liberalminded minis- 

 ter has been persecuted and deposed by his more orthodox 

 superior. We hear Voss's own indignation when the idyl tells 

 us that the deposed minister is now supported by Der Bettler, 

 the cripple Tiess,^ and is often obliged to starve, "well er nur, 

 was Gott gesagt, nicht Menschensatzung, lehrt." Jiirgen, the 

 shepherd, is but the mouth-piece of the poet, when he bursts 

 forth: "Kopfhanger ihr, ihr Wolf in Schafsgestalt." However 

 we feel as if the moralizing element went a little too far when 

 Jiirgen adds: 



Doch Gott sei euer Kichter! Tiess und du 

 Habt mich so weich gemacht, dass mir so ist, 

 Sonntag, will's Gott, zum Abendmahl zu gehen." 



1 Michel describes how his uncle in a dream had seen the noblemen feasting in 

 hell: 



"Statt der Musik erschallt aus den Wanden ein Heulen und Winseln. 

 Drauf wird die Tafel gedeckt. Ganz oben setzt sicli der Stamherr 

 Vom hochadligen Hans', ein Strassenrauber. Sein Beinkleid, 

 Warns und Bienenkapp' ist gltihendes Eisen. Sie fressen 

 Blntiges Menschenfleisch, und trinken siedende Thranen." 



3 The lame Tiess is probably modelled after the soldier in Holty's Diis Feuer 

 im Walde which in turn was a copy of Gessner's Schweizer-idylle. Ludwig 

 Holty (1748—1776) an intimate friend of Voss, wrote several idyls; Das Feuer 

 im Walde being by far the best one. He gained entrance into the Gottin^er- 

 bund by a translation of The Rape of Europa from the Greek of Moschus, 1770. 

 We trace the influence of Voss's idyls depicting the life of northern Germany in 

 Holty's Christel imd Hanncben, eine Schaitteridylle, 1774. Just beforeHolty 

 was carried away by consumption he wrote Der Arme Wilhelw, in which idyl 

 Wilhelm mourns the premature death of his love and expresses a presentiment 

 that he too soon will die. 



J. M. Miller, also of the Gottingen circle, wrote a couple of unimportant idyls 

 (Daphnis und Daphne, Wilhelm und Lischen, 1773). 



