True IlICALISTU! IllYIj. G7 



Voss him,self defends his use of dialect by referrin<;' to Theocritus's 

 The Syracusan Women, which idyl evidently was in his mind when 

 he wrote De Gelclhapers. The two women of Syracuse force their 

 way througli the crowd at the Adonis festival, as the two peasants 

 in Voss's poem press through the crowd of wagons and people on 

 the market place. The former admire the royal horses-of-state, 

 the splendid carpets and Adonis on the silver couch, as the 

 latter the Danish hussars with the bright sabres. Dramatic move- 

 ment and excellent characterization distinguish this idyl above 

 all others. Sauer claims' that were it not for the unusual dialect 

 of the idyls, they would be more popular in Germany than the 

 "still-life" picture of Der siebzigste Geburtstag.^ 



The most perfect of all the idyls in which Voss used the dra- 

 matic form combined with lyrical elements, as we find in Theocri- 

 tus, is Die Kirschenpfluckerin. The whole idyl is pervaded by the 

 calm and balmy atmosphere of the orchard on a summer's day. 

 How charming is the roguish Rebecka who takes away the ladder 

 .from the tree in which Hedewig is picking cherries! The unwilling- 

 prisoner is not I'eleased, until she has sung a song composed by 

 her lover. ^ 



But the peasant life of the North offered a rather unyielding- 

 material for poetic treatment, and besides was too remote from 

 the interest and sympathy of the majority of Voss's readers. Not 

 until Voss in his idyls described scenes and conditions, in which 

 the simplicity of the country and the culture of the city were 

 reconciled and united in perfect harmony, did he fully charm the 

 hearts of his audience. This union of lowly life with high intellec- 



1 See Sauer's Introd.to Voss in Gottlnger Dichterbund {Dent. Nat. Lit.) p. 

 LIII. 



2 Other less important idyls based upon Gi-eek models are Das Standcben 

 (an imitation of Theocritus's Cyclops) with its rather forced humor, and Der 

 Riesenhilgel (imitation of Theocritus's Ma^ican, Idyl II.) with the strange 

 refrain in the song of the witch: 



"Trommle, trommle den Riesen zum Leichnam, Abrakadabral" 



3 Voss writes in a letter to Gleim to whom he dedicated the idyl: "Es ist ein 

 Versuch, wie weit man die Denkart der Landmadehen veredeln kann." 



