THE GERMAN MUSEUM, FOR JULY, 1800. AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF GERMAN LITERATURE. (Continued from Vol. I. p. 456.) REINMAR the elder (der Alte) who next deserves to be mentioned, was a cotemporary of Eschilbach. His family castle was situated on the Rhine, whence he repaired to Austria, where he lived in high repute at the court of Leopold VI. It is generally supposed that he attended this prince on his expedition to Jerusalem. Some of his poems, at least, strongly sanction this supposition. He survived his patron, who died in the year 1231, and lamented his death sincerely. All his poems have been preserved in the Manessian collection. He excelled in the art of describing noble and strong feelings, and all his poems bespeak him to have been of a gentle and refined manner of thinking, a modest admirer of the fair sex, a virtuous and faithful lover, and a keensighted and careful observer of every noble sentiment and action. He deserves the general esteem in which he was held by his cotemporaries, though his imagination never attempted those bold and rapid flights for which Eschilbach is renowned, and his wit was neither keen nor remarkable for any high degree of invention. His style never rises to an high degree of elevation, nor ever sinks beneath the dignity of his subject. His expressions are neat, and carefully selected, and his verses charm the ear by their harmony and fulness. Henry von Ofterdingen, a rival of Eschilbach, composed jointly with him the famous Heldenbuch, (book of heroes) one of the most remarkable monuments of ancient German VOL. II. A lite literature. This work records the exploits, adventures, and amours of king Ottnits, and the little Elberich, Huy Dieterich, Wolf Dieterich, king Giebich, Dietrich of Bern, and the little king Laurin; containing, at the same time, a description of the famous Rose-garden at Worms, replete with wonderful accounts of the most singular exploits performed by knights, sorcerers, and giants. Ofterdingen's imagination was inexhaustible in romantic fictions and tales of the most extraordinary and wonderful cast. He seems to have borrowed but very little from the Troubadours; the greater part of his stories appcaring to have been derived from ancient national traditions. It is, at least difficult to ascertain whence the materials of the book of heroes was derived. The manner in which he has treated his subject, proves that he was gifted with a most lively and fertile imagination, and a rich vein of humour. On reading this extraordinary performance, we admire Ofterdingen's facility in inventing singular and supernatural events, though they appear improbable in the highest degree; we cannot help laughing at the numerous ridiculous adventures with which his knights have constantly to contend, without however being seriously interested in their fate: every thing appears to us highly marvellous and exaggerated; we cannot believe that it is possible they could ever have really happened, but, nevertheless, read on with increasing interest and admiration. This is manifestly the effect of the narrator's genius, repre-. senting the exploits and sufferings of his fictitious heroes in a most intuitive manner. We frequently meet in this work with passages that might serve as patterns of picturesque expression; and many descriptions are executed with scientific skill. Not even Ariosto occupies the imagination of the reader so powerfully as our ancient erotic songster, who represents to our eyes all monsters of the visible and invisible world accompanied by appearances of unspeakable beauty. Ofterdingen's son, Reinmar of Zweter, came when a boy to Vienna with his father. When he had attained the age of manhood, he went to the Bohemian court, and was held in high esteem by king Ottokar. His songs, which have likewise been preserved in the Manessian collection, are a copious repository of pure morals, a magazine of excellent ethic sentences and instructive examples. They may be considered as a repertory of the collective philosophy of his age. He also is a keen satirist, excelling in this kind of composition all other writers of the century in which he lived. The popes themselves served frequently as the butt of his sarcastic humour. His works bespeak him to have been endowed with senti ments ments of universal philanthropy and an enlightened understanding, and possessed of great scientific knowledge. Love is but rarely the theme of his songs, which are expressive of unbounded good-nature, though of an highly serious cast. His verses abound more in sentiments than in brilliant imagery. His style is correct, but not so smooth as the diction of several cotemporary writers. He was more desirous of affording instruction than amusement. Next to Reinmar of Zweter deserves to be ranked John Tauler, a Dominican friar of Strasburg, who was born towards the close of the 13th century, and died in 1361. His German sermons were printed in 1498. The famous John Arndt has written his life. He was a pious enthusiast, possessed of a very susceptible imagination, a heart glowing with ardent devotion, and a lively zeal for the promotion of morality. He distinguished himself conspicuously by a passionate propensity to mystic theology. Considering the age in which he lived, his eloquence is really astonishing. The boldness with which he lashes the follies and excesses of his spiritual brethren, and declaims against the hallowed subtleties of the scholastics of his time, his earnest and honest endeavours to make deep impressions upon the heart, his candour and modesty, afford an highly favourable idea of his mode of thinking and refined judgment. He is, however, not entirely free. from the subtleties of the philosophy of his age, losing himself sometimes in the mazy labyrinths of speculative investigations which tend more to confound than to enlighten the understanding of the multitude. His predilection for mysticism involves him frequently in the most insipid reveries, though he never sinks so deep, in this respect, as our modern. mystics, who, by their childish extravagancies, frequently bordering on blasphemy, disgrace religion and sound reason. He displays an unaffected love of all his brethren, and a warm zeal for their correction and improvement in mental refinement. His sentences are destitute of rhetorical turns, short, abrupt, but always ponderous in point of thought, correct and impressive. Hugo Trimberg is the last German poet who deserves to be mentioned in the present section, as the Suabian muse was also involved in the state of general barbarity which prevailed in Germany from the beginning of the fourteenth to the middie of the fifteenth century. Trimberg lived in the beginning of the fourteenth century, and was master of a school at Trestadt ncar Bamberg. The exact year of his birth and death cannot however be ascertained. He was a better poet than his cotemporary master-songsters, as they were called, although his his poems, in point of elegance and harmony, are far from equal to erotic composition of an anterior date. His poem, intitled "The Runner" (Renner), is of a satirico-moral nature; it has, however, no regular plot, nor does it possess any striking beauty. It is a medley of blunt moral sentences, pleasing stories and fables, diffuse descriptions and parables. He displays a considerable acquaintance with the ancient writers, and, by the great variety of knowledge which he exhibits, enlivens the shapeless mass of which his poem is composed. He exerts his poetical talents to promote piety, virtue, and decency; he also attacks the prevailing vices of the age, though with great lenity. His wit is fine, but not pointed enough, and destitute of attic salt. He displays a considerable knowledge of the human heart, and of the constant changes in the manners of the age, but does not sufficiently penetrate the one, and is too superficial in his descriptions of the other. Hence his poems are frequently insipid, replete with common place sentences, verbous and unconnected. He seems to have delighted in displaying the copiousness of his language, and frequently wrote words that were not intended to convey any idea. It cannot be denied that he possessed simplicity, probity, goodness of heart, experience, and policy, though he should have been poorer in invention and energic expressions than he actually was. These are the only poets of the thirteenth century, so fertile in poetical geniuses, whose works and talents have been rendered more generally known by the patriotic exertions of some public-spirited literati. The works of Godfrey of Strasburg, Henry of Vriedberc, Hartmann of Ouwe, Ruprecht of Orbent, Johan of Ravensberg, Conrad of Wirzburg, Albrecht of Halberstadt, Hermann of Sachsenheim, Ulrich of Zarichoven, Evlhart of Hobergen, Ulrich of Thürheim, Rudolph of Hohenems, of Gravensberg, and of many more whose names are not known, lay unprinted, and unread, in the libraries of different cloisters and towns. The works of the Burggraf von Rietenburg, the Æsop of the thirteenth century, have alone had the good fortune to meet with two patriotic editors. To this period belong, likewise, the Austrian poets Johann von Ennenkel, and Ottokar von Hornck, the historians Königshoven and Windeck, the collections of German laws known by the titles of the Schwabenspiegel and Sachsenspiegel, and a great number of ancient German diplomatic documents, which are equally important to the lawyer and the philosopher. The spirit of chivalry and of erotic poetry declined rapidly in the beginning of the fourteenth century, and soon disap peared |