Part 29 (2/2)
And after him, and more like him than any one else, came Andreas Gryphius.
There was much rhyming about Nature in the poet schools of Hamburg, Konigsberg, and Nuremberg; but, for the most part, it was an idle tinkle of words without feeling, empty artificial stuff with high-flown t.i.tles, as in Philipp von Zesen's _Pleasure of Spring_, and _Poetic Valley of Roses and Lilies_.
'Up, my thoughts, be glad of heart, in this joyous pleasant March; ah! see spring is reviving, earth opens her treasury,' etc.
His romances were more noteworthy if not more interesting. He certainly aimed high, striving for simplicity and clearness of expressions in opposition to the Silesian poets, and hating foreign words.
His feeling for Nature was clear; he loved to take his reader into the garden, and was enthusiastic about cool shady walks, beds of tulips, birds' songs, and echoes. Idyllic pastoral life was the fas.h.i.+on--people of distinction gave themselves up to country life and wore shepherd costume--and he introduced a pastoral episode into his romance, _Die adriatische Rosemund._[15]
Rosemund, whose father places arbitrary conditions in the way of her marriage with Markhold, becomes a shepherdess.
Not far off was a delightful spot where limes and alders made shade on hot summer days for the shepherds and shepherdesses who dwelt around. The shady trees, the meadows, and the streams which ran round it, and through it, made it look beautiful ... the celestial Rosemund had taken up her abode in a little shepherd hut on the slope of a little hill by a water-course, and shaded by some lime trees, in which the birds paid her homage morning and evening.... Such a place and such solitude refreshed the more than human Rosemund, and in such peace she was able to unravel her confused thoughts.
She thought continually of Markhold, and spent her time cutting his name in the trees. The following description of a walk with her sister Stillmuth and her lover Markhold, gives some idea of the formal affected style of the time.
The day was fine, the sky blue, the weather everywhere warm. The sun shone down on the globe with her pleasant lukewarm beams so pleasantly, that one scarcely cared to stay indoors. They went into the garden, where the roses had opened in the warmth of the sun, and first sat down by the stream, then went to the grottos, where Markhold particularly admired the sh.e.l.l decorations. When this charming party had had enough of both, they finally betook themselves to a leafy walk, where Rosemund introduced pleasant conversation on many topics. She talked first about the many colours of tulips, and remarked that even a painter could not produce a greater variety of tints nor finer pictures than these, etc.
In describing physical beauty, he used comparisons from Nature; for instance, in _Simson_[16]:
The sun at its brightest never shone so brightly as her two eyes ... no flower at its best can shew such red as blooms in the meadow of her cheeks, no civet rose is so milk-white, no lily so delicate and spotless, no snow fresh-fallen and untrodden is so white, as the heaven of her brows, the stronghold of her mind.
H. Anselm von Ziegler und Klipphausen also waxes eloquent in his famous _Asiatischen Banise_: 'The suns of her eyes played with lightnings; her curly hair, like waves round her head, was somewhat darker than white; her cheeks were a pleasant Paradise where rose and lily bloomed together in beauty--yea, love itself seemed to pasture there.' Elsewhere too this writer, so highly esteemed by the second Silesian school of poets, indulged in showy description and inflated rhetoric. Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig-Wolfenb.u.t.tel tried more elaborate descriptions of scenery; so that Chovelius says:
The Duke's German character shews pleasantly in his delight in Nature. The story often takes one into woods and fields; already griefs and cares were carried to the running brook and mossy stone, and happy lovers listened to the nightingale.
His language is barely intelligible, but there is a pleasant breadth about his drawing--for example, of the king's meadow and the grotto in _Aramena_:
Very cold crystal streams flowed through the fields and ran softly over the stony ground, making a pleasant murmur. Whilst the ear was thus contented, a distant landscape delighted the eye. No more delightful place, possessing all this at once, could have been found, etc.
Looking through the numerous air-holes, the eye lost itself in a deep valley, surrounded by nothing but mountains, where the shepherds tended their flocks, and one heard their flutes multiplied by the echo in the most delightful way.
Mawkish shepherd play is mixed here with such verses as (Rahel):
Thou, Chabras, thou art the dear stream, where Jacob's mouth gave me the first kiss. Thou, clear brook, often bearest away the pa.s.sionate words of my son of Isaac ... on many a bit of wounded bark, the writing of my wounds is to be found.
The most insipid pastoral nonsense of the time was produced by the Nuremberg poets, the Pegnitz shepherds Klaj and Harsdorfer. Their strength lay in imitating the sounds of Nature, and they were much admired. What is still more astonis.h.i.+ng, Lohenstein's writings were the model for thirty years, and it was the fas.h.i.+on for any one who wrote more simply to apologize for being unable to reach the level of so great a master! To us the bombast, artificiality, and hidden sensuality of his poetry and Hoffmannswaldan's, are equally repulsive.
What dreary, manufactured stuff this is from Lohenstein's _Praise of Roses sung by the Sun_[17]:
This is the queen of flowers and plants, The bride of heaven, world's treasure, child of stars!
For whom love sighs, and I myself, the sun, do pant, Because her crown is golden, and her leaves are velvet, Her foot and stylus emerald, her brilliance shames the ruby.
Other beings possess only single beauties, Nature has made the rose beautiful with all at once.
She is ashamed, and blushes Because she sees all the other flowers stand ashamed before her.
In _Rose Love_ he finds the reflection of love in everything:
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