Then follows the
greeting
of Abel and all the good
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Warner - World's Best Literature - v22 - Sac to Sha
His father was a tailor,
and from the first Hans was destined for a
trade. In his seventh year, nevertheless, he
was sent to a Latin school, and passed
through a rigid course of instruction. The
knowledge thus acquired kept alive his
sympathy with the Humanists, although he
was himself deflected into the intellectually
reactionary movement of Luther. At the
age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a shoe-
maker, and it was from a linen-weaver that he received his first
lessons in the mastersinger's art. In 1511 he went forth upon his
travels as a journeyman; but upon his return five years later he
settled in his native town, and there lived to celebrate his eighty-
first birthday. He died on January 19th, 1576. During these sixty
years he seems never to have left Nuremberg. His life ran the hon-
orable, uneventful course of a citizen diligent in business and pros-
perous. He became master in his guild in 1517. In 1519 he married
Kunigunde Kreuzer, who was so entirely a woman of human mold
that in 'The Bitter-Sweet of Wedded Life,' Sachs is obliged to
describe her by antitheses,- she was all things to him, at once his
woe and weal; but the simple pathos of his sorrow when she died,
in 1560, is very touching. Untrue, however, to the cautious principles
XXII-789
HANS SACHS
## p. 12610 (#24) ###########################################
12610
HANS SACHS
that Wagner has put into his mouth, the real Sachs married, one
year and a half after his first wife's death, a widow of twenty-seven,
whose charms he celebrates in song with refreshing frankness. He
was then a hale and healthy man of sixty-eight. He continued to
write with unremitting energy until 1573. His mastersongs numbered
between four and five thousand; of tales and farces there were some
seventeen hundred, besides two hundred and eight dramas. These
writings filled thirty-four manuscript volumes, of which twenty have
been preserved. Three volumes of a handsome folio edition of his
complete works appeared before his death, and two more afterwards.
This in itself is an evidence of the high esteem in which he was
held. No citizen of Nuremberg except Dürer ever won more honor-
able distinction in the annals of that ancient city than
"Hans Sachs, the Shoe-
Maker and Poet, too. "
The rise of cities, and of the bourgeoisie, had placed Germany in
the front rank of commercial nations. For the products of the Orient,
coming by way of Venice to the west, Nuremberg had become the
mart and dépôt. With material wealth came luxury for merchants
as well as nobles, and a higher cultivation in the arts of living.
Through the Humanistic movement and the Reformation, Germany
also assumed the spiritual leadership of Europe. Everywhere there
was a deepening of the national consciousness. Of all these elements
in their clearest manifestations, Hans Sachs was the representative.
He was the type of the well-to-do, patriarchal citizen of the wealthi-
est among German cities. He had had glimpses of the austere charms
of scholarship, and had himself translated Reuchlin's 'Henno' and
Macropedius's 'Hecastus. ' The Humanists therefore, although their
successors despised the cobbler-bard, spoke to him in an intelligible
tongue. And he stood in the forefront of the Reformation. Finally,
Sachs was wholly and quintessentially German. In him that "incom-
prehensible century" found its most complete and characteristic ex-
pression.
And yet, although it was in the full flower of that municipal
democracy that the seed of our modern civilization lay, Hans Sachs
was a mediæval man. It is in this respect that he, and even Luther,
were inferior to men like Dürer, Hutten, and Reuchlin. The Reforma-
tion was a matter of ecclesiastical administration: it marked no im-
portant intellectual advance. The man of the sixteenth century was
interested in the Here and Now; he delighted in his daily life, and it
presented no problems; theology was accepted as a fact, and no ques-
tions were asked. It was only in the souls of the Humanists that the
future lay mirrored; and it was through them that the revival of the
## p. 12611 (#25) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12611
eighteenth century was made possible. Sachs was the last of a pass-
ing generation. He did indeed advance the German drama until it
far surpassed the contemporary drama of England; but he left behind
him only the banal imitator of the English, Jacob Ayrer: while in
England, before Sachs died, Shakespeare had been born. In Sachs
the literary traditions of three centuries came to an end. Walther
von der Vogelweide had lived to deplore the gradual degradation of
courtly poetry: the peasants' life and love became the poet's theme.
In the years that followed, it sank into hopeless vulgarity. From this
it was rescued by Sachs. But the world meanwhile had traveled a
long road: poetry had left the court and castle for the cottage and
the chapel; the praise of women was superseded by the praise of
God. It is a striking contrast between the knightly figure of Wal-
ther, with the exquisite music of his love lyrics, and the dignified
but simple shoemaker, with the tame jog-trot of his homely couplets.
But Walther was chief among the twelve masters whose traditions
the mastersingers pretended to preserve; and the mastersong itself
was the mechanical attempt of a matter-of-fact age to reproduce the
melodious beauty of the old minnesang. Thus Hans Sachs, the great-
est of the mastersingers, was in a sense the last of the minnesingers;
and German literature, which had waited three centuries, had two
more yet to wait before it should again bloom as in those dazzling
days of the Hohenstaufen bards.
Hans Sachs was a most prolific and many-sided poet. Before his
twentieth year he had fulfilled the exacting conditions of the master-
singers, and had invented a new air, which, after the affected manner of
the guild, he called 'Die Silberweise' (Silver Air). Sixty years of un-
interrupted productivity followed, during which he filled sixteen folios.
with mastersongs. These he never published, but kept for the use of
the guild, of which he was the most zealous and distinguished member.
But the strait-jacket of form imposed by the leathern rules of the
"Tabulatur» impeded the free movement of the poet. The real
Sachs is in the dramas and poetic tales. All are written in rhymed
couplets. He read omnivorously; and chose his subjects from all
regions of human interest and inquiry. He often treated the same
theme in several forms. Die Ungleichen Kinder Eva' (Eve's Unlike
Children), for instance, he took from a prose fable of Melanchthon's,
and rendered in four different versions. It seeks to account for and
justify the existence of class distinctions; and is perhaps the best as
it is the most delightfully characteristic of all his compositions. It is
one of the chief merits of Sachs that he purified the popular Fast-
nachtspiele (Shrovetide Plays). Of these plays Nuremberg was the
cradle; and those of Hans Sachs are by far the best that German
literature has to show. He shunned the vulgarity that had character-
ized them; and made them the medium of his homely wisdom, of
## p. 12612 (#26) ###########################################
12612
HANS SACHS
his humorous and shrewd observation of life, and of his simple phi-
losophy. Each is a delicious genre picture of permanent historic
interest.
As the Reformation advanced, there came a deeper tone into the
poetry of Hans Sachs. He read Luther's writings as early as 1521,
and two years later publicly avowed his adherence in the famous
poem of 'Die Wittenbergisch Nachtigall' (The Nightingale of Witten-
berg). It was a powerful aid in the spread of Lutheran ideas. The
dialogue, so closely allied in form with the drama, was a popular
form of propaganda in that age; and the four dialogues that Sachs
wrote are among his most important contributions to literature.
Their influence was as great as that of Luther's own pamphlets; and
in form they were inferior only to the brilliant and incisive dialogues
of Hutten. One of them was translated into English in 1548. The
city council, alarmed at the strongly Lutheran character of these
writings, bade the cobbler stick to his last; but the council itself
soon turned Lutheran, and Sachs continued his work amid ever-
increasing popular applause.
The impression made by Hans Sachs upon his time was ephem-
eral: his imitators were few and feeble; all literary traditions were
obliterated by the Thirty Years' War. Goethe at last revived the
popular interest in him by his poem, 'The Poetical Vocation of Hans
Sachs'; and Wagner's beautiful characterization in The Master-
singers' has endeared him to thousands that have never read a
single couplet from his pen. There is a natural tendency to over-
estimate a man whose real worth has long lain unrecognized; but
when all deductions have been made, there remains a man lovable
and steadfast, applying the wisdom of a long experience to the hap-
penings of each common day, exhibiting a contagious joy in his work,
and avowedly working for "the glory of God, the praise of virtue,
the blame of vice, the instruction of youth, and the delight of sorrow-
ing hearts. " It is the manifest genuineness of the man, his amiable
roguishness, his shrewd practical sense, that give to his writings
their vitality, and to his cheerful hobbling measures their best charm.
But the appeal is not direct; one must project oneself back into the
sixteenth century, and live the life of Nuremberg in her palmiest
days. That city was for Hans Sachs the world; in this concentra-
tion of his mind upon his immediate surroundings lay at once his
strength and his limitations. He is at his best when he relates what
he has himself seen and experienced. His humorous pictures have a
sparkling vivacity, beneath which lurks an obvious moral purpose.
The popularity of these simply conceited tales gives point to the
description of the German peasant's condition at the time of the
Reformation as "misery solaced by anecdote. " It was such solace
that Hans Sachs supplied in a larger quantity and of a better quality
## p. 12613 (#27) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12613
than any other man of his time. A grateful posterity, upon the
occasion of the four-hundredth anniversary of his birth, erected to
his memory a stately statue in the once imperial city; and his hum-
bler fame is as indissolubly associated with Nuremberg as is the
renown of his greater contemporary.
"Not thy councils, not thy kaisers, win for thee the world's regard,
But thy painter Albrecht Dürer, and Hans Sachs thy cobbler-bard. »
Chase Guing
UNDER THE PRESSURE OF CARE OR POVERTY
WHY
HY art thou cast down, my heart?
Why troubled, why dost mourn apart,
O'er naught but earthly wealth?
Trust in thy God; be not afraid:
He is thy Friend, who all things made.
Dost think thy prayers he doth not heed?
He knows full well what thou dost need,
And heaven and earth are his;
My Father and my God, who still
Is with my soul in
every ill.
Since thou my God and Father art,
I know thy faithful loving heart
Will ne'er forget thy child;
See, I am poor; I am but dust;
On earth is none whom I can trust.
The rich man in his wealth confides,
But in my God my trust abides;
Laugh as ye will, I hold
This one thing fast that he hath taught,-
Who trusts in God shall want for naught.
•
## p. 12614 (#28) ###########################################
12614
HANS SACHS
Yes, Lord, thou art as rich to-day
As thou hast been and shalt be aye:
I rest on thee alone;
Thy riches to my soul be given,
And 'tis enough for earth and heaven.
What here may shine I all resign,
If the eternal crown be mine,
That through thy bitter death
Thou gainedst, O Lord Christ, for me:
For this, for this, I cry to thee!
All wealth, all glories, here below,
The best that this world can bestow,
Silver or gold or lands,
But for a little time is given,
And helps us not to enter heaven.
I thank thee, Christ, Eternal Lord,
That thou hast taught me by thy word
To know this truth and thee;
Oh, grant me also steadfastness
Thy heavenly kingdom not to miss.
Praise, honor, thanks, to thee be brought,
For all things in and for me wrought
By thy great mercy, Christ.
This one thing only still I pray,-
Oh, cast me ne'er from thee away.
Translation of Catherine Winkworth.
FROM THE NIGHTINGALE OF WITTENBERG'
WAKE, it is the dawn of day!
A
I hear a-singing in green byway.
The joy-o'erflowing nightingale;
Her song rings over hill and dale.
The night sinks down the occident,
The day mounts up the orient,
The ruddiness of morning red
Glows through the leaden clouds o'erhead.
Thereout the shining sun doth peep,
The moon doth lay herself to sleep;
## p. 12615 (#29) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12615
For she is pale, and dim her beam,
Though once with her deceptive gleam
The sheep she all had blinded,
That they no longer cared or minded
About their shepherd or their fold,
But left both them and pastures old,
To follow in the moon's wan wake,
To the wilderness, to the break:
There they have heard the lion roar,
And this misled them more and more;
By his dark tricks they were beguiled
From the true path to deserts wild.
But there they could find no pasturage good,
Fed on rankest weeds of the wood;
The lion laid for them many a snare
Into which they fell with care;
When there the lion found them tangled,
His helpless prey he cruelly mangled.
The snarling wolves, a ravenous pack,
Of fresh provisions had no lack;
And all around the silly sheep
They prowled, and greedy watch did keep.
And in the grass lay many a snake,
That on the sheep its thirst did slake,
And sucked the blood from every vein.
And thus the whole poor flock knew pain
And suffered sore the whole long night.
But soon they woke to morning light,
Since clear the nightingale now sings,
And light once more the daybreak brings.
They now see what the lion is,
The wolves and pasture that are his.
The lion grim wakes at the sound,
And filled with wrath he lurks around,
And lists the nightingale's sweet song,
That says the sun will rise ere long,
And end the lion's savage reign.
Translation of Charles Harvey Genung.
## p. 12616 (#30) ###########################################
12616
HANS SACHS
THE UNLIKE CHILDREN OF EVE: HOW GOD THE LORD
TALKS TO THEM
H
ACT I
The Herald comes in, bows, and speaks
EALTH and grace from God the Lord
Be to all who hear his Word,
Who come from far or come from near
This little comedy to hear,
Which first in Latin speech was done
By good Philippus Melanchthon;
And now I put in good plain speech,
That so the commonfolk it reach;
And thus I go without delay
In brief the Argument to say.
When Adam out of Paradise
Was driven after God's device,
And set to labor in the field,
Then God did of his mercy yield
And came to pay him a visit,
And trust and comfort him a bit;
And specially to better know
If obediently or no
His children feared their heavenly Lord,
And rightly studied in his Word.
And so without more preparation
He came and held examination.
And when the Lord did Abel find,
He and his lads quite pleased his mind,
And straightway blessed He him on earth,
And all who from him should get birth.
But when thereafter did the Lord
His brother Cain see and his herd,
He found them all so stupid dumb
And godless that they ne'er might come
Into his favor, but must live
In hardest toil if they would thrive
At all, and at all times must be
Subject to Abel's mastery.
At this did Cain so angry get,
While Satan stirred still more his fit,
## p. 12617 (#31) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12617
That out he went and Abel slew,
For nothing less his wrath let do.
And then to punish him God said
That wheresoe'er on earth he fled,
He ne'er should find a resting-place.
But when the angels by God's grace
Good Abel's body had interred,
Then came to Adam and Eve the word
That Seth should in his place be born,
Whose death had left them all forlorn,
And comfort them in this world's pain,
And be through loss the greater gain.
And this you all shall straightway see
In speech and act conveniently.
Eve, alone,
condemned to
Adam enters
[Here follows the scene in the house of the First Pair.
laments the hardships of her lot, driven from Paradise, and
bear children in pain and to be obedient to her husband.
and asks the reason for her unhappy looks, and learns that she bemoans their
being doomed to live under the unending curse of the offended God. Adam
comforts her with the assurance that after proper penance, God will pardon
and restore them to happiness; and indeed that he has just heard from the
angel Gabriel that the Lord will on the morrow pay them a visit. ]
To-morrow will the Lord arrive
To look in and see how we thrive,
And give us pleasant holiday,
And leave his promise as I say;
He'll look around the house to find
If we do manage to his mind,
And teach the children as they need
To say their Bible and their Creed.
So wash the children well, and dress
Them up in all their comeliness,
And sweep the house and strew the floor,
That it may give him sweet odor,
When God the Lord, so morn begin,
With his dear angels shall walk in.
Eve speaks
O Adam, my beloved man,
I will do all the best I can;
If God the Lord will but come down,
And cheer the heart that fears his frown.
## p. 12618 (#32) ###########################################
12618
HANS SACHS
All praise to my Creator be,
That so in mercy pityeth me.
Quick will I make the children clean,
And all the house fit to be seen
By him who comes by morrow's light,
That he may find it sweet and right,
And so his blessing deign to leave.
That so he'll do I hope and b'lieve.
Adam speaks
And where is Abel, my dear son?
Eve speaks
He out to feed the sheep is gone.
Pious he is and fears his God,
Obedient to his every nod,
And with him do his children go,
Who are obedient also.
Adam speaks
And where is Cain, our other son,
That wretch for whom the halter's spun ?
Eve speaks
Oh, when of him I hopeless think,
Woeful in me my heart does sink.
Belial's child, he's always done
The part of disobedient son.
When told to bring the wood from shed,
He cursed and out the house he fled;
And now with angry words and noise
Out in the street he fights the boys.
I can't endure him in the room:
Above him hangs each day his doom,
And with it I'm near overcome.
[Abel soon enters, and is asked by his mother to go and bring in Cain,
from whom Abel fears violence. Encouraged by the news that the Lord is
coming to visit them, Abel promises to go, and Adam thus closes the
scene: -]
Adam speaks
So in the house we now will go,
And put it all in finest show,
## p. 12619 (#33) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12619
To please God and the angels dear.
Sweet shall it smell and wear good cheer
With wreaths of green and May bedeckt
For the high Guests we dare expect.
ACT II
[This act represents Abel's interview with Cain; in which, later, Adam and
Eve both take part, urging him to come and be washed and ready for the
expected Visitor. ]
Abel speaks
Cain, Cain, come quickly here with me.
That you by mother washed may be!
[They all go out.
Cain speaks
That fellow got well washed by me!
And could they catch me now, you'd see
What for a washing they'd me give!
Abel speaks
In quarrel wilt thou always live!
I fear a murderer thou'lt grow!
Cain speaks
And if I should, I'd prove it so
On thee, thou miserable knave!
Abel speaks
To-morrow to our house draws near
The Lord God with his angels dear;
So come and let yourself be dressed
To welcome him in all our best!
Cain speaks
The feast may go on high or low:
I care not for it, but will go
To play and with my comrades be.
Who says that God will to us come?
Abel speaks
The mother just sent word from home.
## p. 12620 (#34) ###########################################
12620
HANS SACHS
Cain speaks
The Lord stay up there where he is!
Abel speaks
How can you blaspheme God that way!
That he will come do not we pray,
And keep us safe from every ill?
Cain speaks
I too have prayed, when 'twas my will,
But never that he should come near.
I take the life God gave us here,
But leave eternity to him.
Who knows what all up there may be !
Abel speaks
How dar'st thou speak so godlessly!
Hast thou no fear of endless hell?
Cain speaks
What you do call damnation's spell!
O boy, the father talketh so,
But little of it all I know.
Abel speaks
The more thou'rt likely to be there!
Cain speaks
Poor fool, thou mayest thy teaching spare!
I know quite well what I'll believe.
If God no angel wants to make me,
The Devil's glad enough to take me!
Adam [calls]
Where art thou, Cain? Come quick to me!
Eve speaks
Come, Cain, thy father calls for thee.
Cain speaks
I'm sitting here: where should I be?
## p. 12621 (#35) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12621
"
Adam speaks
Come, and be washed and combed and clean,
Fit by the Lord God to be seen,
To offer sacrifice and pray,
And hear what the good preachers say.
Cain speaks
Unwashed will I forsooth 'remain.
Just let those rogues catch me again,
My head will be in such a flood
That mouth and eyes shall run with blood!
Eve speaks
Just hear the idle fellow's speech:
What water can such vileness bleach?
Cain speaks
Yes, mother, there you speak the truth!
But so I will remain forsooth.
Eve speaks
Then, Abel, come and washèd be
With the other sons, obediently.
And when the Lord God shall come in,
Stand you before him pure and clean.
And then the Lord will find out Cain,
Where he all careless doth remain,
With those who to rebel incline,
And live as stupid as the swine:
There be they in the straw and rot,—
A ragged, miserable lot.
Abel speaks
Mother, unto my God and thee
I ever will obedient be;
With all good children will I strive
To please thee all days that I live.
## p. 12622 (#36) ###########################################
12622
HANS SACHS
ACT III
Enter Adam and Eve, and afterward Abel and Cain
Adam speaks
Eva, is the house set right,
So that in the Master's sight
All shall fine and festive stand,
As I gave you due command ?
Eve speaks
In readiness was all arrayed
By time our vesper prayer was said.
Adam speaks
Children, behold the Lord draws near,
Surrounded by the angels dear;
Now stand all nicely in a row,
And when the Lord shall see you so,
Bow low and offer him the hand.
See how at the very end do stand
Cain and his gallows-doomèd herd,
As if to flee before their Lord.
The Lord enters with two Angels, gives Adam his blessing, and speaks
Peace, little ones, be to you all!
Adam raises his hand and speaks
O Father mine, who art in heaven,
We thank thee for this mercy given,
That thou in all our need and pain
Shouldst deign to visit us again.
Eve raises her hand and speaks
O thou true Father and true God,
Wherein have we deserved this lot?
That thou so graciously shouldst come
And visit this our humble home?
[The pious salutations continue; Adam bidding all his sons to offer the word
of welcome, beginning with Cain, who offers the Lord his left hand, and for-
gets to take off his hat.
Then follows the greeting of Abel and all the good
## p. 12623 (#37) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12623
children, including Seth, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech; each one
repeating in turn a petition out of the Lord's Prayer, concluding with
Lamech's: -]
Deliver us from evil, through
That blessed Seed thou'st promised true: Amen.
The Lord speaks
Abel, what means that word "Amen » ?
Abel speaks
That we may be assured then
That God will do our prayer, without
We yield to unbelieving doubt.
The Lord speaks
Seth, tell me how on earth you know
That all you pray will be heard so?
Seth speaks
We know it by thy promise sure,
Which ever faithful must endure;
For since the God of truth thou art,
Thy word is done at very start.
The Lord speaks
Jared, when God acts not so swift,
What shall a man do in the rift?
Jared speaks
Hope must he still in God's good word,
And trust him to his gracious Lord,
That in good time he'll find a way
Wherein his mercy to display.
[So continues the catechizing on the Lord's Prayer; which being ended,
that on the Ten Commandments is taken up. ]
The Lord speaks
Abel, the First Commandment say!
Abel speaks
To one God shalt thou bow and pray,
Nor any strange God have in mind.
## p. 12624 (#38) ###########################################
12624
HANS SACHS
The Lord speaks
And in that word what dost thou find?
Abel speaks
God above all we honor must;
Fear him and love, and in him trust.
The Lord speaks
And Seth, how reads the Second Law?
Seth speaks
Thy God's name must thou have in awe,
And never speak in vanity.
[The children rehearse and explain the Ten Commandments in their turn.
Then follows in like manner the recitation and explanation of the Creed. ]
The Lord speaks
Your answers are in all ways good;
You speak as pious children should.
You now may show me if as right
You can the holy Creed recite.
[They all say Yes. ]
The Lord speaks
Let each in turn his portion say.
Abel speaks
I b'lieve in God of highest worth,
Maker of heaven and the earth.
Seth speaks
The Savior too in faith I own,
Who was from heaven to earth sent down.
The head of Satan bruised he,
And so the human race set free.
Jared speaks
I trust too in the Holy Ghost,
Who peace and comfort giveth most.
## p. 12625 (#39) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12625
XXII-790
Enoch speaks
And I in holy Church believe,
Who shall in heaven her place receive.
Methuselah speaks
All sins' forgiveness do we know,
For the good Lord hath promised so.
Lamech speaks
And that our bodies shall arise
And live forever in the skies.
The Lord speaks
Abel, what means in God t' have creed?
Abel speaks
That we to him in all our need
Commit ourselves, and on him rest
In heart and soul as Father best.
The Lord speaks
What is the bodies' rising up?
Lamech speaks
When we have drainèd sorrow's cup,
From realm of death we free shall go,
The bliss of endless life to know.
The Lord speaks
Children, right well my Word ye know,-
Now take ye heed therein to go.
Thereto shall ye my spirit share,
·
To teach and keep you free from care,
That so ye come above to live;
And here will I full blessing give:
On earth, health and prosperity,
That you a mighty folk shall be,
As kings and priests and potentates
And learned preachers and prelates,
So that the world shall know your fame,
And every land admire your name.
Thereto your father's blessing take,
Which nevermore shall you forsake.
## p. 12626 (#40) ###########################################
12626
HANS SACHS
The Angel Raphael speaks
To God arise your praises let
With harp and song and glad quintette,
The while his grace and mercy stand
Displayed to man on every hand,
To guide you to the heavenly land.
[They all depart.
ACT IV
[In this act Cain takes counsel with his evil companions Dathan, Nabal,
Achan, Esau, Nimrod the Tyrant, and Satan the Devil, as to how they, who
have always held the Lord's name and worship in contempt, shall answer his
questions. Satan bids them instead to accept his rule and guidance, and
assures them the possession of all worldly goods and pleasures in so doing. ]
Enter the Lord with Adam and Eve. Satan hides himself.
The Lord speaks
Cain, come hither with thy crew,
And tell me how ye pray God to?
Cain speaks
O Lord, we've him forgotten quite.
The Lord speaks
If I thy speech can read aright,
Thou hast of him but little learned;
His Word in folly hast thou spurned.
But let me hear what you can say.
Cain speaks
O Father of our heaven, we pray,
Let us right here thy kingdom see;
Give us our debts and bread plenty,
And evil want and misery. Amen.
The Lord speaks
Who taught him such a twisted prayer?
Eve speaks
O Lord, to teach him I despair.
No whipping helped what I might say:
He drove it to the winds away;
## p. 12627 (#41) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12627
And so did those who with him stand,—
All threw contempt on my command.
The Lord speaks
Thou, Dathan, canst thou say the Creed?
Dathan speaks
I believe in God and heaven and earth,
In woman who of him has birth;
And in the name of Holy Ghost.
Sin and flesh I b'lieve in most.
The Lord speaks
So briefly has thy faith been told?
Dathan speaks
And that is more than I can hold!
The Lord speaks
Nabal, tell me the Ten Commands.
Nabal speaks
Lord, none I know, for so it stands;
To learn I never thought 'twas need.
The Lord speaks
But Achan, thou canst tell me this:
Dost thou have hope of heavenly bliss?
Achan speaks
I know quite well how here it goes,
But up there what will be, who knows?
If God shall so forgiving be
That I that happy state shall see,
So good! What matters what I do?
The Lord speaks
Esau, now thou canst tell me true,
What good shall holy offerings do?
Esau speaks
I hold that God will take the price
Of endless life in sacrifice,
## p. 12628 (#42) ###########################################
12628
HANS SACHS
And so we can with offerings buy
Our right to his eternity!
The Lord speaks
Nimrod, now answer me this minute,
Eternal life, believ'st thou in it?
Nimrod speaks
Now I will tell you straight and plain,
My heart trusts what my eyes have seen.
I lift it not to things on high;
I take of earth's good my supply,
And leave to thee Eternity.
[After the Lord administers the Divine reproof for such godlessness and
indifference, and warns these wicked children of the awful results of their
profanity and idleness, he appoints Abel to the duty of instructing these his
wicked brothers; and on his accepting the office with meek obedience, the
angel Gabriel closes the Act with an exhortation to praise. ]
The Angel Gabriel speaks
That so these poor souls may repent,
Come down ye hosts from heaven sent,
With all your loveliest melody,
To sound abroad God's majesty,
Who hath done all things righteously!
ACT V
Enter Cain with Satan, and speaks
My brother Abel is filled with glee
That he will now our bishop be.
The Lord with him will play great rôle
And give him over us control.
Him must we all in worship greet,
And be like slaves beneath his feet.
[Satan shows Cain that he, being the first-born, has the right to rule; and
advises him to kill Abel. Cain admits that he has long had it in mind to do
this. Abel entering asks Cain if they shall go and offer the sacrifice. As
they are offering, the Lord comes and admonishes Cain, and departs. Abel
kneels by his sacrifice. ]
## p. 12629 (#43) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12629
Cain, his brother, speaks
Brother, in swinging my flail about
My offering's fire have I put out;
But thine with fat of lambs flames high.
Abel speaks
In all be praised God's majesty,
Who life and good and soul doth give,
And by whose grace alone we live!
[Satan gives the sign to Abel; Cain strikes him down; Satan helps to con-
ceal him, and flees.
The Lord comes and speaks:—]
Cain, tell me where thy brother is!
Cain speaks
Shall I my brother's keeper be?
What is my brother's lot to me?
The Lord speaks
O Cain! Alas! What hast thou done?
Through heaven the voice of blood has run;
The earth the curse has understood,
In that she drank thy brother's blood!
Satan whispers in Cain's ear, and speaks
Now Cain, forever thou art mine,
And bitter martyr's lot is thine.
Within thy conscience endless pain
And biting grief without refrain.
The world for thee is all too small,-
Thou art accursed by one and all.
God and mankind are now thy foe,
And all creation this shall show,
-
For thou thy brother's blood hast taken:
Hence be thou hated and forsaken;
Thy doom by no deed can be shaken.
Cain speaks
My sin is far too great that I
Should dare for God's forgiveness cry.
So must I wander on and on,
My life the prey of every one.
## p. 12630 (#44) ###########################################
12630
HANS SACHS
The Lord speaks
No, Cain: who deals to thee a blow
Shall seven times its misery know.
And so I put a mark on thee,
That none may do thee injury.
Satan leads Cain away, and speaks
Cain, hang thyself upon a tree,
Or else in water drowned be;
That so thyself from pain thou save,
And I in thee a firebrand have.
[They both depart.
son.
[Adam and Eve now enter, weeping and lamenting the death of their good
The Lord comforts them by ordering the angels to bury Abel's body,
and by assuring them that Seth, who shall now be to them as their first-born,
shall be the father of a blessed race. ]
The Lord speaks
Till comes that day when shall be born
That holy Seed, of earth forlorn
And cursed with sin,— the Savior,
Whom every one shall bow before,-
So ye to heavenly kingdom come,
And find with me eternal home.
[They all depart.
The Herald comes and concludes
So is the Comedy at end,
And four good lessons may it send.
And first, all people that do live
We see in Adam and in Eve.
These are the fallen human race,
Accursed by God and in disgrace,
E'en as to-day we see it so.
We all in misery do go,
In sorrow eat our daily bread,
As God the same hath truly said.
And next in Abel may we see,
Described and pictured cleverly,
All people that do fear the Lord,
And give good heed unto his word.
## p. 12631 (#45) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12631
And these by Holy Ghost do strive
In love with fellow-man to live,
In soul and body so to prove
What is the heavenly Father's love,
Whose mercy is to them always:
That do they to God's thank and praise.
Thirdly, however, by this Cain,
The godless people are made plain,
Who mock and jeer at holy grace,
And faithless are in every place;
By their own reason, flesh and blood,
Taught what is right and what is good.
And so they know no fear nor shame,
And cast themselves in passion's flame;
In sin and blasphemy forget
What love hath God upon them set.
To them it is but idle sport
That men should bid them heed God's Word;
And so with murder, envy, hate,
On Satan's wicked will they wait.
His word into their ear is blown,
And safe he claims them as his own.
Fourthly, in God we plainly see
How great is his benignity;
How he doth stoop to all mankind
A way from sin and curse to find,
Through that same holy Seed foretold
To Adam and to Eve of old:
And this is Christ, our Savior Lord,
Who by the heavenly Father's word
From Mary's body has come forth,
And crushed the serpent's head to earth.
By cruel death upon the cross
He took away all wrath that was
'Twixt God and man by Adam's fall,
That we after earth's pain may all
Forever come with him to live:
That God may this in mercy give,
When endless joy our soul awakes,
With angels all, so prays Hans Sachs.
Translated by Frank Sewall.
## p. 12632 (#46) ###########################################
12632
HANS SACHS
TALE. HOW THE DEVIL TOOK TO HIMSELF AN OLD WIFE
Ο
NE day the Devil came to earth,
To try what is a husband's worth:
And so an aged wife he wed;
Rich but not fair, it must be said.
But soon as they two married were,
There rose but wretchedness and fear.
The old wife spent the livelong day
In nagging hi in every way;
Nor could he rest when came the night,
For so the fleas and bugs did bite.
He thought, Sure here I cannot stay,-
To wood and desert I'll away;
There shall I find the rest I need.
So fled he out, and with all speed
Into the wood, and sat him down
Upon a tree, when passed from town
A doctor with his traveling-sack
Of remedies upon his back.
To him the Devil now did speak:-
"We both are doctors, and do seek
Men of their troubles to relieve,
And in one fashion, I believe. "
――――
"Who are you? " then the doctor said. -
"The Devil: and woe be on my head,
That I have taken to me a wife,
That makes a torment of my life;
Therefore take me to be your slave,
And I will handsomely behave. "
He showed the doctor then the way
That he his devilish arts could play.
In short, they soon agreed, and so
The Devil said: — "Now I will go
Unto a burgher in your town,
Who's rich enough to buy a crown:
And I will give him such a pain
That soon as you come by again,
You enter in, and pray me out;
That is, upon a ransom stout,-
Some twenty gulden fair laid down,
At which the rich man will not frown.
So then between yourself and me
The money even shared shall be. "
—
## p. 12633 (#47) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12633
[The tale goes on to state how the plot was successfully carried out. The
doctor, however, obtaining thirty instead of twenty gulden for his reward,
thought to deceive the Devil, whom he found again in the wood; and he offered
him the ten gulden as his share, retaining the twenty for himself. The Devil
detecting the doctor's trick, to avenge himself purposes now to go and infest
with pain the rich owner of a fortress near by; which being done, and the
doctor being called in to allay the dreadful pain in the baron's stomach, the
Devil now refuses to come out. In this unlooked-for emergency, the doctor
now bethinks himself of the Devil's wife: and running into the chamber he
cries out to the Devil, telling him that his wife is down-stairs with a summons
from the court of justice, bidding him return to his marital duty; whereupon
the Devil is so frightened that he flees without more delay, and hastens back
to hell and to his companions there, where he finds more rest than he could
ever hope to in the house of the old woman he had taken as a wife. There-
upon the poet adds this: -]
CONCLUSION
BY THIS tale every one shall know
How it with man and wife will go,
When every day there's quarreling,
And neither yields in the least thing,
But ever one the other scolds,
In fear and hate and anger holds,
With endless fretting and complaining,
No peace nor sunshine entertaining.
Truly such married life might be
Of devils in hell for aught we see.
From which may God keep us away,
And grant us rather in our day,
In marriage peace and unity,
And kindness's opportunity,
That to this virtue e'er may wax
True wedded love,-so prays Hans Sachs.
Anno Salut. 1557. On the 13th day of July.
Translation of Frank Sewall.
## p. 12634 (#48) ###########################################
12634
SA'Dİ
(1184-1291 ? )
BY A. V. WILLIAMS JACKSON
A'DĪ of Shīrāz, the moral teacher and didactic poet,— the
"Nightingale of a Thousand Songs," as he has been termed
in the Orient,-is one of the Persian authors whose name
is best known in the Occident. He may rightly claim a place in
"the world's best literature" for the excellence of his short moral
stories in prose intermingled with rhyme, and for the merit of his
poetical reflections, which abound in sound wisdom presented in a
charming and appropriate style. His "discourse is commingled with
pleasantry and cheerful wit," as he says of himself in his master-
piece, the 'Gulistān'; and he adds that "the pearls of salutary coun-
sel are strung on the thread of his diction, and the bitter medicine of
advice is mixed up with the honey of mirthful humor. " These words
of his own admirably characterize his work; because good sense,
high thought, religious feeling, human sympathy, and knowledge of
man, combined with a general naturalness and simplicity, mark his
best productions.
Sa'di has not the epic force nor the romantic strain of Firdausī or
Nizāmī, nor again the mystic elevation and abstract introspection of
Jāmī and Jalāl-ad-din Rūmi, nor has he the lyric ecstasy for which
Hafiz is renowned; but he possesses certain qualities that none of the
others can claim, and which give to his writings a peculiar attract-
iveness, an enduring element, that insures their lasting throughout
Flourishing at a period when Europe had yet to feel the
quickening touch of the revival of learning, Sa'dī stands in the East
as a bright light of higher aim and nobler purpose, as a character of
generous open-heartedness and liberal-minded thought. In his long
life devoted to study and travel, or spent in productive activity and
repose, he gave to the world a vast fund which he had gathered, of
sound wisdom, wholesome philosophy, broad ethics, good judgment,
and common-sense. Enjoying the personal favor of potentates, he
seems to have availed himself of the privileges which money confers,
chiefly for the purpose of bestowing gifts in charity or for advancing
worthy causes; he religiously felt and practiced what he preached-
the doctrine of contentment and resignation.
## p. 12635 (#49) ###########################################
SA'DI
12635
Sa'di's life was of such unusual length that it could not but be
somewhat eventful. He was born in 1184 at Shiraz, then the capital
of Persia. His father died while he was still a child, as we know
from the touching lines on the orphan in the 'Būstān' (ii. 2, 11). The
boy now received the exalted patronage of the ruling Atābeg Sa'd
bin Zangi of Fars, and he was educated upon a fellowship foundation
at the Nizamiah College of Baghdad. For thirty years (1196-1226) he
was a student and earnest worker, imbibing the principles of Sufi-
ism, and gaining a deep insight into the doctrines and tenets of the
Moslem faith. It was his pious good fortune to make no less than
fourteen pilgrimages, at different times, to the shrine of Mecca.
The second period of his life, from the age of forty to seventy (1226-
1256), was spent in travel, east and west, north and south. He not
only visited the cities of the land of Iran, but he journeyed abroad
to India, Asia Minor, and Africa. Among other places he resided at
Damascus, Baalbec, and Jerusalem; and was taken prisoner by the
Crusaders in Tripolis, as is shown by the incident connected with his
married life that is recorded in the selections given below. When
already a septuagenarian he returned to his native city of Shīrāz, and
there he spent the third or remaining part of his life (1256-1291).
He once more enjoyed courtly favor, this time from the son of his
former royal patron; and he devoted his time to producing or com-
pleting the literary work which was prepared for, or doubtless partly
composed, during the long preceding period of his career.
In the world of letters, therefore, Sa'di presents the peculiar phe-
nomenon of one whose writing seems to have been done late in life.
The 'Būstān' (Garden of Perfume) was finished in one year (1257).
It is written in verse, and comprises ten divisions. Sa'di's themes
are justice, government, beneficence and compassion, love, humility,
good counsel, contentment, moral education and self-control, gratitude,
repentance and devotion, or the like, as a summary of the titles of
the work shows. The 'Gulistān' (Rose-Garden) was completed in the
following year (1258); and this work, by which Sa'di's name is best
known, has been familiar to Western students since the days when
Gentius published a Latin version entitled 'Rosarium Politicum,' in
Amsterdam, 1651. The 'Gulistan' is written in prose, with inter-
mingled verses, and it comprises eight chapters. Like the 'Būstān' it
is didactic in tendency, but it is lighter and more clever; it is a per-
fect storehouse of instructive short stories with moral design, enter-
tainingly presented, and abounding in aptly put maxims, aphorisms,
or sententious sayings, which make the work entertaining reading.
Sa'di's productiveness, however, was not confined to the ethical and
didactic field; he was also under the influence of the lyrical strain,
and he composed a series of odes, dirges, elegies, and short poems,
## p. 12636 (#50) ###########################################
12636
SA'DI
which have warm feeling and a distinctly human touch. A book of
good counsel, 'Pandnāmah,' bears Sa'di's name; but its authenticity
has been open to some doubt. Some jests of a lower order in poetical
vein are said to be his; and he is also the author of several shorter
prose treatises known as 'Risalah. ' Besides his native Persian, he
could compose in Arabic, and he was acquainted with Hindūstānī.
Sa'di was twice married; and his lament over the loss of a beloved
son, who died before him, is preserved in the 'Būstān. ' His own death
occurred at a very advanced age in 1291 (or 1292) in his native city,
where his tomb is still seen; and Sa'di's name and fame have con-
tributed to making Shīrāz renowned in Persian literature.
Abundant material is accessible, in English and in other languages,
to those who may be interested in Sa'di. The best information on
the subject is given by Ethé in Geiger and Kuhn's 'Grundriss der
Iranischen Philologie,' ii. 295-6. English translations of the 'Būstān'
have been made by H. Wilberforce Clarke (London, 1879), and G. S.
Davie, 'The Garden of Fragrance' (London, 1882); and selections have
been rendered by S. Robinson, Persian Poetry for English Read-
ers' (Glasgow, 1883), specimens of which are given below.
There are
German renderings by K. H. Graf (Jena, 1850), by Schlechta-Wssehrd
(Vienna, 1852), and by Fr. Rückert (Leipzig, 1882); and a French
version by Barbier de Meynard (Paris, 1880). Among the English
translations of the 'Gulistan' may be mentioned those by Dumoulin
(Calcutta, 1807), Gladwin (London, 1822), J. Ross (London, 1823), Lee
(London, 1827), J. T. Platts (London, 1873), the Kama Shastra Society
(Benares, 1888); and the translation by Eastwick in Trübner's Oriental
Series (London, 1880), which has also been drawn upon for the pres-
ent article, as well as S.
and from the first Hans was destined for a
trade. In his seventh year, nevertheless, he
was sent to a Latin school, and passed
through a rigid course of instruction. The
knowledge thus acquired kept alive his
sympathy with the Humanists, although he
was himself deflected into the intellectually
reactionary movement of Luther. At the
age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a shoe-
maker, and it was from a linen-weaver that he received his first
lessons in the mastersinger's art. In 1511 he went forth upon his
travels as a journeyman; but upon his return five years later he
settled in his native town, and there lived to celebrate his eighty-
first birthday. He died on January 19th, 1576. During these sixty
years he seems never to have left Nuremberg. His life ran the hon-
orable, uneventful course of a citizen diligent in business and pros-
perous. He became master in his guild in 1517. In 1519 he married
Kunigunde Kreuzer, who was so entirely a woman of human mold
that in 'The Bitter-Sweet of Wedded Life,' Sachs is obliged to
describe her by antitheses,- she was all things to him, at once his
woe and weal; but the simple pathos of his sorrow when she died,
in 1560, is very touching. Untrue, however, to the cautious principles
XXII-789
HANS SACHS
## p. 12610 (#24) ###########################################
12610
HANS SACHS
that Wagner has put into his mouth, the real Sachs married, one
year and a half after his first wife's death, a widow of twenty-seven,
whose charms he celebrates in song with refreshing frankness. He
was then a hale and healthy man of sixty-eight. He continued to
write with unremitting energy until 1573. His mastersongs numbered
between four and five thousand; of tales and farces there were some
seventeen hundred, besides two hundred and eight dramas. These
writings filled thirty-four manuscript volumes, of which twenty have
been preserved. Three volumes of a handsome folio edition of his
complete works appeared before his death, and two more afterwards.
This in itself is an evidence of the high esteem in which he was
held. No citizen of Nuremberg except Dürer ever won more honor-
able distinction in the annals of that ancient city than
"Hans Sachs, the Shoe-
Maker and Poet, too. "
The rise of cities, and of the bourgeoisie, had placed Germany in
the front rank of commercial nations. For the products of the Orient,
coming by way of Venice to the west, Nuremberg had become the
mart and dépôt. With material wealth came luxury for merchants
as well as nobles, and a higher cultivation in the arts of living.
Through the Humanistic movement and the Reformation, Germany
also assumed the spiritual leadership of Europe. Everywhere there
was a deepening of the national consciousness. Of all these elements
in their clearest manifestations, Hans Sachs was the representative.
He was the type of the well-to-do, patriarchal citizen of the wealthi-
est among German cities. He had had glimpses of the austere charms
of scholarship, and had himself translated Reuchlin's 'Henno' and
Macropedius's 'Hecastus. ' The Humanists therefore, although their
successors despised the cobbler-bard, spoke to him in an intelligible
tongue. And he stood in the forefront of the Reformation. Finally,
Sachs was wholly and quintessentially German. In him that "incom-
prehensible century" found its most complete and characteristic ex-
pression.
And yet, although it was in the full flower of that municipal
democracy that the seed of our modern civilization lay, Hans Sachs
was a mediæval man. It is in this respect that he, and even Luther,
were inferior to men like Dürer, Hutten, and Reuchlin. The Reforma-
tion was a matter of ecclesiastical administration: it marked no im-
portant intellectual advance. The man of the sixteenth century was
interested in the Here and Now; he delighted in his daily life, and it
presented no problems; theology was accepted as a fact, and no ques-
tions were asked. It was only in the souls of the Humanists that the
future lay mirrored; and it was through them that the revival of the
## p. 12611 (#25) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12611
eighteenth century was made possible. Sachs was the last of a pass-
ing generation. He did indeed advance the German drama until it
far surpassed the contemporary drama of England; but he left behind
him only the banal imitator of the English, Jacob Ayrer: while in
England, before Sachs died, Shakespeare had been born. In Sachs
the literary traditions of three centuries came to an end. Walther
von der Vogelweide had lived to deplore the gradual degradation of
courtly poetry: the peasants' life and love became the poet's theme.
In the years that followed, it sank into hopeless vulgarity. From this
it was rescued by Sachs. But the world meanwhile had traveled a
long road: poetry had left the court and castle for the cottage and
the chapel; the praise of women was superseded by the praise of
God. It is a striking contrast between the knightly figure of Wal-
ther, with the exquisite music of his love lyrics, and the dignified
but simple shoemaker, with the tame jog-trot of his homely couplets.
But Walther was chief among the twelve masters whose traditions
the mastersingers pretended to preserve; and the mastersong itself
was the mechanical attempt of a matter-of-fact age to reproduce the
melodious beauty of the old minnesang. Thus Hans Sachs, the great-
est of the mastersingers, was in a sense the last of the minnesingers;
and German literature, which had waited three centuries, had two
more yet to wait before it should again bloom as in those dazzling
days of the Hohenstaufen bards.
Hans Sachs was a most prolific and many-sided poet. Before his
twentieth year he had fulfilled the exacting conditions of the master-
singers, and had invented a new air, which, after the affected manner of
the guild, he called 'Die Silberweise' (Silver Air). Sixty years of un-
interrupted productivity followed, during which he filled sixteen folios.
with mastersongs. These he never published, but kept for the use of
the guild, of which he was the most zealous and distinguished member.
But the strait-jacket of form imposed by the leathern rules of the
"Tabulatur» impeded the free movement of the poet. The real
Sachs is in the dramas and poetic tales. All are written in rhymed
couplets. He read omnivorously; and chose his subjects from all
regions of human interest and inquiry. He often treated the same
theme in several forms. Die Ungleichen Kinder Eva' (Eve's Unlike
Children), for instance, he took from a prose fable of Melanchthon's,
and rendered in four different versions. It seeks to account for and
justify the existence of class distinctions; and is perhaps the best as
it is the most delightfully characteristic of all his compositions. It is
one of the chief merits of Sachs that he purified the popular Fast-
nachtspiele (Shrovetide Plays). Of these plays Nuremberg was the
cradle; and those of Hans Sachs are by far the best that German
literature has to show. He shunned the vulgarity that had character-
ized them; and made them the medium of his homely wisdom, of
## p. 12612 (#26) ###########################################
12612
HANS SACHS
his humorous and shrewd observation of life, and of his simple phi-
losophy. Each is a delicious genre picture of permanent historic
interest.
As the Reformation advanced, there came a deeper tone into the
poetry of Hans Sachs. He read Luther's writings as early as 1521,
and two years later publicly avowed his adherence in the famous
poem of 'Die Wittenbergisch Nachtigall' (The Nightingale of Witten-
berg). It was a powerful aid in the spread of Lutheran ideas. The
dialogue, so closely allied in form with the drama, was a popular
form of propaganda in that age; and the four dialogues that Sachs
wrote are among his most important contributions to literature.
Their influence was as great as that of Luther's own pamphlets; and
in form they were inferior only to the brilliant and incisive dialogues
of Hutten. One of them was translated into English in 1548. The
city council, alarmed at the strongly Lutheran character of these
writings, bade the cobbler stick to his last; but the council itself
soon turned Lutheran, and Sachs continued his work amid ever-
increasing popular applause.
The impression made by Hans Sachs upon his time was ephem-
eral: his imitators were few and feeble; all literary traditions were
obliterated by the Thirty Years' War. Goethe at last revived the
popular interest in him by his poem, 'The Poetical Vocation of Hans
Sachs'; and Wagner's beautiful characterization in The Master-
singers' has endeared him to thousands that have never read a
single couplet from his pen. There is a natural tendency to over-
estimate a man whose real worth has long lain unrecognized; but
when all deductions have been made, there remains a man lovable
and steadfast, applying the wisdom of a long experience to the hap-
penings of each common day, exhibiting a contagious joy in his work,
and avowedly working for "the glory of God, the praise of virtue,
the blame of vice, the instruction of youth, and the delight of sorrow-
ing hearts. " It is the manifest genuineness of the man, his amiable
roguishness, his shrewd practical sense, that give to his writings
their vitality, and to his cheerful hobbling measures their best charm.
But the appeal is not direct; one must project oneself back into the
sixteenth century, and live the life of Nuremberg in her palmiest
days. That city was for Hans Sachs the world; in this concentra-
tion of his mind upon his immediate surroundings lay at once his
strength and his limitations. He is at his best when he relates what
he has himself seen and experienced. His humorous pictures have a
sparkling vivacity, beneath which lurks an obvious moral purpose.
The popularity of these simply conceited tales gives point to the
description of the German peasant's condition at the time of the
Reformation as "misery solaced by anecdote. " It was such solace
that Hans Sachs supplied in a larger quantity and of a better quality
## p. 12613 (#27) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12613
than any other man of his time. A grateful posterity, upon the
occasion of the four-hundredth anniversary of his birth, erected to
his memory a stately statue in the once imperial city; and his hum-
bler fame is as indissolubly associated with Nuremberg as is the
renown of his greater contemporary.
"Not thy councils, not thy kaisers, win for thee the world's regard,
But thy painter Albrecht Dürer, and Hans Sachs thy cobbler-bard. »
Chase Guing
UNDER THE PRESSURE OF CARE OR POVERTY
WHY
HY art thou cast down, my heart?
Why troubled, why dost mourn apart,
O'er naught but earthly wealth?
Trust in thy God; be not afraid:
He is thy Friend, who all things made.
Dost think thy prayers he doth not heed?
He knows full well what thou dost need,
And heaven and earth are his;
My Father and my God, who still
Is with my soul in
every ill.
Since thou my God and Father art,
I know thy faithful loving heart
Will ne'er forget thy child;
See, I am poor; I am but dust;
On earth is none whom I can trust.
The rich man in his wealth confides,
But in my God my trust abides;
Laugh as ye will, I hold
This one thing fast that he hath taught,-
Who trusts in God shall want for naught.
•
## p. 12614 (#28) ###########################################
12614
HANS SACHS
Yes, Lord, thou art as rich to-day
As thou hast been and shalt be aye:
I rest on thee alone;
Thy riches to my soul be given,
And 'tis enough for earth and heaven.
What here may shine I all resign,
If the eternal crown be mine,
That through thy bitter death
Thou gainedst, O Lord Christ, for me:
For this, for this, I cry to thee!
All wealth, all glories, here below,
The best that this world can bestow,
Silver or gold or lands,
But for a little time is given,
And helps us not to enter heaven.
I thank thee, Christ, Eternal Lord,
That thou hast taught me by thy word
To know this truth and thee;
Oh, grant me also steadfastness
Thy heavenly kingdom not to miss.
Praise, honor, thanks, to thee be brought,
For all things in and for me wrought
By thy great mercy, Christ.
This one thing only still I pray,-
Oh, cast me ne'er from thee away.
Translation of Catherine Winkworth.
FROM THE NIGHTINGALE OF WITTENBERG'
WAKE, it is the dawn of day!
A
I hear a-singing in green byway.
The joy-o'erflowing nightingale;
Her song rings over hill and dale.
The night sinks down the occident,
The day mounts up the orient,
The ruddiness of morning red
Glows through the leaden clouds o'erhead.
Thereout the shining sun doth peep,
The moon doth lay herself to sleep;
## p. 12615 (#29) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12615
For she is pale, and dim her beam,
Though once with her deceptive gleam
The sheep she all had blinded,
That they no longer cared or minded
About their shepherd or their fold,
But left both them and pastures old,
To follow in the moon's wan wake,
To the wilderness, to the break:
There they have heard the lion roar,
And this misled them more and more;
By his dark tricks they were beguiled
From the true path to deserts wild.
But there they could find no pasturage good,
Fed on rankest weeds of the wood;
The lion laid for them many a snare
Into which they fell with care;
When there the lion found them tangled,
His helpless prey he cruelly mangled.
The snarling wolves, a ravenous pack,
Of fresh provisions had no lack;
And all around the silly sheep
They prowled, and greedy watch did keep.
And in the grass lay many a snake,
That on the sheep its thirst did slake,
And sucked the blood from every vein.
And thus the whole poor flock knew pain
And suffered sore the whole long night.
But soon they woke to morning light,
Since clear the nightingale now sings,
And light once more the daybreak brings.
They now see what the lion is,
The wolves and pasture that are his.
The lion grim wakes at the sound,
And filled with wrath he lurks around,
And lists the nightingale's sweet song,
That says the sun will rise ere long,
And end the lion's savage reign.
Translation of Charles Harvey Genung.
## p. 12616 (#30) ###########################################
12616
HANS SACHS
THE UNLIKE CHILDREN OF EVE: HOW GOD THE LORD
TALKS TO THEM
H
ACT I
The Herald comes in, bows, and speaks
EALTH and grace from God the Lord
Be to all who hear his Word,
Who come from far or come from near
This little comedy to hear,
Which first in Latin speech was done
By good Philippus Melanchthon;
And now I put in good plain speech,
That so the commonfolk it reach;
And thus I go without delay
In brief the Argument to say.
When Adam out of Paradise
Was driven after God's device,
And set to labor in the field,
Then God did of his mercy yield
And came to pay him a visit,
And trust and comfort him a bit;
And specially to better know
If obediently or no
His children feared their heavenly Lord,
And rightly studied in his Word.
And so without more preparation
He came and held examination.
And when the Lord did Abel find,
He and his lads quite pleased his mind,
And straightway blessed He him on earth,
And all who from him should get birth.
But when thereafter did the Lord
His brother Cain see and his herd,
He found them all so stupid dumb
And godless that they ne'er might come
Into his favor, but must live
In hardest toil if they would thrive
At all, and at all times must be
Subject to Abel's mastery.
At this did Cain so angry get,
While Satan stirred still more his fit,
## p. 12617 (#31) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12617
That out he went and Abel slew,
For nothing less his wrath let do.
And then to punish him God said
That wheresoe'er on earth he fled,
He ne'er should find a resting-place.
But when the angels by God's grace
Good Abel's body had interred,
Then came to Adam and Eve the word
That Seth should in his place be born,
Whose death had left them all forlorn,
And comfort them in this world's pain,
And be through loss the greater gain.
And this you all shall straightway see
In speech and act conveniently.
Eve, alone,
condemned to
Adam enters
[Here follows the scene in the house of the First Pair.
laments the hardships of her lot, driven from Paradise, and
bear children in pain and to be obedient to her husband.
and asks the reason for her unhappy looks, and learns that she bemoans their
being doomed to live under the unending curse of the offended God. Adam
comforts her with the assurance that after proper penance, God will pardon
and restore them to happiness; and indeed that he has just heard from the
angel Gabriel that the Lord will on the morrow pay them a visit. ]
To-morrow will the Lord arrive
To look in and see how we thrive,
And give us pleasant holiday,
And leave his promise as I say;
He'll look around the house to find
If we do manage to his mind,
And teach the children as they need
To say their Bible and their Creed.
So wash the children well, and dress
Them up in all their comeliness,
And sweep the house and strew the floor,
That it may give him sweet odor,
When God the Lord, so morn begin,
With his dear angels shall walk in.
Eve speaks
O Adam, my beloved man,
I will do all the best I can;
If God the Lord will but come down,
And cheer the heart that fears his frown.
## p. 12618 (#32) ###########################################
12618
HANS SACHS
All praise to my Creator be,
That so in mercy pityeth me.
Quick will I make the children clean,
And all the house fit to be seen
By him who comes by morrow's light,
That he may find it sweet and right,
And so his blessing deign to leave.
That so he'll do I hope and b'lieve.
Adam speaks
And where is Abel, my dear son?
Eve speaks
He out to feed the sheep is gone.
Pious he is and fears his God,
Obedient to his every nod,
And with him do his children go,
Who are obedient also.
Adam speaks
And where is Cain, our other son,
That wretch for whom the halter's spun ?
Eve speaks
Oh, when of him I hopeless think,
Woeful in me my heart does sink.
Belial's child, he's always done
The part of disobedient son.
When told to bring the wood from shed,
He cursed and out the house he fled;
And now with angry words and noise
Out in the street he fights the boys.
I can't endure him in the room:
Above him hangs each day his doom,
And with it I'm near overcome.
[Abel soon enters, and is asked by his mother to go and bring in Cain,
from whom Abel fears violence. Encouraged by the news that the Lord is
coming to visit them, Abel promises to go, and Adam thus closes the
scene: -]
Adam speaks
So in the house we now will go,
And put it all in finest show,
## p. 12619 (#33) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12619
To please God and the angels dear.
Sweet shall it smell and wear good cheer
With wreaths of green and May bedeckt
For the high Guests we dare expect.
ACT II
[This act represents Abel's interview with Cain; in which, later, Adam and
Eve both take part, urging him to come and be washed and ready for the
expected Visitor. ]
Abel speaks
Cain, Cain, come quickly here with me.
That you by mother washed may be!
[They all go out.
Cain speaks
That fellow got well washed by me!
And could they catch me now, you'd see
What for a washing they'd me give!
Abel speaks
In quarrel wilt thou always live!
I fear a murderer thou'lt grow!
Cain speaks
And if I should, I'd prove it so
On thee, thou miserable knave!
Abel speaks
To-morrow to our house draws near
The Lord God with his angels dear;
So come and let yourself be dressed
To welcome him in all our best!
Cain speaks
The feast may go on high or low:
I care not for it, but will go
To play and with my comrades be.
Who says that God will to us come?
Abel speaks
The mother just sent word from home.
## p. 12620 (#34) ###########################################
12620
HANS SACHS
Cain speaks
The Lord stay up there where he is!
Abel speaks
How can you blaspheme God that way!
That he will come do not we pray,
And keep us safe from every ill?
Cain speaks
I too have prayed, when 'twas my will,
But never that he should come near.
I take the life God gave us here,
But leave eternity to him.
Who knows what all up there may be !
Abel speaks
How dar'st thou speak so godlessly!
Hast thou no fear of endless hell?
Cain speaks
What you do call damnation's spell!
O boy, the father talketh so,
But little of it all I know.
Abel speaks
The more thou'rt likely to be there!
Cain speaks
Poor fool, thou mayest thy teaching spare!
I know quite well what I'll believe.
If God no angel wants to make me,
The Devil's glad enough to take me!
Adam [calls]
Where art thou, Cain? Come quick to me!
Eve speaks
Come, Cain, thy father calls for thee.
Cain speaks
I'm sitting here: where should I be?
## p. 12621 (#35) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12621
"
Adam speaks
Come, and be washed and combed and clean,
Fit by the Lord God to be seen,
To offer sacrifice and pray,
And hear what the good preachers say.
Cain speaks
Unwashed will I forsooth 'remain.
Just let those rogues catch me again,
My head will be in such a flood
That mouth and eyes shall run with blood!
Eve speaks
Just hear the idle fellow's speech:
What water can such vileness bleach?
Cain speaks
Yes, mother, there you speak the truth!
But so I will remain forsooth.
Eve speaks
Then, Abel, come and washèd be
With the other sons, obediently.
And when the Lord God shall come in,
Stand you before him pure and clean.
And then the Lord will find out Cain,
Where he all careless doth remain,
With those who to rebel incline,
And live as stupid as the swine:
There be they in the straw and rot,—
A ragged, miserable lot.
Abel speaks
Mother, unto my God and thee
I ever will obedient be;
With all good children will I strive
To please thee all days that I live.
## p. 12622 (#36) ###########################################
12622
HANS SACHS
ACT III
Enter Adam and Eve, and afterward Abel and Cain
Adam speaks
Eva, is the house set right,
So that in the Master's sight
All shall fine and festive stand,
As I gave you due command ?
Eve speaks
In readiness was all arrayed
By time our vesper prayer was said.
Adam speaks
Children, behold the Lord draws near,
Surrounded by the angels dear;
Now stand all nicely in a row,
And when the Lord shall see you so,
Bow low and offer him the hand.
See how at the very end do stand
Cain and his gallows-doomèd herd,
As if to flee before their Lord.
The Lord enters with two Angels, gives Adam his blessing, and speaks
Peace, little ones, be to you all!
Adam raises his hand and speaks
O Father mine, who art in heaven,
We thank thee for this mercy given,
That thou in all our need and pain
Shouldst deign to visit us again.
Eve raises her hand and speaks
O thou true Father and true God,
Wherein have we deserved this lot?
That thou so graciously shouldst come
And visit this our humble home?
[The pious salutations continue; Adam bidding all his sons to offer the word
of welcome, beginning with Cain, who offers the Lord his left hand, and for-
gets to take off his hat.
Then follows the greeting of Abel and all the good
## p. 12623 (#37) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12623
children, including Seth, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech; each one
repeating in turn a petition out of the Lord's Prayer, concluding with
Lamech's: -]
Deliver us from evil, through
That blessed Seed thou'st promised true: Amen.
The Lord speaks
Abel, what means that word "Amen » ?
Abel speaks
That we may be assured then
That God will do our prayer, without
We yield to unbelieving doubt.
The Lord speaks
Seth, tell me how on earth you know
That all you pray will be heard so?
Seth speaks
We know it by thy promise sure,
Which ever faithful must endure;
For since the God of truth thou art,
Thy word is done at very start.
The Lord speaks
Jared, when God acts not so swift,
What shall a man do in the rift?
Jared speaks
Hope must he still in God's good word,
And trust him to his gracious Lord,
That in good time he'll find a way
Wherein his mercy to display.
[So continues the catechizing on the Lord's Prayer; which being ended,
that on the Ten Commandments is taken up. ]
The Lord speaks
Abel, the First Commandment say!
Abel speaks
To one God shalt thou bow and pray,
Nor any strange God have in mind.
## p. 12624 (#38) ###########################################
12624
HANS SACHS
The Lord speaks
And in that word what dost thou find?
Abel speaks
God above all we honor must;
Fear him and love, and in him trust.
The Lord speaks
And Seth, how reads the Second Law?
Seth speaks
Thy God's name must thou have in awe,
And never speak in vanity.
[The children rehearse and explain the Ten Commandments in their turn.
Then follows in like manner the recitation and explanation of the Creed. ]
The Lord speaks
Your answers are in all ways good;
You speak as pious children should.
You now may show me if as right
You can the holy Creed recite.
[They all say Yes. ]
The Lord speaks
Let each in turn his portion say.
Abel speaks
I b'lieve in God of highest worth,
Maker of heaven and the earth.
Seth speaks
The Savior too in faith I own,
Who was from heaven to earth sent down.
The head of Satan bruised he,
And so the human race set free.
Jared speaks
I trust too in the Holy Ghost,
Who peace and comfort giveth most.
## p. 12625 (#39) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12625
XXII-790
Enoch speaks
And I in holy Church believe,
Who shall in heaven her place receive.
Methuselah speaks
All sins' forgiveness do we know,
For the good Lord hath promised so.
Lamech speaks
And that our bodies shall arise
And live forever in the skies.
The Lord speaks
Abel, what means in God t' have creed?
Abel speaks
That we to him in all our need
Commit ourselves, and on him rest
In heart and soul as Father best.
The Lord speaks
What is the bodies' rising up?
Lamech speaks
When we have drainèd sorrow's cup,
From realm of death we free shall go,
The bliss of endless life to know.
The Lord speaks
Children, right well my Word ye know,-
Now take ye heed therein to go.
Thereto shall ye my spirit share,
·
To teach and keep you free from care,
That so ye come above to live;
And here will I full blessing give:
On earth, health and prosperity,
That you a mighty folk shall be,
As kings and priests and potentates
And learned preachers and prelates,
So that the world shall know your fame,
And every land admire your name.
Thereto your father's blessing take,
Which nevermore shall you forsake.
## p. 12626 (#40) ###########################################
12626
HANS SACHS
The Angel Raphael speaks
To God arise your praises let
With harp and song and glad quintette,
The while his grace and mercy stand
Displayed to man on every hand,
To guide you to the heavenly land.
[They all depart.
ACT IV
[In this act Cain takes counsel with his evil companions Dathan, Nabal,
Achan, Esau, Nimrod the Tyrant, and Satan the Devil, as to how they, who
have always held the Lord's name and worship in contempt, shall answer his
questions. Satan bids them instead to accept his rule and guidance, and
assures them the possession of all worldly goods and pleasures in so doing. ]
Enter the Lord with Adam and Eve. Satan hides himself.
The Lord speaks
Cain, come hither with thy crew,
And tell me how ye pray God to?
Cain speaks
O Lord, we've him forgotten quite.
The Lord speaks
If I thy speech can read aright,
Thou hast of him but little learned;
His Word in folly hast thou spurned.
But let me hear what you can say.
Cain speaks
O Father of our heaven, we pray,
Let us right here thy kingdom see;
Give us our debts and bread plenty,
And evil want and misery. Amen.
The Lord speaks
Who taught him such a twisted prayer?
Eve speaks
O Lord, to teach him I despair.
No whipping helped what I might say:
He drove it to the winds away;
## p. 12627 (#41) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12627
And so did those who with him stand,—
All threw contempt on my command.
The Lord speaks
Thou, Dathan, canst thou say the Creed?
Dathan speaks
I believe in God and heaven and earth,
In woman who of him has birth;
And in the name of Holy Ghost.
Sin and flesh I b'lieve in most.
The Lord speaks
So briefly has thy faith been told?
Dathan speaks
And that is more than I can hold!
The Lord speaks
Nabal, tell me the Ten Commands.
Nabal speaks
Lord, none I know, for so it stands;
To learn I never thought 'twas need.
The Lord speaks
But Achan, thou canst tell me this:
Dost thou have hope of heavenly bliss?
Achan speaks
I know quite well how here it goes,
But up there what will be, who knows?
If God shall so forgiving be
That I that happy state shall see,
So good! What matters what I do?
The Lord speaks
Esau, now thou canst tell me true,
What good shall holy offerings do?
Esau speaks
I hold that God will take the price
Of endless life in sacrifice,
## p. 12628 (#42) ###########################################
12628
HANS SACHS
And so we can with offerings buy
Our right to his eternity!
The Lord speaks
Nimrod, now answer me this minute,
Eternal life, believ'st thou in it?
Nimrod speaks
Now I will tell you straight and plain,
My heart trusts what my eyes have seen.
I lift it not to things on high;
I take of earth's good my supply,
And leave to thee Eternity.
[After the Lord administers the Divine reproof for such godlessness and
indifference, and warns these wicked children of the awful results of their
profanity and idleness, he appoints Abel to the duty of instructing these his
wicked brothers; and on his accepting the office with meek obedience, the
angel Gabriel closes the Act with an exhortation to praise. ]
The Angel Gabriel speaks
That so these poor souls may repent,
Come down ye hosts from heaven sent,
With all your loveliest melody,
To sound abroad God's majesty,
Who hath done all things righteously!
ACT V
Enter Cain with Satan, and speaks
My brother Abel is filled with glee
That he will now our bishop be.
The Lord with him will play great rôle
And give him over us control.
Him must we all in worship greet,
And be like slaves beneath his feet.
[Satan shows Cain that he, being the first-born, has the right to rule; and
advises him to kill Abel. Cain admits that he has long had it in mind to do
this. Abel entering asks Cain if they shall go and offer the sacrifice. As
they are offering, the Lord comes and admonishes Cain, and departs. Abel
kneels by his sacrifice. ]
## p. 12629 (#43) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12629
Cain, his brother, speaks
Brother, in swinging my flail about
My offering's fire have I put out;
But thine with fat of lambs flames high.
Abel speaks
In all be praised God's majesty,
Who life and good and soul doth give,
And by whose grace alone we live!
[Satan gives the sign to Abel; Cain strikes him down; Satan helps to con-
ceal him, and flees.
The Lord comes and speaks:—]
Cain, tell me where thy brother is!
Cain speaks
Shall I my brother's keeper be?
What is my brother's lot to me?
The Lord speaks
O Cain! Alas! What hast thou done?
Through heaven the voice of blood has run;
The earth the curse has understood,
In that she drank thy brother's blood!
Satan whispers in Cain's ear, and speaks
Now Cain, forever thou art mine,
And bitter martyr's lot is thine.
Within thy conscience endless pain
And biting grief without refrain.
The world for thee is all too small,-
Thou art accursed by one and all.
God and mankind are now thy foe,
And all creation this shall show,
-
For thou thy brother's blood hast taken:
Hence be thou hated and forsaken;
Thy doom by no deed can be shaken.
Cain speaks
My sin is far too great that I
Should dare for God's forgiveness cry.
So must I wander on and on,
My life the prey of every one.
## p. 12630 (#44) ###########################################
12630
HANS SACHS
The Lord speaks
No, Cain: who deals to thee a blow
Shall seven times its misery know.
And so I put a mark on thee,
That none may do thee injury.
Satan leads Cain away, and speaks
Cain, hang thyself upon a tree,
Or else in water drowned be;
That so thyself from pain thou save,
And I in thee a firebrand have.
[They both depart.
son.
[Adam and Eve now enter, weeping and lamenting the death of their good
The Lord comforts them by ordering the angels to bury Abel's body,
and by assuring them that Seth, who shall now be to them as their first-born,
shall be the father of a blessed race. ]
The Lord speaks
Till comes that day when shall be born
That holy Seed, of earth forlorn
And cursed with sin,— the Savior,
Whom every one shall bow before,-
So ye to heavenly kingdom come,
And find with me eternal home.
[They all depart.
The Herald comes and concludes
So is the Comedy at end,
And four good lessons may it send.
And first, all people that do live
We see in Adam and in Eve.
These are the fallen human race,
Accursed by God and in disgrace,
E'en as to-day we see it so.
We all in misery do go,
In sorrow eat our daily bread,
As God the same hath truly said.
And next in Abel may we see,
Described and pictured cleverly,
All people that do fear the Lord,
And give good heed unto his word.
## p. 12631 (#45) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12631
And these by Holy Ghost do strive
In love with fellow-man to live,
In soul and body so to prove
What is the heavenly Father's love,
Whose mercy is to them always:
That do they to God's thank and praise.
Thirdly, however, by this Cain,
The godless people are made plain,
Who mock and jeer at holy grace,
And faithless are in every place;
By their own reason, flesh and blood,
Taught what is right and what is good.
And so they know no fear nor shame,
And cast themselves in passion's flame;
In sin and blasphemy forget
What love hath God upon them set.
To them it is but idle sport
That men should bid them heed God's Word;
And so with murder, envy, hate,
On Satan's wicked will they wait.
His word into their ear is blown,
And safe he claims them as his own.
Fourthly, in God we plainly see
How great is his benignity;
How he doth stoop to all mankind
A way from sin and curse to find,
Through that same holy Seed foretold
To Adam and to Eve of old:
And this is Christ, our Savior Lord,
Who by the heavenly Father's word
From Mary's body has come forth,
And crushed the serpent's head to earth.
By cruel death upon the cross
He took away all wrath that was
'Twixt God and man by Adam's fall,
That we after earth's pain may all
Forever come with him to live:
That God may this in mercy give,
When endless joy our soul awakes,
With angels all, so prays Hans Sachs.
Translated by Frank Sewall.
## p. 12632 (#46) ###########################################
12632
HANS SACHS
TALE. HOW THE DEVIL TOOK TO HIMSELF AN OLD WIFE
Ο
NE day the Devil came to earth,
To try what is a husband's worth:
And so an aged wife he wed;
Rich but not fair, it must be said.
But soon as they two married were,
There rose but wretchedness and fear.
The old wife spent the livelong day
In nagging hi in every way;
Nor could he rest when came the night,
For so the fleas and bugs did bite.
He thought, Sure here I cannot stay,-
To wood and desert I'll away;
There shall I find the rest I need.
So fled he out, and with all speed
Into the wood, and sat him down
Upon a tree, when passed from town
A doctor with his traveling-sack
Of remedies upon his back.
To him the Devil now did speak:-
"We both are doctors, and do seek
Men of their troubles to relieve,
And in one fashion, I believe. "
――――
"Who are you? " then the doctor said. -
"The Devil: and woe be on my head,
That I have taken to me a wife,
That makes a torment of my life;
Therefore take me to be your slave,
And I will handsomely behave. "
He showed the doctor then the way
That he his devilish arts could play.
In short, they soon agreed, and so
The Devil said: — "Now I will go
Unto a burgher in your town,
Who's rich enough to buy a crown:
And I will give him such a pain
That soon as you come by again,
You enter in, and pray me out;
That is, upon a ransom stout,-
Some twenty gulden fair laid down,
At which the rich man will not frown.
So then between yourself and me
The money even shared shall be. "
—
## p. 12633 (#47) ###########################################
HANS SACHS
12633
[The tale goes on to state how the plot was successfully carried out. The
doctor, however, obtaining thirty instead of twenty gulden for his reward,
thought to deceive the Devil, whom he found again in the wood; and he offered
him the ten gulden as his share, retaining the twenty for himself. The Devil
detecting the doctor's trick, to avenge himself purposes now to go and infest
with pain the rich owner of a fortress near by; which being done, and the
doctor being called in to allay the dreadful pain in the baron's stomach, the
Devil now refuses to come out. In this unlooked-for emergency, the doctor
now bethinks himself of the Devil's wife: and running into the chamber he
cries out to the Devil, telling him that his wife is down-stairs with a summons
from the court of justice, bidding him return to his marital duty; whereupon
the Devil is so frightened that he flees without more delay, and hastens back
to hell and to his companions there, where he finds more rest than he could
ever hope to in the house of the old woman he had taken as a wife. There-
upon the poet adds this: -]
CONCLUSION
BY THIS tale every one shall know
How it with man and wife will go,
When every day there's quarreling,
And neither yields in the least thing,
But ever one the other scolds,
In fear and hate and anger holds,
With endless fretting and complaining,
No peace nor sunshine entertaining.
Truly such married life might be
Of devils in hell for aught we see.
From which may God keep us away,
And grant us rather in our day,
In marriage peace and unity,
And kindness's opportunity,
That to this virtue e'er may wax
True wedded love,-so prays Hans Sachs.
Anno Salut. 1557. On the 13th day of July.
Translation of Frank Sewall.
## p. 12634 (#48) ###########################################
12634
SA'Dİ
(1184-1291 ? )
BY A. V. WILLIAMS JACKSON
A'DĪ of Shīrāz, the moral teacher and didactic poet,— the
"Nightingale of a Thousand Songs," as he has been termed
in the Orient,-is one of the Persian authors whose name
is best known in the Occident. He may rightly claim a place in
"the world's best literature" for the excellence of his short moral
stories in prose intermingled with rhyme, and for the merit of his
poetical reflections, which abound in sound wisdom presented in a
charming and appropriate style. His "discourse is commingled with
pleasantry and cheerful wit," as he says of himself in his master-
piece, the 'Gulistān'; and he adds that "the pearls of salutary coun-
sel are strung on the thread of his diction, and the bitter medicine of
advice is mixed up with the honey of mirthful humor. " These words
of his own admirably characterize his work; because good sense,
high thought, religious feeling, human sympathy, and knowledge of
man, combined with a general naturalness and simplicity, mark his
best productions.
Sa'di has not the epic force nor the romantic strain of Firdausī or
Nizāmī, nor again the mystic elevation and abstract introspection of
Jāmī and Jalāl-ad-din Rūmi, nor has he the lyric ecstasy for which
Hafiz is renowned; but he possesses certain qualities that none of the
others can claim, and which give to his writings a peculiar attract-
iveness, an enduring element, that insures their lasting throughout
Flourishing at a period when Europe had yet to feel the
quickening touch of the revival of learning, Sa'dī stands in the East
as a bright light of higher aim and nobler purpose, as a character of
generous open-heartedness and liberal-minded thought. In his long
life devoted to study and travel, or spent in productive activity and
repose, he gave to the world a vast fund which he had gathered, of
sound wisdom, wholesome philosophy, broad ethics, good judgment,
and common-sense. Enjoying the personal favor of potentates, he
seems to have availed himself of the privileges which money confers,
chiefly for the purpose of bestowing gifts in charity or for advancing
worthy causes; he religiously felt and practiced what he preached-
the doctrine of contentment and resignation.
## p. 12635 (#49) ###########################################
SA'DI
12635
Sa'di's life was of such unusual length that it could not but be
somewhat eventful. He was born in 1184 at Shiraz, then the capital
of Persia. His father died while he was still a child, as we know
from the touching lines on the orphan in the 'Būstān' (ii. 2, 11). The
boy now received the exalted patronage of the ruling Atābeg Sa'd
bin Zangi of Fars, and he was educated upon a fellowship foundation
at the Nizamiah College of Baghdad. For thirty years (1196-1226) he
was a student and earnest worker, imbibing the principles of Sufi-
ism, and gaining a deep insight into the doctrines and tenets of the
Moslem faith. It was his pious good fortune to make no less than
fourteen pilgrimages, at different times, to the shrine of Mecca.
The second period of his life, from the age of forty to seventy (1226-
1256), was spent in travel, east and west, north and south. He not
only visited the cities of the land of Iran, but he journeyed abroad
to India, Asia Minor, and Africa. Among other places he resided at
Damascus, Baalbec, and Jerusalem; and was taken prisoner by the
Crusaders in Tripolis, as is shown by the incident connected with his
married life that is recorded in the selections given below. When
already a septuagenarian he returned to his native city of Shīrāz, and
there he spent the third or remaining part of his life (1256-1291).
He once more enjoyed courtly favor, this time from the son of his
former royal patron; and he devoted his time to producing or com-
pleting the literary work which was prepared for, or doubtless partly
composed, during the long preceding period of his career.
In the world of letters, therefore, Sa'di presents the peculiar phe-
nomenon of one whose writing seems to have been done late in life.
The 'Būstān' (Garden of Perfume) was finished in one year (1257).
It is written in verse, and comprises ten divisions. Sa'di's themes
are justice, government, beneficence and compassion, love, humility,
good counsel, contentment, moral education and self-control, gratitude,
repentance and devotion, or the like, as a summary of the titles of
the work shows. The 'Gulistān' (Rose-Garden) was completed in the
following year (1258); and this work, by which Sa'di's name is best
known, has been familiar to Western students since the days when
Gentius published a Latin version entitled 'Rosarium Politicum,' in
Amsterdam, 1651. The 'Gulistan' is written in prose, with inter-
mingled verses, and it comprises eight chapters. Like the 'Būstān' it
is didactic in tendency, but it is lighter and more clever; it is a per-
fect storehouse of instructive short stories with moral design, enter-
tainingly presented, and abounding in aptly put maxims, aphorisms,
or sententious sayings, which make the work entertaining reading.
Sa'di's productiveness, however, was not confined to the ethical and
didactic field; he was also under the influence of the lyrical strain,
and he composed a series of odes, dirges, elegies, and short poems,
## p. 12636 (#50) ###########################################
12636
SA'DI
which have warm feeling and a distinctly human touch. A book of
good counsel, 'Pandnāmah,' bears Sa'di's name; but its authenticity
has been open to some doubt. Some jests of a lower order in poetical
vein are said to be his; and he is also the author of several shorter
prose treatises known as 'Risalah. ' Besides his native Persian, he
could compose in Arabic, and he was acquainted with Hindūstānī.
Sa'di was twice married; and his lament over the loss of a beloved
son, who died before him, is preserved in the 'Būstān. ' His own death
occurred at a very advanced age in 1291 (or 1292) in his native city,
where his tomb is still seen; and Sa'di's name and fame have con-
tributed to making Shīrāz renowned in Persian literature.
Abundant material is accessible, in English and in other languages,
to those who may be interested in Sa'di. The best information on
the subject is given by Ethé in Geiger and Kuhn's 'Grundriss der
Iranischen Philologie,' ii. 295-6. English translations of the 'Būstān'
have been made by H. Wilberforce Clarke (London, 1879), and G. S.
Davie, 'The Garden of Fragrance' (London, 1882); and selections have
been rendered by S. Robinson, Persian Poetry for English Read-
ers' (Glasgow, 1883), specimens of which are given below.
There are
German renderings by K. H. Graf (Jena, 1850), by Schlechta-Wssehrd
(Vienna, 1852), and by Fr. Rückert (Leipzig, 1882); and a French
version by Barbier de Meynard (Paris, 1880). Among the English
translations of the 'Gulistan' may be mentioned those by Dumoulin
(Calcutta, 1807), Gladwin (London, 1822), J. Ross (London, 1823), Lee
(London, 1827), J. T. Platts (London, 1873), the Kama Shastra Society
(Benares, 1888); and the translation by Eastwick in Trübner's Oriental
Series (London, 1880), which has also been drawn upon for the pres-
ent article, as well as S.
