EMBLEMS.
(Vol. vi., p. 460.)
The Query confirms Professor De Morgan's excellent article in The Companion to the Almanack for 1853, "On the Difficulty of correct Description of Books." The manuscript note cited by H. J., though curiously inaccurate, guided me to the book for which he inquires. I copy the title-page: "Die Betrübte Pegnesis, den Leben, Kunst, und Tugend-Wandel des Seelig-Edeln Floridans, H. Sigm. von Birken, Com. Pal. Cæs. durch 24 Sinnbilder in Kupfern, zur schuldigen nach-Ehre fürstellend, und mit Gesprach und Reim-Gedichten erklärend, durch ihre Blumen-Hirten. Nürnberg, 1684, 12mo." I presume the annotator, not understanding German, and seeing "Floridans" the most conspicuous word on the title-page, cited him as the author; but it is the pastoral academic name of the late Herr Sigmond von Birken, in whose honour the work is composed. The emblem, with the motto "Bis fracta relinquor," at p. 249. (not 240.), is a tree from which two boughs are broken. It illustrates the death of Floridan's second wife, and his determination not to take a third. The chess-board, plate xiv. p. 202., has the motto, "Per tot discrimina rerum," and commemorates Floridan's safe return to Nuremberg after the multitudinous perils ("die Schaaren der Gefahren") of a journey through Lower Saxony. They must have been great, if typified by the state of the board, on which only a black king and a white bishop are left—a chess problem!
I bought my copy at a book-sale many years ago, and, after reading a few pages, laid it aside as insufferably dull, although it was marked by its former possessor, the Rev. Henry White, of Lichfield, "Very rare, probably unique." On taking it up to answer H. J.'s Query, I found some matter relating to the German academies of the seventeenth century, which I think may be interesting.
Mr. Hallam (Literature of Europe, IV. v. 9.) says:
"The Arcadians determined to assume every one a pastoral name and a Greek birthplace; to hold their meetings in some verdant meadow, and to mingle with all their own compositions, as far as possible, images from pastoral life; images always agreeable, because they recall the times of primitive innocence. The poetical tribe adopted as their device the pipe of seven reeds bound with laurel, and their president, or director, was denominated General Shepherd or Keeper—Custode Generale."
He slightly mentions the German academics of the sixteenth century (III. ix. 30.), and says:
"It is probable that religious animosities stood in the way of such institutions, or they may have flourished without obtaining much celebrity."
The academy of Pegnitz-shepherds ("Pegnitzshäfer-orden") took its name from the little river Pegnitz which runs through Nuremberg. Herr Sigmond von Birken was elected a member in 1645. He chose Floridan as his pastoral name, and the amaranth as his flower. In 1658 he was admitted to the Palm Academy ("Palmen-orden"), choosing the name Der Erwacsene (the adult?), and the snowdrop. In 1659, a vacancy having occurred in the Pegnitz-Herdsmen ("Pegnitz-Hirten") he was thought worthy to fill it, and in 1679 he received the diploma of the Venetian order of the Recuperati. He died in 1681. This, and what can be hung upon it, is Die Betrübte Pegnitz, a dialogue of 406 pages. It opens with a meeting of shepherds and shepherdesses, who go in and out of their cottages on the banks of the Pegnitz, and tell one another, what all seem equally well acquainted with, the entire life of their deceased friend. It would not be easy to find a work more clumsy in conception and tasteless in execution. Herr von Birken seems to have been a prosperous man, and to have enjoyed a high pastoral reputation. His works are enumerated, but the catalogue looks ephemeral. There is, however, one with a promising title: Die Trockene Trunkenheit, oder die Gebrauch und Missbrauch des Tabacks. His portrait, as "Der Erwachsene," is prefixed. It has not a shepherd-like look. He seems about fifty, with a fat face, laced cravat, and large flowing wig. There are twenty-four emblematical plates, rather below the average of their time.
As so secondary a town as Nuremberg had at least three academies, we may infer that such
institutions were abundant in Germany, in the seventeenth century: that of the Pegnitz shepherds lasted at least till the beginning of the eighteenth. In Der Thörichte Pritschmeister, a comedy printed at Coblenz, 1704, one of the characters is "Phantasirende, ein Pegnitz Schäffer," who talks fustian and is made ridiculous throughout. The comedy is "von Menantes." I have another work by the same author: Galante, Verliebte, und Satyrische Gedichte, Hamburg, 1704. I shall be very glad to be told who he was, as his versification is often very good, and his jokes, though not graceful, and not very laughable, are real.
H. B. C.
U. U. Club.