Fischart too, in his quaint description of a voyage on the Rhine in Glückhaft Schiff, shews little feeling for Nature; but in Simplicissimus, on the other hand, that monument of literature which reflected contemporary culture to a unique degree, it is very marked; the more so since it appeared when Germany lay crushed by the Thirty Years' War.
When the hero as a boy was driven from his village home and fled into the forest, he came upon a hermit who took care of him, and waking at midnight, he heard the old man sing:
Come, nightingale, comfort of the night,
Let your voice rise in a song of joy, come praise the Creator,
While other birds are sound asleep and cannot sing!...
The stars are shining in the sky in honour of God....
My dearest little bird, we will not be the laziest of all
And lie asleep; we will beguile the time with praise
Till dawn refreshes the desolate woods.
Simplicissimus goes on: 'During this song, methinks, it was as if nightingale, owl, and echo had combined in song, and if ever I had been able to hear the morning star, or to try to imitate the melody on my bagpipe, I should have slipt away out of the hut to join in the melody, so beautiful it seemed; but I was asleep.'