was no empty boast, and we can now understand the force of the rhyme—
“Hätt’ ich Venedigs Macht,
Augsburger Pracht,
Nürnberger Witz,[47]
Strassburger Geschütz
Und Ulmer Geld
So wär ich der Reichste in der Welt”
CHAPTER VIII
The Meistersingers and Hans Sachs
“Here Hans Sachs, the cobbler poet, laureate of the gentle craft,
Wisest of the Twelve Wise Masters, in huge folios sang and laughed....
Not thy Councils, not thy Kaisers, win for thee the world’s regard;
But thy painter Albrecht Durer and Hans Sachs thy cobbler-bard.”
—Longfellow.
“Heil Sachs! Hans Sachs!
Heil Nürnbergs theurem Sachs!”
—Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
IT is impossible to be in Nuremberg many hours without becoming conscious of the fact that there once lived and died here a poet, who is still, as Wagner calls him, the “darling of Nuremberg.” His name is heard and his portrait seen on every side. In the Spital-Platz stands the monument erected to his memory in 1874 (Johann Krausser). His house in the Hans Sachsgässlein,[48] much restored and rebuilt since he lived there, is marked by a tablet. Who then was this great man? A cobbler—and more than a cobbler, a poet.
Hans Sachs, the son of a master-tailor, was born 5th November 1494, and died January 20, 1576. Apprenticed to a shoemaker he yet always found time, he tells us, to practise the lovely art of poetry. His first teacher was Lienhard Nunnenbeck. But it was during his five years of travel (Wanderjahre), in which he visited the greater part of Germany, that he formed his determination “to devote himself to German poetry all his life long.” In 1516 he returned from his travels to Nuremberg, made his “Master piece,” and became a “Master Singer.” We have already seen how ardently he supported the Lutheran teaching, and we have referred to his poem (1523) “Die Wittenbergische Nachtigall.”[49] His object was always both to amuse and to instruct. Even his light poems usually end with a moral. He strove to make the new teaching popular by versifying and translating passages from the Old and New Testaments. He was apt, however, to be too vehement in the expression of his convictions. So violent was he against Roman Catholicism that in 1527 the Council, anxious as ever to preserve peace and quiet, forbade him to write any more books or rhymes on that subject.
Hans Sachs was twice married. His first wife died in 1560, and the following year he married the beautiful widow, Barbara Harscherin, whose beauty and worth he praises in one of his most pleasing poems, “Der Künstliche Frauenlob,” written after the manner of the Minnesingers:—
“Wohlauf Herz, Sinn, Muth, und Vernunft
Helft mir auch jetzt und in Zukunft,
Zu loben sie, so fein und zart,
Ihre Sitt’, Gestalt und gute Art,
Auf dass mit Lobe ich bekröne
Die tugendreich’, erwälhte Schöne,
Dass ich ausbreite mit Begierde
Wohl ihres Frauenwesens Zierde.
Vor allen Frauen und Jungfrauen,
Die je ich thät mit Augen schauen
Hin und wieder in manchem Land,
Ward keine mir wie die meine bekannt
An Leibe nicht, nicht an Gemüthe,
Die Gott mir ewiglich behüte....”