Who bear the bows were knights in Arthur’s reign,
Twelve they, and twelve the peers of Charlemain.
Dryden, The Flower and the Leaf.
Twelve Wise Masters (The), the original corporation of the mastersingers. Hans Sachs, the cobbler of Nürnberg, was the most renowned and the most voluminous of the mastersingers, but he was not one of the original twelve. He lived 1494-1576, and left behind him thirty-four folio vols. of MS., containing 208 plays, 1700 comic tales, and about 450 lyric poems.
Here Hans Sachs, the cobbler-poet, laureate of the gentle craft,
Wisest of the Twelve Wise Masters, in huge folios sang and danced.
Longfellow, Nuremberg.
⁂ The original corporation consisted of Heinrik von Mueglen, Konrad Harder, Master Altschwert, Master Barthel Regenbogen (blacksmith), Master Muscablüt (tailor), Hans Blotz (barber), Hans Rosenblüt (armorial painter), Sebastian Brandt (jurist), Thomas Murner, Hans Folz (surgeon), Wilhelm Weber, and Hans Sachs (cobbler). This last, though not one of the founders, was so superior to them all that he is always reckoned among the wise mastersingers.
Twemlow (Mr.), first cousin to Lord Snigsworth; “an innocent piece of dinner-furniture,” in frequent requisition by Mr. and Mrs. Veneering. He is described as “grey, dry, polite, and susceptible to east wind;” he wears “first-gentleman-in-Europe collar and cravat;” “his cheeks are drawn in as if he had made a great effort to retire into himself some years ago, and had got so far, but never any further.” His great mystery is who is Mr. Veneering’s oldest friend; is he himself his oldest or his newest acquaintance? He couldn’t tell.--C. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1864).
Twenty Bold Mariners.