It is not easy to form any true idea of the old society from the general literature, for the numerous writers of comedies and novels give us mostly caricatures; they find their account in bringing everything down to a low level. It is for this reason, therefore, that the unbiassed records of cotemporaries are so instructive.
In the olden time there were as now, baths to which all those resorted who wished for social amusement; and the bath life shows at least the forms of easy intercourse away from home; therefore a number of small pictures will be given here from the baths of Zurich, the most famous of all the German baths at the conclusion of the middle ages. The doings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries will be better explained by comparing with them, the former period of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Switzerland was by the peace of Westphalia entirely detached from the Empire; but the political separation had not led the German burgher life into foreign channels. The unity of mind remained, more than once have the literary men, the poets and artists of Switzerland, had an important share in the development of the German mind. Even now is this inward unity undiminished, and Germans and Swiss alike have reason to congratulate themselves on it. After the great war, the Swiss had honestly participated in the pleasures and sorrows of the German; they also had suffered by the war, and were in political troubles; a narrow-minded patrician government oppressed the country; there also, energy, public spirit and conscience, had been weakened.
The following narrative paints the state of things at Baden, and equally portrays the Bath life of Germans in the interior of the Empire.
Bath Life in the year 1417.
The Florentine, Francis Poggio (1380-1459), one of the great Italians who spread the Humanitarian literature throughout their native country, then held the office of Papal secretary; in this capacity he was actively employed at the Council of Constance, and visited Baden from thence. He describes his impressions of travel in an elegant Latin letter to his friend, the learned Nicolo Nicoli; he himself was then an ecclesiastic. In order to understand thoroughly how much the reformation of the Church, which took place a century later, was brought about by the excited moral feeling of the people, we should pay attention to the cool, haughty freedom of tone of the following letter. Poggio was a great scholar and a prudent statesman; he was one of the most refined among the highly cultivated Italians; nay, more, he had a fierce, manly spirit, and was always exhorting his literary friends to seriousness. But with his classical literature he had also adopted the spirit of a distinguished Roman of the time of Tiberius, and it makes a disagreeable impression to find how mildly and good-humouredly the secretary of the Pope, the priest, the scholar, the offshoot of the civilization of his time, viewed the profligacy of both ecclesiastics and laity. His letter, which follows here, is abbreviated in some places:--
"Baden itself affords the mind little or no diversion; but has in all other respects such extraordinary charm, that I could often dream that Venus had come from Cypress, for whatever the world contains of beauty has assembled here, and so much do they uphold the customs of this goddess, so fully do you find again her manners and dissoluteness, that little as they may have read the speech of Heliogabalus, they appear to be perfectly instructed by Nature herself.
"About a quarter of an hour's drive from the town, on the other side of the river, there is a beautiful village, established for the use of the baths; in the middle of the village is a large platz, surrounded by splendid inns, which contain a multitude of people. Each house has its own bath, which can only be made use of by those who reside there. The number of public and private baths amounts altogether to full thirty. Two special places, open on all sides, are appointed for the lowest classes of the people; and the common crowd, men, women, boys, and unmarried maidens, and the dregs of all that collect together here, make use of them. In these baths there is a partition wall, dividing the two sexes, but this is only put up for the sake of peace; and it is amusing to see how, at the same time, decrepit old beldames and young maidens descend into it naked, before all eyes, and expose their charms to the gaze of the men. More than once I have laughed at this splendid spectacle; it has brought to my mind the games of Flora at Rome, and I have much admired their simplicity who do not in the least see or think anything wrong in it.
"The special baths at the inns are beautifully adorned, and common to both sexes. It is true they are divided by a wainscot, but divers open windows have been introduced therein, through which they can drink with, speak to, see, and touch each other, as frequently happens. Besides this, there are galleries above, where the men meet and chatter together, for every one is free to enter the bath of another, and to tarry there, in order to look about, and joke and enliven his spirits, by seeing beautiful women nude when they go in and come out. No guard watches the avenues here; no door, and, above all, no thought of impropriety hinders them. In many baths both sexes have access to the bath by the same entrance, and it not unfrequently comes to pass, that a man meets a naked woman, and the reverse. Nevertheless, the men bind a cloth round their loins, and the women have a linen dress on, but this is open either in the middle or on the side, so that neither neck, nor breast, nor shoulders are covered. The women eat frequently in the bath itself, of dishes contributed by all, which are placed on a table floating upon the water, whereto the men naturally resort. In the house where I bathed, I also was invited to such a feast; I gave my contribution, but went away, although they did urge me much to stay. And truly not from shyness, which we here consider as stupid and boorish, but because I did not understand the language, for it appeared to me absurd that an Italian, ignorant of German, should pass a whole day amongst lovely, fair ladies, in a bath, dumb and speechless, merely eating and drinking. Two of my friends however, who were present, ate, drank and toyed, spoke to the ladies through an interpreter, fanned them, and in short enjoyed themselves much. My friends were clothed in a linen dress, such as the men wear here when they are invited to a ladies' bath. I saw all from the gallery, their manners and customs, their good eating, and their free and easy intercourse. It is wonderful to see in what innocence they live, and with what frank confidence they regard the men; the liberties which foreigners presume to take with their ladies does not strike their attention; they interpret everything well. In Plato's Republic, according to whose rules everything was to be in common, they would have behaved themselves excellently, as they already, without knowing his teaching, are so inclined to belong to his sect.
"Many visit daily three or four of these baths, and pass there the greatest part of the day, in singing, drinking, nay in waltzing, and they play the lute if they are not seated deep in the water. But there can be nothing more charming than to see budding maidens, or those in full bloom, with pretty kindly faces, in figure and deportment like goddesses, strike the lute, then they throw their flowing dress a little back in the water, and each appears like a Venus. It is the custom of the women to beg for alms jestingly from the men who view them from above; one throws to them, especially to the pretty ones, small coins, which they catch with their hands or with the outspread linen dress, whilst one pushes away the other, and in this game all their charms were frequently unveiled. In like manner one threw them down twined wreaths of divers flowers, with which they adorned their heads while they sat in the bath.