The Master-Singers
During the remainder of this century and the next,
the political and social conditions of Germany became
more tranquil as the constitution of the empire
became more fixed. In the cities especially life
grew settled and sheltered; it crystallized indeed
into very rigid forms, in their internal polities and
in the guilds which governed that large part of life
occupied by industrial interests; even the domain of
private life was invaded by the sumptuary laws which
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regulated the dress and the table of each class, but
were probably never very strictly obeyed. But the
sense of being a member of an important and
politically free community made up for the loss of
much of that personal liberty of action which the
Teutonic race had so highly valued; and the activity
of mind produced by constant association with their
fellow-men, rendered the citizens now the great patrons
of art and letters. Town schools became usual, and
before the end of the fifteenth century as many as
eight great universities had been founded. And so,
too, poetry now passed into their hands from those
of the knightly order. It did not at first profit by
the change. It was enrolled among the crafts of
which the guilds had the control, schools for verse
and song-making were set up, and the Minnesingers
were succeeded by the Master-singers.
For the most part it was but poor mechanical
work that they turned out, generally moral and
didactic, often directly religious in tone, but very
prosaic in quality. Yet there must have been a
great deal of reading and reciting of this poetry
such as it was, for the Master-singers are counted by
hundreds, and their verses by thousands. By far
the best of them are the first and last (of any note)
in their ranks,--Heinrich Frauenlob and
Hans Sachs.
The latter belongs to the period of the Reformation,
and marks the transition to modern thought; the
former (1250-1318) belongs to the close of the
crusading age, and marks the transition of poetry
from the knightly to the burgher order. In spirit
and form he belongs to the Minne-singers, and is
frequently counted among them; he is reckoned
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among the Master-singers because he was the first
to found a sort of guild of poets. He was a very
voluminous writer, greatly admired in his own day,
and from his constant praise of women won for
himself the title of Frauenlob (Praise-the-ladies),
and the honour of being borne to his grave by them.
A very large proportion of his poems are love-songs,
but there are many more serious; many prayers and
pious reflections, many lamentations over the degeneracy
of the times, and praises of Brother Berthold, a
famous Franciscan preacher, who travelled about the
country, heard gladly by the common people, and
was a sort of forerunner of
Tauler.
From his religious poems we choose two, one evidently written
when he was fighting with the fear of death; the
other expressing the confidence that helped him
through it. In style Frauenlob is graceful and
fluent, but often too prolix and elaborate. The
mode in which the following is rhymed is an instance
of his love of an intricate arrangement of rhymes.
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