Chapter VI (3)

"At Nuremberg there were still very many features of great antiquity, which made much impression on me. Birkmann, preacher at the church of St. Giles, had kindly offered that I should take up my quarters with him. I was received by him very lovingly, and he gave me a room up-stairs, in which were his books; a neighbourhood which was very useful to me, as I was able in the evening to search out some accounts of Nuremberg, that everything might not be so entirely strange to me. As soon as I possibly could I presented myself before the gentlemen of the council, in the great hall of the Council-house, at the hour when they entered the hall from their separate rooms. The great impression made on me by this grand building, and the unusual circumstances in which I was placed, had a good effect upon me, so that I with modesty and emotion spoke out freely, which, together with my pressing recommendations, obtained me the gracious approbation of these venerable persons. Herr von Ebner, whose own learning and noble manner of thinking filled every one with respect, desired me afterwards to be told that he expected me in the afternoon at his house. I sought to recover the composure of my mind, that I might be distracted as little as possible by so many unexpected events, and turn this visit the more to my advantage. As this gentleman was almost blind I was deprived of much assistance, for by an unaffected modest attitude, which I always liked, I had elsewhere frequently procured myself a hearing, even from those who hitherto had been prepossessed against me. After I had stood some minutes, and had expressed my feelings of gratitude in the best sentences I could utter, avoiding equally bombast and common-place, he said: 'Herr Professor, your voice and speech please me so much that I regret not being able to see you distinctly. Seat yourself near me; I must speak to you on various things. The great man whom we have lost, Professor Schwarz, has especially and confidentially recommended you to me; but there is truly no want of competitors for the place which he has vacated.' Now he came to my '_miscellaneas lectiones_' parts of which had been read to him, and asked so many particulars that the conversation resembled an examination. At last he said to me, with evident pleasure, 'You are just the man; if I say it you will be chosen. I heartily wish you happiness for yourself and Altorf.' Then he caused Trident wine to be brought, and the servant was not to allow the glass to stand empty. Now he was so gracious, that when I rose he said, 'If I can provide you with a rich wife, tell me so straightforwardly.' I kissed his hand reverently, pressed it with my forehead, and said at once, with great feeling, 'I thank you.' 'I shall be all the better pleased,' he said, 'if you have no disquiet in your outward life.' He desired me, when I returned again from Altorf, to ask for him; meanwhile he took me into his garden, and wished to talk on other matters with me, which afterwards took place. I must say that such noble affability, and active regard, as were shown by the gentlemen of Nuremberg to their men of learning, I have seldom met with elsewhere.

"The preacher Birkmann travelled with me to Altorf. On the way I thought it right to give the excellent man to understand that Herr von Ebner had wished to make a good marriage for me; but I had found it necessary already at Coburg to discharge this duty, and free myself from the anxiety, so that all other well-meant arrangements were useless. Meanwhile I revolved many new thoughts in my mind.

"I arrived safely at Coburg, and brought the vocation with me. On the 26th August, 1751, the amiable Doebnerin was married to me in the sacristy."--

Thus far we give the account of the husband, who, in the further course of his autobiography, takes every opportunity of expressing his love and admiration for the wife of his choice, and composed a special eulogy on her after death. Unfortunately no letter has been preserved from the Frau Professorin, whose style was so much praised by the Professor. But a love-letter will be given of the year 1750, from one of her circle of Coburg acquaintance,[89] which one may presume gives pretty accurately the style of the Demoiselle Doebnerin; the same customary forms and artificial tenderness under which the warm feelings of a human heart are only occasionally perceptible. This letter, from a betrothed to her intended in Coburg, runs thus:--

"Chosen one of my heart! As I do not doubt that the holy Christmas season will have brought with it to my loved child all its best and most desired blessings, so do I hope that the good God will mercifully hear my fervent prayers, and pour upon him in rich measure so much health, bliss, and all pleasures, that I may continually have cause to praise Him. I also send my congratulations on the approaching new year, and will express my sincere heartfelt wishes in these few words: 'Most Highest, hear my prayer! for the sake of my dearest child take the half of my life and add it to his years, so will my temporal welfare which germinates through his goodness soon develope the ripe fruit of bliss, in spite of the foaming of envy and malevolence.'

"My love has given me very great pleasure by his agreeable letter, as I have seen that he, whose frequent occupations might easily cause me to be forgotten, has not been hindered from thinking most kindly of me, therefore I return my beloved my most bounden thanks. He was pleased in his dear letter to mention that the ring is ready, but it is not stated what I am to pay for it, I therefore expect in the next a few lines concerning this, and also touching the honourable brother-in-law.

"If my beloved desires that I should know or look after aught else, may it please him to speak out freely: his orders shall at all times be commands to me. To the most highly-esteemed Frau Mamma and the Frau Schwester I send my dutiful congratulations on this new year, and request of them further their gracious favour. My papa and mamma send equally their compliments, and wish my beloved to enjoy in undisturbed contentment all blessings and prosperity. We expect with great desire a kind answer, and my papa is the more desirous to receive one, as he himself dictated mamma's letter. I am anxious to learn what resolution his honour has come to touching this matter. I beg leave, my heart, to send with this a bad specimen of my workmanship for a waistcoat, humbly requesting his honour not to regard the smallness of its value, but rather the goodwill with which it is given, for I assure him there are not as many stitches in it, as there are good wishes accompanying it. In conclusion, I remain, with constant esteem,

"My beloved one's

"Most affectionate

"C. C. K.

"A. Monsieur, Monsieur ... at Coburg."

So cautious, formal, and florid were the love-letters of a true-hearted frank maiden, like the dear wife of Professor Semler.

But he himself, Johann Salomo Semler,--the father of modern theology, long the highly-honoured head of the University, who, in his scientific views, was a bolder, rasher man than his older contemporaries,--how should we judge him, if measured by the standard of our time? Because he has no money for his journey, and some debts in Coburg, he determines to marry; he informs his love in Saalfeld of his situation, and woos the daughter of his wealthy landlady, to whom hitherto he had appeared indifferent. The like of this in our time, speaking mildly, would be called--pitiful. And yet when the aged Professor gave his narrative to the public, he plainly assumed that his conduct would not appear dishonourable in the eyes of his contemporaries. There is no reason to doubt that the friends of his youth thought exactly the same, perhaps somewhat less conscientiously. When he was young, what rights had the heart of a poor scholar against a cold, tyrrannical world? Little as yet. What was the aim and object of his life? To learn and labour from early mom till dead of night, in order to instil his painfully gained knowledge into other souls, to spread by writings and teaching, all that was important and new that he searched out, descried, or conceived. Therein lay his highest duty and honour, the object and pride of his earthly days; to this must his private life be adapted and accommodated. Thus it was not only the few, that felt a burning ambition, it was a general feeling, as with Semler, in many hundreds who starved, bowed themselves before the powerful and changed their faith, in order to be able to live for science. There is nothing noble in this, but it is nevertheless a seeking after something nobler; it is the old German yearning for something to be devoted to, which is immeasurably more estimable than devotion to self. Let manly power be united with such a tone of mind, together with the feeling of being a ruler upon earth, and something will arise which all following ages will call great and good.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: In this battle (A.D. 9) Armin defeated the Romans, and freed Germany.]

[Footnote 2: J. Arends, in "East Friesland and Jever" (vol. ii. p. 190), has collected traces of ancient culture on the excavated ground. The coast of the North Sea, from Borkum to Schleswig, stretched, in the time of the Romans, probably farther to the north; the encroachment of the sea had already begun at the time that Pliny wrote, and since that it has taken more than it has given. The Dollart and the Zuyderzee (1164) were formed by several great inundations after the Crusades, and the Jahde in the fifteenth century.]

[Footnote 3: The smoked meats of Germany were named as an article of traffic under Diocletian.]

[Footnote 4: Thus, for example, in the monastery of Alpirspach, in the Black Forest, from which Ambrosius Blaurer escaped in 1622, a certain holy Pelagius and John the Baptist had both their vassals, who rejoiced in peculiar privileges.]

[Footnote 5: Dialogue of "New Karsthans." This is the fictitious name assumed by Ulrich von Hutten, the author of a political squib at that period.]

[Footnote 6: Seifried Helbling, viii., in Moriz Haupt, periodical for German Antiquity, Vol. iv., p. 164. The Austrian knight laments the intrusion of the peasant into his order as an abuse. He wrote, according to Karajan, the eighth of his little books about 1298.]

[Footnote 7: The quaint way in which the old language is here mixed with foreign dialects cannot be rendered.]

[Footnote 8: Our word _pferd_ (horse), then the Roman elegant word for the German horse.]

[Footnote 9: Duke Ernst of Swabia, a celebrated poem of the middle ages.]

[Footnote 10: These names could hardly have been invented by Helmbrecht, to characterise the robbers; it is probable, from what follows, that the like wild nicknames were humorously given by the nobles themselves, and used as party names.]

[Footnote 11: The old German wedding custom. In the thirteenth century the Church had seldom any concern in the nuptials of country people and courtlings. It was only in the fourteenth century it began to be considered unrefined not to have the blessing of a priest. When our junkers declaim against civil marriages they forget that it was the fashion of their forefathers.]

[Footnote 12: An ancient popular superstition. It was similar with the wooers in the "Odyssey" before their end.]

[Footnote 13: This song is to be found in Kornmann's "Frau Veneris Berg," 1614 p. 306. Similar songs in Uhland.]

[Footnote 14: The great poet for the people, a native of Nuremberg.]

[Footnote 15: Means Hoejack, which was adopted by Ulrich von Hutten as a characteristic title of a political squib in defence of the peasantry.--_Trans_.]

[Footnote 16: Quaint title of a series of pamphlets denouncing abuses in Church and State, published about 1521.--_Trans_.]

[Footnote 17: A colloquy between a fox and wolf, in the "Staigerwaldt," 1524, p. 6. Under the similitude of a wolf and fox two fugitive junkers of the Sickingen party discourse together. The plundering of the nobles having been strongly spoken of, the wolf says: "By this voracity, we have made enemies of many citizens and peasants, who have lately bound themselves to take away all our lives, if they can catch us." Fox: "Who are these citizens and peasants?" Wolf: "Those who live in Upper Swabia, Augsburg, Ulm, Kempten, Bibrach, Memmingen, and by the Neckar, and the Nurembergers and Bavarians on the frontier."]

[Footnote 18: Full details of the sufferings of the country people during the war will be found in the second volume of "The Pictures of German life."]

[Footnote 19: "Imperial Privileges and Sanctions for Silesia," vols. i., p. 166; iii., 759.]

[Footnote 20: Ib., vol. i., pp. 150-59.]

[Footnote 21: "Imperial Privileges and Sanctions for Silesia," vol. i., p. 125.]

[Footnote 22: Ib., vol. i., p. 138.]

[Footnote 23: Seven hundred and fifty of these have been reckoned by C. H. von Lang, in his "Historical Development of German Taxation," 1793.]

[Footnote 24: F. von Liebenroth: "Fragments from my Diary," 1701, p. 159. The writer was a Saxon officer, a sensible and loyal man.]

[Footnote 25: District regulations for the Principalities of Oppeln and Ratibor of the year 1561.]

[Footnote 26: The provincial ordinances for the Principalities of Oppeln and Ratibor, year 1561.]

[Footnote 27: Von Hohberg: "Country Life of the Nobles," 1687. See the Introduction.]

[Footnote 28: Imperial Privil. and Sanct., vol. iv., p. 1213.]

[Footnote 29: One may nearly estimate the proportion of the peasants to the collective population of Germany, about 1750, at from 65 to 70 per cent.; of these four-fifths were villeins, thus more than half the people.]

[Footnote 30: "The Exposure of the Vices, Morals, and Evils of the thick-skinned, coarse-grained, and wicked Peasantry," by _Veroandro_, of _Truth Castle_, 1684. The author appears to have been the same clergyman who added verses to the later editions of the Simplicissimus, and pointed the moral.]

[Footnote 31: "The Happy and Unhappy Peasantry," p. 178. Frankfort, s. a. About 1700.]

[Footnote 32: "Lasterprob," p. 82.]

[Footnote 33: "The Happy and Unhappy Peasant Class." p. 155.]

[Footnote 34: "Kurtze Beschreibung, der Acker-Leuthe und Ehrenlob," p. 33. Hof. 1701.]

[Footnote 35: "Imperial Privil. and Sanct.," vols. ii., p. 584; v., 1511.]

[Footnote 36: F. von Liebenroth, p. 146.]

[Footnote 37: Supreme Court of the Empire.]

[Footnote 38: J. V. Bohlen; "Georg von Behr; A picture of Pomeranian Life," p. 24, 1859.]

[Footnote 39: Imp. Priv. and Sanct., 1577, 1602, 1617, vols. i., 93, 100; iii., 1108.]

[Footnote 40: Even in the years 1602 and 1617; Ib., vol. iii, 1107.]

[Footnote 41: A well-known literary society.--_Tr_.]

[Footnote 42: Dietrich von Kracht, the Brandenburg colonel, was called in this society "the Biter;" his herb was the horseradish.]

[Footnote 43: This complaint may be found in "Imp. Sanct.," 9th Feb., 1684.]

[Footnote 44: For most of these details from the manuscript diary of an Austrian, Baron von Teuffel, in 1672 and the following years, the Editor has to thank the kindness of Graf Wolf Baudissin.]

[Footnote 45: Compare this with the Silesian Robinson, Oct. 8, 1723, vol. i., p. 16. The first part of this Robinsonade is a vivid sketch from the diary of a Silesian noble, which appears to be lost.]

[Footnote 46: P. Winckler, "The Nobleman," p. 510.]

[Footnote 47: We are averse to quoting the erotic books which corrupted German readers; we shall only mention a short and scarce tale, wherein some such orgies are described after the Dutch original: "The Perverted, but at the same time Converted, Soldier Adrian Wurmfeld von Orsoy," by Crispinus Bonifacius von Duesseldorp, p. 4. 1675. 4to.]

[Footnote 48: _Pfeffersaecke_, Pepper-sack, and _Krippenreiter_, a poor country Squire, who rides about living on the bounty of the gentry.--_Tr_.]

[Footnote 49: The Student's cap used in sham fights.]

[Footnote 50: In 1603 this was already denounced from Vienna; the abuse became very bad during the war.--Kais. Privil. und Sanct., vol. i., p. 117.]

[Footnote 51: Kais. Privil. und Sanct., vol. iv., p. 1125.]

[Footnote 52: Kais. Privil. und Sanct., vol. i, p. 377, year 1712.]

[Footnote 53: Kais. Privil. und Sanct., vol. iii., pp. 989 and 1021.]

[Footnote 54: J. B. von Bohr, "Ceremoniel Wissenschaft," p. 229.]

[Footnote 55: J. B. von Bohr, _ibid._, p. 33.]

[Footnote 56: For when the splendid prince had arrived at the object of his wishes by countless bribery to the Polish grandees, and after he had proved his new Catholicism to his party--less through the enforced testimony of the Pope than by the expenditure of some thalers and a half measure of brandy to each noble elector--then, at his eventful coronation on the 5th of September, 1697, the inventive powers of the chamberlain were strained to the uttermost, for the costume was to be antique, at the same time Polish and also fashionable and suitable to a cavalier. Therefore the king wore on his well-powdered head a Polish cap with a heron's plume; on his body a strong golden breastplate, over his short French breeches a short Roman tunic, on his feet sandals, over all a blue ermine cloak; the whole dress covered with splendid precious stones. He became faint at the coronation, and it was doubtful whether it was owing to the uncomfortable costume or to shame. The Poles ate on this day three roast oxen, while at the Emperor's coronation at Frankfort only one was customary.--Compare Foerster, "Hoefe und Cabinette Europas," vol. iii., p. 51.]

[Footnote 57: Letters of recommendation entitling the holder to sustenance in some ecclesiastical foundation.--_Tr_.]

[Footnote 58: She certainly was not a girl of loose character, as Huellmann in the "Staedtewesen," vol. ii., assumes; on the contrary, she passed in the sports as the symbol of a city which was supposed to be under the protection of the Holy Virgin, and, till the time of Tilly, boasted of never having been taken. It is possible that the maiden may have been a serf, but this is not certain.]

[Footnote 59: Wolffgang Ferber, Prietzschenmeister--jest maker--"Gruendliche Beschreibung eines fuernehmen fuerstlichen Armbrustschiessens zu Coburg," 1614.]

[Footnote 60: On a Franconian gem of the sixteenth century an archer and a crossbow are portrayed.--Bechstein Museum, II., figure 4.]

[Footnote 61: For example, in the circular of the Meiningens, 1579, "crooked or straight rifled barrels are forbidden." Quarrels must have arisen sometimes concerning this at the public shooting meetings, for in 1563 Elector August of Saxony decided that rifled barrels should only be allowed, if all the shooters agreed to it.]

[Footnote 62: Pritschmeister, a species of Merry Andrew--master of the ceremonies and provost marshal.--_Tr_.]

[Footnote 63: The favourite preamble of their poem. They wander poor and full of cares into the free expanse of nature; then comes joyful news of a shooting meeting. It was undoubtedly traditional, and it was a fitting and refined beginning, which one learned from the other.]

[Footnote 64: Wolfgang Ferber. "Gruendliche beschreibung eines Armbrust Schiessens zu Coburg." 1614.]

[Footnote 65: A square coin.]

[Footnote 66: Welser-Gasser, "Chronika von Augspurg," p. 182.]

[Footnote 67: Compare vol. ii of "Pictures of German Life," chap. "Rogues and Adventurers."]

[Footnote 68: Benedict Edlbeck, pritschmeister: "Ordentliche beschreibung des grossen Schiessen in Zwickau," 1574, p. 82.]

[Footnote 69: Even the valiant Quad von Kinkelbach counts this as one of the wonders of Frankfort: "Teutscher Nation Herlichbuit," 1609, p. 171. Compare it with Christoff Roesener: "Ehren Tittel der Ritterlichen Freyen Kunst der Fechter," 1589, p. 4. The _Federfechter_ gave their freedom to their scholars at princes' courts; also, for example, at Dresden, 1614, at the great Schaufechter which followed the prize-shooting, where a Fechter was stabbed by a rapier.--Wolffgang Ferber's "Relation eines fuernehmen Stahlschiessens zu Dresden," 1614.]

[Footnote 70: Derisive terms applied to certain localities.--_Tr_.]

[Footnote 71: Invitation circular of the Kehlheimers in "Bairische Annalen."]

[Footnote 72: The Swiss also were subject to the _pritschmeister_. In the woodcut on the title-page of the curious poem "Aussreden der Schuetzen von Hans Heinrich Grob, Zuerich, 1602," there is delineated a rifle shooting, in which the _pritschmeister_, in complete fool's dress, is castigating two Shooters in the way above described.]

[Footnote 73: Called Koenigsschiessen, as a king was elected for the occasion.--_Tr_.]

[Footnote 74: An open space round the town.--_Tr_.]

[Footnote 75: A court entertainment, representing life in an inn.--_Tr_.]

[Footnote 76: Von Rohr, "Ceremoniel-Wissenschaft," p. 261.]

[Footnote 77: "_De ratione status in Imperio nostro Romano-Germanico_, 1640." The expression is not invented by Chemnitz, it had been introduced before him in diplomatic jargon by the Italians--their _ragione di Dominio_, or _di Stato_ (in Latin, _ratio status_; in French, _raison d'estat_; in German, _Staatsklugheit_) denotes the method of dealing in the finesses of politics, a system of unwritten maxims of government in which only practical statesmen were versed.]

[Footnote 78: The title runs thus: "_Idolum Principium_, that is, the rulers' idol, which they worship in these days and call _Ratio Status_, described in a not fabulous fable, after the manner of history."]

[Footnote 79: "Lebens Beschreibung Johannis Petersen," 1717; 2nd edit. 1719, 8. "Leben Frauen Johanna Eleonora Petersen," 1718; 2nd edit. 1719, 8.]

[Footnote 80: The stranger was Spener.]

[Footnote 81: The father now held a situation at a pious court; the princess, whose attendant he was, was an active promoter of the match.]

[Footnote 82: A special virtue was ascribed by the superstitious not only to inherited metal but to inherited knowledge, particularly of smiths, shepherds, and executioners.]

[Footnote 83: Mounted mercenaries who had no groom boy. The einspaenner performed in peace the service of gensdarmes.]

[Footnote 84: The Duke of Holstein is Bishop of Lubeck. The court preacher called him, according to the case, his duke or bishop. This double position of the weak prince, and his conduct, denote the helpless condition of the Protestant Church.]

[Footnote 85: J. M. von Loen, "Der Adel," 1732, pp. 133-4.]

[Footnote 86: He related the story later with glee; his wife, from living with him, had become quite different. But Kate's question, whether the German Commander-in-Chief was brother of the Prussian Duke, appeared so extraordinary to Luther, because just then, 1526, all details concerning Albrecht of Prussia were discussed in the circle of the Wittenbergers; and she, the most closely united to Luther, knew nothing of him. Katherine had then already lived in the families of friends at Wittenberg two years, so that it was not entirely the fault of the convent that she sat so quiet and helpless in the house of her husband.]

[Footnote 87: Dr. Johann Salomo Semler's "Lebensbeschriebung," drawn up by himself, 2nd part, appeared in 1781. The here-mentioned lady friend is not named; she appears to have been noble, or of the higher official class.]

[Footnote 88: He sought for composure by thinking of both the demoiselles, in Halle and Saalfeld.]

[Footnote 89: The letter is given, because its purport is almost identical with one written by the beautiful Ursula Freherin to her bridegroom in 1598, in vol. i. of "Pictures of German Life," p. 233. For the letter here published the Editor has to thank Baron Ernst von Stockmar.]

END OF VOL. I.

LONDON:
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

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