Volume 1 — CHAPTER VI. (continued 2)
Mrs. (Georgina) Malcolm translation
"But so much the more I felt my very insignificant position; and, thus truly humiliated, I reproached myself continually. I asked myself whether I was to call upon this dutiful and virtuous daughter to give so much money for me, of which she certainly had as little thought as her mother; for it was undoubtedly not with this view that she had shown me so many courtesies. She had long considered me as having a decided inclination for some one; she often reminded me in a friendly way about Halle, and how I had often praised openly and with such great feeling the incomparable Dr. Baumgarten; and just because I had shown so much diffidence and lively feeling with regard to Halle, she had thought favourably of me, and had assumed that I had a settled engagement there. How was I now all at once to convince her that it was otherwise, without giving an open field for divers detrimental thoughts and observations on myself? I alone know how entirely depressed was my spirit at this time; how I spent my days and nights restless and dejected, till at last I learnt to bow myself to the universal law of God's government.
"I more than once perplexed myself again with strong doubts whether I was important enough for Divine Providence to occupy Himself with me, and whether all my anxieties were not the consequences of my faults and my inconsiderate conduct; in short, I could no longer continue in this depressing condition, as I had no time to lose in complaints. I must announce myself at Nuremberg so many days before Petri Pauli. Now I wrote two letters, one to the mother, and inclosed in it another to the daughter, wherein I revealed my views, but at the same time distinctly showed my present position, and appealed to their own knowledge and judgment of my principles, and confided myself to them. It was impossible for me by word of mouth to express so carefully and clearly all the necessary details.
"This letter I took with me when I went to supper, and placed it in the mother's prayer-book, which always lay by her place, so that the letter must, without fail, come into her hands this same evening. I did not otherwise allow anything to be perceived, but went away somewhat earlier than I had hitherto done, that there might be more time left for the discovery, and for their deliberation.
"In the letter I begged of the mother, if she found what I proposed was decidedly objectionable, that she would not lay the letters before her daughter, but would send them both back to me, and then would kindly ascribe my too great confidence to her indulgence. In proportion as my life had been hitherto solitary, the deeper was the impression made in my soul by my anxious and uncertain wishes; my spirit now began to raise itself more earnestly to God in a deep and entire submission, that I might more and more be weaned from the trivial occurrences of life and their results, by looking to eternity. I found an increase of tranquillity, and a contented submission to all the dispensations of Providence, which I had long so vainly endeavoured to create in myself.
"Three days passed, during which we met as inmates of the same house, as though nothing had passed between us which required an answer, and I was persuaded that it was a kind way of sparing my feelings, that my proposal was to be buried in silence, as they wished to relieve me from an unpleasant explanation. As usual, I was always too desponding. The following Sunday--it was the 10th of June, 1751--as I was leaving the table after dinner, the Frau Doctorin asked me to drink a cup of coffee with her that afternoon. Still she kept her countenance so completely, that I could not promise myself much advantage from this invitation. The next two hours I spent promenading in the open air, in a very composed state of mind, recalling many vanished ideas and wishes, and in much sorrow at the prospect of my shortly impending journey, which must now take me far from Saalfeld and Halle.[88] Thus I did not return very soon, and went straight to her room. I immediately discovered such an expression of natural, earnest, and approving friendship in the countenance of the mother, who came forward to meet me, that I could no longer doubt the success of my proposal, and my feelings also became equally visible when I began to speak. The feelings of all three were similar and showed themselves perceptibly in our eyes, a kind of joyful solemnity ensued, and we all three returned thanks to God. The mother laid before me the two letters, and asked, 'Do you confess that you have written these?' 'Oh, yes,' I said, and kissed her hand. She kissed me warmly, and assured me of her most hearty approbation.
"The daughter very soon after lost her heretofore shyness, and raised her eyes pleasantly, because she knew it did not displease her mother, and she had now a right to make herself pleasant. We had neither of us had any romantic training, otherwise she would not have waited for this till I had spoken and had obtained the mothers consent. Thus this affair, which was so difficult and so important for me, took a smooth course, without the intervention of any other person, or the employment of those arts or intrigues with which brides are entrapped by many.
"It is not necessary for me to tell the holy and humble thankfulness of my soul to God, nor how much I endeavoured to preserve my inward peace and tranquillity, in spite of the gossip that followed upon this my resolution.
"I immediately investigated the character of my bride; she had an agreeable aspect, although the smallpox, which she had passed through after she was grown up, had materially injured her complexion. Her education had been carried on partly under the eyes of a grandmother and an excellent aunt, partly by the mother, who kept a tutor for her and her brother. After the death of the father, the mother and daughter had lived in great retirement. But she had only the more cultivated all those qualifications which are most advantageous to her sex; her judgment was so good, that her mother generally preferred it to her own in household arrangements. The style of her letters was good, the handwriting pretty and even, and there were very few faults of orthography. In this she excelled all her many relations. Accounts she understood far better than her mother, and had, when scarcely fifteen years of age, during a long absence of her mother, so accurately reckoned up the details of an income of 1800 gulden, that there was nothing missing. She had for some years kept her own accounts in respect of a property which she had inherited from an uncle at Coburg, amounting to a thousand gulden or more. She had learned to dance, and held herself well, but was not particularly fond of it; her head-dresses she made herself, and many of her clothes, and always in good taste. This pleasure in the work of her own hands was considered by others of her own age, who had no such pleasure in it, as the result of great parsimony, which it certainly was not, as I shall presently show.
"We now associated more freely, and during the few remaining days of my stay, often walked together, especially in the great garden on the Lossau. There we sat, sometimes under the trees overlooking the city. She was so frank with me, that she said to me of her own accord, 'Now you must exert yourself, and take some control over me, to wean me from the faults which long solitude has engendered in me. I may, by my devotion perhaps, and by my pure good heart, recommend myself to you; but, as we must mix with many people and become a portion of the so-called great world, you must help me, that I may not then appear to disadvantage, till I can myself judge rightly with respect to externals. For you are superior to me in understanding and in the refinements of language and social intercourse.' This honesty brought tears into my eyes. She wept with me, asking whether I now repented, and whether I had not long known these defects of hers?
"In answer to this, I said, 'I have more cause to be uneasy than you, lest you should repent of having given your hand and heart to a Professor, whom you will soon find deficient in all external means, although very laborious. And now I will lay before you all my anxieties, entirely without reserve. You know it is true that my father can give me nothing; but you do not know that I cannot at present pay you for board and lodging, and that I must incur many small debts, that we may leave Coburg in suitable style.'
"She looked at me tenderly, and said: 'If you have really no other cause for uneasiness, I am truly very happy to say that I can help to place you in a better position. Think, therefore, only of making me more worthy of you, that I may not injure you in society. I am mistress of my own fortune, in the management of which I have hitherto sometimes asked advice of Dr. Berger, as my guardian. He esteems you too highly, for him to put the least obstacle in the way of my serving you when I wish to do so.'
"Thus this worthy person has always evinced an unselfish, honourable manner of thinking, and relieved me from all shame and uneasiness about my position.
"Now I began to think about my journey, that I might not arrive too late at Nuremberg.
"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 Döbnerin 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 Döbnerin; 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 Düsseldorp, p. 4. 1675. 4to.
Footnote 48: Pfeffersäcke, 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 Förster, "Höfe 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 Hüllmann in the "Städtewesen," 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--"Gründliche Beschreibung eines fürnehmen fürstlichen 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. "Gründliche 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 Rösener: "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 fürnehmen 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 Schützen von Hans Heinrich Grob, Zürich, 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 Königsschiessen, 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 einspänner 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.