The Pictures of German Life Throughout History. Gustav Freytag

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СКАЧАТЬ them. Even before 1600, gala days, including pastoral fêtes, were announced with a flourish by similar cartels, sometimes in verse, as, after the great war, were the common village weddings and fairs. These were especially welcome to the authorities and nobles, because in them etiquette was suspended, and many opportunities given for free pleasantry and confidential familiarity.

      In some courts, as at that of the Anhaltiners, the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Duke Philip of Pomerania, the nobles had opportunities of turning their attention to education, and the acquisition of knowledge; at these courts they began already to take pleasure in the possession of objects of art. The Emperor Rudolph collected the pictures of Albert Dürer, and the princes and some of the wealthy nobles around them collected rare coins, weapons, drinking-cups, and the works of the goldsmiths of Nüremberg and the cabinet makers of Augsburg. The patricians of the great Imperial cities, superior in education to the court nobility, as political agents and managers of the Imperial princes, were the purveyors of these novelties of art to the German courts and their cavaliers. It was not an unheard-of thing to find a courtier who avoided long drinking bouts, and knew how to value a conversation upon the course of the world; nay, could even compose a Latin distich, and leave to his heirs a collection of books; and it was even considered honourable among the better sort to concern themselves about their households, and to increase, as far as possible, the revenues of their property.

      On the whole, the importance of the nobility at court had increased even before the war, as well as the oppression which they exercised over their dependent country-people; yet, in an equal degree--nay, indeed, beyond them--the free strength of the nation irresistibly developed itself. The new culture of the Reformation period, introduced by burgher theologians and professors, brought into contempt the coarseness of the country Junkers. The business affairs of the princes and their territories, the places in the Kammergericht, the Spruch Collegien, or (consultative legal boards) of the Universities; indeed almost the whole administration of justice and government ceased to be in the hands of the nobles; the greatest opulence and comfort were introduced into the cities by trade and commerce. Thus, up to the year 1618, the nation was in a fair way to overcome the egotistical Junkerdom of the Middle Ages, and of putting down pretensions which had become incompatible with the new life.

      It was one of the ruinous consequences of the great war, that all this was changed. It broke the strength of the burgher class, and the weakness of the nobility was fostered, under the protection which was secured to it in most of the provinces by the new military discipline of the princes and, above all, of the Imperial court, to the prejudice of the masses. As the income of the landed proprietor was diminished, he drew his chief advantage from the labour of the working peasant. The families of the country nobility being decimated, the Imperial court was very ready to procure a new nobility for money. In the course of the war the captain or colonel had willingly bought with his booty a letter of nobility and some devastated property. After the peace, these nobles by patent became a hateful extension of the order. A childish offensive tuft-hunting, a worship of rank, servility and a greed for titles and outward distinctions, were now general in the cities. The commercial cities on the North Sea were those that suffered least, and those countries most which were immediately dependent on the Imperial court. It was customary then in Vienna to accost as noblemen all those who appeared to have a right to social pretensions.

      Among the mass of privileged persons who now considered themselves as a peculiar ruling class, in contradistinction to the people, there was undoubtedly the greatest difference in culture and capacity; but no injustice is done to many honourable, and some distinguished men, when the fact is brought forward, that the period from 1650 to 1750, in which the nobility ruled, and were of most importance, was the worst in the whole of the long history of Germany.

      Undoubtedly, in the time of weakness since 1648, a most comfortable life was led by the wealthy scion of an old family, who possessed large property, and was protected by old alliances with influential persons and rulers. His sons gained profitable court appointments, or high military places; and his daughters, who were well dowered, increased the circle of his influential "friends." The landed proprietor himself had served in the army, had travelled to France or Holland, and brought with him from thence a number of curiosities; arms and painted articles from the Eastern nations, a hollow ostrich-egg, polished shells, artistically carved cherry-stones, and painted pottery, or marble limbs that had been dug up in Italy. He had, perhaps, somewhere favoured a learned man with his acquaintance, and received from time to time a ponderous legal treatise, or a volume of poems, with a respectful letter. He might have visited in his travels the courts of Anhalt or Weimar, and been created, by letters patent, a poet or author; he was member of the Frucht-bringende Gesellschaft^[41] (the Fruit-Producing Society), had a beautiful medal attached to a silk ribbon, on which his herb, sage or, mint--or, if he had been sarcastic at court--a radish, was represented; he bore the surname of "Scarifier," and comforted himself with the motto--"Sharp and Nutritious;"^[42] and he sometimes wrote letters on the improvement of the German mother tongue, unfortunately with many French phrases. For his own information he, with other cavaliers of education, took in, at considerable cost, a written newspaper, which a well-instructed man in the capital secretly sent to good customers; for it was revolting to him to read the common, superficial scribbling of the printed newspapers. He spoke some French, perhaps also Italian; and if he had been at a University, which did not frequently happen, he might be able to recite a Latin lucubration. In this case he was probably commissary of the ruler of the country, a dignitary of his province; then he had business journeys, and occasionally negotiations, and he managed, to the best of his power, what was intrusted to him, with the help of his secretaries. He was courteous, even to those who were beneath him, and was on good terms with the citizens. He looked down upon the people with confident self-complacency; he was, in fact, high bred, and knew right well that his nobility did not rest on many titles, nor on the knightly ensigns on his escutcheon; and he smiled at the Lions, Bears, Turks'-heads, and Wild men, which were painted on the coats of arms, and bestowed by the heralds' office at Vienna. He regarded with contempt the French nobility, among whom, through Paris merchants and Italian adventurers, too much foreign blood had been intermingled; on the Hungarians, who complacently allowed their nobility to be conferred for a bow and a chancery fee by the Palatine; on the Danes, whose noblemen had a monopoly of the cattle trade; and on the Italians, who made unceasing mésalliances. The fine-gentleman airs, also, of the greater part of his German equals annoyed him: for even at the meeting of his States he had frequent contentions for precedence, especially with the prince's councillors, who were not of the nobility, but wished to assert the privileges of their rank. If there were citizens and noble councillors in the same board, to these in the sittings, a higher position and seniority in office, gave the priority; but at banquets and all representations, according to Imperial decision, the nobleman, as he well knew, had the precedence. It was his usual complaint, that the nobles themselves assumed their titles, armorial bearings, and dignities, or sought them in foreign countries; also that, whoever had received the diploma of count or baron from the Imperial chancery, expected to be called Reichsgräfliche or Reichsfreiherrliche Gnaden, literally Countly or Baronial Grace, and speaks of himself in the royal plural.^[43] The worthy gentleman still retained some of the traditions of knighthood; a valiant officer was treated by him with respect, and he valued arms and horses much. The best adornment of the walls of his well-built house, besides the great family pictures, were beautiful weapons, pistols, couteaux-de-chasse, and every kind of hunting implement. By the side of the flower-garden, kitchen-garden, and orchard, lay a riding-ground, where were to be found apparatus for riding at the ring, or for breaking light wooden lances at the faquin, or quintin, a wooden figure. His horses had still Italian or French names,--Furioso, Bellarina, &c., for as yet the English blood had not been introduced; they had been bred from Neapolitan and Hungarian horses. Turkish nags, as now the pony, were much sought after; thoroughbred horses bore a comparatively higher price than now, for the long war had shamefully lowered the breed of horses throughout Europe. His dog-kennel was well furnished, for, besides bulldogs, he required hounds, pointers, and terriers; to these influential companions of his life he also gave high sounding names--Favour, Rumour, &c. It is true, the chase of the higher game was the right of his sovereign; but the hateful СКАЧАТЬ