Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries Volume I Part 12

[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 ma.n.u.script 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 n.o.ble, which appears to be lost.]

[Footnote 46: P. Winckler, "The n.o.bleman," 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 Dusseldorp, p. 4. 1675. 4to.]

[Footnote 48: _Pfeffersacke_, 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 n.o.ble 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 Forster, "Hofe und Cabinette Europas," vol. iii., p. 51.]

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

[Footnote 58: She certainly was not a girl of loose character, as Hullmann in the "Stadtewesen," vol. ii., a.s.sumes; on the contrary, she pa.s.sed 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--"Grundliche Beschreibung eines furnehmen furstlichen 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. "Grundliche beschreibung eines Armbrust Schiessens zu Coburg." 1614.]

[Footnote 65: A square coin.]

[Footnote 66: Welser-Ga.s.ser, "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 Rosener: "Ehren t.i.ttel 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 furnehmen 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 t.i.tle-page of the curious poem "Aussreden der Schutzen von Hans Heinrich Grob, Zurich, 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 Konigsschiessen, as a king was elected for the occasion.--_Tr_.]

[Footnote 74: An open s.p.a.ce 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 t.i.tle 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 superst.i.tious 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 einspanner 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.]