Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries Volume I Part 3

CHAPTER II.

THE LIFE OF THE LOWER n.o.bILITY.

(1500-1800.)

The lot of the German peasant and of the German n.o.ble are closely bound together; the sufferings of the one become the disease of the other: the one has been lowered by servitude; the capacity, cultivation, and worth of the other to the State have been impaired by the privileges of a favoured position. Now both appear to be convalescent.

The lower German n.o.ble, before the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, was experiencing an important transition; he was about to forget the traditions of the middle ages, and on the point of gaining a new importance at court. The predatory Junkers of the saddle had become quarrelsome, drink-loving landed proprietors.

At the end of the sixteenth century it was still difficult for the sons of the old robber a.s.sociates to keep the peace. Whilst they were fighting with the pen, and intriguing at the Kammergericht,[37] they were frequently tempted to take forcible revenge; not only the turbulent knights of the Empire in Franconia, Suabia, and on the Rhine, but also the va.s.sals of the powerful princes of the Empire who were under the strong law of the land. Even where they were in the exercise of their rights, they preferred doing it by violence, from pride in their own power. Thus George Behr, of Duvelsdorf, in Pomerania, shortly before the storm of the Thirty Years' War broke upon his province, hired an armed band in order to obtain club law in a private quarrel; he also claimed supreme jurisdiction on his property, in 1628 he caused a former secretary of his family who had forged the seal of his master and drawn a false bond, to be hung on a gallows without any further ado, and at his leisure gave a laconic account of it to his duke.[38]

Much of the old roistering remained in the daily life of the country n.o.blemen; they were still p.r.o.ne, as once in the middle ages, to excite quarrels in the inns and under the village lindens. The young wore embroidered clothes with concealed weapons, an iron ring in the hat, and low morions; besides this, very long rapiers and stilettoes, and in the eastern frontier countries, also Hungarian axes. Thus they went in crowds to the popular festivals and marriages, especially when these took place in the households of the hated citizens. There they began quarrels with the populace and invited guests; they behaved with offensive petulance, and sometimes committed grievous outrages; they burst open the doors of the houses, broke into the women's rooms when they had gone to rest, and into the cellars of the householders. It was not always easy to obtain justice against the offenders, but in some provinces the complaints were so loud and general that, as for example in the Imperial hereditary lands, numerous ordinances appeared enforcing the duty of giving information of such villanies. Those most complained of were the rovers who settled here and there in the country. They were, in the worst cases, compelled to serve at their own cost against the hereditary enemy,[39] so difficult is it to eradicate old evil habits. The quarrels also of the country n.o.bles among themselves were endless. In vain were they denounced by the ordinances of the rulers, in vain did they declare that it was not necessary for the person challenged to come forward.[40] The language of the Junker was rich in strong expressions, and custom had stamped some of these as unpardonable offences. At this period, after the termination of tournaments, armorial bearings and ancestors became of great importance; marriages with ladies not of n.o.ble birth became less frequent; they were eager to blazon coats of arms and genealogies, and endeavoured to show a pure descent through many generations of ancestors, in which there was frequently great difficulty, not only from the want of church books and records, but from other causes.

Whoever endeavoured, therefore, to force a quarrel with another, found fault with his pedigree, his knightly position, name, and armorial bearings, and questioned his four descents. Such an offence could only be appeased by blood. To diminish these brawls, shortly before the Thirty Years' War, courts of honour were here and there introduced. The ruler of the country or feudal lord was president; the a.s.sessors, n.o.blemen of distinction, formed the court of honour. The parties chose three companions, through whom letters of challenge and apologies were transmitted; and in order to make these subtle formalities easy to those who had little practice in writing, a form was accurately prescribed for such letters of summons.

Whilst thus the poorer n.o.bles of the country struggled at home against the new _regime_, the more enterprising were led by the old German love of travelling into foreign parts. The n.o.ble youths willingly followed the drum, and even before 1618 it was a frequent complaint that the Junkers of the n.o.bility had everywhere promotion in the army, whilst it was difficult for a man of worth and capacity, from the people, to rise from the ranks. Even before 1618 the heirs of rich families of pretension, travelled to France, there to learn the language and the art of war, and to cultivate their minds. Not only in Paris, but in other great cities of France, they congregated in such numbers, as do now the idle Russians and English; they only too often endeavoured to resemble the French in immorality and duels, and were even then notorious as awkward imitators of foreign customs. Even before 1618 most of the western German courts were so devoted to French manners, that French was considered the elegant language for conversation and writing. Thus it was in the court of Frederick the Palatine, the winter king of Bohemia.

The cleverest of the n.o.bility, however, sought for fine manners, pleasures, and office in the courts of the numerous German princes.

After the abdication of Charles V. a jovial life prevailed not only at the Imperial court, but also in those of the greater princes of the Empire, above all in Electoral Saxony, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and the Palatinate. Besides great hunting parties and drinking bouts, there were also great court festivals; masquerades, knightly exercises, and prize-shooting had become the fas.h.i.+on, especially at coronations, marriages, christenings, and visits of ceremony. The old tournaments were sham fights, fine scenic representations, in which the costume and the dramatic show were of more importance than the pa.s.sage of arms itself. As early as 1570 they were arranged according to the Spanish custom, when the new fas.h.i.+on of running at the ring was introduced.

Great stages, with mythological and allegorical figures, were drawn in procession on these occasions. The contending parties appeared in wonderful attire; they strove together for prizes, as challengers and knight-errants--_manuten adoren_ and _avantureros_--or married men against bachelors, man against man and troop against troop, not only on horse but on foot But the weapons were blunt, the spears so prepared that they must break at the weakest shock, and the number of thrusts and pa.s.ses which one could make against another was accurately prescribed. The whole was announced to the spectators by a cartel--written invitation or challenge: it was printed and posted up, and explained to the public. Some of these specimens of the composition of educated people of the court have been preserved to us; for example, a cartel of 1570, when the Emperor Maximilian II. had a.s.sembled a large circle of n.o.bles around him, in which a necromancer, Zirfeo, announced that he knew of three worthy heroes enchanted in a mountain,--King Arthur and his companions, Sigestab the Strong, and Ameylot the Happy,--whom he would disenchant, and arouse to a struggle against adventurers. At the festival itself a great wooden structure was presented to view, which represented a rock with an infernal opening, ravens flew out of it, devils danced busily round its summit, and scattered fire about them; at last the magician himself appeared, made his incantations, the hill opened, the knights sprang up into daylight in ancient armour, and awaited the foreign combatants, who in equally strange costume encountered them. Even before 1600, gala days, including pastoral _fetes_, 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 n.o.bles, 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 n.o.bles 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 Durer, and the princes and some of the wealthy n.o.bles around them collected rare coins, weapons, drinking-cups, and the works of the goldsmiths of Nuremberg and the cabinet makers of Augsburg. The patricians of the great Imperial cities, superior in education to the court n.o.bility, 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 n.o.bility 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 coa.r.s.eness 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 n.o.bles; 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 cla.s.s, and the weakness of the n.o.bility 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 ma.s.ses. 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 n.o.bility being decimated, the Imperial court was very ready to procure a new n.o.bility for money. In the course of the war the captain or colonel had willingly bought with his booty a letter of n.o.bility and some devastated property. After the peace, these n.o.bles by patent became a hateful extension of the order. A childish offensive tuft-hunting, a wors.h.i.+p of rank, servility and a greed for t.i.tles 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 n.o.blemen all those who appeared to have a right to social pretensions.

Among the ma.s.s of privileged persons who now considered themselves as a peculiar ruling cla.s.s, 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 n.o.bility 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 sh.e.l.ls, 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 n.o.bility did not rest on many t.i.tles, 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 n.o.bility, among whom, through Paris merchants and Italian adventurers, too much foreign blood had been intermingled; on the Hungarians, who complacently allowed their n.o.bility to be conferred for a bow and a chancery fee by the Palatine; on the Danes, whose n.o.blemen had a monopoly of the cattle trade; and on the Italians, who made unceasing _mesalliances_. 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 n.o.bility, but wished to a.s.sert the privileges of their rank. If there were citizens and n.o.ble 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 n.o.bleman, as he well knew, had the precedence. It was his usual complaint, that the n.o.bles themselves a.s.sumed their t.i.tles, 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 _Reichsgrafliche_ 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-cha.s.se_, 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 custom of _baiting_ the game had been long ago introduced into the country from France. Thus he rode eagerly with his hounds after hares and foxes, or, by invitation, he accompanied[44] some great lord deer-hunting, and received visits from some friendly court official, who had the command of some falcons, which were flown at crows. In October he was not ashamed of going after larks, and inspecting the sprynges. He began the day decorously, and ended it with pleasure; he regularly took an aperient, was bled, and went to church; he held every week his magisterial or justice days.

After the morning greetings with his family, on leisure days he had his horses exercised; in the harvest week he rode to the fields, and looked after the reapers and the inspector. A great portion of his time was pa.s.sed in visits which he received or made in the neighbourhood. At his repast, which took place soon after twelve, game played the princ.i.p.al part; if he had guests, seven or eight dishes were served generally at the same time. If conversation took a high flight, politics were cautiously touched upon, matters of faith very unwillingly; many fine sentences and maxims were still in vogue with people of the world; it was considered refined to quote writers of antiquity or elegant French authors without pedantry; the peculiarities of foreign nations, and also the curiosities of natural history, as known from reading and observation, were gladly discussed. It was considered good taste to inquire the opinions of individuals by turns. Such conversation, even among cavaliers of the highest quality, would appear to us more formal and pedantic than what we should meet with now in the society of poor schoolmasters; but even from this conversation, of which some accidental specimens remain to us, we may discover, in spite of a narrow point of view and numerous prejudices, the striving of the time for enlightenment and understanding of the world. Usually, indeed, the conversation runs on family stories, compliments, doubtful anecdotes, and coa.r.s.e jokes. There was much deep drinking, and only the most refined withdrew from drinking bouts.

Sometimes a social meeting with ladies was arranged in another place, at an hotel or inn; then each lady provided some dishes, the gentlemen wine and music. If there was a bath in the neighbourhood, a journey to it was seldom neglected. Shooting matches were arranged, with appointed prizes, "the first was, then, an ox or a ram;" the gentlemen shot either together or with the populace. The dress, also, of the landed proprietor was splendid; his rank might be recognised from afar, for the old ordinances respecting dress were still maintained, and a value was placed upon their wardrobe, both by men and women, which we can now scarcely comprehend. Before the war no insignificant portion of the property was vested in velvet and gold embroidery, in rings and jewels; the greater portion of this was lost, but pleasure in such possessions remained, and the jewels of the daughter long continued an essential part of her dowry.

Numerous were the members of the household, amongst whom there were frequently some original characters. Perhaps, besides the tutor, there might be an old soldier of the great war, addicted to drinking, who knew how to relate many stories about Torstenson, or Jean de Worth; he taught the n.o.bleman's son to fence, and "to play with the Banner."[45]

There seldom failed to be a poor relation of the family, who ruled over the kennel by the t.i.tle of "Master of the Chase;" the preserver of mysterious hunting customs, he knew how to charm the gun, and had greater acquaintance with the infernal night-hunter than the pastor of the place thought right; he was considered as a trusty piece of old household furniture, and would a.s.suredly have sacrificed his life without hesitation for his cousin; but he did not scruple to procure more wood for the peasant, with whom he drank at the inn, than was right; and if the old Junker had his _couteau-de-cha.s.se_ ornamented with silver, the origin of which was doubtful, the landed proprietor was obliged to wink at it.[46]

Thus pa.s.sed the life of a wealthy landowner between 1650 and 1700. It was perhaps not quite so worthy as it might have been, but it may have transmitted to the next generation family feeling and kindliness of heart. Yet it must be observed that it was only a very small minority of the German n.o.bility who were in so favoured a position in the seventeenth century.

Those who wished to make their fortunes in foreign lands far from their families, were threatened with other dangers, from which only the most energetic could escape. The wars in Hungary and Poland, the shameful struggle against France, and a long residence in Paris, were not calculated to preserve good morals. The vices of the East, and of the corrupt court of France were brought by them into Germany. The old love of quarrelling was not improved by the new cavalier cartel, the profligate intercourse with peasant women and n.o.ble ladies of easy virtue, became worse by the nightly orgies of fas.h.i.+onable cavaliers, at which they represented festive processions with mythological characters, and draped themselves as Dryads, and their ladies as Venuses and nymphs.[47] The old Landsknecht game of dice was not worse than the new game of hazard, which became prevalent at the baths and courts, and which foreign adventurers now added to those of the country.

But there are two more cla.s.ses of n.o.bles of that period who appear to us still more strange and grotesque, both numerous, and both in strong contrast to one another. They were designated as city n.o.bles and country n.o.bles, and expressed their mutual antipathy by the use of the ignominious terms _Pfeffersacke_ and _Krippenreiter_.[48]

Vain and restless citizens strove to exalt themselves by acquiring the Emperor's patent of n.o.bility. These patents had of old been a favourite source of income to needy German emperors. Wenzel and Sigismund had unsparingly enn.o.bled traders and persons of equivocal character: in short, every one who was ready to pay a certain amount of florins. On the other hand, in 1416, at the Council of Constance, the princes and n.o.bles of the Rhine, Saxony, Suabia, and Bavaria, had set up their backs, made a revision of their own circle, and cas.h.i.+ered the intruders. But the Emperor's patents did not cease on that account.

Charles V. himself, who sometimes looked down on the German lords with galling irony, and willingly gave to his chancellor and secretaries the chance of perquisites, had the sad repute "of audaciously raising, for a few ducats, every salt-boiler to the order of n.o.bility." Still more business-like were these proceedings under Ferdinand II. and his successor. For after the Thirty Years' War, not only the living, but the bones in the graves of their ancestors were enn.o.bled, nay, the dead ancestors were even declared worthy of being admitted into n.o.ble foundations and to tournaments. At last, after 1648, this traffic of the Imperial court was carried on to such an extent that the princes and states at the breaking up of the Imperial Diet of 1654, and a hundred years later at the election of Charles VII., protested against the detriment which accrued to their own rights of sovereignty and revenues from such a privilege. The newly enn.o.bled in the cities were therefore not to be exempt from the burdens of citizens, and the possessor of a property by villein tenure was not to be invested with the privileges attached to a n.o.ble estate. In vain did the Imperial court threaten those with punishment who would not concede the purchased privileges to its patents of n.o.bility. Those also who were declared fit for tournaments and n.o.ble benefices, were not on that account received into any knightly order, or n.o.ble endowment, nor in any old n.o.ble provincial unions. The n.o.ble benefices generally did not take patents of n.o.bility, as proofs of n.o.ble extraction; it was only the members of old n.o.ble families possessing no such patents who were admissible into these endowments. It was only exceptionally that these corporations gave way to a high recommendation. Even the court offices, those of chamberlain, groom of the bed-chamber, equerry, hunting and other n.o.ble pages, were privileges of the old n.o.bility. The patents of n.o.bility never forgot to celebrate the virtues and the services rendered both to the prince and commonwealth by the newly enn.o.bled and his ancestors; but, as a zealous defender of the old n.o.bility complains, it was too well-known that, in general, it was only for the "_Macherlohn_" (pay, for the making) that n.o.bility was given.

In the larger cities, which were not the residence of princes, the position of the n.o.bility was very different. In Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bremen, the n.o.bles had no political weight; on the other hand, at Nuremberg, Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Augsburg, and Ulm, the old race of n.o.bility lived in proud isolation from the rest of the citizens. Worst of all were the Nurembergers, who considered it even degrading to carry on commerce. Of two n.o.ble societies of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, one, the house of Alten-Limpurg, required of every member who presented himself for admission, eight ancestors, and that he should keep out of trade; the other society, of the house of Frauenstein, consisted mostly of newly-enn.o.bled merchants "of distinction." In Augsburg, the old patricians were more indulgent to merchants: he who had married the child of a patrician family, could be received into the n.o.ble society.

The remaining commercial cities of note, Prague and Breslau, were most amply supplied with newly enn.o.bled merchants. There was bitter complaint that, under the Emperor Leopold, even a chimney-sweeper, whose trade was then in particularly low esteem, could for a little money procure n.o.bility, and that frequently tradesmen, with patents of n.o.bility in their pockets, might be found packing up herrings for their customers in old paper.

After the Thirty Years' War, officers also sought for patents of n.o.bility, and they were often granted to them for their services, as also to the higher officials and members of the city administration in the larger cities.

It was through families who had taken part in the literary and poetical culture of the time, that patents of n.o.bility in this and the following century entered into our literary cla.s.s. Many poets of the Silesian school, nay, Leibnitz, Wolf, and Haller, were placed among the privileged of their time by patents of n.o.bility, which they themselves or their fathers had acquired.

Wholesale traders were never esteemed in Germany, nor held in that consideration by the privileged cla.s.ses of the people, which the great interest they frequently represented deserved. They had of old been mistrusted and disliked; this originated, perhaps, in the time when the astute Romans exchanged, among the simple children of Tuisko, the foreign silver coin, for the early products of the country. The feudal system of the Middle Ages required this disregard of wealth, and not less so Christianity, which commanded men to despise the riches of this world, and granted to the wealthy so little prospect of the Kingdom of Heaven. Since the time of the Hohenstaufen, after the n.o.bles were const.i.tuted as a privileged order, the antagonism between the rich money-makers of the city and the needy warriors of the country, was more and more strongly developed. In the Hanse Towns of the north undoubtedly the warlike merchant obtained dominion and respect by his armed vessels, even in distant countries. But the rich and highly cultivated gentlemen of Nuremberg and Augsburg, were scarcely less distasteful to the people than to the princes and n.o.bles who dwelt in predatory habits on the frontiers of their domain; it was not the Fuggers alone who were accused by the Reformers of usury and un-German feeling. After the Thirty Years' War, this enmity bore new fruit, and one can easily believe that the great merchants gave no little occasion to keep alive such antipathy. No human occupation requires such free compet.i.tion and such unfettered intercourse as trade. But the whole tendency of the olden time was to fence in from the outer world, and to protect individuals by privileges; such a tendency of the time could not fail to make the merchant hard and reckless; his endeavours to obtain a monopoly, and to evade senseless laws with respect to the interest of money, gave the people, frequently with justice, the feeling that the gains of the merchant were produced by the pressure they exercised on the consumer. This feeling became particularly vigorous after the Thirty Years' War. Whilst in Holland and in England the modern middle cla.s.ses were pre-eminently strengthened by widely extended commerce, German commerce--except in the larger sea-port towns--was prevented from attaining a sound development by the subdivision of territory, the arbitrary dues, the varying standard of money, and, not least, by the poverty of the people; on the other hand, there was constant temptation to every kind of usurious traffic. The diversity of German coinage, and the unscrupulousness of the rulers, favoured an endless _kipperei_: to buy up good coin at an advantage, to clip gold of full weight, and to bring light money into circulation, became the most profitable occupation. As now, multifarious stockjobbing, so then, illegal traffic in coined metal, was to a great extent the plague of commercial towns. It was not to be exterminated.

If sometimes the scandal became too great, then indeed the governments tried a blundering interference: but their courts were hoodwinked.

Thus, in Frankfort-on-the-Maine, the clipping of ducats was carried on to such an extent, that a special commission was sent from Vienna to the free Imperial city; Jews had been the _colporteurs_ of Christian commercial houses, among which many great firms, whose names are still in existence, were the great culprits. The only result was that the Imperial commissaries pocketed the larger portion of the illicit gains.

Such wealth, acquired rapidly, and contrary to law, had, as now, all the characteristics of an unstable acquisition: it seldom lasted to the third generation. It turned the culprits into spendthrifts and pleasure-seekers; their arrogance and deficiency of culture, and their ostentation, became especially offensive to their own fellow-citizens.

It was more particularly such individuals who bought patents of n.o.bility; and it was a.s.suredly no accident that, of the numerous n.o.ble families of this kind, many in proportion have become extinct.

One of the newly enn.o.bled of such a circle kept his real name in the firm, but among his fellow-citizens he adhered jealously to the privileges of his new order. He liked to have his coat of arms carved in stone and richly gilt on the outside of his large house, but the stone did not guarantee long duration to its possessor. It was striking, for example, to observe in Breslau, how quickly the houses on the great crescent, which then belonged almost exclusively to the new patent n.o.bles, changed their possessors. In the interior of the house ostentatious luxury was displayed, which in this period of misery was doubly grating to the people. The rooms were decorated with costly carpets, with Venetian mirrors of immense size, with silk hangings and tapestry, which on festive occasions were fixed on the walls or on a special framework, and afterwards removed. The women sewed diamond buckles on their shoes, and it was a subject of complaint that they would wear no lace that was not brought from Venice or Paris, and did not cost at least twenty thalers the ell; nay, it was reported of them that their night utensils were of silver. Great was the number of their lackeys; their carriages were richly gilt, the coachmen drove from a high box four horses, which were then harnessed abreast; but when the splendid equipage rattled through the streets, the people called out deridingly, "That the pot always tasted of the first soup." The rich man could well keep fine horses, as he at the same time traded in them; and the workmen in the business, the porter, carpenter, and apprentice, were put into the costume of lackeys, but the page who went behind the lady was generally a child from the poor school. In such houses there was also the most luxurious living. The invited guest was received with a formality that was then characteristic of the highly educated; the host met him on the staircase, and to one of the highest distinction went even to the house door; verbose were the compliments on receiving precedence or the higher place at table, and yet the greatest value was attached to not humbling themselves too much. As soon as they were seated at table, the buffet was opened, in which was a ma.s.s of costly plate. The dishes were large and the viands in keeping, but out of all proportion to the number of guests; the most expensive things were procured, with a refinement that still astonishes us; great pies, filled with various game, black game, pike liver, and Italian salad.

The pheasants and partridges were caponed and fed, a brace cost as much as a ducat; it was thought horrible that these spendthrifts gave a gulden for a fresh herring, and from eight to ten thalers for a hundred oysters. To these were added the costly wines of the seventeenth century, Tokay, Canary, Marzenin, Frontignac, Muscat, and finally wine of Lebanon; at dessert there was no longer marchpane, but candied citron, the fas.h.i.+onable delicacy. The ladies sat adorned and silent. It was complained that their princ.i.p.al anxiety in the choice of a husband was, that their intended should be of rank, that they might follow near to the corpse at funerals, and have a high place at weddings. On such occasions they went little short of boxing each other's ears for precedence. So far was the eagerness for rank carried, that he considered himself materially better whose new patent of n.o.bility dated ten years earlier than that of another; and these city n.o.bles considered fresh creations in nowise their equals. Whoever had been lately enn.o.bled was only called "Wohledel" (just enn.o.bled), but he who had for some time been in possession of his patent, was called, "Hoch-and-edelgeborne Gestrengigkeit" (high and n.o.ble-born wors.h.i.+p).

Every effort was made to obtain a t.i.tle in addition to their city dignity.

The military dignities also of the city were often occupied by the greenhorns of such families; a poor wight who had never been on a battle-field, with a staff thickly set with silver, with armed jager behind him, might be seen pa.s.sing daily from city gate to city gate, in order to parade before the people, and to receive the salute of the guard.

Only one thing was required of him, he must know how to handle his sword, for duels were part of the existence of the n.o.bleman. It was desirable for him to have been at least once called out by cartel. He then rode with his second to the nearest village; behind a hedge he pulled off his riding-boots, put on light fencing shoes, fastened his long curly hair under his cap,[49] took off his upper garments, and had to choose one of the rapiers which were presented to him. They fought in rounds, by cut and thrust, and a well-settled duel never failed to be followed by a reconciliatory drinking bout. They liked to boast of such heroic deeds.

Such were the "_Pfeffersacke_," who were called also by the country n.o.bles, "_Heringsnasen_" (flatnoses). This country n.o.bility was of quite another stamp.

They were more numerous two centuries ago than at present. Besides the family seat, they possessed village-houses, and small farms. Sometimes a family had increased so much, that in the neighbourhood of an old estate, many villages were occupied by relatives; and still more frequently did branches of different families dwell indiscriminately in a village, in every grade of authority. Even in our century there have been middle-sized villages, enclosing ten, twelve, and more gentlemen's seats. In such districts, each little despot exercised dominion over a few miserable villagers, and had a seigneurial right to a portion of the village district; but the poorest had no real property, and sometimes only rented their dwellings. Thus it was in almost all the provinces of Germany, more especially east of the Elbe, in the colonised Sclavonian countries; also in Franconia, Thuringia, and Swabia. Many of the _Junkers_ only differed from the other country people in their pretensions, and their contempt for field labour. Even before the war, most of them had been impoverished, and when peace came at last, they were in still worse plight. War and pestilence had made havoc among them, and the survivors had not become better. The more powerful had tried their luck as soldiers and partisans, differing little sometimes from highway robbers. During the war they had laid out their booty in the purchase of some small estate, on which they dwelt, restless and discontented. These fortunate individuals received frequent visits from old comrades, and then ventured to make raids from their property on their own account, which seldom ended without bloodshed. After the war they ceased plundering; but the lawlessness, the craving for excitement, the restless roving, and the inclination for wild revelry and quarrels remained in the next generation. They united themselves into a large company, which, in spite of endless brawls, continued to hold together, like entangled water-plants on a marsh. This family connection became a ceaseless plague to the better disposed, and a misfortune for the whole cla.s.s; and more than any other evil r.e.t.a.r.ded, during the following century, the culture, civilisation, and prosperity of the landed n.o.bility.

The sons of these poor landowners learnt to ride, dance, and fence, and perhaps the first rudiments of Latin from a poor candidate; then, if the father had connections, they served as pages at some small court, or to a distinguished n.o.bleman. There they learnt, to a certain extent, good manners; and, more certainly, the weaknesses and vices of the higher orders. If they remained some years in n.o.ble service they were, according to old usage, declared capable of bearing arms, and released as Junkers with a gracious box on the ear. Then they returned to the parental estate, or the parents sold what they could spare to procure them an outfit befitting a gentleman, and sent them as aspirants for subaltern places in the Imperial army. Few of them prospered in the inglorious wars of that period; most returned home, after some campaigns, corrupted and poor both in honour and booty, to share with their sisters the paternal inheritance. Soon they differed little from the relations who had remained at home.

These landowners dwelt in buildings of clay and wood, roofed with straw or s.h.i.+ngles,--a sufficient number of casual descriptions and drawings have been preserved to us; across the roof lay the great fire-ladders; the front and back doors of the hall were provided with crossbars for closing them at night. On the ground-floor was the large sitting-room; near it the s.p.a.cious kitchen, which was a warm abode for the servants; next the sitting-room there was a walled vault, with iron gratings to the window, and if possible with iron doors, as a protection against thieves and fire,--whatever valuables a landowner possessed were kept there, and if a sum of money was deposited there, a special watchman was placed before the house. Above this vault, in the upper floor, was the bedroom of the master of the house; there was the marriage-bed, and there also was a concealed safe, either in the wall or floor, wherein some plate and the jewellery of the women were kept. The children, the tutor, and the housekeeper slept in small closets, which could not be warmed, divided by trellis-work. Sometimes a wooden gallery was attached to the upper floor, the "little pleasure walk;" there the linen was dried, the farmyard inspected, and the work of the women done. The house was under the special care of some old trooper, or poor cousin, who slept within as watcher. Wild dogs roamed about the farmyard and round the house during the night; these were specially intended to guard against beggars and vagrants. But all these measures of precaution could not entirely hinder the inroads of armed bands.

Even a good-sized estate was an unsatisfactory possession. Most of the landowners were deeply in debt; ruinous lawsuits, which had begun during the war, were pending over hearth and hill. The farm was carried on wretchedly under the superintendence of a poor relation or untrustworthy bailiff; the farm-buildings were bad and falling into ruins, and there was no money, and frequently no good wood wherewith to renew them. For the woods had suffered much from the war; where there was an opportunity of sale, the foreign commanders had caused large forests to be felled and sold. In the neighbourhood of fortified places the stems were employed for fortifications, which then required large quant.i.ties of wood; and after the peace much was felled for the necessary erection of villages and suburbs. The farm also bore little produce. Not only teams, but hands, were wanting for the tillage; and the average price of corn, after the war, was so low that the product hardly paid for the carriage, and in consequence they kept few horses.

New capital was difficult to acquire; money was dear, and mortgages on the properties of n.o.bles were not considered an advantageous investment. They, undoubtedly, gave a certain amount of security; but the interest was too often irregularly payed, and the capital could not easily be recovered. The acquisition of mortgaged goods, also, by the creditor, was possible only in certain cases, and by tedious proceedings; it was sometimes even dangerous, for the friends and neighbours of the debtor would threaten the new possessor with their hatred. In the eastern frontier countries the dissatisfied creditors endeavoured to indemnify themselves by selling their bonds to Polish n.o.bles. These procured the money by making reprisals on travellers from the district of the debtor, and taking the sum from the first comers.

This had, indeed, happened before the great war; and repeated prohibitions show how much commerce suffered from those deeds of violence.[50] By such evils even a sensible landed proprietor was soon easily thrown into a desperate position. A bad harvest, or a mortality among the cattle, would probably ruin him. But the chief evil was that a great number had not sense enough to occupy themselves perseveringly with their farming, and to limit their expenses within the certain income of the property. Thus few were prosperous. Most of them pa.s.sed their lives amidst embarra.s.sments, lawsuits, and endless debts; even those who had entered on the possession of their property with better hopes, became at last, like the greater number of those of their own cla.s.s, members of the great a.s.sociation which the people nicknamed "Krippenreiter."

These impoverished gentlemen rode in bands from farm to farm; they invaded the neighbourhood like troublesome parasites whenever a feast was celebrated, whenever they scented the provisions in the kitchen and cellar. Woe to the new acquaintance whom they picked up at the houses of others; they immediately volunteered to accompany him home for a day or week. Where they had once quartered themselves it was very difficult to get rid of them. Not select in their intercourse, they drank and brawled with the peasants at the tavern; when drunk, they would do a citizen, with a full purse, the honour of receiving him into their brotherhood. Then kneeling amid broken gla.s.ses and flasks, the brotherhood was sealed, eternal fidelity sworn, and generally, he, was denounced as the worst scoundrel, who did not preserve unbroken friends.h.i.+p. Such brotherhood did not, however, prevent a great fight the very next hour. But, common as they made themselves on these occasions, they never forgot that they were "wild n.o.blemen of ancient family." Citizens, and those who had patents of n.o.bility from the Emperor might, indeed, become brothers. This kind of familiarity was after the way of the world, but he could not obtain the acknowledgment of family a.s.sociation conveyed by the terms "uncle" and "cousin;" and even if allied to them by marriage, he was not admitted to their relations.h.i.+p unless he were of n.o.ble race. Their children went about in tatters; their wives sometimes collected provisions from relations, and they themselves trotted over the stubble on s.h.a.ggy horses, in old greatcoats, with a bit of carved wood instead of a second pistol in the old holster. Their usual place of rest was at the village tavern, or, if they came to a town, in the worst inn. Their language was coa.r.s.e, full of stable expressions and oaths. They had adopted many of the usages of the rogues, both in language and habits; they smelt of "_finckeljochen_" (a bad kind of spirit) more than was agreeable to others. They were, indeed, ragam.u.f.fins; and, with all their pugnacity, without real courage. They were considered the pest of the country, and those who had anything to lose compared them to bluebottle-flies; more than once sharp decrees[51] were issued against them by the different rulers, and even from the Imperial court, but they were, notwithstanding, haughty and thoroughly aristocratic-minded fellows.

Their genealogy, their escutcheons, and their family connection were to them the highest things upon earth. Unbounded was the hate and contempt with which they regarded the rich citizens; they were always ready to begin a quarrel with the newly enn.o.bled, if they did not give them their full t.i.tles, or presumed to bear a coat of arms similar to their own.

The following account will make us better acquainted with these fellows, and their mode of intercourse. It carries us to the right bank of the Oder in Silesia, a corner of Germany where "_Krippenreiterei_"

was particularly bad. There, according to an old popular jest, the devil burst the sack when he endeavoured to carry off in the air a number of "_Krippenreiters_," and thus emptied out the whole rubbish on this district.

The following description is taken from the narrative ent.i.tled "The n.o.bleman," written a few years before his death, by Paul Winckler, a Silesian, political agent and councillor at Breslau of the great Elector; he died 1686. The narrative was first published after his death in two editions, and finally at Nuremberg, 1697-8. There is no great skill or invention in it, but it is the more useful here on that account. Winckler was a well-educated man of the world, and an eminent jurist, and his numerous travels and alliances, and accurate knowledge of the condition of the German landed proprietors, made him particularly capable of forming a sound judgment. He possessed also qualities which are not rarely found in a Silesian; he knew how to accommodate himself easily to the world, was a cheerful companion, impartial in judgment, and a lively narrator. His being a member of the "_Fruchtbringende_," or literary society, probably contributed to keep alive his interest in German literature, and encouraged him to modest attempts at authors.h.i.+p. But he was too sensible a man not to regard with contempt the purist pedantry with which the a.s.sociates of his society endeavoured to raise the German poetry. "They sit behind the kitchen of Parna.s.sus, and satisfy themselves with the odour of the roast." He was about fifty when he wrote his narrative, confined to his room by the gout. His object was to point out by a portraiture, what a right sort of n.o.bleman ought to be; for it had been his fate, throughout his whole life, to live in business relations and personal intercourse with the n.o.bles of different provinces. His wife was a descendant of the poet Von Logau, and he himself was nephew of Andreas Gryphius. His own experience undoubtedly gave him a peculiarly sharp eye for the absurdities of the privileged cla.s.ses, but he was the true son of his time, and preserved at heart a deep respect for genuine n.o.bility. His narrative, therefore, is not by any means a satire, though it has indeed been called so, and the delineations here imparted give a peculiar impression of being accurate portraits. That which has been a hindrance to modern narrators who have a moral tendency, has indeed been the case with him. He has clearly depicted what the n.o.bles ought not to be; but his good characters fail in sharp outline and colouring, nay, they become tedious, because he brings forward their education and principles in lengthy conversations. His narratives may be compared with the tale Simplicissimus, but in creative power, fancy, and fulness of detail the Silesian is incomparably inferior.

Grimmelshausen, however, though possessing greater poetic talent, has an inclination for the strange and fantastic, which reminds one of the style of the romance writers, and leaves an impression that what is there represented is not a thoroughly true picture of the time. From this defect the Silesian is entirely free; he narrates, in a lively and frank style, what he has himself seen, not much, nothing particular, but plainly and precisely.

The events of the narrative are very simple. The Dutch then held in German society about the same position in the German courts that was accorded to Englishmen not long ago, the importance of their nation being almost equal to a letter of n.o.bility. A rich young Dutchman comes to Breslau, becomes witness of a duel between one of the new n.o.bles and a country Junker, hears from his landlord a description of country life, visits the house of an extravagant "_Pfeffersack_," is invited by a young Herr von K., an acquaintance of former times, to a country seat, gains thereby much knowledge of the "_Krippenreiters_" from personal observation, hears an account of an adventure of a Silesian with an English officer, and pa.s.ses the rest of the time of his country visit, in grave but very prosy conversation (in which the author introduces much of his own views and learning), upon the education of the soldier, upon the n.o.bles by birth and those risen from trade, upon the state of politics, and upon the culture of the ancients in comparison with that of the present day, &c. On his return to Breslau, the Dutchman learns that the rich merchant who had before invited him to dinner, had become bankrupt and secretly absconded; his life is then related, and the hero leaves Breslau. Thus the whole long narrative contains only five descriptions which would be interesting: two of them will be given. Some coa.r.s.e expressions are softened; they are a little shortened, and the language, only where it appears indispensable, modernised. First the landlord relates how he studied as the son of a tailor, then married a wealthy "Kretschmerin" (or landlady), and after her death, from an unfortunate striving to become great, bought a patent of n.o.bility in order to settle in the country. He then continues thus:--

"A not very trusty friend advised me to settle in a part of the country where certainly the n.o.ble estate was at a low price, but of which the income also was small; another friend, it is true, advised me against this, and pointed out to me what vexations and crosses I should be exposed to from the '_Krippenreiters_;' but this did not disturb me, as I knew I was a match for them with the sword, so I dismissed the useful warning from my mind. In short, I bought an estate for 6000 thalers, but soon discovered that I had exposed myself to the lightning, in avoiding the thunder, and that my good friend with his prophecy had shot very near the mark. For when I had scarcely half settled myself, a certain _Junker_, Vogelbach, with a couple of his a.s.sociates, were the first to victimise me, as they call it. He lived about half a mile off; not that he had any property of his own, for he only rented a peasant's farm worth about 100 Imperial thalers, and spent his life, like others of the same sort, in '_Krippenreiterei_.' How he maintained his wife and child I know not, but only that I frequently saw his wife with a cart and two ragged children on the estate of opulent n.o.bles, collecting corn, bread, cheese, b.u.t.ter, and the like. They generally came once a month to beg all such articles of me. This Vogelbach was, as has been mentioned, the first who, with two of his a.s.sociates, came to have a 'housewarming.' The first and second time they behaved themselves with some degree of discretion, wherefore I put before them what was best in the house. But this, in their opinion, was abundantly balanced by the honour of the n.o.ble brotherhood into which they had admitted me, and at last they could no longer refrain from their shabby tricks. 'It would become you, brother _Kretschmer_,' he began one day that he had filled himself with beer and brandy up to the eyes. But I made him remember these words by an unexpected box on the ear in such a sort that the good fellow was tumbled over into the middle of the room with his stool. My groom, a robust man who had been a soldier, and whom I had taken chiefly as a guardian spirit for the like cases of need, when he saw this, seized the other Junker W. by the collar, so that he could not stir. 'What,' said he, 'you villain, is it not enough for you to come here so constantly, to fill your hungry body and to fatten your meagre carca.s.s? Do you choose to give my master this _Deo gratias_? The devil take me if one of you stir; I will so trim his Junker jacket, that there shall be a blue fringe on his bare back for six weeks.' 'We have nothing to do with these quarrels,' answered the two; 'if brother Vogelbach has begun one, he will know how to carry it out like a true cavalier.' The latter had meanwhile picked himself up, and was about to seize his sword. 'Keep your miserable blood-drawer in its scabbard,' I said, 'or I will a.s.suredly stick the broken leg of this stool into you if you are not satisfied yet.' Thereupon he held his tongue, and went away with a black eye, accompanied by his n.o.ble companions. They mounted their horses and rode out of the gate. But as soon as they considered themselves safe, then they began to rail; they nicknamed me a hundred times a trade-fallen ostler. One of them tried to fire his pistol, but could not succeed; doubtless because there was neither c.o.c.k nor trigger to the lock. At last they perceived that I was coming after them with half-a-dozen peasants; so they, hastened off, and sent me, about a fortnight afterwards, all three at the same time, a challenge, in the belief that I should never have the courage to meet them sword in hand in the open field; but they found themselves much mistaken.

"Being fearful, however, that the whole swarm of surrounding _Krippenreiters_ would fall upon me, and unite in giving me a good drubbing, I took with me two troopers who were then in the country, and in the first pa.s.s gave V. such a good cut over the shoulder, that his sword fell from his hand, which he could no longer use. W. therefore lost at once all courage, so that on my second fight he was fain to make peace. No one conducted himself better than Michael von S., whom I had before considered the most faint-hearted. He fought well enough, till at last this threefold duel ended thus: the two companions were reconciled to me, but Vogelbach stipulated to have two more pa.s.ses on horseback as soon as his arm should be healed, which, nevertheless, he has not carried out up to the present day.

"Thus I obtained rest from the brawls of '_Krippenreiters_,' though there was no diminution of their visits; nevertheless, I soon experienced a much greater and more costly annoyance. My vendor had not only cheated me a good deal in the sale itself, but had concealed from me also an important redeemable interest; besides which, he had not given up all that was set down in the inventory. So I was obliged to bring a complaint against him before the government, and to employ an advocate. It was long beginning I was little disposed to do so; it was my wish to obtain the daughter of some good citizen with a few thousand thalers, and thereby to improve my housekeeping. But the false friend who over-persuaded me to the purchase, advised me to marry no one that was not of the old n.o.bility, and also in the neighbourhood. 'In the first place,' said he, 'it is very uncertain whether the gentleman will meet with a rich party in Breslau, although he has got enn.o.bled. But further, such city ladies as these have so little knowledge of country housekeeping that they do not even know a cow or an ox, nor what cheese or curds are. But the gentleman's household requires a mistress who has been brought up to it from her youth; such a marriage also is the only means of forming his children in time into country n.o.bles.' With this view he proposed a lady of the neighbourhood, and offered himself to be the wooer. 'She is pretty, a good housekeeper, has some fortune, and is of old family; it will be impossible for the gentleman to find all that together in the city.' When I asked him what was the extent of her means, he boasted that it was 2000 thalers. I certainly doubted this, even then, as it was so large a marriage dower for the country, that any baron would have snapped at it; yet I let myself be persuaded at last, as the lady was not ill-educated, and my new n.o.bility had driven all sound sense out of my brain. I soon found that the above pretended 2000 thalers sank to 400; even these were pending in a doubtful lawsuit, which would scarcely leave as much as would amount to the costs incurred, or as would pay for nuptials suitable to my position.

Nevertheless, in the beginning I loved her on account of her good looks, and everything was knocked out of my head. As she had brought with her, however, no jewels, clothes, or other female ornaments, I inquired once of my lady mother-in-law where the chains, rings, and two taffeta dresses were, in which I had found my love dressed when I wooed her. But she answered me with a jeering smile, that if I had got her only in her s.h.i.+ft I ought to be content, and feel thankful that such a n.o.ble family had demeaned itself so far as to give me their child, and they would still have trouble enough to wipe off this disgrace among their friends, who would decidedly not have consented to this marriage.