Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries Volume Ii Part 11

"My answer was as follows:--

"'Most august Prince and high-born Lord,

"'From your Princely Highness's letter I have learnt with the greatest consternation that your Princely Highness is minded now to cast me off entirely, and never more to recognize me as your wife. I will commend my cause, woeful as it is, to G.o.d, the righteous judge. I will henceforth consider myself as a widow; whose husband still lives, led astray by a wanton worthless person, and drawn away from his lawful wife.

"'For the ample maintenance which your Princely Highness has ordered for me, I render you hearty thanks. I will also be careful so to behave myself to your Princely Highness's concubine that she shall have no cause to complain. Further, a n.o.bleman from Stuttgart is here, who reports that in ten days his Serene Highness Prince Eberhard von Wurtemberg, our dearly beloved lord cousin and brother, together with the lady his wife, are coming to visit us at Heidelberg. So your Princely Highness will undoubtedly come here, and arrange that they shall have right princely accommodation.

"'Datum Heidelberg, the 16th of April, 1657.

"'Your Princely Highness's until death, but now deeply afflicted lawful Electress of the Rhine.'

"After three days our lord and husband returned, bringing with him the von Degenfeld, under the escort of a hundred newly enlisted dragoons. Then indeed were we cut to the heart when we saw our former waiting-woman usurping our place and presented to every one as Electress, yet could not venture to say the least word against her. We kept a separate table, and had our own servants, and a body-guard of twenty cuira.s.siers appointed for our own selves.

"At last we bethought us we would once more endeavour to mollify our lord and husband. We sent for the two Princes our sons, and the Princess our daughter, dressed ourselves and the children in our best, and waited near the hall-door till our lord and husband rose from dinner and came out. Then we, together with our beloved children, prostrated ourselves before his Princely Highness, hoping thereby to mollify him. For if his Princely Highness would not recognize us as his lawful wife, our dearly beloved children after his death might be considered as b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.

"Our children wept aloud, as did also the whole surrounding court, for it would have melted a heart of stone. Our lord and husband let us thus kneel, and stood in deep thought, not knowing at the moment what to say. His Princely Highness's eyes were filled with tears. Meanwhile the mistress von Degenfeld came from within, saw us thus kneeling, and spoke audaciously to our lord and husband. '_Signore Elettore, servate la parola di promessa._' At these words our lord and husband clasped his hands over his head, and went away sighing. We however could no longer look over such iniquity, but ran into our chamber and seized a loaded pistol, determined to send a ball through the heart of this wanton, G.o.dless disturber of conjugal rights, this von Degenfeld. But when we came to her, and were on the point of discharging the pistol, it was taken away from us by the n.o.ble Count and Lord Wolf Julius von Hohenlohe, and discharged out of a window. But when our lord and husband heard this shot, he ran hastily out of his apartment, and asked who had fired. We said: 'Ah, dear treasure, I did it, with the intention of revenging your Princely Highness's honour on this monster.' But our lord and husband replied: 'Charlotta, Charlotta, cease these doings, if you would not be sent away forthwith from hence.' But we went off without making reply.

"Four days after a postilion came with a report that his Serene Highness of Wurtemberg would arrive within two hours. Thereupon our lord and husband sent to notify to us that his Princely Highness, with Mistress von Degenfeld, would go to meet the said Lord Duke. But we were to receive his Princely Highness at the castle. And thus it was.

Three days were spent in all kinds of pastimes, in honour of the said Lord Duke, but we lived neglected, and were not once asked to dinner, notwithstanding the urgent entreaties of our much-loved lord and brother Duke Eberhard and his wife.

"At last we caused a repast to be prepared in our apartment, and invited thereto both these princely personages, as also our lord and husband, and our eldest son Prince Karolus. All these came except our lord and husband, who indeed at the intercession of the Duke would have been willing to come. But his Princely Highness was prevented by Mistress von Degenfeld, who, as we afterwards learnt, urged his Princely Highness with hard words, saying, she would no longer allow his Princely Highness to live with her, if he went to us.

"Our lord and husband said also to our Prince Karolus: 'Go thither and help your mother to entertain the guests, and tell her from me, that at this present I am prevented from visiting her by ill health, but by G.o.d's providence might be enabled to do so another time.'

"We discoursed during the repast with both the Princely personages on the best way of dealing with our affairs, but their Princely Highnesses advised us not to undertake anything against the life of this von Degenfeld, since we might thereby make our evil fate worse. Our lord brother, Duke Eberhard, took our hand, and promised that his Princely Highness would exert himself to the utmost to unite us again, but his Princely Highness would especially, immediately on his return home, write urgently to his va.s.sal, Gustavus von Degenfeld, brother of the said Archmistress, to require the return of his sister home. If he did not do this, he would take his feoff from him, and bestow it on another. Meanwhile I was to supplicate your Imperial Majesty, most humbly, to move in this matter, and unite us again by your most gracious mediation.

"We cannot refrain also from adding that our lord and husband has not in any other way injured us by word or deed these three years, and we hope his Princely Highness will favourably receive such Imperial intercession, and again be gracious to us, a much oppressed and afflicted Princess, and not prostrate us entirely under this heavy cross.

"Therefore we most humbly submit ourselves, praying fervently to G.o.d Almighty that He may grant your Imperial Majesty continual health, long life, a happy reign, victory over your enemies, and all prosperity.

"Datum Heidelberg, July 26, 1661. Your Imperial Majesty's most humble and obedient servant, Charlotta Countess Palatine of the Rhine, born Landgravine of Hesse."

Here the letter closes. We can scarcely feel any warm sympathy with either of the contending parties. The husband appears thoroughly unworthy: we find vulgar threats, violence, and ill-usage, a perfidious attempt to deceive his wife, abject baseness in the evening visit, and intimidation by the clash of arms, and worse than all, was the manner of his divorce and re-marriage. The Church const.i.tution of the Protestants remained an unfinished edifice, the rulers were but too much inclined to give themselves dispensations and licences as superior bishops. And of the Electress also! What can we say? How gladly would we sympathize with the deeply wounded wife and mother; but she appears at best not very lovable; she also was violent, insolent, strong in pouting, complaining, and weak at the moment when everything depended on her defence of her just rights. To say nothing of the remarkable scene at the Diet, her disobedience in remaining behind, gave the Elector, at all events according to the ideas of that time, a right to think of divorce. Not all that is most repugnant in this miserable history should be laid to the charge of the individuals; much of what offends us was then usual. The respect for women was small, the familiar intercourse of the camp was a jealously guarded right of royal ladies, the evening visit of the husband, an honour which was not concealed from the court. But however much may be laid to the account of the manners of the times, there still remains so much individual imperfection as to leave a painful impression on the reader.

The Electress outlived both her husband and her rival. Soon after this letter, by the mediation of the Brandenburg court a contract of separation was concluded by the married couple, which a.s.sured to the Electress a yearly income of eight thousand thalers, with the right of spending it where she pleased. She resided afterwards at Ca.s.sel, and lived to see her rival give birth to fourteen children. Later she took the most benevolent interest in these children; and her own daughter, the celebrated Charlotte Elizabeth d.u.c.h.ess of Orleans, mother of the Regent of France, was bound by ties of the most intimate friends.h.i.+p with one of the young Raugravines. We may thank this female friends.h.i.+p for the beautiful letters of the Princess Charlotte Elizabeth, which are not only important for the history of that period, but also valuable, as showing how a prudent, intellectual and honourable German lady remained uncorrupted in the impure atmosphere of a Parisian court.

The mother of the profligate Regent of France was all her life long a true German. She speaks with warm affection of her father, and with filial respect of her mother.

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE HOMES OF GERMAN CITIZENS.

(1675-1681-1683.)

While foreign guests, courtesy and ceremonial were doing their best to restrain the aftergrowth of a lawless time in the upper cla.s.ses, the German citizen was aided by the innate character of his nation, its need of order and discipline, its industry and feeling of duty. The marriage tie and family life, his home and his employment were restored to him as of old. The wooing still proceeded after the old German fas.h.i.+on, the matrimonial agent still played his part, and the betrothal presents of the bride and bridegroom were still recorded with their accurate worth in money. Nay, the wooing had become still more formal, even the mode of expression was prescribed. The lover had to think over his address to the maiden carefully; where his own inventive powers were deficient, he was a.s.sisted by the indispensable compliment book, the treasured morsel of the library. The same style was adopted by the modest young lady; even where the marriage had been settled for her, it was considered desirable that she should not at once consent; nay, the strictest decorum required that she should at first refuse, or at least ask time for consideration. Then the lover made his addresses a little more ardent, in rather a higher strain, and then the interdict was withdrawn, and she was permitted to say, Yes. But they were not pedants, they felt that long speeches in these cases were pedantic, and that both parties who were contemplating matrimony, should express themselves in few words; the lover had to introduce his proposal somewhat thus: "Mademoiselle! Forgive me kindly, I pray you, for taking a liberty of which I myself am ashamed; yet my confidence in your kindness emboldens me so much, that I cannot refrain from acquainting you with the resolution I have taken, of changing my present condition," &c. Then the well-conducted young lady had to answer after this fas.h.i.+on: "Monsieur! I can hardly believe that what it has pleased you to propose to me is spoken in earnest, for I well know how little charm I possess to please so agreeable a person," &c. It had all been previously arranged by the matrimonial agent, they both knew what would be the result, but decorum required of the citizen, as courtesy did of the n.o.ble, that he should openly express his wishes by a proceeding which should make his resolution irrevocable. Of the agitation of the man, or the heart-beating of the maiden, we find nothing recorded; we hope that both were happy, when they had gone through the trying scene, he without faltering, she without an outburst of tears.

In the year 1644, Friedrich Luca, son of a professor at the Gymnasium, was born in the capital of the Silesian princ.i.p.ality of Brieg. He studied as a Calvinist, first in Heidelberg, then in the Netherlands and Frankfort on the Oder, returned after many travels and adventures to his native city, became the court preacher at Brieg, and, after the death of the last Piasten Duke at Liegnitz, and the occupation of the country by the Austrians, was appointed pastor and court preacher at Ca.s.sel. He died after an active life, rich in honours, in 1708. As a copious historical writer, he was appreciated, but also severely criticised by his contemporaries. He corresponded with Leibnitz, and some interesting letters to him from that great man are still preserved to us. He wrote also an autobiography, which has been piously preserved in his family for five generations, and was published by one of his descendants. ('The Chronicle of Friedrich Luca. A picture of the time, and its manners,' published by Dr. Friedrich Luca. Frankfort a. M.

Bronner, 1354.) We will here give Friedrich Luca's account of his wooing. This event, so replete with excitement, took place the year he was preacher at Liegnitz.

"Meanwhile, when my mind was least intent on thoughts of matrimony, and the other proposals made to me had been unheeded, a foreign lady, Elizabeth Mercer, whom I had never seen or heard of all my life long, made known to me her intention of receiving the holy sacrament from me privately, as she could not wait till it was again publicly given, it having been so only a short time before. The said lady had come hither with the n.o.ble General Schlepusch and his most dear wife, from Bremen, and resided at their n.o.ble country mansion Klein-Polewitz, a mile and a half from Liegnitz.

"On Sunday, the maiden presented herself at divine service, and after the performance of the same, came from the church to my house, and the holy communion being devoutly concluded, I took occasion to discourse with her concerning the condition of the Church at Bremen, as also to thank her for two capons which she had sent me for my kitchen, and then I dismissed her with the Lord's blessing. In this my first interview however with the maiden, I had not only perceived in her a refined and seemly demeanour towards me, and discovered a beautiful conformity of mind with mine, but I found in the effervescence of my feelings, and emotions of my heart, an evident token that the spirit of love had been somehow remarkably busy with me, for during my whole life I had never experienced such an ardent affection for any maiden.

"This my heartfelt but chaste love, I concealed firmly within my breast, and let no living soul know aught concerning it. The thought of this maiden accompanied me every evening to my rest, and rose up with me in the morning. Sometimes I spoke of her to my housekeeper, who was a well-bred and discreet woman, and she, without adverting to the motive of my discourse, extolled the maiden highly to me, and the like did also my s.e.xton. I tormented myself now with secret love thoughts for a length of time, but at last spoke out my mind, thinking to myself: 'Why should thy soul afflict itself fruitlessly concerning a stranger maiden, who will again leave the country, and who will never fall to thy lot?'

"Half a year after, the good maiden Mercer had entirely pa.s.sed from my remembrance, but the already forgotten maiden sent me an amiable greeting through the page of the Lord Baron Schlepusch, and signified to me that she was minded to communicate again. This message renewed the old wounds of my heart, and therefore I made inquiries of the page at some length concerning the maiden, with respect to one thing and another; but could learn little or nothing from him. I then sent an invitation to dinner on the Sunday through my s.e.xton, to the Mistress Mercer, but this she did not accept, excusing herself by saying that she was accustomed to fast the whole of the day on which she communicated. Thus on Sunday, the maiden, all unconscious of my loving thoughts, came after church to my house. I gave her then, as before, the communion, and discoursed with her to the same effect on all kinds of subjects, to give her thereby some diversion. I would gladly in such discourse have learnt some particulars as to whether she were n.o.ble, and would like to remain in Silesia, but I could not ask such things this time. After a while the maiden rose to leave my house; and as she imagined I had a spouse, commended herself to her. I explained to her forthwith that I was a bachelor, having no wife. During this discourse, my s.e.xton as well as my housekeeper were present, and to them, as to myself, the demeanour of the maiden had always given the greatest contentment, yet they did not fathom my intent.

"Now did my trouble begin again. After maturely reflecting upon the matter, I could think of no means whereby I might learn the lineage and circ.u.mstances of the maiden, whom I always looked upon as a n.o.ble person, for I did not deem it expedient to open myself to any one.

Meanwhile, I met one day, Herr Tobias Pirner, the pastor at Nickelstadt, a pious, honourable, and upright man, although of the Lutheran confession. Now as I knew that the wife of General Schlepusch, whose husband had lately died and been buried with great pomp in the church at Liegnitz, went every Sunday, together with the maiden, to attend divine service in the Lutheran church at Nickelstadt, I begged of this Herr Pirner, in a way that made it in no wise remarkable on my part, to inquire concerning the lineage and other circ.u.mstances of the Mistress Mercer. He undertook this, and promised me the following week a report thereupon. Herr Pirner faithfully fulfilled his engagement, and at the end of the week reported to me in _optima forma_, what he had learnt from the _Frau Generalin_. Mistress Mercer was the daughter of Mr. Balthaser Mercer, formerly parliamentary a.s.sessor at Edinburgh, in Scotland, who had many times been sent to England by King Charles I.

on weighty commissions, and once on a mission to Hamburg, where he was decorated with a golden medal of honour. Her mother, also called Elizabeth, was of n.o.ble lineage, born a Kennewy of Scotland. When in 1644 perilous troubles broke forth in England, her honoured father and also her brother, the court preacher Robert Mercer, as they had been favourites of the decapitated King, fled the kingdom with the whole family, from fear of Cromwell and his party; he went with all belonging to him to Bremen, where he lived on his own means, which were pretty considerable, till his happy end in 1650, leaving his widow, a pious, G.o.dly matron, with three sons and three daughters. The sons had gone forth into the world, one to India, another to the Canary Islands; of the daughters the eldest was married in London to a nephew of Cromwell, of the n.o.ble family of Cleipold, and the youngest to a merchant named Uckermann at Wanfried in Hess, the second was my love. In the year 1660 her lady mother also died in Bremen, and was laid beside her honoured father in the church of St. Stephen, after which Mistress Elizabeth had lived for a while with the widow of Herr Doctor Schnellen. Meanwhile she became acquainted with the _Frau_ Schlepusch, who lived at her property Schonbeck, near Bremen, and when soon after, the General Schlepusch and his wife departed for Silesia, they took her with them as a playfellow for their young daughter, to Klein-Polewitz, where she was always held in good esteem.

"This report and intelligence increased the ardour of my love for her, especially as I now knew that she was indeed of distinguished family, but not of n.o.ble extraction, and also because Herr Pirner had highly commended the maiden on account of her G.o.dly behaviour, piety, prudence, and many domestic qualities; and the _Frau Generalin_ had no hesitation in trusting her with the whole conduct of the household, during her many journeys to and fro. Now my whole heart being filled to overflowing with a stream of chaste love, I poured it out for the first time to this honourable man, and revealed to his discretion what else I would not have disclosed to any man in the whole world, namely, that if it were possible, and provided it were the will of G.o.d, I desired to make Mistress Mercer my wife, and I begged of him to lend me his faithful aid in this important affair, and help to promote my good purpose.

"The good man was willing to esteem it the greatest honour to perform this service for me; he devoted his heart to the work, and gave expression to my intentions, first to the _Frau Generalin_. Meanwhile I exchanged letters with him, and soon entertained good hopes. _In summa_, the affair advanced in a short time in the most satisfactory manner, so that nothing remained but for me to visit her in person. One Monday morning, having first sought aid of the Lord, I proceeded on horseback to Nickelstadt, called for the Herr Pirner there, and went with him to Klein-Polewitz, which lay about a quarter of a mile from thence. The son-in-law of the _Frau Generalin_, Herr Heinrich von Poser, the royal receiver-general of taxes in the princ.i.p.ality of Jauer and Schweidnitz, received us in the baronial mansion, conducted us with great politeness to the dining-room, where he entertained us with various discourse, like a highly-talented and well-educated cavalier.

Soon afterwards the _Frau Generalin_ sent for me to her room, and welcomed me with much civility, receiving my compliments in return most favourably. My proposals contented her right well, and she gave me good hope that my desires would meet with a happy issue. In the mean time the table was spread, and the _Frau Generalin_ with her maiden daughter, and Herr von Poser with his spouse, made their appearance, followed by good Mistress Mercer, who received me most courteously.

During dinner every variety of lively discourse was carried on, and my love was the true centre to which all were attracted. When dinner was ended, the whole company absented themselves, and left me and my love alone in the dining-room. On this occasion I opened my heart to her, and begged for her sympathy, hoping she might in some degree reciprocate my chaste love, and allow herself to be persuaded, under G.o.d's providence, to be united with me in wedlock. Now as generally in love affairs a maiden's No is as good as Yes, so I considered my love's first uttered No as Yes, and was not thereby alarmed, but pursued my intent. Meanwhile, however, the _Frau Generalin_ and the Herr von Poser pa.s.sed to and fro, and teased us poor lovers with polite jests. At last our love could no longer hide itself under compliments, but burst forth like the moon from behind dark clouds, and we exclaimed, 'Yes, I am thine, and thou art mine!' And now we called together the _Frau Generalin_, the Herr Poser, and he who was my rightful wooer, who then, as a.s.sistants and witnesses, confirmed our verbal Yes, by joining together our hands. As a pledge of my affection, I hereupon presented my love with a small Bible handsomely embossed with silver, and a ring with ten diamonds, which had been made for me at Breslau for fifty-three imperial thalers. But my treasure entered into a contest of love with me, presenting me with a ring with one diamond, which, on account of its size, was estimated at ninety imperial thalers. Now when the affair had in such wise come to an arrangement, we sat down again to table in the evening, and supped together with gladness of heart, till at nightfall I and Herr Pirner were conducted to two comfortable bedchambers. The following morning I expressed to _Frau Generalin_ my thankfulness for all the honour she had shown me, took leave of my love and all present, and returned with Herr Pirner to Nickelstadt, and from thence back to Liegnitz. From there I corresponded weekly with my love, visited her every Sunday after the performance of divine service, at Polewitz; treated her each time with a special present, and finally fixed with her upon St. Elizabeth's day, namely the 19th of November, 1675, for the conclusion of our nuptials.

"After this fas.h.i.+on did our courts.h.i.+p continue almost five weeks; then as the appointed nuptial day was approaching, and everything necessary had been procured, and the wedding guests invited, and more especially as my former colleague at Brieg, Herr Dares, whom I had requested to unite us, had arrived at Klein-Polewitz, the _Frau Generalin_ sent two coaches, the one with six, the other with four horses, to Liegnitz to fetch me and my guests; but as these coaches could not bring all, the Captain General, Herr von Schweinichen lent me one, item the Abbess of Nonnenklosters, item the city councillor, nay one with four horses, together with certain caleches, whereupon, by G.o.d's will, I with my guests repaired to Polewitz. After the marriage sermon, in which Herr Dares introduced the names Friedrich and Elizabeth very ingeniously and emblematically, the wedding took place by the light of burning torches, about six o'clock in the evening in the large dining-room, whereunto I was conducted by the Royal Councillors Herr Kurchen and Herr Caspar Braun, and my love by Herr von Poser and Herr von Eicke, brother to the _Frau Generalin_. Before the wedding, Fraulein von Schlepusch had presented me with the wreath, and I had given her in return a beautiful gold ring. As soon as the marriage was completed we sat down to supper, which had been provided by my love at our cost, and were all very blithe and merry. In such fas.h.i.+on did we entertain our guests for the s.p.a.ce of three days with the greatest gaiety and contentment; and it all ended in confidential union and harmony. On the fourth day, accompanied by Herr Rath Knichen and his wife, I brought home my love to Liegnitz in the coach of the _Frau Generalin_, drawn by six horses."

Here we conclude the narrative of the happy husband; he had won by his wooing a most excellent housewife. In the midst of flowery expressions the reader will perhaps discern here the deep emotions of an honourable heart.

But the mode of expressing the feelings of the heart was altered. When a century before, Felix Platter related the beginning of his love for his maiden, he expresses his feeling in these simple words: "I began to love her much;" Luca, on the other hand, already expresses himself thus: "That the stream of chaste love filled his heart to overflowing."

The bride of the Glauburger still decorously addressed her bridegroom in her letters as "Dearly beloved Junker;" but now in a tender epistle from a wife to her husband, she accosts him as "Most beautiful angel."

In other European nations also, we find the same false refinement; with them also the finest feelings were overloaded with ornament. Through the foreign and cla.s.sical poets this style had been brought into Germany, partly a bad kind of renaissance, which had originated in an unskilful imitation of the ancients. But nevertheless it satisfied a real need of the heart; men wished to raise themselves and those they loved, out of the common realities of life into a purer atmosphere: as angels, they placed them in the golden halo of the Christian heaven; as G.o.ddesses, in the ancient Olympus; as Chloe, in the sweet perfumed air of the Idylls. In the same childish effort to make themselves honourable, dignified, and great, they wore peruques, introduced ridiculous t.i.tles, believed in the philosopher's stone, and entered into secret societies; and whoever would write a history of the German mind might well call this a period of ardent aspirations. These aspirations were not altogether estimable, by turns they became vague, childish, fanatical, stupid, sentimental, and at last dissolute; but beneath might always be discovered the feeling that there was something wanting in German life. Was it a higher morality? Was it gaiety?

Perhaps it was the grace of G.o.d? The beautiful or the frivolous? Or perhaps that was wanting to the people, which the princes had long possessed, political life. With the broken window-panes of the Thirty years' war, and the choice phrases of the young officers who banqueted in the tent of General Hatzfeld, this period of aspiration began; it reached its highest point in the fine minds which gathered round Goethe, and in the brothers who embraced in the east, and it ended perhaps with the war of freedom, or amidst the alarms of 1848.

The home life of the respectable citizen of the seventeenth century was as strictly regulated as was his wooing, prudent and circ.u.mspect, even in the most minute particulars. His energies were occupied in strenuous labour from morning to evening, which afforded him a secret satisfaction. Thoughtful and meditative, the artisan sat over his work, and sought to derive pleasure from the labour of his hands. The workman was still full of anxiety, but the beautiful product of his hands was precious to him. Most of the great inventions of modern times were thought out in the workshops of German citizens, though they may indeed sometimes have been first brought into practical use in foreign countries. Scarcely was the war ended when the workshops were again in full activity, the hammer sounded, the weavers' shuttle flew, the joiner sought to collect beautiful veined woods, in order to inlay wardrobes and writing-tables with ornamental arabesques. Even the poor little scribe began again to enjoy the use of his pen; he encircled his characters with beautiful flourishes, and looked with heartfelt pride on his far-famed Saxon _ductus_. The scholar also was occupied incessantly with thick quartos; but the full bloom of German literature had not yet arrived. Everywhere, indeed, interest was aroused in collecting materials and details, and the industry and knowledge of individuals appears prodigious. But they knew not how to work out these details, it was pre-eminently a period of collection. Historical doc.u.ments, the legal usages of nations, the old works of theologians, the lives of the saints, and stores of words of all languages were compiled in ma.s.sive works, the inquiring mind lost itself in the insignificant, without comprehending how to give life to individual learning. It wrote upon antique ink-horns and shoes it reckoned accurately the length and breadth of Noah's ark, and examined conscientiously the length of the spear of the old Landsknecht Goliah.

Thus we find that industry did not obtain the full benefit of its labour; yet it a.s.sisted much in training the genius of our great astronomer Leibnitz; it also helped to give an ideal purpose to man, a spirit for which he might live.

The war had inflicted much injury on the artisan, and it was first in domestic life that he began to recover from the effects of it. The weaker minds withdrew entirely into their homes, for there was little satisfaction in public life, and their means of defence were diminished. There was now peace, and the old gates of the battered city walls grated on their hinges, but trivial quarrels distracted the council-table, and envious t.i.ttle-tattle and malignant calumny embittered every hour of the year to those stronger minds that exerted themselves for the public good. A morbid terror of publicity prevailed.

When in the beginning of the eighteenth century the first weekly advertisers sprang up, and the Council of Frankfort-on-Main conceded to the undertakers of it, a weekly list of baptisms, marriages, and deaths, there was a general burst of displeasure; it was considered insupportable that such private concerns should be made public. So completely had the German become a private character.

There were few cities then in Germany on whose social life we can dwell with satisfaction. Hamburg is perhaps the best specimen that can be given. Even there war and its consequences had caused great devastation, but the fresh air that blew from the wide ocean through the streets of the honest citizens of a free town, soon invigorated their energies. Their self-government, and position as a small state in union with foreign powers, preserved their community from extreme narrow-mindedness, and it appears that in the period of laxity and weakness that followed the Thirty years' war, they became by their energetic conduct the princ.i.p.al gainers. Land traffic with the interior of Germany, as also nautical commerce across the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean, recovered their elasticity soon after the termination of the war. Hamburg envoys and agents negotiated with the States-general, and at the court of Cromwell. The Hamburgers possessed not only a merchant fleet, but also a small navy. Their two frigates were, more than once, a terror to the pirates of the Mediterranean and of the German Ocean.

They convoyed, now Greenland and Archangel navigators, now great fleets of from forty to fifty merchantmen, to Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz, Malta, and Leghorn, in short, wherever there were Hamburg settlements.

This commerce, inferior as it may be to that of the present day, was perhaps, in proportion to that of other German seaports of the seventeenth century, more important than now. The young Hamburgers went then to the seaports of the German and Atlantic Ocean, and of the Mediterranean, as they now do to America, and founded there commercial houses on their own account. Thus was formed in Hamburg a cosmopolitanism which is still characteristic of that great city. But it was undoubtedly more difficult for that generation to conform themselves to foreign customs, than for the present. It was not devotion to the German empire, but an attachment to the customs of their daily life and family ties, which made the Hamburgers then, as now, rarely consider a foreign country as their fixed home. When they had pa.s.sed a course of years abroad, in profitable activity, they hastened home, in order to form a household with a German wife. The warm patriotism and the prudent pliancy to foreign customs, which are peculiar to the citizens of small republics, were produced by this kind of life, and also the love of enterprise, and the enlarged views, which were seldom to be found then in the courts of Princes in the interior.

Thus the family of a Hamburg patrician of that period shows a number of interesting peculiarities which are well worth dwelling upon.

Such a family was that of the Burgomaster Johann Schulte, whose race still survives on the female side. Johann Schulte (who lived 1621-1697), was of ancient family, he had studied at Rostock, Strasburg, and Basle, had travelled, and married whilst secretary to the city council, and had then acted as envoy from Hamburg to Cromwell.

He became burgomaster in 1668, was a worthy gentleman of great moderation of character, experienced in all worldly affairs as well as in the government of his good city, a happy husband and father. Some letters are preserved from him to his son, who in 1680 entered into partners.h.i.+p in a Lisbon house. These letters contain many instructive details. But most interesting, is the pleasing insight we get into the family life at that period; the terms the father was on with his children, the heartiness of the feeling on both sides; in the father the quiet dignity, and wisdom of the much experienced man, with a strong feeling of his distinguished position, and in all the members of the family a firm bond of union, which, in spite of all the inevitable disputes within the circle, formed an impenetrable barrier to all without.

A journey to Lisbon, and a separation of many years from the paternal house, was then a great affair. When the son, after his departure amid the tears and pious blessings and good wishes of parents and sisters, was detained by contrary winds at Cuxhaven, his father lost no time in sending him "a small prayer book; item, a book called 'The Merry Club,'

and Gottfried Schulze's Chronicle, also a box of cream of tartar, and a blue stone pitcher with tamarinds, and preserved lemon-peel for sea-sickness." The son during his voyage, called to mind that he owed his brother three marks and six s.h.i.+llings, and anxiously entreated his mother to withdraw that sum for him from the eight thalers he had left in her keeping. The father liberally responded, that the eight thalers should be kept for him undiminished, that his mother would make no difficulty about three marks. After the son was established at Lisbon, regular supplies were sent of Zerbster and Hamburg beer, b.u.t.ter, and smoked meats, as also prescriptions for illnesses, and whatever else the care of the mother could procure for the absent son; he on the other hand sent oranges back, and casks of wine. The father accurately reported the changes which had occurred in the family, and among the citizens of the good city of Hamburg, and zealously laboured to send his son, commissions from his Hamburg friends. Soon the son confessed to his parents from that foreign land, that he loved a maiden at Hamburg; naturally one of the acquaintances of the family, and the father sympathized in this love affair, but always treated it as a matter of serious negotiation, which was to be cautiously and tenderly dealt with. It is clearly the object of the father to put off the wooing and proposal till his son had been some years abroad, and with diplomatic tact he meets his son's wishes just far enough to retain his confidence.