German Rhetorics and Poetics in Germany to 1700

 

German Rhetorics

 German-language rhetorics of the Old High German period - thc first vernacular rhetorics in Europe - is represented only by Notker Teutonicus in St. Gallen.26 No independent German rhetorics from the Middle High German period have been transmitted. In 1472, duting the transition to the Early New High German period, a single short vcrse treatment appearcd in Gcrman as a component of moral didactic literature, Die Räte von der Rede (Advice for Speaking), a translation of the Doctrina dicendi et tacendi (Doctrine of Speaking and Keeping Silent,. 1245) of Albertanus Brixicnsis (ca. 1190-after 1250).27 German rhetorics began to appear as early as the first half of the fifteenth century, long before the grammars, dialectics, and poetics of the sixteenth century.28 Thus, rhetorics became the gateway to German literature within the trivium, the first thrce, language-based, disciplines among the seven artes liberales. Few German rhetorics were produced during the sixteenth or first half of the seventeenth century. This changed markedly after the Thirty Years' War (1618-48), whcn a rich and varied literature of rhetorical theory began to appcar.29 The majority of German baroque rhctoricians did not dcal with the entire system of the classical five stages of production, however, but only with specific areas of everyday rhetoric. With respect to the development of German rhetorics from the fifteenth to the end of the seventcenth century, five groupings emerge: 1. Epistolary rhetorics. 30 The earliest German rhctorics dealt especially with cpistolary communication in the vernacular, a distinct form of practical communication that had bcen responding since the fourteenth ccntury to the rise of a universal German administrative languagc and to the penetration of writing into all areas of daily life. A number of handwritten rhetorics containing the rudiments of epistolary theory in German predate the advent ofprinting.31 The Formulare und Tütsche rhetorica (Formulary and German Rhetorics) of 1478 was one of the first printed epistolary rhetorics. Epistolary, notarial, and chancery rhctorics occupy the greatest part of Friedrich Ricderer's (ca. 1450-ca. 1508) systematic Spiegel der 252 'i' EARLY MODERN GERMAN LITERATURE 1350-1700 waren Rhetoric (Mirror of True Rhetoric, 1493).32 German· rhetorical works most often printed down to the eighteenth century concerned the composition of epistles and other written forms relevant for chanceries; · together they made up about one-sixth of the entire production of rhetorical literature.33 The trend culminated_ in Kaspar Stieler's 4,000-page Teutsche Sekretariat-Kunst (German Art ofthe Secretary) of 1673/74. Of increasing significance - a sign of the modern, highly regulated activity of communication and of increasing social stratification - was Titellehre, a guide to recognizing proper social ranks and using correct conventions of address accordingly. 34 2. Stylistics. German stylistics, first written within the framework of epistolary theory, compiled rules and examples for figural stylization, relating both to figures of speech as weil as to the structuring of rhetorical elements. The first ofthese was the Figuren/ehre (Doctrine ofFiguration, 1478) of the Esslingen chancery director Niklas von Wyle (ca. 1415-79).35 In his Spiegel, Riederer produced an impressive German adaptation of Eyb's fifty Latin praecepta.36 Independent trcatises an German figuration and stylistics were published rarely; most were targeted for inclusion in !arger works. Meyfart's Teutsche rhetorica is an example of a pure study offigural stylistics. Caspar Goldtwurm's (1524-49) Schemata rhetorica (Rhetorical Figures, 1545) became a standard resource work also for Protestant homiletics. 3. Rhetorics of composition and model speeches. This grouping, for which the most significant are Christian Weise's (1642-1708) Politischer Redner (Political Orator, 1677) and Johann Riemer's Lustige Rhetorica (Cheerful Rhetorics, 1681), includes instructions for composing specific kinds of texts as weil as collections of model speeches for all occasions. Other important examples include the anonymous Schatzkammer schöner zierlicher Orationen (Treasury ofWell-made Orations, 1597), Johann Rudolf Sattler's Instructio oratoris (The Orator's Instruction, 1618), and Balthasar Kindermann's Der Deutsche Redner (The German Orator, 1660). 37 4. Conversational and behavioral rhetorics. A rich literature an courtly behavior and ordinary polite conversation evolved during the Baroque, since mastery of highly regulated communicative rituals (whether at princely courts or public venues) had become necessary for the practitioner's reputation and social standing. Albertanus's Die Räte von der Rede, which concerned the conditions and standards of proper communicative behavior, was not only the first but also one of the most successful rhetorics of the early modern period. Same 105 manuscripts were made of the original Latin version alone; thirty-eight printed editions were published between 1471 and 1546 as weil as several German translations, in addition to the standard one of 1472.38 Translations ofwell-known Italian works an the culture of courtly conversation began to appear in the mid-sixteenth century and had a great impact in Germany. 39 Among the most influential were Baldassare Castiglione's II Cortegiano (1528), translated by Laurenz POETICS AND RHETORICS IN EA.RLY MODERN GERMANY ~ 253 Kratzer as Hofman (Courtier, 1566); Giovanni della Casa's Galateus (1558), translated by Nathan Chytraeus as Das Büchlein von erbarn, höflichen und holdseligen Sitten (The Little Book ofHonorable, Polite, and Charming Manners, 1597); and Stefano Guazzo's La civil conversatione (1574), translated by Nicolaus Rucker as Von dem bürgerlichen Wandel und zierlichen Sitten (About Civil Behavior and Polite Manners, 1599). Original works followed somewhat later, including Gutthäter Dobratzky's Wol-qualiftcirter Hofe-Mann (The Cultivated Courtier, 1664) and August Bohse's Der getreue Hoffmeister (The Loyal Courtly Teacher, 1706), which described proper conduite in social situations.40 An early primer on behavior for Protestant ministers was written by Niels Hemmingsen: Pastor, hoch-nothwendige Unterrichtung (The Pastor's Indispensable Instruction, 1562 ).41 The literature on Komplimentierkunst (the art of compliment} treated the different ritualized forms - verbal and nonverbal, written and oral - of courteous behavior ( congratulations, recommendations, reverences, felicitations, condolences).42 These included Johann Georg Greflinger's Complementir-Büchlein (A Manual for Making Compliments, 1645 }, Georg Philipp Harsdörffer's Poetiicher Trichter (The Poet's Funnel, 1647-53), and Julius Bernhard von Rohr's Einleitung zur CeremonialWissenschaft der grossen Herren ( Guide to the Ceremonial Science of Ruling Men, 1728). In order to hold one's own in conversation and correspondence, a great am,ount of factual knowledge was necessary; Weise indeed regarded factual knowledge as the key to rhetorical compctcnce. These knowledge-based works, especially prominent during the Baroque, included sayings and other suitable formulas for effcctive communication. Notahle are the Alamodische Damen Sprichwörter (A la Mode Ladies' Sayings, 1648), Harsdörffer's Frauenzimmer Gesprächspiele (Playful Colloquics for thc Ladies, 1641-49), and Johann Adam Weber's Hundert Quellen der Unterredungs-Kunst (One Hundred Sources of thc Art of Conversation, 1676). 5. Systematic offtcia rhetorics. The five-stage system of production and performance was not only maintained in the reprints of the classic texts but also formed the explicit foundation for many German works by rhetorics, including Ricdcrer's Spiegel, Wolfgang Ratke's Al/gemeine RednerLehr (Universal Instruction for Orators, 1619), Riemer's Lustige Rhetorica, Weise's Gelehrter Redner (The Learned Orator, 1692), and Johann Christoph Gottsched's (1700-1766) Ausführliche Redekunst (Comprehensivc Rhetorics, 1736). 

German Poetics 

The German -language theory of poetics evolved only gradually over the centuries. During the Middle High German Blütezeit, poetic works were sometimes interrupted by digressions that commented, either positively or negatively, on practices of fellow poets ( that of Gottfried von Strassburg in his 254 ~ . EARLY MODERN GERMAN LITERATURE 1350-1700 Tristan und Isolde is a famous example).43 Only toward the end ofthis period did poetological retlection become an i.ndependent enterprise in the German vernacular. Five groupings of German poetics may be distinguished between· the late thirteenth century and the end of the Baroque: 1. Prologue poetics. Excursive poetological discussions were inserted in the prologues ofworks by three poets around the turn ofthe fourteenth century, beginning with Konrad von Würzburg (ca. 1230-87) in his prologues to Partonopier und Meliur (1277) and the Trojanischer Krieg (before 1287). Konrad wrote in the literary tradition ofnoble courtly conventions; but given the rise of urban culture, with its accompanying changes in communicative environment, he was obliged to rethink poetological principles. By contrast, Heinrich von Hesler's Apokalypse (before 1312) and Nikolaus von Jeroschin's (d. ca. 1345) Deutschordenschronik (Chronicle ofthe Teutonic Order, 1331-41) belonged intimately to the sphere of communication of the Teutonic Order.44 Hesler as weil as Jeroschin were devoted to the metric principles ofGerman didactic poetry and developed a body of paradigmatic rules for its practice by the order. Hesler considers both the subject matter ( materie) as a whole as weil as the meaning (sin) ofthe particular text.45 2. Meistersinger tablatures and Schulkünste (arts ofthe "schools" for singers) relate to a precisely defined area of communication, prescribing solid norms for the urban circles of poets and singers first established in German towns in the fifteenth century.46 The Merker ("marker," that is, judge), shielded from the audience, applied these norms in noting the mistakes of the singers. The rules were specific to hermetic groups - in Nuremberg songs were subject to a ban on publication - and texts were recorded in handwritten form for internal documentation. The approximately sixty Schulkünste, mostly inverse, and the few extant Tabulaturen (tablets containing the codified rules ), comprise the sources for our knowledge of the rules of the Meistersinger: the Nürnbet;ger Schulzettel (Nuremberg Tablature, 1540), the Colmarer Gemerkbuch (Colmar Tablature, 1549) of Jörg Wickram; the Steyrer Tabulatur (1562) of Lorenz Wessel of Essen, the Iglauer Tabulatur (1571), the Breslauer Tabulatur (1598\ and the Memminger Tabulatur (1660).47 3. Meistersinger ordinances supplemented the purely technical tablatures. In these ordinances, Meistersinger behavior was legally codified by the city authorities. Among the few extant texts are the Freibut;ger Artikel der Singer (Freiburg Singer Articles, 1513), the Strassbut;ger Meistersingererlasse (Strasbourg Meistersinger Records, 1598 and 1633), the Augsbut;ger Meistersingerordnung (Augsburg Meistersinger Ordinance, 1611), and the Iglauer Schulordnung (lglau School Ordinance, 1615). 4. Histories of the Meistersinger began to be written toward „the end of the sixteenth century, a development that coincided with the decline of the actual practice. The most important ofthese are Adam Puschmann's Gründlicher Bericht des deutschen Meistergesanges (Thorough Report on the German POETICS AND RflETORICs IN EARLY MODERN GERMANY 'i' 255 Master Song, 1571), Cyriacus Spangcnbcrg's Von der Edlen und Hochberümbten Kunst der Musica (On thc Noble and Renowned Art of Music, 1598), and Johann Christoph Wagenseil's Buch von der Meistersinger holdseligen Kunst (Book of the Meistersingers' Charming Art, 1697).48 5. Poetics ofthe Baroque. Meistersinger poctics were discontinued in the first half of the seventeenth century. The hiatus owed in part to the cultural catastrophe of the Thirty Years' War, but also to the new theory of German poetry propounded in the Buch von der Deutschen Poeterey (Book ofGerman Poetics, 1624) by Martin Opitz (1597-1639), which burst the confines of urban-based, artisan-driven Meister.gesang. Opitz and his colleagues considered Meistergesang hopelessly antiquated, and they distanced themselves from its theoretical discourse. After Opitz, the standards establishcd in Neo-Latin literature by Celtis, Wimpfeling, Bebel, Vadianus, and others, also became normative for German literature.49 German poetics thus sprang from two sources: classical rhetorics and humanistic poetics. The traditional principles of poetics now appeared in the form of a reformed German language. Theorists insisted that modern vernacular poets were due the same respect as their Latin-language counterparts and that the German language should b'~ acknowledged alongside thc other national languages of Europe. The purpose of German poetics was in thc first placc to refine the German language to a degrec that made it competitive with thcm. 50 A wave of German poetics arose about twenty years into the war. The continuity of baroque poetological theory may be discerned in the following chronological list of influential works: Philipp von Zesen's Deutscher Helicon (German Helicon, 1641), Johann Peter Titz's Von der Kunst Hochdeutsche Verse und Lieder zu machen (On the Art of Composing High German Verses and Songs, 1642), Johann Klaj's Lobrede der Teutschen Poeterey (In Praise of German Poetry, 1645), Martin Rinckart's Von Teutschen Versen, Fusstritten und vornehmsten Reim-Arten (On German Verses, Meters, and Primary Rhyme Patterns, 1645), Johann Rist's Poetischer Schauplatz (The Stage of Poetry, 1646), Harsdörffer's Poetischer Trichter (1647), Justus Georg Schotte! 's Teutsche Vers- oder Reimkunst (Thc Art of Gcrman Verse or Rhyme, 1656), Zesen's Deutsch-lateinische Leiter (German-Latin Guide, 1656), Kindermann's Der deutsche Poet (The German Poet, 1664), August Buchner's Anleitung Z!ur Deutschen Poeterey (Introduction to German Poetry, 1665 ), Sigmund von Birken's Teutsche Rede-bind- und Dicht-Kunst (Gcrman Art of Versification and Poetry, 1679), Daniel Georg Morhof's Unterricht von der Teutschen Sprache und Poesie (Instruction in German Language and Poetry, 1682 ), Stieler's Die Dichtkunst des Spahten (Poetical Treatise of the Late One, 1685), and Weise's Curiöser Gedanken von Deutschen Versen (Curious Thoughts on German Verses, 1691). Gottsched's Versuch einer Critischen Dichtkunst (Attempt at a Critical Thcory of Poetry, 1730) and Ausführliche Redekunst represent the simultaneous conclusion of baroque poetics and the beginning of a new aesthetic trend.