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Dorus aus Istrien: A Question of Identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2021

Blake Lee Spahr
Blake Lee Spahr*
Affiliation:
Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
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Extract

The pastoral works of the seventeenth-century poet and eulogist, Sigmund von Birken, are variations of a single glorified hymn of praise, directed all to the virtual apotheosis of powerful patrons and prospective noble sponsors. Such exaggerated eulogies were, however, not unusual in this era; rather they were of prime importance. “Although by far the majority of writers did not come from court circles at this time, still an author had to win favor in some court if he was to be successful. The best way to do so was to dedicate a work to a patron, a prince, or at least a great and powerful man.” Aside from dedications, another variety of encomiastic writing was developed for this same purpose. This genre Opitz termed the “Schäfferey.”

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 68 , Issue 5 , December 1953, pp. 1056 - 1067
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1953

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References

page 1056 note 1 Curt v. Faber du Faur, “Monarch, Patron, and Poet,” GR, xxiv (1949), 252.

page 1056 note 2 Pegnesis: oder der Pegnits Blumgenoss-Schäfere FeldGedichte in Neun Tagseiten; meist verfasset / und hervorgegeben / durch Floridon. Nürnberg / gedrucht und verlegi von Wolf-Eberhard Felsechern. A> M. DC. LXXII. Page reference cited all refer to this edition.

page 1059 note 3 Sir Philip Sidney The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia, ed. Albert Feuillerat (Cambridge, 1939), I, 132–133.

page 1061 note 4 [Johann Herdegen], Historische Nachricht von dess löblichen Hirten- und Blumen-Ordens on der Pegnits Anfang und Forigang / ... verfasset von dem Mitglied dieser Gesellschaft Amarantes (Nürnberg, 1744), p. 105. Cited as “Herdegen.”

page 1061 note 5 C. v. Wurzbach, Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich (Wien, 1856), lvii, 410 (plate opposigte page).

page 1061 note 6 Herdegen 114.

page 1061 note 7 Herdegen 115.

page 1062 note 8 Printed by permission of the Pegnesischer Blumenorden, owners of the MS.

page 1063 note 9 Even the three poems (pp. 312–315, 315–316, 316–317) in praise of Dorus' wife, her “Gespielinnen,” and children could not logically be attrifbuted to Dorus since the tone of these poems is that of a very humble, self-effacing person addressing someone far above him in social rank, and even taking into account the pastoral fiction of the lowly shepherd and his exalted shepherdess, the poems are obviously directed to someone of high social position.

page 1065 note 10 Franz Karl Wissgrill, Schouplats des landsässigen Nieder-Oesterreichischen Adels vom Herren- und Ritterstande ... (Wien, 1804), v, 122-123.

page 1065 note 11 Erich von Kielmansegg, Familien-Chronik der Herren, Freiherren und Grafen von Kielmansegg (Wien, 1910), pp. 27–30.

page 1066 note 12 The accounts of his children differ vastly in various sources. Wissgrill (p. 123) claims his first wife bore him only one son and thres daughters. The Gotheisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Freiherrl. Häuser auf das Jahr 1859 (p. 360) claims, with reference to his second marriage, that he had eight children, whereas Wissgrill (p. 123) reports: “Die zweyte Gemahlin ... brachte ihm ...einen Sohn ... und eine Tochter zur Welt.” Both of these accounts are contradicted by the Familien-Ckroik (p. 30), which reports nine children from the second marriage.

page 1066 note 13 Queted in R. M. Wernr's review of C. A. v. Bloedau's Grimmelshousens Simplintssimus und seine Vorgänger, Studien sur vergl. Literaturgesch., ix, 481–482.