ock-in-trade, and
found, according to his narrative, that his works filled thirty volumes
folio, and consisted of 4,273 songs, 1,700 miscellaneous poems, and 208
tragedies, comedies and farces, making an astounding sum-total of 6,181
pieces of all kinds. The humour of his tales is not contemptible; he
laughs lustily and makes his reader join him; his manner, so far as
verse can be compared to prose, is not unlike that of Rabelais, but less
grotesque."[246-*] His most popular productions were broadsheets with
woodcuts, devoted to all kinds of subjects, sold about the streets, and
stuck "like ballads on the wall" of old English cottages; speaking
boldly out to the comprehension and tastes of the people on subjects
they were interested in. From a large volume of these "curiosities of
literature" now lying before the writer, his immense popularity with the
people can be well understood. Here we find fables of never-dying
interest, such as "The Old Man and his Ass," reproduced in doggerel they
could enjoy, with a humour they could relish, and headed by bold
woodcuts. If they wanted morality they had it in "pious chansons" about
fair Susannah, "The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah," "Daniel in the
Lions' Den," "Twelve short Sermons," &c. Moral allegories suited to
every-day life wooed their attention in his "Christian Patience," where
the whole human family is depicted as a solitary in a ship on a stormy
sea, with the world, death, and the devil, as adversaries to oppose his
safe entry into his port, "das vaterland," but who is mercifully guarded
by the Most High. If amusing satire were required, it might be found in
his "Women setting Traps for Fools;" while the strong religious
tendencies of the Reformers were enforced in his rhymes of the "True and
False Way," above which was printed a large cut where the Saviour
invites all to the open door of his fold, while the pope and his priests
hinder all from entering, except by back-doors, holes, and corners. At
this period Nuernberg was torn by religious faction; and it ultimately
became enthusiastically Protestant. There is no doubt that Hans Sachs
helped greatly to foster the feeling in its favour, as his "broadsides"
told forcibly, and were immensely popular. They were in fact the only
books of the poor.

[Illustration: Fig. 253.--Hans Sachs.]

The portrait of the old cobbler was painted in 1568 by Hans Hoffman, and
is a strikingly characteristic resemblance of a man whose