hur, of
the Holy Grail, and of Charles the Great. Many of these epics are
embodied in the Heldenbuch, or Book of Heroes, compiled in the
fifteenth century by Kaspar von der Rhoen, while the Abenteuerbuch
contains many of these legends as well as Der Rosengarten and Koenig
Laurin.

In the second part of the thirteenth century artificiality and
vulgarity began to preponderate, provoking as counterweights didactic
works such as Der Krieg auf der Wartburg. The fourteenth century saw
the rise of the free cities, literary guilds, and five universities.
It also marks the cultivation of political satire in such works as
Reinecke Fuchs, and of narrative prose chronicles like the Lueneburger,
Alsatian, and Thuringian Chronicles, which are sometimes termed prose
epics. The Volksbuecher also date from this time, and have preserved
for us many tales which would otherwise have been lost, such as the
legends of the Wandering Jew and Dr. Faustus.

The age of Reformation proved too serious for poets to indulge in any
epics save new versions of Reinecke Fuchs and Der Froschmeuseler, and
after the Thirty Years' War the first poem of this class really worthy
of mention is Klopstock's Messias, or epic in twenty books on the life
and mission of Christ and the fulfilment of the task for which he was
foreordained.

Contemporary with Klopstock are many noted writers, who distinguished
themselves in what is known as the classic period of German
literature. This begins with Goethe's return from Italy, when he, with
Schiller's aid, formed a classical school of literature in Germany.

While Schiller has given us the immortal epic drama "William Tell,"
Goethe produced the idyllic epic "Hermann und Dorothea," the
dramatical epic "Faust," and an inimitable version of the animal epic
"Reinecke Fuchs."

Wieland also was a prolific writer in many fields; inspired by the
Arabian Nights, Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, and Huon de
Bordeaux, [27] he composed an allegorical epic entitled "Oberon,"
wherein "picture after picture is unfolded to his readers," and which
has since served as a theme for musicians and painters.

Since Goethe's day Wagner has made the greatest and most picturesque
use of the old German epic material, for the themes of nearly all his
operas are drawn from this source.[28]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 24: See the author's "Legends of the Rhine."]

[Footnote 25: See the author's "Legends of the Middle Ages."]

[Footnote