Reynard is that of Lübeck, in 1498; of which | differ essentially from Hinrek's; still more so there is a copy, understood to be the only one, does the French Roman du nouveau Renard, still extant in the Wolfenbüttel Library. This composed "by Jacquemars Gielée at Lisle, oldest Edition is in the Low-German or Saxon about the year 1290," which yet exists in tongue, and appears to have been produced by manuscript: however, they sufficiently verify Hinrek van Alkmer, who in the Preface calls that statement, by some supposed to be feigned, himself "Schoolmaster and Tutor of that noble of the German redactor's having "sought and virtuous Prince and Lord, the Duke of Lor- rendered" his work from the Walloon and raine;" and says farther, that by order of this French; in which latter tongue, as we shall same worthy sovereign, he "sought out and soon see, some shadow of it had been known rendered the present Book from the Walloon and and popular, long centuries before that time. French tongue into German, to the praise and For besides Gielée's work, we have a Renard honour of God, and wholesome edification of Couronné of still earlier, a Renard Contrefait of whoso readeth therein." Which candid and somewhat later date: and Chroniclers inform business-like statement would doubtless have us that, at the noted Festival given by Philip continued to yield entire satisfaction; had it the Fair, in the beginning of the fourteenth not been that, in modern days, and while this century, among the dramatic entertainments, first Lübeck Edition was still lying in its dusty was a whole Life of Reynard; wherein it must recess unknown to Bibliomaniacs, another not surprise us that he "ended by becoming account, dated some hundred years later, and Pope, and still, under the Tiara, continued to supported by a little subsequent hearsay, had eat poultry." Nay, curious inquirers have been raked up: how the real Author was discovered on the French and German borders, Nicholas Baumann, Professor at Rostock; some vestige of the Story even in Carlovingian how he had been Secretary to the Duke of times, which, indeed, again makes it a German Juliers, but was driven from his service by original: they will have it that a certain Reinwicked cabals; and so in revenge composed hard, or Reinecke, Duke of Lorraine, who, in this satirical adumbration of the Juliers Court; the ninth century, by his craft and exhaustless putting on the title-page, to avoid conse- stratagems worked strange mischief in that quences, the feigned tale of its being rendered region, many times overreaching King Zwenti from the French and Walloon tongue, and the bald himself, and at last, in his stronghold of feigned name of Hinrek van Alkmer, who, for Durfos, proving impregnable to him,-had in the rest, was never Schoolmaster and Tutor at satirical songs of that period been celebrated Lorraine, or anywhere else, but a mere man as a fox, as Reinhard the Fox, and so given rise of straw, created for the nonce, out of so many afar off to this Apologue, at least to the title of Letters of the Alphabet. Hereupon excessive it. The name Isegrim, as applied to the Wolf, debate, and a learned sharp-shooting, with vic- these same speculators deduce from an Austory-shouts on both sides; into which we trian Count Isengrin, who, in those old days, nowise enter. Some touch of human sym- had revolted against Kaiser Arnulph, and pathy does draw us towards Hinrek, whom, if otherwise exhibited too wolfish a disposition. he was once a real man, with bones and Certain it is, at least, that both designations sinews, stomach and provender-scrip, it is were in universal use during the twelfth cenmournful to see evaporated away into mere tury; they occur, for example, in one of the vowels and consonants: however, beyond a two sirventes which our Coeur-de-Lion has left kind wish, we can give him no help. In Lite- us: " ye have promised me fidelity," says he, rary History, except on this one occasion, as "but ye have kept it as the Wolf did to the seems indisputable enough, he is nowhere men- Fox," as Isangrin did to Reinhart. Nay, perioned or hinted at. haps the ancient circulation of some such Song, or Tale, among the French, is best of all evinced by the fact that this same Reinhart, or Renard, is still the only word in their language for Fox; and thus, strangely enough, the Proper may have become an Appellative; and sly Duke Reinhart, at an era when the French tongue was first evolving itself from the rubbish of Latin and German, have insinuated his name into Natural as well as Political History.

Leaving Hinrek and Nicolaus, then, to fight out their quarrel as they may, we remark that the clearest issue of it would throw little light on the origin of Reinecke. The victor could at most claim to be the first German redactor of this Fable, and the happiest; whose work had superseded and obliterated all preceding ones whatsoever; but nowise to be the inventor thereof, who must be sought for in a much remoter period. There are even two printed versions of the Tale, prior in date to this of Lübeck: a Dutch one, at Delft in 1484; and one by Caxton in English, in 1481, which seems to be the earliest of all. These two

Caxton's Edition, a copy of which is in the British Museum, bears title: Hystorye of Reynart the Fore: and begins thus: It was aboute the tyme of Pentecoste or Whytsontyde that the wodes comynly be lusty and gladsome, and the trees clad with levys and blossoms, and the grounds with herbes and flowers sweete smellyng"-where, as in many other passages, the fact that Caxton and Alkmer had the same original before them is manifest enough. Our venerable Printer says in conclusion: "I have not added ne mynnsshed but have followed as nyghe as I can my copye whych was in dutche; and by me Willm Caxton translated in to this

From all which, so much at least would ap pear: That the Fable of Reynard the Fox, which in the German version we behold completed, nowise derived its completeness from the individual there named Hinrek van Alkmer, or from any other individual, or people: but rather, that being in old times universally current, it was taken up by poets and satirists of all countries; from each received some acces

rude and symple englyssh in thabbey of Westminster, and fynnyshed the vi daye of Juyn the yere of our lord 1481, the 21 yere of the regne of Kynge Edward the iiijth."

* Flögel, (iii. 31,) who quotes the Histoire Litteraire des Troubadours, t. i. p. 63

Thus has our old Fable, rising like some River in the remote distance, from obscure rivulets, gathered strength out of every valley, out of every country, as it rolled on. It is European in two senses; for as all Europe conAmong the Germans, Reinecke Fuchs was long a House-book and universal Best-companion: it has been lectured on in Universities, quoted in Imperial Council-halls; it lay on the toilette of Princesses, and was thumbed to pieces on the bench of the Artisan; we hear of grave men ranking it only next to the Bible. Neither, as we said, was its popularity confined to home; Translations ere long appeared in French, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, English:* nor was that same stall-honour, which has been reckoned the truest literary celebrity, refused it here; perhaps many a reader of these pages may, like the writer of them, recollect the hours, when, hidden from unfeeling gaze of pedagogue, he swallowed The most pleasant and delightful History of Renard the Fox, like stolen waters, with a timorous joy.

sion or improvement; and properly has no single author. We must observe, however, that as yet it had attained no fixation or consistency; no version was decidedly preferred to every other. Caxton's and the Dutch appear, at best, but as the skeleton of what after-tributed to it, so all Europe has enjoyed it. wards became a body; of the old Walloon version, said to have been discovered lately, we are taught to entertain a similar opinion:* in the existing French versions, which are all ulder, either in Gielée's, or in the others, there is even less analogy. Loosely conjoined, therefore, and only in the state of dry bones, was it that Hinrek, or Nicolaus, or some Lower-Saxon whoever he might be, found the story; and blowing on it with the breath of genius, raised it up into a consistent Fable. Many additions and some exclusions he must have made; was probably enough assisted by personal experience of a Court, whether that of Juliers or some other; perhaps also he admitted personal allusions, and doubtless many an oblique glance at existing things: and thus was produced the Low-German Reineke de Fos, which version, shortly after its appearance, had extinguished all the rest, and come to be, what it still is, the sole veritable representative of Reynard, inasmuch as all subsequent translations and editions have derived themselves from it.

So much for the outward fortunes of this remarkable Book. It comes before us with a character such as can belong only to a very few; that of being a true world's-Book, which through centuries was everywhere at home, the spirit of which diffused itself into all languages and all minds. These quaint Æsopic figures have painted themselves in innumerable heads; that rough, deep-lying humour has been the laughter of many generations. So that, at worst, we must regard this Reinecke as an ancient Idol, once worshipped, and still interesting for that circumstance, were the sculp ture never so rude. We can love it, moreover, as being indigenous, wholly of our own creation: it sprang up from European sense and character, and was a faithful type and organ of these.

The farther history of Reinecke is easily traced. In this new guise, it spread abroad over all the world, with a scarcely exampled rapidity; fixing itself also as a firm possession in most countries, where, indeed, in this character, we still find it. It was printed and rendered, innumerable times: in the original dialect alone, the last Editor has reckoned up more than twenty Editions; on one of which, for example, we find such a name as that of Heinrich Voss. It was first translated into High-German in 1545; into Latin in 1567, by Hartmann Schopper, whose smooth style and rough fortune keep him in memory with Scholars† a new version into short German verse appeared next century; in our own times, Goethe has not disdained to re-produce it, by means of his own, in a third shape: Of Soltau's version, into literal doggerel, we have already testified. Long generations before, it had been manufactured into Prose, for the use of the people, and was sold on stalls; where still, with the needful changes in spelling, and printed on grayest paper, it tempts the specu-dedicating it to the Emperor, with doleful complaints, lative eye.

* See Scheller; (Reineke de Fos, To Brunswyk, 1825;) Vorrede.

But independently of all extrinsic considerations, this Fable of Reinecke may challenge a judgment on its own merits. Cunningly constructed, and not without a true poetic life, we must admit it to be: great power of conception and invention, great pictorial fidelity, a warm, sunny tone of colouring, are manifest enough. It is full of broad, rustic mirth; inexhaustible in comic devices; a World-Saturnalia, where Wolves tonsured into Monks, and

fruitless or not is unknown. For now poor Hartmann, no longer an Autobiographer, quite vanishes, and we can understand only that he laid his wearied back one day in a most still bed, where the blanket of the Night softly enwrapped him and all his woes.--His Book is entitled Opus poeticum de admirabili Fallacia et Astutia Vulpecula Reinekes, &c. &c.; and in the Dedication and Preface contains all these details.

+ While engaged in this Translation, at Freiburg in Baden, he was impressed as a soldier, and carried, apparently in fetters, to Vienna, having given his work to another to finish. At Vienna he stood not long in the ranks; having fallen violently sick, and being thrown out into the streets to recover there. He says, "he was without bed, and had to seek quarters on the muddy pavement, in a Barrel." Here too, in the night, some excessively straitened individual stole from him his cloak and sabre. However, men were not all hyenas; one Josias Hufnagel, unknown to him, but to whom by his writings he was known, took him under roof, procured medical assistance, equipped him anew; so that "in the harvest season, being half-cured, he could return or rather re-crawl to Frankfort on the Mayn." There too "a Magister Johann Cuipius, Christian Egenolph's son-in-law, kindly received him," and encouraged bim to finish his Translation; as accordingly he did,ors,'

Besides Caxton's original, of which little is known among us but the name, we have two versions; one in 1667, "with excellent Morals and Expositions," which was reprinted in 1681, and followed in 1684 by a continuation, called the Shifts of Reynarding the Son of Reynard, of English growth; another in 1708, slightly altered from the former, explaining what appears doubtful or allegorical; "it being originally written," says the brave editor elsewhere, "by an eminent Statesman of the German Empire, to show some Men their Follies, and correct the Vices of the Times he lived in." Not only Reynardine but a second Appendix, Cawood the Rook, appears here; also there are "curious Devices, or Pietures."-Of editions "printed for the Flying-S'ation we say nothing.

nigh starved by short commons, Foxes pilgrim- at heart, and furnished even with shoes, cut ing to Rome for absolution, Cocks pleading from the living hides of Isegrim and Isegrim's at the judgment-bar, make strange mummery.much-injured spouse, his worst enemies. How, Nor is this wild Parody of Human Life with- the Treasures not making their appearance, out its meaning and moral: it is an Air-pa- but only new misdeeds, he is again haled to geant from Fancy's Dream-grotto, yet Wis- judgment; again glozes the general ear with dom lurks in it; as we gaze, the vision be- sweetest speeches; at length, being challenged comes poetic and prophetic. A true Irony to it, fights Isegrim in knightly tourney, and by must have dwelt in the Poet's heart and head; the cunningest, though the most unchivalrous here, under grotesque shadows, he gives us method, not to be farther specified in polite the saddest picture of Reality; yet for us with- writing, carries off a complete victory; and out sadness; his figures mask themselves in having thus, by wager of battle, manifested his uncouth, bestial vizards, and enact, gambol- innocence, is overloaded with royal favour; ing their Tragedy dissolves into sardonic created Chancellor, and Pilot to weather the grins. He has a deep, heartfelt Humour, Storm; and so, in universal honour and ausporting with the world and its evils in kind thority, reaps the fair fruit of his gifts and lamockery: this is the poetic soul, round which bours. the outward material has fashioned itself into living coherence. And so, in that rude old Apologue, we have still a mirror, though now tarnished and time-worn, of true magic reality; and can discern there, in cunning reflex, some image both of our destiny and of our duty: for now, as then, "Prudence is the only virtue sure of its reward," and cunning triumphs where Honesty is worsted; and now, as then, it is the wise man's part to know this, and cheerfully look for it, and cheerfully defy it:

Ut vulpis adulatio

Here through his own world moveth,
Sic hominis et ratio

Most like to Reynard's proveth.*

If Reinecke is nowise a perfect Comic Epos, it has various features of such, and, above all, a genuine Epic spirit, which is the rarest fea

ture.

Whereby shall each to wisdom turn,
Evil eschew, and virtue learn,
Therefore was this same story wrote,
That is its aim, and other not.
This Book for little price is sold,
But image clear of world doth hold;
Whoso into the world would look,
My counsel is, he buy this book.
So endeth Reynard's Fox's story:
God help us all to heavenly glory!

tonous opacity of Bruin; above all, the craft, the tact, and inexhaustible knavish adroitness of Reinecke himself, are in strict accuracy of

It has been objected that the animals in Rienecke are not Animals, but Men disguised; to which objection, except in so far as grounded on the necessary indubitable fact that this is an Apologue or emblematic Fable, and no Chapter of Natural History, we cannot in any considerable degree accede. Nay, that very contrast between Object and Effort, where the Passions of men develope themselves on the Of the Fable, and its incidents and struc- Interests of animals, and the whole is hudture, it is perhaps superfluous to offer any dled together in chaotic mockery, is a main sketch; to most readers the whole may be al- charm of the picture. For the rest, we should ready familiar. How Noble, King of the rather say, these bestial characters were moBeasts, holding a solemn Court, one Whitsun- derately well sustained: the vehement, futile tide, is deafened on all hands with complaints vociferation of Chanticleer; the hysterical against Reinecke; Hinze the Cat, Lampe the promptitude, and earnest profession and proHare, Isegrim the Wolf, with innumerable testation of poor Lampe the Hare; the thickothers, having suffered from his villany, Ise-headed ferocity of Isegrim; the sluggish, glut grim especially, in a point which most keenly touches honour; nay, Chanticleer the Cock, (Henning de Hane,) amid bitterest wail, appearing even with the corpus delicti, the body of one costume. Often also their situations and ocof his children, whom that arch-knave has fe- cupations are bestial enough. What quan loniously murdered with intent to eat. How tities of bacon and other provant do Isegrim his indignant Majesty thereupon despatches and Reinecke forage; Reinecke contributing Bruin the Bear to cite the delinquent in the the scheme, for the two were then in partnerKing's name; how Bruin, inveigled into a Ho-ship,-and Isegrim paying the shot in broken ney-Expedition, returns without his errand, bones! What more characteristic than the without his ears, almost without his life; Hinze the Cat, in a subsequent expedition, faring no better. How at last Reinecke, that he may not have to stand actual siege in his fortress of Malapertus, does appear for trial, and is about to be hanged, but on the gallows-ladder makes a speech unrivalled in forensic eloquence, and saves his life; nay, having incidentally hinted at some Treasures, the hidingplace of which is well known to him, rises into high favour; is permitted to depart on that pious pilgrimage to Rome he has so much

fate of Bruin, when, ill-counselled, he introduces his stupid head into Rustefill's half-split log, has the wedges whisked away, and stands clutched there, as in a vice, and uselessly roaring, disappointed of honey, sure only of a beating without parallel! Not to forget the Mare, whom, addressing her by the title of Good-wife, with all politeness, Isegrim, sorepinched with hunger, asks whether she will sell her foal: she answers, that the price is written on her hinder hoof; which document the intending purchaser, being "an Erfurt graduate," declares his full ability to read; but finds there no writing, or print, save only the print of six horsenails on his own mauled visage. And abundance of the like; sufficient

TAYLOR'S HISTORIC SURVEY OF GERMAN

POETRY.*

[EDINBURGH REVIEW, 1831.]