THE CITIZEN AND HIS SHOOTING FESTIVALS.
(1300-1800.)
It is on the simple truth, that every man is only valuable to his
nation and State in proportion to his work, that the power and pride of
citizenship rests; that is to say, in so far as he contributes to the
welfare of others. But eighteen hundred years were necessary to
establish this principle, and to make it perceptible to Germans, and
still does the struggle continue to realize it, to introduce into the
cities free competition instead of the corporate privileges of guilds,
and into the State the right of personal character against the rights
of birth. And yet it is only since this truth has penetrated into
society, morals and legislature, that a sure, and as far as man can
judge, indestructible foundation has been formed for the vitality of
the nation. So slow has been the progress here of modern development.
It was from the capacity and the pride of the working citizen that the
conviction arose in the German mind of the value of work. It first made
the serf a free labourer of the commonalty; then it created a wealthy
citizen class which spread itself firmly between the other classes;
then it helped to add science to the mechanical labour and art of the
citizen, and thus made him the representative of intellect, the
guardian of civilisation, and the centre of the national strength. By
this he ceased to be one of a class, and formed the essential element
of the nation.
Nothing is more instructive than to observe the way in which the power
of the German citizen became effective. However great was the industry,
and however much developed the technical skill of handicraft under the
Roman supremacy, the collective industrial activity lay under the ban
of disregard. In the cities indeed at the beginning of the great
migration, the remains of a sumptuous life still continued amidst
marble columns and the vaulted halls of costly baths; and the guilds of
the old handicrafts, with their chapels and exchanges were not only the
casual forerunners of the later guilds of the middle ages, but perhaps
their real progenitors, from whom the Germans acquired numerous
handicraft implements and technical dexterities; nay, even many noble
customs. But a great portion of the handicraft of antiquity was not the
work of freemen: at least where anything of the nature of manufactures
paid well, slave labour increased. Nevertheless, many freed men entered
the old guilds; having been furnished by their masters with a small
capital, they bought themselves into a Roman corporation: but it must
be observed, that not only was such handicraft held to a certain degree
in contempt by the full citizens up to the latest time, but the
artizans, according to Roman tradition, were allowed little share in
the government of the city; they had, together with undeniable local
patriotism, a deficiency of the political culture, the self-respect,
and the capacity of self-defence of free-born citizens.
Even among the ancient Germans, who came with the great migration,
manual labour was not considered the most honourable occupation of the
warrior; the poor alone used to cultivate the fields or to forge
weapons at the smithy; long did the feeling remain, that there was less
honour in earning money than in taking the property of others, in the
shape of imposts or booty. Under such a condition of insecurity and
violence did the cities arise. They were surrounded by strong walls,
and shut out from the country, as once were the cities of old Latium;
they were the refuge of oppressed country people, not only from the
incursions of enemies, but also from the numerous small tyrants of the
open country. For centuries they were governed by privileged free-born
citizens, merchants, and speculators, similar to the Roman Empire; but
under the patricians, the guilds were strengthened in the course of
long and often bloody struggles within the walls; they acquired a share
in the government, with essentially equal rights and equal duties. As a
free man capable of bearing arms, the German citizen found that he
could obtain riches, consideration, and affluence by means of his
handicraft and his art. At the end of the middle ages, it became clear
that the intellectual life of Germany had taken root in the cities.
Undoubtedly handicraft was under different conditions to what it is
now. Whilst the common produce of individual mechanical labour was
accurately defined in respect to material, form, and price, and the
creative energy of individuals was entirely restrained by the
traditions of their city and guild, a creative tendency appeared in all
that required more delicate handling. The painter still rubbed his
colours himself, and melted the varnish, but he also carved in wood,
and engraved copper-plates. Albert Duerer still sold in the market
stalls picture sheets with woodcuts, for which perhaps he himself made
the letter-press, Whilst the arrangements of houses and churches
frequently remained fixed, even in respect to size, in all fundamental
points, the countless and often too florid details of the arabesques in
the stonework showed the inward satisfaction with which the builder,
when permitted the free exercise of his own fancy, followed the impulse
to give expression to his own mind. The goldsmith was also designer and
modeller; he took pleasure in making every article of value a work of
art, into which he threw his whole soul. But it was just this union of
restrictive tradition and free invention which was so beneficial to the
handicraft of the cities, developing everywhere greater wealth, higher
morality and culture. Throughout the whole country the cities became
like the knots of a net of free societies, to which the gentry of the
rural districts, far behindhand in civilisation, were in constant
hostility. Long did an active hatred continue betwixt the money-getting
citizen and the predatory landed proprietor; and on both sides there
was bitter animosity. It is true that the noble order of Landowners
were held in greater consideration; they were sustained by the pride of
noble blood and of military skill, and by a multitude of prerogatives
and privileges; but in fact the money-making citizen had already
acquired the best rights, for so completely did he engross the whole
culture and wealth of his time, that without him the country would have
relapsed into barbarism.
Thus he became the aid of the Reformation, and the victim of the Thirty
Years' War. But even after the devastation of that period, he, the weak
and impoverished artizan of the city, felt himself a privileged man,
whose prosperity depended on the superior rights he possessed. He
endeavoured carefully to guard against strangers the privileges of his
guild, of his patrician chamber, and of his community; he was only
helpless in his relations with his sovereign. He was still an order in
the new state, from which other orders were excluded. His work had lost
much of its excellence, and this weakness has lasted up to the present
day. Not only were trade and commerce impeded, but the technical skill
of most of the artizans became less. Wood carvings and painted glass
had almost perished, the arts of stone and wood carving were at the
lowest ebb, and the houses were built small, tasteless, and bare.
Printing and paper, which the small printing presses had deteriorated
already before the war, continue poor even in our century. Equally so
were the arts of the metal workers, goldsmiths, and armourers. The
works of the cabinet-maker alone maintained their excellence through
the rococco time, though even the _chef d'[oe]uvres_ of the celebrated
Meister von Neuwied could not compare with the artistic chests of the
Augsburgers about 1600; the art of weaving also, especially damask,
came into fashion soon after 1650, but not in the cities preeminently.
The new trades which attained to great importance, like that of
peruke-maker, were of doubtful value to the national industry.
Equally great was the change which took place after the Thirty Years'
War in the social life of the citizens, in their intercourse with each
other and with strangers. In a former volume it was shown to what an
extent individuals withdrew into their families. It is worth the
trouble of examining more nearly what they lost by this. First, that
feeling of self-dependence which the most diffident man acquires by
frequent intercourse with strangers, the capability of co-operating
with others in a larger sphere, of representing a conviction, acting in
a manly way, and not submitting to any affront or unjust treatment, but
at the same time yielding up pride and pretensions to the common weal;
added to this the skill to organise themselves in new positions and
more extended society, and to accommodate themselves to these altered
circumstances. Such a tone of mind, the groundwork of all man's
political capacity, was to be found in abundance at an earlier period.
The power of the Empire and of the princes having become very weak, the
aptitude of individuals to act in masses was strongly developed, but
after the war the laws of the newly-formed states pressed with such an
iron hand, that all the art and practice of self-government was lost.
This change shall be here shown, in a single phase of citizen life--the
great prize shooting festivals. They are more especially adapted to
give a picture in detail of the stately and splendid public life of the
German citizen in olden times, and to show that we are only now
beginning--though certainly with higher aims--again to attain to what
our ancestors had already found.
It has been a German custom, older than Christianity, to celebrate the
awakening life of nature in May. This has always been a martial feast,
in which the fundamental idea of the old heathen faith, the victory of
the awakening divinities of nature over the demons of winter, was
dramatically represented. In the rising cities it was the warlike youth
of the freeborn citizens who lead the May sports, and in the
Hohenstaufen time these sports assumed the form of fashionable knightly
festivals. Thus in the year 1279, at Magdeburg, on the borders of the
Rhine, where Saxon blood had formed one of the strongest fortresses of
German life against the Sclavonian, the Whitsuntide feast was
celebrated quite in knightly style. The young mounted yeomen arranged a
great tournament in their Elbe island "the Marsh," under their Maigraf,
Bruno von Stoevenbecke; the arrangements were all written down, and the
merchants of Goslar, Hildesheim, Braunschweig, Halberstadt, and
Quedlinburg invited. They came splendidly-equipped, and courteously
broke a lance with two young comrades of Magdeburg in front of the
city, and then rode festively through the gates to the island on which
many tents were pitched. The prize settled by the Magdeburgers for this
May tilt was, like the figure on their coat-of-arms, a maiden.[58] An
old merchant from Goslar won the beautiful Sophie; he took her with
him and married her, giving her so good a dowry as to enable her to
live ever afterwards honourably.
A century later, in May 1387, the Magdeburgers celebrated a great
festival on the "Marsh," and again they contended for a maiden; but the
combat was no longer in the style of a tournament, such as their bishop
held at the same time on the other side of the city, but it was in a
great archery court. To this archery meeting they again invited the
friendly cities of Brunswick, Halberstadt, Quedlinburg, Aschersleben,
Blackenberg, Kalbe, Salza, and Halle. A citizen of Aschersleben won the
maiden.
During this century there was a great change in the life and
constitution of the German cities; the patrician youth with their
knightly customs were no longer the representatives of the power of the
burgher class, the commonalty of the city already began to feel
themselves masters, and their weapon, the cross-bow, gained the prizes.
Soon after 1300, the societies of Archers arose in the German cities,
with their regulations, archery houses, and yearly shooting festivals;
as a brotherhood they erected an altar or built a chapel, and obtained
from the Pope's Legate absolution for all who attended the mass, which
they established on the day of their patron saint, the holy St.
Sebastian. These guilds were favoured by the city magistrates, who
helped to arrange the great prize shootings of their city. But however
much the citizen bow superseded the knightly lance at the feasts of
arms of the cities, some of the terms of knightly language continued
long in use. The prizes were still in the sixteenth century called
"_ventures_;" still longer did the term "_tilting_" denote the
contention between individual marksmen who had shot into an equal
number of circles, and a "course" signified a certain number of shots.
After the time of that archery court of the Magdeburgers, mutual
shooting festivals are mentioned by the chronicles of other cities.
They were quite common, at least in southern Germany, about 1400; for
example, Munich sent its archers almost every second year to contend in
the neighbouring cities, and the "customs" of the public shootings were
already at that period firmly established. Thenceforward they spread
over the whole of Germany, increasing in magnitude and splendour. They,
as well as the German burgher-class, were at their highest acme about
1500; in the century of the Reformation they became more extensive and
costly, and more diversified in customs and characteristics, but
shortly before the Thirty Years' War they showed many symptoms of
decline. The increasing power of the princes, and the commencement of
modern court splendour, were mixed up with the old customs--the
festivals became very costly, and a refined love of pleasure began to
appear.
Prize-meetings were not only established in the cities, they were held
sometimes by the princes and wealthy nobles, as early as the fifteenth
century, and still more frequently when in the century of the
Reformation armour and lances declined in importance. The great landed
proprietors of the neighbourhood, or the princes of the country, were
received as honoured guests at these meetings of the cities. Still the
archers were for the most part citizens, and the occasional princes and
nobles were placed under their banners. At an early period even free
peasants were allowed to enter the lists, but this became rare in
Germany after the Peasant War, though they continued to do so in
Switzerland, where a powerful peasantry have never ceased to exist. The
equal right of all, without distinction of ranks, both as to prizes and
penalties, is a citizen characteristic, and by far the greatest number
of associations, as well as the most important, came from the cities.
During so long a period many of their usages altered, and others were
developed in different provinces, but yet the unity of their
proceedings from the Oder to the Rhine, from the Alps to the Vistula,
is very striking. They represent during this whole period a brilliant
phase of German life, the noble hospitality exercised by martial city
communities towards other friendly cities. The self-respect of the
citizen found in them its most powerful expression. Many characteristic
qualities of our forefathers are more especially perceptible in them;
pride in their own city, a lively and sensitive feeling of honor even
with respect to friends, satisfaction in appearing in processions,
whether on serious occasions or in sport, and in representing with
dignity, and above all, pleasure in showing, on public occasions, among
many thousands, their manliness, worth, and charity in word and deed.
If a prize shooting was determined upon in a city, messengers bore the
proclamation of the council, and frequently also of the archery
association, to their good neighbours far in the country. The number of
cities invited was sometimes very great. In 1601, 156 cities were
invited to one shooting festival, held at Halle, and archers came from
fifty, though the weather was bad and the prizes not high. At Strasburg
seventy places were represented in 1576, in 1573 there were 187
cross-bow men sent from thirty-nine places to Zwickau, amongst them
were three Swabian peasants from Goeppingen, all of whom, to the great
vexation of the proud citizens, won prizes. At the cross-bow shooting
at Ratisbon, in 1586, thirty-five towns were represented by 210
cross-bow men. At the costly prize-shooting in 1614, at Dresden,
twenty-one of the invited cities sent representatives, but eleven did
not. But the hospitality was not limited to those alone who were
invited: at an earlier period special prizes were, assigned to those
who came from greater distances; thus the Augsburgers, in 1508,
rejoiced that a German marksman came even from Paris, and another time
a marksman, who came from Striegau, in Silesia, obtained a golden ring,
the prize for strangers. Sometimes it was expressly denoted in the
invitation that every qualified man was welcome, or the places invited
were requested to spread the notice among the nobles and archers of
their neighbourhood. When the feasts became very costly, the uninvited
guests were, though allowed to shoot, not entitled to a share in the
chief prizes which had been assigned by the giver of the feast. That
such limitations were, however, not usual is shown by the grief of the
two Amstaedters, who, at the cross-bow shooting at Coburg in 1614,[59]
were excluded by the Duke Johann Casimir from his principal prizes;
they wished to return home, and were with difficulty persuaded to
remain.
In the programme all the conditions of the prize-shooting were
accurately enumerated; with fire-arms the weight of the ball, and with
the cross-bow the length of the bolt was accurately defined; for the
latter the size was generally established by a parchment ring, the
distance from the stand to the target was given in feet, and the length
of the usual foot was expressed by black lines in the programme.
Sometimes they measured by paces, in that case two of the stranger
competitors, a neighbour from the nearest city, and one from the most
distant, stepped the distance and settled it together.
The number of shots also allowed to each was affixed on the butt and
target. At the smaller meetings in ancient times, they were about
twelve, fifteen, or sixteen; later, at the great meetings, they rose to
thirty, forty, or even more shots. With fire-arms the shooter sometimes
fired three shots in succession from his place, but with the cross-bow
only one, and they shot in divisions, quarters, and standards,
sometimes arrayed under banners according to the towns. At the grand
cross-bow shooting at Ratisbon, in 1586, a pattern meeting of moderate
size, the Protestant and Catholic places were carefully divided. Then
each of the three, four or five standards had to shoot in a definite
time; when all the standards had shot once, it was called one shot, or
one course, the best shot of each standard of each course was called
the bull's eye.
The most ancient weapon was the cross-bow, with steel bow and bolt,
which was stretched by a pulley; it began to supplant the hand bow and
arrow shortly before 1400, but the latter was still used in the army
for some time, for example, in the Burgundian War, nay, it was
sometimes used in the sixteenth century, at the shooting games.[60] The
cross-bow, after 1400, became shorter and more handy, and at the end of
the prize-shooting festivals, a smaller one was used with a trigger for
amusement. The cross-bow was drawn in braces, or secured in a network,
so that no accident might arise if it sprung; the bolt with an iron
point and a feather shaft was provided for the popinjay, with filed
iron teeth, which, in hitting, split the joints of the wood; the
pointed or, later, the blunt bolt served for target practice; the
archer shot without a rest. The cross-bow, up to the Thirty Years' War,
was considered by the prize-shooters as the most distinguished weapon,
and continued so, even long after it had been supplanted by fire-arms
in war and in the chase; it was more especially retained by the
aristocratic party, the princes and patricians. If a prize-shooting
with crossbow and fire-arms was announced, the competition between the
cross-bow and the arbalat was at the beginning, the fire-arms at the
conclusion with inferior prizes; much of the fun of the festival was
attached to the cross-bow shooting. But at the beginning of the
sixteenth century, at all the prize shootings, the use of fire-arms had
increased at least twofold.
About the year 1400, fire-arms began to be heard at the prize-shooting
festivals. At Ausgburg, in 1429, hand-guns and muskets were used, and
guns with small lead balls. In 1446 the first prize shooting with
arquebuses and muskets was held; afterwards the hand-gun in its various
forms always prevailed. The practical Swiss were among the first to
give the preference to fire-arms. As early as 1472, at the great prize
shooting at Zurich, only guns were announced; after that, at important
festivals, both weapons had prizes assigned to them, but at smaller
ones frequently only fire-arms. The gun of the prize-shooter, up to
1600, was the smooth hand-gun for one ounce balls, with a straight or
crooked stock,--all grooves were forbidden.[61] The shooter fired
without a rest; the gun when fired was not to rest upon the shoulder;
it was not to be supported by any strap in the sleeve or round the
neck; it was only to be loaded with one ball; the gun was only to have
a small round sight at the end. After 1600 rifled weapons, for the
first time, received prizes at special meetings. At Basle, in 1605, a
prize shooting for arquebuses was announced, the distance 570 feet, the
target two and a half feet round the nail; and for muskets with crooked
or straight grooves and balls of one ounce--distance, 805 feet; target,
three and a half feet. It must be mentioned, by the way, that sometimes
at great shooting festivals heavy guns were also used, such as
arquebuses, falconets and serpents, as in Strasburg 1590, at Breslau in
1609, and frequently at Leipsic, where these exercises were preferred;
however splendidly these festivals, after the pattern of the old prize
shootings, were appointed, they had more especially a practical aim,
and were not generally attended by strangers.
Different as the weapons so was the mark. The bird on the pole was very
ancient. But when guests began to appear in numbers the bird was
inconvenient. The duration of the shooting could not be reckoned upon;
a violent wind easily diverted the course of the bolts. At last the
pole fell altogether, or the bird broke off, before it was shot into
splinters; the falling splinters also gave occasion to much quarrelling
and discontent. The consequence was, that in the greater part of
Germany, the more convenient shooting butt very soon supplanted the
bird at all large cross-bow meetings; this was the case in Switzerland
and Suabia. On the other hand, the Thuringians, Meisseners and
Silesians, long adhered to the bird. In Breslau the popinjay shooting
was practised in great perfection; there, after 1491, a heavy bird of
silver, richly gilded, with gold chains and golden shield, and the city
arms on the breast, was carried before the king of the shooters. But at
the prize shooting of the Silesians many birds were set up of different
colours and with prizes of different value. Thus in Breslau, in 1518,
they set up three birds--red, green, and black; each person who knocked
off one of the forty joints of the birds gained a silver spoon; but,
besides this, there was also cross-bow shooting at a mark, a small
square target. In the year 1560 there were again three at Breslau; and
at the grand shooting at Loewenberg, in 1615, there were five birds. The
fallen splinters which had not brought special prizes were weighed, and
only those of half an ounce were of value.
But the butt targets, also for cross-bows and fire-arms, were various.
For the cross-bow a small circular plate, sometimes plated, and the
outer circle painted with a garland, was fixed on the dark shooting
butt, and after each course exchanged for a new one; for the fire-arms
there was almost always a hanging target, and in 1518 at Breslau a
shield--that is to say, a painted wooden table. The distance from the
shooting stand to the mark for the cross-bows was 340, and later 300
feet; for the fire-arms from 650 to 750 feet. These are wide distances
for weapons so imperfect in comparison with our times. On special
occasions, when any young princes attended the festival, nearer marks
were prepared for them--a half distance,--and other prizes. At such
shooting feasts the whole of the adjoining Court took part.
The preparations in the city began some months before the feast. The
lodgings were prepared for the guests; the safety of the city was
provided for; the goldsmiths worked in silver the prize cups and vases,
and struck also medals and show specimens; the tailors stitched
incessantly at new festival dresses for halberdiers, pages of honour,
and motley personages; the shield painters drew arms, garlands, and
ciphers, on more than a hundred standards. On the shooting ground the
lists were marked; wooden boards brightly coloured, and adorned
with representations of fir-trees, garlands, and colonnades; the
interior of the shooting-house was newly painted, and later carpeted;
shooting-stands and pavilions erected for the shooters, and clerks
booths; outside the lists there were kitchens, bowling-grounds and
booths; also a spring for the water-drinkers, which, in case of need,
was newly dug. Especial care was taken, at these cross-bow meetings, of
the small target where the bull's-eye was. As these cross-bow meetings
were in all respects arranged in the most finished style, and were a
pattern for other similar shooting-meetings, we will describe many of
their usages. The target place was a large wooden building, that
represented the front of a house with doors and many stories, or looked
like a triumphal arch, or a temple with cupola towers, or sometimes
like the high wooden altar of the sixteenth century, all beautifully
painted with the colours of the city or country, ornamented with coats
of arms and figures. At Strasburg, in 1576, there stood great
sculptures, a griffin and a lion keeping watch on each side; beneath,
in the middle of the building, was the butt, either covered with some
dark colour or canvas. It could be turned round by mechanism, in order
that after each course the bolts might be drawn out without danger, and
the butt provided with a new circular plate, for the next shooting
meeting of the society. Sometimes the whole heavy building which rose
above it was movable, and turned to face the rows of seats for the
different divisions of shooters. Beside the butt itself, there were in
the building sometimes small projecting guard-houses, or little
turrets, for the markers, from which they could watch the target
without being hit. At the top of the building there was a complicated
clock, with the ciphers from one to four on the dial-plate, and over it
a bell. On the highest point stood generally a movable carved figure,
often Fortune on a ball (for example, in 1576, at Strasburg; 1586, at
Ratisbon; in 1614, at Dresden), which after a bad shot turned her back
on the shooter; or as at Coburg, in 1614, a mannikin on a tower, who
after a good shot waved a banner, or for a bad shot mockingly bit his
thumb.
When these preparations of the honest citizens approached their
completion, it became necessary for the council to search out some of
those minor officials of the festivities whose occupation is not what
can be called very noble, but was quite indispensable, the
_Pritschmeister_.[62] For a great festival, four, five, or more of
these fellows were desirable; but they were not to be found in every
city. If they were not at the place, they were sent for to Nueremberg
and Augsburg, or wherever else in the country they happened to be
wandering. It was a very ancient vocation that they followed At the
same time that the fantastic city tournaments of the young patrician
were transformed into the useful shooting exercises of the martial
citizen, this tomfoolery had changed into a peaceful civic occupation,
which retains something of the duties of the old herald, and not less
of the old festive jesting of the roving fool. They were criers,
improvisatori, police-officers, and buffoons of the prize shooters;
they understood accurately the _convenance_, manners, and every
ceremonial of the shooting-ground; gave good counsel to hesitating
regulators of the festival; delivered the poetical festival speeches;
punished light transgressions against the rules of the shooting-ground
with the fool's baton; and even helped at the festive banquet, when
necessary, by a rough joke, or even by serving. They had come from far,
and knew how to deal with proud princes and strict councillors. When it
was not festival time, they carried on a modest trade that did not
require much perseverance. But sieve-making or the wool trade did not
please them in the long run: at least they describe themselves, in the
numerous verses they have left behind them, as poor devils,[63] who
eagerly looked out for the rumour of some great festival at Court, and
went many days' journey, speculating whether perhaps they might have an
opportunity to exercise their office at some prize shooting. If they
did not succeed in that, there still remained to them the pleasure,
during the festival, of waiting upon old patrons among the shooters,
and, by dint of toadying, of obtaining wherewith to fill their hungry
stomachs; finally, they had the old consolation of poets, to describe
in verses the occupation they had no longer the pleasure of joining in,
and collecting remuneration for these verses. It is true that their
descriptions of friendly and distinguished prize shootings are almost
always in very bad rhyme; but they are very valuable to us, because
they introduce us to the smallest details of those festivals. The
office, too, of _pritschmeister_ is worthy of observation.
It is only in accordance with German nature to make the fool the
police-officer of the festival. The blow of his baton strikes the
lord as well as the peasant boy, and his irony lashes the arrogant
prince's son, and brings the colour into the cheeks of the most
impudent. The sensitive pride of the _Junker_,--every offence to
which, from a yeoman of the guard, would have been resented as a deadly
affront,--unresistingly suffered the _pritschmeister_, in the exercise
of his office, to seize and drag him to the place of punishment. But
even the jests of the _pritschmeister_ are deserving of observation,
for they are lasting; an endless variety of tricks and pleasantries,
a definite hereditary art of being merry, typical forms of foolery
many hundred years old; and they were earned on with a certain
earnestness,--nay, even pedantry. Undoubtedly these stale tricks had
their irresistible effect only when men were disposed to be in a merry
humour, but their antiquity makes them to us like woodcuts, in the
angular lines of which there lies a certain charm. When, for example,
at the end of the shooting, the unfortunate shooter, who had won the
last prize, received this prize,--a sow with six young ones,--from the
_pritschmeister_, who wished him happiness, and calculated at length
the increase of the porcine family in his house from year to year, and
that he would after three years become master of 2401 head, the hearers
of the joke were not the less amused because they had heard the same
reckoning made ever since their childhood on similar occasions; for it
acts like a melody, that exercises its greatest magic on the hearer
when it has become familiar to him.
The _pritschmeister_ knew well that it was his duty to be a fool. It is
true, there were some proud fellows among them who were ashamed of
their cap; but they were derided by their own companions. Thus in 1573,
the _pritschmeister_ of Zwickau was serious and haughty; but he
suffered for it under the contemptuous shrugging of the shoulders of
his colleague, Benedict Edelbeck, who had wandered from Bohemia to the
prize shooting, and knew better what became a _pritschmeister_. They
bore also certain tokens of the fool,--the cap, and a striking
variegated dress, in the colours of the city, which they kept as a
festival present. At particularly distinguished shooting feasts they
were very grandly attired; for example, at Coburg in 1614, there were
five of them who wore the colours of the royal house,--yellow silk
waistcoat, black hosen, yellow English stockings, long black and yellow
knee ribands, beautiful Cordova shoes with silk ribands, a Spanish
velvet hat with yellow feathers, a kasseke with loose sleeves, red,
yellow, and black embroidery before and behind, with coats of arms;
besides all this, the large club, and round the knee a string of bells,
which rattled loud.
Their batons, often preposterously large, of leather or of split
clacking wood, and sometimes gilded, had much to do on the
shooting-ground. With them they cleared the lists of the thronging
people, and punished those who transgressed the rules. Anyone who ran
between the shooter and his mark after the clock was set, anyone who
disturbed the shooters at their stand, who misbehaved from drunkenness
or insolence, or who injured the weapons of strangers from wantonness
or spite, fell under their jurisdiction without respect of rank; and
this jurisdiction was exercised in a remarkable way. Far on one side of
the shooting-ground was erected a conspicuous scaffold, on which were
two coloured benches. This building was called, according to an old
bitter jest, "the gallows;" and later, the "_pritschmeister's_ pulpit;"
to it the culprit was led with many grotesque ceremonies, there laid
upon the bench, and belaboured with the baton in a way which was neatly
expressed in the old technical language by this sentence, "His head was
cut off at the tail." At the same time the _pritschmeister_ delivered a
discourse, which did not make his position more agreeable. One may
conceive how attractive this practice of the law was to all who did not
partake of it. The custom was carried on through the whole of Germany,
most moderately by the serious Swiss, and decorously and impartially in
the cities. At a later period, when great princes arranged shooting
festivals, traces of royal humour are to be found, which enjoined the
performance of this scene on minor personages for insignificant
misdemeanours. Thus, after the prize shooting in 1614, Elector Johann
Georg diverted himself by having not only some scullions, but even one
of his bears cudgelled; the bear had to be chained to the bench. The
_pritschmeister_ obeyed his Electoral Grace, but in his inward heart he
felt that such things were not in his office.
As assistants to the _pritschmeister_, some of the most idle boys of
the city were chosen, and they also were put in fool's attire. Among
this insolent brood the most zealous guardians of the law were to be
found; they easily learnt some of the tricks of their master, and they
carried goose wings, wooden clappers, and short pipes. They fell
like a pack of hounds on any peasant child that ran across the
shooting-ground, and greeted such as had shot ill with grimaces and
monkey gestures. At Coburg they went in procession in a great band,
dressed in black linen with white seams and patches, following a tall
dark man, who wore a similar dress, and trousers after the old
Landsknecht fashion. He was the head shoemaker, Martin Pauker, a
gloomy, haggard fellow, who never spoke a word, but during the whole
shooting was incessantly assuming grotesque disguises. In the
procession he trailed along an enormous linen banner, the doubtful
badge of honour for those who had shot worst of all; but on the return
home he bore the great kettle drum, which he allowed to be beat upon
his back; on the shooting-ground he appeared as a wild man, enveloped
in straw and brushwood; then as a monk or nun; but soon he came in a
splendid dress, riding on an ass, and at last waddled about in
bearskin; he was always disguising himself, always drunk and dismal,
but he had his own quiet enjoyment in the whole affair.[64]
If _pritschmeisters_ were engaged by the givers of the feast, and the
city was in repute for doing its duty, possessed good friends, and had
announced grand prizes, there was sure to be a great concourse. The
invited cities had the festival announced to their citizens by affixing
public notices, or by proclamations. It was with them an affair of
honour to be represented by good marksmen, and these frequently
received money for their journey out of the city coffers, in return for
which, when they went home, they handed over the silk banners they had
won to the council or shooting society. These deputies were generally
men of distinction; but besides these there were other citizens who
went to the meeting at their own cost. Thus at Coburg in 1614, besides
the four shooters who were sent by the city of Schweinfurt, one Hans
Schuessler, a small, insignificant man, had come on his own account. His
fellow-citizens looked askance at him and excluded him from their
society, but he hit the bull's-eye at the first shot: then he jumped
for joy, and exclaimed, "I was not good enough for my country people to
bring me with them; now, God willing, I will do better still." He made
the most bull's-eye shots, and won a beautiful goblet.
A day or two before the festivities, the strangers who came to shoot
arrived from all parts. The council had to provide them with cheap
quarters, and it was enjoined on the citizens that they were to abstain
from annoying them. Many of the strangers met with a hospitable
reception from some of the cities. If royal persons were invited, their
arrival was announced by a courier; they were received by the council,
lodged, and provided with the usual gift of honour,--wine, beer, and
fish. Sometimes a preliminary shooting trial took place with the guests
who had arrived before the first day of the festival; on such an
occasion at Ratisbon in 1586, a beautiful large goat, covered with red
Lund cloth, together with a beautiful banner, was presented by the
council to the best shot. In Suabia and Bavaria a goat thus attired was
often given at these smaller shooting trials.
On the morning of the festival the _pritschmeister_, with the city
band, went through the streets, calling the strangers to the meeting at
the shooting-ground. The givers of the festival marched in solemn
procession, the _pritschmeister_ in front; behind, the markers, equally
in new dresses and the colours of the city, their marking rods in their
hands; then the trumpeters and fifers; next the dignitaries and
marksmen of the city, followed by a train of young boys of the city,
all dressed alike in festal attire, sons of families of distinction,
who bore the small target banners; after them perhaps, led by a
_pritschmeister_ or some other jovial personage, the boys with the
contumelious banners, the derisive distinction of the bad shots. Then
came other boys, who bore coloured chests, in which were the bolts and
the principal prizes of the shooting. The large and small goblets were
either brought out during the procession, or placed in a special
pavilion on the shooting-ground, under the care of the city police.
On the shooting-ground the drum was again beat, and the marksmen called
together by the _pritschmeister_. The deputy of the city then delivered
a solemn address of greeting, in which he called to mind the old
friendship of the invited cities, and expressed his best wishes for the
festival. The _pritschmeisters_ went again with music round the
shooting-ground, and one of them proclaimed aloud once more the
programme of the invitation, and admonished the marksmen to collect
together by cities, and choose their "_siebeners_" or "_neuners_."
These were magistrates of the shooting-ground, the higher judges of
shooting law; they were chosen out of the most distinguished men of the
town, some by the givers of the feast, others by the shooters according
to their districts. If the larger cities, Nueremberg, Augsburg, or
Magdeburg, were among the guests at the beating of the drum, it was
decided by them which should be chosen as representatives of the
strangers. The free Imperial cities were more particularly designated
for this, equally so any royal personages present, who often even
undertook the wearisome task of "_neuner_." These were treated with
particular distinction at the entertainment. Among them were the
secretaries, frequently three, who noted down in special tents the
announcements of the shooting. Every marksman had to show beforehand
his bolts and bullets, cross-bow and gun; each bolt was examined,
whether its iron point could pass through the opening of the parchment
ring, for the thicker bolts made a larger opening in the target, and
the measurement being taken from the edge of the hole to the centre
point, the difference of thickness in one bolt would be prejudicial to
the others. If the bolt was proof-worthy, the name of the possessor was
written on the shaft, and only bolts so inscribed could be used. Every
shooter had, besides, to make his money deposit before he was allowed
to shoot. These preparations occupied many hours, often the greater
part of the first day. The time was frequently filled up by a
collation, given by the city council to the strangers who shot: in the
earlier and more moderate period it consisted of wine, good beer, and
simple food, fruit, cakes, butter and cheese. When the marksmen were
inscribed and had made their deposits, they were divided into
"quarters" or banners,--three, five, and more banners; frequently each
"quarter" had its special stand.
Now at last began the great shooting in "courses," or "shots with the
cross-bow," so that the "quarter" shot one after the other, each
shooter one shot.
Opposite to the place of the target, in a special wooden building, were
the stands of the shooters. But their method of shooting appears
striking to us. Before the beginning of the course, a _pritschmeister_
went over the shooting-ground with fifes and drums, and called the
marksmen by divisions to their stands. They pressed forward to it in
haste, and sat in rows, according to regulation, by lot, each in the
stand to which his name was affixed. As long as the division was
shooting, no one left his stand, and none of the neighbours must
disturb them by word or movement. Thus they sat, cross-bow in hand;
then the _pritschmeister_ called out, "Marker, set the clock going." At
the signal the hand was set in motion, each "quarter" being signified
by the striking of the clock. During this time each marksman was to
shoot; he shot sitting, at least such was the custom in the interior of
Germany after the middle of the sixteenth century, but they were not
allowed to support either themselves or their crossbows. When the hand
had finished its circuit round the clock, the bell sounded, a steel
mirror was lowered by a hempen cord, and covered the dial-plate, and a
grating either rose from the earth, or descended from the wooden
building in front of the butt, in order to guard it from the eager
shooters. Then began the labours of the _neuner_, secretaries and
markers. If the butt was movable, it was turned round. Behind it stood
a table for the secretaries, the inscribed bolts were drawn out, the
bull's-eye shot and those in the circles were transcribed, the farthest
shot also was noted down. But the marker filled up the holes made by
the bolts, blackened the injured places in the butt, and put on a new
plate. In this way the collective divisions of marksmen having fired
one shot, the bolts were borne in solemn procession with the
_pritschmeister_, fifes and drums, to the shooting-house: there the
less successful bolts were placed in the box of their owner, but those
which had been distinguished shots were laid in an ornamental wooden
_Attrape_; in Zwickau, in 1573, it was a large white swan, the city
arms. The bolt of the bull's-eye had a place of honour, and the most
distant had also a distinguished place. After this first course the
distribution of prizes began.
They endeavoured to give marks of distinction in every direction, and
to provide as many marksmen as possible with prizes; but our ancestors
did not object to humiliate by bitter jests those who had performed
ill. Prizes were awarded to those who hit the bull's-eye, also to those
who had shot oftenest near it, and if his remaining shots were not near
enough for him to gain a chief prize, he had a special present. But the
great prizes were for the marksmen who, at the end of the shooting,
scored the greatest number of shots in the circles. All who could not
obtain a prize within the prescribed number of shots, had the right,
before the end of the meeting, to contend among themselves for smaller
prizes. All the prizes of the festival, were settled by the givers of
the feast, and they were reckoned in the programme collectively with
their worth in silver. Every shooter at the beginning of the festival
before his name was inscribed, had to make a deposit of money; this
deposit was not insignificant, and became higher in proportion to the
pretensions of the festival. Whilst at a former period two gulden had
been deposited, it rose to six and eight Imperial gulden in the last
fifty years of the prize shootings; indeed they deposited as much as
twelve Imperial thalers at the cross-bow shooting given by the elector
Johann Georg at Dresden in 1614, which, according to the value of
silver and corn, would answer to about thirty thalers of our money. But
undoubtedly all prize shootings were not so aristocratic. A portion
often of the deposits at these festivals was voluntary. The obligatory
deposits were turned into secondary prizes, and these were distributed
in small sums among as many of the shooters as possible. With the
voluntary deposits, small articles of plate were frequently bought for
an after-shooting. Sometimes also the giver of the feast spent
something for this; in that case these deposits of the shooters were
employed as small money prizes for the after-shooting.
With all the prizes at the great shooting feasts large and small
banners were presented, with the colours of the town or country, and
the arms or garlands, painted on them, and often also the value of the
prize. To bear away such a banner was a great honour. The strangers
took them proudly to their homes, and delivered them to the council of
their city, or to their shooting brotherhood, who had paid the costs of
their journey. Very modest at first were the prizes of the victors:
they were long designated as "ventures:" a romantic charm still
attached to the foreign word, which originated in the jargon of the old
tournaments. A fine ram was the first prize at Munich about 1400, and
at Kelheim in 1404. Soon afterwards an ox, a horse, or a bull, and the
animals often covered with a valuable cloth: thus, in 1433, at
Nueremberg, a horse covered with a red cloth was the best. The secondary
prizes were small goblets, silver vases, girdles, cross-bows, swords,
or a prize which has always been a special object of preference with
the inferior shooters, and everywhere, up to modern times, has clung to
shooting societies--material for a beautiful pair of small-clothes. He
who came from the greatest distance to the shooting, received, at
Augsburg, in 1425, a golden ring. But at the same place, in 1440, the
first prize was already a sum of money, forty gulden; and the horses
and cattle were the last. They rose rapidly in value at Augsburg in
1470; 101 gulden was the best, and about 1500 this sum became usual: in
1504, at Zurich, 110 gulden was the chief prize, 90 the second, and so
in succession down to one gulden, all doubled for cross-bows and guns,
and, which is not rare at the Swiss shooting meetings, all in money.
The prizes continued to rise in value; at Leipzig, in 1550, for the
cross-bow 300 gulden; at the great shooting meeting at Strasburg, in
1576, the first prize for rifle and gun was 210 Imperial gulden; at
Basle, in 1603, for muskets (with rifled barrels), a goblet worth 300
gulden. This sum, according to the value of silver and corn, answers to
666 thalers of our money.
The chief prizes then, were money or plate, goblets and vases of all
forms and sizes, of that elegance and taste which distinguished the
work of the goldsmith in the sixteenth century. The deposits also were
frequently paid in special coins and medals, which were coined for the
festival, large and small, and also gilt,--often _klippen_.[65]
Sometimes a bull's-eye shot was rewarded by a _klippe_, which was hung
to the victorious banner. At the costly cross-bow meeting at Dresden,
for each bull's-eye shot was given on the banner a gilt medal, weighing
five Imperial thalers--almost exactly a quarter of a pound of our
customs weight. Smaller towns also coined medals and _klippen_; they
continue as choice rarities in our collections of coins, and show the
greatest diversity of emblems and devices, of size, form, and value.
Small silver pieces were coined for children and the poor, and
distributed in remembrance of the festivals.
But besides these good prizes, there were also tantalising prizes. The
last shot who could make any pretence to a prize was honoured with a
doubtful distinction,--he received, according to old custom, as has
been already mentioned, amidst many derisive congratulations from the
_pritschmeisters_ the smallest money prize, and an animal of the pig
tribe, great or small, sow or sucking-pig, according to the humour of
the giver of the feast; besides that, a good prize banner, but with
satirical figures on it. At the Coburg shooting, in the year 1614, it
is reported that this banner was particularly and beautifully
embroidered, but one may assume that its emblems did not occasion any
great pleasure to the possessor. The banners and presents to the worst
shots were a caricature of the prizes for the bull's-eye; and he who
had made the worst shot of all was obliged, at least at the last period
of the prize-shootings, to carry at the end of the festival, surrounded
by the fools, a gigantic coarse banner of sackcloth. When the bolts of
the bull's-eye shots and of the most distant shots were placed after
the first course in their _attrape_, the _pritschmeister_ went up to
his pulpit; he then called forth with a loud voice the best shooter of
the first course, and greeted him with a short extempore speech in
doggerel rhyme, wherein he extolled his deserts and his prizes; he then
announced to him that, as a memento of the shooting, he will receive a
beautiful silk banner, to which was appended a silver _klippe_; besides
this, a tin plate with a fried trout on it, a roll of bread, and a
glass of wine, together with an orange. Skilful musicians, trumpeters
or pipers, went before, and conducted him to his seat. Thus did the
fortunate marksman march amidst music; the officials of the city
delivered to him the banner and the coins, with the jovial plate of
honour. Afterwards the _pritschmeister_ distributed to the other circle
shots, and finally he called to the unfortunate who had made the widest
shot; he did not advance willingly; the _pritschmeister_ bowed himself
before him and said, "Look to it, you fine shot, that you learn your
art better. I have here some lads who will teach you how to hit. You
need pay them no money. Franz Floh, take the brush and sprinkle him
with holy water; it is very possible that he is bewitched. Come, Hans
Hahn, and ring your wooden bells about his ears! Yet I observe that you
are a good Christian; you wish to leave something to others; therefore,
dear tantalisers, take him under your protection; the man has deserved
well of others; pipe a beautiful dance before him, and bite your thumbs
at him, but be decorous, and do it behind his back. Bring him his gift
of honour. First, a banner of the kind of satin in which peasants bring
their oats to the city. The _klippe_ which hangs on it is unfortunately
only of tin; besides, there is a plate of wood, and on it a fine whey
cheese; instead of the orange an apple, and in an earthen bowl a drink
of light beer." Thus did the _pritschmeister_ deride him, and at last
presented him with a fool's cap and cock's feathers. Meanwhile the
_pritschmeister's_ boys yelled, rattled, and piped around the marksman,
cut summersaults, and followed him with their grimaces up to his stand,
whilst a bagpipe-player preceded him, and forced from his bags their
most dissonant tones. It was afterwards seriously maintained by the
marksmen that in this buffoonery those with the highest pretensions did
not come off better than the rest. But to the person concerned it was
very painful. He seldom succeeded in concealing beforehand the widest
bolt, which always excited general displeasure. To princes who were
present some consideration was shown: at least, the words of the
_pritschmeister_ to them, which are printed, sound very mild. If the
sovereign himself had made the widest shot, one of his suite took it
upon himself, as at Zwickau in 1573.
Thus was the festival carried on, round after round, each succeeded by
the rewards. These interludes took not a little time; thus it happened
that not more than seven or eight courses of shots took place in a day,
still less at the great meetings.
At the end of the festival, in most of the districts in Germany, the
shooting was interrupted by a pleasing custom which shall here be
described as it took place, in the second half of the sixteenth
century, in the cities of Suabia, Franconia, Thuringia, and Meissen.
Many of the most distinguished maidens of the city went in procession,
festively clad, accompanied by councillors, city pipers, and yeomen of
the guard, to the shooting-ground. One of them carried, in an
ornamental box, a costly garland--sometimes of silver and gold, with
pearls and precious stones--another bore a beautiful banner. Their
procession stopped on the ground; then the shooters of a friendly city
were summoned, a herald of the city delivered an address, the maidens
handed over to them, as a gift of honour from their city, the garland
and banner, and invited them to a dance of honour. The invited thanked
them in choice language in the name of their city; one of them placed
the garland on his head, and they led the maidens in a stately dance
over the shooting-ground. Such a garland imposed upon the city which
received it the agreeable duty of giving the next prize-shooting. It
was carefully kept, and mentioned in the programme of the garlanded
city as the principal ground of the prize-shooting, in order that the
garland might not wither. Afterwards, when the princes participated
eagerly in the shooting, they also received garlands; if the prince was
the giver of the feast, he bestowed the garland on one of the
princesses. This old custom bound together the cities of a district in
one great festive brotherhood. The dances on the open shooting-ground
ceased about the year 1600.
But these great citizen festivals offered other opportunities of
display of strength and art. When they were in their full vigour in the
fifteenth century, there were public games arranged for the marksmen,
and prizes appointed for the conquerors. In these games ancient
traditions were maintained. They were prize contentions similar to that
in the Niebelung, of Siegfried against Brunhild, hurling the stone,
leaping, and running. They were in the programme in the prize-shooting
of 1456; the Zuricher, Hans Waldmann, carried off the prize for
leaping, who, later as Burgomaster, lost his proud head on the block.
At the cross-bow shooting at Augsburg in 1470, a golden ring was
prepared for him who could hurl furthest a stone of forty-five pounds
weight, at an easy run, with three throws, according to the laws of the
game; a knight, Wilhelm Zaunried, won the prize. Thus also at Zurich,
in 1472, there were three prizes for hurling stones of fifteen, thirty,
and fifty pounds. Christoph, Duke of Bavaria, won the golden ring at
Augsburg in 1470, for leaping. The task was three springs on one leg
with a run, afterwards a jump with both feet, then again three springs
on the other leg, and a second jump. In Zurich, in 1472, leaps of three
different kinds were prescribed: from the spot with both feet, in the
run with both feet, and in a run three springs on one foot. All this
was done with great earnestness, and was actually notified to the
guests in the programme of the council. In prize races in 1470, at
Augsburg, the course measured 350 paces; Duke Christoph, of Bavaria,
won the gold ring also for running. At Zurich, in 1472, the length of
the course was 600 paces. At Breslau, in 1518, the prizes for running
were articles of the favourite pewter. Besides the men, sometimes
horses ran: as at the rifle-shooting at Augsburg, in 1446, fourteen
horses appeared in the lists; the prize was a piece of scarlet cloth;
the conqueror was a horse of Duke Albrecht's, which he had sent from
Munich for the races.[66] At the races at the same place, in 1470, a
horse of Duke Wolfgang's, of Bavaria, won a prize of forty-five gulden.
Wrestling, and even dancing, obtained prizes, as in 1508 again, at
Augsburg. And at the same place a whimsical prize was won by the person
who could amuse the people with the greatest lies.
To these national popular amusements were added others not less old,
but from the traditions of foreign life. The descendants of the Roman
gladiators, whose rough struggles had once caused great scandal to
strict Christians, led a despised life as roving fighters[67] through
the whole of the Middle Ages. In the fifteenth century they had taken
refuge behind the city gates and in the guardrooms of the royal court,
in various mercenary service, as fencing-masters, soldiers, police,
valets, and messengers. Out of the secret brotherhoods which were
formed by these strolling fighters had arisen associations which were
openly tolerated; they were arranged in two societies, as _Marxbrueder_
(the fraternity of St. Mark), and _Federfechter_ (champions of the
feather), which cherished a violent antipathy to each other. The
_Federfechter_ displayed a winged griffin on their armorial shield;
they boasted of having received privileges from a Duke of Mecklenburg,
and found later a mild patron in the Elector of Saxony. At the lists,
when they raised their swords, they called out, "Soar aloft, feather;
mark what we do; write with ink which looks like blood."[68] The
Marxbrueders, on the other hand, had for their armorial bearings a lion,
and cheered themselves by the defiant rhyme, "Thou noble lion, elevate
thy curly hair; thou perceivest the griffin; him shalt thou hew down
and tear his feathers." They were privileged by King Maximilian in
1487. These masters of the long sword were under a captain, and their
meetings were held at the harvest fair of Frankfort-on-the-Maine.
Thither resorted any one who wished to receive the freedom of their
company; he had to fence with four masters, then in public meeting to
accept a challenge from any one who chose to fight with him. If he
stood the trial, he was struck with the sword of ceremony crosswise
over the loins; he then took the oath of fellowship, and laid two
golden guldens on the sword; then he received the secret sign of
recognition of the brotherhood, and the right to instruct others in his
art, and to hold fencing schools, that is to say, to arrange public
fights. For a long time these public fights were a pleasure to
princes and citizens; after the battle of Muehlberg, they enlivened
the imprisoned Elector of Saxony during the great Imperial Diet
at Augsburg. It was considered by the people an especial privilege
for Frankfort, that it was the only town in which one could become
a prize-fighter.[69] The fighters made their way into the
prize-shootings--already at Augsburg in 1508--especially when princes
took a part in the civic pleasures. The procession, and many of the
usages of the fighters, remind one strongly of the Roman gladiatorial
games, though the combats seldom came to so bloody an end. The princes
and cities hired whole bands of fighters, who attended at the
prize-shootings and other great festivals. Thus at Stuttgardt, in 1560,
the fighters strove in pairs on the shooting-ground; the royal ladies
also drove out to see this combat; the first victor received a
beautiful waistcoat of taffety; every other prize consisted of two
thalers. At a cross-bow meeting at Zwickau, 1573, the Margrave of
Anspach introduced a fighting band of forty men, against whom the
Elector August of Saxony arranged his _Federfechters_. They contended
for two days, in pairs, with the long sword, the wooden sword, the long
spear, and the short lance, bareheaded, according to old custom, and
some made many passes without conquering the other. There was much
bravado in these combats, but they gave rise to great jealousy, violent
blows, and bad wounds.
The society of fencers outlived the prize-shootings and the great war.
They lost the old expressions for their art, but substituted French
words, and maintained their position in the larger cities in spite of
the foreign fencing-masters. In Nueremberg their public combats were
forbidden shortly before 1700; but parties long ran high among the
people for the two factions: there was no boy in the city who did not
contend for the Marxbrueder or Federfechter, who frequently gave their
performances in private houses. The last great fencing match took
place, in 1741, at Breslau, in the churchyard of Magdalena. On the day
when the young King of Prussia, with careless mien and dishevelled
hair, and his small parade sword, came to receive the homage of the
conquered Silesia on the throne of the Emperor Matthias, when the dawn
of a new time broke over Germany, the old fencers, like shadowy figures
of a distant time, performed once more their antics over the graves of
a past generation, and then passed away.
Other popular amusements intruded themselves into the prize-shootings;
the pleasures became more noisy, more abundant, and excited; and
whoever takes a view of the shooting-ground at the end of the sixteenth
century will see, from the proceedings of spectators, that times had
altered. Formerly the marksmen, among them princes and nobles, had
taken part in the public gymnastics; the Wittelsbacher had hopped on
one leg among the citizens of the imperial town, and had hurled the
heavy stone. At the end of the sixteenth century the nobles looked on,
so also did the already genteel citizen-marksmen; but the peasant lads
came in their Sunday attire, with their lasses, and performed their
country dance for the amusement of others. There was great pleasure in
seeing the peasant maidens compete in running for a camisol or a
stomacher; high springs, fluttering dresses, and sometimes a tumble in
their haste, excited especial satisfaction, and their village demeanour
contributed to increase the enjoyment of others. It was more
particularly the princes who took pleasure in all this; there seldom
failed to be grotesque processions and dances of the country people,
when a prince made the programme of the festival. The pert waggery of
the _pritschmeister_ to the country people excited a laughter on the
shooting-ground which would be offensive to us. The dancers, in
couples, garlanded with the red berries of the mountain ash, or with
carrots, advanced on the ground; men threw themselves on unsaddled
horses, and galloped past a goose which was hung above them, and the
joke was, that they slid off their nags, and the like.
The amusement of the children, also, was provided for. There was a
jesting fool, who, armed with a shield and short leather club,
challenged any one to assail him with a lance. If the challenge was
accepted, the fool knew so well how to parry the lance, throw his
opponent on his back, and belabour him with his club, that the laugh
was always on his side. Beside him stood (as at Ratisbon, in 1586) a
wild man, who threw balls into his open mouth, nine balls for a
kreuzer. A little mannikin was set on a pony: they threw at him with a
ball, and whoever hit oftenest won something. Spirited boys climbed up
a smooth pole to fetch a cock out of the basket which was hung at the
top.
The shooting-ground was fenced in by barriers or ropes, but alongside
it stood the tents and booths, where goldsmiths laid out their goblets,
vases, spoons, and chains. The pewter-booths were great favourites,
before which they gambled for household utensils, throwing dice in the
_brente_, which was painted red and white, similar to our backgammon
board; anxious faces thronged round the gambling-booths; vagrants and
vagabonds staked more on the game than their last stolen penny; but
they were not unobserved, for the city police in their festal attire
paced gravely along these booths to see that no offence was committed
to disturb the peace of the shooting-ground. Special attention was paid
by the giver of the feast to the bowling-ground, which was then not so
frequently found in town or country, as now. There were often two,
indeed three, prepared for the festival; here, also, there were prizes
affixed. Thus, at Breslau, 1518, an ox and pewter utensils were bowled
for, on two grounds. In Silesia, Saxony, and Thuringia, they were
favourite additions to the festival.
But of all that made the festival agreeable to the people, and attained
to the greatest development, was an entertainment of a most doubtful
character,--the fortune's urn, the modest ancestor of the state and
other lotteries. As early as 1467 it made its appearance at the
cross-bow meeting at Munich. In 1470, at the great prize-shooting at
Augsburg, it was a well-known part of the programme; the prizes were
goblets, materials for dress, velvet girdles, and weapons; there were
twenty-two prizes, and more than 76,000 tickets, at eight pfennigs
each; a cook won the best prize, which was an agreeable evidence to
the people that it had been carried on honourably. By means of the
rifle-shooting at Zurich, in 1472, the urn was introduced into
Switzerland; the tickets there cost one shilling each. The drawing was
much the same as now. There was scaffolding erected in the public
place, before the council-house, and thereon a booth, in which the
prizes were placed; beside it, the secretaries and the urns. There were
two urns, into one of which the names of those were thrown who had
drawn a ticket, in the other were the prizes and blanks; a boy of
sixteen, who was placed between the urns, drew from both at the same
time. First, the name was called out, then the prize or blank. The
first ticket and the last in the urn with the names, won something; at
Zurich, a ram; those who took many tickets got them cheaper. In 1504,
at Zurich, the prizes were already in money; but in Germany the
pleasant custom still continued at the prize-shootings for another
century, of playing for artistic objects of value; the love of gambling
was great, the women especially thronged round the urn; and, if one may
judge from the lists of prizes that have been preserved, the inferior
clergy of the old church amused themselves with fortune's um. Seldom,
in the sixteenth century, did the urn fail to appear at the greater
prize-shootings; it was an important concern, and the chroniclers
recorded assiduously the prizes and fortunate winners. Thus, only to
mention one year, there were, in Central Germany alone, in 1540, two
urns of fortune; for there were prize-shootings at Frankenhausen and
Hof; at the latter the drawing lasted five days; in both cities the
last prize from the urn was the jocose prize--a sow, which had been
introduced from the shooting-ground into the urn of fortune. In 1575,
at Strasburg, the urn of fortune was very considerable; there were 275
prizes--the first, value 115 gulden; the sale of the tickets was so
rapid that they were obliged to increase the number and the prizes in
equal proportion. Count Palatine Casimir, an enterprising prince, had
bought 1100 tickets, but did not gain much. The Zuricher guests also,
with their pot of porridge, took some thousand tickets--in the name of
the fortunate ship and of their native city--which, together, cost 101
gulden; for this they won silver to about half the amount. The drawing
lasted fourteen days, and the throng of people about the urn was so
troublesome that at last they were obliged to use force to secure the
urn.
From these beginnings arose the lottery in Italy and Holland, in the
sixteenth century; first, they played for wares, but soon for money,
and it was used as a source of income by individuals, and then by
communities. The first money lottery at Hamburg was established in
1615.
Such was the course of the great feasts of arms of our ancestors. For
weeks did the multitude buzz about the shooting-ground and booths, and
in the streets of the hospitable city. When the society of marksmen had
finished the prescribed number of shots, all those to whom an equal
number of circle shots had been scored had to shoot for their prize at
a special target, and he who made the worst shot had the smallest
prize. In the same way all shot for the knightly prize who had carried
away no prize from the great shooting. The chief and the knightly
prizes were solemnly delivered with the banner; the money prizes were
in coloured silk purses, which hung to the banner; prizes and banners
were arranged beforehand in long rows for show, for in the olden days
they knew well how to make a grand display of such distinctions. Then
followed generally an after shooting for the voluntary deposits of the
shooters, more simple and unrestrained, and sometimes at other
distances. Last, on the shooting-ground, came the great farewell
oration of thanks from the giver of the feast, expressing once more to
the guests the pleasure it had given to the city. Finally, there was
the great march from the shooting-ground to the city. This was an
important ceremony. All the splendour of the festival was again
displayed in the long procession. Trumpets and pipes were blown, the
big drum and the kettle-drums thundered, the _pritschmeisters_
clattered with their bats; the dignitaries of the festival,
councillors, and _neuners_, marched in front with their long silk
scarfs; behind them the fortunate winners of the great prizes, each
with his prize borne before him, and accompanied by two men of
distinction. The other shooters followed under the banner of their
"quarter," and proudly did each carry his prize banner; but the mocking
banners also were sometimes to be seen in the procession, and humbly
were they carried by their bearers; behind them came the young
tomfools. Our ancestors were right when they moved with a feeling of
elation in such processions. The dress was already rich in colour; men
of even moderate income endeavoured to wear rich materials, silk and
velvet, on such occasions. All were accustomed to show themselves
before others, and knew well how to maintain a stately pace. With a
feather on the cap or hat, the weapon by the side, and one arm
supported on the hip under the mantle, they strode along in march time,
placing their feet wide apart, as is the custom now, thus moving the
body in an easy way, now towards the right, now the left.
Thus they went to the last evening entertainment; those who were
departing had often the escort of their friends, for protection and
honour, far into the country.
There is something very attractive to our feelings in this hospitality
given to the shooters. Not only were they frequently provided with
drink on the shooting-ground during the shooting-hours, and refreshed
by a collation, but they were at least once, and generally oftener,
entertained in the city, sometimes daily, by the councillors; besides
this, there were evening dances, in which the daughters of the most
distinguished families partook. These hospitalities to the guests, in
the fifteenth century, though very hearty, were also very simple; but
at a later period they became sometimes profuse, and when such a
festival lasted a fortnight, or, as at Strasburg, as much as five
weeks, they must have been very expensive to the givers of the feast;
more than once did critical chroniclers complain of the immoderate
demands on their city coffers. Loud reproaches were made even at
Strasburg, and it was reported of the Loewenbergers, after their
bird-shooting in 1615, that the city had exerted itself far beyond its
powers; for all had been very costly and splendid. In the fifteenth
century, they knew better how to calculate. The great cross-bow
shooting at Augsburg, in 1470, cost the city more than 2200 gulden, a
high sum according to the then value of corn; and yet the influx of
strangers was so great that the Augsburgers afterwards said they had
suffered no loss. But, indeed, the entertainment of the 466 stranger
guests was very simple.
The number of marksmen at the earlier cross-bow shootings was not
large. At Augsburg, in 1425, there were only 130; in 1434, 300; and in
1470, 466. After fire-arms had been introduced, at the great country
meetings, the number of marksmen was double. Thus, in 1485, at St.
Gallen, there were collected 208 cross-bows and 445 guns; and in 1508,
at Augsburg, there were 544 cross-bows and 919 guns. According to the
old arrangements of the shooting, this large number of men protracted
the festival to a great length; consequently, in the sixteenth century,
we find efforts sometimes made to limit the number of invitations, but
to increase the deposits of the shooters; and it appears that a
festival, with from 200 to 300 shooting-guests, was considered most
agreeable; in that case it lasted a week; the individual became of more
importance, and the body of men was easier to guide. Even with a
moderate number of marksmen, the concourse of strangers was
incomparably greater than it would be now. Each marksman was
accompanied by a lad, who waited upon him with cross-bow or gun; if
princes or nobles were invited, they arrived with a large retinue of
junkers, servants, halberdiers, and horses; a large rabble of beggars
and rogues also flocked together, and the watchmen of the city had to
guard against theft, robbery, and fire.
It was not always easy for the givers of the feast to keep order
between the inhabitants and the strangers, for, together with a natural
heartiness and wish to adapt themselves to their guests, there was in
many haughty minds a very sensitive pride of home and self-confidence,
which inclined them, more than would be the case now, to turn into
ridicule the unusual dress, manners, and language of strangers. Betwixt
certain districts there always floated, like small thunder-clouds,
certain old satirical sayings and ironical stories. Swiss and Suabians,
Thuringians and Franconians, Hessians and Rhinelanders, reported
laughable things of each other. But a word spoken when drinking, or a
mocking reminder, might disturb the peace of the festival, or excite
parties to sudden anger; and words of conciliation and redoubled
friendliness were not always successful. Thus the "_Seehasen_"[70] and
the "_Kuehmelker_" had a severe quarrel at the cross-bow shooting at
Constance in 1458. A man from Constance, who was playing at dice with
one from Lucerne, called the Bernese coin plappart, which he had won, a
cow-plappart; the Lucerner fired up, blows and uproar followed. The
Lucerne marksmen remained to the end of the festival; but they
complained loudly that the laws of hospitality were broken, and their
honour wounded. After their return home the people of Lucerne and
Unterwalden raised the war-banner and fell on the territory of
Constance, the inhabitants of which had to pay 5000 gulden as an
expiation. Yet, in general, it was provided that such disturbances
should be reconciled on the spot, or satisfaction given to the guests.
Strictly were the shooting regulations administered by the chosen
judges, and zealously did hosts and guests endeavour to enhance the
feeling of duty in those belonging to them. Among the numerous
specimens of city hospitality of that time the most pleasing is the
kindly connection which existed for more than 100 years betwixt Zurich
and Strasburg, frequently interrupted by many passionate ebullitions,
but always renewed. In 1456, six years after the Swiss had established
the first great shooting-feast at Sursee, in the country of Lucerne,
some young Swiss, in the early dawn of morning, conveyed a large pot of
hot millet porridge, in a vessel, from Zurich to Strasburg; they
arrived in the evening; threw the famed Zurich rolls among the people,
and delivered the still warm millet porridge to the council of the
friendly city, as a token of how quickly their Swiss friends would come
to their aid if they ever needed it in earnest; they danced the same
night with the Strasburg maidens. After that, the excitement and
sufferings of the Reformation knit new spiritual ties betwixt Zurich
and the great imperial city. Bucer and the Swiss reformers, the
literati and artists of both cities, had been in close alliance; though
differences of confession had for a short time produced alienation. The
Strasburgers had often experienced the hospitality of the Swiss. Now
when, 150 years after the first journey of the porridge-pot, the city
of Strasbourg had again announced a brilliant prize-shooting for
crossbow and gun, and a strong detachment from Zurich had celebrated
with them the first fortnight of the cross-bow shooting, then a number
of young Zurichers, under the lead of some gentlemen of the council,
determined to repeat the old voyage. Again, like their ancestors, they
placed the great metal pot, weighing 120 pounds, filled with hot
porridge, in the ship, and voyaged in the early dawn of morning, all
dressed alike in rose and black, from the Limmat into the Aar, from the
Aar into the Rhine, with trumpeters and drummers. The places by which
the ship flew, in the sunny mid-day, greeted the jolly fellows with
acclamations; in the evening they reached Strasburg, having been long
before announced from the towers. The citizens thronged to meet them;
delegates from the council greeted them; they carried the pot on shore
and delivered it to the councillors; they scattered amongst the
children of Strasbourg 300 strings of Zurich rolls, and again were the
manly words spoken: "Quickly as we have come to-day in sport, we will
come to help in earnest." And at the abundant supper the old homely
dish, still warm, was enjoyed with pleasure. The Strasburger Fischart
has described with hearty satisfaction the journey of the porridge-pot,
and we find in his verses the warmth which then animated both hosts and
guests. The course of the voyage of the porridge-pot, and even the sums
which the Swiss deposited in the urn of fortune--"In the name of the
fortunate ship and of the parent town"--were paid by the city of
Zurich. In return they received the small silver utensils which were
won in the urn by the Zurichers. The collective costs of the journey
which Zurich then paid for its marksmen amounted to 1500 gulden.
It is of great interest to consider these brotherly festivals of the
city communities, according to districts. In the middle of the
sixteenth century, a journey from Nuremburg to Augsburg was neither so
easy nor free from danger, as now from Leipsig to Zurich. The birds of
prey of the country gladly flew from their castellated eyries into the
woods which surrounded, in wide circles, the hospitable city; more than
once was the fortunate marksman waylaid and robbed, by noble horsemen,
of the beautiful purse with the guldens he had won, and his banner
broken. Even to greater companies the road was insecure, and the
travelling toilsome; the inns at small places were frequently very bad,
without meat or drink. It is easily understood that at the largest
prize-shooting, to which every unexceptional man was welcome, persons
from a distance only took a part when accident had brought them into
the neighbourhood. Therefore it is matter of surprise that the district
to which cities sent their invitations was so large. The Wittenburghers
were welcome guests at Ratisbon and the men of Stuttgart at Meissen.
Sometimes accident or the friendship of distinguished citizens, knit
these bonds of hospitality betwixt far-distant cities; then the
invitations went forty, fifty, or one hundred miles. But, on the whole,
we may divide these hospitable cities into groups. The Swiss, Suabians,
and Bavarians were in close union. Augsburg, more than Nuremberg, was
long the centre and pattern of these groups. To it belonged the Rhine
as far as Strasbourg. The greatest and most splendid prize-shootings
were for two centuries celebrated in this part of Germany. In Bavaria,
about 1400, all the more powerful places were in firm intercommunion.
There, the city whose marksmen, at one shooting, had won the first
prize, was bound at the next shooting festival to produce the same
first prize. Thus Kehlheim, which had won the ram at Munich, invited
the Munichers, in 1404, to contend for it again.[71] But smaller
festivals also comprehended a wide circle. At Ratisbon, for example,
the Bavarians and Suabians shot with the larger cities of Thuringia and
Meissen; also with Lindau, Salzburg, and some places in Bohemia. The
Tyrolese and Salzburghers collected more especially at small shooting
meetings of their districts; so also the Franconians north of the
Maine. A lasting union of middle-sized and smaller places existed
there. This Franconian union comprehended in the sixteenth century,
together with Wuerzburg and Schweinfurt, forty-one cities and forty-two
villages with free peasants, particularly from the bishopric of
Wuerzburg and the royal county of Henneberg.
The chief prize was a neck chain--"The Jewel of the Country"--which the
victor wore round his neck for a year, and which imposed upon the
victorious place the duty of giving the next shooting meeting. If the
community of the union who had to give the feast was small and poor,
the meeting was badly attended. Thus at Neustadt, on Saale, in 1568,
only delegates from eighteen cities and three villages appeared. The
small participation of the village communities, at this period, is a
proof that their strength was diminished in comparison with the former
period. Another group comprehended the possessions of the House of
Saxony; the Thuringians and many Franconians and Meisseners who sent
the garland to one another. These also zealously maintained the
cross-bow at their prize-shootings; the popinjay was seldom erected,
except at smaller meetings, where it was long upheld. At these
festivals the Franconians, up to and beyond Nuremberg, were regular
guests; some of the Suabians and more of the German Bohemians. But, on
the frontiers of this group, at Halle, another association began, the
centre of which was Magdeburg; here the popinjay was more frequent.
Thus at the great prize-shooting at Halle, in 1601, the expression
"shooting court" appears, and many special usages. This circle embraced
the Harz cities up to Brunswick, and the Altmark, and reaches further
to the east and north, for the people of Halle sent their invitations
as far as Berlin, Brandenburg, and even Griefswald. Again, the cities
of the great province of Silesia were in close union, with Breslau for
their centre point; there the popinjay shooting attained to its highest
development, and the festivals were very frequent. Competition was not
unfrequent between two cities; thus, in 1504, between Liegnitz and
Neisse, when the Breslauers said, in answer to the invitation of
Neisse, that they had already accepted the invitation of Liegnitz,
and therefore could not go. The chief places of meeting of the cities
of middle Rhine were Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle; but the great
prize-shootings of this country, which flourished at the end of the
fifteenth century, were embittered by religious discord. It is
remarkable that in the countries of Lower Saxony, on the North Sea and
Baltic, where the old Hanse towns had founded such noble city unions,
the prize-shootings were less frequent and distinguished. The most
zealous supporters of them were the Swiss, Suabians, Thuringians,
Meisseners, and Silesians. With the Swiss these great festivals
attained the character of exercises of arms; they were practical and
serious; the waggish humour and the tricks of the _pritschmeister_
flourished in Middle Germany.[72] It is not accidental that in the
whole of the Protestant portion of the German empire, the power and
comfort of the citizen have been most nobly developed.
If these particulars give only a very imperfect picture of the
splendour, the opulence, and the independence which were developed in
these festivals by the German cities in ancient times, yet they will
succeed in making the reader feel, that though we have gained much in
comparison with those times, we have also lost something. Only very
lately it would have appeared hazardous to the greatest city
communities to arrange festivals which, according to our rate of
money, would cost perhaps more than fifty thousand thalers; not to do
honour to the visit of some sovereign, but for the pleasure of German
fellow-citizens, and which would last three or even five weeks, and
commit many hundreds, or even thousands of guests during this period to
the friendly hospitality, partly of individuals and partly of the city
community. It is true that time has become more valuable to us, life is
enjoyed more rapidly, and we compress into days what would have
employed our ancestors for weeks. It is true that modern men seek
recreation in summer in ways which were almost unknown three centuries
ago. They isolate themselves from the bustle and hard daily labour of
the world among mountain woods and alpine valleys; whilst our
ancestors, on the contrary, sought pleasure and refreshment in large
societies of men, and left the narrow boundaries of their walls,--the
guild room and the council hall,--for those great re-unions in which
they could gain honour and prizes by their own exertions. But it must
not be forgotten that it was just in those last two centuries in which
the great civic festivals became impossible, that many general
interests were developed in German citizen life, which, however
unsatisfactory they may be, form an immeasurable step in advance of the
olden time. There is also a fundamental difference in culture which
distinguishes us from our ancestors; but this difference does not rest
on the necessary progress of a later race. We feel that the old
brotherhood of cities and districts had something noble in it, in which
our life is very deficient. The joyful self-assertion of man in social
intercourse with others, the facility with which common usages unite
together hundreds and indeed thousands, and, above all, the imposing
vigour with which cities asserted their position, all this has been too
long wanting to us. If it was seldom granted to our forefathers to
feel, on the great occasions of life, the unity of German interests in
Church and State, and through a common action and great triumph to
ennoble the life of every individual, yet they knew at least how to
open, by their fellowship, a domain in which expression was given to
the German nature, to human relations and to community of spirit.
It is only within a few years that it has become a necessity to Germans
to expand their life in this direction. It was no mere accident that
made German men of science, in their wandering meetings, the first to
give significant expression to some of the noblest interests of the
nation by national association. They were followed by the singers and
others, then the gymnasts, finally the shooters. We are now, after more
than two centuries of preparation, again treading in the same path in
which our ancestors so grandly trod, but with a freer and nobler
feeling. It has been a long-denied pleasure for us thus to be able to
vaunt ourselves. But we should at the same time be mindful, and it is
the object of these pages to remind us, that the citizen-class of
Germany has striven, for more than two centuries since the Thirty
Years' War, to become again as powerful and manly in this respect as
their ancestors were.
But even of that time of weakness, the century that followed the great
war, a picture shall be given. But it must be short. The hospitable
prize-shootings of the cities had ceased; here and there a ruler gave a
family festival, or, as a special act of grace, a large country
shooting meeting, at which prizes were awarded, and their subjects
allowed to participate. In the cities the old shooting associations
still existed, though in many cases robbed of their prize cups, chains,
and jewels; even the cautious Leipzigers had not preserved the silver
statue of their holy Sebastian. Many old customs were maintained in
their desolate shooting houses; the cross-bow, at the popinjay and
target, had dragged on a miserable existence; it lasts in a few cities
as a curiosity up to the present day; the rifled weapon became
naturalised; in larger communities the new Imperial nobility favoured
shooting guilds and their old "_Koenigsschiessen_,"[73] and these
festivals acquired a stiff pretentious character of pedantic state
action. This great change in the city festival,--the only meagre
feast of arms which remained to the German citizen in the eighteenth
century,--is apparent in a description of the Breslau shooting in the
year 1738. It is found where one would hardly look for it, in the
laborious work of the physician Johann Christian Kundmann, entitled
"Beruhmte Schlesier in Muentzen," 1738, i., p. 128, and is given as
follows, literally, with few omissions:--
"At this time the following solemnities were observed at the
'_Koenigsschiessen_.' On Whitsunday the king of the preceding year went
with the elders, the Zwinger brotherhood, also with some invited
friends, in some twenty carriages, out to the Zwinger.[74] By the side
of the carriage went the secretaries as servants, two outriders,
the markers, and the king's own servant; they were received with
kettle-drums and trumpets. After that, the perquisites of the king were
read aloud to the shooters in the room, and those who wished to shoot
for the kingdom were to sign their names with their own hand. Then
appeared two gentlemen, commissaries of the worshipful and illustrious
council, who are usually the two youngest councillors of the nobility;
they wore Spanish mantles, trimmed with lace or fringe, and placed
themselves opposite to the king in the room,--who stayed there in his
kingly attire, bearing the great golden bird. The councillors state
that they, as commissioners, have to be present at this shooting. After
this the king goes to the shooting ground, accompanied by the
commissioners, the elders, and shooters.
"As, according to old usages, a popinjay was to be the mark, a large
carved bird with outspread wings was set up, instead of a target, and
at this there were six courses, that is, each shooter fired six times.
A small silver bird, or a large _klippe_, was attached to the king as a
badge of honour, instead of the large gilt bird, which was too heavy
and incommodious to carry. He kept the badge till one of the others
had made the winning shot with a bullet. The king shoots always
first, amidst the sounding of kettle-drums and trumpets. After
these shots the new king is presented to the commissaries, by the
zwinger-orator,--usually an advocate, with a well composed speech,--and
the usual presents are presented to the king. The first gentleman of
the council answers with a similar speech. After that they go to the
zwinger repast, and when they rise from table the king is accompanied
with kettle-drums and trumpets home. Or the king and the brotherhood
march with music and wine round the city, and do honour thereby to
their patrons and good friends. The Wednesday after, the king gives his
usual silver shooting, at which there are six prizes of silver, that
consist of cups and spoons. After the completion of this, the king
gives his first entertainment.
"The Saturday following, early in the morning, about eight o'clock, the
king is conducted, with his retinue, in his costly attire, before the
illustrious and worshipful council in the council room, where the
zwinger-orator again delivers an oration, and begs for the king all the
immunities; the president answers with a similar speech, confirms him
in his kingdom, conveys to him the regal dues, and concludes with
congratulations. Then the day for the king's benefit is solicited,
generally some Monday a few weeks later. This is a pleasure shooting of
twelve courses. He who makes the best shot, and he who with gun and
dice (the equally bad shots cast lots by dice), fails most, must both
place themselves in front of the shooting-house. To the first a large
orange will be delivered on a pewter plate, together with a glass of
wine and a garland of roses, and some verses will be recited in his
praise, when the kettle-drums and trumpets will sound. But he who has
failed gets a whey cheese in a wreath of nettles on a wooden plate,
together with a glass of beer, upon which the bagpipes and a small
fiddle are played; the verses are generally very pungent, and the
zwinger poets are frequently wont to recite truths in jest to their
dear friends. Besides this, for each shot on the outer circle of the
target in all the courses, a citron is given, and in like manner to
every one who hits, a citron, an orange, or a curd cheese, which are
painted on the target, together with other pictures characteristic of
the time. Then they go to another meal, when the zwinger-orator and the
first deputy of the council deliver speeches, and distribute the
banners and prizes to the best shots and the victors in the twelve
courses, with the sounding of kettle-drums and trumpets. Then the king
gives a costly repast, which often lasts nearly till daybreak. Over the
king hangs the great king's bird: he himself sits in a large arm chair.
From thence the king is accompanied to the patrons and then home, and
this solemnity generally finishes with some merriment. Finally, the
king gives, the following day, a sausage shooting, and appoints a prize
of silver and gold; this is again concluded by an entertainment,
followed by dice playing for pewter."
Here ends the account of Kundmann. Of how little importance was such a
"_Koenigsschiessen_" of the seventeenth century may be gathered from the
description. The popular festival of the olden time had become a
pretentious solemnity. To do everything in a genteel way was the great
desire; only the wealthy could become kings; to drive in carriages, to
be accompanied by servants, to give costly meals and expensive prizes,
were the main objects; the shooting was a minor point: and it was very
significant that the king was no longer expected to speak publicly
before his fellow-citizens; he represented in dumb show; the advocate
spoke for the citizen at the festival also. Lastly, it may be perceived
that the remnants of some of the old jovial customs had still been
retained; they stand out in contrast to the prudery and susceptibility
of the time; the improvisation of the _pritschmeister_ had ceased, and
even the ironical verses on bad shots had to be prepared; gradually the
reminiscences of a more vigorous time were laid aside as obsolete and
absurd.
It was not, however, the wretchedness of the people alone,--the bitter
fruit of the war,--that destroyed the great brotherly feasts of the
citizen, nor yet the ruling tendency to haughty exclusiveness against
all who held a modest position in life, but equally injurious was the
peculiar stamp impressed upon even the best and most highly cultivated,
after that period of humiliation.
It is time now to observe the great change in the German popular mind,
which turned the martial citizen, who knew how to use powder and shot
and to direct a gun, into the shy, timid gentleman, who hastened his
steps when he heard near him the thump of the butt end of a musket, and
feared lest his son should grow too tall, and come into the horrible
position of having to shoulder a weapon in rank and file.
This change was effected by the new polity of the princes.