MEISTERSINGER, the name given to the German lyric poets belonging to the artisan and trading classes in the i4th, 15th and i6th centuries. They professed to carry on the tra ditions of the mediaeval Minnesingers (q.v.), regarding as the founders of their gild 12 of the greater poets of the Middle High German period. They cultivated their art in so-called Meister singer schools, the oldest of which is said to have been estab lished at Mainz early in the 14th century. In that century there were such schools at Mainz, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, WUrzburg, Zurich and Prague; in the 55th at Augsburg and Nuremberg, the last becoming in the following century, with Hans Sachs, the most famous of all.
Each gild numbered various classes of members, ranging from beginners, or Schuler and Schulfreunde, to Meister, a Meister being a poet who was not merely able to write new verses to existing melodies but had himself invented a new melody. The poem was technically known as a Bar or Gesetz, the melody as a Ton or Weis. The rules of the art were set down in the so-called Tabulatur or law-book of the gild. The meetings took place either in the Rathaus, or town hall, or, when they were held—as was usually the case—on Sunday, in the church; and three times a year singing competitions were instituted. At such competitions or Schulsingen judges were appointed, the so-called Merker, who criticized the competitors and noted their offences against the rules of the Tabulator. • The literary value of the Meistersinger poetry was hardly in proportion to the large part it played in the life of the German towns of the 15th and i6th centuries. To these plain burghers poetry was a mechanical art that could be learned by diligent application, and the prizes they had to bestow were the rewards of ingenuity, not of genius or inspiration. Consequently we find an
extraordinary development of strophic forms corresponding to the many new "tones" which it was the duty of every Meister singer to invent. The verses were adapted to the musical strophes by a merely mechanical counting of syllables, regardless of rhythm or even sense. But the Meistersinger poetry, if not great or even real poetry, held—especially with a genuine poet like Hans Sachs—promise for the future. It reflected without exag geration or literary veneer the faith of the German burgher, his blunt good sense and honesty of purpose. The Meistergesang reached its highest point in the i6th century ; and it can hardly be said to have outlived that epoch, although the traditions of the Meistersinger schools lingered much longer in south German towns.
of Meistersinger poetry will be found in various collections, such as J. J. Gorres, Altdeutsche Volks- und Meisterlieder (1817) ; K. Bartsch, Meisterlieder der Kolmarer Hand schrift (1862). Of our older sources of information the most im portant are Adam Puschmann, GrUndlicher Bericht des deutschen Meistergesangs (157i; reprinted 1888), and J. C. Wagenseil, Von der Meistersinger holdseligen Kunst (Altdorf, 1697). See further 0. Lyon. Minne- und Meistergesang (1882) ; K. Mey, Der Meistergesang in Geschichte und Kunst (2nd ed., Igo') ; W. Nagel, Studien zur Geschichte der Meistersinger (1909). The Meistersingers have been immortalized by Richard Wagner in his music drama, Die Meister singer von Nurnberg (1868), which gives an excellent idea of the pedantic procedure of their schools. (J. G. R.)