SACHS, HANS, the most prolific and at the same time the most important German poet of his time, was b. on Nov. 5, 1494, at Nfi•riberg, where his father was a tailor. While at school he learned the rudiments of Latin, but at no time of his life could he be called a scholar in the strict sense of the term, altliongh he was certainly a well and widely-informed man. About the age of 15, he was sent to learn the craft of shoemak ing; his love of verse, however, also led him to become a disciple of Leonhard Nunnen beck, weaver facistersinger in his native town. On finishing his apprenticeship, Sachs, as was the custom of craftsmen in those days, made a sort of tour or pilgrimage through Germany, frequenting assiduously the verse-making schools or corporations organized by the trade-guilds in the different cities, the members of which, known as meistersingers, had, since the disappearance of the older minnesivetre, or minstrels of chivalry, become the chief representatives of German poetry. On his return to Nttrn berg, be commenced•business as a shoemaker, prospered'in his calling: and after a long, cheerful, and happy life, died on Jan. 25, 1576, at the age of 82. Sachs was twice mar ried—first to Kunegunda Kreutzer, who bore him five sons and two daughters; and afterward, in his 66th year, to Barbara Harscher. His grave is still to be seen in St. John's churchyard, Nurnberg. Sach&'s career as an author is divided into two periods'. In the first, he shows an interest mainly in the occurrences that were then agitating Germany. It was the epoch of the reformation of Luther, whose praises he celebrated (1523) in an allegorical tale entitled Die Wittenbergiselt while his poetical fly sheets (of which about 200 are known) furthered in small measure the Protestant cause. In the second period, his poetical activity was turned more to the delineation of common life and manners. His poetry is distinguished by its heartiness, good sense, homely genuine morality, and freshness; its clear and healthy humor, and its skillful manipulation of material. It is, on the other hand, deficient in high imagination and
brilliant fancy, and contains Iarge tracts of dry, prosaic, insipid verse. Sachs's best productions are his Sclisranke, or merry tales, the humor of which is sometimes unsui• passable; but his serious tales, allegorical and spiritual songs, and his dramas, also show s great advance on his predecessors. His special meistergesange, on the other hand, are of' little or no value. Manuscript copies of Saelts's poems—some in his own handwrit Ing—are to be seen in the libraries at Zwickau, Dresden, Leipsic, and elsewhere. When Sachs had reached the 52d year of his career as a poet, lie took stock. of his work, and 'found that be had written 34 VOIS., containing upward of 6,200 pieces, among which were 4,275 meisterresitnr•e, 208 comedies and tragedies, about 1700 merry tales, secular and religions dialogues, proverbs, and fables, 7 prose dialogues, and 73 songs, secn'ar and devotional. The first edition of his works was published at Augsburg in 1558, but the best is that of Willer (5 folio vols. 1570-19); a later quarto edition, known as the Kongtener, appeared in•1612-1617, and was republished at Augsburg in 1712. After the middle of the 17th c., when a deep stupor seized the German mind, and it could 'produce nothing but endless tomes of theology, varied by an occasional hymn of more or less merit, Sachs's, with all his poetic brethren, suffered a total neglect, from which he did not recover till Goethe wrote his pleasant poem, Thins Sachs, Erkliirung eines alto), Holzschnitts rordelleml Hans poetische Sendung (1776), since which time partial collections of Sachs's works have frequently appeared.