Friedrich von Spee's "Trutznachtigall": The Editions and a Bibliography

Abstract

IN A period when German literature was at a low ebb, Friedrich von Spee stands out as one of the foremost representatives of the spiritual lyric. Perhaps he does not rank with the greatest German lyricists, but in the general pattern of literary history he occupies a position of prominence. It may be said that he is neither versatile nor prolific, yet two of his works in widely diversified fields have left definite imprints upon the spiritual life of his period: one, Cautio criminalis, his courageous polemic against witchcraft persecution, the other, Trutznachtigall, his collection of lyric poems. It may be true that Spee's defense of innocently accused witches did not immediately awaken the conscience of his contemporaries, but he is the voice crying in the wilderness that echoes through seventy-five years after his death and finally makes itself heard. It may also be true that his lyric art did not have the immediate noticeable influence of that of his more forceful contemporary, Martin Opitz. On the other hand, Spee is big enough to go his own way for all of Opitz. Fully aware of the precepts laid down in Teutsche Podterey, yet independent of them, he accepts what he likes, rejects what he does not like, and lays out his own path, parallel to, but not identical with, that of Opitz. The sustained interest in Spee of literary historians as well as of the general reading public definitely marks him as the most enduring writer of his period. Spee's Trutznachtigall, a collection of fifty-one spiritual lyrics, enjoyed a modest but constant popularity from the time of its publication in 1649, fourteen years after the poet's death, through the following half-century. Even before 1635 the booklet had received rather wide circulation in manuscript copies' and the edition of 1649 seems to have been made in response to a general demand. A summary of the early editions follows.