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    ( 102 )

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    XVI.—DOMESTIC ¦¦ ' LIFE OF GERMAN LADIES...

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    . mam ^ The roll which the Muse of Histo...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    ( 102 )

    ( 102 )

    Xvi.—Domestic ¦¦ ' Life Of German Ladies...

    XVI . —DOMESTIC ¦¦ LIFE OF GERMAN LADIES IN THE ' SIXTEENTH CENTURY . _fci' ——

    . Mam ^ The Roll Which The Muse Of Histo...

    . mam _^ The roll which the Muse of History bears in lier hand is a Palimpsest .

    Those great events which shape the life of nations ; the career of leaders and rulers ; the death agony of old beliefs and worn-out

    empires ; the birth throes of tlie new ; these , with their kindred themesmake up its outward record , the record of tlie sword and the

    palm . , The underwritten chronicle is for the most part fragmentary , its characters often dim and half-effaced ; the man who would

    decipher it must make up his mind to bestow a good deal of patient labor on his task . Here you come upon a vivid picture , followed by

    a provoking gap ; " there the faintest possible sketch , a bare outline , whicli sends the puzzled student on a search for those hints and

    intimations whence it is to gain some form and color . Yet the historyonce spelled out and put togethershall seem to us not all

    unworth , y of the pains it has cost . It presents , sketches of household life ; the customs and ways of thinking of the age ; the private life

    and surroundings of those men who in any way stood before the world in their day and generation . Most full of deep significance ,

    of tender touches , of soft light and shadows cast from , household joys and sorrows , is this story of the olive .

    Let us open on one of the most remarkable pages in the history of Europe : Germany in the sixteenth century . " The superficial chronicle

    is familiar enough to us all . The voice of the monk of Wittemberg rings along the lines ; on the horizon the day is surely breaking ,

    but how red and stormy is that dawn ! War , war ; it is the keynote of the century . Nobles arming against their sovereign ; the

    sorely-oppressed peasants rising on the nobles ; war with the French , the Turksthe Russiansand the Spaniards . And most bloody , as

    most lasting , of all , the , fierce religious wars ; all who could bear arms using them , on one side or the other ; every man ' s sword drawn

    against his neighbour . A history of strife and struggle which shall through all ages speak to the human heart as wifch the voice of a

    trumpet . From all this stir and tumult , however , the task to which we have addressed our pen lies far apart . Be it ours to lift in . some

    degree the veil which time , and change , and circumstance , have all combined to weave over the real every-day life led by the ladies of

    that age and nation ; those figures which appear as it were by chance in general history , and claim no more distinct memorials than a

    name in a genealogy , the monument they share with their husbands in some churchor a faded portrait on the walls of an ancient castle .

    Still , in mouldering , letters and dusty archives traces of their personal existence may be found , and we present the truthful , though far too

    imperfect , sketch thus obtained to our readers , in the hope that

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1860, page 102, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041860/page/30/