We are in the midst of the sixteenth century. Shakespeare has already been born and Elizabeth I is Queen of England, Mary Stuart Queen of Scotland. In England as well as in Germany the Reformation has put an end to the Christian Universe as it had been known throughout the Middle Ages. Its various new factions are engaged in bloody warfare. Among the fighting armies we find a countless crowd of adventurers and mercenaries, one of them being Hartmann Schopper, the author of the 1567 Latin Reinike. ... Schopper follows closely the familiar structure of the plot as to be found in Reynke de Vos and its High German translation of 1544. He maintained its division into four books and the respective chapters. The most striking differences, apart from unavoidable alterations as necessitated by the Latin idiom, may be summarised under three different aspects: firstly, the tremendous impact of classical Roman literature on the representation of all animal characters, in particular the fox; secondly, literal adaptations of liturgical language, especially in the episodes of the fox’s confession and penance; thirdly, the world of the mercenary, Schopper’s own world, in the representation of specific details of the fox’s exploits and, more openly, in various prologues and epilogues with biographical digressions.

Language: English

ISBN: 1-57181-737-9