The ‘Wunderhorn’ was greeted by the German public with extraordinary cordiality.  It was in fact an epoch-making work, the pioneer in the new field of German folk poetry.  It carried out in a purely national spirit the efforts which Herder had made in behalf of the folk-songs of all peoples.  It revealed the spirit of the time. 1806 was the year of the battle of Jena, and Germany in her hour of deepest humiliation gave ear to the encouraging voices from out her own past.  “The editors of the ‘Wunderhorn,’” said their friend Goerres, “have deserved of their countrymen a civic crown, for having saved from destruction what yet remained to be saved;” and on this civic crown the poets’ laurels are still green.

Brentano’s contagious laughter may even now be heard re-echoing through the pages of his book on ‘The Philistine’ (1811).  His dramatic power is evinced in the broadly conceived play ‘Die Gruendung Prags’ (The Founding of Prague:  1815); but it is upon two stories, told in the simple style of the folk-tale, that his widest popularity is founded.  ’Die Geschichte vom braven Casperl und der schoenen Annerl’ (The Story of Good Casper and Pretty Annie) and his fable of ‘Gockel, Hinkel, und Gackeleia,’ both of the year 1838, are still an indispensable part of the reading of every German boy and girl.

Like his brilliant sister, Brentano is a fascinating figure in literature.  He was amiable and winning, full of quips and cranks, and with an inexhaustible fund of stories.  Astonishing tales of adventure, related with great circumstantiality of detail, and of which he himself was the hero, played an important part in his conversation.  Tieck once said he had never known a better improvisatore than Brentano, nor one who could “lie more gracefully.”

When Brentano was forty years of age a total change came over his life.  The witty and fascinating man of the world was transformed into a pious and gloomy ascetic.  The visions of the stigmatized nun of Duelmen, Katharina Emmerich, attracted him, and he remained under her influence until her death in 1824.  These visions he subsequently published as the ‘Life of the Virgin Mary.’  The eccentricities of his later years bordered upon insanity.  He died in the Catholic faith in the year 1842.

THE NURSE’S WATCH

From ‘The Boy’s Wonderhorn’

The moon it shines,
My darling whines;
The clock strikes twelve:—­God cheer
The sick both far and near. 
God knoweth all;
Mousy nibbles in the wall;
The clock strikes one:—­like day,
Dreams o’er thy pillow play. 
The matin-bell
Wakes the nun in convent cell;
The clock strikes two:—­they go
To choir in a row. 
The wind it blows,
The cock he crows;
The clock strikes three:—­the wagoner
In his straw bed begins to stir. 
The steed he paws the floor,
Creaks the stable door;
The clock strikes four:—­’tis plain
The coachman sifts his grain.