onest citizens approached their
completion, it became necessary for the council to search out some of
those minor officials of the festivities whose occupation is not what
can be called very noble, but was quite indispensable, the
_Pritschmeister_.[62] For a great festival, four, five, or more of
these fellows were desirable; but they were not to be found in every
city. If they were not at the place, they were sent for to Nueremberg
and Augsburg, or wherever else in the country they happened to be
wandering. It was a very ancient vocation that they followed At the
same time that the fantastic city tournaments of the young patrician
were transformed into the useful shooting exercises of the martial
citizen, this tomfoolery had changed into a peaceful civic occupation,
which retains something of the duties of the old herald, and not less
of the old festive jesting of the roving fool. They were criers,
improvisatori, police-officers, and buffoons of the prize shooters;
they understood accurately the _convenance_, manners, and every
ceremonial of the shooting-ground; gave good counsel to hesitating
regulators of the festival; delivered the poetical festival speeches;
punished light transgressions against the rules of the shooting-ground
with the fool's baton; and even helped at the festive banquet, when
necessary, by a rough joke, or even by serving. They had come from far,
and knew how to deal with proud princes and strict councillors. When it
was not festival time, they carried on a modest trade that did not
require much perseverance. But sieve-making or the wool trade did not
please them in the long run: at least they describe themselves, in the
numerous verses they have left behind them, as poor devils,[63] who
eagerly looked out for the rumour of some great festival at Court, and
went many days' journey, speculating whether perhaps they might have an
opportunity to exercise their office at some prize shooting. If they
did not succeed in that, there still remained to them the pleasure,
during the festival, of waiting upon old patrons among the shooters,
and, by dint of toadying, of obtaining wherewith to fill their hungry
stomachs; finally, they had the old consolation of poets, to describe
in verses the occupation they had no longer the pleasure of joining in,
and collecting remuneration for these verses. It is true that their
descriptions of friendly and distinguished prize shootings are almost
always in very bad rhyme