ey feel themselves their resurrection:
From the low, dark rooms, scarce habitable;
From the bonds of Work, from Trade's restriction;
From the pressing weight of roof and gable;
From the narrow crushing streets and alleys;
From the churches' solemn and reverend night,
Ah come forth to the cheerful light."

On the other hand, especially later during the Renaissance period when
the wealth of the burghers excited the jealousy of the mighty country
nobility, the houses of the wealthy burghers were often genuine palaces,
with rich antique and Italian or French furnishings. Nuernberg, Augsburg,
Strassburg, etc., were real treasure cities with their mediaeval
architecture; so were Ulm, Frankfort, Mainz, Cologne, with their
mansions filled with fine tapestry, rich furniture, colored carpets,
precious art objects, painted windows, silver and gold trappings.

When the _interregnum_ was over, with its political anarchy, with its
plague (black death) that swept away hundreds of thousands, with its
flagellants and other crazy penitents, the natural concomitants of the
plague; when the gloomy religious fanaticism which vented its horrible
"hatred of races and classes and masses" on heretics, Jews, and infidels
in terrible Jew slaughters and witch burnings began to melt away under
the radiant sun of the incipient Renaissance, there arose in western and
southern Germany a wondrously rich and luxurious life among the city
aristocracy. A caricature of chivalrous customs sprang up. It is
characteristic that "a light miss" was the prize of a tournament in
Magdeburg in 1229.

In the cities, life was more refined than on the estates of the nobles
in the country. There were sleigh riding, dances, carnivals, and
serenades before the windows of the fair ones. Even the churches, as
stated before, offered for entertainment "mysteries and passion plays
that verged on blasphemy." We hear of practical jokes which the ladies
played with illustrious guests, like Emperor Sigismund and, later,
Maximilian I., which genial lord the ladies took from his bed half
naked, threw a wrapper over him, and danced with him through the streets
of the city, which pleased the debonnaire emperor immensely.

Many German patrician women were already given over to the pleasures of
society and became ladies of fashion rather than mothers, housekeepers,
and helpers to their husbands. The nouveau-riche artisans soon began to