Although his duties as owner and administrator of several estates left him little time to participate in literary life, Hans Aßmann von Abschatz, like his friends Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau and Daniel Casper von Lohenstein, created highly stylized poetry in the manner of the Italian poet Giambattista Marini. Abschatz's translation of Giovanni Battista Guarini's Il Pastor Fido (The Faithful Shepherd, 1590) into German as Der Teutsch-redende Treue Schäffer (The German-speaking Faithful Shepherd, 1672") was widely judged superior to that of Hoffmannswaldau. He is one of the first German baroque poets to express a conflict between the refined galant (mannered) style and the reality of his actual existence. Abschatz represents what Hoffmannswaldau called a "Welt-Sebastian" (Sebastian in the world), a pious man who is in constant danger of being destroyed by worldly concerns. Except for the translation of Il Pastor Fido, most of Abschatz's poetry was published...