"GEntle reader, Behold here a small booke written in English by a German, and printed in Germanie. Therefore if thou art too daintie a reader, I doe intreat thee, to seeke somewhere els fit food, to bee pleased withall, as I know, there is greater store of in England, then in any other countrie." Even today the introductory words of Triumphall Shews set forth lately at Stutgart. Written first in German, and now in English (1616) by Georg Rodolf Weckherlin fascinate. At a time when the Elizabethan Age had receded and the Stuart monarchy was consolidating absolutist control over England, a poet from the southwest German duchy of Württemberg was dedicating a court festival book to "Elisabeth, onely davghter to his most excellent Majestie of Great-Britaine [James I]." In word and deed it was a signal event for the young Weckherlin, one defining the character of a...