SOURCE: Schade, Richard Erich. “Das Narren schneyden (1557): The Deadly Sins and the Didactics of Hans Sachs.” In Studies in Early German Comedy, 1500-1650, pp. 73-94. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1988.

In the following essay, Schade analyzes the theme of the mortal sins in many of Sachs's plays and considers various critics' comments on this topic.

Recent research into the gesamtwerk of Hans Sachs (1494-1576)¹ consistently makes reference to the underlying concept informing the Nuremberg² author's didactic stance. Theiß (1968),³ concentrating his analysis on the epilogues to the dramas, states that Sachs knows of no specific catalogue of sins, rather that the playwright enumerates human failings in an order consistent with the given subject matter. ‘Sachs knows of no system such as that of the cardinal sins, whose individual sins are categorized according to mnemonics such as SALIGIA …’ (superbia / pride, Hoffart; avaritia / avarice, Geiz; luxuria / lechery, Wollust...