Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau (1616-1679) was born in Breslau (now Wroclaw, in Poland) to a wealthy family. He studied in the Netherlands and travelled extensively before coming back home, marrying a girl both wealthy and noble, and making a very impressive career as mayor of his town and then governor of the province. He wrote a lot, mostly religious poems that were printed while he was still alive, but also a certain number of naughty poems that were copied by hand and then circulated very discreetly in knowing circles. This one is an example of the latter.
( Read more )Tomorrow we’ll get into more serious stuff.