STRICKER, DER

Besides a poem on Charlemagne, he composed the chivalric poem Daniel von dem blühenden Tal, in which he worked in the style of Hartmann, drawing on traditional motifs and citing Alberic of Besançon as his guarantor, concerning an Arthurian legend. He is, however, better known as a burlesque poet, for his Schwänke or comic tales and his Bispel or parables with satirical tendencies, and especially as the author of that collection of jests attributed to the Priest Amis, a type of cunning trickster who begins with innocent pranks and ends by deceiving even his bishop through false relics or by feigning, with suitable tricks, to perform miracles. Stricker may be considered a precursor of that satirical poetry which, while ostentatiously aiming at moral purpose, poured its scorn upon entire social classes and later culminated in the famous Till Eulenspiegel.