Poems for the Consideration of Our Age

VII
a 4

Languages at that time overflowed with that "sweet foam" original: "süssen Schaum"; a metaphor for the ornate, flowery, and often superficial Baroque prose of the 17th century which could be called the taste of the seventeenth century—and which, one might hope, remains unique to that era alone. From this influence, our Andreä was also not entirely free. You must have often felt, while translating, how many of the refinements of his style become mere subtilties subtilities: from "Subtilitaten," referring to overly intricate or clever rhetorical points that risk becoming obscure or overloaded ornamentation.

His manner is ingenious: he says much with few words; however, within the confines of a narrow framing framing: from "Einkleidung," the literary device of wrapping a moral or philosophical message within a fictional shell or dialogue, he attempts to say far too much with far too little. Furthermore, because these brief framing works date to his younger years, and his busy mind never found the leisure to polish them according to the rules of ancient Greek or Roman simplicity original: "Simplicität"; the classical ideal of clarity and restraint in writing, which stood in contrast to the decorative Baroque style, his dialogues certainly fall behind those of Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536), the famous Dutch humanist whose "Colloquies" were celebrated as the gold standard for pure and elegant Latin prose in terms of purity of style—