Fischart, Johann

Fischart, Johann yōˈhän fĭshˈärt [key], b. 1548, d. 1590 or 1591, German satirist and moralist. He lived in Strasbourg. He translated and paraphrased works by Rabelais called Geschichtsklitterung (1572, 1575, and 1590); by the Dutch writer Philip van Marnix, Bienenkorb [the beehive] (1579); and from a French source, Jesuiterhütlein [Jesuit's hat] (1580). Among his many works his versification of Till Eulenspiegel stories and his narrative poem Das Glückhafft Schiff von Zürich [the lucky boat of Zürich] (1576) are noteworthy. Fischart's writings are largely political and anti-Catholic polemics, witty and original.

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