Hans Sachs, a popular and prolific German dramatist and meistersinger had, after his apprenticeship as a shoemaker, settled in his hometown, Nuremberg, where he is to remain throughout his life.

By his own tally, he has written more than four thousand two hundred and seventy-five Meisterlieder, seventeen hundred tales and fables in verse, and two hundred and eight dramas.

In his eighty-five Shrovetide plays, which are vivid and realistic, Sachs employs prototypes from medieval farces—the shrew, the cunning peasant, the quack, and the bragging soldier.

A supporter of Martin Luther (which position caused him a temporary loss of official favor), he draws from classical, biblical, and medieval themes to express humanistic tenets and principles.

Many of his melodies for the poems will survive him at his death at eighty-one on January 19, 1576.