Part 7 (1/2)

”At last he saw her no more, the lovely picture had suddenly disappeared from him. He must however still hasten and hasten, there was no rest for him. He no longer knew himself what he was seeking and what he hoped to find. But now he ran upon a door; it opened and he entered a small, cosy room in which stood a white bed. Seized with a strange apprehension the youth drew back the curtains with bold hand, and looked, astonished, smiling, burning with bliss. There lay a beautiful maiden asleep and dreaming--ah! it was Rosalinde herself. In the sweet forgetfulness of sleep, unveiling herself like the outblown petals of a rosebud, she revealed her most secret charms in lovely fulness to the eye of night.

Emil stood before her in the dear delusion of aroused pa.s.sion and bent over her. 'Is not tonight my bridal night?', thought he. He reflected and the hot tumult of exulting senses tore him irresistibly. Then he flung himself pa.s.sionately into her arms, pressed his mouth to her mouth in yearning kisses and clung closer and closer to the warm, living delight of her charming form. He dared the boldest work of love. The sleeper did not oppose the daring beginning; in the power of a dream, like him, according to the myth, whom the chaste Luna had seized, she seemed at first to yield softly to the seductive moment. Only a glowing color suffused the tender cheek, a gentle halting exclamation breathed through the half open lips. The bright light of the full moon shone on high with its trembling beams directly over the couch of the maiden.

”Now, now however she awakes from the strange troubled dream. She opens her eyes, she shakes her beautiful head as if she would free herself from the fetters of a dark enchantment. With a loud outcry she beholds herself actually in the young man's arms and sees alas! that she has not dreamed it. Wildly with all the strength of horror she pushes him from her, springs up and stands wringing her hands distracted before him, her fluttering hair only half disclosing her frightened countenance. Then she calls him by name in a tone indescribably piercing, painfully questioning, 'Emil!' He in turn, hearing himself called by name, falls at the same moment with a faint sigh swooning to the floor. After a pause he raises himself up, rubs his eyes and looks wonderingly about him. He cannot comprehend how he has come here. The influence of the moon has permitted the poor night wanderer to experience this adventure.

When he was completely awake and had come to himself, he stood up and began to think over his situation. Then his eye fell astonished upon Rosalinde, who continued to stare at him speechless and immovable. Shame and anger adorned with a deep glowing color the injured maiden, whose virgin whiteness had been sullied by the strange events of this night. A dark, frightening recollection of what had taken place flashed now like a remote, faded dream into Emil's consciousness. The alluring spirits of the night, which had buzzed around him, now mockingly stripped from him the deceitful mask.

”'Go, go, go!' called Rosalinde finally, who could no longer bear his look. 'Go!' she called and stretched out her hand with a pa.s.sionate movement toward him, as if she would with it jerk a reeking dagger from her breast. 'Go, go!' she repeated, sobbing and beseeching. Then she hid her aching head with a loud outbreak of tears. Emil slipped away heartbroken and in despair. He was in such a state, when he reached his own room, that he would have put a ball through his head, had there been at that moment a pistol at hand.” How Rosalinde then became pregnant and in spite of her resistance toward Emil, still married him to reestablish her honor, how though after the wedding feast two acquaintances of the young husband, whom he had not invited, played him so mischievous a trick that he lost his reason in consequence, that deserves no further rendering.

We find here also as the nucleus of moon walking, when we strip from the foregoing all its mystical setting, the longing to approach the love object and there to be able to indulge oneself without punishment because it is done unconsciously. The literary historian Richard M.

Meyer regards it quite correctly: ”Theodor Mundt believed that he had emphasized something new in his way of presenting it. 'The influence of the moon had caused the night wanderer to undergo this adventure.'” To be sure Mundt attributes all sorts of mystical-romantic rubbish to the action of the heavenly body.

”DER PRINZ VON HOMBURG,” by Heinrich von Kleist.

Heinrich von Kleist also like Ludwig carried night wandering and moon walking into material at hand. We know that Kleist not long before the origin of the ”Prinz von Homburg” under Schubert's influence occupied himself very much with the ”night side of the natural sciences” and Wukadinovic has made it also apparent that the poet went still deeper, back to one of Schubert's sources, to Reil's ”Rhapsodien uber die Anwendung der psychischen Kurmethode auf Geisteszerruttungen.”[27] There he found a number of features which he then interwove into his drama, although by no means all that he permitted his moonstruck hero to do.

The matter of the drama is presumably so well known that I content myself here with giving the mystical setting and the beginning and end of the action.

[27] ”Rhapsodies over the Employment of the Psychical Method of Treatment for Mental Disturbances.” See Critical Historical Review by W. A. White, Journ. Nerv. and Ment. Dis., Vol. 43, No. 1. [Tr.]

Wearied with a long ride, the Prince von Homburg throws himself down to sleep that he may obtain a little rest before the great battle in which he is about to engage. In the morning when they seek the leader they find him sitting on a bench in the castle park of Fehrbellin, whither the moonlight had enticed the sleep walker. He sits absorbed with bared head and open breast, ”Both for himself and his posterity, he dreams the splendid crown of fame to win.” Still further, the laurel for this crown he himself must have obtained during the night from the electoral greenhouse. The electress thinks, ”As true as I'm alive, this man is ill!” an opinion in which the princess Natalie concurs. ”He needs the doctor.” But Hohenzollern, his best friend, answers coolly, ”He is perfectly well. It is nothing but a mere trick of his mind.”

Meanwhile the prince has finished winding the wreath and regards it idly. Then the elector is moved to see how far the former would carry the matter and he takes the laurel wreath out of his hand. ”The prince grows red and looks at him. The elector throws his necklace about the wreath and gives it to the princess; the prince stands up roused. The elector withdraws with the princess, who holds up the wreath; the prince follows her with outstretched arms.” And now he betrays his inmost wish, ”Natalie! my girl, my bride!” In vain the astonished elector, ”Go, away with you!” for the prince turns also to him, ”Friedrich, my prince, my father!” And then to the electress, ”O my mother!” She thinks wonderingly, ”Whom is it he thus names?” Yet the prince reaches after the laurel wreath, saying, ”Dearest Natalie! Why run away from me?” and really seizes her gloves rather than the wreath. The elector however disappearing with his retinue behind the gates calls to him:

”Away, thou prince of Homburg, get thee back, Naught here for thee, away! The battle's field Will be our meeting place, when't pleases thee!

No man obtains such favors in his dreams!”

”The prince remains standing a moment with an expression of wonder before the door, then pondering descends from the terrace, laying his hand, in which he holds the glove, before his forehead, turns as soon as he is below and looks again toward the door.” Out of this state the Hohenzollern returning awakens him. At the word ”Arthur” the moonstruck prince collapses. ”No better could a bullet have been aimed.” Afterward of course he makes up some story in regard to his sleep walking, that he had slipped into the garden on account of the great heat. Only the princess's glove recalls to him what has happened in his sleep:

”What is this dream so strange that I have dreamed?

For all at once, with gold and silver gleaming, A royal castle flung its portals wide.

While from the marble terraced heights above Thronged down to me the happy dancers all; Among them those my love has held most dear.

Elector and electress, and--who is the third?

--What name to call her?”

For the name of the princess there is amnesia, as well as for the reason for his moon walking. Then he continues:

”And he, the elector, with brow of mighty Zeus, A wreath of laurel holds within his hand.

And pressing close before my very face Plucks from his neck the chain that's pendant there.

His hand outstretched he sets it on my locks, My soul meanwhile enkindled high.”

Now again the complete forgetting of the loved one's name. He can only say:

”High up, as though to deck the brow of fame, She lifts the wreath, on which the necklace swings, To crown a hero, so her purpose seems.

With eager movement I my hands outstretch, No word, mere haste to seize it in my grasp.

Down would I sink before her very feet.

Yet, as the fragrance over valleys spread Is scattered by the wind's fresh blowing breath, Along the sloping terrace flees the throng.

I tread the ramp--unending, far away It stretches up to heaven's very gate, I clutch to right, I clutch to left, and fear No one of all the treasures to secure, No one of all the dear ones to retain.

In vain--the castle's door is rudely closed; A flash of brightness from within, then dark, The doors once more swing clatteringly together.