Part 1 (2/2)

This thoughtful study of imitation itself was accompanied by more or less pointed opposition to the heedless importation of foreign views, and protests, sometimes vigorous and keen, sometimes flimsy and silly, were entered against the slavish imitation of things foreign. Endeavor was turned toward the establishment of independent ideals, and the fostering of a taste for the characteristically national in literature, as opposed to frank imitation and open borrowing.[15]

The story of Laurence Sterne in Germany is an individual example of sweeping popularity, servile admiration, extensive imitation and concomitant opposition.

[Footnote 1: This is well ill.u.s.trated by the words prefaced to the revived and ret.i.tled _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_, which state the purpose of the periodical: ”Besonders wird man fur den Liebhaber der englischen Litteratur dahin sorgen, da.s.s ihm kein einziger Artikel, der seiner Aufmerksamkeit wurdig ist, entgehe, und die Preise der englischen Bucher wo moglich allzeit bemerken.”

(_Frankfurter gel. Anz._, 1772, No. 1, January 3.)]

[Footnote 2: Elze, ”Die Englische Sprache und Litteratur in Deutschland,” gives what purports to be a complete list of these German-English periodicals in chronological order, but he begins his register with Eschenburg's _Brittisches Museum fur die Deutschen_, 1777-81, thus failing to mention the more significant, because earlier, journals: _die Brittische Bibliothek_, which appeared first in 1759 in Leipzig, edited by Karl Wilhelm Muller: and _Bremisches Magazin zur Ausbreitung der Wissenschaften, Kunste und Tugend, Von einigen Liebhabern derselben mehrentheils aus den Englischen Monatsschriften gesammelt und herausgegeben_, Bremen and Leipzig, 1757-1766, when the _Neues Bremisches Magazin_ begins.]

[Footnote 3: Briefe deutscher Gelehrten aus Gleim's Nachla.s.s.

Bd. II, p. 213.]

[Footnote 4: ”Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung,” V, pp. 184 ff.

The comparative inferiority of the German novel is discussed by l'Abbe Denina in ”La Prusse Litteraire sous Frederic II,” Berlin, 1791. Vol. I, pp. 112 ff. See also Julian Schmidt, ”Bilder aus dem geistigen Leben unserer Zeit.” Leipzig, 1870. IV, pp. 270 ff.]

[Footnote 5: III, pp. 1 ff.]

[Footnote 6: Vermischte Schriften, II, p. 215.]

[Footnote 7: ”Versuch uber den Roman.” Frankfort and Leipzig, 1774, p. 528. This study contains frequent allusions to Sterne and occasional quotation from his works, pp. 48, 191, 193, 200, 210, 273, 351, 365, 383, 426.]

[Footnote 8: There is a similar tribute to English humor in ”Ueber die moralische Schonheit und Philosophie des Lebens.” Altenburg, 1772, p. 199. Compare also Herder's opinion in ”Ideen zur Geschichte und Kritik der Poesie und bildenden Kunste,” 1794-96, No. 49, in ”Abhandlungen und Briefe uber schone Literatur und Kunst.” Tubingen, 1806, I, pp. 375-380; compare also pa.s.sages in his ”Fragmente” and ”Waldchen.”]

[Footnote 9: Second edition, Halle, 1807, II, pp. 309 ff. The definition of humor and the perplexing question as to how far it is identical with ”Laune,” have received considerable attention at the hands of aesthetic critics; compare, for example, Lessing in the ”Hamburgische Dramaturgie.”]

[Footnote 10: VII. p. 353. 1761.]

[Footnote 11: ”Deutsche Nationalliteratur,” II, p. 535. Hamburg, 1850.]

[Footnote 12: ”Geschichte der deutschen Literatur im achtzehnten Jahrhundert,” III, 1, pp. 363 ff.]

[Footnote 13: See Introduction to ”Briefe uber Merkwurdigkeiten der Litteratur” in Seuffert's Deutsche Litterat.u.r.denkmale des 18.

und 19. Jahrhunderts. The literature of this study of imitation in the Germany of the second half of the eighteenth century is considerable. The effort of much in the Litteratur-Briefe may be mentioned as contributing to this line of thought. The prize question of the Berlin Academy for 1788 brought forth a book ent.i.tled: ”Wie kann die Nachahmung sowohl alter als neuer fremden Werke der schonen Wissenschaften des vaterlandischen Geschmack entwickeln und vervollkommnen?” by Joh. Chr. Schwabe, professor in Stuttgart. (Berlin, pp. 120; reviewed in _Allg. Litt. Zeitung._ 1790. I, pp. 632-640.) Perhaps the first English essay upon German imitation of British masters is that in the _Critical Journal_, Vol. III, which was considered of sufficient moment for a German translation. See _Morgenblatt_, I, Nr. 162, July 8, 1807. A writer in the _Auserlesene Bibliothek der neusten deutschen Litteratur_ (Lemgo, 1772-3), in an article ent.i.tled ”Vom Zustande des Geschmacks beim deutschen Publik.u.m,” traces the tendency to imitate to the German capacity for thinking rather than for feeling. (III, pp. 683 ff.) ”Das deutsche Publik.u.m,” he says, ”scheint dazu bestimmt zu seyn, nachzuahmen, nachzuurtheilen, nachzuempfinden.” Justus Moser condemns his fellow countrymen soundly for their empty imitation. See fragment published in ”Sammtliche Werke,” edited by B. R. Abeken. Berlin, 1858. IV, pp. 104-5.]

[Footnote 14: Herder's sammtliche Werke, edited by B. Suphan, Berlin, Weidman, 1877, I, 254. In the tenth fragment (second edition) he says the Germans have imitated other nations, ”so da.s.s Nachahmer beinahe zum Beiwort und zur zweiten Sylbe unseres Namens geworden.” See II, p. 51. Many years later Herder does not seem to view this period of imitation with such regret as the att.i.tude of these earlier criticisms would forecast. In the ”Ideen zur Geschichte und Kritik der Poesie und bildenden Kunste,” 1794-96, he states with a burst of enthusiasm over the adaptability of the German language that he regards imitation as no just reproach, for thereby has Germany become immeasurably the richer.]

[Footnote 15: The kind of praise bestowed on Hermes's ”Sophiens Reise” is a case in point; it was greeted as the first real German novel, the traces of English imitation being hardly noticeable.

See _Magazin der deutschen Critik_, Vol. I, St. 2, pp. 245-251, 1772, signed ”Kl.” Sattler's ”Friederike” was accorded a similar welcome of German patriotism; see _Magazin der deutschen Critik_, III, St. 1, p. 233. The ”Litterarische Reise durch Deutschland”

(Leipzig, 1786, p. 82) calls ”Sophiens Reise” the first original German novel. See also the praise of Von Thummel's ”Wilhelmine”

and ”Sophiens Reise” in Blankenburg's ”Versuch uber den Roman,”

pp. 237-9. Previously Germans had often hesitated to lay the scenes of their novels in Germany, and in many others English characters traveling or residing in Germany supply the un-German element.]

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