Part 6 (1/2)

CHAPTER IV

STERNE IN GERMANY AFTER THE PUBLICATION OF THE SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY

The publication of the Sentimental Journey, as implied in the previous chapter, brought Sterne into vital connection with literary impulses and emotional experiences in Germany, and his position as a leader was at once recognized. Because of the immediate translations, the reviews of the English original are markedly few, even in journals which gave considerable attention to English literary affairs. The _Neue Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften_[1] purposely delays a full review of the book because of the promised translation, and contents itself with the remark, ”that we have not read for a long time anything more full of sentiment and humor.” Yet, strangely enough, the translation is never worthily treated, only the new edition of 1771 is mentioned,[2] with especial praise of Fuger's ill.u.s.trations.

Other journals devote long reviews to the new favorite: according to the _Jenaische Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen_[3] all the learned periodicals vied with one another in lavish bestowal of praise upon these Journeys. The journals consulted go far toward justifying this statement.

The _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_ reviews both the Bode and Mittelstedt renderings, together with Bode's translation of Stevenson's continuation, in the second volume of the Anhang to Volumes I-XII.[4]

The critique of Bode's work defines, largely in the words of the book itself, the peculiar purpose and method of the Journey, and comments briefly but with frank enthusiasm on the various touching incidents of the narrative: ”Nur ein von der Natur verwahrloseter bleibt dabei kalt und gleichgultig,” remarks the reviewer. The conception of Yorick's personal character, which prevailed in Germany, obtained by a process of elimination and misunderstanding, is represented by this critic when he records without modifying his statement: ”Various times Yorick shows himself as the most genuine foe of self-seeking, of immoral _double entendre_, and particularly of a.s.sumed seriousness, and he scourges them emphatically.” The review of the third and fourth parts contains a similar and perhaps even more significant pa.s.sage ill.u.s.trating the view of Yorick's character held by those who did not know him and had the privilege of admiring him only in his writings and at a safe distance.

”Yorick,” he says, ”although he sometimes brings an event, so to speak, to the brink of an indecorous issue, manages to turn it at once with the greatest delicacy to a decorous termination. Or he leaves it incomplete under such circ.u.mstances that the reader is impressed by the rare delicacy of mind of the author, and can never suspect that such a man, who never allows a _double entendre_ to enter his mind without a blush, has entertained an indecent idea.” This view is derived from a somewhat short-sighted reading of the Sentimental Journey: the obvious Sterne of Tristram Shandy, and the more insidiously concealed creator of the Journey could hardly be characterized discriminatingly by such a statement. Sterne's cleverness consists not in suggesting his own innocence of imagination, but in the skill with which he a.s.sures his reader that he is master of the situation, and that no possible interpretation of the pa.s.sage has escaped his intelligence. To the Mittelstedt translation is accorded in this review the distinction of being, in the rendering of certain pa.s.sages, more correct than Bode's.

A reviewer in the _Hallische Neue Gelehrte Zeitung_[5] treats of the Sentimental Journey in the Mittelstedt translation. He is evidently unfamiliar with the original and does not know of Bode's work, yet his admiration is unbounded, though his critique is without distinction or discrimination. The _Neue Critische Nachrichten_[6] of Greifswald gives a review of Bode's rendering in which a parallel with Shakespeare is suggested. The original mingling of instruction and waggery is commented upon, imitation is discouraged, and the work is held up as a test, through appreciation or failure to appreciate, of a reader's ability to follow another's feelings, to understand far-away hints and allusions, to follow the tracks of an irregular and errant wit.

The _Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent_ for October 29, 1768, regards the book in Bode's translation as an individual, unparalleled work of genius and discourses at length upon its beneficent medicinal effects upon those whose minds and hearts are perplexed and clouded.

The wanton pa.s.sages are acknowledged, but the reviewer a.s.serts that the author must be pardoned them for the sake of his generous and kind-hearted thoughts. The Mittelstedt translation is also quoted and parallel pa.s.sages are adduced to demonstrate the superiority of Bode's translation.

The Germans naturally learned to know the continuation of Eugenius chiefly through Bode's translation, designated as the third and fourth volumes of the work, and thus because of the sanction of the intermediary, were led to regard Stevenson's tasteless, tedious and revolting narrative with a larger measure of favor than would presumably have been accorded to the original, had it been circulated extensively in Germany. After years the _Allgemeine Literatur Zeitung_[7] implies incidentally that Bode's esteeming this continuation worthy of his attention is a fact to be taken into consideration in judging its merits, and states that Bode beautified it. Bode's additions and alterations were, as has been pointed out, all directly along the line of the Yorick whom the Germans had made for themselves. It is interesting to observe that the reviewer of these two volumes of the continuation in the _Neue Critische Nachrichten_,[8] while recognizing the inevitability of failure in such a bold attempt, and acknowledging that the outward form of the work may by its similarity be at first glance seductive, notes two pa.s.sages of sentiment ”worthy even of a Yorick,”--the episode ”Das Hundchen” and the anecdote of the sparrows which the traveler shot in the garden: both are additions on Bode's part, and have no connection with the original. The reviewer thus singled out for especial approval two interpolations by the German translator, incidents which in their conception and narration have not the true English Yorick ring.

The success of the Sentimental Journey increased the interest in the incomprehensible Shandy. Lange's new edition of Zuckert's translation has been noted, and before long Bode[9] was induced to undertake a German rendering of the earlier and longer novel. This translation was finished in the summer of 1774, the preface being dated ”End of August.”

The foreword is mainly concerned with Goeze's attack on Bode's personal character, a thrust founded on Bode's connection with the Sentimental Journey and its continuation. At the close of this introduction Bode says that, without undervaluing the intelligence of his readers, he had regarded notes as essential, but because of his esteem for the text, and a parental affection for the notes, he has foreborne to insert them here. ”So they still lie in my desk, as many as there are of them, but upon pressing hints they might be washed and combed, and then be published under the t.i.tle perhaps of a 'Real und Verballexicon uber Tristram Shandy's Leben und Meinungen.'” This hint of a work of his own, serving as a commentary to Tristram Shandy, has been the occasion of some discussion. A reviewer in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_,[10]

in an account of Bode's and Wichmann's renderings of ”Tom Jones,” begs Bode to fulfill the hopes thus raised, saying he could give Yorick's friends no more valuable or treasured gift. Bottiger in his biographical sketch of Bode expressed regret that the work never saw the light, adding that the work contained so many allusions to contemporary celebrities and hits upon Bode's acquaintance that wisdom had consigned to oblivion.[11] A correspondent, writing to the _Teutscher Merkur_,[12]

minimizes the importance of this so-called commentary, saying ”er hatte nie einen Kommentar der Art, . . . auch nur angefangen auszuarbeiten.

Die ganze Sache grundet sich auf eine scherzhafte Aeusserung gegen seinem damaligen Freund in Hamburg, welchen er oft mit der ihm eignen Ironie mit diesem Kommentar zu drohen pflegte.”

The list of subscribers to Bode's translation contained upwards of 650 names, among which are Boie, Claudius, Einsieder, Gerstenberg, Gleim, Fraulein von Gochhausen, Goethe, Hamann, Herder, Hippel, Jacobi, Klopstock, Schummel, Wieland (five copies), and Zimmermann. The names of Ebert and Lessing are not on the list. The number of subscribers in Mitau (twelve) is worthy of note, as ill.u.s.trating the interest in Sterne still keenly alive in this small and far away town, undoubtedly a direct result of the admiration so lavishly expressed in other years by Herder, Hamann and their circle.

The translation was hailed then as a masterly achievement of an arduous task, the difficulties of which are only the less appreciated because of the very excellence of the performance. It contrasts most strikingly with its clumsy predecessor in its approximation to Sterne's deftness of touch, his delicate turns of phrase, his seemingly obvious and facile, but really delicate and accurate choice of expression. Zuckert was heavy, commonplace, uncompromisingly literal and bristling with inaccuracies. Bode's work was unfortunately not free from errors in spite of its general excellence, yet it brought the book within reach of those who were unable to read it in English, and preserved, in general with fidelity, the spirit of the original. The reviews were prodigal of praise. Wieland's expressions of admiration were full-voiced and extensive.[13]

The _Wandsbecker Bothe_ for October 28, 1774, a.s.serts that many readers in England had not understood the book as well as Bode, a frequent expression of inordinate commendation; that Bode follows close on the heels of Yorick on his most intimate expeditions. The _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_[14] copies in full the translation of the first chapter as both Zuckert and Bode rendered it, and praises the latter in unqualified terms; Bode appears as ”Yorick's rescuer.” Several years later, in the _Deutsches Museum_, the well-known French translation of Shandy by Frenais is denounced as intolerable (unertraglich) to a German who is acquainted with Bode's,[15] an opinion emphasized later in the same magazine[16] by Joseph von Retzer. Indeed, upon these two translations from Sterne rests Bode's reputation as a translator. His ”Tom Jones” was openly criticised as bearing too much of Sterne,[17] so great was the influence of Yorick upon the translator. Klamer Schmidt in a poem called ”Klamersruh, eine landlich malerische Dichtung,”[18]

dilating upon his favorite authors during a country winter, calls Bode ”our Sterne” and ”the ideal translator,” and in some verses by the same poet, quoted in the article on Bode in Schlichtegroll's ”Nekrolog,”[19]

is found a very significant stanza expressing Sterne's immeasurable obligation to his German translator:

”Er geht zu dir nun, unser Bode!

Empfang ihn, Yoriks Geist! Auch dein Erbarmt er sich, Errettete vom Tode Der Uebersetzer dich!”

Matthison in his ”Gruss aus der Heimath,”[20] pays similar tribute in a vision connected with a visit to Bode's resting-place in Weimar. It is a fanciful relation: as Bode's shade is received with jubilation and delight in the Elysian Fields by Cervantes, Rabelais, Montaigne, Fielding and Sterne, the latter censures Bode for distrusting his own creative power, indicating that he might have stood with the group just enumerated, that the fame of being ”the most excellent transcriber” of his age should not have sufficed.

In view of all this marked esteem, it is rather surprising to find a few years later a rather sweeping, if apologetic, attack on the rendering of Shandy. J. L. Benzler, the librarian of Graf s...o...b..rg at Wernigerode, published in 1801 a translation of Shandy which bore the legend ”Newly translated into German,” but was really a new edition of Bode's work with various corrections and alterations.[21] Benzler claims in his preface that there had been no translation of the masterpiece worthy of the original, and this was because the existing translation was from the pen of Bode, in whom one had grown to see the very ideal of a translator, and because praise had been so lavishly bestowed on the work by the critics. He then a.s.serts that Bode never made a translation which did not teem with mistakes; he translated incorrectly through insufficient knowledge of English, confusing words which sound alike, made his author say precisely the opposite of what he really did say, was often content with the first best at hand, with the half-right, and often erred in taste;--a wholesale and vigorous charge. After such a disparagement, Benzler disclaims all intention to belittle Bode, or his service, but he condescendingly ascribes Bode's failure to his lowly origin, his lack of systematic education, and of early a.s.sociation with the cultured world. Benzler takes Bode's work as a foundation and rewrites. Some of his changes are distinctly advantageous, and that so few of these errors in Bode's translation were noted by contemporary critics is a proof of their ignorance of the original, or their utter confidence in Bode.[22] Benzler in his preface of justification enumerates several extraordinary blunders[23] and then concludes with a rather inconsistent parting thrust at Bode, the perpetrator of such nonsense, at the critics who could overlook such errors and praise the work inordinately, and at the public who ventured to speak with delight of the work, knowing it only in such a rendering. Benzler was severely taken to task in the _Neue Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[24] for his shamelessness in rewriting Bode's translation with such comparatively insignificant alterations, for printing on the t.i.tle page in brazen effrontery ”newly translated into German,” and for berating Bode for his failure after cursing him with condescension. Pa.s.sages are cited to demonstrate the comparative triviality of Benzler's work. A brief comparison of the two translations shows that Benzler often translates more correctly than his predecessor, but still more often makes meaningless alterations in word-order, or in trifling words where nothing is to be gained by such a change.

The same year Benzler issued a similar revision of the Sentimental Journey,[25] printing again on the t.i.tle page ”newly translated into German.” The _Neue Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[26] greets this attempt with a similar tart review, containing parallel quotations as before, proving Benzler's inconsiderate presumption. Here Benzler had to face Bode's a.s.sertion that both Lessing and Ebert had a.s.sisted in the work, and that the former had in his kindness gone through the whole book. Benzler treats this fact rather cavalierly and renews his attack on Bode's rendering. Benzler resented this review and replied to it in a later number of the same periodical.[27]

Now that a century and more has elapsed, and personal acrimony can no longer play any part in criticism, one may justly admit Benzler's service in calling attention to inaccurate and inadequate translation, at the same time one must condemn utterly his manner of issuing his emendations. In 1831 there appeared a translation of Tristram Shandy which was again but a revision of Bode's work. It bore on the t.i.tle page ”Neu ubertragen von W. H.,” and contained a sketch of Sterne's life.[28]

In the nineties there seemed to be a renewal of Yorick enthusiasm, and at this time was brought forth, at Halle in 1794, a profusely annotated edition of the Sentimental Journey,[29] which was, according to the anonymous editor, a book not to be read, but to be studied. Claim is made that the real meaning of the book may be discovered only after several careful readings, that ”empfindsam” in some measure was here used in the sense of philosophical, that the book should be treated as a work of philosophy, though clad in pleasing garb; that it should be thought out according to its merits, not merely read. Yorick's failure to supply his chapters with any significant or alluring chapter-headings (probably the result of indolence on his part) is here interpreted as extraordinary sagacity, for he thereby lessens the expectations and heightens the effect. ”Eine Empfindungs-reise” is declared to be a more suitable name than ”Empfindsame Reise,” and comment is made upon the purpose of the Journey, the gathering of material for anatomical study of the human heart. The notes are numerous and lengthy, const.i.tuting a quarter to a third of the book, but are replete with padding, pointless babble and occasional puerile inaccuracies. They are largely attempts to explain and to moralize upon Yorick's emotions,--a verbose, childish, witless commentary. The Wortregister contains fourteen pages in double columns of explanations, in general differing very little from the kind of information given in the notes. The _Allgemeine Litteratur Zeitung_[30] devotes a long review chiefly to the explanation of the errors in this volume, not the least striking of which is the explanation of the reference to Smelfungus, whom everyone knows to have been Smollett: ”This learned Smelfungus appears to have written nothing but the Journey which is here mentioned.”[31] As an explanation of the initial ”H” used by Sterne for Hume, the note is given, ”The author 'H'

was perhaps a poor one.”[32]

Sterne's letters were issued first in London in 1775, a rather surprisingly long time after his death, when one considers how great was Yorick's following. According to the prefatory note of Lydia Sterne de Medalle in the collection which she edited and published, it was the wish of Mrs. Sterne that the correspondence of her husband, which was in her possession, be not given to the world, unless other letters bearing his name should be published. This hesitation on her part must be interpreted in such a way as to cast a favorable light on this much maligned gentlewoman, as a delicate reticence on her part, a desire to retain these personal doc.u.ments for herself.[33] The power of this sentiment must be measured by her refraining from publis.h.i.+ng during the five years which intervened between her husband's death and her own, March, 1768 to January, 1773--years which were embittered by the distress of straitened circ.u.mstances. It will be remembered that an effort was made by Mrs. Sterne and her daughter to retrieve their fortunes by a life of Sterne which was to be a collaboration by Stevenson and Wilkes, and urgent indeed was Lydia Sterne's appeal to these friends of her father to fulfill their promises and lend their aid. Even when this hope had to be abandoned early in 1770, through the faithlessness of Sterne's erstwhile companions, the widow and daughter turned to other possibilities rather than to the correspondence, though in the latter lay a more a.s.sured means of accomplis.h.i.+ng a temporary revival of their prosperity. This is an evidence of fine feeling on the part of Sterne's widow, with which she has never been duly credited.

But an anonymous editor published early in 1775[34] a volume ent.i.tled ”Letters from Yorick to Eliza,” a brief little collection, the source of which has never been clear, but whose genuineness has never been questioned. The editor himself waives all claim to proof ”which might be drawn concerning their authenticity from the character of the gentleman who had the perusal of them, and with Eliza's permission, faithfully copied them at Bombay.”