Part 6 (2/2)

In July of this same year[35] was published a volume ent.i.tled ”Sterne's Letters to His Friends on Various Occasions, to which is added his History of a Watchcoat with Explanatory Notes,” containing twelve letters (one by Dr. Eustace) and the watchcoat story. Some of these letters had appeared previously in British magazines, and one, copied from the _London Magazine_, was translated in the _Wandsbecker Bothe_ for April 16, 1774.[36] A translation of the same letter was given in the _Gothaische Gelehrte Zeitungen_, 1774, pp. 286-7. Three of these letters only are accepted by Prof. Saintsbury (Nos. 7, 124, the letter of Dr. Eustace, and 125). Of the others, Nos. 4-11 have been judged as of doubtful authenticity. Two of them, Nos. 11 and 12 (”I beheld her tender look” and ”I feel the weight of obligation”) are in the standard ten-volume edition of Sterne,[37] but the last letter is probably spurious also.

The publication of the letters from Yorick to Eliza was the justification afforded Lydia Sterne de Medalle for issuing her father's correspondence according to her mother's request: the other volume was not issued till after it was known that Sterne's daughter was engaged in the task of collecting and editing his correspondence. Indeed, the editor expressly states in his preface that it is not the purpose of the book to forestall Mme. Medalle's promised collection; that the letters in this volume are not to be printed in hers.[38] Mme. Medalle added to her collection the ”Fragment in the manner of Rabelais” and the invaluable, characteristic sc.r.a.p of autobiography, which was written particularly for ”my Lydia.” The work appeared at Becket's in three volumes, and the dedication to Garrick was dated June, 1775; but, as the notice in the _Monthly Review_ for October[39] a.s.serts that they have ”been published but a few days,” this date probably represents the time of the completion of the task, or the inception of the printer's work.[40] During the same year the spurious letters from Eliza to Yorick were issued.

Naturally Sterne's letters found readers in Germany, the Yorick-Eliza correspondence being especially calculated to awaken response.[41] The English edition of the ”Letters from Yorick to Eliza” was reviewed in the _Neue Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften_,[42] with a hint that the warmth of the letters might easily lead to a suspicion of unseemly relations.h.i.+p, but the reviewer contends that virtue and rect.i.tude are preserved in the midst of such extraordinary tenderness, so that one may interpret it as a Platonic rather than a sensual affection. Yet this review cannot be designated as distinctive of German opinion, for it contains no opinion not directly to be derived from the editor's foreword, and that alone; indeed, the wording suggests decidedly that source. The _Gothaische Gelehrte Zeitung_[43] for April 15, 1775, reviews the same English edition, but the notice consists of an introductory statement of Eliza's ident.i.ty and translation of parts of three letters, the ”Lord Bathurst letter,” the letter involving the criticism of Eliza's portraits,[44] and the last letter to Eliza. The translation is very weak, abounding in elementary errors; for example, ”She has got your picture and likes it” becomes ”Sie hat Ihr Bildniss gemacht, es ist ahnlich,” and ”I beheld you . . . as a very plain woman”

is rendered ”und hielt Sie fur nichts anders als eine Frau.” The same journal,[45] August 5, reviews the second collection of Sterne's letters, but there is no criticism, merely an introductory statement taken from the preface, and the translation of two letters, the one to Mistress V., ”Of two bad ca.s.socs, fair lady,” and the epistle beginning, ”I s.n.a.t.c.h half an hour while my dinner is getting ready.” The _Gottingische Gelehrte Anzeigen_, 1776, p. 382, also gives in a review information concerning this anonymous collection, but no criticism.

One would naturally look to Hamburg for translations of these epistles.

In the very year of their appearance in England we find ”Yorick's Briefe an Eliza,” Hamburg, bey C. E. Bohn, 1775;[46] ”Briefe von Eliza an Yorick,” Hamburg, bey Bode, 1775; and ”Briefe von (Yorick) Sterne an seine Freunde nebst seiner Geschichte eines Ueberrocks,” Hamburg, bey Bohn, 1775. The translator's name is not given, but there is every reason to suppose that it was the faithful Bode, though only the first volume is mentioned in Jordens' account of him, and under his name in Goedeke's ”Grundriss.” Contemporary reviewers attributed all three books to Bode, and internal evidence goes to prove it.[47]

The first volume contains no translator's preface, and the second, the spurious Eliza letters, only a brief footnote to the translation of the English preface. In this note Bode's ident.i.ty is evident in the following quotation: He says he has translated the letters ”because I believe that they will be read with pleasure, and because I fancy I have a kind of vocation to give in German everything that Sterne has written, or whatever has immediate relation to his writings.” This note is dated Hamburg, September 16, 1775. In the third volume, the miscellaneous collection, there is a translator's preface in which again Bode's hand is evident. He says he knows by sure experience that Sterne's writings find readers in Germany; he is a.s.sured of the authenticity of the letters, but is in doubt whether the reader is possessed of sufficient knowledge of the attending circ.u.mstances to render intelligible the allusion of the watchcoat story. To forfend the possibility of such dubious appreciation, the account of the watchcoat episode is copied word for word from Bode's introduction to the ”Empfindsame Reise.”[48]

In this same year, an unknown translator issued in a single volume a rendering of these three collections.[49] The following year Mme.

Medalle's collection was brought out in Leipzig in an anonymous translation, which has been attributed to Christian Felix Weisse.[50]

Its t.i.tle was ”Lorenz Sterne's Briefe an seine vertrautesten Freunde nebst einem Fragment im Geschmack des Rabelais und einer von ihm selbst verfa.s.sten Nachricht von seinem Leben und seiner Familie, herausgegeben von seiner Tochter Mad. Medalle,” Leipzig, 1776, pp. xxviii, 391.

Weidmanns Erben und Reich.

Bode's translation of Yorick's letters to Eliza is reviewed in the _Gothaische Gelehrte Zeitung_, August 9, 1775, with quotation of the second letter in full. The same journal notes the translation of the miscellaneous collection, November 4, 1775, giving in full the letter of Dr. Eustace and Sterne's reply.[51] The _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[52] reviews together the three Hamburg volumes (Bode) and the Leipzig volume containing the same letters. The utter innocence, the unquestionably Platonic character of the relations between Yorick and Eliza is accepted fully. With keen, critical judgment the reviewer is inclined to doubt the originality of the Eliza letters. Two letters by Yorick are mentioned particularly, letters which bear testimony to Yorick's practical benevolence: one describing his efforts in behalf of a dishonored maiden, and one concerning the old man who fell into financial difficulties.[53] Both the translations win approval, but Bode's is preferred; they are designated as doubtless his. The ”Briefe an Elisa” (Bode's translation) are noticed in the _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_, October 3 and 6, 1775, with unrestrained praise of the translator, and vigorous a.s.severation of their authenticity. It is recognized fully that the relation as disclosed was extraordinary among married people, even Sterne's amazing statement concerning the fragile obstacles which stood in the way of their desires is noted. Yet the Yorick of these letters is accorded undisguised admiration. His love is exalted above that of Swift for Stella, Waller for Sacharissa, Scarron for Maintenon,[54] and his G.o.dly fear as here exhibited is cited to offset the outspoken avowal of dishonoring desire.[55] Hamann in a letter to Herder, June 26, 1780, speaks of the Yorick-Eliza correspondence quite disparagingly.[56]

In 1787 another volume of Sterne letters was issued in London, giving English and German on opposite pages.[57] There are but six letters and all are probably spurious.

In 1780 there was published a volume of confessedly spurious letters ent.i.tled ”Briefe von Yorick und Elisen, wie sie zwischen ihnen konnten geschrieben werden.”[58] The introduction contains some interesting information for the determination of the genuineness of the Sterne letters.[59] The editor states that the author had written these letters purely as a diversion, that the editor had proposed their publication, but was always met with refusal until there appeared in London a little volume of letters which their editor emphatically declared to be genuine. This is evidently the volume published by the anonymous editor in 1775, and our present editor declares that he knows Nos. 4-10 were from the same pen as the present confessedly spurious collection. They were mere efforts originally, but, published in provincial papers, found their way into other journals, and the editor goes on to say, that, to his astonishment, he saw one of these epistles included in Lydia Medalle's collection. This is, of course, No. 5, the one beginning, ”The first time I have dipped my pen in the ink-horn.” These events induced the author to allow the publication. The book itself consists mostly of a kind of diary kept by Yorick to send to Eliza at Madeira and later to India, and a corresponding journal written by Eliza on the vessel and at Madeira.

Yorick's sermons were inevitably less potent in their appeal, and the editions and translations were less numerous. In spite of obvious effort, Sterne was unable to infuse into his homiletical discourses any considerable measure of genuine Shandeism, and his sermons were never as widely popular as his two novels, either among those who sought him for whimsical pastime or for sentimental emotion. They were sermons. The early Swiss translation has been duly noted.

The third volume of the Zurich edition, which appeared in 1769, contained the ”Reden an Esel,” which the reviewer in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[60] with acute penetration designates as spurious.

Another translation of these sermons was published at Leipzig, according to the editor of a later edition[61] (Thorn, 1795), in the same year as the Zurich issue, 1769.

The _Berlinische Monatsschrift_[62] calls attention to the excellence of the work and quotes the sermons at considerable length. The comment contains the erroneous statement that Sterne was a dissenter, and opposed to the established church. The translation published at Thorn in 1795, evidently building on this information, continues the error, and, in explanation of English church affairs, adds as enlightenment the thirty-nine articles. This translation is confessedly a working-over of the Leipzig translation already mentioned. It is difficult to discover how these sermons ever became attached to Sterne's name, and one can hardly explain the fact that such a magazine as the _Berlinische Monatsschrift_[63] should at that late date publish an article so flatly contradictory to everything for which Sterne stood, so diametrically opposed to his career, save with the understanding that gross ignorance attended the original introduction and early imitation of Yorick, and that this incomprehension, or one-sided appreciation of the real Sterne persisted in succeeding decades. The German Yorick was the champion of the oppressed and downtrodden. The author of the ”Sermons to a.s.ses”

appeared as such an opponent of coercion and arbitrary power in church and state, an upholder of human rights; hence, possibly, the authors.h.i.+p of this book was attributed to Sterne by something the same process as that which, in the age of heroic deeds, a.s.sociated a miscellaneous collection of performances with a popular hero. The ”Sermons to a.s.ses”

were written by Rev. James Murray (1732-1782), a noted dissenting minister, long pastor of High Bridge Chapel in Newcastle-on-Tyne. They were published in London in 1768 and dedicated to G. W., J. W., W. R.

and M. M.--George Whitfield, John Wesley, William Romaine and Martin Madan. The English people are represented as burden-bearing a.s.ses laden with oppression in the shape of taxes and creeds.[64] They are directed against the power of the established church. It is needless to state that England never a.s.sociated these sermons with Sterne.[65] The English edition was also briefly reviewed in the _Hamburgische Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_[66] without connecting the work with Sterne. The error was made later, possibly by the translator of the Zurich edition.

The new collection of Sterne's sermons published by Cadell in 1769, Vols. V, VI, VII, is reviewed by _Unterhaltungen_.[67] A selection from Sterne's sermon on the Prodigal Son was published in translation in the _Hamburgische Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_ for April 13, 1768. The new collection of sermons was translated by A. E. Klausing and published at Leipzig in 1770, containing eighteen sermons.[68]

Both during Sterne's life and after his death books were published claiming him as their author. In England contemporary criticism generally stigmatized these impertinent attempts as dubious, or undoubtedly fraudulent. The spurious ninth volume of Shandy has been mentioned.[69] The ”Sermons to a.s.ses” just mentioned also belong here, and, with reservation, also Stevenson's continuation of the Sentimental Journey, with its claim to recognition through the continuator's statement of his relation to Yorick. There remain also a few other books which need to be mentioned because they were translated into German and played their part there in shaping the German idea of Yorick. In general, it may be said that German criticism was never acute in judging these products, partially perhaps because they were viewed through the medium of an imperfectly mastered foreign tongue, a mediocre or an adapted translation. These books obtained relatively a much more extensive recognition in Germany than in England.

In 1769 a curious conglomerate was brought over and issued under the lengthy descriptive t.i.tle: ”Yoricks Betrachtungen uber verschiedene wichtige und angenehme Gegenstande. Nemlich uber Nichts, Ueber Etwas, Ueber das Ding, Ueber die Regierung, Ueber den Toback, Ueber die Nasen, Ueber die Quaksalber, Ueber die Hebammen, Ueber den Homunculus, Ueber die Steckenpferde, Ueber das Momusglas, Ueber die Ausschweifungen, Ueber die Dunkelkeit im Schreiben, Ueber den Unsinn, Ueber die Verbindung der Ideen, Ueber die Hahnreiter, Ueber den Mann in dem Monde, Ueber Leibnitzens Monaden, Ueber das was man Vertu nennt, Ueber das Gewissen, Ueber die Trunkenheit, Ueber den Nachtstuhl, Betrachtungen uber Betrachtungen.--neque--c.u.m lectulus, aut me Porticus excepit, desum mihi, Horat.” Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1769, 8vo. The book purported to be a collection of Sterne's earliest lucubrations, and the translator expresses his astonishment that no one had ever translated them before, although they were first issued in 1760. It is without doubt the translation of an English volume ent.i.tled ”Yorick's Meditations upon interesting and important subjects,” published by Stevens in London, 1760.[70] It had been forgotten in England long before some German chanced upon it. The preface closes with a long doggerel rhyme, which, the translator says, he has purposely left untranslated. It is, however, beyond the shadow of a doubt original with him, as its contents prove.

Yorick in the Elysian Fields is supposed to address himself, he ”antic.i.p.ates his fate and perceives beforehand that at least one German critic would deem him worthy of his applause.”

”Go on, poor Yorik, try once more In German Dress, thy fate of yore, Expect few Critics, such, as by The bucket of Philosophy From out the bottom of the well May draw the Sense of what you tell And spy what wit and Morals sound Are in thy Rambles to be found.”

After a pa.s.sage in which the rhymester enlarges upon the probability of distorted judgment, he closes with these lines:

”Dire Fate! but for all that no worse, You shall be WIELAND'S Hobby-Horse, So to HIS candid Name, unbrib'd These meditations be inscrib'd.”

This was at the time of Wieland's early enthusiasm, when he was probably contemplating, if not actually engaged upon a translation of Tristram Shandy. ”Thy fate of yore” in the second line is evidently a poetaster's acceptation of an obvious rhyme and does not set Yorick's German experience appreciably into the past. The translator supplies frequent footnotes explaining the allusions to things specifically English. He makes occasional comparison with German conditions, always with the claim that Germany is better off, and needs no such satire. The _Hallische Neue Gelehrte Zeitungen_ for June 1, 1769, devotes a review of considerable length to this translation; in it the reviewer a.s.serts that one would have recognized the father of this creation even if Yorick's name had not stood on its forehead; that it closely resembles its fellows even if one must place it a degree below the Journey. The _Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek_[71] throws no direct suspicion on the authenticity, but with customary insight and sanity of criticism finds in this early work ”a great deal that is insipid and affected.” The _Deutsche Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften_, however, in a review which shows a keen appreciation of Sterne's style, openly avows an inclination to question the authenticity, save for the express statement of the translator; the latter it agrees to trust.[72] The book is placed far below the Sentimental Journey, below Shandy also, but far above the artificial tone of many other writers then popular. This relative ordering of Sterne's works is characteristic of German criticism. In the latter part of the review its author seizes on a mannerism, the exaggerated use of which emphatically sunders the book from the genuine Sterne, the monotonous repet.i.tion of the critic's protests and Yorick's verbal conflicts with them. Sterne himself used this device frequently, but guardedly, and in ever-changing variety. Its careless use betrays the mediocre imitator.[73]

The more famous Koran was also brought to German territory and enjoyed there a recognition entirely beyond that accorded it in England. This book was first given to the world in London as the ”Posthumous Works of a late celebrated Genius deceased;”[74] a work in three parts, bearing the further t.i.tle, ”The Koran, or the Life, Character and Sentiments of Tria Juncta in Uno, M. N. A., Master of No Arts.” Richard Griffith was probably the real author, but it was included in the first collected edition of Sterne's works, published in Dublin, 1779.[75] The work purports to be, in part, an autobiography of Sterne, in which the late writer lays bare the secrets of his life, his early debauchery, his father's unworthiness, his profligate uncle, the ecclesiastic, and the beginning of his literary career by advertising for hack work in London, being in all a confused ma.s.s of impossible detail, loose notes and disconnected opinion, which contemporary English reviews stigmatize as manifestly spurious, ”an infamous attempt to palm the united effusions of dullness and indecency upon the world as the genuine production of the late Mr. Sterne.”[76]

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