Part 14 (1/2)

The direct allusions to Sterne and his works are numerous. A list of Sterne characters which were indelibly impressed upon his mind is found near the very beginning (pp. 3-4); other allusions are to M. Dessein (p. 65), La Fleur's ”Courierstiefel” (p. 115), the words of the dying Yorick (p. 128), the pococurantism of Mrs. Shandy (p. 187), the division of travelers into types (p. 141), Uncle Toby (p. 200), Yorick's violin-playing (p. 274), the foolish fat scullion (p. 290), Yorick's description of a maid's (p. 188) eyes, ”als ob sie zwischen vier Wanden einem Garaus machen konnten.”

The second volume is even more incoherent in narration, and contains less genuine occurrence and more ill-considered attempts at whimsicality, yet throughout this volume there are indications that the author is awakening to the vulnerability of his position, and this is in no other particular more easily discernible than in the half-hearted defiance of the critics and his antic.i.p.ation of their censure. The change, so extraordinary in the third volume, is foreshadowed in the second. Purely sentimental, effusive, and abundantly teary is the story of the rescued baker's wife. In this excess of sentiment, Schummel shows his intellectual appreciation of Sterne's individual treatment of the humane and pathetic, for near the end of the poor woman's narrative the author seems to recollect a fundamental sentence of Sterne's creed, the inevitable admixture of the whimsical, and here he introduces into the sentimental relation a Shandean idiosyncrasy: from page 43 the narrative leaps back to the beginning of the volume, and Schummel advises the reader to turn back and re-read, referring incidentally to his confused fas.h.i.+on of narration. The awkwardness with which this is done proves Schummel's inability to follow Yorick, though its use shows his appreciation of Sterne's peculiar genius. The visit of the author, the baker's wife and her daughter (the former lady's maid) to the graveyard is Yorickian in flavor, and the plucking of nettles from the grave of the dead epileptic is a direct borrowing. Attempts to be immorally, sensuously suggestive in the manner of Sterne are found in the so-called chapter on ”b.u.t.ton-holes,” here cast in a more Shandean vein, and in the adventure ”die angstliche Nacht,”--in the latter case resembling more the less frank, more insinuating method of the Sentimental Journey. The sentimental att.i.tude toward man's dumb companions is imitated in his adventure with the house-dog; the author fears the barking of this animal may disturb the sleep of the poor baker's wife: he beats the dog into silence, then grows remorseful and wishes ”that I had given him no blow,” or that the dog might at least give him back the blows. His thought that the dog might be pretending its pain, he designates a subtle subterfuge of his troubled conscience, and Goethe, in the review mentioned above, exclaims, ”A fine pendant to Yorick's scene with the Monk.”

Distinctly Shandean are the numerous digressions, as on imitation (p. 16), on authors and fairs (p. 45), that which he calls (pp. 226-238) ”ein ganz originelles Gemische von Wiz, Belesenheit, Scharfsinn, gesunder Philosophie, Erfahrung, Algebra und Mechanik,” or (p. 253) ”Von der Entstehungsart eines Buches nach Erfindung der Buchdrukerkunst,”

which in reference to Sterne's phrase, is called a ”jungfrauliche Materie.” He promises (pp. 75 and 108), like Sterne, to write numerous chapters on extraordinary subjects,--indeed, he announces his intention of supplementing the missing sections of Shandy on ”b.u.t.ton-holes” and on the ”Right and Left (sic) end of a Woman.” His own promised effusions are to be ”Ueber die roten und schwarzen Rocke,” ”uber die Verbindung der Theologie mit Schwarz,” ”Europaischenfrauenzimmerschuhabsatze,” half a one ”Ueber die Schuhsohlen” and ”Ueber meinen Namen.”

His additions to Shandy are flat and witless, that on the ”Right and Wrong End of a Woman” (pp. 88 ff.) degenerating into three brief narratives displaying woman's susceptibility to flattery, the whole idea probably adapted from Sterne's chapter, ”An Act of Charity;” the chapter on ”b.u.t.ton-holes” is made a part of the general narrative of his relation to his ”Nave.” Weakly whimsical is his seeking pardon for the discourse with which the Frenchman (pp. 62-66), under the pretext that it belonged somewhere else and had inadvertently crept in. Shandean also is the black margin to pages 199-206, the line upside down (p. 175), the twelve irregularly printed lines (p. 331), inserted to indicate his efforts in writing with a burned hand, the lines of dashes and exclamation points, the mathematical, financial calculation of the worth of his book from various points of view, and the description of the maiden's walk (p. 291). Sterne's mock-scientific method, as already noted, is observable again in the statement of the position of the dagger ”at an angle of 30” (p. 248). His coining of new words, for which he is censured by the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_, is also a legacy of Yorick's method.

The third volume bears little relation to Sterne aside from its t.i.tle, and one can only wonder, in view of the criticism of the two parts already published and the nature of the author's own partial revulsion of feeling, that he did not give up publis.h.i.+ng it altogether, or choose another t.i.tle, and sunder the work entirely from the foregoing volumes, with which it has in fact so contradictory a connection. It may be that his relations to the publisher demanded the issuing of the third part under the same t.i.tle.

This volume is easily divisible into several distinct parts, which are linked with one another, and to the preceding narrative, only by a conventional thread of introduction. These comprise: the story of Caroline and Rosenfeld, a typical eighteenth century tale of love, seduction and flight; the hosts' ballad, ”Es war einmahl ein Edelmann;”

the play, ”Die unschuldige Ehebrecherin” and ”Mein Tagebuch,” the journal of an honest preacher, and a further sincere exploitation of Schummel's ideas upon the clergyman's office, his ideal of simplicity, kindliness, and humanity. In the latter part of the book Schummel resumes his original narrative, and indulges once more in the luxury of sentimental adventure, but without the former abortive attempts at imitating Sterne's peculiarities of diction. This last resumption of the sentimental creed introduces to us one event evidently inspired by Yorick: he meets a poor, maimed soldier-beggar. Since misfortune has deprived the narrator himself of his possessions, he can give nothing and goes a begging for the beggar's sake, introducing the new and highly sentimental idea of ”vicarious begging” (pp. 268-9). In the following episode, a visit to a child-murderess, Schummel leaves a page entirely blank as an appropriate proof of incapacity to express his emotions attendant on the execution of the unfortunate. Sterne also left a page blank for the description of the Widow Wadman's charms.

At the very end of the book Schummel drops his narrative altogether and discourses upon his own work. It would be difficult to find in any literature so complete a condemnation of one's own serious and extensive endeavor, so candid a criticism of one's own work, so frank an acknowledgment of the pettiness of one's achievement. He says his work, as an imitation of Sterne's two novels, has ”few or absolutely no beauties of the original, and many faults of its own.” He states that his enthusiasm for Tristram has been somewhat dampened by Sonnenfels and Riedel; he sees now faults which should not have been imitated; the frivolous att.i.tude of the narrator toward his father and mother is deprecated, and the suggestion is given that this feature was derived from Tristram's own frankness concerning the eccentricities and incapacities of his parents. He begs reference to a pa.s.sage in the second volume[14] where the author alludes with warmth of appreciation to his real father and mother; that is, genuine regard overcame the temporary blindness, real affection arose and thrust out the transitory inclination to an alien whimsicality.

Schummel admits that he has utterly failed in his effort to characterize the German people in the way Sterne treated the English and French; he confesses that the ninety-page autobiography which precedes the journey itself was intended to be Tristram-like, but openly stigmatizes his own failure as ”ill conceived, incoherent and not very well told!” After mentioning some few incidents and pa.s.sages in this first section which he regards as pa.s.sable, he boldly condemns the rest as ”almost beneath all criticism,” and the same words are used with reference to much that follows, in which he confesses to imitation, bad taste and intolerable indelicacy. He calls his pathetic attempts at whimsical mannerisms (Heideldum, etc.), ”klaglich, uberaus klaglich,” expresses the opinion that one would not be surprised at the reader who would throw away the whole book at such a pa.s.sage. The words of the preacher in the two sections where he is allowed to air his opinions still meet with his approval, and the same is true of one or two other sections. In conclusion, he states that the first part contains hardly one hundred good pages, and that the second part is worse than the first, so that he is unwilling to look at it again and seek out its faults. The absence of allusions to Sterne's writings is marked, except in the critical section at the end, he mentions Sterne but once (p. 239), where he calls him ”schnurrigt.” This alteration of feeling must have taken place in a brief s.p.a.ce of time, for the third volume is signed April 25, 1772. It is not easy to establish with probability the works of Sonnenfels and Riedel which are credited with a share in this revulsion of feeling.

In all of this Schummel is a discriminating critic of his own work; he is also discerning in his a.s.sertion that the narrative contained in his volume is conceived more in the vein of Fielding and Richardson. The Sterne elements are rather embroidered on to the other fabric, or, as he himself says, using another figure, ”only fried in Shandy fat.”[15]

Goethe's criticism of the second volume, already alluded to, is found in the _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_ in the issue of March 3, 1772. The nature of the review is familiar: Goethe calls the book a thistle which he has found on Yorick's grave. ”Alles,” he says, ”hat es dem guten Yorick geraubt, Speer, Helm und Lanze, nur Schade! inwendig steckt der Herr Praceptor S. zu Magdeburg . . . Yorick empfand, und dieser setzt sich hin zu empfinden. Yorick wird von seiner Laune ergriffen, und weinte und lachte in einer Minute und durch die Magie der Sympathie lachen und weinen wir mit: hier aber steht einer und uberlegt: wie lache und weine ich? was werden die Leute sagen, wenn ich lache und weine?”

etc. Schummel is stigmatized as a childish imitator and his book is censured as ”beneath criticism,” oddly enough the very judgment its own author accords but a few weeks later on the completion of the third volume. The review contains several citations ill.u.s.trative of Schummel's style.

The first two parts were reviewed in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_.[16] The length of the review is testimony to the interest in the book, and the tone of the article, though frankly unfavorable, is not so emphatically censorious as the one first noted. It is observed that Schummel has attempted the impossible,--the adoption of another's ”Laune,” and hence his failure. The reviewer notes, often with generous quotations, the more noticeable, direct imitations from Sterne, the conversation of the emotions, the nettle-plucking at the grave, the eccentric orthography and the new-coined words. Several pa.s.sages of comment or comparison testify to the then current admiration of Yorick, and the conventional German interpretation of his character; ”sein gutes, empfindungsvolles Herz, mit Tugend und sittlichem Gefuhl erfullt.” The review is signed ”Sr:”[17]

A critic in the _Jenaische Zeitungen von gelehrten Sachen_ for January 17, 1772, treating the first two volumes, expresses the opinion that Jacobi, the author of the ”Tagereise,” and Schummel have little but the t.i.tle from Yorick. The author's seeking for opportunity to dissolve in emotion is contrasted unfavorably with Yorick's method, the affected style is condemned, yet it is admitted that the work promises better things from its talented author; his power of observation and his good heart are not to be unacknowledged. The severity of the review is directed against the imitators already arising.

The _Magazin der deutschen Critik_[18] reviews the third volume with favorable comment; the comedy which Schummel saw fit to insert is received with rather extraordinary praise, and the author is urged to continue work in the drama; a desire is expressed even for a fourth part. The _Hamburgische Neue Zeitung_, June 4 and October 29, 1771, places Schummel unhesitatingly beside the English master, calls him as original as his pattern, to Sterne belongs the honor only of the invention. The author is hailed as a genius whose talents should be supported, so that Germany would not have to envy England her Yorick.[19]

After Schummel's remarkable self-chastis.e.m.e.nt, one could hardly expect to find in his subsequent works evidence of Sterne's influence, save as unconsciously a dimmed admiration might exert a certain force. Probably contemporaneous with the composition of the third volume of the work, but possibly earlier, Schummel wrote the fourth part of a ponderous novel by a fellow Silesian, Christian Opitz, ent.i.tled ”Die Gleichheit der menschlichen Herzen, bey der Ungleichheit ihrer ausserlichen Umstande in der Geschichte Herrn Redlichs und seiner Bedienten.” Goedeke implies that Opitz was the author of all but the last part, but the reviewer in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[20] maintains that each part has a different author, and quotes the preface to the fourth as substantiation. According to this review both the second and fourth parts are characterized by a humorous fas.h.i.+on in writing, and the last is praised as being the best of the four. It seems probable that Schummel's enthusiasm for Sterne played its part in the composition of this work.

Possibly encouraged by the critic's approbation, Schummel devoted his literary effort for the following years largely to the drama. In 1774 he published his ”Uebersetzer-Bibliothek zum Gebrauche der Uebersetzer, Schulmanner und Liebhaber der alten Litteratur.” The reviewer[21] in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_ finds pa.s.sages in this book in which the author of the ”Empfindsame Reisen” is visible,--where his fancy runs away with his reason,--and a pa.s.sage is quoted in which reference is made to Slawkenberg's book on noses. It would seem that the seeking for wit survived the crude sentimentality.

Two years later Schummel published ”Fritzen's Reise nach Dessau,”[22]

a work composed of letters from a twelve-year old boy, written on a journey from Magdeburg to Dessau. The letters are quite without whim or sentiment, and the book has been remembered for the extended description of Basedow's experimental school, ”Philantropin” (opened in 1774). Its account has been the source of the information given of this endeavor in some pedagogical treatises[23] and it was re-issued, as a doc.u.ment in the history of pedagogical experiment, in Leipzig, by Albert Richter in 1891. About fifteen years later still the ”Reise durch Schlesien”[24]

was issued. It is a simple narrative of a real journey with description of places and people, frankly personal, almost epistolary in form, without a suggestion of Sterne-like whim or sentiment. One pa.s.sage is significant as indicating the author's realization of his change of att.i.tude. The sight of a group of prisoners bound by a chain calls to his memory his former sentimental extravagance, and he exclaims: ”Twenty years ago, when I was still a sentimental traveler, I would have wasted many an 'Oh' and 'alas' over this scene; at present, since I have learned to know the world and mankind somewhat more intimately, I think otherwise.”

Johann Christian Bock (1724-1785), who was in 1772 theater-poet of the Ackerman Company in Hamburg, soon after the publication of the Sentimental Journey, identified himself with the would-be Yoricks by the production of ”Die Tagereise,” which was published at Leipzig in 1770.

The work was re-issued in 1775 with the new t.i.tle ”Die Geschichte eines empfundenen Tages.”[25] The only change in the new edition was the addition of a number of copperplate engravings. The book is inspired in part by Sterne directly, and in part indirectly through the intermediary Jacobi. Unlike the work of Schummel just treated, it betrays no Shandean influence, but is dependent solely on the Sentimental Journey. In outward form the book resembles Jacobi's ”Winterreise,” since verse is introduced to vary the prose narrative. The att.i.tude of the author toward his journey, undertaken with conscious purpose, is characteristic of the whole set of emotional sentiment-seekers, who found in their Yorick a challenge to go and do likewise: ”Everybody is journeying, I thought, and took Yorick and Jacobi with me. . . . I will really see whether I too may not chance upon a _fille de chambre_ or a harvest-maid,” is a very significant statement of his inspiration and intention. Once started on his journey, the author falls in with a poor warrior-beggar, an adaptation of Sterne's Chevalier de St. Louis,[26]

and he puts in verse Yorick's expressed sentiment that the king and the fatherland should not allow the faithful soldier to fall into such distress.

Bock's next sentimental adventure is with a fair peasant-maid whom he sees weeping by the wayside. Through Yorick-like insistence of sympathy, he finally wins from her information concerning the tender situation: a stern stepfather, an unwelcome suitor of his choosing, and a lover of her own. Her inability to write and thus communicate with the latter is the immediate cause of the present overflow. The traveler beholds in this predicament a remarkable sentimental opportunity and offers his services; he strokes her cheek, her tears are dried, and they part like brother and sister. The episode is unquestionably inspired by the episode of Maria of Moulines; in the latter development of the affair, the sentiment, which is expressed, that the girl's innocence is her own defense is borrowed directly from Yorick's statement concerning the _fille de chambre_.[27] The traveler's questioning of his own motives in ”Die Ueberlegung”[28] is distinctly Sterne-like, and it demonstrates also Bock's appreciation of this quizzical element in Yorick's att.i.tude toward his own sentimental behavior. The relation of man to the domestic animals is treated sentimentally in the episode of the old beggar and his dead dog:[29] the tears of the beggar, his affection for the beast, their genuine comrades.h.i.+p, and the dog's devotion after the world had forsaken his master, are all part and parcel of that fantastic humane movement which has its source in Yorick's dead a.s.s. Bock practically confesses his inspiration by direct allusion to the episode in Yorick.

Bock defends with warmth the old peasant and his grief.

The wanderer's acquaintance with the lady's companion[30] is adapted from Yorick's _fille de chambre_ connection, and Bock cannot avoid a fleshly suggestion, distinctly in the style of Yorick in the section, the ”Spider.”[31] The return journey in the sentimental moonlight affords the author another opportunity for the exercise of his broad human sympathy: he meets a poor woman, a day-laborer with her child, gives them a few coins and doubts whether king or bishop could be more content with the benediction of the apostolic chair than he with the blessing of this unfortunate,--a sentiment derived from Yorick's overcolored veneration for the horn snuff-box.

The churchyard scene with which the journey ends is more openly fanciful, down-right visionary in tone, but the manner is very emphatically not that of Sterne, though in the midst the Sterne motif of nettle-plucking is introduced. This sentimental episode took hold of German imagination with peculiar force. The hobby-horse idea also was sure of its appeal, and Bock did not fail to fall under its spell.[32]

But apart from the general impulse and borrowing of motif from the foreign novel, there is in this little volume considerable that is genuine and original: the author's German patriotism, his praise of the old days in the Fatherland in the chapter ent.i.tled ”Die Gaststube,” his ”Trinklied eines Deutschen,” his disquisition on the position of the poet in the world (”ein eignes Kapitel”), and his adulation of Gellert at the latter's grave. The reviewer in the _Deutsche Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften_[33] chides the unnamed, youthful author for not allowing his undeniable talents to ripen to maturity, for being led on by Jacobi's success to hasten his exercises into print. In reality Bock was no longer youthful (forty-six) when the ”Tagereise” was published.

The _Almanach der deutschen Musen_ for 1771, calls the book ”an unsuccessful imitation of Yorick and Jacobi,” and wishes that this ”Rhapsodie von Cruditaten” might be the last one thrust on the market as a ”Sentimental Journey.” The _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[34]

comments also on the double inspiration, and the insufficiency and tiresomeness of the performance. And yet Boie[35] says the papers praised the little book; for himself, however, he observes, he little desires to read it, and adds ”What will our Yoricks yet come to? At last they will get pretty insignificant, I think, if they keep on this way.”