Part 15 (2/2)
”Er thuts, er kommt zu mir, 'Komm, guter Lorenz, flieh!'
So ruft er auf mich zu. 'Dein Haus fangt an zu w.a.n.ken, Die Mauern spalten sich; Gewolb und Balken schw.a.n.ken, Was nuzt dir so ein Haus? . . .'”
so he takes the wreathed cup, drinks joyfully, and follows death, embracing him.
”Das ist mein Tod, ich sehe keinen Knochen, Womit du ihn, gleich einem Zahnarzt, schmuckst, Geschieht es heute noch, geschieht's in wenig Wochen, Da.s.s du, Gevatter Tod, nur meine Hande druckst?
Ganz nach Bequemlichkeit! du bist mir zwar willkommen.”
The latter part of the poem contains a rather extended laudation of the part played by sympathetic feeling in the conduct of life.
That there would be those in Germany as in England, who saw in Sterne's works only a mine of vulgar suggestion, a relation sometimes delicate and clever, sometimes bald and ugly, of the indelicate and sensual, is a foregone conclusion. Undoubtedly some found in the general approbation which was accorded Sterne's books a sanction for forcing upon the public the products of their own diseased imaginations.
This pernicious influence of the English master is exemplified by Wegener's ”Raritaten, ein hinterla.s.senes Werk des Kusters von Rummelsberg.”[80] The first volume is dedicated to ”Sebaldus Nothanker,”
and the long doc.u.ment claims for the author unusual distinction, in thus foregoing the possibility of reward or favor, since he dedicates his book to a fict.i.tious personage. The idea of the book is to present ”merry observations” for every day in the year. With the end of the fourth volume the author has reached March 17, and, according to the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_, the sixth volume includes May 22. The present writer was unable to examine the last volume to discover whether the year was rounded out in this way.
The author claims to write ”neither for surly Catos nor for those fond of vulgar jests and s.m.u.tty books,” but for those who will laugh. At the close of his preface he confesses the source of his inspiration: ”In order to inspire myself with something of the spirit of a Sterne, I made a decoction out of his writings and drank the same eagerly; indeed I have burned the finest pa.s.sages to powder, and then partaken of it with warm English ale, but”--he had the insight and courtesy to add--”it helped me just a little as it aids a lame man, if he steps in the footprints of one who can walk nimbly.” The very nature of this author's dependence on Sterne excludes here any extended a.n.a.lysis of the connection. The style is abrupt, full of affected gaiety and raillery, conversational and journalistic. The stories, observations and reflections, in prose and verse, represent one and all the ribaldry of Sterne at its lowest ebb, as ill.u.s.trated, for example, by the story of the abbess of Andouillets, but without the charm and grace with which that tale begins. The author copies Sterne in the tone of his lucubrations; the material is drawn from other sources. In the first volume, at any rate, his only direct indebtedness to Sterne is the introduction of the Shandean theory of noses in the article for January 11. The pages also, sometimes strewn with stars and dashes, present a somewhat Sternesque appearance.
These volumes are reviewed in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[81]
with full appreciation of their pernicious influence, and with open acknowledgment that their success demonstrates a pervision of taste in the fatherland. The author of the ”Litterarische Reise durch Deutschland”[82] advises his sister, to whom his letters are directed, to put her handkerchief before her mouth at the very mention of Wegener, and fears that the very name has befouled his pen. A similar condemnation is meted out in Wieland's _Merkur_.[83]
A similar commentary on contemporary taste is obtained from a somewhat similar collection of stories, ”Der Geist der Romane im letzten Viertel des 18ten Jahrhunderts,” Breslau and Hirschberg, 1788, in which the author (S. G. Preisser?) claims to follow the spirit of the period and gives six stories of revolting sensuality, with a thin whitewash of teary sentimentalism.
The pursuit of references to Yorick and direct appeals to his writings in the German literary world of the century succeeding the era of his great popularity would be a monstrous and fruitless task. Such references in books, letters and periodicals multiply beyond possibility of systematic study. One might take the works[84] of Friedrich Matthison as a case in point. He visits the grave of Musaus, even as Tristram Shandy sought for the resting-place of the two lovers in Lyons (III, p. 312); as he travels in Italy, he remarks that a certain visit would have afforded Yorick's ”Empfindsamkeit” the finest material for an Ash-Wednesday sermon (IV, p. 67). Sterne's expressions are cited: ”Erdwa.s.serball” for the earth (V, p. 57), ”Wo keine Pflanze, die da nichts zu suchen hatte, eine bleibende State fand” (V, p. 302); two farmsteads in the Tyrol are designated as ”Nach dem Ideal Yoricks” (VI, pp. 24-25). He refers to the story of the abbess of Andouillets (VI, 64); he narrates (VIII, pp. 203-4) an anecdote of Sterne which has just been printed in the _Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_ (1769, p. 151); he visits Prof. Levade in Lausanne, who bore a striking resemblance to Sterne (V, p. 279), and refers to Yorick in other minor regards (VII, 158; VIII, pp. 51, 77, and Briefe II, 76). Yet in spite of this evident infatuation, Matthison's account of his own travels cannot be cla.s.sed as an imitation of Yorick, but is purely objective, descriptive, without search for humor or pathos, with no introduction of personalities save friends and celebrities. Heinse alluded to Sterne frequently in his letters to Gleim (1770-1771),[85] but after August 23, 1771, Sterne vanished from his fund of allusion, though the correspondence lasts until 1802, a fact of significance in dating the German enthusiasm for Sterne and the German knowledge of Shandy from the publication of the Sentimental Journey, and likewise an indication of the insecurity of Yorick's personal hold.
Miscellaneous allusions to Sterne, ill.u.s.trating the magnitude and duration of his popularity, may not be without interest: Kastner ”Vermischte Schriften,” II, p. 134 (Steckenpferd); Lenz ”Gesammelte Werke,” Berlin, 1828, Vol. III, p. 312; letter from the d.u.c.h.ess Amalie, August 2, 1779, in ”Briefe an und von Merck,” Darmstadt, 1838; letter of Caroline Herder to Knebel, April 2, 1799, in ”K. L. von Knebel's Literarischer Nachla.s.s,” Leipzig, 1835, p. 324 (Yorick's ”heiliges Sensorium”); a rather unfavorable but apologetic criticism of Shandy in the ”Hinterla.s.sene Schriften” of Charlotta Sophia Sidonia Seidelinn, Nurnberg, 1793, p. 227; ”Schiller's Briefe,” edited by Fritz Jonas, I, pp. 136, 239; in Hamann's letters, ”Leben und Schriften,” edited by Dr.
C. H. Gildermeister, Gotha, 1875, II, p. 338; III, p. 56; V, pp. 16, 163; in C. L. Junger's ”Anlage zu einem Familiengesprach uber die Physiognomik” in _Deutsches Museum_, II, pp. 781-809, where the French barber who proposes to dip Yorick's wig in the sea is taken as a type of exaggeration. And a similar reference is found in Wieland's _Merkur_, 1799, I, p. 15: Yorick's Sensorium is again cited, _Merkur_, 1791, II, p. 95. Other references in the _Merkur_ are: 1774, III, p. 52; 1791, I, p. 418; 1800, I, p. 14; 1804, I, pp. 19-21; _Deutsches Museum_, IV, pp.
66, 462; _Neuer Gelehrter Mercurius_, Altona, 1773, August 19, in review of Goethe's ”Gotz;” _Almanach der deutschen Musen_, 1771, p. 93. And thus the references scatter themselves down the decades. ”Das Wortlein Und,” by F. A. Krummacher (Duisberg und Essen, 1811), bore a motto taken from the Koran, and contained the story of Uncle Toby and the fly with a personal application, and Yorick's division of travelers is copied bodily and applied to critics. Friedrich Hebbel, probably in 1828, gave his Newfoundland dog the name of Yorick-Sterne-Monarch.[86] Yorick is familiarly mentioned in Wilhelm Raabe's ”Chronik der Sperlingsga.s.se”
(1857), and in Ernst von Wolzogen's ”Der Dornenweg,” two characters address one another in Yorick similes. Indeed, in the summer of 1902, a Berlin newspaper was publis.h.i.+ng ”Eine Empfindsame Reise in einem Automobile.”[87]
Musaus is named as an imitator of Sterne by Koberstein, and Erich Schmidt implies in his ”Richardson, Rousseau und Goethe,” that he followed Sterne in his ”Grandison der Zweite,” which could hardly be possible, for ”Grandison der Zweite” was first published in 1760, and was probably written during 1759, that is, before Sterne had published Tristram Shandy. Adolph von Knigge is also mentioned by Koberstein as a follower of Sterne, and Baker includes Knigge's ”Reise nach Braunschweig” and ”Briefe auf einer Reise aus Lothringen” in his list.
Their connection with Sterne cannot be designated as other than remote; the former is a merry vagabond story, reminding one much more of the tavern and way-faring adventures in Fielding and Smollett, and suggesting Sterne only in the constant conversation with the reader about the progress of the book and the mechanism of its construction.
One example of the hobby-horse idea in this narration may perhaps be traced to Sterne. The ”Briefe auf einer Reise aus Lothringen” has even less connection; it shares only in the increase of interest in personal accounts of travel. Knigge's novels, ”Peter Claus” and ”Der Roman meines Lebens,” are decidedly not imitations of Sterne; a clue to the character of the former may be obtained from the fact that it was translated into English as ”The German Gil Blas.” ”Der Roman meines Lebens” is a typical eighteenth century love-story written in letters, with numerous characters, various intrigues and unexpected adventures; indeed, a part of the plot, involving the abduction of one of the characters, reminds one of ”Clarissa Harlowe.” Sterne is, however, incidentally mentioned in both books, is quoted in ”Peter Claus” (Chapter VI, Vol. II), and Walter Shandy's theory of Christian names is cited in ”Der Roman meines Lebens.”[88] That Knigge had no sympathy with exaggerated sentimentalism is seen in a pa.s.sage in his ”Umgang mit Menschen.”[89] Knigge admired and appreciated the real Sterne and speaks in his ”Ueber Schriftsteller und Schriftstellerei”[90] of Yorick's sharpening observation regarding the little but yet important traits of character.
Moritz August von Thummel in his famous ”Reise in die mittaglichen Provinzen von Frankreich” adopted Sterne's general idea of sentimental journeying, shorn largely of the capriciousness and whimsicality which marked Sterne's pilgrimage. He followed Sterne also in driving the sensuous to the borderland of the sensual.
Hippel's novels, ”Lebenslaufe nach aufsteigender Linie” and ”Kreuz und Querzuge des Ritters A. bis Z.” were purely Shandean products in which a humor unmistakably imitated from Sterne struggles rather unsuccessfully with pedagogical seriousness. Jean Paul was undoubtedly indebted to Sterne for a part of his literary equipment, and his works afford proof both of his occupation with Sterne's writings and its effect upon his own. A study of Hippel's ”Lebenslaufe” in connection with both Sterne and Jean Paul was suggested but a few years after Hippel's death by a reviewer in the _Neue Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften_[91] as a fruitful topic for investigation. A detailed, minute study of von Thummel, Hippel and Jean Paul[92] in connection with the English master is purposed as a continuation of the present essay. Heine's pictures of travel, too, have something of Sterne in them.
[Footnote 1: _Quellen und Forschungen_, II, p. 27.]
[Footnote 2: Jacobi remarked, in his preface to the ”Winterreise”
in the edition of 1807, that this section, ”Der Taubenschlag” is not to be reckoned as bearing the trace of the then condemned ”Empfindeley,” for many authors, ancient and modern, have taken up the cause of animals against man; yet Sterne is probably the source of Jacobi's expression of his feeling.]
[Footnote 3: XI, 2, pp. 16 f.]
[Footnote 4: For reviews of the ”Sommerreise” see _Allg. deutsche Bibl._, XIII, i, p. 261, _Deutsche Bibl. der schonen Wissenschaften_, IV, p. 354, and _Neue Critische Nachrichten_, Greifswald, V, p. 406. _Almanach der deutschen Musen_, 1770, p. 112. The ”Winterreise” is also reviewed there, p. 110.]
[Footnote 5: Some minor points may be noted. Longo implies (page 2) that it was Bode's translation of the original Sentimental Journey which was re-issued in four volumes, Hamburg and Bremen, 1769, whereas the edition was practically identical with the previous one, and the two added volumes were those of Stevenson's continuation. Longo calls Sterne's Eliza ”Elisha”
(p. 28) and Tristram's father becomes Sir Walter Shandy (p. 37), an unwarranted exaltation of the retired merchant.]
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