Part 2 (1/2)

[13] Cf. Fouque, Apel. Milt.i.tz. _Beitrage zur Geschichte der deutschen Romantik_, Leipzig,1908. In a letter to his brother. Fouque wrote (January 6, 1813): ”Ein Dichter, meine ich, ist er allerdings, ein von Gott dazu bestimmter.” Fouque, however, realized Loeben's many weaknesses as a poet, though at Loeben's death he wrote a poem on him praising him as the master of verse technique.

[14] Cf. Kosch's edition of Eichendorff. XIII. 65. Loeben says: ”In Weimar war ich im vorigen Winter bei Goethe; er war mir freundlich.” The ”previous winter” was 1813.

[15] Cf. Kosch's edition, XI, 220. The remark was made in 1807.

[16] Cf. p.i.s.sin. p. 25. The incident occurred in 1803 and Herder died in 1804.

[17] Cf. Kosch's edition, XI, 308. Lochen himself utterly condemned this work later. See p.i.s.sin, pp. 238-39, 267-08. p.i.s.sin gives the number of verse and strophe forms on p. 266.

[18] Cf. p.i.s.sin, p. 267. Uhland made the remark in 1812--his own most fruitful year as a poet.

[19] The story was published in 1817. The full t.i.tle is _Das weisse Ross, eine altdeutsche Familienchronik in sechs und dreissig Bildern._ It is 160 pages long.

[20] An idea as to the lack of action in this story can be derived from the following statement by Otto (pp. 127-28), the brave hero: ”Was man Schicksale zu nennen pflegt, habe ich wenige gehabt, aber erfahren habe ich dennoch viel und mehr als mancher durch seine glanzenden Schicksale erfahren mag: namlich die Fuhrungen der ewigen Liebe habe ich erfahren, die keinen verla.s.st. und alles herrlich hinausfuhrt.” And then Siegenot, the other hero, says that this is very true--whereupon they embrace each other.

[21] The story was first published In Urania: Taschenbuch fur Damen auf das Jahr 1818. pp. 305-37.

[22] Aside from the poems in p.i.s.sin's collection in the _D.L.D. des 18. u. 19. Jahr._, Ignaz Hub's _Deutschlands Balladen- und Romanzen-Dichter_, Karlsruhe, 1845, contains: (1) ”Romanze von der weissen Rose,” (2) ”Der Tanz mit dem Tode,” (3) ”Der Bergknapp,”

(4) ”Das Schwanenlied.” ”Loreley” is also reprinted here, with modifications for the worse. ”Schau', Schiffer, schau' nicht hinauf,” is certainly not an improvement on Loeben's ”Lieb Knabe, sieh' nicht hinauf,”

[23] The following are common forms: ”Nez,” ”zwey,” ”versteken,”

”Sfaren,” ”Saffo,” ”Stralenboten,” ”Abendrothen.” ”Uebermuth,”

and so on, though the regular forms, except in the case of ”Saffo,” also occur.

[24] ”Der Abend” reminds one strongly of Holderlin's ”Die Nacht,”

while ”Tag und Nacht” goes back undoubtedly to Novalis' ”Hymnen an die Nacht,” W. Schlegels sonnet on the sonnet stood sponsor for ”Das Sonett,” and Goethe and Tieck also reoccur in changed dress. The poems on Correggio (73), Ruisdael (75), Goethe (137), Tieck (138-39), and Novalis (141) sound especially like W. Schlegel's poems on other poets and artists.

[25] In his _Geschichte des Sonettes in der deutschen Dichtung_.'Leipzig, 1884. Heinrich Weltl (pp. 210-17) criticizes Loeben's sonnets most severely from the point of view of content; and as to their form he says: ”Blos die Form, oder gar die blosse Form der Form ist beachtenswert.” This is unquestionably a case of warping the truth in order to bring in a sort of pun.

[26] The triolett is worth quoting as a type of Loeben's prettiness:

Galt es mir, das susse Blicken Aus dem h.e.l.len Augenpaar?

Unter'm Netz vom goldnen Haar Galt es mir das susse Blicken?

Einem sprach es von Gefahr, Einen wollt' es licht umstricken; Galt es mir, das sus...o...b..icken Aus dem h.e.l.len Augenpaar.

[27] An idea as to Loeben's temperament can he derived from the following pa.s.sage in a letter to Tieck: ”Gott sei mit Ihnen und die heilige Muse! Oft drangt es mich, niederzuknien im Schein, den Albrecht Durers und Novalis Glorie wirft, im alten frommen Dom. dann denk' ich Ihrer und ich lieg' an Ihrer Seele. Ich fuhle Sie in mir, wie man eine Gottheit fuhlt in geweihter Stunde. 'Liebe denkt in sel'gen Tonen, denn Gedanken stehn zu fern.” The quotation should read ”sussen” instead of ”sel'gen.”

See _Briefe an Tierk._ edited by Holtei, II, 266.

[28] As a corrective to the monographs of p.i.s.sin on Loeben and H. A. Kruger on Eichendorff. one should read Wilhelm Kosch's article in _Euphorion_ (1907, pp. 310-20). Kosch. contends that p.i.s.sin and Kruger have vastly overestimated Loeben's influence on Eichendorff, and that Loeben in general was ”eine bedeutungslose Tageserscheinung.”

[29] The complete t.i.tle is _G.o.dwi, oder das steinerne Bild der Mutter. Ein verwilderter Roman von Maria_. The very rare first edition of this novel, in two volumes, is in the Columbia Library. Friedrich Wilmans was the publisher.

[30] Cf. Alfred Kerr, _G.o.dwi. Ein Kapitel deutscher Romantik_. Berlin, 1898, p. 2.

[31] Cf. Wilhelm Hertz, ”uber den Namen Lorelei,” _Sitzungsberichte der k.b. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Munchen_, Jahrgang 1886, pp. 217-51. For the etymologist, this is an invaluable study.

[32] The superficial similarity of those two poems can easily be exaggerated. The rhyme ”sitzet-blitzet” is perfectly natural: the Lorelei had to be portrayed as ”sitzen”; what is then easier than ”blitzen”? In ”Ritter Peter von Stauffenberg und die Meerfeye”

(Des Knaben Wunderhorn, ed. of Eduard Grisebach, p. 277) we have this couplet: