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diff --git a/17364-8.txt b/17364-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f068b88 --- /dev/null +++ b/17364-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4335 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry, by +Wilhelm Alfred Braun + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry + +Author: Wilhelm Alfred Braun + +Release Date: December 21, 2005 [EBook #17364] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WELTSCHMERZ *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, Ralph Janke and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +TYPES OF WELTSCHMERZ IN GERMAN POETRY + +BY + +WILHELM ALFRED BRAUN, Ph.D. + +SOMETIME FELLOW IN GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES, COLUMBIA +UNIVERSITY + +AMS PRESS, INC. NEW YORK 1966 + + + + +Copyright 1905, Columbia University Press, New York + +Reprinted with the permission of the Original Publisher, 1966 + +AMS PRESS, INC. New York, N.Y. 10003 1966 + +Manufactured in the United States of America + + + + +NOTE + + +The author of this essay has attempted to make, as he himself phrases +it, "a modest contribution to the natural history of Weltschmerz." What +goes by that name is no doubt somewhat elusive; one can not easily +delimit and characterize it with scientific accuracy. Nevertheless the +word corresponds to a fairly definite range of psychical reactions which +are of great interest in modern poetry, especially German poetry. The +phenomenon is worth studying in detail. In undertaking a study of it Mr. +Braun thought, and I readily concurred in the opinion, that he would do +best not to essay an exhaustive history, but to select certain +conspicuously interesting types and proceed by the method of close +analysis, characterization and comparison. I consider his work a +valuable contribution to literary scholarship. + +CALVIN THOMAS. + +COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, June, 1905 + + + + +PREFACE + + +The work which is presented in the following pages is intended to be a +modest contribution to the natural history of Weltschmerz. + +The writer has endeavored first of all to define carefully the +distinction between pessimism and Weltschmerz; then to classify the +latter, both as to its origin and its forms of expression, and to +indicate briefly its relation to mental pathology and to contemporary +social and political conditions. The three poets selected for +discussion, were chosen because they represent distinct types, under +which probably all other poets of Weltschmerz may be classified, or to +which they will at least be found analogous; and to the extent to which +such is the case, the treatise may be regarded as exhaustive. In the +case of each author treated, the development of the peculiar phase of +Weltschmerz characteristic of him has been traced, and analyzed with +reference to its various modes of expression. Hölderlin is the idealist, +Lenau exhibits the profoundly pathetic side of Weltschmerz, while Heine +is its satirist. They have been considered in this order, because they +represent three progressive stages of Weltschmerz viewed as a +psychological process: Hölderlin naïve, Lenau self-conscious, Heine +endeavoring to conceal his melancholy beneath the disguise of +self-irony. + +It is a pleasure to tender my grateful acknowledgments to my former +Professors, Calvin Thomas and William H. Carpenter of Columbia +University, and Camillo von Klenze and Starr Willard Cutting of the +University of Chicago, under whose stimulating direction and +never-failing assistance my graduate studies were carried on. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Chapter I--Introduction 1 + +Chapter II--Hölderlin 9 + +Chapter III--Lenau 35 + +Chapter IV--Heine 59 + +Chapter V--Bibliography 85 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +=Introduction= + + +The purpose of the following study is to examine closely certain German +authors of modern times, whose lives and writings exemplify in an +unusually striking degree that peculiar phase of lyric feeling which has +characterized German literature, often in a more or less epidemic form, +since the days of "Werther," and to which, at an early period in the +nineteenth century, was assigned the significant name "Weltschmerz." + +With this side of the poet under investigation, there must of necessity +be an enquiry, not only into his writings, his expressed feelings, but +also his physical and mental constitution on the one hand, and into his +theory of existence in general on the other. Psychology and philosophy +then are the two adjacent fields into which it may become necessary to +pursue the subject in hand, and for this reason it is only fair to call +attention to the difficulties which surround the student of literature +in discussing philosophical ideas or psychological phenomena. Intrepid +indeed would it be for him to attempt a final judgment in these bearings +of his subject, where wise men have differed and doctors have disagreed. + +Although sometimes loosely used as synonyms, it is necessary to note +that there is a well-defined distinction between Weltschmerz and +pessimism. Weltschmerz may be defined as the poetic expression of an +abnormal sensitiveness of the feelings to the moral and physical evils +and misery of existence--a condition which may or may not be based upon +a reasoned conviction that the sum of human misery is greater than the +sum of human happiness. It is usually characterized also by a certain +lack of will-energy, a sort of sentimental yielding to these painful +emotions. It is therefore entirely a matter of "Gemüt." Pessimism, on +the other hand, purports to be a theory of existence, the result of +deliberate philosophic argument and investigation, by which its votaries +have reached the dispassionate conclusion that there is no real good or +pleasure in the world that is not clearly outweighed by evil or pain, +and that therefore self-destruction, or at least final annihilation is +the consummation devoutly to be wished. + +James Sully, in his elaborate treatise on Pessimism,[1] divides it, +however, into reasoned and unreasoned Pessimism, including Weltschmerz +under the latter head. This is entirely compatible with the definition +of Weltschmerz which has been attempted above. But it is interesting to +note the attitude of the pessimistic school of philosophy toward this +unreasoned pessimism. It emphatically disclaims any interest in or +connection with it, and describes all those who are afflicted with the +malady as execrable fellows--to quote Hartmann--: "Klageweiber +männlichen und weiblichen Geschlechts, welche am meisten zur +Discreditierung des Pessimismus beigetragen haben, die sich in ewigem +Lamento ergehen, und entweder unaufhörlich in Thränen schwimmen, oder +bitter wie Wermut und Essig, sich selbst und andern das Dasein noch mehr +vergällen; eine jämmerliche Situation des Stimmungspessimismus, der sie +nicht leben und nicht sterben lässt."[2] And yet Hartmann himself does +not hesitate to admit that this very condition of individual +Weltschmerz, or "Zerrissenheit," is a necessary and inevitable stage in +the progress of the mind toward that clarified universal Weltschmerz +which is based upon theoretical insight, namely pessimism in its most +logical sense. This being granted, we shall not be far astray in +assuming that it is also the stage to which the philosophic pessimist +will sometimes revert, when a strong sense of his own individuality +asserts itself. + +If we attempt a classification of Weltschmerz with regard to its +essence, or, better perhaps, with regard to its origin, we shall find +that the various types may be classed under one of two heads: either as +cosmic or as egoistic. The representatives of cosmic Weltschmerz are +those poets whose first concern is not their personal fate, their own +unhappiness, it may be, but who see first and foremost the sad fate of +humanity and regard their own misfortunes merely as a part of the common +destiny. The representatives of the second type are those introspective +natures who are first and chiefly aware of their own misery and finally +come to regard it as representative of universal evil. The former +proceed from the general to the particular, the latter from the +particular to the general. But that these types must necessarily be +entirely distinct in all cases, as Marchand[3] asserts, seems open to +serious doubt. It is inconceivable that a poet into whose personal +experience no shadows have fallen should take the woes of humanity very +deeply to heart; nor again could we imagine that one who has brooded +over the unhappy condition of mankind in general should never give +expression to a note of personal sorrow. It is in the complexity of +motives in one and the same subject that the difficulty lies in making +rigid and sharp distinctions. In some cases Weltschmerz may arise from +honest conviction or genuine despair, in others it may be something +entirely artificial, merely a cloak to cover personal defects. Sometimes +it may even be due to a desire to pose as a martyr, and sometimes +nothing more than an attempt to ape the prevailing fashion. To these +types Wilhelm Scherer adds "Müssiggänger, welche sich die Zeit mit übler +Laune vertreiben, missvergnügte Lyriker, deren Gedichte nicht mehr +gelesen werden, und Spatzenköpfe, welche den Pessimismus für besonderen +Tiefsinn halten und um jeden Preis tiefsinnig erscheinen wollen."[4] + +But it is with Weltschmerz in its outward manifestations as it finds +expression in the poet's writings, that we shall be chiefly concerned in +the following pages. And here the subdivisions, if we attempt to +classify, must be almost as numerous as the representatives themselves. +In Hölderlin we have the ardent Hellenic idealist; Lenau gives +expression to all the pathos of Weltschmerz, Heine is its satirist, the +misanthrope, while in Raabe we even have a pessimistic humorist. + +This brief list needs scarcely be supplemented by other names of poets +of melancholy, such as Reinhold Lenz, Heinrich von Kleist, Robert +Southey, Byron, Leopardi, in order to command our attention by reason of +the tragic fate which ended the lives of nearly all of these men, the +most frequent and the most terrible being that of insanity. It is of +course a matter of common knowledge that chronic melancholy or the +persistent brooding over personal misfortune is an almost inevitable +preliminary to mental derangement. And when this melancholy takes root +in the finely organized mind of genius, it is only to be expected that +the result will be even more disastrous than in the case of the ordinary +mind. Lombroso holds the opinion that if men of genius are not all more +or less insane, that is, if the "spheres of influence" of genius and +insanity do not actually overlap, they are at least contiguous at many +points, so that the transition from the former to the latter is +extremely easy and even natural. But genius in itself is not an abnormal +mental condition. It does not even consist of an extraordinary memory, +vivid imagination, quickness of judgment, or of a combination of all of +these. Kant defines genius as the talent of invention. Originality and +productiveness are the fundamental elements of genius. And it is an +almost instinctive force which urges the author on in his creative work. +In the main his activity is due less to free will than to this inner +compulsion. + + "Ich halte diesen Drang vergebens auf, + Der Tag und Nacht in meinem Busen wechselt. + Wenn ich nicht sinnen oder dichten soll, + So ist das Leben mir kein Leben mehr," + +says Goethe's Tasso.[5] If this impulse of genius is embodied in a +strong physical organism, as for example in the case of Shakespeare and +Goethe, there need be no detriment to physical health; otherwise, and +especially if there is an inherited tendency to disease, there is almost +sure to be a physical collapse. Specialists in the subject have pointed +out that violent passions are even more potent in producing mental +disease than mere intellectual over-exertion. And these are certainly +characteristic in a very high degree of the mind of genius. It has often +been remarked that it is the _corona spinosa_ of genius to feel all pain +more intensely than do other men. Schopenhauer says "der, in welchem der +Genius lebt, leidet am meisten." It is only going a step further then, +when Hamerling writes to his friend Möser: "Schliesslich ist es doch nur +der Kranke, der sich das Leid der ganzen Welt zu Herzen nimmt." + +Radestock, in his study "Genie und Wahnsinn," mentions and elaborates +among others the following points of resemblance between the mind of +genius and the insane mind: an abnormal activity of the imagination, +very rapid succession of ideas, extreme concentration of thought upon a +single subject or idea, and lastly, what would seem the cardinal point, +a weakness of will-energy, the lack of that force which alone can serve +to bring under control all these other unruly elements and give balance +to what must otherwise be an extremely one-sided mechanism. Here again +the exception may be taken to prove the rule. It is not too much, I +think, to assert that Goethe could never have become so uniquely great, +not even through the splendid versatility of his genius, but for that +incomparable self-control, which he made the watchword of his life. And +in the case of the poet of Weltschmerz the presence or absence of this +quality may even decide whether he shall rise superior to his beclouded +condition or perish in the gloom. The conclusion at which Radestock +arrives is that genius, as the expression of the most intense mental +activity, occupies the middle ground, as it were, between the normal +healthy state on the one hand, and the abnormal, pathological state on +the other, and has without doubt many points of contact with mental +disease; and that although the elements which genius has in common with +insanity may not be strong enough in themselves to induce the transition +from the former to the latter state, yet when other aggravating causes +are added, such as physical disease, violent emotions or passions, +overwork, the pressure or distress of outward circumstances, the highly +gifted individual is much more liable to cross the line of demarkation +between the two mental states than is the average mind, which is more +remote from that line. If this can be asserted of genius in general, it +must be even more particularly and widely applicable in reference to a +combination of genius and Weltschmerz. We shall find pathetic examples +in the first two types selected for examination. + +Having thus introduced the subject in its most general bearings and +aspects, it remains for us to review briefly its historical background. + +Weltschmerz is essentially a symptom of a period of conflict, of +transition. The powerful reaction which marks the eighteenth century--a +reaction against all traditional intellectual authority, and a struggle +for the emancipation of the individual, of research, of inspiration and +of genius--reached its high-water mark in Germany in the seventies. But +with the unrestrained outbursts of the champions of Storm and Stress the +problem was by no means solved; there remained the basic conflict +between the idea of personal liberty and the strait-jacket of +Frederician absolutism, the conflict between the dynastic and the +national idea of the state. Should the individual yield a blind, +unreasoned submission to the state as to a divinely instituted arbitrary +authority, good or bad, or was the state to be regarded as the conscious +and voluntary coöperation of its subjects for the general good? It was, +moreover, a time not only of open and active revolt, as represented by +the spirit of Klinger, but also of great emotional stirrings, and +sentimental yearnings of such passive natures as Hölty. Rousseau's plea +for a simplified and more natural life had exerted a mighty influence. +And what has a most important bearing upon the relation between these +intellectual currents and Weltschmerz--these minds were lacking in the +discipline implied in our modern scientific training. Scientific +exactness of thinking had not become an integral part of education. +Hence the difference between the pessimism of Ibsen and the romantic +Weltschmerz of these uncritical minds. + +In accounting for the tremendous effect produced by his "Werther," +Goethe compares his work to the bit of fuse which explodes the mine, and +says that the shock of the explosion was so great because the young +generation of the day had already undermined itself, and its members +now burst forth individually with their exaggerated demands, unsatisfied +passions and imaginary sufferings.[6] And in estimating the influences +which had prepared the way for this mental disposition, Goethe +emphasizes the influence of English literature. Young's "Night +Thoughts," Gray's "Elegy," Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," even "Hamlet" +and his monologues haunted all minds. "Everyone knew the principal +passages by heart, and everyone believed he had a right to be just as +melancholy as the Prince of Denmark, even though he had seen no ghost +and had no royal father to avenge." Finally Ossian had provided an +eminently suitable setting,--under the darkly lowering sky the endless +gray heath, peopled with the shadowy forms of departed heroes and +withered maidens. To quote the substance of Goethe's criticism:[7] Amid +such influences and surroundings, occupied with fads and studies of this +sort, lacking all incentive from without to any important activity and +confronted by the sole prospect of having to drag out a humdrum +existence, men began to reflect with a sort of sullen exultation upon +the possibility of departing this life at will, and to find in this +thought a scant amelioration of the ills and tedium of the times. This +disposition was so general that "Werther" itself exerted a powerful +influence, because it everywhere struck a responsive chord and publicly +and tangibly exhibited the true inwardness of a morbid youthful +illusion.[8] + +Nor did the dawning nineteenth century bring relief. No other period of +Prussian history, says Heinrich von Treitschke,[9] is wrapped in so deep +a gloom as the first decade of the reign of Frederick William III. It +was a time rich in hidden intellectual forces, and yet it bore the stamp +of that uninspired Philistinism which is so abundantly evidenced by the +barren commonplace character of its architecture and art. Genius there +was, indeed, but never were its opportunities for public usefulness more +limited. It was as though the greatness of the days of the second +Frederick lay like a paralyzing weight upon this generation. And this +oppressing sense of impotence was followed, after the Napoleonic Wars, +by the bitterness of disappointment, all the more keenly felt by reason +of this first reawakening of the national consciousness. Great had been +the expectations, enormous the sacrifice; exceedingly small was the gain +to the individual.[10] And the resultant dissonance was the same as that +to which Alfred de Musset gave expression in the words: "The malady of +the present century is due to two causes; the people who have passed +through 1793 and 1814 bear in their hearts two wounds. All that was is +no more; all that will be is not yet. Do not hope to find elsewhere the +secret of our ills."[11] + +This then in briefest outline is the transition from the century of +individualism and autocracy to the nineteenth century of democracy. +Small wonder that the struggle claimed its victims in those individuals +who, unable to find a firm basis of conviction and principle, vacillated +constantly between instinctive adherence to old traditions, and +unreasoned inclination to the new order of things. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: "Pessimism, a History and a Criticism," London, 1877.] + +[Footnote 2: Ed. von Hartmann: "Zur Geschichte und Begründung des +Pessimismus," Leipzig, Hermann Haacke, p. 187.] + +[Footnote 3: "Les Poètes Lyriques de l'Autriche," Paris, 1886, p. 293.] + +[Footnote 4: "Vorträge und Aufsätze zur Geschichte des geistigen Lebens +in Deutschland und Oesterreich," Berlin, 1874, p. 413.] + +[Footnote 5: Act 5, Sc. 2.] + +[Footnote 6: "Goethes Werke," Weimar ed. Vol. 28, p. 227 f.] + +[Footnote 7: _Ibid._, p. 216 f.] + +[Footnote 8: In view of Goethe's own words, then, the caution of a +recent critic (Felix Melchior in _Litt. Forsch._ XXVII Heft, Berlin, +1903) against applying the term Weltschmerz to "Werther," would seem to +miss the mark entirely. Werther is a type, just as truly as is Faust, +though in a smaller way, and the malady which he typifies has its +ultimate origin in the development of public life,--the very condition +which this critic insists upon as a mark of Weltschmerz in the proper +application of the term.] + +[Footnote 9: "Historische und politische Aufsätze," Leipzig, 1897. Vol. +4.] + +[Footnote 10: As early as 1797 Hölderlin's Hyperion laments: "Mein +Geschäft auf Erden ist aus. Ich bin voll Willens an die Arbeit gegangen, +habe geblutet darüber, und die Welt um keinen Pfennig reicher gemacht." +("Hölderlin's gesammelte Dichtungen, herausgegeben von B. Litzmann," +Stuttgart, Cotta, undated. Vol. II, p. 68.) Several decades later Heine +writes: "Ich kann mich über die Siege meiner liebsten Ueberzeugungen +nicht recht freuen, da sie mir gar zu viel gekostet haben. Dasselbe mag +bei manchem ehrlichen Manne der Fall sein, und es trägt viel bei zu der +grossen düsteren Verstimmung der Gegenwart." (Brief vom 21 April, 1851, +an Gustav Kolb; Werke, Karpeles ed. Vol. IX, p. 378.)] + +[Footnote 11: "Confession d'un enfant du siècle." Oeuvres compl. Paris, +1888 (Charpentier). Vol. VIII, p. 24.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +=Hölderlin= + + +A case such as that of Hölderlin, subject as he was from the time of his +boyhood to melancholy, and ending in hopeless insanity, at once suggests +the question of heredity. Little or nothing is known concerning his +remote ancestors. His great-grandfather had been administrator of a +convent at Grossbottwar, and died of dropsy of the chest at the age of +forty-seven. His grandfather had held a similar position as +"Klosterhofmeister und geistlicher Verwalter" at Lauffen, to which his +son, the poet's father, succeeded. An apoplectic stroke ended his life +at the early age of thirty-six. In regard to Hölderlin's maternal +ancestors, our information is even more scant, though we know that both +his grandmother and his mother lived to a ripe old age. From the poet's +references to them we judge them to have been entirely normal types of +intelligent, lovable women, gifted with a great deal of good practical +sense. The only striking thing is the premature death of Hölderlin's +great-grandfather and father. But in view of the nature of their +stations in life, in which they may fairly be supposed to have led more +than ordinarily sober and well-ordered lives, there seems to be no +ground whatever for assuming that Hölderlin's Weltschmerz owed its +inception in any degree to hereditary tendencies, notwithstanding +Hermann Fischer's opinion to the contrary.[12] There is no sufficient +reason to assume "erbliche Belastung," and there are other sufficient +causes without merely guessing at such a possibility. + +But while there are no sufficient historical grounds for the supposition +that he brought the germ of his subsequent mental disease with him in +his birth, we cannot fail to observe, even in the child, certain +natural traits, which, being allowed to develop unchecked, must of +necessity hasten and intensify the gloom which hung over his life. To +his deep thoughtfulness was added an abnormal sensitiveness to all +external influences. Like the delicate anemone, he recoiled and withdrew +within himself when touched by the rougher material things of life.[13] +He himself poetically describes his absentmindedness when a boy, and +calls himself "ein Träumer"; and a dreamer he remained all his life. It +seems to have been this which first brought him into discord with the +world: + + Oft sollt' ich stracks in meine Schule wandern, + Doch ehe sich der Träumer es versah, + So hatt' er in den Garten sich verirrt, + Und sass behaglich unter den Oliven, + Und baute Flotten, schifft' ins hohe Meer. + + * * * * * + + Dies kostete mich tausend kleine Leiden, + Verzeihlich war es immer, wenn mich oft + Die Klügeren, mit herzlichem Gelächter + Aus meiner seligen Ekstase schreckten, + Doch unaussprechlich wehe that es mir.[14] + +If ever a boy needed a strong fatherly hand to guide him, to teach him +self-reliance and practical sense, it was this dreamy, tender-spirited +child.[15] The love and sympathy which his mother bestowed upon him was +not calculated to fit him for the rugged experiences of life, and while +probably natural and pardonable, it was nevertheless extremely +unfortunate that the boy was unconsciously encouraged to be and to +remain a "Muttersöhnchen." But even with his peculiar trend of +disposition, the result might not have been an unhappy one, had the +course of his life not brought him more than an ordinary share of +misfortune. This overtook him early in life, for when but two years of +age his father died. His widowed mother now lived for a few years in +complete retirement with her two children--the poet's sister Henrietta +having been born just a few weeks after his father's demise. But it was +not long before death again entered the household and robbed it of +Hölderlin's aunt, his deceased father's sister, who was herself a widow +and the faithful companion of the poet's mother. When the latter found +herself again alone with her two little ones, whose care was weighing +heavily upon her, she consented to become the wife of her late husband's +friend, Kammerrat Gock, and accompanied him to his home in the little +town of Nürtingen on the Neckar. But this re-established marital +happiness was to be of brief duration, for in 1779 her second husband +died, and the mother was now left with four little children to care and +provide for. + +The frequency with which death visited the family during his childhood +and youth, familiarized him at an early age with scenes of sorrow and +grief. No doubt he was too young when his father died to comprehend the +calamity that had come upon the household, but it was not many months +before he knew the meaning of his mother's tears, not only for his +father, but also for his sister, who died in her infancy. Referring to +his father's death, he writes in one of his early poems, "Einst und +Jetzt":[16] + + Einst schlugst du mir so ruhig, empörtes Herz! + + * * * * * + + Einst in des Vaters Schoosse, des liebenden + Geliebten Vaters,--aber der Würger kam, + Wir weinten, flehten, doch der Würger + Schnellte den Pfeil, und es sank die Stütze. + +At his tenderest and most impressionable age, the boy was thus made +sadly aware of the fleetingness of human life and the pains of +bereavement. We cannot wonder then at finding these impressions +reflected in his most juvenile poetic attempts. His poem "Das +menschliche Leben," written at the age of fifteen, begins: + + Menschen, Menschen! was ist euer Leben, + Eure Welt, die thränenvolle Welt! + Dieser Schauplatz, kann er Freude geben + Wo sich Trauern nicht dazu gesellt?[17] + +But a time of still greater unhappiness was in store for him when he +left his home at the age of fourteen to enter the convent school at +Denkendorf, where he began his preparation for a theological course. A +more direct antithesis to all that his body and soul yearned for and +needed for their proper development could scarcely have been devised +than that which existed in the chilling atmosphere and rigorous +discipline of the monastery. He had not even an incentive to endure +hardships for the sake of what lay beyond, for it was merely in passive +submission to his mother's wish that he had decided to enter holy +orders. And now, clad in a sombre monkish gown, deprived of all freedom +of thought or movement and forced into companionship with twenty-five or +thirty fellows of his own age, who nearly all misunderstood him, +Hölderlin felt himself wretched indeed. "Wär' ich doch ewig ferne von +diesen Mauern des Elends!" he writes in a poem at Maulbronn in 1787.[18] +There was for him but one way of escape. It was to isolate himself as +much as possible from the world of harsh reality about him, to be alone, +and there in his solitude to construct for himself an ideal world of +fancy, a poetic dreamland. This mental habit not only remained with him +as he grew into manhood, it may be said to have been through life one of +his most distinguishing characteristics. It would be impossible to make +room here for all the passages in his poems and letters of this period, +which reflect his love of solitude and his habit of retreating into a +world of his own imagining. His letters to his friend Nast almost +invariably contain some expression of his heart-ache. "Bilfinger ist +wohl mein Freund, aber es geht ihm zu glücklich, als dass er sich nach +mir umsehen möchte. Du wirst mich schon verstehen--er ist immer lustig, +ich hänge immer den Kopf."[19] Another letter begins: "Wieder eine +Stunde wegphantasiert!--dass es doch so schlechte Menschen giebt, unter +meinen Cameraden so elende Kerls--wann mich die Freundschaft nicht +zuweilen wieder gut machte, so hätt' ich mich manchmal schon lieber an +jeden andern Ort gewünscht, als unter Menschengesellschaft.--Wann ich +nur auch einmal etwas recht Lustiges schreiben könnte! Nur Gedult! 's +wird kommen--hoff' ich, oder--oder hab' ich dann nicht genug getragen? +Erfuhr ich nicht schon als Bube, was den Mann seufzen machen würde? und +als Jüngling, geht's da besser?--Du lieber Gott! bin ich's denn allein? +jeder andre glücklicher als ich? Und was hab' ich dann gethan?"[20] +There is a world of pathos in this helpless cry of pain, with its +suggestion of retributive fate. A poem of 1788, "Die Stille," written at +Maulbronn, epitomizes almost everything that we have thus far noted as +to Hölderlin's nature. He goes back in fancy to the days of his +childhood, describing his lonely rambles, from which he would return in +the moonlight, unmindful of his lateness for the evening meal, at which +he would hastily eat of that which the others had left: + + Schlich mich, wenn ich satt gegessen, + Weg von meinem lustigen Geschwisterpaar. + + O! in meines kleinen Stübchens Stille + War mir dann so über alles wohl, + Wie im Tempel war mir's in der Nächte Hülle, + Wann so einsam von dem Turm die Glocke scholl. + + Als ich weggerissen von den Meinen + Aus dem lieben elterlichen Haus + Unter Fremden irrte, we ich nimmer weinen + Durfte, in das bunte Weltgewirr hinaus, + + O wie pflegtest du den armen Jungen, + Teure, so mit Mutterzärtlichkeit, + Wann er sich im Weltgewirre müd gerungen, + In der lieben, wehmutsvollen Einsamkeit.[21] + +This love of solitude is carried to the extreme in his contemplation of +a hermit's life. In a letter to Nast he says: "Heute ging ich so vor +mich hin, da fiel mir ein, ich wolle nach vollendeten Universitäts +Jahren Einsiedler werden--und der Gedanke gefiel mir so wohl, eine +ganze Stunde, glaub' ich, war ich in meiner Fantasie Einsiedler."[22] +And although he never became a hermit, this is the final disposition +which he makes of himself in his "Hyperion." + +These habits of thought and feeling, formed in boyhood, could lead to +only one result. He became less and less qualified to comprehend and to +grapple with the practical problems and difficulties of life, and +entered young manhood and the struggle for existence at a tremendous +disadvantage. + +Another trait of his character which served to intensify his subsequent +disappointments, was the strong ambition which early filled his soul. He +aspired to high achievements in his chosen field of art. In a letter to +Louise Nast, written probably about the beginning of 1790, he makes the +confession: "Der unüberwindliche Trübsinn in mir ist wohl nicht ganz, +doch meist--unbefriedigter Ehrgeiz."[23] The mere lad of seventeen had +scarcely learned to admire Klopstock, when he speaks of his own +"kämpfendes Streben nach Klopstocksgrösse," and exclaims: "Hinan den +herrlichen Ehrenpfad! Hinan! im glühenden kühnen Traum, sie zu +erreichen!"[24] It is remarkable to note how this fancy of a dream-life +becomes fixed in Hölderlin's mind and reappears in almost every poem. +Closely allied to this idea is that of a "glückliche Trunkenheit," and +expressions like "wie ein Göttertraum das Alter schwand," +"liebetrunken," "Wie ein Traum entfliehen Ewigkeiten," "siegestrunken," +"süsse, kühne Trunkenheit," "trunken dämmert die Seele mir," can be +found on almost every page of his shorter poems. Hyperion expresses +himself on one occasion in the words: "O ein Gott ist der Mensch, wenn +er träumt, ein Bettler, wenn er nachdenkt, und wenn die Begeisterung hin +ist, steht er da, wie ein missrathener Sohn, den der Vater aus dem Hause +stiess, und betrachtet die ärmlichen Pfennige, die ihm das Mitleid auf +den Weg gab,"[25] which further illustrates the extravagant idealism by +which he allowed himself to be carried away, and the etherial and +thoroughly unpractical trend of his mind. The flights of fancy of which +Hölderlin is capable are well illustrated by another passage in +"Hyperion." Referring to Hyperion's conversation with Alabanda, he says: +"Ich war hingerissen von unendlichen Hoffnungen, Götterkräfte trugen wie +ein Wölkchen mich fort."[26] These facts have a direct bearing upon +Hölderlin's Weltschmerz, inasmuch as it was just this unequal and +unsuccessful struggle of the idealist with the stern realities of life +that brought about the catastrophe which wrought his ruin. + +And just as his ideals are vague and abstract, so too are the +expressions of his Weltschmerz. It needs no concrete idea to arouse his +enthusiasm to its highest pitch. Thus Hyperion exclaims: "Der Gott in +uns, dem die Unendlichkeit zur Bahn sich öffnet, soll stehen und harren, +bis der Wurm ihm aus dem Wege geht? Nein! nein! man frägt nicht, ob ihr +wollt! ihr wollt ja nie--ihr Knechte und Barbaren! Euch will man auch +nicht bessern, denn es ist umsonst! Man will nur dafür sorgen, dass ihr +dem Siegeslauf der Menschheit aus dem Wege geht!"[27] It is in the form +of lofty generalities such as these, and seldom with reference to +practical details, that Hölderlin's longings find expression. + +Entirely consistent with this idealism is the nature of his love, +ardent, but etherial, "übersinnlich." This is reflected also in his +lyrics, which are statuesque and beautiful, but lacking in passion and +sensuous charm. Hölderlin's earliest love-affair, that with Louise Nast, +is important for his Weltschmerz only in its bearing upon the +development of his general character. This influence was a twofold one: +in the first place his sweetheart was herself inclined to a sort of +visionary mysticism, and therefore had an unwholesome influence upon the +youth, who had already been carried too far in that direction. She too +was a lover of solitude and wrote her letters to him in the stillness of +the night, when all others were asleep. There can be no doubt that she +had at least some share in determining his mental activity, especially +his reading. In one of his earliest letters to her he writes: "Weil Du +den Don Carlos liest, will ich ihn auch lesen."[28] It was during this +time too that that he became so ardent an admirer of Schubart and +Ossian. "Da leg' ich meinen Ossian weg und komme zu Dir," he writes in +1788 to his friend Nast. "Ich habe meine Seele geweidet an den Helden +des Barden, habe mit ihm getrauert, wann er trauert über sterbende +Mädchen."[29] There is not a sensuous note in all Hölderlin's poems or +letters to Louise. Typical are the lines which he addresses to her on +his departure from Maulbronn: + + Lass sie drohen, die Stürme, die Leiden, + Lass trennen--der Trennung Jahre + Sie trennen uns nicht! + Sie trennen uns nicht! + Denn mein bist du! Und über das Grab hinaus + Soll sie dauren, die unzertrennbare Liebe. + + O! wenn's einst da ist + Das grosse selige Jenseits, + Wo die Krone dem leidenden Pilger, + Die Palme dem Sieger blinkt, + Dann Freundin--lohnet auch Freundschaft-- + Auch Freundschaft der Ewige.[30] + +The second bearing which his relations to Louise have upon his +Weltschmerz lies in the fact that his love ended in disappointment. This +is true not only of this particular episode, not only of all his +love-affairs, but it may even be said that disappointment was the fate +to which he found himself doomed in all his aspirations. And in the +persistency with which this evil angel pursued his footsteps through +life may be found one of the chief causes of the early collapse of his +faculties. What David Müller[31] and Hermann Fischer[32] have said in +their essays in regard to this point--that Hölderlin did not become +insane because his life was a succession of unsatisfactory situations +and painful disappointments, but because he had not the strength to work +himself out of these situations into more favorable ones--states only +half the case. True, a stronger mental organization might have overcome +these or even greater difficulties; Schiller, Herder, Fichte are +examples; but not all of Hölderlin's failures and disappointments were +the result of his weakness, and so while it is right to state that a +stronger and more robust nature would have conquered in the fight, it is +also fair to say that Hölderlin would have had a good chance of winning, +had fortune been more kind. For this reason these external influences +must be reckoned with as an important cause of his Weltschmerz and +subsequently of his insanity. + +This suggests an interesting point of comparison--if I may be permitted +to anticipate somewhat--with Lenau, the second type selected. Hölderlin +earnestly pursued happiness and contentment, but it eluded him at every +step. Lenau on the contrary reached a point in his Weltschmerz where he +refused to see anything in life but pain, wilfully thrusting from him +even such happiness as came within his reach. + +We may postpone any detailed reference to Hölderlin's relations with +Susette Gontard, which were vastly more important in their influence +upon the poet's character and Weltschmerz, until we come to the +discussion of his "Hyperion," of which Susette, under the pseudonym of +Diotima, forms one of the central figures. + +To speak of all the disappointments which fell to Hölderlin's lot would +practically require the writing of his biography from the time of his +graduation from Tübingen to his return from Bordeaux, almost the entire +period of his sane manhood. Unsuccessful in his first position as a +tutor, and unable, after having abandoned this, to provide even a meagre +living for himself with his pen, his migration to Frankfort to the house +of the merchant Gontard at last gave him a hope of better things, but a +hope which soon proved vain. Following close upon these disappointments +was his failure to carry out a project which he had long cherished, of +establishing a literary journal; then came his dismissal from a +situation which he had just entered upon in Switzerland. On his return +he wrote to Schiller for help and advice, and his failure to receive a +reply grieved him deeply. We can only surmise that it was a cruel +disappointment, finally, which caused his sudden departure from +Bordeaux, and brought him back a mental wreck to his mother's home. Even +as early as 1788 Hölderlin complains bitterly in the poem "Der Lorbeer," +in which he eulogizes the poets Klopstock and Young and expresses his +own ambition to aspire to their greatness: + + Schon so manche Früchte schöner Keime + Logen grausam mir ins Angesicht.[33] + +As the years passed, this feeling of disappointment and disillusion +became more and more intense and bitter. A stanza from one of his more +mature poems (1795) "An die Natur," will serve to illustrate the +sentiment which pervades almost all his writings: + + Tot ist nun, die mich erzog und stillte, + Tot ist nun die jugendliche Welt, + Diese Brust, die einst ein Himmel füllte, + Tot und dürftig wie ein Stoppelfeld; + Ach es singt der Frühling meinen Sorgen + Noch, wie einst, ein freundlich tröstend Lied, + Aber hin ist meines Lebens Morgen, + Meines Herzens Frühling ist verblüht.[34] + +In close causal connection with Hölderlin's Weltschmerz is his belief +that his life is ruled by an inexorable fate whose plaything he is. +"Wenn hinfort mich das Schicksal ergreift, und von einem Abgrund in den +andern mich wirft, und alle Kräfte in mir ertränkt und alle Gedanken," +Hyperion exclaims.[35] He goes even further, and conceives the idea of a +sacrifice to Fate. Thus he makes Alabanda say near the close of +"Hyperion:" "Ach! weil kein Glück ist ohne Opfer, nimm als Opfer mich, o +Schicksal an, und lass die Liebenden in ihrer Freude."[36] Wilhelm +Scherer calls attention to Gervinus' remark that new intellectual +tendencies which call for unaccustomed and unusual mental effort often +prove disastrous to single individuals, and says: "Hölderlin war also +ein Opfer der Erneuerung des deutschen Lebens--seltsam, wie der Gedanke +des Opfers als ein hoher und herrlicher ihn in allen seinen Gedichten +viel beschäftigt hat."[37] But the poet does not apply this fatalism +only to himself, to the individual; he widens its influence to humanity +in general. "Wir sprechen von unserm Herzen, unsern Planen, als wären +sie unser," says Hyperion, "und es ist doch eine fremde Gewalt, die uns +herumwirft und ins Grab legt, wie es ihr gefällt, und von der wir nicht +wissen, von wannen sie kommt, noch wohin sie geht:"[38] Perhaps nowhere +better than in Hyperion's "Schicksalslied" does he give poetic +expression to this thought. Omitting the first stanza it reads thus: + + Schicksallos wie der schlafende + Säugling atmen die Himmlischen; + Keusch bewahrt + In bescheidener Knospe, + Blühet ewig + Ihnen der Geist, + Und die seligen Augen + Blicken in stiller + Ewiger Klarheit. + + Doch uns ist gegeben, + Auf keiner Stätte zu ruhn, + Es schwinden, es fallen + Die leidenden Menschen + Blindlings von einer + Stunde zur andern, + Wie Wasser von Klippe + Zu Klippe geworfen, + Jahrlang ins Ungewisse hinab.[39] + +The fundamental difference between Hölderlin's "Anschauung" and Goethe's +is at once apparent when we recall the "Lied der Parzen" from +"Iphigenie." Hölderlin does not bring the blessed Genii into any +relation with mortals, but merely contrasts their free and blissful +existence, emphasizing their immunity from Fate, to which suffering +humanity is subject. But this humanity is represented by Hölderlin +characteristically as helpless, passive--"schwinden," "fallen," +"blindlings von einer Stunde zur andern." Whereas the opening lines of +Goethe's "Parzen" strike the keynote of _conflict_ between the gods and +men: + + Es fürchte die Götter + Das Menschengeschlecht! + Sie halten die Herrschaft + In ewigen Händen + Und können sie brauchen + Wie's ihnen gefällt. + Der fürchte sie doppelt, + Den je sie erheben! + +And those who come to grief at the hands of the gods, are not weak +passive creatures, but heaven-scaling Titans. This points to the +antipodal difference between the characters of these two poets, and +explains in part why Goethe did not succumb to the sickly sentimentalism +of which he rid himself in "Werther." The difference between yielding +and striving resulted in the difference between an acute case of +Weltschmerz in the one and a healthy physical and intellectual manhood +in the other. + +Thus far it has been almost entirely the personal aspect of Hölderlin's +Weltschmerz and its causes that has come under our notice. And since he +was a lyric poet, it is perhaps natural that the sorrows which concerned +him personally should find most frequent expression in his verse. But +notwithstanding the fact that this personal element is very prominent in +Hölderlin's writings, Scherer's judgment is correct when he states: "Die +Grundstimmung war eine tiefe Verbitterung gegen die Versunkenheit des +Vaterlands."[40] The reason is not far to seek, especially when we +consider the impossible demands of the poet's extravagant idealism. The +conditions in Germany which had called forth the terrible arraignment of +petty despotism, crushing militarism, and political rottenness +generally, in the works of Lenz, Klinger and Schubart, had not abated. +Schubart was one of Hölderlin's earliest favorites, so that the latter +was doubtless in this way imbued with sentiments which could only grow +stronger under the influence of his more mature observations and +experiences. Even in his eighteenth year, in a poem "An die Demut,"[41] +he gives expression in strong terms to his patriotic feelings, in which +his disgust with his faint-hearted, servile compatriots and his defiance +of "Fürstenlaune" and "Despotenblut" are plainly evident. So too in +"Männerjubel," 1788: + + Es glimmt in uns ein Funke der Göttlichen! + Und diesen Funken soll aus der Männerbrust + Der Hölle Macht uns nicht entreissen! + Hört es, Despotengerichte, hört es![42] + +Perhaps nowhere outside of his own Württemberg could he have been more +unfavorably situated in this respect. Under Karl Eugen (1744-1793) the +country sank into a deplorable condition. Regardless of the rights of +individuals and communities alike, he sought in the early part of his +reign to replenish his depleted purse by the most shameless measures, in +order that he might surround himself with luxury and indulge his +autocratic proclivities. Among his most reprehensible violations of +constitutional rights, were his bartering of privileges and offices and +the selling of troops. These things Hölderlin attacks in one of his +youthful poems "Die Ehrsucht" (1788): + + Um wie Könige zu prahlen, schänden + Kleine Wütriche ihr armes Land; + Und um feile Ordensbänder wenden + Räte sich das Ruder aus der Hand.[43] + +Another act of gross injustice which this petty tyrant perpetrated, and +which Hölderlin must have felt very painfully, was the incarceration of +the poet's countryman Schubart from 1777 to 1787 in the Hohenasperg. But +not only from within came tyrannous oppression. Following upon the +coalition against France after the Revolution, Württemberg became the +scene of bloody conflicts and the ravages of war. Under the regime of +Friedrich Eugen (1795-97) the French gained such a foothold in +Württemberg that the country had to pay a contribution of four million +gulden to get rid of them. These were the conditions under which +Hölderlin grew up into young manhood. But deeper than in the mere +existence of these conditions themselves lay the cause of the poet's +most abject humiliation and grief. It was the stoic indifference, the +servile submission with which he charged his compatriots, that called +forth his bitterest invectives upon their insensible heads. His own +words will serve best to show the intensity of his feelings. In 1788 he +writes, in the poem "Am Tage der Freundschaftsfeier:" + + Da sah er (der Schwärmer) all die Schande + Der weichlichen Teutonssöhne, + Und fluchte dem verderblichen Ausland + Und fluchte den verdorbenen Affen des Auslands, + Und weinte blutige Thränen, + Dass er vielleicht noch lange + Verweilen müsse unter diesem Geschlecht.[44] + +Ten years later he treats the Germans to the following ignominious +comparison: + + Spottet ja nicht des Kinds, wenn es mit Peitsch' und Sporn + Auf dem Rosse von Holz, mutig und gross sich dünkt. + Denn, ihr Deutschen, auch ihr seid + Thatenarm und gedankenvoll.[45] + +With his friend Sinclair, who was sent as a delegate, he attended the +congress at Rastatt in November, 1798, and here he made observations +which no doubt resulted in the bitter characterization of his nation in +the closing letters of Hyperion. This convention, whose chief object was +the compensation of those German princes who had been dispossessed by +the cessions to France on the left bank of the Rhine, afforded a +spectacle so humiliating that it would have bowed down in shame a spirit +even less proud and sensitive than Hölderlin's. The French emissaries +conducted themselves like lords of Germany, while the German princes +vied with each other in acts of servility and submission to the arrogant +Frenchmen. And it was the apathy of the average German, as Hölderlin +conceived it, toward these and other national indignities, that caused +him to put such bitter words of contumely into the mouth of Hyperion: +"Barbaren von Alters her, durch Fleiss und Wissenschaft und selbst durch +Religion barbarischer geworden, tief unfähig jedes göttlichen +Gefühls--beleidigend für jede gut geartete Seele, dumpf und harmonielos, +wie die Scherben eines weggeworfenen Gefässes--das, mein Bellarmin! +waren meine Tröster."[46] In another letter Hyperion explains their +incapacity for finer feeling and appreciation when he writes: "Neide die +Leidensfreien nicht, die Götzen von Holz, denen nichts mangelt, weil +ihre Seele so arm ist, die nichts fragen nach Regen und Sonnenschein, +weil sie nichts haben, was der Pflege bedürfte. Ja, ja, es ist recht +sehr leicht, glücklich, ruhig zu sein mit seichtem Herzen und +eingeschränktem Geiste."[47] Their work he characterizes as +"Stümperarbeit," and their virtues as brilliant evils and nothing more. +There is nothing sacred, he claims, that has not been desecrated by this +nation. But it is chiefly his own experience which he recites, when, in +speaking of the sad plight of German poets, of those who still love the +beautiful, he says: "Es ist auch herzzerreissend, wenn man eure Dichter, +eure Künstler sieht--die Guten, sie leben in der Welt, wie Fremdlinge im +eigenen Hause."[48] Still more extravagantly does the poet caricature +his own people when he writes: "Wenn doch einmal diesen Gottverlassnen +einer sagte, dass bei ihnen nur so unvollkommen alles ist, weil sie +nichts Reines unverdorben, nichts Heiliges unbetastet lassen mit den +plumpen Händen--dass bei ihnen eigentlich das Leben schaal und +sorgenschwer ist, weil sie den Genius verschmähen--und darum fürchten +sie auch den Tod so sehr, und leiden um des Austernlebens willen alle +Schmach, weil Höhres sie nicht kennen, als ihr Machwerk, das sie sich +gestoppelt."[49] + +But we should get an extremely unjust and one-sided idea of Hölderlin's +attitude toward his country from these quotations alone. The point which +they illustrate is his growing estrangement from his own people, which +in the very nature of the case must have had an important bearing upon +his Weltschmerz. But his feelings in regard to Germany and the Germans +were not all contempt. In many of his poems there is the true patriotic +ring. It is true, we can nowhere find any clear political program, +neither could we expect one from a poet who was so absorbed in his own +feelings, and whose ideals soared so high above the sphere of practical +politics. In this too Hölderlin was the product of previous influences. +With all their clamor for political upheavals, the "Stürmer und Dränger" +never arrived at any serious or practical plan of action. +Notwithstanding all this, the word Vaterland was always an inspiration +to Hölderlin, and it is especially gratifying to note that the calumny +which he heaps upon the devoted heads of the Germans is not his last +word on the subject. Nor did he ever lose sight of his lofty ideal of +liberty for his degraded fatherland or cease to hope for its +realization. In this strain he concludes the "Hymne an die Freiheit" +(1790) with a splendid outburst of patriotic enthusiasm: + + Dann am süssen, heisserrung'nen Ziele, + Wenn der Ernte grosser Tag beginnt, + Wenn verödet die Tyrannenstühle, + Die Tyrannenknechte Moder sind, + Wenn im Heldenbunde meiner Brüder + Deutsches Blut und deutsche Liebe glüht, + Dann, O Himmelstochter! sing ich wieder, + Singe sterbend dir das letzte Lied.[50] + +What a remarkable change is noticeable in the tone which the poet +assumes toward his country in the lines "Gesang des Deutschen," written +in 1799, probably after the completion of his "Hyperion": + + O heilig Herz der Völker, O Vaterland! + Allduldend gleich der schweigenden Muttererd' + Und allverkannt, wenn schon aus deiner + Tiefe die Fremden ihr Bestes haben. + + Du Land des hohen, ernsteren Genius! + Du Land der Liebe! bin ich der Deine schon, + Oft zürnt' ich weinend, dass du immer + Blöde die eigene Seele leugnest.[51] + +How much the reproach has been softened, and with what tender regard he +strives to mollify his former bitterness! To this change in his +feelings, his sojourn in strange places and the attendant +discouragements and disappointments seem to have contributed not a +little, for in the poem "Rückkehr in die Heimat," written in 1800, the +contempt of "Hyperion" has been replaced by compassion. He sees himself +and his country linked together in the sacred companionship of +suffering, consequently it can no longer be the object of his scorn. + + Wie lange ist's, O wie lange! des Kindes Ruh' + Ist hin, und hin ist Jugend, und Lieb' und Glück, + Doch du, mein Vaterland! du heilig + Duldendes! siehe, du bist geblieben.[52] + +But the fact remains, nevertheless, that Hölderlin from his early youth +felt himself a stranger in his own land and among his own people. Some +of the causes of this circumstance have already been discussed. The fact +itself is important because it establishes the connection between his +Weltschmerz and his most noteworthy characteristic as a poet, namely, +his Hellenism. No other German poet has allowed himself to be so +completely dominated by the Greek idea as did Hölderlin. And in his case +it may properly be called a symptom of his Weltschmerz, for it marks his +flight from the world of stern reality into an imaginary world of Greek +ideals. An imaginary Greek world, because in spite of his Hellenic +enthusiasm he entertained some of the most un-Hellenic ideas and +feelings. + +That the poet should take refuge in Greek antiquity is not surprising, +when we consider the conditions which prevailed at that time in the +field of learning. It was not many decades since the study of Latin and +Roman institutions had been forced to yield preëminence of position in +Germany to the study of Greek. Furthermore, his own Suabia had come to +be recognized as a leader in the study of Greek antiquity, and in his +contemporaries Schiller, Hegel, Schelling, who were all countrymen and +acquaintances of his, he found worthy competitors in this branch of +learning. His fondness for the language and literature of Greece goes +back to his early school days, especially at Denkendorf and Maulbronn. +On leaving the latter school, he had the reputation among his +fellow-students of being an excellent Hellenist, according to the report +of Schwab, his biographer. It was while there that Hölderlin as a boy +of seventeen first made use of the Alcaic measure in which he +subsequently wrote so many of his poems. + +A full discussion of the technic of Hölderlin's poems would have so +remote a connection with the main topic under consideration that its +introduction here would be entirely out of place. It will suffice, +therefore, merely to indicate along broad lines the extent to which the +Greek idea took and held possession of the poet. + +Out of his 168 shorter poems, 126, exactly three-fourths, are written in +the unrhymed Greek measures.[53] Those forms which are native are +confined almost entirely to his juvenile and youthful compositions, and +after 1797 he only once employs the rhymed stanza, namely, in the poem +"An Landauer."[54] As a boy of sixteen, he wrote verses in the Alcaic +and Asclepiadeian measures,[55] and soon acquired a considerable mastery +over them. At seventeen he composed in the latter form his poem "An +meine Freundinnen:" + + In der Stille der Nacht denket an euch mein Lied, + Wo mein ewiger Gram jeglichen Stundenschlag, + Welcher näher mich bringt dem + Trauten Grabe, mit Dank begrüsst.[56] + +While not exhibiting the finish of expression and musical qualities of +his more mature Alcaic lyrics, still it is not bad poetry for a boy of +seventeen, and the reader feels what the boy was not slow to learn, that +the stately movement of the Greek stanzas lends an added dignity to the +expression of sorrow, which was to constitute so large a part of his +poetic activity. As already stated, the Alcaic measure was of all the +Greek verse-forms Hölderlin's favorite, and the one most frequently and +successfully employed by him. He is very fond of introducing Germanic +alliteration into these unrhymed stanzas, as the following example will +illustrate: + + Und wo sind Dichter, denen der Gott es gab, + Wie unsern Alten, freundlich und fromm zu sein, + Wo Weise, wie die unsern sind, die + Kalten und Kühnen, die unbestechbarn?[57] + +The Asclepiadeian stanza he employs much less frequently, the Sapphic +only once, and that with indifferent success. It was the ode, dithyramb +and hymn, the serious lyric, which Hölderlin selected as the models for +his poetic fashion. In this purpose he was not alone, for his friend +Neuffer writes to him in 1793, with an enthusiasm which in the intensity +of expression common at the time, seems almost like an inspiration: "Die +höhere Ode und der Hymnus, zwei in unsern Tagen, und vielleicht in allen +Zeitaltern am meisten vernachlässigte Musen! in ihre Arme wollen wir uns +werfen, von ihren Küssen beseelt uns aufraffen. Welche Aussichten! Dein +Hymnus an die Kühnheit mag Dir zum Motto dienen! Mir gehe die Hoffnung +voran."[58] + +But it was in the form much more than in the contents of his poems, that +Hölderlin carried out the Greek idea. Most of his lyrics are occasional +poems, or have abstract subjects, as for example, "An die Stille," "An +die Ehre," "An den Genius der Kühnheit," and so on. Only here and there +does he take a classic subject or introduce classic references. The +truth of the matter is, that with all his fervid enthusiasm for Hellenic +ideals, and with all his Greek cult, Hölderlin was not the genuine +Hellenist he thought himself to be. This is due to the fact that his +turning to Greece was in its final analysis attributable rather to +selfish than to altruistic motives. He wanted to get away from the +deplorable realities about him, the things which hurt his tender soul, +and so he constructed for himself this idealized world of ancient and +modern Greece, and peopled it with his own creations. + +In Hölderlin's "Hyperion," we have the first poetic work in German which +takes modern Greece as its locality and a modern Hellene as its hero. +Hölderlin calls it "ein Roman," but it would be rather inaccurately +described by the usual translation of that term. It is not only the +poetic climax of his Hellenism, but also the most complete expression of +his Weltschmerz in its various phases. It must naturally be both, for +the poet and the hero are one. He speaks of it as "mein Werkchen, in dem +ich lebe und webe."[59] Its subject is the emancipation of Greece. What +little action is narrated may be very briefly indicated. Russia is at +war with Turkey and calls upon Hellas to liberate itself. The hero and +his friend Alabanda are at the head of a band of volunteers, fighting +the Turks. After several minor successes Hyperion lays siege to the +Spartan fortress of Misitra. But at its capitulation, he is undeceived +concerning the Hellenic patriots; they ravage and plunder so fiercely +that he turns from them with repugnance and both he and Alabanda abandon +the cause of liberty which they had championed. To his bride Hyperion +had promised a redeemed Greece--a lament is all that he can bring her. +She dies, Hyperion comes to Germany where his aesthetic Greek soul is +severely jarred by the sordidness, apathy and insensibility of these +"barbarians." Returning to the Isthmus, he becomes a hermit and writes +his letters to Bellarmin, no less "thatenarm und gedankenvoll" himself +than his unfortunate countrymen whom he so characterizes.[60] + +"Hyperion," though written in prose, is scarcely anything more than a +long drawn out lyric poem, so thoroughly is action subordinated to +reflection, and so beautiful and rhythmic is the dignified flow of its +periods. But having said that the locality is Greece and its hero is +supposed to be a modern Greek, that in its scenic descriptions Hölderlin +produces some wonderfully natural effects, and that the language shows +the imitation of Greek turns of expression--Homeric epithets and +similes--having said this, we have mentioned practically all the Greek +characteristics of the composition. And there is much in it that is +entirely un-Hellenic. To begin with, the form in which "Hyperion" is +cast, that of letters, written not even during the progress of the +events narrated, but after they are all a thing of the past, is not at +all a Greek idea. Moreover Weltschmerz, which constitutes the +"Grundstimmung" of all Hölderlin's writings, and which is most plainly +and persistently expressed in "Hyperion," is not Hellenic. Not that we +should have to look in vain for pessimistic utterances from the +classical poets of Greece--for does not Sophocles make the deliberate +statement: "Not to be born is the most reasonable, but having seen the +light, the next best thing is to go to the place whence we came as soon +as possible."[61] Nevertheless, this sort of sentiment cannot be +regarded as representing the spirit of the ancient Greeks, which was +distinctly optimistic. They were happy in their worship of beauty in art +and in nature, and above all, happy in their creativeness. The question +suggests itself here, whether a poet can ever be a genuine pessimist, +since he has within him the everlasting impulse to create. And to create +is to hope. Hyperion himself says: "Es lebte nichts, wenn es nicht +hoffte."[62] But we have already distinguished between pessimism as a +system of philosophy, and Weltschmerz as a poetic mood.[63] It is +certainly un-Hellenic that Hölderlin allows Hyperion with his alleged +Greek nature to sink into contemplative inactivity. In the poem "Der +Lorbeer," 1789, he exclaims: + + Soll ewiges Trauern mich umwittern, + Ewig mich töten die bange Sehnsucht?[64] + +which gives expression to the fact that in his Weltschmerz there was a +very large admixture of "Sehnsucht," an entirely un-Hellenic feeling. +Nor is there to be found in his entire make-up the slightest trace of +Greek irony, which would have enabled him to overcome much of the +bitterness of his life, and which might indeed have averted its final +catastrophe. + +Undeniably Grecian is Hölderlin's idea that the beautiful is also the +good. Long years he sought for this combined ideal. In Diotima, the muse +of his "Hyperion," whose prototype was Susette Gontard, he has found +it--and now he feels that he is in a new world. To his friend Neuffer, +from whom he has no secrets, he writes: "Ich konnte wohl sonst glauben, +ich wisse, was schön und gut sei, aber seit ich's sehe, möcht' ich +lachen über all mein Wissen. Lieblichkeit und Hoheit, und Ruh und +Leben, und Geist und Gemüt und Gestalt ist Ein seeliges Eins in diesem +Wesen."[65] And six or eight months later: "Mein Schönheitsinn ist nun +vor Störung sicher. Er orientiert sich ewig an diesem Madonnenkopfe.... +Sie ist schön wie Engel! Ein zartes, geistiges, himmlisch reizendes +Gesicht! Ach ich könnte ein Jahrtausend lang mich und alles vergessen +bei ihr--Majestät und Zärtlichkeit, und Fröhlichkeit und Ernst--und +Leben und Geist, alles ist in und an ihr zu einem göttlichen Ganzen +vereint."[66] It would be difficult to conceive of a more complete and +sublime eulogy of any object of affection than the words just quoted, +and yet they do not conceal their author's etherial quality of thought, +his "Uebersinnlichkeit." Even his boyish love-affairs seem to have been +largely of this character, and were in all likelihood due to the +necessity which he felt of bestowing his affection somewhere, rather +than to irresistible forces proceeding from the objects of his regard. + +Lack of self-restraint, so often characteristic of the poet of +Weltschmerz, was not Hölderlin's greatest fault. And yet if his intense +devotion to Susette remained undebased by sensual desires, as we know it +did, this was not solely due to the practice of heroic self-restraint, +but must be attributed in part to the fact that that side of his nature +was entirely subordinate to his higher ideals; and these were always a +stronger passion with Hölderlin than his love. So that Diotima's +judgment of Hyperion is correct when she says: "O es ist so ganz +natürlich, dass Du nimmer lieben willst, weil Deine grössern Wünsche +verschmachten."[67] This consideration at once compels a comparison with +Lenau, which must be deferred, however, until the succeeding chapter. +Undoubtedly this year and a half at Frankfurt was the happiest period of +his whole life. It brought him a serenity of mind which he had never +before known. Ardent was the response called forth by his devotion, but +its influence was wholesome--it was soothing to his sensitive nerves. +And because it was altogether more a sublime than an earthly passion, he +indulged himself in it with a conscience void of offence. Doubtless he +correctly describes the influence of his relations with Diotima upon his +life when he writes: "Ich sage Dir, lieber Neuffer! ich bin auf dem +Wege, ein recht guter Knabe zu werden.... mein Herz ist voll Lust, und +wenn das heilige Schicksal mir mein glücklich Leben erhält, so hoff' ich +künftig mehr zu thun als bisher."[68] But the happy life was not to +continue long. Rudely the cup was dashed from his lips, and the poet's +pain intensified by one more disappointment--the bitterest of all he had +experienced. It filled him with thoughts of revenge, which he was +powerless to execute. There can be no question that if his love for +Susette had been of a less etherial order, less a thing of the soul, he +would have felt much less bitterly her husband's violent interference. +But returning to the poem "Hyperion," for as such we may regard it, we +find in it the most complete expression of the attitude which the poet, +in his Weltschmerz, assumed toward nature. Nature is his constant +companion, mother, comforter in sorrow, in his brighter moments his +deity. This nature-worship, which speedily develops into a more or less +consistent pantheism, Hölderlin expresses in Hyperion's second letter, +in the following creed: "Eines zu sein mit allem, was lebt, in seliger +Selbstvergessenheit wiederzukehren ins All der Natur, das ist der Gipfel +der Gedanken und Freuden, das ist die heilige Bergeshöhe, der Ort der +ewigen Ruhe."[69] And so nature is to Hölderlin always intensely real +and personal. The sea is youthful, full of exuberant joy; the +mountain-tops are hopeful and serene; with shouts of joy the stream +hurls itself like a giant down into the forests. Here and there his +personification of nature becomes even more striking: "O das Morgenlicht +und ich, wir gingen uns entgegen, wie versöhnte Freunde."[70] Still more +intense is this feeling of personal intimacy, when he exclaims: "O +selige Natur! ich weiss nicht, wie mir geschiehet, wenn ich mein Auge +erhebe von deiner Schöne, aber alle Lust des Himmels ist in den Thränen, +die ich weine vor dir, der Geliebte vor der Geliebten."[71] It is +important for purposes of comparison, to note that notwithstanding his +intense Weltschmerz, in his treatment of nature Hölderlin does not +select only its gloomy or terrible aspects. Light and shade alternate in +his descriptions, and only here and there is the background entirely +unrelieved. The thunderstorm is to him a dispenser of divine energies +among forest and field, even the seasons of decline and decay are not +left without sunshine: "auf der stummen entblätterten Landschaft, wo der +Himmel schöner als je, mit Wolken und Sonnenschein um die herbstlich +schlafenden Bäume spielte."[72] One passage in "Hyperion" bears so +striking a resemblance, however, to Lenau's characteristic +nature-pictures, that it shall be given in full--although even here, +when the gloom of his sorrow and disappointment was steadily deepening, +he does not fail to derive comfort from the warm sunshine, a thought for +which we should probably look in vain, had Lenau painted the picture: +"Ich sass mit Alabanda auf einem Hügel der Gegend, in lieblich wärmender +Sonn', und um uns spielte der Wind mit abgefallenem Laube. Das Land war +stumm; nur hie und da ertönte im Wald ein stürzender Baum, vom Landmann +gefällt, und neben uns murmelte der vergängliche Regenbach hinab ins +ruhige Meer."[73] + +In spite of his deep and persistent Weltschmerz, Hölderlin rarely gives +expression to a longing for death. This forms so prominent a feature in +the thought of other types of Weltschmerz, for instance of Lenau and of +Leopardi, that its absence here cannot fail to be noticed. It is true +that in his dramatic poem "Der Tod des Empedokles," which symbolizes the +closing of his account with the world, Hölderlin causes his hero to +return voluntarily to nature by plunging into the fiery crater of Mount +Etna. But Empedokles does this to atone for past sin, not merely to rid +himself of the pain of living; and thus, even as a poetic idea, it +impresses us very differently from the continual yearning for death +which pervades the writings of the two poets just mentioned. Leopardi +declared that it were best never to see the light, but denounced suicide +as a cowardly act of selfishness; and yet at the approach of an +epidemic of cholera, he clung so tenaciously to life that he urged a +hurried departure from Naples, regardless of the hardships of such a +journey in his feeble condition, and took refuge in a little villa near +Vesuvius. Hölderlin's Weltschmerz was absolutely sincere. + +Numerous passages might be quoted to show that Hölderlin's mind was +intensely introspective. This is true also of Lenau, even to a greater +extent, and may be taken as generally characteristic of poets of this +type. The fact that this introspection is an inevitable symptom in many +mental derangements, hypochondria, melancholia and others, indicates a +not very remote relation of Weltschmerz to insanity. In Hölderlin's +poems there are not a few premonitions of the sad fate which awaited +him. One illustration from the poem "An die Hoffnung," 1801, may +suffice: + + Wo bist du? wenig lebt' ich, doch atmet kalt + Mein Abend schon. Und stille, den Schatten gleich, + Bin ich schon hier; und schon gesanglos + Schlummert das schau'rende Herz im Busen.[74] + +It is impossible to read these lines without feeling something of the +cold chill of the heart that Hölderlin felt was already upon him, and +which he expresses in a manner so intensely realistic and yet so +beautiful. + +Having thus attempted a review of the growth of Hölderlin's Weltschmerz +and of its chief characteristics, it merely remains to conclude the +chapter with a brief resume. We have then in Friedrich Hölderlin a youth +peculiarly predisposed to feel himself isolated from and repelled by the +world, growing up without a strong fatherly hand to guide, giving +himself over more and more to solitude and so becoming continually less +able to cope with untoward circumstances and conditions. Growing into +manhood, he was unfortunate in all his love-affairs and as though doomed +to unceasing disappointments. Early in life he devoted himself to the +study of antiquity, making Greece his hobby, and thus creating for +himself an ideal world which existed only in his imagination, and taking +refuge in it from the buffetings of the world about him. He was a man +of a deeply philosophical trend of mind, and while not often speaking of +it, felt very keenly the humiliating condition of Germany, although his +patriotic enthusiasm found its artistic expression not with reference to +Germany but to Greece. As a poet, finally, his intimacy with nature was +such that nature-worship and pantheism became his religion. + +In reviewing the whole range of Hölderlin's writings, we cannot avoid +the conclusion, that in him we have a type of Weltschmerz in the +broadest sense of the term; we might almost term it Byronism, with the +sensual element eliminated. He shows the hypersensitiveness of Werther, +fanatical enthusiasm for a vague ideal of liberty, vehement opposition +to existing social and political conditions; there is, in fact, a +breadth in his Weltschmerz, which makes the sorrows of Werther seem very +highly specialized in comparison. Bearing in mind the distinction made +between the two classes, we must designate Hölderlin's Weltschmerz as +cosmic rather than egoistic; the egoistic element is there, but it is +outweighed by the cosmic and finds its poetic expression not so +frequently nor so intensely with reference to the poet himself, as with +reference to mankind at large. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 12: _Anz. f. d. Alt._, vol. 22, p. 212-218.] + +[Footnote 13: In a letter to his mother he writes: "Freilich ist's mir +auch angeboren, dass ich alles schwerer zu Herzen nehme." ("Friedrich +Hölderlins Leben, in Briefen von und an Hölderlin, von Carl C.T. +Litzmann," Berlin, 1890, p. 27. Hereafter quoted as "Briefe.").] + +[Footnote 14: "Hölderlins gesammelte Dichtungen, herausgegeben von B. +Litzmann," Stuttgart, Cotta (hereafter quoted as "Werke"). Vol. II, p. +9.] + +[Footnote 15: It is a reminiscence of Hölderlin's boyhood which finds +expression in the words of Hyperion: "Ich war aufgewachsen, wie eine +Rebe ohne Stab, und die wilden Ranken breiteten richtungslos über dem +Boden sich aus." Werke, Vol. II, p. 72.] + +[Footnote 16: Werke, Vol. I, p. 86.] + +[Footnote 17: Werke, Vol. I, p. 36.] + +[Footnote 18: "Auf einer Heide geschrieben," Werke, Vol. I, p. 44.] + +[Footnote 19: Briefe, p. 27.] + +[Footnote 20: Briefe, p. 29.] + +[Footnote 21: Werke, Vol. I, p. 53 f.] + +[Footnote 22: Briefe, p. 36.] + +[Footnote 23: Briefe, p. 120.] + +[Footnote 24: "Mein Vorsatz," Werke, Vol. I, p. 44.] + +[Footnote 25: Werke, Vol. II, p. 69.] + +[Footnote 26: Werke, Vol. II, p. 90.] + +[Footnote 27: Werke, Vol. II, p. 86.] + +[Footnote 28: Briefe, p. 49.] + +[Footnote 29: Briefe, p. 50.] + +[Footnote 30: Werke, Vol. I, p. 74.] + +[Footnote 31: "Friedrich Hölderlin, Eine Studie," _Preuss. Jahrb._, +1866, p. 548-568.] + +[Footnote 32: _Anz. f. d. Altertum_, Vol. 22, p. 212-218.] + +[Footnote 33: Werke, Vol. I, p. 75.] + +[Footnote 34: Werke, Vol. I, p. 146.] + +[Footnote 35: Werke, Vol. II, p. 107.] + +[Footnote 36: Werke, Vol. II, p. 188.] + +[Footnote 37: "Vorträge und Aufsätze," 1874, Fried. Hölderlin, p. 354.] + +[Footnote 38: Werke, Vol. II, p. 96.] + +[Footnote 39: Werke, Vol. II, p. 189.] + +[Footnote 40: Cf. op. cit., p. 352.] + +[Footnote 41: Werke, Vol. I, p. 51.] + +[Footnote 42: Werke, Vol. I, p. 50.] + +[Footnote 43: Werke, Vol. I, p. 49.] + +[Footnote 44: Werke, Vol. I, p. 66.] + +[Footnote 45: Werke, Vol. I, p. 165.] + +[Footnote 46: Werke, Vol. II, p. 198.] + +[Footnote 47: Werke, Vol. II, p. 97.] + +[Footnote 48: Werke, Vol. II, p. 200.] + +[Footnote 49: Werke, Vol. II, p. 200 f.] + +[Footnote 50: Werke, Vol. I, p. 105.] + +[Footnote 51: Werke, Vol. I, p. 196.] + +[Footnote 52: Werke, Vol. I, p. 214.] + +[Footnote 53: Werke, Vol. I.] + +[Footnote 54: Werke, Vol. I, p. 234.] + +[Footnote 55: "An die Nachtigall," "An meinen Bilfinger," Werke, Vol. I, +p. 42f.] + +[Footnote 56: Werke, Vol. I, p. 43.] + +[Footnote 57: Werke, Vol. I, p. 197.] + +[Footnote 58: Briefe, p. 160.] + +[Footnote 59: Briefe, p. 162.] + +[Footnote 60: Cf. _supra_, p. 22.] + +[Footnote 61: "Oedipus Coloneus," 1225 seq.] + +[Footnote 62: Werke, Vol. II, p. 81.] + +[Footnote 63: Cf. Introduction, p. 1 f.] + +[Footnote 64: Werke, Vol. I, p. 89.] + +[Footnote 65: Briefe, p. 382 f.] + +[Footnote 66: Briefe, p. 403-405.] + +[Footnote 67: Werke, Vol. II, p. 175.] + +[Footnote 68: Briefe, p. 404.] + +[Footnote 69: Werke, Vol. II, p. 68.] + +[Footnote 70: Werke, Vol. II, p. 100.] + +[Footnote 71: Werke, Vol. II, p. 68.] + +[Footnote 72: Werke, Vol. II, p. 85.] + +[Footnote 73: Werke, Vol. II, p. 181.] + +[Footnote 74: Werke, Vol. I, p. 253.] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +=Lenau= + + +If Hölderlin's Weltschmerz has been fittingly characterized as +idealistic, Lenau's on the other hand may appropriately be termed the +naturalistic type. He is par excellence the "Pathetiker" of Weltschmerz. + +Without presuming even to attempt a final solution of a problem of +pathology concerning which specialists have failed to agree, there seems +to be sufficient circumstantial as well as direct evidence to warrant +the assumption that Lenau's case presents an instance of hereditary +taint. Notwithstanding the fact that Dr. Karl Weiler[75] discredits the +idea of "erbliche Belastung" and calls heredity "den vielgerittenen +Verlegenheitsgaul," the conclusion forces itself upon us that if the +theory has any scientific value whatsoever, no more plausible instance +of it could be found than the one under consideration. The poet's +great-grandfather and grandfather had been officers in the Austrian +army, the latter with some considerable distinction. Of his five +children, only Franz, the poet's father, survived. The complete lack of +anything like a systematic education, and the nomadic life of the army +did not fail to produce the most disastrous results in the wild and +dissolute character of the young man. Even before the birth of the poet, +his father had broken his marriage vows and his wife's heart by his +abominable dissipations and drunkenness. Lenau was but five years old +when his father, not yet thirty-five, died of a disease which he is +believed to have contracted as a result of these sensual and senseless +excesses. To the poet he bequeathed something of his own pathological +sensuality, instability of thought and action, lack of will-energy, and +the tears of a heartbroken mother, a sufficient guarantee, surely, of a +poet of melancholy. Even though we cannot avoid the reflection that the +loss of such a father was a blessing in disguise, the fact remains that +Lenau during his childhood and youth needed paternal guidance and +training even more than did Hölderlin. He became the idol of his mother, +who in her blind devotion did not hesitate to show him the utmost +partiality in all things. This important fact alone must account to a +large extent for that presumptuous pride, which led him to expect +perhaps more than his just share from life and from the world. + +Lenau's aimlessness and instability were so extreme that they may +properly be counted a pathological trait. It is best illustrated by his +university career. In 1819 he went to Vienna to commence his studies. +Beginning with Philosophy, he soon transferred his interests to Law, +first Hungarian, then German; finding the study of Law entirely unsuited +to his tastes, he now declared his intention of pursuing once more a +philosophical course, with a view to an eventual professorship. But this +plan was frustrated by his grandmother, the upshot of it all being that +Lenau allowed himself to be persuaded to take up the study of +agriculture at Altenburg. But a few months sufficed to bring him back to +Vienna. Here his legal studies, which he had resumed and almost +completed, were interrupted by a severe affection of the throat which +developed into laryngitis and from which he never quite recovered. This +too, according to Dr. Sadger,[76] marks the neurasthenic, and often +constitutes a hereditary taint. Lenau thereupon shifted once more and +entered upon a medical course, this time not absolutely without +predilection. He did himself no small credit in his medical +examinations, but the death of his grandmother, just before his intended +graduation, provided a sufficient excuse for him to discontinue the +work, which was never again resumed or brought to a conclusion. But not +only in matters of such relative importance did Lenau exhibit this +vacillation. There was a spirit of restlessness in him which made it +impossible for him to remain long in the same place. Of this condition +no one was more fully aware than he himself. In one of his letters he +writes: "Gestern hat jemand berechnet, wieviel Poststunden ich in zwei +Monaten gefahren bin, und es ergab sich die kolossale Summe von 644, die +ich im Eilwagen unter beständiger Gemütsbewegung gefahren bin."[77] That +this habit of almost incessant travel tended to aggravate his nervous +condition is a fair supposition, notwithstanding the fact that Dr. Karl +Weiler[78] skeptically asks "what about commercial travellers?" Lenau +himself complains frequently of the distressing effect of such journeys: +"Ein heftiger Kopfschmerz und grosse Müdigkeit waren die Folgen der von +Linz an unausgesetzten Reise im Eilwagen bei schlechtem Wetter und +abmüdenden Gedanken an meine Zukunft."[79] Many similar Statements might +be quoted from his letters to show that it was not merely the ordinary +process of traveling, though that at best must have been trying enough, +but the breathless haste of his journeys, combined with mental anxiety, +which usually characterized them, that made them so detrimental to his +health. + +It is as interesting as it is significant to note in this connection the +fact that while on a journey to Munich, just a short time before the +light of his intellect failed, Lenau wrote the following lines, the last +but one of all his poems: + + 's ist eitel nichts, wohin mein Aug' ich hefte! + Das Leben ist ein vielbesagtes Wandern, + Ein wüstes Jagen ist's von dem zum andern, + Und unterwegs verlieren wir die Kräfte. + + Doch trägt uns eine Macht von Stund zu Stund, + Wie's Krüglein, das am Brunnenstein zersprang, + Und dessen Inhalt sickert auf den Grund, + So weit es ging, den ganzen Weg entlang,-- + Nun ist es leer. Wer mag daraus noch trinken? + Und zu den andern Scherben muss es sinken.[80] + +Hölderlin also uses the striking figure contained in the last line, not +however as here to picture the worthlessness of human life in general, +but to stigmatize the Germans, whom Hyperion describes as "dumpf und +harmonielos, wie die Scherben eines weggeworfenen Gefässes."[81] + +That Lenau was a neurasthenic seems to be the consensus of opinion, at +least of those medical authorities who have given their views of the +case to the public.[82] This fact also has an important bearing upon our +discussion, since it will help to show a materially different origin for +Lenau's Weltschmerz and Hölderlin's. + +Much more frequent than in the case of the latter are the ominous +forebodings of impending disaster which characterize Lenau's poems and +correspondence. In a letter to his friend Karl Mayer he writes: "Mich +regiert eine Art Gravitation nach dem Unglücke. Schwab hat einmal von +einem Wahnsinnigen sehr geistreich gesprochen.... Ein Analogon von +solchem Dämon (des Wahnsinns) glaub' ich auch in mir zu +beherbergen."[83] He is continually engaged in a gruesome +self-diagnosis: "Dann ist mir zuweilen, als hielte der Teufel seine Jagd +in dem Nervenwalde meines Unterleibes: ich höre ein deutliches +Hundegebell daselbst und ein dumpfes Halloh des Schwarzen. Ohne Scherz; +es ist oft zum Verzweifeln."[84] This process of self-diagnosis may be +due in part to his medical studies, but much more, we think, to his +morbid imagination, which led him, on more than one occasion, to play +the madman in so realistic a manner that strangers were frightened out +of their wits and even his friends became alarmed, lest it might be +earnest and not jest which they were witnessing. + +Lenau was not without a certain sense of humor, grim humor though it +was, and here and there in his letters there is an admixture of levity +with the all-pervading melancholy. An example may be quoted from a +letter to Kerner in Weinsberg, dated 1832: "Heute bin ich wieder bei +Reinbecks auf ein grosses Spargelessen. Spargel wie Kirchthürme werden +da gefressen. Ich allein verschlinge 50-60 solcher Kirchthürme und +komme mir dabei vor, wie eine Parodie unserer politisch-prosaischen, +durchaus unheiligen Zeit, die auch schon das Maul aufsperrt, um alles +Heilige, und namentlich die guten gläubigen Kirchthürme wie +Spargelstangen zu verschlingen." The letter concludes with the +signature: "Ich umarme Dich, bis Dir die Rippen krachen. Dein +Niembsch."[85] Not infrequently this humor was at his own expense, +especially when describing an unpleasant condition or situation, as for +example in a letter to Sophie Löwenthal in the year 1844: "Jetzt lebe +ich hier in Saus und Braus,--d. h. es saust und braust mir der Kopf von +einem leidigen Schnupfen."[86] Again, on finding himself on one occasion +very unwell and uncomfortable in Stuttgart, he writes as follows: +"Beständiges Unwohlsein, Kopfschmerz, Schlaflosigkeit, Mattigkeit, +schlechte Verdauung, Rhabarber, Druckfehler, und Aerger über den trägen +Fortschlich meiner Geschäfte, das waren die Freuden meiner letzten +Woche. Emilie will es nicht gelten lassen, dass die Stuttgarter Luft +nichts als die Ausdünstung des Teufels sei.--Ich schnappe nach Luft, wie +ein Spatz unter der Luftpumpe.--In vielen der hiesigen Strassen riecht +es am Ende auch lenzhaft, nämlich pestilenzhaft, und die guten +Stuttgarter merken das gar nicht; 'süss duftet die Heimat.'"[87] In his +fondness for bringing together the incongruous, for introducing the +element of surprise, and in the fact that his humor is almost always of +the impatient, disgruntled, cynical type, Lenau reminds us not a little +of Heine in his "Reisebilder" and some other prose works. Hölderlin, on +the other hand, may be said to have been utterly devoid of humor. + +Lack of self-control, perhaps the most characteristic trait among men of +genius, was even more pronounced in Lenau than in Hölderlin. This shows +itself in the extreme irregularity of his habits of life. For instance, +it was his custom to work long past the midnight hour, and then take his +rest until nearly noon. He could never get his coffee quite strong +enough to suit him, although it was prepared almost in the form of a +concentrated tincture and he drank large quantities of it. He smoked to +excess, and the strongest cigars at that; in short, he seems to have +been entirely without regard for his physical condition. Or was it +perverseness which prompted him to prefer close confinement in his room +to the long walks which he ought to have taken for his health? Even his +recreation, which consisted chiefly in playing the violin, brought him +no nervous relaxation, for it is said that he would often play himself +into a state of extreme nervous excitement. + +All these considerations corroborate the opinion of those who knew him +best, that his Weltschmerz, and eventually his insanity, had its origin +in a pathological condition. Indeed this was the poet's own view of the +case. In a letter to his brother-in-law, Anton Schurz, dated 1834, he +says: "Aber, lieber Bruder, die Hypochondrie schlägt bei mir immer +tiefere Wurzel. Es hilft alles nichts. Der gewisse innere Riss wird +immer tiefer und weiter. Es hilft alles nichts. Ich weiss, es liegt im +Körper; aber--aber--"[88] In its origin then, Lenau's Weltschmerz +differs altogether from that of Hölderlin, who exhibits no such symptoms +of neurasthenia. + +Lenau's nervous condition was seriously aggravated at an early date by +the outcome of his unfortunate relations with the object of his first +love, Bertha, who became his mistress when he was still a mere boy. His +grief on finding her faithless was doubtless as genuine as his conduct +with her had been reprehensible, for he cherished for many long years +the memory of his painful disappointment. The general statement, "Lenau +war stets verlobt, fand aber stets in sich selbst einen Widerstand und +unerklärliche Angst, wenn die Verbindung endgiltig gemacht werden +sollte,"[89] is inaccurate and misleading, inasmuch as it fails to take +into proper account the causes, mediate and immediate, of his hesitation +to marry. Lenau was only once "verlobt," and it was the stroke of facial +paralysis[90] which announced the beginning of the end, rather than any +"unerklärliche Angst," that convinced him of the inexpediency of that +important step. + +Beyond a doubt his long drawn out and abject devotion to the wife of his +friend Max Löwenthal proved the most important single factor in his +life. It was during the year 1834, after his return from America, that +Lenau made the acquaintance of the Löwenthal family in Vienna.[91] +Sophie, who was the sister of his old comrade Fritz Kleyle, so attracted +the poet that he remained in the city for a number of weeks instead of +going at once to Stuttgart, as he had planned and promised. What at +first seemed an ideal friendship, increased in intensity until it +became, at least on Lenau's part, the very glow of passion. We have +already alluded to the poet's premature erotic instinct, an impulse +which he doubtless inherited from his sensual parents. In his numerous +letters and notes to Sophie, he has left us a remarkable record of the +intensity of his passion. Not even excepting Goethe's letters to Frau +von Stein, there are no love-letters in the German language to equal +these in literary or artistic merit; and never has any other German poet +addressed himself with more ardent devotion to a woman. A characteristic +difference between Hölderlin and Lenau here becomes evident: the former, +even in his relations with Diotima, supersensual; the latter the very +incarnation of sensuality. Lenau was fully conscious of the tremendous +struggle with overpowering passion, and once confessed to his clerical +friend Martensen that only through the unassailable chastity of his +lady-love had his conscience remained void of offence. Almost any of his +innumerable protestations of love taken at random would seem like the +most extravagant attempt to give utterance to the inexpressible: "Gottes +starke Hand drückt mich so fest an Dich, dass ich seufzen muss und +ringen mit erdrückender Wonne, und meine Seele keinen Atem mehr hat, +wenn sie nicht Deine Liebe saugen kann. Ach Sophie! ach, liebe, liebe, +liebe Sophie!"[92] "Ich bete Dich an, Du bist mein Liebstes und +Höchstes."[93] "Am sechsten Juni reis' ich ab, nichts darf mich halten. +Mir brennt Leib und Seele nach Dir. Du! O Sophie! Hätt' ich Dich da! Das +Verlangen schmerzt, O Gott!"[94] Instead of experiencing the soothing +influences of a Diotima, Lenau's fate was to be engaged for ten long +years in a hot conflict between principle and passion, a conflict which +kept his naturally oversensitive nerves continually on the rack. He +himself expresses the detrimental effect of this situation: "So treibt +mich die Liebe von einer Raserei zur andern, von der zügellosesten +Freude zu verzweifeltem Unmut. Warum? Weil ich am Ziel der höchsten, so +heiss ersehnten Wonne immer wieder umkehren muss, weil die Sehnsucht nie +gestillt wird, wird sie irr und wild und verkehrt sich in +Verzweiflung,--das ist die Geschichte meines Herzens."[95] It would seem +from the tone of many of his letters that there was much deliberate and +successful effort on the part of Sophie to keep Lenau's feelings toward +her always in a state of the highest nervous tension. So cleverly did +she manage this that even her caprices put him only the more hopelessly +at her mercy. One day he writes: "Mit grosser Ungeduld erwartete ich +gestern die Post, und sie brachte mir auch einen Brief von Dir, aber +einen, der mich kränkt."[96] For a day or two he is rebellious and +writes: "Ich bin verstimmt, missmutig. Warum störst Du mein Herz in +seinen schönen Gedanken von innigem Zusammenleben auch in der +Ferne?"[97] But only a few days later he is again at her feet: "Ich habe +Dir heute wieder geschrieben, um Dich auch zum Schreiben zu treiben. Ich +sehne mich nach Deinen Briefen. Du bist nicht sehr eifrig, Du bist es +wohl nie gewesen. Und kommt endlich einmal ein Brief, so hat er meist +seinen Haken--O liebe Sophie! wie lieb' ich Dich!"[98] Her attitude on +several occasions leaves room for no other inference than that she was +extremely jealous of his affections. When in 1839 a mutual regard sprang +up between Lenau and the singer Karoline Unger, a regard which held out +to him the hope of a fuller and happier existence, we may surmise the +nature of Sophie's interference from the following reply to her: "Sie +haben mir mit Ihren paar Zeilen das Herz zerschmettert,--Karoline liebt +mich und will mein werden. Sie sieht's als ihre Sendung an, mein Leben +zu versöhnen und zu beglücken.--Es ist an Ihnen Menschlichkeit zu üben +an meinem zerrissenen Herzen.--Verstosse ich sie, so mache ich sie elend +und mich zugleich.--Entziehen Sie mir Ihr Herz, so geben Sie mir den +Tod; sind Sie unglücklich, so will ich sterben. Der Knoten ist +geschürzt. Ich wollte, ich wäre schon tot!"[99] Not only was this +proposed match broken off, but when some five years later Lenau made the +acquaintance of and became engaged to a charming young girl, Marie +Behrends, and all the poet's friends rejoiced with him at the prospect +of a happy marriage, a "Musterehe," as he fondly called it, Sophie wrote +him the cruel words: "Eines von uns muss wahnsinnig werden."[100] Only a +few months were needed to decide which of them it should be. + +The foregoing illustrations are ample to show what sort of influence +Sophie exerted over the poet's entire nature, and therefore upon his +Weltschmerz. Whereas in their hopeless loves, Hölderlin and to an even +greater extent Goethe, struggled through to the point of renunciation, +Lenau constantly retrogrades, and allows his baser sensual instincts +more and more to control him. He promises to subdue his wild outbursts a +little,[101] and when he fails he tries to explain,[102] to +apologize.[103] If with Hölderlin love was to a predominating degree a +thing of the soul, it was with Lenau in an equal measure a matter of +nerves, and as such, under these conditions, it could not but contribute +largely to his physical, mental and moral disruption. With Hölderlin it +was the rude interruption from without of his quiet and happy +intercourse with Susette, which embittered his soul. With Lenau it was +the feverish, tumultuous nature of the love itself, that deepened his +melancholy. + +The charge of affectation in their Weltschmerz would be an entirely +baseless one, both in the case of Hölderlin and Lenau. But this +difference is readily discovered in the impressions made upon us by +their writings, namely that Hölderlin's Weltschmerz is absolutely naïve +and unconscious, while that of Lenau is at all times self-conscious and +self-centered. Mention has already been made, in speaking of Lenau's +pathological traits,[104] of his confirmed habit of self-diagnosis. This +he applied not only to his physical condition but to his mental +experiences as well. No one knew so well as he how deeply the roots of +melancholy had penetrated his being. "Ich bin ein Melancholiker" he once +wrote to Sophie, "der Kompass meiner Seele zittert immer wieder zurück +nach dem Schmerze des Lebens."[105] Innumerable illustrations of this +fact might be found in his lyrics, all of which would repeat with +variations the theme of the stanza: + + Du geleitest mich durch's Leben + Sinnende Melancholie! + Mag mein Stern sich strebend heben, + Mag er sinken,--weichest nie![106] + +The definite purpose with which the poet seeks out and strives to keep +intact his painful impressions is frankly stated in one of his diary +memoranda, as follows: "So gibt es eine Höhe des Kummers, auf welcher +angelangt wir einer einzelnen Empfindung nicht nachspringen, sondern sie +laufen lassen, weil wir den Blick für das schmerzliche Ganze nicht +verlieren, sondern eine gewisse kummervolle Sammlung behalten wollen, +die bei aller scheinbaren Aussenheiterkeit recht gut fortbestehen +kann."[107] Hölderlin, as we have noted,[108] not infrequently pictures +himself as a sacrifice to the cause of liberty and fatherland, to the +new era that is to come: + + Umsonst zu sterben, lieb' ich nicht; doch + Lieb' ich zu fallen am Opferhügel + Für's Vaterland, zu bluten des Herzens Blut, + Für's Vaterland....[109] + +Lenau, on the other hand, is anxious to sacrifice himself to his muse. +"Künstlerische Ausbildung ist mein höchster Lebenszweck; alle Kräfte +meines Geistes, meines Gemütes betracht' ich als Mittel dazu. Erinnerst +Du Dich des Gedichtes von Chamisso,[110] wo der Maler einen Jüngling ans +Kreuz nagelt, um ein Bild vom Todesschmerze zu haben? Ich will mich +selber ans Kreuz schlagen, wenn's nur ein gutes Gedicht gibt."[111] And +again: "Vielleicht ist die Eigenschaft meiner Poesie, dass sie ein +Selbstopfer ist, das Beste daran."[112] The specific instances just +cited, together with the inevitable impressions gathered from the +reading of his lyrics, make it impossible to avoid the conclusion that +we are dealing here with a _virtuoso_ of Weltschmerz; that Lenau was not +only conscious at all times of the depth of his sorrow, but that he was +also fully aware of its picturesqueness and its poetic possibilities. It +is true that this self-consciousness brings him dangerously near the +bounds of insincerity, but it must also be granted that he never +oversteps those bounds. + +Regarded as a psychological process, Lenau's Weltschmerz therefore +stands midway between that of Hölderlin and Heine. It is more +self-centred than Hölderlin's and while the poet is able to diagnose the +disease which holds him firmly in its grasp, he lacks those means by +which he might free himself from it. Heine goes still further, for +having become conscious of his melancholy, he mercilessly applies the +lash of self-irony, and in it finds the antidote for his Weltschmerz. + +Fichte, says Erich Schmidt, calls egoism the spirit of the eighteenth +century, by which he means the revelling, the complete absorption, in +the personal. This will naturally find its favorite occupation in +sentimental self-contemplation, which becomes a sort of fashionable +epidemic. It is this fashion which Goethe wished to depict in "Werther," +and therefore Werther's hopeless love is not wholly responsible for his +suicide. "Werther untergräbt sein Dasein durch Selbstbetrachtung," is +Goethe's own explanation of the case.[113] And it is in this light only +that Werther's malady deserves in any comprehensive sense the term +Weltschmerz. Here, then, Lenau and Werther stand on common ground. Other +traits common to most poets of Weltschmerz might here be enumerated as +characteristic of both, such as extreme fickleness of purpose, +supersensitiveness, lack of definite vocation, and the like; all of +which goes to show that while for artistic purposes Goethe required a +dramatic cause, or rather occasion, for Werther's suicide, he +nevertheless fully understood all the symptoms of the prevailing disease +with which his sentimental hero was afflicted. + +While the personal elements in Lenau's Weltschmerz are much more intense +in their expression than with Hölderlin, its altruistic side is +proportionately weaker. So far as we may judge from his lyrics, very +little of Lenau's Weltschmerz was inspired by patriotic considerations. +There is opposition, it is true, to the existing order, but that +opposition is directed almost solely against that which annoyed and +inconvenienced him personally, for example, against the stupid as well +as rigorous Austrian censorship. Against this bugbear he never ceases to +storm in verse and letters, and to it must be attributed in a large +measure his literary alienation from the land of his adoption. That we +must look to his lyrics rather than to his longer epic writings, in +order to discover the poet's deepest interests, is nowhere more clearly +evidenced than in the following reference to his "Savonarola," in a +letter to Emilie Reinbeck during the progress of the work: "Savonarola +wirkte zumeist als Prediger, darum muss ich in meinem Gedicht ihn +vielfach predigen und dogmatisieren lassen, welches in vierfüssigen +doppeltgereimten Iamben sehr schwierig ist. Doch es freut mich, Dinge +poetisch durchzusetzen, an deren poetischer Darstellbarkeit wohl die +meisten Menschen verzweifeln. Auch gereicht es mir zu besonderem +Vergnügen, mit diesem Gedicht gegen den herrschenden Geschmack unseres +Tages in Opposition zu treten."[114] The inference lies very near at +hand that his opposition to the prevailing taste was after all a +secondary consideration, and that the poet's first concern was to win +glory by accomplishing something which others would abandon as an +impossibility. While recognizing the fact that Lenau's "Faust" and "Don +Juan" are largely autobiographical, it is, I think, obvious that an +entirely adequate impression of his Weltschmerz may be gained from his +letters and lyrics alone, in which the poet's sincerest feelings need +not be subordinated for a moment to artistic purposes or demands. And +nowhere, either in lyrics or letters, do we find such spontaneous +outbursts of patriotic sentiment as greet us in Hölderlin's poems: + + Glückselig Suevien, meine Mutter![115] + +This could not be otherwise; for was he (Lenau) not an Hungarian by +birth, an Austrian by adoption, and in his professional affiliations a +German? Had his interests not been divided between Vienna and Stuttgart, +and had he not been possessed with an apparently uncontrollable +restlessness which drove him from place to place, his patriotic +enthusiasm would naturally have turned to Austria, and the poetic +expression of his home sentiments would not have been confined, perhaps, +to the one occasion when he had put the broad Atlantic between himself +and his kin. That his brother-in-law Schurz should wish to represent him +as a dyed-in-the-wool Austrian is only natural.[116] However this may +be, the poet does not hesitate to state in a letter to Emilie Reinbeck: +"Ein Hund in Schwaben hat mehr Achtung für mich als ein Polizeipräsident +in Oesterreich."[117] And although he professes to have become hardened +to the pestering interference of the authorities, as a matter of fact it +was a constant source of unhappiness to him. "So aber war mein Leben +seit meinem letzten Briefe ein beständiger Aerger. Die verfluchten +Vexationen der hiesigen Censurbehörde haben selbst jetzt noch immer kein +Ende finden können."[118] Speaking of his hatred for the censorship law, +he says: "Und doch gebührt mein Hass noch immer viel weniger dem Gesetze +selbst, als denjenigen legalisierten Bestien, die das Gesetz auf eine so +niederträchtige Art handhaben;--und unsre Censoren stellen im Gegensatze +der pflanzen- und fleischfressenden Tiere die Klasse der +geistfressenden Tiere dar, eine abscheuliche, monströse Klasse!"[119] +Roustan expresses the opinion that with Lenau patriotism occupied a +secondary place.[120] He had too many "native lands" to become attached +to any one of them. + +There is something of a counterpart to Hölderlin's Hellenism and +championship of Greek liberty in Lenau's espousal of the Polish cause. +But here again the personal element is strongly in evidence. A chance +acquaintance, which afterward became an intimate friendship, with Polish +fugitives, seems to have been the immediate occasion of his Polenlieder, +so that his enthusiasm for Polish liberty must be regarded as incidental +rather than spontaneous. Needless to say that with a Greek cult such as +Hölderlin's Lenau had no patience whatever. "Dass die Poesie den +profanen Schmutz wieder abwaschen müsse, den ihr Goethe durch 50 Jahre +mit klassischer Hand gründlich einzureiben bemüht war; dass die +Freiheitsgedanken, wie sie jetzt gesungen werden, nichts seien als +konventioneller Trödel,--davon haben nur wenige eine Ahnung."[121] + +All these considerations tend to convince us that Lenau's Weltschmerz is +after all of a much narrower and more personal type than Hölderlin's. +Again and again he runs through the gamut of his own painful emotions +and experiences, diagnosing and dissecting each one, and always with the +same gloomy result. Consequently his Weltschmerz loses in breadth what +through the depth of the poet's introspection it gains in intensity. + +One of the most striking and, unless classed among his numerous other +pathological traits, one of the most puzzling of Lenau's characteristics +is the perverseness of his nature. His intimate friends were wont to +explain it, or rather to leave it unexplained by calling it his +"Husarenlaune" when the poet would give vent to an apparently unprovoked +and unreasonable burst of anger, and on seeing the consternation of +those present, would just as suddenly throw himself into a fit of +laughter quite as inexplicable as his rage. He takes delight in things +which in the ordinarily constructed mind would produce just the reverse +feeling. Speaking once of a particularly ill-favored person of his +acquaintance he says: "Eine so gewaltige Hässlichkeit bleibt ewig neu +und kann sich nie abnützen. Es ist was Frisches darin, ich sehe sie +gerne."[122] And in not a few of his poems we see a certain predilection +for the gruesome, the horrible. So in the remarkable figure employed in +"Faust:" + + Die Träume, ungelehr'ge Bestien, schleichen + Noch immer nach des Wahns verscharrten Leichen.[123] + +This perverseness of disposition is in a large measure accounted for by +the fact that Lenau was eternally at war with himself. Speaking in the +most general way, Hölderlin's Weltschmerz had its origin in his conflict +with the outer world, Lenau's on the other hand must be attributed +mainly to the unceasing conflict or "Zwiespalt" within his breast. In +his childhood a devout Roman Catholic, he shows in his "Faust" (1833-36) +a mind filled with scepticism and pantheistic ideas; "Savonarola" (1837) +marks his return to and glorification of the Christian faith; while in +the "Albigenser" (1838-42) the poet again champions complete +emancipation of thought and belief. Only a few months elapsed between +the writing of the two poems "Wanderung im Gebirge" (1830), in which the +most orthodox faith in a personal God is expressed, and "Die Zweifler" +(1831). The only consistent feature of his poems is their profound +melancholy. But Lenau's inner struggle of soul did not consist merely in +his vacillating between religious faith and doubt; it was the conflict +of instinct with reason. This is evident in his relations with Sophie +Löwenthal. He knows that their love is an unequal one[124] and chides +her for her coldness,[125] warning her not to humiliate him, not even in +jest;[126] he knows too that his alternating moods of exaltation and +dejection resulting from the intensity of his unsatisfied love are +destroying him.[127] "Oefter hat sich der Gedanke bei mir angemeldet: +Entschlage dich dieser Abhängigkeit und gestatte diesem Weibe keinen so +mächtigen Einfluss auf deine Stimmungen. Kein Mensch auf Erden soll dich +so beherrschen. Doch bald stiess ich diesen Gedanken wieder zurück als +einen Verräter an meiner Liebe, und ich bot mein reizbares Herz wieder +gerne dar Deinen zärtlichen Misshandlungen.--O geliebtes Herz! +missbrauche Deine Gewalt nicht! Ich bitte Dich, liebe Sophie!"[128] And +yet, in spite of it all, he is unable to free himself from the thrall of +passion: "Wie wird doch all mein Trotz und Stolz so gar zu nichte, wenn +die Furcht in mir erwacht, dass Du mich weniger liebest";[129] and all +this from the same pen that once wrote: "das Wort Gnade hat ein Schuft +erfunden."[130] + +But just as helpless as this defiant pride proved before his +all-consuming love for Sophie, so strongly did it assert itself in all +his other relations with men and things. A hasty word from one of his +best friends could so deeply offend his spirit that, according to his +own admission, all subsequent apologies were futile.[131] For Lenau, +then, such an attitude of hero worship as that assumed by Hölderlin +towards Schiller, would have been an utter impossibility. We have +already seen the extent to which he was over-awed (?) by Goethe's views +when they were at variance with their own.[132] On another occasion he +writes: "Was Goethe über Ruysdael faselt, kannte ich bereits."[133] +Toward his critics his bearing was that of haughty indifference: "Mag +auch das Talent dieser Menschen,[TN1] mich zu insultieren, gross sein, +mein Talent, sie zu verachten, ist auf alle Fälle grösser."[134] When +his Frühlingsalmanach of 1835 had been received with disfavor by the +critics, he professed to be concerned only for his publisher: "Ich +meinerseits habe auf Liebe und Dank nie gezählt bei meinen +Bestrebungen."[135] "Die (Recensenten) wissen den Teufel von +Poesie."[136] Whether this real or assumed nonchalance would have stood +the test of literary disappointments such as Hölderlin's, it is needless +to speculate. + +Hölderlin eagerly sought after happiness and contentment, but fortune +eluded him at every turn. Lenau on the contrary thrust it from him with +true ascetic spirit. + +The mere thought of submitting to the ordinary process of negotiations +and recommendations for a vacant professorship of Esthetics in Vienna is +so repulsive to his pride, that the whole matter is at once allowed to +drop, notwithstanding that he has been preparing for the place by +diligent philosophical studies.[137] The asceticism with which he +regarded life in general is expressed in a letter to Emilie Reinbeck, +1843, in which he says: "Wer die Welt gestalten helfen will, muss darauf +verzichten, sie zu geniessen."[138] But more often this resignation +becomes a defiant challenge: "Ich habe dem Leben gegenüber nun einmal +meine Stellung genommen, es soll mich nicht hinunterkriegen. Dass mein +Widerstand nicht der eines ruhigen Weisen ist, sondern viel Trotziges an +sich hat, das liegt in meinen Temperament."[139] + +Another characteristic difference between Lenau's Weltschmerz and +Hölderlin's lies in the fact that the writings of the latter do not +exhibit that absolute and abject despair which marks Lenau's lyrics. +Typical for both poets are the lines addressed by each to a rose: + + Ewig trägt im Mutterschosse, + Süsse Königin der Flur, + Dich und mich die stille, grosse, + Allbelebende Natur. + + Röschen unser Schmuck veraltet, + Sturm entblättert dich und mich, + Doch der ew'ge Keim entfaltet + Bald zu neuer Blüte sich![140] + +Unmistakable as is the melancholy strain of these verses, they are not +without a hopeful afterthought, in which the poet turns from +self-contemplation to a view of a larger destiny. Not so in Lenau's +poem, "Welke Rosen": + + In einem Buche blätternd, fand + Ich eine Rose welk, zerdrückt, + Und weiss auch nicht mehr, wessen Hand + Sie einst für mich gepflückt. + + Ach mehr und mehr im Abendhauch + Verweht Erinn'rung; bald zerstiebt + Mein Erdenlos; dann weiss ich auch + Nicht mehr, wer mich geliebt.[141] + +The intensely personal note of the last stanza is in marked contrast +with the corresponding stanza of Hölderlin's poem just quoted. Further +evidence that Lenau's Weltschmerz was constitutional, while Hölderlin's +was the result of experience, lies in this very fact, that nowhere do +the writings of the former exhibit that stage of buoyant expectation, +youthful enthusiasm, or hopeful striving, which we find in some of the +earlier poems of the latter. In Hölderlin's ode "An die Hoffnung," he +apostrophizes hope as "Holde! gütig Geschäftige!" + + Die du das Haus der Trauernden nicht verschmähst.[142] + +Lenau, in his poem of the same title, tells us he has done with hope: + + All dein Wort ist Windesfächeln; + Hoffnung! dann nur trau' ich dir, + Weisest du mit Trosteslächeln + Mir des Todes Nachtrevier.[143] + +Even his Faust gives himself over almost from the outset to abject +despair. + +Logically consequent upon this state of mind is the poet's oft-repeated +longing for death. The persistency of this thought may be best +illustrated by a few quotations from poems and letters, arranged +chronologically: + +1831. Mir wird oft so schwer, als ob ich einen Todten in mir +herumtrüge.[144] + +1833. Und mir verging die Jugend traurig, + Des Frühlings Wonne blieb versäumt, + Der Herbst durchweht mich trennungsschaurig, + Mein Herz dem Tod entgegenträumt.[145] + +1837. Heute dachte ich öfter an den Tod, nicht mit bitterem Trotz + und störrischem Verlangen, sondern mit freundlichem Appetit.[146] + +1837. Soll ich Dir alles sagen? Wisse, dass ich wirklich daran + dachte, mir den Tod zu geben.[147] + +1838. Der Gedanke des Todes wird mir immer freundlicher, und ich + verschwende mein Leben gerne.[148] + +1838. Durchs Fenster kommt ein dürres Blatt + Vom Wind hereingetrieben; + Dies leichte offne Brieflein hat + Der Tod an mich geschrieben.[149] + +1840. Oft will mich's gemahnen, als hätte ich auf Erden nichts + mehr zu thun, und ich wünschte dann, Gervinus möchte + recht haben, indem er, wie Georg mir erzählte, mir einen + baldigen Zusammenbruch und Tod prophezeite.[150] + +1842. Ich habe ein wollüstiges Heimweh, in Deinen Armen zu + sterben.[151] + +1843. Selig sind die Betäubten! noch seliger sind die Toten![152] + +1844. In dieses Waldes leisem Rauschen + Ist mir, als hör' ich Kunde wehen, + Dass alles Sterben und Vergehen + Nur heimlichstill vergnügtes Tauschen.[153] + +If we should seek for the Leit-motif of Lenau's Weltschmerz, we should +unquestionably have to designate it as the _transientness of life_. Thus +in the poem "Die Zweifler," he exclaims: + + Vergänglichkeit! wie rauschen deine Wellen + Durch's weite Labyrinth des Lebens fort![154] + +Ten per cent, of all Lenau's lyrics bear titles which directly express +or suggest this thought, as for example, "Vergangenheit," +"Vergänglichkeit," "Das tote Glück," "Einst und Jetzt," "Aus!," "Eitel +Nichts," "Verlorenes Glück," "Welke Rose," "Vanitas," "Scheiden," +"Scheideblick," and the like; while in not less than seventy-one per +cent of his lyrics there are allusions, more or less direct, to this +same idea, which shows beyond a doubt how large a component it must have +been of the poet's characteristic mood. + +If Hölderlin, the idealist, judges the things which are, according to +his standard of things as they _ought to be_, Lenau, on the other hand, +measures them by the things which _have been_. + + Friedhof der entschlafnen Tage, + Schweigende Vergangenheit! + Du begräbst des Herzens Klage, + Ach, und seine Seligkeit![155] + +Nowhere is this mental attitude of the poet toward life in all its forms +more clearly defined than in his views of nature. That this is an +entirely different one from Hölderlin's goes without saying. Lenau has +nothing of that naïve and unsophisticated childlike nature-sense which +Hölderlin possessed, and which enabled him to find comfort and +consolation in nature as in a mother's embrace. So that while for +Hölderlin intercourse with nature afforded the greatest relief from his +sorrows, Lenau's Weltschmerz was on the contrary intensified thereby. +For him the rose has no fragrance, the sunlight no warmth, springtime no +charms, in a word, nature has neither tone nor temper, until such has +been assigned to it by the poet himself. And as he is fully aware of the +artistic possibilities of the mantle of melancholy "um die wunde Brust +geschlungen,"[156] it follows consistently that he should select for +poetic treatment only those aspects of nature which might serve to +intensify the expression of his grief. + +Among the titles of Lenau's lyrics descriptive of nature are "Herbst," +"Herbstgefühl" (twice), "Herbstlied," "Ein Herbstabend," +"Herbstentschluss," "Herbstklage," and many others of a similar kind, +such as "Das dürre Blatt," "In der Wüste," "Frühlings Tod," etc. If we +disregard a few quite exceptional verses on spring, the statement will +hold that Lenau sees in nature only the seasons and phenomena of +dissolution and decay. So in "Herbstlied": + + Ja, ja, ihr lauten Raben, + Hoch in der kühlen Luft, + 's geht wieder ans Begraben, + Ihr flattert um die Gruft![157] + +"Je mehr man sich an die Natur anschliesst," the poet writes to Sophie +Schwab, "je mehr man sich in Betrachtungen ihrer Züge vertieft, desto +mehr wird man ergriffen von dem Geiste der Sehnsucht, des schwermütigen +Hinsterbens, der durch die Natur auf Erden weht."[158] Characteristic is +the setting which the poet gives to the "Waldkapelle": + + Der dunkle Wald umrauscht den Wiesengrund, + Gar düster liegt der graue Berg dahinter, + Das dürre Laub, der Windhauch gibt es kund, + Geschritten kommt allmählig schon der Winter. + + Die Sonne ging, umhüllt von Wolken dicht, + Unfreundlich, ohne Scheideblick von hinnen, + Und die Natur verstummt, im Dämmerlicht + Schwermütig ihrem Tode nachzusinnen.[159] + +The sunset is represented as a dying of the sun, the leaves fall sobbing +from the trees, the clouds are dissolved in tears, the wind is described +as a murderer. We see then that Lenau's treatment of nature is +essentially different from Hölderlin's. The latter explains man through +nature; Lenau explains nature through man. Hölderlin describes love as a +heavenly plant,[160] youth as the springtime of the heart,[161] tears as +the dew of love;[162] Lenau, on the other hand, characterizes rain as +the tears of heaven, for him the woods are glad,[163] the brooklet +weeps,[164] the air is idle, the buds and blossoms listen,[165] the +forest in its autumn foliage is "herbstlich gerötet, so wie ein +Kranker, der sich neigt zum Sterben, wenn flüchtig noch sich seine +Wangen färben."[166] A remarkable simile, and at the same time +characteristic for Lenau in its morbidness is the following: + + Wie auf dem Lager sich der Seelenkranke, + Wirft sich der Strauch im Winde hin und her.[167] + +Hölderlin speaks of a friend's bereavement as "ein schwarzer +Sturm";[168] when he had grieved Diotima he compares himself to the +cloud passing over the serene face of the moon;[169] gloomy thoughts he +designates by the common metaphor "der Schatten eines Wölkchens auf der +Stirne."[170] Lenau turns the comparison and says: + + Am Himmelsantlitz wandelt ein Gedanke, + Die düstre Wolke dort, so bang, so schwer.[171] + +Where Hölderlin finds delight in the incorporeal elements of nature, +such as light, ether, and ascribes personal qualities and functions to +them, Lenau on the contrary always chooses the tangible things and +invests them with such mental and moral attributes as are in harmony +with his gloomy state of mind. Consequently Lenau's Weltschmerz never +remains abstract; indeed, the almost endless variety of concrete +pictures in which he gives it expression is nothing short of remarkable, +not only in the sympathetic nature-setting which he gives to his +lamentations, but also in the striking metaphors which he employs. Of +the former, probably no better illustration could be found in all +Lenau's poems than his well-known "Schilflieder"[172] and his numerous +songs to Autumn. One or two examples of his incomparable use of +nature-metaphors in the expression of his Weltschmerz will suffice: + + Hab' ich gleich, als ich so sacht + Durch die Stoppeln hingeschritten, + Aller Sensen auch gedacht, + Die ins Leben mir geschnitten.[173] + + Auch mir ist Herbst, und leiser + Trag' ich den Berg hinab + Mein Bündel dürre Reiser + Die mir das Leben gab.[174] + + Der Mond zieht traurig durch die Sphären, + Denn all die Seinen ruhn im Grab; + Drum wischt er sich die hellen Zähren + Bei Nacht an unsern Blumen ab.[175] + +The forceful directness of Lenau's metaphors from nature is aptly shown +in the following comparison of two passages, one from Hölderlin's "An +die Natur," the other from Lenau's "Herbstklage," in which both poets +employ the same poetic fancy to express the same idea. + + Tot ist nun, die mich erzog und stillte, + Tot ist nun die jugendliche Welt, + Diese Brust, die einst ein Himmel füllte, + Tot und dürftig wie ein Stoppelfeld.[176] + +If we compare the simile in the last line with the corresponding +metaphor used by Lenau in the following stanza,-- + + Wie der Wind zu Herbsteszeit + Mordend hinsaust in den Wäldern, + Weht mir die Vergangenheit + Von des Glückes Stoppelfeldern,[177] + +the greater artistic effectiveness of the latter figure will be at once +apparent. + +The idea that nature is cruel, even murderous, as suggested in the +opening lines of the stanza just quoted, seems in the course of time to +have become firmly fixed in the poet's mind, for he not only uses it for +poetic purposes, but expresses his conviction of the fact on several +occasions in his conversations and letters. Tossing some dead leaves +with his stick while out walking, he is said to have exclaimed: "Da +seht, und dann heisst es, die Natur sei liebevoll und schonend! Nein, +sie ist grausam, sie hat kein Mitleid. Die Natur ist erbarmungslos!"[178] +It goes without saying that in such a conception of nature the poet +could find no amelioration of his Weltschmerz.[179] + +In summing up the results of our discussion of Lenau's Weltschmerz, it +would involve too much repetition to mention all the points in which it +stands, as we have seen, in striking contrast to that of Hölderlin. +Suffice it to recall only the most essential features of the comparison: +the predominance of hereditary and pathological traits as causative +influences in the case of Lenau; the fact that whereas Hölderlin's +quarrel was largely with the world, Lenau's was chiefly within himself; +the passive and ascetic nature of Lenau's attitude, as compared with the +often hopeful striving of Hölderlin; the patriotism of the latter, and +the relative indifference of the former; Lenau's strongly developed +erotic instinct, which gave to his relations with Sophie such a vastly +different influence upon his Weltschmerz from that exerted upon +Hölderlin by his relations with Diotima; and finally the marked +difference in the attitude of these two poets toward nature. + +A careful consideration of all the points involved will lead to no other +conclusion than that whereas in Hölderlin the cosmic element +predominates, Lenau stands as a type of egoistic Weltschmerz. To quote +from our classification attempted in the first chapter, he is one of +"those introspective natures who are first and chiefly aware of their +own misery, and finally come to regard it as representative of universal +evil." Nowhere is this more clearly stated than in the poet's own words: +"Es hat etwas Tröstliches für mich, wenn ich in meinem Privatunglück den +Familienzug lese, der durch alle Geschlechter der armen Menschen geht. +Mein Unglück ist mir mein Liebstes,--und ich betrachte es gerne im +verklärenden Lichte eines allgemeinen Verhängnisses."[180] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 75: _Euphorion_, 1899, p. 791.] + +[Footnote 76: "Nicolaus Lenau," _Neue Fr. Pr._, Nr. 11166-7] + +[Footnote 77: Schurz, Vol. II, p. 212.] + +[Footnote 78: Cf. _Euphorion_, 1899, p. 795.] + +[Footnote 79: Anton Schurz: "Lenau's Leben," Cotta, 1855 (hereafter +quoted as "Schurz"), Vol. II, p. 199.] + +[Footnote 80: "Lenaus Werke," ed Max Koch, in Kürschner's DNL. +(hereafter quoted as "Werke"), Vol. I, p. 525 f.] + +[Footnote 81: Cf. _supra_, p. 22.] + +[Footnote 82: Cf. among others Sadger, Weiler. _Infra_, p. 88.] + +[Footnote 83: "Nicolaus Lenau's Briefe an einen Freund," Stuttgart, +1853, p. 68 f.] + +[Footnote 84: "Nicolaus Lenau's sämmtliche Werke," herausgegeben von G. +Emil Barthel, Leipzig, Reclam, p. CI.] + +[Footnote 85: Schurz, Vol. I, p. 169.] + +[Footnote 86: Schurz, Vol. II, p. 144.] + +[Footnote 87: Schurz, Vol. II, p. 152f.] + +[Footnote 88: Schurz, Vol. I, p. 275.] + +[Footnote 89: Ricarda Huch: "Romantische Lebensläufe." _Neue d. +Rundschau_, Feb. 1902, p. 126.] + +[Footnote 90: Sept. 29, 1844. Cf. Schurz, Vol. II, p. 223.] + +[Footnote 91: L. A. Frankl: "Lenau und Sophie Löwenthal," Stuttgart, +1891 (hereafter quoted as "Frankl") p. 189, incorrectly states the date +as 1838. Possibly it is a misprint.] + +[Footnote 92: Frankl, p. 155.] + +[Footnote 93: Frankl, p. 151.] + +[Footnote 94: Frankl, p. 164.] + +[Footnote 95: Frankl, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 96: Frankl, p. 149.] + +[Footnote 97: Frankl, p. 150.] + +[Footnote 98: Frankl, p. 150.] + +[Footnote 99: Schurz, Vol. II, p. 7.] + +[Footnote 100: Cf. Lenau's Sämmtl. Werke, herausg. von G. Emil Bartel, +Leipzig, ohne Jahr. Introd., p. clxv.] + +[Footnote 101: Frankl, p. 32.] + +[Footnote 102: Frankl, p. 14.] + +[Footnote 103: Frankl, p. 30.] + +[Footnote 104: Cf. _supra_, p. 38.] + +[Footnote 105: Frankl, p. 15.] + +[Footnote 106: Werke, I, p. 89.] + +[Footnote 107: Frankl, p. 114.] + +[Footnote 108: Cf. _supra_, p. 18.] + +[Footnote 109: Hölderlins Werke, Vol. 1, p. 195.] + +[Footnote 110: "Das Kruzifix, Eine Künstlerlegende," 1820.] + +[Footnote 111: Schurz, Vol. I, p. 158f.] + +[Footnote 112: Schurz, Vol. II, p. 6.] + +[Footnote 113: Cf. Breitinger: "Studien und Wandertage;" Frauenfeld, +Huber, 1870.] + +[Footnote 114: Schlossar: "Nicolaus Lenaus Briefe an Emilie von +Reinbeck," Stuttgart, 1896 (hereafter quoted as "Schlossar"), p. 98.] + +[Footnote 115: Werke, Vol. II, p. 260.] + +[Footnote 116: Schurz, Vol. II, p. 193.] + +[Footnote 117: Schlossar, p. 109.] + +[Footnote 118: Schlossar, p. 111.] + +[Footnote 119: Schlossar, p. 112 f.] + +[Footnote 120: "Lenau et son Temps," Paris, 1898, p. 351.] + +[Footnote 121: Schlossar, p. 103.] + +[Footnote 122: Schlossar, p. 154.] + +[Footnote 123: Werke, Vol. II, p. 183.] + +[Footnote 124: Frankl, p. 99.] + +[Footnote 125: Frankl, p. 90.] + +[Footnote 126: Frankl, p. 90.] + +[Footnote 127: Frankl, p. 192.] + +[Footnote 128: Frankl, p. 173.] + +[Footnote 129: Frankl, p. 103.] + +[Footnote 130: Schlossar, p. 55.] + +[Footnote 131: Cf. Schlossar, p. 93 f.] + +[Footnote 132: Cf. _supra_, p. 48.] + +[Footnote 133: Schlossar, p. 46.] + +[Footnote 134: Schlossar, p. 85.] + +[Footnote 135: Schlossar, p. 83.] + +[Footnote 136: Schurz, Vol. I, p. 176.] + +[Footnote 137: Cf. Schlossar, p. 173.] + +[Footnote 138: Schlossar, p. 184.] + +[Footnote 139: Schlossar, p. 87.] + +[Footnote 140: Hölderlin, "An eine Rose," Werke, Vol. I, p. 142.] + +[Footnote 141: Werke, Vol. I, p. 389.] + +[Footnote 142: Hölderlins Werke, Vol. I, p. 253.] + +[Footnote 143: Werke, Vol. I, p. 99.] + +[Footnote 144: Schurz, Vol. I, p. 132.] + +[Footnote 145: Werke, Vol. I, p. 82.] + +[Footnote 146: Frankl, p. 79.] + +[Footnote 147: Frankl, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 148: Frankl, p. 127.] + +[Footnote 149: Werke, Vol. I, p. 267.] + +[Footnote 150: Schlossar, p. 144.] + +[Footnote 151: Frankl, p. 169.] + +[Footnote 152: Schlossar, p. 188.] + +[Footnote 153: Werke, Vol. I, p. 405.] + +[Footnote 154: Werke, Vol. I, p. 130.] + +[Footnote 155: Werke, Vol. I, p. 62.] + +[Footnote 156: Werke, Vol. I, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 157: Werke, Vol. I, p. 299.] + +[Footnote 158: Cf. Farinelli, in _Verhandlungen des 8. deutschen +Neuphilologentages_, Hannover, 1898, p. 58.] + +[Footnote 159: Werke, Vol. I, p. 137.] + +[Footnote 160: Höld. Werke, Vol. I, p. 167.] + +[Footnote 161: Höld. Werke, Vol. I, p. 143.] + +[Footnote 162: Höld. Werke, Vol. I, p. 140.] + +[Footnote 163: Len. Werke, Vol. I, p. 258.] + +[Footnote 164: Len. Werke, Vol. I, p. 250.] + +[Footnote 165: Len. Werke, Vol. I, p. 260.] + +[Footnote 166: Len. Werke, Vol. I, p. 249.] + +[Footnote 167: Len. Werke, Vol. I, p. 147.] + +[Footnote 168: Höld. Werke, Vol. I, p. 144.] + +[Footnote 169: Höld. Werke, Vol. I, p. 164.] + +[Footnote 170: Höld. Werke, Vol. II, p. 117.] + +[Footnote 171: Len. Werke, Vol. I, p. 147.] + +[Footnote 172: Werke, Vol. I, p. 51 f] + +[Footnote 173: "Der Kranich," Werke, Vol. I, p. 328.] + +[Footnote 174: "Herbstlied," Werke, Vol. I, p. 299.] + +[Footnote 175: "Mondlied," Werke, Vol. I, p. 310.] + +[Footnote 176: Höld. Werke, Vol. I, p. 146.] + +[Footnote 177: Werke, Vol. I, p. 299.] + +[Footnote 178: Schurz, Vol. II, p. 104.] + +[Footnote 179: For an exhaustive discussion of Lenau's nature-sense cf. +Prof. Camillo von Klenze's excellent monograph on the subject, "The +Treatment of Nature in the Works of Nikolaus Lenau," Chicago, University +Press, 1902.] + +[Footnote 180: Frankl, p. 116.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +=Heine= + + +Heine was probably the first German writer to use the term Weltschmerz +in its present sense. Breitinger in his essay "Neues über den alten +Weltschmerz"[181] endeavors to trace the earliest use of the word and +finds an instance of it in Julian Schmidt's "Geschichte der +Romantik,"[182] 1847. He seems to have entirely overlooked Heine's use +of the word in his discussion of Delaroche's painting "Oliver Cromwell +before the body of Charles I." (1831).[183] The actual inventor of the +compound was no doubt Jean Paul, who wrote (1810): "Diesen Weltschmerz +kann er (Gott) sozusagen nur aushalten durch den Anblick der Seligkeit, +die nachher vergütet."[184] + +But although Heine may have been the first to adapt the word to its +present use, and although we have fallen into the habit of thinking of +him as the chief representative of German Weltschmerz, it must be +admitted that there is much less genuine Weltschmerz to be found in his +poems than in those of either Hölderlin or Lenau. The reason for this +has already been briefly indicated in the preceding chapter. Hölderlin's +Weltschmerz is altogether the most naïve of the three; Lenau's, while it +still remains sincere, becomes self-conscious, while Heine has an +unfailing antidote for profound feeling in his merciless self-irony. And +yet his condition in life was such as would have wrung from the heart of +almost any other poet notes of sincerest pathos. + +In Lenau's case we noted circumstances which point to a direct +transmission from parent to child of a predisposition to melancholia. In +Heine's, on the other hand, the question of heredity has apparently only +an indirect bearing upon his Weltschmerz. To what extent was his long +and terrible disease of hereditary origin, and in what measure may we +ascribe his Weltschmerz to the sufferings which that disease caused him? +The first of these questions has been answered as conclusively as seems +possible on the basis of all available data, by a doctor of medicine, S. +Rahmer, in what is at this time the most recent and most authoritative +study that has been published on the subject.[185] Stage by stage he +follows the development of the disease, from its earliest indications in +the poet's incessant nervous headaches, which he ascribes to +neurasthenic causes. He attempts to quote all the passages in Heine's +letters which throw light upon his physical condition, and points out +that in the second stage of the disease the first symptoms of paralysis +made their appearance as early as 1832, and not in 1837 as the +biographers have stated. To this was added in 1837 an acute affection of +the eyes, which continued to recur from this time on. In addition to the +pathological process which led to a complete paralysis of almost the +whole body, Rahmer notes other symptoms first mentioned in 1846, which +he describes as "bulbär" in their origin, such as difficulty in +controlling the muscles of speech, difficulty in chewing and swallowing, +the enfeebling of the muscles of the lips, disturbances in the functions +of the glottis and larynx, together with abnormal secretion of saliva. +He discredits altogether the diagnosis of Heine's disease as consumption +of the spinal marrow, to which Klein-Hattingen in his recent book on +Hölderlin, Lenau and Heine[186] still adheres, dismisses as +scientifically untenable the popular idea that the poet's physical +dissolution was the result of his sensual excesses, finally diagnoses +the case as "die spinale Form der progressiven Muskelatrophie"[187] and +maintains that it was either directly inherited, or at least developed +on the basis of an inherited disposition.[188] He finds further +evidence in support of the latter theory in the fact that the first +symptoms of the disease made their appearance in early youth, not many +years after puberty, and concludes that, in spite of scant information +as to Heine's ancestors, we are safe in assuming a hereditary taint on +the father's side. + +The poet himself evidently would have us believe as much, for in his +Reisebilder he says: "Wie ein Wurm nagte das Elend in meinem Herzen und +nagte,--ich habe dieses Elend mit mir zur Welt gebracht. Es lag schon +mit mir in der Wiege, und wenn meine Mutter mich wiegte, so wiegte sie +es mit, und wenn sie mich in den Schlaf sang, so schlief es mit mir ein, +und es erwachte, sobald ich wieder die Augen aufschlug. Als ich grösser +wurde, wuchs auch das Elend, und wurde endlich ganz gross und +zersprengte mein.... Wir wollen von andern Dingen sprechen...."[189] + +And yet Heine's disposition was not naturally inclined to hypochondria. +In his earlier letters, especially to his intimate friends, there is +often more than cheerfulness, sometimes a decided buoyancy if not +exuberance of spirits. A typical instance we find in a letter to Moser +(1824): "Ich hoffe Dich wohl nächstes Frühjahr wiederzusehen und zu +umarmen und zu necken und vergnügt zu sein."[190] Only here and there, +but very rarely, does he acknowledge any influence of his physical +condition upon his mental labors. To Immermann he writes (1823): "Mein +Unwohlsein mag meinen letzten Dichtungen auch etwas Krankhaftes +mitgeteilt haben."[191] And to Merkel (1827): "Ach! ich bin heute sehr +verdriesslich. Krank und unfähig, gesund aufzufassen."[192] In the main, +however, he makes a very brave appearance of cheerfulness, and +especially of patience, which seems to grow with the hopelessness of his +affliction. To his mother (1851): "Ich befinde mich wieder krankhaft +gestimmt, etwas wohler wie früher, vielleicht viel wohler; aber grosse +Nervenschmerzen habe ich noch immer, und leider ziehen sich die Krämpfe +jetzt öfter nach oben, was mir den Kopf zuweilen sehr ermüdet. So muss +ich nun ruhig aushalten, was der liebe Gott über mich verhängt, und ich +trage mein Schicksal mit Geduld.... Gottes Wille geschehe!"[193] Again a +few weeks later: "Ich habe mit diesem Leben abgeschlossen, und wenn ich +so sicher wäre, dass ich im Himmel einst gut aufgenommen werde, so +ertrüge ich geduldig meine Existenz."[194] Not only to his mother, whom +for years he affectionately kept in ignorance of his deplorable +condition, does he write thus, but also to Campe (1852): "Mein Körper +leidet grosse Qual, aber meine Seele ist ruhig wie ein Spiegel und hat +manchmal auch noch ihre schönen Sonnenaufgänge und Sonnenuntergänge."[195] +1854: "Gottlob, dass ich bei all meinem Leid sehr heiteren Gemütes bin, +und die lustigsten Gedanken springen mir durchs Hirn."[196] Much of this +sort of thing was no doubt nicely calculated for effect, and yet these +and similar passages show that he was not inclined to magnify his +physical afflictions either in his own eyes or in the eyes of others. +Nor is he absolutely unreconciled to his fate: "Es ist mir nichts +geglückt in dieser Welt, aber es hätte mir doch noch schlimmer gehen +können."[197] + +In his poems, references to his physical sufferings are remarkably +infrequent. We look in vain in the "Buch der Lieder," in the "Neue +Gedichte," in fact in all his lyrics written before the "Romanzero," not +only for any allusion to his illness, but even for any complaint against +life which might have been directly occasioned by his physical +condition. What is there then in these earlier poems that might fitly be +called Weltschmerz? Very little, we shall find. + +Their inspiration is to be found almost exclusively in Heine's +love-affairs, decent and indecent. Now the pain of disappointed love is +the motive and the theme of very many of Hölderlin's and Lenau's lyrics, +poems which are heavy with Weltschmerz, while most of Heine's are not. +To speak only of the poet's most important attachments, of his +unrequited love for his cousin Amalie, and his unsuccessful wooing of +her sister Therese,--there can be no doubt that these unhappy loves +brought years of pain and bitterness into his life, sorrow probably as +genuine as any he ever experienced, and yet how little, comparatively, +there is in his poetry to convince us of the fact. Nearly all these +early lyrics are variations of this love-theme, and yet it is the +exception rather than the rule when the poet maintains a sincere note +long enough to engender sympathy and carry conviction. Such are his +beautiful lyrics "Ich grolle nicht,"[198] "Du hast Diamanten und +Perlen."[199] Let us see how Lenau treats the same theme: + + Die dunklen Wolken hingen + Herab so bang und schwer, + Wir beide traurig gingen + Im Garten hin und her. + + So heiss und stumm, so trübe, + Und sternlos war die Nacht, + So ganz wie unsre Liebe + Zu Thränen nur gemacht. + + Und als ich musste scheiden + Und gute Nacht dir bot, + Wünscht' ich bekümmert beiden + Im Herzen uns den Tod.[200] + +We believe implicitly in the poet's almost inexpressible grief, and +because we are convinced, we sympathize. And we feel too that the poet's +sorrow is so overwhelming and has so filled his soul that it has +entirely changed his views of life and of nature, or has at least +contributed materially to such a change,--that it has assumed larger +proportions and may rightly be called Weltschmerz. Compare with this the +first and third stanzas of Heine's "Der arme Peter:" + + Der Hans und die Grete tanzen herum, + Und jauchzen vor lauter Freude. + Der Peter steht so still und stumm, + Und ist so blass wie Kreide. + + * * * * * + + Der Peter spricht leise vor sich her + Und schauet betrübet auf beide: + "Ach! wenn ich nicht zu vernünftig wär', + Ich thät' mir was zu leide."[201] + +It is scarcely necessary to cite further examples of this mannerism of +Heine's, for so it early became, such as his "Erbsensuppe,"[202] "Ich +wollte, er schösse mich tot,"[203] "Doktor, sind Sie des Teufels;"[204] +"Madame, ich liebe Sie!"[205] and many other glaring instances of the +"Sturzbad," in order to show how the poet himself deliberately +attempted, and usually with success, to destroy the traces of his grief. +This process of self-irony, which plays such havoc with all sincere +feeling and therefore with his Weltschmerz, becomes so fixed a habit +that we are almost incapable, finally, of taking the poet seriously. He +makes a significant confession in this regard in a letter to Moser +(1823): "Aber es geht mir oft so, ich kann meine eigenen Schmerzen nicht +erzählen, ohne dass die Sache komisch wird."[206] How thoroughly this +mental attitude had become second nature with Heine, may be inferred +from a statement which he makes to Friederike Roberts (1825): "Das +Ungeheuerste, das Ensetzlichste, das Schaudervollste, wenn es nicht +unpoetisch werden soll, kann man auch nur in dem buntscheckigen Gewände +des Lächerlichen darstellen, gleichsam versöhnend--darum hat auch +Shakespeare das Grässlichste im "Lear" durch den Narren sagen lassen, +darum hat auch Goethe zu dem furchtbarsten Stoffe, zum "Faust," die +Puppenspielform gewählt, darum hat auch der noch grössere Poet (der +Urpoet, sagt Friederike), nämlich Unser-Herrgott, allen Schreckensszenen +dieses Lebens eine gute Dosis Spasshaftigkeit beigemischt."[207] + +In not a few of his lyrics Heine gives us a truly Lenauesque +nature-setting, as for instance in "Der scheidende Sommer:" + + Das gelbe Laub erzittert, + Es fallen die Blätter herab; + Ach, alles, was hold und lieblich + Verwelkt und sinkt ins Grab.[208] + +This is one of the comparatively few instances in Heine's lyrics in +which he maintains a dignified seriousness throughout the entire poem. +It is worth noting, too, because it touches a note as infrequent in +Heine as it is persistent in Lenau--the fleeting nature of all things +lovely and desirable.[209] This is one of the characteristic differences +between the two poets,--Heine's eye is on the present and the future, +much more than on the past; Lenau is ever mourning the happiness that is +past and gone. Logically then, thoughts of and yearnings for death are +much more frequent with Lenau than with Heine.[210] + +Reverting to the point under consideration: even in those love-lyrics in +which Heine does not wilfully destroy the first serious impression by +the jingling of his harlequin's cap, as he himself styles it,[211] he +does not succeed,--with the few exceptions just referred to,--in +convincing us very deeply of the reality of his feelings. They are +either trivially or extravagantly stated. Sometimes this sense of +triviality is caused by the poet's excessive fondness for all sorts of +diminutive expressions, giving an artificial effect, an effect of +"Tändelei" to his verses. For example: + + Du siehst mich an wehmütiglich, + Und schüttelst das blonde Köpfchen, + Aus deinen Augen schleichen sich + Die Perlenthränentröpfchen.[212] + +Sometimes this effect is produced by a distinct though unintended +anti-climax. Nowhere has Heine struck a more truly elegiac note than in +the stanza: + + Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht, + Das Leben ist der schwüle Tag. + Es dunkelt schon, mich schläfert, + Der Tag hat mich müde gemacht.[213] + +There is the most profound Weltschmerz in that. But in the second stanza +there is relatively little: + + Ueber mein Bett erhebt sich ein Baum, + Drin singt die junge Nachtigall; + Sie singt von lauter Liebe, + Ich hör' es sogar im Traum. + +Lenau's lyrics have shown that much Weltschmerz may grow out of +unsatisfied love; Heine's demonstrate that mere love sickness is not +Weltschmerz. The fact is that Heine frequently destroys what would have +been a certain impression of Weltschmerz by forcing upon us the +immediate cause of his distemper,--it may be a real injury, or merely a +passing annoyance. What a strange mixture of acrimonious, sarcastic +protest and Weltschmerz elements we find in the poem "Ruhelechzend"[214] +of which a few stanzas will serve to illustrate. Again he strikes a full +minor chord: + + Las bluten deine Wunden, lass + Die Thränen fliessen unaufhaltsam; + Geheime Wollust schwelgt im Schmerz, + Und Weinen ist ein süsser Balsam. + +This in practice rather than in theory is what we observe in Lenau,--his +melancholy satisfaction in nursing his grief,--and we have promise of a +poem of genuine Weltschmerz. Even through the second and third stanzas +this feeling is not destroyed, although the terms "Schelm" and "Tölpel" +gently arouse our suspicion: + + Des Tages Lärm verhallt, es steigt + Die Nacht herab mit langen Flöhren. + In ihrem Schosse wird kein Schelm, + Kein Tölpel deine Ruhe stören. + +But the very next stanza brings the transition from the sublime to the +ridiculous: + + Hier bist du sicher vor Musik, + Vor des Pianofortes Folter, + Und vor der grossen Oper Pracht + Und schrecklichem Bravourgepolter. + + * * * * * + + O Grab, du bist das Paradies + Für pöbelscheue, zarte Ohren-- + Der Tod ist gut, doch besser wär's, + Die Mutter hätt' uns nie geboren. + +It is scarcely necessary to point out that the specific cause which the +poet confides to us of his "wounds, tears and pains" is ridiculously +unimportant as compared with the conclusion which he draws in the last +two lines. + +Evidently then, he does not wish us to take him seriously, nor could we, +if he did. Thus in their very attitude toward the ills and vexations of +life, there appears a most essential difference between Lenau and Heine. +Auerbach aptly remarks: "Spott und Satire verkleinern, Zorn und Hass +vergrössern das Object."[215] And Lenau knew no satire; where Heine +scoffed and ridiculed, he hated and scorned, with a hatred that only +contributed to his own undoing. With Heine the satire's the thing, +whether of himself or of others, and to this he willingly sacrifices the +lofty sentiments of which he is capable. Indeed he frequently introduces +these for no other purpose than to make the laugh or grimace all the +more striking. And with reference to his love affair with Amalie, while +the question as to the reality and depth of his feelings may be left +entirely out of discussion, this much may be safely asserted, that in +comparatively few poems do those feelings find expression in the form of +Weltschmerz. Now there is something essentially vague about Weltschmerz; +it is an atmosphere, a "Stimmung" more or less indefinable, rather than +the statement in lyric form of certain definite grievances with their +particular and definite causes. And that is exactly what we find in +Lenau, even in his love-songs. His love-sorrow is blended with his many +other heart-aches, with his disappointments and regrets, with his +yearning for death. He sings of his pain rather than of its immediate +causes, and the result is an atmosphere of Weltschmerz. + +Turning to Heine's later poems, especially to the "Romanzero," we find +that atmosphere much more perceptible. But even here the poet is for the +most part specific, and his method concrete. So for instance in "Der +Dichter Firdusi"[216] in which he tells a story to illustrate his belief +that merit is appreciated and rewarded only after the death of the one +who should have reaped the reward. So also in "Weltlauf,"[217] the first +stanza of which suggests a poetic rendering of Matth. 13:12, "For +whosoever hath, to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance; +but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he +hath,"--to which the poet adds a stanza of caustic ironical comment: + + Wenn du aber gar nichts hast, + Ach, so lasse dich begraben-- + Denn ein Recht zum Leben, Lump, + Haben nur, die etwas haben. + +And again, the poem "Lumpentum"[218] presents an ironical eulogy of +flattery. His failure to realize the hopes of his youth is made the +subject of "Verlorne Wünsche"[219] which maintains throughout a strain +of seriousness quite unusual for Heine, and concludes: + + Goldne Wünsche! Seifenblasen! + Sie zerrinnen wie mein Leben-- + Ach ich liege jetzt am Boden, + Kann mich nimmermehr erheben. + + Und Ade! sie sind zerronnen, + Goldne Wünsche, süsses Hoffen! + Ach, zu tötlich war der Faustschlag, + Der mich just ins Herz getroffen. + +A number of these lyrics from the Romanzero show very strikingly Heine's +objective treatment of his poems of complaint. Such selections as "Sie +erlischt,"[220] in which he compares his soul to the last flicker of a +lamp in the darkened theater, or "Frau Sorge,"[221] which gives us the +personification of care, represented as a nurse watching by his bedside, +bring his objective method into marked contrast with Hölderlin's +subjective Weltschmerz. The same may be said of his autobiography in +miniature, "Rückschau,"[222] which catalogues the poet's experiences, +pleasant and adverse, with evident sincerity though of course with a +liberal admixture of witty irony. Needless to say there is no real +Weltschmerz discoverable in such a pot pourri as the following: + + Die Glieder sind mir rheumatisch gelähmt, + Und meine Seele ist tief beschämt. + + * * * * * + + Ich ward getränkt mit Bitternissen, + Und grausam von den Wanzen gebissen, etc. + +It would scarcely be profitable to attempt to estimate the causes and +development of this self-irony, which plays so important a part in +Heine's poetry. Its possibility lay no doubt in his native mother-wit, +with its genial perception of the incongruous, combined, it must be +admitted, with a relatively low order of self-respect. Its first +incentive he may have found in his unrequited love for Amalie. Had it +been like that of Hölderlin for Diotima, or Lenau for Sophie, +reciprocated though unsatisfied, we could not easily imagine the +ironical tone which pervades most of his love-songs. And so he uses it +as a veil for his chagrin, preferring to laugh and have the world laugh +with him, rather than to weep alone. But the incident in Heine's life +which probably more than any other experience fostered this habit of +making himself the butt of his witty irony was his outward renunciation +of Judaism. Little need be said concerning this, since the details are +so well known. He himself confesses that the step was taken from the +lowest motives, for which he justly hated and despised himself. To Moser +he writes (1825): "Ich weiss nicht, was ich sagen soll, Cohen versichert +mich, Gans predige das Christentum und suche die Kinder Israels zu +bekehren. Thut er dieses aus Ueberzeugung, so ist er ein Narr; thut er +es aus Gleissnerei, so ist er ein Lump. Ich werde zwar nicht aufhören, +Gans zu lieben; dennoch gestehe ich, weit lieber wär's mir gewesen, wenn +ich statt obiger Nachricht erfahren hätte, Gans habe silberne Löffel +gestohlen.... Es wäre mir sehr leid, wenn mein eigenes Getauftsein Dir +in einem günstigen Lichte erscheinen könnte. Ich versichere Dich, wenn +die Gesetze das Stehlen silberner Löffel erlaubt hätten, so würde ich +mich nicht getauft haben."[223] But in addition to the loss of +self-respect came his disappointment and chagrin at the non-success of +his move, since he realized that it was not even bringing him the +material gain for which he had hoped. Instead, he felt himself an object +of contempt among Christians and Jews alike. "Ich bin jetzt bei Christ +und Jude verhasst. Ich bereue sehr, dass ich mich getauft hab'; ich sehe +gar nicht ein, dass es mir seitdem besser gegangen sei; im Gegenteil, +ich habe seitdem nichts als Unglück."[224] He is so unhappy in +consequence of this step that he earnestly desires to leave Germany. "Es +ist aber ganz bestimmt, dass es mich sehnlichst drängt, dem deutschen +Vaterlande Valet zu sagen. Minder die Lust des Wanderns als die Qual +persönlicher Verhältnisse (z. B. der nie abzuwaschende Jude) treibt mich +von hinnen."[225] + +In his tragedy "Almansor," written during the years 1820 and 1821,[226] +his deep-rooted antipathy to Christianity finds strong expression +through Almansor, although the countervailing arguments are eloquently +stated by the heroine. Prophetic of the poet's own later experience is +the representation of the hero, who is beguiled by his love for Zuleima +into vowing allegiance to the Christian faith, only to find that the +sacrifice has failed to win for him the object for which it was made. In +the character of Almansor, more than anywhere else, Heine's +"Liebesschmerz" and "Judenschmerz" have combined to produce in him an +inner dissonance which expresses itself in lyric lines of real +Weltschmerz: + + Ich bin recht müd + Und krank, und kranker noch als krank, denn ach, + Die allerschlimmste Krankheit ist das Leben; + Und heilen kann sie nur der Tod....[227] + +But here too, as in "Ratcliff," such passages are exceptional. In the +main these tragedies are nothing more than vehicles for the poet's +stormy protest, much of it after the Storm and Stress pattern;[228] and +mere protest, however acrimonious, cannot be called Weltschmerz. + +Certain it is that during these early years numerous disappointments +other than those of love contributed to produce in the poet a gloomy +state of mind. A reflection of the unhappiness which he had experienced +during his residence in Hamburg is found in many passages in his +correspondence which express his repugnance for the city and its people. +To Immanuel Wohlwill (1823): "Es freut mich, dass es Dir in den Armen +der aimablen Hammonia zu behagen beginnt; mir ist diese Schöne zuwider. +Mich täuscht nicht der goldgestickte Rock, ich weiss, sie trägt ein +schmutziges Hemd auf dem gelben Leibe, und mit den schmelzenden +Liebesseufzern 'Rindfleisch[3] Banko!' sinkt sie an die Brust des +Meistbietenden.... Vielleicht thue ich aber der guten Stadt Hamburg +unrecht; die Stimmung, die mich beherrschte, als ich dort einige Zeit +lebte, war nicht dazu geeignet, mich zu einem unbefangenen Beurteiler zu +machen; mein _inneres_ Leben war brütendes Versinken in den düsteren, +nur von phantastischen Lichtern durchblitzten Schacht der Traumwelt, +mein _äusseres_ Leben war toll, wüst, cynisch, abstossend; mit einem +Worte, ich machte es zum schneidenden Gegensatz meines inneren Lebens, +damit mich dieses nicht durch sein Uebergewicht zerstöre."[229] To Moser +(1823): "Hamburg? sollte ich dort noch so viele Freuden finden können, +als ich schon Schmerzen dort empfand? Dieses ist freilich +unmöglich--"[230] "Hamburg!!! mein Elysium und Tartarus zu gleicher +Zeit! Ort, den ich detestiere und am meisten liebe, wo mich die +abscheulichsten Gefühle martern und we ich mich dennoch +hinwünsche."[231] Another letter to Moser is dated: "Verdammtes Hamburg, +den 14. Dezember, 1825."[232] The following year he writes, in a letter +to Immermann: "Ich verliess Göttingen, suchte in Hamburg ein +Unterkommen, fand aber nichts als Feinde, Verklatschung und +Aerger."[233] And to Varnhagen von Ense (1828): "Nach Hamburg werde ich +nie in diesem Leben zurückkehren; es sind mir Dinge von der äussersten +Bitterkeit dort passiert, sie wären auch nicht zu ertragen gewesen, ohne +den Umstand, dass nur ich sie weiss."[234] To his mother's insistent +pleading he replies (1833): "Aber ich will, wenn Du es durchaus +verlangst, diesen Sommer auf acht Tage nach Hamburg kommen, nach dem +schändlichen Neste, wo ich meinen Feinden den Triumph gönnen soll, mich +wiederzusehen und mit Beleidigungen überhäufen zu können."[235] + +His several endeavors to establish himself on a firm material footing in +life had failed,--he had sought for a place in a Berlin high school, +then entertained the idea of practising law in Hamburg, then aspired to +a professorship in Munich, but without success. But more than by all +these reverses, more even than by the circumstances and consequences of +his Hebrew parentage, was the poet wrought up by the family strife over +the payment of his pension, which followed upon the death of his uncle +in December, 1844, and which lasted for several years. From the very +beginning he had had much intermittent annoyance through his dealings +with his sporadically generous uncle Salomon Heine. As early as 1823 +Heine writes to Moser: "Auch weiss ich, dass mein Oheim, der sich hier +so gemein zeigt, zu andern Zeiten die Generosität selbst ist; aber es +ist doch in mir der Vorsatz aufgekommen, alles anzuwenden, um mich so +bald als möglich von der Güte meines Oheims loszureissen. Jetzt habe ich +ihn freilich noch nötig, und wie knickerig auch die Unterstützung ist, +die er mir zufliessen lässt, so kann ich dieselbe nicht entbehren."[236] +And again in the same year: "Es ist fatal, dass bei mir der ganze Mensch +durch das Budget regiert wird. Auf meine Grundsätze hat Geldmangel oder +Ueberfluss nicht den mindesten Einfluss, aber desto mehr auf meine +Handlungen. Ja, grosser Moser, der H. Heine ist sehr klein."[237] And +when, after his uncle's demise, the heirs of the latter threatened to +cut off the poet's pension, he writes to Campe[238] and to Detmold,[239] +in a frenzy of wrath and excitement, and shows what he is really capable +of under pressure of circumstances. Perhaps it is only fair to suppose +that his long years of suffering, both from his physical condition and +from the unscrupulous attacks of his enemies, had had a corroding effect +upon his moral sensibilities. In his request to Campe to act as mediator +in the disagreeable affair he says: "Sie können alle Schuld des +Missverständnisses auf mich schieben, die Grossmut der Familie +hervorstreichen, kurz, mich sacrificiren." And all this to be submitted +to the public in print! "Ich gestehe Ihnen heute offen, ich habe gar +keine Eitelkeit in der Weise andrer Menschen, mir liegt am Ende gar +nichts an der Meinung des Publikums; mir ist nur eins wichtig, die +Befriedigung meines inneren Willens, die Selbstachtung meiner Seele." +But how he was able to preserve his self-respect, and at the same time +be willing to employ any and all means to attain his end, perhaps no one +less unscrupulous than he could comprehend. He intimates that he has +decided upon threats and public intimidation as being probably more +effective than a servile attitude, which, he allows us to infer, he +would be quite willing to take if advisable. "Das Beste muss hier die +Presse thun zur Intimidation, und die ersten Kotwürfe auf Karl Heine und +namentlich auf Adolf Halle werden schon wirken. Die Leute sind an Dreck +nicht gewöhnt, während ich ganze Mistkarren vertragen kann, ja diese, +wie auf Blumenbeeten, nur mein Gedeihen zeitigen."[240] + +It is quite evident that this long drawn out quarrel aroused all that +was mean and vindictive, all that was immoral in the man, and that the +nervous excitement thereby induced had a most baneful effect upon his +entire nature, physical as well as mental. In a number of poems he has +given expression to his anger and has masterfully cursed his +adversaries, for example, "Es gab den Dolch in deine Hand,"[241] "Sie +küssten mich mit ihren falschen Lippen,"[242] and several following +ones. But here, too, his fancy is altogether too busy with the suitable +characterization of his enemies and the invention of adequate tortures +for them, to leave room for even a suggestion of the Weltschmerz which +we might expect to result from such painful emotions. + +It is scarcely necessary to theorize as to what would have been the +attitude and conduct of a sensitive Hölderlin or a proud-spirited Lenau +in a similar position. Lenau is too proud to protest, preferring to +suffer. Heine is too vain to appear as a sufferer, so he meets +adversity, not in a spirit of admirable courage, but in a spirit of +bravado. In giving lyric utterance to his resentment, Heine is conscious +that the world is looking on, and so he indulges, even in the expression +of his Weltschmerz, in a vain ostentation which stands in marked +contrast to Lenau's dignified pride. He is quite right when he says in a +letter to his friend Moser: "Ich bin nicht gross genug, um Erniedrigung +zu tragen."[243] + +As an illustration of the vain display which he makes of his sadness, +his poem "Der Traurige" may be quoted in part: + + Allen thut es weh in Herzen, + Die den bleichen Knaben sehn, + Dem die Leiden, dem die Schmerzen + Auf's Gesicht geschrieben stehn.[244] + +A similar impression is made by the concluding numbers of the +Intermezzo, "Die alten, bösen Lieder."[245] And here again the +comparison,--even if merely as to size,--of a coffin with the +"Heidelberger Fass" is most incongruous, to say the least, and tends +very effectually to destroy the serious sentiment which the poem, with +less definite exaggerations, might have conveyed. Similarly overdone is +his poetic preface to the "Rabbi" sent to his friend Moser:[246] + + Brich aus in lauten Klagen + Du düstres Märtyrerlied, + Das ich so lang getragen + Im flammenstillen Gemüt! + + Es dringt in alle Ohren, + Und durch die Ohren ins Herz; + Ich habe gewaltig beschworen + Den tausendjährigen Schmerz. + + Es weinen dir Grossen und Kleinen, + Sogar die kalten Herrn, + Die Frauen und Blumen weinen, + Es weinen am Himmel die Stern. + +It is not necessary, even if it were to the point, to adduce further +evidence of Heine's vanity as expressed in his prose writings, or in +poems such as the much-quoted + + Nennt man die besten Namen, + So wird auch der meine genannt.[247] + +It cannot be denied that this element of vanity, of showiness, only +serves to emphasize our impression of the unreality of much of Heine's +Weltschmerz. + +With the reference to this element of ostentation in Heine's Weltschmerz +there is suggested at once the question of the Byronic pose, and of +Byron's influence in general upon the German poet. On the general +relationship between the two poets much has been written,[248] so that +we may confine ourselves here to the consideration of certain points of +resemblance in their Weltschmerz. + +Julian Schmidt names Byron as the constellation which ruled the heavens +during the period from the Napoleonic wars to the "Völkerfrühling," +1848, as the meteor upon which at that time the eyes of all Europe were +fixed. Certainly the English poet could not have wished for a more +auspicious introduction and endorsation in Germany, if he had needed +such, than that which was given him by Goethe himself, whose subsequent +tribute in his Euphorion in the second part of "Faust" is one of Byron's +most splendid memorials. The enthusiasm which Lord Byron aroused in +Germany is attested by Goethe: "Im Jahre 1816, also einige Jahre nach +dem Erscheinen des ersten Gesanges des 'Childe Harold,' trat englische +Poesie und Literatur vor allen andern in den Vordergrund. Lord Byrons +Gedichte, je mehr man sich mit den Eigenheiten dieses ausserordentlichen +Geistes bekannt machte, gewannen immer grössere Teilnahme, so dass +Männer und Frauen, Mägdlein und Junggesellen fast aller Deutschheit und +Nationalität zu vergessen schienen."[249] + +It is important to note that this first period of unrestrained Byron +enthusiasm coincides with the formative and impressionable years of +Heine's youth. In his first book of poems, published in 1821, he +included translations from Byron, in reviewing which Immermann pointed +out[250] that while Heine's poems showed a superficial resemblance to +those of Byron, the temperament of the former was far removed from the +sinister scorn of the English lord, that it was in fact much more +cheerful and enamored of life.[251] There is plenty of evidence, +however, to show that it was exceedingly gratifying to the young Heine +to have his name associated with that of Byron; and although he had no +enthusiasm for Byron's philhellenism, he was pleased to write, June 25, +1824, on hearing of the Englishman's death: "Der Todesfall Byrons hat +mich übrigens sehr bewegt. Es war der einzige Mensch, mit dem ich mich +verwandt fühlte, und wir mögen uns wohl in manchen Dingen geglichen +haben; scherze nur darüber, soviel Du willst. Ich las ihn selten seit +einigen Jahren; man geht lieber um mit Menschen, deren Charakter von dem +unsrigen verschieden ist. Ich bin aber mit Byron immer behaglich +umgegangen, wie mit einem völlig gleichen Spiesskameraden. Mit +Shakespeare kann ich gar nicht behaglich umgehen, ich fühle nur zu +sehr, dass ich nicht seinesgleichen bin, er ist der allgewaltige +Minister, und ich bin ein blosser Hofrat, und es ist mir, als ob er mich +jeden Augenblick absetzen könnte."[252] Significant is the allusion in +this same letter to a proposition which the writer seems to have made to +his friend in a previous one: " ... ich darf Dir Dein Versprechen in +Hinsicht des 'Morgenblattes' durchaus nicht erlassen. Robert besorgt +gern den Aufsatz. Byron ist jetzt tot, und ein Wort über ihn ist jetzt +passend. Vergiss es nicht; Du thust mir einen sehr grossen +Gefallen."[253] We shall probably not be far astray in assuming that the +"Gefallen" was to have been the advertising of Heine as the natural +successor of Byron in European literature. Three months later he once +more urges the request: "Auch fände ich es noch immer angemessen, ja +jetzt mehr als je, dass Du Dich über Byron und Komp. vernehmen +liessest."[254] + +But it was not long before Heine, with an increasing sense of literary +independence, reinforced no doubt by the reaction of public opinion +against Byron, and influenced also by his friend Immermann's judgment in +particular,[255] was no longer willing to be considered a disciple of +the English master. Several unmistakable references betoken this change +of heart, for example, the following from his "Nordsee" III (1826): +"Wahrlich in diesem Augenblicke fühle ich sehr lebhaft, dass ich kein +Nachbeter, oder, besser gesagt, Nachfrevler, Byrons bin, mein Blut ist +nicht so spleenisch schwarz, meine Bitterkeit kömmt nur aus den +Galläpfeln meiner Dinte, und wenn Gift in mir ist, so ist es doch nur +Gegengift, Gegengift wider jene Schlangen, die im Schutte der alten Dome +und Burgen so bedrohlich lauern."[256] Byron, instead of being regarded +as "kindred spirit" and "cousin," is now characterized as a ruthless +destroyer of venerable forms, injuring the most sacred flowers of life +with his melodious poison, or as a mad harlequin who thrusts the steel +into his heart, in order that he may teasingly bespatter ladies and +gentlemen with the black spurting blood. In remarkable contrast with his +former views, he now writes: "Von allen grossen Schriftstellern ist +Byron just derjenige, dessen Lektüre mich am unleidigsten berührt." + +Perhaps the most interesting passage in this connection, because so +thoroughly characteristic of the Byronic pose in Heine, occurs in the +"Bäder von Lucca": "Lieber Leser, gehörst du vielleicht zu jenen frommen +Vögeln, die da einstimmen in das Lied von Byronischer Zerrissenheit, das +mir schon seit zehn Jahren in allen Weisen vorgepfiffen und +vorgezwitschert worden ...? Ach, teurer Leser, wenn du über jene +Zerrissenheit klagen willst, so beklage lieber, dass die Welt selbst +mitten entzwei gerissen ist. Denn da das Herz des Dichters der +Mittelpunkt der Welt ist, so musste es wohl in jetziger Zeit jämmerlich +zerrissen werden. Wer von seinem Herzen rühmt, es sei ganz geblieben, +der gesteht nur, dass er ein prosaisches, weitabgelegenes Winkelherz +hat. Durch das meinige ging aber der grosse Weltriss, und eben deswegen +weiss ich, dass die grossen Götter mich vor vielen andern hoch begnadigt +und des Dichtermärtyrtums würdig geachtet haben."[257] Here while +vociferously disclaiming all kinship or sympathy with Byron, he pays him +the flattering compliment of imitation. Probably nowhere in Byron could +we find a more pompous display of egoism under the guise of Weltschmerz. + +Byron's Weltschmerz, like Heine's, had its first provocation in a purely +personal experience. "To a Lady"[258] and "Remembrance"[259] both give +expression in passionate terms to the poet's disappointed love for Mary +Chaworth, the parallel in Heine's case being his infatuation for his +cousin Amalie. The necessity for defending himself against a public +opinion actively hostile to his earliest poems,[260] largely diverted +Byron from this first painful theme, so that from this time on until he +left England, he is almost incessantly engaged in a bitter warfare +against the injustice of critics and of society. To this second period +Heine's development also shows a general resemblance. Thus far both +poets exhibit a purely egoistic type of Weltschmerz. But with his +separation from his wife in 1816, and his final departure from England, +that of Byron enters upon a third period and becomes cosmic. Ostracized +by English society, his relations with it finally severed, he disdains +to defend himself further against its criticism, and espouses the cause +of unhappy humanity. No longer his own personal woes, but rather those +of the nations of the earth are nearest his heart: + + What are our woes and sufferance?... + ................................ Ye! + Whose agonies are evils of a day-- + A world is at our feet as fragile as our clay.[261] + +And in contemplating the ruins of the Palatine Hill: + + ..................... Upon such a shrine + What are our petty griefs? Let me not number mine.[262] + +Here we have the essential difference between these two types of +Weltschmerz. Heine does not, like Byron, make this transition from the +personal to the universal stage. Instead of becoming cosmic in his +Weltschmerz, he remains for ever egoistic. + +Numerous quotations might be adduced from the writings of both poets, +which would seem to indicate that Heine had borrowed many of his ideas +and even some forms of expression from Byron. Except in the case of the +most literal correspondence, this is generally a very unsafe deduction. +Such passages as a rule prove nothing more than a similarity, possibly +quite independent, in the trend of their pessimistic thought. Compare +for example Byron's lines in the poem "And wilt thou weep when I am +low?" + + Oh lady! blessed be that tear-- + It falls for one who cannot weep; + Such precious drops are doubly dear + To those whose eyes no tear may steep,[263] + +with Heine's stanza: + + Seit ich sie verloren hab', + Schafft' ich auch das Weinen ab; + Fast vor Weh das Herz mir bricht, + Aber weinen kann ich nicht.[264] + +Or again, "Childe Harold," IV, 136: + + From mighty wrongs to petty perfidy + Have I not seen what human things could do? + From the loud roar of foaming calumny + To the small whisper of the as paltry few-- + And subtler venom of the reptile crew,[265] + +with the first lines of Heine's ninth sonnet: + + Ich möchte weinen, doch ich kann es nicht; + Ich möcht' mich rüstig in die Höhe heben, + Doch kann ich's nicht; am Boden muss ich kleben, + Umkrächzt, umzischt von eklem Wurmgezücht,[266] + +a thought which in one of his letters (1823) he paraphrases thus: "Der +Gedanke an Dich, liebe Schwester, muss mich zuweilen aufrecht halten, +wenn die grosse Masse mit ihrem dummen Hass und ihrer ekelhaften Liebe +mich niederdrückt."[267] There can be no doubt that Heine for a time +studied diligently to imitate this fashionable model, pose, irony and +all. So diligently perhaps, that he himself was sometimes unable to +distinglish between imitation and reality. So at least it would appear +from No. 44 of "Die Heimkehr:" + + Ach Gott! im Scherz und unbewusst + Sprach ich, was ich gefühlet: + Ich hab mit dem Tod in der eignen Brust + Den sterbenden Fechter gespielet.[268] + +In summing up our impressions of the two poets we shall scarcely escape +the feeling that while Byron is pleased to display his troubles and his +heart-aches before the curious gaze of the world, they are at least in +the main real troubles and sincere heart-aches, whereas Heine, on the +other hand, does a large business in Weltschmerz on a very small +capital. + +Nor is Heine the man more convincing as to his sincerity than Heine the +poet. No more striking instance of this fact could perhaps be found than +his letter to Laube on hearing the news of Immermann's death.[269] +"Gestern Abend erfuhr ich durch das _Journal des Debats_ ganz zufällig +den Tod von Immermann. Ich habe die ganze Nacht durch geweint. Welch ein +Unglück!... Welch einen grossen Dichter haben wir Deutschen verloren, +ohne ihn jemals recht gekannt zu haben! Wir, ich meine Deutschland, die +alte Rabenmutter! Und nicht nur ein grosser Dichter war er, sondern auch +brav und ehrlich, und deshalb liebte ich ihn. Ich liege ganz darnieder +vor Kummer." But scarcely has he turned the page with a short +intervening paragraph, when he continues: "Ich bin, sonderbar genug, +sehr guter Laune," and concludes the letter with some small talk. Now if +he was sincere, as we may assume he was, in the asseveration of his +grief at the death of his friend, then either that grief must have been +anything but profound, or we have the clearest sort of evidence of the +poet's incapacity for serious feeling of more than momentary duration. +It is safe to assert that Heine never set himself a high artistic task, +and remained true to his purpose until the task was accomplished. In +other words, Heine betrays a lack of will-energy along artistic lines, +which in the case of Hölderlin and Lenau was more evident in their +attitude toward the practical things of life. + +But the fact that Heine never created a monumental literary work of +enduring worth is not attributable solely to a fickleness of artistic +purpose or lack of will-energy. We find its explanation rather in the +poet's own statement: "Die Poesie ist am Ende doch nur eine schöne +Nebensache."[270] and to this principle, consciously or unconsciously, +Heine steadily adhered. Certain it is that he took a much lower view of +his art than did Hölderlin or Lenau. Hence we find him ever ready to +degrade his muse by making it the vehicle for immoral thoughts and +abominable calumnies.[271] + +The question of Heine's patriotism has always been a much-debated one, +and must doubtless remain so. But whatever opinion we may hold in regard +to his real attitude and feelings toward the land of his birth, this we +shall have to admit, that there are exceedingly few traces of +Weltschmerz arising from this source. Genuine feeling is expressed in +the two-stanza poem "Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland"[272] and +also in "Lebensfahrt,"[273] although this latter poem illustrates a +characteristic of so many of his writings, namely that he himself is +their central figure. It is the sublime egoism which characterizes Heine +and all his works. No wonder, then, that one of his few +"Freiheitslieder" refers to his own personal liberty.[274] For the +failings of his countrymen he is ever ready with scathing satire,[275] +he grieves over his separation from them only when he thinks of his +mother;[276] and in regard to the future of Germany he is for the most +part sceptical.[277] In a word, Heine's lyric utterances in regard to +his fatherland are of so mixed a character, that altogether aside from +the question of the sincerity of his feeling toward the land of his +birth, certainly none but the blindest partisan would be able to +discover more than a negligible quantity of Weltschmerz directly +attributable to this influence. + +Heine's conscience is at best a doubtful quantity. Where Byron with a +sincere sense and acknowledgment of his guilt writes: + + "My injuries came down on those who loved me-- + On those whom I best loved: . . . . . . + But my embrace was fatal."[278] + +Heine sees it in quite another light: "War ich doch selber jetzt das +lebende Gesetz der Moral und der Quell alles Rechtes und aller Befugnis; +die anrüchigsten Magdalenen wurden purifiziert durch die läuternde und +sühnende Macht meiner Liebesflammen,"[279] a moral aberration which he +attributes to an imperfect interpretation of the difficult philosophy of +Hegel. If further evidence were necessary to show the perversity of +Heine's moral sense, the following paragraph from a letter to Varnhagen +would suffice, in its way perhaps as remarkable a contribution to the +theory of ethics as has ever been penned: "In Deutschland ist man noch +nicht so weit, zu begreifen, dass ein Mann, der das Edelste durch Wort +und That befördern will, sich oft einige kleine Lumpigkeiten, sei es aus +Spass oder aus Vorteil, zu schulden kommen lassen darf, wenn er nur +durch diese Lumpigkeiten (d. h. Handlungen, die im Grunde ignobel sind,) +der grossen Idee seines Lebens nichts schadet, ja dass diese +Lumpigkeiten oft sogar lobenswert sind, wenn sie uns in den Stand +setzen, der grossen Idee unsres Lebens desto würdiger zu dienen."[280] +Scarcely less remarkable is the poet's confession to his friend Moser +that he has a rubber soul: "Ich kann Dir das nicht oft genug +wiederholen, damit Du mich nicht misst nach dem Massstabe Deiner eigenen +grossen Seele. Die meinige ist Gummi elastic, zieht sich oft ins +Unendliche und verschrumpft oft ins Winzige. Aber eine Seele habe ich +doch. I am positive, I have a soul, so gut wie Sterne. Das genüge Dir. +Liebe mich um der wunderlichen Sorte Gefühls willen, die sich bei mir +ausspricht in Thorheit und Weisheit, in Güte und Schlechtigkeit. Liebe +mich, weil es Dir nun mal so einfällt, nicht, weil Du mich der Liebe +wert hältst.... Ich hatte einen Polen zum Freund, für den ich mich bis +zu Tod besoffen hätte, oder, besser gesagt, für den ich mich hätte +totschlagen lassen, und für den ich mich noch totschlagen liesse, und +der Kerl taugte für keinen Pfennig, und war venerisch, und hatte die +schlechtesten Grundsätze--aber er hatte einen Kehllaut, mit welchem er +auf so wunderliche Weise das Wort 'Was?' sprechen konnte, dass ich in +diesem Augenblick weinen und lachen muss, wenn ich daran denke."[281] + +Taking him all in all then, Heine is not a serious personality, a fact +which we need to keep constantly in mind in judging almost any and every +side of his nature. + +As a matter of fact, Heine's Weltschmerz, like his whole personality, is +of so complex and contradictory a nature, that it would be a hopeless +undertaking to attempt to weigh each contributing factor and estimate +exactly the amount of its influence. All the elements which have been +briefly noted in the foregoing pages, and probably many minor ones which +have not been mentioned, combined to produce in him that "Zerrissenheit" +which finds such frequent expression in his writings. But it must be +remembered that this "Zerrissenheit" does not always express itself as +Weltschmerz. In Heine it often appears simply as pugnacity; and where +wit, satire, self-irony or even base calumny succeeds in covering up all +traces of the poet's pathos we are no longer justified on sentimental or +sympathetic grounds in taking it for granted. In looking for pathos in +Heine's verse we shall not have to look in vain, it is true, but we +shall find much less than his popular reputation as a poet of +Weltschmerz would lead us to expect; and we frequently gain the +impression that his disposition and his personal experiences are after +all largely the excuse for rather than the occasion of his Weltschmerz. + +Plümacher maintains: "Der Weltschmerz ist entweder die absolute +Passivität, und die Klage seine einzige Aeusserung, oder aber er +verpufft seine Kräfte in rein subjectivistischen, eudämonischen +Anstrengungen,"[282]--a characterization which certainly holds good in +the case of Lenau and Hölderlin respectively. Hölderlin, although in a +visionary, idealistic way, remains, en in his Weltschmerz, altruistic +and constructive. Lenau is passive, while Heine is solely egoistic and +destructive. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 181: "Studien und Wandertage," Frauenfeld, Huber, 1884.] + +[Footnote 182: Vol. II, p. 265.] + +[Footnote 183: "Französische Maler. Gemälde-Ausstellung in Paris, 1831." +Heines Sämmtliche Werke, mit Einleitung von E. Elster. Leipzig, +Bibliogr. Inst., 1890. (Hereafter quoted as "Werke.") Vol. IV, p. 61.] + +[Footnote 184: "Selina, oder über die Unsterblichkeit," II, p. 132.] + +[Footnote 185: "Heinrich Heines Krankheit und Leidensgeschichte." Eine +kritische Studie, von S. Rahmer, Dr. Med., Berlin, 1901.] + +[Footnote 186: "Das Liebesleben Hölderlin's, Lenaus, Heines." Berlin, +1901.] + +[Footnote 187: Rahmer, op. cit. p. 45.] + +[Footnote 188: Rahmer, p. 46.] + +[Footnote 189: Werke, Vol. III, p. 194.] + +[Footnote 190: Karpeles ed. Werke (2. Aufl.) VIII, p. 441.] + +[Footnote 191: _Ibid._, p. 378.] + +[Footnote 192: _Ibid._, p. 520.] + +[Footnote 193: Karpeles ed. Werke, IX, p. 371.] + +[Footnote 194: _Ibid._, p. 374.] + +[Footnote 195: _Ibid._, p. 459 ff.] + +[Footnote 196: _Ibid._, p. 513.] + +[Footnote 197: _Ibid._, p. 475.] + +[Footnote 198: Werke, Vol. I, p. 72, Nos. 18 and 19.] + +[Footnote 199: Werke, Vol. I, p. 123, No. 62.] + +[Footnote 200: Lenaus Werke, Vol. I, p. 257 ff.] + +[Footnote 201: Werke, Vol. I, p. 37.] + +[Footnote 202: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 11.] + +[Footnote 203: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 97.] + +[Footnote 204: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 177.] + +[Footnote 205: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 197.] + +[Footnote 206: Karpeles ed. Werke, VIII, p. 408.] + +[Footnote 207: _Ibid._, p. 468.] + +[Footnote 208: Karpeles ed. Werke, Vol. II, p. 31.] + +[Footnote 209: A few other examples of this same coloring in Heine's +lyrics are to be found in the "Neuer Frühling," Nos. 40, 41 and 43.] + +[Footnote 210: Werke, Vol. II, p. 89, No. 55, "O Gott, wie hässlich +bitter ist das Sterben!" etc.] + +[Footnote 211: Engel: "Heine's Memoiren," p. 133.] + +[Footnote 212: Werke, Vol. I, p. 87.] + +[Footnote 213: Werke, Vol. I, p. 134.] + +[Footnote 214: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 215: "Nicolaus Lenau. Erinnerung und Betrachtung." Wien, +1876.] + +[Footnote 216: Werke, Vol. I, p. 367f.] + +[Footnote 217: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 415.] + +[Footnote 218: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 48.] + +[Footnote 219: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 42 f.] + +[Footnote 220: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 428.] + +[Footnote 221: Werke, Vol. I, p. 424.] + +[Footnote 222: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 416.] + +[Footnote 223: Karpeles ed. Werke, VIII, p. 473.] + +[Footnote 224: Cf. Heine's letter to Moser, Jan. 9, 1826, in Karpeles' +Autob. p. 191.] + +[Footnote 225: Karpeles ed. Werke, VIII, p. 491.] + +[Footnote 226: Cf. Werke, Einleitung, Vol. II, p. 241.] + +[Footnote 227: Werke, Vol. II, p. 293.] + +[Footnote 228: Cf. Almansor's Speech, Werke, Vol. II, p. 288 f.] + +[Footnote 229: Karpeles ed. Werke, VIII, p. 363.] + +[Footnote 230: _Ibid._, p. 384.] + +[Footnote 231: Karpeles ed. Werke, VIII, p. 391.] + +[Footnote 232: _Ibid._, p. 472.] + +[Footnote 233: _Ibid._, p. 503.] + +[Footnote 234: _Ibid._, p. 540.] + +[Footnote 235: _Ibid._, IX, p. 25.] + +[Footnote 236: _Ibid._, VIII, p. 392.] + +[Footnote 237: Karpeles ed. VIII, p. 396.] + +[Footnote 238: _Ibid._, IX, p. 308 ff.] + +[Footnote 239: _Ibid._, p. 316.] + +[Footnote 240: Letter to Detmold, Jan. 9, 1845, Werke (Karpeles ed.), +Vol. IX, p. 310.] + +[Footnote 241: Werke, Vol. II, p. 104.] + +[Footnote 242: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 105.] + +[Footnote 243: Cf. Karpeles' Autob. p. 164.] + +[Footnote 244: Werke, Vol. I, p. 35.] + +[Footnote 245: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 92.] + +[Footnote 246: Werke, Vol. II, p. 164.] + +[Footnote 247: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 248: One of the most exhaustive monographs on the subject is +that of Felix Melchior (Cf. bibliography, _infra_ p. 90), to whom I am +indebted for several of the parallels suggested.] + +[Footnote 249: Weimar Ausg. I Abt. Bd. 36, p. 128.] + +[Footnote 250: In the _Rheinisch-westfälischer Anzeiger_, May 31, 1822, +No. 23.] + +[Footnote 251: Cf. Strodtmann, "H. Heines Leben und Werke," 3. ed., +Hamburg, 1884. Vol. I, p. 200.] + +[Footnote 252: Karpeles ed. Werke, VIII, p. 434.] + +[Footnote 253: _Ibid._, p. 433.] + +[Footnote 254: _Ibid._, p. 441.] + +[Footnote 255: In discussing the first volume of Heine's "Reisebilder," +Immermann had said: "Man hat Heinen beim Beginn seiner dichterischen +Laufbahn mit Byron vergleichen wollen. Diese Vergleichung scheint nicht +zu passen. Der Brite bringt mit ungeheuren Mitteln nur massige poetische +Effekte hervor, während Heine eine Anlage zeigt, sich künstlerisch zu +begrenzen und den Stoff gänzlich in die Form zu absorbieren." +(_Jahrbücher f. wissenschaftliche Kritik_, 1827, No. 97, p. 767.)] + +[Footnote 256: Werke, III, p. 116.] + +[Footnote 257: Werke, Vol. Ill, p. 304.] + +[Footnote 258: Byron's Works, Coleridge ed., London and New York, 1898. +Vol. I, p. 189 ff.] + +[Footnote 259: _Ibid._, p. 211.] + +[Footnote 260: Cf. the poems "To a Knot of Ungenerous Critics," "English +Bards and Scotch Reviewers," and others.] + +[Footnote 261: Coleridge ed., Vol. II, p. 388 f.] + +[Footnote 262: _Ibid._, p. 406.] + +[Footnote 263: Coleridge ed., Vol. I, p. 266 f.] + +[Footnote 264: Werke, Vol. I, p. 78.] + +[Footnote 265: Coleridge ed., Vol. II, p. 429.] + +[Footnote 266: Werke, Vol. I, p. 61.] + +[Footnote 267: Karpeles ed. Werke, VIII, p. 411.] + +[Footnote 268: Werke, I, p. 117.] + +[Footnote 269: Werke, Karpeles ed. Vol. IX, p. 162 f.] + +[Footnote 270: Letter to Immermann, Werke (Karpeles ed.), Vol. VIII, p. +354.] + +[Footnote 271: Cf. his vulgar prognostication of Germany's future, Kaput +XXVI of the "Wintermärchen," Werke, Vol. II, p. 488 ff.] + +[Footnote 272: Werke, Vol. I, p. 263.] + +[Footnote 273: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 308.] + +[Footnote 274: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 301, "Adam der erste."] + +[Footnote 275: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 316, "Zur Beruhigung."] + +[Footnote 276: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 320, "Nachtgedanken."] + +[Footnote 277: Cf. _supra_, note 1.] + +[Footnote 278: "Manfred," Coleridge ed., IV, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 279: Werke VI, p. 48.] + +[Footnote 280: Karpeles ed. Werke, VIII, p. 541.] + +[Footnote 281: Karpeles ed. Werke, VIII, p. 399.] + +[Footnote 282: Plümacher: "Der Pessimismus." Heidelberg, 1888, p. 103.] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +=Bibliography= + + +_General_ + +Breitinger, H. Neues über den alten Weltschmerz. "Studien und +Wandertage." Frauenfeld, Huber, 1884, p. 246-62. + +Caro, E. 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Ein Beitrag zur Lebensgeschichte des +Dichters. Euphor. 1899, p. 752-61. + +Sadger, J. Nicolaus Lenau. Ein pathologisches Lebensbild. Neue Freie +Presse, Nr. 111166-7. Sept. 25, 26, 1895. (Reviewed by Castle, Euphor. +1899, p. 792-95.) + +Roustan, L. Lenau et son Temps, Paris, 1898. (Reviewed by Castle, +Euphor. 1899, p. 785-97, in which review he quotes at length the opinion +of Dr. Med. Karl Weiler.) + +Saly-Stern, J. La vie d'un Poète. Essai sur Lenau. Paris, 1902. + +Scherr, J. Ein Dichter des Weltleids. Hammerschläge und Historien, +Zürich, 1872. + +Schlossar, Dr. A. Nicolaus Lenau's Briefe an Emilie v. Reinbeck, nebst +Aufzeichnungen. Stuttgart, 1896. + +Schurz, Anton X. Lenaus Leben, grossentheils aus des Dichters eignen +Briefen. 2 vols. Cotta, 1855. + +Sintenis, Franz. Nicolaus Lenau. Vortrag. 1892. + +Von Klenze, Camillo. The Treatment of Nature in the Works of Lenau. +Chicago Univ. Press, 1902. + +Wechsler, Ed. Nicolaus Lenau. Eine litterarische Studie. Westermanns +Ill. 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Versuch einer ästhetisch-kritischen +Analyse seiner Werke und seiner Weltanschauung. Leipzig, 1888. + +Ducros, Louis. Henri Heine et son Temps. Paris, 1886. + +Eliot, George. Essays and Leaves from a Note-book. London, 1884. Heine, +p. 79-141. + +Elster, Ernest. Zu Heines Biographie. Vierteljahrschrift für +Litteraturgeschichte, 1891, Vol. 4, p. 465-512. + +Engel, E. Heine's Memoiren und Gedichte. Prosa und Briefe. Hamburg, +1884. + +Gautier, Théophile. Portraits et Souvenirs Littéraires. Paris, 1875. +Henri Heine, p. 105-128. + +Goetze, R. Heines Buch der Lieder und sein Verhältnis zum Volkslied. +Dissertation. Halle, 1895. + +Gottschall, Rudolf. Porträts und Studien. Leipzig, 1870. Heinrich Heine +nach neuen Quellen, Bd. I. p. 185-264. + +Houghton, Lord. Monographs, personal and social. London, 1873. The last +days of Heinrich Heine, p. 293-339. + +Hüffer, H. Aus dem Leben Heinrich Heines. Berlin, 1878. + +Hüffer, H. H. Heine und Ernst C. A. Keller. Deutsche Rundschau, Nov. and +Dec., 1895. + +Kalischer, Dr. Alfred C. Heinrich Heines Verhältnis zur Religion. +Dresden, 1890. + +Karpeles, Gustav. Heinrich Heine und das Judentum. Breslau, 1868. + +Karpeles, Gustav. Heinrich Heine und seine Zeitgenossen. Berlin, 1888. + +Karpeles, Gustav. Heine's Autobiographie, nach seinen Werken, Briefen +und Gesprächen. Berlin, 1888. + +Karpeles, Gustav. H. Heine. Aus seinem Leben und aus seiner Zeit. +Leipzig, 1899. + +Kaufmann, Max. Heine's Charakter und die Moderne Seele. Zürich, 1902. + +Keiter, H. H. Heine. Sein Leben, sein Charakter, seine Werke. Köln, +1891. + +Kohn-Abrest, F. Les, Coulisses d'un Livre. A propos des Memoires de +Henri Heine, Poète. Paris, 1884. + +Legras, Jules. Henri Heine, Poète. Paris, 1897. (Reviewed by Walzel, +Euphor. 1898, Vol. 5, p. 149.) + +Magnus, Lady. Jewish Portraits. London, 1888. p. 45-81. (Originally in +Macmillan's Magazine for 1883.) + +Meiszner, Alfred. Heinrich Heine. Erinnerungen. Hamburg, 1856. + +Melchior, Felix. Heinrich Heines Verhältnis zu Lord Byron. Litterarische +Forschungen, XXVII Heft. Berlin, 1903. + +Nietzki, M. Heine als Dichter und Mensch. Berlin, 1895. (Reviewed by +Fürst, Euphor. 1898, Vol. 5, p. 342 f.) + +Nollen. Heine und Wilhelm Müller. Mod. Lang. Notes, April, 1902. + +Proelss, Robert. Heinrich Heine. Sein Lebensgang und seine Schriften. +Stuttgart, 1886. + +Rahmer, S. Heinrich Heines Krankheit und Leidensgeschichte. Eine +kritische Studie. Berlin, 1902. + +Delia Rocca. Skizzen über H. Heine. Wien, Pest, Leipzig, Hartleben, +1882. + +Sandvoss, Franz. Was dünket Euch um Heine? Ein Bekenntnis. Leipzig, +1888. + +Schmidt, Julian. Bilder aus dem geistigen Leben unsrer Zeit. Leipzig, +1870-71. Heine, Bd. 2, p. 283-350. + +Schmidt-Weissenfels. Ueber Heinrich Heine. Berlin, 1857. + +Selden, Camille. Les derniers Jours de H. Heine. Paris, 1884. + +Sharp, William. Life of Heinrich Heine. London, 1888. + +Sintenis, F. H. Heine; ein Vortrag. Dorpat, 1877. + +Stigand. The Life, Works and Opinions of Heinrich Heine. London, 1875. + +Strodtmann, Adolf. Heinrich Heine's Wirken und Streben, Dargestellt an +seinen Werken. Hamburg, 1857. + +Strodtmann, Adolf. Immortellen Heinrich Heine's. Berlin, 1871. + +Strodtmann, Adolf. H. Heine's Leben und Werke. III Aufl. Berlin, 1884. + +Stylo, A. Heine und die Romantik. Programm. Krakau, 1900. + +Weill, Alexandre: Souvenirs Intimes de Henri Heine. Paris, 1883. + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + +[Note TN1: Correction of the original, which has +'Menchen' here.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WELTSCHMERZ *** + +***** This file should be named 17364-8.txt or 17364-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/3/6/17364/ + +Produced by David Starner, Ralph Janke and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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