(_b_) In the poetry of _Greece_ and _Rome_ we find ourselves for the
first time in the genuine sphere of epic art.
(_α_) Among these above all are included of course the _Homeric_ poems,
which we have already noted as the culminating point of all.
(_αα_) Either of these poems, despite all that may be advanced to the
contrary, is essentially self-complete, so definite and sensitive to
its construction as a whole, that in my own opinion the very view
which regards the present form of both as merely that in which they
were sung and handed down to posterity by rhapsodists, simply amounts
to little more than the just eulogy of such works in virtue of the
fact that they are, with regard to the entire atmosphere of their
content, national and realistic, and even in their particular parts
are so consummately finished, that all and each of them may be taken
as a whole in itself. Whereas in the East what is substantive[32] and
universal in the poet's survey still impairs the individuality of
character, and its aims and exploits by its symbolism or deliberate
instruction, and thereby injures the definite articulation and unity of
the whole. Here for the first time in these poems[33]we find a world
beautifully suspended as it were between the general life-conditions of
morality in family, state and religious belief, and the individuality
of distinctive character, and in this fair balance between the claims
of spirit and Nature, intentional action and objective event, between a
national basis of enterprise and particular aims and deeds, even though
individual heroes appear as the predominant feature in their free and
animated movement, yet this too is so mediated by the distinctiveness
of the aims proposed and the severe presence of destiny, that the
entire exposition can only remain even for ourselves the _ne plus
ultra_ of all attainment that we can either enjoy or admire in epic
composition. For we find no difficulty here in recognizing the real
significance of even the gods who withstand or assist these primitive
masculine heroes in their bravery, their straightforward and noble
actions: nor can we fail to return the merry smiles of an art which
depicts them as we see them here in all the _naïveté_ of their very
human, if also godlike impersonations.
(_ββ_) The _cyclic_ poets of an age subsequent to the Homeric poems
depart more and more from this genuine type of epic poetry. On the one
hand the tendency here is to break up the completeness of the national
world-survey into its petty provinces and aspects; and from another
point of view, instead of retaining a firm grasp of the poetic unity
and distinctive character of an individual action, to insist more
exclusively on the completeness of events as an historical series,
or on the unity of the personality, and by so doing to assimilate
epic poetry with the already emphasized historical impulse of the
logographers in their historical compilations.
(_γγ_) Finally Epic poetry of a still later date after the time of
Alexander either turns aside to the more limited province of bucolic
poetry, or introduces more learning and artifice than is compatible
with the truly poetic Epopaea being at last wholly didactic, a type
which increasingly suffers to escape every vestige of the primitive
freshness, simplicity and animation.
(_β_) This characteristic, with which the Epos of the Greeks
terminates, is from the first predominant among the _Romans._ An epic
Bible, such as are the Homeric poems, we shall therefore seek for here
in vain, however much critics have attempted, even quite recently, to
resolve the most ancient Roman history into national Epopaea. On the
other hand, even from the earliest times, along with genuine epic art,
of which our finest extant example here is the Æneid, the historical
Epos and the didactic poem supplies us with a proof that it is the
Romans who are mainly responsible for the elaboration of that province
of poetry which is already half prose; just as also it was in their
hands that the _satire_ received its most perfect form, being also that
most congenial to their character.
(_c_) For this reason epic poetry could only be infused with a fresh
breath and spirit through a change in its outlook on the world and in
its religious belief, and through the actions and destinies of new
nationalities. This is what we have in the case of the _Germans_,
not only as we see them in their primitive paganism, but also after
their conversion to Christianity. It may be further illustrated by
the Romance nations and all the more strongly, in proportion as their
subdivision into groups is more complete, and the principle of the
Christian view of life and reality is unfolded in all its various
phases. Yet it is precisely this many-sided expansion and subdivision
which oppose to a brief survey great difficulties. I will consequently
only draw attention to and emphasize fundamental tendencies.
(_α_) In our _first_ group we may reckon the residue of genuine poetry,
which later nationalities have still retained from an age previous
to Christianity, for the most part by means of oral tradition, and
consequently not wholly unimpaired.
We may include above all among these the poems which are usually
ascribed to _Ossian._ Although English critics of repute, such as
Johnson and Shaw, have been blind enough to publish them as the sole
composition of Macpherson, it is none the less wholly impossible that
a poet of our own time could create from his own resources alone such
ancient social conditions and events; consequently we must presuppose
here previous poems as the foundation of such a work, although too
in their entire atmosphere, and the mode of conception and feeling
expressed in them, many changes more in accord with our modern life may
have been introduced in the course of so many centuries. It is true
their actual date is not established; they may, however, very well have
retained a vital form in the mouth of the folk for one thousand or even
fifteen hundred years. Taking them as a whole their form appears to
be predominantly lyric. Ossian is here presented as the old minstrel
and hero, who has lost his sight, and suffers in a retrospect of
lament, the days of glory to rise before him. Yet although his songs
originate in woe and mourning they nevertheless are in themselves
fundamentally epic; for even these lamentations refer to what has been,
and depict this world which has now just vanished, with its heroes, its
love-adventurers, its exploits, its expeditions aver sea and land, its
chance of arms, its destiny and its downfall, in just the same epic and
realistic way--although broken here and there with lyrics--as we find
in Homer the heroes Achilles, Odysseus, or Diomede, talking of their
exploits, expeditions, and mischances. Yet the development of spiritual
emotion, and indeed of the entire national existence, despite the fact
that here heart and sentiment have a more exacting rôle to play, is
not carried so far as in Homer's case. Most of all we miss the assured
plastic form of his characterization and the daylight clarity of his
presentment. We are, in short, so far as _locale_ is concerned, exiled
in the tempestuous mists of the North, with its gloomy sky and heavy
clouds, upon which the spirits ride or appear to heroes, raimented in
their form. We may add that it is only quite recently that other Gaelic
minstrels of olden time have been discovered, rather connected, so
Wallis informs us, with England than Scotland or Ireland, minstrelsy
having been for a long time continuous in that country, which already
must have possessed a considerable literature.
In these poems we have among other things reference to emigrations to
America. Mention is also made of Caesar; but the reason here given for
his invasion is a private passion for some king's daughter, whom he saw
in Gaul and followed to England. As a striking characteristic of their
form triads are worthy of attention, which combine in three organic
parts three events of similar character, though dating from different
periods of time.
Finally, and more famous than these poems, are on the one hand the
heroic songs of the more ancient Edda, and on the other the myths with
which for the first time in this cycle of song along with the narrative
of human destinies we also come across various histories concerning the
origin, exploits, and downfall of the gods. I must, however, confess
I have been unable to acquire a taste for the empty exuberance of
these origins of a natural philosophy of symbolism, which, however,
are further attached to the appearance of particular human form and
physiognomy, such as Thor with his hammer, the Werewolf, the wild
mead-carousals, and in a word, the savagery and troubled confusion of
such a mythology. We must admit, of course, that all that intimately
concerns this folk of the North lies nearer to ourselves than, say,
the poetry of the Persians and Mohammedanism; but to press upon the
educated man among us such an admission to the point that it has still
at this time of day a claim upon his sympathy, and indeed ought to
pass for us as something national--such an assumption, though often
ventured, means not merely to overrate conceptions, which are to a
great extent misshapen and barbarous, but also to wholly misunderstand
the significance and spirit of our own times.
(_β_) If we, _secondly_, cast a glance over the poetry of the
Christian Middle Ages, what we ought in the first instance and above
all to consider are those works which have, without more direct and
penetrating influence of the old literature and culture, sprung up from
the fresh spirit of the Middle Ages and consolidated Catholicism. Here
we find the most multifold elements ready to supply the material and
stimulus of epic poetry.
(_αα_) We may in the _first_ place draw retention to that truly epic
subject-matter which comprises in its content interests, exploits, and
characters of the period mentioned of a wholly _national_ character.
Among these the Cid is pre-eminently worthy of our notice. The
significance of this blossom of national heroism in the Middle Ages to
the Spanish, this is set before us in epic guise in the poem Cid, and
then at a later date with more attractive excellence in a succession
of narrative romances, which Herder first brought to the notice of
Germany. We have here a string of pearls, every single picture entirely
complete in itself, and yet all so admirably in tune with each other
that they make a consistent whole; though throughout composed in
the spirit of chivalry, yet at the same time Spanish and national;
eminently rich in the content of their varied interests, whether these
concern love, marriage, honour, or the mastery of kings in wars waged
between Christians and Moors. All this material is voiced in so epic
and plastic a style, we have set before us the pertinent fact so simply
in the purity of its exalted content, and withal with such a wealth of
the noblest pictures of human life displayed in a panorama of the most
glorious exploit, and all this bound together in a wreath so fair and
fascinating, that we moderns may compare it with the most beautiful
creations of the ancient world.[34]
As a matter of fact it is as impossible to compare the Nibelungenlied,
as it is the Iliad and Odyssey, with this world of romance, which,
however dissevered in fragments it maybe, is none the less epic in
its fundamental type. For although in the former precious and truly
German work we have no lack of a national and substantive content, in
respect to family, matrimonial affection, duty of vassalage, loyalty
of service, heroism, and, in a word, genuine marrow and substance,
yet the entire collision, despite all its epic breadth of vision, is
rather one of a dramatic type, than truly epic, and the exposition,
with all its detail, neither tends towards the individualization of
its abundance, nor to a presentment that is wholly lifelike; and from
a further point of view it is frequently squandered in pure harshness,
savagery and ferocity, so that the characters, although we find them
compactly braced and robust in action, yet in their abstract ruggedness
rather resemble coarse images of wood, than are comparable to the
humanely evolved, genial individuality of the Homeric heroes and women.
(_ββ_) A second fundamental source of such literature is to be traced
in the religious poems of the Middle Ages, which take as their subject
the life of Christ, or those of the Madonna, the Apostles, the saints
and martyrs and the Last Judgment. The most essentially complete
and rich composition, however, the genuine art-Epic of Catholic
Christianity in the Middle Ages, the greatest subject-matter and the
greatest poem is in this sphere Dante's Divine Comedy. It is true that
we cannot call even this severely, rather I should systematically
organized poem, an Epopaea in the ordinary sense of the term. For
we have not here one progressive action, individual and exclusive,
on the broad basis of the entire poem: what, however, we do get in
a conspicuous degree in this Epos is the most secure articulation
and consummate finish. Instead of a particular event it has for its
subject-matter the eternal event, the absolute end, the Divine Love
in its imperishable eventuality, and in its unalterable circles'
of relation to the object. Possessing further Hell, Purgatory, and
Paradise for its locality, it plunges the living world of human action
and suffering or, more closely, that of individual acts and destinies
in this changeless existence. Everything single and particular in human
interests and aims here vanishes before the absolute greatness of the
purpose and end of all things; at the same time, however, what is
otherwise most perishable and evanescent in the living world receives
here a completely epic form objectively based on its own innermost
life, and adjudged in its worth and unworth by the supreme notion of
all, that is God. For as individuals were in their life and suffering,
their opinions and accomplishment on Earth, so are they here set before
us for ever consolidated, as it were, into images of bronze. It is in
this way that the poem embraces the totality of the most objective
life, that is, the eternal condition of Hell, of Purification, and
of Paradise; and it is on these indestructible foundations that the
characters of the actual world move in their particular personalities,
or rather they _have_ already moved, and are henceforward rendered
moveless, together with their action and being, in the everlasting
righteousness, and are themselves eternal. The Homeric heroes indeed
endure in _our_ memories through the song of the Muse. These characters
assert their condition on their own account, and in the cause of their
own individuality: they do not so much exist in our imagination;
they are _themselves_ essentially eternal. The perpetuation through
the Mnemosyne of the poet has here the objective force of the very
judgments of God, in whose Name the most dauntless spirit of his time
has damned or beatified the entire present and past.
The exposition also must perforce follow the above character of an
object, which is received rather than given. It can only be a wandering
through a world that is for ever determined; which, although it is
discovered, organized, and peopled with the freedom of the imagination
wherewith Hesiod and Homer created their gods, nevertheless undertakes
to give us a picture and a report of what has actually happened, an
account full of energetic movement, yet plastic in the rigidity of its
pains; rich in the flashes of its horror, yet mitigated pitifully in
Hell through Dante's own sympathy; more gracious in purgatory, but none
the less fully and completely elaborated; and, finally, translucent as
light in Paradise, and for ever without materia form in the eternal
ether of thought.
The ancient world no doubt peers into this world of the Catholic
poet, but only as the guiding star and companion of human wisdom and
culture; for, where it is a question of doctrine and dogma, it is the
scholasticism of Christian theology and love which speaks.
(_γγ_) A _third_ fundamental subject-matter, which arrests the interest
of the poetry of the Middle Ages, is that of _chivalry._ This interest
is not merely limited to its worldly and romantic association with
love-adventure and tilting matches, but is occupied with religious
objects in virtue of the mysticism of Christian knighthood. The
actions and events of such compositions have no relation to national
interests; they are matters effected by individuals, which only
concern the personal agent as such; they are generally similar to
what I have described in my previous reference to romantic chivalry.
Individuals are consequently placed in a position of complete freedom
and independence. A novel form of heroism is thereby created within a
social environment that is not as yet stereotyped to the prosaic mode
and temper; a heroism, however, which, on account of interests which
in part are due to religious phantasy, and in part--that is from the
worldly point of view--are wholly personal and imaginary, eschews that
substantive Real, upon the basis of which the Greek heroes are united,
or as units contend, are victorious or are vanquished. Despite all the
varied epic compositions, which such a course as the above occasions,
the adventurous character of the situations, conflicts and plots rather
tends, on the one hand, in the direction of a treatment usually met
with in romances, where the various examples of adventure are loosely
interwoven in no more stringent bond of unity, and on the other to that
which, while sharing the general features of such works, is not evolved
on the background of a consistently organized civic order and a truly
prosaic condition of general life. Moreover the imagination is not
content with the mere invention of knightly characters and adventures
outside the pale of the ordinary world of things; it furthermore
associates the exploits of the same with important legendary centres of
interest, pre-eminent historical personages, decisive conflicts of the
age, and receives by doing so, if we view its broader lines, at least
a foundation such as we found indispensable to epic creation. Such a
basis, however, we shall find is as a rule commingled with fantastic
elements, and is unable to secure the clarity of objective vision in
its elaboration, which above all distinguishes the Homeric Epos. Add to
this the fact that on account of the very similar treatment accorded
to the same subject-matter by Frenchmen, Englishmen, Germans, and to
some extent even Spaniards, we fail to find here relatively at least,
and if we contrast it with that of the Hindoo, Persian, Greek, and
Celt, the essentially national temper, which in the last-mentioned
cases constitutes in its security the epic core of the content and its
execution. I must, however, excuse myself here from entering further
into the detail of this aspect, either by way of illustration or
critical judgment. It will be sufficient if I merely draw attention to
the larger circle, within which the most important of these Epopaea of
knight-errantry are to be met with if we estimate them relatively to
their subject-matter.
As a _leading_ figure in this respect we have first Charles the Great
with his peers in the conflict fought against Saracens and pagans. In
this Frankish circle of legend feudal chivalry forms a background of
prime importance, and branches off into poems of every description,
whose most significant material is concerned with the exploits of one
of the twelve heroes, such as Roland or Doolin, of Maintz and others.
More particularly in France during the reign of Philip Augustus many of
such Epopees were composed. We have a _further_ garland of legend with
an English source, one which aims at reproducing the exploits of King
Arthur and the Round Table. Legendary tale, the chivalry of Normans and
Englishmen, service to woman, the fealty of the vassal, are all here
involved together in melancholy or fantastic combination with Christian
mysticism. The search for the Holy Grail, that chalice containing the
sacred blood of Christ, is, indeed, one main object of all knightly
exploit, and every description of fantastic adventure originates
in this source, until, finally, the entire company takes flight to
Abyssinia. The above two subjects of legendary story are worked out
with most completeness in Northern France, England, and Germany. And
as a last illustration we have a _third_ circle of chivalrous poetry,
composed with yet more caprice and less substantive content, which
ever tends to emphasize knightly heroism to an excess with ideas of
fairyland and fable; this rather points to Portugal or Spain as its
original nursery. In this the family of the Amadi are accepted as
principal heroes.
The great allegorical poems, so much beloved mainly in Northern France
in the thirteenth century, are more nearly prose compositions in their
abstract type. I will only mention one example of these, that is, the
famous _Roman de la Rose._ We may compare or rather contrast such
with the many anecdotes and still lengthier narratives, the so-called
_fabliaux_ and _contes_, which rather borrow their subject-matter from
contemporary life, tales of knights, priests, citizens, and above all
_amours_, lawful and the reverse, retailed to us sometimes in the comic
vein, at others in the tragic, now in prose, and again in verse. Such
was the type of writing which the clear intellect and trained culture
of a Boccaccio carried to its perfection.
There is a final class of such compositions, which, turning to the
ancients--with a casual knowledge of the Epic of Homer and Virgil, or
ancient legend, celebrates also, in precisely the manner of the Epopaea
of chivalry, the exploits of Trojan heroes, the foundation of Rome by
Æneas, the conquests of Alexander, and other like subjects.
And this will conclude what I have to say upon the Epic poetry of the
Middle Ages.
(_γ_) In a _third_ principal group of which I have still to speak,
the rich and pregnant study of _ancient_ literature marks a point of
departure for the purer artistic taste of a new culture, in whose
learning, assimilation, and blending of diverse elements, however,
we frequently miss that primitive creative power, which we admire in
the Hindoos, Arabs, as also in Homer and writers of the Middle Ages.
In the many-sided development in which, dating from this age of the
re-awakened sciences and their influence on national literatures, the
actual conditions of mankind undergo a reform in religion, political
condition, morals, and social relations, epic poetry also seizes hold
of the most varied content, as also the most manifold forms, the
historical course of which I can only direct attention to in its most
essential characteristics.
(_αα_) _First,_ we may remark that it is still the _Middle Ages_, which
now, as previously, supplies the material for the Epos, although the
same is conceived and presented in a new spirit, namely, one permeated
with the culture of classic literature> We find here pre-eminently two
directions in which the art of epic poetry displays itself.
On the one side the awakening consciousness of the age shows a
necessary tendency to treat as ridiculous all that is capricious in
the adventurous feats of the Middle Ages, all that is fantastic and
exaggerated in chivalry, all that is merely formal in the independence
and personal isolation of the heroes, and which is now contained within
a social reality embracing more abundance of national conditions and
interest; a consciousness which further brings this entire world before
our vision in the light of comedy, which does this, however much
what is really genuine within it is also asserted, with seriousness
and delight. As the culminating points of this genial conception
of the entire world of chivalry I have already pointed to Ariosto
and Cervantes. I will therefore in the present passage merely draw
attention to the brilliant facility, the charm and wit, the loveliness
and intense ingenuousness, with which Ariosto, whose poem still hovers
among the poetic aims of the Middle Ages, merely in a more veiled
and humorous fashion makes what is fantastic vanish away by means of
the incredibility of his nonsense, while the profounder romance of
Cervantes already assumes knight-errantry to be a Past behind it;
which, consequently, can only enter into the real prose and presence of
life as vanity in its isolation and fantastic folly; yet at the same
time it gives equal prominence to its great and noble aspects in their
contrast to what is awkward, stupid, devoid of reason and order in this
very prosaic reality, making the defects of the same live before our
eyes.
Among writers who have contributed to a _second_ phase in this type
of epic development I will merely mention the representative name
of Tasso. In his "Jerusalem Delivered" this poet, in contrast to
the poetry of Ariosto, selects for his central theme, without any
admixture of the humorist's temper whatever, the great and common
aims of Christian chivalry, the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, the
victorious pilgrimage of the Crusades, and, after the model of Homer
and Virgil, creates an Epos with enthusiasm and study, which may even
be compared with the great prototypes abovementioned. And no doubt we
do discover in this work, quite apart from a genuine, and, in part,
too, national and religious interest, a type of unity, development,
and elaboration of the whole such as we have previously fixed as a
primary condition. We may add to this a fascinating music in the
verse, which makes the same still harmonious to living speech. What,
however, is pre-eminently wanting in this poem is just that kind of
primitive origin which is alone able to create the real Bible of
an entire nation. In other words, instead of having, as in Homer's
case, a work which, as true Epos, expresses once for all in language,
and with direct simplicity, that which the nation is through its
actions, the epic in question rather appears simply a poem, that is, a
poetically constructed event. We are mainly pleased and satisfied with
it in virtue of the artistic effect of its beautiful speech and form,
whether we consider its more lyrical aspects, or its epic descriptions.
Consequently, however much Tasso may have taken Homer for his model in
the collective arrangement of his material, in the entire spirit of the
conception and presentation it is rather and in chief the influence of
Virgil that we actually discover in the work, and of course do so not
to the poem's advantage.
_Finally_, among the great Epopaea, which are constructed upon the
basis of a classic culture, we must include the "Lysiad" of Camoens.
In the subject-matter of this entirely national composition, which
celebrates the bold sea-faring of the Portuguese, we are already beyond
the true Middle Ages, and have interests unfolded, which inaugurate a
new era. But here, too, despite the glow of its patriotism, despite
the life-like character of the descriptive matter, based for the most
part upon the author's own experience, we are still conscious of a
real barrier between the subject that is national and an artistic
culture which is partly borrowed from the ancients and in part from the
Italians, and which impairs its impression as a truly original epic.
(_ββ_) The essentially new manifestations in the religious belief and
actual composition of modern life originate in the principle of the
Reformation. The whole tendency of this general change of outlook is,
indeed, rather favourable to lyric and dramatic, than epic poetry.
But we do find nevertheless, even in the latter sphere, an autumnal
blossoming of the religious Epopaea, of which the pre-eminent examples
are Milton's "Paradise Lost" and Klopstock's "Messias." In breadth
of culture, gained through study of the ancients, and the correct
elegance of his language, Milton is no doubt an admirable master
of his age. In the profundity of his content, in energy, original
invention and execution, and, above all, in the epic objectivity of
his presentment, however, he is in every respect inferior to Dante.
For not only does the conflict and the catastrophe of "Paradise Lost"
take a direction which is contrary to its dramatic character; but, as
I have above incidentally observed, it is, in a unique way, supported
by a lyrical impulse and ethical or didactic predilections, which lie
far enough away from the subject in its original form.[35] I have
already, in discussing Klopstock, referred to a similar cleft between
the material and the form, which a particular age gives to it in its
epic reflection. In the case of Klopstock, moreover, an endeavour is
throughout apparent through a rhetoric, which is little more than the
caricature of the Sublime, to infuse the reader with that recognition
of the worth and solemnity of his subject, which the poet has himself
experienced. From a somewhat different point of view we arrive at very
much the same conclusion in the case of Voltaire's "Henriade." At any
rate here too the poetry is an artificial production, and all the more
so, inasmuch as the material, as already observed, is not adapted to
the truly primitive Epos.
(_γγ_) If we try to discover really epic compositions in our own day
we shall find ourselves in an atmosphere totally different from that
of the genuine Epopaea. The general condition of the world to-day has
assumed a form, which, in its prosaic character, is diametrically
opposed to everything which we found indispensable to the genuine Epos,
while the revolutions, which have been imposed upon the actual social
conditions of states and nations, are still too strongly riveted in
our memory as actual experiences that they should be able to receive
an epic type of art. Epic poetry has consequently taken refuge from
the great national events in the narrow circle of the domestic life
of individuals in the country and in the small town, striving to find
here the material adapted to epic composition. In this way, more
particularly among us Germans, the Epic has become idyllic, after the
genuine Idyll, of the sweet sentimentality and wishy-washy type, died
out.
As an example lying close to hand of an idyllic Epos I will merely
mention the "Luise" of Voss, as also and above all Goethe's
masterpiece, "Herman and Dorothea." In the latter work we have
no doubt our attention directed to the background of the greatest
world-event of our age, with which the circumstances of the innkeeper
and his family, of the pastor and the apothecary, are directly
associated. And inasmuch as the little country town is not placed
before us in its political relations we at once remark a gap in the
narrative which is not explained or mediated by any connecting link.
Yet it is precisely through this omission of the intermediate link
that the whole keeps its unique character. For with the stroke of a
master Goethe has removed the revolution into the background, despite
the fact that he has known how to make the most happy use of it in the
enlargement of his poem. He only interweaves such circumstances with
the action as, in their simple humanity, connect themselves absolutely
without constraint with domestic and civic conditions. The main point,
therefore, is that Goethe in this work has succeeded in detaching from
the reality of our modern life traits, descriptions, conditions, and
developments, and depicting the same, which in their province once more
make that alive which contributes to the imperishable charm of those
primitive human conditions of the Odyssey and the patriarchal picture
of the Old Testament.
In respect to other spheres of our present national and social life
I would observe in conclusion that in the field of epic poetry there
are practically unlimited opportunities for the _romance_, the
_narrative_, and the _novel._ I am, however, unable, even in the most
general outline, to follow the history of these in the breadth of their
development from their first appearance until the present time.
[Footnote 1: _Die echt poetische Abrundung._ Not, however, merely
literary finish, but complete ideal totality.]
[Footnote 2: _Einem bestimmten Tone_. Perhaps more truly "a particular
strain or atmosphere." But both aspects are suggested.]
[Footnote 3: There is a misprint here _eine recht_ for _einer echt_,
and also I should prefer eight lines lower down _die_ for _das_
agreeing with _Freiheit_ rather than _Leben._]
[Footnote 4: This sentence is obviously ironical, but the sense
intended is not very clear. The words _die sic_ are clearly a misprint
for _die sick,_ and I presume _kindisch_ is not used in its more common
depreciatory sense of childish. I am, however, not very confident of
my translation. _War es ein Zeichen_ would apparently refer back to
the general intention of the previous sentence, _i.e.,_ the attempt of
Klopstock and others to make a national book.]
[Footnote 5: See vol. I, pp. 240-289, and particularly pp. 270-289.]
[Footnote 6: _Eine Sittlichkeit._]
[Footnote 7: Poet., c. 14.]
[Footnote 8: That is to say, that the whole remains intact in its
opposition. The question of international ethics is not directly
considered, though reference is here made to historical evolution in
its widest sense.]
[Footnote 9: Wrong that is inflicted on a state which is, as a whole,
innocent.]
[Footnote 10: I presume the reference is mainly to the United States.
Hegel's sentence is _so möchten diese nur den Sieg dereinstiger
Americanischer lebendiger Vernünftigkeit über die Einkerkerung in ein
ins Unendliche fortgehendes Messen und Particularisiren darzustellen
haben._ It may be doubted, perhaps, whether he would have expressed
himself with equal confidence in our own day. At least the position of
the German States of his own time no doubt was strongly present in his
mind.]
[Footnote 11: _Von einem anderen beschränkt._ Curtailed, I imagine, as
a spontaneous and free power.]
[Footnote 12: That is acting in subservience to eternal forces, not
directing those forces. Hegel conceives the event as supplying the
lines of direction through which the forces are effective.]
[Footnote 13: _Aus der Dumpfheit des Bewusstseyns._ Out of the
confusions of consciousness.]
[Footnote 14: I have adopted the masculine gender in accordance with
the text, though of course it does not imply personality in the
ordinary sense.]
[Footnote 15: I suppose the meaning is that it is a purely objective
panorama.]
[Footnote 16: _Seiner Sache,_ Somewhat vague and difficult to
translate. It means more than his affair or business.]
[Footnote 17: _Trauer._ Mournfulness or gloom is perhaps better.]
[Footnote 18: Liv., II, c. 32.]
[Footnote 19: Lit., so far as they do not emphasize essential phases in
(_Momente_).]
[Footnote 20: I presume the allusion is to the way, already
illustrated, the Homeric gods do not take themselves seriously.]
[Footnote 21: Messias, Canto II, vv, 627-850.]
[Footnote 22: It is possible Hegel means by _geistige_ intelligible.]
[Footnote 23: Act II, sc. 6.]
[Footnote 24: "O, that I had never shipped hither over the sea, unhappy
that I am! Vain was the fancy which befooled me to seek an empty fame
in France; and now a fatal destiny carries me to this bloody field of
death. O that I were far from here housed at home on the banks of the
blue Severn, where the mother remained behind and the gentle sweet
bride mourning for me."]
[Footnote 25: "To Death thou art decreed! A British matron it was that
conceived thee!"]
[Footnote 26: "With vow to slay at everything alive with the sword that
the fateful god of battles confronts her with."]
[Footnote 27: _Sitte und Settlichkeit._]
[Footnote 28: That is of the Epos.]
[Footnote 29: The course of painting is similar to that of sculpture
in virtue of the fact that it is wholly of one type, viz., romantic,
but it differs from it in being less objective and requiring more
historical illustration.]
[Footnote 30: _Substantiellen_, _i.e.,_ an outlook which concentrates
attention on the one Divine substance, the essence beneath the
phenomenal.]
[Footnote 31: I presume this is another Persian composition, but it may
be a cult of some kind.]
[Footnote 32: Substantive as contrasted with phenomenal.]
[Footnote 33: That is the Iliad and Odyssey.]
[Footnote 34: What Hegel means to say by this and the following
paragraph is by no means clear. He first seems to state as a fact
that a rivalry may be asserted, or at least has been asserted by
others, between the Spanish romances and the finest Greek and Latin
epic literature, and then immediately afterwards denies the fact so
far as the Iliad and Odyssey is concerned. The confusion and indeed
uncertainty seems to be due to the fact that while explaining the
disadvantage in which the German work is placed as compared with the
Spanish romances, he merely contrasts the Homeric poems with the
former. What he apparently means us to infer is that the latter are
as superior as the German work is, at least as an Epos, inferior. The
words "we moderns" are apparently ironical. In any case the entire
passage is, I think, clearly one which needed revision, and it is
possible that the two paragraphs have been tacked together by Hegel's
editors from different connections.]
[Footnote 35: As we find it, presumably, in Genesis.]
(B.) LYRIC POETRY
The poetic imagination does not, as the plastic arts do, present the
objects of its creation before our vision in an objective shape,
but only envisages them to the inward vision and emotions. No doubt
from the first, relatively to certain aspects of this universal type
of composition, it is the _personal_ quality of ideal creation and
construction which pre-eminently asserts itself in the presented
work, and as such is to be contrasted with plastic construction. But
when epic poetry offers to our contemplation its object either in its
substantive universality, or under a mode comparable with that of
sculptor and painter--in other words, in its living presence--in that
case, at least where the art is most consummate, the individual mind
and soul of the creator involved in the creation disappears before
the objective result created. The above personal or subjective aspect
of mind can only completely be discarded in so far as, in the first
place, the entire world of objects and relations are essentially
absorbed by it and then permitted to stand forth freely from the
veiled presence of the individual consciousness, and, further, in so
far as the self-centred soul unbars its doors, opens wide its ears and
eyes, extends the purely unenlightened feeling to vision and idea,
and attaches to this wealth of hidden content word and speech as the
vehicle of its intimate self-expression. And just in proportion as
this kind of communication persists in shutting itself away from the
objective manifestation of epic art, to that extent, and precisely
for that reason, the subjective type of poetry is bound to find its
own forms, in a province of its own, wholly independent of the Epos.
In other words, the human spirit descends from the objectivity of
the object into its own private domain; it peers into its particular
conscious life; it endeavours to satisfy the desire to reproduce the
presence and reality of _that_, as displayed in soul, in the experience
of heart and reflected idea, and in doing so to unfold the content
and activity of the personal life rather than the actual presence of
the external fact. But, again, inasmuch as this expression, if it is
not simply to remain the chance expression of mere individuality[1]
in its immediate feeling and conception, must assert itself in speech
as the reflection of an inner life that is _poetic_, all that is
thus envisaged of feeling or otherwise--and however much, too, it
may be a part of the poet's unique personality, and be presented
by him as such--must nevertheless possess a universal validity, in
other words, it must essentially include feelings and reflections for
which the art of poetry is able to discover the vital and adequate
means of expression. And although, apart from this, pain and desire,
as conceived, described, and expressed in speech, may lighten the
heart, and poetic ebullition is unquestionably permissible for such a
purpose, yet its function is not restricted to such domestic service.
Rather it has a nobler vocation, which is not so much to liberate the
human spirit from emotion, but in the medium of the same. The blind
tumult of passion surges on in a union with the entire soul-life
unenlightened, unawakened to the grasp of mind. In such a state the
soul cannot assert itself in idea and expression. It is the function
of poetry no doubt to free the heart from such a prison house, in so
far as it presents that life as an object to it. But it does more
than this mere translation of content from the immediacy of emotional
experience; it creates therefrom an object which is purified from all
mere contingency of the passing mood; an object in which the soul-life
in this deliverance returns once more to itself freely and with
self-conscious satisfaction, and remains there at home. Conversely,
however, this primary objectivisation ought not to be carried to
the point of a reflection that actually discloses the individual
activity of the soul-life and its passions as it is carried forward in
practical impulse and _action_; in other words, in the self-return of
the individual upon himself in veritable deed. For the most pertinent
reality of our inner life is still itself an inward something, and
consequently this passage from itself can only give us the _sense_ of
deliverance from the immediate concentration of heart in its blind and
formless presence, which now unbars itself in self-expression, and in
doing so grasps and expresses what was previously merely felt in the
form of a self-conscious vision and ideas. And with these remarks I
think we have determined in their essential features both the sphere
and function of lyric poetry as contrasted with the epic and dramatic
types.
As regards the more detailed examination and classification of our new
subject-matter, we cannot do better than follow the course previously
adopted in our examination of epic poetry.
_First_, we have to discuss the _general_ character of lyric
composition.
_Secondly_, we shall consider the _particular_ characteristics which
make the lyric work of art and the types of the same worthy of
attention in their more direct relation to the lyric poet.
_Thirdly_, we shall conclude the survey with a few remarks upon the
_historical_ development of this class of poetic work.
Generally I may remark that this survey will be extremely restricted,
and for two reasons--first, because I am compelled to reserve the
necessary space for the discussion of the dramatic field; secondly,
because I must limit myself exclusively to general considerations,
inasmuch as the detail embraced by it possesses far more incalculable
resources of manifold complexity than in the case of the Epos, and
could only be treated in greater fulness and completeness if viewed
historically, which is not within the aim of the present work.