Here, again, we are at a point where the German reaction passes, as it
were, into the French.[2]
The German reaction is in its essence literary, the French political
and religious. The former gradually glides into Catholicism, the latter
is openly and consistently Catholic. In every domain, indeed, the
French reaction upholds the principle of traditional authority, and De
Maistre is its most earnest and most high-minded, as well as one of its
most gifted representatives. The witty and vigorous panegyrist of the
headsman and champion of the _auto da fé_ is the conscientious, ardent
antagonist of enlightenment and humanitarian ideals.
The German Romanticists loved twilight and moonshine. The blazing
daylight of rationalism and the lightning flashes of the French
Revolution had driven them to seek comfort in the dusk. But what is
even Novalis's love of night in comparison with Joseph de Maistre's
glorification of darkness!
Ancient legend tells that Phaëton, the son of Apollo, being allowed one
day to drive his father's chariot, guided it so carelessly that the sun
scorched the whole earth and set many of its cities on fire. The fable
adds, that a whole race of men were so terrified that they with one
accord cried to the gods to grant them eternal darkness. De Maistre is
a descendant of that race, and a man who has some claim to greatness
because of his gifts, his faith in Providence, and his contempt for his
fellow-men. And to this day there exist descendants of the race; but
these have degenerated into dwarfish figures, who assert themselves
the more the more insignificant and timid they are. Their cry, too, is
"Darkness! more darkness!" The more devoid they are of ideas and aims,
the louder they cry, and their only faith is faith in the power of
darkness.
Those who, in studying the history of German Romanticism, pay
special attention to the growth of the reaction against the spirit
of the eighteenth century, are struck by the inferiority of the
German Romanticists in single-minded strength of character to such a
reactionary as De Maistre. It is to be remembered, however, that they
were not statesmen and politicians, but authors; even those among them
who, like Gentz, represent the transition from literature to politics,
have no real significance except as writers.
From the purely literary point of view the Romantic School in
Germany possesses permanent interest. One has but to compare it with
the equivalent groups in other lands to be fully impressed by the
originality and intellectual importance of its members.
A Romantic current is perceptible in the first decades of this century
in almost every country in Europe; but only in Germany, England, and
France is the movement a distinctly original and important one; only in
those countries is it a European "main current." What we observe in the
Slavonic countries is more or less an echo of English Romanticism.
The Romantic literature of Scandinavia is strongly influenced by that
of Germany.
In Sweden, where Romanticism was known by the name of "Phosphorism," or
"new school," it attacked (as was its wont) French taste in literature,
in this instance represented by the Swedish Academy. In 1807 the
"Aurora Society" was founded by Atterbom, Hammarsköld, and Palmblad.
The principles it proclaimed were in all essentials those of the German
Romantic School. Atterbom's symbolism reminds us of Tieck's; Stagnelius
has a certain resemblance to Novalis. The movement has, nevertheless,
distinctly national characteristics.
In Norway the lonely Wergeland, in spite of his highly susceptible,
enthusiastic temperament, is a living protest against the German
Romantic spirit; but Andreas Munch is a pronounced Romanticist of the
German type. And such undertakings as the re-writing and publication of
the Norwegian fairy tales (Asbjörnson and Moe) and the collecting of
the Norwegian national songs (Landstad) are due to the impulse which
the Romanticists' predilection for everything national communicated to
the minds of the men of the North.
In Denmark the connection between German and native Romanticism is of
a very complex nature. As a rule, the Danish poets receive their first
impulse from Germany, but afterwards strike out paths for themselves.
Oehlenschläger was awakened by Steffens and strongly influenced in the
early years of the century by Tieck. It was under the influence of
German Romanticism that Grundtvig renounced his youthful rationalism;
and his patriotism and nationalism have strong points of correspondence
with Arndt's and Jahn's. The influence of Fouqué and Hoffmann is
apparent in Ingemann; Hauch is an enthusiastic admirer of Novalis; J.
L. Heiberg, as the dramatiser of fairy tales, is a pupil of Tieck;
Hans Christian Andersen, as the fantastic story-teller, the pupil of
Hoffmann. Shack Staffeldt, German born, is a full-blown Romanticist, a
devout worshipper of "the blue flower."
But though foreign influence, as this work sufficiently shows, is
everywhere traceable, the independent, national and Scandinavian
characteristics of Danish Romanticism are, nevertheless, unmistakable
and strong.
[1] Sepp _Görres und seine Zeitgenossen_, Nordlingen, 1897.
[2] Cf. _Briefwechsel zwischen Friedrich Gentz und Adam Heinrich
Müller_. Stuttgart, 1857.--K. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: _Friedrich von
Gentz_. Leipzig, 1867.--_Aus dem Nachlasse Friedrich von Gentz_. Wien,
1867.