Index 196
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The indebtedness of German culture to other peoples has been the theme
of much painstaking investigation. The history of German literature is,
in large measure, the story of its successive periods of connection with
the literatures of other lands, and hence scholars have sought with
industry and insight to bound and explain such literary inter-relations.
The latter half of the eighteenth century was a period of predominant
English influence. The first half of the century had fostered this
ascendency through the popularity of the moral weeklies, the religious
epic, and the didactic poetry of Britain. Admiration for English ideals
was used as a weapon to combat French dominion in matters of taste, till
a kind of Anglomania spread, which was less absolute than the waning
Gallomania had been, only in such measure as the nature of the imitated
lay nearer the German spirit and hence allowed and cherished a parallel
independence rather than demanded utter subjection. Indeed, the study of
English masters may be said to have contributed more than any other
external cause to the golden age of German letters; to have worked with
untold beneficence in bringing faltering Germany to a consciousness of
her own inherent possibilities. This fact of foreign awakening of
national greatness through kinship of inborn racial characteristics
removes the seeming inconsistency that British influence was paramount
at the very time of Germany's most individual, most national, outburst.
The German literary world concerned itself zealously with each new
development across the channel. The German literary periodicals were
diligent and alert in giving their subscribers adequate intelligence
concerning new books in England,[1] and various journals[2] devoted
exclusively to a retailing of English thought for German readers are by
their very existence eloquent testimony to the supreme interest in
things British. Through the medium of these literary journals,
intelligence concerning British literary interests was disseminated,
and the way was thus prepared for the reception of the British authors
themselves. Every English writer of eminence, every English literary
movement was in some way or other echoed in the literature of the German
fatherland. English authors were read in the original, and in numerous
and popular translations. A German following is a well-nigh certain
inference from an English success. Sometimes the growth of German
appreciation and imitation was immediate and contemporaneous, or nearly
so, with the English interest, as in the case of the German enthusiasm
for Bishop Percy's "Reliques." At other times it tarried behind the
period of interest in England, and was gradual in its development. The
suggestion that a book, especially a novel, was translated from the
English was an assurance of its receiving consideration, and many
original German novels were published under the guise of English
translations. Hermes roguishly avoids downright falsehood, and yet
avails himself of this popular trend by describing his "Miss Fanny
Wilkes" upon the title page as "So gut als aus dem Englischen
übersetzt," and printing "so gut als" in very small type. Müller in a
letter[3] to Gleim, dated at Cassel, May 27, 1781, proposes to alter
names in Liscow's works and to publish his books as an English
translation: "Germany would read him with delight," he says, and Gleim,
in his reply, finds the idea "splendid." Out of this one reads clearly
how the Germany of that time was hanging on the lips of England.
As has been suggested, conscious or unconscious imitation in the home
literature is the unavoidable result of admiration for the foreign;
imitation of English masters is written large on this period of German
letters. Germany is especially indebted to the stirring impulse of the
English novel.
The intellectual development of a people is observable in its successive
periods of interest in different kinds of narration, in its attitude
toward the relation of fictitious events. The interest in the
extraordinary always precedes that in the ordinary; the unstored mind
finds pleasure only in the unusual. An appreciation of the absorbing,
vital interest of everyday existence is the accomplishment of reflective
training, and betokens the spiritualized nature. Yet it must be observed
in passing that the crude interest of unschooled ignorance, and
undeveloped taste in the grotesque, the monstrous, the unreal, is not
the same as the intellectual man's appreciation of the unreal in
imagination and fancy. The German novel had passed its time of service
under the wild, extraordinary and grotesque. The crudities of such tales
of adventure were softened and eliminated by the culturing influence of
formal classicism and by a newly won admiration for the everyday element
in life, contemporaneous with and dependent upon the gradual
appreciation of middle-class worth. At this point the English novel
stepped in as a guide, and the gradual shaping of the German novel in
the direction of an art-form is due primarily to the prevailing
admiration of English models.
The novel has never been a characteristic method of German
self-expression, while if any form of literary endeavor can be
designated as characteristically English, the novel may claim this
distinction; that is, more particularly the novel as distinguished from
the romance. "Robinson Crusoe" (1719) united the elements of the
extraordinary and the everyday, being the practical, unromantic account
of a remarkable situation; and its extensive vogue in Germany, the
myriad confessed imitations, may be said to form a kind of transition
of interests. In it the commonplace gains interest through the
extraordinary situation. Such an awakening assures a certain measure
of interest remaining over for the detailed relation of the everyday
activities of life, when removed from the exceptional situation. Upon
this vantage ground the novel of everyday life was built. Near the
mid-century comes another mighty influence from England, Richardson,
who brings into the narration of middle-class, everyday existence, the
intense analysis of human sensibilities. Richardson taught Germany to
remodel her theories of heroism, her whole system of admirations, her
conception of deserts. Rousseau's voice from France spoke out a stirring
appeal for the recognition of human feelings. Fielding, though attacking
Richardson's exaggeration of manner, and opposing him in his excess of
emotionalism, yet added a forceful influence still in favor of the real,
present and ordinary, as exemplified in the lives of vigorous human
beings.
England's leadership in narrative fiction, the superiority of the
English novel, especially the humorous novel, which was tacitly
acknowledged by these successive periods of imitation, when not actually
declared by the acclaim of the critic and the preference of the reading
public, has been attributed quite generally to the freedom of life in
England and the comparative thraldom in Germany. Gervinus[4] enlarges
upon this point, the possibility in Britain of individual development in
character and in action as compared with the constraint obtaining in
Germany, where originality, banished from life, was permissible only in
opinion. His ideas are substantially identical with those expressed many
years before in an article in the _Neue Bibliothek der schönen
Wissenschaften_[5] entitled "Ueber die Laune." Lichtenberg in his brief
essay, "Ueber den deutschen Roman,"[6] is undoubtedly more than half
serious in his arraignment of the German novel and his acknowledgment of
the English novelist's advantage: the trend of this satirical skit
coincides with the opinion above outlined, the points he makes being
characteristic of his own humorous bent. That the English sleep in
separate apartments, with big chimneys in their bedchambers, that they
have comfortable post-chaises with seats facing one another, where all
sorts of things may happen, and merry inns for the accommodation of the
traveler,--these features of British life are represented as affording a
grateful material to the novelist, compared with which German life
offers no corresponding opportunity. Humor, as a characteristic element
of the English novel, has been felt to be peculiarly dependent upon the
fashion of life in Britain. Blankenburg, another eighteenth-century
student of German literary conditions, in his treatise on the novel[7],
has similar theories concerning the sterility of German life as compared
with English, especially in the production of humorous characters[8]. He
asserts theoretically that humor (Laune) should never be employed in a
novel of German life, because "Germany's political institutions and
laws, and our nice Frenchified customs would not permit this humor." "On
the one side," he goes on to say, "is Gothic formality; on the other,
frivolity." Later in the volume (p. 191) he confines the use of humorous
characters to subordinate rôles; otherwise, he says, the tendency to
exaggeration would easily awaken displeasure and disgust. Yet in a
footnote, prompted by some misgiving as to his theory, Blankenburg
admits that much is possible to genius and cites English novels where a
humorous character appears with success in the leading part; thus the
theorist swerves about, and implies the lack of German genius in this
regard. Eberhard in his "Handbuch der Aesthetik,"[9] in a rather
unsatisfactory and confused study of humor, expresses opinions agreeing
with those cited above, and states that in England the feeling of
independence sanctions the surrender of the individual to eccentric
humor: hence England has produced more humorists than all the rest of
the world combined. There is, however, at least one voice raised to
explain in another way this deficiency of humor in German letters.
A critic in the _Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften_[10] attributes
this lack not to want of original characters but to a lack of men like
Cervantes, Ben Jonson, Butler, Addison, Fielding.
There is undoubtedly some truth in both points of view, but the defects
of the eighteenth century German novel are due in larger measure to the
peculiar mental organization of German authorship than to lack of
interesting material in German life. The German novel was crushed under
the weight of pedantry and pedagogy. Hillebrand strikes the root of the
matter when he says,[11] "We are all schoolmasters, even Hippel could
not get away from the tutorial attitude." The inborn necessity of German
culture is to impart information, to seek recruits for the maintenance
of some idea, to exploit some political, educational, or moral theory.
This irresistible impulse has left its trail over German fiction.
The men who wrote novels, as soon as they began to observe, began to
theorize, and the results of this speculation were inevitably embodied
in their works. They were men of mind rather than men of deeds, who
minimized the importance of action and exaggerated the reflective,
the abstract, the theoretical, the inner life of man. Hettner,[12] with
fine insight, points to the introduction to "Sebaldus Nothanker" as
exhibiting the characteristic of this epoch of fiction. Speculation was
the hero's world, and in speculation lay for him the important things of
life; he knew not the real world, hence speculation concerning it was
his occupation. Consequential connection of events with character makes
the English novel the mirror of English life. Failure to achieve such a
union makes the German novel a mirror of speculative opinions concerning
life.
Hence we have Germany in the mid-eighteenth century prepared to accept
and adopt any literary dogma, especially when stamped with an English
popularity, which shall represent an interest rather in extraordinary
characters and unusual opinions than in astounding adventure; which
shall display a knowledge of human feeling and foster the exuberant
expression of it.
Beside the devotees of any literary fashion are those who analyze
philosophically the causes, and forecast the probable results of such a
following. Thinking Germany became exercised over these facts of
successive intellectual and literary dependence, as indicative of
national limitations or foreboding disintegration. And thought was
accordingly directed to the study of the influence of imitation upon the
imitator, the effects of the imitative process upon national
characteristics, as well as the causes of imitation, the fundamental
occasion for national bondage in matters of life and letters. The part
played by Dr. Edward Young's famous epistle to Richardson, "Conjectures
on Original Composition" (London, 1759), in this struggle for
originality is considerable. The essay was reprinted, translated and
made the theme of numerous treatises and discussions.[13] One needs only
to mention the concern of Herder, as displayed in the "Fragmente über
die neuere deutsche Litteratur," and his statement[14] with reference to
the predicament as realized by thoughtful minds may serve as a summing
up of that part of the situation. "Seit der Zeit ist keine Klage lauter
and häufiger als über den Mangel von Originalen, von Genies, von
Erfindern, Beschwerden über die Nachahmungs- und gedankenlose
Schreibsucht der Deutschen."
This thoughtful study of imitation itself was accompanied by more or
less pointed opposition to the heedless importation of foreign views,
and protests, sometimes vigorous and keen, sometimes flimsy and silly,
were entered against the slavish imitation of things foreign. Endeavor
was turned toward the establishment of independent ideals, and the
fostering of a taste for the characteristically national in literature,
as opposed to frank imitation and open borrowing.[15]
The story of Laurence Sterne in Germany is an individual example of
sweeping popularity, servile admiration, extensive imitation and
concomitant opposition.
[Footnote 1: This is well illustrated by the words prefaced to the
revived and retitled _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_, which state
the purpose of the periodical: "Besonders wird man für den
Liebhaber der englischen Litteratur dahin sorgen, dass ihm kein
einziger Artikel, der seiner Aufmerksamkeit würdig ist, entgehe,
und die Preise der englischen Bücher wo möglich allzeit bemerken."
(_Frankfurter gel. Anz._, 1772, No. 1, January 3.)]
[Footnote 2: Elze, "Die Englische Sprache und Litteratur in
Deutschland," gives what purports to be a complete list of these
German-English periodicals in chronological order, but he begins
his register with Eschenburg's _Brittisches Museum für die
Deutschen_, 1777-81, thus failing to mention the more significant,
because earlier, journals: _die Brittische Bibliothek_, which
appeared first in 1759 in Leipzig, edited by Karl Wilhelm Müller:
and _Bremisches Magazin zur Ausbreitung der Wissenschaften, Künste
und Tugend, Von einigen Liebhabern derselben mehrentheils aus den
Englischen Monatsschriften gesammelt und herausgegeben_, Bremen
and Leipzig, 1757-1766, when the _Neues Bremisches Magazin_
begins.]
[Footnote 3: Briefe deutscher Gelehrten aus Gleim's Nachlass.
Bd. II, p. 213.]
[Footnote 4: "Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung," V, pp. 184 ff.
The comparative inferiority of the German novel is discussed by
l'Abbé Dénina in "La Prusse Littéraire sous Frédéric II," Berlin,
1791. Vol. I, pp. 112 ff. See also Julian Schmidt, "Bilder aus dem
geistigen Leben unserer Zeit." Leipzig, 1870. IV, pp. 270 ff.]
[Footnote 5: III, pp. 1 ff.]
[Footnote 6: Vermischte Schriften, II, p. 215.]
[Footnote 7: "Versuch über den Roman." Frankfort and Leipzig,
1774, p. 528. This study contains frequent allusions to Sterne and
occasional quotation from his works, pp. 48, 191, 193, 200, 210,
273, 351, 365, 383, 426.]
[Footnote 8: There is a similar tribute to English humor in "Ueber
die moralische Schönheit und Philosophie des Lebens." Altenburg,
1772, p. 199. Compare also Herder's opinion in "Ideen zur
Geschichte und Kritik der Poesie und bildenden Künste," 1794-96,
No. 49, in "Abhandlungen und Briefe über schöne Literatur und
Kunst." Tübingen, 1806, I, pp. 375-380; compare also passages in
his "Fragmente" and "Wäldchen."]
[Footnote 9: Second edition, Halle, 1807, II, pp. 309 ff. The
definition of humor and the perplexing question as to how far it
is identical with "Laune," have received considerable attention at
the hands of aesthetic critics; compare, for example, Lessing in
the "Hamburgische Dramaturgie."]
[Footnote 10: VII. p. 353. 1761.]
[Footnote 11: "Deutsche Nationalliteratur," II, p. 535. Hamburg,
1850.]
[Footnote 12: "Geschichte der deutschen Literatur im achtzehnten
Jahrhundert," III, 1, pp. 363 ff.]
[Footnote 13: See Introduction to "Briefe über Merkwürdigkeiten
der Litteratur" in Seuffert's Deutsche Litteraturdenkmale des 18.
und 19. Jahrhunderts. The literature of this study of imitation in
the Germany of the second half of the eighteenth century is
considerable. The effort of much in the Litteratur-Briefe may be
mentioned as contributing to this line of thought. The prize
question of the Berlin Academy for 1788 brought forth a book
entitled: "Wie kann die Nachahmung sowohl alter als neuer fremden
Werke der schönen Wissenschaften des vaterländischen Geschmack
entwickeln und vervollkommnen?" by Joh. Chr. Schwabe, professor in
Stuttgart. (Berlin, pp. 120; reviewed in _Allg. Litt. Zeitung._
1790. I, pp. 632-640.) Perhaps the first English essay upon German
imitation of British masters is that in the _Critical Journal_,
Vol. III, which was considered of sufficient moment for a German
translation. See _Morgenblatt_, I, Nr. 162, July 8, 1807. A writer
in the _Auserlesene Bibliothek der neusten deutschen Litteratur_
(Lemgo, 1772-3), in an article entitled "Vom Zustande des
Geschmacks beim deutschen Publikum," traces the tendency to
imitate to the German capacity for thinking rather than for
feeling. (III, pp. 683 ff.) "Das deutsche Publikum," he says,
"scheint dazu bestimmt zu seyn, nachzuahmen, nachzuurtheilen,
nachzuempfinden." Justus Möser condemns his fellow countrymen
soundly for their empty imitation. See fragment published in
"Sämmtliche Werke," edited by B. R. Abeken. Berlin, 1858. IV,
pp. 104-5.]
[Footnote 14: Herder's sämmtliche Werke, edited by B. Suphan,
Berlin, Weidman, 1877, I, 254. In the tenth fragment (second
edition) he says the Germans have imitated other nations, "so dass
Nachahmer beinahe zum Beiwort und zur zweiten Sylbe unseres Namens
geworden." See II, p. 51. Many years later Herder does not seem to
view this period of imitation with such regret as the attitude of
these earlier criticisms would forecast. In the "Ideen zur
Geschichte und Kritik der Poesie und bildenden Künste," 1794-96,
he states with a burst of enthusiasm over the adaptability of the
German language that he regards imitation as no just reproach, for
thereby has Germany become immeasurably the richer.]
[Footnote 15: The kind of praise bestowed on Hermes's "Sophiens
Reise" is a case in point; it was greeted as the first real German
novel, the traces of English imitation being hardly noticeable.
See _Magazin der deutschen Critik_, Vol. I, St. 2, pp. 245-251,
1772, signed "Kl." Sattler's "Friederike" was accorded a similar
welcome of German patriotism; see _Magazin der deutschen Critik_,
III, St. 1, p. 233. The "Litterarische Reise durch Deutschland"
(Leipzig, 1786, p. 82) calls "Sophiens Reise" the first original
German novel. See also the praise of Von Thümmel's "Wilhelmine"
and "Sophiens Reise" in Blankenburg's "Versuch über den Roman,"
pp. 237-9. Previously Germans had often hesitated to lay the
scenes of their novels in Germany, and in many others English
characters traveling or residing in Germany supply the un-German
element.]
CHAPTER II
STERNE IN GERMANY BEFORE THE PUBLICATION OF THE SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY
It is no exaggeration to assert that the works of Yorick obtained and
still retain a relatively more substantial position of serious
consideration and recognized merit in France and Germany than in the
countries where Sterne's own tongue is spoken.[1] His place among the
English classics has, from the foreign point of view, never been a
dubious question, a matter of capricious taste and unstable ideals. His
peculiar message, whether interpreted and insisted upon with clearness
of insight, or blindness of misunderstanding, played its not unimportant
part in certain developments of continental literatures, and his station
in English literature, as viewed from a continental standpoint, is
naturally in part the reflex of the magnitude of his influence in the
literature of France and Germany, rather than an estimate obtained
exclusively from the actual worth of his own accomplishment, and the
nature of his own service as a leader and innovator in English letters.
Sterne's career in German literature, the esteem in which his own works
have been held, and the connection between the sentimental, whimsical,
contradictory English clergyman and his German imitators have been
noted, generally speaking, by all the historians of literature; and
several monographs and separate articles have been published on single
phases of the theme.[2] As yet, however, save for the investigations
which treat only of two or three authors, there has been hardly more
than the general statement of the facts, often inadequate, incomplete,
and sometimes inexact.
Sterne's period of literary activity falls in the sixties, the very
heyday of British supremacy in Germany. The fame of Richardson was
hardly dimmed, though Musäus ridiculed his extravagances in "Grandison
der Zweite" (1760) at the beginning of the decade. In 1762-66 Wieland's
Shakespeare translation appeared, and his original works of the period,
"Agathon," begun in 1761, and "Don Silvio von Rosalva," published in
1764, betray the influence of both Richardson and Fielding. Ebert
(1760--) revised and republished his translation of Young's "Night
Thoughts," which had attained popularity in the previous decade.
Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield" (1766) aroused admiration and
enthusiasm. To this time too belongs Ossian's mighty voice. As early as
1762 the first bardic translations appeared, and Denis's work came out
in 1768. Percy's "Reliques," published in England in 1765, were
extensively read and cited, a stimulating force to parallel German
activity. A selection from the "Reliques" appeared in Göttingen in 1767.
The outlook maintained in Germany for the worthy in British thought,
the translatable, the reproducible, was so vigilant and, in general,
so discerning that the introduction of Yorick into Germany was all but
inevitable. The nature of the literary relations then obtaining and
outlined above would forecast and almost necessitate such an adoption,
and his very failure to secure recognition would demand an explanation.
Before the publication of Tristram Shandy it would be futile to seek for
any knowledge of Sterne on German soil. He had published, as is well
known, two sermons preached on occasions of note; and a satirical skit,
with kindly purpose, entitled "The History of a Good Warm Watchcoat,"
had been written, privately circulated, and then suppressed; yet he was
an unknown and comparatively insignificant English clergyman residing in
a provincial town, far, in those days very far, from those centers of
life which sent their enlightenment over the channel to the continent.
His fame was purely local. His sermons had, without doubt, rendered the
vicar of Sutton a rather conspicuous ecclesiastic throughout that
region; his eccentricities were presumably the talk of neighboring
parishes; the cathedral town itself probably tittered at his drolleries,
and chattered over his sentiments; his social graces undoubtedly found
recognition among county families and in provincial society, and his
reputation as a wit had probably spread in a vague, uncertain,
transitory fashion beyond the boundaries of the county. Yet the facts of
local notoriety and personal vogue are without real significance save in
the light of later developments; and we may well date his career in the
world of books from the year 1760, when the London world began to smile
over the first volumes of Tristram Shandy. From internal evidence in
these early volumes it is possible to note with some assurance the
progress of their composition and the approximate time of their
completion. In his wayward, fitful way, and possibly for his own
amusement more than with dreams of fame and fortune,[3] Sterne probably
began the composition of Shandy in January, 1759, and the completion of
the first installment is assigned to the summer or early autumn of that
year. At the end of the year[4] the first edition of the first two
volumes was issued in York, bearing the imprint of John Hinxham. Dodsley
and Cooper undertook the sale of the volumes in London, though the
former had declined to be responsible for the publication. They were
ready for delivery in the capital on the first day of the new year 1760.
Sterne's fame was immediate; his personal triumph was complete and ranks
with the great successes in the history of our literature. On his
arrival in London in March, the world aristocratic, ecclesiastic,
and literary was eager to receive the new favorite, and his career of
bewildering social enjoyment, vigorous feasting and noteworthy privilege
began. "No one", says Forster, "was so talked of in London this year
and no one so admired as the tall, thin, hectic-looking Yorkshire
parson."[5] From this time on until his death Sterne was a most
conspicuous personage in English society, a striking, envied figure
in English letters.
And yet it was some time before Germany learned of the new prodigy: for
reasons which will be treated later, the growth of the Sterne cult in
Germany was delayed, so that Yorick was in the plenitude of his German
fame when England had begun to look askance at him with critical,
fault-finding eye, or to accord him the more damning condemnation of
forgetfulness.
The first mention of Sterne's name in Germany may well be the brief word
in the _Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent_[6] for January 19,
1762, in a letter from the regular London correspondent, dated January
8. In a tone of particularity which would mark the introduction of a new
and strange personality into his communications, the correspondent
states the fact of Sterne's departure for Paris in pursuit of lost
health. This journal may further be taken as an example of those which
devoted a remarkable amount of space to British affairs, since it was
published in the North German seaport town, where the mercantile
connection with Britain readily fostered the exchange of other than
purely commercial commodities. And yet in Hamburg Sterne waited full two
years for a scanty recognition even of his English fame.
In the fourth year after the English publication of Shandy comes the
first attempt to transplant Sterne's gallery of originals to German
shores. This effort, of rather dubious success, is the Zückert
translation of Tristram Shandy, a rendering weak and inaccurate, but
nevertheless an important first step in the German Shandy cult. Johann
Friedrich Zückert,[7] the translator, was born December 19, 1739, and
died in Berlin May 1, 1778. He studied medicine at the University of
Frankfurt an der Oder, became a physician in Berlin, but, because of
bodily disabilities, devoted himself rather to study and society than to
the practice of his profession. His publications are fairly numerous and
deal principally with medical topics, especially with the question of
foods. In the year after the appearance of his Shandy translation,
Zückert published an essay which indicates the direction of his tastes
and gives a clue to his interest in Tristram. It was entitled
"Medizinische und Moralische Abhandlung von den Leidenschaften,"[8] and
discloses a tendency on the part of the author to an analysis of the
passions and moods of man, an interest in the manner of their
generation, and the method of their working. This treatise was quite
probably written, or conceived, while its author was busied with Shandy,
and his division of the temperaments (p. 53) into the sanguine or warm
moist, the choleric or warm dry, the phlegmatic or cold moist, and the
melancholy or cold dry, is not unlike some of Walter Shandy's
half-serious, half-jesting scientific theories, though, to be sure, it
falls in with much of the inadequate and ill-applied terminology of the
time.
Zückert's translation of the first six parts[9] of Tristram Shandy
appeared in 1763, and bore the imprint of the publisher Lange, Berlin
und Stralsund. The title read "Das Leben und die Meynungen des Herrn
Tristram Shandy," the first of the long series of "Leben und Meynungen"
which flooded the literature of the succeeding decades, this becoming a
conventional title for a novel. It is noteworthy that until the
publication of parts VII and VIII in 1765, there is no mention of the
real author's name. To these later volumes the translator prefaces a
statement which contains some significant intelligence concerning his
aim and his interpretation of Sterne's underlying purpose. He says he
would never have ventured on the translation of so ticklish a book if he
had foreseen the difficulties; that he believed such a translation would
be a real service to the German public, and that he never fancied the
critics could hold him to the very letter, as in the rendering of a
classic author. He confesses to some errors and promises corrections in
a possible new edition. He begs the public to judge the translation in
accord with its purpose "to delight and enliven the public and to
acquaint the Germans with a really wonderful genius." To substantiate
his statement relative to the obstacles in his way, he outlines in a few
words Sterne's peculiar, perplexing style, as regards both use of
language and the arrangement of material. He conceives Sterne's purpose
as a desire to expose to ridicule the follies of his countrymen and to
incorporate serious truths into the heart of his jesting.
Since the bibliographical facts regarding the subsequent career of this
Zückert translation have been variously mangled and misstated, it may be
well, though it depart somewhat from the regular chronological order of
the narrative, to place this information here in connection with the
statement of its first appearance. The translation, as published in
1763, contained only the first six parts of Sterne's work. In 1765 the
seventh and eighth parts were added, and in 1767 a ninth appeared, but
the latter was a translation of a spurious English original.[10] In
1769, the shrewd publisher began to issue a new and slightly altered
edition of the translation, which bore, however, on the title page "nach
einer neuen Uebersetzung" and the imprint, Berlin und Stralsund bey
Gottlieb August Langen, Parts I and II being dated 1769; Parts III and
IV, 1770; Parts V, VI, VII and VIII, 1771; Part IX, 1772. Volumes
III-VIII omit Stralsund as a joint place of publication. In 1773, when
it became noised abroad that Bode, the successful and honored translator
of the Sentimental Journey, was at work upon a German rendering of
Shandy, Lange once more forced his wares upon the market, this time
publishing the Zückert translation with the use of Wieland's then
influential name on the title page, "Auf Anrathen des Hrn. Hofraths
Wielands verfasst." Wieland was indignant at this misuse of his name and
repudiated all connection with this "new translation." This edition was
probably published late in 1773, as Wieland in his review in the
_Merkur_ gives it that date, but the volumes themselves bear the date of
1774.[11] We learn from the _Merkur_ (VI. 363) that Zückert was not
responsible for the use of Wieland's name.
These are the facts of the case. Meusel in his account of Zückert gives
the date of the first edition as 1774, and the second edition is
registered but the date is left blank. Jördens, probably depending on
the information given by the review in the _Merkur_, to which reference
is made, assigns 1773 as the date. This edition, as is shown above, is
really the third.
This Zückert translation is first reviewed by the above mentioned
_Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent_ in the issue for January
4, 1764. The review, however, was not calculated to lure the German
reader of the periodical to a perusal either of the original, or of the
rendering in question: it is concerned almost exclusively with a summary
of the glaring inaccuracies in the first nineteen pages of the work and
with correct translations of the same; and it is in no sense of the word
an appreciation of the book. The critic had read Shandy in the original,
and had believed that no German hack translator[12] would venture a
version in the language of the fatherland. It is a review which shows
only the learning of the reviewer, displays the weakness of the
translator, but gives no idea of the nature of the book itself, not even
a glimpse of the critic's own estimate of the book, save the implication
that he himself had understood the original, though many Englishmen even
were staggered by its obtuseness and failed to comprehend the subtlety
of its allusion. It is criticism in the narrowest, most arrogant sense
of the word, destructive instead of informing, blinding instead of
illuminating. It is noteworthy that Sterne's name is nowhere mentioned
in the review, nor is there a hint of Tristram's English popularity. The
author of this unsigned criticism is not to be located with certainty,
yet it may well have been Bode, the later apostle of Sterne-worship in
Germany. Bode was a resident of Hamburg at this time, was exceptionally
proficient in English and, according to Jördens[13] and Schröder,[14] he
was in 1762-3 the editor of the _Hamburgischer unpartheyischer
Correspondent_. The precise date when Bode severed his connection with
the paper is indeterminate, yet this, the second number of the new year
1764, may have come under his supervision even if his official
connection ended exactly with the close of the old year. To be sure,
when Bode ten years later published his own version of Shandy, he
translated, with the exception of two rather insignificant cases, none
of the passages verbally the same as the reviewer in this journal, but
it would be unreasonable to attach any great weight to this fact. Eight
or nine years later, when undertaking the monumental task of rendering
the whole of Shandy into German, it is not likely that Bode would recall
the old translations he had made in this review or concern himself about
them. A brief comparison of the two sets of translations suggests that
the critic was striving merely for accuracy in correcting the errors of
Zückert, and that Bode in his formal translation shows a riper and more
certain feeling for the choice of words; the effect of purposeful
reflection is unmistakable. Of course this in no way proves Bode to have
been the reviewer, but the indications at least allow the probability.
As was promised in the preface to Parts VII and VIII, to which reference
has already been made, the new edition was regarded as an opportunity
for correction of errors, but this bettering is accomplished with such
manifest carelessness and ignorance as to suggest a further possibility,
that the publisher, Lange, eager to avail himself of the enthusiasm for
Sterne, which burst out on the publication of the Sentimental Journey,
thrust this old translation on the public without providing for thorough
revision, or complete correction of flagrant errors. The following
quotations will suffice to demonstrate the inadequacy of the revision:
ORIGINAL
ZUECKERT TRANSLATION
I, p. 6: Well, you may take my word that nine parts in ten of a
man's sense or his nonsense,
P. 5: Gut, ich gebe euch mein Wort, dass neun unter zehnmal eines
jeden Witz oder Dummheit.
(The second edition replaces "Witz" by "Verstand," which does not
alter the essential error of the rendering.)
P. 7: The minutest philosophers.
"Die strengsten Philosophen" remains unchanged in second edition.
P. 7: Being guarded and circumscribed with rights.
P. 3: "Ein Wesen das ebenfalls seine Vorzüge hat" is unaltered.
P. 8: A most unaccountable obliquity in the manner of setting up
my top.
Meine seltsame Ungeschicklichkeit meinen Kopf zu recht zu machen.
This last astounding translation is retained in the second edition in
spite of the reviewers' ridicule, but the most nonsensical of all the
renderings, whereby "the momentum of the coach horse was so great"
becomes "der Augenblick des Kutschpferdes war so gross" is fortunately
corrected.[15]
These examples of slipshod alteration or careless retention contrast
quite unfavorably with the attitude of the translator in the preface to
parts VII and VIII, in which he confesses to the creeping in of errors
in consequence of the perplexities of the rendering, and begs for
"reminders and explanations" of this and that passage, thereby
displaying an eagerness to accept hints for emendation. This is
especially remarkable when it is noted that he has in the second edition
not even availed himself of the corrections given in the _Hamburgischer
unpartheyischer Correspondent_, and has allowed some of the most
extraordinary blunders to stand. These facts certainly favor the theory
that Zückert himself had little or nothing to do with the second edition
and its imperfect revision. This supposition finds further evidence in
the fact that the ninth part of Shandy, as issued by Lange in the second
(1772) and third (1774) editions, was still a translation of the
spurious English volume, although the fraud was well known and the
genuine volume was read and appreciated. Of this genuine last part Dr.
Zückert never made a translation. It may be remarked in passing that a
translation bristling with such errors, blunders which at times degrade
the text into utter nonsense, could hardly be an efficient one in
spreading appreciation of Shandy.
A little more than a year after the review in the _Hamburgischer
unpartheyischer Correspondent_, which has been cited, the _Jenaische
Zeitungen von gelehrten Sachen_ in the number dated March 1, 1765,
treats Sterne's masterpiece in its German disguise. This is the first
mention of Sterne's book in the distinctively literary journals. The
tone of this review is further that of an introducer of the new, and the
critique is manifestly inserted in the paper as an account of a new
book. The reviewer is evidently unaware of the author's name, since the
words which accompany the title, from the English, are nowhere
elucidated, and no hint of authorship, or popularity in England, or
possible far-reaching appeal in Germany is traceable. The idea of the
hobby-horse is new to the reviewer and his explanation of it implies
that he presumed Sterne's use of the term would be equally novel to the
readers of the periodical. His compliment to the translation indicates
further that he was unacquainted with the review in the _Hamburgischer
unpartheyischer Correspondent_.
A little more than a year later, June 13, 1766, this same journal, under
the caption "London," reviews the Becket and de Hondt four-volume
edition of the "Sermons of Mr. Yorick." The critic thinks a warning
necessary: "One should not be deceived by the title: the author's name
is not Yorick," and then he adds the information of the real authorship.
This is a valid indication that, in the opinion of the reviewer, the
name Yorick would not be sufficiently linked in the reader's mind with
the personality of Sterne and the fame of his first great book, to
preclude the possibility, or rather probability, of error. This state of
affairs is hardly reconcilable with any widespread knowledge of the
first volumes of Shandy. The criticism of the sermons which follows
implies, on the reviewer's part, an acquaintance with Sterne, with
Tristram, a "whimsical and roguish novel which would in our land be but
little credit to a clergyman," and with the hobby-horse idea. The spirit
of the review is, however, quite possibly prompted, and this added
information supplied, by the London correspondent, and retold only with
a savor of familiarity by this critic; for at the end of this
communication this London correspondent is credited with the suggestion
that quite probably the sermons were never actually preached.
The first mention of Sterne in the _Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen_ is
in the number for November 15, 1764. In the report from London is a
review[16] of the fifth edition of Yorick's Sermons, published by
Dodsley in two volumes, 1764. To judge by the tenor of his brief
appreciation, the reviewer does not anticipate any knowledge of Sterne
whatsoever or of Shandy among the readers of the periodical. He states
that the sermons had aroused much interest in England because of their
authorship "by Lorenz Sterne, author of Tristram Shandy, a book in which
a remarkable humor is exhibited." He mentions also that the sermon on
the conscience had already been published in the novel, but is ignorant
of its former and first appearance. Three years later, July 20,
1767,[17] the same periodical devotes a long critical review to the
four-volume London edition of the sermons. The publisher's name is not
given, but it is the issue of Becket and de Hondt. The restating of
elementary information concerning authorship is indicative of the tardy
progress made by Yorick in these years in gaining recognition in
Germany. The reviewer thinks it even necessary to add that Yorick is the
name of the clergyman who plays a waggish (possierliche) rôle in Shandy,
and that Sterne cherished the opinion that this designation on the
title-page would be better known than his own name.
In the meantime Swiss piety and Swiss devotion to things English had
been instrumental in bringing out a translation of Sterne's sermons,[18]
the first volume of which appeared in 1766. The Swiss translation was
occasioned by its author's expectation of interest in the sermons as
sermons; this is in striking contrast to the motives which led to their
original publication in England. The brief preface of the translator
gives no information of Sterne, or of Shandy; the translator states his
reasons for the rendering, his own interest in the discourses, his
belief that such sermons would not be superfluous in Germany, and his
opinion that they were written for an increasing class of readers, "who,
though possessed of taste and culture and laying claim to probity, yet
for various reasons stand apart from moral instruction and religious
observance." He also changed the original order of the sermons. The
first part of this Swiss translation is reviewed in the _Allgemeine
deutsche Bibliothek_ in the first number of 1768, and hence before the
Sentimental Journey had seen the light even in London. The review is
characterized by unstinted praise: Sterne is congratulated upon his
deviation from the conventional in homiletical discourse, is commended
as an excellent painter of moral character and situations, though he
abstains from the use of the common engines of eloquence. His narrative
powers are also noted with approval and his ability to retain the
attention of his hearers through clever choice of emphasized detail is
mentioned with appreciation. Yet in all this no reference is made to
Sterne's position in English letters, a fact which could hardly have
failed of comment, if the reviewer had been aware of it, especially in
view of the relation of Sterne's popularity to the very existence of
this published volume of sermons, or if it had been expected that the
fact of authorship would awaken interest in any considerable number of
readers. The tone of the review is further hardly reconcilable with a
knowledge of Sterne's idiosyncrasies as displayed in Shandy. A brief
consideration of the principles of book-reviewing would establish the
fact indisputably that the mentioning of a former book, some hint of
familiarity with the author by open or covert allusion, is an integral
and inevitable part of the review of a later book. This review is the
only mention of Sterne in this magazine[19] before the publication of
the Sentimental Journey. A comparison of this recension, narrow in
outlook, bound, as it is, to the very book under consideration, with
those of the second and third volumes of the sermons in the same
magazine during the year 1770,[20] is an illuminating illustration of
the sweeping change brought in by the Journey. In the latter critique we
find appreciation of Yorick's characteristics, enthusiastic acceptation
of his sentiment, fond and familiar allusions to both Shandy and the
Sentimental Journey. In the brief space of two years Sterne's
sentimentalism had come into its own.
The _Bremisches Magazin_,[21] which was employed largely in publishing
translations from English periodicals, and contained in each number
lists, generally much belated, of new English books, noted in the third
number for 1762, among the new books from April to December, 1760, Mr.
Yorick's Sermons, published by Mr. Sterne, and then, as customary in
these catalogues, translated the title into "Herrn Yorick's Predigten
ans Licht gestellt von Hn. Sterne." Four years later, in the first
volume of the _Neues Bremisches Magazin_,[22] announcement is made of
the third and fourth volumes of Yorick's Sermons. During this period
sufficient intelligence concerning Sterne is current to warrant the
additional statement that "This Mr. Sterne, the author of the strange
book, Tristram Shandy, is the author himself." The notice closes with
the naïve but astounding information, "He took the name Yorick because
he is a preacher in York; furthermore, these sermons are much praised."
No further proof is needed that this reviewer was guiltless of any
knowledge of Shandy beyond the title. The ninth volume of Shandy is
announced in the same number among the new English books.
In 1767, the year before the publication of the Sentimental Journey, we
find three notices of Tristram Shandy. In the _Deutsche Bibliothek der
schönen Wissenschaften_[23] is a very brief but, in the main,
commendatory review of the Zückert translation, coupled with the
statement that the last parts are not by Sterne, but with the claim that
the humor of the original is fairly well maintained. The review is
signed "Dtsh." Another Halle periodical, the _Hallische Neue Gelehrte
Zeitungen_, in the issue for August 10, 1767[24] reviews the same
volumes with a much more decided acknowledgment of merit. It is claimed
that the difference is not noticeable, and that the ninth part is almost
more droll than all the others, an opinion which is noteworthy testimony
to its originator's utter lack of comprehension of the whole work and of
the inanity of this spurious last volume. The statement by both of these
papers that the last three volumes,[25] parts VII, VIII and IX, of the
Zückert translation, rest on spurious English originals, is, of course,
false as far as VII and VIII are concerned, and is true only of IX.
In the _Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften_, the last number for
1766[26] contains the first mention of Sterne's name in this
representative literary periodical. It is an article entitled "Ueber die
Laune,"[27] which is concerned with the phenomena of hypochrondia and
melancholia, considered as illnesses, and their possible cure. The
author claims to have found a remedy in the books which do not depress
the spirits with exhibition of human woes, but which make merry over
life's follies. In this he claims merely to be following the advice of
St. Evremond to the Count of Olonne. His method he further explains by
tracing humor to its beginnings in Aristophanes and by following its
development through Latin, new Latin (Erasmus, Thomas Morus, etc.),
French and English writers. Among the latter Sterne is named.
Unfortunately for the present purpose, the author is led by caution and
fear of giving the offense of omission to refrain from naming the German
writers who might be classed with the cited representatives of humor.
In closing, he recommends heartily to those teased with melancholy a
"portion of leaves of Lucian, some half-ounces of 'Don Quixote' or some
drachms of 'Tom Jones' or 'Tristram Shandy.'" Under the heading, "New
English Books," in the third number of the same periodical for 1767,
is a brief but significant notice of the ninth volume of Tristram
Shandy.[28] "The ninth part of the well-known 'Life of Tristram Shandy'
has been published; we would not mention it, if we did not desire on
this occasion to note at least once in our magazine a book which is
incontestably the strangest production of wit and humor which has ever
been brought forth. . . . The author of this original book is a
clergyman by the name of Sterne, who, under his Harlequin's name,
Yorick, has given to the world the most excellent sermons." The review
contains also a brief word of comparison with Rabelais and a quotation
from an English critic expressing regret at Yorick's embroidering "the
choicest flowers of genius on a paultry groundwork of buffoonry."[29]
This late mention of Sterne's great novel, and the manner in which it is
made are not without their suggestions as to the attitude even of the
German literary world toward Yorick. The notice is written in a tone of
forced condescension. The writer is evidently compelled, as
representative of British literary interests, to bear witness to the
Shandy craze, but the attitude of the review is plainly indicative of
its author's disbelief in any occasion for especial concern about Yorick
in Germany. Sterne himself is mentioned as a fitful whim of British
taste, and a German devotion to him is beyond the flight of fancy.[30]
Individual authors, aware of international literary conditions, the
inner circle of German culture, became acquainted with Tristram Shandy
during this period before the publication of the Sentimental Journey and
learned to esteem the eccentric parson. Bode's possible acquaintance
with the English original previous to 1764 has been already noted.
Lessing's admiration for Sterne naturally is associated with his two
statements of remarkable devotion to Yorick, both of which, however,
date from a period when he had already become acquainted with the
Journey. At precisely what time Lessing first read Tristram Shandy it is
impossible to determine with accuracy. Moses Mendelssohn writes to him
in the summer of 1763:[31] "Tristram Shandy is a work of masterly
originality. At present, to be sure, I have read only the first two
volumes. In the beginning the book vexed me exceedingly. I rambled on
from digression to digression without grasping the real humor of the
author. I regarded him as a man like our Liscow, whom, as you know,
I don't particularly fancy; and yet the book pleases Lessing!" This is
sufficient proof that Mendelssohn first read Shandy early in 1763, but,
though not improbable, it is yet rather hazardous to conclude that
Lessing also had read the book shortly before, and had just recommended
it to his friend. The literary friendship existing between them, and the
general nature of their literary relations and communications, would
rather favor such a hypothesis. The passage is, however, a significant
confession of partial failure on the part of the clever and erudite
Mendelssohn to appreciate Sterne's humor. It has been generally accepted
that Lessing's dramatic fragment, "Die Witzlinge," included two
characters modeled confessedly after Yorick's familiar personages, Trim
and Eugenius. Boxberger and others have stamped such a theory with their
authority.[32] If this were true, "Die Witzlinge" would undoubtedly be
the first example of Sterne's influence working directly upon the
literary activity of a German author. The fragment has, however, nothing
to do with Tristram Shandy, and a curious error has here crept in
through the remarkable juxtaposition of names later associated with
Sterne. The plan is really derived directly from Shadwell's "Bury Fair"
with its "Mr. Trim" fancifully styled "Eugenius." Those who tried to
establish the connection could hardly have been familiar with Tristram
Shandy, for Lessing's Trim as outlined in the sketch has nothing in
common with the Corporal.
Erich Schmidt, building on a suggestion of Lichtenstein, found a "Dosis
Yorikscher Empfindsamkeit"[33] in Tellheim, and connected the episode of
the Chevalier de St. Louis with the passage in "Minna von Barnhelm"
(II, 2) in which Minna contends with the innkeeper that the king cannot
know all deserving men nor reward them. Such an identity of sentiment
must be a pure coincidence for "Minna von Barnhelm" was published at
Easter, 1767, nearly a year before the Sentimental Journey appeared.
A connection between Corporal Trim and Just has been suggested,[34] but
no one has by investigation established such a kinship. Both servants
are patterns of old-fashioned fidelity, types of unquestioning service
on the part of the inferior, a relation which existed between Orlando
and Adam in "As You Like It," and which the former describes:
"O good old man, how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed;
Thou art not for the fashion of these times."
Tellheim recognizes the value of Just's service, and honors his
subordinate for his unusual faithfulness; yet there exists here no such
cordial comradeship as marked the relation between Sterne's originals.
But one may discern the occasion of this in the character of Tellheim,
who has no resemblance to Uncle Toby, rather than in any dissimilarity
between the characters of the servants. The use of the relation between
master and man as a subject for literary treatment was probably first
brought into fashion by Don Quixote, and it is well-nigh certain that
Sterne took his cue from Cervantes.
According to Erich Schmidt, the episode of Just's dog, as the servant
relates it in the 8th scene of the 1st act, could have adorned the
Sentimental Journey, but the similarity of motif here in the treatment
of animal fidelity is pure coincidence. Certainly the method of using
the episode is not reminiscent of any similar scene in Sterne. Just's
dog is not introduced for its own sake, nor like the ass at Nampont to
afford opportunity for exciting humanitarian impulses, and for throwing
human character into relief by confronting it with sentimental
possibilities, but for the sake of a forceful, telling and immediate
comparison. Lessing was too original a mind, and at the time when
"Minna" was written, too complete and mature an artist to follow another
slavishly or obviously, except avowedly under certain conditions and
with particular purpose. He himself is said to have remarked, "That must
be a pitiful author who does not borrow something once in a while,"[35]
and it does not seem improbable that the figure of Trim was hovering in
his memory while he was creating his Just. Especially does this seem
plausible when we remember that Lessing wrote his drama during the years
when Shandy was appearing, when he must have been occupied with it, and
at the first flush of his admiration.
This supposition, however undemonstrable, is given some support by our
knowledge of a minor work of Lessing, which has been lost. On December
28, 1769, Lessing writes to Ebert from Hamburg: "Alberti is well; and
what pleases me about him, as much as his health, is that the news of
his reconciliation with Goeze was a false report. So Yorick will
probably preach and send his sermon soon."[36] And Ebert replies in a
letter dated at Braunschweig, January 7, 1770, expressing a desire that
Lessing should fulfil his promise, and cause Yorick to preach not once
but many times.[37] The circumstance herein involved was first explained
by Friedrich Nicolai in an article in the _Berlinische Monatsschrift_,
1791.[38] As a trick upon his friend Alberti, who was then in
controversy with Goeze, Lessing wrote a sermon in Yorick's manner; the
title and part of the introduction to it were privately printed by Bode
and passed about among the circle of friends, as if the whole were in
press. We are entirely dependent on Nicolai's memory for our information
relative to this sole endeavor on Lessing's part to adopt completely the
manner of Sterne. Nicolai asserts that this effort was a complete
success in the realization of Yorick's simplicity, his good-natured but
acute philosophy, his kindly sympathy and tolerance, even his merry
whimsicality.
This introduction, which Nicolai claims to have recalled essentially as
Lessing wrote it, relates the occasion of Yorick's writing the sermon.
Uncle Toby and Trim meet a cripple in a ragged French uniform; Capt.
Shandy gives the unfortunate man several shillings, and Trim draws out a
penny and in giving it says, "French Dog!" The narrative continues:
"The Captain[39] was silent for some seconds and then said, turning to
Trim, 'It is a man, Trim, and not a dog!' The French veteran had hobbled
after them: at the Captain's words Trim gave him another penny, saying
again 'French Dog!' 'And, Trim, the man is a soldier.' Trim stared him
in the face, gave him a penny again and said, 'French Dog!' 'And, Trim,
he is a brave soldier; you see he has fought for his fatherland and has
been sorely wounded.' Trim pressed his hand, while he gave him another
penny, and said 'French Dog!' 'And, Trim, this soldier is a good but
unfortunate husband, and has a wife and four little children.' Trim,
with a tear in his eye, gave all he had left and said, rather softly,
'French Dog!'"
This scene recalls vividly the encounter between Just and the landlord
in the first act of "Minna," the passage in which Just continues to
assert that the landlord is a "Grobian." There are the same tactics, the
same persistence, the same contrasts. The passage quoted was, of course,
written after "Minna," but from it we gather evidence that Corporal Trim
and his own Just were similar creations, that to him Corporal Trim, when
he had occasion to picture him, must needs hark back to the figure of
Just, a character which may well originally have been suggested by Capt.
Shandy's faithful servant.
Among German literati, Herder is another representative of acquaintance
with Sterne and appreciation of his masterpiece. Haym[40] implies that
Sterne and Swift are mentioned more often than any other foreign authors
in Herder's writings of the Riga period (November, 1764, to May, 1769).
This would, of course, include the first fervor of enthusiasm concerning
the Sentimental Journey, and would be a statement decidedly doubtful,
if applied exclusively to the previous years. In a note-book, possibly
reaching back before his arrival in Riga to his student days in
Königsberg, Herder made quotations from Shandy and Don Quixote, possibly
preparatory notes for his study of the ridiculous in the Fourth
Wäldchen.[41] In May, 1766, Herder went to Mitau to visit Hamann, and he
designates the account of the events since leaving there as "ein Capitel
meines Shandyschen Romans"[42] and sends it as such to "my uncle, Tobias
Shandy." Later a letter, written 27-16, August, 1766, is begun with the
heading, "Herder to Hamann and no more Yorick to Tobias Shandy," in
which he says: "I am now in a condition where I can play the part of
Yorick as little as Panza that of Governor."[43] The same letter
contains another reference and the following familiar allusion to
Sterne: "Grüsen Sie Trim, wenn ich gegen keinen den beleidigenden
Karakter Yoriks oder leider! das Schicksal wider Willen zu beleidigen,
habe, so ist's doch gegen ihn und Hartknoch." These last quotations are
significant as giving proof that Shandy had so far forced its claims
upon a little set of book-lovers in the remote east, Herder, Hamann and
a few others, that they gave one another in play names from the English
novel. A letter from Hamann to Herder, dated Königsberg, June 10, 1767,
indicates that the former shared also the devotion to Sterne.[44]
In the first collection of "Fragmente über die neuere deutsche
Litteratur," 1767, the sixth section treats of the "Idiotismen" of a
language. British "Laune" is cited as such an untranslatable "Idiotism"
and the lack of German humorists is noted, and Swift is noted
particularly as an English example. In the second and revised edition
Herder adds material containing allusion to Hudibras and Tristram.[45]
The first and second "Kritische Wäldchen" contain several references to
Sterne and Shandy.[46] Herder, curiously enough, did not read the
Sentimental Journey until the autumn of 1768, as is disclosed in a
letter to Hamann written in November,[47] which also shows his
appreciation of Sterne. "An Sterne's Laune," he says, "kann ich mich
nicht satt lesen. Eben den Augenblick, da ich an ihn denke, bekomme ich
seine Sentimental Journey zum Durchlesen, und wenn nicht meine Englische
Sprachwissenschaft scheitert, wie angenehm werde ich mit ihm reisen.
Ich bin an seine Sentiments zum Theil schon so gewöhnt, sie bis in das
weiche innere Mark seiner Menschheit in ihren zarten Fäden zu verfolgen:
dass ich glaube seinen Tristram etwas mehr zu verstehn als the common
people. Nur um so mehr ärgern mich auch seine verfluchten Säuereien und
Zweideutigkeiten, die das Buch wenigerer Empfehlung fähig machen als es
verdient." We learn from the same letter that Herder possessed the
sermons of Yorick in the Zürich translation. Herder's own homiletical
style during this period, as evinced by the sermons preserved to us,
betrays no trace of Sterne's influence.
Riedel, in his "Theorie der schönen Künste und Wissenschaften,"[48]
shows appreciation of Shandy complete and discriminating, previous to
the publication of the Sentimental Journey. This book is a sort of
compendium, a series of rather disconnected chapters, woven together out
of quotations from aesthetic critics, examples and comment. In the
chapter on Similarity and Contrast he contends that a satirist only may
transgress the rule he has just enunciated: "When a perfect similarity
fails of its effect, a too far-fetched, a too ingenious one, is even
less effective," and in this connection he quotes from Tristram Shandy a
passage describing the accident to Dr. Slop and Obadiah.[49] Riedel
translates the passage himself. The chapter "Ueber die Laune"[50]
contains two more references to Shandy. In a volume dated 1768 and
entitled "Ueber das Publikum: Briefe an einige Glieder desselben,"
written evidently without knowledge of the Journey, Riedel indicates the
position which Shandy had in these years won for itself among a select
class. Riedel calls it a contribution to the "Register" of the human
heart and states that he knows people who claim to have learned more
psychology from this novel than from many thick volumes in which the
authors had first killed sentiment in order then to dissect it at
leisure.[51]
Early in 1763, one finds an appreciative knowledge of Shandy as a
possession of a group of Swiss literati, but probably confined to a
coterie of intellectual aristocrats and novelty-seekers. Julie von
Bondeli[52] writes to Usteri from Koenitz on March 10, 1763, that
Kirchberger[53] will be able to get him the opportunity to read Tristram
Shandy as a whole, that she herself has read two volumes with surprise,
emotion and almost constant bursts of laughter; she goes on to say:
"Il voudrait la peine d'apprendre l'anglais ne fut-ce que pour lire cet
impayable livre, dont la vérité et le génie se fait sentir à chaque
ligne au travers de la plus originelle plaisanterie." Zimmermann was a
resident of Brugg, 1754-1768, and was an intimate friend of Fräulein von
Bondeli. It may be that this later enthusiastic admirer of Sterne became
acquainted with Shandy at this time through Fräulein von Bondeli, but
their correspondence, covering the years 1761-1775, does not
disclose it.
Dr. Carl Behmer, who has devoted an entire monograph to the study of
Wieland's connection with Sterne, is of the opinion, and his proofs seem
conclusive, that Wieland did not know Shandy before the autumn of
1767,[54] that is, only a few months before the publication of the
Journey. But his enthusiasm was immediate. The first evidence of
acquaintance with Sterne, a letter to Zimmermann (November 13,
1767),[55] is full of extravagant terms of admiration and devotion.
One is naturally reminded of his similar extravagant expressions with
reference to the undying worth of Richardson's novels. Sterne's life
philosophy fitted in with Wieland's second literary period, the
frivolous, sensuous, epicurean, even as the moral meanderings of
Richardson agreed with his former serious, religious attitude. Probably
soon after or while reading Shandy, Wieland conceived the idea of
translating it. The letter which contains this very first mention of
Sterne also records Wieland's regret that the Germans can read this
incomparable original only in so wretched a translation, which implies a
contemporary acquaintance with Dr. Zückert's rendering. This regret may
well have been the foundation of his own purpose of translating the
book; and knowledge of this seems to have been pretty general among
German men of letters at the time. Though the account of this purpose
would bring us into a time when the Sentimental Journey was in every
hand, it may be as well to complete what we have to say of it here.
His reason for abandoning the idea, and the amount of work done, the
length of time he spent upon the project, cannot be determined from his
correspondence and must, as Behmer implies, be left in doubt. But
several facts, which Behmer does not note, remarks of his own and of his
contemporaries, point to more than an undefined general purpose on his
part; it is not improbable that considerable work was done. Wieland says
incidentally in his _Teutscher Merkur_,[56] in a review of the new
edition of Zückert's translation: "Vor drei Jahren, da er (Lange) mich
bat, ihm die Uebersetzung des Tristram mit der ich damals umgieng, in
Verlag zu geben." Herder asks Nicolai in a letter dated Paris, November
30, 1769, "What is Wieland doing, is he far along with his Shandy?" And
in August, 1769, in a letter to Hartknoch, he mentions Wieland's
Tristram among German books which he longs to read.[57]
The _Jenaische Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen_[58] for December 18,
1769, in mentioning this new edition of Zückert's translation, states
that Wieland has now given up his intention, but adds: "Perhaps he will,
however, write essays which may fill the place of a philosophical
commentary upon the whole book." That Wieland had any such secondary
purpose is not elsewhere stated, but it does not seem as if the journal
would have published such a rumor without some foundation in fact.
It may be possibly a resurrection of his former idea of a defense of
Tristram as a part of the "Litteraturbriefe" scheme which Riedel had
proposed.[59] This general project having failed, Wieland may have
cherished the purpose of defending Tristram independently of the plan.
Or this may be a reviewer's vague memory of a former rumor of plan.
It is worth noting incidentally that Gellert does not seem to have known
Sterne at all. His letters, for example, to Demoiselle Lucius, which
begin October 22, 1760, and continue to December 4, 1769, contain
frequent references to other English celebrities, but none to Sterne.
The first notice of Sterne's death is probably that in the
_Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_ of Hamburg in the issue of April 6, 1768,
not three weeks after the event itself. The brief announcement is a
comparison with Cervantes. The _Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen_
chronicles the death of Yorick, August 29, 1768.[60]
Though published in England from 1759-67, Tristram Shandy seems not to
have been reprinted in Germany till the 1772 edition of Richter in
Altenburg, a year later indeed than Richter's reprint of the Sentimental
Journey. The colorless and inaccurate Zückert translation, as has
already been suggested, achieved no real popular success and won no
learned recognition. The reviews were largely silent or indifferent to
it, and, apart from the comparatively few notices already cited, it was
not mentioned by any important literary periodical until after its
republication by Lange, when the Sentimental Journey had set all tongues
awag with reference to the late lamented Yorick. None of the journals
indicate any appreciation of Sterne's especial claim to recognition,
nor see in the fatherland any peculiar receptiveness to his appeal. In
short, the foregoing accumulation of particulars resolves itself into
the general statement, easily derived from the facts stated: Sterne's
position in the German world of letters is due primarily to the
Sentimental Journey. Without its added impulse Shandy would have hardly
stirred the surface of German life and thought. The enthusiasm even of a
few scholars whose learning and appreciation of literature is
international, the occasional message of uncertain understanding, of
doubtful approbation, or of rumored popularity in another land, are not
sufficient to secure a general interest and attentiveness, much less a
literary following. The striking contrast between the essential
characteristics of the two books is a sufficient and wholly reasonable
occasion for Germany's temporary indifference to the one and her
immediate welcome for the other. Shandy is whimsicality touched with
sentiment. The Sentimental Journey is the record of a sentimental
experience, guided by the caprice of a whimsical will. Whimsicality is a
flower that defies transplanting; when once rooted in other soil it
shoots up into obscurity, masquerading as profundity, or pure silliness
without reason or a smile. The whimsies of one language become amazing
contortions in another. The humor of Shandy, though deep-dyed in
Sterne's own eccentricity, is still essentially British and demands for
its appreciation a more extensive knowledge of British life in its
narrowest, most individual phases, a more intensive sympathy with
British attitudes of mind than the German of the eighteenth century,
save in rare instances, possessed. Bode asserts in the preface to his
translation of the Sentimental Journey that Shandy had been read by a
good many Germans, but follows this remark with the query, "How many
have understood it?" "One finds people," he says, "who despise it as the
most nonsensical twaddle, and cannot comprehend how others, whom they
must credit with a good deal of understanding, wit, and learning, think
quite otherwise of it," and he closes by noting the necessity that one
be acquainted with the follies of the world, and especially of the
British world, to appreciate the novel. He refers unquestionably to his
own circle of literati in Hamburg, who knew Tristram and cared for it,
and to others of his acquaintance less favored with a knowledge of
things English. The Sentimental Journey presented no inscrutable mystery
of purposeful eccentricity and perplexing personality, but was written
large in great human characters which he who ran might read. And Germany
was ready to give it a welcome.[61]
[Footnote 1: A reviewer in the _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._, as early
as 1774, asserts that Sterne had inspired more droll and
sentimental imitations in Germany than even in England. (Apr. 5,
1774.)]
[Footnote 2: See Bibliography for list of books giving more or
less extended accounts of Sterne's influence.]
[Footnote 3: Sterne did, to be sure, assert in a letter (Letters,
I, p. 34) that he wrote "not to be fed but to be famous." Yet this
was after this desire had been fulfilled, and, as the expression
agrees with the tone and purpose of the letter in which it is
found, it does not seem necessary to place too much weight upon
it. It is very probable in view of evidence collected later that
Sterne _began_ at least to write Tristram as a pastime in domestic
misfortune. The thirst for fame may have developed in the progress
of the composition.]
[Footnote 4: Fitzgerald says "end of December," Vol. I, p. 116,
and the volumes were reviewed in the December number of the
_Monthly Review_, 1759 (Vol. XXI, pp. 561-571), though without any
mention of the author's name. This review mentions no other
publisher than Cooper.]
[Footnote 5: Quoted by Fitzgerald, Vol. I, p. 126.]
[Footnote 6: The full title of this paper was _Staats- und
gelehrte Zeitung des Hamburgischen unpartheyischen
Correspondenten_.]
[Footnote 7: Meusel: Lexicon der vom Jahr 1750 bis 1800
verstorbenen teutschen Schriftsteller. Bd. XV. (Leipzig bey
Fleischer) 1816, pp, 472-474.]
[Footnote 8: Berlin, bei August Mylius. 1764.]
[Footnote 9: Behmer (L. Sterne und C. M. Wieland, p. 15) seems to
be unaware of the translations of the following parts, and of the
authorship.]
[Footnote 10: This attempt to supply a ninth volume of Tristram
Shandy seems to have been overlooked. A spurious third volume is
mentioned in the Natl. Dict. of Biography and is attributed to
John Carr. This ninth volume is however noticed in the _London
Magazine_, 1766, p. 691, with accompanying statement that it is
"not by the author of the eight volumes." The genuine ninth volume
is mentioned and quoted in this magazine in later issues, 1767,
p. 78, 206.]
[Footnote 11: This edition is reviewed also in _Almanach der
deutschen Musen_, 1774, p. 97.]
[Footnote 12: "Kein Deutscher, welcher das Uebersetzen aus fremden
Sprachen als ein Handwerk ansieht."]
[Footnote 13: I, p. 111.]
[Footnote 14: "Lexicon der Hamburgischen Schriftsteller," Hamburg,
1851-1883.]
[Footnote 15: Tristram Shandy, I, p. 107, and Zückert's
translation, I, p. 141.]
[Footnote 16: In this review and in the announcement of Sterne's
death, this periodical refers to him as the Dean of York,
a distinction which Sterne never enjoyed.]
[Footnote 17: 1767, p. 691. The reference is given in the Register
to 1753-1782 erroneously as p. 791.]
[Footnote 18: "Predigten von Laurenz Sterne oder Yorick." Zürich,
bey Fuesslin & Comp, 1766-69. 3 vols.]
[Footnote 19: The _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_ was founded in
1765.]
[Footnote 20: XII, 1, pp. 210-211 and 2, p. 202.]
[Footnote 21: For full title see Bibliography.]
[Footnote 22: Vol. I, p. 460.]
[Footnote 23: Edited by Klotz and founded in 1767, published at
Halle by J. J. Gebauer. Vol. I, Part 2, p. 183.]
[Footnote 24: Vol. II, p. 500.]
[Footnote 25: The former says merely "the last parts", the latter
designates "the last three."]
[Footnote 26: III, 1, pp. 1 ff.]
[Footnote 27: This article is not to be confused with Garve's
well-known article published in the same magazine, LXI, pp. 51-77
(1798).]
[Footnote 28: IV, St. 2, pp. 376-7.]
[Footnote 29: This is from the February number, 1767, of the
_Monthly Review_. (Vol. XXXVI, p. 102.)]
[Footnote 30: The seventh and eighth volumes of Shandy, English
edition, are reviewed in the first number of a short-lived
Frankfurt periodical, _Neue Auszüge aus den besten ausländischen
Wochen und Monatsschriften_, 1765. _Unterhaltungen_, a magazine
published at Hamburg and dealing largely with English interests,
notes the London publication of the spurious ninth volume of
Shandy (Vol. II, p. 152, August, 1766). _Die Brittische
Bibliothek_, another magazine consisting principally of English
reprints and literary news, makes no mention of Sterne up to 1767.
Then in a catalogue of English books sold by Casper Fritsch in
Leipzig, Shandy is given, but without the name of the author.
There is an account of Sterne's sermons in the _Neue Hamburgische
Zeitung_, April, 1768.]
[Footnote 31: Mendelssohn's Schriften, edited by Prof. Dr. G. B.
Mendelssohn. Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1844. Vol. V, p. 171.]
[Footnote 32: Kürschner edition of Lessing's works, III, 2, pp.
156-157. See also "Lessing und die Engländer" by Josef Caro in
_Euphorion_, VI, pp. 489 ff. Erich Schmidt made the statement in
his life of Lessing in the edition of 1884, but corrected it
later, in the edition of 1899, probably depending on parallel
passages drawn from Paul Albrecht's "Lessing's Plagiate" (Hamburg
and Leipzig, 1888-1891), an extraordinary work which by its
frequent absurdity and its viciousness of attack forfeits credence
in its occasional genuine discoveries.]
[Footnote 33: Lessing. "Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner
Schriften." Berlin, 1884, I, pp. 174, 465. This is omitted in the
latest edition.]
[Footnote 34: Perry (Thomas Sargeant) "From Opitz to Lessing."
Boston, 1885, p. 162.]
[Footnote 35: Quoted by Lichtenberg in "Göttingischer
Taschenkalender," 1796, p. 191. "Vermischte Schriften," VI,
p. 487.]
[Footnote 36: Lachmann edition, Berlin, 1840. Vol. XII, p. 240.]
[Footnote 37: XIII, pp. 209-10.]
[Footnote 38: XVII, pp. 30-45. The article is reprinted in the
Hempel edition of Lessing, XVII, pp. 263-71.]
[Footnote 39: Nicolai uses the German word for colonel, a title
which Uncle Toby never bore.]
[Footnote 40: R. Haym. "Herder nach seinem Leben und seinen
Werken." I, p. 413.]
[Footnote 41: Haym, I, p. 261.]
[Footnote 42: Herder's "Briefe an Joh. Georg Hamann," ed. by Otto
Hoffmann, Berlin, 1889, p. 25, or "Lebensbild" II, p. 140.]
[Footnote 43: "Briefe an Hamann," p. 27.]
[Footnote 44: Lebensbild II (I, 2), p. 256; also in Hamann's
Schriften, ed. by Roth. Berlin, 1822, III, p. 372. Hamann asks
Herder to remind his publisher, when the latter sends the promised
third part of the "Fragmente," to inclose without fail the
engraving of Sterne, because the latter is absolutely essential to
his furnishings.]
[Footnote 45: See Suphan I, p. 163; II, p. 46.]
[Footnote 46: Suphan III, pp. 170, 223, 233, 277, 307.]
[Footnote 47: Briefe an Hamann, p. 49.]
[Footnote 48: . . . . in Auszug aus den Werken verschiedener
Schriftsteller von Friedrich Just Riedel, Jena, 1767. The chapter
cited is pp. 137 ff.]
[Footnote 49: I, p. 106.]
[Footnote 50: Pp. 91-96; see also p. 331.]
[Footnote 51: Pp. 118-120, or Sämmtliche Schriften, Wien, 1787,
4ter Th., 4ter Bd., p. 133. A review with quotation of this
criticism of Shandy is found in the _Deutsche Bibliothek der
schönen Wissenschaften_, II, p. 659, but after the publication of
the Mittelstedt translation of the Sentimental Journey had been
reviewed in the same periodical.]
[Footnote 52: See "Julie von Bondeli und ihr Freundeskreis," von
Eduard Bodemann. Hannover, 1874.]
[Footnote 53: Nicholas Ant. Kirchberger, the Swiss statesman and
philosopher, the friend of Rousseau.]
[Footnote 54: Behmer, "Laurence Sterne und C. M. Wieland," pp.
15-17.]
[Footnote 55: "Ausgewählte Briefe," Bd. II, p. 285 f. Zürich,
1815.]
[Footnote 56: V, pp. 345-6. 1774.]
[Footnote 57: See Lebensbild, V, p. 107 and p. 40.]
[Footnote 58: 1769, p. 840.]
[Footnote 59: See Behmer, p. 24, and the letter to Riedel, October
26, 1768, Ludwig Wielands Briefsammlung. I, p. 232.]
[Footnote 60: P. 856.]
[Footnote 61: These two aspects of the Sterne cult in Germany will
be more fully treated later. The historians of literature and
other investigators who have treated Sterne's influence in Germany
have not distinguished very carefully the difference between
Sterne's two works, and the resulting difference between the kind
and amount of their respective influences. Appell, however,
interprets the condition correctly and assigns the cause with
accuracy and pointedness. ("Werther und seine Zeit." p. 246). The
German critics repeat persistently the thought that the imitators
of Sterne remained as far away from the originals as the
Shakespeare followers from the great Elizabethan. See Gervinus,
Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung, I, 184; Hettner, "Geschichte
der deutschen Literatur im 18. Jahrhundert," III, 1, p. 362;
Hofer, "Deutsche Litteraturgeschichte," p. 150.]
CHAPTER III
THE PUBLICATION OF THE SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY
On February 27, 1768, the Sentimental Journey was published in
London,[1] less than three weeks before the author's death, and the book
was at once transplanted to German soil, beginning there immediately its
career of commanding influence and wide-spread popularity.
Several causes operated together in favoring its pronounced and
immediate success. A knowledge of Sterne existed among the more
intelligent lovers of English literature in Germany, the leaders of
thought, whose voice compelled attention for the understandable, but was
powerless to create appreciation for the unintelligible among the lower
ranks of readers. This knowledge and appreciation of Yorick were
immediately available for the furtherance of Sterne's fame as soon as a
work of popular appeal was published. The then prevailing interest in
travels is, further, not to be overlooked as a forceful factor in
securing immediate recognition for the Sentimental Journey.[2] At no
time in the world's history has the popular interest in books of travel,
containing geographical and topographical description, and information
concerning peoples and customs, been greater than during this period.
The presses teemed with stories of wanderers in known and unknown lands.
The preface to the _Neue Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen_ of Leipzig for
the year 1759 heralds as a matter of importance a gain in geographical
description. The _Jenaische Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen_, 1773, makes
in its tables of contents, a separate division of travels. In 1759,
also, the "Allgemeine Historie der Reisen zu Wasser und zu Lande"
(Leipzig, 1747-1774), reached its seventeenth volume. These are brief
indications among numerous similar instances of the then predominant
interest in the wanderer's experience. Sterne's second work of fiction,
though differing in its nature so materially from other books of travel,
may well, even if only from the allurement of its title, have shared the
general enthusiasm for the traveler's narrative. Most important,
however, is the direct appeal of the book itself, irresistible to the
German mind and heart. Germany had been for a decade hesitating on the
verge of tears, and grasped with eagerness a book which seemed to give
her British sanction for indulgence in her lachrymose desire.
The portion of Shandy which is virtually a part of the Sentimental
Journey,[3] which Sterne, possibly to satisfy the demands of the
publisher, thrust in to fill out volumes contracted for, was not long
enough, nor distinctive enough in its use of sentiment, was too
effectually concealed in its volume of Shandean quibbles, to win readers
for the whole of Shandy, or to direct wavering attention through the
mazes of Shandyism up to the point where the sentimental Yorick really
takes up the pen and introduces the reader to the sad fate of Maria of
Moulines. One can imagine eager Germany aroused to sentimental frenzy
over the Maria incident in the Sentimental Journey, turning with
throbbing contrition to the forgotten, neglected, or unknown passage in
Tristram Shandy.[4]
It is difficult to trace sources for Sterne in English letters, that is,
for the strange combination of whimsicality, genuine sentiment and
knavish smiles, which is the real Sterne. He is individual, exotic, not
demonstrable from preceding literary conditions, and his meteoric, or
rather rocket-like career in Britain is in its decline a proof of the
insensibility of the English people to a large portion of his gospel.
The creature of fancy which, by a process of elimination, the Germans
made out of Yorick is more easily explicable from existing and preceding
literary and emotional conditions in Germany.[5] Brockes had prepared
the way for a sentimental view of nature, Klopstock's poetry had
fostered the display of emotion, the analysis of human feeling. Gellert
had spread his own sort of religious and ethical sentimentalism among
the multitudes of his devotees. Stirred by, and contemporaneous with
Gallic feeling, Germany was turning with longing toward the natural man,
that is, man unhampered by convention and free to follow the dictates of
the primal emotions. The exercise of human sympathy was a goal of this
movement. In this vague, uncertain awakening, this dangerous freeing of
human feelings, Yorick's practical illustration of the sentimental life
could not but prove an incentive, an organizer, a relief for pent-up
emotion.[6]
Johann Joachim Christoph Bode has already been mentioned in relation to
the early review of Zückert's translation of Shandy. His connection with
the rapid growth of the Yorick cult after the publication of the
Sentimental Journey demands a more extended account of this German
apostle of Yorick. In the sixth volume of Bode's translation of
Montaigne[7] was printed first the life of the translator by C. A.
Böttiger. This was published the following year by the same house in a
separate volume entitled "J. J. C. Bodes literarisches Leben, nebst
dessen Bildnis von Lips." All other sources of information regarding
Bode, such as the accounts in Jördens and in Schlichtegroll's
"Nekrolog,"[8] are derivations or abstracts from this biography. Bode
was born in Braunschweig in 1730; reared in lowly circumstances and
suffering various vicissitudes of fortune, he came to Hamburg in 1756-7.
Gifted with a talent for languages, which he had cultivated assiduously,
he was regarded at the time of his arrival, even in Hamburg, as one
especially conversant with the English language and literature. His
nature must have borne something akin to Yorick, for his biographer
describes his position in Hamburg society as not dissimilar to that once
occupied for a brief space in the London world by the clever fêted
Sterne. Yet the enthusiasm of the friend as biographer doubtless colors
the case, forcing a parallel with Yorick by sheer necessity. Before 1768
Bode had published several translations from the English with rather
dubious success, and the adaptability of the Sentimental Journey to
German uses must have occurred to him, or have been suggested to him
directly upon its very importation into Germany. He undoubtedly set
himself to the task of translation as soon as the book reached
his hands, for, in the issue of the _Hamburgische
Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_ for April 20, is found Bode's translation
of a section from the Sentimental Journey. "Die Bettler" he names the
extract; it is really the fifth of the sections which Sterne labels
"Montriul."[9] In the numbers of the same paper for June 11 and 15, Bode
translates in two parts the story of the "Monk;" thus, in but little
over three months after its English publication, the story of the poor
Franciscan Lorenzo and his fateful snuff-box was transferred to Germany
and began its heart-touching career. These excerpts were included by
Bode later in the year when he published his translation of the whole
Sentimental Journey. The first extract was evidently received with favor
and interest, for, in the foreword to the translation of the "Monk," in
the issue of June 11, Bode assigns this as his reason for making his
readers better acquainted with this worthy book. He further says that
the reader of taste and insight will not fail to distinguish the
difference when so fine a connoisseur of the human heart as Sterne
depicts sentiments, and when a shallow wit prattles of his emotions.
Bode's last words are a covert assumption of his rôle as prophet and
priest of Yorick in Germany: "The reader may himself judge from the
following passage, whether we have spoken of our Briton in terms of too
high praise."
In the July number of the _Unterhaltungen_, another Hamburg periodical,
is printed another translation from the Sentimental Journey entitled:
"Eine Begebenheit aus Yoricks Reise fürs Herz übersetzt." The episode is
that of the _fille de chambre_[10] who is seeking Crébillon's "Les
Egarements du Coeur et de l'Esprit." The translator omits the first part
of the section and introduces us to the story with a few unacknowledged
words of his own. In the September number of the same periodical the
rest of the _fille de chambre_ story[11] is narrated. Here also the
translator alters the beginning of the account to make it less abrupt in
the rendering. The author of this translation has not been determined.
Bode does not translate the word "Sentimental" in his published
extracts, giving merely the English title; hence Lessing's advice[12]
concerning the rendering of the word dates probably from the latter part
of the summer. The translation in the September number of the
_Unterhaltungen_ also does not contain a rendering of the word. Bode's
complete translation was issued probably in October,[13] possibly late
in September, 1768, and bore the imprint of the publisher Cramer in
Hamburg and Bremen, but the volumes were printed at Bode's own press and
were entitled "Yoricks Empfindsame Reise durch Frankreich und Italien,
aus dem Englischen übersetzt."[14]
The translator's preface occupies twenty pages and is an important
document in the story of Sterne's popularity in Germany, since it
represents the introductory battle-cry of the Sterne cult, and
illustrates the attitude of cultured Germany toward the new star. Bode
begins his foreword with Lessing's well-known statement of his devotion
to Sterne. Bode does not name Lessing; calls him "a well-known German
scholar." The statement referred to was made when Bode brought to his
friend the news of Sterne's death. It is worth repeating:
"I would gladly have resigned to him five years of my own life, if such
a thing were possible, though I had known with certainty that I had only
ten, or even eight left. . . . but under the condition that he must keep
on writing, no matter what, life and opinions, or sermons, or journeys."
On July 5, 1768, Lessing wrote to Nicolai, commenting on Winckelmann's
death as follows: "He is the second author within a short time, to whom
I would have gladly given some years of my own life."[15]
Nearly thirty years later (March 20, 1797) Sara Wulf, whose maiden name
was Meyer and who was later and better known as Frau von Grotthus, wrote
from Dresden to Goethe of the consolation found in "Werther" after a
disappointing youthful love affair, and of Lessing's conversation with
her then concerning Goethe. She reports Lessing's words as follows: "You
will feel sometime what a genius Goethe is, I am sure of this. I have
always said I would give ten years of my own life if I had been able to
lengthen Sterne's by one year, but Goethe consoles me in some measure
for his loss."[16]
It would be absurd to attach any importance to this variation of
statement. It does not indicate necessarily an affection for Sterne and
a regret at his loss, mathematically doubled in these seven or eight
years between Sterne's death and the time of Lessing's conversation with
Sara Meyer; it probably arises from a failure of memory on the part of
the lady, for Bode's narrative of the anecdote was printed but a few
months after Sterne's death, and Lessing made no effort to correct an
inaccuracy of statement, if such were the case, though he lived to see
four editions of Bode's translation and consequently so many repetitions
of his expressed but impossible desire. Erich Schmidt[17] reduces this
willingness on Lessing's part to one year,--an unwarranted liberty.
These two testimonies of Lessing's devotion are of importance in
defining his attitude toward Yorick. They attest the fact that this was
no passing fancy, no impulsive thought uttered on the moment when the
news of Sterne's death was brought to him, and when the Sentimental
Journey could have been but a few weeks in his hands, but a deep-seated
desire, born of reflection and continued admiration.[18] The addition of
the word "Reisen" in Bode's narrative is significant, for it shows that
Lessing must have become acquainted with the Sentimental Journey before
April 6, the date of the notice of Sterne's death in the _Hamburgische
Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_;[19] that is, almost immediately after its
English publication, unless Bode, in his enthusiasm for the book which
he was offering the public, inserted the word unwarrantably in Lessing's
statement.
To return to Bode's preface. With emphatic protestations, disclaiming
vanity in appealing to the authority of so distinguished a friend, Bode
proceeds to relate more in detail Lessing's connection with his
endeavor. He does not say that Lessing suggested the translation to him,
though his account has been interpreted to mean that, and this fact has
been generally accepted by the historians of literature and the
biographers of Lessing.[20] The tone of Bode's preface, however, rather
implies the contrary, and no other proof of the supposition is
available. What Bode does assert is merely that the name of the scholar
whom he quotes as having expressed a willingness to give a part of his
own life if Sterne's literary activity might be continued, would create
a favorable prepossession for his original ("ein günstiges Vorurtheil"),
and that a translator is often fortunate enough if his selection of a
book to translate is not censured. All this implies, on Lessing's part,
only an approval of Bode's choice, a fact which would naturally follow
from the remarkable statement of esteem in the preceding sentence. Bode
says further that out of friendship for him and regard for the reader of
taste, this author (Lessing), had taken the trouble to go through the
whole translation, and then he adds the conventional request in such
circumstances, that the errors remaining may be attributed to the
translator and not to the friend.
The use of the epithet "empfindsam" for "sentimental" is then the
occasion for some discussion, and its source is one of the facts
involved in Sterne's German vogue which seem to have fastened themselves
on the memory of literature. Bode had in the first place translated the
English term by "sittlich," a manifestly insufficient if not flatly
incorrect rendering, but his friend coined the word "empfindsam" for the
occasion and Bode quotes Lessing's own words on the subject:
"Bemerken Sie sodann dass sentimental ein neues Wort ist. War es Sternen
erlaubt, sich ein neues Wort zu bilden, so muss es eben darum auch
seinem Uebersetzer erlaubt seyn. Die Engländer hatten gar kein
Adjectivum von Sentiment: wir haben von Empfindung mehr als eines,
empfindlich, empfindbar, empfindungsreich, aber diese sagen alle etwas
anders. Wagen Sie, empfindsam! Wenn eine mühsame Reise eine Reise
heisst, bey der viel Mühe ist: so kann ja auch eine empfindsame Reise
eine Reise heissen, bey der viel Empfindung war. Ich will nicht sagen,
dass Sie die Analogie ganz auf ihrer Seite haben dürften. Aber was die
Leser vors erste bey dem Worte noch nicht denken mögen, sie sich nach
und nach dabey zu denken gewöhnen."[21]
The statement that Sterne coined the word "sentimental" is undoubtedly
incorrect,[22] but no one seems to have discovered and corrected the
error till Nicolai's article on Sterne in the _Berlinische
Monatsschrift_ for February, 1795, in which it is shown that the word
had been used in older English novels, in "Sir Charles Grandison"
indeed.[23] It may well be that, as Böttiger hints,[24] the coining of
the word "empfindsam" was suggested to Lessing by Abbt's similar
formation of "empfindnisz."[25]
[Transcriber's Note:
The reference is to Böttinger, not to the present text.]
The preface to this first edition of Bode's translation of the
Sentimental Journey contains, further, a sketch of Sterne's life,[26]
his character and his works. Bode relates the familiar story of the dog,
but misses the point entirely in rendering "puppy" by "Geck" in Sterne's
reply, "So lang er ein Geck ist." The watchcoat episode is narrated, and
a brief account is given of Sterne's fortunes in London with Tristram
Shandy and the sermons. Allusion has already been made to the hints
thrown out in this sketch relative to the reading of Sterne in Germany.
A translation from Shandy of the passage descriptive of Parson Yorick
serves as a portrait for Sterne.
A second edition of Bode's work was published in 1769. The preface,
which is dated "Anfang des Monats Mai, 1769," is in the main identical
with the first, but has some significant additions. A word is said
relative to his controversy with a critic, which is mentioned later.[27]
Bode confesses further that the excellence of his work is due to Ebert
and Lessing,[28] though modesty compelled his silence in the previous
preface concerning the source of his aid. Bode admits that even this
disclosure is prompted by the clever guess of a critic in the
_Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent_,[29] who openly named
Lessing as the scholar referred to in the first introduction. The
addition and prominence of Ebert's name is worthy of note, for in spite
of the plural mention[30] in the appendix to the introduction, his first
acknowledgment is to one friend only and there is no suggestion of
another counselor. Ebert's connection with the Bode translation has been
overlooked in the distribution of influence, while the memorable coining
of the new word, supplemented by Böttiger's unsubstantiated statements,
has emphasized Lessing's service in this regard. Ebert is well-known as
an intelligent and appreciative student of English literature, and as a
translator, but his own works betray no trace of imitation or admiration
of Sterne.
The final words of this new preface promise a translation of the
continuation of the Sentimental Journey; the spurious volumes of
Eugenius are, of course, the ones meant here. This introduction to the
second edition remains unchanged in the subsequent ones. The text of the
second edition was substantially an exact reproduction of the first,
but Bode allowed himself frequent minor changes of word or phrase, an
alteration occurring on an average once in about three pages. Bode's
changes are in general the result of a polishing or filing process, in
the interest of elegance of discourse, or accuracy of translation. Bode
acknowledges that some of the corrections were those suggested by a
reviewer,[31] but states that other passages criticised were allowed to
stand as they were. He says further that he would have asked those
friends who had helped him on his translation itself to aid him in the
alterations, if distance and other conditions had allowed. The reference
here is naturally to his separation from Ebert, who was in Braunschweig,
but the other "conditions" which could prevent a continuation of
Lessing's interest in the translation and his assistance in revision are
not evident. Lessing was in Hamburg during this period, and hence his
advice was available.
Bode's retranslation of the passage with which Sterne's work closed
shows increased perception and appreciation for the subtleness of
Sterne's indecent suggestions, or, perhaps, a growing lack of timidity
or scruple in boldly repeating them. It is probable that the
continuation by Eugenius, which had come into his hands during this
period, had, with its resumption of the point, reminded Bode of the
inadequacy and inexactness of his previous rendering.
At almost precisely the same time that Bode's translation appeared,
another German rendering was published, a fact which in itself is
significant for the determination of the relative strength of appeal as
between Sterne's two works of fiction. The title[32] of this version was
"Versuch über die menschliche Natur in Herrn Yoricks, Verfasser des
Tristram Shandy, Reisen durch Frankreich und Italien, aus dem
Englischen." It was dated 1769 and was published at the "Fürstliche
Waisenhausbuchhandlung," in Braunschweig. The preface is signed
Braunschweig, September 7, 1768, and the book was issued in September or
October. The anonymous translator was Pastor Mittelstedt[33] in
Braunschweig (Hirsching und Jördens say Hofprediger), whom the partisan
Böttiger calls the ever-ready manufacturer of translations (der allezeit
fertige Uebersetzungsfabrikant). Behmer tentatively suggests Weis as the
translator of this early rendering, an error into which he is led
evidently by a remark in Bode's preface in which the apologetic
translator states the rumor that Weis was engaged in translating the
same book, and that he (Bode) would surely have locked up his work in
his desk if the publisher had not thereby been led to suffer loss.
Nothing was ever heard of this third translation.
This first edition of the Mittelstedt translation contains 248 pages and
is supplied with a preface which is, like Bode's, concerned in
considerable measure with the perplexing problem of the translation of
Sterne's title. The English title is given and the word "sentimental" is
declared a new one in England and untranslatable in German. Mittelstedt
proposes "Gefühlvolle Reisen," "Reisen fürs Herz," "Philosophische
Reisen," and then condemns his own suggestions as indeterminate and
forced. He then goes on to say, "So I have chosen the title which Yorick
himself suggests in the first part."[34] He speaks of the lavish praise
already bestowed on this book by the learned journals, and turns at last
aside to do the obvious: he bemoans Sterne's death by quoting Hamlet and
closes with an apostrophe to Sterne translated from the April number of
the _Monthly Review_ for 1768.[35] In 1769, the year when the first
edition was dated, the Mittelstedt translation was published under a
slightly altered title, as already mentioned. This second edition of the
Mittelstedt translation in the same year as the first is overlooked by
Jördens and Hirsching,[36] both of whom give a second and hence really a
third edition in 1774. Böttiger notes with partisan zeal that Bode's
translation was made use of in some of the alterations of this second
edition, and further records the fact that the account of Sterne's life,
added in this edition, was actually copied from Bode's preface.[37]
The publication of the Mittelstedt translation was the occasion of a
brief controversy between the two translators in contemporary journals.
Mittelstedt printed his criticism of Bode's work in a home paper, the
_Braunschweiger Intelligenzblätter_, and Bode spoke out his defense in
the _Neue Hamburger Zeitung_. That Bode in his second edition adopted
some of the reviewer's suggestions and criticisms has been noted, but in
the preface to this edition he declines to resume the strife in spite of
general expectation of it, but, as a final shot, he delivers himself of
"an article from his critical creed," that the "critic is as little
infallible as author or translator," which seems, at any rate, a rather
pointless and insignificant contribution to the controversy.
Bode's translation of the third and fourth volumes of Yorick's
Journey,[38] that is, the continuation by Eugenius, followed directly
after the announcement in the preface to the second edition of the first
two volumes, as already mentioned. Böttiger states that Bode had this
continuation from Alberti and knew it before anyone else in Germany. It
was published in England in the spring of 1769, and was greeted with a
disapproval which was quite general, and it never enjoyed there any
considerable genuine popularity or recognition. Bode published this
translation of Stevenson's work without any further word of comment or
explanation whatsoever, a fact which easily paved the way for a
misunderstanding relative to the volumes, for Bode was frequently
regarded as their author and held responsible for their defects. Bode
himself never made any satisfactory or adequate explanation of his
attitude toward these volumes, and the reply to Goeze in the
introduction to his translation of Shandy is the nearest approach to a
discussion of his position. But there Bode is concerned only with the
attack made by the Hamburg pastor upon his character, an inference drawn
from the nature of the book translated, and the character of the
translation; in the absence of a new edition in which "Mine and His
shall be marked off by distinct boundaries," he asks Goeze only to send
to him, and beg "for original and translation," naturally for the
purpose of comparison. This evasive reply is Bode's only defense or
explanation. Böttiger claims that the review of Bode's translation in
the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_ did much to spread the idea of
Bode's authorship, though the reviewer in that periodical[39] only
suggests the possibility of German authorship, a suspicion aroused by
the substitution of German customs and motif and word-play, together
with contemporary literary allusion, allusion to literary mediocrities
and obscurities, of such a nature as to preclude the possibility of the
book's being a literal translation from the English.
The exact amount and the nature of Bode's divergence from the original,
his alterations and additions, have never been definitely stated by
anyone. The reviewer in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_ is
manifestly ignorant of the original. Böttiger is indefinite and
partisan, yet his statement of the facts has been generally accepted and
constantly repeated. He admits the German coloring given the translation
by Bode through German allusions and German word-plays: he says that
Bode allowed himself these liberties, feeling that he was no longer
dealing with Sterne, a statement of motive on Bode's part which the
latter never makes and never hints at. The only absolute additions which
Böttiger mentions as made by Bode to the narrative of Eugenius are the
episode, "Das Hündchen," and the digression, "Die Moral." The erroneous
idea herein implied has been caught up and repeated by nearly everyone
who has mentioned Bode's translation of the work.[40] The less certain
allusion to "Die Moral" has been lost sight of, and "Das Hündchen" alone
has been remembered as representing this activity on Bode's part. In
fact this episode is only one of many pure creations on Bode's part and
one of the briefer. In the first pages of these volumes Bode is faithful
to the original, a fact suggesting that examination or comparison of the
original text and Bode's translation was never carried beyond the first
two-score pages; yet here, it would seem, Bode's rendering was less
careful, more open to censure for inaccuracy, than in the previous
volumes.[41]
This method of translation obtains up to page 48, then Bode omits a
half-page of half-innocent, half-revolting suggestion, the story of the
Cordelier, and from the middle of page 49 to page 75, twenty-five pages,
the translator adds material absolutely his own. This fiction,
introducing Yorick's sentimental attitude toward the snuff-box, resuming
a sentimental episode in Sterne's work, full of tears and sympathy,
is especially characteristic of Yorick, as the Germans conceived him.
The story is entitled "Das Mündel,"[42] "The Ward," and is evidently
intended as a masculine companion-piece to the fateful story of Maria of
Moulines, linked to it even in the actual narrative itself. An
unfortunate, half-crazed man goes about in silence, performing little
services in an inn where Yorick finds lodging. The hostess tells his
story. He was once the brilliant son of the village miller, was
well-educated and gifted with scholarly interests and attainments. While
instructing some children at Moulines, he meets a peasant girl, and love
is born between them. An avaricious brother opposes Jacques's passion
and ultimately confines him in secret, spreading the report in Moulines
of his faithlessness to his love. After a tragedy has released Jacques
from his unnatural bondage, he learns of his loved one's death and loses
his mental balance through grief. Such an addition to the brief pathos
of Maria's story, as narrated by Sterne, such a forced explanation of
the circumstances, is peculiarly commonplace and inartistic. Sterne
instinctively closed the episode with sufficient allowance for the
exercise of the imagination.
Following this addition, the section "Slander" of the original is
omitted. The story of the adventure with the opera-girl is much changed.
The bald indecency of the narrative is somewhat softened by minor
substitutions and omissions. Nearly two pages are inserted here, in
which Yorick discourses on the difference between a sentimental traveler
and an _avanturier_. On pages 122-126, the famous "Hündchen" episode is
narrated, an insertion taking the place of the hopelessly vulgar "Rue
Tireboudin." According to this narrative, Yorick, after the fire, enters
a home where he finds a boy weeping over a dead dog and refusing to be
comforted with promises of other canine possessions. The critics united
in praising this as being a positive addition to the Yorick adventures,
as conceived and related in Sterne's finest manner. After the lapse of
more than a century, one can acknowledge the pathos, the humanity of the
incident, but the manner is not that of Sterne. It is a simple,
straight-forward relation of the touching incident, introducing that
element of the sentimental movement which bears in Germany a close
relation to Yorick, and was exploited, perhaps, more than any other
feature of his creed, as then interpreted, _i.e._, the sentimental
regard for the lower animals.[43] But there is lacking here the
inevitable concomitant of Sterne's relation of a sentimental situation,
the whimsicality of the narrator in his attitude at the time of the
adventure, or reflective whimsicality in the narration. Sterne is always
whimsically quizzical in his conduct toward a sentimental condition, or
toward himself in the analysis of his conduct.
After the "Vergebene Nachforschung" (Unsuccessful Inquiry), which agrees
with the original, Bode adds two pages covering the touching solicitude
of La Fleur for his master's safety. This addition is, like the
"Hündchen" episode, just mentioned, of considerable significance, for it
illustrates another aspect of Sterne's sentimental attitude toward human
relations, which appealed to the Germany of these decades and was
extensively copied; the connection between master and man. Following
this added incident, Bode omits completely three sections of Eugenius's
original narrative, "The Definition," "Translation of a Fragment" and
"An Anecdote;" all three are brief and at the same time of baldest, most
revolting indecency. In all, Bode's direct additions amount in this
first volume to about thirty-three pages out of one hundred and
forty-two. The divergences from the original are in the second volume
(the fourth as numbered from Sterne's genuine Journey) more marked and
extensive: above fifty pages are entirely Bode's own, and the individual
alterations in word, phrase, allusion and sentiment are more numerous
and unwarranted. The more significant of Bode's additions are here
noted. "Die Moral" (pages 32-37) contains a fling at Collier, the author
of a mediocre English translation of Klopstock's "Messias," and another
against Kölbele, a contemporary German novelist, whose productions have
long since been forgotten.[44]
Eugenius's chapter, "Vendredi-Saint," Bode sees fit to alter in a rather
extraordinary way, by changing the personnel and giving it quite another
introduction. He inserts here a brief account of Walter Shandy, his
disappointment at Tristram's calamitous nose and Tristram's name, and
his resolve to perfect his son's education; and then he makes the visit
to M'lle Laborde, as narrated by Eugenius, an episode out of Walter
Shandy's book, which was written for Tristram's instruction, and,
according to Bode, was delivered for safe-keeping into Yorick's hands.
Bode changes M'lle Laborde into M'lle Gillet, and Walter Shandy is her
visitor, not Yorick. Bode allows himself some verbal changes and softens
the bald suggestion at the end. Bode's motive for this startling change
is not clear beyond question. The most plausible theory is that the open
and gross suggestion of immoral relation between Yorick, the clergyman
and moralist, and the Paris maiden, seemed to Bode inconsistent with the
then current acceptation of Yorick's character; and hence he preferred
by artifice to foist the misdemeanor on to the elder Shandy.
The second extensive addition of Bode's in this volume is the section
called "Die Erklärung," and its continuation in the two following
divisions, a story which unites itself with the "Fragment" in Sterne's
original narration. Yorick is ill and herbs are brought to him in paper
wrappings which turn out to contain the story of the decayed gentleman,
which, according to Sterne's relation, the Notary was beginning to
write. It will be remembered that the introduction in Sterne was also
brought by La Fleur as a bit of wrapping paper. This curious
coincidence, this prosaic resumption of the broken narrative, is naïve
at least, but can hardly commend itself to any critic as being other
than commonplace and bathetic. The story itself, as related by the dying
man is a tale of accidental incest told quietly, earnestly, but without
a suggestion of Sterne's wit or sentiment.
In the next section, emanating entirely from Bode, "Vom
Gesundheitstrinken," the author is somewhat more successful in catching
the spirit of Sterne in his buoyancy, and in his whimsical anecdote
telling: it purports to be an essay by the author's friend, Grubbius.
The last addition made by Bode[45] introduces once more Yorick's
sentiment relative to man's treatment of the animal world. Yorick,
walking in the garden of an acquaintance, shoots a sparrow and meets
with reproof from the owner of the garden. Yorick protests prosaically
that it was only a sparrow, yet on being assured that it was also a
living being, he succumbs to vexation and self-reproof at his own
failure to be true to his own higher self. A similar regret, a similar
remorse at sentimental thoughtlessness, is recorded of the real Yorick
in connection with the Franciscan, Lorenzo. But there is present in
Sterne's story the inevitable element of caprice in thought or action,
the whimsical inconsistency of varying moods, not a mere commonplace
lapse from a sentimental creed. In one case, Yorick errs through whim,
in the other, merely through heedlessness.
Bode's attitude toward the continuation of Eugenius and the general
nature of his additions have been suggested by the above account.
A résumé of the omissions and the verbal changes would indicate that
they were made frequently because of the indecency of the original;
the transference of the immorality in the episode of M'lle. Laborde and
Walter Shandy, if the reason above suggested be allowed, is further
proof of Bode's solicitude for Yorick's moral reputation. Yet the
retention of the episode "Les Gants d'Amour" in its entirety, and of
parts of the continued story of the Piedmontese, may seem inconsistent
and irreconcilable with any absolute objection on Bode's part other than
a quantitative one, to this loathesome element of the Eugenius
narrative.
Albrecht Wittenberg[46] in a letter to Jacobi, dated Hamburg, April 21,
1769, says he reads that Riedel is going to continue "Yorick's Reisen,"
and comments upon the exceedingly difficult undertaking. Nothing further
is known of this plan of Riedel's.
[Footnote 1: Various German authorities date the Sentimental
Journey erroneously 1767. Jördens, V, p. 753; Koberstein, III,
p. 463; Hirsching, XIII, pp. 291-309.]
[Footnote 2: The reviewer in the _Allg. deutsche Bibl._ (Anhang
I-XII, vol. II, p. 896) implies a contemporary cognizance of this
aid to its popularity. He notes the interest in accounts of
travels and fears that some readers will be disappointed after
taking up the book. Some French books of travel, notably
Chapelle's "Voyage en Provence," 1656, were read with appreciation
by cultivated Germany and had their influence parallel and
auxiliary to Sterne's.]
[Footnote 3: In the Seventh Book of Tristram Shandy. III,
pp. 47-110.]
[Footnote 4: III, pp. 210-213.]
[Footnote 5: The emotional groundwork in Germany which furthered
the appreciation of the Journey, and the sober sanity of British
common sense which choked its English sweep, are admirably and
typically illustrated in the story of the meeting of Fanny Burney
and Sophie la Roche, as told in the diary of the former ("The
Diary and Letters of Frances Burney, Madame D'Arblay," Boston,
1880, I, p. 291), entries for September 11 and 17, 1786. On their
second meeting Mme. D'Arblay writes of the German sentimentalist:
"Madame la Roche then rising and fixing her eyes filled with tears
on my face, while she held both my hands, in the most melting
accents exclaimed, 'Miss Borni, la plus chère, la plus digne des
Anglaises, dites--moi--m'aimez vous?'" Miss Burney is quite
sensibly frank in her inability to fathom this imbecility.
Ludmilla Assing ("Sophie la Roche," Berlin, 1859, pp. 273-280)
calls Miss Burney cold and petty.]
[Footnote 6: So heartily did the Germans receive the Sentimental
Journey that it was felt ere long to be almost a German book.
The author of "Ueber die schönen Geister und Dichter des 18ten
Jahrhunderts vornehmlich unter den Deutschen," by J. C. Fritsch
(?) (Lemgo, 1771), gives the book among German stories and
narratives (pp. 177-9) along with Hagedorn, Gellert, Wieland and
others. He says of the first parts of the Sentimental Journey,
"zwar . . . . aus dem Englischen übersetzt; kann aber für national
passieren."]
[Footnote 7: Michael Montaigne's "Gedanken und Meinungen über
Allerley Gegenstände. Ins Deutsch übersetzt." Berlin (Lagarde)
1793-5. Bode's life is in Vol. VI, pages III-CXLIV. For a review
of Bode's Life see _Neue Bibl. der schönen Wissenschaften_, LVIII,
p. 93.]
[Footnote 8: Supplementband für 1790-93, pp. 350-418.]
[Footnote 9: The references to the _Hamburgische
Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_ are as follows: 1768, pages 241, 361
and 369 respectively.]
[Footnote 10: Pp. 71-74.]
[Footnote 11: Pp. 101-104. "The Temptation" and the "Conquest."
The _Unterhaltungen_ is censured by the _Deutsche Bibliothek der
schönen Wissenschaften_, III, p. 266, for printing a poor
translation from Yorick when two translations had already been
announced. The references to _Unterhaltungen_ are respectively pp.
12-16, and 209-213.]
[Footnote 12: See below, p. 42-3.]
[Footnote 13: It was reviewed in the _Hamburgischer
unpartheyischer Correspondent_, Oct. 29.]
[Footnote 14: I, pp. XX, 168; II, p. 168.]
[Footnote 15: Lachmann's edition, 1840, XII, p. 199.]
[Footnote 16: See _Goethe-Jahrbuch_, XIV (1893), pp. 51-52.]
[Footnote 17: "Heinrich Leopold Wagner, Goethe's Jugendgenosse,"
2d ed. Jena, Frommann, 1879, p. 104.]
[Footnote 18: It is not possible to date with absolute certainty
the time of Lessing's conversation with Sara Meyer, but it was
after the publication of "Werther," and must have been on one of
his two visits to Berlin after that, that is, in March, 1775,
on his way to Vienna, or in February, 1776, on his return from
Italy.]
[Footnote 19: Bode must have come to Lessing with the information
before this public announcement, for Lessing could hardly have
failed to learn of it when once published in a prominent Hamburg
periodical.]
[Footnote 20: Böttiger in his biographical sketch of Bode is the
first to make this statement (p. lxiii), and the spread of the
idea and its general acceptation are directly traceable to his
authority. The _Neue Bibl. der schönen Wissenschaften_ in its
review of Böttiger's work repeats the statement (LVIII, p. 97),
and it is again repeated by Jördens (I, p. 114, edition of 1806),
by Danzel-Guhrauer with express mention of Böttiger ("Lessing,
sein Leben und seine Werke," II. Erste Abtheilung, p. 287), and by
Erich Schmidt ("Lessing, Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner
Schriften," Berlin, 1899, I, p. 674). The editor of the Hempel
edition, VII, p. 553 claims Lessing as responsible for the
translation of the Journey, and also of Shandy. The success of the
"Empfindsame Reise" and the popularity of Sterne are quite enough
to account for the latter translation and there is no evidence of
urging on Lessing's part. A similar statement is found in Gervinus
(V, p. 194). The _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._ (Apr. 21, 1775), p. 267,
credits Wieland with having urged Bode to translate Shandy. The
_Neue Critische Nachrichten, Greifswald_, IX, p. 279, makes the
same statement. The article, however, in the _Teutscher Merkur_
(1773, II, pp. 228-30) expresses merely a great satisfaction that
Bode is engaged upon the work, and gives some suggestions to him
about it.]
[Footnote 21: See Bode's Introduction, p. iii, iv. Also _Allg.
deutsche Bibl._, Anhang, I-XII, Vol. II, pp. 896-9.]
[Footnote 22: Strangely enough the first use of this word which
has been found is in one of Sterne's letters, written in 1740 to
the lady who subsequently became his wife. (Letters, p. 25). But
these letters were not published till 1775, long after the word
was in common use. An obscure Yorkshire clergyman can not be
credited with its invention.]
[Footnote 23: Böttiger refers to Campe's work, "Ueber die
Bereicherung und Reinigung der deutschen Sprache," p. 297 ff.,
for an account of the genesis of this word, but adds that Campe is
incorrect in his assertion that Sterne coined the word. Campe does
not make the erroneous statement at all, but Bode himself puts it
in the mouth of Lessing.]
[Footnote 24: See foot note to page lxiii.]
[Footnote 25: For particulars concerning this parallel formation
see Mendelssohn's Schriften, ed. by G. B. Mendelssohn, Leipzig,
1844. V, pp. 330, 335-7, letters between Abbt, Mendelssohn,
Nicolai.]
[Footnote 26: The source of Bode's information is the article by
Dr. Hill, first published in the _Royal Female Magazine_ for
April, 1760, and reprinted in the _London Chronicle_, May 5, 1760
(pp. 434-435), under the title, "Anecdotes of a fashionable
Author." Bode's sketch is an abridged translation of this article.
This article is referred to in Sterne's letters, I, pp. 38-9, 42.]
[Footnote 27: See p. 47.]