findet, grössten Theils denen Herren Ebert und Lessing zu
verdanken habe."]
[Footnote 29: _Hamburgischer Unpartheyischer Correspondent_,
October 29, 1768.]
[Footnote 30: "Verschwieg ich die Namen dieser Männer."]
[Footnote 31: See p. 47.]
[Footnote 32: Jördens gives this title, which is the correct one.
Appell in "Werther und seine Zeit," (p. 247) calls it "Herrn
Yoricks, Verfasser (sic) des Tristram Shandy Reisen durch
Frankreich und Italien, als ein Versuch über die menschliche
Natur," which is the title of the second edition published later,
but with the same date. See _Allg. deutsche Bibliothek_, Anhang,
I-XII, Vol. II, pp. 896-9. Kayser and Heinsius both give
"Empfindsame Reisen durch Frankreich und Italien, oder Versuch
über die menschliche Natur," which is evidently a confusion with
the better known Bode translation, an unconscious effort to locate
the book.]
[Footnote 33: Through some strange confusion, a reviewer in the
_Jenaische Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen_ (1769, p. 574) states
that Ebert is the author of this translation; he also asserts that
Bode and Lessing had translated the book; it is reported too that
Bode is to issue a new translation in which he makes use of the
work of Lessing and Ebert, a most curious record of uncertain
rumor.]
[Footnote 34: See p. 31, "In the Street, Calais." "If this won't
turn out something, another will. No matter,--'tis an essay upon
human nature."]
[Footnote 35: _Monthly Review_, XXXVIII, p. 319: "Gute Nacht,
bewunderungswürdiger Yorick! Dein Witz, Deine Menschenliebe! Dein
redliches Herz! ein jedes untadelhafte Stück deines Lebens und
deiner Schriften müsse in einem unsterblichen Gedächtnisse
blühen,--und O! mögte der Engel, der jenes aufgezeichnet hat,
über die Unvollkommenheiten von beiden eine Thräne des Mitleidens
fallen lassen und sie auf ewig auslöschen."]
[Footnote 36: Jördens, V, p. 753. Hirsching,
Historisch-litterarisches Handbuch, XIII, pp. 291-309 (1809).]
[Footnote 37: It has not been possible to examine this second
edition, but the information concerning Sterne's life may quite
possibly have been taken not from Bode's work but from his sources
as already given.]
[Footnote 38: "Yoriks empfindsame Reise, aus dem Englischen
übersetzt," 3ter und 4ter Theil, Hamburg und Bremen, bei Cramer,
1769.]
[Footnote 39: See _Allg. deutsche Bibl._ Anhang, I-XII, Vol. II,
pp. 896-9. Hirsching (Hist.-Litt. Handbuch) says confusedly that
Bode wrote the fourth and fifth parts.]
[Footnote 40: See _Neue Bibl. der schönen Wissenschaften_, LVIII,
p. 98, "Im dritten Bande ist die rührende Geschichte, das
Hündchen, ganz von ihm." Also Jördens, I, 114, Heine, "Der
deutsche Roman," p. 23.]
[Footnote 41: The following may serve as examples of inadequate,
inexact or false renderings:
ORIGINAL
BODE'S TRANSLATION
Like a stuck pig.
P. 5: Eine arme Hexe, die Feuer-Probe machen soll.
Dress as well as undress.
P. 9: Der Kleidung als der Einkleidung.
Chance medley of sensation.
P. 11: Unschuldiges Verbrechen der Sinne.
Where serenity was wont to fix her reign.
P. 13: Wo die Heiterkeit ihren Sitz aufgeschlagen hatte.
Wayward shades of my canvas.
P. 20: Die harten Schattirungen meines Gewebes.
Caterpillars.
P. 22: Heuschrecken.
The chance medley of existence.
P. 23: Das unschuldige Verbrechen des Daseyns.]
[Footnote 42: Bode's story, "Das Mündel" was printed in the
_Hamburgische Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_, 1769, p. 729 (November
23) and p. 753 (December 4).]
[Footnote 43: There will be frequent occasion to mention this
impulse emanating from Sterne, in the following pages. One may
note incidentally an anonymous book "Freundschaften" (Leipzig,
1775) in which the author beholds a shepherd who finds a torn lamb
and indulges in a sentimental reverie upon it. _Allg. deutsche
Bibl._, XXXVI, 1, 139.]
[Footnote 44: Bode inserts "Miss Judith Meyer" and "Miss
Philippine Damiens," two poor novels by this Kölbele in place of
Eugenius's "Pilgrim's Progress." Böttiger comments, "statt des im
englischen Original angeführten schalen Romans 'The Pilgrim's
Progress.'" Bode, in translating Shandy several years later,
inserts for the same book, "Thousand and one Nights." In speaking
of this, Böttiger calls "Pilgrim's Progress" "die schale
engländische Robinsonade," an eloquent proof of Böttiger's
ignorance of English literature.]
[Footnote 45: Pp. 166 ff.]
[Footnote 46: _Quellen und Forschungen_, XXII, p. 129.]
CHAPTER IV
STERNE IN GERMANY AFTER THE PUBLICATION OF THE SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY
The publication of the Sentimental Journey, as implied in the previous
chapter, brought Sterne into vital connection with literary impulses and
emotional experiences in Germany, and his position as a leader was at
once recognized. Because of the immediate translations, the reviews of
the English original are markedly few, even in journals which gave
considerable attention to English literary affairs. The _Neue Bibliothek
der schönen Wissenschaften_[1] purposely delays a full review of the
book because of the promised translation, and contents itself with the
remark, "that we have not read for a long time anything more full of
sentiment and humor." Yet, strangely enough, the translation is never
worthily treated, only the new edition of 1771 is mentioned,[2] with
especial praise of Füger's illustrations.
Other journals devote long reviews to the new favorite: according to the
_Jenaische Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen_[3] all the learned
periodicals vied with one another in lavish bestowal of praise upon
these Journeys. The journals consulted go far toward justifying this
statement.
The _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_ reviews both the Bode and
Mittelstedt renderings, together with Bode's translation of Stevenson's
continuation, in the second volume of the Anhang to Volumes I-XII.[4]
The critique of Bode's work defines, largely in the words of the book
itself, the peculiar purpose and method of the Journey, and comments
briefly but with frank enthusiasm on the various touching incidents of
the narrative: "Nur ein von der Natur verwahrloseter bleibt dabei kalt
und gleichgültig," remarks the reviewer. The conception of Yorick's
personal character, which prevailed in Germany, obtained by a process of
elimination and misunderstanding, is represented by this critic when he
records without modifying his statement: "Various times Yorick shows
himself as the most genuine foe of self-seeking, of immoral _double
entendre_, and particularly of assumed seriousness, and he scourges them
emphatically." The review of the third and fourth parts contains a
similar and perhaps even more significant passage illustrating the view
of Yorick's character held by those who did not know him and had the
privilege of admiring him only in his writings and at a safe distance.
"Yorick," he says, "although he sometimes brings an event, so to speak,
to the brink of an indecorous issue, manages to turn it at once with the
greatest delicacy to a decorous termination. Or he leaves it incomplete
under such circumstances that the reader is impressed by the rare
delicacy of mind of the author, and can never suspect that such a man,
who never allows a _double entendre_ to enter his mind without a blush,
has entertained an indecent idea." This view is derived from a somewhat
short-sighted reading of the Sentimental Journey: the obvious Sterne of
Tristram Shandy, and the more insidiously concealed creator of the
Journey could hardly be characterized discriminatingly by such a
statement. Sterne's cleverness consists not in suggesting his own
innocence of imagination, but in the skill with which he assures his
reader that he is master of the situation, and that no possible
interpretation of the passage has escaped his intelligence. To the
Mittelstedt translation is accorded in this review the distinction of
being, in the rendering of certain passages, more correct than Bode's.
A reviewer in the _Hallische Neue Gelehrte Zeitung_[5] treats of the
Sentimental Journey in the Mittelstedt translation. He is evidently
unfamiliar with the original and does not know of Bode's work, yet his
admiration is unbounded, though his critique is without distinction or
discrimination. The _Neue Critische Nachrichten_[6] of Greifswald gives
a review of Bode's rendering in which a parallel with Shakespeare is
suggested. The original mingling of instruction and waggery is commented
upon, imitation is discouraged, and the work is held up as a test,
through appreciation or failure to appreciate, of a reader's ability to
follow another's feelings, to understand far-away hints and allusions,
to follow the tracks of an irregular and errant wit.
The _Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent_ for October 29, 1768,
regards the book in Bode's translation as an individual, unparalleled
work of genius and discourses at length upon its beneficent medicinal
effects upon those whose minds and hearts are perplexed and clouded.
The wanton passages are acknowledged, but the reviewer asserts that the
author must be pardoned them for the sake of his generous and
kind-hearted thoughts. The Mittelstedt translation is also quoted and
parallel passages are adduced to demonstrate the superiority of Bode's
translation.
The Germans naturally learned to know the continuation of Eugenius
chiefly through Bode's translation, designated as the third and fourth
volumes of the work, and thus because of the sanction of the
intermediary, were led to regard Stevenson's tasteless, tedious and
revolting narrative with a larger measure of favor than would presumably
have been accorded to the original, had it been circulated extensively
in Germany. After years the _Allgemeine Literatur Zeitung_[7] implies
incidentally that Bode's esteeming this continuation worthy of his
attention is a fact to be taken into consideration in judging its
merits, and states that Bode beautified it. Bode's additions and
alterations were, as has been pointed out, all directly along the line
of the Yorick whom the Germans had made for themselves. It is
interesting to observe that the reviewer of these two volumes of the
continuation in the _Neue Critische Nachrichten_,[8] while recognizing
the inevitability of failure in such a bold attempt, and acknowledging
that the outward form of the work may by its similarity be at first
glance seductive, notes two passages of sentiment "worthy even of a
Yorick,"--the episode "Das Hündchen" and the anecdote of the sparrows
which the traveler shot in the garden: both are additions on Bode's
part, and have no connection with the original. The reviewer thus
singled out for especial approval two interpolations by the German
translator, incidents which in their conception and narration have not
the true English Yorick ring.
The success of the Sentimental Journey increased the interest in the
incomprehensible Shandy. Lange's new edition of Zückert's translation
has been noted, and before long Bode[9] was induced to undertake a
German rendering of the earlier and longer novel. This translation was
finished in the summer of 1774, the preface being dated "End of August."
The foreword is mainly concerned with Goeze's attack on Bode's personal
character, a thrust founded on Bode's connection with the Sentimental
Journey and its continuation. At the close of this introduction Bode
says that, without undervaluing the intelligence of his readers, he had
regarded notes as essential, but because of his esteem for the text,
and a parental affection for the notes, he has foreborne to insert them
here. "So they still lie in my desk, as many as there are of them, but
upon pressing hints they might be washed and combed, and then be
published under the title perhaps of a 'Real und Verballexicon über
Tristram Shandy's Leben und Meinungen.'" This hint of a work of his own,
serving as a commentary to Tristram Shandy, has been the occasion of
some discussion. A reviewer in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_,[10]
in an account of Bode's and Wichmann's renderings of "Tom Jones," begs
Bode to fulfill the hopes thus raised, saying he could give Yorick's
friends no more valuable or treasured gift. Böttiger in his biographical
sketch of Bode expressed regret that the work never saw the light,
adding that the work contained so many allusions to contemporary
celebrities and hits upon Bode's acquaintance that wisdom had consigned
to oblivion.[11] A correspondent, writing to the _Teutscher Merkur_,[12]
minimizes the importance of this so-called commentary, saying "er hatte
nie einen Kommentar der Art, . . . auch nur angefangen auszuarbeiten.
Die ganze Sache gründet sich auf eine scherzhafte Aeusserung gegen
seinem damaligen Freund in Hamburg, welchen er oft mit der ihm eignen
Ironie mit diesem Kommentar zu drohen pflegte."
The list of subscribers to Bode's translation contained upwards of 650
names, among which are Boie, Claudius, Einsieder, Gerstenberg, Gleim,
Fräulein von Göchhausen, Goethe, Hamann, Herder, Hippel, Jacobi,
Klopstock, Schummel, Wieland (five copies), and Zimmermann. The names of
Ebert and Lessing are not on the list. The number of subscribers in
Mitau (twelve) is worthy of note, as illustrating the interest in Sterne
still keenly alive in this small and far away town, undoubtedly a direct
result of the admiration so lavishly expressed in other years by Herder,
Hamann and their circle.
The translation was hailed then as a masterly achievement of an arduous
task, the difficulties of which are only the less appreciated because of
the very excellence of the performance. It contrasts most strikingly
with its clumsy predecessor in its approximation to Sterne's deftness of
touch, his delicate turns of phrase, his seemingly obvious and facile,
but really delicate and accurate choice of expression. Zückert was
heavy, commonplace, uncompromisingly literal and bristling with
inaccuracies. Bode's work was unfortunately not free from errors in
spite of its general excellence, yet it brought the book within reach of
those who were unable to read it in English, and preserved, in general
with fidelity, the spirit of the original. The reviews were prodigal of
praise. Wieland's expressions of admiration were full-voiced and
extensive.[13]
The _Wandsbecker Bothe_ for October 28, 1774, asserts that many readers
in England had not understood the book as well as Bode, a frequent
expression of inordinate commendation; that Bode follows close on the
heels of Yorick on his most intimate expeditions. The _Frankfurter
Gelehrte Anzeigen_[14] copies in full the translation of the first
chapter as both Zückert and Bode rendered it, and praises the latter in
unqualified terms; Bode appears as "Yorick's rescuer." Several years
later, in the _Deutsches Museum_, the well-known French translation of
Shandy by Frenais is denounced as intolerable (unerträglich) to a German
who is acquainted with Bode's,[15] an opinion emphasized later in the
same magazine[16] by Joseph von Retzer. Indeed, upon these two
translations from Sterne rests Bode's reputation as a translator. His
"Tom Jones" was openly criticised as bearing too much of Sterne,[17] so
great was the influence of Yorick upon the translator. Klamer Schmidt in
a poem called "Klamersruh, eine ländlich malerische Dichtung,"[18]
dilating upon his favorite authors during a country winter, calls Bode
"our Sterne" and "the ideal translator," and in some verses by the same
poet, quoted in the article on Bode in Schlichtegroll's "Nekrolog,"[19]
is found a very significant stanza expressing Sterne's immeasurable
obligation to his German translator:
"Er geht zu dir nun, unser Bode!
Empfang ihn, Yoriks Geist! Auch dein
Erbarmt er sich,
Errettete vom Tode
Der Uebersetzer dich!"
Matthison in his "Gruss aus der Heimath,"[20] pays similar tribute in a
vision connected with a visit to Bode's resting-place in Weimar. It is a
fanciful relation: as Bode's shade is received with jubilation and
delight in the Elysian Fields by Cervantes, Rabelais, Montaigne,
Fielding and Sterne, the latter censures Bode for distrusting his own
creative power, indicating that he might have stood with the group just
enumerated, that the fame of being "the most excellent transcriber" of
his age should not have sufficed.
In view of all this marked esteem, it is rather surprising to find a few
years later a rather sweeping, if apologetic, attack on the rendering of
Shandy. J. L. Benzler, the librarian of Graf Stolberg at Wernigerode,
published in 1801 a translation of Shandy which bore the legend "Newly
translated into German," but was really a new edition of Bode's work
with various corrections and alterations.[21] Benzler claims in his
preface that there had been no translation of the masterpiece worthy of
the original, and this was because the existing translation was from the
pen of Bode, in whom one had grown to see the very ideal of a
translator, and because praise had been so lavishly bestowed on the work
by the critics. He then asserts that Bode never made a translation which
did not teem with mistakes; he translated incorrectly through
insufficient knowledge of English, confusing words which sound alike,
made his author say precisely the opposite of what he really did say,
was often content with the first best at hand, with the half-right, and
often erred in taste;--a wholesale and vigorous charge. After such a
disparagement, Benzler disclaims all intention to belittle Bode, or his
service, but he condescendingly ascribes Bode's failure to his lowly
origin, his lack of systematic education, and of early association with
the cultured world. Benzler takes Bode's work as a foundation and
rewrites. Some of his changes are distinctly advantageous, and that so
few of these errors in Bode's translation were noted by contemporary
critics is a proof of their ignorance of the original, or their utter
confidence in Bode.[22] Benzler in his preface of justification
enumerates several extraordinary blunders[23] and then concludes with a
rather inconsistent parting thrust at Bode, the perpetrator of such
nonsense, at the critics who could overlook such errors and praise the
work inordinately, and at the public who ventured to speak with delight
of the work, knowing it only in such a rendering. Benzler was severely
taken to task in the _Neue Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[24] for his
shamelessness in rewriting Bode's translation with such comparatively
insignificant alterations, for printing on the title page in brazen
effrontery "newly translated into German," and for berating Bode for his
failure after cursing him with condescension. Passages are cited to
demonstrate the comparative triviality of Benzler's work. A brief
comparison of the two translations shows that Benzler often translates
more correctly than his predecessor, but still more often makes
meaningless alterations in word-order, or in trifling words where
nothing is to be gained by such a change.
The same year Benzler issued a similar revision of the Sentimental
Journey,[25] printing again on the title page "newly translated into
German." The _Neue Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[26] greets this
attempt with a similar tart review, containing parallel quotations as
before, proving Benzler's inconsiderate presumption. Here Benzler had to
face Bode's assertion that both Lessing and Ebert had assisted in the
work, and that the former had in his kindness gone through the whole
book. Benzler treats this fact rather cavalierly and renews his attack
on Bode's rendering. Benzler resented this review and replied to it in a
later number of the same periodical.[27]
Now that a century and more has elapsed, and personal acrimony can no
longer play any part in criticism, one may justly admit Benzler's
service in calling attention to inaccurate and inadequate translation,
at the same time one must condemn utterly his manner of issuing his
emendations. In 1831 there appeared a translation of Tristram Shandy
which was again but a revision of Bode's work. It bore on the title page
"Neu übertragen von W. H.," and contained a sketch of Sterne's life.[28]
In the nineties there seemed to be a renewal of Yorick enthusiasm, and
at this time was brought forth, at Halle in 1794, a profusely annotated
edition of the Sentimental Journey,[29] which was, according to the
anonymous editor, a book not to be read, but to be studied. Claim is
made that the real meaning of the book may be discovered only after
several careful readings, that "empfindsam" in some measure was here
used in the sense of philosophical, that the book should be treated as a
work of philosophy, though clad in pleasing garb; that it should be
thought out according to its merits, not merely read. Yorick's failure
to supply his chapters with any significant or alluring chapter-headings
(probably the result of indolence on his part) is here interpreted as
extraordinary sagacity, for he thereby lessens the expectations and
heightens the effect. "Eine Empfindungs-reise" is declared to be a more
suitable name than "Empfindsame Reise," and comment is made upon the
purpose of the Journey, the gathering of material for anatomical study
of the human heart. The notes are numerous and lengthy, constituting a
quarter to a third of the book, but are replete with padding, pointless
babble and occasional puerile inaccuracies. They are largely attempts to
explain and to moralize upon Yorick's emotions,--a verbose, childish,
witless commentary. The Wortregister contains fourteen pages in double
columns of explanations, in general differing very little from the kind
of information given in the notes. The _Allgemeine Litteratur
Zeitung_[30] devotes a long review chiefly to the explanation of the
errors in this volume, not the least striking of which is the
explanation of the reference to Smelfungus, whom everyone knows to have
been Smollett: "This learned Smelfungus appears to have written nothing
but the Journey which is here mentioned."[31] As an explanation of the
initial "H" used by Sterne for Hume, the note is given, "The author 'H'
was perhaps a poor one."[32]
Sterne's letters were issued first in London in 1775, a rather
surprisingly long time after his death, when one considers how great was
Yorick's following. According to the prefatory note of Lydia Sterne de
Medalle in the collection which she edited and published, it was the
wish of Mrs. Sterne that the correspondence of her husband, which was in
her possession, be not given to the world, unless other letters bearing
his name should be published. This hesitation on her part must be
interpreted in such a way as to cast a favorable light on this much
maligned gentlewoman, as a delicate reticence on her part, a desire to
retain these personal documents for herself.[33] The power of this
sentiment must be measured by her refraining from publishing during the
five years which intervened between her husband's death and her own,
March, 1768 to January, 1773--years which were embittered by the
distress of straitened circumstances. It will be remembered that an
effort was made by Mrs. Sterne and her daughter to retrieve their
fortunes by a life of Sterne which was to be a collaboration by
Stevenson and Wilkes, and urgent indeed was Lydia Sterne's appeal to
these friends of her father to fulfill their promises and lend their
aid. Even when this hope had to be abandoned early in 1770, through the
faithlessness of Sterne's erstwhile companions, the widow and daughter
turned to other possibilities rather than to the correspondence, though
in the latter lay a more assured means of accomplishing a temporary
revival of their prosperity. This is an evidence of fine feeling on the
part of Sterne's widow, with which she has never been duly credited.
But an anonymous editor published early in 1775[34] a volume entitled
"Letters from Yorick to Eliza," a brief little collection, the source of
which has never been clear, but whose genuineness has never been
questioned. The editor himself waives all claim to proof "which might be
drawn concerning their authenticity from the character of the gentleman
who had the perusal of them, and with Eliza's permission, faithfully
copied them at Bombay."
In July of this same year[35] was published a volume entitled "Sterne's
Letters to His Friends on Various Occasions, to which is added his
History of a Watchcoat with Explanatory Notes," containing twelve
letters (one by Dr. Eustace) and the watchcoat story. Some of these
letters had appeared previously in British magazines, and one, copied
from the _London Magazine_, was translated in the _Wandsbecker Bothe_
for April 16, 1774.[36] A translation of the same letter was given in
the _Gothaische Gelehrte Zeitungen_, 1774, pp. 286-7. Three of these
letters only are accepted by Prof. Saintsbury (Nos. 7, 124, the letter
of Dr. Eustace, and 125). Of the others, Nos. 4-11 have been judged as
of doubtful authenticity. Two of them, Nos. 11 and 12 ("I beheld her
tender look" and "I feel the weight of obligation") are in the standard
ten-volume edition of Sterne,[37] but the last letter is probably
spurious also.
The publication of the letters from Yorick to Eliza was the
justification afforded Lydia Sterne de Medalle for issuing her father's
correspondence according to her mother's request: the other volume was
not issued till after it was known that Sterne's daughter was engaged in
the task of collecting and editing his correspondence. Indeed, the
editor expressly states in his preface that it is not the purpose of the
book to forestall Mme. Medalle's promised collection; that the letters
in this volume are not to be printed in hers.[38] Mme. Medalle added to
her collection the "Fragment in the manner of Rabelais" and the
invaluable, characteristic scrap of autobiography, which was written
particularly for "my Lydia." The work appeared at Becket's in three
volumes, and the dedication to Garrick was dated June, 1775; but, as the
notice in the _Monthly Review_ for October[39] asserts that they have
"been published but a few days," this date probably represents the time
of the completion of the task, or the inception of the printer's
work.[40] During the same year the spurious letters from Eliza to Yorick
were issued.
Naturally Sterne's letters found readers in Germany, the Yorick-Eliza
correspondence being especially calculated to awaken response.[41] The
English edition of the "Letters from Yorick to Eliza" was reviewed in
the _Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften_,[42] with a hint that
the warmth of the letters might easily lead to a suspicion of unseemly
relationship, but the reviewer contends that virtue and rectitude are
preserved in the midst of such extraordinary tenderness, so that one may
interpret it as a Platonic rather than a sensual affection. Yet this
review cannot be designated as distinctive of German opinion, for it
contains no opinion not directly to be derived from the editor's
foreword, and that alone; indeed, the wording suggests decidedly that
source. The _Gothaische Gelehrte Zeitung_[43] for April 15, 1775,
reviews the same English edition, but the notice consists of an
introductory statement of Eliza's identity and translation of parts of
three letters, the "Lord Bathurst letter," the letter involving the
criticism of Eliza's portraits,[44] and the last letter to Eliza. The
translation is very weak, abounding in elementary errors; for example,
"She has got your picture and likes it" becomes "Sie hat Ihr Bildniss
gemacht, es ist ähnlich," and "I beheld you . . . as a very plain woman"
is rendered "und hielt Sie für nichts anders als eine Frau." The same
journal,[45] August 5, reviews the second collection of Sterne's
letters, but there is no criticism, merely an introductory statement
taken from the preface, and the translation of two letters, the one to
Mistress V., "Of two bad cassocs, fair lady," and the epistle beginning,
"I snatch half an hour while my dinner is getting ready." The
_Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen_, 1776, p. 382, also gives in a review
information concerning this anonymous collection, but no criticism.
One would naturally look to Hamburg for translations of these epistles.
In the very year of their appearance in England we find "Yorick's Briefe
an Eliza," Hamburg, bey C. E. Bohn, 1775;[46] "Briefe von Eliza an
Yorick," Hamburg, bey Bode, 1775; and "Briefe von (Yorick) Sterne an
seine Freunde nebst seiner Geschichte eines Ueberrocks," Hamburg, bey
Bohn, 1775. The translator's name is not given, but there is every
reason to suppose that it was the faithful Bode, though only the first
volume is mentioned in Jördens' account of him, and under his name in
Goedeke's "Grundriss." Contemporary reviewers attributed all three books
to Bode, and internal evidence goes to prove it.[47]
The first volume contains no translator's preface, and the second, the
spurious Eliza letters, only a brief footnote to the translation of the
English preface. In this note Bode's identity is evident in the
following quotation: He says he has translated the letters "because I
believe that they will be read with pleasure, and because I fancy I have
a kind of vocation to give in German everything that Sterne has written,
or whatever has immediate relation to his writings." This note is dated
Hamburg, September 16, 1775. In the third volume, the miscellaneous
collection, there is a translator's preface in which again Bode's hand
is evident. He says he knows by sure experience that Sterne's writings
find readers in Germany; he is assured of the authenticity of the
letters, but is in doubt whether the reader is possessed of sufficient
knowledge of the attending circumstances to render intelligible the
allusion of the watchcoat story. To forfend the possibility of such
dubious appreciation, the account of the watchcoat episode is copied
word for word from Bode's introduction to the "Empfindsame Reise."[48]
In this same year, an unknown translator issued in a single volume a
rendering of these three collections.[49] The following year Mme.
Medalle's collection was brought out in Leipzig in an anonymous
translation, which has been attributed to Christian Felix Weisse.[50]
Its title was "Lorenz Sterne's Briefe an seine vertrautesten Freunde
nebst einem Fragment im Geschmack des Rabelais und einer von ihm selbst
verfassten Nachricht von seinem Leben und seiner Familie, herausgegeben
von seiner Tochter Mad. Medalle," Leipzig, 1776, pp. xxviii, 391.
Weidmanns Erben und Reich.
Bode's translation of Yorick's letters to Eliza is reviewed in the
_Gothaische Gelehrte Zeitung_, August 9, 1775, with quotation of the
second letter in full. The same journal notes the translation of the
miscellaneous collection, November 4, 1775, giving in full the letter of
Dr. Eustace and Sterne's reply.[51] The _Allgemeine deutsche
Bibliothek_[52] reviews together the three Hamburg volumes (Bode) and
the Leipzig volume containing the same letters. The utter innocence, the
unquestionably Platonic character of the relations between Yorick and
Eliza is accepted fully. With keen, critical judgment the reviewer is
inclined to doubt the originality of the Eliza letters. Two letters by
Yorick are mentioned particularly, letters which bear testimony to
Yorick's practical benevolence: one describing his efforts in behalf of
a dishonored maiden, and one concerning the old man who fell into
financial difficulties.[53] Both the translations win approval, but
Bode's is preferred; they are designated as doubtless his. The "Briefe
an Elisa" (Bode's translation) are noticed in the _Frankfurter Gelehrte
Anzeigen_, October 3 and 6, 1775, with unrestrained praise of the
translator, and vigorous asseveration of their authenticity. It is
recognized fully that the relation as disclosed was extraordinary among
married people, even Sterne's amazing statement concerning the fragile
obstacles which stood in the way of their desires is noted. Yet the
Yorick of these letters is accorded undisguised admiration. His love is
exalted above that of Swift for Stella, Waller for Sacharissa, Scarron
for Maintenon,[54] and his godly fear as here exhibited is cited to
offset the outspoken avowal of dishonoring desire.[55] Hamann in a
letter to Herder, June 26, 1780, speaks of the Yorick-Eliza
correspondence quite disparagingly.[56]
In 1787 another volume of Sterne letters was issued in London, giving
English and German on opposite pages.[57] There are but six letters and
all are probably spurious.
In 1780 there was published a volume of confessedly spurious letters
entitled "Briefe von Yorick und Elisen, wie sie zwischen ihnen konnten
geschrieben werden."[58] The introduction contains some interesting
information for the determination of the genuineness of the Sterne
letters.[59] The editor states that the author had written these letters
purely as a diversion, that the editor had proposed their publication,
but was always met with refusal until there appeared in London a little
volume of letters which their editor emphatically declared to be
genuine. This is evidently the volume published by the anonymous editor
in 1775, and our present editor declares that he knows Nos. 4-10 were
from the same pen as the present confessedly spurious collection. They
were mere efforts originally, but, published in provincial papers, found
their way into other journals, and the editor goes on to say, that,
to his astonishment, he saw one of these epistles included in Lydia
Medalle's collection. This is, of course, No. 5, the one beginning, "The
first time I have dipped my pen in the ink-horn." These events induced
the author to allow the publication. The book itself consists mostly of
a kind of diary kept by Yorick to send to Eliza at Madeira and later to
India, and a corresponding journal written by Eliza on the vessel and at
Madeira.
Yorick's sermons were inevitably less potent in their appeal, and the
editions and translations were less numerous. In spite of obvious
effort, Sterne was unable to infuse into his homiletical discourses any
considerable measure of genuine Shandeism, and his sermons were never as
widely popular as his two novels, either among those who sought him for
whimsical pastime or for sentimental emotion. They were sermons. The
early Swiss translation has been duly noted.
The third volume of the Zürich edition, which appeared in 1769,
contained the "Reden an Esel," which the reviewer in the _Allgemeine
deutsche Bibliothek_[60] with acute penetration designates as spurious.
Another translation of these sermons was published at Leipzig, according
to the editor of a later edition[61] (Thorn, 1795), in the same year as
the Zürich issue, 1769.
The _Berlinische Monatsschrift_[62] calls attention to the excellence of
the work and quotes the sermons at considerable length. The comment
contains the erroneous statement that Sterne was a dissenter, and
opposed to the established church. The translation published at Thorn in
1795, evidently building on this information, continues the error, and,
in explanation of English church affairs, adds as enlightenment the
thirty-nine articles. This translation is confessedly a working-over of
the Leipzig translation already mentioned. It is difficult to discover
how these sermons ever became attached to Sterne's name, and one can
hardly explain the fact that such a magazine as the _Berlinische
Monatsschrift_[63] should at that late date publish an article so flatly
contradictory to everything for which Sterne stood, so diametrically
opposed to his career, save with the understanding that gross ignorance
attended the original introduction and early imitation of Yorick, and
that this incomprehension, or one-sided appreciation of the real Sterne
persisted in succeeding decades. The German Yorick was the champion of
the oppressed and downtrodden. The author of the "Sermons to Asses"
appeared as such an opponent of coercion and arbitrary power in church
and state, an upholder of human rights; hence, possibly, the authorship
of this book was attributed to Sterne by something the same process as
that which, in the age of heroic deeds, associated a miscellaneous
collection of performances with a popular hero. The "Sermons to Asses"
were written by Rev. James Murray (1732-1782), a noted dissenting
minister, long pastor of High Bridge Chapel in Newcastle-on-Tyne. They
were published in London in 1768 and dedicated to G. W., J. W., W. R.
and M. M.--George Whitfield, John Wesley, William Romaine and Martin
Madan. The English people are represented as burden-bearing asses laden
with oppression in the shape of taxes and creeds.[64] They are directed
against the power of the established church. It is needless to state
that England never associated these sermons with Sterne.[65] The
English edition was also briefly reviewed in the _Hamburgische
Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_[66] without connecting the work with
Sterne. The error was made later, possibly by the translator of the
Zürich edition.
The new collection of Sterne's sermons published by Cadell in 1769,
Vols. V, VI, VII, is reviewed by _Unterhaltungen_.[67] A selection from
Sterne's sermon on the Prodigal Son was published in translation in the
_Hamburgische Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_ for April 13, 1768. The new
collection of sermons was translated by A. E. Klausing and published at
Leipzig in 1770, containing eighteen sermons.[68]
Both during Sterne's life and after his death books were published
claiming him as their author. In England contemporary criticism
generally stigmatized these impertinent attempts as dubious, or
undoubtedly fraudulent. The spurious ninth volume of Shandy has been
mentioned.[69] The "Sermons to Asses" just mentioned also belong here,
and, with reservation, also Stevenson's continuation of the Sentimental
Journey, with its claim to recognition through the continuator's
statement of his relation to Yorick. There remain also a few other books
which need to be mentioned because they were translated into German and
played their part there in shaping the German idea of Yorick. In
general, it may be said that German criticism was never acute in judging
these products, partially perhaps because they were viewed through the
medium of an imperfectly mastered foreign tongue, a mediocre or an
adapted translation. These books obtained relatively a much more
extensive recognition in Germany than in England.
In 1769 a curious conglomerate was brought over and issued under the
lengthy descriptive title: "Yoricks Betrachtungen über verschiedene
wichtige und angenehme Gegenstände. Nemlich über Nichts, Ueber Etwas,
Ueber das Ding, Ueber die Regierung, Ueber den Toback, Ueber die Nasen,
Ueber die Quaksalber, Ueber die Hebammen, Ueber den Homunculus, Ueber
die Steckenpferde, Ueber das Momusglas, Ueber die Ausschweifungen, Ueber
die Dunkelkeit im Schreiben, Ueber den Unsinn, Ueber die Verbindung der
Ideen, Ueber die Hahnreiter, Ueber den Mann in dem Monde, Ueber
Leibnitzens Monaden, Ueber das was man Vertu nennt, Ueber das Gewissen,
Ueber die Trunkenheit, Ueber den Nachtstuhl, Betrachtungen über
Betrachtungen.--neque--cum lectulus, aut me Porticus excepit, desum
mihi, Horat." Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1769, 8vo. The book purported to be
a collection of Sterne's earliest lucubrations, and the translator
expresses his astonishment that no one had ever translated them before,
although they were first issued in 1760. It is without doubt the
translation of an English volume entitled "Yorick's Meditations upon
interesting and important subjects," published by Stevens in London,
1760.[70] It had been forgotten in England long before some German
chanced upon it. The preface closes with a long doggerel rhyme, which,
the translator says, he has purposely left untranslated. It is, however,
beyond the shadow of a doubt original with him, as its contents prove.
Yorick in the Elysian Fields is supposed to address himself, he
"anticipates his fate and perceives beforehand that at least one German
critic would deem him worthy of his applause."
"Go on, poor Yorik, try once more
In German Dress, thy fate of yore,
Expect few Critics, such, as by
The bucket of Philosophy
From out the bottom of the well
May draw the Sense of what you tell
And spy what wit and Morals sound
Are in thy Rambles to be found."
After a passage in which the rhymester enlarges upon the probability of
distorted judgment, he closes with these lines:
"Dire Fate! but for all that no worse,
You shall be WIELAND'S Hobby-Horse,
So to HIS candid Name, unbrib'd
These meditations be inscrib'd."
This was at the time of Wieland's early enthusiasm, when he was probably
contemplating, if not actually engaged upon a translation of Tristram
Shandy. "Thy fate of yore" in the second line is evidently a poetaster's
acceptation of an obvious rhyme and does not set Yorick's German
experience appreciably into the past. The translator supplies frequent
footnotes explaining the allusions to things specifically English. He
makes occasional comparison with German conditions, always with the
claim that Germany is better off, and needs no such satire. The
_Hallische Neue Gelehrte Zeitungen_ for June 1, 1769, devotes a review
of considerable length to this translation; in it the reviewer asserts
that one would have recognized the father of this creation even if
Yorick's name had not stood on its forehead; that it closely resembles
its fellows even if one must place it a degree below the Journey. The
_Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek_[71] throws no direct suspicion on the
authenticity, but with customary insight and sanity of criticism finds
in this early work "a great deal that is insipid and affected." The
_Deutsche Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften_, however, in a review
which shows a keen appreciation of Sterne's style, openly avows an
inclination to question the authenticity, save for the express statement
of the translator; the latter it agrees to trust.[72] The book is placed
far below the Sentimental Journey, below Shandy also, but far above the
artificial tone of many other writers then popular. This relative
ordering of Sterne's works is characteristic of German criticism. In the
latter part of the review its author seizes on a mannerism, the
exaggerated use of which emphatically sunders the book from the genuine
Sterne, the monotonous repetition of the critic's protests and Yorick's
verbal conflicts with them. Sterne himself used this device frequently,
but guardedly, and in ever-changing variety. Its careless use betrays
the mediocre imitator.[73]
The more famous Koran was also brought to German territory and enjoyed
there a recognition entirely beyond that accorded it in England. This
book was first given to the world in London as the "Posthumous Works of
a late celebrated Genius deceased;"[74] a work in three parts, bearing
the further title, "The Koran, or the Life, Character and Sentiments of
Tria Juncta in Uno, M. N. A., Master of No Arts." Richard Griffith was
probably the real author, but it was included in the first collected
edition of Sterne's works, published in Dublin, 1779.[75] The work
purports to be, in part, an autobiography of Sterne, in which the late
writer lays bare the secrets of his life, his early debauchery, his
father's unworthiness, his profligate uncle, the ecclesiastic, and the
beginning of his literary career by advertising for hack work in London,
being in all a confused mass of impossible detail, loose notes and
disconnected opinion, which contemporary English reviews stigmatize as
manifestly spurious, "an infamous attempt to palm the united effusions
of dullness and indecency upon the world as the genuine production of
the late Mr. Sterne."[76]
In France the book was accepted as genuine and it was translated (1853)
by Alfred Hédouin as an authentic work of Sterne. In Germany, too,
it seems to have been recognized with little questioning as to its
genuineness; even in recent years Robert Springer, in an article
treating of Goethe's relation to the Koran, quite openly contends for
its authenticity.[77]
Since a German translation appeared in the following year (1771), the
German reviews do not, in the main, concern themselves with the English
original. The _Neues Bremisches Magazin_,[78] however, censures the book
quite severely, but the _Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften_[79]
welcomes it with unquestioning praise. The German rendering was by
Johann Gottfried Gellius, and the title was "Yorick's Nachgelassene
Werke."[80] The _Deutsche Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften_[81]
does acknowledge the doubtful authorship but accepts completely its
Yorick tone and whim--"one cannot tell the copyist from the original."
Various characteristics are cited as common to this work and Yorick's
other writings, the contrast, change, confusion, conflict with the
critics and the talk about himself. For the collection of aphorisms,
sayings, fragments and maxims which form the second part of the Koran,
including the "Memorabilia," the reviewer suggests the name "Sterniana."
The reviewer acknowledges the occasional failure in attempted thrusts of
wit, the ineffective satire, the immoral innuendo in some passages,
but after the first word of doubt the review passes on into a tone of
seemingly complete acceptation.
In 1778 another translation of this book appeared, which has been
ascribed to Bode, though not given by Goedeke, Jördens or Meusel.
Its title was "Der Koran, oder Leben und Meynungen des Tria Juncta in
Uno."[82] The _Almanach der deutschen Musen_[83] treats this work with
full measure of praise. The _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[84] accepts
the book in this translation as a genuine product of Sterne's genius.
Sammer reprinted the "Koran" (Vienna, 1795, 12mo) and included it in his
nine volume edition of Sterne's complete works (Vienna, 1798).
Goethe's connection with the "Koran," which forms the most interesting
phase of its German career, will be treated later.
Sterne's unacknowledged borrowings, his high-handed and extensive
appropriation of work not his own, were noted in Germany, the natural
result of Ferriar's investigations in England, but they seem never to
have attracted any considerable attention or aroused any serious concern
among Sterne's admirers so as to imperil his position: the question in
England attached itself as an ungrateful but unavoidable concomitant of
every discussion of Sterne and every attempt to determine his place in
letters. Böttiger tells us that Lessing possessed a copy of Burton's
"Anatomy of Melancholy," from which Sterne filched so much wisdom, and
that Lessing had marked in it several of the passages which Ferriar
later advanced as proof of Sterne's theft. It seems that Bode purchased
this volume at Lessing's auction in Hamburg. Lessing evidently thought
it not worth while to mention these discoveries, as he is entirely
silent on the subject. Böttiger is, in his account, most unwarrantedly
severe on Ferriar, whom he calls "the bilious Englishman" who attacked
Sterne "with so much bitterness." This is very far from a veracious
conception of Ferriar's attitude.
The comparative indifference in Germany to this phase of Sterne's
literary career may well be attributed to the medium by which Ferriar's
findings were communicated to cultured Germany. The book itself, or the
original Manchester society papers, seem never to have been reprinted or
translated, and Germany learned their contents through a _résumé_
written by Friedrich Nicolai and published in the _Berlinische
Monatsschrift_ for February, 1795, which gives a very sane view of the
subject, one in the main distinctly favorable to Sterne. Nicolai says
Sterne is called with justice "One of the most refined, ingenious and
humorous authors of our time." He asserts with capable judgment that
Sterne's use of the borrowed passages, the additions and alterations,
the individual tone which he manages to infuse into them, all preclude
Sterne from being set down as a brainless copyist. Nicolai's attitude
may be best illustrated by the following passages:
"Germany has authors enough who resemble Sterne in lack of learning.
Would that they had a hundredth part of the merits by which he made up
for this lack, or rather which resulted from it." "We would gladly allow
our writers to take their material from old books, and even many
expressions and turns of style, and indeed whole passages, even if like
Sterne . . . . they claimed it all as their own: only they must be
successful adapters; they must add from their own store of observation
and thought and feeling. The creator of Tristram Shandy does this in
rich measure."
Nicolai also contends that Sterne was gifted with two characteristic
qualities which were not imitation,--his "Empfindsamkeit" and
"Laune"--and that by the former his works breathe a tender, delicate
beneficence, a character of noble humanity, while by the latter a spirit
of fairest mirth is spread over his pages, so that one may never open
them without a pleasant smile. "The investigation of sources," he says,
"serves as explanation and does not mean depreciation of an otherwise
estimable author."
By this article Nicolai choked the malicious criticism of the late
favorite which might have followed from some sources, had another
communicated the facts of Sterne's thievery. Lichtenberg in the
"Göttingischer Taschenkalender," 1796, that is, after the publication of
Nicolai's article, but with reference to Ferriar's essay in the
Manchester Memoirs, Vol. IV, under the title of "Gelehrte Diebstähle"
does impugn Sterne rather spitefully without any acknowledgment of his
extraordinary and extenuating use of his borrowings. "Yorick," he says,
"once plucked a nettle which had grown upon Lorenzo's grave; that was no
labor for him. Who will uproot this plant which Ferriar has set on his?"
Ferriar's book was reviewed by the _Neue Bibliothek der schönen
Wissenschaften_, LXII, p. 310.
Some of the English imitations of Sterne, which did not actually claim
him as author, also found their way to Germany, and there by a less
discriminating public were joined in a general way to the mass of Yorick
production, and the might of Yorick influence. These works represent
almost exclusively the Sterne of the Sentimental Journey; for the shoal
of petty imitations, explanations and protests which appeared in England
when Shandy was first issued[85] had gone their own petty way to
oblivion before Germany awakened to Sterne's influence.
One of the best known of the English Sentimental Journeys was the work
of Samuel Paterson, entitled, "Another Traveller: or Cursory Remarks and
Critical Observations made upon a Journey through Part of the
Netherlands,--by Coriat Junior," London, 1768, two volumes. The author
protested in a pamphlet published a little later that his work was not
an imitation of Sterne, that it was in the press before Yorick's book
appeared; but a reviewer[86] calls his attention to the sentimental
journeying already published in Shandy. This work was translated into
German as "Empfindsame Reisen durch einen Theil der Niederlande,"
Bützow, 1774-1775, 2 Parts, 8vo. The translator was Karl Friedrich
Müchler, who showed his bent in the direction of wit and whim by the
publication of several collections of humorous anecdotes, witty ideas
and satirical skits.[87]
Much later a similar product was published, entitled "Launige Reise
durch Holland in Yoricks[88] Manier, mit Charakterskizzen und Anekdoten
über die Sitten und Gebräuche der Holländer aus dem Englischen," two
volumes, Zittau und Leipzig, 1795. The translation was by Reichel in
Zittau.[88] This may possibly be Ireland's "A Picturesque Tour through
Holland, Brabant and part of France, made in 1789," two volumes, London,
1790.[89] The well-known "Peter Pennyless" was reproduced as
"Empfindsame Gedanken bey verschiedenen Vorfällen von Peter Pennyless,"
Leipzig, Weidmann, 1770.
In 1788 there appeared in England a continuation of the Sentimental
Journey[90] in which, to judge from the reviewers, the petty author
outdid Sterne in eccentricities of typography, breaks, dashes, scantily
filled and blank pages. This is evidently the original of "Die neue
empfindsame Reise in Yoriks Geschmack," Leipzig, 1789, 8vo, pp. 168,
which, according to the _Allgemeine Litteratur-Zeitung_ bristles with
such extravagances.[91]
A much more successful attempt was the "Sentimental Journey, Intended as
a Sequel to Mr. Sterne's, Through Italy, Switzerland and France, by Mr.
Shandy," two volumes, 12mo, 1793. This was evidently the original of
Schink's work;[92] "Empfindsame Reisen durch Italien, die Schweiz und
Frankreich, ein Nachtrag zu den Yorikschen. Aus und nach dem
Englischen," Hamburg, Hoffmann, 1794, pp. 272, 8vo. The translator's
preface, which is dated Hamburg, March 1794, explains his attitude
toward the work as suggested in the expression "Aus und nach dem
Englischen," that is, "aus, so lange wie Treue für den Leser Gewinn
schien und nach, wenn Abweichung für die deutsche Darstellung notwendig
war." He claims to have softened the glaring colors of the original and
to have discarded, or altered the obscene pictures. The author, as
described in the preface, is an illegitimate son of Yorick, named
Shandy, who writes the narrative as his father would have written it,
if he had lived. This assumed authorship proves quite satisfactorily its
connection with the English original, as there, too, in the preface, the
narrator is designated as a base-born son of Yorick. The book is, as a
whole, a fairly successful imitation of Yorick's manner, and it must be
judged as decidedly superior to Stevenson's attempt. The author takes up
the story where Sterne left it, in the tavern room with the Piedmontese
lady; and the narrative which follows is replete with allusions to
familiar episodes and sentiments in the real Journey, with sentimental
adventures and opportunities for kindly deeds, and sympathetic tears;
motifs used originally are introduced here, a begging priest with a
snuff-box, a confusion with the Yorick in Hamlet, a poor girl with
wandering mind seated by the wayside, and others equally familiar.
It is not possible to determine the extent of Schink's alterations to
suit German taste, but one could easily believe that the somewhat
lengthy descriptions of external nature, quite foreign to Sterne, were
original with him, and that the episode of the young German lady by the
lake of Geneva, with her fevered admiration for Yorick, and the
compliments to the German nation and the praise for great Germans,
Luther, Leibnitz and Frederick the Great, are to be ascribed to the same
source. He did not rid the book of revolting features, as one might
suppose from his preface.[93] Previous to the publication of the whole
translation, Schink published in the February number of the _Deutsche
Monatsschrift_[94] two sections of his book, "Die Schöne
Obstverkäuferin" and "Elisa." Later, in the May number, he published
three other fragments, "Turin, Hotel del Ponto," "Die Verlegenheit,"
"Die Unterredung."[95]
A few years later Schink published another and very similar volume with
the title, "Launen, Phantasieen und Schilderungen aus dem Tagebuche
eines reisenden Engländers,"[96] Arnstadt und Rudolstadt, 1801, pp. 323.
It has not been possible to find an English original, but the translator
makes claim upon one, though confessing alterations to suit his German
readers, and there is sufficient internal evidence to point to a real
English source. The traveler is a haggard, pale-faced English clergyman,
who, with his French servant, La Pierre, has wandered in France and
Italy and is now bound for Margate. Here again we have sentimental
episodes, one with a fair lady in a post-chaise, another with a monk in
a Trappist cloister, apostrophes to the imagination, the sea, and
nature, a new division of travelers, a debate of personal attributes,
constant appeals to his dear Sophie, who is, like Eliza, ever in the
background, occasional references to objects made familiar through
Yorick, as Dessein's Hotel, and a Yorick-like sympathy with the dumb
beast; in short, an open imitation of Sterne, but the motifs from Sterne
are here more mixed and less obvious. There is, as in the former book,
much more enthusiasm for nature than is characteristic of Sterne; and
there is here much more miscellaneous material, such, for example,
as the tale of the two sisters, which betrays no trace of Sterne's
influence. The latter part of the volume is much less reminiscent of
Yorick and suggests interpolation by the translator.[97]
Near the close of the century was published "Fragments in the manner of
Sterne," 8vo, Debrett, 1797, which, according to the _Monthly
Review_,[98] caught in large measure the sentimentality, pathos and
whimsicality of Sterne's style. The British Museum catalogue suggests
J. Brandon as its author. This was reprinted by Nauck in Leipzig in
1800, and a translation was given to the world by the same publisher in
the same year, with the added title: "Ein Seitenstück zu Yoricks
empfindsamen Reisen." The translation is attributed by Kayser to Aug.
Wilhelmi, the pseudonym of August Wilhelm Meyer.[99] Here too belongs
"Mariens Briefe nebst Nachricht von ihrem Tode, aus dem
Englischen,"[100] which was published also under the title: "Yoricks
Empfindsame Reisen durch Frankreich und Italien," 5th vol., 8vo,
Weissenfels, Severin, Mitzky in Leipzig, 1795.
[Footnote 1: VI, 1, p. 166. 1768.]
[Footnote 2: XII, 1, p. 142.]
[Footnote 3: August 28, 1769. P. 574.]
[Footnote 4: Pp. 896-9.]
[Footnote 5: III, pp. 689-91, October 31, 1768.]
[Footnote 6: V, No. 5, p. 37, 1769, review is signed "Z."]
[Footnote 7: 1794, IV, p. 62, October 7.]
[Footnote 8: Greifswald, VI, p. 300.]
[Footnote 9: See p. 42.]
[Footnote 10: Anhang LIII-LXXXVI. Vol. V, pp. 2611-2614.]
[Footnote 11: This is repeated by Jördens.]
[Footnote 12: 1799. I, p. 36.]
[Footnote 13: _Teut. Merkur_, VIII, pp. 247-251.]
[Footnote 14: April 21, 1775, pp. 267-70.]
[Footnote 15: Hirsching (see above) says it rivals the original.]
[Footnote 16: The references to the _Deutsches Museum_ are
respectively IX, pp. 273-284, April, 1780, and X, pp. 553-5.]
[Footnote 17: See Jördens I, p. 117, probably depending on the
critique in the _Allg. deutsche Bibl._ Anhang, LIII-LXXXVI, Vol.
V, pp. 2611-2614.]
[Footnote 18: _Erholungen_ III, pp. 1-51.]
[Footnote 19: Supplementband für 1790-93, p. 410.]
[Footnote 20: Werke, Zürich, 1825-29, pp. 312 ff.]
[Footnote 21: "Tristram Shandy's Leben und Meynungen von neuem
verdeutscht, Leipzig, 1801, I, pp. 572; II, pp. 532; III, pp. 430.
Mit 3 Kupfern und 3 Vignetten nach Chodowiecki von J. F.
Schröter." A new edition appeared at Hahn's in Hanover in 1810.
This translation is not given by Goedeke under Benzler's name.]
[Footnote 22: Wieland does modify his enthusiasm by acknowledgment
of inadequacies and devotes about a page of his long review to the
correction of seven incorrect renderings. _Teut. Merkur_, VIII,
pp. 247-51, 1774, IV.]
[Footnote 23: The following may serve as examples of Bode's
errors. He translated, "Pray, what was your father saying?" (I, 6)
by "Was wollte denn Ihr Vater damit sagen?" a rendering obviously
inadequate. "It was a little hard on her" (I, p. 52) becomes in
Bode, "Welches sie nun freilich schwer ablegen konnte;" and "Great
wits jump" (I, 168) is translated "grosse Meister fehlen auch."]
[Footnote 24: LXXIII, pp. 75-81.]
[Footnote 25: Leipzig, 1801, 8vo, I, 168; II, 170. 2 Kupf. und 2
Vignetten nach Chodowiecki von G. Böttiger.]
[Footnote 26: LXXIX, pp. 371-377.]
[Footnote 27: LXXXII, I, p. 199.]
[Footnote 28: Magdeburg, I, pp. 188; II, pp. 192; III, pp. 154;
IV, pp. 168; V, pp. 236.]
[Footnote 29: A Sentimental Journey, mit erläuternden Anmerkungen
und einem Wortregister.]
[Footnote 30: Jena, 1795, II, pp. 427-30.]
[Footnote 31: P. 49.]
[Footnote 32: The edition is also reviewed in the _Erfurtische
Gelehrte Zeitung_ (1796, p. 294.)]
[Footnote 33: The threat of Mrs. Sterne and her daughter to
publish the letters to Mrs. Draper would seem to be at variance
with this idea of Mrs. Sterne's character, but her resentment or
indignation, and a personal satisfaction at her former rival's
discomfiture are inevitable, and femininely human.]
[Footnote 34: They are reviewed in the April number of the
_Monthly Review_ (LII, pp. 370-371), and in the April number of the
_London Magazine_ (XLIV, pp. 200-201).]
[Footnote 35: It is noted among the publications in the July
number of the _London Magazine_, XLIV, p. 371, and is reviewed in
the September number of the _Monthly Review_, LIII, pp. 266-267.
It was really published on July 12. (_The Nation_, November 17,
1904.)]
[Footnote 36: The letter beginning "The first time I have dipped
my pen in the ink-horn," addressed to Mrs. M-d-s and dated
Coxwould, July 21, 1765. The _London Magazine_ (1775, pp. 530-531)
also published the eleventh letter of the series, that concerning
the unfortunate Harriet: "I beheld her tender look."]
[Footnote 37: Dodsley, etc., 1793.]
[Footnote 38: Two letters, however, were given in both volumes,
the letter to Mrs. M-d-s, "The first time I have dipped," etc.,
and that to Garrick, "'Twas for all the world like a cut," etc.,
being in the Mme. Medalle collection, Nos. 58 and 77 (II, pp.
126-131, 188-192) and in the anonymous collection Nos. 1 and 5.
The first of these two letters was without indication of addressee
in the anonymous collection, and was later directed to Eugenius
(in the American edition, Harrisburg, 1805).]
[Footnote 39: LIII, pp. 340-344. The publication was October 25.
See _The Nation_, November 17, 1904.]
[Footnote 40: The _London Magazine_ gives the first announcement
among the books for October (Vol. XLVI, p. 538), but does not
review the collection till December (XLIV, p. 649).]
[Footnote 41: Some selections from these letters were evidently
published before their translation in the _Englische Allgemeine
Bibliothek_. See _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._, 1775, p. 667.]
[Footnote 42: XVIII, p. 177, 1775.]
[Footnote 43: 1775, I, pp. 243-246.]
[Footnote 44: Letters Nos. 83 and 86.]
[Footnote 45: 1775, II p. 510.]
[Footnote 46: This volume was noted by _Jenaische Zeitungen von
Gelehrten Sachen_, September, 4, 1775.]
[Footnote 47: A writer in Schlichtegroll's "Nekrolog" says that
Bode's own letters to "einige seiner vertrauten Freundinnen" in
some respects surpass those of Yorick to Eliza.]
[Footnote 48: Another translator would in this case have made
direct acknowledgment to Bode for the borrowed information, a fact
indicating Bode as the translator of the volume.]
[Footnote 49: "Lorenz Sterne's oder Yorick's Briefwechsel mit
Elisen und seinen übrigen Freunden." Leipzig, Weidmanns Erben und
Reich. 1775, 8vo.]
[Footnote 50: Weisse is credited with the translation in Kayser,
but it is not given under his name in Goedeke.]
[Footnote 51: References to the _Gothaische Gelehrte Zeitung_ are
p. 518 and p. 721, 1775.]
[Footnote 52: XXVIII, 2, p. 489, 1776.]
[Footnote 53: These are, of course, the spurious letters Nos. 8
and 11, "I beheld her tender look" and "I have not been a furlong
from Shandy-Hall."]
[Footnote 54: This is a quotation from one of the letters, but the
review repeats it as its own.]
[Footnote 55: For a rather unfavorable criticism of the
Yorick-Eliza letters, see letter of Wilh. Ludw. Medicus to
Höpfner, March 16, 1776, in "Briefe aus dem Freundeskreise von
Goethe, Herder, Höpfner und Merck," ed. by K. Wagner, Leipzig,
1847.]
[Footnote 56: Hamann's Schriften, ed. by Roth, VI, p. 145:
"Yorick's und Elisens Briefe sind nicht der Rede werth."]
[Footnote 57: London, Thomas Cornan, St. Paul's Churchyard, 8vo,
pp. 63. These letters are given in the first American edition,
Harrisburg, 1805, pp. 209-218 and 222-226.]
[Footnote 58: Leipzig, Weidmanns Erben und Reich, I, pp. 142;
II, pp. 150.]
[Footnote 59: The English original is probably that by William
Combe, published in 1779, two volumes. This original is reviewed
in the _Neue Bibl. der schönen Wissenschaften_, XXIV, p. 186,
1780.]
[Footnote 60: XII, 1, pp. 210-211. Doubt is also suggested in the
_Hallische Neue Gelehrte Zeitungen_, 1769, IV, p. 295.]
[Footnote 61: Reviewed in _Allg. Litt. Zeitung_, 1798, II, p. 14,
without suggestion of doubtful authenticity.]
[Footnote 62: XX, pp. 79-103, 1792.]
[Footnote 63: They are still credited to Sterne, though with
admitted doubt, in Hirsching (1809). It would seem from a letter
of Hamann's that Germany also thrust another work upon Sterne. The
letter is directed to Herder: "Ich habe die nichtswürdige Grille
gehabt einen unförmlichen Auszug einer englischen Apologie des
Rousseau, die den Sterne zum Verfasser haben soll, in die
_Königsberger Zeitung_ einflicken zu lassen." See Hamann's
Schriften, Roth's edition, III, p. 374. Letter is dated July 29,
1767. Rousseau is mentioned in Shandy, III, p. 200, but there is
no reason to believe that he ever wrote anything about him.]
[Footnote 64: The edition examined is that of William Howe,
London, 1819, which contains "New Sermons to Asses," and other
sermons by Murray.]
[Footnote 65: For reviews see _Monthly Review_, 1768, Vol. XXXIX,
pp. 100-105; _Gentleman's Magazine_, Vol. XXXVIII, p. 188 (April).
They were thus evidently published early in the year 1768.]
[Footnote 66: 1768, p. 220.]
[Footnote 67: VII, p. 360.]
[Footnote 68: Review in _Allg. deutsche Bibl._, XIII, 1, p. 241.
The reviewer is inclined to doubt their authenticity.]
[Footnote 69: A spurious third volume was the work of John Carr
(1760).]
[Footnote 70: See _Monthly Review_, XXIII, p. 84, July 1760, and
_London Magazine_, Monthly Catalogue for July and August, 1760.
_Scott's Magazine_, XXII, p. 389, July, 1760.]
[Footnote 71: XIV, 2, p. 621.]
[Footnote 72: But in a later review in the same periodical
(V, p. 726) this book, though not mentioned by name, yet clearly
meant, is mentioned with very decided expression of doubt. The
review quoted above is III, p. 737. 1769.]
[Footnote 73: This work was republished in Braunschweig at the
Schulbuchhandlung in 1789.]
[Footnote 74: According to the _Universal Magazine_ (XLVI, p. 111)
the book was issued in February, 1770. It was published in two
volumes.]
[Footnote 75: Sidney Lee in Nat'l Dict. of Biography. It was also
given in the eighth volume of the Edinburgh edition of Sterne,
1803.]
[Footnote 76: See _London Magazine_, June, 1770, VI, p. 319; also
_Monthly Review_, XLII, pp. 360-363, May, 1770. The author of this
latter critique further proves the fraudulence by asserting that
allusion is made in the book to "facts and circumstances which did
not happen until Yorick was dead."]
[Footnote 77: It is obviously not the place here for a full
discussion of this question. Hédouin in the appendix of his "Life
of Goethe" (pp. 291 ff) urges the claims of the book and resents
Fitzgerald's rather scornful characterization of the French
critics who received the work as Sterne's (see Life of Sterne,
1864, II, p. 429). Hédouin refers to Jules Janin ("Essai sur la
vie et les ouvrages de Sterne") and Balzac ("Physiologie du
mariage," Meditation xvii,) as citing from the work as genuine.
Barbey d'Aurevilly is, however, noted as contending in _la Patrie_
against the authenticity. This is probably the article to be found
in his collection of Essays, "XIX Siècle, Les oeuvres et les
hommes," Paris, 1890, pp. 73-93. Fitzgerald mentions Chasles among
French critics who accept the book. Springer is incorrect in his
assertion that the Koran appeared seven years after Sterne's
death, but he is probably building on the incorrect statement in
the _Quarterly Review_ (XCIV, pp. 303 ff). Springer also asserts
erroneously that it was never published in Sterne's collected
works. He is evidently disposed to make a case for the Koran and
finds really his chief proof in the fact that both Goethe and Jean
Paul accepted it unquestioningly. Bodmer quotes Sterne from the
Koran in a letter to Denis, April 4, 1771, "M. Denis Lit.
Nachlass," ed. by Retzer, Wien, 1801, II, p. 120, and other German
authors have in a similar way made quotations from this work,
without questioning its authenticity.]
[Footnote 78: III, p. 537, 1771.]
[Footnote 79: X, p. 173.]
[Footnote 80: Leipzig, Schwickert, 1771, pp. 326, 8vo.]
[Footnote 81: V, p. 726.]
[Footnote 82: Hamburg, Herold, 1778, pp. 248, 12mo.]
[Footnote 83: 1779, p. 67.]
[Footnote 84: Anhang to XXV-XXXVI, Vol. II, p. 768.]
[Footnote 85: As products of the year 1760, one may note:
Tristram Shandy at Ranelagh, 8vo, Dunstan.
Tristram Shandy in a Reverie, 8vo, Williams.
Explanatory Remarks upon the Life and Opinions of Tristram
Shandy, by Jeremiah Kunastrokins, 12mo, Cabe.
A Genuine Letter from a Methodist Preacher in the Country to
Laurence Sterne, 8vo, Vandenberg.
A Shandean essay on Human Passions, etc., by Caleb MacWhim, 4to,
Cooke.
Yorick's Meditations upon Interesting and Important Subjects.
The Life and Opinions of Miss Sukey Shandy, Stevens.
The Clockmaker's Outcry Against Tristram Shandy, Burd.
The Rake of Taste, or the Elegant Debauchee (another ape of the
Shandean style, according to _London Magazine_).
A Supplement to the Life and Opinion of Tristram Shandy, by the
author of Yorick's Meditations, 12mo.]
[Footnote 86: _Monthly Review_, XL, p. 166.]
[Footnote 87: "Der Reisegefährte," Berlin, 1785-86. "Komus oder
der Freund des Scherzes und der Laune," Berlin, 1806. "Museum des
Witzes der Laune und der Satyre," Berlin, 1810. For reviews of
Coriat in German periodicals see _Gothaische Gelehrte Zeitungen_,
1774, p. 378; _Leipziger Musen-Almanach_, 1776, p. 85; _Almanach
der Deutschen Musen_, 1775, p. 84; _Unterhaltungen_, VII, p. 167.]
[Footnote 88: See _Allg. Litt. Zeitung_, 1796, I, p. 256.]
[Transcriber's Note:
The first of the two footnote tags may be an error.]
[Footnote 89: The identity could be proven or disproven by
comparison. There is a copy of the German work in the Leipzig
University Library. Ireland's book is in the British Museum.]
[Footnote 90: See the _English Review_, XIII, p. 69, 1789, and the
_Monthly Review_, LXXIX, p. 468, 1788.]
[Footnote 91: _Allg. Litt. Zeitung_, 1791, I, p. 197. A sample of
the author's absurdity is given there in quotation.]
[Footnote 92: Joh. Friedrich Schink, better known as a dramatist.]
[Footnote 93: See the story of the gentlewoman from Thionville,
p. 250, and elsewhere.]
[Footnote 94: The references to the _Deutsche Monatsschrift_ are
respectively, I, pp. 181-188, and II, pp. 65-71.]
[Footnote 95: For review of Schink's book see _Allg. Litt.
Zeitung_, 1794, IV, p. 62, October 7. Böttiger seems to think that
Schink's work is but another working over of Stevenson's
continuation.]
[Footnote 96: It is not given by Goedeke or Meusel, but is given
among Schink's works in "Neuer Nekrolog der Deutschen," Weimar,
1835-1837, XIII, pp. 161-165.]
[Footnote 97: In both these books the English author may perhaps
be responsible for some of the deviation from Sterne's style.]
[Footnote 98: CV, p. 271.]
[Footnote 99: Kayser notes another translation, "Fragmente in
Yorick's Manier, aus dem Eng., mit Kpf., 8vo." London, 1800. It is
possibly identical with the one noted above. A second edition of
the original came out in 1798.]
[Footnote 100: The original of this was published by Kearsley in
London, 1790, 12mo, a teary contribution to the story of Maria of
Moulines.]
CHAPTER V
STERNE'S INFLUENCE IN GERMANY
Thus in manifold ways Sterne was introduced into German life and
letters.[1] He stood as a figure of benignant humanity, of lavish
sympathy with every earthly affliction, he became a guide and mentor,[2]
an awakener and consoler, and probably more than all, a sanction for
emotional expression. Not only in literature, but in the conduct of life
was Yorick judged a preceptor. The most important attempt to turn
Yorick's teachings to practical service in modifying conduct in human
relationships was the introduction and use of the so-called
"Lorenzodosen." The considerable popularity of this remarkable conceit
is tangible evidence of Sterne's influence in Germany and stands in
striking contrast to the wavering enthusiasm, vigorous denunciation and
half-hearted acknowledgment which marked Sterne's career in England.
A century of criticism has disallowed Sterne's claim as a prophet, but
unquestionably he received in Germany the honors which a foreign land
proverbially accords.
To Johann Georg Jacobi, the author of the "Winterreise" and
"Sommerreise," two well-known imitations of Sterne, the sentimental
world was indebted for this practical manner of expressing adherence to
a sentimental creed.[3] In the _Hamburgischer Correspondent_ he
published an open letter to Gleim, dated April 4, 1769, about the time
of the inception of the "Winterreise," in which letter he relates at
considerable length the origin of the idea.[4] A few days before this
the author was reading to his brother, Fritz Jacobi, the philosopher,
novelist and friend of Goethe, and a number of ladies, from Sterne's
Sentimental Journey the story of the poor Franciscan who begged alms of
Yorick. "We read," says Jacobi, "how Yorick used this snuff-box to
invoke its former possessor's gentle, patient spirit, and to keep his
own composed in the midst of life's conflicts. The good Monk had died:
Yorick sat by his grave, took out the little snuff-box, plucked a few
nettles from the head of the grave, and wept. We looked at one another
in silence: each rejoiced to find tears in the others' eyes; we honored
the death of the venerable old man Lorenzo and the good-hearted
Englishman. In our opinion, too, the Franciscan deserved more to be
canonized than all the saints of the calendar. Gentleness, contentedness
with the world, patience invincible, pardon for the errors of mankind,
these are the primary virtues he teaches his disciples." The moment was
too precious not to be emphasized by something rememberable, perceptible
to the senses, and they all purchased for themselves horn snuff-boxes,
and had the words "Pater Lorenzo" written in golden letters on the
outside of the cover and "Yorick" within. Oath was taken for the sake of
Saint Lorenzo to give something to every Franciscan who might ask of
them, and further: "If anyone in our company should allow himself to be
carried away by anger, his friend holds out to him the snuff-box, and we
have too much feeling to withstand this reminder even in the greatest
violence of passion." It is suggested also that the ladies, who use no
tobacco, should at least have such a snuff-box on their night-stands,
because to them belong in such a high degree those gentle feelings which
were to be associated with the article.
This letter printed in the Hamburg paper was to explain the snuff-box,
which Jacobi had sent to Gleim a few days before, and the desire is also
expressed to spread the order. Hence others were sent to other friends.
Jacobi goes on to say: "Perhaps in the future, I may have the pleasure
of meeting a stranger here and there who will hand me the horn snuff-box
with its golden letters. I shall embrace him as intimately as one Free
Mason does another after the sign has been given. Oh! what a joy it
would be to me, if I could introduce so precious a custom among my
fellow-townsmen." A reviewer in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[5]
sharply condemns Jacobi for his conceit in printing publicly a letter
meant for his friend or friends, and, to judge from the words with which
Jacobi accompanies the abridged form of the letter in the later editions
it would seem that Jacobi himself was later ashamed of the whole affair.
The idea, however, was warmly received, and among the teary, sentimental
enthusiasts the horn snuff-box soon became the fad. A few days after the
publication of this letter, Wittenberg,[6] the journalist in Hamburg,
writes to Jacobi (April 21) that many in Hamburg desire to possess these
snuff-boxes, and he adds: "A hundred or so are now being manufactured;
besides the name Lorenzo, the following legend is to appear on the
cover: Animae quales non candidiores terra tulit." Wittenberg explains
that this Latin motto was a suggestion of his own, selfishly made,
for thereby he might win the opportunity of explaining it to the fair
ladies, and exacting kisses for the service. Wittenberg asserts that a
lady (Longo guesses a certain Johanna Friederike Behrens) was the first
to suggest the manufacture of the article at Hamburg. A second letter[7]
from Wittenberg to Jacobi four months later (August 21, 1769) announces
the sending of nine snuff-boxes to Jacobi, and the price is given as
one-half a reichsthaler. Jacobi himself says in his note to the later
edition that merchants made a speculation out of the fad, and that a
multitude of such boxes were sent out through all Germany, even to
Denmark and Livonia: "they were in every hand," he says. Graf Solms had
such boxes made of tin with the name Jacobi inside. Both Martin and
Werner instance the request[8] of a Protestant vicar, Johann David Goll
in Trossingen, for a "Lorenzodose" with the promise to subscribe to the
oath of the order, and, though Protestant, to name the Catholic
Franciscan his brother. According to a spicy review[9] in the
_Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[10] these snuff-boxes were sold in
Hamburg wrapped in a printed copy of Jacobi's letter to Gleim, and the
reviewer adds, "like Grenough's tooth-tincture in the directions for its
use."[11] Nicolai in "Sebaldus Nothanker" refers to the Lorenzo cult
with evident ridicule.[12]
There were other efforts to make Yorick's example an efficient power of
beneficent brotherliness. Kaufmann attempted to found a Lorenzo order of
the horn snuff-box. Düntzer, in his study of Kaufmann,[13] states that
this was only an effort on Kaufmann's part to embrace a timely
opportunity to make himself prominent. This endeavor was made according
to Düntzer, during Kaufmann's residence in Strassburg, which the
investigator assigns to the years 1774-75. Leuchsenring,[14] the
eccentric sentimentalist, who for a time belonged to the Darmstadt
circle and whom Goethe satirized in "Pater Brey," cherished also for a
time the idea of founding an order of "Empfindsamkeit."
In the literary remains of Johann Christ Hofmann[15] in Coburg was found
the "patent" of an order of "Sanftmuth und Versöhnung." A "Lorenzodose"
was found with it marked XXVIII, and the seven rules of the order, dated
Coburg "im Ordens-Comtoir, den 10 August, 1769," are merely a topical
enlargement and ordering of Jacobi's original idea. Longo gives them in
full. Appell states that Jacobi explained through a friend that he knew
nothing of this order and had no share in its founding. Longo complains
that Appell does not give the source of his information, but Jacobi in
his note to the so-called "Stiftungs-Brief" in the edition of 1807
quotes the article in Schlichtegroll's "Nekrolog" as his only knowledge
of this order, certainly implying his previous ignorance of its
existence.
Somewhat akin to these attempts to incorporate Yorick's ideas is the
fantastic laying out of the park at Marienwerder near Hanover, of which
Matthison writes in his "Vaterländische Besuche,"[16] and in a letter to
the Hofrath von Köpken in Magdeburg,[17] dated October 17, 1785. After a
sympathetic description of the secluded park, he tells how labyrinthine
paths lead to an eminence "where the unprepared stranger is surprised by
the sight of a cemetery. On the crosses there one reads beloved names
from Yorick's Journey and Tristram Shandy. Father Lorenzo, Eliza, Maria
of Moulines, Corporal Trim, Uncle Toby and Yorick were gathered by a
poetic fancy to this graveyard." The letter gives a similar description
and adds the epitaph on Trim's monument, "Weed his grave clean, ye men
of goodness, for he was your brother,"[18] a quotation, which in its
fuller form, Matthison uses in a letter[19] to Bonstetten, Heidelberg,
February 7, 1794, in speaking of Böck the actor. It is impossible to
determine whose eccentric and tasteless enthusiasm is represented by
this mortuary arrangement.
Louise von Ziegler, known in the Darmstadt circle as Lila, whom Merck
admired and, according to Caroline Flaschsland, "almost compared with
Yorick's Maria," was so sentimental that she had her grave made in her
garden, evidently for purposes of contemplation, and she led a lamb
about which ate and drank with her. Upon the death of this animal,
"a faithful dog" took its place. Thus was Maria of Moulines
remembered.[20]
It has already been noted that Yorick's sympathy for the brute creation
found cordial response in Germany, such regard being accepted as a part
of his message. That the spread of such sentimental notions was not
confined to the printed word, but passed over into actual regulation of
conduct is admirably illustrated by an anecdote related in Wieland's
_Teutscher Merkur_ in the January number for 1776, by a correspondent
who signs himself "S." A friend was visiting him; they went to walk, and
the narrator having his gun with him shot with it two young doves. His
friend is exercised. "What have the doves done to you?" he queries.
"Nothing," is the reply, "but they will taste good to you." "But they
were alive," interposed the friend, "and would have caressed
(geschnäbelt) one another," and later he refuses to partake of the
doves. Connection with Yorick is established by the narrator himself:
"If my friend had not read Yorick's story about the sparrow, he would
have had no rule of conduct here about shooting doves, and my doves
would have tasted better to him." The influence of Yorick was, however,
quite possibly indirect through Jacobi as intermediary; for the latter
describes a sentimental family who refused to allow their doves to be
killed. The author of this letter, however, refers directly to Yorick,
to the very similar episode of the sparrows narrated in the continuation
of the Sentimental Journey, but an adventure original with the German
Bode. This is probably the source of Jacobi's narrative.
The other side of Yorick's character, less comprehensible, less capable
of translation into tangibilities, was not disregarded. His humor and
whimsicality, though much less potent, were yet influential. Ramler said
in a letter to Gebler dated November 14, 1775, that everyone wished to
jest like Sterne,[21] and the _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_ (October
31, 1775), at almost precisely the same time, discourses at some length
on the then prevailing epidemic of whimsicality, showing that
shallowness beheld in the then existing interest in humor a
justification for all sorts of eccentric behavior and inconsistent
wilfulness.
Naturally Sterne's influence in the world of letters may be traced most
obviously in the slavish imitation of his style, his sentiment, his
whims,--this phase represented in general by now forgotten triflers; but
it also enters into the thought of the great minds in the fatherland and
becomes interwoven with their culture. Their own expressions of
indebtedness are here often available in assigning a measure of
relationship. And finally along certain general lines the German Yorick
exercised an influence over the way men thought and wanted to think.
The direct imitations of Sterne are very numerous, a crowd of followers,
a motley procession of would-be Yoricks, set out on one expedition or
another. Musäus[22] in a review of certain sentimental meanderings in
the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_,[23] remarked that the increase of
such journeyings threatened to bring about a new epoch in the taste of
the time. He adds that the good Yorick presumably never anticipated
becoming the founder of a fashionable sect. This was in 1773. Other
expressions of alarm or disapprobation might be cited.
Through Sterne's influence the account of travels became more personal,
less purely topographical, more volatile and merry, more subjective.[24]
Goethe in a passage in the "Campagne in Frankreich," to which reference
is made later, acknowledges this impulse as derived from Yorick. Its
presence was felt even when there was no outward effort at sentimental
journeying. The suggestion that the record of a journey was personal and
tinged with humor was essential to its popularity. It was probably
purely an effort to make use of this appeal which led the author of
"Bemerkungen eines Reisenden durch Deutschland, Frankreich, England und
Holland,"[25] a work of purely practical observation, to place upon his
title-page the alluring lines from Gay: "Life is a jest and all things
shew it. I thought so once, but now I know it;" a promise of humorous
attitude which does not find fulfilment in the heavy volumes of purely
objective description which follow.
Probably the first German book to bear the name Yorick in its title was
a short satirical sketch entitled, "Yorick und die Bibliothek der
elenden Scribenten, an Hrn.--" 1768, 8vo (Anspach),[26] which is linked
to the quite disgustingly scurrilous Antikriticus controversy.
Attempts at whimsicality, imitations also of the Shandean gallery of
originals appear, and the more particularly Shandean style of narration
is adopted in the novels of the period which deal with middle-class
domestic life. Of books directly inspired by Sterne, or following more
or less slavishly his guidance, a considerable proportion has
undoubtedly been consigned to merited oblivion. In many cases it is
possible to determine from contemporary reviews the nature of the
individual product, and the probable extent of indebtedness to the
British model. If it were possible to find and examine them all with a
view to establishing extent of relationship, the identity of motifs,
the borrowing of thought and sentiment, such a work would give us little
more than we learn from consideration of representative examples. In the
following chapter the attempt will be made to treat a number of typical
products. Baker in his article on Sterne in Germany adopts the rather
hazardous expedient of judging merely by title and taking from Goedeke's
"Grundriss," works which suggests a dependence on Sterne.[27]
The early relation of several great men of letters to Sterne has been
already treated in connection with the gradual awakening of Germany to
the new force. Wieland was one of Sterne's most ardent admirers, one of
his most intelligent interpreters; but since his relationship to Sterne
has been made the theme of special study,[28] there will be needed here
but a brief recapitulation with some additional comment. Especially in
the productions of the years 1768-1774 are the direct allusions to
Sterne and his works numerous, the adaptations of motifs frequent, and
imitation of literary style unmistakable. Behmer finds no demonstrable
evidence of Sterne's influence in Wieland's work prior to two poems of
the year 1768, "Endymions Traum" and "Chloe;" but in the works of the
years immediately following there is abundant evidence both in style and
in subject matter, in the fund of allusion and illustration, to
establish the author's indebtedness to Sterne. Behmer analyzes from this
standpoint the following works: "Beiträge zur geheimen Geschichte des
menschlichen Verstandes und Herzens;" "Sokrates Mainomenos oder die
Dialogen des Diogenes von Sinope;" "Der neue Amadis;" "Der goldene
Spiegel;" "Geschichte des Philosophen Danischmende;" "Gedanken über eine
alte Aufschrift;" "Geschichte der Abderiten."[29]
In these works, but in different measure in each, Behmer finds Sterne
copied stylistically, in the constant conversations about the worth of
the book, the comparative value of the different chapters and the
difficulty of managing the material, in the fashion of inconsequence in
unexplained beginnings and abrupt endings, in the heaping up of words of
similar meaning, or similar ending, and in the frequent digressions.
Sterne also is held responsible for the manner of introducing the
immorally suggestive, for the introduction of learned quotations and
references to authorities, for the sport made of the learned professions
and the satire upon all kinds of pedantry and overwrought enthusiasm.
Though the direct, demonstrable influence of Sterne upon Wieland's
literary activity dies out gradually[30] and naturally, with the growth
of his own genius, his admiration for the English favorite abides with
him, passing on into succeeding periods of his development, as his
former enthusiasm for Richardson failed to do.[31] More than twenty
years later, when more sober days had stilled the first unbridled
outburst of sentimentalism, Wieland speaks yet of Sterne in terms of
unaltered devotion: in an article published in the _Merkur_,[32] Sterne
is called among all authors the one "from whom I would last part,"[33]
and the subject of the article itself is an indication of his concern
for the fate of Yorick among his fellow-countrymen. It is in the form of
an epistle to Herr . . . . zu D., and is a vigorous protest against
heedless imitation of Sterne, representing chiefly the perils of such
endeavor and the bathos of the failure. Wieland includes in the letter
some "specimen passages from a novel in the style of Tristram Shandy,"
which he asserts were sent him by the author. The quotations are almost
flat burlesque in their impossible idiocy, and one can easily appreciate
Wieland's despairing cry with which the article ends.
A few words of comment upon Behmer's work will be in place. He accepts
as genuine the two added volumes of the Sentimental Journey and the
Koran, though he admits that the former were published by a friend, not
"without additions of his own," and he uses these volumes directly at
least in one instance in establishing his parallels, the rescue of the
naked woman from the fire in the third volume of the Journey, and the
similar rescue from the waters in the "Nachlass des Diogenes."[34] That
Sterne had any connection with these volumes is improbable, and the
Koran is surely a pure fabrication. Behmer seeks in a few words to deny
the reproach cast upon Sterne that he had no understanding of the
beauties of nature, but Behmer is certainly claiming too much when he
speaks of the "Farbenprächtige Schilderungen der ihm ungewohnten
sonnenverklärten Landschaft," which Sterne gives us "repeatedly" in the
Sentimental Journey, and he finds his most secure evidence for Yorick's
"genuine and pure" feeling for nature in the oft-quoted passage
beginning, "I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba and cry
''Tis all barren.'" It would surely be difficult to find these repeated
instances, for, in the whole work, Sterne gives absolutely no
description of natural scenery beyond the most casual, incidental
reference: the familiar passage is also misinterpreted, it betrays no
appreciation of inanimate nature in itself, and is but a cry in
condemnation of those who fail to find exercise for their sympathetic
emotions. Sterne mentions the "sweet myrtle" and "melancholy
cypress,"[35] not as indicative of his own affection for nature, but as
exemplifying his own exceeding personal need of expenditure of human
sympathy, as indeed the very limit to which sensibility can go, when the
desert denies possibility of human intercourse. Sterne's attitude is
much better illustrated at the beginning of the "Road to Versailles":
"As there was nothing in this road, or rather nothing which I look for
in traveling, I cannot fill up the blank better than with a short
history of this self-same bird." In other words, he met no possibility
for exercising the emotions. Behmer's statement with reference to
Sterne, "that his authorship proceeds anyway from a parody of
Richardson," is surely not demonstrable, nor that "this whole fashion of
composition is indeed but ridicule of Richardson." Richardson's star had
paled perceptibly before Sterne began to write, and the period of his
immense popularity lies nearly twenty years before. There is not the
slightest reason to suppose that his works have any connection
whatsoever with Richardson's novels. One is tempted to think that Behmer
confuses Sterne with Fielding, whose career as a novelist did begin as a
parodist of the vain little printer. That the "Starling" in the
Sentimental Journey, which is passed on from hand to hand, and the
burden of government which wanders similarly in "Der Goldene Spiegel"
constitute a parallelism, as Behmer suggests (p. 48), seems rather
far-fetched. It could also be hardly demonstrated that what Behmer calls
"die Sternische Einführungsweise"[36] (p. 54), as used in the
"Geschichte der Abderiten," is peculiar to Sterne or even characteristic
of him. Behmer (p. 19) seems to be ignorant of any reprints or
translations of the Koran, the letters and the sermons, save those
coming from Switzerland.
Bauer's study of the Sterne-Wieland relation is much briefer
(thirty-five pages) and much less satisfactory because less thorough,
yet it contains some few valuable individual points and cited
parallelisms. Bauer errs in stating that Shandy appeared 1759-67 in
York, implying that the whole work was issued there. He gives the dates
of Sterne's first visit to Paris, also incorrectly, as 1760-62.
Finally, Wieland cannot be classed among the slavish imitators of
Yorick; he is too independent a thinker, too insistent a pedagogue to
allow himself to be led more than outwardly by the foreign model. He has
something of his own to say and is genuinely serious in a large portion
of his own philosophic speculations: hence, his connection with Sterne,
being largely stylistic and illustrative, may be designated as a drapery
of foreign humor about his own seriousness of theorizing. Wieland's
Hellenic tendencies make the use of British humor all the more
incongruous.[37]
Herder's early acquaintance with Sterne has been already treated.
Subsequent writings offer also occasional indication of an abiding
admiration. Soon after his arrival in Paris he wrote to Hartknoch
praising Sterne's characterization of the French people.[38] The fifth
"Wäldchen," which is concerned with the laughable, contains reference to
Sterne.[39]
With Lessing the case is similar: a striking statement of personal
regard has been recorded, but Lessing's literary work of the following
years does not betray a significant influence from Yorick. To be sure,
allusion is made to Sterne a few times in letters[40] and elsewhere,
but no direct manifestation of devotion is discoverable. The compelling
consciousness of his own message, his vigorous interest in deeper
problems of religion and philosophy, the then increasing worth of native
German literature, may well have overshadowed the influence of the
volatile Briton.
Goethe's expressions of admiration for Sterne and indebtedness to him
are familiar. Near the end of his life (December 16, 1828), when the
poet was interested in observing the history and sources of his own
culture, and was intent upon recording his own experience for the
edification and clarification of the people, he says in conversation
with Eckermann: "I am infinitely indebted to Shakespeare, Sterne and
Goldsmith."[41] And a year later in a letter to Zelter,[42] (Weimar,
December 25, 1829), "The influence Goldsmith and Sterne exercised upon
me, just at the chief point of my development, cannot be estimated. This
high, benevolent irony, this just and comprehensive way of viewing
things, this gentleness to all opposition, this equanimity under every
change, and whatever else all the kindred virtues may be termed--such
things were a most admirable training for me, and surely, these are the
sentiments which in the end lead us back from all the mistaken paths of
life."
In the same conversation with Eckermann from which the first quotation
is made, Goethe seems to defy the investigator who would endeavor to
define his indebtedness to Sterne, its nature and its measure. The
occasion was an attempt on the part of certain writers to determine the
authorship of certain distichs printed in both Schiller's and Goethe's
works. Upon a remark of Eckermann's that this effort to hunt down a
man's originality and to trace sources is very common in the literary
world, Goethe says: "Das ist sehr lächerlich, man könnte ebenso gut
einen wohlgenährten Mann nach den Ochsen, Schafen und Schweinen fragen,
die er gegessen und die ihm Kräfte gegeben." An investigation such as
Goethe seems to warn us against here would be one of tremendous
difficulty, a theme for a separate work. It is purposed here to gather
only information with reference to Goethe's expressed or implied
attitude toward Sterne, his opinion of the British master, and to note
certain connections between Goethe's work and that of Sterne,
connections which are obvious or have been already a matter of comment
and discussion.
In Strassburg under Herder's[43] guidance, Goethe seems first to have
read the works of Sterne. His life in Frankfurt during the interval
between his two periods of university residence was not of a nature
calculated to increase his acquaintance with current literature, and his
studies did not lead to interest in literary novelty. This is his own
statement in "Dichtung und Wahrheit."[44] That Herder's enthusiasm for
Sterne was generous has already been shown by letters written in the few
years previous to his sojourn in Strassburg. Letters written to
Merck[45] (Strassburg, 1770-1771) would seem to show that then too
Sterne still stood high in his esteem. Whatever the exact time of
Goethe's first acquaintance with Sterne, we know that he recommended the
British writer to Jung-Stilling for the latter's cultivation in
letters.[46] Less than a year after Goethe's departure from Strassburg,
we find him reading aloud to the Darmstadt circle the story of poor Le
Fevre from Tristram Shandy. This is reported in a letter, dated May 8,
1772, by Caroline Flachsland, Herder's fiancée.[47] It is not evident
whether they read Sterne in the original or in the translation of
Zückert, the only one then available, unless possibly the reader gave a
translation as he read. Later in the same letter, Caroline mentions the
"Empfindsame Reisen," possibly meaning Bode's translation. She also
records reading Shakespeare in Wieland's rendering, but as she speaks
later still of peeping into the English books which Herder had sent
Merck, it is a hazardous thing to reason from her mastery of English at
that time to the use of original or translation on the occasion of
Goethe's reading.
Contemporary criticism saw in the Martin of "Götz von Berlichingen"
a likeness to Sterne's creations;[48] and in the other great work of the
pre-Weimarian period, in "Werther," though no direct influence rewards
one's search, one must acknowledge the presence of a mental and
emotional state to which Sterne was a contributor. Indeed Goethe himself
suggests this relationship. Speaking of "Werther" in the "Campagne in
Frankreich,"[49] he observes in a well-known passage that Werther did
not cause the disease, only exposed it, and that Yorick shared in
preparing the ground-work of sentimentalism on which "Werther" is built.
According to the quarto edition of 1837, the first series of letters
from Switzerland dates from 1775, although they were not published till
1808, in the eleventh volume of the edition begun in 1806. Scherer,
in his "History of German Literature," asserts that these letters are
written in imitation of Sterne, but it is difficult to see the occasion
for such a statement. The letters are, in spite of all haziness
concerning the time of their origin and Goethe's exact purpose regarding
them,[50] a "fragment of Werther's travels" and are confessedly cast in
a sentimental tone, which one might easily attribute to a Werther,
in whom hyperesthesia has not yet developed to delirium, an earlier
Werther. Yorick's whim and sentiment are quite wanting, and the
sensuousness, especially as pertains to corporeal beauty, is distinctly
Goethean.
Goethe's accounts of his own travels are quite free from the Sterne
flavor; in fact he distinctly says that through the influence of the
Sentimental Journey all records of journeys had been mostly given up to
the feelings and opinions of the traveler, but that he, after his
Italian journey, had endeavored to keep himself objective.[51]
Dr. Robert Riemann in his study of Goethe's novels,[52] calls Friedrich
in "Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre" a representative of Sterne's humor, and
he finds in Mittler in the "Wahlverwandtschaften" a union of seriousness
and the comic of caricature, reminiscent of Sterne and Hippel. Friedrich
is mercurial, petulant, utterly irresponsible, a creature of mirth and
laughter, subject to unreasoning fits of passion. One might, in thinking
of another character in fiction, designate Friedrich as faun-like. In
all of this one can, however, find little if any demonstrable likeness
to Sterne or Sterne's creations. It is rather difficult also to see
wherein the character of Mittler is reminiscent of Sterne. Mittler is
introduced with the obvious purpose of representing certain opinions and
of aiding the development of the story by his insistence upon them. He
represents a brusque, practical kind of benevolence, and his
eccentricity lies only in the extraordinary occupation which he has
chosen for himself. Riemann also traces to Sterne, Fielding and their
German followers, Goethe's occasional use of the direct appeal to the
reader. Doubtless Sterne's example here was a force in extending this
rhetorical convention.
It is claimed by Goebel[53] that Goethe's "Homunculus," suggested to the
master partly by reading of Paracelsus and partly by Sterne's mediation,
is in some characteristics of his being dependent directly on Sterne's
creation. In a meeting of the "Gesellschaft für deutsche Litteratur,"
November, 1896, Brandl expressed the opinion that Maria of Moulines was
a prototype of Mignon in "Wilhelm Meister."[54]
The references to Sterne in Goethe's works, in his letters and
conversations, are fairly numerous in the aggregate, but not especially
striking relatively. In the conversations with Eckermann there are
several other allusions besides those already mentioned. Goethe calls
Eckermann a second Shandy for suffering illness without calling a
physician, even as Walter Shandy failed to attend to the squeaking
door-hinge.[55] Eckermann himself draws on Sterne for illustrations in
Yorick's description of Paris,[56] and on January 24, 1830, at a time
when we know that Goethe was re-reading Sterne, Eckermann refers to
Yorick's (?) doctrine of the reasonable use of grief.[57] That Goethe
near the end of his life turned again to Sterne's masterpiece is proved
by a letter to Zelter, October 5, 1830;[58] he adds here too that his
admiration has increased with the years, speaking particularly of
Sterne's gay arraignment of pedantry and philistinism. But a few days
before this, October 1, 1830, in a conversation reported by Riemer,[59]
he expresses the same opinion and adds that Sterne was the first to
raise himself and us from pedantry and philistinism. By these remarks
Goethe commits himself in at least one respect to a favorable view of
Sterne's influence on German letters. A few other minor allusions to
Sterne may be of interest. In an article in the _Horen_ (1795,
V. Stück,) entitled "Literarischer Sansculottismus," Goethe mentions
Smelfungus as a type of growler.[60] In the "Wanderjahre"[61] there is a
reference to Yorick's classification of travelers. Düntzer, in Schnorr's
_Archiv_,[62] explains a passage in a letter of Goethe's to Johanna
Fahlmer (August, 1775), "die Verworrenheiten des Diego und Juliens" as
an allusion to the "Intricacies of Diego and Julia" in Slawkenbergius's
tale,[63] and to the traveler's conversation with his beast. In a letter
to Frau von Stein[64] five years later (September 18, 1780) Goethe used
this same expression, and the editor of the letters avails himself of
Düntzer's explanation. Düntzer further explains the word +theodokos+,
used in Goethe's Tagebuch with reference to the Duke, in connection with
the term +theodidaktos+ applied to Walter Shandy. The word is, however,
somewhat illegible in the manuscript. It was printed thus in the edition
of the Tagebuch published by Robert Keil, but when Düntzer himself, nine
years after the article in the _Archiv_, published an edition of the
Tagebücher he accepted a reading +theotatos+,[65] meaning, as he says,
"ein voller Gott," thereby tacitly retracting his former theory of
connection with Sterne.
The best known relationship between Goethe and Sterne is in connection
with the so-called plagiarisms in the appendix to the third volume of
the "Wanderjahre." Here, in the second edition, were printed under the
title "Aus Makariens Archiv" various maxims and sentiments. Among these
were a number of sayings, reflections, axioms, which were later
discovered to have been taken bodily from the second part of the Koran,
the best known Sterne-forgery. Alfred Hédouin, in "Le Monde Maçonnique"
(1863), in an article "Goethe plagiaire de Sterne," first located the
quotations.[66]
Mention has already been made of the account of Robert Springer, which
is probably the last published essay on the subject. It is entitled "Ist
Goethe ein Plagiarius Lorenz Sternes?" and is found in the volume
"Essays zur Kritik und Philosophie und zur Goethe-Litteratur."[67]
Springer cites at some length the liberal opinions of Molière, La
Bruyère, Wieland, Heine and others concerning the literary appropriation
of another's thought. He then proceeds to quote Goethe's equally
generous views on the subject, and adds the uncritical fling that if
Goethe robbed Sterne, it was an honor to Sterne, a gain to his literary
fame. Near the end of his paper, Springer arrives at the question in
hand and states positively that these maxims, with their miscellaneous
companions, were never published by Goethe, but were found by the
editors of his literary remains among his miscellaneous papers, and then
issued in the ninth volume of the posthumous works. Hédouin had
suggested this possible explanation. Springer adds that the editors were
unaware of the source of this material and supposed it to be original
with Goethe.
The facts of the case are, however, as follows: "Wilhelm Meister's
Wanderjahre" was published first in 1821.[68] In 1829, a new and revised
edition was issued in the "Ausgabe letzter Hand." Eckermann in his
conversations with Goethe[69] relates the circumstances under which the
appendices were added to the earlier work. When the book was in press,
the publisher discovered that of the three volumes planned, the last two
were going to be too thin, and begged for more material to fill out
their scantiness. In this perplexity Goethe brought to Eckermann two
packets of miscellaneous notes to be edited and added to those two
slender volumes. In this way arose the collection of sayings, scraps and
quotations "Im Sinne der Wanderer" and "Aus Makariens Archiv." It was
later agreed that Eckermann, when Goethe's literary remains should be
published, should place the matter elsewhere, ordered into logical
divisions of thought. All of the sentences here under special
consideration were published in the twenty-third volume of the "Ausgabe
letzter Hand," which is dated 1830,[70] and are to be found there, on
pages 271-275 and 278-281. They are reprinted in the identical order in
the ninth volume of the "Nachgelassene Werke," which also bore the
title, Vol. XLIX of "Ausgabe letzter Hand," there found on pages 121-125
and 127-131. Evidently Springer found them here in the posthumous works,
and did not look for them in the previous volume, which was published
two years or thereabouts before Goethe's death.
Of the sentiments, sentences and quotations dealing with Sterne, there
are twenty which are translations from the Koran, in Loeper's edition of
"Sprüche in Prosa,"[71] Nos. 491-507 and 543-544; seventeen others (Nos.
490, 508-509, 521-533, 535) contain direct appreciative criticism of
Sterne; No. 538 is a comment upon a Latin quotation in the Koran and No.
545 is a translation of another quotation in the same work. No. 532
gives a quotation from Sterne, "Ich habe mein Elend nicht wie ein weiser
Mann benutzt," which Loeper says he has been unable to find in any of
Sterne's works. It is, however, in a letter[72] to John Hall Stevenson,
written probably in August, 1761. The translation here is inexact.
Loeper did not succeed in finding Nos. 534, 536, 537, although their
position indicates that they were quotations from Sterne, but No. 534 is
in a letter to Garrick from Paris, March 19, 1762. The German
translation however conveys a different impression from the original
English. The other two are not located; in spite of their position, the
way in which the book was put together would certainly allow for the
possibility of extraneous material creeping in. At their first
appearance in the "Ausgabe letzter Hand," five Sprüche, Nos. 491, 543,
534, 536, 537, were supplied with quotation marks, though the source was
not indicated. Thus it is seen that the most of the quotations were
published as original during Goethe's lifetime, but he probably never
considered it of sufficient consequence to disavow their authorship in
public. It is quite possible that the way in which they were forced into
"Wilhelm Meister" was distasteful to him afterwards, and he did not care
to call attention to them.
Goethe's opinion of Sterne as expressed in the sentiments which
accompany the quotations from the Koran is significant. "Yorick Sterne,"
he says, "war der schönste Geist, der je gewirkt hat; wer ihn liest,
fühlet sich sogleich frei und schön; sein Humor ist unnachahmlich, und
nicht jeder Humor befreit die Seele" (490). "Sagacität und Penetration
sind bei ihm grenzenlos" (528). Goethe asserts here that every person of
culture should at that very time read Sterne's works, so that the
nineteenth century might learn "what we owed him and perceive what we
might owe him." Goethe took Sterne's narrative of his journey as a
representation of an actual trip, or else he is speaking of Sterne's
letters in the following:
"Seine Heiterkeit, Genügsamkeit, Duldsamkeit auf der Reise, wo diese
Eigenschaften am meisten geprüft werden, finden nicht leicht
Ihresgleichen" (No. 529), and Goethe's opinion of Sterne's indecency is
characteristic of Goethe's attitude. He says: "Das Element der
Lüsternheit, in dem er sich so zierlich und sinnig benimmt, würde vielen
Andern zum Verderben gereichen."
The juxtaposition of these quotations and this appreciation of Sterne is
proof sufficient that Goethe considered Sterne the author of the Koran
at the time when the notes were made. At precisely what time this
occurred it is now impossible to determine, but the drift of the
comment, combined with our knowledge from sources already mentioned,
that Goethe turned again to Sterne in the latter years of his life,
would indicate that the quotations were made in the latter part of the
twenties, and that the re-reading of Sterne included the Koran. Since
the translations which Goethe gives are not identical with those in the
rendering ascribed to Bode (1778), Loeper suggests Goethe himself as the
translator of the individual quotations. Loeper is ignorant of the
earlier translation of Gellius, which Goethe may have used.[73]
There is yet another possibility of connection between Goethe and the
Koran. This work contained the story of the Graf von Gleichen, which is
acknowledged to have been a precursor of Goethe's "Stella." Düntzer in
his "Erläuterungen zu den deutschen Klassikern" says it is impossible to
determine whence Goethe took the story for "Stella." He mentions that it
was contained in Bayle's Dictionary, which is known to have been in
Goethe's father's library, and two other books, both dating from the
sixteenth century, are noted as possible sources. It seems rather more
probable that Goethe found the story in the Koran, which was published
but a few years before "Stella" was written and translated but a year
later, 1771, that is, but four years, or even less, before the
appearance of "Stella" (1775).[74]
Precisely in the spirit of the opinions quoted above is the little
essay[75] on Sterne which was published in the sixth volume of "Ueber
Kunst und Alterthum," in which Goethe designates Sterne as a man "who
first stimulated and propagated the great epoch of purer knowledge of
humanity, noble toleration and tender love, in the second half of the
last century." Goethe further calls attenion to Sterne's disclosure of
human peculiarities (Eigenheiten), and the importance and interest of
these native, governing idiosyncrasies.
These are, in general, superficial relationships. A thorough
consideration of these problems, especially as concerns the cultural
indebtedness of Goethe to the English master would be a task demanding a
separate work. Goethe was an assimilator and summed up in himself the
spirit of a century, the attitude of predecessors and contemporaries.
C. F. D. Schubart wrote a poem entitled "Yorick,"[76] beginning
"Als Yorik starb, da flog
Sein Seelchen auf den Himmel
So leicht wie ein Seufzerchen."
The angels ask him for news of earth, and the greater part of the poem
is occupied with his account of human fate. The relation is quite
characteristic of Schubart in its gruesomeness, its insistence upon
all-surrounding death and dissolution; but it contains no suggestion of
Sterne's manner, or point of view. The only explanation of association
between the poem and its title is that Schubart shared the one-sided
German estimate of Sterne's character and hence represented him as a
sympathetic messenger bringing to heaven on his death some tidings of
human weakness.
In certain other manifestations, relatively subordinate, the German
literature of the latter part of the eighteenth century and the
beginning of the nineteenth and the life embodied therein are different
from what they would have been had it not been for Sterne's example.
Some of these secondary fruits of the Sterne cult have been mentioned
incidentally and exemplified in the foregoing pages. It would perhaps be
conducive to definiteness to gather them here.
Sterne's incontinuity of narration, the purposeful irrelation of parts,
the use of anecdote and episode, which to the stumbling reader reduce
his books to collections of disconnected essays and instances, gave to
German mediocrity a sanction to publish a mass of multifarious,
unrelated, and nondescript thought and incident. It is to be noted that
the spurious books such as the Koran, which Germany never clearly
sundered from the original, were direct examples in England of such
disjointed, patchwork books. Such a volume with a significant title is
"Mein Kontingent zur Modelectüre."[77] Further, eccentricity in
typography, in outward form, may be largely attributed to Sterne's
influence, although in individual cases no direct connection is
traceable. Thus, to the vagaries of Shandy is due probably the license
of the author of "Karl Blumenberg, eine tragisch-komische
Geschichte,"[78] who fills half pages with dashes and whole lines with
"Ha! Ha!"
As has been suggested already, Sterne's example was potent in fostering
the use of such stylistic peculiarities, as the direct appeal to, and
conversation with the reader about the work, and its progress, and the
various features of the situation. It was in use by Sterne's
predecessors in England and by their followers in Germany, before Sterne
can be said to have exercised any influence; for example, Hermes uses
the device constantly in "Miss Fanny Wilkes," but Sterne undoubtedly
contributed largely to its popularity. One may perhaps trace to Sterne's
blank pages and similar vagaries the eccentricity of the author of
"Ueber die Moralische Schönheit und Philosophie des Lebens,"[79] whose
eighth chapter is titled "Vom Stolz, eine Erzählung," this title
occupying one page; the next page (210) is blank; the following page is
adorned with an urnlike decoration beneath which we read, "Es war einmal
ein Priester." These three pages complete the chapter. The author of
"Dorset und Julie" (Leipzig, 1773-4) is also guilty of similar Yorickian
follies.[80]
Sterne's ideas found approbation and currency apart from his general
message of the sentimental and humorous attitude toward the world and
its course. For example, the hobby-horse theory was warmly received, and
it became a permanent figure in Germany, often, and especially at first,
with playful reminder of Yorick's use of the term.[81] Yorick's
mock-scientific division of travelers seems to have met with especial
approval, and evidently became a part of conversational, and epistolary
commonplace allusion. Goethe in a letter to Marianne Willemer, November
9, 1830,[82] with direct reference to Sterne proposes for his son, then
traveling in Italy, the additional designation of the "bold" or
"complete" traveler. Carl August in a letter to Knebel,[83] dated
December 26, 1785, makes quite extended allusion to the classification.
Lessing writes to Mendelssohn December 12, 1780: "The traveler whom you
sent to me a while ago was an inquisitive traveler. The one with whom I
now answer is an emigrating one." The passage which follows is an
apology for thus adding to Yorick's list. The two travelers were
respectively one Fliess and Alexander Daveson.[84] Nicolai makes similar
allusion to the "curious" traveler of Sterne's classification near the
beginning of his "Beschreibung einer Reise durch Deutschland und die
Schweiz im Jahre 1781."[85]
Further search would increase the number of such allusions indefinitely.
A few will be mentioned in the following chapter.