dependence of great events upon insignificant details. In his
philosophy, trifles were the determining factors of existence. The
adoption of this theory in Germany, as a principle in developing events
or character in fiction, is unquestionable in Wezel's "Tobias Knaut,"
and elsewhere. The narrative, "Die Grosse Begebenheit aus kleinen
Ursachen" in the second volume of the _Erholungen_,[86] represents a
wholesale appropriation of the idea,--to be sure not new in Shandy, but
most strikingly exemplified there.
In "Sebaldus Nothanker" the Revelation of St. John is a Sterne-like
hobby-horse and is so regarded by a reviewer in the _Magazin der
deutschen Critik_.[87] Schottenius in Knigge's "Reise nach Braunschweig"
rides his hobby in the shape of his fifty-seven sermons.[88] Lessing
uses the Steckenpferd in a letter to Mendelssohn, November 5, 1768
(Lachmann edition, XII, p. 212), and numerous other examples of direct
or indirect allusion might be cited. Sterne's worn-out coin was a simile
adopted and felt to be pointed.[89]
Jacob Minor in a suggestive article in _Euphorion_,[90] entitled
"Wahrheit und Lüge auf dem Theater und in der Literatur," expressed the
opinion that Sterne was instrumental in sharpening powers of observation
with reference to self-deception in little things, to all the deceiving
impulses of the human soul. It is held that through Sterne's inspiration
Wieland and Goethe were rendered zealous to combat false ideals and
life-lies in greater things. It is maintained that Tieck also was
schooled in Sterne, and, by means of powers of observation sharpened in
this way, was enabled to portray the conscious or unconscious life-lie.
[Footnote 1: A writer in the _Gothaische Gelehrte Zeitungen_, 1775
(II, 787 ff.), asserts that Sterne's works are the favorite
reading of the German nation.]
[Footnote 2: A further illustration may be found in the following
discourse: "Von einigen Hindernissen des akademischen Fleisses.
Eine Rede bey dem Anfange der öffentlichen Vorlesungen gehalten,"
von J. C. C. Ferber, Professor zu Helmstädt (1773, 8vo), reviewed
in _Magazin der deutschen Critik_, III, St. I., pp. 261 ff. This
academic guide of youth speaks of Sterne in the following words:
"Wie tief dringt dieser Philosoph in die verborgensten Gänge des
menschlichen Herzens, wie richtig entdeckt er die geheimsten
Federn der Handlungen, wie entlarvt, wie verabscheuungsvoll steht
vor ihm das Laster, wie liebenswürdig die Tugend! wie interessant
sind seine Schilderungen, wie eindringend seine Lehren! und woher
diese grosse Kenntniss des Menschen, woher diese getreue
Bezeichnung der Natur, diese sanften Empfindungen, die seine
geistvolle Sprache hervorbringt? Dieser Saame der Tugend, den er
mit wohlthätiger Hand ausstreuet?" Yorick held up to college or
university students as a champion of virtue is certainly an
extraordinary spectacle. A critic in the _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._,
August 18, 1772, in criticising the make-up of a so-called
"Landbibliothek," recommends books "die geschickt sind, die guten
einfältigen, ungekünstelten Empfindungen reiner Seelen zu
unterhalten, einen Yorick vor allen . . . ." The long article on
Sterne's character in the _Götting. Mag._, I, pp. 84-92, 1780,
"Etwas über Sterne: Schreiben an Prof. Lichtenberg" undoubtedly
helped to establish this opinion of Sterne authoritatively. In it
Sterne's weaknesses are acknowledged, but the tendency is to
emphasize the tender, sympathetic side of his character. The
conception of Yorick there presented is quite different from the
one held by Lichtenberg himself.]
[Footnote 3: The story of the "Lorenzodosen" is given quite fully
in Longo's monograph, "Laurence Sterne und Johann Georg Jacobi"
(Wien, 1898, pp. 39-44), and the sketch given here is based upon
his investigation, with consultation of the sources there cited.
Nothing new is likely to be added to his account, but because of
its important illustrative bearing on the whole story of Sterne in
Germany, a fairly complete account is given here. Longo refers to
the following as literature on the subject:
Martin, in _Quellen und Forschungen_, II, p. 10, p. 27,
Anmerk. 24.
Wittenberg's letter in _Quellen und Forschungen_, II, pp. 52-53.
K. M. Werner, in article on Ludw. Philipp Hahn in the same
series, XXII, pp. 127 ff.
Appell: "Werther und seine Zeit," Leipzig, 1855, p. 168.
(Oldenburg, 1896, p. 246-250).
Schlichtegroll: "Nekrolog von 1792," II, pp. 37 ff.
Klotz: _Bibliothek_, V, p. 285.
Jacobi's Werke, 1770, I, pp. 127 ff.
_Allg. deutsche Bibl._, XIX, 2, p. 174; XII, 2, p. 279.
Julian Schmidt: "Aus der Zeit der Lorenzodosen," _Westermann's
Monatshefte_, XLIX, pp. 479 ff.
The last article is popular and only valuable in giving letters
of Wieland and others which display the emotional currents of the
time. It has very little to do with the Lorenzodosen.]
[Footnote 4: The letter is reprinted in Jacobi's Works, 1770, I,
pp. 31 ff., and in an abridged form in the edition of 1807, I, pp.
103 ff.; and in the edition of Zürich, 1825, I, pp. 270-275.]
[Footnote 5: XI, 2, pp. 174-75.]
[Footnote 6: _Quellen und Forschungen_, XXII, p. 127.]
[Footnote 7: _Ibid._, II, pp. 52-53.]
[Footnote 8: This was in a letter to Jacobi October 25, 1770,
though Appell gives the date 1775--evidently a misprint.]
[Footnote 9: Review of "Trois lettres françoises par quelques
allemands," Amsterdam (Berlin), 1769, 8vo, letters concerned with
Jacobi's "Winterreise" and the snuff-boxes themselves.]
[Footnote 10: XII, 2, p. 279.]
[Footnote 11: Longo was unable to find one of these once so
popular snuff-boxes,--a rather remarkable fact. There is, however,
a picture of one at the end of the chapter "Yorick," p. 15 in
Göchhausen's M . . . . R . . . .,--a small oval box. Emil Kuh, in
his life of Fredrich Hebbel (1877, I, pp. 117-118) speaks of the
Lorenzodose as "dreieckig." A chronicler in Schlichtegroll's
"Nekrolog," 1792, II, p. 51, also gives rumor of an order of
"Sanftmuth und Toleranz, der eine dreyeckigte Lorenzodose zum
Symbol führte." The author here is unable to determine whether
this is a part of Jacobi's impulse or the initiative of another.]
[Footnote 12: Fourth Edition. Berlin and Stettin, 1779, III,
p. 99.]
[Footnote 13: "Christopher Kaufmann, der Kraftapostel der
Geniezeit" von Heinrich Düntzer, _Historisches Taschenbuch_,
edited by Fr. v. Raumer, third series, tenth year, Leipzig, 1859,
pp. 109-231. Düntzer's sources concerning Kaufmann's life in
Strassburg are Schmohl's "Urne Johann Jacob Mochels," 1780, and
"Johann Jacob Mochel's Reliquien verschiedener philosophischen
pädogogischen poetischen und andern Aufsätze," 1780. These books
have unfortunately not been available for the present use.]
[Footnote 14: For account of Leuchsenring see Varnhagen van Ense,
"Vermischte Schriften", I. 492-532.]
[Footnote 15: Schlichtegroll's "Nekrolog," 1792, II, pp. 37 ff.
There is also given here a quotation written after Sterne's death,
which is of interest:
"Wir erben, Yorick, deine Dose,
Auch deine Feder erben wir;
Doch wer erhielt im Erbschaftsloose
Dein Herz? O Yorick, nenn ihn mir!"]
[Footnote 16: Works of Friedrich von Matthison, Zürich, 1825, III,
pp. 141 ff., in "Erinnerungen," zweites Buch. The "Vaterländische
Besuche" were dated 1794.]
[Footnote 17: Briefe von Friedrich Matthison, Zürich, 1795, I, pp.
27-32.]
[Footnote 18: Shandy, III, 22.]
[Footnote 19: Briefe, II, p. 95.]
[Footnote 20: "Herders Briefwechsel mit seiner Braut", pp. 92,
181, 187, 253, 377.]
[Footnote 21: Quoted by Koberstein, IV, p. 168. Else, p. 31;
Hettner, III, 1, p. 362, quoted from letters in Friedrich
Schlegel's _Deutsches Museum_, IV, p. 145. These letters are not
given by Goedeke.]
[Footnote 22: The review is credited to him by Koberstein, III,
pp. 463-4.]
[Footnote 23: XIX, 2, p. 579.]
[Footnote 24: See "Bemerkungen oder Briefe über Wien, eines jungen
Bayern auf einer Reise durch Deutschland," Leipzig (probably 1804
or 1805). It is, according to the _Jenaische Allg. Litt. Zeitung_
(1805, IV, p. 383), full of extravagant sentiment with frequent
apostrophe to the author's "Evelina." Also, "Meine Reise vom
Städtchen H . . . . zum Dörfchen H . . . ." Hannover, 1799. See
_Allg. Litt. Zeitung_, 1799, IV, p. 87. "Reisen unter Sonne, Mond
und Sternen," Erfurt, 1798, pp. 220, 8vo. This is evidently a
similar work, but is classed by _Allg. Litt. Zeitung_ (1799,
I, 477) as an imitation of Jean Paul, hence indirectly to be
connected with Yorick. "Reisen des grünen Mannes durch
Deutschland," Halle, 1787-91. See _Allg. Litt. Zeitung_, 1789,
I, 217; 1791, IV, p. 576. "Der Teufel auf Reisen," two volumes,
Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1789. See _Allg. Litt. Zeitung_, 1789, I,
p. 826. Knigge's books of travels also share in this enlivening
and subjectivizing of the traveler's narrative.]
[Footnote 25: Altenburg, Richter, 1775, six volumes.]
[Footnote 26: Reviewed in _Allg. deutsche Bibl._, X, 2, p. 127,
and _Neue Critische Nachrichten_, Greifswald V, p. 222.]
[Footnote 27: Many of the anonymous books, even those popular in
their day, are not given by Goedeke; and Baker, judging only by
one external, naturally misses Sterne products which have no
distinctively imitative title, and includes others which have no
connection with Sterne. For example, he gives Gellius's "Yoricks
Nachgelassene Werke," which is but a translation of the Koran,
and hence in no way an example of German imitation; he gives also
Schummel's "Fritzens Reise nach Dessau" (1776) and "Reise nach
Schlesien" (1792), Nonne's "Amors Reisen nach Fockzana zum
Friedenscongress" (1773), none of which has anything to do with
Sterne. "Trim oder der Sieg der Liebe über die Philosophie"
(Leipzig, 1776), by Ludw. Ferd. v. Hopffgarten, also cited by
Baker, undoubtedly owes its name only to Sterne. See _Jenaische
Zeitungen von gel. Sachen_, 1777, p. 67, and _Allg. deutsche
Bibl._, XXXIV, 2, p. 484; similarly "Lottchens Reise ins
Zuchthaus" by Kirtsten, 1777, is given in Baker's list, but the
work "Reise" is evidently used here only in a figurative sense,
the story being but the relation of character deterioration,
a downward journey toward the titular place of punishment. See
_Jenaische Zeitungen von gel. Sachen_, 1777, pp. 739 ff.; 1778,
p. 12. _Allg. deutsche Bibl._, XXXV, 1, p. 182. Baker gives Bock's
"Tagereise" and "Geschichte eines empfundenen Tages" as if they
were two different books. He further states: "Sterne is the parent
of a long list of German Sentimental Journeys which began with von
Thümmel's 'Reise in die mittäglichen Provinzen Frankreichs.'" This
work really belongs comparatively late in the story of imitations.
Two of Knigge's books are also included. See p. 166-7.]
[Footnote 28: "Laurence Sterne und C. M. Wieland, von Karl August
Behmer, Forschungen zur neueren Litteraturgeschichte IX. München,
1899. Ein Beitrag zur Erforschung fremder Einflüsse auf Wieland's
Dichtung." To this reference has been made. There is also another
briefer study of this connection: a Programm by F. Bauer, "Ueber
den Einfluss, Laurence Sternes auf Chr. M. Wieland," Karlsbad,
1898. A. Mager published, 1890, at Marburg, "Wieland's Nachlass
des Diogenes von Sinope und das englische Vorbild," a school
"Abhandlung," which dealt with a connection between this work of
Wieland and Sterne. Wood ("Einfluss Fieldings auf die deutsche
Litteratur," Yokohama, 1895) finds constant imitation of Sterne in
"Don Silvio," which, from Behmer's proof concerning the dates of
Wieland's acquaintance with Sterne, can hardly be possible.]
[Footnote 29: Some other works are mentioned as containing
references and allusions.]
[Footnote 30: In "Oberon" alone of Wieland's later works does
Behmer discover Sterne's influence and there no longer in the
style, but in the adaptation of motif.]
[Footnote 31: See Erich Schmidt's "Richardson, Rousseau und
Goethe," Jena, 1875, pp. 46-7.]
[Footnote 32: 1790, I, pp. 209-16.]
[Footnote 33: This may be well compared with Wieland's statements
concerning Shandy in his review of the Bode translation (_Merkur_,
VIII, pp. 247-51, 1774), which forms one of the most exaggerated
expressions of adoration in the whole epoch of Sterne's
popularity.]
[Footnote 34: Since Germany did not sharply separate the work of
Sterne from his continuator, this is, of course, to be classed
from the German point of view at that time as a borrowing from
Sterne. Mager in his study depends upon the Eugenius continuation
for this and several other parallels.]
[Footnote 35: Sentimental Journey, pp. 31-32.]
[Footnote 36: "Ich denke nicht, dass es Sie gereuen wird, den Mann
näher kennen zu lernen" spoken of Demokritus in "Die Abderiten;"
see _Merkur_, 1774, I, p. 56.]
[Footnote 37: Wieland's own genuine appreciation of Sterne and
understanding of his characteristics is indicated incidentally in
a review of a Swedish book in the _Teutscher Merkur_, 1782, II,
p. 192, in which he designates the description of sentimental
journeying in the seventh book of Shandy as the best of Sterne's
accomplishment, as greater than the Journey itself, a judgment
emanating from a keen and true knowledge of Sterne.]
[Footnote 38: Lebensbild, V, Erlangen, 1846, p. 89. Letter to
Hartknoch, Paris, November, 1769. In connection with his journey
and his "Reisejournal," he speaks of his "Tristramschen
Meynungen." See Lebensbild, Vol. V, p. 61.]
[Footnote 39: Suphan, IV, p. 190. For further reference to Sterne
in Herder's letters, see "Briefe Herders an Hamann," edited by
Otto Hoffmann, Berlin, 1889, pp. 28, 51, 57, 71, 78, 194.]
[Footnote 40: Lachmann edition, Berlin, 1840, XII, pp. 212, 240.]
[Footnote 41: Eckermann: "Gespräche mit Goethe," Leipzig, 1885,
II, p. 29; or Biedermann, "Goethe's Gespräche," Leipzig, 1890,
VI, p. 359.]
[Footnote 42: "Briefwechsel zwischen Goethe und Zelter, in den
Jahren, 1796-1832." Ed. by Fr. W. Riemer, Berlin, 1833-4, Vol. V,
p. 349. Both of these quotations are cited by Siegmund Levy,
"Goethe und Oliver Goldsmith;" Goethe-Jahrbuch, VI, 1885, pp.
282 ff. The translation in this case is from that of A. D.
Coleridge.]
[Footnote 43: Griesebach: "Das Goetheische Zeitalter der deutschen
Dichtung," Leipzig, 1891, p. 29.]
[Footnote 44: II, 10th book, Hempel, XXI, pp. 195 ff.]
[Footnote 45: "Briefe an Joh. Heinrich Merck von Göthe, Herder,
Wieland und andern bedeutenden Zeitgenossen," edited by Dr. Karl
Wagner, Darmstadt, 1835, p. 5; and "Briefe an und von Joh.
Heinrich Merck," issued by the same editor, Darmstadt, 1838,
pp. 5, 21.]
[Footnote 46: In the "Wanderschaft," see J. H. Jung-Stilling,
Sämmtliche Werke. Stuttgart, 1835, I, p. 277.]
[Footnote 47: "Herder's Briefwechsel mit seiner Braut, April,
1771, to April, 1773," edited by Düntzer and F. G. von Herder,
Frankfurt-am-Main, 1858, pp. 247 ff.]
[Footnote 48: See _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._, 1774, February 22.]
[Footnote 49: Kürschner edition of Goethe, Vol. XXII, pp. 146-7.]
[Footnote 50: See introduction by Dünster in the Kürschner
edition, XIII, pp. 137 ff., and that by Fr. Strehlke in the Hempel
edition, XVI. pp. 217 ff.]
[Footnote 51: Kürschner edition, Vol. XXIV, p. 15; Tag- und
Jahreshefte, 1789.]
[Footnote 52: "Goethe's Romantechnik," Leipzig, 1902. The author
here incidentally expresses the opinion that Heinse is also an
imitator of Sterne.]
[Footnote 53: Julius Goebel, in "Goethe-Jahrbuch," XXI, pp.
208 ff.]
[Footnote 54: See _Euphorion_, IV, p. 439.]
[Footnote 55: Eckermann, III, p. 155; Biedermann, VI, p. 272.]
[Footnote 56: Eckermann, III, p. 170; Biedermann, VI, p. 293.]
[Footnote 57: Eckermann, II, p. 19; Biedermann, VII, p. 184. This
quotation is given in the Anhang to the "Wanderjahre." Loeper says
(Hempel, XIX, p. 115) that he has been unable to find it anywhere
in Sterne; see p. 105.]
[Footnote 58: See "Briefwechsel zwischen Goethe und Zelter."
Zelter's replies contain also reference to Sterne. VI, p. 33 he
speaks of the Sentimental Journey as "ein balsamischer
Frühlingsthau." See also II, p. 51; VI, p. 207. Goethe is reported
as having spoken of the Sentimental Journey: "Man könne durchaus
nicht besser ausdrücken, wie des Menschen Herz ein trotzig und
verzagt Ding sei."]
[Footnote 59: "Mittheilungen über Goethe," von F. W. Riemer,
Berlin, 1841, II, p. 658. Also, Biedermann, VII, p. 332.]
[Footnote 60: See Hempel, XXIX, p. 240.]
[Footnote 61: Kürschner, XVI, p. 372.]
[Footnote 62: IX, p. 438.]
[Footnote 63: See "Briefe von Goethe an Johanna Fahlmer," edited
by L. Ulrichs, Leipzig, 1875, p. 91, and Shandy, II, pp. 70
and 48.]
[Footnote 64: "Goethe's Briefe an Frau von Stein," hrsg. von Adolf
Schöll; 2te Aufl, bearbeitet von W. Fielitz, Frankfurt-am-Main,
1883, Vol. I, p. 276.]
[Footnote 65: References to the Tagebücher are as follows: Robert
Keil's Leipzig, 1875, p. 107, and Düntzer's, Leipzig, 1889,
p. 73.]
[Footnote 66: See also the same author's "Goethe, sa vie et ses
oeuvres," Paris, 1866; Appendice pp. 291-298. Further literature
is found: "Vergleichende Blätter für literarische Unterhaltung,"
1863, No. 36, and 1869, Nos. 10 and 14. _Morgenblatt_, 1863,
Nr. 39, article by Alex. Büchner, Sterne's "Coran und Makariens
Archiv, Goethe ein Plagiator?" and _Deutsches Museum_, 1867,
No. 690.]
[Footnote 67: Minden i. W., 1885, pp. 330-336.]
[Footnote 68: "Druck vollendet in Mai" according to Baumgartner,
III, p. 292.]
[Footnote 69: II, pp. 230-233. May 15, 1831.]
[Footnote 70: Goedeke gives Vol. XXIII, A. l. H. as 1829.]
[Footnote 71: Hempel, XIX, "Sprüche in Prosa," edited by G. von
Loeper, Maximen und Reflexionen; pp. 106-111 and 113-117.]
[Footnote 72: Letters, I, p. 54.]
[Footnote 73: This seems very odd in view of the fact that in
Loeper's edition of "Dichtung und Wahrheit" (Hempel, XXII, p. 264)
Gellius is referred to as "the translator of Lillo and Sterne." It
must be that Loeper did not know that Gellius's "Yorick's
Nachgelassene Werke" was a translation of the Koran.]
[Footnote 74: The problem involved in the story of Count Gleichen
was especially sympathetic to the feeling of the eighteenth
century. See a series of articles by Fr. Heibig in _Magazin für
Litteratur des In- und Auslandes_, Vol. 60, pp. 102-5; 120-2;
136-9. "Zur Geschichte des Problems des Grafen von Gleichen."]
[Footnote 75: Weimar edition, Vol. XLI, 2, pp. 252-253.]
[Footnote 76: Gesammelte Schriften, Stuttgart, 1839, IV, pp.
272-3.]
[Footnote 77: Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1775. See _Gothaische Gel.
Zeitungen_, 1776, I, pp. 208-9, and _Allg. deutsche Bibl._,
XXXII, 1, p. 139. _Jenaische Zeitungen von gelehrten Sachen_,
September 27, 1776. This does not imply that Sterne was in this
respect an innovator; such books were printed before Sterne's
influence was felt, _e.g._, _Magazin von Einfällen_, Breslau, 1763
(?), reviewed in _Leipziger Neue Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen_,
February 20, 1764. See also "Reisen im Vaterlande,--Kein Roman
aber ziemlich theatralisch-politisch und satyrischen Inhalts," two
volumes; Königsberg and Leipzig, 1793-4, reviewed in _Allg. Litt.
Zeitung_, 1795, III, p. 30. "Der Tändler, oder Streifereyen in die
Wildnisse der Einbildungskraft, in die Werke der Natur und
menschlichen Sitten," Leipzig, 1778 (?), (_Almanach der deutschen
Musen_, 1779, p. 48). "Meine Geschichte oder Begebenheiten des
Herrn Thomas: ein narkotisches Werk des Doktor Pifpuf," Münster
und Leipzig, 1772, pp. 231, 8vo. A strange episodical
conglomerate; see _Magazin der deutschen Critik_, II, p. 135.]
[Footnote 78: Leipzig, 1785 or 1786. See _Allg. Litt. Zeitung_,
1786, III, p. 259.]
[Footnote 79: Altenburg, 1772, by von Schirach (?).]
[Footnote 80: See _Auserlesene Bibl. der neuesten deutschen
Litteratur_, IV, pp. 320-325, and VII, pp. 227-234. _Allg.
deutsche Bibl._, XXIII, 1, p. 258; XXVI, 1, p. 209.]
[Footnote 81: Riedel uses it, for example, in his "Launen an
meinen Satyr," speaking of "mein swiftisch Steckenthier" in
"Vermischte Aufsätze," reviewed in _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._, 1772,
pp. 358-9. _Magazin der deutschen Critik_, I, pp. 290-293.]
[Footnote 82: "Briefwechsel zwischen Goethe und Marianne Willemer
(Suleika)." Edited by Th. Creizenach, 2d edition; Stuttgart, 1878,
p. 290.]
[Footnote 83: "K. L. von Knebel's literarischer Nachlass und
Briefwechsel;" edited by Varnhagen von Ense and Th. Mundt,
Leipzig, 1835, p. 147.]
[Footnote 84: See Mendelssohn's Schriften; edited by G. B.
Mendelssohn, Leipzig, 1844, V, p. 202. See also letter of
Mendelssohn to Lessing, February 18, 1780.]
[Footnote 85: Third edition, Berlin and Stettin, 1788, p. 14.]
[Footnote 86: II, pp. 218 ff.]
[Footnote 87: II, 2, p. 127.]
[Footnote 88: These two cases are mentioned also by Riemann in
"Goethe's Romantechnik."]
[Footnote 89: See _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._, May 8, 1772, p. 296.]
[Footnote 90: III, pp. 276 ff.]
CHAPTER VI
IMITATORS OF STERNE
Among the disciples of Sterne in Germany whose literary imitation may be
regarded as typical of their master's influence, Johann Georg Jacobi is
perhaps the best known. His relation to the famous "Lorenzodosen"
conceit is sufficient to link his name with that of Yorick. Martin[1]
asserts that he was called "Uncle Toby" in Gleim's circle because of his
enthusiasm for Sterne. The indebtedness of Jacobi to Sterne is the
subject of a special study by Dr. Joseph Longo, "Laurence Sterne und
Johann Georg Jacobi;" and the period of Jacobi's literary work which
falls under the spell of Yorick has also been treated in an inaugural
dissertation, "Ueber Johann Georg Jacobi's Jugendwerke," by Georg
Ransohoff. The detail of Jacobi's indebtedness to Sterne is to be found
in these two works.
Longo was unable to settle definitely the date of Jacobi's first
acquaintance with Sterne. The first mention made of him is in the letter
to Gleim of April 4, 1769, and a few days afterward,--April 10,--the
intelligence is afforded that he himself is working on a "journey." The
"Winterreise" was published at Düsseldorf in the middle of June, 1769.
Externally the work seems more under the influence of the French
wanderer Chapelle, since prose and verse are used irregularly
alternating, a style quite different from the English model. There are
short and unnumbered chapters, as in the Sentimental Journey, but,
unlike Sterne, Jacobi, with one exception, names no places and makes no
attempt at description of place or people, other than the sentimental
individuals encountered on the way. He makes no analysis of national, or
even local characteristics: the journey, in short, is almost completely
without place-influence. There is in the volume much more exuberance of
fancy, grotesque at times, a more conscious exercise of the picturing
imagination than we find in Sterne. There is use, too, of mythological
figures quite foreign to Sterne, an obvious reminiscence of Jacobi's
Anacreontic experience. He exaggerates Yorick's sentimentalism, is more
weepy, more tender, more sympathizing; yet, as Longo does not
sufficiently emphasize, he does not touch the whimsical side of Yorick's
work. Jacobi, unlike his model, but in common with other German
imitators, is insistent in instruction and serious in contention for pet
theories, as is exemplified by the discussion of the doctrine of
immortality. There are opinions to be maintained, there is a message to
be delivered. Jacobi in this does not give the lie to his nationality.
Like other German imitators, too, he took up with especial feeling the
relations between man and the animal world, an attitude to be connected
with several familiar episodes in Sterne.[2] The two chapters, "Der
Heerd" and "Der Taubenschlag," tell of a sentimental farmer who mourns
over the fact that his son has cut down a tree in which the nightingale
was wont to nest. A similar sentimental regard is cherished in this
family for the doves, which no one killed, because no one could eat
them. Even as Yorick meets a Franciscan, Jacobi encounters a Jesuit
whose heart leaps to meet his own, and later, after the real journey is
done, a visit to a lonely cloister gives opportunity for converse with a
monk, like Pater Lorenzo,--tender, simple and humane.
The "Sommerreise," according to Longo, appeared in the latter part of
September, 1769, a less important work, which, in the edition of 1807,
Jacobi considered unworthy of preservation. Imitation of Sterne is
marked: following a criticism by Wieland the author attempts to be
humorous, but with dubious success; he introduces a Sterne-like
sentimental character which had not been used in the "Winterreise,"
a beggar-soldier, and he repeats the motif of human sympathy for animals
in the story of the lamb. Sympathy with erring womanhood is expressed in
the incidents related in "Die Fischerhütte" and "Der Geistliche." These
two books were confessedly inspired by Yorick, and contemporary
criticism treated them as Yorick products. The _Deutsche Bibliothek der
schönen Wissenschaften_, published by Jacobi's friend Klotz, would
naturally favor the volumes. Its review of the "Winterreise" is
non-critical and chiefly remarkable for the denial of foreign imitation.
The _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_,[3] in reviewing the same work pays
a significant tribute to Sterne, praising his power of disclosing the
good and beautiful in the seemingly commonplace. In direct criticism of
the book, the reviewer calls it a journey of fancy, the work of a
youthful poet rather than that of a sensitive philosopher. Wieland is
credited with the astounding opinion that he prefers the "Sommerreise"
to Yorick's journey.[4] Longo's characterization of Sterne is in the
main satisfactory, yet there is distinctly traceable the tendency to
ignore or minimize the whimsical elements of Sterne's work: this is the
natural result of his approach to Sterne, through Jacobi, who understood
only the sentimentalism of the English master.[5]
Among the works of sentiment which were acknowledged imitations of
Yorick, along with Jacobi's "Winterreise," probably the most typical and
best known was the "Empfindsame Reisen durch Deutschland" by Johann
Gottlieb Schummel. Its importance as a document in the history of
sentimentalism is rather as an example of tendency than as a force
contributing materially to the spread of the movement. Its influence was
probably not great, though one reviewer does hint at a following.[6] Yet
the book has been remembered more persistently than any other work of
its genre, except Jacobi's works, undoubtedly in part because it was
superior to many of its kind, partly, also, because its author won later
and maintained a position of some eminence, as a writer and a pedagogue;
but largely because Goethe's well-known review of it in the _Frankfurter
Gelehrte Anzeigen_ has been cited as a remarkably acute contribution to
the discriminating criticism of the genuine and the affected in the
eighteenth-century literature of feeling, and has drawn attention from
the very fact of its source to the object of its criticism.
Schummel was born in May, 1748, and hence was but twenty years of age
when Germany began to thrill in response to Yorick's sentiments. It is
probable that the first volume was written while Schummel was still a
university student in 1768-1770. He assumed a position as teacher in
1771, but the first volume came out at Easter of that year; this would
probably throw its composition back into the year before. The second
volume appeared at Michaelmas of the same year. His publisher was
Zimmermann at Wittenberg and Zerbst, and the first volume at any rate
was issued in a new edition. The third volume came out in the spring of
1772.[7] Schummel's title, "Empfindsame Reisen," is, of course, taken
from the newly coined word in Bode's title, but in face of this fact it
is rather remarkable to find that several quotations from Sterne's
Journey, given in the course of the work, are from the Mittelstedt
translation. On two occasions, indeed, Schummel uses the title of the
Mittelstedt rendering as first published, "Versuch über die menschliche
Natur."[8]
These facts lead one to believe that Schummel drew his inspiration from
the reading of this translation. This is interesting in connection with
Böttiger's claim that the whole cavalcade of sentimental travelers who
trotted along after Yorick with all sorts of animals and vehicles was a
proof of the excellence and power of Bode's translation. As one would
naturally infer from the title of Schummel's fiction, the Sentimental
Journey is more constantly drawn upon as a source of ideas, motifs,
expression, and method, than Tristram Shandy, but the allusions to
Sterne's earlier book, and the direct adaptations from it are both
numerous and generous. This fact has not been recognized by the critics,
and is not an easy inference from the contemporary reviews.
The book is the result of an immediate impulse to imitation felt
irresistibly on the reading of Sterne's narrative. That the critics and
readers of that day treated with serious consideration the efforts of a
callow youth of twenty or twenty-one in this direction is indicative
either of comparative vigor of execution, or of prepossession of the
critical world in favor of the literary genre,--doubtless of both.
Schummel confesses that the desire to write came directly after the book
had been read. "I had just finished reading it," he says, "and Heaven
knows with what pleasure, every word from 'as far as this matter is
concerned' on to 'I seized the hand of the lady's maid,' were imprinted
in my soul with small invisible letters." The characters of the Journey
stood "life-size in his very soul." Involuntarily his inventive powers
had sketched several plans for a continuation, releasing Yorick from the
hand of the _fille de chambre_. But what he attempts is not a
continuation but a German parallel.
In the outward events of his story, in the general trend of its
argument, Schummel does not depend upon either Shandy or the Journey:
the hero's circumstances are in general not traceable to the English
model, but, spasmodically, the manner of narration and the nature of the
incidents are quite slavishly copied. A complete summary of the thread
of incident on which the various sentimental adventures, whimsical
speculations and digressions are hung, can be dispensed with: it is only
necessary to note instances where connection with Sterne as a model can
be established. Schummel's narrative is often for many successive pages
absolutely straightforward and simple, unbroken by any attempt at
Shandean buoyancy, and unblemished by overwrought sentiment. At the
pausing places he generally indulges in Sternesque quibbling.
A brief analysis of the first volume, with especial reference to the
appropriation of Yorick features, will serve to show the extent of
imitation, and the nature of the method. In outward form the Sentimental
Journey is copied. The volume is not divided into chapters, but there
are named divisions: there is also Yorick-like repetition of
section-headings. Naturally the author attempts at the very beginning to
strike a note distinctly suggesting Sterne: "Is he dead, the old
cousin?" are the first words of the volume, uttered by the hero on
receipt of the news, and in Yorick fashion he calls for guesses
concerning the mien with which the words were said. The conversation of
the various human passions with Yorick concerning the advisability of
offering the lady in Calais a seat in his chaise is here directly
imitated in the questions put by avarice, vanity, etc., concerning the
cousin's death. The actual journey does not begin until page 97, a brief
autobiography of the hero occupying the first part of the book; this
inconsequence is confessedly intended to be a Tristram Shandy whim.[9]
The author's relation to his parents is adapted directly from Shandy,
since he here possesses an incapable, unpractical, philosophizing
father, who determines upon methods for the superior education of his
son; and a simple, silly mockery of a mother.
Left, however, an orphan, he begins his sentimental adventures: thrust
on the world he falls in with a kindly baker's wife whose conduct toward
him brings tears to the eyes of the ten-year old lad, this showing his
early appetite for sentimental journeying. A large part of this first
section relating to his early life and youthful struggles, his kindly
benefactor, his adventure with Potiphar's wife, is simple and direct,
with only an occasional hint of Yorick's influence in word or phrase, as
if the author, now and then, recalled the purpose and the inspiration.
For example, not until near the bottom of page 30 does it occur to him
to be abrupt and indulge in Shandean eccentricities, and then again,
after a few lines, he resumes the natural order of discourse. And again,
on page 83, he breaks off into attempted frivolity and Yorick
whimsicality of narration. In starting out upon his journey the author
says: "I will tread in Yorick's foot-prints, what matters it if I do not
fill them out? My heart is not so broad as his, the sooner can it be
filled; my head is not so sound; my brain not so regularly formed. My
eyes are not so clear, but for that he was born in England and I in
Germany; he is a man and I am but a youth, in short, he is Yorick and I
am not Yorick." He determines to journey where it is most sentimental
and passes the various lands in review in making his decision. Having
fastened upon Germany, he questions himself similarly with reference to
the cities. Yorick's love of lists, of mock-serious discrimination, of
inconsequential reasonings is here copied. The call upon epic, tragic,
lyric poets, musicians, etc., which follows here is a further imitation
of Yorick's list-making and pseudo-scientific method.
On his way to Leipzig, in the post-chaise, the author falls in with a
clergyman: the manner of this meeting is intended to be Sterne-like:
Schummel sighs, the companion remarks, "You too are an unhappy one," and
they join hands while the human heart beams in the traveler's eyes. They
weep too at parting. But, apart from these external incidents of their
meeting, the matter of their converse is in no way inspired by Sterne.
It joins itself with the narrative of the author's visit to a church in
a village by the wayside, and deals in general with the nature of the
clergyman's relation to his people and the general mediocrity and
ineptitude of the average homiletical discourse, the failure of
clergymen to relate their pulpit utterance to the life of the common
Christian,--all of which is genuine, sane and original, undoubtedly a
real protest on the part of Schummel, the pedagogue, against a
prevailing abuse of his time and other times. This section represents
unquestionably the earnest convictions of its author, and is written
with professional zeal. This division is followed by an evidently
purposeful return to Sterne's eccentricity of manner. The author begins
a division of his narrative, "Der zerbrochene Postwagen," which is
probably meant to coincide with the post-chaise accident in Shandy's
travels, writes a few lines in it, then begins the section again,
something like the interrupted story of the King of Bohemia and his
Seven Castles. Then follows an abrupt discursive study of his aptitudes
and proclivities, interspersed with Latin exclamations, interrogation
points and dashes. "What a parenthesis is that!" he cries, and a few
lines further on, "I burn with longing to begin a parenthesis again." On
his arrival in Leipzig, Schummel imitates closely Sterne's satirical
guide-book description of Calais[10] in his brief account of the city,
breaking off abruptly like Sterne, and roundly berating all
"Reisebeschreiber." Here in fitting contrast with this superficial
enumeration of facts stands his brief traveler's creed, an interest in
people rather than in places, all of which is derived from Sterne's
chapter, "In the Street, Calais," in which the master discloses the
sentimental possibilities of traveling and typifies the superficial,
unemotional wanderer in the persons of Smelfungus and Mundungus, and
from the familiar passage in "The Passport, Versailles," beginning, "But
I could wish to spy out the nakedness, etc." No sooner is he arrived in
Leipzig, than he accomplishes a sentimental rescue of an unfortunate
woman on the street. In the expression of her immediate needs, Schummel
indulges for the first time in a row of stars, with the obvious
intention of raising a low suggestion, which he contradicts with
mock-innocent questionings a few lines later, thereby fastening the
attention on the possibility of vulgar interpretation. Sterne is guilty
of this device in numerous instances in both his works, and the English
continuation of the Sentimental Journey relies upon it in greater and
more revolting measure.
Once established in his hotel, the author betakes himself to the
theater: this very act he feels will bring upon him the censure of the
critics, for Yorick went to the theater too. "A merchant's boy went
along before me," he says in naïve defense, "was he also an imitator of
Yorick?" On the way he meets a fair maid-in-waiting, and the relation
between her and the traveler, developed here and later, is inspired
directly by Yorick's connection with the fair _fille de chambre_.
Schummel imitates Sterne's excessive detail of description, devoting a
whole paragraph to his manner of removing his hat before a lady whom he
encounters on this walk to the theater. This was another phase of
Sterne's pseudo-scientific method: he describes the trivial with the
attitude of the trained observer, registering minutely the detail of
phenomena, a mock-parade of scholarship illustrated by his description
of Trim's attitude while reading his sermon, or the dropping of the hat
in the kitchen during the memorable scene when the news of Bobby's death
is brought.
In Schummel's narration of his adventures in the house of ill-repute
there are numerous sentimental excrescences in his conduct with the poor
prisoner there, due largely to Yorick's pattern, such as their weeping
on one another's breast, and his wiping away her tears and his, drawn
from Yorick's amiable service for Maria of Moulines, an act seemingly
expressing the most refined human sympathy. The remaining events of this
first volume include an unexpected meeting with the kind baker's wife,
which takes place at Gellert's grave. Yorick's imitators were especially
fond of re-introducing a sentimental relationship. Yorick led the way in
his renewed acquaintance with the _fille de chambre_; Stevenson in his
continuation went to extremes in exploiting this cheap device.
Other motifs derived from Sterne, less integral, may be briefly
summarized. From the Sentimental Journey is taken the motif that
valuable or interesting papers be used to wrap ordinary articles of
trade: here herring are wrapped in fragments of the father's philosophy;
in the Sentimental Journey we find a similar degrading use for the
"Fragment." Schummel breaks off the chapter "La Naïve,"[11] under the
Sternesque subterfuge of having to deliver manuscript to an insistent
publisher. Yorick writes his preface to the Journey in the
"Désobligeant," that is, in the midst of the narrative itself. Schummel
modifies the eccentricity merely by placing his foreword at the end of
the volume. The value of it, he says, will repay the reader for waiting
so long,--a statement which finds little justification in the preface
itself. It begins, "Auweh! Auweh! Ouais, Helas! . . . Diable, mein
Rücken, mein Fuss!" and so on for half a page,--a pitiful effort to
follow the English master's wilful and skilful incoherence. The
following pages, however, once this outbreak is at an end, contain a
modicum of sense, the feeble, apologetic explanation of his desire in
imitating Yorick, given in forethought of the critics' condemnation.
Similarly the position of the dedication is unusual, in the midst of the
volume, even as the dedication of Shandy was roguishly delayed. The
dedication itself, however, is not an imitation of Sterne's clever
satire, but, addressed to Yorick himself, is a striking example of
burning personal devotion and over-wrought praise. Schummel hopes[12] in
Sterne fashion to write a chapter on "Vorübergeben," or in the chapter
"Das Komödienhaus" (pp. 185-210) to write a digression on "Walking
behind a maid." Like Sterne, he writes in praise of digressions.[13] In
imitation of Sterne is conceived the digressive speculation concerning
the door through which at the beginning of the book he is cast into the
rude world. Among further expressions savoring of Sterne, may be
mentioned a "Centner of curses" (p. 39), a "Quentchen of curses," and
the analytical description of a tone of voice as one-fourth questioning,
five-eighths entreating and one-eighth commanding (p. 229).
The direct allusions to Sterne and his works are numerous. A list of
Sterne characters which were indelibly impressed upon his mind is found
near the very beginning (pp. 3-4); other allusions are to M. Dessein
(p. 65), La Fleur's "Courierstiefel" (p. 115), the words of the dying
Yorick (p. 128), the pococurantism of Mrs. Shandy (p. 187), the division
of travelers into types (p. 141), Uncle Toby (p. 200), Yorick's
violin-playing (p. 274), the foolish fat scullion (p. 290), Yorick's
description of a maid's (p. 188) eyes, "als ob sie zwischen vier Wänden
einem Garaus machen könnten."
The second volume is even more incoherent in narration, and contains
less genuine occurrence and more ill-considered attempts at
whimsicality, yet throughout this volume there are indications that the
author is awakening to the vulnerability of his position, and this is in
no other particular more easily discernible than in the half-hearted
defiance of the critics and his anticipation of their censure. The
change, so extraordinary in the third volume, is foreshadowed in the
second. Purely sentimental, effusive, and abundantly teary is the story
of the rescued baker's wife. In this excess of sentiment, Schummel shows
his intellectual appreciation of Sterne's individual treatment of the
humane and pathetic, for near the end of the poor woman's narrative the
author seems to recollect a fundamental sentence of Sterne's creed, the
inevitable admixture of the whimsical, and here he introduces into the
sentimental relation a Shandean idiosyncrasy: from page 43 the narrative
leaps back to the beginning of the volume, and Schummel advises the
reader to turn back and re-read, referring incidentally to his confused
fashion of narration. The awkwardness with which this is done proves
Schummel's inability to follow Yorick, though its use shows his
appreciation of Sterne's peculiar genius. The visit of the author, the
baker's wife and her daughter (the former lady's maid) to the graveyard
is Yorickian in flavor, and the plucking of nettles from the grave of
the dead epileptic is a direct borrowing. Attempts to be immorally,
sensuously suggestive in the manner of Sterne are found in the so-called
chapter on "Button-holes," here cast in a more Shandean vein, and in the
adventure "die ängstliche Nacht,"--in the latter case resembling more
the less frank, more insinuating method of the Sentimental Journey. The
sentimental attitude toward man's dumb companions is imitated in his
adventure with the house-dog; the author fears the barking of this
animal may disturb the sleep of the poor baker's wife: he beats the dog
into silence, then grows remorseful and wishes "that I had given him no
blow," or that the dog might at least give him back the blows. His
thought that the dog might be pretending its pain, he designates a
subtle subterfuge of his troubled conscience, and Goethe, in the review
mentioned above, exclaims, "A fine pendant to Yorick's scene with the
Monk."
Distinctly Shandean are the numerous digressions, as on imitation
(p. 16), on authors and fairs (p. 45), that which he calls (pp. 226-238)
"ein ganz originelles Gemische von Wiz, Belesenheit, Scharfsinn,
gesunder Philosophie, Erfahrung, Algebra und Mechanik," or (p. 253) "Von
der Entstehungsart eines Buches nach Erfindung der Buchdrukerkunst,"
which in reference to Sterne's phrase, is called a "jungfräuliche
Materie." He promises (pp. 75 and 108), like Sterne, to write numerous
chapters on extraordinary subjects,--indeed, he announces his intention
of supplementing the missing sections of Shandy on "Button-holes" and on
the "Right and Left (sic) end of a Woman." His own promised effusions
are to be "Ueber die roten und schwarzen Röcke," "über die Verbindung
der Theologie mit Schwarz," "Europäischenfrauenzimmerschuhabsätze," half
a one "Ueber die Schuhsohlen" and "Ueber meinen Namen."
His additions to Shandy are flat and witless, that on the "Right and
Wrong End of a Woman" (pp. 88 ff.) degenerating into three brief
narratives displaying woman's susceptibility to flattery, the whole idea
probably adapted from Sterne's chapter, "An Act of Charity;" the chapter
on "Button-holes" is made a part of the general narrative of his
relation to his "Naïve." Weakly whimsical is his seeking pardon for the
discourse with which the Frenchman (pp. 62-66), under the pretext that
it belonged somewhere else and had inadvertently crept in. Shandean also
is the black margin to pages 199-206, the line upside down (p. 175),
the twelve irregularly printed lines (p. 331), inserted to indicate his
efforts in writing with a burned hand, the lines of dashes and
exclamation points, the mathematical, financial calculation of the worth
of his book from various points of view, and the description of the
maiden's walk (p. 291). Sterne's mock-scientific method, as already
noted, is observable again in the statement of the position of the
dagger "at an angle of 30°" (p. 248). His coining of new words, for
which he is censured by the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_, is also a
legacy of Yorick's method.
The third volume bears little relation to Sterne aside from its title,
and one can only wonder, in view of the criticism of the two parts
already published and the nature of the author's own partial revulsion
of feeling, that he did not give up publishing it altogether, or choose
another title, and sunder the work entirely from the foregoing volumes,
with which it has in fact so contradictory a connection. It may be that
his relations to the publisher demanded the issuing of the third part
under the same title.
This volume is easily divisible into several distinct parts, which are
linked with one another, and to the preceding narrative, only by a
conventional thread of introduction. These comprise: the story of
Caroline and Rosenfeld, a typical eighteenth century tale of love,
seduction and flight; the hosts' ballad, "Es war einmahl ein Edelmann;"
the play, "Die unschuldige Ehebrecherin" and "Mein Tagebuch," the
journal of an honest preacher, and a further sincere exploitation of
Schummel's ideas upon the clergyman's office, his ideal of simplicity,
kindliness, and humanity. In the latter part of the book Schummel
resumes his original narrative, and indulges once more in the luxury of
sentimental adventure, but without the former abortive attempts at
imitating Sterne's peculiarities of diction. This last resumption of the
sentimental creed introduces to us one event evidently inspired by
Yorick: he meets a poor, maimed soldier-beggar. Since misfortune has
deprived the narrator himself of his possessions, he can give nothing
and goes a begging for the beggar's sake, introducing the new and highly
sentimental idea of "vicarious begging" (pp. 268-9). In the following
episode, a visit to a child-murderess, Schummel leaves a page entirely
blank as an appropriate proof of incapacity to express his emotions
attendant on the execution of the unfortunate. Sterne also left a page
blank for the description of the Widow Wadman's charms.
At the very end of the book Schummel drops his narrative altogether and
discourses upon his own work. It would be difficult to find in any
literature so complete a condemnation of one's own serious and extensive
endeavor, so candid a criticism of one's own work, so frank an
acknowledgment of the pettiness of one's achievement. He says his work,
as an imitation of Sterne's two novels, has "few or absolutely no
beauties of the original, and many faults of its own." He states that
his enthusiasm for Tristram has been somewhat dampened by Sonnenfels and
Riedel; he sees now faults which should not have been imitated; the
frivolous attitude of the narrator toward his father and mother is
deprecated, and the suggestion is given that this feature was derived
from Tristram's own frankness concerning the eccentricities and
incapacities of his parents. He begs reference to a passage in the
second volume[14] where the author alludes with warmth of appreciation
to his real father and mother; that is, genuine regard overcame the
temporary blindness, real affection arose and thrust out the transitory
inclination to an alien whimsicality.
Schummel admits that he has utterly failed in his effort to characterize
the German people in the way Sterne treated the English and French; he
confesses that the ninety-page autobiography which precedes the journey
itself was intended to be Tristram-like, but openly stigmatizes his own
failure as "ill conceived, incoherent and not very well told!" After
mentioning some few incidents and passages in this first section which
he regards as passable, he boldly condemns the rest as "almost beneath
all criticism," and the same words are used with reference to much that
follows, in which he confesses to imitation, bad taste and intolerable
indelicacy. He calls his pathetic attempts at whimsical mannerisms
(Heideldum, etc.), "kläglich, überaus kläglich," expresses the opinion
that one would not be surprised at the reader who would throw away the
whole book at such a passage. The words of the preacher in the two
sections where he is allowed to air his opinions still meet with his
approval, and the same is true of one or two other sections. In
conclusion, he states that the first part contains hardly one hundred
good pages, and that the second part is worse than the first, so that he
is unwilling to look at it again and seek out its faults. The absence of
allusions to Sterne's writings is marked, except in the critical section
at the end, he mentions Sterne but once (p. 239), where he calls him
"schnurrigt." This alteration of feeling must have taken place in a
brief space of time, for the third volume is signed April 25, 1772. It
is not easy to establish with probability the works of Sonnenfels and
Riedel which are credited with a share in this revulsion of feeling.
In all of this Schummel is a discriminating critic of his own work; he
is also discerning in his assertion that the narrative contained in his
volume is conceived more in the vein of Fielding and Richardson. The
Sterne elements are rather embroidered on to the other fabric, or, as he
himself says, using another figure, "only fried in Shandy fat."[15]
Goethe's criticism of the second volume, already alluded to, is found in
the _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_ in the issue of March 3, 1772. The
nature of the review is familiar: Goethe calls the book a thistle which
he has found on Yorick's grave. "Alles," he says, "hat es dem guten
Yorick geraubt, Speer, Helm und Lanze, nur Schade! inwendig steckt der
Herr Präceptor S. zu Magdeburg . . . Yorick empfand, und dieser setzt
sich hin zu empfinden. Yorick wird von seiner Laune ergriffen, und
weinte und lachte in einer Minute und durch die Magie der Sympathie
lachen und weinen wir mit: hier aber steht einer und überlegt: wie lache
und weine ich? was werden die Leute sagen, wenn ich lache und weine?"
etc. Schummel is stigmatized as a childish imitator and his book is
censured as "beneath criticism," oddly enough the very judgment its own
author accords but a few weeks later on the completion of the third
volume. The review contains several citations illustrative of Schummel's
style.
The first two parts were reviewed in the _Allgemeine deutsche
Bibliothek_.[16] The length of the review is testimony to the interest
in the book, and the tone of the article, though frankly unfavorable,
is not so emphatically censorious as the one first noted. It is observed
that Schummel has attempted the impossible,--the adoption of another's
"Laune," and hence his failure. The reviewer notes, often with generous
quotations, the more noticeable, direct imitations from Sterne, the
conversation of the emotions, the nettle-plucking at the grave, the
eccentric orthography and the new-coined words. Several passages of
comment or comparison testify to the then current admiration of Yorick,
and the conventional German interpretation of his character; "sein
gutes, empfindungsvolles Herz, mit Tugend und sittlichem Gefühl
erfüllt." The review is signed "Sr:"[17]
A critic in the _Jenaische Zeitungen von gelehrten Sachen_ for January
17, 1772, treating the first two volumes, expresses the opinion that
Jacobi, the author of the "Tagereise," and Schummel have little but the
title from Yorick. The author's seeking for opportunity to dissolve in
emotion is contrasted unfavorably with Yorick's method, the affected
style is condemned, yet it is admitted that the work promises better
things from its talented author; his power of observation and his good
heart are not to be unacknowledged. The severity of the review is
directed against the imitators already arising.
The _Magazin der deutschen Critik_[18] reviews the third volume with
favorable comment; the comedy which Schummel saw fit to insert is
received with rather extraordinary praise, and the author is urged to
continue work in the drama; a desire is expressed even for a fourth
part. The _Hamburgische Neue Zeitung_, June 4 and October 29, 1771,
places Schummel unhesitatingly beside the English master, calls him as
original as his pattern, to Sterne belongs the honor only of the
invention. The author is hailed as a genius whose talents should be
supported, so that Germany would not have to envy England her
Yorick.[19]
After Schummel's remarkable self-chastisement, one could hardly expect
to find in his subsequent works evidence of Sterne's influence, save as
unconsciously a dimmed admiration might exert a certain force. Probably
contemporaneous with the composition of the third volume of the work,
but possibly earlier, Schummel wrote the fourth part of a ponderous
novel by a fellow Silesian, Christian Opitz, entitled "Die Gleichheit
der menschlichen Herzen, bey der Ungleichheit ihrer äusserlichen
Umstände in der Geschichte Herrn Redlichs und seiner Bedienten." Goedeke
implies that Opitz was the author of all but the last part, but the
reviewer in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[20] maintains that each
part has a different author, and quotes the preface to the fourth as
substantiation. According to this review both the second and fourth
parts are characterized by a humorous fashion in writing, and the last
is praised as being the best of the four. It seems probable that
Schummel's enthusiasm for Sterne played its part in the composition of
this work.
Possibly encouraged by the critic's approbation, Schummel devoted his
literary effort for the following years largely to the drama. In 1774 he
published his "Uebersetzer-Bibliothek zum Gebrauche der Uebersetzer,
Schulmänner und Liebhaber der alten Litteratur." The reviewer[21] in the
_Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_ finds passages in this book in which
the author of the "Empfindsame Reisen" is visible,--where his fancy runs
away with his reason,--and a passage is quoted in which reference is
made to Slawkenberg's book on noses. It would seem that the seeking for
wit survived the crude sentimentality.
Two years later Schummel published "Fritzen's Reise nach Dessau,"[22]
a work composed of letters from a twelve-year old boy, written on a
journey from Magdeburg to Dessau. The letters are quite without whim or
sentiment, and the book has been remembered for the extended description
of Basedow's experimental school, "Philantropin" (opened in 1774). Its
account has been the source of the information given of this endeavor in
some pedagogical treatises[23] and it was re-issued, as a document in
the history of pedagogical experiment, in Leipzig, by Albert Richter in
1891. About fifteen years later still the "Reise durch Schlesien"[24]
was issued. It is a simple narrative of a real journey with description
of places and people, frankly personal, almost epistolary in form,
without a suggestion of Sterne-like whim or sentiment. One passage is
significant as indicating the author's realization of his change of
attitude. The sight of a group of prisoners bound by a chain calls to
his memory his former sentimental extravagance, and he exclaims: "Twenty
years ago, when I was still a sentimental traveler, I would have wasted
many an 'Oh' and 'alas' over this scene; at present, since I have
learned to know the world and mankind somewhat more intimately, I think
otherwise."
Johann Christian Bock (1724-1785), who was in 1772 theater-poet of the
Ackerman Company in Hamburg, soon after the publication of the
Sentimental Journey, identified himself with the would-be Yoricks by the
production of "Die Tagereise," which was published at Leipzig in 1770.
The work was re-issued in 1775 with the new title "Die Geschichte eines
empfundenen Tages."[25] The only change in the new edition was the
addition of a number of copperplate engravings. The book is inspired in
part by Sterne directly, and in part indirectly through the intermediary
Jacobi. Unlike the work of Schummel just treated, it betrays no Shandean
influence, but is dependent solely on the Sentimental Journey. In
outward form the book resembles Jacobi's "Winterreise," since verse is
introduced to vary the prose narrative. The attitude of the author
toward his journey, undertaken with conscious purpose, is characteristic
of the whole set of emotional sentiment-seekers, who found in their
Yorick a challenge to go and do likewise: "Everybody is journeying,
I thought, and took Yorick and Jacobi with me. . . . I will really see
whether I too may not chance upon a _fille de chambre_ or a
harvest-maid," is a very significant statement of his inspiration and
intention. Once started on his journey, the author falls in with a poor
warrior-beggar, an adaptation of Sterne's Chevalier de St. Louis,[26]
and he puts in verse Yorick's expressed sentiment that the king and the
fatherland should not allow the faithful soldier to fall into such
distress.
Bock's next sentimental adventure is with a fair peasant-maid whom he
sees weeping by the wayside. Through Yorick-like insistence of sympathy,
he finally wins from her information concerning the tender situation:
a stern stepfather, an unwelcome suitor of his choosing, and a lover of
her own. Her inability to write and thus communicate with the latter is
the immediate cause of the present overflow. The traveler beholds in
this predicament a remarkable sentimental opportunity and offers his
services; he strokes her cheek, her tears are dried, and they part like
brother and sister. The episode is unquestionably inspired by the
episode of Maria of Moulines; in the latter development of the affair,
the sentiment, which is expressed, that the girl's innocence is her own
defense is borrowed directly from Yorick's statement concerning the
_fille de chambre_.[27] The traveler's questioning of his own motives in
"Die Ueberlegung"[28] is distinctly Sterne-like, and it demonstrates
also Bock's appreciation of this quizzical element in Yorick's attitude
toward his own sentimental behavior. The relation of man to the domestic
animals is treated sentimentally in the episode of the old beggar and
his dead dog:[29] the tears of the beggar, his affection for the beast,
their genuine comradeship, and the dog's devotion after the world had
forsaken his master, are all part and parcel of that fantastic humane
movement which has its source in Yorick's dead ass. Bock practically
confesses his inspiration by direct allusion to the episode in Yorick.
Bock defends with warmth the old peasant and his grief.
The wanderer's acquaintance with the lady's companion[30] is adapted
from Yorick's _fille de chambre_ connection, and Bock cannot avoid a
fleshly suggestion, distinctly in the style of Yorick in the section,
the "Spider."[31] The return journey in the sentimental moonlight
affords the author another opportunity for the exercise of his broad
human sympathy: he meets a poor woman, a day-laborer with her child,
gives them a few coins and doubts whether king or bishop could be more
content with the benediction of the apostolic chair than he with the
blessing of this unfortunate,--a sentiment derived from Yorick's
overcolored veneration for the horn snuff-box.
The churchyard scene with which the journey ends is more openly
fanciful, down-right visionary in tone, but the manner is very
emphatically not that of Sterne, though in the midst the Sterne motif of
nettle-plucking is introduced. This sentimental episode took hold of
German imagination with peculiar force. The hobby-horse idea also was
sure of its appeal, and Bock did not fail to fall under its spell.[32]
But apart from the general impulse and borrowing of motif from the
foreign novel, there is in this little volume considerable that is
genuine and original: the author's German patriotism, his praise of the
old days in the Fatherland in the chapter entitled "Die Gaststube," his
"Trinklied eines Deutschen," his disquisition on the position of the
poet in the world ("ein eignes Kapitel"), and his adulation of Gellert
at the latter's grave. The reviewer in the _Deutsche Bibliothek der
schönen Wissenschaften_[33] chides the unnamed, youthful author for not
allowing his undeniable talents to ripen to maturity, for being led on
by Jacobi's success to hasten his exercises into print. In reality Bock
was no longer youthful (forty-six) when the "Tagereise" was published.
The _Almanach der deutschen Musen_ for 1771, calls the book "an
unsuccessful imitation of Yorick and Jacobi," and wishes that this
"Rhapsodie von Cruditäten" might be the last one thrust on the market as
a "Sentimental Journey." The _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[34]
comments also on the double inspiration, and the insufficiency and
tiresomeness of the performance. And yet Boie[35] says the papers
praised the little book; for himself, however, he observes, he little
desires to read it, and adds "What will our Yoricks yet come to? At last
they will get pretty insignificant, I think, if they keep on this way."
Bock was also the author of a series of little volumes written in the
early seventies, still under the sentimental charm: (1) Empfindsame
Reise durch die Visitenzimmer am Neujahrstag von einem deutschen Yorick
angestellt, Cosmopolis (Hamburg) 1771--really published at the end of
the previous year; (2) . . . am Ostertage, 1772; (3) Am Pfingsttage,
1772; (4) Am Johannistage, 1773; (5) Am Weynachtstage, 1773. These books
were issued anonymously, and Schröder's Lexicon gives only (2) and (3)
under Bock's name, but there seems no good reason to doubt his
authorship of them all. Indeed, his claim to (1) is, according to the
_Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_, well-nigh proven by an allusion to the
"Tagereise" in the introduction, and by the initials signed. None of
them are given by Goedeke. The books are evidently only in a general way
dependent on the Sterne model, and are composed of observations upon all
sorts of subjects, the first section of each volume bearing some
relation to the festival in which they appear.
In the second edition of the first volume the author confesses that the
title only is derived from Yorick,[36] and states that he was forced to
this misuse because no one at that time cared to read anything but
"Empfindsame Reisen." It is also to be noted that the description
beneath the title, "von einem deutschen Yorick angestellt," is omitted
after the first volume. The review of (4) and (5) in the _Altonaer
Reichs-Postreuter_ finds this a commendable resumption of proper
humility. The observations are evidently loosely strung together without
the pretense of a narrative, such as "Allgemeines Perspectiv durch alle
Visitenzimmer, Empfindsamer Neujahrswunsch, Empfindsame Berechnung eines
Weisen mit sich selbst, Empfindsame Entschlüsse, Empfindsame Art sein
Geld gut unterzubringen," etc.[37] An obvious purpose inspires the
writer, the furthering of morality and virtue; many of the meditations
are distinctly religious. That some of the observations had a local
significance in Hamburg, together with the strong sentimental tendency
there, may account for the warm reception by the _Hamburgischer
unpartheyischer Correspondent_.[38]
Some contemporary critics maintained a kinship between Matthias Claudius
and Yorick-Sterne, though nothing further than a similarity of mental
and emotional fibre is suggested. No one claimed an influence working
from the English master. Even as late as 1872, Wilhelm Röseler in his
introductory poem to a study of "Matthias Claudius und sein Humor"[39]
calls Asmus, "Deutschland's Yorick," thereby agreeing almost verbally
with the German correspondent of the _Deutsches Museum_, who wrote from
London nearly a hundred years before, September 14, 1778, "Asmus . . .
is the German Sterne," an assertion which was denied by a later
correspondent, who asserts that Claudius's manner is very different from
that of Sterne.[40]
August von Kotzebue, as youthful narrator, betrays a dependence on
Sterne in his strange and ingeniously contrived tale, "Die Geschichte
meines Vaters, oder wie es zuging, dass ich gebohren wurde."[41] The
influence of Sterne is noticeable in the beginning of the story:
he commences with a circumstantial account of his grandfather and
grandmother, and the circumstances of his father's birth. The
grandfather is an original undoubtedly modeled on lines suggested by
Sterne's hobby-horse idea. He had been chosen in days gone by to greet
the reigning prince on the latter's return from a journey, and the old
man harks back to this circumstance with "hobby-horsical" persistence,
whatever the subject of conversation, even as all matters led Uncle Toby
to military fortification, and the elder Shandy to one of his pet
theories.
In Schrimps the servant, another Shandean original is designed. When the
news comes of the birth of a son on Mount Vesuvius, master and man
discuss multifarious and irrelevant topics in a fashion reminiscent of
the conversation downstairs in the Shandy mansion while similar events
are going on above. Later in the book we have long lists, or catalogues
of things which resemble one of Sterne's favorite mannerisms. But the
greater part of the wild, adventurous tale is far removed from its
inception, which presented domestic whimsicality in a gallery of
originals, unmistakably connected with Tristram Shandy.
Göschen's "Reise von Johann"[42] is a product of the late renascence of
sentimental journeying. Master and servant are represented in this book
as traveling through southern Germany, a pair as closely related in head
and heart as Yorick and La Fleur, or Captain Shandy and Corporal Trim.
The style is of rather forced buoyancy and sprightliness, with
intentional inconsequence and confusion, an attempt at humor of
narration, which is choked by characteristic national desire to convey
information, and a fatal propensity to description of places,[43] even
when some satirical purpose underlies the account, as in the description
of Erlangen and its university. The servant Johann has mild adventures
with the maids in the various inns, which are reminiscent of Yorick,
and in one case it borders on the openly suggestive and more Shandean
method.[44] A distinctly borrowed motif is the accidental finding of
papers which contain matters of interest. This is twice resorted to;
a former occupant of the room in the inn in Nürnberg had left valuable
notes of travel; and Johann, meeting a ragged woman, bent on
self-destruction, takes from her a box with papers, disclosing a
revolting story, baldly told. German mediocrity, imitating Yorick in
this regard, and failing of his delicacy and subtlety, brought forth
hideous offspring. An attempt at whimsicality of style is apparent in
the "Furth Catechismus in Frage und Antwort" (pp. 71-74), and genuinely
sentimental adventures are supplied by the death-bed scene (pp. 70-71)
and the village funeral (pp. 74-77).
This book is classed by Ebeling[45] without sufficient reason as an
imitation of von Thümmel. This statement is probably derived from the
letter from Schiller to Goethe to which Ebeling refers in the following
lines. Schiller is writing to Goethe concerning plans for the Xenien,
December 29, 1795.[46] The abundance of material for the Xenien project
is commented upon with enthusiastic anticipation, and in a list of
vulnerable possibilities we read: "Thümmel, Göschen als sein
Stallmeister--" a collocation of names easily attributable, in
consideration of the underlying satiric purpose, to the general nature
of their work, without in any way implying the dependence of one author
on another,[47] or it could be interpreted as an allusion to the fact
that Göschen was von Thümmel's publisher. Nor is there anything in the
correspondence to justify Ebeling's harshness in saying concerning this
volume of Göschen, that it "enjoyed the honor of being ridiculed
(verhöhnt) in the Xenien-correspondence between Goethe and Schiller."
Goethe replies (December 30), in approval, and exclaims, "How fine
Charis and Johann will appear beside one another."[48] The suggestion
concerning a possible use of Göschen's book in the Xenien was never
carried out.
It will be remembered that Göschen submitted the manuscript of his book
to Schiller, and that Schiller returned the same with the statement
"that he had laughed heartily at some of the whims.[49]" Garve, in a
letter dated March 8, 1875, speaks of Göschen's book in terms of
moderate praise.[50]
The "Empfindsame Reise von Oldenburg nach Bremen,"[51] the author of
which was a Hanoverian army officer, H. J. C. Hedemann, is characterized
by Ebeling as emphatically not inspired by Sterne.[52] Although it is
not a sentimental journey, as Schummel and Jacobi and Bock conceived it,
and is thus not an example of the earliest period of imitation, and
although it contains no passages of teary sentimentality in attitude
toward man and beast, one must hesitate in denying all connection with
Sterne's manner. It would seem as if, having outgrown the earlier
Yorick, awakened from dubious, fine-spun dreams of human brotherhood,
perhaps by the rude clatter of the French revolution, certain would-be
men of letters turned to Yorick again and saw, as through a glass
darkly, that other element of his nature, and tried in lumbering,
Teutonic way to adopt his whimsicality, shorn now of sentimentalism, and
to build success for their wares on remembrance of a defaced idol. This
view of later sentimental journeying is practically acknowledged at any
rate in a contemporary review, the _Allgemeine Litteratur-Zeitung_ for
August 22, 1796, which remarks: "A sentimental voyage ist ein Quodlibet,
wo einige bekannte Sachen und Namen gezwungenen Wiz und matten Scherz
heben sollen."[53]
Hedemann's book is conspicuous in its effort to be whimsical and is
openly satirical in regard to the sentimentalism of former travelers.
His endeavor is markedly in Sterne's manner in his attitude toward the
writing of the book, his conversation about the difficulty of managing
the material, his discussion with himself and the reader about the
various parts of the book. Quite in Sterne's fashion, and to be
associated with Sterne's frequent promises of chapters, and statements
concerning embarrassment of material, is conceived his determination "to
mention some things beforehand about which I don't know anything to
say," and his rather humorous enumeration of them. The author satirizes
the real sentimental traveler of Sterne's earlier imitators in the
following passage (second chapter):
"It really must be a great misfortune, an exceedingly vexatious case,
if no sentimental scenes occur to a sentimental traveler, but this is
surely not the case; only the subjects, which offer themselves must be
managed with strict economy. If one leaps over the most interesting
events entirely, one is in danger, indeed, of losing everything, at
least of not filling many pages."
Likewise in the following account of a sentimental adventure, the
satirical purpose is evident. He has not gone far on his journey when he
is met by a troop of children; with unsentimental coldness he determines
that there is a "Schlagbaum" in the way. After the children have opened
the barrier, he debates with himself to which child to give his little
coin, concludes, as a "sentimental traveler," to give it to the other
sex, then there is nothing left to do but to follow his instinct. He
reflects long with himself whether he was right in so doing,--all of
which is a deliberate jest at the hesitation with reference to trivial
acts, the self-examination with regard to the minutiae of past conduct,
which was copied by Sterne's imitators from numerous instances in the
works of Yorick. Satirical also is his vision in Chapter VII, in which
he beholds the temple of stupidity where lofty stupidity sits on a paper
throne; and of particular significance here is the explanation that the
whole company who do "erhabene Dummheit" honor formerly lived in cities
of the kingdom, but "now they are on journeys." Further examples of a
humorous manner akin to Sterne are: his statement that it would be a
"great error" to write an account of a journey without weaving in an
anecdote of a prince, his claim that he has fulfilled all duties of such
a traveler save to fall in love, his resolve to accomplish it, and his
formal declaration: "I, the undersigned, do vow and make promise to be
in love before twenty-four hours are past." The story with which his
volume closes, "Das Ständchen," is rather entertaining and is told
graphically, easily, without whim or satire, yet not without a Sternian
_double entendre_.[54]
Another work in which sentimentalism has dwindled away to a grinning
shade, and a certain irresponsible, light-hearted attitude is the sole
remaining connection with the great progenitor, is probably the
"Empfindsame Reise nach Schilda" (Leipzig, 1793), by Andreas Geo. Fr.
von Rabenau, which is reviewed in the _Allgemeine Litteratur-Zeitung_
(1794, I, p. 416) as a free revision of an old popular tale, "Das
lustige und lächerliche Lalenburg." The book is evidently without
sentimental tinge, is a merry combination of wit and joke combined with
caricature and half-serious tilting against unimportant literary
celebrities.[55]
Certain miscellaneous works, which are more or less obviously connected
with Sterne may be grouped together here.
To the first outburst of Sterne enthusiasm belongs an anonymous product,
"Zween Tage eines Schwindsüchtigen, etwas Empfindsames," von L. . . .
(Hamburg, 1772), yet the editor admits that the sentiment is "not
entirely like Yorick's," and the _Altonaer Reichs-Postreuter_ (July 2,
1772) adds that "not at all like Yorick's" would have been nearer the
truth. This book is mentioned by Hillebrand with implication that it is
the extreme example of the absurd sentimental tendency, probably judging
merely from the title,[56] for the book is doubtless merely thoughtful,
contemplative, with a minimum of overwrought feeling.
According to the _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_ (1775, pp. 592-3),
another product of the earlier seventies, the "Leben und Schicksale des
Martin Dickius," by Johann Moritz Schwager, is in many places a clever
imitation of Sterne,[57] although the author claims, like Wezel in
"Tobias Knaut," not to have read Shandy until after the book was
written. Surely the digression on noses which the author allows himself
is suspicious.
Blankenburg, the author of the treatise on the novel to which reference
has been made, was regarded by contemporary and subsequent criticism as
an imitator of Sterne in his oddly titled novel "Beyträge zur Geschichte
des teutschen Reiches und teutscher Sitten,"[58] although the general
tenor of his essay, in reasonableness and balance, seemed to promise a
more independent, a more competent and felicitous performance. Kurz
expresses this opinion, which may have been derived from criticisms in
the eighteenth century journals. The _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_,
July 28, 1775, does not, however, take this view; but seems to be in the
novel a genuine exemplification of the author's theories as previously
expressed.[59] The _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[60] calls the book
didactic, a tract against certain essentially German follies. Merck, in
the _Teutscher Merkur_,[61] says the imitation of Sterne is quite too
obvious, though Blankenburg denies it.
Among miscellaneous and anonymous works inspired directly by Sterne,
belongs undoubtedly "Die Geschichte meiner Reise nach Pirmont" (1773),
the author of which claims that it was written before Yorick was
translated or Jacobi published. He says he is not worthy to pack
Yorick's bag or weave Jacobi's arbor,[62] but the review of the
_Almanach der deutschen Musen_ evidently regards it as a product,
nevertheless, of Yorick's impulse. Kuno Ridderhoff in his study of Frau
la Roche[63] says that the "Empfindsamkeit" of Rosalie in the first part
of "Rosaliens Briefe" is derived from Yorick. The "Leben, Thaten und
Meynungen des D. J. Pet. Menadie" (Halle, 1777-1781) is charged by the
_Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_ with attempt at Shandy-like
eccentricity of narrative and love of digression.[64]
One little volume, unmistakably produced under Yorick's spell, is worthy
of particular mention because at its time it received from the reviewers
a more cordial welcome than was accorded to the rank and file of
Sentimental Journeys. It is "M . . . R . . ." by E. A. A. von Göchhausen
(1740-1824), which was published at Eisenach, 1772, and was deemed
worthy of several later editions. Its dependence on Sterne is confessed
and obvious, sometimes apologetically and hesitatingly, sometimes
defiantly. The imitation of Sterne is strongest at the beginning, both
in outward form and subject-matter, and this measure of indebtedness
dwindles away steadily as the book advances. Göchhausen, as other
imitators, used at the outset a modish form, returned to it consciously
now and then when once under way, but when he actually had something to
say, a message of his own, found it impracticable or else forgot to
follow his model.
The absurd title stands, of course, for "Meine Reisen" and the puerile
abbreviation as well as the reasons assigned for it, were intended to be
a Sterne-like jest, a pitiful one. Why Goedeke should suggest "Meine
Randglossen" is quite inexplicable, since Göchhausen himself in the very
first chapter indicates the real title. Beneath the enigmatical title
stands an alleged quotation from Shandy: "Ein Autor borgt, bettelt und
stiehlt so stark von dem andern, dass bey meiner Seele! die Originalität
fast so rar geworden ist als die Ehrlichkeit."[65] The book itself, like
Sterne's Journey, is divided into brief chapters unnumbered but named.
As the author loses Yorick from sight, the chapters grow longer.
Göchhausen has availed himself of an odd device to disarm
criticism,--a plan used once or twice by Schummel: occasionally when the
imitation is obvious, he repudiates the charge sarcastically, or
anticipates with irony the critics' censure. For example, he gives
directions to his servant Pumper to pack for the journey; a reader
exclaims, "a portmanteau, Mr. Author, so that everything, even to that,
shall be just like Yorick," and in the following passage the author
quarrels with the critics who allow no one to travel with a portmanteau,
because an English clergyman traveled with one. Pumper's
misunderstanding of this objection is used as a farther ridicule of the
critics. When on the journey, the author converses with two poor
wandering monks, whose conversation, at any rate, is a witness to their
content, the whole being a legacy of the Lorenzo episode, and the author
entitles the chapter: "The members of the religious order, or, as some
critics will call it, a wretchedly unsuccessful imitation." In the next
chapter, "Der Visitator" (pp. 125 ff.) in which the author encounters
customs annoyances, the critic is again allowed to complain that
everything is stolen from Yorick, a protest which is answered by the
author quite naïvely, "Yorick journeyed, ate, drank; I do too." In "Die
Pause" the author stands before the inn door and fancies that a number
of spies (Ausspäher) stand there waiting for him; he protests that
Yorick encountered beggars before the inn in Montreuil, a very different
sort of folk. On page 253 he exclaims, "für diesen schreibe ich dieses
Kapitel nicht und ich--beklage ihn!" Here a footnote suggests "Das
übrige des Diebstahls vid. Yorick's Gefangenen." Similarly when he calls
his servant his "La Fleur," he converses with the critics about his
theft from Yorick.
The book is opened by a would-be whimsical note, the guessing about the
name of the book. The dependence upon Sterne, suggested by the motto, is
clinched by reference to this quotation in the section "Apologie," and
by the following chapter, which is entitled "Yorick." The latter is the
most unequivocal and, withal, the most successful imitation of Yorick's
manner which the volume offers. The author is sitting on a sofa reading
the Sentimental Journey, and the idea of such a trip is awakened in him.
Someone knocks and the door is opened by the postman, as the narrator is
opening his "Lorenzodose," and the story of the poor monk is touching
his heart now for the twentieth time as strongly as ever. The postman
asks postage on the letter as well as his own trivial fee. The author
counts over money, miscounts it, then in counting forgets all about it,
puts the money away and continues the reading of Yorick. The postman
interrupts him; the author grows impatient and says, "You want four
groschen?" and is inexplicably vexed at the honesty of the man who says
it is only three pfennigs for himself and the four groschen for the
post. Here is a direct following of the Lorenzo episode; caprice rules
his behavior toward an inferior, who is modest in his request. After the
incident, his spite, his head and his heart and his "ich" converse in
true Sterne fashion as to the advisability of his beginning to read
Yorick again. He reasons with himself concerning his conduct toward the
postman, then in an apostrophe to Yorick he condemns himself for failing
in this little test. This conversation occupies so much time that he
cannot run after the postman, but he resolves that nothing, not even the
fly that lights on his nose, shall bring him so far as to forget
wherefore his friend J . . . . sent him a "Lorenzodose." And at the end
of the section there is a picture of the snuff-box with the lid open,
disclosing the letters of the word "Yorick." The "Lorenzodose" is
mentioned later, and later still the author calms his indignation by
opening the box; he fortifies himself also by a look at the
treasure.[66]
Following this picture of the snuff-box is an open letter to "My dear
J . . . ," who, at the author's request, had sent him on June 29th a
"Lorenzodose." Jacobi's accompanying words are given. The author
acknowledges the difficulty with which sometimes the self-conquest
demanded by allegiance to the sentimental symbol has been won.
Yet, compared with some other imitations of the good Yorick, the volume
contains but a moderate amount of lavish sentiment. The servant Pumper
is a man of feeling, who grieves that the horses trod the dewdrops from
the blades of grass. Cast in the real Yorick mould is the scene in which
Pumper kills a marmot (Hamster); upon his master's expostulation that
God created the little beast also, Pumper is touched, wipes the blood
off with his cuff and buries the animal with tenderness, indulging in a
pathetic soliloquy; the whole being a variant of Yorick's ass episode.
Marked with a similar vein of sentimentality is the narrator's conduct
toward the poor wanderer with his heavy burden: the author asserts that
he has never eaten a roll, put on a white shirt, traveled in a
comfortable carriage, or been borne by a strong horse, without bemoaning
those who were less fortunately circumstanced. A similar and truly
Sterne-like triumph of feeling over convention is the traveler's
insistence that Pumper shall ride with him inside the coach; seemingly a
point derived from Jacobi's failure to be equally democratic.[67]
Sterne's emphasis upon the machinery of his story-telling, especially
his distraught pretense at logical sequence in the ordering of his
material is here imitated. For example: near the close of a chapter the
author summons his servant Pumper, but since the chapter bore the title
"Der Brief" and the servant can neither read nor write a letter, he says
the latter has nothing to do in that chapter, but he is to be introduced
in the following one. Yet with Yorick's inconsequence, the narrator is
led aside and exclaims at the end of this chapter, "But where is
Pumper?" with the answer, "Heaven and my readers know, it was to no
purpose that this chapter was so named (and perhaps this is not the last
one to which the title will be just as appropriate)", and the next
chapter pursues the whimsical attempt, beginning "As to whether Pumper
will appear in this chapter, about that, dear reader, I am not really
sure myself."
The whimsical, unconventional interposition of the reader, and the
author's reasoning with him, a Sterne device, is employed so constantly
in the book as to become a wearying mannerism. Examples have already
been cited, additional ones are numerous: the fifth section is devoted
to such conversation with the reader concerning the work; later the
reader objects to the narrator's drinking coffee without giving a
chapter about it; the reader is allowed to express his wonder as to what
the chapter is going to be because of the author's leap; the reader
guesses where the author can be, when he begins to describe conditions
in the moon. The chapter "Der Einwurf" is occupied entirely with the
reader's protest, and the last two sections are largely the record of
fancied conversations with various readers concerning the nature of the
book; here the author discloses himself.[68] Sterne-like whim is found
in the chapter "Die Nacht," which consists of a single sentence: "Ich
schenke Ihnen diesen ganzen Zeitraum, denn ich habe ihn ruhig
verschlafen." Similar Shandean eccentricity is illustrated by the
chapter entitled "Der Monolog," which consists of four lines of dots,
and the question, "Didn't you think all this too, my readers?"
Typographical eccentricity is observed also in the arrangement of the
conversation of the ladies A., B., C., D., etc., in the last chapter.
Like Sterne, our author makes lists of things; probably inspired by
Yorick's apostrophe to the "Sensorium" is our traveler's appeal to the
spring of joy. The description of the fashion of walking observed in the
maid in the moon is reminiscent of a similar passage in Schummel's
journey.
Göchhausen's own work, untrammeled by outside influence, is
considerable, largely a genial satire on critics and philosophers;
his stay in the moon is a kind of Utopian fancy.
The literary journals accepted Göchhausen's work as a Yorick imitation,
condemned it as such apologetically, but found much in the book worthy
of their praise.[69]
Probably the best known novel which adopts in considerable measure the
style of Tristram Shandy is Wezel's once famous "Tobias Knaut," the
"Lebensgeschichte Tobias Knauts des Weisen sonst Stammler genannt,
aus Familiennachrichten gesammelt."[70] In this work the influence of
Fielding is felt parallel to that of Sterne. The historians of
literature all accord the book a high place among humorous efforts of
the period, crediting the author with wit, narrative ability, knowledge
of human nature and full consciousness of plan and purpose.[71] They
unite also in the opinion that "Tobias Knaut" places Wezel in the ranks
of Sterne imitators, but this can be accepted only guardedly, for in
part the novel must be regarded as a satire on "Empfindsamkeit" and
hence in some measure be classified as an opposing force to Sterne's
dominion, especially to the distinctively German Sterne. That this
impulse, which later became the guiding principle of "Wilhelmine Arend,"
was already strong in "Tobias Knaut" is hinted at by Gervinus, but
passed over in silence by other writers. Kurz, following Wieland, who
reviewed the novel in his _Merkur_, finds that the influence of Sterne
was baneful. Other contemporary reviews deplored the imitation as
obscuring and stultifying the undeniable and genuinely original talents
of the author.[72]
A brief investigation of Wezel's novel will easily demonstrate his
indebtedness to Sterne. Yet Wezel in his preface, anticipating the
charge of imitation, asserts that he had not read Shandy when "Tobias"
was begun. Possibly he intends this assertion as a whim, for he quotes
Tristram at some length.[73] This inconsistency is occasion for censure
on the part of the reviewers.
Wezel's story begins, like Shandy, "ab ovo," and, in resemblance to
Sterne's masterpiece, the connection between the condition of the child
before its birth and its subsequent life and character is insisted upon.
A reference is later made to this. The work is episodical and
digressive, but in a more extensive way than Shandy; the episodes in
Sterne's novel are yet part and parcel of the story, infused with the
personality of the writer, and linked indissolubly to the little family
of originals whose sayings and doings are immortalized by Sterne. This
is not true of Wezel: his episodes and digressions are much more purely
extraneous in event, and nature of interest. The story of the new-found
son, which fills sixty-four pages, is like a story within a story, for
its connection with the Knaut family is very remote. This very story,
interpolated as it is, is itself again interrupted by a seven-page
digression concerning Tyrus, Alexander, Pipin and Charlemagne, which the
author states is taken from the one hundred and twenty-first chapter of
his "Lateinische Pneumatologie,"--a genuine Sternian pretense, reminding
one of the "Tristrapaedia." Whimsicality of manner distinctly
reminiscent of Sterne is found in his mock-scientific catalogues or
lists of things, as in Chapter III, "Deduktionen, Dissertationen,
Argumentationen a priori und a posteriori," and so on; plainly adapted
from Sterne's idiosyncrasy of form is the advertisement which in large
red letters occupies the middle of a page in the twenty-first chapter of
the second volume, which reads as follows: "Dienst-freundliche Anzeige.
Jedermann, der an ernsten Gesprächen keinen Gefallen findet, wird
freundschaftlich ersucht alle folgende Blätter, deren Inhalt einem
Gespräche ähnlich sieht, wohlbedächtig zu überschlagen, d.h. von dieser
Anzeige an gerechnet. Darauf denke ich, soll jedermanniglich vom 22.
Absatze fahren können,--Cuique Suum." The following page is blank: this
is closely akin to Sterne's vagaries. Like Sterne, he makes promise of
chapter-subject.[74] Similarly dependent on Sterne's example, is the
Fragment in Chapter VIII, Volume III, which breaks off suddenly under
the plea that the rest could not be found. Like Sterne, our author
satirizes detailed description in the excessive account of the
infinitesimals of personal discomfort after a carouse.[75] He makes also
obscure whimsical allusions, accompanied by typographical eccentricities
(I, p. 153). To be connected with the story of the Abbess of Andouillets
is the humor "Man leuterirte, appelirte--irte,--irte,--irte."
The author's perplexities in managing the composition of the book are
sketched in a way undoubtedly derived from Sterne,--for example, the
beginning of Chapter IX in Volume III is a lament over the difficulties
of chronicling what has happened during the preceding learned
disquisition. When Tobias in anger begins to beat his horse, this is
accompanied by the sighs of the author, a really audible one being put
in a footnote, the whole forming a whimsy of narrative style for which
Sterne must be held responsible. Similar to this is the author's
statement (Chap. XXV, Vol. II), that Lucian, Swift, Pope, Wieland and
all the rest could not unite the characteristics which had just been
predicated of Selmann. Like Sterne, Wezel converses with the reader
about the way of telling the story, indulging[76] in a mock-serious line
of reasoning with meaningless Sternesque dashes. Further conversation
with the reader is found at the beginning of Chapter III in Volume I,
and in Chapter VIII of the first volume, he cries, "Wake up, ladies and
gentlemen," and continues at some length a conversation with these
fancied personages about the progress of the book. Wezel in a few cases
adopted the worst feature of Sterne's work and was guilty of bad taste
in precisely Yorick's style: Tobias's adventure with the so-called
soldier's wife, after he has run away from home, is a case in point, but
the following adventure with the two maidens while Tobias is bathing in
the pool is distinctly suggestive of Fielding. Sterne's indecent
suggestion is also followed in the hints at the possible occasion of the
Original's aversion to women. A similar censure could be spoken
regarding the adventure in the tavern,[77] where the author hesitates on
the edge of grossness.
Wezel joined other imitators of Yorick in using as a motif the
accidental interest of lost documents, or papers: here the poems of the
"Original," left behind in the hotel, played their rôle in the tale.
The treatment of the wandering boy by the kindly peasant is clearly an
imitation of Yorick's famous visit in the rural cottage. A parallel to
Walter Shandy's theory of the dependence of great events on trifles is
found in the story of the volume of Tacitus, which by chance suggested
the sleeping potion for Frau v. L., or that Tobias's inability to take
off his hat with his right hand was influential on the boy's future
life. This is a reminder of Tristram's obliquity in his manner of
setting up his top. As in Shandy, there is a discussion about the
location of the soul. The character of Selmann is a compound of Yorick
and the elder Shandy, with a tinge of satiric exaggeration, meant to
chastise the thirst for "originals" and overwrought sentimentalism. His
generosity and sensitiveness to human pain is like Yorick. As a boy he
would empty his purse into the bosom of a poor man; but his daily life
was one round of Shandean speculation, largely about the relationships
of trivial things: for example, his yearly periods of investigating his
motives in inviting his neighbors Herr v. ** and Herr v. *** every July
to his home.
Wezel's satire on the craze for originality is exemplified in the
account of the "Original" (Chap. XXII, Vol. II), who was cold when
others were hot, complained of not liking his soup because the plate was
not full, but who threw the contents of his coffee cup at the host
because it was filled to the brim, and trembled at the approach of a
woman. Selmann longs to meet such an original. Selmann also thinks he
has found an original in the inn-keeper who answers everything with
"Nein," greatly to his own disadvantage, though it turns out later that
this was only a device planned by another character to gain advantage
over Selmann himself. So also, in the third volume, Selmann and Tobias
ride off in pursuit of a sentimental adventure, but the latter proves to
be merely a jest of the Captain at the expense of his sentimental
friend. Satire on sentimentalism is further unmistakable in the two
maidens, Adelheid and Kunigunde, who weep over a dead butterfly, and
write a lament over its demise. In jest, too, it is said that the
Captain made a "sentimental journey through the stables." The author
converses with Ermindus, who seems to be a kind of Eugenius,
a convenient figure for reference, apostrophe, and appeal. The novelist
makes also, like Sterne, mock-pedantic allusions, once indeed making a
long citation from a learned Chinese book. An expression suggesting
Sterne is the oath taken "bey den Nachthemden aller Musen,"[78] and an
intentional inconsequence of narration, giving occasion to conversation
regarding the author's control of his work, is the sudden passing over
of the six years which Tobias spent in Selmann's house.[79]
In connection with Wezel's occupation with Sterne and Sterne products in
Germany, it is interesting to consider his poem: "Die unvermuthete
Nachbarschaft. Ein Gespräch," which was the second in a volume of three
poems entitled "Epistel an die deutschen Dichter," the name of the first
poem, and published in Leipzig in 1775. This slight work is written for
the most part in couplets and covers twenty-three pages. Wezel
represents Doktor Young, the author of the gloomy "Night Thoughts" and
"Der gute Lacher,--Lorenz Sterne" as occupying positions side by side in
his book-case. This proximity gives rise to a conversation between the
two antipodal British authors: Sterne says:
"Wir brauchen beide vielen Raum,
Your Reverence viel zum Händeringen,
Und meine Wenigkeit, zum Pfeifen, Tanzen, Singen."
and later,
. . . "Und will von Herzen gern der Thor der Thoren seyn;
Jüngst that ich ernst: gleich hielt die
Narrheit mich beym Rocke.
Wo, rief sie, willst du hin,--Du! weisst du unsern Bund.
Ist das der Dank? Du lachtest dich gesund."
To Sterne's further enunciation of this joyous theory of life, Young
naturally replies in characteristic terms, emphasizing life's
evanescence and joy's certain blight. But Sterne, though acknowledging
the transitoriness of life's pleasures, denies Young's deductions.
Yorick's conception of death is quite in contrast to Young's picture and
one must admit that it has no justification in Sterne's writings. On the
contrary, Yorick's life was one long flight from the grim enemy. The
idea of death cherished by Asmus in his "Freund Hein," the welcome
guest, seems rather the conception which Wezel thrusts on Sterne. Death
comes to Yorick in full dress, a youth, a Mercury:
"Er thuts, er kommt zu mir, 'Komm, guter Lorenz, flieh!'
So ruft er auf mich zu. 'Dein Haus fängt an zu wanken,
Die Mauern spalten sich; Gewölb und Balken schwanken,
Was nuzt dir so ein Haus? . . .'"
so he takes the wreathèd cup, drinks joyfully, and follows death,
embracing him.
"Das ist mein Tod, ich sehe keinen Knochen,
Womit du ihn, gleich einem Zahnarzt, schmückst,
Geschieht es heute noch, geschieht's in wenig Wochen,
Dass du, Gevatter Tod, nur meine Hände drückst?
Ganz nach Bequemlichkeit! du bist mir zwar willkommen."
The latter part of the poem contains a rather extended laudation of the
part played by sympathetic feeling in the conduct of life.
That there would be those in Germany as in England, who saw in Sterne's
works only a mine of vulgar suggestion, a relation sometimes delicate
and clever, sometimes bald and ugly, of the indelicate and sensual, is a
foregone conclusion. Undoubtedly some found in the general approbation
which was accorded Sterne's books a sanction for forcing upon the public
the products of their own diseased imaginations.
This pernicious influence of the English master is exemplified by
Wegener's "Raritäten, ein hinterlassenes Werk des Küsters von
Rummelsberg."[80] The first volume is dedicated to "Sebaldus Nothanker,"
and the long document claims for the author unusual distinction, in thus
foregoing the possibility of reward or favor, since he dedicates his
book to a fictitious personage. The idea of the book is to present
"merry observations" for every day in the year. With the end of the
fourth volume the author has reached March 17, and, according to the
_Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_, the sixth volume includes May 22. The
present writer was unable to examine the last volume to discover whether
the year was rounded out in this way.
The author claims to write "neither for surly Catos nor for those fond
of vulgar jests and smutty books," but for those who will laugh. At the
close of his preface he confesses the source of his inspiration: "In
order to inspire myself with something of the spirit of a Sterne, I made
a decoction out of his writings and drank the same eagerly; indeed I
have burned the finest passages to powder, and then partaken of it with
warm English ale, but"--he had the insight and courtesy to add--"it
helped me just a little as it aids a lame man, if he steps in the
footprints of one who can walk nimbly." The very nature of this author's
dependence on Sterne excludes here any extended analysis of the
connection. The style is abrupt, full of affected gaiety and raillery,
conversational and journalistic. The stories, observations and
reflections, in prose and verse, represent one and all the ribaldry of
Sterne at its lowest ebb, as illustrated, for example, by the story of
the abbess of Andouillets, but without the charm and grace with which
that tale begins. The author copies Sterne in the tone of his
lucubrations; the material is drawn from other sources. In the first
volume, at any rate, his only direct indebtedness to Sterne is the
introduction of the Shandean theory of noses in the article for January
11. The pages also, sometimes strewn with stars and dashes, present a
somewhat Sternesque appearance.
These volumes are reviewed in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[81]
with full appreciation of their pernicious influence, and with open
acknowledgment that their success demonstrates a pervision of taste in
the fatherland. The author of the "Litterarische Reise durch
Deutschland"[82] advises his sister, to whom his letters are directed,
to put her handkerchief before her mouth at the very mention of Wegener,
and fears that the very name has befouled his pen. A similar
condemnation is meted out in Wieland's _Merkur_.[83]
A similar commentary on contemporary taste is obtained from a somewhat
similar collection of stories, "Der Geist der Romane im letzten Viertel
des 18ten Jahrhunderts," Breslau and Hirschberg, 1788, in which the
author (S. G. Preisser?) claims to follow the spirit of the period and
gives six stories of revolting sensuality, with a thin whitewash of
teary sentimentalism.
The pursuit of references to Yorick and direct appeals to his writings
in the German literary world of the century succeeding the era of his
great popularity would be a monstrous and fruitless task. Such
references in books, letters and periodicals multiply beyond possibility
of systematic study. One might take the works[84] of Friedrich Matthison
as a case in point. He visits the grave of Musäus, even as Tristram
Shandy sought for the resting-place of the two lovers in Lyons (III,
p. 312); as he travels in Italy, he remarks that a certain visit would
have afforded Yorick's "Empfindsamkeit" the finest material for an
Ash-Wednesday sermon (IV, p. 67). Sterne's expressions are cited:
"Erdwasserball" for the earth (V, p. 57), "Wo keine Pflanze, die da
nichts zu suchen hatte, eine bleibende Stäte fand" (V, p. 302); two
farmsteads in the Tyrol are designated as "Nach dem Ideal Yoricks" (VI,
pp. 24-25). He refers to the story of the abbess of Andouillets (VI,
64); he narrates (VIII, pp. 203-4) an anecdote of Sterne which has just
been printed in the _Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_ (1769, p. 151); he
visits Prof. Levade in Lausanne, who bore a striking resemblance to
Sterne (V, p. 279), and refers to Yorick in other minor regards (VII,
158; VIII, pp. 51, 77, and Briefe II, 76). Yet in spite of this evident
infatuation, Matthison's account of his own travels cannot be classed as
an imitation of Yorick, but is purely objective, descriptive, without
search for humor or pathos, with no introduction of personalities save
friends and celebrities. Heinse alluded to Sterne frequently in his
letters to Gleim (1770-1771),[85] but after August 23, 1771, Sterne
vanished from his fund of allusion, though the correspondence lasts
until 1802, a fact of significance in dating the German enthusiasm for
Sterne and the German knowledge of Shandy from the publication of the
Sentimental Journey, and likewise an indication of the insecurity of
Yorick's personal hold.
Miscellaneous allusions to Sterne, illustrating the magnitude and
duration of his popularity, may not be without interest: Kästner
"Vermischte Schriften," II, p. 134 (Steckenpferd); Lenz "Gesammelte
Werke," Berlin, 1828, Vol. III, p. 312; letter from the Duchess Amalie,
August 2, 1779, in "Briefe an und von Merck," Darmstadt, 1838; letter of
Caroline Herder to Knebel, April 2, 1799, in "K. L. von Knebel's
Literarischer Nachlass," Leipzig, 1835, p. 324 (Yorick's "heiliges
Sensorium"); a rather unfavorable but apologetic criticism of Shandy in
the "Hinterlassene Schriften" of Charlotta Sophia Sidonia Seidelinn,
Nürnberg, 1793, p. 227; "Schiller's Briefe," edited by Fritz Jonas, I,
pp. 136, 239; in Hamann's letters, "Leben und Schriften," edited by Dr.
C. H. Gildermeister, Gotha, 1875, II, p. 338; III, p. 56; V, pp. 16,
163; in C. L. Jünger's "Anlage zu einem Familiengespräch über die
Physiognomik" in _Deutsches Museum_, II, pp. 781-809, where the French
barber who proposes to dip Yorick's wig in the sea is taken as a type of
exaggeration. And a similar reference is found in Wieland's _Merkur_,
1799, I, p. 15: Yorick's Sensorium is again cited, _Merkur_, 1791, II,
p. 95. Other references in the _Merkur_ are: 1774, III, p. 52; 1791, I,
p. 418; 1800, I, p. 14; 1804, I, pp. 19-21; _Deutsches Museum_, IV, pp.
66, 462; _Neuer Gelehrter Mercurius_, Altona, 1773, August 19, in review
of Goethe's "Götz;" _Almanach der deutschen Musen_, 1771, p. 93. And
thus the references scatter themselves down the decades. "Das Wörtlein
Und," by F. A. Krummacher (Duisberg und Essen, 1811), bore a motto taken
from the Koran, and contained the story of Uncle Toby and the fly with a
personal application, and Yorick's division of travelers is copied
bodily and applied to critics. Friedrich Hebbel, probably in 1828, gave
his Newfoundland dog the name of Yorick-Sterne-Monarch.[86] Yorick is
familiarly mentioned in Wilhelm Raabe's "Chronik der Sperlingsgasse"
(1857), and in Ernst von Wolzogen's "Der Dornenweg," two characters
address one another in Yorick similes. Indeed, in the summer of 1902,
a Berlin newspaper was publishing "Eine Empfindsame Reise in einem
Automobile."[87]
Musäus is named as an imitator of Sterne by Koberstein, and Erich
Schmidt implies in his "Richardson, Rousseau und Goethe," that he
followed Sterne in his "Grandison der Zweite," which could hardly be
possible, for "Grandison der Zweite" was first published in 1760, and
was probably written during 1759, that is, before Sterne had published
Tristram Shandy. Adolph von Knigge is also mentioned by Koberstein as a
follower of Sterne, and Baker includes Knigge's "Reise nach
Braunschweig" and "Briefe auf einer Reise aus Lothringen" in his list.
Their connection with Sterne cannot be designated as other than remote;
the former is a merry vagabond story, reminding one much more of the
tavern and way-faring adventures in Fielding and Smollett, and
suggesting Sterne only in the constant conversation with the reader
about the progress of the book and the mechanism of its construction.
One example of the hobby-horse idea in this narration may perhaps be
traced to Sterne. The "Briefe auf einer Reise aus Lothringen" has even
less connection; it shares only in the increase of interest in personal
accounts of travel. Knigge's novels, "Peter Claus" and "Der Roman meines
Lebens," are decidedly not imitations of Sterne; a clue to the character
of the former may be obtained from the fact that it was translated into
English as "The German Gil Blas." "Der Roman meines Lebens" is a typical
eighteenth century love-story written in letters, with numerous
characters, various intrigues and unexpected adventures; indeed, a part
of the plot, involving the abduction of one of the characters, reminds
one of "Clarissa Harlowe." Sterne is, however, incidentally mentioned in
both books, is quoted in "Peter Claus" (Chapter VI, Vol. II), and Walter
Shandy's theory of Christian names is cited in "Der Roman meines
Lebens."[88] That Knigge had no sympathy with exaggerated sentimentalism
is seen in a passage in his "Umgang mit Menschen."[89] Knigge admired
and appreciated the real Sterne and speaks in his "Ueber Schriftsteller
und Schriftstellerei"[90] of Yorick's sharpening observation regarding
the little but yet important traits of character.
Moritz August von Thümmel in his famous "Reise in die mittäglichen
Provinzen von Frankreich" adopted Sterne's general idea of sentimental
journeying, shorn largely of the capriciousness and whimsicality which
marked Sterne's pilgrimage. He followed Sterne also in driving the
sensuous to the borderland of the sensual.
Hippel's novels, "Lebensläufe nach aufsteigender Linie" and "Kreuz und
Querzüge des Ritters A. bis Z." were purely Shandean products in which a
humor unmistakably imitated from Sterne struggles rather unsuccessfully
with pedagogical seriousness. Jean Paul was undoubtedly indebted to
Sterne for a part of his literary equipment, and his works afford proof
both of his occupation with Sterne's writings and its effect upon his
own. A study of Hippel's "Lebensläufe" in connection with both Sterne
and Jean Paul was suggested but a few years after Hippel's death by a
reviewer in the _Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften_[91] as a
fruitful topic for investigation. A detailed, minute study of von
Thümmel, Hippel and Jean Paul[92] in connection with the English master
is purposed as a continuation of the present essay. Heine's pictures of
travel, too, have something of Sterne in them.
[Footnote 1: _Quellen und Forschungen_, II, p. 27.]
[Footnote 2: Jacobi remarked, in his preface to the "Winterreise"
in the edition of 1807, that this section, "Der Taubenschlag" is
not to be reckoned as bearing the trace of the then condemned
"Empfindeley," for many authors, ancient and modern, have taken up
the cause of animals against man; yet Sterne is probably the
source of Jacobi's expression of his feeling.]
[Footnote 3: XI, 2, pp. 16 f.]
[Footnote 4: For reviews of the "Sommerreise" see _Allg. deutsche
Bibl._, XIII, i, p. 261, _Deutsche Bibl. der schönen
Wissenschaften_, IV, p. 354, and _Neue Critische Nachrichten_,
Greifswald, V, p. 406. _Almanach der deutschen Musen_, 1770,
p. 112. The "Winterreise" is also reviewed there, p. 110.]
[Footnote 5: Some minor points may be noted. Longo implies
(page 2) that it was Bode's translation of the original
Sentimental Journey which was re-issued in four volumes, Hamburg
and Bremen, 1769, whereas the edition was practically identical
with the previous one, and the two added volumes were those of
Stevenson's continuation. Longo calls Sterne's Eliza "Elisha"
(p. 28) and Tristram's father becomes Sir Walter Shandy (p. 37),
an unwarranted exaltation of the retired merchant.]
[Footnote 6: Review in the _Jenaische Zeitungen von Gel. Sachen_]
[Footnote 7: I, pp. 314 + 20; II, 337; III. 330.]
[Footnote 8: I, p. 156; III, p. 318.]
[Footnote 9: Schummel states this himself, III, p. 320.]
[Footnote 10: Tristram Shandy, III, 51-54.]
[Footnote 11: Pp. 256-265.]
[Footnote 12: P. 34.]
[Footnote 13: Shandy, I, p. 75; Schummel, I, p. 265.]
[Footnote 14: II, p. 117.]
[Footnote 15: In "Das Kapitel von meiner Lebensart," II, pp.
113 ff.]
[Footnote 16: XVI, 2, pp. 682-689.]
[Footnote 17: The third part is reviewed (Hr) in XIX, 2, pp.
576-7, but without significant contribution to the question.]
[Footnote 18: I, 2, pp. 66-74, the second number of 1772. Review
is signed "S."]
[Footnote 19: Another review of Schummel's book is found in the
_Almanach der deutschen Musen_, 1773, p. 106.]
[Footnote 20: XI, 2, p. 344; XV, 1, p. 249; XVII, 1, p. 244. Also
entitled "Begebenheiten des Herrn Redlich," the novel was
published Wittenberg, 1756-71; Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1768-71.]
[Footnote 21: XXVIII, 1, pp. 199 ff. Reviewed also in _Auserlesene
Bibliothek der neusten deutschen Litteratur_, Lemgo, VII, p. 234
(1775) and _Neue litterarische Unterhaltungen_, Breslau, I, pp.
660-691.]
[Footnote 22: Leipzig, Crusius, 1776, pp. 120. Baker, influenced
by title and authorship, includes it among the literary progeny of
Yorick. It has no connection with Sterne.]
[Footnote 23: See _Jahresberichte für neuere deutsche
Litteratur-geschichte_, II, p. 106 (1893).]
[Footnote 24: Breslau, 1792. It is included in Baker's list.]
[Footnote 25: Frankfurt and Leipzig, pp. 208. Baker regards these
two editions as two different works.]
[Footnote 26: Sentimental Journey, pp. 87-88.]
[Footnote 27: Sentimental Journey, p. 73.]
[Footnote 28: Pp. 45-50.]
[Footnote 29: Pp. 106-119.]
[Footnote 30: Die Gesellschafterin, pp. 131-144.]
[Footnote 31: Pp. 145-155.]
[Footnote 32: Die Dame, pp. 120-130.]
[Footnote 33: V, St. 2, p. 371.]
[Footnote 34: Anhang to XIII-XXIV, Vol. II, p. 1151.]
[Footnote 35: Letter to Raspe, Göttingen, June 2, 1770, in
_Weimarisches Jahrbuch_, III, p. 28.]
[Footnote 36: _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._, April 27, 1773, pp. 276-8.]
[Footnote 37: _Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent_,
December 31, 1771.]
[Footnote 38: Other reviews are (2) and (3), _Frankfurter gel.
Anz._, November 27, 1772; (2) and (3), _Allg. deutsche Bibl._,
XIX, 2, p. 579 (Musäus) and XXIV, 1, p. 287; of the series, _Neue
Critische Nachrichten_ (Greifswald), IX, p. 152. There is a rather
full analysis of (1) in _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._, 1773, pp. 276-8,
April 27. According to Wittenberg in the _Altonaer
Reichs-Postreuter_ (June 21, 1773), Holfrath Deinet was the author
of this review. A sentimental episode from these "Journeys" was
made the subject of a play called "Der Greis" and produced at
Munich in 1774. (See _Allg. deutsche Bibl._, XXXII, 2, p. 466).]
[Footnote 39: Berlin, 1873.]
[Footnote 40: _Deutsches Museum_, VI, p. 384, and VII, p. 220.]
[Footnote 41: Reval und Leipzig, 1788, 2d edition, 1792, and
published in "Kleine gesammelte Schriften," Reval und Leipzig,
1789, Vol. III, pp. 131-292. Reviewed in _Allg. Litt.-Zeitung_,
1789, II, p. 736.]
[Footnote 42: Leipzig, 1793, pp. 224, 8vo, by Georg Joachim
Göschen.]
[Footnote 43: See the account of Ulm, and of Lindau near the end
of the volume.]
[Footnote 44: See pp. 21-22 and 105.]
[Footnote 45: "Geschichte der komischen Literatur," III, p. 625.]
[Footnote 46: See "Briefwechsel zwischen Goethe und Schiller,"
edited by Boxberger. Stuttgart, Spemann, Vol. I, p. 118.]
[Footnote 47: It is to be noted also that von Thümmel's first
servant bears the name Johann.]
[Footnote 48: "Charis oder über das Schöne und die Schönheit in
den bildenden Künsten" by Ramdohr, Leipzig, 1793.]
[Footnote 49: "Schiller's Briefe," edited by Fritz Jonas, III,
pp. 316, 319. Letters of June 6 and June 23 (?), 1793.]
[Footnote 50: "Briefe von Christian Garve an Chr. Felix Weisse,
und einige andern Freunde," Breslau, 1803, p. 189-190. The book
was reviewed favorably by the _Allg. Litt. Zeitung_, 1794, IV,
p. 513.]
[Footnote 51: Falkenburg, 1796, pp. 110. Goedeke gives Bremen as
place of publication.]
[Footnote 52: Ebeling, III, p. 625, gives Hademann as author, and
Fallenburg--both probably misprints.]
[Footnote 53: The review is of "Auch Vetter Heinrich hat Launen,
von G. L. B., Frankfurt-am-Main, 1796"--a book evidently called
into being by a translation of selections from "Les Lunes du
Cousin Jacques." Jünger was the translator. The original is the
work of Beffroy de Regny.]
[Footnote 54: Hedemann's book is reviewed indifferently in the
_Allg. Litt. Zeitung._ (Jena, 1798, I, p. 173.)]
[Footnote 55: Von Rabenau wrote also "Hans Kiekindiewelts Reise"
(Leipzig, 1794), which Ebeling (III, p. 623) condemns as "the most
commonplace imitation of the most ordinary kind of the comic."]
[Footnote 56: It is also reviewed by Musäus in the _Allg. deutsche
Bibl._, XIX, 2, p. 579.]
[Footnote 57: The same opinion is expressed in the _Jenaische
Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen_, 1776, p. 465. See also
Schwinger's study of "Sebaldus Nothanker," pp. 248-251; Ebeling,
p. 584; _Allg. deutsche Bibl._, XXXII, 1, p. 141.]
[Footnote 58: Leipzig and Liegnitz, 1775.]
[Footnote 59: The _Leipziger Museum Almanach_, 1776, pp. 69-70,
agrees in this view.]
[Footnote 60: XXIX, 2, p. 507.]
[Footnote 61: 1776, I, p. 272.]
[Footnote 62: An allusion to an episode of the "Sommerreise."]
[Footnote 63: "Sophie von la Roche," Göttinger Dissertation,
Einbeck, 1895.]
[Footnote 64: _Allg. deutsche Bibl._, XLVII, 1, p. 435; LII, 1,
p. 148, and _Anhang_, XXIV-XXXVI, Vol. II, p. 903-908.]
[Footnote 65: The quotation is really from the spurious ninth
volume in Zückert's translation.]
[Footnote 66: For these references to the snuff-box, see pp. 53,
132-3, 303 and 314.]
[Footnote 67: In "Sommerreise."]
[Footnote 68: Other examples are found pp. 57, 90, 255, 270, 209,
312, 390, and elsewhere.]