Graf von Loeben and the Legend of Lorelei Part 2

[13] Cf. Fouque, Apel. Milt.i.tz. _Beitrage zur Geschichte der deutschen Romantik_, Leipzig,1908. In a letter to his brother. Fouque wrote (January 6, 1813): "Ein Dichter, meine ich, ist er allerdings, ein von Gott dazu bestimmter." Fouque, however, realized Loeben's many weaknesses as a poet, though at Loeben's death he wrote a poem on him praising him as the master of verse technique.

[14] Cf. Kosch's edition of Eichendorff. XIII. 65. Loeben says: "In Weimar war ich im vorigen Winter bei Goethe; er war mir freundlich." The "previous winter" was 1813.

[15] Cf. Kosch's edition, XI, 220. The remark was made in 1807.

[16] Cf. p.i.s.sin. p. 25. The incident occurred in 1803 and Herder died in 1804.

[17] Cf. Kosch's edition, XI, 308. Lochen himself utterly condemned this work later. See p.i.s.sin, pp. 238-39, 267-08. p.i.s.sin gives the number of verse and strophe forms on p. 266.

[18] Cf. p.i.s.sin, p. 267. Uhland made the remark in 1812--his own most fruitful year as a poet.

[19] The story was published in 1817. The full t.i.tle is _Das weisse Ross, eine altdeutsche Familienchronik in sechs und dreissig Bildern._ It is 160 pages long.

[20] An idea as to the lack of action in this story can be derived from the following statement by Otto (pp. 127-28), the brave hero: "Was man Schicksale zu nennen pflegt, habe ich wenige gehabt, aber erfahren habe ich dennoch viel und mehr als mancher durch seine glanzenden Schicksale erfahren mag: namlich die Fuhrungen der ewigen Liebe habe ich erfahren, die keinen verla.s.st. und alles herrlich hinausfuhrt." And then Siegenot, the other hero, says that this is very true--whereupon they embrace each other.

[21] The story was first published In Urania: Taschenbuch fur Damen auf das Jahr 1818. pp. 305-37.

[22] Aside from the poems in p.i.s.sin's collection in the _D.L.D. des 18. u. 19. Jahr._, Ignaz Hub's _Deutschlands Balladen- und Romanzen-Dichter_, Karlsruhe, 1845, contains: (1) "Romanze von der weissen Rose," (2) "Der Tanz mit dem Tode," (3) "Der Bergknapp,"

(4) "Das Schwanenlied." "Loreley" is also reprinted here, with modifications for the worse. "Schau', Schiffer, schau' nicht hinauf," is certainly not an improvement on Loeben's "Lieb Knabe, sieh' nicht hinauf,"

[23] The following are common forms: "Nez," "zwey," "versteken,"

"Sfaren," "Saffo," "Stralenboten," "Abendrothen." "Uebermuth,"

and so on, though the regular forms, except in the case of "Saffo," also occur.

[24] "Der Abend" reminds one strongly of Holderlin's "Die Nacht,"

while "Tag und Nacht" goes back undoubtedly to Novalis' "Hymnen an die Nacht," W. Schlegels sonnet on the sonnet stood sponsor for "Das Sonett," and Goethe and Tieck also reoccur in changed dress. The poems on Correggio (73), Ruisdael (75), Goethe (137), Tieck (138-39), and Novalis (141) sound especially like W. Schlegel's poems on other poets and artists.

[25] In his _Geschichte des Sonettes in der deutschen Dichtung_.'Leipzig, 1884. Heinrich Weltl (pp. 210-17) criticizes Loeben's sonnets most severely from the point of view of content; and as to their form he says: "Blos die Form, oder gar die blosse Form der Form ist beachtenswert." This is unquestionably a case of warping the truth in order to bring in a sort of pun.

[26] The triolett is worth quoting as a type of Loeben's prettiness:

Galt es mir, das susse Blicken Aus dem h.e.l.len Augenpaar?

Unter'm Netz vom goldnen Haar Galt es mir das susse Blicken?

Einem sprach es von Gefahr, Einen wollt' es licht umstricken; Galt es mir, das sus...o...b..icken Aus dem h.e.l.len Augenpaar.

[27] An idea as to Loeben's temperament can he derived from the following pa.s.sage in a letter to Tieck: "Gott sei mit Ihnen und die heilige Muse! Oft drangt es mich, niederzuknien im Schein, den Albrecht Durers und Novalis Glorie wirft, im alten frommen Dom. dann denk' ich Ihrer und ich lieg' an Ihrer Seele. Ich fuhle Sie in mir, wie man eine Gottheit fuhlt in geweihter Stunde. 'Liebe denkt in sel'gen Tonen, denn Gedanken stehn zu fern." The quotation should read "sussen" instead of "sel'gen."

See _Briefe an Tierk._ edited by Holtei, II, 266.

[28] As a corrective to the monographs of p.i.s.sin on Loeben and H. A. Kruger on Eichendorff. one should read Wilhelm Kosch's article in _Euphorion_ (1907, pp. 310-20). Kosch. contends that p.i.s.sin and Kruger have vastly overestimated Loeben's influence on Eichendorff, and that Loeben in general was "eine bedeutungslose Tageserscheinung."

[29] The complete t.i.tle is _G.o.dwi, oder das steinerne Bild der Mutter. Ein verwilderter Roman von Maria_. The very rare first edition of this novel, in two volumes, is in the Columbia Library. Friedrich Wilmans was the publisher.

[30] Cf. Alfred Kerr, _G.o.dwi. Ein Kapitel deutscher Romantik_. Berlin, 1898, p. 2.

[31] Cf. Wilhelm Hertz, "uber den Namen Lorelei," _Sitzungsberichte der k.b. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Munchen_, Jahrgang 1886, pp. 217-51. For the etymologist, this is an invaluable study.

[32] The superficial similarity of those two poems can easily be exaggerated. The rhyme "sitzet-blitzet" is perfectly natural: the Lorelei had to be portrayed as "sitzen"; what is then easier than "blitzen"? In "Ritter Peter von Stauffenberg und die Meerfeye"

(Des Knaben Wunderhorn, ed. of Eduard Grisebach, p. 277) we have this couplet:

Er sieht ein schones Weib da sitzen.

Von Gold und Silber herrlich blitzen.

For more detailed ill.u.s.trations, see below.

[33] It is worth while to note the actual date of Heine's composition of his ballad, since so eminent an authority as Wilhelm Scherer (_Ges. d. deut. Lit._, 8th ed., p. 662) says that Heine wrote the poem in 1824. And Eduard Thorn (_Heinrich Heines Beziehungen zu Clemens Brentano_, p. 90.) says that he published it in 1826.

This is incorrect, as is also Thorn's statement, p. 88, that Brentano wrote his ballad in 1802. For the correct date of Heine's ballad, see _Samtliche Werke_, Hamburg, 1865, XV, 200.]

[34] An instance of this is seen in _Selections from Heine's Poems_, edited by H.S. White, D.C. Heath & Co., Boston, 1900, p. 182. Professor White does, to be sure, refer to Strodtmann for the details; but Strodtmann does not prove anything. And in _Heines Werke in funfzehn Teilen_, edited by Hermann Friedeman, Helene Herrmann. Erwin Kaliseher. Raimund p.i.s.sin, and Veit Valentin, we have the comment by Helene Herrmann, who follows p.i.s.sin: "Die Loreleysage, erfunden von Clemens Brentano; vielfach von Romantikern gestaltet. Zwischen Brentanos Romanze und Heines Situationsbild steht die Behandlung durch den Grafen Loeben, einen unbedeutenden romantischen Dichter."

[35] The best finished collection of Heine's letters is the one by Hans Daffis, Berlin, 1907, 2 vols. This collection will, however, soon be superseded by _Heinrich Heines Briefwechsel_, edited by Friedrich Hirth, Munchen and Berlin, 1914. The first volume covers Heine's life up to 1831. In neither of these collections is either Brentano or Loeben mentioned. There are 643 pages in Hirth's first volume.

[36] For a discussion of _G.o.dwi_, see _Clemens Brentano: Ein Lebensbild_, by Johannes Baptista Diel and Wilhelm Kreiten, Freiburg i.B., 1877, two volumes in one, pp. 104-25. As to the obscurity of Brentano's work, one sentence (p. 116) is significant: "_G.o.dwi_ spukt heutzutage nur mehr in den Kopfen der liberalen Literaturgeschichtsschreiber, denen er einen willkommenen Vorwand an die Hand gibt, mit einigen stereotyp abgeschriebenen Phrasen den Stab uber den phantastischen, verschwommenen, unsittlichen u.s.w., u.s.w. Dichter zu brechen."

[37] _Clemens Brentano: G.o.dwi oder das steinerne Bild der Mutter. Ein verwilderter. Roman_. Herausgegeben und eingeleitet von Dr. Anselm Ruest, Berlin, 1906. Ruest edited the work because he thought it was worth reviving. In this edition, the ballad is on pages 507-10. Bartels (Handbuch, 2d ed., p. 400) lists a reprint in 1905, E.A. Regener, Berlin.

[38] II, 391-93.

[39] For the various references, see Thorn's _Heinrich Heines Beziehungen zu Clemens Brentano_. pp. 88-90. His study is especially unsatisfactory in view of the fact that he says (p. 88) in this connection: "Wirklich Neues zu bringen ist uns nicht vergonnt, denn selbstverstandlich haben die Forscher dieses dankbare und interessante Objekt schon in der eingehendsten Weise untersucht." And Thorn's attempt to show that Heine knew _G.o.dwi_ early in life by pointing out similarities between poems in it and poems by Heine is about as untenable as argument could be, in view of the great number of poets who may have influenced Heine in these instances; Thorn himself lists (p. 63) Burger, Fouque, Arnim, E.T.A. Hoffmann.

[40] In p.i.s.sin's collection of Loeben's poems (_D.L.D_., No. 135) we have a peculiar note. After the ballad (_Anmerk._, p. 161), which p.i.s.sin ent.i.tles "Der Lurleifels," we read: "N.d. Hs." This would argue that Loeben did so ent.i.tle his ballad and that p.i.s.sin had access to the original MS. But then p.i.s.sin says: "Auch, die gleichnamige Novelle einleitend, in der _Urania_ auf 1821." But in _Urania_ the novelette is ent.i.tled "Eine Sage vom Rhein." and the ballad is ent.i.tled "Loreley." Bet him who can unravel this!

[41] For the entire story of the composition and publication of the _Rheinmarchen_, see _Die Marchen von Clemens Brentano_, edited by Guido Gorres. 2 vols. in 1, Stuttgart, 1879 (2d ed.) This edition contains the preface to the original edition of 1840, pp. i-1.

[42] Thorn, who drew on M.R. Hewelcke's _Die Loreleisage_, Paderborn, 1908, makes (p. 90) this suggestion. It is impossible for the writer to see how Thorn can be so positive in regard to Brentano's influence on Heine. And one's faith is shaken by this sentence on the same page: "Brentano veroffentlichte sein _Radlauf-Marchen_ erst 1827, Heine 'Die Lorelei' schon 1826."

Both of these dates are incorrect. Guido Gorres, who must be considered a final authority on this matter, says that, though Brentano tried to publish his _Marchen_ as early as 1816, none of them were published until 1846, except extracts from "Das Myrtenfraulein," and a version of "Gockel," neither of which bears directly on the Lorelei-matter.

[43] Of Gorres' second edition, I, 250: "Nachdem Murmelthier herzlich fur diese Geschenke gedankt hatte, sagte Frau Else: 'Nun, mein Kind! kamme mir und Frau Lurley die Haare, wir wollen die deinigen dann auch kammen'--dann gab sie ihr einen goldnen Kamm, und Murmelthier kammte Beiden die Haare und flocht sie so schon, da.s.s die Wa.s.serfrauen sehr zufrieden mit ihr waren."

[44] In _H. Heines Leben und Werke_. Hamburg, 1884 (3d ed.), Bd. I. p. 363. In the notes, Strodtmann reprints Loeben's ballad, pp. 696-97. His statement is especially unsatisfactory in view of the fact that he refers to the "fast gleicher Inhalt," though the essentials of Heine's ballad are not in Loeben's, and to "einegewisse ahnlichkeit in Form," though the similarity in form is most p.r.o.nounced.

[45] In _Allgemeine deut. Biog_., XIX. 44. It is interesting to see how Professor Muncker lays stress on this matter by placing in parentheses the statement: "Einige Zuge der letzten Geschichte ["Sage vom Rhein"] regten Heine zu seinem bekannten Liede an."

[46] In _Dichtungen von Heinrich Heine, ausgewahlt und erlautert_, Bonn, 1887, p. 326. Hessel's Statement is peculiarly unsatisfactory, since he says (p. 309) that he is going to the sources of Heine's poems, and then, after reprinting Loeben's ballad, he says: "Dieses Lied war Heines nachstes Vorbild. Ausfuhrlicheres bei Strodtmann, Bd. I, S. 362." And this edition has been well received.

[47] In _Grundriss, VI, 110. Again we read in parentheses: "Aus diesem Liede und dem Eingange der Erzahlung schopfte H. Heine sein Lied von der Loreley."

[48] In _Ges. d. deut. Lit_., p. 662 (8th ed.).

[49] In _Heinrich Heines Beziehungen zum deutschen Mittelalter_, Berlin, 1908, pp., 94-95. Mucke is the most cautious of the ten authorities above listed; and he antic.i.p.ated Walzel in his reference to Schreiber's _Handbuch_.

[50] In _Ueber den Namen Lorelei, p. 224. Hertz is about as cautious as Strodtmann; "Es ist kaum zu bezweifeln da.s.s," etc.

[51] In _Samtliche Werke_, I, 491.

[52] In _Hauptstromungen_. VI, 178. Brandes says: "Der Gegenstand ist der gleiche, das Versma.s.s ist da.s.selbe, ja die Reimen sind an einzelnen Stellen die gleichen: blitzetsitzet; statt 'an-gethan'

steht da nur 'Kahn-gethan.'"

[53] In _Der deutschen Romantiker_, Leipzig, 1903, p. 235.