Laurence Sterne in Germany Part 18

The one great opponent of the whole sentimental tendency, whose censure of Sterne's disciples involved also a denunciation of the master himself, was the Gottingen professor, Georg Christopher Lichtenberg.[7]

In his inner nature Lichtenberg had much in common with Sterne and Sterne's imitators in Germany, with the whole ecstatic, eccentric movement of the time. Julian Schmidt[8] says: "So much is sure, at any rate, that the greatest adversary of the new literature was of one flesh and blood with it."[9] But his period of residence in England shortly after Sterne's death and his a.s.sociation then and afterwards with Englishmen of eminence render his att.i.tude toward Sterne in large measure an English one, and make an idealization either of the man or of his work impossible for him.

The contradiction between the greatness of heart evinced in Sterne's novels and the narrow selfishness of the author himself is repeatedly noted by Lichtenberg. His knowledge of Sterne's character was derived from acquaintance with many of Yorick's intimate friends in London. In "Beobachtungen uber den Menschen," he says: "I can't help smiling when the good souls who read Sterne with tears of rapture in their eyes fancy that he is mirroring himself in his book. Sterne's simplicity, his warm heart, over-flowing with feeling, his soul, sympathizing with everything good and n.o.ble, and all the other expressions, whatever they may be; and the sigh 'Alas, poor Yorick,' which expresses everything at once--have become proverbial among us Germans. . . . Yorick was a crawling parasite, a flatterer of the great, an unendurable burr on the clothing of those upon whom he had determined to sponge!"[10]

In "Timorus" he calls Sterne "ein scandalum Ecclesiae";[11] he doubts the reality of Sterne's n.o.bler emotions and condemns him as a clever juggler with words, who by artful manipulation of certain devices aroused in us sympathy, and he s.n.a.t.c.hes away the mask of loving, hearty sympathy and discloses the grinning mountebank. With keen insight into Sterne's mind and method, he lays down a law by which, he says, it is always possible to discover whether the author of a touching pa.s.sage has really been moved himself, or has merely with astute knowledge of the human heart drawn our tears by a sly choice of touching features.[12]

Akin to this is the following pa.s.sage in which the author is unquestionably thinking of Sterne, although he does not mention him: "A heart ever full of kindly feeling is the greatest gift which Heaven can bestow; on the other hand, the itching to keep scribbling about it, and to fancy oneself great in this scribbling is one of the greatest punishments which can be inflicted upon one who writes."[13] He exposes the heartlessness of Sterne's pretended sympathy: "A three groschen piece is ever better than a tear,"[14] and "sympathy is a poor kind of alms-giving,"[15] are obviously thoughts suggested by Yorick's sentimentalism.[16]

The folly of the "Lorenzodosen" is several times mentioned with open or covert ridicule[17] and the imitators of Sterne are repeatedly told the fruitlessness of their endeavor and the absurdity of their accomplishment.[18] His "Vorschlag zu einem Orbis Pictus fur deutsche dramatische Schriftsteller, Romanendichter und Schauspieler"[19] is a satire on the lack of originality among those who boasted of it, and sought to win attention through pure eccentricities.

The Fragments[20] are concerned, as the editors say, with an evil of the literature in those days, the period of the Sentimentalists and the "Kraftgenies." Among the seven fragments may be noted: "Lorenzo Eschenheimers empfindsame Reise nach Laputa," a clever satirical sketch in the manner of Swift, bitterly castigating that of which the English people claim to be the discoverers (sentimental journeying) and the Germans think themselves the improvers. In "Bittschrift der Wahnsinnigen" and "Parakletor" the unwholesome literary tendencies of the age are further satirized. His brief essay, "Ueber die Vornamen,"[21] is confessedly suggested by Sterne and the sketch "Da.s.s du auf dem Blockberg warst,"[22] with its mention of the green book ent.i.tled "Echte deutsche Fluche und Verwunschungen fur alle Stande," is manifestly to be connected in its genesis with Sterne's famous collection of oaths.[23] Lichtenberg's comparison of Sterne and Fielding is familiar and significant.[24] "Aus Lichtenbergs Nachla.s.s: Aufsatze, Gedichte, Tagebuchblatter, Briefe," edited by Albert Leitzmann,[25]

contains additional mention of Sterne.

The name of Helfreich Peter Sturz may well be coupled with that of Lichtenberg, as an opponent of the Sterne cult and its German distortions, for his information and point of view were likewise drawn direct from English sources. Sturz accompanied King Christian VII of Denmark on his journey to France and England, which lasted from May 6, 1768, to January 14, 1769[26]; hence his stay in England falls in a time but a few months after Sterne's death (March 18, 1768), when the ungrateful metropolis was yet redolent of the late lion's wit and humor.

Sturz was an accomplished linguist and a complete master of English, hence found it easy to a.s.sociate with Englishmen of distinction whom he was privileged to meet through the favor of his royal patron. He became acquainted with Garrick, who was one of Sterne's intimate friends, and from him Sturz learned much of Yorick, especially that more wholesome revulsion of feeling against Sterne's obscenities and looseness of speech, which set in on English soil as soon as the potent personality of the author himself had ceased to compel silence and blind opinion.

England began to wonder at its own infatuation, and, gaining perspective, to view the writings of Sterne in a more rational light.

Into the first spread of this reaction Sturz was introduced, and the estimate of Sterne which he carried away with him was undoubtedly colored by it. In his second letter written to the _Deutsches Museum_ and dated August 24, 1768, but strangely not printed till April, 1777,[27] he quotes Garrick with reference to Sterne, a notable word of personal censure, coming in the Germany of that decade, when Yorick's admirers were most vehement in their claims. Garrick called him "a lewd companion, who was more loose in his intercourse than in his writings and generally drove all ladies away by his obscenities."[28] Sturz adds that all his acquaintances a.s.serted that Sterne's moral character went through a process of disintegration in London.

In the _Deutsches Museum_ for July, 1776, Sturz printed a poem ent.i.tled "Die Mode," in which he treats of the slavery of fas.h.i.+on and in several stanzas deprecates the influence of Yorick.[29]

"Und so schwingt sich, zum Genie erklart, Strephon kuhn auf Yorick's Steckenpferd.

Trabt maandrisch uber Berg und Auen, Reist empfindsam durch sein Dorfgebiet, Oder singt die Jugend zu erbauen Ganz Gefuhl dem Gartengott ein Lied.

Gott der Garten, stohnt die Burgerin, Lachle gutig, Rasen und Schasmin Haucht Geruche! Fliehet Handlungssorgen, Da.s.s mein Liebster heute noch in Ruh Sein Mark-Einsaz-Lomber spiele--Morgen, Schliessen wir die Unglucksbude zu!"

A pa.s.sage at the end of the appendix to the twelfth Reisebrief is further indication of his opposition to and his contempt for the frenzy of German sentimentalism.

The poems of Goeckingk contain allusions[30] to Sterne, to be sure partly indistinctive and insignificant, which, however, tend in the main to a ridicule of the Yorick cult and place their author ultimately among the satirical opponents of sentimentalism. In the "Epistel an Goldhagen in Peters.h.a.ge," 1771, he writes:

"Doch geb ich wohl zu uberlegen, Was fur den Weisen besser sey: Die Welt wie Yorick mit zu nehmen?

Nach Konigen, wie Diogen, Sich keinen Fuss breit zu bequemen,"--

a query which suggests the hesitant point of view relative to the advantage of Yorick's excess of universal sympathy. In "Will auch 'n Genie werden" the poet steps out more unmistakably as an adversary of the movement and as a skeptical observer of the exercise of Yorick-like sympathy.

"Doch, ich Patronus, merkt das wohl, Geh, im zerrissnen Kittel, Hab' aber alle Taschen voll Yorickischer Capittel.

Doch la.s.s' ich, wenn mir's Kurzweil schafft, Die Hulfe fleh'nden Armen Durch meinen Schweitzer, Peter Kraft, Zerprugeln ohn' Erbarmen."

Goeckingk openly satirizes the sentimental cult in the poem "Der Empfindsame"

"Herr Mops, der um das dritte Wort Empfindsamkeit im Munde fuhret, Und wenn ein Grashalm ihm verdorrt, Gleich einen Thranenstrom verlieret-- . . . . . . . .

Mit meinem Weibchen thut er schier Gleich so bekannt wie ein Franzose; All' Augenblicke bot er ihr Toback aus eines Bettlers Dose Mit dem, am Zaun in tiefem Schlaf Er einen Tausch wie Yorik traf.

Der Unempfindsamkeit zum Hohn Hielt er auf eine Muck' im Glase Beweglich einen Leichsermon, Purrt' eine Flieg' ihm an der Nase, Macht' er das Fenster auf, und sprach: Zieh Oheim Toby's Fliege nach!

Durch Mops ist warlich meine Magd Nicht mehr bey Trost, nicht mehr bey Sinnen So sehr hat ihr sein Lob behagt, Da.s.s sie empfindsam allen Spinnen Zu meinem Hause, frank und frey Verstattet ihre Weberey.

Er trat mein Hundchen auf das Bein, Hilf Himmel! Welch' ein Lamentiren!

Es hatte mogen einen Stein Der Stra.s.se zum Erbarmen ruhren, Auch wedelt' ihm in einem Nu Das Hundgen schon Vergebung zu.

Ach! Hundchen, du beschamst mich sehr, Denn da.s.s mir Mops von meinem Leben Drey Stunden stahl, wie schwer, wie schwer, Wird's halten, das ihm zu vergeben?

Denn Spinnen werden oben ein Wohl gar noch meine Morder seyn."

This poem is a rather successful bit of ridicule cast on the over-sentimental who sought to follow Yorick's foot-prints.

The other allusions to Sterne[31] are concerned with his hobby-horse idea, for this seems to gain the poet's approbation and to have no share in his censure.

The dangers of overwrought sentimentality, of heedless surrender to the emotions and reveling in their exercise,--perils to whose magnitude Sterne so largely contributed--were grasped by saner minds, and energetic protest was entered against such degradation of mind and futile expenditure of feeling.

Joachim Heinrich Campe, the pedagogical theorist, published in 1779[32]

a brochure, "Ueber Empfindsamkeit und Empfindelei in padagogischer Hinsicht," in which he deprecates the tendency of "Empfindsamkeit" to degenerate into "Empfindelei," and explains at some length the deleterious effects of an unbridled "Empfindsamkeit" and an unrestrained outpouring of sympathetic emotions which finds no actual expression, no relief in deeds. The substance of this warning essay is repeated, often word for word, but considerably amplified with new material, and rendered more convincing by increased breadth of outlook and positiveness of a.s.sertion, the fruit of six years of observation and reflection, as part of a treatise, ent.i.tled, "Von der nothigen Sorge fur die Erhaltung des Gleichgewichts unter den menschlichen Kraften: Besondere Warnung vor dem Modefehler die Empfindsamkeit zu uberspannen."

It is in the third volume of the "Allgemeine Revision des gesammten Schul- und Erziehungswesens."[33] The differentiation between "Empfindsamkeit" and "Empfindelei" is again and more accessibly repeated in Campe's later work, "Ueber die Reinigung und Bereicherung der deutschen Sprache."[34] In the second form of this essay (1785) Campe speaks of the sentimental fever as an epidemic by no means entirely cured.

His a.n.a.lysis of "Empfindsamkeit" is briefly as follows: "Empfindsamkeit ist die Empfanglichkeit zu Empfindnissen, in denen etwas Sittliches d.i.

Freude oder Schmerz uber etwas sittlich Gutes oder sittlich Boses, ist;"

yet in common use the term is applied only to a certain high degree of such susceptibility. This sensitiveness is either in harmony or discord with the other powers of the body, especially with the reason: if equilibrium is maintained, this sensitiveness is a fair, worthy, beneficent capacity (Fahigkeit); if exalted over other forces, it becomes to the individual and to society the most destructive and baneful gift which refinement and culture may bestow. Campe proposes to limit the use of the word "Empfindsamkeit" to the justly proportioned manifestation of this susceptibility; the irrational, exaggerated development he would designate "uberspannte Empfindsamkeit."

"Empfindelei," he says, "ist Empfindsamkeit, die sich auf eine kleinliche alberne, vernunftlose und lacherliche Weise, also da aussert, wo sie nicht hingehorte." Campe goes yet further in his distinctions and invents the monstrous word, "Empfindsamlichkeit" for the sentimentality which is superficial, affected, sham (geheuchelte). Campe's newly coined word was never accepted, and in spite of his own efforts and those of others to honor the word "Empfindsamkeit" and restrict it to the commendable exercise of human sympathy, the opposite process was victorious and "Empfindsamkeit," maligned and scorned, came to mean almost exclusively, unless distinctly modified, both what Campe designates as "uberspannte Empfindsamkeit" and "Empfindelei," and also the absurd hypocrisy of the emotions which he seeks to cover with his new word. Campe's farther consideration contains a synopsis of method for distinguis.h.i.+ng "Empfindsamkeit" from "Empfindelei:" in the first place through the manner of their incitement,--the former is natural, the latter is fantastic, working without sense of the natural properties of things. In this connection he instances as examples, Yorick's feeling of shame after his heartless and wilful treatment of Father Lorenzo, and, in contrast with this, the shallowness of Sterne's imitators who whimpered over the death of a violet, and stretched out their arms and threw kisses to the moon and stars. In the second place they are distinguished in the manner of their expression: "Empfindsamkeit" is "secret, unpretentious, laconic and serious;" the latter attracts attention, is theatrical, voluble, whining, vain. Thirdly, they are known by their fruits, in the one case by deeds, in the other by shallow pretension. In the latter part of his volume, Campe treats the problem of preventing the perverted form of sensibility by educative endeavor.

The word "Empfindsamkeit" was afterwards used sometimes simply as an equivalent of "Empfindung," or sensation, without implication of the manner of sensing: for example one finds in the _Morgenblatt_[35] a poem named "Empfindsamkeiten am Rheinfalle vom Felsen der Galerie abgeschrieben." In the poem various travelers are made to express their thoughts in view of the waterfall. A poet cries, "Ye G.o.ds, what a h.e.l.l of waters;" a tradesman, "away with the rock;" a Briton complains of the "confounded noise," and so on. It is plain that the word suffered a generalization of meaning.

A poetical expression of Campe's main message is found in a book called "Winterzeitvertreib eines koniglichen preussischen Offiziers."[36]

A poem ent.i.tled "Das empfindsame Herz" (p. 210) has the following lines:

"Freund, ein empfindsames Herz ist nicht fur diese Welt, Von Schelmen wird's verlacht, von Th.o.r.en wirds geprellt, Doch ub' im Stillen das, was seine Stimme spricht.

Dein Lohn ist dir gewiss, nur hier auf Erden nicht."

In a similar vein of protest is the letter of G. Hartmann[37] to Denis, dated Tubingen, February 10, 1773, in which the writer condemns the affected sentimentalism of Jacobi and others as damaging to morals.

"O best teacher," he pleads with Denis, "continue to represent these performances as unworthy."

Moser in his "Patriotische Phantasien"[38] represents himself as replying to a maid-in-waiting who writes in distress about her young mistress, because the latter is suffering from "epidemic"

sentimentalism, and is absurdly unreasonable in her practical incapacity and her surrender to her feelings. Moser's sound advice is the subst.i.tution of genuine emotion. The whole section is ent.i.tled "Fur die Empfindsamen."

Knigge, in his "Umgang mit Menschen," plainly has those Germans in mind who saw in Uncle Toby's treatment of the fly an incentive to unreasonable emphasis upon the relations between man and the animal world, when, in the chapter on the treatment of animals, he protests against the silly, childish enthusiasm of those who cannot see a hen killed, but partake of fowl greedily on the table, or who pa.s.sionately open the window for a fly.[39] A work was also translated from the French of Mistelet, which dealt with the problem of "Empfindsamkeit:"

it was ent.i.tled "Ueber die Empfindsamkeit in Rucksicht auf das Drama, die Romane und die Erziehung."[40] An article condemning exaggerated sentimentality was published in the _Deutsches Museum_ for February, 1783, under the t.i.tle "Etwas uber deutsche Empfindsamkeit."

Goethe's "Der Triumph der Empfindsamkeit" is a merry satire on the sentimental movement, but is not to be connected directly with Sterne, since Goethe is more particularly concerned with the petty imitators of his own "Werther." Baumgartner in his Life of Goethe a.s.serts that Sterne's Sentimental Journey was one of the books found inside the ridiculous doll which the love-sick Prince Oronaro took about with him.

This is not a necessary interpretation, for Andrason, when he took up the first book, exclaimed merely "Empfindsamkeiten," and, as Strehlke observes,[41] it is not necessary here to think of a single work, because the term was probably used in a general way, referring possibly to a number of then popular imitations.

The satires on "Empfindsamkeit" began to grow numerous at the end of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties, so that the _Allgemeine Litteratur-Zeitung_, in October, 1785, feels justified in remarking that such attempts are gradually growing as numerous as the "Empfindsame Romane" themselves, and wishes, "so may they rot together in a grave of oblivion."[42] Anton Reiser, the hero of Karl Philipp Moritz'sautobiographical novel (Berlin, 1785-90), begins a satire on affected sentimentalism, which was to bring shafts of ridicule to bear on the popular sham, and to throw appreciative light on the real manifestation of genuine feeling.[43] A kindred satire was "Die Geschichte eines Genies," Leipzig, 1780, two volumes, in which the prevailing fas.h.i.+on of digression is incidentally satirized.[44]

The most extensive satire on the sentimental movement, and most vehement protest against its excesses is the four volume novel, "Der Empfindsame,"[45] published anonymously in Erfurt, 1781-3, but acknowledged in the introduction to the fourth volume by its author, Christian Friedrich Timme. He had already published one novel in which he exemplified in some measure characteristics of the novelists whom he later sought to condemn and satirize, that is, this first novel, "Faramond's Familiengeschichte,"[46] is digressive and episodical. "Der Empfindsame" is much too bulky to be really effective as a satire; the reiteration of satirical jibes, the repet.i.tion of satirical motifs slightly varied, or thinly veiled, recoil upon the force of the work itself and injure the effect. The maintenance of a single satire through the thirteen to fourteen hundred pages which four such volumes contain is a Herculean task which we can a.s.sociate only with a genius like Cervantes. Then, too, Timme is an excellent narrator, and his original purpose is constantly obscured by his own interest and the reader's interest in Timme's own story, in his original creations, in the variety of his characters. These obtrude upon the original aim of the book and absorb the action of the story in such a measure that Timme often for whole chapters and sections seems to forget entirely the convention of his outsetting.

His attack is threefold, the centers of his opposition being "Werther,"

"Siegwart" and Sterne, as represented by their followers and imitators.

But the campaign is so simple, and the satirist has been to such trouble to label with care the direction of his own blows, that it is not difficult to separate the thrusts intended for each of his foes.

Timme's initial purpose is easily ill.u.s.trated by reference to his first chapter, where his point of view is compactly put and the soundness of his critical judgment and the forcefulness of his satirical bent are unequivocally demonstrated: This chapter, which, as he says, "may serve instead of preface and introduction," is really both, for the narrative really begins only in the second chapter. "Every nation, every age,"

he says, "has its own doll as a plaything for its children, and sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit) is ours." Then with lightness and grace, coupled with unquestionable critical ac.u.men, he traces briefly the growth of "Empfindsamkeit" in Germany. "Kaum war der liebenswurdige Sterne auf sein Steckenpferd gestiegen, und hatte es uns vorgeritten; so versammelten sich wie gewohnlich in Teutschland alle Jungen an ihn herum, hingen sich an ihn, oder schnizten sich sein Steckenpferd in der Geschwindigkeit nach, oder brachen Stecken vom nachsten Zaun oder rissen aus einem Reissigbundel den ersten besten Prugel, setzten sich darauf und ritten mit einer solchen Wut hinter ihm drein, da.s.s sie einen Luftwirbel veranla.s.sten, der alles, was ihm zu nahe kam, wie ein reissender Strom mit sich fortris, war es nur unter den Jungen geblieben, so hatte es noch sein mogen; aber unglucklicherweise fanden auch Manner Geschmack an dem artigen Spielchen, sprangen vom ihrem Weg ab und ritten mit Stok und Degen und Amtsperuken unter den Knaben einher. Freilich erreichte keiner seinen Meister, den sie sehr bald aus dem Gesicht verloren, und nun die possirlichsten Sprunge von der Welt machen und doch bildet sich jeder der Affen ein, er reite so schon wie der Yorick."[47]

This lively description of Sterne's part in this uprising is, perhaps, the best brief characterization of the phenomenon and is all the more significant as coming from the pen of a contemporary, and written only about a decade after the inception of the sentimental movement as influenced and furthered by the translation of the Sentimental Journey.

It represents a remarkable critical insight into contemporaneous literary movements, the rarest of all critical gifts, but it has been overlooked by investigators who have sought and borrowed brief words to characterize the epoch.[48]

The contribution of "Werther" and "Siegwart" to the sentimental frenzy are even as succinctly and graphically designated; the latter book, published in 1776, is held responsible for a recrudescence of the phenomenon, because it gave a new direction, a new tone to the faltering outbursts of Sterne's followers and indicated a more comprehensible and hence more efficient, outlet for their sentimentalism. Now again, "every nook resounded with the whining sentimentality, with sighs, kisses, forget-me-nots, moons.h.i.+ne, tears and ecstasies;" those hearts excited by Yorick's gospel, gropingly endeavoring to find an outlet for their own emotions which, in their opinion were characteristic of their arouser and stimulator, found through "Siegwart" a solution of their problem, a relief for their emotional excess.