Laurence Sterne in Germany Part 5

[Footnote 12: See below, p. 42-3.]

[Footnote 13: It was reviewed in the _Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent_, Oct. 29.]

[Footnote 14: I, pp. XX, 168; II, p. 168.]

[Footnote 15: Lachmann's edition, 1840, XII, p. 199.]

[Footnote 16: See _Goethe-Jahrbuch_, XIV (1893), pp. 51-52.]

[Footnote 17: "Heinrich Leopold Wagner, Goethe's Jugendgenosse,"

2d ed. Jena, Frommann, 1879, p. 104.]

[Footnote 18: It is not possible to date with absolute certainty the time of Lessing's conversation with Sara Meyer, but it was after the publication of "Werther," and must have been on one of his two visits to Berlin after that, that is, in March, 1775, on his way to Vienna, or in February, 1776, on his return from Italy.]

[Footnote 19: Bode must have come to Lessing with the information before this public announcement, for Lessing could hardly have failed to learn of it when once published in a prominent Hamburg periodical.]

[Footnote 20: Bottiger in his biographical sketch of Bode is the first to make this statement (p. lxiii), and the spread of the idea and its general acceptation are directly traceable to his authority. The _Neue Bibl. der schonen Wissenschaften_ in its review of Bottiger's work repeats the statement (LVIII, p. 97), and it is again repeated by Jordens (I, p. 114, edition of 1806), by Danzel-Guhrauer with express mention of Bottiger ("Lessing, sein Leben und seine Werke," II. Erste Abtheilung, p. 287), and by Erich Schmidt ("Lessing, Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Schriften," Berlin, 1899, I, p. 674). The editor of the Hempel edition, VII, p. 553 claims Lessing as responsible for the translation of the Journey, and also of Shandy. The success of the "Empfindsame Reise" and the popularity of Sterne are quite enough to account for the latter translation and there is no evidence of urging on Lessing's part. A similar statement is found in Gervinus (V, p. 194). The _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._ (Apr. 21, 1775), p. 267, credits Wieland with having urged Bode to translate Shandy. The _Neue Critische Nachrichten, Greifswald_, IX, p. 279, makes the same statement. The article, however, in the _Teutscher Merkur_ (1773, II, pp. 228-30) expresses merely a great satisfaction that Bode is engaged upon the work, and gives some suggestions to him about it.]

[Footnote 21: See Bode's Introduction, p. iii, iv. Also _Allg.

deutsche Bibl._, Anhang, I-XII, Vol. II, pp. 896-9.]

[Footnote 22: Strangely enough the first use of this word which has been found is in one of Sterne's letters, written in 1740 to the lady who subsequently became his wife. (Letters, p. 25). But these letters were not published till 1775, long after the word was in common use. An obscure Yorks.h.i.+re clergyman can not be credited with its invention.]

[Footnote 23: Bottiger refers to Campe's work, "Ueber die Bereicherung und Reinigung der deutschen Sprache," p. 297 ff., for an account of the genesis of this word, but adds that Campe is incorrect in his a.s.sertion that Sterne coined the word. Campe does not make the erroneous statement at all, but Bode himself puts it in the mouth of Lessing.]

[Footnote 24: See foot note to page lxiii.]

[Footnote 25: For particulars concerning this parallel formation see Mendelssohn's Schriften, ed. by G. B. Mendelssohn, Leipzig, 1844. V, pp. 330, 335-7, letters between Abbt, Mendelssohn, Nicolai.]

[Footnote 26: The source of Bode's information is the article by Dr. Hill, first published in the _Royal Female Magazine_ for April, 1760, and reprinted in the _London Chronicle_, May 5, 1760 (pp. 434-435), under the t.i.tle, "Anecdotes of a fas.h.i.+onable Author." Bode's sketch is an abridged translation of this article.

This article is referred to in Sterne's letters, I, pp. 38-9, 42.]

[Footnote 27: See p. 47.]

[Footnote 28: "Da.s.s ich das Gute, was man an meiner Uebersetzung findet, grossten Theils denen Herren Ebert und Lessing zu verdanken habe."]

[Footnote 29: _Hamburgischer Unpartheyischer Correspondent_, October 29, 1768.]

[Footnote 30: "Verschwieg ich die Namen dieser Manner."]

[Footnote 31: See p. 47.]

[Footnote 32: Jordens gives this t.i.tle, which is the correct one.

Appell in "Werther und seine Zeit," (p. 247) calls it "Herrn Yoricks, Verfa.s.ser (sic) des Tristram Shandy Reisen durch Frankreich und Italien, als ein Versuch uber die menschliche Natur," which is the t.i.tle of the second edition published later, but with the same date. See _Allg. deutsche Bibliothek_, Anhang, I-XII, Vol. II, pp. 896-9. Kayser and Heinsius both give "Empfindsame Reisen durch Frankreich und Italien, oder Versuch uber die menschliche Natur," which is evidently a confusion with the better known Bode translation, an unconscious effort to locate the book.]

[Footnote 33: Through some strange confusion, a reviewer in the _Jenaische Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen_ (1769, p. 574) states that Ebert is the author of this translation; he also a.s.serts that Bode and Lessing had translated the book; it is reported too that Bode is to issue a new translation in which he makes use of the work of Lessing and Ebert, a most curious record of uncertain rumor.]

[Footnote 34: See p. 31, "In the Street, Calais." "If this won't turn out something, another will. No matter,--'tis an essay upon human nature."]

[Footnote 35: _Monthly Review_, x.x.xVIII, p. 319: "Gute Nacht, bewunderungswurdiger Yorick! Dein Witz, Deine Menschenliebe! Dein redliches Herz! ein jedes untadelhafte Stuck deines Lebens und deiner Schriften musse in einem unsterblichen Gedachtnisse bluhen,--und O! mogte der Engel, der jenes aufgezeichnet hat, uber die Unvollkommenheiten von beiden eine Thrane des Mitleidens fallen la.s.sen und sie auf ewig ausloschen."]

[Footnote 36: Jordens, V, p. 753. Hirsching, Historisch-litterarisches Handbuch, XIII, pp. 291-309 (1809).]

[Footnote 37: It has not been possible to examine this second edition, but the information concerning Sterne's life may quite possibly have been taken not from Bode's work but from his sources as already given.]

[Footnote 38: "Yoriks empfindsame Reise, aus dem Englischen ubersetzt," 3ter und 4ter Theil, Hamburg und Bremen, bei Cramer, 1769.]

[Footnote 39: See _Allg. deutsche Bibl._ Anhang, I-XII, Vol. II, pp. 896-9. Hirsching (Hist.-Litt. Handbuch) says confusedly that Bode wrote the fourth and fifth parts.]

[Footnote 40: See _Neue Bibl. der schonen Wissenschaften_, LVIII, p. 98, "Im dritten Bande ist die ruhrende Geschichte, das Hundchen, ganz von ihm." Also Jordens, I, 114, Heine, "Der deutsche Roman," p. 23.]

[Footnote 41: The following may serve as examples of inadequate, inexact or false renderings:

ORIGINAL BODE'S TRANSLATION

Like a stuck pig.

P. 5: Eine arme Hexe, die Feuer-Probe machen soll.

Dress as well as undress.

P. 9: Der Kleidung als der Einkleidung.

Chance medley of sensation.

P. 11: Unschuldiges Verbrechen der Sinne.

Where serenity was wont to fix her reign.

P. 13: Wo die Heiterkeit ihren Sitz aufgeschlagen hatte.

Wayward shades of my canvas.

P. 20: Die harten Schattirungen meines Gewebes.

Caterpillars.

P. 22: Heuschrecken.

The chance medley of existence.

P. 23: Das unschuldige Verbrechen des Daseyns.]

[Footnote 42: Bode's story, "Das Mundel" was printed in the _Hamburgische Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_, 1769, p. 729 (November 23) and p. 753 (December 4).]

[Footnote 43: There will be frequent occasion to mention this impulse emanating from Sterne, in the following pages. One may note incidentally an anonymous book "Freundschaften" (Leipzig, 1775) in which the author beholds a shepherd who finds a torn lamb and indulges in a sentimental reverie upon it. _Allg. deutsche Bibl._, x.x.xVI, 1, 139.]

[Footnote 44: Bode inserts "Miss Judith Meyer" and "Miss Philippine Damiens," two poor novels by this Kolbele in place of Eugenius's "Pilgrim's Progress." Bottiger comments, "statt des im englischen Original angefuhrten schalen Romans 'The Pilgrim's Progress.'" Bode, in translating Shandy several years later, inserts for the same book, "Thousand and one Nights." In speaking of this, Bottiger calls "Pilgrim's Progress" "die schale englandische Robinsonade," an eloquent proof of Bottiger's ignorance of English literature.]

[Footnote 45: Pp. 166 ff.]

[Footnote 46: _Quellen und Forschungen_, XXII, p. 129.]