Bürger's Lenore, 1773. The Göttinger Musenalmanach for 1774, which was published in the previous autumn, contained a poem which has exerted a more widespread influence than any other short poem in the literature of the world. This was the ballad of Lenore which had been suggested to G. A. Bürger by a Low German Volkslied, similar to the Scottish ballad of Sweet William's Ghost in Percy's Reliques. The background of the ballad is the Seven Years' War; Wilhelm, Lenore's lover, has fallen in the battle of Prague, and she, despairing of his return, rebels against God's Providence. In the night, a ghostly rider comes to her in the guise of her lover and bids her mount behind him. "Und als sie sassen, hop! hop! hop! Und Kies und Funken stoben... Wie flogen rechts, wie flogen links Die Hügel, Bäum' und Hecken! Wie flogen links, und rechts, und links, Die Dörfer, Städt' und Flecken! Graut Liebchen auch ?-Der Mond scheint hell! Hurrah! die Todten reiten schnell ! Graut Liebchen auch vor Todten? Ach! lass sie ruhn, die Todten?”1. When the goal of the wild ride is reached, Lenore's companion discloses himself as Death in person—a skeleton with hook and hour - glass. The spirits, dancing in the moonlight, point the moral: "Geduld! Geduld! Wenn's Herz auch bricht! Like wildfire, this wonderful ballad swept across Europe, from Scotland to Poland and Russia, from Scandinavia to Italy. The eerie tramp of the ghostly horse which carries Lenore to her doom re-echoed in every literature, and to many a young sensitive soul was the poetic revelation of a new world. No production of the German Sturm und Drang "-not even Goethe's Werther, which appeared a few months later was more stimulating in its effects on other literatures than Bürger's Lenore; this ballad did more than 66 1 A. Sauer's edition, 175 ff.; the text of the lines quoted is, however, that of the Almanach, 221 ff. any other single work towards calling the Romantic movement to life in Europe.1 94. Gottfried August Bürger was born on the last night of the G. A. Büryear 1747, at Molmerswende, near Halberstadt, and died at ger, 1747Göttingen in 1794. His biography describes one of those unbalanced, unhappy lives which, from this time on, become so frequent in German annals: his passionate temperament ill adapted him for the quiet regular life which circumstances demanded of him. His first serious mistake was his marriage, in 1774, to a lady with whose sister—the "Molly" of his songs he was already passionately in love. For a time, indeed, he carried on a kind of double marriage with both sisters in the unrestrained manner of the "Geniezeit." His wife died in 1784, and with an exultation which found expression four years later in Das hohe Lied von der Einzigen, he greeted the possibility of being able to marry Molly. But his happiness was short-lived; within a few months Molly, too, died. Some years later, he married again, but his third marriage was even a more miserable one than the first, and in two years ended in a divorce. Apart from these domestic miseries, Bürger was condemned to a life of poverty, first as an official in a small village, then as an unsalaried teacher in the University of Göttingen; and for a man of his nature, straitened circumstances were not compatible with happiness. Of his other ballads, Die Weiber Other von Weinsberg (1775), Lenardo und Blandine (1776), Das ballads. Lied vom braven Mann (1777), are good examples of his powers; after Lenore, however, Der wilde Jäger (1778) unquestionably takes first place. Herder had pointed out the rich spring of ballad poetry in Bishop Percy's Reliques, and Bürger, by following in Herder's footsteps, created the German Romantic ballad. His best poems are either direct translations from the English, or-like Lenore itself— imitations of the Percy Ballads. To this group belong, Der Bruder Graurock und die Pilgerin (1777), Des Pfarrers Tochter von Taubenheim (1781), and Der Kaiser und der Abt (1784). The love-songs to Molly and Das Blümchen Wunderhold reveal another side of Burger's poetic genius, while his sonnets 1 Cp. E. Schmidt, Charakteristiken, Berlin, 1886, 199 ff.; editions of Bürger's Gedichte, by A. Sauer (D.N.L., 78 [1884]) and E. Grisebach, 2 vols., Berlin, 1889. The most recent work on Bürger is by W. von Wurzbach, Leipzig, U and other experiments in the metrical forms of Romance literatures had a direct influence on the poetry of the Romantic School: A. W. Schlegel was proud to claim that, as a student in Göttingen, he had sat at Bürger's feet. Bürger, it may also be mentioned, translated from the English the Wunderbaren Reisen zu Wasser und Lande des Freyherrn von Münchhausen (1786), the famous "Volksbuch," which R. E. Raspe had published in England a year earlier. There is perhaps more truth in the severe criticism of Bürger, which Schiller wrote in 1791,1 than the critic's pointedly moral attitude towards the poet's weaknesses makes us willing to admit. The lack of balance, the defective moral principle in Bürger's life, sapped to a large extent the vitality of his poetry. Standing as he did, on the threshold of Romanticism, his career might have been a warning to his successors: he was an example of a principle, which was deeply engrained in all the Romantic writers, namely, that a man's poetry must be at one with his life, and that great poetry can only be the expression of a great life. 1 Sämmtliche Schriften, ed. K. Goedeke, 6, 314 ff. 307 CHAPTER VII. "STURM UND DRANG"; GOETHE'S YOUTH. THE phenomenon known as "Sturm und Drang" is by no means restricted to the literature of Germany. There is a period of "Sturm und Drang" in all literatures, as there is, to a greater or less degree, in the life of every individual. There was a "Sturm und Drang" in Italy and France when the light of the Renaissance first broke on these countries; there was a "Sturm und Drang" behind the "mighty line" of Marlowe and his contemporaries, in the French literary movement of 1830, and in German literature at the close of the nineteenth century; while, turning to single works, this spirit is as evident in Titus Andronicus or Childe Harold as in Werther or Die Räuber. "Sturm und Drang" is only another expression for youthful vigour. But it would be impossible, in English, French, or Italian literature, to point to a movement of this character so widespread and universal as the "Sturm und Drang" in German literature at the dawn of the classical epoch. The "Geniezeit "—the phrase "Sturm und Drang" was not employed until a later date—was in truth a period of genius: not only were its leaders-Herder, Goethe, Schiller-men of unquestionable eminence, but even the minor writers of the time were poets to whose gifts the word genius is more applicable than talent. Genius, however, was only one factor in the German "Sturm und Drang"; a second was the work of Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), whose ideas gave the movement its peculiar character and tendency. Perhaps in no age has the thought of one man affected a literature so powerfully and universally as did that of Rousseau at this time; not even the discovery of classical antiquity at the Renaissance, or the re-birth "Sturm und Drang." J. W. von Goethe, 1749-1832. of individualism in our own time, can be compared with the enthusiasm for Rousseau which found voice in the "Sturm und Drang." The "Geniezeit " practically begins with the publication of Herder's Fragmente, in 1767, and closes with the appearance of Don Carlos, in 1787; but these are its utmost limits. It is perhaps best conceived under the figure of an ellipse, the two poles of which are formed by Götz von Berlichingen (1773) and Die Räuber (1781). Goethe, above all, gave the movement its stamp; his magnificent personality dominated it completely and made it an epoch in the literary evolution of Europe. Johann Wolfgang Goethe1 was born in Frankfort-on-theMain on the 28th of August, 1749. His father, Johann Caspar Goethe, since 1742 "kaiserlicher Rat," had received a good education as a jurist, and had visited Italy, from which he brought back tastes that influenced his whole life. But he was stern, pedantic, and inaccessible, and little real sympathy existed between him and his children. Of these, Wolfgang was the eldest, and only one other child, Cornelie, survived Childhood. the age of childhood. The poet's mother, Katharina Elisabeth Textor, who was herself but seventeen when he was born, and of a bright, happy nature, was the real companion of his early years; from her he inherited the better part of his poetic genius. No childhood could have been sunnier than that which young Goethe passed in the patrician house in the "Grosse Hirschgraben," with its huge stairs, roomy attics, and quiet corners, its view over the gardens of the town. The boy's literary instincts were first awakened by the stories of the Old Testament, and his imagination was stimulated by the pomp of a "Kaiserkrönung" in the Frankfort "Römer," or town-hall. A marionette theatre and the performances of French players turned his interests in the direction of the drama. During the French occupation of Frankfort, in 1759, Count Thoranc, the "Königslieutenant," was quartered upon 1 Of recent biographies of Goethe the best are by R. M. Meyer, 3 vols., 2nd ed., Berlin, 1899, and A. Bielschowsky, 1, 2nd ed., Munich, 1900. The standard edition of the poet's works is that published under the auspices of the Weimar Court (Weimar, 1887, ff.); of this edition, 57 vols., besides 35 of Letters and Diaries, have appeared (1901). A critical edition by K. Heinemann is also in course of publication, Leipzig, 1901 ff. In D.N.L., Goethe's works, edited by H. Düntzer, K. J. Schröer, R. Steiner, G. Witkowski, embrace vols. 82-117 [1882-97]. |