Arnim's

from their time onwards, philological study was inspired by Romantic ideals.

Both brothers-they were as inseparable in their life as in their work-were librarians, first in Kassel, then, from 1829 on, in Göttingen. In 1841, they settled in Berlin, where, as members of the Academy of Sciences, they gave lectures at the University. Wilhelm died in 1859, Jacob in 1863. Of Jacob Grimm's works, the three most noteworthy are the Deutsche Grammatik (of which the first volume appeared in 1819, the fourth in 1837), Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer (1828), and Deutsche Mythologie (1835), works which were, and still are, an indispensable basis for the study of German antiquity. Later in life, both brothers made a beginning to the great Deutsche Wörterbuch (1852 ff.), which has not yet reached its conclusion. Wilhelm Grimm's independent work is less voluminous than his brother's; his chief contribution to German scholarship was Die deutsche Heldensage (1829), but he also edited a number of older German texts.

By 1808, the little Heidelberg circle of poets and scholars who had originated so fruitful a movement had, to a great extent, broken up. A certain tie was, it is true, still afforded by the Heidelberger Jahrbücher (founded in 1808), but even this did not last long, and Heidelberg soon relapsed into its former unimportance. But in Berlin, where they both settled in 1809, Arnim and Brentano resumed their comradeship, and here they were joined by Eichendorff—whose acquaintance they had made in Heidelberg, -Fouqué, and Chamisso. These writers brought into what might be called the second stage of the younger Romantic movement, a more catholic and productive literary spirit. Before, however, discussing the new members of the group, we must turn to the later writings of Arnim and Brentano, for neither of these poets published his most characteristic work-the Wunderhorn excepted—while in Heidelberg.

Arnim left a considerable number of dramatic works, but later work. he possessed even less real dramatic talent than his brother Romanticists; his plays are lacking in dramatic qualities and not adapted for the stage. He had, however, an inexhaustible wealth of imagination, the true Romantic fantasy; and dramas, such as Halle und Jerusalem (1811)—which contains a version of Gryphius's Cardenio und Celinde—and Die

Päpstin Johanna (1813), are characteristically Romantic in style and spirit. Arnim was only really eminent as a novelist; and while Brentano was superior to him as lyric poet and dramatist, in prose fiction he carved out for himself a path on which few were, at that time, able to follow him. There is much of indifferent value in the "Novellen" which form the bulk of his Schriften, but, however weak a story may be, Arnim has always the art of picturesque narrative. Armuth, Reich Gräfin thum, Schuld und Busse der Gräfin Dolores (1809), one of the Dolores, most interesting of his longer books, is the study of a woman who exerts her powers of coquetry to win herself a husband: she is subsequently faithless to him, then repents and lives happily for many years, until, on the anniversary of her fault, a sudden death overtakes her. The denouement recalls the "Schicksalsdrama," and the story, as a whole, is drawn out to a wearisome length by irrelevant and fantastic episodes.

1809.

wächter,

Arnim's chief work, and one of the masterpieces of German Romantic literature, is the historical novel, Die Kronen- Die wächter, of which two books were published in 1817, under Kronen. the title, Bertholds erstes und zweites Leben, while a third 1817. book was printed from the MS. after Arnim's death. It is in many respects unfortunate that Die Kronenwächter should have remained a fragment; for no historical Romantic novel of its time was conceived and planned on so imposing a scale. As a background, Arnim chose the age of the Reformation; Maximilian I., Luther, and Dr Faust are personages of the novel. The "Crown Guardians" is a mysterious society which watches over the Hohenstaufen dynasty, and seeks out and educates descendants of Barbarossa, in the hope that they may one day revive the glories of the German Empire. One of these descendants, Berthold, is brought up in the little Hohenstaufen town of Waiblingen; playing as a child in the ruins of Barbarossa's castle, a mysterious guide shows him its wonders, and a presentiment of his mission dawns on him.

"Eine Reihe ritterlicher Steinbilder," he tells the old watchman, Martin, "steht noch fest und würdig zwischen ausgebrannten Fenstern am Hauptgebäude, ich sahe auch das Seitengebäude, ich sahe im Hintergrunde einen seltsamen, dicht verwachsenen Garten und allerlei künstliche Malerei an der Mauer, die ihn umgiebt— das ist Barbarossas Palast." "So seltsam rufen sie die Ihren,"

Short stories.

Die Erfindung des Rosenkranzes,

1852.

sagte Martin in sich, "so viel Tausende haben als Kinder unter diesen Mauern gespielt, und Keinem fiel dies Gebäude auf, Keiner dachte des Barbarossa." "Es ist mein," rief der Knabe, "ich will es ausbauen und will den Garten reinigen, ich weiss schon, wo die Mutter wohnen soll. Komm mit, Vater, sieh es an! Du wirst sie alle wieder kennen in den Steinbildern, unsre alten Herzoge und Kaiser, von denen du mir so viel erzählt hast."1

When he grows up, Berthold visits Augsburg and is brought into personal relations with Maximilian's court, of which Arnim gives a picturesque description; but from here on, the story begins to suffer under the author's love of the fantastic and the supernatural, and loses much of its interest for the modern reader. Arnim had his full share of the characteristic Romantic failings; he took over from his predecessors much of that vagueness, that lack of bold, clear outline, which, more than anything else, explains why the Romantic literature had so little hold on the popular mind. Of his other stories, the most characteristic are Isabella von Ägypten (1812), Der tolle Invalide auf dem Fort Ratonneau (1818), and Fürst Ganzgott und Sänger Halbgott (published in 1835). In 1811, Arnim married Clemens Brentano's sister, Bettina-the Bettina who had sat at Goethe's feet, and who, as will be seen in a subsequent chapter, became the most famous woman-writer of her time. But that was not until after her husband's death

in 1831.

Brentano's genius is seen to most advantage in his Märchen and short stories, in the collection of poems which forms Die Erfindung des Rosenkranzes, and in the Romantic drama, Die Gründung Prags. At the present day, however, he is remembered chiefly as a story-teller, and none of his works is so popular as the powerful village tragedy, Die Geschichte vom braven Kasperl und dem schönen Annerl (1817), and the fairy tale, Gockel, Hinkel und Gackeleia (1838). The latter, unquestionably the finest of Brentano's Märchen, is told with a quiet ironic humour, although marred, like most invented, or partly invented, fairy-tales, by over- elaboration. Die Erfindung des Rosenkranzes and Die Gründung Prags, each of which occupies an entire volume in Brentano's collected writings, testify to the extraordinary mastery he possessed over the technicalities of verse and rhyme. Die Erfindung des Rosenkranzes (begun in 1803, published in 1852), based

1 M. Koch's edition (D. N.L., 146, 1, 2), 28.

Prags,

on religious legends, amongst others that of Tannhäuser, is an allegory, in which the poet has introduced episodes from his own life and the lives of his friends: it is full of fine poetry and delicate "Stimmungsbilder," but its symbolism, and the monotony that is unavoidable in a long poem of this nature, have stood in the way of its success. Die Grün- Die dung Prags (1815), on the other hand, is the most striking Gründung example of those half-epic, half-lyric dramas which had been 1815. introduced into German literature by Tieck. Brentano's play is based on a popular saga which Grillparzer, a generation later, made the subject of one of his noblest tragedies. Libussa, daughter of Duke Krokus, is, after her father's death, appointed regent of Bohemia; she chooses as her husband, Primislaus, a peasant, whom her messenger, according to an essential element in the saga, finds behind his plough, and with him she founds the "Golden City" of Prague. parison with Grillparzer is, of course, out of the question; for, although Brentano could occasionally write dramatic verse, he had as little of the true dramatic faculty as either Arnim or Tieck. But in the handling of the verse there is a firmness which makes even Tieck's poetry seem a trivial playing with strange metres, and there is also a restraint in the treatment of the theme which is uncommon in Romantic literature. Die Gründung Prags met with comparatively little favour in its day, and is now seldom read, but it is, none the less, one of the most imposing creations of the Heidelberg School.

A com

Brentano's subsequent life was unsettled. In 1816, he fell passionately in love with Luise Hensel (1798-1876),1 herself a religious poetess of unusual gifts, and this love-affair was followed by a strange devotion to the visionary nun, Anna Katharina Emmerich, whose revelations he recorded (Das bittere Leiden unsers Herrn Jesu Christi, 1833). Brentano felt himself more and more attracted by the Catholic Church, in which he had been born and educated, and the older he grew, the larger was the share which religion and meditation had in his life and work. He died at Aschaffenburg in 1842.

1 L. Hensel's Lieder, 7th ed., Paderborn, 1892. Cp. F. Binder, L. Hensel, ein Lebensbild, Freiburg, 1885.

468

Romanticism in Berlin.

CHAPTER V.

ROMANTICISM IN BERLIN. THE PHILOSOPHIC MOVEMENT.

THE part which the city of Berlin played in the history of Romanticism was a remarkable one. In this, the last stronghold of Rationalism, was founded the first Romantic School, and with the lectures, Über schöne Litteratur und Kunst, which A. W. Schlegel delivered in the winter of 1801-2, the movement inaugurated by the school may be said to have taken root. But the city of Voltaire and Frederick the Great, of Ramler and Nicolai, changed slowly, and, even at the present day, in spite of the cosmopolitan character due to its increased political responsibilities, Berlin is still pre-eminently the city of Rationalism. The forces at work in the capital were thus diametrically opposed to Romanticism, and yet, throughout the whole history of the movement, Berlin would seem to have had a fascination for the younger writers like that of the candle for the moth. Not only the Schlegels and Novalis of the older generation-Tieck was, of course, a native of Berlin-but also one after another of the South German Romanticists, who have just been discussed, found their way to the Prussian capital. The secret of this irresistible attraction is that, at that time, Berlin possessed, in a higher degree than any other German town, an intellectual society and a concentrated literary life. Tieck's ambitions, it will be remembered, had been kindled by his admission to the circle at the head of which stood the composer and littérateur J. F. Reichardt (1752-1814); and to this circle -which was the first to look upon the new movement with favour-also belonged K. F. Zelter (1758-1832), Goethe's intimate friend. The most important centres of Romanticism in Berlin were, however, the brilliant Jewish salons presided