Atta Troll Part 16

NOTES TO "ATTA TROLL"

BY DR. OSCAR LEVY

PREFACE

THE G.o.d OF SCh.e.l.lING. The German philosopher Sch.e.l.ling (1775-1854) was at first a follower of Spinoza, and had published in his youth a pantheistic philosophy which had made him famous. In later life he began to doubt his former beliefs, and promised to the world another and more Christian explanation of G.o.d and the universe. The promised book, however, never appeared.

The gap, thus left by Sch.e.l.ling, has since been filled up by a host of more courageous, if less conscientious, investigators.

"SEA-SURROUNDED SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN" OYSTERS. "Schleswig-Holstein Meerumschlungen (sea-surrounded)" was the German Ma.r.s.eillaise after 1846 and again in 1863-64.

ARNOLD RUGE (1802-1880) was the leader of the New Hegelian school, and published certain famous annuals for art and science at Halle. In 1848 he was elected to the Parliament at Frankfort, but was forced to flee to London, where he struck up a fast friendship with Mazzini. In the Revolutionary Committee of London he represented Germany, as Ledru-Rollin represented France and Mazzini Italy.

CHRISTIAN-GERMANIC. One of the favourite phrases and shibboleths of the Romantic School, which may still be heard in the Germany of to-day.

FERDINAND FREILIGRATH (1810-1876). A well-known poet and skilful translator of French and English poets, such as Burns, Byron, Thomas Moore, and Victor Hugo. His own poems betray his dependence upon Hugo.

Frederick William IV, King of Prussia, bestowed a pension upon him in 1842. When his friends, however, charged him with having sold himself to the Government, the poet refused the pension. Thereafter he devoted himself more and more to the democratic party and wrote many political poems. In 1848 he went abroad, living in London the greater part of the time. He returned to Germany in 1868, and in 1870 published several patriotic poems which met with great acclaim.

The sudden conversion from international Democracy to Nationalism is easily explained. Modern states have become democratic, and democrats--but they alone--find it easy to feel comfortable and patriotic in such a milieu.

CANTO I

DON CARLOS. After the death of Ferdinand VII of Spain (1833) a lengthy civil war broke out between his younger brother, Don Carlos, and the Queen-widow Christina, who had a.s.sumed the regency for her daughter Isabella.

SCHNAPPHAHNSKI. A comic word composed of the German word "schnappen,"

to snap, and "hahn," c.o.c.k. It has also been incorporated into French in the form "chenapan." It is applied here to Prince Felix Lichnowski (1814-1848), who left the Prussian Army in 1838 and entered the service of Don Carlos, who appointed him a brigadier-general. After his return from Spain, Lichnowski wrote his "Reminiscences," the publication of which involved him in a duel in which he was badly wounded. The "Reminiscences" are couched in Heine's own style, and their hero is called Schnapphahnski.

JULIET. Juliet is to be understood as referring to Heine's mistress and subsequent wife, Mathilde.

CANTO II

QUEEN MARIA CHRISTINA. She was the wife of Ferdinand VII and a.s.sumed the regency after his death. Soon after the king's demise, she married a member of her bodyguard, one Don Ferdinand Munoz, who was afterwards given the t.i.tle of Duke of Rianzares. She bore him several children.

PUTANA. Italian for strumpet.

CANTO IV

Ma.s.sMANN. A German philologist and one of Heine's favourite b.u.t.ts. He was one of the most enthusiastic advocates of German gymnastics.

Athletics was one of the pet ideas of the German patriots; the Government, however, held it in suspicion, inasmuch as the so-called "Turner" (gymnasts) cherished political ambitions. In time, however, the exercise of the muscles cured the revolutionary brain-f.a.g, and the Government was enabled to a.s.sume a sort of protectorship over gymnastics. Though enthusiastically carried on to this very day in Germany, the movement no longer has any political significance.

FRESH, PIOUS, GAY, AND FREE. FRISCH, FROMM, FRoHLICH, FREI--the four F's--formed the motto of the German "Turner."

CANTO V

BATAVIA. Apparently a well-known female ape in Heine's day, trained in theatrical feats of skill.

FREILIGRATH (see above). As a refuge from the cra.s.sness of his times, Freiligrath usually chose exotic themes for his poems, frequently African in nature, as, for instance, in his "Lowenritt." The allusion to the mule (in German "camel," which bears the same opprobrious meaning as "a.s.s") gives us reason to believe that Heine's preface must not be taken too seriously and that his opinion of the poet Freiligrath was by no means a high one.

FRIEDRICH LUDWIG GEORG VON RAUMER (1781-1873). A well-known German historian, author of the "History of the Hohenstaufens."

CANTO VIII

TUISKION. The G.o.d whom the Germans, according to Tacitus (vide "Germania," cap. II) regard as the original father of their race.

LUDWIG FEUERBACH (1804-1872). An honest thinker, who recognised that there was an unbridgable gulf between philosophy and theology. He left the Hegelian school, which can be so well adapted to the need of theologians, and considered as the only source of religion--the human brain. "The G.o.ds are only the personified wishes of men," he used to say. He brought German philosophy down from the clouds to cookery by declaring: "Der Mensch ist, was er isst" ("Man is what he eats"). He was a believer in what he called "Healthy sensuality," which made him the philosopher of artists in the 'thirties and 'forties of the last century, amongst others of Richard Wagner. The latter, however, afterwards repented, and, by way of Schopenhauer, turned Christian.

Feuerbach came from a family that would have been the delight of Sir Francis Galton, author of "Hereditary Genius." Feuerbach's father was a famous jurist, who had five sons, all of whom attained the honour of appearing in the German Encyclopaedias. The philosopher was the fourth son. Again: the famous painter Anselm Feuerbach was his nephew, the son of his eldest brother.

BRUNO BAUER (1809-1882). A destructive commentator of the New Testament.

He belonged to the school of "higher" criticism which has done so much to "lower" Christianity in the eyes of savants and professors and so little in those of mankind at large. His "Critique of the Evangelistic History of Saint John" (1840) and his "Critique of the Evangelistic Synoptists" (1841-42) had just been published when Heine wrote "Atta Troll."

CANTO IX

MOSES MENDELSOHN (1729-1786). Grandfather of the famous composer. He was a Jewish philosopher and a friend of Lessing's, who, it is supposed, took him as his model for "Nathan the Wise." He freed his German co-religionaries from the oppressive influence of the Talmud.

CANTO X

PROPERTY IS THEFT. A dictum of Prudhon.

CANTO XII

REIGN OF DWARFS. The approaching rule of clever little trades-people, whose turn it will soon be if democracy progresses as at present.

Compare Nietzsche's "Zarathustra," Part III, 49, "The Bedwarfing Virtue": "I pa.s.s through this people and keep mine eyes open: they have become _smaller_, and ever become _smaller: the reason thereof is their doctrine of happiness and virtue_."

THIS CONCLUSION. "Lo, I kiss, therefore I live"--a witty travesty of Descartes' "Cogito, ergo sum."

CANTO XIV

SO I TOOK TO HUNTING BEARS. Heine considers Atta Troll, the bear bred by the French Revolution, as a much greater and more dangerous foe, and therefore a worthier opponent of his than the sorry German bears--or patriots--with whom he was forced to contend in his native country and who incessantly worried (and still worry) him.

CANTO XV

CAGOTS. The remnant of an ancient tribe, driven out of human society as unclean--Cagot from _Canis gothicus_. The Cagots may still be found in obscure parts of the French Pyrenees; they have their own language and are distinguished by their yellow skins from the peoples of Western Europe. In the Middle Ages they were persecuted as heretics and were excluded from all contact with their neighbours. They were forced to bear a tag upon their clothes so that they might be known as inferiors.

Even to-day, despite the fact that they possess the same rights as other Frenchmen, they are considered as somewhat debased and unclean.