Laurence Sterne in Germany Part 14

The direct allusions to Sterne and his works are numerous. A list of Sterne characters which were indelibly impressed upon his mind is found near the very beginning (pp. 3-4); other allusions are to M. Dessein (p. 65), La Fleur's "Courierstiefel" (p. 115), the words of the dying Yorick (p. 128), the pococurantism of Mrs. Shandy (p. 187), the division of travelers into types (p. 141), Uncle Toby (p. 200), Yorick's violin-playing (p. 274), the foolish fat scullion (p. 290), Yorick's description of a maid's (p. 188) eyes, "als ob sie zwischen vier Wanden einem Garaus machen konnten."

The second volume is even more incoherent in narration, and contains less genuine occurrence and more ill-considered attempts at whimsicality, yet throughout this volume there are indications that the author is awakening to the vulnerability of his position, and this is in no other particular more easily discernible than in the half-hearted defiance of the critics and his antic.i.p.ation of their censure. The change, so extraordinary in the third volume, is foreshadowed in the second. Purely sentimental, effusive, and abundantly teary is the story of the rescued baker's wife. In this excess of sentiment, Schummel shows his intellectual appreciation of Sterne's individual treatment of the humane and pathetic, for near the end of the poor woman's narrative the author seems to recollect a fundamental sentence of Sterne's creed, the inevitable admixture of the whimsical, and here he introduces into the sentimental relation a Shandean idiosyncrasy: from page 43 the narrative leaps back to the beginning of the volume, and Schummel advises the reader to turn back and re-read, referring incidentally to his confused fashion of narration. The awkwardness with which this is done proves Schummel's inability to follow Yorick, though its use shows his appreciation of Sterne's peculiar genius. The visit of the author, the baker's wife and her daughter (the former lady's maid) to the graveyard is Yorickian in flavor, and the plucking of nettles from the grave of the dead epileptic is a direct borrowing. Attempts to be immorally, sensuously suggestive in the manner of Sterne are found in the so-called chapter on "b.u.t.ton-holes," here cast in a more Shandean vein, and in the adventure "die angstliche Nacht,"--in the latter case resembling more the less frank, more insinuating method of the Sentimental Journey. The sentimental att.i.tude toward man's dumb companions is imitated in his adventure with the house-dog; the author fears the barking of this animal may disturb the sleep of the poor baker's wife: he beats the dog into silence, then grows remorseful and wishes "that I had given him no blow," or that the dog might at least give him back the blows. His thought that the dog might be pretending its pain, he designates a subtle subterfuge of his troubled conscience, and Goethe, in the review mentioned above, exclaims, "A fine pendant to Yorick's scene with the Monk."

Distinctly Shandean are the numerous digressions, as on imitation (p. 16), on authors and fairs (p. 45), that which he calls (pp. 226-238) "ein ganz originelles Gemische von Wiz, Belesenheit, Scharfsinn, gesunder Philosophie, Erfahrung, Algebra und Mechanik," or (p. 253) "Von der Entstehungsart eines Buches nach Erfindung der Buchdrukerkunst,"

which in reference to Sterne's phrase, is called a "jungfrauliche Materie." He promises (pp. 75 and 108), like Sterne, to write numerous chapters on extraordinary subjects,--indeed, he announces his intention of supplementing the missing sections of Shandy on "b.u.t.ton-holes" and on the "Right and Left (sic) end of a Woman." His own promised effusions are to be "Ueber die roten und schwarzen Rocke," "uber die Verbindung der Theologie mit Schwarz," "Europaischenfrauenzimmerschuhabsatze," half a one "Ueber die Schuhsohlen" and "Ueber meinen Namen."

His additions to Shandy are flat and witless, that on the "Right and Wrong End of a Woman" (pp. 88 ff.) degenerating into three brief narratives displaying woman's susceptibility to flattery, the whole idea probably adapted from Sterne's chapter, "An Act of Charity;" the chapter on "b.u.t.ton-holes" is made a part of the general narrative of his relation to his "Nave." Weakly whimsical is his seeking pardon for the discourse with which the Frenchman (pp. 62-66), under the pretext that it belonged somewhere else and had inadvertently crept in. Shandean also is the black margin to pages 199-206, the line upside down (p. 175), the twelve irregularly printed lines (p. 331), inserted to indicate his efforts in writing with a burned hand, the lines of dashes and exclamation points, the mathematical, financial calculation of the worth of his book from various points of view, and the description of the maiden's walk (p. 291). Sterne's mock-scientific method, as already noted, is observable again in the statement of the position of the dagger "at an angle of 30" (p. 248). His coining of new words, for which he is censured by the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_, is also a legacy of Yorick's method.

The third volume bears little relation to Sterne aside from its t.i.tle, and one can only wonder, in view of the criticism of the two parts already published and the nature of the author's own partial revulsion of feeling, that he did not give up publishing it altogether, or choose another t.i.tle, and sunder the work entirely from the foregoing volumes, with which it has in fact so contradictory a connection. It may be that his relations to the publisher demanded the issuing of the third part under the same t.i.tle.

This volume is easily divisible into several distinct parts, which are linked with one another, and to the preceding narrative, only by a conventional thread of introduction. These comprise: the story of Caroline and Rosenfeld, a typical eighteenth century tale of love, seduction and flight; the hosts' ballad, "Es war einmahl ein Edelmann;"

the play, "Die unschuldige Ehebrecherin" and "Mein Tagebuch," the journal of an honest preacher, and a further sincere exploitation of Schummel's ideas upon the clergyman's office, his ideal of simplicity, kindliness, and humanity. In the latter part of the book Schummel resumes his original narrative, and indulges once more in the luxury of sentimental adventure, but without the former abortive attempts at imitating Sterne's peculiarities of diction. This last resumption of the sentimental creed introduces to us one event evidently inspired by Yorick: he meets a poor, maimed soldier-beggar. Since misfortune has deprived the narrator himself of his possessions, he can give nothing and goes a begging for the beggar's sake, introducing the new and highly sentimental idea of "vicarious begging" (pp. 268-9). In the following episode, a visit to a child-murderess, Schummel leaves a page entirely blank as an appropriate proof of incapacity to express his emotions attendant on the execution of the unfortunate. Sterne also left a page blank for the description of the Widow Wadman's charms.

At the very end of the book Schummel drops his narrative altogether and discourses upon his own work. It would be difficult to find in any literature so complete a condemnation of one's own serious and extensive endeavor, so candid a criticism of one's own work, so frank an acknowledgment of the pettiness of one's achievement. He says his work, as an imitation of Sterne's two novels, has "few or absolutely no beauties of the original, and many faults of its own." He states that his enthusiasm for Tristram has been somewhat dampened by Sonnenfels and Riedel; he sees now faults which should not have been imitated; the frivolous att.i.tude of the narrator toward his father and mother is deprecated, and the suggestion is given that this feature was derived from Tristram's own frankness concerning the eccentricities and incapacities of his parents. He begs reference to a pa.s.sage in the second volume[14] where the author alludes with warmth of appreciation to his real father and mother; that is, genuine regard overcame the temporary blindness, real affection arose and thrust out the transitory inclination to an alien whimsicality.

Schummel admits that he has utterly failed in his effort to characterize the German people in the way Sterne treated the English and French; he confesses that the ninety-page autobiography which precedes the journey itself was intended to be Tristram-like, but openly stigmatizes his own failure as "ill conceived, incoherent and not very well told!" After mentioning some few incidents and pa.s.sages in this first section which he regards as pa.s.sable, he boldly condemns the rest as "almost beneath all criticism," and the same words are used with reference to much that follows, in which he confesses to imitation, bad taste and intolerable indelicacy. He calls his pathetic attempts at whimsical mannerisms (Heideldum, etc.), "klaglich, uberaus klaglich," expresses the opinion that one would not be surprised at the reader who would throw away the whole book at such a pa.s.sage. The words of the preacher in the two sections where he is allowed to air his opinions still meet with his approval, and the same is true of one or two other sections. In conclusion, he states that the first part contains hardly one hundred good pages, and that the second part is worse than the first, so that he is unwilling to look at it again and seek out its faults. The absence of allusions to Sterne's writings is marked, except in the critical section at the end, he mentions Sterne but once (p. 239), where he calls him "schnurrigt." This alteration of feeling must have taken place in a brief s.p.a.ce of time, for the third volume is signed April 25, 1772. It is not easy to establish with probability the works of Sonnenfels and Riedel which are credited with a share in this revulsion of feeling.

In all of this Schummel is a discriminating critic of his own work; he is also discerning in his a.s.sertion that the narrative contained in his volume is conceived more in the vein of Fielding and Richardson. The Sterne elements are rather embroidered on to the other fabric, or, as he himself says, using another figure, "only fried in Shandy fat."[15]

Goethe's criticism of the second volume, already alluded to, is found in the _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_ in the issue of March 3, 1772. The nature of the review is familiar: Goethe calls the book a thistle which he has found on Yorick's grave. "Alles," he says, "hat es dem guten Yorick geraubt, Speer, Helm und Lanze, nur Schade! inwendig steckt der Herr Praceptor S. zu Magdeburg . . . Yorick empfand, und dieser setzt sich hin zu empfinden. Yorick wird von seiner Laune ergriffen, und weinte und lachte in einer Minute und durch die Magie der Sympathie lachen und weinen wir mit: hier aber steht einer und uberlegt: wie lache und weine ich? was werden die Leute sagen, wenn ich lache und weine?"

etc. Schummel is stigmatized as a childish imitator and his book is censured as "beneath criticism," oddly enough the very judgment its own author accords but a few weeks later on the completion of the third volume. The review contains several citations ill.u.s.trative of Schummel's style.

The first two parts were reviewed in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_.[16] The length of the review is testimony to the interest in the book, and the tone of the article, though frankly unfavorable, is not so emphatically censorious as the one first noted. It is observed that Schummel has attempted the impossible,--the adoption of another's "Laune," and hence his failure. The reviewer notes, often with generous quotations, the more noticeable, direct imitations from Sterne, the conversation of the emotions, the nettle-plucking at the grave, the eccentric orthography and the new-coined words. Several pa.s.sages of comment or comparison testify to the then current admiration of Yorick, and the conventional German interpretation of his character; "sein gutes, empfindungsvolles Herz, mit Tugend und sittlichem Gefuhl erfullt." The review is signed "Sr:"[17]

A critic in the _Jenaische Zeitungen von gelehrten Sachen_ for January 17, 1772, treating the first two volumes, expresses the opinion that Jacobi, the author of the "Tagereise," and Schummel have little but the t.i.tle from Yorick. The author's seeking for opportunity to dissolve in emotion is contrasted unfavorably with Yorick's method, the affected style is condemned, yet it is admitted that the work promises better things from its talented author; his power of observation and his good heart are not to be unacknowledged. The severity of the review is directed against the imitators already arising.

The _Magazin der deutschen Critik_[18] reviews the third volume with favorable comment; the comedy which Schummel saw fit to insert is received with rather extraordinary praise, and the author is urged to continue work in the drama; a desire is expressed even for a fourth part. The _Hamburgische Neue Zeitung_, June 4 and October 29, 1771, places Schummel unhesitatingly beside the English master, calls him as original as his pattern, to Sterne belongs the honor only of the invention. The author is hailed as a genius whose talents should be supported, so that Germany would not have to envy England her Yorick.[19]

After Schummel's remarkable self-chastis.e.m.e.nt, one could hardly expect to find in his subsequent works evidence of Sterne's influence, save as unconsciously a dimmed admiration might exert a certain force. Probably contemporaneous with the composition of the third volume of the work, but possibly earlier, Schummel wrote the fourth part of a ponderous novel by a fellow Silesian, Christian Opitz, ent.i.tled "Die Gleichheit der menschlichen Herzen, bey der Ungleichheit ihrer ausserlichen Umstande in der Geschichte Herrn Redlichs und seiner Bedienten." Goedeke implies that Opitz was the author of all but the last part, but the reviewer in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[20] maintains that each part has a different author, and quotes the preface to the fourth as substantiation. According to this review both the second and fourth parts are characterized by a humorous fashion in writing, and the last is praised as being the best of the four. It seems probable that Schummel's enthusiasm for Sterne played its part in the composition of this work.

Possibly encouraged by the critic's approbation, Schummel devoted his literary effort for the following years largely to the drama. In 1774 he published his "Uebersetzer-Bibliothek zum Gebrauche der Uebersetzer, Schulmanner und Liebhaber der alten Litteratur." The reviewer[21] in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_ finds pa.s.sages in this book in which the author of the "Empfindsame Reisen" is visible,--where his fancy runs away with his reason,--and a pa.s.sage is quoted in which reference is made to Slawkenberg's book on noses. It would seem that the seeking for wit survived the crude sentimentality.

Two years later Schummel published "Fritzen's Reise nach Dessau,"[22]

a work composed of letters from a twelve-year old boy, written on a journey from Magdeburg to Dessau. The letters are quite without whim or sentiment, and the book has been remembered for the extended description of Basedow's experimental school, "Philantropin" (opened in 1774). Its account has been the source of the information given of this endeavor in some pedagogical treatises[23] and it was re-issued, as a doc.u.ment in the history of pedagogical experiment, in Leipzig, by Albert Richter in 1891. About fifteen years later still the "Reise durch Schlesien"[24]

was issued. It is a simple narrative of a real journey with description of places and people, frankly personal, almost epistolary in form, without a suggestion of Sterne-like whim or sentiment. One pa.s.sage is significant as indicating the author's realization of his change of att.i.tude. The sight of a group of prisoners bound by a chain calls to his memory his former sentimental extravagance, and he exclaims: "Twenty years ago, when I was still a sentimental traveler, I would have wasted many an 'Oh' and 'alas' over this scene; at present, since I have learned to know the world and mankind somewhat more intimately, I think otherwise."

Johann Christian Bock (1724-1785), who was in 1772 theater-poet of the Ackerman Company in Hamburg, soon after the publication of the Sentimental Journey, identified himself with the would-be Yoricks by the production of "Die Tagereise," which was published at Leipzig in 1770.

The work was re-issued in 1775 with the new t.i.tle "Die Geschichte eines empfundenen Tages."[25] The only change in the new edition was the addition of a number of copperplate engravings. The book is inspired in part by Sterne directly, and in part indirectly through the intermediary Jacobi. Unlike the work of Schummel just treated, it betrays no Shandean influence, but is dependent solely on the Sentimental Journey. In outward form the book resembles Jacobi's "Winterreise," since verse is introduced to vary the prose narrative. The att.i.tude of the author toward his journey, undertaken with conscious purpose, is characteristic of the whole set of emotional sentiment-seekers, who found in their Yorick a challenge to go and do likewise: "Everybody is journeying, I thought, and took Yorick and Jacobi with me. . . . I will really see whether I too may not chance upon a _fille de chambre_ or a harvest-maid," is a very significant statement of his inspiration and intention. Once started on his journey, the author falls in with a poor warrior-beggar, an adaptation of Sterne's Chevalier de St. Louis,[26]

and he puts in verse Yorick's expressed sentiment that the king and the fatherland should not allow the faithful soldier to fall into such distress.

Bock's next sentimental adventure is with a fair peasant-maid whom he sees weeping by the wayside. Through Yorick-like insistence of sympathy, he finally wins from her information concerning the tender situation: a stern stepfather, an unwelcome suitor of his choosing, and a lover of her own. Her inability to write and thus communicate with the latter is the immediate cause of the present overflow. The traveler beholds in this predicament a remarkable sentimental opportunity and offers his services; he strokes her cheek, her tears are dried, and they part like brother and sister. The episode is unquestionably inspired by the episode of Maria of Moulines; in the latter development of the affair, the sentiment, which is expressed, that the girl's innocence is her own defense is borrowed directly from Yorick's statement concerning the _fille de chambre_.[27] The traveler's questioning of his own motives in "Die Ueberlegung"[28] is distinctly Sterne-like, and it demonstrates also Bock's appreciation of this quizzical element in Yorick's att.i.tude toward his own sentimental behavior. The relation of man to the domestic animals is treated sentimentally in the episode of the old beggar and his dead dog:[29] the tears of the beggar, his affection for the beast, their genuine comradeship, and the dog's devotion after the world had forsaken his master, are all part and parcel of that fantastic humane movement which has its source in Yorick's dead a.s.s. Bock practically confesses his inspiration by direct allusion to the episode in Yorick.

Bock defends with warmth the old peasant and his grief.

The wanderer's acquaintance with the lady's companion[30] is adapted from Yorick's _fille de chambre_ connection, and Bock cannot avoid a fleshly suggestion, distinctly in the style of Yorick in the section, the "Spider."[31] The return journey in the sentimental moonlight affords the author another opportunity for the exercise of his broad human sympathy: he meets a poor woman, a day-laborer with her child, gives them a few coins and doubts whether king or bishop could be more content with the benediction of the apostolic chair than he with the blessing of this unfortunate,--a sentiment derived from Yorick's overcolored veneration for the horn snuff-box.

The churchyard scene with which the journey ends is more openly fanciful, down-right visionary in tone, but the manner is very emphatically not that of Sterne, though in the midst the Sterne motif of nettle-plucking is introduced. This sentimental episode took hold of German imagination with peculiar force. The hobby-horse idea also was sure of its appeal, and Bock did not fail to fall under its spell.[32]

But apart from the general impulse and borrowing of motif from the foreign novel, there is in this little volume considerable that is genuine and original: the author's German patriotism, his praise of the old days in the Fatherland in the chapter ent.i.tled "Die Gaststube," his "Trinklied eines Deutschen," his disquisition on the position of the poet in the world ("ein eignes Kapitel"), and his adulation of Gellert at the latter's grave. The reviewer in the _Deutsche Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften_[33] chides the unnamed, youthful author for not allowing his undeniable talents to ripen to maturity, for being led on by Jacobi's success to hasten his exercises into print. In reality Bock was no longer youthful (forty-six) when the "Tagereise" was published.

The _Almanach der deutschen Musen_ for 1771, calls the book "an unsuccessful imitation of Yorick and Jacobi," and wishes that this "Rhapsodie von Cruditaten" might be the last one thrust on the market as a "Sentimental Journey." The _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[34]

comments also on the double inspiration, and the insufficiency and tiresomeness of the performance. And yet Boie[35] says the papers praised the little book; for himself, however, he observes, he little desires to read it, and adds "What will our Yoricks yet come to? At last they will get pretty insignificant, I think, if they keep on this way."

Bock was also the author of a series of little volumes written in the early seventies, still under the sentimental charm: (1) Empfindsame Reise durch die Visitenzimmer am Neujahrstag von einem deutschen Yorick angestellt, Cosmopolis (Hamburg) 1771--really published at the end of the previous year; (2) . . . am Ostertage, 1772; (3) Am Pfingsttage, 1772; (4) Am Johannistage, 1773; (5) Am Weynachtstage, 1773. These books were issued anonymously, and Schroder's Lexicon gives only (2) and (3) under Bock's name, but there seems no good reason to doubt his authorship of them all. Indeed, his claim to (1) is, according to the _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_, well-nigh proven by an allusion to the "Tagereise" in the introduction, and by the initials signed. None of them are given by Goedeke. The books are evidently only in a general way dependent on the Sterne model, and are composed of observations upon all sorts of subjects, the first section of each volume bearing some relation to the festival in which they appear.

In the second edition of the first volume the author confesses that the t.i.tle only is derived from Yorick,[36] and states that he was forced to this misuse because no one at that time cared to read anything but "Empfindsame Reisen." It is also to be noted that the description beneath the t.i.tle, "von einem deutschen Yorick angestellt," is omitted after the first volume. The review of (4) and (5) in the _Altonaer Reichs-Postreuter_ finds this a commendable resumption of proper humility. The observations are evidently loosely strung together without the pretense of a narrative, such as "Allgemeines Perspectiv durch alle Visitenzimmer, Empfindsamer Neujahrswunsch, Empfindsame Berechnung eines Weisen mit sich selbst, Empfindsame Entschlusse, Empfindsame Art sein Geld gut unterzubringen," etc.[37] An obvious purpose inspires the writer, the furthering of morality and virtue; many of the meditations are distinctly religious. That some of the observations had a local significance in Hamburg, together with the strong sentimental tendency there, may account for the warm reception by the _Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent_.[38]

Some contemporary critics maintained a kinship between Matthias Claudius and Yorick-Sterne, though nothing further than a similarity of mental and emotional fibre is suggested. No one claimed an influence working from the English master. Even as late as 1872, Wilhelm Roseler in his introductory poem to a study of "Matthias Claudius und sein Humor"[39]

calls Asmus, "Deutschland's Yorick," thereby agreeing almost verbally with the German correspondent of the _Deutsches Museum_, who wrote from London nearly a hundred years before, September 14, 1778, "Asmus . . .

is the German Sterne," an a.s.sertion which was denied by a later correspondent, who a.s.serts that Claudius's manner is very different from that of Sterne.[40]

August von Kotzebue, as youthful narrator, betrays a dependence on Sterne in his strange and ingeniously contrived tale, "Die Geschichte meines Vaters, oder wie es zuging, da.s.s ich gebohren wurde."[41] The influence of Sterne is noticeable in the beginning of the story: he commences with a circ.u.mstantial account of his grandfather and grandmother, and the circ.u.mstances of his father's birth. The grandfather is an original undoubtedly modeled on lines suggested by Sterne's hobby-horse idea. He had been chosen in days gone by to greet the reigning prince on the latter's return from a journey, and the old man harks back to this circ.u.mstance with "hobby-horsical" persistence, whatever the subject of conversation, even as all matters led Uncle Toby to military fortification, and the elder Shandy to one of his pet theories.

In Schrimps the servant, another Shandean original is designed. When the news comes of the birth of a son on Mount Vesuvius, master and man discuss multifarious and irrelevant topics in a fashion reminiscent of the conversation downstairs in the Shandy mansion while similar events are going on above. Later in the book we have long lists, or catalogues of things which resemble one of Sterne's favorite mannerisms. But the greater part of the wild, adventurous tale is far removed from its inception, which presented domestic whimsicality in a gallery of originals, unmistakably connected with Tristram Shandy.

Goschen's "Reise von Johann"[42] is a product of the late renascence of sentimental journeying. Master and servant are represented in this book as traveling through southern Germany, a pair as closely related in head and heart as Yorick and La Fleur, or Captain Shandy and Corporal Trim.

The style is of rather forced buoyancy and sprightliness, with intentional inconsequence and confusion, an attempt at humor of narration, which is choked by characteristic national desire to convey information, and a fatal propensity to description of places,[43] even when some satirical purpose underlies the account, as in the description of Erlangen and its university. The servant Johann has mild adventures with the maids in the various inns, which are reminiscent of Yorick, and in one case it borders on the openly suggestive and more Shandean method.[44] A distinctly borrowed motif is the accidental finding of papers which contain matters of interest. This is twice resorted to; a former occupant of the room in the inn in Nurnberg had left valuable notes of travel; and Johann, meeting a ragged woman, bent on self-destruction, takes from her a box with papers, disclosing a revolting story, baldly told. German mediocrity, imitating Yorick in this regard, and failing of his delicacy and subtlety, brought forth hideous offspring. An attempt at whimsicality of style is apparent in the "Furth Catechismus in Frage und Antwort" (pp. 71-74), and genuinely sentimental adventures are supplied by the death-bed scene (pp. 70-71) and the village funeral (pp. 74-77).

This book is cla.s.sed by Ebeling[45] without sufficient reason as an imitation of von Thummel. This statement is probably derived from the letter from Schiller to Goethe to which Ebeling refers in the following lines. Schiller is writing to Goethe concerning plans for the Xenien, December 29, 1795.[46] The abundance of material for the Xenien project is commented upon with enthusiastic antic.i.p.ation, and in a list of vulnerable possibilities we read: "Thummel, Goschen als sein Stallmeister--" a collocation of names easily attributable, in consideration of the underlying satiric purpose, to the general nature of their work, without in any way implying the dependence of one author on another,[47] or it could be interpreted as an allusion to the fact that Goschen was von Thummel's publisher. Nor is there anything in the correspondence to justify Ebeling's harshness in saying concerning this volume of Goschen, that it "enjoyed the honor of being ridiculed (verhohnt) in the Xenien-correspondence between Goethe and Schiller."

Goethe replies (December 30), in approval, and exclaims, "How fine Charis and Johann will appear beside one another."[48] The suggestion concerning a possible use of Goschen's book in the Xenien was never carried out.

It will be remembered that Goschen submitted the ma.n.u.script of his book to Schiller, and that Schiller returned the same with the statement "that he had laughed heartily at some of the whims.[49]" Garve, in a letter dated March 8, 1875, speaks of Goschen's book in terms of moderate praise.[50]

The "Empfindsame Reise von Oldenburg nach Bremen,"[51] the author of which was a Hanoverian army officer, H. J. C. Hedemann, is characterized by Ebeling as emphatically not inspired by Sterne.[52] Although it is not a sentimental journey, as Schummel and Jacobi and Bock conceived it, and is thus not an example of the earliest period of imitation, and although it contains no pa.s.sages of teary sentimentality in att.i.tude toward man and beast, one must hesitate in denying all connection with Sterne's manner. It would seem as if, having outgrown the earlier Yorick, awakened from dubious, fine-spun dreams of human brotherhood, perhaps by the rude clatter of the French revolution, certain would-be men of letters turned to Yorick again and saw, as through a gla.s.s darkly, that other element of his nature, and tried in lumbering, Teutonic way to adopt his whimsicality, shorn now of sentimentalism, and to build success for their wares on remembrance of a defaced idol. This view of later sentimental journeying is practically acknowledged at any rate in a contemporary review, the _Allgemeine Litteratur-Zeitung_ for August 22, 1796, which remarks: "A sentimental voyage ist ein Quodlibet, wo einige bekannte Sachen und Namen gezwungenen Wiz und matten Scherz heben sollen."[53]

Hedemann's book is conspicuous in its effort to be whimsical and is openly satirical in regard to the sentimentalism of former travelers.

His endeavor is markedly in Sterne's manner in his att.i.tude toward the writing of the book, his conversation about the difficulty of managing the material, his discussion with himself and the reader about the various parts of the book. Quite in Sterne's fashion, and to be a.s.sociated with Sterne's frequent promises of chapters, and statements concerning embarra.s.sment of material, is conceived his determination "to mention some things beforehand about which I don't know anything to say," and his rather humorous enumeration of them. The author satirizes the real sentimental traveler of Sterne's earlier imitators in the following pa.s.sage (second chapter):

"It really must be a great misfortune, an exceedingly vexatious case, if no sentimental scenes occur to a sentimental traveler, but this is surely not the case; only the subjects, which offer themselves must be managed with strict economy. If one leaps over the most interesting events entirely, one is in danger, indeed, of losing everything, at least of not filling many pages."

Likewise in the following account of a sentimental adventure, the satirical purpose is evident. He has not gone far on his journey when he is met by a troop of children; with unsentimental coldness he determines that there is a "Schlagbaum" in the way. After the children have opened the barrier, he debates with himself to which child to give his little coin, concludes, as a "sentimental traveler," to give it to the other s.e.x, then there is nothing left to do but to follow his instinct. He reflects long with himself whether he was right in so doing,--all of which is a deliberate jest at the hesitation with reference to trivial acts, the self-examination with regard to the minutiae of past conduct, which was copied by Sterne's imitators from numerous instances in the works of Yorick. Satirical also is his vision in Chapter VII, in which he beholds the temple of stupidity where lofty stupidity sits on a paper throne; and of particular significance here is the explanation that the whole company who do "erhabene Dummheit" honor formerly lived in cities of the kingdom, but "now they are on journeys." Further examples of a humorous manner akin to Sterne are: his statement that it would be a "great error" to write an account of a journey without weaving in an anecdote of a prince, his claim that he has fulfilled all duties of such a traveler save to fall in love, his resolve to accomplish it, and his formal declaration: "I, the undersigned, do vow and make promise to be in love before twenty-four hours are past." The story with which his volume closes, "Das Standchen," is rather entertaining and is told graphically, easily, without whim or satire, yet not without a Sternian _double entendre_.[54]

Another work in which sentimentalism has dwindled away to a grinning shade, and a certain irresponsible, light-hearted att.i.tude is the sole remaining connection with the great progenitor, is probably the "Empfindsame Reise nach Schilda" (Leipzig, 1793), by Andreas Geo. Fr.

von Rabenau, which is reviewed in the _Allgemeine Litteratur-Zeitung_ (1794, I, p. 416) as a free revision of an old popular tale, "Das l.u.s.tige und lacherliche Lalenburg." The book is evidently without sentimental tinge, is a merry combination of wit and joke combined with caricature and half-serious tilting against unimportant literary celebrities.[55]

Certain miscellaneous works, which are more or less obviously connected with Sterne may be grouped together here.

To the first outburst of Sterne enthusiasm belongs an anonymous product, "Zween Tage eines Schwindsuchtigen, etwas Empfindsames," von L. . . .

(Hamburg, 1772), yet the editor admits that the sentiment is "not entirely like Yorick's," and the _Altonaer Reichs-Postreuter_ (July 2, 1772) adds that "not at all like Yorick's" would have been nearer the truth. This book is mentioned by Hillebrand with implication that it is the extreme example of the absurd sentimental tendency, probably judging merely from the t.i.tle,[56] for the book is doubtless merely thoughtful, contemplative, with a minimum of overwrought feeling.

According to the _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_ (1775, pp. 592-3), another product of the earlier seventies, the "Leben und Schicksale des Martin d.i.c.kius," by Johann Moritz Schwager, is in many places a clever imitation of Sterne,[57] although the author claims, like Wezel in "Tobias Knaut," not to have read Shandy until after the book was written. Surely the digression on noses which the author allows himself is suspicious.

Blankenburg, the author of the treatise on the novel to which reference has been made, was regarded by contemporary and subsequent criticism as an imitator of Sterne in his oddly t.i.tled novel "Beytrage zur Geschichte des teutschen Reiches und teutscher Sitten,"[58] although the general tenor of his essay, in reasonableness and balance, seemed to promise a more independent, a more competent and felicitous performance. Kurz expresses this opinion, which may have been derived from criticisms in the eighteenth century journals. The _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_, July 28, 1775, does not, however, take this view; but seems to be in the novel a genuine exemplification of the author's theories as previously expressed.[59] The _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[60] calls the book didactic, a tract against certain essentially German follies. Merck, in the _Teutscher Merkur_,[61] says the imitation of Sterne is quite too obvious, though Blankenburg denies it.

Among miscellaneous and anonymous works inspired directly by Sterne, belongs undoubtedly "Die Geschichte meiner Reise nach Pirmont" (1773), the author of which claims that it was written before Yorick was translated or Jacobi published. He says he is not worthy to pack Yorick's bag or weave Jacobi's arbor,[62] but the review of the _Almanach der deutschen Musen_ evidently regards it as a product, nevertheless, of Yorick's impulse. Kuno Ridderhoff in his study of Frau la Roche[63] says that the "Empfindsamkeit" of Rosalie in the first part of "Rosaliens Briefe" is derived from Yorick. The "Leben, Thaten und Meynungen des D. J. Pet. Menadie" (Halle, 1777-1781) is charged by the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_ with attempt at Shandy-like eccentricity of narrative and love of digression.[64]

One little volume, unmistakably produced under Yorick's spell, is worthy of particular mention because at its time it received from the reviewers a more cordial welcome than was accorded to the rank and file of Sentimental Journeys. It is "M . . . R . . ." by E. A. A. von Gochhausen (1740-1824), which was published at Eisenach, 1772, and was deemed worthy of several later editions. Its dependence on Sterne is confessed and obvious, sometimes apologetically and hesitatingly, sometimes defiantly. The imitation of Sterne is strongest at the beginning, both in outward form and subject-matter, and this measure of indebtedness dwindles away steadily as the book advances. Gochhausen, as other imitators, used at the outset a modish form, returned to it consciously now and then when once under way, but when he actually had something to say, a message of his own, found it impracticable or else forgot to follow his model.

The absurd t.i.tle stands, of course, for "Meine Reisen" and the puerile abbreviation as well as the reasons a.s.signed for it, were intended to be a Sterne-like jest, a pitiful one. Why Goedeke should suggest "Meine Randglossen" is quite inexplicable, since Gochhausen himself in the very first chapter indicates the real t.i.tle. Beneath the enigmatical t.i.tle stands an alleged quotation from Shandy: "Ein Autor borgt, bettelt und stiehlt so stark von dem andern, da.s.s bey meiner Seele! die Originalitat fast so rar geworden ist als die Ehrlichkeit."[65] The book itself, like Sterne's Journey, is divided into brief chapters unnumbered but named.

As the author loses Yorick from sight, the chapters grow longer.

Gochhausen has availed himself of an odd device to disarm criticism,--a plan used once or twice by Schummel: occasionally when the imitation is obvious, he repudiates the charge sarcastically, or antic.i.p.ates with irony the critics' censure. For example, he gives directions to his servant Pumper to pack for the journey; a reader exclaims, "a portmanteau, Mr. Author, so that everything, even to that, shall be just like Yorick," and in the following pa.s.sage the author quarrels with the critics who allow no one to travel with a portmanteau, because an English clergyman traveled with one. Pumper's misunderstanding of this objection is used as a farther ridicule of the critics. When on the journey, the author converses with two poor wandering monks, whose conversation, at any rate, is a witness to their content, the whole being a legacy of the Lorenzo episode, and the author ent.i.tles the chapter: "The members of the religious order, or, as some critics will call it, a wretchedly unsuccessful imitation." In the next chapter, "Der Visitator" (pp. 125 ff.) in which the author encounters customs annoyances, the critic is again allowed to complain that everything is stolen from Yorick, a protest which is answered by the author quite navely, "Yorick journeyed, ate, drank; I do too." In "Die Pause" the author stands before the inn door and fancies that a number of spies (Ausspaher) stand there waiting for him; he protests that Yorick encountered beggars before the inn in Montreuil, a very different sort of folk. On page 253 he exclaims, "fur diesen schreibe ich dieses Kapitel nicht und ich--beklage ihn!" Here a footnote suggests "Das ubrige des Diebstahls vid. Yorick's Gefangenen." Similarly when he calls his servant his "La Fleur," he converses with the critics about his theft from Yorick.