Laurence Sterne in Germany Part 15

The book is opened by a would-be whimsical note, the guessing about the name of the book. The dependence upon Sterne, suggested by the motto, is clinched by reference to this quotation in the section "Apologie," and by the following chapter, which is ent.i.tled "Yorick." The latter is the most unequivocal and, withal, the most successful imitation of Yorick's manner which the volume offers. The author is sitting on a sofa reading the Sentimental Journey, and the idea of such a trip is awakened in him.

Someone knocks and the door is opened by the postman, as the narrator is opening his "Lorenzodose," and the story of the poor monk is touching his heart now for the twentieth time as strongly as ever. The postman asks postage on the letter as well as his own trivial fee. The author counts over money, miscounts it, then in counting forgets all about it, puts the money away and continues the reading of Yorick. The postman interrupts him; the author grows impatient and says, "You want four groschen?" and is inexplicably vexed at the honesty of the man who says it is only three pfennigs for himself and the four groschen for the post. Here is a direct following of the Lorenzo episode; caprice rules his behavior toward an inferior, who is modest in his request. After the incident, his spite, his head and his heart and his "ich" converse in true Sterne fashion as to the advisability of his beginning to read Yorick again. He reasons with himself concerning his conduct toward the postman, then in an apostrophe to Yorick he condemns himself for failing in this little test. This conversation occupies so much time that he cannot run after the postman, but he resolves that nothing, not even the fly that lights on his nose, shall bring him so far as to forget wherefore his friend J . . . . sent him a "Lorenzodose." And at the end of the section there is a picture of the snuff-box with the lid open, disclosing the letters of the word "Yorick." The "Lorenzodose" is mentioned later, and later still the author calms his indignation by opening the box; he fortifies himself also by a look at the treasure.[66]

Following this picture of the snuff-box is an open letter to "My dear J . . . ," who, at the author's request, had sent him on June 29th a "Lorenzodose." Jacobi's accompanying words are given. The author acknowledges the difficulty with which sometimes the self-conquest demanded by allegiance to the sentimental symbol has been won.

Yet, compared with some other imitations of the good Yorick, the volume contains but a moderate amount of lavish sentiment. The servant Pumper is a man of feeling, who grieves that the horses trod the dewdrops from the blades of gra.s.s. Cast in the real Yorick mould is the scene in which Pumper kills a marmot (Hamster); upon his master's expostulation that G.o.d created the little beast also, Pumper is touched, wipes the blood off with his cuff and buries the animal with tenderness, indulging in a pathetic soliloquy; the whole being a variant of Yorick's a.s.s episode.

Marked with a similar vein of sentimentality is the narrator's conduct toward the poor wanderer with his heavy burden: the author a.s.serts that he has never eaten a roll, put on a white shirt, traveled in a comfortable carriage, or been borne by a strong horse, without bemoaning those who were less fortunately circ.u.mstanced. A similar and truly Sterne-like triumph of feeling over convention is the traveler's insistence that Pumper shall ride with him inside the coach; seemingly a point derived from Jacobi's failure to be equally democratic.[67]

Sterne's emphasis upon the machinery of his story-telling, especially his distraught pretense at logical sequence in the ordering of his material is here imitated. For example: near the close of a chapter the author summons his servant Pumper, but since the chapter bore the t.i.tle "Der Brief" and the servant can neither read nor write a letter, he says the latter has nothing to do in that chapter, but he is to be introduced in the following one. Yet with Yorick's inconsequence, the narrator is led aside and exclaims at the end of this chapter, "But where is Pumper?" with the answer, "Heaven and my readers know, it was to no purpose that this chapter was so named (and perhaps this is not the last one to which the t.i.tle will be just as appropriate)", and the next chapter pursues the whimsical attempt, beginning "As to whether Pumper will appear in this chapter, about that, dear reader, I am not really sure myself."

The whimsical, unconventional interposition of the reader, and the author's reasoning with him, a Sterne device, is employed so constantly in the book as to become a wearying mannerism. Examples have already been cited, additional ones are numerous: the fifth section is devoted to such conversation with the reader concerning the work; later the reader objects to the narrator's drinking coffee without giving a chapter about it; the reader is allowed to express his wonder as to what the chapter is going to be because of the author's leap; the reader guesses where the author can be, when he begins to describe conditions in the moon. The chapter "Der Einwurf" is occupied entirely with the reader's protest, and the last two sections are largely the record of fancied conversations with various readers concerning the nature of the book; here the author discloses himself.[68] Sterne-like whim is found in the chapter "Die Nacht," which consists of a single sentence: "Ich schenke Ihnen diesen ganzen Zeitraum, denn ich habe ihn ruhig verschlafen." Similar Shandean eccentricity is ill.u.s.trated by the chapter ent.i.tled "Der Monolog," which consists of four lines of dots, and the question, "Didn't you think all this too, my readers?"

Typographical eccentricity is observed also in the arrangement of the conversation of the ladies A., B., C., D., etc., in the last chapter.

Like Sterne, our author makes lists of things; probably inspired by Yorick's apostrophe to the "Sensorium" is our traveler's appeal to the spring of joy. The description of the fashion of walking observed in the maid in the moon is reminiscent of a similar pa.s.sage in Schummel's journey.

Gochhausen's own work, untrammeled by outside influence, is considerable, largely a genial satire on critics and philosophers; his stay in the moon is a kind of Utopian fancy.

The literary journals accepted Gochhausen's work as a Yorick imitation, condemned it as such apologetically, but found much in the book worthy of their praise.[69]

Probably the best known novel which adopts in considerable measure the style of Tristram Shandy is Wezel's once famous "Tobias Knaut," the "Lebensgeschichte Tobias Knauts des Weisen sonst Stammler genannt, aus Familiennachrichten gesammelt."[70] In this work the influence of Fielding is felt parallel to that of Sterne. The historians of literature all accord the book a high place among humorous efforts of the period, crediting the author with wit, narrative ability, knowledge of human nature and full consciousness of plan and purpose.[71] They unite also in the opinion that "Tobias Knaut" places Wezel in the ranks of Sterne imitators, but this can be accepted only guardedly, for in part the novel must be regarded as a satire on "Empfindsamkeit" and hence in some measure be cla.s.sified as an opposing force to Sterne's dominion, especially to the distinctively German Sterne. That this impulse, which later became the guiding principle of "Wilhelmine Arend,"

was already strong in "Tobias Knaut" is hinted at by Gervinus, but pa.s.sed over in silence by other writers. Kurz, following Wieland, who reviewed the novel in his _Merkur_, finds that the influence of Sterne was baneful. Other contemporary reviews deplored the imitation as obscuring and stultifying the undeniable and genuinely original talents of the author.[72]

A brief investigation of Wezel's novel will easily demonstrate his indebtedness to Sterne. Yet Wezel in his preface, antic.i.p.ating the charge of imitation, a.s.serts that he had not read Shandy when "Tobias"

was begun. Possibly he intends this a.s.sertion as a whim, for he quotes Tristram at some length.[73] This inconsistency is occasion for censure on the part of the reviewers.

Wezel's story begins, like Shandy, "ab ovo," and, in resemblance to Sterne's masterpiece, the connection between the condition of the child before its birth and its subsequent life and character is insisted upon.

A reference is later made to this. The work is episodical and digressive, but in a more extensive way than Shandy; the episodes in Sterne's novel are yet part and parcel of the story, infused with the personality of the writer, and linked indissolubly to the little family of originals whose sayings and doings are immortalized by Sterne. This is not true of Wezel: his episodes and digressions are much more purely extraneous in event, and nature of interest. The story of the new-found son, which fills sixty-four pages, is like a story within a story, for its connection with the Knaut family is very remote. This very story, interpolated as it is, is itself again interrupted by a seven-page digression concerning Tyrus, Alexander, Pipin and Charlemagne, which the author states is taken from the one hundred and twenty-first chapter of his "Lateinische Pneumatologie,"--a genuine Sternian pretense, reminding one of the "Tristrapaedia." Whimsicality of manner distinctly reminiscent of Sterne is found in his mock-scientific catalogues or lists of things, as in Chapter III, "Deduktionen, Dissertationen, Argumentationen a priori und a posteriori," and so on; plainly adapted from Sterne's idiosyncrasy of form is the advertis.e.m.e.nt which in large red letters occupies the middle of a page in the twenty-first chapter of the second volume, which reads as follows: "Dienst-freundliche Anzeige.

Jedermann, der an ernsten Gesprachen keinen Gefallen findet, wird freundschaftlich ersucht alle folgende Blatter, deren Inhalt einem Gesprache ahnlich sieht, wohlbedachtig zu uberschlagen, d.h. von dieser Anzeige an gerechnet. Darauf denke ich, soll jedermanniglich vom 22.

Absatze fahren konnen,--Cuique Suum." The following page is blank: this is closely akin to Sterne's vagaries. Like Sterne, he makes promise of chapter-subject.[74] Similarly dependent on Sterne's example, is the Fragment in Chapter VIII, Volume III, which breaks off suddenly under the plea that the rest could not be found. Like Sterne, our author satirizes detailed description in the excessive account of the infinitesimals of personal discomfort after a carouse.[75] He makes also obscure whimsical allusions, accompanied by typographical eccentricities (I, p. 153). To be connected with the story of the Abbess of Andouillets is the humor "Man leuterirte, appelirte--irte,--irte,--irte."

The author's perplexities in managing the composition of the book are sketched in a way undoubtedly derived from Sterne,--for example, the beginning of Chapter IX in Volume III is a lament over the difficulties of chronicling what has happened during the preceding learned disquisition. When Tobias in anger begins to beat his horse, this is accompanied by the sighs of the author, a really audible one being put in a footnote, the whole forming a whimsy of narrative style for which Sterne must be held responsible. Similar to this is the author's statement (Chap. XXV, Vol. II), that Lucian, Swift, Pope, Wieland and all the rest could not unite the characteristics which had just been predicated of Selmann. Like Sterne, Wezel converses with the reader about the way of telling the story, indulging[76] in a mock-serious line of reasoning with meaningless Sternesque dashes. Further conversation with the reader is found at the beginning of Chapter III in Volume I, and in Chapter VIII of the first volume, he cries, "Wake up, ladies and gentlemen," and continues at some length a conversation with these fancied personages about the progress of the book. Wezel in a few cases adopted the worst feature of Sterne's work and was guilty of bad taste in precisely Yorick's style: Tobias's adventure with the so-called soldier's wife, after he has run away from home, is a case in point, but the following adventure with the two maidens while Tobias is bathing in the pool is distinctly suggestive of Fielding. Sterne's indecent suggestion is also followed in the hints at the possible occasion of the Original's aversion to women. A similar censure could be spoken regarding the adventure in the tavern,[77] where the author hesitates on the edge of grossness.

Wezel joined other imitators of Yorick in using as a motif the accidental interest of lost doc.u.ments, or papers: here the poems of the "Original," left behind in the hotel, played their role in the tale.

The treatment of the wandering boy by the kindly peasant is clearly an imitation of Yorick's famous visit in the rural cottage. A parallel to Walter Shandy's theory of the dependence of great events on trifles is found in the story of the volume of Tacitus, which by chance suggested the sleeping potion for Frau v. L., or that Tobias's inability to take off his hat with his right hand was influential on the boy's future life. This is a reminder of Tristram's obliquity in his manner of setting up his top. As in Shandy, there is a discussion about the location of the soul. The character of Selmann is a compound of Yorick and the elder Shandy, with a tinge of satiric exaggeration, meant to chastise the thirst for "originals" and overwrought sentimentalism. His generosity and sensitiveness to human pain is like Yorick. As a boy he would empty his purse into the bosom of a poor man; but his daily life was one round of Shandean speculation, largely about the relationships of trivial things: for example, his yearly periods of investigating his motives in inviting his neighbors Herr v. ** and Herr v. *** every July to his home.

Wezel's satire on the craze for originality is exemplified in the account of the "Original" (Chap. XXII, Vol. II), who was cold when others were hot, complained of not liking his soup because the plate was not full, but who threw the contents of his coffee cup at the host because it was filled to the brim, and trembled at the approach of a woman. Selmann longs to meet such an original. Selmann also thinks he has found an original in the inn-keeper who answers everything with "Nein," greatly to his own disadvantage, though it turns out later that this was only a device planned by another character to gain advantage over Selmann himself. So also, in the third volume, Selmann and Tobias ride off in pursuit of a sentimental adventure, but the latter proves to be merely a jest of the Captain at the expense of his sentimental friend. Satire on sentimentalism is further unmistakable in the two maidens, Adelheid and Kunigunde, who weep over a dead b.u.t.terfly, and write a lament over its demise. In jest, too, it is said that the Captain made a "sentimental journey through the stables." The author converses with Ermindus, who seems to be a kind of Eugenius, a convenient figure for reference, apostrophe, and appeal. The novelist makes also, like Sterne, mock-pedantic allusions, once indeed making a long citation from a learned Chinese book. An expression suggesting Sterne is the oath taken "bey den Nachthemden aller Musen,"[78] and an intentional inconsequence of narration, giving occasion to conversation regarding the author's control of his work, is the sudden pa.s.sing over of the six years which Tobias spent in Selmann's house.[79]

In connection with Wezel's occupation with Sterne and Sterne products in Germany, it is interesting to consider his poem: "Die unvermuthete Nachbarschaft. Ein Gesprach," which was the second in a volume of three poems ent.i.tled "Epistel an die deutschen Dichter," the name of the first poem, and published in Leipzig in 1775. This slight work is written for the most part in couplets and covers twenty-three pages. Wezel represents Doktor Young, the author of the gloomy "Night Thoughts" and "Der gute Lacher,--Lorenz Sterne" as occupying positions side by side in his book-case. This proximity gives rise to a conversation between the two antipodal British authors: Sterne says:

"Wir brauchen beide vielen Raum, Your Reverence viel zum Handeringen, Und meine Wenigkeit, zum Pfeifen, Tanzen, Singen."

and later,

. . . "Und will von Herzen gern der Thor der Th.o.r.en seyn; Jungst that ich ernst: gleich hielt die Narrheit mich beym Rocke.

Wo, rief sie, willst du hin,--Du! weisst du unsern Bund.

Ist das der Dank? Du lachtest dich gesund."

To Sterne's further enunciation of this joyous theory of life, Young naturally replies in characteristic terms, emphasizing life's evanescence and joy's certain blight. But Sterne, though acknowledging the transitoriness of life's pleasures, denies Young's deductions.

Yorick's conception of death is quite in contrast to Young's picture and one must admit that it has no justification in Sterne's writings. On the contrary, Yorick's life was one long flight from the grim enemy. The idea of death cherished by Asmus in his "Freund Hein," the welcome guest, seems rather the conception which Wezel thrusts on Sterne. Death comes to Yorick in full dress, a youth, a Mercury:

"Er thuts, er kommt zu mir, 'Komm, guter Lorenz, flieh!'

So ruft er auf mich zu. 'Dein Haus fangt an zu w.a.n.ken, Die Mauern spalten sich; Gewolb und Balken schw.a.n.ken, Was nuzt dir so ein Haus? . . .'"

so he takes the wreathed cup, drinks joyfully, and follows death, embracing him.

"Das ist mein Tod, ich sehe keinen Knochen, Womit du ihn, gleich einem Zahnarzt, schmuckst, Geschieht es heute noch, geschieht's in wenig Wochen, Da.s.s du, Gevatter Tod, nur meine Hande druckst?

Ganz nach Bequemlichkeit! du bist mir zwar willkommen."

The latter part of the poem contains a rather extended laudation of the part played by sympathetic feeling in the conduct of life.

That there would be those in Germany as in England, who saw in Sterne's works only a mine of vulgar suggestion, a relation sometimes delicate and clever, sometimes bald and ugly, of the indelicate and sensual, is a foregone conclusion. Undoubtedly some found in the general approbation which was accorded Sterne's books a sanction for forcing upon the public the products of their own diseased imaginations.

This pernicious influence of the English master is exemplified by Wegener's "Raritaten, ein hinterla.s.senes Werk des Kusters von Rummelsberg."[80] The first volume is dedicated to "Sebaldus Nothanker,"

and the long doc.u.ment claims for the author unusual distinction, in thus foregoing the possibility of reward or favor, since he dedicates his book to a fict.i.tious personage. The idea of the book is to present "merry observations" for every day in the year. With the end of the fourth volume the author has reached March 17, and, according to the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_, the sixth volume includes May 22. The present writer was unable to examine the last volume to discover whether the year was rounded out in this way.

The author claims to write "neither for surly Catos nor for those fond of vulgar jests and s.m.u.tty books," but for those who will laugh. At the close of his preface he confesses the source of his inspiration: "In order to inspire myself with something of the spirit of a Sterne, I made a decoction out of his writings and drank the same eagerly; indeed I have burned the finest pa.s.sages to powder, and then partaken of it with warm English ale, but"--he had the insight and courtesy to add--"it helped me just a little as it aids a lame man, if he steps in the footprints of one who can walk nimbly." The very nature of this author's dependence on Sterne excludes here any extended a.n.a.lysis of the connection. The style is abrupt, full of affected gaiety and raillery, conversational and journalistic. The stories, observations and reflections, in prose and verse, represent one and all the ribaldry of Sterne at its lowest ebb, as ill.u.s.trated, for example, by the story of the abbess of Andouillets, but without the charm and grace with which that tale begins. The author copies Sterne in the tone of his lucubrations; the material is drawn from other sources. In the first volume, at any rate, his only direct indebtedness to Sterne is the introduction of the Shandean theory of noses in the article for January 11. The pages also, sometimes strewn with stars and dashes, present a somewhat Sternesque appearance.

These volumes are reviewed in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[81]

with full appreciation of their pernicious influence, and with open acknowledgment that their success demonstrates a pervision of taste in the fatherland. The author of the "Litterarische Reise durch Deutschland"[82] advises his sister, to whom his letters are directed, to put her handkerchief before her mouth at the very mention of Wegener, and fears that the very name has befouled his pen. A similar condemnation is meted out in Wieland's _Merkur_.[83]

A similar commentary on contemporary taste is obtained from a somewhat similar collection of stories, "Der Geist der Romane im letzten Viertel des 18ten Jahrhunderts," Breslau and Hirschberg, 1788, in which the author (S. G. Preisser?) claims to follow the spirit of the period and gives six stories of revolting sensuality, with a thin whitewash of teary sentimentalism.

The pursuit of references to Yorick and direct appeals to his writings in the German literary world of the century succeeding the era of his great popularity would be a monstrous and fruitless task. Such references in books, letters and periodicals multiply beyond possibility of systematic study. One might take the works[84] of Friedrich Matthison as a case in point. He visits the grave of Musaus, even as Tristram Shandy sought for the resting-place of the two lovers in Lyons (III, p. 312); as he travels in Italy, he remarks that a certain visit would have afforded Yorick's "Empfindsamkeit" the finest material for an Ash-Wednesday sermon (IV, p. 67). Sterne's expressions are cited: "Erdwa.s.serball" for the earth (V, p. 57), "Wo keine Pflanze, die da nichts zu suchen hatte, eine bleibende State fand" (V, p. 302); two farmsteads in the Tyrol are designated as "Nach dem Ideal Yoricks" (VI, pp. 24-25). He refers to the story of the abbess of Andouillets (VI, 64); he narrates (VIII, pp. 203-4) an anecdote of Sterne which has just been printed in the _Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_ (1769, p. 151); he visits Prof. Levade in Lausanne, who bore a striking resemblance to Sterne (V, p. 279), and refers to Yorick in other minor regards (VII, 158; VIII, pp. 51, 77, and Briefe II, 76). Yet in spite of this evident infatuation, Matthison's account of his own travels cannot be cla.s.sed as an imitation of Yorick, but is purely objective, descriptive, without search for humor or pathos, with no introduction of personalities save friends and celebrities. Heinse alluded to Sterne frequently in his letters to Gleim (1770-1771),[85] but after August 23, 1771, Sterne vanished from his fund of allusion, though the correspondence lasts until 1802, a fact of significance in dating the German enthusiasm for Sterne and the German knowledge of Shandy from the publication of the Sentimental Journey, and likewise an indication of the insecurity of Yorick's personal hold.

Miscellaneous allusions to Sterne, ill.u.s.trating the magnitude and duration of his popularity, may not be without interest: Kastner "Vermischte Schriften," II, p. 134 (Steckenpferd); Lenz "Gesammelte Werke," Berlin, 1828, Vol. III, p. 312; letter from the d.u.c.h.ess Amalie, August 2, 1779, in "Briefe an und von Merck," Darmstadt, 1838; letter of Caroline Herder to Knebel, April 2, 1799, in "K. L. von Knebel's Literarischer Nachla.s.s," Leipzig, 1835, p. 324 (Yorick's "heiliges Sensorium"); a rather unfavorable but apologetic criticism of Shandy in the "Hinterla.s.sene Schriften" of Charlotta Sophia Sidonia Seidelinn, Nurnberg, 1793, p. 227; "Schiller's Briefe," edited by Fritz Jonas, I, pp. 136, 239; in Hamann's letters, "Leben und Schriften," edited by Dr.

C. H. Gildermeister, Gotha, 1875, II, p. 338; III, p. 56; V, pp. 16, 163; in C. L. Junger's "Anlage zu einem Familiengesprach uber die Physiognomik" in _Deutsches Museum_, II, pp. 781-809, where the French barber who proposes to dip Yorick's wig in the sea is taken as a type of exaggeration. And a similar reference is found in Wieland's _Merkur_, 1799, I, p. 15: Yorick's Sensorium is again cited, _Merkur_, 1791, II, p. 95. Other references in the _Merkur_ are: 1774, III, p. 52; 1791, I, p. 418; 1800, I, p. 14; 1804, I, pp. 19-21; _Deutsches Museum_, IV, pp.

66, 462; _Neuer Gelehrter Mercurius_, Altona, 1773, August 19, in review of Goethe's "Gotz;" _Almanach der deutschen Musen_, 1771, p. 93. And thus the references scatter themselves down the decades. "Das Wortlein Und," by F. A. Krummacher (Duisberg und Essen, 1811), bore a motto taken from the Koran, and contained the story of Uncle Toby and the fly with a personal application, and Yorick's division of travelers is copied bodily and applied to critics. Friedrich Hebbel, probably in 1828, gave his Newfoundland dog the name of Yorick-Sterne-Monarch.[86] Yorick is familiarly mentioned in Wilhelm Raabe's "Chronik der Sperlingsga.s.se"

(1857), and in Ernst von Wolzogen's "Der Dornenweg," two characters address one another in Yorick similes. Indeed, in the summer of 1902, a Berlin newspaper was publishing "Eine Empfindsame Reise in einem Automobile."[87]

Musaus is named as an imitator of Sterne by Koberstein, and Erich Schmidt implies in his "Richardson, Rousseau und Goethe," that he followed Sterne in his "Grandison der Zweite," which could hardly be possible, for "Grandison der Zweite" was first published in 1760, and was probably written during 1759, that is, before Sterne had published Tristram Shandy. Adolph von Knigge is also mentioned by Koberstein as a follower of Sterne, and Baker includes Knigge's "Reise nach Braunschweig" and "Briefe auf einer Reise aus Lothringen" in his list.

Their connection with Sterne cannot be designated as other than remote; the former is a merry vagabond story, reminding one much more of the tavern and way-faring adventures in Fielding and Smollett, and suggesting Sterne only in the constant conversation with the reader about the progress of the book and the mechanism of its construction.

One example of the hobby-horse idea in this narration may perhaps be traced to Sterne. The "Briefe auf einer Reise aus Lothringen" has even less connection; it shares only in the increase of interest in personal accounts of travel. Knigge's novels, "Peter Claus" and "Der Roman meines Lebens," are decidedly not imitations of Sterne; a clue to the character of the former may be obtained from the fact that it was translated into English as "The German Gil Blas." "Der Roman meines Lebens" is a typical eighteenth century love-story written in letters, with numerous characters, various intrigues and unexpected adventures; indeed, a part of the plot, involving the abduction of one of the characters, reminds one of "Clarissa Harlowe." Sterne is, however, incidentally mentioned in both books, is quoted in "Peter Claus" (Chapter VI, Vol. II), and Walter Shandy's theory of Christian names is cited in "Der Roman meines Lebens."[88] That Knigge had no sympathy with exaggerated sentimentalism is seen in a pa.s.sage in his "Umgang mit Menschen."[89] Knigge admired and appreciated the real Sterne and speaks in his "Ueber Schriftsteller und Schriftstellerei"[90] of Yorick's sharpening observation regarding the little but yet important traits of character.

Moritz August von Thummel in his famous "Reise in die mittaglichen Provinzen von Frankreich" adopted Sterne's general idea of sentimental journeying, shorn largely of the capriciousness and whimsicality which marked Sterne's pilgrimage. He followed Sterne also in driving the sensuous to the borderland of the sensual.

Hippel's novels, "Lebenslaufe nach aufsteigender Linie" and "Kreuz und Querzuge des Ritters A. bis Z." were purely Shandean products in which a humor unmistakably imitated from Sterne struggles rather unsuccessfully with pedagogical seriousness. Jean Paul was undoubtedly indebted to Sterne for a part of his literary equipment, and his works afford proof both of his occupation with Sterne's writings and its effect upon his own. A study of Hippel's "Lebenslaufe" in connection with both Sterne and Jean Paul was suggested but a few years after Hippel's death by a reviewer in the _Neue Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften_[91] as a fruitful topic for investigation. A detailed, minute study of von Thummel, Hippel and Jean Paul[92] in connection with the English master is purposed as a continuation of the present essay. Heine's pictures of travel, too, have something of Sterne in them.

[Footnote 1: _Quellen und Forschungen_, II, p. 27.]

[Footnote 2: Jacobi remarked, in his preface to the "Winterreise"

in the edition of 1807, that this section, "Der Taubenschlag" is not to be reckoned as bearing the trace of the then condemned "Empfindeley," for many authors, ancient and modern, have taken up the cause of animals against man; yet Sterne is probably the source of Jacobi's expression of his feeling.]

[Footnote 3: XI, 2, pp. 16 f.]

[Footnote 4: For reviews of the "Sommerreise" see _Allg. deutsche Bibl._, XIII, i, p. 261, _Deutsche Bibl. der schonen Wissenschaften_, IV, p. 354, and _Neue Critische Nachrichten_, Greifswald, V, p. 406. _Almanach der deutschen Musen_, 1770, p. 112. The "Winterreise" is also reviewed there, p. 110.]

[Footnote 5: Some minor points may be noted. Longo implies (page 2) that it was Bode's translation of the original Sentimental Journey which was re-issued in four volumes, Hamburg and Bremen, 1769, whereas the edition was practically identical with the previous one, and the two added volumes were those of Stevenson's continuation. Longo calls Sterne's Eliza "Elisha"

(p. 28) and Tristram's father becomes Sir Walter Shandy (p. 37), an unwarranted exaltation of the retired merchant.]