Laurence Sterne in Germany Part 7

In France the book was accepted as genuine and it was translated (1853) by Alfred Hedouin as an authentic work of Sterne. In Germany, too, it seems to have been recognized with little questioning as to its genuineness; even in recent years Robert Springer, in an article treating of Goethe's relation to the Koran, quite openly contends for its authenticity.[77]

Since a German translation appeared in the following year (1771), the German reviews do not, in the main, concern themselves with the English original. The _Neues Bremisches Magazin_,[78] however, censures the book quite severely, but the _Neue Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften_[79]

welcomes it with unquestioning praise. The German rendering was by Johann Gottfried Gellius, and the t.i.tle was "Yorick's Nachgela.s.sene Werke."[80] The _Deutsche Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften_[81]

does acknowledge the doubtful authorship but accepts completely its Yorick tone and whim--"one cannot tell the copyist from the original."

Various characteristics are cited as common to this work and Yorick's other writings, the contrast, change, confusion, conflict with the critics and the talk about himself. For the collection of aphorisms, sayings, fragments and maxims which form the second part of the Koran, including the "Memorabilia," the reviewer suggests the name "Sterniana."

The reviewer acknowledges the occasional failure in attempted thrusts of wit, the ineffective satire, the immoral innuendo in some pa.s.sages, but after the first word of doubt the review pa.s.ses on into a tone of seemingly complete acceptation.

In 1778 another translation of this book appeared, which has been ascribed to Bode, though not given by Goedeke, Jordens or Meusel.

Its t.i.tle was "Der Koran, oder Leben und Meynungen des Tria Juncta in Uno."[82] The _Almanach der deutschen Musen_[83] treats this work with full measure of praise. The _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[84] accepts the book in this translation as a genuine product of Sterne's genius.

Sammer reprinted the "Koran" (Vienna, 1795, 12mo) and included it in his nine volume edition of Sterne's complete works (Vienna, 1798).

Goethe's connection with the "Koran," which forms the most interesting phase of its German career, will be treated later.

Sterne's unacknowledged borrowings, his high-handed and extensive appropriation of work not his own, were noted in Germany, the natural result of Ferriar's investigations in England, but they seem never to have attracted any considerable attention or aroused any serious concern among Sterne's admirers so as to imperil his position: the question in England attached itself as an ungrateful but unavoidable concomitant of every discussion of Sterne and every attempt to determine his place in letters. Bottiger tells us that Lessing possessed a copy of Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," from which Sterne filched so much wisdom, and that Lessing had marked in it several of the pa.s.sages which Ferriar later advanced as proof of Sterne's theft. It seems that Bode purchased this volume at Lessing's auction in Hamburg. Lessing evidently thought it not worth while to mention these discoveries, as he is entirely silent on the subject. Bottiger is, in his account, most unwarrantedly severe on Ferriar, whom he calls "the bilious Englishman" who attacked Sterne "with so much bitterness." This is very far from a veracious conception of Ferriar's att.i.tude.

The comparative indifference in Germany to this phase of Sterne's literary career may well be attributed to the medium by which Ferriar's findings were communicated to cultured Germany. The book itself, or the original Manchester society papers, seem never to have been reprinted or translated, and Germany learned their contents through a _resume_ written by Friedrich Nicolai and published in the _Berlinische Monatsschrift_ for February, 1795, which gives a very sane view of the subject, one in the main distinctly favorable to Sterne. Nicolai says Sterne is called with justice "One of the most refined, ingenious and humorous authors of our time." He a.s.serts with capable judgment that Sterne's use of the borrowed pa.s.sages, the additions and alterations, the individual tone which he manages to infuse into them, all preclude Sterne from being set down as a brainless copyist. Nicolai's att.i.tude may be best ill.u.s.trated by the following pa.s.sages:

"Germany has authors enough who resemble Sterne in lack of learning.

Would that they had a hundredth part of the merits by which he made up for this lack, or rather which resulted from it." "We would gladly allow our writers to take their material from old books, and even many expressions and turns of style, and indeed whole pa.s.sages, even if like Sterne . . . . they claimed it all as their own: only they must be successful adapters; they must add from their own store of observation and thought and feeling. The creator of Tristram Shandy does this in rich measure."

Nicolai also contends that Sterne was gifted with two characteristic qualities which were not imitation,--his "Empfindsamkeit" and "Laune"--and that by the former his works breathe a tender, delicate beneficence, a character of n.o.ble humanity, while by the latter a spirit of fairest mirth is spread over his pages, so that one may never open them without a pleasant smile. "The investigation of sources," he says, "serves as explanation and does not mean depreciation of an otherwise estimable author."

By this article Nicolai choked the malicious criticism of the late favorite which might have followed from some sources, had another communicated the facts of Sterne's thievery. Lichtenberg in the "Gottingischer Taschenkalender," 1796, that is, after the publication of Nicolai's article, but with reference to Ferriar's essay in the Manchester Memoirs, Vol. IV, under the t.i.tle of "Gelehrte Diebstahle"

does impugn Sterne rather spitefully without any acknowledgment of his extraordinary and extenuating use of his borrowings. "Yorick," he says, "once plucked a nettle which had grown upon Lorenzo's grave; that was no labor for him. Who will uproot this plant which Ferriar has set on his?"

Ferriar's book was reviewed by the _Neue Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften_, LXII, p. 310.

Some of the English imitations of Sterne, which did not actually claim him as author, also found their way to Germany, and there by a less discriminating public were joined in a general way to the ma.s.s of Yorick production, and the might of Yorick influence. These works represent almost exclusively the Sterne of the Sentimental Journey; for the shoal of petty imitations, explanations and protests which appeared in England when Shandy was first issued[85] had gone their own petty way to oblivion before Germany awakened to Sterne's influence.

One of the best known of the English Sentimental Journeys was the work of Samuel Paterson, ent.i.tled, "Another Traveller: or Cursory Remarks and Critical Observations made upon a Journey through Part of the Netherlands,--by Coriat Junior," London, 1768, two volumes. The author protested in a pamphlet published a little later that his work was not an imitation of Sterne, that it was in the press before Yorick's book appeared; but a reviewer[86] calls his attention to the sentimental journeying already published in Shandy. This work was translated into German as "Empfindsame Reisen durch einen Theil der Niederlande,"

Butzow, 1774-1775, 2 Parts, 8vo. The translator was Karl Friedrich Muchler, who showed his bent in the direction of wit and whim by the publication of several collections of humorous anecdotes, witty ideas and satirical skits.[87]

Much later a similar product was published, ent.i.tled "Launige Reise durch Holland in Yoricks[88] Manier, mit Charakterskizzen und Anekdoten uber die Sitten und Gebrauche der Hollander aus dem Englischen," two volumes, Zittau und Leipzig, 1795. The translation was by Reichel in Zittau.[88] This may possibly be Ireland's "A Picturesque Tour through Holland, Brabant and part of France, made in 1789," two volumes, London, 1790.[89] The well-known "Peter Pennyless" was reproduced as "Empfindsame Gedanken bey verschiedenen Vorfallen von Peter Pennyless,"

Leipzig, Weidmann, 1770.

In 1788 there appeared in England a continuation of the Sentimental Journey[90] in which, to judge from the reviewers, the petty author outdid Sterne in eccentricities of typography, breaks, dashes, scantily filled and blank pages. This is evidently the original of "Die neue empfindsame Reise in Yoriks Geschmack," Leipzig, 1789, 8vo, pp. 168, which, according to the _Allgemeine Litteratur-Zeitung_ bristles with such extravagances.[91]

A much more successful attempt was the "Sentimental Journey, Intended as a Sequel to Mr. Sterne's, Through Italy, Switzerland and France, by Mr.

Shandy," two volumes, 12mo, 1793. This was evidently the original of Sc.h.i.n.k's work;[92] "Empfindsame Reisen durch Italien, die Schweiz und Frankreich, ein Nachtrag zu den Yorikschen. Aus und nach dem Englischen," Hamburg, Hoffmann, 1794, pp. 272, 8vo. The translator's preface, which is dated Hamburg, March 1794, explains his att.i.tude toward the work as suggested in the expression "Aus und nach dem Englischen," that is, "aus, so lange wie Treue fur den Leser Gewinn schien und nach, wenn Abweichung fur die deutsche Darstellung notwendig war." He claims to have softened the glaring colors of the original and to have discarded, or altered the obscene pictures. The author, as described in the preface, is an illegitimate son of Yorick, named Shandy, who writes the narrative as his father would have written it, if he had lived. This a.s.sumed authorship proves quite satisfactorily its connection with the English original, as there, too, in the preface, the narrator is designated as a base-born son of Yorick. The book is, as a whole, a fairly successful imitation of Yorick's manner, and it must be judged as decidedly superior to Stevenson's attempt. The author takes up the story where Sterne left it, in the tavern room with the Piedmontese lady; and the narrative which follows is replete with allusions to familiar episodes and sentiments in the real Journey, with sentimental adventures and opportunities for kindly deeds, and sympathetic tears; motifs used originally are introduced here, a begging priest with a snuff-box, a confusion with the Yorick in Hamlet, a poor girl with wandering mind seated by the wayside, and others equally familiar.

It is not possible to determine the extent of Sc.h.i.n.k's alterations to suit German taste, but one could easily believe that the somewhat lengthy descriptions of external nature, quite foreign to Sterne, were original with him, and that the episode of the young German lady by the lake of Geneva, with her fevered admiration for Yorick, and the compliments to the German nation and the praise for great Germans, Luther, Leibnitz and Frederick the Great, are to be ascribed to the same source. He did not rid the book of revolting features, as one might suppose from his preface.[93] Previous to the publication of the whole translation, Sc.h.i.n.k published in the February number of the _Deutsche Monatsschrift_[94] two sections of his book, "Die Schone Obstverkauferin" and "Elisa." Later, in the May number, he published three other fragments, "Turin, Hotel del Ponto," "Die Verlegenheit,"

"Die Unterredung."[95]

A few years later Sc.h.i.n.k published another and very similar volume with the t.i.tle, "Launen, Phantasieen und Schilderungen aus dem Tagebuche eines reisenden Englanders,"[96] Arnstadt und Rudolstadt, 1801, pp. 323.

It has not been possible to find an English original, but the translator makes claim upon one, though confessing alterations to suit his German readers, and there is sufficient internal evidence to point to a real English source. The traveler is a haggard, pale-faced English clergyman, who, with his French servant, La Pierre, has wandered in France and Italy and is now bound for Margate. Here again we have sentimental episodes, one with a fair lady in a post-chaise, another with a monk in a Trappist cloister, apostrophes to the imagination, the sea, and nature, a new division of travelers, a debate of personal attributes, constant appeals to his dear Sophie, who is, like Eliza, ever in the background, occasional references to objects made familiar through Yorick, as Dessein's Hotel, and a Yorick-like sympathy with the dumb beast; in short, an open imitation of Sterne, but the motifs from Sterne are here more mixed and less obvious. There is, as in the former book, much more enthusiasm for nature than is characteristic of Sterne; and there is here much more miscellaneous material, such, for example, as the tale of the two sisters, which betrays no trace of Sterne's influence. The latter part of the volume is much less reminiscent of Yorick and suggests interpolation by the translator.[97]

Near the close of the century was published "Fragments in the manner of Sterne," 8vo, Debrett, 1797, which, according to the _Monthly Review_,[98] caught in large measure the sentimentality, pathos and whimsicality of Sterne's style. The British Museum catalogue suggests J. Brandon as its author. This was reprinted by Nauck in Leipzig in 1800, and a translation was given to the world by the same publisher in the same year, with the added t.i.tle: "Ein Seitenstuck zu Yoricks empfindsamen Reisen." The translation is attributed by Kayser to Aug.

Wilhelmi, the pseudonym of August Wilhelm Meyer.[99] Here too belongs "Mariens Briefe nebst Nachricht von ihrem Tode, aus dem Englischen,"[100] which was published also under the t.i.tle: "Yoricks Empfindsame Reisen durch Frankreich und Italien," 5th vol., 8vo, Weissenfels, Severin, Mitzky in Leipzig, 1795.

[Footnote 1: VI, 1, p. 166. 1768.]

[Footnote 2: XII, 1, p. 142.]

[Footnote 3: August 28, 1769. P. 574.]

[Footnote 4: Pp. 896-9.]

[Footnote 5: III, pp. 689-91, October 31, 1768.]

[Footnote 6: V, No. 5, p. 37, 1769, review is signed "Z."]

[Footnote 7: 1794, IV, p. 62, October 7.]

[Footnote 8: Greifswald, VI, p. 300.]

[Footnote 9: See p. 42.]

[Footnote 10: Anhang LIII-Lx.x.xVI. Vol. V, pp. 2611-2614.]

[Footnote 11: This is repeated by Jordens.]

[Footnote 12: 1799. I, p. 36.]

[Footnote 13: _Teut. Merkur_, VIII, pp. 247-251.]

[Footnote 14: April 21, 1775, pp. 267-70.]

[Footnote 15: Hirsching (see above) says it rivals the original.]

[Footnote 16: The references to the _Deutsches Museum_ are respectively IX, pp. 273-284, April, 1780, and X, pp. 553-5.]

[Footnote 17: See Jordens I, p. 117, probably depending on the critique in the _Allg. deutsche Bibl._ Anhang, LIII-Lx.x.xVI, Vol.

V, pp. 2611-2614.]

[Footnote 18: _Erholungen_ III, pp. 1-51.]

[Footnote 19: Supplementband fur 1790-93, p. 410.]

[Footnote 20: Werke, Zurich, 1825-29, pp. 312 ff.]

[Footnote 21: "Tristram Shandy's Leben und Meynungen von neuem verdeutscht, Leipzig, 1801, I, pp. 572; II, pp. 532; III, pp. 430.

Mit 3 Kupfern und 3 Vignetten nach Chodowiecki von J. F.

Schroter." A new edition appeared at Hahn's in Hanover in 1810.

This translation is not given by Goedeke under Benzler's name.]

[Footnote 22: Wieland does modify his enthusiasm by acknowledgment of inadequacies and devotes about a page of his long review to the correction of seven incorrect renderings. _Teut. Merkur_, VIII, pp. 247-51, 1774, IV.]

[Footnote 23: The following may serve as examples of Bode's errors. He translated, "Pray, what was your father saying?" (I, 6) by "Was wollte denn Ihr Vater damit sagen?" a rendering obviously inadequate. "It was a little hard on her" (I, p. 52) becomes in Bode, "Welches sie nun freilich schwer ablegen konnte;" and "Great wits jump" (I, 168) is translated "grosse Meister fehlen auch."]