Weird Tales Volume II Part 20

THE TRANSLATOR.

FOOTNOTES TO "BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE":

[Footnote 1: The chief sources for this biographical notice have been _E. T. A. Hoffmann's Leben und Nachla.s.s, von J. G. Hitzig, herausg. von Micheline Hoffmann, geb. Rorer_, 5 vols., Stuttgart, 1839; _Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben_, von Z. Funck [C. Kunz], Leipsic, 1836; and various minor essays and papers.]

[Footnote 2: Later in life he adopted the name of "Amadeus" instead of "Wilhelm," out of admiration for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the great musician (see _Erinng._, pp. 77-80).]

[Footnote 3: Another account (see H. Doring's article "Hoffmann," in Ersch und Gruber's _Allgem. Encyk._) states 21st Jan., 1778. The date in the text is the one, however, that is generally accepted, and now without question; it is the one confirmed by Hoffmann himself (cf.

Letter 15 in _Leben_).]

[Footnote 4: These two books, together with Schubert's _Symbolik des Traums_, were favourites with him throughout life. In his youth he was a most diligent student of the new literature of his native country; English he also read to a large extent, Shakespearian quotations being very frequent in his letters; and we find the names of Sterne, Swift, Smollett, &c. Later in life he hardly read anything unless it were exceptionally good, and then only when recommended to do so by his friends. Political papers he never read, and scarcely ever criticisms on his own works.]

[Footnote 5: That is, after Hippel had completed his academic career, and left Konigsberg.]

[Footnote 6: That is, after the king's death in 1797. She afterwards married the Holbein here mentioned.]

[Footnote 7: _Romeo and Juliet_, iii. 9.]

[Footnote 8: _Leben_, iii. pp. 231-233.]

[Footnote 9: A suburb or park of Warsaw, beneath the tall beeches of which Hoffmann loved to lie dreaming, or sketch from Nature.]

[Footnote 10: An equestrian statue of John Sobieski, the deliverer of Vienna from the Turks.]

[Footnote 11: Polish for "moustaches."]

[Footnote 12: _Leben_, iii. pp. 251-254.]

[Footnote 13: A very comic incident, of which Hoffmann himself was the hero, took place on the occasion of Werner's reading his new tragedy _Das Kreuz an der Ostsee_ to a select circle of friends. Unfortunately it cannot be compressed into sufficiently short s.p.a.ce to be quoted here. Hoffmann relates it in _Die Serapionsbruder_, vol. iv., after _Signor Formica_.]

[Footnote 14: _Leben_, v. pp. 18-20; cf. also _Erinnerungen_ p. 1, &c., where Kunz details the circ.u.mstances under which he was introduced to Hoffmann.]

[Footnote 15: Several of Calderon's, mainly at Hoffmann's suggestion and by his a.s.sistance; the "Worship of the Cross" was particularly successful in the Catholic town of Bamberg.]

[Footnote 16: Kunz tells us how they used to go down into the cellar, sit astride of the cask, and drink, and _sich des heitern Lebens freuen_ with genial and sprightly sallies; and his picture has no faint smack of Auerbach's Keller (_Faust_). See _Leben_, v. p. 177, note.]

[Footnote 17: Compare Nanni in_ Meister Wacht_, Clara in _Der Sandmann_, Rose in _Meister Martin_, Cecily in _Berganza_, &c.]

[Footnote 18: See _Erinnerungen_, pp. 60 _sq._]

[Footnote 19: See _Leben_, iv. p. 95, v. p. 27; _Erinnerungen_, pp.

28-31.]

[Footnote 20: These adventures are described in one of the most humorous chapters (iv.) of the _Erinnerungen_.]

[Footnote 21: It is treated of in _Don Juan_ and in _Die Fremdenloge_, in the _Fantasiestucke_. A recent critic has declared that this essay will always have value in connection with the stage-representation of the problem of Don Juan (cf. _Die Gegenwart_, 24th May, 1884).]

[Footnote 22: _Leben_, vol. iv. pp. 58, 59.]

[Footnote 23: _Leben_, vol. iv. p. 140.]

[Footnote 24: Contessa and Koreff are strikingly portrayed in the _Serapionsbruder_ (vol. ii.), the former as "Sylvester," the latter as "Vincenz."]

[Footnote 25: The s.e.xual relations are handled in a mystical, sensuous way; something of the same kind of treatment occurs again in _Das Elementargeist_.]

[Footnote 26: _Leben_, vol. iv. pp. 118-120.]

[Footnote 27: _Leben_, iii. pp. 120-123; iv. p. 60.]

[Footnote 28: "Behold the lot of mankind--joy to-day, to-morrow grief,"

Walther von Eschenbach's _Parzival_, ii. 103, ll. 23, 24.]

[Footnote 29: _Serapionsbruder_, vol. ii., Introduction to part iv.]