The Prose Works Conrad Ferdinand Meyer By
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THE PROSE WORKS 0 P CONRAD FERDINAND MEYER BY ELIZABETH WEIR A Thesis submitted for the Degree of MASTER OP ARTS in the Department of MODERN LANGUAGES. THE UNIVERSITY OP BRITISH COLUMBIA April - 1932 TABLE OP CONTENTS THE PROSEWORKS OF CONRAD FERDINAND MEYER Page PART I MEYER THE MAN 1 PART II THE PROSEWORKS BRIEFLY SKETCHED 14 (1) Das Amulett 15 (2) Jttrg Jenatsch 20 (3) Der Schusz don der Kanzel 35 (4) Der Heilige 43 (5) Plautus im Nonnenkloster 58 (6) Gustav Adolf's Page 62 (7) Die Leiden eines Knaben 71 (8) Die Hochzeit des MBnches 80 (9) Die Richterin 91 (10) Die Versuchnung des Pescara 101 (11) Angela Borgia 122 PART III A DISCUSSION OF MEYER THE ARTIST (1) His Technique and Style 143 (2) Meyer's Use of Historical Material 159 (3) The Ethical Content^ of Meyer's Prose Works 181 (4) Conclusion 195 BIBLIOGRAPHY 198 1. PART I. MEYER, THE MAN. Conrad Ferdinand Meyer is perhaps the greatest known master in that limited field of literature known as the historical "Novelle". It is interesting, in studying different biographies of his life, to see how the great crises in his life history are intimately related with the great crises of German political history, for though a Swiss, and born on Swiss soil, it is as a German author that he won his fame. For many years of his life he was a typical neurasthenic, suffering acutely from that we moderns call *an inferiority complex*» His biography is interesting to pathologists and neurologists generally, as well as to lovers of literature, for he is a striking example of late development, and it was only in 1870, when he was forty-five years old, that it suddenly dawned on his sceptical fellowtownsmen that *der ver- ruckte KonrHdli', as they called him, was a famous author. He was born in Zurich, the capital of German Switzerland, on the 11th of October, 1825. The ancestors of both his father and mother had lived in Zurich for generations, and through them he inherited an aristocratic tradition which,'for better or for worse, clung to him all his life, and which, imposed upon a nature already too sensitive and retiring, kept him from mingling with the common people, and from sharing in their joys and sorrows, as did his great countryman, Gottfried Keller. 2. These experiences no great author can afford to miss, and this probably accounts for the fact that Meyer had to turn to the past for his in• spiration, instead of finding it in the living present around him* The boy*s early years were quite normal, both at school and at home, and it was only as he approached puberty that pathological symptoms began to show themselves. When he was fifteen years old, he had the misfortune to lose his father, and this "Podesstosz', as his mother called it, proved disastrous for both of them. The father, a jurist in the service of the city, was so conscientious that he literally worked himself to death. An aristocrat to the core, he had received an excellent classical education, and his fondness for historical studies he passed on to the son. If his father's kindly guidance could have been continued at this decisive period of his life, the son might have been saved later years of suffering, for the mother was entirely too nervous to have the care of a growing boy. His one sister, Betsy, whose influence on him was to prove so beneficent in later years, was five years younger; too young as yet to be of help. The mother was a neurotic, and it is no doubt from her that the son inherited his neuras• thenic tendencies. She was strongly pietistic also, and sought through the consolations of religion to compensate for her own inherent weakness of character. She tried, without result, to influence her son in this direction also, and though they loved each other, yet, as we often say, they 'got on each other's nerves' in a very real sense. It was about 3. this time that Meyer "began to fall "behind in his studies. He had a naturally good mind, and had passed a very creditable matriculation examination, but he gradually fell behind the others in his class, who either passed on to higher studies, or got good positions in the world, while 'der arme Konrad' settled down to the life of a regular neuras• thenic, passing days in solitude behind drawn blinds, and imagining that the passers-by in the street outside were making derogatory remarks about him, a characteristic neurasthenic symptom* He read every book he could find, especially every history, and it is probable that he then laid the foundation for that historical knowledge which was afterwards to stand him In such good stead. Like his contemporary, Keller, he gave much time to artistic studies, and imagined at one time that he would be an artist, but soon discovered his unfitness, and this only discouraged him still more. When night came he would go out on the lake and swim or row for hours, while his mother and sister waited in breathless anxiety, not knowing if he would ever come back. A year at Lausanne, where he went for a change of air, helped to restore his balance, and it was here that he decided he would be a writer. His first attempts, however, were failures, and increased his sense of inferiority, the more so as the family were very short of money. No doubt he was a great trial to his mother. At an age when other young men were making money and helping their families, or founding homes of their own, here was her son, buried in useless brooding, in• capable of taking any responsibility, and an expense instead of a help. 4 Her feelings found vent in "bitter reproaches, and this only made matters worse. At last he became so ill that in 1852 he was sent to a private asylum at Frefargier to recuperate. Ehis was the first great crisis in his life. Walter Linden, in his work on Meyer, shows in an interesting manner how these crises are hound up with the literary and historic events of the period. In his second chapter, he calls this period between the two revolutions, that of 1830 and that of 1848 'Die romantische tJbergangszeit'. Romanticism, which was at its height about 1830, was gradually dying out, and finally received its death-blow in the revolutions of 1848, which were unsuccess• ful in the various countries of Europe, and particularly so in Germany. 'Das junge Deutschland' had still some years of wandering in the wilderness before its hopes of political freedom and unity could be realized in 1870. No doubt the young people of that era felt this failure very keenly, Meyer among the others, and sad brooding over that political failure was probably one of the causes of his breakdown in 1852. Another reason for this breakdown was that Meyer in the first part of his life was a typical romantic, even though his life so far had coincided with the period when romanticism was dying. We can see this romanticism in his love for the historic past, in his fondness for solitude and brooding, and in his preference for the things of the imagination over the realities of everyday life. But a book which ap• peared in 1844, Priedrich Theodor Vischer's KRITISCHE GXNGE, had a most deciding influence on his life. As Linden says: 5. "Was Herder fur Goethe, was Kant fur Schiller, was ungefahr gleich- zeitig (1846-1849) Feuerbach fur Keller, das wurde Vischer fur CP. Meyer." The book strongly attacked romanticism, as being selfish, and advised a return to the realm of antiquity, from which would arise a new form of art, in which form and substance would be moulded together. It also attacked pietism in such a convincing manner that upon Meyer his mother's teachings had no more effect, which naturally helped to increase the estrangement between them. In literature also, where he had hoped to make a name for himself, he now saw how immeasurably far he would have to go to realize the ideals held out by Vischer. All these things "resulted in a profound sense of discouragement, from which unaided he could not seem to recover. His stay of seven months in Prefargier, however, proved a complete success. Under the kindly influence of Dr. Borrell, the super• intendent, and his sister, the nurse Cecile, he got a new outlook on life. After this terrible experience, for a nervous breakdown is a terrible experience for anyone, he was content, like a little child, to start at the bottom and work up. His head was no longer in an imaginary world above the clouds. Like the rest of the German people, he used this as a time of preparation for his 'Bltttezeit', which was to begin in 1870. Linden calls this his realistic period. After leaving the asylum, he first went to Lausanne, for he would not risk a relapse into the old life at Zurich. Here he met an old family friend, Louis vulliemin, the Swiss historian, whose influence 1. Linden 15. 6. did him a world of good, and whom he afterwards immortalized as 'der gute Herzog' in J0RG JENATSCH. Under this man's influence and that of Pascal, whose works he read at this time, Meyer's mind assumed a decidedly Protestant trend, and to the delight of his mother he became a professing Christian* Here also he gave himself up to that fatalism which the Calvinists call predestination, and which was later to show so strongly in his works.