The Hermit in German Literature COLLEGE of ARTS and SCIENCES Imunci Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures
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The Hermit in German Literature COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES ImUNCI Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures From 1949 to 2004, UNC Press and the UNC Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages and Literatures published the UNC Studies in the Germanic Languages and Literatures series. Monographs, anthologies, and critical editions in the series covered an array of topics including medieval and modern literature, theater, linguistics, philology, onomastics, and the history of ideas. Through the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, books in the series have been reissued in new paperback and open access digital editions. For a complete list of books visit www.uncpress.org. The Hermit in German Literature From Lessing to Eichendorff henry john fitzell UNC Studies in the Germanic Languages and Literatures Number 30 Copyright © 1961 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons cc by-nc-nd license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons. org/licenses. Suggested citation: Fitzell, Henry John. The Hermit in German Litera- ture: From Lessing to Eichendorff. Chapel Hill: University of North Car- olina Press, 1961. doi: https://doi.org/10.5149/9781469657493_Fitzell Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Fitzell, Henry John. Title: The hermit in German literature : From Lessing to Eichendorff / by Henry John Fitzell. Other titles: University of North Carolina Studies in the Germanic Languages and Literatures ; no. 30. Description: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [1961] Series: University of North Carolina Studies in the Germanic Languages and Literatures. | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: lccn 61064190 | isbn 978-0-8078-8830-8 (pbk: alk. paper) | isbn 978-1-4696-5749-3 (ebook) Subjects: Hermits in literature. | Germanic literature — History and criticism. Classification: lcc pd25 .n6 no. 30 | dcc 830/ .93 PREFACE To Dr. Walter Silz, Gebhart Professor of German Literature at Columbia University, I owe a frank and deep debt of gratitude. At Princeton in the recent past, his guidance, encouragement, indeed, his suggestion of the theme were responsible for my composing the study upon which this monograph is based. In citing literary works or other studies, as well as in referring to them indirectly, I have indentified titles and authors clearly in my text, while the page or line number, act and scene, or chapter number, whichever was applicable, is bracketed next to the quo tation or reference which it locates. For the specific editions cited, the reader is referred to the concise bibliography, arranged alpha betically by author and subdivided into (I) original texts and (II) critical and reference works. Accordingly, a large collection of notes is avoided in the hope that the body of the study may be rendered more lucid. Finally I should like to thank the German Quarterly for its generous permission to include here material on Wieland's Oberon from an article of mine originally published in its pages. I am grateful to Dr. Kenneth Negus for his help in correcting proof, and I express my sincere thanks to the Research Council of Rutgers University for its generous grant in support of this study. JOHN FITZELL TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . • . XI CHAPTER I THE HERMIT OF LITERARY TRADITION 1 Wolfram and Grimmelshausen. CHAPTER II THE HERMIT AND SOCIETY . 10 (1) Lessing: Der Eremit, p. 10 (2) Goethe: Satyros, p. 13 (3) Lenz: Die Kleinen, p. 19 (4) Klinger: Sturm und Drang, p. 26 (5) Burger: Der wilde Jager, p. 31 (6) Lessing: Nathan der Weise, p. 36 (7) Chamisso: Peter Schlemihl, p. 47. CHAPTER III THE INNER CONFLICT • . • . • . 54 A. (1) Goethe: Erwin und Elmire, p. 54 (2) Lenz: Der Wald bruder, p. 59 (3) Klinger: Die Zwillinge, p. 64 (4) Brentano: Godwi, p. 66 (5) Droste-Hiilshoff: Walter, p. 71 (6) Le nau: Die Marionetten, p. 77. B. (1) Klinger: Fausts Leben, Thaten und Hollenfahrt, p. 80 (2) Wackenroder: Ein wunderbares morgenlandi sches Marchen, p. 82 (3) Hoffmann: Serapion, p. 83. CHAPTER IV THE HERMIT AND NATURE . • • . • 88 (1) Wieland: Oberon, p. 88 (2) Holderlin: Hyperion, p. 95 (3) Novalis: Heinrich von Ofterdingen, p. 101 (4) Schiller: Die Braut von Messina, p. 105 (5) Uhland: Konig Eginhard, p. 106 (6) Kerner: Die Heimatlosen, p. 108 (7) Goethe: Faust, p. 111 (8) Eichendorff: Eine Meerfahrt, p. 114. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF WORKS . 120 BIBLIOGRAPHY 121 INDEX •.•. 124 INTRODUCTION A very strong penchant toward inwardness or "Innerlichkeit", a tendency to withdraw from the outer, social world to the "world within" is generally characteristic of German literature. Novalis spoke for more than German Romanticism when he said, "Nach innen geht der geheimnisvolle Weg. In uns oder nirgends ist die Ewigkeit mit ihren Welten, die Vergangenheit und Zukunft." In all literary genres of German literature in all periods we note a concentration upon the inner reactions of the individual to the forces at work outside him. Indeed, the world is recreated from within and we see life revealed and interpreted through a creative process in the individual per sonality. This is, to be sure, the very cardinal principle of artistic expression. Nature and society appear as the very expressions of the inner self in its longing for harmony with a higher order. Several remarks by Fritz Strich in his essay, N atur und Geist der deutschen Dichtung (Die Ernte: Franz Muncher zu seinem 70. Geburtstage - see Bibliography), illustrate this idea very pointedly. Strich con trasts, for example, the nordic landscape with that of classical Greece (p. 8), and says that the nordic landscape was not "mensch lich beseelt", that one could not imagine in it the presence of such gods as those inhabiting the sunny hills and groves of Greece. He later describes the Germanic gods as "nebelhaft", as "Wanderer", and declares (p. 8), "Der Mensch konnte nicht nach aussen, sondern musste nach innen gewendet sein." A subsequent passage in the same essay contrasts Parzifal with Dante (p. 9). While Dante is led by Virgil, the spirit of classicism, Parzifal searches out his way to God along lonely, untrodden paths, guided only by the faith ("Triuwe" or "Hingabe") in his heart and the never-slacking power of his will. Professor Strich sees the position of the German poet thus (p. 20): "Seine Frage an die Welt ist die: wie wird sie von sei nem Heiden erlebt, und so kommt es hier denn nur au£ den inneren Reichtum des Menschen an." This contrast of classic and romantic types (subsequently developed and expanded into a full volume) 1 derives actually from Ludwig Uhland's essay, Uber die Romantik. Indeed, Professor Strich literally paraphrases Uhland most fre- 1 Deutsche Klassik und Romantik, Bern 1949. XI quently - without referring to him. Uhland's (and Professor Strich's) conviction is not tenable - namely the conviction that the dweller in Germanic landscapes had to turn inward because he had not the clear outlines, the clear conceptions of gods as illumined in the sunny climes of Greece. This theory stems largely, in fact, from the lack of plastic art portraying the gods, for example, in the North - a lack due in turn, rather to a scarcity of substantially per manent materials such as the marbles of the south. Those relics of ancient Germanic art which remain are mostly small objects of metal, otherwise wooden fragments, some carvings and inscriptions on stone (cf. e. g. the illustrations in Jan de Vries' two volume Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte). Yet the figure of the hermit does embody the undeniably charac teristic inwardness attributed by Professor Strich to German litera ture and art (Dtirer's St. Jerome), and it is therefore not surprising that the recluse early became a favorite figure in literature. What is surprising is that his character and role have not hitherto been made the subject of more concentrated interpretation and inves tigation. This gap the present study seeks to fill. The hermit must be defined as one who withdraws from society to achieve a deeper understanding of life through solitary contem plation. The causes and circumstances of his withdrawal reveal to varying extents his "Weltanschauung". Der grosse Brockhaus defines hermits ("Anachoreten" or "Zuriickgezogene", "Eremiten" or "Einsiedler") as "in der Einsamkeit lebende Manche im Christen tum seit Ausgang des dritten Jahrhunderts -." The lives of these ascetics were characterized traditionally by "Ringen mit Sexual verdrangung, Phantasiegebilden, Damonenkampf". Under "Welt flucht" we find in the Schweizer Lexikon the following definition: "eine einsame Lebensweise frommer Menschen, die sich zu innerer Sammlung und religioser Obung einzeln (Einsiedler) oder gruppen weise (Monchtum) in die (nie absolute) Abgeschiedenheit von der Welt zuriickgezogen haben, oft beeinflusst von einer pessimis tischen Beurteilung des Lebens in der Welt." These definitions we shall see illustrated variously in our own subsequent investigations. In his work, The Hermit in English Literature from the Beginnings to 1660, (p. 18 ff. - see Bibliog.), Charles P. Weaver notes some ge neral distinctions between the anchorite and the hermit. The anchorite was required to pass through a trial period of fasting and prayer before being ceremoniously installed in his cell. The abode of the anchorite was generally connected with a church or cloister. His life was more strictly regulated than that of the hermit; the anchorite could be attended by those who were committed to bring ing him the bare necessities of life, but he was dedicated to remain ing in his cell, secluded from the world, until death released him. XII The hermit removed himself to the forest or mountains to a life of solitary contemplation, but, unlike the anchorite, he was not se verely confined to his dwelling. He occupied himself very often with studies of various sorts - for example, the healing powers of herbs - and he could cultivate the land about his abode, even keep animals.