Friedrich Hölderlin, Gesammelte Werke by Wilhelm Böhm; Hölderlin, Sämmtliche Werke. V. Bd. by Friedrich Seebass; Norbert von Hellingrath; Friedrich Hölderlins Sämtliche Werke und Briefe. II. Bd. by Franz Zinkernagel; Hölderlins Werke by Marie Joachimi-Dege Review by: Marshall Montgomery The Modern Language Review, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Apr., 1917), pp. 245-249 Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3714145 . Accessed: 25/06/2014 06:36

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This content downloaded from 195.78.109.12 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 06:36:31 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Reviews 245 succeeded in informing with the spirit of the remainder of the poem the petty and annoying actuality of his relations,' etc. The whole tendency of Schtitze's edition is to heap up criticism, old and new, rather than to be explanatory or helpful. And the criticism, when new, is often pedantic and purblind. The remarks on Anacreontic Poetry (pp. xix-xx) are very misleading. The comments on An den Mond, both in the Introduction and the Notes, are simply exasperating. 'The last two stanzas, in spite of their verbal beauty, represent Goethe's farthest lyrical descent towards spiritual barrenness.' In the latter part of the poem there is 'a sudden, shocking change of focus.' Why 'shocking'? And really there is no change of focus at all; already in the second verse we find mention of the bliss of friend- ship: Wie des FreundesAuge mild Uber mein Geschick.

We think it a mistake to try to build up Goethe's 'view of life' from the few poems given under the heading 'Man and the Universe.' It is bound to be incomplete and frequently strains the general sense of the poems. The page and a half devoted to Goethe's 'metres' is ridiculously inadequate. On the other hand the notes are generally far too long, as on p. 226, where the editor tells the whole story of and the golden apple to explain a stanza (p. 61) which needs no explanation. Teachers and students in this country would be grateful for an edition of Goethe's Poems. But it might, we think, contain all the lyrics. Use should be made of Goethe's own hints and statements about his lyrics and lyrical method. The Introduction should give a clear view of the development of the poet. Several very important elements in Goethe's lyrical growth, e.g., the Hans Sachs studies, the dithyrambic tendency, the influence of the Italian Journey, his attitude to the Folksong and to nature at different periods, the influence of his critical friends, his humour, etc. are hardly touched upon by Schiitze at all. JOHN LEES. ABERDEEN.

Friedrich Holderlin, Gesammelte Werke. Herausgegeben von WILHELM BOHM. Zweite vermehrte Auflage. Drei Binde. : E. Diederichs. 1909-1911. 8vo. cxix + 331 pp.; 402 pp.; and 436 pp. Holderlin, Sdmmtliche Werke. Historisch-kritische Ausgabe unter Mitarbeit von FRIEDRICH SEEBASS, besorgt durch NORBERT VON HErT,LINGRATH. v. Bd. Ubersetzungen und Briefe, 1800-1806. : Georg Miller. 1913. 8vo. xii + 368 pp. Friedrich Holderlins Sdmtliche Werke und Briefe. Kritisch-historische

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.12 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 06:36:31 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 246 Reviews

Ausgabe von FRANZ ZINKERNAGEL. II. Bd. Hyperion. Aufsatz- Entwiirfe. Leipzig: Insel-Verlag. 1914. 8vo. 434 pp. Holderlins Werke. Herausgegeben von MARIE JOACHIMI-DEGE. (Goldene Klassiker-Bibliothek.) : Bong and Co. [1908]. 8vo. lxxxiii + 840 pp. Side by side with rampant militarism and naked materialism are to be found to-day in Germany many signs of a strong revival of interest in the literature of idealism that flourished at the close of the eighteenth century and drew its inspiration, in part from the writings of Kant and Schiller, in part from the French Revolution, in part from ancient Greece. This interest is inevitably drawn to Holderlin who, despite his aloofness, emerges more and more, in the light of historical research, both as a typical representative of this unpractical but inspiring spiritual move- ment and as a poet who attained new heights of classicism in literary form mingled with romanticism in feeling. A wide popular interest should be met by the GoldeneKlassiker-A usgabe; though less scholarly than the still indispensable Cotta edition by B. Litzmann it contains much of the new matter brought to light by Bohm and Zinkernagel. The latter's critical edition reserves all notes and apparatus for the final volume, but on Hyperion we have his valuable Entwicklungsgeschichte (Quellen und Forschungen, xcix, 1907). W. Bohm's Introduction (Gesammelte Werke, Bd. I) is full of suggestion; his good work on the essays and translations has paved the way for the more ambitious editors. A joint edition by von Hellingrath, Zinkernagel and Bohm might have proved definitive. As it is, our knowledge of Holderlin has to be derived from four or five editions. In the same way there are now numerous special inquiries, chiefly dissertations, but no compre- hensive 'Life and Works.' We are, however, grateful for the admirable essay by Wilhelm Dilthey which rounds off Das Erlebnis und die Dich- tung (3rd ed., 1910); and the s4me writer's Jagendgeschichte Hegels (1905) is invaluable for the general influences of the period. H6lderlin's juvenile poems are imitative and of no intrinsic value. In the Tiibingen theological 'Stift' (1788-1793) he developed rapidly. His Hymnen an die Ideale der Menschheit represent 'die h6chste kiinstlerische Leistung dieser frtiheren Jahre' (Dilthey); they are the direct outcome of his contact with the works of Kant, Rousseau, Heinse and Schiller. They have enough unity of feeling and imagination to absorb many other elements drawn from Greek and modern sources and fuse them into the single concept of a 'weltumfassende Liebe.' The formula 'Ev cail 7rav, from Jacobi's Letters on Spinoza, is Holderlin's motto in Hegel's album. Even before the regular Hymnen, we find this philosophy as the essential content of the Lied der Liebe (1789 or 1790), one of the few poems that foreshadow his later power and individuality. But in the rest we feel the construction and mode of expression, fervid as the latter is, over-rhetorical, artificial, imitative of Schiller, and at bottom alien to the true lyrical genius of the writer. One point Dilthev rightly emphasizes: the young Holderlin has more faith than Schiller

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.12 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 06:36:31 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Reviews 247 in the future of mankind. Pantheism and neo-Hellenism merge with the great hopes raised by the French Revolution and the renascence of idealism due to Kant: 'die Schopfungsstunde der Freiheit schien ihm gekommen und das griechische Heldentum wiederkehrt in den franzo- sischen Revolutionshelden.' Like Dilthey, Emil Lehmann in a valuable 'Programm' on these Hymnen (Landskron, 1909) supposes, without convincing proof, that they form a cycle which was 'als ein Ganzes gedacht.' He also lays stress on the poet's debt to Leibniz. The 'griechische Roman,' Hyperion, seems to have been begun in 1792, the year of the last three Hynnen. The various stages of its growth are laid bare for us in Zinkeragel's masterly, though sometimes rather hypothetical, Entwicklungsgeschichte. The results of this inquiry form the foundation of his new Hyperion-text. For his possible reply to criticisms of the Entwicklungsgeschichte we must wait for the final volume of his edition. However, his main results are not to be seriously disputed. It may be accepted that of Hyperion in its first form we have nothing left. The metrical version, a mere fragment, belongs to the Jena period and is later than the Thalia version. The theories of the 'Rahmenerzahlung' and the Lovell (now Lowell) version are retained in the face of some strong adverse criticism. I agree with Marie Joachimi-Dege that the former is extremely hard to accept. Bohm and Dilthey both appear to have been won over to it, but they do not give their reasons. In his Hyperion, as Zinkernagel shows us, Holderlin 'erscheint in ganz besonderem Masse als Kind seiner Zeit.' Kant, Herder, Jacobi, Goethe, all have some influence on this ' Bildungsgeschichte.' To these should be added Rousseau, Ossian, Matthisson, Heinse, Wincke]mann and W. von Humboldt. Far more vital are the influences, clearly discernible at every stage, of Schiller's philosophical essays and Plato's dialogues. Besides these must also be set the influence of Fichte, first apparent in the metrical version, and probably that of Schelling on the final revision. As to Schelling, opinions are still divided. Dilthey, who planned, but did not live to carry out, a much needed study of Holderlin's philosophical development, seems to have become reconciled to Zinkernagel's account of the matter. But he sees Hdlderlin's pantheism or 'All-Einheitslehre' in every stage of the novel from the Thalia-fragment on and roundly declares: " Der Pantheismus Holderlins war sonach dem Schellings ganz heterogen. Seine ausseren Bedingungen lagen in der allgemeinen literarischen und dichterischen Bewegung der Zeit... In ihr entwickelte sich die pantheistische Weltanschauung. Und dieser kam nun die dichterische Eigenart Holderlins entgegen." (Das Erlebnis, etc., p. 409.) What, then, are Holderlin's characteristics as a poet ? Even within the last few years the attempt has again been made to deny his essential romanticism of temper. R. M. Meyer admits points of contact, but declares: 'er gehort der Romantik nicht an, und nicht ihrer Weltan- schauung.' Recent studies, however, show his very close kinship with the Romantic philosophers, especially with Schelling and Hegel; and

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.12 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 06:36:31 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 248 Reviews nearly the whole weight of these investigations goes to prove that, while Holderlin attained to formal classicism in his later lyrics, he remained in temperament a romanticist, though 'with a difference.' Leo Cholevius in his Geschichte der deutschen Poesie nach ihren antiken Elementen (Part II, 1856, p. 423) seized the essential point when he stated that Hdlderlin was ' Romantiker als Hellenist,' and Robert Petsch in the Zeitschriftfiir deutschePhilologie (Bd. XLII,pp. 501 f.) clinches the matter when he says regarding the 'Auseinandersetzung der Romantiker mit Goethe': 'Alle gegensatze gehen schliesslich auf den ersten grund- gegensatz zwischen Kants dualismus und Fichte-Schellings monismus zuriick. Fur die romantik gibt es keine kluft zwischen ideal und wirklichkeit....' It is true that Holderlin, like his Hyperion, discovered this 'Kluft' by painful experience. But the discovery led him to no 'unity of the ideal with the real.' On the contrary, it killed his faith in humanity, at least in modern German humanity, and led him to that terrible denunciation of his fellow-countrymen as 'Barbaren von alters her, durch Fleiss und Wissenschaft und selbst durch Religion barbarischer geworden' (Werke, ed. B. Litzmann, II, 98) which now seems prophetic, but is, in part, a condemnation of all modern civilisation. So in the final paean of Hyperion 'Kulturmiidigkeit' mingles with the austere optimism of the true mystic in the apostrophe beginning: O Seele! Seele! Schonheit der Welt! du unzerstorbare! du entziickende! mit deinerewigen Jugend! du bist; was ist denn der Tod und alles Wehe der Men- schen?-Ach! viel der leeren Worte haben die Wunderlichengemacht. Geschiehet doch alles aus Lust, und endet doch alles mit Frieden.

More obvious perhaps than his connection with the Romantic poets is Holderlin's kinship with the Romantic philosophers. On the former the dissertations by Lothar BShme (Die Landschaft in den Werken Holderlins und Jean Pauls, Leipzig, 1908) and Oskar Baumgarten (Nietzsche-Holderlin, Berne, 1910) are very useful. The latter is well illustrated by the fragmentary Philosophische Versuche, mainly redis- covered by W. Bohm. Of these there was only a hint in C. T. Schwab s second volume (1846), which contained a short version of Der Homerische Achill. Zinkernagel has arranged these Aufsdtze under two heads, Zur Philosophie (26 pp.) and Zur Aesthetik (73 pp.). A few belong to the Frankfort years, the rest were apparently written in Hornburg. Such lengthy fragments as Der Gesichtspunkt, aus dem wir das Altertum anzusehen haben and Uber religiose Vorstellungen, though resembling laboratory experiments, are extremely suggestive. Classified by Zin- kernagel under Aphoristisches is the following characteristic confession: In guten Zeiten giebt es selten Schwirmer. Aber wenns dem Menschen an grossen reinen Gegenstandenfehlt, daninschafft er irgend ein Phantom aus dem und jenem, und driickt die Augen zu, dass er dafiir sich interessieren kann, und dafiir leben. This surely is the quintessence of German Romanticism. (Cf. R. M. Meyer, Die deutscheLiteratur des xix. Jahrhunderts, 3rd ed., 1906, p. 11.)

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To the subtle and closely woven arguments in the longer fragments 'zur Aesthetik,' I can here merely call attention. They will repay most careful reading. N. von Hellingrath's study of Holderlin's Pindar versions (Sdmtliche Werke, vol. v. Vorwort and Pindaribertragungen von Holderlin, Prolegomena zu einer Erstausgabe, Mtinchener Diss., 1910) is in my view by far the best effort yet made to appreciate Holderlin's latest style, which is very marked in his translations from Sophocles (Antigone, Oedipus Tyrannus, fragment from the Ajax) and Pindar (six Olympian and ten Pythian odes). Dilthey called attention to the unusual economy of this style. Hellingrath finds in both Pindar and his translator very striking examples of ap/povlaav'rj'pa or 'harte Fugung,' as he translates this term borrowed from the Hellenistic rhetoricians. This style is not easy: the poet 'tut alles das Wort selbst zu betonen... So von schwerem Wort zu schwerem Wort reisst diese Dichtart den Horer.' But the result is magnificent. Holderlin's knowledge of Greek is, at times, curiously inaccurate, but the spirit and form of the original are wonderfully preserved. Worthy of a place beside Hyperion's 'Schicksalslied' are the lines from the second Olympian (11.109-122 of Heyne's edition): Gleich aber in Nachten allezeit, Und gleich in den Tagen, eine Sonne Geniessend, miiheloser Trefliche wandeln ein Leben, Nicht das Erdreich verwiistend Mit Gewalt der Hande Noch das Meeresgewasser, Uber jene Vorschrift hinaus. Aber Bei den Geehrten Der Gotter, welche sich erfreuen An Eidestreue Thranenlos wandeln sie Eine Zeit. Die aber unabsehbar Ertragen Arbeit. The translations from Sophocles show the same pregnancy and beauty. Some passages are obscure, but there are few if any signs of the poet's insanity which the pathologists tell us began in 1801. He was spared to introduce a new standard of translation to a new century. As M. Challemel-Lacour wrote fifty years ago in the Revue des Deux Mondes (15 juin, 1867): 'Il est de la famille des Pindare et des Alc6e, gardiens des traditions, interpretes des pens6es divines, chantres des puissances d'en. haut.' Hellingrath's edition is especially worthy of its contents, a joy to handle and behold. MARSHALL MONTGOMERY. OXFORD.

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