turies following the Banise however I A Hidden Glimpse at Old . ' ' had been unaware of any treatments of ? The "Siam Epi• Thai topics in German letters; and the sode" in Fontane's Novel quite recent, though very important and U nwiederbringlich meritorious, exception to the rule, Rella Kothmann's collection ofvarious Thai texts in German rendition, her Das Reinhold Grimm* . siamesische Liicheln ("The Siamese Smile"),3 appeared only after I had Abstract penned and delivered my lecture-in fact, simultaneously, as it were, with my aforesaid book. Hardly ever do images of Thai or Thai• land occur in . Alas, such a paucity of evidence is by Granted, there exists an early if seem• ingly isolated forerunner from the 17th no means restricted to the realm ofbelles lettres, nor ofliterary endeavors at large, century: namely, Heinrich Anshelm von either. The pertinent handbooks bear Zigler und Kliphausen's voluminous embarrassing witness to this. Neither in Baroque novel in titled Die asiatische Banise ("The Asian Banise" [which is Frenzels's Stoffe der Weltliteratur or Schmitt's Stoff-und Motivge-schichte the name of the heroine]).' I adduced it, der deutschen Literatur, nor in the and briefly discussed its opening scene, in my talk "What is a Good Dramatic Daemmrichs' jointly authored Themes Text? A German's Answer to a Thai's and Motifs in Western Literature and Wiederholte Spiegelungen: Themen und Question" that I gave in almost Motive in der Literatur, 4 can the slight• a decade ago, and which was subse• est, the most fleeting mention of Thai• quently published, in a Thai translation by Chetana Nagavajara, in Silpakorn land (or of Siam, for that matter) be University's Journal of the Faculty of 3 Das siamesische Liicheln: Literatur und Arts and, in its English original, in my Revolution in Thailand. Ed. Hella Kothmann book Versuche zur europiiischen (K61n: Neuer ISP Verlag, 1994). 2 Literatur of 1994. As for the three cen- 4 Cf. Elisabeth Frenzel, Stoffe der Weltliteratur: Ein Lexikon dichtungs• *Professor, University of California• geschichtlicher Liingsschnitte (Stuttgart: Riverside Kroner, 1963); Franz Anselm Schmitt, Stoff• 1 Cf. Heinrich Anshelm von Zigler und und Motivgeschichte der deutschen Kliphausen, Die a siatische Banise [ect.]. ·· Literatur: Eine Bibliographie (Berlin/ New Vollastandiger Text nach der Ausgabe von York: De Gruyter, 1976); HorstS. and Ingrid 1707 unter Beriicksichtigung des Erstdrucks Daernmrich, Themes and Motifs in Western von 1689. Mit einem Nachwort von Literature: A Handbook (Tti"bingen : Wolfgang Pfeiffer-Belli (Miinchen: Winkler, Francke, 1987); dies ., Wiederholte 1965). Spiegelungen: Themen und Motive in der 2 Cf. Warasan Aksonsat Mahavithayalai Literatur (Bern! Miinchen: Francke, 1978). Silpakorn 15/2 ( 1993); Reinhold Grimm, Versuche zur europa ischen Literatur (Bern: Lang, 1994) 367-84.

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spotted, much less an entire entry Fontane unfolds with unsurpassed thereof; in point of fact, Arnold's monu• mastery is Holk's fate and gradual suc• mental and highly ambitious Kritisches cumbing to the allurements of two Lexikon zurfremdsprachigen women: Brigitte Hansen, wife of a cap• Gegenwartsliteratur ("Criticle Lexicon tain, and Ebba von Rosenberg, a royal of Contemporary Foreign Literature"), maid ofhonor. And it is precisely in this while featuring, among other Asian lit• context-between Brigitte and Ebba, so eratures, those of Korea, Indonesia, and to speak-that the passages which I have even Afghanistan in sizable essays, does labeled as the "Siam Episode" are situ• not contain a respective one on Thai let• ated, proving both to conceal and reveal ters. 5 Or should we, hopefully, rather the development of the plot. put it: not yet? In other words, the "Siam Episode" is Be t~at as it may, I did, all the same, in weighty enough, and thus can certainly the meantime discover an additional not be ignored or neglected. However, image of Thailand and Thai in German what do we notice to our utter astonish• literature, and a most interesting one to ment? None of the foremost critics and boot. It was composed by the great, in• scholars who have dealt with deed magnificent, novelist and ballad• Unwiederbringlich pays any attention to eer Theodor Fontane (1819-1898) and said episode! Even Hans-Heinrich stems from his 1891 novel Reuter, in his authoritative two-volume Unwiederbringlich, which is set in the monograph so lapidarily entitled Northern German provinces of Fontane, does not mention it at all ; nei• Schleswig-Holstein during the late ther Siam nor Thailand, let alone 1850s and early 1860s-then still part of Bangkok, is listed in his elaborate in• Denmark-and in the Danish capital. dex of geographical names.7 Similar Copenhagen. (The title of its English findings apply to other, and otherwise translation, by the way, runs Beyond quite insightful, studies of Fontane's Recall; what it literally means, though, works and, specifically, of the novel in is "irretrievable" or "irreparable.") The question. Hubert Ohl, for instance, de• protagonist of Fontane's powerful nar• votes several compact pages to an in• rative, which has been hailed as "one of terpretation of Unwiederbringlich and the ou~standing novels of the nineteenth rightly emphasizes the "manifold per• century,"6 is a married German count spectival relations" ([die} vielfiiltigen and lord-in-waiting at the Danish court perspektivischen Beziige) pervading it; 8 named Helmuth Holk, and that which yet once again, neither the "Siam Epi-

5 Cf. Kritiches Lexicon zur fremdsprachigen 7 Hans-Heinrich Reuter, Fontane. 2 vols. Gegenwarts1iteratur. Ed. Heinz Ludwig (Munchen: Nymphenburger Verlagshand- Arnold (Munchen: edition text + kritik, 1ung, 1968). 1983ff.) IX. 8 Cf. Hubert Ohl, Bild und Wirklichkeit: 6 Thus Douglas Parmee in his introduction Studien zur Romankunst Raabes und to the English edition, which came out in fontanes (Heidelberg: Stiehm, 1968) 175- London in 1964; here quoted from Reuter 80; here p. 180. (see n.7 below) II: 882f.

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sode" nor, indeed, the character of much with regard to the novel's recep• Brigitte, who occupies its very center, tion, the Czech-American scholar em• are touched upon. Likewise, Ingrid barks on a veritable eulogy. Mittenzwei, who offers a much longer Unwiederbringlich, he exclaims, is and and far more detailed and penetrating will remain "the most flawless work of analysis of Fontane's novel, contents art of Fontane's" (das makelloseste herself with referring, in the most gen• Kunstwerk Fontanes), chiseled and eral of terms, to "the somewhat fabu• honed lous adventures of the Hansen' family" (die einigermaf3en miirchenhaften without any residue and senti• Abenteuer der Kapitiinsfamilie mentality; cool, calm, con• Hansen), 9 without ever mentioning Siam trolled; a book made wholly of or Bangkok. ivory; the sole German novel of that era that doesn 't have to shy But how about Peter Demetz, who, on away from vying even with the one hand, has provided the subtlest Turgenev or more impressively and most succinct investigation of still [according to Demetz}, Unwiederbringlich and, on the other, with Troll ope and William Dean heaped it with lavish praise, extolling it Howells.12 to the skies as Fontane's absolute nov• elistic masterpiece? 10 Justly, Demetz Frankly, I feel this boundless encomium maintains 11 that this work had been is a little bit exaggerated and, perhaps, vastly underrated in Germany for many prejudiced-although I, too, admire years; only Swiss poets and critics such Unwiederbringlich and rank it among as, from the outset, Conrad Ferdinand the finest creations of its author. By con• Meyer and, later on, Max Rychner---one trast, to be sure, Demetz's observations could add a couple ofBritishers-have concerning the role and function of been able, Demetz goes on, truly to Brigitte and her tightly knit if, as it were, gauge and appreciate the Fontane subterranean relationship to her 'rival' an achievement. And having stated that Ebba are definitely to the point. He clearly recognizes Brigitte's importance 9 Cf. Ingrid Mittenzwei, Die Sprache als for Count Holk's increasing confusion Thema: Untersuchngen zu Fontanes and sensual entanglement. With Brigitte, Gesellschaftsromanen (Bad Homburg v.d.H. admittedly, everything stays within lim• [etc.]: Gehlen, 119-33); here p. 125. its, amounting to a mere albeit daring 10 0thers have meanwhile chimed in, at least flirtation and a mere albeit dangerous to a certain degree; cf. Espec. Reuter II: 882 playing with fire; with Ebba, however, (where Unwiederbringlich is, however, ranked as one of Fontane's who is so closely tied to her nonethe• "Meisterromane," or masterly novels). less, everything becomes seriousness 11 For these and the following observations, and a sensuous as well as mental con• see Peter Demetz, Formen des Realismus: flagration of sorts, duly mirrored in the Theodor Fontane. Kritische actual blaze ravaging exactly that part Untersuchungen (Munchen: Hanser, 1966) 164-77. 12 My translation; compare ibid. 166.

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of the castle where she and Holk had wife was accompanying him on one of just made love. In short, by passing from his voyages-the reason for this as well Brigitte to Ebba, Holk comes to proceed as a host of details are immaterial for from the possibility to the reality of adul• our purpose-and it happened that, tery. It should be noted, though, that when leaving China, Captain Hansen Brigitte, despite this decisive change, is was so lucky as to secure a return cargo present nearly all the time, albeit ever to Bangkok. That's a big city in Siam, more in the background. And yet, and Widow Hansen enthuses, proudly de• for all Demetz's descriptions and dis• claring that she, too, had once visited it cussion of her, 13 he stubbornly keeps si• with her late husband, likewise a lent about the "Siam Episode." "Chinafahrer." She further points out that the Siamese (die Siamschen) boast What, then, is this episode that consti• an emperor, and that Hansen's ship was tutes both a half overt, half secret link moored in the river right in front of the between the major figures of the novel imperial palace. After a day or two, she and, moreover, allows a hidden glimpse continues, there came an imperial min• at old Thailand, the ancient Siam of the ister and went aboard the ship, inviting 19th century as reflected in the mind of Hansen and his wife to a grandiose court a coeval German writer? What does this dinner. The emperor had presumably piece of narration, a kind of inserted seen Brigitte. And she was seated next short story, consist of and convey? What to him and spoke English with him, and is its structural function within the pa• the emperor kept looking at her all this rameters sketched out by Demetz? while. And when they had risen from the table, the emperor was again very I shall try to be brief. 14 The core of gracious and kind and kept his eyes riv• Fontane's "Siam Episode," "which eted upon her, and when the Hansens Widow Hansen, the mother of Brigitte, were about to take their leave, he said tells her lodger Holk early on, might be to the captain it would mean a lot to him summarized as follows. Brigitte's hus• if"Mrs. Captain" (die Frau Kapitanin) band, a captain also of the name of could come to his palace for a second Hansen, like his mother-in-law, is a so• time on the following day, thus enabling called "Chinafahrer," that is to say, a his loyal subjects, and his wives-of skipper sailing back and forth in the seas whom he had a good many-in particu• of the Far East off China and Indochina, lar, to view the beautiful "German [sic} mainly between Singapore and Shang• lady" 15 face to face once more. At first, hai. As had been the case before, his Hansen got scared at these incessant honors, which might have signaled trea• son as well, for, all around the palace, 13 Regarding Brigitte's appearance and sen• heads were propped up, just as Danes suality, see also ibid. 168f. prop up pineapples; yet Brigitte, who 14 For the German text on which the follow• had overheard the conversation, bowed ing plot summary is based, see Theodor to the emperor and assured him with the Fontane, Siimtliche Werke. Ed. Walter Keitel (Mlinchen: Hanser, 1962ff.) II: 643-45,669. 15 English in the original.

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proper mien, as self-confident as distin• spite some qualms that Brigitte's expe• guished, that she was willing to appear rience might have gone to her head, at the assigned hour. readily agreed with her.

Here, the eager listener interrupts Holk is doubtful whether he ought to Widow Hansen's tale by murmuring believe this fantastic story or shrug it "Risky, very risky" (Gewagt, sehr off as a bold and airy product of imagi• gewagt), but she goes on unperturbed, nation and, at the same time, as playing reporting that Brigitte did in fact turn fast and loose with him and his gullibil• up and was led to an elevated seat that ity. Still, could it not be true, he muses, had been built expressly for her near the after all? In an attempt at ironic self• palace's portal, which cast its pleasant justification, he therefore asks where the shadow upon her; and on this "throne," famous "white elephants" had been. after the emperor had bedecked her with "They probably were in their stables," a pearl necklace, she sat holding a fan Widow Hansen retorts, laughing wag• of peacock feathers. (The necklace is gishly. But at the very least, Holk in• said to have been absolutely marvelous.) sists, she must now show him that won• And now all the high society ofBangkok drous string of pearls. Precisely this, and thereafter the entire people marched however, is impossible, as it turns out. in file before her and bowed to her, and And why? Because, the widow explains, the emperor's wives also, and when the the necklace had suddenly gone miss• last of them had passed by, Brigitte rose ing when her daughter boarded the ship; to her feet and strode up to the emperor obviously, she adds, Brigitte had lost it in order to lay down the peacock fan and or, due to her excitement, simply for• the string of pearls because she thought gotten it in the paiace. Yet why did she she had been bedecked by him exclu• not inquire after it and search for it? sively for the ceremony. As a matter of Because, her mother continues explain• fact, he accepted both items but handed ing, Brigitte has something peculiar her the necklace again, indicating that about her; hence, when Hansen pressed she should wear it in eternal commemo• her, demanding appropriate action, she ration. Immediately afterwards, led by merely replied, "that would be so vul• the ministers, and while the household gar and against decency and court eti• troops were forming a guard of honor, quette." Whereupon Holk, who slowly Brigitte arrived at the gangplank of the begins to see which way the wind is ship where Hansen had stayed and wit• blowing, wryly falls in with both mother nessed the whole event. However, she and daughter and pretends to realize that henceforth declined to accompany him the latter's attitude was "correct." And on any further voyages since, as she ar• "such feelings," he concludes tongue in gued, it couldn't but strike her as odd to check, "must be respected." have to live among sailors after such an imperial distinction, and perhaps be The story of the Siamese court festivity forced to sleep in a harbor tavern where celebrating Brigitte, and /or-but above all one hears is "Negromusic," and ev• all-that of the lost string of pearls, is erything reeks of gin. And Hansen, de- referred to in the subsequent text of

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Unwiederbringlich no fewer than five Pentz, who is intimately familiar with times, which clearly underscores their all the gossip circulating in Copenhagen. narrative weight and significance. That As to the two Hansen women, the be• which proves to be most revealing is the fuddled count understandably wants to first of these instances. Holk, then still find out what is really the matter with under the spell of Brigitte's statuesque them. For example, there exists, he ob• beauty, tells her what he would have serves, a "wonderful story" done had he been the Emperor of Siam. (wundervolle Geschichte) about the The count would have arranged things Emperor of Siam, replete with "fabulous quite differently around that "chair of homages and presents" and, indeed, a state" (Thronsessel) in front of the im• gorgeous string of pearls. "Now is that perial palace. Instead of seating the truth or a lie?" Perhaps, Holk muses, Brigitte-something that never suits, it is just a token of morbid ambition, just Holk informs her-he would have "megalomania" (Gropenwahn). Every• placed her beside the throne, standing thing, he submits, may be but the out• erect, with only her arm leaning against growth of a hallucinatory fit, a "figment the white ivory backrest. And such a ofheated imagination" (Ausgeburt einer position, Holk declares flatteringly as erhitzten Phantasie). On the other hand, well as triumphantly, would have Holk freely confesses that he has come brought to light, in the most literal sense to feel a "leiser Marchengrusel," a slight of the word, which of the two could fairy-tale shudder of sorts, especially claim to be superior to the other: the when remembering what Pentz divulged ivory or the arm of beautiful Mrs. in respect to the Hansens previously: to Hansen (by which he had been deeply wit, their involvement with the "secu• and sensuously affected from the out• rity agency" (Sicherheitsbeh6rde). set). Much to his indignation, the count must learn that Brigitte is likely to have had The remaining references to the initial an affair with a police assessor, and her tale are less explicit yet amply signifi• mother, who knows, with the chief of cant all the same. What they chiefly con• police himself. As a result-and, natu• cern is the trustworthiness of Widow rally, in consequence ofhis ever-increas• Hansen. Already her disappointing con• ing infatuation for Ebba von clusion regarding the whereabouts of the Rosenberg-Holk's "Hansenfrage," the pearl necklace gave, as we saw, rise to question(s) surrounding the Hansen doubts even in the otherwise so gullible women, can be said to have been solved Count Holk, and they keep on increas• at long last; if, in the beginning, any• ing as the narration progresses. (Some• thing mysterious or enigmatic did ob• what "fabulous" [marchenhaft]: thus tain, it is, and will be, no longer under Holt's summary judgment even at this discussion. The whole business, in sum, early stage.) Later on, and after the has become abundantly clear, the Em• count's aforecited 'reworking' of the• peror of Siam revealing himself as more for him-highlight of the original epi• and more uncertain, the security officer, sode, he engages in a conversation with on the contrary, as more and more cer• a friend and colleague of his, Baron tain. Characteristically, the narrator in-

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dulges here in a mild if triple pun: "Der as suddenly as unexpectedly, Count Kaiser von Siam war immer unsicherer, Holk receives an invitation-actually, it der 'Sicherheitsbeamte 'dagegen immer is an order-to betake himself to sicherer geworden [ ... ]."16 Copenhagen and to serve in his capac• ity as lord-in-waiting to Princess Mary So much, then, for the content that Ellinor of Denmark. Then and there, his Fontane's "Siam Episode" consists of. double 'love story,' in part abortive, so But what, we also asked, does this nar• to speak, and in part fully consummated, rative substance convey in ~rms of starts unfolding and is related at length structure, or indeed, as we must add, and in numerous details. Yet the rapture within the subtle web of the novel in its of love Holk enjoys with Ebba von entirety? Drawing on Demetz's interpre• Rosenberg, an experience lasting merely tation of Unwiederbringlich, I already one hour before the devastating fire said that Holk's sensual-and, in the breaks out, constitutes but the climax of end, plain sexual-ensnarement is the novel; almost instantaneously, it is marked by a gradual progression from followed by a profound, indeed total and his attraction to Brigitte to his attraction radical, anticlimax. Namely, Holk's ec• to Ebba, to which he ultimately suc• stasy and the high hopes he cherished cumbs. As Countess Christine, Holk's after his fiery encounter with Ebba - wife, bitterly comments, if only implic• whom, to top it off, he succeeded in res• itly: The latter supersedes and replaces cuing-are mercilessly and blatantly the former; in point of fact, it seems to crushed by her and, within minutes, her that they continuously "take turns changed into abysmal disillusionment with each other" (sich untereinander and despair. He confidently fancied ablosen). However, and even apart from Ebba to be as much in love with him as Christine's exaggeration, this step~by­ he was with her; hence, he briefly re• step progression is not yet sufficient. turned to Holkenas, pleaded with Chris• What we have to consider, and carefully tine for separation, and was granted a weigh, is the structural development, or divorce. Back in Copenhagen, he in• overall form, of Fontane's novel as a tends to propose to Ebba von Rosenberg, whole. For, without fail, its basic and speedily to marry her. However, the plotline encompasses far more than capricious maid of honor, or lady-in• Holk's dual relationship to Brigitte and waiting (who is likewise in service to Ebba. Unwiederbringlich first shows, the princess, incidentally) refuses him and telling illustrates, the growing es• for good in an exemplary manner-he trangement of the count from his wife, really gets the mitten, as they say-and andhers from him, while both are still Holk leaves her and the court and the living, apparently peacefully, at "Schlo[3 capital in utter dismay. Unable to return Holkenas," the castle by the sea in to his home, he goes abroad, restlessly Schleswig-Holstein. Soon, though, and traveling through various European countries such as France, Italy, and Swit• zerland until, at last, he settles in En• gland. It is from London, two years or 16 My emphases. so later, that the count manages to enter

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into relations with Christine again, and implication, for her flirtation with Count finally to reconcile with his wife. In fact, Holk as well, all of which Holk for his they are solemnly married once more, part begins to surmise when, in his con• but in vain; as becomes evident at once, versation with Pentz, he bluntly voices, neither their marital bliss nor even their however hesitantly, his "assumption" of mutual trust and understanding can be the Hansens' "most crafty histrionics" restored. All this proves ([seine] Annahme raffiniertester "Unwiederbringlich": irretrievable, ir• Komodianterei) . In brief, sheer playful• reparable. After a few month~ of quiet ness, in varying manner and degree, suffering and helpless anguish, Chris• reigns supreme and forms the common tine, in desperation, commits suicide. denominator ofHolk's Copenhagen flir• tations or most serious 'liaison' and their I have labeled Ebba's mind and behav• respective outcome. Unbeknownst to ior as 'capricious,' and with reason, for him for quite a while, in Brigitte's case, the whole affair with Holk-if indeed it and till the dire ending, in Ebba's, both can be called one, pitiably short-lived seductresses play the selfsame erotic as it is-was prodded by her caprices, game with him. her whims, her vagaries, and, in particu• lar, by her indomitable playfulness. Life Their manifest pairing, though, is meant and service at court, she has experienced by Fontane to indicate not merely a gra• and knows, are trite and boring, and she dation and intensification, as Demetz therefore, capriciously as well as cru• rightly affirms. The function of this elly, played her game with poor, naive, couple of women is undoubtedly larger and utterly unsuspecting Holk. Hence, and more complex within the parameters when she brutally rejects and even taunts of the novel, for doesn't the "Siam Epi• him, his reaction is as violent as it is un• sode," which so prominently features ambiguous. So everything, he rages, was Brigitte, betray a manifest structural af• nothing but an irresponsible "game," finity to the protracted 'episode' involv• nothing but a willful, lousy "farce" (also ing, no less prominently, Ebba von alles nur Spiel, alles nur Farce). And Rosenberg, along with Holk? Aren't since it doubtless was a game and noth• both narrative strands, intertwined as ing else, as he by now has perforce con• they are for at least some time, similarly vinced himself, he reiterates when quit• composed of a grand and promising, ting Ebba with a sarcastic bow, "then indeed, in Ebba's case, overwhelming, you have played it perfectly well" (so climax and a most sobering anticlimax? haben Sie gut gespielt). Still, the dubi• As for her, we have to ponder the mas• ous maid of honor is, to be sure, not the sive flop that results from the prompt only one to wallow in erotic play with and scarcely explicable disappearance Holk; the other one is, as might be ex• of the pearl necklace after all that pected, Brigitte, the equally dubious pseudo-Shakespearean pomp and cir• wife of the "Chinafahrer." She, too, con• cumstance which preceded. Thus, I ven• cedes that not only were the fantastic ture to say that the "Siam Episode," events in Bangkok merely a "bagatelle" through its very structure, anticipates (Spielerei) but the same holds true, by and, in a way, announces what will be-

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fall Count Holk in the course of the main less, that which this curt and laconic story. And if the Czech-American sentence echoes is nothing less than the scholar and critic is right once more• concluding words, an equally laconic as I believe he is: namely, in assuming phrase, of Goethe's sensational 1774 that the 'security amour' Brigitte has bestseller Die Leiden des jungen been carrying on must in fact be viewed Wert hers ("The Sufferings [or Sorrows] as carnal, hence adulterous-then of Young Werther"). Those near prover• Fontane herewith introduced a second bial words, referring to the burial of if simpler motif that presages and par• Werther, who took his life and therefore allels the momentous first one he estab• is denied a church funeral under the then lished in order to accentuate the doing existing law, read as follows: "No cler• of Count Holk. But, unfortunately, gyman escorted him" (Kein Geistlicher Demetz fails to draw this conclusion hat ihn begleitet). That Fontane's delib• which so readily suggests itself. erate echoing of the Goethean sentence and what it implies distinctly foreshad• The "Siam Episode" is not the only such ows Christine's own destiny and tragic motif that hints at some ensuing occur• fate must be self-evident, the only dif• rences in Unwiederbringlich. As a mat• ference being that she, in a more enlight• ter of fact, Fontane, here as elsewhere ened age, is of course granted an offi• in his novelistic oeuvre, is very fond of cial funeral ceremony. 17 narrative-structural devices of this kind. Given his predilection for quotations The second intertextual device from and allusion, and cryptoquo-tations and Unwiederbringlich that I wish to ad• allusions in especial, it ought not to duce, and which proves even more di• come as a great surprise that, in addi• rect and eloquent, also emerges from the tion to the fabulous "Siam Episode," he ending of the respective chapter. It also made use of intertextualities for doesn't, admittedly, constitute this similar, or comparable, purposes. Two chapter's last sentence, although it might pertinent examples from chapters XXIX well have served as such. Occurring and XXXII of Unwiederbringlich will during the festive meal that seals Chris• suffice. The first case in point occurs tine and Holk's remarriage, it clearly after Holk, on his hasty return to his reveals itself as yet another ominous home, has told his wife that he is deter• laconism. Namely, what is the wording mined to seek a divorce, to which she, of the toast Holk's brother-in-law pro• though deeply hurt, has consented. And poses to the doubly newlyweds? He now, while a heavy snow squall sets in, and Countess Christine and her close friend Julie von Dobschutz, barely vis• 17 For the Goethe an text, see Goethes Werke. ible anymore, leave the castle, Holk Ed. Enrich Trunz (Hamburg: Wegner, stays behind, watching the two. "No 1948ff.) VI: 124; Johann Wolfgang von one," the chapter ends, "accompanied Goethe, the Sufferings ofYoung Werther and Elective Affinities. Ed. Victor Lange. For• them" (Niemand begleitetesie). The wards by (New York: Con• intertextual connection as well as tinuum, 1990) 115 . Fontane's intentions are clear. Doubt-

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exclaims, bowing to them: "To the luck Still, there appears, to all intents and of Holkenas" (Auf das Glti"ck von purposes, yet another, much earlier and Holkenas ). Thus, rather than addressing far more extensive, quote from an the couple by name, he uses, fairly im• Uhland ballad in Fontane's personally, the name of their castle. And Unwiederbringlich. In point of fact, the what this formulation evokes, again author here, in the very first chapter of quite deliberately on the part of the au• his novel, even mentions the name of thor, is a ballad by the Swabian poet the balladeer explicitly, and not just once Ludwig Uhland ((1787-1862) who was but at least twice. The title of the poem so popular in l91h-century Germany that in question, cited or alluded to repeat• every educated man or woman was fa• edly, is "Das Schlopam Meer(e)," and miliar with his verse, indeed knew many it recurs as late as chapter XXXI, that lines by heart. The poem I have in mind is, immediately preceding that is no exception. Already its title, "Das intertextually portentous toast proposed Gluck von Edenhall," unmistakably ech• by Holk's brother-in-law. At the outset, oes the aforequoted toast (Edenhall, by true, he who quotes the Uhlandian title the way, is a castle in Scotland). This is not the authorial narrator but the char• "Luck of Edenhall"-note the exact acter Holk in his stead; moreover, Holk rhythmic correspondence of"Gliick von joyfully recites the idyllic opening Holkeniis" with "Glu"ck von stanza of Uhland ~s ballad, and verbatim Edenhall"-refers to a precious crystal to boot. "Have you seen the castle," its goblet not only symbolizing but actu• literal English rendition might read, "the ally embodying the good fortune of the towering castle by the sea? Golden and ancient noble house that has so happily rosy, the clouds are wafting across it." owned and occupied the castle for cen• Or in the German original: turies. However, its youngest scion, out of wantonness and hubris, challenges Hast du das Schlop gesehen, fate, and the goblet breaks into bits. Das hohe Schlop am Meer? Death and destruction are the inevitable Golden und rosig wehen and instant result, just as the relations Die Wolken dniber her. 19 between Christine and Holk, who seem• ingly were so luckily reunited, begin This is, except for a tiny difference of once more to cool off almost instantly, punctuation, 20 a most faithful quote in• and which ultimately, after only a few deed. Yet Holk isn't really lucky when months, lead to the countless' desper• reciting it to his wife so expectantly. ate suicide.18 Quite to the contrary: Christine, much more knowledgeable in letters than her husband, instructs him, half mockingly, 18 For Uhland's "Endenhall" ballad, cf. e.g Gedichte von Ludwig Uhland. Eilfte Auflage. Mit dem Bildnisse des Verfassers 19 Ibid. 251 . [Eleventh edition. With the portrait of the 2° Fontane, at least in my edition, writes author.] (Stuttgart and Tubingen: Cotta, "gesehen?" with a question mark instead of 1837) 427ff. a comma; compare Fontane, Siitliche Werke II: 569.

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that the lines he quoted are by Ludwig intertextualities we have examined, Uhland, and that furthermore, he has there still remains an intricate and far• obviously been blithely unaware not reaching problem that needs must arise, only of the identify of the poet but like• but which hasn't been taken up yet, wise, and above all, of the sea and la• much less been solved. To wit: why did mentable progress of his verse. So as to Theodor Fontane select, or hit on, substantiate her contention, Christine Siam-or old Thailand according to my qow quotes for her part. She chooses the title-as the site and origin of his major fifth strophe, centered as it' is in a subplot? What motivated this most un• "threnody" and in "tears": usual, this eccentric, this truly outland• ish choice? I for one have no definitive Die Winde, Die Wogen alle answer whatsoever; all I am able to Lagen in tiefer Ruh, com~ up with is guesswork. Thus, was Einem Klagelied aus der Halle Fontane attracted and fascinated by the Hort' ich mit Thriinen zu. 21 luxuriant exoticism informing Brigitte's (alleged) Siamese experience? Did he The winds and waves, they all believe such exotic traits would stress Rested in deep tranquility, the implausibility of her wondrous 'ad• To a lament from the hall venture' from the very beginning, as I was listening with tears. well as her and her mother's deep-seated shrewdness and untrustworthiness? Or If one is happy, Christine admonishes did the seasoned storyteller merely de• Holk, he shouldn't want to become even light in spinning a yam? After all, the happier. But her husband is not deterred rulers of Siam/Thailand have been from his plans, neither by the additional kings, rather than emperors, up to this Uhland stanza nor by his wife's forebod• day, at least as far as I know. And would ings. However, they do come true, as we such a court festivity, such an excessive know, and far more haplessly than Chris• homage paid to a captain's wife, how• tine could have foreseen. ever beautiful, have at all been possible even during the reign of King Rama IV In conclusion, we have to look, one last (Mongkut)? It is true he signed a trade time, at Fontane's "Siam Episode" agreement with the British Embassy again. Whereas its narrative function, under Sir John Bowring in 1855, and the i.e., the structural aspect of this inserted events of Unwiederbringlich, as will be · story, can, both in terms of intensifying recalled, take place in the late 1850s and gradation and of prefigurative parallel• early 1860s; so the ground may in fact isms or broad anticipatory hints, exhaus• have been prepared by then for an ex• tively and convincingly be demon• travagancy of that kind. On the other strated, as can its relationship and even hand-namely, as to the concrete hon• similarity to the typically Fontane an ors and distinctions bestowed on Brigitte-were such objects as a fan of 21 As n. 19 above; my emphases. Needless peacock feathers, let alone a costly pearl to say, the aforecited edition has the modern necklace, fraught with an emblematic spelling "Triinen." significance in ancient Siamese culture,

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a significance that might perhaps have a covert bearing upon the characters and occurrences of Fontane's novel? To be quite frank, and to iterate and at once expand my previous admission: I do not know. Hence, it will be the task of mod• ern Thai scholarship (of present-day German and comparative criticism in Thailand, that is) to continue attentively to study Fontane's "Siam Episode," this unique phenomenon in his novelistic oeuvre as, I suspect, in 19th_ and 2Qth_ century German literature in general, and safely and finally bring home its full-out meaning, or further allusive qualities, if indeed it can boast of any.

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