Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry Part 9

Sometimes this effect is produced by a distinct though unintended anti-climax. Nowhere has Heine struck a more truly elegiac note than in the stanza:

Der Tod, das ist die kuhle Nacht, Das Leben ist der schwule Tag.

Es dunkelt schon, mich schlafert, Der Tag hat mich mude gemacht.[213]

There is the most profound Weltschmerz in that. But in the second stanza there is relatively little:

Ueber mein Bett erhebt sich ein Baum, Drin singt die junge Nachtigall; Sie singt von lauter Liebe, Ich hor' es sogar im Traum.

Lenau's lyrics have shown that much Weltschmerz may grow out of unsatisfied love; Heine's demonstrate that mere love sickness is not Weltschmerz. The fact is that Heine frequently destroys what would have been a certain impression of Weltschmerz by forcing upon us the immediate cause of his distemper,--it may be a real injury, or merely a pa.s.sing annoyance. What a strange mixture of acrimonious, sarcastic protest and Weltschmerz elements we find in the poem "Ruhelechzend"[214]

of which a few stanzas will serve to ill.u.s.trate. Again he strikes a full minor chord:

Las bluten deine Wunden, la.s.s Die Thranen fliessen unaufhaltsam; Geheime Woll.u.s.t schwelgt im Schmerz, Und Weinen ist ein susser Balsam.

This in practice rather than in theory is what we observe in Lenau,--his melancholy satisfaction in nursing his grief,--and we have promise of a poem of genuine Weltschmerz. Even through the second and third stanzas this feeling is not destroyed, although the terms "Schelm" and "Tolpel"

gently arouse our suspicion:

Des Tages Larm verhallt, es steigt Die Nacht herab mit langen Flohren.

In ihrem Schosse wird kein Schelm, Kein Tolpel deine Ruhe storen.

But the very next stanza brings the transition from the sublime to the ridiculous:

Hier bist du sicher vor Musik, Vor des Pianofortes Folter, Und vor der grossen Oper Pracht Und schrecklichem Bravourgepolter.

O Grab, du bist das Paradies Fur pobelscheue, zarte Ohren-- Der Tod ist gut, doch besser war's, Die Mutter hatt' uns nie geboren.

It is scarcely necessary to point out that the specific cause which the poet confides to us of his "wounds, tears and pains" is ridiculously unimportant as compared with the conclusion which he draws in the last two lines.

Evidently then, he does not wish us to take him seriously, nor could we, if he did. Thus in their very att.i.tude toward the ills and vexations of life, there appears a most essential difference between Lenau and Heine.

Auerbach aptly remarks: "Spott und Satire verkleinern, Zorn und Ha.s.s vergrossern das Object."[215] And Lenau knew no satire; where Heine scoffed and ridiculed, he hated and scorned, with a hatred that only contributed to his own undoing. With Heine the satire's the thing, whether of himself or of others, and to this he willingly sacrifices the lofty sentiments of which he is capable. Indeed he frequently introduces these for no other purpose than to make the laugh or grimace all the more striking. And with reference to his love affair with Amalie, while the question as to the reality and depth of his feelings may be left entirely out of discussion, this much may be safely a.s.serted, that in comparatively few poems do those feelings find expression in the form of Weltschmerz. Now there is something essentially vague about Weltschmerz; it is an atmosphere, a "Stimmung" more or less indefinable, rather than the statement in lyric form of certain definite grievances with their particular and definite causes. And that is exactly what we find in Lenau, even in his love-songs. His love-sorrow is blended with his many other heart-aches, with his disappointments and regrets, with his yearning for death. He sings of his pain rather than of its immediate causes, and the result is an atmosphere of Weltschmerz.

Turning to Heine's later poems, especially to the "Romanzero," we find that atmosphere much more perceptible. But even here the poet is for the most part specific, and his method concrete. So for instance in "Der Dichter Firdusi"[216] in which he tells a story to ill.u.s.trate his belief that merit is appreciated and rewarded only after the death of the one who should have reaped the reward. So also in "Weltlauf,"[217] the first stanza of which suggests a poetic rendering of Matth. 13:12, "For whosoever hath, to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath,"--to which the poet adds a stanza of caustic ironical comment:

Wenn du aber gar nichts hast, Ach, so la.s.se dich begraben-- Denn ein Recht zum Leben, Lump, Haben nur, die etwas haben.

And again, the poem "Lumpentum"[218] presents an ironical eulogy of flattery. His failure to realize the hopes of his youth is made the subject of "Verlorne Wunsche"[219] which maintains throughout a strain of seriousness quite unusual for Heine, and concludes:

Goldne Wunsche! Seifenblasen!

Sie zerrinnen wie mein Leben-- Ach ich liege jetzt am Boden, Kann mich nimmermehr erheben.

Und Ade! sie sind zerronnen, Goldne Wunsche, susses Hoffen!

Ach, zu totlich war der Faustschlag, Der mich just ins Herz getroffen.

A number of these lyrics from the Romanzero show very strikingly Heine's objective treatment of his poems of complaint. Such selections as "Sie erlischt,"[220] in which he compares his soul to the last flicker of a lamp in the darkened theater, or "Frau Sorge,"[221] which gives us the personification of care, represented as a nurse watching by his bedside, bring his objective method into marked contrast with Holderlin's subjective Weltschmerz. The same may be said of his autobiography in miniature, "Ruckschau,"[222] which catalogues the poet's experiences, pleasant and adverse, with evident sincerity though of course with a liberal admixture of witty irony. Needless to say there is no real Weltschmerz discoverable in such a pot pourri as the following:

Die Glieder sind mir rheumatisch gelahmt, Und meine Seele ist tief beschamt.

Ich ward getrankt mit Bitternissen, Und grausam von den Wanzen gebissen, etc.

It would scarcely be profitable to attempt to estimate the causes and development of this self-irony, which plays so important a part in Heine's poetry. Its possibility lay no doubt in his native mother-wit, with its genial perception of the incongruous, combined, it must be admitted, with a relatively low order of self-respect. Its first incentive he may have found in his unrequited love for Amalie. Had it been like that of Holderlin for Diotima, or Lenau for Sophie, reciprocated though unsatisfied, we could not easily imagine the ironical tone which pervades most of his love-songs. And so he uses it as a veil for his chagrin, preferring to laugh and have the world laugh with him, rather than to weep alone. But the incident in Heine's life which probably more than any other experience fostered this habit of making himself the b.u.t.t of his witty irony was his outward renunciation of Judaism. Little need be said concerning this, since the details are so well known. He himself confesses that the step was taken from the lowest motives, for which he justly hated and despised himself. To Moser he writes (1825): "Ich weiss nicht, was ich sagen soll, Cohen versichert mich, Gans predige das Christentum und suche die Kinder Israels zu bekehren. Thut er dieses aus Ueberzeugung, so ist er ein Narr; thut er es aus Gleissnerei, so ist er ein Lump. Ich werde zwar nicht aufh.o.r.en, Gans zu lieben; dennoch gestehe ich, weit lieber war's mir gewesen, wenn ich statt obiger Nachricht erfahren hatte, Gans habe silberne Loffel gestohlen.... Es ware mir sehr leid, wenn mein eigenes Getauftsein Dir in einem gunstigen Lichte erscheinen konnte. Ich versichere Dich, wenn die Gesetze das Stehlen silberner Loffel erlaubt hatten, so wurde ich mich nicht getauft haben."[223] But in addition to the loss of self-respect came his disappointment and chagrin at the non-success of his move, since he realized that it was not even bringing him the material gain for which he had hoped. Instead, he felt himself an object of contempt among Christians and Jews alike. "Ich bin jetzt bei Christ und Jude verha.s.st. Ich bereue sehr, da.s.s ich mich getauft hab'; ich sehe gar nicht ein, da.s.s es mir seitdem besser gegangen sei; im Gegenteil, ich habe seitdem nichts als Ungluck."[224] He is so unhappy in consequence of this step that he earnestly desires to leave Germany. "Es ist aber ganz bestimmt, da.s.s es mich sehnlichst drangt, dem deutschen Vaterlande Valet zu sagen. Minder die l.u.s.t des Wanderns als die Qual personlicher Verhaltnisse (z. B. der nie abzuwaschende Jude) treibt mich von hinnen."[225]

In his tragedy "Almansor," written during the years 1820 and 1821,[226]

his deep-rooted antipathy to Christianity finds strong expression through Almansor, although the countervailing arguments are eloquently stated by the heroine. Prophetic of the poet's own later experience is the representation of the hero, who is beguiled by his love for Zuleima into vowing allegiance to the Christian faith, only to find that the sacrifice has failed to win for him the object for which it was made. In the character of Almansor, more than anywhere else, Heine's "Liebesschmerz" and "Judenschmerz" have combined to produce in him an inner dissonance which expresses itself in lyric lines of real Weltschmerz:

Ich bin recht mud Und krank, und kranker noch als krank, denn ach, Die allerschlimmste Krankheit ist das Leben; Und heilen kann sie nur der Tod....[227]

But here too, as in "Ratcliff," such pa.s.sages are exceptional. In the main these tragedies are nothing more than vehicles for the poet's stormy protest, much of it after the Storm and Stress pattern;[228] and mere protest, however acrimonious, cannot be called Weltschmerz.

Certain it is that during these early years numerous disappointments other than those of love contributed to produce in the poet a gloomy state of mind. A reflection of the unhappiness which he had experienced during his residence in Hamburg is found in many pa.s.sages in his correspondence which express his repugnance for the city and its people.

To Immanuel Wohlwill (1823): "Es freut mich, da.s.s es Dir in den Armen der aimablen Hammonia zu behagen beginnt; mir ist diese Schone zuwider.

Mich tauscht nicht der goldgestickte Rock, ich weiss, sie tragt ein schmutziges Hemd auf dem gelben Leibe, und mit den schmelzenden Liebesseufzern 'Rindfleisch[3] Banko!' sinkt sie an die Brust des Meistbietenden.... Vielleicht thue ich aber der guten Stadt Hamburg unrecht; die Stimmung, die mich beherrschte, als ich dort einige Zeit lebte, war nicht dazu geeignet, mich zu einem unbefangenen Beurteiler zu machen; mein _inneres_ Leben war brutendes Versinken in den dusteren, nur von phantastischen Lichtern durchblitzten Schacht der Traumwelt, mein _ausseres_ Leben war toll, wust, cynisch, abstossend; mit einem Worte, ich machte es zum schneidenden Gegensatz meines inneren Lebens, damit mich dieses nicht durch sein Uebergewicht zerstore."[229] To Moser (1823): "Hamburg? sollte ich dort noch so viele Freuden finden konnen, als ich schon Schmerzen dort empfand? Dieses ist freilich unmoglich--"[230] "Hamburg!!! mein Elysium und Tartarus zu gleicher Zeit! Ort, den ich detestiere und am meisten liebe, wo mich die abscheulichsten Gefuhle martern und we ich mich dennoch hinwunsche."[231] Another letter to Moser is dated: "Verdammtes Hamburg, den 14. Dezember, 1825."[232] The following year he writes, in a letter to Immermann: "Ich verliess Gottingen, suchte in Hamburg ein Unterkommen, fand aber nichts als Feinde, Verklatschung und Aerger."[233] And to Varnhagen von Ense (1828): "Nach Hamburg werde ich nie in diesem Leben zuruckkehren; es sind mir Dinge von der aussersten Bitterkeit dort pa.s.siert, sie waren auch nicht zu ertragen gewesen, ohne den Umstand, da.s.s nur ich sie weiss."[234] To his mother's insistent pleading he replies (1833): "Aber ich will, wenn Du es durchaus verlangst, diesen Sommer auf acht Tage nach Hamburg kommen, nach dem schandlichen Neste, wo ich meinen Feinden den Triumph gonnen soll, mich wiederzusehen und mit Beleidigungen uberhaufen zu konnen."[235]

His several endeavors to establish himself on a firm material footing in life had failed,--he had sought for a place in a Berlin high school, then entertained the idea of practising law in Hamburg, then aspired to a professors.h.i.+p in Munich, but without success. But more than by all these reverses, more even than by the circ.u.mstances and consequences of his Hebrew parentage, was the poet wrought up by the family strife over the payment of his pension, which followed upon the death of his uncle in December, 1844, and which lasted for several years. From the very beginning he had had much intermittent annoyance through his dealings with his sporadically generous uncle Salomon Heine. As early as 1823 Heine writes to Moser: "Auch weiss ich, da.s.s mein Oheim, der sich hier so gemein zeigt, zu andern Zeiten die Generositat selbst ist; aber es ist doch in mir der Vorsatz aufgekommen, alles anzuwenden, um mich so bald als moglich von der Gute meines Oheims loszureissen. Jetzt habe ich ihn freilich noch notig, und wie knickerig auch die Unterstutzung ist, die er mir zufliessen la.s.st, so kann ich dieselbe nicht entbehren."[236]

And again in the same year: "Es ist fatal, da.s.s bei mir der ganze Mensch durch das Budget regiert wird. Auf meine Grundsatze hat Geldmangel oder Ueberfluss nicht den mindesten Einfluss, aber desto mehr auf meine Handlungen. Ja, grosser Moser, der H. Heine ist sehr klein."[237] And when, after his uncle's demise, the heirs of the latter threatened to cut off the poet's pension, he writes to Campe[238] and to Detmold,[239]

in a frenzy of wrath and excitement, and shows what he is really capable of under pressure of circ.u.mstances. Perhaps it is only fair to suppose that his long years of suffering, both from his physical condition and from the unscrupulous attacks of his enemies, had had a corroding effect upon his moral sensibilities. In his request to Campe to act as mediator in the disagreeable affair he says: "Sie konnen alle Schuld des Missverstandnisses auf mich schieben, die Gross.m.u.t der Familie hervorstreichen, kurz, mich sacrificiren." And all this to be submitted to the public in print! "Ich gestehe Ihnen heute offen, ich habe gar keine Eitelkeit in der Weise andrer Menschen, mir liegt am Ende gar nichts an der Meinung des Publik.u.ms; mir ist nur eins wichtig, die Befriedigung meines inneren Willens, die Selbstachtung meiner Seele."

But how he was able to preserve his self-respect, and at the same time be willing to employ any and all means to attain his end, perhaps no one less unscrupulous than he could comprehend. He intimates that he has decided upon threats and public intimidation as being probably more effective than a servile att.i.tude, which, he allows us to infer, he would be quite willing to take if advisable. "Das Beste muss hier die Presse thun zur Intimidation, und die ersten Kotwurfe auf Karl Heine und namentlich auf Adolf Halle werden schon wirken. Die Leute sind an Dreck nicht gewohnt, wahrend ich ganze Mistkarren vertragen kann, ja diese, wie auf Blumenbeeten, nur mein Gedeihen zeitigen."[240]

It is quite evident that this long drawn out quarrel aroused all that was mean and vindictive, all that was immoral in the man, and that the nervous excitement thereby induced had a most baneful effect upon his entire nature, physical as well as mental. In a number of poems he has given expression to his anger and has masterfully cursed his adversaries, for example, "Es gab den Dolch in deine Hand,"[241] "Sie kussten mich mit ihren falschen Lippen,"[242] and several following ones. But here, too, his fancy is altogether too busy with the suitable characterization of his enemies and the invention of adequate tortures for them, to leave room for even a suggestion of the Weltschmerz which we might expect to result from such painful emotions.

It is scarcely necessary to theorize as to what would have been the att.i.tude and conduct of a sensitive Holderlin or a proud-spirited Lenau in a similar position. Lenau is too proud to protest, preferring to suffer. Heine is too vain to appear as a sufferer, so he meets adversity, not in a spirit of admirable courage, but in a spirit of bravado. In giving lyric utterance to his resentment, Heine is conscious that the world is looking on, and so he indulges, even in the expression of his Weltschmerz, in a vain ostentation which stands in marked contrast to Lenau's dignified pride. He is quite right when he says in a letter to his friend Moser: "Ich bin nicht gross genug, um Erniedrigung zu tragen."[243]

As an ill.u.s.tration of the vain display which he makes of his sadness, his poem "Der Traurige" may be quoted in part:

Allen thut es weh in Herzen, Die den bleichen Knaben sehn, Dem die Leiden, dem die Schmerzen Auf's Gesicht geschrieben stehn.[244]

A similar impression is made by the concluding numbers of the Intermezzo, "Die alten, bosen Lieder."[245] And here again the comparison,--even if merely as to size,--of a coffin with the "Heidelberger Fa.s.s" is most incongruous, to say the least, and tends very effectually to destroy the serious sentiment which the poem, with less definite exaggerations, might have conveyed. Similarly overdone is his poetic preface to the "Rabbi" sent to his friend Moser:[246]

Brich aus in lauten Klagen Du dustres Martyrerlied, Das ich so lang getragen Im flammenstillen Gemut!

Es dringt in alle Ohren, Und durch die Ohren ins Herz; Ich habe gewaltig beschworen Den tausendjahrigen Schmerz.

Es weinen dir Grossen und Kleinen, Sogar die kalten Herrn, Die Frauen und Blumen weinen, Es weinen am Himmel die Stern.

It is not necessary, even if it were to the point, to adduce further evidence of Heine's vanity as expressed in his prose writings, or in poems such as the much-quoted

Nennt man die besten Namen, So wird auch der meine genannt.[247]

It cannot be denied that this element of vanity, of showiness, only serves to emphasize our impression of the unreality of much of Heine's Weltschmerz.

With the reference to this element of ostentation in Heine's Weltschmerz there is suggested at once the question of the Byronic pose, and of Byron's influence in general upon the German poet. On the general relations.h.i.+p between the two poets much has been written,[248] so that we may confine ourselves here to the consideration of certain points of resemblance in their Weltschmerz.

Julian Schmidt names Byron as the constellation which ruled the heavens during the period from the Napoleonic wars to the "Volkerfruhling,"

1848, as the meteor upon which at that time the eyes of all Europe were fixed. Certainly the English poet could not have wished for a more auspicious introduction and endorsation in Germany, if he had needed such, than that which was given him by Goethe himself, whose subsequent tribute in his Euphorion in the second part of "Faust" is one of Byron's most splendid memorials. The enthusiasm which Lord Byron aroused in Germany is attested by Goethe: "Im Jahre 1816, also einige Jahre nach dem Erscheinen des ersten Gesanges des 'Childe Harold,' trat englische Poesie und Literatur vor allen andern in den Vordergrund. Lord Byrons Gedichte, je mehr man sich mit den Eigenheiten dieses ausserordentlichen Geistes bekannt machte, gewannen immer grossere Teilnahme, so da.s.s Manner und Frauen, Magdlein und Junggesellen fast aller Deutschheit und Nationalitat zu vergessen schienen."[249]

It is important to note that this first period of unrestrained Byron enthusiasm coincides with the formative and impressionable years of Heine's youth. In his first book of poems, published in 1821, he included translations from Byron, in reviewing which Immermann pointed out[250] that while Heine's poems showed a superficial resemblance to those of Byron, the temperament of the former was far removed from the sinister scorn of the English lord, that it was in fact much more cheerful and enamored of life.[251] There is plenty of evidence, however, to show that it was exceedingly gratifying to the young Heine to have his name a.s.sociated with that of Byron; and although he had no enthusiasm for Byron's philh.e.l.lenism, he was pleased to write, June 25, 1824, on hearing of the Englishman's death: "Der Todesfall Byrons hat mich ubrigens sehr bewegt. Es war der einzige Mensch, mit dem ich mich verwandt fuhlte, und wir mogen uns wohl in manchen Dingen geglichen haben; scherze nur daruber, soviel Du willst. Ich las ihn selten seit einigen Jahren; man geht lieber um mit Menschen, deren Charakter von dem unsrigen verschieden ist. Ich bin aber mit Byron immer behaglich umgegangen, wie mit einem vollig gleichen Spiesskameraden. Mit Shakespeare kann ich gar nicht behaglich umgehen, ich fuhle nur zu sehr, da.s.s ich nicht seinesgleichen bin, er ist der allgewaltige Minister, und ich bin ein blosser Hofrat, und es ist mir, als ob er mich jeden Augenblick absetzen konnte."[252] Significant is the allusion in this same letter to a proposition which the writer seems to have made to his friend in a previous one: " ... ich darf Dir Dein Versprechen in Hinsicht des 'Morgenblattes' durchaus nicht erla.s.sen. Robert besorgt gern den Aufsatz. Byron ist jetzt tot, und ein Wort uber ihn ist jetzt pa.s.send. Vergiss es nicht; Du thust mir einen sehr grossen Gefallen."[253] We shall probably not be far astray in a.s.suming that the "Gefallen" was to have been the advertising of Heine as the natural successor of Byron in European literature. Three months later he once more urges the request: "Auch fande ich es noch immer angemessen, ja jetzt mehr als je, da.s.s Du Dich uber Byron und Komp. vernehmen liessest."[254]