Alexander Schmidt: Walter Scott, in,,Gesammelte Abhandlungen." Berlin 1889. Natorp: Zu Walter Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel, in Herrig's Archiv LXXII, 311. Andrew Lang: The Waverley Novels, »Border Edition<<, with Introductory Essay and Notes. London 1894. Eugenie Franke: Archiv (101, 1898) Quellen des Lay of the Last Minstel, von W. Scott. S. T. Coleridge: Poems. Leipzig 1860. The Works of Tobias Smollet. London 1797. Lewis, Ambrosio or the Monk: a Romance. London 1798. Mrs. Radcliffe's novels. London 1824. In the literature of all German tribes, beginning in the oldest and remotest times, we find a liking for superstitions, dreadful events, awful spectacles etc developed to a far greater extent than with any other nations. In ancient times all descriptions of nature, for instance, only give us the wild and terrifying. In Beowulf only the terrors of winter are described Beowulf 515, 545-548, 1127-28, 1330-33 >>zeofon yðum weol, wintres wylme pa wit atsomne on sæ wæron fif nihta fyrst, od pæt une flod todraf, nipende niht ond norðan wind heodo-grim andhwearf; hreo wæron yoa.«< wäl-fagne winter wunode mid Finne . won wið winde; winter yde beleac is-gebinde . . >>Hengest pa gyt holm storme weol Similar powerful verses on horrors in nature are given to us in the old-German »>Muspilli<< and the Anglo-Saxon poem, which we call in German »der Seefahrer<<. Muspilli; 27-37: >>so inprinnant die perga poum ni kistentit enihc in erdu, aha artruknent muor varsuuilhit sih, suilizot lougiu der himil, mano fallit, prinnit mittilagart, sten ni kistentit verit denne stuatago in land, verit mit diu vuiru viriho uuison: dar ni mac denne mak andremo helfan vora demo denne daz preita uuasal allaz varprennit, enti vuir enti luft is allaz arfurpit, muspille. uuar ist denne diu marha, dar man dar eo mit sinen winter wunade wræcan lastum winemægum bidroren. bihongen hrimgicelum hægl scurum fleag. þær ic negehyrde butan hlimman sæ iscaldne wæg, hwilum ylfete song: dyde ic me to gomene ganetes hleopor and huilpan sweg fore hleahtor wera, mæw singende fore medodrince. Stormas þær stanclifu beotan, þær him stearn oncwæd isigfepera fuloft pæt earn bigeal heaswigfepra. Nænig hleomæga feasceaftig ferð frefran meahte »Nap nihtscua, norpan sniwde, hrim hrusan band; hægl feol on eorpan, Corna caldast.<< 1 9 With the >>Minnesinger«< in Germany and with the Latin Monk-Poetry in England, the Roman influence suppresses this specific German manner of taste which is not reawakened before the 16th century; the negative reason being the humanistic Latin poets, and the positive, the what we call »Volksdichter«. The return of the Stuarts again establishes the Roman influence. The so called Pseudo-Classicism brought over from France by them has, however, never been apt to find a way to the heart of the English people, and it was not long before the cold and sober reasoning of the poets of this school had to surrender to a literature of another turn. Manyfold were the causes for this change. It was the consequence of the whole social development in England, the class of citizens having obtained the leading position with a striving sense of free movement and development of vigour in every respeet and in all matters. A love for Shakespeare and old English poetry awoke. People strove to be delivered from the monotony of all these poets till down to Erasmus Darwin, Crabbe, Campbell etc. who had thoroughly tired out their readers. A longing arose to be delivered from their annoying heroic verses, a longing for fresher and stronger food, the more so, as through the political influence of the French revolution also in England the national spirit and patriotic feeling had been freshly animated and invigorated. Already in the second quarter of the eighteenth century there arose dissatisfaction with the criticism and poetry of Pope, which we can look upon as the faint beginning of the so called. Romantic movement. The first poet in whose works. slight alterations in form and contents from PseudoClassicism may be detected is Smollet. Certain passages in >>Count Fathom« show a revived interest in superstition, as unmistakably as does the poetry of the Gothic novelists. Renald visits the tomb of his Monimia in a night of uncommon darkness. As he enters and walks up >>the dreary aisle«<, the clock strikes twelve, and the owl screeches from the ruined battlement. The organ is touched by an invisible hand<<. A figure of >>a woman in white<< approaches and cries out to him. Terror makes him speechless; »his hair stands upright«, and »a cold vapour thrills through every nerve«<.* It ist true, superstition is to be found already in the works of the writers in Queen Anne's time; but what marked difference from the treatment of Smollet! They looked upun devils and ghosts as tangible beings and discribed them coldly and minutely. Smollet at first awakes terror and wonder with his mysteries, though, in the manner of Anne Radcliffe, he afterwards. accounts for them. One by one the old writers dropped off and new writers of utterly distinct idiosyncrasy made their appearance. >>No special production of theirs may be of a high value, but their is an idiosyncrasy, an unlikeness to anything of their predecessors«<, (Saintsbury) which is most distinguishable in the terror and mystery novels that were now started by *) Vol. V, 424. |