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378.7CXO C63 Influence of E.T.A.











CONTENTS
PAGE
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......
INTRODUCTION
........................................
1
CHAPTER I
VARIOUS ESTIMATES OF POE'S INDEBTEDNESS TO
GERMAN LITERATURE...,
.....
4
CHAPTER II
GERMAN LITERATURE IN AMERICA AND ENGLAND
IN THE THIRTIES AND FORTIES.................. 15
CHAPTER III
Poe's KNOWLEDGE OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE......... 20
CHAPTER IV
HOFFMANN'S Elixiere des Teufels AND Poe's William
Wilson ....
...... 31
CHAPTER V
HOFFMANN's Magnetiseur AND Poe's Tale of the Ragged
MOUNTAINS ..................................... 49
CHAPTER VI
HOFFMANN's Die Jesuiterkirche in G-
The Oval Portrait .
AND Poe's
.... 70


BIBLIOGRAPHY
References in the body of the text are made by foot notes
under the name of the author or editor to the following
works.
A. Barine, Nevrosés. Paris, 1893.
H. M. Belden, Anglia, 23. 376.
L. P. Betz, Edgar Poe in der Französischen Literatur.
Frankfurt a. M., 1893.
W. v. Biedermann, Editor, Goethes Gespräche. Leipzig,
1889-96.
J. Bing, Novalis. Eine Biographische Charakteristik.
Hamburg and Leipzig, 1893.
Bruhier, Abhandluugen von der Ungewissheit der Kennzei-
chen des Todes. Übersetzt von Johann Gotfried Jancke.
Leipzig, 1754.
Cooper, The Mohawk Edition of Cooper's Works. New
York, 1897.
G. Ellinger, E. T. A. Hoffmann. Sein Leben and seine
Werke. Hamburg und Leipzig, 1906.
C. P. Evans. Müncher Allg. Zeitung, 1899. No. 229.
R. P. Gillies, German Stories. Selected from the works of
de la Motte Fouqué, Richter, etc. London, 1826.
E. Griesebach, Editor, E. T. A. Hoffmanns Sämtliche
Werke. Leipzig, 1906.
R. W. Griswold, Life and Works of E. A. Poe. New
York, 1856.
G. Gruener, Publications of the Modern Language Associ-
ation of America. March, 1904.
Gruendel, E. A. Poe. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntniss und
Würdigung des Dichters. Schulprogram, Freiberg, 1895.
J. A. Harrison, Editor, The Complete Works of E. A. Poe.
New York, 1902,
Havemann, Deutsche Heimat, 1902. Heft 3,


INTRODUCTION
“Goethe spoke much about the French, especially Cousin,
Villemain, and Guizot, “The insight, circumspection, and
perspicuity of these men,' said he, 'is great; they com-
bine complete knowledge of the past with the spirit of
the nineteenth century, which, to be sure, works wonders.'
From this we passed to the newest French writers and to
the significance of classic and romantic.
“A new expression has occurred to me,' said Goethe,
'which does not characterize the relationship badly. The
classic I call the healthy, and the romantic the diseased. And
in this sense the Nibelungen is classic, as well as Homer, for
both are healthy and vigorous. The most of the new is not
romantic because it is new, but because it is weak, sickly and
diseased, and the old is not classic because it is old, but because
it is strong, fresh, happy and healthy.'".
This is Goethe's word relative to a certain phase of roman-
ticism whose productions seemed to him to be unsound and
unwholesome, because they did not emanate from minds
which were “strong, fresh, happy and healthy."
It is with the productions of two such minds which Goethe
characterizes as “diseased” that the present work has to do.
The American Edgar Allan Poe, and the German Ernst Theo-
dor Amadeus Hoffmann are both disciples of that phase of
romanticism which had terror of the uncanny as its dominant
note, and which Goethe calls “weak, sickly, and diseased” in
in distinction from that which is “strong, fresh, happy and
healthy." Both these men were powerfully fascinated by the
mystery of the supernatural. They were tantalized by the
hope of solving or guessing the secrets of another world which
stretches away beyond the range of human intelligence. One
may agree with Goethe that the theories they evolved and the
1 Biedermann. Goethes Gespräche, Leipzig, 1889-96. Vol. 7, p. 40.


2
Palmer Cobb
tales they told are not food for the mind that is fresh, sound,
and cheerful. But if their fancy and their speculation enticed
them too far afield their genius accompanied them, and it
will create for their work a lasting value. .
It has been said that they were both exponents of one
phase of romanticism, that their interests were frequently
identical. To what extent was the one acquainted with the
work of the other? In what measure did the one mind influ-
ence the other?
In the recently completed German edition of Poe's works,”
the editor, in his prefatory account of the poet's life and
work's remarks:
Sein Leben war das eines Träumers aus dem alten Mut-
terlande Europa, und wenn man seine halb norman-
nische Abkunft bedenkt, kann man schon ruhig sagen,
eines germanischen Träumers — war ein Leben, ein
Traumieben, geführt in dem brutal-realen, fast aus-
schliesslich merkantilen Milieu Nord Amerikas ...
Die Kreuzung von Leben und Mensch, die sich da
ergab, die Mischung von bedingungsloser Kultur und
unbedingtem Neuland, die dann so einzig ist, ist Poe,
der Romantiker, verpflanzt auf den realitätenschwer-
sten Boden, den man sich in damaliger Zeit nur über-
haupt denken konnte.
This in general is the standpoint of the present work. It
is Poe the “Germanic dreamer,” the romanticist, that is here
to be the subject of discussion, and always from the stand-
point of his indebtedness to German literature, as to material
and technique. Poe the romanticist and dreamer is probably
nowhere more happily, and at the same time more briefly
characterized than by his contemporary James Russell
Lowell:3
In his tales he has chosen to exhibit nis powers chiefly
in that dim region which stretches from the very
2 Moeller-Bruck, E. A. Poe's Sämtliche Werke. Minden i. W., 1904. Vol.
8 Graham's Magazine. February, 1845. Our Contributors.
1, p. 126.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
utmost limits of the probable into the weird confines of
superstition and unreality. He combines in a very
remarkable manner two faculties which are seldom
found united; a power of influencing the mind of the
reader by the impalpable shadows of mystery, and a
minuteness of detail which does not leave a pin or a
button unnoticed. . . .
He loves to dissect those cancers of the mind, and to
trace all the subtle ramifications of its roots. In rais-
ing images of horror he has a strange success; convey-
ing to us sometimes by a hint some terrible doubt
which is the secret of all horror. He leaves to the
imagination the task of finishing the picture, a task
to which she only is competent,


Influence of Hoffman on the Tales of Poe
5
This utterance of Poe has been used as evidence by the
few critics who deny the German influence in his works. In
so doing they have overlooked the fact that Poe does not
deny in general terms the influence of German romanticism
in his tales. The statement is that, as far as terror has been
the thesis of his tales, this terror was of his own soul and not
of Germany. That is without doubt true. Of motives and
technique of the German romanticists there is no word of
denial. A few of the critics have also made that distinction.
The first American biographer of Poe, Griswold, has too
much to do in his slanderous investigations of Poe's supposed
debauches to treat of literary influences. There is no men-
tion of German influence. Stedman discusses the subject
briefly but does not find in Poe's work anything suggestive
of far reaching German influence. Later, however, he seems
to have changed his mind. In his introduction to the edition
of Poe of 1895, he says: “Nevertheless, there is a pseudo-
horror to be found in certain of his pieces, and enough of
Hoffmann's method to suggest that the brilliant author of the
Phantasie Stücke, (Hoffmann) whether a secondary name or
not, was one of Poe's early teachers.”
Again, on page 96: “Still, while Hoffmann was wholly of
the fatherland, and Poe a misfitted American, if the one had
died before the other, instead of thirteen years later, there
would be a chance for a pretty fancy in behalf of the doc-
trine of metempsychosis, which both writers utilized.” Sted-
man concludes that Hoffmann's influence is undeniable.
The next American biographer, Prof. Woodberry, is
entirely against German influence, while the last biography,
that of Prof. Harrison in the preface to his edition of Poe,
makes no direct reference to E. T. A. Hoffmann. He declares,
however,' that Poe was "saturated with the doctrines of
Schelling," and speaks also of “Novalis and Schelling, his
masters across the German Sea.” Mention is also made of
the translations of Tieck, de la Motte-Fouqué, Chamisso, the
2 Harrison, Vol. 1, p. 153, 4.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
Und hiermit erkläre ich die Präliminarien unsers neuen
Bundes feierlichst für abgeschlossen, und setze fest,
dass wir uns jede Woche an einem bestimmten Tage
zusammen finden wollen, u.s.w.
“Herrlicher Einfall,” rief Lothar, "füge doch noch sog-
leich, lieber Ottmar, gewisse Gesetze hinzu, die bei
unsern bestimmten wöchentlichen Zusammenkünften
stattfinden sollen. Z. B. dass über dieses oder jenes
gesprochen oder nicht gesprochen werden darf, oder
dass jeder gehalten sein soll, dreimal witzig zu sein,
oder dass wir ganz gewiss jedesmal Sardellen-Salat
essen wollen,” u.s.w.
Again, page 55:
Es kann nicht fehlen dass wir, einer dem andern, nach
alter Weise, manches poetische Produktlein, das wir
unter dem Herzen getragen, mitteilen werden.
Thirdly, Gruener believes that Poe hit upon his title for
his second collection of Tales, Tales of the Grotesque und
Arabesque, through Hoffmann. In support of this theory, an
article by Walter Scott in the Foreign Quarterly Review for
July, 1827, is quoted. Poe, in one of his letters, quotes this
very magazines and he must have been attracted by this
article of Scott's, which deals with German Romance. Scott
speaks of the "fantastic mode of writing" and cites Hoffmann
as the pioneer in this field: “He (Hoffmann) was the inven-
tor, or at least the first distinguished artist, who exhibited
the fantastic or supernatural grotesque in his compositions,
so nearly on the verge of insanity as to be afraid of the beings
his own fancy created. In fact, the Grotesque in his compo-
sitions partly resembles the Arabesque in painting.” Gruener
concludes that Poe must have noticed this passage, "partic-
ularly as Scott proceeds to charge Hoffmann with just those
things with which Poe was charged in his lifetime." It is
worthy of note also that the introduction to Poe's Tales of
the Folio Club was first published in Harrison's edition. Poe
5 Harrison. Vol. 17, page 161.


Palmer Cobb
probably thought the resemblance to the Serapionsbrüder too
striking.
Gruener discusses the passage in Stedman's biography
of Poe which connects the latter's Fall of the House of
Usher with Hoffmann's Das Majorat. The passage reads as
follows: 6
A reader finds certain properties of the “House of
Usher” and Metzengerstein in DasMajorat in
the ancestral castle of a noble family, in a wild and
remote estate near the Baltic Sea — the interior, where
the moon shines through oriel windows upon tapestry
and carven furniture and wainscoting, – the uncanny
scratchings upon a bricked-up door, — the old Freiherr
foreseeing the hour of his death, the ominous confia-
gration, — the turret falling of its own decay into a
chasm at its base, - etc.
Gruener notes relative to this passage:
These “properties" here enumerated are the very fea-
tures which Scott, in his article on Hoffmann lays stress
upon in the analysis of Das Majorat. In his own words
he describes the castle and its inhabitants, quotes in
translation the scene in the large hall at night with
moonlight streaming “through the broad transom win-
dows” into the hall in which the “walls and roof were
ornamented the former with heavy paneling, the
latter with fantastic carving;” and also quotes the
conclusion of the story. He notes that the Baron's
name was Roderick; and that the lady is "young, beau-
tiful, nervous, and full of sensibility.” The most
striking feature of the whole, however, is Scott's
description of the castle itself, culled from various
parts of Hoffmann's story: “It was a huge pile over-
hanging the Baltic sea, silent, dismal, almost uninhab-
ited, and surrounded, instead of gardens and pleasure
grounds, by forests and black pines and firs which
6 Woodbery-Stedman Edition, The Works of E. A. Poe. Chicago, 1896.
Vol. I, page 97.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
came up to the walls. Part of the castle was in ruins;
and by its fall made a deep chasm, which extended from
the highest turret down to the dungeon of the castle.
Compare with this picture the description of the House
of Usher, and note the close resemblance, chiefly, of the
chasm from “the highest turret down to the dungeon"
with that “barely perceptible fissure which, extending
from the roof in the building in front, made its way
down the wall in a zig-zag direction until it became
lost in the sullen waters of the tarn."
In addition, other features of the life and incidents at
the Entailed Castle agree most strikingly with those
at the Castle of Metzengerstein as described by Poe. If
Poe needed and got any outside suggestion for those two
stories, he found them here in condensed form. There
is a great temptation in hounding similarities to death,
but it does not seem like forcing things too much to see
in Scott's essay On the Supernatural the first germs of
Poe's two stories, and to hold that these analogies
confirm the conjecture that Poe saw this review and
drew from it.
Gruener's generalizations are obvious. Nor does it seem
like forcing things too much to suppose that Poe's interest
in Hoffmann was greatly aroused by this article and that
his acquaintance with the German author's work is to be
dated from this time.
Gruener very rightly connects Poe's Fall of the House
of Usher with this article of Scott rather than with a first
hand reading of Das Majorat. The analogies do not extend
further than Gruener traces them.
As to the resemblances between Metzengerstein and Das
Majorat, they hardly justify a minute analysis. The two
stories are constructed out of the same general romantic mate-
rial, but a consecutive thread of resemblance is lacking.
There is in both stories the dismal uninhabited castle ten-
anted by an eccentric hero, the last of his noble race. But
the analogy hardly goes further. Poe's story has for its


Palmer Cobb
ence from Hoffmann and the other romanticists. The excep-
tion is an article by Van Vleuten on Poe. The author
ascribes the whole of Poe's creative work to the inspiration
of alcoholic delirium or epilepsy, a view which no one thor-
oughly conversant with Poe's works, or with modern criticism
of the poet, could possibly hold. Van Vleuten remarks also:
Man begnügte sich viel mehr meist damit, die Eigen-
art der Novellen Poe's dadurch zu erklären, dass man
seine tiefgehende Beeinflussung durch E. T. A. Hoff-
mann, überhaupt durch die deutschen Romantiker
annahm. Das war sehr oberflächlich; mann kann sogar
sagen: Es war falsch.” . . . .
Again:
Unhaltbar ist die Annahme, Poe sei von E. Th.
A. Hoffmann entscheidend beeinflusst worden. Hoff-
mann war kein Epileptiker, also auch kein Dipsomane.
Was er (Hoffmann) am Schauerlichen und Unheim-
lichen bietet, stammt von den Romantikern, aus alten
Zauberstücken und Mystikern: Gespenster, ver-
grabene Schätze, Doppelgänger, dazu eine Prise Mes-
mer, u.s.w.
The reader who is even superficially acquainted with Poe
will at once observe that this list of motives which Van
Vleuten has established as characteristic for Hoffmann recurs
without exception, again and again, in Poe's tales.
A “Schul-programm”'to of Freiberg, 1895, gives a short
account of Poe's life and works. “Er (Poe) erinnert viel an
E. Th. A. Hoffmann, dem er viele Anregung verdankte, sowie
Tieck und Novalis.” Wherever Hoffmann is discussed, the
writer usually thinks involuntarily of Poe.
Havemann" denies the assertion of Ellinger (Hoffmann's
last biographer) that the spectral and the ghostly no longer
tales.
9 Von Vleuten, Berliner Zukunft. XI Jahrgang. No. 44.
10Gruendel, E. A. Poe. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntniss und Würdigung des
Dichters. Schul-program, Freiberg, 1895.
11 Havemann, Deutsche Heimat, 1902. Heft. 3.


16
Palmer Cobb
Soane, which contained a translation of Hoffmann's Meister
Floh. In 1844 appeared translations of Die Jesuiterkirche in
G., Der Sandmann, and Der Elementargeist, by John Oxen-
ford.
The following translations of Tieck appeared during the
same period: The Old Man of the Mountain, Love Charm,
and Pietro of Abano, London, 1831; The Pictures and The
Betrothal, London, 1825; The Poet's Life, Leipzig, 1830; The
Roman Matron, or Vittoria Colonna, London, 1845. No
translations of Novalis are recorded up to 1845. Poe's first
tale, A Manuscript Found in a Bottle, appeared in 1833.
Poe was always a close observer of French Literature, and
the German romanticists were early cultivated in France.
Hoffmann, even in those days, was better known and more
widely read in France than in his own country. French
literary journals were constantly busied with Hoffmann, and
besides numerous single translations of his work, a complete
edition was begun in 1829 by Francois Adolphe Loeve
Veimars, and completed in 1833, the year of Poe's first tale."
Another edition was begun in 1830 by Th. Toussenel.
In 1829 also the Revue de Paris published a translation of
a part of Scott's article in the Foreign Quarterly. The
article is entitled Du Merveilleux dans le Roman.
In the article by Prof. Belden (Anglia 23), already cited,
the author discusses Poe's criticism of Hawthorne, namely,
that the latter's style was identical with that of Tieck. He
accords to Poe's criticism the high value which the poet him-
self placed upon it, and which is its undeniable due. But he
questions Poe's knowledge of German. “To the question
whether Poe knew German, it will probably never be pos-
sible to give a definite answer.” Further, he asks himself:
“What means had a man not master of German of knowing
the character of Tieck's works?” These means, he decides,
were the English and American periodicals. He concludes
1 MS. found in a Bottle. Baltimore Saturday Visitor. Oct. 12, 1833.
2 Revue de Paris. Vol. 1, page 25.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
17
that Poe's criticism might have been perfectly sincere, solely
from an idea of Tieck which he might have gathered from
magazine articles. In substantiation of his theory he gives
a survey of British and American magazine articles of the
Thirties and Forties, some of which are as follows:
The American Quarterly Review, for example, contained
between 1827 and 1831 six articles on German literature, one of
which deals with Bouterwek's Geschichte der deutschen Poesie
und Beredsamkeit. The article contained a critique of the
Schlegels, Tieck, and Novalis. In 1836 there appeared in
Boston a translation of Heine's Zur Geschichte der neueren
schöneu Literatur in Deutschland. There were numerous
translations from Fouqué. The Democratic Review, begin-
ning with 1842, had in almost every number a trans-
lation from the German, or an article on some German
writer. Fr. Schlegel's lectures were translated in New York
in 1841, and mention of them is found in a short sketch by
Poe.
Besides these mentioned by Prof. Belden, there appeared
a translation of Fouqué's Undine, New York, 1839, and a
volume entitled Tales from the German, translated by
Nathaniel Greene, Boston, 1837. The latter a two-volumed
publication, contained several stories by C. F. van der Velde.
In 1839 a small volume was published in New York contain-
ing Der todte Gast, by Heinrich Zschokke, and Spieler
Glück, by E. T. A. Hoffmann. These two tales were printed
in the original. A significant statement relative to Ameri-
can appreciation of German literature of the period is to be
found in the North American Review, January, 1840, page
279. In connection with a review of a new German gram-
mar the reviewer observes:
Some of us, who are not yet past the mezzo del cammin
di nostra vita, can remember the time when a German
grammar and dictionary could not be had for love or
money. The poets of Germany were as much unknown
» Revies of the neare to Ama
4 Ingram. Vol. IV, page 89.


Palmer Cobb
and French letters. At the German criticism however, I
cannot refrain from laughing, all the more heartily the
more seriously I hear it praised.... It abounds in
brilliant bubbles of suggestion, but these rise and sink
and jostle each other until the whole vortex of thought
in which they originate is one indistinguishable chaos
of froth. The German criticism is unsettled and can
only be settled by time. . . . I am not ashamed to
say that I prefer even Voltaire to Goethe, and hold
Macaulay to possess more of the truly critical spirit
than Augustus William and Frederick Schlegel com-
bined.5
Such quotations from Poe's works might be multiplied
almost indefinitely. As a pendant to this opinion of Goethe
and the Schlegels, it is interesting to compare two passages,
the one from the Fall of the House of Usher, the other from
Morella:
Our books—the books which had for years formed no
small portion of the mental existence of the invalid-
were, as might be supposed, in keeping with this char-
acter of Phantasm.
In this list which, "for years had formed no small por
tion of the mental existence of the invalid,” Poe mentions
Tieck's Journey into the Blue Distance."
Another passage from Morella:
Morella's erudition was profound. ... I soon found,
however, that, perhaps on account of her Presburg
education, she placed before me a number of those
mystical writings which are usually considered the
mere dross of German literature. These, for what
reason I could not imagine, were her favorite and con-
stant study-and that in process of time they became
my own should be attributed to the simple but effectual
influence of habit and example. In all this, if I err
5 Marginalia. Harrison, Vol. XVI, Page 115.
6 Harrison, Vol. III, Page 287.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
not, my reason had little to do. My convictions, or I
forget myself, were in no manner acted upon by the
ideal, nor was any tincture of the mysticism which I
read to be discovered, unless I am greatly mistaken,
either in my deeds or my thoughts. It is unnecessary
to state the exact character of those disquisitions which,
growing out of the volumes I have mentioned, formed
for so long a time almost the sole conversation of Mor-
ella and myself. ... The wild pantheism of Fichte;
the modified Ilaliyyevedia of the Pythagoreans; and,
above all, the doctrine of Identity as urged by Schell-
ing, were generally the points of discussion presenting
the most beauty to the imaginative Morella.?
These passages are of particular importance for the pur-
poses of this work. Poe finds German criticism unsettled
and professes to prefer Voltaire to Goethe. In other words,
for that which is generally considered best in German litera-
ture he has no appreciation. That which is usually con-
sidered the "mere dross” of German literature he describes as
his constant and favorite reading. Scott's article in the
Quarterly Review, on the Supernatural in Fiction, has
already been mentioned. The author emphasizes the fact
that E. T, A. Hoffmann is the type of the best among the
“secondary" names of German literature. It will be remem-
bered also that Poe, in discussing German terror in his tales,
uses the phrase, “for no better reason than that some of the
secondary names of German literature have been identified
with its folly." In the passage from Morella he has evi-
dently the same idea in mind when he speaks of the mere
dross” of German literature.
Poe's reference to this magazine has already been men-
tioned. He was undoubtedly impressed by Scott's article, and
when he speaks of “secondary names” and the "mere dross".
of German literature, like Scott he has Hoffmann in mind.
And when one considers that this class of literature became
Des as where
7 Harrison, Vol. II, Page 27.


Palmer Cobb
his favorite reading, the statement becomes significant for
his relationship to Hoffmann. It is also quite significant that
Poe nowhere mentions Hoffmann's name directly. The Amer-
ican was an inveterate pursuer of plagiarism (one recalls, for
example, the strife about Longfellow). He would therefore
naturally not have given the horde of his inimical critics an
opportunity to turn his own guns upon himself by discussing
openly a man whose work bore such a striking resemblance to
his own.
Just as Poe's references to German literature in his works
preclude the possibility of anything but a first-hand knowl-
edge of sources, so also they imply a knowledge of the
language. The Mystery of Marie Roget, for example, which
appeared in the Southern Literary Messenger, November,
December, February, 1842-1843, contained as a heading a
quotation from Novalis's Fragments in the original, with the
translation appended.
Es gibt eine Reihe idealischer Begebenheiten, die der
Wirklichkeit parallel läuft. Selten fallen sie zusam-
men. Menschen und Zustände modificiren gewöhnlich
die idealische Begebenheit, so dass sie unvollkommen
erscheint, und ihre Folgen gleichfalls unvollkommen
sind. So bei der Reformation; statt des Protestantis-
mus kam das Luthertum hervor.
Poe translates, and no one can question the knowledge of
German displayed:
There are ideal series of events which run parallel
with the real ones. They rarely coincide. Men and
circumstances generally modify the ideal train of
events, so that it seems imperfect, — and its conse-
quences are equally imperfect. Thus with the Reform-
ation; instead of Protestantism came Lutherism.
Novalis is again quoted in one of Poe's Fragments. "The
Artist belongs to his work, and not the work to the Artist,"
Also, in Poe's Tale of the Ragged Mountains, we find a refer-
ence to Novalis's theory of dreams.
9 Marginalia. Harrison, Vol. XVI, page 98.
Heilborn, Vol. II, page 563.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
25
Poe's reference to Tieck's Journey into the Blue Distance,
in The Fall of the House of Usher, has been mentioned. At
the time when this tale was written, 1839, no translation of
Tieck's Reise ins Blaue hinein had appeared either in English,
or French.
Numerous German quotations in the original are scattered
throughout Poe's works. In Marginalia," he applies the
term Schwärmerei to a certain style of criticism in America.
He translates it, “not exactly humbug, but sky-rocketing."
He has a note also on Goethe's Sorrows of Werther." He
finds it difficult to conceive how the Germans could have
admired it, and adds: “The title, by the way, is mistrans-
lated, - Leiden does not mean sorrows, but sufferings;"
which distinction is quite exact.
Poe's tale, The Man of the Crowd, opens with the follow-
ing sentence: “It is well said of a certain German book, es
lässt sich nicht lesen," and he then translates more literally
than elegantly, “it does not permit itself to be read."
In the article on Longfellow's Ballads," Poe mentions
Count Bielfeld's definition of poetry as “L'art d'exprimer les
pensées par la fiction," and our author adds: “With this defi-
nition (of which the philosophy is profound to a certain
extent) the German terms Dichtkunst, the art of fiction, and
dichten, to feign, which are used for poetry, and to make
verses, are in full and remarkable accordance.”
While editor of Graham's Magazine, 1840-1841, Poe was
much interested in cryptography and advertised in the maga-
zine, inviting his readers to invent secret writings and sub-
mit them to him for solution. “Yet any one who will take
the trouble may address us a note, in the same manner as
here proposed, and the key phrase may be either in French,
Italian, Spanish, German, Latin or Greek (or in any of the
dialects of these languages), and we pledge ourselves for the
10 Harrison, Vol. XVI, page 166.
11 Ingram, Vol. III, page 477.
12 Harrison, Vol. XVI, page 74.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
29
“Beweis, dass einige Leute lebendig können begraben
werden.” J. P. Brinckmann, Düsseldorf, Cleve, und Leipzig,
1772.
The same story is found in the Causes Célèbresas, and this
is probably the source of all the other versions. Bruhier
states that this is his source. Poe states that the event
occurred in Paris in 1810, and provides the persons concerned
with names. It would seem, then, that his statement relative
to the source of the other case which he says he took from the
Chirurgical Journal of Leipsic might be regarded also as some-
what untrustworthy.
So much we may deduce with certainty from the fore-
going. First, that in England and America, in the Thirties
and Forties, there was a lively interest in German contem-
porary literature. Secondly, that Poe as a magazine editor
was thoroughly en rapport with this wave of interest, and
that among his favorite reading he counted some of the
secondary productions (meaning probably Hoffmann) of Ger-
man literature. Finally, the American author possessed at
least an ability to read German in the original, though in
view of the meagreness of the information which we have
concerning his life, it is impossible to discover when and
where he acquired this ability.
It now remains for us to see what echo of his German
reading we find in his own work.
In this connection it is interesting to take account of cer-
tain utterances of Poe with reference to his theory of the tale.
A skilful literary artist has constructed a tale. If
wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommo-
date his incidents; but, haviug conceived with deliber-
ate care a certain unique or single effect to be wrought
out, he then invents such incidents-he then combines
such events as may best aid him in establishing this
preconceived effect............ And here it will be seen
how full of prejudice are the usual animadversions
21 Vol. 8, page 452.


Palmer Cobb
against those tales of effect, many fine examples of
which were found in the earlier numbers of Black-
wood.22
It was worth noting that Hoffmann's Elixiere des Teufels
appeared in an "early number of Blackwood” for 1824.
We have a similar utterance on the same subject in the
Philosophy of. Composition.23
I prefer commencing with the consideration of an
effect. Keeping originality always in view, for he is
false to himself who ventures to dispense with so
obvious and so easily attainable a source of interest-I
say to myself in the first place, ‘Of the innumerable
effects or impressions of which the heart, the intellect,
or (more generally) the soul is susceptible, what one
shall I, on the present occasion, select?' Having
chosen a novel, first, and secondly, a vivid, effect, I
consider whether it can be best wrought by incident or
tone-whether by ordinary incidents and peculiar tone,
or the converse, or by peculiarity both of incident and
tone-afterwards looking about me (or rather within)
for such combinations of event or tone as shall best aid
me in the construction of the effect.
The last sentence, especially the phrase "looking about
me (or rather within) for such combinations,” is signif-
icant. Poe has placed the words “or rather within” in paren-
theses, lest the foregoing might be construed as a confession
of his literary borrowings,
In looking about him for combinations of event or tone,
what did he find that was serviceable among the productions
of the German romanticists?
22Ingram, vol. IX, pages 216, 217.
28Ingram, vol. III, page 266.


36
Palmer Cobb
The idea on which both narratives are constructed is the
simple one of the contention of two inimical forces in a man's
soul; the evil and the good, struggling for supremacy and
final victory. In carrying out the idea, both authors have
availed themselves of the device of a double existence to
achieve their purpose. Such a division of the human person-
ality they have romanticized by the fiction of two selves,
physical as well as mental, both of which are well nigh iden-
tical as to physical appearance and as to mental characteris-
tics. One self is the type of the good, the other is the
embodiment of the evil. The atmosphere of mystery thus
created works an effect of terror, as, in the successive stages
of the development of the story, the hero at some critical
point of the narrative is confronted by his double. This in
general is the basic idea which Poe has borrowed from Hoff-
mann.
The German traces the growth and struggle of evil, in his
hero's life, very minutely. We observe the first foothold
which the “dunkle Macht" wins in Medardus's soul, and we
trace the growth of this germ of evil step by step, until with
giant power it plunges the victim into an abyss of crime.
Early in Medardus's career, we find reference to the evil
which is beginning to beset him. His sermons are charac-
terized by unusual eloquence, and the fame which he wins by
them arouses his vanity. In a letter from his patroness, the
abbess, we hear:
Der Geist des Truges ist in Dich gefahren, und wird
Dich verderben, wenn Du nicht in Dich gehst und der
Sünde entsagest.. Der heilige Bernardus, den Du
durch Deine trügerische Rede so schnöde beleidigt,
möge Dir nach seiner himmlischen Langmut verzeihen,
ja Dich erleuchten, dass Du den rechten Pfad, von dem
Du durch den Bösen verlockt abgewichen, wieder find-
est, und er fürbitten könne für das Heil Deiner Seele.5
5 Grisebach, Vol. II, page 37.


38
Palmer Cobb
Again Medardus recapitulates himself this growth of evil
in his soul. He calls himself “einen muthlosen Feigling"
without strength to resist the devil.
Gering war der Keim des Bösen in mir, als ich des
Konzertmeisters Schwester sah, als der frevelige Stolz
in mir erwachte, aber da spielte mir der Satan jenes
Elixier in die Hände, das mein Blut wie ein verdamm-
tes Gift in Gärung setzte .... Wie eine phy-
sische Krankheit, von jenem Gift erzeugt, brach die
Sünde hervor.9
We follow exactly the same development in Poe's tale.
Hoffmann rescues his hero at the end from the “dunkle
Macht.” Poe gives the victory to the evil force. Medardus
writes the story of his life when he has, in a measure at
least, conquered the devil and gained peace, William Wil-
son narrates his story when he realizes that he is hopelessly
lost, his soul a forfeit to the powers of darkness. Hoffmann's
narrative takes the reader up to the point where his hero
gains the victory. Poe's tale ends at the point where Wilson
finally and definitely destroys the last germ of good still
extant in his soul. We are told in the beginning that the
remainder of his life was a history of crime and debauch.
Medardus and William Wilson both write their histories as
they feel the approach of death.
The history of Medardus's struggle against the evil which
has been traced finds its exact counterpart on the first page
of William Wilson's story. We hear at once:
From comparatively trival wickedness I passed, with
the stride of a giant, into more than the enormities of
an Elagabalus. What chance — what one event
brought this thing to pass, bear with me while I relate.
Death approaches, and the shadow which foreruns him
has thrown a softening influence over my spirit. I
long in passing through the dim valley for the sympa-
thy, I had nearly said for the pity, of my fellow-men.
I would fain have them believe that I have been in
some measure the slave of circumstances beyond human


Palmer Cobb
few seconds I forced him by sheer strength against the
wainscoting, and thus, getting him at mercy, plunged
my sword with brutal ferocity repeatedly through and
through his bosom. At that instant some person tried
the latch of the door. I hastened to prevent an intru-
sion, and then immediately returned to my dying
antagonist. But what human language can ade-
quately portray that astonishment, that horror which
possessed me at the spectacle then presented to view?
The brief moment in which I averted my eyes had been
sufficient to produce apparently a material change in
the arrangements at the upper or farther end of the
room. A large mirror — so at first it seemed to me in
my confusion - now stood where none had been per-
ceptible before; and, as I stepped up to it in extremity
of terror, mine own image, but with features all pale
and dabbled in blood, advanced to meet me with a
feeble and tottering gait.
Thus it appeared, I say, but was not. It was my
antagonist - it was Wilson who then stood before me
in the agonies of his dissolution. His mask and cloak
lay where he had thrown them upon the floor. Not a
thread in all his raiment – not a line in all the marked
and singular lineaments of his face which was not,
even in the most absolute identity, mine own!
It was Wilson: but he spoke no longer in a whisper, and
I could have fancied that I myself was speaking while
he said: “You have conquered and I yield. Yet,
henceforth art thou also dead - dead to the World, to
Heaven, and to Hope! In me didst thou exist — and,
in my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how
utterly thou hast murdered thyself."'!
The death of his double is the death of the good principle
in Wilson's life. "Dead to the world, to Heaven, and to
Hope:" it is the triumph of evil, the ultimate extinction of
11 The Italics are Poe's.


Palmer Cobb
And in the final scene, already quoted, the death of the
double marks the extinction of the remaining good.
It is characteristic of Poe's story in general that he has
taken certain secondary or minor incidents of the Hoffmann
story and made them of prime importance in his narrative in
the production of desired effects. Such a motive was Hoff-
mann's incident of the murder of Medardus's brother-double,
and its baneful consequences; namely, the introduction of the
monk to his subsequent career of crime. William Wilson's
murder of his double forms the climax of Poe's story, and
serves also as the climax of a series of crimes which closes
forever the road to repentance, and makes Wilson for all
time a slave of the evil.
Another such a motive in Hoffmann's story is the whisper
and the voice of the Doppelgänger. Poe has appropriated
this motive also and used it as a means of heightening the
mystery of his story. With Hoffmann, the exact correspond-
ence of voice and the whispered utterances of Medardus's
double, are of no special significance. They are part and
parcel of the general correspondence between Medardus and
his double-brother. Poe has seized these two incidents to
create an atmosphere of mysterious fatality, to transport his
reader at once into the realm of the supernatural.
In the appearance of the Doppelgänger, while Medardus
is in prison, there are the whispered tones:
Endlich rief es leise, leise, aber wie mit hässlicher,
heiserer, stammelnder Stimme, hintereinander fort:
Medar-dus! Medar-dus. Ein Eisstrom goss sich mir
durch die Glieder !19
Again, in his flight after the scene with Aurelie:
Als ich durch die finstre Nacht der Residenz zueilte,
war es mir, als liefe jemand neben mir her, und als
flüsterte eine Stimme: "Imm --immer bin ich bei di
- dir»20
19Grisebach, Vol. II, page 158.
20Grisebach, Vol. II, page 74.


Influence
45
Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
Medardus does not know at times whether he is speaking,
or whether it is the voice of his double which he hears. In
his flight from the castle after the murder of Hermogen:
Da lachte ich grimmig auf, dass es durch den Saal,
durch die Gänge dröhnte, und rief mit schrecklicher
Stimme: “Wahnwitzige, wollt ihr das Verhänghis
fahen, das die frevelnden Sünder gerichtet?” Aber des
grässlichen Anblicks! — vor mir — vor mir stand Vik-
torins blutige Gestalt, nicht ich, er hatte die Worte
gesprochen."
Poe has made this whisper and correspondence of voice
play a much larger and more effective role in his story. In
the description of the life of the two boys at school, we learn
that the favorite device of the second William Wilson for an-
noying his rival, was an exact imitation of his person, dress
and voice. But the first William Wilson, owing to a phy-
sical defect of speech, could not raise his voice above a
whisper:
His cue, which was to perfect an imitation of myself,
lay both in words and in action, and most admirably
did he play his part. My dress it was an easy matter
to copy; my gait and general manner were without
difficulty appropriated; in spite of his constitutional
defect, even my voice did not escape him. My louder
tones were of course unattempted, but then the key,
it was identical; and his singular whisper, it grew the
very echo of my own.
In the scene at Eton where the double appears:
It was the pregnancy of solemn admonition in the
singular, low, hissing utterance, and, above all, it was
the character, the tone, the key, of those few, simple
and familiar, yet whispered syllables, which came with
a thousand thronging memories of by-gone days, and
struck upon my soul with the shock of a galvanic bat-
tery.
21Grisebach Vol. II, pages 124-125.
216


Palmer Cobb
In the appearance of the double at Oxford:
“Gentlemen,” he said, in a low, distinct and never-to-
be-forgotten whisper which thrilled to the very mar-
row of my bones, “gentlemen, I make no apology for
this behavior.”
Poe uses everywhere italics to emphasize the whisper. In
the final scene of the duel:
It was Wilson; but he spoke no longer in a whisper,
and I could have fancied that I myself was speaking
while he said:
Another incident which has its counterpart in Hoffmann's
story is the gambling at Oxford. While Medardus is at the
Prince's court, he is induced by the latter to take part in the
games of faro which form the principal diversion of the
Prince and the court. The result is that Medardus wins con-
stantly. The episode forms a part of Hoffmann's use of the
supernatural. We are told that Medardus wins by favor of
those evil forces which are then controlling his destiny,
Es lag für mich etwas Entsetzliches darin, dass, indem
die gleichgültige Karte, die ich blindlings zog, in mir
eine schmerzhafte herzzerreissende Erinnerung weckte,
ich von einer unbekannten Macht ergriffen wurde, die
das Glück des Spiels, den losen Geldgewinn mir
zuwarf, als entsprösse es aus meinem eignen Innern,
als wenn ich selbst, jenes Wesen denkend, das aus der
leblosen Karte mir mit glühenden Farben entgegen-
strahlte, dem Zufall gebieten könne, seine geheimsten
Verschlingungen erkennend.
William Wilson's gambling is a passion, - a part of bis
depravity, — and his winnings are explained on the ground
of cheating:
It could hardly be credited, however, that I had, even
here, so utterly fallen from the gentlemanly estate as
to seek acquaintance with the vilest arts of the gambler
by profession, and having become an adept in his
despicable science, to practice it habitually as a means
of increasing my already enormous income at the


48
Palmer Cobb
inexplicable, and to create an impression of awe, even terror,
by contact with the supernatural. As a means to this end,
Poe uses with striking effect the mysterious whisper as well
as the identity of voice between the two doubles.
Grisebach remarks also:
Bei der Form der Mitteilung aus dem eigenen Leben,
die Hoffmann gewählt hat, konnte ein Dichter leicht
der Versuchung nachgeben, alles Leben auf die Haupt-
person zusammenzudrängen, das übrige aber nur kurz
und skizzenhaft zu behandeln. Hoffmann hat diese
Gefahr durchaus zu vermeiden gewusst.
Poe uses, of course, the same form of narrative, and he
has done just what Hoffmann "knew how to avoid.” But in
so doing he has achieved a more telling, striking effect than
has the German author. In so doing he has sacrificed all
detail, all characterization, and the love episode, in order to
centre all action and interest around his double hero. Hoff-
mann vacillates on the border of the supernatural, crossing
and re-crossing it, and leaving his reader in doubt as to
whether the author himself believes in it or not. Poe leads
at once, and boldly, into another world, and keeps us in this
region of mystery, at least as long as we are reading his
story.
William Wilson is constructed after Poe's own receipt.
He has started out to produce an effect of awe-inspiring mys-
tery, and he has gathered and gleaned such motives as best
served his purpose, remolding them and fitting them together
in such a way as to make of the finished product something
all his own. In "looking about him for combinations of
events or tone,” he has drawn largely on Hoffmann: first, for
the idea of the double existence, and secondly, for its typifi-
cation of the good and evil forces in man's soul. Also,
various other motives of minor importance in Hoffmann's
story have been used by the American; — such as the murder-
ing of the double with its consequent extinction of the good
principle; the mysterious, solemn whisper, and the exact cor-
respondence of the double's voice; and, finally, the gambling
proclivities of William Wilson. These all have their count-
erparts in Hoffmann's story.


50
Palmer Cobb
sis. Both authors have used this singular belief in their
stories. Ingram remarks with reference to the story Ber-
enice :
Among the peculiarities of the early draft of this work
— some of which disappeared in later versions— it will
be noted by his readers, is the first development of Poe's
assumed belief in metempsychosis, a doctrine that, in
subsequent writings, he recurred to again and again,
and which it is scarcely assuming too much to say at
times he evidently partially believed in.
This doctrine forms the basic idea of the stories Ligeia,
Morella, and Eleanora, and plays more or less of a part in
several other tales.
Hoffmann's collection of stories which he calls the Serapi-
onsbrüder (from which Poe got his idea of the Folio Club)
takes its title from the story of the hermit monk Serapion,
whose insanity consists in the belief that he is the martyred
monk Serapion, whose death had occurred four hundred years
previous to the time in which the story is told. Hoffmann,
with a characteristic mixture of realism and mystery, makes
his monk insane, but makes the wisdom of his insanity supe-
rior to that of the sanity of his fellows, who try to convince
Serapion that he is suffering from monomania or a fixed idea.
In the end, Hoffmann leaves his reader with the idea that the
monk is sane and the rest of the world too ignorant to under-
stand him. The new club is dedicated to this monk Serapion,
the members style themselves the “Serapionsbrüder,” and
"das echt-Serapionische" is the standard of excellence set up
for their productions.
There is nothing singular in the fact that both authors
should have evinced strong interest in hypnotism and in the
doctrine of metempsychosis, nor does the fact that they both
used these motives in their stories necessarily imply an influ-
ence of the one upon the other. But when we find both of
these motives united in one story, and worked out with almost
2 Page 101.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
51
exact similarity of motivation and even detail, and when we
consider the novelty of the idea, it is safe to assume that the
two authors did not accidentally hit upon the same singular
combination of singular motives, without the one having
received a suggestion from the other In Poe's Tale of the
Ragged Mountains, and in Hoffmann's Magnetiseur we find
a union of the doctrines of hypnotism and metempsychosis,
and both interwoven with almost exact correspondence in the
work of both authors. The similarity manifests itself not
only in general outlines, but is evident even in unimportant
details, so as to form a consecutive thread of resemblance.
It is worth noting also in this connection that the tale Morella,
in which Poe expresses his interest in “those mystical writ-
ings which are usually considered the mere dross of German
literature,” is also the story in which his fancy for the doc-
trine of metempsychosis is most unmistakably expressed.
Throughout the story, Poe has in mind, evidently, his Ger-
man reading. Besides these “mystical writings” of German
literature, we hear in the same story of the "pantheism of
Fichte,” and “the doctrine of Identity as urged by Schel-
ling.” In thus writing on the subject Poe admits, more or
less, a German source for his interest in the subject. But it
is in the Tale of the Ragged Mountains that he has drawn
most closely on Hoffmann, from the latter's Magnetiseur.
Hoffmann's tale suffers somewhat from lack of unity.
There are three distinct elements in the story, all of which
are somewhat loosely joined together by the participation of
the same persons in all three of the incidents. We are first
introduced to a family group, the members of which are gath-
ered around a cheerful fire on a stormy autumn evening, and
engaged in a lively discussion of the nature of dreams. This
serves as an introduction to a story which the Baron, the
head of the family, is induced to relate. The story in ques-
tion has to do with a dream or experience of his youth. He
proceeds to describe one of his instructors, an officer of colos-
sal stature, gaunt, lean, and with a “burning glance.” Hoff-
mann builds up an atmosphere of mystery around this Danish


52
Palmer Cobb
major by the description of his person, various personal attri-
butes, and finally by the hypnotic influence which he exerted
on his pupils.
· Im höchsten Grad jähzornig, konnte ihn ein Wort, ein
Blick, in Wuth setzen. Er bestrafte die Zöglinge mit
ausgedachter Grausamkeit, und doch hing alles an ihm
auf eine ganz unbegreifliche Weise.3
The Baron tells also of the influence of the Major on him,
and comes at last to the climax of the story, in which he sees
in a dream the Major enter his room, and hears the words,
Armes Menschenkind, erkenne deinen Meister und
Herrn .... Ich bin dein Gott, der dein Inner-
stes durchschaut, und alles, was du darin jemals verbor-
gen hast oder verbergen willst, liegt hell und klar vor
mir.
The Baron awakes out of his dream as the Major plunges
a dag ger into the dreamer's brain. Terrified, the Baron
throws open his window and sees the Major disappearing
through the garden into the open country beyond. The
mystery of the situation is enhanced by the fact that all
doors and exits are locked and there is no natural way to
explain the Major's presence in the garden. Other inmates
of the house being aroused, they break into the Major's room
and find him lying dead in his blood.
The Baron ends his story thus, a general discussion is
again resumed, and we hear next a second dream-story from
the Baron's son, Ottmar. The latter has his story from his
friend Alban, who is a convert to hypnotism, or, as Hoffmann
terms it, magnetism. The relation of characters is somewhat
confusing. Ottmar relates the story as he has heard it from
his friend Alban, and the story deals in its turn with another
friend of Alban's, Theobald, who is not otherwise concerned
in the action, and a stranger to the group in which the tales
are being related. Theobald is described as follows:
Seine ganze Musse – und daher sein Leben wollte er
dazu verwenden. soviel als möglich in die geheimnis-
3Grisebach, Vol. I, page 143.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
53
vollsten Tiefen der psychischen Einwirkungen zu drin-
gen, und fortwährend seinen Geist fester und fester
darauf fixierend, sich rein erhaltend von allem dem
Widerstrebenden ein würdiger Lehrling der Natur zu
werden.4
In Theobald's absence at the university, his fiancée comes
under the influence of a stranger, an Italian officer, and
becomes so enamored of the latter that she forgets her first
lover. The story hinges about the theory of dreams. The
girl is so beset by tormenting dreams of her Italian lover,
who is absent on a campaign, that she falls into insanity.
Theobald, returning home finds her in this condition. He
applies his principles of hypnotism, and effects a cure. He
proceeds in such a manner that the influence of his mind upon
that of the girl is made to supersede the influence of the Ital-
ian. Gradually, Theobald supplants the Italian lover in her
dreams, and she is restored.
Auguste empfing ihn (Theobald) mit der höchsten
Aufwallung der innigsten Liebe. Bald nachher ge-
stand sie unter vielen Thränen, wie sie sich gegen
ihn vergangen; wie es einem Fremden auf eine selt-
same Weise gelungen, sie von ihm abwendig zu
machen, so dass sie, wie von einer fremden Gewalt
befangen, ganz aus ihrem eigenen Wesen herausge-
raten sei, aber Theobalds wohlthätige Erscheinung in
lebhaften Traümen, habe die feindlichen Geister, die
sie bestrickt, verjagt; ja, sie müsse gestehen, dass sie
jetzt nicht einmal des Fremden aüssere Gestalt sich ins
Gedächtnis zurückrufen könne, und nur Theobald lebe
in ihrem Innern.5
This is the end of the second episode. The third element
forms the real centre of the tale. As Ottmar finishes his
narrative his sister Marịa, who has been present during the
narration of both tales, falls in a faint, and Ottmar's friend,
4 Grisebach; Vol. I, page 154.
5 Grsiebach; Vol. I, page 157


54
Palmer Cobb
Alban, the “Magnetiseur,” is called to attend her. The lat-
ter has been so attracted by Maria that he determines,
although she is already betrothed, to bring her under the
power of his will by means of hypnotic influence. Maria
falls into a hypnotic trance, and Alban is called to attend her.
He effects a cure, but in so doing succeeds in impressing his
will and thought with such power upon her that she exists
wholly within the sway of his will. Maria writes to her
friend:
Nur in diesem mit Ihm und in Ihm sein kann ich wahr-
haftig leben, und es müsste, wäre es ihm möglich, sich
mir geistig ganz zu entziehn, mein Selbst, in toter Öde
erstarren; ja, indem ich dieses schreibe, fühle ich nur
zu sehr, dass nur Er es ist, der mir den Ausdruck gibt,
mein Sein in ihm wenigstens anzudeuten.
On her wedding day Maria falls dead at the altar, Alban
flees, the bridegroom is killed in a duel with Ottmar, the old
Baron dies of grief, and the story ends in general misery.
At several points in the story the Baron expresses his dis-
trust of Alban. and finds a singular resemblance between him
and the Danish Major of his story. On the eve of Maria's
wedding, the old Baron, meeting Alban in the corridor, mis-
takes him for the Major in the flesh. The reader is left with
the suggestion that the Danish Major of the first part of the
story, and Alban, the “Magnetiseur,” are one and the same
person, although the Major is long since dead, and described
as an old man in the Baron's youth, while Alban is of the
same age as the Major's son. It is thus that Hoffmann uses
the theory of metempsychosis.
Poe's tale has the same elements,- hypnotism, the
inetempsychosis theory, and the dreams and visions. As fre-
quently in Poe's tales, there is no love episode. We learn
first of a singular relationship existing between the two
characters of the story, Bedloe, an invalid, and his physician,
Dr. Templeton. The latter is a disciple of Mesmer, and uses
6 Grisebach, Vol. I, page 164.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
57
prevent the rash and fatal sally of the officer who fell,
in the crowded alley, by the poisoned arrow of a Ben-
galee. That officer was my dearest friend. It was
Oldeb. You will perceive by these manuscripts (here
the speaker produced a note book in which several
pages appeared to have been freshly written) that at
the very period in which you fancied these things amid
the hills, I was engaged in detailing them upon paper
here at home.
The tale ends with the death of Bedloe. The author's
attention is attracted to it by the announcement in the paper
of the death of a Mr. Bedlo. By a typographical error the
name has been written without the e. The reader's attention
is called to the fact that Bedlo is Oldeb reversed. Thus we
have the same suggestion, — Bedloe is the reincarnation of
Oldeb, — the doctrine of metempsychosis.
Both author's have made use of hypnotism, metempsycho-
sis, and the phenomena of dreams. In both stories these
singular motives are united. Poe and Hoffmann have built
up their tales around the same general framework.
The three parts of Hoffmann's story already outlined por-
tray a group of people all more or less subject to the will of
the "magnetiseur,” or hypnotist. In each case the centre of
interest is a man of commanding will, who exerts a mesmeric
influence over certain other persons of the tale. It is first
the Danish major of the Baron's tale, who establishes this
relationship between himself and his pupils.
So hiess es von ihm, er könne das Feuer besprechen,
und Krankheiten durch das Auflegen der Hände, ja
durch den blossen Blick heilen, und ich erinnere mich,
dass er einmal Leute, die durchaus von ihm auf diese
Art geheilt sein wollten, mit Stockschlägen verjagte.
.... Erfüllte mich nun mein Beisammensein mit
ihm auch mit einem gewissen Wohlbehagen, so war es
doch wieder eine gewisse Angst, das Gefühl eines
9Harrison, Vol. V, page 174.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
59
.... So wie Alban überhaupt in seiner Bildung,
in seinem ganzen Betragen, eine gewisse Würde, ich
möchte sagen, etwas Gebietendes hat, das ihn über
seine Umgebung erhebt, so war es mir gleich, als er
seinen ernsten durchdringenden Blick auf mich rich-
tete; ich müsste alles unbedingt thun, was er gebieten
würde, und als ob er meine Genesung nur recht lebhaft
wollen dürfe, um mich ganz herzustellen."
We have also Alban's standpoint, in a letter to a friend.
Maria fiel bald darauf in einen fantastichen Zustand,
den Ottmar natürlicherweise für eine neue Krankheit
balten musste, und ich kam wieder als Arzt ins Haus,
wie ich es vorausgesehen. Maria erkannte in mir den,
der ihr schon oft in der Glorie der beherrschenden Macht
als ihr Meister im Traum erschienen, und alles, was sie
nur dunkel geahnet, sah sie nun hell und klar mit ihres
Geistes Augen. Nur meines Blickes, meines festen
Willens bedurfte es, sie in den sogenannten somnam-
bulen Zustand zu versetzen, der nichts anders war, als
das gänzliche Hinaustreten aus sich selbst und das
Leben in der höheren Sphäre des Meisters. Es war
mein Geist, der sie dann willig aufnahm und ihr die
Schwingen gab, dem Kerker, mit dem sie die Menschen
überbaut hatten, zu entschweben.
Thus the theme of the whole story is the mastery of one
mind over another by means of hypnotism. The hypnotist
proceeds gradually. He wins at first an influence, more or
less powerful, over his subject. This is gradually increased
till at length the subject is wholly subservient to the mas-
ter's will. A glance, or even the mere concentration of the
hypnotist's will is sufficient to put the subject into the hyp-
notic state, which is described as “das gänzliche Hinaustre-
ten aus sich selbst und das Leben in der höheren Sphäre des
Meisters.” Hoffmann's hypnotist always controls the dreams
of his subjects while in the hypnotic state. The Baron's
12 Grisebach, Vol. I, page 163.


60
Palmer Cobb
dream of the dagger in his brain is suggested to him by his
hypnotic master, the Danish Major. There is always the
idea of the mastership of the “Magnetiseur,” and the help-
lessness of the subject, connected in each case by the dream
phenomena. The Major's words in the Baron's dream are
typical of this: “Armes Menschenkind, erkenne deinen Meis-
ter und Herrn.”
Theobald cures his fiancée's insanity by his hypnotic mas-
tery of her dream:
Er setzte sich daneben (by the side of her bed), und den
Geist mit der ganzen Kraft des Willens auf sie fixie-
rend, schaute er sie mit festem Blick an. Nachdem er
dies einige Mal wiederholt, schien der Eindruck ihrer
Träume schwächer zu werden, denn der Ton, mit dem
sie sonst den Namen des Offiziers gewaltsam hervor-
schrie, hatte nicht mehr das die ganze Seele Durch-
dringende, und tiefe Seufzer machten der gepressten
Brust Luft. Nun legte Theobald auf ihre Hand die
seinige, und nannte leise, ganz leise, seinen Namen.
Bald zeigte sich die Wirkung . . . . Bis jetzt
war Auguste am Tage still und in sich gekehrt
gewesen, aber an dem Morgen nach jener Nacht
aüsserte sie ganz unerwartet der Mutter, wie sie seit
einiger Zeit lebhaft von Theobald traüme, und warum
er denn nicht käme, ja nicht einmal schriebe. 13
Alban's mastery over Maria is achieved in the same way.
In the letter of Maria, already quoted, the following passage
occurs:
Das Besondere ist aber, dass in meinen Traumen und
Erscheinungen immer ein schöner ernster Mann im
Spiele war, der, unerachtet seiner Jugend, mir wahr-
hafte Ehrfurcht einflösste, und der bald auf diese, bald
auf jene Weise, aber immer in langen Talaren geklei-
det, mit einer diamanten Krone auf dem Haupte, mir
wie der romantische König in der märchenhaften Geis-
terwelt erschien und allen bösen Zauber löste ...
13Grisebach, Vol. I, page 157.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
mann both further accentuate the idea, and add to the mys-
terious by creating between their individuals of the first and
second existence, a physical and psychic resemblance. Such
is the relationship which exists between Hoffmann's Major
and Alban, the “Magnetiseur," and also between Poe's Oldeb
and Bedloe.
Hoffmann's description of the Major's person is as follows:
Seine Riesengrösse wurde noch auffallender durch die
Hagerkeit seines Körpers, der nur aus Muskeln und
Nerven zu bestehen schien; er mochte in jüngern Jah-
ren ein schöner Mann gewesen sein; denn noch jetzt
warfen seine grossen schwarzen Augen einen brennen-
den Blick, den man kaum ertragen konnte; ein tiefer
Funfziger hatte er die Kraft und die Gewandtheit eines
Jünglings."
Poe, in describing Bedloe, is evidently painting from this
model:
But in no regard was he (Bedloe) more singular than
in his personal appearance. He was singularly tall
and thin. He stooped much. . . . . His eyes
were abnormally large and round like those of a cat.
The pupils, too, upon any accession or diminution of
light, underwent contraction or dilation, just such as
is observed in the feline tribe. In moments of excite-
ment, the orbs grew bright to a degree almost incon-
ceivable, etc.
Bedloe is the officer Oldeb in the second existence, Alban
is the Danish officer also in the second existence.
Hoffmann, ever loath to quit absolutely the field of the
natural, suggests rather than states explicitly this state of
affairs. Early in Hoffmann's story the Baron expresses his
distrust of Alban, the “Magnetiseur.”
Als Ottmar ihn vor mehreren Monaten als seinen
innigsten Freund zu uns brachte, war es mir, els habe
ich ihn irgend einmal schon gesehen; seine Feinheit,
18 Grisebach, Vol. I, page 141.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
67
mich aber von meinem toten Selbst getrennt fühlte,
merkte ich wohl, dass ich der wesenlose Gedanke meines
Ichs sei, und bald erkannte ich mich als das im Aether
schwimmende Rot. Ich schwang mich auf zu den
leuchtenden Bergspitzen . . . So wie ich tiefer und
tiefer niederfiel, erblickte ich die Leiche mit weit auf-
klaffender Wunde in der Brust, aus der jenes unreine
Wasser in Strömen floss. Mein Hauch sollte das Wasser
umwandeln in Blut, doch geschah es nicht, die Leiche
richtete sich auf und starrte mich an mit hohlen gräss-
lichen Augen und heulte wie der Nordwind in tiefer
Kluft. . . . Die Leiche sank nieder; alle Blumen
auf der Flur neigten verwelkt ihre Häupter, Menschen,
bleichen Gespenstern ähnlich, warfen sich zur Erde
und ein tausendstimmiger trostloser Jammer stieg in
die Lüfte. .Stärker und stärker wie des Meeres
brausende Welle, schwoll die Klage! der Gedanke
wollte zerstäuben in dem gewaltigen Ton des trostlosen
Jammers, da wurde ich wie durch einen elektrischen
Schlag emporgerissen aus dem Traum.
Bedloe's dream has all the same features and even literal
correspondences of phrase. He is describing the peculiar
arrows of the enemy:
One of them struck me upon the right temple. I reeled
and fell. An instantaneous and dreadful sickness seized
me. I struggled! I gasped! I died. For many minutes
my sole sentiment, my sole feeling, was that of dark-
ness and nonentity, with the consciousness of death.
At length, there seemed to pass a violent and sudden
shock through my soul, as if of electricity. With it
came the sense of elasticity and of light. This latter
I felt-not saw. In an instant I seemed to rise from
the ground. But I had no bodily, no visible, audible
or palpable presence. . . . Beneath me lay my
corpse, with the arrow in the temple, the whole head
22 Grisebach, Vol. II, p. 250.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
69
ally so - assuming often each other's functions at ran-
dom. The taste and smell were inextricably confounded,
and became one sentiment, abnormal and intense.
Again in Poe's Marginalia we find a description of a con-
dition preceding sleep which corresponds to Hoffmann's
“Augenblicken, die dem Einschlafen vorherzugehen pflegen."
Poe remarks that the common experience that certain thoughts
are beyond the compass of words is based on a fallacy:
For my own part, I have never had a thought which
I could not set down in words. . . . There is, how-
ever, a class of fancies, of exquisite delicacy, which are
not thoughts, and to which as yet I have found it abso-
lutely impossible to adapt language. I use the word
fancies at random, and merely because I must use some
word; but the idea commonly attached to the term is
not even remotely applicable to the shadows of shadows
in question. They seem to me rather psychic than
intellectual. They arise in the soul (alas, how rarely!)
only at its epochs of most intense tranquility, when
the bodily and mental health are in perfection - and
at those mere points of time when the confines of the
waking world blend with those of the world of dreams.
I am aware of these 'fancies' only when I am upon the
very brink of sleep, with the consciousness that I am
So. 26
Poe's “fancies” which he experiences “on the very brink
of sleep,” are evidently the same as Hoffmann's "Träume im
Zustand des Delierierens, der dem Einschlafen vorherzugehen
pflegt.”
Both authors also give expression to the idea that it is in
dreams that men are permitted to catch fleeting glimpses of
another world. That dreams are, in a way, a partial revela-
lation of those secrets of the universe which tantalize and
baffle the powers of the intellect.
Hoffmann's Magnetiseur opens with the proverb "Träume
sind Schäume.” In the long discussion of the subject of
26 Harrison; Vol. XVI, page 88.


Palmer Cobb
dreams, the following will suffice to show the gist of the
opinions others expressed:
Sieh die tausend kleinen Bläschen, die perlend im Glase
aufsteigen und oben im Schaume sprudeln, das sind die
Geister, die sich ungeduldig von der irdischen Fessel
loslösen; und so lebt und webt im Schaum das höhere
geistige Prinzip, das frei von dem Drange des Materi-
ellen frisch die Fittiche regend, in dem fernen uns
allen verheissenen himmlischen Reiche sich zu dem
verwandten höheren Geistigen freudig gesellt, and alle
wundervollen Erscheinungen in ihrer tiefsten Bedeu-
tung wie das Bekannteste aufnimmt und erkennt. Es
mag daher auch der Traum von dem Schaum, in wel-
chem unsere Lebensgeister, wenn der Schlaf unser
extensives Leben befängt, froh and frei aufsprudeln,
erzeugt werden und ein höheres extensives Leben be-
ginnen, in dem wir alle Erscheinungen der uns fernen
Geisterwelt nicht nur ahnen, sondern wirklich erken-
nen, ja in dem wir über Raum und Zeit schweben.
In the same passage in Poe's Marginalia, a quoted above,
the description of the “fancies” or dreams is quite in accord
with the passage just quoted from Hoffmann.
These “fancies” have in them a pleasurable ecstasy,
as far beyond the most pleasurable of the world of
wakefulness, or of dreams, as the heaven of the North-
man's theology is beyond its hell, I regard the vis-
ions, even as they arise, with an awe which, in some
measure, moderates or tranquilizes the ecstasy - I so
regard them, through a conviction (which seems a por-
tion of the ecstasy itself) that this ecstasy, in itself, is
of a character supernal to the human nature — is a
glimpse of the spirit's outer world.
27 Harrison; Vol. XVI, page 89.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
77
She is also the model for the Virgin in the picture already
described at the beginning. At the fall of the kingdom of
Naples, Berthold chances to rescue the princess, and her fam-
ily all having perished, she flees with him to Germany, and
becomes his wife. As his ideal, she has served as inspiration
for all his work, the source of his joy in all his achievement.
Now, she having become his wife, a new relationship grows up
between them. The artist loses interest in his work as well
as actual ability to paint. His wife, in time, comes to embit-
ter all of his pleasure in his work, even to be actively a hin-
drance to him. It is at this point that he conceives the plan
for the picture in the Jesuit Church.
Der einfache Gedanke, Maria und Elisabeth in einem
schönen Garten auf einem Rasen sitzend, die Kinder
Christus und Johannes vor ihnen im Grase spielend,
sollte der ganze Vorwurf des Bildes sein, aber verge-
bens war alles Ringen nach einer reinen geistigen An-
schauung des Gemäldes. So wie in jener unglück-
lichen Zeit der Krisis, verschwammen ihm die Gestal-
ten, und nicht die himmlische Maria, nein, ein irdisches
Weib, ach, seine Angiola selbst stand auf greuliche
Weise verzerrt, vor seines Geistes Augen. ...
Aber seine Kraft war gebrochen, all sein Bemühen, so
wie damals, nur die ohnmächtige Anstrengung des
unverständigen Kindes. Starr und leblos blieb, was er
malte, und selbst Angiola -- Angiola, sein Ideal, wurde,
wenn sie ihm sass und er sie malen wollte, auf der
Leinwand zum toten Wachsbilde, das ihn mit gläsernen
Augen anstierte.
His disappointment and anger is vented on his wife.
Nein — sie war nicht das Ideal, das mir erschien, nur
mir zum rettungslosen Verdeben hatte sie trügerisch
jenes Himmelsweibes Gestalt und Gesicht geborgt. In
wilder Verzweiflung fluchte ich ihr und dem unschul-
digen Kinde. Ich wünschte beider Tod, damit ich
6 Grisebach, Vol. III, page 111.


Palmer Cobb
erlöst werden möge von der unerträglichen Qual, die
wie mit glühenden Messern in mir wühlte. Gedanken
der Hölle stiegen in mir auf. Vergebens las ich in
Angiolas leichenblassem Gesicht, in ihren Thränen
mein rasendes freveliches Beginnen – du hast mich um
mein Leben betrogen, verruchtes Weib, brüllte ich auf,
und stiess sie mit dem Fusse von mir, wenn sie ohn-
mächtig niedersank, und meine Knie umfasste.?
Berthold's brutality causes his wife's death, and we are
given to understand that not until after her death does he suc-
ceed in giving life-likeness to her picture. In other words,
the price of the success of the picture is the life of the model.
Berthold erschien bald darauf (after his wife's death)
zu N, in Oberschlesien; er hatte sich seines Weibes und
Kindes entledigt, und fing voll heitern Mutes an, das
Bild zu malen, das er in N. vergebens begonnen hatte.8
The major portion of Poe's story is comprised in the intro-
duction and the description of the picture. The story of the
artist he professes to take from a book in the chateau.
She was a maiden of rarest beauty, and not more lovely
than full of glee. And evil was the hour when she
saw, and loved, and wedded the painter. He passion-
ate, studious, austere, and having already a bride in his
art; she, a maiden of rarest beauty, and not more love-
ly than full of glee; all light and smiles, and frolic-
some as a young fawn; loving and cherishing all
things; hating only the Art which was her rival; dread-
ing only the pallette and the brushes and other unto-
ward instruments which deprived her of the countenance
of her lover. It was thus a terrible thing for this lady
to hear the painter speak of his desire to portray even
his young bride. But she was humble and obedient,
and sat meekly for many weeks in the dark high turret-
chamber where the light dripped upon the pale canvas
7 Grisebach, Vol. II, page 112.
8 Grisebach, Vol. III, page 112.


CHA PIT ER VII
HOFFMANN's Doge und Dogaressa AND Poe's The
Assignation
The resemblances between Hoffmann's story, Doge und
Dogaressa, and Poe's The Assignation, have been cited in
support of Poe's debt to the earlier author by most of the
critics who have argued in favor of such a debt. Stedman,
in the introduction to the Woodberry-Stedman edition of Poe,
remarks relative to the two tales:'
The Assignation derives from Hoffmann's Doge und
Dogaressa, and the tableau with the Marchesa is a
radiantly poetic variation upon the balcony scene in
the earlier tale.
In Lauvrière's Life of Poe,' the same suggestion occurs.
On a bien dit que la chute de la Maison Usher, la
scène du balcon dans L'assignation, et le Portrait Ovale
devraient beaucoup au Majorat, au Doge et Doga-
ressa, etc.
The story of the Venetian Doge, Marino Faliero, (1354),
forms the historical setting for Hoffmann's tale. The first
suggestion for his work came, as he himself tells us in the
beginning of the story, from a picture which he saw at an
exhibition in Berlin in 1816. The picture portrays an old
Doge standing with his young and beautiful Dogaressa at his
side, with a panorama of Venice as a backgrouud. A discus-
sion among a group of friends as to whether the picture was
intended to portray a historical event, or whether the subject
was simply an invention of the artist, calls forth the story of
old Faliero and his youthful bride, Annunziata.
Hoffmann introduces his story with a somewhat extended
extract from Venetian history, having to do with the causes
1 Page 96.
2 Page 595.


82
Palmer Cobb
which led up to and resulted in the calling to the ducal throne
of the old warrior, Faliero. This is an element of the story
which may be here disregarded. The old Doge is described
as a gray-headed octogenarian, but a man still possessed of
great strength of body, acuteness of mind, and decision of
action. At his first entry into Venice, after his election, his
life is endangered by a storm which threatens for a time to
engulf his barque. He is saved and landed at St. Mark's by
a common gondolier. The latter, the hero of the story, has
already been introduced by Hoffmann as follows:
Gerade in dem Augenblick, als nämlich Marino Falieri3
den Bucentoro zu besteigen im Begriff stand, und das
war am dritten Oktober abends, da schon die Sonne zu
sinken begann, lag vor den Säulen der Dogana, auf
dem harten Marmorpflaster ausgestreckt, ein armer.
unglücklicher Mensch. Einige Lumpen gestreifter
Leinwand, deren Farbe nicht mehr kenntlich' und die
sonst einem Schifferkleide, wie das gemeinste Volk der
Lastträger und Ruderknechte es trägt, angehört zu
haben schienen, hingen um den abgemagerten Körper.
Vom Hemde war nichts mehr zu sehen, als die eigne
Haut des Armen, die überall durchblickte, aber so
weiss und zart war, dass sie der Edelsten einer ohne
Scheu und Scham hätte tragen können. So zeigte
auch die Magerkeit nur desto besser das reinste
Ebenmass der wohlgebauten Glieder und betrachtete
man nun vollends die hell kastanienbraunen Locken,
die zerzaust und verworren die schönste Stirn umschat-
teten, die blauen nur von trostlosem Elend verdüster-
ten Augen, die Adlernase, den fein geformten Mund
des Unglücklichen, der höchstens zwanzig Jahre zu
zählen schien, so war es gewiss, dass irgend ein feind-
seliges Schicksal den Fremdling von guter Geburt in
die unterste Klasse des Volks geschleudert haben
musste.
3 Hoffmann spells the name with a final i instead of o.
4 Grisebach; Vol. VII, page 105.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
83
Hoffmann thus suggests that his hero does not belong by
birth in the class of society in which we find him.
The next step in the development of the story makes the
reader the witness of a scene between the newly chosen Doge
and one Bodoeri, the latter a Venetian noble and a member of
the Council of Ten. Bodoeri, in the furtherance of his polit-
ical ambition, wishes to marry his niece, a young girl of
eighteen, to the old Doge. Bodoeri so skilfully depicts the
charms of the young girl to the old warrior that the latter is
soon obsessed with the idea, and the marriage is arranged.
In the meantime, the story of the Doge's rescuer, the lat-
ter now occupying another position in life by means of the
gold which he has received as reward, is continued. Young
Antonio learns from his former nurse the story of his German
parentage, an attack of the plague having obliterated entirely
the memory of his childhood and youth. To the days of this
childhood and youth belongs a love affair with Annunziata,
Bodoeri's niece, and now the young Dogaressa. The sight of
her bridges the gulf between him and his past, awakens
within him all the recollections of his childhood, and arouses
with renewed ardor his love for the sweetheart of his child-
hood, now old Faliero's wife. The love of the young Antonio
for the old Doge's young wife is the key to the tragic culmin-
ation of the tale. What follows is the story of Antonio's
intrigue to gain an interview with Annunziata. In order to
be near her, he bribes the old Doge's gondolier, and serves
himself as a gondolier. Also by means of a bribe he suc-
ceeds in taking the place of the man who, on “Giovedi
grasso,” according to the old Venetian custom, descends by
means of corás and pulleys from the top of St. Mark's to the
balcony of the Doge (erected in the square), and presents a
bouquet to the Dogaressa. Finally, by means of an intrigue
which is aided and abetted by his old nurse, Antonio gains
admittance to the Ducal Palace. Instead of keeping tryst
with his mistress, however, Antonio becomes involved in a
revolution which he finds brewing, the purpose of which is
to overthrow old Faliero. Later, in the consequent uproar


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
93
Hence there can only be one inference from these facts;
Hoffmann grew into the peculiarity, Poe grew out of
it; with Hoffmann it was natural, self-developed, with
Poe something extraneous, acquired, but thrown off as
he grew more and more independent in style and in
method. So much seems established beyond a reason-
able doubt. But, if this peculiar habit was acquired,
if it was an imitation, there is only one writer Poe
could have learned it from, and that was Hoffmann,
from whom he seems to have obtained so many sugges-
tions for his tales, particularly the earlier ones.
Is the statement that this peculiarity of style is not com-
mon to any other English writers accurate? Is there any-
thing so singular in this trick of style that its repeated use
by any author would constitute a distinguishing character-
istic of the style of the author in question? If it can be shown
that an indefinite number of examples of this form of repeti-
tion can be found in the works of other English authors, and
such authors as Poe must have been well acquainted with, is
it not seeking too far afield to make him the debtor of Hoff-
mann for this stylistic characteristic? As a matter of fact,
the peculiarity in question seems to be a tolerably common
rhetorical device, used by various authors in greater or less
degree, as an aid to clearness.
Among English writers, with whose work Poe must have
been familiar, such repetitions are particularly common in
the weird novels of terror by Mrs. Ann Radcliff. Among
American writers, both Hawthorne and Cooper make copious
use of the same device.
Following are a few examples from Mrs. Radcliff's Mys-
teries of Udolphoʻ, taken from a cursory survey of the first one
hundred and thirty pages.
“You are worse then, sir!” said Emily, extremely alarmed
by his manner; "you are worse, and here is no assistance.”
(Page 31.)
"I feel,” said he at length, “I feel how insufficient all
8 The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Mrs. Ann Radcliff, London, 1824.


Palmer Cobb
attempt at consolation must be on this subject.” (Page 49.)
“His hand deposited them here,” said she, as she kissed
some pieces of the coin, and wetted them with her tears —
“his hand which is now dust." (Page 51.)
“Ah, I see,” said Valancourt, after a long pause, during
which Emily had begun and left unfinished two or three sen-
tences — “I see that I have nothing to hope.” (Page 52.)
“So, niece,” said Madame Cheron, casting a look of sur-
prise and inquiry on Valancourt — “so, niece! how do you do?”
(Page 54.)
“Emily,” said Valancourt at length, as he pressed her
hand in his, “Emily! — " and he was again silent. (Page 75.)
“I had hoped, sir, that it was no longer necessary for me
to disclaim it,” said Emily; “I had hoped from your silence,”
etc. (Page 102.)
“But this morning,” continued Annette, lowering her
voice and looking around the room, “this morning as it was
broad daylight,” etc. (Page 124.)
“Nay, prythee, good Annette, stay not talking,” said
Emily in a voice of agony — “go, prythee, go, and see what
it is.” (Page 125.)
Nobody, I believe, ma'am,” replied Annette, “nobody has
been with her,” etc. (Page 128.)
"Hear me, Emily," resumed Morano, “Hear me! I love,
and am in despair – yes — in despair.” (Page 128.)
The same sorts of repetition are to be found in the Ital-
ian' by the same author.
“Stop! for heaven's sake stop!” said Bonarmo. (Page 26.)
"Tell me, I conjure you, instantly tell me,” etc. (Page 37.)
•Three weeks ago, say you! you said three weeks, I
think?" (Page 58.)
“Yet I will not suppose, Signor, I say I will not suppose,”
raising his voice significantly, “that you have dared,” etc.
(Page 63.)
“I understand," said the abbess, on whose appearance the
alarmed Ellena had arisen, “I understand,” said she, without
9 The Italian, Mrs. Ann Radcliff. Londony: 1826.


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
95
making any further signal for her to be seated, "that you are
the young person,” etc. (Page 83.)
“Avaunt,” cried he, in a tremendous voice, “Avaunt!
sacrilegious boy!" (Page 129.)
To a less degree the same device is found in Horace Wal-
pole's Castle of Otranto. •
“I sent for you, lady,” said he, and then stopped under
great appearance of confusion. "My Lord! Yes, I sent
for you on a matter of great moment,” resumed he. (Page
72.)
"Theodore!” said Manfred, mournfully, and striking his
forehead; “Theodore, or a phantom, he has unhinged the soul,
of Manfred.” (Page 168.)
"Thou art no lawful prince,” said Jerome, “thou art no
prince;" (Page 191.)
"Forgive him, dearest mother - forgive him my death."
(Page 215.)
From Hawthorne such quotations could be multiplied indef-
initely." A few will suffice.
“Thou knowest,” said Hester, for depressed as she was, she
could not endure this last quiet stab at the token of her shame
- “thou knowest that I was frank with thee.” (Page 97.)
“Where," asked he, with a look askance at them for it
was the clergyman's peculiarity that he seldom, nowadays,
looked straight forth at any object, whether human or inani-
mate — "Where, my kind Doctor,” etc. (Page 160.)
“Thus, a sickness,” continued Roger Chillingsworth,
going on in an unaltered tone without heeding the interrup-
tion — but standing up and confronting the emaciated and
white-cheeked minister, with his low, dark and misshaped
figure — "a sickness, a sore place,” etc. (Page 166.)
The following examples are from the House of Seven
Gables.
10 Philadelphia: 1826.
11 The Riverside Edition of Hawthorne's Works,
12 The Scarlet Letter.


98
Palmer Cobb
“As yet,” cried the stranger, - his cheek glowing and his
eye flashing with enthusiasm - "as yet, I have done nothing."
(The Ambitious Guest, page 368.)
“The children,” said he to himself — and sighed and
smiled — "the children are to be my charge.” (The Three-
fold Destiny, page 536.)
The following are from Tanglewood Tales:
“Oh! I am stung!” cried he, “I am stung!” (The Par-
adise of Children, page 94.)
“Oh, tell us,” they exclaimed, — "tell us what it is."
(The Paradise of Children, page 100.)
“Go back," cried they all, -- "go back to your own home!”
(The Three Golden Apples, page 113.)
Many other examples could be adduced from Hawthorne's
works. The foregoing will suffice to show that he made a
large use of this form of repetition in his dialogue.
In the novels of James Fenimore Cooper the same trick of
repetition is to be found on almost every page,
From The Pathfinder."3 Vol. 17.
“More's the pity, boy; more's the pity.” (Page 17.)
“You are wrong, — you are wrong, friend Cap; very wrong
to distrust the power of God in anything." (Page 20.)
į "It's no great secret — no great secret,” returned Path-
finder. (Page 22.)
“Call him in,” whispered Jasper, scarce able to restrain
his impatience; “call him in, or it will be too late." (Page
54.)
“I ask your pardon, Pathfinder,” said the repentant Jas-
per, eagerly grasping the hand that the other permitted him
to seize, “I ask your pardon humbly and sincerely.” (Page
57.)
"Keep well up the current, Jasper,” shouted the gallant
guide, as he swept the water with long, steady, vigorous
strokes of the paddle; “keep well up the current.” (Page 64.)
13 Mohawk Edition of Cooper's Works, New York, 1897.
'


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
99
“Ay, empty your rifles, like simpletons as you be,” said
the Pathfinder, who had acquired a habit of speaking when
alone, from passing so much of his time in the solitude of
the forest; "empty your rifles with an unsteady aim, — "
(Page 64.)
“How beautiful!” she exclaimed, unconscious of speaking,
as she stood on the solitary bastion facing the air from the
lake, and experiencing the genial influence of its freshness
pervading both her body and her mind. “How very beauti-
ful!” (Page 112.)
“Can this be so, Sergeant?” said the guide, whose meek
and modest nature shrank from viewing himself in colors so
favorable. “Can this be truly so?” (Page 135.)
“Walk in, Sergeant, walk in, my good friend,” said old
Lundie, heartily, as his inferior stood in a respectful attitude
at the door of a sort of library and bedroom into which he had
been ushered; "walk in, and take a seat on that stool.”
(Page 142.)
“I protest, Major Duncan, I protest,” cried Muir, hurry-
ing back towards the stand, with both arms elevated by way
of enforcing his words, — “I protest in the strongest terms,”
etc. (Page 166.)
From The Prairie, Vol. 20.
“Come nigher, we are friends," said the trapper, associ-
ating himself with his companion by long use, and probably
through the strength of the secret tie that connected them
together; "we are friends,” etc.
"Mischief,” deliberately returned the squatter; but with
a cool expression of defiance in his eye, that showed how lit-
tle he was moved by the ill-concealed humor of his children,
“Mischief, boy; mischief!" (Page 100.)
“Come on, friend,” he said, waving his hand as he observ-
ed the stranger to pause a moment, apparently in doubt,
“Come on, I say.” (Page 111.)
“Asinus excepted,” muttered the Doctor, who by this time
was discussing his portion of the hump in utter forgetfulness
of all its scientific attributes. “Asinus domesticus Ameri-
canus excepted.” (Page 115.)


Influence of Hoffmann on the Tales of Poe
101
pose that Poe acquired this stylistic habit from Hoffmann.
This other evidence is lacking. A careful reading of the two
authors can but lead to the conviction that Poe's acquaint-
ance with Hoffmann was not of so intimate a nature as to
have left stylistic traces in the former's work. They both, to
be sure, work with the same general romantic material —
with the same superlative vocabulary of the weird tale of mys-
tery; but Poe was not so saturated with Hoffmann as to have
absorbed from him any of those characteristics of style which
were peculiarly his own. The American is indebted to the
German for motives and combinations of motives, not for
stylistic attributes.
With reference to this form of repetition in Hoffmann's
works, it is worthy of note, that he most likely acquired it
from Schiller, who made a large use of it in die Geisterseher,
and to less extent in die Raüber. Hoffmann's style was
undoubtedly influenced by Schiller."
Die Einkleidung dieser Ideen (Hoffmann's Vision auf
dem Schlachtfelde zu Dresden) ist indessen offenbar
beinflusst von dem Traum des Franz im fünften Akt
der "Räuber', wie denn überhaupt die Räuber, wahr-
scheinlich schon seit Hoffmanns Jugendzeit eine nach-
haltige Wirkung auf sein Phantasieleben ausgeübt ha-
ben; auch in den rollenden Worten der Vision glaubt man
einen Nachhall von Schillers Sprache zu vernehmen,
Again:
Schillers 'Geisterseher' wird zwar in den Briefen nicht
erwähnt, aber wir wissen aus späteren Bekentnissen,
wie stark das Buch gerade damals auf seine Phantasie
gewirkt hat.
This, taken in connection with the fact that in Schiller's
Geisterseher examples of such repetition are found on every
few pages, establishes, at least a probability that Hoffmann's
use of this trick of style was acquired from Schiller, and that
it was not a thing “natural, self-developed,” as suggested by
14 Cf. Ellinger.


102
Palmer Cobb
Prof. Gruener. Space permits the enumeration of a few
examples from the Geisterseher.15
“Sie haben uns,” sagte er, indem er ihm zugleich einige
Goldstücke in die Hand drückte, "sie haben uns aus den
Händen eines Betrügers gerettet.” (Page 254.)
“In der Tat," rief der Prinz mit einer Miene zugleich des
Verdrusses und der Verwunderung, indem er mir besonders
einen bedeutenden Blick gab, “in der Tat," rief er aus.” etc.
(Page 260.)
“Ihr Trauring!” rief der Prinz mit Befremdung. "Ihr
Trauring!" (Page 277.)
“Das wir unter einander da so glücklich sind,” hub end-
lich der Greis an, der allein unter uns allen den Unbekannten
nicht zu bemerken oder sich doch nicht über ihn zu verwun-
dern schien: "Das wir so glücklich sind,” sagte er, etc.
(Page 280.)
15 y. d. Hellen, Vol. 2.



STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY
PUBLISHED INDIR TO DRTION OP
THE PHILOLOGICAL CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
NORTH CAROLINA
C. ALPHONSO SNITII, Eorror
Vol. I. Chaucer's Relative Constructions. By Louis Round
Wilson.
Vol. II. Studies in the Syntax of the King James Version.
By James Moses Grainger.
Vol. III. The Influence of E. T. A. Hoffmann on the Tales
of Edgar Allan Poe. By Palmer Cobb.














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