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 FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 
 
 ON DRYDENS RELATION TO GERMANY 
 IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 A DISSERTATION 
 
 SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS 
 
 AND LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE 
 
 OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF 
 GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE 
 
 BY 
 
 MILTON D. BAUMGARTNER 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY 
 
 LANCASTER, PA. 
 
 lOM 
 
Übe xamversit^ of Cbicaöo 
 
 FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 
 
 ON DRYDENS RELATION TO GERMANY 
 IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 A DISSERTATION 
 
 SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS 
 
 AND LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE 
 
 OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF 
 GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE 
 
 BY 
 
 MILTON D. BAUMGARTNER 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY 
 
 LANCASTER. PA. 
 
 loi 4 
 

9 37^ 
 
 [Reprinted from University Studies, Vol. XIV., No. 4, 191-1.I 
 
 I.— ON DRYDEN'S RELATION TO GERMANY IN THE 
 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 BY MILTOX D. BAUMGARTNER 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction 1-2 
 
 Chapter I. Satires 3-30 
 
 1. Mac FJecknoe. 
 
 A. Translated and Imitated by Christian Wernicke in 
 
 Hans Sachs. 
 
 a. Hunold's connection with Hans Sachs. 
 
 b. Bodmer's connection with Hans Saclis. 
 
 c. Ramler's connection with Hans Sachs. 
 
 B. Criticism of Mac Flecknoe and Hans Sachs. 
 
 2. Other Satires of Dryden in Germany. 
 
 3. Essay on the Origin and Progress of the Satire Translated. 
 Chapter II. Essay on Dramatic Poesie 3<"'~44 
 
 1. Ea^Jy Noted by German Critics. 
 
 2. Its relation to Lessing and his Seventeenth Literatitrbrief. 
 
 3. German Criticism of the Essay after Lessing's Translation. 
 Chapter III. The Drama 44-57 
 
 1. The Four Plays Translated in Germany. 
 
 A. The Spanish Friar. 
 
 B. The State of Innocence (Three Translations). 
 
 C. Oedipus. 
 
 D. All for Love (Two Translations). 
 
 2. The Tempest or the Enchanted Island a Source for 
 
 Bodmer's Noah. 
 
 Chapter IV. The Fables and Poetic-Classical Translations 58-64 
 
 Chapter V. The Lyrics 64-86 
 
 I. Dryden's Fame as a Lyricist in England due largely to 
 Alexander's Feast. 
 A. Musical Compositions a Potent Factor in Perpetuat- 
 ing Alexander's Feast. 
 289 
 
 306166 
 
2 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 B. Reasons for the Favorable Reception of Alexander's 
 
 Feast. 
 
 C. Translations of Alexander's Feast. 
 
 D. German Criticism of the Original and the Transla- 
 
 tions. 
 2. The Relation of Dryden's Other Lyrics to Germany. 
 Conclusion 86-87 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 While the Hterary relation of Dryden to Germany in the eigh- 
 teenth centtiry is not so significant as that of Shakspere and of 
 Pope, it is nevertheless of sufficient importance to warrant in- 
 vestigation. No connected study of his relation to Germany has 
 been made, and the discussions of the influence of his individual 
 works are either incidental, or do not recognize the extent of 
 such influence. Koch^ scarcely mentions him in his treatise on 
 the English and German literary relations in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury; Vetter^ and Eichler^ do not show the indirect influence of 
 Mac Flecknoe upon Bodmer ; Fulda* and PecheP see no con- 
 
 ^ Ueber die Beziehungen der Englischen Litteratur zur Deutschen im 18. 
 Jahrhundert. (Leipzig, 1883.) Neither Flindt, Ueber den Einftiiss der 
 englischen Litteratur auf die deutsche des 18. Jahrhunderts (Charlotten- 
 burg, 1897), nor Seidenstic)<er, English and German Literature in the 18. 
 Century Poet-Lore IL p. i6g fif. (i8cx5) mentions Dryden at all in con- 
 nection with Germany. 
 
 2 Bodmer und die englische Litteratur, Johann Jakob Bodmer Denk- 
 schrift zum CC. Geburtstag, p. 313 ff., Zürich, igoo. 
 
 2 Christian Wernickes Hans Sachs und sein Dryden'sches Vorbild Mac 
 Flecknoe, Zeitschrift f. v. Litteraturgeschichte. (Neue Folge) XVII, p. 
 208 ff. (1908). Eichler's admirable article exhaustively treats the relations 
 of the two satires, and connects the influence of Mac Flecknoe in a 
 general way upon German criticism. I have freely incorporated his 
 results. 
 
 4 See introduction to Christian ^^'ernicke, in D. AL L., XXXIX. p. 515 ff. 
 
 ^ Christian Wernickes Epigramme, Palaestra, LXXI, Berlin, 1909. All 
 of Wernicke's works are included in this volume, which contains an ex- 
 haustive introduction also dealing with Mac Flecknoe and Hans Sachs. 
 Ferdinand Eichler, Das Nachleben des Hans Sachs vom 16. bis ins IQ. 
 Jahrhundert (1904), with Fulda and Pechel sees no connection between 
 Dryden's Satire and German criticism. 
 
 290 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 3 
 
 nection between this satire and German criticism, while Schmidt,* 
 Bernays/ Borinski,^ and Meisnest^ only incidentally suggest a 
 relation between Dryden's Essay on Dramatic Poesie and Les- 
 sing's seventeenth Literaturbrief; and no noteworthy attempt 
 has been made to show the influence of Dryden's dramas, fables, 
 and lyrics upon Germany. 
 
 The purpose of this study is to present a connected investiga- 
 tion of the relation of Dryden to Germany, showing the manner 
 of entrance chronologically, as far as possible, and the influence 
 of his works. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Satires 
 
 I. "Mac Flecknoe" (1662) 
 
 At the time of Dryden's introduction, Germany had not at- 
 tained literary independence. In consequence his critical works 
 first found favor, among which his satires,^" although poetical in 
 form, must be reckoned. Mac Flecknoe^ a personal and liter- 
 ary satire,^^ was the first satire, and the first work of Dryden to 
 appear in Germany (1702), leaving of all his works the deepest 
 impression with the possible exception of his odes. 
 
 ^ Lessing, Geschichte seines Lehens, und seiner Werke, I, p. 376, 
 Berlin, 1884. 
 
 " Michael Bernays, Schriften zur Kritik und Lit teratur geschickte. III, 
 p. 103, 2d Edition, Berlin, 1903. 
 
 ^ Lessing, I, p. iii, Berlin, 1900. 
 
 ä " Lessing and Shakespeare," Publications of the Modern Language 
 Association of America, XIX, p. 234 ff. (1904). 
 
 If* Dryden seems always to have had a fondness for the satire. In his 
 student days at Westminster he translated the third satire of Persius as a 
 Thursday night's exercise. In 1662 he wrote a " Satire on the Dutch " ; 
 from 1681 to 1687 he produced six satires in poetical form, of which three 
 were political, one literary and personal, and two religious. In 1693 his 
 Essay on the Origin and Progress of the Satire was published as a preface 
 to his translations of the satires of Persius and a partial translation of 
 those of Juvenile. 
 
 ^''- Mac Flecknoe, or a Satire on the true blue Protestant Poet T. S. was 
 written as a reply to the gross personal libels in Thomas Shadwell's satire, 
 The Medal by John Bayes. 
 
 291 
 
4 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 Mac Flechnoe was introduced into Germany by Christian Wer- 
 nicke, diplomat, poet, and as critic a forerunner of Lessing. 
 Under the tutelage of the scholar, Morhof, he had learned to 
 honor and appreciate the poet and critic Opitz^^ ^nd his succes- 
 sors, Gryphus, Hoffmannsvvaldau, and Lohenstein. In one of his 
 early epigrams^^ he says : 
 
 " Den deutschen Pegases setzte Opitz in Lauf 
 Und Gryph verbesserte was war an ihm getadelt, 
 Hernach trat Lohenstein mit Hoffmannswaldau auf 
 Die unsere Dichtkunst und sich durch sie geadelt." 
 
 The dramas of Gryphius had made him one of the foremost 
 literary characters, but when Wernicke began his career, Hoff- 
 mannswaldau and Lohenstein were the idolized and imitated 
 poets. 
 
 " Der hat den ersten zwar, doch die den gröszten Ruhm.''^* 
 
 Later however, the bombastic, picturesque style which the two 
 latter had imbibed from the Italians, especially Marino, was 
 recognized by Wernicke, and he characterized their poetry as 
 containing " mehr falscher als wahrer Witz "^^ 
 
 Wernicke's sojourn as diplomat at Paris and London, incident- 
 ally, furnished an opportunity for familiarizing himself with the 
 language, literature, and criticism of the two neighboring coun- 
 tries. During his stay in London, Wernicke became somewhat 
 acquainted with Dryden's satires and owned a copy. Aside from 
 Mac Flccknoc, he was familiar with at least Absolom and Achito- 
 phel, and The Second Part of Absolom and Achitophel, as he 
 later employs a motive found in each of the two. This famiHarity 
 broadened his literary tastes, and the diplomatic service tended to 
 sharpen his already keen, original, critical wit. 
 
 Through Wernicke, Mac Flecknoe was first introduced at 
 
 12 His Buch der deutschen Pocterei (1624), little more than a compila- 
 tion, had been a guide for German critics. 
 
 13 " Ursprung und Fortgang der deutschen Poesie." 
 "Ibid. 
 
 i'^ See note to the Epigram, Auf die Schlesischen Poeten, Palaestra, 
 LXXI, p. 314. 
 
 292 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 5 
 
 Hamburg. Thus Dryden, like Pope/*^ his pupil and follower, 
 entered Germany by way of Hamburg, but unlike Pope, who 
 came indirectl)^ through the medium of France, Dryden was at 
 first directly introduced from England. Hamburg, replacing 
 Silesia, the home of Opitz, which had formerly been a literary 
 center in a small way, at this time held the foremost place in the 
 commercial, literary, and musical activities of Germany, although 
 it would not be considered a great literary center like London or 
 Paris. 
 
 The opera supported by well-to-do commercial patrons, had 
 flourished there two decades under the leadership of composers 
 like Keyser. The opera texts were written by poets and pseudo- 
 poets who chose this as a remunerative profession. Likewise the 
 blood -and-thun der no vel and d rama were in vogue, written in the 
 figurative, bombastic style of Lohenstein and Hoffmannswaldau. 
 
 Among the contemporary writers. Christian Heinrich Postel 
 (1658-1705), the author of many operas and of several epics pro- 
 vided with numerous learned commentaries, was the most worthy 
 poet. Postel endeavored to defend Lohenstein, his patron saint 
 in poetry, in a sonnet which appeared immediately after the publi- 
 cation of Wernicke's epigrams in 1701,^" and this occasioned the 
 first literary feud at Hamburg.^^ It was the spirit which prompted 
 the sonnet, more than the sonnet itself, that induced Wernicke 
 to take up the cudgel. He w^as striving for a principle, the root- 
 ing out of the " falscher Witz," while Postel, under the pretense 
 of defending the renowned Silesian, Lohenstein, was in reality 
 defending his own poetry patterned after him. 
 
 " Schau . . . 
 Wie jetzt dein Lohenstein, das Wunder aller Erden, 
 Der Teutschlands Sonne muss mit recht genennet werden, 
 So frech gelästert wird durch Stolz und Unverstand."!^ 
 
 Neither Postel's defense of Lohenstein, nor the charging of 
 
 1^ J. H. Heinzelmann, " Pope in Germany in the Eighteenth Century," 
 Modern Philology, X, pp. 317-364 (Chicago, 1913). 
 
 1'^ Elias, Christian Wernicke, Dissertation, München, 1888, p. 216. 
 IS Rudolf Pechel, Prolegomina su Wernickes Epigramme, p. 30. 
 "Ibid., p. 31. 
 
 293 
 
6 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 Wernicke with presumption, nor the ridiculous comparison of 
 him with a hare hopping about on the dead body of the lion, Lohen- 
 stein, succeeded in silencing Wernicke. On the contrary, even 
 though his literary work was so slight that he was regarded as a 
 layman of little consequence, he completely silenced Postel by re- 
 plying to the sonnet with his satire Hans Sachs-'^ in pamphlet 
 form, containing a foreword even more bitter than the satire it- 
 self. Shadwell's scathing satire warranted Mac Flecknoe, but 
 Postel's sonnet did not warrant Hans Sachs. Wernicke endeav- 
 ored to justify it on the ground that the sonnet was frequently 
 wrongly ascribed to (Nicholas von) Bostel, a contemporary, whose 
 name was confused with Postel. He sought to temper his criti- 
 cism somewhat by saying that the translation was made to furnish 
 the German reader an innocent pastime, designating it as a " lust- 
 ige Erfindung." 
 
 Wernicke's theories of the satire which he sets up in the intro- 
 duction to his epigrams in the main agree with those of Dryden. 
 Under the influence of Boileau and Dryden he, like the latter, 
 amends his former criticism with the one difference that he frankly 
 acknowledges his change of viewpoint and justifies the change.-^ 
 He now deprecates in the Silesian idols and their followers, the 
 fine figures of speech and insists that thoughts are the soul of 
 poetry just as Dryden insists on wit."- 
 
 According to Dryden, " The function of the satire is to lash 
 
 20 "Ein / Helden-Gedicht / Hans Sachs genannt / aus dem Englischen 
 übersetzet / Von Dem Verfasser / Der Uberschriffte / und / Shäfer- 
 Gedichte / nebst einigen nöthigen / Erklärungen / des Übersetzers 
 (Altona, 1702)." 
 
 21 " Man hatte als man diese Überschrifft schrieb, nicht allein keine 
 Englische und Frantzösiche Poeten; sondern auch sogar die besten 
 Lateinischen nichts anders als der Sprache halber gelesen. Wannenhero 
 es kein Wunder, dasz man sich damals in seinem Urtheil etwas verstiegen." 
 See Palaestra, LXXXI, p. 315 (Berlin, 1909). 
 
 -- " Man hält davor, dasz wir bisshero in unseren Versen mit eitlen und 
 falschen Worten zu viel gespielet, und sehr wenig auf das bedacht ge- 
 wesen, was die Welschen Concetti, die Frantzosen Pensees, die Engländer 
 Thoughts und wir füglich Einfälle nennen können; da doch dieselbe die 
 Seele eines Gedichtes sind." Ibid., p. 120. 
 
 294 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany y 
 
 vice into reformation ;-^ the true end of satire is the amendement 
 ■of vices by correction ;-* or to reprehend severely vice, ignorance 
 and error."^^ To lampoon another he holds dangerous but justi- 
 fies it on two grounds : first, " to avenge vjhtn we have been 
 affronted in the same nature ; or have in any way been notoriously 
 abused and can make ourselves no other reparation " ; and second, 
 " it is an action of virtue to make example of vicious men when 
 they become a public nuisance both for their own amendment and 
 for the terror of others." The most effective attitude to assume 
 in a satire, he maintains, " is a sharp well-mannered way of laugh- 
 ing a folly out of countenance." In the Essay on the Origin 
 ■and Progress of the Satire, Dryden holds up, as his ideal of char- 
 acterization in satire, his own character sketch of the Duke of 
 Buckingham, whom he satirizes under the name of Zimri in Ah- 
 solom and Achitophel, as a retaliation for the latter 's ridicule of 
 him in The Rehearsal}^ 
 
 Wernicke holds that the duty of the satirist is to portray natur- 
 ally the recognized prevailing vices and follies of the times. ^^ 
 With Dryden he maintains that the best manner of correcting 
 folly in the world is with a laughing countenance (mit lachendem 
 IMunde),^^ but to do this much experience and sane reflection are 
 necessary. The lampoon, he justifies also on the ground of being 
 wrongly abused. The prevailing vices and follies he would por- 
 tray only in a general way, so that those who saw their own image 
 in the portrayal would have no cause to be angry with the author. 
 
 23 Foreword to The State of Innocence (1674), Scott-Saintsbury, V, 
 p. 100 ff. 
 
 24 Foreword to Absoloni and Achitophel (1681), ibid., IV, p. 214. 
 
 "^^ Essay on the Origin and Progress of the Satire (1693), ibid., XIII, 
 p. Iff. 
 
 26 " The character of Zimri in my Absolom is, in my opinion, worth the 
 whole poem: it is not bloody, but it is ridiculous enough: ... If I had 
 railed, I might have suffered for it justly: ... I avoided the mention 
 •of great crimes, and applied myself to the representing of blind sides and 
 little extravagances; to which the wittier a man is, he is generally the 
 more obnoxious." " On the Origin and Progress of the Satire," Scott- 
 Saintsbury, XIII, p. 99. 
 
 ^T Palaestra. LXXI, p. 118. 
 
 28 Ibid., p. 117. 
 
 295 
 
8 Milton D. Dauingartner 
 
 Ironically he adds that out of courtesy he would mention neither 
 the real nor the assumed names of the opponent who attacked 
 him first without cause in order to give them "die völlige Frey- 
 heit in kurtzer Zeit mit ihren Schriften vergessen zu werden."-^ 
 
 In practice there is little difference between Dryden and Wer- 
 nicke in the manner of satirizing. Both were by nature too harsh 
 and too severe. In the foreword to Ahsolom and Achitophel, 
 Dryden says: "I can write severely with more ease than I can 
 gently." Wernicke likewise admits that he was inclined to apply 
 the lash. lie maintains that in his early satirical epigrams, " hat 
 man die Laster eifrig und gleichsam mit der Peitsche in der Hand 
 verfolget";^" and he tacitly admits his harshness by suppressing 
 the sharpest criticism in the foreword of the second edition of 
 Hans Sachs. Similarly there is little difference in the use of 
 real names. With the exception of j\Iac Flccknoc, Dryden 
 nowhere names his opponent, while in Hans Sachs Wernicke 
 uses the transparent anagram " Stelpo " for Postel. 
 
 The influence of Dryden upon Wernicke is evident from his 
 accidental choice of Mac Flecknoe. He tells us in the preface 
 how he chanced upon it when preparing a reply to Postel's son- 
 net. "Als ich nun mit diesen Gedanken im Schwange ging, so 
 gerieth ich unversehens unter meinen zusammengesammelten 
 Schrifften auf folgendes sinnreiches Gedicht eines berühmten Eng- 
 lischen Poeten, worinnen er eine Person aufgeführet hat, welche 
 meinem Widersacher in allen Stücken gleichet, und welche, über- 
 dem, damit er sich an der Vergleichung nicht stossen möge, des 
 damaligen Königs von Engelland wohlbestelter gekrönter Poet 
 war. Die Versuchung war zu grosz, dass ich derselben hätte 
 widerstehen können, und das Gedicht kaum überlesen, dasz ich 
 schon dasselbe in unsere Sprache zu übersetzen und dem Teutschen 
 Leser die unschuldige Kurtzweil zu gönnen den Schluss gefas- 
 set."^^ Wernicke acknowledges his debt to Dryden in the fore- 
 word of both editions of Hans Sachs. In the first he says : 
 "Was im übrigen die Übersetzung dieses Gedichtes betrifft, so 
 
 2ö Palaestra, LXXI, p. 119. 
 
 30 Ibid., p. 117. 
 
 31 See Elias, p. 220 fF. 
 
 296 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany g 
 
 wird der Leser, dem hiesiger Ort kündig, ohne meine Anmerkung 
 gleich von selbst ermessen können, dass obgleich dem Englischen 
 Poeten die Erfindung und Ordnung desselben abgeborget, mir 
 dennoch zum Wenigsten die Helfte der Gedanken eigentümlich 
 zugehöre." In the second edition he lays even greater claims to 
 original ideas : " Die Erfindung desselben hat man einem Eng- 
 lischen Poeten abgelehnet, die meisten Einfälle aber von selbst 
 nehmen müssen." 
 
 As Wernicke has said, the general plan of Hans Sachs is 
 borrowed from Mac Flecknoe. Both present the coronation 
 celebration of the chosen heir in the realm of nonsense. They 
 consist of two monologues by the sire king set in a framework of 
 three explanatory links — the introduction, a connecting link, and 
 the conclusion. The introduction (both Dry den and Wernicke 
 I— 13) describes the aged monarch who resolves to abdicate the 
 throne in favor of one of his numerous sons ; the first monologue 
 (Dryden 14-59, Wernicke 14-86) names and characterizes the 
 successor, setting forth the reason for the choice ; the connecting 
 link (Dryden 60-138, Wernicke 87-170) gives a detailed descrip- 
 tion of the seat and the ceremony of the coronation ; the second 
 monologue (Dryden 139-210, Wernicke 171-263) contains the 
 retiring king's prophecy and testament to the enthroned heir ; and 
 the conclusion (Dryden 211-217, Wernicke 264-269) depicts tlie 
 disappearance of the declaiming king through a trap door, leaving 
 behind his robe which is to clothe his heir with a double portion of 
 his art. 
 
 Wernicke follows Dryden throughout in the motives, except 
 where he refers to the literary conditions at Hamburg, and quotes 
 or parodies the works of Postel. The general motive, however, 
 of parodying and quoting from Postel is borrowed from Dryden. 
 He imitates Dryden even in minute details : as for example, Dry- 
 den signs himself : " by the Author of Absolem and Achitophel " 
 and Wernicke: "Von dem Verfasser der Uberschriffte und 
 Schäfer-Gedichte." The motives which Wernicke borrows from 
 Dryden are: Human things decay and are subject to the decree of 
 fate; an old monarch in the realm of ignorance, weary of rule, 
 wishes to abdicate in favor of an heir; the choice from among 
 
 297 
 
lO Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 his numerous sons of the one most resembling him; the ehmina- 
 tion of all the others, because a beam of wit escapes their souls 
 at times; the ridiculous personal appearance of the heir; the ac- 
 knowledgment by the king that he was sent to prepare the way for 
 his heir ; the musical ability of the king and his heir ; the tears of 
 joy shed in rapture over the hopeful son at the conclusion of the 
 first monologue ; the description of the environment and seat of 
 the crowning celebration ; the prophecy foretelling the reign of 
 the prince of ignorance in the .playhouse ; the spreading of the 
 report of the crowning celebration through the town ; the detailed 
 account of the crowning celebration such as the arrival of a large 
 concourse of people, the carpeting of the way with the leaves of 
 the works of forgotten poets, the bodyguard composed of disap- 
 pointed publishers, captained by the publishers of Dryden and 
 Wernicke ; the cloud of dullness hovering over the heir as he sits 
 next to Rome's other hope ; the oath of office compared to that of 
 Hannibal ; the vow to maintain dullness in the realm until death ; 
 the anointment prepared by the king's own hands ; the crown of 
 flowers; the omen of the owls compared with that of Romulus; 
 the sire's prophecy of the expansion of the realm; the interruption 
 of the monologue by the "Amen" of the people ; the admonition to 
 increase in impudence and ignorance and to suffer " pangs without 
 birth in fruitless industry " ; to toil without wit ; to let others in 
 triumph tread the stage ; to sketch his fools and heroes in his own 
 image so that posterity might recognize them as his own issue ; to 
 trust nature and write naturally-dull ; the quotations and parodies 
 of the opponents, Shadwell and Postel; the inoffensive satires of 
 the opponents ; the opponent's plays are only farces ; the admoni- 
 tions to practice anagrams and set their own songs to music : and 
 finally the disappearing of the declaiming bard through a trap 
 door, and the leaving behind of his robe to the new king with a 
 double blessing of his art. 
 
 The two motives which Wernicke took from the other satires 
 of Dryden have already been referred to above. The first is from 
 the passage in Absolom and Achitophel (555-556), devoted to 
 satirizing Zimri (Buckingham). It acuses him of going to ex- 
 tremes in favorable criticism of friend and unfavorable of foe. 
 
 298 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 1 1 
 
 " Railing and praising were his usual themes, 
 And both, to show his judgment in extremes." 
 
 Hans Sachs, 238-239 : 
 
 "Fleuch wenn du tadeln wilt, bey Leib die Mittel-Straass. 
 Und wenn du jemand rühmst, so halt' auch keine Maass.' " 
 
 The other motive not found in Mac Flecknoe is from The Sec- 
 ond Part of Absolom and Achitophel (457-458), and is the pro- 
 phetic blessing to be dull, pronounced upon the heir at birth by the 
 nurse. 
 
 "The midwife laid her hand on his thick skull, 
 With this prophetic blessing — Be thou dull." 
 
 Hans Sachs, 17-18. 
 
 " Selbst seine Amme fasst' nach der Gebührt ihn um. 
 Weissagt' und segnet' ihn mit diesem Wunsch : sey dumm." 
 
 This is again repeated, hne 90. 
 
 " Bestätigend den Wunsch der Ammen : Sey du dumm."^^ 
 
 This comparison of motives is striking, because the same mo- 
 tives which Dryden appHed to Shadwell in the satire, lend them- 
 selves admirably to satirizing Postel, thereby substantiating the 
 claim of Wernicke made in the preface, "welcher (Shadwell) 
 meinem Widersacher (Postel) in alien Stücken gleichet." Dry- 
 den's motive of choosing the dead poet, Flecknoe, ^^ as the sire 
 king, finds a happy parallel in Wernicke's choice of Hans Sachs, 
 so far as the force of the satire is concerned, as it holds Postel up 
 to genuine ridicule. 
 
 Other parallel motives that were equally applicable to the 
 German situation are: The imitation of renowned poets (Shad- 
 
 32 See Eichler, Loco citato, p. 218; and Pechel, Loco citato, p. 34. 
 
 33 Richard Flecknoe, a dull but prolific Irish poet, who died in 1678, 
 was chosen as the father of Shadwell and furnished the name and back- 
 ground for the satire. He seems to have been a stock character for 
 satirizing and Dryden speaks of him with contempt in his dedication of 
 Limherham (1678). 
 
 299 
 
12 Milton D. Bawngartncr 
 
 well imitated the humors of Jonson, while Postel emulated Eurip- 
 ides) ; the satirizing of their opponents' works and characters; 
 the lame verses in Shadvvell's opera, Psyche, and the effusive 
 style in Postel's works ; and the musical ability of the two 
 opponents.^* 
 
 With few exceptions, the motives which Dryden applied to his 
 English opponent, Wernicke applied to his German opponent with 
 equal force. Some of the most striking variations in motives are 
 in connection with the seat of the coronation, the attending throng, 
 and the disappearance of the sire king at the conclusion. Dry- 
 den has Mac Flecknoe erect Shadwell's throne in the nursery, a 
 training school for young actors, which is situated near the Bar- 
 bican, formerly a watchtower, but now a ruin surrounded by 
 brothel houses. He has Decker prophesy that a prince of dull- 
 ness should reign here, while Wernicke substitutes a witch for 
 Decker. 
 
 In Mac Flecknoe the throng comes to the crowning festivity 
 from " near Bunhill and distant Watling Street," London ceme- 
 teries, while in Hans ^'acAj Wernicke prefers to have it come from 
 "Dreck wall," "Mistberg" and " Gänse-Marckt,"^^ thereby sub- 
 stituting for the throng of the forgotten past, the living rabble 
 inhabiting Hamburg. 
 
 Dryden's motive of having Mack Flecknoe disappear through a 
 trap door, is a parody on Shadwell's play, Virtuoso, in which 
 Bruce and Longville, two of the characters, make a third, Sir 
 Formal Trifle, similarly disappear. Wernicke apparently was 
 pleased with the motive, and finding no parallel in Postel's Works, 
 has " V-1 " ( Vogel), ^^ who sang the comical roles in Postel's 
 operas, manipulate the trap door which sent Hans Sachs beneath. 
 
 34 Shadwell claimed to have assisted in composing the music for his 
 operas, hence Dryden has him perform on the lute, while Postel paraded 
 his performing on the piano, which Wernicke ridiculed. 
 
 35 While these ludicrous names of streets in Hamburg are not neces- 
 sarily in the slum district, yet they were supposed to suggest the rabble. 
 
 3ß Bodmer (Critische Schriften, 1741) in a footnote to his first edition 
 of Hans Sachs says : " Vogel war ein Sänger in der Opera, der die lustige 
 Partien von Posteis Erfindung abzusingen pflegte, und dem zu gefallen 
 der Pöfel sehr in die Opera lief." 
 
 300 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 
 
 13 
 
 The influence of Dryden upon Wernicke is conclusively proven 
 by the direct translation. Not only did he follow the general 
 plan of Mac Flecknoe in Hans Sachs and incorporate many of 
 the motives but he has also translated a large number of the lines, 
 either word for word, or freely adopted them in his satire, espe- 
 cially in the first edition. Nevertheless, the omission of "aus dem 
 Englischen übersetzet" in the title of the second edition is justi- 
 fied. He has expanded Mac Flecknoe, which has 217 lines, into 
 a German satire of 26g. The material he rejected in Dryden's 
 satire dealt with literary conditions in England which would not 
 apply to the literary conditions in Germany ; and the new material 
 introduced has to do entirely with literary and personal criticism 
 of Postel, and literary conditions of Hamburg and Germany. The 
 connecting links show the larger percentage of parallel lines. The 
 parallel lines follow : 
 
 Dryden 
 
 1/2. All human things are subject 
 
 to decay 
 And, when fate summons, mon- 
 
 archs must obey. 
 
 3. This Flecknoe found, who . . 
 had governed long, 
 
 5/6. In prose and verse was owned 
 without dispute 
 
 Through all the realm of Non- 
 sense absolute. 
 
 7/9. This aged prince, now flour- 
 ishing in peace 
 
 And blest with issue of a large 
 increase, 
 
 Worn out with business, did at 
 length debate 
 
 10. To settle the succession of the 
 
 state; 
 
 11. And pondering which of all his 
 
 sons was fit 
 12/14. To reign and wage im- 
 mortal war with wit, 
 
 Wernicke 
 
 1/2. Was Irrdisch ist, vergeht; 
 was Menschlich ist nimmt ab 
 
 Und ein Monarch fällt selbst, 
 wenn's Schicksal winckt, ins 
 Grab. 
 
 3. Diss wurd Hans Sachs gewahr, 
 der Deutschland lang be- 
 herrscht. 
 
 5/6. Der in der Dummheit Reich, 
 sonst Lobesan genannt, 
 
 Durch Reim ohn' allen Streit er- 
 hielt die Oberhand. 
 
 7/9. Lang war in Fried' und Ruh 
 ihm wiedrigs nicht begegnet. 
 
 Er fand mit manchem Sohn Unzehl- 
 bar sich gesegnet ; 
 
 Doch alt, und durch die Last der 
 Sorgen matt gemacht, 
 
 10. So war er, wer im Reich'ihm 
 
 folgen solt, bedacht. 
 
 11. Er dachte welchem Sohn es 
 
 möchte meist gebühren, 
 12/14. Unendlich Zanck und Streit 
 mit der Vernunft zu führen. 
 
 301 
 
H 
 
 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 Cried, "'Tis resolved, for Nature 
 pleads that he 
 
 Should only rule who most re- 
 sembles me. 
 
 15. Shadwcll alone my perfect 
 image bears, 
 
 17. Shadwell alone of all my sons 
 is he 
 
 18/19. Who stands confirmed in 
 full stupidity. 
 
 The rest to some faint meaning 
 make pretence, 
 
 20. But Shadwell never deviates 
 into sense. 
 
 21/24. Some beams of wit on other 
 souls may fall, 
 
 Strike through and make a lucid 
 interval; 
 
 But Shadwell's genuine night ad- 
 mits no ray, 
 
 His rising fogs prevail upon the 
 day. 
 
 25. Besides his goodly fabric fills 
 
 the eye 
 
 26. And seems designed for 
 
 thoughtless majesty. 
 29. Heywood and Shirley were but 
 
 types of thee, 
 30/31. Thou last great prophet of 
 
 tautology. 
 Even I, a dunce of more renown 
 
 than they, 
 32. Was sent before but to pre- 
 pare the way, 
 34. To teach the nations in thy 
 
 greater name. 
 37. My warbling lute was but the 
 
 prelude to that glorious day, 
 43 Me thinks I see the new Arion 
 
 sail, 
 60. Here stopped the good old sire 
 
 and wept for joy, 
 
 Und ruft': Es ist gesehen! Denn 
 
 Hertz und Neigung schlisst, 
 Dass dieser herrschen soll, der mir 
 
 meist ähnlich ist. 
 15. Mein Stelpo alleine zeigt mein 
 
 Bild an seiner Stirn, 
 19. Mein Stelpo allein ist der von 
 
 allen meinen Söhnen, 
 22/23. Und die Undeutligkeit am 
 
 klarsten uns vorstellt. 
 Der andern Meynung kan man 
 
 noch mit Müh' errahten, 
 26. Und auch im rechten Weg' aus 
 
 Irrthum sich nie findt. 
 27/30. Bissweilen fällt ein Funck 
 
 von Witz an andrer Seele, 
 Und blitzt ein kurtzes Licht durch 
 
 die verstockte Hole; 
 Nur Stelpos Grönlands Nacht duldt 
 
 keinen solchen Riss, 
 Kenn't nichts als dürre Kalt und 
 
 dicke Finsternüss. 
 31. Zu dem so findt man gleich, 
 
 wenn man sein Antlitz 
 
 schauet, 
 SS. Dass Unbedachtsamkeit in vol- 
 ler Majestät 
 39. Zes' Zeidler, Schoch — sind — 
 
 nur arme Sünder; . . . 
 42-43. Du groszer Patriarch von 
 
 der Pritzmeisterey. 
 Ich selbst ein Dudentopf berühmter 
 
 als die andern, 
 
 45. Auf dass ich dir den Weg 
 
 bereitete, O Held, 
 
 46. Und deinem gröszern Ruhm 
 
 verkündigte der Welt. 
 53. Doch war mein Dudclsack ein 
 
 Vorspiel nur von dir, 
 55. Mich dünckt, ich hör anitzt 
 
 dich neuen Orpheus spielen. 
 S7/88. Hier schwieg, gleich als vor 
 
 Freuden entzückt, der Greis, 
 
 und weint 
 
 302 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 
 
 15 
 
 61. In silent raptures of the hope- 
 ful boy. 
 
 85/88. Here Flecknoe, as a place 
 to fame well known, 
 
 Ambitiously designed his Shad- 
 well's throne. 
 
 For ancient Decker prophecied long 
 since 
 
 That in this pile should reign a 
 mighty prince. 
 
 89. Born for a scourge of wit and 
 flail of sense, 
 
 94/95. Now empress Fame had 
 published the renown 
 
 Of Shadwell's coronation through 
 
 the town. 
 96/97. Roused by report of fame, 
 
 the nations meet 
 From near Bunhill and distant 
 
 Watling-street. 
 98/99. No Persian carpets spread 
 
 the imperial way, 
 
 But scattered limbs of mangled 
 poets lay; 
 
 103. But loads of Shadwell almost 
 chocked the way. 
 
 104/105. Bilked stationers for yeo- 
 men stood prepared 
 
 And Herringman^'' was captain of 
 the guard. 
 
 106/107. The hoary prince in 
 majesty appeared, 
 
 High on a throne of his own labor 
 reared. 
 
 109. Rome's other hope and pillar 
 of the state. 
 
 110/ 111. His brow thick fogs in- 
 stead of glories grace, 
 
 And lambent dulness played around 
 his face. 
 
 Die er an seinem Sohn erlebt, und 
 fing mit beyden . . . 
 
 121/124. Hans Sachs hatt dieses 
 Haus vor allen wehrt ge- 
 schätzt. 
 
 Und hier des Stelpos Thron ehr- 
 geitzig hingesetzt: 
 
 Denn es wüste eine Hex schon lang 
 vorher zu sagen, 
 
 Dass ein Tyrann allhier . . . 
 
 127. Geborn dem Witz zu Trotz, 
 
 und der Vernunft zur Bürd'. 
 128/129. Nun hatte Fama schon 
 
 (2d edit.), die nie mit 
 
 Schweigen sündigt, 
 Des Stelpos Kröhnungs-Tag der 
 
 gantzen Stadt verkündigt, 
 130/131. Es kahm'ein grosses Volk 
 
 das Haus und Holf Hess leer, 
 Biss zu dem Gänse-Marckt vom 
 
 Dreckwall, Mistberg her. 
 132/133. Der Weg war nicht wie 
 
 sonst belegt mit köstlichen 
 
 Tapeten 
 Statt derer lagen hier viel Bogen 
 
 der Poeten. 
 137. Doch Stelpos eigene Werck' 
 
 erstickten all die andern : 
 138/139. Betrogene Drucker War'n 
 
 anstat der Leibwach' hier. 
 Und S 38 ging behertzt als 
 
 Haubtmann allen für. 
 140/141. Vor'm Fürsten sah man 
 
 zuletzt das Volck sich neigen, 
 Und ihn den Thron, den er selbst 
 
 aufgericht, besteigen, 
 Und ihm zur rechten Hand, Roms 
 
 andre Hoffnung saas. 
 144/145. Er war mit dicken 
 
 Dampf gleich einer Wolck'- 
 
 umfangen. 
 Und kecke Dumheit spielt 'um die 
 
 verwelckte Wangen. 
 
 303 
 
i6 
 
 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 112/113. As Hannibal did to the 
 
 altars come, 
 Sworn by his sire a mortal foe to 
 
 Rome ; 
 114. So Shadwell swore, nor 
 
 should his vow be vain, 
 115/117. That he till death true 
 
 dullness would maintain; 
 And, in his father's right and 
 
 realm's defense, 
 Ne'er to have peace with wit nor 
 
 truce with sense. 
 118. The king himself the sacred 
 
 unction made, 
 126/127. His temples, last, with 
 
 poppies were o'erspread, 
 That nodding seemed to conse- 
 crate his head. 
 128/129. Just at that point of time, 
 
 if fame not lie. 
 On his left hand twelve reverend 
 
 owls did fly, 
 130/136. So Romulus, 'tis sung, by 
 
 Tiber's brook, 
 Presage of sway from twice six 
 
 vultures took. 
 The admiring throng loud acclama- 
 tions make 
 And omens of his future empire 
 
 take. 
 The sire then shook the honours 
 
 of his head. 
 And from his brow damps of ob- 
 livion shed. 
 Full on the filial dullness : long he 
 
 stood, 
 138. At length burst out in this 
 
 prophetic m.ood : 
 139/142. Heavens bless my son ! 
 
 from Ireland let him reign 
 To far Barbadoes on the western 
 
 main ; 
 Of his dominion may no end be 
 
 known 
 
 146/147. Als einsten Hannibal, 
 
 vors Vatters Altar tobt. 
 Und ewige Feindschafft Rom mit 
 
 einem Eid anlobt' 
 148. So schwur auch Stelpo hier, 
 
 und wahrlich nicht vergebens 
 149/151. Dass er wolt'unermüdt 
 
 Zeit seines gantzen Lebens 
 Ein Feind der Reinlichkeit der 
 
 deutschen Sprache seyn, 
 Und keinen Frieden nicht mit der 
 
 Vernunft gehn ein, 
 152. Der König wolt'auch jetzt die 
 
 Salbung selbst verrichten, 
 
 156. Ihm wurd hernach ein Krantz 
 von Blumen aufgesetzet, 
 
 157. Itzt sinckend als im Schlaf 
 
 sich neigten vor der Stirn. 
 160/161. Zwölff Eulen sähe man, 
 
 wenn nicht die Leute lügen. 
 Im selben Augenblick Ehrwürdig 
 
 vor ihm fliegen ; 
 162/168. Und weil die Adler einst 
 
 den Euln in Anzahl gleich. 
 Dem kühnen Romulus verkündig- 
 ten das Reich, 
 So wurd auch jetzt vom Volck die 
 
 Deutung angenommen, 
 Und jeder strebt im Wunsch dem 
 
 andern vorzukommen. 
 Es war der alte Greyss hierüber 
 
 sehr erfreut, 
 Und schüttelte vom KopfT Dämpf 
 
 der Vergessenheit 
 An seines Sohnes Stirn. Lang 
 
 stand er wie entzücket, 
 170. Zuletzt brach der prophet in 
 
 diese Wörter aus : 
 I7i/i73- r^er Himmel segne dich 
 
 du Zier von meinem Hauss, 
 Dass deine Herrschafft nie mög' 
 
 seines gleichen haben, 
 Und sich von Schweitzerland er- 
 strecke bis in Schwaben 
 
 304 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 
 
 17 
 
 And greater than his father's be 
 
 his throne; 
 144. He paused, and all the people 
 
 cried " Amen." 
 145/146. Then thus continued he : 
 
 " My son advance 
 Still in new impudence, new ignor- 
 ance. 
 147/148. Success let others teach, 
 
 learn thou from me 
 Pangs without birth and fruitless 
 
 industry. 
 149/151. Let " Virtusos " in five 
 
 years be writ, 
 
 Yet not one thought accuse thy 
 
 toil of wit. 
 Let gentle George (Etherege) in 
 
 triumph tread the stage, 
 
 154. And in their folly show the 
 
 writer's wit. 
 155/156. Yet still thy fools shall 
 
 stand in thy defence 
 And justify thy author's want of 
 
 sense. 
 157/162. Let them all by thy own 
 
 model made 
 Of dullness and desire no foreign 
 
 aid, 
 That they to future ages may be 
 
 known, 
 Not copies drawn, but issue of 
 
 thy own. 
 Nay, let thy men of wit too be the 
 
 same, 
 All full of thee and differing but 
 
 in name. 
 165. And when false flowers of 
 
 rhetoric thou wouldst cull 
 166/167. Trust nature, do not 
 
 labor to be dull; 
 But write thy best and top, and 
 
 in each line 
 
 175. Und man den Vater kaum er- 
 kenne vor dem Sohn, 
 
 177. Er schwieg, und alles Volck 
 sagt' : Aman. 
 
 178/179. Hernach so fuhr er fort: 
 Mein liebster Sohn nimm du 
 
 Beyds in Unwissenheit und in Un- 
 verschämtheit zu. 
 
 181/183. Lern'aber du von mir 
 arbeiten ohne Nutzen ; 
 
 Lern wie man lange Zeit in Kindes- 
 Nöhten ringt, 
 
 185. Und (lass) Lohenstein und 
 Gryph ein prächtig Trauer- 
 spiel, Schreiben, 
 
 188. Lass die mit groszer Müh'oft 
 Jahr und Tag nachsinnen, 
 
 194. Lass ihn (Bostel) wie im 
 Triumpf deine Bühn be- 
 ziehen, 
 
 197. Und des Verfassers Witz in 
 deiner Thorheit zeigen; 
 
 198/199. Weil jeder Narr den du 
 in deinem Singspiel weist, 
 
 Dein wahres Bildnüs ist, und ewig 
 Stelpo heisst. 
 
 Mach, dass man nicht erkenn, wem 
 
 du den Vorzug giebst, 
 Und dass du als Papa die gleich 
 
 mit j ebnen liebst. 
 200/203. Lass deine Helden auch 
 
 mit jenen sich verpaaren 
 Und unterscheid sie im Nahmen 
 
 mit den Narren. 
 204. Sieh' aber zu, wenn du nach 
 
 Reim, und Versen fühlest. 
 206/207. Vertrau der Natur, 
 
 schreib was dir erst fällt ein. 
 Und brich dir nicht den Kopf ein 
 
 Dudentopf zu sein. 
 208/209. Lass deine Feder nicht an 
 
 Fremdling sich vergaffen; 
 
 305 
 
 ' i IL, . ««■ 
 
i8 
 
 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 171/172. Nor let false friends 
 seduce thy mind to fame 
 
 By arrogating Jonson's hostile 
 name; 
 
 175. Thou art my blood, where 
 Jonson has no part; 
 
 183. Promised a play and dwin- 
 dled to a farce? 
 
 199/201. With whatever gall thou 
 setst thyself to write 
 
 Thy inoffensive satires never 
 bite; 
 
 In thy felonious heart though 
 
 venom lies ; 
 210/214. He said, but his last 
 
 words were scarcely heard, 
 For Bruce and Longville had a trap 
 
 prepared, 
 And down they sent the yet de- 
 claiming bard. 
 Sinking he left his drugget robe 
 
 behind, 
 216/217. The mantel fell to the 
 
 young prophet's part 
 With a double portion of his 
 
 father's art. 
 
 Was hat Euripides mit dir und mir 
 
 zu schaffen, 
 211. Du bist mein Blutt, an dem 
 
 hat dieser gar kein Theil. 
 254/255. Und weil er einst ent- 
 fernt die Traur-Spiel von der 
 
 Heard, 
 So mach das die verkehrt zu einem. 
 
 Lust-Spiel werd'. 
 232/233. Zeig, dass dein frevlend 
 
 Hertz viel Gall und Gift 
 
 umstricke 
 
 Ob Taratantel gleich es gleich nur 
 
 Lachen wircke; 
 264/269. Er sagt', und hatte kaum 
 
 das letzte Wort gesprochen, 
 Als V — 1 welchen hier den falsch 
 
 Grund gebrochen, 
 Ihn taumelnd unter sich auf einem 
 
 Fallbrett sandt' ; 
 Er sanck, und Hess' in Eil zu einem 
 
 Unterpfand 
 Sein Schurtzfell Stelpo nach, woria 
 
 er mit viel Segen 
 Verduppelt seine Kunst. 
 
 But Wernicke did more than transform an English satire into 
 a genuine German satire. Through Hans Sachs he introduced a 
 direct personal literary criticism which since the time of Gottfried 
 von Strassburg, had not existed in Germany. Hans Sachs and 
 Postel represent two widely divergent extremes in poetic form. 
 At the one extreme stands Hans Sachs, the best representative 
 author of the deteriorated poetry of the sixteenth century " Meis- 
 tersänger " with its unpoetic " Knittelvers " ; at the other extreme 
 
 37 Herringman was a noted printer of that time. Formerly he was- 
 Dryden's printer and Shadwell made him a journeyman of Herringman 
 in the satire against him. Globe edition, p. 147. Note. 
 
 28 S was Spiering, Postel's printer. See Bodmer in Critische- 
 
 Schriften, p. 127, 1741. 
 
 306 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 19 
 
 is Postal, a representative writer of the highly picturesque and 
 bombastic poetry borrowed from the Italian, Marino, with its 
 French imported Alexandrines. Hence this direct personal criticism 
 of Hans Sachs and Postel is of greater significance than a mere per- 
 sonal lampoon, as it is a real criticism of existing literary defects ; 
 and like Dryden in Mac Flecknoe, Wernicke in Hans Sachs ex- 
 tended his criticism to other poets and their works. 
 
 Before resorting to the satire, Wernicke had endeavored to re- 
 form the poetry of his country by frankly and directly pointing 
 out its insipidity, as is evident from the foreword of his works 
 (1704 Edition) ^^ Although his ideals were in advance of the 
 times and were rejected by his contemporaries, his introduction 
 of the satire with the exaggerated personalities, paved the way for 
 the toleration and appreciation of sane, direct personal literary 
 criticism. 
 
 a. Hunold's Connection with Hans Sachs 
 
 The satire also brought literary cliques and encouraged literary 
 feuds, such as the one now in progress at Hamburg, and the later 
 Swiss-Gottsched and Lessing-Klotz controversies. In Hamburg 
 the feud between Wernicke and Postel had run its course, but the 
 influence of Mac Flecknoe continued indirectly through Hans 
 Sachs. The controversy was now taken up by Christian Fried- 
 rich Hunold (1680-1721), a debauched Hamburg opera writer. 
 Under the pretense of defending Hoffmannswaldau he entered 
 the field against Wernicke with a satirical comedy, Dem Thö- 
 richten Prietschmeister, oder Schivermenden Poeten, in einer lusti- 
 gen Comoede (Coblentz, 1704). 
 
 In the preface Menantes (Hunold's assumed name) says that 
 he is entering the controversy, since Wernicke had " einen ge- 
 
 39 " Man hält davor; und man hoffet es werde dem Verfasser von 
 keinem vernünfftigen Menschen übel gedeutet werden, dass er seine 
 Meinung so f rey heraus saget." ..." Man ist gäntzlich der Meinung, dass 
 was die Frantzösische Schreib-Art zu der heutigen Vollkommenheit ge- 
 bracht hat, meistenteils daher rühre; dass sobald nicht ein gutes Buch 
 an das Licht kommt, dass nicht demselben eine sogenannte Critique gleich 
 auf den Fuss nachfolgen solte, — Sintemahl dadurch ohne alle Ergernüss 
 dem Leser den Verstand geöffnet, und der Verfasser in gebührenden 
 Schrancken gehalten wird." 
 
20 Milton D. Bamngartner 
 
 lehrten unci wohlangesehnen Mann auf das schäntlichste in einem 
 Pasquil, Hans Sachs genannt, angegriffen, — und mir durch die 
 gröbsten und unflätigsten Columnien die Feder aus der Hand 
 gerissen."^" The theme is the same as in the original. Wernicke 
 is the prince of dullness (Erzprietschmeister), and in the form 
 of an anagram two fool roles are assigned to him in the comedy. 
 As " Wecknarr " he is the arch-fool, and as " Narrweck " he is a 
 merry fool of the vulgar type who falls in love with the daughter 
 of a cobbler and marries her. The motives found in Hans Sachs 
 which he borrows are: the crowning of the opponent (with pitch 
 instead of flowers) ; the blessing pronounced by the spirit of Hans 
 Sachs, who crowns him as his successor as king of poets, which 
 runs : 
 
 " Ich segne dich : sey dum 
 
 In lästern sey nicht stum 
 
 Was gleich ist mache krum 
 
 Und frage nichts darum." 
 
 the quotations from and parodies on the works of the opponent 
 (found largely in voluminous foot-notes) ; the accusation of 
 plagiarism (dwelt upon at great length although unfounded) ; the 
 music motive (introducing the bagpipe and the lute) ; the motive 
 that Wernicke's works were unsold (and were in junk shops) ; 
 and finally the personal ridicule of the opponent which deterio- 
 rates into personal abuse. 
 
 b. Bodmers Connection zvitJi Hans Sachs 
 
 The influence of Dryden continued indirectly through the re- 
 vival of Hans Sachs. After the Hamburg literary feud, Hans 
 Sachs disappeared for a time, but was again revived in the next 
 great literary controversy which took place between Bodnier and 
 Gottsched and their allies. In this controversy Bodmer intro- 
 
 4" Hunold refers to the epigram, " An den Deutschen Maevius " begin- 
 ning : 
 
 " Freund hast du keinen Witz, und willst doch etwas schreiben 
 Das dem Verleger nicht soll auf dem Halse Bleiben," 
 which Wernicke directed against him for the numerous attacks since the 
 appearance of Hans Sachs. See Palaestra, p. 42 ff. 
 
 308 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 2 1 
 
 duced Wernicke's satire as a " Streitschrift " against his oppo- 
 nents. Although primarily interested in the religious epic, like 
 Dryden, the satire always fascinated Bodmer. As early as 1720, 
 he was planning to write satires." In 1737 he translated two 
 books of Butler's Hndibras*- and ten years later Pope's Diin- 
 ciad,^^ an imitation of Mac Flecknoe, which he had originally in- 
 tended to adapt to German conditions'** as Wernicke had Mac 
 Flecknoe. He was also familiar with Swift's The Battle of 
 Books, as in his Charakter der Deutschen Gedichte (1734) he 
 adapts Swift's characterization of Dryden to Amthor, a contem- 
 porary poet.*^ Together with Wieland, Bodmer w?rote Edivard 
 Grandison's Geschichte in Görlitz,*^ as a reply to Schönaich's Die 
 ganze Ästhetik in einer Niiss*'^ and he also encouraged Wieland 
 in writing the Ankündigung einer Dnnciade für die Deutschen}^ 
 Bodmer was first introduced to Hans Sachs through a letter 
 from J. U. König, dated March 28, 1724,-*^ in which Wernicke's 
 works and the Postel-Hunold-Wernicke feuds were briefly 
 
 " Leonhard Meister, Ueber Bodmer, öffentlicher Lehrer der Sittenlehre 
 und der Geschichte an der Kunstschule su Zürich. Nebst Fragmente aus 
 seinen Briefen. Zürich, 1783. See Bodmer's letter to Meister dated May 
 5, 1720, p. 76. 
 
 42 Versuch einer Deutschen Uebersetzung von Samuel Butlers Hudibras, 
 einem Satyrischen Gedichte mider die Schweriner und Independenten, zur 
 Zeit Carls des Ersten, Franckfurt und Leipzig, 1737. 
 
 ^^ Alexander Popens Duncias mit Historischen Noten und einem 
 Schreiben des Uebersetzers an die Obotriten, Zürich, 1747. 
 
 ** See Introduction to the Dnnciade " An meine Freunde die Obertriten " 
 and his letter to Sulzer, September 12, 1747, in Briefen der Schzvcizer 
 Bodmer, Sulzer, Gessner. Aus Gleims lit. Nachlasse, by W. Körte, p. 69, 
 Zürich, 1804. 
 
 *^ See Bodmer Denkschrift, pp. 224-225. 
 
 *^ See Euphorion, Vol. 18, pp. 68-89, and Vol. 19, pp. 66-91. 
 
 *7 Die ganze Ästhetik in einer Nuss, oder neologisches Wörterbuch, 
 Leipzig, 1754. See Lessing's Review in the Berlinischen privil. Zeitung, 
 98. Stück, vom 15. August, 1754. 
 
 *^ Ankündigung einer Dnnciade für die Deutschen. Nebst dem verbes- 
 serten Hermann, Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1755. Gessner, Gleim, Sulzer 
 and Ramler took an active interest in this work. See Körte, Loco citato, 
 p. 228 ff., p. 234 ff., p. 245 ff. 
 
 *^ Literarische Pamphlete aus der Schweiz, p. 32 ff., Zürich, 1781. 
 
 309 
 
2 2 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 sketched. König paid a high tribute to Wernicke and saw in 
 Hans Sachs a " Stachelschrift von solcher Schönheit, Stärke, 
 spitziger, feiner und scherzhafter Lebendigkeit," which could 
 be used in a literary controversy, and he himself planned to re- 
 cdit it and use it against Brockes and the Hamburg poets but his 
 plan miscarried. ^° In the following year, as is seen from his 
 lettcr^^ to Bodmer, dated April 30, 1725, König sent him a trans- 
 cript of Hans Sachs as well as a copy of Hunold's Des Thörichten 
 Prietschmeistcrs. 
 
 Although König introduced Wernicke to Bodmer, to Bodmer, 
 however, belongs the credit of introducing him to Germany, and 
 through his publications Wernicke became a renowned poet. Bod- 
 mer regarded him as the first German who criticized poetry 
 frankly and independently according to firmly established princi- 
 ples.^^ The treatise on imagination,^^ published by Bodmer and 
 
 so See letter to Bodmer, June 27. 1726, which contains a list of the pub- 
 lications that were to appear in the Boberfeldischen Gesellschaft. No. 20 
 was " Hans Sachs, Heldengedicht mit Erklärungen der dunckeln Stellen und 
 Nachricht von dem Autore und seinen Gegnern." Published by Brandl. 
 Brockes, p. 148 ff. 
 
 51 See letter published by Brandl in Anglia, Vol. I, p. 460 ff . König 
 sent Bodmer a partial translation of " Paradise Lost" by Haake and " Das 
 andre ist das Heldengedicht Hans Sachs, welches ich abschreiben lassen 
 und unter welcher eigenhändig die Anmerkungen dazu gesezt, die wenigen 
 bekannt wie mir, ..." 
 
 52 " Er urtheilte auf festgesetzte und beständige Grundsätze ; welches 
 vor ihm noch keiner gethan hatte. Er betrachtete die Gedichte der Deut- 
 schen ohne Vorurtheile, und sah auf die Wahrheit der Sache und nicht 
 auf das Aussehen oder den Beifall anderer. Aufrichtigkeit und Freiheit, 
 mit Bescheidenheit ohne Schmeichelei, führten ihm die Feder." See Nach- 
 richt von dem Ursprung der Kritik bei den Deutschen, in Grit. Schriften, 
 I, Part I, 103, 1741. 
 
 53 Von dem Einfluss und Gebrauch der Einbildungs-Kraft ; cur Aus- 
 besserung des Geschmackes. . . . Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1727. Prior to 
 this in the critical poems, Charakter der Teutschen Gedichte (1734), he 
 lauds Wernicke's keen criticism 
 
 " Den scharfen Wernicke, der Wahr und Falsch nicht mengte, 
 Und seinen reinen Witz mit Unwitz nicht besprengte 
 Der das geschminkte Nichts in Waldaus Lied erkannt. 
 Und der's auch ohne Furcht ein buntes Nichts genannt. . . ." 
 J quote from " Kritischen Lobgedichten und Elegien," p. 40, Zürich, 174". 
 
 310 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 23 
 
 Breitinger in 1727, shows the influence of the rational criticism 
 of Wernicke. In the introduction, Bodmer quotes from Hans 
 Sachs, by way of illustration, to substantiate his contention that 
 German poets do not base their criticism on reason and only inci- 
 dentally criticize justly, "wie Hr. Warneck sich ausdrücket, aus 
 Irrthum sich auf dem rechten Wege finden."^* This results in 
 romantic heroes in the tragedy, and clowns (Hans-Würste) in the 
 comedy. 
 
 During his controversy with Gottsched, Bodmer edited and four 
 times published Hans Sachs with commentaries :^° in a satire 
 against the Leipzig school he borrowed motives from it;^® in his 
 •discussion of Wernicke in the treatise on the origin of German 
 criticism he dealt with it and with Dem Thörichten Prietsch- 
 meister;^'' and in the discussion of the German theater he quoted 
 from it.^^ In the preface and footnotes of the first edition (1741), 
 
 s* Wernicke lines 25-26 are : 
 
 " Mein Stelpo ist's allein, der niemals nicht nachsinnt, 
 Und auch im rechten Weg', aus Irrthum sich nie findt." 
 S5 First time in Sammlung Critischer, Poetischer, und anderer geistvoller 
 Schriften, Zur Verbesserung des Urtheils und des IVices in den Wercken 
 der Wohlredenheit und der Poesie, I, Part I, p. 44 ff-, Zürich, Bey Conrad 
 Orell und Comp, 1741. 
 
 Second time in his first complete edition of Wernicke, N. Wernnikens, 
 ehemaligen Königl. Dänischen Staatsraths, und Residenten in Paris, 
 Poetische Versuche in U eher Schriften; Wie auch in Helden- und Schäfer- 
 gedichten. Neue und verbesserte Auflage. P. 115 ff. Zürich, bey David 
 Gessner, Gebrüdere, 1749. 
 
 Third time in Sammlung der Zürcherischen Streitschriften zur Ver- 
 besserung des Deutschen Geschmackes, wider die Gottschedische Schule, 
 von 1741 bis 1744. Vollständig in XII. Stücken. Neue Ausgabe. II, part 
 I, Zürich, Bey Conrad Orell und Comp., 1753. 
 
 Fourth time, reprint of the 1749 edition, 1763. 
 ^6 " Das Complot der herrschenden Poeten," in Grit. Schriften, part 3. 
 1742. 
 
 ^" " Nachricht von dem Ursprung der Kritik bei den Deutschen." In 
 Grit. Schriften I, Part i, pp. 83-180, 1741. 
 
 ^8 Gritische Betrachtungen und freye Untersuchungen cum Aufnehmen 
 und Verbesserung der deutschen Schau-Bühne, mit einer Zuschrift an die 
 Frau Neuberin. Bern, 1743. Bodmer attributes the popularity of Gott- 
 sched's play to the actors who performed them, just as Wernicke at- 
 
 ^11 
 
24 Milton D. Bamngariner 
 
 Bodmer sets forth his reasons for bringing Hans Sachs to light 
 again. He esteems this satire for its literary qualities, and not 
 because it is a controversial pamphlet (Zeitungsblatt). The many 
 witty jests, the instructive raillery, the manner of expression, the 
 ideas, and pictures (Gemälde) it contains per se appeal to him. 
 Then, too, he believes there are still many fools among the poets 
 of his own time who might profit by reading such a satire.^^ 
 
 That he regarded Gottsched a " Stelpo," is evident from lines 
 39-40. 
 
 " Schoch, Zeidler, Zes' und Titz, und andre Reim-Erfinder 
 Sind, wann man sie mit dir vergleicht, nur arme Sünder."^'' 
 
 Bodmer again in 1753 directly connects Gottsched and his school 
 with Hans Sachs, as is evident from the collection of treatises 
 published under the title : Zürcherischen Streitschriften — ivider 
 die Gottschedische Schule. Hans Sachs is published in this col- 
 lection. The four editions by Bodmer bespeak the wide circula- 
 tion which this satire enjoyed during the time when the Swiss- 
 Leipzig controversy was in progress. 
 
 The year following the publication of the first edition of Ha)is 
 Sachs, Bodmer published a prose satire, Das Complot der lierr- 
 schenden Poeten against the Leipzig school of poets. Motives 
 for this were taken from Hans Sachs and the Dunciad. Bodmer 
 compares himself to Wernicke in the passage which he uses to 
 prove that the Gottsched school will be unsuccessful in the en- 
 deavor to shelve his own works. "Wernicke hatte in schweren 
 Tagen und unter einer Welt voll Pfuscher die Rechte der gött- 
 
 tributed the renown of Postel's plays to the actors and singers. In a 
 footnote (p. 51) he cites sixteen lines from Hans Sachs (lines 58-64). 
 
 SD " Er (the editor) zweifelt nicht, dass man nicht auf den heutigen 
 Tag noch eine zimliche Anzahl solcher Stclpo antreffen werde, welche den 
 ersten Stelpo nicht verleugnen können." See Bodmer's introduction to 
 the first edition. 
 
 60 In a note to Schoch in the first edition, Bodmer says : " Hr. Gottsched 
 leget diesem in dem Hauptstüke seiner " Dichtkunst für die Deutschen," 
 wo er von den Hirtenliedern handelt, ein grosses Lob bei, und meint er 
 habe in seinem Blumengarten viel Ehre eingeleget . . . Allein die Strophen 
 die er zur Probe anführet, und vor ungemein ausgiebt, bekräftigen viel- 
 mehr das Urteil unsers Satyrici." 
 
 312 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 25 
 
 lichen Chritik heraus gebracht und verfochten, aber ward zur 
 Strafe in die unterirdischen Gewölber des hamburgischen Doms 
 zu Spirings (Postel's printer) Makulatur geworfen . . . . ""^ In- 
 stead of making a dead poet the hero Bodmer substitutes " den 
 herrrschenden Geschmack" (Gottsched's taste). His hundred sons 
 (Wernicke's countless sons) form a conspiracy against the Swiss 
 school, " each of whom was a poet king, each was powerful enough 
 to rule the monarchy of his father." They make speeches similar 
 to the monologues in Hans Sachs in which they quote and parody 
 their own works ; they are attended not only by their disappointed 
 publishers but by printers, journalists, and all connected with pub- 
 lishing. Their sire king appeared to them as a spirit (blue vapor) 
 which assumed the form of a throne occupied by the king trans- 
 formed into human shape. Like Flecknoe, he was ridiculously 
 large and wore a mantel but a fool's mantel. Majesty enveloped 
 him as he sat upon the throne, the antichrist (Dryden's foe) of 
 wit. The sons swear allegiance to the taste in their own works 
 not by Loves Kingdom (a play of Shadwell) but by " Stelpo," 
 etc., and vow to be loyal despite proof, reason, and the ridicule of 
 satires. The blessing pronounced upon them by the sire king 
 also contains the extent of the realm, "von Pommern bis in 
 Schwaben, von Crayon bis in Westphalan." " Und sich von 
 Schweitzerland erstrecke biss in Schwaben" {H. S., 1. 173)."- 
 Finally at the conclusion of his speech the king disappears, and 
 his spirit in the form of a cloud settles upon each of his sons as a 
 portion of his art and purifies their minds of reason. Like Dry- 
 den and Wernicke, Bodmer criticizes the poets and the poetry of 
 his time in his satire. 
 
 c. Ramlcr's Connection -inth Hans Sachs 
 
 After Bodmer, Karl Wilhelm Ramler (1725-1798) was the 
 only author who edited Hans Sachs in the eighteenth century. 
 His edition contains merely the first sixty-nine lines of Wernicke's 
 satire, and is only incidentally included in the book of epigrams 
 
 ^1 Loco citato, p. 163. 
 
 82 Bodmer, Loco citato, p. 217. 
 
26 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 (among which were many of Wernicke's) edited in 1780.°^ Like 
 Lessing, Ramler had a great fondness for the epigram, and 
 together they had edited the epigrams of Logau (1759). Several 
 times before undertaking this edition,"* in which he was encour- 
 aged by Lessing,*^'"' he alludes to Wernicke in his criticism. 
 
 Lessing wrote polemics which are unquestionably the most re- 
 presentative of the direct personal criticism. He usually contended 
 for a principle, attacking the opponent and pointing out the fallacy 
 of the principles advocated by him. At times he holds his oppo- 
 nent up to ridicule, as for instance Gottsched in the seventeenth 
 Literaturbrief, or Klotz in the Antiquarischen Briefen (1768- 
 1769). Of the latter the fifty-first to the fifty-seventh are entirely 
 personal and in the fifty-fourth he quotes from Wernicke. *^° The 
 quotation is from Wernicke's most scathing epigram, " An den 
 Deutschen Moevius," directed against Hunold, which in spirit and 
 even in motives is akin to Dryden's most poignant array of Shad- 
 well in the second part of Absolom and Achitophel. Lessing's 
 familiarity with Dryden and Wernicke and his keen appreciation 
 of their wit make it probable that he knew both Mac Flecknoe and 
 Hans Sachs, but as he only planned to write a burlesque epic"^ 
 without really writing a satire, he neither quotes nor cites them ; 
 but after his combat with them, Gottsched, Klotz, and even Goeze, 
 were fit candidates for the throne of Mac Flecknoe or Stelpo. 
 
 d. Criticism of Mac Flecknoe and Hans Sachs by Other German 
 
 Critics 
 Mac Flecknoe and Hans Sachs are frequently referred to 
 
 ^3 Christian Wernickens Ueberschriften. Nebst Opitzens, Tischerings, 
 Andreas Gryphiiis and Adam Olearius epigrammatischen Gedichten. 
 Leipzig, 1780. 
 
 6*1). N. L. 39, p. 523. 
 
 ^^ See letters of Lessing to Ramler in 1779. 
 
 66 " Mein wehrterster Herr, ein andres ist es einem Weihrauch streuen, 
 und ein andres, einem, mit Wernicke zu reden, das Rauchfass um den 
 Kopf zu schmeiszen. . . . Ich will glauben, dass es blosz ihre Ungeschick- 
 lichkeit in Schwenkung des Rauchfasses ist: aber ich habe dem ohnge- 
 achtet die Beulen, und fühle sie." See Lessings Werke. D. N. L., XIX, 
 p. 241. 
 
 6" See Pub. of the Mod. Lang. Assn., p. 579 (1909). 
 
 3H 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 27 
 
 throughout the latter half of the eighteenth century by German 
 critics aside from Bodmer and Ramler. Die Britische Bibliothek 
 (1758)"® says that the laughing satire is more biting than the seri- 
 ous, and that to the former kind Dryden has a just claim, as his 
 Mac Flecknoe crowns him with eternal laurels. 
 
 'Schmid in his Theorie der Poesie^^ {iy6y) emphasizes the per- 
 sonal element in Dryden's satires, which he illustrates by saying 
 that Mac Flecknoe was written against the wretched rhymer who 
 became his successor as poet laureate. 
 
 Gerstenberg directly compares Klotz with Mac Flecknoe in a 
 review of the Lessing-Klotz controversy concerning Laokoon 
 (lyGg).""^ "Klotz der den Verstand der meisten Dingen so son- 
 derbar, wie mit Versatz verfehlet, dasz er gleich jenem Mac Fleck- 
 noe beym Dryden, ein Gelübde gethan zu haben scheint 
 
 " Ne'er to have truce with sense." 
 
 In his Geschichte der komischen Literatur/^ Flögel sketches the 
 life and satirical works of Dryden and attaches considerable im- 
 portance to Mac Flecknoe, giving the circumstances of its origin 
 and translating in prose lines 15 to 20, to which he adds : " Dieses 
 ist einer der besten und schärfsten Satiren im Englischen." By way 
 of illustration he quotes the characterization of Shadwell : 
 
 " In prose and verse, was owned without dispute 
 Through all the realm of nonsense absolute." 
 
 He States, however, that he is too cruel to Shadwell and oversteps 
 the bounds of truth. The chief motives of the satire are then 
 analyzed, and in his discitssion of Wernicke he also gives Dryden 
 as the source for Hans Sachs. 
 
 Herder admired Dryden as a lyricist, as we shall see later, but 
 was not favorably inclined to the satire. His criticism of Wer- 
 nicke is for the most part negative, but he mentions Hans Sachs 
 in the Adrastca (1801),'^- as the "Heldengedicht, das er gegen den 
 
 ^8 In connection with the life of the Duke of Buckingham, p. 396. 
 
 ^8 Chr. Schmid, Theorie der Poesie, p. 228, Berlin, 1767. 
 
 ^° In the Hamburgischen Neuen Zeitung, Aug. 7, 1769. 
 
 ''^ Carl F. Flögel, Geschichte der komischen Literatur, II, pp. 363-368. 
 
 '2 Herders Werke, Düntzer, vol. 14, p. 735 ff. 
 
28 Milton D. Baiimgartner 
 
 damals blühenden Postel machte." While he asserts that "Nation- 
 und Zeitmäszig folgt daraus wenig," yet he praises Wernicke by 
 saying his depictions are so true that page after page would apply 
 equally well to Germany in 1801 as in 1700, and concludes by im- 
 ploring the spirits and critics: " thut Eure Kräfte, Eure Launen 
 zusammen, um uns den Lohenstein und Hoffmannswaldau, den 
 neuen Postel und Stoppo aus den Gliedern zu treiben"! 
 
 2. Other Satires of Dryden in Germany 
 
 While Mac Flecknoe left a deep impression upon German criti- 
 cism, the other satires of Dryden did not appear prominently and 
 seem to have exerted but little influence. Absolom and Achito- 
 phel, The Medal, and The Hind and the Panther are incidentally 
 discussed by critics. ■ Of these Absolom and Achitophel plays the 
 most prominent role, due to the famous character sketch of Zimri 
 (Buckingham), which the author himself regarded a model. A 
 part of the Zimri sketch appeared in The Spectator (Nos. 163 and 
 222), translated by Mrs. Gottsched; the whole Zimri sketch is 
 translated in prose in the Britischen BiblioihekJ^ accompanied 
 with the remark that it fits the Duke's character. The review of 
 Hume's History of Great Britain, also in the Britischen Biblio- 
 thek, lauds the great talent of Dryden, but regrets that in common 
 with other poets he produced so much that was crude, coarse, and 
 smutty, but concludes : " Doch unter der grossen Anzahl unwürdi- 
 gen Geburten, entdecken einige kleine Stücke, und der grösste 
 Theil seines Absolom und Achitophel so viel Genie, einen solchen 
 Reichtum des Ausdrucks .... "'* Flögel believes The Rehearsal 
 to be a better satire than Absolom and Achitophel, ho\\e\er, he pro- 
 nounces the latter " Eine beissende Satire."'^ Blankenburg briefly 
 describes it and calls attention to its popularity by citing the two 
 translations made soon after its appearance,'® while Bouterwek 
 designates it the most artistic poem of Dryden.'^' 
 
 "3 Loco citato, p. 86, 1758. 
 ^4 Ibid., p. 622, 1757. 
 ''^ Loco citato, II, p. 263. 
 
 ■^ß Friedrich von Blankenburg, Litterarische Zusätze zu Johann Georg 
 Siil::ers algemeiner Theorie der schönen Künste, III, p. 57', Leipzig, 1796. 
 
 316 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 29 
 
 Flögel and Blankenburg both include The Medal in their dis- 
 cussion of Dryden's satires. The former translates in part the 
 prefaced epistle to the Whigs, where Dryden tells them : " Rail at 
 me abundantly, and not to break a custom, do it without wit."'^ 
 
 Schmid regards The Hind and the Panther a personal satire,'^ 
 directed against the Whigs ; and Flögel analyzes and discusses 
 it. Bouterwek ranks it above Religio Laid poetically, but thinks 
 it is so long that it becomes monotonous and is overburdened with 
 unpoetic historical references to the church and the politics of 
 England. *° 
 
 3. " Essay on the Origin and Progress of the Satire " 
 
 The criticism of Germany was not only influenced by the satires 
 of Dryden, but also by the history and theory of the satire which 
 he presented in his treatise On the Origin and Progress of the 
 Satire (1693). This discourse contained a history of the satire 
 from the beginning; an exhaustive comparison of the satirists 
 Horace, Juvenal, and Persius, and his own theory as to the man- 
 ner of writing a satire. 
 
 Dryden's treatise on the satire found its way into Germany 
 shortly after Lessing's publication of his translation of Dryden's 
 Essay on Dramatic Poesie. In 1762 it was translated and pub- 
 lished by Nicolai, Lessing's co-worker, in his Vermischten 
 Schriften which, as we shall see later, also contained Warton's 
 Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope, and the translations 
 of some of the best English and French critical works. The trans- 
 lation was most probably undertaken at Lessing's suggestion, as 
 Nicolai cooperated with him. It does not include the general and 
 personal matter in the beginning, and wisely omits the unessential 
 parenthetical phrases thrown in for illustration, as for instance, 
 " like my friend, ' The Plain Dealer.' " Nicolai's translation does 
 not lack in clearness for the German reader, but his style lacks the 
 
 ^■^ Friedrich Bouterwek, Geschichte der Künste und Wissenschaften, 
 Vol VIII, p. 48 ff. Göttingen, 1810. 
 ^8 Loco Citato, II, p. 364. 
 "9 Ibid., p. 365. 
 so Loco citato, VIII, p. 49. 
 
 ?>^7 
 
30 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 finish which is so characteristic of the prose of Dryden and 
 Lessing. 
 
 The esteem in which other critics held Nicolai at this time, is 
 reflected by their familiarity with the Nicolai translation. Schmid 
 opens his chapter on the satire with : " Cesabanus und Dryden 
 haben die gründlichsten Untersuchungen über den Ursprung und 
 die Alterthümer der Satyre gemacht," then cites Nicolai's trans- 
 lation.^^ In dealing with Dorset as a satirist, he quotes Dryden: 
 " Graf Dorset hat nach Drydens Urtheil die Kunst der feineren 
 Spötterei verstanden."^- Flögel regards Dryden's treatise on the 
 Greek and Roman satire an authority : " Sie ist mit Geschmack 
 und Gründlichkeit abgefasst."^^ Blankenburg is even more em- 
 phatic in his commendation. After outlining the satire, he directs 
 the reader to Dryden as the one authority : " Wer mit einer aus- 
 führlichen Untersuchung hierübergedient seyn mag, den verweisen 
 wir auf Drydens Abhandlung von dem Ursprung und Fortgang 
 der Satire."** 
 
 Although less emphatic in his commendation, Bouterwek re- 
 gards it an exhaustive treatment : " Besonders lesenswerth ist 
 seine (Dryden's) ausfürliche Zueignung oder eigentliche Abhand- 
 lung über die didaktische Satyre."®^ 
 
 CHAPTER IL Essay on Dramatic Poesie (1668) 
 I. Early Noted by German Critics 
 
 Aside from his satires, Dryden's Essay on Dramatic Poesie 
 exerted a greater influence upon Germany than any of his other 
 critical works. While the translation and Bodmer's revival of 
 Mac FIccknoe preceded the translation of the Essay, the latter 
 preceded the translation of the treatise On the Origin and Prog- 
 
 81 Loco citato, p. 235. 
 
 82 Ibid., p. 238. 
 
 83 Loco citato, I, p. 278. Throughout the work he quotes Drj-den, L, 175, 
 278; II, 4, 7, 20, 354 ff-, 364^371, 384; HI, 464; IV, 83, 90, 217, 300. 
 
 8* Loco citato, IV, p. 12g. 
 85 Loco citato, VIIT, p. 55. 
 
 318 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 31 
 
 ress of the Satire, and was the first work of Dryden noted by 
 German critics. Morhof , in his Unterricht der deutschen Sprache 
 und Poesie'^ (1684), discusses and in a chapter on English poetry 
 analyzes it at some length. One of the interesting features of his 
 discussion is that of the four authors dealt with in the Essay, 
 Shakspere, Fletcher, Beaumont, and Jonson. He says that he 
 has read nothing of Shakspere and Fletcher, and limits his anal- 
 ysis to Jonson. While he concedes, " Dryden hat gar wohl ge- 
 lehrt von der Dramatica Poesi geschrieben," he regards his claim 
 that the present English writers are superior to all moderns, as 
 too presumptions. In his " Polyhistor "^ (1688-1692), Morhof 
 also twice mentions the Essay, and like most German critics in the 
 eighteenth century, speaks of the author as the " celebrated 
 Dryden." 
 
 Jöcher's Gelehrte Lexicon, (1715)^ characterizes Dryden as 
 " einer von den vortrefflichsten Poeten und Comödien-Schreibern 
 in Engelland, welcher sonderlich sehr viele Schauspiele, auch einen 
 gelehrten Tractat von Dramatik Poesy geschrieben." 
 
 As early as 1730 Gottsched quotes from the Essay Dryden's 
 definition of humor : " The ridiculous Extravagance of Conver- 
 sation, wherein one Men differs from all others."* Like Morhof, 
 he accuses Dryden of presumption in the claim that the English 
 surpass all moderns in the use of humor. He regards Jonson the 
 authority on the rules for the English stage, but adds : " darin 
 Dryden auch viel Wercks macht." He knew the Essay only 
 through the French translation of the Spectator, for his knowledge 
 of English was so limited that he could not even quote accu- 
 rately, as is evident from the English passages in the Critischen 
 Dichtkunst. 
 
 ^ See the second edition, p. 226 ff., Lübeck und Frankfurt, 1702. 
 
 2 See fourth edition, I, p. 763 and 1013, Lubecae, 1747. 
 
 3 See the third edition, p. 940, Leipzig, 1733. 
 
 * Versuch einer critischen Dichtkunst vor die Deutschen, p. 639, Leipzig, 
 1730. \ 
 
 319 
 
32 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 2. Its Relation to Lessing and his Seventeenth Literatur- 
 brief 
 
 Prior to Lessing's connection with the Essay, however, the sig- 
 nificance of its relation to Germany was inconsequential. The 
 close relation of the Essay to Lessing, especially to the utterances 
 in the seventeenth Literaturbrief, has not been adequately treated. 
 Erich Schmidt only vaguely suggests the relation by adding to 
 the sketch of the Essay, the single sentence : " Ein Jahr später 
 schrieb Lessing den siebzehnten Literaturbrief. "^ Karl Borinski 
 asserts, that it is quite evident that Dryden is Lessing's guide 
 in the English theater, but does not specify the connection be- 
 tween the Essay and the Literaturbrief}' Meisnest directly con- 
 nects the Essay with Lessing's utterances on Shakspere in the 
 Literaturbrief, but he did not use the internal evidence to reach 
 his conclusion, and his argument in favor of Nicolai's influence i= 
 based on a wrong date.'^ 
 
 Before presenting the evidence of relationship between the two, 
 a sketch of Lessing's early acquaintance with Dryden through 
 Voltaire, and Gottsched's later connection wüth the Essay, are 
 necessary for the understanding and the partial justification of the 
 attack upon Gottsched in the Literaturbrief. As Erich Schmidt 
 has shown, Lessing was introduced to Shakspere through A^ol- 
 taire's Lettres sur les Anglais (1732).^ Similarly it may be said 
 that Lessing was also introduced to Dryden through Voltaire's 
 Lettres, for the characterization of Shakspere as a tragedian, and 
 the quotation of "to be or not to be" from Hamlet are directly 
 followed in the same Lettre with a characterization of Dryden, 
 and the quotation of the well known lines from Aureng-Zebe: 
 "When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat." While not altogether 
 
 ^Lessing, Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Werke, I, p. 376, Berlin, 
 1884. 
 
 ^Lessing, I, p. 11 1, Berlin, 1900. 
 
 ■^ Lessing and Shakspere, Publication of the Modern Language Asso- 
 ciation, XIX, p. 234 flF. (1904). Meisnest dates the review made by Nicolai 
 of the Neuen Probestücke der englischen Schaubühne (Bibliothek der 
 schönen Wissenschaften, VI, Stück l, pp. 60-74), 17581 while it was not 
 published until 1760, one year after the publication of the Litcraturbrief. 
 
 8 Loco citato, I, p. 166. 
 
 320 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 33 
 
 favorable to Dryden, Voltaire's criticism proclaims him an " Au- 
 teur plus fecond que judicieux, qui auroit une reputation sans 
 melange, s'il n'avoit fait qui la dixemi partie de ses ouvrages." 
 " The Lettres of Voltaire, which discussed among other topics 
 English tragedy and comedy, did much toward inspiring Lessing 
 to take up the cause of the English drama and Dryden, just as the 
 Spectator had first called the attention of Bodmer to Milton and 
 his epic. Paradise Lost. The Beyträge sur Historie und Aufnahme 
 des Theaters (1750), edited jointly by Lessing and Mylius, con- 
 tains a translation of Voltaire's Lettres. Lessing, however, 
 planned the work, wTote the introduction, and contributed most 
 of the articles.^ In the introduction of the Beyträge he says that 
 one purpose of the work will be to translate ancient plays, then 
 modern dramas little known in Germany, especially English and 
 Spanish. He then enumerates a number of dramatists, and 
 among the English commends Shakspere, Dryden, Wicherly, Van- 
 brugh. Gibber, and Gongreve. " Diese sind alle Männer," he says, 
 " die zwar eben so grosze Fehler als Schönheiten haben, von 
 denen aber ein vernünftiger Nachahmer sich sehr vieles zu Nutze 
 machen kann." Lessing has enumerated here only the dramatists 
 which Voltaire has discussed in the Lettres, and the faults and 
 beauties, which he ascribes to them, are evidently a reflection of 
 Voltaire's criticism. 
 
 Even though Lessing at this time still regarded Gottsched as the -^{p 
 authority on the German stage, the introduction to the Beyträge 
 shows that he is no longer fully in accord with Gottsched's idea 
 of the German theater and that he has greater faith in the Eng- 
 lish drama as a model for the Germans. He regrets that only the 
 French have been taken as a model, and continues : " Dadurch hat 
 man aber unser Theater zu einer Einförmigkeit gebracht, die man 
 sich auf alle mögliche Art zu vermeiden sich hätte bestreben 
 sollen." He is more emphatic in his views in favor of the Eng- 
 lish, w^hen he enumerates the list of English dramatists. " Shak- 
 spere, Dryden, — sind Dichter, die man bey uns fast nur dem 
 Namen nach kennet, und gleichwohl verdienen sie unsere Hoch- 
 
 9 See foreword to the Theatralischen Bibliothek (Berlin, 1754). in 
 Lessiugs Werke, V, p. 10, edited by Boxberger. 
 
 321 
 
34 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 achtung, sowohl als die gepriesenen französischen Dichter." Still 
 more emphatic, and seemingly prophetic of the future course of 
 the German stage, is the next utterance: "Das ist gewisz, wollte 
 der Deutsche in der dramatischen Poesie seinem eigenen Natur- 
 elle folgen, so würde unsre Schaubühne mehr der englischen als 
 französischen gleichen." 
 
 Lessing's utterances in the introduction of the Beyträge could 
 hardly have escaped the notice of Gottsched, as he had but re- 
 cently suffered defeat at the hands of the Swiss School of poets, 
 when in 1748 the first cantos of Klopstock's Messias appeared. 
 Translations of English plays were beginning to spring up here 
 and there, and Gottsched's followers were daily deserting him. 
 These translations were made a part of the repertoire of the 
 German theatrical troops. At Leipzig, for instance, where Gott- 
 sched had enjoyed the dictatorship of the stage, Koch and his 
 troop of players in 1752 successfully performed Weisse's trans- 
 lation of TJie Devil to Pay by Coffey. Gottsched harshly attacked 
 not only this opera, but all English plays^ and translators and per- 
 formers of the translations, maintaining that they defiled the taste 
 (Geschmack) of the German theater.^" This harsh criticism gave 
 rise to a scandal in which many" Streitschriften" passed between 
 Gottsched and his followers and their opponents. ^^ Lessing fol- 
 lowed this controversy with interest, as is evident from the re- 
 view in the Berlinischen privilegierten Zeitung}- While assum- 
 ing to take a non-partisan role, he defends Den Teufel ist Los in 
 its essentials, and reiterates his claim made in the Beyträge by 
 saying : " dasz es vielleicht nicht allzu wohl gethan sei, wenn wir 
 unsre Bühne, die noch in der Bildung ist, auf das Einfache des 
 französichen Geschmacks einschränken wollen." He robs Gott- 
 sched of the argument, that the English plays violate the rules of 
 the drama, by simply granting that no English play is regular. 
 
 In 1752 (Bocage's) Le.ttres sur le theatre Anglais, '^^ containing 
 
 ^° Das Neuste aus der anmuthigen Gelehrsamkeit, III, p. 128, I7S3- 
 
 11 Gustav Waniek, Gottsched und die deutsche Litteratur seiner Zeit, p. 
 619 fif., Leipzig, 1897. Cf. also J. Minor, Christian Felix Weisse und seine 
 Beziehung zur deutschen Literatur, pp. 130-157. 
 
 12 Dated July 21, 1753. Cf. Lessings Werke, IV, p. 175, in D. N .L. 
 1-'' Two volumes, published in Paris. 
 
 322 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 3 5 
 
 a partial translation of Dryden's Essay, was published. In order 
 to regain his lost prestige, Gottsched eagerly seized the opportu- 
 nity afforded by the Lcttres to introduce Dryden, an English 
 authority, supporting his contention, that the French drama was 
 superior to the English. The Essay contains two main propo- 
 sitions for consideration: first, the relative merits of the ancient 
 and modern theater ; and second, the relative merits of the French 
 and English dramatists. Four friends debate these two proposi- 
 tions. Crites takes up the issue with Eugenius, and defends the 
 ancients ; while Lisidieus takes issue against Neander, and de- 
 fends the French, Dryden specifically states in the preface that 
 Neander is his spokesman.^* Now Bocage, and then Gottsched 
 from him, translate the speech of Lisidieus, who argued the cause 
 of the French to prove Dryden an authority favoring the French 
 drama. 
 
 Lessing was still partly adhering to Gottsched at the time the 
 latter published his partial translation of the Essay of Dryden. 
 His too numerous plans, and his diversified interests prevented 
 him from carrying out the program mapped out in the Bcyträgcn 
 in his new journal, the Theatralischen Bibliothek,^^ founded in 
 1754. But Gottsched's manner of introducing Dryden to prove 
 his own theories, no doubt induced Lessing to turn to Dryden and 
 the Essay, when he became convinced that the repudiation of Gott- 
 sched was necessary. That he devoted himself to the study of 
 Dryden before the publication of the translation of the Essay 
 in 1758^^ is proven by the letter to Mendelssohn in 1756 in which 
 he says : " Bitten Sie doch den Hrn. Nicolai in memem Namen 
 mir mit ehestem denjenigen Theil von Gibbers Lebensbeschreib- 
 ungen der englischen Dichter zu schicken, in welchem Drydcns 
 Leben steht. Ich brauche ihn."^' 
 
 ^* " The drift of the ensuing discourse was chiefly to vindicate the honor 
 of the English writers from the censure of those who unjustly prefer the 
 French before them." 
 
 15 Lessings Werke, V, D. N. L., Chap. XIII, contains : Von Johann 
 Dryden und dessen dramatischen Werken. 
 
 ^'^ According to a review in the Berlinischen priv. Zeitung, 1759, May 22, 
 it was not published until 1759. 
 
 ^''Mendelssohns Schriften, V, p. 69, Leipzig, 1756. Gibber's life re- 
 
 323 
 
T,6 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 In the translation of the Essay Lessing omits some of the less 
 essential parts, but translates the portion containing the argu- 
 ments as to whether the French, or the English drama is superior. 
 His translation interprets the English spirit, and like Dryden, he 
 writes an excellent prose, such as none of his predecessors wrote ; 
 while Gottsched wrote a less lucid style, and interpreted Dryden 
 solely through French-colored glasses. 
 
 The significance of Lessing's translation has not been pointed 
 out by any of his critics. Besides the overthrow of Gottsched's 
 claim, that Dryden preferred the French drama to the English, it 
 directly influenced Lessing in the convictions expressed in the' 
 seventeenth Literatiirbrief, and introduced into Germany one 
 of the best extant English criticisms of the English theater. The 
 immediate occasion for the Literaturbrief was a review by 
 Nicolai in which he asserts : " Niemand wird läugnen, dasz die 
 deutsche Schaubühne einen groszen Theil ihrer ersten Verbesser- 
 ungen dem Herrn Prof. Gottsched zu danken habe .... "^^ Less- 
 ing took advantage of the opportunity offered by this review, to 
 make a vehement attack upon Gottsched and Voltaire, allegiance 
 to whom he now completely renounces. 
 
 Evidences of close relationship between Dryden's Essay and 
 the seventeenth Literaturbrief are : date ; identical arguments 
 in favor of English dramatic supremacy ; enumeration of the 
 same English dramatists ; proclamation of Shakspere's genius ; 
 emphasis of Corneille's weakness ; and the compliance of the 
 scene from Lessing's Faust quoted in the Literatiirbrief with 
 the theories set up by Dryden in the Essay. The connection be- 
 tween the date of the two is striking, as the number of the Thea- 
 tralischen Bibliothek containing the translation of the Essay was 
 published either at the close of 1758 or early in 1759, while the 
 Literaturbrief is dated February 16, 1759. The close succes- 
 sion of the two is significant. Lessing wrote the Literatur- 
 brief when his translation of the Essay was either in the press, 
 
 ferred to is "Mr. (Theophelus) Cibber, Tlie Lizes of the Poets of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, London, 1753. Dryden's life is in Vol. 3, p. 85 ff. 
 
 18 Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und der freyen Künste, III, 
 p. 85, 1758. 
 
 324 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 37 
 
 or had just come from the press. It becomes doubly significant, 
 when we consider that Dryden's theme in the Essay, and Lessing's 
 in the Literaturhrief are identical, namely, to prove the superi- 
 ority of the English theater over that of the French. Whether 
 this relation of time and theme be conscious or unconscious on 
 the part of Lessing is immaterial in proving Dryden's influence 
 upon Lessing. 
 
 Dryden's first argument for the superiority of the English 
 drama is that it has a greater variety of plot and action than the 
 French. Through his spokesman, Neander, he concedes that the 
 French contrive their plots more regularly, and observe the de- 
 corum of the stage, and the unities with more exactness, but is of 
 the opinion, that neither the faults of the English, nor the virtues 
 of the French are considerable enough to deny the superiority of 
 his countrymen in the drama. He maintains that many more 
 " accidents " can naturally happen if two or three days are allowed 
 for the maturity of the design, than could happen with any proba- 
 bility in the compass of twenty-four hours. Especially is this 
 true of the tragedy in which the design is greater. The servile 
 observation of the unity of place often forces absurdities upon the 
 French poets and prevents the change of scene, and the too strict 
 observance of the unities of time and place limits the action. " If 
 we are to be blamed for showing too much of the action," he adds, 
 " the French are as fault}^ for showing too little of it " ; and in 
 characterizing Shakspere he says: "When he describes anything 
 you more than see it, you feel it too." 
 
 Lessing recognizes the similar tastes of the English and the 
 Germans in the drama, and in a passage in the Literaturhrief 
 almost parallel to the one used by Dryden, he calls attention to the 
 inclination of the Germans for a larger scope of action and greater 
 profoundness in the tragedy than the French possess. " Er (Gott- 
 sched) hätte aus unsern alten dramatischen Stücken, welche er 
 vertrieb, hinlänglich abmerken können, dass wir mehr in den 
 Geschmack der Engländer als der Franzosen einschlagen ; dass 
 wir in unsern Trauerspielen mehr sehen und denken wollen, als 
 uns das furchtsame französische Trauerspiel zu sehen und zu 
 denken gibt . . . . " 
 
 325 
 
38 Milton D. Bauuujartner 
 
 As an other argument for English superiority in the theater, 
 Drvden claims greater and more numerous characters, and greater 
 pas'sions for the English drama with its complicated plots. He 
 takes exception to the French custom of making only one person 
 considerable in a play. Instead he would have several " shining 
 characters," some almost equal to the first, so that greatness may 
 be opposed to greatness, and all the persons made considerable not 
 only by their quality, but also by their action. In defense of his 
 claims he refers to Shakspere and Fletcher: "We endeavor to fol- 
 low the variety and greatness of characters which are derived to 
 us from Shakspere and Fletcher " ; and, " Shakspere is always 
 great, when some great occasion is presented to him." 
 
 Likewise Lessing maintains in the Literaturbrief, that Gott- 
 sched should have perceived " dass das Grosse, das Melancho- 
 lische besser auf uns wirkt als das Artige, das Verliebte . . . . " 
 
 To the accusation of the French that the English show too much 
 tumult on the stage, Dryden replied : " Whether custom has so 
 insinuated itself into our countrymen, or nature has so formed 
 them to fierceness I know not ; but they will scarcely permit com- 
 bats and other objects of horror to be taken from them " ; and, 
 " I dare boldly afifirm that in most of the irregular plays of Shak- 
 spere and Fletcher there is more masculine fancy, and more spirit 
 of writing, than there is in any of the French." 
 
 The Germans, according to Lessing, are by nature more virile 
 than the French. " Gottsched hätte aus unsern alten drama- 
 tischen Stücken, welche er vertrieb, hinlänglich abmerken können, 
 dass — -das Schreckliche — besser auf uns wirkt, als — das Zärtliche." 
 
 Further Dryden argues that by pursuing a single theme the 
 French lose the advantage of expressing and of arousing the pas- 
 sions. "I confess," he continues, "their verses are to me the 
 coldest I have ever read. Neither indeed is it possible for them 
 in the way they take so to express passion that the effects of it 
 should appear in the concernment of the audience. — Their speeches 
 are so many declamations which tire us with their length. We 
 are concerned as we are in tedious visits of bad company, and are 
 in pain until they are gone." 
 
 Lessing also contends that the German taste does not run in the 
 
 326 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 39 
 
 direction of the too simple, and that Gottsched should have ob- 
 served, " dass die zu grosse Einfalt uns mehr ermüde, als die zu 
 grosse Verwicklung." Then he concludes his general arguments 
 in favor of the English theater, which are identical with those of 
 Dryden in the Essay, with the remark: "Er (Gottsched) hätte 
 also auf dieser Spur bleiben sollen, und sie würde ihn geraden 
 Weges auf das englische Theater geführet haben." 
 
 The same English dramatists are also grouped together by Dr)-- 
 den and Lessing. The request of Eugenius that Neander, the 
 spokesman for Dryden, give a character sketch of Jonson and tell 
 his opinion frankly whether all writers, both French and English, 
 should give place to him, was granted ; but in granting the request 
 Neander reserved the right of also characterizing Jonson's rivals 
 in poetry, Shakspere, Beaumont, and Fletcher. These four Eng- 
 lish dramatists are given the first rank by Neander, and are the 
 only ones he dwells upon at length in the Essay. 
 
 Singularly Lessing enumerates just these four, when he accused 
 Gottsched of giving the first rank to Addison's Cato. " Denn 
 eben dieses, dass er den Addisonschen Cato für das beste eng- 
 lische Trauerspiel hält, zeiget deutlich, dasz er hier nur mit den 
 Augen der Franzosen gesehen und damals keinen Shakspere, 
 keinen Jonson, und keinen Beaumont und Fletcher u. s. w. ge- 
 kannt hat .... "^^ On the surface this may simply be ascribed 
 to commonly accepted knowledge, but Lessing's criticism is usu- 
 ally based on careful investigation of the source, or upon the con- 
 clusions of a recognized authority. At best his first-hand knowl- 
 edge of English dramatists at this time was still rather limited. 
 Then it is not to be forgotten that before he and Voltaire were 
 estranged, he commended Shakspere, Dryden, Wicherly, Van- 
 brugh, Gibber, and Congreve after reading the Lett res^ which dis- 
 cussed these same dramatists ; and now after translating the 
 Essay, he commends Shakspere, Jonson, Beaumont, and Fletcher. 
 
 Four times he groups them thus : twice in the explanatory links 
 in the translation of the Essay; once in the " Geschichte der 
 
 ^^Immediately following the characterization of Drj-den, Voltaire in his 
 Lcttrcs places Addison and his Cato above Shakspere and all other Eng- 
 lish dramatists. 
 
 2>^7 
 
40 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 deutschen Schaubühne," pubhshed in the same number of the 
 Bibliothek with the Essay; and again in the Literaturbrief, as 
 ah-eady mentioned. Lessing's first grouping in the Essay is in his 
 explanation of the " last age" used by Crites. " Er versteht unter 
 diesem letztvergangenen Weltalter die kurz vor dem bürgerlichen 
 Kriege vorhergegangenen Jahre, die Regierung der Königin Elisa- 
 beth und Jakobs L, unter welcher Shakespeare, Johnson und 
 andere grosze Genies lebten." The second grouping is in con- 
 nection with the dialogue of Eugenius and Neander, where the 
 former interrupts the latter in the examination of the Silent 
 Women to beg for the sketch of Shakspere, Jonson, Beaumont, 
 and Fletcher. This Lessing condenses as follows : " Ehe es hierzu 
 kömmt, ersuchet Eugenius den Neander, den Charakter ihrer vier 
 vornehmsten dramatischen Dichter zii entwerfen, welches er in 
 folgenden thut." 
 
 The passage in the Geschichte der deutschen Schaubühne runs : 
 " Shakspere, Beaumont, Fletcher und Ben Johnson waren die 
 groszen Genies, die es [das vorige Jahrhundert] mit unsterblichen 
 Werken bereicherten und es auf einmal zu einem Theater machten, 
 welches nach dem griechischen für einen Kenner der schönen 
 Wissenschaften das allerinteressanteste ist und dem Anschein 
 nach auch bleiben wird."^° 
 
 Furthermore Dryden and Lessing in common emphasize the 
 weakness of Corneille. Measuring him by the definition of a play 
 laid down in the Essay (" a just and lively imitation of nature, rep- 
 resenting its passions and humors"), Dryden finds many weak- 
 nesses in Corneille, the " arch-dramatist " of the French. He 
 grants that his plays are regular, but adds : " What is more easy 
 than to write a regular French play, or is more difficult than to 
 write an irregular English one, like those of Fletcher, or of Shak- 
 spere"? He regards the plots of Corneille as "flat designs," and 
 compares them with " ill riddles " found out ere they are half pro- 
 posed. To him Corneille's best comedy. The Liar, lacks humor, 
 and does not compare favorably with many comedies of Fletcher 
 and Jonson. Corneille's tragedies do not move the passions, ac- 
 cording to Dryden, on account of their long tedious speeches. 
 
 ^^J^essings Werke, V, p. 351. 
 
 328 
 
Dry den's Relation to Germany 41 
 
 "Look upon the Cinna and the Pompcy; they are not so properly 
 to be called plays, as long discourses of reason of state ; and Poli- 
 eucte in matters of religion is as solemn as the long stops upon 
 our organs." Even his most popular play, Andromede, Dryden 
 finds teeming with improbabilities. 
 
 As compared with the English, especially Shakspere, Lessing 
 also claims that Corneille lacks in the essentials of tragedy, in 
 power over the passions, and in wit ; but concedes that he ob- 
 serves the rules of the ancients. In the language of the Litcr- 
 aturhrief: "Auch nach den Mustern der Alten die Sache zu ent- 
 scheiden, ist Shakspere ein weit gröszerer tragischer Dichter als 
 Corneille, obgleich dieser die Alten sehr wohl und jener fast gar 
 nicht gekannt hat. Corneille kömmt ihnen in der mechanischen 
 Einrichtung und Shakspere in dem Wesentlichen näher. Der 
 Engländer erreicht den Zweck der Tragödie fast immer, so son- 
 derbare und ihm eigne Wege er auch wählet, und der Franzose 
 erreicht ihn fast niemals, ob er gleich die gebahnten Wege der 
 Alten betritt. Nach dem ' Oedipus ' des Sophokles muss in der 
 Welt kein Sti^ick mehr Gewalt über unsere Leidenschaften haben 
 als ' Othello,' als ' König Lear,' als ' Hamlet ' u. s. w. Hat Cor- 
 neille ein einziges Trauerspiel, das Sie nur halb so gerühret hätte 
 als die 'Zaire' des Voltaire? Und die 'Zaire' des Voltaire, wie 
 weit ist sie unter dem ' Mohren von Venedig ' ? " 
 
 Both Dryden and Lessing proclaim Shakspere a genius. At the 
 time Dryden wrote the Essay, the idea of genius had not been 
 formulated, but already he had ventured to place Shakspere above 
 Jonson-^ and all English poets. In the Dedication to tJie Rival 
 Ladies, published four years before the Essay, he attributes to him 
 " a larger soul of poesy than any of our nation " f^ and in the 
 Essay itself, comparing him with Jonson he says: "Shakspere, 
 the Homer or father of our dramatic poets, is the greater wit." 
 With some reserve he places him above the ancient poets. " He 
 was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had 
 the largest and most comprehensive soul." Later Dryden formu- 
 
 21 Malone, Critical and Miscellaneous Prose Works of John Dryden, I, 
 part I, p. 61. London, 1800. 
 " Scott-Saintsbury, II, p. 136. 
 
 329 
 
42 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 lated the idea that genius is superior to any rule. This declaration 
 is coupled with Shakspere in a letter to Dennis (1693) : " He had 
 a genius for tragedy and we know that genius alone is a greater 
 virtue than all other qualifications put together. "^^ Although he 
 formulated the idea of genius, it was Young who developed the 
 idea,-* which Lessing accepted, and the " Sturm und Dränger " 
 disseminated.-'"' 
 
 While Lessing probably did not know the Dryden-Dennis letter, 
 he knew from the Essay that Dryden considered Shakspere a 
 greater dramatist than all modern writers, and in the Literatur- 
 brief he commends the translation of Shakspere's masterpieces, 
 and proclaims him a genius. " Denn ein Genie kann nur von 
 einem Genie entzündet werden, und am leichtesten von so einem, 
 das alles blosz der Natur zu danken zu haben scheinet . . . . " Like 
 Dryden, he utters this in Shakspere's presence with the transla- 
 tion of the Essay still fresh in mind. 
 
 Finally Dryden lays down the principle, and throughout the 
 Essay insists, that short speeches and quick replies move the pas- 
 sions more, and bring greater pleasure to the audience than the 
 long speeches. " It cannot be denied that short speeches and re- 
 plies are more apt to move the passions and beget concernment in 
 us, than the other; for it is unnatural for any one in a gust of 
 passion to speak long together . . . . " In the Comedy he regards 
 repartee one of its chief graces. " The greatest pleasure of an 
 audience," he says, " is a chase of wit, kept up on both sides, and 
 swiftly managed." Beaumont and Fletcher he regards supreme 
 in quickness of wit in repartee, but in wit he naturally places Shak- 
 spere above Jonson. 
 
 Similarly in the conclusion of the Literaturbrief Lessing com- 
 mends a chase of wit. "Das aber unsre alten Stücke wirk- 
 lich sehr viel Englisches gehabt haben, könnte ich Ihnen mit 
 geringer ]\Iühe weitläufig beweisen. Nur das bekannteste der- 
 selben zu nennen, * Doctor Faust ' hat eine ^lenge Szenen, die nur 
 
 23 Scott-Saintsbury, XVIII, p. 117. 
 
 24 Kind, Edward Young in Germany, p. 2 ff., New York, 1906. 
 
 25 Hamelius, Die Kritik der englischen Literatur des 17. und iS. Jahr- 
 hunderts, p. 49, Leipzig, 1896. 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 43 
 
 ein Shakspere'sches Genie zu denken vermögend gewesen." Then 
 he quotes a fragment of his own Faust, depicting the scene be- 
 tween Faust and the seven fleet spirits of hell, which is made up 
 of short speeches and quick replies. At the close of the scene he 
 adds: "Was sagen Sie zu dieser Szene? Sie wünschen ein 
 deutsches Stück, das lauter solche Szenen hätte? Ich auch." 
 
 3. German Criticism of the Essay after Lessing's 
 Translation 
 
 Naturally Dryden's Essay won prestige in Germany through 
 Lessing's translation, and the utterances in the Literaturbrief. 
 After Lessing's connection with it German critics quote from and 
 cite the Essay as if it were generally known and accepted as an 
 authority. Concerning Dryden's claim for English humor, espe- 
 cially in Jonson, the Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften 
 (1762) remarks: " Dasz die Franzosen, wie Dryden anmerket, 
 nichts aufweisen können, was dem Humor des Ben Jonson gleich 
 käme."-*' In the Hamburgischen neuen Zeitung Gerstenb erg sub- 
 stantiates his claim that nothing is easier than writing a French 
 tragedy with : "Schon Dryden sagte zu seiner Zeit, dasz nichts 
 leichter wäre, als ein französisches Trauerspiel zu schreiben."-'^ 
 Schütze, the Hamburg theater-historian, laments that Gottsched 
 introduced from France the servile observance of the stage. 
 " Schon der Britte, Driden, warf den Franzosen vor, dasz sie 
 durch die zu ängstliche Beobachtung des Regelmässigen den grösz- 
 ten Haufen der Zuschauer einschläferten."-^ 
 
 Further proof of Dryden's influence upon Lessing is furnished 
 by the commendatory reviews of the Essay itself, and of Lessing's 
 translation. The Berlinische priv. Zeitung (May 22, 1759) desig- 
 nates the translation " einen lehrreichen Auszug."^" Dryden's 
 Essay is one of the few English works on the drama known to 
 Schmid, who gives it the first rank, and also cites Lessing's trans- 
 
 26 VII, Stück 2, p. 354- 
 
 2^^ See Literatur Denkmale, CXXVIII, p. 155, Berlin, 1904. 
 -^ Hamburgische Theatergeschichtc, p. 216, Hamburg, 1794. 
 29 Julius W. Braun, Lessing im Urtheile seiner Zeitgenossen, p. 96, 
 Berlin, 1884. 
 
44 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 lation.^° Bouterwek regarded Dryden the founder of the theory 
 of the English drama " durch seinen vortrefflichen Versuch über 
 die dramatische Dichtkunst."^^ Besides making a detailed anal- 
 ysis of the Essay he also prints in foot-notes the passages from 
 the Essay containing the characterization of Shakspere, and that 
 dealing with the decorum of the French stage. He considers the 
 criticism of Dryden in the Essay and elsewhere both sane and 
 impartial. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. The Drama 
 
 Although the dramas of Dryden constitute the larger part of his 
 literary efforts, they are inferior to his critical, satirical, and lyr- 
 ical works. His twenty-six plays consisting of ten tragedies, ten 
 comedies, three tragi-comedies and three operas, cover a period of 
 twenty-five years of his career, beginning with The Wild Gallant 
 published in 1669 ^"d concluding with Loz^e Triumphant, pub- 
 lished in 1694. Many of them were heroic plays based on the 
 French romances of Madame Scudery and others. For a time 
 they were exceedingly popular with the theater-going public of the 
 Restoration Period, but were short lived on account of their bom- 
 bast. His comedies as well as his serious plays abound in heroic 
 speeches, and more frequently portray types than individual char- 
 acters, but for all that they contain many beautiful passages. 
 
 I. The Four Plays Translated in Germany 
 
 Four plays of Dryden were translated in Germany : The Span- 
 ish Friar (1681), The State of Innocence (1674), Oedipus (1679), 
 and All for Love (1678) ; but their influence on the German stage 
 is not marked, and the translations were not made by the first 
 poets of Germany. Unfortunately Lessing's plan to translate and 
 discuss the plays of Dryden in the Theatralischen Bibliothek^ did 
 
 ^^ Theorie der Poesie, p. 404. 
 •■'1 Loco citato, VIII, p. 54 ff., 1810. 
 
 1 Loco citato, chapter XII, p. 360 in Lessings Werke, D. N. L., vol. 62 
 (1755). ^ 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 45 
 
 not materialize; probably due to the later discovery of the real 
 character of the plays and to his other numerous undertakings. 
 
 A. The Spanish Friar 
 
 The first play of Dryden translated in Germany was The Span- 
 ish Friar^ but it was never published. A written copy is in the 
 •'geheimen Haus- und Staatsarchiv" at Stuttgart with the title: 
 Comoedia, genannt Der Spannische Munch und Ehrlich Rebell, 
 wurde presentiert vor Carolo dem 2ten König von Gross-Britan- 
 nien Durch dero Hoff Comoedianten componiert.. .Von Johann 
 Dryden höchstberühmten Poeten und übersetzt ausz dem Eng- 
 lischen in das Hochdeutsche Durch Casper Spannagel, Englischer 
 Künstler.- As the play was not printed until 1681 and the reign 
 of Charles II closed in 1685, the Court Comedians must, have per- 
 formed it during that interval. The date of the translation can- 
 not be definitely established, as nothing is known of the translator, 
 and the translation is not dated, but it was probably made during 
 the author's lifetime or soon after. Germany's interest in the 
 " Singspiele " and the opera at the close of the seventeenth and 
 the beginning of the eighteenth century, and Dryden's renown as 
 poet likely account for the translation. The records apparently 
 do not show whether the play was performed at the court of Würt- 
 emberg, but the translation is significant, because it indicates that 
 even during the Restoration English comedians seem to have had 
 some relation to Germany. 
 
 B. The State of Innocence 
 
 The Spanish Friar was followed by The State of Innocence, 
 which attracted but little attention in England and was brought 
 into Germany as a companion work of Paradise Lost, the source 
 for Dryden's opera. The enthusiasm for Milton's epic spread 
 by Bodmer, and the religious sentiment prevailing in Germany 
 and Switzerland account for its introduction and translation. 
 Bodmer early became acquainted with this play through the 
 
 2 Josef Sittard, Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am Wür- 
 tembergischcn Hofe. Nach Originalquell cn, Erster Band, 1458-1733, p. 223, 
 Stuttgart, 1890. 
 
 333 
 
46 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 English moral weeklies, and the references to it in the introduc- 
 tion of Paradise Lost which he translated along with the epic 
 itself in 1724.^ The introduction contains the account of Milton's 
 original intention of writing a play on the fall of man and the 
 later rejection of this plan which Dryden took up, transforming 
 the material into an opera. It also contains a characterization of 
 Dryden's work : " Darinn findet sich zwar eine neuere und feinere 
 Sprachart als in Miltons Paradiese, aber in den verliebten Theilen 
 äussert sich mehr Künsteley und mehr Galanterie als mit dem 
 Stande der Unschuld überein kömmt. Die Vorrechte der Weis- 
 heit Adams und die Schönheit der Eva werden nicht geschickt 
 genug aus einander gesetzt." 
 
 Bodmer frequently quoted passages from The State of Inno- 
 cence, or The Fall of Man, as the Germans usually designated it, 
 and almost invariably translated them. Most of these passages 
 are to be found in the Tatler and the Spectator, but it scarcely 
 seems possible that he was not familiar with the opera itself, since 
 he was so deeply interested in the theme of the fall of man. As 
 early as 1740 some of these passages and an original criticism of 
 The Fall of Man appeared in his treatise Von dem Wunderbaren 
 in der Poesie, which he published in conjunction with his defense 
 of Paradise Lost and Addison's essay on its beauties.* The criti- 
 cism is in connection with the scene in which Adam accepts the 
 forbidden fruit from Eve. He regards Dryden's characteriza- 
 tion of Adam in the scene superior to that of Milton because it is 
 consistent with his character of a romantic lover throughout the 
 play. " Hingegen hat der lose Dryden seinem Adam durch sein 
 gantzes Gedicht eine verzärtelte und aus sich selbst gesetzte Liebe 
 
 ^Johann Miltons Verlust des Paradieses. Ein Heldengedicht. In un- 
 gebundener Rede übersetzet. Zürich, Gedruckt bey Marcus Rordorf, 1732. 
 Bodmer completed the translation eight years before it was published. 
 See Th. Vetter in Johann Jakob Bodmer Denkschrift Zum CC. Geburt- 
 stag, p. 349, Zürich, 1900. 
 
 *Joh. Jacob Bodmers Critische Abhandlung von dem Wunderbaren in 
 der Poesie und dessen Verbindung mit dem Wahrscheinlichen in einer 
 Verteidigung des Gedichtes John Miltons von dem Verlornen Paradiese; 
 Der beygefüget ist Joseph Addisons Abhandlung von den Schönheiten in 
 diesem Gedichte, verlegts Conrad Orell und Comp.. Zürich. 1740. 
 
 334 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 47 
 
 zugeschrieben, in welcher er beynahe die gröszte Vortrefflichkeit 
 und das höchste Gut der ersten Menschen zu setzen scheinet. 
 Drydens Adam ist sich also in solchen ungereimten Ausschwei- 
 fungen beständig gleich, Miltons aber scheinet mir von seiner ersten 
 Hohheit und Obermacht des Verstandes einen plötzlichen Sprung 
 zu solcher auszschweiffenden Leidenschaft zu thun."" 
 
 Bodmer's familiarity with The Fall of Man and Dryden is again 
 evident from the commentaries of the 1742 edition of Milton's 
 epic, which contain numerous citations from Dryden's Play, an 
 analysis and criticism of the scene between Eve and the serpent,^ 
 a comment from Steele on the bower scene which apparently was 
 for the purpose of refuting Addison's contention, that Dryden at 
 times offended good morals,'^ a quotation from All for Love,^ and 
 one from The Flower and the Leaf."^ 
 
 The translation of Dryden's State of Innocence was probably 
 hastened by Lauder's Essay'^^ in 1750 in which he accused Milton 
 of plagiarism. Although the accusation was at once proved un- 
 founded, it revived the Gottsched-Bodmer controversy in which 
 Nicolai^^ and Lessing'- also took a part, and because of its close 
 
 5 Ibid., p. 195. 
 
 6 Bodmer says (p. 399) : " Dryden hat in seinem Drama von dem Fall 
 der Menschen . . . nicht ohne sonderbare Kunst gedichtet, weil Eva 
 neben dem Baum gestanden und, gewünschet, dass ihr alle andere Bäume, 
 nur dieser nicht wären untersagt worden." 
 
 ^ Loco citato, p. 348 ff. The quotation is from the Tattler No. 6, which 
 relates the liberties a Miss Sappho took in her conversation, but which 
 everj' one excused because they knew it was her custom. When Mr. 
 Bickerstaff called upon her she had just broken her fan on which Adam 
 and Eve were artistically portrayed asleep in paradise with arms entwined. 
 This gave occasion for the reading of the passages on the theme from 
 Milton and Dryden and comparing them. 
 
 8 Ibid., p. 167. ^ Ibid., p. 193. 
 
 "^^ An Essay on Milton's Use and Imitation of the Moderns in his 
 Paradise Lost, London, 1750. 
 
 11 Untersuchung oh Milton sein Verlohrenes Paradies aus neuern latei- 
 nischen Schriftstellern ati\-geschriehcn habe. Nebst einigen Anmerkungen 
 über eine Recension des Landerischen Buchs von Miltons Nachahmung 
 der neueren Schriftstellern. Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1753. 
 
 12 Lessing reviewed Nicolai's work in the Berlinischen priv. Zeitung, 
 December 25th, 1753, and is extremely harsh in his criticism of Gottsched. 
 
 335 
 
48 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 relation to Paradise Lost, The State of Innocence also became in- 
 volved.'^ Of The State of Innocence three translations were 
 made in Switzerland;^* the first was published in 1754,'^ the sec- 
 ond in 1757,'" and the third in 1761." The translations appeared 
 anonymously, but from the following evidence I conjecture the 
 first to belong to Simon Grynaeus: The preface is signed "G" 
 and a "G" appears on the upraised standard of the etching on 
 the frontispiece. Grynaeus was in the habit of using this sig- 
 nature in his letters to Bodmer;" in 1753 Grynaeus made a prose 
 translation of Paradise Regained, to which he added a sketch of 
 the life of Milton; this translation is in prose and has a sketch 
 of Dryden added; in 1756 he translated a collection of English 
 works in hexameters'^ and merely signed his name to the preface; 
 likewise the translation of Nathaniel Lee's poem dedicated to The 
 State of Innocence and prefaced to this translation is in hexam- 
 eters and only the preface has a signature; and finally, Grynaeus 
 
 " Gottsched argued that The State of Innocence proved conclusively 
 that Milton was a plagiarist. " Das Trauerspiel, vom Stande der Un- 
 schuld, oder Fall des Menschen, welches Dryden aus dem miltonischen 
 verlornen Paradiese gezogen, gibt endlich den vollkommensten Beweis ab; 
 indem es zeiget, dasz dasjenige, was aus einer Tragödie entstanden, auch 
 sehr leicht wieder in eine Tragödie verwandelt werden könne. Nur dieser 
 merkliche Unterschied befindet sich unter den zween Verfassern, dass 
 Dryden, der doch eben nicht für den strengsten Moralisten bekannt ist, 
 frey gestanden, wem er seine Erfindung schuldig wäre." See Das neuste 
 aus der Leipziger Anmuthigen Gelehrsamkeit, p. 351, 1752. 
 
 1* I had access only to the first translation, and to the two scenes pub- 
 lished in the review of the third in Amnuthige Gelehrsamkeit, p. 613 ff., 
 1761. 
 
 15 Der Stand der Unschuld und Fall des Menschen. Ein aus dem Eng- 
 lischen des berühmten Dryden übersetztes Scliauspicl. samt einer Lehens- 
 Beschreibung des Verfassers. Franckfurt und Leipzig, Zu finden in der 
 Buchnerischen Handlung, 1754. 
 
 '^^ Der Fall des Menschen; Ein Schauspiel aus dem Englischen, Basel, 
 1757. 
 
 ^'' Der Fall des Menschen; aus dem Englischen, weiland Herr Dryden, 
 Frankfurt und Leipzig, in der Flcischcrischcn Buchhandlung. 1761. 
 
 18 See Bodmer Denkschrift, p. 282. 
 
 ^^ See Le'^sing's Litcraturbrief, 39. 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 49 
 
 was interested in the fall-of-man theme and also made a partial 
 translation of Paradise Lost.^'^ 
 
 The second translation was made by Spreng.^^ The third trans-' 
 lation I again conjecture to be the work of Grynaeus. It could 
 not have been Spreng, as Gottsched said the translator had given 
 the translation to Spreng,^^ who changed it. In the review which 
 Gottsched made at his request, as he tells us, he characterizes the 
 translator as a German meriting respect, a clever fellow who was 
 known through his numerous other works. This characterization 
 fits Grynaeus, who had made a number of classical translations 
 besides that of the Bible. Moreover he was also a theologian 
 apparently interested in the theme, and as stated above, had used 
 blank verse in other translations. 
 
 The 1754 translation is a literal prose rendering of the text, 
 showing marks of the Swiss dialect and an occasional error in 
 translation. Prefaced to the text are Dryden's Dedication to 
 the Duchess of York, and his Apology for Heroic Poetry and 
 Poetic License. The sketch of Dryden's life (20 pages), taken 
 from the London Magazine for the year 1752, is added as an ap- 
 pendix to the text. This as well as the Apology for Heroic 
 Verse is an important contribution so early, as they appeared 
 only four years after the translation of Voltaire's Lettres, and 
 four years previous to Lessing's translation of Dryden's Essay. 
 The preface of the translator speaks of Dryden as if he were 
 familiar to his readers, and excuses his literal prose translation 
 by calling attention to the Nachtgedanken and other poems sub- 
 
 -0 Baechtold, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur der Schweiz, pp. 486- 
 488. 
 
 21 The review in Anmuthige Gelehrsamkeit (1761) by Gottsched says: 
 " Vor etlichen Jahren gab der Hr. Uebersetzer (of the third translation) 
 sie dem Hrn. Prof. Spreng, der nach Belleben damit geschaltet hat. Er 
 reimte sie, setzte zu, und that davon ; und ging weit von Dryden ab : und 
 so gab er sie unter seinem Namen heraus. So sah dann die Tochter vor 
 der Mutter das Licht." 
 
 Baechtold, loco citato, says: " I7S3 uebertrug er (Spreng) Dryden's 
 Schauspiel von dem Fall des Menschen in Blankversen. , . . Dasselbe 
 erschien in 1757 zu Basel in Druck." 
 
 22 See note 21. 
 
 337 
 
50 
 
 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 ject to the same criticism. The lines dedicated to the translator 
 by B(odmer) show his intimate connection with the translation. 
 
 " Du stellst, geehrter Freund ! das würdigste Gedicht, 
 So Dryden England gab, in Deutschland an das Licht 
 Dein Leser wird gewisz sich dir verpflicht erkennen, 
 Und, wann er Dryden nennt, auch dich mit Achtung nennen." 
 
 Of the 1757 translation the criticism of Baechtold cited above, 
 that it is in blank verse, and that of Gottsched, that Spreng deviated 
 from the original, is all the evidence at my disposal. The 1761 
 translation is not perfect, as is seen from the following passages 
 which for the sake of comparison are added: 
 
 1754. 
 
 Act I, Scene i. 
 
 1761. 
 
 1st dieses der Wohnplatz, wel- 
 chen uns der Sieger angewiesen 
 hat? Ist dieses das Clima, welches 
 wir für den Himmel verwechseln 
 müssen? Dieses sind die Gegen- 
 den, die Reviere, welche meine 
 Waffen erobert hat; Dieses trauer- 
 volle Reich ist des Überwundenen 
 Loosz : In flüszigen Feuerbränden, 
 oder auf einem dürren ausgedie- 
 genen Lande zu wohnen, hierinn 
 bestehet die ganze traurige Ab- 
 wechslung der Hölle. Aber siehe, 
 der Sieger hat von weitem her 
 seine Kriegsknechte, die Stürme, 
 seiner Diener der Rache zurück- 
 berufen: Seine Pfeile sind ver- 
 schossen, und seine ermüdete Don- 
 ner schlafen; Sie brüllen nicht 
 mehr durch die grenzenlose Tiefe. 
 Das beste wird seyn, wenn wir 
 diese Feuermeere verlassen, alldie- 
 weil uns Müsse dazu uns vergönnet 
 ist. 
 
 Ist diesz der Sitz, den uns der 
 
 Ueberwinder gab? 
 Und solchen Tausch dringt er uns 
 
 für den Himmel auf? 
 Mein Krieg erwarb diesz Reich und 
 
 diese Gegenden. 
 Diesz leidige Fürstenthum, ist des 
 
 Besiegten Loos, 
 Wo theils ein flusz'ger Brand, theils 
 
 Dürren zu bewohnen. 
 Der Höllen einziger, unseliger 
 
 Wechsel ist. 
 Doch, sieh, es ruft dort in der 
 
 Ferne schon, 
 Der Sieger seinen Rachgewittern. 
 Den Dienern seines Kriegs, zurück. 
 Die Pfeile sind verthan, sein müder 
 
 Donner schläft. 
 Und brüllt nicht mehr, durch die 
 
 grenzlosen Tiefen. 
 Das Beste ist. 
 Da es Gelegenheit, und Zeit erlaubt 
 
 und giebt. 
 Wir winden uns aus diesen Feuer- 
 wellen. 
 
 338 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 
 
 51 
 
 Act V, Scene i. 
 
 Mir däucht, ich gehe leichter 
 davon ; Meine hurtige Füsse pral- 
 len von den unbeschädigten Blu- 
 men zurück; Ich wandle in der 
 Luft, und achte mich zu gut für 
 diese irrdische Wohnung; Der 
 Himmel ist mein Palast; dieses ist 
 meine schlechteste Hütte. Himmel, 
 nimm mich nicht zu frühe zu dir; 
 es würde was unfreundliches seyn, 
 wenn ich meinen Bettgeferten 
 zurück Hesse. Ich liebe die Un- 
 glückseligen. Doch, halt, soll ich 
 ihm Theil hievon geben? Er ist 
 bereits schon zu viel mein Herr. 
 Nun steht es bey mir, die Herr- 
 schaft an mich zu bringen ; und, 
 weil mein Erkenntnis grösser ist, 
 seinen hochtrabenden männlichen 
 Sinn zu beugen. 
 
 Mich deucht ich trete leichter als 
 zuvor. 
 
 Mein flinker Fuss, drückt kaum 
 den Rasen nieder. 
 
 So prellt er wieder auf, als flög'ich 
 in der Luft. 
 
 Pfuy dieses Erdensitzes! 
 
 Der Himmel ist mein Wohnpallast 
 
 Diesz Paradiesz nur eine Neben- 
 hütte. 
 
 Doch, Himmel, nimm mich so ge- 
 schwind nicht auf, 
 
 Es wäre hart, den Bettfreund so 
 zu lassen. 
 
 Der Unglückselige! ich lieb'ihn 
 dennoch fort. 
 
 Doch! 'Geb'ich ihm auch Theil? 
 Er meistert schon zu viel. 
 
 Die Einzelmeisterschaft, steht nun 
 in meiner Macht, 
 
 Und da ich weiser worden bin, 
 
 Ists nun an mir, die Mannheit ihm 
 zu beugen. 
 
 C. Oedipus 
 
 From the French the Germans borrowed the idea of translat- 
 ing and pubhshing plays in collected form. The first collection 
 of English plays thus translated into German appeared anony- 
 mously at Basel in 1758 under the title: Nene Probestücke der 
 Englischen Schaubühne aus der Ursprache iibersetst von einem 
 Liebhaber des guten Geschmacks. "^^ This collection which Baech- 
 told ascribes to Grynaeus,^* contains nine plays by Young, Addi- 
 son, Dryden and Lee, Otway, Shakspere, Congreve, Mason, and 
 Rowe. Nicolai in his review found fault with the translation, 
 but commended the undertaking, and like Lessing in the Litcr- 
 aturbrief recommended the translation of Shakspere.-^' Accord- 
 
 23 See Gottsched's Zusätze, p. 295, Leipzig, 1765. 
 
 2-* Loco citato, p. 546 and Anhang, p. 174. 
 
 25 Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften, VI, pp. 60-74. 
 
 339 
 
52 Milton D. Bawiigartner 
 
 ing to Nicolai the iambic pentameters in blank verse were at times 
 so jolting, so devoid of harmony, so full of dialect [so schweitzer- 
 isch], that prose would have been far preferable. Then while 
 here and there a passage was well done, others were insipid, 
 tedious, abounding in inartistic and unusual expressions. 
 
 The first play in the third volume was Oedipus, ein Trauerspiel 
 in fünf Aufzügen, ans dem Englischen des Herrn John Dryden 
 und Nathaniel Lee. There seems to have been a revival of Oedi- 
 pus about the middle of the eighteenth century in Europe, and that 
 accounts for the translation of the Play by Dryden and Lee.^® In 
 a review of one of these plays in the Bibliothek der schönen Wis- 
 senschaften, the criticism that Dryden made of Sophocles' Play on 
 the same theme is referred to by the reviewer.-' 
 
 D. All for Love 
 
 Dryden's best play. All for Love, received the greatest recog- 
 nition in Germany. It was one of the first English plays read 
 by Bodmer^^ in 1723. Citations from it were not uncommon.^^ 
 It was translated and used as a source for a German play after 
 Shakspere's play on the same theme had been translated by 
 Wieland and Eschenburg. The first translation was made by 
 Schmid in 1769^° under the title Kleopatra. Schmid was not a 
 master of English and many glaring errors crept into the trans- 
 lation. He learned to know the Play through Prevost's French 
 translation which appeared in Paris in 1735.^^ While he regarded 
 
 26 Voltaire's play gave the first impulse in this revival. In 1748 his 
 Oedipus was translated at Braunschweig, and in 1749 at Vienna. See 
 Gottsched's Nöthiger Vorrath zur Geschichte der Deutschen Dramatischen 
 Dichtkunst, pp. 328, 333, etc., Leipzig, 1757. 
 
 27 VII, Stück 2, p. 2)2(>. 1762. The review is of the Drei neuen Trauer- 
 spiele, nämlich Johanna Grey, Tokenburg und Odip, Zürich, 1761. 
 
 28 See Bodmer Denkschrift, p. 322. 
 
 29 See note to p. 167 of Bodmer's 1742 translation of Paradise Lost, and 
 Aesthctik in einer Nuss, p. 384. 
 
 30 Christian Heinrich Schmid, Englisches Theater, bey Dodsley und 
 comp., Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1769. All for Love is in the second volume, 
 page I ff. 
 
 81 See Schmid's Theorie der Poesie, p. 471, and British Museum Cata- 
 logue under Dryden. 
 
 340 
 
Dry den's Relation to Germany 53 
 
 All for Love as Dryden's masterpiece, he did not give his trage- 
 dies a high rank. " Seine Trauerspiele haben mehr Tragische 
 Sprache, als tragische Situationen und wie er selbst gesteht, liesz 
 er sich darinnen oft zum Pöbel herab, oder ward übertrieben, 
 wenn er erhaben sein wollte."^- Reviews of Schmid's transla- 
 tions appeared in the Göttingischen Anzeigen für Gelehrten 
 Sachen,^^ and in the Almanach der deutschen Musen. The latter 
 commends the undertaking, but bewails the lack of unity and calls 
 it " Eins der deklamierenden Trauerspiele."^* 
 
 A second translation appeared anonymously at Mannheim in 
 1781 under the title : Alles für Liehe, ein Trauerspiel in fünf Auf- 
 zügen. Aus dem Englischen des Dry den. Mannheim became 
 prominent as a literary center during the latter part of the eight- 
 eenth century. One of the most active members of the Mannheim 
 literary group was Professor Anton von Klein.^^ He was editor 
 in chief of the collection of foreign translations, in which a re- 
 vised edition of Eschenburg's Shakspere translation also appeared. 
 Dalberg and Gemmingen, also active members of the group, trans- 
 lated an Englisches Theater. All for Love was the first play 
 included in this collection. In the preface the editor says that 
 good translations of English and French plays are always wel- 
 come, but that for the most part Germany can not be proud of 
 her translations, as they do not include the best plays and contain 
 numerous errors. He then points out some of the errors in 
 Schmid's translation of AH for Love^ which he considers one of 
 the best English plays. " Es sind wenige Stücke, selbst unter den 
 shakspearischen, worinn mehr grosze und herrliche Züge vorkom- 
 men als in diesem. Die Charaktere sind vortrefflich gezeichnet. 
 Der Plan ist sehr gut ausgelegt und das ganze fast durchaus gut 
 geführt. Indessen hat es seine kleinen Flecken und seine gros- 
 zen Fehler. . . . Hier übergiebt man das Trauerspiel getreu nach 
 dem Original in die Hände des Publikums um den groszen Mann, 
 
 32 Loco citato, p. 471. 
 
 33 P. 1290, 1769. 
 
 3* For 1770, p. 176. 
 
 35 See B. Seuffert, " Geschichte der deutschen Gesellschaft in Mannheim 
 in Ans. für d. Altertum," VI, p. 276 ff. ; and J. H. Heinzelmann, " Pope in 
 Germany in the Eighteenth Century," Modern Philology, X, p. 348 ff. 
 
54 Milton D. Baumgartncr 
 
 den erhabnen Verfasser in seiner Grösse unci Schwäche, so wie er 
 ist, zu zeigen. "^° 
 
 The translation is in prose and is on the whole well done, but 
 the beginning of Act II will show that the translator has not suc- 
 ceeded in always rendering the text " getreu nach dem Original " : 
 
 Kleopatra, Iras und Alexas 
 
 K. "Was soil ich thun, oder wohin soll ich mich wenden? Ventidius hat 
 gesiegt, und er wird gehen. 
 
 A. Er geht für dich zu kämpfen. 
 
 K. Dann würde er mich sprechen, ehe er ginge. Schmeichle mir nicht; 
 ist er einmal fort; so ist er verloren; und alle meine Hoffnungen 
 sind vernichtet. 
 
 A. Kömmt diese schwache Leidenschaft einer mächtigen Königinn zu? 
 
 K. Ich bin keine Königinn. Heiszt das eine Königinn seyn, wenn man 
 von jenen stolzen Römern ('yon insulting Roman') belagert ist und 
 jede Stunde des Siegers Ketten erwartet? Dies sind die geringen 
 Uebel : Antonius ist verloren, und ich kann in der Welt für nichts 
 als für ihn trauren. Itzt komm Octavius ! ich habe nichts mehr zu 
 verlieren ; bereite deine Bande ; nun kann ich eine Gefangene seyn : 
 Antonius verläszt mich — es ist ein Glück, eine Sklavinn zu seyn. 
 ("I'm fit to be a captive: Antony 
 Has taught my mind the fortune of a slave.')" 
 
 All for Love was also one of the sources for a play at Vienna, 
 where at this time the English influence on the theater displaced 
 the French. ^^ In 1783 Cornelius Hermann von Ayrenhoff's trag- 
 edy, Kleopatra und Antonius, was performed at the royal theater 
 of Vienna. In the introduction the author mentions Shakspere, 
 La Chapelle, Lohenstein, and Dryden as sources. He used only 
 the German translations of the plays of Shakspere and Dryden ; 
 in the latter case it was the Mannheim Alles für Liehe}^ 
 
 3^ Vorrede, p. xix. 
 
 37 Emil Horner, " Das Aufkommen des Englischen Geschmacks in 
 Wien, und Aurenhoffs Trauerspiel, Kleopatra und Antonius." Euphorion, 
 II, pp. 556-571 and 7^2-797. 
 
 3s Whether Leopold Neumann's duodrama on the Antony and Cleo- 
 parta theme, published at Dresden in 1780, was connected with Dryden's 
 play, I was unable to determine, as I did not have access to the play. 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 55 
 
 2. The Tempest or the Enchanted Island, A Source for 
 Boomer's Noah 
 
 No other plays of Dryden were translated in Germany during 
 the eighteenth century, but Bodmer incorporated lines and situ- 
 ations from The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island (1670). As 
 early as 1743 he spoke of the beauty of innocence as depicted in 
 The Enchanted Island and The Conquest of Mexico.^° Three 
 years later he translated a number of lines from The Tempest, 
 which he prefaced with " In einem Engell. Schauspiel, die bezau- 
 berte Insel betietelt, wird ein junger Mensch eingeführt, der nie- 
 mals keine Frauenpersonen gesehen hat ; ihm eine Furcht vor ihnen 
 einzujagen, beschreibt sie ihm sein Oheim also: Bilde dir ein Mit- 
 telding zwischen jungen Männern und Engeln ein . . . . "^^ 
 
 Later this situation and a number of others from The En- 
 chanted Island were incorporated by Bodmer in his epic, Noah. *'^ 
 In Dryden's Tempest Prospero, Duke of Milan, brings up his two 
 daughters and Hippolito, heir to the Dukedom of Mantua, in exile 
 on an enchanted island, keeping them ignorant of the opposite sex. 
 Bodmer similarly depicts the three sons of Noah and the three 
 daughters of Sipha, who were isolated from the world, being in- 
 closed by mountains. As Prospero warns his charges against the 
 wildness of man and the enticing danger of women, so the sons 
 •of Noah and the daughters of Sipha were similarly warned. 
 
 The parallel passages follow. 
 
 Prospero describes women to Hippolito as : 
 
 " Something between young men and angels . . . 
 Calm sleep is not so soft; nor winter suns 
 Nor summer shades, so pleasant. . . . 
 Their voices charm beyond the nightingales " : — II, 2. 
 
 Japhet, Noah's youngest son, described the maidens thus : 
 
 ■" Sie sind ein Mittelding zwischen Jüngling und Engel. Der Schlaf ist 
 Nicht so sanft, als ihr Thun, noch die kühlenden Schatten so lieblich, 
 Als ihr erquickender Mund: Musik ist in jeglichem Worte," III, 595 ff. 
 
 ^° Critische Schriften. VII, p. 9. 
 
 4° Der Maler der Sitten, I, pp. 419-420, Zürich, 1746. 
 
 ■*^ Der Noah, in Zwölf Gesängen. Zürich, bey David Geszner, 1752. 
 
 343 
 
c6 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 In reply to Prospero's description : " Those who once behold 
 them are made their slaves forever," Hippolito says: 
 
 "Can they be fairer than the plumes of swans? . . . 
 Or than the gloss upon the neck of doves? 
 Or have more various beauty than the rainbow?" II, 2. 
 
 Sham asks Japhet : 
 
 "1st sie so fürchterhch grosz, ist der Mädchen Schönheit so Sieghaft? 
 Können sie heller seyn, als die weissen Federn der Schwäne, 
 Oder anmutiger, als der Glanz am Nacken der Dauben? 
 Oder sind ihre Farben verschiedner und feiner vertheilet, 
 Als der träufelnde Staub, der die Sonnenstrahlen gebrochen," III, 582 ff. 
 
 At first sight both Hippolito and Japhet believe the maidens to 
 be children of the heavenly sun. 
 
 "What thing is this? Sure 'tis some infant of the 
 Sun, dressed in his father's gayest beams, 
 And come to play with birds " : II, 3. 
 
 "... flieht nicht, Kinder der himmlischen Sonne, . . . 
 Schön geschmückt ... in der hellsten Farben der Sonne, . . . 
 Mit dem schlechtem Schmuck der Blumen zu spielen." 
 
 The first sight Dorinda gets of Hippolito has the same effect 
 upon her as the first sight of Japhet has upon the three daughters, 
 of Sipha : 
 
 "At first it stared upon me, and seemed wild, 
 And then I trembled ; yet it looked so lovely. 
 But when I would have fled, my feet 
 Seemed fastened to the ground ..." Ill, 2. 
 
 " Eben so schienen die Mädchen bestürzt, und standen erstaunt da. 
 An den Boden der Fusz, das Aug an Japhet geheft." I, 141-142. 
 
 Hippolito and Ferdinand are described as a bud and a full- 
 blown flower : 
 
 " For shortly, my Miranda, you shall see 
 Another of his kind, the full-blown flower 
 Of which this youth was but the opening bud." Ill, 2. 
 
 344 
 
Dry den's Relation to Germany 57 
 
 Japhet compares his lovely maid to the opening bud, and her 
 sisters to full-blown roses : 
 
 " Eine nicht völlig entwickelte Rosenknospe, . . . 
 Zwo entfaltete Rosen in ihrer vollkommenen Blühte." III, 621 ff. 
 
 Both Ferdinand and Japhet believe their fair ones to be divine 
 apparitions : 
 
 " Fair Excellence ! if, as your form declares. 
 You are divine, be pleased to instruct me how 
 You will be worshiped; so bright a beauty 
 Cannot belong to human kind." Ill, 5. 
 
 "Schönste Gestalt des Menschen, vernimm die flehende Bitte; 
 Bist du. ich muss es billig besorgen, von himmlischer Ankunft. 
 So entdecke, mit welchem Gehorsam kann ich dich halten !" I, 166 ff. 
 
 The feelings which Hippolito and Japhet experience when they 
 first touch the hands of the maidens are akin: 
 
 "... there is something, 
 When 'I touch yours (hand) which makes me sigh: . , . 
 Yet mine's a pleasant grief; ..." II, 3. 
 
 " Aber voraus durchlief mich ein zärtlich fliessender Schmerzen. 
 Mit so lieblichen Schlägen ; dass ich vor süszer Empfindung 
 Seufzete, da ich die Hand des einen Mädchen ergriffen." III, 616 ff. 
 
 Both Hippolito and Japhet are haunted by the fear of losing 
 their fair maids through other lovers : 
 
 "And would you have her too? That must not be: 
 For none but I must have her." Ill, 4. 
 
 "Lasset mir die, und theilet euch in den übrigen beyden; . . . 
 Was für ein Unmuth droht in mein Gemuthe zu schleichen. 
 Wenn ein andrer sich um die schöne Blume bemühte." III, 623 ff. 
 
 This fear is allayed by the replies of Ferdinand and Sham : 
 'AH beauties are not pleasing alike to all." Ill, 4. 
 "Jegliche Schönheit thut nicht den gleichen Anfall auf alle." III, 692. 
 
 345 
 
58 Milton D. Baumgar Iner 
 
 CHAPTER IV. The Fables and Poetic-Classical 
 Translations 
 
 The fables^ of Dryden were more popular in Germany than his 
 •dramas. Although written in his old age, they have a charm and 
 sprightliness which today still give them a high rank among his 
 works. Their poetic charm may be attributed to the nature of the 
 composition. Inasmuch as the translations were free, the author 
 could concentrate his efforts upon the form and meter. It was 
 this elegance of form which appealed to the German poets, and in 
 turn influenced their form. 
 
 Dryden's fables were reviewed early in Germany. About the 
 middle of the eighteenth century they attained their highest popu- 
 larity, and at the conclusion of the century they were again re- 
 vived; it was at this time that Alexander's Feast, on account of 
 its lyrical elements, was so highly esteemed as an ode among the 
 Germans. A commendatory Latin review of the fables appeared 
 at Leipzig in the same year in which they were published in Eng- 
 land.^ Four of the fables in this collection : Philemon and Baucis, 
 Cymon and Iphigenia, The Cock and the Fox, and Theodore and 
 Honoria found their way into Germany, the last two being 
 translated. 
 
 Philemon and Baucis was a source for a fable with the same 
 title by Hagedorn (i7oS-i754).^ Hagedorn's fondness for the 
 fable, upon which his fame as a poet rests, drew him to La Fon- 
 taine, Gay, and Prior more frequently than to Dryden, whose 
 fables he however learned to know during his stay in England in 
 1729. 
 
 In his Philemon and Baucis (1739) Hagedorn introduces more 
 of the idyllic and naive element, dwelling on some details which 
 Dryden merely indicated. In his versification, however, the in- 
 fluence of Dryden and his pupil Pope, is more evident. He em- 
 
 ^ Fables, Ancient and Modern, Translated into Verse from Homer, 
 Ovid, Boccace, and Chancer, with Original Poems, London, 1700. 
 
 2 Acta Euriditornm . . . , pp. 321-325, Lipsiae, 1700. 
 
 3 The Göttinger Zeitung von Gelehrten Sachen (p. loS, 1739) reviews 
 Hagedorn's fables, and calls attention to Dryden as one of the sources for 
 Philemon and Baucis. 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 59 
 
 ploys their iambic pentameter, but at times expands it into six 
 feet, or contracts it into four. Similarly he occasionally substi- 
 tutes alternating rhyme for their rhymed couplets. In a number 
 of his other fables and poems he uses the iambic pentameter 
 rhymed couplet throughout, or as in Philemon and Baucis, substi- 
 tutes it for the alternating rhyme.* 
 
 ^ Like Hagedorn, Bodmer and his friends were also interested 
 in the fables of Dryden. Spreng esteemed Drydcn as a poet and 
 fable-writer.^ "Seine Fabeln," he says, "verdienen den Beifall 
 aller Kenner." In 1742 Bodmer quoted and translated the first 
 six lines of The Flower and the Leaf.^ He was also fascinated 
 by the idyllic character of Cymon, and wished Gleim to make use 
 of Bocaccio's Cymon for a Schäferspiel.' For the ensuing two 
 years in their correspondence Bodmer, Sulzer, Gleim, and Ramler 
 discussed the writing of a Schäferspiel on the same theme. Bod- 
 mer first suggested to Gleim that Hagedorn or Rost make use of 
 the material,^ but later himself made a prose sketch and wished 
 Gleim or Kleist to put it into verse.'' That Gleim seriously con- 
 sidered writing on the theme is apparent from his subsequent 
 letter. " Ich las neulich den ' Timon des Dryden ' ; die Fabel 
 schien mir bequemer zu einer Erzählung, als zu einem theatrali- 
 schen Stücke. . . . entweder ich, oder einer meiner Freunde, den 
 
 4 In Herrn Friedrich von Hagedorns Poetische Werke bey Johann Carl 
 Bahn, 3 vols., Hamburg, 1757, the following imitate the meter of Drj'den 
 and Pope: Der Ursprung des Grübchens im Kinne, II, 186-184; Der Falk, 
 II, 293-304; Aurilius und Beizebub, II, 122; Paulus, Purgenti, und Agnesi, 
 II, 179-185; An einen Maler, I, 152; An Murtzerpheus, I, 167; Auf einen 
 ruhmredigen und schlechten Maler, I, 170; Wohlthaten, I, 171; Unter- 
 richt für einen Reisenden, I, 205; Horaz, I, 100-122. For Horaz see 
 Muncker in D. N. L., XLV, p 31. 
 
 5 See note to page 219 of his edition of DroUingers Gedichte, Frank- 
 furt am Mayn, bey Frantz Barrentrapp, 1745. 
 
 ''See Bodmer's 1742 edition of his translation of Paradise Lost, note to 
 
 P- 193- 
 
 ^ Briefe der Schweizer Bodmer, Sulzer, und Gessner aus Gleims litter- 
 arischem Nachlass herausgegeben von Wilhelm Kürte. Zürich, bei Hein- 
 rich Gessner, 1804. See Bodmer's letter to Gleim, dated July 11, 1745 
 (p. 15). 
 
 8 Loco citato, Bodmer to Gleim, July 11, 1745 (p. 15). 
 
 ^ Idem, Sulzer to Gleim, January 23. 1747 (p. 43). 
 
 347 
 
6o Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 Plan bebauen wird."^° Gleim had previously asked Ramler to 
 put it in verse, for in a letter to Gleim the latter writes : " Cimon 
 ist ein artiges Stück, und verdient den Klang des Silbenmasses, 
 aber geben Sie es Uzen, wenn Sie es durchaus von sich ablehnen 
 wollen. ... Es ist aus Drydens Erzählung genommen, worin unter 
 anderen der Vers steht: Er pfiff indem er ging aus Mangel der 
 Gedanken. . . . "" 
 
 While Cymon and Iphigenia was discussed by a group of poets, 
 The Cock and the Fox was translated in Germany. The Spec- 
 tator (no. 621) quoted the description of spring (lines 455-460) 
 which Mrs. Gottsched^- translated in her usual happy manner : 
 
 " Darauf wandt er sich und sprach zum Partlet : Sieh mich Freund, 
 Wie die Natur das Jahr so reich und schön geschmücket; 
 Die blasse Schlüsselblum und die Viol erscheint, 
 Da sich der Vogel Hals zum Singen wieder schicket. 
 Diesz alles ist für uns, wo ich mit Freuden seh. 
 Wie mich der Mensch begaff und auf zwey Beinen geh." 
 
 In 1758, however, a complete translation of The Cock and the 
 Fox was published in the Neuen Erweiterungen der Erkentnis 
 und des Vergnügens. This monthly magazine, published at Frank- 
 furt and Leipzig, devoted itself to sketches of English writers, 
 and to translations of their works. The first number contains a 
 sketch of the life of Dryden, " eines groszen englischen Dichters 
 des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts."^^ The sixty-seventh number con- 
 tains a lame prose translation of Dryden's fable. The Cock and 
 the Fox, which was based on The Nwi's Priest Tale of Chaucer." 
 
 1° Idem, Gleim to Bodmer, April 29, 1747. 
 
 ^'^Briefwechsel zwischen Gleim und Ramler, hrsg. von Schüddekopf. 
 I, p. 78, Tübingen, 1906. Ramler to Gleim, March 2, 1747. 
 
 12 Der Zuschauer, VIII, p. 274, 2d edition, Leipzig, 1749. The beautiful 
 description of May also appeared in The Spectator (V, no. 365). taken 
 from Palcmon and Arcite, Bk. II, lines 55-57, and Bk. I, 176-180, 
 beginning: 
 
 " Für dich, du erste nicht, doch die schönste Zeit des Jahres, 
 Sieht man so Feld als Wald, die grünen Kleider tragen ..." 
 
 13 X, pp. 52-65, 1753- 
 
 ^*Der Fuchs und der Hahn. Eine Erzählung aus dem Englischen des 
 Dryden, Stück 62, pp. 97-125. 
 
 348 
 
Dry den's Relation to Germany 6i 
 
 The translator's task was made more difficult through Dryden's 
 retention of some of the obsolete words of the Middle English. 
 Whenever the translator found a word or an expression he was 
 unable to translate, he either omitted it entirely, or substituted an 
 idea of his own. The defects of the translation are apparent from 
 the subjoined opening and closing lines. 
 
 "In alten Zeiten lebte, wie uns die Schriftsteller erzählen, eine 
 Wittwe, die schon etwas bey Jahren und sehr arm war. Ihre mit 
 Stroh gedekte Hütte stand einsam unter dem Schatten eines 
 Waldes. (Deep in a cell her cottage lonely stood. Well thatched, 
 and under covert of a wood.) Diese Wittwe, auf welche sich 
 meine Erzählung gründet, führte nach dem Tode ihres Mannes, 
 ein schlechtes aber ruhiges Leben, und hatte genug zu ihrem 
 Unterhalte. ..." 
 
 " Besser, Herr Hahn, sagte Reinart, setzet allen Streit bey Seite, 
 kommt herunter, und laszt uns einen Frieden schliessen. (let us 
 treat of peace) Einen Frieden; von ganzem Herzen? versetzte 
 Chenteclär ; aber mit eurer Erlaubnis, ich will ihn hier oben schlies- 
 sen; und wenn der Friede mit Verrätherey sollte verknüpft seyn, 
 so ist es wenigstens mein Vortheil, ('Tis my concern) den Baum 
 zwischen uns zu haben." 
 
 While Theodore and Honoriawsis not translated by Eschenburg 
 he prints the English text in his Beispielsammlung }'" He prefaces 
 the text with a characterization of Dryden as a fable writer, in 
 which he places him above Boccaccio, and ranks his fables among 
 his best works. . . . '' Seine Fabels, oder Erzählungen, aus dem 
 Homer, Ovid, Boccaz und Chaucer geschöpft," he says, " schrieb 
 er erst in seinen letzten Lebensjahren; sie gehören aber zu seinen 
 besten Arbeiten, und verrahten durchaus einen sehr gebildeten 
 Geschmack und wahres dichterisches Gefühl. Man darf folgende 
 Erzählung nur mit der Novelle im Boccaz vergleichen, aus welcher 
 ihr Stoff genommen ist, um des englischen Dichters Ueberlegen- 
 heit in der Erzählungsgabe, und den mannichfachen Antheil seines 
 
 "^^ Beispielsammlung zur Theorie und Literatur der schönen Wissen- 
 schaften von Johann Joachim Eschenburg, BerHn und Stettin, 1788-1795. 
 Theodore and Honore are in I, pp. 126-138, 1788. 
 
 349 
 
62 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 Genies und der .stanzen Ausführung überall wahrzunehmen. Be- 
 sonders haben die beschreibenden Stellen aufifallende Vorzüge." 
 Theodore and Honoria^^ was later translated by Bürde, a lyri- 
 cist of note, who included the translation among his works. ^^ The 
 favorable criticism of Eschenburg, no doubt, as well as the poetic 
 elements of the fable, fascinated Bürde. Like Kosegarten, as we 
 shall see later, he does not follow the original slavishly, but aims 
 to give it poetic expression. To accomplish this he freely ex- 
 pands the fable, and influenced by the varying rhyme of Dryden's 
 Alexander's Feast he uses a fluctuating rhyme. The rhymed 
 couplet of the original he changes to aa, abba, and abab which 
 tends to enliven his translation. While he retains the iambic 
 pentameter of Dryden, like Hagedorn, he at times contracts it into 
 four feet. The added lines from the opening of the translation 
 will show the hand of the poet and the deviations from Dryden 
 in matter and form. 
 
 " Trotz irgend einer Stadt des Alterthums, 
 War einst Revenna im Besitz des Ruhmes 
 Der Waffen, der Gelehrsamkeit, und Kunst : 
 Die Reichen waren frey von niedrem Geize, 
 Die Groszen, zart empfänglich für die Reize 
 Des Schönen, gingen, ohne Stolz, mit Gunst 
 Und milder Spende dem Talent entgegen; 
 Doch unter allen ragte Theodor, 
 Der Edle, durch Geburt, Gestalt, Vermögen, 
 Und selbst erworbnen Ruhm hervor. 
 Und doch vi^ard seine Brust von stillem Grame 
 Zernagt. Zu seinem Unglück sah 
 Er einst die schönste junge Dame; — 
 Denn dafür galt Honoria^ 
 Bey Männern-ohne Wiederrede." 
 
 That the popularity of Dryden's fal)les was enduring in Ger- 
 marv, the criticism of Bouterwek will suffice to show. " Die 
 poetischen Erzählungen," he says, "die er (Dryden) unter dem 
 
 16 In the Introduction to the fable Scott calls it: "The most admirable 
 poem of its kind ever written." XI, 463-476. 
 
 ^"^ Poetische Schriften von Sam. Gottlieb Bürde. Erster Theil, pp. 117- 
 131. Breslau und Leipzig, bei Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn, 1803. 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 63 
 
 Titel Fabeln (Fables), nach Chaucer, Boccaz, und einigen andern 
 Dichtern, noch in seinen alten Tagen schrieb haben zwar nicht die 
 charakteristische Naivetät der Erzählungen des französischen 
 Üichters, Lafontaine; aber sie gehören doch zu den gelungensten 
 Werken dieser Art in der neueren Litteratur."^^ 
 
 Closely related in spirit to Dryden's fables are his poetic-class- 
 ical translations. Of these the complete translations of Virgil, and 
 the partial translation of Homer and Ovid are the most noted, and 
 indeed the favor with which they were received incited Dryden 
 to take up the translation of the fables. His classical translations, 
 especially that of Virgil, found early recognition in Germany. 
 The Beyträge zur CritiscJien Historie der deutschen Sprache und 
 Beredsamkeit (1732) contains a review of the German transla- 
 tion of Virgil which states : " Wenn ihm eine Stelle des Grund- 
 textes etwas dunkel geschienen, hat er das fürtreffliche englische 
 Virgil Drydens in 3 Octavbänden nachgeschlagen. ..." The 
 same review asserts that Dryden immortalized the M etamorphoses 
 of Ovid. The Beyträge also reviews a translation of Anacreon 
 in which it commends the classical translations of Pope, Creek, 
 and those of Dryden. 
 
 The citations from Dryden's classical translations, and the man- 
 ner in which they were quoted indicate that they were generally 
 known in Germany. König,^^ for instance, quotes from his Ovid 
 and Virgil translations and, contrary to his manner of dealing 
 with other English authors, finds it unnecessary to enlighten his 
 readers in regard to Dryden and his works. Spreng says of Dry- 
 den's Latin translations : " Er hat verschiedene lateinische Poeten 
 in englische Verse gebracht, und sonderlich durch die Übersetz- 
 ung des Virgil einen ewigen Namen bei seinen Landsleuten er- 
 worben."-'' The Brittische Bibliothek (1757) twice commends 
 Dryden's translation of Virgil (pp. 89 and 328). Lessing was 
 also familiar with the Virgil translation, and refers to it in his 
 
 18 Loco citato, VIII, p. 52. 
 
 13 Untersuchung von der Einsylbigen Wörtern in der Teutschcn Dicht- 
 kunst von Johann Ulrich König ausgefertigt, appended to the life and 
 works of Besser, pp. 887 and 889. Leipzig, 1732. 
 
 -•^ See note to Drollingers Gedichte, p. 219. 
 
 JD 
 
 U 
 
64 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 Laokoon;-''- and even at the close of the eighteenth century Blank- 
 enburg wrote of Dryden's translation of Virgil's Aeneas: " Unter 
 den poetischen Uebersetzungen wird die von Dryden noch immer 
 für die Beste gehalten. "^^ 
 
 CHAPTER V. The Lyrics 
 
 I. Dryden's Fame as a Lyricist in England Due Largely to 
 Alexander's Feast 
 
 While his fables and classical translations found favor, no other 
 work of Dryden elicited so much commendation from the best 
 critics and poets of England and Germany as his lyrics. This is 
 particularly true of Alexander's Feast, or the Power of Music, 
 an ode written in honor of Saint Cecelia's Day. A brief account 
 of its reception in England will aid in better understanding the 
 reception accorded it in Germany. At the time of its first appear- 
 ance it was recognized as a lyric of unusual merit, and the number 
 of single editions alone in the eighteenth century, more than a 
 dozen in number, exceeded that of any of his other works. ^ This 
 recognition continued throughout the eighteenth century, and even 
 at the beginning of the nineteenth it was still considered the best 
 English lyric- Dryden himself regarded it as his greatest literary 
 effort.^ It also called forth the favorable criticism of Pope,* 
 
 21 Lessings Werke, IX, part I, p. 43. 
 
 22 Zus'dtse, I, p. 17a, 1796. 
 
 1 See British Museum Catalogue under Dryden, p. 46 flf. 
 
 2 The two greatest biographers of Dryden are boundless in their praise, 
 holding Alexander's Feast to be not only the greatest English lyric but the 
 greatest lyric in all literature. Malone designates it " the greatest com- 
 position of its kind in the English language" in his Critical and Miscel- 
 laneous Prose Works of John Dryden, . . . , I, p. 285, London, 1800. Scott 
 says : " In lyrical poetry Dryden must be allowed to have no equal. 
 'Alexander's Feast' is sufficient to show his supremacy in that brilliant 
 department." See Scott-Saintsbury, I, p. 409. 
 
 3 In a letter to his publisher, Tonson, he wrote: "I am glad to hear 
 from all hands that my ode is esteemed the best of all my poetry by all 
 the town. I thought so myself when I writ it, but being old I mistrusted 
 my judgment." See Scott-Saintsbury, XI, p. 46. 
 
 * From the beginning of his career, Pope was an ardent admirer of 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 65 
 
 Ayres,^ Young,^ Warton/ and Brown,* besides odes on the same 
 thenie by Addison, Congreve, and Pope, while Jeremiah Clark and 
 Handel set it to music. 
 
 A. Musical Compositions a Potent Factor in Perpetuating Alex- 
 ander's Feast 
 
 These musical compositions for Alexander's Feast aided materi- 
 ally in perpetuating its renown as a lyric.'' 
 
 Clark's composition was made for its first presentation, and was 
 repeated at least three times in London shortly after the first reg- 
 ular performance. As a musical performance, however, Alex- 
 ander's Feast seems to have been attended with only moderate 
 success until Handel's composition revived it in 1736, when it was 
 
 Dryden. In his Essay on Criticism he lays down the essentials of genuine 
 poetry, insisting that poetry must have more than cadence and rhyme, that 
 the words must convey the thought and action conforming with the 
 theme. Alexander's Feast he cites as such a poem (lines 374-383). 
 
 s Ayers in his work on Pope asserts that Pope was urged by his friends 
 to write a Cecelia ode with the hope that it would bring him great renown 
 as it had Dryden, but that it was evident that he was unable to cope with 
 his predecessor. See Gottsched's review of Ayres' Memoirs of the Life 
 and Writings of Alexander Pope (London, 1745) in Neuem Büchersaal 
 der schönen Wissenschaften und freycn Künste, I, p. 142, Leipzig, 1745. 
 
 *^ Young says in his Essay on Lyrical Poetry, The Works of the Author 
 of the Night's Thoughts, vol. 6, p. 164, London, 1778, that in his opinion 
 Dryden's ode is equal to any work of similar nature, and praises especially 
 the varying meter corresponding with the mood depicted. 
 
 "^ Warton is most profuse in his praise of the ode, " which places the 
 British lyric poet above that of any other nation." See Essay on th" 
 Writings and Genius of Pope, H, p. 20. 
 
 ^ Brown introduces it several times in his treatise on poetry and music, 
 commending its popularity due to its simplicity, and its power over our 
 emotions. See Dr. Bron'n's Betrachtungen über Poesie und Musik . . . 
 übersetzt von Joachim Eschenburg mit Anmerkungen, pp. 367 and 393, 
 Leipzig, 1769. 
 
 ^ Both Malone and Scott have given a history of the patron saint of 
 music, and of the odes written and performed in commemoration of Saint 
 Cecelia's Day, which was celebrated in London by the Musical Society and 
 throughout all Europe by music lovers. Dryden furnished the odes for 
 two of these commemorations (1687 and 1697). The first was entitled: A 
 Song for Saint Cecelia's Day; the second, Alexander's Feast. 
 
 353 
 
66 Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 performed at the Royal Theater in Covent Garden under the com- 
 poser's direction with marked success, according to press reports.^* 
 The frequent subsequent performances in England and on the 
 Continent were due to the excellency of Handel's composition. 
 That this composition contributed to the popularity of the lyric 
 itself is evident from the numerous new single editions of the ode 
 appearing immediately after Handel set it to music. ^^ 
 
 B. Rcasojis for the Favorable Reception of Dryden's Ode in 
 
 Germany 
 
 As in England, the favorable reception of Dryden's ode in Ger- 
 many was due in a large measure to the prevailing enthusiasm for 
 lyrical and emotional poetry, and to the accompanying revival of 
 music. Shortly after the middle of the eighteenth century Ger- 
 man poetry gradually changed from the rational and descriptive 
 to the imaginative and lyrical. Gottsched under the influence of 
 the French championed the cause of the rational and moral ele- 
 ments in poetry, while Bodmer and Breitinger under the influence 
 of Addison and Alilton advocated the imaginative and wonderful 
 as prerequisites for real poetry. 
 
 Descriptive poetry was brought into Germany through Thom- 
 son's Seasons, and influenced Brockes' Irdisches Vergnügen in 
 Gott, Haller's Die Alpen, Kleist's Der Frühling, and similar poems. 
 The protest against descriptive poetry was raised first in England. 
 Pope condemned it very severely.^- \\^arton took up the issue 
 
 10 The London Daily Post and General Advertiser for February 20, says : 
 "... there never was, upon like occasion, so numerous and splendid an 
 audience at any theater in London, there being at least thirteen hundred 
 persons present; .... It met with general applause." Scott-Saintsbury, 
 I, note to p. 344. 
 
 11 British Museum Catalogue. See under Dryden, p. 46 ff. 
 
 1- In his Prologue to his Satires Pope says of descriptive poetry: 
 "... who could take offence. 
 While pure Description held the place of Sense?" (1. 147) 
 Warburton in his edition of Pope makes the following comment on the 
 above passage: "He uses 'pure' equivocally, to signify either chaste or 
 empty; and has given in this line what he esteemed the true character of 
 descriptive poetry, as it is called. A composition, in his opinion, as absurd 
 as a feast made up of sauces." 
 
 354 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 67 
 
 agajnst Pope, asserting that descriptive poetry was a sister art of 
 landscape painting, and claiming that those who condemn Thom- 
 son must also condemn the greater part of Lucretius, and the 
 Georgics of Virgil. ^^ In reviewing the attitude of Warton Men- 
 delssohn points out the weakness of his arguments. " Ohne uns 
 eigentlich wider die malerische Poesie zu erklären, glauben wir, 
 dass die Gründe unsers Verfassers nichts beweisen. ... So ver- 
 schwistert die Dichtkunst und Malerei sind, so hat doch eine jede 
 Kunst ihre angewiesenen Grenzen, die durch das Werkzeug der 
 Sinne, für welches sie arbeiten, bestimmt werden. Virgils Landbau 
 und Lukrezens Natur der Dinge scheinen uns von Thomsons Jahres- 
 zeiten wesendlich unterschieden zu sein. Die Römer wollen eigent- 
 lich unterrichten, und malen nur zu Veränderung ; der Engländer 
 hingegeben hat keine andere Absicht als zur malen. "^* This stand 
 taken by ^Mendelssohn in 1759 reflects the general trend growing up 
 in Germany against descriptive poetry. Lessing more clearly than 
 his predecessors defines the fields of poetry, painting, and music 
 in his epoch-making work, Laokoon. With Pope, whom he 
 quotes,^^ he agrees that descriptive poetry, per se, is puerile. Had 
 the principles which Lessing laid down in Laokoon appeared 
 earlier, descriptive poetry could never have gained such a foot- 
 hold in Germany and Switzerland. 
 
 The literary enthusiasm of Germany at this time was expressed 
 by the lyrical, imaginative, and emotional poems, as is shown by the 
 number of translations and imitations of the odes of Horace, and 
 the songs of Anacreon, made by such poets as Hagedorn, Gleim, 
 Ramler, and Weisse. The ode was regarded as the best vehicle 
 for poetic enthusiasm. Wieland wrote in a letter to Zimmermann 
 in 1758: " Sie wissen ohne mich, dass der poetische Enthusiasmus 
 eigentlich für die Ode ist. Der Poet ist da ganz im Affect, und 
 gleichsam ausser sich selbst."^" The odes of Klopstock, express- 
 
 ^^ Loco citato, I, p. 49. 
 
 1* " Moses Mendelssohn. Versuch über Popens Genie und Schriften" 
 in Bibliothek der Schönen Wissenschaften, IV, 500-532 and 627-669, 
 Berlin, 1758 and 1759 (p. 512 flf.). 
 
 "^^ Lessing s Werke, IX, p. 104, in D. N. L. 
 
 ^'^' Ausgewchlte Briefe von C. M. Wieland an verschiedene Freunde in 
 den Jahren 1731 bis 1810 geschrieben, I, p. 263, Zürich, 1815. 
 
 355 
 
68 Milton D. Banmgartner 
 
 ing deep emotions of religion, patriotism, and love, even though 
 often bordering on sentimentality, furthered this movement of 
 poetical enthusiasm which culminated in the theories set up by 
 Herder, that the folk-songs contained the highest poetical elements 
 of all poetry, since they express the genuine national feelings and 
 emotions of a people, even if such poetry belong in the category of 
 occasional poetry to which the Saint Cecelia odes belonged.^' In 
 1778 Herder, influenced by Percy's Rcliqnes, made his collection 
 of Sthniiicn der Völker to prove his theories in regard to folk- 
 songs. 
 
 With the growth of poetical enthusiasm in Germany, the awak- 
 ening of musical interest went hand in hand, directly increasing 
 the appreciation of Handel's compositions for Alexanders Feast 
 and indirectly the appreciation for the ode itself as a lyric. Natu- 
 rally the folk-songs were written to be sung and not read, and 
 spread among the masses. Ramler's interest in this popular move- 
 ment is evident from the number of " Kriegslieder " and cantatas 
 he himself wrote, and from the collection and edition of the two 
 volumes of German songs published in 1758 with the aid of 
 Krause, a composer of considerable note, the author of a book on 
 musical poetry, and the reviser of Handel's composition for Alex- 
 ander's Feast}^ 
 
 The revival of the popular song was accompanied with the re- 
 vival of the operetta which came in vogue through Weisse's " Sing- 
 spiele," set to music by Hiller. Although the former was not a 
 great opera writer nor the latter a really great composer, the oper- 
 ettas resulting from their combined efforts became extremely pop- 
 ular and opened the way for better operas and more classical music, 
 
 1' In England the movement for the collection of old songs and ballads 
 was begun by Dryden, Dorset, and others, and culminated in Bishop 
 Percy's Reliques (1765). The Spectator [no. 71] commended the move- 
 ment, and Hagedorn and Herder attributed to it the great lyrical poetry of 
 the English. For Hagedorn, see his introduction to Oden und Lieder in 
 fünf Büchern, Hamburg, 1747; for Herder, see his chapter "Von der 
 Achnlichkeit der mittlem englischen und deutschen Dichtkunst," first 
 published in the Deutschen Museum (i777)- 
 
 18 See Ramler's biography appended to his Poetischen ll'crkcn, 11, 314. 
 Bcrhn. 1801. 
 
"^ Dryden's Relation to Germany 69 
 
 such as Handel's .llcxandcr's Feast and his Messiah, and the 
 compositions of Ghick^'* and Mozart. ^'^ The latter rescored Alex- 
 ander's Feast in 1790. 
 
 Undoubtedly the translation of favorable English criticism of 
 Alexander's Feast also greatly aided the reception accorded Dry- 
 den's odes, and hastened their translation in Germany. Most of 
 this criticism was incidental in connection with Pope, whose popu- 
 larity was then at its greatest height in Germany. These transla- 
 tions and reviews of them were made by Drollinger, Gottsched, 
 the Britischen Bibliothek, Mendelssohn, and Nicolai. Drol- 
 linger's translation of the Essay on Criticism, containing the eulogy 
 of Alexander s Feast, was published by Bodmer in ly^i.^'^ Pope 
 regarded the ode as an illustration of real poetry, which stirs and 
 moves us. In the words of Drollinger's translation: "Höre die 
 veränderlichen Thöne des Thimotheus, wie sie uns rühren, wie 
 sie den Begierden gebieten, wechselweise zu steigen und zu fallen. 
 Man schauet den Sohn des Lybischen Jupiters nach jeder Tonver- 
 änderung bald brennend von Ruhmbegierde, bald weich von Liebe. 
 Aus seinem wilden Blicken funkeln jztWuth und Rasen, und jzt 
 bricht er in Seufzer aus, und zerschmelzt in Thränen. Perser und 
 Griechen finden gleiche Regungen bey sich, und den Weltbe- 
 zwinger bezwingen die Thöne. Noch jzo müssen alle Herzen die 
 Macht der Musik bekennen, und was einst ein Thimotheus war, 
 ist jzt ein Dryden."-^ Apparently Drollinger was inspired by 
 this criticism to also write a Saint Cecelia ode, for which he chose 
 the same title used by Pope, Anf die Miisik, and at least the open- 
 ing lines show similarity : 
 
 " Auf, rühret euch ihr muntern Saeten, 
 Und flammet meine Geister an, 
 
 ^° Gluck also planned a composition of Alexander's Feast. See Otto 
 Jahn's Gesammelte Aufsätze über Musik, p. 227, Leipzig, 1867. 
 
 20 Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 52, New York, 1890. 
 
 21 Critische Schriften, I, pp. 49-84. It is reedited with notes by Johann 
 Jakob Spreng in Herrn Carl Drollingers Gedichte, samt ander dazu ge- 
 hörigen Stücken. Franckfurt am Main, 1745. Drollinger made the trans- 
 lation at least two jxars before it was first published. See letter to Gott- 
 sched, dated March 12, 1739, in Gedichte, p. 327. 
 
 -- Loco citato, L p. 69. 
 
 357 
 
70 ' Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 Damit ich euren Trefflichkeiten, 
 Ein würdigs Opfer bringen kan/'^s 
 
 It is also quite probable that he knew Dryden's ode, for he would 
 not be apt to translate the eulogy of Alexander's Feast, and then 
 write an ode to music without consulting that of Dryden. 
 
 Gottsched's review of the work of Ayers on Pope-* indicates the 
 interest in the Saint Cecelia odes, and Pope's intimate connection 
 with the introduction oi Alexander' s F east into Germany. It con- 
 cludes with the statement: "Allein es zeigte sich, dass er [Pope] 
 kein so guter Kenner, derer zur Musik sich schickenden Wörter 
 war, als Dryden gewesen."-'* 
 
 The Essay of Warton was more widely disseminated in Ger- 
 many than any other English criticism of Alexander's Feast. The 
 Brittische Bibliothek, published at Leipzig in 1757 and following, 
 in reviewing the Essay says : " Das Fest des Alexanders, ein Ge- 
 dicht von Dryden ist das beste lyrische Stück der Engländer. . . . 
 er [der Verfasser] bedauert zugleich, dass Popens Ode nicht eben- 
 sowohl als Drydens von Handeln in Noten gesetzt sei."-° 
 
 Mendelssohn published an extensive review of Warton's Essay 
 in the Bibliothek des schönen Wissenscliaften wherein he dis- 
 cusses Dryden's odes. Of the second he says : " Drydens Alex- 
 anders Fest hält er [Warton] für das vortrefflichste unter den 
 neuern lyrischen Gedichten, und räumt der popischen Ode auf die 
 Musik die zwote Stelle nach diesem Gedichte ein."-' 
 
 23 Loco citato, p. 78. 
 
 ^'^ Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Alexander Pope, 2 vols., Lon- 
 don, 1745- 
 
 ^^ Neuer Büchersaal der schönen Wissenschaften und freyen Künste, l, 
 p. 142, Leipzig, 1745. 
 
 26 n, 377 (1757). The Brittische Bibliothek also points out the favor- 
 able reception of Handel's composition in connection with the " Life of 
 Handel " published in the Gentleman's Magazine for April and May. 1760. 
 "Kurz nach seiner Zurueckkunft (to London from the Baths at Aachen 
 in 1736) wurde sein Fest des Alexanders in Covington-Garden aufge- 
 führt und wohlaufgenommen," V, 201, 1760. Again in reviewing the 
 Sketches; or Essays on various subjects by Temple published in London 
 in 1759, the harmonious verses of Dryden are commended. " Dryden's 
 Verse hätten mehr Harmonie, als jemals Verse gehabt hätten." IV, p. 591. 
 1759- 
 
 27 IV, p. 314, 1758- 
 
 358 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 7 1 
 
 In 1763 Nicolai, the co-worker of Mendelssohn and Lessing. 
 made a literal translation without comment of Warton's Essay, 
 which he published in the " Sammlung der vermischten Schrif- 
 ten."^* His prominent position as editor of the Bibliothek, as 
 critic and publisher, assured the translation of the Essay a wide 
 circulation among German scholars. It is significant to note, as 
 we shall see, that the translation of the ode of Dry den was also 
 published in 1763. 
 
 Four years previously Nicolai had translated the Essay on Lyr- 
 ical Poetry-^ by Young to whom Warton dedicated his Essay. 
 Young took a national pride in Dryden's ode which Nicolai trans- 
 lated as follows : " Allein nach dem allem muss ich zur Ehre uns- 
 res Vaterlandes noch hinzusetzen, dass, nach meinem Urtheil, des 
 Drydens Ode auf den Tag der heiligen Cäcilia keiner Arbeit von 
 dieser Art etwas nachgebe. Ihre vornehmste Schönheit besteht 
 darinnen,, dass sie einen Sylbenmass hat, welches auf das Glück- 
 lichste zur Abwechslung der Umstände gewählt ist."^° 
 
 C. Translations of Alexanders Feast 
 
 During the eighteenth century Alexander's Feast was translated 
 in Germany by Weisse, Ramler, Kosegarten, Nöldeke, and T — r, 
 followed by many other translators at the beginning of the nine- 
 teenth. Weisse's translation was published in the "Anhang" of 
 his Schertzhaften Lieder^^ in 1763, together with the translations 
 of the Cecelia odes of Pope and Congreve. His esteem for Dry- 
 den is intimated in his review of Brown's ode, The Cure of Saul, 
 an imitation of Alexander's Feast, which likewise appeared in 
 1763. " Die Erfindung, Die Heilung Sauls betietelt, wäre der 
 Ausführung eines Dryden wohl würdig gewesen, da sie unter des 
 V. (Verfassers) Händen mittelmässig gerathen ist."^^ 
 
 Ramler made two translations of Dryden's ode which were 
 
 28 Friedrich Nicolai, Sammlung der vermischten Schriften, VI, p. i-end. 
 Berlin, 1763. 
 28 Loco citato, II, pp. 206-219. 
 
 30 Ibid., p. 214. 
 
 31 The text at my disposal was the Kleine lyrische Gedichte, III, pp. 
 157-172, published at Leipzig in 1772. 
 
 3- Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften, X, p. 175. 
 
 359 
 
72 Milton D. Bawngartner 
 
 printed in 1766 and 1770 respectively. The second translation 
 was a revision of the first and was included in his Lyrischen Ge- 
 dichten^^ in 1772 and in subsequent editions of his works. The 
 first was set to music by Krause who modernized Handel's compo- 
 sition. The revised translation was said to have been made at the 
 request of Princess Amalia, a sister of Frederick II, who desired 
 a German text for Handel's music. ^^ It was performed a num- 
 ber of times at Berlin. 
 
 Kosegarten (1758-1818) won recognition as a lyricist through 
 his three volumes of rhapsodies, including many translations of 
 English lyrics. The third volume of the rhapsodies contained among 
 others, translations of the Saint Cecelia odes of Dryden, Pope, 
 and Congreve, previously translated by Weisse, to which he also 
 added Smart's ode on the same theme. ''^ Kosegarten's transla- 
 tion of Alexander's Feast, however, had already been published 
 by Schiller in the " Alusenalmanach " for the year 1800.^® 
 
 In the same year the translation of Nöldeke and that of the 
 anonymous T — r were published in the " Neuen Teutschen ^ler- 
 kur," edited by Wieland.^^ That Dryden's ode had gained its 
 greatest popularity at the beginning of the nineteenth century is 
 evident from the close succession in which new translations were 
 published, for it also appeared at Zürich in 1805,^* and again at 
 Vienna in 1812."^ 
 
 33 Karl Wilhelm Ramler, Lyrische Gedichte, pp. :i02,-2,^6. Berlin, 1772. 
 For the separate translations of 1766 and 1770 see Goedeke, IV, p. loi. 
 The texts at my disposal were the reprint in C. D. Edeling's Hamburg- 
 ischen Unterhaltungen, X, pp. 83-89. Hamburg, 1770; Ramler's 1772 edi- 
 tion just cited, and his Poetische Werke, II, pp. 49-55- Berlin, 1801. • 
 
 •^* See " Anmerkungen " to Ramler's translation in Poetische Werke, II, 
 p. 272. Edeling in a note to the text mentions Krause's composition. 
 
 35 Rhapsodieen von Ludwig Theobul Kosegarten, III, p. 5 ff. Leipzig, 
 1801. The first volume appeared 1790. 
 
 36 Musen-AImanach für das Jahr 1800. herausgegeben von Schiller, pp. 
 185-198, Tübingen. 
 
 37 Der neue teutsche Merkur, 10. Stücke, pp. 81-93, Oktober, 1800 . 
 
 38 " Die drei Hymnen auf den Cäcilientag von P. [opel, Congreve und 
 Dryden mit metr. Treue aus dem Engl. übrs. : Isis Mtssch. usw." Zürich, 
 1805. März S. 193/2TO. See Goedeke, VII. p. 716. 
 
 39 Dichtungen der Britten in metr. Übersetzungen von Johann Baptist 
 
 360 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 73 
 
 4. Comparison of the Translations 
 
 Before taking up the comparison of the translations of the Ode, 
 Dryden's versification will be analyzed in brief. Throughout the 
 verse is irregular in rhyme and meter, but the rhymed couplet and 
 the iambic tetrameter predominate. The meter varies in length 
 from two to seven feet ; in the two, three, and four foot verses 
 the iambus, trochee, and anapest are employed, while in the five, 
 six, and seven foot measures only the iambus appears, but there 
 are comparatively few of these longer verses. As was his custom, 
 Dryden interspersed the rhymed couplet with triplets; here and 
 there the alternating rhyme is substituted for the couplets. 
 
 In their translations of Dryden's ode Weisse and Ramler fol- 
 lowed the original rather closely in thought, but Kosegarten fre- 
 quently deviated from the source according to his fancy. While 
 differing from each other, these three translations embodied the 
 spirit of the original and the characteristics of each translator as 
 a lyricist. Weisse imitated Dryden in a general way in both rhyme 
 and meter, but often varied the number of feet in a verse. Al- 
 though Ramler had the groundwork of Weisse to build on and 
 discarded the rhyme, his task was more difficult, since he followed 
 the original absolutely in the number of feet in order to adapt it 
 to Handel's music. Kosegarten worked independently of the orig- 
 inal, using blank verse interspersed with passages in rhyme. Dry- 
 den's 141 verses Weisse expanded into 148, Kosegarten into 183, 
 while Ramler naturally kept the original number. The transla- 
 tions of Nöldeke and T — r lacked the poetic finish of the other 
 three, but that of Nöldeke was far superior to that of T — r. Both 
 endeavored to follow Dryden in rhyme and meter ; in rhyme Nöl- 
 deke more nearly approached him than any of the others and both 
 retained approximately the same number of lines found in the 
 original. 
 
 D. German Criticism of the Original and the Translations 
 
 Both the original and translations of Alexander's Feast called 
 
 Rut>prccht. Erster Bd. Wien, 1812. The title is : " Alexanders Fest, 
 oder die Gewalt der Musik, eine Ode zu Ehren des St. CäciUen-Tages," S. 
 392/400. Gocdckc, VII, p. 699. 
 
 361 
 
74 Milton D. Batungartner 
 
 forth criticism in Germany from such poets as Hagedorn, Herder, 
 Eschenburg, Boie, Schubart, and Böttiger. Hagedorn, who had trav- 
 eled in England, was familiar with Dryden, Waller, Sidney, Addi- 
 son and Prior, and was an ardent admirer of Pope and at every 
 opportune occasion commends or quotes from his works. In the 
 foreword to his odes he discusses the beauty of the irregular verse 
 of Homer and other classicists to which he adds : " Von gleicher 
 Beschaffenheit sind die fürtrefflichen Oden des Dryden, Congreve, 
 Addison, und vor allen andern, des Pope auf das Fest der heiligen 
 Caecilia."*° 
 
 No other German critic has so frequently and thoroughly criti- 
 cized Alexander's Feast as Herder. His interest for Dryden's ode 
 grew out of his natural inclination for poetic enthusiasm such as 
 he found expressed in this ode, his fondness for varying rhyme 
 and meter, and his esteem for Saint Cecelia and Handel. Two 
 years after Ramler's translation, when he was just beginning his 
 career and Hamann had but introduced him to Shakespere and 
 Ossian, Herder cites the ode in the Fragmente, in discussing the 
 advisability of the Germans adopting the harmonious meter of the 
 English, which Hagedorn had already commended. While he did 
 not entirely agree with Lessing's disapproval of descriptive poetry, 
 he maintained that Brockes and others had over-stressed natural 
 description. He believed in "Wohllaut" in poetry, but it must 
 have life and move the emotions by clearly visualizing. "Man 
 laufe die Reihe dieser Klageworte durch; oder besser man em- 
 pfinde den Wohllaut derselben in unsern Dichtern, die nicht 
 schrieben sondern sangen, unter welchen ich Klopstock, Hage- 
 dorn, von Gerstenberg, und in seinen Kantaten auch Rammlern, 
 besonders nenne : man gehe z. E. die Uebersetzung durch, die der 
 letzte von Drydens Ode auf die Musik geliefert, alsdenn errinnere 
 man sich, wie weit Brockes und andere diesen lebendigen Wohl- 
 klang haben übertreiben können, und man wird, wie ich hoft'e, 
 nicht mehr an der malenden ]\hisik zweifeln.''*^ 
 
 In the Zerstreuten Blättern Herder has a chapter on " Cecelia " 
 in which he traces her legend and cites the odes of Dryden, Addi- 
 
 40 Oden und Lieder in fünf Büchern, p. xxxii flf. Hamburg. 1747. 
 *i lieber die neuere Deutsche Litteratur, Fragmente, p. 72, Riga, 1768. 
 
 362 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 75 
 
 son, Pope, Congreve, and Handel's musical composition for Alex- 
 ander's Feast as classical masterpieces composed for her celebra- 
 tion.*^ At the conclusion of the chapter he adds a religious 
 rhapsody. Die Tonkunst.*^ 
 
 To Herder the religious song, the hymn, was the highest and 
 most natural expression of music and reverence; but he was not 
 an extremist in his romanticism for the religious hymn in the 
 sense of Klopstock, nor did his enthusiasm carry him to the ex- 
 tremes of a Novalis, for instance, for whom feeling was every- 
 thing. In the Adrastea he writes : " denn Andacht, dünkt mich, 
 ist die höchste Summe der Musik, heilige himmlische Harmonie, 
 Ergebung und Freude. Auf diesem Wege hat die Tonkunst die 
 schönsten Schätze erbauet, und ist zum Innersten der Kunst ge- 
 langet. . . . Die tiefste Grundlage der heiligen Musik ist wohl der 
 Lobgesang, Hymnus; ich möchte sagen, er sei dem Menschen 
 natürlich."** He does not reckon Alexander's Feast among the 
 sacred odes, but says it is a worthy greeting to Saint Cecelia, 
 because it is a melody appealing to the heart [Herzensmelodie], a 
 national melody expressed in simple tones. 
 
 In 1780 Herder translated Pope's Messiah^^ for which Handel 
 had composed an oratorio. However in the biography of Handel 
 he ranked the composition for Alexander's Feast the greatest and 
 most enduring of all his compositions. "Alexanders Fest, das 
 er nach seiner Rückkunft (von Aachen) gab, schaffte ihm nicht 
 nur die Gunst der Nation wieder, sondern wurde auch den Grund- 
 stein seines bleibenden Ruhmes ; denn seine Opern und Sonaten 
 sind verhallet. Sein Alexanders Fest dauert."*" 
 
 Interwoven in the biography of Handel is a characterization 
 of the genuine ode and lyric which Herder links with music. Alex- 
 ander's Feast, called forth by the patron saint of music, in his opin- 
 ion complies with the requirements of a great ode and is superior 
 
 ^"^ Zerstreute Blatter von J. G. Herder, V, 289-326, Gotha, 1793. 
 *3 The first refrain runs : 
 
 " Ewige Harmonie ! Kling' ein in meine Saiten. 
 Heilige Harmonie ! Kling ein in meine Seele." 
 **Loco citato, p. 295. 
 
 *' Gothaische gelehrte Zeitung, VH, 255. 1780. 
 *'^ Adrastea, III, 319-349. 
 
 363 
 
76 Milton D. Bannujartncr 
 
 to all others dedicated to her. " Jede wahre Ode sollte ein solcher 
 Flug der Phantasie und Empfindung seyn, die bald wie ein Adler 
 aufstrebt und scwebt, oder niederfährt und ergreift ; bald wie eine 
 Taube girrt, und wie die Nachtigall schmettert. Am zarten Faden 
 der Empfindung, oder am rastlosen Gange der Gedankerf und Ge- 
 fühle hangt der Zauber der lyrischen Poesie, den in allen seinen 
 Wendungen die Musik mit allen ihren IModulationen begleitet. 
 Ueber eine ode solcher Art, Alexanders Fest, breitete sich Handels 
 Geist aus ; andere von andern Dichtern, Pope, Congreve, Gray, 
 Smart u. f. sind ihr gefolget."*'' 
 
 In dififerentiating between spurious and genuine musical de- 
 scription in poetry, Herder analyses and compares the Saint Cecelia 
 odes of Pope and Dryden. The harmonious lines in Pope's ode, 
 
 " Dreadful gleams, 
 Dismal screams, 
 Fires that glow, 
 Shrieks of woe . . . ," 
 
 and the entire first stanza are to him only pictures and imitations 
 of sounds and tones which do not vivify our emotions. On the 
 other hand Dryden's "None but the brave" etc. expresses a 
 national feeling, and the falling of Darius, the powerful monarch 
 of the earth moves us to pity, so that we see, hear, feel, and mourn, 
 forgetting the medium of sound and language. In Herder's own 
 excellent translation of this passage: 
 
 " fällt, fällt, fällt. 
 Von seiner Höhe fällt, 
 
 Und liegt im Blut. 
 Verlassen in der letzten Noth 
 
 Von allen, die sein Herz geliebt, 
 Auf kaltem Boden hingestreckt 
 
 Ohn' einen Freund, der ihm das Auge schlieszt."^^ 
 
 Herder never directly mentions Weisse's translation of Alex- 
 ander's Feast, but as already noted, pays a tribute to that made by 
 Ramler. and reviews that of Kosegarten in connection with the 
 
 47 Ibid., 332 ff. 
 
 '^^ Adrastca. loco citato, p. 339. 
 
 364 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany yj 
 
 third volume of his Rhapsodies}^ He commends this translation 
 since it conveys the spirit of the original, but regrets that Kose- 
 garten deviated too far from Dryden's words which Handel had 
 canonized with his composition, and admonishes the translator not 
 to be too effusive and picturesque. "... die englischen Gedichte, 
 die den grössten Teil (of the " Rhapsodies" HI) ausmachen, sind 
 mit gleichem Geist in unsere Sprache nicht so wohl uebersetzt, als 
 im Hauch uebertragen. Die vier prächtigen Lobgesänge auf die 
 Tonkunst, auf welche die Dritten stolz sind, Alexanders Fest von 
 Dryden, Congreves Hymnus an die Harmonie, Popes and Smarts 
 öden am Cäcilienfest machen den Anfang. Die drei ersten waren 
 ins deutsche, einige mehrmals übersetzt. . . . Bey der ersten wer- 
 den es manche bedaurn, dass sich der deutsche Wortbau hie und 
 da etwas zu weit von der Ursprache entfernte, in der Händel fast 
 jedes Wort, jeden Einschnitt des Rhythmus canonisiert hat. . . . 
 Auch der süszesten Worte lass nicht zu viel sein."^'' 
 
 Like Herder Eschenburg was greatly interested in English liter- 
 ature as is shown by his translation of Shakespere, his Bcispiel- 
 sammlung and criticism of English works. He received a copy 
 of Dryden from Lessing in 1776.^^ His translation of Brown's 
 work on poetry and music mentions in a note the translations of 
 Alexanders Feast by Weisse and Ramler. " Eine glückliche Ueber- 
 setzung dieser zwo berühmten Oden hat uns Hr. Weisse in dem 
 Anhang seiner scherzhaften Lieder geliefert. Die Uebcrsetzung 
 von Alexanders Fest ist durch Hr. Ramler so eingerichtet, dass 
 sie der Handlischen jMusik kann unterlegt werden und so in Berlin 
 aufgeführt und einzeln abgedruckt."'- It is significant that 
 Eschenburg mentions Weisse's translation which Herder had not 
 done. In the Beispielsammlung he gives Dryden a high rank as 
 a lyricist. " jMan kennt seine Stärke in der höhern Ode aus dem 
 Alexanders Feste " f^ and in discussing the Kantaten he seems to 
 have combined the praise of Young, Warton, and Pope in his 
 
 **Loco citato, III, p. 5 fF., 1801. For the review see Hcdi/^cI. XVII, 
 p. 670. 
 ^° See Diinzer's note in Hcuipcl, loco citato. 
 ^1 See letter of Lessing to Eschenburg, dated Dec. 20. 1776. 
 ^- Betrachtungen ucbcr Poesie und Musik, p. 384, 1769. 
 ^3 Loco citato, V, p. 61. 
 
 365 
 
yS Milton D. Battmgartner 
 
 tribute to Dryden's ode: "Seine gleichfalls für den Cäcilientag 
 bestimmte musikalische ode, Alexander's Feast, ist einer, der herr- 
 lichsten Meisterstücke der neuern Poesie ; reich an zaubervoller 
 Mannigfaltigkeit der Bilder und Beschreibungen, an Schönheit 
 und Wohlklang des Ausdrucks, und am wirkungsvollsten Wechsel 
 der Empfindung. . . . Gar sehr aber übertraf er sich selbst, und 
 alle seine Vorgänger und Nachfolger, in gegenwärtiger ode, die 
 Pope in seinem Essay an Criticism sehr treffend charakterisiert. 
 . . . Uebrigens weiss man dass Händel im Jahre 1735, (date is 
 1736) dies Meisterstück in eben so meisterhafte Musik setzte; 
 und dass wir es Hr. Ramler zu verdanken haben, der einen 
 deutschen Text mit Grundlage der Weissischen Uebersetzung, zu 
 dieser Komposition einrichtete, dass diese letztere auch in Deutsch- 
 land bekannter geworden, und mehrmals von Kennern bewundert 
 ist."^* The English text now follows. Eschenburg's criticism 
 contributed to the awakening of new interest in the ode a decade 
 before the close of the century. 
 
 Among the other criticisms of Alexander's Feast those hy Boie, 
 Schubart, and Böttiger are the most significant. In 1771 Boie 
 review^ed Ramler's second translation of Dryden's ode in the Al- 
 menach der deutschen Mnsen, the organ of the " Dichterbund." 
 Naturally the members of this union were enthusiastic for the 
 lyric and the ode. In the review Boie says : *' Schon lange ist 
 Ramlers vortreffliche Uebersetzung der nie genug zu bewundernde 
 Ode von Dryden den Liebhabern bekannt gewesen, hier erscheint 
 sie aufs neue einzeln gedruckt, und Zeile für Zeile meisterhaft 
 gebessert. Drydens Geist ist in eine so feurige und körnigte 
 und harmonische Sprache uebertragen, dass man diese einem 
 Original gleich schätzen musz."^^ 
 
 Schubart, the journalist, musician, and lyricist, was the author 
 of a number of cantatas, but bewailed the lack of religious can- 
 tatas among the Germans. " Die wahre geistliche Kantata ist bei- 
 nahe noch unbearbeitet (among the Germans) wie schon Herder 
 und Goethe bemerkt haben. Freilich keinen Dryden, keine Cäzilia- 
 
 s^Loco citato, VI, p. Z7Z' I79i- 
 
 ^^ Almana ch der deutschen Musen, p. 106, 1771. 
 
 366 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 79 
 
 oden haben wir ; aber doch köstHche Oratorien von Niemeier und 
 Sangstücke von Kosegarten. "''° 
 
 B. (öttiger), associate editor of the Neuen Teutschen Merkur, 
 in a comment to the two translations of Alexander's Feast pub- 
 Hshcd in that journal, voices the general esteem and the popu- 
 larity of the translations, and even of the original of Dryden's ode 
 at the beginning of the nineteenth century. " Es gibt gewisse 
 Meisterstücke der Verkunst, durch deren treue Uebertragungen in 
 andere Sprachen fast jeder wahre Künstler von jeher sein Stu- 
 dium machte. . . . Wer hat nicht z. B. die Ode der Safifo von der 
 Gewalt der Liebe, oder Petrarchas Sonet auf Baucluse einmal 
 wenigstens seiner geheimen Tafel in einer Uebertragungsversuch 
 anvertraut? Ein solch oft versuchtes Stück ist auch Drydens be- 
 rühmte Ode auf das Cäcilienfest. . . . Das Original ist aus Retzer's 
 Choice^'' oder jeder andern nur erträglichen Chrestomathie in 
 jedermanns Händen."^® 
 
 The other criticism, though not so important and for the most 
 part not original, indicates the general recognition of Alexander's 
 Feast in the eighteenth century. Schmid speaks of the renowned 
 ode of Dryden, and mentions the happy translation which Weisse 
 made, apparently ignorant of that made by Ramler.^" Flögel says 
 that Dryden's genius and phantasy seemed to become more active 
 in his old age, for in his sixty-eighth year he wrote the ode for 
 Saint Cecelia's Day which was regarded as the most perfect in all 
 languages.''^ Blankenburg says it is known among the Germans 
 through the translations of Weisse and Ramler, and calls it an 
 excellent poem but criticises the close. ''^ Bouterwek pronounces 
 it a widely known and much admired ode ; a masterpiece for its 
 
 So (C. D. F.) Schubarts Leben und Gesinming von ihm selbst im Kerker 
 aufgesetzt. Herausgegeben von seinem Sohne, Ltidu'ig Schubart. II, p. 
 30. Stuttgart, 1793. 
 
 f*^ I did not have access to Retzer's Choice of the best Poetical Pieces. 
 Vienna, 1783 ff. See N. T. Merkur, Vol. 54, p. Ixxxvii. 
 
 58 Loco citato, p. 81. 
 
 5» Theorie, loco citato, II, p. 367. 
 
 60 Loco citato. II, p. 367, 1785. 
 
 61 Zusätze, II, p. 443a, 1796. 
 
 367 
 
8o Milton D. Baumgartner 
 
 kind without a model in the early English literature, which won 
 the favor of those who did not prize Dryden's fables. ''^ 
 
 In a few instances the interest in Dryden in other European 
 countries is so closely related to Germany as to warrant brief con- 
 sideration. Simultaneously with Ramler's first translation of 
 Alexander's Feast, a French translation in verse appeared in 
 Paris. ^^ Since the French translator included this in his collec- 
 tion of Gessner's pastorals and Haller's poems, it would inevitably 
 attract the attention of the Germans. 
 
 The close relation of Voltaire to Germany, and the high esteem 
 in which he was held by Frederick the Great and by the German 
 scholars and critics made his criticism potent in that country. 
 Contrary to his neighbor critics he did not give Pope the first rank, 
 but regarded Dryden superior to all English poets and equal to all 
 ancient.*'* 
 
 Like the Germans Voltaire greatly esteemed the ode, and his 
 enthusiasm for Alexander's Feast even surpassed that of Eschen- 
 burg and Herder.*'" In his estimation it was superior to that of 
 Pope and all modern odes, and a hundred times more admirable 
 than all of Pindar.*'*' 
 
 ^2 Loco citato, VIII, pp. 34 and 51, 1810. 
 
 ^3 " Traduction libri de I'ode — sur le pouvoir de la Musique; ou la Fete 
 d'Alexandre, en I'honneur de Sainte Cecile." See Brit. Mn. Cat. under 
 Dryden and Gessner (S). 
 
 ®* " Ses [Dryden's] ouvrages sent plein de details naturals ä la fois et 
 brillians, animes, vigoureux, hardis, passiones, merite qu'aucum poete de 
 sa nation n'egale, et qu'aucun ancien n'a surpasse. Si Pope, qui est venu 
 apres lui, n'avait pas, sur la fin de sa vie fait son Essai sur I'homme, il 
 ne serait pas comparable ä Dryden." See " Siecle de Louis XI\' " in 
 Oeuvres Completes de Voltaire, Tome, XXIV, p. 248. De L'Imprimere 
 de La Societe Litteraire-Typographique, 1785. 
 
 65 " De contes les odes modernes, celle ou il regne le plus enthusiasme 
 qui ne s'afifaibloit jamais, et qui ne tombe ni dans le faux, ni dans I'am- 
 poule, est le Timothee, ou la Fete d'Alexandre par Dryden : eile est encore 
 regardee en Angleterre comme un chef-d'oeuvre inimitable, dont Pope 
 n'a pu approcher, quand il a voulu s'exercer dans I0 meme genre. Cette 
 ode fut chantee ; et si on avait en un musicien digne du poete, ce serait le 
 chef-d'oeuvre de la poesie lyrique." See the chapter on enthusiasm in 
 Dictionnaire Philosophique, loco citato, LI, p. 48. 
 
 •'ß " Vous appclcz Cowley le Pindare anglais; .... Le vrai Pindare est 
 
 368 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 8i 
 
 Voltaire was quoted on Dryden's ode by the Göttingischen /In- 
 seigen in 1786: '" Seine [Dryden's] OdeTimotheus muss wohl vor- 
 trefflich sein, da sie den Beifall einer so gelehrten Nation, und, 
 was manchen noch wichtiger erscheinen mag, Voltaires Beifall 
 erhalten hat.""^ Strangely enough the German review is in con- 
 nection with an Italian criticism, and shows that the Italians like- 
 wise had noted Dryden's ode, and that Voltaire's criticism of it 
 was known to the Germans. 
 
 Bouterwek commends and quotes the first stanza of Aranjo de 
 Azavedo's Portuguese translation of Alexanders Feast, which 
 was published along with the English text at Hamburg in 1799."^ 
 " Seine vortrefflichen Uebersetzungen des Alexander-festes von 
 Dryden, einiger Oden von Gray, und der bekannten Elegy of a 
 Country Church von demselben Dichter sind seine wahre Bereich- 
 erung der Portugiesischen Nationallitteratur. "**''' 
 
 Even in the nineteenth century the ode of Dryden was perpetu- 
 ated through the many performances of Handel's music. In his 
 letters to Goethe Seltner often speaks of the beauty of Handel's 
 cpmposition ;'" and finally the Handel Societies organized in Eng- 
 land and in Germany in the nineteenth century have published 
 standard editions of Handel's composition, accompanied with the 
 
 Dryden, auteur de cette belle ode intitulee La Fete d'Alexandre et 
 Timothee. Cette ode, mise en musique par Purcell (si je ne me trompe) 
 passe en Angleterre pour le chef-d'oeuvre de la poesie la plus sublime et 
 plus variee; et je yous avoue que, comme je sais mieux I'anglais que le 
 grec; j'aime cent fois mieux cette ode qui tout Pindare." See letter 
 written to Chabanon, dated March 9th, 1772. Loco citato, LXXXI, p. 268. 
 
 It seems strange that Voltaire was ignorant of the fact that Handel 
 had set the ode to music. 
 
 ^'^ Loco citato, p. 1042. 
 
 ^8 For the original title, etc., again see British Museum Catalogue under 
 Dryden, p. 47. 
 
 80 Loco citato, IV, p. 394. 1804. 
 
 ''° Briefwechsel zwischen Goethe und Zeltner in den Jahren 1796 bis 
 
 1832. Herausgegehen von Friedrich Wilhelm Riemer, 6 volumes. Berlin, 
 
 1833. Zeltner mentions it in letters numl)er 109, 112, 362, 425, and 788. 
 Together they planned a cantata for a Luther celebration, and in the 
 sketch drawn up by Goethe he says that Handel's Alexander's Feast served 
 as a model. See No. 277, Goethe's letter to Zeltner, which contains the 
 sketch. 
 
 369 
 
82 Milton D. Baumgariner 
 
 text of Drydcn, which will aid in ])ci"]~)eUialin<:^ the conii)oscr and 
 lyricist. 
 
 2. The Relation of Drvdkn's Otiii':r T.ykics to Germany 
 
 The other lyrics of Dryden show comparatively little relation 
 to Germany, save the first Cecelia ode, A song for Saint Cecelia's 
 Day. On the whole this ode lacks the virility of Alcxandcj-'s 
 Feast, and with the exception of the first two and the last stanzas 
 is either descriptive or imitative of the sounds of instruments, as 
 lines 25-28 : 
 
 " The trumpets loud clangor 
 Excites us to arms 
 What shrill notes of anger 
 And mortal alarms." 
 
 It was the popularity of the second Saint Cecelia ode of Dryden 
 that brought the first to the attention of the Germans, just as the 
 success of the composition for the second induced Handel to set 
 the first to music in 1739. 
 
 In a footnote in his Essay/'^ Warton published the second stanza 
 which induced Mendelssohn to say : " Unser Verfasser . . . führt 
 bei dieser Gelegenheit in einer Note eine Strophe aus einem unbe- 
 kannt gewordenen Gedichte von Dryden auf die Musik an, die 
 wir ihrer vorzüglichen Schönheit halber hierher setzen wollen. "^^ 
 He not only published the original of the stanza but also made a 
 translation. Nicolai also included this in his translation of the 
 Essay,''-^ but the superiority of Mendelssohn's translation is very 
 apparent when compared with that of Nicolai. 
 
 Mendelssohn. 
 
 " Wie mächtig kann die Tonkunst das Gemüth bewegen ! 
 Als Tubais Saitenspiel erklang, 
 Da horchten um ihn seine Brüder, 
 Und fielen auf ihr Antlitz'nieder, 
 Vor diesem himmlischen Gesang; 
 Ein Gott, so dachten sie, muss sich hierinnen regen; 
 
 ■^1 Loco citato, I, p. 52. 
 
 72 Loco citato, IV, p. 513. 1758. 
 
 73 Loco citato, VI, p. 53. 1763. 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany Z'^ 
 
 Denn sieh ! Das Zauberwerk ist hohl, 
 
 Das so begeisternd sprach, so wohl. 
 
 Wie mächtig kann die Tonkunst das Gemüth bewegen " 1 
 
 Nicolai. 
 
 " Was für Affekt kann die Musik nicht erregen und dämpfen ! 
 Als Jubal die mit Saiten bezogene Muschel berührt, 
 Standen seine horchende Brüder rund um ihn staunend. 
 Und verwundernd fielen sie auf ihr Angesicht nieder, 
 Um den himmlischen Ton in tiefer Anbetung zu ehren; 
 Nur ein Gott, so glaubten sie, kann in der Hole der Muschel 
 Wohnen, nur er kann so lieblich und süsz sich mit uns unterhalten. 
 Was für Affekt kann die Musik nicht erregen und dämpfen " ! 
 
 Both ATendelssohn and Nicolai translate the criticism of Warton 
 in the Essay, that this ode is an excellent subject for an historical 
 painting since the artist would only have to transform the words 
 into color. It was probably the opinion of Warton expressed in 
 the Essay that induced Lessing in the Laokoon to refer to the ode 
 of Dryden as an illustration that musical pictures are superior to 
 those painted with a brush. " Nun kann der Dichter zu diesem 
 Grade der Illusion, wie die Erfahrung zeiget, auch die A^orstellung 
 andrer als sichtbare Gegenstände erheben. Folglich müssen dem 
 Artisten ganze Klassen von Gemälden abgehen, die der Dichter 
 vor ihm voraus hat. Drydens Ode auf den Cäcilientag ist voller 
 musikalischer Gemälde, die den Pinsel müssig lassen."'* 
 
 Bürde was also greatly interested in the Saint Cecelia odes, and 
 his ode Die Griechische Tonkunst has a number of the motives of 
 Dryden's ode, but I think Koch is hardly warranted in calling it a 
 translation of the first Saint Cecelia ode of Dryden, since in sub- 
 ject matter, in arrangement, and in form it differs from Dryden." 
 The second stanza runs : 
 
 " Ich seh den Aether sich erhellen ; 
 Die Schöpfung schwimmt in neuem Purpurlicht. 
 Ein Jubal steigt, und tausend Stimmen schwellen. 
 Die weite Luft, gedrängt in hohen Wellen; 
 .Wie auf dem Ocean sich Wog' an Woge bricht."^^ 
 
 ''^Lcssings Werke, IX, part I, p. 90, D. N. L. 
 
 "•^ Stud, zur verg. Litteraturgeschichte, Ergäncungsheft, p. 38, 1905. 
 
 ^c Published in Schiller's Neue Thalia, III, pp. 47-SO- Leipzig, 1793. 
 
84 Milton D. Bauuigartner 
 
 Two other odes by Bürde are puhlished in Schiller's Horen;'''' the 
 first, An Cecilia, begins: "Wenn ich deine Zauberstimme höre"; 
 the second, Der neue OrpJiciis " Heil euch süsse Harmonien." 
 
 The remaining reviews of Dryden's first Cecelia ode are con- 
 nected with the discussion of Alexander s Feast and appear near 
 the end of the eighteenth century. The Gottinyische Anzeigen 
 I'on Gelehrten Sachen pronounces it rather flimsy and too arti- 
 ficial;'^ in his Bcispielsaiinnhing Eschcnburg commends the very 
 beautiful passages it contains;'" Rlankcnburg calls it "cine ganz 
 gute Ode";^" and Bouterwek, who prints the first stanza in Eng- 
 lish, commends the beginning and the conclusion.-^ 
 
 The lines dedicated to Milton and printed under his picture in 
 which Dryden attributes the genius of Homer and X'irgil to the 
 English poet was imitated and translated in Germany. Before he 
 knew English,''- Gottsched cjuotes then in the Critischcn Dicht- 
 kunst^^ from the Spectator to show the greatness of Alilton, as the 
 feud between him and Bodmer had not yet begun. Two years 
 later Bodmer translated and published it in the preface to the first 
 translation of Paradise Lost. 
 
 " Drey Dichter hat die Zeit hervor gebracht, 
 Der Griechen Zier, der Römer und der Britten ; 
 Im ersten herrscht Erhabenheit und Macht; 
 Im andern Schönheit; beides in dem Dritten. 
 Als die Natur nicht weiter konte gehn, 
 Vereinte sie im Letztern jene Zween." 
 
 Kasper Gottl. Lindner wrote a treatise on the life and works of 
 Martin Opitz in 1740, and in the dedication be imitates Dryden's 
 tribute to Milton. 
 
 ''"' VI, Stück 6, p. 102, Tübingen, 1796. 
 ^8 For the year 1786, p. 1046. 
 '" Loco citato, VI, p. Z72» I79i- 
 8° Loco citato, II, p. 443a, 1793. 
 
 81 Loco citato, VIII, p. 51, 1810. 
 
 82 The two lines he quotes as follows : 
 
 " The force of Nature could no further go 
 To moke a third, she joined the former two." 
 
 83 Loco citato, p. 177, 1741. 
 
Dry den's Relation to Germany 85 
 
 " Was einst Horaz, Homer, Virgil und Pindar war, 
 Das stellt uns Schlesien in dem Opitz dar." 
 
 Gottsched reviewed the work and would have it read :** 
 
 " Was Hesiod, Horaz, Petrarch und Ronsard war, 
 Und Spenzer noch dazu, das stellt uns Opitz dar." 
 
 Of the other lyrics of Dryden his Roundelay (1693) was trans- 
 lated and published in the Neuen Wiener Musenalmanach in the 
 year 1800.^^ Nicolai also translated the last eight lines of the 
 poem dedicated to the painter, Sir Godfrey Kneller, which he 
 found in Warton's Essay}^ The poem written at the death of 
 Mrs. Killigrew, Eschenburg pronounces a beautiful lyrical poem, 
 and adds that in the lighter lyrical songs Dryden was successful, 
 which he exemplifies by adding the English text of his A Song}"^ 
 Blankenburg regards the Ode to Mrs. Killigrezv^^ one of the best 
 English odes. Bouterwek believes that Dryden was not a lyricist 
 who really sang from the fullness of his heart, but at times was in 
 a happy lyrical mood, and pronounced the poems written in a 
 lighter vein " vortrefflich."*" 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that Dryden no longer ranks as a great 
 lyricist in England and Germany, it cannot be denied that in the 
 eighteenth century he was ranked by both English and German 
 critics as a lyricist of the first magnitude. The popularity of Alex- 
 ander's Feast in England, upon which the fame of Dryden as a 
 lyricist primarily rests, paved the way for his popularity in Ger- 
 many. The change in the nature of German poetry, the revival 
 of folk-songs and music, and the translation of favorable English 
 criticism of Dryden during the second half of the century, also 
 accounts for his cordial reception. The favorable attitude of the 
 German critics, and the numerous translations convince us that 
 Dryden's lyrics combined with Handel's musical compositions 
 
 s* Critische Bcytr'dge, IV, part i, p. 514, Leipzig, 1741. 
 
 ^^ See Goedekc, VII, p. 703. 
 
 ^'^ Gesammelte Schriften, VI, 1763. 
 
 87 Loco citato, V, p. 61, 1790. 
 
 88 Loco citato, II, p. 446a, 1796. 
 83 Loco citato, VIII, p. 51, 1810. 
 
 373 
 
86 Milton D. Baumgarlncr 
 
 played a part in shaping the lyrical poetry of Germany during the 
 eighteenth century. 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 In this study it has been shown that Drydcn, unlike Pope, was 
 first introduced into Germany directly from England. At Ham- 
 burg Mac Flccknoc was translated and adapted early in Hans 
 Sachs. Hans Sachs fostered literary cliciues, and as a result 
 there was introduced into Germany a direct personal literary criti- 
 cism. Later it was revived by Bodmer and utilized in the Swiss- 
 Gottsched controversy. The other satires of Dryden were not 
 closely related to Germany, but the Treatise on the Origin and 
 Progress of the Satire was translated by Nicolai, and accepted as 
 a guide. 
 
 While early noted by German critics the Essay on Dramatic 
 Poesie, however, was not introduced into Germany until after the 
 partial French translation, wdiich Gottsched in turn translated. 
 Although Lessing learned to know Dryden through \^oltaire"s Let- 
 tres, Gottsched's translation induced him to translate the Essay. 
 His translation proved the fallacy of Gottsched's contention, that 
 Dryden preferred the French theater to the English. The Essay 
 also influenced Lessing's utterances in the seventeenth Litcratnr- 
 hrief, as is shown by the external and internal evidence. Lessing's 
 translation won recognition for it in Germany. 
 
 The relation of Dry den's plays to Germany is not so conse- 
 cjuential as that of his satires and the Essay on Dramatic Poesie; 
 nevertheless four of his plays were translated. TJie State of 
 Innocence and All for Love played the most prominent part ; the 
 former at Zürich, and the latter at Mannheim. TJie State of 
 Innocence was introduced as a companion piece of Paradise Lost; 
 and All for Love found its way into Germany because of its con- 
 nection with Shakspere's Antony and Cleopatra, and became Dry- 
 den's most widely disseminated play. 
 
 The fables and poetic-classical translations of Dryden owe their 
 popularity in Germany to their elegant form. This characteristic 
 of Dryden's fables exerted an influence upon Hagedorn, and 
 caused him to follow this elegance of form in his own poetry. 
 
 374 
 
Dryden's Relation to Germany 87 
 
 Hagedorn even used Philctnon and Baucis as a source for a fable. 
 In addition to Philemon and Baucis there were translated The 
 Cock and the Fox, and Theodore and Honoria. The relation of 
 Dryden's fables to Germany was not limited to one literary center, 
 nor to one period of time. The poetic-classical translations, par- 
 ticularly that of \^irgil, found admiration in Germany during the 
 greater part of the century. 
 
 As a lyricist Dryden was esteemed in both England and Ger- 
 many during the eighteenth century. His fame as a lyricist rests 
 primarily on Alexander's Feast. Its popularity in England also 
 gave it popularity in Germany. The change in the nature of Ger- 
 man poetry during the latter half of the eighteenth century also 
 accounts for its cordial reception, as the descriptive and rational- 
 istic literary currents gave way to the enthusiasm for folk-songs 
 and lyrics. The favorable criticism of recognized critics and 
 translations by renowned poets, combined with Handel's musical 
 compositions, made Dryden a factor in shaping the lyrical poetry 
 of Germany. 
 
 Although not all the translations of Dryden faithfully interpret 
 the English author, and Dryden at no time, and in no particular 
 literary center was as prominent as Shakspere, Pope, and Young, 
 nevertheless the recognition in the numerous fields of poetry, and 
 his wide dissemination in Germany during the eighteenth century 
 prove that his relation to Germany was of considerable importance. 
 
 • 375