LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 STUDIES IN THE LYRIC POEMS 
 
 OF 
 
 FRIEDRICH HEBBEL
 
 STUDIES IN THE LYRIC POEMS 
 
 OF 
 
 FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 THE SENSUOUS IN HEBBEL'S 
 LYRIC POETRY 
 
 By 
 
 ALBERT GUBELMANN, Ph.D. 
 
 Assistant Professor of German in Yale College 
 
 NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 LONDON : HENRY FROWDE 
 
 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 MCMXII
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1918 
 
 BY 
 YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 Printed from type, 400 copies, November, 1912
 
 TO THE MEMORY 
 OF MY WIFE
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 The scope, purpose and method of these "Studies" are 
 discussed at some length in the introductory chapter. 
 The attempt is also there made to justify our investi- 
 gation of the sensuous element in Hebbel's lyric poetry. 
 This justification is here stated in brief, so that the nature 
 of our "Studies" may be fairly understood at the outset. 
 
 One may well look with suspicion upon criticism that 
 avowedly confines itself to the material side of poetic 
 invention. As related to the poetic art, such criticism is 
 a species of vivisection ; the successive steps are so many 
 incisions into vital tissue that has been mechanically 
 disengaged from the organism. As related to the com- 
 pleted art work, such criticism is a kind of autopsy. The 
 part under examination is dead. It cannot live separated 
 from the vital creation of which it formed a part. And 
 so there is a strong feeling that investigation of mental 
 phenomena should be something more than mere isolation 
 of constituent parts of such phenomena to their mutual 
 destruction. We expect the systematic psychologist to 
 distinguish the mind's various functions and in addition 
 to reveal the fine interfusion, the subtle interplay of these 
 functions in human consciousness. Similarly we wish 
 the literary critic to lay bare the distinct elements that 
 have entered into a work and also to show the perfect 
 co-ordination of these elements in an organic whole. In 
 his drama Sappho, Grillparzer makes the poetess thank 
 the Gods for conferring upon her 
 
 "der Dichtung vollen Kocher : 
 Ein Herz zu fiihlen, einen Geist zu denken, 
 Und Kraft zu bilden, was ich mir gedacht."
 
 viii FOREWORD 
 
 The presence of this trinitarian potential, this fuhlen, 
 denken, bilden, in right proportion, stamps the work of 
 one poet as great; whereas deficiency or imperfect pro- 
 portion in this potential consigns the work of another 
 poet to lower rank. Criticism should establish the pres- 
 ence or absence of this potential if it would undertake 
 fully to estimate a poet's work. The study of a poet's 
 sensuousness alone cannot fully meet this requirement. 
 
 The defense of our procedure must rest, first, upon 
 our conviction that an important analogy subsists between 
 the responses awakened by a poem and those aroused by 
 a landscape, scene or event, created by fancy or repro- 
 duced through memory. Poem, fancy, memory, alike 
 operate faculties through which we become conscious of 
 various classes of psychic effects. Since all these classes 
 of effects cannot engage our close attention at one and 
 the same time, there are always some that must go 
 unheeded. Either emotions will absorb us to the momen- 
 tary exclusion of definite images ; or the power of a pro- 
 found truth will be ascendant for the moment over 
 emotion and image. Or again the images may be of 
 such fascinating beauty in themselves that they divert 
 us from the passion to be aroused or the truth to be 
 conveyed. One thing is noticeable in all the classes of 
 influence that deeply affect our consciousness, namely 
 the important part played therein by objective impres- 
 sions. Recollections, reveries, fancies, tend to sharpness 
 and warmth when they are built up of palpable, sensuous 
 material. Similarly our responses to poetic stimulation 
 are spirited when they draw largely upon objective data, 
 upon bodily sensations reproduced in idea. And so all 
 poets are characterized, in varying degree, by suscepti- 
 bility to impressions of sense ; and all poets employ such 
 impressions, in varying degree, as the most natural and
 
 FOREWORD ix 
 
 effective vehicle for their concepts. Even a poet like 
 Hebbel, whose distinction consists in his passion for the 
 inscrutable mysteries of human life and of cosmic evolu- 
 tion, may be charmed and stimulated by various kinds 
 of bodily sensation. We have Hebbel's own word for it 
 that such sensations affected his inner life to an extraor- 
 dinary degree. His diaries and lyric poems supply sub- 
 stantial evidence that colors and sounds, the various 
 sensory qualities, singly or in intricate combination, 
 served him as an inexhaustible font of spiritual profit 
 no less than of aesthetic delight. But the profound spirit- 
 uality of Hebbel's poems so dominates our attention that 
 their sensuous opulence is bound to be overlooked. There 
 would seem to be justification, therefore, for a work 
 devoted expressly to the appreciation and appraisal of 
 these neglected riches. 
 
 The subject and object of our work has been permitted 
 to determine the method employed. That method pur- 
 posely departs from the historical-critical procedure, 
 which has such eminent exponents abroad and here at 
 home. Rightly or wrongly, we have practically ignored 
 the historical factor, which is always involved in the 
 conception and production of art works. We have paid 
 little heed to the matter of literary analogies, to the 
 influence of tradition, of intellectual associations, of uni- 
 versal philosophic or aesthetic theories. We have con- 
 fined ourselves consistently to the essential phenomenon 
 under discussion, without trying to disengage the various 
 strata in the evolution of that phenomenon. In place of 
 the traditional coalition with historical science, our 
 method enters into more direct alliance with psychological 
 science. And so we pass over the historical aspect of 
 Naturgefiihl, with which our theme is generically con- 
 nected, whereas we deal at some length with the charac-
 
 x FOREWORD 
 
 ter, constitution and aesthetic qualifications of the various 
 sensory media. 
 
 In how far this method is justifiable must remain an 
 open question. There is a natural reverence for the sub- 
 stantial historical-critical method, with its thorough- 
 going search into the intellectual ancestry of poetic 
 monuments, into the spiritual forces that have left their 
 impress there, into the various mental and material con- 
 ditions under which the monuments came into being. 
 Any departure from this approved method cannot hope 
 for warm commendation. Yet, after all, there may be 
 a certain vigor and suggestion in a pragmatic impres- 
 sionistic method, which will compensate in a measure 
 for deficiencies in formality and depth. The instanta- 
 neous appeal of impressionism may be admitted with all 
 due respect to the more perfect modelling, the superior 
 mastery of detail and the broader conception of tradi- 
 tional art. If the scope and purpose of these "Studies" 
 have any merit, they have doubtless been little harmed 
 by our method. 
 
 In conclusion, I am happy to express my acknowl- 
 edgments of the personal assistance so generously ren- 
 dered in the preparation of this little work. I am under 
 great obligation to Prof. Arthur H. Palmer of Yale for 
 advice and suggestion, as well as for his painstaking 
 revision of both the manuscript and the printer's proofs. 
 My thanks are further due to Prof. Gustav Gruener of 
 Yale for certain points of importance incorporated in the 
 book. Prof. Roswell P. Angier of the Yale Psychological 
 Department has given me the benefit of his stimulating 
 criticism on psychological matters involved in the inves- 
 tigation. To Prof. Axel E. Vestling of Carleton College, 
 and to Rev. Otto Koenig of New Haven, Conn., I am 
 greatly indebted for assistance in the preparation of the
 
 FOREWORD xi 
 
 manuscript for the press. Mr. George Parmly Day and 
 Mr. Byrne Hackett of the Yale University Press have 
 given great encouragement by their sympathetic interest 
 in the publication of the "Studies." 
 
 It surely cannot be unfitting to speak here in deepest 
 sorrow of the one by whom this work was inspired, with 
 whose loyal assistance much of it was written and to 
 whose memory it is dedicated in devotion and gratitude. 
 
 ALBERT GUBELMANN. 
 New Haven, Conn., October 17, 1912.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY 
 
 Prevailing estimate of Hebbel's poetic genius. The changeable 
 fate of Hebbel's fame. Hebbel's treatment by the older histo- 
 rians of German literature. Sympathetic appreciation of Hebbel 
 in the later histories. Recent special investigations of Hebbel's 
 personality and work. Editions of his works. Hebbel biogra- 
 phies. Causes of the renewed interest in Hebbel. Resentment 
 of former biassed estimates. Change in the method and view- 
 point of literary critics and historians. Publication of Hebbel's 
 diaries. The diaries indispensable to the just appreciation of 
 Hebbel as a man and an artist. The trend of recent Hebbel study. 
 The undeserved neglect of Hebbel's lyric poems. The scope and 
 purpose of the following "Studies." General and specific results 
 of these "Studies." Profundity of Hebbel's lyrics. Hebbel's in- 
 debtedness to Schiller, Uhland, Tieck, Hoffmann, von Kleist. 
 The pronounced sensuousness of Hebbel's lyric poetry. His 
 "orientalism." His sensitivity to the elemental and sym- 
 bolic properties of sound. His poetic employment of silence. 
 Taste, smell, and impressions of form in Hebbel's songs. The 
 prominence of tactual allusions in the songs. Other features 
 of the subject still to be investigated. The historical aspect of 
 Hebbel's sensuousness. The necessity of emphasizing Hebbel's 
 objectivity. Two meanings of the term poetry. The part of the 
 sense qualities in aesthetic enjoyment. The nature of poetry. 
 The intellectual element in great poetry. The main purpose of 
 poetry. Objectivity and subjectivity. The spiritual correlates 
 of sensuous reality. A note on the terminology used in the 
 "Studies." 
 
 CHAPTER II. OUTLINE OF HEBBEL'S ESTHETIC THEORY 
 
 Hebbel's aesthetic theory epitomized. Relation of poetic in- 
 tuition to cosmic creation. Relation of art to philosophy and 
 religion. Hebbel's dualistic Weltanschauung. The adjustment 
 of individual to universal in the cosmic scheme. Inner form. 
 Dualistic principle of the universe as presented in human expe- 
 rience. Hebbel's conception of tragic guilt. Human destiny
 
 xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 conceived as Entindividualisierung. Poetic inspiration and the 
 eternal Idee. Hebbel's critical formulae. The two prerequisites 
 of great poetry. Hebbel's criticism of the Musenalmanach for 
 1837, of Ruckert, of Heine, of Kleist's Kdthchen von Heilbronn. 
 His hostility to metaphysical speculation in poetry. Exteriority 
 the essence of Darstellung. Hebbel's criticism of Laube, of 
 Uhland's Herzog Ernst, of Goethe's Wahlverwandtschaften. 
 Interfusion of the corporeal and the spiritual necessary in poetry. 
 Hebbel's criticism of Schiller, of Victor Hugo, of French classi- 
 cism and romanticism. The originality of Hebbel's creations. 
 Their essential independence of Schelling, Solger, Hegel and 
 Schopenhauer. The supreme element of art work. The unique 
 feature of Hebbel's poetry. The nature of form. The incommu- 
 nicable and the mysterious in Hebbel's poetry. Hebbel's defense 
 of the supernatural in his poems and plays. The mysterious 
 nature of the poetic faculty itself. Hebbel's introspective analy- 
 sis of poetic genius. The ego-problem. The identity of Dichten 
 and Trdumen. The union of self and non-self during poetic 
 creation. Psychologists' explanation of this phenomenon. Art's 
 rank in the scale of psychic activities. Five orders of aesthetic 
 theory. The relation of Hebbel's theory to the Esthetic of Bene- 
 detto Croce, of Hegel. Attempts to relate the poetic to the other 
 psychic powers. Hebbel's dictum. Hebbel's conception of lyric 
 poetry. The marked dominance of the plenary sense in great 
 lyric poetry. Emotion the traditional prerequisite. Hebbel's 
 definition of lyric emotion. The range of emotions expressed in 
 his songs. "Gemut." Concreteness. Hebbel's attitude toward 
 physical environment. His susceptibility to sensuous beauty. 
 The prominence of the objective in his conception of conscious 
 experience. Images from external nature as complements of 
 internal states. The plenary sense of things mediated through 
 sensuous imagery. Prominence of sense qualities in Hebbel's 
 poetic message. His reverence for the sensuous beauty and 
 power of language. Intensive study of Hebbel's sensuous diction 
 indispensable. 
 
 CHAPTER III. COLORS 
 
 The prominence of colors among objective impressions. The 
 relative aesthetic fitness of the several kinds of sensory impres- 
 sions. Visual and auditory sensations especially suited to the
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS xv 
 
 needs of art. The eye and the ear as distance receptors. The 
 ethereal quality of colors and tones. The definiteness of the 
 higher sense impressions. The higher senses as Sprachsinne. 
 The ethnological diffusion and age of color perception and color 
 appreciation. The early teleological function of colors. The 
 growth of man's color vocabulary. Color terminology of the 
 Homeric Bards, of the Hebrew Chroniclers. The highly per- 
 fected color vocabulary of modern English poets. (Shelley, 
 Keats, Tennyson, Swinburne.) Lessing's imperfect color appre- 
 ciation. Color opulence in the diction of Voss, Goethe, Schiller, 
 Uhland. The increasing prominence of color impressions as 
 poetic medium in current German writers (Sudermann, Haupt- 
 mann's Hanneles Himmelfahrt and Die Versunkene Glocke, E. 
 von Keyserling's Dumala). The importance of the color sense 
 on its linguistic side. The numerical preponderance of color 
 terms among Hebbel's sensuous symbols. Hebbel's naive, child- 
 like delight in colors. The uniform persistency of colors in 
 Hebbel's lyrics. His frequent resort to terms expressing bril- 
 liancy and luminosity. Grant Allen's study of the color terms 
 in Swinburne's Poems and Ballads. Swinburne's color allusions 
 compared with Hebbel's. Fondness for color is- characteristic 
 alike of the earlier and the later stages of Hebbel's poetic pro- 
 ductivity. Quantitative analysis of Hebbel's colors. Color allu- 
 sions in descriptions of nature. Artistic rigor in the employ- 
 ment of colors in landscape. Expression of the emotional and 
 of the plenary sense of things through colors. Colors in the 
 description of animals. In personal descriptions. Influence of 
 rhyme. The supersensuous element in nature's sights and sounds. 
 Colors in descriptions of inanimate objects. Hebbel's color- 
 clusters. Occasional unstinted surrender to color enjoyment. 
 Hebbel's sane color sense. Color-contrasts. The subjective ele- 
 ment in Hebbel's color usage. The spiritual correlates of lights 
 and sounds. The more humble office of colors. Colors employed 
 to secure dramatic setting. The mannerism of Hebbel's earlier 
 use of color for dramatic setting. The spectacular colors of 
 Rosa. The subdued color effects of Schon Hedwig. Summary 
 of discussion of color. Concrete survey of Hebbel's color terms. 
 Concrete and metaphorical employment of colors. Colors in ex- 
 tended metaphors. Predominance of the sensuous and the con- 
 crete. Classified allusions to colors proper (red; gold; blue; 
 green ; white ; black ; gray ; purple ; brown ; pink ; silver ; yellow ;
 
 xvi TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 /o/fr). Table of colors. Classified allusions to light, fire, flame, 
 etc (Glut; Licht; Glanz; Flamme, flimm-, etc.; Strahl, strahl-, 
 etc. ; Schein, schein-, etc. ; Funke, f unkel-, etc. ; Feuer ; blink-, etc. ; 
 brenn-, etc.; Schimmer, schimmer-, glimm-, etc.; prangen.) 
 Table of light, fire, flame, etc. Classified allusions to general 
 terms associated with color and light (finster; duster; dunkel; 
 dammer-, etc.; trtib; Schatten, schatten-, etc.; blass; bleich; 
 blank; hell; bunt; klar; blond; rein; frisch; Farbe). Table of 
 general terms associated with color and light. Unclassified allu- 
 sions. Table of unclassified allusions. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. SOUNDS 
 
 Poetry's relations with physical sound. Hebbel's appreciation 
 of verbal sound effects in poetry. The inner music of poetry. 
 Shelley's conception of the relation of sounds to thought in 
 human speech. Inner elaboration of the gross tone material. 
 The motor effects of audible sound. Onomatopoeia. Rhyme. 
 Rhythm. Classification of sounds. The equipment of language 
 for designating the various nature sounds. Lack of variety in 
 Hebbel's sounds. Reasons for this. Excellence of Hebbel's 
 sound allusions. The intensity of his sound impressions. Fre- 
 quency of sound description in his diaries. Liberal employment 
 of sound effects and their psychic associations in his lyrics. 
 Sounds employed as Stimmungsmittel. Intimate association be- 
 tween nature sounds and human emotions. Methods of employ- 
 ing nature sounds in poetry. Sounds used to intensify soul 
 experience. Sound-symbolism. Sounds employed as an adjunct 
 of dramatic setting. Mannerism in Hebbel's dramatic employ- 
 ment of sounds. Three factors in poetic recourse to sound. 
 Kinds of sounds in Hebbel's songs. Natural sounds (wind and 
 storm; sea and stream; woods, foliage, flowers, etc.). The 
 human voice. Hebbel's tribute to human speech. Importance 
 of the human voice for the expression of emotion. Reproduc- 
 tion of vocal sounds as an aid to soul portrayal in Hebbel's 
 songs. Sensuousness of such reproduction. Introduction of 
 vocal terms with but slight sensuous suggestion. Classified list 
 of allusions to human vocal sounds in the songs. Allusions to 
 sounds made by animals (bird, dog, horse). Sounds produced 
 by musical instruments (bells, violin, harp, horn, etc.). Hebbel's 
 realistic introduction of musical sounds. Sounds produced by
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS xvii 
 
 instruments other than musical (musketry, hammer, saw, sickle, 
 threshing-flail). Sounds from miscellaneous sources (knocking, 
 tapping, creaking, pounding of heart, throbbing of temples, noise 
 of feet or of hoofs). Effectiveness of such sounds in descrip- 
 tion. Sounds raised to the dignity of divine symbols. Hebbel's 
 sounds compared with E. T. A. Hoffmann's. The honorable 
 artifice in Hebbel's employment of sounds. 
 
 CHAPTER V. SILENCE AND SOLITUDE 
 
 Prominence of the non-material in Hebbel's lyric poetry. Si- 
 lence as a medium of conscious communication. Limited range 
 of terms referring to silence. References to silence most fre- 
 quent in description. Introduction of silence generally accom- 
 panied by suspension of action. Silence as a medium of 
 contrast. Sounds introduced to accentuate silence. Silence as 
 Stimmungsmittel. Hebbel's beautiful conception of silence. 
 Silence in pictures of nature. Silence employed to emphasize the 
 dominant character of landscape. The silence suggested by a 
 combination of various sense impressions. The silence of night. 
 Hebbel's love of silent evening and nightfall. Frequent allusion 
 to such impressions in the songs. Night and solitude as dramatic 
 setting. Revelations of the cosmic life attended by silence. 
 Mannerism in Hebbel's employment of silence. Silence in de- 
 scriptions of the inanimate world. The dreary aspect of silent 
 things. Tender associations awakened by silent objects. Silence 
 in personal descriptions. Hebbel charmed by vague creatures 
 of dream, and by hushed and silent figures in real life. His silent 
 or low-voiced maidens. Heredity and environment as explana- 
 tory of Hebbel's poetic use of silence. Silence in the tales of 
 E. T. A. Hoffmann and of Edgar Allan Poe. Their points of 
 resemblance to Hebbel. His double nature as revealed by the 
 diaries. Two types of persons portrayed in his poems. The 
 silence of* his characters as index of their momentary mood. 
 Varied and intricate forms of emotion portrayed through silence. 
 Silence as a concomitant of the tender emotions. Miscellaneous 
 mental states accompanied by silence. Silence as the concomitant 
 of aesthetic emotion. Hebbel's allusions to silence not confined 
 to portrayal of persons. Silence and solitude not used as media 
 for pessimistic ideas. The individual stamp of Hebbel's poetic 
 media.
 
 xviii TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VI. THE TACTUAL SENSE 
 
 The fitness of tactual qualities for the purposes of art. Her- 
 der's defense of touch. Difficulty of analyzing the tactual sense. 
 The diversity of feeling-sensations. Prominence of the nerves 
 of the skin in receiving tactual impressions. Suitability of the 
 term Cutaneous Sense. Various sources of cutaneous sensations. 
 Three main classes of feeling-impressions. 1. Cutaneous sensa- 
 tions proper. 2. Kinaesthetic or motor sensations. 3. Organic 
 sensations. A twofold classification more practical. Three 
 groups of tactual allusions in Hebbel's songs. Explanation of 
 this threefold grouping. Relation of bodily pleasure or pain to 
 the tactual properties. Distribution of Hebbel's tactual allusions 
 among the three groups. Illustrative table of tactual allusions. 
 Metaphorical employment of terms for tactual sensations. Blend- 
 ing of tactual impressions with those of light and color, of 
 sound, etc. Tactual sensations in description of physical nature. 
 Allusions to weather and atmosphere in Hebbel's diaries. Allu- 
 sions to heat, cold, etc., in the lyrics. Hebbel's atmospheric con- 
 trasts. Poetic quality of his allusions to atmosphere. Acuteness 
 of his tactile sensibilities. Atmospheric allusions indicative of 
 the common human element in Hebbel's poetry. Atmospheric 
 conditions as impulse to poetic production. Tactual impressions 
 associated with specific aspects of scenery. Dermal sensations 
 in description of flowers, foliage, etc. Tactual allusions in Heb- 
 bel's description of persons. Capacity of tactual symbols for 
 subtle suggestion. Employment of tactual contrasts. Refer- 
 ences to bodily temperature. Bodily temperature as a concomitant 
 of emotion. Terms of bodily temperature as symbols of emo- 
 tional states. How far are such symbols metaphors? Their 
 employment in Hebbel's poetry. Tactual terms in the descrip- 
 tion of inanimate objects. Effective employment of tactual sym- 
 bols in Hebbel's poem Der Mensch.
 
 STUDIES IN THE LYRIC POEMS 
 
 OF 
 
 FRIEDRICH HEBBEL
 
 CHAPTER I 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 Among cultured peoples of German blood everywhere 
 admiration for Christian Friedrich Hebbel has been 
 steadily increasing, intensively if not extensively. Within 
 a restricted group of readers the conviction appears set- 
 tled that next to Goethe no other dramatic poet has con- 
 tributed to the literature of Germany works of such depth 
 and power as Hebbel's. There are on the other hand 
 cultivated circles that cannot or will not concede to Heb- 
 bel any high order of poetic genius. The number is con- 
 siderable of those who frankly regard the praise accorded 
 him by enthusiastic admirers as largely unearned. Not 
 a few readers of discernment fail to find in Hebbel any- 
 thing to compare with Kleist's romantic shimmer and 
 passionate spontaneity. Others again do not see what 
 Hebbel's somber muse has given the world to match 
 Grillparzer's plastic splendor and faultless diction. And 
 yet the opinion bids fair to prevail that Hebbel will take 
 permanent rank as more than peer of both Kleist and 
 Grillparzer; that his best achievement bears the stamp 
 of profound inner form from which Kleist's untimely 
 death cut him off; and that Hebbel's soul-world throbs 
 with cosmic life more virile than any revealed in Grill- 
 parzer's noblest creations. 
 
 A singularly changeable fate has attended Hebbel's 
 fame. From the appearance of his first really significant 
 work he has not lacked admirers, even idolatrous wor- 
 shippers. His close friends and later biographers, Emil
 
 2 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Kuh and Felix Bamberg, were quite aware that Hebbel's 
 appearance marked a turning point in modern dramatic 
 art. Yet his fame was during his lifetime and has ever 
 since been essentially esoteric. The great vogue that he 
 enjoyed for a time was due in part to his frank treatment 
 of dangerous themes. His moral independence rather 
 than his spiritual fervor first gained for him popular 
 hearing. When the interest in his unconventional candor 
 subsided, Hebbel's name remained sacred only to a small 
 company of serious minds that had not lost their com- 
 posure during the general excitement, and that still truly 
 discerned now that the glamour was gone. 
 
 During a portion of the last century Hebbel's name 
 and significance were well-nigh forgotten. The accidents 
 of time were a factor in this partial eclipse. Circum- 
 stances unimportant in themselves conspired virtually to 
 efface Hebbel in the consciousness of his own day and to 
 obscure his figure in the recollection of succeeding gen- 
 erations. He was born in 1813, so that his representative 
 works appeared too late to come within the scope of the 
 older household histories of German literature. Because 
 of the time limits observed, Kiirschner's monumental 
 anthology has none of Hebbel's productions. Karl 
 Borinski's history of German literature, which accom- 
 panies Kiirschner, refers only to the "pathologische 
 Kraftphantasie des Dramatikers Friedrich Hebbel." 
 Goedeke's Grundriss, again, does not extend over a 
 period sufficiently late to permit inclusion of Hebbel data, 
 and this circumstance in combination with others may 
 have had some connection with the discontinuance of 
 Hebbel's vogue among scholars. Likewise owing to the 
 limits of the periods covered, there is no discussion of 
 Hebbel's work in such staple authorities as Gervinus 
 (5 ed. 1874), Koberstein (5 ed. 1873) or Vilmar (16 ed.
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 1874). The wonder is, however, that these last men- 
 tioned books should contain no passing allusion to Hebbel 
 by way of illustration or comment. Scherer's History of 
 German Literature (8 ed. 1899) has at least one illustra- 
 tive allusion of this kind; in disposing of the dramatist 
 Grabbe, Scherer pronounces him of interest simply as a 
 preparation for Hebbel. 1 Among older histories of 
 German literary art, Hillebrand's (1875), Wackernagel's 
 (2 ed. 1894) and Kurz's (5 ed. 1894) are the first to 
 devote space to our poet. Then he gradually receives 
 more consideration from scholars. The works of Vogt 
 and Koch (1897), Robertson (1902), Engel (1907), 
 Thomas (1909), A. Biese, vol. Ill (1911), are alike in 
 their candid attitude toward the unduly slighted Hebbel. 
 In histories that deal at length with German literature in 
 the nineteenth century, such as Julian Schmidt's (1853), 
 Meyer's (2 ed. 1900), Bartels', vol. II (1902), Coar's 
 (1903), and Kummer's (1909), Hebbel's art and per- 
 sonality are made the subject of extended treatment. In 
 addition to all this there have appeared within recent 
 years numerous articles and theses dealing with specific 
 phases of Hebbel's genius, minute treatises on his 
 Weltanschauung and his aesthetic doctrines. Exhaustive 
 labor has been expended upon significant periods of his 
 development as well as upon the genesis and interpreta- 
 tion of individual plays. 2 Trustworthy editions of Heb- 
 bel's works have not been lacking, the one edited by 
 Richard Maria Werner easily taking first place by reason 
 
 1 Scherer, Geschichte d. deut. Lit. (8 ed. 1899), Anmer- 
 kungen, S. 788. 
 
 2 The list of these investigations is too long to be entered 
 here. Special mention is due the articles, reviews, etc., by H. 
 Krumm, R. M. Werner, and F. Bamberg. Specific reference is 
 made below to publications by Arno Scheunert, Alfred Neumann, 
 A. M. Wagner, and others in so far as they bear upon our in- 
 vestigation.
 
 4 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 of completeness and painstaking accuracy. 3 There are 
 at present several creditable biographies of Hebbel of 
 recent date, not to mention the older minute biography 
 in two volumes by Emil Kuh, and Bamberg's capital 
 biographical sketch in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biogra- 
 phie. Among recent Hebbel biographers Werner again 
 merits distinction by reason of his discernment, sym- 
 pathy and method. 4 
 
 The query is inevitable: Why the former neglect and 
 the present marked interest ? How explain this complete 
 change of attitude, which, though limited in extent, yet 
 amounts to a veritable revulsion of feeling? Positive 
 answers to this query are obviously impossible, yet cer- 
 tain conjectures may be ventured. The very obscurity in 
 which Hebbel's name was so long buried may have given 
 some impulse to a renewal of interest. The striking 
 conflict of opinion regarding Hebbel's merits on the part 
 of equally qualified judges may also have induced many 
 to examine and to judge for themselves. Those thus 
 enticed into individual research must have been im- 
 pressed with the unfairness of much that has been said 
 and repeated concerning Hebbel, for not all of his critics 
 have given evidence of sincerity. There are some, to 
 be sure, whose condemnation or whose indifference is 
 obviously candid. The attitude of Wackernagel and of 
 Kurz, for example, is that of cold disapproval, but at 
 
 8 Hebbel's complete works have been edited by Emil Kuh 
 (1865-7), H. Krumm (1891-2), K. Zeiss (1899), H. Krutnm 
 (1900), R. M. Werner (1 ed. 1900, second and third editions have 
 since appeared). The publishers, B. Behrs Verlag, announce an 
 elaborate "Sakularausgabe" in 16 vols., edited by Werner, to reach 
 completion on March 18, 1913, the centenary of Hebbel's birth. 
 
 4 See H. Krumm, Hebbelbiographien, Zt. f. deut. Phil., 
 Band 43, Heft 1 and 2, S. 266 ff. R. Petsch, Zur Einfuhrung in 
 das Studium Friedrich Hebbels, Germanisch-Romanische Mo- 
 natsschrift, 1 Jahrg. 1 Halbband, Jan.-Jun, 1909, S. 21 ff.
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 least they have read Hebbel and not merely his critics. 
 On the other hand what certain later writers have to say 
 arouses the suspicion of having been borrowed from some 
 biassed predecessor. 5 Seemingly their procedure was to 
 accept certain conventional criticisms without going to 
 the trouble of a personal verification, some of them tak- 
 ing refuge behind one or another of Hebbel's contem- 
 porary detractors, Julian Schmidt, Karl Gutzkow or 
 Otto Ludwig. Contact now and again with conventional 
 estimates of this sort may have had the effect of a chal- 
 lenge to unprejudiced trial. The appeal to the sense of 
 fair play may have been the initial impulse on the part 
 of many a subsequent Hebbel champion. And unques- 
 tionably the stream of recent comment, both favorable 
 and unfavorable, with its gradually accumulated volume 
 and power, has served to extend general interest in Heb- 
 bel and to embolden the admiration of his avowed dis- 
 
 5 A great many of the unfavorable critics of Hebbel em- 
 phasize what they call the sensational quality of his works. He 
 is also accused of fondness for the horrible and repulsive. The 
 following quotations are representative: 
 
 ". . . . In Judith and Genpveva Hebbel gave proof of a great 
 command of energetic diction, but his taste for introducing hor- 
 rible incidents was very justly censured. It almost reminds us 
 of Lohenstein, who ought to be forgotten." Gostwick and Har- 
 rison, Outlines of Germ. Lit., N. Y. and Boston, 1873, p. 514. 
 
 Hebbel's Judith is "eine sinnlich-sensationelle Ausbeutung und 
 Verzerrung der aus den Apokryphen des Alten Testaments 
 bekannten jiidischen Volkssage." The later dramas contain 
 "neben einzelnen .... Schonheiten die alle solche verdunkelnde 
 Neigung zum Grasslichen und Absonderlichen und oft eine alle 
 Schranken missachtende Zugellosigkeit." This is from Robert 
 Konig's Deutsche Litteraturgeschichte, 1879, pp. 606-7, and is 
 securely buttressed by a quotation from Julian Schmidt, who 
 finds in Hebbel "bei den raffinierten Empfindungen und der 
 kiinstlich gesteigerten Hitze die frostige Sprache der Reflexion." 
 
 Robert Webber Moore (History of German Lit., 7 ed. 1908, p. 
 217) devotes but one paragraph to Hebbel and mentions "Judith, 
 in which he (i.e. Hebbel) treats the Jewish legend in a very 
 sensational manner. Although this piece has many strong points 
 it is full of the horrible and the repulsive."
 
 6 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 ciples. At present there is substantial acquaintance with 
 Hebbel's best work among Germans of breeding as a 
 whole, and a veritable Hebbel cult within circumscribed 
 zones. 
 
 Again, Hebbel's present prominence may be traced in 
 part to a radical change in the method and viewpoint of 
 literary historians. The later students of German litera- 
 ture seek to portray above all things individuals as repre- 
 sentatives of the intellectual struggles of the nation, and 
 to expound the ideas of such individuals only in so far 
 as these are dynamic factors in the ethical evolution of 
 the race. Whoever makes this his guiding principle 
 R. M. Meyer avowedly does so in his history of German 
 literature in the nineteenth century must accord to Heb- 
 bel a prominent place in his account. So long as the his- 
 tory of German letters lays stress upon individuality, 
 just so long will men like Hebbel be conspicuous there. 
 
 And finally an impetus toward candid and intelligent 
 Hebbel study may have been afforded by the publication 
 of his diaries. 6 Even the appearance of cruelly curtailed 
 selections made a deep impression. Those really inter- 
 ested were given an opportunity of extending their 
 knowledge by the appearance of less abridged versions, 
 notably Werner's complete edition of the Tagebiicher in 
 four volumes. All serious readers soon became con- 
 vinced that these pages record the spiritual struggles of 
 a soul intensely human, nobly independent and pro- 
 foundly modern. Thus the diaries engendered suitable 
 
 6 Copious extracts from Hebbel's journals and letters were 
 incorporated in Kuh's Biography. In 1885 and 1889 Felix Bam- 
 berg edited "Friedrich Hebbel's Tagebiicher" in two volumes, 
 which reveals a ruthless censorship on the part of the editor. 
 Werner's complete historical-critical edition of Hebbel's diaries, 
 published in 1903, affords deeper insight into Hebbel's personality 
 and exhibits incidentally the reverence and scholarly judgment 
 of the editor.
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 receptivity in the public mind by vouching in an effectual 
 way for the author's rectitude and the unaffected sub- 
 jectivity of his works. For although Hebbel's dramas 
 and poems stand upon their own merits, yet their deepest 
 message is conveyed to those that are acquainted with 
 the poet's personality as revealed in his diaries. And any 
 valid estimate of Hebbel's work must necessarily put 
 great emphasis upon the personal, the subjective element 
 in it. There will always be many who consider Hebbel's 
 dramas too speculative, who will regard his characters 
 as Anschauungen rather than animate creatures, who will 
 consider the passions that he depicts as remote from life 
 in its typical forms. 7 Yet precisely these qualities send 
 their roots into the very quick of Hebbel's nature. And 
 Hebbel's friends, who knew his life and his personality, 
 find his poetic creatures human enough. Read in the 
 light of the records and confessions of his diaries, the 
 dramas become the symbolic expression of an austere but 
 sublime philosophy, embodying a conception of life and 
 of art into which there have passed the very blood and 
 tissue of Hebbel's being. 
 
 In a medium of material and spiritual conflict, light- 
 ened by intimations of an eternal cosmic purpose, were 
 born Hebbel's principles of life and of art; were born 
 his intense dramas, in which human fate becomes a piti- 
 less but necessary struggle between individuality and the 
 cosmic Idee. In this medium were born his diaries, let- 
 ters and essays, documents indispensable to the full 
 understanding of the man and the poet. In this medium 
 were born, lastly, his lyrical poems, bright gems many of 
 them, the symbolic form that his moods assume in 
 moments of inspired experience. 
 
 7 This is Otto Ludwig*s criticism, Gesammelte Schriften 
 (A. Stern) V, pp. 357 ff.
 
 8 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 The current interest in Hebbel is devoted chiefly to his 
 plays. We are conscious that we have parted with the 
 classical ideals when we read these plays. We are con- 
 scious, too, that the atmosphere of Romanticism does not 
 pervade them. 8 Somehow we feel the presence here of 
 the distinctly modern note. Modern these plays are in 
 their conscious portrayal of the complex, the problematic, 
 the tragic quality of lif e ; modern, too, in their conception 
 of art as something divine yet withal very close to life, 
 not serenely aloof from or above it, not a species of fil- 
 tered experience from which all earthy impurities have 
 been removed. But more significant than the higher 
 realism and the modernity of these dramas is their 
 austere conception of man's part in the great evolution. 
 Their kinship with the world's greatest art resides in 
 their revelation of the superb personality whose bitter 
 conflicts supplied their substance and whose prophetic 
 vision shaped their inner form. 
 
 Hebbel's lyrical poems have been unduly neglected. 9 
 In the belief that the lyrical utterance of a nature so per- 
 
 8 Cf. J. Collin, Weltanschauung der Romantik u. Friedrich 
 Hebbel [see Jahresberichte f. neuere deut. Litt'gesch'te, 1895, IV, 
 4 : 373] ; H. Krumm, Hebbel als Tragiker, Z'ft. fur deut. Phil., 
 Bd. 38, S. 118ff. 
 
 8 The astounding difference of opinion respecting Hebbel's 
 merits is seen in the conflicting estimates of his lyrical poems. 
 The praises bestowed upon these poems in Kuh's Biography are 
 now generally considered extravagant, yet Kuh's ardent admira- 
 tion, we believe, is more justifiable than R. M. Meyer's uncondi- 
 tional condemnation. Among the older historians that recognize 
 Hebbel, Wackernagel ignores the lyrics altogether, while Hille- 
 brand on the whole damns by his faint praise. Kurz on the 
 other hand concedes to Hebbel more than ordinary lyric talent; 
 to him Hebbel's poems reveal a wealth of poetic ideas and 
 "Genialitat," which are marred, however, by unpardonable metri- 
 cal and rhetorical blemishes. There is a brief but sympathetic 
 discussion of Hebbel's lyrics in the Literaturgeschichte of Vogt 
 and Koch, where Hebbel is ranked among Germany's best lyric 
 and epic poets, Chiefly on the strength of his "Balladen." Edward 
 Engel's Geschichte der deut. Lit. contains a short but enthu-
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 sonal and so modern must hold much that may illumine 
 and guide the student of literary artistry, these "Studies" 
 undertake a detailed investigation of certain phases of 
 Hebbel's poetic technic. The sensuous media of expres- 
 sion, as found in his lyrical poems, is the special field 
 marked out. The intensive study of these important 
 poetic qualities has yielded results of both general and 
 specific pertinency. In the first place, our results con- 
 stitute a strong confirmation of what is generally tacitly 
 assumed, that a true poet, whatever his theme, embodies 
 his concepts in objective form and employs for his 
 thought terms taken to a large degree from the world of 
 sense. 
 
 Our results have, secondly, specific value because of 
 their bearing upon important problems touching Hebbel's 
 
 siastic tribute to Hebbel's lyrics, in which the question is raised 
 whether these will not yet live to be highly prized when his 
 dramas excite only amazement and awe. In Coar's "Studies in 
 Germ. Literature in the 19th Century" Hebbel's poems are mi- 
 nutely analyzed to show the trend of the poet's development, 
 "which in its general lines may be said to have progressed from 
 lyric poetry through epic description to dramatic conception" 
 (p. 250). Finally in Alfred Biese's Deutsche Literaturge- 
 schichte, vol. 3 (von Hebbel bis zur Gegenwart, 1911), Hebbel's 
 lyrics are appreciatively though somewhat superficially discussed. 
 
 Among the extended discussions of Hebbel's lyrics, mention is 
 due to R. M. Werner's illuminating introduction to the lyrics 
 (vol. VII, pp. xv-xlix, of Werner's edition of Hebbel's Works), 
 as well as the analyses interspersed throughout the same author's 
 "Lyrik und Lyriker," Hamburg u. Leipzig, 1890. Also the fol- 
 lowing publications are to be noted: 
 
 H. Moller. Hebbel als Lyriker. Progr. der hoheren Staats- 
 schule in Cuxhaven, 1908. 
 
 Johannes Maria Fischer, Studien zu Hebbel's Jugendlyrik. 
 Dortmund, 1910. 
 
 A cursory appreciation of the subject that receives more de- 
 tailed treatment in the following "Studies" may be found in my 
 article, Hebbel as a Lyric Poet, Journal of Eng. and Germ. 
 Phil., IX, no. 3, pp. 321-39. 
 
 Bernhard Patzak has made a study of Hebbel's epigrams, which 
 are not considered in these "Studies," in his work, Friedrich 
 Hebbels Epigramme (Berlin, 1902).
 
 10 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 poetic temperament. The charge has been made by men 
 who admire Hebbel the dramatist that his songs are 
 merely metricized reflections, that they bear evidence of 
 labored workmanship and lack the freshness that marks 
 the irresistible up-gush of strong feeling. Now the in- 
 vestigation of the concrete elements, of the sensuous im- 
 agery that Hebbel employs, ought to be pertinent in the 
 solution of this problem. Not that prosaic reflection is 
 made poetry by mere sensuous verbiage. It may be true 
 that sheer poetic conceptions borrow nothing from exter- 
 nal form to establish their divinity. Yet the style of 
 essentially speculative authors is prevailingly abstract, 
 unrelieved by concrete imagery. The predominance of 
 sensuous elements is an indication that the impalpable has 
 become corporeal, that in applying ideas to life the author 
 has used as his medium the most obvious forms of life 
 the objective world ; and that in his message to the spirit 
 he has knowingly or unknowingly employed the symbols 
 of sense. And this is the inevitable induction in the 
 specific case before us. It would be idle to deny the 
 presence of profound thought in Hebbel's lyrics. With 
 him living was essentially agitated thinking, and his most 
 characteristic experience was the intense passion that 
 such thinking aroused. Thus his reflections either sprang 
 from high-wrought moods, or they superinduced such 
 moods. The substance of his song is often the sym- 
 bolized emotion or spell attending such intellectual tra- 
 vail. The sensuousness of his best poems points to a fine 
 articulation of the reflective and the intuitive faculty; 
 through this creative coalition his thought is transsub- 
 stantiated, and is endowed as well with the graces of 
 poetic form by the operation of a genuine and severely 
 trained artistry.
 
 INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 There is a further consideration upon which our study 
 has a particular bearing. Throughout the major part of 
 his life Hebbel coupled full appreciation of his own artis- 
 tic achievement with ready tribute to the greatness of 
 others. Schiller, the guiding star of his early years, was 
 soon superseded by Uhland; also Tieck, E. T. A. Hoff- 
 mann and Kleist had each strong attractions for him. It 
 is significant that all of these are distinguished by marked 
 sensuousness. Schiller, for example, exhibits his fond- 
 ness for sensuous terms in his more familiar shorter 
 ballads, as well as in Das Lied von der Glocke, Der 
 Spasiergang, Der Fluchtling, Wurden and An Emma. 
 The suspicion is perfectly natural that Hebbel's lights, 
 sounds, odors, etc., are merely imitations of the stylistic 
 effects employed by his early models. The three editions 
 of Hebbel's poems that appeared during his lifetime 
 afford important data for the settlement of this point. 
 The complete edition of 1857 (edition C) exhibits the 
 effects of severe pruning, so that Hebbel could say of it : 
 "what has here been allowed to stand must then be re- 
 garded as of the very fibre of my being" (mit meinem 
 innersten Wesen verwachsen). Of prime importance 
 for our purpose are first the new poems in C, which re- 
 veal the matured poet, independent in thought and in 
 style ; and secondly the old poems that now in this edition 
 reappear in vitally altered form. Both these groups point 
 to sustained use of the concrete. Indeed, among some of 
 the very latest poems there are many in which the theme 
 is developed in gorgeous sensuous symbolism. In the 
 case of the materially altered poems an increase in length 
 is attended by substantial increase in the number of sen- 
 suous terms. Furthermore, the poems that have been 
 shortened show a proportionate gain in sensuousness. All 
 these facts would tend to prove that the element under
 
 12 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 consideration in Hebbel's lyrics is an organic matter, and 
 that his incessant resort to the sensuous as a medium of 
 expression is instinctive and not the result of deliberate 
 or unconscious imitation. 10 
 
 Nevertheless there would be a certain satisfaction in 
 comparing Hebbel with the writers named and noting 
 possible resemblances between their sensuous imagery 
 and his own. We are convinced, however, that such de- 
 tailed comparison would yield essentially negative results. 
 The independence of Hebbel's mind and art as well as 
 his relations with the productions of those whom he most 
 admired would not lead us to look for any substantial 
 resemblances. His life-long admiration for Uhland, for 
 instance, never went to the length of extended imitation, 
 Uhland's influence amounting practically to that of liber- 
 ating Hebbel from the Schilleresque style of his youth. 11 
 His well-known admiration for Kleist did not obscure 
 from him the fact that his own art productions were 
 animated by different aims. Tieck and Hoffmann fasci- 
 nated him by a certain luxuriance of sensuous imagina- 
 tion, yet their works were for him genial anomalies that 
 scarcely ever tempted his serious emulation. Finally 
 Schiller, who might be supposed to have left the most 
 perceptible impress, being one of the earliest of his 
 models, later lost all influence upon him. Indeed, 
 Schiller's art seemed to the maturer Hebbel the very 
 opposite of his own. True, there is a certain kinship 
 between the two poets, inasmuch as both symbolize the 
 
 10 Cf. the author's article, Hebbel as a Lyric Poet, Jour, 
 of Eng. and Germ. Phil., IX, no. 3, pp. 337-8. 
 
 11 Herman Fischer, Klassizismus u. Romantik in Schwa- 
 ben zu An fang unseres Jhs [Recension in Jahresberichte fiir 
 neuere deut. Litt'gesch'te, 1891, IV, 11: 69-70; 78]. Moller, too, 
 warns against overestimating Uhland's influence upon Hebbel, 
 which he confines to "die friiheste Zeit und die Balladendich- 
 tung." See his Hebbel als Lyriker, pp. 1 ff.
 
 INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 universal through the particular. But with Hebbel the 
 particular was the starting point, with Schiller, the uni- 
 versal. Schiller's way was for Hebbel utterly fallacious, 
 distorted; as though one were to conceive of trees as 
 masses of leaves, branches and limbs, reaching down 
 from sky above to earth below, and there developing 
 roots. The transition for Hebbel was the other way, 
 from particular symbol through intuition to universal 
 idea. To his mind, the radical potentialities of poetry 
 yield the branchings and foliations of religion and 
 philosophy. It is hardly probable therefore that the 
 sensuous media of two conceptions of art so divergent 
 would reveal anything more than negligible resemblances. 
 The degree to which Hebbel employs the sensuous is 
 strikingly illustrated by his "orientalism." This topic 
 receives extended treatment in Chapter III of our 
 "Studies," which presents in somewhat modified form 
 the results of a doctor's thesis submitted by the writer 
 in 1907 to the faculty of Yale University under the title, 
 "Color and Light in Hebbel's Lyric Poetry." Hebbel's 
 predilection for the elementary and associative beauties 
 of light, color and luster was very marked. Copious pas- 
 sages in the diaries and the poems reveal how susceptible 
 he was to the color splendors of earth and sky. So also, 
 sparkling jewels or brightly colored stones could upon 
 favorable occasion afford positive artistic impulse 
 through their appeal to his fancy. In Chapter III, below, 
 the instances of light and color in Hebbel's poems are 
 collected and compared, thus enabling a valid judgment 
 upon the quantitative and qualitative distinction of his 
 color allusions. Furthermore, the attempt is there made 
 to demonstrate by the citation of characteristic passages 
 that Hebbel possessed an instinctive color sense that bade 
 him observe the fundamental color harmonies, and thus
 
 14 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 placed a certain restraint upon his fancy. Accordingly 
 we seldom find in Hebbel's songs any of that chromatic 
 riot that distinguishes the imagery of German Romanti- 
 cists. 
 
 The eye and the ear are the great avenues to the mind 
 for the aesthetic class of influences. We may well think 
 in this connection of Hebbel's northern origin. In his 
 early home he must have come into close communion 
 with the sea. The varying sounds of wind and wave as 
 well as the mists and modulated lights must early have 
 aroused his fancy. His feeling for music was an inti- 
 mate one. Temperamentally musical, he was exception- 
 ally sensitive to the symbolic and associative properties 
 of musical sound. He himself asserted that he was often 
 conscious of a musical sensation as a prelude or pre- 
 monitory sign of poetic creation. Accordingly sound as 
 Ausdrucksmittel in Hebbel's lyrical poetry receives ex- 
 tended consideration in Chapter IV below. 
 
 One would naturally suppose that a poet whose soul 
 derived such stimulus and pleasure from the various 
 forms of physical sound, from the musical tones of voice 
 or instrument, as well as from the myriad sounds and 
 noises of nature, would be equally alert to the opposite 
 phenomenon, silence, with all its elemental and asso- 
 ciational properties. Such a poet, too, might reasonably 
 be expected to delight in the spell-binding effects of that 
 neutral land between the two domains, where the sounds 
 heard seem to melt into and magnify the silence, and 
 where silence is so intense as to become positively 
 audible. The usual poetic value of the concrete becomes 
 much enhanced in the case of silence, because silence is 
 so preeminently a complex matter, with strongly marked 
 physical and mental aspects. How this important auxil- 
 iary of illusion and symbolism co-operates in Hebbel's
 
 INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 lyrical poetry is discussed in detail in Chapter V. We 
 also raise there the question as to the relative importance 
 of the individual, the racial and the environmental factor 
 in Hebbel's marked fondness for the various aspects of 
 silence and his effectual resort to it in his poems. 
 
 Taste and smell play a minor role in Hebbel's media 
 of expression, which is true, of course, of poets in gen- 
 eral. More noticeable is the fact that Hebbel's sense of 
 form is relatively less delicate, responds to fewer varieties 
 of impression, and affords him a less available emotional 
 adjunct than is usual with distinctly sensuous poets. 12 
 But he is on the other hand decidedly susceptible to the 
 more primitive tactual qualities. Those physical prop- 
 erties that we come to know through impressions upon 
 the cutaneous, kinaesthetic and organic sensibilities figure 
 prominently in his sensory life, and his writings submit 
 good evidence of the close relation between such prop- 
 erties and his moods and fancies. This phase of Hebbel's 
 sensuous style occupies us in Chapter VI. 
 
 To be complete, this study of Hebbel's sensuous media 
 should include at least two additional things, first, an 
 investigation of his imagery, especially his metaphors; 
 and secondly, a chapter devoted to his uniformly effectual 
 portrayal of the emotions through the medium of their 
 physical concomitants. Materials for the presentation of 
 both these topics have been collected by the writer, and 
 his results here, as well as his examination of still other 
 aspects of the main subject, are to be presented in special 
 papers as soon as expedient. Chapters III, IV, V and 
 
 12 We cannot too strongly emphasize that this deficiency 
 is but a relative one. Moreover, the deficiency seems far less 
 marked if we extend the field of examination so as to include 
 Hebbel's dramas as well as his poems and diaries. The writer 
 purposes to devote a special paper to this subject in the near 
 future.
 
 16 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 VI of our "Studies," approaching the matter, as they do, 
 from its four main sides, constitute on the whole an es- 
 sentially symmetrical and adequate presentation. Fur- 
 thermore, in the chapter on light and color, we have 
 devoted attention to the metaphors of this specific type. 
 
 Our examination of the psychological phases of Heb- 
 bel's expressional media, to the practical exclusion of the 
 historical aspects, may call for some defense. Nowadays 
 there is little disposition to take seriously any research in 
 linguistic or literary fields that does not trace the sup- 
 posed phenomenon's evolution through the mazes of en- 
 vironment and tradition. Thus a poet's Naturgefiihl 
 becomes largely the product of his reading, his literary 
 associations. We have stated above our grounds for 
 considering as unimportant any external stylistic resem- 
 blance between Hebbel and his known models. Moreover, 
 the general historical factor in Hebbel's development as 
 a lyric poet, so far as this can be authentically substan- 
 tiated, has been carefully studied. And certainly in deal- 
 ing with the specific subject of Hebbel's sensuousness, 
 we felt that the historical factor might be disregarded 
 with impunity. Of course the criticism is easy that such 
 sensuousness is at basis only a phase of the more com- 
 prehensive matter Naturgefiihl, which is essentially a 
 result of tradition and should be so approached. From 
 this viewpoint, the proper procedure is to trace the con- 
 tinuity of literary tradition as exhibited in the sensuous 
 element of our poet, supplementing this with a careful 
 analysis and characterization of his distinctively indi- 
 vidual deviations from immemorial custom. 
 
 While admitting the validity of this claim, we never- 
 theless feel justified in pursuing our study without heed- 
 ing overmuch the historical side. The hunt for literary 
 continuities has not seldom led critical scholarship into
 
 INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 expeditions of doubtful profit. As applied to a definite 
 concrete element in poetry, literary tradition is but one 
 of a number of ingredients in an infinitely complicated 
 matter. To ascribe to tradition the controlling interest 
 in a poet's nature feeling is misleading in the over- 
 emphasis put upon the heritage transmitted from the 
 past to the present. This heritage is received by no two 
 poets exactly alike, each one is impressed in a manner 
 essentially unique and adapts his impressions to indi- 
 vidual needs. Unduly to emphasize the transmitted herit- 
 age reduces the role of each poet to the mere frugal hus- 
 banding of the family patronage. There is a constant 
 element that should not become obscured in any detail 
 of its continuity and precise conformity; but there is an 
 equally vital and engaging variable. And that criticism 
 will not be profitless that strives to apprehend, with due 
 regard to traditional Naturgefuhl, the especial features 
 of that feeling "as connected with soul, of a specific per- 
 sonality, in its preferences, its volitions and powers." 
 
 Let us illustrate the tendencies of the historical method 
 by examining a specific instance. The author of a recent 
 work on Grillparzer as a poet of nature introduces his 
 subject with a sketch of the successive stages in the 
 growth of man's nature feeling. Following A. Biese, he 
 enumerates seven such stages, the mere animal reaction 
 to physical environment exemplified by Homer, the deistic 
 nature-fervor of the Hebrews, the troubadours' and min- 
 nesingers' surrender to the erotic promptings of nature, 
 the oracular mysticism of Renaissance nature poetry, the 
 misanthropic nature worship of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, typified by Rousseau, the pantheistic doctrine of 
 God immanent in nature, which Goethe best reflects, and 
 lastly the Romantic reaction with its sentimentalism on 
 the one hand and its morbid passion for nature's terrify-
 
 18 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 ing aspects on the other. 13 The body of the investigation 
 presents detailed examples of Grillparzer's nature 
 descriptions. The range and character of these descrip- 
 tions are displayed by selections from Grillparzer's allu- 
 sions to the seasons, to light and darkness, to sea and 
 stream, to thunder, lightning, rain and wind. The con- 
 cluding chapter formulates and expounds the message 
 revealed to the poet in his inspired contemplation of 
 nature's visible forms. Thus the bulk of the work con- 
 stitutes a clear exposition and analysis of Grillparzer's 
 inborn passion for nature, with especial emphasis upon 
 the individuality of expression to which this passion gave 
 rise. 
 
 What excites our misgiving is the general premise 
 from which the study sets out. Nature feeling is as- 
 sumed to be something concededly traditional. True, the 
 importance of imitation in the development of Naturge- 
 fiihl cannot be questioned, supported as it is by the 
 opinion of able judges. Yet one may easily attribute un- 
 due prominence to this factor. Even though sanctioned 
 by the results of able research in special fields, there is 
 danger in the hypothesis that "our nature feeling is 
 largely a matter of tradition." Precious little room is 
 left for a poet's Eigenart if we presuppose certain estab- 
 lished conceptions from which his own views of nature 
 must be drawn. Analogies among productions in the 
 intellectual and literary field are in themselves such fas- 
 cinating phenomena that one may unwittingly be lured 
 beyond the bounds of substantial footing. On the basis 
 of just such analogies Hebbel has been charged with in- 
 tellectual borrowings, which he repudiated with charac- 
 teristic emphasis. From the very nature of the case, 
 
 13 Faust Charles De Walsh, Grillparzer as a Poet of 
 Nature, Columbia University Germanic Studies, New York, 1910.
 
 INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 Grillparzer's poetry has elements that are analogous to 
 one and another of the evolutionary stages of man's 
 nature feeling. His most obvious points of contact are 
 with the romantic and pantheistic conceptions. This 
 tempts the conclusion that "Grillparzer's nature-poetry is 
 not so much an original conception of nature as an origi- 
 nal expression of modern interpretation." 14 Yet the ex- 
 pository portion of De Walsh's work inclines us to be- 
 lieve that precisely this "original expression" is the core, 
 the essence of the poet's feeling, and that the originality 
 of his expression springs from an originality of intuition 
 and conception. Expression and intuition, form and 
 conception, are in a very real sense one and indissoluble. 
 It is difficult to convince ourselves, therefore, of Grill- 
 parzer's indebtedness to or dependence upon this or that 
 tradition with which his nature poetry may present cer- 
 tain analogies. Thus we cannot feel altogether certain 
 that "Grillparzer as a poet of nature reveals the influence 
 exerted upon him especially by the romantic reaction." 15 
 Only with grave reluctance can we concede that "he 
 could not, without Goethe, have given expression to a 
 pantheistic expression of nature, or, without the in- 
 fluence of the Greeks and of Rousseau, to a perpetual 
 longing for the balm of solitude." 16 There is no denying 
 that Grillparzer's assembled nature allusions exhibit cer- 
 tain features reminiscent of earlier traditional responses 
 to the physical world. But we require more evidence 
 than mere likeness and posteriority to justify the in- 
 ference of direct influence and dependence. Granting the 
 similarity, post hoc, ergo propter hoc is not sufficiently 
 convincing proof. The similarity, the constant element 
 
 i* De Walsh, p. 89. 
 is De Walsh, p. 89. 
 16 De Walsh, p. 89.
 
 20 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 in nature feeling would seem to point to something far 
 more organic and cosmic than mere imitation or trans- 
 mitted influence. The various types of nature feeling 
 constitute in one sense successive stages in an evolution. 
 In another equally important sense these types may be 
 regarded as mental attitudes, traceable in different com- 
 binations and degrees throughout succeeding epochs, and 
 exhibited with greater or less variation by poets of dif- 
 ferent lands and ages, exposed to widely different con- 
 ditions of life and destiny, animated by divergent con- 
 ceptions of art. Where direct influence cannot be posi- 
 tively established, the constant element in nature feeling 
 leads to the assumption of a fundamental kinship, under 
 the most varied conditions of origin and growth, of 
 man's responses to the impressions of external nature. 
 And this assumption of a universal kinship opens up 
 alluring possibilities as to the primal source and the 
 cosmic significance of poetic inspiration. 
 
 Objection may be raised to approaching Hebbel's lyric 
 poetry from the viewpoint of the concrete media of his 
 art, because such a method may seem to lay undue stress 
 upon the sensuous element, and thus constructively to 
 class Hebbel among the poets whose appeal is chiefly to 
 the senses, whereas in reality his songs, no less than his 
 dramas, are addressed primarily to the spirit. 
 
 To justify and explain our method we must roughly 
 distinguish between two ways in which the term poetry 
 may be used. The word has a very broad meaning for 
 those who maintain that there is no intrinsically poetic 
 subject-matter, that the poet may utilize abstract ideas 
 or the occurrences of prosy everyday life, any and all 
 materials, in fact, provided only that these assimilate 
 deep spiritual import under his treatment. In this broad 
 acceptation, poetry embraces all intuitive creation that
 
 INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 reveals in abundant measure the "application of pro- 
 found ideas to life." 
 
 But such a broad conception admits into the domain 
 of poetry much that is commonly excluded. There is 
 justification therefore for distinguishing within this 
 broad domain a more restricted province of poetry in the 
 narrower sense, embracing works in which the ideal ele- 
 ment is augmented by passionate regard for certain for- 
 mal graces, particularly for beauties of vision, imagery 
 or expression. That Hebbel exhibits a fervid sense of 
 the spiritual realities of life may be assumed to be in- 
 contestable. Those who would exclude his creations 
 from the broader domain of poetry can do so only by 
 denying their depth and intensity. That they are equally 
 entitled to inclusion within the province of poetry in the 
 narrower sense these "Studies" aim in part to show. It 
 becomes imperative therefore to deal with the poems 
 primarily under the aspect of their sensuous media. 
 
 By this is obviously not implied that pure sense quali- 
 ties play any independent part in aesthetic enjoyment. 
 We are convinced that such enjoyment amounts to far 
 more than mere nerve stimulation, a mere Gestreichelt- 
 und Gestacheltwerden. The theory is entirely reasonable 
 that appreciation of art, particularly poetic art, presents 
 a highly complex process, a synthesis- in which sensory 
 and mental factors interfuse. 17 None the less we have 
 made the sensory factors our chief concern, and that 
 because precisely these factors have seldom had the 
 serious attention that they deserve, indeed have even 
 been treated with undisguised disdain, as being the baser 
 stratum of artistic conception and enjoyment. In criti- 
 cism of poetry, particularly, the function of the sensory 
 elements often suffers unfair neglect, perhaps because 
 
 17 Karl Gross: Der aesth. Genuss, Giessen, 1902, Kap. II.
 
 22 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 poetry deals so largely with reproductive factors and be- 
 cause intellectual processes thought, reflection, abstrac- 
 tion necessarily assume importance there. And yet the 
 presence of sense qualities, in reproduced form, is dis- 
 tinctive of poetic composition, and the vivid realization 
 of these sense qualities, often accompanied by actual 
 bodily impressions, distinguishes our most intense enjoy- 
 ment of poetry. The conclusion is fair that criticism can- 
 not too strongly emphasize these reproduced visual, 
 auditory and tactual data, as well as the motor and or- 
 ganic sensations with which they are frequently accom- 
 panied. 
 
 Let it be emphatically stated that our "Studies" dis- 
 claim any intention of dealing directly with the question 
 of the nature of poetry. Yet we have already ventured 
 upon this fascinating ground in our distinction above 
 between poetry in a broader and a narrower sense. In- 
 deed, our investigation is of such a sort that a tentative 
 statement of principles is unavoidable. Such a distinc- 
 tion as the one made above serves well enough to em- 
 phasize metrical arrangement, rhyme and rhythm, meta- 
 phorical and phonetic graces, all of which may consti- 
 tute a legitimate basis for any rough demarcation. Un- 
 fortunately this basis of demarcation tends to convert 
 poetry into an exclusive set of literary society, walled 
 off from the vulgar mass of letters by hereditary tradi- 
 tions and ceremonious forms. But the term poetry 
 should involve a more fundamental and rudimentary dis- 
 tinction than this. In these "Studies" we therefore em- 
 ploy the term to connote a distinctive quality, springing 
 from a distinctive type of response to environmental 
 stimuli ; and we accept sensuousness as the distinguishing 
 feature of such response. The starting point for all our 
 mental processes, and therefore for art as well, is life,
 
 INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 life in the sense of the individual's conscious relations 
 with the universe, in the sense of personal adjustments 
 to environmental conditions. The highest forms of 
 spiritual activity religion, philosophy, art aim to rep- 
 resent these relations and adjustments convincingly to 
 human consciousness. In the purely intellective form of 
 theoretic spirit, philosophy, we have an advanced and 
 refined way of representing life's relations. In the intui- 
 tive form of the spirit, the quality of the representation 
 is more primitive, direct and strong. 18 There is a simple 
 bruskness about the poetic quality, because the funda- 
 mental relations are all referred to the objective world 
 and are expressed in terms taken from objects of sense, 
 whereas philosophy refines the relations into super- 
 sensuous ideas and effects its representation through the 
 medium of these ideal refinements. 
 
 If we are justified in regarding this brusk sensuousness 
 as the distinctive poetic quality, then that which we call 
 poetry cannot be poetical throughout. A passionate 
 song or a stirring ballad may indeed reveal the poetic 
 quality from first to last, but an extended poem, whether 
 epic, dramatic, or lyric, necessarily must exhibit at one 
 moment preeminently the rugged intuitive quality, at 
 another the more refined intellectual fibre. Our final 
 estimate of the essential nature of such extended pro- 
 ductions will depend upon whether their presentation of 
 cosmic relations has predominantly the corporeal qual- 
 ity of objects of sense or the more ethereal consistency 
 of abstract conceptions. 
 
 We may then discard the notion that every least part 
 of poetry so-called must have the quality of pure intui- 
 
 18 Benedetto Croce : Aesthetic as Science of Expression 
 and General Linguistic. Trans, by Douglas Ainslee. Macmillan, 
 1909. Appendix : Pure Intuition and the Lyrical Character of 
 Art.
 
 24 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 tion. For the fact is that in some of the world's con- 
 cededly great poetry the intellectual looms large. Indeed, 
 we should perhaps all agree that the removal of this 
 intellectual matter would result in distinct loss. And 
 accordingly we need not shrink from the admission that 
 certain passages in Shakespeare, Goethe, Wordsworth, 
 Schiller, profoundly impress us although their quality 
 could hardly be considered distinctly poetic. We feel 
 instinctively that such passages have an inalienable place 
 in serious poetic creation; that intellection as a distinct 
 grade of theoretic spirit is a legitimate adjunct of pbetic 
 intuition, and that in portraying the problematic aspects 
 of modern life, the poet may profitably reinforce the 
 strong, concrete manner of imagination with the more 
 refined, conceptual procedure of intellection. 
 
 We reach the same conclusion if we set out from a 
 different point of approach. It is rightly maintained that 
 the portrayal of human emotions is the main object of 
 poetry. The chief means to the attainment of this object 
 is imagination, imagination as the "power to see and 
 show things in the concrete as if real": for only when 
 things are thus imaginatively realized do they affect us 
 directly and intensely. Emotions evoked through imagi- 
 nation, working with sensuous media this is in brief 
 the business of poetry from the recipient's point of view. 
 But there is room for the intellectual element, even if we 
 accept this conception of poetry. For although commu- 
 nication of emotion be regarded as poetry's "sine qua 
 non," the order of poetry's greatness depends largely 
 upon the quality of the enjoyment afforded. The pleas- 
 ure given by rhythmic and formal beauties, or the pleas- 
 ure occasioned by mental reproductions of visual, audi- 
 tory or tactual impressions is plainly not so high as that 
 which results when formal and sensuous charms mediate
 
 INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 profound, spiritual realities. Such spiritual realities, in 
 Matthew Arnold's comprehensive sense of "all emotions 
 which are intimately connected with the conduct of life," 
 necessarily include much that is essentially intellectual. 
 Not only primitive and elemental human passions are 
 included here, but more complex and refined ones: and 
 not only the passions of the typical man, but the moods 
 and sentiments of those extraordinary persons as well 
 in whom "it is possible to find an almost dizzy intensity 
 of excitement called forth by some fancied abstraction, 
 remote altogether from the eyes and the senses of men." 
 Our excursus upon the nature of poetry is so far justi- 
 fied in that it brings into clearer light the purpose and 
 the results of our "Studies." These aim to emphasize 
 above all things Hebbel's conspicuous sensuousness as 
 evidence of the intuitive temper of his mind and as the 
 chief feature of the distinctively poetic quality of his 
 lyrical creations. In our opinion too little has been said 
 about Hebbel's acute sensibility and his passionate sur- 
 render to the impressions of objective reality. We 
 should be misconstrued, however, if we should seem to 
 obscure the fact that Hebbel, like many others of his 
 fellow-countrymen, combined with his avowed objec- 
 tivity an insistent subjectivity. Never for a moment are 
 we permitted to forget that his passion for sensuous 
 reality and formal beauty is due primarily to the fact 
 that for him these are cosmically related with profound 
 ideas and mediate vague yet intense revelations. If 
 therefore our "Studies" demonstrate the distinctive 
 poetic quality of Hebbel's lyrics by exhibiting his sen- 
 suous opulence, they do not attempt to disguise the 
 prominence there of those refined intellectual elements 
 that constitute an indispensable part of serious modern 
 art.
 
 26 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 In conclusion a word regarding certain expressions 
 employed in our "Studies." Much of the controversy 
 that Hebbel's works have evoked has been a quarrel over 
 terminology. Thus Paul Zincke censures A. Neumann 
 for branding the youthful Hebbel a mystic. 19 Arno Scheu- 
 nert, again, is forced to defend terms like "System," 
 "Monad," "Entindividualisierung," as employed in his 
 book on Hebbel. 20 Such quarrels have not been without 
 benefit. Scheunert, for example, driven to vindicate his 
 nomenclature, has rendered useful critical service by the 
 way, reinforcing his arguments here, adjusting them with 
 greater precision there, on the whole bracing and tighten- 
 ing the frame of his Hebbel interpretation. Thus these 
 scholarly duels have stimulated the contribution of sug- 
 gestive principles of method, pragmatic viewpoints, 
 necessarily along with a certain quantum of negligible 
 comment. We have used the results of these polemical 
 investigations freely, yet without assuming to settle even 
 to our own satisfaction their rival claims. We are free 
 to confess in justice to Scheunert, however, that he has 
 seemed to us on the whole to substantiate his position. 
 And in fairness to Neumann, we cannot but admit that 
 Hebbel's conception of the death of the individual 
 through union with the Idee has for us a certain like- 
 ness with the mystic's dream of self-annihilation through 
 union with God. And finally, if we fix in mind the "sub- 
 stance in vacuo" of Spinoza, "to be lost in which would 
 be the proper consummation of the transitory individual 
 life," then a pantheistic message may be attributed to 
 certain of Hebbel's poems without doing violence to 
 
 i Euphorion, Bd. 16, 1909, Heft 1, S. 147 ff. Cf. A. Neu- 
 mann, Aus Friedrich Hebbels Werdezeit, Zittau, 1899. 
 
 20 See Arno Scheunert, t)ber Hebbels asthetische Weltan- 
 schauung, etc., Zeitschrift fur Aesthetik, 1907, pp. 70-129.
 
 INTRODUCTION 27 
 
 their avowed content. Indeed, to one who is less scrupu- 
 lous about names, Hebbel's message seems only a nobler 
 elaboration of that "strange passion for nonentity" that 
 greets us in a variety of forms, beginning with the old 
 Indian dream of Nirvana, running on through Parmen- 
 ides and Plato, and showing itself again in the idealism 
 of Hegel.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 OUTLINE OF HEBBEL'S ESTHETIC THEORY 
 
 Declaration of art's spiritual primacy, homage to poetic 
 imagination as the supreme faculty of human conscious- 
 ness and the unique revelation of the Weltgeist so we 
 might epitomize Hebbel's aesthetic theory. The domi- 
 nant impulse of Hebbel's life and the informing spirit 
 of his art was the conviction to which he early attained 
 that in some inscrutable manner his poetic products were 
 sequels and symbols of nature's endless evolution. His 
 personality and his work resolutely affirm that behind all 
 particular change there lies a universal Idee and that art 
 is an emanation and symbol of that Idee. 
 
 Hebbel never pretended that he had reached a final 
 solution of the mystery of human life. He made no 
 secret of his obstinate questionings. He confessed to 
 moments when it seemed doubtful whether realization of 
 the Weltidee is possible, whether positively "the ever- 
 lasting universe of things flows through the mind," 
 whether inspired contemplation of human life and of 
 history actually registers the world's forward march. 1 
 But his ideals prevailed in spite of all doubts. Vision of 
 the Idee and its symbolic revelation remained the ruling 
 principle of his life and his art. 
 
 1 The quotations from Hebbel in the following "Studies" 
 are based upon : 1. Friedrich Hebbel. Samtliche Werke. His- 
 torisch-kritische Ausgabe besorgt yon Richard Maria Werner. 
 12 vols. Berlin, 1900-1903. The lyric poems are in volumes VI 
 and VII. 2. Friedrich Hebbel. Tagebucher. R. M. Werner. 
 4 vols. Berlin, 1903. In our "Studies" the abbreviation "Tgb." 
 is used to refer to this work; the Roman figures refer to the 
 volume, the Arabic to the diary entries as they are numbered in 
 this edition. The page number is usually not given. We retain 
 the orthography and punctuation of the Werner edition.
 
 HEBBEL'S AESTHETIC THEORY 29 
 
 So conceived, art becomes something elemental and 
 immortal. 2 The artist collaborates in his works with the 
 eternal processes of creation, his perfect pieces are steps 
 in the cosmic sequence. He plays his part unwittingly 
 and involuntarily, just as planets in their courses play 
 theirs, or as organisms in their procreation play theirs. 3 
 The great poet achieves an anagram of creation, an in- 
 telligized symbol of the Weltprozess* Poetry the art- 
 form that particularly concerned Hebbel is proclaimed 
 in effect one with the Idee. In poetry's creations the 
 primal idea as it operates is concretely mediated. 
 Poetry's waters thus flow from the central source; over 
 its course alone can the finite find its way home to the 
 infinite. If man is even dimly to apprehend the link 
 between Individual and Universal, such apprehension can 
 come only through the ministry of poetic intuition. 5 
 
 Hebbel was ready to concede that the sphere of art, 
 so understood, verges upon that of philosophy and of 
 religion. Considered broadly, religion, philosophy and 
 art are alike records of the spirit's tragic struggle to 
 burst through mortal confinement. The kinship of art 
 
 2 The relation of Hebbel's theory of art to that of Schell- 
 ing is treated by Wilhelm Waetzoldt, Hebbel und die Philosophic 
 seiner Zeit, 1903, Kap. I. Schelling's "Proklamierung der Kunst 
 als des einzigen wahren und ewigen Organons und Dokuments der 
 Philosophic" doubtless won Hebbel's approval; but he must have 
 turned away with antipathy when Schelling, according to Waet- 
 zoldt, had reached the point "wo Poesie und Philosophic inein- 
 ander iiber und aufgingen, wo er Philosophic dichtete und 
 Poesie philosophierte." Cf. Waetzoldt, p. 14. 
 
 3 "Ein Wunder ist leichter zu wiederholen, als zu erklaren. 
 So setzt der Kiinstler den Schopfungsact im hochsten Sinne fort, 
 ohne ihn begreifen zu konnen." Tgb. I, 948. Cf. also Tgb. IV, 
 5841 ; 5891 ; 6133. 
 
 4 "Das ist auch das Zeichen des Genies ; es steht immer in 
 Bezug auf das Unendliche und erzeugt in jeglichem Werk ein 
 Anagramm der Schopfung" ; Tgb. I, 747, p. 164, Is. 12-4. 
 
 5 Tgb. I, 417; 548; 575; 946; 948; 1114; 1674. Tgb. IV, 
 5841 ; 5891 ; 5906.
 
 30 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 and religion, as Hebbel understands them, is unmistak- 
 able. Symbolism, which is the vital breath and the dis- 
 tinctive tissue and the native expressional form of art, 
 finds a counterpart in the anthropomorphism of religion. 6 
 But Hebbel exalts poetry above religion on the basis of 
 primordiality and inclusiveness. Compared with reli- 
 gion, poetry is the Allumjasserin, the fountain-head that 
 feeds all religions and mythologies, in so far as they are 
 intuitive and apocalyptic. In the extreme enthusiasm of 
 youth he proclaimed poetry's utter independence of alien 
 sanction, pronounced it autonomous, like Nature, like 
 Divinity, the very sublimate of these two ultimate 
 sources of being, the procreation (Fortbilden) of the 
 supreme form and energy resident in all given matter. 7 
 
 Most emphatically and persistently does Hebbel differ- 
 entiate poetry and philosophy. Whatever kinship may 
 arise from the similarity of their problems, their methods 
 are totally distinct. Theoretically, at least, he is explicit 
 upon the distinction between the intuitional quality of 
 poetry and the intellective fibre of philosophy. Analyt- 
 ically, Dichten and Denken were scrupulously kept apart, 
 although in his poetic performance the sharp demarca- 
 tion may not always appear. But if all his work does not 
 bear out his contention that creation and reflection are 
 distinct, yet his finest pieces exhibit a unique creative 
 operation in which the mind's intellectual, intuitive and 
 artistic powers mysteriously collaborate. His poems and 
 dramas are the product of this unique, complex faculty, 
 and not of one or more of its constituents. Hebbel him- 
 self was intensely conscious of the possession and the 
 mysterious operation of this faculty in moments of in- 
 spired exaltation. And doubtless this intense conviction 
 
 6 Tgb. IV, 5841 ; 5847. 
 
 7 Tgb. I, 641.
 
 HEBBEL'S AESTHETIC THEORY 31 
 
 more than anything else prompted his bitter repudiation 
 of all critical efforts to bring his creations into subordi- 
 nate alliance with any abstract philosophic system. 
 
 The key to Hebbel's Weltanschauung is his conception 
 of the duality of all life, his apprehension of phenomena 
 under their dual aspect as finite units in an infinite 
 cosmic sum. The mystery of the universe, the tragedy 
 of human life reduce themselves for Hebbel to the ad- 
 justment of the individual items to the universal total. 
 The gradually divined consummation of this adjustment 
 is the meaning of all creation, of Nature, of God. 8 Art, 
 as exalted sequel of the cosmic process, must ever sym- 
 bolize this duality and adjustment. Upon this point 
 Hebbel early reached certainty in developing his poetic 
 creed; this he emphasized with consistency throughout 
 his entire career. In this individual-universal quality re- 
 sides poetry's point of contact with actual life, with the 
 finite-infinity that is the vital attribute of human expe- 
 rience. To impart this quality and to mediate this attri- 
 bute is to achieve highest realism. That poetry alone is 
 worthy of the name, that divines and conveys, with equal 
 fervor, Part vanishing in All, wave merging with sea. 
 As a young man of twenty-two Hebbel wrote: "Wir 
 wollen den Punct sehen, von welchem es (das Leben) 
 ausgeht, und den, wo es als einzelne Welle sich in das 
 
 Meer allgemeiner Wirkung verliert Hier ist die 
 
 Seite, von welcher aus sich eine Parallele zwischen den 
 Erscheinungen des wirklichen Lebens und denen des in 
 der Kunst fixirten ziehen lasst." 9 This paradoxical re- 
 quirement, baffling to the intellect and senses, yields to 
 poetic intuition. In the sphere of the poetic idea sud- 
 
 8Tgb. I, 110; 115; 344; Tgb. II, 2262; 2409; 2440; 2566; 
 2632-3-4; 2648; 2664; 2721; 3069. 
 
 Tgb. I, 110, p. 24,1s. 1-3,5-7.
 
 32 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 denly arising before the poet's vision, attributes that 
 seemed hostile fall into harmony and congruence. The 
 poetic idea enables the poet to symbolize in his completed 
 composition the bounded wave at the point and in the 
 instant of mergence with boundless sea ; to fuse together 
 through an intuitive flash what the slow fire of reflection 
 could only more hopelessly separate. 
 
 Immersion of individual in universal, mergence of 
 momentary phenomena with eternal Idee is the essence 
 of inner form. Thus from one viewpoint inner form 
 amounts to a new focus, bringing phenomena into rela- 
 tions that transcend the conceptual restrictions of time 
 and space. As a sense of cosmic congruence, inner form 
 is an indispensable element of poetic artistry. Further- 
 more, inner form is the unique voucher of the genuine- 
 ness of art, the sole sponsor for its legitimacy. Nature's 
 products have adequate substantiation in their mere oc- 
 currence; art must accredit its creations through the 
 sanction of a dimly divined and symbolically revealed 
 correlation of individual to universal. 10 Inner form is 
 thus in effect the visionary realm of poetic inspiration, 
 the transmundane sphere where the immediate and mate- 
 rial vanish in the remote and spiritual. The highest reve- 
 lation of this form is symbolized in death. 11 For Hebbel, 
 vision of the Idee and symbolic expression of Innere 
 Form are the inspiration and consummation of poetic art. 
 A poetic idea has come for him when through intuition 
 life-impressions new or old are so focussed as to en- 
 visage the Idee and to bring the temporal into inner- 
 formal relation with the eternal. A drama or a song is 
 achieved for Hebbel when his soul, fertilized by a poetic 
 
 iTgb. I, 886; 965; 1018; 1761. Cf. R. M. Meyer, Zur 
 
 innern Form, Euphorion 1897, pp. 445 ff. See also Coar's "Studies 
 
 in German Literature in the Nineteenth Century," pp. 249 ff. 
 
 " Tgb. II, 2846.
 
 HEBBEL'S AESTHETIC THEORY 33 
 
 idea, embodies impressions with such plastic firmness and 
 symbolic power that idea and inner form are conveyed 
 by symbol to the recipient as they were revealed by vision 
 to the poet. 
 
 The sphere in which the dualistic principle of the uni- 
 verse operates with most telling force is that of human 
 experience. The struggles that shape character, the bat- 
 tles of emotion and of mood, the gleams and shadows 
 of presage and dream, the jolts and glides and blows and 
 caresses that report a ruthless non-self pitted against an 
 assertive self these are the tissue of poetic art. And 
 with Hebbel they are healthy, life-bringing tissue. His 
 Weltanschauung is not deadening, his poetic message 
 does not instill despair. Though he sees the whole go 
 imperiously on, heedless of the human part, his vision 
 of the universal scheme is imbued with heroic austerity. 
 Hebbel's profound dramas develop within the sweep of 
 cosmic evolution vital human situations. The individ- 
 ual's transient self-assertion solidifies into a palpable con- 
 crete obstacle to ideal progress. This obstacle can be 
 surmounted only by submergence of the individual in the 
 purpose of the Idee. 12 Hebbel's distinctive tragic mes- 
 
 12 Waetzoldt emphasizes Hebbel's indebtedness here to 
 Hegel, Scheunert and others to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 In this connection Waetzoldt deplores the ambiguity of Hebbel's 
 terminology with reference to the "Idee." Thus Hebbel applies 
 the term on the one hand to the universal process, the absolute, 
 and on the other hand to the social unity, "Einheit der Mensch- 
 heit." In specific dramas of Hebbel's the "Idee" suffers further 
 modification into "Partialideen," such as those of morality, the 
 state, the family (Waetzoldt, pp. 43 ff.). It is difficult to believe 
 that Hebbel would have passed over such ambiguity without 
 comment had he conceded its presence. The "Weltprinzip," if 
 it is to afford poetic inspiration, must of necessity suffer "Ver- 
 dichtung." The pure theorist might indeed think of the "Idee" 
 as "Weltgeist," universe; the poet is forced to discern it within 
 certain empirical bounds, and to embody it in some mortal sym- 
 bol. Hebbel's nomenclature would seem adequately vindicated 
 if the social unity, or the state, or the family served as sensuous
 
 34 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 sage lies in the guilt ascribed to individuality, irrespective 
 of moral erring. Not in consequence of willing sinfully, 
 but of willing at all, of maintaining his individual iden- 
 tity, his secession from the universal unity, does man 
 incur guilt and suffer woe. 13 But such guilt is com- 
 mendable because necessary, such woe is tolerable be- 
 cause teleologic. The individual is a prerequisite stage 
 of the universal. The individual's dogged self-assertion 
 as well as his ruthless submergence Entindividual- 
 isierung are alike indispensable to cosmic progress. A 
 grim, depressing world-concept this, viewed from one 
 position. Above, beneath, everywhere round, an infinite 
 All ; swarming in this, like motes in a sunbeam, obscuring 
 yet revealing the central light, are unnumbered finite par- 
 ticles that live their brief life, yet eventually vanish mote 
 by mote in the All from which they have seceded. Rightly 
 approached, however, Hebbel's message may implant 
 within us convictions that enrich the heart and bear fruit 
 in heroic effort. His vision may stir our imaginations 
 to conceive the world as a sublime organism, compact 
 of countless animate parts and quickened with the tragic 
 struggles of countless assimilated forces; a trans-human 
 Idee, humanized by supreme consciousness of the finite 
 destinies fused with Infinite Being. 14 
 
 The revelation of the eternal process, which makes the 
 existence of the individual at once an obstacle to and an 
 indispensable condition of the world's consummation, 
 
 media through which the abstract "Idee" of the philosopher may 
 be symbolized and a sense of the universal and the absolute be 
 palpably conveyed. 
 
 13 Cf. H. Krumm, Friedrich Hebbel als Tragiker, Z'ft. fur 
 deut. Phil., Bd. 38, S. 118ff. 
 
 14 This pantheistic vision of life, most marked in certain 
 early poems, is present in a number of Hebbel's later utterances. 
 Cf. Neumann, Aus Fried. Hebbels Werdezeit, Zittau, 1899, pp. 7, 
 10, 14; Scheunert, Der Pantragismus, etc., Hamburg u. Leipzig, 
 1903, p. 13; Waetzoldt, pp. 11 ff.
 
 HEBBEL'S ESTHETIC THEORY 35 
 
 greets us in varying degrees in all Hebbel's poetry; con- 
 sistently and convincingly in his dramas, obscurely, yet 
 fervidly and with a strange fascination in many of his 
 lyrics. In the finest pieces the technic of inner form ap- 
 pears so perfected that the claims of the Idee are accent- 
 uated precisely through the determined self-assertion of 
 the individual. 
 
 To the poet in exalted moments come illuminating 
 vistas of the Idee in its transcendent sweep. Such vistas 
 raise human existence or the particular phase of it in 
 question into unwonted light, endow experience with 
 new significance and ennoble all those external and inter- 
 nal phenomena of which life is composed. The poet's 
 aim must ever be to mediate such luminous vistas, to 
 focus the vision suddenly glimpsed through complex 
 character, tragic experience, stormy passion, lurking and 
 elusive mood. This cannot be done merely by formu- 
 lating the message in philosophic terms, even though the 
 abstract texture be enlivened by threads of concrete 
 imagery. Rather must the revelation be of such proto- 
 plasmic virtue as to fecundate the spirit; the seed, se- 
 cretly maturing, must suddenly emerge as new life, bear- 
 ing the features of the parental Idee. The poet's work 
 is perfect if it awaken in others an exalted mood in which 
 the portrayal of the temporal brings intimations of the 
 eternal. 
 
 That Hebbel's critical formulae were inexorably dog- 
 matic, in some respects even narrow, cannot be surpris- 
 ing. His philosophy of life is distinguished by a stimu- 
 lating tragic austerity. His theory of poetry is like unto 
 it, a theory that makes artistic intuition the unique sol- 
 vent of the supposedly insoluble. Unequivocal and 
 unyielding, accordingly, is his insistence upon what he 
 regarded as the indispensable requisites of poetry. First,
 
 36 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 a poetic idea, a glimpse of the eternal interpenetrating 
 the ephemeral, as the only inspiration productive of great 
 poetry, the only impulse suited to impart inner form. 
 The second prerequisite is plasticity, concrete expression 
 of the idea, symbolic embodiment of inner form through 
 sensuous media. Ruthless is Hebbel's denunciation of all 
 art that is deficient in these staple qualities. In the pure 
 union of the two, in the perfect transfusion of poetic 
 idea and sensuous media, Hebbel sees the consummation 
 of art, namely intuitive realization and symbolic media- 
 tion of the great cosmic mystery. 
 
 Deficiency in the first essential the particular im- 
 mersed in the universal, wave melting into boundless 
 sea how often in Hebbel's judgment does this consign 
 to inferiority what convention pronounces superb. No 
 amount of technical dexterity, no plasticity of imagina- 
 tion or expression can adequately compensate for ab- 
 sence of poetic idea. Vision of the Idee in art work is 
 the distinctive mark of genius, for it is the inalienably 
 personal note of the work, the one particular Erlebnis 
 that could come in just that form and in no other to just 
 that person and to no other. Hebbel's sweeping charge 
 against the Musenalmanach for 1837 rests precisely upon 
 deficiency in this quality. 15 Most scathing is his denun- 
 ciation of Riickert, who spreads out his graces of form 
 and expression much as a peacock displays its tail. If 
 art means nothing more than to bend into easily flowing 
 verse the momentary hues, the kaleidoscopic impressions, 
 the scurrying whims, conceits and reflections of the 
 brain, then Hebbel has only contempt for it. 16 Heine, 
 whatever his native endowment may be, prostitutes the 
 high office of art. For Hebbel, the weakness and falsity 
 
 " Tgb. I, 641. 
 i Tgb. I, 538.
 
 HEBBEL'S ESTHETIC THEORY 37 
 
 of Heine's poetic style lies in its unsettled impurity. He 
 does not await the poetic idea; he does not allow inner 
 calm to allay the agitated elements and purge disturbing 
 sediments. Into an unseasoned mass he hurls a brand of 
 flaming wit, but no phenix rises fair from the altar 
 ashes. 17 Even Kleist's "Kathchen von Heilbronn," which 
 formed one of the sweetest of Hebbel's early literary 
 inspirations, could not survive his later incisive analysis. 
 Its failure to stand the supreme test embodiment of the 
 dualism of all existence forced Hebbel reluctantly to 
 put away this favorite work of his youth as no longer 
 suited to his maturer demands. Though still susceptible 
 to Kathchen's romantic beauty, Hebbel could not brook 
 a certain defect in motivation, an inner fallacy that to 
 his mind obscured the exalted contours of the Idee. 18 
 Although he finds the conflict between individual and 
 Weltprozess vaguely sketched in certain dramas of 
 Byron, yet there is no reassuring vision of the Idee that 
 both awakens awe and exacts approval. 19 Hebbel deeply 
 resents the comparisons often made between himself and 
 Grabbe, whom he despises for his vain effort to escape 
 triviality by arbitrarily combining particular phenom- 
 ena in defiance of the Idee. 20 
 
 In utterances such as the foregoing, Hebbel sternly 
 spurns so-called poets to whom the all-revealing vision is 
 not vouchsafed. But he is quite as denunciatory of those 
 who seek to diffuse the spirit of revelation by means of 
 
 " Tgb. I, 1099. 
 is Tgb. Ill, 3323. 
 
 19 Tgb. Ill, 3487. 
 
 20 Tgb. Ill, 3795. 
 
 It is largely the same deficiency that constitutes the brunt of 
 Hebbel's criticism of Tieck (Tgb. I, 989; Tgb. Ill, 3880); 
 Oehlenschlager (Tgb. I, 594); Steffens (Tgb. II, 2385; Tgb. Ill, 
 4343); Wieland (Tgb. Ill, 3287); Schiller's Jungfrau von 
 Orleans (Tgb. Ill, 4221, Is. 165 ff.) ; Gutzkow, in his more pre- 
 tentious works (Tgb. Ill, 3852) ; and others.
 
 38 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 philosophical doctrinizing or metaphysical speculation. 
 Here his sharp distinction between intellection and intui- 
 tion becomes especially apparent. Even conceding that 
 in their effort to solve the master-mystery, poetry and 
 philosophy start out over the same road, incontestably 
 they reach a parting of the ways before their quest is 
 fairly begun. For upon poetry are imposed formal 
 requirements from which philosophy is relieved, require- 
 ments that philosophy is incapable of fulfilling. Poetry 
 alone can intuitively apprehend and sensuously embody 
 the Idee. To poetry alone is accorded the power of vital- 
 izing an illuminating idea by endowing it with attributes 
 of substantial reality. 21 Again and again Hebbel harks 
 back to the chief article of his aesthetic creed, he asserts 
 over and over again that the aim and object of great 
 poetry is to make the cosmic process sensuously appre- 
 hensible. 22 If it is essential that the particular be trans- 
 figured into the universal, it is equally essential that the 
 ethereal Idee solidify into palpable form. 23 Reflective, 
 descriptive or expository verse is not poetry at all, for 
 it defines what it should create, dismembers and thus 
 destroys what it should embody and imbue with life. 24 
 Exposition of philosophical ideas is as little the business 
 of the poet as demonstration of mathematical laws is that 
 of the composer. 25 The more an art-work's central ideas 
 depart from the concrete, the less often will the incarna- 
 tion of these ideas in their sensuous correlates be se- 
 cured. 26 Externality, plasticity, Anschauung characterize 
 
 21 Tgb. I, 1673. 
 
 22Tgb. I, 110; 126; 887; 1471, Is. 82 ff. and elsewhere. 
 
 23 "Der gemeine Stoff muss sich in eine Idee auflosen und 
 die Idee sich wieder zur Gestalt verdichten." Tgb. I, 1232, Is. 
 2-4. Cf. also Tgb. I, 1098. 
 
 24 Tgb. 111,4030; 5159. 
 
 25 Tgb. Ill, 4576. 
 2 Tgb. Ill, 4360.
 
 HEBBEL'S AESTHETIC THEORY 39 
 
 the productive function of genius; hollow abstraction, 
 reflection stamp the inferior reproductive activity of 
 talent. 27 The importance that Hebbel attaches to the 
 outer world springs from his conception of conscious 
 experience in general. Full self-realization for him is 
 dependent upon an external medium. It follows as a 
 logical corollary that the poet must resort to the outer 
 and visible if he would ever hope to communicate the 
 inner and invisible. 28 The lifelikeness of great produc- 
 tions, the realism of fine dramatic characterization are 
 due to the presence throughout of appropriate material 
 and spiritual atmosphere. 29 Through such atmosphere 
 the poet gives form and substance to the soul of nature, 
 objectifies the Idee, the necessary and inevitable course 
 of universal progress, and so reaches the height of 
 Darstellung? 
 
 With utmost impartiality Hebbel applies his test of 
 exteriority to the productions of specific authors, quite 
 unconcerned whether or not his results agree with con- 
 ventional opinion. Thus he commends Laube's con- 
 scientious concern for the "medium" of his characters, 
 yet cannot condone absence of the really vital factor: 
 "das Allgemeine bildet sich in ihnen nicht zu einem 
 Besonderen aus." 31 While Hebbel shared the general 
 admiration for Goethe and Uhland, he does not spare 
 their works when they seem to violate the principle of 
 exteriority. 32 
 
 27Tgb. Ill, 4413; 5159; Tgb. IV, 5479. 
 
 28 "Der Dichter muss durchaus nach dem Aeusseren, dem 
 Sichtbaren, Begranzten, Endlichen greifen, wenn er das Innere, 
 Unsichtbare, Unbegranzte, Unendliche darstellen will." Tgb. II, 
 2318, Is. 8-10. Cf. also Tgb. I, 1587; Tgb. II, 1879. 
 
 2 Tgb. 111,4271; 5178; 5182. 
 
 30 Tgb. Ill, 4396. 
 
 31 Tgb. I, 960. 
 
 32 Uhland's Herzog Ernst, for instance, gives us a decla- 
 mation on loyalty instead of embodying loyalty itself (Tgb. II,
 
 40 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Of course we are not to suppose that wherever the two 
 salient elements heretofore discussed are found we in- 
 variably have great art. So complex a matter is not 
 simply the sum of its parts. It is obvious that for Heb- 
 bel the requirements of perfect poetry are unfulfilled if 
 the corporeal and the spiritual are not interfused, if the 
 inner vision does not enter into perfect amalgam with 
 the expressional media. Neither vision alone, nor sen- 
 suousness alone, will suffice. Even the presence of both 
 elements will not suffice, unless there is reciprocal coin- 
 cidence, unless the one is completely immersed in the 
 other. Anschauung, the indispensable faculty of the 
 artist, involves simultaneous birth of idea and medium. 
 Hence Hebbel's denunciation of sensuous opulence that 
 is not the genuine product of Anschauung. 33 In the sec- 
 ond part of Faust the high aim of great art is not reached 
 because a naive and sensuous mythology is here em- 
 ployed as mere decoration for profound ideas; the two 
 are not the indissoluble product of one creative act. 34 
 Hebbel's criticisms of Schiller's creations condense to 
 the charge that reflection constitutes their main staple. 
 Invariably, Schiller's starting point is the universal, 
 which the particular serves merely to illustrate. His 
 dramas are parables, comparisons, graphic expositions 
 of ideas, not symbolic embodiments of them. 35 The 
 dramas of Victor Hugo though genuine creations of 
 fantasy and not mere arithmetical problems are none 
 the less abortions in Hebbel's opinion. 36 He makes the 
 
 2265). In Goethe's "Wahlverwandtschaften" the effect of the 
 whole would have been greatly enhanced for Hebbel had Goethe 
 concretized the deep significance of marriage for the "Idee," 
 instead of reasoning about it (Tgb. Ill, 4357). 
 
 ss Tgb. Ill, 4417. Cf . Tgb. II, 2034. 
 
 84 Tgb. Ill, 3469. 
 
 35 Tgb. I, 1024; Tgb. IV, 5327. 
 
 3 Tgb. IV, 6135.
 
 HEBBEL'S AESTHETIC THEORY 41 
 
 general charge against French poets that with them fan- 
 tasy seems incapable of wedding itself with "Art-sense" 
 (Kunstv er stand) . Alike distasteful to him are the 
 "Ideal" of the French classic tragedies and the "Natur- 
 alism" of the Romanticists. For each seems to him "a 
 hollow abstraction." With the French poets everything 
 must either evaporate into volatile gas or reduce into 
 dead ashes. Unknown to them is the genial middle 
 course, where phenomena enjoy their full prerogatives 
 yet do not obscure or violate the Idee, that eternal neces- 
 sity whence they sprang. 37 
 
 Just appreciation of Hebbel's art-criteria goes far 
 toward explaining his high estimate of his own poetic 
 greatness and tends to justify his persistent assertion of 
 spiritual independence. That certain germinal ideas of 
 his have a close kinship with philosophic doctrines of 
 Schelling, Solger, Hegel, and Schopenhauer cannot be 
 denied. Hebbel frankly admitted that Hegel's concep- 
 tion of guilt was identical with his own. 38 He acknowl- 
 edged that Schopenhauer's Weltanschauung and his own 
 were akin. 39 On the other hand he stoutly insisted that 
 his works were the products of a mysterious spiritual 
 process, that they were essentially independent of and 
 superior to any and all philosophic ideas. 40 There is little 
 to be gained by further investigation of Hebbel's indebt- 
 edness to theories current in his day. There must in- 
 evitably remain as insoluble residue of such investiga- 
 
 37 Tgb. IV, 6135. 
 
 38 Tgb. II, 3088. 
 
 39 Waetzoldt, p. 64. 
 
 40 As R. Petsch points out, one must sharply distinguish 
 between Beruhrung, Angleichung, on the one hand and Abhdng- 
 igkeit on the other in judging Hebbel's relation to the ideas of 
 his time. See R. Petsch, Zur Einfuhrung in das Studium Fried- 
 rich Hebbels, Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, 1 Jahrgang, 
 1 Halbband, 1909, S. 23.
 
 42 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 tion the question as to how far such theories lie outside 
 the sphere of individual creation, how far they are con- 
 stitutional tendencies, "persuasions, forecasts of the in- 
 tellect itself." As such they might conceivably be ex- 
 hibited by minds having otherwise little kinship, work- 
 ing in different fields and independently of one another. 
 In the philosophy of Plato even, with all its seeming 
 freshness, "nothing but the life-giving principle of cohe- 
 sion is new; the new perspective, the resultant com- 
 plexion, the expressiveness which familiar thoughts at- 
 tain by novel juxtaposition. In other words, the form is 
 new. But then, in the creation of philosophical literature, 
 as in all other products of art, form, in the full significa- 
 tion of that word, is everything, and the mere matter 
 nothing." 41 
 
 Similarly Hebbel repeatedly maintains that mere mat- 
 ter is of secondary interest : "Es bleibt immer nur die eine 
 Frage nach der hochsten, vollendetsten Form, denn der 
 Gehalt, so oder so verstreut, ist iiberall. Und da stellt 
 sich das Verhaltniss zwischen Kunst und Philosophic so 
 heraus, dass jene diese Form ist, diese aber ihre Probe." 42 
 He implies here that the poet has free access to all mate- 
 rials. The stores of universal life and knowledge are at 
 his disposal. And we have ample evidence that Hebbel 
 put this theory into practice. He impressed Kuh as one 
 who consumed all with whom he came in contact. 43 His 
 fellow men, their soul-conflicts and struggles with envi- 
 ronment, their summary of human existence as regis- 
 tered in their works and revealed in their inner life all 
 
 41 Walter Pater, Plato and Platonism, Chapter I (Mac- 
 millan & Co., 1910, p. 8). 
 
 42 Tgb. II, 3135. 
 
 43 Kuh calls him a "Gehirnraubtier" and quotes him as 
 saying, "Ich bedarf der grossen Stadt, ich verzehre Menschen" 
 (Kuh, Biographic Fried. Hebbels, Wien, 1877, II, p. 669).
 
 HEBBEL'S AESTHETIC THEORY 43 
 
 this was spiritual food for Hebbel. From reading and 
 study, from personal associations and fellowships, from 
 reflections and visions in solitary moments he gathered 
 and assimilated his nurture. Undeniably, valuable ser- 
 vice has been rendered by those who have examined the 
 nature and source of his supplies and have disengaged 
 and analyzed all that yielded heat and energy and tissue 
 in especially rich measure. But strong emphasis must 
 be put upon what is so obvious and consequently so un- 
 impressive, namely that vital tissue, once formed, is 
 something distinct from any and every thing that may 
 have contributed to its formation. Hamlet is not Saxo 
 Grammaticus, the fate of Hebbel's Agnes Bernauer is 
 not Hegel's Schuldbe griff. Waiving the question of pre- 
 cedence or of superiority, Hebbel's dictum is eternally 
 true, that "Gehalt, so oder so verstreut, ist iiberall." The 
 form that the poet gives to mere matter, from whatever 
 source drawn, is the only true index of his work, the only 
 valid measure of its character and greatness. 44 
 
 The chief claim to distinction in Hebbel's work rests 
 in its form, employing this term in Hebbel's broad sense 
 of it. Because Hebbel felt that this most essential ele- 
 ment in his work was new, he resented all imputation 
 of Hegelianism. The constituent particles may have 
 lived before in other organisms, but the precise cohesion 
 that they observe in his completed pieces is unique. Of 
 this he felt sure, and this no impartial criticism will dis- 
 allow. 
 
 To contribute this prime element of form many factors 
 must co-operate. In Hebbel's case the predominance of 
 emotion, the essentially intuitive nature of his inspira- 
 
 44 "So wenig das abgezapfte Blut der Mensch ist, so wenig 
 ist der auf Sentenzen gezogene Gedanken-Gehalt das Gedicht," 
 Tgb. II, 2786.
 
 44 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 tion, the plastic firmness and fulness of his imagination 
 are all-important. A significant factor in Hebbel's poetic 
 form is the prominence allotted to the insoluble, to the 
 incommunicable that lures and eludes mortal percep- 
 tion. 45 As we have seen, Hebbel banishes reflection from 
 the realm of poetry, for the first because it slays where 
 it should endow with life. Reflection further thwarts 
 the purpose of art by pretensions to definiteness and final- 
 ity, qualities that impose intolerable restrictions upon 
 prophetic imagination. To mortal compassed about by 
 finite limitations, art brings word of the Infinite; not 
 in succinctly formulated revelations, but in fervid visions 
 in which each unfolded vista outlines others still veiled. 
 On the horizon of the poet's new land rise dim ink- 
 lings of worlds unexplored. Much of the power of 
 Hebbel's symbolism comes from this suggestion of mys- 
 tery yet unsolved. The common intellect, which desires 
 to move in certain paths, regards such symbolic sugges- 
 tion of the unknown as intolerable obscurity. Commend 
 it to reflective poetry, which is succinct and conclusive. 
 The average man wants his problems settled. He favors 
 such poetry as will afford him mental relief, a holiday 
 light-heartedness and a complacent assurance that he has 
 extracted all the reflective wisdom that the poet has 
 injected. In sharpest contrast with this cocksure com- 
 placency of message and medium stands Hebbel's doc- 
 trine of the mysterious symbolism of art, his requirement 
 of an indecipherable remainder in all serious creation: 
 "Jedes echte Kunstwerk ist ein geheimnissvolles, viel- 
 deutiges, in gewissem Sinn unergriindliches Symbol. Je 
 
 45 Cf. Goethe's insistence upon the incomprehensible and 
 incommensurable in poetry (Eckermann's "Gesprache," May 6, 
 1827; March 8, 1831). Dilthey interprets this incommensurable 
 as the absence of an abstract idea underlying the poetic creation 
 (Das Erlebnis und die Dichtung, Leipzig, 1906, pp. 138 ff.)-
 
 HEBBEL'S .ESTHETIC THEORY 45 
 
 mehr nun eine Dichtung aus dem blossen Gedanken 
 hervor ging, je weniger ist sie dies, um so eher wird sie 
 also verstanden und aufgefasst, um so sichrer aber auch 
 bald ausgeschopft und als unbrauchbare Muschel, die 
 ihre Perle hergab, bei Seite geworfen. Der sog. Lehr- 
 dichter liefert gar statt des Rathsels, das uns allein inter- 
 essirt, die nackte, kahle Auflosung. Dichten heisst nicht 
 Leben-Entziffern, sondern Leben-Schaffen !" 46 
 
 Such a conception pf art-symbolism naturally led Heb- 
 bel to favor the introduction of the supernatural into 
 poetry the supernatural rightly understood and prop- 
 erly restricted. This supernatural element must be no 
 mere Spieler ei as in Wieland's Oberon; it must be of 
 sterner stuff and of more serious purpose, springing 
 from mysterious phases of nature and of human life, 
 resting upon the incomprehensible yet well-authenticated 
 communion between microcosm and macrocosm. 47 Heb- 
 bel has in mind not those excrescences of the super- 
 natural, not ghosts or phantoms or fairies, primarily. 
 He refers rather to elemental and universal phases of 
 experience, to haunting dreams, strange obsessions, 
 ominous apprehensions of a secret presence in nature, 
 of a strange power there to depart from the usual, the 
 natural. Such premonitions may be better attuned to 
 the Idee than the so-called normal and natural. 48 Ac- 
 cordingly he defends the mystical elements of his poem 
 Vater und Sohn (VI, 427) as being fully justified by 
 the underlying idea. 49 For the same reason he vindicates 
 the mythical and mystical basis of his Nibelungen as in 
 no wise incompatible with a tragedy in which the inter- 
 
 ne Tgb. II, 2265, Is. 10-19. Cf. also Tgb. I, 1057; 1164; 
 1171; 1339. 
 
 47 Tgb. II, 3287. 
 4 Tgb. IV, 5644. 
 49 Tgb. I, 1006.
 
 46 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 ests and motives are purely human. The Idee is not 
 restricted in its operation to this limited group of phe- 
 nomena that constitutes our mundane life. From the 
 central cosmic source issue countless other spheres un- 
 fettered by our notions of natural and supernatural. 
 The mysticism of his Nibelungen "soil hochstens daran 
 erinnern, dass in dem Gedicht nicht die Secunden-Uhr, 
 die das Daseyn der Miicken und Ameisen abmisst, son- 
 dern nur die Stunden-Uhr schlagt." 50 Hebbel finds mys- 
 tery enough to justify his attitude in man himself, in his 
 physical and spiritual attributes, in the clash between 
 conscience and reason on the one hand and rebellious 
 desires on the other a clash that seems the very point 
 of tangency of the Idee and the individual in the con- 
 stitution of humans. 51 
 
 This leads us briefly to consider the mystery attributed 
 by Hebbel to the poetic act itself. We appreciate the 
 dangers of accepting unconditionally a poet's dicta upon 
 the operation of his own poetic faculty. 52 The conten- 
 tion has gained some acceptance that one may easily be 
 misled into unwarranted inferences by deferring unre- 
 servedly to Hebbel's analysis of his art. Yet it seems 
 fair to ask what, in all reason, could possibly afford 
 safer guidance to right impressions of a complex poetic 
 genius than the explicit self-analysis of that genius? 
 Undoubtedly theory and practice must not be divorced, 
 
 >Tgb. IV, 5933, Is. 5-8. 
 
 " Tgb. IV, 5933. 
 
 02 Cf. Arno Scheunert, Dber Hebbel's Aesthetische Welt- 
 anschauung und Methoden ihrer Feststellung, Ztschft. f. Aesthe- 
 tik, 1907, pp. 70-129. In this very able article Scheunert does full 
 justice to the difficulties that beset critics in their effort to bring 
 Hebbel's theories into exact alignment with his practice and 
 with his estimate of others' works. To make practice the test 
 of theory is not always satisfactory, inasmuch as estimates of 
 practice involve a personal element and are consequently likely 
 to be divergent. A case in point is Hebbel's lyric poetry, which
 
 HEBBEL'S AESTHETIC THEORY 47 
 
 the works must supplement the poet's analysis of their 
 conception. But is this method quite free from danger? 
 Are we not very apt to confuse what really is present 
 in Hebbel's art with what we are able to find there? 
 We have in Hebbel a solendid example of rich, native 
 endowment fashioned into high use by bitterly contend- 
 ing forces. No one watched with deeper interest or 
 noted with more minute care the growth of that endow- 
 ment than the poet himself. We are convinced there- 
 fore that no one peered more deeply than he into the 
 nature of that endowment or estimated more accurately 
 the forces that moulded it. It is in part this conviction 
 that disposes us to defer to Hebbel when there is a clash 
 of opinion; to accept, for instance, his stout assertion 
 of independence, however critics may vie in magnifying 
 his indebtedness to this or that philosophy. Now, if the 
 poet's self-analysis carries weight in estimating his gen- 
 eral aesthetic creed, his conception of the Idee and of 
 tragic guilt, quite as authoritative must be his self- 
 inspection upon the important side of the nature and 
 operation of the poetic faculty. One is forced to object, 
 therefore, when utterances of Hebbel involving minute 
 introspection are lightly dismissed for one reason or 
 another as smacking of youthful exaggeration, or as 
 betraying immature judgment, or as evincing lapse of 
 
 for Scheunert constitutes confirmation of his Pantragismus- 
 theory, whereas his critics see in that poetry a refutation of 
 Scheunert's view. Scheunert gets close to the root of the diffi- 
 culty when he says in effect that to comprehend a poet's aesthetic 
 principles is one thing, to share the underlying experiences of 
 those principles and to recognize their application in specific art- 
 works is quite another. He makes the point that our appre- 
 ciation can be but a faint reflection of the poet's own pleasure 
 in his spiritual creation. As the offspring of a passionate 
 Erlebnis, the poem has a power and a content for the poet that 
 we cannot hope to find, since we approach it without this pre-natal 
 sympathy.
 
 48 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 memory. None of these grounds for disqualification can 
 fairly be urged in the case of statements made early in 
 life and repeatedly confirmed at various periods of 
 growth and maturity. We have such a case in Hebbel's 
 frequent allusion to the mysterious element in poetic 
 creation, to the similarity between the artistic exercise 
 and dream. 
 
 We are confronted here with a phase of the mooted 
 ego-problem, the question as to the psychic conditions 
 and functional activity incident to inspired creation. 
 Hebbel's attitude toward this problem was on the whole 
 consistent. The conviction came over him as a young 
 man that the inspired-state and the dream-state are strik- 
 ingly similar, and this conviction was confirmed more 
 and more as he matured. That this identification of 
 Dichten and Trdumen was no rhetorical figure but the 
 expression of a firm belief, cannot be too strongly em- 
 phasized. Unfortunately, Hebbel has not often dis- 
 cussed this point in detail, consequently the particular 
 nature of the resemblance in question must be in part 
 conjectured. The passages that bear directly or indi- 
 rectly upon this matter seem to imply that both inspired 
 creation and dreaming involve a blending of individual 
 with universal consciousness. During dream, as well as 
 during creative exaltation, the bounds between self and 
 non-self seem attenuated, if not quite effaced. Proteus- 
 like, inspired poet and dreaming mortal seem to run 
 through all forms and to be imprisoned by none. Like 
 Shelley's "Cloud," they pass through the pores of the 
 universe, they change but cannot die. Personality, with 
 its bodily limitations, a mere point in time and space, 
 seems less the centre and source of self than does bound- 
 less nature with its endless variety. For poet and 
 dreamer alike the limits of self are obscured. The in-
 
 HEBBEL'S ESTHETIC THEORY 49 
 
 tensive enjoyment of art may transport one into a simi- 
 lar state of exaltation. Hebbel was thus transported by 
 the reading of his Opfer des Fruhlings. In the ecstatic 
 sense of unbounded being and of absorption in the uni- 
 verse aroused by the enjoyment of his own poem, he 
 describes his state in imagery whose meaning can only 
 imperfectly be divined: "Das Universum, wie einen 
 Mantel, um sich herumziehen und sich so darin ein- 
 wickeln, dass das Fernste und das Nachste uns gleich- 
 massig erwarmt: das heisst Dichten, Formen iiberhaupt. 
 Diess Gedanken-Gefuhl kam mir heute, als ich auf der 
 Strasse mein Gedicht: Das Opfer des Fruhlings fur 
 mich hin recitirte." 53 
 
 This idea of poetic creation as springing from a mys- 
 terious state having in common with dream the fusion 
 of ego and non-ego would be regarded with disfavor by 
 some students of mind. Antithesis of an impressing ob- 
 jective environment and an impressible subjective organ- 
 ism is pronounced in certain professional circles the in- 
 dispensable condition of conscious experience. Thinkers 
 of this school have their own way of explaining that 
 which impresses the exalted poet as a falling away of 
 confining barriers, an expansion of self-sense and the 
 sense of outward things into a transcendent self, with a 
 "plenary sense of things." According to Jodl, for in- 
 stance, the Insichversunkensein of the artist is merely 
 a relative fading of the prerequisite antithesis; absolute 
 effacement of the antithesis is for this scholar a psycho- 
 logical illusion. 54 
 
 Eliminating all specific features, we see here again the 
 main outlines of an old dispute, namely the question of 
 
 53 Tgb. Ill, 3882. Cf. also Traum und Poesie, VI, 372. 
 
 54 Jodl, Lehrbuch d. Psychologic, Stuttgart u. Berlin, 1908, 
 I, ch. 3, p. 122.
 
 50 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 art's rank in the scale of spiritual activities. Students 
 of the development of culture, in reviewing the achieve- 
 ments of human mind, generally regard this mystic theory 
 of art as one of a number of aesthetic "attitudes" ex- 
 hibited at different periods of human progress. Bene- 
 detto Croce 55 to cite a representative modern view 
 recognizes five orders of aesthetic theory, which are at 
 once stages in the spirit's groping toward light and also 
 tempers of mind, revealed in varying degree by great 
 intellects of all epochs. Among these orders the mystic 
 occupies a position of high rank, being superseded only 
 by intuition-expression, the order of which Croce is chief 
 exponent. Croce's own Aesthetic pays willing homage 
 to art as one of the two great manifestations of theo- 
 retic spirit, yet subordinates the intuition-expression of 
 art to the pure concepts of intellective philosophy. On 
 the principle that the lowest step in a stairway is no less 
 worthy than the highest, the philosopher of Croce's type 
 views the vision of the poet much as maturity does the 
 alert but unschooled reasoning of youth. 
 
 With this view we may fitly compare Hegel's, culmi- 
 nating in the assertion that the visions of art have had 
 their day and must now yield to the concepts of phil- 
 osophy. Against both views Hebbel's supreme exalta- 
 tion of art is an unflinching protest. His poetic products 
 are fruits of a supreme faculty of mysterious nature, a 
 superior form of intuition. 56 This alone is sufficient to 
 bring his view within the pale of a mystical aesthetic, 
 which, within a certain variation of form, has preserved 
 
 fi5 Benedetto Croce, Aesthetic, trans, by Douglas Ainslee. 
 Macmillan & Co., 1909. Appendix : Pure Intuition and the Lyrical 
 Character of Art. 
 
 56 See Croce, p. 105, where reference is made to a superior 
 imagination, a spiritual faculty upon the alleged existence of 
 which metaphysic seeks to maintain its place among sciences of 
 the spirit. Croce's attitude toward this metaphysic and its pur-
 
 HEBBEL'S ESTHETIC THEORY 51 
 
 the same essential characteristics. If we may call Heb- 
 bel's artistic activity intellectual intuition because it 
 divines and embodies the unity and interpenetration of 
 universal and particular, we may with equal justice term 
 it mystical because it "creates its world with the varying 
 elements of the impressions and of the feelings" through 
 the ministry of a marvelous, uncomprehended faculty. 
 Efforts to relate this faculty to the other spiritual powers 
 have not proved illuminating. It is felt by some to differ 
 essentially from simple intuition. "It is placed variously 
 above, beside, beneath intellectual intuition." Many 
 adopt the questionable method of summarily denying its 
 existence. Others are more politic and content them- 
 selves with pointing out its intangibility. For Croce it 
 is "a faculty marvelous indeed and delightful to possess ; 
 but we, who do not possess it, have no means of proving 
 its existence." What to others is thus confessedly a 
 thing unknown Hebbel takes it upon himself to pro- 
 claim. This proclamation is particularly full and em- 
 phatic in a letter that cannot be accused of exhibiting 
 youthful immaturity. In the prime of life Hebbel here 
 deliberately designates the poetic activity as a dream 
 state midway between the instinctive processes of the 
 animal and the introspective consciousness of man. We 
 quote Hebbel's observations without further comment, 
 leaving refutation to those who maintain that intellection 
 and artistic invention Denktatigkeit and Dichttdtigkeit 
 are manifestations of the same consciousness-grade. 57 
 Whatever attitude science may take, Hebbel's theory 
 comes to us with the powerful sanction of a lifetime 
 
 ported spiritual basis is that of outspoken scepticism. Hebbel 
 stoutly asserts the operation of such a higher faculty, though for 
 him it is the vital force of art, not of metaphysic. 
 
 57 "Denktatigkeit und Dichttatigkeit stehen auf namlicher 
 Stufe der Bewusstseinsentwicklung und im gleichen Verhaltnis
 
 52 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 devoted to the creation of art and to the solution of its 
 mysteries : 
 
 "Sie wollen an den Dichter glauben, wie an die Gott- 
 heit; warum so hoch hinauf . . . . ? Sollten Sie niclit 
 weiter gelangen, wenn Sie zum Thier hinuntersteigen 
 und dem kiinstlerischen Vermogen die Mittelstufe zwi- 
 schen dem Instinct des Thiers und dem Bewusstsein des 
 Menschen anweisen? .... Das Thier fiihrt ein Traum- 
 leben, das die Natur unmittelbar regelt und streng auf 
 die Zwecke bezieht, durch deren Erreichung auf der 
 einen Seite das Geschopf selbst, auf der anderen aber 
 die Welt besteht. Ein ahnliches Traumleben fiihrt der 
 Kiinstler, natiirlich nur als Kiinstler, und wahrscheinlich 
 aus demselben Grunde, denn die kosmischen Gesetze 
 diirften nicht klarer in seinen Gesichtskreis fallen, wie 
 die organischen in den des Thieres und dennoch kann er 
 keins seiner Bilder abrunden und schliessen, ohne auf 
 sie zuriick zu gehen. Warum sollte nun die Natur nicht 
 fur ihn thun, was sie fur das Thier thut. Sie werden 
 aber auch iiberhaupt finden, um tiefer auszugreifen, dass 
 die Lebensprocesse Nichts mit dem Bewusstseyn zu thun 
 haben, und die kiinstlerische Zeugung ist der hochste von 
 alien; sie unterscheiden sich ja eben dadurch von den 
 logischen, dass man sie absolut nicht auf bestimmte 
 Factoren zuriick fiihren kann .... Sie hatten daher 
 vollkommen Recht, Newton auszulachen, wenn er 'das 
 naive Kind spielen' und behaupten wollte, der fallende 
 Apfel habe ihn mit dem Gravitations- System inspirirt, 
 wahrend er ihm recht gern den ersten Anstoss zum 
 Reflectiren iiber den Gegenstand gegeben haben kann; 
 wogegen Sie Dante zu nah treten wurden, wenn Sie es 
 bezweifeln wollten, dass ihm Himmel und Holle zugleich 
 bei'm Anblick eines halb hellen, halb dunklen Waldes in 
 colossalen Umrissen vor der Seele aufgestiegen seyen. 
 Denn Systeme werden nicht ertraumt, Kunstwerke aber 
 auch nicht errechnet oder, was auf das Namliche hinaus 
 
 zu den elementalen Prozessen," Jodl, Lehrbuch d. Psychologic, 
 I, Kap. 3, S. 189 ff. Cf. also Dilthey's remark on the miraculous 
 in the operations of fantasy (Das Erlebnis und Die Dichtung, 
 p. 145).
 
 HEBBEL'S AESTHETIC THEORY 53 
 
 lauft, da das Denken nur ein hoheres Rechnen ist, 
 erdacht. Die kunstlerische Phantasie ist eben das Organ, 
 welches diejenigen Tiefen der Welt erschopft, die den 
 iibrigen Facultaten unzuganglich sind, und meine 
 Anschauungsweise setzt demnach an die Stelle eines 
 falschen Realismus, der den Theil fiir das Ganze nimmt, 
 nur den wahren, der auch das mit umfasst, was nicht auf 
 der Oberflache liegt " 58 
 
 From utterances already cited and from others that 
 formulate the aims and methods of art in general, Heb- 
 bel's conception of the specific sphere of lyric poetry 
 may reasonably be inferred. We shall not stray far 
 from his conception if we define lyric poetry as symbolic 
 expression of emotional moments in which the plenary 
 self is markedly dominant. As the function of art in 
 general is to manifest the cosmic forces that determine 
 particular conditions of human existence, so the special 
 task of lyric poetry is to grasp and transmit momentary 
 phases of such existence in their universal ratio. 59 Emo- 
 tional states Zustande with their component moments 
 constitute the vital element of song. Man's inner life, 
 which we are able to apprehend only as a complex pro- 
 gression of such Zustande, thus affords rich stores of 
 material and endless possibilities for lyric treatment. In 
 the rainfall of our emotional states the lyric poet momen- 
 tarily illuminates a single drop. 60 His song catches a 
 glint of that restless current of life as it flows from the 
 ultimate sources in obedience to embanking environ- 
 ment. 61 
 
 68 Tgb. IV, 6133. Cf. also Tgb. I, 1038; 1039; 1174; 1265; 
 1355; 1585; 1620; Tgb. II, 2301; 3045; Tgb. Ill, 4188; 4435; Tgb. 
 IV, 5767; 5920. 
 
 5 Tgb. IV, 5841. Cf. also Tgb. I, 126; 136; 645; 748. 
 
 60 "In Bezug auf die Lyrik : das ganze Gef uhlsleben ist 
 ein Regen, das eben heraus gehobene Gefiihl ist ein von der 
 Sonne beleuchteter Tropfen." Tgb. II, 1953, Is. 2-4. 
 
 61 Tgb. I, 538; 1320.
 
 54 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Hebbel follows tradition when he emphasizes feeling 
 as the indispensable, the vital attribute of lyric poetry. 62 
 A number of his statements merely elucidate how this 
 vital attribute may best be secured. In his portrayal of 
 emotional life the poet must aim at heightened intensity 
 through restricted extensity. "Gefuhl ist das unmittelbar 
 von innen heraus wirkende Leben. Die Kunst es zu 
 begrenzen und darzustellen, macht den lyrischen Dich- 
 ter." 63 But if Hebbel restricts the momentary field in 
 order to insure intensity of impression, he also extends 
 the territory within which momentary fields may be 
 chosen. Not the powerful, elemental feelings alone in- 
 spire prophetic vision, but the more gentle and placid 
 states as well, the elusive moods and haunting reveries 
 implied in the connotation of the German term Gemilt. 
 Gemiit transports us to those remote spiritual realms 
 that lend symbolic import to the actual world we live in. 
 The lyric poet must appeal through and to this strange 
 power, he must be able by a higher conjury to super- 
 induce that soul-exaltation in which human conscious- 
 ness is mysteriously correlated with a particular present 
 and a universal future. 64 He must have access there- 
 
 2 Tgb. I, 441. 
 
 63 Tgb. I, 111. Cf. also "Ein lyrisches Gedicht ist da, so 
 wie das Gefuhl sich durch den Gedanken im Bewusstsein scharf 
 abgranzt," Tgb. II, 2081. Again: "In die dammernde, duftende 
 Gefiihlswelt des begeisterten Dichters fallt ein Mondenstral des 
 Bewusstseins, und das, was er beleuchtet, wird Gestalt." Tgb. 
 II, 2023. 
 
 64 For the expression of the "Weltprozess" in Hebbel's 
 lyrics see Scheunert Uber Hebbel's aesth. Weltansch, etc., Zt f. 
 Aesth., 1907, pp. 103 ff. The corrective phase of this process, so 
 much emphasized in the dramas, is here waived. The two cosmic 
 factors are represented, however. The "individual" assumes the 
 form of the momentary mood portrayed. The "Idee," though 
 repressed, is nevertheless present as "Nuance," that is to say 
 constructively, inasmuch as the self-assertion of the individual 
 is enacted wholly in the soul of the poet, himself the exponent 
 of the "Idee" and the representative of its claims. In his sane-
 
 HEBBEL'S ESTHETIC THEORY 55 
 
 fore to the soul's most hidden recesses, he must rule all 
 her phases and currents. Ebb as well as floodtide must 
 obey his word. 
 
 In thus enlarging the domain of lyric poetry to include 
 the most evanescent subjective states, Hebbel does not 
 relax the requirements of plasticity. Subjectivity is no 
 excuse for the void and the formless. Though art like 
 life is a Werden, it is also ein Fertiges and must exhibit 
 completeness in a certain sense. 65 Emotion, feeling, is 
 not so much life as it is the material of life, a potential 
 that awaits conversion into an essential. 66 Certain sub- 
 jective states are fully born only when they become ob- 
 jectified; and these have preeminently a status in song, 
 for through song alone can the soul be delivered of 
 them. 67 
 
 We mentioned, in passing, Hebbel's attitude toward 
 physical environment. This attitude is of especial im- 
 portance in connection with his lyric compositions. 
 Through over-attention to the oracular ideality of his 
 dramas we may easily overlook there the evidences of 
 extraordinary susceptibility to sensuous beauty. Our 
 remissness is the more natural since in his tragedies Heb- 
 bel everywhere combines with ready tribute to beauty's 
 high estate a stout insistence upon her pure lineage. Only 
 descent from the Idee can impart divine sanction to 
 beauty and lend to her person the sacredness of the inevi- 
 table. 68 But in his songs our poet is not always so in- 
 
 tion of this self-assertion, through portrayal of it, the lyric poet 
 is animated by a high purpose : "Ein Stuck individuellen Lebens 
 so zu gestalten, dass in ihm die Idee in bestimmter Nuance sich 
 spiegeln und geniessen kann, mag es sich nun um ein Vogel 
 Blumen Kinder oder ein Liebesleben handeln." Ibid., p. 114. 
 65 Tgb. I, 1261; 1471, Is. 95 ff.; Tgb. II, 2258. 
 
 66 "Das Gefiihl ist Lebensmaterial, das erst geformt wer- 
 den soil." Tgb. II, 2288. 
 
 67 Tgb. I, 1588; Tgb. II, 2206. 
 
 68 Tgb. Ill, 4360.
 
 56 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 sistent upon beauty's divine anointment. Here upon 
 occasions he is not above unrecking surrender to un- 
 anointed physical comeliness. 69 For with him as with 
 great artists in general the Apollonian impulse is deep- 
 seated, despite the genuineness of the Dionysian. After 
 all is said, he, too, asks primarily to be enkindled by the 
 sensuous loveliness of art's revelation, and is reluctant 
 coldly to pry into her fair plasticity. 
 
 But the prominence of the sensuous in Hebbel's songs, 
 like his attitude toward the outer world, has a direct 
 bearing upon his conception of conscious experience in 
 general. It is noteworthy that a deep sense of kinship 
 with the outer world was early aroused and fostered in 
 our poet. Thus he was much impressed as a young man 
 by Goethe's appreciation of Winckelmann as a sensitive 
 nature, irresistibly impelled to seek in the outer world 
 appropriate counterparts of that which was within the 
 soul, thereby to expand inner life to fulness and cer- 
 tainty. 70 We may well believe that Goethe's observation 
 expressed an early ideal of Hebbel's; at least he began 
 quite young to care deeply for those external comple- 
 ments of soul experience, "die antwortenden Bilder in 
 der ausseren Welt .... die das Innere vollig zum 
 Ganzen und Gewissen steigern." The high import of 
 the outward, the inadequacy of the inward for the highest 
 vision and the worthiest creation, this is a thought that 
 he repeatedly emphasizes. 71 He is not one of those who 
 scorn the body in their veneration of the spirit. The ten- 
 derest ties bind the soul with its bodily dwelling, and 
 
 e Tgb. II, 2721. Cf. Tgb. Ill, 4360. 
 
 7Tgb. I, 560, p. 109. 
 
 71 "Der Mensch bedarf zur vollstandigen Entfesselung des 
 Innern immer des Aeuszeren," Tgb. II, 1879. "Der Mensch lebt 
 zwar aus sich selbst, aber nur die ausseren Eindriicke geben ihm 
 das Bewusstseyn seines Lebens," Tgb. I, 1702 a.
 
 HEBBEL'S AESTHETIC THEORY 57 
 
 these ties play a vital role in the individual's growth. 
 Those premonitions of an imperishable link between man 
 in his seeming detachment and the eternal source of life 
 were for the young Hebbel rooted in bodily faculties 
 rather than in mental. 72 Thus at first the external and 
 corporeal are placed upon a plane little if any lower than 
 the spiritual. Indeed the truly subjective is after all only 
 a more complete form of the objective. 73 The objective 
 affords full scope for the exercise of all human faculties, 
 its appeal is by no means restricted to the senses. Re- 
 flection and that which Schiller calls the sentimental 
 these are the narrow, the restricted things in Hebbel's 
 opinion. 74 Accordingly images taken from external 
 nature that complement internal states have both illus- 
 trative and demonstrative power. 75 Only that which is 
 sensuously apprehensible fuses intimately with man's 
 consciousness of his existence. 76 The good storyist 
 (Erzahler) always portrays the inner and the outer 
 simultaneously, one through the other. 77 . The irresist- 
 ible power of a simple poem like Uhland's Die linden 
 Lufte sind erwacht springs from its expression of the 
 plenary sense of things. The little song awakens within 
 us through sensuous imagery the exhilarating conscious- 
 ness of congruence between our central emotions and 
 phenomena of nature. 78 Thus art, by stimulating the 
 spiritual communion that subsists between all forms of 
 existence, inwardly unfolds and illuminates what the 
 senses and the intellect imperfectly report or define. 79 
 
 72 Tgb. I, 760. 
 
 73 Tgb. I, 963. 
 
 74 Tgb. I, 887. 
 
 75 Tgb. I, 808. 
 
 76 Tgb. I, 575. 
 
 77 Tgb. I, 719. 
 7 Tgb. I, 1083. 
 79 Tgb. I, 1707.
 
 58 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 This view of conscious experience and of aesthetic en- 
 joyment has a vital connection with the mystic view of 
 poetic conception and its resemblance to dreaming. The 
 mazes of sensuous impressions that mediate our con- 
 sciousness hinder rather than help the transcendent func- 
 tion of art when such impressions are treated as a sphere 
 distinct from self, at most serving only as a screen for 
 the projection of inner life. Hebbel seems to expect the 
 poet to obliterate the bounds between self and physical 
 environment, between subjective and objective bounds 
 that are inviolable for the discursive intellect, but intol- 
 erable to poetic intuition with its transcendent vision of 
 life. Thus in effect the poet must annex objective envi- 
 ronment, assimilate it as an integral part of self, not 
 disengage it, as we do in our abstract thinking. He must 
 not project himself into nature, but rather merge his 
 identity in that of nature and speak to us out of this 
 larger self. For the disintegrating, partial sense of 
 things the seer substitutes the larger, plenary sense of 
 things. Under this aspect, objective environment is ex- 
 alted into infinite artistic importance ; and every objective 
 item, every particle of sensible or empiric experience, 
 every hue, tone, surface, scent, contributes in some de- 
 gree toward the attainment of the higher self. The 
 mazes of concrete phenomena not only delight and stimu- 
 late a great poet, they fuse indissolubly with his subjec- 
 tive states and at rare moments become exalted with 
 these states into a higher consciousness, a larger being 
 commensurately nearer the Idee. 80 
 
 If we have rightly interpreted Hebbel's nature feeling 
 as an intuitive vision of communion between ego and 
 
 80 This is the cumulative import, as it seems to me, of such 
 passages as Tgb. I, 136, p. 29; 552; 1115; Tgb. II, 3140, Is. 1-6; Is. 
 26 ff.; and particularly Tgb. IV, 6133, Is. 46 ff. (see above, pp. 52- 
 3). In this connection cf. Tgb. Ill, 4111.
 
 HEBBEL'S AESTHETIC THEORY 59 
 
 non-ego in a spiritual existence upon a higher cosmic 
 plane, then all his utterances respecting poetic creation 
 must be read in the light of this transcendental doctrine. 
 Thus we must think of something deeper than associative 
 fancy when Hebbel notes how consistently with him 
 every inner phenomenon evokes an analogous outer 
 one. 81 We see the application of his cosmic theory when 
 Hebbel commits to poetry the task of representing the 
 necessary and the inevitable in such form as shall recon- 
 cile man with human destiny. 82 We incline to the same 
 interpretation of Hebbel's emphatic statement that the 
 Divine can be made to live in art only by becoming 
 human, earthy, "wenn es aus der Erde .... in marki- 
 ger, kraftiger Gestalt hervorgeht und sich mit ihr 
 vertragt." 83 Of like import is the warning to dramatists 
 to make all the utterances of their characters refer to 
 externals, for only in this way can inner life express it- 
 self with color and power, "denn es gestaltet sich nur in 
 den Reflexen der Welt und des Lebens." 84 In the pas- 
 sage of the diaries that gives so luminous an exposition 
 of the dualistic quality of art, the passage in which the 
 conventional requirement that poetry should present das 
 Gewordene, is opposed with the counter demand that 
 poetry's proper sphere is das Werdende he is not merely 
 emphasizing the importance of plastic fancy when he 
 insists that das Werdende be revealed in palpable forms, 
 that it never be permitted to decompose into the intan- 
 gible, the chaotic. 85 Something more than delight in the 
 plasticity of the early scenes of Judith prompted the 
 exultant cry: "Leben, Situation und Charakter springen 
 
 si Tgb. I, 800. 
 
 82 Tgb. I, 1288. 
 
 83 Tgb. I, 1079. 
 
 84 Tgb. I, 1062. 
 
 S5 Tgb. I, 1471, Is. 95 ff.
 
 60 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 in korniger Prosa .... frisch und kraftig hervor." 86 
 Such firm, palpable portraiture of life must have im- 
 pressed him as in very truth "Incarnation des Geistes im 
 Gedicht." 87 
 
 Emphasis upon the objective as the peculiar expres- 
 sional media of art has especial application to lyric 
 poetry. For if poetry in general makes much of the 
 sensuous, lyric poetry derives its very substance there- 
 from. Sensuousness is the surest means to elemental 
 directness of appeal, as well as to that unfathomable 
 mystery essential to lyrism. 88 As a consequence, Heb- 
 bel's persistent differentiation between reason and imagi- 
 nation is nowhere better exemplified than in his lyric 
 poems, and most perfectly in those that are conspicu- 
 ously sensuous. Here, as elsewhere, he displays thought, 
 but thought of an unusual type, the result of an unsearch- 
 able trans-intellectual process. 89 He displays subjectivity 
 but the subjectivity is mediated through the objective. 
 He displays the "universal," but the universal is secured 
 through symbolic portrayal of the "particular." 
 
 This exaltation of the corporeal in life and of con- 
 
 e Tgb. I, 1677. 
 
 87 Tgb. I, 1764. Cf. also Tgb. I, 1098; Tgb. Ill, 4271; 
 4278. 
 
 88 "Die Lyrik ist das Elementarische der Poesie, die un- 
 mittelbarste Vermittlung zwichen Subject und Object." Tgb. 
 II, 2687. "Ein Geheimniss muss immer iibrig bleiben und 
 lage das Geheimniss auch nur in der dunkeln Kraft des entzif- 
 fernden Worts. Im Lyrischen ist das offenbar; was ist eine 
 Romanze, ein Gedicht, wenn es nicht unermesslich ist, wenn 
 nicht aus jeder Auflosung des Rathsels ein neues Rathsel hervor 
 geht?" Tgb. I, 1057, p. 231, Is. 7-12. "Die echte Poesie dringt 
 aus der Seele, wie das heisse Blut aus der Ader, die es selbst 
 aufsprengte." Tgb. I, 1097. 
 
 89 "Wenn ich aber den Unterschied, der mir obschwebt, 
 angeben soil, so muss ich ihn darin setzen, dass der Dichter seine 
 Gedanken durch Gefuhlsanschauung, der Denker durch seinen 
 Verstand erlangt." Tgb. I, 41, Is. 5-8. Cf. also Tgb. I, 621 ; 641 ; 
 Tgb. II, 3047.
 
 HEBBEL'S ESTHETIC THEORY 61 
 
 crete symbolism in song is not new. Yet where so much 
 stress has been laid upon our poet's spiritual message 
 there is justification in emphasizing the astonishing 
 prominence assumed in that message by qualities of 
 sense. The vision of life symbolized in Hebbel's dramas 
 has been approached so long from the viewpoint of their 
 underlying message, that there may be some corrective 
 virtue in shifting attention to the poetic quality of that 
 message. And certainly Hebbel himself did not wish 
 this side of his art to be overlooked. He acknowledged 
 without stint the poet's debt to the sensuous beauty and 
 power of language. He fully appreciated that concrete 
 terms of color or scent or sound, palpable form and 
 sensuous imagery are frequently synonyms of the most 
 profound truth. 90 He was quite aware that sense 
 impressions, reproduced in idea, excite trains of asso- 
 ciation whose aid to vision far exceeds that of reason. 
 Tones of nature, lights and shadows, qualities of surface 
 or of temperature, speech that betrays the essence of 
 character, oracular utterances freighted with dark import 
 that solve one mystery only to propound another these 
 are not alien branches grafted into the vital trunk of 
 song. They are rather real though mysterious voices, 
 direct appeals to fancy and Gemut, clear calls to the soul 
 to share an intense experience in which the larger self 
 for the moment prevails, by sufferance of the lurking 
 Idee. 
 
 Hebbel wrote in his diary in March, 1861 : "Jeder neue 
 Kiinstler tragt neue Gedanken in neuer Sprache vor. 
 Die Sprache selbst will gelernt seyn, bevor die Gedanken 
 verstanden werden konnen." 91 Obligation to study a 
 poet's speech becomes highly imperative when each pri- 
 
 9<>Tgb. I, 887; 891; 920. 
 91 Tgb. IV, 5866.
 
 62 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 mary impression conveys hints of a super-sensuous 
 world. 92 The following chapters offer a contribution 
 toward a fuller appreciation of Hebbel's lyric diction. 
 
 92 Cf. Scheunert, Uber Hebbel's Weltansch., etc. Zt. f. 
 Aesth., 1907, pp. 117 ff.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 COLORS 
 
 Colors 1 stand in the forefront of the impressions upon 
 which apprehension of objective phenomena and of 
 beauty in nature depends. Moreover, in so far as crea- 
 tions of fancy are imitative or representative, compact 
 of reproduced objective images freely combined, colors 
 have preeminence among the expressional materials of 
 most of the arts. Even architecture and sculpture de- 
 pend considerably upon lights and shadows for their total 
 effect. In poetry, where "realization" of the inner vision 
 must be achieved mainly through ideation, it is by way 
 of color ideations that the recipient's spirit is especially 
 aroused to vivid reproduction and active interest. 
 
 The relative aesthetic fitness of the several sensory 
 impression modes has engaged critics from Plato to the 
 present. Discussion has turned chiefly about the aesthetic 
 competence of the "lower senses," so-called. These 
 menial senses have had from time to time able vindica- 
 tions, which have tended to counteract traditional preju- 
 dice against them. We owe it to such men as Herder, 
 Guyau, Grant Allen, Gross, if there is today a readier 
 concession of the part played by impressions of tempera- 
 ture and of surface, of odors and of tastes in the sum- 
 total of our aesthetic experience. 2 
 
 1 The term "color" is here used to embrace colors proper 
 (including the spectral hues; the achromatic white, gray and 
 black; gold, silver, leaden, etc.) and the various forms of visible 
 light. 
 
 2 Grant Allen, Physiological Esthetics, London, 1877 ; M. 
 Guyau, L'Art au Point de Vue Sociologique, Paris, 1889; Karl 
 Gross, Der Aesth. Genuss, Giessen, 1902.
 
 64 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Yet all liberality toward the more plebeian senses can- 
 not diminish recognition of the nobler rank of the visual 
 and auditory sensations. The preeminence enjoyed by 
 sights and sounds may perhaps be attributed to a com- 
 bination of causes, notably to the organization of the 
 eye and ear themselves and to their highly perfect func- 
 tional mode, to the nature or consistency of the sense 
 qualities that they record, and to the importance of these 
 sense qualities in the processes of perceptual elaboration. 3 
 As a further cause of artistic fitness may be added 
 especially in the case of the color impressions a marked 
 refinement of the psycho-sensory operation, whereby 
 primitive features that attached to the sense's infancy 
 have yielded in time to processes spiritually more mature. 
 Some of these causes require further consideration. 
 
 First of all, as distance receptors the eye and ear do 
 not require immediate contact with their excitants. 4 
 This may partly account for the extreme immateriality of 
 sights and sounds. "In dem Auge und dem Ohr ist die 
 andringende Materie schon hinweggewalzt von den 
 Sinnen." 5 What we see and hear seems to come to us 
 on the wing, a freedom like the freedom of flight inheres 
 in impressions of these two classes; spectre-like, they 
 seem to be the fine spirit of things rather than their 
 
 8 Gross carefully weighs the functional capacities of the 
 several senses and ascribes a more propitious combination of 
 these capacities to the "higher" senses. The actual ground of 
 aesthetic preeminence, however, he finds in the fact that eye and 
 ear are the "Sprachsinne" ; that is, they are especially fitted to 
 interpret the interjections, gestures, attitudes and the like that 
 are expressive of man's inner states. Gross, D. Aesth. Genuss, 
 pp. 36 ff. 
 
 4 This is also the mode of smell and of dermal impres- 
 sions of temperature. 
 
 5 Schiller, "Ueber die Aesthetische Erziehung des Men- 
 schen," 26th letter. Cf. Volkelt, Syst. d. Aesth., Munchen, 1905, 
 I, p. 96.
 
 COLORS 65 
 
 gross essence. 6 Other sense qualities have at times a 
 certain bodily gravity that draws them earthward and 
 renders them less suited to aesthetic contemplation. 
 Colors and forms partake especially of the winged qual- 
 ity ; they are in the literal sense phenomena, apparitions, 
 filmy tints upon the dead white of space, and their mirage 
 consistency peculiarly qualifies them for purposes of 
 imaginative art. 7 
 
 The ethereal liberty of tones and hues, again, accounts 
 for their scorn of any preconceived theories as to what 
 constitutes objective beauty. Owing perhaps to the rela- 
 tive absence of affective extremes, and owing to the 
 consequent wider zone of moderately toned sensations, 
 nature is forever weaving optic and acoustic syntheses 
 of undeniable charm that seem to defy our labored induc- 
 tions. Even our gentler moods seem susceptible to the 
 spell of nature's hues and tones. Their faculty of giving 
 a fine pleasure, a mild surprise free from rude shock, lets 
 them glide unnoted into our reveries and link us mys- 
 teriously with encircling life. In our tenser states, colors 
 and tones are equally congenial. Their immateriality and 
 their subtle influence upon consciousness endow them 
 with extraordinary significance for poetic imagination. 
 The poet through them may be lured into the dream- 
 state where distinctions of self and outward things fall 
 away, where the ephemeral and the earthly are merged 
 in the cosmic and eternal. 
 
 Under this aspect, then, the deliverances of the higher 
 senses seem to fashion a fine, spiritual medium in which 
 
 6 The other senses keep the organ involved prominently 
 before the mind, whereas all consciousness of eye and ear recedes 
 before the absorbing qualities that they transmit. Hence the 
 term "transparent" is appropriately applied to sight and hearing. 
 Cf. Santayana, The Sense of Beauty, Scribner, 1896. 
 
 7 Volkelt, Syst. d. Aesth., I, p. 97.
 
 66 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 the finite may easily be absorbed in the infinite. Under 
 another perfectly valid aspect the eye and the ear 
 deliver solid, substantial materials for exact objectiva- 
 tion. No other sense impressions can, under circum- 
 stances, be more definite and concrete, better adapted to 
 vivid reproduction, more readily referred to palpable 
 sources than those of sight and hearing. 8 Viewed under 
 this aspect, tastes, odors and the like are diffuse and 
 confused in comparison; they have nothing like the 
 sharp, succinct identity characteristic of the lines, forms 
 and colors of a landscape, real or pictured, nothing 
 analogous to the palpable sound groups that music and 
 the human voice produce. In this matter of definite 
 identification, sight is peculiarly fortunate. So compre- 
 hensive, so objectively reliable and definite are the facts 
 yielded by the eye, that the "visible" world and the 
 "actual" world readily come to be regarded as coinci- 
 dent. So that the second aspect augments the first in 
 accounting for the utility of sight impressions in repre- 
 sentative arts; and the same aspect further explains 
 poetry's constant recourse to ideas of colors, as being 
 preeminent in reproductive efficiency. 
 
 As Sprachsinne par excellence, the higher senses have 
 that interpretative aptitude that has already been alluded 
 to, the impressions that they mediate are unusually quali- 
 fied as expressional concomitants of emotion. 9 To such 
 concomitants constant recourse is had in art, particu- 
 larly in serious poetic art, where the varying phases of 
 man's struggle with his environment constitute the domi- 
 nant theme. Through direct production of human 
 speech, through reproduction of colors in countenance 
 and dress, through suggestion of complexional and vocal 
 
 8 Volkelt, Syst. d. Aesth., I, pp. 99 ff. 
 
 9 See above, p. 64, footnote 3.
 
 COLORS 67 
 
 modulations, of attitudes, gestures and grimaces, further 
 aided by reproductions of nature's visible and audible 
 phenomena, the poet has a splendid array of means for 
 presenting human character and passion. 
 
 The scientific investigation of the color sense has given 
 rise to much controversy with respect to the ethnological 
 diffusion and age of color perception. There is good 
 evidence that a fairly advanced stage of this perception 
 descended to man from his vertebrate ancestors ; also 
 that the earliest historical nations possessed a clear dis- 
 crimination of the chief prismatic hues, although their 
 literature reveals limitation and uncertainty in the matter 
 of color terminology. 10 
 
 Color pleasure, even in its more refined forms, was 
 formerly ascribed in part to the structure of the eye, 
 making certain modifications of light's rays more pleas- 
 urable than others. So the commoner hues of nature 
 were believed to possess an intrinsic pleasure value 
 owing to agreeable stimulations of the primitive sensi- 
 bility of the eye. 11 There is no doubt, however, that 
 associated ideas form an important part of our color 
 feelings. In the first place, the early teleological function 
 of colors may account in some degree for their charm. 
 Our delight in particular hues may root partially in dim 
 
 10 This is in brief the result of the investigation of Grant 
 Allen (The Colour-Sense, Boston, 1879) and of Marty (D. Frage 
 nach. d. geschichtl. Entw. d. Farbensinnes, Wien, 1879) in refuta- 
 tion of the contention of L. Geiger, Gladstone and Hugo Magnus, 
 that the human color sense had been developed within historical 
 time. Marty is given credit for first emphasizing the important 
 distinction between the capacity for gross color impression on the 
 one hand and cultivated color feeling on the other. Color feeling 
 has unquestionably undergone modification, not to say refine- 
 ment, during the historical period. Cf. Dr. Max Schasler, Die 
 Farbenwelt, 1883, published in Wissenschaftl. Vortrage, XVIII 
 Serie, Hft. 409-10, p. 101; Marty, in above work, pp. 47 ff.; 
 Stumpf, Tonpsychologie, Leipzig, 1883, I, p. 344. 
 
 11 Bain, English Comp. and Rhet., London, 1869, p. 215.
 
 68 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 transmissions of ancestral attachments. Such transmitted 
 attachments may help to explain the prominence of red, 
 orange, yellow and blue in the naive, uncultivated enjoy- 
 ment of color. Moreover, there may be even in culti- 
 vated appreciation some remnant of that gross, primitive 
 attraction exerted by color through its association with 
 life-sustaining foods. The gradual eclipse of this organic 
 association and the increasing prominence of the motive 
 of adornment have attended the rise of the primitive 
 color pleasure to a recognized aesthetic grade. 
 
 The older primitive associations have yielded to more 
 refined associative factors, which in combination with the 
 direct visual effects measurably augment the sensuous 
 charm. Thus the colors associated with personality, 
 those connected with physical beauty, with health, youth, 
 feminine charm, exert a fascination that transcends the 
 primary impressions of sight. 12 Color combinations such 
 as are afforded by nature in silvery reflections of running 
 water, in shadows and images upon a lake's quiet surface, 
 in optical witcheries of sunlight filtering through foliage, 
 awaken states of mind in which bodily excitement is only 
 one factor. The distinct emotional tone of warm shades 
 and of strong color contrasts on the one hand, as com- 
 pared with subdued color combinations and blended tints 
 on the other, suggests the presence of secondary associa- 
 tive factors largely of the personal type, though conceiv- 
 ably in part of remoter ancestral origin. 
 
 A study of the colors affected by man in various 
 periods of culture reveals a general development that is 
 characterized by qualitative refinement and quantitative 
 extension. 18 In a general way the progress has been 
 
 12 Bain, The Emotions and The Will, New York, 1888, pp. 
 241 ff. 
 
 18 The following summary sketch of the development of
 
 COLORS 69 
 
 from crude delight in brilliancy and lustre to revelry in 
 the intensely luminous hues, and thence by degrees to 
 refined appreciation of subdued and tempered shades. 
 Causally related with this is the extension of color in- 
 terest from the brightly tinted objects of food to those 
 that please the eye without ministering to bodily needs; 
 from fruits, for instance, to blossoms and insects, to 
 feathers, pebbles and shells, to gems and precious metals. 
 An important stage in the zest for color is reached when 
 objects are artificially stained or dyed through the appli- 
 cation of pigments. Thus by cultivation of old domain 
 and conquest of new, the enjoyment of color has grad- 
 ually risen to high estate. An extended service in capaci- 
 ties of varying dignity has marked this gradual elevation. 
 From an utilitarian office as auxiliary to bodily suste- 
 nance, color pleasure has steadily risen to the more gen- 
 teel function of adornment, both of person and of abode, 
 until the color sense of today is one of the least material 
 factors of our nature, one of the highest assets of 
 aesthetic breeding, one of the chief sources of pleasure 
 in nature and art. 
 
 The growth of man's color vocabulary has kept pace 
 but imperfectly with the development of his color 
 appreciation. Their undeveloped terminology led Glad- 
 stone into the unwarranted inference of an untrained 
 sense of color on the part of the Homeric bards. 14 Later 
 investigators have made it practically certain that peo- 
 ples endowed with discriminating appreciation of green 
 and blue, for example, may not have adequate linguistic 
 equipment for differentiating these colors. Though there 
 may still be some dispute respecting the color apprecia- 
 
 the color sense is based upon Grant Allen's treatment, as pre- 
 sented in his "The Colour-Sense," Ch. XII. 
 
 14 Cf . A. G. Keller, Homeric Society, New York, 1902, p. 76.
 
 70 
 
 tion of early historical peoples, there are ample data 
 available for ascertaining what concrete color objects 
 chiefly engaged them. The Homeric bards, for instance, 
 reveal leading concern in colors of garb, animals and 
 ships; the elusive, indefinite hues of Nature as dis- 
 played in her broader aspects such as sea, sky, earth, are 
 mentioned, and yet there is no distinct reference to the 
 "blue" of the heavens and the ocean, or to the "green" 
 of foliage. 15 The enumeration of concrete objects of 
 color contained in the Chronicles of the Hebrew Kings 
 argues a fairly substantial equipment for color notation. 16 
 Scriptural passages such as the first chapter of Ezekiel 
 reveal a color sense far from blunt and anything but a 
 limited terminology. Yet a fair demonstration of the 
 superiority of modern color nomenclature over that of 
 ancient days will be had if a biblical account of Solo- 
 mon's Temple with its recurrence of "blue" and "pur- 
 ple" and "scarlet" be set over against a typical color 
 passage from any one of a score of representative mod- 
 ern poets. Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Swinburne, would 
 afford instance after instance of the richness of English 
 color symbolism. No less rich in colors are the works 
 of the modern German poets. Among Germany's greater 
 literary artists of the last century and a half, Lessing 
 stands well-nigh isolated in his faint color sense. 17 Pas- 
 sages from Voss, Goethe, Schiller, Uhland, the leading 
 
 15 Grant Allen, Colour-Sense, pp. 268 ff.; A. G. Keller, 
 Homeric Society, 75-6. 
 
 16 Grant Allen, Colour-Sense, pp. 273 ff. 
 
 17 Cf. Edward Thorstenberg, Lessing's Appreciation of 
 Color as an Element of Effect in Poetry, Yale Dissertation, 1904. 
 This investigation, based upon a minute analysis of Lessing's 
 complete works, conclusively proves that Lessing lacked spon- 
 taneous feeling for color, that his early indifference gradually 
 grew to the undisguised dislike of colors that is evinced in his 
 Laokoon.
 
 COLORS 71 
 
 older and younger Romanticists, would supply adequate 
 evidence were evidence necessary of the color opu- 
 lence of German poetry. The prominence of color im- 
 pressions as poetic media is increasing, if anything, 
 among German writers, and this must necessarily stimu- 
 late the development and the refinement of the poetic 
 color vocabulary. Sudermann and Hauptmann are pro- 
 nounced colorists. Enumeration of all the striking in- 
 stances of color in Hauptmann, would include passages 
 from many of his plays. Not only are the speeches of 
 Hauptmann's prominent characters often rich in color 
 recall, for instance, Hanneles Himmelfahrt and Die 
 Versunkene Glocke but the scenic and personal de- 
 scriptions, the elaborate stage details at the beginning 
 of each act, frequently abound in reference to concrete 
 objects of color. Die Weber, especially the introductory 
 pictures of Acts II, IV and V, are good cases in point. 
 Persistent appeal to the color sense and recourse to color 
 imagery are characteristic of a large proportion of cur- 
 rent literary productions in Germany. The influence of 
 Naturalism has been further to encourage the traditional 
 tendency, to the end that we frequently observe in the 
 writers of the day an extraordinary virtuosity in verbal 
 reproduction of the most elusive refinements of lights 
 and colors. Noteworthy is the persistence of the teleo- 
 logic principle in an artistic sense; the colors are made 
 to subserve definite ends, to set off and in a measure to 
 condition the human emotions portrayed. E. von Keyser- 
 ling's Dumala well illustrates the frank conscientiousness 
 with which many a modern German writer adjusts 
 nature's color effects to man's moods. Whether virtu- 
 osity does not now and again carry the modern writer 
 beyond the limits of judicious moderation is, for the 
 present, beside the point.
 
 72 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 The color sense on its linguistic side is of importance 
 in literary criticism as bearing directly upon the subject 
 of poetic expression. Color terms were originally all 
 concrete object-names, and they retain for most of us 
 their primitive substantive fibre however logician and 
 psychologist may regard them. 18 It follows that the 
 color element may throw helpful light upon matter and 
 manner of a poet's imagination, upon objectivity and 
 sensuousness of style, upon primitiveness and cultivation 
 and indirectly therefore upon virility and refinement of 
 diction. 
 
 We have emphasized elsewhere the abundance of 
 sensuous symbolism in Hebbel's lyric poems. With all 
 his passion for soul problems and his inborn fondness 
 for delving into the mysteries of existence, Hebbel yet 
 instinctively employed as the chief medium of his 
 thought terms taken from the world of sense. 
 
 The mere numerical preponderance of color terms 
 among his sensuous symbols would not in itself indicate 
 any departure from normal perceptual habit. But there 
 is abundant evidence in the lyrics that the luminous 
 manifestations of the external world appealed to Hebbel 
 with extraordinary intensity. We find instance after in- 
 stance where color and light are either exclusively se- 
 lected or where these elements are accorded unmistakable 
 preeminence : 
 
 " Auf steht die Jungfrau, bleich und krank, 
 Und tritt zu ihrem Kleiderschrank, 
 Und was sie aus dem Schranke nimmt, 
 Das gluht und leuchtet, glanzt und flimmt. 
 
 18 Grant Allen, The Colour-Sense, pp. 250 ff. Marty, Die 
 Frage nach d. geschicht. Entw. d. Farbensinnes, pp. 146-7.
 
 COLORS 73 
 
 Die bleiche Jungfrau hangt sich stumm 
 Das funkelnde Geschmeide um, 
 Ein weisses Kleid, fast schauerlich, 
 Schlingt um die edeln Glieder sich. 
 Und auf dem Tische, klar und rein, 
 Blinkt in Kristall ein dunkler Wein, 
 Ein Silber- und ein Goldpocal 
 Dabei, wie fiir ein festlich Mahl. 
 Sie tritt zum Spiegel, fest und schnell, 
 Ihr Bild strait ihr entgegen hell, 
 Unheimlich lachelt sie sich an, 
 Zum blanken Tische tritt sie dann." 
 
 Hochseit, Is. 3-6; 13-24 (VII, 128) 
 
 True, the nature of the subject, the actual predomi- 
 nance of color attributes in the thing described may ac- 
 count for the eighteen color terms that appear in the 
 above description. The determining factor however is 
 not the subject itself but the poet's perception of it. 
 Often where other attributes are equally salient, prece- 
 dence is given to colors. They appear prominently in de- 
 scriptions where their omission would scarcely be noted, 
 thus acquiring added expressiveness from the surprise 
 they afford. The ballads and romances are studded with 
 them; often cropping out here in some minor feature, 
 some incidental trait, their lively imagery quickens the 
 recital of vague and visionary deeds. 19 On every hand 
 
 19 "Dunkelroth im Morgenlicht 
 
 Gliih'n des Schlosses blanke Zinnen " 
 
 Ritter Fortunat, 5-6 (VII, 88) 
 
 " Wenn die Scheere in den Haaren 
 Und das Beil im Nacken blitzt " 
 
 Voter Unser, 19-20 (VI, 169) 
 
 Cf. also Vater Unser 1; 13-4 (VI, 169). Similar allusions occur 
 in: Vater und Sohn, 9-12; 37-40 (VI, 427); Wohin so flink, 
 25-32 (VI, 441); Wiedersehen, throughout (VII, 109); Der 
 Haideknabe, 10 (VI, 166); Eine moderne Ballade, 1-4; 21-8 
 (VII, 188).
 
 74 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 we have naive expression of this preference for colors. 
 "Die Busenblumen bunt und klar" Hebbel writes in the 
 poem Das Kind (VI, 189, 1. 7), again selecting the color 
 of the flowers, although fragrance and delicate form 
 might have been quite as appropriate, for the flowers 
 adorn a dead mother's bosom. Presumably a child would 
 be most attracted even here by the hues of the blossoms, 
 and it is with a child's sentiments that this poem deals. 
 Indeed Hebbel responds to the sensations of color with a 
 naive eagerness somewhat akin to a child's, a childlike 
 susceptibility to such impressions characterizes his fancy 
 throughout and imparts a blitheness even to his more 
 abstract creations: 
 
 " Ich will das rohe Feuer nicht, 
 
 Das, durch kein Maass zuriickgehalten, 
 Hervor, wie aus der Holle, bricht, 
 
 Um gleich dem Element zu walten; 
 Ich will den Funken aus den Hoh'n, 
 
 Der sanft der Seele sich verbiindet 
 Und langsam wachsend, immer schon, 
 
 Zuletzt zur Flamme sich entzundet : 
 Zur Flamme, die den Leib durchstralt, 
 
 Ihn nicht verzehrt in blindem Toben, 
 Und uns im reinsten Purpur malt, 
 
 Wie sich Natur und Geist verwoben, 
 Als war' zum ersten Mai ein Stern 
 
 In menschlicher Gestalt erschienen," etc., etc. 
 
 Auf die Deutsche Kiinstlerin, 1-14 (VI, 282) 2 
 
 If Hebbel's colors be isolated, one is impressed with 
 their uniform persistency. Dividing the entire epoch of 
 
 20 Cf. also Granze des Denkens (VI, 446) ; Der Mensch 
 und die Outer des Lebens (VI, 445) ; Der Phonix (VI, 331) ; 
 Das Licht will sich verstecken (VII, 173). The following pas- 
 sage from the diaries further illustrates the point just made: 
 "Was Styl in der Kunst ist, das begreifen die Leute am wenig- 
 sten. So in der Tragodie, dass die Idee im ersten Act als
 
 COLORS 75 
 
 Hebbel's poetic productivity from 1828 till his death 
 in 1863 into periods of approximately equal time- 
 lengths, and isolating the color terms in the poems of the 
 respective periods, we shall find that there is but slight 
 variation in the frequency of these color terms. 
 
 For example, we may make a four-period division. 
 The decade 1828-1838, which covers Hebbel's lyrical ap- 
 prenticeship, may serve as time unit. Hebbel's whole 
 poetic career contains three and a half of such periods, 
 the last one breaking off midway, at the noon of 
 the poet's maturity. The first of these four time 
 sections shows the highest proportion of color terms, 
 roughly one in eight lines. There is a slight decrease in 
 the decade 1838-1848, the proportion being one in nine 
 lines, which is followed by more marked decrease for 
 the decade 1848-1858, one in twelve lines. The closing 
 five years afford adequate basis for a projection cover- 
 ing the time lacking to round out the decade. In this 
 closing period the proportion swings back to a median 
 between the mark of the first and that of the third period, 
 namely one in ten lines. Thus upon the basis of a time 
 division that regards in a general way the stages of 
 Hebbel's poetic development, the marked employment of 
 colors appears to be fairly sustained. 
 
 The consideration of the qualitative characteristics of 
 Hebbel's colors affords further instructive data. In this 
 connection one is struck with the frequency of terms 
 bearing on brilliancy and luminosity, such as Helle, Licht, 
 Glut, Glanz, Flamme, Strahl, Schein, Feuer, Funke. 
 
 zuckendes Licht, im zweiten als Stern, der mit Nebeln kampft, 
 im dritten als dammernder Mond, im vierten als stralende Sonne, 
 die Keiner mehr verlaugnen kann, und im funften als verzeh- 
 render und zerstorender Komet hervortreten muss dass werden 
 sie nie fassen. Sentenzen werden ihnen immer besser zum 
 Verstandniss helfen," Tgb. II, 2897.
 
 76 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 These occur sometimes as substantives, sometimes as 
 verbs and as adjectives, with corresponding change of 
 form: leuchten, gltihen, funkeln, ftimmen, glanzend, 
 strahlend, funkelnd, etc. Frequent too are terms that 
 suggest reflected glitter, or lustre: blank, blinken, pran- 
 gen, schimmern. Among the colors proper, rot, gold, 
 blau, weiss are most often mentioned again colors of 
 relatively high luminous intensity. On the other hand 
 there is constant reference to darkness, to shadow, dusk 
 and gloom. Hebbel often conjures with words like 
 finster, duster, dunkel, ddmmern, triib sometimes in 
 combination with the compatible sombre colors schwarz, 
 grau, or the more ghastly blass and bleich. Still other 
 common color symbols are the less definite bunt, klar and 
 rein. 21 
 
 In his chapter on the growth of the color vocabulary, 22 
 Grant Allen employs as a standard of comparison the 
 color vocabulary of Swinburne's "Poems and Ballads," 
 as being representative "of the spirit of traditional poetry 
 in its purest form." Allen has found that of the 445 
 color terms employed by Swinburne, shades at the red 
 end of the spectrum constitute 73 per cent. Of this, pure 
 
 21 Hebbel's color usage differs materially from that of the 
 Romanticist Tieck. With the latter, the less definite forms of 
 visible light are often alluded to. Schein occurs much more 
 frequently than the more sensuous Funke, Flamme, Strahl. 
 Tieck's favorite colors are rot, golden, blau, grtin (the latter is 
 seldom lacking in his landscape pictures). In poems that by a 
 quaint conceit portray the character and temperament of the 
 various musical intruments, the color allusions become con- 
 spicuously frequent and rich. The prodigality of Tieck's colors, 
 the too obvious contrivance of most of the color groupings, and 
 the confusing unreality of the colors in his landscapes, due to 
 the willful selection of startling shades these are among the 
 more conspicuous marks of Tieck's style. See Ludwig Tiecks 
 Lyrik, Wilh. Miessner, Litterar-historische Forschungen, XXIV 
 Heft, Berlin, 1902. 
 
 22 Grant Allen, The Colour- Sense, Ch. XII.
 
 COLORS 77 
 
 reds (including rosy, crimson, sanguine, ruddy, and scar- 
 let) contribute 36 per cent; yellow (including gold) 32 
 per cent ; and purple 5 per cent. The violet-end spectral 
 hues blue, violet, green furnish 110 terms or 24 per 
 cent. This gives marked prominence to the warm colors. 
 
 In the poems taken as basis of our investigation, Heb- 
 bel employs in all 278 color terms proper. 23 The warm 
 colors supply approximately half of these, 144 terms or 
 52 per cent. The colder blues and greens occur 29 times 
 each, thus supplying 21 per cent of the total. The bal- 
 ance is made up by the colors weiss (27 times), schwarz 
 (23 times), grau (14 times), braun (8 times), and silber 
 (4 times). 
 
 It will be observed that while Swinburne has over 
 three times as many warm colors as cold, Hebbel em- 
 ploys less than two and one half times as many. Further- 
 more, the whites and blacks, the grays and browns, of 
 which no mention is made in Swinburne, aggregate 72 
 cases in Hebbel. Whereas pink does not appear in Swin- 
 burne, rosa occurs six times in Hebbel. 
 
 In other respects the two poets exhibit substantial 
 agreement in usage. Both omit reference to orange, lilac, 
 azure, saffron and lavender. Both allude most fre- 
 quently to red. So that while Hebbel displays a trifle 
 more variety, like Swinburne he shows preference for 
 the colors that suggest the general aspect rather than 
 those that render the more delicate refinements of ob- 
 jects. Hebbel thus reflects, quite as well as Swinburne, 
 the old folk-poetry "with its relatively poor but strong 
 vocabulary, its preference for bold outline to finished 
 detail." 24 
 
 23 The whole number of color and light terms used by 
 Hebbel in the poems examined, including colored lights and 
 colors proper, is 1341. 
 
 24 Grant Allen, The Colour-Sense, pp. 264 ff.
 
 78 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Recent investigations of the color element in the poetry 
 of Goethe, Schiller, Shakespeare, Richard Wagner and 
 others were overlooked by us until our own "Studies" 
 were virtually finished. 25 We regret this oversight the 
 more since the statistical methods developed in these 
 other investigations might profitably have been followed 
 in our own tabulations, and the uniform presentation thus 
 secured would have enabled an extended comparison of 
 results. As it is, we can only compare cursorily certain 
 features brought out in the different investigations with 
 our own results in so far as divergent methods of group- 
 ing and statistical calculation do not invalidate such 
 comparison. 
 
 As regards the abundance of visual data among the 
 poets investigated, Franck's and Groos' researches permit 
 the following generalizations. Shakespeare's narrative 
 poems have a larger percentage of visual allusions than 
 Spenser's Faerie Queen. The lyrics of Schiller's youth 
 show relatively more frequent resort to visual impres- 
 sions than do Shakespeare's sonnets and poems. Byron, 
 as far as examined, is about on a par with Shakes- 
 peare, while Goethe, strange to say, falls far below the 
 average. The most recent German lyric poetry reveals 
 astonishing fondness for the qualities associated with 
 light and color. The sonnets in Albert H. Rausche's 
 
 25 Ludwig Franck, Statistische Untersuchungen iiber die 
 Verwendung der Farben in den Dichtungen Goethes, Giessen, 
 1909. Karl and Marie Groos, Die optischen Qualitaten in der 
 Lyrik Schillers, Zeitschrift fur Aesthetik, 1909, S. 559-71. Karl 
 Groos, Use Netto und Marie Groos, Die Sinnesdaten im "Ring 
 des Nibelungen," Archiv fur die Gesammte Psychologic, XXII 
 Band, 4 Heft, S. 401 ff. Karl Groos und Use Netto, Ueber 
 die visuellen Sinneseindrucke in Shakespeares lyrischen Dich- 
 tungen, Englische Studien, 43 Bd., 1911, S. 27 ff. Moritz Katz, Die 
 Schilderung des musikalischen Eindrucks bei Schumann, Hoff- 
 mann und Tieck, Zeitschrift fur angewandte Psychologic, 5 
 Band, 1911.
 
 COLORS 79 
 
 Buck fur Tristan, 1909, have, according to Groos, rela- 
 tively five times as many allusions to visual qualities as 
 Shakespeare's sonnets. It is safe to assume on the basis 
 of our examples and illustrations from Hebbel that he 
 approaches the modern poets in his constant resort to 
 visual media. 
 
 Groos estimates that the bright colors 26 constitute on 
 the average between one fourth and one fifth of the total 
 of optic qualities mentioned in the poetry that he and 
 others have examined. Hebbel's employment of these 
 hues is a trifle below the average of frequency. It is 
 noteworthy that in the text of Wagner's "Ring des 
 Nibelungen," in which allusions to light and color are 
 very abundant, the bright colors form but one twenty- 
 fourth of the total. 
 
 Red persists as the most popular color with the poets. 
 This color abounds in Shakespeare's sonnets, where it 
 forms 16 per cent of the visual data introduced. The 
 percentage is equally high with Schiller in the lyrics of 
 his first period, that is, his youth. With Goethe, green 
 is almost as prominent as red in the early lyrics, and 
 quite surpasses red in the lyrics of his maturity. Red is 
 decidedly a favorite hue with Hebbel. Of the 278 colors 
 that he employs, 83 are red or its associated hues. 
 
 The neutral colors 27 rank next in prominence after red 
 in Shakespeare, Schiller in his third or mature period 
 and Goethe throughout his entire productivity as far as 
 
 26 The term "bright" colors is here used for "bunte Far- 
 ben" as employed in the statistical researches mentioned. In- 
 cluded in this group are rot, blau, grtin, purpur, rosen, gelb, bunt, 
 farbig. Hebbel's way of using gold, golden, etc., seemed to war- 
 rant the inclusion of this term in the list of bright colors. We 
 have so included it in the computation of his "bunte Farben." 
 
 27 Groos used "neutrale Farben" to include weiss, grau, 
 schwarz, hell, dunkel.
 
 80 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 tested. With Hebbel these colors comprise but 175 of 
 the total 1340 visual allusions occurring in his lyrics. 
 
 The visual phenomena designated by Groos as the 
 "Glanz, Glut, Schein" group generally fall below the 
 neutral colors in point of frequency. This is the case 
 in Shakespeare's sonnets, in Spenser, in Goethe through- 
 out and in Schiller's third period. By contrast, the 
 "Glanz" group slightly surpasses the neutral hues numer- 
 ically in Schiller's first period, increases this predomi- 
 nance in Goethe's Faust, Part II, and reaches astonishing 
 preeminence in the writings of E. T. A. Hoffmann, 
 Tieck and Schumann. Table B below records the status 
 in Hebbel's poems. 28 A comparison of the figures for 
 Wagner and for Hebbel reveals a close resemblance be- 
 tween the two men in this particular. In the "Ring," 
 the "Glanz" terms comprise 49 per cent of all visual 
 phenomena mentioned; with Hebbel, approximately 49.6 
 per cent. Comparing the vocabularies, we observe that 
 in Faust II Goethe employs 18 distinct designations for 
 the phenomena of this type. Wagner in his "Ring" has 
 23 different expressions, while Hebbel's allusions as listed 
 in Table B have about the same number as Wagner's. 
 
 The partiality to "Glanz" and the like may be rooted 
 in a peculiar suitability of images associated with gleam- 
 ing, glowing and burning for the suggestion of "fine 
 frenzy." Hence their prominence in descriptions of the 
 rhapsodic type, flights of spiritual exaltation, ecstatic 
 states awakened by the hearing of music or by impas- 
 sioned yet profound visions such as inspired Hebbel at 
 times. The singular congeniality of radiance and lustre, 
 of glowing and flashing with resplendent imagery steeped 
 in religious ardor is well exhibited in the per-fervid 
 hymn of our poet Oliver Wendell Holmes : 
 
 28 See p. 145.
 
 COLORS 81 
 
 1. 1 Lord of all being ! Throned afar, 
 
 Thy glory flames from sun and star; 
 1. 5 Sun of our life, Thy quickening ray 
 
 Sheds on our path the glow of day ; 
 
 Star of our hope, thy softened light 
 
 Cheers the long watches of the night. 
 1. 10 Our noontide is thy gracious dawn; 
 
 Our rainbow arch Thy mercy's sign ; 
 1. 13 Lord of our life, below, above, 
 
 Whose light is truth, whose warmth is love, 
 
 Before thy ever-biasing throne 
 
 We ask no lustre of our own. 
 
 Grant us Thy truth, to make us free, 
 
 And kindling hearts that burn for thee, 
 1. 20 One holy light, one heavenly flame! 
 
 The relative frequency of the "dunkel" and "hell" 
 terms affords the basis for an interesting comparison of 
 the poetry examined. Thus Wagner employs hell and 
 allied expressions more often than dunkel and its 
 associated qualities, whereas Spenser as well as Goethe 
 and Schiller in their youth show preference for dunkel. 
 Table C below shows the status in Hebbel's usage. 29 
 The five most important expressions of the "dunkel" 
 variety in Hebbel's poems aggregate roughly 172 in- 
 stances. These are distributed as follows: dunkel 76, 
 duster 28, finster 28, Schatten 22, triib 18. Over against 
 this there are 158 references in Hebbel's poems to quali- 
 ties that are the reverse of "dunkel." The chief expres- 
 sions of this type are bleich 49, hell 45, blass 22, klar 20, 
 blank 16, blond 6. If we include rein 12, and frisch 7 
 the total is increased to 177. So that Hebbel shows about 
 an equal interest for the "dunkel" and the "hell" phe- 
 nomena. 
 
 By way of summary we may compare Hebbel's visual 
 
 29 See p. 157.
 
 82 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 data with Wagner's as follows: Both poets show dis- 
 tinct preference for optic as against acoustic phenomena, 
 the preponderance of optic qualities being especially 
 marked in the case of Wagner. Hebbel's employment of 
 the "bright" colors falls but slightly below the average 
 estimates of Groos, whereas Wagner's "Ring" is char- 
 acterized by an exceptional tendency to avoid "bunte 
 Farben." Hebbel does not use the "neutral" colors with 
 the frequency customary with most poets, but he stands 
 upon the same plane with Wagner in the extraordinarily 
 large number of allusions to "Glanz, Glut, Schein." 
 
 In the matter of the specific colors employed, no 
 marked change is observable in the different stages of 
 Hebbel's career. The glaring colors that appear in his 
 early verse had apparently lost for him little of their 
 fascination in the years of maturity. The gleams and 
 flashes, the intense reds and golds assume practically the 
 same prominence in the successive periods. Similarly 
 no epoch displays in contrast with others any exceptional 
 preference for the more quiet tints. From stage to stage 
 there is substantial equivalence, both as regards the num- 
 ber of color terms in general and as regards the occur- 
 rence of specific hues. 
 
 It must be emphasized that this numerical equivalence 
 does not reflect the color employment of certain arbitra- 
 rily selected poems merely ; rather does it represent quite 
 faithfully the general tendency of the respective stages. 
 Brilliancy, lustre, intense shades as well as certain sombre 
 colors characterize the majority of his poems of the 
 early and middle period. The same color features domi- 
 nate a large number of his late, even his latest poems. 
 As evidence of this late continuance numerous poems 
 might be cited ; any extended list would be sure to include 
 Der Princess Marie Wittgenstein (1858) ; Das Geheim-
 
 COLORS 83 
 
 niss der Schonheit (1859) ; Drei Schwestern (1859) ; 
 Auf ein sehr schbnes junges Mddchen (1862) ; Lustig 
 tritt ein schoner Knabe (1863). 30 We may then posit, 
 as the first observation, that Hebbel's colors are prac- 
 tically uniform both as to number and as to specific 
 variety. This observation, which rests upon the colors 
 in their numerical isolation, is borne out by the investi- 
 gation of their structural part in Hebbel's lyric poetry 
 both early and late. The inference is therefore war- 
 ranted that with Hebbel the color love was innate, that 
 his poetic expression of it was in the main instinctive 
 and not derived. As his colors were not the borrowed 
 airs of youth, so they were not later discarded as unbe- 
 coming to the soberer demeanor of manhood. 
 
 Our analysis thus far has been qualitative in so far as 
 it has noted the varieties of color and light that appear 
 in the lyrics. We now proceed to a quantitative analysis, 
 to an enumeration of the concrete color objects in the 
 poet's environment that stimulated him both through 
 their sensuous beauty and their spiritual import. 
 
 Nature 
 
 The diaries exhibit Hebbel's susceptibility to elemental 
 grandeurs of the heavens and of heavenly bodies. In- 
 tense blue of sky filled him with a childlike gleefulness 
 that breaks through in a number of poems. 31 He shares 
 with poets of his own and other lands a deep passion for 
 glories of sunrise or sunset, for the solace of evening's 
 lingering lights, for the terrifying beauty of lightning 
 and the enchantment of star-studded night. 32 Nor are 
 
 3 VI, 403; VI, 404; VI, 405; VI, 426; VI, 437. 
 
 si Tgb. Ill, 3318, p. 19. 
 
 32 Sunrise or sunset, Tgb. I, 192; 268; 314; 341; 460; 
 Tgb. II, 2839, Is. 63 ff. ; 2923. Lightning flashes, Tgb. IV, 5391 ; 
 Tgb. I, 327; 337; 841. Starry gleams, Tgb. I, 841; 1246; 1349;
 
 84 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 less brilliant illuminations unappreciated, cold, leaden 
 sky broken by shafts of dull, brazen light, where the sun 
 sifts through translucent clouds. 83 Brief allusion as well 
 as more detailed picture attest something beside vivid- 
 ness of impression, even the earliest descriptions exhibit- 
 ing susceptibility alike to intrinsic and to borrowed charm 
 of color. The fancies awakened by low, solitary sun, 
 flooding lonely sea with undulating fire, well illustrate 
 the stimulus afforded by impressions of celestial light. 34 
 What raises such spiritualized impressions high above 
 prosaic reflection is the intensity that accompanies them. 
 Reflective fantasy steeped in emotion, converting pro- 
 saic abstraction into "ahnungsreiche Natur- und Seelen- 
 momente," stamps the bulk of Hebbel's nature poems, 
 which are fervid though conceptual, passionate though 
 at times definitely thematic. From the very first his 
 intoxication must have been in part a delight by thought 
 supplied. In his early home he must often have been 
 awed or transported by the sublime phases of celestial 
 coloring, so that these became for him the gateway to a 
 poetic paradise. Such experience left powerful impres- 
 sions, which could be ideally reproduced. We know 
 that he was initiated into the mysteries and the beauties 
 of poetry in childhood while reading aloud to his mother 
 from Paul Gerhardt's hymn the verses beginning, "Die 
 goldnen Sternlein prangen am blauen Himmelssaal." 35 
 
 It is imperative to bear this double aspect of Hebbel's 
 lights constantly in mind, to realize continually that in 
 his own experience sky colors blend in extraordinary 
 
 1401; 1676. Moonlight, Tgb. I, 338; 1349; 1702; 1702 b; Tgb. IV, 
 5391. 
 
 S3 Tgb. IV, 5283. 
 
 a* Tgb. I, 119. Cf. also the description of Paris, II, 2839, 
 Is. 63 ff. 
 
 SB Tgb. I, 134.
 
 COLORS 85 
 
 measure with colors from lands unseen. Such "illustra- 
 tion" is utilized with great success in the lyric poems, 
 and while the illuminations seldom have the elaborate 
 grandeur of Shelley's, they have often a simple power 
 by reason of their very brevity of detail. Beside revelling 
 in these lights themselves, Hebbel is impressed by the 
 lustre of things terrestrial when exposed to such lights. 
 We have striking illustrations of this kind in the diaries : 
 a church tower plunged by the setting sun into flaming 
 contrast with the deepening gloom of things around; 
 bands of red sunlight that pierce the forest, refining 
 brown tree-stumps into dark gold, ennobling dripping 
 rain into gems. 36 Once lodged, such impressions are 
 apt to be indelible, sometimes entering years after into 
 scene or song. 37 It is the same with the less spectacular 
 phases of color in heaven and earth. The sonnet to 
 Ludwig Uhland suggests nature's softer lights, which 
 charm by some power in them to touch objects with a 
 strange enchanting sheen: 
 
 " Wie, wenn die Dammerung das bunte Leben 
 Schon in den diistergrauen Schleier hiillt, 
 Ein letzter Stral dem Abendroth entquillt, 
 In welchem die Gestalten sanft verschweben; 
 
 " Da grunt der Hain, wie nie zuvor, da heben 
 Die Blumen sich, wie nimmer, schon und mild, 
 Da scheint sich in ein zauberisch Gefild 
 Der Himmel mit der Erde zu verweben," etc. 
 
 An Ludwig Uhland, 1-8 (VII, 99) 
 
 36 Tgb. Ill, 5210 (Nov. 26, 1853). Tgb. IV, 5313 (July 26, 
 1854). Tgb. IV, 5283 (July 26, 1854). 
 
 37 Cf. Der letzte Baum, VI, 411 ; Wien, July 28, 1860. See 
 Vorfrtihling, VI, 228. Also Tgb. I, 1361 : "Draussen ist wahrhaft 
 goldener Sonnenschein, der in einem mir schrag gegentiber 
 liegenden Gartchen einen kleinen Baum, der npch immer hart- 
 nackig seine Blatterkrone fest halt, feenhaft lieblich bescheint. 
 Es konnten Friihlingstraume in mir aufkommen "
 
 86 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 The artistic rigor that injects nothing gratuitously, 
 observable to a degree in Hebbel's elemental lights, also 
 appears in the colors of his landscapes. A dramatic 
 quality inheres in many of the scenes pictured for us, 
 because as background of the situations supposed they 
 stand in sympathetic or antipathetic relations with the 
 dominant mood. In some of the earliest of the land- 
 scapes the suspicion of conventionality is unavoidable, 
 but as Hebbel matures we note in these descriptions the 
 ever firmer touch of individual power, revealed chiefly 
 in a trend toward closeness, in an impressionistic ten- 
 dency to suggest by a few strokes. 
 
 This economy of detail helps appreciably toward se- 
 curing the quality that most distinguishes Hebbel's 
 nature pictures. Always an emotional light plays over 
 these pictures, as though issuing from a presence in them 
 of some spirit intimately akin with human life. This 
 modern manner of emotionalizing nature was essen- 
 tially retained by Hebbel even after Uhland taught him 
 not to project poetic feeling into, but to evoke it out of 
 nature. 38 In this obscure formula there lies expressed 
 Hebbel's early solution of the problem as to the subjec- 
 tive element in nature poetry. Whatever it may have 
 meant with him in theory, in practice this formula ap- 
 pears but to denote the distinction between a lower and 
 a higher conceptual intensity, between a partial, extrinsic 
 impression of a thing and an intrinsic, "plenary sense" 
 of it. To judge from Hebbel's poems written after this 
 formula was expressed, he no longer aims to dominate 
 a given matter reflectively, but to be dominated by it 
 intuitively, to be subsumed through communion with it in 
 
 88 ". . . . dass der Dichter nicht in die Natur hinein- 
 sondern aus ihr heraus dichten musse." (Tgb. I, 136, p. 29, foot.)
 
 COLORS 87 
 
 a higher, more comprehensive Ideal Entity. 39 The pe- 
 culiar quality of such emotionalizing of nature Dichten 
 aus ihr heraus is not always appreciable. In Hebbel's 
 poems the quality is sometimes present where overlooked, 
 or mistaken for something else and summarily named the 
 supernatural, or the mystical. The sub-natural would be 
 a more fitting designation, more conformable to Hebbel's 
 definition. Many of his unpretentious poems unfold a 
 new meaning and a strange beauty, when their lights and 
 colors become expressive media of that "plenary sense 
 of things," that other "Self" manifest in Nature and 
 emerging to commune with its counter-self manifest in 
 Man. And so Hebbel's woods and fields and flowers 
 often display more than physical beauty through their 
 colors, for we are conscious at times of a secondary halo 
 irradiating and transfiguring the simpler impressions. Of 
 this poetic emergence of Nature's soul we have a beauti- 
 ful phase in the peculiar affection that Hebbel every- 
 where expresses for flowers. How their colors and 
 forms enrich life! The spiritual sweetness that is dis- 
 tilled by their fragrance may move even cold and barren 
 natures to momentary tenderness. In Hebbel's Nibelun- 
 gen he lets Brunhilde utter her surprised delight when 
 she sees for the first time the flowers that our poet knew 
 and loved. The colors of the sky, the stillness of the air, 
 the hues and scent of the violet inspire prophetic mus- 
 ings in the soul of this northern Princess as the smiling 
 southern landscape for the first time greets her eyes. And 
 as if a new source of self were revealed to her, Brunhilde 
 
 39 This distinction between "dominating" and "being domi- 
 nated," as characteristic of intellection and intuition respectively, 
 is implied in such passages as: Tgb. I, 641, p. 142, Is. 2-4; cf. 
 also Tgb. I, 466; 1460; 1741, Is. 105 ff.; Tgb. II, 2648.
 
 88 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 yields to a moment's gentleness that she doubtless sup- 
 posed foreign to her nature: 
 
 Brunhild. 
 Das sind wohl Blumen ? Roth und Gelb und Griin ! 
 
 Kriemhild. 
 Du sahst sie nie und kennst die Farben doch? 
 
 So weisst Du nichts vom Duf t ! ( Sie pfliickt ihr ein Veil- 
 chen.) 
 
 Brunhild. 
 O der ist schon! 
 
 Und diese kleine Blume haucht ihn aus, 
 Die einz'ge die mein Auge nicht bemerkte ? 
 Der mocht' ich einen siissen Namen geben, 
 Doch hat sie wohl schon einen. 
 
 Kriemhild. 
 
 Keine ist 
 
 Demiitiger als sie 
 
 und dennoch schmeichelt 
 
 Sie Dir die ersten sanf ten Worte ab 
 
 Die Nibelungen II (Siegfrieds Tod, Is. 1128 ff.) 
 
 Animals 
 
 A conspicuous trait of Hebbel's nature is his passion- 
 ate interest in brute creation. This interest is not the 
 sportsman's or the naturalist's, it is rather the warm- 
 hearted mortal's attachment to the dumb associates of 
 his earthly lot, heightened by the rapture of the imagi- 
 native poet in whom the ways of certain common animals 
 awakened intense musings. 40 There are memorials of 
 this tender attachment scattered through the diaries, and 
 
 40 Walter Bagehot infers that Shakespeare was an out-of- 
 doors man, combining natural sensibility with a sportsman's love 
 of the chase. Literary Studies, Shakespeare the Man.
 
 COLORS 89 
 
 a number of Hebbel's poems are closely linked with the 
 life of some household pet or some creature of wood or 
 field. On the memorable journey afoot from Miinchen 
 to Hamburg, Hebbel cheerfully carries his foot-sore 
 poodle "Hanschen" a considerable part of the way. 
 When his faithful dog "Sindsal" is stricken with blind- 
 ness, the calamity wrings bitterest reflections from the 
 poet. He is plunged into profound grief by the death 
 of his squirrel, which is recorded in a pathetic entry in 
 the diaries, and the beautiful poem Geheimniss der 
 Schonheit owes its inspiration to Hebbel's admiration of 
 this beloved pet. 41 
 
 Descriptions of animal life in the diaries and in the 
 poems display habitual recourse to color elements. Not 
 only are the colors of skin, coat or plumage frequently 
 noted, but a moment is expressly selected that presents 
 these in some conspicuous phase of luminous refraction. 
 So the squirrel is pictured leaping gracefully through the 
 trees, the bright sunlight lending a tint of enchantment 
 to the delightful scene. 42 So the doves are sighted flying 
 in the glaring sunlight that strikes far up on the spire of 
 St. Mark's. 43 He sketches a little summer scene for us, 
 noting the gaudy bluebottle clinging to green pine tree, 
 and yellow bird flitting about fields golden with hay. 44 
 The descriptions of animal life in the poems exhibit the 
 same predilection for color and light effects; glistening 
 scales of fishes darting about the boat's keel ; glossy coat 
 
 41 Tgb. IV, 5639; 5701; 5704; 5736; 5775; 5937; 5938. See 
 the poems Geheimniss der Schonheit, VI, 404; Meisengliick, VI, 
 284; Das Hermelin, VI, 264. 
 
 42 Kuh, Biographic Fried. Hebbels, II, p. 677. Cf . Tgb. IV, 
 5928. 
 
 43 Tgb. Ill, 5145. Cf. the metaphor applied to the person- 
 ages in Schiller's Wallenstein's Lager : "all' diese Miicken und 
 Ameisen tanzen im Sonnenstral," Tgb. IV, 5769, Is. 11-12. 
 
 44 Tgb. IV, 5285.
 
 90 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 of the kitten playing in the sunlight ; the swans' shimmer- 
 ing reflection in the dark water; butterflies swarming in 
 the golden sun : 
 
 " Manch Fischlein, blank und munter : 
 Umgaukelt keck den Cast " 
 
 Der junge Schiffer, 9-10 (VI, 145) 
 
 " Sieh, das Katzchen kommt gesprungen, 
 Wie es glanzt im Morgenstral !" 
 
 Aus der Kindheit, 13-4 (VI, 194) 
 
 " Zwei schimmernde Schwane, sie schiffen daher," 
 
 Sie seh'n sich nicht wieder, 3 (VI, 212) 
 
 " Nur leise strich ein weisser Schmetterling ;" 
 
 SommerbUd, 6 (VI, 230) 
 
 " Nimm ihm mit dem blauen Ring seinen weissen Flugel" 
 Der beste Liebesbrief, 7-8 (VI, 285) 
 
 " Es wimmelte von Faltern im gold'nen Sonnenstral," 
 
 Ein Wald, 51-2 (VI, 397) 
 
 Man 
 
 In the diaries there are numerous personal descrip- 
 tions, both of individuals and of groups, in which color 
 qualities are conspicuous. Whether portrayal is confined 
 chiefly to external features, or is extended to emotional 
 and temperamental characteristics, invariably lights or 
 colors or both serve to sharpen the image. The effect of 
 such diary passages is to confirm the impression con- 
 veyed by the poems as a whole that colors were the first 
 things to stimulate Hebbel's sense and fancy and the 
 last things to fade from his memory. The pictures of 
 single figures generally introduce color of eye and hair,
 
 COLORS 91 
 
 complexional tint, strange pallor or glow that lights the 
 countenance as if from within. 45 Not infrequently the 
 shade of dress is noticed, and this is particularly apt to 
 occur when white predominates. The group pictures 
 have recourse to the same elements, but are often en- 
 livened by allusion to color objects in the environment, 
 or to the extraordinary conditions of the illuminations, 
 whether natural or artificial. 46 Under certain circum- 
 stances, such extraordinary illumination may become the 
 dominant element of a picture. The striking description 
 in the diaries of the performers at a Berlioz rehearsal, 
 which vividly recalled scenes of his early life, well exem- 
 plifies the powerful effect of lights and colors upon Heb- 
 bel's fancy. Characteristically enough, Hebbel is stimu- 
 lated far less by the sounds of the instruments than by 
 the strange lights cast upon the players' faces by the 
 flickering lamps: 
 
 ". . . . Ich horte, freilich zerhackt und zerstiickelt, 
 schone Musik und wurde durch die dammernden 
 Lampen, die von ihrem Licht rothlich beglanzten 
 Gesichter der Orchester-Mitglieder und den im Anfang 
 noch halb finstern Saal in meine Jugend zuruckversetzt ; 
 sogar der Frost in den Fiissen trug das Seinige dazu bei. 
 In meinem Geburtsort wurden in der Adventzeit und an 
 den hohen Festtagen der Christenheit Kirchen-Musiken 
 aufgefiihrt; .... Lampen, die mit der Finsterniss zu 
 kampfen schienen, weil ihre matten Flammen zitterten, 
 verbreiteten ein rothliches Licht, das all den wohlbe- 
 kannten Gesichtern in meinen Augen etwas Ueberir- 
 disches verlieh und sie hoch uber die anderen Menschen, 
 die sich nach und nach hustend und rauspernd unter 
 und neben mir einfanden, hinaushob, jede Bewegung, die 
 sie machten, das Taschentuch, das der Organist zog, die 
 Brille, die der Stadtmusikus aufsetzte, vor Allem aber 
 
 Tgb. I, 155. 
 *6Tgb. I, 155.
 
 92 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 die Noten-Biicher, wenn sie auf die Pulte gelegt wurden, 
 
 hatte fur mich etwas Religioses Wenn ich mich 
 
 jener Empfindungen jetzt erinnere, so muss ich sagen: 
 ich schwamm im Element der Poesie, wo die Dinge nicht 
 sind, was sie scheinen, und nicht scheinen, was sie sind, 
 das Wunder der weltlichen Transsubstantiation voll- 
 brachte sich in meinem Gemuth und alle Welten flossen 
 durch einander. Gar abscheulich-niichtern ward mir 
 hinterher zu Muth, wenn die Lampen ausgeloscht und die 
 Notenpulte weggesetzt wurden, wenn die Musiker sich 
 zuriickzogen, wenn ordinaire, verschnupfte Menschen die 
 Orgel fiillten und sich mit ihrem Gesangbuch blockend 
 dahin stellten, wo kurz zuvor Horner und Hoboen im 
 Lampenschein geheimnissvoll geblinkt und geklungen 
 hatten, wenn dann der kleine pausbackige Pastor auf die 
 Kanzel stieg und allein das Wort nahm, und wenn noch 
 obendrein Emilie ausblieb, Emilie in ihrem blauen Kleide, 
 in die ich von meinem 4ten Jahre an verliebt war !...." 
 Tgb. II, 2867, Is. 3-10 ; 20-29 ; 35-49. 
 
 Man is of course a prominent issue with Hebbel in his 
 poems, and so an especial interest attaches to the figure 
 pictures. Here as in his nature pictures, Hebbel appar- 
 ently regarded colors as especially adapted to convey his 
 particular intuition of a personal subject or a situation. 
 By strokes well judged the general physical type or the 
 distinguishing feature is firmly caught, or a transient 
 expression of countenance is fixed in the mind. The 
 descriptions are brief, the details are confined to what is 
 salient or characteristic. The colors, which here again 
 are often the predominant attributes chosen, serve chiefly 
 symbolic ends. They are employed as outward signs of 
 what is within, as exponents of character, as concomi- 
 tants of attendant mood, as portents of what is to befall. 
 Color of hair, lustre of eye, tint of brow or cheeks or 
 hand, not infrequently constitute a sensuous symbol 
 about which as a nucleus are clustered impressions of
 
 COLORS 93 
 
 personality pensive or sprightly, of emotion playful or 
 intense, of gay or sombre action, or of impending doom. 
 In a volume of Freiligrath's poems, Hebbel frankly ex- 
 presses greater admiration for a translation of a poem 
 of Thomas Moore's than for all the original composi- 
 tions in the book. In this poem the passionate maiden 
 is portrayed through concrete symbols in which ideas 
 of luminous impression abound. 47 As an analysis would 
 tend to show, such symbolic portrayal of mood, tempera- 
 ment, character through terms of color is a distinctive 
 feature of Hebbel's lyric style throughout the entire 
 period of his productivity: 
 
 1. "viel blasse schone Jungfrau'n gar," 
 
 Wiedersehen, 6 (VII, 134) 
 
 2. "Sie kommt zu dem weisen, finstern Mann" 
 
 Der Zauberer, 5 (VII, 51) 
 
 3. " . . . . Bei'm Lampenlichte 
 
 Sitzt sie, in die weisse Hand das Kopfchen 
 Stiitzend, mit noch aufgeflochtnen Zopfchen, 
 Stillen Schmerz im blassen Angesichte." 
 
 Liebeszauber, 25-8 (VI, 156) 
 
 4. "Und das Madchen, das ihn streifte mit des Flam- 
 
 menauges Stral" 
 
 Die Spanierin, 9-10 (VI, 176) 
 
 5. "in den blanken Locken scheint das Auge fortzu- 
 
 blitzen." 
 
 Husaren-Werbung, 35-6 (VI, 191) 
 
 47 The poem as translated employs the following light and 
 color terms : Sonnenkind in Aug* und Busen Feuer bleich 
 ziindend feurig licht purpurn wallt Strahl der Sonne Licht- 
 natur lodern in Deiner .... gluhenden Pracht im Brande 
 vergehn angefacht. Hebbel pronounces the description of the 
 maiden "glanzend und gluhend." The poem is quoted later in 
 full [p. 298].
 
 94 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 6. " Ein Todesschauer bleichte ihre Wangen 
 
 Und fast verglimmte ihres Auges Stern." 
 
 Ein friihes Liebesleben, 29-30 (VI, 199) 
 
 7. " Die Mutter saugte den Knaben, 
 
 Sie neigte sich iiber ihn, 
 Dass ihre rosige Wange 
 Ein Abglanz der seinigen schien." 
 
 Waldbilder, 9-12 (VI, 221) 
 
 8. " Susser Traume lichte Schatten 
 
 Fliegen iiber sein Gesicht" 
 
 WaldbUder, 95-9 (VI, 221) 
 
 9. " Ein Jiingling, f risch und bluhend, 
 
 Stand da im Morgenlicht, 
 Die Augen Flammen spriihend 
 Und edel das Angesicht." 
 
 [Emit.] 'Was war das fur ein Traumen," 5-8 
 (VII, 162) 
 
 10. " Im Kreise der Vasallen sitzt 
 
 Der Ritter, Jung und kiihn ; 
 Sein dunkles Feuerauge blitzt 
 
 " Und seine Wangen gliih'n." 
 
 Schon Hedwig, 1-5 (VI, 172) 
 
 11. " Es harrt auf weichem Purpursammt 
 
 Die jiingste Sclavin ihres Herrn, 
 Und unter dunkler Braue flammt 
 Ihr Auge, wie ein irrer Stern." 
 
 Die Odaliske, 1-4 (VI, 187) 
 
 12. " Es stand im hellen Mondenschein 
 
 Die zarte Jungfrau, schlank und fein, 
 Die Wangen roth, die Auglein klar 
 Und hell, wie Gold, das Ringelhaar." 
 
 Rosa, 39-42 (VII, 28)
 
 COLORS 95 
 
 13. " Mit deinem Auge, deinem seelenvollen, 
 
 Schaust du mich an, als war's zum letzten Male ; 
 Dann seh' ich eine dunkle Thrane rollen, 
 Kaum noch durchblitzt von seinem frommen 
 Strale:" 
 
 Stamen auf ein Sicilianisches Schwesterpaar, 1-4 
 (VI, 215) 
 
 14. " Unter'm Baum im Sonnensstrale 
 
 Liegt ein rothes, trages Kind." 
 
 Unter'm Baum, 1-2 (VI, 272) 
 
 To impute any considerable influence to rhyme in 
 accounting for the abundant use of color and light in 
 the figure descriptions would be unwarranted. Rela- 
 tively few are the cases in which rhyme may have had 
 at best even a possible effect upon the selection of attri- 
 butes. One needs to read but little to discover Hebbel's 
 unaffected bias for luminous elements and each new 
 instance confirms the conviction that the constant re- 
 course to colors as a medium of individualization cannot 
 be attributed to the exigencies of rhyme. The applica- 
 tion of colors in the figure descriptions is so pronounced 
 as to verge on ascription to color of some manifestation 
 of the human, some revelation of the soul life. It con- 
 firms the theory that Hebbel actually discerned more 
 than mere sensuous properties in the sights and sounds 
 of nature, that sensuous stimuli were for him a sacred 
 medium, through which Nature enters into peculiar 
 relations with her anointed prophets. 
 
 Inanimate Objects 
 
 Hebbel was by no means indifferent to the color- 
 objects of his inanimate environment. As he generally 
 views these objects in their relations with persons, he is
 
 96 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 presumably interested primarily in these personal rela- 
 tions rather than in the related objects themselves. That 
 such objects lack interest for Hebbel when the link 
 between them and human life is absent appears from his 
 strong dislike for the displays at fairs, industrial ex- 
 hibits and the like. Thus stripped of tender human asso- 
 ciation, machinery, furniture, fabrics seem to him to 
 have smuggled their way into the realm of the beautiful. 
 Some sort of mute personality, born of service during 
 crises or impressive epochs of experience, must remove 
 from things their mercenary stigma as objects of pur- 
 chase and sale before they can attain to genuine poetic 
 status. 48 We should naturally expect Hebbel to be sen- 
 sitive to man's objective environment. And as a matter 
 of fact he has a place in his poetry for the common 
 everyday setting that so often is the index of life and 
 personality, just as it reacts in turn upon contiguous life 
 and personality. He pays many a passing tribute to 
 man's useful or ornamental possessions, his implements 
 of toil, everything that ministers to material comfort, 
 that serves to adorn the person or the home. 49 And he 
 dwells fervidly upon these objects when they are en- 
 deared to us by ties of association or tradition, so that 
 recollection of them brings with it a sense of personal 
 attachment. 
 
 Impressive again is the frequency with which Hebbel 
 calls up such objects in terms of colors. In many cases 
 the color naming is again not strange, since color is the 
 conspicuous quality in the things concerned. But the 
 recurrency itself of such conspicuously colored objects 
 in Hebbel's poetry is noteworthy. Often the allusion is 
 merely casual, awaking dim sensuous impressions, or 
 
 Tgb. II, 3166; Tgb. Ill, 3598. 
 
 49 Cf. Wiedersehen, Is. 45 ff. (VI, 109).
 
 COLORS 97 
 
 none at all. But quite as often the reference attains 
 unusual vividness by reason of a suggestive epithet or 
 of more deliberate elaboration of details. The poet often 
 seems to linger before the picture created by his fancy, 
 as though he would prolong the pleasure afforded by the 
 sheen of the nobler metals, or the prismatic lustre of 
 precious stones. 50 Somewhat less numerous but hardly 
 less effectual are the color passages descriptive of dress. 
 There is repeated reference to purple, to suggest the 
 traditional garb and the general material splendor of 
 royalty, at times with an individual touch that lifts the 
 device above hackneyed convention. Prominent in Heb- 
 bel's descriptions of dress is his apparent preference for 
 white, 51 perhaps because of that color's symbolic ac- 
 cordance with certain fundamental, spiritual qualities 
 or certain impressive modal states purity, innocence, 
 ominous solemnity; sometimes because of some ghastly 
 quality connecting white with scenes of death or of 
 kindred character. 52 
 
 so Spatziergang in Paris 46, 145, 147 (VI, 241); Dem 
 Schmerz sein Recht 121-2, 133 (VI, 287); Prolog zu Goethes 
 hundertjahriger Geburtstagsfeier 84, 86-7 (VI, 298) ; An eine 
 Romerin 13 (VI, 308); Vollendung 4 (VI, 311); Der Ring 27, 
 92 (VI, 390) ; Verloren und Gefunden 9, 32 (VI, 424) ; Diocle- 
 tian IS, 63-4 (VI, 429) ; Epilog zum Timon von Athen 7, 9, 
 20-1 (VI, 432); Wohin so flink, du junges Kind? 31-3 
 (VI, 441); An die Tugend 65-9 (VII, 14); Elegie 54 (VII, 
 22) ; Des Konigs Jagd 6, 9, 13-5 (VII, 85) ; Ritter Fortunat 
 7 (VII, 88) ; Hochzeit 14, 18-9 (VII, 128) ; Vater und Sohn 31, 
 35 (VII, 152) ; Sangers Sterne 36 (VII, 238) ; Der Taucher 2 
 (VII, 240) ; Eine moderne Ballade 22, 25, 44, 61, 65 (VII, 188) ; 
 Drei Schicksale 5, 11 (VII, 198). 
 
 51 Die heilige Drei 36 (VI, 181) ; Das Venerabile in der 
 Nacht 11 (VI, 286) ; Meiner Tochter Christine in's Gebetbuch 
 1 (VI, 423); Wohin so flink, du junges Kind? 25 (VI, 441); 
 Rosa 14 (VII, 28) ; Das Wiedersehen 70 (VII, 109). 
 
 52 Hebbel notes in Tgb. I, 398, from Trewlaney's Aben- 
 theuer in Ostindien : "Die Araber trauern in Weiss" ; cf . Tgb. 
 I, 1361 :".... Man f riert, wenn man eine weisse Masse sieht, 
 man schauert vor einer weissen Gestalt; der Schnee ist weiss,
 
 98 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 In such an habitual use of color as that set forth above 
 it is obvious that we have not to deal with an isolated 
 hue here and there or an occasional light now and then. 
 The poet rather introduced his colors in groups or 
 clusters : 
 
 " Sie tragt nicht immerdar das f reud'ge Roth, 
 Wenn sie sich los't aus ihrer Knospe Grim, 
 Doch, ob sie auch so bleich ist, wie der Tod, 
 Ihr Kelch bewahrt ein letztes stilles Gliih'n." 
 
 Meiner Tochter Christine, etc., 13-6 (VI, 423) 
 
 " Dort ihr Gewiihl ! Jedwedes Angesicht 
 Ein Sonnen-Abdruck, dunkel oder licht, 
 Wie sie die Zone farbte, schwarz geraucht, 
 Und wie von Flammen rothlich angehaucht," 
 
 Diocletian, 43-6 (VI, 429) 
 
 Often we look in vain for evidence of conscious selec- 
 tion and design. The color groups exhibit the same 
 freedom as obtains in nature. Then again the hues and 
 lights appear to be chosen and arranged in accordance 
 with some more apparent harmony in them, as when, 
 for instance, some emotion to be expressed suggests a 
 series of compatible colors. 
 
 But where passion for color is so instinctive and ele- 
 mental there must come moods when habitual repression 
 gives way to momentary abandon, when the imagination, 
 relieved of restraint, seems endowed with conscious ex- 
 hilaration in its own exercise and exults in unstinted sur- 
 render to the impressions of sense. And so we have 
 occasional passages where the lights seem to move in 
 ever-widening circles, where each color wave, as from 
 
 Gespenster denkt man sich weiss " Cf . also Tgb. I, 1555 : 
 
 "Ein Lichtschein beleuchtet plotzlich eine weisse Wand und eine 
 Stimme ruft aus: lies! . . . . Es steht doch Deine ganze 
 Zukunft dort geschrieben."
 
 COLORS 99 
 
 some central stimulus, stirs the next, and the luminous 
 impact moves in unbroken progression until all is aflame 
 with rippling lustre: 
 
 " Ich schaute dir in's Auge schnell, 
 
 Du blicktest gar zu mild, 
 Und lieblich sah ich, klar und hell, 
 Darin mein eig'nes Bild. 
 
 In eine wunderbare Flut 
 
 Von Farben war's getaucht, 
 Von Licht und Glanz die Zauberglut 
 
 Dariiber hingehaucht. 
 
 Da wurde dir das Auge feucht, 
 
 Und perlenklar und rein 
 Trat eine Thrane, schnell erzeugt, 
 
 Licht in das Licht hinein," etc. 
 
 T'dndelei, 1-12 (VI, 211) 
 
 " Und sieh : des Aethers reinste Tropf en fallen, 
 Der Sonne hellste Stralen schimmern d'rein, 
 Und, wie sie blitzend durch einander wallen 
 
 So fangen sie den holden Widerschein. 
 Er selber aber halt sie nun zusammen, 
 
 Und ein krystall'ner Spiegel bildet sich 
 Aus gliih'nden Perlen und aus feuchten Flammen, 
 In dem auch keine Linie erblich." 
 
 Auf die Sixtinische Madonna, 9-16 (VI, 283) 
 
 In such passages as the above, color love soars into color 
 rhapsody, into unchecked reveling in the optical wonders 
 of nature. And yet with all the opulence there is nothing 
 tawdry or inappropriate. The gayety and iridescence in 
 the passage from T'dndelei, for example, are suggestive 
 of the mood portrayed. Even in these comparatively 
 bold flights Hebbel's color sense does not forsake him; 
 consciously or instinctively he regards the relationships, 
 the congeniality, the suitableness of his qualities one to
 
 100 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 another, and he so blends and modulates his impressions 
 as to secure an effect at once intense and pure. 
 
 In the foregoing passages, the link of association 
 (where nature has not preceded the poet in combining 
 the hues and lights) is not always perfectly apparent, 
 although the results evince an appreciation of inherent 
 congruities. In the color groups that follow there ap- 
 pears to be more deliberate method. Occasionally there 
 underlies the selection of colors an idea of formal con- 
 trast. We note : 
 
 (a) In the more simple groupings, two contrasted 
 lights or colors: a pale light contrasted with a bright 
 light ; darkness with brightness ; white with black ; white 
 with red ; black with red ; more rarely, red with green : 
 
 " Das Dunkel wird zur f reud'gen Helle," 
 
 An die Unterdruckten, 25 (VII, 12) 
 
 " Der finstern That f ehlt dann der lichte Schein," 
 
 An die Unterdruckten, 30. 
 
 " Wolken diisterten den Schein des Mondes," etc. 
 
 Rosa, 9-10 (VII, 28) 
 
 " Was wankst Du noch im Dunkeln, Du Bleicher," etc. 
 
 Er und ich, 1-2 (VII, 24) 
 
 " Pfliicke nicht die schwarzen Rosen 
 Die um jeden Stamm sich ranken, 
 Wenn sie auch noch heiss're Diifte, 
 Als die rothen, in sich tranken!" 
 
 Der Zauberhain, 9-12 (VI, 387) 
 
 " Auf der Nachte Dunkel f olgt das Morgenroth," 
 
 Der Quell, 53-4 (VII, 16) 
 
 " Die menschliche Blume ist rosenroth, .... 
 Tragt die Blume der Geister ein weisses Kleid" 
 
 Lied der Geister, 13-5 (VII, 63)
 
 COLORS 101 
 
 " Da springt aus dem Mund ihr das Blut so roth, 
 Und sie sinkt zur Erde, ist bleich und todt." 
 
 Der Tans, 25-6 (VII, 72) 
 
 " Ich ritt durch Waldes-Dunkel .... 
 Glutrothe Wolken rollten" 
 
 Stillstes Leben, 6-8 (VII, 140) 
 " Mein Knablein, bis an's Ende roth und munter, 
 
 Da zieht ihn schnell der dunkle Arm herunter," 
 
 Kinderloos, 25-7 (VII, 163) 
 
 " Die Nacht ist so duster, sie scheint ein Sarg, 
 Worin der glanzende Tag sich verbarg," 
 
 Die Kindesmorderin, 1-2 (VII, 68) 
 
 " Unter griinen Myrthen, rothen Rosen 
 Bliiht dort ein Vergissmeinnicht," etc. 
 
 An Laura, 9-10 (VII, 50) 
 
 " Von der Liebe Rosenroth umgeben, 
 Von der Freundschaft weichem Myrthengriin ;" 
 
 An Laura, 19-20 (VII, 50) 
 
 " Dann schwimmet der Meergeist auf blaulicher Flut, 
 Der Feuergeist reitet auf rothlicher Glut," 
 
 Lied der Geister, 5-6 (VII, 63) 
 
 (b) More elaborate and complex are the groups of 
 contrasted colors where there are two elements in one 
 or both of the contrasted members ; or where a compari- 
 son is instituted between two sets of contrasted colors. 
 In general the contrasted elements are the same as in the 
 simpler examples, namely, light-darkness; white-black; 
 white-red; black-red; etc.: 
 
 " Und ob nachtlich' Gewolke den Tag verhullt 
 Sie zeigt auf die stralende Sonne. 
 Sie zeigt seinem Blicke die Dammerung," 
 
 Erinnerung, 15-7 (VII, 12)
 
 102 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 " Die Wange, jetzt bleich, wie der Tod 
 Einst sahst du wohl herrlich sie gliihen, 
 Wie Morgenroths Purpur, so roth." 
 
 Rosa, 26-8 (VII, 28) 
 
 " Der Mond schien aus diistrer Feme 
 Blutroth auf den nachtlichen Wald ; 
 Bleich huschten am Himmel die Sterne," 
 
 Rosa, 129-131 (VII, 28) 
 
 " Da ward des Himmels Erdengrau 
 Hell, silberhell, und dunkelblau, 
 Der Mond schien wieder licht und rein, 
 Klar funkelten die Sternelein." 
 
 Rosa, 161-4 (VII, 28) 
 
 " Wie der Sterne Goldgefunkel 
 Durch die schwarze Hiille bricht, 
 Also blitzt durch's Lebensdunkel 
 Edler Thaten Zauberlicht." 
 
 An die Tugend, 69-72 (VII, 14) 
 
 " Er malte ihrer Wangen Roth, 
 Des Auges Glanz zugleich, 
 Da ward ihr Auge blind und todt 
 Und ihre Wange bleich." 
 
 Der Maler, 9-12 (VI, 175) 
 
 " Triibes Licht von triiber Kerze, 
 Linnen rings, das weisse, bleiche, 
 In der Mitt' ein dunkler Sarg, 
 Und das Madchen d'rin als Leiche !" 
 
 Das Wiedersehen, 69-71 (VII, 109) 
 
 " Von dunkelnden Wogen 
 Hinunter gezogen, 
 Zwei schimmernde Schwane, sie schiffen daher, 
 
 Die Nebel, sie senken sich finster und schwer." 
 
 Sie seh'n sich nicht wieder, 1-6 (VI, 212)
 
 COLORS 103 
 
 (c) In the following color groups, whether con- 
 sciously, or blindly following an artistic instinct, Hebbel 
 succeeds in getting an "accord of contraries," a softened 
 or subdued contrast of opposite colors, which produces 
 the effect of harmony : 
 
 " Stiirmisch ist die Nacht und dunkel ; 
 Driiben blauen Lichts Gefunkel !" 
 
 Das traurige Licht, 1-2 (VII, 181) 
 
 " Eine Glocke sah ich spriessen, .... 
 Blau, aus schwarzem Erdenschooss." 
 
 Parodie, 1-5 (VII, 194) 
 
 " Du f unkelst rein und spiegelblank 
 Im Morgenstral der rothen Sonne." 
 
 Auf ein nev.es Trinkglas, 1-2 (VII, 118) 
 
 The subjective quality of Hebbel's poems, already 
 briefly alluded to, must again be emphasized. This quality 
 imparts to his colors a charm far more subtle than sensu- 
 ous beauty or aesthetic congruence. Hebbel has done 
 more than merely borrow Nature's materials to make a 
 refined copy of her. Though the lights and colors that 
 give life to the lyrics be the same with those in the skies 
 above and on the earth about us, they partake of a 
 strange quality and power from their refraction of the 
 poet's personality. This soul-toning lends to the lights 
 a mystic beauty distinct from that of sense. As has been 
 pointed out, such emotionalizing of nature was not in 
 Hebbel's conception the investiture of something in it- 
 self dead with the outward shows of life. The profound 
 poet does not project self into nature, he extracts self 
 out of nature, and in so doing evokes that higher nature 
 of which man and his physical environment form con- 
 stituent parts. It is in this sense that man in the cosmic 
 process is entindividualisiert, "unselved" or "trans-
 
 104 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 selved," destroyed in his isolation by union with nature 
 in a higher "ideal" sphere, just as the material on its 
 part is destroyed, "dematerialized," through union with 
 man in the higher existence of the Weltidee. This union 
 of Nature's soul that other self with the soul in Man, 
 involving the death of each mortal Part in the immortal 
 life of the All, Hebbel has imaged for us in numerous 
 passages. These clearly show that the life in outward 
 things was as little a poetic fiction with Hebbel as it was 
 with Wordsworth. The world becomes a torch to illu- 
 minate his own inner being. The things of sense aug- 
 ment his conception of cosmic Ideality. To his poetic 
 imagination the lights and colors and sounds are corre- 
 lates of certain spiritual powers of man, and enter at 
 moments of inspired contemplation into mystic union 
 with the soul: 
 
 " Da ward in mir das Innerste gelos't, 
 Des Wesens Kern und Wurzel, wie entblosst, 
 Und was in mir nicht leuchtet und nicht klingt, 
 Weil es in and'rer Form zurri Dasein dringt, 
 Das leuchtete und klang, es rann in Eins 
 Mit Stral und Ton zur Fiille neuen Seins." 
 
 Spatziergang in Paris, 13-8 (VI, 241) 
 
 " Nun versagen sie (i.e. die Cotter) Nichts, 
 Als den letzten der Sterne, 
 Der dich in dammernder Feme 
 Kniipft an den Urquell des Lichts. 
 
 Ihm entlocke den Blitz, 
 Der dich, dein Ird'sches verzehrend, 
 Und dich mit Feuer verklarend, 
 Los't f iir den ewigen Sitz !" 
 
 Dem Schmerz sein Recht, 174-81 (VI, 287) 
 
 Thus the splendors of sunset, of starlight and of rose 
 are not merely delights for the eye. They are the Ian-
 
 COLORS 105 
 
 guage of that other Self, the symbols of the World- 
 Concept's gradual revelation. And as the transcendent 
 personality of material nature speaks in its tints and 
 tones, so the poet's cosmic self is revealed in intuitive 
 flashes linked with the world of sense. Through such 
 common symbols, found in the outer world, found within 
 himself no less, the poet divines the meaning of earth's 
 partial lights, divines their kinship with the all-embracing 
 Geistersonne whence they came and whither they must 
 again return. We can well understand the feeling of 
 mingled awe and delight with which the consciousness of 
 this cosmic fellowship filled the poet, and we do not 
 wonder that a certain sanctity enveloped the symbols of 
 this communion: 
 
 " In unermesslich tiefen Stunden, 
 Hast du, in ahnungsvollem Schmerz, 
 Den Geist des Weltalls nie empfunden, 
 Der niederflammte in dein Herz ? 
 
 Da thust du in die dunkeln Risse 
 Des Unerforschten einen Blick 
 Und nimmst in deine Finsternisse 
 Ein leuchtend Bild der Welt zuruck ;" 
 
 Erleuchtung, 1-4; 9-12 (VI, 255) 
 
 " So dass die Welt, trotz ihrer finstern Spuren, 
 Ihm Fackel war, sein Inn'res aufzuhellen," 
 
 Das abgeschiedene Kind, etc., 108-9 (VI, 294) 
 
 " Nur fiirchte ich, dass, wie ich selbst Gedanken, 
 Die gleich Kometen blitzten, schon erstickte, 
 Eh' ich verging in ihrem gliih'nden Lichte," 
 
 Mysterium, 9-12 (VI, 322) 
 
 ". . . . Himmelswonne 
 Giesst allmachtig sich dem Herzen ein 
 Aus dem Lichtmeer jener Geistersonne," etc. 
 
 Fragment e, No. 4, 1-3 (VII, 39)
 
 106 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 But the Poet is not in all his moods mindful of his 
 high dignity as Prophet of the Weltidee, he is not always 
 administering the sacred rites; often his instruments 
 must fill a humbler secular office. With keen apprecia- 
 tion of the effect of color upon mental states, Hebbel 
 frequently resorts to this medium as we have shown 
 in the personal descriptions for the purpose of accent- 
 uating the dominant mood of a character or situation, 
 and of superinducing a sympathetic mental attitude on 
 the part of the reader. Here we seem to have evidence 
 of a dramatic sense, keenly alive to the dynamic relation 
 of landscape to figures, and conscious of the appropriate- 
 ness of certain external conditions to certain internal 
 states. It is in the ballads and romances that this ten- 
 dency is best illustrated, in the poems in which narrative 
 constitutes an important factor. In the opening lines 
 colors frequently dominate, and the initial light is made 
 to throw its beams upon all that follows: 
 
 " Es sitzt ein Vater beim Mondenschein 
 Mit seinen Kindern im Kammerlein, 
 Er schleift ein rostiges Messer 
 Und wird dabei blasser und blasser." 
 
 Der Ring, 1-4 (VI, 390) 
 
 " Schwiil wird diese Nacht. Am Himmelsbogen 
 Zieh'n die Wolken dichter sich zusammen, 
 Breit beglanzt von Wetterleuchtens Flammen 
 Und von rothen Blitzen scharf durchzogen." 
 
 Liebeszauber, 1-4 (VI, 156) 
 
 " 's ist Mitternacht ! 
 Der eine schlaft, der And're wacht. 
 Er schaut bei'm blauen Mondenlicht 
 Dem Schlafer still in's Angesicht;" etc. 
 
 's ist Mitternacht, 1-4 (VI, 174)
 
 COLORS 107 
 
 It is in the employment of lights and colors as features 
 in dramatic setting that we observe the most marked dif- 
 ference between Hebbel's earlier and later style. If 
 emotional suggestion through color symbols is a con- 
 cededly legitimate device, it is a device that may not be 
 abused with impunity. The whole effect may be vitiated 
 by too apparent contrivance. And of such contrivance 
 Hebbel is guilty in a few of his early poems. Take his 
 Rosa as an example : 
 
 1. 1 " Der Tag war hin, die Nacht brach an, 
 Der Mond begann die bleiche Bahn, 
 Die Sterne hellten silberrein 
 Das dunkle Blau mit lichtem Schein. 
 
 Da eilt ein Wanderer voriiber 
 Am mitternachtlichen Wald, 
 Der Himmel wird triiber und triiber, 
 Der Wind weht schaurig und kalt. 
 
 Und Wolken diisterten den Schein 
 Des Mondes und der Sternelein, 
 Und sieh, des Himmels Dunkelblau 
 Wird nachtlich schwarz und erdengrau. 
 
 1. 17 Einst war's ein Madchen, wunderschon, 
 Wie junge Rosen anzuseh'n, 
 Wie junge Rosen, voll von Thau, 
 Hellprangend auf der Morgenau; 
 Jetzt war's ein Schatten, irr und bleich, 
 Wie einsten in der Geister Reich, 
 Die Augen todt, die Stimme hohl, 
 Die einst so lieblich klang und voll. 
 
 ' O, musst mir so schnell nicht entfliehen 
 Die Wange, jetzt bleich, wie der Tod 
 Einst sahst du wohl herrlich sie gluhen, 
 Wie Morgenroths Purpur, so roth.'
 
 108 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 1. 153 ' O sanfte Schwester, rosenroth, 
 
 Dich knickte nicht der bleiche Tod ; 
 Der Satan trank des Leibes Blut, 
 Dein Geist ist kinderrein und gut ' 
 
 1. 159 Und als sie nun hinaufgeschwebt 
 In's Friedensreich, wo Rosa lebt, 
 Da ward des Himmels Erdengrau 
 Hell, silberhell, und dunkelblau, 
 Der Mond schien wieder licht und rein, 
 Klar funkelten die Sternelein." 
 
 Rosa, Is. 1-12; 17-28; 153-6; 159-64 (VII, 28) 
 
 Here we have color, floods of it, turned on like limelights 
 on the stage. Every mood has its accompanying light, 
 each movement is appropriately illuminated ; and the lime- 
 light illumination, the shifting of shade for each new 
 pose is managed with a regularity so excessive as to con- 
 vey the impression of mechanical mannerism. Capital 
 though these descriptions may be when taken singly, 
 collectively they have an unnatural, an over-studied 
 effect; such slavish adjustment of lights to situations is 
 offensively spectacular. 
 
 And yet these early blemishes, typified by the descrip- 
 tions in Rosa, are insignificant enough. They certainly 
 would not suffice to prove conventionality in Hebbel's 
 colors even if we lacked better evidence of the con- 
 trary on the theory that young writers affect what most 
 impresses them in others. The lavish lights in Rosa are 
 less the insincerity of the imitator than the indiscretion, 
 the insecurity of the novice. They illustrate the prodi- 
 gality that characterizes apprenticeship. As Hebbel de- 
 velops, we note the increased tact, deftness and frugality 
 that mark growing mastery:
 
 COLORS 109 
 
 " Ich bin in der Nacht gegangen ; 
 Wie dunkel und wie still ! 
 Kein Hauch in den schweren Liif ten, 
 Kein Stern, der leuchten will! 
 
 Vom Felsenhang herunter 
 Neigt sich ein einsam Haus, 
 Es fiel aus dem schmalen Fenster 
 Ein zitternd Licht heraus. 
 
 Der Pfad fiihrt hart voriiber, 
 Da lauscht' ich denn hinein ; 
 Ich sah einen Todten liegen, 
 Vom Leichlicht kam der Schein." 
 
 Licht in der Nacht (VII, 146) 1836 
 
 The offensive largess of Rosa yields here to wiser hus- 
 banding of the technical effects, the illuminations are now 
 not so raw, so crass. And though even here there may 
 be a suggestion of the spectacular, yet the colors are 
 made to tell, they help to superinduce an atmosphere 
 of anxiety. Conversely, in Liebeszauber, 53 after the 
 breathless tension inaugurated by the initial colors and 
 maintained by the dramatic movement of the recital, 
 there is afforded at the close a mental relief, a conscious 
 relaxation into full and free respiration, through sugges- 
 tion of the sudden shower that dispels the heat, and 
 through allusion to cool, rain- freshened odors. In the 
 ballad Schon Hedwig, written in 1838, the poet resorts 
 to the same device for dramatic effect, but he avoids the 
 mechanical contrivance so noticeable in Rosa. The 
 handling of the materials now shows progress toward 
 the quality exactly defined by Pater's terms "composi- 
 tion" as contrasted with "loose accretion." The light 
 upon the maiden's brow is both physically and psychi- 
 cally congruous, it is consonant with her character and 
 
 53 Liebeszauber, Is. 1-8; 105-15 (VI, 156).
 
 110 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 with the emotional situation supposed. 54 Again in Lustig 
 tritt ein schoner Knabe like Schon Hedwig a poem in 
 ballad form we have the same playing of the lights at 
 the critical moment. But here, as in Schon Hedwig, the 
 device is effective because natural. There is no impres- 
 sion here of surplusage, no feeling that the attendant 
 circumstance has been mechanically fashioned. The 
 simple maiden entering the youth's chamber in half- 
 hearted coyness at the dead of night is very fittingly 
 represented as bathed in the radiance of the inflooding 
 moonlight. This circumstance is a perfectly plausible 
 part of the scene, considered purely physically; consid- 
 ered spiritually, it is equally appropriate, for it stands 
 in symbolic relations with the maiden's innocence, just 
 as her passion finds a beautiful symbol in the glowing 
 wine held in her pale hands. The colors here are struc- 
 turally realistic, fusing organically with action and feel- 
 ing, not floating in streaks upon the surface : 
 
 " Hell beleuchtet, bis zum Blenden, 
 Steht sie da im Mondenstral, 
 Und in ihrer weissen Handen 
 Blinkt der Wein zum dritten Mai." 
 Lustig tritt ein schoner Knabe, 45-8 (VI, 437) 
 
 Our investigation has aimed to show, first, Hebbel's 
 extraordinary and sustained susceptibility to colors; 
 then as the vital core of the whole matter the spir- 
 itual significance that these elements assume under the 
 influence of his prophetic intuition, and lastly, the early 
 attained mastery of the technical resources of color. 
 
 84 " Ein zartes Magdlein tritt heran 
 Und fiillt ihm den Pocal. 
 Zuriick mit Lacheln tritt sie dann, 
 Da fallt auf ihre Stirne 
 Der klarste Morgenstral." 
 
 Schon Hedwig, 6-10 (VI, 172)
 
 COLORS 111 
 
 Incidentally, the theory of conventionality in Hebbel's 
 colors has been made to appear at least improbable. The 
 desired object has been attained if the discussion has 
 demonstrated that Hebbel's lyrics display a highly indi- 
 vidual sense of nature's hues and intuitive aptness in 
 their application. Both features are of prime importance 
 in determining Hebbel's rank as a poetic artist. And 
 certainly on the score of apt employment Hebbel's colors 
 seem to possess distinction. If he was a lover of color 
 from the beginning, he early outgrew servile worship and 
 mad devotion. Reckless abandon, infrequent even in his 
 more impassioned flights, is almost unknown in passages 
 that give evidence of more mature poise. Hebbel does 
 not choose his colors wantonly, as though to defy nature 
 or to envelop the image in a bewildering haze. Such was 
 the method of Romanticists like Tieck ; and the modern 
 Symbolists in their disregard of the natural limitations 
 of the several senses appear to be playing with similar 
 effects. Confusing refinements of hues and tints, such 
 as mar Shelley's imagery at times, are rare in Hebbel's 
 early verse, whereas his later art brings an ennobled 
 poetic message in language purged by ceaseless self- 
 culture of the grosser defects of youth. 
 
 In conclusion we submit a detailed survey of Hebbel's 
 color terms, citing under the headings of the various 
 colors a few typical examples of their use. The survey 
 is supplemented by several tables showing succinctly the 
 variety and frequency of the color terms employed. 55 
 
 55 As basis for the following tabulations use was made of 
 Hebbel's poems as contained in Werner's edition, vols. VI (omit- 
 ting pages 326 to 378, and page 383) and VII. The omitted por- 
 tions include under the general heading of Epigramme und 
 Verwandtes eight groups of miscellaneous matter designated as 
 follows: Bilder; Gnomen; Kunst; Geschichte; Ethisches; Per- 
 sonliches; Buntes; Spriiche.
 
 112 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 In tabulating the instances in this survey, the attempt 
 is made to record how often the several terms of color 
 and light convey a distinct impression of sensuous reality. 
 This is done for the purpose of determining as far as 
 possible the extent to which Hebbel's colors involve 
 actual bodily stimulation on the poet's part and commen- 
 surate response on the part of the reader. Every occur- 
 rence of a sensuous term in human speech obviously does 
 not represent pronounced sensation, and so every color 
 symbol in poetry cannot be taken at full face value. 56 
 For one may conceivably use or meet expressions such 
 as golden youth, dazzling beauty, brilliant career, dark 
 despair without experiencing any noteworthy sensory 
 thrill. Moreover, there can hardly be any test of sensu- 
 ousness in poetic diction that will decide specific cases 
 infallibly. Poets and readers differ so materially in their 
 mental habits that it is well-nigh impossible to decide 
 absolutely whether a given sensuous term involves posi- 
 tive physical stimulation or not. What we have is often 
 nothing more than a conventional metaphor, a mere 
 matter of rhetorical composition. A term of sense is 
 transferred from its native soil to some mental element 
 with which it has a real or imaginary affinity, and the 
 sensory organism may not participate in this transfer- 
 ence at all. Nevertheless the temptation to subject Heb- 
 bel's lyric diction to just such a test is irresistible. The 
 astonishing frequency of sensuous terms in his songs 
 together with his preoccupation with the spiritual aspects 
 of life make the problem in his case one of peculiar diffi- 
 culty. In his early poems particularly, which are char- 
 acterized by a marked tendency to reflection, there is 
 
 56 Cf. Stumpf's discussion of the sensory element involved 
 in metaphor (Tonpsychologie, I, pp. 199 ff.). See also Albert 
 Malto Wanner, Das Drama Friedrich Hebbels, Hamburg und 
 Leipzig, 1911, pp. 446-68, Die Bildlichkeit.
 
 COLORS 113 
 
 often no trustworthy test. When he echoes Schiller's 
 sentiments on friendship or love or longing, for example, 
 who shall say whether his colors and lights reflect a 
 response to physical stimulus? Conceivably the physical 
 properties connoted by these sensuous symbols may give 
 way to the abstract idea implied, and the terms thus fade 
 into colorless rhetorical media. 
 
 We are justified in bringing to our problem such defi- 
 nite knowledge as we possess of the poet's temperament 
 and mental habits. We have a right to bear in mind 
 while testing his sensuous terms that he was actually 
 known to respond to impressions of color with the keen 
 relish of a sensitive child. We may be safely guided in 
 our classification by the knowledge that profound truths 
 often burst through the darkness of his reflections with 
 a splendor as real as the gleam of stars or the flash of 
 lightning. And we may derive legitimate aid in our 
 judgments from the fact that he communicated such 
 luminous experiences to intimate associates in an im- 
 passioned manner, with throbbing pulse and with eyes 
 and cheeks aglow. In his songs, therefore, we may 
 safely attach actual physical excitation to many extended 
 passages where spiritual struggles, whether of passion 
 or of truth, are expressed in terms of sense. His theme 
 may be love in the abstract, not a distinct loved one; 
 and yet the language of his song may abound in terms 
 that record and convey concrete feelings: 
 
 " O Blitz, der aus dem Tiefsten springt 
 Und mir durch jede Faser zuckt, 
 Der mich mit neuer Glut durchdringt, 
 Die sonst mein Inn'res still verschluckt ;" etc. 
 
 Neue Liebe, 1-4 (VI, 212) 
 
 Or again, the theme may be the brilliant talent of an 
 admired artist. From one point of view this is a con-
 
 114 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 crete theme, for the inspiration comes from a distinct 
 revelation of art on the part of a specific personality. 
 And yet it is brilliant artistry in general that Hebbel 
 celebrates in Auf die Deutsche Kiinstlerin. His manner 
 of doing it, however, is such that concrete sensations 
 prevail over abstract reflections. The realism of Hebbel's 
 sensuous imagery, the reality of the experiences that 
 they express are unmistakable in extended metaphorical 
 passages such as the one in this poem : 
 
 " Ich will den Funken aus den Hoh'n, 
 Der sanft der Seele sich verbiindet 
 Und langsam wachsend, immer schon, 
 Zuletzt zur Flamme sich entziindet :" etc. 
 
 Auf die Deutsche Kunstlerin, 5-8 (VI, 282) 
 Cf. p. 74 above. 
 
 Nevertheless the test and the resultant classification be- 
 come especially difficult in such cases of extended meta- 
 phor. For here the figurative symbol is often elaborated 
 by the introduction of concrete attributes for which there 
 may be only remote correlates in the symbolized abstrac- 
 tion. Thus it frequently happens in Hebbel's songs that 
 a given term seems to convey vivid sensuous impression, 
 while it plainly forms part of a complex metaphor, 
 significant of an essentially abstract thought. In many 
 cases the predominance of the one or the other quality 
 must determine as to which of the two categories the 
 terms in question belong. But although we bring candor 
 and care to the task, the final decision in many instances 
 is bound to be arbitrary. 
 
 A good example of the abstract raised through vivid 
 imagery into the concrete and sensuous is afforded by 
 the poem Der Quell (VII, 16), with its extended meta- 
 phor of the brook or spring, which forms the theme of 
 lines 13 to 32:
 
 COLORS 115 
 
 "Audi durch's Erdgefilde 
 Rinnt ein Himmelsquell, 
 Lieblich ist sein Wasser, 
 Labend, rein und silberhell. 
 
 Schone f rische Baume 
 
 Sieh! umschatten ihn, 
 
 Balsamreiche Blumen 
 
 Bliih'n auf Auen, dunkelgriin." etc. 
 
 Is. 13-20. 
 
 Here the metaphor is elaborated by the introduction of 
 features associated with the brook, the freshness and 
 lustre of its waters, the verdant coolness of the trees 
 that shade it, the fragrance of the flowers that dot its 
 green banks. Soon we have forgotten that the spring 
 of which Hebbel sings is Friendship. The underlying 
 abstract idea vanishes and we are spirited away to the 
 shady scene of the poet's fancy; we are actually beside 
 the silvery brook, inhaling its sweet coolness and tast- 
 ing its limpid waters. 
 
 Similarly in the second one of the Fragment e (VII, 
 38), the underlying thought of Immortality is but dimly 
 present in our mind as we read. The luminous imagery 
 breaks through all abstract tissue, a picture rich in con- 
 crete details takes shape in our fancy: 
 
 " Die schonste Himmelsblume bliihet 
 
 Mit lichtem Glanz, 
 Der ihren zarten Flor umziehet 
 
 Im irdschen Kranz. 
 Sie macht das Gleiche gleich und funkelt, 
 
 Wie ein Gebild 
 Aus Himmelshoh'n, wie sehr es dunkelt, 
 
 So himmlisch mild. 
 Wohl thront sie gern auf Konigsthronen, 
 
 Und segnet sie "
 
 116 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 The same clear sense impressions are conveyed by 
 light and color terms in less elaborate metaphors. Take 
 such figures as: 
 
 (a) "Und als im diistern Fittig 
 
 Die eis'ge Nacht uns verbarg," 
 
 Er und ich, 13-4 (VII, 24) 
 
 (b) "Wie, wenn die Dammerung das bunte Leben 
 
 Schon in den diistergrauen Schleier hiillt," 
 
 An Ludwig Uhland, 1-2 (VII, 99) 
 
 Here the fibre of such epithets as duster and diistergrau 
 is unmistakably concrete and sensuous, although the 
 terms form part of the metaphors Fittig and Schleier 
 respectively. 
 
 It will appear from the foregoing that in tabulating 
 Hebbel's color and light terms and in isolating the meta- 
 phorical instances we use the designation metaphor in 
 an arbitrary sense, deviating somewhat from the common 
 acceptation of the word. This divergence is further 
 illustrated by our disposition of the instances of Glut, 
 gliihen, erloschen, entziinden and the like. Our classi- 
 fication necessarily brings us into conflict with the prac- 
 tice of lexicographers. In passages such as the follow- 
 ing, gliihen, erlosch are for us sensuous and concrete. 
 Upon our basis of classification, the terms cannot be 
 taken as metaphors, although the custom prevails of 
 classing as figurative the use of gliihen and erloschen in 
 the secondary sense here implied: 
 
 (a) "Eine Rose wohl sehe ich gliihen" 
 
 Sehnsucht, 7 (VII, 9) 
 
 (b) "Dunkelroth im Morgenlicht 
 
 Gluh'n des Schlosses blanke Zinnen," 
 
 Ritter Fortunat, 5-6 (VII, 88)
 
 COLORS 117 
 
 (c) ". . . . die Glut erlosch auf meinen Wangen" 
 
 Das Abendmahl des Herrn, 19 (VII, 122) 
 
 Whenever terms like these record and convey intense 
 visual or tactual impressions, despite any expressed or 
 implied abstract thought, then we take the liberty of 
 counting them among the instances of sensuous imagery. 
 When on the other hand the underlying spiritual concept 
 is throughout dominant, when the colors and lights that 
 shimmer through adorn yet do not transcend the ab- 
 stract idea then the sensuous becomes virtually a rhe- 
 torical symbol. And this symbol is felt to have lost its 
 objectivity in a measure. We are not conscious of direct 
 sense impression, because the spiritual outweighs the 
 physical. We are not borne on the wings of sensuous 
 imagination away from the shadow realm of the intellect 
 into the poetic land of matter and form. There can be 
 no question of the preeminence of the abstract idea of 
 guilt and remorse over all concrete associations sug- 
 gested by umdiistern in the following lines from Rosa: 
 
 " Und ihre Unschuld Hess sie dort, 
 Den Himmel Hess sie dort zuriick, 
 Und H611' umdiistert ihren Blick." 
 
 Rosa, 56-8 (VII, 28) 
 
 Similarly in the poem An einen Verkannten, the symbols 
 bring a message to the intellect rather than to the senses. 
 The abstract concept on the whole predominates, despite 
 such terms as umdunkeln and trub: 
 
 " Sei verkannt ! Lass dich nur Nacht umdunkeln ! 
 Deine Tugend wird im Himmelsspiegel funkeln, 
 Wenn auch nicht im truben dieser Zeit." 
 
 An einen Verkannten, 1-3 (VII, 40) 
 
 In the majority of passages thus far quoted classifica- 
 tion is relatively easy. Very often, however, a passage
 
 118 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 is of such a nature that any positive and final classifica- 
 tion must give occasion for considerable doubt. As an 
 example of such a doubtful case we may quote from the 
 poem Drei Schwestern (VI, 405) : 
 
 1. 1 "Drei Schwestern sind's von sanftem Reiz umstralt, 
 
 1. 5 Und lieblicher hab' ich den Horentanz 
 Noch nie erblickt in seinem Zauberglanz. 
 
 1. 25 Die Dritte hat noch eine lange Frist, 
 
 Sie weiss noch kaum, dass sie kein Kind mehr ist, 
 Bald aber steht auch sie im rothen Schein 
 Des Morgenlichts und schimmert ganz allein, 
 Denn, wie am Himmelsrande Firn nach Firn, 
 Vergoldet es auf Erden Stirn nach Stirn." 
 
 Here the imagery of the morning with its golden lights 
 will speak a various language to various minds, or to 
 various moods of the same mind. It may suggest the 
 physical qualities of the young maiden and stimulate the 
 fancy through the senses to vivid reproduction of the 
 maiden's bodily charms. Then again the imagery may 
 be regarded as suggesting and suggested by purely spir- 
 itual qualities of the maiden. Taken in its connection 
 the passage would seem rather to symbolize the sunny 
 character of the girl, the sprightliness of her disposition, 
 the blithe freshness and hope of her budding nature. If 
 this be correct, the main impression would be not physi- 
 cal, not colors and lights as something present to the 
 senses, but rather the implied ideas of gayety and light- 
 heartedness. Under the latter interpretation, consistency 
 would require the classification of the terms involved as 
 so far forth metaphorical. But confessedly a decision 
 in favor of one view will be followed by a return to the 
 mind of the claims of the other, and that too with re-
 
 COLORS 119 
 
 doubled intensity. In such doubtful cases one cannot 
 do more than consider both sides fairly and admit frankly 
 the arbitrariness of the final decision. 
 
 The number of such dogmatic decisions is unfortu- 
 nately quite considerable. Occasionally, as in the case 
 of Drei Schwestern, we are moved to consider Hebbel's 
 color symbolism as an effective rhetorical medium un- 
 attended by direct sensory impression. In general, how- 
 ever, his known sensitiveness to color stimuli and his 
 extended and persistent use of their symbols seemed to 
 warrant a decision of doubtful cases in favor of the 
 sensuous and the concrete. 
 
 I. COLOR PROPER 
 1. Red 57 
 
 Of all the hues and tints, red occurs most frequently, 
 83 out of the 278 hues being roth or one of its deriva- 
 tives or compounds, with 3 instances of metaphor. Of 
 the compounds of roth, morgenroth appears 8 times, 
 dbendroth, 5; other common compounds are rosenroth 
 and blutroth. 
 
 Red is used in a variety of connections ; it occurs with 
 great effectiveness: 
 
 (a) In descriptions of persons, particularly when ref- 
 erence is had to lips and cheeks, where the color often 
 serves as a concomitant of passion, anger, delight, em- 
 barrassment : "ein rothes, trages Kind," : Unter'm Baum 
 2 (VI, 272). "das freud'ge Roth": Meiner Tochter 
 
 57 Cf. Purple, p. 129 and footnote. With respect to Heb- 
 bel's employment of red, cf. Tgb. I, 1578: "Im Russischen 
 bezeichnet dasselbe Wort roth und schon. Uebrigens fliegt mir, 
 wenn ich an etwas Schemes denke, zugleich immer die rothe 
 Farbe durch den Kopf."
 
 120 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Christine, etc., 13 (VI, 423). "Wohl lachelt mir Dein 
 rother Mund" : Auf ein sehr schones junges Madchen 1 
 (VI, 426). Cf. Sturmabend 21-2 (VI, 143); Die 
 heilige Drei 85-6 (VI, 181) ; Ein f nines Liebesleben 36 
 (VI, 199), etc., etc. 
 
 (b) Frequently in descriptions of nature, often with 
 symbolic implication, as of guilt, crime, sorrow, etc.; 
 also in descriptions of fruits, plants, flowers, etc.: 
 "blutroth, blutroth grinset mir die Sonne" : Kains Klage 
 43 (VII, 10). "Der Mond schien aus diistrer Feme 
 blutroth auf den nachtlichen Wald": Rosa, 129-31 (VII, 
 28). "von rothen Blitzen scharf durchzogen": Liebes- 
 zauber 4 (VI, 156). Cf. also Auf ein neues Trinkglas 
 2 (VII, 118) ; Stillstes Leben 8 (VII, 140) ; Vater unser 
 13-5 (VI, 169), etc., etc. 
 
 (c) As mere intensifying attribute of some term 
 of light; some of the terms under (b), nature, partake 
 of this quality : "im rothen Schein" : Drei Schwestern 27 
 (VI, 405). "Mit rother Fackel": Prolog zum 26 Februar, 
 etc., 48 (VI, 418). "auf rothlicher Glut": Lied der 
 Geister 6 (VII, 63). Cf. Der alten Cotter Abendmahl 2 
 (VII, 132) ; Still und heimlich 19 (VII, 163). 
 
 (d) As attribute of wine, blood, etc. : "weiss und roth 
 die vollen Flaschen stehen": Zum Schiller- Jubilaum 13- 
 4 (VI, 407). "in deinem Blute roth gefarbt": Epilog 
 zum Timon von Athen 22 (VI, 432). "Da springt aus 
 dem Mund ihr das Blut so roth": Der Tanz 25 (VII, 
 72). Cf. Im Garten 10-12 (VII, 80). 
 
 (e) Metaphor: "der Liebe Rosenroth": An Laura 
 19 (VII, 50). "Die menschliche Blume ist rosenroth": 
 Lied der Geister 13 (VII, 63). "Ich bin der Tod und 
 pfliicke mir ein Blumlein roth": Todes-Tiicke 12-3 
 (VII, 76). Cf. Ein f rimes Liebesleben 185-6 (VI, 199). 
 
 (f) Miscellaneous: "Dunkelroth im Morgenlicht
 
 COLORS 121 
 
 gliih'n des Schlosses blanke Zinnen": Ritter Fortunat 
 5-6 (VII, 88). "Was flackert roth die Miihle": Die 
 Schlacht bei Hemmingstedt 1 (VII, 90). "Es gait dem 
 Edelsteine, der roth am Finger blinkte": Traum 22-3 
 (VII, 166). "funkelnde Rubinen, blank, wie Dolche, 
 roth, wie Blut": Eine moderne Ballade 22-3 (VII, 188). 
 
 2. Gold 
 
 Gold with 45 instances, of which 9 occur in metaphors, 
 ranks next to red in frequency of occurrence. The 
 color combinations in which "gold" figures promi- 
 nently are frequently brilliant, gorgeous, or even 
 gaudy: ". . . . ein goldnes Meer von Farben" : Der 
 Schmetterling 9-10 (VI, 196). "Fahnen, schwarz-gold- 
 rothen": Die heilige Drei 117 (VI, 181). 
 
 (a) Gold is most often met in descriptions of jewels, 
 costly treasures such as crowns, goblets, gems and the 
 like. In these descriptions the term connotes primarily 
 the metal, but incidentally the color as well : "Zum gold- 
 nen Becher": Die Odaliske 31 (VI, 187). "in purem 
 Golde glanzen": Prolog zu Goethes hundertjahriger 
 Geburtsfeier 85 (VI, 298). "Ein goldnes Netz im vollen 
 goldnen Haar": Der Princess Marie Wittgenstein 1 
 (VI, 403). Cf. Fiir ein Ringreiterfest 66 (VII, 4) ; Der 
 alten Cotter Abendmahl 19 (VII, 132) ; Flocken 88 
 (VII, 44) ; Des Konigs Jagd 9 (VII, 85) ; Des Konigs 
 Tod 9-10 (VII, 123). 
 
 (b) In descriptions of nature, chiefly the heavens; 
 of flowers and plants, fruits, etc. : "Aus dem goldnen 
 Morgen-Qualm" : Meisengluck 1 (VI, 284). "die gold- 
 nen Sterne": Im romischen Carneval 7 (VI, 308). "Im 
 gold'nen Sonnenstral" : Ein Wald 52 (VI, 397). Cf. 
 Ein Mittag 6 (VII, 101) ; An die Tugend 69 (VII, 14), 
 etc., etc.
 
 122 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 (c) Rarely in descriptions of persons, as attribute 
 of hair: "Das Haar so golden": Drei Schwestern 9 (VI, 
 405). "goldnes Haar": Romanze 23 (VII, 26). "hell, 
 wie Gold, das Ringelhaar": Rosa 42 (VII, 28). Also: 
 "Gottes eig'ner Finger leuchtet golden durch ihr Ange- 
 sicht": Das Madchen im Kampf mit sich selbst 29-30 
 (VI, 232). "Nichts und Alles bist du, Gold und Staub": 
 Fragmente No. 4, line 12 (VII, 39). The color associa- 
 tion of Gold in this passage is very remote. 
 
 (d) Familiar metaphors: "goldne Zeit": Prolog zum 
 26 Februar 101 (VI, 418). "die Rose goldner Himmels- 
 ruh": Der Quell 31-2 (VII, 16). The derivative 
 vergolden in the metaphorical sense of "to enhance," 
 "beautify" occurs 3 times: "Und auch den plattsten 
 Gesellen vergoldet ihr Auge mir": Die Kirmess 15-6 
 (VI, 278). "vergoldet . . . . auf Erden Stirn nach 
 Stirn": Drei Schwestern 30 (VI, 405). "seinen Schlaf 
 vergolden viel Traume": Romanze 36 (VII, 42). 
 
 (e) Miscellaneous: "Den gold'nen Schatten": Prolog 
 zum 26 Februar 124 (VI, 418). "gold'nes Gefieder": 
 Der Bramine 94 (VI, 434). "der gold'ne Wein": Lustig 
 tritt ein schoner Knabe 30 (VI, 437). "goldne Harfe": 
 AnElise 9 (VII, 175). 
 
 3. Blue 
 
 Blue is perhaps the most interesting of the colors em- 
 ployed by Hebbel. As the color of the heavens par excel- 
 lence it figures prominently in nature descriptions, for 
 Hebbel rarely leaves the sky out of his landscape. Being 
 the prevailing hue of the sky, it blends easily with light 
 in Hebbel's thought and occurs frequently as an attri- 
 bute of light: "in blaulichem Glanz"; "blaulich klar"; 
 "stralend und blau" ; "blaue Liifte."
 
 COLORS 123 
 
 Blau is one of the few colors in which Hebbel makes 
 any formal distinction of shade, the sky pictures ob- 
 viously calling for a variety of bluish tints. Of the 29 
 instances, none can be regarded as strictly metaphorical. 
 
 (a) Evidently the laughing blue of the Italian sky 
 inspired the following descriptions: "Sah ich je ein Blau, 
 wie droben klar und voll den Himmel schmuckt ?" : Opfer 
 des Friihlings 1-2 (VI, 217). "durch den Aether .... 
 den blaulich-klaren" : Die Lerche 4 (VI, 309). "unter 
 dieser Blaue, die man nie noch schoner sah": Der Tod 
 kennt den Weg 9-10 (VI, 394). Cf. Ein Mittag 7 (VII, 
 101) ; Friihlingslied 3 (VI, 154) ; An Elise 4 (VII, 175), 
 etc., etc. 
 
 (b) A deeper shade of blue is the thought in the fol- 
 lowing : "Oben in Wolken in blaulichem Glanz" : Proteus 
 21 (VI, 253). "dies Verflammen im nachtlichen Blau!": 
 Proteus 23. "das dunkle Blau": Rosa 3-4 (VII, 28). 
 Cf. Rosa 11-2; Rosa 104; Rosa 162; Das traurige 
 Licht 2 (VII, 181). 
 
 (c) Like black (see page 127), blue is occasionally 
 employed to secure specific effects. It serves to throw 
 a gruesome light upon some dark deed, or some ominous 
 event; and it affords a suitable illumination for those 
 somber pictures, those vague midnight-moods that 
 Hebbel excels in portraying: "Sie schwingt sich in ihrem 
 Schmerze zuriick ins diistre Blau": Romanze 3 (VII, 
 42). "bei'm blauen Mondenlicht" : 's ist Mitternacht 3 
 (VI, 174). "So wird man sich tummeln bei'm jiingsten 
 Gericht, wenn blau, wie der Mond, die Sonne ihr Licht 
 versendet": Der heilige Johannes 33-5 (VII, 210). Cf. 
 Vater und Sohn 37-9 (VI, 427). 
 
 (d) In figure descriptions blue is rare; it occurs 4 
 times as attribute of Auge: "Ihr blaues Auge": Schon 
 Hedwig 13 (VI, 172). "Ihr Goldenes Haar, ihr blaues
 
 124 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Auge": Romanze 23-4 (VII, 26). "das blaue Auge": 
 Das Kind 4 (VII, 66). "Ob man ihr mit . . . . blauen 
 Augen .... gefalle": Liebeszauber 47-8 (VI, 156). 
 
 (e) Miscellaneous: "Erne Glockenblume .... blau": 
 Eine Glockenblume 1-4 (VII, 194). "Blumen darunter 
 gemischt, rothlich stralend und blau": Flocken 61 (VII, 
 44). "auf blaulicher Flut": Lied der Geister 5 (VII, 
 63). Cf. Der beste Liebesbrief 7-8 (VI, 285) ; Fur ein 
 Ringreiterfest 42 (VII, 4). 
 
 4. Green 
 
 Just as blue predominates in descriptions of the sky, 
 so (naturally enough) green is the chief color in land- 
 scapes. Three of the 29 cases are in metaphors. Green 
 appears in descriptions of: 
 
 (a) The general aspect of a scene: "Griinen, Bliihen, 
 Duften, Glanzen," etc.: Herbstgefiihl 1 (VI, 230). "ins 
 weiche Grim" : Das Kind 22 (VII, 74). "die Rose, 
 
 die hier im Griinen hangt": Sommerreise 15-6 (VI, 276). 
 "Schlummernd im schwellenden Grim": Einziges Ge- 
 schiedensein 1 (VI, 212). 
 
 (b) Some specific features of a scene: 
 
 (i) As attribute of Tal, Hain, Garten: "O Park, 
 sei mir gesegnet! bleib ewig frisch und griin": Ein 
 Geburtstag auf der Reise 81-2 (VI, 247). "ewig- 
 griiner Garten": Die Erde und der Mensch 18 (VI, 
 303). "im grunen Thai": An seine Majestat Konig 
 Wilhelm, etc., 60 (VI, 412). Cf. An Ludwig Uhland 
 5 (VII, 99) ; Der Quell 20 (VII, 16) ; Die Nacht 9 
 (VII, 26). 
 
 (ii) In descriptions of flowers, trees, plants, etc.: 
 "mit Palmen .... ewig griin": Elegie 19-20 (VII, 
 22). "Unter grunen Myrthen": An Laura 9-10 (VII,
 
 COLORS 125 
 
 50). "goldne Frucht erglanzt am griinen Reise": 
 Widmungsgedicht 4 (VII, 107). Cf. An Hedwig 13-4 
 (VI, 208) ; Das Opfer des Friihlings 40 (VI, 217) ; 
 Der Zauberhain 3-4 (VI, 387), etc., etc. 
 
 (c) In metaphor based upon the idea of color in 
 flowers, plants, etc. : "Grunt dir der Freundschaft Sieges- 
 palme": Freundschaft 39 (VII, 21). "Was sie pflanzen, 
 grunt ewig fort": Fragmente, No. 3, line 6 (VII, 38). 
 "Von der Freundschaft .... Myrthengriin" : An Laura 
 20 (VII, 50). Cf. Prolog zu Goethes hundertjahriger 
 Geburtsfeier 13 (VI, 298). 
 
 (d) Miscellaneous: "der Schlange grimes Auge": 
 Waldbilder 75 (VI, 221). "zum grunen Festaltar": 
 Adams Opfer 2 (VI, 238). "urn den grunen Tisch": 
 Eine Moderne Ballade 4 (VII, 188). 
 
 5. White 
 
 Of the 27 cases of white, 16, or over one half, occur 
 in descriptions of persons. Weiss is not once used meta- 
 phorically. In the majority of cases reference is had 
 to the : 
 
 (a) Garb or dress: "Im weissen Feierkleide" : Die 
 heilige Drei 36 (VI, 181). "Ihre Kleider, ihre weissen": 
 Das Venerabile in der Nacht 11 (VI, 286). "Das 
 Magdelein tritt im weissen Feierkleid": Meiner Tochter 
 Christine ins Gebetbuch 1 (VI, 423). Cf. Wohin so 
 flink, Du junges Kind? 25 (VI, 441); Rosa 14 (VII, 
 28) ; Wiedersehen 70 (VII, 109). 
 
 (b) Complexion of hands : "Bei ihrer weissen Hand" : 
 Schon Hedwig 12 (VI, 172). "mit den weissen Han- 
 den": Letzter Gruss 5 (VI, 214). "Die Hande, die es 
 halten, weiss, wie Wachs": Drei Schwestern 10 (VI, 
 405). Cf. Was ist das fur ein Frauenbild 3-4 (VI, 418).
 
 126 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 (c) Color of hair or beard: "In weissem Bart": Das 
 Korn auf dem Dach 10 (VI, 190). "Nun packt er den 
 Vater bei'm weissen Schopf": Vater und Sohn 9 (VI, 
 427). 
 
 (d) Weiss is rare in description of nature. There 
 are two references to landscape in which weiss occurs, 
 both in the poem Winterlandschaft: in one of these 
 passages the snow suggests the grim figure of death 
 attired in white festal garb: "der Tod im weissen 
 Festgewand": Winterlandschaft 12 (VII, 165). "die 
 weisse Flache": Winterlandschaft 1. These instances, 
 brief though they be, give us a faint touch of a quality 
 that characterizes much of modern landscape paint- 
 ing the subtle suggestion of a soul manifested by the 
 lights and colors of the outer world. It is with weiss 
 moreover, generally in combination with other more dis- 
 mal tints (blass, grau and the like), that some of the 
 most strikingly weird and uncanny effects are secured, 
 e.g. "Linnen rings, das weisse, bleiche, in der Mitt' ein 
 dunkler Sarg": Das Wiedersehen 70-1 (VII, 109). 
 
 In only four passages does weiss occur in con- 
 nection with flowers: "Der weissen (Rose) bist du heute 
 gleich": Ein frtihes Liebesleben 65 (VI, 199). "Man- 
 delbaum im weissen Kleid": Das Opfer des Friihlings 
 20 (VI, 217). "Die Nelke, weiss und rothlich 
 weiss ist es wohl im Grunde": Im Garten 7-9 (VII, 80). 
 Cf. Lied der Geister 15 (VII, 63). 
 
 In view of the predominance of weiss in figure pictures 
 it is noteworthy that all of the flower descriptions above 
 have a very close connection with persons. For the color 
 of the flowers is either made the basis of a complexional 
 comparison (Frtihes Liebesleben; Im Garten:) or it is 
 metaphorically associated with human dress (Opfer des 
 Friihlings; Lied der Geister).
 
 COLORS 127 
 
 (e) Equally rare is weiss in descriptions of animals: 
 "weisse Pfoten": Aus der Kindheit 23 (VI, 194). "ein 
 weisser Schmetterling" : Sommerbild 6 (VI, 230). 
 "Nimm (dem Schmetterling) seinen weissen Flugel": 
 Der beste Liebesbrief 7-8 (VI, 285). Cf. Noch ist Polen 
 nicht verloren 28 (VII, 216). 
 
 (f) Miscellaneous: "Vor'm Karrner sieht man, weiss 
 und roth, die vollen Flaschen stehen": Zum Schiller- 
 Jubilaum 13-4 (VI, 407). "ein weisses Leuchten": 
 Das Licht will sich verstecken 19 (VII, 173). 
 
 6. Black 
 
 (a) Five of the 23 instances of schwarz allude to 
 personal appearance; only twice do the proverbially 
 seductive black eyes win from Hebbel the tribute of 
 brief passing allusion: "schwarze (Augen)": Liebes- 
 zauber 48 (VI, 156). "ihre dunklen, schwarzen 
 Augen": Stanzen auf ein Sicilianisches Schwester- 
 paar 49 (VI, 215). The three remaining passages al- 
 lude (i) to general complexion: "Jedwedes Angesicht 
 . . . . schwarz geraucht": Diocletian 43-5 (VI, 429). 
 "die schwarzen Todtentrager" : Das Wiedersehen 85 
 (VII, 109). (ii) to dress: "Im schwarzen Gewande ein 
 Jungling sich naht" : Der Tanz 10 (VII, 72). Five times 
 schwarz has metaphorical force. 
 
 (b) In descriptions of nature, black is usually made 
 to serve a definite purpose, whether it be merely (i) that 
 of color contrast: "Wie der Sterne Goldgefunkel durch 
 die schwarze Hiille bricht": An die Tugend 69-70 (VII, 
 14). "Im schwarzen Felsgestein" : Das Licht will sich 
 verstecken 6 (VII, 173) ; or (ii) correspondence with the 
 mood of the scene, as in the passages from Rosa quoted 
 above (see pp. 107-8), e.g. "des Himmels Dunkelblau
 
 128 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 wird nachtlich schwarz und erdengrau": Rosa 11-2 
 (VII, 28). (iii) Generally it is employed to lend an at- 
 mosphere of mystery and gloom, so in poems in which 
 the supernatural element is important (compare above: 
 "im schwarzen Gewand ein Jiingling sich naht") ; 
 "Pfliicke nicht die schwarzen Rosen" : Zauberhain 9 (VI, 
 387). 
 
 (c) Schwarz is rarely lacking in allusions to death. 
 It occurs : 
 
 (i) In certain conventional metaphors: "den 
 schwarzen Tod": Der Tod kennt den Weg 32 (VI, 
 394) ; again in line 96. "trank den schwarzen Tod" : 
 Das Wiedersehen 95 (VII, 109). 
 
 (ii) In passages where the reference to death is 
 more remote, yet distinctly felt : "in's schwarze Grab" : 
 Kinderloos 6 (VII, 162). "In die schwarze Erde da 
 grub man sie ein": Das Kind 7 (VII, 66). "der 
 Schlange grimes Auge blinzt mich an vom schwarzen 
 Grund": Waldbilder 75-6 (VI, 221). Cf. Vater und 
 Sohn 17 (VI, 427) ; Traum 62 (VII, 166). 
 
 (d) Miscellaneous: "der Sorgen schwarz Gewim- 
 mel": Menschen-Schicksal 8 (VII, 77). "Den schwarzen 
 Eber hetzend": Herr und Knecht 27 (VI, 388). 
 
 7. Gray 
 
 The instances of grau, 14 in number, do not readily 
 lend themselves to formal classification. Only one case 
 of metaphor was noted. There is a general tone of 
 melancholy and gloom pervading the pictures into which 
 gray is brought; gray is one of the colors that Hebbel 
 regularly uses for sombre effects : "das Felsenhaupt, das 
 graue": Die Spanierin 7 (VI, 176). "Hinter grauer 
 Nebel Schleier": Opfer des Fruhlings 11 (VI, 217).
 
 COLORS 129 
 
 "Bei'm Dammerlicht des Mondes schau' ich gern der 
 grauen Weltstadt brockelnde Ruinen": Eine Mondnacht 
 in Rom 1-2 (VI, 309). Cf. An Ludwig Uhland 1-2 
 (VII, 99). 
 
 In the passages from Rosa, gray combines with black 
 to produce the effect of ominous foreboding. Of a som- 
 bre, sepulchral dreariness is the following passage from 
 Kirchhof: "Das dumpfe Beinhaus mit dem Gegitterwerk, 
 .... und dem grauen verschlossnen Thor" : Der Kirch- 
 hof 10 (VII, 100). Cf. "des Himmels Dunkelblau wird 
 nachtlich schwarz und erdengrau": Rosa 11-2 (VII, 28) : 
 also Rosa 105-6 ; 161-2. 
 
 Gray is rare in descriptions as concomitant of old age : 
 "Der Greis, der zeigt auf's graue Haupt": Herr und 
 Knecht 16 (VI, 388). "Der alte Konig, schwach und 
 grau": Des Konigs Tod 1 (VII, 123). 
 
 Miscellaneous: "zur grauen, hasslichen Raupe": Ein- 
 falle 88 (VII, 54). "in grauen Romertagen": An 
 seine Majestat Konig Wilhelm, etc., 41 (VI, 412). 
 "Funken mit Grau und Schwarz vermischt" : Die Kir- 
 mess 33-4 (VI, 278). "Den wollte ich vergiften durch 
 dieses graue Pulverlein": Des Konigs Jagd 38 (VII, 85). 
 
 8. Purple 58 
 
 (a) Appearing 8 times in all, purple occurs in 4 
 descriptions as the symbol and accompaniment of royal 
 splendor and luxury: "Es harrt auf weichem Purpur- 
 sammt die jiingste Sklavin ihres Herrn" : Die Odaliske 
 1-2 (VI, 187). "Den Konig aufzufinden, der schon 
 den Purpurmantel tragt": Prolog zu Goethes . . . . 
 Geburtsfeier 97-8 (VI, 298). "das Purpurfarb'ge 
 
 58 It seemed advisable to isolate the instances of "purpur," 
 although in some cases the reference is primarily to "red."
 
 130 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Prachtgewand" : Epilog zum Timon, etc., 8 (VI, 432). 
 "hangt ihm den Purpur urn": Vater und Sohn 36 (VII, 
 152). 
 
 (b) Purple appears, further, in personal description: 
 "Da ward zur Purpurflamme dein Gesicht": Auf ein 
 errothendes junges Madchen, etc., 2 (VI, 213). "Einst 
 sahst du . . . . sie [i.e. die Wange] gluhen, wie Morgen- 
 roths Purpur so roth": Rosa 27-8 (VII, 28). "In dei- 
 nem gestohl'nen Purpur": Waldbilder 59 (VI, 221). 
 "Ich will den Funken aus den Hoh'n, der .... zuletzt 
 zur Flamme sich entziindet: zur Flamme, die .... uns 
 im reinsten Purpur malt, wie sich Natur und Geist ver- 
 woben": Auf die Deutsche Kunstlerin 5-12 (VI, 282). 
 (The last quotation is the only clear instance of meta- 
 phor.) 
 
 9. Brown 
 
 Brown occurs in the following personal descriptions, 
 reference being either to eyes, hair, or general complex- 
 ion : "Ob man ihr mit braunen oder blauen Augen .... 
 gefalle": Liebeszauber 47 (VI, 156). "dunkelbraunes 
 Haar": Lied (Komm' wir wollen Erdbeer'n pflucken) 
 14 (VI, 151). "die Braune": Kirmess 10 (VI, 278). 
 "die (Zigeuner) geigen oder blasen frisch und werden 
 stiindlich brauner": Husaren-Werbung 11-2 (VI, 191). 
 "Horch die geigenden Zigeuner! .... Die Gesichter 
 immer brauner": Aus dem Wiener Prater 1-3 (VI, 
 423). In one passage the eyes described are a dog's: 
 "Mit den treuen braunen Augen," etc. : Schau ich in die 
 tiefste Feme 9 (VI, 408). Brown occurs in only one 
 description that is non-personal: "In der gebraunten 
 Stube": Das alte Haus 16 (VI, 266). 
 
 In none of the 8 references to brown do we find the 
 color used strictly metaphorically.
 
 COLORS 131 
 
 10. Pink 
 
 The German term for pink is rosa. In the lyrics 
 the 6 cases take the form rosig or rosen, and occur 
 mainly in compounds like rosenroth, with one case of 
 metaphor. The first member of this compound is ob- 
 viously to be traced back to the flower Rose, but the 
 color of the rose is the dominant thing, and there can be 
 little doubt that in the terms rosig, rosen, rosenroth, etc., 
 the reference to the color pink is quite as evident as 
 though rosa had been the form : "Wohl war das Magdlein 
 rosenroth": Rosa 31 (VII, 28). "Wohl war der Ritter 
 rosenroth": Rosa 47. "von der Liebe Rosenroth um- 
 geben" (metaphor) : An Laura 19 (VII, 50). Cf. Lied 
 der Geister 13 (VII, 63) ; Selbstvertrauen 5 (VII, 59) ; 
 Flocken 82 (VII, 44), etc., etc. 
 
 11. Silver 
 
 Silver occurs mainly in compounds (silberrein, silber- 
 hell) : "die Sterne hellten silberrein," etc. : Rosa 3 (VII, 
 28). "Es diistern Wolken den Schein der silberhellen 
 Sternelein" : Rosa 107-8. "da ward des Himmels Erden- 
 grau .... silberhell," etc.: Rosa 161-2. 
 
 The above passages being all descriptive of the heav- 
 ens, the term silber necessarily alludes primarily to the 
 color. In the following instance metal takes precedence 
 over color in the thought: "Der silberne (Pocal) der ist 
 fur mich": Hochzeit 28 (VII, 128). 
 
 There are but 4 allusions to this color, none of which 
 are to be taken in a metaphorical sense. 
 
 12. Yellow 
 
 Yellow is used only once: "Eine Natter als Ge- 
 schmeide um den Hals, .... kauert dort ein gelbes 
 Madchen": Waldbilder 77-9 (VI, 221).
 
 132 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 13. "Falb" 
 
 Falb (tawny) appears but once: "In seiner (des 
 Baumes) falben Krone hangt gewiirzig eine Frucht voll 
 Saft": Baum in der Wuste 5-6 (VI, 238). 
 
 The following table gives the total number of in- 
 stances of each color, and the number of instances and 
 the percentage of metaphorical employment: 
 
 TABLE A 
 
 
 Colors Total number 
 
 Metaphor 
 
 Roth . 83 
 
 33.6% 
 
 Gold . 
 
 45 
 
 920% 
 
 Blau . 
 
 29 
 
 000% 
 
 Grim . 
 
 29 
 
 310.3% 
 
 Weiss . 
 
 27 
 
 000% 
 
 Schwarz 
 
 23 
 
 521.7% 
 
 Grau 
 
 14 
 
 17.1% 
 
 Purpur 
 
 8 
 
 112.5% 
 
 Braun 
 
 8 
 
 0-00% 
 
 Silber . 
 
 4 
 
 0-00% 
 
 Rosen . 
 
 6 
 
 116.6% 
 
 Falb . 
 
 1 
 
 0-00% 
 
 Gelb . 
 
 1 
 
 000% 
 
 Total number of instances of color proper, 278 
 
 Total number of instances and percentage 
 
 of metaphor, 2382% 
 
 II. LIGHT, FIRE, FLAME, ETC. 
 
 Of the terms grouped under the general heading 
 Light, Fire, Flame and Glut, a very large percentage are 
 employed metaphorically. And yet many of the pas- 
 sages quoted above in the general discussion of Hebbel's 
 colors, pp. 72 ff., adequately illustrate our poet's excep- 
 tional susceptibility to the direct impressions of light; 
 indeed, they form one of the striking features of many 
 of the songs. Surely in passages such as the opening 
 lines of Der Wein, the "light" terms appeal directly to 
 the senses, and the number of illustrations of the same
 
 COLORS 133 
 
 sort might be multiplied indefinitely from among briefer 
 allusions to light or fire : 
 
 " Du blinkst so hell und glanzend aus dem Becher, 
 Als ware jeder Stral in dir zerronnen, 
 Woraus du einst die Feuerkraft gewonnen, 
 Die gluhend jetzt entgegen schaumt dem Zecher." 
 
 Der Wein, 1-4 (VI, 310) 
 
 The discussion of the metaphorical employment of the 
 terms included under Light, Fire, Flame and Glut is not 
 here taken up ; we are for the present concerned chiefly 
 with the sensuous employment of these terms. Ex- 
 amples of the most important of these are given to show 
 the method of their application. 
 
 1. Glut 
 
 As the cases involved in Glut are among the most 
 numerous, so they present the greatest difficulty to formal 
 analysis. It is by no means incontestable that the term 
 Glut, with its compounds and derivatives, appertains 
 primarily to light, or is always suggestive of light. In 
 some instances reference is had quite obviously to heat, 
 the appeal is rather to the tactual sense and the associa- 
 tion with light is only remote. This is most often true 
 in personal descriptions where Glut appears as a physical 
 concomitant of certain emotions. But inasmuch as even 
 in these cases the element of light, to some extent, is 
 present, all instances of Glut have been treated as phases 
 of light and have been assumed to appeal to the sense 
 of sight, except in the cases where there is explicit refer- 
 ence to heat and direct appeal to tactual sensation. Out 
 of the 101 instances of Glut, 49 are metaphorical in sense. 
 
 (a) Glut appears in the following personal descrip- 
 tions: "seine Wangen gliih'n": Schon Hedwig 5 (VI, 
 172). "Wenn das Lampchen Funken spriiht, so sieht
 
 134 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 man, wie sie gliiht": Virgo et Mater 7-8 (VI, 178). 
 "Von Licht und Glanz die Zauberglut dariiber (i.e. iiber 
 das Auge) hingehaucht" : Tandelei 7-8 (VI, 211). Cf. 
 Einziges Geschiedensein 3-4 (VI, 212) ; Opfer des 
 Fruhlings 27 (VI, 217); Still und heimlich 29 (VII, 
 163), etc., etc. 
 
 (b) In nature descriptions Glut is effectively em- 
 ployed in connection with: 
 
 (i) Elemental forces, celestial phenomena (atmos- 
 phere, lightning, sun, stars, etc.): "gliih'nde Diifte": 
 Vorfriihling 9 (VI, 228). "Der Feuergeist reitet auf 
 rothlicher Glut": Lied der Geister 6 (VII, 63). "Wenn 
 ich aus der Glut (i.e. dem Blitz) sie rette": Liebes- 
 zauber 22 (VI, 156). Cf. Waldbilder 53-4 (VI, 221) ; 
 Der alten Cotter Abendmahl 2, 15 (VII, 132), etc., etc. 
 
 (ii) Less frequently in description of flowers, 
 fruits, etc.: "Keusche Lorbeern selbst ergliihten": 
 Opfer des Fruhlings 23 (VI, 217). "Ihr (i.e. der 
 Rose) Kelch bewahrt ein letztes stilles Gliih'n": 
 Meiner Tochter Christine ins Gebetbuch 16 (VI, 423). 
 "Eine Rose wohl seh' ich gliihen": Sehnsucht 7 (VII, 
 9). Cf. Wiegenlied 9-10 (VII, 165); Menschen- 
 Schicksal 12-3 (VII, 77) ; Rosenleben 7-8 (VII, 126), 
 etc., etc. 
 
 (c) Miscellaneous: 
 
 (i) Twice employed to describe precious stones: 
 "Aus gliihenden Perlen" : Auf die Sixtinische Ma- 
 donna 15 (VI, 283). "Ein Ring mit rothen Gesteinen, 
 die gliihend, wie Kohlen, erscheinen": Der Ring 27-8 
 (VI, 390). 
 
 (ii) In general descriptions: "Dunkelroth im Mor- 
 genlicht gliih'n des Schlosses blanke Zinnen": Ritter 
 Fortunat 5-6 (VII, 88). "des Heerdes Glut": Ver- 
 sohnung 10 (VI, 272).
 
 COLORS 135 
 
 2. Licht, etc. 
 
 The terms Licht and leucht- are together employed 123 
 times, 47 of the instances being metaphorical. In the 
 poem "Zum Licht," Licht occurs 13 times, the constant 
 recurrence of the refrain "zum Lichte ringt'!" accounts 
 for the frequency of the term in this poem. Following 
 are the most characteristic and striking instances of the 
 expression : 
 
 (a) Referring to the radiance of the heavens and 
 the heavenly bodies: "Als ihren Lichtstrom liebevoll die 
 Sonne .... niedergoss": Die drei grossen Tage 5-7 
 (VII, 62). "dieses Licht, das einem triiben Sterne ent- 
 fliesst": Eine Mondnacht in Rom 5-6 (VI, 309). "Bei'm 
 Dammerlicht des Mondes" : Eine Mondnacht in Rom 1-2. 
 Cf. Rosa 163 (VII, 28) ; Vorfriihling 11-2 (VI, 228) ; 
 Der letzte Baum 7 (VI, 411), etc., etc. 
 
 (b) Designating artificial light emanating from lamp, 
 candle, torch, etc. : "Jetzt lischt's mit einmal aus, das 
 Licht": Ein friihes Liebesleben 132 (VI, 199). "bei 
 heller Kerzen Licht": Dem Schmerz sein Recht 123 (VI, 
 287). "Weihnachtslichter" : Das abgeschiedene Kind an 
 seine Mutter 13 (VI, 294). Cf. Zum Schiller- Jubilaum 59 
 23-4 (VI, 407) ; Das Wiedersehen 69 (VII, 109) ; Noch 
 ist Polen nicht verloren 141-2 (VII, 216). 
 
 (c) To a limited extent, Licht figures in certain 
 passages as medium of contrast or comparison: "Ihre 
 Kleider, ihre weissen, schimmern durch die Nacht wie 
 Licht": Das Venerabile in der Nacht 11-2 (VI, 286). 
 "Jetzt lischt's auf einmal aus, das Licht . . . . je dunkler, 
 um so besser": Ein friihes Liebesleben 132-4 (VI, 199). 
 "Trubes Licht von triiber Kerze, .... in der Mitt' ein 
 dunkler Sarg": Das Wiedersehen 69-71 (VII, 109). 
 
 59 Cf. the description of the torchlight procession in honor 
 of Schiller, Tgb. IV, 5760.
 
 136 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 (d) Quite effective is the introduction of Licht to 
 secure the effect of the supernatural, the ominous or 
 the weird, although Hebbel uses other terms preferably 
 for this purpose: "in gespenst'gem Lichte tritt plotzlich 
 aus dem Thor .... die heil'ge Drei hervor": Die hei- 
 lige Drei 21-4 (VI, 181). "Bei'm Dammerlicht des 
 Mondes schau' ich gerne der grauen Weltstadt brockelnde 
 Ruinen": Eine Mondnacht in Rom 1-2 (VI, 309). 
 "Triibes Licht von triiber Kerze" : Wiedersehen 69 ( VII, 
 109). 
 
 (e) Very rare is Licht in personal descriptions: 
 "Ihre Kleider, .... schimmern .... wie Licht" : Das 
 Venerabile in der Nacht 11-2 (VI, 286). "ein lichter 
 Engel": An Elise 7 (VII, 175). 
 
 3. Glanz 
 
 Twenty of the 60 instances of Glanz occur in meta- 
 phor. The term is common in descriptions : 
 
 (a) Of celestial appearances: "breit beglanzt von 
 Wetterleuchtens Flammen": Liebeszauber 3 (VI, 156). 
 "Schaut den Lenz im Morgenglanz !" : Opfer des Friih- 
 lings 10 (VI, 217). Cf. Proteus 21 (VI, 253); An 
 Laura 30 (VII, 50) ; Spatziergang in Paris 47 (VI, 241). 
 
 (b) Of the earth: 
 
 (i) As it would appear if viewed from another 
 planet: "Die Erde .... die dammernd-kleine, die, 
 sonst verschwimmend in den blauen Hallen, jetzt heller 
 aufglanzt" : Das abgeschiedene Kind an seine Mutter 
 8-10 (VI, 294). "Es flog an mir voriiber die Welt in 
 Nacht und Glanz": Der Becher 13-4 (VII, 144). 
 
 (ii) Suggestion of the main physical aspect: "Vor 
 diesem Glanze (der Erde) fahren auch die Vogel aus 
 dem Traum": Opfer des Friihlings 49 (VI, 217).
 
 COLORS 137 
 
 "Griinen, Bliihen, Duften, Glanzen": Herbstgefiihl 1 
 (VI, 230). Cf. Die Erde und der Mensch 87-8 (VI, 
 303). 
 
 (c) Of flowers, etc.: "Tief trauert die Blume im 
 bleichen Glanz": Romanze 5 (VII, 26). "Die schonste 
 Himmelsblume bluhet mit lichtem Glanz": Fragmente 
 No. 2, lines 1-2 (VII, 38). "In seinem Haar den fris- 
 chen Kranz der Liebe in verklartem Glanz" : Rosa 135-6 
 (VII, 28). Cf. Widmungsgedicht 4 (VII, 107). 
 
 (d) In personal descriptions: "Des Auges Glanz": 
 Der Maler 10 (VI, 175). "Von Licht und Glanz die 
 Zauberglut dariiber hingehaucht" : (i.e. iiber die Augen) : 
 Tandelei 7-8 (VI, 211). "Dass ihre rosige Wange ein 
 Abglanz der seinigen schien": Waldbilder 11-2 (VI, 
 221). Cf. Zauberhain 28 (VI, 287) ; Oberon spricht 35- 
 6 (VII, 224); Rosa 135-6 (VII, 28). (Cf. (c) Flow- 
 ers.) 
 
 (e) Glanz is often dominant in descriptions of gems, 
 metals, crowns, weapons, etc. : "Tief in des Berges 
 Grunde, da ruhte das Metall, .... taub, ohne Glanz 
 und Schall": Horn und Flote 1-4 (VI, 261). "(der 
 Diamant) wird bei tausend Festestanzen .... glanzen; 
 doch keiner ahnt, woher der Glanz": Dem Schmerz sein 
 Recht 126-9 (VI, 287). "Und verleih'n den Dia- 
 manten neuen Glanz": Noch ist Polen nicht verloren 
 31-2 (VII, 216). Cf. Der Ring 100 (VI, 390) ; An seine 
 Majestat Konig Wilhelm I, etc., 3 (VI, 412). 
 
 (f) Miscellaneous: "glanzt nicht festlich mein Por- 
 tal": Das alte Haus 45 (VI, 266). "Das glanzt und 
 funkelt durch die Nacht": Zum Schiller- Jubilaum 25 
 (VI, 407). "Es glanzt heraus ein Schimmer": Das 
 Wiedersehen 56 (VII, 109). Cf. Hochzeit 6 (VII, 128) ; 
 Der Wein 1 (VI, 310) ; Flocken 81 (VII, 44).
 
 138 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 4. Flamme (flimm-, etc.) 
 
 Out of a total of 60 cases, Hebbel employs Flamme 37 
 times in metaphor. The remaining 23 instances occur 
 almost exclusively in passages descriptive of natural 
 predominantly celestial phenomena: "Breit beglanzt 
 von Wetterleuchtens Flammen": Liebeszauber 3 (VI, 
 156). "Blitz, dies Verflammen im nachtlichen Blau": 
 Proteus 23 (VI, 253). "in Morgenflammen" : Der letzte 
 Baum 3 (VI, 411). Cf. Bei einem Gewitter 9 (VII, 
 124); An eine Romerin 12 (VI, 308). The following 
 instances have no common chief characteristic, in general 
 the literal sense (flame) is designated : "in die Flammen" : 
 Das Lied vom Schmiedt 14 (VII, 82). "In Wasserfluten 
 nicht und nicht in Flammen": Unsere Zeit 2 (VI, 315). 
 Cf. Der Pocal 7 (VII, 178) ; Prolog zu Goethes hundert- 
 jahriger Geburtsfeier 38 (VI, 298) ; Ein Dithmarsischer 
 Bauer 176 (VI, 160) ; Lied der Geister 26 (VII, 63). 
 
 5. Strahl (strahl-) 
 
 (52 instances; 16 in metaphor) 
 
 6. Schein (schein-) 
 
 (38 instances; 8 in metaphor) 
 
 7. Funke (funkel-) 
 
 (33 instances; 14 in metaphor) 
 
 These three terms may be conveniently treated to- 
 gether as they present in the main quite similar charac- 
 teristics. 
 
 (a) Like the terms of light already discussed, Strahl, 
 Schein and Funke are common in references to the heav- 
 enly luminaries: 
 
 Strahl: "all die sengend-heissen Stralen (der Sonne)":
 
 COLORS 139 
 
 Lied 9 (VI, 151). "ein letzter Stral dem Abendroth ent- 
 quillt": An Ludwig Uhland 3 (VII, 99). "die stralende 
 Sonne" : Erinnerung 16 (VII, 12). Cf. Flocken 58 (VII, 
 44) ; Widmungsgedicht 6 (VII, 107) ; Auf ein neues 
 Trinkglas 2 (VII, 118), etc. 
 
 Schein : "Die Sterne hellten silberrein das dunkle Blau 
 mit lichtem Schein": Rosa 3-4 (VII, 28). "Wolken 
 diisterten den Schein des Mondes und der Sternelein": 
 Rosa 9-10. "im hellen Mondenschein" : Rosa 39. Cf. 
 Rosa 77-8, 107-8, 146, 163; Einfalle 52 (VII, 54); 
 Der Tanz 12 (VII, 72) ; Auf ein altes Madchen 23 (VI, 
 207), etc. 
 
 Funke: "Wie der Sterne Goldgef unkel" : An die 
 Tugend 69 (VII, 14). "klar funkelten die Sternelein": 
 Rosa 164 (VII, 28). "Alles funkelt": Opfer des Friih- 
 lings 47 (VI, 217). 
 
 (b) All three terms are used with reference to arti- 
 ficial illumination: 
 
 Strahl: "ziindet . . . . ihr Lampchen an, schiichtern 
 . . . . bei seinem Strale": Madchen im Kampf, etc., 7-9 
 (VI, 232). "bei'm Lampenstral" : Eine moderne Ballade 
 27 (VII, 188). "O Licht, .... in deinem Strale": 
 Das Licht will sich verstecken 27-9 (VII, 173). 
 
 Schein : "bei der Kohlen Flackerschein" : Das Wieder- 
 sehen 47 (VII, 109). "vom Leichlicht kam der Schein": 
 Licht in der Nacht 12 (VII, 146). "Leichenkerzen- 
 schein": Lebensmomente No. 1, line 22 (VII, 142). Cf. 
 Das Madchen im Kampf, etc., 16 (VI, 232). 
 
 Funke : "Wenn das Lampchen Funken spruht" : Virgo 
 et Mater 7 (VI, 178). "Wenn der Tannenbaum auch 
 funkelt": Bei dem schonen Weihnachtsfeste 5 (VII, 
 226). "Sie freuen sich der hiipfenden Funken": Die 
 Kirmess 33 (VI, 278). Cf. Er und ich 3 (VII, 24); 
 Zum Schiller-Jubilaum 25 (VI, 407).
 
 140 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 (c) Funke is common as designation of the gleam 
 reflected by gems, metals, goblets of wine: "das Messer, 
 wie funkelt es blank": Der Ring 17 (VI, 390). "gewiss 
 schwebt .... eine Krone .... f unkelnd iiber Deinem 
 Haupt" : An Freund La Roche 9-10 (VI, 417). "Unsere 
 alte Konigskrone .... f angt von selber an zu f unkeln" : 
 Noch ist Polen nicht verloren 25-7 (VII, 216). Cf. 
 Hochzeit 14 (VII, 128) ; Eine moderne Ballade 22 (VII, 
 188) ; Der alten Cotter Abendmahl 19 (VII, 132). 
 
 8. Feuer 
 
 Feiter is very effective in its metaphorical employment 
 as symbolism of intense emotion, enthusiasm, energy: 60 
 its concrete uses, 17 out of 37 cases, present nothing 
 striking or interesting: 
 
 (a) General: "ein Huss in wildem Feuer": An die 
 Tugend 13 (VII, 14). "Durch Feuer und durch Was- 
 ser": Horn und Flote 21 (VI, 261). "die er, wie in 
 Feuer, trankte": Das Venerabile in der Nacht 8 (VI, 
 286). Cf. Vater und Sohn 5 (VI, 427) ; Antwort auf 
 das Vorige 33-4 (VII, 84) ; Das Lied vom Schmiedt 1-2, 
 8, 9, 25 (VII, 82), etc. 
 
 (b) The Heavens : "Der Sonne Feuer" : Zur Vermah- 
 lung Mohrs 27 (VII, 117). "Dann wirft der Eine 
 (Titan) seine Feuerbrande" : Auf dem Meer 27 (VI, 
 251). "zur Feuergarbe schwillt der Blitz" : Liebeszauber 
 62-3 (VI, 156). 
 
 (c) Miscellaneous: "Du konntest leichter einen 
 
 60 Cf. such passages as: "durchgliiht ihn gottliches 
 Feuer": Sangers Sterne 16 (VII, 238). "Der Satan sah's, und 
 in ihm zischte hollisch Feuer": Freundschaft 25 (VII, 21). 
 "sein .... Feuerauge blitzt": Schon Hedwig 3 (VI, 172). 
 "Ihre Feuerlippe !" : Sturmabend 22 (VI, 143). "Feuersafte" : 
 Auf ein errothendes junges Madchen, etc., 7 (VI, 213).
 
 COLORS 141 
 
 Strauss aus Feuerwerkers Blumen winden": In diesen 
 Launen 3-4 (VII, 193). 
 
 9. Blinken 
 
 Only once is blinken used in metaphor. The remain- 
 ing 12 passages in which blinken occurs are descriptive 
 of: 
 
 (a) Nature: 
 
 (i) Sky: "Das Licht der Sterne blinkte schwach": 
 Wiedersehen 45 (VII, 134). "dem Blinken des 
 Sternenhimmels gleich" : Geburtstag auf der Reise 99- 
 100 (VI, 247). 
 
 (ii) Landscape: "Das ist die Flut! O, in der Glut, 
 was kann so kostlich blinken": Knabentod 13-5 (VI, 
 147). 
 
 (b) Animals: "sein Katzchen blink und blank": Aus 
 der Kindheit 60 (VI, 194). 
 
 (c) Wine: "Blinkt in Kristall ein dunkler Wein": 
 Hochzeit 18 (VII, 128). "Feuerwein in goldnen 
 Bechern blinken": Wiedersehen 10-1 (VII, 134). 
 "Doch in dein mystisches Blinken": Vor dem Wein 3 
 (VII, 147). Cf. Der Wein 1 (VI, 310). 
 
 (d) Metals, gems: "des Rachers Richtschwert blin- 
 ken": An die Unterdriickten 32 (VII, 12). "die Schwer- 
 
 ter blinken": Des Konigs Tod 5 (VII, 123). " es 
 
 gait dem Edelsteine, der roth am Finger blinkte" : Traum 
 22-3 (VII, 166). 
 
 10. Brennen, Brand 
 
 The instances of brennen (Brand, etc.) may be divided 
 into two general groups: in the first, 14 out of 27 in- 
 stances, the literal sense is predominant and the refer- 
 ence is to burning as a phenomenon of commonplace 
 realism; the second group comprises 13 cases and con-
 
 142 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 tains the more imaginative passages where the sense of 
 "brennen" verges closely upon the metaphorical: 
 
 (a) "brannte hell und lichterloh": Das Lied vom 
 Schmiedt 3 (VII, 82). "es stirbt der letzte Brand": 
 Das Lied vom Schmiedt 28. "Die Kinder stecken .... 
 Papier in Brand": Die Kirmess 29-30 (VI, 278). Cf. 
 Das Wiedersehen 28, 48 (VII, 109) ; Traum 51 (VII, 
 166) ; Das Licht will sich verstecken 2 (VII, 173) ; Vater 
 und Sohn 46 (VI, 427). 
 
 (b) "Nacht, die in den Brand gerathen": Stanzen 
 auf ein Sicilianisches Schwesterpaar 50 (VI, 215). 
 "Dann wirft der Eine (Titan) seine Feuerbrande" : Auf 
 dem Meer 27 (VI, 251). "Weltenbrand" : An Seine 
 Majestat Konig Wilhelm I, etc., 102 (VI, 412). "der 
 Farbenbrand" : Die Rosen 12 (VI, 229). 
 
 11. Schimmer (schimmern, glimmen) 
 
 Schimmer (schimmern, etc.) lends itself readily to 
 metaphorical usage, which comprises 10 of the 19 cases. 
 The term occurs in allusions to: 
 
 (a) Nature: 
 
 (i) Sky: "des fernsten Sternes Schimmer": Mann 
 und Weib 3 (VI, 321). "Der Sonne hellste Stralen 
 schimmern d'rein": Auf die Sixtinische Madonna 10 
 (VI, 283). 
 
 (ii) Seasons: "Lenzes Duft und Schimmer": 
 Horaz und seine Regel 22 (VII, 200). 
 
 (b) Animal life: "zwei schimmernde Schwane": 
 Sie seh'n sich nicht wieder 3 (VI, 212). 
 
 (c) Artificial light: "Kerzen hell erglommen": 
 Weihnachtsgabe 3 (VII, 78). "Hell und festlich 
 schimmerten die Kerzen": Das Abendmahl des Herrn 1 
 (VII, 122). "eine Kerze schimmert": Die heilige Drei 
 95 (VI, 181). Cf. Das Wiedersehen 56 (VII, 109).
 
 COLORS 143 
 
 (d) In one figure-description: "Ihre Kleider . . . . 
 schimmern durch die Nacht": Das Venerabile in der 
 Nacht 11-2 (VI, 286). 
 
 12. Blitz, blitz- 
 
 Blitz appears 26 times in the poems, 9 times in meta- 
 phor. The term is common in reference to the ele- 
 mental phenomenon lightning, and also in a figurative 
 sense suggestive of flashing, sparkling, etc. Consistent 
 with our principle of classification, these figurative uses 
 are not counted as metaphors, since they are clearly con- 
 crete and sensuous: 
 
 (a) Elemental: "Flammt der machtige Blitz": 
 Flocken 23 (VII, 44). "siehst du die Blitze gliih'n?": 
 Das Kind 21 (VII, 66). "flammt der Blitz hernieder" : 
 Bei einem Gewitter 9 (VII, 124). "Es schlangeln sich 
 die Blitze": Der alten Cotter Abendmahl 2 (VII, 132). 
 "Wie Blitzesflamme ziickte mir's da durch Mark und 
 Bein": Der Becher 19-20 (VII, 144). "Roth und 
 zischend .... springt ein Blitz" : Vater unser 13-4 
 (VI, 169). "Und von rothen Blitzen scharf durch- 
 zogen": Liebeszauber 4 (VI, 156). "zur Feuergarbe 
 schwillt der Blitz": Liebeszauber 62-3. Cf. also: "Die 
 Sonne, einmal noch durch Wolken blitzend" : Winter- 
 Landschaft 9 (VII, 165). "Und wie sie (i.e. der Sonne 
 Stralen) blitzend durch einander wallen": Auf die Six- 
 tinische Madonna 11 (VI, 283). 
 
 (b) Miscellaneous: "dies Perlen und dies Blitzen" 
 (i.e. des Weines) : Die beiden Zecher 4 (VI, 319). "Es 
 gliiht und blitzt . . . . im alten dunklen Haus": Der 
 alten Cotter Abendmahl 15 (VII, 132). "Und das 
 Beil im Nacken blitzt" : Vater unser 20 (VI, 169). "Die 
 (Schwerter) blitzen noch einmal so hell": Des Konigs
 
 144 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Tod 11 (VII, 123). "Jenes blitzende Geschmeide": 
 Eine moderne Ballade 25 (VII, 188). "Er (i.e. der 
 Ring) blitzt am Finger," etc.: Der Ring 96 (VI, 390). 
 
 13. Prangen 
 
 Prangen appears in 7 passages, 4 of which are 
 metaphors. We submit a few typical examples: "Den 
 lieblichen Jungfern sei dies geweiht, die da prangen in 
 iippiger Herrlichkeit" : Fur ein Ringreiterfest 13-4 
 (VII, 4). "Es prangte stolz ein grosser Saal": Wieder- 
 sehen 15 (VII, 134). "Wenn deine Blatter, wie in 
 Wollust, prangen": Rosenleben 6 (VII, 126). 
 
 14. Flackern 
 
 There are 3 instances of this term, all concrete: "Das 
 (Feuer) flackert allzusehr": Das Lied vom Schmiedt 8 
 (VII, 82). "Was flackert roth die Miihle": Die 
 Schlacht bei Hemmingstedt 1 (VII, 90). "Bei der 
 Kohlen Flackerschein" : Das Wiedersehen 47 (VII, 109). 
 
 15. Kerze, Lampe, etc. 
 
 Repeated reference is made to objects associated with 
 light or fire, such as Kerze, Lampe, Fackel, Laterne, 
 Lunte. Of these, Kerze appears 13 times, prevailingly 
 with sensuous force : Lampe is used 6 times, always con- 
 cretely; while 2 of the 5 cases of Fackel are metaphori- 
 cal. Laterne and Lunte occur only once each. We con- 
 fine our examples to a few characteristic passages em- 
 ploying Kerze: "Und loschte die Kerzen aus": Er und 
 ich 32 (VII, 24). "Die Kerzen verlieren den hellen 
 Glanz": Der Tanz 1 (VII, 72). "sind Kerzen hell 
 erglommen": Die Weihnachtsgabe 3 (VII, 78). "Das
 
 COLORS 
 
 145 
 
 (Feuer) war im Dunkeln seine Kerz' .... Wo hat er 
 seine Kerz' ": Das Lied vom Schmiedt 6; 30 (VII, 82). 
 "Triibes Licht von triiber Kerze," .... der Kerzen 
 Flimmer": Das Wiedersehen 69; 88 (VII, 109). "Wie 
 Leichenkerzenschein" : Lebensmomente 22 (VII, 142). 
 "bei heller Kerzen Licht": Dem Schmerz sein Recht 123 
 (VI, 287). "Und eine Kerze schimmert": Die heilige 
 Drei 95 (VI, 181). "Wer hat die Kerze in's Dach 
 gesteckt": Vater und Sohn 1 (VI, 427). 
 
 Times and percentage 
 of metaphor 
 
 4738.2% 
 49-^8.5% 
 2033.3% 
 3761.6% 
 1630.7% 
 
 821% 
 2054% 
 14_42.4% 
 13-^8.1% 
 
 934.6% 
 1052.6% 
 
 17.6% 
 
 17.6% 
 
 457.1% 
 
 000% 
 
 2-40% 
 
 375% 
 
 000% 
 
 1100% 
 
 000% 
 
 255-^0.5% 
 
 TABLE B 
 
 Terms Times employed 
 
 Licht (leucht-) 
 
 123 
 
 Glut 
 
 101 
 
 Glanz 
 
 60 
 
 Flamme (flimm-) 
 
 60 
 
 Strahl 
 
 52 
 
 Schein 
 
 38 
 
 Feuer 
 
 37 
 
 Funke (funkel-) 
 
 33 
 
 Brenn- (Brand) 
 
 27 
 
 Blitz 
 
 26 
 
 Schimm- (Glimm-) 
 
 19 
 
 Blinken 
 
 13 
 
 Kerze 
 
 13 
 
 Prangen 
 
 7 
 
 Lampe 
 
 6 
 
 Fackel 
 
 5 
 
 Lodern 
 
 4 
 
 Flackern 
 
 3 
 
 Laterne 
 
 1 
 
 Lunte 
 
 1 
 
 Total 
 
 629 
 
 III. GENERAL TERMS ASSOCIATED WITH COLOR AND 
 LIGHT 
 
 We conclude with a few illustrations of the use of 
 symbols that may be grouped together under the head 
 of General Terms associated with Color and Light.
 
 146 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Prominent among these are the terms denoting partial 
 or total darkness, such as finster, duster, dunkel, d'dmmer, 
 triib, Schatten; secondly, a variety of color qualities of 
 varying degrees of brightness, from the hueless blass 
 and bleich to the more or less luminous blank, bunt, hell, 
 klar, blond, rein, frisch, Farbe. We shall illustrate only 
 the more prominent of these terms and in their more 
 typical employment. 
 
 1. Finster. 2. Duster 
 
 There are 28 allusions to finster, of which 14 occur in 
 metaphors. Eleven of the 28 instances of duster are 
 metaphorical. These terms both impart an air of mys- 
 tery and gloom to pictures of death, of crime or vio- 
 lence, of tragic grief ; they also supply a suitable "atmos- 
 phere" for scenes in which the supernatural plays a part : 
 
 (a) Finster: "Finstre Walder, voll von Mord und 
 Tod und Gift": Waldbilder 69-70 (VI, 221). "im 
 finst'ren Tann": Herr und Knecht 10 (VI, 388). 
 "tritt aus einem finst'ren Thor .... der Todes-Engel" : 
 Die junge Mutter 14-5 (VI, 179). "Kirchhof, wie 
 standest du so 6d' und finster": Der Kirchhof 1-2 (VII, 
 100). 
 
 (b) Duster: "aus dem dustern Schlund" : Die heilige 
 Drei 138 (VI, 181). "(die Geister) kehren zuriick in 
 ihr diistres Gemach": Lied der Geister 39 (VII, 63). 
 "in den dustern Wald": Die Kindesmorderin 20 (VII, 
 68). "Eine Pforte, hoch und duster": Das Kind 13 
 (VII, 74). 
 
 Hebbel was peculiarly susceptible to the psychic in- 
 fluence of nightfall, and in a number of passages he has 
 recorded this influence and the thoughts stimulated by it. 
 "Finster" and "duster" by reason of their suggestiveness, 
 their appeal to the imagination and the emotions, are
 
 COLORS 147 
 
 admirably suited to lend an atmosphere of strange fore- 
 boding, to suggest that melancholy state in which the 
 soul is oppressed and appalled by sombre musings : 
 
 (a) Finster : 61 "Die Nebel, sie senken sich finster und 
 schwer" : Sie seh'n sich nicht wieder 6 (VI, 212). "Wenn 
 ich abends einsam gehe, und die Blatter fallen sehe, 
 Finsternisse nieder wallen": Spatziergang am Herbsta- 
 bend 1-3 (VI, 231). 
 
 (b) Duster: "die Nacht ist so duster": Die Kindes- 
 morderin 1 (VII, 68). "die Nacht war drohend duster" : 
 Traum 65 (VII, 166). "dust're Waldnacht": Rauber 
 und Henker 1 (VII, 181). 
 
 A similar mysterious coloring enters into the following 
 personal descriptions: 
 
 (a) Finster: "Dein Bild war tief von Finsterniss um- 
 woben": Auf eine Unbekannte 7 (VI, 206). 
 
 (b) Duster: "Der Pascha tritt herein .... ernst und 
 
 duster" : Die Odaliske 25-6 (VI, 187). "eine Mutter 
 
 kalt und duster": Die Mutter 1-2 (VII, 61). "Du 
 Diist'rer": Situation 6 (VII, 175). 
 
 3. Dunkel 
 
 Dunkel is used 76 times in all, 32 of the cases are in 
 metaphors. As with duster and finster, so also with 
 dunkel, Hebbel succeeds admirably in suggesting the 
 subtle spell produced by darkness and falling night : 
 
 (a) "dunkle Nacht": Fin friihes Liebesleben 121 
 (VI, 199). "In dieser dunklen Stunde der rings ergoss- 
 nen Nacht": Nachtlicher Gruss 1-2 (VI, 227). "Vollig 
 dunkel ist's geworden": Spatziergang am Herbstabend 
 
 61 Goethe defended Finsternis and resented its association 
 with the evil forces in the universe. Such association, he main- 
 tained, is the habit of "duster-sinnlicher, von der Erscheinung 
 beherrschter Geschopfe." In older symbolism Finsternis was
 
 148 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 21 (VI, 231). "Schweigend sinkt die Nacht hernieder, 
 und in tiefster Dunkelheit," etc. : Das Madchen im 
 Kampf mit sich selbst 1-2 (VI, 232). "Ich ritt einmal 
 im Dunkeln spat durch ein enges Thai; die Nacht war 
 still," etc.: Memento Vivere 1-3 (VI, 269). Cf. Das 
 Kind 1-2 (VII, 66) ; Licht in der Nacht 1-2 (VII, 146) ; 
 Er und ich 1-2 (VII, 24) ; Das Wiedersehen 26, 53 
 (VII, 109). 
 
 (b) Other phases of nature: "eine dunkle Reben- 
 laube": Die Spanierin 21 (VI, 176). "Waldes-Dunkel" : 
 Stillstes Leben 6 (VII, 140). "am dunklern Ort": 
 Voriiber 7 (VI, 417). "die dunkle Wiiste": Heimkehr 
 1 (VII, 155). "als sie . . . . sich auf die dunkle Erde 
 niederneigte" : Auf die Sixtinische Madonna 6-7 (VI, 
 283). Cf. Sie seh'n sich nicht wieder 1-2 (VI, 212); 
 Kains Klage 15 (VII, 10) ; Meeresleuchten 1 (VI, 282), 
 etc. 
 
 (c) In a few personal descriptions dunkel is em- 
 ployed as a quality of hair, eyes, general complexion: 
 "aus dem dunklen Haar": Sturmabend 5 (VI, 143). 
 "dunkles Feuerauge": Schon Hedwig 3 (VI, 172). 
 "unter dunkler Braue," etc.: Die Odaliske 3 (VI, 187). 
 Cf. Der Princess Marie Wittgenstein 1 (VI, 403) ; 
 Todes-Tiicke 10 (VII, 76). 
 
 (d) Miscellaneous: "Schickt' ich ihm den dunklen 
 Trank": Die Spanierin 58 (VI, 176). "ein dunkler 
 Wein": Hochzeit 18 (VII, 128). "aus dunklem Taber- 
 nakel": Der Jude an den Christen 17 (VII, 161). Cf. 
 Vor dem Wein 1 (VII, 147) ; Der Ring 92 (VI, 390) ; 
 Das Kind 36 (VII, 74). 
 
 represented as the source of the various shades of light, fire and 
 color, according to J. A. Kanne (1773-1824), professor of Orien- 
 tal languages in Erlangen. See Goethe's Farbenlehre, in 
 Kiirschners National-Litteratur, vol. 117, part 2, p. 286, under 
 the heading Symbolik. Anthropomorphismus der Sprache.
 
 COLORS 149 
 
 4. Schatten (schatt-) 
 
 Schatten occurs 22 times in the soiigs, 7 times with 
 metaphorical effect. We may classify the allusions as 
 follows : 
 
 (a) Ghostly apparitions: "Seine Schatten seh' ich 
 wanken .... seinen Schatten seh' ich schwanken": 
 Kains Klage 10-2 (VII, 10). "ein Wesen so bleich, als 
 war' es entstiegen dem Schattenreich" : Der Ring 15-6 
 (VII, 59). "die Schattengestalt folgt ihm," etc.: Der 
 Ring 36. "Dort droht ein Schatten herauf . ". . . Wem 
 droht der Schatten?": Vater und Sohn 24; 27 (VI, 427). 
 
 (b) Nature: "Setze dich im Schatten seiner Baume 
 hin": Der Quell 29-30 (VII, 16). "schattige Maine": 
 Der arme Vogel 3 (VII, 80). "Mit dem Schatten, 
 mit dem Duft": Das Wiedersehen 11 (VII, 109). 
 "steigst Du hinab in nachtumschatteten Abgrund" : 
 Der Taucher 1 (VII, 240). "Der Baum, der .... ihn 
 beschattet": Liebesgeheimniss 12 (VII, 145). "von 
 Schatten geschreckt, die tanzen auf Wegen und Stegen" : 
 Der Ring 74-5 (VI, 390). "Sie (i.e. die Walder) alle 
 bieten Schatten" : Ein Wald 9 (VI, 397). 
 
 (c) In connection with personal descriptions: "Jetzt 
 war's ein Schatten, irr und bleich," Rosa 21 (VII, 28). 
 "Siisser Traume lichte Schatten fliegen uber sein Ge- 
 sicht": Waldbilder 95-6 (VI, 221). 
 
 5. Dammer- 
 
 Ddmmer- appears in 22 passages, in 12 of which it has 
 metaphorical application. As darkness and night fasci- 
 nated Hebbel by reason of their summons to the more 
 austere moods of the soul, so the beauty of the dusk and 
 the soft colors of evening inspired sentiments of peculiar 
 tenderness. The sonnet An Ludwig Uhland (VII, 99)
 
 150 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 pays a tribute to the magical touch of dusk and compares 
 with this the transforming and bewitching powers of 
 Uhland's poetic art. 62 
 
 We cannot avoid briefly noting a few of Hebbel's 
 beautiful metaphors in which twilight is made to suggest 
 dim half -forgotten forms, or half-realized, semi-con- 
 scious states, in which the soul seems to waver in deli- 
 cious indecision on the borderline of joy and pain, dark- 
 ness and dawn: "an diesen mystisch-tiefen Ziigen, die 
 auch in dir schon dammern": Stanzen auf ein Sicilian- 
 isches Schwesterpaar 19-20 (VI, 215). "Jungfrau- 
 bilder, frtih' erblichen .... Dammernd-schwebende 
 Gestalten": Letzter Gruss 1-3 (VI, 214). "des Dichters 
 dammernde Gestalten": An Christine Engehausen 1 
 (VI, 313). "Was ich in den fernsten Stunden, oft nur 
 halb bewusst, empfunden, dammert auf in Seel' und 
 Sinnen": Spatziergang am Herbstabend 9-11 (VI, 231). 
 "Tiefes Verdammern des Seins, denkend nichts, noch 
 empfindend !" : An den Tod 5-6 (VI, 266). Cf. An eine 
 edle Liebende 1 (VI, 317); Das Heiligste 9-11 (VI, 
 322). 
 
 As sensuous term, ddmmer- occurs in the following 
 passages : 
 
 (a) Atmospheric phenomena: "Die Dammerung war 
 langst hereingebrochen" : Auf eine Unbekannte 1 (VI, 
 206). "Der Tag ist voriiber, es dammert die Nacht": 
 Sie seh'n sich nicht wieder 24 (VI, 212). "in einer 
 Dammerstunde" : Das Griechische Madchen 17 (VII, 
 137). "Es dammerte, die schone Welt verier sich mit 
 dem Tag": Ein Spatziergang in Paris 61 (VI, 241). 
 
 (b) Miscellaneous: "Du hattest heiss das Dam- 
 mernde (i.e. Traumbild) umschlossen !" : Die Ver- 
 schmahte 11 (VI, 319). "das Licht, das durch die 
 
 2 Cf . p. 85 above.
 
 COLORS 151 
 
 Ritzen dammernd fallt": Noch ist Polen nicht verloren 
 141-2 (VII, 216). 
 
 6. Triib 63 
 
 Triib occurs prevailingly in metaphors, which aggre- 
 gate 13 out of 18 instances. The 5 instances of sensuous 
 employment occur in passages descriptive of the heavens 
 or the heavenly bodies: "Den Abend triiben Wolken": 
 Zum Licht 10 (VII, 3). "Der Himmel wird truber und 
 triiber": Rosa 7 (VII, 28). "dieses Licht, das einem 
 triiben Sterne entfliesst": Eine Mondnacht in Rom 5-6 
 (VI, 309). "Aber allzu bald nur triibte uns der heitre 
 Himmel sich": Schau' ich in die tiefste Ferae 41-2 (VI, 
 408). 
 
 7. Blass. 8. Bleich 
 
 Only 1 of the 22 instances of blass is a metaphor. 
 Bleich is used 49 times, including 5 times in a meta- 
 phorical sense. The allusions to blass and bleich may be 
 treated together: 
 
 (a) They both occur most commonly in personal 
 descriptions, usually as physical concomitants of emo- 
 tion: 
 
 (i) Blass: "im blassen Angesichte": Liebeszauber 
 28 (VI, 156). "er sinkt blass zuriick": Die Polen 
 sollen leben 34-5 (VI, 170). "wie es still erblasste": 
 Die junge Mutter 9 (VI, 179). Cf. Stanzen auf ein 
 
 63 Goethe's Farbenlehre has an extremely interesting dis- 
 cussion of the subject Der Ausdruck Triib. (Kiirschners Nat. 
 Litt., vol. 117, part 2, p. 288). For Goethe, triib is the first per- 
 ceptible blurring of the transparent, the first step in the transi- 
 tion from incorporeal to corporeal, "der erste Ansatz zu einem 
 Korperlichen." Hence it is the most delicate form of matter 
 conceivable, "die erste Lamelle der Korperlichkeit." "Der 
 Geist, der erscheinen will, webt sich eine zarte Triibe." In the 
 imagination of all peoples, spirits appear enveloped in a murky, 
 mist-like garb.
 
 152 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Sicilianiches Schwesterpaar 24 (VI, 215) ; Waldbilder 
 107 (VI, 221); Geburtsnacht-Traum 61 (VI, 255); 
 Doppelter Krieg 8 (VI, 313) ; Der Ring 59 (VII, 59). 
 
 (ii) Bleich: "da ward ihre Wange bleich" : Der 
 Maler 12 (VI, 175). "fast zum Schnee erbleichend" : 
 Liebeszauber 73 (VI, 156). "die Rosen treffen dich 
 schon bleich": Ein f nines Liebesleben 63 (VI, 199). 
 Cf. Waldbilder 123-4 (VI, 221) ; Geburtsnacht-Traum 
 30 (VI, 255) ; Der Ring 70 (VI, 390) ; Der Tod kennt 
 den Weg 49-50, 63 (VI, 394) ; Rosa 21 (VII, 28), etc. 
 (bl) Bleich appears, moreover, in a limited number 
 of nature pictures : 
 
 (i) The heavens: "Der Mond begann die bleiche 
 Bahn": Rosa 2 (VII, 28). "bleich huschten am 
 Himmel die Sterne" : Rosa 131. "Der Mond geht auf , 
 er ist so bleich": Kindesmorderin 13 (VII, 68). Cf. 
 Auf die Sixtinische Madonna 14-6 (VI, 283). 
 
 (ii) Flowers: "ob sie (i.e. die Rose) auch so bleich 
 ist, wie der Tod": Meiner Tochter Christine, etc., 15 
 (VI, 423). "die Blumchen sind verblichen": Er und 
 ich 5 (VII, 24). "Tief trauert die Blume im bleichen 
 Glanz": Romanze 5 (VII, 26). "bleiche Rose": 
 Romanze 30. 
 
 (b2) Blass occurs but once in reference to flowers, 
 and once in personal description: 
 
 (i) "die Blumen .... sind blass hier, wie der 
 Tod": Waldbilder 49-50 (VI, 221). 
 
 (ii) "Mit dem Christusbild, dem blassen": Das 
 Venerabile in der Nacht 22 (VI, 286). 
 
 9. Blank 
 
 Blank appears in no metaphors, although employed 
 altogether 16 times. It occurs only twice in personal 
 descriptions, is rare in nature pictures and appears pre-
 
 COLORS 153 
 
 vailingly in passages designating the flashing or gleam- 
 ing of certain instruments, weapons and utensils: "Er 
 hebt das Messer, wie funkelt es blank" : Der Ring 17 
 (VI, 390). "das reine blanke Schwert": Die Schlacht 
 bei Hemmingstedt 97 (VII, 90). "die heiligen Ge- 
 schirre, die glanzen blank und klar" : Der alten Gotter 
 Abendmahl 18 (VII, 132). "Topfe, Schiisseln, blanke 
 Kessel": Das Wiedersehen 45 (VII, 109). "blankes 
 Schwert": An Deutschland 3 (VII, 201). 
 
 10. Hell 
 
 The instances of hell aggregate 45, of which 13 are 
 metaphors. Hell almost never occurs alone, it is inva- 
 riably employed as a strengthening and intensifying ad- 
 junct in connection with other terms expressive of light 
 and color: 
 
 (a) The heavens: "Wirft hell der Mond den 
 Schein": Die Polen sollen leben 18 (VI, 170). "bei 
 hellem Mondenschein" : Ein friihes Liebesleben 73 (VI, 
 199). "hell bescheint's der Mond": Ein friihes Liebes- 
 leben 78. "die Sterne hellten silberrein" : Rosa 3 (VII, 
 28), also 39 ; 162. Cf. Lustig tritt, etc., 45 (VI, 437) ; Der 
 Knabe 3-4 (VII, 116) ; Auf dem Kirchhof 1 (VII, 146). 
 
 (b) In personal descriptions: "Ihr blaues Auge, 
 frisch und hell": Schon Hedwig 13 (VI, 172). "Klar 
 und hell, darin (i.e. in der Thrane) mein eig'nes Bild" : 
 Tandelei 3-4 (VI, 211). "du machst .... das trube 
 Aug' mir helle!" Morgen und Abend 3-4 (VI, 264). Cf. 
 Still und heimlich 20 (VII, 163) ; Rosa 42 (VII, 28). 
 
 (c) Artificial light: "hell .... die Feuertonne 
 flammt": Ein Dithmarsischer Bauer 175-6 (VI, 160). 
 "bei heller Kerzen Licht" : Dem Schmerz sein Recht 123 
 (VI, 287). "die Kerzen verlieren den hellen Glanz": 
 Der Tanz 1 (VII, 72). Cf. Das Lied vom Schmiedt 3
 
 154 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 (VII, 82) ; Eine moderne Ballade 1 (VII, 188) ; Das 
 Venerabile in der Nacht 31 (VI, 286). 
 
 (d) Miscellaneous: "du blinkst so hell und glanzend 
 aus dem Becher": Der Wein 1 (VI, 310). "sein Was- 
 ser . . . . rein und silberhell": Der Quell 15-6 (VII, 
 16). "Die Erde .... die .... jetzt heller auf- 
 glanzt": Das abgeschiedene Kind, etc., 8-10 (VI, 294). 
 
 11. Frisch. 12. Klar 
 
 Both frisch and klar are frequently employed by Heb- 
 bel generally in combination with other color terms 
 with a distinct implication of lustre. There are 7 in- 
 stances of frisch, 2 of them metaphors. A few examples 
 will suffice for this term : 
 
 "Ihr blaues Auge, frisch und hell" : Schon Hedwig 13 
 (VI, 172). "das frische Laub": Der Zauberhain 4 (VI, 
 387). "Wie einen frischen Blumenstrauss" : Gene- 
 sungsgefuhl 20 (VII, 172). "dich aufgenommen als 
 frischen Schmuck," etc. : An eine Romerin 7-8 (VI, 308). 
 
 Of klar, 20 instances were noted, 6 of these may be 
 regarded as metaphors. The following passages illus- 
 trate the more striking sensuous cases : 
 
 (a) Nature: "Der klarste Morgenstral" : Schon Hed- 
 wig 10 (VI, 172). "Sah ich je ein Blau, wie droben, 
 klar und voll," etc.: Das Opfer des Friihlings 1-2 (VI, 
 217). "hell und klar wie immer, blickt die Sonne": 
 Diocletian 2-3 (VI, 429). "Und Weste umsauseln sie lau 
 und klar": Das Kind 25 (VII, 66). "der klare Aether": 
 Hamburg 6 (VII, 222). 
 
 (b) Persons: "Und lieblich sah ich, hell und klar, 
 mein eig'nes Bild": Tandelei 3-4 (VI, 211). "Und per- 
 lenklar und rein trat eine Thrane .... hinein": 
 Tandelei 11-2. "Ihr blaues Auge ist nicht mehr klar": 
 Romanze 24 (VII, 26).
 
 COLORS 155 
 
 (c) Miscellaneous : "Mit klarem, siissem Wein" : Den 
 Glaubensstreitern 8 (VII, 65). "klar und rein blinkt 
 in Kristall ein dunkler Wein": Hochzeit 17-8 (VII, 128). 
 "Die heiligen Geschirre, die glanzen blank und klar": 
 Der alten Cotter Abendmahl 18 (VII, 132). 
 
 13. Rein 
 
 In collecting the passages containing rein, we have 
 noted only such instances of the term as have an unmis- 
 takable reference to color or light. There are 12 of such 
 cases, including 3 metaphors: 
 
 (a) Nature: "sein Wasser .... rein und silber- 
 hell": Der Quell 15-6 (VII, 16). "Die Sterne hellten 
 silberrein" : Rosa 3 (VII, 28). "Der Mond schien wieder 
 licht und rein": Rosa 163. "Und aus all den Finster- 
 nissen trat die Sonne, voll und rein" : Still und heimlich 
 10-1 (VII, 163). "des Aethers reinste Tropfen": Auf 
 die Sixtinische Madonna 9 (VI, 283). "die reinsten 
 Fluten aus dem ersten Wasser": Die Liebhaber 11-2 
 (VII, 101). 
 
 (b) Miscellaneous: "Du funkelst rein und spiegel- 
 blank": Auf ein neues Trinkglas 1 (VII, 118). "Die 
 Schwerter blinken klar und rein": Des Konigs Tod 5 
 (VII, 123). "klar und rein blinkt in Kristall ein dunkler 
 Wein": Hochzeit 17-8 (VII, 128). "Und perlenklar und 
 rein trat eine Thrane .... hinein": Tandelei 10-2 
 (VI, 211). 
 
 14. Farbe (farbig-, farb-) 
 
 In 15 passages the term Farbe or one of its derivatives 
 is employed, usually to suggest in a general way the pres- 
 ence of color, thus leaving to the imagination any further 
 refinement into specific hues. The term is used meta-
 
 156 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 phorically 4 times ; the characteristic cases admit of only 
 rough classification: 
 
 (a) Flowers: "Im Kelche der Blume, im farbigen": 
 Proteus 25 (VI, 253). "Und wenn das Leben .... 
 zuweilen eine Bliite trieb, so war sie f arbig" : Alte Wid- 
 mung dieser Gedichte 13-5 (VI, 274). "Die Glocken 
 .... die .... in Farben sich entziinden" : Ein f nines 
 Liebesleben 51-4 (VI, 199). 
 
 (b) Miscellaneous: "In eine wunderbare Flut von 
 Farben," etc.: Tandelei 5-6 (VI, 211). "In aller Far- 
 ben Glut": Vollendung 3 (VI, 311). "alle Farben zu 
 erhoh'n": Das Opfer des Fruhlings 41-2 (VI, 217). 
 "keiner .... der seinen Pinsel bloss in Farben tunkt" : 
 Auf die Sixtinische Madonna 19-20 (VI, 283). 
 
 (c) To some extent in the very last example, and 
 certainly in the following passages, a more definite shade 
 is designated: 
 
 "Entfarbt war Lipp* und Wange": Wiedersehen 28 
 (VII, 134). "Die .... Lippen sich entfarben": 
 Traum 3 (VII, 166). "Doch endlich wird mein Blut 
 die Erde farben": Mein Paan 11 (VI, 316). "Jedwedes 
 Angesicht .... dunkel oder licht, wie sie die Zone 
 farbte": Diocletian 43-5 (VI, 429).
 
 Terms 
 
 dunkel 
 
 bleich 
 
 hell 
 
 duster 
 
 finster 
 
 Schatten 
 
 blass 
 
 damtner- 
 
 klar 
 
 triib 
 
 bunt 
 
 blank 
 
 Farbe 
 
 rein 
 
 frisch 
 
 blond 
 
 Total 
 
 COLORS 
 TABLE C 64 
 
 1J 
 
 Times employed Times and percentage 
 
 
 of metaphor 
 
 76 
 
 32^12.1% 
 
 
 49 
 
 510.2% 
 
 
 45 
 
 1328.8% 
 
 
 28 
 
 1139.2% 
 
 
 28 
 
 1450% 
 
 
 22 
 
 731.8% 
 
 
 22 
 
 14.5% 
 
 
 22 
 
 1254.5% 
 
 
 20 
 
 630% 
 
 
 18 
 
 1372.2% 
 
 
 17 
 
 635.2% 
 
 
 16 
 
 000% 
 
 
 IS 
 
 426.6% 
 
 
 12 
 
 325% 
 
 
 7 
 
 228.5% 
 
 
 6 
 
 000% 
 
 . 403 
 
 12932.1% 
 
 Unclassified Terms Suggestive of Color or Light 
 
 It is worth while noting in conclusion a few isolated 
 terms more or less suggestive of color that do not prop- 
 erly belong to any of the foregoing classes : 
 
 "Da lag auf schneeigem Bette ein Roschen zart und 
 fein": Er und ich 21 (VII, 24). "Das Magdlein 
 tritt in seine (i.e. des Waldes) Nacht": Ein Wald 36 
 (VI, 397). "Ein heiterer Stern": Sehnsucht 6 (VII, 9). 
 "Es (i.e. das Bild) strait so heiter," etc.: Sehnsucht 13. 
 "Aus des Himmels heiteren Hohen": Sangers Sterne 8 
 (VII, 238). 
 
 The 3 instances of heiter are essentially sensuous and 
 concrete although employed in extended metaphors ex- 
 pressive of abstractions. 
 
 64 The terms are arranged here in the order of their fre- 
 quency, without regard to the order of their presentation above, 
 pp. 145-56.
 
 158 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 The following table contains the figures for schneeig, 
 Nacht and heiter, together with other terms not suffi- 
 ciently important to warrant specific illustration. The 
 terms loschen and ztinden occur for the most part in con- 
 nection with allusions to Feuer, Licht, Lampe, Kerze, 
 etc.; and specimens of their employment may be found 
 under the illustrations of the latter terms. 
 
 Terms 
 
 loschen . 
 
 ziinden 
 
 heiter 
 
 Nacht 65 . 
 
 schiiren 
 
 entfachen 
 
 schneeig 
 
 Regenbogen 
 
 Total 
 
 TABLE D 
 
 Times employed Times and percentage 
 of metaphor 
 
 11 
 8 
 4 
 3 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 30 
 
 327.2% 
 
 562.5% 
 
 0-00% 
 
 266.6% 
 
 1100% 
 
 1100% 
 
 000% 
 
 000% 
 
 1240% 
 
 65 Account is taken here of Nacht only when the term is 
 used with distinct implication of light or color, as in the illus- 
 tration above.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 SOUNDS 
 
 There is a general tendency to regard poetry's rela- 
 tions with physical sound as anomalous and therefore to 
 discriminate sharply between poetry when silently read 
 on the one hand and when rendered with suitable ora- 
 torical effect on the other. Words upon a printed page 
 as they strike the eye convey no direct tonal impression ; 
 but when audibly pronounced, the same words possess 
 positive materiality. The poet's inner visions have thus 
 the advantage of communication through vocal sounds, 
 a physical medium analogous in one of its elements with 
 the tones of music or the colors of painting. Sound 
 groups and rhyme effects, reinforced by the resources of 
 metrical arrangement, equip the poet with potent mate- 
 rials that appear to be organically associated with activi- 
 ties of body and of mind, intrinsically suggestive of 
 motion or of rest, of precipitation or of recoil, of serene 
 calm or of passionate agitation. In the media of his art 
 the accomplished poet-artist commands the rich expres- 
 sional potentialities of human vocal sounds and, in addi- 
 tion, the elemental noises of nature these through repro- 
 ductions largely imitative. So that poetry's mental 
 objectivity Phantasieanschaulichkeit is further aug- 
 mented by material objectivity V ' erleiblichung as sub- 
 stantial if not as refined as that of the other fine arts. 1 
 The diction of a Tennyson or a Swinburne "observes 
 subtle relations of sound as in a musical instrument." 2 
 
 i Cf. Volkelt, Syst. d. Aesth., I, p. 86. 
 2 Genung, The Working Principles of Rhetoric, Boston, 
 1901, p. 153.
 
 160 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 For the musical ear, "despair and sweet resignation" are 
 intoned in Tennyson's "Tears, idle tears, I know not 
 what they mean." 3 Within their limited physical sphere, 
 poetry's sounds essay and partly achieve auditory im- 
 pressions analogous with those richer tone effects that 
 music can produce through its more elaborate system of 
 sound values. 
 
 This musical side of poetry's auditory media receives 
 but scant attention in the following discussion of Heb- 
 bel's sound factors, not however from a disposition to 
 minimize the emotional importance of words as pure 
 sounds. Tennyson's fondness for words like "far, far 
 away" is a good illustrative instance of the sensuous 
 pleasure derived from musical words by sensitive 
 natures. 4 The theory early haunted Hebbel as it has 
 other poets that there exists an affinity between certain 
 thoughts and verbal sounds, and that rhyme's signifi- 
 cance and effectiveness must be ascribed to this affinity. 5 
 But this physical property of poetry runs small risk of 
 being slighted in literary appreciations. Furthermore, 
 this property is not of high importance in all verse. 
 Hebbel's best lyrics, surely, do not owe their impressive- 
 ness to their audible music. Far from indifferent to the 
 euphonic element in poetry the infinite labor expended 
 upon the melody of Opfer des Friihlings, and the endur- 
 ing fondness that he cherished for this poem may be 
 mentioned as evidence in passing Hebbel yet inclined 
 to the belief that such external euphony is properly but 
 a minor expressional adjunct. Mature reflection upon 
 human speech and the musical element in verbal sound 
 
 8 Emile Faguet : Tennyson, Quarterly Review, Apr., 1909, 
 p. 305. 
 
 4 Emile Faguet, in above cited article. 
 Tgb. I, 1146, May 1, 1838.
 
 SOUNDS 161 
 
 convinced him that chief importance is to be attached to 
 the inner elaborations, to the spiritual auditions rather 
 than to the coarser vibrations that strike the ear. 6 The 
 difficulties that beset translation seemed to him to result 
 from discrepancies in the ideations evoked by correspond- 
 ing linguistic symbols in different languages. 7 No one 
 appreciated more than he the "spontaneous answer of 
 sound to sense," which is a universal element of poetic 
 beauty. 8 Yet he clearly considered that physical sounds 
 as music employs them are not the same with musical 
 sounds as an element of poetry. 9 Its very sensuous 
 opulence peculiarly exposes music to the danger of cater- 
 ing to sense, while poetry with its limited tone effects is 
 less tempted to seek favor through pleasing sounds. This 
 apparent limitation is in reality poetry's source of 
 
 6 "Die Sprachen nach dem Wohlklang zu beurtheilen, ist 
 eine Unangemessenheit, die darum nicht aufhort, eine zu seyn, 
 weil sich ganze Nationen statt einzelner Individuen sie zu Schul- 
 den kommen lassen. Die Sprache ist allerdings die sinnliche 
 Erscheinung des Geistes, aber das Sinnliche dieser Erscheinung 
 liegt in der Gedanken-Abbildung durch das Spiel mannigfaltiger 
 Laute an sich, in der Fixirung des geistigen Sich-Selbst- 
 Entbindens durch ein korperliches Medium," etc. Tgb. Ill, 3665, 
 Sept. 4, 1846. Also Tgb. II, 2026. 
 
 7 Tgb. Ill, 4632. 
 
 8 Genung, The Working Principles of Rhetoric, p. 39. 
 Cf. Hebbel's enthusiastic admiration for J. Mosen's "Der Trom- 
 peter an der Katzbach," which he copies in full into his diary, 
 appending after the last verse : "Dies Gedicht ist unverganglich !" 
 Undoubtedly Hebbel was impressed chiefly by the appealing 
 human theme of this poem and the intensely dramatic episode 
 in which the theme is embodied. But he was doubtless also 
 captivated by the plasticity, the concreteness of it. Notable 
 among this poem's concrete effects are the musical and vocal 
 sounds : "Victoria, so klang es, Victoria iiberall," etc., Tgb. I, 
 1758, Oct. 28, 1839. 
 
 9 "Konnte selbst eine Sprache mit der Musik ringen, was 
 keine kann, so wiirde es noch kein Grund seyn, ihr deswegen 
 einen besonderen Vorzug zuzusprechen, .... und eine musi- 
 calische Sprache, wie eine geistreiche Musik wtirden, wenn sie 
 namlich nur das und nicht zugleich noch etwas Anderes waren, 
 Beide ihren Zweck verfehlen." Tgb. Ill, 3665, Sept. 4, 1846.
 
 162 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 strength. Less captivated by outer allurements we may 
 better attend to the inner music, more perfectly inter- 
 pret and reproduce the emotional situation in which that 
 music was born. That we are predisposed to such inner 
 music largely through poetry's verbal sound effects can- 
 not be questioned. It would seem equally unquestion- 
 able that the ultimate sound effects at which great poetry 
 aims are ideations; that the function of sheer audible 
 vibration is auxiliary to an inner audition, which, like all 
 other sense qualities that enter into poetry, is essentially 
 a mental and not a corporeal constituent. Herein would 
 seem to reside poetry's chance of highest artistic achieve- 
 ment. If music is with justice considered the "perfect 
 art" because here matter and medium, object and symbol 
 are identical, then poetry's hope of perfection will be 
 realized in proportion as intuition and expression become 
 merged in some finer medium apprehended by the mind. 
 To advert overmuch to the auditory sensations tends 
 away from such merging of matter and medium by 
 sharpening the distinction between words as musical 
 tones and as ideal symbols. To lay chief stress upon 
 the inner auditions largely eliminates the distinction 
 between poetry when read in silence and when read 
 aloud. This inner music is not for the ear; its harmo- 
 nies, though immanent in the words, spring at last from 
 "subtle adjustments of their elementary sounds and the 
 images and moods that they convey." 
 
 Perhaps the most valuable part of Shelley's "Defence 
 of Poetry" deals with this very relation of sounds to 
 thought in human speech. Shelley, too, supposes a primi- 
 tive connection between vocal sounds and their psychic 
 correlates; not a preexistent union miraculously divined, 
 however, but an arbitrary adjustment, imperiously 
 decreed. And this adjustment has not been made once
 
 SOUNDS 163 
 
 for all in some bygone poetic age of the race, it is made 
 to a degree in each individual case of poetic creation. 
 Wagner's Motive are joined in our thoughts with an 
 incident or a passion or a personality because the com- 
 poser has willed that union and our receptive sympathy 
 accepts it. In poetry such conjunctions are of incom- 
 parably greater variety and delicacy just because the 
 gross tone material is there so completely under the con- 
 trol of the inner elaboration. We might then justly say, 
 not the tones themselves but their inner associations most 
 impress us. Were this not so, our thoughts would be 
 dragged from their free heights by inexorable earthly 
 connections. In reality the essence of our thought's free- 
 dom consists in its power of raising gross sense elements 
 to sensuous ideality. This is illustrated in truly inspired 
 translation, which Shelley too summarily discredits. 
 How else can we account for the aesthetic effect of the 
 more poetic portions of the Bible, in the original and 
 in translations; for the universally conceded rhythm 
 and music of its grander passages? Does this not indi- 
 cate a sort of spiritualization whereby the gross physical 
 sounds are transfigured, raised to ideal tonality through 
 the inner responses with which they are wedded? 
 
 Here the contention may be raised that the foregoing 
 considerations have no bearing upon the poetic efficacy 
 of audible sound in one of its most important connec- 
 tions, namely, the motor effects involved in actual audi- 
 tion. Audible sounds are often attended by certain char- 
 acteristic bodily disturbances. When thus attended, 
 audition affects us with redoubled intensity. That this 
 motor element is produced with equal intensity by silent 
 reading is doubtful. But when poetry is read aloud, 
 when a cry or a command, or a soothing murmur is 
 actually enunciated, the total impression is intensified by
 
 164 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 the accompanying vital sensations. These undoubtedly 
 exert far-reaching influence under favorable circum- 
 stances, but the sphere of their operation is much limited 
 when conditions are unfavorable. To get these motor 
 aids, there must be effectual rendition of the vocal 
 sounds. How seldom are conditions favorable for such 
 rendition, however. How often the reader by reason of 
 deficiency in voice is unequal to the vocal possibilities. 
 Thus we are generally thrown back upon our own elabo- 
 ration of the actually received sound qualities. 
 
 What has been said of verbal sound in general may 
 be applied with little modification to special forms of it. 
 The physical resemblances to which onomatopoeia owes 
 its effectiveness are quite remote; the associations break 
 down except with the liberal assistance of imagination. 10 
 The major part of the pleasurable and the impressive 
 from this source is mentally supplied and the function 
 of Tonmalerei in poetry is mainly that of intensifying, 
 supplementing imagination. 11 The sound effects pro- 
 duced by rhyme have obviously an accessory office, pure 
 and simple. As the sounds of words, singly or in gram- 
 matical combination, rarely resemble closely tones or 
 noises in nature, so the phonetic correspondences of 
 rhyme seldom reproduce external phenomena. 
 
 Of rhythm no mention is made in the following dis- 
 cussion. For rhythm is not a matter of sound, but of 
 
 10 Cf. George Campbell, Philosophy of Rhetoric, London, 
 1850, p. 331. It is questionable whether there is real likeness to 
 the things symbolized either in analogically imitative symbols 
 like rough, smooth, keen, blunt, thin, hard, or in more directly 
 reproductive terms like splash, bang, whiz, roar. The expressive 
 superiority of such words may be ascribed largely to the fact 
 that they are specific, concrete and short, and consequently enable 
 economy of mental effort. Cf. Herbert Spencer, Philosophy of 
 Style, Essays, New York, 1866, pp. IS ff. 
 
 Cf. Konrad Lange, Das Wesen der Kunst, Berlin, 1907, 
 Ch. VI, p. 109.
 
 SOUNDS 165 
 
 bodily movement, at least incipient, originating presum- 
 ably in the primitive tendency of man to convert inner 
 tension into action. So understood, rhythm is not ger- 
 mane to a discussion of the poetic uses of reproduced 
 sounds of various types. 
 
 In accordance with the views expressed in the pre- 
 vious discussion, we shall proceed upon the assumption 
 that the importance of sounds as employed by poetry 
 rests in the end upon ideal and not physical audition, and 
 shall treat the more distinctly sensory sound properties 
 inherent in spoken words and augmented by rhyme only 
 as contributory aids to such ideal audition. 
 
 Sounds admit of division into tones and noises (aural 
 impressions produced by air vibrations of regular and 
 irregular periodicity, respectively). The simple primary 
 tones may enter into certain relations with the overtones 
 to form a "clang." Sounds are distinguishable as to 
 volume or quantity, timbre or quality, and as to a third 
 attribute intensity which is to an extent a function 
 of volume and is affected by timbre, yet depends more 
 than either of the other two features upon the energy 
 and violence of the production and the reception of the 
 sound vibrations, upon distance from the ear, and upon 
 the nature of the transmitting media. 12 
 
 Sounds in nature are predominantly noises or com- 
 binations of tones and noises, greatly varied as to volume, 
 intensity and timbre; and language has a rich vocabu- 
 lary for designating the various amounts, degrees and 
 shades of these nature sounds. In German, especially, 
 a goodly stock of epithets enables the description of 
 sound quantities all the way from voll to leer; of inten- 
 
 12 Pure tones, so-called, are an exception to this statement ; 
 they have pitch but do not have timbre.
 
 166 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 sities from laut to leise; or of the more distinguishing 
 features of timbre from dumpf, dunkel, drohnend to hell, 
 grell, schrill. 
 
 Accordingly one would expect to find a great variety 
 of terms in the lyric poems of an ardent nature lover like 
 Hebbel. We are surprised to discover that Hebbel's 
 sounds do not compare with his lights and colors in fre- 
 quency or in variety and profusion of arrangement. The 
 voluminous sounds in nature such as those produced by 
 breakers, by thunder, by the storm wind recur with 
 great frequency. At first sight we appear to have rela- 
 tively few sound combinations, and we note in these a 
 certain stereotyped sameness. There is a noticeable re- 
 currence of such sounds as rauschen, sausen, sauseln, 
 schallen, brausen, klingen, etc. What appears to be a 
 striving after certain theatrical effects characterizes the 
 stereotyped introduction of certain typical sounds. Un- 
 consciously we think of stage music when Hebbel intro- 
 duces horn and trumpet, lets the war-drum roll and the 
 shrill fife pierce the air. In his lyrics there is much toll- 
 ing of church-bells ; the flute and violin never fail to lend 
 to dance or carnival the needed merriment, and angels 
 rarely appear unattended by the soft strain of the harp. 
 
 But there is a reason for this. Hebbel, like most other 
 poets, was susceptible to the musical capabilities of lan- 
 guage. The sounds to which he here resorts are 
 onomatopoetic, for the most part; they are thus the 
 household words of every poet's vocabulary and natur- 
 ally suggest themselves by virtue of an intrinsic pro- 
 priety and fitness. Moreover, the uniformity arising 
 from the repetition of typical sounds is not due wholly 
 to artistic limitations. The uniformity is rooted in 
 nature itself, both as regards the human sense organs 
 and also in a measure as regards nature's physical re-
 
 SOUNDS 167 
 
 sources. True, the physical sound range embraces an 
 infinite series of qualities bounded by the limits of audi- 
 bility; yet the tone realm of the human organs and of 
 musical instruments involves but a small section of the 
 audible. And although the ear is capable of distinguish- 
 ing many more tone qualities than those of the musical 
 scale 1200 distinct tones are perceptible under most 
 favorable conditions yet there are decided limitations 
 to such keen tone perception. The fine gradations can- 
 not be voluntarily produced ; memory and recognition of 
 them are difficult. And it is not the artificially produced 
 musical tones to which poetry naturally resorts, but 
 rather the tones and noises in nature. And here certain 
 conditions tend to limit what appears to be an inex- 
 haustible source of supply. The pure tones in nature 
 are far less numerous than the pure tones artificially 
 produced; only the human vocal sounds may be classed 
 as pure nature tones. Even in most animal sounds the 
 noise element predominates ; few bird varieties have songs 
 in which besides noises real tones or "clangs" appear. 
 And despite the extraordinary native capacity of the ear 
 for distinguishing sound variations, despite the tendency 
 of human speech and of music further to develop this 
 capacity, frequent recurrence and the indefinite contin- 
 uance of many nature sounds gradually tend to cause 
 auditory bluntness and habitual inattention. So that the 
 musical scale of the outer world to which we consciously 
 respond is less varied and refined than its color palette; 
 and while the human eye is often lured through the 
 pleasures of sight to revel in the infinite nuances of light 
 and color, there is generally less conscious response to 
 sound stimuli; the incentive closely to observe nature's 
 tones is less strong than is the temptation to note her 
 hues. Consequently a nice adjustment to the refinements
 
 168 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 of sound is a rarer endowment even among sensuously 
 gifted poets. For the rewards of such nature study are 
 not so tangible ; the fruits of it admit of relatively limited 
 assimilation in art. This pertains even to music ; the tone 
 poet rears a structure that as organic entity is essen- 
 tially without a counterpart in nature. In poetry even 
 in orally rendered poetry the role of physical sound 
 is an auxiliary one ; the imitative tones serve as spiritual 
 media, as emotional adjuncts, as aids to ideation and 
 illusion. 
 
 The lack of variety in Hebbel's sound terms is there- 
 fore natural enough. Furthermore, it is only when we 
 formally classify and frigidly analyze that we become 
 aware of any sameness in Hebbel's employment of 
 sound. And this is perhaps an adequate defense. As 
 the tones flow spontaneously from the mood of the 
 singer so they mingle easily and naturally with the mood 
 of the receptive listener. Only when we test and tabulate 
 without sympathetic abandon do we become conscious 
 of repetitions. 
 
 The defects of Hebbel's sounds, which we believe to 
 be inherent in the element itself, are offset by marked 
 excellences that spring partly from sound's organic 
 properties and partly from spiritual elaboration of these 
 properties. To the purely material facts delivered by 
 the auditory sensations must be added the rich stores of 
 experience supplied by the play of the emotions. For if 
 the sounds of nature yield to her colors on the score of 
 variety and of adaptability to artistic purposes, the more 
 simple and elemental sounds are peerless in their inten- 
 sity of appeal. The very quality of sounds that makes 
 them elude at times our intent notice enables them to 
 steal unawares into our musings and to give the dis- 
 tinctive tone to our moods. Such modal influence is of
 
 SOUNDS 169 
 
 mysterious origin, partly the echo of personal responses, 
 partly a legacy of racial experiences. Bain divines in 
 a pathetic wail some deep-seated hereditary association 
 with grief. The mythologies of primitive peoples ade- 
 quately attest the power of nature's sounds as emotional 
 reagents. The awakening of awe and fear, of joy, of 
 yearning, of peace and calm through the stimulating 
 agency of sounds belongs to the elemental experiences 
 of both race and individual. It is here that poetry, 
 recognizing the dynamic relation between physical nature 
 and human emotion, makes the most effectual and legiti- 
 mate use of sound. Prominent among the universal 
 features of poetic style is the employment of the numer- 
 ous associated effects of sounds, "the moan of wind, 
 dash of torrent, purling of the brook, boom of artillery, 
 merry note of lark, solitary cry of owl, deceptive voice 
 of cuckoo" (Bain, English Comp. and Rhet, p. 216). 
 
 Hebbel's journals confirm our contention that for him 
 sound impressions, within their normally imposed limits, 
 assumed great intensity. While sound allusions in his 
 diaries are decidedly outnumbered by those of color, 
 while there is less variety of terms and less detailed 
 sound description, there is on the other hand good evi- 
 dence that such sounds as receive more than casual 
 notice impressed his senses keenly, awakened lively 
 images and materially influenced his moods. Not a little 
 versatility is exhibited in the introduction of sound ele- 
 ments. The journals have passages in which promis- 
 cuous noises unite to form a homogeneous synthesis: 
 ". . . . Gesumse der Kafer, Sonnenstralen, sauselnde 
 Liifte " 13 Often the principle of contrast operates, 
 
 13 Tgb. I, 877. Cf . also : "Mir vis a vis wird der Polter- 
 Abend eines Brauerknechts gefeiert; fiirchterlicher Gesang 
 schallt tiber die Strasse, welchen die Knaben wiederholen, die
 
 170 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 the various tones mentioned offsetting one another. 14 A 
 common manner of the journals is to group together 
 sound elements that are perhaps diverse if compared one 
 with another, yet collectively merge to form a common 
 contrast with some silent person or object in the environ- 
 ment. When so grouped and collected, the sounds are 
 often essential factors in the arousal of definite Stim- 
 mungen: 
 
 "Die Morgue draussen pfeifen die Lerchen 
 
 und Rothkehlchen, drinnen liegen die Todten." 15 
 ". . . . Ein Gewitter zog herauf und kiindigte sich .... 
 durch abgemessne, einzelne Donnerschlage an ; der Wind 
 erhub sich und rauschte vor mir in den Baumen; .... 
 von unten schaumte der Neckar zu mir herauf ; vor mir 
 sah ich auf einer Bank einen schlafenden Knaben, den 
 Donner, Regen und Wind nicht zu erwecken vermogten 
 . . . ," 16 ". . . . Die stille, schweigende Stunde; die 
 sauselnden Baume rund umher ; die ruhenden Schiff e im 
 Hafen, auf denen hie und da ein Hund bellte . . . ," 17 
 
 Among the sounds recorded in the journals, the allu- 
 sions to those that are artificially produced take numeri- 
 cal precedence. Memories of pleasurable experience lie 
 beneath the references to music, to flourishing horns and 
 trumpets, to wildly exulting martial airs, to the tones of 
 belfry chimes and of harp or of zither. 18 On the other 
 
 .... Topfe und Schiisseln zerschmeissen . . . ." Tgb. I, 1653. 
 Also: "Kinder schreien und aus der Feme tont eine heisere 
 Drehorgel . . . ." Tgb. I, 1701, Is. 3-4. 
 
 14 "Draussen in den Baumen, .... heult der Wind, die 
 langsame, schnarrende Stimme des Nachtwachters tont zu mir 
 heriiber, auf dem Vorplatz geht muhsam und schwer eine Uhr," 
 Tgb. I, 1550, Is. 4 ff. 
 
 i Tgb. II, 3052. 
 
 IB Tgb. I, 152. 
 
 "Tgb. I, 1702. 
 
 is Tgb. I, 155; 1210; 1368; 1404; 1819; Tgb. II, 1910; 2867; 
 2923; 3110; Tgb. IV, 5391.
 
 SOUNDS 171 
 
 hand, the journals allude with undisguised apprehension 
 or annoyance to the beating of alarm drum, to the bedlam 
 of a Polterabend celebration, to the watchman's pene- 
 trating rattle and the hoarse note of the hand-organ. 19 
 In a few diary passages Hebbel's susceptibility to music 
 and his ready surrender to its emotional influence are 
 clearly shown. He speaks, for example, of the strange 
 effect of music heard in the dark; and he copies in full 
 with brief but approving comment J. Mosen's poem Der 
 Trompeter an der Katsbach, of which the verbal repro- 
 duction of musical impression forms an important fea- 
 ture. 20 
 
 Next to instrumental there is most frequent mention 
 in the diaries of vocal sounds of man and of animal, 
 including those unpleasant as well as those pleasant. 
 Beside singing and shouting, we hear barking of dogs, 
 chirping of birds, humming of insects, grunting and 
 squealing of pigs. 21 Among the human vocal sounds some 
 variety in volume and timbre is observable, and certain 
 unpleasant vocal qualities are objectified by effective 
 verbs or adjectives such as schreien, anbrullen, husten, 
 r'duspern, flustern, bloken, ridseln, heiser, gellend, 
 qualend-piepsig. There is one particularly beautiful de- 
 scription of singing girls, which again exhibits Hebbel's 
 sympathetic response to music and his love of pure 
 and simple sounds: 
 
 "Die Madchen sangen einige Lieder, anspruchslos, 
 schlicht und fromm, der Vater stand mit gefalteten 
 Handen dabei und sang innerlich mit, ein kleiner Dachs 
 lag zu ihren Fiissen, schaute vergniiglich zu ihnen hinauf 
 und schlug mit seinem Schwanzchen den Tact. Als wir 
 
 Tgb. I, 1349; 1369; 1653; 1701, line 3. 
 20 Tgb. I, 1758; 1796. 
 
 21 Tgb. I, 397; 877; 1319; 1550; 1653; 1701; 1702; Tgb. II, 
 2387; 2540; 2840; 2867; 2870, line 32; 3052; Tgb. IV, 6047; 6160.
 
 172 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 gingen, sangen sie sogar das Lebewohl, was sich bei den 
 schwachen, leise verhallenden Tonen der begleitenden 
 Cither tief riihrend ausnahm." 22 
 
 The reference to tones of nature proper is not frequent 
 in the diaries. Relatively seldom is anything said about 
 storm sounds, about howling wind, roaring wave or 
 rustling leaves. But here again, if the references are 
 insignificant in point of number, they are intensely effec- 
 tive and warrant the assumption of keen original sensa- 
 tion. There is an impressive description of three rain 
 and wind storms witnessed by Hebbel in Gmunden or 
 thereabouts. 23 There is an allusion to the noises of tem- 
 pest and wave heard by him during a walk in Copen- 
 hagen one Sunday in January, 1843, rugged elemental 
 noises that aroused his sinking poetic faith and actually 
 inspired the composition of a song. 24 The capital repro- 
 duction of the whispering, rustling and roaring in the 
 pines as the wind rises, swells and subsides; or of the 
 low, subdued murmuring in the branches, suggesting the 
 busy hum of swarming bees, and lending a deep, sus- 
 tained accompaniment to the light and playful melody of 
 the brook these are good examples of Hebbel's acute 
 observation, his responsive fancy and his effective de- 
 scription : 
 
 "Nie sah ich die Tanne noch so schlank und so stam- 
 mig, wie hier, wo sie der einzige Baum ist, diess Mai 
 rauschten die Kronen im frischen Winde, und nie 
 vernahm ich noch ein solches Rauschen; leise, fast 
 sauselnd, begann es, als ob in der Ferae nur ein einziger 
 Baum geschiittelt wurde, dann verstarkte es sich, wurde 
 dichter und dichter und concentrirte sich zum Sturm- 
 accord iiber unserm Haupt, darauf schwachte es sich 
 
 2 2 Tgb. IV, 5391, Is. 8-14. 
 
 28Tgb. IV, 5932. 
 
 24 Tgb. II, 2641. Cf. also Tgb. I, 1429.
 
 SOUNDS 173 
 
 ab, und endlich verier es sich mit Tonen, wie sie ein 
 langsam fortrollender Wagen wohl von sich giebt." 25 
 
 "Die Tannen rauschten diess Mai im leisen Winde, der 
 sie nur leicht bewegte, ganz so, als ob hoch oben in jeder 
 Krone ein Bienenschwarm sasse und emsig arbeitend sein 
 Wohlbehagen in Tonen aussummte; daneben an der 
 Seite ein frohlicher Bach, . . . ," 26 
 
 Hebbel's lyrics adequately show that his sense of these 
 sound effects and their psychic relation is in no degree 
 lacking. Within the physically imposed limits indicated 
 above, our poet succeeds in securing through the media 
 of sound certain really artistic results. These effects 
 are occasionally enhanced by an apt variation of the 
 volume or the quality of the sound; or by instituting 
 sound contrasts. In Schiffers Abschied, 17-26 (VI, 148), 
 we have a gradation of three degrees recorded : the whis- 
 pering of the wind in the branches ; the whistling of the 
 wind through the ship's rigging; the roaring of the 
 storm wind. In Traum, 14-7 (VII, 166), low, sombre 
 funeral bells alternate with stirring trumpet blasts and 
 thundering cannon. Elsewhere, again, terrifying noises 
 contrast with soft, peaceful strains ; tones of gloom are 
 relieved by peals of revelry and merriment ; 27 or ominous 
 silence is broken by deafening din. 28 How effectual such 
 contrasts may become, the following passage suggests : 
 
 " Unter duftigen Baumen, vom Hauch des Abends 
 
 durchsauselt, 
 Sammelt von reizenden Frau'n still sich ein glan- 
 
 zender Flor; 
 
 Leise ergiesst sich der Strom melodischer Klange und 
 schaukelt 
 
 25 Tgb. IV, 5283. 
 2 Tgb. IV, 5304. 
 
 27 Die heilige Drei 113-6 (VI, 183); Die Schlacht bei 
 Hemmingstedt 5-6 (VII, 90). 
 
 28 See chapter on Silence, pp. 227-9.
 
 174 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Zwischen Wonne und Weh jedes empfangliche 
 
 Herz; 
 Aber die Wogen des Meers, am nahen Gestade sich 
 
 brechend 
 Und vom Winde geschwellt, donnern verhalten 
 
 darein, 
 An die gewalt'gen Accorde der rollenden Spharen uns 
 
 mahnend, 
 Welche fur's menschliche Ohr sanft zur Musik 
 
 sich gedampft." 
 
 Villa reale a Napoli (VI, 336 ) 29 
 
 For the most part the sound terms enter as Stim- 
 mungsmittel into passages essentially narrative; there is 
 a comparatively limited employment of sound in dis- 
 tinctly descriptive passages. Occasionally, however, Heb- 
 bel makes a picture live by a skillful introduction of the 
 sounds that enter saliently into the scene. If we were 
 actually on the spot we could hardly feel the subtle spell 
 of autumn more keenly than Hebbel makes us feel it 
 when he sings: 
 
 " Diess ist ein Herbsttag, wie ich keinen sah ! 
 
 Die Luft ist still, als athmete man kaum, 
 Und dennoch fallen raschelnd, fern und nah', 
 
 Die schonsten Fruchte ab von jedem Baum." 
 Herbstbild, 1-4 (VI, 232) 
 
 29 In Tennyson's "Day Dream" there is a very effectual 
 contrast secured chiefly through silence and sound, aided by rest 
 and movement, in the two following stanzas : 
 
 " She sleeps : her breathings are not heard 
 In palace chambers far apart. 
 The fragrant tresses are not stirr'd 
 
 A perfect form in perfect rest. 
 
 A touch, a kiss ! the charm was snapt, 
 There rose a noise of striking clocks, 
 And feet that ran, and doors that clapt, 
 And barking dogs, and crowing cocks;" etc.
 
 SOUNDS 175 
 
 Here the mere mention of the fruit falling from the 
 trees spurs the imagination and suggests other autumnal 
 sounds, which altogether attune us to the spirit of the 
 scene. 30 
 
 There are still other descriptive passages in which the 
 sounds in the air contribute perceptibly to the spirit of 
 the scene. In Heimkehr and Der Haideknabe the sounds 
 are mournful to harmonize with the dreary sadness of 
 the picture. 31 Elsewhere again soothing, tranquillizing 
 tones are heard, or harsh, ominous noises strike awe or 
 terror into the heart according to the prevailing mood 
 of the picture. What power dwells in sounds to make 
 landscape laugh or weep, will appear upon comparison 
 of the passages here cited : 
 
 (a) PEACEFUL AND SOOTHING. 
 
 " . . . . der Obelisk, 
 
 Der einst, umrauscht von Palm' und Tamarisk, 
 Sesostris griisste; . . . ." 
 
 Ein S patziergang in Paris, 37-9 (VI, 241) 
 
 30 We are reminded of a striking parallel in Tennyson's 
 "In Memoriam," XI, 1-4: 
 
 " Calm is the morn without a sound, 
 Calm as to suit a calmer grief, 
 And only thro' the faded leaf 
 The chestnut pattering to the ground." 
 
 31 
 
 " Laut durch die Luft, die dunkle Wiiste, 
 Fuhr nachtlich-ungestum der Sturm. 
 Die erste Stimme die mich griisste, 
 Erscholl herab vom Glockenthurm." 
 
 Heimkehr, 1-4 (VII, 155) 
 
 " Hinaus aus der Stadt ! Und da dehnt sie sich, 
 Die Haide, nebelnd, gespenstiglich, 
 Die Winde daruber sausend. 
 
 Die Blatter flustern so schaurig, 
 Das Wasserlein rieselt so traurig." 
 
 Haideknabe, Is. 21-3; 63-4 (VI, 166)
 
 176 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 " Leiser scheint der Fluss zu wallen" 
 
 Das Opfer des Friihlings, 5 (VI, 217) 
 
 " Selbst munt're Bache springen 
 Hier nicht, noch schwatzt ein Quell ;" 
 
 Bin Wald, 25-6 (VI, 397) 
 
 " Aber welter, in der Feme, 
 Zieh'n, gleich Engeln, durch die Luft 
 Voile Klange und Gesange" 
 
 Das Kind, 5-7 (VII, 74) 
 
 " Und es darf sich f roh berauschen 
 In den heitern Melodien, 
 Welche Vogelein entklingen, 
 Die nicht mehr voriiberzieh'n." 
 
 Das Kind, 25-8 (VII, 74) 
 
 " O, sauselt lind', ihr Weste, 
 Ob dieser kiihlen Gruft," 
 
 Laura, 9-10 (VII, 19) 
 
 " Die Voglein zwitschern, die Sonne lacht, 
 Am Hiigel weiden die Schafe." 
 
 Das Kind am Brunnen, 3-4 (VI, 180) 
 
 " Durch Bienen eingesurrt und and're Summer, 
 Von Duft betaubt, fallst du in tiefen Schlummer" 
 
 An ein schones Kind 6-7 (VI, 321) 
 
 " Blumen sprossen aus dem Klee, 
 Lerchen rauschen nieder." 
 
 Verloren und gefunden, 27-8 (VI, 424) 
 
 (b) AWFUL, OMINOUS. 
 
 pf i 
 
 I's 
 
 Der Ring, 1-2 (VII, 59) 
 
 " Die Wogen drohnen dumpf und schwer, 
 Ein Reiter reitet hinab an's Meer."
 
 SOUNDS 177 
 
 ". . . . die schwarze Schlucht, 
 In der es ewig braus't, 
 Weil sie in unterirdischer Flucht 
 Der wildeste Strom durchsaus't." 
 
 Vater und Sohn, 17-20 (VI, 427) 
 
 There can be no doubt that human emotions and the 
 sounds of nature are closely associated. This association 
 is generally spontaneous. The mental process involved is 
 one in which reflection and judgment play a small part 
 if any, while imagination is the dominant factor. Yet 
 the relation of emotions and sounds is not absolute and 
 invariable. A given noise awakens different feelings 
 under different circumstances, now firing the fancy to 
 create unearthly delights or horrors, now leaving it but 
 feebly affected. The momentary mood, which is the 
 soul's bent for the time being, determines which kind 
 of emotion the given sound shall awaken, and limits to 
 that degree the activity of the imagination. Within these 
 limits the imagination roams with royal freedom, reading 
 its own meaning into the impressions delivered by the 
 senses, or even creating through its own independent 
 exercise fictitious sounds and sights, if it so chance that 
 such are lacking in reality. Thus Cain, fresh from the 
 murder of his brother, hears in his fevered mind the very 
 leaves and blossoms call down justice upon him. 32 Mor- 
 tal, chafing amid his restraints, hears, or thinks he hears, 
 ravishing melodies luring him away from the narrow 
 confines of his earthly life. 33 
 
 There are various methods by which the poet may 
 employ nature's sounds. The passages quoted illustrate 
 the most obvious method ; viz. to introduce sounds which 
 
 32Kains Klage 26-7 (VII, 10). Cf. Genesis IV, 10: "the 
 voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground." 
 33 Das Kind 5-8 (VII, 74).
 
 178 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 are appropriate to and consonant with the dominant 
 mood of the song, and which by their presence attune 
 the soul of the reader to the scene and the sentiment 
 portrayed. Or the sound may enter as a vital part of 
 the symbol in which the main theme of the poem is em- 
 bodied. Sometimes again the sounds contrast with the 
 prevailing mood. In narrative passages there is gen- 
 erally a combination of two or more of these methods. 
 One thing characterizes the employment of this (as well 
 as every other) sensuous element in Hebbel's poetry. 
 Whether in description or narration, the portrayal of 
 soul experience is the poet's prime object. Therefore it 
 is in passages and poems in which such experience is 
 strongest that the arousing sounds are most admirably 
 used. This emotional quality is rarely absent; it enters 
 to a greater or less degree wherever Hebbel employs the 
 sensuous. And so we see lights and colors not as they 
 actually are, but as they become when refracted through 
 personality. We hear sounds not exactly as the senses 
 deliver them, but as they are modified by the undertones 
 of the soul. Hebbel was free to confess that his art was 
 at times unequal to the task of communicating the in- 
 tensity of his feeling. At such times the expressional 
 resources of poetry seemed to him to be overtaxed and 
 to require the richer emotional idiom of music. When 
 Schumann had set to music Hebbel's Nachtlied, the poet 
 wrote to the composer, frankly acknowledging the living 
 power that his thoughts and images received when 
 wedded with music: 
 
 "Ich habe das Gedicht immer lieb gehabt und es bis 
 den heutigen Tag lieb behalten, bin aber erst durch Ihre 
 Musik, die mich in die Heidelberger Dammernacht, in 
 der es entstand, ganz zuriickfiihrte, zu der Erkenntniss 
 gekommen, dass der Dichter so ahnungsreichen Natur- 
 und Seelenmomenten doch nur die aussersten Umrisse
 
 SOUNDS 179 
 
 abgewinnt und dass das Leben durch die verwandte 
 Kunst hinzugethan werden muss" (VII, 258). 
 
 There are many illustrations of sound introduced as 
 vital part of the symbol in which the main theme of a 
 poem is embodied. This symbol stirs waves of associa- 
 tion that break up into ripples of fancy and reach in 
 time the farthest recesses of the heart. Der junge 
 Schiffer (VI, 145), employs the rushing wind as sug- 
 gestive of the adventurous restlessness of the young 
 sailor. Keen tempest-cleaving exhilaration, an intoxi- 
 cating sense of superiority over impending obstacles and 
 a Promethean delight in grappling with them with this 
 spirit the song Zu Pferd (VI, 149), is instinct. This 
 poem illustrates another interesting ingredient in Heb- 
 bel's poetry. The intimacy between man and animal 
 springing from the close relation into which their lots 
 are frequently brought, aroused in Hebbel an interest in 
 animal life to which he gives repeated expression in his 
 works. Here the faithful horse, filled with the zest of 
 physical conquest and fired with the self-confident 
 abandon of his master, neighs defiantly and plunges with 
 all his quivering impatience into the thick of the storm. 
 Howling wind and neighing, plunging horse contribute 
 materially to the vivid expression of defiant self-reliance. 
 That there is objectivity, "Anschaulichkeit," here is un- 
 deniable, but the objectivity is subordinate. The chief 
 interest here as elsewhere lies in the soul experience, in 
 the mood ; and to symbolize, as well as to accentuate and 
 intensify this mood, Hebbel avails himself of the potent 
 symbolic and associative property of sound. 
 
 A similar mood-stirring function is performed by the 
 element of sound in Sturmabend (VI, 143), and in Die 
 Schlacht bei Hemming stedt (VII, 90). Sturmabend 
 portrays the cynical exultation of a soul doomed to
 
 180 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 defeat in the struggle with fate, and the bold challenge 
 to the roaring, pitiless wind symbolizes the muster of 
 the soul's waning strength for one last, reckless sur- 
 render to pleasure. 
 
 If we enumerate the sounds which greet our ears in 
 Die Schlacht bei Hemmingstedt (VII, 90), we are aston- 
 ished at their number and diversity ; the waves beat upon 
 the shore (1. 3), lashed by the howling wind (Is. 21; 
 26; 54), the fifes shriek and the war-drums rattle (1. 7). 
 The air is filled with vocal sounds, a great variety of 
 them, from the stentorian command (Is. 74-5), and re- 
 echoing battle-cry (Is. 50 ff.; 63 ff.), to the half audible 
 sighs (Is. 19-20), and the death-rattle of the dying hero 
 (1. 111). And all these sounds seem to be carried along 
 and at intervals to be deeply buried in the bosom of the 
 heavily rolling torrent of thundering cannon (Is. 5 ; 57) 
 and rattling musketry (1. 66) grim contrast to the usual 
 music of the land, the peaceful song of the reaper and 
 the busy whir of the scythe (Is. 5-6). But the storm 
 wind's howling seems the most persistent of the as- 
 sembled noises. The wild violence of the wind images 
 the wild commotion of battle and the wild frenzy of the 
 desperate fighters. The storm wind seems to symbolize 
 the recollection of injustice and oppression, the bitter 
 resentment that fans the patriot's hatred, stirs his flag- 
 ging spirits and drives him out of inactive despair: 
 "Horst du den Sturmwind sausen ? Er ruft : was weilest 
 du!"etc. (Is. 21 if., VII, 91). 
 
 Striking in their symbolic import are the hostile 
 sounds that struggle for supremacy in Das Haus ant 
 Meer (VI, 270). However difficult to analyze and inter- 
 pret, these warring sounds were never introduced to 
 gratify a mere fondness for the sensuous. The poem 
 presents the tragedy of human life exemplified in a
 
 SOUNDS 181 
 
 single typical experience. Close to the rush and roar 
 of the sea, workmen are building the house that is to 
 shelter an old sailor's declining days when he shall return 
 from his last voyage. Pounding hammer and scraping 
 saw are heard at intervals amid the breakers which, now 
 in low mutterings, now in loud angry roars, seem like 
 mighty spirits hostile to man and his toil. The song of 
 the busy carpenter is snatched from his mouth by the 
 rising wind. The master-workman urges on his men lest 
 the old sailor return and find his house unfinished but 
 his words sink unheard into the storm. The distress 
 signal of a foundering vessel is swallowed up by the mad 
 booming of the sea, and the returning sailor goes down 
 with his ship as the last hammer-stroke resounds in his 
 desolated house. Such is the tragic outcome of man's 
 aims and labors. And the sounds employed constitute 
 a strong and beautiful medium for the expression of 
 both the theme and the sentiment of the poem. It is the 
 old dualism in nature which we have presented here, 
 the deadly combat between the two irreconcilable 
 forces individuality and totality. This purely abstract 
 theme the poet has objectified and humanized for us. 
 We see with awe the unfathomable mystery of man's 
 earthly lot and the consequent tragedy and solemnity of 
 the outward acts of life. Thus the battling sounds form 
 an important feature of an elaborate symbol by which 
 the theme of the poem is suggested, the indwelling senti- 
 ment and spirit caught and held, its tragic ending fore- 
 toned. 
 
 In the foregoing poems sound gives the Stimmung or 
 supplies the symbol practically alone. Elsewhere, through 
 the cooperation of other sensuous elements, this solitary 
 prominence is destroyed, sound merely contributing its 
 part toward the development of the mood or the symbol.
 
 182 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Accordingly we have in Zauberhain (VI, 387), gay 
 colors and strong perfumes cooperating with the alluring 
 whisper of the winds and the sweet song of the birds 
 to entice the young knight to his doom. In Vater und 
 Sohn (VI, 427), deep, strange sounds and gloomy lights 
 supply appropriate accompaniment to the recital of un- 
 natural crime; and equally suitable combinations of 
 sounds and lights prepare us for the violent horrors of 
 Vater unser (VI, 169), and Kindesmorderin (VII, 68). 
 In Laura (VII, 19), the tender sighs of the bereaved 
 maiden mingle with the low, soft voice and the sweet 
 breath of the west wind. Vague longings and thronging 
 hopes ungratified fill the breast of the shepherd as he 
 wanders by night through the fragrant meadows, and 
 playful zephyrs kiss but do not cool his heated brow 
 (Der Schajer, VII, 113). Bin nachtliches Echo (VI, 
 150), is all aquiver with the lights, sounds and scents of 
 springtime : the thirsty earth drinks the evening dew ; 
 the blossoming branches, bending in the breeze, fill the 
 languorous youth with sweet love-longings. 
 
 There is an essentially dramatic cast to Hebbel's lyric 
 genius. While never deficient in the quality that con- 
 stitutes the vital breath of song, namely sentiment and 
 feeling, Hebbel's songs uniformly start with a dramatic 
 premise, a distinct and prominent situation, out of which 
 the emotion of the song inevitably springs. In many of 
 the poems the situation is presented in the opening lines, 
 which serve as the dramatic setting. We have already 
 shown the prominence of light in securing this dramatic 
 setting. The part played by sound is also important; 
 in fact, the two elements very frequently co-operate 
 (occasionally in combination with a third element like 
 odor or contact) to lend the desired background for the 
 soul-drama of the poem. The first three stanzas of
 
 SOUNDS 183 
 
 Liebeszauber (VI, 156), are devoted to this very thing. 
 In these twelve lines hardly a single channel of sensuous 
 appeal is slighted. Atmosphere, light, odor and sound 
 combine with the bodily concomitants of emotion in a 
 sensuous tracery that affords a singularly appropriate set- 
 ting for the unique portrayal of mystery and passion. 
 Even line and form, a more rare feature in Hebbel's 
 verse, enter conspicuously into this striking background. 
 Cf. Husaren-Werbung (VI, 191). 
 
 In other poems the setting is less elaborate, a mere 
 line or two; often sound is prominent among the ele- 
 ments employed. The hollow tones of wind and wave 
 open Der Ring (VII, 59), the weird supernaturalism of 
 the song thus beginning with a mournful elemental incan- 
 tation. Darkness and the terrifying sounds of wind 
 shaking the trees are the first things that greet us in 
 Kindesmorderin (VII, 68), and Vater unser (VI, 169). 
 
 Certain of the passages that illustrate sound employed 
 as Stimmungsmittel and in symbolism illustrate quite 
 well the subject under present discussion. Obviously 
 Stimmungsmittel, symbolism and dramatic setting may 
 frequently act in combination, and the sounds that figure 
 in the opening scene or situation may also very well form 
 part of the symbolism or constitute a prominent factor 
 in the awakening of the desired mood (Zu Pferd, VI, 
 149; Vater unser, VI, 169; Der alien Cotter Abendmahl, 
 VII, 132). The background of darkness made more 
 ominous by the noise of wind and creaking trees is a 
 favorite emotional aid with Hebbel. This convenient 
 device both arouses the requisite mood in the hearer by 
 vague announcement of what is to befall, and also sup- 
 plies features for the dramatic setting. The opening 
 lines of Der alien Cotter Abendmahl likewise illustrate 
 this double function of the initial sounds.
 
 184 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 A further consideration with respect to the dramatic 
 employment of sound must be mentioned before passing 
 on to the next head. We noticed an early tendency on 
 Hebbel's part to adjust the lights and colors to the 
 momentary mood and action of the poems with such 
 painstaking accuracy that the apparent conscious design 
 of it spoils the artistic effect. A similar tendency is 
 noticed at times in the employment of the sounds. 34 The 
 poem Rosa (VII, 38), in which the illuminations are 
 managed like stage limelights, also illustrates an occa- 
 sional recourse to the theatrical use of sound. The 
 music of the angel's harp is low and tremulous or loud 
 and exultant according to the momentary emotion (Is. 
 63 ff. ; 137 ff.). The sad whisper of the leaves and the 
 brook's monotonous moan suit the mood in Haideknabe, 
 63-4 (VI, 168). A solitary bird sings his saddest note 
 in Romanze (VII, 36), for a merry songster would jar 
 with the grief of the disconsolate maiden. 
 
 Yet such sound-impressionism seems less objection- 
 able than the studied Licht- und Farbenspiel mentioned 
 above. More than is the case with the hues and shades 
 of nature, the sounds that enter the air depend for their 
 effect largely upon the mood of the hearer. Intrinsic 
 affective qualities the various sounds of nature undoubt- 
 edly have, yet the ultimate feelings aroused often seem 
 to be the result of psychic processes that are unaffected 
 by the nature of the sound. The song of the thrush, the 
 murmur of brook or pine tree, the strains of harp or lute 
 are vibrant joy when all nature laughs and the heart 
 laughs with it. But let clouds cast a gloom over the 
 earth and over the heart, then atmosphere, lights and 
 sounds seem each and all to be orchestral parts in a sensu- 
 
 34 "Gerausch ! 'Dein Vater, Knabe' " : Waldbilder 21 (VI, 
 222).
 
 SOUNDS 185 
 
 ous overture that stirs the soul as with the premonition 
 of coming disaster. 35 Such rhythmic correspondences 
 therefore would seem a perfectly justifiable poetic arti- 
 fice. 
 
 In the discussion thus far we have made no effort to 
 differentiate between the three factors that are really 
 combined in the artistic employment of sound. Or rather 
 we have suggested the differentiation without insistence 
 upon its formal recognition. The three factors are 
 brought out when we sum up Hebbel's allusion to sound 
 in the following postulate : invariably the sounds in Heb- 
 bel's songs are the spontaneous outflowing of the mood 
 awakened in the poet by the soul experience conveyed in 
 the poem; these sounds sustain an intimate relation of 
 harmony or contrast with the depicted soul experience, 
 and thus by their appropriateness they superinduce 
 analogous emotions in the soul of the receptive hearer. 
 So intricate is the interdependence and interplay of these 
 factors that it has seemed unprofitable to keep them for- 
 mally separate. They are really so many manifestations 
 of one and the same thing. 
 
 KINDS OF SOUNDS 
 
 We pass now to the consideration of the kinds of 
 sounds employed by Hebbel ; and this may perhaps be 
 best treated by an examination of the sources of his 
 sounds. Such an examination will modify any impres- 
 
 35R manze 11-5 (VII, 26); 's ist Mitternacht 27-30 (VI, 
 174) ; Ein Wald 27-32 (VI, 397) ; Voriiber 1-4 (VI, 417) ; Das 
 Kind 3-4; 25-8 (VII, 74); Wiedersehen 46 (VII, 134); Im 
 Walde 25-8 (VII, 170); Waldbilder 62-4 (VI, 221). See also 
 Ein nachtliches Echo (VI, 150) in which the idea is carried out 
 consistently, e.g. in lines 25-6: "Seine Seufzer giebt der Wald 
 ihm treu zuriick" that is to say, nature's sounds are the echoes 
 of the voices that come from the soul of man.
 
 186 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 sion of uniformity or sameness, for it will demonstrate 
 the fact that the sounds to which Hebbel has recourse 
 reveal a creditable range and a considerable variety of 
 source. As might be inferred from the passages already 
 quoted, the natural sounds play the most important role, 
 the sounds that result from elemental activities and 
 those that are produced by vocal organs, whether of 
 man or animal. In the sounds of nature the tones of his 
 heart re-echo, be those tones gay or sad. Again and 
 again must wind and storm, thunder and rain lend their 
 music to express the joys and sorrows of his soul; sea 
 and wave accompany the action with their tumult; 
 brooks murmur in peaceful accord or purl in pitiless 
 apathy; forests mingle their ecstatic rustling or sigh in 
 sweet compassion. The shouts and exclamations of 
 mortals, the calls of birds give expression to the domi- 
 nant mood. Less frequent yet important are the musical 
 sounds alluded to above tolling church-bell, the clear 
 peal of the hunter's horn, the tones of harp and violin, 
 the flourish of trumpet, the clangor of cymbals, of fife 
 and drum and bugle. Barring a slight tendency to melo- 
 dramatic mannerism, these musical sounds are intro- 
 duced with good effect. The same is true of the employ- 
 ment of certain other artificial sounds the deafening din 
 of cannon and musketry, the clash of swords, the clank 
 of spurs and armor. Finally there is repeated reference 
 to rattling or slamming door, jarring or creaking gate, 
 pounding hammer; to the noise of footsteps, to the beat 
 of horses' hoofs. We shall consider these various kinds 
 of sounds in the order indicated. 
 
 Wind and Storm 
 
 In our illustrative passages thus far cited there is a 
 preponderance of the sounds that accompany wind and
 
 SOUNDS 187 
 
 storm. In the lyrics as a whole these storm sounds con- 
 stitute a large percentage of the auditory sensations to 
 which Hebbel resorts. The tremendous sweep and power 
 of the wind and its storm allies seemed to inspire a rever- 
 ent awe in his soul. As he listened to the howling of the 
 winds one stormy night in January, 1839, he was stirred 
 with a vivid sense of the necessity of sorrow in human 
 life. And this is the germinating thought of the two 
 poems Zu Pferd (January, 1839) (VI, 149), and Uner- 
 grundlicher Schmerz (September, 1841) (VI, 293), 
 with their spirit of splendid defiance and dogged effort. 36 
 In the poem Bei einem Gewitter (VII, 124), he expressed 
 longing for the energy of the elements. The terror 
 awakened by re-echoing thunder suggested to Hebbel the 
 theme of several of his poems Flocken 22 ff. (VII, 
 45) ; Gott 1-8 (VII, 77). Wind and storm constitute the 
 initial chord of the passionate poems Der alien Goiter 
 Abendmahl (VII, 132), Sturmabend (VI, 143), Rausche, 
 Wind! (VII, 178). For the murmuring, low-voiced 
 zephyrs Hebbel had an equal fondness : Das Kind 25 
 (VII, 66), Rosa 65 (VII, 28), Die Nacht 19-20 (VII, 
 26), An Laura 34 (VII, 50), Der S chafer 4-6 (VII, 
 113). Finally, as we have seen from the illustrations, 
 wind and storm repeatedly serve as symbols to objectify 
 or particularize the relentless powers of life, which toy 
 with man and his hopes; and from all these references 
 to wind and storm the element of sound is rarely lack- 
 ing. 37 
 
 36 Cf. Werner, VII, 260; 303. Also Tgb. II, 2641. 
 
 37 In the lines entitled "Der lieben Mama von Titi," a term 
 associated with storm wind is well employed to characterize the 
 romping, boisterous activity of the healthy child : 
 
 " Ich bin nicht mehr ein Kind, 
 Nicht mehr ein Sause-Wind," 
 
 Is. 3-4 (VII, 237)
 
 188 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Sea and Stream; Woods, Foliage, Flowers 
 
 The remaining elemental sounds (e.g. waves, murmur- 
 ing spring or brook, rustling leaves and the like) illus- 
 trate almost without exception Hebbel's recourse to 
 sound as Stimmungsmittel. Here quality and volume are 
 nicely adjusted to the prevailing mood. A classification 
 according to volume is possible here. 
 
 A. Sea and Stream, (a) Soft, low tones; (b) mod- 
 erately loud; (c) loud, deafening. 
 
 (a) "das Wasserlein rieselt so traurig": Haideknabe 
 64 (VI, 166). "leiser scheint der Fluss zu wallen": 
 Opfer des Friihlings 5 (VI, 217). "selbst muntre 
 Bache springen hier nicht, noch schwatzt ein Quell" : Ein 
 Wald 25-6 (VI, 397). "in des Baches rieselnden 
 Wogen": Romanze 36 (VII, 26). "wie durch Gefilde 
 ein murmelnder Bach": Lied der Geister 22 (VII, 63). 
 
 (b) "Verworren hort man dazwischen der Wogen 
 dumpf Geroll": Das Haus am Meer 9-10 (VI, 270). 
 "dumpfer erdrohnen die Wogen": Romanze 54 (VII, 
 26). "die Wogen drohnen dumpf und schwer": Der 
 Ringl (VII, 59). 
 
 (c) "Sie trotzen dem Tosen der Wellen": Sie seh'n 
 sich nicht wieder 14-5 (VI, 212). "Allheilig Meer, es 
 donnern deine Klange": Auf dem Meer 1 (VI, 251). 
 "Ich sehe des Meeres Tosen": Haus am Meer 33 (VI, 
 270). ". . . . die schwarze Schlucht in der es ewig 
 braust, weil sie . . . . der wildeste Strom durchsaust": 
 Vater und Sohn 16-20 (VI, 427). "stark rollen die 
 Wogen ans Ufer hin": Romanze 46-7 (VII, 26). 
 ". . . . in die brausende Meerflut": Flocken 84 (VII, 
 44). "Wie rauschen wild die Wogen und stiirzen jach 
 daher": Die Schlacht bei Hemmingstedt 3 (VII, 90). 
 "Wie Meeresbrausen" : Der alten Gotter Abendmahl 30 
 (VII, 132).
 
 SOUNDS 189 
 
 B. Woods, Foliage, Flowers, (a) Soft, low tones; 
 (b) moderately loud. 
 
 (a) "Die Blatter fliistern so traurig": Haideknabe 
 63 (VI, 166). ". . . . umrauscht von Palm' und Tama- 
 risk": Ein Spatziergang in Paris 38 (VI, 241). "Abend- 
 lispel": Das abgeschiedene Kind, etc., 27 (VI, 294). 
 (die Blumen) "lispeln leise": Die Nacht 15 (VII, 26). 
 ". . . . neigen, Ruhe sauselnd, Ros' und Myrthe sich": 
 An Laura 25-6 (VII, 51). "So sauseln Blumlein, 
 kaum bewegt": Rosa 65 (VII, 28). "lispelt sie" (i.e. die 
 Blume) : Flocken 59 (VII, 44). 
 
 (b) "Sie (i.e. die Walder) rauschen oder sauseln, 
 zum Liede gleich erregt": Ein Wald 5-6 (VI, 397). 
 "Brudermorder, ruft die Blume, Brudermorder, rauscht 
 das Laub": Kains Klage 26-7 (VII, 10). ". . . . Eich' 
 und Tanne kracht": Der alten Cotter Abendmahl 3 
 (VII, 132). 
 
 Human Voice 
 
 In Die Sprache (VI, 323), Hebbel pays an eloquent 
 tribute to speech "the greatest miracle" through 
 which alone all other miracles become possibilities for 
 the spirit; through which the spirit is liberated from the 
 curse of incommunicable aloofness, sodden isolation; 
 through whose music the disintegrating units of self- 
 dissection are concentered and united. 
 
 For a poet of broad human sympathies, the human 
 voice, too, has an important function, the human voice 
 with its tonal variety and its wealth of subtle modula- 
 tions. Where interest centres so largely in the soul 
 experience of definite personages, either the experience 
 of the poet himself or of characters in certain distinct 
 situations, the vocal utterances that accompany such 
 experience assume commensurate significance. Alto-
 
 190 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 gather apart from their musical quality which is a 
 variable factor human vocal sounds are of great im- 
 portance to poetry through their teleological capacity as 
 media of emotional processes. Hebbel resorts constantly 
 to reproductions of human sounds as a substantial 
 objective aid to subjective portrayal. Usually his char- 
 acters speak directly and a verbal realism distinguishes 
 their speech ; but even in passages where utterance is 
 given only in substance, the physical concomitants are 
 so carefully and vividly noted that the effect is often 
 quite as strong as though the speech were given verbatim : 
 
 1. 77 " Zieh dir nun die Nadel aus den Haaren, 
 Rufe den Geliebten, laut und deutlich, 
 Und durchstich dies Bild, dann wirst du brautlich 
 Ihn umfangen und ihn dir bewahren. 
 
 Schweigt, ihr Donner ! Prassle noch nicht, Regen, 
 Dass ich noch den Einen laut vernehme, 
 Ob er auch des Herzens Schlag mir lahme 
 Und der Pulse feuriges Bewegen! 
 
 1. 89 Endlich ziickt sie die, und meine Sinne 
 
 Reissen! ruft hinein! Zu ihren Fiissen! 
 Ruft mich selbst mit Worten, stammelnd-sussen, 
 Als den Einen, den sie heimlich minne! 
 
 Liebeszauber, Is. 77-84; 89-92 (VI, 156) 
 
 Such utterance whether direct or indirect partakes of 
 appreciable sensuous quality only when attended by con- 
 comitants that are themselves distinctly sensuous. The 
 bare statement "Sie ruft mich hinein zu ihren Fiissen" 
 has only remote if any vocal associations: but when in 
 the next line the statement is repeated with the appended 
 "mit Worten, stammelnd-sussen," this indirectly men- 
 tioned utterance falls fairly within the domain of sound,
 
 SOUNDS 191 
 
 for it is attended by distinct and vivid reference to the 
 tonal quality and volume of the utterance. The Bible is 
 rich in allusions to vocal demonstration. Frequently the 
 shouting, singing or thanksgiving there recorded are 
 simply formal steps in an extended narrative and accord- 
 ingly fail to awaken sensory excitement in the average 
 reader. At times, however, such Scriptural passages have 
 an unmistakably sensuous power and stimulate reproduc- 
 tions of auditory experience. Thus the third chapter of 
 Ezra describes how the priests and Levites and chief 
 fathers "wept with a loud voice ; and many shouted aloud 
 for joy: so that the people could not discern the noise 
 of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the 
 people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and 
 the noise was heard afar off." Of this sort are a very 
 large majority of the vocal passages in Hebbel's poems. 
 His personages are often demonstrative. The expres- 
 sion of their feelings takes the form of a song or a 
 prayer, they give vent to their moods in laughter and 
 weeping, in groans or sighs, in shouts of anger, enthu- 
 siasm or surprise. Where such vocal concomitants occur, 
 or where utterance of the characters is intensified by 
 some qualifying particle expressive of sound, there is 
 added an appreciable sensuous quality that may not be 
 ignored. 
 
 Obviously the sound feature is not present in like 
 degree wherever the human voice is involved. Sound 
 is least palpable in instances of concerted vocal demon- 
 stration such as: "man jubelt iiberall," "das ganze 
 Deutschland jauchzt Euch zu," "Der lauten Freude 
 Kehle." Such phrases awaken faint sensuous associa- 
 tion primarily because they are so frequently employed 
 in conventional metaphors and have accordingly lost 
 much of their original ring and timbre. Yet even here,
 
 192 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 despite the inevitable association with hackneyed stock 
 phrases, the sounds are not purely abstractions ; the tonal 
 element, though dulled by repeated generalization, is not 
 altogether extinct. 
 
 With this generalized vocal demonstration must be 
 associated instances of more specific vocal utterances, in 
 which terms like erklingen, ertonen, erschallen occur with 
 varying degrees of sensuousness, sometimes possessing 
 tonal quality hardly more appreciable than would be true 
 of sagen, sprechen, entstehen, beginnen. Such expres- 
 sions as erklingen, etc., originally awakened sensuous re- 
 actions associated with sound. Like the instances of con- 
 certed vocal demonstration, however, they have become 
 blunted through repetition, so that the impression of 
 sensuous tonality that they once conveyed is now 
 largely absent. It seems unnecessary therefore to in- 
 clude such instances in our illustrations of the human 
 vocal sounds. 
 
 An explanation must be submitted respecting group 
 (b) below, containing examples of vocal demonstration 
 without qualifying particle. There are grouped together 
 here examples of vocal utterances in which the sound 
 element is not made more prominent by presence of an 
 adjective, adverb or other qualifying particle indicative 
 of the tone or quality of that utterance. Obviously there 
 will be grades and degrees of sensuousness here. Terms 
 like flehen, klagen, rufen, beten do not possess the prop- 
 erty of sound in the same measure with murmeln, 
 seufzen, weinen, briillen. The class of words typified by 
 klagen, rufen, etc., is likely to be attended by a state- 
 ment of the motive or burden of the lament, the cry, and 
 the prayer ; this motive then absorbs our attention to the 
 partial exclusion of the tonal associations, whereas mur- 
 meln, seufsen, weinen, etc., mingle their vibrations ap-
 
 SOUNDS 193 
 
 preciably with the motive ascribed, and sound and sense 
 thus sustain a complementary relation. 
 
 The following list of human vocal sounds occurring in 
 the songs embraces only the more characteristic and typi- 
 cal examples. The basis of classification is as follows: 
 (a) includes the vocal instances whose distinct and pro- 
 nounced sound value is due to special indication of the 
 quality or volume of the sounds; (b) includes the pas- 
 sages in which the sound element is appreciable but 
 is not further reinforced by any explicit description of 
 the volume or tone of voice : 
 
 (a) "Rufe den Geliebten, laut und deutlich .... 
 Ruft mich mit Worten, stammelnd-siissen" : Liebeszauber 
 78; 91 (VI, 156). "Er spricht's im barschen Tone" : Ein 
 Dithmarsischer Bauer 33 (VI, 160). "Die Polen sollen 
 leben ! ruf t er mit lautem Mund" : Die Polen sollen 
 leben 31-2 (VI, 170). "Und sanft und schmeichelnd 
 ruft es aus" : Das Kind 9 (VI, 189). "Wenn's stolz und 
 breit aus Bettlers Mund erschallt": Ein Spatziergang in 
 Paris 74 (VI, 241). "Der unsrer Sprache rauhen 
 Klang .... vergessen machte" : Prolog zu Goethes 
 hundertjahriger Geburtsfeier 29 (VI, 298). "Ich ruf 
 es treu hinaus in das Getose der Millionen wildver- 
 worr'ner Stimmen, gleichgiiltig, ob sie jauchzen, ob er- 
 grimmen": Die Erde und der Mensch 6-8 (VI, 303). 
 "Und statt des Fluchs werd' ich in vollen Choren .... 
 der Menschheit Jubel horen" : Die Erde und der Mensch 
 79-80 (VI, 303). "Sie wollten eben lauten Spott er- 
 heben": Ein Bild 10 (VI, 326). "So ruft der Graf in 
 zorn'gem Ton": Herr und Knecht 4 (VI, 388). "Man 
 hort ein Hollen-Gelachter, dazwischen den singenden 
 Wachter": Der Ring 103-4 (VI, 390). "Jeden Wan- 
 d'rer weis't der Spaher gleich zuriick mit lautem Schall, 
 .... umsonst erfleht sie Gnade, ihre Stimme ist zu
 
 194 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 schwach .... 1st das Grassliche geschehen .... ruft 
 sie wild .... so fluch' ich Dir" : Der Tod kennt den 
 Weg 37-8; 87-8; 93-4 (VI, 394). "Ihr .... fliistert 
 laut genug .... Da scholl's aus einem Munde" : Ein 
 Wald 82, 105 (VI, 397). "Und gleich erschallt ein 
 Klagelied": Zum Schiller- Jubilaum 19 (VI, 407). 
 "Horcht, wie's in .... immer vollern Accorden durch 
 das Reich erklingt" : An Seine Majestat Konig Wilhelm 
 I, etc., 141-2 (VI, 412). "Sie .... lacht gellend auf 
 und weint": Was ist das fur ein Frauenbild 6 (VI, 
 418). "spricht mit heller Stimme .... der Kranke 
 fliistert schaudernd": Der Bramine 11; 19 (VI, 434). 
 "flustert halb mit Thranen": Lustig tritt, etc., 49 
 (VI, 437). "Und des Kaisers Bruder flustert": Ein 
 Griechischer Kaiser 39 (VI, 439). "ohne bange 
 Klagen": Zum Licht 12 (VII, 3). "seufz't mit leiser 
 Stimme": Laura 7 (VII, 19). "Wie Laura, sprachlos, 
 Worte des Abschieds seufz't": Die Nacht 15-6 (VII, 
 26). "Seufz'te still, doch tief": Elegie 6 (VII, 22). 
 "Und alle preisen .... mit lautem Gesang": Lied der 
 Geister 9-10 (VII, 63). "die Stimme hohl, die einst so 
 lieblich klang und voll": Rosa 23-4 (VII, 28). "Und 
 .... ein Engel schwebt herab .... und weint in seiner 
 Harf e Ton" : Rosa 59-62. "lispelt .... mit melodischer 
 Stimm'": Liebe 17-8 (VII, 36). "suss, wie Wiegen- 
 lieder, die dem Saugling seine Mutter singt": An 
 einen Verkannten 13-4 (VII, 40). "Das keucht die 
 Jungfrau dumpf und hohl": Der Tanz 24 (VII, 72). 
 "Entquoll auch schon und milde ein Klang der stummen 
 Brust!": Wiirde des Volks 15-6 (VII, 75). "Da betet 
 laut der Knabe": Die Weihnachtsgabe 9 (VII, 78). 
 "schrie doch, wie im Wahnsinns-Traum" : Ein Bild vom 
 Mittelalter 35 (VII, 79). "Der Herzog ruft's .... 
 und spricht mit dumpfer Stimme": Des Konigs Jagd
 
 SOUNDS 195 
 
 33-5 (VII, 85). "sang ein Lied, voll Lust und Wonne": 
 Ritter Fortunat 2 (VII, 88). "so ruft mit starker 
 Stimme der tapf're Isebrant": Die Schlacht bei Hem- 
 mingstedt 75 (VII, 90). "Unheimliches Gewimmer 
 dringt aus der Sarge Chor": Der alten Cotter Abend- 
 mahl 27 (VII, 132). "Und ich rief aus mit Grau'n 
 und Schmerz": Wiedersehen 48 (VII, 134). "Da kroch 
 mirglatt in's Ohr ein frech Gefluster": Traum 68 (VII, 
 166). "die Stimme .... die mir im Tiefsten wieder- 
 hallt": Zum letzten Mai 5-6 (VII, 147). 
 
 (b) (Vocal demonstration without qualifying parti- 
 cle.) "Liebe! singt der Knabe," etc.: Ein nachtliches 
 Echo 5-6 (see this entire poem, VI, 150). "Jener ballt 
 die Hand, verrochelnd" : Vater unser 45 (VI, 169). "den 
 Zauberspruch murmelnd": Die Spanierin 54-5 (VI, 
 176). "Man jubelt iiberall": Die heilige Drei 116 (VI, 
 181). "Die dunklen Worte, die vorher erklangen, .... 
 Da jauchzte ich," etc. : Ein f riihes Liebesleben 27 ; 40 
 (VI, 199). "ich schaudre, jauchze oder weine": Auf 
 eine Unbekannte, 23 (VI, 206). "Wenn du jetzt vor 
 Sehnsucht weinst" : Auf ein altes Madchen 3 (VI, 207). 
 "statt zu jauchzen," etc. : Stanzen auf ein Sicilianisches 
 Schwesterpaar 24 (VI, 215). "So hatte er bei Austerlitz 
 gebriillt!": Ein Spatziergang in Paris 87 (VI, 241). 
 "Dazwischen viel Gesang, Gejauchz, Gequiek" : Ein 
 Spatziergang in Paris 64. "Sie schieden mit Getummel" : 
 Geburtsnacht-Traum 50 (VI, 255). "Beten hore ich und 
 singen": Das Venerabile, etc., 20 (VI, 286). "Dann 
 soil der Freiheit mein Paan erschallen": Mein Paan 
 12 (VI, 316). "durch dein frommstes Singen": An 
 ein schones Kind 13 (VI, 321). "Der Jiingling aber 
 flucht und schnaubt": Herr und Knecht 17 (VI, 388). 
 "Der Sterbende blickt iiber sich und murmelt noch" : 
 Herr und Knecht 52-3. "Mich stort der Wachter mit
 
 196 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Singen!": Der Ring 20 (VI, 390). "Auf dem Thurme 
 steht ein Wachter, dessen Stimme weit erklingt": Der 
 Tod kennt den Weg 33-4 (VI, 394). "Das ganze 
 Deutschland jauchzt Euch zu": An Seine Majestat 
 Konig Wilhelm I, etc., 138 (VI, 412). "da er- 
 scholl ein Jubelschrei" : Diocletian 33 (VI, 429). 
 "Jauchzt und tanzt": Ein Griechischer Kaiser 36 (VI, 
 439). "fleh' zu Gott dem Herrn .... drum ist ihr 
 Fleh'n erhoret": Laura 26; 53 (VII, 19). "Und kla- 
 gend liess man uns ein": Er und ich 18 (VII, 24). 
 "Und hebt ihre Noth zu klagen an": Der Zauberer 6 
 (VII, 51). "Wo tonet kein Jubel, kein Weh und kein 
 Ach!": Lied der Geister 40 (VII, 63). "Da wimmert 
 und achzet das Madchen sehr": Die Kindesmorderin 25 
 (VII, 68). "murmelt tausend Fluche": Des Konigs 
 Jagd53 (VII, 85), etc. 
 
 Animals 
 
 (a) Birds. Of the vocal sound emitted by animals, 
 Hebbel makes most frequent mention of the songs and 
 calls of the birds. Without exhibiting the close obser- 
 vation of the bird lover, Hebbel yet plainly reveals an 
 affectionate interest in the music of these winged singers. 
 He loved the birds for their own sakes, and he loved them 
 as a part of the all-embracing life of nature. Song of 
 bird, the light that shone from the sun and from human 
 faces impressed him as inextricable parts of the world- 
 life. 88 These sacred creatures with their power of flight 
 
 88 " Und als ich weiter ging, und fern und nah' 
 Das frische Leben sich entbinden sah, 
 Im Lied der Vogel, in der Sonne Licht, 
 Und in der Menschen frohem Angesicht," etc. 
 
 Ein Spatsiergang in Paris, 7-10 (VI, 241) 
 Cf. the Epigram "Als ich einen todten Vogel fand," VI, 377.
 
 SOUNDS 197 
 
 and their gift of song are especially adapted to lure 
 men's thoughts away from the earth and to enthrall the 
 very ears of the angels in heaven. The words put into 
 the lips of the pious Brahmin (VI, 434) may be fairly 
 taken as typical of Hebbel's sympathy with animal life; 
 and particularly impressive is the reverence there pro- 
 claimed for birds: 
 
 " Ruhr' mir nimmer an den Vogel, 
 
 Flugel wurden ihm gegeben, 
 Um mit seinem siissen Liede 
 
 Erd' und Himmel zu verweben, 
 Droben lauscht der Engel nieder, 
 
 Unten horcht mit freud'gem Beben 
 Ihm des Kindes trunk'ne Seele, 
 
 Heilig ist mir solch ein Leben!" 
 
 Der Bramine, 33-40 (VI, 434) 
 
 This passage, from the poem written during what 
 proved to be Hebbel's last illness, must remove all sus- 
 picion that the repeated allusions to the birds, to their 
 cries of contentment or alarm, are merely conventional. 
 
 Hebbel generally mentions the bird by name; further 
 than this he rarely particularizes, for over-minute obser- 
 vation here was not the poet's aim. In a few instances 
 he does note particular details, he watches with intent 
 sympathy the ecstasies or distresses of some little song- 
 ster. Then we have a realistic glimpse of bird-ways 
 such as make a morning's walk in the fields an experience 
 rich in lively images and delightful reflections. 39 
 
 As descriptive feature the music of the birds lends the 
 note indispensable to bright peaceful landscape, or typi- 
 fies by its quality the mood and spirit of the time and the 
 
 39 Meisengliick (VI, 284); Die Lerche (VI, 309). See 
 also Schwalbe und Fliege (VI, 328).
 
 198 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 season. 40 The birds herald by their cries and signs of 
 distress the impending storm. 41 
 
 As Stimmungsmittel the birds' notes harmonize and 
 contrast with the mood portrayed. In the monody en- 
 titled Romanze, a solitary bird wails in sympathy with 
 the lone maiden: 
 
 " Sitzt auf dem Zweige 
 
 Ein Vogelein, 
 
 Singt Klagelieder 
 
 So ganz allein. 
 
 Und leise wimmert, wie Todtensang, 
 Ihr trauriges Lied den Wald entlang." 
 
 " Was singst du, Voglein, 
 Den Trauersang?" 
 
 Romanze, 10-5; 37-8 (VII, 26) 
 
 The nightingale's tones lull the poet into a dream in 
 which he forgets for a brief spell the cares of his earthly 
 existence. 42 
 
 But the birds are not always friendly to man. Their 
 presence is sometimes ominous of evil. They may even 
 become accomplices of crime in the poet's morbid fancy. 
 They are made to act in collusion with the powers of 
 darkness and by their singing to lure the listener to his 
 
 40 Kind am Brunnen 3-4 (VI, 180); Ein Wald 25-32 
 (VI, 397); Friihlingslied 12-4 (VI, 154); Ein Kind 3, 25-8 
 (VII, 74) ; Auf eine Sangerin 1-4 (VI, 382). 
 
 41 Ein Dithmarsischer Bauer 53-6 (VI, 160). 
 
 42 " Ich legte mich unter den Lindenbaum, 
 
 In dem die Nachtigall schlug, 
 
 Sie sang mich in den siissesten Traum, 
 
 Der wahrte auch lange genug." 
 
 Voriiber, 1-4 (VI, 417)
 
 SOUNDS 199 
 
 destruction. 43 The hoarse croaking of the raven affords 
 the traditionally appropriate accompaniment for grue- 
 some and ghastly deeds. 44 
 
 The birds may serve merely as a technical device. 
 Thus in Haideknabe (VI, 166), with its description of 
 cold-blooded murder, the enumeration of revolting de- 
 tails is cleverly avoided by the introduction of chattering 
 raven and moaning dove : 45 
 
 " Und f ragt ihr, wie's weiter gekommen sei ? 
 So fragt zwei Vogel, sie sassen dabei, 
 Der Rabe verweilte gar heiter, 
 Die Taube konnte nicht weiter ! 
 
 Der Rabe erzahlt, was der Bose noch that, 
 Und auch, wie's der Henker gerochen hat, 
 
 Die Taube erzahlt, wie der Knabe 
 
 Geweint und gebetet habe." 
 
 Der Haideknabe, 73-80 (VI, 166) 
 
 43 " Horche nicht dem bunten Vogel 
 Der zu Dir herunter flotet, 
 Denn ihn schickt die bose Hexe, 
 Die durch ihre Kiisse todtet. 
 
 Doch, er bleibt, wie trunken, stehen, 
 Und der Vogel schwingt sich nieder, 
 Und er hiipft ihm auf die Achsel 
 Und beginnt noch stiss're Lieder." 
 
 Der Zauberhain, 17-24 (VI, 387) 
 
 " Du wiiste Eul' im Eibenbaum, 
 Du krachztest ihn in diesen Traum, 
 Nun fangt die ham'sche Dohle an," 
 
 's ist Mitternacht, 27-9 (VI, 174) 
 
 44Wohin so flink 46 (VI, 441); Wiedersehen 46 (VII, 
 134). Cf. also Waldbilder 61-4 (VI, 223). 
 
 45 To a very limited extent the noises of insects are intro- 
 duced similarly to the sounds of the birds. The insect noises 
 enter perceptibly into the fabric of the song as aids in suggesting 
 the peculiar temper and tone of a scene, e.g. "das Summen eines 
 Kafers" : Waldbilder 133-4 (VI, 223) : "Durch Bienen eingesurrt 
 und and' re Summer": An ein schones Kind 6 (VI, 321), etc.
 
 200 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 (b) Dog, horse, miscellaneous. Although the num- 
 ber of animals of various sorts that enter into Hebbel's 
 songs is considerable, yet comparatively little reference 
 is made to their vocal demonstrations. The limited voice 
 equipment of the animals outside of the birds undoubt- 
 edly in part accounts for this. Accordingly the dog's 
 yelps and barks alone occur with any noticeable fre- 
 quency, the dog being among vocally demonstrative ani- 
 mals that one which is most likely to have played some 
 part in the poet's impressions and experiences. The 
 horse an animal for which Hebbel gives evidence of 
 cherishing a deep fondness occasionally contributes the 
 thunder and beat of his hoofs to the array of sensuous 
 effects in the songs ; barely two instances occur of sound 
 issuing from the horse's vocal organs. As for the other 
 animals the references to their characteristic sounds are 
 practically negligible. 48 We include the few scattering 
 instances merely in order that our list of animal sounds 
 may be complete : 
 
 Dog. "Bellt der erste kleine Hund": Der Kirschen- 
 strauss 42 (VI, 401). "Bellte er (i.e. der Hund) mit 
 heller Stimme," etc.: Schau' ich in die tiefste Feme 27 
 (VI, 408). "Und er hort den kleinen Hund" : Das Wie- 
 dersehen 31 (VII, 109). "Die Dogge klafft": Des 
 Konigs Jagd 1 (VII, 85). "Doch, wie der alte Hund 
 auch bellt": Nemesis 7 (VII, 192). "Und freut sich, 
 dass er nicht bellen kann": Hexen-Ritt 13 (VII, 139). 
 Cf. Des Konigs Tod, 14 (VII, 123). 
 
 Horse. "Mit krausen Nustern priift das Ross die 
 Luf t, dann wiehert's muthig" : Zu Pf erd ! Zu Pferd ! 6-7 
 
 46 Cf. Hebbel's Nibelungen, Part II, Siegfrieds Tod, Act 
 II, Scene 1, Is. 964-5 (IV, 62) : "Da lass' ich gleich zur Stunde 
 alles schlagen, was brummt und brullt und blokt und grunzt im 
 Hof."
 
 SOUNDS 201 
 
 (VI, 149). "Es schnaubt das Ross": Des Konigs Tod 
 14 (VII, 123). 
 
 Miscellaneous. "Rascheln hor' ich schon die 
 Schlange": Der Bramine 74 (VI, 434). "Wo die Tod- 
 tenwiirmer pochen": Ein Griechischer Kaiser 47 (VI, 
 439). 
 
 Musical Instruments 
 
 " Wenn deine Wunderklange 
 
 Den Saiten rasch entflieh'n 
 Und rauschend im Gedrange 
 
 An mir voriiberzieh'n : 
 Da wird's in Herzenstiefen 
 
 So wohl mir und so bang, 
 Als ob da drinnen schliefen 
 
 Viel Briider zu jedem Klang." 
 
 Auf eine Violine, 1-8 (VII, 120) 47 
 
 These lines evince a love and an appreciation of 
 music a love native and intense; an appreciation ele- 
 mental yet complex. To him who comprehends music as 
 the most immediate expression of the soul's moods and 
 emotions, all nature becomes one mighty orchestra in 
 which every sound, great or small, plays its instrumental 
 part. Every tone carries its message to the heart, which 
 trembles in sweet response, as though touched by invis- 
 ible fingers. 
 
 Bells, Hebbel seemed particularly susceptible to the 
 charm of musical sounds when held fast in the spell that 
 evening and falling night cast over him. And especially 
 powerful were the sounds of bells in stirring his soul 
 with memories and reflections. When the low notes of 
 
 47 "When a series of tones is effectual in stimulating 
 human passions .... it suggests a living soul behind, partly re- 
 vealed and partly mysterious, with which we enter into a kind of 
 sympathy." Bain, The Emotions and the Will, pp. 236-7.
 
 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 tolling bells floated through the air from the distance, 
 mingling with the wistful lights of autumn and the 
 witching impressions of evening, then there crept over 
 his soul that twilight mood that seemed his most con- 
 genial element: 
 
 " Wenn ich Abends einsam gehe 
 Und die Blatter fallen sehe, 
 Finsternisse nieder wallen, 
 Ferae, f romme Glocken hallen : 
 
 Ach, wie viele sanfte Bilder, 
 Immer inniger und milder, 
 Schatten langst vergangner Zeiten, 
 Seh' ich dann voriiber gleiten. 
 
 Was ich in den fernsten Stunden 
 Oft nur halb bewuszt, empfunden, 
 Dammert auf in Seel' und Sinnen, 
 Mich noch einmal zu umspinnen." 
 
 Spatsiergang am Herbstabend, 1-12 (VI, 231) 
 Cf. Heimkehr (VII, 155) 
 
 Generally sombre are the moods awakened in Hebbel's 
 breast by the tolling of bells. They seemed to stir pre- 
 vailingly serious associations and to be best suited to his 
 darker musings. 48 So the peals that strike our ears 
 most frequently in the poems are the ominous strokes of 
 the steeple clock at the mysterious hour of midnight; 49 
 or the dismal tolling that accompanies solemn religious 
 
 48 ". . . . die Glocke sanft-klagend erschallt" : Der erste 
 und der letzte Kuss 21 (VII, 241). "Wird zum Weltgericht die 
 Glocke tonen" : An einen Verkannten 18 (VII, 40). 'ein Noth- 
 gelaute hallt schon dumpf von manchem Thurm" : Vater unser 
 3-4 (VI, 169). Also Heimkehr 3-5 (VII, 155). 
 
 49 "Der Glockenthurm thut eben die zwolfte Stunde kund": 
 Die Polen sollen leben 29-30 (VI, 170). "Eben schlagt die 
 zwolfte Stunde": Die Spanierin 29 (VI, 176). "Vom Thurme 
 schlug es, dumpf und bang": Geburtsnacht-Traum 49 (VI, 255).
 
 SOUNDS 203 
 
 ceremonies. 50 The peaceful Sabbath or evening bell, the 
 peals that summon to joyous festivities are not so 
 common. 51 This consistent introduction of bell notes 
 under essentially similar conditions of scene or senti- 
 ment does not convey the slightest impression of techni- 
 cal mannerism. The impression is distinctly that of 
 spontaneous association rooted in genuine experiences, 
 "seelische Vorgange," which are of the very bone and 
 fibre of the poet's own temperament. 
 
 Other Musical Instruments. It is in the introduction 
 of musical sounds other than those of the bells that 
 the unsympathetic reader might detect some reasonable 
 ground for the charge of theatricism. We can readily 
 imagine the cold critic asserting with academic gravity 
 that the trumpet, the hunting horn, the harp, the violin 
 are not always so successfully employed, that their struc- 
 tural quality is not altogether convincing. The fact that 
 descriptive orchestral music has become a recognized 
 adjunct of theatrical productions accounts in large degree 
 for this impression. With the analog of modern "stage 
 music" in mind, readers of Hebbel with over-keen audi- 
 tory nerves might detect "deliberate design" in the 
 sounds of the horns, although they might see no "un- 
 pleasant monotony" in the prevailingly sombre tones of 
 the bell. And confessedly, there is that about the trum- 
 pets' suddenly breaking the silence that suggests cold 
 calculation, something that calls up the mechanical 
 manipulation of similar orchestral effects on the modern 
 stage. The flourish of trumpets that announces the ar- 
 rival of the imperial heralds in Die heilige Drei is in 
 
 5 Auf dem Kirchhof 3-7 (VII, 146); Traum 14-7 (VII, 
 166) ; Der heilige Johannes 58, 88 (VII, 210). 
 
 51 Bubensonntag 3-4 (VI, 198) ; Spatziergang am Herbst- 
 abend 4 (VI, 231); Gretchen 13 (VII, 95) ; Wenn die Luft- 
 ballone steigen 16 (VII, 203).
 
 204 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 essentials little different from the orchestral explosions 
 that herald the entrance of the modern comic opera 
 queen : 
 
 " Es schlagt die letzte Stunde ! 
 
 Da tont Trompetenschall, 
 
 Das schmettert in die Runde, 
 
 Man jubelt uberall. 
 
 Mit Fahnen, schwarz-gold-rothen, 
 Kommt dann ein Zug sogleich, 
 Aus Frankfurt sind's die Boten 
 Vom heil'gen rom'schen Reich." 
 
 Die heilige Drei, 113-120 (VI, 181 ) 52 
 
 Yet even in a passage like this, where, if anywhere, the 
 critic's objections are valid, much may be said in exten- 
 uation. There can be no valid objection on general prin- 
 ciples to the use of such musical sounds. That use is 
 perfectly legitimate, and, kept within proper bounds, 
 could never provoke unfavorable comment. Any odious 
 associations owe their origin largely, if not entirely, to 
 the abuse of orchestral music as a modern stage adjunct, 
 the overdoing of that which, done with judicious modera- 
 tion, could not fail to raise the standard of artistic effect. 
 We claim for Hebbel unconditionally this judicious 
 moderation. As employed by him the harp and the 
 trumpet are natural helps toward a reasonable realism; 
 he should not be held accountable if later extravagance 
 has degraded honorable artifice into threadbare theatri- 
 cism. 53 The musical fanfaronade at the imperial re- 
 
 w Cf. also : Ein Wald 59 (VI, 397) ; Noch ist Polen nicht 
 verloren 47, 97-8 (VII, 216) ; Traum 16, 56-7, 61, 72-3 (VII, 166) ; 
 Hamburg 17-8 (VII, 222). 
 
 68 The principle of poetic tempering operates here. "Con- 
 templation of objects in the idea" the method of poetry results 
 in gain as well as loss, as compared with real contact with ob- 
 jects. If sensuous facts become through ideation less real, they 
 become also less gross; and that which is harsh in reality may 
 appear less so in thought.
 
 SOUNDS 205 
 
 cruiting quarters, the discordant din of rival playhouse 
 bands contending for patronage, the flutes and fiddles of 
 the village fair, the merry jigs and the stirring martial 
 strains are all saved from "staginess" by their realistic 
 truth; they all enter vitally into lively or spectacular 
 scenes that seem unthinkable without such musical ac- 
 companiment. 54 The hunter's horn acts like a charm 
 upon us, we are ourselves swept along with the chase, 
 we share in its fascinating perils. 55 Like Wagner's be- 
 witching themes in emotive value are the "Waldhorn- 
 Klange aus dem Jager-Hauschen," which fill the mind of 
 the lover with jealous imaginings; or the clarion call of 
 the mail coach that startles the poet out of his revery 
 as he watches the storm clouds plunging through the 
 night. 56 
 
 In this connection might be mentioned sounds pro- 
 duced by instruments not of a musical character ; instru- 
 ments employed for a variety of purposes. Chief among 
 
 s* Husaren-Werbung 3-4, 11, 75-6 (VI, 191); Kin Spat- 
 ziergang in Paris 62-3 (VI, 241); Die Kirmess 1 (VI, 278); 
 Aus dem Wienner Prater 1 (VI, 423) ; Die Schlacht bei Hem- 
 mingstedt 7, 31-2 (VII, 90); Wiedersehen 19 (VII, 134); 
 Schlachtlied 19 (VII, 136). 
 
 55 " Und draussen schallt ein lustig Horn, 
 
 Es schnaubt das Ross, die Dogge klafft, 
 Und frisch hinaus durch Strauch und Dorn 
 Sprengt Alt und Jung in voller Kraft." 
 
 Des Konigs Tod, 13-6 (VII, 123) 
 
 " Das Hifthorn schallt, 
 Nun in den Wald !" etc. 
 
 Herr und Knecht, 7-8 (VI, 388) 
 
 56 " Nun lausch' ich hinaus in die Nacht. 
 
 Am Himmel fliegen die Wolken 
 Voruber in eiligem Lauf ; 
 Ein Posthorn, lockend und drangend, 
 Schallt plotzlich zu mir herauf." 
 
 Wohin? 4-8 (VII, 151) 
 Cf. also: Das Kind 5-7 (VII, 74).
 
 206 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 such sounds are the booming of cannon and the rattle 
 of musketry, of which there are ten instances. In 
 marked contrast with these martial sounds are the noises 
 of hammer and saw, the rhythmic whir of the sickle, the 
 busy clatter of the flail. 57 Some of these last-mentioned 
 cases of sound employment are among the very best illus- 
 trations of Hebbel's instinctive preference for sensuous 
 media of expression. We have justified Hebbel's use 
 of musical sounds on the plea of realism ; we see in them 
 examples of the inevitable selection of vital details. In 
 examples such as the following, the realism is less pre- 
 vailing than the sense displayed of the suggestive quality 
 of certain sounds and their power through association 
 to induce mental states markedly affective: 
 
 "Da schmettert's den Einen darnieder": Die treuen 
 Bruder 4 (VI, 187). "Knall auf Knall, und jeder 
 Knall ein Mann!": Schlachtlied 3-4 (VII, 136). "Da 
 horten wir es klopf en, man hammerte einen Sarg" : Er 
 und ich 15-6 (VII, 24). "Dumpf werden nun die Nagel 
 eingeschlagen" : Kinderloos 17 (VII, 162). 
 
 57 Cannon, etc. "Dann greift er, . . . . zur Biichse, die 
 noch nicht knallte": Die treuen Bruder 13-4 (VI, 187). "schon 
 hor' ich den Nothschuss" : Das Haus am Meer 59 (VI, 270). 
 "Was donnern die Kanonen," etc. : Die Schlacht bei Hemming- 
 stedt 5-6 (VII, 90). "Und hor' doch dass die Schanze stets ihre 
 Kugeln speit?" etc.: Die Schlacht bei Hemmingstedt 66. "Und 
 jauchzenden Kanonendonner hallen" : Traum 17 (VII, 166). 
 "es fallt ein Schuss": Im Walde 27 (VII, 170). ". . . . aus 
 dem Neste scheucht der Knall," etc. : Ein Hasen-Schicksal 7-8 
 (VII, 195). ". . . . pufft .... knallt .... pfeift": Schlacht- 
 lied 17 (VII, 136). ". . . . als der Schlachtendonner schallte": 
 An seine Majestat Konig Wilhelm I, etc., 11 (VI, 412). See also 
 the allusion to clash of swords : "wo um mich die Schwerter 
 klingen" : Mein Paan 5 (VI, 316). 
 
 Hammer and saw. "Machtige Hammerschlage erdrohnen 
 schwer und voll ; Die Sagen knarren und zischen" : Das Haus am 
 Meer 6-8 (VI, 270). 
 
 The flail. "Er drischt sein Stroh noch weiter im lust'gen Klipp 
 und Klapp": Das Korn auf dem Dache 35-6 (VI, 190).
 
 SOUNDS 207 
 
 Sounds from Miscellaneous Sources 
 
 It would be difficult to devise a basis of classification 
 that will divide material of such bulk as Hebbel's sound 
 terms into mutually exclusive groups. Our analysis can 
 not avoid a certain overlapping of the various divisions 
 and a residue of odds and ends, sounds of various kinds 
 and miscellaneous sources, which are either distinct from 
 any of the foregoing groups or cannot be brought under 
 any definite descriptive head. 
 
 We may glean from these odds and ends a few in- 
 stances of sounds that admit of rough classification 
 under subheads by virtue of a certain external kinship. 
 For example, eleven passages have reference to knock- 
 ing at the door, tapping on the window, or to jarring, 
 creaking, grating door or gate. 58 
 
 Eight passages refer to the thumping of the heart 
 against its walls, or the throbbing of the temples. 59 Four 
 
 58 "Es krachen Thiir und Thor" : Liebeszauber 29-30 (VI, 
 156). "Ja, schon knarrt die Thur" : Liebeszauber 41. "Ja, sie 
 pocht" : Liebeszauber 70. "Fiel die Kirchenthiir nun knarrend 
 hinter meinem Riicken zu": Bubensonntag 17-8 (VI, 198). 
 "Da pocht es auf's Neue" : Der Ring 51 (VI, 390). "Da er- 
 schallt ein starkes Drohnen ! Ja, man pocht am Thor mit Kraft," 
 etc.: Der Tod kennt den Weg 65-6 (VI, 394). "Wenn die 
 Bursche nachtlich pochen" : Wenn die Rosen, etc., 4 (VI, 437). 
 "Horch', da klopft es leise, leise" : Lustig tritt, etc., 41 (VI, 
 437). "Wir pochten dumpf an die Pforten" : Er und ich 17 
 (VII, 24). "Da hort' ich's rasseln, horch' ! und das graue 
 Thor sprang knarrend offen" : Der Kirchhof 21-2 (VII, 100). 
 "Das Grabgewolbe klaffte auf, es achzte die P forte" : Traum 
 54 (VII, 166). "Wird schon von aussen ans Fenster getickt": 
 Der Ring 46 (VI, 390). "Klopft ans Fenster": Hexen-Ritt 16 
 (VII, 139). 
 
 59 "Dein Herz muss klopfen" : Liebeszauber 61 (VI, 156). 
 ". . . . dass ihm die Rippen knacken": Husaren-Werbung 72 (VI, 
 191). "Die zarten Schlafen pochten": Ein fruhes Liebesleben 
 62 (VI, 199). "Und mag darob auch mancher Busen pochen": 
 Stanzen auf ein Sicilianisches Schwesterpaar 35 (VI, 215). 
 "Der Wein, der jetzt in f remden Adern pocht" : Epilog zu Timon 
 von Athen 17 (VI, 432). "Sichtbar klopfen ihr die Rippen":
 
 208 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 describe the noise of footsteps, or the beat of horses' 
 hoofs. 60 Four others are allusions to the clinking of the 
 wine glass or the seething of the beverage in the glass. 61 
 As for the rest, no common feature binds them together. 
 For the sake of completeness we incorporate the isolated 
 instances exhibiting heterogeneous sounds. These em- 
 brace several varieties. There are first of all a 
 number of commonplace sounds such as the chink of 
 coins, the crack of the whip, the snapping of wheel and 
 axle, the rustling of a flag. 62 Then come sounds of a 
 mysterious nature, supernatural tones and noises. 63 
 Lastly we have sounds of the finer fibre, vibrations too 
 subtle for sense, "which the inner ear alone receives." 
 Of such are the following: "Heilige Fiille .... sauselt 
 aus ewiger Feme daher": Die Weihe der Nacht 2-4 
 
 Der Bramine 45 (VI, 434). ". . . . in meines Herzens Klopfen" : 
 Das Abendmahl des Herrn 27 (VII, 122). Also An ein junges 
 Madchen 5 (VII, 187). Cf. also: ". . . . dumpf vor dem 
 Drachen die Rippen der Erde schon krachen" : Der heilige 
 Johannes 35-6 (VII, 210). "ob wild .... der Weltbau 
 kracht": Sangers Sterne 5 (VII, 238). 
 
 60 ". . . . schallen Rosseshufen" : Husaren-Werbung 62 
 (VI, 191). ". . . . ertonen Schritte" : Kindesmorderin 17 
 (VII, 68). "Da tont es fern, wie Mannerschritt und Hermann 
 naht mit leisem Tritt" : Rosa 45-6 (VII, 28). 
 
 61 "An stosst sie auf des Todten Wohl, wie klingt das 
 dumpf, wie klingt das hohl!": Hochzeit 29-30 (VII, 128). 
 "Ein wundersames Brausen in seinem Kelch entstand" : Der 
 Becher 11-2 (VII, 144). "Zwei Glaser wollen klingen, doch, 
 eh' noch Klang und Ton ganz ist und voll": Der Pocal 1-3 
 (VII, 178). "Sie werden zum Pocale, der aus sich selbst 
 ertont": Der Pocal 11-2 (VII, 178). 
 
 62 (Commonplace.) "Wenn ihr die Rader packt und ich 
 vor alien Dingen die Deichsel, bis sie knackt" : Ein Dithmarsischer 
 Bauer 102-4 (VI, 160). "knallt . . . . fiir euer Vaterland" : 
 An die Packknechte 12 (VII, 62). "Der Wirth, der zahlt die 
 Miinzen auf, die sind gar hell erklungen" : Husaren-Werbung 
 49-50 (VI, 191). "Schwingt die Fahne, dass sie rauscht" : Noch 
 ist Polen nicht verloren 46 (VII, 216). 
 
 83 (Mysterious.) "Drang ein Schall zu mir heriiber" : 
 Bubensonntag 33 (VI, 198). "Da scholl's, wie Geisterstimme" : 
 Memento vivere 9 (VI, 269).
 
 SOUNDS 209 
 
 (VI, 285). "Die Welt des Marchens, die aus alten 
 Tagen zu uns heriiberklingt" : Stanzen auf ein Siciliani- 
 sches Schwesterpaar 45-6 (VI, 215). ". . . . in der 
 Feme, zieh'n, gleich Engeln .... voile Klange und 
 Gesange": Das Kind 5-7 (VII, 74). ". . . . wenn des 
 Lebens Fulle nieder klingt in meine Ruh" : Dem Schmerz 
 sein Recht 92-3 (VI, 287). 
 
 Among these miscellaneous sounds there are addi- 
 tional illustrations of Hebbel's effectual use of the sensu- 
 ous. The allusions to creaking or jarring gate are fre- 
 quently very effective Stimmungsmittel. There is a dis- 
 tinct gain in graphic realism far beyond the capacity of 
 simple narrative or descriptive particle secured by em- 
 ployment of sound in the following passages: 
 
 " Da schwingt ihn der im Tanz herum, 
 Dass ihm die Rippen knacken." 
 
 Husaren-Werbung, 71-2 (VI, 191) 
 
 " Als dir in deinem letzten Tanz 
 Die zarten Schlafe pochten." 
 
 Ein friihes Liebesleben, 61-2 (VI, 199) 
 
 " Der Bauer aber fiihret den Kluvel (i.e. den Spring- 
 stock) in der Faust, 
 
 Mit dem er leicht und sicher die Graben iibersaus't." 
 Die Schlacht bei Hemmingstedt, 71-2 (VII, 90) 
 
 Finally, we have here further evidence of the dignity 
 with which the deliverances of sense are endowed by the 
 poet's transforming imagination. The sounds of the 
 outer world are nature's divine symbols. Through these, 
 in moments of exalted communion, the deep mysteries of 
 life haunt the poet's soul. 64 
 
 64 Ein Spatziergang in Paris 15-8 (VI, 241); Dem 
 Schmerz sein Recht 90-5 (VI, 287) ; Das abgeschiedene Kind, 
 etc., 30-1 (VI, 294).
 
 210 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 A suggestive summary of the matter before us may be 
 gained by comparing Hebbel's sounds with those of a 
 writer with whom he had certain affinities, E. T. A. 
 Hoffmann. 05 The relation of the two men as regards 
 their use of sound will be revealed in a general way by 
 a comparison of the predominant characteristics of their 
 works, the distinctive personality that pervades their 
 creations as a whole. Hoffmann's most representative 
 tales are those that move in the sphere of the super- 
 natural and the visionary, that introduce us to the society 
 of spooks and fairies. A prime cause of Hoffmann's 
 preoccupation with this spectral and fantastic world is 
 to be sought in the influence exerted by acoustic impres- 
 sions upon his inner and his outer life. His was an 
 excitable temperament. Wrapped up as he was in music, 
 he had the musician's emotional nature. Hence he ac- 
 centuated the emotional side of his characters, empha- 
 sizing especially particular forms of emotion such as 
 rapture, yearning, dread, anguish, horror. With this 
 emotionalism the range and intensity of his auditions is 
 closely allied. 66 
 
 Interwoven with this was the stimulating influence 
 exerted by sounds upon his conceptions. He regarded 
 musical and acoustic sensations as the expressional 
 medium of that phantom existence that his imagination 
 built up within him. Beside the sensitive poet's or the 
 romantic dreamer's ready surrender to the sensuous in 
 general, he had an extraordinary sensitiveness to sound 
 
 65 The prominence of sound elements in the mental life 
 and the poetic personality of E. T. A. Hoffmann is treated with 
 commendable thoroughness and analytic nicety by Dr. Carl 
 Schaeffer, Die Bedeutung des Musikalischen und Akustischen 
 in E. T. A. Hoffmanns literarischem Schaffen. Marburg, 1909. 
 We draw freely from his results in our comparison of Hoffmann 
 and Hebbel. 
 
 86 Schaeffer, pp. 224 ff.
 
 SOUNDS 211 
 
 qualities in particular. The myriad voices of nature filled 
 him with vague feelings of mystery, miracle and fore- 
 boding, they stimulated his imagination to body forth the 
 strange moods that overpowered him. 67 
 
 Thus wonder and yearning, the dreams and fancies 
 with which the sounds of nature filled Hoffmann go back 
 partly to the enchanting spell that music cast over him. 
 To the same source may be traced a characteristic ex- 
 hibited in another group of Hoffmann's tales in which 
 the chief characters are musicians, dreamers, persons that 
 live in a visionary realm of poetic fancy. ' Such a vision- 
 ary realm may become very realistic with highly impres- 
 sionable natures. For a man of Hoffmann's nervous 
 temperament, the phantom world of his imagination 
 becomes a real world in which a large part of the 
 mental life is passed. Such a person comes to regard 
 himself as a denizen of two distinct realms, as a double 
 personality. The consciousness of a double person- 
 ality considerably influenced Hoffmann's poetic concep- 
 tions, notably his Doppelgangermotiv. This Motiv was 
 employed by Romanticists before, and Hoffmann was 
 undoubtedly influenced by tradition here; yet we may 
 assume that music's powerful appeal and the phenomenal 
 mental reactions produced by acoustic impression had 
 considerable to do with this feature of his art. 68 
 
 Again, Hoffmann's singular conception of love (die 
 Liebe des Kiinstlers) as portrayed in certain of his tales, 
 was largely affected by his views and feelings as an in- 
 spired musician. An actual love affair lies at the basis of 
 this representative trait of Hoffmann's his infatuation 
 for Julia Marc. But Julia's impassioned singing mingled 
 with the inner and outer qualities of the girl and strongly 
 
 67 Schaeffer, p. 215. 
 
 68 Schaeffer, pp. 219-220.
 
 212 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 influenced the poet's idealization of her character in his 
 works. 69 
 
 Thus Hoffmann's mystic-romantic nature feeling, his 
 predilection for visionary and spectral scenes, his intense 
 realization of a duplicity in his psychic life, which he 
 crystallized into the figure of the Doppelgdnger, his fan- 
 tastic conception of love, his accentuation of the emo- 
 tions associated with the marvelous, the ominous, the 
 awful these dominant features of Hoffmann's art owe 
 their existence considerably to his musical temperament 
 and to the scope and depth of his acoustic impressions. 
 
 We have already adequately discussed the dominant 
 characteristics of Hebbel's poetic art and have empha- 
 sized the importance of external impressions in his 
 conceptional, emotional and creative activities. Hebbel's 
 nature feeling has this in common with Hoffmann's, that 
 the objective world serves as the portal of a super- 
 sensuous realm to which poetic imagination alone can 
 pass. To be sure, Hoffmann's world of phantoms is 
 fundamentally different from the exalted state of the 
 Idee that Hebbel's vision divines. Hebbel by no means 
 scorns the supernatural element in poetry. He defends 
 it in theory and in practice. But his conception of the 
 supernatural is in keeping with his profound insight into 
 the soul life of man and with his theory of the austere 
 function of poetry. Often a genial or harrowing or 
 grotesque extravaganza is all that Hoffmann's art brings 
 before us. Hebbel's deeper insight, nobler motive and 
 fuller vision convey, when at their best, mysterious inti- 
 mations of a universal Wesen with which rebellious indi- 
 viduality must ultimately merge. The point of interest 
 for our purpose is that both authors are themselves 
 
 Schaeffer, p. 221.
 
 SOUNDS 213 
 
 spirited away to a supersensuous world through the in- 
 fluence of sense impressions and that both seek to con- 
 cretize this other world through sensuous media. In 
 performing this function acoustic impressions assume 
 striking prominence with Hoffmann. With Hebbel, too, 
 musical and acoustic sensations are far from insignifi- 
 cant. His letter to Schumann, poems such as Auf eine 
 Violine, isolated utterances scattered through his letters 
 and diaries, attest the influence of music upon his emo- 
 tions. His characteristic mental habits and his ruling 
 poetic ideas, as evinced by his poems taken as a whole, 
 receive from auditory impressions definite impulse and 
 direction. Yet despite his sympathetic relations with the 
 world of sound, the impressions of this class do not 
 exert a preponderating influence upon his poetic visions. 
 Tones and sounds are not the chief avenue of escape 
 from the restrictions of mundane experience to the 
 higher consciousness of the Idee. They render him a 
 service similar to the one that they render Hoffmann; 
 they facilitate poetic illusion, they aid in the removal of 
 earthly barriers. Thus, considered in their broader 
 aspects, Hebbel's songs and Hoffmann's tales have a cer- 
 tain resemblance with respect to the element of sound. 
 This resemblance between the two men is offset by an 
 important difference; the astonishing preeminence en- 
 joyed by the acoustic in Hoffmann's sensations, as re- 
 vealed by the general characteristics of his tales, is not 
 duplicated in Hebbel's lyrics. That there should be dis- 
 agreement here follows naturally from the divergence in 
 the temperament, the poetic creed and the literary asso- 
 ciations of the two men. 
 
 The relation of the two men with respect to the use 
 of sound is revealed in a more striking manner if we go 
 down below general characteristics and compare in de-
 
 214 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 tail their allusions to sound impressions. The earlier 
 discussion in this chapter has demonstrated that Hebbel's 
 ear was highly sensitive, that he keenly relished the tonal 
 opulence of music and the complex acoustic resources of 
 nature, as well as the varieties in timbre, pitch and in- 
 tensity of the human voice. The passages already quoted 
 adequately show that such impressions powerfully stimu- 
 lated the poet's fancy and often contributed materially 
 to the setting, the symbolism and the Stimmung of his 
 songs. A detailed examination of Hoffmann's sound 
 allusions leads to the conclusion that this class of external 
 stimuli had for him an extraordinary power of appeal. 
 Minute analysis of his works shows that the range 
 and intensity of his acoustic impressions were such as 
 largely to determine the substance of his tales, the traits 
 of some of his typical characters, essential features of 
 his technic and distinctive qualities of his style and 
 diction. 
 
 Schaeffer bases his investigation of Hoffmann's sounds 
 upon the latter's complete works, even drawing to some 
 extent from his letters. This broad field of observation 
 could not fail to yield rich and varied material, espe- 
 cially considering Hoffmann's phenomenal response to 
 acoustic stimuli. Consequently Schaeffer's data admit 
 of most minute and elaborate classification. So detailed 
 a classification would be less expedient in an investiga- 
 tion embracing as ours does a field of less bulk and deal- 
 ing with a poet whose receptivity to auditory impressions 
 was not as extraordinary as was Hoffmann's. Certain 
 phases of the element under discussion, which assume 
 prominence in the case of Hoffmann, are negligible fac- 
 tors in Hebbel's lyric art. Personal experiences of a mu- 
 sical nature, such as inspired Hoffmann's creations wholly 
 or in part, have scarcely any parallels in Hebbel's songs.
 
 SOUNDS 215 
 
 Musical personalities, which figure prominently in Hoff- 
 mann's tales, occur but seldom in Hebbel. The list is 
 short of his poems in which musical characters or epi- 
 sodes constitute the chief concern. It is true there are 
 passages in the diaries that attest Hebbel's responsive- 
 ness to the beauty and the power of music, and there are 
 poems that furnish concrete evidence of music's stimu- 
 lating effect upon his emotion and his imagination. 
 Furthermore acoustic, if not specifically musical, phe- 
 nomena occasionally contribute the dominant element, 
 the decisive or controlling Moment in his lyrics. Ein 
 ndchtliches Echo (VI, 150), objectifies the mysterious 
 expectancy that summer's balm and the magic of night 
 awaken in a lover's breast ; and it is chiefly the sound of 
 his own voice re-echoed by the myrtle grove that excites 
 the lover's fancy and gives the distinctive quality to his 
 mood. Yet these are isolated instances. Hebbel's specific 
 sound allusions confirm the impression gathered from the 
 general aspects of his poems that musical and acoustic 
 impressions in and by themselves do not often supply 
 Hebbel with a poetic Erlebnis. 
 
 Notwithstanding this fundamental distinction, certain 
 stylistic resemblances are brought out by a comparison 
 of the specific sound passages in the poems and tales. 
 As might be supposed the two authors approach each 
 other most nearly in their use of sounds that are ad- 
 juncts incidental to composition rather than elements 
 essential to conception. When Hoffmann employs 
 acoustic impressions as relatively subordinate elements, 
 a comparison of his manner with that of Hebbel 
 becomes instructive. We do not always separate the 
 instances of musical and non-musical sounds in our illus- 
 trations, notwithstanding Schaeffer by reason of the 
 richer data at his command treats Hoffmann's musical
 
 216 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 and his acoustic elements in separate chapters. We may 
 perhaps be pardoned for combining the two species of 
 sound, since we purpose simply a resume of salient fea- 
 tures as a basis of general comparison. 
 
 Comparatively subordinate sounds assume importance 
 in poetry or prose when they are aids to characteriza- 
 tion. With both Hoffmann and Hebbel sounds serve to 
 mark or distinguish objects, scenes or events, particu- 
 larly when the distinctive spell, the prevailing Zustand, 
 of such things are to be accentuated. All nature sounds 
 render effective service in this capacity. The notes that 
 issue from mountain, forest or field, echoing hills or 
 silent groves, the humming of insects, singing of birds, 
 rustling of leaves, sighing of breezes and purling of 
 brooks are media constantly employed by both Hoffmann 
 and Hebbel to lend a definite stamp or character to things 
 or places. 70 
 
 It must be emphasized that Hebbel like Hoffmann is 
 fond of employing such sounds as introductory to com- 
 ing events. So employed, the sounds help to mark the 
 definite nature of the outer setting, which with Hebbel 
 often has an important bearing upon the emotion por- 
 trayed. Hebbel as we know repeatedly alludes in the 
 opening lines to the sound of wind, storm, waves, or to 
 the tolling of bells to help inaugurate the outer and inner 
 action depicted. 71 
 
 14-7 (VII, 166); Herbstbild 1-4 (VI, 232); 
 Heimkehr 1-2 (VII, 155) ; Der Haideknabe 21-3, 63-4 (VI, 241) ; 
 Ein Spatziergang in Paris 38 (VI, 241) ; Das Opfer des Friihlings 
 5 (VI, 217) ; Ein Wald 25-6 (VI, 397) ; Laura 9-10 (VII, 19) ; 
 Vater und Sohn 17-20 (VI, 427) ; Schiffers Abschied 21-2, 25-6 
 (VI, 148). 
 
 71 Vater unser (VI, 169) ; Die Schlacht bei Hemmingstedt 
 (VII, 90); Heimkehr (VII, 155); Der junge Schiffer (VI, 
 145) ; Der Ring (VII, 59) ; Kindesmorderin (VII, 68). Cf. Tgb. 
 I, 155.
 
 SOUNDS 217 
 
 As an adjunct of personal characterization, as a means 
 of identifying individuals, of specifying and accentuating 
 their dominant traits, their temperament, their momen- 
 tary mood or even their passing thoughts, Hoffmann 
 makes frequent use of musical or acoustic qualities. 
 Even when such qualities are not highly essential to the 
 matter they arrest our attention as prominent features 
 of Hoffmann's manner. Thus he seldom fails to char- 
 acterize newly introduced persons by the tone of their 
 voice, and strange or mysterious people are uniformly 
 represented with extraordinary voices. Seldom does he 
 fail to describe effectively the tone of voice in which his 
 characters express their feelings. 72 Similarly Hebbel 
 avails himself of acoustic properties as indices of per- 
 sonality, as concomitants of emotional states. We shall 
 have occasion to advert later on to his low-voiced maidens 
 whose temperament and mood are echoed in the tone 
 quality of their speech. Our extended examples have 
 shown how repeatedly by the aid of vocal sounds Hebbel 
 suggests the character or nature of his creatures and 
 objectifies the grade or intensity of their joys and 
 sorrows. 73 
 
 At times, Hebbel like Hoffmann, summons into our 
 presence creatures from the shadow-land of revery, 
 dream and fairydom. Weird seizures, premonitions and 
 vague, ominous fears belong to the experience of both 
 men. With Hoffmann such strange states often fol- 
 lowed in consequence of acoustic stimulation, and so 
 musical and other sounds naturally appear in his works 
 as concomitants of supernatural and fantastic phenom- 
 ena. In a restricted way we note the same feature in 
 Hebbel's songs. We have alluded to the part played by 
 
 72 Schaeffer, pp. 187 ff. 
 
 73 See above pp. 189 ff.
 
 218 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 such premonitory sounds in Hebbel's poems Kains 
 Klage 26-7 (VII, 10), and Das Kind 5-8 (VII, 74). 
 In several poems, such as Die Spanierin 29 (VI, 176), 
 Geburtsnacht-Traum 49 (VI, 255), Traum 14-7 (VII, 
 166), Der heilige Johannes 58-60 (VII, 210), Buben- 
 sonntag 33 ff. (VI, 198), tolling bells, sometimes along 
 with other musical tones or sounds of an unknown char- 
 acter, attend the visits of phantoms or accompany strange 
 promptings and hallucinations of mundane creatures. 
 
 We turn our attention to a few points of disagreement 
 revealed by a comparison of the sound allusions in the 
 poems and the tales. Hoffmann's sounds exhibit to a 
 marked degree the singular phenomenon synaesthesia. 
 This is especially noticeable in his portrayal of musical 
 characters in whose heights of emotion impressions of 
 all sorts convert themselves into music. The basis of 
 this idiosyncrasy is to be sought partly in Hoffmann's 
 temperament, although the general tendency has been 
 to consider it a mere Romantic conceit. In extreme 
 forms it results in the obliteration of the bounds of the 
 respective senses and in the partial impairment of normal 
 relations. 74 Hebbel nowhere shows any tendency toward 
 Doppelempfindung, audition coloree or the like. His 
 highly vigorous sensory responses reveal no abnormal 
 physical phases of this type. His lyrics contain numerous 
 passages in which there is subtle blending of sensory im- 
 pressions, but he does not bring confusion into nature's 
 division of functions. He never willfully diverts im- 
 pressions from their proper transmitting channel into one 
 not ordinarily concerned in the transmission. He was 
 perfectly sensitive to those aspects of nature that lull 
 
 74 Schaeffer, pp. 166 ff. ; also Ottokar Fischer, Die Ver- 
 bindung von Farbe und Klang, Zeitschrift fur Aesthetik, 1907, 
 pp. 501-34.
 
 SOUNDS 219 
 
 mortal into a delirium or trance. His songs reproduce 
 this state and the interfusion of feelings that result from 
 it. At such times the sharp demarcation of sense from 
 sense may well fade in the maze of impressions that 
 enchant the mind. Yet with Hebbel the effect is not 
 secured by Farbenhoren or Doppelempfindung, not by 
 converting red into trumpet tones or bird notes into 
 fragrant zephyrs. It is still the eye that receives color 
 stimuli and the ear that responds to impressions of sound. 
 
 In order to bring out another important distinction 
 between the two authors a moment's attention to Hoff- 
 mann's metaphors is necessary, although we have not 
 touched upon this phase of Hebbel's sounds. As might 
 be supposed, Hoffmann's metaphors that are based upon 
 acoustic phenomena are striking in number and variety. 
 In the metaphors taken from the sphere of specifically 
 musical sounds the musician Hoffmann exhibits decid- 
 edly unique features. Hebbel's musical vocabulary is 
 restricted to the metaphorical employment of such gen- 
 eral terms as Musik, Harmonic, Ton, Melodie, Akkord, 
 Gesang. His metaphors taken from music have as a rule 
 no extraordinary distinction. The reverse is true of 
 Hoffmann. His metaphorical vocabulary includes not 
 only the more common musical terms but a number of 
 others rarely included in an author's equipment. And so 
 we find in Hoffmann's works metaphors drawn from the 
 terminology of musical rhythm, harmony and counter- 
 point ; from the nomenclature for musical pitch or scale, 
 for the grades of tone intensity or volume; from the 
 names for various forms, movements, themes, etc., of 
 musical composition and for the different kinds of musi- 
 cal instruments. (Schaeffer, pp. 169 ff.) 
 
 The astonishing frequency of sound allusions in Hoff- 
 mann's works would strike even the uncritical reader.
 
 220 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Careful observation discloses the fact that Hoffmann's 
 disposition of acoustic impressions has striking analogies 
 with certain modes of order and arrangement peculiar to 
 musical composition. Thus we find passages in which 
 Hoffmann so disposes his sounds as to suggest various 
 degrees of intensity and thus produce the effect of cres- 
 cendo or of diminuendo. 75 Then again he introduces 
 sounds of various quality, as, for example, when different 
 states of emotion are accompanied by modulations of the 
 tone of voice. 76 Mental images produced by various 
 stages of an event or by a set of events are objectively 
 characterized by concomitant sounds of different types 
 and qualities, represented in relations of harmony or 
 contrast. When sounds abound throughout an entire 
 tale, they sometimes second or re-enforce or relieve one 
 another, like the voices in ensemble scenes of the older 
 operas. 77 Or when human voices combine with sounds 
 other than musical, perhaps with tones or noises in 
 nature, their disposition resembles the symphonic co- 
 ordination of the different instruments in orchestral 
 music. 78 Finally when distinctive and impressive sounds 
 recur as the persistent accompaniments of persons or as 
 concomitants of definite emotions and scenes throughout 
 an extended narrative, then we get an effect very similar 
 to operatic Motive. 79 
 
 The methods of musical composition exerted no per- 
 ceptible influence upon the structure of Hebbel's songs. 
 His disposition of acoustic qualities has no marked re- 
 semblance to the effects and devices found in music. 
 And the reasons for the technical divergence of the two 
 
 75 Schaeffer, pp. 193 ff. 
 
 76 Schaeffer, p. 195. 
 
 77 Schaeffer, pp. 196-8. 
 
 78 Schaeffer, pp. 198-200. 
 
 79 Schaeffer, pp. 200-5.
 
 SOUNDS 221 
 
 men here are obvious: Hoffmann's professional training 
 in music enabled him to utilize the resources of this art 
 for literary purposes wherever expedient. Hebbel was 
 primarily a dramatist by temperament. Consequently 
 dramatic rather than musical effects come to his aid as 
 a lyric poet, in so far as traditional lyric media receive 
 any exterior re-enforcement. 
 
 In Hebbel's diaries we do find now and then combi- 
 nations of acoustic qualities that present analogies to the 
 simpler forms of musical construction. 80 But in the 
 poems, properly enough, we observe only remote re- 
 semblances to methods associated with music. The grad- 
 uation of sounds introduced in the poem Schiffers 
 Abschied has already been mentioned. The graduation 
 is only roughly suggested, however, by successive allu- 
 sions to the whispering, whistling and roaring of the 
 wind. Furthermore, the sounds are not produced by one 
 and the same wind, steadily swelling from a whisper to a 
 roar. Hence the reproduction of gradually increased 
 intensity does not convey the effect of musical crescendo : 
 
 (a) ". . . . Wie dich sauselnd jener Ast," etc. 
 
 (b) "Wenn iiber's Meer der Sturm wind pfeift 
 
 Und an dem Mast mir riittelt," 
 
 (c) "Und muss mein Schiff vor seinem Braus 
 
 Gar an ein Felsriff prallen," 81 
 
 The sound passages in the lyrics that bear the nearest 
 resemblance to symphonic arrangement of acoustic ef- 
 fects are likewise far from elaborate. Furthermore the 
 
 so See pp. 170, 172-3 above; also Tgb. II, 2867, Is. 8-20. 
 81 Schiffers Abschied (VI, 148), Is. 17; 21-2; 25-6. Cf. 
 p. 173 above.
 
 222 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 impression sometimes made by such allusions is that of 
 sound contrasts, the various elements contend with one 
 another, instead of combining to produce one all- 
 embracing orchestral effect: 82 
 
 " Die Todtenglocken horte ich erschallen 
 Und in ihr dumpf Gelaut hinein in wilder 
 Vermischung der Trompeten Jubelklange 
 Und jauchzenden Kanonendonner hallen." 
 
 Traum, 14-7 (VII, 166) 
 
 " Was donnern die Kanonen, wo sonst nur Sensenklang, 
 Mit Sichelschall und Liedern vereint, die Luft durch- 
 
 drang ? 
 Was ist das fiir ein Pfeifen, was fur ein Trommel- 
 
 schall ? 
 Geh'n wohl zur lust'gen Hochzeit die stolzen Bauern 
 
 all'?" 
 
 Die Schlacht bei Hemmingstedt, 5-8 (VII, 90) 
 
 Hebbel often displays great skill in bringing before 
 our minds ideas of acoustic qualities that materially af- 
 fect our emotions and arouse our fancies. The sound 
 of a horn, the pealing of bells, the stroke of a clock, the 
 pounding of hammers, the noise of fruit falling to the 
 ground all these act at times like musical Motive. Their 
 effect is to create a mysterious medium of sympathy and 
 response, in which the distinctive mood of the song is 
 transmitted and the underlying message conveyed. But 
 as these Motive are in all cases most simple, so they ap- 
 pear everywhere to be unpremeditated. Even in longer 
 narrative poems like Liebeszauber (VI, 156), where 
 motivating sounds are not inconspicuous, there is no con- 
 scious resort to them as to a distinctly musical effect. 
 
 82 Cf. also quotation from Villa reale e Napoli, above, pp. 
 173-4; Das Haus am Meer, 6-15 (VI, 270).
 
 SOUNDS 223 
 
 In contrast with this, Hoffmann's manner has the appear- 
 ance of elaborate design. 83 
 
 In number, variety and disposition of acoustic qualities 
 no other poems of Hebbel's are more noteworthy than 
 Die Schlacht bei Hemmingstedt (VII, 90), and Das Haus 
 am Meer (VI, 270). But the sounds and noises repro- 
 duced in these poems observe a purely empirical arrange- 
 ment. Their co-ordination is that which a real battle or 
 storm would reveal. No effort is made to heighten their 
 effect by resort to any musical scheme of variation or 
 sequence. They constitute the dominant sensuous 
 medium. They are the most persistent concomitants of 
 the shifting action, of the heights and depths of emotion. 
 As parts of a realistic setting, they afford a natural ad- 
 junct of illusion. As elements of intrinsic emotional 
 value, they are effective means of arousing sympathetic 
 response. As part of the poetic symbol, they bring inti- 
 mations of the universal struggle underlying the momen- 
 tary experience, and thus through the imagination they 
 convey the profound message of a poetic idea. 84 
 
 "As the painter in his picture," says Pater, "so the 
 artist in his book aims at the production, by honorable 
 artifice, of a peculiar atmosphere." Now "atmosphere" 
 is the distinctive quality of Hebbel's poems. His lyrical 
 
 83 For example in Der Zusammenhang der Dinge, see 
 Schaeffer, pp. 202 ff. 
 
 84 Right here a comparison of our results with the statis- 
 tical investigations of the acoustic phenomena in Schiller's lyrics 
 would be of profit. We must again express regret that re- 
 searches such as that of Karl and Marie Groos (Die optischen 
 Qualitaten in der Lyrik Schillers, Zeitschrift fur Aesthetik, 
 1909, 559 ff.) had escaped our notice until our own "Studies" 
 were virtually finished. Our method had already become to a 
 certain extent set. We are compelled therefore to forego for 
 the immediate present such reclassification and renumeration as 
 would be necessary to make the results of our own and the 
 kindred investigations mutually illuminating.
 
 224 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 genius is eminent in the creation of a conscious medium 
 charged with subtle possibilities of emotion and sen- 
 sitized to instant sympathy with human experience. In 
 various ways is this medium evoked, now by barest state- 
 ment and simplest concrete enumeration; then again by 
 more elaborate symbolism, by a delicate and intricate 
 tracery of suggestion. This medium if we examine its 
 essence is but the divination through superior insight 
 of that inner affinity between man and nature of which 
 our baser faculties give us no hint. Such mediation 
 through "honorable artifice" of the interplay between the 
 inner and the outer world characterizes Hebbel's highest 
 poetic performance. 
 
 Preeminent among his concrete resources for achieving 
 this mediation are nature's lights and colors. These en- 
 joy precedence in point both of number and uniform 
 efficacy. But second only to lights and colors in the 
 power to impress, to suggest, to effect illusion and to 
 promote that receptive state in which poetic conceptions 
 most arouse and impress are the vibrant, sensuous sym- 
 bols of sound.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 SILENCE 
 
 An important feature of Hebbel's lyric poetry is its 
 preoccupation with the non-material and the spiritual, 
 with moods that do not ripen into action, with static as 
 opposed to dynamic experience. 1 Hebbel is akin to 
 Novalis and like him a spiritual voluptuary; he is akin 
 to Spinoza and like the great pantheist intoxicated with 
 the God-idea ; he is akin to Maeterlinck and like the Bel- 
 gian attuned to "the mysterious chant of the Infinite on 
 the horizon, the murmur of Eternity, the ominous silence 
 of the soul of God." And these are essentially poetic 
 themes, problems better suited to prophetic intuition and 
 poetic symbolism than to metaphysical analysis. 
 
 But the poet who makes the immaterial his chief con- 
 cern must command the most varied media. It is not 
 enough that he reflect the glories of light ; he must utilize 
 as well the suggestive possibilities of shadow and of 
 darkness. He must respond not only to "whistling wind 
 or a melodious noise of birds, or a pleasing fall of water 
 running violently" ; he must catch the note of those 
 silences and undemonstrative pauses so impressive in 
 nature and so often attended by the deepest spiritual 
 experiences. Just as sounds are potent elements of con- 
 scious impression, so silence may become a most eloquent 
 medium of conscious communication. 
 
 Compared with sound, the range and variety of ex- 
 pressions referring to silence in Hebbel's lyrics are quite 
 limited. Only a scant half dozen terms strictly expres- 
 
 !Tgb. 1,344; 575.
 
 226 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 sive of silence occur with any marked frequency; still, 
 stwnm, ruhig, schweigen and dumpf; and of these, still 
 is sometimes employed with little conscious reference to 
 the absence of sound. Technically we should exclude 
 from the count terms like sanft and leise, as expressing 
 some degree of sound, however slight. Yet sanft and 
 leise at times pass over into the demesne of still. 2 We 
 may very fitly include such a passage as the following in 
 our discussion of silence although a nice distinction 
 would undoubtedly relegate it to the category of sound : 
 "Es regte sich kein Hauch am heissen Tag, nur leise 
 strich ein weisser Schmetterling," Sommerbild, 5-6 (VI, 
 230). 
 
 Whereas Hebbel's sounds occur for the most part in 
 passages essentially narrative, his references to silence, 
 to complete suspension of sound, are decidedly more 
 frequent in description. Even when introduced into 
 narrative poems, silence tends to arrest action for the 
 time being and to lend brief predominance to the momen- 
 tary pose. The poem Situation, the fourth of the cycle 
 of Waldbilder (VI, 224), owes its effectiveness largely 
 to the pervading atmosphere of quiet. The place itself is 
 still, the noiseless movements of the actors are height- 
 ened by the single peal of laughter, which enhances the 
 silence ; we seem to witness a pantomime or the transi- 
 tions of a waking dream. Similarly in Auf eine Unbe- 
 kannte (VI, 206), the distinctive impression is stillness; 
 and though there is conversation, all seems muffled and 
 subdued, as if the medium of converse were spiritual and 
 inaudible the mere shadow of speech. 
 
 2 Silence ensues when there is no audible stimulus in the 
 environment, and only the inner entotic impressions due to the 
 nurture processes of the organ are perceptible. Yet practically 
 we have silence when an external stimulus is so faint as to be 
 barely perceptible over and above the entotic sensations.
 
 SILENCE 227 
 
 Almost any of the examples of silence employed by 
 Hebbel in personal descriptions illustrate the momentary 
 suspension of action in a picturesque and pregnant pause. 
 Or, if we cannot always say that the action stops, at 
 least our minds are diverted from it, our attention is 
 directed to the features or qualities of the actors, to their 
 momentary attitudes, rather than to their movements. 3 
 
 In the treatment of silence, as elsewhere, Hebbel makes 
 repeated use of the method of contrast. By way of illus- 
 tration, we may mention the following as among the 
 more effectual examples: 
 
 (a) The peace and quiet of home life, represented by 
 a typical domestic episode, is contrasted with the commo- 
 tion of the elements without: Nachtgefuhl, 7-8 (VI, 
 227). 
 
 (b) Outdoors the storm is hushed, while from 
 within the house come ominous, deafening sounds: Der 
 alten Cotter Abendmahl, 13-6 (VII, 132). Cf. Gott, 
 1-8; 9-16 (VII, 77). 
 
 (c) With the turmoil of the warring elements, the 
 deep silence of the earth's interior is drawn in contrast: 
 Horn und Flote, 1-9 (VI, 261). 
 
 (d) The roar of battle is compared with the grim 
 silence of the field before or after the fray : Schlachtlied, 
 17-24 (VII, 136). 
 
 (e) The noisy prattle of a group of persons is con- 
 trasted with the gloom of one silent figure: Der Ring, 
 9-10 (VI, 390) ; Die Polen sollen leben, 10-3 (VI, 170). 
 
 (f ) Loud shouting and singing gradually subside into 
 
 3Waldbilder 121-4 (VI, 221); Der Ring 14-5 (VII, 59); 
 Die Sicilianische Seiltanzerin 7-8 (VI, 337), etc. Cf. here 
 what Huneker says of gesture as the "arrest of the flux, render- 
 ing visible the phenomena of life, for it moderates its velocity" : 
 Iconoclasts, New York, 1905, pp. 9-10.
 
 228 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 ominous silence: Noch ist Polen nicht verloren, 131-3 
 (VII, 216). 
 
 (g) The all-pervading stillness is suddenly broken by 
 loud, penetrating sounds: Bubensonntag, 29-33 (VI, 
 198) ; Waldbilder, 1-21 (VI, 221). 
 
 A variation of this method of contrast is secured 
 through the device of an all-encircling hush touched by 
 sounds that seem rather to accent the silence. The pas- 
 sage from Sommerbild quoted above is a case in point. 
 The general stillness must be perfect indeed if the flutter 
 of the butterfly's wings becomes by contrast conspic- 
 uously audible. We have repeatedly in Hebbel's songs 
 the introduction of those stray and solitary sounds that 
 are so obscure as at times to leave unimpressed the in- 
 attentive ear. The drowsy hum of the beetle, we know, 
 strikes us in certain moods like the muffled sonority of 
 the sunlight. The call of an invisible bird, uttered at long 
 intervals, often floats into the silence like faint notes 
 from another world. Yet, when the mind is alert, these 
 and similar sounds do not so much merge with the silence 
 as they accentuate its intensity. 4 We comprehend more 
 fully the majestic silence of an autumn day when we are 
 unduly startled by the rustling fall of the ripened fruit: 
 "Ringsum Stille, durch das Summen eines Kafers kaum 
 gestort": Waldbilder, 133-4 (VI, 221); "Am Morgen 
 war's hier still und todt, kaum dass die Wachtel schlug" : 
 Schlachtlied, 21-2 (VII, 136); "Dies ist ein Herbstag 
 
 4 Herbert Spencer illustrates from Tennyson's "Mariana" 
 how solitude and stillness may be enhanced by sound : 
 
 " All day within the dreamy house, 
 The doors upon their hinges creaked ; 
 The blue fly sung in the pane; the mouse 
 Behind the mouldering wainscot shriek'd, 
 Or from the crevice peered about." 
 
 See Spencer's Philosophy of Style, p. 34.
 
 SILENCE 229 
 
 .... die Luft ist still, als athmete man kaum, und 
 dennoch fallen raschelnd, fern und nah', die schonsten 
 Friichte ab von jedem Baum" : Herbstbild, 1-4 (VI, 232). 
 
 What has been said of sound as a psychic reagent and 
 as Stimmungsmittel applies with equal force to silence. 
 A deathlike stillness, like an overpowering sound, stimu- 
 lates the imagination and awakens moods conducive to 
 reflection. Silence is the condition best adapted to cer- 
 tain phases of the soul life; it is a prerequisite for the 
 full and free exercise of certain spiritual functions. 
 
 In a number of beautiful thoughts Hebbel bears testi- 
 mony to this conception of silence. "Lieblich und stumm 
 geboren" is the epithet that he applies to some pro- 
 found thought continually haunting yet eluding him. 5 
 Life is not noisy activity alone; he who is altogether 
 submerged in the feverish press of existence has not 
 reached the heights. Rather are the moments of spir- 
 itual aloofness, of reflective solitude the summits of 
 human experience: "Nur am Morgen, wenn wir auf- 
 stehen, und am Abend, wenn wir zur Ruhe gehen, 
 schauen wir in den Himmel hinein, nicht am lauten, 
 gerauschvollen Tage." 6 
 
 Thus a divine quality attaches to silence. A holy tran- 
 quillity envelops the Godhead, like the serenity of death. 7 
 A God that speaks seemed to the young Hebbel unthink- 
 able. 8 Divine blessing itself descends inaudibly. Silence 
 is thus a heavenly gift, a divine quality, in which the 
 
 5 Wenn Du nicht reden willst 4 (VII, 236). 
 
 Tgb. I, 601. Cf. An Hedwig 33^6 (VI, 208). Also 
 "Leben heisst, tief einsam sein," etc. : An die Jiinglinge 21 (VI, 
 236). 
 
 7 Der Friedens-Engel 1 (VII, 240) ; An die Jiinglinge 14 
 (VI, 236) ; Die Weihe der Nacht 1-4 (VI, 285) ; Kinderloos 15 
 (VII, 162). 
 
 8 Tgb. I, 66: "Ich kann mir keinen Gott denken, der 
 spricht."
 
 230 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 most sublime human emotions and experiences may find 
 expression. The angels that attend the lovers in their 
 silent rapture are unheard as well as unseen. 9 The 
 spiritual thrills of hope, of gratitude and of contentment 
 are attended by silence. 10 Those elements in nature and 
 in art that seem almost divine are often communicated 
 through the medium of silence. Ideal physical loveliness 
 operates with unobtrusive gentleness. 11 Beauty is a 
 lovely creature whose emotions are accompanied by 
 silence. 12 The secret of her power resides in repose, 
 her presence inspires the rapt beholder with holy awe 
 and with still, sweet longings. Only as beauty is silently 
 revealed to the ardent gazer is the conflict of his emotions 
 modulated into peace. 13 
 
 NATURE 
 
 Referred to nature and the physical world, silence is 
 endowed with an impressiveness felt by all save the in- 
 sensate. The degree of this impressiveness varies with 
 the individual mood and temperament, and with the con- 
 ditions of time and place. Silence would be certain to 
 enter vitally into the experience of a poet who is strong 
 precisely in those faculties that are both stimulated by 
 and require silence for their perfect exercise. And so 
 Hebbel, to whom silence in nature appealed with power- 
 ful suggestiveness, naturally resorted to this medium of 
 suggestion in his imaginative pictures. 
 
 Liebeszauber 110-2 (VI, 156). 
 
 lOQpfer des Fruhlings 67 (VI, 217); Stille! Stille! 1-4 
 (VII, 154). Cf. Der Mensch und die Gtiter des Lebens 7-8 
 (VI, 445) ; Die tragische Kunst 18 (VI, 379). 
 
 11 "Da drangte all' die Lieblichkeit sich lind, wie nie noch 
 an mein Herz" : An Hedwig 2-3 (VI, 208). Cf. also, Die junge 
 Mutter 4 (VI, 179). 
 
 "Eine Pflicht, entire (VI, 235). 
 
 "Das Geheimniss der Schonheit 1-4; 29-32 (VI, 404).
 
 SILENCE 231 
 
 To represent impressively in poetry nature's sugges- 
 tive silence requires no ordinary artistic gift, for a "vast 
 scene in unbroken stillness is suited to painter rather 
 than poet." 14 Hebbel's handling of various phases of 
 nature, caught in a moment of repose belongs, then, to 
 his significant artistic achievements. He brings vividly 
 before us, for instance, the ominous hush before the 
 storm; 15 the tranquil calm of evening and the mystic 
 grandeur of the night, filled with the breath of an unseen, 
 unheard presence; 16 the cold, dead stillness of winter; 17 
 the oppressive silence of a hot summer day, so still and 
 heavy that the sunbeams seem to purr audibly by con- 
 trast; 18 the silence of expectancy that binds all Nature 
 at dawn; 19 the appalling hush that lies like some pesti- 
 lential atmosphere upon the dreary heath. 20 
 
 Even in some of the more minute details of nature, 
 silence is deftly introduced. The allusion to the tree 
 quietly shading the sleeper brings up a scene of undis- 
 turbed stillness. 21 The blossoms invariably appear ani- 
 mate with heartaches and passions ; but noiseless as their 
 breathing is the ebb and flow of their emotions. Intimate 
 and tender are Hebbel's relations with the flowers espe- 
 cially with lily and rose, mute alike in contentment and 
 in longing. 22 In scenes of animal life, silence is un- 
 common. Vogelleben pictures in a simple, appealing way 
 
 14 Bain, English Composition and Rhetoric, p. 260. 
 
 15 Liebeszauber (VI, 156) ; Bei einem Gewitter (VII, 124). 
 
 16 Gott 9-12 (VII, 77) ; Morgen und Abend 21 (VI, 264) ; 
 Die Weihe der Nacht 1-4 (VI, 285). 
 
 " Winterlandschaft (VII, 165). 
 
 is Sommerbild (VI, 230). 
 
 19 (Emil Rousseau) Still und heimlich 1-4 (VII, 163). 
 
 2<>Haideknabe 25-8 (VI, 166). 
 
 2 1 Liebesgeheimniss 9-12 (VII, 145). 
 
 22 Das Geheimniss der Schonheit 7-8 (VI, 404) ; Rosen- 
 leben 1-4 (VI, 126) ; Meiner Tochter Christine, etc., 16 (VI, 
 423); Ein friihes Liebesleben 153-4 (VI, 199); Proteus 25-6 
 (VI, 253).
 
 232 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 one forlorn little bird perched upon a bare tree, chilled 
 into stupor by the bleak wind, and silently awaiting 
 death. 23 The birds whose songs are hushed in Opfer des 
 Friihlings form part of the comprehensive silence intro- 
 duced as a prominent feature of landscape. 24 
 
 This selection of stillness to emphasize the dominant 
 character of landscape occurs repeatedly in the lyrics. 
 The image of autumnal stillness broken only by sounds 
 of falling fruit makes the poem Herbstbild a good in- 
 stance in point. 25 Occasionally, as in Winterlandschaft, 
 the poet secures the impression of total stillness without 
 resorting to specific allusion. 26 The effect may be sug- 
 gested by a single epithet applied to valley, wood or 
 earth. One allusion to silence in the first stanza of Bei 
 einem Gewitter, reinforced by a magnificent metaphor, 
 is sufficient to suggest the heavy air and the premonitory 
 hush that herald approaching storm : 27 "Erst triibe Stille, 
 ein Bedenken der iiberflutenden Natur." More effectual 
 as well as more typical of Hebbel's manner is the sug- 
 gestion of pervading silence through a weaving together 
 of appropriate sensations, through synthesis of images 
 from various spheres of impression ; as when serene sky, 
 eyes of pensive blue, mute flowers, soft-flowing stream 
 and birds whose song is hushed, all coalesce with the 
 waning of the soul into one absorbing sense of vernal 
 quiet : 
 
 " Sah ich je ein Blau, wie droben 
 Klar und voll den Himmel schmuckt? 
 Nicht in Augen, sanft gehoben, 
 Nicht in Veilchen, still gebuckt ! 
 
 23Vogelleben (VII, 120). 
 
 24 (VI, 217.) Cf. also Haideknabe 25-9 (VI, 166). 
 
 25 (VI, 232.) 
 2 (VII, 165.) 
 27 (VII, 124.)
 
 SILENCE 233 
 
 Leiser scheint der Fluss zu wallen 
 Unter seinem Widerschein, 
 Vogel schweigen, und vor Allen 
 Dammert meine Seele ein." 
 
 Das Opfer des Friihlings, 1-8 (VI, 217) 
 
 Among the most impressive aspects of nature are the 
 "night hours, hours of silence and solitude." A strange 
 fascination envelops the experiences to which the soul 
 is prone at nighttide, whether the dominant emotion be 
 peace, as in the beautiful night scene from Amiel's 
 Journal ; or terrified awe, as in Vergil's description of 
 the descent of his hero into Hades; or breathless ex- 
 pectancy, as in the beginning of the Rutli-scene in 
 Schiller's Wilhelm Tell. 28 Even that which in itself is 
 not uncommon tends to take on an extraordinary aspect 
 when veiled in the silence of night, while the intrinsically 
 impressive becomes awe-inspiring or sublime. 
 
 That Hebbel was extraordinarily susceptible to night's 
 strange, silent spell, picture after picture in the diaries 
 shows. He speculates upon the ominous depression, the 
 "Driickend-Furchtbare" that creeps over the soul in soli- 
 tude and darkness. 29 Elsewhere it is the solace of a tran- 
 quil evening that engages him ; one of the earliest entries 
 in the diaries records the charm and the spiritual uplift 
 of a still, kindly evening, which seemed to melt the ice 
 of the soul and to mature its richest blossoms. 30 In 
 another passage Hebbel pictures the strange potency of 
 
 28 Amiel's Journal. The Journal Intime of Henri Frederic 
 Amiel. Translated by Mrs. H. Ward, London. Macmillan & Co. 
 Entry under September 7, 1851, Aix, p. 14. Vergil's ^Eneid, Bk. 
 VI. Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, II, 2. 
 
 29 Tgb. I, 516. In Tgb. I, 983, Hebbel tells of his agitation 
 upon reading in an old and torn Testament at dusk the story of 
 Christ's Passion. 
 
 so Tgb. I, 3.
 
 234 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 ordinary shapes and sounds and lights when these emerge 
 from the background of silent gloom, and he notes the 
 melting images, and the soothing reflections that come 
 with such experience: 
 
 "Heute Abend trotz aller Triibseligkeiten doch einmal 
 wieder eine schone, erhebende Stunde. Ich ging auf den 
 Stintfang. Die stille, schweigende Stunde; die sauseln- 
 den Baume rund umher ; die ruhenden Schiffe im Hafen, 
 auf denen hie und da ein Hund bellte und ein Lichtlein 
 brannte; in der Feme die Lichter an der hannoverschen 
 Granze, und dariiber der ernste Nachthimmel, an dem 
 der Mond, bald von den Wolken bedeckt, bald klar her- 
 vortretend, langsam hinwandelte; Alles dies machte auf 
 mich einen unsaglich linden, versohnenden Eindruck, so 
 dass ich mich auf eine Bank setzte und die Hande un- 
 willkurlich zum Gebet faltete," Tgb. I, 1702. 
 
 Almost imperceptibly do scenes and sentiments of this 
 type pass over into the fabric of Hebbel's songs. Certain 
 passages in the diaries seem to linger on the border of 
 fact and fancy. The bliss of silent morning and evening 
 hours, recorded in the passage quoted above, becomes 
 the substance of a beautiful metaphor in the poem An 
 Hedwig. 31 Nocturnal stillness and cool, moist night 
 odors stimulate the poet and heighten a commonplace 
 experience into an Erlebtes Gedicht for him. 32 Thus 
 Hebbel's reveries and recollections often have nightfall 
 as their natural setting. Bygone scenes habitually 
 awaken thoughts of twilight, 33 and in the diaries as in 
 
 81 " Am Morgen, wo der Mensch ersteht 
 Fur seinen schweren Tageslauf, 
 Und Abends, wenn er schlafen geht, 
 Da schaut er gern zum Himmel auf !" 
 
 An Hedwig, 33-6 (VI, 208) 
 2 Tgb. I, 1262. 
 
 ^"Denke ich an alte Zeiten, so denk' ich immer zugleich 
 an Abend-Dammerung ; denke ich an einen alten Character, so 
 erscheint er mir unter Flor oder Spinnweb," Tgb. I, 800.
 
 SILENCE 235 
 
 the songs the charm of certain personalities is embodied 
 in the imagery of the night: "Eine Erscheinung von 
 wunderbarem Liebreiz, dammernd wie der Sternen- 
 Himmel in einer duftigen Nacht!" Tgb. II, 2769. 
 
 As might be supposed from the foregoing, Hebbel 
 resorts again and again to silent night as an adjunct 
 appropriate to the situations depicted in the songs. 
 Night and solitude afford the conventional setting for 
 his weird and uncanny "seizures," for scenes of myste- 
 rious horror or of solemn pomp. 34 Nothing else shows 
 Hebbel's mastery of poetic suggestion more beautifully 
 than some of the night pictures in his poems. Here un- 
 reserved surrender to the ecstasies and the fancies wild 
 and strange inspired by the hush of nightfall becomes 
 a ruling mood. Tribute after tribute is paid to this 
 mood, its charm exhales now and again from some lovely 
 metaphor. 35 By subtle strokes the balmy stillness with- 
 out and the profound spell that overpowers soul and 
 body are evoked. In this stillness is found an atmos- 
 phere suited to those vague states, those twilights of 
 consciousness, "fallings from us of sense and outward 
 things." 36 Heavenly intuitions that, like some divine 
 balsam, heal the wounds of the spirit, come with the 
 tranquillizing hush of nighttide : 37 
 
 (VI, 204); Der Ring (VI, 390); Memento 
 vivere 1-4 (VI, 269) ; Das Venerabile, etc., 1-3 (VI, 286) ; Die 
 Hochzeit (VII, 128) begins: 
 
 " Die Nacht ist stumm, die Nacht ist still, 
 Wie, wenn sie Todte wecken will," etc. 
 
 35 Ein Geburtstag auf der Reise 99-104 (VI, 247) ; Dem 
 Schmerz sein Recht 40-1 (VI, 287). 
 
 36 Ein Spatziergang in Paris 103-8 (VI, 241) ; An den Tod 
 3-8 (VI, 266). 
 
 87 Cf. also Die Weihe der Nacht 1-4 (VI, 285); Gott 
 9-12 (VII, 77) ; Der Abend (VI, 339) ; Tgb. I, 1702.
 
 236 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 " Dann sinkt des Abends heil'ge Ruh', 
 Als war's auf eine Wunde, 
 Auf sie herab, und schliesst sie zu, 
 Damit sie still gesunde." 
 
 Morgen und Abend, 21-4 (VI, 264) 
 
 We have intimated that Hebbel's chief concern was 
 with the spiritual aspects of nature. He was profoundly 
 impressed by those mysterious currents of eternal energy 
 that "roll through all things" and are revealed in the life 
 of man and of nature. 38 The hidden source of life it- 
 self, its unseen and uncomprehended processes, the soul's 
 unfathomable experiences, its secret thrillings, intuitions, 
 revelations such themes contained the germs of pro- 
 found poetic Erlebnis for Hebbel. And silence char- 
 acterizes the manifestation of this cosmic life ; inaudibly 
 these universal currents move and operate. In one poem 
 this universal energy is symbolized by the god Proteus, 
 whose spirit abides in no one thing because it permeates 
 all things; whose being assumes no definite, tangible 
 shape because it is manifested in all shapes. To the poet 
 alone is the intuition of this world-spirit accorded: 39 
 
 " In Seelen der Menschen hinein und hinaus ! 
 Sie mogten mich fesseln, O neckischer Strauss ! 
 Die fromme des Dichters nur ist's, die mich halt, 
 Ihr geb' ich ein voiles Empfinden der Welt." 
 
 Proteus, 33-6 (VI, 253) 
 
 Cf. also Die Weihe der Nacht, 5-10 (VI, 285) ; Ein 
 Spatziergang in Paris, 11-2, 19-25 (VI, 241) ; An die 
 Junglinge, 5-6 (VI, 236) ; Morgen und Abend, 21-4 
 
 88 "Ach iiber all dies dunkle mystische Treiben in der 
 
 Natur und im Menschen!" Tgb. I, 565 this, apropos of 
 
 a poem "Zum letzten Mai" (VII, 147). See also Tgb. I, 344. 
 
 aCf. Werner, VII, 291; Tgb. IV, 5841 (Is. 51 ff.).
 
 SILENCE 237 
 
 (VI, 264) ; Emil Rousseau, 12 (VII, 163). When this 
 "stream of eternal energy" embraces independent local 
 eddies, little whirlpools complete by themselves within 
 the greater, the poet may become too objective and lit- 
 eral, he may deal too much with mere externalities ; then 
 the conception, wrested from phenomena essentially 
 spiritual, descends to metaphysical conceit. 40 
 
 In the domain of silence, we are again reminded that 
 Hebbel's genius is essentially dramatic. Under his typi- 
 cal treatment, the experience depicted assumes the form 
 of a dramatic situation in which silence must contribute 
 its part as a predisposing Moment. Thus for many the 
 note of silence may have a theatrical quality. Some 
 might attach this stigma to the very feature that is gen- 
 erally so admirably managed in the songs, the intro- 
 duction of the calm before the storm, in the figurative 
 as well as the literal sense. The over-captious may dis- 
 cern affectation when Hebbel evokes upon the scene that 
 dread stillness that is the overture of the bursting tem- 
 pest, or when like the Creator he bids the warring ele- 
 ments be still; or again when his characters suddenly 
 subside into an ominous hush. If then the momentary 
 repose is followed by swift action, by crises of emotion, 
 if the brief lull is broken by a sound, perhaps of myste- 
 rious and deadly import, the effect may be partly spoiled 
 for some by the earthly associations awakened. 41 They 
 may find themselves thinking of the sudden suppression 
 of the orchestra when the "strong scene" of the melo- 
 drama is reached, or when the trapeze performer is ready 
 for his most daring feat. 
 
 But the consideration urged in defense of Hebbel's 
 sounds constitutes an equally valid vindication of his 
 
 40 For example, Geschlossener Kreis (VI, 328). 
 Memento vivere 9-10 (VI, 269).
 
 238 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 silences against the charge of theatricism. Moderation, 
 employment of fixed methods within the limits of rea- 
 son these may be justly claimed for our poet in his 
 operation with this effectual medium of expression. The 
 charge of mannerism here would be grossly unwarranted. 
 Hebbel is able effectually to suggest mental states, to 
 evoke wonder and awe, and to create dramatic suspense 
 by this simple device. His management of such legiti- 
 mate means to an honorable end constitutes a noteworthy 
 feature of his artistry. 
 
 Just as darkness has charms quite distinct from those 
 of light, and as the shadows cast by cathedral walls are 
 important factors of architectural effect, so silence as a 
 mere physical element lends a peculiar impressiveness to 
 certain elemental phenomena in nature. In a passage 
 that affords a refreshing variation from the traditional 
 harmony of the spheres, Hebbel imagines the heavenly 
 bodies rolling on their courses in perpetual silence. 42 The 
 circumambient ether, impregnated with the inaudible 
 throb of life, pervaded by the deep and holy calm of the 
 Unfathomable One, awakened in Hebbel's soul a reverent 
 awe bordering on adoration. 43 
 
 THE INANIMATE WORLD 
 
 But the quality of silence is not always attractive. The 
 stillness in which some things are buried may operate to 
 arouse repellent associations. The voiceless statue, 
 impotent of communication, seemed to chill Hebbel's 
 soul. 44 He confessed to an incapacity for appreciating 
 the "Innerstes und Eigenthiimlichstes" of plastic art. 
 
 42 Das abgeschiedene Kind an seine Mutter 4-5 (VI, 294). 
 
 An den Aether 1-7 (VI, 323). 
 
 ** Wurde des Volks 10-2, 16 (VII, 75).
 
 SILENCE 239 
 
 This "Apotheosis of Stone" tortured him. Statues were 
 for him "monstrous problems." Whereas quiet people in 
 real life at times diffused a certain charm, their very 
 silence suggesting some deeper medium of soul- 
 expression, the "hushed creatures" and "slumbering 
 gods" of sculpture awakened within him a killing sense 
 of mortal helplessness and of nature's immensity and 
 inscrutable mystery. 45 Often in gazing upon a dead 
 body he seemed to behold the still, cold statue that life's 
 incessant blows had chiseled into shape. 46 
 
 Upon this dreary aspect of silent things the songs 
 rarely dwell. True, the solitary house in the woods, 
 with its dim light flimmering feebly into the night, or 
 the silent castle in the gloomy fir- forest, seen from a 
 distance by moonlight, have a forbidding aspect that 
 faintly recalls Poe's spectral House of Usher, with its 
 gray walls and its dead, black tarn. 47 Generally, how- 
 ever, sweeter sentiments are stirred by certain dumb 
 objects that are intimately bound up with the common 
 lot of man. Das Haus am Meer sings a litany on the 
 dignity and import of life's common acts. A poet imbued 
 with this sense of the marvel imbedded in the mean de- 
 rives a poetic thrill from the very simples of experience. 
 The high gift of liberating the common from the stigma 
 of the commonplace through the power of poetic vision 
 belonged eminently to Hebbel. So he finds pathos and 
 poetry in the silence of the death-robbed cradle ; 48 in the 
 hush of the forlorn old homestead; 49 in the old chapel 
 
 45 Tgb. I, 876. But contrast Tgb. I, 747. 
 
 46 ". . . . die stille, ruhige, abgeschlossene Statue, die das 
 Leben durch unausgesetzte Schlage ausgemeisselt," Tgb. II, 2033. 
 
 47 Ein f ruhes Liebesleben No. 9, Nachts (VI, 204) ; 
 Herr und Knecht 10-2 (VI, 388). 
 
 4 Mutterschmerz 1-2 (VII, 127). 
 
 4 Das alte Haus 24; 57 (VI, 266).
 
 240 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 empty and still, seen in the fading light of evening; 50 in 
 the funeral tapers burning noiselessly beside the body; 51 
 in the unchanging stillness of the grave itself the 
 "silent bed." 52 Such objects are always a spur to reflec- 
 tion. The cradle, the home, the church-house and the 
 grave, especially when held in a setting of deep solitude, 
 seem endowed with symbolic sacredness. For Hebbel 
 they were summons to fervid sessions of thought, in 
 which the scenes of early life became hallowed and trans- 
 figured. (Cf. the epigram Meine Sdngerin, VI, 377.) 
 
 PERSONAL DESCRIPTION 
 
 It is possible to construct from the utterances of many 
 poets an essentially complete microcosm, which is their 
 subjective universe. The relative perfection of this sub- 
 jective universe, the dignity assigned therein to the great 
 primal facts to life and death, to character, in general 
 to man and nature these determine the order of the 
 poet's spiritual greatness. Hebbel assigns to man a 
 cardinal, if highly tragic, place in his poetic scheme of 
 things. 53 Many of his reflective poems make it obvious 
 that for him nature has significance chiefly because it is 
 the theatre of man's tragic activities. An attractive 
 theme for Hebbel is the mysterious tie that unites all 
 beings and that is to be traced to their common mundane 
 sphere of experience. Now it is significant that repeat- 
 edly when this theme engages him, Hebbel is moved to 
 it by the appearance of some gentle, silent figure, some 
 lovely stranger perhaps, mute or else conversing in low, 
 
 >Vater und Sohn 3-4 (VII, 152). 
 61 Die heilige Drei 95-6 (VI, 181). 
 52 Geburtsnacht-Traum 15-6 (VI, 256). 
 63 Cf. Die alten Naturdichter und die neuen (VI, 349) : 
 See letter, Berlin, April 23, 1851, quoted VII, 340, Is. 16 ft.
 
 SILENCE 241 
 
 barely audible tones that scarcely impress the essential 
 stillness. A glimpse of such a quiet image and instantly 
 there is evoked the mood of spiritual communion. The 
 silent or low-voiced stranger becomes the soul of the 
 situation; from her the surroundings borrow whatever 
 they possess of spiritual or poetic charm. Singularly 
 nebulous and filmy is the portrayal of such experience 
 when told as though in recollection, with the accessories 
 correspondingly softened and subdued. 
 
 An undeniable charm envelops murky creatures of 
 dream, or hushed and silent figures in real life, which 
 manifestly stimulated Hebbel's fancy. In one of the 
 sonnets, a spurned maiden bewails her mortal lot of 
 speech and flesh and blood ; had she come to the poet as 
 a mute dream form, he would have embraced her shad- 
 owy body with ardor. 54 Natures that are habitually in- 
 communicative or that are bound by some spell, some 
 twilight mood incompatible with speech, fascinated Heb- 
 bel's imagination and afforded him opportunities for dis- 
 tinctive and congenial poetic performance. The soul 
 under such conditions, surprised, taken unawares, seemed 
 to him more readily to yield its secrets. There is evi- 
 dence that Hebbel regarded silence in some of his 
 moods, at least as a badge of superior spirituality. 55 
 Silence appeared to afford the medium best suited to 
 communication between creatures of higher order, the 
 most fitting accompaniment of their exalted emotions. 
 All the labored and impassioned utterances of the poet, 
 and all his prophetic achievement fall short of the divin- 
 
 54 " O, war' ich, statt mit buntem Staub umkleidet, 
 
 Als stummes Traumbild vor dich hingetreten, 
 Du hattest heiss das Dammernde umschlossen !" 
 
 Die Verschmahte, 9-11 (VI, 319) 
 
 55 Die Schonheit 1-4 (VI, 318).
 
 242 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 ity revealed in the mute babe nestling on a mother's 
 breast. 56 The faculty of speech so the young Hebbel 
 protested points rather to a defect than to an advantage 
 of the human ego ; and the lack of this faculty in animals 
 seemed to him wholly inadequate evidence of their in- 
 feriority to mortals: he even divines that the despised 
 brute may employ some communicating medium to whose 
 comprehension we mortals have not yet attained. 57 There 
 is much to remind us here of Maeterlinck's atmosphere 
 of spiritual communion. The Belgian poet, too, has deep 
 reverence for the silent soul life of childhood, of plants 
 and animals, of voiceless and lifeless things so-called. 
 With Maeterlinck as well, it is the unspoken word that 
 reveals our deepest self; our inmost thoughts find ex- 
 pression in a higher medium than speech. 58 
 
 And so a number of Hebbel's creatures, particularly 
 his maidens, are of this silent type, placid beings whose 
 soul life is like the gentle respiration of the lily. 59 How 
 still and with what far-away indistinctness do the silent 
 forms of gentle women long dead drift before the poet's 
 dreaming eye, like wisps of light cloud, in the poem 
 Geburtsnacht-Traum. Time rests like a slumber upon 
 their brow, death has dimmed the lustre of their eyes, 
 and their wan lips are wreathed in the mere memory of 
 a smile: 
 
 " Auch zarter Frauen nahten viel 
 In Trachten, f remd und eigen ; 
 Ein schlummerndes Jahrhundert schien 
 Mit jeder aufzusteigen. 
 
 6An ein schones Kind 1-4 (VI, 321). 
 
 " Tgb. I, 68. 
 
 58 James Huneker, Iconoclasts, pp. 374 ff. 
 
 B Cf. Ein friihes Liebesleben, Nos. 1, 2, 3 (VI, 199 ff.) ; Auf 
 eine Unbekannte (VI, 206) ; An Hedwig (VI, 208) ; Stanzen auf 
 ein Sicilianisches Schwesterpaar (VI, 215) ; Im Garten (VII, 
 80).
 
 SILENCE 243 
 
 Die sanften Augen waren all' 
 So suss auf mich geheftet, 
 Doch war der lachelnd holde Mund 
 Zur Rede zu entkraftet." 
 
 Geburtsnacht-Traunt, 41-8 (VI, 255) 
 
 There is manifest justice in ascribing prominence to 
 silence in characters of the type supposed. These repre- 
 sent either ghostly apparitions or the shadowy creatures 
 of dream, or they are characters of the rare sort that 
 dwell apart in spiritual isolation. But to confine oneself 
 altogether to immaterial and cloistered souls is to culti- 
 vate a limited range of human interests. On the other 
 hand, it would be unwarrantable to treat silence as a 
 salient quality of humanity as a whole, considered in 
 the broad compass of its divergent types. For the ma- 
 jority of mortals silence is neither a permanent habit 
 nor a characteristic condition. We may all become tem- 
 porarily silent from various causes, but in few of us is 
 silence the ruling trait, the quality that stamps our per- 
 sonality. Hence in Hebbel's personal descriptions, where 
 brevity demands selection of salient features, silence is 
 made to overshadow other attributes in relatively few 
 instances. 
 
 Nevertheless, these instances awaken curiosity as to 
 their connection with hereditary and environmental fac- 
 tors in the poet's life. Silent reserve is characteristic of 
 the sturdy northern stock from which Hebbel was de- 
 scended, and he has portrayed this reserve in his 
 Dithmarsischer Bauer. 60 Hebbel himself shared the 
 racial trait to a degree. Certain passages in the 
 diaries might convey the impression that Hebbel was at 
 heart a spiritual recluse. 61 The entry for October 24, 
 
 60 Werner (VI, 160). 
 61 Tgb. I, 484; 506; 572.
 
 244 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 1835, begins with the laconic remark: "Heute Nichts 
 zu notieren, viel zu behalten." 62 He expressed the 
 opinion that isolation is foreordained for certain natures 
 and that circumstances frequently seal the lips of those 
 that have most to reveal. 63 Furthermore, the morning 
 and evening of life were saddened for him by removal 
 through death or estrangement of intimate companions. 
 The early death of Emil Rousseau and the break with 
 Kuh late in life each produced a void, a chilling sense of 
 bereavement. Recollections of childhood's privations, 
 memories of a father's severity and a hard employer's 
 brutality, bore down heavily upon Hebbel's spirit 
 throughout a great part of his life. 64 Long after their 
 actual occurrence he dreams of such boyhood trials; in 
 vivid re-experience he rehearses those pitiful scenes when 
 he had to endure cruelty in silence, burying resentment 
 deep in his proud breast. 65 During his student days his 
 benefactress, Frau Dr. Schoppe, gave generously, but she 
 also exacted jealously; and her exactions were of a 
 nature to coerce the fine, eager spirit of the young poet. 
 His natural recourse under such tyrannical overbearance 
 was to spiritual retirement; sickened by the intrigues of 
 Frau Schoppe's circle, his sensitive nature recoiled with 
 ever-increasing aversion from contacts that brought him 
 only mental and moral torture. The estrangements from 
 
 62 Tgb. I, 108. 
 
 63 "Gerade, wer die beste Zunge hat, muss still schweigen," 
 Tgb. I, 1267. 
 
 64 "In Dithmarschen hat mich Keiner gekannt. Wenn ein 
 Mensch im Sumpf liegt und dem Ertrinken nahe ist, kann ihn 
 Niemand kennen lernen," Tgb. II, 2429. "Etwas, doch nur wenig, 
 bin ich auch in der mir in den Dithmarsischen Schmach-und 
 Pein-Verhaltnissen verloren gegangenen Fertigkeit, mich, wenn 
 ich Menschen gegeniiber stehe, selbst fur einen Menschen zu 
 halten, weiter gekommen," Tgb. I, 552 (last sentence). 
 
 <Tgb. I, 1265.
 
 SILENCE 245 
 
 those once near to him increased toward the close of 
 life ; bitterly does he contrast the unselfish loyalty of his 
 animal pets with the unsubstantial devotion of friends. 
 The temptation is thus strong to surmise temperamental 
 tendencies in his regard for taciturn and undemon- 
 strative types, like demure maidens and gentle, low- 
 voiced women. The query naturally arises, could not 
 the prevalence of silence and solitude as poetic media 
 in Hebbel's songs be the effect of ancestral or individual 
 bent early accentuated by the depressing experiences of 
 youth and young manhood? 
 
 But the matter has another side, which may not in fair- 
 ness be ignored. Those who were in a position to know 
 do not emphasize taciturnity as the keynote of Hebbel's 
 disposition. His loved ones were most impressed by 
 quite other traits. They revert again and again to the 
 well of childlike tenderness and playfulness imbedded 
 deep within his rugged nature. His own confessions are 
 too numerous to permit us ever to forget his choleric 
 temper, the phase of his nature that made intimate inter- 
 course with him at times most trying. Kuh and others 
 have recorded the animation of his manner and the 
 picturesque power of his language when discussing or 
 disputing with his associates. His reticence as a young 
 man may have been due in part to instinctive preference 
 for solitude, but it was probably largely the result of an 
 early environment unfavorable to sociability. A remark 
 of Napoleon's emphasizing the importance upon later 
 life of early social intercourse is copied with concurring 
 comment by Hebbel into his diary. He contrasts with 
 Napoleon's rare opportunities his own early ostracism, 
 his enforced association with menials while in Mohr's 
 employ. To these early associations he attributes his 
 reticence and embarrassment, traits that he fears he will
 
 246 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 never overcome. 66 During his sojourn in Miinchen, soli- 
 tary life meant for him spiritual decay. 67 He broods 
 over his isolation, over the lack of opportunity for con- 
 versing, which he considers indispensable. Bitterly does 
 he complain of Gravenhorst's remissness in correspond- 
 ence, of Rendtorf's incapacity for "einen freien Geistes- 
 und Stunden-Erguss." 68 In Hamburg, to be alone with 
 his thoughts and moods was to be exposed to the venom 
 of despair. 69 Joyously does he hail the prospect of the 
 Copenhagen journey because of the opportunity thus 
 afforded of cultivating new associations. Whatever re- 
 tirement and solitude may have done for his develop- 
 ment as a poet, he is convinced that they have hampered 
 his growth as a man. 70 In a letter to Janens, 71 he esti- 
 mates his Copenhagen sojourn as not unimportant, since 
 it has brought him again into closer touch with his fel- 
 lowmen, from whom he had lived for a time in bitter 
 estrangement. He speaks here of his growing sociability 
 and friendliness as of a return to sentiments that had 
 early animated him. He does not regret the interval of 
 cold aloofness, however; it was well, he thinks, that he 
 experienced this opposite extreme also. He is convinced 
 that his recovery will prove permanent. For this re- 
 covery was no mere transient elation due to improved 
 material conditions; rather had severe self-examination 
 convinced him that henceforth he must concede far more 
 
 Tgb. II, 2442. Cf. also Tgb. II, 2429. 
 
 7 Tgb. I, 1392. 
 
 68 Tgb. I, 1352. He concludes the complaint over his lone- 
 liness with the melancholy comment : "Ueberhaupt, was ist denn 
 entsetzlich? Nicht, dass eine Welt zu Triimmer gehen, sondern, 
 dass sie so ganz im Stillen venvesen kann !" 
 
 9 Tgb. I, 1701, p. 381, Is. 5 ff. :".... da bin ich fur den 
 ganzen Tag auf mein Zimmer verwiesen und kann mich recht 
 dick voll Gift saugen." 
 
 Tgb. II, 2586. 
 
 71 Tgb. II, 2639.
 
 SILENCE 247 
 
 to the world and far less to himself. 72 Quite compatible 
 sentiments are expressed with relation to his Paris so- 
 journ. He regrets that he had not at the very outset 
 enjoyed the diversion and excitement of the great city 
 proper, instead of living for a time banished to the seclu- 
 sion of St. Germain en Laye. Despite this temporary 
 retreat he soon came under the spell of Parisian life, 
 and his feelings upon taking leave were most tender. 73 
 His manifest satisfaction over gradually acquired affa- 
 bility in company would seem to be the expression of 
 relief at the removal of one more hindrance to self- 
 realization. 74 True he appears to recant late in life; in 
 moods of bitter estrangement he says hard things about 
 companionship and fellow communion. 75 And such 
 moods undeniably left him with the conviction that iso- 
 lation and silent aloofness are after all the most exalted 
 sphere of soul life. Yet with all his acknowledgments 
 to the sublimity of silence and solitude, to their distinc- 
 tion as higher media, he evidently craved friendly society. 
 He chafed under seclusion, and he regarded animated 
 intercourse in conversation or in correspondence, as im- 
 portant for his spiritual development. 76 He even pro- 
 nounces sympathy with one's fellowmen as fundamental 
 to appreciation of art. Art, then, is one of the many 
 manifestations of the sociable instinct. 77 Hebbel's 
 
 72 Tgb. II, 2639, Is. 28 ff. Cf. Tgb. I, 746. 
 
 73 Cf again Hebbel's remark : "Ich bedarf der grossen 
 Stadt, ich verzehre Menschen," Kuh, II, 669. 
 
 74 Tgb. I, 552, last sentence. 
 
 7 Tgb. IV, 5411; 5937, Is. 98 ff.; 5948; 6146. 
 
 76 Tgb. I, 1352. 
 
 77 "Alle Theilnahme an der Kunst, beruht auf der Theil- 
 nahme an fremden Existenzen," Tgb. I, 1078. "Gerade die 
 Kunst ist es, die das Leben erweitert, die es dem beschrankten 
 Individuum vergonnt, sich in das Fremde und Unerreichbare zu 
 verlieren; dies ist ihre herrlichste Wirkung," Tgb. I, 1524. Cf. 
 also Guyau, L'art au point de vue sociologique, Ch. I, especially 
 part III.
 
 248 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 genuine patriotism, his approval of strongly organized 
 society and of the state, are constantly brought out in 
 his works. 78 His diaries and letters show that his heart 
 was warmed by the merry companies that gathered to 
 celebrate birthday or holiday in his Vienna home. He 
 would hurry back from library or from promenade to 
 enjoy a discussion with some congenial spirit. And Kuh 
 ascribes his own breach with Hebbel to the latter's un- 
 reasonable displeasure at the curtailment of their inter- 
 course. 79 
 
 Thus candid consideration of biographical data leaves 
 a reasonable doubt whether the prominence of silence 
 and solitude in Hebbel's poems may be traced, primarily, 
 to inherited racial factors. In a limited number of 
 poems typified by the examples above 80 silence is ob- 
 viously selected as the dominant trait of the character 
 depicted. Upon the prominence of these obvious cases 
 the contention of atavistic influence must chiefly rest. 
 Another group of passages yields less conclusive evi- 
 dence, since in them there is room for the inference that 
 the silence noted is referable to the particular mood por- 
 trayed. His eastern prince, his Roman girl, his sweet 
 maidens, all may have been creatures of the reserved 
 type. 81 On the other hand, they might have been quite 
 the reverse and yet conceivably have subsided into 
 
 78 H. Rossow, D. Staatsgedanke bei Fr. Hebbel, Munch. 
 Allg. Ztg, 114 Jg., Nr. 3, S. 40-1. 
 TO Kuh, II, 674-5. 
 
 80 Cf. also "Dein Ahnherr .... tnit seiner schonen, stillen 
 Braut": Das alte Haus 8-10 (VI, 266). "Der fremde Jiingling 
 ist still und stumm": Der Tanz 18 (VII, 72). "Still, wie du 
 nahtest, hast du dich erhoben" : Auf eine Unbekannte 5 (VI, 
 206). "Nun hat das reiche Leben, .... in deinem stillen Weben 
 den Punct, in dem es schliesst" : Sommerreise 9-12 (VI, 276). 
 "Vom stillen Reizenden" : Im rpmischen Carneval 9 (VI, 308). 
 
 81 "Er sieht das Magdlein lange an, .... und nickt nur 
 still nun weis't er stumm den Mohren fort" : Die Odaliske
 
 SILENCE 249 
 
 silence as the result of environmental conditions. So 
 interpreted, these instances could be adequately ac- 
 counted for upon other than distinctly racial grounds. 
 For silence like sound is no uncommon outward accom- 
 paniment of passion, the world over. Strong feelings 
 may arrest speech and accordingly any poet might resort 
 to breathless astonishment, unspeakable joy, grief too 
 overpowering for words, terrors that stifle utterance. 
 Furthermore, silence readily ingratiates itself with poets 
 of the most varied type, merely upon the ground of "use 
 and wont." As an effectual aid to "atmosphere," to 
 dramatic tension and suspense, silence is an accredited, 
 traditional device. This fact may not be minimized in 
 establishing the right relation of Hebbel's "silence" with 
 his personality and his art. We may get some light upon 
 this relation by comparing Hebbel with certain other 
 writers, particularly with those whose creations trans- 
 port us into the realm of the weird and the unusual. In 
 the case of E. T. A. Hoffmann the predominance of 
 striking sounds and colors as emotional adjuncts is in- 
 contestable, yet sometimes the spirit of a scene or the 
 dominant mood of one or more persons is effected by 
 the introduction of silence. In Elixiere des Teufels, 
 Medardus depicts the cloistral quiet in which he spent 
 his boyhood ; not even the buzz of a fly or the chirp of 
 a cricket disturbed the hush, which the sound of chanting 
 monks only deepened by affording momentary contrast. 
 A little later, Medardus enumerates the mournful hymn 
 of pilgrims, the sobs of devout penitents, the unseemly 
 singing and laughter of worldly revellers, all of whom 
 the festival of St. Bernard has gathered at the monas- 
 
 29-30; 37 (VI, 187). ". . . . wenn sie still an mir voriiber- 
 schwebt," etc.: Em fruhes Liebesleben 13 (VI, 199). "Wie eine 
 Blume bist du still erglommen" : An eine Romerin 6 (VI, 308).
 
 250 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 tery. Suddenly, at the stroke of the monastery bell, all 
 loud demonstration subsides into a prayerful hush, the 
 ensuing silence is hardly impressed by the low, mumbled 
 prayers of the worshippers. Indeed, before the elixir 
 begins its work, Medardus is represented as naturally 
 verschlossen. As a boy in church, he is wafted into 
 silent transports by the magnificence of the music and 
 the ritual. The first assertion of his sensual nature is 
 attended by silence; at the sight of the maiden's un- 
 covered bosom, he is choked by the upgush of his pas- 
 sion, all power of speech is momentarily palsied. 
 
 If in Hoffmann the employment of silence is on the 
 whole infrequent, it is more strikingly effectual in weird 
 scenes and moods depicted by Edgar Allan Poe. The 
 silent House of Usher, its "vacant and eye-like win- 
 dows" imaged in the "black and lurid tarn," the lady 
 Madeline passing like a ghost through "a remote portion 
 of the apartment," her gruesome fate, all these effects 
 seem like horrible fancies of a diseased mind on a "dull, 
 dark and soundless day in autumn" such as that with 
 which the story begins. Like Hebbel, Poe frequently has 
 recourse to sounds. In the very story alluded to, a 
 Steigerung of the terror is effected through the intro- 
 duction of startling and uncanny noises. Yet the 
 silences seem more characteristic of Poe's technic. He 
 tends to revert to silence at impressional stages of his 
 narrative at the beginning perhaps, for initial effect, 
 or at the end, as if he would leave a dead hush with the 
 reader as the last, the abiding impression. And so after 
 the noise of falling walls and the sound of "thousand 
 waters," the black tarn closes "suddenly and silently over 
 the fragments of the House of Usher." 
 
 Hebbel seems to occupy a position nearer to Poe than 
 to Hoffmann with respect to the employment of silence.
 
 SILENCE 251 
 
 On the other hand, Hebbel made use of the tones of 
 nature and of the human voice with much the same effect 
 as Hoffmann though under much severer repression. 
 Indeed, Hoffmann with whose works Hebbel early 
 became acquainted 82 may not have been without direct 
 influence here. Thus Hebbel by reason of his pronounced 
 fondness for both media has points of contact with 
 two authors whose art is rather divergent with respect 
 to these particular features. And here the temptation 
 is irresistible to connect Hebbel's technic with promi- 
 nent temperamental characteristics. Taken as a whole, 
 Hebbel's diaries would appear to reveal a double nature; 
 a twofold impulse controlled his life and his art. On 
 the one hand the impulse to ponder the problem of self 
 and non-self which was perhaps only a kind of meta- 
 physical emotionalism, a specific form of the general 
 human tendency to grasp the spiritual essence of things ; 
 and this tendency was favored by the habit inherited, 
 it may be, or the effect of circumstances of living apart 
 at intervals in spiritual retreat, and of regarding such 
 silent retreat as an essential element of the rhythm and 
 music of universal life. On the other hand the diaries 
 reveal in Hebbel an impulse intermittent in occurrence 
 yet irrepressible in power to confide to others the soul's 
 passionate secrets, an elemental yearning for intellectual 
 companionship, for quickening personal contacts, con- 
 tacts in which Hebbel's fellowmen were usually con- 
 sumed, in which they generally served to nourish the 
 tissue of his own unyielding personality. To this demo- 
 niacal side of Hebbel's being Kuh's biography gives ade- 
 quate testimony. 83 And so it is his retreating nature that 
 
 82 Tgb. 11,2425; 2428. 
 
 83 Kuh describes Hebbel as a kind of "t)bermensch" : "Er 
 zahlte zu jenen starken von dem Drange sich auszuleben erfiillten 
 Menschen," etc. : Kuh, II, 669.
 
 252 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 must be conquered before he can write the congratu- 
 latory letter to the grand-duke of Sachsen- Weimar. 84 
 And it is his outpouring, assertive nature that makes 
 reserved silence impossible wherever his heart is fer- 
 vidly enlisted. 85 And the ebb and the flow are both re- 
 corded, the nature that recoils merges with the nature 
 that clamors for fellowship in the seeming paradox: 
 "Ich kann den Umgang aller Menschen entbehren, aber 
 ich kann mich gegen keinen Einzigen, mit dem ich um- 
 gehe, verschliessen." 86 
 
 Such a double nature could not well produce creatures 
 of one or the other tendency exclusively. And so the 
 poems portray, as we should naturally expect, people of 
 both tendencies the demonstrative and the reserved. 
 Obviously these qualities are not mutually exclusive, as 
 Hebbel's own character attests assuming our analysis 
 to be valid. To a certain degree such a double tendency 
 is quite usual among men, though the two extremes are 
 not always equally pronounced. The predominance of 
 the one or the other tendency becomes then a matter of 
 mood. If our reasoning is correct, we should surmise 
 that the silent reserve of Hebbel's imagined persons 
 would occur for the most part as a physical concomitant 
 of a passing mental state, and less often as an index of 
 a fixed temperament. 
 
 This surmise is borne out by an examination of the 
 pertinent instances. Incontestably, the silent persons in 
 the lyrics as in real life are generally they over whom 
 some mood has acquired temporary mastery. If we 
 cannot dogmatically posit the operation of racial or per- 
 
 84 Tgb. IV, 5923, where Hebbel defends his instinctive re- 
 serve. 
 
 8 Tgb. II, 2369. 
 
 86 Tgb. 11,2364.
 
 SILENCE 253 
 
 sonal factors as primal causes here, at least we know 
 that Hebbel was himself especially given to those moods 
 that come with seclusion and silence. Upon the basis 
 of rich personal experience we can understand the un- 
 common frequency of this effect in his lyrics and the 
 uncommon success with which it is employed. A certain 
 realism characterizes Hebbel's handling of this as of 
 other sensuous media. As in life, so in the poems, this 
 phenomenon is apt to occur as concomitant of emotional 
 crises, heights of feeling, and therefore it is frequently 
 but momentary and may be followed by vigorous vocal 
 demonstrations. The apoplectic silence of such emo- 
 tional crises, like the speechlessness attending more sub- 
 dued and gentle moods, tends to arrest action and fix 
 attention upon the momentary attitude. 
 
 Varied and intricate are the forms of mental life into 
 which silence enters as a characteristic factor. Many of 
 these are to be found in the songs, both the hereditary 
 types of emotion and the more complicated individual 
 impulses with all their elaborate refinements. Die junge 
 Mutter well exhibits the variety of states, both mental 
 and physical, that silence may very expressively be made 
 to accompany. The young mother lost in silent adoration ; 
 the blissful contentment of the babe; then the inaudible 
 drooping of the frail human blossom, and the mother's 
 mute agony all this is genuinely impressive: 
 
 " Sie hat ein Kind geboren, 
 Zu hochster Lust in tiefstem Leid, 
 Und ist nun ganz verloren 
 In seine stumme Lieblichkeit. 
 
 Es bluht zwei kurze Tage, 
 
 So dass sie's eben kiissen mag, 
 
 Und ohne Laut und Klage 
 
 Neigt es sein Haupt am dritten Tag.
 
 254 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Und wie es still erblasste, 
 So tragt sie still den heil'gen Schmerz, 
 Und eh' sie's ganz noch fasste, 
 Dass es dahin ist, bricht ihr Herz." 
 
 Die junge Mutter, 1-12 (VI, 179) 
 
 The poem Auf eine Verlassene (VII, 160) further il- 
 lustrates the effectual portrayal of mental states through 
 the medium of concomitant silences. By this most simple 
 token there is vividly communicated to us a variety of 
 moods felt by a variety of beings : cold disdain, penitent 
 shame, human sympathy, the heavenly innocence of 
 childhood, the still, serene compassion of the Almighty: 
 
 " Und wenn Dich Einer schmahen will, 
 So zeig' ihm stumm Dein schones Kind, 
 Das macht die Seele weit und still, 
 Das schmeichelt alien Sinnen lind. 
 
 Und wenn er in dies Auge blickt, 
 So neigt er sich in heil'gem Graus, 
 Und wahnt, im Innersten durchziickt, 
 Gott selber schaue stumm heraus." 
 
 Auf eine Verlassene, 1-4; 9-12 (VII, 160) 
 
 As an adjunct of soul portraiture then, as a medium 
 of representing moods and states of mind, silence plays 
 no mean part in Hebbel's descriptions. A few passages 
 are here submitted to exhibit more in detail Hebbel's 
 manner of utilizing silence as a concrete symbol of the 
 soul states of his creatures. Obviously in lyrics that 
 describe visions, the terms of silence are simply part of 
 the dream device, and thus may be disregarded. 87 The 
 other instances may be roughly grouped according to the 
 
 87 Geburtsnacht-Traum 5, 47-8 (VI, 255) ; Wiedersehen 
 29-31 (VII, 134) ; Traum 18, 27, 81, 95 (VII, 166) ; Die Ver- 
 schmahte 10 (VI, 319); Stillstes Leben 18 (VII, 140).
 
 SILENCE 255 
 
 moods that have mastered for the time being the per- 
 sons described. The examples in each group naturally 
 exhibit a variety of forms and phases of the emotional 
 states in question. 
 
 Tender Emotions 88 
 
 (a) Religious Adoration. Roughly speaking we may 
 say that in Hebbel's lyrics a very large share of the men- 
 tal states into the portrayal of which silence enters as an 
 element are expressions of one phase or another of the 
 tender emotions. In the broad sense these emotions may 
 be regarded as including the religious passion, the senti- 
 ment of divine worship. From the instinctive love of 
 offspring for parent may be supposed ultimately to have 
 developed the more spiritual sentiment of tender devotion 
 on the part of the creature toward his divine Creator. 
 And Hebbel manifestly regarded silence as a fitting attri- 
 bute of the religious mood, as a feature of conduct proper 
 to persons engaged in devotional acts. 89 The mood is 
 represented under a variety of attendant circumstances: 
 the faithful congregation about to receive the Eucharist ; 
 the worshipper bringing offerings to the altar ; the maiden 
 imploring through silent contrition Divine forgiveness 
 for disgrace and sin; the emotional and imaginative 
 
 88 In the classification that follows many suggestions and 
 much guidance have been derived from Bain's Emotions and the 
 Will, pp. 124-299. 
 
 8 9 Abendmahl des Herrn 5 (VII, 122) ; Adams Opfer 5 
 (VI, 238) ; Versohnung 21-2 (VI, 272) ; Bubensonntag 41-2 
 (VI, 198) ; Die heilige Drei 89-90 (VI, 181) ; Das alte Haus 
 27-8 (VI, 266) ; Der Priester 19 (VII, 149) ; Laura 25 (VII, 
 19) ; Elegie 7 (VII, 22) ; Das Venerabile in der Nacht 32 (VI, 
 286); Der Mensch und die Geschichte 12 (VI, 320). Cf. also 
 ". . . . Augen, sanft gehoben" : Opfer des Friihlings 3 (VI, 217). 
 But cf. An die Jiinglinge 27-8 (VI, 236), where youth is urged 
 not to bow in humble silence before God, but to honor Him 
 through proud, erect bearing.
 
 256 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 youth awed by the mysteries of religion ; the penitent soul 
 awaiting death in devout resignation and composure. 
 We see the priest silently blessing his flock ; or a maiden 
 kneeling in voiceless prayer; or again a mother moving 
 noiselessly about lest she disturb the sacred devotions 
 of her daughters. The power of speech forsakes mortals 
 overpowered with the feeling of veneration in the pres- 
 ence of divine works. 
 
 (b) Love. The ever-shifting moods that attend the 
 master-passion, the aches and joys that spring from 
 sexual love, that reveal its quality and mark its ebb and 
 flow these are frequently recorded with telling effect 
 in the lyrics through the simple medium of silence. There 
 is one instance of the unearthly and mystic love that 
 deifies the object of affection and converts stormy pas- 
 sion into silent adoration. The sweet modest innocence 
 of the adored one affords perfectly adequate motivation 
 for a love that borders on religion : 
 
 " O susses, susses Jungf raunbild ! 
 In Engelf rieden hingegossen ! 
 Noch Kind, und doch so gottlich abgeschlossen ! 
 Demiithig, sicher, stolz und mild! 
 
 O Jungfraunbild, dich mogt' ich nicht 
 Es war' mir, wie ein Raub umfangen, 
 Ich mogte vor dir niederknie'n und hangen 
 An deinem Himmelsangesicht. 
 
 Dann lag' ich stumm in heil'ger Scheu, 
 Du aber wiirdest fromm ergliihen, 
 Und still und kindlich bei mir niederknieen 
 Und sinnen, wo die Heil'ge sei." 
 
 Ein fruhes Liebesleben, 1-12 (VI, 199) 
 
 Schon Hedwig's simple confession of innocent and un- 
 selfish love for her Prince is preceded by a momen-
 
 SILENCE 257 
 
 tary silent struggle. 90 The love-lorn maiden in Liebes- 
 zauber yearns for her absent lover in silence, only to 
 be lost in an ecstasy too deep for words when her long- 
 ings have been gratified by "rapturous union." 91 The 
 passion here depicted is that still fusion of soul with 
 soul that would be startled by formal confession, mute 
 naive love that without the conventional proposal and 
 plighting of troth instinctively presupposes a responsive 
 affection on the part of the mate as something primordial, 
 prenatally ordained "einen stillen Bund" (line 56). 
 
 A few other of the characteristic phases and situations 
 in the drama of love are represented through the aid of 
 silence : the intoxication of first love ; 92 the clash of pas- 
 sion and pride in the soul of a maiden, half enticed and 
 half repulsed by the presumption of the wooer; 93 the 
 passion, deep yet undemonstrative, smoldering beneath 
 the reserve of chaste maidenhood. 94 
 
 The passages from Die junge Mutter and Auf eine 
 Verlassene quoted above are good specimens of Hebbel's 
 power of portraying parental affection through silence. 
 With similar sympathy are the appealing helplessness 
 and dependence of babyhood revealed through the same 
 medium. The dreamy contentment of the babe resting 
 blissfully secure in his mother's arms inspired the poet 
 to these singularly tender lines : 
 
 " Du blickst, um deiner Mutter Hals dich schmiegend, 
 Mich hold und lachelnd an, ein sel'ger Stummer ; 
 Die Wonne schliesst den Mund, ihn los't der Kummer, 
 Du brauchst die Sprache nicht, in Lust dich wiegend." 
 
 An ein schones Kind, 1-4 (VI, 321) 
 
 90 Schon Hedwig 41 (VI, 172). 
 
 i Liebeszauber 25-9 (VI, 156). 
 
 92 Ein friihes Liebesleben 101-2; 155-6 (VI, 199). 
 
 93 Lustig tritt ein schoner Knabe 11 (VI, 437). 
 
 4 Das griechische Madchen 22 (VII, 137).
 
 258 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Childhood's trials and triumphs abound in poetic stir- 
 rings for Hebbel. Thus he muses upon the theme of the 
 little culprit secretly revelling in his first bold escapade ; 95 
 upon the child greeting with mute delight its own image 
 shimmering luringly from the bottom of the well. 96 
 
 (c) Sorrow. Tender emotions lie at the basis of 
 sorrow in its many forms. Affection, so exhilarating 
 when all is well, induces most depressing mental states 
 when the object of tender regard is temporarily absent 
 or permanently removed. In the lyrics the bitterness of 
 bereavement is constantly encountered. 97 The forms 
 vary with the stages of the regret from overpowering 
 grief to more subdued recollection of the dead. Refer- 
 ence is made also to a variety of experiences associated 
 with death : there is the noiseless coming of the Reaper 
 himself ; 98 the silent passing of life, now peaceful, 99 
 now attended with mute suffering; 100 the last hushed 
 ministrations to the dead; 101 the inaudible return of the 
 departed spirits to communicate with those who have 
 survived on earth. 102 
 
 With these may be associated the silence into which 
 we are plunged by the estrangements, the breaks of one 
 
 5 Das erste Zechgelag 18 (VI, 155). 
 
 Das Kind am Brunnen 20 (VI, 180). 
 
 97 Memento vivere 4 (VI, 269) ; Nachtlicher Gruss 17-21 
 (VI, 227) ; Alte Widmung, etc., 9-10 (VI, 274) ; Der Tod kennt 
 den Weg 9-12 (VI, 394) ; Er und ich 19 (VII, 24) ; Der Knabe 
 27-8 (VII, 116) ; Die junge Mutter 10 (VI, 179) ; Auf ein altes 
 Madchen 31-2 (VI, 207) ; Ein Spatziergang in Paris 112-3 (VI, 
 241). 
 
 "An einen Verkannten 22-3 (VII, 40). 
 
 "Die junge Mutter 7-9 (VI, 179); Sonett, entire (VII, 
 174) ; Grossmutter 47-8 (VI, 240). 
 
 100 Der Maler 7-8 (VI, 175); Opfer des Friihlings 89 
 (VI, 217). 
 
 wiLetzter Wunsch 9 (VI, 366). 
 
 102 Ein friihes Liebesleben 91-2 (VI, 199).
 
 SILENCE 259 
 
 form or another in our happy relations with those we 
 love. 103 
 
 Sociability is a rich fountain of human experience. 
 Our natural love of companionship, of the accompani- 
 ments of favor and attachment on the part of our fellows 
 affords us fundamental pleasures. The withdrawal of the 
 sources of these pleasures is attended with depression of 
 spirits akin to personal bereavement. The lyrics occa- 
 sionally employ silence to reveal the depressive moods 
 that spring from such deprivation of the sociable pleas- 
 ures. Hebbel was intimately acquainted with the silence 
 that betokens the world's estrangement, its proud aloof- 
 ness, its stupid or supercilious unfriendliness. 104 He 
 knew too well the killing effects of society's cold disdain. 
 That disdain he met with a noble stoicism, an equally 
 proud reserve that derived strength from the conscious- 
 ness of a high mission and from self -appreciation at once 
 humble and exalted : 
 
 " Geht stumm an dir vorbei die Welt, 
 So f uhle stolz und andachtsvoll : 
 Ich bin ein Kelch, fur Gott bestellt, 
 Der ihn allein erquicken soil !" 
 
 Dem Schmerz sein Recht, 138-41 (VI, 287) 
 
 The stern duties of life are often provocative of serious, 
 even of sombre states of mind. The wrecking of cher- 
 ished hopes has a sting very like sorrow occasioned by the 
 removal of loved ones. Hebbel makes us share in his 
 own grim suffering as he struggled silently to overcome 
 
 1Q 3 Drei Schwestern 17-8 (VI, 405) ; Ein nachtliches Echo 
 32 (VI, 150); Das Bettelmadchen 6 (VI, 181); Dem Schmerz 
 sein Recht 102 (VI, 287) ; Die Spanierin 47-8 (VI, 176). 
 
 lo* An den Kiinstler 4 (VI, 314).
 
 260 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 the obstacles that beset him. 105 He makes us suffer with 
 one whom the shattering of patriotic ideals has plunged 
 into grief; 106 with another who has sunk beneath the 
 weight of unkind fortune. 107 Terrible in the bottomless 
 depth of despondency and the inexpressible bitterness of 
 resentment is the following: 
 
 " Gott weiss, wie tief der Meeresgrund, 
 Gott weiss, wie tief die Wunde ist ! 
 Auf ewig schliess' ich drum den Mund, 
 Ich werde dadurch nicht gesund, 
 Dass, die sie schlug, sie auch ermisst. 
 Doch sie, die Welt, die das verbrach, 
 Sie schandet meinen stummen Schmerz," etc. 
 Dem Schmerz sein Recht, 96-102 (VI, 287) 
 
 (d) Miscellaneous. There are numerous other 
 moods portrayed in the lyrics, which silence is most fitly 
 made to accompany, dreamy moods of retrospect, of sad 
 or joyous revery. In Drei Schwestern, 17-8 (VI, 405), 
 there is a beautiful allusion to the young woman whose 
 beauty has passed the meridian, and who resigns herself 
 with a silent shudder to the shadows of time that begin 
 to dim her brow : 
 
 " Still empfindet sie die Macht der Zeit 
 Im ersten Schauer der Verganglichkeit." 
 
 All the alluring mysteries of the future dawn upon the 
 budding soul of the maiden gazing enraptured at her 
 image in the mirror. 108 The expectancies and delicious 
 apprehensions of ripening maidenhood, the coy yielding 
 to the premonitions that come with chaste and silent 
 
 108 Ein Geburtstag auf der Reise 54, 61 (VI, 247). Cf. 
 also Mein Paan 9-10 (VI, 316). 
 
 loe Die Polen sollen leben 12-4; 23 (VI, 170). 
 
 lOTEine moderne Ballade 40 (VII, 188). 
 
 108 Das Madchen im Kampf mit sich selbst 17-20 (VI, 
 232).
 
 SILENCE 261 
 
 merging into full bloom these frequently engaged Heb- 
 bel's muse. This is all a part of his passionate interest in 
 the mystery of change, in the myriad manifestations of 
 that strange life-principle that throbs alike through suns 
 and motes : 
 
 " Erst keusches Leben, wurzelhaft gebunden, 
 Dann scheuer Vortraum von sich selbst, der leise 
 Hiniiber fuhrt zur wirklichen Entfaltung." 
 
 Juno Ludovisi, 9-11 (VI, 325) 
 
 Furthermore, mention is repeatedly made of a mood 
 fascinating in its strangeness, an apathetic mental state 
 in which the soul seems atrophied, momentarily stripped 
 of the faculty of reaction upon sensations pleasant and 
 unpleasant. Hebbel must often have experienced this 
 condition; he speculates upon it in the diaries, and util- 
 izes it in the songs : 
 
 "Es giebt Momente, die nur den Samen der Freude in's 
 Herz streuen, die der Gegenwart Nichts bringen, als 
 einen leisen Schmerz, und die im eigentlichsten Ver- 
 stande erst unter dem Brennglase der Erinnerung in 
 ihrer Bedeutung, ihrem Reichthum, aufgehen. Mancher 
 dieser Momente mag mit einer Stunde, die uns erst 
 jenseits des Grabes erwartet, correspondiren," Tgb. I, 
 1084. 
 
 " Das Leben hat geheimnissvolle Stunden, 
 D'rin thut, selbst herrschend, die Natur sich kund; 
 Da bluten wir und fiihlen keine Wunden, 
 Da f reu'n wir uns und f reu'n uns ohne Grund." 
 
 Auf eine Unbekannte, 17-20 (VI, 206) 
 
 " Es war der Morgen vor dem Fest, 
 An dem man nur noch Traume tauscht, 
 Das Weh, das keinen Stachel lasst, 
 Die Freude, welche nicht berauscht." 
 
 An Hedwig, 9-12 (VI, 208 ) 109 
 
 109 Cf. also Hochstes Gebot 10-2 (VI, 235); Dem 
 Schmerz sein Recht 64-5; 68 (VI, 287).
 
 262 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Finally, to complete our classification we may mention 
 a few instances of silence as the concomitant of aesthetic 
 emotion ; as when the auditors are hushed with sympathy 
 by the plaintive music of the blind organ-grinder, 110 or 
 charmed into ecstatic silence by the master's art. 111 
 
 So much may suffice to show the prominence of silence 
 and solitude in Hebbel's lyric expression. It is no mere 
 accident that our illustrations are confined so largely to 
 examples of character description. This but reflects the 
 essentially psychological and personal fibre of Hebbel's 
 songs, and suggests the soul types and the modal states 
 that Hebbel seemed peculiarly fitted to portray. 
 
 And yet it is not alone the mental or the physical states 
 of persons that we must look for in these passages of 
 silence and solitude. Hebbel does not merely diffuse an 
 oracular stillness over his scenes or envelop the persons 
 that appear in them with an impressive silence, as a 
 painter might let his objects glimmer dimly through a 
 filmy atmospheric haze. Were this all, these traits might 
 well appear to be mannerism, in so far as they would not 
 merely duplicate what may be found in a score of poets 
 great and small. Nor does Hebbel employ silence and 
 solitude primarily as important expressional media for 
 his alleged pessimism as is the case with Leopardi. 112 
 There is a feature that gives to Hebbel's silence as to 
 all the concrete media of his lyrics an individual stamp ; 
 a feature old in the problem that it embodies and yet 
 new in the intensity with which that problem is corre- 
 lated with art; new in its hints of an ultimate, trans- 
 human solution, new in its stern yet on-spurring gospel 
 
 "<>Der blinde Orgelspieler 1-2 (VII, 154). 
 
 111 Der Princess Marie von Wittgenstein 7-8 (VI, 403). 
 Cf. Die Spanierin 13^ (VI, 176). 
 
 112 M. Levi, Silence and Solitude in the Poems of Leo- 
 pardi ; Modern Language Notes, June, 1909.
 
 SILENCE 263 
 
 of a tragic Weltprozess. This feature is not so much 
 to be found distinct and whole in any one definite poem ; 
 rather must we gradually construct it, as here a verse, 
 there a line or an image or a symbol brings a partial reve- 
 lation of it. In poems seemingly unpretentious, almost 
 commonplace, such as Das Hermelin (VI, 264), we may 
 get a glint of one of the problem's many facets. 113 Such 
 insignificant things as the snowflake melting unnoted 
 upon the window-pane, or the petals of the rose flutter- 
 ing silently to the ground become signs of spiritual 
 import, symbols of that strange, tragic, yet beneficent 
 cosmic economy, through which the ultimate trans- 
 human Idee will and must realize itself, despite our little 
 individual heartbreaks. 
 
 There is no necessity, then, for defending a minute 
 study of so petty a matter as silence and solitude in Heb- 
 bel's poems. The more the depth and power of Hebbel's 
 message and the sterling worth of his art reveal them- 
 selves, the more do we become impressed that this mes- 
 sage cannot be fully grasped or this art fully felt except 
 through most conscientious attention to our poet's media. 
 If there really is the immediate affinity between the uni- 
 verse and human life and art that Hebbel supposed, then 
 we cannot scrutinize too closely the expressional media 
 of that affinity. The most common word must then assume 
 a consequence to which its ordinary connotation but 
 crudely approximates. Students of Hebbel are coming 
 more and more to emphasize this. Arno Scheunert de- 
 clares that natural objects, mental states Blume, Sonne, 
 Traumen have more than their ordinary significance 
 when in the nature-philosophy and ethical creed of a 
 poet these objects are "Symbole eines ganz bestimmten, 
 
 113 See Der Schmetterling (VI, 196).
 
 264 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 iibersinnlichen Waltens der Natur." 114 A student of 
 Hebbel's poetry must discern these higher values that 
 attach to the ordinary psycho-sensory symbols in the 
 poet's Ideenkreis. Our study of Hebbel's silence and 
 solitude offers in a humble way a contribution to that end. 
 
 114 Arno Scheunert: Uber Hebbel's aesthetische Weltan- 
 schauung und Methoden ihrer Feststellung (Zt. fur Aesthetik, 
 1907, pp. 70-120).
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 
 
 Our investigation of the tactual allusions in Hebbel's 
 lyric poems must not be taken to imply acceptance of the 
 tactual sense as a distinct and autonomous sphere of 
 aesthetic impression. Personally, we are thoroughly con- 
 vinced that bodily feelings participate to a vital degree 
 in our mental pleasures. Impressions of touch, of tem- 
 perature, strain, etc., are certainly present in our more 
 fervid responses to reproductions of beauty in nature 
 or in man. But the tactual organism is many-headed, 
 decentralized as compared with the functional mon- 
 archism of sight and hearing. One unconsciously shrinks 
 from recognizing the aesthetic equality of bodily feelings 
 with the higher impressions. Yet simple justice must 
 credit the tactual functions with a considerable share in 
 our mental, more specifically our emotional activities. 
 And tactual qualities would seem to be sufficiently vin- 
 dicated aesthetically, if mental reproductions of them are 
 conceded an honorable place in our total impressions of 
 art work. 
 
 Herder's eloquent vindication of the tactual sense rests 
 upon the contention that our appreciation of the forms 
 of things is ultimately the result of touching and han- 
 dling them, not of seeing them. Much of that which we 
 now see is simply an inference or deduction from some- 
 thing that we originally touched with the hand. Thus 
 the hand is entitled to a large share of the credit com- 
 monly given to the eye. The unaided eye reveals only 
 the color and figure of objects; the impressions of sight 
 are mere outlines, mere colored planes in various rela-
 
 266 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 tions of symmetry and proportion. Our knowledge and 
 enjoyment of form, of mass, of the substance and fibre 
 of things come originally from data furnished by touch. 1 
 
 In this plea for the recognition of the tactual sense, 
 Herder emphasizes the primal service of the hand as a 
 medium of those highly developed formal beauties of 
 which sculpture is the perfect exponent. He urges the 
 novice to approach the works of Phidias or Lysippe, to 
 close his eyes and in sacred darkness to feel with his 
 hands, to behold the first lessons of beauty, "die ersten 
 Ideen schoner Natur and der Wohlform . . . ." Herder 
 does not allude to those less refined tactual qualities that 
 have given rise to no independent representative form 
 of art. He does not explicitly lend his support to the 
 more primitive impressions mediated through bodily con- 
 tact, to the impressions of texture or consistency, of 
 temperature or atmosphere, of vital organic sensation. 
 And it is chiefly the recognition of the aesthetic propriety 
 of these qualities, together with those of taste and smell, 
 that is bitterly opposed by purists. 
 
 Those who deny artistic fitness to such tactual quali- 
 ties would be somewhat embarrassed by an analysis of 
 Hebbel's lyric style. When one observes here the preva- 
 lence of reproduced tactile and atmospheric impressions, 
 the undaunted elevation of touch to the rank of a supe- 
 rior aesthetic sense seems justified. Conversely, the view 
 that would relegate the tactual sense to the level of smell 
 and of taste becomes difficult to understand. Hegel's 
 exclusion of touch from the art-sphere, as a sense that 
 requires immediate contact with matter, may have a 
 degree of reason. 2 But when Vischer says in mock 
 
 1 Herder's Kritische Walder, Viertes Waldchen II, ch. 
 1, 3, 4, 12. Also his Plastik, Erster Abschnitt, 2, 3, etc. 
 
 2 Hegel, Vorlesungen uber Aesthetik, 2 Auflage, Berlin, 
 1842, I, S. 50; II, S. 253.
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 267 
 
 ecstasy: "What joy .... to touch the back of a bust 
 of Hercules in repose!" his satire fails through mis- 
 representation. 3 For it is conceivable that the imagi- 
 nation may be stimulated to reproductive fervor quite as 
 effectually by the tactile qualities of marble as by the 
 acoustic properties of words. Indeed, some reputable 
 art criticism has been written to show that an important 
 feature of Florentine painting from Giotto to Michel 
 Angelo consists in a sensuous treatment in which the 
 rendering of tactile values or of movement or of both 
 tends to transcend nature and to enhance the vital feel- 
 ings. 
 
 The tactual sense presents peculiar difficulties to 
 analysis owing to the extensive sense territory to which 
 this name is popularly applied. Our partial retention of 
 the name touch makes it imperative to survey briefly the 
 whole sense province of which touch, strictly speaking, 
 forms only a small section. 
 
 If we deduct from the total of sensory experience the 
 impressions delivered by the various special sense 
 organs those of sight, hearing, taste, smell there will 
 be left a considerable volume of sensations with no 
 clearly defined common characteristics and no convenient 
 general designation. There has been a tendency to refer 
 these variegated impressions to a hypothetical "Sense of 
 Feeling," a general representative mode of bodily im- 
 pression, fundamental to sensation as a whole. To sup- 
 port this hypothesis the contention is made that some- 
 thing in the nature of a Gefuhlssinn is the earliest de- 
 veloped in animal organisms; that this Gefuhlssinn is the 
 only sense present in lower animal forms and that out 
 of it through differentiation the finely specialized sense 
 
 3 Fr. Vischer, Kritische Gange, Hft. 6, Stuttgart, 1873, 
 S. 32.
 
 268 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 spheres have gradually evolved. Emphasis is laid, 
 further, upon the fact that, as a primary sense, touch 
 continues to be a leading susceptibility, even after the 
 remaining senses are fully fledged; and finally the point 
 is made that there is a peculiarly elemental power in the 
 impressions of contact, of warmth, and in the subtler 
 influences vaguely termed magnetic, electric. 
 
 Confessedly the diversified nature of "feeling-sensa- 
 tions" appears to indicate a primeval period of func- 
 tional absolutism. Unlike sights or sounds or tastes, 
 "feelings" require an equipment of nerves distributed 
 over great portions of the body, both within and without ; 
 and whereas impressions received by eye or ear or 
 tongue follow short nerve tracts from receptor to brain 
 center, there is a complicated route for the transmission 
 of "feelings," and there is no single receptor in which 
 they originate. What we have here is not a sharply 
 bounded sense sphere whose impressions have close 
 generic resemblance, but a complex mode of response 
 adapted to multiform and often genetically unrelated 
 stimuli. 
 
 Although "feeling-impressions" are as a class referable 
 to no simple receptor, nevertheless the nerves of the skin 
 are preeminently involved in their genesis and reception. 
 There is thus justification for substituting the term 
 "cutaneous sense" (Hautsinn) in place of the ambigu- 
 ous "sense of feeling." It is through dermal or cuta- 
 neous impressions that we are made aware of the sur- 
 face quality of objects in our environment; it is partly 
 through the same impressions that their weight, size and 
 shape are perceived by us. A second group of dermal 
 impressions delivers the temperature qualities of our 
 surroundings, still another reports modifications in our 
 consciousness due to disturbances in certain vital organs.
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 269 
 
 To this last class belongs our consciousness of the bodily 
 changes great and small that figure so prominently in our 
 impulsive and emotional life. 
 
 Thus these dermal or cutaneous sensations have a great 
 variety of sources. They are not restricted to peripheral 
 stimuli, whereas other sensations practically are so re- 
 stricted. An important group of "feelings" originates 
 internally or entoperipherally, for example suffocation, 
 nausea, accelerated circulation. Impressions of warmth, 
 of pressure, of tension, which are ordinarily reckoned 
 as peripheral, may arise from conditions within the vital 
 organs or the muscles and tendons and thus occur in 
 entoperipheral form. When it is recalled that only the 
 internal or entoperipheral sensations may be aroused 
 purely by mental processes such as memory, imagi- 
 nation without any actual stimulating object in the en- 
 vironment, the aesthetic importance of these sensations 
 as expressional media becomes apparent. And so poetic 
 art has honorable use for such impressions, both as fea- 
 tures in the external environment and as phases of those 
 bodily changes that attend and often condition our most 
 intense mental states. 
 
 Obviously, the sensations associated with the so-called 
 "sense of touch" embrace but a small portion of the 
 sensory experiences here briefly described. Touch is 
 accordingly generally discarded as a generic name for a 
 complete impression mode analogous with sight or smell, 
 and is confined to tactile sensations caused by mechanical 
 impact. 
 
 The whole complex of heterogeneous impressions 
 under discussion may conveniently be divided into three 
 main classes : 4 The first class embraces the dermal or 
 
 4 Cf. Angel, Psychology, 4 ed., New York, 1910, pp. Ill ff.
 
 270 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 cutaneous sensations proper and includes the elementary 
 sensation qualities of cold, warmth, pain and pressure, 
 together with these same elements in various combina- 
 tions, notably modifications of pressure, or combinations 
 of pressure and one or more of the other rudimentary 
 sensations, resulting in such (compound) qualities as 
 hardness, softness, wetness, dryness, sharpness, smooth- 
 ness, roughness. The second class comprises the kinaes- 
 thetic or motor sensations of resistance, strain, etc., re- 
 ported by nerves located in the insertions of tendons, 
 ligaments and muscles, which together with pressure 
 sensations in the hand give us the idea of weight. 
 Finally there is recognized a group of sensory expe- 
 riences, peculiar to the respiratory and circulatory pro- 
 cesses, to the alimentary tract, etc. These are the so- 
 called organic sensations, such as suffocation, nausea, 
 thirst and hunger. Though allied with cutaneous sensa- 
 tions, they are nevertheless in the manner of their mani- 
 festation sufficiently distinct to warrant isolation as ele- 
 mentary modes of sensory stimulation. 
 
 To adhere closely to the analysis outlined above would 
 carry us too far into the genetic phases of sensory expe- 
 riences, into their constituent elements and functional 
 characteristics. The kinds of external impressions to 
 which Hebbel responds, the degree of his sensitivity and 
 of his skill in reproduction, as evinced by the number, 
 variety and effectiveness of the linguistic sense symbols 
 found in his songs these are the points of especial in- 
 terest. Presumably the normal human sense organs 
 operate everywhere essentially alike, once they are stimu- 
 lated. The range of objective qualities that stimulate 
 those sense organs, however, differs widely from indi- 
 vidual to individual and from mood to mood. As a 
 manifestation of the mind and art of a great poet the
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 271 
 
 degree of response to such external stimuli becomes, 
 therefore, extremely important and merits careful study. 
 
 A classification better adapted to our object proposes 
 two main divisions of cutaneous impression, that of con- 
 tact and that of temperature. 5 Contact impressions may 
 be supposed of two kinds: those of pressure, yielding 
 qualities of the "heavy light," "strong weak" type; 
 further, those of touch, reporting objects as "smooth," 
 "rough," etc. Allied with pressure and touch impres- 
 sions are the motor or kinaesthetic sensations and the 
 internal organic disturbances. Such a classification is 
 sufficiently minute to include the qualities present in con- 
 sciousness when we note the "feelings" daily experienced, 
 without attempting to resolve them into their ultimate 
 elements. Although guided by the foregoing classifi- 
 cations in our treatment of the subject, we are induced 
 by reasons of expediency to simplify our arrangement 
 by grouping the tactual properties roughly under three 
 general heads: (1) Temperature; (2) Substance or 
 Consistency; (3) Weight. As the working basis of what 
 ensues, this threefold grouping and the nomenclature 
 involved require brief elucidation. 
 
 (1) Temperature. The tactual sense affords a group 
 of sensations arising from the presence or absence of heat 
 in matter. These sensations record qualities designated 
 by such linguistic terms as hot, cold, warm, cool, tepid, 
 lukewarm. Temperature impressions are really recorded 
 by a special receptor organ, whose function has all the 
 appearance of an elaborate sensory apparatus. Yet we 
 commonly associate many temperature qualities with 
 sensations produced in the hand, because it is here that 
 the tactual faculty is most consciously exercised. As 
 
 5 Cf. Jodl, Lehrbuch der Psychologic I, p. 318.
 
 272 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 present in the atmosphere, the temperature qualities ob- 
 viously affect an extended sensitive area; various parts 
 of the nervous organism react upon the external stimuli, 
 thus enabling the detection of heat, cold, dampness, 
 humidity, sultriness, drought. Some of these properties 
 are not referable to temperature exclusively; the sub- 
 stance or consistency of the air as matter enters into 
 their composition. Thirst and suffocation, which may 
 perhaps be included here, are composite in character and 
 difficult to analyze. Yet thirst involves sensations asso- 
 ciated with heat, drought; while suffocation is a state 
 arising in part from abnormal atmospheric conditions, 
 though always attended by characteristic vital sensations. 
 
 (2) Substance and Consistency. Our perception of 
 the substance and consistency of objects is ultimately 
 acquired through tactual sensations. For the qualities 
 that these tactual sensations record, language has cer- 
 tain definite symbols : e.g. hard soft ; rough smooth ; 
 sharp dull; wet dry. As a result of the consentient 
 co-operation of the eye and the hand we are able to detect 
 these qualities through the sense of vision as well as of 
 touch. Yet they are primarily deliverances of tactual, 
 not visual, experience, and when an object looks hard 
 or soft or rough or smooth we have an instance of ac- 
 quired, not of original impression. 
 
 (3) Weight. The experiences through which we be- 
 come conscious of weight are similar to the cutaneous 
 ones. It is to be noted, however, that vision, the well- 
 nigh indispensable helpmate of the other senses, often 
 receives instantaneously the impressions of lightness, 
 heaviness, etc., and thus renders in part unnecessary the 
 pressure and strain sensations through which alone 
 weight is ultimately appreciable. 
 
 It is pertinent to ask: What relation is sustained be-
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 273 
 
 tween these different material properties and the general 
 complex bodily state in which pleasure or pain resides? 
 Almost any of the properties included in the foregoing 
 groups excite sensations that are either pleasurable or 
 painful. Given any of them in normal proportions, the 
 resultant sensation is likely to be pleasant. It is gen- 
 erally the excess of one or more of these properties, 
 either in the outer world or in the bodily organs, that lies 
 at the base of what we call physical pain. In addition 
 to the sensations that the individual properties of matter 
 afford, we must, therefore, recognize a general status of 
 the bodily organism, agreeable or disagreeable according 
 to the adjustment of that organism to the material condi- 
 tions by which it is surrounded. 
 
 We have discussed somewhat at length the nature of 
 the tactual sense because of frequent allusions to this 
 sense in Hebbel's poetry and because of the varieties of 
 form that occur there. So many tactual perceptions are 
 blended with impressions delivered through other media, 
 that an extended discussion seemed necessary in order 
 to make acceptable the viewpoint, the enumeration and 
 the analysis that follow. 
 
 The number and the variety of allusions to tactual 
 sensations strengthen the evidence already afforded by 
 the terms of color, of sound, and of silence, that in the 
 poet Hebbel we have a remarkably alert observer pos- 
 sessed of an extraordinarily responsive sensuous organ- 
 ism. There are approximately 320 tactual allusions in 
 the poems ; of these 209 come under the head of tempera- 
 ture, 6 89 under that of substance or consistency and 22 
 
 6 We have included the allusions to thirst and to suffo- 
 cation under the head of temperature, although in some in- 
 stances of thirst the associations appear to be in part those 
 of taste. Cf. for example, Wiistenbild (VI, 328).
 
 274 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 refer to weight. The following table shows roughly the 
 distribution of the terms in question: 
 
 I. TEMPERATURE. 
 
 TABLE. 
 
 II. SUBSTANCE OR 
 CONSISTENCY. 
 
 III. WEIGHT. 
 
 I 
 
 kalt, 45 
 
 kflhl, 39 
 
 heiss, 31 
 
 warm, 21 
 
 Glut(giah-), 20 
 
 brennen, 17 
 
 frieren, 
 
 ersticken, 
 
 schwtil, 
 
 feucht, 
 
 dumpf, 
 
 lau, 
 
 tauig, 
 
 eisig, etc., 
 
 feurig, 
 
 dampfen, 
 
 8 3 
 
 6 1 
 
 6 1 
 
 4 
 
 4 74 
 
 4 or 
 
 1 36.4% 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 
 sanft, 
 
 lind, 
 
 mild. 
 
 weich, 
 
 hart, 
 
 dick, 
 
 sacht, 
 
 zart, 
 
 scharf, 
 
 raub, 
 
 nass, 
 
 schwer, 
 leicht, 
 voll, 
 leer, 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 1 7 
 
 2 or 
 
 61.8% 
 
 209 
 
 Very many of the linguistic symbols for tactual sensa- 
 tions may have a metaphorical meaning. It is one of 
 
 7 A complete table of tactual allusions ought to include 
 such passages as plainly suggest tactual sensations yet do not 
 employ any of the formal symbols included in the above 
 groups. (e.g. "Gehst du auf Moos ja doch": Vorwarts 20 
 (VI, 146). ". . . . stachligt-keusch die Gerste sticht, wenn 
 man sie noch so leise streift" : Die Odaliske 7-8 (VI, 187). 
 "Es fallt kein Stein, der ihm nicht Wunden schliige" : Das 
 abgeschiedene Kind, etc., 47 (VI, 294). "Da aber ritzt es sich 
 an einem Dorn" : Das Hermelin 5 (VI, 264). Our exposi- 
 tion fully evaluates such passages, but owing to their lack of 
 characteristic tactual symbols they could not readily be en- 
 tered into the table. Passages that portray emotional states 
 through media of organic sensations and yet do not employ 
 any of the more formal symbols of the tactual sense, are not 
 considered. (e.g. "Wie die Brust sich dehne, sie fiihlt's 
 zuletzt," etc.; "Wenn auch dies das Herz beschwert"; "was 
 wir sind, das fuhl' ich kraftig.") These should properly be 
 considered in connection with the physical concomitants of 
 emotion.
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 275 
 
 the poetic strains inherent in the genius of language that 
 so many sensuous terms admit of this double application. 
 Thus we speak of soft fabric and soft slumber, the hot 
 sun and hot desire, cold winds and cold disdain. A 
 glance at the table above and the examples cited below 
 will show that Hebbel appreciates to the full the rich 
 resources of his mother tongue in this regard. 8 Outside 
 of Glut and brennen (which strictly speaking are always 
 figurative when construed as feeling), 9 the highest per- 
 centage of metaphorical employment occurs in: sanft 
 with 83 per cent; hart, 75 per cent; zart, 75 per cent; 
 mild, 73 per cent ; schwer, 46 per cent ; kalt, 40 per cent ; 
 lind, 38 per cent; weich, 33 per cent. 
 
 This metaphorical application of tactual terms to spir- 
 itual qualities must detain us a moment. Undoubtedly 
 there are distinct bodily experiences at the basis of meta- 
 phors such as "heavy-hearted," "hot-tempered." Such 
 phrases do not merely illustrate poetry's predilection for. 
 elementary names of physical commonplaces to denote 
 
 8 ". . . . ein frommer, sanfter Tod" : Der Quell 56 
 (VII, 16). "Ein hartes Schicksal" : Die Perle 10 (VII, 53). 
 "Heisser Schmerz" : Einfalle 36 (VII, 54). "Frostnachtleben" : 
 An Laura 24 (VII, 50). "Und treiben viel frostigen Scherz" : 
 Vinum sacrum 14 (VII, 148). "schwere heil'ge Stille" : Kinder- 
 loos 15 (VII, 162). "Sich kalt beschau'n" : Horaz und seine 
 Regel 35 (VII, 200). "Wie von gottlichem Segen schwer": Die 
 Weihe der Nacht 3 (VI, 285). "Wie schlief er so schwer 
 und bang": Der Kranke 2 (VI, 262). ". . . . da ward der Bann 
 gesprengt, der winterschwer uns Alle eingezwangt" : Prolog zum 
 26 Februar, 1862, 3-4 (VI, 418). 
 
 9 "Wohl brennet des Schmerzes lodernde Glut" : Erin- 
 nerung 9 (VII, 12). ". . . . es gliihte in der Brust" : Das 
 Abendmahl des Herrn 20 (VII, 122). "brennt ein rastlos Sehnen 
 wund das Herz": Lied 15-6 (VII, 34). ". . . . kiihlt ihr nicht, 
 was brennt und gluht in tiefster Seele mein !" : Der Schafer 15- 
 6 (VII, 113). ". . . . in hohem Zorn entbrennend" : Rauber und 
 Henker 69 (VII, 181). "die inn're Glut, von Gott uns einge- 
 haucht" : Wir Menschen sind gefror'ne Gott-Gedanken 2 (VII, 
 187).
 
 276 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 more complex spiritual states. Analogously, positive 
 sensuous stimulations may lie at the basis of epithets for 
 mental qualities finer and more elusive than sorrow and 
 anger. The German terms weich, lind, sanft, are often 
 so applied to gentle traits of manner or temperament; 
 and indeed such traits, as well as the designation for 
 them, may conceivably awaken nervous responses nearly 
 identical with those that underlie pleasant cutaneous 
 sensations. As quietude is both a physical and a psychical 
 phenomenon, so the qualities of tenderness and fineness 
 of nature, or their opposites, draw somewhat upon mate- 
 rial sources of impression. Poetry constantly presents to 
 us refined or coarse-fibred creatures, softness and mild- 
 ness, or the reverse, in bearing, speech or glance. In the 
 real world, as in the world of fancy, natures are hurt to 
 the quick by one contact, caressed by another; they are 
 ruffled or smoothed, they are mentally allayed as through 
 some healing balm, or they are chafed and bruised, they 
 feel an agreeable emotional tingle or a sharp, unpleasant 
 smart. And the terms that name these mental states 
 quicken in us the consciousness of impressions akin to 
 pleasant or unpleasant dermal properties. 
 
 Hebbel often employs sanft, or rauh, or hart with ref- 
 erence to such psychical qualities. For him such terms 
 doubtless represented more than perfunctory transfer- 
 ence of concrete epithets to psychic facts. Considering 
 his marked sensitivity, the conclusion appears safe that 
 expressions like lind, weich, palpably reproduced in his 
 consciousness the corporeal associations that blend with 
 the mental qualities so named. 10 His allusions to sleep 
 
 iO" S anfte Dulderin": Laura 50 (VII, 19). "Engelskind- 
 lein, sanft und mild": Rosa 149 (VII, 28). "Unschuld nahrt sie 
 ja sanft": Liebe 5 (VII, 36). "Sie war so himmlisch milde": 
 Den Glaubensstreitern 11 (VII, 65). "Keiner Thrane milden 
 Trost": Das Wiedersehen 75 (VII, 109). "Das schmeichelt
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 277 
 
 are in point here. Sanft, lind, mild, are the epithets 
 commonly employed in this connection, seemingly in ref- 
 erence to Sleep personified as some lightsome, gentle 
 spirit; yet the suggestion of gentleness comes by way of 
 those movements produced when there is presented to 
 the mind the idea of agreeable touch qualities. 11 
 
 Another group of passages in the lyrics seems to illus- 
 trate the merging of tactual sensations with those of light 
 and color, of sound, or of odor and taste. Such merging 
 would seem inevitable in view of Hebbel's fondness for 
 sensuous combinations. The composite nature of certain 
 modes of sensory stimuli seems especially adapted to 
 blendings and thus favors the poet's natural tendency. 12 
 These are sometimes due to the combination of symbols 
 referring to two or more distinct classes of sensations 
 (e.g. those of light and touch; 13 or of sound and 
 
 alien Sinnen lind": Auf eine Verlassene 4 (VII, 160). ". . . . von 
 sanftem Reiz umstralt" : Drei Schwestern 1 (VI, 405). "Bis ich 
 in sanftem Weh verging": Ein f nines Liebesleben 155 (VI, 199). 
 "Doch zweifl' ich, ob sie milde blicken konnen, und mehr noch, 
 ob sie mir ihr Mildes gonnen" : Stanzen auf ein Sicilianisches 
 Schwesterpaar 55-6 (VI, 215). "Nicht in Augen, sanft geho- 
 ben," etc.: Das Opfer des Friihlings 3 (VI, 217). "Und der 
 Engel des Todes umfasste mild der trostlosen Unschuld trau- 
 erndes Bild" : Das Kind 13-4 (VII, 66). "Und all dies linde 
 Kosen": Der Kranke 9 (VI, 262). 
 
 11 ". . . . schwebte nieder lind und mild, nahte ihr mit 
 Zephyrleichtem Schritte": Der Traumgott 10-1 (VII, 96). 
 "Und der Schlaf, der ewig milde, schliesst ihm bald die Augen 
 dicht": Waldbilder 93-4 (VI, 221). "Schlaf, da nahst du dich 
 leis," etc.: Nachtlied 9 (VI, 143). "Und meine Augen schlossen 
 sich, vom Schlummer leicht begriisst," etc. : Ein f riihes Liebes- 
 leben 157-160 (VI, 199). 
 
 12 In "Der Aesth. Genuss," Chap. II, Gross classifies the 
 synthetic products of the spiritual reproductive faculty. He 
 names the first class "Verwachsungen," and mentions among 
 them "tone-blendings," composites from different sense spheres 
 accepted by the naive consciousness as qualitatively "einheitlich." 
 
 13 Light and Touch. "Sanft verschmolzen mit der reinsten 
 Giite ....": Der Traumgott 7 (VII, 96). "Wie scheint die 
 Sonne lind und hell": Auf dem Kirchhof 1 (VII, 146). "Du
 
 278 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 touch; 14 odor and touch). 16 Often again there is no such 
 combination, the perceptions merely appear to hover 
 dimly between two sensuous spheres without conveying 
 distinct and characteristic impressions of either one: 
 "Wie einen frischen Blutenstrauss, .... so duftig und 
 so thauig blank": Genesungsgejuhl, 20-2 (VI, 172). 
 
 The terms Glut and brennen were discussed chiefly in 
 the chapter on Light and Color, as applying in most cases 
 
 spielst, ein sanf tes Abendroth, in meine Brust hinein" : Ein f riihes 
 Liebesleben 185 (VI, 199). ". . . . sanfte Bilder; immer inniger 
 und milder": Spatziergang am Herbstabend 5-6 (VI, 231). 
 "Dank* ich so mancher Stelle voll kuhler Waldesnacht" : Som- 
 merreise 19-20 (VI, 276). "Aus dem goldnen Morgen-Qualm," 
 etc.: Meisengluck 1 (VI, 284). "Bliite, die in leuchtend-klarer 
 Schonheit nie der Wind gestreift" : Thorwaldsens Ganymed, etc., 
 3-4 (VI, 281). "Erstes Licht aus Ostens Thor, quoll, jungfrau- 
 lich zart, hervor" : Emil Rousseau 3-4 (VII, 163). 
 
 14 Sound and Touch. "Komm ! Komm ! Spielt es lind und 
 weich ihm um das Ohr" : Ein nachtliches Echo 23-4 (VI, 150). 
 "Setzt auf eine seiner Hande sich die kleinste Miicke sacht" : 
 Unterm Baum 15-6 (VI, 272). ". . . . sanft platschert ein 
 Springbrunn im Hof": La chiesa sptteranea, etc., 10 (VI, 332). 
 ". . . . du setztest dich leicht auf eine Narbe" : Auf eine Biene, 
 etc., 11 (VI, 333). "die sanfte Walking des Lebens": Platen 5 
 (VI, 354). ". . . . fiirs menschliche Ohr sanft zur Musik sich 
 gedampft": Villa reale, etc., 8 (VI, 336). "Und Weste umsau- 
 seln sie lau und klar": Das Kind 25 (VII, 66). "Schalkhaft 
 weckt' er (i.e. Zephyr) mich dann, leise, mit sanf tern Kuss": Ein 
 Mittag 11 (VII, 101). 
 
 15 Odor and Touch. ". . . . liess die Gaste ersticken mit 
 Veilchen": Italiens erster Gruss 1 (VI, 331). "Mit Wonne trank 
 ich die durchgltihte Luft und eines Veilchenstrausses lauen 
 Duft": Spatziergang in Paris 3-4 (VI, 241). "umstromt mich 
 .... der gluhendste Duft": Proteus 28 (VI, 253). "Als hin zu 
 der schwiilen Statte der erste Lenzhauch drang" : Der Kranke 
 3-4 (VI, 262). "verstromt .... den flammenheissen Duft": Vol- 
 lendung 7-8 (VI, 311). Cf. Ein friihes Liebesleben 149-156 (VI, 
 199) ; Emil Rousseau 22-3 (VII, 163). 
 
 Taste in combination with touch occurs chiefly in a few 
 metaphors containing references to the sensation of thirst : 
 ". . . . Spritzend senkt der Thau sich auf das durst'ge Land" : 
 Ein nachtliches Echo 3-4 (VI, 150). "die Sonne hat ihn fast 
 verbrannt, der Regen trankt den durst'gen nie": Der Baum in 
 der Wiiste 3-4 (VI, 238). "Wenn ich .... den Hauch ge- 
 trunken habe" : Morgen und Abend 7-8 (VI, 264).
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 279 
 
 to the impression of light more prominently than that of 
 touch. Perhaps it is nearer the truth to say that in the 
 majority of passages where Glut and brennen occur the 
 impression is neither distinctly and exclusively that of 
 light nor yet of heat, but rather a sensuous blend in which 
 both elements are present. The beauty of such blends 
 is enhanced when the boundary between material and 
 spiritual becomes attenuated, the mind wavering back 
 and forth between the sensuous and the figurative in 
 delightful indecision of impression. In the poems Vol- 
 lendung (VI, 311), and Ein Bild (VI, 326), the trans- 
 fusion and interblending of sense impressions among one 
 another and the subtle merging of imagery is perfect. 
 One shrinks from dissection here, as one shrinks from 
 disengaging the strands of a dream, or the myriad stimuli 
 that vibrate on a perfect summer day: 
 
 " Von einer Wunderblume lasst mich traumen ! 
 
 Der Tag verschwendet seine reichsten Stralen, 
 In aller Farben Glut sie auszumalen; 
 Die Nacht versucht, mit Perlen sie zu saumen. 
 
 Bald wird das Leben in ihr uberschaumen, 
 Und brennend, die Gestirne zu bezahlen, 
 Verstromt sie aus der Kelche Opferschaalen 
 
 Den flammenheiszen Duft nach alien Raumen. 
 
 Doch, dass einmal das Schonste sich vollende, 
 Verschliesst der Himmel seine durst'gen Lippen 
 Vor ihrem Opfer, und es senkt sich wieder. 
 
 Wie sie den Duft in jede Feme sende, 
 
 Nicht Mond, noch Sonne, nicht ein Stern darf nippen, 
 
 Er wird zu Thau und sinkt auf sie hernieder." 
 
 Vollendung (VI, 311) 
 For Ein Bild, see below, p. 290.
 
 280 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 We pass now to a closer inspection of the part played 
 by the tactual sensations in Hebbel's poetic concepts. 
 The passages in which these sensations occur are either 
 exclusively or preponderantly descriptive, so that it is no 
 longer necessary to insist here upon the distinction be- 
 tween description and narration, a distinction which in 
 the earlier discussions seemed expedient. In the main 
 we adhere to the divisions adopted in the treatment of 
 colors and of sounds. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF PHYSICAL NATURE 
 
 (1) Atmosphere. Temperature is a most important 
 medium between the physical world and the human or- 
 ganism. Through this channel come a swarm of sensa- 
 tions and perceptions, the bodily organs and indirectly 
 the mental faculties responding with instant alacrity to 
 atmospheric stimuli. We therefore naturally look for 
 frequent reference to atmospheric conditions in the works 
 of a poet endowed with keen sense organs, in whose 
 poetic creed man and nature sustain an intimate relation- 
 ship. Hebbel was obviously extremely sensitive to at- 
 mosphere. Weather descriptions appear in the diaries so 
 early and so continuously as to minimize the likelihood 
 of borrowed mannerism. 16 The animated allusions in 
 this connection indicate that weather conditions greatly 
 affected the poet's spiritual faculties. The entry on 
 October 16, 1839, is a fair illustration: 17 "Es ist ein 
 triiber, wasserigt-nebliger Octobermorgen, Alles, was ich 
 
 16 Werner suggests that the persistent weather comments 
 beginning with Tgb. I, 1324, were due to Rahel's example. See 
 Tgb. I, 1324, footnote. 
 
 "Tgb. I, 1701. Cf. also Tgb. I, 1319: "Ein wahres 
 Selbstmordwetter ; trister feiner Regen, grauer, verschlossener 
 Himmel" ; and as a contrast to the foregoing see Tgb. II, 2543 : 
 "Schone Tage! Sonnenschein ! Hitze! Abendliche Milde! Eine 
 voile Seele!"
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 281 
 
 beginne, widert mich an, die Menschen auf der Strasse 
 sehen alle grau, verdriesslich und ernsthaft aus, Kinder 
 schreien und aus der Feme tont eine heisere Drehorgel 
 zu mir heriiber." Features of elemental environment, 
 to which Hebbel was peculiarly susceptible nighttime, 
 starry sky, bright sunshine are affected by certain 
 phases of atmosphere in a way powerfully to stimulate 
 his fancy: "Heute Abend ging ich gegen 7 Uhr in der 
 grimmigen Kalte .... spatzieren. Es war heller, 
 scharfer Mondschein, der mich, wie es mir vorkam, die 
 Kalte doppelt empfinden Hess; reiner blauer Himmel 
 voll (vor Frost, denkt man unwillkurlich) zitternder 
 Sterne." 18 Other passages in the diaries show how read- 
 ily sensibility and imagination respond to the change 
 from frost and chilly wind to agreeable warmth, from 
 cloud and rain to clear sky and cheering sunlight. 19 The 
 relief of cool, light rainfall after oppressive heat is grate- 
 fully recorded. 20 A change of this kind in the tempera- 
 ture involved for his organism suggestive transitions 
 and contrasts, and the poetic bearing of such transitions 
 and contrasts appears from another passage, where fancy 
 augments the tortures of prolonged heat by conjuring up 
 a marble palace with great, cool halls and plashing 
 fountains. 21 Naturally, then, the poet calls his sensa- 
 tions and feelings Erlebtes Gedicht, when, seated in his 
 hot room one still summer night, the cool odors from the 
 rain-freshened garden stream through the opened win- 
 dow. 22 
 
 In his lyrics Hebbel reveals the same sensitiveness to 
 
 18 Tgb. I, 1349. Cf. "Im Winter sieht man seinen Odem," 
 Tgb. IV, 5869. 
 
 19 Tgb. I, 1342; Tgb. 11,2143. 
 
 20 Tgb. II, 3119; 3185. 
 
 21 Tgb. II, 3164; see also Tgb. II, 2582. 
 
 22 Tgb. I, 1262.
 
 282 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 heat and cold. He alludes frequently to humidity or the 
 coolness of the scene of action. Alert tactual sensibility 
 would be the only inference warrantable from some of 
 these atmospheric contrasts ; an organism endowed with 
 exceptional readiness of response, and a commensurate 
 power of vivid verbal reproduction. Sometimes a con- 
 trast of one condition with another results in a passage 
 of great suggestive power. The best of these passages 
 evince something higher than mere sensitive adjustment 
 to external excitants. They mark a phase of the imagi- 
 native process analogous with the reasonings and gen- 
 eralizings of intellection. A stage still further removed 
 from barometric registration is reached when through 
 imagination the contrasted elements assume the character 
 of allied or hostile living forces, and inanimate activities 
 blend with great cosmic thrills and impulses: 
 
 " Doch, ihn selber (i.e. den Friihling) kiihlend, stehlen 
 Sie (i.e. die Morgenwinde) so viel der holden Glut, 
 Als, die Blumen, die noch fehlen, 
 Zu erwecken, nothig thut." 
 
 Das Opfer des Fruhlings, 29-32 (VI, 217) 
 Cf. also Vorfriihling (VI, 228) 
 
 There is little cant in these atmospheric contrasts. Heb- 
 bel is sparing of hackneyed conventions, which not the 
 greatest singers of love and nature not Goethe and 
 Heine even altogether and always can avoid. The con- 
 trasts even those unenlivened by fancy are generally 
 the genuine poetic flowering of genuinely assimilated 
 nurture. They have the nerve-fibre of living tissue. 23 
 
 28 " Und auch draussen 16s' t sich jetzt die Schwiile, 
 Die zerrissnen Wolken, Regen schwanger, 
 Schiitten ihn herab auf Hain und Anger, 
 Und hinein zur Hiitte dringt die Kiihle." 
 
 Liebessauber, 105-8 (VI, 156)
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 283 
 
 The number and variety of atmospheric states re- 
 corded, the skill displayed in the deft suggestion of 
 atmospheric features, the telling effects secured by the 
 employment of wind and weather as excitant or accom- 
 paniment of particular moods, the recurrence of atmos- 
 phere in metaphor, arising from the subtle associations 
 between respiration on the one hand and emotional states 
 of ecstasy or depression on the other 24 these attest a 
 marked responsiveness, a rare acuteness of the tactile 
 sensibilities coupled with a fine appreciation of their 
 poetic propriety. 
 
 " Droben jene Wetterwolke, 
 
 . . . . ist mir sehr willkommen, 
 Denn die Mittagssonne sticht. 
 All die sengend-heissen Stralen, 
 Die uns drohen, loscht sie aus," etc. 
 
 Lied, 5-10 (VI, 151) 
 
 ". . . . wenn .... kiihl die Nebelhauche wallen, .... in den 
 warmen Wind sich mischend" : Herbstgefiihl 9-12 (VI, 230). 
 "Wie ein sauselnder Westwind uns am Mittag die Wange kiih.lt" : 
 Die Nacht 19-20 (VII, 26). "Als bin zu der schwulen Statte der 
 erste Lenzhauch drang," etc.: Der Kranke 3-8 (VI, 262). "Sind 
 rings die Meere verdtinstet, welche mit linderndem Hauch sonst 
 doch die Glut wohl gekiihlt ?" : Ein Scirocco-Tag in Rom 1-2 
 (VI, 334). 
 
 2 *"trinkt des Himmels Lufte": Mann und Weib 11 (VI, 
 321). ". . . . ein Hauch, der, leise schwellend, den Busen hebt 
 .... eh' er ein Lied noch beseelt" : Dedication under "Epi- 
 gramme und Verwandtes," 3-4 (VI, 326). 
 
 " Goss die (i.e. die Sonne) auf ihn hernieder 
 Der Stralen heisse Glut, 
 So kiihlte ihn der Lotos 
 Durch seiner Dufte Flut." 
 
 Horn und Flote, 13-6 (VI, 261) 
 
 " Da schoss die Sonne ihre Flammen-Pfeile. 
 Die Rosen loschten sie im Thau, dem kiihlen," etc. 
 
 Ein Bild, 11-2 (VI, 326) 
 " Und dankt den Sonnenstralen, 
 Vom kuhlen Laub gedeckt," etc. 
 
 Ein Wald, 13-4 (VI, 397)
 
 284 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 And so gentle warmth, mild and refreshing coolness, 
 as well as the extremes of heat and cold enter as natural 
 setting into the play of passion depicted in the lyrics. 
 This is but another illustration of the vital, human prin- 
 ciple in Hebbel's lyric poetry, which rarely permits the 
 more commonplace phases of the all-pervading life and 
 stir of nature to fade from consciousness. With the 
 birds and the flowers we revel in dewy coolness, we in- 
 hale the soft breath of zephyrs. 25 Chill mists and ice- 
 cold winds numb and pierce us. 26 Heat and humidity 
 with the discomfort that they entail, summer with its 
 scorching sunbeams, its oppressive noons and sultry 
 nights all these exert their depressing influence. 27 The 
 
 25 "Schlummernd im schwellenden Grim liegst du, wo 
 Liifte dich fachelnl": Einziges Geschiedensein 1-2 (VI, 212). 
 "All dies linde Kosen, das Bluten gelockt aus dem Baum" : Der 
 Kranke 9-10 (VI, 262). "Ihm kiisst ein kiihler Hauch die heissen 
 Wangen": Sonnet 9 (VII, 174). "Die Liifte spielten lau. Da 
 sauselt's ihm so lind und suss," etc. : Der Schafer 4-8 (VII, 
 113). Cf. Tgb. I, 877; Das Gefiihl nachmittags im Grase ein- 
 zuschlafen, etc. 
 
 26 ". . . . wenn .... kiihl die Nebelhauche wallen," etc. : 
 Herbstgefiihl 9-10 (VI, 230). "Da wird es so triibe, da wird es 
 so kalt": Proteus 8 (VI, 253). ". . . . kalt pfiff der Wind": 
 Vater und Sohn 29 (VI, 427). "Der Wind weht schaurig und 
 kalt": Rosa 8 (VII, 28). "Der Wind pfiff eisig und kalt": Rosa 
 132. "Es ist so kalt": Kindesmorderin 19 (VII, 68). ". . . . pfeift 
 aus Norden der Wind so kalt und barsch" : Die Schlacht bei 
 Hemmingstedt 26 (VII, 90). "der kalte Wind": Winterland- 
 schaft 4 (VII, 165). 
 
 27 "In heissen Sommertagen" : Knabentod 3 (VI, 147). 
 "all die sengend-heissen Stralen" : Lied 9 (VI, 151). "Schwiil 
 wird diese Nacht": Liebeszauber 1 (VI, 156). "Der warme 
 Sommer scheidet mit seinem letzten Stral" : Ein Dithmarsischer 
 Bauer 1-2 (VI, 160). ". . . . dick und rauchend steigen Wolken 
 heissen Dufts empor" : Opfer des Frtihlings 53-4 (VI, 217). 
 "Die Sonne hat ihn fast verbrannt, der Regen trankt den 
 durst'gen nie": Der Baum in der Wuste 3-4 (VI, 238). ". . . . die 
 Gluten, die euch weckten, drohen jetzt, euch zu ersticken" : Die 
 Rosen im Siiden 4-5 (VI, 277). ". . . . die Briider .... die 
 erstickt der Sonnenbrand" : Der Tod kennt den Weg 19-20 
 (VI, 394). "Die Nacht lag dumpf und briitend" : Stillstes Leben 
 4 (VII, 140). Cf. also Ein Wald 12 (VI, 397); Der Zauberer 
 31 (VII, 51), and elsewhere.
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 285 
 
 heavy, suffocating atmosphere that precedes a shower 
 pervades the early part of Liebeszauber: 
 
 " Schwiil wird diese Nacht .... 
 
 Alles Leben ist in sich verschlossen, 
 Kaum nur, dass ich miihsam Athem hole ; 
 Selbst im Beete dort die Nachtviole 
 Hat den siissen Duft noch nicht ergossen." 
 
 Liebeszauber, 1; 5-8 (VI, 156) 
 
 This life-smothering sultriness is represented as con- 
 tinuing until the climax of the little love-drama is 
 reached. Then, as though Nature had delayed relief 
 in order to augment the happy resolution, the clouds 
 unburden their rain upon field and meadow, and into 
 the stifling heat of the hovel rush currents of rain- 
 cooled air : 
 
 " Und auch draussen los't sich jetzt die Schwiile, 
 Die zerrissnen Wolken, Regen schwanger, 
 Schiitten ihn herab auf Hain und Anger, 
 Und hinein zur Hiitte dringt die Kuhle." 
 
 Liebeszauber, 105-8 (VI, 156) 
 
 As a rule locality and climate are not specifically indi- 
 cated in these allusions to temperature. Yet occasionally 
 atmospheric phenomena characteristic of a definite place 
 or season afford the external setting and the germinal 
 impulse. "Autumn" so runs a passage in his diary 
 "firmly establishes the boundary between Inner and 
 Outer, it separates Mortal from Nature and restores to 
 him the consciousness of Self." 28 In the poem Herbst- 
 gefuhl, written three years earlier, luminous and atmos- 
 pheric phenomena of spring are contrasted with those 
 
 28 Tgb. I, 1785, October 28, 1839.
 
 286 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 of autumn, and the physical conditions peculiar to the 
 season act in each case as setting for the emotions 
 aroused. To the falling red leaves, more especially to 
 the cold mists and commingled warm winds, is ascribed 
 a strange potency to awaken autumnal moods typical of 
 Hebbel. 29 That features of local and seasonal environ- 
 ment could on occasion provoke the poet to characteristic 
 production is further confirmed by the poem Bin 
 Scirocco-Tag in Rom. With effective objectivity a vivid 
 scene of torrid stupor is here spread before us, out of 
 which float like stifling fumes the feelings and fancies 
 to which such experience naturally gives rise: 
 
 " Steht in Flammen die Welt ? Sind rings die Meere 
 
 verdiinstet, 
 Welche mit linderndem Hauch sonst doch die Glut 
 
 wohl gekuhlt? 
 Sinken sie alle in Asche zusammen, die Stadte der 
 
 Menschen ? 
 Walzt den gliihenden Qualm langsam heriiber der 
 
 Wind? 
 Oder ist's der Scirocco, der zwar die Orange uns 
 
 zeitigt 
 Und die Traube uns kocht, aber uns selbst auch 
 
 erstickt, 
 So dass Jeglicher zweifelt, er werde die Friichte noch 
 
 kosten. 
 Die er uns siisst, und des Weins, den er uns wurzt, 
 
 sich erfreu'n? 
 
 Sei es, was es auch sei, das blosse Athmen wird Arbeit, 
 Und das Leben begrabt scheu sich im dumpfesten 
 
 Schlaf, 
 Kaum noch rettet es sich den leisen Wunsch, zu 
 
 erwachen, 
 
 Denn es fiihlt sich dem Tod, fiihlt sich dem Nichts 
 schon zu nah' !" 
 
 Ein Scirocco-Tag in Rom. (VI, 334) 
 
 2 Herbstgef iihl (VI, 230).
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 287 
 
 (2) Scenery. We instinctively associate particular 
 tactual sensations with certain aspects of scenery of 
 which atmosphere is a characteristic and essential fea- 
 ture. So the poet often leads us in fancy to cool, damp 
 grottoes, 30 to delicious forest shades, 31 or refreshing 
 springs. 32 Obviously such cool retreats awaken at times 
 unpleasant feelings, notably when thoughts of death 
 come into play. For death is a frequent element in the 
 economy of Hebbel's verse, and while allusions to this 
 theme are not always characterized by aversion, they are 
 uniformly attended by images of the grave and the cold, 
 drear ground. 33 Other passages again evince an unmis- 
 
 30 "In die kiihle Felsengrotte tritt der junge Jager ein. 
 Heiss ist's draussen, um zu schlummern, legt er still sich auf's 
 Gestein": Waldbilder 88 (VI, 221). ". . . . wenn ich entsteige 
 der thauigen Gruft": Proteus 27 (VI, 253). "O, sauselt lind', 
 ihr Weste, ob dieser kiihlen Gruft": Laura 9-10 (VII, 19). "Sie 
 steigen schwer und langsam zur dumpfen Gruft hinab" : Der 
 alten Cotter Abendmahl 26 (VII, 132). "Wenn der Tag sich 
 senkt in die kuhlige Gruft": Lied der Geister 1 (VII, 63). "Er 
 sucht umsonst im feuchten Gestein ein Lager" : Das Licht will 
 sich verstecken 17-8 (VII, 173). 
 
 3 1 "Rings schon der kiihle Wald": Vorwarts 16 (VI, 146). 
 "dank' ich so mancher Stelle voll kiihler Waldesnacht" : Som- 
 merreise 19-20 (VI, 276). "Im kiihlen Schatten dicht ver- 
 
 schlung'ner Aeste" : An eine Romerin 11 (VI, 308). " in 
 
 den dicken Wald ; hier ist es kiihl zu gehen" : Wohin so flink, etc., 
 5-6 (VI, 441). "Vom kiihlen Laub gedeckt" : Ein Wald 14 
 (VI, 397). ". . . . dies Blatt, dies kalt benetzte" : Spatziergang 
 am Herbstabend 23 (VI, 231). ". . . . kiihlte ihn der Lotos 
 durch seiner Diifte Flut": Horn und Flote 15-6 (VI, 261). 
 
 32" zum kiihlen Quell": Der Quell 26 (VII, 16). "eine 
 kiihle Quelle": Die drei grossen Tage 24 (VII, 62). 
 
 33 ". . . . in dein kiihl Gemach hernieder" : An einen Ver- 
 kannten 15 (VII, 40). "moge so das Grab sich kiihlig beugen" : 
 An Laura 27 (VII, 50). ". . . . schlaft . . . . im Grabe sanft 
 und kiihl": Der Zauberer 32 (VII, 51). "bis mich kalt die Erde 
 deckt": Fragment 4 (VII, 53). "Ein kiihlig Grab!": Die 
 Kindesmorderin 30 (VII, 68). "das kalte Grab": Melancholic 
 einer Stunde 14 (VII, 98). "des Grabes, ach des kalten" : Der 
 Kirchhof 19 (VII, 100). "Klang der Spharen .... tonet in 
 dein kiihl Gemach hernieder" : An einen Verkannten 13-5 (VII, 
 40).
 
 288 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 takable fondness for the cool, dark earth, despite all 
 sepulchral associations ; 34 and positively agreeable sensa- 
 tions are reproduced when Hebbel represents the dew 
 falling upon dry fields or cooling the parched lips of 
 flowers. 35 
 
 (3) Flowers and Foliage. Dermal sensations enter 
 imperceptibly into the feelings evoked by objects in 
 nature, very much as sight plays an unappreciated part 
 in the process of localizing sounds. We are often re- 
 ceiving unconscious impressions of surface when we 
 imagine ourselves revelling altogether in forms and 
 colors. Actually to recline upon soft, fresh grass is to 
 come into closer touch spiritually as well as bodily 
 with the throbbing life of nature. A passage in the diary 
 records just such communion with nature through the 
 link of bodily contact: "Das Gefiihl Nachmittags im 
 Grase einzuschlaf en : Gesumse der Kafer, Sonnen- 
 stralen, sauselnde Liifte, all das reiche Leben rings 
 umher" (Tgb. I, 877). In the lyrics Hebbel gen- 
 erally represents verdure through the medium of more 
 striking features than those recorded by touch. Occa- 
 sionally, however, the surface qualities of such objects 
 are emphasized: "Wo .... stachligt-keusch die Gerste 
 sticht, wenn man sie noch so leise streift" is an in- 
 stance of this from the poem Die Odaliske 5-6 (VI, 
 187). Similarly, the pleasures of actual contact with 
 
 * "die ktihle Erdel": Ritter Fortunat 64 (VII, 88). "doch 
 ist's wunderkiihl im tiefen Erdengrunde" : Wiedersehen 41-2 
 (VII, 134). "als kiihle Erde wiirde sie mich freundlich iiber- 
 decken": Der Mensch 53-4 (VII, 107). 
 
 86 "Spritzend senkt der Thau sich auf das durst'ge Land" : 
 Ein nachtliches Echo 3-4 (VI, ISO). ". . . . dies Tranken der 
 durstigen Au !" : Proteus 24 (VI, 253). ". . . . wie sie (die 
 Blumen) den Thau .... mit heissem Mund begierig in sich 
 tranken": Ein Bild 2-4 (VI, 326).
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 289 
 
 foliage or bloom are specifically noted. 36 Thus we are 
 covered in fancy by falling leaves, or we are aroused 
 from sleep when overhanging branches shake their 
 feathery blossoms down upon us. 37 More subtle, more 
 suggestive of the tactile sensations that glide unawares 
 into our impressions, are the allusions to flowers waving 
 delicate, tender heads ; to the petals fluttering softly to 
 the ground. 38 Even the fragrance of the blossoms par- 
 takes of tactual quality. The odor of the rose, its vital 
 breath, Hebbel by an old fancy represents as hot with 
 passion. 39 Similarly the juice of the cherry is conceived 
 to be hot, like the blood of passionate youth. 40 In the 
 
 36 "Es darf sich f rohlich legen .... in's weiche Grim" : 
 Das Kind 21-2 (VII, 74). ". . . . wie auf weichem Moos": 
 Romanze, 35 (VII, 42). "Schlummernd im schwellenden 
 Griin": Einziges Geschiedensein 1 (VI, 212). "Spielte mit 
 Engeln auf weichem Grim!": Das Kind 32 (VII, 66). 
 
 37 "Durch milden Blutenregen weckt' inn .... der Baum" : 
 Liebesgeheimniss 11-2 (VII, 145). "Doch der Baum, sie iiber- 
 ragend, streut auf sie die Bliiten leise" : Das Venerabile, etc., 34-5 
 (VI, 286). "Einst bin ich unter'm Maienbaum gelegen .... wie 
 sind die Bliiten da um mich gestoben !" : Im romischen Carneval 
 1-3 (VI, 308). "Die Blatter fallen schon mit Macht, um ihn zu 
 decken": Zauberhain 37-8 (VI, 387). 
 
 38 ". . . . da heben die Blumen sich .... schon und 
 mild": An Ludwig Uhland 5-6 (VII, 99). "Wie zarte Friih- 
 lingsbliite auf der Au" : Lied 43-4 (VII, 34). "yon Duft betaubt, 
 fallst du in tiefen Schlummer, ein Rosenblatt, in einen Brunnen 
 fliegend" : An ein schones Kind 7-8 (VI, 321). "Die Rosen 
 tranken fort mit siisser Muhe, bis ihre Kelche fast zur Erde 
 sanken": Ein Bild 7-8 (VI, 326). 
 
 39 "brennend" : Vollendung 6. "den flammenheissen Duft" : 
 Vollendung 8 (VI, 311). "wie sie (die Blumen) den Thau 
 .... mit heissem Mund begierig in sich tranken" : Ein Bild 
 2-4 (VI, 326). "Wenn sie (die Rosen) auch noch heiss're Diifte, 
 als die rothen, in sich tranken!": Der Zauberhain 11-2 (VI, 387). 
 Cf. Tgb. I, 1620. 
 
 40 " Dein Mund ist reif jetzt fur den ersten Kuss, 
 
 Er gleicht der Herzenskirsche, die zersprang 
 Vor aller Feuersafte letztem Schuss, 
 
 Und nun verspritzt, was sie so heiss durchdrang." 
 Auf ein errothendes junges Mddchen, das ich im 
 Louvre sah, 5-8 (VI, 213)
 
 290 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 following beautiful floral picture, with its highly imagi- 
 native treatment of simple phenomena, Hebbel resorts 
 mainly to sensations of temperature for the portrayal of 
 the passions attributed to the personified flowers: 
 
 " Im Morgenwinde sah ich Blumen wanken 
 
 Und sah, wie sie den Thau der gold'nen Fruhe, 
 Dass jede voller dufte, tiefer gliihe, 
 Mit heissem Mund begierig in sich tranken. 
 
 Gesattigt sah ich bald die meisten schwanken, 
 Als glaubten sie, dass keine nun verbliihe, 
 Die Rosen tranken fort mit siisser Muhe, 
 
 Bis ihre Kelche fast zur Erde sanken. 
 
 Die andern wiegten sich in Lustgefuhlen, 
 Sie wollten eben lauten Spott erheben, 
 Da schoss die Sonne ihre Flammen-Pfeile. 
 
 Die Rosen loschten sie im Thau, dem kiihlen, 
 Doch jenen drangen sie in Mark und Leben, 
 Man sah sie hingewelkt nach kurzer Weile." 
 
 Bin Bild (VI, 326) 41 
 
 Cf . also : 
 " Rose mit den heissen Wangen 
 
 Veilchen, die des Sommers Bruten 
 
 Bald erstickt .... 
 
 Keusche Lorbeern selbst ergltihten; 
 
 Denn sie Alle traf sein (i.e. des Friihlings) Hauch." 
 
 Opfer des Friihlings, 19-24 (VI, 217) 
 
 " Die Rose liebt die Lilie, 
 
 Sie steht zu ihren Fiissen : 
 Bald los't die Glut ihr schonstes Blatt 
 Es fallt, um sie zu grussen. 
 
 Das letzte fangt die Lilie 
 
 Und thut sich dicht zusammen. 
 Nun gliiht das Blatt in ihrem Kelch, 
 
 Als war's ein Herz voll Flammen." 
 
 Rose und Lilie, 1-4; 13-6 (VI, 259)
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 291 
 
 PERSONAL DESCRIPTION 
 
 In the description of persons so prominent a feature 
 in the poems of Hebbel the tactual sense plays a very 
 worthy part. Terms from all three groups of tactual 
 sensations figure in this connection, those associated with 
 temperature predominating; and they are employed both 
 literally and metaphorically. Tactual symbols referable 
 to substance and consistency, or to weight, are relatively 
 rare in personal descriptions ; the few that do appear are 
 either plainly metaphorical 42 or readily admit of meta- 
 phorical interpretation. In the phrases "kein mannlich 
 rauh Gesicht" and "den zarten Leichnam" the epithets 
 rauh and zart convey at first blush distinctly concrete and 
 sensuous impressions the rough or bearded skin of the 
 warrior on the one hand, and the delicate, tender flesh 
 of the dead child on the other. But these strictly physi- 
 cal qualities do not exhaust the connotation of the epi- 
 thets in the context. Rauh and zart have aside from 
 their literal sense a more remote implication, suggesting 
 certain well-defined spiritual qualities, such as masculine 
 hardihood and sternness in the one case, and tender 
 youth fulness in the other. The mental process here ap- 
 pears to be a reversal of that occasioned by the sanft and 
 lind associations, yet the two instances are equally illus- 
 
 "Aus den Knospen, die euch deckten, 
 Siisse Rosen, mein Entzucken, 
 Lockte euch der heisse Siid; 
 
 Doch die Gluten, die euch weckten, 
 Drohen jetzt, euch zu ersticken, 
 
 Ach, ihr seid schon halb vergliiht !" 
 
 Die Rosen im SMen, 1-6 (VI, 277) 
 
 42 ". . . . das weiche Herz zerwiihlen" : Stanzen auf ein 
 Sicilianisches Schwesterpaar 22 (VI, 215). "du schluchztest, auf- 
 gethaut und weich": Grossmutter 33 (VI, 240). "Und so wie 
 ihr Blick sich feuchtet" : Das Madchen im Kampf, etc., 31 (VI, 
 232).
 
 292 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 trative of the quickening part played by certain contact 
 qualities in our perceptual elaborations. We have an- 
 other phase of the same phenomenon in the following 
 effective catachresis: "Kleines Madchen im Tuilerieen- 
 Garten mit stechenden Bienenaugen." 43 Summarily to 
 refer such epithets to this or that rhetorical category is 
 inadequate. Here again is exhibited that capacity for 
 remote suggestion inherent in certain linguistic symbols; 
 a capacity that enables the poet to body forth and at the 
 same time to imbue with soul, while it enables us to sense 
 the outward material, and simultaneously to divine the 
 inward immaterial, which requires for its recognition the 
 co-operation of the imaginative faculties. 
 
 As was said, the tactual terms referable to temperature 
 far outnumber those of the other two groups in the 
 figure descriptions. Hebbel's habit of contrasting oppo- 
 site qualities, very marked in his use of lights and sounds, 
 is exhibited also in certain passages that employ tactual 
 qualities as a medium of personal description. 44 This 
 antithesis of opposites becomes especially effectual where 
 a contrast is formally instituted or indirectly suggested 
 between the heat of the normal human body and its 
 frigid immobility when life has departed from the body. 45 
 
 Tgb. II, 3206. 
 
 44 "Nun kiihlt er die heissen Wangen, die gliihende Stirn 
 zumal": Der Kranke 7-8 (VI, 262). ". . . . flossten .... in's 
 kalte Herz den warmsten Abglanz gottlicher Geftihle" : Freund- 
 schaft 16-7 (VII, 21). "Ihm kiisst ein kiihler Hauch die 
 heissen Wangen": Sonett 9 (VII, 174). 
 
 46 "Denn du Bluhend-Lebenswarmer bist nun bald so kalt, 
 wie ich": Die Spanierin 35-6 (VI, 176). "..... im Moment 
 vernichtender Erkaltung ein Hauch, der neu und frisch die 
 Flamme zundet": Der Mensch 13-4 (VII, 176). "Wenn tief 
 dich ein Gefiihl ergreift, wie es yielleicht dich einst bewegt, und 
 dir den Schnee vom Herzen streift, der langst sich schon darauf 
 gelegt": Auf ein altes Madchen 13-6 (VI, 207). "Wollt ihr 
 mit den kalten Lippen, die kein Jungling warm gektisst" : Letzter 
 Gruss 9-10 (VI, 214). ". . . . all die stumme Trauer, die mir
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 293 
 
 In addition to passages that couple opposite sensa- 
 tions, we find many references to bodily temperature. It 
 is rather uncommon to meet allusions to the natural 
 warmth of the body independent of internal or external 
 influences, yet a few instances of such allusion are note- 
 worthy. 46 Generally body temperature as a feature of 
 personal description enters on the one hand as an effect 
 of physical and external causes : sickness and death, the 
 weather, indulgence in stimulants, violent physical exer- 
 tions that heat the body, etc. Thus the beggar maiden 
 is left shivering in the cold. 47 The Captain of Hussars 
 warms himself inwardly with wine. 48 The toiling peas- 
 ants are hot and reeking. 49 The sick man is shaken with 
 chill. 50 The body, lifeless and cold, is a common feature 
 
 das Herz noch schwellt, umschwebt als letzter Schauer euch kalt 
 aus dieser Welt": Nachtlicher Gruss 21-4 (VI, 227). Cf. Tgb. 
 I, 1555. 
 
 46 Bliihend-Lebenswarmer" : Spanierin 35 (VI, 176). 
 "Warm spritzt mir in's Gesicht dein Blut !" : 's 1st Mitternacht 
 22 (VI, 174). "Wie lange halt der Wurm (Mensch) die Warme 
 fest!": Auf dem Meer 16 (VI, 251). ". . . . wenn das warme 
 Leben in deinen Adern stille steht" : Das alte Haus 51-2 (VI, 
 266) . "das hitzigste Gesicht des diimmsten Kramers" : Aller- 
 unterthanigstes Pro Memoria 24-5 (VII, 48). "Audi mir er- 
 blasst die heisse Wange" : Bei einem Gewitter 17 (VII, 124). 
 ". . . . Herzensblut, das eben entsprudelt in warmer Flut" : Der 
 Zauberer 13-4 (VII, 51). 
 
 47 "Das Bettelmadchen lauscht am Thor, es f riert sie gar 
 zu sehr": Das Bettelmadchen 1-2 (VI, 181). Cf. "so muss man 
 erst erfroren sein" : Mir will das zimperliche Wesen 4 (VII, 
 145). 
 
 48 "Der Hauptmann setzt sich zum Pocal, sich innerlich 
 zu warmen" : Husaren-Werbung 28 (VI, 191). "er (der Wein) 
 wird mein Blut erhitzen": Die beiden Zecher 5 (VI, 319). 
 ". . . . Bald wirbeln .... mildere Gluten mir durch die 
 Brust": Vor dem Wein 13-6 (VII, 147). 
 
 49 "Es gilt den letzten Schweiss" .... "zum Schweisse 
 fliesst schon Blut": .... "Seid ihr nicht selbst erhitzt? . . . . 
 Bin ich es denn, der schwitzt?": Ein Dithmarsischer Bauer 28; 
 84; 138-140 (VI, 160). 
 
 60 "zum Fieberkranken sagen, vom Frost geschuttelt" : 
 Allerunterthanigstes Pro Memoria 14-5 (VII, 48). "Zum
 
 294 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 in the poems. Reference has already been made to the 
 passages in which the temperature of the living and the 
 dead body are contrasted. In addition there are re- 
 peated allusions to the hands, the lips, the kiss chilled 
 by death, or to the icy touch of Death itself. 51 
 
 On the other hand, bodily temperature is introduced 
 as a concomitant of emotion, as the direct attendant and 
 symptom of psychic conditions. So we have the warmth 
 that betokens love and friendship; the flushed cheeks 
 and pulsating temples hot and swollen with passionate 
 desire; the burning tears of grief, the chill of fear. 52 
 
 Jiingling .... der kalt schon wird" : Der Zauberer 25-6 (VII, 
 51). "Ihm (dem Kranken) kiisst ein kiihler Hauch die heissen 
 Wangen": Sonett 9 (VII, 174). 
 
 61 "Doch die (Hand) war feucht und kalt": Der Maler 
 16 (VI, 175). ". . . . du bist wieder todt und kalt": Auf ein 
 altes Madchen 32 (VI, 207). ". . . . mit den kalten Lippen": 
 Letzter Gruss 9 (VI, 214). "Ich habe mit dem Tod gerungen, 
 er griff nach mir mit eis'ger Hand" : Genesungsgefiihl 1-2 
 (VII, 172). ". . . . steckt den Ring an die kalte Hand": Der 
 Ring 58 (VII, 58). ". . . . ihr letzter kalter Kuss": Das Wieder- 
 sehen 103 (VII, 109). ". . . . im Moment vernichtender Erkal- 
 tung": Der Mensch 13 (VII, 176). 
 
 52 "Ihr aber schwillt schon jetzt das Blut bis an der 
 
 Adern letzten Rand": Die Odaliske 33-4 (VI, 187). " heiss 
 
 vom Ringen": Das griechische Madchen 1 (VII, 137). 
 ". . . . brennend fallt die reinste Menschenthrane" : Morgen und 
 Abend 19 (VI, 264). "Thranen heiss und mild": Der Knabe 
 15 (VII, 105). "Zum letzten Mai die Hand zu driicken, die warm 
 die meine wieder driickt": Zum letzten Mai 1-2 (VII, 147). "die 
 Thranen stillten wir, die brennend uns entstiirzen" : Grab- 
 schriften fur Emil Rousseau 5 (VII, 166). "Als noch kein 
 Freund an Freundes Busen ruhte und mit des eig'nen Herzens 
 warmstem Blute," etc. : Freundschaft 7-8 (VII, 21). "Da fiihlte 
 ich mich gliihender umwunden und heiss .... gekusst" : Ein 
 Gebet 10-1 (VII, 126). "Das Kind durchschauert's fremd und 
 kalt": Das Kind am Brunnen 31 (VI, 180). ". . . . wie be- 
 schleicht es mit Schmerz kalt mir den innersten Frieden !" : 
 Einziges Geschiedensein 5-6 (VI, 212). "Was, wie ein gott- 
 licher Hauch, jetzt dich durchzittert, das Leben" : Einziges 
 Geschiedensein 9-10. "O Blitz, der aus dem Tiefsten springt 
 und mir durch jede Faser zuckt, der mich mit neuer Glut durch- 
 dringt": Neue Liebe 1-3 (VI, 212).
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 295 
 
 Similarly the cold sweat of terrified awe, or of horror 
 is exhibited. The beggar maid is chilled and silent 
 when her advances meet with cold disdain. 53 In the 
 poem Requiem (VI, 149), the very dead are warmed 
 into glow by the fond remembrance of the living, but 
 resume their frigid pallor when in the hearts of those 
 who survive them love has given way to indifference: 
 
 " Sieh, sie umschweben dich, 
 Schauernd, verlassen, 
 Und in den heiligen Gluten, 
 Die den Armen die Liebe schiirt, 
 Athmen sie auf und erwarmen, 
 Und geniessen zum letzten Mai 
 Ihr verglimmendes Leben. 
 
 Und wenn du dich erkaltend 
 Ihnen verschliessest, erstarren sie 
 Bis hinein in das Tiefste," etc. 
 
 Requiem, 3-9; 14-6 (VI, 149) 
 
 In these tactual symbols of emotional states the diffi- 
 culty of distinguishing between the sensuous and the 
 metaphorical again becomes extreme. We decide with- 
 out hesitancy for metaphor in certain passages, 64 in 
 
 53 "Das Madchen sagt kein einzig Wort, es f riert sie gar 
 zu sehr": Das Bettelmadchen 6-7 (VI, 181). (The term "friert" 
 here clearly suggests the physical concomitant of emotion, not 
 the bodily effect of external conditions as is the case in lines 1-2 
 of the same poem.) Cf. Mir will das Zimperliche, etc., 4 (VII, 
 145). 
 
 54 "Ich aber mogte nicht zu f ruh' erkalten" : An Christine 
 Engehausen 5 (VI, 313). ". . . . dieses Deutschland wird uns 
 schwer erwarmen": An Christine Engehausen 9. ". . . . des 
 Herbstes letzten Segen .... nicht kalt versch.mah.en" : Unsere 
 Zeit 12-4 (VI, 315). ". . . . diese Kiinstlerin wird nie erkal- 
 ten": Der Mensch und die Geschichte 6 (VI, 320). "Bei'm 
 Sirenenrufe kalt": Fragmente, No. 4, 20 (VII, 38).
 
 296 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 others again final decision is bound to be arbitrary. 55 
 There are undoubtedly genuine bodily impressions of 
 heat and cold implicated in the emotions of the soul. 
 But when the poet portrays his creatures in such emo- 
 tional states, does he actually feel the glow of passion or 
 the chill of grief in sympathy with them ? Does he expe- 
 rience through imagination genuine sensory stimulation ? 
 Or are "hot" and "cold" in these contexts merely 
 conventional metaphors, convenient symbols for emo- 
 tional states, and unaccompanied by reflex nervous pro- 
 cesses? This question was touched upon in connection 
 with sanft, lind, weich and rauh and hart above. The 
 opinion there expressed seems to be confirmed by the 
 evidence afforded in Hebbel's effective resort to tem- 
 perature terms as emotional expression media. In 
 heiss, brennend, Glut, frieren, and the like, employed as 
 names for physical concomitants of emotion, we have 
 again something more than perfunctory transference of 
 sensuous epithets to emotional phenomena. Such trans- 
 ference would most likely end by becoming a purely 
 arbitrary procedure, a mere substitution of concrete for 
 abstract, enlisting little if any sensory co-operation. The 
 temperature terms in Hebbel's songs afford evidence that 
 their employment was attended in the poet's conscious- 
 ness by marked bodily responses. Heat and cold as ele- 
 ments of temperament, mood and emotion, unquestion- 
 ably involve positive motor disturbances ; it is, therefore, 
 a fair inference that ideations of such psycho-sensory 
 qualities through the corresponding linguistic sense- 
 
 55 ". . . . der Pulse feuriges Bewegen !" : Liebeszauber 84 
 (VI, 156). "Das Kind durchschauert's fremd und kalt": Das 
 Kind am Brunnen 31 (VI, 180). ". . . . mogtest gern dich 
 erwarmen an meiner hochschlagenden Brust" : Rosa 119-120 
 (VII, 28).
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 297 
 
 symbols occasion in natures of a certain fineness com- 
 mensurate sensory thrills. Such bodily responses are 
 probably not universal; even highly sensitive poets may 
 experience them only under stimulation of unusual in- 
 tensity. Yet the conclusion appears safe that in a nature 
 of so marked sensitivity as Hebbel's, environmental im- 
 pressions of the type in question generally assumed ex- 
 ceptional vigor when reproduced in his mind because 
 of the corporeal elements embedded in such mental 
 reproduction. 
 
 The examples already cited adequately show Hebbel's 
 susceptibility to impressions of bodily temperature. That 
 he placed a high estimate upon the poetic value of such 
 impressions, that he regarded them as proper media for 
 high poetic effect and that he frequently employed them 
 as efficient means to the achievement of such effect, are 
 perfectly warrantable inferences from the data already 
 submitted. The two poems Die Spanierin and Die 
 Odaliske, separated in date of composition by a dozen 
 years, both effectively employ qualities of the group 
 under question to portray two types of passionate 
 womanhood. Significant in this connection is the im- 
 pression made upon Hebbel by Thomas Moore's Auf 
 eine schone Ostindierin, as the poem is named in Freili- 
 grath's translation. He pronounces the poem, with its 
 brilliant and glowing portrayal of the Indian maiden, 
 unparalleled by any of the original pieces in the entire 
 volume of Freiligrath. The image of the maiden is 
 achieved in part through terms of bodily temperature, in 
 part through terms of color and light in which the asso- 
 ciated ideas of bodily temperature are prominent. The 
 poem so strikingly exhibits the employment of sensuous 
 media, the impression made by these elements upon Heb- 
 bel was so marked and so critically timed that we here
 
 298 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 quote the poem exactly as Hebbel copied it into his 
 diary : 
 
 " Wenn Jeder, die ein Sonnenkind, 
 In Aug' und Busen Feuer wohnt, 
 Dann sind, die dich so nennen, blind, 
 Dich sandte nur der bleiche Mond. 
 
 Und dennoch ziindend bliebe kalt 
 Dies Auge, f eurig, suss und licht ? 
 Ihr Lippen, die ihr purpurn wallt, 
 Euch ziemt Dianens Siegel nicht. 
 
 O, einen Stral der Sonne nur, 
 Die Deines Ganges Fluten kocht, 
 Zu wandeln Dich, Du Lichtnatur, 
 In Alles, was mein Herz erpocht. 
 
 Ha plotzlich lodern Dich zu sehn 
 In Deiner ganzen gliihnden Pracht, 
 Und dann im Brande zu vergehn, 
 Den ich doch selber angefacht!" 
 
 Auf eine schone Ostindierin, Tgb. I, 1553, p. 351 
 
 ANIMAL LIFE 
 
 Touch, as employed by Hebbel in connection with ani- 
 mal life, is practically negligible. There are faint asso- 
 ciations with contact produced by the line "nur leise 
 strich ein weisser Schmetterling," 56 and again by the line 
 "von leichten Rossen schnell dahin getragen;" 67 but in 
 the last instance any remote suggestion of contact or of 
 weight is practically effaced by the dominant impressions 
 of form and motion, less directly by those of bodily 
 equilibrium and of exhilaration. Two references to the 
 sting of the bee belong more properly under this head. 
 In one of these a comparison is instituted between the 
 
 6 Sommerbild 6 (VI, 230). 
 "Die Lerche2 (VI, 309).
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 299 
 
 bee's sting and sharp pains of experience that yield be- 
 neficent consequences. Here the likeness must not be 
 scrutinized too closely, since the very first image pro- 
 duced is that of the bee piercing the hearts of blossoms, 
 in which case honey is not given but taken away: "Der 
 Biene gleicht das Leben .... sticht uns wund mit dem 
 Stachel, doch, wer Honig will, der halte auch dem 
 Stachel still." 58 
 
 Effective again is the application of temperature terms 
 to creatures cold in death. Hebbel shared fully the 
 psycho-sensory reactions that normally ensue when 
 throbbing life conies into touch with frigid lifelessness. 
 A long passage in the diary describes the death of his 
 beloved squirrel "Lampi." Grief and sensations of physi- 
 cal revulsion mingle in his consciousness, when the little 
 pet that he supposed asleep proves to be stark dead: 
 "Ich griff, noch ohne Angst, in den Korb und er war 
 kalt, steif und todt! Fiirchterliches Gefiihl, wenn sich 
 ein heisses warmbliitiges Geschopf in ein Amphibium 
 verwandelt hat!" 59 The same features are employed in 
 the poem Der Schmetterling to image the dead butter- 
 fly : "kalt, erstarrt und todt I" 60 A more noteworthy use 
 of temperature in reference to animal life occurs in the 
 poem Vogelleben. Here a lone bird perched upon a bare 
 branch, lulled by the bitter stormwind, awaits in quiet 
 patience the last, cold gasp that shall end its suffering : 
 
 " Du blicktest in Geduld, 
 Gehiillt in dein Gefieder, 
 Vom kahlen Zweig hernieder, 
 Vom Sturm noch eingelullt. 
 
 58 Lied 29-34 (VII, 34). Cf. also Auf eine Biene in der 
 Villa Medicis 9 (VI, 333). 
 
 69 Tgb. IV, 5937, Is. 57-60. 
 
 > Der Schmetterling 35 (VI, 196).
 
 300 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 Und ruhig trankst du auch, 
 Im Sterben noch zufrieden, 
 Den dir ein Gott beschieden, 
 Den letzten kiihlen Hauch!" 
 
 Vogelleben, (VII, 120) 
 
 INANIMATE OBJECTS 
 
 We conclude with a brief summary of the passages 
 in which terms of touch are applied to miscellaneous in- 
 animate objects. Sensations referable to temperature 
 again predominate, five out of the eleven instances re- 
 ferring to wine, with kiihl employed four times out of 
 five. Further than this there are two references to tem- 
 perature in connection with the sea, one each in the de- 
 scriptions of fire ; a statue ; stones ; a room ; and a street. 61 
 
 The two instances of feucht are excellent examples of 
 the faculty of sensuous suggestion. In Meeresleuchten 
 the term feucht combines with Element to evoke an 
 image of the deep, cool, blue-black mirror of the sea, 
 upon which the radiant white image of the emerging 
 goddess is reflected. The oxymoron in feucht and 
 Flamme of the second passage is a happy reproduction 
 in phrase of the atmospheric conditions that produce the 
 rainbow : 
 
 i". . . . zur kuhlen Labe" : Lustig tritt, etc., 3 (VI, 437). 
 "das Memnonsbild, stumm, kalt," etc.: Wiirde des Volks 10-1 
 (VII, 75). "Bring mir, o Knapp', den kuhlen Wein" : Des 
 Konigs Jagd 5 (VII, 85). "der Knapp' credenzt den kuhlen Wein" : 
 Des Konigs Jagd 8. ". . . . jeder kuhle Trunk" : Der Mensch 35 
 (VII, 107). "die Welle hat so leer, als kalt": Lebensgeheimniss, 
 No. 2, 7 (VII, 159). "Er goss .... den Wein, aus dem die 
 Sonne brennt": Die schone Stunde 7-8 (VII, 172). ". . . . im 
 feuchten Gestein": Das Licht will sich verstecken 17-8 (VII, 
 173). "In einem wohlgeheizten Zimmer" : Horaz und seine 
 Regel 24 (VII, 200). "Enge Strassen, dumpf und duster": 
 Hamburg 1 (VII, 222).
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 301 
 
 " Und zum Spiegel, voll Verlangen, 
 Glatteten die Wogen sich, 
 
 Lachelnd gonnte sie dem feuchten 
 Element den letzten Blick," 
 
 Meeresleuchten, 5-6; 9-10 (VI, 282) 
 
 " Aus gliih'nden Perlen und aus feuchten Flammen, 
 In dem auch keine Linie erblich." 
 
 Auf die Sixtinische Madonna, 15-6 (VI, 283) 
 
 Of touch terms referable to substance or consistency 
 six appear as epithets of the inanimate: welch occurs 
 four times, hart and Und, once each. The subjects are 
 too heterogeneous to admit of classification. 62 
 
 It will doubtless be clear from the foregoing discus- 
 sion that the tactual element enters into the substance of 
 Hebbel's poetry with marked frequency and in a con- 
 siderable variety of forms. It will be seen, too, that the 
 concrete, sensuous instances outnumber the figurative. 
 Yet while the preponderance of the sensuous makes for 
 objectivity and picturesque beauty, the metaphors lend 
 that imaginative charm so indispensable to poetic dic- 
 tion. Whatever of hackneyed or of commonplace of- 
 fends in the songs can in large part be ascribed to the 
 poetic principle inherent in language itself and recorded 
 in those household tropes and figures that no one alto- 
 gether can discard. A poet's imagery must of neces- 
 sity contain much that is thus ready made, but it should 
 
 62 "Es harrt auf weichem Purpursammt," etc. : Die Oda- 
 liske 1-2 (VI, 187). ". . . . setzt sich an den weichsten Ort": 
 Die Odaliske 39. ". . . . zum weichen Bette wird ein barter 
 Felsenstein" : Der Quell 23-4 (VII, 16). ". . . . von weichem 
 Tuch ist der Harnisch": Ritter Fortunat 41-2 (VII, 88). 
 "Spulst mir so lind urn die Brust" : Lebensgeheimniss, No. 1, 2 
 (VII, 159). ". . . . wie hart die Folterbank": Der Jude an den 
 Christen 23 (VII, 161).
 
 302 STUDIES IN FRIEDRICH HEBBEL 
 
 contain in addition much that is new and that boldness 
 and originality alone can achieve. 63 On this latter point 
 Hebbel's images worthily stand the test. And certainly 
 nothing could illustrate the artistic side of the poet's 
 genius more convincingly than the sensuous blends cited 
 above. Here subtle impressions that have been vaguely 
 felt by many are phrased with a mastery possessed by 
 few. 
 
 There is an early poem of Hebbel's, entitled Der 
 Mensch (VII, 107), that is noteworthy because it shows 
 the young poet imbued with reverence for the inherent 
 dignity of man and at the same time fascinated by the 
 idea of a close filial bond between man and the lower 
 orders of creation. In the two stanzas quoted the poet 
 addresses Nature as his sister, muses upon this hypo- 
 thetical kinship and fancies the joys that would be his 
 were he actually to live with the birds and the trees, as 
 their veritable brother. The beautiful interplay of 
 tactual impressions in these lines, the deftly suggested 
 sensuous blends, the graceful mingling of the concrete 
 and the metaphorical, the poetic feeling and fancy that 
 quicken the imagery all these combine to elevate gross 
 sense impressions into noble poetic media: 
 
 " Da war' mir jeder West ein Gruss, 
 
 Womit mich Du begliicktest, 
 Und jeder kiihle Trunk ein Kuss, 
 
 Womit mich Du entziicktest, 
 Und Luft und Duft ein siisser Hauch 
 
 Aus Deinem Schwestermunde, 
 Und jeder bliitenvolle Strauch 
 
 Von Deiner Huld ein Kunde. 
 
 68 Cf. Hebbel's merciless arraignment of the poet whose 
 diction is mere toying with the empty pods and shells of speech : 
 Einem Ursprtinghchen 21-4 (VI, 350).
 
 THE TACTUAL SENSE 303 
 
 Und kehrte ich ermudet nun 
 
 Zuriick in's Granzenlose, 
 Da diirft' ich sanft und selig ruh'n 
 
 In meiner Schwester Schoosse; 
 Als kuhle Erde wurde sie 
 
 Mich freundlich iiberdecken, 
 Und dann in zarter Sympathie 
 
 Als Sonne mich erwecken." 
 
 Is. 33-40 ; 49-56 
 
 FINIS
 
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 NOTE. 
 
 The following is not intended to be a Hebbel bibliography, but 
 simply a compilation of the various works consulted, arranged 
 in the alphabetical order of the authors' names. The list is con- 
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 body or notes of the "Studies." It is designed as a possible aid 
 to verification or further consultation. To facilitate reference the 
 alphabetical arrangement was adopted, rather than a formal 
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 Croce, Benedetto. ^Esthetic as Science of Expression and Gen- 
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 millan, London and New York, 1909. 
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 78.] 
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 Lyrik und Lyriker. Hamburg und Leipzig, 1890. 
 Hebbel. Ein Lebensbild. Berlin, 1905. 
 
 Witasek, Stephan. Grundziige der Allgemeinen Aesthetik. Leip- 
 zig, 1904. 
 
 Zeiss, Karl. Hebbels Werke. Kritisch durchgesehene und 
 erlauterte Ausgabe. 3 Bde. Leipzig und Wien, 1899. 
 
 Zincke, Paul. Friedrich Hebbel ein Mystiker? Euphorion. 
 Bd. 16, 1909, Hft. 1, 147 ff. 
 
 Zinkernagel, Franz. Die Grundlagen der Hebbelschen Tragodie. 
 
 Inaugural-Dissertation. Marburg, 1904. 
 Goethe und Hebbel. Eine Antithese. Tubingen, 1911.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Esthetics, Hebbel's theory of, 28 ff ., 50 ff. 
 
 Animals, Hebbel's interest in, 88 ff ., 179. 
 
 Art, its rank in the scale of spiritual activities, 50 ff. ; its relation 
 to cosmic creation, 29; its relation to philosophy, 29, 30 ff., 38, 
 50; its relation to religion, 29 ff. ; the product of a mysterious 
 faculty, 30, 51 ; the spiritual primacy of, 28. 
 
 Bamberg, Felix, his estimate of Hebbel, 2. 
 Bells, Hebbel's allusions to, 166, 201 ff. 
 Black, Hebbel's allusions to, 127 ff . 
 Blue, Hebbel's allusions to, 122 ff. 
 Brown, Hebbel's allusions to, 130 ff. 
 Byron, Hebbel's criticism of, 37. 
 
 Color, its aesthetic fitness, 64 ff. ; its prominence among objective 
 impressions, 63. 
 
 Color allusions, as a feature of dramatic setting, 106 ff. ; in Heb- 
 bel's poetry, 13 ff., 72 ff. ; in Hebbel's description of animals, 
 88 ff.; of dress, 97; of flowers, 87 ff.; of inanimate objects, 
 95 ff . ; of landscape, 86 ff . ; of nature, 83 ff . ; of the heavens 
 and heavenly bodies, 83 ff. ; of persons, 90 ff. 
 
 Color appreciation, of the Homeric bards, 70; of the Hebrew 
 Chroniclers, 70; of modern English and German poets, 70 ff. 
 
 Color contrasts, Hebbel's employment of, 100 ff . 
 
 Color elements, The, in the poetry of Goethe, Schiller, Shakes- 
 peare, R. Wagner and others, 78 ff. 
 
 Color groups, in Hebbel's poetry, 98 ff. 
 
 Color pleasure, its nature and evolution, 67 ff. 
 
 Color rhapsody, 98 ff. 
 
 Color sense, Hebbel's, 13, 72 ff . ; its ethnological diffusion, 67 ff. ; 
 its linguistic expression important in literary .criticism, 72. 
 
 Color vocabulary, its relation to color appreciation, 69 ff. 
 
 Concreteness, a prerequisite of poetry, 36, 38; a feature of Heb- 
 bel's color allusions, 112 ff. 
 
 Creation, artistic, contrasted with reflection, 30 ; .poetic, the sequel 
 and symbol of nature's evolution, 28 ff. 
 
 Critical formulae, Hebbel's, 35 ff. 
 
 Cutaneous sense, The, 268 ff, 270.
 
 312 INDEX 
 
 Denktatigkeit, compared with Dichttdtigkeit, 51. 
 Dermal impressions, 268 ff., 270. 
 Diaries, importance of Hebbel's, 6ff. 
 Dramas, Hebbel's, their rank and character, 8. 
 Dramatic elements, in Hebbel's poems, 182 ff. 
 Dream, its resemblance to poetic invention, 48 ff., 51 ff., 58. 
 Dualism, the key to Hebbel's Weltanschauung, 31 ff. 
 Dunkel terms, their relative frequency in poetry, 81. 
 
 Editions, of Hebbel's poems, 11 ff. 
 
 Ego, The, its fusion with the non-ego, 49, 58 ff. 
 
 Emotion, in Hebbel's lyrics, 10, 43, 53 ff., 86. 
 
 Entindividualisierung , 26, 34. 
 
 Euphonic elements in poetry, Hebbel's appreciation of, 160 ff. 
 
 Exteriority, indispensable to poetry, 38 ff. 
 
 Falb, Hebbel's allusions to, 132. 
 
 Feeling, The sense of, 267 ff. 
 
 Form, as criterion of art, 42 ff. ; as an element in Hebbel's poetry, 
 
 43 ff. 
 French Poets, Hebbel's criticism of, 41. 
 
 Gefuhlssinn, 267 ff. 
 
 Gemut, as an element in lyric poetry, 54. 
 
 Genius, Hebbel's, varying estimates of, 1 ff. 
 
 Glanz, Glut and Schein, their frequency in poetry, 80 ff. ; their 
 
 prominence in descriptions of the rhapsodic type, 80 ff. 
 Glut, a blending of color and touch, 278 ff. 
 Goethe, Hebbel's criticism of, 39, 40 (footnote). 
 Gold, Hebbel's allusions to, 121 ff. 
 Grabbe, Hebbel's criticism of, 37. 
 Gray, Hebbel's allusions to, 128 ff. 
 Green, Hebbel's allusions to, 124 ff. 
 Grillparzer, his rank compared with Hebbel's, 1 ; as a poet of 
 
 nature, 17 ff. 
 
 Guilt, tragic, Hebbel's theory of, 33 ff., 41, 43. 
 Gutzkow, Karl, 5, 37 (footnote). 
 
 Hebbel, changeable interest in, 2 ff. ; critical formulae of, 35 ff. ; 
 his color vocabulary compared with Swinburne's, 76 ff.; 
 compared with Goethe's, Schiller's, Shakespeare's and 
 Wagner's, 78 ff., 81 ff. ; his double nature as revealed in his
 
 INDEX 313 
 
 diaries, 251 ff.; his sound allusions compared with E. T. A. 
 Hoffmann's, 210 ff. ; his theory of art compared with Schell- 
 ing's, 29 (footnote), 41; his theory of lyric poetry, 53 ff.; his 
 theory of tragic guilt, 33 ff., 41, 43; his treatment by older 
 historians of German literature, 2 ff. ; originality of his art 
 and message, 43 ; reasons for present interest in, 4 ff. 
 
 Hebbeliana, 3ff. 
 
 Hebbel's color impressions, intensity of, 72; childlike naivete of, 
 74 ff.; uniform persistency of, 74 ff.; qualitative character- 
 istics of, 75 ff., 82 ff. 
 
 Hegel, aesthetic theory of, 50 ff. ; his kinship with Hebbel, 27, 41. 
 
 Heine, Hebbel's criticism of, 36. 
 
 Hell terms, their relative frequency in poetry, 81. 
 
 Higher senses, The, 64 ff. ; as Sprachsinne, 66 ff. 
 
 Hoffmann, E. T. A., his influence upon Hebbel, 11, 12, 210 ff.; 
 his sounds compared with Hebbel's, 210 ff. ; his references to 
 silence, 249 ff. 
 
 Hugo, Victor, Hebbel's criticism of, 40. 
 
 Human elements, Their importance in Hebbel's poetry, 7, 8, 33. 
 
 Idealism, Hegel's, 27. 
 
 Incommunicable, The, 44 and footnote. 
 
 Individuality, versus the cosmic Idee, 7, 26, 31, 33, 34 ff., 36, 181. 
 
 Inner form, 8, 32, 36. 
 
 Insoluble, The, 44 ff. 
 
 Intellection, compared with intuition, 23, 30, 38, 50 ff., 58 ; its part 
 
 in artistic invention, 23, 25, 50 ff. 
 Intuition, compared with intellection, 23, 30, 38, 50 ff., 58. 
 
 Jewels, Hebbel's allusions to, 13. 
 
 Kinaesthetic sensations, 270. 
 
 Kleist, Hebbel's criticism of his K'dtchen, 37; his influence upon 
 
 Hebbel, 11, 12. 
 Kuh, Emil, his conception of Hebbel's nature, 42 (footnote) ; his 
 
 estimate of Hebbel, 2. 
 
 Laube, Hebbel's criticism of, 39. 
 
 Light (see under Color). 
 
 Light, fire and flame, Hebbel's allusions to, 132 ff. 
 
 Line and form, Hebbel's allusions to, 15. 
 
 Lower senses, The, aesthetic competence of, 63 ff.
 
 314 INDEX 
 
 Ludwig, Otto, his criticism of Hebbel, 5, 7 (footnote). 
 Lyric poetry, Hebbel's conception of, 53 ff. 
 Lyrics, Hebbel's, 8 ff. 
 
 Maeterlinck, his conception of silence, 225, 242. 
 
 Moore, Thomas, Hebbel's admiration for his Auf ewe schone 
 
 Ostindierin, 93, 297. 
 Mosen, J., Hebbel's approval of his Der Trompeter an der Kats- 
 
 bach, 171. 
 
 Motor effects, involved in the enjoyment of poetry, 163. 
 Musenaltnanach, Hebbel's criticism of, 36. 
 Music, Hebbel's susceptibility to, 14, 160, 171, 178, 201, 213. 
 Musical sounds, Hebbel's allusions to, 201 ff. ; theatricism of 
 
 Hebbel's allusions to, 203. 
 Mysterious, The, its place in poetry, 44, 51, 54, 60. 
 
 Nature colors, Hebbel's allusions to, 83 ff. 
 Naturgefuhl, 16 ff., 18, 19. 
 
 Neutral colors, their prominence in poetry, 79 ff. 
 Nirvana, 27. 
 
 Objective impressions, indispensable to subjective experience, 
 
 56 ff. 
 
 Onomatopoeia, 164. 
 
 Onomatopoetic sounds, in Hebbel's poems, 166. 
 Organic sensations, 268, 270. 
 "Orientalism," Hebbel's, 13, 72 ff. 
 
 Pain and pleasure, their relation to the tactual sense, 272 ff. 
 
 Particular versus universal, 31, 36, 38, 51, 54, 60. 
 
 Passion, in Hebbel's Lyrics, 10. 
 
 Pater, Walter, quoted, 42. 
 
 Physical environment, man's, Hebbel's attitude toward, 39, 55 ff. 
 
 Pink, Hebbel's allusions to, 131. 
 
 Plato, 27, 42. 
 
 Pleasure and pain, their relation to the tactual sense, 272. 
 
 Plenary sense, The, 49, 53, 57, 58, 86, 87. 
 
 Poe, Edgar Allan, his employment of silence, 250 ff . 
 
 Poetry, its relation to philosophy, 38; the intellectual element in, 
 23 ff., 25; the nature of, 20 ff., 22 ff.; the prerequisites of, 
 35 ff . ; the range of its emotions, 24 ff . ; two meanings of the 
 term, 20 ff. 
 
 Purple, Hebbel's allusions to, 129 ff.
 
 INDEX 315 
 
 Red, Hebbel's allusions to, 119ff. ; its popularity with poets, 79. 
 
 Reflection, as an element in Hebbel's poetry, 10, 43, 60; con- 
 trasted with poetic invention, 30, 60; unfavorable to poetry, 
 38, 44, 57. 
 
 Rhyme, 164 ; its influence upon Hebbel's use of color, 95. 
 
 Rhythm, 164 ff. 
 
 Rtickert, Hebbel's criticism of, 36. 
 
 Schelling, his theory of art compared with Hebbel's, 29 (foot- 
 note), 41. 
 
 Schiller, Hebbel's criticism of, 13, 37 (footnote), 40; his influence 
 upon Hebbel, 11, 12; the color allusions in his poetry, 78 fit. 
 
 Schmidt, Julian, 5. 
 
 Schopenhauer, his Weltanschauung and Hebbel's compared, 41 ff. 
 
 Sense qualities, their part in aesthetic enjoyment, 21 ff. 
 
 Sensuousness, as a phase of traditional Naturgefiihl, 16 ff.; his- 
 torical aspects of Hebbel's, 16 ff.; of Hebbel's lyrics, 10, 11, 
 25, 55 ff., 57, 60, 61 ; indispensable to poetry, 36, 38. 
 
 Shelley, his colors compared with Hebbel's, 85, 111; his concep- 
 tion of sounds, 162 ff . 
 
 Silver, Hebbel's allusions to, 131. 
 
 Silence, as attribute of Divinity, 229 ff. ; as concomitant of 
 aesthetic emotion, 262; as manifestation of cosmic life, 236; 
 as poetic expression media of various mental states, 253 ff. ; 
 as Stimmungsmittel, 229; comparison of Hebbel's employ- 
 ment with that of E. T. A. Hoffmann and Edgar Allan Poe, 
 249 ff. ; in combination with other sense impressions, 232 ff. ; 
 individual quality of Hebbel's references to, 262 ff. ; in the 
 expression of tender emotions, 255 ff. ; the expression of sor- 
 row, 258 ff. ; Hebbel's references to, 14 ff., 225 ff. ; in Hebbel's 
 description of the inanimate world, 238 ff. ; in Hebbel's de- 
 scriptions of night, 233 ff. ; in Hebbel's personal descriptions, 
 240; in Hebbel's poetry, as due to hereditary and environ- 
 mental factors in his life, 243 ff. ; in nature, 230 ff. ; method 
 of contrast in Hebbel's reference to, 227 ff. ; range of Hebbel's 
 references to, 225 ; theatricism of Hebbel's allusions to, 237 ff. 
 
 Sleep, Hebbel's allusions to, 276 ff. 
 
 Smell, Hebbel's allusions to sense of, 15. 
 
 Sound, its aesthetic fitness, 64 ff. ; its relation to thought in human 
 speech, 162 ff.; poetry's relation to, 159 ff. 
 
 Sound allusions, classification of Hebbel's, 185 ff. ; compared
 
 316 INDEX 
 
 with color allusions in Hebbel's poems, 166 ff. ; defects of 
 Hebbel's, 166 ff., 203 ff.; excellences of Hebbel's, 168 ff.; 
 Hebbel's compared with E. T. A. Hoffmann's, 210 ff.; in 
 Hebbel's Journals, 169 ff. 
 
 Sound contrasts, Hebbel's allusions to, 169 ff., 173 ff . 
 
 Sounds, used by Hebbel, as dramatic setting, 182 ff . ; as an element 
 in poetic symbolism, 179; as Stimmungsmittel, 168 ff., 170, 
 171, 174, 177, 186, 198, 209; as a stimulus to poetic invention, 
 172 ; classification of, 165 ff . ; from miscellaneous sources in 
 Hebbel's poetry, 207 ff . ; Hebbel's allusions to, 14, 159 ff . ; in 
 combination with other sensuous elements, 181 ff. ; in Hebbel's 
 poems Das Haus am Meer, 180, 223 ff . ; Der junge Schiffer, 
 179; Die Schlacht bei Hemmingstedt, 180, 223; Sturm Abend, 
 179 ff.; ZuPferd, 179. 
 
 Sound terms, mannerism in Hebbel's employment of, 166, 184, 
 186; uniformity of Hebbel's, 166 ff. 
 
 Spenser, color allusions in his Faerie Queen, 78 ff. 
 
 Spinoza, 26. 
 
 Subjectivity, of Hebbel's works, 7, 25, 55, 60, 103 ff. 
 
 Substance or consistency, as an impression of the tactual sense, 
 272, 291 ff. 
 
 Suffocation, as an organic sensation, 270, 272, 273 (footnote). 
 
 Supernatural, The, Hebbel's recourse to, 45. 
 
 Symbolism, its function in art, 30, 36, 44. 
 
 Symbolists, color allusions in the poetry of, 111. 
 
 Synaesthesia, as an element in Hoffmann's impressions of sound, 
 218. 
 
 Tactual allusions, bodily stimulation involved in, 295 ff., 301 ; 
 analysis of Hebbel's, 273 ff. 
 
 Tactual impressions, analysis and classification of, 267 ff. ; blended 
 by Hebbel with colors, sounds, odors, etc., 277 ff. ; high 
 poetic value of, 297; in Hebbel's description of animals, 
 298 ff. ; of atmospheric states, 280 ff. ; of flowers, etc., 288 ff. ; 
 of the inanimate world, 300 ff. ; of persons, 291 ff. ; of physi- 
 cal nature, 280 ff. ; of scenery, 287 ff. ; in Hebbel's poem Der 
 Mensch, 302 ff. ; in Thomas Moore's Auf eine schone Ostin- 
 dierin, 297 ff. 
 
 Tactual sense, The, aesthetic fitness of, 265 ff. ; Herder's vindica- 
 tion of, 265 ff. 
 
 Tactual terms, metaphorical application of, 274 ff.
 
 INDEX 317 
 
 Taste, Hebbel's allusions to impressions of, 15. 
 
 Temperature qualities, 268, 270, 271, 291, 292 ff. 
 
 Terminology, a word regarding, 26. 
 
 Thirst, as an organic sensation, 270, 272, 273 (footnote). 
 
 Tieck, Hebbel's criticism of, 12, 37 (footnote) ; his color usage 
 
 compared with Hebbel's, 76 (footnote), 111; his influence 
 
 upon Hebbel, 11, 12. 
 Touch, as a specific function of the tactual sense, 269; in Heb- 
 
 bel's poetry (see under Tactual). 
 Tragic guilt, Hebbel's theory of, 33 ff. 
 
 Uhland, Hebbel's criticism of, 39 (footnote); his influence upon 
 Hebbel, 11, 12, 57, 86. 
 
 Verbal sound effects in poetry, Hebbel's attitude toward, 160 ff. 
 Visual data, in the works of poets, 78 ff. 
 
 Vocal demonstration, biblical allusions to, 191 ; Hebbel's recourse 
 to, 191. 
 
 Weight, as an impression of the tactual sense, 270, 272, 291. 
 
 Weltanschauung, Hebbel's, 31. 
 
 Werdende, Das, 55, 59. 
 
 Werner, Richard Maria, 3, 4, 6. 
 
 White, Hebbel's allusions to, 125 ff. 
 
 Wieland, Hebbel's criticism of, 37 (footnote), 45. 
 
 Winckelmann, Goethe's appreciation of, 56. 
 
 Yellow, Hebbel's allusions to, 131. 
 
 Zustdnde, the vital element in lyric poetry, 53.
 
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