Chapter XII: Part 12

The first poet who recognised insanity as a disease and painted it as such is Shakespeare, whose fine power of observation far outstripped his age. He who could paint the world in all its truth and reality, who was able to reproduce the most diverse characters, unfalsified and true to Nature, succeeded also in painting in a masterly way mental derangements in all their typical phenomena, just as we observe them to-day, and this at a time at which science was far from a correct recognition of psychical disorders. In Shakespeare, the derangements of King Lear, Hamlet, and Lady Macbeth are photographic reproductions of pure objective experience. They fill out certainly the world of the poet who painted all human passions with minute fidelity in his plays, and therefore undertook also to paint according to his observation the human mind under morbid obscuration. In these characters, therefore, we have neither the embodiment of any particular conception of the universe nor an artistic dressing up of any moral or doctrine.

It is very different with the portraiture of insanity in our modern literature. The doctrine of psychiatry has in the interval grown into a distinct branch of science, and the observation of the insane is carried on in an exceedingly thorough and careful manner. In order to paint a case of insanity according to Nature, an artist no longer needs, like Shakespeare, to be leagues in advance of his age. He only need copy a well-reported history of a case, and his purpose is attained. Consequently the simple description of psychical disease no longer comes within the domain of the poet; and if we leave out of view those _littérateurs_ who have in the practice of their art followed the desire for originality and sensational effects, we do not find in modern literature insanity exhibited for the direct interest of it, but only in so far as it affects individual social relations and society collectively.

The idea of a universal psychical degeneration, as it is put forth by many psychiatrists, likewise has its literary defenders. I have already called Zola a “Nordau in the shape of a novelist”; and this is also true of other writers of similar theories. Frau Alving, in Ibsen’s Ghosts, says: “We are all ghosts.... I can not take up a newspaper without seeming to see the ghosts slinking between the lines. Ghosts must live throughout the land. It seems to me they must be as the sands of the sea.” We seem to be hearing Herr Nordau pronouncing upon the immanent _Völkerdämmerung_, upon the gradual coming and increasing of universal degeneration among mankind. Nordau considers that those writers who share his own opinions show, precisely by that, an infallible mark of their being fools and degenerates. His master, Lombroso, on the other hand, acknowledges that Zola and Ibsen “teach the same thing” that he himself teaches.[218]

It is not Ibsen’s purpose to paint mental sickenings just as they really are. They are the mere vehicles of his ideas, especially of the law of heredity, of the influence of a licentious and dissolute course of life upon the development of the next generation. Neither the painting of the maladies nor the selection of those which are represented as transmitted in procreation correspond to the real facts. But the writer did not mind that. While Nordau makes this a grave matter for reproach and even a ground for psychiatric inferences, Lombroso expressly declares that it is not right to insist upon scientific accuracy from a poet in his painting of insanity, but that it is proper for him to proceed _cum grano salis_, so as to give his idea an artistic embodiment. At any rate, the exhibition of the clinical picture, as such, is in Ibsen altogether a secondary matter, the purpose of the poetic use of nervous disorders being the moral. Oswald, in Ghosts, is the victim of the dissipations of his father. Dr. Rank, in Nora, says: “My poor innocent spine has to expiate the joyous lieutenant’s life of my father.” He strongly accentuates the moral: “And so such an inexorable retribution governs in one way or another every family.” We thus meet in the poet the same idea that Nordau proclaims--that of a widespread hereditary sickening--a universal degeneration.

The circumstance that Ibsen makes a quite arbitrary choice of diseases to exhibit his concept of heredity and degeneration is not surprising, and as poet he can the less be reproached for it that he follows in that respect the doctrines of one school of scientific men. We may smile at Ibsen’s representing, in Ghosts, general paresis as an hereditary infliction; in Nora, a disease of the spine, _tabes_; in The Wild Duck, a disease of the eyes; but, after all, this entirely agrees with a certain departure which has lately found place in psychopathology.

The widespread idea of a universal “degeneration” is in great part due to the belief that every mental disease and most nervous sufferings are phenomena of “degeneration”--a belief which is not only general among the laity, but to which many psychiatrists incline. At any rate, they place psychoses in that category which do not belong there at all. It would result from this opinion that any decided increase in the frequency of insanity, disproportionate to the growth of the population, must be a “degeneration,” since, according to them, almost all mental diseases are consequences of the process by which a state of “degeneration” is brought about.

The concept of “degeneration” is, as I have already explained, that of a morbid condition resulting from perturbations of growth of the psychical organ. Degenerates are at a low stage of development; the organic vehicles of their mental action are either merely at that low stage of growth or are deformed and misshapen. The degeneration of a whole people would therefore be due to a universal mental deterioration, an arrest of the psychical organ, and at last, since the completely degenerate, the extreme idiots, are incapable of procreation, if the process which gave rise to the state of degeneration progressed still further, the race would die out. But the history of insanity shows that the increase of it depends in part upon the progress of higher civilization. A heightened mental action, a refinement and elaboration of the psychical organism, has for a consequence a greater disposition to mental derangements. But to infer from this heightened mental action, or, what comes to the same thing, from the increased number of cases of derangement which results from it, that there has been a universal retrogression of mental development, resulting in a “degeneration” of the masses, is just as erroneous as to identify the highest refinement and elaboration of the psychical organism, or genius, with insanity.

The question of a state of universal degeneration, resulting from a process of mental decay, must therefore be treated quite independently from the question of an increase of cases of insanity. Maladies contracted late in life can not be ascribed to disturbances of growth, and have nothing to do with degeneration. When Nordau avers that the diagnosis of degeneration in Baudelaire was “fortified against all attack” by the fact that he “died of general paresis,”[219] he simply shows that he does not know what the word degeneration means. Paresis is a disease occurring most frequently in fully developed men, seldom in degenerates, and never in idiots. Von Krafft-Ebing[220] says of its procatarctic cause, “It is seldom congenital, hereditary; mostly acquired.” If, therefore, we limit the concept of degeneration to such morbid states as can undoubtedly be referred to perturbations of growth, an increase of mental diseases does not indicate a progressive degeneration.

The universal opinion that the sudden revolution in all modes of life, owing to the great inventions of this century--the railway, the telephone, etc.--have had a bad influence on the nervous system, has a certain amount of justification. A number of cases of nervous exhaustion have arisen owing to this unwonted and overstrained bustle of modern life. But the importance attributed to these outward causes is too great by far; and there is especially too much inclination to exaggerate the sudden change of our modes of life, great as it undeniably is. From some descriptions of it, one might think that we had suddenly been carried from the merest sluggard’s life to the supreme development of higher civilization. When Nordau says that “the humblest village inhabitant has to-day a wider geographical horizon, more numerous and complex intellectual interests, than the prime minister of a petty or even a second-rate state a century ago,” and that to-day “a cook receives and sends more letters than a university professor did formerly,”[221] he simply indulges in ridiculous exaggeration. I know not what intricate mental interests Herr Nordau has discovered in the “humblest village inhabitant.” When he tries to prove this by saying that the villager “interests himself simultaneously in the issue of a revolution in Chili, in a bush war in east Africa, a massacre in north China, a famine in Russia, a street row in Spain, and an international exhibition in North America,”[222] he perhaps overestimates somewhat the mental interests of the “humblest village inhabitant.” I fancy that the mental interests of the peasantry to-day, as centuries ago, turn much more on the thriving of their pigs and calves than on revolutionists in Chili or bushwhackers in east Africa. At any rate, we may safely assert that the German peasants are in no present danger of overtaxing their nervous systems by their “numerous and complex intellectual interests.”

We must confess that life to-day makes higher demands upon the individual than in the last century; but it is an exaggeration for Nordau to maintain that every single man does from five to five-and-twenty times as much work as he would have done half a century ago. On the whole, more is accomplished now than used to be done, because, thanks to the great inventions, a workman can now do more in one hour than ten workmen could do in a whole day a century ago. But the expenditure of strength of any one man is not very much greater.

The mental work of the “upper ten thousand,” who are now supposed to be in a state of degeneration, has certainly not been so monstrously increased as many are disposed to think. Besides, mere work does not wear out the nervous system nearly so much as the agitations of the emotions connected with the intensification of the battle of life. These things have, as I have elsewhere shown, an important influence upon the bodily functions, especially those of the vascular system, and thus upon the entire work of nutrition. Wundt[223] says: “Care and sorrow influence nutrition by enduring limitation of the entrance of air and blood.” Quiet intellectual work, even if conjoined with great effort, does far less harm to the nervous system than do such emotions as affliction and anxiety.

Had we, therefore, any reason to presume a universal degeneration of the highly civilized nations, the causes of it should be sought, above all, in the intensification of the daily battle of life, with its train of depressing emotions and anxieties. The increased impressions of the senses, and the heightened demands upon the resistance of the nervous system, occasioned by the sudden revolution--when they do not bring about serious emotional disturbances, vexations, etc.--may cause some fatigue, but are matters to which the human organism quickly becomes habituated by the law of adaptation.

Our social relations undoubtedly draw more upon the powers of the individual than did those of a century ago. Yet that generation likewise thought its tasks more difficult than those of its forefathers. We can not conceive that our grade of civilization determines the limits of human capacity. The demands which will be put upon the life of coming generations will probably be far greater yet; but the human system will contrive to adapt itself to those demands. The weak will go to the wall; the strong will mount to higher grades of development. This law of adaptation and of further development always has operated in Nature, and will still continue to do so.

The arguments of which the sectaries of universal degeneration avail themselves are, as we have seen in the course of our investigations, by no means demonstrative. They rest partly upon erroneous doctrines and partly upon a quite amateurish apprehension of psychological and psychiatrical concepts. Philosophy, art, and literature, in which Nordau thinks he sees signs of universal degeneration, are merely the expression of the modern metaphysics, of religious scepticism, and of philosophical positivism.

Moreover, by a very remarkable contradiction, Nordau himself destroys his whole theory. After having characterized modern art as the principal evidence of universal degeneration, he declares, at the conclusion of his work, that it constitutes a forward step in human development. He says: “The fable and the fairy tale were once the highest productions of the human mind.... To-day they represent a species of literature only cultivated for the nursery. The verse--which by rhythm, figurative expression, and rhyme, trebly betrays its origin in the stimulation of rhythmically functioning subordinate organs, in associations of ideas working according to external similitudes, and in that working according to consonance--was originally the only form of literature. To-day it is only employed for purely emotional portrayal; for all other purposes it has been conquered by prose, and indeed has almost passed into the condition of an atavistic language. Under our very eyes the novel is being increasingly degraded, serious and highly cultivated men scarcely deeming it worthy of attention, and it appeals more and more exclusively to the young and to women.”[224] According to this, we must presume that our art, which has already “conquered” its earlier form, stands upon a higher grade of development, so that there can be no question of degeneration in it. But the idea that the poetry of a Homer, a Dante, a Goethe, has proceeded “from the stimulation of rhythmically functioning, subordinate organs,” and that it ought to-day to be considered as in “the condition of an atavistic language,” is as ridiculous as the contrary thesis of the degeneration of modern art. No subordinate organs, but the idealistic universe-conception of the times, dictated the form of art in each period of the world’s history.

When Nordau asserts that--in case his “therapy” is considered and humanity is thus protected from further arrest and degeneration--“after some centuries art and poetry will have become pure atavisms, and will no longer be cultivated except by the most emotional portion of humanity--by women, by the young, perhaps even by children,”[225] his assertion rests upon ignorance of the psychical constitution of those heroes of the mind whom we call geniuses. Whoever does not persist in the attitude of Moreau and with him stigmatizes genius as a morbid condition, will see that, with the further mental development of humanity, creative genius will continue to produce, as it always has been producing. In discussing the psychology of genius we have seen that “the artist of genius does not create because he would, but because he must.” Hence art will continue to subsist as long as there are men upon the earth.

As to the form which the art of future centuries is to assume, all possibility of divining it fails us. We know that it is always dependent upon the contemporary conception of the universe. But how this will shape itself in the distant future we can not know. It were therefore a vain proceeding to discuss the subject, or to express any decided opinion about the matter.

According to our investigations, we must necessarily come to the conclusion that the authors mentioned have adduced no proof of the alleged universal degeneration in the highly civilized nations. Mankind is not in a “black plague of degeneration”; and the world has as little need to be scared by stories of the _Völkerdämmerung_ as by the prophecy of Herr Falb about the immanent destruction of our planet. On the other hand, the further development of mankind will be greatly benefited if the teachings of science are attended to and the various baneful influences that act upon the nervous system are combated. In that way increase of insanity may be prevented, and a sane and well-developed posterity insured.

INDEX.

Anthropophagy in Germany, 175.

Appetite, abnormalities in insanity, 16.

Art, Nordau’s view of modern styles, 203-205;
various terms defined, 206;
superficial imitation of masters, 214.

Attention, nature, 10.

Beethoven, psychology of his art, 59.

Body, should have due attention in education, 153.

Bogeys, children should not be threatened with, 154.

Brutus, apparition of Cæsar to, 84.

Conceit of youthful degenerates, 135.

Convents, hysteria in, 176.

Courbet, symptoms of degeneracy, 138-141.

Cromwell, vision of a gigantic woman, 85.

Dancing mania, 178.

Degeneration, symptoms according to Morel, 118, 122;
should not be confused with heredity, 119-121;
among writers, 217;
supporters of the idea numerous, 320;
as depicted by Ibsen, 322;
not established by the exactions of modern life, 324-330.

Delusions, nature, 15.

Demonomania in the sixteenth century, 174;
in the beginning of the seventeenth, 180.

Development, rapid, no indication of later powers, 147.

Disease, nature, 73.

Drunkenness, effect on offspring, 121.

Education, should seek uniform development, 148;
influence on character, 149;
imitation of parents’ faults, 152;
physical side not to be neglected, 153;
dangerous fictions, 154;
duty of the mother, 155;
influence in developing or hiding genius, 163;
training for show, 213.

Emotions, seek expression, 43;
effect on the body, 95;
highly developed in poets, 104;
domination in some degenerates, 126;
deficiency or perversion in others, 130;
egoistic in others, 137.

_Ernst_, Schopenhauer on, 100.

Eroticism, ascribed to Wagner by Nordau, 314-316.

Fancy, nature, 34;
its product depends upon its material, 35;
lively in the childhood of some degenerates, 127.

Fashion, more rational than formerly, 192-194.

_Folie à deux_, 188.

Food, refusal to take, by men of genius and the insane, 110.

Generals, nature of their genius, 66.

Genius, meaning, 19-24;
its essential characteristic, 24;
varieties suggested, 29;
involuntary character of its possessor’s work, 31;
impulse to exercise its powers, 43, 45, 49;
in musical performers, 61-63;
scientific, 63, 67;
in the labours of generals and statesmen, 66;
has no definite psychological meaning, 68-70;
alleged nearness to insanity, 71, 75;
accompanied by hallucinations, 79;
excitation of poets during composition, 96;
the man of genius not a stranger to the world, 106;
absorption a frequent characteristic, 108;
often bears criticism ill, 111;
does not hold disagreeable habits in check, 111;
cases of insanity in men of genius, 112;
inheritance, 115;
prominent in youth, 150.

Giants, sometimes disproportioned, 74.

Gigantic growth, 132, 133.

Goethe on poetic genius, 33, 40;
on the poetic impulse, 43, 45;
on the development of Wilhelm Meister, 46;
on the proper nature of poetry, 47;
compared with Schiller, 48-54;
character, 80;
mental condition, 81;
apparition of himself, 93;
story-telling in boyhood, 99;
power of reproducing perceptions, 88;
chronic melancholy, 105;
interest in stories told by his mother, 157.

Graphomania as described by Lombroso, 141-146.

Hallucinations, in the insane and men of genius, 79, 83-85;
distinguished from illusions, 86;
useful, 87;
religious visions, 90;
different opinions as to morbid character, 91, 95;
produced by suggestion, 92;
recognition by percipients, 94.

Heredity, relation to genius, 115;
must not be confused with degeneration, 119-121.

Hypnotism, close relation to hysteria, 189.

Hysteria, secular, defined, 170;
former prevalence, 173-182;
influenced by suggestion, 182;
recent examples, 185;
secular, not so prevalent as Nordau declares, 191-198.

Ibsen, supports the idea of degeneration, 322.

Idealism defined, 206;
conflict with other styles, 207-210;
Böcklin as an example, 211.

Ideas, imperative, 13.

Idiots, cases with high development of one faculty, 132.

Illusions, distinguished from hallucinations, 86.

Imbeciles, story-telling, 98.

Impulse of the genius, 43, 45, 99.

Injuries, check or modify mental development, 132.

Insanity, improved treatment, 1;
misunderstood by theologians, 2, 72;
present treatment not perfect, 3;
symptoms are exaggerations of normal conditions, 6;
ascribed to all men of remarkable powers, 75;
how detected, 78;
vivid dreams in, 85;
impulse to absurd labours, 101;
cases in men of genius, 112;
various manias, 124;
unbalanced development, 125;
wrong inferences from statistics, 171;
must not be confused with errors of the time, 199;
how far shown in productions of artists, 218;
of authors, 219;
Strindberg as an example, 220-225;
ascribed to Schopenhauer, 228-231;
ascribed to Wagner, 300-308;
depicted as a disease by Shakespeare, 321.

Inventors, nature of their genius, 67.

Lessing on poetic genius, 39.

Literature, preference of writers for the ugly, 215.

Lombroso, Cesare, his Genius and Insanity criticised, 76;
on hereditary genius, 115;
diagnoses epilepsy and ecstasy in Dante, 225;
melancholia in Schopenhauer, 228-231.

Luther, alleged hallucination, 85.

Lying, a symptom of mental derangement, 97.

Manias, various, 124.

Marriage, Nordau’s views, 245.

Mind, abnormal, deemed diseased, 75;
proportion of faculties, 82.

Moods, connection with ideas, 41.

Mother, duty, 155;
influence of Goethe’s, 157;
of Schiller’s, 158;
other cases, 159-162;
proper share in education, 164.

Mozart, psychology of his musical creation, 55, 56-59.

Musical performers, distinction between those having genius and those
having talent, 61.

Naturalism, defined, 206;
conflict with other styles, 207-210;
preference for the ugly, 215.

Nordau, Max, on the prevalence of hysteria, 172, 191-195;
his criticisms of current art, literature, and philosophy examined,
196-198;
on degeneration in art, 203-205;
on schools of art, 210;
on insanity in Schopenhauer, 231;
criticises Zola, 232-235;
on degeneracy in Tolstoi, 239-245;
on marriage, 245;
judgment of Ibsen, 247;
pronounces Wagner degenerate, 308-319.

Originality, as a characteristic of genius, 24.

Perceptions, how formed, 8;
reproduced by internal stimuli, 13.

Poesy, relations to fancy and to intellect, 38;
dominated by impulse, 43, 45;
shows the general in the particular, 47.

Precocious children, injurious treatment, 165-169.

Psychiatry, definition, 1;
an empirical science, 77.

Realism, defined, 206;
conflict with other styles, 207-210;
preference for the ugly, 215.

Recollection, nature, 9;
phenomena of associative reproduction, 11.

Referential ideas, 222-224.

Religious fanaticism due to degeneration, 128.

Reproduction of perceptions, 87-90.

Romanticism, defined, 206;
conflict with other styles, 207-210.

Schiller on poetic genius, 32, 38, 41;
compared with Goethe, 48-54.

Science, the work of genius in, 63, 67.

Shakespeare, not visible in his characters, 53;
depiction of insanity, 321.

Spiritualism, successor to the belief in witchcraft, 186.

Statesmen, nature of their genius, 66.

Stories, fictitious, injurious to dreamy children, 154.

Suggestion, influence in hysteria, 182-186;
in spiritualism, 186.

Talent, musical, 55, 61-63.

Theologians, errors concerning insanity, 2, 72.

Tolstoi, speculations on life, 235-239;
his degeneracy in Nordau’s eyes, 239-245.

Vulgarity of many degenerate writers, 137.

Wagner, describes the Heroic Symphony, 60;
early years, 249;
first works, 250-252;
the Flying Dutchman, 253-256;
nature of his artistic tendency, 256-260;
success of Rienzi, 260-262;
the writing of Tannhäuser, 261, 263-266;
Lohengrin, 266-269;
his revolt against the culture of his time, 269-271;
sketch of the Nibelung trilogy, 272-288;
sketch of Parsifal, 288-294;
his art as it appeared to him, 295-297;
irksomeness of writing, 297;
the psychical side of his works, 298-300;
declared insane by Theodor Puschmann, 300-308;
declared degenerate by Nordau, 308-319.

Werewolf superstition, 179.

Zola, criticised by Nordau, 232-235.

_Printed from American Plates_
Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
_London & Edinburgh_

FOOTNOTES

[1] Compare the report of the yearly meeting of the Association of German Alienists, at Frankfurt a. M., 1893. Report upon Psychiatry and the Care of Souls, by Siemens.

[2] Theorie der schönen Künste, 3d ed., 1798. Article, Genie.

[3] L’Abbé Du Bos. Réflexions critiques sur la poésie et sur la peinture, 2d part, section 1. “On appelle génie, l’aptitude qu’un homme a reçu de la nature pour faire bien et facilement certaines choses que les autres ne sauroient faire que très mal, même en prenant beaucoup de peine.”

[4] Theorie der schönen Künste und Wissenschaften, ed. of 1767, p. 391.

[5] Logik und Metaphysik.

[6] Metaphysica, § 648. “Determinata facultatum cognoscitiuarum proportio inter se in aliquo est ingenium.”

[7] Ursache des gesunkenen Geschmacks bei den verschiedenen Völkern, da er geblüht, 1775, p. 62.

[8] Karl Friedrich Flögel. Geschichte des menschlichen Verstandes.

[9] Betrachtungen über den Menschen.

[10] Psychologie des grands hommes. Originally published in the Revue Philosophique.

[11] Ferdinand Christoph Weise. Allgemeine Theorie des Genies.

[12] An Essay on Genius, 1774. “Genius is properly the faculty of invention, by means of which a man is qualified for making new discoveries in science, or for producing original works of art. We may ascribe taste, judgment, or knowledge to a man who is incapable of invention, but we can not reckon him as a man of genius. In order to determine how far he merits this character (!) we must inquire whether he has discovered any new principle in science, or has invented any new art, or has carried those arts that are already practised to a higher degree of perfection than former masters; or whether, at least, he has, in matters of science, improved upon the discoveries of his predecessors, or reduced principles formerly known to a greater degree of simplicity and consistency, or traced them through a train of consequences hitherto unknown; or in the arts, whether he has designed some new work different from those of his predecessors, though not perhaps excelling them (!). Whatever falls short of this is servile imitation or a dull effort of plodding industry, which, as not implying invention, can be deemed no proof of genius, whatever capacity, skill, or diligence it may evidence. But if a man shows invention, no intellectual defects (!) which his performance may betray can forfeit his claim to genius. His invention may be irregular, wild, undisciplined; but still it is regarded as an infallible mark of real natural genius (!), and the degree of this faculty that we ascribe to him is always in proportion to the novelty, the difficulty, and the dignity of his inventions.”

[13] Geschichte des menschlichen Verstandes.

[14] Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht, 1798, § 55.

[15] Ueber die Verwandtschaft des Genies mit dem Irrsinn, in the Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie, vol. xxxiii.

[16] Ferdinand Christoph Weise. Allgemeine Theorie des Genies.

[17] _Loc. cit._, p. 318.

[18] P. 319.

[19] De l’esprit, 1758. Discours 4me., chap. i.

[20] “To gain an exact definition of the word genius, and in general of the aggregate of different names given to mind, we must rise to wider ideas, and for this purpose we must lend an attentive ear to the judgments of the public.... The public ranks as men of genius alike the Descartes, the Newtons, the Lockes, the Montesquieus, the Corneilles, the Molières, etc. The name genius given to men so different supposes that there is some common quality in which they agree.”

[21] Paul Radestock. Genie und Wahnsinn.

[22] Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, vol. i, Book III, § 36, and vol. ii, cap. xxxi.

[23] Jürgen Bona Meyer. Genie und Talent, Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaften, B. xi.

[24] Friedrich Theodor Vischer. Æsthetik; oder Wissenschaft des Schönen, 1846.

[25] Vorschule der Æsthetik, § 12, Besonnenheit.

[26] 1773, April 20. “Il faut avouer que dans les arts de génie, tout est l’ouvrage de l’instinct. Corneille fit la scène d’Horace et de Curiace comme un oiseau fait son nid, à cela près qu’un oiseau fait toujours bien, et qu’il n’en est pas de même de nous autres chétifs.”

[27] Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie.

[28] Garve. Anmerkungen über Gellert.

[29] Hamburgische Dramaturgie, 34tes Stück.

[30]

Ein Quidam sagt: “Ich bin von keiner Schule;
Kein Meister lebt, mit dem ich buhle;
Auch bin ich weit davon entfernt
Dass ich von Todten was gelernt.”
Das heisst, wenn ich ihn recht verstand:
“Ich bin ein Narr, auf eigne Hand.”

[31] Entgegnung auf Äusserungen Französischer Journalisten.

[32] Wilhelm Dilthey. Ueber die Einbildungskraft der Dichter. Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft, vol. x.

[33] Hermann Grimm, Goethe.

[34]

Freudvoll und leidvoll
Gedankenvoll sein;
Hangen und Bangen
In schwebender Pein,
Himmelhoch jauchzend,
Zum Tode betrübt ...

[35] Otto Jahn, Mozart, i, 840.

[36] Nissen, Mozart, p. 627.

[37] Jahn, _Op. cit._, ii, 127.

[38] Gesammelte Schriften, vol. v.

[39] Schiller’s Horen, Bd. I.

[40] Jean Paul, Vorschule der Æsthetik.

[41] Leben, Charakter, und Kunst des Ritters Nicolo Paganini.

[42] Wundt. Physiologische Psychologie, ii, 403.

[43] Jürgen Bona Meyer. Genie und Talent.

[44] De tranquilitate animi.

[45] Problemata, 30, 1.

[46] De divinatione, i, 37.

[47] Od. iii, 4.

[48] Absalom and Architophel, i, 63.

[49] Leçons sur la chaleur animale. Paris, 1875, Leçon 19me.

[50] Ranke. Der Mensch.

[51] La psychologie morbide dans ses rapports avec la philosophie de l’histoire, Paris, 1859.

[52] Genio e follia, 1864.

[53] Lombroso. Neurose bei Dante und Michelangelo. Die Zukunft, herausgeb. Maxim. Harden, vol. v, No. 12.

[54] The sanity of true genius.

[55] Plutarch. Brutus, chap. xxxvi.

[56] _Ibid._, chap. xlviii.

[57] Genio e follia.

[58] Lombroso. _Op. cit._, p. 19.

[59] Von Krafft-Ebing. Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie.

[60] Zur Theorie der Hallucination. Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie, Bd. xxv.

[61] The Power of the Soul over the Body, 1845, Part II, chap. vii. (5th ed., p. 170).

[62] Vita di Vittorio Alfieri scritta di Esso, Epoca 4ta, cap. xv.

[63] Letter to Moore, January 28, 1817.

[64] Charcot. Leçons sur les maladies du système nerveux.

[65] Morel. Études cliniques.

[66] Lasègnes. Les hystériques, leur perversité, leurs mensonges.

[67] Delbrück. Die pathologische Lüge.

[68] Psychologie de l’idiot et de l’imbécile, 1891, chap. viii, p. 216.

[69] Hagen. Ueber die Verwandtschaft des Genies mit dem Irrsinn. Allgem. Zeitschr. f. Psychiatrie, B. xxxiii.

[70] Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung.

[71] Trélat. La Folie Lucide, quoted by Cullerre.

[72] Bayard Taylor’s Faust. From the scene in Faust’s study just before the entrance of the student.

[73] Genius and Insanity.

[74] Jürgen Bona Meyer. Genie und Talent.

[75] The Æsthetician Vischer says: “The man endowed with fancy is in the midst of the world truly solitary, for the one which he at present peacefully warms in his bosom is his world; and the empirical world has surrendered all its significance to this microcosm. Thus he is indifferent to the things about him, and seems to be out of himself. The reason is, that he is quite within himself, but in such a way that he does not distinguish subject and object within himself. What has come upon him is that the object and his subjective life ferment together; and he now listens unconsciously to this inward singing, sounding, and weaving.” Vol. ii, p. 345.

[76] See P. Möbius. Krankengeschichte Rousseaus.

[77] Ribot, Heredity; Francis Galton, Hereditary Genius, etc.

[78] _Ibid._, p. 72.

[79] _Ibid._, p. 76.

[80] Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie, p. 197.

[81] Traité des Dégénérescences Physiques, Intellectuelles et Morales.

[82] See the introduction to Psychiatrische Vorlesungen von V. Magnan. Transl. by P. J. Möbius.

[83] Realencyclopädie der gesamten Heilkunde.

[84] v. Krafft-Ebing. Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie, 4th ed.

[85] Compare von Krafft-Ebing, p. 179: “Wonderful as it is, cases adduced by von Flemming, Ruer, and Demeaux prove the fact that even children of otherwise temperate parents, whose copulation took place in a fateful hour of drunkenness, are extremely disposed to mental derangement, especially to diseases of the nerves. This bad interferential effect may show itself from birth as inborn imbecility (_Schwach und Blödsinn_).”

[86] Psychiatrische Vorlesungen von Magnan. Transl. by P. J. Möbius.

[87] _Op cit._, i, 2.

[88] W. W. Ireland. Herrschermacht und Geisteskrankheit. Stuttgart, 1887.

[89] Ranke. Der Mensch., vol. ii, p. 136.

[90] _Op cit._

[91] Ranke. _Op. cit._, ii, p. 135.

[92] Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht, § 56 (§ 57 in some editions).

[93] Rosenberg. Geschichte der modernen Kunst.

[94] On his refusal of the cross of the Legion of Honor.

[95] H. Störer. Leben des Ritters Karl von Linné.

[96] Sollier. Der Idiot und der Imbecille.

[97] Gustav Hauffe. Talente und sogenannte besondere Anlagen hat der Mensch nicht! See Pädagogische Sammelmappe, 1875-’76, 1-6.

[98] Ludwig Nohl. Biographie Mozarts.

[99] Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie.

[100] Pathologie und Therapie der Geisteskrankheiten.

[101] Schüle. Klinische Psychiatrie.

[102] La Peur, Paris, 1886.

[103] G. H. Lewes. The Life and Works of Goethe, 1855, Book I, chap. v.

[104] Degeneration, p. 537.

[105] _Ibid._

[106] Calmeil. Der Wahnsinn in den vier letzten Jahrhunderten. Nach dem Französischen bearbeitet von Leubusch.

[107] Calmeil, _op. cit._, p. 30. He cites Annales Flandicorum, ed. Jacob Meyer, lib. xvi; Monstrelet, Chroniques, book ii; Del Rio, Disquisitiones magicarum, etc., p. 821; J. Wier, Opera Omnia, p. 205.

[108] Nider. In Malleo Maleficarum, vol. i, p. 719.

[109] Sprenger. In Malleo Maleficarum.

[110] Bodin. Démonomanie des sorciers.

[111] Calmeil, _op. cit._

[112] Calmeil, _op. cit._, p. 32.

[113] Gilles de la Tourette. Die Hysterie nach den Lehren der Salpétrière. Deutsch von Karl Grube.

[114] Annalen für Hygiene und gerichtliche Medicin, 1834, vol. xii.

[115] Calmeil, _op. cit._, p. 84.

[116] Calmeil, _op. cit._, p. 84.

[117] Cf. Richer. Études cliniques sur l’Hystéro-épilepsie ou grande hystérie.

[118] Calmeil, _op. cit._, p. 139.

[119] The reader is especially referred to G. Guinon’s article on Les agents provocateurs de l’hystérie. Le Progrès Médical, Paris, 1889.

[120] Delancre. Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais anges et démons, Paris, 1613; P. Delancre. L’incrédulité et mécréance pleinement convaincue, etc., Paris, 1622.

[121] Cf. P. Richer, _op. cit._, p. 712.

[122] Gilles de la Tourette, _op cit._, p. 46.

[123] F. Jolly. Ueber Hypnotismus und Geistesstörung. In the Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, vol. xxv, Part III.

[124] Hagen. Genie und Irrsinn.

[125] Degeneration, p. 27.

[126] Degeneration, p. 29.

[127] Vorschule der Æsthetik.

[128] Die Krankengeschichte Rousseaus.

[129] Lombroso. Neurose bei Dante und Michelangelo. Die Zukunft, 1893.

[130] Inferno, iii, 130.

[131] See Dr. Nordau’s dedication of Degeneration to Prof. Lombroso.

[132] Lombroso and G. Ferrero. Das Weib als Verbrecherin und Prostituierte, uebersetzt von Kurella, Hamburg, 1893.

[133] Der Zeitgeist, Berlin, 1892, No. 4.

[134] _Ibid._, p. 499.

[135] _Ibid._, p. 503.

[136] Degeneration, p. 151.

[137] _Ibid._, p. 166.

[138] _Ibid._, p. 150.

[139] _Ibid._, p. 154.

[140] _Ibid._, p. 415.

[141] Ed. von Hartmann. The Philosophy of the Unconscious.

[142] Richard Wagner. Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen, iv, p. 312.

[143] _Ibid._, iv, p. 317.

[144] _Ibid._, i, p. 14.

[145] _Ibid._, iv, p. 315.

[146] _Ibid._, iv, p. 316.

[147] _Ibid._, iv, p. 321.

[148] _Ibid._, iv, p. 328.

[149] _Ibid._, vi, p. 372.

[150] _Ibid._, iv, p. 288.

[151] _Ibid._, iv, p. 389.

[152]

Unmöglich dünkt mich’s dass ich nenne
Die Länder alle, die ich fand;
Das einz’ge, nur, nach dem ich brenne,
Ich find’es nicht, mein Heimatland.

[153] _Ibid._, i, p. 24.

[154] _Ibid._, iv, p. 330.

[155]

Nicht Lust allein liegt mir am Herzen,
Aus Freuden sehn’ ich mich nach Schmerzen;
Aus deinem Reiche muss ich flieh’n,
O Königin, Göttin! Lass mich zieh’n.

[156]

Ein Engel bat für dich auf Erden--
Bald schwebt er segnend über dir:
Elizabeth!

[157] _Ibid._, iv, p. 343.

[158]

Doch hin muss ich zur Welt der Erden,
Bei dir kann ich nur Sklave werden;
Nach Freiheit doch verlange ich,
Nach Freiheit, Freiheit dürstet’s mich;
Zu Kampf und Streite will ich stehen,
Sei’s auch auf Tod und Untergehen--
Drum muss aus deinem Reich ich flieh’n--
O Königin, Göttin! Lass mich zieh’n.

[159]

Deiner Schande Schmach blüht dir dann auf;
Gebannt, verflucht, folgt dir der Hohn;
Zerknirscht, zertreten seh’ ich dich nahen,
Bedeckt mit Staub das entehrte Haupt.

[160] _Ibid._, iv, p. 360.

[161]

Nie sollst du mich befragen,
Noch Wissens Sorge tragen,
Woher ich kam der Fahrt,
Noch wie mein Nam’ und Art!

[162]

Mein Held, mein Retter! Nimm mich hin!
Dir gieb ich alles, was ich bin!

[163] _Ibid._, iv, p. 363.

[164] _Ibid._, iv, p. 365.

[165] _Ibid._, iv, p. 369.

[166] Art and Revolution, _ibid._, iii, p. 38.

[167] _Ibid._, iv, p. 406.

[168] _Ibid._, iii, p. 39.

[169] _Ibid._, iii, p. 56.

[170] _Ibid._, iii, p. 266.

[171] _Ibid._, iv, p. 381.

[172]

Der Welt Erbe
Gewänne zu eigen
Wer aus dem Rheingold
Schüfe den Ring,
Der masslose Macht ihm verlieh.

[173]

Nur wer der Minne
Macht versagt,
Nur wer der Liebe
Lust verjagt,
Nur der erzielt sich den Zauber,
Zum Reif zu zwingen das Gold.

[174] Or “mist-hood,” a garment that rendered the wearer invisible and gave him the strength of twelve men.--Translator.

[175]

Kein Froher soll
Seiner sich freu’n;
Keinem Glücklichen lache
Sein lichter Glanz;
Wer ihn besitzt,
Den sehre sorge,
Und wer ihn nicht hat,
Nage der Neid!
Jeder giere
Nach seinem Gut,
Doch keiner geniesse
Mit Nutzen sein.

[176] On the State and Religion, _ibid._, viii, p. 11.

[177]

Wie Alles war, weiss ich,
Wie Alles wird,
Wie Alles sein wird
Seh’ ich auch:
Der ew’gen Welt
Ur-Wala,
Erda mahnt deinen Mut.

[178]

Die Burg ist fertig,
Verfallen das Pfand:
Vergisst Du, was Du vergabst?

[179]

Das Weib zu missen,
Wisse gemutet mich weh:
Soll aus dem Sinn sie mir schwinden,
Des Geschmeides Hort
Häufe denn so,
Dass meinem Blick
Die blühende ganz er verdeck’!

[180]

Weh’ noch blitzt
Ihr Blick zu mir her,
Des Auges stern
Strahlt mich noch an:
Durch eine spalte,
Muss ich’s erspäh’n!--
Seh’ ich dies wonnige Auge,
Von dem Weibe lass’ ich nicht ab.

[181]

Der durch Verträge ich Herr,
Den Verträgen bin ich nun Knecht.

[182]

Dann wäre Walhall verloren:
Der der Liebe fluchte
Er allein
Nützte neidisch
Des Ringen Runen
Zu aller Edlen
Endloser schmach.

[183]

Was so schlimmes
Schuf das Paar,
Das liebend einte der Lenz?
Der Minne Zauber
Entzückte sie,
Wer büsst mir der Minne Macht?

[184]

Du siehst nur das Eine,
Das And’re seh’ ich,
Das Jenes mir jagt aus dem Blick.

These words are taken from the original draft of the text, as it had been planned before the scene was written.

[185]

Unheilig
Acht’ ich den Eid,
Der Unliebende eint;
Und mir wahrlich
Mute nicht zu,
Dass mit Zwang ich halte,
Was Dir nicht haftet:
Denn wo kühn Kräfte sich regen,
Da rath’ ich offen zum Krieg.

[186]

In eig’ner Fessel
Fing ich mich:
Ich unfreiester Aller!

[187]

Befiehl mir dein Weib
Um des Pfandes Willen,
Das wonnig von Dir es empfing.

[188]

Ein bräutliches Feuer
Soll Dir nun brennen,
Wie nie einer Braut es gebrannt!
Flammende Glut
Umglühe den Fels;
Mit zehrenden Schrecken
Scheuch es den Zagen;
Der Feige fliehe
Brünhilde’s Fels:
Denn einer nur freie die Braut,
Der freier als ich der Gott!

[189]

Fahre denn hin,
Herrische Pracht,
Göttlichen Prunkes
Prahlende Schmach!
Zusammenbreche,
Was ich gebaut!
Auf geb’ ich mein Werk,
Eines nur will ich noch:
Das Ende----
Das Ende!--

[190]

Nur einer dürfte,
Was ich nicht darf:
Ein Held dem helfend
Nie ich mich neigte;
Der fremd dem Gotte,
Frei seiner Gunst,
Unbewusst,
Ohne Geheiss,
Aus eig’ner Not
Mit der eig’nen Wehr
Schüfe die That,
Die ich scheuen muss,
Die nie mein Rat ihm entriet,
Wünscht sich auch einzig mein Wunsch.

[191]

Was ihr mir nützet
Weiss ich nicht.

[192]

Mein Blut verdärb euch den Trank;
Nicht fliesst mir’s echt
Und edel wie euch,
Störrisch und kalt
Stockt’s in mir;
Nicht will’s die Wange mir röten,
Drum bleib’ ich fern
Vom feurigen Bund.

[193]

Echter als er
Schwur keiner Eide;
Treuer als er
Hielt keiner Vorträge;
Laut’rer als er
Liebte kein and’rer.

[194]

Die seinem Dienst ihr zugesindet
Auf Pfaden, die kein Sünder findet
Ihr wisst, dass nur dem Reinen
Vergönnt ist, sich zu einen,
Den Brüdern, die zu höchsten Rettungswerken
Des Grales heil’ge Wunderkräfte stärken.

[195]

Ohnmächtig, in sich selbst die Sünde zu ertöten,
An sich legt er die Frevlerhand,
Die nun dem Grale zugewandt,
Verachtungsvoll dess’ Hüter von sich stiess.

[196]

Schon nah dem Schloss wird uns der Held entrückt,
Ein furchtbar schönes Weib hat ihn entzückt;
In seinen Armen liegt er trunken,
Der Speer ist ihm entsunken;
Ein Todesschrei!--ich stürm’ herbei:--
Von dannen Klingsor schwand,
Den heil’gen Speer hat er entwandt.

[197] Wohl willst du, denn du musst.

[198]

Vor dem verwaisten Heiligtum
In brünst’gem Beten lag Amfortas,
Ein Rettungszeichen heiss erflehend;
Ein sel’ger Schimmer da endfloss dem Grale;
Ein heilig Traumgesicht
Nun deutlich zu ihm spricht
Durch hell erschauter Wortezeichen Male:
“Durch Mitleid wissend
Der reine Thor,
Harre sein’,
Den ich erker.”

[199]

Wehe! Wehe! Was that ich? Wo, war ich?
Mutter: Süsse, holde Mutter!
Dein Sohn, dein Sohn musste dich morden?
O Thor! Blöder, taumelnder Thor!
Wo irrtest Du hin, ihrer vergessend?
Deiner, deiner vergessend,
Traute treuerste Mutter?

[200]

Als Muttersegens letzten Gruss
Der Liebe--ersten Kuss!

[201]

Amfortas!
Die Wunde!--die Wunde!
Sie brennt in meinem Herzen.

[202] _Op. cit._, iv, p. 368.

[203] _Op. cit._, x, p. 224.

[204] _Op. cit._, iv, p. 387.

[205] _Op. cit._, iv, p. 401. See also Zukunftsmusik, vii, p. 153.

[206] Dr. Th. Puschmann, Practising Physician and Specialist in Psychology in Munich. Richard Wagner, eine psychiatrische Studie.

[207] Richard Wagner und der “Specialist der Psychiatrie.” Eine Beleuchtung der Puschmannschen Studie von C. P. Berlin, 1873.

[208] Degeneration, p. 205.

[209] _Ibid._, p. 171.

[210] _Ibid._, p. 172.

[211] _Ibid._, p. 176.

[212] _Ibid._, p. 181.

[213] _Ibid._, p. 188.

[214]

Doch einmal im Jahre fänd’ ich’s weise,
Dass man die Regeln selbst probir’,
Ob in der Gewohnheit trägem G’leise
Ihr’ Kraft und Leben sich nicht verlier’:
Und ob ihr der Natur
Noch seid auf rechter Spur,
Dass sagt euch nur,
Wer nichts weiss von der Tabulatur.

[215] _Ibid._, p. 203.

[216] Æschyli Choëphoræ.

[217] Les démoniaques dans l’art, Paris, 1887.

[218] Ibsen’s Gespenster und die Psychiatrie, Die Zukunft, Berlin, 1893, vol. iv, No. 51.

[219] Degeneration, p. 285.

[220] _Op cit._, p. 670.

[221] Degeneration, p. 39.

[222] _Ibid._

[223] Wilhelm Wundt. Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie, third edition, Leipsic, 1887, ii, p. 457.

[224] Degeneration, p. 543.

[225] _Ibid._

Transcriber’s Notes

Italic text is indicated with _underscores_.