Chapter VI: Imitators of Sterne (2)

Blankenburg, the author of the treatise on the novel to which reference has been made, was regarded by contemporary and subsequent criticism as an imitator of Sterne in his oddly titled novel "Beyträge zur Geschichte des teutschen Reiches und teutscher Sitten,"[58] although the general tenor of his essay, in reasonableness and balance, seemed to promise a more independent, a more competent and felicitous performance. Kurz expresses this opinion, which may have been derived from criticisms in the eighteenth century journals. The _Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen_, July 28, 1775, does not, however, take this view; but seems to be in the novel a genuine exemplification of the author's theories as previously expressed.[59] The _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[60] calls the book didactic, a tract against certain essentially German follies. Merck, in the _Teutscher Merkur_,[61] says the imitation of Sterne is quite too obvious, though Blankenburg denies it.

Among miscellaneous and anonymous works inspired directly by Sterne, belongs undoubtedly "Die Geschichte meiner Reise nach Pirmont" (1773), the author of which claims that it was written before Yorick was translated or Jacobi published. He says he is not worthy to pack Yorick's bag or weave Jacobi's arbor,[62] but the review of the _Almanach der deutschen Musen_ evidently regards it as a product, nevertheless, of Yorick's impulse. Kuno Ridderhoff in his study of Frau la Roche[63] says that the "Empfindsamkeit" of Rosalie in the first part of "Rosaliens Briefe" is derived from Yorick. The "Leben, Thaten und Meynungen des D. J. Pet. Menadie" (Halle, 1777-1781) is charged by the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_ with attempt at Shandy-like eccentricity of narrative and love of digression.[64]

One little volume, unmistakably produced under Yorick's spell, is worthy of particular mention because at its time it received from the reviewers a more cordial welcome than was accorded to the rank and file of Sentimental Journeys. It is "M . . . R . . ." by E. A. A. von Göchhausen (1740-1824), which was published at Eisenach, 1772, and was deemed worthy of several later editions. Its dependence on Sterne is confessed and obvious, sometimes apologetically and hesitatingly, sometimes defiantly. The imitation of Sterne is strongest at the beginning, both in outward form and subject-matter, and this measure of indebtedness dwindles away steadily as the book advances. Göchhausen, as other imitators, used at the outset a modish form, returned to it consciously now and then when once under way, but when he actually had something to say, a message of his own, found it impracticable or else forgot to follow his model.

The absurd title stands, of course, for "Meine Reisen" and the puerile abbreviation as well as the reasons assigned for it, were intended to be a Sterne-like jest, a pitiful one. Why Goedeke should suggest "Meine Randglossen" is quite inexplicable, since Göchhausen himself in the very first chapter indicates the real title. Beneath the enigmatical title stands an alleged quotation from Shandy: "Ein Autor borgt, bettelt und stiehlt so stark von dem andern, dass bey meiner Seele! die Originalität fast so rar geworden ist als die Ehrlichkeit."[65] The book itself, like Sterne's Journey, is divided into brief chapters unnumbered but named. As the author loses Yorick from sight, the chapters grow longer. Göchhausen has availed himself of an odd device to disarm criticism,--a plan used once or twice by Schummel: occasionally when the imitation is obvious, he repudiates the charge sarcastically, or anticipates with irony the critics' censure. For example, he gives directions to his servant Pumper to pack for the journey; a reader exclaims, "a portmanteau, Mr. Author, so that everything, even to that, shall be just like Yorick," and in the following passage the author quarrels with the critics who allow no one to travel with a portmanteau, because an English clergyman traveled with one. Pumper's misunderstanding of this objection is used as a farther ridicule of the critics. When on the journey, the author converses with two poor wandering monks, whose conversation, at any rate, is a witness to their content, the whole being a legacy of the Lorenzo episode, and the author entitles the chapter: "The members of the religious order, or, as some critics will call it, a wretchedly unsuccessful imitation." In the next chapter, "Der Visitator" (pp. 125 ff.) in which the author encounters customs annoyances, the critic is again allowed to complain that everything is stolen from Yorick, a protest which is answered by the author quite naïvely, "Yorick journeyed, ate, drank; I do too." In "Die Pause" the author stands before the inn door and fancies that a number of spies (Ausspäher) stand there waiting for him; he protests that Yorick encountered beggars before the inn in Montreuil, a very different sort of folk. On page 253 he exclaims, "für diesen schreibe ich dieses Kapitel nicht und ich--beklage ihn!" Here a footnote suggests "Das übrige des Diebstahls vid. Yorick's Gefangenen." Similarly when he calls his servant his "La Fleur," he converses with the critics about his theft from Yorick.

The book is opened by a would-be whimsical note, the guessing about the name of the book. The dependence upon Sterne, suggested by the motto, is clinched by reference to this quotation in the section "Apologie," and by the following chapter, which is entitled "Yorick." The latter is the most unequivocal and, withal, the most successful imitation of Yorick's manner which the volume offers. The author is sitting on a sofa reading the Sentimental Journey, and the idea of such a trip is awakened in him. Someone knocks and the door is opened by the postman, as the narrator is opening his "Lorenzodose," and the story of the poor monk is touching his heart now for the twentieth time as strongly as ever. The postman asks postage on the letter as well as his own trivial fee. The author counts over money, miscounts it, then in counting forgets all about it, puts the money away and continues the reading of Yorick. The postman interrupts him; the author grows impatient and says, "You want four groschen?" and is inexplicably vexed at the honesty of the man who says it is only three pfennigs for himself and the four groschen for the post. Here is a direct following of the Lorenzo episode; caprice rules his behavior toward an inferior, who is modest in his request. After the incident, his spite, his head and his heart and his "ich" converse in true Sterne fashion as to the advisability of his beginning to read Yorick again. He reasons with himself concerning his conduct toward the postman, then in an apostrophe to Yorick he condemns himself for failing in this little test. This conversation occupies so much time that he cannot run after the postman, but he resolves that nothing, not even the fly that lights on his nose, shall bring him so far as to forget wherefore his friend J . . . . sent him a "Lorenzodose." And at the end of the section there is a picture of the snuff-box with the lid open, disclosing the letters of the word "Yorick." The "Lorenzodose" is mentioned later, and later still the author calms his indignation by opening the box; he fortifies himself also by a look at the treasure.[66]

Following this picture of the snuff-box is an open letter to "My dear J . . . ," who, at the author's request, had sent him on June 29th a "Lorenzodose." Jacobi's accompanying words are given. The author acknowledges the difficulty with which sometimes the self-conquest demanded by allegiance to the sentimental symbol has been won.

Yet, compared with some other imitations of the good Yorick, the volume contains but a moderate amount of lavish sentiment. The servant Pumper is a man of feeling, who grieves that the horses trod the dewdrops from the blades of grass. Cast in the real Yorick mould is the scene in which Pumper kills a marmot (Hamster); upon his master's expostulation that God created the little beast also, Pumper is touched, wipes the blood off with his cuff and buries the animal with tenderness, indulging in a pathetic soliloquy; the whole being a variant of Yorick's ass episode.

Marked with a similar vein of sentimentality is the narrator's conduct toward the poor wanderer with his heavy burden: the author asserts that he has never eaten a roll, put on a white shirt, traveled in a comfortable carriage, or been borne by a strong horse, without bemoaning those who were less fortunately circumstanced. A similar and truly Sterne-like triumph of feeling over convention is the traveler's insistence that Pumper shall ride with him inside the coach; seemingly a point derived from Jacobi's failure to be equally democratic.[67]

Sterne's emphasis upon the machinery of his story-telling, especially his distraught pretense at logical sequence in the ordering of his material is here imitated. For example: near the close of a chapter the author summons his servant Pumper, but since the chapter bore the title "Der Brief" and the servant can neither read nor write a letter, he says the latter has nothing to do in that chapter, but he is to be introduced in the following one. Yet with Yorick's inconsequence, the narrator is led aside and exclaims at the end of this chapter, "But where is Pumper?" with the answer, "Heaven and my readers know, it was to no purpose that this chapter was so named (and perhaps this is not the last one to which the title will be just as appropriate)", and the next chapter pursues the whimsical attempt, beginning "As to whether Pumper will appear in this chapter, about that, dear reader, I am not really sure myself."

The whimsical, unconventional interposition of the reader, and the author's reasoning with him, a Sterne device, is employed so constantly in the book as to become a wearying mannerism. Examples have already been cited, additional ones are numerous: the fifth section is devoted to such conversation with the reader concerning the work; later the reader objects to the narrator's drinking coffee without giving a chapter about it; the reader is allowed to express his wonder as to what the chapter is going to be because of the author's leap; the reader guesses where the author can be, when he begins to describe conditions in the moon. The chapter "Der Einwurf" is occupied entirely with the reader's protest, and the last two sections are largely the record of fancied conversations with various readers concerning the nature of the book; here the author discloses himself.[68] Sterne-like whim is found in the chapter "Die Nacht," which consists of a single sentence: "Ich schenke Ihnen diesen ganzen Zeitraum, denn ich habe ihn ruhig verschlafen." Similar Shandean eccentricity is illustrated by the chapter entitled "Der Monolog," which consists of four lines of dots, and the question, "Didn't you think all this too, my readers?" Typographical eccentricity is observed also in the arrangement of the conversation of the ladies A., B., C., D., etc., in the last chapter. Like Sterne, our author makes lists of things; probably inspired by Yorick's apostrophe to the "Sensorium" is our traveler's appeal to the spring of joy. The description of the fashion of walking observed in the maid in the moon is reminiscent of a similar passage in Schummel's journey.

Göchhausen's own work, untrammeled by outside influence, is considerable, largely a genial satire on critics and philosophers; his stay in the moon is a kind of Utopian fancy.

The literary journals accepted Göchhausen's work as a Yorick imitation, condemned it as such apologetically, but found much in the book worthy of their praise.[69]

Probably the best known novel which adopts in considerable measure the style of Tristram Shandy is Wezel's once famous "Tobias Knaut," the "Lebensgeschichte Tobias Knauts des Weisen sonst Stammler genannt, aus Familiennachrichten gesammelt."[70] In this work the influence of Fielding is felt parallel to that of Sterne. The historians of literature all accord the book a high place among humorous efforts of the period, crediting the author with wit, narrative ability, knowledge of human nature and full consciousness of plan and purpose.[71] They unite also in the opinion that "Tobias Knaut" places Wezel in the ranks of Sterne imitators, but this can be accepted only guardedly, for in part the novel must be regarded as a satire on "Empfindsamkeit" and hence in some measure be classified as an opposing force to Sterne's dominion, especially to the distinctively German Sterne. That this impulse, which later became the guiding principle of "Wilhelmine Arend," was already strong in "Tobias Knaut" is hinted at by Gervinus, but passed over in silence by other writers. Kurz, following Wieland, who reviewed the novel in his _Merkur_, finds that the influence of Sterne was baneful. Other contemporary reviews deplored the imitation as obscuring and stultifying the undeniable and genuinely original talents of the author.[72]

A brief investigation of Wezel's novel will easily demonstrate his indebtedness to Sterne. Yet Wezel in his preface, anticipating the charge of imitation, asserts that he had not read Shandy when "Tobias" was begun. Possibly he intends this assertion as a whim, for he quotes Tristram at some length.[73] This inconsistency is occasion for censure on the part of the reviewers.

Wezel's story begins, like Shandy, "ab ovo," and, in resemblance to Sterne's masterpiece, the connection between the condition of the child before its birth and its subsequent life and character is insisted upon. A reference is later made to this. The work is episodical and digressive, but in a more extensive way than Shandy; the episodes in Sterne's novel are yet part and parcel of the story, infused with the personality of the writer, and linked indissolubly to the little family of originals whose sayings and doings are immortalized by Sterne. This is not true of Wezel: his episodes and digressions are much more purely extraneous in event, and nature of interest. The story of the new-found son, which fills sixty-four pages, is like a story within a story, for its connection with the Knaut family is very remote. This very story, interpolated as it is, is itself again interrupted by a seven-page digression concerning Tyrus, Alexander, Pipin and Charlemagne, which the author states is taken from the one hundred and twenty-first chapter of his "Lateinische Pneumatologie,"--a genuine Sternian pretense, reminding one of the "Tristrapaedia." Whimsicality of manner distinctly reminiscent of Sterne is found in his mock-scientific catalogues or lists of things, as in Chapter III, "Deduktionen, Dissertationen, Argumentationen a priori und a posteriori," and so on; plainly adapted from Sterne's idiosyncrasy of form is the advertisement which in large red letters occupies the middle of a page in the twenty-first chapter of the second volume, which reads as follows: "Dienst-freundliche Anzeige. Jedermann, der an ernsten Gesprächen keinen Gefallen findet, wird freundschaftlich ersucht alle folgende Blätter, deren Inhalt einem Gespräche ähnlich sieht, wohlbedächtig zu überschlagen, d.h. von dieser Anzeige an gerechnet. Darauf denke ich, soll jedermanniglich vom 22. Absatze fahren können,--Cuique Suum." The following page is blank: this is closely akin to Sterne's vagaries. Like Sterne, he makes promise of chapter-subject.[74] Similarly dependent on Sterne's example, is the Fragment in Chapter VIII, Volume III, which breaks off suddenly under the plea that the rest could not be found. Like Sterne, our author satirizes detailed description in the excessive account of the infinitesimals of personal discomfort after a carouse.[75] He makes also obscure whimsical allusions, accompanied by typographical eccentricities (I, p. 153). To be connected with the story of the Abbess of Andouillets is the humor "Man leuterirte, appelirte--irte,--irte,--irte."

The author's perplexities in managing the composition of the book are sketched in a way undoubtedly derived from Sterne,--for example, the beginning of Chapter IX in Volume III is a lament over the difficulties of chronicling what has happened during the preceding learned disquisition. When Tobias in anger begins to beat his horse, this is accompanied by the sighs of the author, a really audible one being put in a footnote, the whole forming a whimsy of narrative style for which Sterne must be held responsible. Similar to this is the author's statement (Chap. XXV, Vol. II), that Lucian, Swift, Pope, Wieland and all the rest could not unite the characteristics which had just been predicated of Selmann. Like Sterne, Wezel converses with the reader about the way of telling the story, indulging[76] in a mock-serious line of reasoning with meaningless Sternesque dashes. Further conversation with the reader is found at the beginning of Chapter III in Volume I, and in Chapter VIII of the first volume, he cries, "Wake up, ladies and gentlemen," and continues at some length a conversation with these fancied personages about the progress of the book. Wezel in a few cases adopted the worst feature of Sterne's work and was guilty of bad taste in precisely Yorick's style: Tobias's adventure with the so-called soldier's wife, after he has run away from home, is a case in point, but the following adventure with the two maidens while Tobias is bathing in the pool is distinctly suggestive of Fielding. Sterne's indecent suggestion is also followed in the hints at the possible occasion of the Original's aversion to women. A similar censure could be spoken regarding the adventure in the tavern,[77] where the author hesitates on the edge of grossness.

Wezel joined other imitators of Yorick in using as a motif the accidental interest of lost documents, or papers: here the poems of the "Original," left behind in the hotel, played their rôle in the tale. The treatment of the wandering boy by the kindly peasant is clearly an imitation of Yorick's famous visit in the rural cottage. A parallel to Walter Shandy's theory of the dependence of great events on trifles is found in the story of the volume of Tacitus, which by chance suggested the sleeping potion for Frau v. L., or that Tobias's inability to take off his hat with his right hand was influential on the boy's future life. This is a reminder of Tristram's obliquity in his manner of setting up his top. As in Shandy, there is a discussion about the location of the soul. The character of Selmann is a compound of Yorick and the elder Shandy, with a tinge of satiric exaggeration, meant to chastise the thirst for "originals" and overwrought sentimentalism. His generosity and sensitiveness to human pain is like Yorick. As a boy he would empty his purse into the bosom of a poor man; but his daily life was one round of Shandean speculation, largely about the relationships of trivial things: for example, his yearly periods of investigating his motives in inviting his neighbors Herr v. ** and Herr v. *** every July to his home.

Wezel's satire on the craze for originality is exemplified in the account of the "Original" (Chap. XXII, Vol. II), who was cold when others were hot, complained of not liking his soup because the plate was not full, but who threw the contents of his coffee cup at the host because it was filled to the brim, and trembled at the approach of a woman. Selmann longs to meet such an original. Selmann also thinks he has found an original in the inn-keeper who answers everything with "Nein," greatly to his own disadvantage, though it turns out later that this was only a device planned by another character to gain advantage over Selmann himself. So also, in the third volume, Selmann and Tobias ride off in pursuit of a sentimental adventure, but the latter proves to be merely a jest of the Captain at the expense of his sentimental friend. Satire on sentimentalism is further unmistakable in the two maidens, Adelheid and Kunigunde, who weep over a dead butterfly, and write a lament over its demise. In jest, too, it is said that the Captain made a "sentimental journey through the stables." The author converses with Ermindus, who seems to be a kind of Eugenius, a convenient figure for reference, apostrophe, and appeal. The novelist makes also, like Sterne, mock-pedantic allusions, once indeed making a long citation from a learned Chinese book. An expression suggesting Sterne is the oath taken "bey den Nachthemden aller Musen,"[78] and an intentional inconsequence of narration, giving occasion to conversation regarding the author's control of his work, is the sudden passing over of the six years which Tobias spent in Selmann's house.[79]

In connection with Wezel's occupation with Sterne and Sterne products in Germany, it is interesting to consider his poem: "Die unvermuthete Nachbarschaft. Ein Gespräch," which was the second in a volume of three poems entitled "Epistel an die deutschen Dichter," the name of the first poem, and published in Leipzig in 1775. This slight work is written for the most part in couplets and covers twenty-three pages. Wezel represents Doktor Young, the author of the gloomy "Night Thoughts" and "Der gute Lacher,--Lorenz Sterne" as occupying positions side by side in his book-case. This proximity gives rise to a conversation between the two antipodal British authors: Sterne says:

"Wir brauchen beide vielen Raum,
Your Reverence viel zum Händeringen,
Und meine Wenigkeit, zum Pfeifen, Tanzen, Singen."

and later,

. . . "Und will von Herzen gern der Thor der Thoren seyn;
Jüngst that ich ernst: gleich hielt die
Narrheit mich beym Rocke.
Wo, rief sie, willst du hin,--Du! weisst du unsern Bund.
Ist das der Dank? Du lachtest dich gesund."

To Sterne's further enunciation of this joyous theory of life, Young naturally replies in characteristic terms, emphasizing life's evanescence and joy's certain blight. But Sterne, though acknowledging the transitoriness of life's pleasures, denies Young's deductions. Yorick's conception of death is quite in contrast to Young's picture and one must admit that it has no justification in Sterne's writings. On the contrary, Yorick's life was one long flight from the grim enemy. The idea of death cherished by Asmus in his "Freund Hein," the welcome guest, seems rather the conception which Wezel thrusts on Sterne. Death comes to Yorick in full dress, a youth, a Mercury:

"Er thuts, er kommt zu mir, 'Komm, guter Lorenz, flieh!'
So ruft er auf mich zu. 'Dein Haus fängt an zu wanken,
Die Mauern spalten sich; Gewölb und Balken schwanken,
Was nuzt dir so ein Haus? . . .'"

so he takes the wreathèd cup, drinks joyfully, and follows death, embracing him.

"Das ist mein Tod, ich sehe keinen Knochen,
Womit du ihn, gleich einem Zahnarzt, schmückst,
Geschieht es heute noch, geschieht's in wenig Wochen,
Dass du, Gevatter Tod, nur meine Hände drückst?
Ganz nach Bequemlichkeit! du bist mir zwar willkommen."

The latter part of the poem contains a rather extended laudation of the part played by sympathetic feeling in the conduct of life.

That there would be those in Germany as in England, who saw in Sterne's works only a mine of vulgar suggestion, a relation sometimes delicate and clever, sometimes bald and ugly, of the indelicate and sensual, is a foregone conclusion. Undoubtedly some found in the general approbation which was accorded Sterne's books a sanction for forcing upon the public the products of their own diseased imaginations.

This pernicious influence of the English master is exemplified by Wegener's "Raritäten, ein hinterlassenes Werk des Küsters von Rummelsberg."[80] The first volume is dedicated to "Sebaldus Nothanker," and the long document claims for the author unusual distinction, in thus foregoing the possibility of reward or favor, since he dedicates his book to a fictitious personage. The idea of the book is to present "merry observations" for every day in the year. With the end of the fourth volume the author has reached March 17, and, according to the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_, the sixth volume includes May 22. The present writer was unable to examine the last volume to discover whether the year was rounded out in this way.

The author claims to write "neither for surly Catos nor for those fond of vulgar jests and smutty books," but for those who will laugh. At the close of his preface he confesses the source of his inspiration: "In order to inspire myself with something of the spirit of a Sterne, I made a decoction out of his writings and drank the same eagerly; indeed I have burned the finest passages to powder, and then partaken of it with warm English ale, but"--he had the insight and courtesy to add--"it helped me just a little as it aids a lame man, if he steps in the footprints of one who can walk nimbly." The very nature of this author's dependence on Sterne excludes here any extended analysis of the connection. The style is abrupt, full of affected gaiety and raillery, conversational and journalistic. The stories, observations and reflections, in prose and verse, represent one and all the ribaldry of Sterne at its lowest ebb, as illustrated, for example, by the story of the abbess of Andouillets, but without the charm and grace with which that tale begins. The author copies Sterne in the tone of his lucubrations; the material is drawn from other sources. In the first volume, at any rate, his only direct indebtedness to Sterne is the introduction of the Shandean theory of noses in the article for January 11. The pages also, sometimes strewn with stars and dashes, present a somewhat Sternesque appearance.

These volumes are reviewed in the _Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek_[81] with full appreciation of their pernicious influence, and with open acknowledgment that their success demonstrates a pervision of taste in the fatherland. The author of the "Litterarische Reise durch Deutschland"[82] advises his sister, to whom his letters are directed, to put her handkerchief before her mouth at the very mention of Wegener, and fears that the very name has befouled his pen. A similar condemnation is meted out in Wieland's _Merkur_.[83]

A similar commentary on contemporary taste is obtained from a somewhat similar collection of stories, "Der Geist der Romane im letzten Viertel des 18ten Jahrhunderts," Breslau and Hirschberg, 1788, in which the author (S. G. Preisser?) claims to follow the spirit of the period and gives six stories of revolting sensuality, with a thin whitewash of teary sentimentalism.

The pursuit of references to Yorick and direct appeals to his writings in the German literary world of the century succeeding the era of his great popularity would be a monstrous and fruitless task. Such references in books, letters and periodicals multiply beyond possibility of systematic study. One might take the works[84] of Friedrich Matthison as a case in point. He visits the grave of Musäus, even as Tristram Shandy sought for the resting-place of the two lovers in Lyons (III, p. 312); as he travels in Italy, he remarks that a certain visit would have afforded Yorick's "Empfindsamkeit" the finest material for an Ash-Wednesday sermon (IV, p. 67). Sterne's expressions are cited: "Erdwasserball" for the earth (V, p. 57), "Wo keine Pflanze, die da nichts zu suchen hatte, eine bleibende Stäte fand" (V, p. 302); two farmsteads in the Tyrol are designated as "Nach dem Ideal Yoricks" (VI, pp. 24-25). He refers to the story of the abbess of Andouillets (VI, 64); he narrates (VIII, pp. 203-4) an anecdote of Sterne which has just been printed in the _Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten_ (1769, p. 151); he visits Prof. Levade in Lausanne, who bore a striking resemblance to Sterne (V, p. 279), and refers to Yorick in other minor regards (VII, 158; VIII, pp. 51, 77, and Briefe II, 76). Yet in spite of this evident infatuation, Matthison's account of his own travels cannot be classed as an imitation of Yorick, but is purely objective, descriptive, without search for humor or pathos, with no introduction of personalities save friends and celebrities. Heinse alluded to Sterne frequently in his letters to Gleim (1770-1771),[85] but after August 23, 1771, Sterne vanished from his fund of allusion, though the correspondence lasts until 1802, a fact of significance in dating the German enthusiasm for Sterne and the German knowledge of Shandy from the publication of the Sentimental Journey, and likewise an indication of the insecurity of Yorick's personal hold.

Miscellaneous allusions to Sterne, illustrating the magnitude and duration of his popularity, may not be without interest: Kästner "Vermischte Schriften," II, p. 134 (Steckenpferd); Lenz "Gesammelte Werke," Berlin, 1828, Vol. III, p. 312; letter from the Duchess Amalie, August 2, 1779, in "Briefe an und von Merck," Darmstadt, 1838; letter of Caroline Herder to Knebel, April 2, 1799, in "K. L. von Knebel's Literarischer Nachlass," Leipzig, 1835, p. 324 (Yorick's "heiliges Sensorium"); a rather unfavorable but apologetic criticism of Shandy in the "Hinterlassene Schriften" of Charlotta Sophia Sidonia Seidelinn, Nürnberg, 1793, p. 227; "Schiller's Briefe," edited by Fritz Jonas, I, pp. 136, 239; in Hamann's letters, "Leben und Schriften," edited by Dr. C. H. Gildermeister, Gotha, 1875, II, p. 338; III, p. 56; V, pp. 16, 163; in C. L. Jünger's "Anlage zu einem Familiengespräch über die Physiognomik" in _Deutsches Museum_, II, pp. 781-809, where the French barber who proposes to dip Yorick's wig in the sea is taken as a type of exaggeration. And a similar reference is found in Wieland's _Merkur_, 1799, I, p. 15: Yorick's Sensorium is again cited, _Merkur_, 1791, II, p. 95. Other references in the _Merkur_ are: 1774, III, p. 52; 1791, I, p. 418; 1800, I, p. 14; 1804, I, pp. 19-21; _Deutsches Museum_, IV, pp. 66, 462; _Neuer Gelehrter Mercurius_, Altona, 1773, August 19, in review of Goethe's "Götz;" _Almanach der deutschen Musen_, 1771, p. 93. And thus the references scatter themselves down the decades. "Das Wörtlein Und," by F. A. Krummacher (Duisberg und Essen, 1811), bore a motto taken from the Koran, and contained the story of Uncle Toby and the fly with a personal application, and Yorick's division of travelers is copied bodily and applied to critics. Friedrich Hebbel, probably in 1828, gave his Newfoundland dog the name of Yorick-Sterne-Monarch.[86] Yorick is familiarly mentioned in Wilhelm Raabe's "Chronik der Sperlingsgasse" (1857), and in Ernst von Wolzogen's "Der Dornenweg," two characters address one another in Yorick similes. Indeed, in the summer of 1902, a Berlin newspaper was publishing "Eine Empfindsame Reise in einem Automobile."[87]

Musäus is named as an imitator of Sterne by Koberstein, and Erich Schmidt implies in his "Richardson, Rousseau und Goethe," that he followed Sterne in his "Grandison der Zweite," which could hardly be possible, for "Grandison der Zweite" was first published in 1760, and was probably written during 1759, that is, before Sterne had published Tristram Shandy. Adolph von Knigge is also mentioned by Koberstein as a follower of Sterne, and Baker includes Knigge's "Reise nach Braunschweig" and "Briefe auf einer Reise aus Lothringen" in his list. Their connection with Sterne cannot be designated as other than remote; the former is a merry vagabond story, reminding one much more of the tavern and way-faring adventures in Fielding and Smollett, and suggesting Sterne only in the constant conversation with the reader about the progress of the book and the mechanism of its construction. One example of the hobby-horse idea in this narration may perhaps be traced to Sterne. The "Briefe auf einer Reise aus Lothringen" has even less connection; it shares only in the increase of interest in personal accounts of travel. Knigge's novels, "Peter Claus" and "Der Roman meines Lebens," are decidedly not imitations of Sterne; a clue to the character of the former may be obtained from the fact that it was translated into English as "The German Gil Blas." "Der Roman meines Lebens" is a typical eighteenth century love-story written in letters, with numerous characters, various intrigues and unexpected adventures; indeed, a part of the plot, involving the abduction of one of the characters, reminds one of "Clarissa Harlowe." Sterne is, however, incidentally mentioned in both books, is quoted in "Peter Claus" (Chapter VI, Vol. II), and Walter Shandy's theory of Christian names is cited in "Der Roman meines Lebens."[88] That Knigge had no sympathy with exaggerated sentimentalism is seen in a passage in his "Umgang mit Menschen."[89] Knigge admired and appreciated the real Sterne and speaks in his "Ueber Schriftsteller und Schriftstellerei"[90] of Yorick's sharpening observation regarding the little but yet important traits of character.

Moritz August von Thümmel in his famous "Reise in die mittäglichen Provinzen von Frankreich" adopted Sterne's general idea of sentimental journeying, shorn largely of the capriciousness and whimsicality which marked Sterne's pilgrimage. He followed Sterne also in driving the sensuous to the borderland of the sensual.

Hippel's novels, "Lebensläufe nach aufsteigender Linie" and "Kreuz und Querzüge des Ritters A. bis Z." were purely Shandean products in which a humor unmistakably imitated from Sterne struggles rather unsuccessfully with pedagogical seriousness. Jean Paul was undoubtedly indebted to Sterne for a part of his literary equipment, and his works afford proof both of his occupation with Sterne's writings and its effect upon his own. A study of Hippel's "Lebensläufe" in connection with both Sterne and Jean Paul was suggested but a few years after Hippel's death by a reviewer in the _Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften_[91] as a fruitful topic for investigation. A detailed, minute study of von Thümmel, Hippel and Jean Paul[92] in connection with the English master is purposed as a continuation of the present essay. Heine's pictures of travel, too, have something of Sterne in them.

[Footnote 1: _Quellen und Forschungen_, II, p. 27.]

[Footnote 2: Jacobi remarked, in his preface to the "Winterreise"
in the edition of 1807, that this section, "Der Taubenschlag" is
not to be reckoned as bearing the trace of the then condemned
"Empfindeley," for many authors, ancient and modern, have taken up
the cause of animals against man; yet Sterne is probably the
source of Jacobi's expression of his feeling.]

[Footnote 3: XI, 2, pp. 16 f.]

[Footnote 4: For reviews of the "Sommerreise" see _Allg. deutsche
Bibl._, XIII, i, p. 261, _Deutsche Bibl. der schönen
Wissenschaften_, IV, p. 354, and _Neue Critische Nachrichten_,
Greifswald, V, p. 406. _Almanach der deutschen Musen_, 1770,
p. 112. The "Winterreise" is also reviewed there, p. 110.]

[Footnote 5: Some minor points may be noted. Longo implies
(page 2) that it was Bode's translation of the original
Sentimental Journey which was re-issued in four volumes, Hamburg
and Bremen, 1769, whereas the edition was practically identical
with the previous one, and the two added volumes were those of
Stevenson's continuation. Longo calls Sterne's Eliza "Elisha"
(p. 28) and Tristram's father becomes Sir Walter Shandy (p. 37),
an unwarranted exaltation of the retired merchant.]

[Footnote 6: Review in the _Jenaische Zeitungen von Gel. Sachen_]

[Footnote 7: I, pp. 314 + 20; II, 337; III. 330.]

[Footnote 8: I, p. 156; III, p. 318.]

[Footnote 9: Schummel states this himself, III, p. 320.]

[Footnote 10: Tristram Shandy, III, 51-54.]

[Footnote 11: Pp. 256-265.]

[Footnote 12: P. 34.]

[Footnote 13: Shandy, I, p. 75; Schummel, I, p. 265.]

[Footnote 14: II, p. 117.]

[Footnote 15: In "Das Kapitel von meiner Lebensart," II, pp.
113 ff.]

[Footnote 16: XVI, 2, pp. 682-689.]

[Footnote 17: The third part is reviewed (Hr) in XIX, 2, pp.
576-7, but without significant contribution to the question.]

[Footnote 18: I, 2, pp. 66-74, the second number of 1772. Review
is signed "S."]

[Footnote 19: Another review of Schummel's book is found in the
_Almanach der deutschen Musen_, 1773, p. 106.]

[Footnote 20: XI, 2, p. 344; XV, 1, p. 249; XVII, 1, p. 244. Also
entitled "Begebenheiten des Herrn Redlich," the novel was
published Wittenberg, 1756-71; Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1768-71.]

[Footnote 21: XXVIII, 1, pp. 199 ff. Reviewed also in _Auserlesene
Bibliothek der neusten deutschen Litteratur_, Lemgo, VII, p. 234
(1775) and _Neue litterarische Unterhaltungen_, Breslau, I, pp.
660-691.]

[Footnote 22: Leipzig, Crusius, 1776, pp. 120. Baker, influenced
by title and authorship, includes it among the literary progeny of
Yorick. It has no connection with Sterne.]

[Footnote 23: See _Jahresberichte für neuere deutsche
Litteratur-geschichte_, II, p. 106 (1893).]

[Footnote 24: Breslau, 1792. It is included in Baker's list.]

[Footnote 25: Frankfurt and Leipzig, pp. 208. Baker regards these
two editions as two different works.]

[Footnote 26: Sentimental Journey, pp. 87-88.]

[Footnote 27: Sentimental Journey, p. 73.]

[Footnote 28: Pp. 45-50.]

[Footnote 29: Pp. 106-119.]

[Footnote 30: Die Gesellschafterin, pp. 131-144.]

[Footnote 31: Pp. 145-155.]

[Footnote 32: Die Dame, pp. 120-130.]

[Footnote 33: V, St. 2, p. 371.]

[Footnote 34: Anhang to XIII-XXIV, Vol. II, p. 1151.]

[Footnote 35: Letter to Raspe, Göttingen, June 2, 1770, in
_Weimarisches Jahrbuch_, III, p. 28.]

[Footnote 36: _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._, April 27, 1773, pp. 276-8.]

[Footnote 37: _Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent_,
December 31, 1771.]

[Footnote 38: Other reviews are (2) and (3), _Frankfurter gel.
Anz._, November 27, 1772; (2) and (3), _Allg. deutsche Bibl._,
XIX, 2, p. 579 (Musäus) and XXIV, 1, p. 287; of the series, _Neue
Critische Nachrichten_ (Greifswald), IX, p. 152. There is a rather
full analysis of (1) in _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._, 1773, pp. 276-8,
April 27. According to Wittenberg in the _Altonaer
Reichs-Postreuter_ (June 21, 1773), Holfrath Deinet was the author
of this review. A sentimental episode from these "Journeys" was
made the subject of a play called "Der Greis" and produced at
Munich in 1774. (See _Allg. deutsche Bibl._, XXXII, 2, p. 466).]

[Footnote 39: Berlin, 1873.]

[Footnote 40: _Deutsches Museum_, VI, p. 384, and VII, p. 220.]

[Footnote 41: Reval und Leipzig, 1788, 2d edition, 1792, and
published in "Kleine gesammelte Schriften," Reval und Leipzig,
1789, Vol. III, pp. 131-292. Reviewed in _Allg. Litt.-Zeitung_,
1789, II, p. 736.]

[Footnote 42: Leipzig, 1793, pp. 224, 8vo, by Georg Joachim
Göschen.]

[Footnote 43: See the account of Ulm, and of Lindau near the end
of the volume.]

[Footnote 44: See pp. 21-22 and 105.]

[Footnote 45: "Geschichte der komischen Literatur," III, p. 625.]

[Footnote 46: See "Briefwechsel zwischen Goethe und Schiller,"
edited by Boxberger. Stuttgart, Spemann, Vol. I, p. 118.]

[Footnote 47: It is to be noted also that von Thümmel's first
servant bears the name Johann.]

[Footnote 48: "Charis oder über das Schöne und die Schönheit in
den bildenden Künsten" by Ramdohr, Leipzig, 1793.]

[Footnote 49: "Schiller's Briefe," edited by Fritz Jonas, III,
pp. 316, 319. Letters of June 6 and June 23 (?), 1793.]

[Footnote 50: "Briefe von Christian Garve an Chr. Felix Weisse,
und einige andern Freunde," Breslau, 1803, p. 189-190. The book
was reviewed favorably by the _Allg. Litt. Zeitung_, 1794, IV,
p. 513.]

[Footnote 51: Falkenburg, 1796, pp. 110. Goedeke gives Bremen as
place of publication.]

[Footnote 52: Ebeling, III, p. 625, gives Hademann as author, and
Fallenburg--both probably misprints.]

[Footnote 53: The review is of "Auch Vetter Heinrich hat Launen,
von G. L. B., Frankfurt-am-Main, 1796"--a book evidently called
into being by a translation of selections from "Les Lunes du
Cousin Jacques." Jünger was the translator. The original is the
work of Beffroy de Regny.]

[Footnote 54: Hedemann's book is reviewed indifferently in the
_Allg. Litt. Zeitung._ (Jena, 1798, I, p. 173.)]

[Footnote 55: Von Rabenau wrote also "Hans Kiekindiewelts Reise"
(Leipzig, 1794), which Ebeling (III, p. 623) condemns as "the most
commonplace imitation of the most ordinary kind of the comic."]

[Footnote 56: It is also reviewed by Musäus in the _Allg. deutsche
Bibl._, XIX, 2, p. 579.]

[Footnote 57: The same opinion is expressed in the _Jenaische
Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen_, 1776, p. 465. See also
Schwinger's study of "Sebaldus Nothanker," pp. 248-251; Ebeling,
p. 584; _Allg. deutsche Bibl._, XXXII, 1, p. 141.]

[Footnote 58: Leipzig and Liegnitz, 1775.]

[Footnote 59: The _Leipziger Museum Almanach_, 1776, pp. 69-70,
agrees in this view.]

[Footnote 60: XXIX, 2, p. 507.]

[Footnote 61: 1776, I, p. 272.]

[Footnote 62: An allusion to an episode of the "Sommerreise."]

[Footnote 63: "Sophie von la Roche," Göttinger Dissertation,
Einbeck, 1895.]

[Footnote 64: _Allg. deutsche Bibl._, XLVII, 1, p. 435; LII, 1,
p. 148, and _Anhang_, XXIV-XXXVI, Vol. II, p. 903-908.]

[Footnote 65: The quotation is really from the spurious ninth
volume in Zückert's translation.]

[Footnote 66: For these references to the snuff-box, see pp. 53,
132-3, 303 and 314.]

[Footnote 67: In "Sommerreise."]

[Footnote 68: Other examples are found pp. 57, 90, 255, 270, 209,
312, 390, and elsewhere.]

[Footnote 69: See _Auserlesene Bibliothek der neuesten deutschen
Litteratur_, VII, p. 399; _Almanach der deutschen Musen_, 1775,
p. 75; _Magazin der deutschen Critik_, III, 1, p. 174;
_Frankfurter Gel. Anz._, _July_ 1, 1774; _Allg. deutsche Bibl._,
XXVI, 2, 487; _Teut. Merkur_, VI, p. 353; _Gothaische Gelehrte
Zeitungen_, 1774, I, p. 17.]

[Footnote 70: Leipzig, 1773-76, 4 vols. "Tobias Knaut" was at
first ascribed to Wieland.]

[Footnote 71: Gervinus, V, pp. 225 ff.; Ebeling, III, p. 568;
Hillebrand, II, p. 537; Kurz, III, p. 504; Koberstein, IV, pp.
168 f. and V, pp. 94 f.]

[Footnote 72: The "_Magazin der deutschen Critik_" denied the
imitation altogether.]

[Footnote 73: I, p. 178.]

[Footnote 74: I, p. 117.]

[Footnote 75: I, pp. 148 ff.]

[Footnote 76: I, p. 17.]

[Footnote 77: III, pp. 99-104.]

[Footnote 78: II, p. 44.]

[Footnote 79: For reviews of "Tobias Knaut" see _Gothaische
Gelehrte Zeitung_, April 13, 1774, pp. 193-5; _Magazin der
deutschen Critik_, III, 1, p. 185 (1774); _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._,
April 5, 1774, pp. 228-30; _Almanach der deutschen Musen_, 1775,
p. 75; _Leipziger Musen-Almanach_, 1776, pp. 68-69; _Allg.
deutsche Bibl._, XXX, 2, pp. 524 ff., by Biester; _Teut. Merkur_,
V, pp. 344-5; VII, p. 361-2, 1776, pp. 272-3, by Merck.]

[Footnote 80: Berlin, nine parts, 1775-1785. Vol I, pp. 128
(1775); Vol. II, pp. 122; Vol. III, pp. 141; Vol. IV, pp. 198
(1779); Vols. V and VI, 1780; Vols. I and II were published in a
new edition in 1778, and Vol. III in 1780 (a third edition).]

[Footnote 81: XXIX, 1, p. 186; XXXVI, 2, p. 601; XLIII, 1, p. 301;
XLVI, 2, p. 602; LXII, 1, p. 307.]

[Footnote 82: See p. 8.]

[Footnote 83: 1777, II, p. 278, review of Vols. II and III. Vol.
I is reviewed in _Frankfurter Gel. Anz._, 1775, p. 719-20 (October
31), and IX in _Allg. Litt.-Zeitung_, Jena, 1785, V,
Supplement-Band, p. 80.]

[Footnote 84: See p. 89.]

[Footnote 85: Briefe deutscher Gelehrten aus Gleims Nachlass.
(Zürich, 1806.)]

[Footnote 86: Emil Kuh's life of Hebbel, Wien, 1877, I,
p. 117-118.]

[Footnote 87: The "Empfindsame Reise der Prinzessin Ananas nach
Gros-glogau" (Riez, 1798, pp. 68, by Gräfin Lichterau?) in its
revolting loathesomeness and satirical meanness is an example of
the vulgarity which could parade under the name. In 1801 we find
"Prisen aus der hörneren Dose des gesunden Menschenverstandes,"
a series of letters of advice from father to son. A play of
Stephanie the younger, "Der Eigensinnige," produced January 29,
1774, is said to have connection with Tristram Shandy; if so, it
would seem to be the sole example of direct adaptation from Sterne
to the German stage. "Neue Schauspiele." Pressburg and Leipzig,
1771-75, Vol. X.]

[Footnote 88: P. 185, edition of 1805.]

[Footnote 89: See below p. 166-7.]

[Footnote 90: Hannover, 1792, pp. 80, 263.]

[Footnote 91: LXVI, p. 79, 1801.]

[Footnote 92: Sometime after the completion of this present essay
there was published in Berlin, a study of "Sterne, Hippel and Jean
Paul," by J. Czerny (1904). I have not yet had an opportunity to
examine it.]