BOOKS.
SCHERER'S " HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE."•
PaorEssoa S IIERER'S History of German Literature has obtained deserved popularity in Germany, where it is regarded as the most lucid and accurate survey of the national literature that has yet appeared. The translation which has been issued from the Clarendon Press had the advantage of the editorial care of Professor Max Muller ; and although some liberties have been taken with Professor Scherer's work, the transla- tion is readable, and will be found useful by those who cannot read the original. The editor does not contribute a preface, which is to be regretted, as he is a master in the art of literary introduction. It may be assumed, however, that in editing Scherer's work, which is specially strong in the depart- ment of mediaeval literature, it was his intention to en- cDurage in England a more comprehensive and historical study of German literature. In some Colleges, German is an alternative subject to Greek, and a Modern-language Tripos has been proposed in Cambridge. German can never quite take the place of Greek, which is the gate to all European literature. And as at present taught, in a few books of a single period, German literature is a most inadequate substitute for classical studies, whether regarded as an intellectual discipline, or as a means of correcting modern provincialism by enlarging the horizon of knowledge. The student need not, however, be kept for ever at Weimar. The fifteen centuries of German literature which Professor Scherer surveys, reflect, frequently in works of high literary value, all the important changes of life and thought in Europe. In the Gothic Bible of Ulfilas, we see the first attempt to reduce to rule the rude speech of a Germanic people. The popular Epics, though committed to writing at a later period, reflect, almost with Homeric vividness, the wild fighting life of the times of the migration of the peoples. In the courtly Epics, and in the songs of the Minnesingers, we have the manners and the sentiment of chivalry. In the letters and writings of Luther, we are brought into contact with the spirit of the Protestant Reformation. Leasing shows the eighteenth century at its best ; and in Schiller, Goethe, and Heine, we see the growth of the modern spirit. Philology, archaeology, and historical criticism can also be studied, with the help of Grimm and Lachmann, as well in early German litera- ture as in the works of the Greek Rhapsodists.
The achievements of German literature were not accomplished without much help from other nations ; but the Germans mani-
• A History of 0. rman Literature. By W. Soberer. Translated from the Third German Edition by Mrs. F. C. tonybeare. Edited by F. Max Muller. 2 Tole. Oxford : Clarendon Press. 1886.
fested the stout independence of their national character by stamping their own individuality upon all that they borrowed.
They borrowed from their Southern neighbours the letters of their alphabet, the ornament of rhyme, and the form of their poetry ; and in many cases the subjects of the poems were also taken from the Romanic nations. They were not quick learners, for they were deficient in a sense for form ; and they did not, like some nations, imitate with ease. It was only after centuries of patient endeavour that they produced poems which could bear comparison with those of the quick-witted races of the South. But in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries their apprenticeship came to an end ; and during this period, which is the first great classical period of German literature, works were produced by German poets which have gained a permanent place in the literature of the
world. They still continued to borrow subjects from French poets, for in the Middle Ages, as among the Greek dramatists, it was the fashion to retell old stories rather than to invent novelties. But the German poets, by their humour, their power of thought, and by their genuine, if somewhat sombre, imagina- tive gifts, transformed the superficial tales which they borrowed into works which gave expression to the deepest thoughts and
aspirations of the time. This was especially the case with regard to Hartmann von Aue, Gottfried von Strassburg, and Wolfram von Eschenbach. The last could neither read nor write, and, as Professor Scherer remarks, he was the last poet in universal literature who was without the elements of literary culture.
Of his Parzival, Professor Scherer writes :— " In Parzival an illiterate German has immortalised the deepest ideas of European chivalry. Wolfram's Parzival, like Gottfried's Tristan, is the classical form of the story in mediaeval literature. And Wolfram counted among his predecessors in the same field no less a man than Chrestien of Troyes. Wolfram is superior to the French poet in all points. He surpasses him in depth of thought and also in artistic power. Wolfram shows much more skill in developing and connecting the incidents in his poem, and he also draws his characters much more sympathetically than Chrestien, and is more successful in gaining our sympathy for them. The Grail, too, gains much more significance in Wolfram's treatment of it ; Wolfram alone makes it clear to us that Parzival has neglected an enquiry of sympathy, that his feelings of humanity were appealed to in vain. Again, how powerfully Wolfram depicts the sadden breaking-in of evil upon the brilliant circle of the Round Table ! How clearly he brings before us the condition of Parzival's soul, when relapsing into a state of defiance towards God ! In Chrestien's poem, on the con- trary, the hero merely announces his intention of learning what he had formerly neglected to ask concerning the Grail, and it is only afterwards that he tells the hermit that for five years he had neither loved God nor believed in Him. The hermit gives him, for the improve. ment of his soul, external precepts about prayer and attending church, in strong contrast with the profound and serious considerations which Wolfram puts into his mouth in this connection. Wolfram has treated the story with the free, bold hand of an artist, filling it with beauty and life. He is a true painter of humanity, like Shakespeare ; a poet of tolerance and reconciliation, like Goethe."
There is an excellent chapter in Scherer's book on " Poets and Preachers," as he terms the gleemen of the Middle Ages. They were the journalists of the time ; and in their songs they touched upon all subjects of human interest. Usually singers of love, they also sang of war. religion, and politics. The greatest of them, Walther von der Vogelweide, was a political power,. and his friendship was sought by princes for those songs of his, which flew through the land like a pamphlet which every one reads, or an eloquent speech published in the newspapers. The secular feud between literature and the Church is seen in full vigour in Walther's verses. Although a deeply religions man, he had no love for the priesthood. He calls the Pope the " New Judas," and accuses him of leading the clergy by the devil's rein.
At times, Walther and the other poets treat of subjects which are not very susceptible of poetic treatment ; but Germans have always been determined to say what they had to say, even if they violated the rules of art. Walther frequently sings of his own poverty and begs for money ; but the begging of the German is the frank pleading of a child, and does not offend like the fulsome dedicatory epistles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. When the Emperor Frederick II. gratified his long- cherished wish, and gave Walther a fief, he bursts forth into song, and exclaims with the frank gladness of a boy,—" I have a fief, hearken all the world, I have a fief." By carrying the Middle High German poetry into all parts of the land, the gleemen accomplished a work of national importance, and did more for the union of Germany than its selfish and incapable rulers. The Middle High German poetry, as Scherer truly says, laid the foundation of a united German nationality, as Dante's
Divina Comnzedia laid the foundation of a united Italian nationality. Luther completed their work by making use of the High German in his translation of the Bible. But had it not been for the links of language and literature which thus bound together the German States, North Germany would have been at present as separated from South Germany as Holland.
Professor Scherer does not conceal that German literature is not a continuous record of success. A portion of his history treats of times when literature was bad ; and when German literature is bad, it is very bad and very dull, for it is not re- deemed by that skill in execution which in other literatures some- times hides poverty of thought and want of imagination. The most dreary period is the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century. Religions wars and political jealousies had destroyed the national consciousness, and robbed the nation of all self-respect. The popular literature became ignoble and coarse, and the writers who wrote for the educated imitated the French in a slavish and clumsy fashion : Frederick the Great had an excuse for despising the literature of his country. Two influences contributed to that new birth of German litera- ture which produced the second classical period, of which Lessing was the precursor, and Schiller and Goethe the central figures. Writers returned to the old poetry and traditions of the Fatherland, and became inspired afresh with national enthusiasm. But this would not have taught them to write perfect works of art, had they not learned from the Greeks the artistic sell-restraint which enabled them to overcome their national faults of clumsiness and verbosity. In the chapters on Schiller and Goethe, which are very full, Scherer describes the immense pains these poets bestowed not merely upon their works, but on disciplining themselves for higher efforts. After his friendship with Goethe, Schiller ceased production for years that he might enrich his resources and perfect his art. Unlike the literature of our Elizabethan period, which was the almost unconscious product of genius naturally moved by the thoughts and deeds of a great epoch, the poetry of the Goethe and Schiller period was the deliberate work of gifted but very laborious men, who, in depressing times, set themselves to gain inspiration and guidance from all the literatures of the world. Their genius enabled them to give originality to what they borrowed ; and Goethe especially could express with charming ease and naturalness what was often the result of very elaborate preparation.
Professor Scherer does not carry his history beyond the death of Goethe. Although the subsequent literature is by no means without merit, literature has ceased to be the national concern with the Germans which it was at the beginning of the century. Scherer makes Goethe to some extent responsible for the recent practical development. In his later teachings, he gave the pre- ference to a life of action over a life devoted to literary and artistic pursuits. In the second part, Faust, the typical German, whom thought had bewildered, appears as ruling over lands which he had won from the sea, and finding satisfaction in action. Since the Reformation, Germany had been intro- spective and weak in action ; but it has now abandoned its dreaming, and the period of literary glory has been followed by a period of national expansion and economic prosperity. Literature has certainly declined ; and this cannot be grateful to an historian of literature, and Professor Scherer attributes it to be fatal "one-sidedness" which is a besetting fault of German character.
In conclusion, we would commend the work of Professor Scherer very cordially to our readers. His account of writers and their works is accurate and lucid ; and where he allows himself space for criticism, his criticism is just and sensible, though not very profound. There is none of the extravagant laudation of German literature with which those critics who wrote under the influence of the Romanticists were wont to try the faith and patience of foreign readers.
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