Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Friedrich Rochlitz, who as editor of the Leipsic Musikalische Zeitung first introduced E. T. A. Hoffmann to the German reading public, relates an interesting interview with the author soon after the appearance of the first volume of the Fantasiestücke in Callot's Manier. In reviewing the work for his paper, Rochlitz had declared, “was,” to quote his words, “kein Mensch verkennen konnte—er (Hoffmann) ahme im Stile und einigermaszen in der Form überhaupt, dem Jean Paul nach.” Hoffman was enraged, and poured out his feelings in the vigorous and excited fashion, so well known to those who had in any way excited his ill will.
page 1 note 1 Allg. Musik. Ztg., Nr. 41, 9. Okt., 1822. The sketch, written immediately on receipt of the news of Hoffmann's death, was reprinted in Fr. Rochlitz, Für Freunde der Tonkunst, Lpzg., 1825, ii, 27.
page 1 note 1 Rellstab's “Blätter der Erinnerung.” Morgenblatt, 1839. Nr. 258. Sp. 1030 ff. Cf. Nerrlich, Jean Paul und seine Zeitgenossen, B. 76 (cited below as “Ztg.”), S. 256.
page 1 note 3 Grundriss zur Geschichte d. d. Dichtung, viii, 472.
page 1 note 2 “Die empfehlende Vorrede Jean Pauls spricht nichts weiter aus, als die innere Verwandtschaft.” Geschichte d. d. Nationallit. im 19. Jahrh., ii, 373.
page 1 note 4 Die deutsche Nationallit. des 19 Jahrhs., i, 482.
page 1 note 5 Geschichte d. d. Nationallit. des 19 Jahrhs., S. 120.
page 1 note 6 Geschichte d. d. Lit., iii, 344.
page 1 note 7 Hist. d. d. Littérature allemande, iii, 176.
page 1 note 8 For instance, Bossert in the Grande Encyclopédie, xx, 175.
page 1 note 9 E. T. A. Hoffmann. Sein Leben und seine Werke. Hamburg, Lpzg., 94, P. vii, 39, and elsewhere.
page 1 note 1 The paper promised two years ago by Czerny (Sterne, Hippel und Jean Paul. Berlin, 04, S. 38 Anm.) has not come to my attention, if it has appeared.
page 1 note 1 Hitzig, Aus Hoffmanns Leben und Nachlasz, 3. Ausg., Stuttgart, 1839, (cited below as “Hz.”), i, 74. The quotation is from the Unsichtbare Loge. Cf. Jean Pauls sämmtliche Werke, B. (Reimer), 1826 ff. (cited below as “JPW.”), ii, 20.
page 1 note 2 Hz., i, 144.
page 1 note 3 Hz., i, 147.
page 1 note 4 Hz., i, 156. Die unsichtbare Loge, JPW., ii, 65, 141.
page 1 note 5 Letter of (January 24) 1796: Extrablatt an meinem Geburtstage. Hz., i, 81. Feb. 22, 1796: “Anbei noch ein Extrablatt.” Hz., i, 88. May 28, 1796: “Extrablatt zum Abschiedsrendezvous. …. Noch einmal ergreife ich die Feder, um mit ihr in diesem Extrablatt (ein Jean Paul'scher Ausdruck) an dein Herz zu tippen…. im Extrablatt, so wie im Briefe, ewig, ewig der Deine!” Hz., i, 104 ff.
page 1 note 1 Hz., i, 40.
page 1 note 2 Hz., i, 42, 43. Cf. in the same tone, the letter of October, 1796, from Glogau. Hz., i, 127.
page 1 note 3 Hz., i, 91–93.
page 1 note 1 Abundant evidence of his growing interest in musical matters while at Posen and Plozk is found in the letters and fragment of his diary, quoted by Hz., i, 217, and in the musical productions. Cf. Ellinger, 26, 29, ff. The personal intercourse at Warsaw with Hitzig, who was fresh from romantic circles in Berlin, and with Z. Werner was of great importance for Hoffmann's development, particularly for his musical development. The influence of the Romanticists was not, however, sufficient to stimulate him to literary production, a point which Ellinger neglects, and which gives his full treatment of the subject (S. 35 ff.) the appearance of a demonstratio a priori. Cf. Grisebach's “Biographische Einleitung,” E. T. A. Hoffmanns sämmtliche Werke (cited below as “HW.”), i, p. xxvii.
page 1 note 2 Hz., ii, 20.
page 1 note 3 Hoffmann's appointment to Posen reached him the last of March, 1800. Hz., i, 177; Jean Paul arrived in Berlin the end of May of the same year. Nerrlich, Jean Paul. Sein Leben und seine Werke, B. 89, S. 360.
page 1 note 1 Kunz (Z. Funck), J. P. F. Richter, Schleusingen, 39, S. 145. Cited by Nerrlich, Ztg., 254.
page 1 note 2 Kunz, Aus dem Leben zweier Dichter (Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben, i), (cited below as “Kunz”), S. 115. Cf. Grisebach, HW., i, p. xxxv.
page 1 note 3 Hz., ii, 20.
page 1 note 4 Hz., iii, 164. Kunz, 114.
page 1 note 5 Kunz, 115 ff, describes the scene at Jean Paul's bouse. Hoffmann's letter, Hz., iii, 175: “es ist ehrenvoll von ihm genannt zu sein.”
page 1 note 1 HW., i, 3 ff.
page 1 note 2 Hz., iii, 199.
page 1 note 3 Nerrlich, Ztg., 256.
page 1 note 4 JPW., i, p. xxxvi. Nerrlich, Ztg., 256.
page 1 note 5 Nerrlich, J. P., 646.
page 1 note 1 Hz., ii, 20 Anm. Kunz, “Vorwort,” claims to have undertaken his Hoffmann biography at Jean Paul's suggestion.
page 1 note 2 Kerr, Godwi, B. 98, S. 64 ff, shows the cordial appreciation of Jean Paul's ironical tone by the Schlegels, both in the Athenæum and their correspondence, and the influence of this tone on Tieck. Cf. Haym, Romantische Schule, 689, 791, for the difference in the attitude of the Schlegels toward Jean Paul. Such enthusiasm as there is comes from the side of Friedrich; August Wilhelm, as the temperate and somewhat anæmic form-artist, has little sympathy for Jean Paul's “fast gichterische Reizbarkeit der Einbildungskraft.”
page 1 note 1 For a general treatment of the intensely interesting subject of Jean Paul's double relation to Fichte, cf. Nerrlich, Jean Paul, 60 ff. Especially in the third volume of Titan and in the earlier pages of the Flegeljahre the idealistic philosophy is satirized and caricatured.
page 1 note 1 Kater Murr, HW., x, 110: “mir fiel ein, irgendwo gelesen zu haben, ein jeder müsse so handeln, dasz seine Handelsweise als allgemeines Prinzip gelten könne.” The reference is of course to the “categorical imperative,” here used with satirical force.
page 1 note 2 Cf. Grisebach's “Verzeichnis.” A close search has failed to show other instances than those there mentioned.
page 1 note 1 Letter to Hauptmann von Fricken in Asch, Sept., 1834. Schumann, Jugendbriefe, 2. Aufl., S. 254.
page 1 note 1 JPW., xxv, 114.
page 1 note 2 JPW., xxv, 136.
page 1 note 3 JPW., xxvii, 139.
page 1 note 4 Tagebuch, Hz., ii, 43: “Sonderbarer Einfall auf dem Ball vom 6 ten. Ich denke mir mein Ich durch ein Vervielfältigungsglas; —alle Gestalten, die sich um mich herumbewegen, sind Ich's, und ich ärgere mich über ihr Tun und Lassen.” Cf. further, Hz., iii, 29, and Klinke, E. T. A. Hoffmanns Leben und Werke vom Standpunkt eines Irrenarztes, S. 126 ff.
page 1 note 5 Ellinger, 119, 120.
page 1 note 1 HW., x, 138.
page 1 note 2 HW., x, 148.
page 1 note 3 JPW., xxv, 24.
page 1 note 4 JPW., xxiv, 18, xxv, 112, etc.
page 1 note 5 Tagebuch, 1810: “Warum denke ich schlafend oder wachend so oft an den Wahnsinn?” Hz., ii, 46. Cf. Klinke, 89, who treats the matter from the standpoint of an alienist.
page 1 note 1 In the Serapionsbrüder Cyprian-Hoffmann says: “Ihr alle kennt ja meinen besondren Hang zum Verkehr mit Wahnsinnigen.” HW., vi, 28. Dr. Klinke (108–109) shows with what a master hand H. sketched into the Elixiere des Teufels symptoms which he had observed directly from life: “Aus der Wahrheit und tiefen Wirkung seiner Figuren geht schon hervor, dasz er Geisteskranke direkt beobachtet hat.”
page 1 note 2 HW., i, 280: “schon lange galt der arme Johannes allgemein für wahnsinnig.”
page 1 note 3 HW., i, 291.
page 1 note 4 HW., i, 288.
page 1 note 5 HW., i, 281. This work was taken up at a later period, but was found in H's papers only in the form of a sketch, reproduced Hz., ii, 115. Cf. letter to Kunz, May 24, 1815. Kunz 162 ff.
page 1 note 6 HW., x, 140.
page 1 note 7 HW., x, 356.
page 1 note 1 Hitzig expressly confirms this, although apparently without authority from Hoffmann for his statement (ii, 114). The biographer adds that the “Lichte Stunden eines wahnsinnigen Musikers,” cf. above, was to close the work.
page 1 note 2 Titan, 2. Jobelperiode, 10. Zykel.
page 1 note 1 HW., x, 37.
page 1 note 2 HW., i, 139 ff.
page 1 note 3 Prinzessin Bramabilla, HW., xi, 105.
page 1 note 4 HW., x, 10.
page 1 note 1 JPW., l, p. vii.
page 1 note 2 Cf. the chapter on “Romantische Ärzte” in Ricarda Huch's Ausbreitung und Verfall der Romantik, Lpzg., 02, S. 273 ff. Of contemporaries, Oehlenschläger, Lebenserinnerungen, iii, 184, 209, gives an interesting account of mesmeric séances in Berlin and Vienna.
page 1 note 3 As a characteristic instance, cf. the simile of the “Hell-Seherin” in a later work, “Die wenig erwogene Gefahr (1815),” JPW., xlviii, 144. Here and elsewhere Richter shows an intimate acquaintance with the hypnotic phenomena. Cf. especially the articles from the Museum, reprinted in “Mutmaszungen über einige Wunder des organischen Magnetismus,” etc. JPW., xlix, 1 ff.
page 1 note 4 Most strikingly in the articles from the Museum, noted above. Richter seems to have undertaken magnetic cures himself. Nerrlich, Deutsche Nationallit, Bd. 130, p. lxi ff.
page 1 note 1 HW., vii, 65.
page 1 note 2 JPW., xxi, 202.
page 1 note 3 JPW., x, 48. Jean Paul may have borrowed the motive from Sterne (cf. Czerny, 64), altho one thinks involuntarily of Richter's own piano fantasies in the circle of super-sentimental women of the “Erotic Academy” at Schwarzenbach. The anonymous author of the Nachtwachen des Bonaventura (1804) has probably the scene from Hesperus in mind at the end of the first “Watch,” where the nightwatchman sings a passing song beneath the window of the dying freethinker: “Den Sterbenden ist die Musik verschwistert, sie ist der erste süsze Laut vom fernen Jenseits, und die Muse des Gesanges ist die mystische Schwester, die zum Himmel zeigt.” Michel's edition, B. 1904, 9.
page 1 note 4 JPW., xxi, 202 ff.
page 1 note 5 “Ihm war bis zur Täuschung als Sprech’ er mit Lianen, und wenn die Töne immer wie Liebende dasselbe wiederholten vor Innigkeit und Lust; meinte er nicht Lianen, und sagte ihr: wie lieb‘ich Dich, O wie lieb’ ich Dich?” JPW., xxii, 159.
page 1 note 1 HW., i, 288.
page 1 note 2 JPW., xxii, 231 and note. “Dieses Selbstertönen—wie die Riesenharfe bei verändertem Wetter unberührt anklingt—ist in Migraine und andern Krankheiten der Schwäche häufig; daher im Sterben; z. B. in Jacob Böhme schlug das Leben wie eine Konzertuhr seine Stunde von Harmonien umrungen aus.” JPW., xxii, 231, Anm. In the passage of the Nachtwachen, above referred to, the author illustrates also by a reference to the “ferne Musik” which accompanied Böhme's death. Cf. above Note; further, Abraham von Franckenberg, “Bericht v. d. Leben und Abschied Jacob Boehmens” in Des Jacob Boehmen Alle Theosophischen Schriften. Amsterdam, 1682, 1. Abschnitt, 29; quoted by Michels, 151.
page 1 note 3 HW., i, 16, 18. Kreisler also is filled with an inner music, which rages in wild dissonances at times and which may be calmed into angelic harmonies by the appearance of a congenial person. Cf. “Brief des Kapellmeisters Kreisler an den Baron Wallborn,” HW., i, 285 ff. Klinke, 70 ff., seeks to explain the phenomenon of the “inner music” on psycho-pathological grounds.
page 1 note 1 JPW., xiv, 164. Dozens of similar examples might be cited from Siebenkäs and Titan.
page 1 note 2 Hz., i, 146.
page 1 note 3 HW., ii, 119.
page 1 note 4 HW., ii, 265.
page 1 note 5 Godwi. Ein Kapitel deutscher Romantik, B. 98, S. 66, 67.
page 1 note 1 Cf. the chapter on “Romantische Ironie” in Ricarda Huch, Blütezeit der Romantik, 283 ff.
page 1 note 2 “Die beiden Deutschen (J. P. and Brentano) stehen in der ganzen Sphäre der ironischen Mittelchen in dem Banne des Engländers.” Godwi, 79. Czerny treats the matter at some length.
page 1 note 3 “Alle Ironie, aus der sich der tiefste ergötzlichste Humor erzeugt.” Serapionsbrüder, vi, 167.
page 1 note 4 Czerny, 67 ff., finds here a borrowing from Sterne.
page 1 note 5 For instance, in the “Vorrede zum satirischen Appendix” (der biographischen Belustigungen unter d. Gehirnschale einer Riesin). JPW., xvii, 105.
page 1 note 1 Cf. Nerrlich, J. P., 201.
page 1 note 2 Hz., i, 32.
page 1 note 3 “Nimm diesen Stoszseufzer nicht als Spasz auf.” Hz., i, 40.
page 1 note 4 Hz., i, 87.
page 1 note 5 Hz., i, 155.
page 1 note 1 Hz., i, 210 and Hitzig's Note.
page 1 note 2 Hz., ii, 29.
page 1 note 3 HW., xv, 5. Reprinted from the Freimütige, Berlin, Sept. 9, 1803.
page 1 note 4 HW., i, 279.
page 1 note 1 HW., v, 231. Cf. also the reference to the “Verfasser der Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier” in the “Jesuiterkirche in G.” HW., iii, 99.
page 1 note 2 HW., ix, 14.
page 1 note 3 HW., i, 293.
page 1 note 1 Étude sur la Vie et les Oeuvres de Jean-Paul-Frédéric Richter, P. 86, p. 124.
page 1 note 2 HW., iv, 52.
page 1 note 3 Essays, Crit. and Misc., i, 19.
page 1 note 1 JPW., xii, 144.
page 1 note 2 JPW., iv, 221.
page 1 note 3 JPW., iv, 221.
page 1 note 4 JPW., iv. 232.
page 1 note 5 “Rede des toten Christus,” JPW., xii, 158.
page 1 note 6 “‘Freude und Schmerz verwunden mit gleichem Weh die Brust des armen Menschen, aber färbt der, dem verletzenden Dorn nachquillenden Blutstropfe nicht mit höherem Kot die verbleichende Rose?’ So sprach mit vielem Pathos die jeanpaulisierende Clementine, indem sie verstohlen die Hand eines hübschen jungen, blonden Menschen faszte.” Das steinerne Herz, HW., iii, 270.
page 1 note 1 Hz., i, 45.
page 1 note 1 Hz., i, 131.
page 1 note 2 Hz., i, 128.
page 1 note 3 Hz., i, 97.
page 1 note 4 Hz., i, 101.
page 1 note 5 I have not had access to any of the publications of letters to Hippel and others, announced by Hans von Müller, cf. Goedeke, Grund., viii, 482, i. It is not likely, however, that the new material contained in them will throw any additional light on the development of Hoffmann's style. The letters already published by Hitzig and Kunz enable one to trace clearly enough the laying aside of the sentimental manner and the growth of the ironical note.
page 1 note 6 Among the papers found by Hans von Müller in Hitzig's literary remains, and as yet unpublished, is a fragment of an essay in acknowledged imitation of the style of Jean Paul and Sterne, with illustrations. Cf. Euphorion, ix, 367. The paper is doubtless satirical in aim, but is of importance as additional evidence of a congenial note in Jean Paul's style. Cf. further Goedeke, viii, 503, 97.
page 1 note 1 HW., xv, 57 ff.
page 1 note 2 JPW., xii, 157.
page 1 note 1 Ellinger (88) finds in the outer form of Hoffmann's “Vision” a reminiscence of the celebrated dream of Franz Moor in the fifth act of Schiller's Räuber and notes here also an echo of Schiller's rolling rhetoric. The importance and persistent influence of the Räuber in Hoffmann cannot be denied,—cf. among other evidence his story of the same name in the Letzte Erzählungen (HW., xiii, 176),—indeed, it would have been difficult for anyone to have taken up the theme in tyrannos in these decades without to some extent coming into dependency on Schiller. That certain points of similarity with Franz's dream may be noted by any one reading the two, is indubitable; on the other hand, it seems to me that apart from the correspondences with Jean Paul's dream, noted above, numerous passages could be cited where the wild extravagance of word and image suggests the abandon of Richter rather than the rugged fury of young Schiller. Cf. the following, where the dragon-monster, the emissary of vengeance, seizes Napoleon: “Nun umschlang, fester und fester sein Gewinde schnürend, der Drache den Tyrannen, und überall gingen aus seinem Leibe spitze glühende Krallen hervor, die er wie Dolche in das Fleisch des Tyrannen schlug. Da wand der Tyrann, wie durch namenlose Folter verrenkt, das Haupt empor, und sah über sich die in blendendem Funkeln strahlende Sonne, den Fokus des ewigen Verhängnisses, und entsetzlicher, schneidender wurde der heulende Jammer,” etc. (HW., xv, 58).
page 1 note 1 HW., x, 54, 120.