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Moses Mendelssohn's Relation to English Poetry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

George J. ten Hoor
George J. ten Hoor*
Affiliation:
Western Reserve University
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Extract

No student of Moses Mendelssohn can read far into his works without being struck by the frequency and variety of his references to the English. Aside from constant references to Shakespeare, Shaftesbury, Locke, Burke, and the outstanding poets of his own time, the student finds such diverse matters as Amory's Life of John Buncle, Harris's Hermes, Edward Clarke's Letters concerning the State of Spain, Mandeville's Fable of the Bees, the tragedies of Moore, the criticism of Roscommon, the Monthly Review, quotations from English plays, translations from English poems, and imitations of the Spectator articles dealing with the Fear of May. These references begin at the earliest period of Mendelssohn's literary career and continue to the end of his life; they show that he was a lifelong student of every important phase of English literature.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , December 1931 , pp. 1137 - 1165
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1931

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References

1 Gesch. d. deutschen Lit. im 18. Jahrh. (Braunschweig, 1864), iii, 2, 210–222.

2 Gesch. d. poetischen Kritik (Frauenfeld, 1888–89), ii, 79–83.

3 “Moses Mendelssohn u. d. deutsche Ästhetik,” Teutonia, iii (1904).

4 Op. cit., 174–186.

5 For such passages see Gesammelte Schriften, ed. G. B. Mendelssohn (Leipzig, 1843–45), iv, 1, 309, 331, 443, v, 150. This edition is hereafter referred to as Schriften.

6 Op. cit., 187–216.

7 London, 1756. We cite the 5th ed., 1806. The review appeared in the Bibl. d. sch. Wissensch., iv, 1 (1758), 500–532 and 2 (1759), 628–669; Schriften, iv, 1, 388–439.

8 Warton, op. cit., i, vii; Schriften, iv, 1, 390.

9 Warton, op. cit., i, 29, 30, Schriften, iv, 1, 395.

10 Warton, op. cit., i, ii; Schriften, iv, 1, 389.

11 Warton, op. cit., i, 85; Schriften, iv, 1, 404. The poem referred to is Flatman's “A Thought on Death.” See Minor Poets of the Caroline Period, ed. Saintsbury, iii, 317.

12 Schriften, iv, 1, 391; Warton, op. cit., i, vii. It should be noted that one of the changes in the “corrected” 5th ed. concerns the poets included in the four “classes and degrees” of English poets.

13 Warton, op. cit., i, 290–292; Schriften, iv, 1, 437.

14 Warton, op. cit., i, vii; Schriften, iv, 1, 390–391.

15 Warton, op. cit., i, 154; Schriften, iv, 1, 409.

16 Warton, op. cit., i, 211; Schriften, iv, 1, 421.

17 Warton, op. cit., i, 67; Schriften, iv, 1, 401.

18 Review of Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination, ii, 1 (1757); Schriften, iv, 1, 255. See Akenside's poem, iii, 558–567. The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside, ed. with a Life, by Rev. A. Dyce (Boston, 1854), p. 185.

19 Schriften, iv, 1, 457.

20 Schriften, v, 174.

21 Edmund Spenser is also mentioned in the Warton review (iv, 1, 390, 391, 405) but in a manner which clearly indicates that Mendelssohn knew nothing of the poet or the nature of his poetry.

22 5 vols., 1753.

23 Schriften, v, 69.

24 “Brown's Estimate kennen Sie doch?” he writes in the 139th Litteraturbrief, “wenigstens aus dem erstaunlichen Aufsehen, das es in England gemacht, und aus der Menge von Auszügen, Widerlegungen und Verteidigungen mit deren Beurtheilung sich alle englische Blätter von 1757 und 1758 beschäftigen.”—iv, 2, 219, 220.

26 Lessings Schriften, ed. Lachmann-Muncker, vi, 409 ff. For Pope's influence in Germany see Price: English>German Literary Influences (Univ. of Cal. Publ. in Mod. Philol. 1919, 1920); Survey, 198 ff. Also Heinzelmann: “Pope in Germany in the 18th Century” Modern Philology, x, 317–364.

26 Schriften, v, 11.

27 Schriften, v, 17.

28 Schriften, v, 210.

29 Op. cit., 14–417.

30 Op. cit., 346–347.

31 See Heinzelmann, op. cit., 347.

32 Op. cit., 438–445.

33 1702.

34 Sept. 15, 1734. See The Works of Alexander Pope, new ed. (London, 1871), vii, 325.

35 i, 1 (1757).

36 Schriften, iv, 1, 158.

37 1756. Bibl. d. sch. Wissensch., i, 1 (1757); Schriften, iv, 1, 211.

38 Bibl. d. sch. Wissensch., ii, 1 (1757); Schriften, iv, 1, 256.

39 Op. cit., 363. See pages 332 and 333 for short treatment of the review and its relation to Lessing and Dusch.

40 Schriften, iv, 1, 388.

41 Ibid.

42 Schriften, iv, 1, 439.

43 Schriften, iv, 1, 388.

44 Schriften, iv, 1, 417; Warton, op. cit., 195.

45 Warton, op. cit., 62–67, 198–199, 250–252, 287–288; Schriften, iv, 1, 401, 418–419, 430–431, 436–437.

46 Op. cit., iii.

47 Schriften, iv, 1, 389.

48 Op. cit., 189.

49 Schriften, iv, 1, 396–397; Warton, op. cit., 40–49.

50 Warton, op. cit., 106–107; Schriften, iv, 1, 406.

51 Warton, op. cit., 170–171; Schriften, iv, 1, 415–416.

52 Warton, op. cit., 200 ff.; Schriften, iv. 1, 419–421, footnotes.

53 Schriften, iv, 1, 433.

54 Warton, op. cit., 277.

55 Schriften, iv, 1, 434.

56 Schriften, iv, 1, 392; Warton, op. cit., 5.

57 Warton, op. cit., 7; Schriften, iv, 1, 393.

58 Schriften, iv, 1, 393.

59 Schriften, iv, 1, 408.

60 Op. cit., 244.

61 Schriften, iv, 1, 427.

62 Op. cit., 164; Schriften, iv, 1, 391, 410–411.

63 iv, 2 (1759); Schriften, iv, 1, 466.

64 101st Brief; Schriften, iv, 2, 85. Mendelssohn misquotes Essay on Man, iv, 35–36 and 121–122.

65 Schriften, iv, 2, 159.

66 128th Brief; Schriften, iv, 2, 167, 168.

67 274th Brief; Schriften, iv, 2, 428. Cf. Rape of the Lock, ii, 47 ff.

68 Homer, xiii, 279 ff. Pope, ll. 366 ff. Schriften, iv, 2, 239–241.

69 Allg. deutsche Bibl., i, 2.

70 Schriften, iv, 2, 469.

71 Schriften, v, 695. Cf. 285, 326, 490.

72 A posthumous version, much changed, appeared in 1772.

73 ii, 1; Schriften, iv, 1, 240–262.

74 Schriften, iv, 1, 401. Cf. n 17.

75 Schriften, iv, 1, 428–429. The ode is the fifth of Bk. i. See Poetical Works of Mark Akenside, 287, and Warton, op. cit., 247.

76 Schriften, iv, 2, 50; 92nd Brief. See Akenside, op. cit., 185, ll. 550 ff.

77 1755. Schriften, iv, 1, 160, 242.

78 Schriften, iv, 1, 240–242. Mendelssohn used the translation that had been submitted to the Bibl. in his review.

79 Schriften, iv, 1, 240, 255.

80 Schriften, iv, 1, 242.

81 Schriften, iv, 1, 246. Akenside, op. cit., i, ll. 255 ff.

82 Schriften, iv, 1, 251, 252. See Akenside, op. cit., ii, ll. 146 ff.

83 Schriften, iv, 1, 247. Akenside, op. cit., ll. 391 ff.

84 Loc. cit.

85 Schriften, iv, 1, 240.

86 Schriften, iv, 1, 243–244.

87 Schriften, iv, 1, 243.

88 Schriften, iv, 1, 261.

89 Schriften, iv, 1, 258, 259.

90 Part 2, 1765.

91 Suphan, v, 289.

92 1757, 1761. Schriften, i, 296.

93 Schriften, iv, 1, 22.

94 i, 1 (1757); Schriften, iv, 1, 215.

95 ii, 1 (1757); Schriften, iv, 1, 238.

96 Schriften, iv, 1, 390, 405, 409, 417, 426.

97 iii, 2 (1758); Schriften, iv, 1, 341. See Burke's Inquiry, iii, Sect. xxv. The Writings and Speeches of Burke, Beaconsfield ed., i, 203.

98 Nov. 18. Schriften, v, 703.

99 Schriften, iii, 354.

100 Schriften, iv, 1, 256; cf. above, n. 38.

101 312th Litteraturbrief, 1765; Schriften, iv, 2, 458.

102 Bibl. d. sch. Wissensch., iv, 2 (1758); Schriften, iv, 1, 496.

103 For account of Thomson in Germany see Price, op. cit., ch. 6.

104 Essay on Man, i, 268.

105 Lachmann-Muncker, op. cit., 438. This is an incorrect citation of the opening of A Hymn on the Seasons. See The Complete Poetical Works of James Thomson, Oxford ed., 245.

106 Bibl. d. sch. Wissensch., i, 1 and ii, 1 (1757); Schriften, iv, 1, 211, 257. Cf. above, nn. 37 and 38.

107 Schriften, iv, 1, 258.

108 iii, 1; Schriften, iv, 1, 312.

109 Price, op. cit., 221–222.

110 Schriften, iv, 1, 396–397.

111 Loc. cit.

112 Ed. Young in Germany (Columbia U. Germ. Stud., x, 1920). See also Price, op. cit., ch. 8.

113 Schriften, iv, 1, 257.

114 Schriften, iv, 1, 168.

115 Schriften, iv, 1, 158.

116 Allg. deutsche Bibl., v, 1 (1767); Schriften, iv, 2, 534.

117 Schriften, iv, 1, 240, 241.

118 207th Litteraturbrief; Schriften, iv, 2, 331. Cf. Price, op. cit., 89.

119 Schriften, iii, 453.

120 Hudibras, ii, 2, 31–32; Schriften, v, 20.

121 Warton, op. cit., 54; Schriften, iv, 1, 399. In the 5th ed. of the Essay no mention is made of a Butler song. The “Hudibrassisches Lied” must be the “Ballad upon the Parliament which deliberated about making Oliver Cromwell King.” See The Poetical Works of Samuel Butler (1893), ii, 259.

122 Warton, op. cit., 153; Schriften, iv, 1, 409.

123 Schriften, iv, 1, 421. Cf. Warton, op. cit., 200 ff.

124 See Price, op. cit., 182.

125 By Waser, who completed the task Bodmer had begun, when he published a prose translation of two cantos in 1737.

126 See Price, op. cit., 183.

127 iii, 2 (1758).

128 Fable 43.

129 Schriften, iv, 1, 353.

130 Schriften, iv, 1, 356.

131 Schriften, v, 155.

132 Schriften, v, 119.

133 See Schriften, v, 110, 113, 118, 124, 127, 134, 141, 146.

134 The comparison is included in Lessing's works ed. by Lachmann-Muncker, vii, 108–112.

135 Abraham Cowley, Poems (Cambridge, 1905), 182.

136 Not published before the Gesammelte Schriften, iv, 1, 89.

137 Schriften, v, 281.

138 Schriften, iv, 1, 390, 409.

139 See M. D. Baumgartner, On Dryden's Relation to Germany in the 18th century (University Studies, U. of Nebraska, xiv, 1914).

140 Schriften, iv, 1, 390, 404, 431.

141 See Baumgartner, op. cit., 82: “Nicolai also included this in his translation of the Essay, but the superiority of Mendelssohn's translation is very apparent when compared with that of Nicolai.”

142 See Heinzelmann, op. cit., 358.

143 For both see Schriften, vi, 391–393.

144 Schriften, iv, 1, 393.

145 Schriften, iv, 1, 399.

146 Schriften, iv, 1, 438.

147 Schriften, iv, 1, 428.

148 Schriften, iv, 1, 397.

149 Schriften, iv, 1, 423.