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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
As a translator of English Ludwig Tieck has been inseparably linked for a hundred years, in the popular mind, with August Wilhelm Schlegel as the co-translator and editor of the most renowned German translation of Shakespeare's dramas. Though scholars have long realized that he did practically none of the translating, widespread misconceptions about his connection with the undertaking still prevail. Moreover, most writers on the literary relations of Germany and England during the period from 1790 to 1850—the “classical” period of these relations—seem to have but a sketchy knowledge of his actual achievements as a translator of English literature. It is the purpose of this paper to examine more closely, and to give at least an exhaustive outline of, his activities in this field. In particular, attention will be paid to those of his translations from English which have hitherto been quite neglected.
1 For a discussion of this subject see E. H. Zeydel, Ludwig Tieck and England (Princeton, 1931), pp. 17–20. See also L. M. Price, The Reception of English Literature in Germany (Berkeley, Cal., 1932), p. 323 ff.
2 Mucedorus, published by J. Bolte (Berlin, 1893); Nobody and Somebody, Jahrb. der deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, vols. xxix–xxx, 1894; and The Fair Maid of Bristol, ibid., vol. xxxi, 1895.
3 I have before me the second edition of the original, in three volumes, London, printed for W. Innys, at the West-End of St. Paul's, and R. Manby, on Ludgate-hill, over against the Old-Bailey, mdccxli.
4 The complete title of the Seidel-Tieck translation is: Conyers Middleton, Römische Geschichte, aus dem Englischen von G. K. F. Seidel, 4 Bde., octavo (Taubert: Danzig, 1791–1793). Some copies bear the imprint of Weygand in Leipzig, others that of W. Heinrichshafen in Magdeburg. It is to be noted that Tieck's name is not mentioned, though his biographer Köpke definitely attests that he was responsible for vols. 3 and 4. We have used the copy in the library of the University of Marburg.
5 The copy of the Altona-Lübeck edition which we have used is also in the library of the University of Marburg.
6 Rudolf Köpke, Ludwig Tieck. Erinnerungen aus dem Leben des Dichters, i (Leipzig, 1855), 122–123.
7 Frankfurt am Main, 1922 (Deutsche Forschungen 6), pp. 186–250.
8 Fritz Wölcken, Shakespeares Zeitgenossen in der deutschen Literatur (Berlin, 1929).
9 G. W. Whiting in PMLA xlvi, 2 (June, 1931), p. 605 ff.
10 Published by Henry Lüdeke in “Ludwig Tieck. Das Buch über Shakespeare,” Neudrucke deutscher Literaturwerke des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, 1 (Halle, 1920), pp. 381–385.
11 x (Cambridge, 1912), 72 ff.
12 Lüdeke, Ludwig Tieck. Das Buch über Shakespeare, pp. 370–371.
13 Yale Studies in English, lii (New Haven: Yale University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1921), p. 25 ff.
14 Lüdeke, op. cit., pp. 377–381.
15 Die Nation, Berlin, xx, 472–476.
16 Op. cit., ii, 301.
17 There is a variant reading for this line:
Vergleich ich dich den Tagen wohl im Lenze?
18 There are three variants for this line:
So lang ein Mund nur haucht, ein Auge sieht,
So lang' ein Auge sieht, ein Mund nur spricht
So lang ein Mund nur (haucht) spricht, ein Auge sieht.
19 There are four variants for this line:
Lebt dies
Lebst du (unsterbl.) hier im ewgen Lied
… unvergänglich du im ewgen
Gibt Leben dir dies ewige …
20 See Gedickte von Ludwig Tieck, Neue Ausgabe (Berlin, 1841), p. 351 ff.
21 Written above: Stirn und Blicke.
22 Two variants:
Und deiner Jugend stolz Panier, aller Verlangen,
Dein stolz Panier, jetzt aller Welt …
23 Variant: Wohin der …
24 Variant: Mehr Lob wird man der Schönheit dann entrichten.
25 Variant: Dies würde … wenn …
26 Variant … noch gefühlt, wenn deines schon …
27 Variants: Vom Schönsten wünschen wir, dass es … vermehrt … dass sich's mehre.
28 Variant: Durch sie …
29 Variants: Dass wie die Stunden …
… verzehre
30 Variant: … Angedenken erbe.
31 Variant: … dich nur selbst der eignen …
32 Variant: … Hunger …
33 Variant: … dem eignen Schönen 34 Variant: Er, der jetzt …
35 Variant: Du, der sein All in eigner Knospe hält,
36 Variant: Übst geitzend, mild-hart, des Verschwenders Sünde.
37 For a full discussion of Tieck's merits and demerits see Zeydel, op. cit., pp. 20 and 25.
38 Sheridan, Dramatische Werke übersetzt von W. Hoffmann (Gotha, 1828–1829).
39 Die Nebenbuhler, frei übersetzt von Ernst von Wolzogen (Leipzig (Reclam), 1875).—On the history of the play in Germany see Fritz Steuber, Sheridan's ‘Rivals’. Entstehungsgeschichte und Beiträge zu einer deutschen Theatergeschichte des Stückes (Leipzig, 1913).
40 It is clear, though, that Tieck was all his life a conscientious student of English, particularly of the Elizabethan vocabulary. Some five hundred slips containing notes on expressions occurring in Elizabethan dramas and written in his hand (“Nachlass,” Box 20) make this apparent but show, at the same time, his uncertain feeling for the language. We quote some examples at random: “Apple-squire, Kuppler, Honest Whore 474. Auch einer, der zur Unzucht unterhalten wird, so Hall B.IV. S.1. Woher der Ausdruck?” “Eggs for money, sprichwörtlich. Match at Midnight 432. Winter's Tale. Aber woher?” “Catastrophe: Tickles our catastrophe: was meint dieser Ausdruck eigentlich, der um 1600 Mode war? Scheint wohl die Nase zu sein. s. Henry IV. kommt sehr oft vor.”
41 To the publisher Reimer on December 8, 1817 (original in the de Gruyter collection, Berlin), and to F. H. von der Hagen on February 8, 1818 (original in the Preussische Staatsbibliothek, Berlin). See also Zeydel's Tieck biography, Ludwig Tieck, the German Romanticist (Princeton, 1935), passim.