Once established in his hotel, the author betakes himself to the theater: this very act he feels will bring upon him the censure of the critics, for Yorick went to the theater too. "Amerchant's boy went along before me," he says in nave defense, "was he also an imitator of Yorick?" On the way he meets a fair maid-in-waiting, and the relation between her and the traveler, developed here and later, is inspired directly by Yorick's connection with the fair fille de chambre. Schummel imitates Sterne's excessive detail of description, devoting a whole paragraph to his manner of removing his hat before a lady whom he encounters on this walk to the theater. This was another phase of Sterne's pseudo-scientific method: he describes the trivial with the attitude of the trained observer, registering minutely the detail of phenomena, amock-parade of scholarship illustrated by his description of Trim's attitude while reading his sermon, or the dropping of the hat in the kitchen during the memorable scene when the news of Bobby's death is brought.

In Schummel's narration of his adventures in the house of ill-repute there are numerous sentimental excrescences in his conduct with the poor prisoner there, due largely to Yorick's pattern, such as their weeping on one another's breast, and his wiping away her tears and his, drawn from Yorick's amiable service for Maria of Moulines, an act seemingly expressing the most refined human sympathy. The remaining events of this first volume include an unexpected meeting with the kind baker's wife, which takes place at Gellert's grave. Yorick's imitators were especially fond of re-introducing a sentimental relationship. Yorick led the way in his renewed acquaintance with the fille de chambre; Stevenson in his continuation went to extremes in exploiting this cheap device.

Other motifs derived from Sterne, less integral, may be briefly summarized. From the Sentimental Journey is taken the motif that valuable or interesting papers be used to wrap ordinary articles of trade: here herring are wrapped in fragments of the father's philosophy; in the Sentimental Journey we find a similar degrading use for the "Fragment." Schummel breaks off the chapter "La Nave,"[11] under the Sternesque subterfuge of having to deliver manuscript to an insistent publisher. Yorick writes his preface to the Journey in the "Dsobligeant," that is, in the midst of the narrative itself. Schummel modifies the eccentricity merely by placing his foreword at the end of the volume. The value of it, he says, will repay the reader for waiting so long,—astatement which finds little justification in the preface itself. It begins, "Auweh! Auweh! Ouais, Helas! ... Diable, mein Rcken, mein Fuss!" and so on for half a page,—apitiful effort to follow the English master's wilful and skilful incoherence. The following pages, however, once this outbreak is at an end, contain a modicum of sense, the feeble, apologetic explanation of his desire in imitating Yorick, given in forethought of the critics' condemnation. Similarly the position of the dedication is unusual, in the midst of the volume, even as the dedication of Shandy was roguishly delayed. The dedication itself, however, is not an imitation of Sterne's clever satire, but, addressed to Yorick himself, is a striking example of burning personal devotion and over-wrought praise. Schummel hopes[12] in Sterne fashion to write a chapter on "Vorbergeben," or in the chapter "Das Komdienhaus" (pp. 185-210) to write a digression on "Walking behind a maid." Like Sterne, he writes in praise of digressions.[13] In imitation of Sterne is conceived the digressive speculation concerning the door through which at the beginning of the book he is cast into the rude world. Among further expressions savoring of Sterne, may be mentioned a "Centner of curses" (p.39), a "Quentchen of curses," and the analytical description of a tone of voice as one-fourth questioning, five-eighths entreating and one-eighth commanding (p.229).

The direct allusions to Sterne and his works are numerous. Alist of Sterne characters which were indelibly impressed upon his mind is found near the very beginning (pp.3-4); other allusions are to M.Dessein (p.65), La Fleur's "Courierstiefel" (p.115), the words of the dying Yorick (p.128), the pococurantism of Mrs. Shandy (p.187), the division of travelers into types (p.141), Uncle Toby (p.200), Yorick's violin-playing (p.274), the foolish fat scullion (p.290), Yorick's description of a maid's (p.188) eyes, "als ob sie zwischen vier Wnden einem Garaus machen knnten."

The second volume is even more incoherent in narration, and contains less genuine occurrence and more ill-considered attempts at whimsicality, yet throughout this volume there are indications that the author is awakening to the vulnerability of his position, and this is in no other particular more easily discernible than in the half-hearted defiance of the critics and his anticipation of their censure. The change, so extraordinary in the third volume, is foreshadowed in the second. Purely sentimental, effusive, and abundantly teary is the story of the rescued baker's wife. In this excess of sentiment, Schummel shows his intellectual appreciation of Sterne's individual treatment of the humane and pathetic, for near the end of the poor woman's narrative the author seems to recollect a fundamental sentence of Sterne's creed, the inevitable admixture of the whimsical, and here he introduces into the sentimental relation a Shandean idiosyncrasy: from page 43 the narrative leaps back to the beginning of the volume, and Schummel advises the reader to turn back and re-read, referring incidentally to his confused fashion of narration. The awkwardness with which this is done proves Schummel's inability to follow Yorick, though its use shows his appreciation of Sterne's peculiar genius. The visit of the author, the baker's wife and her daughter (the former lady's maid) to the graveyard is Yorickian in flavor, and the plucking of nettles from the grave of the dead epileptic is a direct borrowing. Attempts to be immorally, sensuously suggestive in the manner of Sterne are found in the so-called chapter on "Button-holes," here cast in a more Shandean vein, and in the adventure "die ngstliche Nacht,"—in the latter case resembling more the less frank, more insinuating method of the Sentimental Journey. The sentimental attitude toward man's dumb companions is imitated in his adventure with the house-dog; the author fears the barking of this animal may disturb the sleep of the poor baker's wife: he beats the dog into silence, then grows remorseful and wishes "that I had given him no blow," or that the dog might at least give him back the blows. His thought that the dog might be pretending its pain, he designates a subtle subterfuge of his troubled conscience, and Goethe, in the review mentioned above, exclaims, "Afine pendant to Yorick's scene with the Monk."

Distinctly Shandean are the numerous digressions, as on imitation (p.16), on authors and fairs (p.45), that which he calls (pp. 226-238) "ein ganz originelles Gemische von Wiz, Belesenheit, Scharfsinn, gesunder Philosophie, Erfahrung, Algebra und Mechanik," or (p.253) "Von der Entstehungsart eines Buches nach Erfindung der Buchdrukerkunst," which in reference to Sterne's phrase, is called a "jungfruliche Materie." He promises (pp. 75 and 108), like Sterne, to write numerous chapters on extraordinary subjects,—indeed, he announces his intention of supplementing the missing sections of Shandy on "Button-holes" and on the "Right and Left (sic) end of a Woman." His own promised effusions are to be "Ueber die roten und schwarzen Rcke," "ber die Verbindung der Theologie mit Schwarz," "Europischenfrauenzimmerschuhabstze," half a one "Ueber die Schuhsohlen" and "Ueber meinen Namen."

His additions to Shandy are flat and witless, that on the "Right and Wrong End of a Woman" (pp. 88ff.) degenerating into three brief narratives displaying woman's susceptibility to flattery, the whole idea probably adapted from Sterne's chapter, "An Act of Charity;" the chapter on "Button-holes" is made a part of the general narrative of his relation to his "Nave." Weakly whimsical is his seeking pardon for the discourse with which the Frenchman (pp. 62-66), under the pretext that it belonged somewhere else and had inadvertently crept in. Shandean also is the black margin to pages 199-206, the line upside down (p.175), the twelve irregularly printed lines (p.331), inserted to indicate his efforts in writing with a burned hand, the lines of dashes and exclamation points, the mathematical, financial calculation of the worth of his book from various points of view, and the description of the maiden's walk (p.291). Sterne's mock-scientific method, as already noted, is observable again in the statement of the position of the dagger "at an angle of 30" (p.248). His coining of new words, for which he is censured by the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek, is also a legacy of Yorick's method.

The third volume bears little relation to Sterne aside from its title, and one can only wonder, in view of the criticism of the two parts already published and the nature of the author's own partial revulsion of feeling, that he did not give up publishing it altogether, or choose another title, and sunder the work entirely from the foregoing volumes, with which it has in fact so contradictory a connection. It may be that his relations to the publisher demanded the issuing of the third part under the same title.

This volume is easily divisible into several distinct parts, which are linked with one another, and to the preceding narrative, only by a conventional thread of introduction. These comprise: the story of Caroline and Rosenfeld, atypical eighteenth century tale of love, seduction and flight; the hosts' ballad, "Es war einmahl ein Edelmann;" the play, "Die unschuldige Ehebrecherin" and "Mein Tagebuch," the journal of an honest preacher, and a further sincere exploitation of Schummel's ideas upon the clergyman's office, his ideal of simplicity, kindliness, and humanity. In the latter part of the book Schummel resumes his original narrative, and indulges once more in the luxury of sentimental adventure, but without the former abortive attempts at imitating Sterne's peculiarities of diction. This last resumption of the sentimental creed introduces to us one event evidently inspired by Yorick: he meets a poor, maimed soldier-beggar. Since misfortune has deprived the narrator himself of his possessions, he can give nothing and goes a begging for the beggar's sake, introducing the new and highly sentimental idea of "vicarious begging" (pp. 268-9). In the following episode, avisit to a child-murderess, Schummel leaves a page entirely blank as an appropriate proof of incapacity to express his emotions attendant on the execution of the unfortunate. Sterne also left a page blank for the description of the Widow Wadman's charms.

At the very end of the book Schummel drops his narrative altogether and discourses upon his own work. It would be difficult to find in any literature so complete a condemnation of one's own serious and extensive endeavor, so candid a criticism of one's own work, so frank an acknowledgment of the pettiness of one's achievement. He says his work, as an imitation of Sterne's two novels, has "few or absolutely no beauties of the original, and many faults of its own." He states that his enthusiasm for Tristram has been somewhat dampened by Sonnenfels and Riedel; he sees now faults which should not have been imitated; the frivolous attitude of the narrator toward his father and mother is deprecated, and the suggestion is given that this feature was derived from Tristram's own frankness concerning the eccentricities and incapacities of his parents. He begs reference to a passage in the second volume[14] where the author alludes with warmth of appreciation to his real father and mother; that is, genuine regard overcame the temporary blindness, real affection arose and thrust out the transitory inclination to an alien whimsicality.

Schummel admits that he has utterly failed in his effort to characterize the German people in the way Sterne treated the English and French; he confesses that the ninety-page autobiography which precedes the journey itself was intended to be Tristram-like, but openly stigmatizes his own failure as "ill conceived, incoherent and not very well told!" After mentioning some few incidents and passages in this first section which he regards as passable, he boldly condemns the rest as "almost beneath all criticism," and the same words are used with reference to much that follows, in which he confesses to imitation, bad taste and intolerable indelicacy. He calls his pathetic attempts at whimsical mannerisms (Heideldum, etc.), "klglich, beraus klglich," expresses the opinion that one would not be surprised at the reader who would throw away the whole book at such a passage. The words of the preacher in the two sections where he is allowed to air his opinions still meet with his approval, and the same is true of one or two other sections. In conclusion, he states that the first part contains hardly one hundred good pages, and that the second part is worse than the first, so that he is unwilling to look at it again and seek out its faults. The absence of allusions to Sterne's writings is marked, except in the critical section at the end, he mentions Sterne but once (p.239), where he calls him "schnurrigt." This alteration of feeling must have taken place in a brief space of time, for the third volume is signed April 25, 1772. It is not easy to establish with probability the works of Sonnenfels and Riedel which are credited with a share in this revulsion of feeling.

In all of this Schummel is a discriminating critic of his own work; he is also discerning in his assertion that the narrative contained in his volume is conceived more in the vein of Fielding and Richardson. The Sterne elements are rather embroidered on to the other fabric, or, as he himself says, using another figure, "only fried in Shandy fat."[15]

Goethe's criticism of the second volume, already alluded to, is found in the Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen in the issue of March 3, 1772. The nature of the review is familiar: Goethe calls the book a thistle which he has found on Yorick's grave. "Alles," he says, "hat es dem guten Yorick geraubt, Speer, Helm und Lanze, nur Schade! inwendig steckt der Herr Prceptor S. zu Magdeburg ... Yorick empfand, und dieser setzt sich hin zu empfinden. Yorick wird von seiner Laune ergriffen, und weinte und lachte in einer Minute und durch die Magie der Sympathie lachen und weinen wir mit: hier aber steht einer und berlegt: wie lache und weine ich? was werden die Leute sagen, wenn ich lache und weine?" etc. Schummel is stigmatized as a childish imitator and his book is censured as "beneath criticism," oddly enough the very judgment its own author accords but a few weeks later on the completion of the third volume. The review contains several citations illustrative of Schummel's style.

The first two parts were reviewed in the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek.[16] The length of the review is testimony to the interest in the book, and the tone of the article, though frankly unfavorable, is not so emphatically censorious as the one first noted. It is observed that Schummel has attempted the impossible,—the adoption of another's "Laune," and hence his failure. The reviewer notes, often with generous quotations, the more noticeable, direct imitations from Sterne, the conversation of the emotions, the nettle-plucking at the grave, the eccentric orthography and the new-coined words. Several passages of comment or comparison testify to the then current admiration of Yorick, and the conventional German interpretation of his character; "sein gutes, empfindungsvolles Herz, mit Tugend und sittlichem Gefhl erfllt." The review is signed "Sr:"[17]

A critic in the Jenaische Zeitungen von gelehrten Sachen for January 17, 1772, treating the first two volumes, expresses the opinion that Jacobi, the author of the "Tagereise," and Schummel have little but the title from Yorick. The author's seeking for opportunity to dissolve in emotion is contrasted unfavorably with Yorick's method, the affected style is condemned, yet it is admitted that the work promises better things from its talented author; his power of observation and his good heart are not to be unacknowledged. The severity of the review is directed against the imitators already arising.

The Magazin der deutschen Critik[18] reviews the third volume with favorable comment; the comedy which Schummel saw fit to insert is received with rather extraordinary praise, and the author is urged to continue work in the drama; adesire is expressed even for a fourth part. The Hamburgische Neue Zeitung, June 4 and October 29, 1771, places Schummel unhesitatingly beside the English master, calls him as original as his pattern, to Sterne belongs the honor only of the invention. The author is hailed as a genius whose talents should be supported, so that Germany would not have to envy England her Yorick.[19]

After Schummel's remarkable self-chastisement, one could hardly expect to find in his subsequent works evidence of Sterne's influence, save as unconsciously a dimmed admiration might exert a certain force. Probably contemporaneous with the composition of the third volume of the work, but possibly earlier, Schummel wrote the fourth part of a ponderous novel by a fellow Silesian, Christian Opitz, entitled "Die Gleichheit der menschlichen Herzen, bey der Ungleichheit ihrer usserlichen Umstnde in der Geschichte Herrn Redlichs und seiner Bedienten." Goedeke implies that Opitz was the author of all but the last part, but the reviewer in the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek[20] maintains that each part has a different author, and quotes the preface to the fourth as substantiation. According to this review both the second and fourth parts are characterized by a humorous fashion in writing, and the last is praised as being the best of the four. It seems probable that Schummel's enthusiasm for Sterne played its part in the composition of this work.

Possibly encouraged by the critic's approbation, Schummel devoted his literary effort for the following years largely to the drama. In 1774 he published his "Uebersetzer-Bibliothek zum Gebrauche der Uebersetzer, Schulmnner und Liebhaber der alten Litteratur." The reviewer[21] in the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek finds passages in this book in which the author of the "Empfindsame Reisen" is visible,—where his fancy runs away with his reason,—and a passage is quoted in which reference is made to Slawkenberg's book on noses. It would seem that the seeking for wit survived the crude sentimentality.

Two years later Schummel published "Fritzen's Reise nach Dessau,"[22] awork composed of letters from a twelve-year old boy, written on a journey from Magdeburg to Dessau. The letters are quite without whim or sentiment, and the book has been remembered for the extended description of Basedow's experimental school, "Philantropin" (opened in 1774). Its account has been the source of the information given of this endeavor in some pedagogical treatises[23] and it was re-issued, as a document in the history of pedagogical experiment, in Leipzig, by Albert Richter in 1891. About fifteen years later still the "Reise durch Schlesien"[24] was issued. It is a simple narrative of a real journey with description of places and people, frankly personal, almost epistolary in form, without a suggestion of Sterne-like whim or sentiment. One passage is significant as indicating the author's realization of his change of attitude. The sight of a group of prisoners bound by a chain calls to his memory his former sentimental extravagance, and he exclaims: "Twenty years ago, when I was still a sentimental traveler, Iwould have wasted many an 'Oh' and 'alas' over this scene; at present, since I have learned to know the world and mankind somewhat more intimately, Ithink otherwise."

Johann Christian Bock (1724-1785), who was in 1772 theater-poet of the Ackerman Company in Hamburg, soon after the publication of the Sentimental Journey, identified himself with the would-be Yoricks by the production of "Die Tagereise," which was published at Leipzig in 1770. The work was re-issued in 1775 with the new title "Die Geschichte eines empfundenen Tages."[25] The only change in the new edition was the addition of a number of copperplate engravings. The book is inspired in part by Sterne directly, and in part indirectly through the intermediary Jacobi. Unlike the work of Schummel just treated, it betrays no Shandean influence, but is dependent solely on the Sentimental Journey. In outward form the book resembles Jacobi's "Winterreise," since verse is introduced to vary the prose narrative. The attitude of the author toward his journey, undertaken with conscious purpose, is characteristic of the whole set of emotional sentiment-seekers, who found in their Yorick a challenge to go and do likewise: "Everybody is journeying, Ithought, and took Yorick and Jacobi with me. ... Iwill really see whether I too may not chance upon a fille de chambre or a harvest-maid," is a very significant statement of his inspiration and intention. Once started on his journey, the author falls in with a poor warrior-beggar, an adaptation of Sterne's Chevalier de St. Louis,[26] and he puts in verse Yorick's expressed sentiment that the king and the fatherland should not allow the faithful soldier to fall into such distress.

Bock's next sentimental adventure is with a fair peasant-maid whom he sees weeping by the wayside. Through Yorick-like insistence of sympathy, he finally wins from her information concerning the tender situation: astern stepfather, an unwelcome suitor of his choosing, and a lover of her own. Her inability to write and thus communicate with the latter is the immediate cause of the present overflow. The traveler beholds in this predicament a remarkable sentimental opportunity and offers his services; he strokes her cheek, her tears are dried, and they part like brother and sister. The episode is unquestionably inspired by the episode of Maria of Moulines; in the latter development of the affair, the sentiment, which is expressed, that the girl's innocence is her own defense is borrowed directly from Yorick's statement concerning the fille de chambre.[27] The traveler's questioning of his own motives in "Die Ueberlegung"[28] is distinctly Sterne-like, and it demonstrates also Bock's appreciation of this quizzical element in Yorick's attitude toward his own sentimental behavior. The relation of man to the domestic animals is treated sentimentally in the episode of the old beggar and his dead dog:[29] the tears of the beggar, his affection for the beast, their genuine comradeship, and the dog's devotion after the world had forsaken his master, are all part and parcel of that fantastic humane movement which has its source in Yorick's dead ass. Bock practically confesses his inspiration by direct allusion to the episode in Yorick. Bock defends with warmth the old peasant and his grief.

The wanderer's acquaintance with the lady's companion[30] is adapted from Yorick's fille de chambre connection, and Bock cannot avoid a fleshly suggestion, distinctly in the style of Yorick in the section, the "Spider."[31] The return journey in the sentimental moonlight affords the author another opportunity for the exercise of his broad human sympathy: he meets a poor woman, aday-laborer with her child, gives them a few coins and doubts whether king or bishop could be more content with the benediction of the apostolic chair than he with the blessing of this unfortunate,—asentiment derived from Yorick's overcolored veneration for the horn snuff-box.

The churchyard scene with which the journey ends is more openly fanciful, down-right visionary in tone, but the manner is very emphatically not that of Sterne, though in the midst the Sterne motif of nettle-plucking is introduced. This sentimental episode took hold of German imagination with peculiar force. The hobby-horse idea also was sure of its appeal, and Bock did not fail to fall under its spell.[32]

But apart from the general impulse and borrowing of motif from the foreign novel, there is in this little volume considerable that is genuine and original: the author's German patriotism, his praise of the old days in the Fatherland in the chapter entitled "Die Gaststube," his "Trinklied eines Deutschen," his disquisition on the position of the poet in the world ("ein eignes Kapitel"), and his adulation of Gellert at the latter's grave. The reviewer in the Deutsche Bibliothek der schnen Wissenschaften[33] chides the unnamed, youthful author for not allowing his undeniable talents to ripen to maturity, for being led on by Jacobi's success to hasten his exercises into print. In reality Bock was no longer youthful (forty-six) when the "Tagereise" was published. The Almanach der deutschen Musen for 1771, calls the book "an unsuccessful imitation of Yorick and Jacobi," and wishes that this "Rhapsodie von Cruditten" might be the last one thrust on the market as a "Sentimental Journey." The Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek[34] comments also on the double inspiration, and the insufficiency and tiresomeness of the performance. And yet Boie[35] says the papers praised the little book; for himself, however, he observes, he little desires to read it, and adds "What will our Yoricks yet come to? At last they will get pretty insignificant, Ithink, if they keep on this way."

Bock was also the author of a series of little volumes written in the early seventies, still under the sentimental charm: (1)Empfindsame Reise durch die Visitenzimmer am Neujahrstag von einem deutschen Yorick angestellt, Cosmopolis (Hamburg) 1771—really published at the end of the previous year; (2)...am Ostertage, 1772; (3)Am Pfingsttage, 1772; (4)Am Johannistage, 1773; (5)Am Weynachtstage, 1773. These books were issued anonymously, and Schrder's Lexicon gives only (2) and (3) under Bock's name, but there seems no good reason to doubt his authorship of them all. Indeed, his claim to (1) is, according to the Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen, well-nigh proven by an allusion to the "Tagereise" in the introduction, and by the initials signed. None of them are given by Goedeke. The books are evidently only in a general way dependent on the Sterne model, and are composed of observations upon all sorts of subjects, the first section of each volume bearing some relation to the festival in which they appear.

In the second edition of the first volume the author confesses that the title only is derived from Yorick,[36] and states that he was forced to this misuse because no one at that time cared to read anything but "Empfindsame Reisen." It is also to be noted that the description beneath the title, "von einem deutschen Yorick angestellt," is omitted after the first volume. The review of (4) and (5) in the Altonaer Reichs-Postreuter finds this a commendable resumption of proper humility. The observations are evidently loosely strung together without the pretense of a narrative, such as "Allgemeines Perspectiv durch alle Visitenzimmer, Empfindsamer Neujahrswunsch, Empfindsame Berechnung eines Weisen mit sich selbst, Empfindsame Entschlsse, Empfindsame Art sein Geld gut unterzubringen," etc.[37] An obvious purpose inspires the writer, the furthering of morality and virtue; many of the meditations are distinctly religious. That some of the observations had a local significance in Hamburg, together with the strong sentimental tendency there, may account for the warm reception by the Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent.[38]

Some contemporary critics maintained a kinship between Matthias Claudius and Yorick-Sterne, though nothing further than a similarity of mental and emotional fibre is suggested. No one claimed an influence working from the English master. Even as late as 1872, Wilhelm Rseler in his introductory poem to a study of "Matthias Claudius und sein Humor"[39] calls Asmus, "Deutschland's Yorick," thereby agreeing almost verbally with the German correspondent of the Deutsches Museum, who wrote from London nearly a hundred years before, September 14, 1778, "Asmus ... is the German Sterne," an assertion which was denied by a later correspondent, who asserts that Claudius's manner is very different from that of Sterne.[40]

August von Kotzebue, as youthful narrator, betrays a dependence on Sterne in his strange and ingeniously contrived tale, "Die Geschichte meines Vaters, oder wie es zuging, dass ich gebohren wurde."[41] The influence of Sterne is noticeable in the beginning of the story: he commences with a circumstantial account of his grandfather and grandmother, and the circumstances of his father's birth. The grandfather is an original undoubtedly modeled on lines suggested by Sterne's hobby-horse idea. He had been chosen in days gone by to greet the reigning prince on the latter's return from a journey, and the old man harks back to this circumstance with "hobby-horsical" persistence, whatever the subject of conversation, even as all matters led Uncle Toby to military fortification, and the elder Shandy to one of his pet theories.

In Schrimps the servant, another Shandean original is designed. When the news comes of the birth of a son on Mount Vesuvius, master and man discuss multifarious and irrelevant topics in a fashion reminiscent of the conversation downstairs in the Shandy mansion while similar events are going on above. Later in the book we have long lists, or catalogues of things which resemble one of Sterne's favorite mannerisms. But the greater part of the wild, adventurous tale is far removed from its inception, which presented domestic whimsicality in a gallery of originals, unmistakably connected with Tristram Shandy.

Gschen's "Reise von Johann"[42] is a product of the late renascence of sentimental journeying. Master and servant are represented in this book as traveling through southern Germany, apair as closely related in head and heart as Yorick and La Fleur, or Captain Shandy and Corporal Trim. The style is of rather forced buoyancy and sprightliness, with intentional inconsequence and confusion, an attempt at humor of narration, which is choked by characteristic national desire to convey information, and a fatal propensity to description of places,[43] even when some satirical purpose underlies the account, as in the description of Erlangen and its university. The servant Johann has mild adventures with the maids in the various inns, which are reminiscent of Yorick, and in one case it borders on the openly suggestive and more Shandean method.[44] Adistinctly borrowed motif is the accidental finding of papers which contain matters of interest. This is twice resorted to; aformer occupant of the room in the inn in Nrnberg had left valuable notes of travel; and Johann, meeting a ragged woman, bent on self-destruction, takes from her a box with papers, disclosing a revolting story, baldly told. German mediocrity, imitating Yorick in this regard, and failing of his delicacy and subtlety, brought forth hideous offspring. An attempt at whimsicality of style is apparent in the "Furth Catechismus in Frage und Antwort" (pp. 71-74), and genuinely sentimental adventures are supplied by the death-bed scene (pp. 70-71) and the village funeral (pp. 74-77).

This book is classed by Ebeling[45] without sufficient reason as an imitation of von Thmmel. This statement is probably derived from the letter from Schiller to Goethe to which Ebeling refers in the following lines. Schiller is writing to Goethe concerning plans for the Xenien, December 29, 1795.[46] The abundance of material for the Xenien project is commented upon with enthusiastic anticipation, and in a list of vulnerable possibilities we read: "Thmmel, Gschen als sein Stallmeister—" acollocation of names easily attributable, in consideration of the underlying satiric purpose, to the general nature of their work, without in any way implying the dependence of one author on another,[47] or it could be interpreted as an allusion to the fact that Gschen was von Thmmel's publisher. Nor is there anything in the correspondence to justify Ebeling's harshness in saying concerning this volume of Gschen, that it "enjoyed the honor of being ridiculed (verhhnt) in the Xenien-correspondence between Goethe and Schiller." Goethe replies (December 30), in approval, and exclaims, "How fine Charis and Johann will appear beside one another."[48] The suggestion concerning a possible use of Gschen's book in the Xenien was never carried out.

It will be remembered that Gschen submitted the manuscript of his book to Schiller, and that Schiller returned the same with the statement "that he had laughed heartily at some of the whims.[49]" Garve, in a letter dated March 8, 1875, speaks of Gschen's book in terms of moderate praise.[50]

The "Empfindsame Reise von Oldenburg nach Bremen,"[51] the author of which was a Hanoverian army officer, H.J. C.Hedemann, is characterized by Ebeling as emphatically not inspired by Sterne.[52] Although it is not a sentimental journey, as Schummel and Jacobi and Bock conceived it, and is thus not an example of the earliest period of imitation, and although it contains no passages of teary sentimentality in attitude toward man and beast, one must hesitate in denying all connection with Sterne's manner. It would seem as if, having outgrown the earlier Yorick, awakened from dubious, fine-spun dreams of human brotherhood, perhaps by the rude clatter of the French revolution, certain would-be men of letters turned to Yorick again and saw, as through a glass darkly, that other element of his nature, and tried in lumbering, Teutonic way to adopt his whimsicality, shorn now of sentimentalism, and to build success for their wares on remembrance of a defaced idol. This view of later sentimental journeying is practically acknowledged at any rate in a contemporary review, the Allgemeine Litteratur-Zeitung for August 22, 1796, which remarks: "Asentimental voyage ist ein Quodlibet, wo einige bekannte Sachen und Namen gezwungenen Wiz und matten Scherz heben sollen."[53]

Hedemann's book is conspicuous in its effort to be whimsical and is openly satirical in regard to the sentimentalism of former travelers. His endeavor is markedly in Sterne's manner in his attitude toward the writing of the book, his conversation about the difficulty of managing the material, his discussion with himself and the reader about the various parts of the book. Quite in Sterne's fashion, and to be associated with Sterne's frequent promises of chapters, and statements concerning embarrassment of material, is conceived his determination "to mention some things beforehand about which I don't know anything to say," and his rather humorous enumeration of them. The author satirizes the real sentimental traveler of Sterne's earlier imitators in the following passage (second chapter):

"It really must be a great misfortune, an exceedingly vexatious case, if no sentimental scenes occur to a sentimental traveler, but this is surely not the case; only the subjects, which offer themselves must be managed with strict economy. If one leaps over the most interesting events entirely, one is in danger, indeed, of losing everything, at least of not filling many pages."

Likewise in the following account of a sentimental adventure, the satirical purpose is evident. He has not gone far on his journey when he is met by a troop of children; with unsentimental coldness he determines that there is a "Schlagbaum" in the way. After the children have opened the barrier, he debates with himself to which child to give his little coin, concludes, as a "sentimental traveler," to give it to the other sex, then there is nothing left to do but to follow his instinct. He reflects long with himself whether he was right in so doing,—all of which is a deliberate jest at the hesitation with reference to trivial acts, the self-examination with regard to the minutiae of past conduct, which was copied by Sterne's imitators from numerous instances in the works of Yorick. Satirical also is his vision in Chapter VII, in which he beholds the temple of stupidity where lofty stupidity sits on a paper throne; and of particular significance here is the explanation that the whole company who do "erhabene Dummheit" honor formerly lived in cities of the kingdom, but "now they are on journeys." Further examples of a humorous manner akin to Sterne are: his statement that it would be a "great error" to write an account of a journey without weaving in an anecdote of a prince, his claim that he has fulfilled all duties of such a traveler save to fall in love, his resolve to accomplish it, and his formal declaration: "I, the undersigned, do vow and make promise to be in love before twenty-four hours are past." The story with which his volume closes, "Das Stndchen," is rather entertaining and is told graphically, easily, without whim or satire, yet not without a Sternian double entendre.[54]

Another work in which sentimentalism has dwindled away to a grinning shade, and a certain irresponsible, light-hearted attitude is the sole remaining connection with the great progenitor, is probably the "Empfindsame Reise nach Schilda" (Leipzig, 1793), by Andreas Geo. Fr. von Rabenau, which is reviewed in the Allgemeine Litteratur-Zeitung (1794, I, p.416) as a free revision of an old popular tale, "Das lustige und lcherliche Lalenburg." The book is evidently without sentimental tinge, is a merry combination of wit and joke combined with caricature and half-serious tilting against unimportant literary celebrities.[55]

Certain miscellaneous works, which are more or less obviously connected with Sterne may be grouped together here.

To the first outburst of Sterne enthusiasm belongs an anonymous product, "Zween Tage eines Schwindschtigen, etwas Empfindsames," von L.... (Hamburg, 1772), yet the editor admits that the sentiment is "not entirely like Yorick's," and the Altonaer Reichs-Postreuter (July 2, 1772) adds that "not at all like Yorick's" would have been nearer the truth. This book is mentioned by Hillebrand with implication that it is the extreme example of the absurd sentimental tendency, probably judging merely from the title,[56] for the book is doubtless merely thoughtful, contemplative, with a minimum of overwrought feeling.

According to the Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen (1775, pp. 592-3), another product of the earlier seventies, the "Leben und Schicksale des Martin Dickius," by Johann Moritz Schwager, is in many places a clever imitation of Sterne,[57] although the author claims, like Wezel in "Tobias Knaut," not to have read Shandy until after the book was written. Surely the digression on noses which the author allows himself is suspicious.

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 "Beytrge 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, amore 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, atract against certain essentially German follies. Merck, in the Teutscher Merkur,[61] says the imitation of Sterne is quite too obvious, though Blankenburg deniesit.

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 Gchhausen (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. Gchhausen, 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, amessage 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, apitiful one. Why Goedeke should suggest "Meine Randglossen" is quite inexplicable, since Gchhausen 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 Originalitt 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. Gchhausen has availed himself of an odd device to disarm criticism,—aplan 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; areader exclaims, "aportmanteau, 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, awretchedly unsuccessful imitation." In the next chapter, "Der Visitator" (pp. 125ff.) in which the author encounters customs annoyances, the critic is again allowed to complain that everything is stolen from Yorick, aprotest which is answered by the author quite navely, "Yorick journeyed, ate, drank; Ido too." In "Die Pause" the author stands before the inn door and fancies that a number of spies (Ausspher) stand there waiting for him; he protests that Yorick encountered beggars before the inn in Montreuil, avery different sort of folk. On page 253 he exclaims, "fr diesen schreibe ich dieses Kapitel nicht und ich—beklage ihn!" Here a footnote suggests "Das brige 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 awhite shirt, traveled in a comfortable carriage, or been borne by a strong horse, without bemoaning those who were less fortunately circumstanced. Asimilar 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, Iam not really sure myself."

The whimsical, unconventional interposition of the reader, and the author's reasoning with him, aSterne 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.

Gchhausen'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 Gchhausen'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. Areference 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,"—agenuine 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 Gesprchen keinen Gefallen findet, wird freundschaftlich ersucht alle folgende Bltter, deren Inhalt einem Gesprche hnlich sieht, wohlbedchtig zu berschlagen, d.h. von dieser Anzeige an gerechnet. Darauf denke ich, soll jedermanniglich vom 22. Absatze fahren knnen,—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, areally 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. Asimilar 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 rle 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. Aparallel 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, aconvenient 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 Gesprch," 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 Hnderingen, Und meine Wenigkeit, zum Pfeifen, Tanzen, Singen."

and later,

. . . "Und will von Herzen gern der Thor der Thoren seyn; Jngst 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, ayouth, aMercury:

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

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

"Das ist mein Tod, ich sehe keinen Knochen, Womit du ihn, gleich einem Zahnarzt, schmckst, Geschieht es heute noch, geschieht's in wenig Wochen, Dass du, Gevatter Tod, nur meine Hnde drckst? 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, arelation 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 "Raritten, ein hinterlassenes Werk des Ksters 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, Imade 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. Asimilar 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 Musus, 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 Stte 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, afact 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: Kstner "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"); arather unfavorable but apologetic criticism of Shandy in the "Hinterlassene Schriften" of Charlotta Sophia Sidonia Seidelinn, Nrnberg, 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. Jnger's "Anlage zu einem Familiengesprch ber 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 "Gtz;" Almanach der deutschen Musen, 1771, p.93. And thus the references scatter themselves down the decades. "Das Wrtlein 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, aBerlin newspaper was publishing "Eine Empfindsame Reise in einem Automobile."[87]

Musus 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; aclue 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, apart 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 Thmmel in his famous "Reise in die mittglichen 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, "Lebenslufe nach aufsteigender Linie" and "Kreuz und Querzge 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. Astudy of Hippel's "Lebenslufe" 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 schnen Wissenschaften[91] as a fruitful topic for investigation. Adetailed, minute study of von Thmmel, 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 schnen 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 (page2) 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. 113ff.]

[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 fr 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, Gttingen, 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 (Musus) 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. Asentimental 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 Gschen.]

[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 Thmmel's first servant bears the name Johann.]

[Footnote 48: "Charis oder ber das Schne und die Schnheit in den bildenden Knsten" 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"—abook evidently called into being by a translation of selections from "Les Lunes du Cousin Jacques." Jnger 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 Musus 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," Gttinger 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 Zckert'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., July1, 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. 168f. and V, pp. 94f.]

[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. 524ff., 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. Vand VI, 1780; Vols. Iand II were published in a new edition in 1778, and Vol. III in 1780 (athird 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. Iis 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. (Zrich, 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 Grfin 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 hrneren Dose des gesunden Menschenverstandes," aseries of letters of advice from father to son. Aplay 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, astudy of "Sterne, Hippel and Jean Paul," by J.Czerny (1904). Ihave not yet had an opportunity to examineit.]



CHAPTER VII

OPPOSITION TO STERNE AND HIS TYPE OF SENTIMENTALISM

Sterne's influence in Germany lived its own life, and gradually and imperceptibly died out of letters, as an actuating principle. Yet its dominion was not achieved without some measure of opposition. The sweeping condemnation which the soberer critics heaped upon the incapacities of his imitators has been exemplified in the accounts already given of Schummel, Bock and others. It would be interesting to follow a little more closely this current of antagonism. The tone of protest was largely directed, the edge of satire was chiefly whetted, against the misunderstanding adaptation of Yorick's ways of thinking and writing, and only here and there were voices raised to detract in any way from the genius of Sterne. He never suffered in Germany such an eclipse of fame as was his fate in England. He was to the end of the chapter a recognized prophet, an uplifter and leader. The far-seeing, clear-minded critics, as Lessing, Goethe and Herder, expressed themselves quite unequivocally in this regard, and there was later no withdrawal of former appreciation. Indeed, Goethe's significant words already quoted came from the last years of his life, when the new century had learned to smile almost incredulously at the relation of a bygone folly.

In the very heyday of Sterne's popularity, 1772, acritic of Wieland's "Diogenes" in the Auserlesene Bibliothek der neuesten deutschen Litteratur[1] bewails Wieland's imitation of Yorick, whom the critic deems a far inferior writer, "Sterne, whose works will disappear, while Wieland's masterpieces are still the pleasure of latest posterity." This review of "Diogenes" is, perhaps, rather more an exaggerated compliment to Wieland than a studied blow at Sterne, and this thought is recognized by the reviewer in the Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen,[2] who designates the compliment as "dubious" and "insulting," especially in view of Wieland's own personal esteem for Sterne. Yet these words, even as a relative depreciation of Sterne during the period of his most universal popularity, are not insignificant. Heinrich Leopold Wagner, atutor at Saarbrcken, in 1770, records that one member of a reading club which he had founded "regarded his taste as insulted because I sent him "Yorick's Empfindsame Reise."[3] But Wagner regarded this instance as a proof of Saarbrcken ignorance, stupidity and lack of taste; hence the incident is but a wavering testimony when one seeks to determine the amount and nature of opposition to Yorick.

We find another derogatory fling at Sterne himself and a regret at the extent of his influence in an anonymous book entitled "Betrachtungen ber die englischen Dichter,"[4] published at the end of the great Yorick decade. The author compares Sterne most unfavorably with Addison: "If the humor of the Spectator and Tatler be set off against the digressive whimsicality of Sterne," he says, "it is, as if one of the Graces stood beside a Bacchante. And yet the pampered taste of the present day takes more pleasure in a Yorick than in an Addison." But a reviewer in the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek[5] discounts this author's criticisms of men of established fame, such as Shakespeare, Swift, Yorick, and suggests youth, or brief acquaintance with English literature, as occasion for his inadequate judgments. Indeed, Yorick disciples were quick to resent any shadow cast upon his name. Thus the remark in a letter printed in the Deutsches Museum that Asmus was the German Yorick "only a better moral character," called forth a long article in the same periodical for September, 1779, by L.H. N.,[6] vigorously defending Sterne as a man and a writer. The greatness of his human heart and the breadth and depth of his sympathies are given as the unanswerable proofs of his moral worth. This defense is vehemently seconded in the same magazine by Joseph von Retzer.

The one great opponent of the whole sentimental tendency, whose censure of Sterne's disciples involved also a denunciation of the master himself, was the Gttingen professor, Georg Christopher Lichtenberg.[7] In his inner nature Lichtenberg had much in common with Sterne and Sterne's imitators in Germany, with the whole ecstatic, eccentric movement of the time. Julian Schmidt[8] says: "So much is sure, at any rate, that the greatest adversary of the new literature was of one flesh and blood with it."[9] But his period of residence in England shortly after Sterne's death and his association then and afterwards with Englishmen of eminence render his attitude toward Sterne in large measure an English one, and make an idealization either of the man or of his work impossible for him.

The contradiction between the greatness of heart evinced in Sterne's novels and the narrow selfishness of the author himself is repeatedly noted by Lichtenberg. His knowledge of Sterne's character was derived from acquaintance with many of Yorick's intimate friends in London. In "Beobachtungen ber den Menschen," he says: "Ican't help smiling when the good souls who read Sterne with tears of rapture in their eyes fancy that he is mirroring himself in his book. Sterne's simplicity, his warm heart, over-flowing with feeling, his soul, sympathizing with everything good and noble, and all the other expressions, whatever they may be; and the sigh 'Alas, poor Yorick,' which expresses everything at once—have become proverbial among us Germans.... Yorick was a crawling parasite, aflatterer of the great, an unendurable burr on the clothing of those upon whom he had determined to sponge!"[10]

In "Timorus" he calls Sterne "ein scandalum Ecclesiae";[11] he doubts the reality of Sterne's nobler emotions and condemns him as a clever juggler with words, who by artful manipulation of certain devices aroused in us sympathy, and he snatches away the mask of loving, hearty sympathy and discloses the grinning mountebank. With keen insight into Sterne's mind and method, he lays down a law by which, he says, it is always possible to discover whether the author of a touching passage has really been moved himself, or has merely with astute knowledge of the human heart drawn our tears by a sly choice of touching features.[12]

Akin to this is the following passage in which the author is unquestionably thinking of Sterne, although he does not mention him: "Aheart ever full of kindly feeling is the greatest gift which Heaven can bestow; on the other hand, the itching to keep scribbling about it, and to fancy oneself great in this scribbling is one of the greatest punishments which can be inflicted upon one who writes."[13] He exposes the heartlessness of Sterne's pretended sympathy: "Athree groschen piece is ever better than a tear,"[14] and "sympathy is a poor kind of alms-giving,"[15] are obviously thoughts suggested by Yorick's sentimentalism.[16]

The folly of the "Lorenzodosen" is several times mentioned with open or covert ridicule[17] and the imitators of Sterne are repeatedly told the fruitlessness of their endeavor and the absurdity of their accomplishment.[18] His "Vorschlag zu einem Orbis Pictus fr deutsche dramatische Schriftsteller, Romanendichter und Schauspieler"[19] is a satire on the lack of originality among those who boasted of it, and sought to win attention through pure eccentricities.

The Fragments[20] are concerned, as the editors say, with an evil of the literature in those days, the period of the Sentimentalists and the "Kraftgenies." Among the seven fragments may be noted: "Lorenzo Eschenheimers empfindsame Reise nach Laputa," aclever satirical sketch in the manner of Swift, bitterly castigating that of which the English people claim to be the discoverers (sentimental journeying) and the Germans think themselves the improvers. In "Bittschrift der Wahnsinnigen" and "Parakletor" the unwholesome literary tendencies of the age are further satirized. His brief essay, "Ueber die Vornamen,"[21] is confessedly suggested by Sterne and the sketch "Dass du auf dem Blockberg wrst,"[22] with its mention of the green book entitled "Echte deutsche Flche und Verwnschungen fr alle Stnde," is manifestly to be connected in its genesis with Sterne's famous collection of oaths.[23] Lichtenberg's comparison of Sterne and Fielding is familiar and significant.[24] "Aus Lichtenbergs Nachlass: Aufstze, Gedichte, Tagebuchbltter, Briefe," edited by Albert Leitzmann,[25] contains additional mention of Sterne.

The name of Helfreich Peter Sturz may well be coupled with that of Lichtenberg, as an opponent of the Sterne cult and its German distortions, for his information and point of view were likewise drawn direct from English sources. Sturz accompanied King Christian VII of Denmark on his journey to France and England, which lasted from May 6, 1768, to January 14, 1769[26]; hence his stay in England falls in a time but a few months after Sterne's death (March 18, 1768), when the ungrateful metropolis was yet redolent of the late lion's wit and humor. Sturz was an accomplished linguist and a complete master of English, hence found it easy to associate with Englishmen of distinction whom he was privileged to meet through the favor of his royal patron. He became acquainted with Garrick, who was one of Sterne's intimate friends, and from him Sturz learned much of Yorick, especially that more wholesome revulsion of feeling against Sterne's obscenities and looseness of speech, which set in on English soil as soon as the potent personality of the author himself had ceased to compel silence and blind opinion. England began to wonder at its own infatuation, and, gaining perspective, to view the writings of Sterne in a more rational light. Into the first spread of this reaction Sturz was introduced, and the estimate of Sterne which he carried away with him was undoubtedly colored by it. In his second letter written to the Deutsches Museum and dated August 24, 1768, but strangely not printed till April, 1777,[27] he quotes Garrick with reference to Sterne, anotable word of personal censure, coming in the Germany of that decade, when Yorick's admirers were most vehement in their claims. Garrick called him "alewd companion, who was more loose in his intercourse than in his writings and generally drove all ladies away by his obscenities."[28] Sturz adds that all his acquaintances asserted that Sterne's moral character went through a process of disintegration in London.

In the Deutsches Museum for July, 1776, Sturz printed a poem entitled "Die Mode," in which he treats of the slavery of fashion and in several stanzas deprecates the influence of Yorick.[29]

"Und so schwingt sich, zum Genie erklrt, Strephon khn auf Yorick's Steckenpferd. Trabt mandrisch ber Berg und Auen, Reist empfindsam durch sein Dorfgebiet, Oder singt die Jugend zu erbauen Ganz Gefhl dem Gartengott ein Lied. Gott der Grten, sthnt die Brgerin, Lchle gtig, Rasen und Schasmin Haucht Gerche! Fliehet Handlungssorgen, Dass mein Liebster heute noch in Ruh Sein Mark-Einsaz-Lomber spiele—Morgen, Schliessen wir die Unglcksbude zu!"

A passage at the end of the appendix to the twelfth Reisebrief is further indication of his opposition to and his contempt for the frenzy of German sentimentalism.

The poems of Goeckingk contain allusions[30] to Sterne, to be sure partly indistinctive and insignificant, which, however, tend in the main to a ridicule of the Yorick cult and place their author ultimately among the satirical opponents of sentimentalism. In the "Epistel an Goldhagen in Petershage," 1771, he writes:

"Doch geb ich wohl zu berlegen, Was fr den Weisen besser sey: Die Welt wie Yorick mit zu nehmen? Nach Knigen, wie Diogen, Sich keinen Fuss breit zu bequemen,"—

a query which suggests the hesitant point of view relative to the advantage of Yorick's excess of universal sympathy. In "Will auch 'n Genie werden" the poet steps out more unmistakably as an adversary of the movement and as a skeptical observer of the exercise of Yorick-like sympathy.

"Doch, ich Patronus, merkt das wohl, Geh, im zerrissnen Kittel, Hab' aber alle Taschen voll Yorickischer Capittel. Doch lass' ich, wenn mir's Kurzweil schafft, Die Hlfe fleh'nden Armen Durch meinen Schweitzer, Peter Kraft, Zerprgeln ohn' Erbarmen."

Goeckingk openly satirizes the sentimental cult in the poem "Der Empfindsame"

"Herr Mops, der um das dritte Wort Empfindsamkeit im Munde fhret, Und wenn ein Grashalm ihm verdorrt, Gleich einen Thrnenstrom verlieret— . . . . . . . . Mit meinem Weibchen thut er schier Gleich so bekannt wie ein Franzose; All' Augenblicke bot er ihr Toback aus eines Bettlers Dose Mit dem, am Zaun in tiefem Schlaf Er einen Tausch wie Yorik traf. Der Unempfindsamkeit zum Hohn Hielt er auf eine Mck' im Glase Beweglich einen Leichsermon, Purrt' eine Flieg' ihm an der Nase, Macht' er das Fenster auf, und sprach: Zieh Oheim Toby's Fliege nach! Durch Mops ist warlich meine Magd Nicht mehr bey Trost, nicht mehr bey Sinnen So sehr hat ihr sein Lob behagt, Dass sie empfindsam allen Spinnen Zu meinem Hause, frank und frey Verstattet ihre Weberey. Er trat mein Hndchen auf das Bein, Hilf Himmel! Welch' ein Lamentiren! Es htte mgen einen Stein Der Strasse zum Erbarmen rhren, Auch wedelt' ihm in einem Nu Das Hndgen schon Vergebung zu. Ach! Hndchen, du beschmst mich sehr, Denn dass mir Mops von meinem Leben Drey Stunden stahl, wie schwer, wie schwer, Wird's halten, das ihm zu vergeben? Denn Spinnen werden oben ein Wohl gar noch meine Mrder seyn."