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CHAPTER I
VARIOUS ESTIMATES OF POE'S INDEBTEDNESS TO GERMAN LITERATURE
Poe's critics have from the very first connected his name and work with German romanticism. As early as 1833 he published in the March number of the Southern Literary Messenger his tale Berenice, and the editor of the magazine found it expedient to introduce it to his readers with the following note: “Whilst we confess we think there is too much German horror in his subject, there can be but one opinion as to his force and style.” And from that time on critics of Poe have generally assumed a German influence in his tales. Some indeed have contested it. Poe himself was entirely conscious of this attitude on the part of his critics, and he has expressed himself on the subject as follows:
I am led to think that it is the prevalence of the Arabesque in my serious tales which has induced one or two of my critics to tax me, in all friendliness, with what they have been pleased to call Germanism and gloom. The charge is in bad taste and the grounds of the accusation have not been sufficiently considered. Let us admit for the moment that the “phantasy pieces” now given are Germanic or what not. But the truth is that with a single exception there is no one of the stories in which the scholar should recognize the distinctive features of that .species of pseudo-horror which we are taught to call Germanic for no better reason than that some of the secondary names of German literature have become identified with its folly. If in many of my productions terror has been the thesis, I maintain that terror is not of Germany, but of the soul.(1) [page 5:]
This utterance of Poe has been used as evidence by the few critics who deny the German influence in his works. In so doing they have overlooked the fact that Poe does not deny in general terms the influence of German romanticism in his tales. The statement is that, as far as terror has been the thesis of his tales, this terror was of his own soul and not of Germany. That is without doubt true. Of motives and technique of the German romanticists there is no word of denial. A few of the critics have also made that distinction.
The first American biographer of Poe, Griswold, has too much to do in his slanderous investigations of Poe's supposed debauches to treat of literary influences. There is no mention of German influence. Stedman discusses the subject briefly but does not find in Poe's work anything suggestive of far reaching German influence. Later, however, he seems to have changed his mind. In his introduction to the edition of Poe of 1895, he says: “Nevertheless, there is a pseudo-horror to be found in certain of his pieces, and enough of Hoffmann's method to suggest that the brilliant author of the Phantasie Stücke, (Hoffmann) whether a secondary name or not, was one of Poe's early teachers.”
Again, on page 96: “Still, while Hoffmann was wholly of the fatherland, and Poe a misfitted American, if the one had died before the other, instead of thirteen years later, there would be a chance for a pretty fancy in behalf of the doctrine of metempsychosis, which both writers utilized.” Stedman concludes that Hoffmann's influence is undeniable.
The next American biographer, Prof. Woodberry, is entirely against German influence, while the last biography, that of Prof. Harrison in the preface to his edition of Poe, makes no direct reference to E. T. A. Hoffmann. He declares, however,(2) that Poe was “saturated with the doctrines of Schelling,” and speaks also of “Novalis and Schelling, his masters across the German Sea.” Mention is also made of the translations of Tieck, de la Motte-Fouqué, Chamisso, the [page 6:] Schlegels, Schiller, Heine, Uhland, — “opening up a wonder-world of picturesque Germanism.”
Aside from the biographies of Poe, the subject is discussed in a brief article by Prof. Gruener in the Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, March, 1904. The article is entitled, Notes on the influence of E. T. A. Hofmann on Edgar Allan Poe. The author states that it is not his purpose to go deeply into the matter, and sums up his results as follows.
First, “Poe acknowledges the kinship of his tales to those of Hoffmann, when he calls them ‘phantasy pieces.’ “Gruener is of the opinion that Poe saw this term in Carlyle's discussion of Hoffmann in his German Romance, and that the American author appropriated thence the title which he applies to his tales. In a letter to his friend, Prof. Anthon,(3) Poe writes: “My tales, a great number of which might be called phantasy pieces, are in number sixty-six.”
Secondly, Gruener believes that Poe took from Hoffmann his idea of the Folio Club, imitating the German author's Serapionsbrüder. Poe gave to his first collection of tales the title Tales of the Folio Club. They were submitted to the Baltimore Visitor [[Baltimore Saturday Visiter]], October, 1833, for a prize contest. He introduces them as follows: “I find upon reference to the records that the Folio Club was organized as such on the —— day ——— in the year ——. I like to begin with the beginning, and have a partiality for dates.” The members were to be witty and erudite. The purpose of the club was the “instruction of society and the amusement of themselves.” It was also resolved that some member should compose and read at each meeting a prose tale. The meetings were to be held at the homes of the members, and provision was made also for eatables and drinkables. The constitution of the Serapionsbrüder is strikingly similar.(4)
We read: [page 7:]
Und hiermit erklare ich die Praliminarien unsers neuen Bundes feierlichst für abgeschlossen, und setze fest, dass wir uns jede Woche an einem bestimmten Tage zusammen finden wollen, u.s.w.
“Herrlicher Einfall,” rief Lothar, “füge doch noch sog-leich, lieber Ottmar, gewisse Gesetze hinzu, die bei unsern bestimmten wöchentlichen Zusammenkünften stattfinden sollen. Z. B. dass fiber dieses oder jenes gesprochen oder nicht gesprochen werden darf, oder dass jeder gehalten sein soil, dreimal witzig zu sein, oder dass wir ganz gewiss jedesmal Sardellen-Salat essen wollen,” u.s.w.
Again, page 55:
Es kann nicht fehlen dass wir. einer dem andern, nach alter Weise, manches poetische Produktlein, das wir unter dem Herzen getragen, mitteilen werden.
Thirdly, Gruener believes that Poe hit upon his title for his second collection of Tales, Tales of the Grotesque und [[and]] Arabesque, through Hoffmann. In support of this theory, an article by Walter Scott in the Foreign Quarterly Review for July, 1827, is quoted. Poe, in one of his letters, quotes this very magazine(5) and he must have been attracted by this article of Scott's, which deals with German Romance. Scott speaks of the “fantastic mode of writing” and cites Hoffmann as the pioneer in this field: “He (Hoffmann) was the inventor, or at least the first distinguished artist, who exhibited the fantastic or supernatural grotesque in his compositions, so nearly on the verge of insanity as to be afraid of the beings his own fancy created. In fact, the Grotesque in his compositions partly resembles the Arabesque in painting.” Gruener concludes that Poe must have noticed this passage, “particularly as Scott proceeds to charge Hoffmann with just those things with which Poe was charged in his lifetime,” It is worthy of note also that the introduction to Poe's Tales of the Folio Club was first published in Harrison's edition. Poe [page 8:] probably thought the resemblance to the Serapionsbrüder too striking.
Gruener discusses the passage in Stedman's biography of Poe which connects the latter's Fall of the House of Usher with Hoffmann's Das Majorat. The passage reads as follows:(6)
A reader finds certain properties of the “House of Usher” and Metzengerstein in Das Majorat in the ancestral castle of a noble family, in a wild and remote estate near the Baltic Sea — the interior, where the moon shines through oriel windows upon tapestry and carven furniture and wainscoting, — the uncanny scratchings upon a bricked-up door, — the old Freiherr foreseeing the hour of his death, the ominous conflagration, — the turret falling of its own decay into a chasm at its base, — etc.
Gruener notes relative to this passage:
These “properties” here enumerated are the very features which Scott, in his article on Hoffmann lays stress upon in the analysis of Das Majorat. In his own words he describes the castle and its inhabitants, quotes in translation the scene in the large hall at night with moonlight streaming “through the broad transom windows” into the hall in which the “walls and roof were ornamented — the former with heavy paneling, the latter with fantastic carving;” and also quotes the conclusion of the story. He notes that the Baron's name was Roderick; and that the lady is “young, beautiful, nervous, and full of sensibility.” The most striking feature of the whole, however, is Scott's description of the castle itself, culled from various parts of Hoffmann's story: “It was a huge pile overhanging the Baltic sea, silent, dismal, almost uninhabited, and surrounded, instead of gardens and pleasure grounds, by forests and black pines and firs which [page 9:] came up to the walls. Part of the castle was in ruins; and by its fall made a deck chasm, which extended from Me highest turret down to the dungeon of the castle. Compare with this picture the description of the House of Usher, and note the close resemblance, chiefly, of the chasm from “the highest turret down to the dungeon” with that “barely perceptible fissure which, extending from the roof in the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zig-zag direction until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.”
In addition, other features of the life and incidents at the Entailed Castle agree most strikingly with those at the Castle of Metzengerstein as described by Poe. If Poe needed and got any outside suggestion for those two stories, he found them here in condensed form. There is a great temptation in hounding similarities to death, but it does not seem like forcing things too much to see in Scott's essay On the Supernatural the first germs of Poe's two stories, and to hold that these analogies confirm the conjecture that Poe saw this review and drew from it.
Gruener's generalizations are obvious. Nor does it seem like forcing things too much to suppose that Poe's interest in Hoffmann was greatly aroused by this article and that his acquaintance with the German author's work is to be dated from this time.
Gruener very rightly connects Poe's Fall of the House of Usher with this article of Scott rather than with a first hand reading of Das Majorat. The analogies do not extend further than Gruener traces them.
As to the resemblances between Metzengerstein and Das Majorat, they hardly justify a minute analysis. The two stories are constructed out of the same general romantic material, but a consecutive thread of resemblance is lacking. There is in both stories the dismal uninhabited castle tenanted by an eccentric hero, the last of his noble race. But the analogy hardly goes further. Poe's story has for its [page 10:] basis what purports to be a Hungarian legend dealing with his favorite doctrine of metempsychosis, and combined with this a feud between two noble Hungarian families, all of which is lacking in Hoffmann's tale.
A tolerably accurate statement of the case would seem to be that Poe, having read Scott's article, used certain general elements of the German's story in his House of Usher, and possibly also in Metzengerstein, which elements seem to have been gathered from the review rather than from a first hand reading of the German story. As a result of the interest aroused by this review a closer acquaintance with Hoffmann's work followed. In other stories more striking and more significant resemblances are to be discovered.
Lastly, Gruener calls attention to a certain peculiarity of style common to Poe and Hoffmann. This belongs to a discussion of the language. Gruener believes also that it “can be proved that Poe knew German.”
In an article in the Anglia(7) Prof. Belden utters also an opinion in the matter. The purpose of the article, as the author expresses it, is to “establish Poe's sincerity as a critic, with reference to a certain criticism which Poe made of Hawthorne, to the effect that the latter was strongly influenced by Tieck.” The article discusses the justice or injustice of Poe's criticism, and the author notes also in passing: “It has been held by some that his (Poe's) Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque get their peculiar title, if nothing else, from the Arabesken of the German Romanticists, and the House of Usher has been likened to Hoffmann's Das Majorat.”
English and foreign criticism has been almost unanimous in deciding that Poe was indebted to Hoffmann and other romanticists for material and for a standard of technique in the tale. Stoddard, in the preface to his edition of 1884, remarks: “If Hawthorne's master was Tieck, as Poe declared, the master of Poe, so far as he had one, was Hoffmann.” Ingram in his biography makes no mention of the subject. [page 11:]
A French critic(8) takes account of Poe's denial of German horror in his work as follows: “La critique américaine lui (Poe) reprochait d’avoir emprunté aux romantiques allemands le goût des histoires lugubres.” Barine then quotes the passage from Poe which has already been given, and adds:
Il disait vrai — La science extraordinaire de la peur, à tous les degrés et dans toutes ses variétés, n’avait été emprunté à personne. Poe n’en avait pas eu besoin. Il n’avait eu, comme it le dit, qu’à regarder dans son âme.
In another place Barine says:
Edgar Poe conteur procède à la fois de Coleridge et des romantiques allemands, de Coleridge pour les idées générales, des romantiques allemands pour la technique. Il possédait son Hoffmann sur le bout du doigt. Non con-tentde lui emprunter son genre, it avait appris à son école à donner de la realité, par la précision et la variété du detail, aux fantasies les plus extravagantes.
Barine's criticism is important in that he makes the distinction between the terror which prevails in Poe's tales, and their motive and technique. In the first passage he justifies Poe's own statement with reference to the Germanic or non-Germanic character of the horror which is to be found in his tales. In the second passage he does justice to the German influence in general and to Hoffmann in particular. And this is the distinction which one may well hold in mind in a survey of Poe's works. Whatever of terror he has, he may easily have created out of his own fancy. But that in no wise precludes indebtedness to Hoffmann and others for material and method. It is interesting to note the standpoint from which Barine writes. He discusses his subjects in four chapters: Hoffmann — Le vin, Quincy — L’opium, Edgar Poe — L’alcool, and Gerard de Nerval — La Folie.
German criticism has little to say on the subject, but the few references we find assume, with one exception, an influence [page 12:] from Hoffmann and the other romanticists. The exception is an article by Van Vleuten on Poe.(9) The author ascribes the whole of Poe's creative work to the inspiration of alcoholic delirium or epilepsy, a view which no one thoroughly conversant with Poe's works, or with modern criticism of the poet, could possibly hold. Van Vleuten remarks also:
Man begnügte sich viel mehr meist damit, die Eigenart der Novellen Poe's dadurch zu erklären, dass man seine tiefgehende Beeinflussung durch E. T. A. Hoffmann, überbaupt durch die deutschen Romantiker annahm. Das war sehr oberflachlich; mann kann sogar sagen: Es war falsch.” . ...
Again:
Unhaltbar ist die Annahme, Poe sei von E. Th. A. Hoffmann entscheidend beeinflusst worden. Hoffmann war kein Epileptiker, also auch kein Dipsomane. Was er (Hoffmann) am Schauerlichen und Unheimlichen bietet, stammt von den Romantikern, aus alten Zauberstücken und Mystikern: Gespenster, vergrabene Schatze, Doppelgänger, dazu eine Prise Mes-mer, u.s.w.
The reader who is even superficially acquainted with Poe will at once observe that this list of motives which Van Vleuten has established as characteristic for Hoffmann recurs without exception, again and again, in Poe's tales.
A “Schul-programm”(10) of Freiberg, 1895, gives a short account of Poe's life and works. “Er (Poe) erinnert viel an E. Th. A. Hoffmann, dem er viele Anregung verdankte, sowie Tieck und Novalis.” Wherever Hoffmann is discussed, the writer usually thinks involuntarily of Poe.
Havemann(11) denies the assertion of Ellinger (Hoffmann's last biographer) that the spectral and the ghostly no longer [page 13:] have the power to charm us. “Ich habe noch nie gehört, dass jemand E. A. Poe gelesen und die Achseln gezuckt hätte.”
Wiegler(12) commenting on the Moeller-Bruck edition of Poe, remarks:
Wonnig überrascht werden die Liebhaber des Dichters Poe jetzt erwägen können, wie er mit allerfeinster Kunst der Romantik verbunden ist. Von den deutschen Hymnen des Novalis hat er das Visionäre, von Tieck dessen Raise ins Blaue er citert, den märchenhaften Einschlag, den Begriff, dass es am Rheine alte, verfallene, schicksalsvolle Städte gebe, mit E. T. A. Hoffmann gemeinsam das Doppelgängermötiv, das er für die Beichte des Wm. Wilson verwandte . ... Er hat einsame Schlosser, nach romantischer Weise irgendwo in den Appeninen mit alten Gemäldegallerien, finstere englische Abteien, oder Hintergründe von so magischem Entsetzen wie sein House of Usher, das hinter steifen Binsen und weisslich phosphoreszierenden Stämmen aus den bleifarbenen Gasen des finsteren Teiches sich thebt, von Pilzen überwuchert, mit Höhlen, die wie erloschene Augen stieren. Er versetzt seine Personem, ihre Nöte und Verzweifelungen, in hohe Turmgemächer, die er in dekorativer Wahllosigkeit mit Kandelabern, schwarzen Eichenholzdecken, schwarzen Sammetgardinen, veränderlichen Tapisserien, geschnitzten indischen Betten, darüber wie ein Leichentuch der Baldachin, dunklen Venetianer Scheiben, sarazenischen Skulpturen, und sogar in den Ecken, mit Sarcophagen aus Königsgräbern ausstattet.
A very striking resumé of the romantic setting of some of Poe's tales.
C. P. Evans, in a short article on Poe, says:(13)
Poe litt an einer hochgradigen Plagiatenentdeckungssucht, die mit der Zeit immer schlimmer wurde und sich am Ende zu einer unheilbaren Monomanie [page 14:] steigerte ... Um gleiches mit gleichem zu vergelten haben einige Critiker den krankhaften und unwiderstehlichen Hang zum literarischen Diebstahl, den Poe eifrig bestrebt war bei Longfellow nachzuweisen,(14) in noch hoherem Grad bei ihm entdecken wollen.
Moeller-Bruck remarks in this connection (15)
Poe ist ja aberhaupt einseitig, und man muss immer, wenn man an ihn denkt oder von ihm spricht, festhalten, dass der Grundton seines Lebens und Schaffens der Romantiker ist, und dass er nur ein Echo im Amerikanischen hat . ... Seine amerikanischen Zeitgenossen, Longfellow, u.s.w., den Hawthorne vielleicht ausgenommen, waren im Grunde ihres Wesens rein englische Dichter; und die dann kamen, Thoreau und vor allen Walt Whitman waren, was Poe nicht war, rein amerikanisch; während die deutschen Romantiker, auf die man sich bei Poe so gent bezieht, doch sozusagen Romantiker im eigenen Lande, Romantiker im Romantischen Lande sein durften.
L. P. Betz expresses the following opinion:(16)
Weitaus am wichtigsten aber sind Poe's litterarische Beziehungen zu unserem Amadeus Hoffman. Stofflich und technisch dankt der Erzahler Poe, der Autor der Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, dem phantasie-reichen und phantastischen deutschen Dichter zweifellos vieles. Darauf deuten schon einige direkte Entlehnungen hin.
He speaks of Poe also as an “Anglo-Germane.”
The quotations cited have been chosen with the view of setting forth the gist of American, French, English, and German criticism with respect to Poe's relationship to German literature.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 4:]
1. Harrison, The Complete Works of E. A. Poe. New York, 1902. Vol. 17, p. 47.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 5:]
2. Harrison, Vol. 1, p. 153, 4.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 6:]
3. Harrison, Vol. 17. p. 179.
4. Griesebach, E. T. A. Hoffmans Sämtliche Werke. Leipzig, 1906. Vol. 7, p. 11.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 7:]
5. Harrison. Vol. 17, page 161.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 8:]
6. Woodbery-Stedman Edition, The Works of E. A. Poe. Chicago, 1896. Vol. I, page 97.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 10:]
7. Vol. 23, page 376.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 11:]
8. Barine, Nevrosés. Paris, 1893. p. 209.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 11:]
9. Von Vleuten, Berliner Zukunft. XI Jahrgang. No. 44.
10. Gruendel, E. A. Poe. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntniss und Würdigung des Dichters. Schul-program, Freiberg, 1895.
11. Havemann, Deutsche Heimat, 1902. Heft. 3.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 13:]
12. Berliner Tag, 1901. No. 309.
13. Münchener Allg. Zeitung. 1899. No. 229.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 15:]
14. Westermanns Monatehefte, Oct. 1882, Jan., Feb., 1883.
15. Vol. I, page 127.
16. Edgar Poe in der Französischen Literatur. Frankfurt a.M., 1893.
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Notes:
None.
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[S:0 - PCETA, 1908] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - The Influence of E. T. A. Hoffman on the Tales of Edgar Allan Poe (Jacobs)