Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry | Page 5

Aufsätze zur Geschichte des geistigen
Lebens in Deutschland und Oesterreich," Berlin, 1874, p. 413.]
[Footnote 5: Act 5, Sc. 2.]
[Footnote 6: "Goethes Werke," Weimar ed. Vol. 28, p. 227 f.]
[Footnote 7: _Ibid._, p. 216 f.]
[Footnote 8: In view of Goethe's own words, then, the caution of a
recent critic (Felix Melchior in _Litt. Forsch._ XXVII Heft, Berlin,
1903) against applying the term Weltschmerz to "Werther," would
seem to miss the mark entirely. Werther is a type, just as truly as is
Faust, though in a smaller way, and the malady which he typifies has
its ultimate origin in the development of public life,--the very condition
which this critic insists upon as a mark of Weltschmerz in the proper

application of the term.]
[Footnote 9: "Historische und politische Aufsätze," Leipzig, 1897. Vol.
4.]
[Footnote 10: As early as 1797 Hölderlin's Hyperion laments: "Mein
Geschäft auf Erden ist aus. Ich bin voll Willens an die Arbeit gegangen,
habe geblutet darüber, und die Welt um keinen Pfennig reicher
gemacht." ("Hölderlin's gesammelte Dichtungen, herausgegeben von B.
Litzmann," Stuttgart, Cotta, undated. Vol. II, p. 68.) Several decades
later Heine writes: "Ich kann mich über die Siege meiner liebsten
Ueberzeugungen nicht recht freuen, da sie mir gar zu viel gekostet
haben. Dasselbe mag bei manchem ehrlichen Manne der Fall sein, und
es trägt viel bei zu der grossen düsteren Verstimmung der Gegenwart."
(Brief vom 21 April, 1851, an Gustav Kolb; Werke, Karpeles ed. Vol.
IX, p. 378.)]
[Footnote 11: "Confession d'un enfant du siècle." Oeuvres compl. Paris,
1888 (Charpentier). Vol. VIII, p. 24.]
CHAPTER II
=Hölderlin=
A case such as that of Hölderlin, subject as he was from the time of his
boyhood to melancholy, and ending in hopeless insanity, at once
suggests the question of heredity. Little or nothing is known concerning
his remote ancestors. His great-grandfather had been administrator of a
convent at Grossbottwar, and died of dropsy of the chest at the age of
forty-seven. His grandfather had held a similar position as
"Klosterhofmeister und geistlicher Verwalter" at Lauffen, to which his
son, the poet's father, succeeded. An apoplectic stroke ended his life at
the early age of thirty-six. In regard to Hölderlin's maternal ancestors,
our information is even more scant, though we know that both his
grandmother and his mother lived to a ripe old age. From the poet's
references to them we judge them to have been entirely normal types of
intelligent, lovable women, gifted with a great deal of good practical
sense. The only striking thing is the premature death of Hölderlin's

great-grandfather and father. But in view of the nature of their stations
in life, in which they may fairly be supposed to have led more than
ordinarily sober and well-ordered lives, there seems to be no ground
whatever for assuming that Hölderlin's Weltschmerz owed its inception
in any degree to hereditary tendencies, notwithstanding Hermann
Fischer's opinion to the contrary.[12] There is no sufficient reason to
assume "erbliche Belastung," and there are other sufficient causes
without merely guessing at such a possibility.
But while there are no sufficient historical grounds for the supposition
that he brought the germ of his subsequent mental disease with him in
his birth, we cannot fail to observe, even in the child, certain natural
traits, which, being allowed to develop unchecked, must of necessity
hasten and intensify the gloom which hung over his life. To his deep
thoughtfulness was added an abnormal sensitiveness to all external
influences. Like the delicate anemone, he recoiled and withdrew within
himself when touched by the rougher material things of life.[13] He
himself poetically describes his absentmindedness when a boy, and
calls himself "ein Träumer"; and a dreamer he remained all his life. It
seems to have been this which first brought him into discord with the
world:
Oft sollt' ich stracks in meine Schule wandern, Doch ehe sich der
Träumer es versah, So hatt' er in den Garten sich verirrt, Und sass
behaglich unter den Oliven, Und baute Flotten, schifft' ins hohe Meer.
* * * * *
Dies kostete mich tausend kleine Leiden, Verzeihlich war es immer,
wenn mich oft Die Klügeren, mit herzlichem Gelächter Aus meiner
seligen Ekstase schreckten, Doch unaussprechlich wehe that es mir.[14]
If ever a boy needed a strong fatherly hand to guide him, to teach him
self-reliance and practical sense, it was this dreamy, tender-spirited
child.[15] The love and sympathy which his mother bestowed upon
him was not calculated to fit him for the rugged experiences of life, and
while probably natural and pardonable, it was nevertheless extremely
unfortunate that the boy was unconsciously encouraged to be and to

remain a "Muttersöhnchen." But even with his peculiar trend of
disposition, the result might not have been an unhappy one, had the
course of his life not brought him more than an ordinary