Allen Wilson Porterfield

“ It is Otto, however, who wins Felicitas through his chivalric treatment of his rival. The two are married, while Siegenot rides away on the great white horse Bellerophon.
It is such creations that make us turn away from Loeben. Alas for German romanticism if this story were wholly typical of it! It contains the traditional conceits of the orthodox romanticists, but applied in such a sweet, lovely, pretty fashion! One woman is placed between two men, for in that way Loeben could best bring out his philosophy of friendship. ”

“ Imaginative as Brentano was, he rarely rose to such heights as in this and the next, "Märchen vom Murmelthier," [94] in which Frau Lureley continues her great work of love and kindness. She rights all wrongs, rewards the just, corrects the unjust, and leads a most remarkable life whether among the poor on land or in her element in the water. All of which is poles removed from Loeben's saga, though he knew these Märchen, [95] for they were written when Brentano was his intimate friend. ”

“ And for the perpetuation of this one, students of German literature have, it seems, given the obscure Graf von Loeben entirely too much credit. But who will give the oft-scolded Clemens Brentano too little credit? Only those who dislike romanticism on general principles and who will not be convinced that the romanticists could be original. ”

“ And when he is original he is vacuous. To emphasize his works for their own sake would consequently be to set up false values. Loeben can be studied with profit only by those people who believe that great poets can be better understood and appreciated by a study of the literary than by a study of the economic background. To know Loeben [28] throws light on some of his much greater contemporaries—Goethe, Eichendorff, Kleist, Novalis, Arnim, Brentano, Uhland, Görres, Tieck, and possibly Heine. ”

“ Heine was not jesting when he said it was a fairy tale from the days of old; he was following, it seems, Schreiber's saga, the first sentence of which reads as follows: "In alten Zeiten liess sich manchmal auf dem Lureloy um die Abenddämmerung und beym Mondschein eine Jungfrau sehen, die mit so anmuthiger Stimme sang, dass alle, die es hörten, davon bezaubert wurden." But Brentano's Lorelei does not sing at all, and Loeben's just a little, "Sie singt dir hold zum Ohre," while Heine, like Schreiber, puts his heroine in the prima donna class, and has her work her charms through her singing. ”

“ Loeben was the poet of Sehnsucht. He tried always das Nahe zu entfernen und das Ferne sich nahe zu bringen. With a few conspicuous exceptions, his lyrics resemble those of Geibel somewhat in form and treatment. Poetry and individual poets receive grateful consideration, the seasons are overworked, love rarely fails and nature never, wine and the Rhine are not forgotten, and the South is poetized as the land of undying inspiration. Of their kind, and in their way, Loeben's poems are nearly perfect. ”

“ But be his poems never so good, there is no reason why Loeben should be revived for the general reader. His prose works lack artistic measure and objective plausibility; his lyrics lack clarity and virility; his creations in general lack the story-telling property that holds attention and the human-interest touches that move the soul. His thirty-nine years were too empty of real experience; [27] his works are not filled with the matter that endures. ”

“ The only change, it seems, that he ever made in this arrangement was to place one man between two women. The sick-bed is poetized as the cradle of knowledge, for in it, or on it, we become introspective and learn life. ”

“ To accept, where verification is necessary, the unverified statement of any man is wrong. And, that is the case here. Elster's note is of peculiar interest. He says: "Heine schloss sich am nächsten an die Bearbeitung eines Stoffs an, die ein Graf Löben 1821 veröffentlichte." The expression "ein Graf Löben" is grammatical evidence, though not proof, of one of two things: that Loeben was to Elster himself in 1890 a mere name, or that Elster knew Loeben would be this to the readers of his edition of Heine's works. Brandes says: "Die Nachahmung ist unzweifelhaft." ”

“ In short, the novelette reads like an amalgamation of Novalis without his philosophy, Waekenroder without his suggestiveness, and Tieck without his constructive ability.
The story [21] entitled Leda is again typical of Loeben. Briefly stated, the plot is as follows: Leda, the daughter of a Roman duke, loves Cephalo, who is a gentleman but not a nobleman, and is loved by him. Her father, however, has forced her to become engaged to Alberto, a man of high degree, whom she does not love. The wedding is imminent, and Leda is sorely perplexed. ”

“ That Eichendorff's Lorelei operates the forest is only to be expected of the author of so many Waldlieder. Even if Heine had known it he could have borrowed nothing from it except the name of his heroine. [87]
As to Loeben's saga, there can be but little doubt that he derived his initial inspiration from Schreiber, with whom he became intimately acquainted [88] at Heidelberg during the winter of 1807-8. This, of course, is not to say that Heine borrowed from Loeben. ”

“ And what is more significant, it contains two important events that are not found in any of the other versions of the saga: the scene with the wine-growers and the story of the castaway ring. The latter is an old theme, but that they both occur in Loeben and in Geibel would argue that the latter took them from the former. It is largely a question as to whether a poet like Geibel has to have a source for everything that is not absolutely abstract. The entire matter is complicated. [98] The paths of the Lorelei have crossed each other many times since Brentano started her on her wanderings. ”

“ And Heine himself (Elster edition, V. 294) says in regard to the question whether Hegel did borrow so much from Schelling: "Nichts ist lächerlicher als das reklamierte Eigentumsrecht an Ideen." He then shows how the ideas were not original with Schelling either; he had them from Spinoza. And it is just so here. Brentano started the legend; Heine goes back to him indirectly. Eichenidorff and Vogt directly; Schreiber borrowed from Vogt, Loeben from Schreiber, and Heine from Schreiber—and thereafter it would be impossible to say who borrowed from whom. ”

“ Some like Immermann in Oberhof, win only once, but this is sufficient to insure immortality. Some play and joust, run and wrestle with constancy and grace; their records, just after starting and just before finishing, are interesting, but in the end they are always defeated. ”

“ The question must be referred to those who like to skate on flabby ice in things literary.
The most plausible theory in regard to the source of Heine's ballad is the one proposed by Oscar F. Walzel, who says: "Heine hat den Stoff wahrscheinlich aus dem ihm wohlbekannten Handbuch für Reisende am Rhein von Aloys Schreiber übernommen." [61] The only proof that Walzel gives that Heine knew Schreiber's manual is a reference [62] to it in Lutetia. ”

“ This makes interesting reading for children, but Brentano did not lose sight of adults, including those who like to speculate as to the origin of the legend. He says: "Sie [Lorelei] ist eine Tochter der Phantasie, welches eine berühmte Eigenschaft ist, die bei Erschaffung der Welt mitarbeitete und das Allerbeste dabei that; als sie unter der Arbeit ein schönes Lied sang, hörte sie es immer wiederholen und fand endlich den Wiederhall, einen schönen Jüngling in einem Felsen sitzen, mit dem sie sich verheiratete und mit ihm die Frau Lureley erzeugte ”

“ And the sort of weakness, with which he was endowed can be brought out by a discussion of two of his novelettes, Das weisse Ross, [19] and Leda, neither of which is by any means his best work, and neither of which seems to be his worst. But, to judge from what has been said of his prose works in general, both are quite typical.
The plot so far as the action [20] is concerned is as follows: Otto owes the victory he won at a tournament in Nürnberg largely to the beauty and agility of his great white horse Bellerophon. ”

“ As to his poetic ability from the point of view of quantity, one can only marvel at the amount he produced in the time at his disposal; his creative works cover all types and sorts of literature. [4] He is best known for his numerous poems and his magnus opus, Guido, a novel of 360 pages, written under the pen-name of "Isidorus Orientalis," and intended as a continuation of Novalis' Ofterdingen; he used Tieck's notes for this purpose. ”

“ ALLEN WILSON PORTERFIELD GRAF VON LOEBEN AND THE LEGEND OF LORELEI I The devotees of Apollo have to give a good account of themselves in Olympia before, they can become persona grata on Olympus. They spend their lives, more or less, at the various games of poetry. Some, like Goethe, win in the majority of trials, and then we study all of their records regardless of their individual excellence. ”

“ Wilhelm Müller also wrote an article full of lavish praise of Loeben in Neuer Nekrolog der Deutschen, III, Jahrg. 1824, Ilmenau, 1827.
[2] Meyer (6th ed.) does not mention Loeben even in the articles on Fouqué and Malsburg, two of Loeben's best friends; Brockhaus (Jubilee ed.) mentions him as one of Eichendorff's friends in the article on Eichendorff, but neither has an independent note on Loeben. Nor is he mentioned in such compendious works on the nineteenth century as those by Gottschall, R.M. Meyer (Grundriss and Geschichte) , and Fr. Kummer. ”

“ In reply to a letter addressed to Professor Elster on October 4, 1914, the writer received the following most kind reply on November 23: "Die Frage, die Sie an mich richten ist leicht beantwortet: Heine hat Loeben in seinen Schriften nicht erwähnt, aber das besagt nicht viel; er hat manchen benutzt, den er nicht nennt. Und es kann gar keinem Zweifel unterliegen, dass Loeben für die Lorelei Heines unmittelbares Vorbild ist; darauf habe ich öfter hingewiesen, aber wohl auch andere. Das Taschenbuch Urania für das Jahr 1821, wo Loebens Gedicht u. ”

“ Fouqué wrote (January 6, 1813) : "Ein Dichter, meine ich, ist er allerdings, ein von Gott dazu bestimmter." Fouqué, however, realized Loeben's many weaknesses as a poet, though at Loeben's death he wrote a poem on him praising him as the master of verse technique.
[14] Cf. Kosch's edition of Eichendorff. XIII. 65. Loeben says: "In Weimar war ich im vorigen Winter bei Goethe; er war mir freundlich." The "previous winter" was 1813.
[15] Cf. Kosch's edition, XI, 220. The remark was made in 1807.
[16] Cf. Pissin. p. 25. The incident occurred in 1803 and Herder died in 1804. ”

“ And Thorn's attempt to show that Heine knew Godwi early in life by pointing out similarities between poems in it and poems by Heine is about as untenable as argument could be, in view of the great number of poets who may have influenced Heine in these instances; Thorn himself lists (p. 63) Bürger, Fouqué, Arnim, E.T.A. Hoffmann.
[40] In Pissin's collection of Loeben's poems (D.L.D., No. 135) we have a peculiar note. After the ballad (Anmerk., p. 161) , which Pissin entitles "Der Lurleifels," we read: "N.d. Hs." ”

“ The ultimate determining of sources is an ungrateful theme. Some excellent suggestions on this subject are offered by Hans Rohl in his Die ältere Romantik und die Kunst des jungen Goethe, Berlin, 1909, pp. 70-72. This work was written under the general leadership of Professor Elster. The disciple would, in this case, hardly agree with the master. Pissin likewise speaks wisely in discussing the influence of Novalis on Loeben in his monograph on the latter, pp. ”

“ It is impossible to see how Brandes can lay great stress on the fact that this rhyme occurs in both poems. The following rhymes are found on the following pages of the Elster edition, Vol. I, of Heine's works: "Spitze-Blitze" (36) , "sitzen-nützen" (116) , "Witzen-nützen" (124) , "sitzen-blitzen" (216) , "erhitzet-bespitzet" (242) , "Blitz-Sitz" (257) , "blitzt-gestützt" (276) , "blitze-besitze" (319) , "blitzet-gespitzet" (464) . And in Loeben's poems the rhyme is equally common. The first strophe of his Ferdusi runs as follows:
Hell erglänzt an Persiens Throne
Wo der grosse Mahmud sitzt ”

“ In all editions the poems are arranged in geographical order from Südersee to Graubünden. Alexander Kaufmann's Quellenangaben und Bemerkungen zu Kart Simrocks Rheinsagen throws no new light on the Lorelei-legend.
[61] Cf. Heinrich Heines sämtliche Werke, edited by Walzel, Fränkel, Krähe, Leitzmann, and Peterson. Leipzig. 1911, II, 408. So far as I have looked into the matter, Walzel stands alone in this belief, though Mücke, as has been pointed out above, anticipated him in the statement that Heine drew on Schreiber in this case. But Mücke thinks that Heine also knew Loeben. ”

“ Adolf Strodtmann said [44] it first (1868) , in the following words: "Es leidet wohl keinen Zweifel, dass Heine dies Loeben'sche Ballade gekannt und bei Abfassung seiner Lorelei-Ballade benutzt hat." But he produces no proof except similarity of form and content. Of the others who have followed his lead, ten, for particular reasons, should be authorities: Franz Muncker, [45] Karl Hessel, [46] Karl Goedeke, [47] Wilhelm Scherer, [48] Georg Mücke, [49] Wilhelm Hertz, [50] Ernst Elster, [51] Georg Brandes, [52] Heinrich Spiess, [53] and Herrn. Anders Krüger. ”