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Lessing's Attitude Toward Storm and Stress
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
It seems strikingly modern on the one hand to seek elements of individualism and irrationalism in Lessing, and thus to view him as a precursor of the Storm and Stress movement, while at the same time pointing up how great a revolt from the rationalist Lessing this new generation constitutes.1 Actually, as Annemarie Sauerlander has pointed out to me, James Russell Lowell in 1867, writing a review of Stahr's work on Lessing, stated that Lessing “may be said to have begun the revolt from pseudo-classicism in poetry, and to have been thus unconsciously the founder of romanticism”, but he immediately added: “It may be doubted whether the immediate effect on literature of his own critical essays was so great as Herr Stahr supposes. Surely Gölz and The Robbers are nothing like what he would have called Shakespearean, and the whole Sturm und Drang tendency would have roused in him nothing but antipathy.”2 The standard biographies of Lessing, such as Danzel-Guhrauer, Erich Schmidt, and Oehlke, have tended to enlarge on the chasm separating Lessing from Storm and Stress, while some monographs and more general works3 have emphasized evolution, rather than revolution, as the dynamic force operative on German literature, at least throughout the eighteenth century.4
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1950
References
1 E.g., Benno von Wiese, Lessing: Dichtung, Aesthetik, Philosophie(Leipsic: Quelle und Meyer, 1931), pp. 94–100.
2 Literary Essays(Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, c.1899), n, 222.
3 E.g., Koch's “Lessing und der Irrationalismus”, Petersen's “Goethe und Lessing”, Muller's Geschichte des deutschen Liedes … and Kluckhohn's Auffassung der Liebe in der Literatur … and Unger's reviews of these last two works in the Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Lileraluraissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte(ii, 616 ff.; iv, 793), Jolles' “Das religiöse Jugendbekenntnis Lessings”, F. J. Schmitz' Lessings Stellung in der Entfaltung des Indimdualismus, and especially Korff's Geist der Goethezeit.
4 H. B. Garland's statement that Lessing “in the Hamburg Dramaturgy …had referred disparagingly to the dislike of criticism and contempt for the rules of art displayed by the ising generation, now known as Storm and Stress”(Lessing. The Founder of Modern Literature [Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes, 1937], p. 190) is fully refuted by J. G. Robertson, Lessing's Dramatic Theory(Cambridge Univ. Press, 1939), pp. 162–163, 458, by pointing out the Klotzian school, rather than Storm and Stress, as the only possible group at whom the disparaging words of the Dramaturgiccould have been directed. Kurt May, Lessings und Herders kunsttheoretische Gedanken(Berlin: Emil Ebering, 1923), pp. 37–38, feels that Lessing leads us to the threshold of the new period and then retreats from it; he hands the new generation the very weapons with which they fight him. May's attitude is typical: Man kennt Lessings Verhalten zu der Zeit, als die grofie Garung ausbrach.“
5 References in the text are to the Lachmann-Muncker edition of Lessings sâmtliche Schriften (Leipsic: Gôschen, 1889–1924).
6 Cf. M. Rieger, Klinger in der Sturm- uni Drangperiode (Darmstadt: Bergstrâsser, 1880), i, 226.
7 Cf. M. N. Rosanow, J. M. R. Lenz, German transi, by Gùtschow (Leipsic: Schulze, 1909), pp. 299–300.
8 This edition did not appear “bey Hindenburgen” but “bey Himburgen.”
9 There is one other alleged reference in LM, xvIIi, 246, that casts no light on a critical attitude toward Lenz. Cf. LM, xxIII, sub Lenz.
10 Cf. the anecdote related by Waldemar Oehlke, Lessing und seine Zeit (München, 1919), ii, 491–492: “Als Seyler auf seinen Reisen als Schauspieldirektor iiber Wolfenbiittel kam, um Lessing dort zu besuchen, fand er ihn nicht zu Hause. Am nachsten Morgen suchte Lessing ihn im Gasthofe auf, in dem er mit dem dramatischen Dichter Klinger ein Zimmer bewohnte. Dieser teilte den Groll des Goethekreises, zog die Bettvorhange zu und bat Seyler, zu sagen, er sei nicht da. Lessing fragte diesen, ob er nicht seinen jungen Dichter mit sich habe. Auf die Antwort, er sei schon ausgegangen, bedauerte Lessing essehr und sprach mit solcher Wärme von der anerkannten Genialitat, die mitten durch alle Exzentrizitaten aus seinen Arbeiten hervorleuchte, daß auf einmal die Bettvorhange sich offneten und ein Kopf erschien, dem Hofrat Lessing einen freundlichen guten Morgen wunschend. Dieser wurde nicht wenig iiber diese Vision froh, nahm den jungen Mann mit in die Bibliothek, behielt ihn den ganzen Tag bei sich und zog ihn so an sich, dafi er hSchst ungern Wolfenbüttel wieder verließ.”
11 Cf. LM, xvni, 224–225, 228–229, and especially 237–238.
12 LM, xviii, 230: “Nehmen Sie sich aber nur nicht meiner allzusehr an, mein lieber Muller. Sie môchten sich selbst schaden, wenn Sie ihrem [sic!] Freunde beystehn wollten.”
13 LM, xviii, 231 : “Wenn Sie mir wieder schreiben, so melden Sie mir auch etwas von sich; das ist, von Ihren gegenwerdtigen Arbeiten. Das wird mich sicherlich mehr freuen, als die ganze alberne Sache, mit der sichnun schon zu lange ein Kopf wie der Ihrige trâgt.”
14 Idem: “Leben Sie wohl und behalten Sie mich lieb. / Der Ihrige, Lessing.”
15 Cf. Sdmtliche Schriften von Joh. Anton Leisewitz. Zum erstenmale vollständig gesam-melt und mit einer Lebensbeschreibung des Autors eingeleitet von Dr. Schweiger (Braunschweig: Leibrock, 1838), xii-xviii. Leisewitz moved permanently to Braunschweig in January, 1778. It is possible that he had first met Lessing on a visit to Wolfenbüttel in 1770. Cf. Briefe an seine Brant (Weimar, 1906), pp. viii; Gregor Kutschera von Aichbergen, J. A. Leisewitz (Vienna, 1876), pp. 21 ff.; Heinrich Schneider, “Die Entstehungsgeschichte von Lessings beiden letzten Prosaschriften”, PMLA, LxIII (1948), 1238–39.
16 Cf. Leisewitz, Schriften, pp. xx–xxiii.
17 April 12 and 19, 1759; LM, viII, 69 ff.
18 We must remember that these Briefe, die neueste Literalur betreffend were supposedly written to a wounded soldier friend.
19 Nicolai refers to this in a letter to Lessing, Feb. 24, 1768, and mentions specifically Lessing's defense of his “friends, Ramier, Klopstock, and Gerstenberg.” Cf. LM, xrx, 247.
20 Lessing was wrong about this, as he was later regarding his own Nathan. Cf. Hermann Dollinger, Die dramalische Eandlung in Klopslocks “Der Tod Adams” uni Gerstenbergs “Ugolino”, Bausleine zur Geschichle der deutschen Literatur (Halle: Niemeyer, 1930), xxIx, 11.
21 Cf. Montague Jacobs, Gerstenbergs Ugolino. Ein Vorlâufer des Geniedramas, Berliner Beitr'dge zur germanischen und romanischen Philologie (Berlin: Ebering, 1898), xrv, 48–51.
22 Max Morris, Derjunge Goethe (Leipzig: Insel, 1909 ff.), vi, 319, aptly summarizes the relation of Goethe to Wieland thus: “Goethes allmâhliche Lösung von Wieland, den er in seiner anakreontischen Zeit als ein hohes Muster verehrt hatte, vollendet sich in dieser kiinstlerischen Explosion (i.e., Göiter, Helden una Wieland). Dem Erscheinen des Teutschen Merkur hatte er noch mit Interesse und Erwartung entgegengesehen, und nun brachten die ersten Hefte im wesentlichen nur Georg Jacobis gräcisierende Niedlichkeit und von Wieland lehrhafte Zensuren iiber andere und eine selbstgefällige Vergleichung seiner eben er-schienenen ‘Alceste’ mit dem Drama des Euripides.” The reader will readily note that a pejorative aspect has crept into Lessing's use of the word Genie.
23 Goethe, too, shows the same hesitancy to attack Lessing as early as Feb. 14,1769, in a letter to Oeser: “Lessing! Lessing! wenn er nicht Lessing ware, ich môchte was sagen. Schreiben mag ich nicht wider ihn, er ist ein Eroberer” etc. DjG, I, 328, Letter no. S3.
24 Karl had recommended it to him enthusiastically as a Shakespearean play. Cf. his letter of Oct. 21,1773, in LM, xx, 286.
25 Cf. a review of Schmid's Vber Golz von Berlichingen. Eine dramaturgische Abhandlung in J. W. Braun, Goethe im Urtheile seiner Zeitgenossen (Berlin, 1883 ff.), I, 59–60. It will be remembered that it was Schmid who took over the Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen at the beginning of 1773 when Goethe el al. withdrew from this venture.
26 Cf. S. H. Goodnight, German Literature in American Magazines prior to 1846 (Madison, 1907), and Orie W. Long, “Werther in America”, in Studies in Honor of John Albrecht Walz (Lancaster, Pa., 1941).
27 Weifie's letters of May, 1775, brought to my attention by Professor Wilkie, note Lessing's antipathy to Werther and indicate that the Jerusalem element was one of the main causes. Cf. Archiv fur Literaturgeschichle, xx, 487, 491. We must note, however, that any aversion on the part of Lessing toward “Gôthisiren und Lenzisiren” would obviously be pleasing to Weifie at this time. Cf. AfNS, LxxIx, 209.
28 Nicolai und der Sturm und Drang (Halle: Niemeyer, 1921), pp. 248–249.
29 Goethe Jahrbuch, hrsg. v. Ludwig Geiger, xIv (1893), pp. 50 ff. The “Anmerkungen des Herausgebers”, pp. 95 ff., bring abundant evidence as to the respect which Goethe had for these two sisters, Marianne von Eyenberg and Sara von Grotthus, whom he had met at Carlsbad. Née Meyer, the latter at the age of barely fifteen entered an unhappy marriage, and later, in 1797, married von Grotthus. The sisters belonged to the Berlin group which, largely through social mediums, fought the anti-Goethe sentiment of this city which lasted into the nineties. Sara von Grotthus claims close acquaintance with Mendelssohn, Nicolai, and Lessing. Goethe had presented her with a ring. Her letter of October 14, 1796 (GJ, xrv, 46 ff.), which accompanied a vest Sara had made for Goethe, paraphrases Lessing's ring parable in Nathan der Weise, claiming for her handiwork a secret power which forces the recipient to think kindly of her “wann Sie in dieser Zuversicht sie tragen” (italics hers)-Goethe, it should be noted, sent the sisters his works in advance of publication, a favor which testifies as to his respect for them mentally as well as personally.
30 She also alleges Lessing offered her his protection in case she wished to marry the young man, but her passion had cooled by then. GJ, xIv, 51.
31 The ellipsis reads as follows: “ich kann das Gewâsche von Verderben, Schwärmerei u. s. w., gar nicht hören, elendes Râsonnement, malt fur Eure Kleisterpuppen lauter Gran-disone, damit sie nicht am Feuer der Empfindung springen, soil man denn gar nicht fur Menschenschreiben, weil Narren närrischsind?” GJ, xrv, 52.
32 The original reads, probably erroneously, “durch diese Meisterwerke.”
33 Goethe had finished two acts of Prometheus by October, 1773, as is testified by Schonborn's letter to Gerstenberg of Oct. 12, 1773. Later, after he had become friendly with the Jacobis, he sent Fritz Jacobi the MS of Prometheus, by now fused into more lyrical than dramatic form. Fritz Jacobi not only read it to Lessing, but then published it in the course of his quarrel with Mendelssohn on Lessing's relation to Spinoza's philosophy. It was finally taken up into Goethe's Works in 1788. Cf. Morris, iv, 35 ff., and notes thereto; Bielschowsky, Goethe. Sein Leben und seine Werke (Munich: Beck, 1909), i, 251; and Clarence Willis Eastman, Goethe's Poems (New York: Crofts, 1941), pp. 135–136.
34 This reply was published posthumously, for Mendelssohn caught a severe cold taking his MS to the printer (Vofi) in person and never recovered. Thus Mendelssohn may, in a measure, be said to have cost himself his life in defense of his friend Lessing. Cf. Oehlke, n, 475 ff., for extensive citations from Jacobi's report of his conversation with Lessing.
35 Erich Schmidt, p. ix, of his introduction to the reprint of Wagner's Kindermörderin, No. 12 of Deutsche Litleralurdenkmale des IS. und-19. Jahrhunderts (Heilbronn: Henninger, 1883). Cf. also E. Schmidt, Heinrich Leopold Wagner. Goethes Jugendgenosse, 2nd ed. (Jena: Fromann, 1879).
36 This paper was read in part before the Germanic Section of the Modem Language Association of America at Stanford University, September 8, 1949.