The German Woman in the Age of Enlightenment: A Study in the Drama from Gottsched to Lessing 9780231894166

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T H E GERMAN WOMAN IN T H E AGE OF E N L I G H T E N M E N T

NUMBER

NINETEEN

OF

THE

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GERMANIC E D I T E D BY R O B E R T H E R N D O N NEW

The first fourteen

FIFE

SERIES

numbers of this series were

by Columbia

STUDIES

University Press

published

T H E G E R M A N W O M A N IN T H E A G E OF

ENLIGHTENMENT

A Study in the Drama from Gottsched to Lessing

By S. E T T A S C H R E I B E R

HH

KING'S CROWN PRESS MORNINGSIDE

HEIGHTS • NEW

1948

YORK

COPYRIGHT 1948 BY SARA ETTA SCHREIBER Manufactured

in the United States of

KING S C R O W N

America

PRESS

is a division of C o l u m b i a University Press organized f o r the purpose of m a k i n g certain scholarly material available at m i n i m u m cost. T o w a r d that end, the publishers h a v e a d o p t e d every reasonable economy except such as w o u l d interfere with a legible format. T h e work is presented substantially as submitted by the author, w i t h o u t the usual editorial attention of C o l u m b i a University Press.

TO SARAH

R. U R I

AND DR. H I L D A

M

ISERLIS

PREFACE

T

was undertaken at the suggestion of Professor Robert Herndon Fife, of Columbia University. T h e original plan was to investigate the concept of feminine virtue as it was set forth in the eighteenth-century drama. As the work progressed, it became apparent that it would be more desirable to direct the study toward woman's general position in society in the critical years of the "Aufklärung." T h e research was done mainly in the libraries of Columbia University. I am under great obligation to members of the staff, especially to Miss Jean Macalister, Associate Reference Librarian of the Interlibrary Loan Service, and I wish to express my appreciation for their untiring efforts to secure material not available in New York City. T o all those who read the manuscript, especially Professors Frederick W . J . Heuser, Henry L. Schulze, Carl F. Bayerschmidt, and Henry C. Hatfield (all of Columbia University), I beg to express my gratitude for helpful suggestions. But above all, I am indebted to Professor Fife, whose keen criticism, patient and ready help, and thoughtful encouragement made the completion of this work possible. S. E. S. HE PRESENT STUDY

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

1

I. T H E

5

MORAL WEEKLIES

I I . JOHANN III.

HINRICH

IV.

FRAU

CHRISTOPH

VII. VIII.

14

BORKENSTEIN

32

GOTTSCHED

V . JOHANN CHRISTIAN VI.

GOTTSCHED

JOHANN

ELIAS

CHRISTIAN

41 KRÜGER

62

SCHLEGEL

FÜRCHTEGOTT

90 GELLERT

GOTTHOLD E P H R A I M LESSING

(EARLY

115 PLAYS)

IX.

CHRISTIAN F E L I X W E I S S E

(COMEDIES)

X.

CHRISTIAN F E L I X W E I S S E

( S E N T I M E N T A L COMEDIES AND DO-

MESTIC XI.

TRAGEDIES)

GOTTHOLD E P H R A I M LESSING

142 167

196 (MASTERWORKS)

214

CONCLUSION

234

BIBLIOGRAPHY

244

INDEX

250

INTRODUCTION

P

of the individual woman during the early period of Rationalism in Germany has received considerable attention from social historians and to some extent from literary critics. No study of the problem has been made, however, which concentrates investigation on a literary genre. In view of the fact that during this era the comedy and later the bourgeois drama mirrored contemporary conditions realistically, this seemed the most productive field for an investigation of the social position of women as it was reflected in German literature from Gottsched to Lessing. This study, then, undertakes to examine the status of women, the restrictions and conventions governing their lives in a period when the increasing wealth among the bourgeoisie and the greater leisure of its women opened up new vistas on the widening social horizon. Neither poetry, lyric or epic, nor the novel is comparable with the drama as a source because whatever there was of the first genre hardly touched on realistic themes in the first half of the century, and the novel did not really develop as a mirror of social life until later. T h e drama, however, especially the comedy and the domestic drama, reflected the problems of daily life with great faithfulness and adherence to reality. How extensive this realism actually was can be seen from a comparison with contemporary memoirs, diaries, letters, and moral weeklies. With largely didactic aims, the last of these had concerned themselves actively with the problem of woman's position in society some twenty years before it appeared in the drama. In many cases it almost seems that the dramatist worked with the text of one of the weeklies before him. Whether such a direct influence existed or whether the problems and faults attacked by the contributors to the weeklies and by the dramatists were of such pervasive character that they were still of paramount importance in the seventeen-forties, is a matter not easy to decide because of the inaccessibility of much of the original source material. A considerable amount of this still exists, or at least did before the war, but it lies buried in German libraries in manuscript form, as for example, the ROGRESS IN THE EMANCIPATION

2

GERMAN WOMAN IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

twenty-two volumes of correspondence of Gottsched and his wife. These unavailable sources would, no doubt, shed much light on the questions with which we are concerned. Another point to be considered in this respect is that some of the contemporary dramatists were of little importance and hardly known to their contemporaries, so that practically no original information concerning them is extant, aside from their works and a few incomplete biographical sketches from the pens of contemporaries. Thus, in the case of Johann Christian Krüger, an interesting personality in this period, nothing is available except his works and the brief sketch of his life by Löwen, written some time after Krüger's death. Some of the plays examined in this study have little importance in the development of the German drama and even less aesthetic value. One is much like another in plot, theme, character development, and dependence on foreign models. They show an almost monotonous repetition in form and technique, and no important innovation can be noted until the appearance of Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm. Dramatic worth and significance were of only incidental importance so far as the selection of material for this investigation was concerned, since for the purpose in hand it was the reflection of woman's emancipation that was relevant. Only those plays were considered which, taken as a whole, would give as full a picture as possible of the attempts to free women from almost complete ignorance and dependence on parental authority or that of the husband. The present work, therefore, makes no claim to be an exhaustive or historical treatment of the dramatic output between the time of Gottsched's appearance and the death of Lessing. Only those plays that present a new concept of woman and her problems are treated; the many which merely imitated or repeated what had been already established are passed over. For example, in choosing representative plays of early Rationalism, neither Quistorp's Der Bock im Prozesse (1744) and Der Hypochondrist (1745), nor Uhlich's Der Unempfindliche (1745) and Der Schlendrian oder des berühmten Bookesbeutel Tod und Testament1 are discussed, because the types of women characters found in them are set forth more adequately by Borkenstein or by Frau Gottsched. For the same reason, many other plays following in the wake of Geliert and Lessing are omitted. Parenthetically, it should be pointed out that of the writers treated in the following pages only Johann Christian 1. Johann Christoph Gottsched (ed.), Die deutsche Schaubühne (Leipzig: B. C. Breitkopf, 1741-1745), Vols. V, VI; Der Schlendrian oder des berühmten Bookesbeutel Tod und Testament is unavailable in this country.

INTRODUCTION

3

Krüger is a rather unknown dramatist, hardly ever mentioned in literary histories. 2 His works are included because of the advanced social ideas he offers. T h e popularity of his plays would argue that the point of view advanced by Krüger met with a sympathetic response from his audiences. From the scanty references by contemporaries that have survived it would seem that he was regarded as highly for his dramatic gifts as for his social outlook. 3 For the rest, Frau Gottsched, Schlegel, Geliert, and Weisse are important enough as writers of plays in this early period of the German literary renaissance to warrant their inclusion in any study of the eighteenth-century drama. Lessing's plays, which have been studied intensively by many investigators, are examined here only with the purpose of showing what changes had occurred after the moral weeklies and notably Gottsched began to agitate for the reform of woman's traditional position in society. For this aspect Lessing's dramas furnish important material. Because the main purpose of this study is to trace the changing status of women up to the Storm and Stress, it has been of no particular importance to keep a strictly chronological order. All the plays considered here, with the exception of those by Weisse and Lessing, appeared between 1740 and 1750. T h e sequence of discussion was determined by the position of the author in the evolution of the new concepts concerning women rather than by the year when the play was written. T h u s Krüger, although four years younger, comes ahead of Schlegel, who shows a development away from Gottsched's rules of dramatic character delineation and a different attitude in his treatment of the heroine, indicating a changed outlook on women's role in society. Geliert, again, though older than either Krüger or Schlegel, follows them because he introduced a different type of woman into his comedies, which are, roughly, contemporary with Schlegel's output. Geliert, under the influence of sentimentalism, reflects to a considerable degree the sentimental, emotional aspect of feminine virtues, only traces of which can be found in Schlegel's heroines. Plays which present women either in a romantic or idealized manner and the "Singspiel," after its introduction by Weisse, were not considered; the first because they do not actually depict the role of women in their day and the latter because it belongs to a different genre. T h e writer would have liked to include the plays of Henrici-Picander in the present work, because they were written at the time when the 2. See C h a p t e r V . 3. Ibid.

4

GERMAN WOMAN

IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

moral weeklies appeared. These plays, condemned by all literary critics of the eighteenth century for their crudeness and coarse realism, might furnish a contrast to those of the seventeen-forties, but would not establish anything of significant social import, so far as we can judge from the evaluation of them in previous investigations. 4 HenriciPicander's works, and a few others of similar character and value, 5 could not be found in this country. For the rest, the texts in Gottsched's Die deutsche Schaubühne and Das Theater der Deutschen8 were used. T h e latter is a collection of plays appearing from 1767 to 1784; and though it does not always furnish an accurate reprint of the original texts, it has yielded much correlative material to help the writer in her selection of plays for this study. T h e dramas finally treated were found in more reliable editions than those of Das Theater der Deutschen. Nevertheless, both collections contained many plays not available elsewhere in this country and were therefore of great aid for an over-all view of the dramatic output of that day and so enabled me to discard all those of no significance to the study. Other collections were not consulted since, when checked with Goedeke, the only additional plays they contained were found to belong either to Storm and Stress or the classical period. O f the numerous moral weeklies which appeared in Germany during the first half of the eighteenth century, only the four discussed in Chapters I and II were available in this country. Contemporary and modern critics generally agree that these are the best of their kind; furthermore, all the necessary material illustrative of the aim, work, and effect of the moral weeklies could be obtained from a careful examination of the contents of these four leading representatives. 4. See Betsy Aikin-Sneath, Comedy in Germany in the First Half of the XVIII Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936), pp. 67ft.; also Paul Flossmann, Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici). Dissertation Leipzig, Liebertwolkwitz: Druck von Franz Zeugner, 1899. 5. Aikin-Sneath, op. cit., pp. 62ft., 6gf. 6. Theater der Deutschen (Berlin & Leipzig, 1767-1776), Vols. I-XVIII; it was continued as Neues Theater der Deutschen (Königsberg & Leipzig, 1783-1784), 1. und 2. T e i l , Vols. X I X - X X .

I THE MORAL WEEKLIES

T

of the intellectual horizon which Rationalism brought about at the beginning of the eighteenth century greatly affected the role of women in the cultural life of the time. T h e i r status was circumscribed by a long tradition which considered woman an inferior being and relegated her to a position of subjugation to the will of her male protector. 1 T h e steady infiltration of new ideas broke u p the old belief that women were incapable of varied intellectual activities, thus opening the way for the active role in social and civic life which women have achieved since then. T h e change was slow and at the beginning of the period we should look in vain for any widespread divergence from the traditional pattern in the situation of women. T h e trend toward a break with the past is, however, to be noted in the struggle to create educational opportunities for girls. Even in England and France, countries so far ahead at that time in intellectual leadership, the education of women was rather sporadic and limited to certain social groups. In Germany the situation was much worse, largely because of the upheaval in the political, economic, and intellectual life of the country wrought by the T h i r t y Years' W a r . Luther had advocated the establishment of good schools for girls, but in the ensuing struggle this effort was forgotten and more than a century elapsed before we hear another voice, that of Comenius, crying out for a systematic education for all women. 2 HE WIDENING

It is quite true that in the late medieval and early modern period some families, aristocratic or scholarly, educated their daughters as well as their sons. 3 T h e r e were many instances of women with unusual gifts w h o succeeded in overcoming the many obstacles which lay in the path of any woman desiring to go beyond the sphere of house1. P a u l K l u c k h o h n , Die Auffassung der Liebe in der derts und in der deutschen Romantik (Halle, 1931)' P2. F e r d i n a n d Strassburger, Die Mädchenerziehung in gik (Strassburg, 1911), p. 101. 3. A . v. Hanstein, Die Frauen in der Geschichte des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1899), I, 50.

Literatur des 18. Jahrhun8. der Geschichte der Pädagodeutschen

Geisteslebens

des

6

GERMAN WOMAN

IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

hold occupations. In the era of the early Bourbon kings of France women could be found in the foremost ranks of those w h o shared i n the highest cultural life of the time. But these were rather exceptions, and as late as the first two decades of the eighteenth century, the women of Europe were in great part illiterate, or at best, barely able to read their prayer and hymn books. 4 T h i s came to be recognized as a great evil and many men exerted their influence and used their pens in order to convince a wider public of the benefits which education for women would bring to the nation, a radical theory at the time. 5 In 1641 8 A n n a Maria v. Schurmann, a scientist of the Netherlands and the most learned w o m a n of her day, published in Utrecht a Latin treatise advancing, in genuinely scholastic manner, fourteen arguments to prove that "a Christian maid or woman may conveniently give herself to learning." 7 She based her thesis on the statement of Erasmus that "nothing takes so full possession of the fair temple of a Virgin's breast as learning and study, whither, on all occasions she may fly for refuge." 8 L e a r n i n g becomes for her a "specific for all the ills of mind and heart, and women should not be denied delights so laudable and virtues so desirable." 9 W e have no way of knowing the effect this book had on her contemporaries. N o doubt, such instances of feminine scholarship and the high esteem that learned women had won at the courts of Louis X I V and his successors became a strong force in the hands of those w h o were attempting to win widespread support for their efforts to raise the intellectual level of women. T h e doctrine of the perfectibility of mankind was extended to include woman. T h o u g h her political and economic status remained unchanged, men began to champion her right to a greater share in the world's knowledge than had been granted her previously. 1 0 T h i s was also in step with the development of ethical theories of the Early Enlightenment. T h e rationalists, in the firm belief that virtue and morality were based on the exercise of human reason, urged the cultivation of man's faculties. Only through his intellect can he learn to 4 . Strassburger, op. cit., p. 1 0 2 . 5 . H a n s t e i n , op. cit.,

p. 5 2 f t .

6 . Ibid., p. 5 6 ; also Myra Reynolds, The Learned Lady of England (Boston 8c New York, 1 9 2 0 ) , p. 2 7 3 . T h e r e seems to be a great diversity of opinion as to the date of the thesis Anna Maria v. Schurmann published. 7 . Ibid., p. 2 7 5 . 8. Quoted after Reynolds. Idem. 9 . Ibid., p. 2 7 6 . 1 0 . Hanstein, op. cit., p. 6 7 .

THE

MORAL

WEEKLIES

7

distinguish between good and evil, become virtuous and therefore happy. Because of this altered approach to life, the attitude of thoughtful men towards women also changed. Women's defects were n o longer accepted by the rationalist as imposed by the laws of nature, which admitted of no improvement or change, but it was deduced (correctly in the light of modern psychology) that the so-called faults in the character of women were habits that were acquired as a result of the conditions under which they lived. Change these, and the shortcomings of women, the cause of so much lamentation throughout the ages, need no longer be borne with patience and fortitude but could be eradicated. " U n d o u b t e d l y man is made in such fashion that he can achieve innumerable perfections which he does not possess. One may infer that God gave him this ability so that he should really use it and endeavor to become more perfect every day," Gottsched's Vernünftige Tadlerinnen proclaims. 1 1 T h i s applies equally to a woman. Only by developing her native mental ability can she become virtuous, because "knowledge arms us against heretics and uncovers their false conclusions." 1 2 T h u s it is a moral duty to become enlightened in order that one may shun evil. T h e problem of a better education for women was forced upon the attention of the rising bourgeois class, where it was most acute, by educators like A . H. Francke, who established special schools of higher learning for girls; 1 3 and by the moral weeklies. These, as p o p u l a r i z e « of the concepts of Enlightenment, included in their program, from the very beginning, plans of a higher education for girls. T h e y waged unceasing war against ignorance, indifference, and the traditional belief that women were incapable of learning more than the very rudiments. 14 " W e take much less pains generally with the education of our daughters than our sons and believe that we are doing right thereby," the Patriot of H a m b u r g complained in 1724. 15 T h i s journal and the later moral weeklies in Germany persistently urged parents not to allow their daughters to grow u p without proper instruction. How necessary this kind of propagandizing was we can learn from the fact 11. Johann Christoph Gottsched, Gesammelte Schriften, hrsg. von Eugen Reichel (Berlin, n.d.), Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen, I, 7; also Eugen Reichel, Gottsched (Berlin, 1908), p. 166. 12. As quoted by Hanstein, op. cit., p. 29. 13. Strassburger, op. cit., p. 114. 14. Edith Krull, Das Wirken der Frau im frühen deutschen Zeitschriftenwesen (Berlin, 1939), p. 13. 15. Der Patriot (Hamburg: C. König, 1747). Neue und verbesserte Ausgabe, Dritte Auflage, p. 23.

8

GERMAN WOMAN

IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

that Francke's institution had to be closed in 1740 for lack of students. In other parts of Germany, however, many similar schools sprang u p and the fight against the ignorance of women was soon making definite progress. 16 Since parents did not rush to put their daughters into good schools, the moral weeklies carried their appeal for improvement to the women themselves, the contemporary victims of this neglect. By precept, story, and essay they extolled learning as the basis for virtue, set forth the delights of a virtuous life, and the happiness that it brings. Likewise they were very emphatic in condemnation of the weaknesses, the foibles, the immorality of women, holding them u p to the ridicule and disdain of all. Much credit must go to the moral weeklies for widening the intellectual horizon of their feminine readers. Popular from the outset, the financial success of these papers 17 must have acted as a spur to many young writers to devote their time to this campaign. T h e German weeklies were not original undertakings, but were patterned after the English, the first of their kind. T h e Tatler and Spectator were read avidly by an ever-increasing public in England and were imitated very soon in Germany. 1 8 Hamburg, because of its close contact with England, became the birthplace for the first German weekly, Der Vernünftler,19 almost exactly fashioned after the English prototypes. It appeared in 1713, was forbidden, for reasons unknown, and had to be abandoned. 2 0 Another weekly, Die lustige Fama, followed in 1718, but does not seem to have attracted a public beyond the place of its origin. 2 1 Nevertheless, it was only a question of time before success should be theirs. In 1721 a group of Swiss writers formed a society for publishing Die Discourse der Mahler, which became the first of the weeklies in the German language to gain the attention of a wide reading audience. T h i s magazine, as well as Der Patriot, published in H a m b u r g for the years 1724, 1725, 1726, and the two published by Gottsched in Leipzig, Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen in 1725-26 and Der Biedermann in 1727-29, mark the high point attained by the moral weeklies in German literary history. Innumerable others sprang u p 16. Strassburger, op. cit., p. 114. 17. M a r t i n Stecher, Die Erziehungsbestrebungen der deutschen moralischen Wochenschriften (Langensalza, 1914), p. 133t. 18. Ibid., p. i7f. 19. Karl Jacoby, Die ersten moralischen Wochenschriften Hamburgs ( H a m b u r g , 1888), p p . 6, 2 8 .

20. W i l h e l m H ä r t u n g , Die deutschen moralischen G. W. Rabeners, " H e r m a e a , " No. 9 (Halle, 1 9 1 1 ) , p. S i . Ibid., p. 13.

Wochenschriften 12.

als

Vorbild

THE

MORAL

WEEKLIES

9

t h r o u g h o u t G e r m a n y , b u t n o n e h a d the i m p o r t a n c e , the scope of content, t h e w i d e a p p e a l , o r the h i g h l i t e r a r y a n d c u l t u r a l q u a l i t y of the four mentioned.22

T h e y w e r e , t o be sure, p a t t e r n e d a f t e r the E n g l i s h

m o d e l s o n l y i n a very g e n e r a l sense.

T h e y offered hardly any

ideas

of t h e i r o w n , b u t c o l l e c t e d w h a t w a s n e w a n d o r i g i n a l w h e r e v e r they could

find

it, w h e t h e r in the E n g l i s h p r o t o t y p e s o r in the

writings

of t h e p h i l o s o p h e r s a n d e d u c a t o r s of f o r e i g n c o u n t r i e s w h o s e w o r k s w e r e b e g i n n i n g to m a k e t h e i r i n f l u e n c e felt.

I n p o p u l a r f a s h i o n they

p r e s e n t e d w h a t they h a d g l e a n e d so assiduously f r o m o t h e r s to a p u b l i c e a g e r t o h a v e a n i n t e r p r e t a t i o n of the c h a n g e s w h i c h w e r e t a k i n g place.23 T h e i r a i m w a s p l a i n l y d i d a c t i c . T h i s w a s p o i n t e d o u t e x p l i c i t l y by editors and contributors. Bodmer, writing under a pen-name

(Hans

H o l b e i n ) 2 4 as was the f a s h i o n of the time, a n n o u n c e d in the first "Disc o u r s e " t h a t the society r e s p o n s i b l e f o r the p u b l i c a t i o n chose " m a n as t h e s u b j e c t . . . t h a t his [man's] passions, w h i m s , f a u l t s , virtues, his l e a r n i n g , h i s foibles, his misery a n d h a p p i n e s s , his l i f e a n d d e a t h , his r e l a t i o n s h i p t o others, in short all t h a t is h u m a n a n d c o n c e r n s m a n w i l l b e t h e i r s u b j e c t m a t t e r . " 2 5 Der Patriot

s u m m e d u p in l i k e m a n n e r

its a i m s in t h e last n u m b e r , p u b l i s h e d i n 1726: I have followed man through all the situations and changes of his life. I have observed him as husband, father, subject, "Bürger," as merchant, lawyer, public official, etc., and have honestly taught him the duties of each position. I gave him a detailed description of human passions, I devoted several numbers to show him the evil effects of envy, pride, calumny, egotism, greed, of sullen rudeness, and I tried to substitute ethical behavior, frankness, human sympathy, magnanimity, etc.* It w a s a n a m b i t i o u s p l a n , a i m e d at a r e g e n e r a t i o n of the

cultural

l i f e of t h e p e o p l e . W i t h i n t h a t f r a m e w o r k the p r o b l e m s c o n n e c t e d w i t h w o m e n received wider attention than ever before. A s c a n b e seen f r o m the p r o g r a m of these p e r i o d i c a l s , all f o l l o w e d v e r y s i m i l a r lines; the f a u l t s a n d vices w h i c h the m o r a l w e e k l i e s examined

a n d chastised a n d the ideals they p r o m u l g a t e d

were

those

w h i c h t h e m i d d l e class was most l i k e l y to r e c o g n i z e . W h i l e all i n v a r i 3 2 . Ibid.,

p . 20.

23. S t e c h e r , op. cit., p . 113. 24. Chronik der Gesellschaft der Mahler, ed. T h e o d o r Vetter, "Bibliothek älterer S c h r i f t w e r k e d e r d e u t s c h e n S c h w e i z " ; 2. S e r i e , 1. H e f t ( F r a u e n f e l d : J . H u b e r , 1897), p . 78. 25. Die Discourse der Mahler, ed. T h e o d o r Vetter, "Bibliothek älterer Schriftw e r k e d e r d e u t s c h e n S c h w e i z , " 2. S e r i e , 2. H e f t ( F r a u e n f e l d : J . H u b e r , 1897), p . 8. 26. Der

Patriot,

p . 468.

10

GERMAN WOMAN IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

ably devoted some pages to portraits of ideal men and women of the nobility, the virtues extolled, even in this connection, were those of the average citizen of means, and not those of the typical "gentilhorame" of the eighteenth century. As the German middle class emerged from the poverty brought upon it by the devastation of the religious wars during the seventeenth century, it could turn its new leisure to a pursuit of matters intellectual. T h e pages of these magazines brought moral and aesthetic issues before a public that was eager for such discussions, and they served as a stimulus to keep alive their interests and win larger and larger circles for them. Nevertheless, it was only the classes with means or learning that played any role in this intellectual awakening. T h e lowest group, the poor Kleinbürger, the peasants, the domestic servants, and other workers on the same level, were left out. This cleavage ran through the entire literary output of the time and reflected actual cultural conditions. Women of the lowest economic group were not included in any plan of education for members of their sex. They learned to do the work that would earn them a livelihood, and that was all. With the exception of the "Waisenhäuser" established by Francke, there were even fewer schools for this social group than for the one above them, the well-to-do members of society. All attention was focused on the women belonging to this higher stratum, which comprized the lower nobility and the "Bürger" of means. Because the economic conditions in the upper bourgeoisie had improved so greatly, its women sought to follow the example set by their aristocratic sisters. T h e common social phenomenon of one class aspiring to imitate the next higher was at work here as at all times. T h e bourgeois woman of means, freed through servants from her daily household duties, spent her day dressing, visiting, gossiping, eating, and gambling. 27 A frivolous superficiality dominated her life to the point where she neglected even the upbringing of her children, a practice copied from the nobility. We hear many complaints of how uninterested parents were in their children; that for example, they left them entirely in the hands of servants, who, ignorant and coarse themselves, taught their charges to behave likewise. These accusations are too numerous and recur too often to be dismissed as mere exaggerations. Women, so ran the complaint, had now no interest in anything beyond spending their time in doing whatever was considered in 27. Christine Touaillon, Der deutsche Frauenroman & Leipzig: W. Braumüller, 191g), p. 55.

des 18. Jahrhunderts

(Wien

THE

MORAL

WEEKLIES

fashion, a n d taking care of their o w n children was definitely not in style. There are too many parents who either neglect their children completely, leaving them to servants hired without discrimination, or who follow their passions of overindulgence or stubborn severity in raising their children.— How many unworthy teachers [i.e., servants], men and women, do we not find immersed deeply in vice and ignorance whose task it is to lead children of fine and wealthy parents toward godliness, skill, virtue and learning. Such was the lament in one of the first issues of Der Patriot.26 Similar invectives against parents can be cited from any G e r m a n moral weekly, regardless of time and place of publication. 2 9 C h i l d r e n were generally pampered, and girls began to learn early that there was only one a i m in life: to enter into an attractive marriage, w h i c h meant, at that time, to marry a man of means. 3 0 T h e r e f o r e the care of her looks became the pivot of woman's existence from childhood on. Household a n d social accomplishments were the sum of her instruction. She learned the rudiments of the three R ' s and beyond that, only French, some singing and music. T h e refinements of deportment were considered essential, and a " d a n c i n g master" was usually called on to imp a r t w h a t he considered of most value and w h a t was fast becoming p o p u l a r in this social group, a graceful carriage and a formal manner. T h e s e were the accomplishments regarded as necessary for a girl. O v e r against this development, the moral weeklies proposed a more serious type of education. T h e educational plan evolved by Der Patriot in o n e of its early issues advocated special "academies" where girls were to d o all the work themselves under the supervision of w o m e n teachers. T h i s was in order that they m i g h t learn and understand thoroughly all household duties, not so much because they w o u l d have to p e r f o r m these themselves, but so that they w o u l d be capable of intelligent supervision in their future homes. T h e girls were to be instructed in all useful "arts and sciences," as this term was understood a n d used by the eighteenth century. Especially must they be directed towards a correct concept of G o d , a k n o w l e d g e and continuous exercising of their moral responsibilities. Some teachers were to give them lessons in Christianity, while others were to teach languages. Here, even before Gottsched's appearance on the scene, the stress was already o n k n o w l e d g e of a pure and graceful G e r m a n . T h e curriculum also i n c l u d e d drawing, music, elocution, " V e r n u n f t - N a t u r u n d Sittenlehre," 28. Der Patriot, I, 20. 29. Die Discourse der Mahler, 30. Touaillon, op. cit., p. 54.

I, 8.

12

GERMAN

WOMAN

IN

THE

ENLIGHTENMENT

arithmetic a n d measurement, 3 1 g e o g r a p h y , astronomy, a n d history, especially of their o w n country. 3 2 T h i s is a typical p r o g r a m a n d it c a n be f o u n d d u p l i c a t e d in almost any of the moral weeklies. T h o u g h this and similar plans were considered d a r i n g a n d r a d i c a l , the i n n o v a t i o n s and i m p r o v e m e n t s suggested d i d n o t g o b e y o n d a s u p e r f i c i a l g e n e r a l k n o w l e d g e , " u n p r o d u c t i v e of any intellectual a c h i e v e m e n t . " 8 3 Because of the lack of t h o r o u g h t r a i n i n g in any one d i r e c t i o n a n d neglect in d e v e l o p i n g specific talents and skills, w o m e n w i t h f e w e x c e p t i o n s cont i n u e d to live in the old way, w i t h o u t i n d e p e n d e n c e , l e a r n i n g , or intellectual m a t u r i t y , never f e e l i n g any u r g e to i m p r o v e their c o n d i t i o n s . A s late as 1750 the burghers of N ü r n b e r g locked their w o m e n in their rooms w h e n strangers were visiting. 3 4 A y o u n g girl was n o t a l l o w e d to w a l k across the street w i t h o u t b e i n g f o l l o w e d by a servant; e v e n w h e n she w e n t to church a m a i d trailed b e h i n d c a r r y i n g her prayer b o o k . U n d e r such limitations marriage was eagerly l o o k e d f o r w a r d to, e v e n t h o u g h little f r e e d o m was g a i n e d thereby. T h e girl m e r e l y passed f r o m the d o m i n a n c e of her parents to that of the h u s b a n d . R o m a n t i c love in marriage was considered a mere sentimentality, a n d the a u t h o r i t y of the p a r e n t in choosing a h u s b a n d was u n q u e s t i o n e d . O n the other h a n d , the spinster faced a dismal f u t u r e of r i d i c u l e a n d disdain. Marriage gave w o m e n a social status w h i c h was earnestly desired since there was n o substitute for it. Pietism was another influence w h i c h affected the role w o m e n p l a y e d in the eighteenth century. Since the Pietists accepted t h e m as equals, w o m e n became enthusiastic followers of this m o v e m e n t . M o r e o v e r , the Pietistic stress o n the e m o t i o n a l factors of the s p i r i t u a l life a p p e a l e d especially to w o m e n . T h i s a n d the Pietistic emphasis o n the equality of men and w o m e n before G o d served as strong s t i m u l i i n m a k i n g many w o m e n receptive to changes w h i c h gave them a l a r g e r share of selfd e t e r m i n a t i o n and responsibility. T h e ideals of v i r t u e d e v e l o p e d by the R a t i o n a l i s t s were also those of Pietism; the o n l y l e g i t i m a t e functions of w o m e n were those of w i f e a n d mother. Self-sacrifice, d e v o t i o n a n d loyalty were even m o r e strongly emphasized w i t h i n Pietist ranks than in those of the more secularly m i n d e d R a t i o n a l i s t s . B u t the important c o n t r i b u t i o n f r o m b o t h m o v e m e n t s , R a t i o n a l i s m a n d Pietism, 31. According to the definitions given by Adelung, Campe, " M e ß k u n s t " may also mean "the art of surveying." It seems hardly credible that girls were to receive instruction in surveying! 32. Der Patriot, I, 25. 33. Touaillon, op. cit., 47t. 34. Ibid., p. 54; also Hanstein, op. cit., p. 71.

T H E MORAL WEEKLIES

»3

tended to raise the status of women from subjection to one of near equality with men. T h o u g h the ideals for girls as developed by the moral weeklies did not go beyond the traditional duties and activities of women, the new objectives were a great step ahead, from darkness to light, in another respect. T h e writers of the articles were all far in advance of their time when they claimed that girls must be educated if they were to discharge their duties with efficiency, good sense, and enjoyment. T h e program set forth by the moral weeklies was truly a great contribution to the emancipation of the individual woman from the helpless state of ignorance. Proceeding on the thesis that woman is capable by nature, it was for these reformers an inescapable conclusion that her education must be an important social function. Only through the proper training of girls for their subsequent role in married life could they become sensible companions for their husbands, able housekeepers, and skillful and loving mothers.

II JOHANN CHRISTOPH GOTTSCHED (1700-1766)

P

OSTERITY HAS NEVER ACCORDED G o t t s c h e d t h e h o n o r a b l e p l a c e i n t h e

history of G e r m a n letters that rightfully belongs to him. Early in his life he reached the pinnacle of fame and succcss, but he could not keep pace with the quick rate of change during the eighteenth century and soon he was left behind his time. In his struggle as educator of his people, the very intentness with which he pursued his task—and he did need singleness of purpose to achieve his aim—blinded him to the new movements that followed as a logical sequence, and soon he was superseded, attacked, and maligned. Some of the denunciation hurled at him d u r i n g his life-time has clung to him to this day. Because he was a good organizer, he used the talents and labors of all w h o were ready to do his bidding. H e could therefore discharge with efficiency and speed the duties his many enterprises entailed. He was attacked for using such methods, and perhaps he was guilty of some exploitation; nevertheless, today we must commend him for recognizing the value of g r o u p projects. H e was not the giant his biographer Reichel would have us believe, nor was he the great dunce that Lessing and his contemporaries proclaimed him to be. He fulfilled a definite and very important function for which more thanks are due him than he ordinarily gets. H e had the ability to sense the need of his time and to satisfy that need through his work. 1 Y o u n g Gottsched was compelled to leave his native Prussia because his unusual height attracted unwelcome attention from the recruiting officer of K i n g Frederick W i l l i a m , w h o spared no efforts to replenish his favorite regiment of grenadiers. Hence, we find Gottsched in 1724 turning his steps toward Leipzig, at the time " f o r e i g n " soil. 2 Another reason for his move, according to Reichel, was the fact that his cousin had been living there for some time and had valuable connections 1. Gustav Waniek, Gottsched 1897), p. 6. s. Ibid., p. 17.

und

die deutsche

Literatur

seiner Zeit

(Leipzig,

JOHANN

CHRISTOPH

GOTTSCHED

15

with publishers and professors at the university. 8 Even in his early career at the University of Königsberg, Gottsched was interested in philosophy and literature, though officially he was a student of theology, in accordance with the wish of his father, pastor at the neighboring town of Juditten. 4 O f the many teachers under w h o m he studied, Georg Heinrich Rast 5 and Johann Valentin Pietsch,® one of the " H o f p o e t e n , " had the greatest influence. T h e first introduced him to Leibniz and Wolff and so to Rationalism, the latter influenced him in his creative writing which, conforming to the practice of the time, consisted for the most part of "Gelegenheitsgedichte." Y o u n g Gottsched showed rather unusual talents as an orator and he was frequently asked to " p r e a c h " before the ladies in the household of the king's governor, the D u k e of Holstein. 7 According to an apocryphal story, these ladies, the duke's mother, wife, and sister, helped him escape on the day when a recruiting sergeant had been posted by the duke to impress him into the guards. 8 T o g e t h e r with a younger brother, the youthful "Magister" arrived in Leipzig in February 1724. H e had been well-liked at Königsberg among students and faculty and had gained the esteem of many a good citizen there. Soon he was able to find entry into influential homes at Leipzig as well. O n l y a few months after his arrival he joined the household of Johann Burkhard Menke, professor of history at the university, 9 where he proved to be versatile and adaptable, and together with Klotz 1 0 was entrusted with the education of Menke's eldest son. H e also was put in charge of the professor's extensive library. Y o u n g Gottsched benefited greatly from this association with one of the leading spirits at the university. His knowledge was enriched; his studies received direction and method; he lived in close contact with a man w h o as editor of the Acta Eruditorum was, so to speak, one of the foci of intellectual activity in Germany and w h o carried on an extensive 3. Eugen Reichel, Gottsched (Berlin, 1908), I, 107. 4. Waniek, op. cit., p. 8. 5. Ibid., p. 10. Georg Heinrich Rast, 1695-17x6, was professor at Königsberg after

'7>9-

6. Ibid., p. 14; also Reichel, op. cit., I, 74, 78; Joh. Valentin Pietsch, 1690-1733, was a physician but had a wide reputation as a poet; he became very famous after he published his poem commemorating the victory of Prince Eugen at Temesvar. In 1717 the University of Königsberg appointed him Professor of Poetry. 7. Reichel, op. cit., I, 92. 8. Ibid., p. 94. 9. Ibid., p. 1 l j f . 10. He was the father of the well-known philologist.

i6

GERMAN WOMAN

IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

correspondence with like spirits in many countries. 1 1 In such an environment his facile mind and eagerness for learning received the necessary stimulation, and he obtained the training he needed for his future work. In addition, he was a member of a household where the amenities of a refined, cultured family life were observed. Professor Menke was a genial host, was very happily married, and was "a gallant friend of the fair sex," 1 2 even before the moral weeklies undertook to change the general attitude towards women. T h e young scholar was ambitious and had brought to Leipzig some ideas of his own; his enthusiasm for his native tongue was a rare phenomenon indeed at a time when the educated learned to read and write a foreign tongue, French or Latin, before they learned their own. Gottsched was convinced, even then, that if the Germans would b u t cultivate their own language, it would soon rival any other tongue in beauty and facility of expression. W a n i e k ascribes to Gottsched's influence the fact that soon after he had established the contact w i t h Menke, the Neue Zeitungen von gelehrten Sachen13 showed a m u c h greater interest in matters pertaining to German. T o W a n i e k it seems unquestionable that Gottsched began to work on this journal from the very start. 14 It was also the close association with Menke which opened to him the doors of the "Deutschiibende Gesellschaft," where he was soon to play a leading role. 1 5 In order to qualify for a teaching position at the university he had to become "Magister" there as well. T h e thesis he defended on this occasion throws light upon his subsequent work. In this dissertation, "Hamatigenia sive de fonte vitiorum humanorum quaestio philosophice soluta," he openly sided with the new concepts of Wolff. It required courage to do so since, because of his teachings, Wolff had been forced to leave his post at Halle only the year before and had even been threatened with death should he remain. In this thesis Gottsched attacked some time-honored concepts of vice and virtue, in contradiction to the beliefs of the orthodox clergy of the eighteenth century. Vice and sin, he maintained, were not the result of a lack of desire for virtue and goodness because of an absence of divine mercy, but were rather due to the limitations of human reason. Moral evil 11. Waniek, op. cit., p. «2. 12. Reichel, op. cit., I, 116. 13. T h i s periodical, edited by Johann Gottlieb Kxause 1715-1734 under Menke's general supervision, published extra correspondence Menke received but did not

use in his Acta Eruditorum. Waniek, op. cit., p. 22. 14. Ibid., p. 23. 15. Reichel, op. cit., p. 133.

JOHANN CHRISTOPH GOTTSCHED

17

stemmed from that; and we need but remove these limitations of o u r understanding in order to become moral. Education and learning thus have the power to improve morality. 1 6 T h i s belief, one of the main concepts of Rationalism, was at the same time the keynote to Gottsched's aims and principles. O u t of it sprang the ardor for the education of his people which burned undiminished throughout his life and which no hostility or opposition could quench. T h e next advance in the career of the young scholar was to follow in the footsteps of those w h o found in the writing and publication of periodicals a means of pursuing the aims of Rationalism. T o this end he founded Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen, which appeared for two years, in 1725 and 1726. T h o u g h patterned on contemporary English and German models, it possessed a character of its own. In some respects it was even unique; as editor and sole contributor, Gottsched devoted his entire publication to women, showing special interest in their life and their education. 1 7 He used the clever journalistic device of introducing three fictitious women as the writers and editors of the weekly. 1 8 Only in the last number did he definitely admit that he had been sole editor and writer. 1 9 Here again he proved his enterprise and courage, for he had not been at all sure how successful he would be. O n e of the fictitious women-editors ventured the opinion that "women will read our paper least of all, because of their ignorance, though it is especially written for them." 2 0 A n d in the very first article the writer tried to guess who would read it—all kinds of people, he concluded: the virtuous because it would give them pleasure to see their flattering reflection in the mirror—the sinful because they could find their faults there and so correct them. Finally, gentlemen would read it in order to win favor with their women friends. 21 T h i s phase of Gottsched's activity must be considered the most important for our study. He applied himself with much energy to championing woman's cause. He went beyond the usual criticisms and reforms suggested by the Patriot and the Discourse der Mahler— the other two weeklies which concentrated their efforts on widening the cultural 16. ibid., I, 138. 17. Gottsched, Gesammelte Schriften, I, 29. 18. Krull, op. cit., p. 14. She points out that this was not original with Gottsched since Steele had invented a feminine co-editor in the figure of Jenny Distaff. 19. Originally Gottsched had two co-editors, Professor J. F. May and J. G. H a m a n n . Both withdrew from the venture at the very beginning, the first writing number three and the other writing numbers 4, 6, 20, 28. 20. Gottsched, Gesammelte Schriften, I, 39. si. Ibid., I, 9.

i8

G E R M A N W O M A N IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

horizon of women—in inculcating into them bourgeois virtues designed to make them pleasant companions, good household managers, and loving, conscientious mothers. None of the writers ever suggested permitting women to decide for themselves whether they wished to emulate the ideals set up for them or not. Nor did Gottsched break with the traditional limitations completely. Nevertheless, his was the first real "woman's magazine." Moreover, he invited women to become active participants in the paper, using many more of their contributions than any other weekly before him. "Many excellent contributions from women in Silesia, Saxony, Nuremberg, Strassburg have been accepted," he told his audience. 22 Reichel doubts whether Gottsched actually published any considerable amount of the material submitted in response to his invitation. However, as he correctly points out, the importance of Gottsched's procedure lies not in the number of such publications, but rather in the fact that women wrote some of those letters and that they could find a place to be heard. 23 Before the Vernünftigen Tadlerinnen, the German weeklies contained, among a host of articles, some especially written for women. Gottsched was the first to come out clearly with the announcement that his whole magazine was for them and by them. T h o u g h the latter claim turned out to be fictional, it was important to bring the idea into the German-speaking countries that women were capable of doing such things. In his desire to emphasize his confidence in female capacity, Gottsched said to his readers: "For you, my dear sisters, it is an honor that your sex has manifested, if not aptitudes, then at least desire and eagerness for articles dealing with moral issues."24 T o his credit he dismissed as an outmoded question the old problem of whether women are as able to acquire learning as men are. In response to the query, "Are women also qualified to study?" Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen replied: W e are h u m a n beings as well as the men. N o one can deny this in earnest unless he be a fool. W e have the same powers that men have, the same aptitudes to d o something in the field of learning. W h o e v e r wishes to d e f e n d the opposite has never read about the many members of o u r sex who h a v e penetrated as deeply into the secrets of k n o w l e d g e as men have d o n e . "

T h e aim in publishing the weekly, Gottsched declares, was not to present new truths but rather to spread abroad the many already in !2. leben 23. «4. 85.

Ibid., II, 295; also Eugen Wolff, Gottscheds (Kiel, 1895), p. 117. Reichel, op. cit., p. iJ4f. Gottsched, Gesammelte Schriften, I, g. Ibid., I, 40.

Stellung in deutschen

Bildungs-

JOHANN CHRISTOPH GOTTSCHED

19

existence, so that human welfare would be improved by their knowledge and application. 26 T h e description of the contemporary mores was the point of departure in this plan. T h u s the weekly is "an important source for a picture of social conditions in the first half of the eighteenth century in that the numerous social faults, the lack of taste, and idiosyncracies of the time are mocked at and portrayed in characteristic human types." 27 These are innumerable and varied, so that the picture is full and enlightening. We learn of many foolish and extravagant customs, such as the ruling fashion in dress, the manner of extending New Year's greetings, the behavior of young men and women at church, etc. We witness intimate family gatherings and are taken into the drawing-rooms of the Leipzig bourgeoisie, where young men were admitted as uninvited guests even though their sole object was to court their "flames" with flattery and other attentions. We observe the students at Leipzig and Halle outside the classroom: the fops boasting of their conquests, annoying women with their awkward adoration; the boors misbehaving everywhere—in the theatres, the church, the taverns, and on the street—and coming home from their parties drunk and rowdy, performing noisy serenades. Gottsched spares no one, neither the blind devotees of foreign cultures, nor the superficial dandies, nor the stolid citizens who fritter their time away in card playing, nor the pedants and braggarts. He devotes particular attention to the idle routine of ladies and the petty, undignified behavior of the average middle-class woman. He censures women who waste their time in useless activity, going from visit to visit with the never-finished stocking; gossiping instead of applying themselves to household and children; the scandalmongers, the card-players, the "dolls," the nagging mistresses, the ambitious women covetous of titles, those who make a fetish of cleanliness, and the lazy, slovenly housekeepers. 28 Attributing these feminine vices to bad upbringing, Gottsched sets out a program designed to eliminate the cause. From the very beginning his interest is focused on a more adequate education for women. T h e fictitious editors put the case in an early issue of the weekly: Consider how poorly our sensibilities are developed. It is believed that we have received enough instruction when we are taught to read and write, and that little, badly. Thereupon a French woman is hired to teach us a foreign tongue before we are able to understand our own. Our minds are never 26. Ibid., II, 293. 27. Gustav W u s l m a n n , Aus Leipzigs 28. Reichel, op. cit., I, 170.

Vergangenheit

(Leipzig, 1885), p. 2 1 1 .

so

GERMAN WOMAN

IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

developed by any sciences, but only by a few fundamental principles of religion, ill related to one another, and more often impressed upon our memories than our hearts. When we leave school we also leave all books behind, with the exception of a prayer book. If perchance we do read, it is a silly, foolish novel which only encourages the vain among us in their vanity. Those writings which might contribute to the improvement of our reason seem too difficult for us, too abstruse and unintelligible; and since no one has taught us to engage in reflection and meditation and it is therefore doubly difficult for us to understand such books, we are discouraged and throw them away as soon as they are in our hands. Gottsched m a i n t a i n s that women as well as men have certain duties toward themselves which make it imperative for them to develop their intellectual powers as well as their physical. F a i l u r e to recognize this, he argues, results in neglect of their abilities and atrophy of their natural inclination toward virtue. 3 0 H e further asserts that many women might be reasonable and virtuous had they b u t received instruction in the improvement of their spiritual faculties. H e concludes that if the ignorance of women were not widespread, there would be fewer debauched or s t u b b o r n wives, fewer tyrannical or d o t i n g mothers, fewer women careless in their behavior towards servants. " O u r sex," his spokeswoman, Phyllis, declares, "is criticized and ridiculed by men because our gatherings are unworthy, even sinful pursuits—gossip, vicious joking, narrow concern with household affairs, g a m b l i n g . . . . Y e t only our ignorance is at fault if we d o not know how to entertain ourselves in a more fitting m a n n e r . " 3 1 W h a t kind of education, and how m u c h , did Gottsched advocate for women? T h e struggle of the period, its groping for a perfect educational plan for girls, was reflected in his treatises on this subject. A t the start, his program did n o t go beyond the very rudiments of learning according to present concepts, b u t was daring enough by eighteenthcentury standards. H e proposed t h a t from her fourth to her twelfth year a girl receive three to three four hours daily instruction in such subjects as G e r m a n , L a t i n , F r e n c h , reading, elementary g r a m m a r , spelling, arithmetic, religion, and letter writing. T h i s would still leave enough time for the c o n v e n t i o n a l f e m i n i n e arts, such as sewing. Household m a n a g e m e n t , he suggested, should be left until after a girl's twelfth year, when she would be sufficiently m a t u r e to meet the greater demands of such a s u b j e c t . 8 2 29. 30. 31. 32.

Gottsched, Gesammelte Schriften, I, jg. ¡bid., I, 42. Ibid., I, 43. Ibid., I, 154.

JOHANN CHRISTOPH GOTTSCHED

si

T o support his plan he cited the evidence of a correspondent, Marilis, the product of just such an education as he envisions for women. 3 3 Unlike the majority of the girls of the time, she had not been left in the hands of ignorant women but had fortunately been instructed by her father. She had received religious training as well as lessons in Latin and French. Since she had displayed especial interest in geography and history, she had been taught the elements of those sciences in early youth. In addition, during casual conversations, at mealtimes and on other occasions, her father had added to her knowledge. She also had received instruction in "Vernunft und Sittenlehre." Finally, she had been admonished never to lapse into vulgarisms of speech, and to learn to write correctly in German, since speaking, reading, and writing one's mother tongue was most important. Gottsched follows up the comments of Marilis with a condemnation of vain fathers who are satisfied with daughters who know how to play the piano or the lute, to dance well, but who know nothing of moral and religious education and will therefore perpetuate their ignorance by keeping their own daughters equally ignorant. 34 W h e n these innovations were kindly received, as letters from his correspondents indicate, Gottsched ventured still further with his rationalistic program of improving women's taste, culture, and morals. In reality, the training proposed for the average woman was extremely modest. Answering a request for a reading list, Gottsched wrote: "One needs many books if one wishes to show off one's learning, but few in order to be learned, and even fewer in order to have common sense and good judgment." 3 "' Moderate reading would suffice to correct the faults of women. Gottsched's views on women and their education were hardly original; we have already seen that the movement goes back to the seventeenth century. Nevertheless, Gottsched did more than anyone else to disseminate these ideas at a time when any education for women was viewed with hostile eyes. Even Lessing did not add to the program or suggest any substitute. Witness the wise Nathan, who knew of no better method of educating his beloved Recha than that which Marilis' father conceived. 36 Gottsched never advocated that women should become scholars. Just as all men need not devote their time and ability to study, so women need not do so either. Only those who felt any inclination and who pos3334. 35. 36.

ibid., I, 242f. Ibid., I, 246. Ibid., I, 156. See below, "Lessing,

Masterworks."

22

GERMAN WOMAN IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

sessed the aptitude should apply themselves to learning. Likewise he did not wish to dispense with those qualities considered essentially feminine. Thus one of the editors, Calliste, gives an ironical account of the Amazon "dream-state," run exclusively by women and for them. 37 She observes that women in this state no longer pay any attention to beauty of face, whiteness of throat, or to a graceful carriage of the body. Grooming and manners are unknown among them. There are no dancing masters to teach them, they read no novels to learn the art of clever conversation. T h e streets are littered with broken mirrors, since these are no longer used. Delicate, pretty hands, small agile feet cease to be admired, and all dealers in feminine accessories have left town because nobody purchases their wares. French styles are not imported, each woman following her own fancy and abandoning the accepted fashions of the day, such as the daring d^colletage. (In a later number, to be sure, Gottsched mocks at women for suffering discomfort and risking their health in the name of fashion.) 38 Horrified by these observations, Calliste can hardly believe that the stout, uncouth creatures she sees about her can be women. "Where are all the charms of our sex?" she asks. "Where are the winsome smile, the flashing eyes, the alluring gestures and facial expressions, where the thousand other attractions which at times make us even fall in love with our sex? Why do I not see any lutes or other musical instruments? Why do I not hear an angel's voice break into song?" When Calliste finally approaches an Amazon with these questions, she is scolded and pushed about so rudely that she awakes—thereby ending the nightmare. She then turns to a consideration of feminine vanity. Condemning both extremes, she strikes a middle way, exemplified by Modesta. This woman accepts the modest gifts nature has bestowed upon her and cultivates them modestly. She does not strike artificial poses and her natural grace pleases everyone. She does not waste six hours a day before her mirror; she is content with fifteen minutes in which to arrange her hair according to the prevailing fashion. T h e time saved from excessive preoccupation with her appearance is devoted to household tasks or to the reading of worth-while books. Therefore everyone considers her a pleasant, well-brought-up, and virtuous girl. 39 Gottsched's weekly warred incessantly against feminine faults. Just as vanity can be eliminated through proper training, so, too, susceptibility 37. Gottsched, Gesammelte 38. Ibid., I, 307. 39. Ibid., I, 52.

Schriften,

I, 49.

JOHANN CHRISTOPH GOTTSCHED

2$

to flattery, another outstanding vice among women, can be eradicated by this means. Gottsched censures parents who accustom their children to praise by reciting their accomplishments from the moment these are perceptible. One correspondent pleads for her sex: "[Do men] hold our sex in such disdain that [they do] not believe it can be freed of false notions of its excellencies? With the exception of a few sensible fathers and husbands all men seem to be united in keeping us from any awareness of our faults. When husbands wish to right the wrong, then it is usually too late." 40 T o attempt correction by going to the other extreme, common among some men, of painting women as black as possible is equally futile. Men ought rather to learn to talk about reasonable matters with women; "he knows not how to live who can tell women nothing but untruths." 41 Some forty years later, in Der Mißtrauische gegen sich selbst, Weisse motivates Melusine's behavior according to the very thesis expounded by Gottsched. 42 Intensely conscious of bourgeois propriety, Gottsched condemns the lack of dignity in women. On the one hand, he reproves women who aimlessly amble from house to house, preferring gossip with those of lower station to spending time with people of exemplary behavior and character. T h u s a certain Sempronia 43 prefers the company of seamstresses to that of a lady of standing. Though of good bourgeois family she feels at ease only among seamstresses; she has not learned to accept graciously the conventions of her own class. On the other hand, the bourgeois Clarimene acts the caste-proud aristocrat, berating her father for not having given her a title, looking down upon neighbors and friends—in fact, the whole town—and living a secluded life in order to avoid all contact with the bourgeoisie. Her behavior towards men is likewise dictated by her arrogance, for she disdains all those of middle-class origin, thereby destroying her chances for a happy marriage despite her father's wealth. T o emphasize the utter senselessness of such behavior, Gottsched tells an anecdote showing that such conduct was far from uncommon, and at the same time illustrating the general lack of refinement of the period. Rosemunda, behaving like Clarimene, refuses to dance with commoners but accepts a young nobleman as a partner at a wedding she attends. Among those spurned is an officer of middle-class origin who, resenting Rosemunda's open contempt for his group, boxes her ears at the end of the dance. T h e young aristocrat does not avenge 40. 41. 42. 43.

Ibid., I, 91. Ibid., I, 93. See below, "Weisse, Ibid., I, 68.

Comedies."

24

GERMAN WOMAN IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

the insult and the incident remains a choice bit of gossip for months to come. For a woman to forget her dignity was bad enough; but to allow herself to become the subject of common gossip was unforgivable. Gottsched points out that nothing is of greater importance to a woman than her good name, and that a beautiful and virtuous girl, properly brought up, will never permit her name to be involved in scandalous gossip, while those raised differently will excite unfavorable comment because of their indiscretions. T h e author castigates such behavior, not only on moral grounds but also for practical reasons, because immorality has never won for any woman the ultimate triumph—an advantageous marriage. T o reinforce his arguments he introduces a story which Reichel maintains was based on a personal experience. 44 T h e young scholar Sincerander, 45 recently arrived, is attracted by the beauty and accomplishments of a certain young lady, Libertina. During one of their conversations she admits that she has read all contemporary novels and also loves poetry dedicated to her by her admirers. She gives him her collection of such poems to read and asks him to add his own expression of admiration. He finds as many different admirers as there are poems. T h e suspicions of her virtue aroused by this discovery are verified by inquiries among her neighbors and friends so that he returns the "Arienbuch" with a letter in which he tells her bluntly that he has lost interest in her. Thus Libertina through her indiscreet conduct loses a fine husband. T o prevent their children from growing up into Libertinas parents are exhorted by Gottsched to conduct their own lives in exemplary fashion and so mold the character of their children into desirable patterns. In accordance with the thinking of the time, he regards vices to be of environmental origin. 46 A liberal education for women would enable them to understand and guide the development of children in an intelligent fashion. Only a thorough understanding of "Vernunft und Sittenlehre" can effect this end, and it is therefore a mischievous and harmful practice to keep women ignorant of the sciences.47 Similarly, Gottsched shows the advantage which a better education of women would bring for the general improvement of marriage, a matter of the greatest interest to the sex. He does not, however, devote much space to the various aspects of this problem. Quite rightly, 44. 45. 46. 47.

Reichel, op. cit., I, 268ft. Gottsched, Gesammelte Schriften, Ibid., II, 66. Ibid., I, 44f.

II, «9.

JOHANN

CHRISTOPH GOTTSCHED

25

in the light of modern knowledge, he emphasizes the desirability of a union of equals. He distinguishes various kinds of inequalities that should be a bar to marriage. In a somewhat tedious and trivial discourse he argues that a hunchback can expect to find love and happiness in marriage only with some one similarly afflicted. A n d as if it were a matter of no greater significance, he immediately follows this illustration with an expression of disapproval for unions involving different social classes. N o aristocrat can be truly happy with a bourgeois, since the differences in standards and upbringing are too great to be successfully reconciled. Here Gottsched's opinions, like those of Frau Gottsched later on, grew out of the prejudices of the time. Another practice quite prevalent at the time is, however, strongly deplored by Gottsched. T h i s is the long engagement forced by economic conditions upon all students, especially those studying theology. These extended periods of waiting, he says, hardly ever resulted in happy unions. 48 Gottsched's most vehement opposition is, however, reserved for the widespread custom of marrying an unknown person on the recommendation of an intermediary. T h e unhappiest marriages are often between those, he declares, who have never met before their wedding, in which money was of greater importance than character. Likewise, he condemns parents who force their children to marry those whom the parents have picked regardless of their suitability or the desires of the principals. 49 T h e repeated emphasis placed on a parent's authority by the plays of the subsequent era underlines Gottsched's opposition to this practice. Finally, Gottsched considers the problem of women w h o for one reason or another remain unmarried. Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen contains several letters from spinsters exposing the handicaps they faced in society. 30 It is impossible to determine whether these letters are genuine or the product of Gottsched's own pen. A t any rate, he shows a remarkable understanding of and sympathy for the situation. T h e chief complaint by the correspondents is directed toward the disdainful attitude of society. Even those spinsters whose economic security placed no burden on others resented the attitude of condescension toward them. Gottsched offers them no solution but marriage, though he is not unaware of the difficulties to be overcome. For him the chief reason for the failure of these women to marry was the lack of opportunity to meet men, an explanation also advanced by other 48. Ibid., 49. Ibid., 50. Ibid.,

I, 161. I, 223. II, 237.

26

GERMAN

WOMAN

IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

weeklies, like Die Discourse der Mahler and Der Patriot. T h e practical solution, as he thought, was the institution of a lottery in which women possessing those qualities accepted as desirable would be the prizes. These qualities are listed in order of merit. T o Gottsched, virtue is of first importance, with intelligence, wealth, physical beauty, and youth following in that sequence. T h i s scheme was presented in one number of the magazine. In a later issue he announced that no candidates for "first prizes" had appeared, but that many contestants had come forward. Obviously Gottsched wished to demonstrate that women remained unmarried because they lacked all the qualities considered important in a woman. 5 1 T h i s conflict in Gottsched between his sympathy for the plight of spinsters and his condemnation in denying them the possession of attractive qualities is a reflection of the rationalistic attitude on the one hand and of the traditional belief in woman's inferiority on the other. A profounder knowledge of the problems of the individual and a better appreciation of his struggle within society were definitely emerging as a result of the spread of Rationalism, as is here apparent in Gottsched. In conflict with this, however, is the conventional attitude, inherited from the pre-rationalistic period, that human nature is incapable of being changed, that good and evil are divinely ordained and therefore irrevocable. 52 Parenthetically, it should be remarked that Gottsched's preoccupation with the faults of woman does not blind him to other aspects of society about him. His weeklies contain discussions of vices and virtues, and treatises which might be of general interest to the reading public, such as essays on the elements of fine style, the nature of comedy, the essentials of a good sermon, the importance of cultivating one's native tongue. He wishes to instruct, to clarify and elevate the public taste, and to point the way for men and women to cast off their vices and become reasonable and therefore virtuous. In Der Biedermann, the second moral weekly which he published, 1 7 2 7 - 1 7 2 9 , Gottsched drops the device of the three women-editors which he had used in Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen with so much success. H e talks here in a more mature and serious vein to his readers, though following the same lines of thought. In Der Biedermann his ideas crystallize more definitely. Here he presents a concrete picture of a family in which all the ideas promulgated in Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen have been put into practice and bear fruit. His friend 51. Ibid., II, s^sf. 52. H. H. Korff, Der Geist der Goethezeit (Leipzig: J. J. Weber, 1923), I, 10.

JOHANN

CHRISTOPH

GOTTSCHED

27

Sophroniskus, 63 a member of the landed gentry, manages his own estate, dividing his time between business interests and cultural pursuits. T h e task of educating the children Sophroniskus and his wife Euphrosyne reserve for themselves because it is of prime importance; the boys are under the supervision of their father and tutors, the girls under the mother's guidance. Euphrosyne, a sensible woman, not one of the ignorant mothers so often chastized in Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen, has taught her daughters, Sophonisbe and Aretine, to manage a household efficiently. In addition, they have received an education in accordance with Gottsched's most advanced ideas on the subject. Describing Sophonisbe's 5 4 beauty in some detail, Gottsched assures his readers that her mind and soul equal her physical perfections. Her demeanor and manner are also faultless. H e calls her a "learned w o m a n " : she knows French and is well read in history and geography so that she can follow the news intelligently. She likes to read educational books since her mother has made it a habit to read to her daughters or to let them read to her after the household duties are finished. Gottsched makes special reference to Sophonisbe's beautiful handwriting, a skill particularly valued throughout the period. T h o u g h her accomplishments in music and dancing are not strictly achievements of learning, Gottsched notes them. A b o v e all he strongly approves of her interest in writing poetry to while away leisure hours. Her brother's teachers are her mentors in this art. "So intelligent a girl will easily advance in this craft and will soon demonstrate by her satisfactory output what a woman can accomplish when natural ability and expert instruction are not denied her." 6 5 T h e younger sister, Aretine, is as beautiful and virtuous as Sophonisbe and equals her in piety, humbleness, and her desire to be learned. Some of the stories used by their sensible mother to inculcate virtue in her children are recounted by Gottsched. O n e of these deals with a faithless wife who endures the cruel punishment of her husband with humility and patience, and after many years of suffering is forgiven and reunited with him. Euphrosyne, discussing the value of this story as a model of instruction, maintains that the woman should not have been forgiven for her transgressions. Gottsched, however, in true rationalistic fashion, argues that her recognition of her offense restores her virtue and warrants her forgiveness. 66 53. 54. 55. 56.

Gottsched, Ibid., III, Ibid., III, Ibid., III,

Gesammelte 52S. 55. 31 ff.

Schriften,

III, ioff.

z8

GERMAN W O M A N IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

Another story concerns Charlotte, a typically virtuous girl, who prefers persecution, privation, and suffering to wealth and comfort as the mistress of a young prince. Charlotte's steadfastness ultimately works a reformation in the prince's behavior and she is able to marry an honest and worthy man. 57 Gottsched's sympathetic attitude towards the education of women shown in his account of Euphrosyne and her daughters appears elsewhere in Der Biedermann. He continues to advocate that women be granted facilities for pursuing their interests in learning. He develops his thoughts on a higher education for them, thus demonstrating his full acceptance of women as his equals in erudition and ability to teach. He proposes the establishment of academies where women could be trained for entry into universities as students and eventually as teachers.58 In the seventy-odd years which had elapsed since Anna Maria von Schurmann wrote her thesis the attitude towards woman's education had changed greatly, but Gottsched's demand for equality of opportunity for them was a lone voice that went unheeded for a long time. His opinion of women's mental faculties was high and he never tired of urging them to enter all fields of intellectual pursuit. Gottsched would have liked women to contribute to the literature of the time, to the advancement of sciences in general; he admonished them to take their place with men in all intellectual endeavors. Nevertheless, he too set them limitations. He never advocated neglect of household duties, and like everyone else, gave precedence to these when the pursuit of learning interfered with their efficient execution; he never dreamed of allowing women to decide such a thing for themselves. Gottsched's magazines were very popular. 58 Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen appeared in an edition of two thousand copies and individual numbers were reprinted several times. In Reichel's estimation these were read by twenty thousand people—an impressive audiencel They also appeared later in book form and had several editions. Other periodicals, e.g. Der Patriot, criticized them favorably. As late as 1763 the editor of Die Hofmeisterin, a weekly appearing in Leipzig, made the following remarks: "Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen, one of the first and decidedly one of the very best of our local weeklies . . . we owe to the incessant labor of a great and worthy man." T h e Dresdenische Socrates compared Gottsched's first attempt at a weekly with the 57. Ibid., I l l , 77. 58. Ibid., III, 176. 59. R e i c h e l , op. cit., I, 222t.

JOHANN CHRISTOPH GOTTSCHED

sg

Spectator. Characteristic of the time, the reference was to the French translation of Addison's Spectator, not the English original or German translations.60 On the other hand, there were many opposed to Gottsched's views. In the fashion of the time, pamphlets and parodies appeared, mocking and attacking him, but he remained undaunted throughout the controversies.61 Härtung presents excerpts from a Danzig weekly, Die mühsame Bemerkerin der menschlichen Handlungen, 1736-37, which decried the general tone of Die Discourse der Mahler, Der Patriot, Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen. Of the last the Danzig journalist wrote: "They carried their unreasonable criticism so far that they were forced to leave Halle, and in Leipzig they were ordered to write in a more mannerly fashion." He goes on to accuse the Biedermann of hiding under its good name nothing but amorous trifles.62 Gottsched's later work was in a way a continuation and a more extensive development of the main lines of interest shown in the two moral weeklies, the dissemination of the ideas of Rationalism. First in importance is his fight for an improved and purer German, and for the refinement of literary taste. The first article he wrote in Leipzig was an attack on the so-called "Pasquillanten" literature of the time, a genre which knew no limit to vulgarity and crudity. 63 Die Weltweisheit was an extension of his early struggle to widen the intellectual scope of the public and to carry to the average citizen the new concepts and ideas which Rationalism was developing. Because it was in a more or less popular form, Die Weltweisheit was important in promoting some of the cultural changes of the time.84 His extensive labors for a dignified stage, his desire and endeavor for a worth-while German drama, his various other journalistic enterprises, his activities as a translatorall these had but one aim: to contribute actively to raising the aesthetic and cultural standards of his people. More than any other personality in eighteenth-century Germany, 60. Härtung, op. cit., p. 23. 61. Ibid., p. 29. 62. Idem. 63. Reichel, op. cit., I, 126. 64. Gottsched was accused by the Benedictine monk Dornbliith of merely having translated Thümig's Latin handbook with few original additions. Waniek and Wolff seem to agree that this is so. Reichel, of course, was violently indignant at such judgments, admitting only that Gottsched used Thümig's method of presentation. Here again it is difficult to judge, because the concepts of Rationalism were so general and alike wherever they were accepted that it seems to me it is impossible to draw the line between original contribution and plagiarism. Gottsched's volume was generally used as a textbook for science and ethics throughout the century and was widely read. Reichel, op. cit., I , 692.

3o

G E R M A N W O M A N IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

Gottsched devoted his life to popular enlightenment. If later in his life he could not go beyond the rigid rules accepted and even standardized during his youth, if he objected to and bitterly fought against any new idea because it seemed to endanger his own work, if he was unable to advance beyond a definite level, nevertheless his service should not be belittled. T h e discipline of his hard and fast rules was needed to break the force of tradition at a time when a new group was emerging as leaders of German literature, since whatever aesthetic discipline had prevailed in the past, this had largely disappeared during the Thirty Years' War and a man of Gottsched's peculiar talents was needed to co-ordinate and direct the various energies awakening and striving for emergence. Gottsched lacked the fierce independence and self-sufficiency of spirit which was so great a part of Lessing. But a generation separated the two, and Gottsched prepared the way for the younger man by his efforts to break the force of cultural and social conditions, some of which had been firmly entrenched since the Middle Ages. It took courage to become what Reichel justly called him, a "Kämpfer für Aufklärung und Volksbildung" at a time when to do so could mean persecution to the point of death, as was threatened to Wolff. It is also proof of his integrity and honesty that he became the declared champion of an exploited group, considered inferior practically everywhere. He was no revolutionary, but on the question of woman's place in society he held advanced ideas and was tireless in his efforts to convince his public of their value. It is true that nowhere did he raise the question of civil rights for women. T h a t does not surprise us. Who among the German bourgeoisie during the first half of the eighteenth century were conscious of civil rights for themselves? All lived more or less in servility to the nobility, accepting every infringement of their rights as citizens and human beings with hardly a protest, looking on their plight as the punishment of God and feeling greatly honored when the aristocracy befriended them. Gottsched was no exception in this. Gottsched was a pioneer in attempting to win a proper recognition of women as individuals. T h i s statement has been disputed, to be sure. Certain modern writers on the women's movement claim that Rousseau was the first to question the traditional concept of woman's incapacity for higher things. Some, among them Gertrud Bäumer in her Handbuch der Frauenbewegung,65 designate Theodor von Hippel as 65. Gertrud Bäumer, Die Geschichte

der Frauenbewegung

in Deutschland,

1.

JOHANN CHRISTOPH GOTTSCHED

31

the first German spokesman for women, 96 overlooking Gottsched's pioneer efforts. Those who examine his moral weeklies of the 1720'$ will certainly award first position to Gottsched. T h e result of Gottsched's efforts was a tremendous upsurge of interest in questions concerning women. Many women, a large group of whom had become restive, responded to his ideas, as we can see from the interest they evinced in his magazines and the efforts they made to elevate their level of living, intellectual and otherwise. We shall be able to substantiate these points later in the discussion of eighteenth-century comedies, which, as realistic pictures of their time, afford us insight into the struggles and gains made by women from the time of Gottsched's appearance to 1781. T e i l of Das Handbuch der Frauenbewegung, ed. Helene Lange and GeTtrud B ä u m e r (Berlin, 1901), p. 5. 66. T h e o d o r Gottlieb von Hippel, 1741-1796, lived in Königsberg. He published two books which deal with this question. Über die Ehe, 1774, went through f o u r editions with the point of view progressively modified. T h e other is Die Verbesserung der Weiber, 1792, in which Hippel champions complete equality of the sexes, " W e need to raise citizens for our state regardless of the differences in sex."

III HINRICH

BORKENSTEIN

(1705-1777)

I

is D I F F I C U L T to evaluate completely the mental stimulus the moral weeklies gave to their time or to appreciate fully the educative services rendered by them. But current comedies make it clear that they had a marked effect. In less than two decades after the new journalism made its appearance in Germany the stage had begun to reflect a new spirit in middle-class society, imbued with a larger conception of humanity and desirous of enjoying a fuller life than the narrow pre-rationalistic bourgeoisie had experienced. Der Bookesbeutel,1 a comedy written by a Hamburg citizen, is a faithful reproduction of the two divergent forces shaping the social changes of the period. It was first performed in 1741 in the city of its origin and published in the following year. Little is known about Hinrich Borkenstein, the author. 2 According to C. C. Redlich, 3 Borkenstein was born in Hamburg and lived there as a bookkeeper until about 1745. He then emigrated to Spain, whence he returned to his native city about 1766 as a very rich man. There he married a lady of refinement, who bore him three daughters and a son. T h e oldest daughter, Susanne or Susette,4 achieved fame in German letters; she is the Susette Gontard immortalized by Hölderlin in his Diotima. 6 Heitmüller also established that Borkenstein wrote at least one other play, Der Misch-Masch,* satirizing the mixing of foreign words and phrases in ordinary speech. Of this work nothing but the title is extant, though it was played in T

1. H i n r i c h Borkenstein, Der Bookesbeutel. Deutsche Literaturdenkmale des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, hrsg. von A u g u s t Sauer (Leipzig: G . J. G ö s c h e n , 1896), Vols. 56-572. Ibid., p. viii. 3. C . C. R e d l i c h , " H a m b u r g i s c h e D r a m a t i k e r v. F e r d i n a n d H e i t m ü l l e r , " Anzeiger für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, X I X , 168, b o u n d together with Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, X X V I I (Berlin, 1893). 4. H e i t m ü l l e r , op. cit., p. vii. 5. W i l h e l m B ö h m , Hölderlin (Halle, 1928), p. 194. 6. F e r d i n a n d H e i t m ü l l e r , Hamburgische Dramatiker zur Zeit Gottscheds und ihre Beziehungen zu ihm (Dresden: E. Pierson, 1891), p. 83.

HINRICH

BORKENSTEIN

33

Schröder. 7

1742 at least f o u r times i n H a m b u r g by F r a u T h i s play never a t t a i n e d the success of his first w o r k , w h i c h as late as 1768 still held the a t t e n t i o n of the t r o u p e directors—if n o t that of the audience. 8 T h e m a i n characters are G r o b i a n a n d his f a m i l y . Sittenreich, his son, starts the m a i n a c t i o n of the play w i t h the a n n o u n c e m e n t t h a t E h r e n w e h r t , close a n d d e a r f r i e n d since his days at the university, is to visit t h e m o n this day. U p b r a i d e d by his father, w h o never spends any m o n e y o n e n t e r t a i n i n g strangers, S i t t e n r e i c h appeases the irascible p a r e n t by disclosing the true reason for E h r e n w e h r t ' s visit. H e explains that E h r e n w e h r t , c o n v i n c e d that Sittenreich's sister, Susanna, must be as n o b l e a n d w e l l b r o u g h t u p as S i t t e n r e i c h h i m s e l f , desires to marry her. I n the course of the p l a y we l e a r n t h a t S i t t e n r e i c h was cared for by his u n c l e G u t h e r z , w h o p a i d for his studies at the university because his parents firmly b e l i e v e d that c h i l d r e n need w e a l t h b u t n o l e a r n i n g . Susanna, reared by her u n p r o g r e s s i v e parents, is u n c o u t h a n d v u l g a r like them. T h e r e f o r e S i t t e n r e i c h d o u b t s w h e t h e r E h r e n w e h r t will a c t u a l l y w a n t to m a r r y Susanna, o n c e h e k n o w s her. G r o b i a n fails to g r a s p the m e a n i n g of his son's w o r d s ; he is w i l l i n g to g i v e his d a u g h ter a sizable d o w r y a n d a c c o r d i n g to his w a y of t h i n k i n g , this is the o n l y p o i n t w o r t h c o n s i d e r a t i o n in any m a r r i a g e . Susanna, eager to attract and please her rich suitor, invites C h a r l o t t e , a p o o r b u t wellb r o u g h t - u p girl, to teach her q u i c k l y w h a t to say to E h r e n w e h r t w h e n she meets h i m or to p r o m p t her w i t h s u i t a b l e answers at the table. O f course this lesson has n o effect o n the " w i l d S u s a n n a . " Years of neglect and p o o r e x a m p l e c a n n o t be e r a d i c a t e d i n a short p e r i o d of instruction. S u s a n n a is u n a b l e to h i d e h e r i g n o r a n c e , lack of c o m m o n sense, a n d ill manners. E h r e n w e h r t a n d his sister, C a r o l i n a , find her coarse a n d u n c o u t h , and t u r n f r o m her. C h a r l o t t e , o n the o t h e r h a n d , captivates E h r e n w e h r t , w h o considers character in his f u t u r e w i f e of greater i m p o r t a n c e than d o w r y . Sittenreich, w h o has f o u n d l i v i n g w i t h his f a m i l y very disagreeable, proposes to C h a r l o t t e o n several occasions b e f o r e he has any idea of E h r e n w e h r t ' s intentions. She w i l l n o t consent to a m a r r i a g e w i t h h i m since she does n o t w i s h h i m to live in p o v e r t y . B o t h k n o w that G r o b i a n w o u l d never agree to h a v e his son marry a p o o r g i r l and w o u l d refuse them any m o n e y . Sittenreich assures her t h a t h e prefers poverty w i t h her to a life w i t h his f a m i l y , b u t she steadfastly refuses to listen 7. Ibid., p. 85t. 8. G. E. Lessings sämtliche Schriften, hrsg. v. Karl Lachmann, Dritte Auflage besorgt durch Franz Muncker (Stuttgart: G. J. Göschen, 1886-1924), X I X , 251. [Hereafter referred to as "Lessing-LM."]

34

GERMAN WOMAN IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

to him. When Carolina, who is heir to a sizable part of the Ehrenwehrt fortune, appears, the loyal Sittenreich is in a quandary. Despite Charlotte's discouragement of his suit he feels he cannot let her lose faith in him by marrying Carolina, yet he has now an opportunity to end his dependence on his father. Moreover, he becomes enamored of Carolina at first sight. His uncle Gutherz urges him to press his suit with Carolina and takes upon himself the task of righting him with Charlotte. Sittenreich follows his instructions but receives a lesson in steadfastness from Charlotte and Ehrenwehrt when they learn of his engagement to Carolina. Charlotte refuses to accept Ehrenwehrt until he brings her proof of Sittenreich's change of intentions. Because the situation can be so easily adjusted, both girls forgive Sittenreich's inconstancy. Susanna is not completely neglected in these transactions. Her mother promises her that within a fortnight she too will be affianced, to her cousin Rothbart. Since Rothbart is on the same level in education and manners as Susanna, this is a very satisfactory conclusion. Even Grobian must admit the wisdom of this union of equals. 9 As the title, Der Bookesbeutel, meaning "Schlendrian," indicates, 10 the author aimed at presenting the humdrum life of Hamburg, in particular the routine of a bourgeois family which had amassed wealth but lacked refinement and taste. T h e absurd restrictions and conventions, the ritual of family life, irrational and ludicrous at times, are the butt of his satire. Contrasted with the Hamburg customs and opinions represented in Grobian, is another set of conventions, which typify the new mores, the good sense and urbanity of the Enlightenment. T h e four women in the play fall into two groups, exemplifying contrasting manners and attitudes. Susanna and her mother form one group, abetted in their behavior by Grobian; Charlotte and Carolina the other, supported by Sittenreich, Ehrenwehrt, and Gutherz. At the start we see mother and daughter working together with two unnamed maidservants; the mother knitting, the daughter sewing, the others spinning—all singing songs. A heartwarming, domestic scene, one might sayl Frau Agneta considers "singing an hour before and after dinner a laudable custom she learned at home and wishes to preserve." 1 1 But what are they singing? We learn from Sittenreich, who comes in to announce the visitors to his mother, that the women are 9. Borkenstein, Der Bookesbeutel, p. 73. 10. Ibid., p. ixff; the explanation in Kluge's Etymologisches Wdrterbuch deutschen Sprache is largely based on the evidence collected by Heitmiiller. 1 1 . Ibid., p. 8.

der

HINRICH

BORKENSTEIN

35

enjoying the latest ribald ditties, which Susanna has brought home. Her mother, "no friend to innovations," nevertheless praises these new "worldly songs" and forbids her son to censure her taste. Hearing of Sittenreich's visitors, she refuses to meet them. She relents only when her husband insists that Ehrenwehrt, heir to "four tons of gold," is a desirable suitor for their daughter. She admonishes her son, however, to be sure to remind her guests that formal visits in Hamburg never last more than a quarter of an hour. Grobian, on the other hand, though as inhospitable and miserly as his wife, invites the strangers to dinner when these more gently-bred people naturally refrain from any immediate mention of the purpose of their visit. He would have preferred to discuss and settle the primary business of the visit at once. His emphasis on the money and intentions of Ehrenwehrt cannot, however, move his wife to endorse his invitation. How can he expect her to use clean linen and her best dishes on a weekday—a washday at that? Doesn't he know that there is not enough food, that they never entertain except on Sunday? Nevertheless, when Susanna appears rather enthusiastic about the stranger after she has caught a glimpse of him at a distance, the mother consents to serve them all; but Grobian must promise that he will excuse the disarray of the house—to be sure, the curtains are off the windows, but then it's washday. She then commands Susanna to dress for the occasion and eat with the guests. As for herself, she will take something for her vexation and go to bed. Frau Agneta's household is run according to a definite routine and no changes are ever made. Thus her husband can tell his guests what they are going to eat for dinner, since each day has a certain dish which invariably appears at the table year after year,12 a custom rather firmly entrenched among the bourgeoisie and one which Hebbel still used a century later in characterizing the stolidity of the class in his bourgeois tragedy Maria Magdalene. Frau Agneta's refusal to accept the guests, regardless of their importance, also stems from the same adherence to petty rules. She lives entirely by these and by superstitions. According to the latter, it does not augur well for the future of a marriage if the suitor's first visit is made on a day when the bride's house is not faultlessly clean. 13 Superstition also prompts her reassurance of Susanna that Ehrenwehrt will propose; she had a premonition that this would be a lucky day for her, and her premonitions invari12. Ibid., p. 33. 13. Ibid., p. 9.

g6

GERMAN WOMAN

IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

ably come true. Hadn't a cat come to cat the meat pie she had made w h e n a premonition had warned her to prepare food for a stranger? 1 4 F r a u Agneta is not only superstitious but is inordinately vain as well. She dispels her husband's misgivings about Ehrenwehrt's reticence by assuring him that she knows how to spur on a suitor: " I learned the art of matchmaking from my mother." H e r mother, she confides, had done the same for her because she said, " y o u too needed some help in overcoming your shyness." 1 '' 1 W h a t may surprise a modern reader is Grobian's rather good-natured approval of her mother's action. L a t e r in the play Frau Agneta demonstrates her skill as a matchmaker. T h o u g h not descending to vulgarity, her technique is obvious and clumsy. Her pride in her own insignificant accomplishments blinds here to the glaring faults in her daughter's upbringing. L i k e her husband, she too believes that money is the only worth-while asset a girl can bring to marriage; for the rest, "Susanna knows how to prepare as many dishes as there are days in the week, she knows how to sew and k n i t . " Furthermore, she likes to sing "devotional" songs; she never gambles for money—just for a kiss or something like that; she never drinks except some strong spirits occasionally to save on the wine. W h a t else does a woman need for wifehood? 1 0 I n her interview with Carolina, their contrasting modes of thinking and living are presented with telling effect. When Carolina, showing a polite interest, makes inquiries regarding Frau Agneta's health and well being, the unsocial bourgeoise has but one answer: " I thank y o u . " 1 7 On only one subject can she be drawn out: filled with pride in her own narrow way of life, she censures her neighbors' wastefulness, which she regards as a sin. In reply to Carolina's defense that the neighbors can afford to live well, Frau Agneta whines: " B u t one must think of the future. . . . W h e n one is concerned with such serious matters as my husband and I, one cannot enjoy the sweetness of life." 1 8 In another respect Frau Agneta betrays her narrow, middle-class background. Bourgeois complacency is evident in her boast that her daughter is just like her and the other women in the family, that the f a m i l y would not tolerate any deviation in Susanna—in fact, such deviation would cause enmity among its members. 1 9 Further evidence of this strongly bourgeois family-feeling is her concurrence in Grobian's insist14. Ibid., p. 3 1 . 1 5 . Ibid., p. 33. 16. Ibid., p. 4 1 .

17. Ibid., p. 42ft. 18. Ibid., p. 48. 19. Ibid., p. 47.

HINRICH

BORKENSTEIN

37

ence that his daughter marry within the family so as to keep the money among friends, and her final recommendation of a cousin as husband for her daughter. Just as her vices reveal her middle-class origin, the only virtue which the author attributes to Frau Agneta is also typical of her milieu. Preoccupied as she is with the petty concerns of her petty life, she is nevertheless devoted to her daughter and, as we have seen, exerts herself to secure a husband agreeable to Susanna and in accord with the prejudices of the family. Susanna is as superstitious as her mother and imitates her in her adherence to conventions. She is well-satisfied with her education. When called to task by her brother for her vulgar taste in songs she defends herself by pointing out that as long as her mother approves of them, he has no justification for his criticism. 20 In spite of her conceit, Susanna must have some feeling of inadequacy, for she fetches Charlotte to make sure that she will please Ehrenwehrt. Through her conversation with Charlotte we learn some details of her education. Because she was allowed to spend much time with the servants, Susanna has acquired many of their habits. She is rather astonished to learn from Charlotte that it is not quite proper for men and women of their class to kiss each other on meeting casually. She had observed this practice in their coachman and her cousin Rothbart and cannot understand why she is to behave differently. She even accuses Charlotte of merely wishing to lecture her when the latter categorically disapproves of Susanna's intimacies with the servants.21 Since Susanna has cultivated so many bad traits, Charlotte's lesson obviously has no effect on her; thus she leaves the dinner table before the guests, running to her mother with many complaints. She accuses Ehrenwehrt of being ill-mannered, 22 because he did not transfer the choicest bits of food from his plate to hers, as she had observed the coachman do. Nor did Ehrenwehrt urge her to eat. How is she to satisfy her hunger if no one does this? she queries. At a recent wedding party her neighbor, a Hamburg dandy, continually begged her to partake of the food and she was wellsatisfied at the end of the meal. In addition to his lack of concern in her welfare, Ehrenwehrt also displayed little interest in her person. He hardly looked at her and when he did address her, she could not understand him, while Charlotte was able to converse well with him. He neither held hands with her nor did he attempt any secret caresses 20. Ibid., p. 2off. 21. Ibid., p. 23. 22. Ibid., p. 29.

38

GERMAN WOMAN

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like her cousin Rothbart. He even discouraged her own advances. " H e is a lout," her mother exclaims at this point. 2 3 Despite his obvious shortcomings and her admission that she and Ehrenwehrt have little in common, she does want him as her fiancé, since her mother assures her that they will easily be able to change h i m to suit themselves. "Besides," Susanna exclaims to Charlotte, "does not the word fiancé sound heavenly?" 24 Susanna's appraisal of Ehrenwehrt's sister likewise reveals her o w n shallowness and stupidity. For example, she infers that since Carolina is as well informed as Charlotte, she must be equally poor and merely assuming the rôle of heiress. She accuses Carolina of lack of table manners because she leaves not a morsel on her plate, as good H a m b u r g custom demands. 25 L i v i n g only by irrational conventions and superstitions, Susanna has not even an inkling of refinement and good taste. T h u s she innocently tells of the games she is in the habit of playing with the house servants, not at all aware of their questionable morality. Her statement that her parents have always maintained that a girl from a wealthy home need have neither manners nor training reveals the author's view that her lack of high moral standards is the result of bad example and precept rather than of anything else. In accordance with the rules Gottsched laid down for comedy, the author, in emphasizing their bad characteristics, points to Susanna and A g n e t a as types frequently met in bourgeois society, to serve as examples to all. In the preface, not written by the author of the play, it is underscored that the stage is a "school of good virtues and customs and that this play portrays the horror of vice as well as the pleasantness of virtue." 2 9 Contrasted with the lack of upbringing and culture in Agneta and Susanna are the education and refinement of Carolina and Charlotte. T h o u g h the latter is a native of Hamburg, and just as well-bred as Carolina, w h o comes from Leipzig, the play contains references to the superior upbringing and taste of the women in Saxony, the echo of which still resounds in Lessing's Minna. Both are amiable, and wellmannered. T h e y are neither forward nor shy with men, but meet them on an equal footing. Both are able to converse understanding^ on current affairs and questions pertaining to general knowledge. For this 23. 24. 25. 26.

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

p. p. p. p.

30. 20. 30. 4.

HINRICH

BORKENSTEIN

39

they are severely criticized by Grobian, Agneta, and Susanna, but Sittenreich and Ehrenwehrt, themselves examples of refinement and education, find great pleasure in the knowledge, pleasant personality, and common sense of both girls. In this early comedy these traits are not so prominent as we shall find them in the plays that follow in quick succession. Neither Carolina nor Charlotte is drawn in such detail as Agneta and Susanna because the author wished to criticize the faults rather than define in detail the virtues of women. In bestowing wealthy and agreeable husbands upon the two desirable women, the rich Carolina as well as the poor Charlotte, he implies, nevertheless, that virtue receives its reward. O n at least two occasions Borkenstein presents his view on marriage. T h e s e are far advanced for his time, coinciding with those we have found in the moral weeklies and which serve throughout the following period as a point of departure for many plays. T h e old and new viewpoints are set off against each other in the two groups centered about Grobian and Ehrenwehrt. Ehrenwehrt, insisting that compatibility, similar upbringing, tastes and ideals are of greater importance, chooses a mate without money rather than one without the attributes which he values. 27 He emphasizes that though Charlotte is poor, she possesses all the traits he wishes his wife to have. Charlotte, on the other hand, though she does not endorse the contrary point of view, nevertheless points out to Sittenreich the folly of defying his parents, telling him of the fate of one of her friends who did just that and then ended in misery because of her poverty. 28 T h e real protagonist of this second point of view is Grobian, who illustrates the potency of this argument for the middle-class mind—he is even willing for the sake of acquiring larger sums through Ehrenwehrt, to abandon his cherished idea of keeping the money in the family. Although in the last analysis, money is not the deciding factor in the marriages contracted in the play, it does carry weight. T h e play is always referred to as a rather crude but true picture of H a m b u r g middle-class life. 28 T h e comic effects are achieved by the juxtaposition of the two sets of standards. Borkenstein can hardly be called a poet; he is, however, an astute observer with a flair for stressing the ludicrous in the behavior of his fellow citizens. Heitmiiller 3 0 points out that Borkenstein was probably influenced 27. 28. 29. 30.

Ibid., p. 70. Ibid., p. 26. Heitmiiller, Hamburgische Ibid., p. 79.

Dramatiker,

p. 81.

40

G E R M A N W O M A N IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

in the creation of some of his characters and the "moral" of the play by essays in Der Patriot. By underscoring the vices and their consequences in the chief characters and by rewarding Charlotte and Carolina—who are minor figures—more generously than Susanna, the author not only championed the new ideas that were being advanced in the moral weeklies but also declared himself specifically in favor of women's emancipation from the shackles of tradition by liberalizing their education and creating opportunities for the development of their personalities and their emergence as individuals.

IV FRAU GOTTSCHED (171 3-1762)

F

RAU GOTTSCHED was the true embodiment of the ideal woman as envisioned by Gottsched and some of his contemporaries. She was only fourteen years old w h e n Gottsched sent her an enthusiastic letter of praise, written in verse, comparing her to the well-known poetess Frau Möllerin. 1 T h e conventions of the time forbade her to answer, but her father's letter to Gottsched is still extant. He begs the young admirer "not to make too great a poetess out of my daughter, but to consider her youth and the limits of her understanding," and requests that he publish the poems anonymously so that "not every one would know w h o their author was." 2 She was born, 1713, Luise Adelgunde Viktoria Kulmus, the daughter of a physician in Danzig. Her mother, sickly though mentally alert, came from an old patrician family. T h e education of her daughter was far better and more complete than that of other girls of the time. Luise learned to read and write French from her mother, German from an uncle, and English from her stepbrother, w h o passed on to her the lessons he himself had just received. 3 A t the time she began her correspondence with Gottsched in 1729 she wrote him French letters at first, and told him that she was able to read and write English, not too well as yet, but hoped to improve; her command of G e r m a n was remarkable for her day. A t an early age she had developed a great interest in learning and was an industrious reader. Since her mother was ill a good deal of the time, Luise used to read to her often, mostly French books. Luise preferred those with a philosophical-moral content to any others and definitely disliked novels, the chief reading matter of women of her day. These tastes coincided neatly with Gottsched's own. He met her in 1729 when he passed 1. P a u l S c h i e n t h e r , Frau Gottsched p . 10. 2. Q u o t e d a f t e r K r u l l , op. cit., p. 3. Der Frau Luise, Adelgunde, Gedichte, nebst dem Ihr gestifteten hinterbliebenen Ehegatten (Leipzig,

und

die bürgerliche

25. Viktoria Gottschedinn, Ehrenmal u n d Ihrem 1763), I n t r o d u c t i o n .

Komödie

geb. Leben,

(Berlin, 1886),

Kulmus kleinere hrsg. von I h r e m

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ENLIGHTENMENT

through Danzig on his return from a visit to his parents. Charmed by her pleasing looks, "her interest in learning and her fine wit and skill in music," 4 he asked and received permission to correspond with the sixteen-year-old girl. Her musical ability was inherited and her parents afforded her the opportunity to develop her talent and taste. T h e musicales in their house were well-known throughout Danzig, and amateurs and professionals gathered there to play. T h i s interest continued throughout her lifetime, for after settling in Leipzig she took lessons from one of Bach's pupils. 5 Evidently she also composed, for a cantata for one of Gottsched's poems is to be found in the "Ehrenmal." 6 T h i s volume also contains some of her early poems, rescued by Gottsched and published after her death. 7 Generally speaking, this is undistinguished verse, showing little talent and originality. T h e poems are marked by all the contemporary faults of dullness, pedantry, and lack of warmth, as was more or less inevitable in an age that believed that anyone could write poetry by applying a standard set of rules to a particular situation. Nevertheless, Frau Gottsched was not the "learned lady" w h o knew nothing of the specific feminine skills so important in the education of a girl at the time. Her mother saw to it that she learned how to sew, and she was often found by her father bending over the lace pillow, something he disapproved of so heartily that he once threw it into the fire. In general she was a thrifty and efficient housekeeper. In the biography Gottsched wrote after her death, he praises her for this: S h e d i s c h a r g e d h e r h o u s e h o l d d u t i e s c o m p e t e n t l y w i t h o u t a n y u n d u e effort. S h e k e p t a d e t a i l e d a c c o u n t of h e r i n c o m e a n d all h e r e x p e n s e s a n d b a l a n c e d the b o o k s c a r e f u l l y at the e n d of the year. She p e r s o n a l l y a t t e n d e d t o all the s e w i n g in the h o u s e h o l d , g i v i n g it o u t to strangers o n l y w h e n she was busy with more remunerative work f r o m her pen which could not be postponed."

From the beginning of their acquaintance Gottsched directed much of her education. He suggested books for reading and translating, believing that superior models would best develop her intellect. Later he sent her music and books as gifts, always exhorting her to follow the great ideals set forth in them. He moralizes in his letters to her, he teaches a good deal, as we can deduce from her answers. 9 She often re4. Idem. 5. Reichel, op. cit., I, 258. 6. Der Frau Gottschedinn kleinere Gedichte, p. 1786. 7. Ibid., p. 2911. 8. Ibid., Introduction. 9. His letters to her have never been published, although they were available to Reichel early in the present century.

FRAU

GOTTSCHED

43

plies in the same vein and shows an eagerness to add to her learning which must have pleased her older friend greatly. She never considered her education finished, for after her marriage she started to study Latin with one of her husband's faithful disciples, Schwabe, and she often listened to her husband's lectures through a half-opened door. 1 0 Yet there was a peculiar fear in her of being considered a "learned lady." She inquired from one of her mother's friends, the Countess Kielmannsegg, whether studying Latin would give her that reputation, finding comfort at the same time in the thought that the Countess had not become a pedant though she had studied Latin. 1 1 Frau v. Runckel says of her in the preface to the letters she edited: " O u r Frau Gottsched sought fame and honor by becoming more perfect and clever." 1 2 She was thoroughly feminine despite the fact that she devoted her whole life to writing. Her letters often refer to her childlessness, and she shows keen, though restrained, sadness that she has been deprived of this fulfillment of a woman's life. In her letters to her "dearest, best friend" she shows other feminine qualities. R u m o r s reached Danzig about Gottsched's supposedly scandalous behavior in Leipzig and Luise wrote him an indignant letter, 18 but when he answered chiding her for her doubts, she became quite contrite: " M y sentimental heart could not remain indifferent," she pleads, "and I wrote you frankly. . . . It was no rustling leaf which made me tremble, but a mighty storm which shook my whole being." 1 4 A g a i n she shows great dignity in answering a letter in which he had asked her about reports that her face had been badly disfigured by an attack of smallpox (actually she had been ill with measles). She writes him that his implied distrust was painful, for she would never have deceived him, and she would have expected that his love would have enabled him to read a faithful account of her misfortune without wincing. 1 5 She forgives him his doubts when she receives his tender letter of apology. T h e real source of their misunderstandings during the six years of their betrothal was his persistent demand that she set a date for their marriage and her continual postponement. T h e reasons for this do not seem to be clear. She speaks only of their financial situ10. Ibid., Introduction. 11. Briefe der Frau Louise Adelgunde Viktorie Gottsched, geb. Kulmus, ed. Frau v. Runckel (Dresden, 1771), I, 231. 12. Briefe, Vorbericht, p. viii. 13. W e have n o way of knowing what their quarrel was about since all letters referring to it seemed to have been destroyed by them. 14. Ibid., i8f. 15. Ibid., p. 131.

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ENLIGHTENMENT

ation, which was not good during this time.1® She regrets that she can not bring him a dowry which would enable them to set up a household immediately, for he did not earn enough to do so until he was appointed full professor at the university. Whether this caution was inspired by her mother, as Reichel implies, or whether Luise was really afraid that they might live in want, cannot be determined from her correspondence. T h e over-enthusiastic Reichel accuses mother and daughter of holding Gottsched at a distance while they were looking around for a richer suitor, but offers no proof of this. 17 It is, however, true that the date for the marriage was not set until after her mother's death. Once his wife, she became his most faithful helper and follower, joining her talents and skill as a journalist 18 to his enterprise and initiative. She was tireless in her efforts, never refusing to undertake any task, no matter how arduous. She became co-worker in practically all of his undertakings; often she was chief contributor. Thus, she translated three hundred and thirty articles out of a total of six hundred and thirty-five for her husband's edition of Bayle's Dictionnaire. She wrote innumerable essays and book reviews for Gottsched's literary journals, and translated many books of a philosophical-moral content because of their educational value, since she was as much interested in education, especially in raising the cultural standards of women, as her husband was. In the letters she exchanged with Frau v. Runckel, one of her dearest friends, neither correspondent can ever tire of discussing the educational requirements for girls. 19 As an active partner in the controversies of Gottsched, she composed many pamphlets, most of them in a satirical vein. These usually appeared anonymously, but her authorship can be established from letters and other references. She translated many of the plays appearing in the first few volumes of the Schaubühne, contributing four original comedies to that collection and one tragedy, Panthea. Her fame was as widespread as the list of her works was long; her name was familiar in all German-speaking countries. On the occasion of the couple's visit to Vienna, for example, Empress Maria Theresia introduced Frau Gottsched to her daughters as the "most learned lady in all Europe." 20 As the age of Gottsched treated timely themes and characters in 16. 17. 18. 19. so.

Ibid., p. 41. Reichel, op. cit., I, 727. Krull, op. cit., p. 52. Ibid., p. 37. Der Frau Gottschedinn Kleinere

Gedichte,

p. x l i x .

FRAU

GOTTSCHED

45

comedy only, the comedies afford us an excellent opportunity to trace the position of women and the ideals of womanhood in the forties. T h e first dramatic work from Frau Gottsched's pen was an adaptation of Bougeant's La Femme docteur ou la théologie janseniste tombée en quenouille. Her version, Die Pietisterey im Fischbeinrocke, appeared anonymously in 1737. Its sharp attack on the religious hypocrisy of certain Pietistic circles attracted wide attention and the play was banned in many cities. 21 It has a typically eighteenth-century plot. A tyrannical mother, Frau Glaubeleichtin, wishes to force her sensible daughter, Jungfer Luischen, into a marriage with Magister Scheinfromm, a religious hypocrite. T h e emphasis is placed on the credulity, stubbornness and lack of any critical sense on the part of the women Pietists, especially of this mother. T h e appearance of the father and unmistakable proof of Magister Scheinfromm's duplicity end the unpleasant situation for the daughter, who can now marry the man she loves and whom her father approves. T h e feminine characters are drawn as types and show little individual characterization, nor do they emerge as models who are important as precursors for the later drama. Nevertheless, some traits which become the dominant characteristics in the later comedies appear here faintly adumbrated; thus, e.g., Jungfer Luischen's reasonable objections to her mother's demands mark her as a forerunner of the rational heroine in later plays. T h e tone of the play is still coarse and even vulgar, as it is in Der Bookesbeutel, and reflects contemporary conditions familiar to the authors. 22 Frau Gottsched's first original play, so-called, Die ungleiche Heirat, was the direct result of a practical problem. 23 This play appeared, anonymously, for the first time in Gottsched's Die deutsche Schaubühne.2* As in all the comedies of the period there is hardly any plot. Instead there are a number of more or less humorous characters, and the dialogue revolves about their doings, which are hardly ever amusing. Philippine von Ahnenstolz, member of an old aristocratic family, is in love with young Herr von Zierfeld, who is the son of a neighbor and friend of the family. T h e young couple look forward to marriage, but the decaying fortune of the von Ahnenstolz' must be restored. T h e 21. Fritz Brüggemann, Gottscheds Lebens-und Kunstreform, Vol. I l l of Deutsche Literatur. Reihe Aufklärung, ed. Heinz Kindermann (Leipzig, 1935), p. 137. »2. Schienther, op. cit., p. 143. 23. Der Frau Gottschedinn kleinere Gedichte, Introduction. 24. J. G. Gottsched, Die deutsche Schaubühne (Leipzig, 1744), V, Die ungleiche Heirat.

46

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only way to do this is to find a wealthy husband for Philippine. Her parents arrange a marriage between their caste-proud daughter and Herr Wilibald, of middle class origin, whose wealth will reinstate the impoverished family in its old splendor. In the dilemma Philippine devises a scheme to win fortune without sacrificing her love. Her plan, to which Zierfeld agrees, is to marry Wilibald, and to accept Zierfeld as her lover. Her hope is to force Wilibald eventually to withdraw, but not, of course, before he has paid her father's debts and showered her with gifts. T h e plan partially succeeds. Wilibald withdraws when he is convinced that Philippine is unfaithful. He generously lets them keep the 10,000 " T h a l e r " he has advanced them to pay some pressing debts. Following the ideas of her time, formulated chiefly by her husband, Frau Gottsched wrote her comedies to instruct the public. She heaped scorn on the evils and vices of her day and upheld the virtues which it admired. Of the three women-characters in Die ungleiche Heirat, two, Philippine and her mother, definitely represent vices which all should abhor. Frau von Ahnenstolz has about all the bad traits of character that could be ascribed to a woman of her class. She is inordinately proud of her ancestors, without living up to their high standards of conduct. Her life pivots on the long list of her forebears. She is vain and petty to the point of caricature. For example, on one occasion she comes into a room where her neighbor, Frau von Zierfeld, is seated. When Frau von Ahnenstolz enters, Frau von Zierfeld remains in her armchair, thus disregarding the rank of the visitor, to whom this seems unforgivable conduct. Indeed, she is convinced that for a thousand years to come the chronicles will still tell the story of this insult to her dignity. 25 Yet her excessive pride does not prevent her from accepting a bourgeois son-inlaw in order to better her economic situation. T o insult Herr Wilibald whenever and wherever she can and remind him continually of the great difference in their social position seem to be the only forms in which the aristocratic strain in her manifests itself. Similarly she feigns frailty; for according to her conception, an aristocrat must never enjoy good health. 26 Although actually quite robust, she suffers from all kinds of imaginary ills, which curiously enough, she allows to be treated by an ignorant, uncouth shepherd. Coarse, ill-mannered, ignorant, and stupid, she has raised her daughter to be her apt pupil. Philippine enters into a marriage of convenience fully prepared to betray her husband. Her complacency arises 25. ibid., p. 84. 16. Ibid., p. 82.

FRAU GOTTSCHED

47

from the fact that he is a member of the middle class, for her code of morals would not permit her to deceive a man of her own social position. She greedily accepts as her due Herr Wilibald's money and other gifts. Finally, her duplicity reaches its peak when she plots to force Wilibald to withdraw from the engagement or "experience the consequences of an unequal marriage." 27 The author makes it clear that Philippine is willing to marry Wilibald simply because her father wishes it. Although she loves another man, she does not oppose the marriage. T h e answer to this seeming paradox lies, as we have seen, in the financial status of the man of her choice: Herr von Zierfeld is not a poor man, but he does not have enough money to pay off the Ahnenstolz' creditors. These must be satisfied, and it is a matter of course that Philippine's happiness must be sacrificed for the material welfare of her parents. The subjection of children, especially girls, to their parents' will is not discussed or questioned here at all, as so often in the succeeding generation, yet criticism of it is implicit in Frau Gottsched's presentation. As already pointed out, criticisms of similar situations occur in the weeklies, and are also found in the essays and other writings of the time. Frau Gottsched did not intend her play to be a satire on or denunciation of the aristocracy alone. She exaggerated certain traits of that class because she wanted to point out the evils inherent in mixed marriages. In this she followed the practice of serious-minded writers in her epoch generally: poets, philosophers, and educators. It was their aim to raise the moral and ethical tone of the time and they attacked the evils and shortcomings of society wherever they found them. As an inspiration to their readers, they set up models of social conduct. In the drama these were then incorporated in one or more of the characters, who appear as patterns of virtuous behavior. Amalia in Die ungleiche Heirat is such a model. She is the only character presenting the aristocracy in a favorable light. The stepsister of Frau von Ahnenstolz, she has escaped her evil influence. Intelligent, with an eye for the weaknesses and idiosyncracies of her associates, she has a sharp tongue and is not afraid to tell the truth, even if it is not pleasant. She chides Wilibald for his foolish notion of marrying an aristocrat, for there surely must be among his own class a girl as beautiful as Philippine, a girl, sincere and virtuous, who well deserves an intelligent, rich, and well-mannered husband. In this way she awakens him to the folly of marriage with Philippine. In the end he is so impressed with Amalia's »7. Ibid., p. 103.

48

GERMAN

WOMAN

IN

THE

ENLIGHTENMENT

g o o d sense that he pleads with her to marry h i m . H e feels sure that they c o u l d be h a p p y because she does not have her relative's i n o r d i n a t e pride in her ancestors, but is " v e r n ü n f t i g " a n d values h i m justly. H e has missed the point of her a r g u m e n t and she puts h i m right. In her answer to h i m lies the thesis of the play. You are greatly mistaken, my dear Herr Wilibald. I belong to the aristocracy. T o be sure, I know you possess good sense, talents, and attainments; yet all this does not change my opinion that a member of the aristocracy could not live happily with you. . . . Were you of my own rank you would be the favorite among my suitors, yes I would prefer you to the most distinguished among them. But I remain true to my rule. . . . My dear Herr Wilibald, stay within your class, and if in the future any one else should cherish a similar wish, tell him what happened to you when you were engaged and warn him before his marriage." T h i s rule, to w h i c h A m a l i a remains f a i t h f u l , is not for the aristocracy alone. T h e raison d'être of the play was an actual situation in F r a u Gottsched's experience. H e r advice had been sought by a y o u n g w o m a n of r a n k w h o w a n t e d to marry the tutor of her brother. In response, she came o u t strongly against marriage between persons b e l o n g i n g to different social classes. 29 She projects this idea into her d r a m a a n d presents her views t h r o u g h A m a l i a in the f o r m of a practical rule for social conduct. H e r thesis is that each one, regardless of his rank, should stay w i t h i n that rank. T o support her p o i n t of view A m a l i a stresses the hardships w h i c h m i x e d marriages cause not only for the parents b u t also for the children of such a u n i o n . T h a t the play was not directed solely at the aristocracy b u t at every social class is clear both from its contents and f r o m the general attitude of its author. In the character of W i l i b a l d she certainly gives an unattractive picture of certain aspirations a n d concepts of the m i d d l e class, to w h i c h she herself belonged. O n the other h a n d , F r a u Gottsched had a m o n g the aristocracy many friends and acquaintances w h o m she held dear and w h o loved and respected her. H e r h u s b a n d recounts w i t h pride n u m e r o u s occasions o n w h i c h b o t h were h o n o r e d by the attention of aristocrats. 3 0 Frau Gottsched's n e x t comedy, Die Hausfranzösin,S1 was also written as a direct response to a p r o b l e m a t i c a l situation w h i c h had become more a n d more d i s t u r b i n g to her: the exclusive use of French tutors a n d governesses for children, w h o thus learned to speak French before s8. Ibid., p. 183. 29. Der Frau

Gottschedinn

kleinere

Gedichte,

Introduction.

30. Briefe, pp. i6ff. 31. Gottsched, Die deutsche

Schaubühne,

V, Die Hausframösin

oder Die

Mamsell.

FRAU

GOTTSCHED

49

they learned to speak German. Always interested in the education of children, Frau Gottsched took issue with this prevailing fashion. She discussed it in her letters, and wrote the play in order to show the danger of a blind acceptance of all that was French regardless of its intrinsic value. 3 2 Herr Germann, a rich merchant, has made his wife a deathbed promise that he will have only a French governess for his children. T h i s governess has since ruled the household and now has Hannchen, a girl of nine, and the sixteen-year-old Franz completely under her sway. H o w Luischen, the oldest daughter, has escaped her influence is not made clear in the play; we are to accept that on the word of the author. Luischen is the only one w h o has kept her good sense, and so opposes the "Franzosenwirtschaft" in her father's home. T h o u g h her uncle and his son strongly support her attempts to offset the French influence, her efforts have so far been in vain. Franz is to go on his grand tour of France, with the old scoundrel Sotenville as companion and the young rascal L a Fleur, w h o is really Sotenville's son, as servant. T h e s e two sharpers plan to make away with all the money and other possessions of Franz. Uncle W a h r m u n d , w h o has suspected them for a long time, receives information that confirms his worst fears: both father and son are criminals. Realizing that they are discovered, the three villains— Sotenville, his daughter, Mademoiselle la Flèche, and L a Fleur—flee, taking with them little Hannchen, or Nannette as the French governess calls her. T h u s they restrain Herr G e r m a n n from canceling the blank check he had given his son, w h o in turn surrendered it to Sotenville. 32. Frau Gottsched is not at all one-sided. Accepting French superiority when it is established as fact, she ridicules the general veneration of all that is French. It is noteworthy that Gottsched agrees with his wife, in spite of his own imitation of the French (all that has been said in the course of the years to the contrary, notwithstanding). In the introduction of the fifth volume of the Schaubühne he expresses the hope that this play will lead to a realization of the evils brought about by the practice so prevalent in Germany during the preceding fifty or sixty years of bringing children up entirely in the French tradition. By this practice G e r m a n s merely become "lüsterne A f f e n " of their neighbors and enemies, disdaini n g their own parents, friends, customs, fellow-citizens, and their country in general, and the sad results can be seen sufficiently in all classes of society. H e also assures his readers that he does not condemn "the whole nation because of the faults of individual members of it, and does want to honor and praise them as m u c h as they deserve: if that nation only w o u l d not pose as the born 'Hofmeisterin' of the human race, and were it not for the fact that those peoples w h o have accepted the burden of her manners and conceits most aptly, and have fed and enriched the proud teachers have been scorned and derided as stupid simpletons, as can be seen clearly from the writings of those Frenchmen w h o perhaps without the G e r m a n bread they eat, would not have any at all." Ibid., p. 1 if.

5o

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WOMAN

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In spite of Nannette's adoration of when taken away from home, and not to draw attention to themselves. bors, the French plague is ended in

ENLIGHTENMENT

all that is French, she cries bitterly is abandoned by the three in order W h e n she is brought home by neighthe household of Herr Germann.

It would be interesting to examine in detail Frau Gottsched's arguments and pleas for a rational, golden mean as between French ways and German ways. Here, however, we can enter only upon those which illuminate the position of women in her day. O n e of her most cogent arguments is for better treatment of German girls w h o become governesses. Herr W a h r m u n d , w h o abhors anything French and is used in the play to expose the folly of exaggerated Francophilism, rebukes his brother for claiming that children under French tutors and governesses have better

manners.

K e e p t h e m [ G e r m a n girls as governesses] o n t h e s a m e l e v e l as y o u k e e p the F r e n c h g i r l , so t h a t an h o n o r a b l e s o u l n e e d n o t b e a s h a m e d of b e i n g a child's n u r s e . T h a t is the m i s f o r t u n e a m o n g us G e r m a n s : as soon as w e e n g a g e a G e r m a n g i r l as a g o v e r n e s s , w e dismiss a m a i d . W e c o n s i d e r the [ G e r m a n ] g o v e r n e s s as a m a i d a n d as o f t e n as n o t g i v e h e r n o m o r e m o n e y than a m a i d , o f t e n e v e n less. B u t if it is a F r e n c h g o v e r n e s s . . . t h e n w e a d d a n o t h e r m a i d t o the h o u s e h o l d , so that the " M a m s e l l " m a y h a v e service also. . . . She d o e s n o t r e c e i v e a n o l d dress e v e r y y e a r , b u t a n e w o n e ; a n d the s u m of m o n e y she r e c e i v e s is l a r g e e n o u g h t o s u p p o r t a w i f e , w h i l e the g i f t s she is a b l e t o s e c u r e by h e r i n t u i t i v e w i l e s a m o u n t t o e v e n m o r e . M a n y a n impoverished merchant's daughter w o u l d like such treatment."

T h i s passage is of special interest, first of all because not many such practical suggestions can be found in the literature of this period, and secondly, since it definitely points out an occupation for women of the middle classes w h o had to earn a living. Frau Gottsched was greatly interested in this question. W e find similar ideas on the subject in her letters. O n e of these is worth q u o t i n g in this connection, as it sets forth the author's idea of the characteristics necessary in a young woman w h o as governess is to set a pattern of conduct. It is, indeed, a summary of Frau Gottsched's conception of the accomplishments and moral qualities desirable in a woman of the middle class. W r i t i n g to a certain Mademoiselle Schulze in Dresden (November 20, 1757) she suggests that her correspondent become the first one to accept a position as governess in a good house. 34 Frau Gottsched had been asked a short time before to find a governess, who, to be sure, had to be French; but so 33. Ibid., p. iog: A rather interesting comment on prevailing customs. 34. Briefe, II, p. 37ft.

FRAU GOTTSCHED

51

many other qualities were demanded that she could find no one who had them all. A good pronunciation is taken for granted in a French girl, but is missing in many, and each province imprints its own special dialect, which often diverges from pure speech. . . . Your pronunciation, your diction are so perfect that you surely can be the tutor of young aristocrats. Your beautiful handwriting [it is striking how often this is stressed], your skill in drawing, your accomplishments on the piano give you a right to expect one of the best of such positions when we consider the perfection of your mind; and your good heart, your faultless manners will certainly imprint virtue and wisdom on the minds of your pupils. May I make a suggestion to you? Accept such a position. You will have honor and advantages, and your pupils will profit more than from most French-born governesses.

She complains about the many poor French governesses one finds, but admits that the good ones are, of course, not to be blamed for the others. I have often wished that honest pastors, merchants, or even scholars who can just earn enough to get along and often leave a number of helpless daughters, would spend so much for their education that they could find a livelihood in a respectable fashion. This would d o a great deal of good, and our girls would be preferred to those foreigners, who only too often teach their pupils bad manners, a bad pronunciation, and bad habits."

Luischen is depicted as a sensible girl, with a keen eye for the weaknesses and foibles of her fellow-beings. It is a credit to her intelligence that neither the governess, Mademoiselle la Flèche, nor the latter's father could fool her; that she recognizes them for the scoundrels they are. She is resolute, and has a nice sense of the practical. When she tells her cousin, young Wahrmund, about her brother's sudden journey, he asks how Franz will travel. She answers: "With his own [conveyance]. When a well-to-do German arranges his expenses according to French ideas, then everything is ten times more costly and luxurious than is necessary." Again, her domesticity and sound common sense appear when she asks Mademoiselle la Flèche what kind of shirts and undershirts her brother will use. T h e superficial Frenchwoman had never thought of providing such necessities; all she could arrange for was luxurious suits of clothes. Luischen promises herself that her brother shall not travel until he is provided with essentials as well as luxuries. Her sensible attitude comes to the fore in another situation. Chance helps her devise an ingenious plan for bringing home to her brother 35. Idem.

52

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ENLIGHTENMENT

the absurdity of his belief in the superiority of everything French. Mademoiselle la Flèche has ordered a dog-house for Luischen's pet; the carpenter brings instead a sort of bird cage into which Luischen then puts Mademoiselle la Flèche's dog. Franz at first thinks it is a ridiculous arrangement, but when he is told that it was the idea of his adored governess, he reverses his opinion. T h e n , when Mademoiselle la Flèche, who of course sees no humor in the situation, reveals the truth, Franz goes back at once to his first opinion. T h i s gives Luischen an opening to chide him for his vacillation and dependence on French examples. Luischen possesses the sound bourgeois qualities that Frau Gottsched demands and extolls in her letters. O l d Sotenville wants to instruct her as to how she must behave if she wishes to be considered a "dame de qualité." Ile advances the traditional pattern of a frivolous life: rising late, receiving men friends early, playing cards, making the rounds of parties, etc. T o Luischen's simple question as to who would see that her father was taken care of, Sotenville asks with a cynical laugh: " W h o wants to bother with a father or husband?" 3 6 Luischen: "If I had a husband whom I loved I would be anxious about whether he has—" Sotenville will not even let her finish: " W h o , indeed, wants to love a husband?" he asks. She finally has enough of such nonsense and says that he should have begun by telling her what to do to become a "dame de qualité," "for it seems to me that the daughter or wife of a merchant w h o would imitate the behavior of a 'dame de qualité' plays a very foolish rôle in this world." S T T h i s is Frau Gottsched at her best. In Fräulein Amalia and Jungfer Luischen, as Frau Gottsched characterizes them, we observe the evolution of her ideal of womanhood. Karoline of Dos Testament is the last in this series. It is Frau Gottsched's most mature as well as most original play. In Die ungleiche Heirat she had borrowed heavily from Molière; 3 8 in Die Hausfranzösin, from Holberg; 3 9 but Das Testament has an original plot, and the characters, especially Karoline, are fresher and more spontaneous. T h i s comedy also made its appearance in the Schaubühne, where Gottsched introduced it, as he did all the other plays of this collection, with a brief preface. He praises it for the model it follows and for its style and theme. 40 T h e rewarding of virtue, the ridicule of vice are among its 36. G o t t s c h e d , Die deutsche Schaubühne, V , 160. 37. Ibid., p. 162. 38. George Dandin. 39. Jean de France. 40. It is i n t e r e s t i n g to e x a m i n e this p r e f a c e : ". . . . Association w i t h f a m i l i e s , p l e a s a n t f u n , the play of passion in y o u n g people, frustrated a m b i t i o n s , r e w a r d e d

FRAU GOTTSCHED

53

merits, he says. Here we see again the didactic aim in the literature of the period, dramas, essays, and whatever else: a model of virtue is created; over against this, vice is made detestable by ridicule. T h e plot, as in all the other plays of Frau Gottsched, is very meagre and thin. T h e r e is no action. T h e dramatists of the early eighteenth century had not yet learned to write a play with action, suspense, and a well-developed plot. Frau von T i e f e n b o r n is about to make her will. She has three close blood relatives. T w o of them, Amalia and Amalia's brother, Herr von Kaltenbrunn, have selfish designs on the fortune, each determined to be the sole heir. T h e y lie, cheat, browbeat the elderly lady, intercept her mail, keep the outside world away from her, and try to convince her that she is on the point of death. Karoline, the third close relative, is of a quite different character; she wishes her aunt a long and happy life in which to enjoy her money. In the end Frau von Tiefenborn escapes the machinations of the precious pair of scheming relatives by affiancing herself to the brother of her sister's husband, w h o consequently becomes chief heir. Of her nieces and nephew only Karoline receives a goodly sum of money for her honesty and virtue. Karoline is the protagonist of Frau Gottsched's view of life. She has the characteristics of the rationalistic pattern. A girl of great independence, truthful to the point of imprudence, she has the clearness of vision to see through her scheming and corrupt sister and brother. She attacks them and treats them with scorn, but never with contempt, for she earnestly desires that they should desist from their evil way of life and become honest and respectable, worthy of their kind and generous aunt. O n the other hand, her brother wants money only for his gambling and profligate ways, and Amalia's ambitions extend no further than marriage. A l t h o u g h Karoline might have exposed them to her o w n advantage, she never resorts to such means. Her honest and unselfish nature demands rather that she criticize them face to face. Hence her reproof of A m a l i a for wanting money to attract suitors. 41 virtue, the ridicule of vice, these all are the excellent points found in it. In this manner most of the comedies by Destouches are fashioned and in this respect he is certainly to be preferred to Molière." T h e reason for Destouches' more refined way of writing lies in the different way of life; Destouches came into contact with the noble people of the courts, while Molière moved about in France with a roving band of common comedians. " W h o e v e r has not come in contact with the manner of life of a class higher than the bourgeoisie," Gottsched continues, "and has not seen any other customs than those in school and universities, will try in vain to reach 'the refined type of social intercourse and raillery' which appears in the Destouches dramas." Gottsched, Die deutsche Schaubiihne, V, lof. 41. Ibid., p. 85.

54

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A striking feature of Das Testament,

ENLIGHTENMENT though not its theme, is the

great contrast between the classes. T h i s is abundantly documented in legal and other records of the time, in contemporary memoirs and correspondence, and has been stressed by all historians of German culture in this period. Biedermann, for example, sums it u p in his work on the social history of the eighteenth century as follows: What first of all catches the attention of an observer of social conditions in Germany at the beginning of the eighteenth century is the sharp contrast which manifested itself, with few exceptions, in regard to customs and modes of living, social aspirations and moral views, between the court and the aristocracy on the one hand and the rest of the people or the so-called middle class. It was not enough that the former deemed themselves superior in every way, in society and the state, that they repulsed and disdained the latter; it seems, so to speak, as if the two groups did not belong to one and the same people, so great was the chasm which divided one from the other in respect to culture and social attitude. T h e aristocrats who set the " T o n " seemed thoroughly and completely imbued with French customs, habits, dress, speech, and social forms; their tendencies and feelings, taste and education turned completely to the foreign country and away from home. . . They considered it their duty to affirm the existence of a deep abyss between themselves and the other classes and followed in this the example of the aristocracy which went furthest in respect to separation from the people—the French aristocracy." T h e middle class was by no means ready to take over the leadership in Germany. Biedermann continues: At the beginning of the period which we are describing, the bourgeois class in contrast to the higher circles, corrupted by foreign influences, seemed insufficiently representative of national culture and social attitude. A part of them was tainted with the same preference for the foreign, or was striving, with admiration and envy, to imitate the upper classes. Another part was sunk in crudeness and served thereby as a welcome " f o i l " to this brilliant cult of fashion. . . . In no other period of German history was the division among the classes so noticeable and in its effect so detrimental.*4 T h i s background is essential to an understanding of Amalia's desire to find a husband, in fact it even makes it possible to comprehend her attitude, for girls of the upper classes could not possibly face so dreadful a fate as spinsterhood. T h i s was tolerable only among the middle and lower classes. By censuring Amalia for her behavior, Karoline puts herself above such petty ideas and thereby represents a step forward in the emancipation of woman's spirit from the shackles of tradition and 41. Karl Biedermann, Deutschland im 18. Jahrhundert (München, 1919), p. 3. 43. Ibid., p. 4. 44. Idem.

FRAU

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55

iron-clad custom. Frau Gottsched protested against marriages of convenience, or marriage without love, as an escape from spinsterhood. In general, however, the scorn and even the contempt of society was the sorry lot of the unmarried. A n d so girls tried to attain the goal of wedlock, n o matter what the price. T h e limited, humdrum life of women in the early eighteenth century made the problem of husband and marriage the important one for all of them. T h e r e was practically nothing a woman of the aristocracy or the bourgeoisie could do except marry. If for some reason marriage was impossible for a woman, it was only one of great fortitude w h o could achieve a contented and purposeful life. W i t h truly rationalistic optimism, Frau Gottsched and many of her contemporaries tried to bring some alleviation in the lot of women to those w h o deserved it. A better education was one way of changing a situation that cried for help. Y o u n g Gottsched also took note of this problem, without offering any real solution, as was pointed out in a previous chapter. 4 5 In the letters of Frau Gottsched, however, written some twenty-five years later, the outlook had changed. She suggested training girls to become governesses if they could not obtain husbands, though marriage in her opinion was still the best solution to the woman's problem. But here Frau Gottsched made an advance by demanding discrimination; n o longer would she be willing (as for example some heroines in the plays of Schlegel are) to have one marry an unworthy person merely to escape the scorn of society. She tried to imbue others with the same spirit. 46 T h u s we are not surprised to find Karoline voicing a more modern and independent point of view. T o return to the matter of Karoline's honesty. Knowing that the eighteenth-century audience liked to see virtue demonstrated, Frau Gottsched, like so many of the dramatists of the period, used the "test" device to reveal her heroine's honest nature more concretely. Frau von Tiefenborn: W e l l , if your sister is as innocent as you say, and if your brother's improvement is so certain, then both are now worthy of being rewarded by me. W h o will defend you, however, you who have so often provoked my anger by your outspokenness? Karoline: O n l y my honest heart must do it: where this cannot excuse my frankness then I must accept all the punishment which my abhorrence of flattery has b r o u g h t u p o n me.

W h e n her aunt intimates that the defense of her scheming brother and 45. See Chapter II. 4 6 . Briefe,

p . 28.

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ENLIGHTENMENT

sister is dishonorable, she replies: " W o u l d you trust me more if I had maligned my sister and brother?" T h i s candidness causes Frau von T i e f e n b o r n great anxiety for Karoline's future; but Karoline persists: " M a y G o d keep me from every penny which I might get through falsity and calumny." 4 7 Cleverness, sound judgment, and capability are the characteristics demanded again and again from women by all writers w h o devoted time to a discussion of feminine virtues. T h e moral weeklies often contain lengthy passages given over to a delineation of the ideal woman as well as to the flaying of femine vices. T h e character of Karoline does not, then, show anything original or startling. Her characterization rather falls into line with the general trends and aspirations of the time. B u t by incorporating into a play the principles so generally accepted, Frau Gottsched translated her ideals into human form and was thus able to enforce her moral purpose under an agreeable and entertaining guise. A product of her time, Karoline is dominated in her actions by her reason, even though Frau von T i e f e n b o r n does refer to her "good heart." 4 8 It is her reason which enables her to understand Amalia's behavior, her reason which dictates her answer to Herr von Kreuzweg, her sister's suitor, w h o wants to transfer his affections to her after he hears that it is she w h o has inherited the money and not Amalia. 4 9 Her self-sacrifice, another quality essential in the popular heroine of the day, is determined rather by her reason than her emotions. Karoline's answer to Herr von Kreuzweg as to why she will not marry him is not just an excuse: " N o w my gratitude demands of me that I should redouble my services to my aunt, and I surely will not think of marriage as long as she lives." 50 O f the three women characters in this play, Frau von T i e f e n b o r n is the least clearly drawn. Her behavior seems revolting to Frau Gottsched and is treated satirically. She shows good common sense for the most part, but she is affected by some conventions of the day and becomes at times a ridiculous figure. She wants to get married yet feels that this is not proper for a woman of her age. She therefore welcomes the assurances of her brother-in-law that she still is charming and young enough 47. Gottsched, Die deutsche Schaubühne, V I , 150. Das Testament. 48. Frau v. T i e f e n b o r n says of Karoline to her brother-in-law: "I can't overlook Karoline in my will . . . her heart is too n o b l e ! " Herr von Ziegenfeld: " I t is true, her intentions are good, only her tongue is too sharp." Ibid., p. 15a. 49. "Formerly I was too poor for you, and now I consider myself too rich compared with y o u . " Ibid., p. 164. 50. Idem.

FRAU

GOTTSCHED

57

to marry. In fact, she invites such flattery a n d so loses her dignity and our respect, so that o n e has to l a u g h at her folly. Lest the audience or the reader be misled and interpret Frau von T i e f e n b o r n as a pathetic or sympathetic figure, Frau G o t t s c h e d indicates by stage directions that her attitude is affected and silly. 5 1 Frau Gottsched did not enter into a l o n g or detailed characterization of the weaknesses e x e m p l i f i e d in such a character, as G e l l e r t w o u l d have done. She was far more interested in j u x t a p o s i n g the virtues and vices of the two sisters. A m a l i a is the foil for K a r o l i n e ' s virtues. She represents the covetous, stupid girl w h o w i l l not let a n y t h i n g stand in her way. T h u s she does not hesitate to m a l i g n her sister a n d brother w h e n she believes that this will further her o w n aims. She tells D r . Hippocras, one of the doctors treating Frau von T i e f e n b o r n ' s illnesses, that K a r o l i n e is dishonest a n d false, f e i g n i n g sincerity. W h e n H i p p o cras seems to deny these accusations because they conflict w i t h his o w n observations of Karoline, A m a l i a insists that her sister is such a clever trickster that people think her good and honest. A m a l i a ' s attitude is not shared even by her worthless brother. W h e n her designs fail and she receives no legacy from her aunt, she complains loudly. T h i s enables o u r a u t h o r to r u b the moral lesson into her audience. Frau v o n T i e f e n b o r n , to w h o m A m a l i a ' s greed and d u p l i c i t y are now clear, tells her that she does not deserve any consideration because of her false and evil heart, her ingratitude a n d hypocrisy. T h e a u n t can w e l l be vehem e n t for she has proof of a really diabolical plot contrived by her niece. F r a u von T i e f e n b o r n ' s fiancé has been introduced to the family as Dr. Schlagbalsam, one of several physicians w h o come to treat a n d cure the "illnesses" w h i c h she feigns in order to test her nieces a n d nephew. A m a l i a has suggested to Schlagbalsam that they d o away w i t h her a u n t ; that since Frau von T i e f e n b o r n has so m a n y different kinds of pills and cures it m i g h t be easy to substitute one of fatal potency. A s the play progresses A m a l i a ' s wickedness becomes more a n d more p r o n o u n c e d a n d she stands at last as a guilty a n d fully exposed hypocrite. T h e conclusion is in truly rationalistic vein. Instead of c o n d e m n i n g A m a l i a , F r a u von T i e f e n b o r n offers her an o p p o r t u n i t y to redeem herself: A m a l i a may stay w i t h her a u n t as heretofore; further, if she mends her ways, she may even receive money f r o m her. W h e r e a s A m a l i a had f o r m e r l y awaited Frau von T i e f e n b o r n ' s death w i t h eagerness, she must n o w just as earnestly desire a l o n g life for her. Frau von T i e f e n b o r n ' s a p p e a l to A m a l i a ' s reason rather than her " g o o d h e a r t , " her firm belief 51. ibid., p.

if.

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in the possibility of her niece's regeneration, are further examples of our author's rationalistic attitude. In Herr Witzling, the last of Frau G o t t s c h e d s original plays, we find the same kind of women as in the others. T h i s comedy was primarily a satire on contemporary conditions. It satirized certain literary critics in the younger generation w h o began to oppose Gottsched and his ideas. 52 T h e professor's sense of propriety did not allow him to praise his wife's little one-act play, which appeared for the first time in the sixth volume of the Schaubühne.M Jungfer Lottchen, the only woman character, is much like the other women in Frau Gottsched's plays—resolute, intelligent, capable, and above all, not afraid to maintain an attitude of independence in thought and action. T h e central theme is the choice of a husband. 5 4 He is selected at first in the conventional manner of the period. Lottchen's guardian, the rich merchant Reinhart, has arranged a match with Herr Witzling's father. T h e two have only one consideration in mind, wealth, though neither needs to concern himself about it since both Lottchen and young Witzling are quite wealthy. Affection, mutual understanding, compatibility, everything that makes for a happy marriage would come in time, so Herr Reinhart and Herr Witzling believe and declare. Herr Reinhart is genuinely fond of his ward and wants to see her happy. G i v i n g her a rich husband, though she does not need his money, is the best assurance for her happiness, he tells her. Lottchen does not agree with him. She prefers Herr Reinhart's son. However, she does not rebel openly, but grasps the first opportunity to unmask Herr Witzling and expose him for what he is—in her own words "a fop." In her characterization of Witzling to her guardian and friend she shows good sense and sharp powers of observation and penetration, all characteristics of Frau Gottsched's other heroines. Her ability to carry on an interesting, even sparkling dialogue, the incompetence of her opponents to outwit her, her capable handling of the whole situation, demonstrate a shrewd, quick resourcefulness. Herr Reinhart tells her why he thinks it would be a good marriage: they are both rich; he is learned, and she likes to read and hear "something sensible." She objects that Witzling considers himself the smartest man alive 52. P a u l S c h l e n t h e r , op. cit., p . 180. 53. E v e n t h o u g h t h i s l i t t l e p l a y seems to b e a p e r s o n a l s a t i r e o n Gottsched's e n e m i e s , h e states r a t h e r e m p h a t i c a l l y i n t h e p r e f a c e t h a t t h i s is n o t t h e case; t h a t h e h a d a l w a y s a t t e m p t e d t o k e e p p l a y s of s u c h a n a t u r e o u t o f h i s c o l l e c t i o n . 54. It is i n t e r e s t i n g t o n o t e t h a t i n n o o t h e r c o m e d y b y F r a u G o t t s c h e d does l o v e play an important rôle either in plot or theme.

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and believes that he can become the e q u a l of any scholar in G e r m a n y . In the end we q u i t e agree w i t h Lottchen that the y o u n g man sees his own abilities and achievements, which she does not deny he possesses, through a m a g n i f y i n g glass, a n d is absurdly conceited. O l d H e r r Reinhart tries to use compulsion, r e m i n d i n g her that according to her father's testament she must not marry against her guardian's will u n t i l she comes of age, otherwise she w i l l lose her money. She answers: This control was conceived by a sensible father. He wanted to prevent an ill-considered, foolish act of youth. He did not want to make me a slave to a stranger's stubbornness. When I am of age and I hope sensible enough, then I can marry according to my own liking. It seems to me this is the sense of the parental will." W e a l t h w i l l then not be a decisive factor for her, since "she is rich e n o u g h to make a p o o r man happy." 5 0 Frau Gottsched represents H e r r W i t z l i n g as very learned, but extremely conceited, pedantic and petty. W h e n L o t t c h e n entertains h i m and others one afternoon, he tells them that he has discovered errors in Leibniz' mathematical calculations and also in Aristotle's Poetics. In the same breath he asks L o t t c h e n the price of the sugar a n d coffee they are consuming. Before she is able t o reply, he begins to q u o t e the prices to her, thus m a k i n g himself thoroughly ridiculous in the eyes of all. T o end it all, Frau Gottsched resorts to a well-known dramatic device. Y o u n g W i t z l i n g mixes u p some letters he has written. L o t t c h e n receives the one meant for his father, in w h i c h he calls his genial host, H e r r R e i n h a r t , a stupid and ignorant man; the verses addressed t o L o t t c h e n are sent to y o u n g R e i n h a r t ; and the pastoral play he wanted y o u n g R e i n h a r t to read is sent to his father. T h i s last distresses h i m most, since he fears his father may misunderstand it. T h e title is " T h e R a p e . " U p o n receipt of the misdirected letters both L o t t c h e n a n d y o u n g R e i n h a r t call h i m to account. H e becomes so angry that he leaves immediately, and fulfills therewith y o u n g Reinhart's prediction that the suitor w o u l d leave of his own accord. Here again w e see Frau Gottsched at her rational best. L o t t c h e n is the most i n d e p e n d e n t of all her w o m e n characters, for she even goes so far as to oppose the " p a r e n t a l " will. 5 7 T h e r e is n o blind obedience or self-sacrifice just to fulfill a parent's wish w h e n disobedience w o u l d d o 55. Gottsched, Die deutsche Schaubiihne, VI, Herr Witzling, p. 515. 56. Idem. 57. T h e fact that Herr Reinhart is only her guardian and not her parent is of n o importance.

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no harm to the parent and save the daughter from a loveless marriage of convenience. In each of the comedies of Frau Gottsched one woman stands out as the model and example for all to follow. Fräulein A m a l i a , Luischen, Fräulein Karoline, and Lottchen most nearly approach the ideal w h i c h the early eighteenth century envisioned as laudable and desirable. In Frau Gottsched's letters she praises her acquaintances and friends 5 8 for the very same qualities that she bestowed on her heroines. A l l have wit, each is able to maintain her point in any verbal struggle with her opponent, almost always emerging as the victor. T h i s power stems not so much from intellectual superiority as from an honesty and integrity of character. 5 9 In addition, "Verstand," resourcefulness, loyalty, resignation, self-sacrifice are traits found in all Frau Gottsched's virtuous women. T h e s e are the fundamental qualities characteristic of them all. Aside from these general traits, Frau Gottsched differentiates her heroines adroitly, thus making them more interesting and vital. Moreover, she also differentiates between aristocratic and middle-class women. Fräulein Amalia, coming from an old aristocratic background, shows the superior u p b r i n g i n g commonly f o u n d in her circle. She talks and behaves like a woman of the world, eclipsing all in social graces. Fräulein Karoline in Das Testament, the exponent of desirable feminine virtues, has a similar aristocratic background, but approaches the middle-class heroines in her more active interest in honesty, truthfulness, and kindness. Obviously these virtues are general rather than specifically characteristic of the middle class; but where A m a l i a only mocks the lack of them in her relatives (who represent her class rather than humanity in general), Karoline goes beyond mere raillery. She tries to inculcate them into her brother and sister, thus attempting to win them over to her point of view. T h i s didactic interest in moral improvement was characteristic of Frau Gottsched's own circle, a group arising from, and firmly rooted in, the middle class. Karoline's thrift, her great disdain for her spendthrift brother, and her suitor, w h o only wants to marry money and not an individual, link her definitely with the middle-class heroines—Jungfer Luischen and Lottchen. In these, in addition to all the other virtues, the middle-class ideal of domesticity is stressed. Both are thrifty, capable housekeepers, 58. Briefe, p. 38. 59. N o d o u b t these w e r e t h e d r a m a t i s t ' s o w n traits. F r o m h e r letters a n d the biograp h i e s w r i t t e n b y h e r c o n t e m p o r a r i e s , F r a u G o t t s c h e d e m e r g e s as t h e p r o t o t y p e of h e r h e r o i n e s i n t h i s respect.

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concerned about the welfare of their families, virtues not mentioned at all in the women of aristocracy. With them "reason" assumes rather a homelike, ingenuous quality, in contrast to the worldliness of Fráulein Amalia and Karoline, though this is true of the latter only to a lesser degree. Luischen and Lottchen are witty and resourceful, clever and alert, thrifty, capable, but above all simple and unassuming, devoted and constant in their affection for their beloved ones. Curiously enough, what we find in the work of other writers for the woman's cause, is lacking in Frau Gottsched's plays, though not in her letters: a plea for, and any mention of, the need for a better universal education. In the first half of the eighteenth century this still remained a problem which made very little progress. All the admirable women in Frau Gottsched's plays are intelligent and resourceful, but of only one of them is it said that she liked to read something sensible. As far as the others are concerned we hear nothing at all of their education. Frau Gottsched's keen and unflagging interest in all matters pertaining to the education and position of women in her time is clearly manifest from her works. W e must not imagine, however, that emancipation of women was her goal or that of any of her contemporaries. T h e type of woman most nearly approaching their ideal was "verniinftig," with just enough education to enjoy reading a good book (which, however, should be chosen for her),80 and was a good housekeeper, devoted to her family, faithful and self-sacrificing. Such were the attributes we most often find in a description of the model women in the moral weeklies of the seventeen-twenties, which preceded Frau Gottsched's activity as a writer. Following the trend of the time, she presented such types in her comedies, and her audiences approved of them because they wished to identify themselves with them and emulate the virtues demonstrated as laudable. 60. Briefe,

II, 29.

V JOHANN CHRISTIAN KRÜGER (1722-1750)

G

OTTSCHED'S Critische Dichtkunst set u p definite regulations for the various types of drama. C o m e d y , according to these, must be the " i m i t a t i o n of an action of vice or f o l l y " w h i c h is to cducatc the onl o o k e r or act as a deterrent a n d w h i c h must also amuse. 1 Since virtue must never be m a d e to a p p e a r ludicrous, 2 it can never be the center of interest in a comedy. A t the same time, by setting u p Destouches as a m o d e l for the G e r m a n s , Gottsched laid the f o u n d a t i o n for a type of comedy w h i c h was to deviate more and more from his canons, as H o l l points out. 3 Destouches, f o l l o w i n g the English moral weeklies, w h i c h stressed the educative force that the presentation of a virtuous action can have on an audience, introduced the serious comedy into French drama. 4 T h u s he did not strictly fulfill the demands of comedy as laid d o w n by Gottsched, for he n o longer m a d e vice or folly the exclusive theme of his comedies. Gottsched, nevertheless, called the attention of his c o u n t r y m e n to the " n o b l e m a n n e r of Destouches" 5 and in the subsequent era G e r m a n plays w i t h a more or less serious treatment of v i r t u o u s characters appeared. T h e program Gottsched formulated for the d r a m a was in contradiction to the models he advocated; this was b u t a reflection of the t w o divergent trends in the d r a m a of the eighteenth century: one l e a d i n g to the comedy in the Gottsched manner w i t h strict rules, flourishing primarily before the middle of the century, the other d e v e l o p i n g into various genres: the serious comedy, the comédie larmoyante, and even the bourgeois tragedy. T h e serious comedy, i n c l u d i n g the comédie larmoyante, was not really well established in G e r m a n y u n t i l the time of G e l i e r t and his successors, b u t its 1. J. C. Gottsched, Versuch einer critischen Dichtkunst, 4th ed.; (Leipzig, 1751), p. 643. 2. Ibid., p. 645. 3. Karl Holl, Geschichte des deutschen Lustpiels (Leipzig, 1923), p. 141. 4. Idem. 5. J. C. Gottsched, Die deutsche Schaubühne (Leipzig, 1742), I V . T e i l , Vorrede, p. 10.

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foundation was established, unwittingly, by Gottsched, foe as he was of it in his critical writings. Virtue became the focal point and the comic element was greatly subordinated, relegated to situations or to characters of secondary importance. T h e concurrent development of Pietism served to strengthen this trend. Because the Pietist placed emphasis on virtue as a model for emulation rather than on vice as a deterrent, the Rationalist's appeal to look upon vice, recognize its folly, and beware of it thereafter lost some of its force. T h e foundation for the belief that recognition of a fault precluded recurrence of it was firmly rooted in the ethics of Rationalism. T h e quick change in personality which we so often find in the plays and which seems utterly incredible to us, was plausible to the eighteenth-century audience and was accepted without reservation by it.® T h e aim of the drama in general was moral, whether the play presented characters who were be to a warning to the audience or whether it presented those for the audience to emulate. T h i s dualism, present from the very outset in the literary revival of the eighteenth century, found expression in practically all the playwrights of comedy. T h e deviations from Gottsched's rules were slight and barely noticeable at the start but assumed ever wider proportions until by the middle of the century they were firmly established. Only Gottsched's "geschickte Freundin" adhered strictly to the conventions her husband set up for the comedy. 7 Other playwrights, though in the main they must still be considered under his influence, show more or less important traces of the changed point of view. Johann Christian Krüger (1722-1750) can perhaps serve best as a link between these two tendencies. 8 His comedies are definitely fashioned in the Gottsched manner, but they show deviations from it which are historically important. Krüger, born in Berlin, was of humble origin. He studied theology at first, but had to abandon his studies earlier than he wished, because of poverty. Löwen, his biographer and the editor of his works, says of him: "Worry about his daily bread, that inseparable companion of the German muses, was his as well." 9 In 1742, after unsuccessful at6. Albert Köster, Die deutsche

Literatur

der Aufklärungszeit

(Heidelberg, 1925),

P-9'7. During her lifetime Frau Gottsched was also influenced by the development of sentimentalism, but this found expression in her letters and not in her comedies. 8. Holl, op. cit., p. 142. 9. Löwen introduces the collected works of Krüger with an essay on the dramatists of the time and devotes the last few pages of it to a biographical sketch of Krüger.

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tempts to find some help or position, he j o i n e d the S c h ö n e m a n n troupe, 1 0 w h i c h was visiting Berlin. A c c o r d i n g to L ö w e n , he f o u n d a wide field here for his talents and abilities, b e c o m i n g actor-translator and playwright. Devrient assumed that he must have been very welcome to Schönemann, then in great need of an actor-playwright to take the place of U h l i c h , 1 1 w h o had just left him. In a d d i t i o n K r ü g e r became the private tutor to Schönemann's daughter, a y o u n g actress w h o later became the wife of L ö w e n , the successor to K r ü g e r in the Schönemann troupe. Eight years of strenuous work were, at least in part, responsible for his early death in 1750. His contemporaries considered h i m a promising writer of comedies and m o u r n e d his premature end. N i c o l a i 1 2 regrets that the sudden d e a t h of the y o u n g poet prevented h i m from f u l f i l l i n g the promise of his early works; Lessing thought highly of his comic gifts; 1 3 Die Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und freien Künste14 paid tribute to h i m in its review of the Gesammelte Schriften, edited by L ö w e n in 1763. Even at the end of the century m e n like K ü t n e r , Flögel, and Schmid added their praise. 1 6 A l l these, to be sure, drew heavily on the b i o g r a p h i c a l sketch by L ö w e n , b u t the fact that they still knew the a u t h o r a n d his plays and that these were h o l d i n g their place in the repertoire of the theatre companies is proof of the recognition he had achieved. " W h o has not read Herzog Michel}" wrote Lessing in 1768—and K ü t n e r in 1781 exclaimed: " W h o does not know Die Kandidaten a n d Herzog Michel}"19 10. Johann Friedrich Schönemann (1704178a) joined the theatre in 1725. By 1730 he had his own troupe and traveled throughout Germany. For a time he took the place of the Neuber troupe with Gottsched after the latter's quarrel with Frau Neuber. His fame rests not so m u c h on his own talent as actor but on his ability to attract the most important talents to his enterprise. His theatre became the testing ground for all important actors within two decades. It can be said of him that he was the link between two diverse traditions in the theatre of the eighteenth century, that of the Neuber group and that of the Ackermann group, though Schönemann hardly added anything to either. Schienther, in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, Band 3a, p. a8gff. 11. Hans Devrient, Joh. Fr. Schönemann und seine Schauspielgesellschaft (Leipzig, 1894), p. 67. 12. Friedrich Nicolai, Briefe über den itzigen Zustand der schönen Wissenschaften in Deutschland, Berliner Neudrucke, 3. Serie (Berlin, 1894), II, 89. 13. Lessing—LM, X , 138. 14. Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und freien Künste (Leipzig, 1763), X , 240ft. 15. K. A. Kütner, Charaktere deutscher Dichter und Prosaisten (Berlin, 1789), II, 2g6f. Chr. Heinr. Schmid, Nekrolog (Berlin, 1785), 266-377. C. F. Flögel, Geschichte der komischen Literatur (Berlin, 1787), p. 333. Joh. Friedrich Schütze, Hamburgische Theatergeschichte (Hamburg, 1794), 269-73. 16. Lessing—LM, X , 137, and Kütner, op. cit., p. 297.

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Krüger had many personal contacts with the leading poets of his day, always renewing these when his troupe stopped where one or the other lived. T h u s , in Leipzig he visited Geliert, Rabener, Schlegel, and others; in Braunschweig, Gärtner, Ebert, Zachariä. 1 7 None of these, however, referred to him in their letters or other communications. Of Kriiger's work we have what Löwen thought worth preserving: some poetry, a number of "Vorspiele," four complete comedies, and a fragment. 1 8 In addition, Kriiger's first comedy, Die Geistlichen auf dem Lande, survives in its original printed form. 1 9 His literary output also includes translations of some plays from the French, especially those of Marivaux, his favorite. Even his staunchest friends and admirers considered only his "original" comedies to be of value, his poetry, his "Vorspiele," and his translations being condemned for the apparent haste in which he had to finish them. Krüger is a very interesting playwright because of his social attitudes. His plays contain a glimmering of the principles which underlie the French revolution but are not voiced in the German drama until Storm and Stress. Living in extreme poverty without a patron, and not endowed with a favorable appearance, Krüger seems to have been filled with an unquenchable desire for knowledge and a great interest in art, and he found a haven among actors, a social group disdained in his time. 20 His satire, bitter and trenchant, never attenuated as in other plays of the era, was based on personal experiences and observations and goes far beyond the pattern of revolt accepted by his group, the middle class. His first play, Die Geistlichen auf dem Lande, which he began to write while still a student at the " G r a u e Kloster" in Berlin, as Lessing informs us, 21 is so full of this bitterness, so merciless in its criticism of social conditions that to a large extent it was rejected by his contemporaries. Haller wrote of the author in Die Göttingische Anzeigen von gelehrten Sachen: T h i s c o m e d y m a y b e based o n a true o r fictional story; nevertheless, w e are of the o p i n i o n that the a n o n y m o u s a u t h o r w e n t too f a r in the p o r t r a y a l of the ludicrous in certain clumsy rural ministers. T h o u g h we d o n o t wish to deny that at times such occurrences can h a p p e n a m o n g the rural clergy, a n d 17. Johann Christian Krüger, Poetische und Theatralische Schriften, ed. Johann Friedrich Löwen (Leipzig, 1763), Vorrede. [Cited hereafter as Krüger-Löwen.] 18. Ibid. 19. Johann Christian Krüger, Die Geistlichen auf dem Lande (Zu finden in der Frankfurter und Leipziger Michaelisraesse 1743). [Cited as Krüger.] 20. C. H. Schmid, Chronologie des deutschen Theaters, ed. l'aul Legband (Berlin, 1902), p. 67. gl. Lessing—LM, X, 138.

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we might say, difficile est satyram non scribere, b e e n m o r e sparing of his satirical s a l t . "

yet the a u t h o r should h a v e

As late as 1785 Schmid condemned the play as a "roher Versuch," written for revenge, regrettable because it exposed the theatre to attack for immorality. 23 Eschenburg, in 1793, praised Lowen for not including the play among Kriiger's works, thus leaving it to "well deserved oblivion." 2 4 Though the play was censored and banned, it enjoyed great popularity, which netted the author fame but no improvement in his finances.25 T h e theme of the play revolves around the schemes of two reprobate clergymen, Muffel and Tempelstolz. In the first few scenes of the play we have concrete proof of Muffel's debauchery. Cathrine, his housekeeper, informs him that she is bearing his child and demands that he marry her. He merely promises her a dowry, a hundred " T h a l e r , " and a husband. At first he tries to persuade his manservant, Peter, to become the husband, repeating the offer of the dowry, and consenting even to pay for the wedding. Peter becomes suspicious and can easily worm the secret from the rather simple-minded Cathrine, whereupon he refuses to become the nominal father of Muffel's child. 26 But Muffel assures her that some poor theological student will marry her in exchange for a vacant pastorate which Muffel can and will secure for him. Tempelstolz, we learn in the course of the play, had been just as unscrupulous in his behavior, when his material interest was at stake. He had promised marriage to an elderly "Conrector" widow for her financial aid in securing him a position. At the time the great difference in their age had been of no import to him, but once he had obtained his end he had forgotten his pledge. Frau Brigitte, as Kriiger calls her, now comes after him with a consistorial writ commanding him to keep his word. Neither of the clergymen feels any moral responsibility towards the illtreated woman, for both are concerned only with making their position in life secure by marrying the daughter of the rich and influential Frau von Birkenhayn. A fanatically pious lady, she is under the complete dominance of her own pastor, Tempelstolz, and his friend and neighbor Muffel. Though they are not of noble birth, she 22. Quoted by Wittekindt, J. C. Kriiger (Berlin, 1898), p. 42. 23. C. H. Schmid, Nekrolog, oder Nachrichten von den Leben der verstorbenen deutschen Dichter (Berlin, 1785), I, 269. 24. J . J . Eschenburg, Beispielsammlung zur Theorie und Literatur Wissenschaften (Berlin und Stettin, 1793), VII, 338. 25. C. H. Schmid, Nekrolog, op. cit., p. 270. 26. Kriiger, op. cit., p. 18.

vomehmsten der

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consented to marry her only child, W i l h e l m i n e , to one of them. B o t h have succeeded in convincing the mother that the girl's soul would be lost forever should she continue to be tutored by Herr W a h r m u n d , the philosopher. T h e y offer their services to " c u r e " W i l h e l m i n e of her disease, that is to say, of her acceptance of the doctrines of Rationalism. Frau von Birkenhayn promises then to accept as son-in-law the one w h o can convert her daughter from the false ideas of this philosophy. W i l h e l m i n e does not share her mother's pious gullibility, for she has received an excellent education from Herr W a h r m u n d , a wellinformed man, contemptuously referred to as "the philosopher" by the pastors and her mother. W i l h e l m i n e is in love with her teacher and wishes to marry him. Her mother knows nothing of her love for Wahrmund, but W i l h e l m i n e confides in her uncle, Herr von Roseneck, w h o approves of her choice and helps her, though W a h r m u n d is a commoner. In Wilhelmine's opinion W a h r m u n d , the commoner, possesses many more virtues than any man she knows belonging to her own class. Herr von Roseneck and W i l h e l m i n e recognize the base opportunism of the two ministers and combine their wits to ruin the schemes of the unworthy suitors. H e r r von Roseneck, learning of the incriminating past of the two clerical pretenders, unmasks them, making his sister an unwilling witness to the dénouement. She finally becomes aware of her misplaced trust and is cured of her belief in the innate holiness of all clergymen. She no longer objects to a marriage between her daughter and Herr W a h r m u n d , the young scholar with a promising future, accepting her brother's word as to his worthiness. T h e author's interest is focused upon the development of a situation that should lead to the baring of the fraud and hypocrisy of the clergymen. Everything else is subordinated. T h e four women characters serve only as background to expose Muffel and Tempelstolz, and are more or less stock characters, conceived according to Gottsched's rules, and with little originality. Like Frau von Ahnenstolz, Frau von Birkenhayn belongs to high society and shares the ignorance of certain of its groups. She is, however, without the exaggerated sense of caste superiority which we found in Frau von Ahnenstolz. In her opinion, the piety and morality of the ministers compensate for their low social station. She is excessively devoted to the C h u r c h and its representatives. She believes implicitly every lie, exaggeration, and distortion on the part of the two plotters, w h o are motivated in their behavior by one aim only, the furthering of their material welfare. She approves of

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ministers because they "do not deny the existence of the elements important for salvation, such as ghosts, witches and the devil." 2 7 According to the reports of contemporaries, Krüger was a man of genuine religious feeling. Löwen praised his piety and submitted as proof of it the testimony of his wife, Krüger's former pupil, " i n whose young soul he implanted a profound reverence for the holiest duties of our religion." 2 8 His sacred poems, some of which have found their way into hymnal literature, also attest to his profound religious sentiment. It was Krüger's purpose to attack the hypocrisy and general unworthiness of certain members of the clergy. Some of his contemporary critics agreed that such cases existed; others, perhaps because of the force of the attack, felt that the author intended to include the whole clerical profession, and therefore condemned Krüger's play. Gleim, writing to Uz about Die Geistlichen auf dem Lande, doubted whether he [Uz] would like the comedy for its refined humor 2 9 and stated that the coarseness which was far too prominent in it would hardly please him. He concedes, however, that the play gives frank expression to much that is true. 30 Only Frau von Birkenhayn is blind to the perfidy of the two ministers. But the author does not see her as a stupid woman; on the contrary, she is remarkably shrewd in managing her worldly affairs. Yet her superstition is so gross that she believes the mere touch of Wahrmund's profane hand will contaminate her daughter. W h e n , in one of the scenes, W a h r m u n d is to escort Wilhelmine out of the room, her mother pulls her daughter away, forbidding him to touch her, and commanding Wilhelmine to wash her hand, to ask Pastor Tempelstolz to bless it, and never allow a "Philosoph" to touch her again. 3 1 Her behavior in regard to the iniquitous clergymen and her daughter is obviously unreasonable. But she is a parent! W h e n her brother, Herr von Roseneck, intimates that Wilhelmine might have chosen another man for her husband, Frau von Birkenhayn exclaims indignantly: "What? My daughter would have another man for her fiancé than the one I gave her? No, I say, she has no other and shall have no other!" 3 2 She expects obedience and receives it. Any remonstrances, if they can be called that, are always coupled with great respect, not because her 27. Krüger, op. cit., p. 65. 28. Krüger-Löwen, op. cit., Vorrede. 29. Undoubtedly a satirical thrust at the play. 30. J. W . L. Gleim and J. P. Uz, Briefwechsel, ed. Carl Schüddekopf Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, 1899), C C X V I I I , 61. 31. Krüger, op. cit., p. 61. 32. Ibid., p. 63.

(Tübingen:

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character commands it, but simply because she is a parent. Her daughter, her brother, and Herr W a h r m u n d complain about the ease with which she submits to the two scoundrels, but her opinion and wishes are respected, and the members of her family never disregard them. T h e y must resort to schemes, making the best of what chance brings their way in order to gain their point and convince her of her folly. Once she hears of the past of her protégés, Frau von Birkenhayn is cured of her self-delusion and graciously accepts her daughter's choice. 33 T h i s quick change is a sensible mode of behavior in accordance with the ethics of Rationalism. A s in the other plays of the era, the virtues too are concentrated in one character. Wilhelmine is drawn on the same general lines as were so many other heroines of the time. She was well educated, though it is difficult to conceive that so superstitious and foolish a w o m a n as Frau von Birkenhayn would engage a modern and well-informed man like W a h r m u n d as a tutor. According to the moral weeklies, parents were hardly discriminating in selecting teachers for their children, and we may therefore conclude that—fortunately for Wilhelmine—Wahrm u n d just happened to be a good tutor. Unlike Frau Gottsched, w h o does not indicate how much education her favorite women characters have, Krüger makes a special point of showing Wilhelmine's superior education. It is directly stated and repeated that like W a h r m u n d and Herr von Roseneck, she is free from all prejudices. 34 Her well-trained intellect is further shown by her lively and apt refutation of the arguments used by her clerical suitors to exorcise her "malady." Another remarkable trait in Wilhelmine is her lack of any pride in her social class. She makes no distinction between herself and W a h r m u n d , though she is aware that others will. " H o w can a commoner aspire to possess the heart of a Fräulein?" W a h r m u n d exclaims to her. Her answer is a complete contradiction of Frau Gottsched's firm belief as expressed in Die ungleiche Heirat: " H e knows that I honor the virtues of the nobility in a commoner as well." 3 5 W i l h e l m i n e is a dutiful, respectful daughter, deferring to her mother, not because of the latter's superior judgment, but rather because a well-brought-up young girl behaves in this fashion, even if her own happiness is in jeopardy. However, as a sharp deviation from the prevailing mores of the day, this deference has its limits in Kriiger's play. In a monologue (which Gottsched derides as improper in a 33. Ibid., p. 135. 34. Ibid., p. 42. 35. Ibid., p. 47.

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comedy) Wilhelmine decides to disobey her mother should the latter insist on her marrying one of the two repulsive ministers. Her conflict between duty to her mother and faithfulness to the man she loves is treated here in an entirely serious manner. T h i s was condemned by Gottsched in comedy, but Krüger foreshadowed the type of comedy enthusiastically received by audiences w h o applauded Geliert and his followers. However, Wilhelmine's soliloquy is in truly rationalistic style: W i l l I be weak enough to deny my mother obedience, the filial deference due her? N o , I can never disregard my duties. W i l l I be strong enough to deny my heart to the most amiable man and give it to a shameless trickster? Neverl . . . I cannot deliberate very l o n g . . . my resolution is firm, I shall choose the lesser of two evils. I shall be disobedient, so that 1 may not becomr ungrateful, faithless, fickle, and u n h a p p y forever. As long as I am sensible and adhere to your maxims, you [ W a h r m u n d ] will find me steadfast. 1 "

In her choice she does not consider the difficulties she might encounter in a union with a man of the bourgeoisie, as Amalia does in Die ungleiche Heirat.31 Wilhelmine is sister to Frau Gottsched's heroines, clever, intelligent, "aufgeklärt," intellectually on a higher level than her simple-minded mother, yet enduring her mother's authority. Her decision to follow her better judgment even at the risk of disobeying her mother sets her apart from the other heroines of the period. Similar action can be found only in tragic heroines, of a later period, whose very disobedience works their destruction. T h e comedies do not show such a conflict. Krüger resolves the problem here in an amicable way: T h e mother is won over to the daughter's point of view. Wilhelmine, less dependent upon the opinion of her group than the other heroines of the time, displays resolution and fearlessness in marrying a non-aristocrat. In so doing she not only breaks with the laws of the aristocracy but also with the conventions of the bourgeois world, in that she chooses the man she loves for a husband in defiance of her mother's wishes. Krüger is thus one of the first playwrights to agree with the moral weeklies that children should be granted a greater share in determining their future. Herr von Roseneck counsels his bigoted sister: "You must allow your daughter's choice to be free . . . you must allow your daughter to choose an aristocrat, a scholar, a minister, or a merchant." 38 36. Ibid., p. 1 igf. 37. J. Ch. Gottsched, Die deutsche Schaubühne, 38. Krüger, op. cit., p. 65.

V. Die ungleiche Heirat, p. 183.

JOHANN

CHRISTIAN

KRÜGER

7»

T h e characterization of the two women belonging to the lower middle class is very sketchy, as it is, in fact, in all plays until Lessing gave Franziska a higher standing. W h i l e the plays we are discussing are evidence that the women of the upper g r o u p of the middle-class were slowly throwing off the shackles which bound them to outmoded conventions, these same plays also bring proof of the low regard for women belonging to the lower middle class, though Krüger shows here too a keener sense for the social abuses to which they were exposed than any other playwright. Tempelstolz takes the widow's money but does not keep his promise. She finds redress not merely because she is shrewd enough to outwit him, as she herself indicates, b u t also because the higher clergy recognize the abuse. 39 Both Cathrine and Frau Brigitte are a mixture of coarse common sense, superstition, and ignorance. Cathrine repulses Peter's amorous advances, though she likes him and wants to marry him, and submits to Muffel, though she can see through his lies. H e wishes to put the blame for her fall u p o n the devil, " w h o had reversed all his [Muffel's] good intentions with her." 4 0 Primed by Wilhelmine's earlier teachings, she is able to satirize MufTel's excuses: " T h e devil would be an ingrate were he to turn against the clergy, for it is they w h o keep h i m alive for their flocks."41 However, she does not seem to be smart e n o u g h to guess his designs and rebuff him as she did with Peter. W e find often this curious mixture of sophistication and n a i v e t i in the characters of the time. It is difficult to explain, except on the theory that a masterhand was still lacking for drawing these characters; hence the inconsistency and confusion. T h e general social conditions revealed in this comedy were well known and were accepted by Kriiger's contemporaries. In fact, as Wittekindt points out, Krüger was directly influenced by Frau Gottsched's Pietisterey in Fischbeinrocke,42 For our purposes it matters little whence he took his inspiration. T h e situations he depicted, the characters he drew had their roots in their own time, and this is important for us. Similarly, his dramatic pattern was also based on contemporary theory. In making a "lasterhafte H a n d l u n g " the main theme of his comedy, he adhered to Gottsched's canon: vice is to be punished and made completely ludicrous, so that it can act as a deterrent; the virtu39. Ibid., p. 90. 40. Ibid., p. 41. Ibid., p. 4s. Wilhelm (Berlin, 1898),

14. 15. Wittekindt, Johann p. 376.

Christian

Krüger,

sein Leben

und seine

Werke

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ous characters, Wilhelmine, W a h r m u n d , and Herr von Roseneck, are entirely within the lines of Rationalism—they are educated, free from prejudices and superstitions. Beyond this, however, a number of characteristics can be observed which appear as deviations from the Gottsched pattern of comedy. T h e servants are treated differently by Krüger. T h e y n o longer are completely duped and outwitted by their masters. Peter, for example, refuses to accept the bribe of dowry to cover u p his master's sins. It is true that Krüger's heroines resemble those of Frau Gottsched: they are clever, sensible, educated. But they are also courageous enough to break with tradition when their happiness is at stake. Whereas Frau Gottsched's ideal women were in complete harmony with their duty, never protesting, Wilhelmine experiences a conflict. Furthermore, the resolution of this conflict results in a significant point in the play—the recognition of, and the respect for, the dignity of the individual. It was these aspects, here still subordinated to the main theme (exposing the perfidy of the pastors), which were to become paramount later on. In his next work, Die Kandidaten,43 this mixture of Gottschedian doctrine and post-Gottschedian pattern is more equally balanced than in the first play. In the meantime Geliert had published his plays, and his influence had become more pronounced. Die Kandidaten, performed for the first time February 8, 1748, is Krüger's most mature and best play. T h e plot is not quite so thin and meagre as Frau Gottsched's were, though equally devoid of the comical. Karoline and Hermann, the exponents of virtue, are pitted against the evil forces, exemplified in Arnold, Chrysander, the Count, and the Countess. A position as town councilor is vacant which the C o u n t is free to assign. T h r e e candidates appear: Hermann, the secretary to the Count, honest and able, really deserving the position; Chrysander, the "Licentiat," wishing to buy the position as he had bought his university degree; and Valer, an ensign, only feigning interest in the position in obedience to the command of his superior officer. T h e latter is seeking revenge by humiliating the Countess, w h o had refused his attentions because of his advanced age. Everyone is involved in intrigues and counterintrigues. Karoline, personal maid to the Countess, urges her fiancé, Hermann, to flatter her mistress, w h o will have the last word in the appointment. He refuses to feign interest where he has none, because it is dishonest 43. Krüger-Löwen, op. cit., pp. 291-414.

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73

to do so; whereupon Karoline intimates that she will encourage the Count's obvious interest in her until Hermann obtains the office. T h e r e is no other course open to Hermann but to follow her advice. T h e plot becomes further complicated by the introduction of Arnold, the ignorant, unscrupulous tutor of the children of the house. He suggests to Karoline that she aid him by bartering her honor for the lucrative post the Count can obtain for him. He offers to marry her, so that her shame will not become public. W h e n she indignantly rejects this outrageous proposal, he decides that he will destroy her. T o bring this about, Krüger uses here a favorite device, though it seems naive enough to us. Arnold persuades the Count that he has a plan to bring Karoline into his arms: by showing Karoline some forged letters, he hopes to arouse her suspicion of Hermann's fidelity. He assumes that Karoline will upbraid Hermann, who in ignorance of the reason will get angry and upbraid her. In her resentment, Karoline will then turn to the Count for solace. His own revenge, Arnold soliloquizes, will come when he sees her sink into disgrace without the comfort of a sham-marriage. Nevertheless, his elaborate scheme fails because both H e r m a n n and Karoline have too much good sense to believe each other capable of such indecent behavior. T h e y recognize the letters as forgeries and agree to abandon hope for the position. At the Count's suggestion, Chrysander, the third candidate for the position, has his fiancee, Christinchen, visit the Count, before a final decision on the appointment is made. Fräulein Christinchen's corruptness matches that of the Count. She flatters him, apparently accepting his proposal, a repetition of the one which he had previously made to Karoline, when in reality she wishes only to obtain from him the money she knows Chrysander has just given him. She tells him the truth about her relations with Chrysander: she is engaged for one reason only, to obtain as much money as possible from him; subsequently, she will leave him. Since he is a commoner and she an aristocrat, she feels justified in her actions, all the more so because she considers him a complete fool. Her plans are foiled, however, for Chrysander is hiding in the very room where this interview takes place. He is discovered eavesdropping when the Count seeks to hide his female visitor because his wife is approaching. T h e latter has come to present Valer, the last o f the candidates. Since he is her favorite, there is no question as to the outcome. Valer confesses, however, that he has only pretended interest upon the orders of his superior officer, who wishes to mortify the Countess. He also discloses that Karoline is his cousin and that he is r e t u r n i n g the family estates to her. In order to save herself from ridi-

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cule, the Countess must agree to Hermann as the choice, especially since Valer warmly recommends him. Consequently, Hermann and Karoline are triumphant without resorting to any dishonorable means. T h e background of this play is again realistic. Karoline, Hermann's fiancée, belongs to the aristocracy, yet circumstances have forced her to act as personal maid to the Countess. For some reason, unexplained in the play, her father, a member of the nobility, lost favor with his ruler, lost his fortune as well, and was forced to live in exile. Krüger touches here on a situation that was not uncommon. Plays by other writers deal with similar conditions. 44 Documentary evidence more convincing than that in plays is found in a letter written by one of Gellert's feminine admirers. Demoiselle Lucius. She gives an account of the fortunes of a family she had known well in Dresden and whom her brother had found living in exile when he was visiting friends in Sorau. She praises the fortitude and steadfastness with which they all bore the misfortune of exile to a small town, where they had to exist in reduced circumstances to which they were entirely unaccustomed. 45 Karoline in Krüger's play exhibits the same qualities which the Demoiselle commended in her friends. It is unlikely that Krüger knew of this family, but theirs was not an isolated case, and Krüger, in close touch with real life, undoubtedly had models for his characters and their experiences. Karoline knows the way of the world, and especially of the world she lives in. Determined to free herself from the unwelcome mode of life forced on her by circumstances, she sets about accomplishing this with determination and vigor. Krüger wished his heroine to be honest and upright; but he could not make her entirely so and at the same time shrewd enough to outwit all the others who were scheming and conspiring for the position. In Die Kandidaten, a duality of purpose and ideal is evident that is altogether lacking in Frau Gottsched. Karoline does not shrink from employing methods which do not seem entirely honorable to her fiancé. In stubborn righteousness Hermann defends his refusal to accept an office as a reward for favors the Countess would exact from him. Karoline argues her point in long and involved discussions, forcing Hermann to compromise with her because she threatens to take matters into her own quite capable hands. 46 44. J. C. Brandes, Trau, Schau, WemT in Theater der Deutschen (Königsberg & Leipzig, 1770), Vol. IX. 45. Ch. F. Geliert, Briefwechsel mit Demoiselle Lucius, ed. F. A. Eberl (Leipzig,

>8*3). p- 556.

46. Krüger-Löwen, op. cit., p. 297.

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CHRISTIAN

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As L ö w e n reports. Demoiselle Schönemann fondly remembered Krüger as a teacher for the ideals he inculcated in her as a young girl. T h e poet seems to ascribe a similar röle to Hermann. In his discussions with Karoline he is the strict moralist, she the practical defender of an ethical code that accepts "white lies" if happiness and success depend upon them. T o him white lies are lies and not just exigencies of the moment. He wins out, apparently as a reward for his virtues—sincerity and integrity. From Karoline's answers, however, it seems as if Krüger were not too fully convinced that such qualities are always rewarding. Looking at himself he could hardly believe so. He lived and died in great poverty. Löwen's biographical sketch of Krüger says of his desperate struggle for a position: He was too shy "to seek an office or even the position of tutor, and he believed he did not know enough for either, especially for the latter. He hoped and at times sought aid quite shyly and with the humbleness of a young man w h o was not conceited about his learning." 4 7 But according to L ö w e n he looked in vain. He had too much pride and too much conscience to make use of the usual channels, which he ridiculed later in his play. T h u s when Karoline mocks at Hermann's exaggerated truthfulness, it w o u l d seem as if Krüger were using his personal experiences as a basis. "Flatter your patron and be h u m b l e , " Karoline tells Hermann. 4 8 But Krüger himself could only be humble. W h e n Karoline tells H e r m a n n that he does not deserve her esteem because he is stubborn and unbearable and a fool for all his good sense and virtue, 4 9 it is Krüger w h o talks of and to himself. Again, w h e n H e r m a n n insists that no one can expect him to say anything but the truth, Kriiger's own vacillation, as he expresses it in the points of view of the lovers, is evident. In Karoline's answer Krüger touches u p o n the philosophical controversy of great importance to him, the student of theology, as to the relative validity of the "rational" attitude and ethical intuition. Karoline asks H e r m a n n whether truth is what one considers such. T o her way of thinking, the harmless little untruths (white lies) she tells her mistress, getting many a dress and ducat from her because of them, are not objectionable. 5 0 Hermann's strict sense of honesty cannot condone such behavior, which he regards as purely offensive and the result of weakness. " Y o u r eyes have been dazzled by the glamor of wealth so much that you hold learning, virtue, and achievement in little regard. My knowledge is my wealth, 47. 48. 49. 50.

Ibid., Vorrede. Ibid., p. S97. Ibid., p. 294. " O b alle das die Wahrheit nennen, was sie d a f ü r ausgeben." Ibid., p. 295.

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my virtue is my happiness." 51 This answer contains a poetic interpretation of the complex of doctrines called "Rationalism," which was formulated by Thomasius, as Brüggemann points out. 52 The practical view of Thomasius pointed to a theory of happiness which was to dominate philosophical thought for a century: " T h e man of vice lives unpleasantly, pleasantly only the man of virtue; virtue does not preclude the rational enjoyment of life." 5 3 In his Fundamentum juris naturae, 1705, Thomasius reiterates: "Life is only happy when it is just, decent, and honorable. The just man does unto no one that which he does not wish done unto himself. . . ," 54 A further inconsistency in Krüger is again a reflection of the mores of the time. Karoline acts in accordance with the code of her day in her failure to see that Hermann's feigning love for the Countess would be reprehensible in a man; she considers it a mere "Gefälligkeit." 55 She herself, however, in spite of her bold assertions to Hermann, proves quite uncompromising in her virtue. Arnold is astonished by her rejection of his proposal. 56 He cannot comprehend that she has refused the Count and will continue to do so for reasons of virtue and not for fear of being left without a husband. 57 His incredulity is the result not of his own inherent evil, but of prevailing conditions. That servants married the discarded mistresses of their superiors was a common occurrence up to the time of Kabale und Liebe. Women did not consider such treatment dishonorable, especially if their lovers were of superior rank. The changed point of view in Kriiger's plays reflects the bourgeois revolt, which in Germany was directed more against social conditions than political injustice as it was in England and France.58 Krüger was not keenly aware of the fundamental reasons for his attack against the profligate world of the nobility; hence his many contradictions. His attempt to motivate Arnold's behavior, for example, is weak and implausible. Arnold rationalizes his willingness to cover up the Count's indiscretions, claiming that he can thus expiate the sins of his youth, and voluntarily suffering a fate he has meted out to so many others.59 Not deceived by this analysis, Hermann detects the core of 51. 52. 10. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59.

Ibid., p. 296. Fritz Briiggemann, Deutsche

Literatur,

Idem. Idem. Kriiger-Löwen, op. cit., p. 2gg. Ibid., p. 305. Ibid., p. 304. Köster, op. cit., p. 207. Krüger-Löwen, op. cit., p. 307.

Reihe Aufklärung,

(Leipzig, 1928), I,

JOHANN CHRISTIAN KRÜGER

77

the evil: Not Arnold's grandiloquent gesture of atonement, but his dissolute way of life, his ignorance force him to seek a position through channels of vice, selling his honor since he can boast of no achievement. T o remedy the situation honestly, Hermann urges Arnold to join the army and thus redeem his detestable existence by a useful death.« 0 T h e position of women must be considered against this background of widespread immorality, especially among the upper classes. Bourgeois opposition to the domination of aristocratic standards manifested itself in a stress on virtue, so that it came to be regarded as a peculiarly bourgeois characteristic. 61 Bruford says:62 " T h e rising class of officials (i.e., coming from the middle class), although in many respects assimilated by the aristocracy, retained its middle-class outlook in matters of morality and gradually came to influence the standards of the aristocracy itself." Quoting Roller's description of middle-class life at Durlach, Bruford continues: "It was only the new class of officials who took sexual aberrations seriously and insisted on the higher standards of conduct, especially for its daughters. T h e various mistresses of princes who are mentioned there, all belonged either to the nobility or to the artisan class." 63 T h e new middle-class attitude toward feminine morality was reflected in Frau Gottsched's Die ungleiche Heirat, as it is in all of Krüger's plays. In Die Kandidaten the conflict between the two points of view is evident when the Count, attempting to teach Karoline "a way of obtaining the maximum enjoyment of life," chides her for her chastity, which he terms a bourgeois ideal. T h e Count wishes her to be amenable. Should Hermann become too jealous she must enlighten him and allow him a similar license with the Countess. "Just think how happy both of you could live in this manner," he tells her. Her answer stresses her different view of morality: "Hermann and I cannot forget our lowly station, which does not allow us to be so shameless. What we miss in worldly fortune we must replace by a tender and virtuous love: people of your rank can easily do without this pleasure since you can be satiated by the superabundance of other goods." M Yet Karoline actually belongs to the aristocracy which she so bitterly attacks. Did Krüger forget that? Or did he, like Frau Gottsched, consciously desire to show that some members of the aristocracy were approaching middle-class ideals? When Hermann becomes worried as to 60. 61. 62. 63. 64.

ibid., p. 308. Ibid., p. 347. W. H. Bruford, Germany in the Eighteenth Idem. Krüger-Löwen, op. cit., p. 349.

Century

(Cambridge, 1935), p. 229t.

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the effect Karoline's little intrigues may have on her character, she answers him: "Perhaps the voice of honor is louder in my heart than in yours. For as you alone here know, I come from a father who, but for envy and ill-will, would have a position similar to that of our superiors. I must disguise my name but I cannot deny my heritage by doing anything except what honor and virtue permit me to do." 85 Truly virtuous, she remains loyal to Hermann even after her fortune is restored to her. Now that she has become Fräulein von Wirbelbach, Hermann considers it his duty to give her up: "You are worthy of a heart which honors you as much as mine does, but which can be more worthy of you because it enjoys greater personal good fortune." 96 T r u e to the fashion of the time, in which rationalism and sentimentality were inextricably mixed, he is ready to renounce her, begging her to forget him so that she may enjoy her happiness all the more—while he will find complete happiness in contemplating the perfection of hers.67 Fortunately she showed better judgment than he: " A t the 'Fräulein' from your mouth I shuddered. Don't you know your dearest Karoline any longer?" 68 She prefers poverty with him to wealth without him. "Your heart is more than rank and money," she tells him. 89 Thus Karoline proves that "two hearts united in virtue and tenderness may be the model for a happy marriage." 70 T h e characters Krüger created in Die Kandidaten as a contrast to Karoline, the model for the virtuous woman, follow the general outlines we have already observed in the plays of Frau Gottsched. There are those, like Amalie in Das Testament, who represent general human failings. She is greedy, anxious to get a husband no matter what the cost. Since this seems rather impossible without money, she stops at nothing in her desire to accumulate a dowry. Her actions stem more from stupidity and fear of being left unmarried than from actual depravity or from any other vice dominant in the eighteenth century. T h e faults of certain other non-virtuous characters, however, must be ascribed to the social conditions of the day. Because of his zealous passion for exposing contemporary conditions, Krüger concentrates on this second type of character with remarkable singleness of purpose. T h e vices he depicts in the Countess and Fräulein Christinchen were specific for his time. Again and again in the moral weeklies we read 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70.

Ibid., p. 338. Ibid., p. 413. Idem. Idem. Idem. Ibid., p. 413.

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criticisms of the unashamed immorality of such women as the Countess, criticisms of the shallowness and the corruption of a Fräulein Christinchen. 7 1 Each of these women has something of the adventuress in her, a phenomenon not new to the eighteenth century, but one which became prominent then because of the limitations the era put on women's activities. W e learn that in her youth the Countess actually did the very thing Karoline so persistently refuses to do. Unashamedly she reminds her husband that he attained his position only because she had lent her services and the duke knew how to appreciate them. Otherwise he w o u l d still be the impoverished aristocrat, the eternal " H o f j u n k e r c h e n . " 7 2 He is forced to admit the truth of her statements. T h e advice he gave Karoline, then, was based on personal experiences! It is of no consequence to him at all that his wife is the real power and he a mere figurehead. For her, on the other hand, it is a point of honor that she maintain her influence. 7 3 She is genuinely fond of Karoline and w o u l d like to see her happy, but she cannot help her, for according to the social formula of her set, if the Count promises Hermann the position, she must oppose his decision and favor Valer, should the latter please her. 7 4 It is doubly important to her to show how much authority she still possesses. N o longer young, her charms are fading, but in her code only beautiful women can wield the power she now exercises. T h u s the position of town councilor, though it is important, becomes merely the pawn in her struggle to maintain her influence. T h e C o u n t accepts his wife's choice but tries to motivate his change of mind to Karoline: " N o w you can see it is not my fault. If I ever want to act sensibly, my wife will not allow it." 7 5 O f course this statement is not quite true, because b u t a few minutes before he was willing to promise the office to Chrysander, a complete fool, since the latter's fiancée had led him to believe that her great interest in his advances was genuine. Such an attempt to explain away, at least partially, the abuses of the nobility recurs in the drama of the eighteenth century. T h u s Lessing's duke in Emilia Galotti has evil and vice at his side in Marinelli to intensify his passion and aid him in realizing his base lusts, just as Krüger's C o u n t is prevented from following reason and honesty, even if only this once, because of the vices typified in his wife, 7 1 . Der Patriot, op. cit., p. 5 0 , and Der Mahler der Sitten, von neuem übersehen u. stark vermehrt. Der erste Band (Zürich, 1 7 4 6 ) , 5 2 . Stück, p. 605. 7 î . Krüger-Löwen, op. cit., p. 4 0 8 . 7 3 . Ibid., p. 4 0 7 . 7 4 . Ibid., p. J 1 8 . 7 5 . Ibid., p. 408.

8o

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WOMAN

IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

w h o feels she must continue in her way of life in order to be in style with her circle. T h e other woman Krüger uses as a foil, and she stands out in even greater contrast to Karoline's intelligence and high moral qualities. Fräulein Christinchen is a close sister to Frau G o t t s c h e d s Amalia and Philippine, 7 6 only a little worse, as Krüger was wont to intensify the low traits in a character. In her the writer attempts to draw a woman without any moral sense, depraved, completely offensive in her petty greed. T h e grand passions of a Marwood, an Orsina, are wholly lacking here. Fräulein Christinchen can cajole a man like the C o u n t into the belief that his advances are pleasant to her simply in order to wheedle some money out of him, w h e n in reality she considered him a thoroughly repellent "old skeleton." Yet lust for money cannot be the mainspring of her behavior, for she could have had that in other ways without difficulty. She escaped from her parents' control because they had attempted to force her into a marriage with a rich " L a n d j u n k e r " without any redeeming qualities, as she tells us. Once away from home she found admirers enough, w h o showered her with gifts. She abhors marriage and is engaged to the "Licentiat," a commoner, only for the sake of his gifts, never really intending to marry him. 7 7 She and the C o u n t understand each other readily. He asks her: " W h o of you is in love, you or the Licentiat?" 7 8 Her answer is revealing for herself and the social ideals of her group: " I t would be the greatest disgrace for my sex if it were I; I trust your Excellency knows enough to know that a woman must never be in love. Vanity motivates our behavior." 7 9 She holds her fiancé in so little regard that the C o u n t asks her how she, the aristocrat, can possibly want to marry a commoner who has so little to recommend him. T h i s question was raised by Frau Gottsched also, and we shall hear it repeated. "Fools make the best husbands," is her answer. 80 A husband w h o has sense becomes a tyrant, and she will have nothing of him, be he aristocrat or commoner. Chrysander is so simple that she can easily deceive him, as she has already done quite successfully. 81 T h e C o u n t would like to become another in her succession of paramours. Fräulein Christinchen is after other spoils, however; in fact, after the "filled purse" which she knows that Chrysander 76. J. C. Gottsched, Die deutsche Schaubühne, Heirat. 77. Krüger-Löwen, op. cit., p. 404. 78. Ibid., p. 396. 79. Ibid., p. 397. 80. Ibid., p. 398. 81. Ibid., p. 399.

V I . Das Testament,

V, Die

ungleiche

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81

has presented to the Count. As soon as she succeeds, she is in a great hurry to leave, but is surprised by the Countess. Seeking a hiding place, she and the Count discover the eavesdropping Chrysander. With great presence of mind, she grasps the situation and makes an explanation of her presence which will appear reasonable to the Countess, at the same time preparing for escape. She has come to plead with the Count on Chrysander's behalf, she explains to the Countess. Her fiancé is outraged because of the disdain she has shown for him. Christinchen, however, has the last word, upbraiding him because he, a commoner, dared be witness to a conversation between people of her rank. When Chrysander leaves, she runs after him, taking the money along with her.82 T h e subtitle of the play, "How to obtain an office," indicates the point of interest for Krüger. Because of his desire to show the existing corruption he introduces characters like Chrysander, Fräulein Christinchen, and Valer, who do not form an integral part of the play. T h e result is a cumbersome plot of intrigues, neither interesting nor plausible. In spite of its faults, certain basic intentions of the author become clear. He was essentially interested in painting the abuse of power by certain groups—the clergy and the aristocracy—as vividly as he knew how. T h e women characters he created never command his exclusive attention; they are always secondary in importance to the main theme of the play. But he places an ideal woman beside those upon whom he heaps a full measure of scorn and condemnation. T h u s the good and the evil of his time are incarnated in the two types of womanhood. His conception of the ideal woman and that previously developed by the moral weeklies in the twenties coalesce. His virtuous feminine characters possess a good deal of independence and courage and actually do what the moral weeklies had pleaded with the parents to allow their daughters to do. In breaking down traditions, Krüger was far more fearless than the weeklies. In his plays it is the women who break the conventions, not the men. As we have seen, Karoline and Wilhelmine, who belong to the aristocracy, push aside the prejudices of their caste and take husbands from the middle class; in each case the man chosen is a paragon of virtue, worthy of the honor of marrying the aristocratic, defiant woman. Even Krüger considers this an honor. T h e difference in social attitudes between Frau Gottsched and Krüger is remarkable. Marrying for love is hardly of consequence in her plays; therefore she can advise against mésalliances, such as Karo82. Ibid.,

p. 406.

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line and Wilhelmine enter upon. With Krüger, however, marrying the person one loves and not merely the most convenient or the most promising is a paramount consideration. Rank declines in importance, for the writer, aware of the evils inherent in the sharp and artificial barriers which separated one group from another, minimizes class differences. Not that Krüger was free from the influence of the social values and conventions of his era. Hermann motivates his submission to Karoline's demand that he court the Countess by telling her that he cannot bear the thought of another man paying attentions to Karoline, no matter how high his rank: "I love you so much and my heart and honor are so sensitive, that just the hope which another man, no matter how superior in rank, might have for the conquest of your virtue could drive me insane." 83 Krüger, wittingly or not, reflects the opinion, so general in the period, that it was no disgrace for a woman to lose her honor if the man was of high rank. T h e author's own bitter experiences led him to direct a caustic attack against the various evils he saw about him; his honesty and decency revolted against the injustices of the day, when ability and qualifications came to naught, when a position would go to him who paid most or who was depraved enough to sell his wife's honor for it, or when applicants served only to gratify the desires or ends of those in authority. His fierce contempt drove him to exaggerate, to create overdrawn, one-sided characters, like Fräulein Christinchen and Chrysander, who are mere puppets, and Valer, a convenient prop. Haas 84 calls our attention to the close resemblance between this comedy and Beaumarchais' Mariage de Figaro, written some thirty years later. One need hardly look for any direct influence. T h e conditions depicted were common and general. Both plays, based on personal observations, satirize the corruptness and immorality among the nobility before the French Revolution. Krüger left three other plays, Der blinde Ehemann, a romantic comedy in three acts, and two one-act comedies, Der Teufel ein Bärenhäuter and Herzog Michel, both written in verse, a form he had not used previously for his plays.85 There is some question as to whether the first of the three was written before or after Die Kandidaten.86 T h e 83. Ibid., p. ¡¡98. 84. Albert Haas, " T h e Comedies of Johann Christian Krüger," Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, XVII, 457. 85. Krüger-Löwen, op. cit. 86. It cannot be determined which of the two plays was written first. In Löwen's edition of Krüger's works Der blinde Ehemann is put first among the comedies. He also gives the date of the first performance as July 8, 1747, in Hamburg. Wittekindt

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attitude toward women is the same in both, though one is a romantic comedy and the other a realistic drama. T h e moral, chaste, faithful woman is contrasted with the dishonest, faithless woman of easy virtue, the one finding pleasure in her devotion to others, especially her beloved; the other forever in search of adventures and pleasures to satisfy her own wicked desires. In Der blinde Ehemann Astrobal, the son of the late Prince, was blinded at birth by the fairy Oglyvia, who thus hoped to punish her mortal husband for his unfaithfulness. Astrobal has won the warm and devoted friendship of the Prince, Oglyvia's son, though both are ignorant of their close blood ties. Oglyvia, however, must pay for her jealousy and despicable revenge. 87 She was smitten with great ugliness at the moment when she pronounced the curse upon Astrobal. When praying in the Temple of Fate for the undoing of the curse she hears from the oracle: "When the misfortune of your son makes Astrobal the happiest husband, you will regain your beauty." 88 T o hasten the fulfillment of this decree, she attempts to encourage her son in his love for Laura, Astrobal's devoted wife, in order to test the latter's virtue. Marottin, her messenger, becomes the Prince's valet, ever urging him to pursue Laura. T h e Prince, however, who does love Laura, is too honorable to make any bold attempts to win her; and begins to pursue her in earnest only after his fairy mother tells him that her own return to beauty depends on this effort and its failure. T h e n only does he agree to Marottin's plot, which was to drive Laura into his arms. When Astrobal's jealousy is aroused, it is expected that he will become a tyrannical and irksome husband and cause Laura to leave him. It is the same kind of scheme that Arnold conceived in Die Kandidaten. Again the woman's virtue proves incorruptible. Astrobal's jealousy and reproaches, for he believes the false charges against her, make Laura extremely unhappy, since she can see no way of proving maintains chat this is incon-ect because July 8 fell on a Saturday in that year and no performances were given on Saturdays. Another reason to accept his statements is the fact that this play is not mentioned in the announcements of the Schönemann troupe. T h e s e "Theaterzettel," preserved in the Stadtbibliothek in Hamburg, prove that Der blinde Ehemann was not played in 1747 in H a m b u r g at all. T h e play was first published in the fifth volume of Schönemann's Schaubühne in 1751. Schmid's Chronologie des deutschen Theaters mentions the year 1749 as the time w h e n the comedy was written and 1757 as the year when Schönemann performed it for the first time, after it had been played by almost all other German companies. However, in the Nekrolog Schmid gives 1751 for the first performance by Schönemann. Wittekindt, rightly, doubts these dates. Wittenkindt, op. cit., p. 50. 87. Krüger-Löwen, op. cit., p. 263. 88. Idem.

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her innocence to him. T h e Prince offers her a share in the throne if she will accept him and leave Astrobal. In great anguish she beseeches him to take her life, if destroy her he must, but to restore Astrobal's faith in her by telling him the truth about her innocence. 89 At this moment the power of the curse is broken: Astrobal sees again and Oglyvia's beauty is restored. She appears in all her splendor to tell them what has happened. Only the virtue of a woman, tested and found to be incorruptible, could have restored Astrobal's sight and her beauty. T h e Prince's passion for his brother's wife vanishes and in its stead remain veneration and praise for virtue and loyalty. T h e characters introduced for contrast fare badly, especially since the comic relief of this otherwise serious play rests upon them. Florine, the wife of Crispin, is Laura's opposite. She considers women who do not accept pleasure and enjoyment wherever they can find them as hopelessly foolish and naive. T h u s she is quite unscrupulous in her shameless deceit of Crispin. All the love scenes in the dark garden, which her husband witnessed, believing them to be between Laura and the Prince, actually were between Florine and her lover, Marottin. We have here a stock situation of the eighteenth-century drama. Crispin, who had helped to arouse Astrobal's suspicion of his loyal wife, turns out to be the one deceived. T h e cynical, ironical attitude towards women so often encountered in court circles is incorporated here in the episodes of Marottin and Florine. He cannot envision a woman as anything but depraved and immoral; she, believing in the utter selfishness of men, is frivolous in her play with them. However, in the end virtue is triumphant and is rewarded, as in the other two plays. Krüger created neither unusual nor different characters in this comedy. It has romantic elements, along with a strong influence of the comédie larmoyante. It was well received and kept its place on the stage for a long time. A Theaterzettel of May 13, 1762, issued in Bremen, contains the following interesting comment: T h e author of our play of today had already gained the reputation of a clever dramatist by other well-turned comedies; and his Der blinde Ehemann has so many beauties that our neighbors, the French, who suffer from no dearth of good comedies, have honored him by translating it into their tongue, and France is said to have received it with the same acclaim which the play has found in all places in Germany where it has been played. It can be said without boasting that it is one of the few comedies that Germany can be proud of."0

8g. ¡bid., p. 279.

90. Quoted by Wittenkindt, op. cit., p. 118.

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T h e characterization was praised, as was the satire, the moral, the sentiments, and the delightful ending. 91 It held the boards until 1771, and was revived as late as 1790.92 Der Teufel ein Bärenhäuter and Herzog Michel are of lesser significance for this study. They are weak plays. As a modern critic says: " T h e rest of Krüger's literary activity [after Die Kandidaten] was now inspired by practical reasons."93 Both of the plays we are now considering aimed at nothing but amusing the audiences. Krüger's interest dwelt on the comic effects he could produce, and the feminine parts were cut to a minimum. It is perhaps all the more important to point out that in both playlets the same types recur that we have met in the heroines of his longer comedies, though there is no heroine in either play. The faithful, devoted, virtuous woman is definitely set up as the ideal. The theme of the first is similar to that of Der blinde Ehemann, except that Krüger deals here with characters taken from the bottom of the social scale, the peasants. As a result, the little play lacks any of the refinement of his longer comedies. The tone of the language and the characters are much coarser, and vulgarities abound as they did in the scenes dealing with the pastors and their servants in his first play, Die Geistlichen auf dem Lande. On the other hand, Hannchen, the virtuous woman, though more limited in her intellectual horizon, is as noble and refined as Wilhelmine, Karoline, or Laura. Wilhelm Rabe, a tenant farmer (Pächter), is married to Hannchen, who has been forced into this marriage by her parents despite the fact that she had always loved Valentin, a soldier. She sighs and longs for the latter, but never actually breaks her marriage vows. Wilhelm, who knows of and permits meetings between Valentin and Hannchen, relates his plight to Ruthe, the sexton. Ruthe thereupon develops a scheme to cure Hannchen of her love for Valentin and turn it toward her husband. He proposes to disguise himself as the devil and thrash Valentin thoroughly when the latter comes to meet Hannchen. Wilhelm, an unseen witness to the meeting between his wife and the soldier, becomes completely convinced that they have never deceived him and actually hears Hannchen admit her respect for him because he has always treated her with patience and generosity. Therefore Wilhelm betrays Ruthe's plan. Thus the tables are turned. Ruthe, who actually has made improper advances to Hannchen, gets the thrashing, 91. Idem. 92. Idem. 93. Haas, op. cit., p. 458.

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and is bound up in addition. Lying helpless, the miserable sexton must hear of his own cuckoldry from the mouths of the perpetrators, his wife Anna and their man servant Peter. T h u s R u t h e , who had inflamed the suspicion and jealousy of another, must in the end witness the disloyalty of his own wife, while the accused woman proves to be chaste and honest. T h i s is almost a repetition of the relationship between the good, virtuous couple, Astrobal and Laura, and the gossiping, philandering Crispin and Florine. Herzog Michel was extremely popular throughout the century. It had even Lessing's approval, though he gave credit for the many good satirical features of this play to J o h a n n Adolf Schlegel, upon whose Glück it was based. 94 T h e only poetic narrative Das ausgerechnete feminine character, also named Hannchen, can best be compared to Karoline. Michel is a simple peasant boy, in love with Hannchen and betrothed to her. T h e course of his life and love is altered by a nightingale which he catches. Knowing that his lord is very fond of nightingales and pays well for them, Michel imagines that he sells the bird and invests the profits of this sale in ever larger and more profitable undertakings. In his fancy he becomes lord and master of a big estate, in fact, a count. T h u s he can't marry Hannchen, because she is too low in station for him; instead he asks her to become his mistress. Hannchen does not lose her faith in him, though her father wishes her to give him up, for he has become lazy and brags too much. Michel's imagined grandeur comes to a quick end. He commands Hannchen to fetch him a pitcher of beer; this she refuses to do because he has been acting so "high and mighty." He opens his hand to box her ear, therewith letting the bird escape. At once he changes back into the industrious, kind boy he was before he caught the nightingale. Hannchen's good sense, her straightforwardness, her unobstructed vision of the sensible make her akin to Karoline and, like her, a model of feminine virtues. Michel had been a hardworking, simple, honest man before his temporary aberration. She argues with her father that the apparent change in him cannot have become irrevocable in so short a time, that she therefore will be patient and wait a little longer, for industry, good sense and virtue are enduring. He had been kind to animals and so he would also be kind to a wife, she argues. 95 T h e end justifies her faith in Michel. 94. Lessing—LM, X , 138. 95. Krüger-Löwen, op. cit., p. 449.

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CHRISTIAN

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T h i s last play of Krüger's contains a good bit of satire on the immorality, so prevalent among the aristocracy, which he had chastized in his first two plays. Michel must explain to Hannchen what he means by a "mistress." A "grosser H e r r " often has another " w i f e " besides the one he is legally wedded to. She has all the authority one usually gives a wife; she has a carriage, servants, beautiful clothes—all without sanction of the clergy, who, however, accept this relationship. W h e n he is tired of her, he will marry her to some man whom he will promote so that he can support her. 86 In short, here is a repetition of Arnold's plan for Karoline, or a duplication of the relationship between C o u n t and Countess. T h i s same passage also contains a diatribe against the clergy, mocking them from Michel's naive point of view. W h a t e v e r the clergy teach us, they may violate, and must at times do so if they wish to avoid reprimand by the aristocracy. 97 Here Krüger finds an excuse for the behavior of the clergy, while in his first comedy he could find no mitigating circumstances for this disparity between precept and example. Herzog Michel also deals with characters belonging to the peasantry. T h e tone of this play is more refined than that of Der Teufel ein Bärenhäuter. T h e ethical principles underlying his longer comedies prevail here as well. Hannchen is again a virtuous woman, with great faith in the integrity of her beloved. Her devotion to him stands the test of his temporary foolish behavior. T h e r e is no indication of her education and we must assume that it was very limited. T h i s does not, however, detract from her good common sense, her intelligence and courage to face life's problems in a manner closely resembling that of Karoline, w h o is intellectually and socially on a so much higher level. Krüger's fragment Der glückliche Bankrottiereralso contains two women figures, the wife of the Bankrottierer and her maid. But the extant scenes are too few in number and too incomplete to venture any conclusions about the feminine characters. W h e n we compare the position towards women found in Krüger and Frau Gottsched we see that both go back to the same ideals. For both playwrights the ideal woman is energetic, resourceful, honest, although in Krüger's Karoline, intrigue is a part of her character. Faithfulness, for which personal hardship is cheerfully endured, and devotion are also extolled by both writers. Frau Gottsched's Karoline puts 96. Ibid., p. 457. 97. Idem. 98. Ibid., p p . 46g-49Z.

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devotion to her aunt above her own happiness; Krüger's Karoline in her devotion to her fiancd even surmounts barriers of class, as does also his Wilhelmine. A l l these are bourgeois ideals, held u p to the audience as worthy of emulation. T h e bourgeois traits, exemplified in the aristocratic women, through intermarriage of the classes merge with those of the aristocracy and one ideal gradually appears. T h i s point is especially strong in Krüger, who brings the bourgeoisie and aristocracy into a closer relationship. In like manner, the undesirable qualities, though usually identified with persons of the aristocracy, now viewed with bourgeois contempt, gradually lose their place and value. N o t that they do not persist to some extent throughout the century: Goethe's Adelheid, though more refined, is an example; and Kleist's Kunigunde, a caricatured fairy-tale figure, is of the same type as Fräulein Christinchen or the Countess. Frau Gottsched stressed conformity to the conventions. T h e rational woman does not defy them, but lives in harmony with the world as it is, just as Frau Gottsched adjusted herself to conditions as they were. In Krüger the individual flouts the demands of the social code. Karoline loves and honors Hermann for himself; caste is quite insignificant. A n d while Amalia in Die ungleiche Heirat stresses the difficulties of a mixed marriage, Wilhelmine enters into one, even if she must disobey her mother in order to follow her own desires. In his advanced social attitudes lies Krüger's greatest contribution to his time. His comedies share with all the plays of the period a moralizing tendency but are free from any spirit of patience and meekness in the characters. T h e daring aggressiveness of his social satires makes those of his contemporaries, like Schlegel's Der geschäftige Müßiggänger and Der Geheimnisvolle and even Geliert's Die Betschwester, seem quite mild, their satire reduced to a trifle. N o t until the Storm and Stress do we hear another voice so strong and powerful as Krüger's in unmitigated attacks on social abuses. It may also be important to note that Krüger had an audience. W h i l e his first play was rejected by the critics, it was nevertheless popular, and his Kandidaten was always considered an important play. Kütner gives the following evaluation of Krüger in his Charaktere deutscher Dichter, in 1781: " H e was well-read, a man of genius who knew the world, born with great talents for the comical. His greatest literary achievement is his comedies, which are still viewed with pleasure among the 'überspannten Kraftstücke' of our time." He praises the comic spirit of the plays, the expression, the wit, and the effective

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satire. "Were it not for the verbosity and the meagre action in his plays he would deserve an important place among our native writers of comedy." 99 A few years later Schmid agrees in the main with this view, but is a little more critical: "His fame rests on the two comedies, Der blinde Ehemann and Die Kandidaten. At a time when so many of Gottsched's followers produced so many silly comedies it was all the more noteworthy that Krüger tried to follow Molière's." Despite his praise of Kriiger's talent for comedy and portraiture, Schmid points out their lack of cohesion and the rambling style which, he believes, Krüger would have eliminated in time. Schmid further maintains that Krüger is out of his métier as soon as he becomes serious, as in some sentimental scenes of Der blinde Ehemann or in the case of Hermann in Die Kandidaten.10° About a decade later, Eschenburg still includes Krüger in his Beispielsammlung, although he makes a nice and cautious distinction when he says that when compared with the other plays of Krüger's day, his comedies are superior, although they are inferior in comparison with the plays "of the more recent writers of comedy." 1 0 1 Krüger can hardly be called a great dramatist, but he has assuredly a definite place as a precursor and trail-blazer for the social and ethical ideals incorporated in the drama of the last quarter of the century. 99. K ü t n e r , op. cit., p. 297. 100. Schmid, Chronologie, p. 277. 1 0 1 . Eschenburg, op. cit., p. 338t.

VI JOHANN ELIAS SCHLEGEL (1718-1749)

J

was perhaps the most gifted among the German dramatists of the first half of the eighteenth century. His contemporaries considered him as such, and succeeding generations o£ critics have agreed. All who knew him and all who were familiar with his works deeply regretted his early death in 1749 at the age of thirtyone, as the letters of profound sorrow sent to his two brothers, J o h a n n Adolf and Johann Heinrich, attest. His brothers, having also studied at Schulpforta and at the University of Leipzig, had many friends in common with their more famous brother. Klopstock, though he had never met Johann Elias, knew him through an exchange of letters. Upon the latter's death Klopstock sent his condolences to Adolf, expressing his deep sorrow, "among all our friends I am perhaps best able to weep with you for your brother," and urging him, as a monument to his brother's spirit, to publish in an elaborate fashion all that Johann Elias had written. 1 T h e same suggestion was repeated by others, but years passed and nothing seemed to come of the plan. Finally, in 1756, Geliert reminded Adolf of it again, asking him whether he had given up the idea. "This edition is as necessary for the honor of our nation as anything could be," he wrote. 2 T h e edition came at last 1761-1770. Throughout the century Schlegel was considered an important poet, and as late as 1771 Die allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek called him "immortal." 3 Schiller paid tribute to him in Über serttimentalische und naive Dichtung, regarding him as one of the most brilliant poets of the country. 4 OHANN E L I A S S C H L E G E L

Schlegel was both theorist and dramatist. His critical and aesthetic writings were not fully appreciated in his time, however. Far ahead of 1. F. G. Klopstock, Briefe, ed. J . M. Lappenberg (Braunschweig, 1867), p. 29t. 2. Quoted by Eugen Wolff from unpublished letters by Geliert. Eugen Wolff, Johann Elias Schlegel (2d ed.; Kiel & Leipzig: Lipsius und Tischer, 1892), p. 181. 3. Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek (Berlin & Stettin, 1771), X V , 232. 4. F. Schiller, Werke, ed. Bellermann (Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, n.d.), V, 521.

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SCHLEGEL

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his period, these are today considered forerunners of Lessing's aesthetic views, establishing Schlegel beyond doubt as the "apostle of ideas which were to prove fruitful for the development of the German theatre and literature." 5 It was unfortunate that his critical essays were not more widely known at the time they were written. It was not until the third volume of his collected works was published in 1764 that the essays were assembled and presented as a whole. But by then his ideas were out-dated; others now appeared and expressed in a more eloquent and more forceful way what he was, perhaps, the first to point out. Hettner, one of the earliest in the nineteenth century to show an understanding of Schlegel, indicated that he never reached maturity in his dramatic works and that he was unable to break with the traditions of his time because he lacked sufficient originality and creative power.® Neither his tragedies nor his comedies measure up to the theories formulated by him. His contemporaries considered his tragedies as his greater contribution to the field of German letters. "Schlegel was born for the tragedy," wrote J . F. Löwen in 1776. 7 F. C. Weisse, reviewing the third volume of his works, wrote: "One can see that he [Johann Elias] was the man who was able to give the German theatre a new form since he was well acquainted with classical and modern literature and since he knew the rules and was himself a poet. And he really did just that." 8 J . J . Eschenburg echoed this opinion: " T h e dramatic works of this young poet, who died too soon and yet is worthy of praise, are so different from all similar works of his predecessors and contemporaries that one can consider him the creator of the better German taste in the tragic as well as in the comic field."9 However, he too admitted that the poet had won greater honor with his tragic works than with his comedies. T h e tragedies were, on the whole, still written in the style advocated by Gottsched, who condemned as the subject of a tragedy any matter that was taken from contemporary life. He considered tragedies as "actions by persons of high rank which arouse the passions." 10 5. J . W. Eaton, " J o h . El. Schlegel and German Literature," Germanic Review, IV (October, 1929), 330. 6. Hermann Hettner, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur, ed. G. Witkowski (Leipzig, 1929), p. 234. 7. Joh. Heinrich Löwen, Schriften, 4. Teil (Hamburg, 1766), p. 42. 8. Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und der freien Künste (Leipzig, 1767), I, p. 37. 9. J . J . Eschenburg, Beispielsammlung zur Theorie und Literatur der schönen Wissenschaften (Berlin, 1793), VII, 328. 10. Joh. Elias Schlegel, Werke, ed. Joh. Heinrich Schlegel (Kopenhagen & Leipzig, 1761-1770), III, 277.

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For this study, consequently, his tragedies cannot furnish any illustrative material on the social attitudes toward women in the period of Enlightenment. It is quite different when we consider his comedies. These, dealing always with his own time, met with popular approval, though the critics judged them inferior to his tragedies. While Schlegel accepted some of Gottsched's fundamental principles, he nevertheless formulated rules that went beyond Gottsched's and were at times in direct contrast to them. Both agreed that a comedy must amuse, and must also teach by moral example. But Schlegel shifted the emphasis, stressing the aesthetic function of the comedy. Indeed it is not necessary for the theatre to have any other purpose but that of amusing the understanding of man in a rational m a n n e r . " But a good theatre can do the same service for a whole people which a mirror performs for a woman who wants to adorn herself. It shows, especially in social usages, what is bad and what is ridiculous."

Schlegel broke the hard and fast rule of Gottsched as to the subject matter of comedy by demanding that comedies mirror the life not only of the lower classes but of the middle and upper classes as well.13 The representation of life in the latter two groups would serve to emphasize the coarseness and vices of the lower orders. "Comedies in which people of fine education are portrayed, and which are of the kind of the Misanthrope and The Impertinents [Les Fâcheux] by Molière, add a great deal to the improvement of the mind and behavior of young people." 14 T h e didactic function of the comedy was still significant, but Schlegel did not agree with Gottsched's principle that that function was to be fulfilled only by an "action of vice or folly" in a comedy. Schlegel raised the level of the comedy not only by enlarging the scope of its subject matter and its treatment but also by urging the use of verse, in direct opposition to Gottsched.18 As for using verse in his own comedies, however, he can hardly be looked upon as a pioneer. Only the fragment Die entführte Dose, the playlet Der gute Rat, and Die stumme Schönheit were written in verse form. Die Pracht zu Landheim was originally also written in Alexandrines, but this version was destroyed by the poet. Only one scene was 1 1 . Ibid., p. 271. 12. Ibid., p. 271. 13. Ibid., p. 280. 14. Idem. 15. G. Pipirs, " J o h . Elias Schlegel," Nordische IH. 399-

Rundschau

(Januar-Juni, 1885),

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found in that form by his brother Johann Heinrich when he examined the Nachlaß before publication. It is generally conceded that Schlegel failed to make his creative work exemplify his theories. O f his full-length comedies, Der geschäftige Müßiggänger and Der Geheimnisvolle satirize idiosyncracies of individuals in the style of Molière. Die stumme Schönheit and Der Triumph der guten Frauen are comedies of intrigue and disguise, also following patterns which had been established by Molière and Holberg. Die Pracht zu Landheim and Der Gärtnerkönig are incomplete. Die entführte Dose is a comedy in one act which was performed in Leipzig with more applause than it merited, according to Johann Heinrich Schlegel. 1 6 T h e author himself had severely criticized this playlet, refusing even to rework it, as some friends w h o saw some good points in it had urged him to do. T h e editor remarked that the play was not entirely without worth and that it possessed a certain merriment which was often the only virtue of a " N a c h k o m ö d i e . " He added that there were not many G e r m a n " N a c h k o m ö d i e n which could vie with this for first place." T h e excerpts were included in the collected works only to demonstrate the verse form. For his contemporaries, this was the outstanding feature of the little play. Die Pracht zu Landheim17 was written during Schlegel's last year at Lepizig, 1742. Originally composed as a full-length comedy, it was destroyed by him at the request of his father, w h o feared that it might be interpreted as a satire on the nobility, whose good will the elder Schlegel needed in order to keep his office. Like so many other plays of the time, this comedy, so far as we can judge from the fragment, had no plot to speak of. Rather, it consisted of a series of loosely-connected scenes. It satirized the wide-spread attempt of the country gentry to imitate the mode of life of the more sophisticated and frequently also more prosperous court and city aristocrats, whose ideals and standards were in turn molded after those prevailing among the French. In discussing Schlegel's comedies, Rodenfels makes the point that Schlegel did not merely take over motifs, characters, and episodes from Molière and Holberg, did not merely fuse a feminine " l ' A v a r e " with "Jean-deFrance" elements from Holberg's comedy. T o prove that Schlegel took his characters from his own surroundings, thus giving us "a crass picture of reality," 1 8 he quotes Professor Johannes Ziekursch, w h o in16. Schlegel, op. cit., I I , 621. 17. Ibid., I l l , 523. 18. H e r b e r t R o d e n f e l s , ]oh. Elias Schlegels p. »4.

Lustspiele

( D i s s e r t a t i o n B r e s l a u , 1938),

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eluded excerpts of the diary of Count Reichenbach in his book Hundert Jahre schlesische Agrargeschichte, telling of similar conditions among some of the Silesian nobility. 1 9 T h e chief character, Frau von Landheim, is an ignorant woman w h o aspires to imitate the customs of her group but refuses to part with even a farthing to realize these. She has made one concession, by sending her only son, Berthold, on a tour to France as aristocratic custom demanded. Now he has returned home, full of arrogance and the desire to imitate the luxurious life he had seen at the French court. H e is as great a spendthrift as his mother is a miser. T h e i r different points of view clash when both wish to celebrate her birthday in a fitting manner. He wants to change their neglected, dilapidated home into an elegant castle, with servants in uniform, luxurious furniture, and silks and brocades for wall-coverings and clothes. Frau von Landheim becomes highly indignant. Her grandfather's old, worn tent will make a wonderful covering for the walls, just as her dead husband's wardrobe will furnish excellent uniforms for her newly acquired servants. These are the village tradesmen, who are her serfs and therefore forced to work for her without remuneration. In their spare time, she tells them, they can follow their trades. However, she never allows them any free time, demanding that they watch the grounds at night instead of sleeping. T h e r e b y she acquires watchmen, as all big estates should have, and saves the room and expense for beds. 20 Should these men die of exhaustion and overwork, she can always find new ones. T h i s complete lack of any understanding of her position and relationship to others is also manifest in her treatment of her children. T h e son had acquired whatever manners he has in France. Her daughter, Fiekchen, is completely neglected, except that in some unexplained way she has learned to take care of a household. She is untutored, ignorant, and even more niggardly than her mother. In spite of this kindredness of soul, Frau von Landheim does not treat her daughter well. She prefers Lisette, the wily maid, w h o flatters her no end; and in any quarrel between the two girls she always sides with the maid. T h e reason for Fiekchen's antagonism to Lisette lies in her conviction that maids are unnecessary luxuries. O n the other hand, Frau von Landheim's conception of a "grande dame" includes a French maid and servants. It does not matter that Lisette is merely "Liese" from a nearby village, w h o barely knows a half-dozen French phrases, which she uses indiscriminately. T h e end of the play can be surmised from some notes found in the 19. Ibid., p. 23. so. Schlegel, op. cit., I l l , 530.

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Nachlaß. O n e of the servants hired for the celebration of the birthday runs off, stealing all that has been collected for the feast. However, the plot is of hardly any importance to us. T h e three women command our attention. Frau von L a n d h e i m is a vain, shrewd, but ignorant woman living in a world of her own making; without understanding, unsympathetic, she is a ruthless exploiter of all who are forced to live with her or under her. Her attempts to combine the high demands of aristocratic standards with her own parsimonious nature make her a comic character, a caricature of life as it undoubtedly existed around Schlegel and was known to him. Frau von Ahnenstolz of Frau Gottsched's play Die ungleiche Heirat is her blood sister. Fiekchen resembles her mother but lacks the latter's ambition to play the aristocrat. T o her, even the stingy efforts of her mother are superfluous. She is satisfied to wear the same dress until it falls to pieces. Lisette is sketchily drawn, like the maid in most other contemporary comedies. Looking out for her own advantage, she is c u n n i n g enough to second any plans of her mistress and thus keep her influence on her. She has a few characteristics in common with Frau Gottsched's Mademoiselle L a Flèche. She has not completely accepted the amoral attitude of her deceitful French counterpart, for she refuses Berthold when he, aping the French, wants to "elevate" her to be his mistress. Der gute Rat, a comedy in one act, was written in 1745. 21 It appeared originally in Der Fremde, the moral weekly Schlegel published in Copenhagen in the years 1745 and 1746. T h e poet himself did not quite know whether to call it a comedy in miniature or a dialogue. It is rather the latter, since it has no plot at all. Raadfast, a merchant, expects everyone w h o m he advises to accept his counsel. Therefore he is annoyed and finally infuriated when Voxhoved, the fiancé of his sister, seems loath to follow his recommendation to press a debtor for payment. Raadfast threatens to disinherit Leonore, her children, as yet unborn, and even her grandchildren, should she refuse to terminate her engagement to Voxhoved. T o appease Raadfast, Voxhoved follows his advice, but in so doing loses his money. Somewhat chastened, Raadfast now sees the wisdom of Leonore's words: "Because, dear brother, one can make mistakes, one must not have so much confidence in one's judgment as to become angry when others do not heed it." 2 2 O f the three women characters in this little playlet, Frau Husvild is s i . Schlegel, op. cit., I, 449. tt. Ibid., p. 468.

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too sketchily drawn to be more than a shadow, and Pernille is too much the clever, conventional maid in the French pattern to be of value for this study. Leonore is important for us, since she is most clearly drawn and is another instance of Schlegel's favorite female type. Intelligence, wit, the power of analyzing situations, a subtle sense of humor, which prompts her apt answers to her brother's unreasonable demands—these are her outstanding characteristics. She exhibits faithfulness and independence w h e n she refuses to break her engagement to Voxhoved, telling Raadfast: "I like to be advised; but best of all by my reason . . . which tells me now that your good advice stems from vexation . . . that you might be wrong." 2 3 It is of interest to note that the brother expected his sister to obey him implicitly and immediately, as a matter of course, although the author does not make it clear whether this was because he was a tyrant by nature or simply the conventional male guardian of the eighteenth century. Der geschäftige Müßiggänger,-* Schlegel's first full-length comedy, was written about 1741 but not published until later, in the fourth volume of Gottsched's Deutsche Schaubühne.23 T h i s play and Der Geheimnisvolle,26 written in 1746 and published by Schlegel in his Theatralische Werke, belong to the same genre. Walzel designates them as "Charaktertypendramen" especially favored by the "Bremer Beiträger." 2 7 T o some extent the writers of this g r o u p continued in Gottsched's footsteps in that the didactic, moral purpose of literature was paramount for them. Closer to real life than most poets of their time, the "Bremer Beiträger" were not so much concerned with a regeneration of the drama as with a regeneration of the whole middle class. T h e social reforms already established in foreign countries served as a directive for them. In their wish to change the tone, manners and general social attitude of the middle class, they merely fulfilled some of the ideals of Rationalism; and, in their zeal to awaken some sense of responsibility in their compeers, they, like all rationalists, wished to stress the norm. T o follow a middle course was rational and sensible, while living according to one's whims and inclinations was to be shunned because it could only bring ruin. 2 8 T h u s avoidance of all ec23. ¡bid., 2425. 26. 27. buch 28.

p. 459.

¡bid., p. 45. J. C . G o t t s c h e d , Die deutschen Schaubühne, op. cit., I V . Schlegel, op. cit., I I , 183. O s k a r W a l z e l , Die deutsche Dichtung v. Gottsched bis zur Gegenwart, der L i t e r a t u r w i s s e n s c h a f t , " I, 79. Ibid., p. 80.

"Hand-

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centricity is an ideal of immediate urgency and a central theme in many of their plays. T h e i r inspiration for this type of play was Molière, master in creating asocial types, like the miser, the hypocrite, the misanthrope. T h e narrow provincialism of G e r m a n life, the lack of a great and unusual talent among the men 2 9 w h o banded together to further the intellectual life of their people forced them into rather shallow channels. T h e y centered their interest not on the grave human failings Molière satirized, but on petty idiosyncracies which were relatively unimportant in bourgeois society. T h e idler, the distrustful person, the hypochondriac were the types chosen to portray their effect on society. Such characters were to demonstrate an obvious lack of balance and a resulting lack of reason in their behavior, and the harm which these shortcomings cause to themselves and to society. 30 Schlegel wrote his two plays Der geschäftige Müßiggänger and Der Geheimnisvolle to exemplify this idea. In the preface 3 1 to the latter he reveals that the inspiration for the plays was a passage in Molière's Le Misanthrope.32 Fortunat, the "geschäftige Müßiggänger," is a lawyer whose interest extends to everything but the affairs of his clients. He finds time to go to the bootmaker and the jeweler, he has time to try out a new horse, but he has none to keep his appointment with one of the ministers w h o is to help him obtain a coveted office. H e dawdles his time away, painting a little, composing inanities, but neglects his professional duties, thereby losing the lawsuit for his client. Rennthier, his rival, is his exact opposite. H e gains all the other loses; he obtains the position from the minister, he wins the lawsuit for his own client, and even wins Lieschen, w h o had been picked by Fortunat's mother as a suitable fiancée for her son. 29. Aikin-Sneath, op. cit., p. 64. 30. Walzel, op. cit., p. 80. 31. Schlegel, op. cit., p. 186. 32. T h e passage suggested the character of Fortunat in Der geschäftige gänger as well as that of A b g r u n d in Der Geheimnisvolle. C'est de la tête aux pieds un homme tout mistère, Q u i vous jette, en passant, un coup d'oeil égaré Et, sans aucune affaire, est toujours affairé. T o u t ce qu'il vous débite en grimaces abonde; A force de façons il assomme le monde: Sans cesse il a tout bas, p o u r rompre l'entretien, U n secret à vous dire, et ce secret n'est rien; De la moindre vétille il fait une merveille, Et, jusques au bon jour, il dit tout à l'oreille.

Müßig-

Le Misanthrope, II, 5. T h e third line quoted above refers, of course, to Fortunat, the others to AbgTund.

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T h e contemporary critics agreed that the play faithfully depicted the life and manners of a middle-class family in their era, and in this realism lies the value of the comedy despite its lack of any artistic merit. 33 Mendelssohn wrote of it: " T h e characters seem to me to be completely fashioned after life. Such idlers, such doting mothers, such visits devoted to inane prattling, and such stolid merchants we see every day. T h u s the German middle class thinks, lives, acts. T h e poet has done his duty, he has portrayed us as we are." 3 4 In the preface to the play the three main women characters are analyzed by the author: 3 5 " J u n g f e r Lieschen represents in her own way a busy idler. She serves to point up this fault from another, almost equally comic, side and makes the play all the more moral. For her childishly regular routine, her pedantic orderliness in all small matters, is no less a busy dawdling than all Fortunat's irresponsible and useless actions." 36 Lieschen counts the number of stitches she can make in a minute, striving to establish ever better records. She boasts that the maid must sweep the floor three times and then must blow the dust away with her mouth, to satisfy her mistress' sense of cleanliness. She comes to visit Fortunat and his mother, but refuses to stay even a half-minute longer than originally intended because one loses too much time in long visits. 37 She spends her time in the meticulous care of her household, completely ignorant of any life beyond its narrow confines. She conforms to the conventions of the time when she maintains that it is neither proper nor necessary that she like the man she is going to marry. " I t would be improper for me to like men, but if there is as much orderliness in his head as there is on it, one can hardly refrain from praising him." 3 8 T h e r e is no clear description of her, except that she was a "fine, pretty, respectable girl." 3 9 However, from Frau Sylvester's eagerness to have Lieschen like her son we deduce that Lieschen was quite a desirable young woman. Lieschen's cleanliness and neatness are not considered virtues by Schlegel, for they had become the very pivot of her existence—to the 33. Eugen Wolff, op. cit., p. 52. 34. Briefe die neueste Literatur betreffend, X X I . Teil, 31s. Brief (Berlin, 1765), 132. 35. This preface is written by the editor, Joh. Heinrich. However, he may be referring to his brother's opinion. 36. Schlegel, op. cit., p. 48. 37. Ibid., II, 1 3 1 . 38. Ibid., II, 120. " E s ist mir nicht erlaubt, daß mir die Mannspersonen gefallen. Aber wenn in seinem Kopfe so viel Ordnung ist, als an seinem Kopfe, so wird man sich schwerlich enthalten können, ihn zu loben." 39. Ibid., II, 123.

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exclusion of any genuine, warm feeling or action. T h e s e traits do not constitute any evil in themselves, but they become a vice when Lieschen turns the petty household affairs into an all-absorbing activity. Her diligence and methodical care for unimportant details become as harmful in their excess as Fortunat's carelessness. Her foil, the lazy Fiekchen, is Fortunat's step-sister. Left entirely to herself, she spends her day in complete idleness. She was never dressed when visitors were announced, always lolling about without any occupation. Untidy in appearance, she is equally negligent about household affairs. As the meaningless industry of both Fortunat and Lieschen is ridiculed, so too is Fiekchen's laziness. Ignorant and stupid, she is consistently silent because she has nothing to say. T h e greatest chastisement is meted out to Frau Sylvester, the mother of Fortunat. She worships her son and devotes all her energies to shielding him from the difficulties of life. For example, she intercepts the angry client who is losing his lawsuit because Fortunat has so shamefully neglected his work. 4 0 In her efforts to save her son's reputation, Frau Sylvester exaggerates and misquotes, unintentionally at times, what she has heard from various sources about the progress of the court proceedings. She thus contributes to the loss of the suit, because, lulled into a sense of security by her words, the client does not change lawyers. 41 Her complete unselfishness and unlimited devotion to her son are, however, not considered praiseworthy because the absence of any discipline and method in the upbringing of her children only serves to encourage their bad habits. She is a failure not only as a mother but also as a housekeeper. 4 2 W e learn from her maid that her ignorance of what to buy and how to buy has resulted in loss of time for all concerned. T h u s Frau Sylvester emerges as a counterpart of those slovenly housekeepers who are condemned in the moral weeklies because they also make slovenly mothers and wives. T h e fact that slovenliness is made a fundamental trait from which all vice stems, tends to reduce the satire on the social conditions of the day to triviality. Frau Richardin, Lieschen's mother, and Kathrine, the maid, do not emerge as independent persons because of the indefinite characterization they receive in the play. In this comedy there is not one character whose virtues are extolled. W e can only infer from the vices chastised the social attitude toward women. W e hear nothing of some of the social questions both Frau 40. Ibid., II, 154ft. 41. Ibid., II, 1788. 48. Ibid., II, 145ft.

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Gottsched and Krüger treated. There is no indication in this play of women's attempt to violate the code imposed upon them and win more recognition as individuals. T h e short-comings of all the female characters depicted here spring from the same source—their ignorance. All of them are the product of the kind of upbringing so severely condemned in the moral weeklies of the seventeen-twenties. In the period between Der Patriot and Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen and Schlegel's play much effort had been made to raise the cultural level of women prevailing among a large part of the bourgeoisie. How little had been accomplished in the intervening period, this comedy perhaps best illustrates. For the feminine characters here are the very women whom the moral weeklies, Frau Gottsched, and Krüger wished to "enlighten." They still lived under the code of the middle class, uninfluenced as yet by the liberalizing ideas of Rationalism. Der Geheimnisvolle, also depicting domestic middle-class life, stressed the virtues the author deemed laudable. Again the poet centered his interest on a character-type rather than on a comic situation. T h e hero is a man whose mistrust of the world is so great that he develops into an abnormally cautious person, surrounded by mystery because of his peculiar actions, ridiculous and pitiable at the same time. Count von Bärenfeld, member of an old and aristocratic family, is visiting Herr von Schlangendorf in order to bring about a union of their children. They keep their plans secret because the young Count has supposedly just set out on a tour of France, and Herr von Schlangendorf does not wish to arouse his daughter's antagonism by abruptly announcing his choice to her. Actually, the son of the Count has not gone to France but to the local court, where he lives under the assumed name of Herr von Abgrund. At a masquerade ball he falls in love with an unknown girl, who turns out to be Herr von Schlangendorf's daughter, Amalia. She, quite taken with the mysterious " T u r k " who has so openly shown his interest in her, would like to know who he is. Because of his morbid distrust of people, Herr von Abgrund, the "Geheimnisvolle" of the play, cannot confide in her. In fact, he is so fearful that he dons various disguises—those of a merchant, his own valet, a hair-dresser—in order to learn her secret thoughts. Even though Amalia, not recognizing him in his make-up, speaks freely of her interest in the mysterious stranger, he remains unchanged and distrustful. His sudden appearances and disappearances arouse everyone's suspicions. Amalia therefore reluctantly forbids his visits unless he will reveal his identity. But his mistrust gets the better of him and he decides to flee. He wishes to accomplish this unobtrusively and changes

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clothes with his manservant. Both are apprehended as criminals and brought before their judges, Herr von Schlangendorf and his visitor, Count von Bärenfeld. When the latter recognizes his son, all is explained and the play ends on a happy note, since Amalia and Herr von Abgrund are in love with each other. T h e eighteenth century produced many plays in which a woman takes the major role in leading a man from morbid, almost abnormal behavior to more normal reactions to life. Amalia accomplishes such a change in this play. 43 T h e poet endowed her with all those qualities which could appeal to and hold the interest of a man needing such a steadying influence. She is superior to him; she must be if she is to exert so strong an influence over another character. She possesses physical beauty, always desirable in a heroine but with Schlegel never to the exclusion of the other virtues he held important. She comes from a good family. She is clever, intelligent, witty, and has the right answers to Abgrund's misgivings. When he appears in the guise of the barber, he defends his mysterious and cunning behavior. Amalia, however, condemns him severely for it. "Indeed, he is in the wrong, if he keeps all his affairs a secret from everyone. One must trust those who can be of service to us as much as mistrust those who could harm us." 44 Amalia's relationship with her father is very cordial. She is a dutiful and respectful daughter, never revolting against the conventions. 45 She decides to send Herr von Abgrund away when she notices that his presence irks her father, though she herself likes him. 46 After all has been explained, the young Count turns to her with the question: "May I have some hope?" Her answer is typical for the girls of her time. "Since your father and mine consider it good—I can't deny you that hope." 47 It is true that her father's wishes coincide with her own, but Schlegel portrayed her in such a manner that we feel she would never defy parental authority as Kriiger's heroines had done. She was well adjusted to her life and never questioned the reasonableness of any decision affecting her. Nor does Schlegel portray the parents as unrelenting and authoritarian, as Frau Gottsched or Krüger would have done. Without any remorse, we may recall, Herr and Frau Ahnenstolz sacrificed their daughter's happiness in order to regain their worldly fortune; Frau 43. 44. 45. 46. 47.

Rodenfels, op. ext., p. 74. Schlegel, op. cit., IX, 255. Ibid., II, 240. Ibid., II, 241. Ibid., II, 321.

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von Birkenhayn, fully expecting her daughter to accept her decision, selected a husband for her. In Schlegel's comedy, Herr von Schlangendorf wishes to choose a husband for his daughter, it is true; but he also creates an opportunity for her to become acquainted with and learn to like the man of his choice.48 Because he must have a son-in-law "whose fortune he can make and who in turn will return these services some day," 49 he firmly believes that he is better able to select a suitable husband for her, but he does not disregard her as an individual. This is made clear in his instructions to Kathrine, maid and confidante of Amalia, to keep his daughter from falling in love with any stranger. Apparently he wishes to spare her any conflict and unhappiness. Kathrine's reaction to his plan indicates that his leniency does not suffice: "So you wish to share the general folly of fathers? As long as you have a son-in-law you care little whether your daughter has a husband." 50 The problem of marriage, of supreme consequence to women in this period, and the authority of parents in this and other respects have only secondary importance here; in delineating middle-class life as it was, Schlegel touched on those problems which were a vital part of every day life. By satirizing the folly of selecting a spouse for a son or a daughter, Schlegel joins the ranks of all those who saw the task of raising the cultural level of the middle class in terms of freeing the individual from the authority of unreasonable customs. Why the admirable Amalia should fall in love with a man as ridiculous as Abgrund is difficult to comprehend. It is true that throughout this period we repeatedly come upon the opinion that "fools make the best husbands, since the others become intolerable tyrants." But in Der Geheimnisvolle Schlegel did not wish to treat this theme facetiously as Krüger did in Die Kandidaten. Schlegel earnestly tried to justify the contradiction of letting a girl like Amalia fall in love with any one like his hero. He fails herein because his hero is a failure. Some lines indicate that Schlegel had conceived Abgrund as a young man of more character than Abgrund exhibits in the play. For example, we have his explanation for deceiving his father in not going to France but to the local court: "My trip to France was nothing but a pretense, because I feared that you would laugh at my intentions to owe my good fortune to my own efforts." 51 This statement and Amalia's excuses for Abgrund's behavior show that the author changed 48. Ibid., II, zog. 4g. Idem. 50. Ibid., II, »08. 51. Ibid., II, 319.

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the original characterization in the composition of the play. Furthermore, we know that the poet labored long over the idea of creating such a character 52 as Abgrund. Johann Heinrich Schlegel pointed out, many years later, in the preface to the play, "that the actions of such a character can stem from one cause only, that is, a mistrust of himself as well as of others." 5 3 Such a characteristic did not seem to the author to be a vice, but rather a handicap, and Abgrund's behavior arouses Amalia's pity rather than her contempt. She excuses his behavior; he does not look foolish to her, and therefore he can't be a fool, she argues. 54 She does not consider it wrong that he is careful and reticent about his affairs. T h i s might be simply a lack of experience. 5 5 Also in the characterization of Amalia, Schlegel reveals new forces which were producing changes in the ethics of Rationalism. Amalia's character is identical with that of the other heroines we have discussed so far. She has all their virtues, but in addition she also acts upon her feelings. Glocke, her other suitor, as his name implies, knows all the gossip in the city. He can inform her that her mysterious suitor seems to be identical with an impostor whom the authorities are seeking. Refusing to believe this, she tells Kathrine that she will defend him against every one, though she has no other proof than her heart. 86 A noteworthy answer! Neither Frau Gottsched's nor Kriiger's heroines would ever have relied on what their hearts told them; they listened to their reason only. W e can see that although the plays of the seventeen-forties are, on the whole, following Gottsched's dramatic rules, new elements enter which change the type of comedy Gottsched envisaged. In Kriiger, the ideal women rebel against the social conventions of their time and group, and they receive serious treatment from the poet. In Schlegel the emotions of the heroine are, if not respected, at least mentioned. Amalia is as faithful to the man she loves as were Wilhelmine or Karoline. But these could offer a reasonable explanation for their trust and affection. Amalia cannot, because her hero is to all outward appearances a fool, but her heart tells her that he is worthy of her love and her faith in him. T h e emphasis u p o n the irrational, slight as it is, is significant; it is but another instance of the trend that was to culminate in Gellert's heroines. Another deviation from Gottsched's canons, already intimated in 52. 53. 54. 55. 56.

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

II, II, II, II, II,

186. 188. 190. «41. 298.

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Krüger's plays, occurs here. T h e servants, as we have already seen in Krüger, are not fashioned in the old, conventional mold. Kathrine is unquestionably a forerunner of Lessing's Franziska. She enjoys the confidence of the father as well as of the daughter. W h e n her master tells her that she must keep A m a l i a from learning that her father has chosen a husband for her, Kathrine's rejoinder shows the position she held: " T h e n both of us should not have brought her u p to be so clever." 5 7 Kathrine is witty and always has ready answers, many of which the more delicately-reared and genteel A m a l i a would not make. T h e r e is a nice distinction implied here, based on class differences. Yet Kathrine was entrusted with the u p b r i n g i n g of Amalia. T h i s paradoxical situation was inherent in the time, as has been pointed out before. Kathrine may still retain a good deal of the wily, witty servant of the French play, but she shows unmistakably independent traits. She is utterly devoted to her mistress and employs her c u n n i n g to further the latter's good, never merely her own. L i k e Franziska, she makes no secret of her ambition—to marry. She is delighted with her employer's decision to marry off his daughter, for he had promised that she would marry w h e n her mistress did. 5 8 T h e play did not receive any too favorable comments. In a letter to Bodmer of September 18, 1747, Schlegel writes: " M a n y do not find my Geheimnisvolle good, because they think that such a character occurs only rarely; nevertheless in no play of mine have I worked more after originals than in this." Schlegel was aware of the shortcomings of the play. In using too many disguises he deprives the main character of much interest. 59 Die Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und freien Künste has this to say about the play: "Der Geheimnisvolle always has seemed to be one of his [Schlegel's] best comic plays, at least it has found the applause of the audience. T h e character is well carried through and contrasts with the others very well; the situations are very comical and the whole play has fine dialogue." 6 0 T h i s rather superficial criticism contrasts directly with that by Lessing, which is far more incisive. C o m p a r i n g A b g r u n d with Moltere's misanthrope, he says: " M o l i t r e ' s misanthrope is a fop w h o wants to give himself an lir of importance; Schlegel's character is a good, honest sheep which war.ts to play the fox so that it will not be eaten by the wolves." 8 1 57. Ibid., II, 209. 58. Ibid., II, so8. 59. Joh. Krüger, " B r i e f e v. Joh. Elias Schlegel an Bodmer," Archiv für Literattrgeschichte, X I V (1886), 50t. 60. Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und freien Künste, I X (1763), 72. 61. Lessing—LM, IX, 405.

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Eugen Wolff, biographer of Schlegel, is quite right when he points out that while Schlegel failed in creation of the hero, he made a real contribution with Amalia, the prototype of his "noble, chaste, modest" women characters, w h o " w i t h o u t any petty prudishness are the first decent, praiseworthy, and impressive women to step upon the G e r m a n comic stage." 62 T h e years 1747-1748 were very productive for Schlegel. D u r i n g this time his two last and best comedies were written and published. 8 3 These are praised both by contemporary and subsequent critics. Die stumme Schdnheit, a one-act comedy, was written in verse. 64 It is lively, witty, with good characterization. It was played by all companies throughout Germany and was well liked. 6 5 Herr Richard, a well-to-do man from the country, had placed his infant daughter, Leonore, in the care of a foster-mother, Frau Praatgern. Now that the child is grown, a young friend and neighbor, Jungwitz, has come with the father to fetch her home and to marry her. Having foreseen such a development and desirous of insuring a sizable dowry for her own child, the wily Frau Praatgern has substituted her own daughter, Charlotte, in early childhood for the fosterchild. Leonore has been reared by Frau Praatgern's sister as her niece, while Frau Praatgern herself showered all her own affection and money on Charlotte, w h o to all the world is Herr Richard's child. She taught Charlotte the refinements of deportment but completely neglected to develop what mind she might have had. Both Herr Richard and Jungwitz are horrified to find a beautiful but lifeless and stupid creature instead of the interesting, lively girl they had expected. Jungwitz tells his friend that he cannot go through with the marriage, because he could not possibly live with such a wife. Herr Richard attempts to persuade him that silence in a wife may be a blessing, but he is too honest to press the plan for the marriage, especially since Jungwitz has come only on condition that the girl and he like each other before they marry. Herr Richard severely criticizes Frau Praatgern for her neglect of Charlotte's mental development. She in turn considers them 62. Eugen Wolff, op. cit., p. 128. 63. T h e r e is some difference of opinion as to which of these two plays was finished first. Joh. Heinrich Schlegel places Der Triumph der guten Frauen before Die stumme Schdnheit in the collected works. Most critics have followed him in this. However, recent critics, Briiggemann and Rodenfels, reverse this order and I have followed them. A rereading of the letters in which Joh. Elias mentioned these plays seems to justify Briiggemann and Rodenfels. 64. Schlegel, op. cit., II, 473. 65. Schmid, Chronologie, op. cit., p. 8yf.

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fools for demanding more than physical beauty. Nevertheless, in order not to lose the chance of seeing her daughter well provided for, she develops the following scheme: Leonore, who lacks her foster-sister's beauty but makes up for it in intelligence, is to hide behind Charlotte's voluminous skirts and prompt her answers in a final interview, which Jungwitz has consented to have with Charlotte at the request of his friend. Unfortunately for the scheming mother, Jungwitz discovers the "echo" and, delighted to find a sensible woman in the house, offers Leonore marriage. Leonore does not encourage him in the least, because she is quite subdued by her supposed mother. Lakonius, a university friend of Jungwitz turned philosopher, ends their dilemma. Visiting his friend while the latter is in town, he hides in a small anteroom at the approach of women's voices and overhears a conversation in which Frau Praatgern discloses to Charlotte her real identity and the reason for the deception. When the "prompting" scheme fails, Lakonius steps forth from his hiding place and reveals the truth. Leonore marries Jungwitz and Charlotte, Lakonius, who is happy that he has found a silent woman who will not disturb his philosophical meditations. Of the Stumme Schönheit, Lessing maintained that the "customs in it are really more Danish than German. Nevertheless it is undoubtedly our best comic original written in verse." While the poet might have used Danish local color to make his little comedy livelier, "many of our German women could be the model for these."66 Herr Richard's account of the education of his supposed daughter reads like a letter from the moral weeklies or one by Frau Gottsched. From it we learn that she could write, though not always with good sense; that she could even use fractions in arithmetic; that she could speak three different languages; that she could cook "good little soups" for Jungwitz; that, in fact, she was skilled in all household affairs. 67 Her education thus falls into the old-fashioned, outmoded category which the early "Aufklärung" labored so earnestly to supplant. When Frau Praatgern is chided for the poor training she has given Charlotte, she belligerently retorts that she has followed the latest style in the education of girls. As far as she is concerned, if a girl is beautiful, knows how to move about gracefully, how to wear clothes well, and how to make the most of her good looks, then she has sufficient intelligence.68 Frau Praatgern has taught her daughter these accomplishments and little more. Char66. Wolff, op. cit., p. 168. 67. Schlegel, op. cit., II, 475. 68. Ibid., II, 492.

JOHANN ELIAS

SCHLEGEL

lotte knows how to curtesy daintily, toy with her fan and look pretty. Though her answer is ordinarily nothing but "yes" or "no," she can become animated when there is an opportunity to ask for new clothes or when she hears the maid's account of her former mistress's betrothal gifts. She also has enough wit to decide that she will demand twice as much from her fiance, that if another girl has received a silver dressing table as a gift, she will have one of gold, that she must have twice as much jewelry as anyone else.69 Charlotte has learned nothing from contact with others because her mother believed that girls must be reared in seclusion and that it is an asset not to know the affairs of the world. 70 Free from Frau Praatgern's domination, Leonore has developed quite differently. She has wit and intelligence, evinces an interest in world affairs, and participates actively in conversations. Nevertheless, she is modest and unassuming and has a loving nature, for she loves her supposed mother even though the latter treats her abominably. 71 Another virtue, obedience, somewhat overshadows these qualities. Though she does not think it right to deceive anyone, she most obediently plays her part as prompter to Charlotte. 72 Here we have another example of the power of mores. Leonore acts against her own better judgment simply because one must obey one's mother. So, too, Kriiger's Wilhelmine and other characters of whom we shall hear later. In Schlegel the submission is complete, while in Kruger the daughter voices her objection. Although in this respect Schlegel conforms to the older social pattern, he is modern in that he apparently approves the newer-type education, such as Leonore possessed. Jungwitz's refusal to have a wife who can only cook "good little soups" and be ornamental obviously reflects Schlegel's own opinion. So too does his insistence that his wife have intelligence above all. Jungwitz explains that a wife with wit and cleverness is a delight and that he can think of nothing more vexing than a wife in whose company one yawns with boredom. 73 He is therefore most pleased with Leonore, who likes to read and goes to the theatre, and is correspondingly shocked by Frau Praatgern's admission that she and Charlotte never attend any performances. Such means of developing a girl into an intelligent, alert, and interesting personality 69. 70. 71. 72. 73.

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

II, II, II, II, II,

482. 480. 493. 513. 477.

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WOMAN

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were advocated by all the moral weeklies and also by the essayists and moralists w h o wrote on the subject. By contrasting two girls whose different tastes and characters are the result of opposing methods of education, the author could satisfy the moral demands of the time. Charlotte, divorced from society, developed into an asocial person, for w h o m the only appropriate husband in the play is the eccentric Lakonius. T h e concepts and actions of both are contrary to bourgeois standards. T h a t lives like theirs are not merely of individual concern but actually a social problem, Schlegel intimates at the end of the play when we discover through Frau Praatgern's offer to teach their children how to talk, 74 that her follies will be perpetuated in the next generation. As in Der geschäftige Müßiggänger, here too a foolish mother is satirized, and it is demonstrated how harmful and evil her effect can be. T h e ironical treatment of Charlotte's marriage makes it all the more obvious. Leonore and Jungwitz are the idealized pair. T h e y are sensible; they are intelligent, educated, and intellectually equal. Furthermore, they are concerned with the world about them. It is interesting to note that it is this very aspect of Leonore's character that Frau Praatgern most vehemently condemns but which Jungwitz values most highly. Der Triumph der guten Frauen75 vies with Die stumme Schönheit for first place among Schlegel's comedies. It has the traditional five acts and is written in prose. It contains the most facile, witty dialogue of any of Schlegel's plays, but as in most comedies of the period, the plot is weak. It is a play of intrigue, and, contrary to the customary pattern, the plotting here is instigated and carried through by a virtuous woman w h o wishes to effect the return of her erring husband. Hilaria had been married for only a short time when her husband, Nikander, left her, for no other reason than his love of freedom and a lack of any feeling of responsibility. H e did not take her money, and she was convinced that he had no intentions of slighting her personally. After ten years of separation, she sets out to win him back. Disguised in man's clothing, under the name of Philinte, she finds her husband and remains unrecognized by him, since he had known her for only about three months. In order to draw his attention to herself, she becomes his rival in the pursuit of women. Nikander admittedly has no other aim but to lead the life of a small-town Don Juan. Philinte-Hilaria realizes that in order to regain him she must out-brazen him in her behavior towards women. O f course, being a 74. Ibid., II, 520. 75. Ibid., II, 323.

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woman, she can safely do this; she need not fear the wrath of any husband whose wife she might woo. When the play opens, Nikander and Philinte-Hilaria struggle for the favor of Juliane, a good and honest woman, wed to Agenor. At first a kind and loving husband, he has changed of late into a typical tyrant. He announces brutally to Juliane that the honeymoon is over, and that she must live according to his bidding. He refuses her any money, although she brought him a considerable dowry; he confines her to the house, allowing her to go out neither for amusement nor any other purpose. As an obedient wife, she fulfills his demands for the time being because she knows that it is Nikander who is turning her husband against her in order to win a place in her heart for himself. T h u s far Nikander's efforts to gain her affection have been in vain. Juliane informs her two suitors that there is room in her heart only for the love of her husband. Nevertheless, she has friendly feelings toward Philinte, especially since the day he saved her from a rather embarrassing situation by advancing her some money. Somewhat later Philinte is also in a position to rescue Nikander from the hands of merchants who want to send him to jail because, having exhausted his funds, he has been passing worthless checks. Philinte pays his debts and wins his warm friendship. He is all the more appreciative of her generosity since he had always considered her his rival and enemy. Hilaria-Philinte feels the time now ripe for a dénouement. She announces that a sister is coming to visit her this very day and that Nikander must meet her. He tells her truthfully not to introduce him to her sister, because he falls in love with every woman he meets and then tries his best to deceive her. He explains that he does not want to betray his newly-won friend, but he finally yields to the insistent request of Philinte. She then sheds her disguise and meets Nikander, who succumbs to the ruse and falls in love with her. After a long conversation with this supposed sister of Philinte, Nikander admits that for the first time in his life he has met a woman who shares his views. When Hilaria reveals herself, he returns to her, a contrite husband. T o prove this change of heart he attempts to convince Agenor that he has been influencing him against Juliane for selfish reasons only. Juliane, he tells Agenor, deserves a kind and loving husband, which Agenor now promises to be. T h e suddenness of his transformation may cause the reader to doubt whether this promise can be fulfilled. T h i s uncertainty finds expression at the end of the play by Kathrine, the confidante of Hilaria. In this work Schlegel continued to develop the type of woman char-

no

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acter who has the power to influence men to do good, deter them from doing evil, and keep them generally on the right path. Count von Barenfeld of Der Geheimnisvotle expressed this thought to Amalia: "If we men were only willing to admit that we owe everything to women; that we must thank them for our good manners, cheerful spirit, and amiability, and at times even our honesty, and that very often all our virtues stem from the desire to please them." 76 Because of this power, the women are superior to the men whom they are to change. Of the three women in the play, Hilaria is outstanding. She is not a passive heroine. It is true that she waited ten years before she did anything to end her intolerable state of semi-widowhood. When she finally undertakes the task she proves herself to be a clever, witty, resourceful person, well able to help herself and attain what she set out to do and yet at the same time remain a charming, desirable woman. She is faithful to her husband, continuing to love him though no one knows why—least of all Nikander. When she unmasks herself, he exclaims: "Is it possible? Is it you who have shown me today so much friendship? You have rewarded my insults with so much kindnessl You have taken so much pains for my sake! How can you love a man who left you ten years ago! So much I have not deservedl" 77 He genuinely doubts whether she can forgive his licentiousness. But to her a hundred licentious acts are more pardonable than one act of tyranny. 78 Schlegel reflected the transition period in his rather weak attempts to motivate the behavior of both Hilaria and Nikander. Nikander can not understand how Hilaria can forgive him. Neither could Schlegel. T h e genuiness of this quick change of character, frequent in the plays of the period, is questioned by the poet himself. For he no longer shared the absolute faith of the Rationalists that the individual's rational acknowledgment of faults and vices suffices to change these into virtues. It is the recognition of irrational elements in man, implicit in these doubts, which explains the incongruities observed in these comedies. Hilaria motivates her actions towards Nikander by telling him that licentiousness is preferable to tyranny—a feeble reason. T h e answer to such contradictions can be found only in the existence of opposing forces in the time which are still subordinated in the comedies of Kruger and Schlegel but become explicit in the second half of the century. Juliane is a close sister to Hilaria. She too is the faithful and obedi76. Ibid., II, 309. 77. Ibid., II, 445. 78. Idem.

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111

ent wife of a man who is not worthy of her care and affection. Eugen Wolff suggests that in the course of the revisions Agenor lost many characteristics. Otherwise we would be at a loss to understand why a high-spirited, intelligent girl like Juliane could ever fall in love with and marry of her own free will anyone so unpleasant as Agenor. 7 9 Schlegel tries to justify her choice by indicating that Agenor acts in this fashion only temporarily, that he is not really a tyrant. Juliane exclaims, after one of Agenor's unreasonable commands: "Is that all one has from loving a person? He pretends he is enamored of us, he tries to be pleasant, he sighs, he begs: you finally believe him, you love him, you surrender, you marry him, and when you expect to see the fruits of your love, this is the fulfillment of his promisesl I married my husband because I loved him, and I feel that I still love him. Without love it would be impossible to endure this. I don't know what a woman would do who married without love and had to stand all that." 8 0 Agenor's delight in his wife's submission also seems to bear out Wolff's point: "I would never have believed that I could have changed the over-clever girl, Juliane, into so good and simple a woman! Quite right, Madame. Before I married you, you ruled me. . . . Now it's my turn; and my reign will last longer than yours." 8 1 Both women in this play are devoted wives. But both of them submit only temporarily to the shameful and degrading treatment of their husbands. T h e y have hardly any civil rights. Hilaria finds it unusual that Nikander did not take her money away when he left her; 8 2 Agenor can leave his wife without any funds at all, if he wishes, though she has money of her own which now belongs to him. Obviously he denies her the money only to humiliate her, because at the same time he offers a goodly sum to Kathrine if she will accept him as her lover. 83 Both Hilaria and Juliane are clever, intelligent, and virtuous. Yet there is a difference between them. Hilaria, as pointed out before, is no patient, unresisting heroine. T a k i n g fate into her own hands, she sets out to find and win back her husband, as Minna von Barnhelm does some two decades later without the aid of disguises. Resolute and possessing a great deal more insight and understanding than her husband, Hilaria can easily outwit him. And there is no doubt that she will be able to hold him. Juliane is far more passive. She bemoans the 79. Wolff, op. cit., p. 161. 80. Schlegel, op. cit., II, 437. 81. Ibid., 8s. Ibid., 83. Ibid.,

I I , 391. II, 329. II, 360.

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change in Agenor, but does nothing to end the intolerable situation, submitting to his demands without revolt. T h i s submissiveness is to reappear in some of Gellert's plays as the precursor of the Gretchentype of character. But even when Schlegel seeks to turn the sensible girl of the Enlightenment into a submissive character, he is not completely successful. Juliane is well educated; her mental faculties and abilities are well developed. She talks well, she is witty, she can successfully put her two ardent suitors, N i k a n d e r and Philinte, in their place. Schlegel emphasizes the love the women have for their husbands and the suffering they are willing to endure because of this love. Both married the men they loved. It is significant that in Schlegel's play such marriages are accepted as a matter of course, whereas the plays of Krüger and Frau Gottsched advocate marriages of love, but they are still an ideal of the future. W h i l e Frau Gottsched and Krüger struggled more directly and openly for a liberalization of customs to free women from the complete bondage in which they were held by their parents before marriage and by the husband after marriage, Schlegel, the greater artist and scholar, living somewhat removed from the bitter struggle of the day, uses subtler means to achieve the same end. He neither engages in long dialogues discussing the problem nor is his satire so bitter as that of Frau Gottsched and Krüger. He subordinated the didactic moral purposes of literature to the aesthetic, though he did not completely abandon the former. T h e third woman character in the comedy is the servant Kathrine. As in Der Geheimnisvolle she plays a double role, as confidante to Hilaria and then, in order to help her, to Juliane. T h e s e maids are in some respects replicas of their mistresses. T h o u g h they lack the refinements of their heroines, they match their wit and cleverness. O n the whole, Schlegel's maids are stereotypes, showing the caste distinction the middle class made between the upper and the lower groups of the bourgeoisie. Moses Mendelssohn discusses Schlegel at some length in the three hundred and twelfth Literaturbrief, devoting a good deal of space to Der Triumph der guten Frauen. " W h a t a difference!" he writes, comparing this play with Der Geheimnisvolle. "Here I find life in the characters, fire in their actions, genuine wit in their dialogue and a finer tone in all their manners." He liked the play so m u c h that he read it several times, but he regrets that the poet did not depict German customs. 8 * 84. Briefe die neueste Literatur

betreffend,

op. cit., p. 1338.

JOHANN ELIAS

SCHLEGEL

Lessing agrees completely with Mendelssohn's criticism. He praises the comedy, admitting that the applause which this play enjoyed was well deserved since it is founded on true beauty. 85 C. Heinrich Schmid sums up contemporary criticism in Die Chronologie: "This is the comedy which has brought the poet most honor, and in which the characters, the action and the expression are alive. . . . It was received with great enthusiasm in Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, and wherever else it was played." 86 While Schlegel's comedies were technically superior to those of his contemporaries, the problems he treated and the characters he created were those of his day. T o illustrate how generally opposed the best minds of the period were to such upbringing as Lieschen, Fiekchen, and Charlotte received, the fifth number of Der Patriot may be quoted. 87 Along with some letters, the editor claims he also received a bottle of blue miracle-water, by means of which he will be able to discern the true emotional character of people. In order to test the efficacy of this gift he decides to visit a "Sechs-Wöchnerin." He finds there a room full of good-looking women. When he holds the bottle up to his eyes, he is horrified to find all of them changed into small, ugly animals and vermin. He reveals his discovery to a woman of his acquaintance and asks her why the minds of the ladies appeared in this strange fashion. She assures him that the cause lies not in the evilness of heart but in ignorance and lack of social contacts. He ends his account: "Should then so beautiful a creature spend her time without any knowledge, like any other animal? Should the intellect given for higher things lie fallow, or bear nothing but weeds?" T o prevent such a state he advocates the reading of well-chosen, useful, and enjoyable books, just as Schlegel does in Die stumme Schönheit. We also perceive in this essay the same ridicule and mockery of the uneducated, ignorant, and therefore dull, girl as Schlegel incorporated in his plays. In characters like Amalia, Leonore, Hilaria and Juliane, Schlegel crystallizes the ideal latent in the Patriot's satire on education. T h e ideal women in Schlegel's comedies embody the qualities which the new bourgeois class deemed so eminently desirable. All are capable and resourceful, their temperaments so well balanced that no problem ever daunts them, and they carry all their undertakings to a successful end. They are honest and devoted, obedient but possessed of spirit and imagination. They can forgive and overlook the shortcomings of 85. Lessing—LM, I X , 405. 86. Schmid, op. cit., p. 87.

87. Der Patriot, op. cit., I. 45g.

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their partners, believing that since their hearts are good they can be changed. All are self-sacrificing, placing the happiness of others above their own. They are loving, but not sentimental. Their poise, their clarity of vision, their power of analysis, their ready wit and their humor make them the superior personages they are. They are a composite of good physical and intellectual traits. They are typically the product of rationalistic thinking. Their optimism, their attainment of harmony in life despite their problems, are in accord with the ideals of early Rationalism. These are the virtues we have seen held up for emulation by Frau Gottsched and Kriiger. But in Schlegel's plays, as in Krüger's, new, though different elements are injected. Some of Schlegel's characters exhibit a more feminine submissiveness, which is not just the submissiveness of a woman without rights and therefore without choice. This expresses itself in a sweetness of temperament which is reflected in softer moods and gentler language than are to be found in the other plays of the period. Amalia's musing on the identity of the mysterious "Turk" at the ball; Amalia "feeling in her heart" that the stranger cannot be a forger; Juliane's deliberating whether to submit to Agenor's demands or not, yet submitting—these elements of irrational, inexplicable behavior on the part of the heroines are new motives in Schlegel's comedies. Frau Gottsched and Kriiger contributed much toward setting the women of the Enlightenment free from the limits of the household. In Schlegel's last two plays we see women who have thrown off their shackles and emerged as independent personalities. They are the first women of charm and intelligence on the German stage to show a consciousness of their individuality. It was left to Lessing to bring such characters to their fullest development.

VII CHRISTIAN F Ü R C H T E G O T T

GELLERT

(1715-1769)

I

N GELLERT'S WORK. Rationalism, so dominant in the other three writers discussed, becomes merged with Sentimentalism, a combination which now finds its first expression in the drama and is particularly characteristic of Gellert's comedies. T h o u g h actually his plays appear simultaneously with those of the others, it seems as if a younger world were speaking here, a generation which has outdistanced the traditions flourishing in their youth. 1 Much of Gellert's dramatic work is written in the manner of the other comedies under the influence of early Rationalism. Particularly is this true of the plays dealing with ordinary, everyday life, i.e., his comedies. I n these the main purpose was still moral-didactic; 2 the plots and characters, with few exceptions, were stereotypes of the time. Nevertheless, Gellert's comedies are noteworthy because they met the demand of the middle class for a sentimental interpretation of contemporary life. It was repugnant to the bourgeois disposition of the time to find representation of this class on the stage only in the idiosyncracies, in the human weaknesses of its members. As a result of its growing self-esteem, the middle class wished to see problems encountered by the average person in his daily routine seriously treated in a dignified fashion. T h i s was no sudden phenomenon. Such characters as Frau Gottsched's Karoline, Krüger's Wilhelmine, and Schlegel's J u l i a n e and Hilaria illustrate the gradual change taking place. Gottsched himself, one of the best and earliest examples of the newly developed bourgeois sense of its own worth, was never able to discard completely the traditional values that differentiated the classes. Neither could Schlegel; Krüger went farthest in defying the time-hallowed traditions of class superiority, but it remained for Geliert to endow the representation of middle-class life in literature with a seriousness and 1. Fritz Brüggemann, Die bürgerliche Gemeinschaftskultur der Vol. V I , Deutsche Literatur, Reihe Aufklärung (Leipzig, 1933), 32. 2. Walzel, op. cit., I, 80.

vierziger

Jahre,

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dignity which his contemporaries had failed to achieve. Geliert neither rebelled against the social injustices of his day nor did he point a finger of scorn at the aristocracy. He accepted the social classes as they were. 8 Stressing the positive values of middle-class life, he wished to teach by extolling virtue instead of ridiculing vice. He preferred to move his audiences to sympathetic tears rather than arouse their laughter. 4 His comedies were the crystallization of an attitude, for which he later provided an aesthetic formula that assured the plays an important position in the literature of the eighteenth century. T h e first lecture Geliert delivered when he was raised to a professorship at the University of Leipzig in 1751 dealt with the type of comedy he had written some half dozen years before. In order to incorporate this lecture, "Proe Comoedia C o m m o v e n t e , " into his Theatralische Bibliothek, Lessing later translated it from the original Latin. 15 In this treatise Geliert developed and explained the place of the comédie larmoyante. H e based his definition of comedy on that of the Englishman Joseph T r a p p . 6 In a comedy Geliert wished to see everyday life described, the vices and foibles of man derided in a comic and refined manner, and his virtues extolled. 7 By shifting the emphasis from a crude raillery of vices to praise of virtues he gave expression to bourgeois self-esteem, developing into the most eloquent interpreter of bourgeois life and virtues in his time, the chief reason for his great popularity. 8 His first two comedies, Die Betschwester and Das Los in der Lotterie, written in 1746, were still plays in which the comic elements outweighed the sentimental, more so in the first than in the second play. In the tradition of the period, types were ridiculed and set up as a warning. 9 Interwoven with these features we find sentimental comedythemes based on the pattern of the comédie larmoyante. In the second play the sentimental traits are even more dominant, are more closely 3. Karl Holl, op. cit., p. 166. 4. Christian Fürchtegott Geliert, Sämtliche Schriften, Neue R e c h t m ä ß i g e Ausgabe (Berlin & Leipzig, 1867), III, Vorrede, p. 10. 5. Lessing—LM, V I , 34. 6. Joseph T r a p p (1679-1747), poet and pamphleteer, was the first Professor of Poetry at O x f o r d , from 1708-1718. H e wrote numerous poems, sermons, treatises, and one tragedy, Abramule or Love and Empire, performed at the New T h e a t r e in Little Lincoln's Inn Fields. T h e best-remembered of his works is his translation into blank verse of Virgil, which was the amusement of his leisure hours for twenty-eight years. The Dictionary of National Biography, X I X , io82f{. 7. Lessing—LM, V I , 34. 8. Brüggemann, Deutsche Literatur, op. cit., V, 7. 9. Walzel, op. cit., p. 85.

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interlaced with the derisive portraiture of certain characters. In his third comedy, Die zärtlichen Schwestern,10 written in 1747, comedy was reduced to a m i n i m u m and sentimentality was given free rein. 1 1 Die Betschwester is built around the pious hypocrite, Frau Richardin. A rich widow, left with only one child, Christianchen, she spends her days praying and singing hymns but is not averse to practicing usury. T o this theme Geliert adds a tale of courtship and betrothal. Christianchen, Frau Richardin's young daughter, is to become affianced to Simon, w h o had come from Berlin with his friend and intermediary, Ferdinand, in order to draw u p the marriage contract. Simon had seen his future fiancée but once before and had liked her well enough to allow his guardian to enter into negotiations with Frau Richardin concerning the marriage. A f t e r talking to Christianchen again he discovers that while she is young and beautiful, her intellectual qualities in no way measure u p to his expectations. He wishes to break off all negotiations, offering his hand to Lorchen, a young friend of Frau Richardin who lives with her. Lorchen has charmed Simon by her wit and intelligence. Here is a girl w h o is neither stupid nor tongue-tied like Christianchen, but the very realization of his dream. T h o u g h Lorchen has neither beauty nor worldly possessions she is more desirable to him; he has sufficient money for them to live in comfort and is not vain e n o u g h to demand that his wife be beautiful. Lorchen, however, is the noble friend. She knows that Christianchen lacks only education and upbringing and she insists she can rectify this within a year if she and Christianchen can go to Berlin. T h e r e they w o u l d live with an intelligent and respectable family, unhindered by Frau Richardin's fanatic opposition to any modern worldly knowledge. Simon doubts whether Lorchen can succeed and persuades her to promise him her hand. She consents. As we see later, this is but a ruse to hold Simon in the house. Christianchen loses her shy awkwardness with Simon when she has an opportunity to praise Lorchen's good qualities. She does this in order to assure for Lorchen the good fortune of marrying such an admirable man as Simon. She loves Lorchen and wishes to see her happy. Seeing Christianchen in this new light, Simon changes his opinion of Christianchen, realizing that Lorchen's appraisal of the young girl is the juster one. Accordingly, when Lorchen renounces her claim on him and renews her offer to educate Christianchen to his liking within the space 10. Geliert, op. cit., Vol. III. 11. Johannes Coym, GeHerts Lustspiele Erich Schmidt; Berlin, 1899), p. is.

("Palaestra" II, ed. Alois Brandl and

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of a year, he consents. Both girls will stay in Berlin at his expense. If the experiment is successful, Simon will marry Christianchen. Lorchen is rewarded for her unselfishness by the offer of a permanent home with the wealthy Ferdinand and his wife. Of the three female characters in the play, Frau Richardin represents vice; Lorchen and Christianchen, in contrast, are the exponents of virtue. Geliert was criticized for presenting in Frau Richardin a type rather than an individual with both bad and good traits. But the fault is one of the time rather than specifically his. He did not invent his main character; her forebears in literature are Tartuffe and L'Avare. She offers a composite picture of all the vices in women which Geliert chastised in his fables. 12 Some critics consider her a type which, like so many other characters of the period, was conceived in accordance with a scheme taken over from the French drama. 1 3 Muncker and Coym, on the other hand, consider her one of Gellert's best characters, "genuinely alive, not passing across the stage like a bloodless ghost." 1 4 Lorchen gives a telling characterization of Frau Richardin in the first few scenes. Frau Richardin spends her day alternating between praying and singing hymns, or talking about both. All is done with clocklike precision; she devotes one hour to praying, one to s i n g i n g breaking off even in the middle of a verse when the church clock strikes the hour. While singing she busies herself with wordly affairs, attending to her animal pets, counting the silver and the pawns she has exacted from those to whom she has made loans. 15 At four in the afternoon, and only then, she assigns an hour to business transactions. T h u s Ferdinand, Simon's intermediary, has to wait until then to discuss the marriage contract with her. Punctually at five she returns to her devotions. During these, Lorchen informs Ferdinand, Frau Richardin is never to be disturbed; but at no time is she more absorbed in her prayers than when the maid appears to receive the money for marketing, though actually the marketing requires little expenditure. For Frau Richardin is displeased that all Sundays and holidays are not fastdays, as she would like to have them. 19 Boasting of her great piety, she overlooks some of the most elementary precepts of Christianity; her behavior is determined rather by her 12. Georg Ellinger, Gellerts Fabeln und Erzählungen (Berlin, 1895), p. 10. 13. Willem Noordhoek, Geliert und Holland (Amsterdam, 1928), p. 44. 14. Franz Muncker, Bremer Beiträger, Vol. X L I I I of Deutsche Nationalliteratur, (Berlin und Stuttgart, n.d.), p. 25; also Coym, op. cit., p. 41. 15. Geliert, op. cit-, III, 143. 16. Ibid., III, 141.

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119

love for money. All the evil in her springs from her avarice. She severely upbraids a beggar who knocks at her door for alms, though she must admit later that he was greatly handicapped by inability to work. When Ferdinand, to whom she voices her annoyance over the incident, defends the beggar and others like him who are forced by circumstances to resort to such a way of living, 1 7 she insists that their misfortune is a sign of their unworthiness before God. T h e heartless, even cruel, way in which she disposes of a grave social problem characterizes her from the very beginning as a woman without any human sympathy or understanding. T o emphasize this trait, Gellert introduces another episode, that of the poor pastor's widow. This unfortunate woman, who has many children and no means of supporting them since her husband's death, appeals to Frau Richardin for aid. Frau Richardin extends a small loan, but at an exorbitant rate of interest. In addition, she keeps as a pawn the widow's only valuable possession, a piece of jewelry given to her by her husband. 18 Frau Richardin's charity expresses itself only in occasional ostentatious gifts to her church. She loves to dwell on her donations in minute detail, the occasions on which she offered them and the praise she received for them. 19 Seeking further glory, she urges Simon to contribute to the church on the occasion of his marriage to her daughter. When he suggests a fund for the benefit of poor girls, she objects; the gift ought to be of a more garish nature, so that her neighbors may talk about it. T h e lot of poor girls does not concern her at all. Proud of all her virtue and devoutness, she finds proof of her goodness in the blessings Heaven has bestowed upon her. She lacks all humbleness and tolerates no contrary opinions. She believes implicitly in the most ridiculous superstitions: that the boring of the wood-worm indicates an impending death in the family, that the cackling of a sick hen forebodes misfortune, etc. When Simon expresses his doubts he is accused of being irreligious. 20 Her own irreligion in berating the pastor's wife for having had more children than she could afford, serves as an ironic complement to her other hypocrisies. Opinionated and hypocritical, Frau Richardin is also culturally backward. She is vehemently opposed to any change. T h e customs and traditions in which she had been reared must be perpetually continued, regardless of whether these are of fundamental value or are merely su1 7 . Ibid.,

Ill,

18. Ibid., 19. Ibid.,

I l l , 148. I l l , 164.

I45f.

t o . Ibid.,

Ill,

15*.

i20

GERMAN

WOMAN

IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

perficial conventions, like fashions. It is godly to wear clothes which were stylish in her youth, sinful to wear the clothes of the day. 21 She further maintains that to wear a dress for ten or twelve years is a sign of humility and meekness. W h e n Simon points out to her that changes in fashion are not moral issues, she scolds him for being indifferent to the sacred laws of religion, threatening even to break off any discussion of his marriage to her daughter if he does not change his ideas. She would rather see her daughter remain unmarried than exposed to his worldly way of thinking. 2 2 Because of her miserly nature she breaks many traditions herself. For example, pleading poverty, she will not prepare a trousseau for her young daughter, though a little later she boasts of possessing 30,000 Thaler, a considerable fortune at the time. She wants her own clothes to suffice for her child, w h o shall wear them to honor her and her ancestors. 23 T h e money she agrees to give her daughter as a dowry must not be spent for clothes or similar things, but must be kept intact, to be used for loans, the interest on which must be added to the principal. Providing a daughter with clothes and other necessities at the time of her marriage was a general custom, especially observed in families of wealth—but Frau Richardin's greed is stronger than any tradition. Her niggardliness is also the cause of Christianchen's lack of education. T h e backwardness of the mother is reflected in the girl's behavior. Christianchen never says much before strangers because her mother has always insisted that virtuous young girls do not express their thoughts freely. 24 She is very young and quite under her mother's influence, but has fortunately not been completely spoiled by the outmoded thinking of her mother. In Christianchen, Gellert introduces a new type of feminine character: " A m o n g all the static types a developing individual." 2 5 He would have us believe that she has sufficient native endowment to develop under the proper tutelage into a woman of intelligence, with independence of judgment and a sense of propriety. Critics are at great variance about Christianchen. Behrend and Coym maintain that the change in her is implausible because she seems too simple, too obedient at first and too hesitant later. 26 May sees her not as the static character who exemplifies either a virtue or a weakness, xi. si. 23. 24. 25. 26.

Ibid., III, 14s. Ibid., Ill, 166. Ibid., Ill, 163. Ibid., Ill, 168. Ch. F. Gellert, Werke, ed. Friu Behrend (Berlin-Leipzig, n.d.), p. 366. Ibid., p. 366; also Coym, op. cit., p. 44.

CHRISTIAN FORCHTEGOTT

GELLERT

isx

unlike almost all other characters in Gellert's comedies who remain at the end of the play as they were at the beginning. He maintains that in her and in Julchen, in the last of Gellert's plays, the poet has created characters who change and develop. 27 A t first Christianchen is fearful, helpless, and shy; she is incapable of using her good gifts of intellect and heart. Under the impact of her experiences—Simon's rejection of her, her sense of inadequacy, Simon's attractive appearance, and her own good intentions and affection for Lorchen—she matures, and we find her vivacious, with more self-assurance and a growing consciousness of her feeling for Simon. May credits Gellert with introducing into her characterization a psychological realism by concerning himself with the spiritual development in her. Thus, he argues, Gellert breaks with the traditional conception of dramatic characters as types who exemplify either vice or virtue without any moral objective. 28 Lorchen is in all respects Frau Richardin's opposite. She comes from a good home and has therefore received a good education. T h o u g h family misfortune has forced her to live with her relative, she maintains her independence of opinion. She conforms to Frau Richardin's household regulations but beyond that she is uninfluenced by her. She is intelligent, rational, and of quick wit. She likes to read books like Pamela and the Spectator, and she does so despite Frau Richardin's admonitions against such literature. Likewise, though branded as impious by the avaricious older woman, she dresses in the fashion of the day. 29 Lorchen's modern point of view sharpens her perception of Christianchen's latent gifts. She can understand how these were left undeveloped and even withered by Frau Richardin's outworn principles and beggarly mode of life. She has tried to counteract that influence, but cannot succeed because both she and Christianchen lack the freedom needed for full development as long as they live under Frau Richardin's roof. Her suggestion that they go to Berlin is a sensible solution for the dilemma. T h e benefits to be gained from the contacts with interesting and appropriate company, from intelligent talks and discussions of all the important events of the day, and the gains from reading good b o o k s all these had been recommended as the best influence in broadening the cultural horizon of women ever since the moral weeklies began to 27. Kurt May, Das Weltbild in Gellerts Dichtung, "Deutsche Forschungen," ed. Friedrich Panzer 8c Julius Petersen, H e f t 21 (Frankfurt am Main, 1928), p. 42. 28. Ibid., p. 44. 19. Gellert, op. cit., I l l , i65f.

122

GERMAN WOMAN

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ENLIGHTENMENT

champion a better education for girls. Schlegel accepted this program; Gellert does likewise. Lorchen, already the product of such an education, seeks to hand it on to Christianchen. 3 0 According to the ethics of the time, women must be noble and selfsacrificing. In Gellert's plays this last trait becomes a dominant feature and must have elicited many sympathetic tears from the onlookers. Lorchen, a poor girl and not quite so beautiful as her rival, sacrifices her own happiness for the rich, beautiful, and equally noble Christianchen. However, Gellert fully motivates this sacrifice and concentrates on the admirable qualities of the feminine figures, assigning his hero a less noble place in the play, that of a vacillating suitor. In fact, Behrend calls Simon a puppet not to be taken seriously. 31 Simon is young, rich, without any particular foibles, even supposedly of superior character. He talks intelligently, he is without prejudices, and he demands a wife with intelligence and upbringing and not just money and beauty; but he shifts from Christianchen to Lorchen and back to Christianchen, without the least hesitation. Simon had become aware of Christianchen's inferior mental qualities only after his second visit. It is while under the influence of this discovery that he takes notice of Lorchen's gay and clever wit. Lorchen refuses to accept Simon's offer of marriage not because she knows better than to catch Simon's heart on the rebound, but rather because the morality of the period decreed that she must not, by interfering with Christianchen's opportunities for marriage, allow her to become the innocent victim of circumstances. " I sacrifice love for friendship, whatever my heart may say," 32 she says to Simon, and adds the further explanation: "Your heart was not for me, but for Christianchen; and the more pleasure I might have enjoyed in a marriage with you, the more uneasy I would have been for having deprived my friend of so much." 3 3 T h u s her sacrifice is the action of an unselfish heart. A l t h o u g h her nobility warrants better deserts than the loss of an attractive husband, the ethical code of the day would permit no other solution in a comedy than that in Die Betschwester. Gellert's plays present a m u c h broader social background than those of some other writers of the time, especially in regard to the status of women. Christianchen, young, beautiful, with a dowry, attains the prime aim of any woman of the time—a prudent marriage. 30. 31. 32. 33.

Ibid., I l l , 160. Gellert, Werke, ed. Behrend, op. cit., p. 364. Gellert, op. cit., I l l , 202. Ibid., I l l , 200.

CHRISTIAN FORCHTEGOTT GELLERT

1*3

Lorchen, clearly the ideal woman, must at the end be satisfied with the feeling that she has done a noble act. She accepts the sacrifice willingly. Nevertheless, the morality of the time cannot permit virtue to go without reward, and Lorchen receives hers in "adoption" by Ferdinand. 34 Her future will be free from economic worries: she no longer need depend upon the niggardly allowance of Frau Richardin, and in the mind of the audience the thought must arise that marriage for her will be easier with money and the added cultural opportunities of a big city. A t several points in the play, we are told of the legal status of women, especially that of young girls. From Frau Richardin's remarks we learn that she has complete authority over her daughter, clearly implying the transfer of this authority to the husband after marriage. She can dictate to Simon the terms of the dowry, telling him what to do with the money. 35 Although the egotistical, self-centered Frau Richardin asks her daughter whether Herr Simon pleases her, and does not force Christianchen to accept him, she has hardly any consideration for her daughter's happiness. She changes her mind frequently and expects Christianchen's unhesitating obedience each time. This paradox, observed in other plays, continues to prevail for a long time in German society. Some twenty years later, Gellert proposes one of his friends as a possible husband for Demoiselle Lucius, one of his devoted feminine admirers and correspondents, 36 and concludes his letter to her: "but this is especially an affair for your parents." ST T h e bourgeois concept created many such contradictions. Money was necessarily of first importance. Gellert implies this when he sub34. Ibid., I l l , 20jf. 35. Ibid., I l l , pp. 163, 160. 36. Christiane Caroline Lucius, 1739-1825, was the daughter of a "geheimer Kabinettregistrator" in Dresden. She was an intelligent, well-educated girl. In 1760 she wrote to Gellert expressing her admiration and veneration for him. He liked her lively, unaffected manner of writing so much that he not only answered her but used her letter as an example of good letter-writing in his lectures. T h e i r correspondence continued without interruption until his death. She became betrothed to a childhood friend in 1767 but the engagement was terminated two years later because of financial difficulties. She married a pastor, Gottlieb Schlegel, in 1774. A f t e r the death of her husband in 1813 she returned to Dresden, where she lived until her death. She has many translations from the English and French to her credit and one rather tedious tragedy, Duval und Charmille, which was published by C h . F. Weisse in 1778. Erich Schmidt calls her letters to Gellert dull and uninteresting; nevertheless they are a veritable font of information for ordinary family living seen through the eyes of a gifted girl w h o accepted the restrictions her time and social class imposed upon her. Erich Schmidt, " C . C. Lucius," Allgemeinc deulsche Biographic (Leipzig, 1884), X I X , 352. 37. C. F. Gellert, Briefwechsel F. A . Brockhaus, 1823), p. 49.

mil Demoiselle

Lucius,

ed. F. A . Ebert

(Leipzig:

124

GERMAN WOMAN IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

ordinates the happiness of the true heroine to that of the wealthy Christianchen. The heroine, it is true, is rewarded by an inner sense of satisfaction. According to bourgeois ideals, however, her reward should have been a husband. Geliert therein reveals himself torn between the conventional bourgeois code and his own conviction of the worth of virtue in the life of the individual. He achieves something of a synthesis in the happy end, in Lorchen's prospect of a more secure future. Though Geliert enjoyed great popularity, Die Betschwester aroused a good deal of adverse criticism. He was especially assailed on the grounds that an attack on religious hypocrisy was regarded as an attack on religion itself. The Regensburger gelehrte Zeitung and the Frankfurter gelehrte Zeitung reproach the author for this reason.38 Geliert was quite hurt by the unfavorable reviews and in time regretted having written the play, as Cramer, his first biographer, informs us.39 Other critics, however, rose to his defense and insisted that the "Betschwester" is characterized in a fashion which readily differentiates her from a genuinely pious person.40 Thus Albrecht v. Haller stoutly maintains "that the good intentions of the author are much too obvious for us to take exception to the play." 41 Demoiselle Lucius' comments in 1766 are of interest. I am not in favor of its being played often. It is not too useful, because there are not too m a n y "Betschwestern" and because the real ones neither go to the theatre, since it costs six to eight Groschen, nor do they read plays; they prefer to count their money and automatically sing a song without thinking or feeling anything while so d o i n g . "

Her criticism shows how seriously educated circles accepted the moral lessons of the drama and also how deeply the ideas disseminated by the rationalist emancipators had penetrated. The next comedy Geliert wrote was Das Los in der Lotterie, which was published in 1747. This play in five acts, like Gellert's other character-comedy, Die Betschwester, still aims to ridicule the vices and foibles of men, and includes the growing sentimental element indicated above.43 It was the most popular of Gellert's comedies and held 38. 39. 40. 41. n.d.), 42. 43.

Quoted in Coym, op. cit, p. 46. Geliert, op. cit., X , 194. Quoted in Coym, op. cit., p. 47. Göttingische Zeitungen von gelehrten p. 109. Geliert, Briefwechsel, op. cit., p. 457. Cf. p. 1 1 6 supra.

Sachen

auf das Jahr

1J48

(Göttingen,

CHRISTIAN FORCHTEGOTT

GELLERT

its place on the stage longest. Schmid ascribes this to the comic figures, the lazy Orgon and the Frenchophile Simon. 44 T h e plot revolves around the fate of a lottery ticket which Frau Damon had bought secretly through a relative, Herr Orgon. She wishes to hide her little transaction from her husband, who is more or less a miser. Frau Damon bought the lottery ticket primarily to help her niece, Karolinchen, who is a penniless orphan. It is Herr Damon's fiftieth birthday, and the Orgons are visiting their friends to help them celebrate the day. Frau Orgon, learning of the lottery ticket, hands on this bit of information to Herr Damon. He is enraged by his wife's extravagance, and sells the ticket to his ward, Herr Simon, not without making sure that he himself will get a share of the winnings, should the ticket draw a prize. T h e wanderings of the ticket have not come to an end, however. Herr Simon, who has but recently returned from a grand tour in France and who wishes to imitate the French aristocracy in their disdain of money, gives the ticket to Frau Orgon as a token of his favor; and again imitating the French, he becomes rather impudent with her. Karolinchen witnesses this, and rebukes him on behalf of Frau Orgon. In gratitude, Frau Orgon gives Karolinchen the ticket. Thus, when it becomes known that this ticket, with the slogan "pour la vertue," has drawn ten thousand Thaler as a prize, the ticket is in the hand of the person for whom it was meant in the first place. Karolinchen wishes to return it to her aunt, but the latter will not accept it. Instead, she asks Karolinchen to give Herr Damon a thousand Thaler to pacify him and show him their good intentions and also to give her a thousand for her favorite charities, since her husband hardly allows her to spend any money for such purposes. T h e rest of the money will provide a dowry for Karolinchen, making possible her marriage to a certain Anton, which had been prevented for the last four years only by lack of money. Again Gellert contrasts two women characters who approach the feminine ideal with one who represents the faults of the sex. T h e vices depicted in Frau Orgon are not general human failings but rather evils usually associated with women. She is a vain person as well as a coquettish gossip, who deliberately maligns people in order to cause them difficulties, merely because she is very jealous of the virtues of others. From the beginning Gellert wishes to establish the character of Frau Orgon as that of a foolish, malicious woman who insists on dominating her 44. Schmid, Chronologie,

op. cit., p. 87.

126

GERMAN WOMAN IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

circle. He is not too successful in painting her because he concentrates the colors to a point where their effect is dissipated. Gellert provides as a companion for this woman a husband who is completely given over to eating, resting, and avoiding any kind of work or exertion. He is well content that his wife have complete control of all their affairs. Herr Orgon is the type of husband who, for sheer indolence, would never transfer his affections, if he were capable of any, from one woman to another. On the other hand, his wife is very watchful of other women and upbraids him severely when she finds him engaged in a conversation with her pretty sister-in-law. T h e latter, a younger and stylishly dressed woman, arouses Frau Orgon's suspicions as to the purpose of her elegant appearance. T h a t Frau Damon dresses well only to conquer men is Frau Orgon's envious deduction. 45 Sure of this lady's designs on her husband, Frau Orgon confronts him with her suspicions. He protests the innocence of his conversation with Frau Damon but, too indolent to defend her very long, finally succumbs to his wife's arguments and reveals the topic of conversation: Frau Damon had merely asked him whether he had had any news of the lottery. 46 T h i s is true, but harmless as it is, Frau Orgon uses it to cast further aspersions on Frau Damon. If Frau Damon was immoral before, she is now a spendthrift, throwing away her husband's hard-earned money. 47 On Herr Damon, Frau Orgon's veiled insinuations against his wife are far more effective than any outright accusations. 48 When this miserly husband learns that his wife has bought a lottery ticket, he threatens to punish her severely, though the expense did not amount to more than four Thaler. Even Frau Orgon is frightened by his outbreak of fury. 49 Peculiarly enough, she now becomes the champion of women's rights. He must desist from his insults and speak respectfully of women, she tells him, and asks sarcastically: "Are you sure you don't intend to beat your wife?" He replies very earnestly that marriage must be on a serious basis; in fact, that his father had treated his mother once in this fashion, i.e., with a beating when she contradicted him. T h e contemporary low regard for women's rights is reflected in Gellert's treatment of this situation: Frau Orgon is apparently convinced that her niggardly brother-in-law is perfectly capable of following in the footsteps of his father, and she now hastens to explain that all had been merely a jest to 45. Gellert, op. cit., Ill, 211. 46. 47. 48. 49.

Ibid., I l l , 212. Ibid., I l l , 2 1 5 . Ibid., I l l , 1 1 7 . Idem.

CHRISTIAN

FÜRCHTEGOTT

GELLERT

127

try him out. Greatly relieved, Herr D a m o n accepts this explanation. 6 0 Nevertheless, Frau Orgon's evil tongue cannot be easily curbed. W h e n Frau Damon returns to the room wearing a new pair of diamond earrings, her jealousy is once again aroused. She learns that these and a matching brooch had been presented to her hostess by a grateful jeweler from Augsburg who had fallen ill on a business trip and w h o m Frau Damon had nursed during his brief illness. 51 Frau Orgon cannot understand such a relationship. Such things never happen to her; she would never care for a stranger unless she had driven a shrewd bargain in advance. T h a t Frau Damon would receive diamond jewelry in gratitude is incomprehensible, since she herself would never do anything out of the goodness of her heart because her heart knows no goodness. She confides her incredulity to her husband: " W h o knows what favors Frau Damon showed to the stranger in return for such valuable jewelry," again insinuating immoral conduct on the part of Frau Damon. 52 T h e same suspicions fall on Karolinchen when she relates that the same kind jeweler presented her with a ring as a token of his appreciation for playing and singing his favorite hymns during her visits to her aunt. 5 3 W h e n it comes to the test it turns out that Frau Orgon herself is guilty of lax morals. It is she who allows Herr Simon indecent advances, while the others had rebuked him for such conduct. She permits him to demonstrate to her what he terms the fashionable conduct of the French aristocracy. 54 O n moral grounds she has no objection to his behavior; she is concerned only with keeping her conduct a secret; and when she finally reproves him it is merely because Karolinchen has witnessed his actions. 55 Convinced that Karolinchen will behave as disloyally as she herself would under similar circumstances, she gives Karolinchen the lottery ticket. It is obvious that her own malevolence and her desire for the good opinion of others motivate her "generosity." 5 8 Frau Damon characterizes her on several occasions. W h e n Karolinchen voices her disappointment at discovering Frau Orgon's petty malice, her aunt tells her that the first time one meets Frau Orgon she seems to be good because she wants to be admired and that this desire 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56.

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

Ill, Ill, Ill, Ill, Ill, Ill, IU,

219. 221. 223. 235. 253ft. 279. 282.

128

GERMAN W O M A N IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

then overcomes "her greed, her envy, her pride, her coarseness against her husband and her pleasure in maligning others." But soon her true nature will appear and gradually dominate her conduct again. 87 Frau Damon shrewdly sees through the trickery of Frau Orgon. For example, when the latter claims she is sick, Frau Damon realizes that her illness has been caused by the sight of the jewelry and that her indisposition is designed only to vex her relative. 58 Frau Damon clearly is one of the feminine characters whom Gellert considers ideal. Kind, generous, understanding, she is an exemplary woman, a good housekeeper, knowing well the value of money but never niggardly about it. With the help of the gardener she made an attractive private garden not far from their house where she raises flowers and vegetables. Her miserly husband justifies spending money for this because he derives pleasure from the produce. 59 He lauds his wife's beauty, her youth, her good nature, her virtue, her piety. Her one great fault in his eyes is her lack of money: she brought him neither dowry nor trousseau. Another fault, which his wife has promised to correct, is her supposed extravagance with money.60 Within the play only her husband and Frau Orgon, both obviously poor judges in this case, speak of her as wasteful. 91 Herr Damon's more constant praise of her, however, indicates that she is a thoroughly satisfactory wife. When it is learned that the lottery ticket has drawn one of the big prizes, ten thousand Thaler, Herr Damon, who has been completely indifferent to his wife's disappointment at losing the money through his distrust and avarice, implores her to get the ticket back from Simon. He begs her to hasten to Simon and to show him favors, assuring her that she will nevertheless remain his wife. 62 Frau Damon indignantly refuses to heed his bidding: " N o man whom I am to love may talk to me in this fashion." 63 It becomes evident from this scene that Arnold's shameful plan in Die Kandidaten was not merely the result of Kruger's distorted bitterness. Even in bourgeois circles at that time it was apparently not particularly scandalous to sell a woman's honor for money, although the outraged firmness with which the gentle and tolerant wife reproaches her husband for his suggestion implies that such occurrences were rare and that chastity was highly valued. Frau Damon begs him to Ibid., Ill, 236f. 58. Ibid., Ill, 237. 59. Ibid., Ill, 226. 60. Ibid., Ill, 2i6f. 61. Ibid., Ill, 231. 62. Ibid., Ill, 2go.

57.

63. Idem.

CHRISTIAN

FORCHTEGOTT

GELLERT

129

abandon the idea of the money, claiming that a happy heart is worth more than the whole world,* 4 a thought completely foreign to Herr Damon. She would forgive his violent outburst if he would forget the whole thing. Karolinchen is the other woman representing Gellert's ideal in this comedy. She is much like her aunt, w h o m she attempts to emulate in every way. Like her, she is kind and generous, intelligent and clever. Furthermore, she is quite outspoken in her criticism of other people and their opinions. T h o u g h her frankness may be construed as evidence of an independent spirit, it is, on the other hand, obviously not in accord with the standards of her society, for Frau Damon mildly disapproves of this attitude and wishes to eradicate this trait in her niece. W e may infer, however, that she applauds Karolinchen's rebuttal of Herr Simon's arguments in praise of French women in contrast to those of Germany. 6 5 T h a t Karolinchen and her aunt merely make sport of his point of view, 66 whereas Frau Gottsched felt called upon to have her protagonists in Die Hausfranzdsin defend G e r m a n womanhood, is evidence of growing bourgeois self-confidence. W h e n Herr Simon, for example, criticizes German women as gauche, without chic or manners and ignorant of the refinements of life, we realize that what he actually objects to is the unwillingness of women like Frau Damon and Karolinchen to enter into light affairs of the heart and accept his improper advances. 67 T h e awakened national pride expressed by Gellert's two heroines, 68 as well as the stupidity of the opinions of men like Simon, is confirmed by contemporary accounts. In regard to Simon's Francophile attitude we have an interesting episode in a letter by H. P. Sturz, written some years later. He describes a young G e r m a n country aristocrat w h o is on a tour in France and falls into the hands of gamblers and their paramours posing as men and women of distinction. In a short time they fleece him of all his possessions, barely leaving him enough to get home. O n his return to his out-of-the-way country estate he nevertheless feels superior to his neighbors because of his intimate knowledge of French life and refinements. 69 T h i s is the same boastful attitude shown by Gellert's Herr Simon. Karolinchen posseses a sense of humor not found in the rationalistic 64. Idem. 65. Ibid., Ill, i6gff. 66. Ibid., Ill, 259, 272. 67. Ibid., Ill, 268f. 68. Theodor Dobbmann, Die Technik der Gellertschen Lustspiele (Freiburg, 1901), p. 9. 69. Helfrich Peter Sturz, Schriften, 2. Sammlung (Leipzig, 1782), p. 407ft.

130

GERMAN

WOMAN

IN T H E

ENLIGHTENMENT

heroines discussed in earlier chapters. She is capable not only of mocking Herr Simon but also of poking f u n at her uncle Damon. W h e n he urges her marriage to Simon, she realizes that he suspects that his w i f e gives her money and that he wants her to have a rich husband to provide for her instead. Karolinchen knows that his suspicions are unfounded and therefore delights in ridiculing his motives. If he will provide the trousseau and give her in addition fifty T h a l e r , she will follow his advice, she tells him. His penurious soul will not let him part w i t h so much money—and all he is willing to do is cancel the debt incurred for her father's funeral, amounting to exactly eight T h a l e r and eight Groschen! 7 0 Karolinchen is young, beautiful, and unmarried, though she has been engaged for a number of years to a man whom she loves and w h o is worthy of her. Unable to marry because he has no appropriate position, both are waiting patiently for some good fortune to come their way. It was to further their happiness that Frau Damon had bought the ticket. Like the virtuous Lorchen, then, Karolinchen is hampered by lack of money. As we saw in Lorchen's case, a woman without money was considered inferior, no matter what her other virtues might be. Demoiselle Lucius reflected this attiude in her letters to the poet. W h e n he assured her that her many virtues would make her an admirable wife for some worthy man, she invariably answered that since her parents could not provide her with any dowry, she would probably remain unwed. 7 1 In her case there were no generous aunt and no happy accident such as winning a dowry in the lottery. She had to break off her engagement to a man whom she had loved for many years and she did not wed until later in life. 7 2 T h e s e letters, to be sure, were written many years after the comedies were published, yet the social situation remained substantially the same. In his plays Gellert does not revolt against this state of affairs nor does he express his regrets for it as he does in his letters to his vivacious friend. Here he declares that a "pious, clever and loving wife is without exception the good fortune of a man. I admit that many men consider money [in choosing a wife] and have reason to d o so; nevertheless it is the least significant dowry of a woman." 7 3 A l t h o u g h in the plays it is accepted that money is an important consideration in marriage, Gellert opposes marriage for the sake of money only. Karolinchen, without a dowry, rejects Herr Damon's proposal 70. 71. 7«. 73.

Gellert, op. cit., I l l , 2471. Gellert, Briefwechsel, op. cit., p. 65. Ibid., p. x. Ibid., p. s s f .

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that she marry his ward Simon merely because the latter has 50,000 Thaler. Since Herr Simon lacks the qualities she deems desirable in a husband, she prefers to wait for her Anton, no matter how long. She agrees with the ideal of marriage of her aunt, who demands like interests, consideration, kindness and love. 74 How a woman with such ideals came to marry the contemptible Herr Damon, Gellert fails to explain, as Schlegel failed to resolve similar inconsistencies in some of his plays. This cannot merely be dismissed as bad characterization. Certain women are clearly set up as models, but we hardly ever find a woman rejecting a suitor as unworthy of her. She marries the eligible man no matter how inferior otherwise. T h o u g h some of Gellert's characters marry for love, on the whole the situation is the same as in the other comedies we have considered. Rationalism, believing in the innate goodness of man, does not draw clear and sharp distinctions between the worthy and unworthy. A woman can love any man whom fate or accident brings into her life, even if he is not quite her equal in virtue. T h e ideal woman is often given the task of eliminating her suitor's faults; but these are hardly ever considered vices. It must be noted, however, that no play in this period reverses the situation: nowhere does a husband wean a wife from her failings. T h e faults in women were far more harshly judged, more severely censured than those of men. No woman, even in Gellert's plays, ever sets out deliberately to seek a companion intellectually her equal. If it was the duty of man to bear his lot with great equanimity of soul, this was doubly true for the women. Demoiselle Lucius points this up in one of her letters: I believe that should I marry, I w o u l d be a good wife to a g o o d man, and this is not difficult to achieve in my opinion, provided one knows one's obligations and one keeps in m i n d that the execution of all duties of life, the important and the unimportant, the burdensome and the pleasant, turn to be a blessing for us which extends even beyond this life. Indeed, even with a bad husband, in my opinion, a person of intelligence and reason should remain good. W h e r e the duties are reciprocal, violation of these by one side does not absolve the other of scrupulous observance; this observance cannot then be a pleasant duty, and in a certain sense is not a voluntary virtue, but a very heavy burden which can be eased only by the inner, rewarding sense of a conscience unspoiled by any difficulties.™

It is this calm composure which empowered women to accept men like Nikander, Agenor, Herr Damon. Briiggemann correctly points out that this must have been a fundamental trait of the people of the pe74. Gellert, op. cit., Ill, «6». 75. Gellert, Briefwechsel, op. cit., p. 63.

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riod. 7 4

It is all the more important to note that Karolinchen is the first woman of the many characters we have discussed who rejects a suitor as unworthy of her, and this despite his wealth. T o balance her defiance of an obviously strong convention Geliert felt compelled to motivate her rejection of Simon on the basis of another equally valued bourgeois concept, that of keeping a contract. Karolinchen's refusal to marry HenSimon is not that she considers him a fop but because she is already pledged to another man. Faithfulness in women was an important virtue, taking precedence over many other conventions. T h i s we shall learn from a later play by Christian Felix Weisse. T h e first collection of Gellert's comedies included, beside the three long plays which we have considered, a short one-act "Nachspiel," Die kranke Frau.11 T h e action is built around a theme which he used in Das Los in der Lotterie and in one of his fables, bearing the same title as the playlet. Frau Stephan feigns sickness after she sees her friend, Frau Richard, in a new dress. N o t only was the dress new but the costly material used for it had not even appeared on the market and it had been presented to Herr Richard by a merchant indebted to him. Frau Stephan becomes "deathly" sick, tormenting her devoted husband with all kinds of foolish notions. He sends for doctors and finally for Herr W a h r m u n d , the chiromancer, w h o predicts an imminent end for Frau Stephan. Herr Richard appears to offer her his "elixir of life," in his opinion a neverfailing remedy for all sorts of ills. She finally consents to swallow a dose, but feels worse after it and retires. Henriette, Frau Stephan's stepsister, begs Herr Richard to sell her, at a good profit, his wife's new dress, which she wishes to wear for her role as god-mother the next morning. He readily agrees to appropriate the dress from his wife's wardrobe. W h e n he returns later in the day to find out how his medicine has affected Frau Stephan and at the same time to bring the new dress for Henriette, Frau Stephan learns of the transaction. She is at the point of death when she hears that her young sister is to have the new dress. However, at the insistence of her niece Philippine, who shrewdly guessed the cause of her aunt's sickness from the very minute when Frau Stephan berated her friend for the new acquisition, Frau Stephan revives sufficiently to try on the dress. W h e n all insist that she keep it, since Henriette, the younger woman, can do without the dress on this occasion, the color returns to her cheeks within a few minutes and she 76. Brüggemann, Deutsche Literatur, 77. Geliert, op. dt., III, 339, 378.

R e i h e Aufklärung

V, 10.

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is well enough to try the dance she and Herr Richard had enjoyed a year before at her wedding. Delighted with her quick cure, her loving husband pays for the dress without the least objection, "though times are not the best." 7 8 T h i s farcical playlet brings no new element into the characterization of women. Philippine, the only sensible woman among the dramatis personae, is quite in line with the model women created by the other playwrights of the time. She has common sense, and her tongue is quick with sarcastic rejoinder. She is educated, she reads good books, and because of her superior intellectual development sees through the pretensions of the chiromancer, whose superstitions she ridicules. Likewise, her trained intellect enables her to deal effectively with Frau Stephan's conceits. T h o u g h she is astute, she is kindhearted. She knows what caused her aunt's malady and is generous enough to offer a cure w h e n there is an opportunity to do so. Henriette, although she appears but briefly and is merely a convenient prop for the action, is already her stepsister's equal in folly at the age of sixteen. Frau Stephan's petty vanity is held u p for mockery; her behavior about the dress is treated with merciless irony. She is a close sister to Frau Orgon, the vain, tyrannical, hypocritical type of woman. Frau Stephan is, however, young and beautiful, as her husband informs us. She plagues the good man willfully and with purpose, just as Frau O r g o n did her husband, except that Herr Stephan is unaware of his wife's faults while Herr O r g o n submits because of his indolence. T h e only new note of interest in this farce is the fact that Herr Richard thinks nothing of taking his wife's dress out of her wardrobe and selling it without consulting her at all. Nor does anybody else, even the clever Philippine, see any indignity in such action. It is true that Herr Richard orders another, identical dress for his wife from the tailor, but his behavior emphasizes, what has been observed before, the absence of any rights for women. A woman could not even call her own such personal effects as clothes. Despite its vapidity the play seems to have been quite popular. Löwen called it Gellert's best play for the stage, 79 and according to other contemporary accounts Koch's troupe was still playing it in 1773. Only Lessing pointed out the obvious lack of any aesthetic merit in the piece. 80 78. Ibid., I l l , 37*. 79. Löwen, op. cit., I V , 407. 80. Lessing—LM, I X . 273.

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T h e third of Gellert's full-length plays, Die zärtlichen Schwestern, is his only genuine "Rührkomödie." T h e comic element is concentrated in the figure of the Magister, who is somewhat queer to be sure, but hardly a really comical character. Here the poet does not portray vices or faults, but homely bourgeois life as he knew it. T h e characters are the ordinary men and women of his class, and the problems are those of everyday occurrence: a young girl unsure of her feeling for her suitor, wavering before she recognizes her emotion as true love; her sister, disillusioned but undaunted by the loss of a suitor who is dazzled by the prospect of money, becomes unfaithful and loses all through his betrayal. This is the play in which the "Bürger" rises to a position of esteem. T h e plot of Die zärtlichen Schwestern is as meagre as are those of the other comedies. Since it is largely devoid of comic elements and since there can be no tragic conflict in a comedy, this play is perhaps even more tedious than the others by Geliert. Lottchen and Julchen, the two young daughters of Herr Cleon, are presented with their suitors, Siegmund and Damis. Though Damis is young, rich, and virtuous, Julchen refuses to accept his proposal of marriage because she is unwilling to abandon her "freedom." Lottchen promises her father that his wish to see his daughters taken care of will be fulfilled, for she has conceived a little intrigue that will break Julchen's stubborn resistance this very day. In Lottchen's plan, Siegmund, her own suitor, is to feign love for Julchen, while Damis is to seem resigned to Julchen's demand for friendship instead of love. In this way, Lottchen hopes, her sister will learn to know her true feelings for Damis. T h e conspiracy is entered into by all. Complications arise when the terms of the will of their deceased aunt become known. At first it is erroneously reported that Julchen is chief heiress. Siegmund, without funds, engaged to Lottchen for a long time, sees an opportunity to better his position. Instead of feigning love for Julchen, he seeks to win her favor in earnest, going so far as to ask her father for his consent. He maligns Damis, indicating to Julchen that Damis seems to have been more interested in Lottchen of late. Siegmund's maneuvers are unsuccessful, for Julchen becomes aware of her own love for Damis and the treachery of Siegmund. Lottchen is proclaimed the real heiress, but does not marry Siegmund since the evidence against him presented to her by family friends is too strong to be overlooked. With the generosity of eighteenth-century ethics, she plans to send him enough money to make unnecessary his betrayal of some other girl. In the end Lottchen has the money, Julchen

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has Damis, and the audience can take home the comforting thought that Lottchen will find her just reward in the noble heart of the guardian of Damis, Herr Simon, w h o is as upright as the other characters and consequently worthy of her. Of the two women characters in the play, the elder sister, Lottchen, is clearly considered the ideal woman. In this character Geliert synthesized the Rationalist's ideals of feminine virtues and his own "Empfindsamkeit." She becomes the epitome of all feminine virtues, and has no faults at all. She is a lively, intelligent girl w h o has been given what was considered a good education. Geliert shows that she has a good deal of common sense. In her ability to talk well, she resembles Gellert's other heroines and their rationalistic sisters in Frau Gottsched, Krüger, and Schlegel. Unlike them, however, she is serious, never indulging in lighthearted, flippant answers, barbs or witticisms, such as we find in the moral weeklies, e.g., the letters of women correspondents in Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen, Der Patriot, and Die Discourse der Mahler. Lottchen is in a way a much simpler character than any other heroine of Gellert's, though her plan for bringing her sister to a realization of her feelings proves the keenness of her perception. She is straightforward, without any complexities in her character. W i t h o u t question or complaint she accepts the rôle which time and her social class have assigned to her. She never hesitates to admit her love for Siegmund. T h e reasons she confides to her father, but not to Siegmund, who, however, conveniently overhears her confession: Siegmund loves her though she is neither beautiful nor rich nor possessed of any particular merits except her chastity. Yet he loves her as if she were the finest woman in the world. 8 1 T h i s explanation is the same as those made by other rationalist heroines: one loved the virtues of the person and not the individual. But Lottchen's longing to find an opportunity to tell Siegmund of her feelings adds a note of sentimentality to her character. Neither Krüger's Karoline nor Schlegels A m a l i a nor his Juliane nor Hilaria ever waits for an occasion to speak of her love for her suitor as Lottchen does. In addition to these character traits she possesses specifically feminine virtues. She is a good housekeeper; her father lauds her management of the household after her mother's death. 82 He speaks of her good upbringing, but we learn no details 83 except that the father promises her 81. Geliert, op. cit., III, 16. 82. Ibid., III, 36. 83. Idem.

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that he will pay for any special training should she succeed in changing Julchen's mind. He tells her: "Hire teachers to instruct you in languages, painting or piano playing." 84 From other sources we know that training in these fields, beyond the elementary reading, writing and arithmetic, was considered at the time "good education" for girls. T h i s girl, carefully drawn by Geliert as the epitome of feminine virtue, develops into a somewhat tragic figure. She is constant and faithful. Though her lover has lost all his money, she will wait until his financial circumstances allow him to marry her, should this take ten years; for she prefers him, poor as he is, to the richest man in the world. 85 But her steadfastness is not rewarded. Circumstances force her to the realization that the man she loves is not worthy of her affection, for he betrayed her at the first opportunity. T h e money she has now is small comfort after such an experience. T r u e to the ideals of the time, she bears her misfortune with great fortitude. Once she is convinced of Siegmund's duplicity, she gives him up in wistful renunciation and wishing him well blames only his folly. 86 Julchen has many of her sister's virtues. She too is well educated, is presumably a good housekeeper, though we hear little of this accomplishment in the play. Julchen, however, carries within her a spark of the rebel. She wishes to break through the limits set for her by the time and her social group. This is the cause of her confusion and her insistence on friendship instead of love. She rejects love as the stereotype of life, wishing to express individuality, not to be a type but a woman. In a futile attempt to clarify her state of mind she hides behind a meaningless phrase, "leave me my freedom." After she becomes aware that her feeling for Damis is love, she clings to him as an individual and not as a man of virtue who is to become her future husband. Her emotions are not completely subdued by her reason. "Could I yield you [Damis] to my sister? No, I am not that good." 87 Her jealousy is a trait not observed in any other heroine in the comedies of the time. For her, no switching such as that in Die stumme Schönheit or Die Betschwester is possible. Both girls are kind, generous and, what Geliert seems to stress, not envious of each other's fortune. Lottchen is happy that her sister's beauty can attract the attention and love of a personable, rich young man. She will not stand in her way should Julchen wish to marry before 84. 85. 86. 87.

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

Ill, III, III, III,

15. 16. 107. 87.

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she, the older girl, is married, as her elders seem to imply it is her privilege to do. 88 Julchen is fully as unselfish. W h e n Lottchen turns out to be the true heiress, Julchen rejoices over her sister's good fortune. "I wish everything for her," she exclaims. 89 Yet the sisters are not just replicas of each other. Lottchen, as pointed out above, is straightforward, unconfused: she knows what she would like to have in life and is apparently untouched by any subconscious longings. She can accept all her experiences, the pleasant as well as the painful, with great composure. Julchen, on the other hand, shows some of the emotional unrest which appears in Storm and Stress and which finds full expression in the early nineteenth century. In Julchen, Gellert again deviated from the usual character types of comedy. In this figure "an involved emotional complex has found expression . . . as her love for Damis finds its way from the subconscious into the conscious." 90 Her first monologue shows us a confused girl probing her own diverse emotions, struggling for clarity and prudence. W h a t ? Is he [Damis] leaving? But why am I so reitless? I don't love him—No, I only like him. It is his unbearable pride—that he leaves me. H a v e I vexed him? H e is usually so reasonable and magnanimous—. No, no—he is not in love with me. It must have been pretense. I am quite vexed today. If only I h a d my lute, I would . .

When, however, she becomes aware that she is jealous, she must admit that her feeling for Damis could be nothing else than love. T h u s it needed but a simple intrigue to make her see the truth as the middle class understood it to be. In her the poet attempts to trace the development of a girl's character as an organic process. T h e concept of the spiritual growth of a character in a drama is a new element, in absolute contradiction to the older psychology of the static character, though it may be a moral type which all comedies of the time exhibit. According to May, 9 2 this trend reflects the newly developing Sentimentalism which coupled with an early realism becomes the tap-root of a new kind of characterization. T h i s resulted in the creation of individuals and not merely types such as Rationalism and the moral ideology of the period produced. Gellert expresses the conflicting trends, though it must be admitted that he is unable to resolve the resulting contradiction. In accordance with his moral tenets, largely those of his time, 88. Ibid., 89. Ibid.,

I l l , 13. I l l , 87. 90. May, op. cit., p. 44.

91. Gellert, op. cit., Ill, »5. 92. May, op. cit., p. 56.

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Julchen as the exponent of the opposing tendencies must end as a girl who conforms to the moral and social demands of her time and group. Gellert allows her to win what all women of her time wanted—a kind and loving husband with wealth enabling them to live without difficulties; these were the highest achievements for women. The virtuous woman always gets this reward. But Lottchen, jewel of them all, does not. It is she, then, the ideal of her day and class, who becomes the pathetic heroine. She, like Lorchen so richly deserving the best, must forego it. She is a sentimental heroine because she moves her audience to pity by her virtue and magnanimity. Completely devoted to her lover, she is deceived by him. He leaves her for Julchen not out of love but because Julchen is an heiress and because he has neither money nor an adequate position. He still loves Lottchen, whose virtues are superior to those of any other girl; but he has to persuade himself of Julchen's virtues and charms.93 Untrue to himself, he does not become a villain but merely a man misguided by his folly. Therefore it made sense to the eighteenth-century audience when Lottchen promises to provide him with money so that he need never betray another girl. M Lottchen lacks the courage and determination we have seen in the heroines of the time. She is rather an expression of Gellert's own spirit of renunciation. She bears adversity with the same quiet resignation we find in Gellert's Tagebuch of 1761, or in the letters of Demoiselle Lucius. This passivity and modesty are great virtues for Gellert and his time. Yet the resignation has no morbid tinge to it; on the contrary, it is optimistic, for the poet leaves us with the impression that Lottchen will not remain too long without a worthy companion. The manner in which Lottchen renounces Siegmund makes her to some extent the forerunner of all the betrayed heroines of the Storm and Stress, who, like Lottchen, never indulge in any violent denunciations of the men who betrayed them and then abandoned them to a tragic fate. This appears irrevocable in the Storm and Stress, however, without the optimism found in Gellert's plays. Despite their passive traits, the two sisters have a good deal of freedom. Their father never exerts the authority over them which custom recognizes. He considers Damis eminently desirable as a husband for Julchen. He reasons with his daughter but never commands her to obey, nor is she the submissive girl who is passively obedient to her parent's wish as is the case in Schlegel's Amalia. Lottchen can dissuade 93. Gellert, op. cit., Ill, 55.

94. Ibid., Ill, 103.

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him from telling Julchen that he cannot die peacefully unless he knows her well taken care of. T h a t would be tantamount to compulsion, and he desists. Geliert clearly presents not merely an ideal condition as it might be found in some single household, but undoubtedly the conditions as they prevailed in the good bourgeois homes of the middle class, where women were now no longer mere chattels but valuable human beings in their own right. We can see the great advances in progress in the status of women. We recall that the articles in the moral weeklies of the seventeen-twenties pleaded for a better education of women, for allowing them to have a voice in matters concerning themselves, such as the choice of a husband; now, in the late forties, we see that many of these aims have been realized, for we find homes, typical ones too, where girls are given a careful education in accordance with the ideals of the time. They are no longer forced into marriage against their will, and although, legally, parent or husband has complete power over them, they are allowed much freedom. Of course we also find homes, and they are numerous, where women are not considered important enough to be educated, where daughters must heed the absolute dictates of their parents even if the demands are as unreasonable as those in Die Geistlichen auf dem Lande or as Frau Richardin's command that Christianchen love Simon or hate him according to her whim. It is these parents and homes that receive the full measure of criticism and scorn in contemporary plays. Geliert, as one of the interpreters of his time who gives us the most faithful social pictures, shows how much change the position of women was undergoing within his class. Frau Birkenhayn could force her daughter to accept an unwanted husband; in Gellert's plays there is no question of coercion. Even a tyrant like Frau Richardin asks her daughter whether she likes her choice. In Die zärtlichen Schwestern even the slightest pressure put on the girl is resented. Law and custom on the whole still give the male members of the household absolute authority over their women but this authority is not exercised. 95 In other respects too, these plays furnish parallels to contemporary life. T h e insolent pride of an ignorant but aristocratic Amalia, the gullibility, ignorance, and tyranny of a Frau Birkenhayn, the hypocrisy of a Frau Richardin, the malicious envy of a Frau Orgon—all these qualities are depicted as repugnant and made ludicrous to furnish an example and a warning. More positively to encourage virtue, Gellert's Lottchen, Frau Damon, Karolinchen are set up as typical ideals, and 95. Johannes Sehen, Kulturgeschichte

der deutschen Frau (Dresden, »928), p. 252.

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we hear references to them again and again in the correspondence of the day. For example, young Count von Dohna requests Gellert to find him a wife like Lottchen or Lorchen. Demoiselle Lucius speaks of the heroines in a similar fashion, though she herself comes so close to being like Lottchen or Karolinchen that it is difficult to accept the fact that she could not have been the model for them. A further reflection of contemporary trends is the attribution of feminine vices to ignorance. It is the intelligent, capable woman who wins admiration: the girl who can hold her own in company, who is not ignorant but not too clever either, for "learned women" were the horror of the age from Frau Gottsched to Lessing, and who possesses all the other qualities of a good wife and mother. Gellert shows a much greater awareness of a woman's right to her individuality than any of the other playwrights. T h e relationship between education and virtue is much closer in his plays than in those by any others. Frau Richardin and Frau Orgon are ignorant, as are Herr Orgon and Herr Damon. Lorchen can speak French and is familiar with modern literature; Frau Damon and Karolinchen also know French and read extensively in the Spectator, the tragedies of Jean Racine, the religious poems of Louis Racine and others, not "to become learned—but to improve [their] reason and [their] heart." 96 Cleon sums up the assets of a girl: "You can play the lute, you can sing, you know your bit of French, you write a fine letter, you have a good handwriting, you can dance, you can take care of a household, you are pretty, you are of legitimate birth, pious, and now quite rich. What more does a man want?" 9 7 Lorchen expresses a similar view: " A woman need not be learned. If we have in addition to a tender love, intelligence and virtue, then we have all a reasonable husband can demand." 98 Women are also accorded a much greater measure of self-determination in Gellert's plays than in those of his contemporaries. Nevertheless, Gellert's own attitude of resignation and renunciation prevents his feminine figures from engaging in any activities, like those of Kriiger's Karoline or Schlegel's Hilaria, in order to attain in life what they wish to have. They lack the courage and determination to fight for their aims as both Karoline and Hilaria demonstrated they could. T r u e to the bourgeois spirit, Gellert's women consider money in marriage as important as do the men. None of them is willing to face life with the 96. Gellert, op. cit., I l l , 272. 97. Ibid., I l l , 6gf. 98. Ibid., I l l , 168.

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man she loves unless he can take care of her in the proper fashion. A s A n t o n tells Karolinchen: "I not only wish that you be mine but also that you may live well at my side." 99 T h e good life means, above all, material comfort: "I have enough for our bare needs; but you are too dear to me that you should have to worry about the future." 1 0 0 Each is willing to give up the other, should they have opportunities for a more advantageous marriage. Die zärtlichen Schwestern was well received on the stage, though with less acclaim than Das Los in der Lotterie.101 Gellert's plays, with their slight originality, faulty characterization, and hardly any comic force, were still performed in the seventeen-seventies, but that their popularity had lessened is implied in Schmid's account of Gellert's death: " H e r r Geliert, w h o was dead for the stage many years ago, has died." 1 0 2 Lessing, the greatest of Gellert's contemporaries, also left the best evaluation of his work: " A m o n g all our comic writers Herr Geliert is undoubtedly the one whose plays possess the most characteristically German traits. Here are true portraits of family life, here one is at once at home. Every onlooker seems to recognize a cousin, an in-law, an aunt." 1 0 3 In stressing the cultural value of Gellert's plays Lessing anticipated the j u d g m e n t of our own day, and we may agree with H o l l : " T h e sentimental comedy produced no important play in G e r m a n literature, but possesses, nevertheless, eternal values because it reflects a sentimental age of significant social development." 1 0 4 99. Ibid., III, 302f. 100. Idem. 101. Heinrich Döring, Ch. F. Gellerts Leben 102. Schmid, Chronologie, op. cit., p. 184. 103. Lessing—LM, I X , 273. 104. Holl, op. cit., p. 167.

(Greitz, 1833), p. 185.

VIII G O T T H O L D E P H R A I M LESSING (1729-1781) EARLY PLAYS

a student at St. Afra, Lessing amused himself by various essays in literature. A m o n g these early attempts were comic sketches inspired by the comedies of Plautus and Terence, which he continued to read with avid interest to the end of his life. 1 W h e n he left Meißen he took his plans along to Leipzig. Here they were soon reworked, finished, and performed, making the young student known as a writer of comedy—to the great consternation of his parents. In Leipzig, a great and lively city according to German standards in 1747, he at first spent his time exclusively in study. As he confessed to his mother a few years later, however, he soon abandoned this routine and threw himself with all his energy into the maelstrom of life in Leipzig, 2 which had many colorful aspects to offer to a shy and rustic youth. T h e years he had spent under the strict discipline of a "Fürstenschule" or in the rather drab and scrupulously proper atmosphere of the parental parish home made him, once his senses were awakened, receptive to the lure of the gaiety and diversity of a city like Leipzig. In his own words: HILE STILL

I lived the first few months as isolated as I had not lived even in Meißen. Always with books and busy with myself, I thought as little of other people as perhaps of God. This is a hard confession to make, and my only comfort is that nothing worse than diligence made me so foolish. It did not take long to have my eyes opened.' T h e chief attraction for the young student was the theatre. 4 W e learn from the autobiography of Christian Felix Weisse, an equally impoverished student, that in order to gain free admittance to the perform1. Erich Schmidt, Lessing, Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Schriften, 4th ed.; (Berlin: Weidmann, 1923), I, 22. 2. Waldemar Oehlke, Lessing und seine Zeit (München, 1919), I, 56; Schmidt, op. cit., I, 39. 3. Lessing—LM, XVII, 7. 4. Schmidt, op. cit., I, 65. Oehlke, op. cit., I, 77.

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ances he and Lessing wrote translations and original plays. Lessing brought out what he had already written at St. Afra, adding new themes, and soon the young poet was offering his dramatic output to Frau Neuber for her opinion. 5 Frau Neuber, who had already broken with Gottsched but was making valiant attempts to keep her troupe on the dignified level she had attained under the tutelage of the famous professor, was always on the lookout for new talents to increase her popularity—and assure financial success. She produced some of Lessing's early plays, an unusual achievement for a young and unknown writer. These early works are devoid of any considerable literary or aesthetic value; they are of interest, however, as the first attempts of a great writer and for their social viewpoint. These little comedies and farces already show Lessing's dramatic interest, which became more precise and crystallized as he matured but hardly changed otherwise in succeeding years. Erich Schmidt, disregarding chronological order, divides the early plays by Lessing into two groups: Damon, Die alte Jungfer, and Der Misogyne forming the one; Der junge Gelehrte, Der Freigeist, and Die Juden the other. 6 T h e first three have much in common with the comedies of his older contemporaries, which were generally weak and colorless. Lack of plot, uninteresting and endless conversations, stock characters borrowed from French or Danish comedy and becoming lifeless figures in the hands of the German imitators—all these defects Lessing's earliest plays share with most of the others then on the market. One finds in them the same crude humor and much of the coarseness of word and thought which Lessing later condemned in his predecessors, in Frau Gottsched, for example. T h a t young Lessing at that time possessed latent abilities which merely needed time and opportunity to develop is shown by the second group. These are based on personal and social problems. In the first of them, Der junge Gelehrte, he pokes fun at the pedantic, narrow life of a student such as he had been at Leipzig. In the other two he embarked on his life-long struggle for tolerance: in Der Freigeist, tolerance for those who deviated from orthodox church doctrine and in Die Juden, tolerance for minorities. Damon oder die wahre Freundschaft,

the first play he published 7

5. Christian Felix Weisse, Selbstbiographie (Leipzig: Georg Voss, 1806), p. ig. Karl G. Lessing, G. E. Lessings Leben (Berlin: Vossische Buchhandlung, 1793), I, 63. 6. Schmidt, op. cit., I, ljoff. 7. Lessing—LM (Stuttgart, 1887), III, p. 178!!.: According to Muncker this oneact comedy was first published in Ermunterungen zum fergnügen des Gemütes, 7. Stück (Hamburg, 1747), pp. 515-551.

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though not really the first play he wrote, borrows a situation from Holberg's The Fortunate Shipwreck and the idea of the true and the false friend from L a Chaussée and Rabener. 8 Damon has hardly any plot to speak of. It tells of an episode in the life of the two friends Damon and Leander, both in love with a young widow who is wavering between them. O n the advice of her maid Lisette she decides to marry the one w h o will emerge the more fortunate in a pending business deal. Both are eagerly awaiting the return of the ships in which each has invested his entire fortune. T h a t very morning Leander receives the news that his ship has foundered. Feeling that all will be lost for him, he slanders Damon to the widow, and he and Lisette devise a scheme whereby Leander can trick D a m o n out of half his winnings. However, when the latter is apprised of the practical terms upon which the widow's choice of husband will depend and before Leander even has a chance to broach his own plan, D a m o n proposes to his rival that they pool their resources, thereby removing the condition that was to decide which one of them should marry the widow. In his opinion love and merit, not financial considerations, ought to be the basis for the widow's choice. It is now learned that Leander has received a false message and it is actually Damon's ship that has been lost. Damon learns of Leander's treachery, and he is finally convinced of it when the latter on the basis of the original agreement claims the widow's hand. She considers Damon the more fortunate, however, because he has proved his loyalty. Leander stands ashamed before them, but the noble Damon forgives him, for "it is difficult to find a friend; if one is to abandon him at the first fault he shows, one will search all one's life and not find one." 9 T h e widow and Lisette are not very clearly drawn. T h e former has no individuality, and allows herself to be influenced by the shallow, mercenary ideals of Lisette, though at the end she chooses the poor but loyal Damon. Lisette is the typical maid of French comedy: impudent, superficial, seeking only her advantage and pleasure. It is she w h o tells the suitors that money is of great importance to a woman w h o is to marry and that when a woman is undecided, money will easily outweigh other considerations. Her opinion is shared by Oronte, another of the widow's suitors; he feels that his wealth makes him more desirable than either D a m o n or Leander. 1 0 W e cannot attach too much importance to this conception of female 8. Oehlke, op. cit., I, 118; Schmidt, op. cit., I, 130. 9. Lessing—LM, III, goo. 10. Ibid., I l l , 199.

GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING

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behavior because the young student at St. A f r a based his play on reading rather than personal experiences. Similar ideas were common in his day and recur frequently in the literature of the period. Perhaps the only clue we have to Lessing's view of the position of girls in his youth can be found in his letter to his sister, Dorothea Salome. It is not a tender, affectionate tone at all in which he pens his New Year's letter of 1745. 1 1 With great disdain he mocks her for not writing him because she did not know how. She had left school at the age of twelve, for neither she nor her parents considered it proper for a girl to go to school beyond that age. Since she was the only girl among the ten children a goodly share of the household work must have fallen to her, especially since the family's income was rather meagre. We have no way of knowing what his sister's intellectual capacities were. We do know that she remained faithful and devoted to her parents, caring for them in their old age and never marrying, and that her brothers were very grateful for her sacrifices. Her plaintive letters reveal a woman leading a rather drab and joyless existence. 12 Her mother's letters reflect much the same situation. Whether close association between mother and daughter was responsible for Dorothea Salome's strict sense of propriety or whether this sprang from other causes is difficult to establish. We do know that when she was still in her teens her brother Gotthold expressed for her the New Year's wish that all her money be stolen! " T h a t , " he concluded, "would perhaps be better for you than a large gift of money." 1 3 It has been supposed that Gotthold had received from her some flat refusals of his requests for loans. Her stand may, on the other hand, have been determined by the necessity of her holding on to what paltry possessions fell to the lot of the only daughter of a poor pastor. Nevertheless, the generous and kindhearted young Gotthold could neither understand nor approve this attitude in a sister. Furthermore, she apparently gave her brother other grounds for disapproval. When he was summarily ordered home because his parents feared that he was entering upon a path of godlessness and vice, he brought some of his anacreontic verses with him. His sister spied these one day on the table and outraged by their licentious levity cast the whole sheaf into the fire. T h e young poet's revenge, as Karl Lessing tells us, was merely to rub her face and throat with clean snow in order to cool her pious indignation 1 14 1 1 . J bid., 12. Ibid.,

X V I I . 3f. X I X , 4 1 2 f t ; X X , 140(1; X X I , 268f, 2 7 3 ^ 2 9 5 ! , 3oof, 3o6f.

13. Ibid.,

X V I I , 4.

14. Karl G . Lessing, G. E. Lessings

Leben,

3 T e i l e (Berlin, 1793-95), I, 77-

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T o say that the early contacts with sister and mother and the subsequent simplicity and discipline at St. Afra, fashioned almost entirely after that of the monastery it originally was, conditioned him in his early relationship with women is an assumption which can hardly be proved. It is none the less true that Lessing's youth is not marked by any significant attachments to the opposite sex. His anacreontic verses and his early plays cannot be used as evidence because they conform to the modes of the time, when it was the accepted pattern for poets to write about love and wine without any basis in personal experience. T h e confessions we have from Gleim and others bear this out. As Lessing matures, the stereotyped conception of woman's character and ideals which he had accepted largely from his time changes to a more personal view. Despite the lack of close personal relationships with women and his infrequent remarks about them, the female characters in his master works are the highest rung in the ladder to women's emancipation and ability for achievement in eighteenth-century literature. Without idealizing women, as Classicism does, he accords them a greater share of equality than any other writer before Romanticism. Die alte Jungfer, 1749, like his first play, is based on reading and not on personal experiences. 15 Lessing centers the plot on a proverbially comic figure, a woman advanced in years who behaves in an affectedly youthful manner in order to find a husband. T h e plot is negligible. It aims at obstructing the fulfillment of J u n g f e r Ohldin's cherished wish, namely to marry Captain v. Schlag, a retired, one-legged soldier. Because she is well-to-do and can leave money to her relatives, these, represented by Lelio, attempt to interfere. Lelio and Lisette, Jungfer Ohldin's maid, dress up the baker Peter in a torn uniform, make him feign an artificial leg and introduce him as Captain von Schlag. At the point when J u n g f e r Ohldin has become somewhat bewildered and doubts the desirability of marrying so uncouth a person as Peter, the matchmakers, Herr and Frau Oronte, introduce Captain von Schlag. T h e deceit is uncovered and though Lelio in fear of losing his relative's money proposes to marry her himself, all ends well. T h e Captain promises Lelio some of the money to which his marriage will entitle him, admitting quite frankly that he is forced to contract this marriage because of his many debts. He and Lelio, who is in a similar position, understand each other well; it is a case of one scoundrel talking to another. Again we would err were we to accept J u n g f e r Ohldin and her maid as reflections of Lessing's conception of women and their rôle in 15. Lessing—LM, III, soif.

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society. T h e two women are stock figures which the young author took over without breathing into them any of his own spirit. Of greater importance here is the position of Jungfer Ohldin. Clitander, who appears to be a character without any purpose in the play, tells Jungfer Ohldin the whole town is laughing at her, not because she is getting married now but because she did not do so thirty years ago.1® We learn further that a woman who is advanced in years can find a husband only if her wealth can lure a needy suitor, like Herr von Schlag. T h e inducement is that after marriage the husband has all rights over a woman's fortune. Thus Herr von Schlag can strike his bargain with Lelio even before he is married. If the Captain were to become a kind and loving husband in return for the money, the arrangement would not be indicative of the low position of woman in contemporary opinion, but would seem merely a good bargain, mercenary and crude as it appears to modern taste. However, there is no evidence that he intends to be a desirable husband, for at the end of the comedy Herr Oronte suggests that the bride-to-be take them to dinner; they go off in the following groups: Lelio and Frau Oronte, Clitander and Jungfer Ohldin, Herr von Schlag and Lisette. This prompts Herr Oronte to remark: " A n evil omenl" 17 We should be inclined to agree did we not know Jungfer Ohldin to be shrewd and exacting and therefore able to take care of herself. Der Misogyne, 1748,18 is an old-type character drama, like Damon and Die alte Jungfer. Wumshâter, the misogynist, opposes the marriage of his son because he considers all women evil. This view had not, however, interfered with his own three marriages. His son, Valer, and Hilaria, the girl Valer wants to wed, decide that they must break down the father's opposition. T o this end Hilaria masquerades as Lelio, a close friend of Valer. Lelio-Hilaria is able to win the affection of Wumshâter; consequently, when Valer and Lelio succeed in convincing Wumshâter that his dear Lelio and the despised Hilaria are one and the same person, he can no longer deny them approval of their marriage. Lessing complicates this simple plot by introducing Valer's sister Laura and her fiancé, Leander, who have kept their engagement secret because her father and Leander are engaged in a lawsuit. Valer and Solbist, a lawyer, develop the following little scheme in order to end the impasse: Solbist is to tell Wumshâter that he can 16. Ibid., I l l , »14. 17. Ibid., I l l , Î34. 18. Der Misogyne in the version of 1748 but Der Misogyn of 1767. C f . Schmidt, op. cit., I, 13«.

in the three-act version

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win the suit and punish Leander at the same time if he will consent to the marriage of Laura and Leander. Since Wumshäter's dislike of women does not exclude his own daughter, whom he always refers to as "the daughter" and never as "my daughter," he agrees with alacrity. T h e only difficulty is that Laura has in the meantime fallen in love with Lelio and has to be brought to her senses. T h i s of course is easily accomplished once she learns that Lelio is really her sister-inlaw Hilaria. In this comedy the women characters are again more or less types current in the drama of the day. It is interesting to note that while the play was first written in 1748 and published in 1755, Lessing reworked it in 1767 without making any but stylistic changes, though he had in the meantime crcatcd Sara and Minna. Lessing's Hilaria as depicted here is much like Schlegel's. Beautiful, as well as sensible, she is fearless and is ready to act in order to bring about a change in her fortune. Laura is not quite so noble or idealistic as Hilaria, because she is fickle. In the brief time that she has known Lelio she can transfer her affections from Leander, whom she knew very well and professed to love, to Lelio, who pays her flattering attention. Nevertheless, Lessing does not condemn Laura. Though her fickleness is ridiculed, the deceit practiced upon her is rather heavily underscored. In addition, Lessing—consciously or unconsciously—excuses her susceptibility to Lelio. Though her father considers her a dutiful daughter and good housekeeper, he nevertheless sends her to her brother in order to rid his own household of women. He could easily have freed himself of her by marrying her off, but varies the role of the tyrannical father by refusing to let her marry at all. This treatment motivates Laura's inconstancy; that she turns to a charming young man who showers her with flatteries and is considerate of her every little wish is a natural result of her life in her father's home. In this play the young poet shows a greater respect for women than some of his older contemporaries because he avoids their mordant mockery of feminine vices. Otherwise there is nothing to distinguish Der Misogyne from many dramas popular on the stage except perhaps a livelier dialogue, with precise and logical arguments and counterarguments. T h e second group of plays, comprising Der junge Gelehrte, Die Juden and Der Freigeist, is more interesting than the three discussed above. Der junge Gelehrte is in the opinion of some Lessing scholars his earliest dramatic sketch. Its inception dates back to Meißen, but he

G O T T H O L D EPHRAIM LESSING finished two other comedies before he brought out Der junge Gelehrte,19 It was the first of his plays to be produced on the stage. Frau Neuber performed it for the first time in January 1748, with a good deal of success, as Lessing himself modestly recalled: "When they [his comedies] were performed, I was assured that I had not been unlucky with them." 20 Other theatre companies also kept it in their repertoire. Schmidt and Oehlke ascribe greater importance to this play than to his other early dramatic attempts because it is in part at least autobiographical. 21 T o a large extent Lessing ridicules himself in Damis. He might have become another pedantic, queer scholar like Damis had he not learned early in Leipzig that books alone would never make him a rounded personality. 22 Damis, the young scholar who lives on the praise of fools and who resents the criticism of the well-informed, is eagerly awaiting a letter from Berlin confirming him as the winner of the prize the Academy of Berlin had offered for the best treatise on the "Monads." In his imagination he hears himself praised, flattered and exhorted to continue his brilliant work. His father, Chrysander, wants Damis to marry Juliane, the daughter of a deceased friend. Juliane, who is in love with and loved by Valer, has been living in the house of Chrysander as his ward, since her father's death. Chrysander, on the basis of secret information, knows that Juliane is likely to regain in the near future the money her father had lost as a result of a lawsuit. Wishing to secure the money for his son he revokes his consent to the marriage of Valer and Juliane. Both are heartbroken, but Juliane insists that she must obey the wishes of her guardian, who had rescued her from a life of poverty after her father's death and given her a fine education, to whose generosity, in short, she owes all she is and has. She will not listen to any of Valer's very reasonable remonstrances, insisting that she must sacrifice her own happiness to the wish of her benefactor. With the consent of Valer, the maid Lisette sets out to undo Chrysander's selfish plans. She sends him a fraudulent letter questioning Juliane's prospect of a fortune. Thereupon Chrysander changes his mind, informing Damis that he no longer will insist that he marry Juliane. Damis has also changed, however. Having violently opposed his father's wish he now insists on marrying because he can become immortal by adding another martyr to the long list of scholars who 19. 20. si. 22.

Lessing—LM, I, 279ff. Ibid., XVII, 8. Oehlke, op. cit., I, 108. Lessing—LM, XVII, 7.

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had the misfortune of shrewish wives. Though every one assures him that Juliane is hardly a shrew but rather a charming, intelligent, and witty girl, he persists in his opinion because to him every woman is a shrew. At long last his valet, Anton, brings him the letter from the friend in Berlin to whom he entrusted the manuscript and who was to send him word of the Academy's decision. T h i s friend writes that after reading the treatise he did not even submit the worthless piece of work, in order to spare Damis the humiliation of a scornful rejection. Damis is incensed by such treatment; he decides to leave his country, where minds like his are not appreciated, and refuses now to marry "this German girl," as he contemptuously calls Juliane. Chrysander at first threatens to disinherit him, because Juliane had told him of Liscttc's fraud and he is therefore again eager to secure Juliane's fortune for his house. After Valer promises to let him keep any money won in the lawsuit, Chrysander does not object to the marriage of Juliane and Valer nor to the departure of his son. Here again Lessing is hardly original either in theme or treatment of characters. Yet compared to the literary output of the time, even if we confine ourselves to the best, this first comedy of an eighteen-yearold student shows unmistakable promise for the future of the author; and Frau Neuber was quite justified in producing the play and the audience in applauding it. It is true that the character of Damis is altogether unconvincing and that of Valer rather colorless; there is hardly any action but much talk; nor are the women differentiated. Lessing does not entirely refrain from crude jokes although they do not occur so often as in other plays; nor does he do away completely with the harlequin routine, still so popular with the public despite Gottsched's disapproval. But the tone of the whole comedy and especially the clever dialogue in certain parts reveal genuine talent. Lisette is the counterpart of the French confidante, but anticipates the lively and frank Franziska. Her conversation, however, is still conventionally salacious; her role still that of a mere schemer. Juliane is derived from the school of Schlegel and Gellert. Oehlke sees in her a forerunner of Minna. 2 3 T h a t is true in so far as one can say this also of some of Schlegel's and even Gellert's heroines. She is still the completely passive heroine, insisting that she must sacrifice her happiness to the wish of her guardian. She owes Chrysander too much gratitude, she tells Valer. " I would not possess your heart had 23. Oehlke, op. cit., I, 109.

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not Chrysander's care instilled in me regard for virtue and propriety." 24 She is firm in doing whatever she sees as correct. It is true that the young author does not in any way make plausible her insistence on sacrificing her personal happiness and that of Valer to the avarice of her guardian, but the same defect in motivation can be found in all his predecessors and contemporaries. Virtue for its own sake, sacrifice for no apparent good, were admired and therefore expounded to the audience. Lessing believed with his age that the stage was a means of elevating the morals of the people. Juliane is a model woman of early Rationalism. We hear of her good upbringing; she is grateful to her guardian for rescuing her from a life of poverty and misery. This filial duty, especially on the part of women, is of first consideration in the ethical code of middle-class society. The girl's own love must be sacrificed if it conflicts with her parent's wish, no matter how unreasonable or selfish the latter may be. Juliane demonstrates this as did Schlegel's Amalia 25 and as some of Christian Felix Weisse's heroines do. Women had no redress from the tyranny of a parent or guardian. As we have seen, minor fissures occur in the traditional code but the actual break is not apparent until Minna exercises complete freedom in the choice of a husband. With her action, women's right in this respect is established beyond any question. Of the three plays in the second group, Der Freigeist was written for a definite purpose. Lessing desired to convince his father that a writer of comedies was not necessarily an immoral person. His close association with his cousin Mylius, who had earned for himself the epithet "freethinker" from the good citizens of Kamenz, greatly worried his mother, who had to accept the pitying shoulder-shrugs and mournful headshakings of her friends and neighbors when news reached the town of the activities of Lessing and Mylius in Leipzig: they frequented the theatre, they indulged in writing verses about love and wine, they did not attend the courses in a regular fashion, and they even ate the famous Christmas-stollen in the company of actors and actresses.26 Lessing's letter of April 28, 1749, places Der Freigeist as an attempt to reassure his parents and allay their fears of his godlessness. 27 24. 25. 26. 27.

Lessing—LM, I, 307. Schlegel, op. cit., Der Geheimnisvolle. Karl Lessing, op. cit., I, 72. Lessing—LM, X V I I , 16.

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Adrast, the freethinker, and T h e o p h a n , the clergyman, are wooing two sisters, Juliane and Henriette. T h e i r father, Lisidor, has suggested a double marriage. Knowing his daughters, he allotted the gentle, thoughtful and serious Juliane to T h e o p h a n and the lively, mischievous, talkative Henriette to Adrast. However, the sisters and their suitors are rather attracted to their opposites. In accordance with the conventions of the time, they obey their father's wishes, though all are quite unhappy, most of all Adrast, who has been used to living according to his own desires without much reflection as to the effect such conduct may have on others. T h u s he behaves in a discourteous manner to Henriette because he loves Juliane, seemingly beyond his reach. H e is honest enough to admit that Henriette's fault may be only that she has a more lovable sister. T h e o p h a n attempts to cure Adrast's obsession that all clergymen are scoundrels and to win his friendship. In spite of Adrast's abuse, T h e o p h a n saves the "freethinker" from a debtor's prison by vouching for him when the money-lender w h o promised to advance Adrast some money withdraws because the young bankrupt has lost his credit. Adrast is not convinced of T h e o p h a n ' s honesty; he still sees in him only the rival who wants to ruin him completely. Nevertheless, when T h e o p h a n admits his love for Henriette, thus freeing Juliane, the situation assumes a different aspect; Adrast is deeply moved by such unselfishness and accepts T h e o p h a n as his friend and brother-in-law. T h e women characters are completely passive. In their daily routine there is no occasion for them to be otherwise, for they lead a free enough existence; as long as they observe conventions, life flows pleasantly, with undisturbed evenness. W h e n in the important matter of husbands they might be expected to make their own choice, they do not do so. Each praises and defends the other's fiancé, never admitting her true love, but obediently submitting to her father's decision. Lisidor, not the usual tyrant of his time, has merely acted in accordance with reason: " T h e pious ones were to be united, and the merry ones." 2 8 However, when Adrast and T h e o p h a n confess to him their real feeling, assuring him that his daughters' inclinations coincide with theirs, he agrees to change his opinion because "they [Juliane and Henriette] want it this way." 2 9 T h e girls, unaware of his readiness to consider their welfare, conceive it as their duty to honor his wishes. Consequently, when, to keep them on tenterhooks, he announces the 28. Ibid., II, 123. 29. Idem.

GOTTHOLD

EPHRAIM

LESSING

>53

approaching marriages without telling them of the change, they merely sigh, cry in secret, and plead for postponement of the day. T h e completely acquiescent Juliane tells him that she will be an obedient daughter; Henriette, more courageous, announces that she will be dangerously ill on that day. 80 T h e virtues of the two girls are expatiated upon at some length, though their own words and actions substantiate the praise in part only. Lisidor reveals that Juliane is the joy of her grandmother's existence and though Adrast concedes that her beauty does not dazzle, he claims that it moves the heart. 31 He praises her good sense, her truthfulness, and deep sentiment, admitting that he succumbed to her quiet charm, her modesty and serene joy. W h e n T h e o p h a n confesses to her that he does not love her, he knows that she will not take this as an insult since she is not vain. Rather different are the characteristics praised in Henriette—by everyone but Adrast. For him her dazzling wit holds no attraction; he cannot excuse her faults since "she had the good fortune of having had Juliane as an example." 3 2 In his eyes Henriette lacks feminine charm because of her caustic mockery, which spares not even "virtue, propriety, and religion." T o T h e o p h a n , on the other hand, thesg qualities are not faults; to him she is "the frivolous and beautiful Henriette." 3 3 T h o u g h the characterization of the two girls is quite generalized, it reveals that Lessing has broken with the traditional contrasting of the virtuous with the non-virtuous woman. Both girls have the good qualities expected of the model woman—generosity, intelligence, obedience. T h e distinction between them lies merely in differences of personality, the quiet, gentle disposition of Juliane juxtaposed with the vivacious, impudent attitude of Henriette. In another respect Lessing has outgrown to some extent the conventions and customs accepted and upheld by his predecessors and contemporaries. Lisidor, concerned for the happiness of his daughters, disregards wealth as a factor and seizes upon the love and good character of their suitors as the most commendable and desirable elements. Lessing gives weight to this point of view by allowing his two heroines to marry the men of their choice. T h e next play of this group, Die Juden, has but one feminine figure, 30. 31. 32. 33.

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

II, II, II, I,

122. 58. 95f. 104.

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a young girl. 34 Unconcerned with the depiction of her character, the author gives but a slight sketch of her. Again, the girl is of interest to us only because we can detect in her some traits which later become crystallized and important in Lessing's best feminine characters and because we have through her another glimpse at the life which women led at the time. Despite her youth, her father plans to give her in marriage to the "Stranger" as a token of his gratitude. No question is asked as to whether she likes her father's choice. She obeys—or is ready to do so. There are fleeting glimpses of playfulness in this child which foreshadow some traits in Minna. T h e "Fraulein" would rather walk with the Stranger alone and show him their estate than have her father accompany them. Important is the fact that she frankly says so. This feminine independence points toward that of Minna, who comes uninvited to a party to meet Tellheim. But in Die Juden we hear and see too little of the girl to gain an accurate estimate of her. Der Schatz, based on Plautus, contains no feminine figure at all, but since the plot is closely connected with love and marriage we can glean here much about the position of women. 35 What we learn is not new, to be sure. Once again we can merely point out that Lessing accepted the conventions of his time and followed them in this play. Leander requests Staleno, his guardian, for permission to wed Camilla, daughter of the missing Anselmo, a prosperous and well known merchant. Staleno has only one interest, the amount of the dowry. Leander enumerates all the virtues Camilla possesses, but in vain; she must bring money into the marriage. T h e general belief that a girl's chances of marriage were virtually nil if she had no dowry is exemplified when we witness the remorse and consternation of her brother Lelio. He is a spendthrift who has wasted all the money their father had left them before he went away. His own poverty does not arouse so much terror as the reproach that through his wastefulness he is denying his beloved sister the secure future which she so richly deserves. In this extremity Lelio offers to give her the small estate left him by his godmother, the very last of his possessions. Though it is heavily burdened with debt, it could be saved if Leander were in a position to spend some money on it. Staleno agrees to accept this as a dowry. In the end, however, Anselmo returns and gives his daughter the necessary dowry. It is significant that though the money was left 34. ibid., I, 373ft.

35. Ibid., II, 1258.

GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM

LESSING

by Anselmo for both children, the daughter has no right to her share and cannot prevent her brother from squandering the whole without accounting to her in any way. T h e satire in the first scene, in which Leander tells of Camilla's virtues and Staleno counters with "how much will she get?" is entirely in keeping with the times. Lessing and his contemporaries have come to see the folly of such a view as Staleno's even though they offer no very active resistance to the conventions. Another evidence of the trend of the time is the sentimental motif in Lelio's remorse.36 His concern about his sister is an unprecedented instance of consideration for women. Among the many plans and fragments left by Lessing we find several which deserve attention at this point in our study. 87 They date from various periods: Weiber sind Weiber, 1749; Die aufgebrachte Tugend, 1753-4, and Die Grossmütigen about the same time. Muncker deduces these dates from the fact that the fragments show traces of the sentimental comedy with which Lessing busied himself at that time. 38 From the period of his second sojourn in Leipzig in 1756-7 dates Die glückliche Erbin, based on Goldoni. 39 A little later he translated Vor diesen from his own French comedy Palaion, written in Berlin. Muncker places Die Witzlinge in 1759 because of the reference to persons in Tristram Shandy.*0 From the period after Minna we have Der Schlaftrunk and the remnants of Die Matrone auf Ephesus; both fall therefore in the year 1766-7.41 None of these fragments was worked out by Lessing in sufficient detail to justify conclusive inferences about the women characters in them. They do, however, bring evidence that he was intent on presenting the behavior of woman in a time of conflicting ideologies as well as in its relation to inner problems of the sex. Of interest are Laura and Hilaria in Weiber sind Weiber, modeled on the Stichus of Plautus. Both women have been deserted by their worthless husbands. Lessing makes a special point of telling us how worthless these men are; nevertheless, neither woman wishes to have her marriage dissolved, though for different reasons. Their father 36. Hans Rempel, Tragödie und Komödie im dramatischen Schaffen Lessings, "Neue Forschung," Nr. s6; hrsg. v. Hans Hecht, Friedrich Neumann, Rudolf Unger (Berlin, 1935), p. 31. 37. All in Lessing—LM, III. 38. Ibid., III, Vorrede, ix. 39. Lessing mentions this project to Moses Mendelssohn in a letter of December 8, 1755. Cf. Lessing-LM, XVII, 46. 40. Ibid., III, Vorrede, xii. 41. Ibid., p. xiii.

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wishes them to remarry. He has selected new husbands for them, who, however, do not seem to be any improvement on the first. Laura objects because she desires to be considered a faithful wife by the world. " A virtue which is only one on the basis of what the people will say is no virtue at all," the maid Lisette tells her mistress. 42 She admonishes her to be happy because she has been freed of a husband she herself never could censure enough while he was with her. Hilaria, on the other hand, is not in the least downcast over her predicament. But she amuses herself well enough without her husband who, she admits, was kind and gave her a free hand in spending money. She objects to marrying again not because she wishes to appear a virtuous, faithful wife in the eyes of the world but rather because her pleasures might be curtailed. For the same reason she is disturbed because her father has sent all her suitors away, leaving only an old retired sea-captain. One more scene bears directly on the concept of woman's position. T h e father tells Lisette he will rebuke his daughters gently, but actually he is most uncouth and coarse in what he says to them. He reproaches them for their lack of propriety in not wishing to marry, yet he himself makes most improper proposals to his daughters' maid. 43 Of the next three, Der gute Mann, Die aufgebrachte Tugend, and Die Grossmütigen, we have only scenarios from which we can hardly deduce the characters of the women. In the first two it can be seen that Lessing intended to have two virtuous women and another who, like Hilaria of IVeiber sind Weiber, seeks only pleasure and money. Of Die Grossmütigen too little is left for us to consider it. In Die glückliche Erbin, only the maid Lisette appears. Of the other two women mentioned we only learn that one is frivolous and the other a fortunate heiress. In Vor diesen there seems to be the usual tyrannical father who has picked a husband for his daughter, Charitas, w h o loves another. He decries the lack of morals and virtue in youth and his daughter's ready acceptance of new ideas. She makes light of his censures, reminding him that what he calls evils are merely the follies of the time, and assures him that one must be part of one's age and not live according to the mores of yesteryear, a thought we have seen demonstrated more clearly by Geliert in Die Betschwester. Charitas then extols the virtues of her beloved, admitting that he is not very rich but insisting that he has many qualities which make up for his lack of money. Her father 42. Ibid., i l l , 282. 43. Ibid., III, 287fr.

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disagrees on this point and proposes another man, whom Charitas dislikes very much. One of the two other scenes which Lessing worked out reveals a little more of the character of the girl. Her father admonishes the lawyer not to tell his daughter about the lawsuit in which he is engaged; the lawyer, incensed by this lack of confidence, wants to reveal the "secret" and Charitas is determined to learn it. She tells the audience in an aside that all she has to do is to pretend that she is completely indifferent to this bit of news and she will discover all. Unfortunately, the scene breaks off at a moment of great suspense. Charitas gives some prophecy both of Franziska and Minna. She has some of Franziska's merriness, good humor, and common sense, as well as Minna's independence and courage. When she comes to tell her father about the man she wants to marry, he chides her for such brazenness, because in his opinion a girl's confession of love is a greater crime than murder. But she is not in the least perturbed and calmly contradicts him. 44 From the satirical tone of this scene as well as from other plays of this period it becomes clear that this type of parent was becoming an anachronism, no longer to be taken seriously. Die Witzlinge and Der Schlaf trunk are too sketchy to have any value for this work. Die Matrone von Ephesus is more important. T h i s story, widespread since antiquity, deals with the theme of a woman apparently bereaved to the point of death but restored by a new love. T h e widow Antiphila considers her life ended with that of her husband and refuses to leave his tomb after his burial. She believes that sorrow and starvation will result in her death. Her devoted servant, Mysis, joins her out of love and pity. Since Mysis lacks the strong motive impelling Antiphila to seek death, she soon begins to feel the pangs of hunger and loneliness. She adds her laments to those of Antiphila, though each cries for very different reasons. Their wailing attracts the attention of Dromo, one of a group of soldiers guarding the bodies of their executed enemies. He traces the mournful sounds and learns their story from Mysis. He reports his experience to his captain, Philocrates, who investigates the truth of the story and finds Antiphila asleep near her husband's coffin. Attracted by her beauty and youth, he succeeds with the help of Mysis in persuading the widow to allow him to stay in the tomb with her during the stormy night. A t this point Lessing's fragment breaks off. In the traditional ending of the story Antiphila, reluctant to lose her newly won lover, volunteers to substitute her husband's body for that of one of the ex44. Ibid., Ill, 351.

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ecuted men when it is learned the next morning that friends have stolen this corpse for burial. T h i s caustic satire on women was left unfinished by Lessing. H o w was he, who had by this time created w o m e n like Sara, Minna, and Franziska, to reproduce the Antiphila of the ancient tale without destroying all faith in virtue and decency? Referring to this theme in the Hamburgische Dramaturgic, Lessing writes: " T o be successful on the stage this story [of Petronius] must keep the same ending and not keep it; she [Antiphila] has to go that far and not go that far." 4 * Lessing's clear logic could not accept a woman character w h o thinks that she must die of sorrow for one man and w h o then walks away with the first suitor for her love. His problem, therefore, was to bring her back to life and love without making her superficial or stupid. T h a t he did not revise and complete the play is evidence that he found the problem defied solution. As we see Antiphila in Lessing's last version she is genuinely convinced of her power to die because she wills it. T h e discord between her intentions and her proposal of the substitution, almost blasphemous in nature, was completely offensive to Lessing because it contrasted so sharply with the precepts he had absorbed at home and in school. In addition, his finer artistic instincts prevented him from portraying a situation which, though acceptable in reality on the basis of youth and the strong impulses of the will to live, becomes, as we can see from Weisse's play on the same subject, banal and trivial when portrayed on the stage. T h e fragments Lessing left do not show to any extent a radically new concept of women and their position in society. U p to this point, both in theme and characterization, Lessing has followed his predecessors and contemporaries. His early plays and most of the fragments are not much superior to the other literary output of his day. One may believe that the young poet was experimenting, was trying out his strength. He accepted the conventions and mores of his time and reflected them in his plays no differently from his contemporaries in theirs. 46 Using the critical essays written by Lessing between 1754 and 1755 as a guide, Erich Schmidt ingeniously traces the transformation observable in the development of his conception of the purpose and scope of 45. Ibid., IX. 334. 46. Wilhelm Dilthey, Das Erlebnis und die Dichtung, Teubner, 1913), p. 68.

4th ed. (Leipzig: B. G.

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LESSING

the drama. 47 T h e insufficiency of dramatic theory in his day was becoming increasingly obvious to him and led him to a study of the drama from antiquity onwards, especially to intensive preoccupation with the modern drama of other countries. England's literary achievements, particularly Lillo's bourgeois tragedy and Richardson's sentimental novels, and the trend of the French drama toward a serious bourgeois play, pointed the way for Lessing. Sensitive to the change taking place in the concepts of middle-class life, he discarded traditional ideas on tragic heroes and themes and concentrated on all those developments which finally opened the way to the creation of the first German bourgeois tragedy, his Miss Sara Sampson. How correctly he grasped the changed mood of the time can best be judged by the enthusiasm which his tragedy aroused. T h e audience came to see a spectacle and experienced a profound convulsion of the emotions. 48 Streams of tears flowed at each performance and sober men burst into hysterical fits of laughter to break the tension.48 T h e play was a singular phenomenon in 1755 because Lessing gave the German stage for the first time a bourgeois tragedy that could compare favorably with those of other countries. With Miss Sara Sampson Lessing becomes the exponent of bourgeois ideology freed from tfie feudalistic conventions of an aristocratic society as it still existed in Germany at the time. It was one of Lessing's great achievements that he created a tragedy in which the characters did not belong to the high nobility, that he took the problems and difficulties of life that any average citizen might experience and raised them to the level of high tragedy. Such plays as Frau Gottsched's Die ungleiche Heirat, Schlegel's fragment Die Pracht zu Landheim, or Krüger's Die Kandidaten show that Lessing was neither the first nor the only one in his period to treat the struggles of the rising middle class in drama, but his play was the last link in the chain of developments that led to the establishment of middle-class ideals as the guiding principle in the intellectual life of eighteenth-century Germany. Great as the success of the play was, the sentimentality and general tone of the tragedy soon became obsolete. By 1775 Miss Sara had become a "mediocre and boring play," tedious and meaningless even to Lessing, who ran out of the theatre at a performance of the once so popular tragedy.50 It matters little where Lessing took the sources for his play. Lessing 47. 48. 49. 50.

Schmidt, op. cit., I, 281ft. Arthur Eloesser, Das bürgerliche Drama (Berlin, 1898), p. 25. Benno v. Wiese, Lessing (Leipzig, 1931), p. 32. Schmidt, op. cit., I, 280.

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—in fact the whole period—never placed any emphasis on originality of theme or character. " T h e literature of the world became a fertile field in which he planted modern characters and questions." 5 1 He used whatever he thought was of value to him in a variety of ways, often word for word; and he himself leads us to his sources by simply referring in his manuscript to the scene of the play which was his model. 5 2 Despite all his borrowing, Lessing remains for us the first modern playwright in German literature whose work can still be enjoyed and who is still alive for us as a creative personality. W h i l e Lillo's The London Merchant stresses the middle-class origin of his tragic characters, Lessing's bourgeois tragedy lacks this strong class feeling. 53 He emphasizes the tragic events which befall a family and disrupt their lives, bringing them to a grievous end. Only in this sense is Lessing's Miss Sara Sampson a bourgeois tragedy. T h e characters are not of the middle class, strictly speaking; they belong to the lower nobility, but, as in the case of Krüger's Karoline, they have absorbed bourgeois ideals and have identified themselves with them. 54 Sara is the first living and altogether human character in the German drama of the eighteenth century. Her strong love for Mellefont raises her from a stereotype to an individual. In this dramatic character much is fused which had been struggling to come to the foreground in less gifted predecessors and contemporaries. T h e heroine is no longer motivated in her actions by a clearsighted rationalism such as we found in Frau Gottsched's or Schlegel's heroines. These paragons never did any wrong because they were sensible and followed the dictates of reason. It must be repeated that reason and virtue were synonymous in the first half of the century. 5 5 Krüger's heroines recognize to a limited degree what their hearts tell them; Gellert's listen to their hearts; but Sara follows her heart. For this reason we hear nothing of her good common-sense, her upbringing, her education. It must be pointed out that since Lessing's feminine characters belonged to the lower nobility it was therefore implied that their education was 51. Oehlke, op. cit., I, 254. 52. Curtis C. D. Vail, Lessing's Relation to the English Language and Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), pp. 129-138. 53. Fritz Brüggemann, "Lessings Bürgerdramen," Jahrbuch des Freien Deutschen Hochstifts (Frankfurt, 1926), 69. 54. Fritz Brüggemann. " D i e Entwicklung der Psychologie im bürgerlichen Drama Lessings und seiner Zeit," Euphorion, X X V I (Leipzig 8c Wien, 1925), p. 378. 55. Friedrich Joseph Schmitz, "Lessings Stellung in der Entfaltung des Individualismus," University of California Publications in Modern Philology, XXIII (Berkeley, 1941), 79.

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adequate according to the standards of their group. But it was no longer necessary to stress that point. By the time Lessing wrote his plays women's gain in the broadening of their intellectual horizon had been well established. Lessing's plays clearly showed the great improvement in the social status of women, but he carried on the fight for woman's right to self-guidance begun by the moral weeklies in another direction. When his heroine no longer acts in strict accordance with reason but follows the dictates of her heart, she must establish her right to do so. Sara is a gentle, loving girl, sensitive and noble of heart. Mellefont calls her once "his sensible Sara," but never again is she described in these terms. 56 Her father and Waitwell, their servant, who knew her best, refer to her as their "dear Sara, the innocent and loving Sara" 5 7 who has neither conceit nor guile and who can never detect such qualities in others. Always considerate, even in her dying moments she remembers to admonish those whom she leaves behind not to blame her maid Betty, who unwittingly had become the instrument of her death. She tears up Marwood's letter of confession because she knows no revenge and wishes that neither her father nor Mellefont carry out any vengeance. These acts are completely in line with the ethics of the time: the noble and innocent protagonist dies, forgiving those who were the immediate cause of her death. 58 While all our heroines before Sara talk of their virtue, Sara's virtue is manifested in her actions. In Sara, Lessing created a heroine who had committed an immoral act but nevertheless remained the incarnation of the highest feminine virtue of her time. 59 Like Richardson's novel Clarissa Harlow the story centers around the seduction of a young and innocent girl. Clarissa is abducted against her will by deceit and treachery and is the innocent victim of licentious passion. Sara follows Mellefont because she loves him; he persuades her merely by the power of his words and charm. She flees with him without coercion. In spite of this, Sara has always been considered an innocent victim and Mellefont never the complete scoundrel that Lovelace is.60 Sara herself distinguishes sharply between her "mistake" ("Why must I call it a vice?" she queries) and the guilt of Marwood. She pleads that she was young and innocent, ignorant of the ways of the world: 56. Lessing—LM, 57. Ibid., II, 267, 58. Bruggemann, 59. Bruggemann, op. cit., p. 32. 60. Bruggemann,

II, 274. 302ff. Euphorion, X X V I (1925), 381. Jahrbuch des Freien Deutschen Hochstifts Jahrbuch

des Freien Deutschen Hochstifts

(1926), p. 71. Wiese, (1926), p. 75.

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If I had had Marwood's experience, I should certainly not have committed the error which places me on such a humiliating level with her. But if I had committed it, I should certainly not have continued in it for years. It is one thing to fall into vice from ignorance and another to grow intimate with it when you know it.6,1 M e l l e f o n t too assures her again and again of his a d m i r a t i o n for her virtue a n d chastises himself for the crime he committed in persuading her to love h i m and to flee from her father's sheltered home. A l l his past sins are as n o t h i n g compared w i t h this crime of leading the inn o c e n t into such an abysmal misfortune; 6 2 and she still is, he assures her, the virtuous Sara that she was before her u n f o r t u n a t e acquaintance w i t h him. T o her father she remains the daughter w h o m he c a n n o t d o w i t h o u t any longer and w h o m he wants to forgive. H e r crime was the result of h e r tender love, he tells W a i t w e l l , and her flight the result of her remorse. 6 3 Sir W i l l i a m even takes the largest share of b l a m e u p o n himself, for he allowed M e l l e f o n t freer access to his house than he w o u l d h a v e d o n e had he not been obligated to h i m ; likewise he h a d inquired too late into his past. A n d w h e n the tragedy occurred, he refused to forgive them. B u t now he w o u l d rather be loved by a daughter witho u t v i r t u e than by no daughter at all. 64 T h e question arises: how could this gentle, considerate girl, f u l l of such trusting love for her father, leave him and live so shamefully? W a s Lessing u n a b l e to solve the problems w h i c h the creation of such a character entailed? O r can we find another reason? Sara spent her life in surroundings of u n b e n d i n g morality. H e r p r o f o u n d abhorrence for any d e v i a t i o n from the path of virtue is expressed in the scene w i t h M a r w o o d posing as L a d y Solmes. Her strict code dictates her contempt for M a r w o o d and provokes the sole outburst of cruelty we have from her. She sees in M a r w o o d a representative of the licentiousness and i m m o r a l i t y which she had learned to loathe. Yet she herself has comm i t t e d an immoral act. She admits to M e l l e f o n t that she n o longer can lay any claim to virtue; to " L a d y Solmes," o n the other hand, she represents that her actions are a mistake and not a sin. Such a "mistake" is in her o p i n i o n no bar to a happy marriage w i t h M e l l e f o n t . If we w o n d e r — a n d we do—how the virtuous Sara can rationalize in this fashion, we can find the answer in the eighteenth-century bourgeois 6>. Lessing—LM, II, 335. 62. Ibid., II, 271. 63. Ibid., II, 268. 64. Idem.

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attitude. In Sara's insistence that she, unlike Marwood, would not perpetuate her mistake into a sin, Lessing stresses the contrast between aristocratic looseness and bourgeois virtue. We have two very different aspects of middle-class morality in the character of Sara: the one neither accepts nor understands immoral acts on the part of a woman; the other advocates an increasing recognition of the psychological factors involved in such an act. A sheltered youth, ignorance of the ways of the world, complete absence of deceit and treachery, a loving, ardent nature,—these could produce great conflicts in the soul of a virtuous girl if her first love for a man met with obstacles and objections from her parents. For the experienced charmer, and Mellefont is one, is is easy to find a way to her heart; after that she becomes his victim. Following the dictates of the heart and remaining faithful to one's love were important tenets of the moral code of the rising middle class in the period of sentimentality. 65 When loyalty to one's love takes one beyond conventional channels, however, tragedy is inevitable. T h e audience shared Lessing's humane attitude and felt an understanding for the erring girl which distinguished this decade from the previous one, 86 in which the heroines had prided themselves on their virtue. Since only reasonable actions were virtuous, there was no danger of the rationalistic heroine falling. How strongly this attitude influenced the period can be deduced from Lessing's inability to resolve the dualism in the character of his heroine. Sara's envisioned happiness ends abruptly in tragedy. Aesthetically Sara's death is inescapable in as much as so great suffering demands a tragic end—death, according to Lessing. However, bourgeois morality was necessarily outraged by Sara's actions despite the many mitigating circumstances Lessing presented. T h e times had learned to understand how Sara, the epitome of virtue, could become involved in an act which was judged as immoral by the standards of her social group, but that by no means assured her forgiveness after her fall. She cannot take her place with her fellow sisters and become a respectable married woman. She must come to a tragic end; there can be no other. T h e conclusion is both rational and sentimental. Sara dies nobly, realizing that "God must leave tested virtue in this world as an example for a long time; only weak virtue, which might succumb to too many trials, He suddenly lifts from danger." 67 Lessing is aware of the incongruity of the middle-class code which 65. Schmitz, op. cit., p. 80. Wiese, op. cit., p. 34. 66. Wiese, op. cit., p. 35. 67. Lessing—LM, II, 350.

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condemned girls like Sara to ostracism, if not death.98 Impatiently Mellefont bursts forth when Sara will not allow him to apply the term "virtuous" to her: How is that? Must the virtuous never commit a fault? Has one such [sin] sucli deleterious effects that a whole series of blameless years can be annihilated: then man is never virtuous; then virtue is a ghost that vanishes into thin air just as one believes one has grasped it; then no wise Being has designed our duties according to our strength. 69

Sir William voices the same sentiment when he exclaims to Waitwell: "Such sins [as Sara's] are preferable to forced virtues." 70 In these two utterances Lessing anticipates a view which finds strong champions in the Storm and Stress and in the nineteenth century. 71 Feminine virtue had always consisted in chastity above all, and a woman who had lost this, if only because of an impetuous, youthful action, could never again be considered virtuous. We see this bourgeois moral code take shape in the early Aufklärung in the plays of Frau Gottsched, Krüger, Schlegel, and Geliert in direct contrast to aristocratic licentiousness. Lessing throws these conventions of the middle class into sharp focus though, like his predecessors, he cannot resolve the contradictions, as indeed succeeding periods were equally unable to do. The writers of Storm and Stress took up this plea, as did the Realists a hundred years later. Thus the Secretary says to Meister Anton in Hebbel's Maria Magdalene: You thought only of the tongues that would hiss at you, but not of the worthlessness of the snakes to which they belonged . . . and you too, who stand there so stolidly, you too will say one day: Daughter, I would to God, you had not spared me the head-shaking and shoulder-shrugging of the Pharisees about me! It crushes me more deeply that you cannot sit by my death bed and wipe the sweat of anguish from my brow."

There was still no place in society for the erring heroine. Artistically, Marwood is the superior of the two women characters in this play. She becomes a forerunner of a long line of women whose actions are dictated by their violent passions and their strong ego. They are more or less a modern version of classical figures like Medea 68. Hans M. Wolf, "Mellefont—unsittlich oder unbürgerlich," Modern Language Notes, L X I , No. 6 (June, 1946), 375. 69. Lessing—LM, II, 276. 70. Ibid., II, 268. 71. Dilthey, op. cit., p. 6gff. 72. Friedrich Hebbel, Maria Magdalene, The German Classics (Patson ed. 20 vols. [New York, n.d.]), IX, 80.

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and Electra. But these characters do not form a new element in the social attitude towards women in the eighteenth century. 73 They have a definite, well-circumscribed place in society as temptresses and deceivers who bring havoc into the lives of the men they love. Lillo's play and those of his German imitators exhibit such characters. These women have no moral code, and they freely admit it. 74 They have chosen a life of pleasure, passion, and wealth and have great contempt for straying innocents like Sara. They are ruthless and do not shrink from murder, blackmail, or any other crime. Thus Marwood uses her own child as a means of obtaining her ends, and playing upon Mellefont's love for his child, threatens even to kill her little daughter by torture. 75 Marwood is the most effective figure in the play simply because she corresponds to what was generally known and to ideas well established in the minds of Lessing's contemporaries. Marwood wants to marry Mellefont because she is becoming too old to attract new men and is used to a life of flattery and ease. "Now she is merely a crushed worm who still wriggles and wants to wound the heel of him who crushed her." 76 Her outraged pride as an abandoned mistress, her natural ruthlessness, her powerful egotism lead her to the last step, that of poisoning Sara. Her attempts to sow doubt and uncertainty in Sara's mind fail because of Sara's unequivocal trust in Mellefont, the fullness of her love and her lack of deceit. All Marwood can tell her of Mellefont's past is lost as in a void because of the strength Sara derives from her faith in him. Once Marwood realizes this, her next step is the logical sequence in her life of vice. Yet she does not pay for her crime, but is allowed to escape because in that day society had no means of dealing with such types. Lessing allows evil to exist without punishment because his passive age accepted it as a part of life. On the other hand, the creation of a character like Sara is an intimation of the coming rejection of the existing moral code. That Sara becomes the symbol of virtue in spite of her guilt is the result of social changes, including the change in attitude toward women.77 Lessing, whose first feminine characters are hardly distinguishable from the many created by his less illustrious contemporaries, shows a steady development in his concept of female virtue. In his early plays 73. 74. 75. 76. 77.

Bruggemann, Euphorion, X X V I , 379. Schmitz, op. cit., p. 84. Lessing—LM, II, 295!. Lessing—LM, II, 325. Bruggemann, Jahrbuch des Freien Deutschen

Hochstifts

(1926), p. 77.

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he wavers between the two types of women found so frequently in the works of the period: the woman of vice, always an object of derision and ridicule, as in Die alte Jungfer, and the woman of virtue, who may come close to the heroines found in Schlegel, like Hilaria in the Misogyne, or closer to Gellert's heroines, as Juliane in Der junge Gelehrte, or combine both of these types, as the sisters Juliane and Henriette in Der Freigeist do. In all of them one can find only traces of a new conception of the attributes characterizing an ideal heroine. Only in Sara does Lessing break with the traditional view held of women until his time. Inherent in the characteristics he assigns to Sara and in the fate he metes out to her are the changing standards of a changing society. The virtuous Sara commits a very human sin in allowing love to overcome her stern moral ideals. She loses her virtue, but unlike Marwood, retains her high regard for it, and by genuine repentance and a willingness to atone is able to retain our sympathy. There is much in Sara that is purely characteristic of the sentimentality of the period, and not of Lessing. The heroines of his subsequent plays, especially Minna and Emilia, are girls who though endowed with strong sentiment and feeling never allow these to conquer their rational natures as Sara does.

IX C H R I S T I A N FELIX WEISSE (1726-1804) COMEDIES

I

is D I F F I C U L T for us today to accept Christian Felix Weisse as a dramatist who enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime. Even for his generation his plays are lifeless, devoid of interest, suspense, or poetic beauty and with little to relieve their dullness and shallow ideals. T h e aesthetic value of his comedies is negligible, but their social value considerable. Of interest in this connection is the opinion of his son-in-law as to the reason for the rapidity with which Weisse's plays lost their appeal. T

W h i l e many of Weisse's comedies may now really be o u t m o d e d and can n o longer be played in their present form, this is not so because of the poorly conceived fable, or the faulty character delineation, or the clumsy dialogue, or because of the lack of action, but because the foibles represented disappeared and were exchanged for others, because o u r customs, o u r social conditions, o u r manner of joking, o u r mutual relationships, etc., have almost completely changed. 1

T h e apologist for Weisse's genius, without intending to do so, thus underscores Weisse's contribution to his time. He forgets one important factor, however, that, in the words of Minor, "Weisse was not without talent but no great personality is reflected in his works." 2 Because he lacked vision he was exact in reproducing his time, its conventions and moral ideals. A close friend of Lessing during the short time the latter spent at the University of Leipzig, Weisse soon became estranged from him by a gulf which nothing could bridge. Lessing outgrew his early beginnings and went on to new fields, new ideas, never giving up, at whatever expense of comfort and personal happiness, the struggle for tolerance and truth against mediocrity, dullness, and false pretenses. Weisse plodded along to achieve position, family, and material com1. Christian Felix Weisse, Selbstbiographie, p. 324. 2. Franz Minor, "Ch. F. Weisse," Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, 588.

Vol. XLI, p.

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fort, writing play after play in the same vein as he had begun d u r i n g the brief period of his intimacy with Lessing. T h e r e is, however, one bright spot in the mediocrity of Weisse: his modesty and lack of pretense. He knew that he was writing popular plays for his own time and never laid claim to greatness, always accepting the superiority of Lessing and others without the least envy. In 1778 he printed a preface to the Trauerspiele, actually a fourth edition of his plays, wherein he justifies himself as a playwright. In it he explains that when he published the first few plays in the Beitrag zum deutschen Theater eighteen years before, he could venture to do so with a good deal less trepidation than now because of the pitiful state of the German drama. Schlegel and Krüger were dead, Cronegk and Brawe died very young after promising attempts, and his friend Lessing had been silent for many years, so that the stage had very few original plays and depended for the most part on translations, and rather poor ones at that. Therefore, he argues, any attempt to write so-called originals was not amiss. His success, he goes on, encouraged him to continue his work, always a source of great joy to him. 8 Minor, the only one among German men of letters to consider Weisse worthy of a lengthy treatise, calls to our attention that " i n j u d g i n g W e i s s e s comedies it is best to maintain the point of view of Lessing's early dramas. From this point of view Weisse held the traditional motifs of the comedy in vogue at the end of the seventeen-forties, with few variations and innovations, to the very end of his career as a writer of comedies." 4 T h e first play Weisse wrote was Die Matrone von Ephesus, performed in 1751 but not printed by him until 1767. Minor's opinion that Weisse showed greater promise in this, his first dramatic attempt, 5 than in his later works is in opposition to that of Weisse's contemporaries, w h o based their high opinion of him on his later works and not on Die Matrone von Ephesus.6 As we have seen, Weisse here treats the same subject which occupied young Lessing. But though Lessing still followed the manner of the French drama in his early plays, he was unable to finish this play 3. Christian Felix Weisse, [Werke], Trauerspiele 1. T e i l (Karlsruhe: C. G. Schmieder, 1778), Vorbericht, p. if. 4. Franz Minor, Ch. F. Weisse und seine Beziehungen zur deutschen Literatur des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts (Innsbruck: Wagnerische U n i v e r s i t ä r Buchhandlung, 1880), p. 78. 5. Ibid., p. 87. 6. Anon., [Review of] "Sammlung neuer Schauspiele, so wie sie auf dem Sebastianischen Schauplatze aufgeführt worden," cf. Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek, I, 1. Stück (Berlin, 1765), »97; also ibid., X , 1. St., p. 7.

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according to the generally accepted version. T h i s Weisse did: 7 he has A n t i p h i l a abandon her resolution to die, and yield to the persuasion of Carion, the soldier guarding the executed men. In order to save her newly-won lover from death she even suggests that he substitute her dead husband's body in place of the executed criminal w h o was cut d o w n from the gallows by his friends. Weisse apparently found nothing objectionable in this satirical portrayal of a woman's love and devotion. T h a t the public accepted this quick transfer of affection is not surprising. In an age when marriage of convenience was general, when unfaithfulness was not unusual among the upper class and even to some extent among the bourgeoisie, death by sorrow and voluntary starvation because of the untimely loss of a loving husband was certain to arouse derisive and appreciative laughter. T h e tragic implications inherent in such a situation because of the inner conflict caused by the will to live and the diametrically-opposed desire to die of love and devotion were barely sensed by Lessing and not at all by Weisse or his public. T h e homespun philosophy of Dorias, maid and companion of the widow Antiphila, prevails: " W h o has ever lived long enough? O n e eats, one drinks, one loves, but one never has one's fill."8 A n t i p h i l a is so completely won to this point of view that at the end of the play she advises that Carion h a n g her dead husband's body on the gallows to prevent detection of his negligence and thereby save his life, saying: " T o lose two husbands in one day—one can't think of it." 9 Dorias seconds her unfeeling suggestion with the words: " A live man is worth more than a dead one." 1 0 T h i s simple, rational conclusion appealed to the average bourgeois of the time. His moral ideals of loyalty and faithfulness were well balanced by a strong sense of the practical which had been developed in the struggle to overcome the impoverishment brought on by the T h i r t y Years' War. T h i s tended to set u p an ideal of moderation as a desirable mode of behavior. A t the material level which the bourgeoisie had attained by the middle of the century a life without difficulties and problems had a strong appeal for its members. Weisse, gentle and kind in his personal relationships, is quite cynical in his portrayal of women. T h e reason may be that his mediocre talents let him accept the conventions of the day without reservations. 7. Cf., p. 158, supra. 8. Chr. F. Weisse, op. cit., Lustspiele, 1. T e i l , VIII, p. 223. 9. Ibid., VIII, 260. 10. Idem.

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Whereas Lessing's women characters point towards the future as much as they bear the imprint of eighteenth-century morality and custom, Weisse's correspond neatly to the ideology of the great mass of people of his day. T h e composition of Die Poeten nach der Mode (1756), 11 Weisse's first comedy published with his consent, falls in the year 1751, according to his own dating. 12 This comedy satirizes the struggle between the two trends in contemporary literature as represented by Gottsched and the Swiss respectively. T h e plot centers about the usual marriage intrigue. Henriette becomes the pawn in the struggle of Herr and Frau Geronte, her parents, who wish to reward a favorite poet with the hand and fortune of their daughter. Since each favors a different poet, the fight is stubbornly pursued without consideration for Henriette's happiness. Her heart belongs to Valer, who returns her love and has obtained her parents' consent before the two poets appear on the horizon. Frau Geronte favors Dunkel, the imitator of Klopstock's seraphic poetry, while Reimreich, the follower of the Gottsched school, is Herr Geronte's choice. All the pleadings of Valer and Henriette are in vain until the former succeeds in disillusioning the parents about their poets. Frau Geronte is another representative of a type often ridiculed in the earlier plays. She is silly, both in her devotion to the seraphic poet and in her perverse opposition to her husband's will. Typical also is her control over her daughter's fate, and her inconsiderate use of it. Henriette, the opposite of her foolish parents, is intelligent and sees through the bombastic pedantry of the two pseudo-poets, mocking them for their pretensions. She laughs at them but is helpless in the conflict with the wishes of her parents. She must do what they bid her, no matter how unhappy she may become as a result. Her parents agree on one point only, that she is not to marry Valer. When Henriette reminds them that they ought to keep the promise they made Valer and that her hand and heart belong to him, Frau Geronte is horrified at this confession. "Heavens, what impudence!" she cries. "When my mother asked me—then I bowed deeply, very deeply, and said: 'Your wish has always been mine'." 13 These words are almost identical with those of the father in Lessing's fragment Vor diesen. If Minor's contention is correct, that for twenty years Weisse commanded the German stage with themes and motifs learned from Lessing, this is 11. Ibid., VIII, iff. 12. Minor, op. cit., p. gi. 13. Weisse, op. cit., VIII, agf.

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merely another example. 1 4 In this comedy the position of women is in no way different from that found in the early Aufklärung. Henriette, the unmarried girl, has no rights against her parents. She has to cure them of their foolish adoration of her unworthy suitors, as Amalia had to do with her mother, Frau Birkenhayn, in a similar situation. 1 5 B u t Henriette is a more resolute character than Amalia; she actively intervenes to bring about what she desires. She even promises Valer that if all else fails she w i l l elope with him to his uncle, "immoral as such a step is for a young girl"; but, she adds, "the world could only side with us once they knew our story." 1 9 Staying with his resourceful uncle, they might receive the consent of the parents with ease. T h e use of the rod for disobedient daughters is past, she tells the poet Reimreich, who relies on her father's authority to force her to accept him. 1 7 Weisse resolves the issue in favor neither of daughter nor parents: Valer routs both suitors and thus removes the cause of dissension. Die Haushälterin again makes use of stock figures and situations. According to his autobiography Weisse finished this play in 1760 after his return from Paris. 18 It was well liked on the stage and in 1771 was still part of the repertoire of the Koch troupe, e.g., in Berlin. In the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek's review of Weisse's collection of plays published as Der Beitrag zum deutschen Theater, Die Haushälterin is highly praised. " I n this comedy the author has chastised the foibles of our rich middle class, who, as stingy as they usually are, have surrendered themselves and their fortunes to an immoral woman." 1 9 T h e reviewer praises the "Bürgerton" maintained throughout. Cleonte, the housekeeper, has succeeded in bringing her master, Geronte, completely under her rule. He is willing to abandon all— his son Leander, his brother, his ward—in order to satisfy the slightest whim of his servant. Ordinarily quite parsimonious, he spends large sums on gifts for her and even presents her with a mortgage of 20,000 T h a l e r on his estate after she threatens him with the loss of her favor. A t her bidding he has cut off his son's allowance thus forcing him to give u p his travels and come home. Leander arrives in the guise of a stranger, Valer. H e can do this because Geronte has not seen him since he was twelve years old. Valer sees through Cleonte's schemes 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

Minor, op. cit., p. 84. Krüger, Die Geistlichen auf dem Lande. Weisse, op. cit., VIII, p. 74. Ibid., VIII, 67. Weisse, Selbstbiographie, p. 85. Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek (1769), X, 1. Stück, p. &

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immediately, as all the other members of the household have done. Clarissa, Geronte's ward, his brother, and Valer engage the help of Christiane, Frau Cleonte's maid, to unmask the scheming servant. T h e i r plan is helped along by Cleonte's becoming enamored of Valer and proposing to flee with him after she has succeeded in making Geronte sign the document assigning her the right to collect the 20,000 Thaler. Before the supposed flight she gives this paper and other valuables to Valer, who then is enabled to convince his father of her treachery and deceit. Minor points out in some detail the relationship between the motifs and character types of this play with those which developed out of the Italian commedia dell' arte of the seventeenth century, which became the source of all European comedies of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. 20 " I n this tradition are the comedies of Frau Gottsched and her contemporaries, those of the young Lessing, and finally those of Weisse." 21 Lessing and Weisse also seem to have become acquainted with these types and themes through the "opera bernesca," brought directly from Italy to Germany. Minor maintains that both Cleonte and Lessing's J u n g f e r Ohldin stem from the same character types, namely, that of the oldish woman eager to find a husband or lover. Lessing's old maid is not vicious or unscrupulous, but lies about her age merely to win a husband, which makes her ridiculous, but not immoral. But Cleonte, not so keen on finding a husband as on enriching herself at the expense of foolish men, is completely without decency or honesty. Immoral and uncouth, she is ever ready to cheat those who have become her victims. She never suffers from a bad conscience but on the contrary finds pleasure in deception. She is arrogant to an insufferable degree and reminds one in her pretensions, lies, and stupidity of Frau Ahnenstolz in Frau Gottsched's Ungleiche Heirat. Cleonte slanders others freely and knows not even the meaning of virtue. In fact, when Valer enumerates some feminine virtues she retorts: "Some call this virtue, but to me it is sheer hypocrisy: I know these masquerades; if they are not subtle invitations to young men, they are certain proof that another lover is in view." 2 2 Clarissa, the other woman character in Weisse's comedy, is a complete contrast to Frau Cleonte. She is the kind, gentle girl full of understanding and sympathy for others. When she finds one of the letters of Valer to his father explaining his embarrassed plight because 20. Minor, op. cit., p. 8$f.

21. ¡bid., p. 84.

2». Weisse, op. cit., VII, 422.

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his allowance has been cut off, she anonymously sends Valer money and even the diamond necklace left her by her mother. She is well liked by all. Even Christiane, Frau Cleonte's maid, is fond of her, calling her a good child. 2 3 Arist, Geronte's brother, tells us that she managed the whole household in an efficient manner before Cleonte's arrival. He stresses that everyone was satisfied and that everyone loved her. Geronte himself calls her pleasant and sensible. 24 He wishes to marry her off only because Cleonte does not want to have her in the house any longer. His brother, however, insists that they first write the supposed parents of Valer to find out whether they wish their son to marry while he is away. Geronte refuses, fearing a negative answer, though Clarissa is a desirable spouse. Valer himself, half in love with Clarissa before he has even seen her because of her kindness to him, welcomes the idea of marrying her. H e is the typical good hero of the comedy of Rationalism. " M y love, I hope, is founded on reason and virtue." 2 5 Clarissa, however, does not enter too eagerly into Valer's and Geronte's plans. Actually she likes Valer but she feels that she must think of the unfortunate Leander, w h o she believes is living in difficult circumstances far away, because of his father's folly. She insists therefore that Valer must inquire whether his parents would consent to their union before she can tell him whether "her feelings and decisions coincide with his." 2 6 In telling him this, she also wishes to gain time because she considers it her duty to care for Leander in return for her debt to Geronte and Arist. 2 7 Arist, w h o has insisted until now that Valer and Clarissa must wait until Valer's parents have given their consent, withdraws his objections when he discovers Valer's identity and urges Clarissa, of w h o m he is very fond, not to oppose her guardian any longer. He puts only one question to her: whether she really loves Valer. She admits that she does. She cannot understand his cryptic remark that she need wait no longer, that as soon as Herr Geronte again asks her to marry Valer she will have his father's consent; she is quite perplexed. She believes Arist has received letters from his father and rather impetuously demands to see them. Since he cannot tell her the truth, he avoids a direct answer. O f course w h e n she also learns the truth (because of the necklace) she is more than willing to comply. 2 8 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28.

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

VII, VII, VII, VII, VII, VII,

362. 332. 340. 367. 494. 41 i f .

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By indicating that Clarissa likes Valer, Weisse was trying to show, without too much success, some sort of affiinity of souls. Like Valer's, Clarissa's love is really based on reason and virtue; personal attraction is subordinated. In the plays before Storm and Stress one fell in love not with a person but with a virtue. Though the times were beginning to change, Weisse still held to the accepted formula, but really dodged the question by having Valer and Leander be one and the same person. T h u s Clarissa's heart and reason are in agreement. Perhaps Christiane, the maid of the chief evil-doer in the play, deserves a word. She is the typical maid, though her role in the play is definitely limited. She aligns herself with Arist, Valer, and Clarissa against Frau Cleonte not so much because she loves Clarissa but rather because she hates her mistress. She knows of the immoral life Frau Cleonte has led but she knows also of her humble origin, and she is not so much vexed by Frau Cleonte's immorality as by her presumptuous behavior toward her, a fellow servant.29 As in all the comedies of this period, the servants are emphatically on a much lower social level than the bourgeois heroes and heroines. Weisse seems to indicate that it was considered an honor to serve a mistress belonging to a higher social stratum, but a definite loss of "face" to serve an upstart. Arist says to Christiane when she surprises the three conspirators: "You are not wicked, my good Christiane, you are fighting against wickedness, and self-defense is no crime." 30 She replies that her heart is not so spoiled that she would not prefer to go over to the side of virtue and justice. Her rejoinder when she is told that she will be rewarded implies that she is moved by noble motives: "I am not that selfish," she answers Valer, "otherwise I would be well off with Frau Cleonte." But in the same breath she adds that she would like to try Frau Cleonte's talents on her own husbandl 31 Apparently Christiane is not modelled after one type but is a composite of three kinds of servants: the honest maid who would fight against vice in her mistress; the devoted servant who would oppose any evil threatening her mistress; and the opportunist who would sell her services to the highest bidder. It is partly through the efforts of Christiane that the virtuous Clarissa is made happy while the unscrupulous Cleonte is exposed and runs away. Der Mißtrauische gegen sich selbst (1761) was performed several 29* Ibid., VII, 363L 30. Ibid., VII, 498. 31. Ibid., VII, 499.

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times before it was published, in Here, as with practically all of Weisse's plays, one can hardly speak of aesthetic values. T h e theme was not original with Weisse; it was based on literary tradition to a greater extent than any other of his plays, as Minor points out in some detail. 3 3 T h o u g h the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek refers to the Der Mißtrauische gegen sich selbst as a true "Familiengemälde," 3 4 Minor indicates that this play is a vindication of the kind of pedant Lessing attacked in Der junge Gelehrte. T h e protagonist, Arist, is a scholarly, modest and extremely sensitive young man, who with Kleanth, a young coxcomb in the French tradition, has found a welcome reception in the home of Herr Geronte, a business friend of Arist's uncle. Arist is in love with a young widow, Juliane, Geronte's niece and ward, but his morbid fear of ridicule prevents him from making his love known to her or her guardian. H e hopes that Kleanth's quick and facile tongue may help him overcome his shyness before Juliane. Kleanth, however, develops different plans. Heavily in debt, he wishes to marry a rich woman; and since Juliane is both rich and beautiful, he decides to advance his own cause. Pretending to Juliane that Arist is his intermediary, he betrays his friend and even goes to the length of emphasizing Arist's shortcomings. Juliane is rather taken with Arist and is convinced that he is worthy of her affection. In order to test his views on love and marriage she uses a ruse, and informs Kleanth that Arist must be his intermediary. T h e shy Arist can be quite eloquent when he pleads for another man; but under the tension of having to renounce his love for Juliane the bewildered young man confesses his own love for her. It is no easy matter for a modest woman like Juliane to convince Arist that she is ready to marry him and not his unscrupulous and treacherous friend. In doing so, she is obliged to discard traditional feminine reticence and confess her deep interest in him. 3 5 Weisse portrays Juliane as modest, sensible, and intelligent. She is not easily taken in by flattery and quickly perceives the absence of any moral sense in Kleanth. She knows she can love Arist, but never Kleanth, although she is aware that the latter's personality and manner of living would win her greater honor in the world, "but I despise him and would like to humble him." 3 6 She confesses that she would rather 32. 33. 34. 35. 36.

M i n o r , op. cit., p. 101. Idem. Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek Weisse, op. cit., I X , 121. Ibid., XX, 38.

(1769), X , 1. St., p. 9.

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not marry at all than accept such a man. She is all the more hesitant because her first marriage was not very happy; her husband was of her parents' choosing, not her own. 37 She is not bitter about this when she tells her guardian that her good parents were satisfied with what they considered the requisite for happiness, viz., wealth, but disregarded character. Her experience has taught her that her husband's wealth was no compensation for his mean disposition: "Only the gout prevented him from mistreating me." 38 In this play Weisse shows again a rather cynical attitude towards women, in stressing that Juliane is rather the exception than the rule. Her uncle is a shrewd man with a good deal of experience and common sense; although he indicates that he was at first at a loss to know why the two young men were in his house, he soon diagnoses the situation: that Arist wishes to woo her but is prevented by his shyness from doing so and that Kleanth is trying to usurp the other man's position. He then discusses the two friends with Juliane and inquires whether she is not attracted by Kleanth's gallant behavior and his fashionable dress which is in the latest foppish style in imitation of the French. Her answer is revealing for the time: "Indeed, my dear uncle, I should have thought that you had a higher opinion of me than to believe I could be taken in by the tricks of this young fool." 39 He begs her pardon, and tells her that he thought for a minute of her sex rather than herself and admits an equal contempt for Kleanth, whom he calls a fool and clown. Weisse clearly indicates his belief that women are apt to be captivated by the silly and absurd behavior of men like Kleanth. Evidently there were many who shared this opinion, since this type is frequent in the literature of the period. From contemporary reviews we may also infer that Weisse did not exaggerate the characters in this play. "Such Kleanths and Arists do exist," reads the review in the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek.40 Juliane does not, however, consider Arist a "stupid simpleton," as the reviewer does. "A pleasant man," she calls him. "I am sure he loves mel His fears, his shy silence are a more certain proof than all the noise with which Kleanth said that he loves me. . . ." 41 She considers his distrust of himself "a definite path to virtue, if it is not virtue itself, united with a virtuous heart. . . ." 42 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 4*.

Ibid., I X , 83. Idem. Ibid., p. 36t. Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek Weisse, op. dt., I X , 78. Ibid., I X , 79

(1769), X , 1. St., p. 9.

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Finally, she begs him to abandon this distrust of himself, this belief that everybody is mocking him. He is a man of virtue, his heart and conscience must tell him that, just as Kleanth is a cheat who means to deceive both of them. She would not deserve to be happy had she not preferred modest virtue to flashy wrong-doing. United with Arist, she will know happiness and she will strive to make him as happy as she hopes to be through him. Arist, in true Weisse fashion, is moved to tears by her words and proves her faith in him is not misplaced; overcoming his shyness, he finds words of genuine love and admiration for her. 48 Melusine, the wife of Juliane's Uncle Geronte, is the very opposite of Juliane. She is the type of foolish woman without any moral sense whose stupidity leads her to value superficialities above real worth and to accept all the latest fads without discrimination. Tactless in her self-sufficient conceit, Melusine thinks nothing of hurting others, but is moved to quick anger by the slightest criticism of herself. Her quarrels with her husband are over trivial matters, which she twists to suit her whim of the moment. 4 4 O u r sympathy, like that of the contemporary audience, is with Geronte when he exclaims in utter distress: " W h a t misery it is to be plagued by such a woman." 4 5 He appears as the long-suffering husband, who out of great love gave in to his capricious wife when she was young so that he cannot now maintain his rights. It must be mentioned, however, that in the play Herr Geronte does not treat her with affection or even courtesy. Perhaps it is because she does not expect considerate treatment from her own husband that she is impatient with Juliane's attitude toward Kleanth. She accepts his flatteries as sincere and is completely charmed by his manner. W h e n he implies that he has been the lover even of duchesses, she turns to Juliane in veritable awe: "Just listen, cousin, Duchesses!" A n d w h e n Juliane laughingly interposes: "It may be that I am more disdainful of you than your duchesses," Melusine is horrified: " L e t her be ashamed of such pride!" 4 8 She begs Kleanth to tell her about those duchesses, for she likes to hear such stories. She threatens to disinherit Juliane if she does not accept Kleanth, 4 7 assuring her that such a handsome exterior is proof of inner worth. In spite of her wealth, Melusine does not hesitate to accept gifts 43. 44. 45. 46. 47.

Ibid., IX, 122. Ibid., IX, 838. Ibid., IX, 31. Ibid., IX, 24. Ibid., IX, 32 and 87.

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from admirers, whether she favors them or not. T h u s , when an anonymous gift of some value is brought for Juliane, Melusine bids Juliane's maid accept it, and greets Juliane's displeasure with an exclamation of astonishment: " A r e you foolish? W h o would send such things back?"'* 8 Actually, the gift was sent by Arist for Juliane's birthday, but Kleanth pretends it has come from him, a fraud which Melusine readily accepts. She cannot understand Juliane's lack of interest in the gift; she herself would " r u n out of church" in order to see any present sent to her. It is completely beyond her why Juliane should concern hersell with the identity of the donor. Weisse's condemnation of Melusine is ironically expressed at the end of the play w h e n Kleanth, her favorite, forgetting his flatteries, tells her the brutal truth, that she is "the greatest fool in the world." 4 9 In Juliane and Melusine we have again two sharply-contrasted characters, the former obviously the ideal, the other caricatured as a woman with qualities considered peculiarly objectionable by Weisse and his contemporaries. Juliane bears great resemblance to all the other women set u p as ideals in contemporary plays dealing with domestic life. H e r keen perception enables her to distinguish the tongue-tied and virtuous Arist from the loquacious and deceitful Kleanth. T h u s Weisse indicates that a virtuous woman will always detect dishonesty and immorality. T h e contradictory forces affecting the position of women and their morality are expressed in the opposing views which Kleanth and Arist have of marriage and women. Arist, believing that Juliane has accepted Kleanth, tells him that he is disillusioned by Juliane's sucumbing to superficial glitter. Kleanth laughs at his friend, insisting that women generally have their intelligence in their eyes, but the smartest of them have it in the purse. " A conquering expression, beautiful clothes and a full purse . . . and you can harness the whole feminine world to your triumphal chariot, and take them away wherever you wish." Arist is forced to agree with him, for it seems that not even Juliane is an exception. 5 0 Kleanth's views on marriage are equally shallow; he refuses to concede that it would entail any responsibility on him. He intends to be the kind of husband found in the fashionable world. He boasts that with his wife's money he will keep a carriage and a mistress. Should his wife take exception to his behavior, he will merely take his carriage 48. Ibid., I X , 49. 49. Ibid., I X , 123. 50. Ibid., I X , 6 j f .

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and go to his ladylove. Should she voice reproaches, he will live at a different place and leave her barely enough of her own money for existence. Should Arist wish to comfort her, he would raise no objections, for he can be magnanimous. He will believe that his wife is clever if she allows her lover to come in the back door as he leaves by the front door to go to his mistress. He ends his boasts with an exclamation used by all others of his type portrayed in contemporary plays: " O n e can see that I have been in ParisI" 5 1 Weisse interjects here a patriotic note which, though not often heard as early as this, is the same whenever expressed. H e attributes the simple, homely virtues to the native bourgeois woman in contrast to the artificial manners of the aristocracy as dictated by French custom. Consequently, it is only an unworthy Kleanth w h o can find fault with Juliane's simplicity: " O u r honest Germans are still too much influenced by the stupidity of the country. T h e courts are at best a little fashioned after the French model." 5 2 He would destroy the naturalness of the bourgeois woman. T h u s , he exclaims that Juliane must use rouge the very first day after their marriage, although he had so far never been able to convince a German woman of its value. 5 3 Der Naturaliensammler oder die unerwartete Zusammenkunft, a comedy in one act, was written in 1764 and printed in 1765, but not performed until 1766. 54 T h e Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek calls it a "Nachspiel," a one-act genre very popular and usually played after a tragedy. Henriette, the very sensible daughter of Herr v. Busch, a queer collector of "Naturalien," is in love with a respectable young man she met while living with her aunt. He is Herr von W a h r m u n d , w h o is unable to convince his father of his right to love and marry a girl of his own choice. In the latter's opinion parents must choose husbands and wives for their children. Consequently he remains opposed to his son's fiancée, threatening to disinherit him should he not marry the girl of his father's choice. T h e r e u p o n the son leaves home and takes refuge with his fiancée under an assumed name. Henriette has in the meantime made futile attempts to stave off the ruin brought on by her father's unreasonable passion for collecting queer and expensive objects such as rare birds and trees. In order to make room for his exotic collection he strips his barnyards and orchards of the animals and 51. ibid., I X . 66f. Ibid., IX, 68. 5î. 53. Idem. 54. Minor, op. cit., p. 106.

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trees which have made his farm profitable. His daughter's fiancé wins his good will by bringing him all kinds of unusual bits of wood and stone, which, however, turn out to be frauds. Matters stand thus when Herr v. Busch receives an announcement from old Herr von W a h r m u n d who seeks a week of quiet and rest because of the vexation that his son has caused him. T h e y were old friends but they had quarrelled when the former neglected his duty toward his family for his hobby. Herr von W a h r m u n d cannot conceive that so queer a man can have sensible children and therefore refuses to meet Henriette; but when her father complains of his daughter's silliness in preferring domestic fruit trees to his outlandish acquisitions and the common fowl to his rare, expensive birds, his friend changes his mind. He likes her so much that he determines to marry her. He is fully conscious that the difference in their ages can win him her respect but never real affection. Her pathetic account of her love and suffering because of the unjust prejudices of her fiancé's father makes him conscious of his unfair treatment of his own son. T h e comedy starts as a mockery of a stereotype, a man possessed by an idiosyncrasy, in the manner of the usual character type comedies, but the emphasis quickly shifts to an equally conventional story of love and marriage. Since both, boy and girl, are highly virtuous, the obstacles in the way of their union are removed with a minimum of complications. A contemporary reviewer in Nicolai's Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek does not find fault with this lack of agreement between title and plot, but does take exception to the characterization of Herr von W a h r m u n d which allows this member of the nobility to think and talk like one of the middle class. T h e critic censures the author for not emphasizing the qualities whereby the elder Herr von W a h r m u n d has achieved his high position at the court, admitting at the same time that it is difficult to portray a "sensible man talking of trivial matters," though "one has a right to expect something of Herr Weisse." 5 5 Henriette is a typical heroine of eighteenth-century German comedy. W e l l endowed and well brought up, she is a model of all the good qualities considered important in a woman. She sees the condition into which her father has let the estate slip and does all she can to rescue it from utter ruin, but she is handicapped because she must come to her father for approval of every business transaction. She does not consider herself above taking care of domestic tasks. She recognizes 55. Allgemeine

deutsche

Bibliothek

(1769), X , 1. St., p. 5t.

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that her aunt's wise foresight in teaching her the intricacies of household management has turned out to be of greater benefit to her than the instruction exclusively in decorum customarily given girls of her class. O n the other hand, she believes that a young girl who is firmly rooted in religion and virtue can acquire refinement of manners, propriety, necessary prudence and a certain polish without deleterious effects on her character. 56 Although she was aware that the court was dangerous ground for most of her sex, she went there to convince herself of its vanities and foibles. She declares that she has never been happier than now that she is alone again; never has she enjoyed such happy moments as she does in this loneliness, where she can use her time more advantageously and where she is better rewarded by far more innocent pleasures. Part of her happiness derives from her virtuous conduct. As Weisse sees such conduct, its essence is concern for others and a desire to make them happy even at the expense of one's own happiness. T h u s , in deference to parental authority she will not promise herself to her suitor until he is sure of his father's consent. W h e n the young man fails to obtain this, she unselfishly renounces any claim on him. He must obey his father, she insists. " Y o u cannot injure so good a father." 5 7 She is intent on sparing her fiancé the unhappiness to which her acceptance of him would inevitably lead. T h e ardent suitor, on his part, avows that his father may rob him of all else but not of the joy of being a faithful and constant lover. In his declaration we hear the same bourgeois pathos with which Sara Sampson professes the constancy of her love, though Weisse makes no use of the tragic elements inherent in such a situation. T o young Wahrmund's suggestion that they take refuge with their aunt, Henriette righteously answers: N o , and neverl H o n o r must be dearer to a young girl than life itself. Just think what shame I would bring upon myself if I were to flee with a y o u n g man of y o u r fortune and rank. W o u l d not your father have the right to consider me the temptress, to call the law to his aid and to follow me with his curse? . . . H e even has the p o w e r . "

W i t h the contemporary fusion of Rationalism and Sentimentalism, she tells him it is better that one of them be unhappy than both and it would be better that she should be the one. Why, the poet leaves unanswered. Neither does he explain how Henriette can expect Wahr56. W e i s s e , op. cit., V I I I , 151. 57. Ibid., V I I I , 145. 58. Ibid., V I I I , 145.

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m u n d to be happy after he gives her u p and follows his father's command. It is interesting to follow the relationship between children and parents in this comedy. T h e elder W a h r m u n d tells Busch that obedience is a son's first duty. 5 9 T h i s he says of a son of whom he is proud, who, in the eyes of his time, is fully grown, w h o has never done anything to displease his father and w h o has shown that he has learned much on his travels. Yet the father must select the wife for this exemplary son. W h e n he confesses that he has chosen already the father refuses to trust his son's judgment. T h e fact that the son's choice is a girl u n k n o w n to the father and without money makes him doubly culpable. W h e n Busch weakly attempts to excuse the son on the basis of his youth, the father answers hotly: " H e [my son] has enough intelligence to judge his behavior." 6 0 Ironically enough, his actions belie his words. As the later development of the play shows, the father's judgment is completely wrong. A f t e r speaking to Henriette but once, Herr von W a h r m u n d tells her father that she has such good sense, shows such good judgment, that he has decided to marry her. U p o n Busch's interjection that she is but a poor country girl, he tells him again that she is sensible above her age and sex. 61 He asks Busch to talk to her but, paradoxically, admonishes him not to force her, "for one must leave everyone his freedom." 6 2 Henriette's father makes short shrift of this suggestion. He tells his daughter that W a h r m u n d (the elder) wishes to marry her, that he will leave her his entire fortune, and that after his death she can marry whomever she wants. W h e n she remonstrates that the whole proposition is absurd and that he should give her at least some time to consider it, he tells her there is nothing to consider, that it is a great good fortune for them, that he will thus be able to spend even larger sums for his collections. Having pronounced his verdict, he runs off to catch young W a h r m u n d , about whose fraudulent stones and wood specimens he has just learned from his friend. W h e n Henriette later expresses her misgivings about such a marriage, her father shows the usual lack of understanding: " Y o u are not sane! Such a man has my consent and therefore yours." 6 3 Even the most intelligent and the best of children could do nothing 59. 60. 61. 62. 63.

Ibid., VIII, 131. Ibid., VIII, 132. Ibid., VIII, 170. Ibid., VIII, 172. Ibid., VIII, 178.

CHRISTIAN

FELIX

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'83

after their parents had decided the course of their lives. Either one ran away from home and became "liederlich"—and sons and daughters reared in bourgeois respectability did not on the whole do that—or one obeyed one's parents, no matter how senseless their commands or how unhappy the consequences. T h e fact that Weisse considered such behavior by parents a target for criticism reveals how widespread it then was. Der Projektmacher, composed in 1766 and performed in the same year in Hamburg, seems not to have enjoyed much popularity and was never played again. 94 Weisse created once more a comedy like so many others he wrote before and after Amalia. He seems to have drawn not only on his own unpublished play Der Leichtgläubige but also on Lessing's Der junge Gelehrte for many characteristics of his "Projektmacher." W e see in Kleanth, the schemer, another of the eccentrics whom the playwrights of the A u f k l ä r u n g so often portray in their comedies. Schlegel's Geheimnisvolle, Weisse's Mißtrauische, Lessing's Junge Gelehrte, and Cronegk's Mißtrauische are perhaps the most noteworthy. T h e fertile imagination of Weisse's Kleanth creates all kinds of projects, from improving the government to interplanetary flights. A l l seem highly ridiculous to his friends. Kleanth has found a gullible admirer of his schemes in Herr Geronte, w h o hopes to become famous if he follows this great planner. For this reason he allows Kleanth to court his daughter, Isabelle. A t the opening of the play we learn that Arist, a former admirer of Isabelle, has returned after a five years' absence in order to make her a proposal of marriage. Before leaving he had instructed Damon, his friend and the brother of Isabelle, to keep him informed of any danger that might beset his love. Damon, "a truly irresponsible young man," 6 5 neglected to do so. Isabelle, convinced that Arist must have forgotten her, since he has never communicated with her, obeys her father's wish that she entertain Kleanth's suit. Arist, disconsolate at the turn of events, is quickly convinced of Kleanth's unworthiness to be Isabelle's husband and sets about breaking their engagement. He receives Damon's help because the latter likes to make sport of people and sees an opportunity to do so here. Kleanth's conceit is enormous, and therefore he is easily fooled. Damon introduces him to a pseudo-countess, who is actually Lieschen, the laundress. She assures him that her influence among aristocrats 64. Minor, op. cit., p. 111. 65. Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek

(1769), X , 1. St., p. 13.

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powerful at the court will bring him honors for his many schemes. Believing this, he renounces Isabelle, thereby falling into the trap laid for him by Damon and Arist; and he thus leaves the way clear for the lovers. Minor discusses the features which Weisse's comedy had in common with Lessing's early play. 66 In Lessing the arrogance with which Damis treats his fiancée was indicated rather than developed in detail, because Damis' attitude toward women was of no great importance to the author. Lessing was primarily interested in pointing up the ludicrous behavior of one as conceited and undiscriminating as Damis. Weisse, appealing to the average person and never deviating from the chosen path, included the popular, stereotyped marriage intrigue; therefore Kleanth's reaction to Isabelle is more illustrative of the general attitude toward women than that of Damis to Juliane. T h e two plays were separated by about two decades. Lessing advanced in this period to a conception of women which was far beyond that of Weisse, because the former anticipated the changes slowly forming in his country as a result of many forces still active in their time, but Weisse copied what he saw around him within the circle of middle-class society to which he himself belonged. Within that group one still found situations and motives as we see them in his plays. Isabelle, always the sensible girl, far superior to a windbag like Kleanth, who has no wisdom, no reticence, no sense of discretion, insists that she cannot break her word to Kleanth. She has promised to marry him and must abide by that promise. Obedience to her father and womanly virtue demand this of her. " M y word must be sacred; even though it may seem to you that I am not in love with Kleanth, nevertheless he has my word," 87 she tells Arist. Nothing he says can prevail upon her to act differently. When he finally points out that Kleanth is not worthy of her and that he cannot understand her devotion for such a person, her answer expresses Weisse's own point of view: " I know he has faults," she tells her former admirer, "great faults; but they are faults of the intellect and not faults of the heart; his heart, I am certain, is good and honest and his faults can be improved." 68 Arist doubts this because of the overweening self-confidence that is so outstanding a characteristic of her fiancé. " W e l l , " Isabelle answers him, "then I shall bear my misfortune in patience and will find com66. Minor, op. cit., p. 112. 67. Weisse, op. cit., IX, »97. 68. Ibid., IX, 198.

C H R I S T I A N FELIX WEISSE

185

fort in the thought that I fulfilled my father's wish." 69 He begs for a word of assurance that in case Kleanth should break his promise she will consent to marry him. Isabelle refuses a direct answer, telling him that he himself would only have contempt for her should her heart behave in so frivolous a manner. 70 She will continue to see him only if her fiancé will allow it. She adds that Arist can prove his love by avoiding the subject in any future conversation with her. Nevertheless, in a brief soliloquy she admits her own despair. Why has she not trusted her heart, which told her that she could be happy only with Arist? And why has she allowed a fool to take possession of it? "How ashamed I am before Arist, before myself 1" she exclaims. But duty, conscience, and propriety force her to keep her word. She must obey, even if it costs her happiness. 71 Weisse thus tries to motivate Isabelle's acceptance of Kleanth. Damon explains that since Arist has not told anyone about his intentions toward her and since she in maidenly reticence has not forced a confession of love from him, she therefore has no assurance of it. "Was she to remain an old maid?" Damon asks Arist, "an old maid, the most horrible creature on earth." 7 2 It is true a fop says these words, but evidence from other plays we have observed confirms his opinion as that of contemporary society. Moreover, we hear that all Isabelle's relatives pressed her to marry. Arist's excuse for not having revealed his intentions while he was still in the city also throws important light on the position of women. How could he, a poor young man, without position or other resources, he asks, seek her hand without insulting her? We learn from Weisse's autobiography that he himself firmly believed in, and adhered to, the bourgeois custom that required the husband to be a good provider. 78 Kleanth, who is kept in constant activity by the pseudo-countess, lets Arist take his fiancée to a party and to the theatre. She chides Kleanth, telling him that Arist is not the selfless friend he thinks him to be, since he was a former admirer of hers and has not as yet relinquished all hope of marrying her, 74 but Kleanth is much too absorbed by his own silly affairs to pay any heed to her. Isabelle is greatly vexed by his behavior, but still refuses even to consider breaking with him. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74.

Idem. Ibid., IX, 299. Ibid., IX, 300. Ibid., IX, 264. Weisse, Selbstbiographie, p. 113. Weisse, op. cit., IX, 320.

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She maintains that a husband is a woman's pride and that her honor is also his, and she reprimands Hannchen, her maid, for her frivolous suggestion that a foolish husband might be rather convenient, since one could enjoy great freedom. 7 5 Isabelle will not admit that one must not necessarily follow the wish of a foolish father, for in her opinion a father can never be wrong, a view which was not exploded until the last quarter of the century. She is hard-pressed by Arist for a reasonable answer to his arguments that since she and K l e a n t h are not yet married, no wrong will be committed if she free herself from a man with whom she can never be happy. If they were married, then he would be the first to urge her to abide by her vows. However, Weisse gives her one more excuse: how can she renounce Kleanth, when she does not have her father's permission to d o so? She would have to disobey him and would at the same time become the laughing-stock of the whole town if she were to promise her hand to Arist. 7 6 T o jilt one's fiance after years of acquaintance and opportunity for judgment in favor of an apparent stranger would seem ridiculous. T o do so for a wealthy stranger would seem contemptible. O n l y when Isabelle has good cause to believe that Kleanth has broken his pledge, secured through a fraud as it now turns out, does she appeal to her father: " D o you believe that I can be forced to accept Kleanth again after such behavior? Y o u have sufficiently tested my obedience, and now. . . ." 7T Hannchen, the maid, is won over by Arist and D a m o n to further the intrigue whereby Kleanth is to be forced into a situation that will make it more profitable for him to withdraw from the marriage. Hannchen continues the argument against Isabelle's stubborn resistance where Arist had left off, but without effect. W h e n she reminds her mistress that the marriage has not yet taken place, the latter responds: " T o a noble soul a promise is more than all ceremonies." "Is it also the duty of noble souls to make themselves unhappy?" Hannchen queries quite logically. Isabelle holds fast to her ideals: " I would be unhappy, were I to act in conflict with my duty." 7 8 T h i s conversation was not meant to be satirical but to underscore the bourgeois heroine's principles, specifically the renunciation of happiness for the sake of duty. Arist, outside the rigid code because he is a man, and Hannchen, not expected to have such lofty conceptions of virtue because she is of the lower middle class, do not share Isabelle's 75. 76. 77. 78.

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

IX, IX, IX, IX,

394. 395. 4S1. 314.

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sentiments. T h e point of view they express anticipates the ideals of the subsequent era. Of course it is possible that Isabelle's insistence u p o n her code was incorporated into the play merely to advance the plot. In that case, one may not deduce too much from the contrasting ideas brought out in the arguments. Nevertheless, the similarity between the points of view here and those shown in other plays of the time might indicate that the inferences drawn above are not incorrect, for what seems to be rebellion in Weisse against bourgeois standards becomes the norm in the Storm and Stress. List iiber List, written in 1767 and performed on several occasions, is the last of the longer comedies by Weisse. According to Minor, Weisse allows the old stereotypes freest rein in this play. 7 9 These, Minor claims, had been so well established that the author did not introduce the heroine until the third act, for it was well known what the naive young " L i e b h a b e r i n " in a comedy would be like. Frau Argante wishes to secure for herself the fortune her husband left to their daughter Karolinchen. She is an aging woman, jealous of her young daughter just grown to womanhood. T h e play opens on the morning after a ball, where Frau Argante finally realized that her daughter's charming youth put her definitely in second place. For it was Karolinchen w h o attracted admirers, and all the compliments paid Frau Argante concern her daughter. Karolinchen had neither care nor love while she was growing up, nevertheless she has none of her mother's vices. T h e mother would like to free herself of the girl, but dares not marry her off because all the money belongs to Karolinchen, whose husband would gain the right to it. In Frau Argante's eyes there is only one way to end this dilemma: to marry Karolinchen to a person so foolish that he would never know his rights and would sign a marriage contract renouncing all claim to his wife's money. Here the counterintrigue sets in. Arist, Frau Argante's brother, w h o is fully aware of his sister's evil intentions and her ability to realize them, loves his niece and is determined to free her from her mother's dominance. W i t h this in view he secretly invites an eligible young man to visit him. Valer, dressed as a T u r k , meets Karolinchen at a ball arranged by a friend to bring the two together. H e is charmed with the girl, w h o also thinks more highly of him than of any other y o u n g man she has met. Valer is willing to follow his friend's advice in everything in order to gain what he wishes—marriage with Karolinchen. H e there79. Minor, op. cit., p. 118.

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fore feigns the role of a silly dandy and thereby obtains the consent of the mother to the marriage. T h o u g h he has an adequate fortune of his own, he joins forces with the other conspirators to foil Frau Argante's scheme to deprive her daughter of her rightful inheritance. Arist and Valer enlist the aid of the lawyer Schlange who has been engaged by the mother to draw up a marriage contract that would give her all rights to her daughter's money. Since Arist offers him more money than the mother, Schlange promises to outwit Frau Argante by substituting another contract for the one she ordered. In the end Karolinchen, though forced to accept her mother's choice, does get the right husband, and Frau Argante's nefarious designs are frustrated. Tulpe, her foppish admirer, leaves her after he is convinced that he can win neither fortune nor Karolinchen by marrying Frau Argante as he planned to do. Arist offers his enraged sister a secure future if she will repent of her bad behavior towards her daughter. It is interesting to note that in very few plays of this period do we have a mother worthy of the name. Where we find a parent who is neither a fool nor a tyrant, it is practically always the father. In the occasional mother, when she does appear, the vices are dominant: she is either evil or corrupt, so avaricious that her daughter is of no importance to her or foolish and silly and therefore an evil influence for her children. 80 While practically all the plays of the period under consideration have at least one woman of exemplary virtue and good sense, never is there a mother portrayed who can show even traces of these virtues. What happened to the virtuous, sensible, model women after marriage? No author ever takes the trouble to tell. List über List is a play of intrigue, as the title indicates. The characterization of the women is rather sketchy. Frau Argante is depicted as wholly bad. She is completely egotistical, eager to amuse herself without allowing her daughter any freedom, and intimidating her lest she rebel. 81 It is implied that Frau Argante has spent neither care nor money on the education of her daughter. 82 Through Christiane, Frau Argante's maid, we learn that her mistress did her utmost to prevent Karolinchen from being noticed. T h u s she would not allow her to learn to dance, apparently a serious omission in a girl's education. In spite of the shortcomings her mother had brought about in the young 80. T h u s it was said of Kleanth in Der Mißtrauische mother had been the most foolish woman in town. 81. Weisse, op. cit., X I , 173t. 8z. Ibid., X I , 171.

gegen sich selbst that his

CHRISTIAN FELIX

WEISSE

girl for a definite purpose, Karolinchen was the belle of the ball. 88 When Frau Argante noticed this, she took Karolinchen home early so as to spoil her pleasure and to restore her own ego. Throughout, it seems to be her intention to exploit her daughter. Thus when Schlange tells her about the silly behavior of the man he proposes as her son-inlaw, she wants to know only whether he really is foolish enough not to ask for the dowry. 84 When her brother suggests that he knows a rich young man from a good family who would make a good husband for Karolinchen, she will not hear of it, fearing loss of the money. As she confides to her maid, her intention is to sacrifice her daughter to her cupidity: "I don't want her to have an intelligent husband." 86 Karolinchen judges quite correctly that if her mother admits that the husband she has selected for her is "a little foolish" and if even stupid T u l p e makes fun of him, he must be an insufferable fool. 84 Therefore, unaware of the intrigue of her uncle and Valer, she begs her mother for a little time in which to consider Valer's proposal which her mother has brought her. T h e more she begs, the less willing Frau Argante is to grant her anything. She insists that she knows best what is necessary for her daughter's happiness and therefore will not allow any opposition, threatening Karolinchen with a mother's curse should she disobey. 87 It is illuminating that Weisse can think of no stronger compulsion to make Karolinchen give up her justified resistance than the threat of her mother's ill will. Karolinchen knows the extreme egotism and cruelty of her mother, yet she does not take her threat lightly. She is miserable enough to tell her mother that she may, in her despair, run from one slavery into another; 88 under another master she will at least be free to complain of her mother's selfishness. Frau Argante is little moved by that; as long as she gets her daughter's money, she does not care what the world will say of her. Her complete egoism is further evident in her own attraction to Valer and her consequent willingness to postpone the engagement. In Frau Argante, Weisse gives a good picture of a neurotic woman. T h i s loses all interest, however, because he does not motivate her behavior convincingly. Her conduct is so contrary to the ethical conception of a mother prevailing in bourgeois society that she appears to 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88.

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Idem. Ibid.,

XI, XI, XI, XI,

168. 1336. 302. i48f.

X I , 4°f-. ' 5 ' . 153. 154 f - '5 6 158, 159, 163, 167, 169 t., 171, 173, 174, 178, 179, 184, 185, 189 t., 191, 197, 199, 202, 205, 208, 210, 212, 217 f., 219, 221, 227, 237, 240, 242; customs, 34, 36, 490, 51, 76, 98, 154, 154, 193, 216 Minna von Barnhelm, see Lessing Minor, Jakob, 167 f., 172, 175, 184, 187, 190, 193, 196, 201, 203 Misogyne, Der, see Lessing Miss Sara Sampson, see Lessing Mißtrauische gegen sich selbst, Der, see Weisse Molière (Jean Baptiste Poquelin), 52, 93, 97; L'Avare, 93, 118: Le Misanthrope, 92, 97, 104; The Impertinents, 92; Tartuffe, 118 Moller, Meta (Meta Klopstock), 235 Möllerin, Gertrud, 41 Moral weeklies, 1, 3, 4, 5 H., 7, 8, 13, 18,

32, 39, 40, 56, 70. 78, 8 1 , 99, 100, 108, 121, 139, 161, 190, 234, 235, 240, 241, 242, 243; aims of, 9, 17, 19, 235 Mühsame Bemerkerin der menschlichen Handlungen, Die, 29 Muncker, Franz, 118 Mylius, Christlob, 151 Mysis, see Lessing, Die Matrone von Ephesus Nathan der Weise, see Lessing Naturaliensammler, Der, see Weisse Nelson, see Weisse, Die Freundschaft auf der Probe Neuber, Karoline, 143, 150, 241 Neue Zeitungen von gelehrten Sachen, 16 Nicolai, Friedrich, 64, 180 Nikander, see Schlegel, Johann Elias, Der Triumph der guten Frauen Odoardo, see Lessing, Emilia Galotti Oehlke, Waldemar, 149, 150 Oglyvia, see Krüger, Der blinde Ehemann Ohldin, Jungfer, see Lessing, Die alte Jungfer Palaion, see I.essing, Fragmente Pamela, 121 Panthea, see Gottsched, Luise Adelgunde Viktoria Parents, authority of, 10, 12, 21, 23, 25, »7 f - 33 f - 35. 45. 49. 59. 67, 68, 96, 102, 107, 120, 123, 138, 139, 1 5 1 , 152 t., 154, >56. '57. 162, 170 f., 176, 179, 181, 182 f., 184, 185, 189, 190, 191, 193, 208, 209, 210, 222, 235, 236, 238 f., 23g, 241 "Pasquillantenliteratur," 29 Patriot, Der, 7, 8, 9, 1 1 , 17, 26, 28, 29, 40, 100, 113, 135 Petronius, 158 Philippine, see Geliert, Die kranke Frau Pietism, 12, 63, 234, 241; pietist stress on virtue, 12, 63 Pietisterey im Fischbeinrocke, see Gottsched, Luise Adelgunde Viktoria Pietsch, Johann Valentin, 15 Plautus, 142, 154, 155 Poeten nach der Mode, Die, see Weisse Praatgern, see Schlegel, Johann Elias, Die stumme Schönheit Pracht zu Landheim, see Schlegel, Johann Elias Projektmacher, Der, see Weisse

INDEX Quistorp, Johann Theodor, Der Bock im Prozesse, 2; Der Hypochondrist, 2 Rabener, Gottlieb Wilhelm, 65, 144 Racine, Jean, 140 Racine, Louis, 140 Ramler, Karl Wilhelm, 214 Rast, Georg Heinrich, 15 Rationalism, 2, 5, 12, 15, 17, 26, 29, 67, 69, 72,76,78,96, 103, 114, 1 3 1 , 1 3 5 , 1 8 1 , 208, 222, 220, 224, 234, 239, 241, 242; appeal of rationalist, 63; hero of rationalism, 75, 135, 173, 181, 204; rationalistic heroine, 114, 12g f., 135, 180, 190, 193, 216, 220, 222, 230, 233, 238, 241 Recha, see Lessing, Nathan der Weise Redlich, C. C. 32 Regensburger gelehrte Zeitung, Die, 124 Reichel, Eugen, 14, 18, 24, 28, 29(1, 30, 42n, 44 Reimarus, Elise, 228 Reimarus fragments, see Lessing Rempel, Hans, 155 Reynolds, Myra, 6n Richardin, Frau, see Geliert, Die Betschwester Richardson, Samuel, 159; Pamela, 1 2 1 , 233; Clarissa Harlowe, 161, 233 Rodenfels, Herbert, 93, 10571 Roller, O. K.. 77 Romanticism, 146 Romeo und Julie, see Weisse Roseneck, Herr von, see Krüger, Die Geistlichen auf dem Lande Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 30 "Rührkomödie," 134 Runckel, Dorothea von, 43, 44 Ruthe, see Krüger, Der Teufel ein Bärenheuter St. Afra, 142, 145 f. Saladin, see Lessing, Nathan der Weise Sampson. Sir William, see Lessing, Miss Sara Sampson Saxon comedy, 215 Schatz, Der, see Lessing Schiller, Johann Friedrich, Kabale und Liebe, 76; Über sentimentalische und naive Dichtung, 105; Die Räuber, 210 Schlaftrunk, Der, see Lessing, Fragmente Schlag, Herr von, see Lessing, Die alte Jungfer Schlegel, Johann Adolf, Das ausgerechnete Glück, 86, 90

255

Schlegel, Johann Elias, 3, 65, 90, 92, 1 1 0 , 112, 115, 1 3 1 , 135, 168, 225; Der Geheimnisvolle, 88, 96, 100, >02, 104, 110, 112, 183, 237; Der geschäftige Müßiggänger, 88, 93, 96, 97, 108; crilical and aesthetic writings, 90; Die entführte Dose, 92; Der gute Rat, 92, 95; Die Pracht zu Landheim, 92, 159; Die stumme Schönheit, 92, 105, 106, 108, 1 1 3 , 136, 237, 238; Der Fremde, 95; Nachlaß, 95; Theatralische Werke, 96, 150, 1 5 1 , 160, 164, 203, 225, 237, 239, 241; ideal women, 101, 105, 107, 1 1 0 , 1 1 3 , 225, 237; rationalistic women, 1 0 1 , 114, 1 5 1 , 163, 233, 238, 242; Der Triumph der guten Frauen, 108, 1 1 2 , 148, 216, 237, 238; sentimentalism, 1 1 4 , 209, 233, 237; individualism, 209 Schlegel, Johann Heinrich, 90, 93, 98n, 103, 1057». Schienther, Paul, 4 m Schmid, Christian Hermann, 64, 66, 89, 1 1 3 , 125, 141 Schmidt, Erich, 143, 149, 158 Schönemann, Johann Friedrich, 64; Demoiselle Schönemann, 64, 68, 75; troupe, 64 Schröder, Frau Sophie Charlotte, 33 Schulpforta, 90 Schurmann, Anna Maria von, 6, 28, Schütze, Johann Friedrich, 64n Sentimental drama, 141, 142, 155, 201; heroine, 163, 166, 210, 2 1 1 , 230, 232, 242 Sentimentalism, 3, 78, 1 1 5 , 117, 135, 137, 163, 166, 1 8 1 , 193, 209, 222, 237 t., 242 Shakespeare, William, 206 Siegmund, see Geliert, Die zärtlichen Schwestern Sime, James, 215 Simon, see Geliert, Die Betschwester, Das Los in der Lotterie Singspiel, Das, 3 Sittah, see Lessing, Nathan der Weise Sittenreich, see Borkenstein, Der Bookesbeutel Sophie, see Weisse, Amalia, Die Flucht Sotenville, see Gottsched, Luise Adelgunde Viktoria, Die ungleiche Heirat Spectator, The, 8, 29, 121, 140 Staleno, see Lessing, Der Schatz Stephan, see Geliert, Die kranke Frau Storm and Stress, 2, 3, 4, 65, 138, 164, 174, 187, 199, 200, 210, 222, 237, 242

256

G E R M A N W O M A N IN T H E

Strassburger, F e r d i n a n d , 5 n , 6n Stumme Schönheit, Die, see Schlegel, Joh a n n Elias Sturz, H e l f e r i c h Peter, 12g Susanna, see Borkenstein, Der Bookesbeutel Tatler, The, 8 T e r e n c e , 14s Testament, Das, see Gottsched, L u i s e Adelgunde Viktoria Teufel ein Bärenheuter, Der, see K r ü g e r Theater der Deutschen, Das, 4 T h e a t e r z e t t e l , 84 T h e o p h a n , see Lessing, Der Freigeist T h o m a s i u s , C h r i s t i a n , 76 T h i i m i g , L u d w i g P h i l . , »gn T o u a i l l o n , C h r i s t i n e , 10n, i2n T r a p p , Joseph, 116 T r e u w e r t h , see Weisse, Die Freundschaft auf der Probe Triumph der guten Frauen, Der, see Schlegel, J o h a n n Elias U h l i c h , A d a m G o t t f r i e d , 2, 64 Ungleiche Heirat, see G o t t s c h e d , Adelgunde Viktoria Uz, J o h a n n Peter, 68

Luise

V a l e n t i n , see K r ü g e r , Der Teufel ein Bärenheuter V a l e r , see Weisse, Die Haushälterin, List über List, Die Poeten nach der Mode; Lessing, Der junge Gelehrte Vernünftigen Tadlerinnen, Die, 7, 8, 17, 18, 25, 27, 28, 100, 135 Vernünftler, Der, 8 " V e r n u n f t r e l i g i o n , " 229 V i r t u e , eighteenth-century c o n c e p t i o n o f , 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26, 27, 38, 59, 48, 55, 61, 63, 67, 69, 72, 75 f., 77, 78, 84, 89, 107, 118, 122. 130. 135 t., 137, 139, 151, 161, 162, 164, 165, 174, 176, 178, 179, 181, 184, 185, 186, 190, 193, ' 9 5 ' '97> '99> s o l > 2 °5> 2 , ° . 2 1 9 . 226, 236 f., 239 Vor diesen, see Lessing, Fragmente W a h r m u n d , see K r ü g e r , Die Geistlichen auf dem Lande; Gottsched, L u i s e A d e l g u n d e V i k t o r i a , Die Hausfranzösin W a i t w e l l , see Lessing, Miss Sara Sampson W a l z e l , Oskar, 96 W a n i e k , G u s t a v , 14t]

ENLIGHTENMENT

W a r n e r , see Weisse, Armut und Tugend Weibergeklatsche, see Weisse Weiber sind Weiber, see Lessing, Fragmente Weisse, Christian Felix, 23, 91, 106, 123n, 132, 142, 151, 158, 167 fr., 170, 180, 189, 190, 214, 241; rationalism, 113, 239; Die Matrone von Ephesus, 158, 168 ff.: preface to Trauerspiele, 168; Der Beitrag zum deutschen Theater, 168, 171, 204; moral ideas, 169, 172, 176 ff., 181, 184, 190, 205; bourgeois heroine, 169 f., 180, 186, 207, 211; cynical portrayal of w o m e n , 169 f.; Die Poeten nach der Mode, 170, 190, 191; Die Haushälterin, 1 7 1 f r . , 190, 191; commedia dell' arte, 172; Der Mißtrauische gegen sich selbst, 174 ff.; motivation in plays, 177, 193, 241; Der Naturaliensammler, 179 fr.; Der Leichtgläubige, 183; Der Projektmacher, 183 ff., 190; Amalia, 183, 196 ff., 204, 206, 239: List über List, 187 fr., 190, 191: Weibergeklatsche, 191 f.; Armut und Tugend, 193 t.; social justice, 193, 199; bourgeois tragedy, 196, 206, 207, 209, 210, 212; sentimental comedy, 196, 200, 201, 204; " f a l l e n w o m e n , " 199; Die Freundschaft auf der Probe, 200 ff., 239; sentimentalism, 200, 203, 206, 209, 239; " c h i l d of n a t u r e , " 201; Großmut für Großmut, 204 f., 206, 239; Die Flucht, 206, 209, 239; Jean Calas, 206, 212 f., 213; Romeo und Julie, 206 fr., 239; G a r v e , 213 Weltweisheit, Die, see Gottsched, J o h a n n Christoph W i e l a n d , C h r i s t o p h M a r t i n , 206 W i l h e l m i n e , see K r ü g e r , Die Geistlichen auf dem Lande W i l i b a l d , see Gottsched, Luise Adelg u n d e Viktoria, Die ungleiche Heirat W i t t e k i n d t , W i l h e l m , 71, 820 Witzlinge, Die, see Lessing, Fragmente W o l f f , Christian, 15, 16, 30 W o l f f , Eugen, i8n, 105, 111 W o m e n , position in society of, i , s, 12, 30, 139, 147, 176, 185, 212, 215, 226, 229, 231, 234, 239; e m a n c i p a t i o n of, s , 13, 40, 51, 61, 140, 161, 211, 221, 234, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241; role of, 3, 5, 12; status o f , 3, 5, 6, 122, 133, 139, 209, 241; education o f , 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 20 ff„ 24, 28, 38, 40, 51, 61, 106, 107, 112, 120, 122, 133, 135 t., 139, 140, 161,

INDEX 188, 233, »34: virtue of, 11, 56, 151, 177, 181, 183, 188, 202, 203, 225, 239: problem of unmarried, 12, 25 f., 55, 185: contributors to moral weeklies, 18; intellectual freedom of, 18, 140, 215, 234, 235, 240, 241; dignity in, 23, 57, 212; good name of, 23 f., 24, 183, 186, 200; social attitude toward, 28, 92, 99, 103, 133, 165, 184, 209, 221, 232, 235, 240,

»57

241, 243; equality of, 126, 146, 200, 213, 221, 225, 228, 233, 240, 243 Wustmann, Gustav, ign Zachariä, Friedrich Wilhelm, 65 Zärtlichen Schwestern, Die, see Geliert Ziekursch, Johannes, 93 Zierfeld, see Gottsched, Luise Adelgunde Viktoria, Die ungleiche Heirat