Gillies1944-Herders

Herder's Preparation of Romantic Theory
A. Gillies
The Modern Language Review, Vol. 39, No. 3. (Jul., 1944), pp. 252-261.
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HERDER'S PREPARATION OF ROMANTIC THEORY
Two years before Friedrich Schlegel defined Romantic poetry as 'progressive Universalpoesie', there appeared the seventh and eighth series of Herder's Briefe zu
Befikderung der Humanitat. Schlegel read them and reviewed them for Reichardt's
periodical De~tschland.~Sixty years ago Haym made brief reference to their
connexion with Romantic t h o ~ g h t ,but
~ subsequent criticism has not followed
him on this point in any but the most general terms. The Humanitatsbriefe have,
therefore, not received their due amount of attention, although they contain all
the material of which the famous 116th Fragment of Schlegel so concisely and
suggestively gives the conclusions. Read with their aid, Schlegel's definition moves
into clearer perspective. The recondite elusiveness which has come to surround it
falls away, and it stands out as a definition of modern, or 'Romantic', poetry, of
which the novel, Roman, is the representative genre. This definition derives from
the distinction, upon historical lines, between ancient and modern literature, as
set out in tfber dua Studium der griechischen Poesie, a distinction of exactly the
same nature as Herder had drawn as early as his Fragmente3 and continued in
tfber die Wirlcung der Dichtkunst, the Ideen and elsewhere, but could not state
with Schlegel's programmatic succinctness. Quite apart from any special decisive
influence exercised by the Humanitatsbriefe upon Schlegel, whose essay Ober das
Studium der griechischen Poesie appeared simultaneously with them, it is valuable
to study the general preparation of Romantic theory by Herder, taking the
Humanitlitsbriefe as the culmination of what he had so often presented in previous
it is remembered, had set out under the inspiration of
works. Friedri~h'Schle~el,
, ~ even if, by reason of
Herder's cry for a ' Winckelmann of Greek l i t e r a t ~ r e ' and
bheir date, the Humanitatsbriefe cannot have exercised perhaps quite the effect
they should have done, and quite the effect of earlier works by Herder, they must
undoubtedlyhave clinched matters in Schlegel's mind before he proceeded to his own
Fragmente, by inciting him to give, as Herder did not, concise and enduring conclusions. The absence of such is exactly what the young critic saw to be the defect of
the Humunitiitsbriefe; he was quite impressed by their substance, but deplored their
lack of a critical standpoint. Schlegel, brought up on a philosophical as well as
an historical training, seems in his review to be wanting to draw the ageing man's
conclusions for him, half indulgently, half in irritation. In regard to the definition
of the novel, Herder's words seem to be directly responsible for Schlegel's comments
on this genre as the characteristic modern form of literary expression, and vitally
important for the genesis of his observations on Wilhelm Meister. In so far as the
novel was the starting-point of his concept Romntisch, Herder may have played
a far more immediately effective role in the growth of Romanticism than is
generally recognized.
Following upon the characterization of Greek art and culture as a 'Schule der
Humanittit' in the sixth series, the seventh and eighth series of the Humunitatsbriefe attempt an account of the modern spirit in literature in all its manifestations.
Herder names the Querelle des anciens et des modernes as his starting-point, criticizing it as being unreal, inasmuch as it concerned itself with the merits of
Friedrich ~ c i l e g e ~1794-1802.
,
Seine Prosaischen Jugendschriften, hg. von J . Minor
(Vienna, 1882), 11, 41-8.
a R. Haym, Herder (Berlin, 1880-5), 11, 631.
R. Haym, Romantische Schule (5th ed.
Berlin, 1928), pp. 216f.
Herder, B&mtltche Werke (ed. Suphan, Berlin),
S W S , I, 293; Haym, loo. cit.
A. GILLIES
personalities rather than with an impartial assessment of the relative values
of ancient and modern culture. Poetry, which he defines expansively as the
'Bliite der Kultur und Humanitat nach Zeiten und Nationen', or as 'Kultur zum
Schonen',l changes progressively according t o time and place. Greek poetry, he
declares in a rather Nietzschean manner, declined as, with the growth of philosophy, religion becape outmoded and mythology mythical. A new epoch was
opened by tho itdvent of the Christian hymn. I n the modern, post-Classical, age,
poetry is no longer exclusively national but possesses universal, Christian, characteristics that transcend (but do not swamp) native factors; accent replaces quantity; music becomes an independent rather than a subordinate a r t ; and language,
absorbing elements from all the diverse provinces of the Roman Empire, enters
upon a stage of confused evolution. The new religion turns men's thoughts away
from visible actuality t o the hereafter. The!world of outward things that antiquity
knew, disappears. A new era begins.
The antithesis between ancient and modern, which so forcibly appeared to
Friedrich Schlegel, is a t once evident. We are faced primarily with i n historical
distinction.
Two other points of importance for Romantic thought emerge a t the same time.
The one is the autonomy of music. This, declares Herder very prophetically, is a
danger t o that development of the totality of human faculties that was his ideal.
Musik ohne Worte setzt uns in ein Reich dunkler Ideen; sie weckt Gefiihle auf,
jedem nach seiner Weise; Gefuhle, wie sie im Herzen schlummern, die im Strom oder in
der Flut k~instlicher Tone ohne Worte keinen Wegweiser und Leiter finden. Eine
Musik, die uber Worte gebietet, ist nicht vie1 anders; sie herrscht despotisch.. . .Auf
gleiche Weise kann durch eine geistliche und, wenn man will, eine himmlische hfusik
die Seele dergestalt aus sich gesetzt werden, da13 sie sich, unbrauchbar und sturnpf
gemacht fiir dies irdische Leben, in gestaltlosen Worten und Tonen selbst ~ e r l i e r t . ~
Can Herder have foreseen the extreme outcome of that liberation preached by
Josef Berglinger, the musical self-indulgence of the nineteenth century and its
far-reaching effects ?
The second point is not distantly related t o the first. The yearning for things
beyond is, says Herder, necessary to man, though the soul cannot live merely on
imaginations. The Greeks alone had a strongly developed plastic sense; they alone
could render the impalpable palpable. Such a gift comes only occasionally on the
earth. The modern age, based upon the Christian cult of the infinite, is, froin the
start, the age of longing, striving, formlessness, imperfection, desire, suffering.
Dagegen urird bald, hie und da, jene mystische Emphdungs-Theologie ausgesponnen,
die, ihrer stillen Gestalt nach ungeachtet, vielleicht die wirksamste Theologie in der
Welt gewesen. Im Christentum schlang sie sich dem jiingeren Platonismus an, der ihr
viele Zweige der Vereinigung darbot; aber auch ohne Platonismus war sie bei allen
Volkern, die emphdend dachten und denkend empfanden, in jeder Religion, die
beseligen wollte, am Ende das Ziel der Betrachtung.. . .Der Grund dazu liegt in der
Natur des Menschen. . .So gern mocht~eer mit Ideen leben und selbst Idee sein.. .
Viele Umetande der damaligen und folgenden Zeit kamen zusammen, diesen Mystizismus zu nahren und ihn dem Christentum, zu welchem er urspriinglich nicht gehorte,
einzuverleiben. Ein spekulierender Geist, dem es an Materie zur Spekulation fehlt, ein
liebendes Herz ohne Gegenstand der Liebe, gerat immer auf den Stystizisrnus. Einsarne
Gegenden, Klosterzellen, Gefangnis und Kerker, endlich auch auffallende Begebenheiten, die Bekanntschaft mit sonderbarliebreichen und bedeutenden Personen, Worte,
die man von ihnen gehort, Zeichen der Zeit, die man erlebt hat, u.f., alle diese Dinge
briiten den Mystizismus, dies Lieblingskind unsrer geistigen Wirksamkeit und Tragheit,
S W S , XVIII, 5, 6.
S W S , SVIII, 27.
Herder's Preparation of Romantic Theory
in einer groben oder seidenen Urnhiillung a m und geben ihm zuletzt die bunten Fliigel
des himrnlischen Amors. Man liebt, und wei13 nicht wen; man begehrt, und weiB
nicht was. Etwas Unendliches, das Hochste, Schonste, Beste.l
Friedrich Schlegel and t'he other Romanticists were not slow to note this feature
of the modern world. Romantic Sehnsucht became self-conscious.
With the historic transition came a change of subject and style. I n this field,
Herder was indebted t o Warton, Hurd, Percy, ,La Curne de Sainte Palaye and
others for his remarks He points t o the heroic songs of Teutonic antiquity. He
stresses the cultivation, thanks to Arab influence, of Tapferkeit, Liebe, Andachtthat trinity of chivalry, love, piety, that was central to his view of the Middle
Ages and passed over en bloc into Romantic literature; he shows how its influence
engendered the gai savoir of Provenpal culture-that 'romanticization', as he sees
it, of all life-with its offshoots in France, Italy and Spain. d further contrast
between Classical and post-Classical times emerges. Whereas in Greece poetry
grew up side by side with language and taught all wisdom, law and religion, and
prose came later, in medieval Europe prose came before poetry and poetry was
written to entertain rather than to instruct. The romance, Roman, is the form
that is characteristic of the N i d d Ages. The whole taste of the times was for
narrative, Marchen, legend, heroic ballad, for adventure, gallantry, chivalry, religion, superstition, magic; and poetry represented this tast,e. It is proper, therefore, to designate the poems of the times as romantische Gedichte-a term Herder
applies to Tristan, and t o the work of Spenser, Ariosto, Shakespeare.Voetry
contains the sum total of all human effort: it is universal, as i t was universal in
Greece. and must anain
be in the future. I t is for thid verv reason that Herder
"
regards. i t as so valuable a source of information concerning the country and epoch
to which it belongs.
Wenn Poesie [he writes] die Bliite des menschlichen Geistes, der menschlichen ditten,
j a ich mochte sagen das Ideal unsrer Vorstellungsart, die Sprache des Ge~amt~unsches
und Sehnens der Nenschheit ist [i.e. exactly 'progressive Universalpoesie' in the
Romantic sense]; so dunlrt mich, ist der glucklich, dem diese Blute Tom Gipfel des
Stammes der aufgeklartesten Sation zu brechen vefgonnt ist.. . . I n dieser Riicksicht
nun kann man freilich die Geschichte der Dichtkunst, d.i. die Geschichte menschlicher
Einbildungen und Wunsche, und wenn ich so sagen darf, des sul3en Wahns der Menschheit, der aufs feurigste ausgedruckten Leidenschaften und Empfindungen unsres
Geschlechts nicht allgemein und im GroBen genug nehmen.3
So Dante provides a sort of encyclopaedia of all human knowledge, in so far as it
was available t o him in his day, knowledge far different from that possessed by
Greek poets. The reference t o this poet would not fall on deaf ears among the
young Romantic critics.
The whole scope of poetry has grown progressively wider, it is shown, since
Classical times, and will continue to do so. That is Herder's first inference at this
stage. His second is that literature, while reflecting national and local cultures,
nevertheless has certain features common t o the whole of Europe, so that modern
poetry may, therefore, be regarded as one vast European unit, embracing within
itself many individual variations. It may thus be set against Classical poetry, as
one unit against another.* Thirdly, Herder does not forget to emphasize the
educative value of literature. Life was, indeed, 'poetized' in the Middle Ages in
the Romantic sense, according to his conviction.
Und da gerade diese Poesie es war, die auoh das Volk nicht verachtete, die sich auf
offentlichen Piatzen und Markten horen lie13 und durch Geist, MTitz, Spott eigne
*
SU'S, xvnr, 19f.
SWS
XVIII,
ST.
S W S , XVIII, 57f.
4
S W S , XVIII, 65.
255
A. GILLIES
Gedanken und ein freies Urteil auch uber Zeithandel, iiber die Sitten geistlicher und
weltlicher Stande, uber das Verhaltnis derselben gegen einander weckte; so ward, wie
die Geschichte zeigt, Poesie der erste Reformator. Immerhin wird dies auch die
frohliche VCTissenschaft(gaya ciencia, gay sabbr) sein und b1eiben.l
There is in this observation, not only the doctrine of Vollcspoesie, but a good deal
of what is behind the Romantic theories of Transzendentalpoesie, Poesie der Poesie,
and Romantische Ironie; for these names are merely labels for the type of poetry
which Herder here describes.
All the time we feel there is a silent, but no less eloquent criticism of Herder's
own age for not displaying the universality that Classical and medieval literature
did. His Fragmente, as we shall see, had once explained the reasons for this.
Poetry must not be content to stagnate in a mould that is alien to its time, but
recognize that it is a growing, developing organism. It must, we feel he wants to
say, as he had said in other connexions before, continue upon the lines started in
the Middle Ages, from which it has deviated to its detriment. The modern-postClassical-spirit must express itself in all its fullness in a modern form, not in
any other. Modern literature, he seems to indicate, is unique in not reflecting'
universality. Several circumstances were responsible for this defect, e.g, the
doubtful value of the invention of rag-paper and of printing (a point which A. W.
Schlegel and Fichte took up). Then came the Reformation, which broke up the
unity that had marked medieval culture (Novalis's favourite theme). With the
division of the peoples there occurred a division in literature, Catholic countries
clinging t o old modes, Protestant countries developing a new, reflective manner of
writing and leaving behind them the Bitter- und Feenwelt of the past. Shakespeare
stands on the dividing line between old and new, combining both, a 'darstellender
Minstrel', utilizing the whole of English history and the stories and romances and
ballads of chivalry, while being also a profound philosopher and commentator
on life.
Xun aber wenn er in diesen Scenen der alten Welt uns die Tiefen des menschlichen
Herzens eroffnet, und im wunderbarsten, jedoch durchaus charakteristischen Ausdruck
eine Philosophie vortragt, die alle Stande und Verhaltnisse, alle Charaktere und, Situationen der Menschheit beleuchtet, so milde beleuchtet, da13 allenthalben das Licht aus
ihnen selbst zuriickzustrahlen scheint; da ist er nicht nur ein Dichter der neuern Zeit,
sondern ein Spiegel fur theatralische Dichter aller Zeiten.2
Thus, each of Shakespeare's plays may be regarded as a 'dargestellter philosophischer Roman', covering all the breadth and depth of human thought and
feeling, 'die tiefsten Quellen des Anmutigen, Riihrenden, wie andern Teils des
Lacherlichen, E r g e t ~ l i c h e n ' . ~One can see the shadow of Friedrich Schlegel's
words being cast before.
What Herder says concerning the novel deserves to be quoted in toto. He bases
his remarks solely upon the English novel. For Wilhelrn Meister he had no time
a t all.
Keine Gattung der Poesie [he writes] ist von weiterem Umfange, als der Roman;
unter allen ist er auch der verschiedensten Bearbeitung fahig; denn er enthalt oder
kann enthalten nicht etwa nur Geschichte und Geographie, Philosophie und die Theorie
fast aller Kiinste, sondern auch die Poesie aller Gattungen und Arten-in Prosa.
Was irgend den menschlichen Verstand und das Herz interessiert, Leidenschaft und
Charakter, Gestalt und Gegend, Kunst und Weisheit, was moglich und denkbar ist,
ja das Unmogliche selbst kann und darf in einen Roman gebracht werden, sobald es
SWS, XVIII,66.
2
SWS,XVIII, 101f.
V W S , XVIII,108.
Herder's Preparation of Romantic Theory
unsern Verstand oder unser Herz interessiert. Die grorjten Disparaten 1aBt diese
Dichtungsart zu; denn sie ist Poesie in Prosa.
Man sagt zwar, da13 in ihren besten Zeiten die Griechen und RGmer den Roman nicht
gekannt haben; dem scheint aber nicht also. Homers Gedichte selbst sind Romane in
ihrer Art; Herodot schrieb seine Geschichte, so wahr sie sein mag, als einen Roman;
als einen Roman horten sie die Griechen. So schrieb Xenophon die Cyropactie und
das Gastmahl; so Plato mehrere seiner Gespriche; und was sind Lucians wunderbere
Reisen? Wie jeder andern haben also auch der romantischen Einkleidung die Griechen
Ziel und Ma13 gegeben. DaD mit der Zeit der Roman einen grorjern Umfang, eine
reichere Mannigfaltigkeit bekommen, ist natiirlich. Seitdem hat sich das Rad der
Zeiten so oft umgewalzt und mit neuen Begebenheiten auch neue Gestalten der Dinge
zum Anschauen gebracht; wir sind mit so vielen Weltgegenden und Nationen bekannt
worden, von denen die Griechen nicht w d t e n ; durch das Zusammentreffen der Volker
haben sich ihre Vorstellungen an einander so abgereiben, und uberhaupt ist uns der
Menschen Tun und Lassen selbst so sehr zum Roman worden, darj wir ja die Geschichte
selbst beinah nicht anders als einen philosophischen Roman zu lesen u,unschen.l
This passage contains everything that Friedrich Schlegel's Fragment says about
this genre. There is the same use of the word romntisch in the sense of ' t h a t which
has to do with the Roman, that which is modern and interesting, i.e, post-Classical',
the same doctrine af the ever-changing, progressive nature of poetry, with the
requirement that i t should represent all the universality of life, and the same view
that the novel is the typical modern grnrr and that i t alone can express this
universality.
The final stage in the Hurrzanitatsbriefe is reached when Herder (pointedly
ignoring Goethe) cries out for something in German literature that will bear this
universal character, and thus achieve what English literature has already achieved.
Germany came late, he says, with a note of patriotic envy, self-pity and selfrighteousness, because i t had been occupied with the task of saving ~ b r o from
~ e
the Tartars and the Turks. It must make up for lost opportunities, and absorb
and make fruitful use of the best from all other sources: and there is inore than a
hint that it has i t in its power to take the lead over all the rest. Since poetry is
progressive and changes with the times, why should not its whole future be in
Germany's hands? Herder had early discerned in the French Revolution circumstances that he thought might lead to a cultural revival comparable to that of
Greece, and though developments in France were disappointing, he did not entirely
despair of his own country's learning the necessary lessons. Therefore he writes:
In Sprache und Sitten werden wir nie Griechen und Romer werden; u-ir wollen es
auch nicht sein. Ob aber der Geist der Poesie durch alle Schwingungen und Ekzentrizitaten, in denen er sich bisher Nationen- und Zeitenweise periodisch bemiiht hat, nicht
dahin strebe, immer mehr und mehr, so wie jene Grobheit des Gefiihls, so auch jeden
falschen Schmuck abzuwerfen und den Mittelpunkt aller menschlichen Bemuhungen
zu suchen, namlich die echte, ganze, moralische Natur des Menschen, Philosophie des
ganzen Lebens? dieses wird mir durch Vergleichung der Zeiten sehr glaubhaft. Auch in
Zeiten des grogten Ungeschmacks konnen wir uns nach der grorjen Regel der Natur
sagen : tendimus in Arcadiam, tendimus ! %
Unfortunately, Herder's own efforts in the direction of this ideal future were
darkened by his personal antipathy towards Goethe and Schiller.
The Hurnanitatsbriefe combine older Herderian themes. The contrast between
ancient and modern on historical lines, the idea of progressive development, in
literature as in all else, the view of the merely relative value of each epoch,
the consideration of the poet as an educator and evangelist, the consciousness of
contemporary inadequacy, the belief in Germany's cultural future, the study of
S WS,x v n ~ ,1 09f.
S W S , XVIII,140,
A. GILLIES
world literat,ure in orcler t o seek out its lessons, the new approach t o the novel,
the assertion that yearning, or striving after an ideal has developed in postClassical times into a dominating modern characteristic-all these are points he
had dealt with, in a greater or lesser degree, in earlier writings. Upon these the
Romantic theorists could and did draw liberally.
These topics hang closely together and go back t o the one major theme underlying the Fragrnente iiber die neuere deutsche Literatur, namely, the characterization
of, and declaration of independence of modern German literature; this is the theme
the very title suggests. I n this sense the Fragm.ente are as important in their sphere
as that other Declaration of Independence is in its. Herder made German literature
self-conscious. He analysed the modern spirit from the historical standpoint.
German literature was, therefore, made aware, from the very beginning of its
modern revival, of the contrast between ancient and modern, Classic and Romantic,
and grew up in this awareness.
So garen griechisch-romisch-nordisch-orientalisch-hellenistische Dampfe ganze Jahrhunderte; sie brausen gewaltig auf, die Hefen sinken endlich langsam, h d nun! w a ~
ist ausgegiiret? ein neuer moderner Geschmack in Sprachen, Wissenschaften untl
Kunsten. Habe ich wider die Geschichte geredet?-Nein !. . .Ist das wundersame 13ilci
ein Traum, das ich in meiner Einbildung vor mir sehe, und das auf seiner Stirn dell
Namen tragt: 'Neuere Literatur der Volker'? Es ist ein groljer Kolossus, sein Maupt
von orientaiischem Golde, das meinen Blick totet, weil es die Strahlen der Sonne zliriickwirft; seine hochgewolbte Brust glanzt vom griechischem Silber; sein Baucli (in(!
Schenkel festes romisches Erz, seine FiiRe aber sind von nordischem Eisen mit gellischem Ton vermengt-ein ungeheueresWunderwerk der Welt : die Anbetung eines 1-01ks,
das Geschopf langer Jahrhunderte und Geschlechter, ein prachtiger, unabse!~burt!~*
Anblick; sein Haupt ragt uber die Wolken; mein Auge erhebt sich kaurn bis an aeil~t:
Brust und fallt matt zum Boden zuruck; ich falle nieder und bete an!. . .'
Herder accordingly deprecates the manner in which imitation of Classical subject
and style 'poisoned' modern literature; for thanks t o it, not only must modern
ideas be forced into non-modern modes of expression, .but the very growth of
these ideas is itself hindered and all real life cramped.
0 das verwunschte Wort : klassisch ! . . .Das Wort ' klassisch' ists geweseli, das den
Ausdruck vom Gedanken und den Gedanken von der ihn erzeugenden Celegenheit
gesondert, das uns gewohnt hat, nach Horaz Exerzitien zu machen und it111 in seiner
Sprache ubertreffen zu wollen. Dies Wort wars, das alle wahre Bildung nach deli Alten,
als nach lebenden Mustern, verdrangte und den leidigen Ruhm aufbrachte, eiri Kcnlrer
der Alten, ein Artist zu sein, ohne daR man damit hohere Zwecke erreiohen diirfte; (lies
Wort hat manches Genie unter einen Schutt von Worten vergraben, s e i ~ ~ eIcopf'
n
zu
einem Chaos von fremden Ausdrucken gemacht und auf ihn die Last einer tote11 Sprache
wie einen Muhlstein gewalzt ; es hat dem Vaterlande bluhende Fruc h t blume entzogen ;
da stehen sie nun auf fremdem Boden und trauern mit halbverwelkter I%li~te
nntl
sinkenden Blattern, statt daR sie uns Baurne hatten sein sollen, nnter tlelle~l it~r
Geschlecht wohnen k ~ n n t e . ~
Thought and expression must be one, modern literature must expresh the whole
of modern life, otherwise all thought, language, taste and culture \\.ill wilt away,
Poets must be representative of all the content of their age and nation. That is
what a proper study of the Greeks will tell us, if embarked upon by a Wiuckelmann of Greek l i t e r a t ~ r e ' . The
~
frequentation of another nation's style C ~ R I I I ~ S
originality unless it be undertaken in the frame of mind that wishes t o understand
and emulate.
This was a striking enough beginning. It came before most of the ltoinanticists
were born, indeed before any similar Romantic programme in any Europei~l~
SWS,I, 363f.
SWS,I, 412.
S WS, I, 293.
M.L.R.XXXIX
17
Herder's Preparation of Romantic Theory
literature. As Herder's thought widened from its purely literary beginnings towards
a general historical survey of mankind, the points he made acquired depth. The
doctrine of originality in literature became the doctrine of originality in life.
Mankind must at all times, he taught, realize itself in all its fullness, cultivate
and express all its manifold
a t all times. Each age carries its own
purpose in itself, and must assert itself in its own way. All human life is progression, development, as the essay ~ b e den
r lirsprung der Sprache says in words
not unlike Schlegel's :
Nie ist (der Mensch) der ganze Mensch, sondern immer in Entwicklung, im Fortgange,
in Vervollkommnung.. . .Das Wesentliche unsres Lebens ist nie Genu13, sondern immer
Progression, und wir sind nie Menschen gewesen, bis wir-zu Ende gelebt haben.'
By the time the essays in Von Deutscher Art und Kunst are reached, the contrast
between ancient and modern is included in the antithesis between Naturpoesie
and Kunstpoesie, and illustrated by the parallel between the Greek and English
dramas. So Homer, the minstrel, is the colleague of the scalds and bards, .and
Shakespeare is the brother of Sophocles. ill1 of them expressed the culture, traditions, religion, history, manners, mythology, ideas and sentiments of their age
and time. If Shakespeare wrote D'niversalpoesie, as Schlegel would have said,
reflecting every phase of contemporary human experience, why, asked Herder,
could not modern Germany produce a dramatist who could do the same? He
demands that unity of poetry and life which existed in Greece and the Middle
Ages and on which the greatness of English literature was built, that full vitality
of native tradition which was embodied in the folk-song,
that rich varietv and
u, unspoilt and unrestricted range of poetic experience, that nearness to naturk and
actualitv which conventionalism and a false arswroach to the Classics had destroyed. The result would be to make literature representative of the whole of the
modern snirit. I n this sense Novalis nlanned his series of novels.
At thishoint Herder begins to nlakireal use of the word romantisch. He speaks of
'romantisches Abenteuer',: or the 'romantische Denkart'3 of the Middle Ages,
and means 'of the type occurring in medieval romances'. At times the word is
almost synonymous with 'poetic', as the Romanticists held it to be later; a t times
it means 'fantastic', 'having to do with chivalry or adventure'. The Reisejournal
had merely spoken of the Romangeist of the norm an^:^ Herder later refers to
their 'romantischer Charakter'.5 Other references are made to 'romantische
Liebe',6 'romantische Rittergeist ',s 'romantische G e d i ~ h t e ' ,'das
~
romantische
application of the term to landscape
Land der Schwarmer' (i.e. S ~ a i n ) Herder's
.~
has already been noted by Grimm's Worterbuch.l0
The next major stage after Von Dez~tscherArt und Kunst-and, we may add,
after the picture of the Middle Ages drawn in Auch Eine Philosophie-is reached
in ~ b e die
r Wirkung der Dichtkunst, a work which merits more attention than is
generally realized. It is a document of first importance in the growth of Romantic
theory. I t distinguishes sharply between ancient poetry (now defined as that of
the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans and 'Northern Xations') and the poetry of medieval
and modern times. The whole essay is divided up according to this distinction.
1 L S W S , V, 98.
S W S , V, 523.
S W S , IX, 524.
* S W S , IV, 430. Cf. also XXXII,30.
S W S , XVIII,462.
e S W S , VIII, 398.
S W S , XIV, 444.
S W S , XVIII, 7'7. Vide supra, p. 154. SW S , XVIII, 348. lo Cf. also L. Pearsall Smith, Four
Words
(Society for Pure English, Tract XVII) (Oxford,
1924), and R. Ullmann and H. Gotthard, Geschichte des Begrifle8 ' Romantisch' in Deutschland
(Berlin, 1927), passim.
259
A. CILLIES
The initial description of the poet as a 'Dolmetscher der Natur' or 'Bote der
Schopfung ' I leads to the corollary that poetry must universalize itself, as i t always
did in the past, so as t o represent the whole of Creation; and since Creation is
itself always growing and developing, so must poetry do the same. There is always
present in Herder's mind the thought that no contemporary poet merited such a
magnificent description as 'Bote der Schopfung '.
So lange [runs an instructive passage] ein Mensch noch unter Gegenstiinden der Natur
lebt und diese ihn ganz beriihren, je mehr er Kind dieser lebendigen, kraftigen, vielformigen Natur ist, an ihren Briisten liegt, oder sich im ersten Spiele mit seinen Mitbrudern, ihren Abdriicken und seinen Nebenzweigen auf Einem Baume des Lebens
treut; je mehr er ganz auf diese wirkt und sie ganz auf sich wirken lafit, nicht halbiert,
meistert, schnitzelt, abstrahiert; je freier und gottlicher er, was er empfangen hat, in
Sprache bringen kann und darf, sein Bild von Handlungen ganz darstellt und durch
die ihm eingeborne, nicht aufgeklebte Kraft wirken lafit; endlich je treuer und wahrer
die Menschen um ihn dies alles empfangen, aufnehmen, wie ers gab, in seinen Ton
gestimmt sind und Dichtkunst auf seine, des Dichters, nicht auf ihre, der respektiven
Zuhorer, Weise wirken lassen: da lebt, da wirkt die Dichtkunst: und gerade ist dies in
den Zeiten der ganzen wilden h'atur, oder auf den ersten Stufen der politischen
Bild~ng.~
The old contrast of ~iaturpoesieand Kunstpoesie remains. The future topics of the
Humanitatsbriefe are all raised in turn, the theme being, in both works, that
literature, being no longer expressive of all life, is no longer the educative agent
that i t was in the beginning, in Greek and Hebrew times, no longer the transmitter
of all wisdom and history. At one point Herder's terminology suggests that the
whole of early Greek life was 'poetized', dominated by poetry, rather as the whole
of modern life was to be dominated by Romantic poetry according to the theory
of the rising generatiom3 Literature must recapture this supreme position that it
once held; the poet must again be a 'Bote der Gotter'. I n his striking way Herder
maintained that the songs of the Teutonic past changed the whole face of Europe I*
Crossing the dividing line between ancient and modern, Herder turns to the
Middle Ages. The conception of Europe as a cultural unit, put forward in Such
Eine Philosophie and prepared in the Pragmente, recurs, as it also does in the
Ideen. The picture of the Middle Ages that he draws in these works embrace5
romances, legends, Marchen, the whole colourful age of chivalry, kings and knightb.
popes and beggars, monks and maidens in distress, jongleurs and crusaders. Poetrj-,
he declared, represented all this. Dante's work is described, as we have been it
described in the Humanitatsbriefe, as a vast encyclopaedia of all his knowledge and
experience, universal in the fullest sense. ' Wenn also eine Poesie der neuern Zeiten
Wert hat, so miil3te es diese sein,' he assert^,^ and proceeds to make a concludiiig
protest against the utter lack of such literature in his own time and country. Here
he was faced with his old problem as to how poetry could exist without appropriate
cultural conditions for its growth, and how, on the other hand, the decadent times
could be revivified unless great poetry existed. The Romantic school had the same
dilemma before it, and thought that i t found the answer in Transse~zdentalpoesieor
Poesie der Poesie, i.e. poetry that deals, as transcendental philosophy does, with
the relation of the real to the ideal and, as i t does so, reflects not only upon thib
relationship, but upon itself as well and its function.
The breakdown of modern literature came, as Herder aid 50 often, with the
Renaissance, when men strove to write 'Classically ', and poetry became the affair
I
SWS,
VIII,
340.
SWS,VIII, 389.
S W S , VIII, 341 f.
S WS,
VIII,
405.
.J I:.,S,
1-111, 369.
Herder's Preparation of Romantic Theory
of scholars and pedants and degenerated into a means of enjoyment rather than
of education. The old oneness of poetry and life was lost. Herder's standpoint
was affected by his low opinion of his own country's literature. He set out t o tell
what ~ o e t"r vonce had been and was no more. The conclusion that it must represent all the range of human experience, past and present (so that it will include
'Classical' poetry within itself), that it must be progressive and universal, mas
left to Schlegel to draw. Herder does little more than hint a t it in passing; it is
what he meant, but did not say-did not say, a t least, in any precise form. He
was more concerned with describing than with elaborating a programmatic doctrine. He was an historian, first and foremost. Poetry was merely a part of his
main theme, which was the history of all human effort.
His two other prize essays of those same years take his thought a little nearer
tjo that of Friedrich Schlegel. He claims. for instance. that literarv instruction
should precede philosophilal study in education, so that any lack Gf balance in
the rationalistic direction mav be avoided in the mind's structure. I n the davs
when poets and philosophers were one, teaching all wisdom, the problem did not
arise. The doctrine of the 'poetization' of life is merely an extension of this. It
becomes more and more clear that Herder desires a modern revival in the Greek
sense. We cannot recall Greece, but we can and must emulate its greatness in our
own way. That is why so much attention is devoted to Greece in the Ideen and
elsewhere; that is why Herder desired circumstances that would facilitate the free
production of literature, and why he welconled the French Revolution with its
dream-like prospects of a new revival.
The last maior account of the modern s ~ i r i tbefore the Humanitatsbriefe was
given in the Ideen. The material is again substantially the same. The conception
of Europe as a vast unit, with a spirit of its own, once more emerges.l Disparate
elements were reconciled-and enslaved, as he does not fail t o add in admiration
of Gibbon-by the Church. Herder opens up in this compendious work the whole
field of human history, in all its change, variety, endeavour, unrest, the entire
range of man's experience on earth and speculation concerning the hereafterthe very substance, he said, that should be the subject of poetry. The decisive
influence of the Teutonic nations is stressed yet again, and we feel that there is
more than a hint of A. W. Schlegel's
designation
of Germanv as the 'Orient' of
"
"
Europe, in his remarks upon the past*,present and future of his country. The rise
of chivalry, from Teutonic origins through Arab developments, is repeated, with
its consequent 'romanticization' of life in ballads, contes, fabliaux and romances,
those indispensable forerunners of Shakespeare and Cervantes. The book breaks off
on the threshold of the Renaissance, but not before a sketch has been drawn of
all the throbbing energy and activity of the Middle Ages, from the irruptions
of the barbarians to the introduction of gunpowder and brandy and the invention
of rag-paper. No more complete or interesting account of the world could have
faced the young Romanticists in the years of adolescence.
Finally, there is Herder's point that striving for rtn ideal of perfection transcending the inadequacies of actuality is a specially marked feature of the postClassical world. It is at the basis of his doctrine of Humanitat. The Ideen, Gott,
Christliche Schriften, Zerstreute Blatter and Humanitatsbriefe all deal with it at
length and illustrate it from various angles. It links Herder with the doctrines of
Faust as well as those of the Athenaum. He looked forward t o an all-embracing
rebirth, a Palingenesie, as he called it, of the whole of human culture. Modern
L
SU'S, xrv, 258, 287.
A. GILLIES
civilization must be as complete in its way as Greek civilization, the highest known,
was in its. Every element in human life must find a place within a harmonious,
symmetrical unity. Herder found ever-new symbols for his doctrine. It is the
renewal of the tree in the springtime, dawn after night, awakening after slumber,
evolution, regeneration. I t is, he declares, in the very nature of things. There is
a gradation of being in all the universe, ordained by Providence, and mankind
must make the
through every phase in turn. The goal can never be
fully attained in this world. Man learns as he lives. Striving is the-gift of heaven.
'Triigheit ist die Erbsiinde des Menschen.'l Without striving man's fate will resemble that of the unhappy handmaidens in the Helenatragodie, who, being incomplete personalities, merge at the end with nature, losing their identities and
starting upon entirely different existences, to make up for their failure. TheFaustian
doctrine of activitv is combined with no little Weltschmerz. a wistful o~timismis
accompanied by a dangerous fatalism. With each stage man marches forward
towards a fresh realization of that goal that ever recedes, 'der Charakter unsres
Geschlechts,. . .das Ziel unsres Bestrebens, die Summe unsrer Ubungen, unser
Wert, . . .der Schatz und die Ausbeute aller menschlichen Bemiihungen, die Kunst
unsres Ges~hlechts'.~Literature must at all times mirror this. Mephistopheles's
crooked logic was not at fault when he recommended Paust to league himself m<th
a woet. if it was universalitv of ex~eriencethat he desired.
Herder's Romanticism is not quite what is commonly understood as such. He
taught that Life was not a bitter, frustrated struggle, but a joyful, hopeful endeavour, once the consciousness is gained of its value and strength. Failure comes
if this consciousness be lacking. His doctrine was one, not of anguished disillusion
or despairing renunciation, but of harmonious, co-operative effort, utilizing and
developing every factor in human existence. He criticized, and criticized savagely,
but he gave an answer, too. It is an answer that places him nearer to the man of
the frohliche Wissenschaft than to G'hil.de .Harol.de. His answer, however full it is
of repetitions and uncertain modulations, is stated in a major, not a minor key.
A
,
SWS,XN, 567.
a
S WS,XVII, 138.