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Hudibras in Germany
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
During the eighteenth century several attempts were made to translate the whole or parts of Butler's Hudibras into German. Josua Eiselein, who published a translation of Hudibras in 1845, gave in his introduction the only account of these translations yet written, but his record is brief and inaccurate. Hence it may not be without value to re-examine Butler's work in its German forms, and, in addition, to investigate the position of Hudibras among those works which German admiration for English literature sought to introduce into Germany.
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References
page 547 note 1 Goedeke, Grundriss, vii, p. 713: “Übersetzungen des Hudibras mit Proben verzeichnet in Josua Eiseleins Verdeutschung des Hudibras.”
page 548 note 1 For Wernicke see Fulda, DNL., 39, Erich Schmidt, Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, W. G. Howard, Pub. Mod. Lang. Ass. for September, 1908, and Rudolf Pechel, Ghr. Wernickes Epigramme, in Palaestra, 71, Berlin, 1909. Bodmer called attention to Wernicke's importance and published editions of the Überschriften in 1749 and 1763. The following are Wernicke's references to Hudibras (edition of 1763): p. 79, Wernicke quotes two lines from Hudibras (i. 679-70) containing a commendation of brevity; p. 224, he quotes four lines beginning, “Th' extreams of Glory and of Shame” (Pt. 2, i, 271-4). The first is introduced by: “und Hudibras uns nicht weit verführet, wenn er saget,” and the second by “Es sind nicht meine, sondern des berühmten Buttlers Worte, wie sie in seinem sinnreichen englischen Knittelgedichte, Hudibras genannt, folgender massen zu finden sind.” In the introduction Wernicke remarks: “Die meisten derselben (Frauenzimmer) bilden sich wie des Hudibras Wittwe ein: Es sei der Poet nicht in den falschen Achat ihrer Augen, sondern in die wahre Diamanten ihrer Ohren; nicht in die Perlen ihres Mundes, sondern in die Perlenschnur ihres Halses; nicht in das Gold ihrer Haare, sondern in die Dukaten, die in ihrem Kasten liegen, verliebt;” which is a free paraphrase of a passage in the “Lady's Answer to the Knight.” Wernicke may possibly have had Hudibras in mind when on p. 63 he said that German was nothing but a “babylonische Thurmsprache,” cf. Hudibras, i, 93, or when on page 112 he referred to the opinion that the angel spoke German in expelling Adam and Eve from Paradise, cf. Hudibras, i, 179-80. Wernicke uses “Knittelverse” with considerable frequency in his Überschriften; he suggests the word “Knittelgedicht” for “what the French call Poême Burlesque (p. 61); and defends the rhymes ”Staat an“ and ”Satan,“ ”Dichterling“ and ”Palatin,“ as ”der Kunst gemäss“ and ”ein unterscheidendes Zeichen der Knittelgedichte“ (pp. 237-8). He adds concerning such rhymes: ”So gar, dass, wer dergleichen Verse aus Kurzweil schreibet, nicht allein dieselben nicht vermeiden, sondern mit allem Fleiss aufsuchen muss.“
When in the service of Graf Bünau (1748-1754), Winckelmann read widely in English literature and made an anthology of English poets the manuscript of which, in his hand, is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. There are particularly extensive extracts from Hudibras. See Karl Justi, Winckelmann in Deutschland (Winckelmann und seine Zeitgenossen, Vol. i.) Leipzig, 1898, pp. 221-224. For this reference I am indebted to Mr. W. G. Howard, of Harvard University, who also kindly called my attention to Wernicke.
page 549 note 1 Joh. Jac. Bodmer, Denkschrift z. CC. Geburtstag, Zürich, 1900. See also Vetter's monograph, Zürich als Vermittlerin englischer Literatur im achtzehnten Jahrhundert, Zürich, 1891.
page 549 note 2 See Fulda, DNL., 39, p. 521.
page 550 note 1 Quoted by Vetter.
page 550 note 2 Vetter refers for this letter to Blätter für literarische Unterhaltung, 1856, p. 34.
page 552 note 1 The History of the Wicked Plots and Conspiracies of owr pretended Saints, the Presbyterians. London, 1662, Oxford, 1674.
page 552 note 2 Baechtold, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur in der Schweiz, notes, p. 175.
page 553 note 1 Herausgegeben von einigen Mitgliedern der deutschen Gesellschaft in Leipzig. 17tes Stück. Leipzig, 1737, pp. 167-176.
page 555 note 1 Samuel Butler's Hudibras, ein satyrisches Gedicht wider die Schwermer und Independenten zur Zeit Carls des Ersten, in neun Gesängen, aus dem Englischen übersetzt, mit historischen Ammerkungen und Kupfern versehen, Hamburg und Leipzig, 1765. The book was really published in Zürich. Waser's name is given by Goedeke as Heinrich only. Brief accounts of Waser's translation are found in Vetter's two monographs: Zürich als Vermittlerin, see above, and Johann Heinrich Waser, Diakon zu Winterthur, ein Vermittler englischer Literatur, Neujahrsblatt herausgegeben von der Stadtbibliothek in Zürich auf das Jahr 1898, pp. 31. See also Hirzel's article on Waser in the Vierteljahrschrift für Literaturgeschichte, V, pp. 301-312 (1892).
page 555 note 2 Raumer, Historisches Taschenbuch, x, p. 415, or Hirzel, Wieland und Martin und Regula Künzli, Leipzig, 1891, p. 11. Hirzel attributes this characterization to Wieland and refers to Raumer, but Raumer does not ascribe it directly to Wieland.
page 556 note 1 Denkmaal dem Übersetzer Buttlers, Swifts und Luzians errichtet von Joh. Jak. Bodmer, Deutsches Museum, 1784, 1, pp. 511-527.
page 556 note 2 Vierteljahrschrift für Litteraturgeschichte, see above. Hirzel gives the letter in full. Vetter's two monographs mentioned above give similar information relative to this controversy.
page 557 note 1 John Townley's translation was published anonymously in 1757.
page 557 note 2 Pp. 379-80, and 493.
page 557 note 3 According to the review in the Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften these illustrations were by Gessner.
page 557 note 4 1760, i, p. 32.
page 558 note 1 ii, 1, pp. 273-82. (1766).
page 558 note 2 1766, 2, p. 261.
page 558 note 3 Sämmtliche Werke (Suphan) iv, 189. Herder's interest in Hudibras is attested by several quotations in his early works, the Fragmente and the Kritische Wälder; cf. Sämmtliche Werke (Suphan), i, 216, 269, 314, 319; ii, 221, 301, 392.
page 558 note 4 Augsburg, 1777. Schubart says that the “Knittelverse” of Hans Sachs would be the suitable measure for a translation. Flohr thinks Schubart here influenced by Gottsched's opinion: Geschichte des Knittelverses vom 17ten Jahrhundert bis zur Jugend Goethes, in Berliner Beiträge zur germanischen und romanischen Philologie. Berlin, 1893, pp. 93 ff.
page 559 note 1 Brief e über das Publikum, Jena, 1768, pp. 117-8.
page 559 note 2 Dritte Sammlung, Leipzig, 1769, p. 291.
page 560 note 1 Sämmtliche Werke, Wien, 1785-7, iii.
page 560 note 2 Letter to Riedel on August 10, 1768, Auswahl denkwürdiger Briefe von C. M. Wieland, herausgegeben von L. Wieland, Wien, 1815, p. 202.
page 560 note 3 Pp. 227-248.
page 560 note 4 Pp. 284-5.
page 561 note 1 Pp. 201-222.
page 561 note 2 Pp. 222-240.
page 562 note 1 Anhang, 53-86. iii, pp. 1789-1794.
page 562 note 2 Pp. 248-9.
page 563 note 1 Pp. 72-82.
page 563 note 2 8vo., pp. 444. Hudibras frey verdeutscht, dem Herrn Hofrath Wieland zugeeignet von D. W. S.
page 564 note 1 Königsberg, bey Nieolovius, pp. 474. A later edition was issued at Reutlingen by Mäeken u. Comp. 1800, i, pp. 280; ii, pp. 228.
page 564 note 2 Merkur, 1787, Anzeiger for August, p. cxii.
page 564 note 3 Jena, iv, p. 84, October 9, 1790.
page 565 note 1 July 26, 1800. This review is the foundation of the account of Soltau's translation in Ebeling's Geschichte der komischen Literatur, Leipzig, 1869. Much of this review is copied there word for word. Ebeling mentions the review in a foot-note, but makes no real' acknowledgment of his indebtedness. iii, 105-8.
page 565 note 2 Anhang, 53-86, iii, pp. 1789-94.
page 566 note 1 There is a review of Soltau's translation in the Tübing. gel. Ane., 1798, pp. 802-7, which I have been unable to examine.
page 566 note 2 Deutsches Museum, 1788, ii, pp. 216-248. See Meusel, Das gelehrte Deutschland, 1, pp. 72-3.
page 569 note 1 The passages are i, 1, 91-104, 189-200, 281-286, 453-456; ii, 1113-1178.
page 569 note 2 ii, 1, pp. 273-283, 1766.
page 571 note 1 Small octavo, pp. 362, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1846. Eiselein's translation is reviewed in the Wiener Jahrbücher der Literatur, 1845, Vol. 112, pp. 251-264. The reviewer says that Hudibras is little known in Germany, and that Eiselein has performed a distinct service in making so excellent a translation. The introduction is called scholarly. The greater part of this long review is occupied with an account of Butler's life, taken mainly from Eiselein.
page 577 note 1 See Erich Petzet, Die deutschen Nachahmungen des Popeschen Lockenraubs, in Zeitschrift für vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte, N. F., iv, pp. 409-433, 1891. Petzet investigates the comic epics of Zachariae, Pyra, Uz, Dusch, Schönaieh, and Löwen. In the introduction to his Fabeln und Erzählungen in Burcard Waldis Manier (Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1771), Zachariae expressed a regret that the metre “which we call ‘Knittelverse,‘ and in which the English poem Hudibras is written,” should have so lost its popularity. He thinks it particularly suited to certain types of comic epics and other forms of burlesque poetry. The Neue Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek and the Merkur found in Melchoir Striegel, a comic epic by J. F. Ratschky, an imitation of Hudibras. The full title was Melchoir Striegel, ein heroisch-episches Gedicht für Freyheit und Gleichheit, Wien, 1794. This contained only “die ersten Gesänge”; the complete poem appeared in Leipzig in 1799. The work was evidently inspired by the French Revolution. I have not been able to examine this poem; but the quotations given by the two reviews mentioned above are not in the metre of Hudibras. See Neue Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek, xxvi, p. 170 and Merkur, 1799, iii, p. 91.
page 577 note 2 Hempel edition, xxi, pp. 23 ff.
page 578 note 1 See “Denkmaal.”
page 578 note 2 Sämmtliche Werke (Suphan), ii, p. 44-46.
page 579 note 1 Letter to Flögel, Sämmtliche Schriften, Wien, 1787, iv, p. 32.
page 579 note 2 Sämmtliche Schriften, iii, pp. 157 ff. Über die Laune.
page 579 note 3 Der Trappenschüzze, ein komisches Heldengedicht in drei Gesängen, von Humphrey Polesworth, Esq. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt, Halle, 1765, pp. 48.
page 579 note 4 Auswahl denkwürdiger Briefe, Wien, 1815, p. 198.
page 579 note 5 Life of Lessing, Boston, 1871, i, pp. 119-20: “in imitation of Hudibras.
page 579 note 6 Lessing, 2te veränderte Auflage, Berlin, 1899, i, p. 266; “nach dem Muster des Hudibras.”
page 580 note 1 Sämmtliche Schriften, Berlin, 1828, xxix, pp. 278-81.
page 581 note 1 The Danzel-Guhrauer life of Lessing gives an account of this scheme and is more guarded in its statements: “offenbar dem Hudibras nachgebildet” and “der Schildknappe wird ohne Zweifel Schönaich gewesen sein.” (i, p. 280).
page 581 note 2 Werke, Hempel, ix, p. 43.
page 581 note 3 Werke, Hempel, xx, 2, p. 31.
page 582 note 1 Werke, Hempel, xix, p. 629.
page 582 note 2 Kant actually does refer to these lines, however; see Boxberger, in Archiv, as before, and Kant Werke edited by Rosenkranz and Schubart, Vol. xi, p. 192. Boxberger in the Kürschner Lessing (xiv, 2, p. 431), calls attention to the use of this expression, “ropes of sand” in Ben Jonson's The Devil is an Ass, I, Scene 1, and V, Scene 2, Baudissin's translation, i, pp. 168, 280.
page 582 note 3 Schriften, Wien, 1783-7, ix, p. 120.
page 582 note 4 Gedichte, Leipzig, 1780-82, iii, p. 241.
page 582 note 5 Gedichte, Frankfurt, 1780, i, p. 224.
page 583 note 1 Leipzig, 1774, p. 205.
page 583 note 2 Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften, lxi, pp. 51-77.
page 583 note 3 Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften, iii, pp. 1 ff.
page 583 note 4 Altenburg, 1772.
page 583 note 5 Euphorion, vi, p. 557.
page 583 note 6 Sämmtliche Schauspiele, Wien, 1776, iii, pp. 269-360.