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VI. Bodmer's Indebtedness to Klopstock

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

C. H. Ibershoff
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Extract

Many were the sources of Bodmer's Noah and by no means the least of these was Klopstock's Messias. In the present article I propose to consider certain phases of Bodmer's indebtedness to Klopstock's biblical epic, but at the same time I shall have occasion to consider also other aspects of Klopstock's influence.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 41 , Issue 1: American Bibliography for 1925 , March 1926 , pp. 151 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1926

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References

1 Messias, III, 151 ff.

2 References to Noah, unless otherwise indicated, are to the ed. of 1765.

3 Ed. of 1748.

4 Sc. “die Seele des stillen Lebbäus.”

5 Cf. VIII, 512.

6 I refer the reader to some previous articles in which I have discussed briefly the marked change in attitude toward literary borrowing and deliberate adaptations which in the course of time has come about both in England and on the Continent. Cf. “Bodmer as a Literary Borrower,” Philol. Quarterly, I, 116, and “A French Source of Bodmer's Noah,” Ibid., III, 171.

7 Cf. Noah, p. 295 f.

8 Cf. Winter, edition of 1730, v. 334.

9 Ibid., v. 777.

10 Cf. Wingolf, v. 232.

11 Cf. Messias, I, 20, 652 and elsewhere, See M. C. Stewart, “Traces of Thomson's Seasons in Klopstock's Earlier Works,” J.E.G.Ph., VI, 409.

12 Cf. Noah, ed. 1750, p. 89 and elsewhere.

13 Cf. I, 448.

14 Cf. Noah, p. 138 f.

15 Gesch. d. d. Lit. in der Schweiz, p. 603.

16 The suggestion for these lines, though it has not been remarked by Hamel in his annotated edition of Messias, Klopstock, no doubt, derived from Elizabeth Rowe's Letters from the Dead to the Living; cf. e. g., Letter V. Bodmer, too, was familiar with this work; cf. his Briefe über Joseph und Zuleika (1754) p. 129, where he refers to this same Letter V.

17 Cf. Ovid's Metamorphoses, XI.

18 Cf. Kürschner's Deutsche National-Literatur, XLVII, 36 f.

19 Sc. the author's. This ode betrays the influence of Young's Night Thoughts.

20 Cf. the ed. of 1749, V, 320; also in the ed. of 1751, X, the last line. In his translation of Young's Night Thoughts Ebert writes in a footnote to Night II, 255 : “Der Verfasser der Messiade hat diese Schönheit in den ersten zehn Gesängen mit besonderer Kunst nur an Einem Orte angebracht, wo sie desto merklicher wird, weil sie zugleich den Gesang beschliesst.” Evidently he had before him the edition of 1751. In the ed. of 1799 a short line occurs also in XIII, 694.

21 Cf. Lycidas and Samson Agonistes.

22 Cf. Night Thoughts, II, 255.

23 Cf. Der Wurmsamen. Sechs poetische Streitschriften aus den Jahren 1751 und 1752. It is edited by Georg Witkowski.

24 Cf. the Hempel ed. XXXIX, 339, 348, 382.

25 The parallel is overlooked by Baechtold, cf. his Gesh. d. d. Lit. in der Schweiz where he is at pains to recall the personal reminiscences which Bodmer utilized in Noah.

26 Cf. Mörikofer's Klopstock in Zurich, p. 113. In Bodmer's Jakob und Joseph (1751), III, 450, we come upon what is probably another reminiscence of the same incident, namely, the lines:

“Sie verliessen den heiligen Wald mit einer Bewegung Wie wenn lange Bekannte genötigt einander verlassen, Bald zween Schritte weit gehen, dann stehen und wieder zurücksehen.”

27 This I include with the personal reminiscences because Klopstock sent the poem to Bodmer Nov. 5th, 1748; it was to him that he confided his hopeless passion. The Noah contains still other personal reminiscences. The opening of canto eleven, for example, has about a dozen lines in honor of “Philokles,” i. e., Bodmer's friend Zellweger. That Sulzer is another friend thus honored appears from a letter of his to Bodmer of April 21st, 1750. Cf. W. Körte: Briefe der Schweizer Bodmer, Sulzer, Gessner (1804) p. 132. In Klopstock's Messias, it will not be amiss to add, we find a passage (XIX, 268-73) reminiscent of the excursion on Lake Zürich which the poet enjoyed while a guest of Bodmer. The experiences of that day Klopstock cherished as a precious memory, and they inspired what is generally regarded as his most famous poem, Der Zürchersee.

28 An allusion to Klopstock.

29 Cf. the ed. of 1750, III, 7.

30 Ibid., III, p. 64.

31 In a previous article, “Whiston as a Source of Bodmer's Noah” (Studies in Philol., Oct. 1925, pp. 522-28), I had occasion to refer to a specific influence of Klopstock. I propose later to discuss also some of the more important differences between the Noah and the Messias.

32 Philol. Quarterly, I, 116. In this connection see also my criticism of Muncker in my article “Bodmer and Milton,” J. E. G. Ph., XVII, 600 f.