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George Ticknor and Ludwig Tieck

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Edwin H. Zeydel*
Affiliation:
University of Cincinnati

Extract

Concerning Ludwig Tieck's relations to Americans, Köpke, in his biography of Tieck, merely says: “Von Nordamerikanern lernte er [sc. Tieck] den Theologen Robinson und den Literarhistoriker Ticknor kennen.” Viewed in the light of other sources, however, the relations of Tieck to George Ticknor, the American historian and student of literature, deserve more than this passing comment and indeed form an interesting chapter in the history of German-American literary contacts.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , September 1929 , pp. 879 - 891
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1929

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References

Note 1 in page 879 The reference is to Edward Robinson, born 1794 in Southington, Conn., died 1863 in New York. He graduated from Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. After the death of his first wife he studied theology at Andover Theological Seminary. From 1826 to 1830 he travelled in Europe and in 1828 married Therese von Jacob (the authoress Talvj) in Halle. During this sojourn he met Tieck. He became professor of theology at Andover and later at Union Theological Seminary. Robinson traveled extensively in Egypt and Palestine; his principal work is Biblical Researches in Palestine (3 vols., Lond. and N. Y., 1841). Probably Tieck met his wife Therese too.

Note 2 in page 879 Ludwig Tieck. Erinnerungen aus dem Leben des Dichters, von Rudolf Köpke, 2. Teil, Leipzig, 1855, p. 72. Of Americans Tieck met also Francis Lieber, as we shall see below, and a Walter Haven (cf. Schleiermacher's letter to Tieck of May 9, 1831, published by Karl von Holtei in Briefe an Tieck, III, Breslau, 1864, p. 353); moreover J. L. Motley, Washington Irving and J. F. Cooper.

Note 3 in page 879 Quoted by S. H. Goodnight in German Literature in American Magazines prior to 1846, Bulletin of the Univ. of Wisc., No. 188, Philol. and Lit. Series, IV, 1, Madison, 1907, p. 33. Interest in Ticknor has recently been revived through the publication (by Clara L. Penny) of his letters to Pascual de Gayangos (Hisp. Soc. of America, New York, 1927).

Note 4 in page 880 Goodnight, loc. cit., is not correct in saying that Ticknor returned to America in 1817.

Note 5 in page 880 Hillard, Life, Letters and Journals of George Ticknor, I, Boston, 1876, p. 457. Hereafter the work will be referred to as Ticknor.

Note 6 in page 880 Tieck, born May 31, 1773, was then 62.

Note 7 in page 881 Ticknor, I, p. 460; entry of December 24.

Note 8 in page 881 Ibid., I, p. 462.

Note 9 in page 881 On Ed. von Bülow see Marie von Bülow, Bans von Büloivs Leben dargestellt aus seinen Briefen, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1921. For his relations to Tieck see Holtei, op. cit., I, p. 31, and II, pp. 23, 30, 31 and 346. Likewise Köpke, op. cit., II, p. 88; and H. von Friesen, Ludwig Tieck, I, Wien, 1871, pp. 10-11. See finally Erinnerungen an Friedrich von Üchtritz und seine Zeit, Leipzig, 1884, pp. 155-156 and 226-228. In 1834 Bülow published his Novellenbuch (Leipzig, 3 vols.) with an introduction by Tieck; the latter is reprinted in Tieck's Kritische Schriften, II, Leipzig, 1848, pp. 377-388.

Note 10 in page 881 Ticknor, I, 468.

Note 11 in page 881 Ibid., I, 475-476.

Note 12 in page 881 Ibid., I, 485. This agrees with the statement of Köpke, op. cit., II, 65, and with the evidence in other sources.

Note 13 in page 881 Raumer, born May 14, 1781, was then 54.

Note 14 in page 882 Recorded under date of March 9, ibid., I, 483.

Note 15 in page 882 Ibid., I, 455.

Note 16 in page 882 Entry of January 16, ibid., I, 469. The activities of Amalie as a playwright are recounted by Friesen, op. cit., I, 170. He mentions Der Oheim but not this incident.

Note 17 in page 883 For Tieck's views on this subject see an undated letter to Friedrich von Raumer published in Lebenserinnerungen und Briefwechsel von Fr. v. R., II, Leipzig, 1861, 191-195.

Note 18 in page 883 Ticknor, I, 478.

Note 19 in page 884 According to Tieck himself (Kritische Schriften, I, Leipzig, 1848, 242), he possessed 14 such plays and parts of 10 or 12 others. In the Berlin Nachlass I have found 11 plays complete and parts of 11 others.

Note 20 in page 884 Ticknor, I, 472-473.

Note 21 in page 884 See the article by Karl Gustav Carus, “Ludwig Tieck. Zur Geschichte seiner Vorlesungen in Dresden,” in Raumer's Historisches Taschenbuch, 1845.

Note 22 in page 884 Ticknor, I, 473.

Note 23 in page 885 Ibid., I, 477.

Note 24 in page 885 Ibid., I, 482.

Note 25 in page 885 Ibid., I, 485-486.

Note 26 in page 885 On this circle see Köpke, op cit., II, 63, and Friesen, op. cit., I, 13.

Note 27 in page 885 Ticknor, I, 475.

Note 28 in page 886 Ibid., I, 481-482.

Note 29 in page 886 The first edition had appeared in three volumes at Leipzig, 1839-1849. John published it under the pseudonym of Philalethes.

Note 30 in page 886 Ticknor, II, 480. This letter has been republished in Briefwechsel König Johanns von Sachsen mit George Ticknor, herausg. von Johann Georg und E. Daenell, Leipzig, 1920 (Sächsische Kommission für Geschichte, XX, 139). In another letter to the king of August 5, 1869 (ibid., p. 161), Ticknor also mentions Tieck.

In a memorandum quoted in Ticknor, II, 480, Ticknor again speaks of the “little meetings” of the Academia Dantesca. He says that he went to only two or three—two, to judge by his Journal—and never met anybody there but Tieck, Carus and Förster. He recollects seeing notices of the sessions in the Life of Förster. (The reference is to Biographie und literarische Skizzen aus dem Leben und der Zeit Karl Försters, I, Dresden, 1846, published by Förster's wife Louise. See her letter to Tieck of March, 1844, in Holtei, op. cit., I, 203). Both Förster and Carus stand out in Ticknor's mind as excellent Italian scholars. Carus, he says, made a detailed plan of the Divine Comedy, of which he gave Ticknor a copy “still to be found in my large paper landino.” This is probably preserved in the Ticknor collection of the Boston Public Library. Tieck, he says, was not as exact in his Italian as Förster and Carus were, but “more genial and agreeable.”

Note 31 in page 887 Ticknor, I, 489.

Note 32 in page 887 Ibid., I, 491.

Note 33 in page 887 Ibid., I, 503. Friedrich Tieck, the sculptor (1776-1851), was three years younger than Ludwig.

Note 34 in page 887 Francis Lieber was born in Berlin on March 18, 1800. He died in New York on October 2, 1872. See Miscellaneous Writings; Reminiscences, Addresses and Essays ed. by D. C. Gilman, Philadelphia, 1881; Life and Letters of Francis Lieber, ed. by T. S. Perry, Boston, 1882; and Ernest Bruncken in Deutsch-Amerikanische Geschichtsblätter, XV (1915), 7-61.

Note 35 in page 888 See Perry, op. cit., p. 180.

Note 36 in page 888 Holtei, op. cit., IV, 103-104.

Note 37 in page 888 For his exact itinerary see Perry, op. cit., p. 180 ff.

Note 38 in page 889 Op. cit., II, 134-136. The letter is dated February 25, 1834.

Note 39 in page 889 Ticknor, II, 250-251.

Note 40 in page 890 See Zeydel, “Ludwig Tieck's Library,” Mod. Lang. Notes, XLII, 21-5 Cf. also Köpke, op. cit., II, 134.

Note 41 in page 890 Ticknor, II, 260-261.

Note 42 in page 891 Ibid., II, 334. The letter is dated September 24, 1856.

Note 43 in page 891 Ticknor's Life contains no less than four excellent likenesses of Tieck: 1. an engraving by Lecurieux-Conquy, I, 456-457; 2. an unsigned pen and ink sketch, I, 474-475; 3. an engraving published by Dittmarsch, Stuttgart, II, 260-261; and 4. an engraving by Griessman-Schwerdgeburth, II, 480-481. From this point of view few men are better represented in the work.

Note 44 in page 891 E. P. Whipple, Recollections of Eminent Men, Boston, 1887, p. 274.