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Schopenhauer and Pessimism in Nineteenth Century English Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Ralph Goodale
Ralph Goodale*
Affiliation:
Hiram College
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Extract

The years from 1885 to 1898 have been correctly termed by Mr. G. K. Chesterton “an epoch of real pessimism.” Not that pessimists were common at this time, but the question of the value of life was on the horizon of every educated man, and developed like a storm cloud whenever the air of speculation chilled. In England the literary men in particular were given to pessimistic questionings; and a great volume of Continental literature, of a quality to reënforce the idea of the world's tedium and pain, began to appear in translation. FitzGerald's translation of the Rubaiyat sprang into public attention in 1885 and maintained an immense popularity for the next fifteen years. Inasmuch as it has often been confidently affirmed that the cause of the pessimism of this period is to be found in the teachings of Schopenhauer, I have undertaken to examine the nature and extent of Schopenhauer's influence. No evidence appears, however, that Schopenhauer had more than a contributory influence; and the task has necessarily broadened into a study of the history of literary pessimism. Because of the extent of the subject, the present paper offers little more than a summary of methods and results. I hope later to publish the proofs in greater detail.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , March 1932 , pp. 241 - 261
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1932

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References

1 Shaw, 246.

2 The opinion that Schopenhauer is responsible for nineteenth-century pessimism is most common in conversation and as a passing comment in literary history. Stedman remarks in his Victorian Poets that the influence of Schopenhauer, among others, is “visible” in the writings of James Thomson (p. 455). M. Cazamian makes the statement, fairly accurate but misleading, that Gissing “inhaled the doctrine of Schopenhauer and assimilated it” (Legouis and Cazamian, Hist. of Eng. Lit., ii, 428). A. W. Jackson, in his life of Martineau, attributes the prevalence of pessimism to Schopenhauer and Hartmann (James Martineau: a Biography and Study, p. 393). Among critical writers of the pessimistic period, i.e., before 1900, one rarely finds this opinion; but, to judge from such fictional reports as Viola Paget's Baldwin, published in 1886, it appeared in conversation at that time. James Buchanan, in “The Dismal Throng,” published in the Idler, July 29, 1893, declares that the “literary undertakers” are:

The latest seed of Schopenhauer,

Born of a trull of Flaubert's choosing, (xxiv, 240)

3 The outline of the vogue of Schopenhauer and pessimism as presented here is based principally upon the British and American essays upon these subjects which can be discovered before 1901 (about 235 in number), of the files of several critical and general periodicals, and of the biographical records and works (up to 1900) of such authors as have been called pessimistic.

4 Lubbock's Letters of Henry James, ii, 7, shows that William James read Schopenhauer in 1860; an anonymous article on Leopardi, in Blackwood's for 1865 (xcvii, 462), makes a sneering comparison of the poet with “a comfortable German professor” (Schopenhauer was not a professor); F. H. Hedge reviewed recent German books on Schopenhauer in the Christian Examiner, of Boston, in 1865 (lxxvi, 46–80). When English-speaking people at last began to read of Schopenhauer, several writers expressed surprise that so little was known of him. See the review of Frauenstädt's Schopenhauer-Lexikon, the Atlantic, xxix, 504, 505; Katscher, “Englische Bücher über Heine und Schopenhauer,” Mag. f. d. Lit. d. Auslandes, No. 28 (July 8, 1776); Sully, Pessimism, 2; [J. P. Lacroix, in] the Methodist Quarterly Review, lvii (July, 1876), 489, 490.

5 The World as Will and Idea, 3 vol., trans. by Haldane and Kemp.

6 On the Fourfold Root, etc.: and, On the Will in Nature, trans. by Mme. Hillebrand.

7 Religion: a Dialogue, 1889; Studies in Pessimism, 1890, etc., trans. by T. B. Saunders.

8 Burnouf, Introduction a l'histoire du Bouddhisme Indien, which aroused comment in England, according to Müller (Chips, 1881 ed., i, 277). See also the lists of books on Brahman and Buddhist subjects, Rand's Bibliography of Philosophy.

9 I have found one treatment of the subject before this: J. Froschammer, “Optimism and Pessimism,” Cont. Rev., xviii, 67–86, xix, 775–788 (Aug., 1871, May, 1872).

10 Oxenford, “Iconoclasm in German Philosophy,” West. Rev., xlix, 388–407 (Apr. 1, 1853); [F. H. Hedge], “Arthur Schopenhauer,” (Boston) Christian Examiner, lxxvi, 46–80 (Jan., 1864); Dr. David Asher, “Schopenhauer and Darwinism” (trans.), Journal of Anthropology, i, 312–332 (Jan., 1871); H. Lawrenny, “Arthur Schopenhauer,” Cont. Rev., xxi, 440–463 (Feb., 1873); E. Gryzanovski, “Arthur Schopenhauer,” Nor. Amer. Rev., cxvii, 37–80 (July, 1873): Friedrich Harms, “Arthur Schopenhauer's Philosophy” (trans.), Journal of Speculative Philosophy, ix, 113–138 (Apr., 1875).

11 Open Question, 209.

12 As in Challemel-Lacour's “Un bouddhiste contemporain en Allemagne: Arthur Schopenhauer,” in his Etudes et reflexions d'un pessimiste, and Hearn's Life and Letters, ii, 266.

13 “The Questioning Spirit,” Poems, 1883 ed., 185, 186.

14 World as Will and Idea, Haldane and Kemp's trans., i, 415.

15 Ibid., i, 415.

16 For proof that Tennyson held this view in later life, see “Wages,” “Despair,” “Vastness,” and “Locksley Hall Sixty Years After,” published respectively in 1868, 1881, 1885, and 1886, and a statement quoted by J. A. Symonds, “Miscellanies,” Lett. and Papers, 6.

17 Although science did not thus affect the minds of most thinking men until later in the century, Schopenhauer did not live too early for the influence described. For example, in Chap, xx of the supplements to the Well als Wille und Vorstellung he deduces the priority of brute tendencies in life over the operations of the mind from experiments recently performed by physiologists.

18 “A Lady of Sorrow,” National Observer, x, 34, 35, 52–54, 67–69, 83, 84, 99, 100, 119, 132, 133 (July 14 to Aug. 25, 1867).

19 Works, ii, 435–440.

20 Three Essays, 28–31.

21 Works, ii, 440.

22 “Cain,” Poems and Dramas (N. Y., Burt Co., n.d.), p. 436.

23 “Méditation sixième,” Méd. poétiques: nouv. éd. (Paris, 1915), pp. 91, 92.

24 Poems, N. Y., Crowell Co., n.d., 229, 230.

25 “Macromicros,” in “The Wanderer,” Poems (Boston, 1881), pp. 229, 230.

26 “Passing of Arthur,” Works (N. Y., 1913), p. 458.

27 W. B. Yeats, “Trembling of the Veil: Four Years, 1887–1891, ”Reveries, etc., 193, 194.

28 Lying Prophets, 199.

29 Lyrics of the Ideal and the Real, cop. 1887.

30 Pp. 161, 162.

31 “Charles Darwin: a Memorial Poem,” Poems, 7.

32 Pp. 1, 2.

34 Thomas Hardy: an Illustration of the Philosophy of Schopenhauer (University of Pennsylvania, 1911).

34 Op. cit., 10, 11.

35 P. 525, the last line of the poem.

36 The similarity of Hardy's and Schopenhauer's thought has aroused frequent comment. Professor Barker Fairley has noted the view of universal being common to Schopenhauer, Hardy, Shaw, and Doughty (“The Modern Consciousness in English Literature,” Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association (1924), ix, 126–144. Mr. Ernest Brennecke has traced the forms of Schopenhauer's philosophy in Hardy's work (Thomas Hardy's Universe: a Study of the Poet's Mind, 1924). The question of Hartmann's influence seems to have received little attention.

37 Op. cit., 11.

38 “Her Dilemma,” Coll. Poems, 1919, pp. 10, 11.

39 Coll. Poems, 7.

40 “We are the Choice of the Will,” Poems (N. Y., 1920), pp. 229–231.

41 Cornford, Henley, 98.

42 Preface to Davidson's Poems, Modern Lib. ed.

43 John Davidson: a Study of the Relation of his Ideas to his Poetry (Thesis), Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1916.

44 Ballads and Songs, 96.

45 Testament of a Viviseclor, 11.

16 Riddle of the Universe (N. Y., Harper, n.d.), 110, 111.

47 Pub. as Gabriel Denver, 1873. The quotation is to be found in Brown's Dwale Bluth, etc., pub. in 1876, Vol. ii, p. 206.

48 Ingram, Oliver Madox Brown, 100.

49 Stevenson, Letters, new edition, 1911, p. 100.

50 As seen, for example, in Karma, 1918 ed., p. 20; Out of the East (Boston, c. 1895), p. 83; Interpretations of Literature (N. Y., 1915), i, p. 337.

51 Lytton, Personal and Literary Letters, i, 135.

62 Ibid., ii, 275.

53 Ibid., ii, 276.

54 “Haunted,” Marah, 91.

55 Life, 1889 ed., 17.

56 Ibid., 18.

57 “On the Worth of Metaphysical Systems,” Essays and Phantasies, 297.

58 Life, 309, 310.

59 Pub. in Essays and Phantasies, 1.

60 Salt, Life, 310.

61 In Mem., xlvii.

62 Kap. xli, “Über den Tod”; Kap. xlvi, “Von der Nichtigkeit und dem Leiden des Lebens.”

63 i, 324–335.

64 Pp. 224, 225.

65 i, 325.

66 Henry Maitland (London, Nash, c1912), p. 121.

67 Intro. Survey, Gissing's House of Cobwebs (London, 1923), p. xxv. Maitland, 134.

68 See Henry Ryrecroft (N. Y., Dutton, n.d.), p. 194.