Text: Gustav Gruener, “Poe's Knowledge of German,” Modern Philology (Chicago, IL), vol. II, no. 1, June 1904, pp. 125-140

[page 125:]

POE'S KNOWLEDGE OF GERMAN.

WHETHER Edgar Allan Poe knew enough German to be able to read German authors in the original, or not, is not a question of momentous importance. Yet it is one of considerable interest to the student of Poe who while reading his works is haunted continually by echoes and reminiscences, more or less striking, of the German Romanticists. He cannot help speculating as to whether such similarities come directly from the study of the originals, or were unconsciously absorbed from the literary atmosphere of the period, which was surcharged with Romanticism and “Germanism.” If this question could be definitely answered, it might clear up a number of knotty problems presenting themselves to the reader of Poe. Among them, that one suggested by Professor H. M. Belden, of the University of Missouri, some two or three years ago,(1) who, assuming that Poe knew no German, develops an ingenious theory of the sources of Poe's charges of plagiarism against Hawthorne.

Consequently it may be worth while — if only to satisfy a justifiable literary curiosity — to examine a little further into the question, to investigate what light a careful marshaling of all the evidence may throw upon the case, and to see what answer, if any, may be given to this problem after a thorough discussion of the evidence presented.

The general attitude of those who hold that Poe knew no German is well expressed by Professor Belden in the article referred to,(2) when he writes:

This view, generally accepted, is based upon three arguments. Of these the first, that we have no record or authoritative statement that Poe knew or studied German, is perfectly true. The other two are, however, mere assumptions. The second claim, that “there is much reason to believe that he never undertook . . . . [the] arduous task, the acquisition of that language,” is not warranted by what we know of the poet's natural abilities and of his studies, or of his literary interests and work. Hence it is not to be accepted without further discussion. The third argument, that Poe's occasional use of German was only for effect, was meretricious, and not based upon actual knowledge of German, is a charge which has often been made and is not with out considerable foundation. There is not the slightest doubt that Poe discredited all his work by his “noxious habit” of “throwing a glamor of erudition about his work by the use of phrases from old authors he had read, or among whose treatises he had foraged with a special design,” a method that “was clever,” though “it partook of trickery even in its art.”(1) But in itself this is no more an argument against his possessing a knowledge of German than against his knowledge of French or Latin, both of which languages he knew comparatively well, even though his knowledge was inexact at times.

Looking at this question entirely from a theoretical, a priori standpoint, the presumptions seem to favor a view just opposite to that taken by Professor Belden, who holds that “there is much reason to believe that he never undertook . . . . [the] arduous task, the acquisition of that [i. e., German] language.” We know from the testimony of old schoolmates and friends that Poe was an uncommonly bright, precocious boy; that in the school at Stoke-Newington in England and later in Richmond he dis played unusual talents for languages. He learned to speak French “with a marked facility.”(2) He also was an adept in [page 127:] “capping” Latin verses,(1) “was very fond of the Odes of Horace,” which “he often repeated,” and possessed besides “an unusual skill in construing Latin.” He showed, even at school, an “aptitude and fondness for literary and linguistic studies.” At the University of Virginia, where Poe was enrolled as a student for one year,(2) he was reported as among those who had excelled in French and Latin. He was also “publicly commended for a verse translation from Tasso,” besides being a successful student in Spanish.(3)

At the university Poe enrolled himself in the School of Mod ern Languages, in which “are to be taught French, Spanish, Italian, German, and the English language, in its Anglo-Saxon form.”(4) His chief instructor was Professor Blaettermann, who, according to Professor James A. Harrison,(5) was “an accomplished German,” and whose “influence is perceptible all through Poe's humorous, imaginative work.” Poe was better prepared than most of his fellow-students,’ besides being more mature. He was “already writing weird tales” and “was seriously busied with poetry”’(6) during the year at the university.

Furthermore, this year came right at the time when the English-speaking world was becoming thoroughly interested in German literature and thought, particularly of the Romantic school. The trend and spirit of German Romanticism were so fully in accord with the temperament and genius of the incipient author that it seems almost inevitable to suppose that he too would become interested in the productions of that school. Considering also that Poe's chief instructor was an accomplished native German, ready to introduce the student into the promising fields of Romanticism, it does not seem an entirely unwarranted assumption that Poe availed himself of the opportunity and studied German, either in the class-room or outside.(7) His course was not a “heavy” one for a student of his capacities, as there is [page 128:] a record of a classmate of his, a “hard student,” Henry Tutwiler, who during that same session had not only taken, but excelled in, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and mathematics.(1) Hence it would not have been such a very “arduous task” for Poe to have acquired a knowledge of German, besides doing the work in those studies of which we have direct testimony.

Lack of direct testimony as to his study of German is no proof in itself. For he had sufficient knowledge of Greek, how ever inaccurate in detail, to discuss questions of Greek literature with considerable intelligence and a certain amount of critical acumen. Professor Kent thinks that “it may be true that he was a member of the classes in Greek . . . . though there is no mention of him in connection with Greek.”(2) What holds true of Greek may be just as true of German-nay, more true, as Poe really had better opportunities and more personal reasons for its study.

Far be it from me to belittle the difficulties of acquiring German. We must, however, always bear in mind that Poe had an unusual gift for languages, besides being mature and therefore able to do effective independent work. Furthermore, the acquisition of German was not universally considered such an “arduous task” even in those days. For only a year afterward Thomas Carlyle wrote:(3)

Poe was no Carlyle, but if Carlyle could surmount “the prime obstacles” in three months and find the rest “play,” German could not have been an insuperable, or even an appalling, task for Poe with his natural gifts and linguistic training, supported by powers of application, which are proved beyond all question by his record as a soldier and his effective industry as an editor in the working periods of his early life. [page 129:]

Taking, then, the actual state of affairs, as presented, into consideration, there is just as much reason to believe that Poe did acquire German, at least enough to get a reading knowledge of it, as there is for believing that he did not.

If Poe did acquire a knowledge of German there is good reason to believe that he studied the language comparatively early, for from the very beginning of his literary career there are indications that he was deeply interested in German and had some knowledge of it, however superficial. Thus in a note to the poem “Al Araaf” he quotes three lines from Goethe's “Meine Göttin”:(1)

In his first-pulbished [[first-published]] tale, Ms. Found in a Bottle, Poe shows an interest in German, speaking of the hero's favorite studies,(2) for Poe's heroes generally contain a good deal of Poe himself. There are allusions of a similar nature in Morella(3) and Bon-Bon,(4) which were all written before he began his career as an editor.

Now for the third argument of Professor Belden, based upon Poe's superficiality and shallow pretensions to extensive and pro found erudition, especially in foreign languages. Not only in regard to German, but also in regard to Greek, the charge has been brought that he was “profoundly ignorant” of the language.(5) Yet it is probably true that he studied Greek, and, though at times inaccurate in his information, he does show an intelligent appreciation of its literature and spirit. His enemies and adverse critics have questioned his knowledge of all foreign languages, including French,(6) and ridiculed even his English. To what [page 130:] extent his enemies were ready to go in their indiscriminate accusations may be seen in those hysterical charges made by Thomas Dunn English, who in that notorious controversy with Poe wrote in a public letter:(1)

The persistent reiteration of such charges, corroborated, as it seemed, by his first biographer, Griswold, did not fail to make an impression upon the minds of honest and impartial writers, as upon Thomas Wentworth Higginson, whose mistaken impression and unintentional slander of Poe have been so cleverly shown up by Professor Henry A. Beers.(2)

It is high time that these indiscriminate charges should cease, that the evidence be gathered and the testimony be carefully weighed, and that then only judgment be passed.

Now, what evidence bearing upon this point can be presented from a thorough examination of Poe's works? There is, to begin with, scattered testimony proving his general knowledge of Ger man literature and German thought. We find in his reviews and literary discussions reference to German criticism and critics,(3) particularly repeated references to the Schlegels.(4) There are [page 131:] allusions to various German poets with quotations, correct in every particular.(1) In his review of Longfellow's ballads(2) he discusses with discrimination a number of German ballads, and ventures some generalizations concerning the nature of the German ballad. He finds that Longfellow has been influenced in his way of thinking by his study of German and is “imbued with the peculiar spirit of German song,” so that “he [Longfellow] thinks the inculcation of a moral as essential” — a perfectly true statement in respect to most German ballads. Poe is greatly interested in Fouqué, the translation of whose Undine he reviews with enthusiastic admiration.(3) He discusses and criticises the German Kunstroman as being a “mad — or perhaps a profound idea.”(4) In a review he makes a hit at poor “German Greek Prosodies.”(5) He notes in the Marginalia the “epidemic of history-writing” with which the “Germans are now afflicted.”(6) In these same notes he jots down a bit of information from “an old German chronicle about Reynard the Fox,”(7) which he uses to illustrate some literary point. Here too he censures some assertion of Hegel's, which he cites as jargon, and as not being original with that philosopher.(8) He criticises an apothegm of Novalis, which he quotes.(9) From Novalis he quotes another apothegm in his tale The Ragged Mountains.(10) In his Pinakidia we find a note about “German epic poems composed in metre of sixteen and seventeen syllables,”(11) while in a letter he alludes to the wandering Jew, “known to German writers as Ahasuerus.”(12) Of course, none of these allusions, nor all of them combined, afford the slightest evidence that Poe knew German at first hand. He may have, probably had, found them all in English works, magazines, translations, etc. They do, however, show accuracy in the use of names and such quotations as occur. Furthermore, they prove an intelligent, keen interest in and appreciation of German literature and thought, covering a wide range of subjects. [page 132:]

Poe, as has been justly charged, was frequently guilty of the tendency of his literary contemporaries, “to garnish some trite context or give an air of superior learning to some critique” by means of a learned, or foreign, word or phrase. He most commonly employed French, as he spoke it fluently and could quote it freely. But he uses also occasional German words and phrases, introduced, however, with discrimination and with a nice appreciation of their meaning; e. g., where no single English equivalent can be found, as Schwärmerei(1) and motivirt,(2) for which equivalents do not exist even now. He speaks of his own Philistine age as a “period not inaptly denominated by the Germans ‘the age of wigs’” (i. e., Zopf- or Perackenzeit).(3) In Griswold's edition of the Literati(4) his severe flagellation of Thomas Dunn Brown (English) ends with that most appropriate, scathing sentence: “In character, a windbeutel” — in which the German word speaks volumes.

Again, he contrives to give a sentence a clever or humorous turn by simply using a German phrase; e. g., he “made great eyes (as we say in Germany).”(5) In his introduction to the Marginalia he speaks of a mood of distraction and ennui as “what the Germans call the ‘brain-scattering’ humor of the moment.”(6) In his Marginalia he senses a difference in meaning between edelgeboren and wohlgeboren, whether the facts inferred are correct or not.(7) So in the Pinakidia he noted the derivation of dichtkunst and dichten,(8) which, though it is wrong, he considers a lucky discovery, as he makes use of his note in a review of Longfellow's poems.(9) He also knows that “art” in German has an “extensive signification,” which the English does not possess.(10)

Phrases are not quoted frequently. But those which are quoted are correctly quoted; e. g., he cites a couple of lines [page 133:] from Schiller's “Nadowessiers Totenlied,” which Poe, probably following the book before him, calls “Nadowessische Todten klage.”(1) Three long names of books, two by Kant(2) and one by Herder,(3) are correctly cited with their full German title. Very felicitous too is the German motto from Goethe on the title page of his Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque.(4)

Only in one case does there seem to be testimony favoring the view that Poe knew no German. But that testimony is uncertain and might be used as an argument for either view. In the tale How to Write a Blackwood Article,(5) after quoting some sample passages from French, Spanish, and Italian to be used to give an air of erudition to a magazine article, Poe quotes also the following German couplet:

He then goes on: “That's German from Schiller. ‘And if I die, at least I die — for thee — for thee!”’ Now, these lines are not from Schiller, but from Goethe, occurring in the ballad “Das Veilchen.”(6) Furthermore, they are not correctly quoted, as the first line runs:

In the third place, durch sie is not correctly translated by “for thee.” But the very fact that Poe assigns the lines to Schiller and makes a mistake in quoting them may be taken to indicate that Poe was quoting from memory, and forgot the author as well as the exact wording of the lines. Poe's translation is not correct, but in sense it is not so far from the original, and fits his purpose better and may have been intentional. Besides the parody of the verses Poe gives in the following tale, A Predicament,(7)

proves that Poe knew at least two facts about German pronunciation; namely, that a d final (in und) is pronounced like t, and [page 134:] that the German ch is pronounced more like k than ch in “church,” which pronunciations a person utterly ignorant of German would naturally give.

The varied cumulative evidence so far adduced seems to prove this much at least, that Poe was not entirely ignorant of German, that he must have had enough of a smattering knowledge to copy German, cite books, and quote words and phrases correctly when he so desired.

But there is positive evidence bearing upon the question under discussion — evidence which in the case of any other author would be absolutely convincing, and, even with Poe's dubious reputation in the matter of literary and scientific honesty, seems all but conclusive.

The first case in point is to be found in the tale The Premature Burial,(1) where Poe gives the details of a case of premature burial, taken, as he informs us, from a recent number of “The Chirurgical Journal of Leipsic”(2) — “a periodical,” he goes on to say, “of high authority and merit, which some American book seller would do well to translate and republish.” While it is not impossible that Poe had hit upon the case cited in some journal in English, or that some friend might have read it and told him of it, yet the tone and whole setting of the incident seem to indicate that Poe had read the case himself and had consulted the “Chirurgical Journal” at other times for abnormal medical cases. There seems to be no special reason for Poe's wishing to display pretended erudition in this connection, as he might have reasons for doing in a learned book review.

The next case seems to furnish direct and positive evidence. It is a passage of German prefaced to the The Mystery of Marie Roget,(3) containing forty-five words, correctly quoted with exception of an evident typographical error. Poe adds a translation. There was at that time no complete translation of Novalis's works,(4) [page 135:] and only one book, as far as could be ascertained, contained the translation of that particular passage.(1) This book Poe had probably seen, as it contains also the quotations from Novalis, mentioned above.(2) This passage, taken from Novalis's Moralische Ansichten(3) runs:

Es giebt eine Reihe idealischer Begebenheiten, die der Wirklichkeit parallel liauft. Selten fallen sie zusammen. Menschen und Zufille modi ficiren gewohnlich(4) die idealische Begebenheit, so dass sie unvollkommen erscheint, und ihre Folgen gleichfalls unvollkommen sind. So bei der Reformation.(5) Statt des Protestantismus kam das Lutherthum hervor.

The passage is translated by Mrs. Austin and Poe as follows:

Comparing the two translations, in which divergencies are indicated by italics, it will be seen that they differ chiefly in choice of words. They both follow the German closely. Poe is closer in line 5, where Mrs. Austin translates die by “every;” in line 8, where Mrs. Austin inserts “it was;” in the slight matter of the semicolon in line 7, and the literal translation of kam in line 9, where Poe, however, disregards hervor. Mrs. Austin, on the other hand, translates Begebenheit, line 5, and Zufälle, line 4, more exactly.(6) The differences, after all, are unimportant, and [page 136:] determined apparently rather by reasons of taste and style than by the demands of the sense. In short, the translations are such as would be made by two persons independently of each other, both of whom understood the German accurately, but were not obliged to translate it word for word with aid of a dictionary.

There could be no doubt at all about the conclusiveness of this evidence, if there were no doubts about Poe's literary and scientific methods. But, unfortunately, his methods are not above criticism,(1) and he has laid himself open to the charges of literary charlatanism which he has made against others. And so some might see in the two translations suggestions of the method employed in Poe's compilation of The Conchologist's First Book, i. e., a deliberate attempt to cover plagiarism by slight changes in Mrs. Austin's translation, not important enough to change the sense, but yet sufficient to give to the whole an appearance of originality. For example, in the first line both translations make idealischer agree with the wrong noun. Again in line 7 both trans late gleichfalls by “equally,” which is neither the natural nor the exact translation. Furthermore, the use of “train of events” by Poe in line 5, though he uses “series of events” in line 1 where Mrs. Austin uses “train of events,” might seem to point to the same method.

But, in considering these doubts, we must remember that, in the very first place, Poe had somehow to find the original passage in Novalis, as he quotes the German for it. For Mrs. Austin gives not the slightest hint as to where the passage is to be found. If now, we deny Poe's ability to read German, we must assume that he asked some friend to hunt out the passage for him. In addition, since Poe's translation shows some independence and yet is fairly accurate, we must assume that he had this friend translate or explain the passage to him, and that then he worked over Mrs. Austin's translation into this pretendedly independent version.

Now why should Poe have gone to all this trouble and have committed this deliberate deception for the mere motto to a tale? Particularly when this motto is so inessential to the plot and [page 137:] contributes so little to the atmosphere of the whole? And when he could have produced practically the same impression of erudition by simply quoting the passage in English, assigning it to Novalis and concealing its real source? If he had run across the German in his reading of Novalis and had jotted it down, it is easy to see why he should be tempted to cite the German as well as the English version. But these other assumptions are entirely unwarranted by the circumstances.

Then there seems to be some warrant for supposing that Poe was an admirer of Novalis and acquainted with his work, if we may trust the opinion of Professor Harrison, his latest biographer and editor, in which Professor Woodberry seems to a certain extent to concur. The former calls Novalis one of “Poe's masters across the German sea,”(1) and the latter speaks of the treatise “‘Eureka’ — of which a germ appears in a single phrase of Novalis.”(2) As there was no complete translation of Novalis at the time, and the fragments translated by Mrs. Austin cover just seven small pages, while those in the few contemporaneous English essays contain hardly much more, it seems most reasonable to hold that Poe knew Novalis in the original, and that he translated the passage under discussion independently, even though his attention may have been distinctly called to it by the passage in Mrs. Austin's Fragments.

Fortunately, there is another German selection which Poe quotes in the original as a note to the translation occurring in the text of his Eureka. The passage is longer, seventy-six words, and much more difficult, taken from the first volume of Humboldt's Kosmos.(3) There were only two English translations of this volume antedating Poe's Eureka(4) — one by Prichard (London, 1845), the other done by Lieutenant-Colonel Sabine (London, 1847). The original selection, which Poe quotes letter-perfect, runs: [page 138:]

Betrachtet man die nicht perspectivischen eigenen Bewegungen der Sterne, so scheinen viele Gruppenweise in ihrer Richtung entgegen gesetzt; und die bisher gesammelten Thatsachen machen es auf's wenigste nicht nothwendig, anzunehmen, dass alle Theile unsrer Sternenschicht oder gar der gesammelten Sterneninseln, welche den Weltraum fiillen, sich um einen grossen, unbekannten, leuchtenden oder dunkeln Centralkerper bewegen. Das Streben nach den letzten und hOchsten Grundursachen macht freilich die reflectirende Thatigkeit des Menschen, wie seine Phantasie, zu einer solchen Annahme geneigt.

This has been translated as follows:(1)

A comparison of the four translations demonstrates that Poe's translation is surely as independent and original as the other three. While less literal than Prichard's, as a whole it is closer to the original than Sabine's and has more literary quality than all three. It is a free translation, but gives the full sense of the German, except possibly that part (in lines 7 to 9) beginning “the systems,” etc., to “the Universe.” However, the inexact ness of the translation here does no violence to the general sense, and in no way affects the point in which Poe is interested. Nor is the translation a dictionary word-for-word translation, or Poe would not, e. g., have mistranslated Sternenschicht as “Milky May,” or interpolated “real” in the first line or “particular” in line 10. On the whole, Poe's version might be called a faith ful rendering of the substance and form of the original, such as would be made by one thoroughly understanding the German original, and, hence, feeling himself free to make changes not essential to the sense for the sake of a good literary English translation.

Of course it might be assumed in this case too that Poe secured somebody to hunt up the original passage in the German text-somewhat of a task, as the German volume has no index and to translate it for him. But if we stand ready to accept assumption in place of argument, we may as well stop discussing literary questions seriously and adopt once for all as the guiding principles of literary investigation the methods of the Shakspere Baconian school.

Here we must rest the case. The evidence presented has shown that Poe had an unusual natural capacity for languages; that he had abundant and favorable opportunity for studying German, which was one of the course of studies elected by him [page 140:] at the university; that, furthermore, his chief professor was a native German. It is well known and universally acknowledged that Poe's innate bent and native genius were more in sympathy with German Romanticism than with the tenets of any other literary school. His personal interest in German thought and literature has been abundantly shown in his criticisms. And we know that his contemporaries were equally interested in these subjects, so that a knowledge of German seems a sine qua non for a literary critic of that period. We have noted his careful and discriminating use of single German words, and the appropriate ness and correctness of the German phrases which he occasionally cites. Finally, we have found two German passages, quoted accurately, which, as far as can be judged by any evidence at hand, he translated independently and correctly, with no indica tions either of painful word-for-word translation or of careless guessing. All this cumulative evidence ought, in my opinion, to establish beyond reasonable doubt the presumption that Poe knew German at first hand, and must have known enough to read easy prose and, where necessary, to translate difficult prose with exactness and facility. If the evidence does not seem convincing to any who have held the opposite view, it devolves upon them to establish their standpoint. For upon them the burden of proof now rests.

GUSTAV GRUENER.

YALE UNIVERSITY.

[[Footnotes]]

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 125:]

1 Cf. Anglia, Vol. XXIII (1901), pp. 376-405.

2 P. 389.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 126:]

1 Cf. STEDMAN, Edgar Allan Poe, p. 79. Cf. also HARRISON, The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Virginia Edition (New York, 1902; hereafter cited as Works), Vol. XIV, p. vi. “The habit [of jotting down quotations from poets, aphorisms from philosophers, and memorabilia from men of literary generations gone by] was perhaps an intellectually noxious one, for Poe continually used the same quotations-especially the French ones to garnish some trite context or give an air of superior learning to some insignificant critique.”

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 126, running to the bottom of page 127:]

2 Cf. JOHN H. INGRAM, Edgar Allan Poe: His Life, Letters, and Opinions (London, 1880), 126 [page 127:] Vol. I, pp. 20 ft. Also The Unveiling of the Bust of Edgar Allan Poe, etc., compiled and edited by CHARLES W. KENT (Lynchburg, Va., 1901; cited as Poe Memorial), pp. 13, 14.

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 127:]

1 “Capping” was recalling Latin verses when the first letter, or both the first and the last letter of the line, were given.

2 He was at the university from January 19, 1826, till late in December of that year.

3 Poe Memorial, p. 21.

4 Ibid., p. 14.

5 In a personal letter.

6 Poe Memorial, p. 16.

7 He had abundant leisure and spent considerable time in the library. Poe Memorial, p. 15.

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 129:]

1 Poe Memorial, p. 14. Another student, Gessner Harrison, excelled in Greek, Latin, French, Italian, German, and medicine.

2 Poe Memorial, p. 14.

3 In his Introduction to German Romance (Edinburgh, 1827). See Vol. I, p. 315 of Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, final edition (London, 1869).

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 128:]

1 Published in 1829. Cf. Works, VII, 28. He uses this same quotation as a motto for the title-page of Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque.

2 Works, II, 1. “Beyond all things the study of the German moralists gave me great delight,” etc.

3 Works, II, 27. There is a reference to “those mystical writings which are regularly considered the mere dross of early German literature,” the study of which “in the process of time became my own.” There is also a correct reference to the leading principles of the philosophers Fichte and Schelling.

4 Works, II, 129. He speaks of Bon-Bon as appearing “deeply tinctured with the diablerie of his favorite German studies.”

5 WILLIAM F. GILL, The Life of Edgar Allan Poe (New York, 1877), p. 170.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 128, running to the bottom of page 129:]

6 The most sweeping condemnation of Poe is contained in the charges made by ARVÉDE BARINE in Revue des Deus Mondes, Vol. CXLII, p. 566: “Edgar Poe, hélas! prêtait aussi [page 129:] le flanc aux reproches de charlatanisme qu’il addressait & ses confrbres. Il ne c6dait B personne de la baie de Delaware au Mississipi, pour la science de la r6clame, et, si sa probit6 lui interdisait les moyens d6shonnates, sa vanit6 d’auteur lui conseillait les moyens ing6nieux . . . . Lui aussi, il eut sa petite provision de citations en toutes langues qu’il savait et celles qu’il ne savait pas, et il les plaga et replaga ‘adroitement,’ avec un m6pris superbe de la prosodie, de la syntaxe et du reste.” After calling attention to a number of errors in French and Greek, the writer goes on to say: “On s’avertissait entre éditeurs de se d6fler de la science de M. Poe: — ‘II fait des citations de l’allemand, mais il n’en sait pas un mot . . . . Quant & son grec, vous saurez & quoi vous en tenir pour peu que vous y mettiez le nez.’”

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 129:]

1 Published in the New York Mirror, June 23, 1846; cf. Works, XVII, 238.

2 HENRY A. BEERS, A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1901), p. 163. “Colonel Higginson (Short Studies), & propos of Poe's sham learning and his habit of mystifying the reader by imaginary citations, confesses to having hunted in vain for this fascinatingly entitled ‘Journey into the Blue Distance;’ and to having been laughed at for his pains by a friend who assured him that Poe could scarcely read a word of German. But Tieck really did write this story, ‘Das Alte Buch; oder Reise ins Blaue hinein,’ which Poe misleadingly refers to under its alternate title.”

3 Works, IXI, 5; XVI, 115.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 129, running to the bottom of page 130:]

4 Works, VIII, 44; VIII, 47; X, 65; XI, 5, XVI, 144. Cf. also, Works, X, p. viii of Introduction, where the editor remarks: “His repeated quotations from August Wilhelm [page 130:] von Schlegel show the profound influence of this scholar and his brother on the plastic nature of Poe.”

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 130:]

1 Works, IX, 195. Review of Memorials of Mrs. Hemans.

2 Works, XI, 65 f.

3 Works, X, 30; XI, 89; XVI, 48.

4 Works, VIII, 231.

5 Works, XIV, 217.

6 Works, XVI, 12.

7 Works, XVI, 173.

8 Works, XVI, 164.

9 Works, XVI, 98.

10 Works, V, 171.

11 Works, XIV, 67.

12 Works, XVII, 16.

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 132:]

1 Works, Vol. XVI, p. 166. “The German Schwarmerei — not exactly humbug, but ‘sky rocketing’ — seems to be the only term by which we can conveniently designate that peculiar style of criticism which has lately come into fashion through the influence of certain members of the Fabian family — people who live (upon beans) about Boston.” From the con text it seems clear that Poe uses the word in its proper sense-visionary, unpractical method of criticism.

2 Works, Vol. VI, p. 146. “In the sense I intend it, it [perverseness] is, in fact, a mobile without a motive, a motive not motivirt.”

3 Works, VIII, 163.

4 Works, XV, 270.

5 Works, VI, 20.

6 Works, XVI, 3.

7. Works, XVI, 8.

8. Works, XIV, 67.

9. Works, XI, 74.

10. Works, IX, 62. 132

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 133:]

1 Works, IX, 195 f.

2 Works, II, 276.

3 Works, IX, 200.

4 Cf. supra, p. 5.

5 Works, II, 279.

6 KÜRSCHNER, National Litteratur: Goethe's Works, I, 117. The ballad begins Ein Veilchen auf der Wiese stand.

7 Works, II, 295. 133

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 134:]

1 Works, V, 259.

2 Probably Deutsche Zeitschrift fir die Chirurgie, which dates back to the early thirties of the nineteenth century.

3 Works, V, 1 ff.

4 At least no such book could be found in the catalogues of the British Museum and the leading American libraries. This is also confirmed by the statement of MRS. AUSTIN, in the book cited below, p. 314.

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 135:]

1 Fragments from German Prose Writers, translated by SARAH AUSTIN (London, 1841).

2 Poe had also reviewed earlier a translation by the same author of VON RAUMER'S England in 1885 ( Works, IX, 55).

3 Cf. Novalis’ Schriften, edited by TIECK AND SCHLEGEL, 5th ed. (Berlin, 1837), II, 274.

4 In Poe this word is spelled gewanulich, unmistakably a misprint.

5 Poe has a colon instead of a period.

6 In order to obtain some idea of how this passage would be translated by those able to read ordinary German, it was set as a sight passage for a class in third-year German. As a whole, the papers of the better students were as similar as the above, and, besides that, every one of Poe's peculiar translations was duplicated in some one paper. Thus Zufalle was translated “circumstances” by at least a third of the class.

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 136:]

1 Cf. what PROFESSOR WOODBERRY has to say about POE'S compilation of The Conchologist's First Book (:or a system of Testaceous Malacology . . . . By EDGAR A. POE. Philadelphia, 1839), in his Edgar Allan Poe (Boston, 1885), pp. 109 f. 136

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 137:]

1 Works, I, 154.

2 Cf. EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN and GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY, The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Chicago, 1894), Vol. I, p. 93.

3 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT, Kosmos (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1845), Vol. I, p. 151. 4 At least no others are to be found in the catalogues of the British Museum and the leading libraries of this country.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 138:]

1 For the sake of still further comparison the translation of this passage by E. C. OTTES, Cosmos, “Bohn's Scientific Series” (London, 1849), is appended. 138