HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories
HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories
Heinrich Heine that the early hostility towards the poet was waning. The moral reasons, which once weighed so heavily against the poet and which in 1834 prevented the Athenaeum from opening its columns to him, no longer seemed so important. Englishmen still did not justify his apparent moral aberrations but they sought to explain them and to discover mitigating circumstances. Faults he undoubtedly had, but were they not the faults of his time? Might not his sneers and his scepticism be ascribed to his desire to wean his countrymen from their pet failings? The Revolution of 1848 accustomed the European reading public to extreme boldness of utterance, to pungency of style, and to a questioning of fundamental social values. Compared with the communist tracts of Marx, Engels, and Lassalle, Heine's satirical essays seemed mild and entertaining. As a political pamphleteer, Heine was losing caste. Retaining pre-revolutionary slogans in post-revolutionary years, he was gradually becoming obsolete and ineffective. As a poet, on the other hand, he could now reckon with universal admiration. His songs, once considered as the frivolous ebullitions of a childish fancy, were taking a firm hold of the English no less than of the German mind. His Lorelei was on the lips of millions. [52]
Martyr of Montmartre Tait's Edinburgh Magazine devoted two issues in 1851 to a study of "Heine, His Works and Times." The study was a spirited defense of the poet against his accusers. It blamed the disastrous Napoleonic age for the unpleasant metamorphosis of a personality that was originally soft, patient, forbearing, and open to feelings of tenderness and admiration. It blamed Heine's environment for the deterioration of his sensitive, humble, and loving mind. It blamed his supposed descent from a Jewish father and a Christian mother for the conflicting strains which troubled his soul. Though it could not guarantee his sincerity, it defended him on the ground that authors in general were insincere and it saw no reason why a higher standard should be expected of the German poet: "The memoirs of literary men of all times and nations reduce us to the sad necessity of considering the very best authors in the light of actors. We remember the rigorous respectability of Goldsmith's writings in connection with the excesses of his private hf e. We think of Sterne's public sensibility and private hardness of heart: he neglects his mother and bewails the fate of a dead jackass. We remember, also, the glorious aspirations for hberty in Goethe's Faust, the tragic pathos in Iphi- Zema, and the exquisite touches of female heroism [53]
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Martyr of Montmartre<br />
Tait's Edinburgh Magazine devoted two issues in<br />
1851 to a study of "Heine, His Works and Times."<br />
The study was a spirited defense of the poet against<br />
his accusers. It blamed the disastrous Napoleonic<br />
age for the unpleasant metamorphosis of a personality<br />
that was originally soft, patient, forbearing,<br />
and open to feelings of tenderness and admiration.<br />
It blamed Heine's environment for the deterioration<br />
of his sensitive, humble, and loving mind. It blamed<br />
his supposed descent from a Jewish father and a<br />
Christian mother for the conflicting strains which<br />
troubled his soul. Though it could not guarantee his<br />
sincerity, it defended him on the ground that authors<br />
in general were insincere and it saw no reason<br />
why a higher standard should be expected of the<br />
German poet: "The memoirs of literary men of all<br />
times and nations reduce us to the sad necessity of<br />
considering the very best authors in the light of<br />
actors. We remember the rigorous respectability of<br />
Goldsmith's writings in connection with the excesses<br />
of his private hf e. We think of Sterne's public<br />
sensibility and private hardness of heart: he neglects<br />
his mother and bewails the fate of a dead jackass.<br />
We remember, also, the glorious aspirations for hberty<br />
in Goethe's Faust, the tragic pathos in Iphi-<br />
Zema, and the exquisite touches of female heroism<br />
[53]