The Influence of India and Persia on the Poetry of Germany

Information of Medi?val Europe Concerning India and Persia-Travellers-India and Persia in Medi?val German Poetry.

The knowledge which medi?val Europe had of India and Persia was mostly indirect, and, as might be expected, deficient both in correctness and extent, resting, as it did, on the statements of classical and patristic writers, on hearsay and on oral communication. In the accounts of the classic writers, especially in those of Pliny, Strabo, Ptolemy, truth and fiction were already strangely blended. Still more was this the case with such compilers and encyclop?dists as Solinus, Cassiodorus and Isidorus of Sevilla, on whom the medi?val scholar depended largely for information. All these writers, in so far as they speak of India, deal almost entirely with its physical description, its cities and rivers, its wealth of precious stones and metals, its spices and silks, and in particular its marvels and wonders. Of its religion we hear but little, and as to its literature we have only a few vague statements of Arrian,1 Aelian2 and Dio Chrysostomus.3 When the last mentioned author tells us that the ancient Hindus sang in their own language the poems of Homer, it shows that he had no idea of the fact that the great Sanskrit epics, to which the passage undoubtedly alludes, were independent poems. To him they appeared to be nothing more than versions of Homer. Aelian makes a similar statement, but cautiously adds ε? τι χρ? πιστε?ειν τοι? ?π?ρ το?των ?στορουσιν. Philostratus represents the Hindu sage Iarchas as well acquainted with the Homeric poems, but nowhere does his hero Apollonius of Tyana show the slightest knowledge of Sanskrit literature.4

Nor do the classic authors give us any more information about the literature of Persia, though the Iranian religion received some attention. Aristotle and Theopompus were more or less familiar with Zoroastrian tenets,5 and allusions to the prophet of ancient Iran are not infrequent in classic writers. But their information concerning him is very scanty and inaccurate. To them Zoroaster is simply the great Magian, more renowned for his magic art than for his religious system. Of the national Iranian legends, glimpses of which we catch in the Avesta (esp. Yt. 19), and which must have existed long before the Sassanian period and the time of Firdausī, the Greek and Roman authors have recorded nothing.

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But Europe was not limited to the classic and patristic writers for information about the Orient. The points of contact between the Eastern and Western world were numerous even before the Portuguese showed the way to India. Alexandria was the seat of a lively commerce between the Roman Empire and India during the first six centuries of the Christian era; the Byzantine Empire was always in close relations, hostile or friendly, with Persia; the Arabs had settled in Spain, Southern Italy and Sicily; and the Mongols ruled for almost two centuries in Russia. All these were factors in the transmission of Oriental influence.6 And, as far as Germany is concerned, we must remember that in the tenth century, owing to the marriage of the emperor Otto II to the Greek princess Theophano, the relations between the German and Byzantine Empires were especially close. Furthermore the Hohenstaufen emperor, Frederick II, it will be remembered, was a friend and patron of the Saracens in Italy and Sicily, who in turn supported him loyally in his struggle against the papacy. Above all, the crusades, which brought the civilization of the West face to face with that of the East, were a powerful factor in bringing Oriental influence into Europe. The effect they had on the European mind is shown by the great number of French and German poems which lay their scene of action in Eastern lands, or, as will be shown presently, introduce persons and things from India and Persia.7

Of course it is as a rule impossible to tell precisely how and when the Oriental influence came into Europe, but that it did come is absolutely certain. The transformation of the Buddha-legend into the Christian legend of Barlaam and Josaphat, the migration of fables and stories, and the introduction of the game of chess furnish the clearest proofs of this.

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But direct information about the East was also available. A number of merchants and missionaries penetrated even as far as China, and have left accounts of their travels. Such an account of India and Ceylon was given as early as the sixth century by Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes. The names of Benjamin of Tudela (about 1160 A.D.) and of Marco Polo (1271-1295) are familiar to every student of historical geography. The Mongol rulers during the period of their dominion over China were in active communication with the popes and allowed Western missionaries free access to their realm. A number of these missionaries also came to India or Persia, for instance Giovanni de Montecorvino (1289-1293),8 Odorico da Pordenone (1316-1318),9 Friar Jordanus (1321-1323, and 1330)10 and Giovanni de Marignolli (1347).11 In the fifteenth century Henry III of Castile sent Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo as ambassador to Timur, and towards the end of that century several Venetian Ambassadors, Caterino Zeno (1472), Josaphat Barbaro (1473) and Ambrosio Contarini (1473), were at the Persian Court in order to bring about united action on the part of Venice and Persia against the Turks.12 These embassies attracted considerable attention in Europe, as is shown by numerous pamphlets concerning them, published in several European countries.13 In this same century Nicolo de Conti travelled in India and the account of his wanderings has been recorded by Poggio.14

As we see, most of these travellers are Italians. We know of but one German, before the year 1500, who went further than the Holy Land, and that is Johann Schildberger of Munich, whose book of travel was printed in 1473. Taken prisoner while fighting in Turkish service against Timur at Angora, he remained in the East from 1395 to 1417, and got as far as Persia. His description of that country is very meagre; India, as he expressly states,15 he never visited, his statements about that land being mostly plagiarized from Mandeville.16

These accounts, however, while they give valuable information concerning the physical geography, the wealth, size, and wonderful things of the countries they describe, have little or nothing to say about the languages or literatures. All that Conti for instance has to say on this important subject is contained in a single sentence: "Loquendi idiomata sunt apud Indos plurima, atque inter se varia."17

In these accounts it was not so much truthfulness that appealed to the public, as strangeness and fancifulness. Thus Marco Polo's narrative, marvelous as it was, never became as popular as the spurious memoirs of Mandeville, who in serving up his monstrosities ransacked almost every author, classic or medi?val, on whom he could lay his hands.18 In fact a class of books arose which bore the significant name of Mirabilia Mundi and purported to treat of the whole world, and especially of India. Such are, for instance, Les Merveilles de l'Inde by Jean Vauquelin, Fenix de las maravillas del mondo by Raymundus Lullius, and similar works by Nicolaus Donis, Arnaldus de Badeto and others.19 But the great store-house of Oriental marvels on which the medi?val poets drew for material was the Alexander-romance of pseudo-Callisthenes, of which there were a number of Latin versions, the most important being the epitome made by Julius Valerius and the Historia de Preliis written by the archpresbyter Leo in the tenth century. The character of the Oriental lore offered in these writings is best shown by a cursory examination of the work last mentioned.20 There we are introduced to a bewildering array of mirabilia, snakes, hippopotami, scorpions, giant-lobsters, forest-men, bats, elephants, bearded women, dog-headed people, griffins, white women with long hair and canine teeth, fire-spouting birds, trees that grow and vanish in the course of a single day, mountains of adamant, and finally sacred sun-trees and moon-trees that possess the gift of prophecy. But beyond some vague reference to asceticism not a trace of knowledge of Brahmanic life can be found. While the Brahman King Didimus is well versed in Roman and Greek mythology, he never mentions the name of any of his own gods. Of real information concerning India there is almost nothing.

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From what we have seen thus far we shall not expect in medi?val literature conscious imitation or reproduction of works from Persian or Sanskrit literature. Whatever influence these literatures exerted in Europe was indirect. If a subject was transmitted from East to West it was as a rule stripped of its Oriental names and characteristics, and even its Oriental origin was often forgotten. This is the case with the greater part of the fables and stories that can be traced to Eastern sources and have found their way into such works as the Gesta Romanorum, or the writings of Boccaccio, Straparola and Lafontaine. Sometimes, however, the history of the origin is still remembered, as for instance in the famous Buch der Beispiele, where the preface begins thus: "Es ist von den alten wysen der geschl?cht der welt dis buoch des ersten jn yndischer sprauch gedicht und darnach in die buochstaben der Persen verwandelt,...."21

Poems whose subjects are of Eastern origin are not frequent in the German literature of the middle ages. The most striking example of such a poem is the "Barlaam und Josaphat" of Rudolph von Ems (about 1225), the story of which, as has been conclusively proved, is nothing more or less than the legend of Buddha in Christian garb.22 The well known "Herzmaere" of the same author has likewise been shown to be of Indic origin.23 Then there is a poem of the fourteenth or fifteenth century on the same subject as Rückert's parable of the man in the well, which undoubtedly goes back to Buddhistic sources.24 Besides these we mention "Vrouwenzuht" (also called "von dem Zornbraten") by a poet Sībote of the thirteenth century,25 and Hans von Bühel's "Diocletianus Leben" (about 1412), the well known story of the seven wise masters.26

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The great interest which the East aroused in Europe, especially after the period of the first crusades, is shown by the great number of poems which have their scene of action in Oriental lands, especially in India or Persia, or which introduce persons and things from those countries. To indulge this fondness for Oriental scenery poets do not hesitate to violate historical truth. Thus Charlemagne and his paladins are sent to the Holy Land in the "Pèlerinage de Charlesmagne"27 and in the poem called the "Karl Meinet," a German compilation of various legends about the Frankish hero.28 Purely Germanic legends like those of Ortnit-Wolfdietrich and King Rother were orientalized in much the same manner.29 As might be expected, it is in the court-epic and minstrel-poetry (Spielmannsdichtung) where this Oriental tendency manifests itself most markedly. A typical poem of this kind is "Herzog Ernst." The hero, a purely German character, is made to go through a series of marvelous adventures in the East some of which bear a striking resemblance to those of Sindbad.30 The later strophic version (14th century) and the prose-version of the Volksbuch (probably 15th century) localize some of these adventures definitely in the fernen India.31 Probably under the influence of this story the author of the incompleted "Reinfrit von Braunschweig" (about 1300) was induced to send his hero into Persia, to meet with somewhat similar experiences.32 Heinrich von Neustadt likewise lays the scene of Apollonius' adventures in the golden valley Crysia bordering on India.33 In the continuation of the Parzifal-story entitled "Der Jüngere Titurel," which was written by Albrecht von Scharffenberg (about 1280), the Holy Grail is to be removed from a sinful world and to be carried to the East to be given to Feirefiz, half brother to Parzifal.34 The meeting of Feirefiz with the knights furnishes the poet an opportunity of bringing in a learned disquisition on Prester John and his drī India die wīten, and finally this mythical monarch offers his crown to Parzifal, who henceforth is called Priester Johanni. In the poem of "Lohengrin", of unknown authorship, the knight when about to depart declares he has come from India where there is a house fairer than that at Montsalvatsch.35

Princes and princesses from India or Persia abound in the poems of the court-writers and minstrels. Thus in "Solomon und Morolf" Salme is the daughter of the King of Endian;36 in Wolfram's "Willehalm" King Alofel of Persia and King Gorhant from the Ganjes figure in the battle of Alischanz.37 In Konrad von Würzburg's "Trojanischer Krieg" the kings Panfilias of Persia and Achalmus of India are on the Trojan side.38 In the same poet's "Partenopier" the Sultan of Persia is the hero's chief rival.39 In "Der Jüngere Titurel" Gatschiloe, a princess from India, becomes bearer of the Grail; similarly in a poem by Der Pleiaere, Flordibel, who comes to the Knights of the Round Table to learn courtly manners, reveals herself as a princess from India.40 According to a poem of the fourteenth century the father of St. Christopher is king of Arabia and Persia.41 Even the folk-epic "Kudrun" knows of Hilde of India, Hagen's wife.42

Again, wonderful things from India are abundant in this class of poetry. The magic lance which Wigalois receives, when he is about to do battle with a fire-spitting dragon, is from that land.43 So also is the magic ring given to Reinfrit when he sets out on his crusade.44 Wigamur's bride Dulceflur wears woven gold from the castle Gramrimort in India,45 and in the "Nibelungen" Hagen and Dancwart, when going to the Isenstein, wear precious stones from that land.46

To some poets India and Persia are a sort of Ultima Thule to denote the furthest limits of the earth, as for instance, when in the "Rolandslied" Ganelun complains that for the ambition of Roland even Persia is not too far,47 or, when in the "Willehalm" King Tybalt, whose daughter has been carried off, lets his complaint ring out as far as India.48

Examples might be multiplied. But they would all prove the same thing. India and Persia were magic names to conjure with; their languages and literatures were a book with seven seals to medi?val Europe.

FOOTNOTES:

1 Indica, ch. 10.

2 Var. Hist. xii. 48.

3 De Homero, Oratio liii., ed. Dindorf, Lips. 1857, vol. ii. p. 165.

4 Apollonii Vita, iii. 19 et passim.

5 See Jackson, Zoroaster, p. 8.

6 See Benfey, Pantschatantra, Vorrede, p. xxiv and note.

7 See Gaston Paris, La Littérature Fran?aise au Moyen Age, Paris, 1888, p. 49 seq. A striking illustration of oral transmission is the origin of the tradition about Prester John, for which see Cathay and the Way thither, ed. Henry Yule, Lond. 1866, Hakluyt Soc. No. 36, 37, vol. i. p. 174 and n. 1.

8 Yule, op. cit. vol. i. pp. 165-167 and p. 197 seq.

9 Ib. pp. 1-161; Latin text in appendix i of vol. ii.

10 Mirabilia Descripta, ed. Henry Yule, London, 1863. Hakluyt Society, No. 31.

11 Yule, Cathay, vol. ii. pp. 311-381.

12 For their accounts see the publications of the Hakluyt Society, 1859 and 1873. Nos. 26 and 49.

13 See Paul Horn, Gesch. Irans in Islamitischer Zeit, in Grdr. iran. Phil. II. p. 578 and note 4; also p. 579. See also Bibl. Asiat. et Afric. par H. Ternaux-Compans, Paris, 1841, under the years 1508, 1512, 1514, 1515, 1516, 1535, 1543, 1579, 1583, etc.

14 English tr. in R.H. Major, India in the Fifteenth Century, London, 1857. Hakluyt Society, No. 22.

15 Hans Schiltbergers Reisebuch ed. Val. Langmantel (BLVS. vol. 172) Tübingen, 1885, p. 79: "In der grossen India pin ich nicht gewesen...."

16 Ibid. p. 164.

17 Friedr. Kunstmann, Die Kenntnis Indiens im 15ten Jahrhunderte, München, 1863, p. 59; Major, op. cit. p. 31.

18 See Albert Bovenschen, Quellen für die Reisebeschreibung des Joh. v. Mandeville, Berl. 1888.

19 See Gr?sse, J.G.Th., Lehrbuch einer allgem. Liter?rgesch., 9 vols., Dresd. u. Leipz. 1837-59, Vol. II. pt. 2, pp. 783-785.

20 Latin text publ. by Oswald Zingerle as an appendix to Die Quellen zum Alexander des Rudolf v. Ems in Weinhold Germ. Abhandl. Breslau. 1885, pt. iv.

21 Das Buch der Beispiele der alten Weisen, ed. Wilh. Ludw. Holland, Stuttg. 1860, BLVS. vol. 56.

22 Piper, H.E. iii. pp. 562-632. Joseph Langen, Johannes von Damaskus, Gotha, 1879, pp. 239-255, esp. p. 252, n. 1.

23 Piper, H.E. iii. pp. 216-219.

24 Vetter, Lehrhafte Litteratur des 14. u. 15. Jahrhunderts (KDNL. vol. 12), I. pp. 496-499. For a bibliography of this poem see C. Beyer, Nachgelassene Ged. Friedr. Rückert's, Wien, 1877, pp. 311-320. For a translation of the version in the Mahābhārata see Boxberger, Rückert Studien, p. 94 seq. A translation of a Buddhist sutta on the same subject is given in Edm. Hardy, Indische Religionsgeschichte, Leipz. 1898, pp. 72, 73. Cf. also E. Kuhn, in B?htlingks Festgruss, Stuttg. 1888, pp. 74, 75.

25 Piper, H.E. iii. pp. 531, 532. See also Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, i. LXXXV and n. 2.

26 Edited by Keller, Quedl. 1841. See art. by Goedeke in Orient und Occident, iii. 2. pp. 385 seq.

27 See edition by Koschwitz, in Altfranz. Bibl., vol. ii. p. 7 seq., and consult Gaston Paris, La Poésie du Moyen Age, Paris, 1887, p. 119 seq.

28 See ed. Adelb. von Keller, Stuttg. 1858 (BLVS. vol. 45), pp. 507 seq. Cf. also Uhland's K?nig Karls Meerfart.

29 Jiriczek, Die deutsche Heldensage, Leipz. 1897, pp. 144, 153.

30 On this see Karl Bartsch, Herzog Ernst, Wien, 1869, Einl. p. cliii.

31 Bartsch, op. cit. p. 204 seq. and p. 279 seq.

32 See ed. Bartsch, Tüb. 1871 (BLVS. vol. 108), ll. 16749 seq.

33 Piper, H.E. iii. p. 389.

34 Piper, H.E. ii. p. 530 seq.

35 See ed. by Heinr. Rückert, Quedlinb. u. Leipz. 1858, l. 7141 seq. p. 189.

36 Piper, Spielmannsdichtung, I. p. 215. See also ed. by Hagen u. Büsching in Ged. d. Mittel., Berl. 1808, i. l. 6.

37 Piper, Wolfr. v. Eschenbach (KDNL, vol. 5), I. p. 214.

38 See ed. v. Keller, Stuttg. 1858 (BLVS. vol. 44), ll. 24840, 24939, pp. 296, 298.

39 Piper, H.E. iii. pp. 299, 300.

40 Piper, H.E. ii. p. 325.

41 Piper, Die geistliche Dichtung des Mittelalters (KDNL. vol. 3), ii. pp. 71, 72.

42 See ed. Bartsch (KDNL. vol. 6), pp. 26, 27.

43 Piper, H.E. ii. p. 222.

44 See ed. Bartsch, l. 15067, p. 440.

45 See ed. by Hagen in Ged. d. Mittel. i. p. 46, l. 4462 seq.

46 Das Nibelungenlied, ed. Friedr. Zarncke, Leipz. 1894, p. 62, v. 3.

47 Piper, Spielm., p. 30.

48 Piper, Wolfr. v. Eschenbach, i. p. 208; cf. Dante's Paradiso, cant. 29, ll. 100-102.

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Travels to India and Persia-Olearius and his Work-Progress of Persian Studies-Roger-India's Language and Literature remain unknown-Oriental Influence in German Literature.

Little can be said of Oriental influence on German poetry during the next three centuries after the Great Age of Discovery, and in an investigation like the one in hand, which confines itself to poetry only, this chapter might perhaps be omitted. Nevertheless a brief consideration of this influence on German literature in general during this period forms an appropriate transition to the time when the Oriental movement in Germany really began.

After the Portuguese had sailed around Africa, direct and uninterrupted communication with the far East was established. Portuguese, Dutch, French and English merchants appeared successively on the scene to get their share of the rich India commerce. German merchants also made a transitory effort. The firm of the Welsers in Augsburg sent two representatives who accompanied the expedition of Francisco d' Almeida in 1505 and that of Trist?o da Cunha in the following year. But conditions were not favorable and the attempt was not renewed.49

Travels to India and Persia now multiplied rapidly, and accounts of such travels became very common; so common, in fact, that already in the sixteenth century collections of them were made, the best known being the Novus Orbis of Grynaeus, and the works of Ramusio and Hakluyt. Among the more famous travellers of the sixteenth century we may mention Barthema, Federici, Barbosa, Fitch and van Linschoten for India, and the brothers Shirley for Persia. In the seventeenth century we may cite the names of della Valle, Baldaeus, Tavernier, Bernier and the German Mandelslo for India, while those of Olearius and Chardin are most famous in connection with Persia. And that books of travel were much read in Germany is attested by the number of editions and translations which appeared there. Thus among the earliest books printed there we have a translation of Marco Polo (Nuremberg), 1477,50 reprinted repeatedly, e.g. at Augsburg, 1481, in the Novus Orbis, 1534 (Latin version), at Basle, 1534 (German translation of the preceding), while Mandeville's memoirs were so popular as to become finally a Volksbuch.51

The account of Olearius is of special interest to us. It gives an excellent description of Persia, and above all it gives us valuable information on the literature and language. Olearius is struck by the similarity of many Persian words to corresponding words in German and Latin, and hints at the kinship of these idioms, though, looking only at the vocabulary and not at the structure, he supposes Persian to be related to Arabic.52 He tells us of the high esteem in which poetry was held by the Persians, and notices that rhyme is an indispensable requisite of their poetic art. He also mentions some of their leading poets, among them Sa?dī, Hāfi?, Firdausī and Ni?āmī.53

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But what interests us most is the translation which he made of the Gulistān, published in 1654, under the title of Persianischer Rosenthal. True, it was not the first in point of time. As early as 1634 du Ryer had published at Paris an incomplete French version, and shortly afterwards this version was translated into German by Johann Friedrich Ochsenbach of Tübingen, but apparently without attracting much notice.54 In 1644, Levin Warner of Leyden had given the Persian text and Latin version of a number of Sa?dī's maxims,55 while Gentius had published the whole text with a Latin translation at Amsterdam in 1651. But it was the version of Olearius that really introduced the Gulistān to Europe.

The edition of Olearius, from which we have cited, contains also a translation of the Būstān, called Der Persianische Baumgarten, made, however, not directly from the Persian, but from a Dutch version. Besides this, the edition contains also the narratives of two other travellers, Jürgen Andersen and Volquard Iversen, as well as an account of Persia by the French missionary Sanson. Iversen, in speaking of the Parsi religion, gives an essentially correct account of the Zoroastrian hierarchy, of the supreme god and his seven servants, each presiding over some special element, evidently an allusion to Ahura Mazda and his six Amesha Spentas, with the possible addition of Sraosha.56 Sanson states that the Gavres have kept up the old Persian language and that it is entirely different from modern Persian,57 a distinct recognition of the existence of the Avestan language. The eighteenth century saw the discovery of the Avesta by Anquetil du Perron, and its close found men like Jones, Revizky, de Sacy and Hammer busily engaged in spreading a knowledge of Persian literature in Europe.

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India, as far as its literature was concerned, did not fare so well. The struggles of European nations for the mastery of that rich empire did little towards promoting a knowledge of its religion or its language. Nor were the efforts of missionaries very successful. Most of their attention was devoted to the Dravidian idioms of Southern India, not to Sanskrit. We have the authority of Friedrich Schlegel for the statement that before his time there were but two Germans who were known to have gained a knowledge of the sacred language, the missionary Heinrich Roth and the Jesuit Hanxleben.58 Even their work was not published and was superseded by that of Jones, Colebrooke and others. Most valuable information on Hindu religion was given by the Dutch preacher Abraham Roger in his well known book De Open-Deure tot het Verborgen Heydendom, published at Leyden in 1651, two years after the author's death. This book also gave to the West the first specimen of Sanskrit literature in the shape of a Dutch version of two hundred maxims of Bhart?hari, not a direct translation from the Sanskrit, but based on oral communication imparted by a learned Brahman Padmanaba.59 As a rule the rendering is very faithful, sometimes even literal. The maxims were translated into German by C. Arnold and were published at Nuremberg in 1663.

This, however, ended the progress of Sanskrit literature in Europe for the time being. Information came in very slowly. The Lettres édifiantes of the Jesuits, and the accounts of travellers like Sonnerat began to shed additional light on the religious customs of India, but its sacred language remained a secret. In 1785, Herder wrote that what Europe knew of Hindu literature was only late legends, that the Sanskrit language as well as the genuine Vēda would probably for a long time remain unknown.60 Sir William Jones, however, had founded the Asiatic Society a year before and the first step towards the discovery of Sanskrit had really thus been taken.

But let us consider what bearing all this had on German poetry. In this field the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were desperately dreary. In the former century the leading thinkers of Germany were absorbed in theological controversy, while in the next the Thirty Years' War completely crushed the spirit of the nation. There is little poetry in this period that calls for even passing notice in this investigation. Paul Fleming, although he was with Olearius in Persia, has written nothing that would interest us here. Andreas Gryphius took the subject for his drama "Catharina von Georgien" (1657) from Persian history. It is the story of the cruel execution of the Georgian queen by order of Shāh ?Abbās in 1624.61 Nor is Oriental influence in the eighteenth century more noticeable. Occasionally an Oriental touch is brought in. Pfeffel makes his "Bramine" read a lesson to bigots; Matthias Claudius in his well-known poem makes Herr Urian pay a visit to the Great Mogul; Bürger, in his salacious story of the queen of Golkonde, transports the lovers to India; Lessing, in "Minna von Barnhelm" (Act i. Sc. 12) represents Werner as intending to take service with Prince Heraklius of Persia, and he chooses an Oriental setting for his "Nathan der Weise."

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In the prose writings of this period Oriental influence is much more discernible. In the literature dealing with magic Zoroaster always played a prominent part. The invention of the Cabala was commonly ascribed to him.62 European writers on the black art, as for instance Bodinus, whose De Magorum D?monomania was translated by Fischart (Strassburg, 1591), repeat about Zoroaster all the fables found in classical or patristic writers. So the Iranian sage figures prominently also in the Faust-legend. He is the prince of magicians whose book Faust studies so diligently that he is called a second Zoroastris.63 This book passes into the hands of Faust's pupil Christoph Wagner, who uses it as diligently as his master.64

In all this folkbook-literature India is a mere name. Thus in the oldest Faust-book of 1587 the sorcerer makes a journey in the air through England, Spain, France, Sweden, Poland, Denmark, India, Africa and Persia, and finally comes to Morenland.65

Of all the prose-writings, however, the novel, which began to flourish luxuriously in the seventeenth century, showed the most marked tendency to make use of Eastern scenery and episodes, and incidentally to exhibit the author's erudition on everything Oriental. Thus Grimmelshausen transports his hero Simplicissimus into Asia through the device of Tartar captivity. Lohenstein, in his ultra-Teutonic romance of Arminius, manages to introduce an Armenian princess and a prince from Pontus. The latter, as we learn from the autobiography with which he favors us in the fifth book, has been in India. He took with him a Brahman sage, who burned himself on reaching Greece. Evidently Lohenstein had read Arrian's description of the burning of Kalanos (Arrian vii. 2, 3). The Asiatische Banise of Heinrich Anselm von Ziegler-Kliphausen, perhaps the most popular German novel of the seventeenth century, was based directly on the accounts of travellers to Farther India, not on Greek or Latin writings.66 Other authors who indulged their predilection for Oriental scenery were Buchholtz in his Herkules und Valisca (1659), Happel in Der Asiatische Onogambo (Hamb. 1673), Bohse (Talander) in Die durchlauchtigste Alcestis aus Persien (Leipz. 1689) and others.67

The most striking instance of the Oriental tendency is furnished by Grimmelshausen's Joseph, first published probably in 1667.68 Here we meet the famous story of Yūsuf and Zalīχā as it is given in the Qurān or in the poems of Firdausī and Jāmī. The well-known episode of the ladies cutting their hands instead of the lemons in consequence of their confusion at the sight of Joseph's beauty is here narrated at length.69 In the preface the author states explicitly that he has drawn, not only from the Bible, but from Hebrew, Arabic and Persian writings as well.70 That he should have made use of Arabic material is credible enough, for Dutch Orientalists like Golius and Erpenius had made this accessible.71 That he had some idea of Persian poetry is shown by his allusions to the fondness of Orientals for handsome boys.72 On the other hand, what he says of Zoroaster in the Musai can all be found in Latin and Greek writers.73 Here we get the biography of Joseph's chief servant in the form of an appendix to the novel, and the author displays all the learning which fortunately his good taste had excluded from the story itself. Of the Iranian tradition concerning Zoroaster's death as given in the Pahlavī writings or the Shāh Nāmah74 Grimmelshausen knew absolutely nothing; nor can we find the slightest evidence to substantiate his assertion that for the work in question he drew from Persian or Arabic sources.

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In the eighteenth century the Oriental tale was extremely popular in France, and thence it spread to other countries. The translation of the Thousand and One Nights by Galland (Paris, 1704-1712) and of the Persian Tales by Pétis de La Croix called into being a host of similar French productions, which in turn found their way into German literature. The most fruitful writer in this genre was Simon Gueulette, the author of Soirées Bretonnes (1712) and Mille et un quart d'heures (1715). The latter contains the story of a prince who is punished for his presumption by having two snakes grow from his shoulders. To appease them they are fed on fresh human brain.75 Of course, we recognize at once the story of the tyrant ?a??āk familiar from Firdausī. The material for the Soirées was drawn largely from Armeno's Peregrinaggio, which purports to be a translation from the Persian, although no original is known to scholars.76 From these Soirées Voltaire took the material for his Zadig.77 In most cases, however, all that was Oriental about such stories was the name and the costume. So popular was the Oriental costume that Montesquieu used it for satirizing the Parisians in his Lettres Persanes (1721). Through French influence the Oriental story came to Germany, and so we get such works as August Gottlob Meissner's tales of Nushirvan, Massoud, Giaffar, Sadi and others,78 or Klinger's Derwisch. Wieland used the Eastern costume in his Schach Lolo (1778) and in his politico-didactic romance of the wise Danischmende. This fondness for an Oriental atmosphere continues even into the nineteenth century and may be seen in such works as Tieck's Abdallah and Hauff's Karawane. But this brings us to the time when India and Persia were to give up their secrets, and when the influence of their literature begins to be a factor in the literature of Europe.

FOOTNOTES:

49 See Kunstmann, Die Fahrt der ersten Deutschen nach dem portugiesischen Indien in Hist. pol. Bl?tter f. d. Kath. Deutschl., München, 1861, vol. 48, pp. 277-309.

50 For title see Panzer, Annalen d. ?lteren deutsch. Litt., Nürnb. 1788.

51 See Gr?sse, op. cit. ii. 2. pp. 773, 774.

52 Des Welt-berühmten Adami Olearii colligirte und viel vermehrte Reise-Beschreibungen etc., Hamb. 1696, chap. xxv.

53 Ibid. chap. xxviii. p. 327 seq.

54 Olearius, op. cit., Preface to the Rosenthal. Full title of Ochsenbach's book in Buch der Beispiele, ed. Holland, p. 258, n. 1.

55 Proverbiorum et Sententiarum Persicarum Centuria, Leyden, 1644. In the preface the author says that he undertakes his work, "cum e genuinis Persarum scriptis nihil hactenus in Latinam linguam sit translatum."

56 Iversen in op. cit. chap. xi. p. 157 seq. Cf. Jackson, Die iranische Religion in Grdr. iran. Ph. iii. pp. 633, 634, 636.

57 Sanson in op. cit. pp. 48, 49.

58 Fr. Schlegel, Weisheit der Indier, Heidelb. 1808, Vorrede, p. xi.

59 See preface to op. cit.

60 Ideen zur Phil. d. Gesch. der Menschheit, chap. iv. ed. Suphan, vol. 13, p. 415.

61 The story is given in Chardin's book, though this was not the source. See Andreas Gryphius Trauerspiele, ed. Herm. Palm, BLVS. vol. 162, pp. 138, 139.

62 See Zoroasters Telescop oder Schlüssel zur grossen divinatorischen Kabbala der Magier in Das Kloster ed. J. Scheible, Stuttg. 1846, vol. iii. p. 414 seq., esp. p. 439.

63 Widmann's Faust in Das Kloster, vol. ii. p. 296; Der Christlich Meynende, ibid. ii. p. 85.

64 Christoph. Wagners Leben, ibid. vol. iii. p. 78.

65 Ibid. ii. p. 1004.

66 Ed. by Felix Bobertag, KDNL. vol. 37, Einl. p. 8.

67 On this see Felix Bobertag, Gesch. des Romans und der ihm verwandten Dichtungsgattungen in Deutschland, Bresl. 1876, vol. ii. 2. pp. 110 seq., 140, 160.

68 In Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus ed. Adalb. Keller, Stuttg. 1862 (BLVS. vol. 66), vol. iv. pp. 707 seq.

69 Op. cit. pp. 759, 760.

70 Ibid, p. 710; again p. 841.

71 The Story of Joseph from the Qurān was published in Arabic with a Latin version by Erpenius as early as 1617. See Zenker, Bibl. Orient., Leipz. 1846, vol. i. p. 169, No. 1380.

72 Keller, op. cit. p. 742.

73 See Jackson, Zoroaster, Appendix V (by Gray).

74 See Jackson, Zoroaster, pp. 127-132.

75 Rud. Fürst, Die Vorl?ufer der Modernen Novelle im achtzehnten Jahrhundert, Halle a. S. 1897. p. 51.

76 Some of the stories are undoubtedly Oriental in origin. The work appeared at Venice, 1557, and was translated into German, in 1583, by Johann Wetzel under the title Die Reise der S?hne Giaffers. Ed. by Herm. Fischer and Joh. Bolte (BLVS, vol. 208), Tüb. 1895.

77 Fürst, op. cit. p. 52. The name is derived from the Arabic ?? ?? "speaker of the truth," as pointed out by Hammer in Red. p. 326. See essay L'ange et l'hermite by Gaston Paris in La Poésie du Moyen Age, Paris, 1887, p. 151.

78 Fürst, op. cit. p. 154.

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Herder's Interest in the Orient-Fourth Collection of his Zerstreute Bl?tter-His Didactic Tendency And Predilection For Sa?dī.

The epoch-making work of the English Orientalists, and above all, of the illustrious Sir William Jones, at the end of the eighteenth century not only laid the foundation of Sanskrit scholarship in Europe, but also gave the first direct impulse to the Oriental movement which in the first half of the nineteenth century manifests itself so strikingly both in English as well as in German literature, especially in the work of the poets. In Germany this movement came just at the time when the idea of a universal literature had taken hold of the minds of the leading literary men, and so it was very natural that the pioneer and prophet of this great idea should also be the first to introduce into German poetry the new west-?stliche Richtung.

Herder's theological studies turned his attention to the East at an early age. As is well known, he always had a fervid admiration for the Hebrew poets, but we have evidence to show, that, even before the year 1771, when Jones' Traité sur la poésie orientale appeared, he had widened the sphere of his Oriental studies and had become interested in Sa?dī.79 Rhymed paraphrases made by him of some stories from the Gulistān date from the period 1761-1764,80 and, as occasional references prove, Sa?dī continued to hold his attention until the appearance, in 1792, of the fourth Collection of the Zerstreute Bl?tter, which contains the bulk of Herder's translation from Persian and Sanskrit literature, and which therefore will have to occupy our attention.81

Of this collection the following are of interest to us: 1°. Four books of translations, more or less free, of maxims from the Gulistān, entitled Blumen aus morgenl?ndischen Dichtern gesammlet. 2°. Translations from the Sanskrit consisting of maxims from the Hitōpadē?a and from Bhart?hari and passages from the Bhagavadgītā under the name of Gedanken einiger Bramanen. 3°. A number of versions from Persian, Sanskrit, Hebrew and Arabic poets given in the Suphan edition as Vermischte Stücke.

The first three books of the Blumen consist entirely of maxims from the Gulistān, the versions of Gentius, or sometimes of Olearius, being the basis, while the fourth book contains also poems from Rūmī, Hāfi? and others (some not Persian), taken mostly from Jones' well known Poeseos.82 For the Gedanken our poet made use of Wilkins' translation of the Hitōpadē?a (1787) and of the Bhagavadgītā (1785), together with the German version of Bhart?hari by Arnold from Roger's Dutch rendering.

As Herder did not know either Sanskrit or Persian, his versions are translations of translations, and it is not surprising if the sense of the original is sometimes very much altered, especially when we consider that the translations on which he depended were not always accurate.83 In most cases, however, the sense is fairly well preserved, sometimes even with admirable fidelity, as in "Lob der Gottheit" (Bl. i. 1), which is a version of passages from the introduction to the Gulistān. No attention whatever is paid to the form of the originals. For the selections from Sa?dī the distich which had been used for the versions from the Greek anthology is the favorite form. Rhyme, which in Persian poetry is an indispensable requisite, is never employed.

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The moralizing tendency which characterizes all of Herder's work, and which grew stronger as he advanced in years, rendered him indifferent to the purely artistic side of poetry. He makes no effort in his versions to bring out what is characteristically Oriental in the original; on the contrary, he often destroys it. Thus his "Blume des Paradieses" (Bl. iv. 7 = H. 548) is addressed to a girl instead of a boy. The fourth couplet is accordingly altered to suit the sense, while the last couplet, which according to the law governing the construction of the Persian γazal contained the name of the poet, is omitted. So also in "Der heilige Wahnsinn" (Verm. 6 = Gul. v. 18, ed. Platts, p. 114) the characteristic Persian phrase

?? ?????? ??? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ?????? ????

"It is necessary to survey Laīlā's beauty from the window of Majnūn's eye"

appears simply as "O ... sieh mit meinen Augen an."

This exclusive interest in the purely didactic side induced Herder also to remove the maxims from the stories which in the Gulistān or Hitōpadē?a served as their setting. So they appear simply as general sententious literature, whereas in the originals they are as a rule introduced solely to illustrate or to emphasize some particular point of the story. Then again a story may be considerably shortened, as in "Die Lüge" (Bl. ii. 28 = Gul. i. 1), "Der heilige Wahnsinn" (see above). To atone for such abridgment new lines embodying in most cases a general moral reflection are frequently added. Thus both the pieces just cited have such additions. In "Verschiedener Umgang" (Ged. 3 = Bhart. Nīti?. 67; B?htl. 6781) the first three lines are evidently inspired by the last line of the Sanskrit proverb: prāyē?ā 'dhamamadhyamōttamagu?a? sa?sargatō jāyatē "in general the lowest, the middle and the highest quality arise from association," but they are in no sense a translation.

What we have given suffices to characterize Herder as a translator or adapter of Oriental poetry. His Eastern studies have scarcely exerted any influence on his original poems beyond inspiring some fervid lines in praise of India and its dramatic art as exhibited in ?akuntalā,84 which had just then (1791) been translated by Forster into German from the English version of Sir William Jones. Unlike his illustrious contemporary Goethe he received from the East no impulse that stimulated him to production. His one-sided preference for the purely didactic element rendered him indifferent to the lyric beauty of Hāfi? and caused him to proclaim Sa?dī as the model most worthy of imitation.85 Yet it was Hāfi?, the prince of Persian lyric poets, the singer of wine and roses, who fired the soul of Germany's greatest poet and inspired him to write the Divan, and thus Hāfi? became the dominating influence and the guiding star of the west-?stliche Richtung in German poetry.

FOOTNOTES:

79 See the edition by Meyer (KDNL. vol. 74) i. 1. pp. 164, 165.

80 Given by Redlich in the edition by Suphan, vol. 26, p. 435 seq.

81 We may state here that the work in question has been thoroughly commented on by such scholars as Düntzer and Redlich, and their comments may be found in the editions of Suphan and Meyer. The same has been done for Goethe's Divan by Düntzer and Loeper. The former's notes are in his Goethe-edition in the Kürschner-series, the latter's in the edition of Hempel. In this investigation, therefore, the chapters on Herder and Goethe are somewhat briefer than they otherwise would be, as further details as to sources, etc., are easily accessible in the editions just mentioned. In all cases, however, the Sanskrit or Persian originals of the passages cited have been examined.

82 Poeseos Asiaticae commentariorum libri vi, publ. at London, 1774. Reprinted by Eichborn at Leipzig, 1777.

83 Compare, for instance. Hit. couplet 43 = B?htl. 3121 with the rendering of Wilkins in Fables and Proverbs from the Sanskrit, London, 1888 (Morley's Univ. Lib.), pp. 41, 42. And then compare with Herder's Zwecke des Lebens (Ged. 15).

84 Indien, ed. Suphan, vol. 29, p. 665.

85 "An Hafyz Ges?ngen haben wir fast genug; Sadi ist uns lehrreicher gewesen." Adrastea vi. ed. Suphan, vol. 24, p. 356.

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