Goethe's Venetian Epigrams

 

Protestant cemetery in Aruba

 This is a subject I have posted on several times (e.g., here and here), and now my thoughts have again been drawn back to Goethe in Venice. I brought with me on this trip to Aruba a folder of Goethe articles that I had not previously had time to consider, one of which was Gustav Seibt's review in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of Dan Wilson's Goethes Erotica und die Weimarer "Zensoren," which appeared in 2015. (Gustav Seibt is always worth reading in connection with Goethe.

Tomb of Segundo Jorge "Boy" Ecury

This post is in the way of acknowledging the continuing contributions Dan Wilson makes to Goethe studies, especially in less traveled areas (homosexuality, censorship), and which demonstrate his immersion in archival work, an example for all of us. My earlier posts have mentioned the early "editorial" mangling of the epigrams, because of their explicit sexual content and the criticism of the rulers of Venice. Drawing on unpublished archival material, Wilson has documented the meddling that occurred before the first "official" publication of the epigrams in volume 53 of the Weimar edition of Goethe's works in 1915.

Ecury family memorial

As Seibt writes: "Etliche der Epigramm-Handschriften waren mit Radiergummi, Messer und Schere behandelt worden, ganze Texte abgeschabt, einzelne Versgruppen herausgeschnippelt worden." Grand duchess Sophie was among those suspected of this "Textmassaker." Having inherited Goethe's manuscripts, she was the first who would have gone through them. Wilson has shown that the matter is not so straightforward. He tells what Seibt calls "eine windungsreiche, teilweise irrsinnige Geschichte, die bei Schillers und Herzog Carl Augusts Bedenken beginnt." (Seibt says that Wilson's use of "censorship" here is "nicht ganz glücklich.") The negotiations concerning the manuscripts also involved Eckermann, Riemer, and Kanzler Müller, as well as the fate of a case of "brisanten Manuskripte" that turned up in Müller's attic. Finally there was "die peinlich gequälte Arbeit berühmteste Germanisten und Archivare."

 Grand Duchess Sophie is absolved of having "geschabt und geschnippelt." More likely, if Wilson is correct, it was Goethe's grandson Walter before 1885, and then one of the directors of the archive around 1910, either Carl August Hugo Burkhardt or Bernhard Suphan.  Although, as Seibt writes, this cannot be conclusively proven ("im strengen Sinn"), no one can have come closer to the truth than Wilson. One thing in particular to be regretted: apparently Grand Duchess Sophie destroyed a letter of Goethe to Napoleon.

Note Vatican order on tombstone

Concerning Schiller's reaction to the Roman Elegies, Wilson plausibly demonstrates ("in minutiösen Fassungsvergleichen") that it was not "die Freizügigkeit an sich" that disturbed Schiller, but "Goethes unverblümte Feier sexueller Lust um ihrer selbst willen, auch ohne dauerhafte Beziehung." Other contemporaries were also offended, recognizing behind the "antikizierenden Gewand," the real person of Goethe. At the same time, those capable of discerning judgment realized that the Elegies were "ein überwältigend gelungenes Meisterwerk," with Herder commenting, "Goethe habe 'der Frechheit ein kaiserliches Insiegel aufgedrückt.'"

 One thing that surprised me was Seibt's continual remarking on Wilson's diligence. In conclusion, he writes of "Wilsons akribischer, gelegentlich pedantischer ... zuweilen auch überziehender Untersuchung." Are American scholars outshining German ones?

Goethe Girl goes touring

As mentioned in my previous post, I am in Aruba. The pictures here (click on images to enlarge) are from the Protestant Cemetery in Oranjestad. I was particularly touched by the words on the tombstone of Boy Ecury, whose appears to have come from one of Aruba's leading families. Indeed, the Archaeological Museum here is the former family home of the Ecurys. It seems that Boy was sent to study in Holland in 1937. When the Germans attacked that country he joined the resistance movement and with other resistance fighters sabotaged railway lines, blew up supply trucks, and assisted Allied pilots. He was captured and executed by the Germans in 1944, and his body was returned to Aruba for burial in 1947.

Rights and all that stuff

I can't recall a single thing Goethe ever said about the concept of human rights. His political inclinations cannot be divorced from the time in which he lived, but it was also the time of Tom Paine and even the more moderate Founding Fathers. Goethe did have some interest in America, though not as a nation of new political experiment. Until the end of his life he was more interested in the fortunes of European lands, for instance, the fate of the Greek independence movement, which he followed quite closely.

W. Daniel Wilson, in his book Das Goethe-Tabu: Protest und Menschenrechte im klassischen Weimar (1999), provoked considerable controversy by claiming that Goethe had a bad record on human rights. Scrutinizing Goethe's activities as a government minister, Wilson found that Goethe did not conform to the "constitutional and liberal tendencies of the early 19th century" and that he was alienated from the intellectuals of Germany who did display such tendencies. (For one of my postings on Goethe and politics, see this entry from last year.)

In some ways I think Goethe must have felt, especially in the last decade of his life, that he and all that he cared for had been left behind by the "velociferic tendencies" of the modern age. It's pretty hard in any case, at any time, to know where things are heading, politically.

One of the most fascinating movements of the present time, for me any way, are the ongoing protests in Iran. People are not marching for health care or against global warming. The protesters are "anti-government," which means they are protesting for "rights," most important of which being the right to assemble, the right to speak out against government, the freedom of the press. The Iranian protesters are showing us that, if people want rights, they have to fight for them. Former president George W. Bush may have been correct in saying that everyone desires to be free, but, as a wise person once said, "God does not wash windows." People have to make things happen for themselves. We did that in the West; our problem is that we have so internalized our rights and our freedoms that we believe they are universal and can be legislated by some kind of international charter.

The protesters certainly can't expect any assistance, indeed not even any signs of encouragement, from the present administration in Washington, D.C. During the Cold War, there were lots of intellectuals who spoke out on behalf of those trapped behind the Iron Curtain. No more. Intellectuals are instead bogged down in ideological battles with ordinary folks in this country, about health care, about global warming, and so on. The fight for freedom goes on. The mass protests of the Iranians, however, are a bit too reminiscent of youthful and not so youthful Westerners making havoc, years ago in Vietnam and these days at climate or economic conferences. I have no idea what the strategy must be in Iran, but I wonder if the powers that be in Iran are really frightened by even tens of thousands of young men marching and waving the "V" sign. A few dozen policemen seem to have no difficulty beating them back. Women may be the key to making a difference in the Islamic countries. They may have to put themselves on the line.

Picture credits: Big Picture; RightPundits