I. Caroline’s Anonymous Contributions to
the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, Athenaeum, and Die Horen.
Erich Schmidt’s Prefatory Comments (1913), 1:764–65:
Apart from the essay on Romeo and Juliet in Die Horen, Wilhelm Schlegel [1] also attests Caroline’s considerable contribution to the Athenaeum dialogue “Die Gemählde. Ein Gespräch von W.,” though the extent of her contribution cannot be determined in detail because the essay was reworked. [2] In any event, without her assistance, without her silently stepping in, Wilhelm Schlegel would never have been able to handle the masses of belletristic materials for the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung since 1796. An examination of that contribution is still outstanding, nor can one dispense with it merely by adducing a couple of reviews written in 1797, e.g.,
— Friedrich Schulz, Kleine Romane [and other works], in Wilhelm Schlegel’s Sämmtliche Werke 11:25–45;
— A. W. Iffland, Schauspiele, 3 Bde. (Leipzig 1796) (Sämmtliche Werke 11:53–62),or her contributions to the essay on Lafontaine in Athenaeum (1798) 1:149–67. She remained in the background, never really acceding to Friedrich’s repeated urging, and not producing anonymous reviews again that were entirely or in part from her own hand until she was Schelling’s “secret secretary.”
Specifics of Caroline’s authorship of reviews published anonymously for Wilhelm Schlegel in the original Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung can likely never be established (though see below). Wilhelm himself published a lengthy list of his reviews in an unpaginated supplement to Athenaeum (1800). [3] In the introduction to his collected critical writings in 1828, [4] however, Wilhelm notes:
In this or that piece I may [since] have changed my mind, or may now find some of my earlier statements one-sided or exaggerated, but I never published anything that I feel any need to conceal. . . I do, by the way, consider anonymity perfectly justified as long as such anonymous writings do not otherwise merit reproach; for without such means of ensuring that one not be disturbed personally, many a useful but perhaps unpleasant truth would probably go unsaid. I myself made use of such only rarely and as an exception; in the case of review journals, e.g., the Jena Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, I had to accommodate myself to the journal’s own guidelines. I afterward lifted that anonymity myself. I had contributed heavily to the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung during the years 1796–99, indeed was largely responsible for the entire rubric of belles lettres. When I saw, however, that the editors, who actually owed me a debt of gratitude, instead engaged in all sorts of cabals against me and my friends, I found myself constrained to take leave publicly of any further participation. [5] In an extensive and convoluted counter declaration, [6] the editors maintained that I would probably be loath to admit my authorship of many of my reviews. My sole response was to publish the complete index of my reviews in an addendum to Athenaeum. [7] Let me remark here that although I did indeed proof and submit all the reviews enumerated in that list, I did receive help with them. How otherwise could I have managed to deal with such a mass of inferior books? Only later, during the years 1804–7, when Goethe took over guidance of the Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, did I once again contribute at his invitation.
Wilhelm continues on the next page of that introduction: [8]
Those works marked by an asterisk in the table of contents are not entirely my own, coming instead in part from the hand of an intelligent woman who possessed all the talents to shine as an author but whose ambition was not pointed in that direction. In “Die Gemählde,” although the dialogue and the appended poems are my work, the descriptions are so only in part.
According to these remarks, at least part and in some cases all of the following material published in the original Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung and Athenaeum comes from Caroline’s hand: [9]
• (1*) Review of Friedrich Schulz:
1.Kleine Romane, vols. 1–5 (Leipzig: Göschen 1788–90)
2.Leopoldine: ein Seitenstück zum Moritz, parts 1–2 (Leipzig: Göschen 1791).
3.Kleine Prosaische Schriften, vols. 1–5 (Weimar: Hoffmann 1788–1795).
4.Gesammelte Romane, part 3, Henriette von England (Berlin: Vieweg 1794) (also under the title M. M. Pioche de LaVergne de LaFayette, Henriette von England, German ed. Friedrich Schulz.
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1797) 130 (Tuesday, 25 April 1797) 217–24; 131 (Wednesday, 26 April 1797) 225–32.
• (2*) Review of August Wilhelm Iffland,
1. Das Vermächtniß : ein Schauspiel in fünf Aufzügen (Leipzig: Göschen 1796).
2. Die Advokaten: ein Schauspiel in 5 Aufzügen (Leipzig: Göschen 1796).
3. Dienstpflicht: ein Schauspiel in fünf Aufzügen (Leipzig: Göschen 1796).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1797) 188 (Wednesday, 14 June 1797) 681–87.
• (3*) “Ueber Shakespeare’s Romeo und Julia,” in Die Horen (1797) 10, no. 6, 18–48.
A translation of this essay by Julius Charles Hare appeared in Ollier’s Literary Miscellany in Prose and Verse by several hands. To be continued occasionally, no. I (London 1820) 1–39, and is included in this edition.
And three of Caroline’s contributions to Athenaeum:
• (4*) “Mode-Romane. Lafontaine 1798,” in Athenaeum (1798) 149–67.
• (5*) “Die Gemählde. Ein Gespräch von W.,” in Athenaeum (1799) 39–151 (Sämmtliche Werke 9:3–101; Kritische Schriften 2:145–252). [10]
• (6) On Johannes Müller’s “Fragmente aus den Briefen eines jungen Gelehrten an seinen Freund, Deutsches Magazin (1798–1800), in Athenäum (1799) 313–16.
II. Caroline’s Probable Anonymous Contributions to
the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
Regarding the probably numerous literary reviews Caroline may have published anonymously for Wilhelm Schlegel in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, there is reason to believe the following may have come from her hand, though, again, no certainty is possible:
• (1) Hamburg, in der Mutzenbecherschen Buch.: Amaliens Feyerstunden. Auswahl der hinterlassenen Schriften von Marianne Ehrmann. Volume 1. Amaliens Schreibtafel. 1796. 307 pages. 8vo. (20 gr.). The same book under the special title: Amaliens Schreibtafel. Fragmente für Freundinnen des Nachdenkens.
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1796) 401 (Wednesday, 28 December 1796) 747–48.
• (2) Leipzig, in d. Wolfischen Buchh.: Meine Liebschaften. Ein nachgelassenes Werk by Chabanon, edited by Saint-Ange. Translated from the French. 1797. VIII and 205 pages. 8vo. (12 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1797) 42 (Tuesday, 7 February 1797) 335–36.
• (3) Berlin, b. Unger: Herzensergiessungen eines kunstliebenden Klosterbruders. 1797. 275 pages. 8vo. With a portrait of Raphael. (20 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1797) 46 (Friday, 10 February 1797) 361–65.
• (4) Meissen, b. Erbstein: Nonne und Aebtissin im Wochenbette, oder die Frucht der Schwärmerey, eine Geschichte einzig in ihrer Art. Vom Mann im grauen Rocke. 197. 504 pages. 8vo. (1 Rthlr. 8 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1798) 23 (Saturday, 20 January 1798) 183–84.
• (5) With the alleged place of publication Gynäkopolis and at the expense of the German Union of Brethren: Neueste Entdeckungen im Reiche der Weiber und Mädchen. Durch eine Reise veranlasst. Volume 1. 1797. XII and 170 pages. 8vo. (14 gr.), and
• (6) No place of publication: Und er soll dein Herr sein. I Mos. 3,16 [Gen 3:16]. Ein Beytrag zur Berichtigung neuer Missverständnisse und zur Abstellung alter Missbräuche. 1797. VIII and 55 pages. 8vo. (6 gr.).
— Both in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1798) 223 (Monday, 23 July 1798) 166–68.
• (7) Leipzig, b. Göschen: Die Gesundbrunnen. Ein Gedicht in vier Gesängen. By Valerius Wilhelm Neubeck, Doctor of the Medical Sciences. In Latin font. 1798. 94 pages. Folio. The same in German font. 112 pages. g. (16 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1798) 374 (Saturday, 8 December 1798) 633–36.
• (8) Zürich, b. Gessner: Orlando der rasende, mit Anmerkungen und vorausgeschicktem Auszuge des Orlando inamorato. Volume 1. 1797. 109 and 251 pages. Volume 2. 1798. 411 pages. 8vo.
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1799) 136 (Monday, 29 April 1799) 257–62.
Notes
[1] Kritische Schriften 1:xviii. Back.
[2] See esp. Emil Sulger-Gebing, Die Brüder A. W. und F. Schlegel in ihrem Verhältnis zur bildenden Kunst, Forschungen zur neueren Litteraturgeschichte 3 (Munich 1897) 44–58. Back.
[3] Athenaeum (1800) following p. 164. Back.
[4] Kritische Schriften 1:xv–xvi; Sämmtliche Werke 7:xxxii-xxxiii. Back.
[5] Intelligenzblatt der Allgemeinen Literatur-Zeitung (1799) 145 (Wednesday, 13 November 1799) 1179 (Sämmtliche Werke 11:427). Back.
[6] Intelligenzblatt der Allgemeinen Literatur-Zeitung (1799) 145 (Wednesday, 13 November 1799) 1179–84. Back.
[7] Athenaeum (1800) following p. 164. Back.
[8] Kritische Schriften 1:xvii–xviii; Sämmtliche Werke 7:xxxiv. Back.
[9] Although pursuing this point in detail is beyond the scope of this edition, it bears mentioning that when these reviews were incorporated into his collections (e.g., Kritische Schriften; then the posthumous Sämmtliche Werke), the reviews’ original wording or even the scope they had in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung were by no means consistently retained. Back.
[10] Because of its length and the difficulty in assessing Caroline’s specific contribution, this piece likely warrants its own annotated edition. As Wilhelm remarks (see above), the descriptions in this piece were from his own hand “only in part”; he remarks similarly in a letter to Goethe on 8 March 1799 that “most of the painting descriptions as well as the material concerning Raphael are by her.” Concerning the role of Louise (Caroline) in this piece and the dynamic of a mixed-gender description of a visual work of art (“the role that gender plays in both the perception and the articulation of forms of the Beautiful”), cf. Margaretmary Daley, “The Gendered Eye of the Beholder: The Co-ed Art History of the Jena Romantics,” The Enlightened Eye: Goethe and Visual Culture, ed. Evelyn K. Moore and Patricia Anne Simpson, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur neueren Germanistik 63 (Amsterdam, New York 2007) 93–110. Back.
© 2012 Doug Stott
