“Hence be careful in choosing your form,
and be mindful that letters and reviews
are forms you have completely under your control.”
— Friedrich Schlegel to Caroline, 12 December 1797
Caroline’s Anonymous Contributions to
the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, Athenaeum, and Die Horen. [*]
I. Erich Schmidt’s Prefatory Comments (1913), 1:764–65:
Apart from the essay on Romeo and Juliet in Die Horen [see below], Wilhelm Schlegel also attests Caroline’s considerable contribution to the Athenaeum dialogue “Die Gemählde. Ein Gespräch von W.,” [1] 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 (Sämmtliche Werke 12:11–27). 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 in fact 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.
II. Caroline’s Anonymous Contributions to
the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung
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 (marked below by an asterisk *). In addition, several reviews (not marked below by an asterisk) can be adduced either based on stylistic considerations or as a result of Wilhelm’s fortunate gesture of having marked them with “Carol.” or “alles v. Carol.” (as marked below) on excerpts from actual issues of the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung that he seems to have been preparing for reprint (but never published; copies: Dresden manuscript Signatur Mscr. Dresd. App. 2712, A7, beginning on p. 167). [9]
General bibliographical note: The Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung frequently appeared in two issues on the same day, and lengthier reviews frequently appeared in installments over several issues. Pagination, moreover, is by column rather than page. I have used the following simplified citation structure throughout. The following extracts are from the second review listed below, which extends just over two columns, after which the next review in the issue appears (not by Caroline):
Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1796) 351 (Tuesday, 8 November 1796) 345–47
♦ (1) Review of Madame de Genlis (Carol.):
Hamburg: Fauche: Les Chevaliers du Cygne, ou La Cour de Charlemagne: Conte historique et moral pour servir de suite aux veillées de chareau, et dont tous les traits qui peuvent faire allusion à la Revolution Françoise, sont tirés de l’histoire. By Madame de Genlis. Vol. 1, xx and 387 pages. Vol. 2, 310 pages. Vol. 3, 510 pages. 1795. 8vo (2 Rthlr. 12 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1796) 32 (Thursday, 28 January 1796) 253–56.
♦ (2) Review of August von Kotzebue (Carol.):
Leipzig: Kummer: Die Spanier in Peru oder Rolla’s Tod: Ein romantisches Trauerspiel in 5 Akten, by President von Kotzebue. 1796. VI and 168 pages. 8vo. (12 gr.).
Idem, Die Verläumder: Ein Schauspiel in fünf Akten. Idem. 1796. 216 pages. 8vo. (14 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1796) 351 (Tuesday, 8 November 1796) 345–47.
♦ (3) ♦ Review of Marianne Ehrmann:
Hamburg, in der Mutzenbecherschen Buchh.: Amaliens Feierstunden. 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.
♦ (4) Review of Michel Paul Guy de Chabanon (Carol.):
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.
♦ (5) Review of Wackenroder and Tieck:
Berlin: 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.
♦ (6) Review of Mistress Elizabeth Inchbald (v. Carol.):
Leipzig: Reinicke and Hinrichs. Natur und Kunst oder der Karakter der Menschen gründet sich auf Erziehung: Eine Geschichte in zwey Theilen. Trans. from the English of Mistress [Elizabeth] Inchbald. 1797. 250 pages. 8vo. (18 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1797) 48 (Saturday 11 February 1797) 383–84.
♦ (7*) 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.
♦ (8*) 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.
♦ (9) Review of Three Plays 1797 (alles v. Carol., also applies to nos. 10 and 11 below, which appeared in the same issue):
Schleswig: Röhfs. Erich und Abel, Könige von Dänmark. Ein vaterländisches Trauerspiel in 5 Aufzügen, by Carl August Rüdinger. 1796. VII and 246 pages. 8vo. (16 gr.).
Vienna and Leipzig. Der Vicekanzler: Ein Schauspiel in fünf Aufzügen, by Kratter. 1797. 110 pages. 8vo. (6 gr.).
Nürnberg: Pech. Ahnenstolz und Edelsinn: Ein dramatisirtes Familien-Gemälde in sechs Acten. 1796. 24 and 399 pages. 8vo. (20 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1797) 189 (Thursday, 15 June 1797) 691–94.
♦ (10) Review of Six Plays 1797 (alles v. Carol.):
1. Cilli: Jenko Schriften. Margaretha die Maultasche. Gräfin von Tyrol: Ein vaterländisches Schauspiel in 5 Aufzügen, nach der Geschichte. By Adolph Anton, German actor. 1795. 136 pages. 8vo. (8 gr.).
2. Vienna: Rötzl. Das Recht der Erstgeburt: Ein Schauspiel in 5 Acten, by Ksrr. 1796. 127 pages. 8vo. (8 gr.).
3. Prag, Leipzig: Neureutter. Die Theatergarderobe: Ein Original-Lustspiel in zwey Aufzügen, by Karl Rosenau. 1797. 105 pages. 8vo. (6 gr.).
4. Cassel: Griessbach. Die Hautboisten: Lustspiel in Einem Aufzug, by Wilhelm Bröckelmann. 1797. 78 pages. 8vo.
5. Cöthen: Aue. Der Trauschein: Ein Lustspiel in einem Aufzuge, by H. 1796. 46 pages. 8vo. (3 gr.).
6. Leipzig: Kummer. Die Wittwe und das Reitpferd: Eine dramatische Kleinigkeit., by August von Kotzebue. 1796. 52 pages. 8vo. (4 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1797) 189 (Thursday, 15 June 1797) 694–95.
♦ (11) Review of Neujahrsgeschenk: Papiere aus dem Nachlasse eines kaiserlichen Offiziers (alles v. Carol.):
Mannheim: Neuer Kunstverlag. Neujahrsgeschenk: Papiere aus dem Nachlasse eines kaiserlichen Offiziers. 1797. XVIII and 87 pages. 8vo. (Bound 16 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1797) 189 (Thursday, 15 June 1797) 695–96.
♦ (12) Review of Lafontaine’s Claire Duplessis et Clairant (Carol.):
Braunschweig. Claire Duplessis et Clairant: Histoire d’une famille d’émigrés François. By the author of Rodolphe de Werdenberg, trans. from the German by M.***. 1796. 8vo. Vol. 1, XVI and 230 pages. Vol. 2, 250 pages. Vol. 3, 1797, 250 pages. (1 Rthlr. 16 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1797) 259 (Wednesday, 16 August 1797) 422–24.
♦ (13) Review of Des Amtmanns Tochter (Carol.):
Bremen: Wilmans. Des Amtmanns Tochter von Lüde: Eine Wertheriade für Aeltern, Jünglinge und Mädchen [by Johann Gottfried Hoche]. 1797. 272 pages. 8vo. With a title engraving. (1 Rthlr. 4 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1797) 334 (Friday, 20 October 1797) 175–76.
♦ (14) Review of Nun and Abbess in Childbed:
Meissen: Erbstein: Nonne und Aebtissinn im Wochenbette, oder die Frucht der Schwärmerey, eine Geschichte einzig in ihrer Art. Vom Mann im grauen Rocke. 1797. 504 pages. 8vo. (1 Rthlr. 8 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1798) 23 (Saturday, 20 January 1798) 183–84.
♦ (15) Review of Julchen Grünthal:
Berlin: Unger: Julchen Grünthal. Third, revised and augmented edition. 1798. 8vo. Part 1. 426 pages; part 2: 360 pages. With title copper engravings and title vignettes. (2 Rthlr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1798) 32 (Saturday, 27 January 1798) 253–56.
♦ (16 and 17) Reviews of The Most Recent Discoveries in the Realm of Women and Girls and And he shall rule over thee. Genesis 3:16:
(16) 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
(17) 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.
♦ (18) Review of The Health Springs (see letter 207a):
Leipzig: 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. Octavo. (16 gr.).
— Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1798) 374 (Saturday, 8 December 1798) 633–36.
♦ (19) Review of Orlando furioso:
Zürich: 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.
(III) Review from Schiller’s Die Horen
A translation of “Ueber Shakespeare’s Romeo und Julia,” in Die Horen (1797) 10, no. 6, 18–48, by Julius Charles Hare in Ollier’s Literary Miscellany in Prose and Verse by several hands. To be continued occasionally, no. I (London 1820) 1–39.
(IV) Three Contributions to Athenaeum
♦ (21*) Review of August Lafontaine:
“Mode-Romane. Lafontaine,” in “Beyträge zur Kritik der neuesten Litteratur,” Athenaeum (1798) 149–67. Appeared at Easter 1798.
♦ (22) Review of Johannes Müller:
“Fragmente aus den Briefen eines jungen Gelehrten an seinen Freund,” Deutsches Magazin (1798) 15 (January–June 1798) 167–76; 16 (July–December 1798) 537–88; 17 (January–June 1799] 180–218; in Athenäum (1799) 313–16. Appeared in August 1799.
(23*) “Die Gemählde. Ein Gespräch von W.,” in Athenaeum (1799) 39–151 (Sämmtliche Werke 9:3–101; Kritische Schriften 2:145–252). [10]
Notes
[*] Accessible reviews are marked by a diamond ♦ with the title as an active link. Back.
[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 (see letter/document 255a, note 1). Back.
[4] Kritische Schriften 1:xv–xvi; Sämmtliche Werke 7:xxxii-xxxiii. Back.
[5] Intelligenzblatt of the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1799) 145 (Wednesday, 13 November 1799) 1179 (Sämmtliche Werke 11:427) (“Farewell to the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung” [letter 255a]). Back.
[6] Intelligenzblatt of the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1799) 145 (Wednesday, 13 November 1799) 1179–84 (text: letter 255a, “Explications”). Back.
[7] See note 3 above. Back.
[8] Kritische Schriften 1:xvii–xviii; Sämmtliche Werke 7:xxxiv. Back.
[9] Concerning the task of identifying Caroline’s contributions, see Brigitte Rossbeck, Zum Trotz glücklich: Caroline Schlegel-Schelling und die romantische Lebenskunst (Munich 2008), 144, 311n30; and Martin Reulecke, “‘Eigentümliche Naturformen’: Caroline-Schlegel-Schelling als Briefkünstlerin und Rezensentin,” Femmes de lettres – Europäische Autorinnen des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, ed. Marina Ortrud M. Hertrampf (Berlin 2020), 355–76.
It bears mentioning that when some of these reviews were incorporated into Wilhelm’s 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”), see 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.
For a helpful list of the paintings discussed in this piece (as listed in the catalogue of the Dresden gallery, Katalog der Staatlichen Gemäldegalerie zu Dresden, ed. Ministerium für Volksbildung, 11th ed. [Dresden 1927]), see appendix B in Margaret Stoljar, Athenaeum: A Critical Commentary, Australian and New Zealand Studies in German Language and Literature 4, ed. Gerhard Schulz and John A. Asher (Bern, Frankfurt/M. 1973), 143–44. See Ibid., 57–58 concerning authorship and disposition:
The Gemädegespräch is a conversation between three characters, “Waller,” “Louise” and “Reinhold.” The authorship was shared by August Wilhelm and Caroline, their contributions corresponding to the descriptions of paintings by “Waller” and “Louise” respectively (the first fourteen being by “Louise” and the rest by “Waller”), while the sonnets at the end were written by August Wilhelm.
In the general discussion which precedes and interrupts the descriptions, the character “Reinhold” assumes a leading rôle, but both “Waller” and “Reinhold” put forward points of view that owe much to the thought of Friedrich von Hardenberg. The speakers, therefore, should not properly be identified with the joint authors or with other members of the romantic circle, since the discussion is shaped according to the needs of the argument rather than to allow the expression of personal opinions. At the same time the three characters are endowed with a kind of dramatic personality, unlike the mythological of symbolic personae appearing in many such philosophical dialogues of the late eighteenth century.
See esp. Margaret Stoljar’s introduction and commentary in Athenaeum: A Critical Commentary, 53–76. Back.
Translation © 2015 Doug Stott