18th Dec. 1760. "here one before you;-one whom the French themselves have trans"lated, calling him the German La Fontaine !" King. "That is much. Have you read La Fontaine ?" Gellert. "Yes, your Majesty; but have not imitated: I am original (ich bin ein Original).” King. "Well, this is one good Author among the Germans; but I why have not we more?" Gellert. "Your Majesty has a pre'judice against the Germans." King. "No; I can't say that (Nein; das kann ich nicht sagen).” Gellert. "At least, against German writers." King. "Well, perhaps. Why have we no good Historians? Why "does no one undertake a Translation of Tacitus ?" Gellert. "Tacitus is difficult to translate; and the French them"selves have but bad translations of him." King. "That is true (Da hat Er Recht).” Gellert. "And, on the whole, various reasons may be given why "the Germans have not yet distinguished themselves in every kind of writing. While Arts and Sciences were in their flower among the "Greeks, the Romans were still busy in War. Perhaps this is the "Warlike Era of the Germans:—perhaps also they have yet wanted Augustuses and Louis-Fourteenths!" King. "How, would you wish one Augustus, then, for all Ger"many ?" Gellert. "Not altogether that; I could wish only that every So"" vereign encouraged men of genius in his own country." King (starting a new subject). "Have you never been out of Saxony ?" Gellert. "I have been in Berlin." King. "You should travel." "that I need two things,-health and means." Gellert. "Ihro Majestät, for King. "What is your complaint? Is it die gelehrte Krankheit "(Disease of the Learned," Dyspepsia so-called)? "I have myself "suffered from that. I will prescribe for you. You must ride daily, "and take a dose of rhubarb every week." Gellert. "Ach, Ihro Majestät: if the horse were as weak as I am, "he would be of no use to me; if he were stronger, I should be too "weak to manage him." (Mark this of the Horse, however; a tale hangs by it.) King. "Then you must drive out." "am deficient in the means." Gellert. "For that I King. "Yes, that is true; that is what Authors (Gelehrte) in "Deutschland are always deficient in. I suppose these are bad times, are not they?" Gellert. "Fa wohl; and if your Majesty "would grant us Peace (den Frieden geben wollten)—" King. "How can I? Have not you heard, then? There are three "of them against me (Es sind ja drei wider mich) !" Gellert. "I have more to do with the Ancients and their History "than with the Moderns." 18th Dec. 1760. King (changing the topic). "What do you think, is Homer or Virgil the finer as an Epic Poet ?" more original." Gellert. "Homer, as the King. "But Virgil is much more polished (viel polirter).” Gellert "We are too far removed from Homer's times to judge "of his language. I trust to Quinctilian in that respect, who prefers "Homer." King. "But one should not be a slave to the opinion of the "Ancients." Gellert. "Nor am I that. I follow them only in cases where, "owing to the distance, I cannot judge for myself.' Major Icilius (again giving a slight fillip or suggestion). He," the Herr Professor here, "has also treated of German Letter-writing, "and has published specimens.' King. "So? But have you written against the Chancery Style, "then" (the painfully solemn style, of ceremonial and circumlocution; Letters written so as to be mainly wig and buckram)? Gellert. "Ach ja, that have I, Ihro Majestät !” King. "But why doesn't it change? The Devil must be in it (Es ist etwas Verteufeltes). They bring me whole sheets of that stuff, " and I can make nothing of it !” Gellert. "If your Majesty "cannot alter it, still less can I. I can only recommend, where you "command." King. "Can you repeat any of your Fables ?" "doubt it; my memory is very treacherous." Gellert. "I King. "Bethink you a little; I will walk about” (Gellert bethinks him, brow puckered. King, seeing the brow unpucker itself). "Well, "have you one?" Gellert. " 'Yes, your Majesty: The Painter." Gellert recites ('voice plaintive and hollow;' somewhat preachy, I should doubt, but not cracked or shrieky); —we condense him into prose abridgment for English readers; German can look at the bottom of the page :15 15 "Ein kluger Maler in Athen, Und bat sich seine Meinung aus. fallen wollte, Und nahm das Bild in Augenschein. Ihr habt mir nicht zu viel gethan." MORAL. Doch, wenn sie gar des Narren Lob erhält, So ist es Zeit, sie auszustreichen." (Gellert's Werke: Leipzig, 1840: i. 135.) 18th Dec. 1760. "A prudent Painter in Athens, more intent on excellence than on money, had done a God of War; and sent for a real Critic to give him his opinion of it. On survey, the Critic shook his head: "Too much Art visible; won't do, my friend!" The Painter strove to think otherwise; and was still arguing, when a young Coxcomb' (Geck, Gawk) stept in: "Gods, what a masterpiece!" cried he at the first glance: "Ah, that foot, those exquisitely-wrought toe-nails; helm, shield, mail, 'what opulence of Art!" The sorrowful Painter looked penitentially at the real 'Critic, looked at his brush; and the instant this Geck was gone, struck-out his God ' of War.'" King. "And the Moral ?" Gellert (still reciting): "When the Critic does not like thy Bit of Writing, it is a bad sign for thee; but when the Fool admires, it is time thou at once strike it out."'" King. "That is excellent; very fine indeed. You have a some"thing of soft and flowing in your verses; them I understand altogether. But there was Gottsched, one day, reading me his Trans"lation of Iphigénie; I had the French Copy in my hand, and could "not understand a word of him" (a Swan of Saxony, labouring in vain that day)! "They recommended me another Poet, one Peitsch" (Herr Peitsch of Königsberg, Hofrath, Doctor and Professor there, Gottsched's Master in Art; edited by Gottsched thirty years ago; now become a dumb idol, though at one time a god confessed); "him I "flung away." Gellert. "Ihro Majestät, him I also fling away." King. "Well, if I continue here, you must come again often; bring "your Fables with you, and read me something." Gellert. "I know not if I can read well; I have the singing kind "of tone, native to the Hill Country." 66 King. Ja, like the Silesians. No, you must read me the Fables "yourself; they lose a great deal otherwise. Come back soon."18 (Exit Gellert.) King (to Icilius, as we learn from a different Record). quite another man than Gottsched!" (Exeunt omnes.) "That is The modest Gellert says he "remembered Jesus Sirach's advice, Press not thyself on Kings,--and never came back ;" nor was specially sent for, in the hurries succeeding; though the King never quite forgot him. Next day, at dinner, the King said, "He is the reasonablest man of all the German Literary People, C'est le plus raisonnable de tous les Savans "Allemands." And to Garve, at Breslau, years afterwards : "Gellert is the only German that will reach posterity; his de"partment is small, but he has worked in it with real felicity." And indeed the King had, before that, as practical result of the Gellert Dialogue, managed to set some Berlin Bookseller upon printing of these eligible Fables, "for the use of our Prussian 16 Gellert's Briefwechsel mit Demoiselle Lucius (already cited), pp. 632 et seq. 21st Jan. 1761. Schools;" in which and other capacities the Fables still serve with acceptance there and elsewhere.17 In regard to Gellert's Horse-exercise, I had still to remember that Gellert, not long after, did get a Horse; two successive Horses; both highly remarkable. The first especially ; which was Prince Henri's gift: The Horse Prince Henri had ridden at the Battle of Freyberg' (Battle to be mentioned hereafter);-quadruped that must have been astonished at itself! But a pretty enough gift from the warlike admiring Prince to his dyspeptic Great Man. This Horse having yielded to Time, the very Kurfürst (grandson of Polish Majesty that now is) sent Gellert another, housing and furniture complete; mounted on which, Gellert and it were among the sights of Leipzig;-well enough known here to young Goethe, in his College days, who used to meet the great man and princely horse, and do salutation, with perhaps some twinkle of scepticism in the corner of his eye. 18 Poor Gellert fell seriously ill in December 1769; to the fear and grief of all the world: 'estafettes from the Kurfürst himself galloped daily, or oftener, 'from Dresden for the sick bulletin;' but poor Gellert died, all the same (13th of that month); and we have (really with pathetic thoughts, even we) to bid his amiable existence in this world, his bits of glories and him, adieu forever. Dialogue with General Saldern (in the Apel House, Four or five weeks after this of Gellert, Friedrich had another Dialogue, which also is partly on record, and is of more importance to us here: Dialogue with Major-General Saldern; on a certain business, delicate, yet profitable to the doer,-nobody so fit for it as Saldern, thinks the King. Saldern is he who did that extraordinary feat of packing the wrecks of battle on the Field of Liegnitz; a fine, clear-flowing, silent kind of man, rapid and steady, with a great deal of methodic and other good faculty in him,-more, perhaps, than he himself yet knows of. Him the King has sent for, this morning; and it is on the business of Polish Majesty's Royal Hunting-Schloss at Hubertsburg,-which is a thing otherwise worth some notice from us. 17 Preuss, ii. 274. 18 Dichtung und Wahrheit, Theil ii. Buch 6 (in Goethe's Werke, xxv. 51 et seq.). VOL. IX. I 21st Jan. 1761. For three months long the King had been representing, in the proper quarters, what plunderings, and riotous and even disgusting savageries, the Saxons had perpetrated at Charlottenburg, Schönhausen, Friedrichsfeld, in October last, while masters there for a few days: but neither in Reichs Diet, where Plotho was eloquent, nor elsewhere by the Diplomatic method, could he get the least redress, or one civil word of regret. From Polish Majesty himself, to whom Friedrich remonstrated the matter, through the English Resident at Warsaw, Friedrich had expected regret; but he got none. Some think he had hoped that Polish Majesty, touched by these horrors of war, and by the reciprocities evidently liable to follow, might be induced to try something towards mediating a General Peace: but Polish Majesty did not; Polish Majesty answered simply nothing at all, nor would get into any correspondence: upon which Friedrich, possibly a little piqued withal, had at length determined on retaliation. Within our cantonments, reflects Friedrich, here is Hubertsburg Schloss, with such a hunting apparatus in and around it; Polish Majesty's Hertzblatt ("lid of the heart," as they call it; breastbone, at least, and pit of his stomach, which inclines to nothing but hunting): let his Hubertsburg become as our Charlottenburg is; perhaps that will touch his feelings! Friedrich had formed this resolution; and, Wednesday January 21st, sends for Saldern, one of the most exact, deft-going and punctiliously honourable of all his Generals, to execute it. Enter Saldern accordingly,-royal Audience-room 'in the Apel'sche Haus, New Neumarkt, No. 16,' as above;-to whom (one Küster, a reliable creature, reporting for us on Saldern's behalf) the King says, in the distinct slowish tone of a King giving orders: 66 King. "Saldern, tomorrow morning you go" (Er, He goes) "with a detachment of Infantry and Cavalry, in all silence, to Huberts"burg; beset the Schloss, get all the furnitures carefully packed-up "and invoiced. I want nothing with them; the money they bring I "mean to bestow on our Field Hospitals, and will not forget you in disposing of it." Saldern, usually so prompt with his "Ja" on any Order from the King, looks embarrassed, stands silent,-to the King's great surprise; '-and after a moment or two says: Saldern. "Forgive me, your Majesty: but this is contrary to my "honour and my oath." |