Romanticism in Historical Perspective

Penn State University Press
Romanticism in Historical Perspective

Author(s): Lilian R. Furst
Source: Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Jun., 1968), pp. 115-143
Published by: Penn State University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40467744
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Romanticism
in Historical
Perspective
LILIAN R. FRST
ABSTRACT
This articlegivesa chronological

surveyof theemergence oftheRoman-
ticmovements in England,France,and Germany. The spreadofnewideas
is tracedfromcountry in thesuccessive
to country wavesofRomantic writ-
ingbetween1750and 1830.The principalaim is to ascertainthecorrect
sequenceand historical perspective;forby recognizingthatRomanticism
wasnota simultaneous butrathera seriesof distinct
outburst, a
upsurges,
sounderbasisis established fortheexplorationof themazeof similarities
and differences linkingtheRomanticmovements in Europe.[L. R. F.]
No subject in the whole fieldof comparativeliterarystudieshas

provokedas much criticalwritingas Romanticism.And rightlyso,
for none indeed so insistentlydemands, and so richlyrewards,a
broad approach embracingseveralliteratures.But all the attempts
to discernthe salient featuresof European Romanticism,all the
argumentsas to its fundamentalunity or otherwise,and all the
tentativedefinitionsseem to be based on the assumption that
simultaneousoutburstsof Romanticismoccurredin various coun-
triesabout thebeginningof thenineteenthcentury.This was simply
not the case: the spread of Romanticismis characterizedby curious
time lags and unexpectedspurts.In fact the movement'sexternal
historyshedsso much lighton its inner naturethata chronological
survey,thoughapparentlyan elementaryexercisein literaryhistory,
is a necessaryand potentiallyilluminatingpreliminaryto any fur-
115
116 COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES
therdiscussion.To establish the correctsequence and perspective

not only obviatessome,at least,of the more commonmisapprehen-
sionsbut also createsa sounderbase fromwhichto explorethemaze
of Romanticmovementsin Europe.
"Une arisede la conscienceeuropenne":x thisis the succinctand
telling phrase chosen by van Tieghem to describe the Romantic
movementin Europe. The claim that it was far more than just
another literarymovementis not based primarilyon the sheer
extent,the expanse of Romanticism,thoughit is in fact true that
no other literarymovementhas ever evoked such a wide response
throughoutEurope. The real significanceof Romanticism as a
"crise de la conscienceeuropenne" lies not in its mere quantity,
but in the quality of the changes it implied. For Romanticism
broughtnot just a greaterfreedomand a new technique; thesewere
only the outer manifestationsof a complete and deep-seatedre-
orientation,not to say revolution,in the mannersof thought,per-
ception, and consequentlyof expressiontoo. The nature of this
revolutionhas recentlybeen outlinedin vivid termsby Isaiah Berlin
who definedit as a "shiftof consciousness"that "crackedthe back-
bone of European thought."2 That backbone had been the belief
in the possibilityof a rationalcomprehension of the universe.When
the rationalisticapproach was applied to the arts as well as to the
emergentphysicalsciences,it resultedin thoserigidpronouncements
on the immutable'rules' of literaturethat were the bane of Neo-
classicism.This dogmatismwas firstcautiouslyquestionedand then
vehementlyrejected in the course of the eighteenthcentury,and
finallythe old standardswereoustedby the Romantics'new criteria
and values. In place of the Neoclassicalideals of rationalism,tradi-
tionalism,and formal harmony,the Romantics emphasized indi-
vidualism,imagination,and emotion as their guiding principles.
Hence the old 'rules' of 'good taste,'regularity,
and conformity gave
way to the unbridled creativeurge of the original genius,and the
ideal of a smoothbeauty was scornedin favourof a dynamicout-
pouring of feeling.A new mode of imaginativeperceptiongave
birthto a whole new vocabularyand new formsof artisticexpres-
sion: thisis the essenceof that"crise de la conscienceeuropenne?
whichlies at the heart of the Romanticrevolution,and thisis also
perhaps as near an approximationto a definitionof Romanticism
as is possible.It may not have the neatnessof a snappy
catchphrase
(such as 'the returnto nature' or 'the cult of the extinct'),but it is
ROMANTICISM IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 117
sufficientlycomprehensiveand sufficientlyplain to serveas a viable

working basis.
This reorientation occurredin varyingdegreesthroughoutEurope
in thelatterpart of the eighteenthand the earlyyearsof the nine-
teenthcenturies.In thissense Romanticismcan rightlybe regarded
as a European phenomenonthatcan be appreciatedin all its impli-
cationsonlyby meansof a comparativestudy.Many of the Roman-
ticsthemselves werewell aware of thesupranationalcharacterof the
movement:the brothersSchlegel consciouslycherishedthe notion
of a specificallyEuropean Romanticliteratureas part of theirstriv-
ing foran all-embracing'universalpoetry/and both Coleridgeand
Novalis hoped for an eventual European reintegration.Perhaps
thesecosmopolitantendenciesof the Romantics have encouraged
criticsto seekout the commondenominatorsof the Romanticmove-
mentsand to overemphasizethe similaritiesbetweenthe literatures
of variouscountries.The 'familylikeness'whichcertainlymeetsthe
eye can be traced back to the communal ancestryof Romanticism
throughoutEurope, which springsfromone and the same momen-
tous spiritualand intellectualreorientation.
To delve into the originsof thisrevolutionis beyondthe scope of
this study. The firstunmistakable signs of impending change
manifestedthemselvesbeforethe middle of the eighteenthcentury,
and in thisearliestphase- say 1740 to 1770- it is England thatwas
to the fore.As early as 1742,Young, inspiredby personal griefat
the death of his daughter and of a friend,published his Night
Thoughts,which were followedin 1745 by Akenside'sPleasures of
Imagination.Historicallythesetwo workshave muchin commonin
thattheystand midwaybetweenthe conventionalmoralismof the
age and a freshoutlook which admitsimaginationto respectability
in poeticpractice.Imagination,accordingto Akenside,"diffusesits
enchantment"and makes the soul "to that harmoniousmovement
fromwithout/ Responsive":8 no verystartlingclaim as yet,but at
least a firstglimmerof a recognitionof the powersof the imagina-
tion. The personal melancholyand the funerealcult of the Night
Thoughts were reiterated in Hervey's Meditations Among the
Tombs (1746) and Gray'sElegy Writtenin a CountryChurchyard
(1751) withtheirawarenessof the fleetingness and pathosof human
Ufe, their preferencefor darkness,solitude,the evocationof solemn,
somberscenes.The slightlymoralizingsensibilityof the period is
as apparentin thesepoems as in the novels of Richardsonand his
imitators.This sensibilitywas deeply affectedby Macpherson's

Fingal (1762) which,togetherwithPercy'sReliques (1765), laid the
foundationsforthe subsequentpopularityof supposedlynaive folk-
poetry,the natural utterancesof primitive,spontaneous genius.
fromthe
Macpherson'sconcoctions,purportingto be a transcription
ancientbard Ossian,made a particularlystrongimpressionthrough-
out Europe with their highly-colouredintrigues,their gloomy
Northernsetting,theirwhole otlandishness,and, above all, their
rhythmicprose,whichseemedso muchmorepoetic than the poetry
of the earlyeighteenthcentury:
Starof descendingnight!fairis thylightin thewest!thouliftestthyun-
shornhead fromthycloud: thystepsare statelyon thyhill. Whatdost
thoubeholdin theplain?The stormy windsare laid. The murmur of the
torrentcomesfromafar.Roaringwavesclimbthedistantrock.The fliesof
eveningare on theirfeeblewings;thehumof theircourseis on thefield.
Whatdostthoubehold,fairlight?But thoudostsmileand depart.The
wavescomewithjoy aroundthee: theybathethylovelyhair.Farewell,
thousilentbeam! Let thelightofOssian'ssoularise!*
Alongside Ossian, the other decisive document of English pre-

Romanticism,Young's Conjectureson Original Composition(1759),
was of far-reaching importas theheraldof thenew aesthetics.Some
of Young's ideas were,it is true,alreadycurrentin England among
his contemporaries, notablyin the discoursesof Burke,Thomas and
JosephWarton, and William Sharpe. But never beforehad these
ideas been stated as cogentlyas in the Conjectures;by his clear-
sighteddistinctionsbetweenimitationand originality,the ancients
and the moderns,learningand genius,the observationof rules and
the energyof the inspiredenthusiast,Young was crucial in precipi-
tatingthe reorientationaway fromthe old accepted notions.Here
for the firsttime,the superiorityof the new ideals was proclaimed
beyond a shadow of doubt: "An Original may be said to be of a
vegetablenature;it risesspontaneously fromthevitalrootofgenius;
it grows,it is not made: Imitationsare oftena sortof manufacture,
wroughtby those mechanics,art and labour, out of pre-existent
materialsnot their own." 5 Or again, take the contrastbetweena
"genius"and a "good understanding":"A geniusdiffers froma good
understanding, as a magician froma good architect;that raiseshis
structureby means invisible; this by skilfuluse of common tools.
Hence genius has ever been supposed to partake of
something
divine." These two brief examples alone sufficeto illustratethe
incisivequality of Young's thinking.Many of the key conceptsof

Romanticismare already contained in the Conjectures,in the
prominencegiven to such words as "original," "genius," "grows,"
"magician," "divine." There is thus some justificationfor the
contentionthat "this vast romanticmovementwas the European
reverberationof English eighteenthcenturyromanticism,like the
thunderof Alpine re-echoingto a pistol-shot." T
Many of the essen-
tial elements of Romanticismwere indeed present in England
towardthe middle of the eighteenthcentury:some recognitionof
the role of the imagination,the emphasison the original composi-
tionof thegenius,thecult of sensibility, thevague religiousfeeling,
themelancholyreverie,the interestin 'natural'poetry,the discovery
of externalnature.But it would be prematureto call thisanything
other than pre-Romanticism,for these were merely trends and
beginningswith the stresson the natural- no doubt in reaction
againstthe artificialoverrefinement of Neodassicism- whereas the
dominant factor in Romanticism proper was the transfiguring
imagination,whose true significancewas not yet appreciated.
While this reorientationwas progressingrapidly in England,
France and Germanywere far behind during this initial phase.
France was still suffering fromthe backwashof its glorious Neo-
classical age, which continued to overshadowcreativewritingand
to a large extentto stifleinnovation.A spiritof enlightenment does
pervadeat least the early criticismof Diderot, such as the prefaces
to his plays Le filsnaturel (1757) and Le pre de famille (1758),
wherehe advocatesa greaterrealism;but afterthisadvance towards
emotionalismhe was, in his later works,to returnto the assump-
tions of the Neoclassical creed. Only Rousseau broke really new
ground: his disgustwith the social order of the time, based on
ownershipof land and goods,led him to idealize the primitivestate
of mankindand to call for the famousreturnto nature.Important
thoughthiswas, it was by no means Rousseau's sole contributionto
pre-Romanticism; his assimilationof externalnatureto man'smoods
in Les rveriesdu promeneursolitaire and La nouvelle Hlose,
his musical prosestyle,and his spotlighton his ego in his autobio-
graphicalwritingsall plainlyforeshadowcertainlaterdevelopments.
Rousseau,however,was not understood,at leastnot in France,until
later;meanwhilehis mostimmediateeffect was in Germanythrough
the intermediary of Herder, an enthusiasticdisciple of Rousseau's,
who transmitted his admirationfor Rousseau to the young adher-

entsof the Sturmund Drang movement.
In the mid-eighteenth centuryGermanywas in the literaryfield
the most backward of the major European countries; politically
disunitedand economicallydisruptedby internalstrife,Germany
had in the latterhalf of the seventeenthand the earlyyearsof the
eighteenthcenturyvirtuallybeen lyingfallow.A new era began to
dawn in the 1730'swiththe notoriousquarrel betweenthe doctrinal
rationalistGottschedand the somewhatless narrow-mindedSwiss
criticsBodmer and Breitinger,who realized that poetrycould not
be made accordingto a set recipe- like a cake- as Gottschedhad
assumed.Bodmer in 1740 published his KritischeAbhandlungvon
dem Wunderbarenin der Poesie ("Discourse Concerningthe Won-
drous Element in Poetry"),the title of which alreadyindicatesthe
progressiontowardsa more fruitfulconceptionof art.The Enlight-
enmentfoundits mostvigorousand wise exponentin Lessing,who
savagelyattacked the 'frenchified'("franzsierend"he contemptu-
ously calls it in the seventeenthLiteraturbrief)mode of writing
favouredby Gottsched.He pleaded instead that German writers
should model themselveson the freerproductsof theEnglish,whose
spiritwas more akin to theirown. Lessingwas not the firstto turn
his gaze towards England; Bodmer and Breitingerhad earlier
championedand translatedMilton, and Klopstock'sMessias (1748)
is patentlyindebted to Paradise Lost. AlthoughLessing was thus
not the firstto point towardsEngland, nevertheless his position in
Germany was as crucial as, and in some respectscomparableto, that
of Young in England. For it was Lessingwho in his Literaturbriefe
(1759) and HamburgischeDramaturgie(1767) presenteda reasoned
and compellingcase for the decisive reorientationnot only from
France to England but also fromimitation to original creation,
extolling Shakespeare as the supreme creativegenius. Herder in
his rhapsodicappraisal of Shakespeareand also of Ossian furthered
the cult of genius,stimulatedno doubt by the German translation
of Young's Conjectureswhich appeared in 1760. The vital impetus
thereforereached Germany from England, the fountainhead of
European pre-Romanticism.
In the second phase, betweenabout 1770 and 1790, this position
was reversed,for the ascendancywhich had been England's now
passed to Germany.Both England and France were in no haste to
accept new notions,perhaps because the native literarytradition
was firmlyestablished;in France it tended to exercisea retarding

influence- the great'battle*of Hernani took place only in the year
1830- while in England the lack of resistanceto innovationspara-
doxicallyled to theircomparativelyslow infiltration. Germany,on
the contrary,was thirstingfora freshstartafterits long period of
inertia.So Germany'sverybackwardnessprovedin factan advantage
when the young writersof the Sturm und Drang movement,for
lack of a strongnativetradition,eagerlyseized on the stimulifrom
abroad, and it was theywho popularized and propagated the new
attitudesthroughoutEurope.
The essence of the Sturm und Drang, whose name was derived
fromKlinger'sdrama of 1776,lay in rebellionagainstfiniterestric-
tion in any shape or form - literary,political, or social. This self-
assertiverebelliousnesswas more than the adolescentdefianceof a
fewgiftedyoungmen; it arose directlyout of the proud conviction
of the limitlessrightsand powers of the divinely-inspired genius.
Thus the theoriesformulateda few years earlier by Young were
activatedby the Sturmund Drang and found living examples in
the youthfulGoethe and Schiller. All the favouriteideas of the
Sturmund Drang pivoted on the figureof the trulygreat,excep-
tional man; it was his personal experiencesand emotionswhich
were to be transformed into art throughthe creativepower of his
unbridled imagination.No wonder that the Sturm und Drang is
oftenand aptly termedthe Geniezeit ("Period of Genius"). Inco-
herent and supremelyarrogant though it was, the credo of the
Sturm und Drang foreshadowedvery many of the basic concepts
of Romanticism:thebeliefin the autonomyof the divinelyinspired
genius,the release of the imaginationfromthe bondage of 'good
taste/the primacyof spontaneousand intuitivefeeling,the com-
plete freedomof artisticexpression,and, finally,the notion of
organicgrowthand development,fromwhicharose both an interest
in the past, particularlythe Middle Ages, and a new pantheistic
visionof natureas partof a unifiedcosmos.Nor were theseideas to
remainmere theoriesany longer; in the earlyworksof Goethe and
Schillerthe new mode of perceptionand expressionburstupon a
startledEurope. And how immeasurableis the gulf that separates
Goethe'sdynamicnaturepoetryfromthe prettylyricsof the preced-
ing generation! Consider the formal, pedestrian descriptionby
Brockesin his "Betrachtungendes Mondscheinsin einer angeneh-
men Frhlingsnacht"in the 1721 collection Irdisches Vergngen

in Gott(note theclumsytitles):
Kaumhattesichdie Nachtzu zeigenangefangen,
Die nachderHitzeLastderKhlungLustverhiess,
Alssichein neuerTag demScheinnachsehenliess:
Der volleMondwaraus demgrauenDuft,
Der nachdesTagesschwler Luft
MitPurpuruntermischt den Horizontbedeckte
Wie rtlichGold nureben aufgegangen,
Aus dessenwandelbarem Kreise,
Der allesin derNachtmitLichtund Schimmer fllt,
MehrAnmutnochals LichtundSchimmer quillt.8
Compare these mundane lines with the intenselyimaginative,
mysteriouslyintuitiveperception of die same scene in Goethe's
"An
bewitching den Mond":
FllestwiederBuschundTal
StillmitNebelglanz,
Lsestendlichaucheinmal
MeineSeeleganz;
Breitest
bermeinGefild
LindernddeinenBlick,
Wie desFreundes Augemild
bermeinGeschick.9
In the face of these two texts,furtherverbal commenton the
revolutionwroughtby the Sturm und Drang becomessuperfluous.
It was at thistimetoo, in the early 1770's,that the greatRomantic
prototypeswere delineated in the melancholyhero Wertherand
the insatiableseekerFaust, figuresthatwere to haunt Europe. The
impactof Wertheris alreadynotorious;Goethe became the idol of
Europe. The successof Schiller'sDie Ruber was even more imme-
diate and widespread:in England as well as in France,Schillerwas
acclaimedwithsuch wild enthusiasmas to triggera veritablemania
for the German theatre,admittedlyexcessive and short lived.
Nevertheless, Goethe and Schillerremainedin the eyesof both the
English and the French the typical representativesof German
Romanticism,and strangethough this misconceptionmay at first
seem,it is in factnot withoutsome justification.For in the Sturm
und Drang, theculminationof pre-Romanticism, thefirstsignificant
breakthroughwas achieved,and in this Goethe and Schiller were
largelyinstrumental.With the publication of Kant's three major
works,the Kritik der reinen Vernunftin 1781, the Kritik der
praktischenVernunftin 1788, and the Kritik der Urteilskraft in

1790, the mortal blows were struck at the old rationalistsystem.
F. Schlegelwas justifiedin his proud claim that the springsof the
new age were risingin Germany.To suggest,however,that Roman-
ticismshould really be called "Germanticism"on account of its
10
essentiallyGermanicroots and spirit is an exaggeration,not to
say a distortionin view of its early sources in England, althoughit
is not withoutsome elementof (albeit poetic) truth,and the high
incidenceof Germanwords used in connectionwith Romanticism
(Sehnsucht,Weltschmerz, europamde,Dies- und Jenseitigkeit) in
itselfindicates Romanticism'sdeep entrenchmentin Germany.
Thenceforththe overall picture of European Romanticismbe-
comes increasinglycomplex as the new creed slowlyspread from
countryto country.For a timeyet Germanywas to remain in the
ascendancy,so thatthisthirdphase was again largelyovershadowed
by Germany.This was her mostgloriousage, forthe 1790'switness
not only the elaborationof Romanticismbut also the heydayof
her Neoclassical period. These were the momentousyears of the
Goethe-Schillerfriendshipwhen the formerwrote Reineke Fuchs
(1794), Rmische Elegien (1795), Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre
(1795), VenezianischeEpigramme(1797), Hermann und Dorothea
(1798), and manyof his best-knownballads, while Schiller'swork
included ber Anmut und Wrde.(1793), ber naive und senti-
mentalischeDichtung(1795), Briefeber die sthetischeErziehung
des Menschen (1795),Das Ideal und das Leben (1795), Wallenstein
(1798-99),Das Lied von der Glocke (1799) and otherballads, as well
as theXenien (1796) on whichthetwo friendscollaborated.In order
to realize fully the extent to which Romantic and Neoclassical
strainswere contemporaneousin Germany - a fact that is often
-
forgottenor overlooked it is perhaps worth enumeratingbriefly
some of the other workswhich appeared during this period: in
1794,Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre; in 1797, the greatballad-yearof
Goethe and Schiller,Schelling'sIdeen zu einer Philosophie der
Natur, Tieck's Volksmrchen, Wackenroder'sHerzensergiessungen
eines kunstliebendenKlosterbruders, A. W. Schlegel'sfirsttransla-
tionsfromShakespeare;in 1798,the journal of the Jena Romantic
group, the Athenum; in 1799, Schleiermacher'sReden ber die
Religion and F. Schlegel'sLucinde; and the new centuryopened
with Novalis' Hymnenan die Nacht. In theseworksthe writersof
the Jena Romantic group expounded their own Weltanschauung
which was in many essential points a developmentof the earlier

ideas of the Sturm und Drang, although these had never been
fashionedinto a coherentaestheticsystem.Like theirpredecessors,
the Jena group founded their whole systemon the unquestioned
primacy of the subjective imagination of the original creative
genius,a doctrinewhich had been strengthenedby the powerful
supportof Fichte's philosophy,so that this subjectiveimagination
now became literallythe alpha and omega of the universe.The
notion of organic growth and developmentand the consequent
interestin historyand in living nature,the arrogationof complete
artisticfreedomas the birthrightof the autonomousdivine genius,
the trust in spontaneous emotion and instinct: all these were
inheritedfromthe Sturm und Drang, although German Roman-
ticismwas not a mere continuationof the earlier movementand
there were vital shiftsof emphasis and mood which reveal the
distinctcharacterof the Jena school. The later group was more
complexthan the relativelystraightforward rebelsof theSturmund
Drang who sought to live and createsolelyaccordingto the dictates
of feeling,while the Romantic strivesalso forknowledge,conscious-
ness,a masteryof those feelingswhich in turn produceda certain
self-detachment, the keyto that curiousRomanticconceptof irony.
As its name implies, the Sturm und Drang had been youthful,
forward-looking, vigorous,and realisticin its rebellionagainst an
irksomereality,whereas with the Jena school an introvert,tran-
scendentallongingcame to the foreas the Romanticlooked beyond
this world in his quest for an intangible,unattainableideal in a
dreamsphereof his own creation.To the revolutionary naturalism
of Rousseau and the melancholypietism of English pre-Roman-
tidsmwas now added the transcendentalism of theGermanphiloso-
phers,fortheJena Romanticgroup,speculativeratherthancreative
by nature,was responsibleforthe major body of GermanRomantic
philosophyand it was at this point that German Romanticism
assumed its characteristichue. An all-embracingexpansiveness,
coloured by a pervasivemysticism, is its hallmark,so that it is a
way of living and perceivingratherthan merelyof writingwhich
was expounded in the theoriesof the brothersSchlegel,Schelling,
Schleiermacher, and Wackenroder.The spreadin scope and breadth
is vast. As poetryturnsinto "eine progressiveUniversalpoesie," ll
it tendsnot only to mingle the various genresand media but also
moreand more to lose its specificmeaningand to becomeconfused
and amalgamated with philosophy,religion, history,philology,

science, and politics. This cosmic extension of the meaning of
poetrywas to be of the utmostimportancefor the whole of the
nineteenthcenturyand beyondtoo.
So rapidlyhad the European balance changed that in theseyears
it was the turn of England and France to be comparativelyback-
ward. In France,the Revolutionblotted all else frommen's minds
and theReign ofTerrorvirtuallysilencedcreativewritingfora time.
As Mme. de Stal reported:"Les Franais,depuis vingtannes,sont
tellementproccupspar les vnementspolitiques,que toutesleurs
tudes en littratureont t suspendues."12Or again: "Depuis
quelque tempson ne lit gure en France que des mmoiresou des
romans; et ce n'est pas tout fait par frivolitqu'on est devenu
moins capable de lecturesplus srieuses,c'est parce que les vne-
mentsde la Rvolution ont accoutum ne mettrede prix qu' la
connaissancedes faitset des hommes."13From the welterof argu-
mentsas to whetherthe Revolutionimpededthe advance of Roman-
ticismor fosteredit by breakingdown the old authoritarianorder
in the social sphere, only one fact emergeswith any certainty:
namely,the dearth of creativewritingduring the Revolutionary
period. Hence that curious hiatus in French literarydevelopment
in the years 1790 to 1820. The few workswhich did appear were
mainlyin the Rousseauistictradition,such as the exotic novels of
Bernardin de Saint-Pierrewhose Paul et Virginie (1787) and La
chaumireindienne (1791) both illustratethe so-called returnto
nature. Chateaubriand's Alala (1801) and Reni (1805) are also
indebtedto the ideas of Rousseau, and none of these,no morethan
the Gnie du Christianisme(1802),was regardedby contemporaries
as a seriousmenace to the Neoclassical traditionwhichstill reigned
unchallenged.FrenchRomanticism,when it did finallyassertitself,
was to be above all a revolt against this firmlyentrenchedand
ossifiedNeoclassidsm and it is significantthatthe earliestglimmer-
ings of the new orientationfirstinsinuated themselvesinto the
strongholdof Neoclassidsmin prose,the genreleast subject to the
dictatesand rulesof theNeoclassicalcreed.
There were no such hindrancesto overcomein England, which
was gradually awakeningto the new tendendes. In Blake's Songs
of Innocence (1787) and Songs of Experience (1794), imagerywas
used in a mannertotallydifferent fromitseighteenth-century decora-
tivefunction,and thiswas a vital breakthroughof the new typeof
poeticexpression.The mid-1790'salso witnessedthe growingpopu-

larityof tales of horrorwith Mrs. Radcliffe'sMysteriesof Udolpho
in 1794 and The Monk by Lewis in 1796. It was in 1798, the year
of the Lyrical Ballads, that WordsworthaccompaniedColeridgeto
Germany.Ironically,England was now to receiveits stimulusfrom
Germany,fromideas which had in fact originatedon her shores
and had been elaborated abroad while they were more or less
ignoredat home. That homecomingbegan in the 1790's with the
spreadof knowledgeabout Germanliteraturewhichhad previously
been dismissed,in spite of the successof Werther,as revolutionary,
sensationalist,extravagently sentimental,and not quite respectable.
The term'German Novel/ forinstance,was forlong a self-explana-
toryexpressionof opprobrium,a stigmastemmingfromthe many
worthlessSchauerromane,stories that send a shudder down the
reader's spine, which had been translatedinto English to satisfy
the thirstforhorrorstories.A numberof originalEnglish Gothic
novelsof dubious quality were at that time passed offas renderings
fromGerman,thus bringingGerman literatureinto furtherdisre-
pute. Gradually a truerpicturewas to emerge,dating fromHenry
Mackenzie'spaper on German drama read beforethe Royal Society
of Edinburgh in 1788 and published in 1790. Here Schiller was
mentionedfor the firsttime in Britain in a startlingeulogy of
Die Ruber, the tremendousappeal of which lay in the noveltyof
its subject,the atmosphereof horror,and the unbridledexpression
of emotional crises.It made a vehementimpressionon Coleridge
whenhe read it in 1794,arousingthecuriosityabout Germanlitera-
turethatwas to take him and Wordsworthto Germanyin 1798.
While France was in the throesof the Revolution,and England
was only graduallyassimilatingthe new tendencies,Germanystill
remained the home of Romanticism.The Heidelberg group of
1805-1815differedfrom the earlier, more closely-knitJena circle
in thatit was farless philosophicallyinclined.Forsakingthe meta-
physicalspeculations of the Jena theorists,the Heidelberg poets
createdmanyof the worksforwhich German Romanticismearned
its fameabroad, such as the tales of Hoffmann,Chamisso,Fouqu,
the poems of Uhland, Krner,Brentano,Arnim. More extrovert
than theirimmediatepredecessors, theseHeidelbergpoets exploited
theJena theoriesforpracticalcreativepurposes.Their demand for
a spontaneousexpressionof emotion led to a gloriousblossoming
of lyricpoetry; the probing of the irrationalaspects of life- the
so-called nocturnalsides of nature- was now precipitatedinto a

host o supernaturaland fantasticstories,such as those of Tieck
and Hoffmann;and finallythe interestin history,formerlypart of
a compositebelief in organic growthand development,now also
assumed more specificformseitherin scholarlyresearchinto the
past, as exemplifiedby the philological enquiries of the brothers
Grimm,or in the newlyemergentnational consciousnessand pride
whichevoked,under the threatof the Napoleonic wars,lyriccycles
withsuch titlesas the GeharnischteSonette("Sonnetsin Armour")
by Rcken (1814), Krner'sLeyer und Schwert("Lyre and Sword")
of the same year, and Arndt's Lieder fr Teutsche ("Songs for
Germans").This was the climatewhichfosteredArnim'sand Bren-
tano'sDes Knaben Wunderhorn(1806-1808)and like collectionsof
folktalesin Grres'Die teutschenVolksbcher(1807) and Grimm's
Mrchen (1812). In these patriotic nationalistic endeavours the
writersof the Heidelberg group foreshadowedthe more directly
politicaland social aims of the Jung-Deutschland movementof the
mid-nineteenth century. It is at this point that the time lag in
European Romanticism is at its most blatant; for while Roman-
ticismhas hardlystirred in France as yetand is only about to unfold
in
fullyin England, Germany it is alreadypast its zenithand moving
steadilytowardsthe more sober social preoccupationsof the subse-
quent period. In the face of these discrepanciesalone, who would
dare to envisageEuropean Romanticismas one unifiedand consist-
ententity?
In this interregnumthereappeared a work that was of extraor-
dinary importance in the historyof Romanticism in Europe:
Mme de Stal'sDe l'Allemagne.Duringher exile fromFrance,Mme
de Stal travelledfairlyextensivelyin Germany,where she met,
amongothers,Goethe,Schiller,and A. W. Schlegel,who became her
son's tutor. In contrast to his volatile and inventive brother
Friedrich,August Wilhelm Schlegel was the most perceptiveand
orderlyof the Jena group, so that his elegantlyclear formulations
of German Romantic thought were more comprehensibleand
accessibleto foreignersthan the perhapsprofounder,transcendental
thinking of Friedrich Schlegel,Schelling,or Schleiennacher;and
with the translationsof his Vorlesungenber dramatischeKunst
und Literatur into French in 1813 and into Englishin 1815,A. W.
Schlegeltruly became the "Herold oder Dolmetscher"l of Roman-
tic thought.In A. W. Schlegel, Mme de Stal thusmet a man well
able to fan her enthusiasmfor Germany.The externalhistoryof

De l'Allemagne- the hindrancesto publication,therole of political
considerations,etc.- are irrelevantin the presentcontext except
in so faras thisoppositionin itselfindicatesthe Frenchreluctance,
indeed fear,to importforeignideas which seemed an insult and a
menace to French cultural dominance.In spite,or perhaps partly
because,of the violentresistanceto its publication,De VAllemagne
became the standardsourceof knowledgeon Germany,and beyond
thata manifestoof the new cosmopolitanismand a decisivestep in
the renewal of French literatureafterits long subservienceto the
tenetsof an emasculatedNeodassicism.In thisworkMme de Stal
soughtto delineate the conceptof a poetrydifferent fromthe great
native traditionof France, for she fully realized the need for a
transfusionof new blood. In introducingcontemporaryGerman
writingto France, she constantlycontrastedits originality,vitality,
and imaginationwith the sterilerigidity,"le genre manir" of
moribund French Neodassicism. Mudi valid critidsm can be
levelled against Mme de Stal: she saw Germanyin the literaryas
well as in thesocial and moral senseas the countryof Hermann und
Dorothea,therebynurturingthe strangelypersistent Frenchpicture
of Germanyas "une rgion fabuleuse,o les hommesgazouillent
et chantentcommeles oiseaux" ie Moreover,she had littleacquaint-
ance with the work of the Jena group (there is, for instance,no
mention whatsoeverof Novalis) and regarded Goethe, Schiller,
Brger,and Tieck as the representativeGerman Romantic poets;
nor had she much head forabstractphilosophyand no more than a
superfidalcomprehensionof Romantidsm,distinguishing between
Classicaland Romanticpoetryas "celle qui a prcdl'tablissement
du christianismeet celle qui l'a suivi."17 All her judgments are
formedfroma plainlyFrenchstandpointso thatshe regardsGerman
and Englishliteratureas one entity,the literatureof the Romantic
North,as against the Classical literatureof France and Southern
Europe. Nevertheless,in spite of her undeniable weaknessesand
failings,Mme de Stal was an astute,perspicaciousarbiter,whose
observationsare often acute and who grasped the essence of the
new orientationof German literature.In some respectsMme de
Stal's position is reminiscentof that of Lessing: though more
emotional and fandful in manner than the sensible exponent of
the Enlightenment, basically she advocates the same emancipation
fromthe traditionalrules in favour of a poetryfatheredby the
enthusiasmof genius.In fact,De VAllemagnepresentsan admirable

surveyof the Sturmund Drang phase of Germanliterature,thatis,
of pre-Romanticism ratherthanof the Romanticgroupsthemselves.
This is a crucialfactorforthe comprehensionof European Roman-
ticismsince the opinions expressedby Mme de Stal and, perhaps
even more important,her omissions,forlong not only determined
the French (and to a lesser extent the English) view of German
literaturebut also shaped the course and nature of the French
Romanticmovement.So the preferenceforSchiller,the conception
of Goethe as "le chefde l'cole mlancolique" 18 the appraisal of
Faust as the supremeRomantic masterpiece,the emphasis on the
picturesqueelementin poetry,and thebeliefthatGermanliterature
all thesecurious
is characterizedprimarilyby 'fantasy'and 'liberty*:
notions stem fromDe VAllemagne.And Mme de Stal's view of
Germanliteraturewas persistentas well as potent;until after18S0
the French continuedto believe that German literatureconsisted
solelyof Goethe,Schiller,Brger,Tieck, and Jean Paul. No good
historyof Germanliteraturewas available in French; and while a
few works,notably Werther,Faust, Die Ruber, and later, the
dramasof Wernerwere read withrespectand devotion,poets such
as Novalis, Brentano,and Arnim were virtuallyunknown to the
French Romantic poets,veryfew of whom, incidentally,had any
knowledgeof German. The belief that French Romanticismwas
directlyinfluencedby German Romanticism,one of the principal
and most commonmisapprehensions about the historyof Roman-
ticismin Europe, is thereforecontravenedby the undeniable evi-
dence of chronologicalfact.The truerelationshipis ratherbetween
the GermanSturmund Drang and FrenchRomanticism.Once this
correcthistoricalperspectiveis established,the strikingdifferences
betweenthe facesof Romanticismin Germanyand France become
somewhatless puzzling.
De l'Allemagne,whichwas originallypublishedin England, also
servedin somedegreeas a mediatorbetweenGermanyand England.
In the earlyyearsof the nineteenthcentury,because of the political
situation- the oppositionto Napoleon- the Englishtendedto turn
more to Germanythan to France, and many links were forged
between the two lands throughboth travelersand translations.19
These links were remarkableratherfor their large number than
fortheirdepth,therebeing littleto suggestanyverydecisivesignifi-
cance.As in France,so in Englandactual knowledgeabout Germany
was fairlyscant; the Carlyleanimageof a land of poetsand thinkers

succeededthe earlierone of a realmof the picturesqueand fantastic.
As forGermanliterature,it was again the Sturmund Drang which
made the only real impressionthroughthe earlyworksof Goethe
and Schillerand the dramas of Kotzebue,whose popularityturned
into an absolutefuror.The writingsof the Jenagroup,on theother
hand, gained little or no hearing until well into the nineteenth
century;Carlylewas the firstto writeabout Novalis in 1829,and
even then Novalis was interpretedas a disciple of Kant and Fichte
withoutany appreciationof his poetry.In her relationshipwith
her European neighbours,England showed that same sturdyinde-
pendencethat characterizesher own Romanticmovement.England
had indeed no need to be instructedin Romantic thoughtand
feelingby other nations,for in Shakespeare,Milton,Young, Mac-
pherson,Percy,and Richardson she exported far more than she
importedin Schiller,Goethe,and Rousseau.
The greatfloweringof English Romanticismoccurredabout the
middle of the second decade of the nineteenthcenturywhen for
sometenyearsEngland became thefocusof European Romanticism.
By then the Romanticimpetushad slackenedin Germanyand was
graduallybeing diluted by the beginningsof the sober realismof
the mid-nineteenthcentury.Meanwhile France, apparentlystill
stunnedby the consequencesof the Revolution,was takingstockin
social and political affairswith thinkerssuch as Saint-Simon,
Cousin, and Thierry,while artisticcreativitywas relegatedto the
background.England with a galaxy of finepoets in Blake, Words-
worth,Coleridge,Shelley,Keats, and Byron assumed the primacy
which had been Germany's.Not that therewas ever a Romantic
'school*in England as there had been in Germany;therewas no
conscioushomogeneousprogramand therewere fewmanifestosor
literarydiscussionscompared with those in Germanyand with the
violentcontroversies thatwere to swayFrance.Wordsworth's famous
Preface to the "Lyrical Ballads" was conceived chieflyto counter
criticismand to forestallfurtherattacks.The second generation
of English Romantic poets was even less concernedthan the first
with questionsof poetic technique; Keats indeed was outspokenin
his rejectionof abstracttheorizing,whichhe brandedas "thewhims
of an Egotist."In a letterto J. H. Reynolds(February3, 1818) he
wrote: "Every man has his speculations,but everyman does not
brood and peacock over them till he makes a false coinage and
deceives himself.. . . Poetryshould be great and unobtrusive,a

thingwhich entersinto one's soul, and does not startleit or amaze
it with itself,but with its subject.- How beautifulare the retired
flowers!how would theylose theirbeautywere theyto thronginto
the highwaycryingout, 'admire me I am a violet!- dote upon me
I am a primrose!'" 20 Informal in character,"a warm intuitive
muddle," as it has rightlybeen called,21English Romanticism
remainedless systematic, less dogmatic,less self-conscious than its
Continentalcounterparts,of an independentapproach consonant
with the innate individualismof the Briton.AlthoughJeffrey, the
mostvehementopponent of the Lake Poets, accused them in the
EdinburghReview of 1802 of being "dissentersfromtheestablished
systemsin poetry,"who had borrowed their doctrinesfrom the
Germansand from"the great apostle of Geneva," this chargewas
far fromtrue.For the Romantic movementin England was above
all of evolutionary,not revolutionary, origin; a sense of belonging
to and restoringthe native traditiondistinguishesthe Romantic
poets in England, where therewas no incisivebreak in continuity
as in Germanyand France.The Englishpre-Romantics and Roman-
ticslooked back withapproval on Shakespeareand the pre-Restora-
tion poets,nor did the Augustansrouse oppositioncomparable to
the rebelliousnessof the German Strmerund Drnger or the
French onslaught on their tyrannicalliteraryestablishment.In
contrastto the necessityimposed on the French and Germans to
findsome way out of a kind of cul-de-sac,the Englishwere cast in
a historicallymore fortunateposition. Whereas the Germansand
the French Romanticshad to follow and in some way outdo their
glorious immediate predecessors,the English Romantics were
stronglyconscious of representinga new beginningand upsurge,
not a reaction as in France or an overrefinement as in Germany.
From this,perhaps,EnglishRomanticismderivesits special quality
offreshness,freedom,flexibility,and grace.
With the deaths of Keats in 1821,Shelleyin 1822,and Byronin
1824, the period of English ascendancycame to an abrupt and
untimelyend. Now it was the turn of France in the 1820's and
1830's. But how different was the face and spiritof Romanticism
in France fromwhat it had been in England! Whereasthe English
Romanticmovementhad evolved slowlyand organicallyout of the
native tradition, French Romanticism was essentiallya revolt
against the native tradition,an oustingof the firmlyrooted Neo-
classical attitudesand formsby alien lines of thoughtand feeling.

Hence the violenceand bitternessof the quarrels attendanton the
emergenceof Romanticismin France, hence also the stubbornness
and vehemenceof the opposition. For this was far more than a
literarydebate; all mannerof political and national considerations
were implicatedin the complexweb of this"querelle nationale."22
The Revolution, though it had halted literarydevelopmentfor
many years,can also be evaluated as an indirectlypositivefactor,
forwith the fall of the absolute monarchythe Neoclassical dogma-
tismthat had been associatedwith it was severelyundermined:"
socit nouvelle, littraturenouvelle" became the popular slogan.
Moreover, the revolutionaryera with its free spectacle of the
guillotine created a new theatre audience avid for rapid action,
melodrama,and sharp contrasts.On the other hand, Napoleon's
Empire tended to have a reactionaryeffectnot only throughits
strictcensorshipbut also throughits revival of Neoclassical taste
as exemplifiedby Corneille's heroic characterswho were regarded
as the apotheosis of martial glory. Romanticism was therefore
fearedas a tendencyassociatedwith revolution,violence,and for-
eign domination,a threatto the national heritageof Greco-Latin
origin. Even in 1825 Le Globe still reported that: "On se sert
aujourd'hui en France du mot 'romantique' pour dsignertoute
compositioncontraireau systmesuivi en France depuis Louis
XIV." 23 This fear of the Romantic as tantamountto the revolu-
tionaryexplains,in partat least,Constant'sextraordinarilycautious
attitudein his prefaceto Wallstein,wherehe comparedthe German
and French dramatic systems.He deliberatelyavoided the word
'romantic' altogetherand repeatedlystressedhis support of the
native tradition,which was to be strengthenedand refreshed,not
oustedby innovationsfromabroad. A similarrevivalof the French
heritagewas advocated in Sainte-Beuve'sTableau de la posie au
seizimesicle (1827) which was of vital importancein the history
of Romanticismin France; here Sainte-Beuve rehabilitatedthe
hithertoneglectedFrench poets of the sixteenthcentury,thereby
pointingto the existenceof a native traditionanteriorto and dif-
ferentfromthe Neoclassical one.
Consideringthe strengthof this Neoclassical canon of clarity,
harmony,and 'good taste,'as well as the complexityof the political
and social background,it is little wonder that the new Romantic
orientationwas so slow to infiltrateinto France. The French
ROMANTICISM IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 13S
Romanticshad begun to emergeas a shadowyforcein opposition

to the Neoclassiciststowardsthemiddleof the 1810's,stimulatedby
De l'Allemagne and also by the translationin 181S of A. W.
Schlegel's Vorlesungen ber dramatischeKunst und Literatur.
During the years 1814-1822 an outburst of anglomania swept
throughFrance following the isolation during the Napoleonic
wars;livelyinterestwas focusedon the 'conqueror/on the workings
of the constitutionalmonarchyand parliamentarygovernment, the
industrialrevolution,new economicdoctrines,and, of course,new
writing,although unfortunately therewas no outstandingperson-
alityto do forEngland what Mme de Stal had done forGermany.
Neverthelessthe technique of the 'Lakistes/their use of imagery,
the musicand innovationsof theirverse,and theirnote of mystery
arousedcuriosity.In fact,Scott,Byron,and Shakespeareas well as
Goethe and Schillerwere alreadyknown in France,but theirreal
vogue came only about 1820 onward, when Byron in particular
becamethe object of an idolatrousenthusiasm.This growingappre-
ciationof English and Germanpoets coincidedwith the formation
of a number of Romantic groups centered either on a literary
journal such as the Muse franaise(1823-4)or the famousLe Globe
(1824-32),or in the French traditionon a salon such as that of
Deschamps (1820), the Socit des bonnes-lettres(1821), Charles
Nodier (1823), and finallythe Cnacle of Hugo and Sainte-Beuve
(1827). The French Romanticswere thus unlike the English, and
more like the Germans,in their preferencefor groups, and the
dates of these various groups and journals help to site the real
breakthrough of Romanticismin France. Oppositionwas, however,
farfromsilenced by the early 1820's; the traditionalistscontinued
to attackRomanticismas an alien, dangerouselement,brandingit
as a "romantismebtard," to quote the phrase coined in 1824 by
Auger,the directorof the AcadmieFranaise,in spiteof theefforts
of the movement'sdefenders,such as CharlesNodier,who soughtto
distinguishbetweenle frntique(vampirism,meresensationalism)
and thegenuinelyromantique.
Long afterRomanticismhad become more or less acceptable in
lyricpoetrythroughthe worksof Lamartine,Hugo, and Vignyin
theyears1822-26,the finaland mostacrimoniousbattlewas fought
in the field of drama, the "dernirefortresse"the "bastille litt-
raire"1*of the Neoclassical tradition.Several earlier attemptsto
stormthisbastionhad failed; a performance in 1809 of Lemerder's
ChristopheColomb,subtitleda "comdie shakespearienne/'proved

an utternasco,and in his renderingof Schiller'sWallensteintrilogy,
which dates fromthe same year,Constantcautiouslyfelt the need
to respectthe rules of our drama, as he put it, by reducing the
numberof acts to fiveand the charactersto twelve.In the winterof
1827-28a companyof English actors made a deep impressionin
Paris, and it was during that winter,when enthusiasmfor Shake-
speare was at its zenith,that Hugo wroteCromwellwith its epoch-
makingpreface.Not that Hugo's ideas in themselveswere of star-
tlingoriginality;sensationalthoughit was in its historicalcontext,
Hugo's attack on the three unities is in fact veryreminiscentof
Lessing'sargumentsin the HamburgischeDramaturgie.Indeed the
whole tone and spiritof the polemicsin France in the 1820'srecalls
the mood of the German Sturmund Drang of the 1770's.Thus Le
Globe definesits doctrineas "la libert,""l'imitationdirectede la
nature," "l'originalit"2* while the concept "romantique" is
26 that is, in
equated with "vie, activit,mouvementen avant"
termswhich clearlyecho the dynamismof the Sturm und Drang.
There is, therefore,ample justificationfor Goethe's perspicacious
comment: "Was die Franzosen bei ihrer jetzigen literarischen
Richtungfretwas Neues halten, ist im Grunde weiternichtsals
der Widerscheindesjenigen,was die deutscheLiteraturseit fnfzig
Jahrengewollt und geworden."27 Goethe's estimateof fiftyyears
as the timelag betweenGermanyand France is well judged, forit
was only with the noisy victoryof Hernani in 1830 that French
drama achieved the freedomattainedin Germanyin the 1770's by
Gtzvon Berlichingenand Die Ruber. Moreover,while theFrench
Romanticswere related to the German Strmerund Drnger,the
trueheirsof the GermanRomanticismof 1800-1815were undoubt-
edly the FrenchSymbolistpoets of the latterhalf of the nineteenth
century.Baudelaire, Mallarm, and Rimbaud subscribedto a new
conceptionof art and the artist,a conceptionwhich was closely
akin to the theoriesof the German Jena Romantic group: poetic
experience was envisaged as essentiallydifferentfrom ordinary
experience,a magic formof intuitivespiritualactivity,a mysterious
expansion into the transcendentalin which the visionary poet
adventuredinto a drâm-realmto explore the hidden sourcesand
'correspondences' of life.
The battleforHernani in 1830 marksthe last greatmilestonein
the Romantic conquest of Europe. AlthoughRomanticismwas to
ROMANTICISM IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 1S5
reignin Franceforsome ten moreyears,othercurrentswereincreas-

inglyin evidence. By the mid-1830's Hugo was already advancing
a moreutilitarianconceptionof art,urgingthe artistto an aware-
nessof his seriousdutyto furtherthe progressof mankind.In this
changeof outlook, Hugo was anticipatinga trendcharacteristic of
the mid-nineteenthcenturythroughoutEurope. In England and
Germanythe springsof Romanticismhad dried up much earlier
than in that late-starterFrance,and in both countriesby the mid-
1830's only a diluted,rathersentimentalizedformof Romanticism
survivedalongside some witty satire directed against Romantic
attitudes,satirelike Peacock's CrotchetCastle(1831),Carlyle'sSartor
Resartus(1833-34),Heine's RomantischeSchule (1833), and Immer-
mann's Die Epigonen (1836) with its significanttitle, as well as
his comic Miinchhausen (1839). Romanticismwas increasinglyout
of tune with the spiritof the age as the centuryadvanced; the new
sobermood and materialisticaims of the industrialera had little
sympathy for obscure nightsof individual imaginationand no use
whatsoeverfor an art that 'bakes no bread' to quote a pertinent
Americanproverb.The artistwas called to cease his selfishexplora-
tion of his private realm, to come out of his ivorytower,and to
assumehis share of social responsibility.The disciplinedobjectivity
of Realism came to replace- at least for a time- the autonomous
imaginationof Romanticism.
This chronologicalsurveyshould dispel a number of common
misconceptionsregardingRomanticism.Foremostamong these is
the misapprehensionthat European Romanticism is a clearly
definedentity,a unifiedschool which manifesteditselfin several
countriessimultaneouslyand shared certain ideals and predilec-
tions.Almostequally prevalentand mistakenis the belief that the
originsof Romanticismare to be found in Germanyand that both
the English and the French Romantic poets were directlyand
decisivelyinfluencedby the German theories.Such notions are
more than gross oversimplifications; they are false premisesthat
can only breed furthererror.A historicalanalysisof the courseof
Romanticismin Europe revealsa farmorecomplicatedpicture,for
the Romantic manner of perceptionand expressionappeared in
various literaturesat differenttimes and in differentguises. Its
emergenceis an uneven,stragglingprocessof long duration,punc-
tuatedby curious timelags as the ascendancypassed fromone land
to another. Moreover,since the spread of new ideas was largely
dependenton thechancereportsof travelers in an age whencom-

munications werestillrelatively poor and further disrupted bywar,
information on contemporary developments even in neighboring
countries was oftenso scantand belatedthatmanyassumptions of
influencemustbe discounted.The outstanding example of such
slow and fragmentary infiltration of ideas is to be foundin De
l'Allemagne: thoughwritten by a perspicacious and widely-traveled
it
critic, contains in 1810 very few of the ideas of theJenaRomantics
whichwereto reachFranceonlysomehalfa century later.
The outerhistory ofEuropeanRomanticism - itssuccessive waves,
its new upsurgein one countryafteranother - suggests both the
vehemence ofitsimpetusand thecomplexity ofitsnature.Though
partof thatfundamental reorientation of valuesthattook place
throughout Europeat theturnof theeighteenth to thenineteenth
century, it was not a singlebut a multiplemovement; indeedit
comprised a wholeseriesofmovements fromtheSturmundDrang
onward,each separateand distinct in character, yetall involvedin
a profound"crisede la conscience9' as individualistic, imaginative,
subjective attitudes replaced the old rationalistic approach.The
timing and form of this crisisdiffered from land to land becauseit
was in each case determined by the literary background as well as
by social and politicalfactors.Hence the bewildering varietyof the
facesand products ofRomanticism: it is notjusta matter ofgenre,
withtheEnglishexcellingat lyricpoetry, theFrenchconcentrating
on dramain theirbattleagainstthestronghold of theNeoclassical
theatre,while the transcendental yearnings the Germansfind
of
theirmostappropriate vehiclein theMrchen-like narrative.This
in itselfis only a symptonof far deeper divergences. German
Romanticism, for instance,is not only the most radical and
thoroughgoing, embracingall the arts and philosophy, politics,
religion,science, and history, butalsodistinguished fromitsEnglish
and Frenchcounterparts at firstbya strongbias towardsthemeta-
and
physical laterby its patrioticcolouring. FrenchRomanticism
resembles theGermanbrandin its preference fororganization in
groupsand in itsdynamic thrust;on theotherhand,it differs from
the Germanmovement (and is hereincloserto the English)in
remainingalmostentirely in the domainof art,and it is charac-
terizedaboveall byitsviolentrevoltagainstthestifling dominance
of the nativeNeoclassicaltradition.In contrast, EnglishRoman-
ticismis thefreshest and freest, theleastself-conscious and codified
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CM M CM 0O OO 0O OO 0^ OO OO 00 OO 00
00 ^^ ^r> qi^ QQ QO ^^ QQ QQ 00 CO 00 00
because it evolved not against,but organicallyout of, the native

tradition.
In view of the confusionsurroundingthe termand the concept
of Romanticism,thereis surelya strongcase foran honestrecogni-
- of the factthat therehave been a number
tion of thesedifferences
of Romantic movementsin Europe. It is only in the light of the
correcthistoricalperspectivethata new approach can thenbe made
to the Romantic movementsin England, France, and Germanyin
an attemptto appreciatethe particularcharacterof each and at the
sametimeto understandtheirinterrelationship.
LilianR. Frst University
ofManchester,
England
NOTES
1. P. van Tieghem,Le Romantismedans la littrature europenne(Pars,

1948),p. 247.
2. I. Berlin,"Some Sourcesof Romanticism/' six lecturesdeliveredin Wash-
ington,broadcastB.B.C. "Third Programme," August-September 1966.
3. M. Akenside, PleasuresofImagination,Bk.1,1. 120.
4. J. Macpherson,, The Poemsof Ossian,I (London,1784),205.
5. E. Young, Conjectureson Original Composition(Manchester,England,
1918),p. 7.
6. Young,Conjectures, p. 13.
7. L. Abercrombie, Romanticism (London,1926),p. 28, footnote.
8. Brockes,"Considerations on the moonlightof a pleasantspringevening/'
EarthlyJoyin God, reprintedin DeutscheLiteraturin Entwicklungsreihen:
Das Weltbildder deutschen Aufklrung (Leipzig,1930),p. 245:
Hardlyhad thenightbeguntoappear
Whichpromisedthejoyof cool aftertheburdenoftheday'sheat,
Whena newdayseemedtodawn:
Out of thegreymistcoveringthehorizonwithcrimsonstreaks
Afterthesultryatmosphere oftheday
The fullmoonhad just risenwitha reddishgoldshine,
And fromitschanging circle,
Whichfillsthenightwithshimmering light,
Moregraceflower thanshimmering light.
9. Goethe,"To theMoon":
Once moreyoufillthebushesand thevalley
witha mistyradiance,
Silently
Atlasttooyourelease
Mysoulcompletely;
Overmyfieldsyouspread
Yourgazesoothingly,
like thegentleeyeofa friend
Watchingmydestiny.
ROMANTICISMIN HISTORICALPERSPECTIVE 143
10. F. Strich,"Europe and the Romanticmovement/'GermanLife and

Letters, Jl(1948-9), 87.
11. F. Schlegel,KritischeSchriften, ed. W. Rasch (Munich,1956),p. 37: "a
progressive universal poetry."
12. Mmede Stal,De l'Allemagne(Oxford,1906),p. 1: "For the past twenty
yearsthe Frenchhave been so preoccupiedwithpoliticalhappeningsthat aU
literary matters havebeenin abeyance."
13. Stal,De l'Allemagne, p. 171: "For sometimepeople in Francehave been
readinghardlyanything otherthanmemoirsand novels;it is not entirelyout
of frivolity thatpeople have becomeless equal to seriousreading,but because
the happeningsof the Revolutionhave accustomed themto attachimportance
solelytoknowledge ofeventsand men."
14. F. F. Schirmer, Kleine Schriften(Tubingen,1950),p. 173: "herald or
interpreter."
15. Stal,De l'Allemagne, p. 178: "themanneredstyleof writing."
16. X. Marmier,prefaceto a translation of Schillerspoems(1854),p. vi: "a
fairy-tale land,wheremenwarbleand singlike birds."
17. Stal,De l'Allemagne, p. 33: "that whichprecededChristianity and that
whichfollowed it."
18. Nodier,Dbats,April 19, 1817: "the head of the schoolof melancholy."
19. F. w. Stokoe,GermanInfluencem theEnglishRomanticrerioa,Appendix
V, pp. 180-87, listsGermanworkstranslated intoEnglish1789-1803.
20. Keats,Letters(Oxford, 1934),p. 72.
21. H. N. FaiTchild, "The Romanticmovement in England,"PMLA,LV (1940),
24.
22. Nodier,Dbats,January6, 1816: "nationalcontroversy.
23. Duvicquet,Le Globe,December6, 1825:"the word'romantic'is used in
Francenowadaysto denoteanyworkcontrary to the systemcurrentin France
sinceLouisXIV."
24. Desmarais,Le Globe, October29, 1825: "the finalbastion,the literary
Bastille."
25. Anon.,Le Globe, October29, 1825: "freedom,""imitationonly from
nature,""originality."
26. Duvergicrde Hauranne,Le Globe,March24, 1825: life,activity, surging
forwards."
27. Goethe,as reportedby Eckermann, GesprchemttGoethe(1955),p. 673,
6th March,1830: "What the Frenchnow regardas a new tendencyin their
literature is basicallynothingbut a reflection of what Germanliteraturehas
sought and achieved during the lastfifty
yean."

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Penn State University Press

Romanticism in Historical Perspective

This articlegivesa chronological

No subject in the whole fieldof comparativeliterarystudieshas

therdiscussion.To establish the correctsequence and perspective

sufficientlycomprehensiveand sufficientlyplain to serveas a viable

imitators.This sensibilitywas deeply affectedby Macpherson's

Alongside Ossian, the other decisive document of English pre-

incisivequality of Young's thinking.Many of the key conceptsof

who transmitted his admirationfor Rousseau to the young adher-

was firmlyestablished;in France it tended to exercisea retarding

men Frhlingsnacht"in the 1721 collection Irdisches Vergngen

praktischenVernunftin 1788, and the Kritik der Urteilskraft in

which was in many essential points a developmentof the earlier

and amalgamated with philosophy,religion, history,philology,

poeticexpression.The mid-1790'salso witnessedthe growingpopu-

so-called nocturnalsides of nature- was now precipitatedinto a

able to fan her enthusiasmfor Germany.The externalhistoryof

enthusiasmof genius.In fact,De VAllemagnepresentsan admirable

was fairlyscant; the Carlyleanimageof a land of poetsand thinkers

deceives himself.. . . Poetryshould be great and unobtrusive,a

classical attitudesand formsby alien lines of thoughtand feeling.

Romanticshad begun to emergeas a shadowyforcein opposition

ChristopheColomb,subtitleda "comdie shakespearienne/'proved

reignin Franceforsome ten moreyears,othercurrentswereincreas-

dependenton thechancereportsof travelers in an age whencom-

because it evolved not against,but organicallyout of, the native

1. P. van Tieghem,Le Romantismedans la littrature europenne(Pars,

10. F. Strich,"Europe and the Romanticmovement/'GermanLife and

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