A Paracelsian Passage in Goethe's Ephemerides. Author(s): W. A. Cooper Reviewed work(s): Source: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 25, No.

6 (Jun., 1910), pp. 168-170 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2916914 . Accessed: 24/02/2012 11:33
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168

MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES. A PARACELSIAN PASSAGE IN GOETHE'S EPHEMERIDES.

[Vol. xxvlVo. 6.

Corpusgenommen soll werden und geformiert in seinAnatomey unnd in seinproprietate8, ihr dass nicht anderst verstandendanndas derLeib / der / vonVatterundMutter geboren wirdt dieser Leib / In February, 1770, beforeleaving his native nicht /auchnichtsin ihnza handlen. Dann ist the of cityto attend University Strasburg, Goethe denFlamen sichtman auffsteigen / aberseincorcopiedin his notebook Ephemerides number pus nicht a of aussdemer kompt. Also denSchmertquotations fromParacelsus,to one of whichI zen empfindt man / aber sein COrpU8 sichtniewishto call attention. It runs: mands. Auffdas soll ein ander Grund gefiirt I in des dasz die Artzt, werden erkanntnuss Podagram dannvon "Darum ich wohlmag reden, / stehn und welAnatomniam sich nehmen, allen dingensoll seinAnatomey fiur so die Cadaverum Anatomey als Leut nichts unverstiindig sind,dannnichtder cherderist/dernichtderKranckheit I dannsie giebtallein weist kan der ein Artztseyn? [Here follows Cadaverzeigtdie Anatomey, quotation.]Ich redevon derAnatomey die Bein, und des Beins Nachbaaren, noch ist Goethe's derKranckheitennit des Leibs: darumbffihre / da." I aberdie Kranckheit nicht ichhie dieAstra, alleinaussdenselbigen anzeigunin Although that timeGoethe at wasinterested die Anatomey Kranckheiten der dass ichfuir / the neo-Platonia mysticalphases of medicinie,gen und dz erstacht zu seyneinem jegit of das h6chst nevertheless may,with a reasonable degree lichen Artzt: ohn welcheAnatomey nichts nie be from pointat which the his certainty, inferred geschrieben worden." ist 8 and the pointat which ends, warhaffligs it quotation begins, Paracelsus believed thattheprocesses lifeare of thatit was notso much Paracelsus's mystical disindependent thephysical of structure theorgans of " the of tinction between anatomy the " cadaver to " and thatofthe " corpus of a particular disease ofthebodyand he was willing applytheterm anatomy onlyto whathe considered necessary the thatinterested as it was the boldstatement him, of foundation medicine, viz., a knowledge the of that an anatomicaldissection revealsthe bones ultimate substance life. It was onlythe whole of and the adjacentparts of thebody,butnotthe sincethediseaseis notamong remains. fulllifeof natureand man thathad anysignifithe disease, aim Perhapsit shouldbe ourfirst to make as canceforhim.' A disease, considered to its ultimatesubas clear as possiblewhatParacelsusmeans in the did stance, notmeanto hima material but thing, above quotation. To do thisit will be necessary a spiritual, living thing.5 While we shouldnot to give the context, besidesquotingan earlier to venture assertthat Goetheaccepted docthis first: passage. The latter trinewithits consequences, nevertheless thereis "I So ich nuhn sollvom Corpusreden Zip- embodied theshort des in passagewhich copiedan he in perlinsI so wissenanfenglich dieser Vorred idea which becamewithhim a fundamental prin/ dass alle ding die uns peinigen oder wolthundt ciple,namelythe all-importance studying an of nicht auss dem Corpore, ihr organism a livingtlhing, as a mechanism. aber im Corpore as not Dann die kranckheit un- Thereis a passagein the Urfaust ist werckverbringen: (367-372) that hats nie gesehen das Corpus suggests sichtigniemandts / itself thisconnection in aber dasselbigeist sichtig das istdas /dass wir / 2 "Wer willwaslebigs und erkennen beschreiben, klagenI das unspeiniget."

Goethe's passage is fromthe chapter " De " Liber Secundus, and I quote the Podagricis, context: "also sollenihran demn auchwissen ort und erkennendass das Podagra, so es in sein /

Mluss denGeistherauser erst treiben, Dannhater die Theilin seiner Hand, Fehltleider das geistlich nur Band. Encheiresin naturae nennts Chimie die I Bohrt selbst sich einen Esel undweisnicht wie."

' Sch8llo, und Aufslitze Goethe, Deutsche von Briefe 76; Lit"Ibid.,p. 573. teraturdenkmale 18. und 19. JahrhundertsNeudrucken, 4Cf. Haeser, des in Lecrbuch Geechichte Medicin, der der' 3d ed., ii, 87. xiv, 8; Weimar ed. of Goethe,xxxviI, 87. 2Opera, ed. Huser, Strasburg, 1603, I, 569. fl6bid., 95. p.

June, 1910.]

MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES.

169

to leadsme passages in the and Schr6er Steiner, former hispreface, of theidea common all these the opinionthat he, and notSchiller, xxxiii of the to venture to in thelatter hisintroduction vol. Der Sprachforscher, of interpret was theauthor thexenion, D. N. L. editionof Goethe's'works, doch ihr and Anatomieren du die Sprache, nur Cadaver; magst both to chemistry these lines as referring und fluichtigdem Scalpell.9 groben quoted as Geist Lebenentschliipft The lines are frequently anatomy. a generalprincipleof quite broad embodying so The onlyauthority, far as I know,upon bearing,and this may well be done without which this distichhas ever been attributed to we Schiller,is the fact that Schiller'swife wrote though belief, doinganyviolenceto Goethe's of specifically "ISch." after it in her de luxe copy of the shallsee laterthathe was thinking when he wrote Xentien or perhaps alchemy, chemistry, volumeof theMusen-Almanach."0 Even he before had read Hoffmeister, proudly thepassage. Back in Leipsic, boasted that theposseswho Die the he poem, Freuden, sion of that"Prachtexemplar"enabledhim to. Paracelsus, wrote little with line, the ending and name the authorof each of the Votivtafelm in was mostof theXenien., nevertheless factvery " So geht dir, deiner Zergliederer Freuden." es with to of respect someofthe skeptical theresults Goethe's Votivtafeln, still cocksure withregardto As has been pointedout by Schr6er,6 though 1 value by mainidea in thispoem,confirmed thepassage theXenien. Thescientific ofthat" Pracht" and more fully exemplar wassoonattacked certain was Paracelsus, moreclearly scholars, by from still defended others." The discovery by Jr., on the 14thof though statedin a letterto Hetzler of that had July, 1770, ". . . der Leichnamist nichtdas and publication the old manuscript noch etwasdazu,nochein wanderedback and forth between Weimarand ganzeThier,es geh6rt wie witheachjourney, seemed have to und bei der Gelegenheit, bey Jena,growing Hauptstiick, Haupt- considerable in of ieder andern,ein sehr hauptsichliches weight the problem dividing stuck: das Leben, der Geist der alles sch6n the literary ownership,18 forthe mostpart since lassen Sie mir die Freudenfeindliche distichs in thehandof oile orthe other macht.. the are of todtetund the poets. But even such manuscript die evidence Erfahrungssucht, Sommerv6gel alten oder kaltenLeuten." I has not been universally accepted convincing. as Blumenanatomirt, passage For example,Erich Schmidtmakes it appear Schr6er'squotation the Paracelsian of as a parallelto lines 1936ff. of Faust has lost highly probablethat Goethe was the authorof of discovery threeof the distichsthat appear in this manusomeof its weight sinceLippmann's in employed script Schiller's terms hand." Seeingthatthexenion Goethe's sourceforthe chemical it in theseliines Faust,' though is easilycon- hereunder of does in discussion notevenappear that ceivablethat Goethemay have had the general original and manuscript, the evidenceof thepasin principle mind in the firstfour lines,even sage fromParacelsus,the letter Hetzler,the to " the though words" denGeistherauszu treiben lines fromFaust, and the peculiarlyGoethean be clearly (al)chemical,and the last two lines tendency the distich, oppose conjecture all of the albeit ofCharlotte Schiller, wouldseempermissible gibe at a pretentious, containa stinging it v. How- to claim for Goethethe authorship thelines, rare,specimenof chemicalterminology. of ever, it shouldnot be deducedfromwhathas themoreso as no documentary has evidence ever littleof chemistrybeenbrought beensaid thatGoethethought forward substantiate claimof to the or despisedanatomy, his manyexperimentsLotteSchiller. for in discoveries the in the one and his important von das Jahr 1797, hrsg. Schiller, p. 9Musen-Almanachfir other the proveexactly opposite. 234. No. 353 in the edition Schmidt of and Suphan, The factthat Goetheseemsto havebeenfond Schriften der viii.
607ronik Wiener des vii, Goethe-Vereins, Nr. 8, p. 31; 12 and Faust, Einl., etc.3teAufl. mit 1892, 124f. p. Boas, Schiller und Goethe Xenienkampf, 41 ff. im I, Is Cf. 7Briefe, 238f. i, Boas-Maltzahn, Schillers undGoelhes Xenien-Manu8Chemiker-Zeitung, Nr. 36, "Encheiresis 1907, Natu- script, 35. p. rae." See also G.-J.,YxxT. 163f. "4Charakteriatiken, 1886,p. 318f. Berlin, Goethe-Gesellschaft, 10Hoffmeister, .Nachlese Schiller8 zu III, Werken, 72, 104. "1Ibid., ff., ff. 74 104

170

MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES.

[VoL xxv,No. 6.

sugle for the mirth-provoking, peut qu'entrevoir sens." De Lasteyrie2 Goethe's contempt of perpetrations gested following "A the interpretation: cetautel, than respect-commanding rather of dictionary especially philologists, etymologists, toutesles messesqui en chargesontaccueillies . cette verri6re . . ceux qui Suffice ... et donnArent the time,needs no new demonstration. de supposed be sontconfr6res SaintVincent." Thisreading to to it to refer thepoemEtymologie, or givinga clear meaning an exact and spokenby Mephistopheles, to the lines in is far from of of the Faust (7093 if.) in which Greifgivesventto interpretation all theletters theinscription. " it from is thata " confr6rieof called " Greis'' All thatfollows at his displeasure beingwrongly connection SaintVincent gave thewindow;their es I -Niemand hort gern I "Nicht Greisen Greifen is withthealtarand themasses notapparent. klingt Worte nennt. Jedem Dasz manihnGreis I believethat it is possibleto reach a more nach Der IJrsprung wo es sichherbedingt: of grimmig, preciseand literalrendering the inscription. Griber, greulich, griesgram, Grau,grimlich, stimmig, gleicherweise Etymologisch as Whenwe adopttheusualmethod, de Lasteyrie uns. Verstimmen at did, evidently beginning the top and reading MEPHISTOPrHELz. full down,it appearsconfused, of gaps and inabzuschweifen, Unddoch,nicht that we apply the however, versions. Suppose, das Grei im EhrentitelGr4ifen. Gefiillt methodused in reading the picturesin the " vitraux." It is wellknownthat themedieval GREIF. began a when preparing window, glass-workers, isterprobt, Natiirlichdie Verwandtschaft I gelobt; mehr gescholten, jedoch Zwaroft up. It is thus that and worked at the bottom Gold, Kronen, nun Mangreife nachMiidchen, myshistorical, mostof the "vitraux," whether Fortuna hold. ist Dem Greifenden meist this are ticalor dogmatic, to be read.8 Adopting the and numbering methodfor the inscription W. A. COOPER. as words follows: University. Stanford
TERA: 17 A CEST : AVTEL 20 18 19

: TES
18 11 CENT: 4

LES 14

MESSES 15

QEN:

THE WEAVERS' INSCRIPTION IN THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES.

16

CHARE:
17 CE5TE: 8

ERET: 7 LI:

10 VERRIE: 9

SONT: ACOILLI:

EN:
12 CIL: 5

TO

18 QVIDO: 6 7

8 4 2 on 1 In thechapelof the SacredHeartof Mary, is of theNorthside of the cathedral Chartres, a cil saint we getthisresult: " Li confrere Vincent des tisserands of " givenby the II metier window qui doeretceste verriesont acoilli en totesles to and thattown dedicated SaintVincent.Under" a messes charetera cestautel. qen where the weaveYs neathit, near the medallions is Thus read,everything in orderexcept for 1 can this are represented, inscription stillbe read: and verne. And itbecomes thewordscharetera that the lettersRE of the almost self-evident MESSES: LES: TERA : A CEST : AVTEL : TES former belongwith VERRIE of the line below, EN: TO ACOILLI SONT: QEN : CHARE: and verritre, that they should be reforming CENT: CIL: QVIDO: ERET : CESTE: VERRIE: chantera. placedby an N or a nasal bar,forming LI : CONFRERE : SAINT: VIN wouldthenread : " Li coninscription The whole ceste verriere, cil saintVincent, qui donerent frere has puzzledthearchmeThis inscription greatly a les q'en chantera cest sontacoillien totes messes it. M. MAlespeaks who have discussed ologists in French: "Les confreres donton ne autel." Or, Modern tr6s of it as an " inscription obscure, cette yerceux qui donntrent de saintVincent, I Facsimileby F. de Mdry Revue l'artchritien, in de 2Histoire la peinture verre, 527. ur p. de au L'Art religicux ziiis 1888,p. 422. See also E. MAle, p. aSee Mile, op.cit., 55. siadle, 367f. p.

CONFRERE:

SAINT:

VIN