Note 1 — Chapter III · THE PUBLICATION OF THE SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY

Various German authorities date the Sentimental Journey erroneously 1767. Jördens, V, p. 753; Koberstein, III, p. 463; Hirsching, XIII, pp. 291–309.

2. The reviewer in the Allg. deutsche Bibl. (Anhang I-XII, vol. II, p. 896) implies a contemporary cognizance of this aid to its popularity. He notes the interest in accounts of travels and fears that some readers will be disappointed after taking up the book. Some French books of travel, notably Chapelle’s “Voyage en Provence,” 1656, were read with appreciation by cultivated Germany and had their influence parallel and auxiliary to Sterne’s.

3. In the Seventh Book of Tristram Shandy. III, pp. 47–110.

4. III, pp. 210–213.

5. The emotional groundwork in Germany which furthered the appreciation of the Journey, and the sober sanity of British common sense which choked its English sweep, are admirably and typically illustrated in the story of the meeting of Fanny Burney and Sophie la Roche, as told in the diary of the former (“The Diary and Letters of Frances Burney, Madame D’Arblay,” Boston, 1880, I, p. 291), entries for September 11 and 17, 1786. On their second meeting Mme. D’Arblay writes of the German sentimentalist: “Madame la Roche then rising and fixing her eyes filled with tears on my face, while she held both my hands, in the most melting accents exclaimed, ‘Miss Borni, la plus chère, la plus digne des Anglaises, dites—moi—m’aimez vous?’” Miss Burney is quite sensibly frank in her inability to fathom this imbecility. Ludmilla Assing (“Sophie la Roche,” Berlin, 1859, pp. 273–280) calls Miss Burney cold and petty.

6. So heartily did the Germans receive the Sentimental Journey that it was felt ere long to be almost a German book. The author of “Ueber die schönen Geister und Dichter des 18ten Jahrhunderts vornehmlich unter den Deutschen,” by J. C. Fritsch (?) (Lemgo, 1771), gives the book among German stories and narratives (pp. 177–9) along with Hagedorn, Gellert, Wieland and others. He says of the first parts of the Sentimental Journey, “zwar . . . . aus dem Englischen übersetzt; kann aber für national passieren.”

7. Michael Montaigne’s “Gedanken und Meinungen über Allerley Gegenstände. Ins Deutsch übersetzt.” Berlin (Lagarde) 1793–5. Bode’s life is in Vol. VI, pages III-CXLIV. For a review of Bode’s Life see Neue Bibl. der schönen Wissenschaften, LVIII, p. 93.

8. Supplementband für 1790–93, pp. 350–418.

9. The references to the Hamburgische Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten are as follows: 1768, pages 241, 361 and 369 respectively.

10. Pp. 71–74.

11. Pp. 101–104. “The Temptation” and the “Conquest.” The Unterhaltungen is censured by the Deutsche Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften, III, p. 266, for printing a poor translation from Yorick when two translations had already been announced. The references to Unterhaltungen are respectively pp. 12–16, and 209–213.

12. See below, p. 42–3.

13. It was reviewed in the Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent, Oct. 29.

14. I, pp. XX, 168; II, p. 168.

15. Lachmann’s edition, 1840, XII, p. 199.

16. See Goethe-Jahrbuch, XIV (1893), pp. 51–52.

17. “Heinrich Leopold Wagner, Goethe’s Jugendgenosse,” 2d ed. Jena, Frommann, 1879, p. 104.

18. It is not possible to date with absolute certainty the time of Lessing’s conversation with Sara Meyer, but it was after the publication of “Werther,” and must have been on one of his two visits to Berlin after that, that is, in March, 1775, on his way to Vienna, or in February, 1776, on his return from Italy.

19. Bode must have come to Lessing with the information before this public announcement, for Lessing could hardly have failed to learn of it when once published in a prominent Hamburg periodical.

20. Böttiger in his biographical sketch of Bode is the first to make this statement (p. lxiii), and the spread of the idea and its general acceptation are directly traceable to his authority. The Neue Bibl. der schönen Wissenschaften in its review of Böttiger’s work repeats the statement (LVIII, p. 97), and it is again repeated by Jördens (I, p. 114, edition of 1806), by Danzel-Guhrauer with express mention of Böttiger (“Lessing, sein Leben und seine Werke,” II. Erste Abtheilung, p. 287), and by Erich Schmidt (“Lessing, Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Schriften,” Berlin, 1899, I, p. 674). The editor of the Hempel edition, VII, p. 553 claims Lessing as responsible for the translation of the Journey, and also of Shandy. The success of the “Empfindsame Reise” and the popularity of Sterne are quite enough to account for the latter translation and there is no evidence of urging on Lessing’s part. A similar statement is found in Gervinus (V, p. 194). The Frankfurter Gel. Anz. (Apr. 21, 1775), p. 267, credits Wieland with having urged Bode to translate Shandy. The Neue Critische Nachrichten, Greifswald, IX, p. 279, makes the same statement. The article, however, in the Teutscher Merkur (1773, II, pp. 228–30) expresses merely a great satisfaction that Bode is engaged upon the work, and gives some suggestions to him about it.

21. See Bode’s Introduction, p. iii, iv. Also Allg. deutsche Bibl., Anhang, I-XII, Vol. II, pp. 896–9.

22. Strangely enough the first use of this word which has been found is in one of Sterne’s letters, written in 1740 to the lady who subsequently became his wife. (Letters, p. 25). But these letters were not published till 1775, long after the word was in common use. An obscure Yorkshire clergyman can not be credited with its invention.

23. Böttiger refers to Campe’s work, “Ueber die Bereicherung und Reinigung der deutschen Sprache,” p. 297 ff., for an account of the genesis of this word, but adds that Campe is incorrect in his assertion that Sterne coined the word. Campe does not make the erroneous statement at all, but Bode himself puts it in the mouth of Lessing.

24. See foot note to page lxiii.

25. For particulars concerning this parallel formation see Mendelssohn’s Schriften, ed. by G. B. Mendelssohn, Leipzig, 1844. V, pp. 330, 335–7, letters between Abbt, Mendelssohn, Nicolai.

26. The source of Bode’s information is the article by Dr. Hill, first published in the Royal Female Magazine for April, 1760, and reprinted in the London Chronicle, May 5, 1760 (pp. 434–435), under the title, “Anecdotes of a fashionable Author.” Bode’s sketch is an abridged translation of this article. This article is referred to in Sterne’s letters, I, pp. 38–9, 42.

27. See p. 47.

28. “Dass ich das Gute, was man an meiner Uebersetzung findet, grössten Theils denen Herren Ebert und Lessing zu verdanken habe.”

29. Hamburgischer Unpartheyischer Correspondent, October 29, 1768.

30. “Verschwieg ich die Namen dieser Männer.”

31. See p. 47.

32. Jördens gives this title, which is the correct one. Appell in “Werther und seine Zeit,” (p. 247) calls it “Herrn Yoricks, Verfasser (sic) des Tristram Shandy Reisen durch Frankreich und Italien, als ein Versuch über die menschliche Natur,” which is the title of the second edition published later, but with the same date. See Allg. deutsche Bibliothek, Anhang, I-XII, Vol. II, pp. 896–9. Kayser and Heinsius both give “Empfindsame Reisen durch Frankreich und Italien, oder Versuch über die menschliche Natur,” which is evidently a confusion with the better known Bode translation, an unconscious effort to locate the book.

33. Through some strange confusion, a reviewer in the Jenaische Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen (1769, p. 574) states that Ebert is the author of this translation; he also asserts that Bode and Lessing had translated the book; it is reported too that Bode is to issue a new translation in which he makes use of the work of Lessing and Ebert, a most curious record of uncertain rumor.

34. See p. 31, “In the Street, Calais.” “If this won’t turn out something, another will. No matter,—’tis an essay upon human nature.”

35. Monthly Review, XXXVIII, p. 319: “Gute Nacht, bewunderungswürdiger Yorick! Dein Witz, Deine Menschenliebe! Dein redliches Herz! ein jedes untadelhafte Stück deines Lebens und deiner Schriften müsse in einem unsterblichen Gedächtnisse blühen,—und O! mögte der Engel, der jenes aufgezeichnet hat, über die Unvollkommenheiten von beiden eine Thräne des Mitleidens fallen lassen und sie auf ewig auslöschen.”

36. Jördens, V, p. 753. Hirsching, Historisch-litterarisches Handbuch, XIII, pp. 291–309 (1809).

37. It has not been possible to examine this second edition, but the information concerning Sterne’s life may quite possibly have been taken not from Bode’s work but from his sources as already given.

38. “Yoriks empfindsame Reise, aus dem Englischen übersetzt,” 3ter und 4ter Theil, Hamburg und Bremen, bei Cramer, 1769.

39. See Allg. deutsche Bibl. Anhang, I-XII, Vol. II, pp. 896–9. Hirsching (Hist.-Litt. Handbuch) says confusedly that Bode wrote the fourth and fifth parts.

40. See Neue Bibl. der schönen Wissenschaften, LVIII, p. 98, “Im dritten Bande ist die rührende Geschichte, das Hündchen, ganz von ihm.” Also Jördens, I, 114, Heine, “Der deutsche Roman,” p. 23.

41. The following may serve as examples of inadequate, inexact or false renderings:

ORIGINAL BODE’S TRANSLATION

Like a stuck pig. P. 5: Eine arme Hexe, die Feuer-Probe machen soll.

Dress as well as undress. P. 9: Der Kleidung als der Einkleidung.

Chance medley of sensation. P. 11: Unschuldiges Verbrechen der Sinne.

Where serenity was wont to fix her reign. P. 13: Wo die Heiterkeit ihren Sitz aufgeschlagen hatte.

Wayward shades of my canvas. P. 20: Die harten Schattirungen meines Gewebes.

Caterpillars. P. 22: Heuschrecken.

The chance medley of existence. P. 23: Das unschuldige Verbrechen des Daseyns.

42. Bode’s story, “Das Mündel” was printed in the Hamburgische Adress-Comptoir-Nachrichten, 1769, p. 729 (November 23) and p. 753 (December 4).

43. There will be frequent occasion to mention this impulse emanating from Sterne, in the following pages. One may note incidentally an anonymous book “Freundschaften” (Leipzig, 1775) in which the author beholds a shepherd who finds a torn lamb and indulges in a sentimental reverie upon it. Allg. deutsche Bibl., XXXVI, 1, 139.

44. Bode inserts “Miss Judith Meyer” and “Miss Philippine Damiens,” two poor novels by this Kölbele in place of Eugenius’s “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Böttiger comments, “statt des im englischen Original angeführten schalen Romans ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress.’” Bode, in translating Shandy several years later, inserts for the same book, “Thousand and one Nights.” In speaking of this, Böttiger calls “Pilgrim’s Progress” “die schale engländische Robinsonade,” an eloquent proof of Böttiger’s ignorance of English literature.

45. Pp. 166 ff.

46. Quellen und Forschungen, XXII, p. 129.