Note 134 — Chapter VIII

H. T. Finck, “Romantic Love and Personal Beauty.”

[135] Cf. G. Hirth, “Ways to Freedom,” pp. 468-472 (Munich, 1903).

[136] G. Saint-Yves (“La Littérature Amoureuse,” Paris, 1887, p. 25) also sees in the æsthetic contemplation of the beloved person the fundamental root of individual love. It has gradually developed out of the ordinary æsthetic contemplation of nature. An interesting proof of this connexion is the Song of Solomon, in which the æsthetic stimuli of the beloved one are compared with every possible animate and inanimate natural object.

[137] Cf. regarding the numerous variations of this ancient couplet, the interesting account given by Arthur Kopp, “Old Proverbs and Popular Rhymes for Loving Hearts,” published in the Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, Heft i., pp. 8, 9 (Berlin, 1902).

[138] Minne is an old German word (now obsolete) for love, “the love of fair women.” The minnesinger were love-singers who sang their own compositions to the accompaniment of the music of harp or viol—in fact, they were lyric poets. The most flourishing years of this art were from about 1170 to 1250; thus the minnesinger were contemporary with and closely akin to the Provençal troubadours. But the German development was essentially native, and the minnesinger’s treatment of love was characterized by a more ideal note than was usually attained by the troubadours. A good, though brief, account (with a list of authorities) is given of the minnesinger in “Chambers’s Encyclopædia.”—Translator.

[139] Jacob Falke, “The Society of Knighthood in the Epoch of the Cult of Women,” p. 49.

[140] In her letters (“Letters of Ninon de l’Enclos,” with ten etchings by Karl Walser, Berlin, 1906), the deep spiritual relationships of love found a classical representation.

[141] Cf. Harald Höffding, “Rousseau and his Philosophy,” pp. 86, 89 (Stuttgart, 1897).

[142] Emil Du Bois-Reymond, “Frederick II. and Jean Jacques Rousseau.”

[143] H. Buffenoir, “Jean Jacques Rousseau and Women” (Paris, 1891).

[144] Erich Schmidt, “Richardson, Rousseau, and Goethe” (Jena, 1875).

[145] H. Meyer-Benfey, “Lucinde,” published in Mutterschutz—Zeitschrift zur Reform der sexuellen Ethik, 1906, No. 5, pp. 173-192. Edited by Dr. Helene Stöcker.

[146] Felix Poppenberg, “Jean Paul Friedrich Richter’s Liebe und Ehestand,” in “Bibelots,” p. 214 (Leipzig, 1904).

[147] Carl Joel, “Nietzsche und die Romantik,” pp. 13-16 (Jena and Leipzig, 1905).

[148] Cf. also Helene Stöcker, “Nietzsche und die Romantik,” in Kölnische Zeitung, No. 1127, October 29, 1905.

[149] At the present time but few of my living contemporaries share this opinion of Gutzkow, which I myself base upon the careful reading of all his works. I may quote, however, with satisfaction the prophecy of the deceased dramatist Theodor Wehl. He writes of Gutzkow: “As a literary phenomenon he will grow with time. After long, long years, out of the literature of our time two characteristic heads will emerge—one laughing, and one glancing round him earnestly and sorrowfully: the head of Heinrich Heine, and the head of Karl Gutzkow” (F. Wehl, “Zeit und Menschen,” “Tagebuch Aufzeichnungen aus den Jahren von 1863 bis 1884,” vol. i., p. 297 (Altona, 1889)).

[150] Karl Gutzkow, “Reminiscences of my Life,” p. 18 (Berlin, 1875).

[151] “The time of love is not age, it is not youth: the time of love is the moment,” says Beate, one of Gutzkow’s characters, at the end of the tragedy “Ein Weisser Blatt.”

[152] K. Frenzel, “Karl Gutzkow,” published in “Büsten und Bilder,” pp. 177 and 178 (Hanover, 1864).

[153] Heinrich Stümcke refers to this connexion between naturalism and symbolism in a very thoughtful essay (“Zwischen den Garben,” p. 156; Leipzig, 1899).