a note on the tragic "admiratio"

A Note on the Tragic "Admiratio"Author(s): J. E. GilletSource: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Apr., 1918), pp. 233-238Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3714266 .

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Miscellaneous Notes Miscellaneous Notes

In an epic strain the heart bewails in the first eight lines the

appalling change that has befallen its companion', its bilde, the body, since their partner, the wunder, the soul, has fled to an unknown destination ('ine weiz war'). Then, changing from the epic to the dramatic mood, it appeals to2 and beseeches the body, its prison3, to set it free until the time when they must come together again, the day of the last judgment, to receive, along with the soul, reward or doom.

In Walther's poem-a vision one might call it-the heart that

speaks and the body addressed by it are, in the first instance, the human heart, the human body in general; but one likes to think that, at the same time, the aged poet-for the verse undoubtedly belongs to the end of his life-had in mind his own heart, the seat alike of his sorrows and joys, the source of his songs of love and passion; he could not bear to think of it lying with the body in the long night of the

grave awaiting there the call of the recording angel4. The singular and ingenious form of this poem extends to four other

poems. Lachmann did well to separate, in his edition, the first two from the rest as an independent poem. The last three, although each

complete in itself, are parts of one and the same anxious outpouring of a saddened mind that feels the end to be near. 'I have renounced the world and its vain and false delights (678); oh that my soul might be saved! Its voice counsels me to forswear this world's minne for the

only true minne, that of God! (6720) oh, that my heart might not share the body's fate, until the day of judgment breaks !' (67,) Such are the

thoughts embedded in these lines, and they follow in logical order. R. PRIEBSCH.

LONDON.

A NOTE ON THE TRAGIC ADMIRATIO.'

IN the recently published instalments of his article on Lessing's Interpretation of Aristotle5 Professor Robertson has noted that Lessing, in his correspondence on the subject of tragedy with Nicolai and Mendelssohn6, made a distinction between 'Bewunderung' and 'Ver-

wunderung.' ' L. 3; we are again reminded of the situation behind Hartmann's poem. 2 I note here the formal correspondence with the immediately preceding poem (6720)

the four last lines of which are, though the editors have not recognised it, certainly a direct speech of the soul to the body. 3 The use of the doubting ob in 1. 9 is very fine.

4The eternal life of the heart is the postulate of Lenau's fine poem Mein Herz (Sdninmtliche Werke, 1855, I, p. 361). 5 Modern Language Review, Vol. xi, p. 159. See also the section on 'admiration,' pp. 327-329.

6 Ed. by R. Petsch, Leipzig, 1910, p. 63.

In an epic strain the heart bewails in the first eight lines the

appalling change that has befallen its companion', its bilde, the body, since their partner, the wunder, the soul, has fled to an unknown destination ('ine weiz war'). Then, changing from the epic to the dramatic mood, it appeals to2 and beseeches the body, its prison3, to set it free until the time when they must come together again, the day of the last judgment, to receive, along with the soul, reward or doom.

In Walther's poem-a vision one might call it-the heart that

speaks and the body addressed by it are, in the first instance, the human heart, the human body in general; but one likes to think that, at the same time, the aged poet-for the verse undoubtedly belongs to the end of his life-had in mind his own heart, the seat alike of his sorrows and joys, the source of his songs of love and passion; he could not bear to think of it lying with the body in the long night of the

grave awaiting there the call of the recording angel4. The singular and ingenious form of this poem extends to four other

poems. Lachmann did well to separate, in his edition, the first two from the rest as an independent poem. The last three, although each

complete in itself, are parts of one and the same anxious outpouring of a saddened mind that feels the end to be near. 'I have renounced the world and its vain and false delights (678); oh that my soul might be saved! Its voice counsels me to forswear this world's minne for the

only true minne, that of God! (6720) oh, that my heart might not share the body's fate, until the day of judgment breaks !' (67,) Such are the

thoughts embedded in these lines, and they follow in logical order. R. PRIEBSCH.

LONDON.

A NOTE ON THE TRAGIC ADMIRATIO.'

IN the recently published instalments of his article on Lessing's Interpretation of Aristotle5 Professor Robertson has noted that Lessing, in his correspondence on the subject of tragedy with Nicolai and Mendelssohn6, made a distinction between 'Bewunderung' and 'Ver-

wunderung.' ' L. 3; we are again reminded of the situation behind Hartmann's poem. 2 I note here the formal correspondence with the immediately preceding poem (6720)

the four last lines of which are, though the editors have not recognised it, certainly a direct speech of the soul to the body. 3 The use of the doubting ob in 1. 9 is very fine.

4The eternal life of the heart is the postulate of Lenau's fine poem Mein Herz (Sdninmtliche Werke, 1855, I, p. 361). 5 Modern Language Review, Vol. xi, p. 159. See also the section on 'admiration,' pp. 327-329.

6 Ed. by R. Petsch, Leipzig, 1910, p. 63.

233 233



234 Miscellaneous Notes

Mendelssohn agreed that there was a distinctionl, but maintained, a little pointedly perhaps2, that not he, but Lessing, had failed to apply it properly. To explain why, in spite of Lessing, he admires a man in whom he discovers unexpected good qualities, which yet are grounded in his moral personality, he declares' Verwunderung' to be a preliminary stage of 'Bewunderung.' When, for example, greatness unexpectedly discovered in a character is by later events shown to be a natural part of that character, surprise passes into admiration. Thus Mendelssohn admits 'Verwunderung' amongst the emotions aroused by tragedy, although only as a preparatory stage for 'Bewunderung.'

Mendelssohn's suggestion of a relationship between 'Bewunderung' and 'Verwunderung' is not without some plausibility3. In Latin translations of Aristotle's Poetics, it will be remembered, the term designating 'Verwunderung' would be 'admiratio,' a term which also happens to cover the meaning 'Bewunderung.' A perception of this fact, which seems to have been generally overlooked, has led naturally to an inquiry into the changing meaning of the Latin word and its uses in earlier stages of dramatic criticism.

The Latin word 'admiratio' may be translated either as (1) surprise, astonishment or as (2) admiration in the modern sense. It is quite evident that, although the element of surprise is almost indis- solubly bound up with admiration in the usual modern sense, that element is now of very small importance. In Latin the surprise seems to have been almost as important as the respect and reverence4 which now, with a hardly perceptible admixture of surprise, constitute almost solely the meaning of admiration. But since the word passed into French and English, as Littre or Hatzfeld-Darmesteter and the New English Dictionary plainly show, the element of surprise has steadily receded5.

In Germany the word seems to have been used quite early in connection with tragedy by G. Fabricius, and quite plainly with the

1 Some time after he made this quite clear in the following passage: ' Verwundern und Bewundern sind im Deutschen von eben so verschiedener Bedeutung als im Lateinisch mirari und admirari. Man verwundert sich fiber eine Sache, die dem Laufe der Natur zuwider zu seyn scheint; man bewuridert hingegen nur erhabene Dinge, an denen wir eine vorziigliche Vollkommenheit wahrnehmen.' Bibliothek der schinen Wissenschaften (1758), Ges. Schriften, Vol. iv, 1, pp. 438 ff.

2 'So verwundere ich mich fiber den Donner...und endlich iiber Sie, wenn Sie mir eine so fehlerhafte Distinktion einbilden wollen.' Petsch, p. 72.

3 See e.g. Teichmiiller's treatment of admiration: 1. Das logische Staunen. 2. Das Bewundern. Aristotelische Forschungen, Halle, 1869, Vol. ii, pp. 282 ff.

4 The two principal meanings, according to the Thesaurus, are (1) 'affectus reverentis vel venerantis'; (2) ' affectus obstupescentis.' Forcellini even puts the second first. 5 Hatzfeld-Darmesteter gives 'dtonnement' as 'vieilli'; the N.E.D. 'wonder,' 'astonishment,' ' surprise,' as 'archaic.'



Miscellaneous Notes 235

meaning of' astonishmentl,' and, it should be noticed, perhaps as a substitute for pity in a katharsis-clause containing the words 'miseri- cordia et horror.' That would already connect the 'admiratio' with Aristotle. There was, however, another link: surprise or astonishment is essentially dependent on action, on incidents, and Aristotle, it will be remembered, had noticed that the incidents arousing pity and fear 'have the greatest effect upon the mind when they occur unex-

pectedly and at the same time in consequence of one another2. The Italian Jesuit Alexander Donatus, whose Ars Poetica was popular in

Germany in the seventeenth century3, explains the 'admiratio' just in that spirit, seeing in it the result of the marvellous, the Aristotelian TO favUftaar6o4. The main element of'admiratio,' as Donatus conceives it, is surprise, but with an admixture of fear (indeed, it might almost be translated as 'awe'), resulting sometimes from what a modern critic would call tragic irony.

Later German critics, although writing in the vernacular, preserved this sense of 'admiratio.' Thus e.g. Georg Philipp Harsdorfer. How- ever muddled his attempts at criticism, they show clearly that he was anxious to add the 'admiratio,' in the sense of 'Erstaunen,' to the emotions aroused by tragedy5. He conceives it as related to, but dis- tinct from, fear and altogether subordinated to pity. In this he was followed by Klaj6 who, in order to describe the complex new emotion, coined the new word 'Furchterstaunen'! Again, half a century later,

1 In Seneca's tragedies, he declares ' excitantur ipsi ab inferis mortui, excitantur inter- dum Furiae...; quae imago stans in Orchestra et admirationem et horrorem incutit' (De tragoediarurm usu, prefixed to his edition of Seneca's tragedies, 1566).

2 Poetics, Ch. ix, Bywater's translation. In Ch. xxiv the marvellous is considered only as a cause of pleasure and not in relation with the katharsis.

3 Rome, 1631; Cologne edition, 1633. 4 'Admiratio est quaedam pars timoris ex aliqua re, sensu animove percepta, quae

nostram facultatem excedat...Oriri potest...vel ab inanimis, vel brutis, vel hominibus. Ab inanimis cum casu, & fortuna fit, quod consilio factum.' Here he tells the story of the murderer of Itys, killed by the fall of his victim's statue, which Aristotle used as an example of the marvellous. Donatus continues: 'A bautis sumitur admiratio, tanquam multa prudenter agentibus...Ex hominibus tragica nascitur admiratio cum vires omnes & animum intendunt, ut aliquo sive lapsu, sive imminenti lapsus poena se expediant; nec tamen evitare possunt: idque malum quanto horribilius, tanto mirabilius est.' Ars Poetica, p. 163.

5 'Der Poet... [ist] bemiihet / Erstaunen / oder Hermen und Mitleiden zu erregen /

jedoch dieses mehr als jenes. Durch das Erstaunen wird gleichsam ein kalter Angst- schweisz verursadht und wird von der Furcht unterschieden / als welche von grosser Gefahr entstehet; dieses aber von einer Unthat und erschricklichen Grausamkeit welche wir horen oder sehen. Solche Gemiithsbewegung findet sich / wann wir ein Laster scheuen ernstlich und plotzlich straffen / dasz wir in unsrem Gewissen auch befinden;...' Poetischer Trichter, 1650, Vol. ii, p. 84. See also his letter to Klaj, prefixed to the latter's Herodes der Kindermirder, 1645, p. 57.

6 He promised 'den gecreuzigten Christus in einem Trauerspiele vorzustellen / darinnen die Zuhorer zu barmhertzigen Mitleiden gefiihret werden / wie ihnen hier ein grausames Furchterstaunen ankommen / als welches die vornemsten Bewegungen seyn / die in Trauer- spielen zu beobachten.' Herodes der Kindermorder, 1645.



Miscellaneous Notes

Daniel Omeis in one instance mentioned pity and astonishment as the aim of tragedy' and as late as 1723 the classical philologist Daniel Triller described the sources of the tragic emotions as 'das Erbiirmliche, das Erschrickliche und WTunderbare.' The latter double element was

manifestly intended to produce an 'admiratio' mingled of astonishment and awe2

It has thus been clearly established that in German dramatic criticism before Gottsched, the tragic 'admiratio' was conceived in the now archaic sense of astonishment, 'Verwunderung'; that it was considered as closely allied to fear and directly connected with Aristotle's theory of the marvellous. It might perhaps be said that there was no other interpretation current in Germany at that time, since in the course of a

systematic survey of the period no divergent instance has come to the author's knowledge. When now we come to Gottsched, the inclusion of 'admiratio' amongst the kathartic emotions has already a tradition behind it. But is it the same 'admiratio'? He calls it 'Bewunderung3,' although a dozen years later in his remarks on Addison's Cato he speaks of 'Erstaunen4.' Whence this confusion ?

It will be remembered perhaps, that Minturno5 had put much stress

upon the mission of the poet to move admiration, in the modern sense, for great men. A poem he held to be futile unless it excites admiration for the hero depicted6. This view, applied by Minturno only to poetry in general was first connected with the drama and specifically with the katharsis-clause by Corneille 7. As has been justly observeds the term 'admiratio' in Elizabethan criticism, even though joined with 'coin- miseration,' applies rather to the general purpose of poetry than to the

Griindliche Anleitung, 1704, p. 246. The aim is to bring men 'zum Mitleiden und Erstaunen...und durch Anschauen jiher Straff-Fiille von den Lastern abzuschrecken.' In his more formal definition of tragedy (p. 232), however, he speaks only of 'Schrecken und Mitleiden.'

2 As examples of 'das Erschr6ckliche und Wunderbare' he mentions 'die schnelle und ungewohnliche Verfinsterung der Sonnen, das schreckliche Erschiittern der Erde, die brillende Zerreissung der Felsen'...and the like (Hugonis Grotii Leidender Christus, Leipzig, 1723).

'Die Tragodie [hatte] zu ihrer Absicht...Traurigkeit, Schrecken, Mitleiden und Be- wunderung bey den Zuschauern zu erwecken' (Critische Dichtkunst, 1730, p. 507). 4 ...' wodurch er...das Mitleid seiner Zuhorer erwecket, ja iiuszerlich Schrecken und Erstaunen zuwege bringt ' (Critische Dichtkunst (3rd edition), 1742, p. 7i2). 5 De Poeta, 1559, p. 11.

6 Cf. Spingarn, Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, 2nd ed., p. 52. 7 Speaking of his Nicomede he declared: 'Dans l'admiration qu'on a de sa vertu,

je trouve une maniere de purger les passions dont n'a point parle Aristote, et qui est peut- etre plus sure que celle qu'il prescrit.a la trag6die par le moyen de la pitie et de la crainte ' (Examen de Nicomede, Corneille, (Euvres, ed. Marty-Laveaux, Vol. v, p. 508). Cf. Jules Lemaitre, Corneille et la poetique d'Aristote, Paris, 1888, p. 78; Joh. Bohm, Die drama- tischen Theorien Pierre Corneilles, Berlin, 1901, p. 70.

8 Gregory Smith, Elizabethan Critical Essays, Oxford, 1904, Vol. I, pp. 392 ff.

236



Miscellaneous Notes

function of tragedy. The references e.g. in Sidney's Apologiel are of the most elusive character and no one could say definitely which meaning is given to the word2. It is quite plain that Corneille in this instance was giving one more wrench to Aristotelian theory 'pour n'6tre pas obligE de conaamner beaucoup de poemes que nous avons vu r6ussir sur nos thetres,' notably his own, of which before 1651, twenty-one out of a total of thirty-four had seen the light. It was time, when in the

Preface de Nicomede (1651), he seized on admiration to explain a, series of heroes, who had been steadily repudiating all the softer emotions, all human weaknesses, and had finally turned into mere embodiments of ambition and pride. But perhaps he would not have thought of exploit- ing the traditional 'admiratio' if the temper of the period, as expressed e.g. by Descartes3 had not been favourable to it. Besides, the word ' admiration may have been well along in its shift from the older dual

meaning of 'astonishment' or 'admiration' to the modern single sense of 'admiration.' Here was an element of change which was lacking in

Germany, where the Latin term with ibs dual meaning persisted, or was translated by vernacular words such as 'Erstaunen,' of entirely dis- similar extraction.

After Corneille the ' admiratio' in the modern senise had the field all to itself. It was recognized by Dacier4 who vowed that Aristotle would have disqualified Corneille's Nicomede for the very quality which gave occasion to its author's theory. Boileau wrote approvingly to Perrault about Corneille's 'nouveau genre de trag6die inconnu a Aristote '5 as a critic might well do whose distaste for surprising and marvellous

happenings6 unfitted him to appreciate the other meaning of 'admiratio.'

By the same token Saint-Evremond, the sworn enemy of the would- be marvellous devices of the opera, proclaimed admiration 'a tragic passion'7 whilst Le Bossu had already claimed admiration for the tragic as well as for the epic hero8.

1 Eliz. Crit.'Essays, Vol. i, pp. 177, 199; Vol. ii, p. 201. 2 Vossius' conception (Poetices, 1647, cap. xix) referred to by Arnaud (Les theories

dramatiques au XVIIe siecle, Paris, 1888, p. 155) as connected with the marvellous, was apparently the traditional one. I am unable at this moment to examine the passage.

3 Cf. Lanson, Le heros cornelien et le 'genereux' selon Descartes. Etude sur les rapports de la psychologie de Corneille et de la psychologie de Descartes. Revue d'hist. litt. de la Er. Vol. i, p. 397 ff.

4 La Poetique d'Aristote, 1692, pp. 148; 185 ff. 5 Lettre i Perrault, 1700, ap. Robert, La poetique de Racine, Paris; 1891, p. 62. Saint-

Evremond wrote about 1692: ' Corneille, profitant des lumieres que le temps apporte, trouve des beaut6s qu'Aristote ne conhaissait pas.' (Euvres, ed. Des Maiseaux, 1753, Vol. vi, p. 17. Cf. A. Bourgoin, Les maitres de la critique au XVIIe siecle, Paris, 1889, p. 109, n. 3.

6 Cf. Art poetique, II, 27-37; 51-54. 7 Cf. Elizabethan Critical Essays, Vol. I, p. 392. 8 Traite du poeimte epique, 1657. Cf. Petsch, I.c. p. xxi, n. 2.

237



Miscellaneous Notes

There is no need to adduce further evidence: Coreille's innovation had been accepted and by Gottsched's time the moder meaning of 'admiratio' had established itself in the critical world of France and

England. It is easy to see now what happened in Germany. Gottsched knew

Corneille and Saint-tvremond, Boileau and Perrault, but also some of the older German critics. In 1714, as 'Fuchs' at the University of

Konigsberg, his text-book for Professor Rohde's Collegium Poeticum had been Menantes-Hunold's Allerneueste ztr Art reinen undgalanten Poesie zu gelangen1. And later on, although it is impossible to be sure about it, he very probably read Klaj's Herodes der Kinderm6rder and Harsdorfer's letter about it, both of which were discussed by Johann Elias Schlegel inr an article published in Gottsched's Critische Beytrdge2, a year before Gottsched used the word 'Erstaunen.' Gottsched also knew about Triller's edition of Grotius' Christus Patiens3, and thus may have been acquainted with three of the principal sources of reference for the early development of the 'admiratio' in Germany.

The older German interpretation had connected the 'admiratio' with the marvellous, TO Gavpaarov, which is mainly an element of the action. The 'Cornelian' interpretation connected admiration with character4, the character of the hero, and thus came into conflict with the Aristotelian theory of a,apTria, which excludes the flawless hero, i.e. the hero often most likely to be admired, from the tragic stage. Also in the older view, it will be noticed, for reasons which it would take too long to unravel here, 'admiratio' was bracketed with fear, whereas in the 'French' view it was connected with pity5.

J. E. GILLET.

URBANA, ILL. U.S.A.

Hamburg, 1707. Cf. the preface to the Critische Dichtkunst. 2 Vol. vn (1741), p. 355 f. 3 Mentioned in his Nothiger Vorrath, 1757-1765, i, p. 297. 4 Mendelssohn, in the above-quoted passage (p. 234, n.l), without expressing it quite

clearly, has certainly perceived this. The distinction between ' mirari 'and 'admirari' may not be so sharp as he assumes it to be, yet the Thesaurus quotes the fifth-century grammarian Agroecius as saying: ' miramus opera, admiramur virtutes.'

5 Thus, quite consistently, Lessing's final view on admiration was that it was only an element in pity, pity being an emotion made up of admiration and pain. Cf. Robertson, I.c. p. 328.

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a note on the tragic "admiratio"

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