Part 4

Some of the scenes which Tieck rejects are Hodges' picture of the melancholy Jacques, and the murder of the princes in "Richard III." Neither of these is acted out on the stage. From the "Merry Wives" he proposes Falstaff's three adventures: the basket scene, the Witch of Brentford scene and the final torturing of Falstaff by the practical jokers. These giv a chance for variety of grouping and a gradation of expression in all the chief characters of the play. The scene in which the two women read identical letters from Falstaff, Tieck regards as the worst possible, for reasons that he says he need not recall but which are obviously those of lack of stress on the main character.

The scenes that Tieck recommends were actually chosen by the artists whose work appears later in the series and so Tieck's judgment is, in a way, confirmd. These scenes are the skeleton of the farce element and bring out the structure of the Falstaff plot which Tieck evidently regards as the main theme. It is interesting to note, however, how little the choice of subject has to do with the artistic merit or demerit of the plates. The subsequent plates, which would hav fully satisfied Tieck's requirements as to the moment of presentation are artistically among the worst in the series.

The two scenes from "As You Like It" suggested by Tieck, the one where Adam admonishes Orlando (II, 3) and the scene in the forest where Orlando enters bearing Adam on his shoulders (II, 7) hav not the same structural relation to the whole as hav those from the "Merry Wives." These moments lend themselves very well to representation but are chosen on another basis of judgment. They show that for Tieck Orlando was of more importance than Rosalind, for he suggests no scene with her in it as especially representativ of the play. In the first of these two scenes, the action has already begun; the scene is the culmination of the episode containing the first relation of the brothers. It is in itself not a vital part of the action. The scene in the forest, on the other hand, has more of the qualities demanded by Tieck: a variety of characters and an important moment. This is a moment--tho not the initial one--when Orlando's fortunes mend and he comes to his frends. The scene in which he first meets the Duke's party is of more significance. It seems as if the governing principle is contrast rather than a desire for elucidation of structure in serial arrangment. Orlando and Adam, ill-fortune and good luck, are juxtaposed.

Tieck conjectures that the eavesdropping scene from "Much Ado" (III, 1) is included in the collection because it was played by popular actresses of the contemporary English stage. Tieck misses the structural importance of the scene. It is apart of the intrigue; it has a direct effect on Beatrice who comes from it a changed woman. To Tieck, however, it ment as little as the similar eavesdropping scene from "Love's Labor Lost" (IV, 3), in which play he claims there is no suitable scene for representation.

The scene from "Winter's Tale" in which Perdita welcomes the disguised Duke (IV, 3), offering him flowers the while, is condemd in favor of the one immediately following in which the Duke discloses himself. Here again Tieck stresses the contrast and wishes a climax, a dramatic moment. So he praises such scenes as the putting away of Hero at the altar and the deth of Beauford, however much he derides the execution of the latter, by Reynolds.

For the sake of bringing out the wretchedness of this execution, Tieck points out that tho he has often before bewaild the choice of moment, he cannot do so in this case for no better could hav been selected. He details the good points in the scene: "Man denke sich einen Bösewicht auf dem Todtenbette, den die Verzweifelung wahnsinnig gemacht hat, der keine Seligkeit hofft; diesen besucht in seiner Todesstunde Heinrich, der junge gefühlvolle König, ein Schwarmer in der Religion, der von diesem Anblick auf das tiefste gerührt wird; Warwick und Salisbury, zwei männliche Krieger, begleiten ihn hierher. Beauford ist die Hauptperson, alle Zuschauer haben ihre gauze Aufmerksamkeit auf ihn gerichtet. Der Künstler hätte hier rühren und erschüttern können; ich sehe in Gedanken den weichen Heinrich Thränen vergiessen, im schönsten Contrast mit dem Cardinal, der ihn, in der Abwesenheit seines Geistes, kalt und ohne Bewusstsein anstarrt. Warwick und Salisbury, weniger gerührt, aber doch interessante Physiognomien, die durch leichtere Nuancen von einander unterschieden sind. So sehe ich in der Phantasie das schönste tragische Gemälde ..."

In "Romeo and Juliet" the choice of the ball scene meets with Tieck's disapproval. The scene is "Ohne Wirkung." Tieck's main reason why the scene is not good is that the painter has interpreted literally the metafor, "My lips two blushing pilgrims stand" and has represented Romeo in the garb of a pilgrim to correspond to Juliet's anser, "Good pilgrim." As Tieck rightly points out, there is no need for such a gise. The choice of the more highly keyd situation at the supposed deth of Juliet meets with Tieck's approval and shows that where there is a choice, the emfasis of his selection is apt to be on the superlativ moment.[39]

One other idea seems to be in Tieck's mind and it is hard to believe that he was not unconsciously influenced by the stage presentation of the plays when formulating it. That is the desire to hav a number of people in the picture. Nearly all the plates that he condems hav but few characters and his dictum of variety demands a reasonable number to choose from. This dramatic point of view is in accord with his attitude in all other fases of the discussion. It has been pointed out how rarely the artistic makes the prime appeal to him.

Tieck's second point in regard to choice of subject is that the comedies offer a wider field and a better opportunity than the tragedies. The general basis for this notion is allied to his theory of the worthlessness of caricature, that is, that there is an exaggeration, an overacting of the part possible in tragedy that is less likely to occur in comedy.

The statement of the evils of exaggeration is very sweeping and includes in some of its details both comedy and tragedy: "Der dramatische Dichter hat Momente in seinen Schauspielen, die kein Pinsel oder Griffel jemals darstellen kann; ich meine jene Sprünge und überraschenden Wendungen des Affectes, jene fürchterlichen Blitze des Genies, bei denen der Zuschauer zusammenfährt, wo der Dichter unerwartet durch eine neue verdrängt: diese Momente sind oft die glänzendsten des Schauspiels, und bei keinem Dichter finden sie sich so häufig als bei Shakspeare in seinen Tragödien." Tieck's illustration for this is the passage from Lear beginning, "No, I will weep no more," etc. He continues, "welcher Maler wird es wagen, wenn er den Sinn ganz durchdringt, ... diese Stelle auf die Leinwand zu werfen? So innig diese Verse beim Lesen oder bei der Darstellung rühren, so frostig würden sie vielleicht als ein Gemälde dargestellt erscheinen: oder wenn sie auch hier rührten, so würde das Gemälde doch nie jene Erschütterung in uns erregen, jenes Anschlagen von hundert Gefühlen. Man würde immer nur den weinenden Lear sehen oder den erzürnten Vater, der sich zur Kälte zwingt; das Ineinanderschmelzen dieser beiden Empfindungen, verbunden mit der Verstandesschwäche, die dem Schmerz endlich ganz erliegt und Wahnsinn wird, wäre selbst ein Rafael unmöglich: hier steht ein grosser Grenzstein zwischen dem Gebiet des Malers und des Dichters."

The result of overstepping these bounds is that the painter is likely to enter into rivalry with the poet, to feel his lack of ability in the struggle and to produce empty declamation insted of a work of the creativ imagination and to offer to the spectator nothing for either imagination or reason.

But in the comedies there are many moments which almost force themselves on the painter. These are scenes in which he can portray the poet just as he finds him and in which his rivalry is legitimate and, indeed, may tend to make him surpass the poet. If he can do this it will be by bringing out more plainly the light shades of the poet's meaning and he will become a commentator, so to speak, of these. Under such circumstances, the painter must be very careful to choose just the most beautiful and most interesting passages.

The relation to Lessing is again at once clear. The culminating moment of passion as it appears in the tragedies is not suitable from the artistic point of view for reproduction but the comedies, from their admixture of the flegmatic, the almost imperativ concomitant of Shaksperean humor, tone down this superlativ expression and are therefore within the pale. How Tieck carries out his theory in practis, has been sufficiently shown: his love for the sentimental and melodramatic, for the climatic and striking lead him to neglect his delimiting theoretical remarks.

Before leaving the discussion of Tieck's article, it may be well to compare it with another contemporary treatment of the Boydell Gallery. This is by the famous traveler and publicist, George Forster. It was Forster's account which furnisht Fiorillo with much of his data for the treatment of the "Gallery" in his history of British art, but it is hardly likely that the account is a source for Tieck. I hav no external evidence and the internal evidence is entirely negativ.

If Friedrich Schlegel's estimate of Forster's artistic capabilities be accepted, it is just such pictures as these, where the social interest is great and the artistic valu is secondary, that should bring out Forster's strength of judgment. Forster was also a finely discriminating amateur, with a decided sense of tactile form based on a sincere love of Greek art and confirmd by a study of Winkelmann and Lessing, beyond whom he past in his appreciation of the portrait and the landscape and of the coloring of the great masters.

Forster's essay, "Die Kunst und das Zeitalter" (1791), was written about the time that he saw the Boydell pictures. It shows his attitude toward Greek art and givs more than a hint of his standards which point so clearly toward Schiller. His "Ansichten vom Niederrhein," especially the discussions of the galleries and collections at Düsseldorf, Brussels and Antwerp fully express his ideas on Dutch and Flemish art, especially emfasizing the characteristics of Rubens for whose fleshy types Forster had little use.

In the discussion of British art which comes as an appendix to the "Ansichten," Forster includes a rather detaild description of the Boydell paintings. He did not see the engravings, or rather, his description is based on the paintings as they hung in the gallery in Pall Mall and so the material of this sketch in two parts, is in one way fundamentally different from that of Tieck. All the discussion of technique in which Tieck was so weak, is entirely lacking in Forster. His point of view, too, is different. He is the traveld, experienced man from whose traind eye and broad judgment more may be expected than from the student Tieck. There is, as Friedrich Schlegel says, an out-of-doorness in Forster's work that Tieck could never hav had; the over-emfasis on Shakspere on the part of the latter is only one product of his inexperience.

In spite of all this, it is surprizing to find what correspondences there are between the student Tieck and the more traind Forster. The latter who knew vastly more of English life than Tieck, fails to understand it in just those vital points where Tieck went farthest astray. Smirke and Peters fare badly at his hands, perhaps because of a certain puritanism in his atitude, or to quote Schlegel, because "Keine Vollkommenheit der Darstellung konnte ihn mit einem Stoff aussöhnen, der sein Zartgefühl verletzte, seine Sittlichkeit beleidigte oder seinen Geist unbefriedigt liess." For this reason he can call one of the Peters paintings from the "Merry Wives" a brothel (ein Speelhuis) or refer to the women of that artist as "lockere Nymphen."

Besides the same general dislike for the caricatures of Smirke that was noted in all previous instances, there is the usual praise of Hodges, the usual condemnation of Opie's bad drawing. Füessli, too, comes in for his share of the blame: "Der Beifall, welchen Füesslis Gemälde in England erhalten, bezeichnet mehr als alles die Ueberspannung des dortigen Kunstgeschmacks. Dieser junge Schweizer ... brachte nebst der Kenntniss akademischer Modelle sein malerisches Kraftgenie mit sich über das Meer; seiner Phantasie ward es wohl unter wilden Traumgestalten und Bildern des Ungewöhnlichen. Diese Stimmung ... verführte ihn nur gar zu bald zu allen Ausschweifungen der Manier. Es ist zwar leicht das Alltägliche zu vermeiden, indem man Kontorsionen darstellt ..." (page 466). Again: "Es sind nicht Menschen, die dieser Künstler phantasiert, sondern Ungeheuer in halb menschlicher Gestalt, mit einzeln sehr gross gezeichneten und sehr verzerrten, verunstalteten Theilen und Proportionen: ausgerenkte Handgelenke, aus dem Kopfe springende Augen, Bocksphysiognomien u. s. f...." (page 503). Northcote is damned with the faint praise "Nicht ohne Verdienst," a frase that clings to the characterizations of his work from the _Anzeigen_ to Fiorillo. Barry is shown to lack grace, noble greatness and beauty. His distorted figures border on caricature and his forms are of giants, colossi. His coloring is bad in spite of his theoretical knowlege and good drawing.

Forster sees thru Angelika Kaufmann and Hamilton better than Tieck did. Hamilton's paintings are "Machwerk" and his figures move in "Tanzschritt," while Angelika's are hermafroditic (page 501). "Die deutsche Muse Angelika verbarg die Inkorrektheit und das Einerlei ihrer allzuschlanken Figuren unter dem Schleier der Grazie und Unschuld" (page 459).

For Forster, Shakspere is the most logical portrayer of nature that ever existed; he meets the painter halfway in his work by his excellent characterization of the salient features of a personage and so givs the painter sharply defined subjects for his fantasy. For the artists of the British school this is especially valuable because effect is their highest aim and beauty only secondary. Extremes of passion, astonishment, surprize are strivn for. "Sie hascht nach der Wahrheit der Natur in ihren grässlichen Augenblicken und erlaubt ihrer Phantasie den verwegenen Flug, nicht in das schöne Feenland des Ideals sondern in die verbotene Region der Geister und Gespenster."

But while the general condemnation of British artists shows far more perspectiv than is found in Tieck, the acquaintance with the details of Shakspere's plays is never drawn on to point out any defects in choice of subject matter. Forster can refer to the acted plays from an experience that was at this time still denied Tieck, but this experience does not result in any well-defined theory of Shakspere-illustration as a whole and as we found Tieck to hav. The melancholy Jacques in the forest is a good scene for Forster, whereas Tieck rejected it as having no structural relation to the rest of the play. Forster finds it worthy of portrayal as one of the moments arising from Shakspere's variety of scene, character and condition of life, to say nothing of the chance to show the lonesome melancholy stag by the famous animal painter, Gilpin!

On Reynolds' famous Beauford picture, Tieck and Forster are entirely at odds. For Tieck the execution is terrible, the choice of subject satisfactory. For Forster, the choice is inexcusable, the execution in part masterly; a dying criminal in his last throes seems to Forster an utterly impossible subject for representation. So with Kirk's picture from "Titus Adronicus": in spite of the attempt to meliorate the impression of the butcherd Lavinia, the whole picture remains for Forster a disgusting sight. The conclusion is obvious: Forster's sense of delicacy rebeld at the crass and brutal; wildness and terror shockt him.

But if Tieck's article compares favorably with Forster's in all points respecting the "Gallery" itself, it must be confest that the political, patriotic note, the application to Germany of the principles of national betterment in art which arose in the mind of Boydell, escape him. He was not, of course, like Forster, a political writer, and revolutionary conditions had no immediate interest for him as for the older man. And so his art criticism does not look forward to Germany as does Forster's or as does that of a propagandist like Kleist in his _Abendblætter_ article. Tieck does not rise above the milieu; the "Gallery" offers no hold with which to test contemporary art in his own land. It is only a beginning, clearsighted in part and in general sustaind, an ernest of what the matured criticism of the Romantic school was later on to do.

NOTES

[1] Die Kupferstiche nach der Shakspeare-Gallerie in London. Briefe an einen Freund. 1793. "Kritische Schriften," vol. I, pages 3-34. [Kr. Sch.]

[2] For full title, see bibliografy.

[3] E. g. in the letters.

[4] Krit. Sch. I, 4. Jean Paul, Titan, I, 42. [Berlin, 1827.]

[5] 1719-1804.

[6] Preface to the Prospectus and quoted in the preface to the "Gallery."

[7] The facts on the "Gallery" are pretty well scatterd. The statements in Allibone are not all correct. See Graves, "New Light on Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery," _Magazine of Art_, vol. XXI, page 143 ff. For some details as to the disposition of the pictures, see "Notes and Queries," series 2, vol. VIII, vol. IX, 313, vol. X, 52. Also Pye, "Patronage of British Art," London, 1848.

[8] Preface to critical works.

[9] Page 7.

[10] Copy in the Columbia University Library.

[11] Mr. L. L. Mackall kindly furnisht me with this information.

[12] This Ms. (79 pp., vellum, quarto) contains the signatures of all the subscribers or their agents. Romney, Warren Hastings, Wedgewood, the King, the Queen and the Prince Regent besides a number of English "persons of quality" are represented. The poets are conspicuously wanting. The King of England gave the copy to the University Library. Cp. _Goettinger Gelehrte Anzeigen_ (G. G. A.) 1791, page 1793; 1793, page 561.

[13] At least until after the time concerned here. This from Wüstenfeld on the contributor to the _Anzeigen_ furnisht by Professor Wilkens.

[14] The plates which come into consideration and the order in which they occur in Tieck are as follow:

"Love's Labor Lost," Tieck, page 9, (1) IV, 1 (G. G. A., 1794, page 10); (2) IV, 2, small plates; (3) V, 2.

"Merry Wives of Windsor," Tieck, page 10, I, 1 (G. G. A., 1794, page 969); page 12, II, 1 (G. G. A., 1794, page 969); page 13 (G. G. A., page 959); page 13, I, 4; IV, 1, small plates (G. G. A., 1794, page 970); V, 5.

"Twelfth Night," II, 3 (G. G. A., 1794, page 970); Tieck, page 15. A small plate.

"Two Gent. Verona," Tieck, page 16, Last Scene (G. G. A., 1793, page 903); 17, IV, 3. Small plate.

"As You Like It," Tieck, page 17, II, 1 (G. G. A., 1793, page 561); page 17, last scene (G. G. A., 1793, page 561).

"Much Ado About Nothing," Tieck, page 19, III, 1 (G. G. A., 1791, page 1794); IV, 1; IV, 2.

"Winter's Tale," Tieck, page 21, II, 3 (G. G. A., 1794, page 9); IV, 3; V, 3; page 22, two small plates (G. G. A., 1794, page 10).

I "Henry VI.," Tieck, page 24, II, 5 (G. G. A., 1794, page 970).

II "Henry VI.," Tieck page 25, III, 3 (G. G. A., 1794, page 10).

"Richard III.," Tieck, page 27, III, 1 (G. G. A., 1791, page 1794).

"Titus Andronicus," Tieck, page 28, IV, 1 (G. G. A., 1794, page 970); page 29 (G. G. A. 1794, page 970).

"Romeo and Juliet," Tieck, page 30, I, 5 (G. G. A., 1793, page 561); IV, 5 (G. G. A. page 561); V, 3 (G. G. A., 1793, page 562).

"King Lear," Tieck, page 31, I, 1 (G. G. A., 1793, page 903-4); page 32, III, 4 (G. G. A. 1793, page 904); page 33, last scene (G. G. A., 1793, page 904); page 34 (G. G. A., 1793, Page 904).

Tieck mentions in all 39 plates; of these 24 are large plates and the rest small ones. In only 6 instances does Tieck enter into even a slite criticism of the small plates. In some cases, his remarks are so meager that it is only by a comparison with the original that we can tell what plate he means.

[15] Boydell's Catalog, page 28 ff. It may be worth while to mention in this connection that the Catalog has a number of errors in the list of these supplementary plates. The proof was red carelessly and the results are jumbled. Only by a careful comparison with the originals in the 1802 edition, for the results of which there is no room here, can this be straightend out.

[16] "Romantische Schule," page 57-8.

[17] For possible influence of Du Bos, cf. Tieck's doctrin of poetry as an imitativ art. Kr. Sch., page 24. See Howard, _Publications of the Mod. Lang. Assn._, vol. XXII, page 4. The letters to Wackenroder in Holtei, 300 Briefe, etc.

[18] Volbehr, Dessoir, Stöcker. D. L. D.

[19] Kr. Sch. I, 321. It is doutful if Tieck knew any of the Hogarth Shakspere plates. The dates of issu (Dobson, pp. 310, 340 ff.) are all later than the writing of the Boydell article. For Tieck and Hogarth, Köpke, I, page 148.

[20] Of course the emfasis on color is entirely wanting in the body of the work. Tieck nowhere in the essay points out how engraving can suggest color.

[21] Literary paralels are at once apparent. So, Schiller's Prolog to "Wallenstein."

[22] Schriften, vol. X, pages 302-3.

[23] Weitenkampf, 155.

[24] One or two actual errors of fact hav crept into the paper. Kyder for Ryder and Northcate for Northcote. The latter error and Tieck's Slatbard may hav arisn, as Professor Wilkens suggested to me, from Tieck's notoriously bad handwriting which was misinterpreted by the compositor. At any rate, Tieck made no later effort to correct. The "Rev." before Peters' name misled both Tieck and Forster into laying too much emfasis on his sacerdotal function. The G. G. A. calls him a dilettante.

[25] Walzel, 279; Sulger-Gebing, 41, 154. Engel ("Angelika Kaufmann," 36, 37, 43) while not denying her preference for this dress, is of the opinion that it was not suited to her. "Im Schäferkleide, den Hirtenstab in der Hand, Atlaspantöffelchen an den Füssen, ein bebändertes Hütchen auf der gepuderten Coiffure, umgeben von einem Hofstaat schöngeistiger Verehrer und Verehrerinnen, so hatte sie unzweifelhaft eine weit natürlichere und tüchtigere Figur gemacht als in der Vestalinnentracht die sie--das Bregenzerwaldnymphlein--in der Folgezeit zu bevorzugen pflegte."

[26] Biografers of Sir Joshua generally agree that his pictures in this series, with the possible exception of "Puck," are failures. Boydell paid 400 and 1500 guineas for the two largest and this was considerd by some an exorbitant price.

[27] Minor's edition, pages 27, 30.

[28] There is the possibility of a crude symbolism having been intended for Shakspere's "Blow, winds," etc.

[29] The West picture was very popular. Cf. _Teutsche Mercur_, 1791, pages 445-6, for a criticism of Berger's engraving from it.

[30] See, 300 Bfe. page 79.

[31] This is a difficult point to decide. The citizen class was limited by such sumptuary laws as is shown by the records, but most writers agree that the violations were open and common.