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Mörike's Occultism and the Revision of Maler Nolten

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Harvey W. Hewett-Thayer
Harvey W. Hewett-Thayer*
Affiliation:
Princeton University, Princeton, N. J.
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Extract

Mörike's only novel, Maler Nolten, was published in August 1832; the conception of the story dates from 1827; some writing was done in 1828, and the manuscript was finished in 1831. By 1850, probably earlier though not recorded, Mörike began to entertain the idea of revising his novel; and from that time till his death in 1875 he worked on the revision intermittently and in desultory fashion, though, as his correspondence shows, at times he regarded it as his main literary concern. Thus for a quarter of a century the revision of Maler Nolten was on the author's mind. His frequent illnesses and in the latter part of the period the domestic infelicities which eventually resulted in separation from his wife were contributory causes of delay. Doubtless in the main, however, he was hindered by the inherent difficulty of the undertaking. At his death he left the task still unfinished.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , June 1956 , pp. 386 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1956

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References

1 The general editions of Morike's letters are: Eduard Morikes Briefe, hrsg. von Rudolf Krauss und Karl Fischer (Berlin, 1903–04); Eiuard Morike: Briefe, hrsg. von Friedrich Seebass (Tübingen), without date but 1939; Eduard Morike: Unveröjfeniliche Briefe, hrsg. von Friedrich Seebass, zweite umgearbeitete Auflage (Stuttgart, 1945); these are referred to here as “K,” “S,” and “UB” respectively. Cf. also F. Seebass, Bibliographie der sämmt-lichen Mörike-Briefe, Rechenschaftsbericht (Schwàbischer Schiller-Verein) No. 43 (1938–39). Unpublished material in the Schiller-National-Museum in Marbach and elsewhere has not been available in the preparation of the present paper. For early references to Maler Nolten in Mörike's correspondence, cf. letter to Ludwig Bauer, 9 Dec. 1827 (S 103), to Johannes Mährlen, Feb. 1828 (S 105), and to Wilhelm Hartlaub, 23 July 1830 (S 235). In the second chapter (“Mörike und der magische Idealismus”) of his Eduard Morikes Gedankenwelt (Stuttgart, 1923) Hermann Hieber discusses the occult trends in Mörike's thought. But he ignores almost completely the whole period of Mörike's relations with Kerner; considerable space is devoted to his readings in philosophy and, with very slight evidence, to his probable reaction to the works of M. Petry and G. F. Daumer.

2 The progress or lack of progress over the years is partly documented in the letters; cf. K II, 238, 297, 324 (S 804), 342, 345; UB 302, 311, 388, 440, 455, 465, 471–472, 478–479.

3 Morille uni sein Roman “Maler Nolten” (Horgen-Zürich-Leipzig, 1930), p. 103; see also Ruth Bachert, Mörikes Maler Nolten (Diss., Giessen, 1928).

4 Cf. Ernst Arno Drawert, Mörikes Maler Nolten in seiner ersten uni zweiten Fassung (Diss., Jena, 1935). Since the revision of the First Part is all, or virtually all, the work of Mörike himself, the author confines his minute study of textual changes to that part of the book. References in the present paper to the first version are to an edition published by the J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger (Stuttgart und Berlin, without date), here designated as “A”; to the second version to Eduard Mörikes Sämtliche Werke, hrsg. von Rudolf Krauss (Leipzig, without date), iv, designated as “B.”

5 Cf. S 243–244, 388; UB 34, 55–56; K i, 184, 192, 210, 225, 229. For prepublication correspondence with Vischer concerning Maler Nolten and later letters connected with Vischer's review in the Hallische Jahrbücher, cf. Briefwechsel zwischen Eduard Mbrike und Friedrich Theodor Vischer, hrsg. von Robert Vischer (München, 1926).

6 Cf. Harry Maync, Eduard Mörike, sein Leben und Dichten (Leipzig-Stuttgart, 1944), pp. 515–517.

7 Cf. Sämtliche Werke, hrsg. von Albert Köster (Leipzig, 1920), viii, 32.

8 Though the sentence which closes the First Part, “Elisabethen hat er nie wieder gesehen,” is part of Larkens' account of “Ein Tag aus Noltens Jugendleben,” it might have troubled Morike, since in the meantime through Larkens' own arrangement Nolten has seen her once; at any rate Mörike deleted the sentence.

9 Cf. Hans Vetter, Eduard Mörike und die Romantih (Diss., Bern, 1920); Walter Heinsius, “Mörike und die Romantik,” Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literalurwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, iii (1925), 194–230

10 A few years after leaving the university he wrote of reading a book by Eschenmayer: “Meinem lieben Schwager Denk lass ich sagen, dass das Buch auf jeden Fall ungemein interessant und lesenswert sei, dass es mich übrigens eben so sehr abstosse als anziehe. So viel herrliche, weite Ansichten und doch wieder so viel unertrâglich Enges” (letter to Luise Rau, 9Nov. 1829; S 150). The work was presumably Mysterien des inneren Lebens, erläautert aus der Geschichie der Seherin von Prevorst mit Berücksichtigung der bisher erschienenen Kritiken, which had just appeared, dated, however, 1830. Kerner's work on the “Seherin” came out in 1829.

11 Maync quotes a diary entry (without date): “Ein ‘Buch der Trâume,‘ Erzählung wirklicher sowie erdichteter Träume (ohne anderen als rein poetischen Zweck), zu schreiben, könnte mir wohl die Lust ankommen.” This seems, however, out of place in the context where Maync uses it. The passage indicates merely an aesthetic and poetic interest in dreams, not a belief in them as oracular messages; he practically equates imagined dreams with real ones, if an aesthetic purpose is served (op. cit., p. 650).

12 Cf. Justinus Kerners Briefwechsel mit seinen Fretinden (Stuttgart und Leipzig, 1897), ii, 123. The account of the Cleversulzbach ghost is the “siebente Tatsache,” but the place is designated simply as “K.”

13 The Cleversulzbach specter apparently enjoyed a considerable notoriety. Vischer wrote to Morike from Tubingen, 24 Oct. 1834: “Von den Spectris, die bei Dir wohnen, hat mir Strauss etwas gesagt” (Briefwecltsel, p. 123); and on 1 Nov. 1840: “Der Pfarrer spukt ja recht, sagt mir Studiosus Mayer aus Waiblingen” (p. 175). But Vischer himself voices his own scepticism; his servant had refused to remain because the house was haunted; Vischer agreed to stay up and watch for the apparition, in spite of his incredulity, which he expresses both emphatically and somewhat indecorously (letter of 20 Dec. 1830, p. 17), and on 17 Jan. 1831 Mörike queries: “Wie lief die Geisterprobe ab?” (p. 27).

14 Cf. Freundes Lieb' und Treu'—250 Briefe Eduard Mörikes und Wilhelm Hartlaubs, hrsg. von Gotthilf Renz (Leipzig, 1938), p. 61.

15 Cf. Heinrich Straumann, Justinus Kerner und der Okkultismus in der deutschen Romantik (Horgen-Zürich-Leipzig, 1928); also for further items of Kerner bibliography and a convenient list of works on occultism published in the first part of the 19th century.

16 Mörike's early letters to Kerner were published by Otto Guntter in the Rechenschafts-bericht of the Schwäbischer Schiller-Verein (No. 21, 1917; “Um die Seherin von Prevorst”); the belated letter of thanks is also in S (71–72). Guntter provides information concerning the interest of some of Morike's friends in the activities of the “Seherin” and their visits to Weinsberg, particularly the case of D. F. Strauss, who according to F. T. Vischer was “electrified” (Kritische Gange, i, 66, Leipzig, 1914; in an article reprinted from the Eallische Jahrbücher, 1838). Guntter remarks: “Auffallend ist, dass auch [i.e., in addition to Hartlaub] Mörike sich zurückhaltend erwies, der doch sonst nicht ohne Organ fur derartige Dinge war.” Mörike's reluctance at the time to participate in the enthusiasm is shown in Strauss' letters to him. On 2 May 1827 Strauss wrote that he was glad to hear through a common friend of Mörike's desire to learn about his stay in Weinsberg, but was somewhat embarrassed to know what to write and hoped for a personal meeting; “Aber von der somnambülen Frau musst Du Dich gefasst machen, wenigstens ebensoviel hören zu müssen als von Kerner, ob Du gleich nicht recht in diese Dinge hinein willst, wie ich wohl weiss” (Harry Maync, “David Friedrich Strauss und Eduard Mörike,” Deutsche Rundschau, cxv [April 1903], 94–117). In July of that same year (1827) Mörike sent to Kerner through Strauss an early 17th-century work on the Strassburg cathedral, presumably in recognition of Kerner's advice concerning his eyes. For the results of Mörike's efforts in behalf of Mährlen's father and mother cf. Strauss's letter of 20 Sept. 1827 and Die Seherin von Prevorst, i, 98–99 (“Gefuhle der Seherin fur Krankheitsgefühle anderer im anscheinend wachen Zustande”).

17 According to Maync (p. 276): “das den Schwaben so geläufige Du wurde aufgenommen”; but the correspondence of Mörike and Kerner contradicts this; in the many letters during the time of their closest friendship they used the “Sie” forms exclusively. In 1848, when the period of their intimate companionship was ended one finds the exception “that proves the rule”; Mörike wrote to Hartlaub describing a visit from Kerner: “Wir machten nämlich Du und Du, er hatte sich ein paarmal so verredet und es zuletzt mit einem nassen Kuss besiegelt” (S 659).

18 Cf. Kerner's Briefwechsel, ii, 123; also letter from Graf Alexander von Württemberg, 20 Sept. 1838 (n, 138); further a letter from Karl Mayer to Kerner, 25 Dec. 1839, sending a copy of his poems: “Wollte der Himmel, sie [i.e., the poems] wären so küssenswert als die Mörikischen, die Du im Herbst des vorigen Jahres oft während des Essens aus der Brusttasche herauszogst und küsstest! Wegen der meinigen wirst Du ruhig essen können” (ii, 152). Vischer wrote to Mörike 28 Jan. 1831: “Als ich kürzlich in Weinsberg war, hat Kerner eine grosse Sehnsucht nach Dir ausgesprochen” (p. 34).

19 Cf. letter to Hartlaub, May 1841: “Er [Tieck] will, auf Kerners Veranlassung, etwas über meine Poesien &c. bekannt machen, was guten Erfolg haben kann” (K ii, 10).

20 Cf. Maync, p. 278.

21 As the file of Kerner's Magikon was not available, information as to its contents is here derived from Seebass' notes in UB.

22 Quoted from Isolde Kurz, Ein Genie der Liebe, in Benno von Wiese's Eduard Morike (Tubingen und Stuttgart, 1950), p. 176.

23 Cf. letter of Fischer, Stuttgart, May 18SS (Kerner's Briefweclisel, ii, 446); Kerner and Mörike had been made honorary members of the Stuttgart Liederkranz and invited to a dinner.

24 Cf. Hanns Wolfgang Rath, “Eduard Mörikes magnetische Heilung durch Johann Christoph Blumhardt im Juli 1848,” Deutsche Rundschau, clxxiii (1917), 243–253. The title is a misnomer, since Blumhardt's cures were not, strictly speaking, “magnetic”; he himself repudiated the term. Particularly with the evidence of Morike's letter of 17 Aug., it is impossible to agree with Rath in his statement: “Kerner ist es zweif ellos gewesen, der den letzten Ausschlag gab zu einem Aufenthalt bei Blumhardt in Mottlingen.” In view of Mörike's injunctions of secrecy, it seems more probable that he never mentioned Mottlingen to Kerner. Cf. also F. Seebass, “Mörike und Blumhardt: zwei schwäbische Pfarrers-freunde,” Eckart (Nov. 1939), 432–441; the article gives some details of their friendship both before and after the Möttlingen episode but adds nothing of significance to the account of Mörike's “cure.”

25 Cf. his playful references to ghostly phenomena in letters to Gustav Ludwig (Stuttgart, 27 Feb. 1862, 10 Sept. 1864;: “Deine liebe Tochter hat mir manches aus Deinem Haus erzahlen müssen, auch dass ein Spektrum darin gehen soil, woran Ihr samt und sonders nicht glaubt; die Ohrfeige, welche die junge Stirn erhielt, hat aber doch einigen Eindruck bei mir hinterlassen”; “Empfiehl mich Deinem lieben Hause und insbesondere Deiner liebenswürdigen Tochter, von der ich gern wissen möchte, ob ihr der Hausgeist noch immer keinen Respekt hat einflössen können” (UB 342, 393).

26 Eduard Mörike—Ein Beitrag zu seiner Charakteristik als Mensch und Dichler (Stuttgart, 1875). Notter had been in the same Ludwigsburg school with Morike and in Tubingen during a part of Mörike's residence there, but their acquaintance had been slight until Morike's removal to Stuttgart in 1851. He implies incorrectly that Morike did not begin the revision of Maler Nolten until the year before his death.

27 “Aber jedenfalls wurde das Schöpferische seiner Phantasie durch jenen nebenherlaufenden Trieb, auch in der gemeinen Welt, das Wunderbare und Seelenhaf te aufzusuchen, nicht beeinträchtigt, und jedenfalls verfuhr er, bis er ein solches ausser dem gewohnten Lauf der Dinge liegende Ereignis als etwas wirklich Geschehenes annahm, so bald er sich irgendwie in der Lage befand, dasselbe zu prüfen, mit weit mehr Kritik, als die meisten seiner Bekannten ihm wahrscheinlich zugetraut hätten.”

28 The article in Freya is less than a page and contains only these two experiences, not “eine ganze Reihe solcher beziehungsreicher, unwahrscheinlicher Erlebnisse” (Ruth Bachert, p. 34).

29 Cf. Drawert for detailed examination of changes in the First Part; for a discussion of the respective merits of the two versions cf. Maync, pp. 517–529. As not pertinent to the topic, the changes in the “Orplid” play are here not considered; the play is “märchenhaft,” not occult. Seuffert's interpretation of symbolic relationships between this dramatic interlude (as well as Nolten's paintings) and the main story is interesting but often strained and unconvincing; cf. Bernhard Seuffert, Mörikes Nolten und Mozart (Graz-Wien-Leipzig,1925).

30 In the first version she bears the name Elisabeth but Elsbeth in the second; for the sake of convenience she is referred to here as Elsbeth, irrespective of the version in question. 31 Cf. letter of 6 Dec. 1831 (K i, 189; S 306).

32 Ruth Bachert (p. 68) has found among the Klaiber papers in the Stuttgart Library a note of Morike's commenting on this scene and admitting the impossibility that Elsbeth could have thus controlled her feelings in Nolten's presence.

33 Cf. Hildegard Emmel, Mörikes Peregrinadichlung: Ihre Beziehung zum Nolten (Weimar, 1932).