3 I2 Harr is - Das Problem der Spiegelb i ld l ichke i t u.s.w.

treffend zusammengefasst, als er schrieb: ,,Ein weltumfassendes Fran- kenreich, dem Dichter der Chanson irdischer Selbstzweck, ist f/Jr den deutschen Dichter nur Durchgang und Stufe zum ~iberirdischen Gottes- reich la,,.

University o f California KATHL~E~q HARRIS. Berkeley, California.

Anmerkungen

i. Julius Schwietering, Die deutsche Dichtung des Mittelalters (Potsdam, I932-4I), S. Io4.

2. Alfred Zastrau, Das deutsche Rolandslied als nationales Problem (Potsdam, 1937), S. 69.

3. Vgl. Ernst Klinnert, ,,Freude und Leid im Rolandslied des Pfaffen Konrad" (Diss., Frankfurt a. M., 1959).

4. GOnther Mfiller, ,,Gradualismus antiqua", DVjs 2 (1924), S. 687. 5. Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturgeschichte, Hrsg. P. Merker und W. Stammler,

4 B~inde (Berlin, 1925-31), Bd. II, S. 629a. 6. M/iller, S. 688. 7. Hans Glunz, Die Literardisthetik des europdischen MitteIalters (Bochum, 1937), S. 13. 8. Mfiller, S. 694. 9. Friedrich Wentzlaff-Eggebert, Kreuzzugsdichtung des Mittelalters (Berlin, I96O),

S. 27. Io. Glunz, S. 23. i I. Glunz, S. 6o. i2. Vgl. Gotthard Fliegner, ,,Geistliches und weltliches Rittertum im Rolandslied des

Pfaffen Konrad" (Diss., Breslau, I937). I3. Schwietering, S. ioi.

R I T U A L I S M A N D M O T I V I C D E V E L O P M E N T

I N A D A L B E R T S T I F T E R ' S N A C H S O M M E R

The scholarly consensus is that stirrer 's Nachsommer (I 857) is not really a novel of education, but rather a unique cultural idyll or philosophic epic. Critics begin to differ, however, when they measure the potential threat to its formal perfection and utopian tone, and when they assess the extent to which it exhibits lyrical character. Wahher Rehm judged that the work tended toward abstraction and generalization, and was in, ,keiner Weise betont gefiihlshaft oder lyrisch oder magisch, denn das wfirde dem Gesetz seiner epischen Dichtung widersprechen ''1. Dorothea Sieber, in her still illuminating, earlier study, had already assumed a middle posi- tion, seeing stirrer caught between the two poles of classical objectivity and idealism; because of ,,diesen idealen Subjektivismus", the novel ran the risk of flowing into the lyrical ~. While emphasizing its ,,unshaken serenity", Eric Blackall felt, nevertheless, that the work presented a ,,vision of fulfillment ... as a mystery" ; ,,hence the strange unity of this

Gil lespie - R i t u a l i s m and mot iv i c deve lopment , etc. 313

book, which is a prose-poem, lyrical in its one-sidedness, and of singular intensity - the expression of ene single great thought, a man's vision of the ideal life" a. The unity is indeed unquestioned, but under its powerful spell, the artist's interpreters have tended to take for granted the hum- blest devices of his art. Enjoying the book's articulation, they prefer to describe the impact - as they experience it, whether as great thought or elevated prose - rather than to investigate in detail the method by which Stifter creates this unity.

Of interest is the fact that structural studies concentrate almost wholly on the narrative technique and stress the differences between the two chief narrators ; two kinds of "content" seem to be brought together, and finally fused, through their meeting. Adolf von Grolman ~ and Walter Naumann 5 used musical analogies of thematic interplay or counterpoint to explain the most significant moment of encounter in the chapter ,,R/ickblick". But no investigation of the relationship between the smallest units of the work and its grand outlines has yet been made; such an ap- proach is necessary in order to answer the basic question: Is Stifter's novel, Der Nachsommer, more like a symposium or a symphony? That is, can we decide whether its thematic statement of verities or motivic devel- opment of symbols plays the greater roleS? The author certainly sets forth his views in the education of his first-person narrator. Hence the pairing of heroes and of love stories within this fictional recollection; the mirroring of just one soul would be merely confessional, whereas this novel is a dialogue between two principal voices, old Risach's and young Heinrich's. It suggests Socratic or dialectic conversation T, rather than a sentimental history. Heinrich recoils from self-pity or glorification, and his natural limitations shape the book; it is without the ironic perspec- tives usual in educational novels of the century. Through him we ex- perience the Rosehouse step by step - witness life redeemed by art under a special dispensation. But do we so much follow the philosophic treat- ment of states of being, whose terms the chapter headings announce (for example: ,,Der Einblick," ,,Die Mitteilung," etc.); or are we rather led on by the play of motifs, such as the threatening storm which never breaks upon Heinrich but prompts him to seek shelter with Risach? My purpose is to indicate some stylistic principles which govern every level of complexity in the book, but which are more evident in their effects than when isolated in small details contributing to such effects s.

There is almost no plot or action, for the novel's figures do not "live" in the usual sense of the word; rather, they perform rituals, perfected gestures of which the uninitiated only slowly grows aware. But that is, after all, the function of our narrator-experiencer: to lead us into the deep beauty of this poetic reality, the objective enchantment of classical Risach. Finally, we too grasp what it means to sit before the Rosehouse in bloom, at that precious moment of pre-autumnal splendor, in solemn commu- nion. And thus, after long initiation, we penetrate to the most important

Neophilologus XL VIII zo

314 Gillespie -Ritualism and motivic development, etc.

ritual of all for Stifter: storytelling. The novel becomes the frame for the inner narration by Risach about his own past. Ideally educated, never exposed to the vicissitudes of the larger world, Heinrich remains the embodiment of a cultural possibility. Risach, however, has been schooled by hardship, has played a role in history, and had a fate; is, therefore, a character with dramatic force. The story of his and Mathilde's ruined youth introduces the lyrical tension which redeems Heinrich's and Nata- lie's happy love from idyllic flatness, and also reveals it to be a miracle. This contrasting insight, which elevates the novel above a symposium into the poetic sphere of wisdom, is - as one discovers upon closer ana- lysis - actually the culmination of ritualistic and symbolic suggestions. Always hidden in the ceremony of standing before the wall of roses has been the memory of hurtful mistake, now transmuted into beauty, and Risach's revelation only confirms our premonitions throughout the first, seemingly digressive pages, filled with a treasure of visual motifs.

Keeping in mind the many differences between stirrer and writers of a later phase of European culture, the Symbolists such as Mallarm~ with their hermetic cult of evocation, we can nevertheless recognize one basic set of similarities. Stifter's fascination with things, and the suggestion of their qualities, brings him into the general stream of non-Naturalistic striving for a piety within the confines of reality. Of course, the tendency from the time of the Parnassians on was increasingly a flight from the idealistic excesses of a deflated, revolutionary Romanticism into realia, into beauty for its own sake; by the time of Symbolism, the philosophy of decadence, art for art's sake, and "thing poetry" are well established.

Stifter manifests a hieratic attitude in the novel, but it eschews any radical, disdainful isolationism like that which was actually to follow in literary groups such as George's circle. Stifter does not promulgate some predecadent retreat into a rarified, aesthetic existence, as much as present select, well-known great moments of the lost past (Antiquity, Middle Ages, Goethe epoch, etc.) for our careful, reverential study, and never suppresses the direct statement of his ideals. Yet, unmistakably, he prac- tices at the same time a subtle art of revelation, slowly lifting veils from the reality which becomes, then, a complex symbolism.

Tiny, unobtrusive details are not accidental, although they seem at first quite ordinary and arbitrary. These motifs are so arranged as to prepare us for final insights and work together like notes in a musical composition; they are the dynamic elements of variation which carry the philosophy forward. Very early in the novel, for example, Heinrich learns that jewelry is perfect if the stone and its setting achieve harmony. This quite casual bit of experience returns again and again, with many applications; one effect is that it suggests a universal law of correspon- dences, when later we realize that the novel as a whole achieves this through the setting of Risach's tale within Heinrich's. Stifter's purpose is to conduct us toward the higher experience of Platonic astonishment,

GilIespie -Ritualism and motivic development, etc. 315

when everything is transfigured in the shock of recognition. Thus Hein- rich relates his story chronologically, as if it is unfolding under the law of time, with the seeming naivet~ of an obtuse participant, for in this way Stifter can withhold information and create the impression of discovery. For instance, Heinrich does not learn Natalie's name for hundreds of pages, nor the connection between her and the girl at the performance of King Lear, and so on, until numerous hints have been dropped and asso- ciations established with motifs. His deepening discovery of her haunting charm through dreams and encounters has the aura of re-experience of an archetype. This is but one example of deliberately created Platonic "memory" or psychological ddjd vu. Actually, Heinrich cannot be obtuse, for he has already experienced what he narrates, before telling it. His is not a memoire compiled bit by bit while occurring, as say in a diary or epistolary novel, but under total control in retrospect 9. Therefore, Hein- rich records his past as agent of the hidden author so that chosen events will appear self-actualizing, spontaneous. Happenings half understood excite our premonition of an order which, however, makes sense only from hindsight, since Der Nachsommer is constructed memory in the guise of a direct description of moving life.

It is also for this reason that visual splendor reaches the limits of the possible in Stifter, without his surrendering to the rhapsodic; his greatest descriptions usually occur in "tacit" scenes, where we observe rather than hear of the beauty, and heightened feelings, which figures experience in particular locations. An example is the scene in which Heinrich and Nata- lie meet under the field-tree, enjoying in their isolation an unspoken unity, revealed by their walk home.arm in arm in silence through the golden grain (,,Der Einblick"). Dozens of motifs converge in this mo- ment to give full significance to this simple act and lift it to the solemn status of a ritual. Even the contributory motifs - the tree (of life), the evening hour (of full maturation), the golden light (of richness of ex- perience), and so forth - have already gone through se many variations that we may dignify them with the name of symbols. To illustrate the same sort of ritual, as it becomes ever more complicated and yet never loses its aura of simplicity, let us skip to the end of the novel. Heinrich and Klothilde ride through the hill country on a pleasure trip which con- veys pictorially the "final" phase in their relationship, a pure love between brother and sister. At numerous points in the novel, various "pairs" of individuals are prominent, and the appearance of various combinations is itself a motif from the very first page of the book (father-mother, brother- sister, old man-old woman). As noted above, the walk or journey is also by this time a significant motif of action, or a ritual. Next, Heinrich and Natalie, the new family unit, make the same symbolic journey in a carri- age. At the wedding finally, with refined ceremony, the allied families exchange vehicles. We begin to grasp objectively the cohesion of some larger entity. Perhaps we are also at last quite conscious of having wit-

316 GilIespie - Ritualism and motivic development, etc.

nessed not some free play of sentimental characters, but meaningful rituals whose variations earlier escaped us. Order seems to be emerging from the ordinary, as well as the special, facts of life. Actually, one can categorize all such rituals as developments of the book's original motifs in accordance with the titles of the first two chapters (,,Die Hguslichkeit," ,,Der Wanderer"). One set of motifs had to do with "order" (structure, meaning, form, etc.); the other with "disorder" (change, motion, feeling, search, study, etc.). The household so quietly portrayed at the novel's opening is varied as the carriage, a containing form. Heinrich's setting out for his walks, his cultural and scientific explorations are varied in the movement of the vehicle. Of course, what is important is not that we interpret the series of trips in the carriage as "sharing the destiny of life's passage", or similarly, but that we are unconsciously convinced by re- peated experience of the typical in such an ordinary happening.

Stifter's artistic method, which prohibits both irony and rhapsody, is mystagogic; all the devices pace our entrance into Risach's realm~ into knowledge. Likewise, all reaZia have this function in the novel. All objects with their spatial and temporal limitations, and all entities both great and small reflect natural law - the very law which, according to Stifter, deter- mines the fact that we cannot ever really see anything at once or in its entirety. The forms and qualities of things emerge slowly. All actions and phenomena, whether on a macrocosmic or microscosmic level, come un- der this rule, and Stifter places man definitively on terrafirma, chiding his romantic and titanic pretensions, in so far as they are the source of tra- gedy. The novel's protagonists accept natural boundaries, in fact, explore them with scientific zeal, and by reverential submission change the con- fines of ordinary existence into a kind of salvation. They live according to the kind of necessity which we may prefer to call resignation. The shifting aspects of reality, represented in complicated motif patterns, nevertheless suggest an eternal grace within nature. Thus stirrer's technique of gra- dualism fits his belief. Heinrich speaks under always differing circum- stances, because on always differing levels of awareness, and alters imperceptibly. We undergo our education with him under the influence of his surroundings: not just the environment of ideas, but also the very objects, landscapes or natural occurrences he encounters. For the fact is that these exert a spiritual power.

This effect is frequently mentioned in discussions of Stifter's writing, and one could advance the claim for either the neo-Platonists or the Jun- gians that the masterpiece, Der Nachsommer, illustrates the doctrines of their camps. But let us pass by Stifter's belief that beauty in nature, art, or man is a primal and moral force, perhaps even the sole possible incar- nation of godhead, and observe how he leads us to such belief. The method is clear in the case of the Cereus peruvianus, the giant cactus which the plant fanciers of the Rosehouse find languishing, bent and cramped in a neighboring estate's greenhouse. Purchased and transferred to its own

Gillespie - R i t u a l i s m and motivic development, etc. 317

roomy glass shed on Risach's estate, it straightens and thrives - a long process tenderly watched in every phase. It blossoms in time for the young couple's wedding. Like a Goethean symbol, the plant has des- cribable reality, yet points dramatically toward a universal meaning. It can flower only once, has a life like man's; but as we have learned through Risach, full blossom is possible only through artful reharmonization with nature, stirrer does not suddenly thrust the Cereus before us as an allegory to represent the total progress of the novel, the outcome in realized ideal fruition. Its significance seems absolutely necessary, because it belongs to the way of life practiced by the Rosehouse circle 10. Much of its meaning derives from earlier association with motifs in an interlocked system. For instance, from the studies of microscopic flowers and plants by Risach, it becomes clear how the big cactus also represents, within the microcosmic confines of the garden, the truth of macrocosmic correspondences, and so forth. Stifter has linked the motif of the Cereus at various junctures in the narration with thematic statements, but other motifs are also connected with the development of any single conscious insight which it stimulates. We could branch out in several directions, follow several related motif

complexes, such as those of the "greenhouse", "vegetation", etc. Let us move at once to a consideration of the higher order of complexity

in Stifter's method: the relationship between clusters of images. These larger patterns are the "motif constellations" which are distinguishable in what I would term the "motif universe" of the entire novel. Naturally, we shall never be able to discuss the highest order and can only indicate the principle of interplay between motif groups, by exerpting a few revealing variations from the novel's total, "symphonic" arrangement. The recurrent mention of stones, statues, and jewelry is a good example. The stone motif is prevalent in chapter one, statues in chapter three, jewelry in chapter five; but their interaction becomes more meaningful in a second series of prominent appearances: stones in chapter ten, statues in fifteen, jewelry in seventeen. The great ritual of union, the wedding in ,,Der Abschluss," finally unites these three motif complexes, and related motifs of colors, through the associations inherent in the gems given to Natalie. The rubies evoke the roses, the blood from Risach's hands im- paled on the thorns, the glow of dawn and sunset; the diamonds recall light and water, also solid states in snow, crystal, or marble, and so forth; the emeralds, finally, all verdant life and hope. The universe is magically suspended in artifacts as embellishment for Natalie, in whose charm all perceptions of archetype converge. Heinrich thinks this distinctly:

Ein wahrer Zauber lag um diese Innigkeit von Wasserglanz und Rosenr6te in die sinnigen Gestalten verteilt, die nur aus den Ge- danken unserer Vorfahren so genommen werden k6nnen (680) 11.

Of course, numberless earlier associations, both spoken and tacit, have prepared for such summation; for example, Heinrich's interpretation of a

Neoph i lo logus X L V I I I 2o ~

318 Gillespie- Ritualism and motivic development, etc.

similarity which he senses between Natalie's countenance and the features on certain cut stones (,,Der Einblick") :

Mir erschien es, Natalie sehe einem der Angesichter iihnlich, welche ich auf den Steinen erblickt hatte, oder vielmehr in ihren Zfigen war das niimliche, was in den Ztigen auf den Angesichtern der geschnit- tenen Steinen ist (499).

While this conscious insight already represents a high level of complexity, it has itself been preceded by a long motivic development through which "things" have acquired meaning. The narrator refers to his father's col- lection of stones from antiquity, which are first discussed as a kind of art in chapter one. Just as the memory of Risach's story is implied in the roses, so a Platonic recollection haunts everything and continually emerges consciously in sententious remarks. As laden motifs are unveiled, that is, become symbols, we sense a tremor in such plain pronouncements as the famous dictum, with which Risach describes the emotion of his remeeting Mathilde after the passage of youth: ,,Was im Menschen rein und herrlich ist, bleibt unverwtistlich und ist ein Kleinod in allen Zeiten" (653).

The statue motifs also intertwine in the dynamic progress of education toward perception. In chapter three, Heinrich first notices the statue in the Rosehouse, and the reader must suppose that he has passed it pre- viously unaware. He sees itagain at evening, lit from the sky and by candle, and notes it is of white marble; again in daylight, and recognizes new qualities, especially of the head and shoulders. In the meanwhile, Risach's special interest in marbles begins to rub off on Heinrich, who becomes a collector and seeks out fine specimens as gifts for his mentor and for his father. Later Heinrich, in one of several important dreams, has a vision of a field of golden grain, awakes to discover this eternal reality before his window, and immediately, in passing the Rosehouse statue, names it as the Muse - the first decisive indication of recognition (,,Die Begegnung"). Eventually he is drawn to the neo-classic statue of a nymph in the grotto on Mathilde's estate (,,Die Erweiterung"). This second statue, a variation upon the antique artifact and influence of Risach, is especially associated with Heinrich's encounters with Natalie. And the steps in his experience of the first statue in the Rosehouse also indicate the emergence of his love for her. Seeing the older work suddenly illuminated by a flash of lightning at night, when it appears momentarily bathed in a rosered aura and then white again, he demonstrates a new, intense com- prehension of masterworks of painting, of jewelry, and of marble, etc. (,,Die Annfiherung"), in the days which follow. He realizes the incom- prehensibility of beauty, and henceforth visits the nymph statue in order to compare its qualities of lucent surface with the opaque Muse. He grasps the same effects of light upon pure snow, i.e. the "frozen" or crystalline state (,,Der Einblick"), and meets Natalie near the nymph,

GiIlespie- Ritualism and motivic development, etc. 319

with the contrast of flowing water (,,Das Fest"). Confession of love (,,Der Bund") again occurs near the statue in the grotto; its transparent surface emits a roseate glow from sunlight - a sign of God. God, or divine law, is intriguingly, and ambiguously, present in a whole range of motifs such as blushing, blood, roses, and the like, which encompass the diversity of "love". That is the function of sunrise upon the vast glaciers and snows in ,,Die Mitteilung", when Heinrich is about to experience the deeper and disturbing aspects of "love" - and, therefore, returns to the Rosehouse and re-experiences the older statue during winter. He is moved by the melancholy of its beauty in the gray light. The elegiac tone subtly ushers in the long revelation of Risach's past. But Heinrich soon has another vision inspired by his reading of Homer, a dream of Natalie as Nausikaa; the unspoken connections are thereby established 12. We understand that Natalie will live for Mathilde, that the neo-classical dream will redeem a lost, ancient glory from time's sadness.

Between Mathilde and Natalie, marble and stones, light and water, there are bridges of associations. The cut stone motif begins unobtrusively in the early pages of the novel, much like the first statement of a melody. The link between it and the statues is equally inconspicuous, namely the intertwining motifs of minerals and marbles, both objects of Heinrich's studies. The third motif complex, jewelry, also appears gently as a recapitulating variation in the aesthetic discussions between Heinrich and his acquaintance, the jeweler's son. But, so far, one can scarcely discern consciously a total picture with its meaningful lines. Of course, their conclusions about art - which I distinguish as themes in contrast to related, half developed symbols - also begin to return as the book unfolds. Nevertheless, the real process of enrichment goes on largely "under- ground". For example, the early theme of the importance of the setting for stones, the frame for pictures, etc., is finally varied until Heinrich says in the last chapter: ,,Wie herrlich war Natalie, und es bew~hrte sich, dass der Schmuck der Rahmen sei" (68I). We could not smile at this gentle conceit, were we not already unconsciously aware of Natalie as "a work of art". But this comparison, never uttered, derives from a host of associa- tions with the qualities of artifacts; we have assumed it, and hence we comprehend the play of words. Similarly, after Heinrich comes down from the mountains in winter (,,Die Mitteilung") with the profound experience of sunset and sunrise in their vastness impinging on his mind, he says: ,,Ein erhabenes Geffihl war in meine Seele gekommen, fast so erhaben wie meine Liebe zu Natalien" (589). Actually, this intense stage of awareness of love has not preceded the natural event with which he compares his new knowledge; just the opposite has occurred. The com- parisons follow the suggestive encounters with things, level by level. Stifter lifts us gradually to the apprehension of entities of immense scope, such as the universe, in order to convey the sublimity in mysteries, such as love. Intimation of the infinite is achieved only detail bydetail, through

320 GiIIespie - Ritualism and mo,tivic development, etc.

real experiences in the limits of human nature. Stifter introduces us to simple motifs, but eventually we sense with wonder that they are strands in a colossal tapestry.

Risach's explanation of the charm exercised by the statue of the Muse also applies to God's creation and to the learning process for Heinrich:

Das ist eben das Wesen der besten Werke der alten Kunst, und ich glaube, das ist das Wesen der hochsten Kunst tiberhaupt, dass man keine einzelnen Teile oder einzelne Absichen finder, von denen man sagen kann, das ist das Sch/Snste, sondern das Ganze ist sch6n, von dem Ganzen m6chte man sagen, es ist das Sch6nste; die Teile sind bloss nattirlich (443).

This statement contains the essence of the view of harmony which we associate with the age of Goethe and aestheticians like Shaftesbury. It also provides an answer to my original question whether the book is more like a symposium or a symphony. If one substitutes for my term "motif" Stifter's word ,,Teil" and for my "theme" his ,,Absicht," one must con- clude, in accordance with the passage, that neither the symbolic elements nor the philosophic concepts alone, but rather the harmony between them makes the work vital and beautiful. And, of course, we accept that the "parts are simply natural" ultimately in the sense of Horace, because the greatest art is that which seems artless. Stifter maintains a careful control, lest any "non-classical" impulse subvert the total design of his book. Doubtless he is most anxious about mus,cal tendencies, and therefore the members of the Rosehouse circle ordinarily retire to their rooms to play music in private, since it belongs to the intimate sphere of passion. He objectifies into motifs like the zither any potentially dangerous manifes- tations, and it is the eye, not the ear, which follows their appearances throughout the novel la. Motifs of wandering generally replace the lyrical or romantic introspections common in other works of the period; thus man's quest for the infinite ranges from the activity of Heinrich, as he roams in search of knowledge, to the restlessness of Roland, the creative artist, who once paints from sheer imagination a wild abyss and then sets out on a journey - and discovers in reality that exact scene, corresponding to his passionate nature, stirrer avoids the darkness of the inner infinity, but partly because he chooses instead to dare an approach to the natural infinity which fascinated, and thrilled, him very early in life, as we learn from his story ,,Der Condor" and his newspaper report of ,,Die Sonnen- finsternis am 8. Juli 1842". Hence Heinrich's reverential ascents into high territory; there he achieves the physical equivalent of Spinozan vision, for which the eye is the representative organ. What Stifter achieves in Der Nachsommer is a ,,Musik ftir das Auge," a ,,Lichtmusik", a ,,Ganzes von Lichtakkorden und Melodien," for which he yearned in order to express the awesome majesty of the eclipse, because - as he then wrote - he could think of no symphony, oratorium or the like as splendid (95o).

GiIlespie - Ri tual ism and mo'tivic development, etc. 32I

But the wandering of Heinrich into upper regions is balanced finally by his withdrawal into the fixed order of domesticity. His little society lives by gestures as stylized as drawingroom culture of the Enlightenment; and as historical epics usually pronounce the end of epochs by defining them, so this epic book of wisdom, by defining the good life, demonstrates how impossible it is outside of the protected garden. There is good reason why we feel often uneasy about Der Nachsommer, for there is something uncanny in the beauty it opens to our vision. Stifter has dammed up the power of Infinity, which at any time could erupt. In ,,Der Rtickblick" he must open the sluice gates to prevent a failure of nervous energy, without any disaster for the braced microcosm. As Natalie says, in regard to the love she shares with Heinrich, ,,Alles ist so sch6n, dass es fast zu sch6n ist" (535). And thus, in defining what "time" means in the book, it is appropriate to note how stirrer eventually draws near to the classical melancholy. A tremulous sadness already vibrates in the work's title, in that of the early chapter ,,Die Ann~iherung" (with its several meanings : the approach of love and of death, both ways to God), and in Heinrich's winter vision of the antique Muse :

Die hehre Jungfrau, sonst immer sanft und hoch, stand heute in den fltissigen Schleiern des dumpferen Lichtes zwar tr~b, aber mild da, und der Ernst des Tages legte sich auch als Ernst auf ihre unaus- sprechlich anmutigen Glieder (596).

Beauty weeps, and is serious. But we love our myths of the garden of paradise, and what the novel says with its idealism is how men ought to live. It intends to, and does, live through the dispensation of art, which is also its chief subject. It has a charm greater than that which mere teaching can impart, for it objectifies important verities such as the family and the pleasure of culture. That is a conquest over time and produces a very serious happiness. It succeeds because the symbols which pervade the pages of Der Nachsommer - flowers, song of birds, luster of art, voices of wisdom - exercise timeless fascination. But it also happens because the bloodied thorns in memory, the glass houses, the suppressed romantic aspirations make us painfully, lyrically conscious that the idyll never really ever comes, nor could ever last.

University o f Southern California GERALD GILLEBPIE. Los Angeles.

Notes

I. Nachsommer: zur Deutung yon Stiflers Dichtung (Bern, I95I), p. 90. 2. Stiflers Nachsommer (Jena, I927), pp. 41-42; also, see p. Io6 for a similar formula-

tion. 3. Adalbert Stifler: a Critical Study (Cambridge, I948), pp. 312, 33 o. 4. AdaIbert Stifters Romane (Halle, I926), p. 2I. 5- "Zum Aufbau der Romane Adalbert Stirrers," GQ, XIV(I94I), I9.

322 Gillespie -R i t ua l i sm and motivic development, etc.

6. A general classification of stirrer's symbols in helpful categories according to func- tions has been made by Hilde D. Cohn, ,,Symbole in Adalbert stirrers Studien und Bunten Steinen," Monatshefte XXXIII (I94I). Many of these symbols occur in Der Nachsommer in similar use (e.g., the color red, etc), but often in subordination to very complex motif patterns, as I hope to elucidate.

7. An especially forceful presentation of this view has been given in the sensitive study by Emil Staiger, Adalbert Stifter als Dichter der Ehrfurcht (Z(irich, I952), p. 39.

8. This present paper is based upon a talk with the same title which I read in the Ger- man section four of the I963 MLA meeting, and upon my unpublished thesis, "Some Stylistic Traits of Adalbert Stifter's Indian Summer" (Ohio State University, I958), in which the reader will find a fuller acknowledgment of debts to other commentators and a more extensive treatment of narrative technique, "plasticity," and motif patterns.

9. Compare the interesting early interpretation by yon Grolman that ,,Heinrich, der Erz~hler des Nachsommers, ist die komplizierteste Gestalt des Werkes: denn er ist in dauerndem Reifen und Werden, dessen Stufen wir bis ins einzelne miterleben ..." (p. 4o). Actually, it is the narration-Heinrich's function-which is is "most complicated," and not his character.

Io. Sieber sees the blossoming as a ,,plastic" form manifesting ,,die Musik, die diony- sische Kunst," and as a ,,n~chtliche Blfite Jean-Paulscher, dionysischer Romantik" (p. 82). Blackall sees the cactus as a symbol of harmony between science and art (p. 32o). As will be explained in more detail, I would distinguish Sieber's remarks as an insight into motif development, and Blackall's as an insight into theme.

I i. Quotations form Stifter are cited by page number in parentheses from the Berg- land-Buch-Klassiker edition, Stifters Werke (Salzburg, I953), Vol. II of a vols.

Iu. The point that the statue's beauty becomes fused with the image of Natalie through association with Nausikaa is made also by G. J. Hallamore, "The Symbolism of the Marble Muse in Stifter's Nachsommer," PMLA, LXXIV, 404. In accordance with my usage in this paper, Hallamore is concerned mainly about what the statue (of the Muse) means, about theme, rather than about the process of symbolism; he demonstrates ably how filled with meaning Stifter's images are, and his approach could be applied to numerous other symbols with significant results. My approach differs in that I do not examine merely one highly developed moment, when meaning is emerging clearly, but many earlier, contributing moments as well; I agree with Hallamore's thematic interpretation that "Art, which is represented in Der Nachsommer in its noblest form in the statue of the muse, is nature in a state of perfect self-fulfillment, and in its perfection the expression of the divine" (p. 4o4).

13. Compare the interpretation by Harry Tucker, in "Joseph, the Musician in stirrer's Nachsommer," Monatshefte, L, that the music is never specified, but the musician is associated with an instrument; that his behavior is in "striking contrast to the spatial and temporal stability of the Aspernhof-Rosenhaus"; that his "marked divergence form the pattern of the novel may be intentional; and that he may be taken as a symbol, or type, of the art of music" (p. 7).

T H E C A S E F O R P O E T I C O B S C U R I T Y

Di f f i cu l t poetry , t h o u g h n o t h i n g n e w to l i te rary his tory, has b e e n in the t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y - - t h e c e n t u r y of the mass a u d i e n c e - - a n in t r ac t ab le a n o m a l y a n d a p p a r e n t l y for some poets i n Br i t a in a n d the U n i t e d States a m a t t e r o f conscience . Q u i t e f i t t ingly, all poets have affected a b road h u m a n i t y , b u t few appea r to have m a d e concess ions to p o p u l a r taste a n d l imi ta t ion . I ndeed , t he i r a d m i t t e d obscur i t i es d r a w the circle of qual i f ied readers so smal l tha t c o n t e m p o r a r y verse is n o t even a m i n o r topic o f uppe r -c l a s s social d iscourse . I f m o d e r n poe t ry m a y be said to exist for pol i te society, i t has the n a m e of a c o n f u s i n g a n d d i s t u r b i n g cu l tu ra l abe r -