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The Comedies of J. C. Krüger

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Albert Haas
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Extract

When the critics of the middle of the eighteenth century discuss the conditions of the German stage at that time, they invariably complain of the great losses caused to it by the untimely death of several young and promising authors. Brawe, Cronegk, and J. E. Schlegel are mentioned in this way; and their names are still remembered, if their works are forgotten. Together with these we repeatedly find a name that nowadays seems almost to have dropped out of the memory of the historians of literature. Yet the young Nicolaï was just as eager to praise Johann Christian Krüger as those other three men, and regretted that he, too, by a premature death, had been prevented from fulfilling what his early productions had promised. For a long time confused with Gottsched's unlucky disciple, B. E. Krüger, Johann Christian Krüger's personality and writings only now begin to be understood.

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Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , 1902, pp. 435 - 463
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1902

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References

Note 1 in page 435 Nicolaï, Briefe über den itzigen Zustand der schönen Wissenschaften in Deutschland, 1755, p. 120; also Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften (1764), x, 241; Hannoverisches Magazin, Montag den 28. Martii, 1768; Jördens, Lexicon deutscher Dichter und Prosaisten, Leipzig, 1808, v. 3; and of course Loewen's introduction to Krüger's Poetische und theatralische Schriften, Leipzig, 1763.

Note 2 in page 435 Cf. Danzel, Gottsched, p. 166.

Note 3 in page 435 Vogt und Koch, Deutsche Litteraturgeschichte,1 p. 130.

Note 1 in page 436 Further details about these Vorspiele in Hans Devrient, Johann Friedrich Schönemann (Litzmann's Theatergeschichtliche Forschungen, xi), passim.

Note 2 in page 436 Those beginning with the words: “Entfernet euch, unsel'ge Spötter;” “Wie mächtig spricht in meiner Seele;” and “Der Herr des Guten ist mein Hirte” (G. L. Bitter, Allgemeines Biographisches Lexicon alter und neuer geistlicher Liederdichter, Leipzig, 1804, p. 180). Heerwagen (Litteraturgeschichte des evangelischen Kirchenliedes, Neustadt an der Aisch, 1792, i, 270) says that “Wie mächtig,” &c., is to be found in the Anspacher und Braunschweiger Gesangbuch.

Note 3 in page 436 Art poétigue, iii, ll. 393–400.

Note 1 in page 437 Faguet, Histoire de la littérature française, Paris, 1900, ii, 209.

Note 2 in page 437 Cf. the advice given to a young Frenchman: Edmond et Jules de Goncourt, La Femme au 18me siècle, Paris,3 1890, p. 390.

Note 3 in page 437 Weisse's uneasiness when in Paris: Minor, Chr. F. Weisse, Innsbruck, 1880, p. 35.

Note 1 in page 438 R. Prutz, Ludwig Holberg, Stuttgart and Augsburg, 1857, p. 294.

Note 2 in page 438 Sohlenther, Frau Gottsched, Berlin, 1886, p. 147.

Note 3 in page 438 In some respects Heinrich Borkenstein's Bookesbeutet belongs to this class of plays,

Note 1 in page 439 Wolff, J. E. Schlegel, Berlin, 1889, pp. 88 ff. The title of the play was Die Pracht zu Landheim.

Note 2 in page 439 For instance in the Misanthrope.

Note 3 in page 439 In Turcaret.

Note 1 in page 440 Devrient, l. c., p. 67.

Note 2 in page 440 About the date in Schmidt, Chronologie des deutschen Theaters, p. 148, see Devrient, l. c., p. 179. Jördens and Meusel both give the 23rd.

Note 1 in page 441 Yet Devrient calls him a “mittelmässiger Schauspieler.”

Note 2 in page 441 Wustmann, Aus Leipzig's Vergangenheit, Neue Folge, Leipzig, 1898, pp. 236 ff. passim.

Note 1 in page 443 “Der Schauplatz ist in Muffels Hause. Die Handlung ist an einem Nachmittage vor der Kirchmesse.”

Note 1 in page 447 Goedeke, Grundriss,2 v. iii, p. 356.

Note 1 in page 448 Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, v. 17.

Note 2 in page 448 It has already been stated that Wahrmund is Krüger himself.

Note 3 in page 448 It is an interesting fact that Leasing in his early plays transformed his models or sources in a similar way, when he thought them encumbered with too many characters; so in the Schatz and the fragments Der gute Mann and Der Leichtgläubige.

Note 1 in page 449 Frau Gottsched's play is a translation and adaptation of Bougeant's la Femme Docteur ou la Théologie Janseniste tombée en Quenouille. (There is also a defense of this comedy against its critics, which is likewise attributed to Bougeant: Arlequin Janseniste ou critique de la femme docteur. Comédie, à Cracovie chez Jean le Sincère. Imprimeur Perpetuel. mdccxxxii. 8°.) Bougeant's comedy is a combination of motives taken from Molière's Tartuffe and les Femmes savantes. It is interesting to see that Krüger eliminated from Frau Gottsched's play mostly persons or motives which can be traced back to les Femmes savantes, such as the jealousy between two uncongenial sisters, the discord between a reasonable husband and the mistaken wife, and others. On the other hand the example of Trissotin and of Vadius probably has influenced the characters of Muffel and Tempelstolz.

Note 2 in page 449 For instance Annecke in der politische Kannegiesser. The name Cathrine occurs in Holberg's das Arabische Pulver; but there is no resemblance whatsoever to Krüger's character.

Note 3 in page 449 For this slightly disguised reintroduction of Hanswurst, see K. v. Görner, Der Hanswurst-Streit in Wien, Wien, 1884; and Creizenach, Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des neueren deutschen Lustspiels, Halle, 1879, p. 27.

Note 1 in page 450 Once, also, Peter; see Prutz, Holberg, p. 294.

Note 1 in page 451 Rabener, ed. Ortlepp, Stuttgart, 1839, v. iii, pp. 29 ff.

Note 2 in page 451 Briefwechsel zwischen Gleim und Uz, Hersg. von Schüddekopt (Bibliothek des litterarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, v. 218), Tübingen, 1899, p. 61.

Note 1 in page 452 Cf. Nicolaï, Briefe über den itzigen Zustand, etc., p. 24 (of the preface): “Es gehet dem Wort ästhetisch fast ebenso wie dem Wort philosophisch, vor zwanzig und mehreren Jahren. Es war genung, einem (!) zum Kezzer in der Theologie zu machen, wenn man sagte: Er denkt philosophisch.”

Note 1 in page 453 The Verbesserungen und Zusätze are remarkable for their curious and archaic style: Latin words have their Latin declension; wann is always used in the sense of “if;” trucken (= trocken), p. 71; die Besessung der Weltweisheit, p. 118; dich(1) zum Brode verhelfen, p. 86; die Fräulein (feminine), p. 92; der Schnupftuch, p. 131; die hessliche (!) Beynahmen (plural), p. 87, absturb, p. 87; die Patronen (plural), p. 88.

Note 1 in page 458 Cf. R. Hodermann, Geschichte des Gothaischen Hoftheaters, p. 173 (Litzmann, Theatergeschichtliche Forschungen, v. ix); and Hans Devrient, J. F. Schönemann (Litzmann, Th. F., v. xi), p. 373.

Note 2 in page 458 “Zum ersten Mal den 27. May, 1748, in Breslau aufgeführet.”

Note 1 in page 459 Also Mme de Graffigny, Cénie; III, 2: “Obtenons tout par la tendresse et rien par l'autorité.”

Note 1 in page 460 Cf. Holberg, Jean de France, V, 2 (Prutz, p. 347).

Note 2 in page 460 These Divertissements correspond to the Vaudeville at the end of the French comedies of the time, or to the verses with which Holberg closes his plays.

Note 3 in page 460 Dichtung und Wahrheit, Buch 2, Kap. 7 (W. A., v. 27, p. 116).

Note 1 in page 461 The last lines of the play, which are Krüger's, remind one of a passage in Marivaux' la Double inconstance. Michel says to Hannchen: “Du bist mein Herzogthum, mein Bier, mein Schweinebraten.” In Marivaux (Théâtre choisi de Marivaux, publié par F. de Marescot et D. Joaust, Paris, 1881, v. I, p. 27) the passage is as follows: “Trivelin, Que vous auriez bû du bon vin, que vous auriez mangé de bons morceaux !—Arlequin, J'en suis fâché; mais il n'y a rien à faire. Le cæur de Silvia est un morceau encore plus friand que tout cela.” This change from the words of the conventional Arlequin to those of Michel is characteristic both of Krüger's realism and of his somewhat crude style. The name of Hannchen's father, Andrews, is of course taken from Richardson's Pamela.

Note 1 in page 462 83rd Stück.