When I first saw Jedermann (Everyman) in Salzburg, I thought von Hofmannsthal had stolen it from the 15th century morality play Everyman (in which I played the role 'Good Deeds' in college). I've since learned it was based on that work. along with two Dutch morality plays and a work by Hans Sachs whom Wagner immortalized in The Meistersinter of Nuremberg.
I've been reading a lot about von Hofmannsthal in Count Harry Kessler's diaries. The two were extremely close for a long time, traveled together to Greece. Von Hofmannsthal often visited Kessler in Weimar and Berlin. Kessler brought von Hofmannsthal the story for Der Rosenkavalier, based on a French play he had seen (Kessler lived in Paris, too) For days the two worked together on the narrative structure for the opera, scene by scene, but when the opera premiered, Kessler's name was omitted. It ended their very long friendship.
Thanks for this, Brooks (and I certainly hope there is still an old video somewhere of you as "Good Deeds"). I believe Pedro Calderón de la Barca was also an influence... but I don't know his work, so I can't comment.
I really didn't know the story about Kessler. What a shame to see a friendship end that way. A willingness to share the credit is probably a sign of good character in an artist!
The Chandos dilemma seems headed toward a Wittgenstein-like conundrum. I think of his line, "The limits of my language means the limits of my world." from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 20 years after 'Letter. . .'
Yes, it's a good connection to make. Allan Janik and Stephen Toulmin put these concerns about language at the center of their book "Wittgenstein's Vienna," which is a serious philosophical look at the period. Lots of attention to Kraus and (obviously) Wittgenstein, but they mention just about everybody along the way, including HvH.
Your essay intrigued me, as did the “Letter” itself, which I have just now read. I’m struggling with some questions about aesthetics, so I’m digging into some 19th-century German writers. Is it possible that von Hofmannsthal came across the Einfühlung theory of Friedrich Theodor Vischer and possibly something written by Theodor Lipps prior to his Aesthetik (v1. 1903)? His description of the feelings that arose from thoughts about the rat poison and his observation of the beetle drowning in a pitcher of water sounds very much like the notion of Einfühlung (empathy) that was being explored right about that time as the core of aesthetic experience. Here's a quote from the Letter:
“Forgive this description but do not think it was pity I felt. For if you did, my example would have been poorly chosen. It was far more and far less than pity: an immense sympathy, a flowing over into these creatures, or a feeling that an aura of life and death, of dream and wakefulness, had flowed for a moment into them—but whence?“
Here's another suggestion: He might have addressed the letter to Francis Bacon, not only because of his work in the scientific method, but also because of his whacko book, “The Wisdom of the Ancients.” In that book, Bacon tries to decode messages he thinks are hidden in the Greek myths, arguing that if the pagans hadn’t encoded this wisdom, it would have been censored by the Christians. So they created these elaborate allegories. Bacon’s search for hidden meanings in everything struck me as very similar to how Chandos described his earlier, now abandoned projects.
Anyway, thanks for sending me down that rabbit hole.
Robert, thanks for this lengthy comment and the pair of speculations. On the first, I'm not sure I have great insights. Vischer and Lipps are only names to me--I haven't read their work. But when they speak of "Einfühlung," is it something that I consciously do? "Feel my way into" something? Because the experience of post-crisis Chandos (including the passage you quote) is more passive--something suddenly bursts in upon him or reveals itself to him. But it does, of course, result in this feeling of oneness with things. When I'm back in my office tomorrow, I'll try to see if I have anything that suggests von Hofmannsthal's familiarity with Vischer or Lipps. (He was certainly widely read and interesed in aesthetics, so it's a possibility.)
On Bacon--maybe, that's an interesting suggestion. I don't know that text either. But it sounds as though he's suggesting a deliberate esotericism in the ancient writings--is that right? I'm not sure I see that suggestion in Chandos--the connections are there, he works to lay them out, but they aren't (I take it) deliberately concealed. Do you think? It is true, though, that your description of Bacon's work sounds a little like Chandos's intended "Nosce te ipsum" collection.
Robert, I took a quick look this morning--not in depth, I don't have much time--mainly just flipping through indexes of a few things in my office, looking for either Vischer or Lipps. Mostly I've struck out. Here's the one thing I came across. It's from "A Working Friendship," an English translation of HvH's correspondence with Richard Strauss. In a postscript to a letter of Nov. 19, 1928 (well after the Chandosbrief), HvH writes this:
"There is something very peculiar about German intellectualism. Everything that rises above the ordinary has always had to face heavy odds in this allegedly most intellectual of countries (a description which is accurate enough in other respects). There is a book *Goethe and his Contemporaries* which is positively appalling and as late as thirty years after Goethe's death a famous professor of aesthetics, Friedrich Theodor Vischer, concocted a bulky pamphlet, entitled *Faust Part III* which maintains that the second part of Goethe's poem is a jumble of incomprehensible rubbish. Therefore let us forget about these 'mediators between creative artists and the public'."
Probably not what you were looking for--but that's what I found!
Very enjoyable, and synchronous, too. I just came across mention of this piece of von Hofmannsthal's while reading Reiner Stach's biography of Kafka. Apparently it so excited the 20-year-old Kafka that he was fiercely arguing about it with Brod two or three days after its publication. Thank you for posting about it.
Thank you for this beautiful essay! It feels like the world is speaking to me today in " a language none of whose words is known to me". Is this the world, or is it me?
When I first saw Jedermann (Everyman) in Salzburg, I thought von Hofmannsthal had stolen it from the 15th century morality play Everyman (in which I played the role 'Good Deeds' in college). I've since learned it was based on that work. along with two Dutch morality plays and a work by Hans Sachs whom Wagner immortalized in The Meistersinter of Nuremberg.
I've been reading a lot about von Hofmannsthal in Count Harry Kessler's diaries. The two were extremely close for a long time, traveled together to Greece. Von Hofmannsthal often visited Kessler in Weimar and Berlin. Kessler brought von Hofmannsthal the story for Der Rosenkavalier, based on a French play he had seen (Kessler lived in Paris, too) For days the two worked together on the narrative structure for the opera, scene by scene, but when the opera premiered, Kessler's name was omitted. It ended their very long friendship.
Thanks for this, Brooks (and I certainly hope there is still an old video somewhere of you as "Good Deeds"). I believe Pedro Calderón de la Barca was also an influence... but I don't know his work, so I can't comment.
I really didn't know the story about Kessler. What a shame to see a friendship end that way. A willingness to share the credit is probably a sign of good character in an artist!
The Chandos dilemma seems headed toward a Wittgenstein-like conundrum. I think of his line, "The limits of my language means the limits of my world." from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 20 years after 'Letter. . .'
Yes, it's a good connection to make. Allan Janik and Stephen Toulmin put these concerns about language at the center of their book "Wittgenstein's Vienna," which is a serious philosophical look at the period. Lots of attention to Kraus and (obviously) Wittgenstein, but they mention just about everybody along the way, including HvH.
Your essay intrigued me, as did the “Letter” itself, which I have just now read. I’m struggling with some questions about aesthetics, so I’m digging into some 19th-century German writers. Is it possible that von Hofmannsthal came across the Einfühlung theory of Friedrich Theodor Vischer and possibly something written by Theodor Lipps prior to his Aesthetik (v1. 1903)? His description of the feelings that arose from thoughts about the rat poison and his observation of the beetle drowning in a pitcher of water sounds very much like the notion of Einfühlung (empathy) that was being explored right about that time as the core of aesthetic experience. Here's a quote from the Letter:
“Forgive this description but do not think it was pity I felt. For if you did, my example would have been poorly chosen. It was far more and far less than pity: an immense sympathy, a flowing over into these creatures, or a feeling that an aura of life and death, of dream and wakefulness, had flowed for a moment into them—but whence?“
Here's another suggestion: He might have addressed the letter to Francis Bacon, not only because of his work in the scientific method, but also because of his whacko book, “The Wisdom of the Ancients.” In that book, Bacon tries to decode messages he thinks are hidden in the Greek myths, arguing that if the pagans hadn’t encoded this wisdom, it would have been censored by the Christians. So they created these elaborate allegories. Bacon’s search for hidden meanings in everything struck me as very similar to how Chandos described his earlier, now abandoned projects.
Anyway, thanks for sending me down that rabbit hole.
Robert, thanks for this lengthy comment and the pair of speculations. On the first, I'm not sure I have great insights. Vischer and Lipps are only names to me--I haven't read their work. But when they speak of "Einfühlung," is it something that I consciously do? "Feel my way into" something? Because the experience of post-crisis Chandos (including the passage you quote) is more passive--something suddenly bursts in upon him or reveals itself to him. But it does, of course, result in this feeling of oneness with things. When I'm back in my office tomorrow, I'll try to see if I have anything that suggests von Hofmannsthal's familiarity with Vischer or Lipps. (He was certainly widely read and interesed in aesthetics, so it's a possibility.)
On Bacon--maybe, that's an interesting suggestion. I don't know that text either. But it sounds as though he's suggesting a deliberate esotericism in the ancient writings--is that right? I'm not sure I see that suggestion in Chandos--the connections are there, he works to lay them out, but they aren't (I take it) deliberately concealed. Do you think? It is true, though, that your description of Bacon's work sounds a little like Chandos's intended "Nosce te ipsum" collection.
Robert, I took a quick look this morning--not in depth, I don't have much time--mainly just flipping through indexes of a few things in my office, looking for either Vischer or Lipps. Mostly I've struck out. Here's the one thing I came across. It's from "A Working Friendship," an English translation of HvH's correspondence with Richard Strauss. In a postscript to a letter of Nov. 19, 1928 (well after the Chandosbrief), HvH writes this:
"There is something very peculiar about German intellectualism. Everything that rises above the ordinary has always had to face heavy odds in this allegedly most intellectual of countries (a description which is accurate enough in other respects). There is a book *Goethe and his Contemporaries* which is positively appalling and as late as thirty years after Goethe's death a famous professor of aesthetics, Friedrich Theodor Vischer, concocted a bulky pamphlet, entitled *Faust Part III* which maintains that the second part of Goethe's poem is a jumble of incomprehensible rubbish. Therefore let us forget about these 'mediators between creative artists and the public'."
Probably not what you were looking for--but that's what I found!
Very enjoyable, and synchronous, too. I just came across mention of this piece of von Hofmannsthal's while reading Reiner Stach's biography of Kafka. Apparently it so excited the 20-year-old Kafka that he was fiercely arguing about it with Brod two or three days after its publication. Thank you for posting about it.
Robert, thanks for both the kind comment and the anecdote. I did not know that about Kafka's reaction, but it doesn't surprise me a bit!
Thank you for this beautiful essay! It feels like the world is speaking to me today in " a language none of whose words is known to me". Is this the world, or is it me?
It could be both!
Thanks so much, Anna--very glad you enjoyed it.