The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-04-18

| is found in many other legends; the Lady
Hole" the "Nild Hunter" the "Flceing
| IIolandcr," Knight Tannhauscr" and the
ghosts wandering about nightly in castles
and cloisters Almost all the old German,
and other heather divinities, 50 far as they
are not laced up in Christian stays, still lived
chiefly in mountains in the air and water,
To them were allied the popular heroes, pin
ces, and kings, laden with blessings, not
curses, from Theodore and Charlemagnc to
the noble cmpcrors, the Frederics, first and
second, although II close inquiry into their
traditional nature reveals them az likenesses
of Odin, the chief divinity of the ancient
Germans, whom the popular feeling could
not let die.
Finally, this Eternal Wanderer was nothing
more than the unsteady, wandering Jewish
nation, with its tenacious hold on life. How
much the fate Of this people is illustrated by
the hero of the legend is seen from the fact
that misfortune and destruction were associ.
atcd with the latter, just as the former are
credited with bringing pestilence and cpl
denies.
Thus the story lived long in the hearts of
the people, until poetry and philosophy made
use OF 1t, and as these knew well how to rep.
resent that knight of the black art, John
Faust as an illustration of the human mind
in its strivings after truth and perfection, so
did they use the poor yagabond cobbler as
the representative of still deeper problems.
To follow Ahasuerus In his poetic and
philosophical wanderings, to see how he con
Quoted and developed himself, is Of great
interest
The list of these Ahasuerus poets and philo-
sophers begins with Christian Schubart, and
ends with Robert Hamerling. Novels ro-
mances, ballads AID epicS have taken possess
;np hi,,, hn hoe IvaplnrpI
the stage, the Eternal Wanderer, and found
there distinguished interpreter in Luding
Devrient's demonaical character
Schubart's Ahasuerus Hills up the gloomy
desert of his existence by tossing off skulls.
They bound about and are broken. Among
them are the skulls of his parents, his wife
and his children. Dissolution comes to him
IN every form. He feels all its torments, even
till the final moment, tll-dcath; which new
er comes. In contrast to this, the Ahasuerus
of AlOis Schneider is an apathetic shade to
which exhaustion from spent passions denies
every enjoyment, every sympathy in the sOr
rows and joys of life With Lenau, he is the
of universal misery. He sees in
the earth only a false show of Paradise; sees
repeated the nonsense of the idle
play of "Blossoming and Dying" Wilhelm
Muller likewise sees in the restless wandercr
a picture of deSolation and the misery OF Il
satiatcd life, seeking rest only in death, and
finding eanYi only In like manner, Gusta-
vus Horn lets his AhaSuerus live in order to
feel with sorrow the insufficiency ofmere exis-
tence; to acknowledge that life is only pros
trated death; that death is no misfortune, but
a blessing to humanity BY this acknowl.
the curse is fulfilled upon him, as
he, the man of the world, who hated nothing
more than death, had cherished the hope that
Christ the restorer of Lazarus, would destroy
death, and in his spite over the disappoint
ment had sneercd on all going 10 death
klingcmann, who formed the drama after
Horns novel, finds in the legend the idea of
the publication of humanity through suffer
ing to the desired freedom. The legend
would then be the most religious, and at the
same time most POLITICALLY tragic mystery,
since Christ himself appears the genuine ne
gotator between the earthly and spiritual,
and refers the Eternal Wanderer TO his com
ing kingdom.
Goethe was greatly fascinated with the per.
sonage of our legend. He repeatedly enter
tanned the thought of making him the hero
of an epic, in which the most important points
in the histories of religions and churches
would be represented. In Truth and Poet
ry," he gives the idea of the relation Of the
Jewish cobbler to Jesus. The epic, however
he frequently returned to it, was
never completed. In the few parts of the
fragment of "The Eternal jew" the profound
thought of ChriSt's second coming scarcely
rises above the low level of burlesque. With
Schiller, also, the Armenian Ahssuerus may
have served as the model of the mysterious
Armenian, Cartaphilus, in the "Ghost-seer.
And how various have been the limits
which have been prescribed to the weary
al l.. 81, al
as we'll as by Schubert and Goethe, Christ's
on earth is the limit Of his pc
regrinations, according to Kohler he must
wander till freedom IS established in the
world with Zedlitz until Noah's white dove
of peace returns; until from land and sea the
sound of JOY is heard, wrath is bound and ha-
tired reconciled, and the people embrace in a
new love, which perchancc will happen in
in Elihu Burrtt's golden age. Far worse
does he fare with Otlkers, who does not give
him rest till the end Of time, and who sharp
ems the torture of his existence by showing
HIM the fate of his descendants. According
to Julius Mosen's idea, the time of his deliv-
eranCc will have begun when humanity and
Christ are completely recOnciled, for he reCOs-
nizes in Ahasuerus, whom he has made the
subject OF long poem rich in thought, hui
man nature imprisoned in its earthly exist
ence, as IL were the spirit OF the Worlu $ MS
tory in corporate in a single individual, who,
first in unconscious scorn, then finally with
deliberate purpose, opposes the God OF Chris
tendon. In like manner with Sue who
has made Of the late cobber n sort of social
democrat, the limit is that in which the Chris
tian idea of love will have been universally
extended and the cveling of all class dis
tinCtions brought about. Anderson, who has
recognized In him fallen angel, Alias, the
angel Of doubt, docs not allow HIM to rest,
that is, to return to heaven, until the progress
Of humanity has advanced so far that the
doubling, reprobatc race of Ewes children is
led in power and truth to heaven. SO accord
ing to this, the acquisition of heaven by man.
kind is the limit of Ahasuerus' earthly pill.
primage. Heller, who has given US the most
poetical version Of the legend, sees this high
point OF human development already attain