The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-10-13
LITER ATURE.
Studies Of German and
French Authors.
"CAVENDISH" ON CARDS
American Fiction A Border Drama-Yellow
Feyer--Literary Notes.
"sruprrs IN GERMAN LITERATURE"

STUDIES IN GERMAN LITERATURE
If there was one branch of study that Bayard lay
or was fond OF beyond another that branch was
German literature Not only was the German Ian
gage as familiar to him his own but the Ger
man character was quite thoroughly understood
by him. His translation of Faust" is the finest
that has been made into English, and that his prom
sed life of Goethe will the light is
doubted loss to literature In place of what we
might have had we must content ourselves with the
volume of "Studies in German Literature, which
he Putnams have just ready The manuscript from
which this volume made was that of the lee
lures lie delivered in his Cornell course. They have
Deen collected aud edited by Mr.. George II. Boxer,
lnder the supervision OF Mr. Taylors widow, .
German lady of excellent literary taste. These
lectures were intended to servo as an
'.introduction' to the literature OF Germany
md a more enticing one it would be hard to find
The lectures devoted 10 Goethe and to an analysis
Of Faust are than an Introduction. and, as
Mr. Boxer says are .flled with the light of dis
.overy In each one indeed the pen of the thought
ul student is recognizable. Old the subjects
OF these lectures, they treated in such manner
that they open up train of thought and "glow
with an infectious light" To have heard them de-
livered by Mr.. Taylor. whose impressive elocution
and earnest presence made his slightest thought in
teresting, would have beel well worth a trip from
New York to Ithaca There may be difference of
opinion to Mr. raylors merits poet. but q
writer German literary subjects he holds the
highest rank. The very familiarity Of the tone Of
these studies enhances the r charm.
Before beginning his studies of authors Mr..
Taylor takes us back to the very birth OF German
literature; then he strikes upon tho eighteenth and
the early part of the nineteenth century and gives
us the literary portraits of Leasing. Klopstock.
wieland and Herder. Schiller. Goethe and Richter.
The great era OF German literature which they
created corresponds to tho Augustsn in Rome and
the Eizabcthan in England. says Mr.. Taylor.
During the whole of the seventeenth century and
the beginning OF the eighteenth he compares tho
literary history of Germany to a desert. Tho an
nails of scarcely any other modern nation show
such long period of barrenness. The man "who
first broke clear broad path out Of this wilder
ness was Gotthold Ephraim Lessing" Mr.. Taylor
does not think that Lessing's biographers have
fully recognized the extent OF his Indebtedness to
English authors. His epgrammatic poems suggest
Swift and Herrck to this critic. and his three plays
by which he rovolutionized the German stage
min Sara Sampson" "Minna Won Barnhelm, 4"
On English models. Mr.. Taylor says that Nathan
The WISE. is the only of Lessing's works which
has been translated and published in this country.
Unless We are mistaken there Is American edition
of the LAGOON" Lessings influence q relig-
ious reformer Mr.. Taylor considers immense but
hardly yet recognized by the world. His is
ompared to "a pure. keen blast of mountain wind.
ct loose upon company of enervated persons, doz-
Ing III an atmosphere of exhausted ingredients and
stale perfumes 1t breath of life. but it made
them shrek and shudder. When they tried to close
the windows upon him he smashed tho panes {; and
them with the irreverence OF all free natural forces
be began to blow the powder from their wigs and
their wigs from their heads"
The life of Schiller. Mr. Taylor says. was ''meas.
ured by heart-,hroDs and brain throbs rather than
by years.. Goethe he places the central figure OF
the great age of German literature. 1.-The god who
sits alone on the summit OF the German Psrnas-
sus Speaking of his domestic affairs, he SAYS that
nothing in Goethe's life has been so misunderstoo pod
and misreprcsented his relation to Christiane
Vulpius. When last in Wemar he discovered a
great many facts which throw entirely new light
this subject. Christiane uneducated
woman. from u much lower rank in society; but
"shc understood Goethes nature one else
did," The study of Richter Der E.nsige. is ono of
the most interesting in this volume Like most
gcnuses he seems to have offended stern and re-
spectacle father. though his moral power aud inhu-
upon the world have boon wholly pure and be.
rcnceut