The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-22
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that nothing has been more injurious to
Heine's general reputation than his indls-
Greet loquacity on sexual subjects. With
Heipe commissioners concerning he
relations with the other sex occupies too
important q place and Is not always IN
good taste. 1t may gain him ten readers
for one whom it alienates, but 1t may wen
happen that the one thus lost is worth
more than the ten gained. Heine defended
himself against criticism on this score by
declarinR toward the end OF his winters
Tale. that. his Tyre was. the same winch
had been sounded in days gone By by his
father, the late .Ari~stophanes, the favorte
OF the Muses." Mr.. Brandes is willing TO
admit that since the days OF ancient'G Greece
there has been no wit 50 nearly akin to the
wit OF, Aristophanes as Heinrich Heine's.
The latter has all the chief qualities of'the
former-wanton wildness, INA gtnation, lyric
sweetness, shamelessness and grace. On
the whole our author is inclined to regard
Heine as the wittiest man that ever lived,
or at least the wittiest man Q ,modep times.
yoltaire, no doubt, has been looked upon
as a sort Of p~ersonihcation Of wit, but his
wit is sensible and dry. not poetic and Inn
aginative, like Heine's, The latter of
course. cannot allow himself the same
freedom of speech touching sexual matters
as the old Greek did, but, to compensate
for this. he never hesitates TO make an
a~llusion that viii atone for any want Of
outspokenness. Now and then there Is
almost no decentralization; what, asa gen
eral rule, is indicatedby a smile OF a'grimaee
NAV once in a while be shouted to all and
nindry with a loud'Guffaw. "'''
Compared with A~ristophanes, Heine Il,
Of course, a private stay at home citizen.
A~ristophanes held forth to an audience ,pf
thousands in the broad daylight Of; the
theatre; when Heine 'eommuhes with his
public he is sitting alone In hts room. Mr..
Brandes contends, however, that athe
scenes which depict themselves simply on
the, retina of Heine's eye are aglow with
more ardent, passionate Light than those
which Ar~istophanes embodied On the stage"
Moreover, Heine's- aims are not the purely
local aims of the Greek poet, when he
is at his best he appsals to millions who are
not of his nationality; appeals indeed, to'the
elect among all who can read. His lyric
poetry is moro personal. mone iintense,
more nervous than that Of any Greek; his
satire is dedicated to the cause OF general
ideas, which did not exist for Aristophanes.
He is, indeed, no, less witty that his Greek
forerunner, but he always fought for po-
litical progress and personal liberty, where
the enemy' OF Eurtpides and. Socrates most
frequently fought for q past that was gone
beyond recall, q part to which he himself
most certainly did not belong"
1t goes without, saying that Heine'e prose
IL not on the same level with his verse. , In
his most famous prose book, the 'Reise-
bilder, y he is evidently a pupil Of Sterne;
in later works, where he has attained TO
greater independence, he is always lively
and amusing, but seldom properly qualified
to treat the subjects Of which he writes.
Whether he is disooursing on German
philosophy for French readers or on French
art for German readers he does 1t in equally
diletdnte fashion. In the judgment, OF Mr..
Brandes, however, too much has been made
OF Heine's superfciality by the pedants
among his detractors. Certainly he was
not o hard worker, but he vas by no means
idle, and he possessed a fund of solid and
varied knowledge. Still the author Of the
book before US acknowledges that only, as a
poet rs Heine great; most OF his prose
writings treat Of the passing topics Of the
day, and his fame has been actually in
jured by the publication Of his letters,
which, as q rule, present. him In an mfavor-
able light, namely. o., entirely taken up
with his own interests. Pecuniary dif-
hculties are a tiresome subject. even when
they happen to be the p~ecuniary difficulties
Of a genius So -"