Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/113

Rh 'Narrheit,' or 'Verrücktheit,' as Heine here calls it, is the philosophy of the pessimist who has rent the veil of illusion and beholds the cosmic tragedy. In Heine's scale of values 'Verrücktheit' transcends 'Weisheit.' Being a conscious renunciation of reason, it is superrational.

Heine was not the first to make this contrasting pair of terms the object of aesthetic play. He has, in this field, at least two noted precursors, and according to all evidences he was directly stimulated by them to the treatment of this problem. Tieck, and a little later, Hoffmann, cultivated this theme with all the subtlety and love of paradox which distinguished the early Romanticists.

Three of the plays on which Tieck's literary fame rests, 'Blaubart' (1796), 'Der gestiefelte Kater' (1797) and 'Die verkehrte Welt' (1798) strike this theme almost in the manner of a Leitmotiv, recurring again and again with variations. Children of the revolt against the utilitarian philosophy of the day, these dramatic capriccios are passionate polemics against the rationalism of Leibniz-Wolff and his popular exponent Nicolai. In consequence we find Tieck using the word 'Verstand,' as the negative pole of 'Narrheit' almost thruout, whereas the philosophical developments of two intervening decades made the substitution of 'Vernunft' for 'Verstand' almost inevitable in Heine's case.

The two burlesque figures that animate the dialogue of 'Blaubart' are a professional advisor and a professional fool personifications of 'Verstand' and 'Narrheit.' As a matter of course the advisor utters nothing but the most banal platitudes, whereas the fool on several occasions escapes danger and saves his life, in fact, thanks to his fertile imagination. Both these characters are constantly chaffing and wrangling with each other over their respective merits. Thus, resenting a witty repartee on the part of the fool, the advisor remarks: "Deinen Witz magst Du selbst behalten, er ist so durchgescheuert, dass man die Fäden zählen kann." Glaus, the fool, retorts: "So könnt Ihr immer noch Euren vernünftigen Rat damit flicken, denn ich glaube, dass Verstand kein besseres Unterfutter finden kann, als die Narrheit" (Phantasus, Berlin, 1828, part 1, p. 17).