Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/114

 108 Heine's "Buck Le Grand" Tieck, who here speaks thru the mouth of the fool, conceives of 'Verstand' and 'Narrheit' not as mutually exclusive but rather as complementary opposites. This becomes quite clear by a further reflection of the fool: "Jeder von uns beiden, einzeln genommen, ist nur ein schwaches Rohr, ein faules Holz, das nur glanzt, wenn kein anderer Schimmer in der Nahe ist; aber wenn unser Verstand zusammengetan wird, so entsteht daraus eine Komposition, eine Art von Prinzmetall, das ausserordentlich dauer- haft ist" (ib., p. 35). Nevertheless, if both can't be had united, if a choice has to be made between them, Tieck chooses ' Narrheit. ' "Sobald der Verstand bei der Torheit bettelt, erfolgt gewohnlich ein gutes Almosen, denn die Torheit gibt, ohne die Miinzsorten zu besehen; wer aber bei gescheuten Leuten Hiilfe sucht, bekommt immer nur Scheidemiinze " (ib., p. 26). Some of the other characters are also made to voice Tieck's biting satire against the pretensions of 'Verstand.' Simon, the philosopher, pondering on the nature of ' Verstand, ' comes to the conclusion that reason is something of the nature of an onion's kernel! "Erhat gewiss, wie eine Zwiebel, eine Menge von Hauten; jede dieser Haute wird auch Verstand genannt, und der letzte inwendige Kern ist der eigentliche beste Verstand" (ib., p. 46). It is significant, too, that the advisor is a very optimistic person, while the clown is a pessimist by temperament. He is tempted to commit suicide after just having obtained Bluebeard's pardon by his ready wit. There is in his buffoonery a good admixture of Heine's "Weisheit, die sich geargert hat." Divested of its phantastic form, Tieck's message amounts to this: Reason (Verstand) is merely a critical faculty, a sort of censor making thoughts pass in review, and, like all censors, man- aging his job very clumsily. It is unproductive, uninventive and essentially hollow. Folly (Narrheit), on the other hand, stands for creative imagination the Romanticist's divinity. It is the productive faculty, a cornucopia of ideas foolish, indifferent, brilliant. It need not worry about the amount of chaff mixed in with the wheat because of its infinite resourcefulness. Only in their harmonious union critical reason and productive imagination constitute man in the full sense of the word. "Der gestiefelte Kater" contains little to throw more light on our problem. The chief thing to interest us is the fact that a