Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/136

 1 30 Heine 's ' ' Buck Le Grand ' ' a symbol of progressive thought of universal scope and unfathom- able depth. Ill DAS BUCK LE GRAND AN ARISTOPHANIC COMEDY It now remains for us to analyze the structure of 'Das Buch Le Grand' as a whole; to discover the fundamental idea that guided the poet in its composition; to perceive its aesthetic unity, provided it has any. A brief survey of the contents will help us in the pursuit of this task. The unprejudiced reader finds in the Book five distinct complexes of subject matter, corresponding to Heine's division by chapters as follows: I, 1-5; II, 5-7; III, 7-10; IV, 11-15; V, 16-20. The first part presents in phantastic disguise a repetition of the old story of Heine's first love tragedy, his despair and his thoughts of suicide. At the critical moment a new star appears on his horizon his cousin Therese and he is granted a new lease of life. There follows a dithyrambic hymn on the joy of living, subsiding into an elegiac strain as the poet, gazing into the future, beholds an idealized vision of his own old age. Thereupon Heine discards the oriental stage setting and the reader is brought back to the real present. The second portion dwells on Heine's childhood experiences. The mood of these chapters is a tranquil 'adagio.' The story flows along without interruption. All the passions and agonies of the first part as well as its mordant ironies lie dormant, until the sound of the drum suddenly wakens Heine from his reveries. In an instant he is braced for the great 'allegro con brio' of the third part. The moment Heine's memories of Napoleon are awakened, all his pent-up feelings, his passions and his enthusiasms, discharge themselves in one mighty paean on Napoleon, the demi-god and the martyr. In chapter 11 this sustained declamatory pathos suddenly snaps. Upon the heels of the sublime follows -the ridiculous. General reflections at first; then typical examples of the ridiculous aspects of contemporary civilization: the clumsiness of censorship, the folly of pedantry, the wretchedness of a sordid rabble of rich and poor alike, devoid of ideals. Imperceptibly, in chapter 15, this satire is blended with a more serious strain, gradually unfolding