Mock-Epic Poetry from Pope to Heine

465 Pages·2009·3.12 MB·English

by  Ritchie Robertson

MOCK-EPIC POETRY FROM POPE TO HEINE
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Mock-Epic Poetry from
Pope to Heine
RITCHIE ROBERTSON
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
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Contents
Abbreviations viii
Introduction 1
1. Epic:AGenreinStasis? 16
2. ElementsofMockEpic 35
3. Pope’sDunciadanditsSuccessors 71
4. Voltaire’sLaPucelle 130
5. TheFairyWayofWriting:Wieland 158
6. MockEpicDomesticated:Goethe’sHerrmannundDorothea 198
7. PuritansintoRevolutionaries:Butler’sHudibras
andRatschky’sMelchiorStriegel 237
8. HeroesintheirUnderclothes:Blumauer’sTravestyoftheAeneid 260
9. WarsinHeaven:Parny’sLaGuerredesdieux 282
10. Byron’sDonJuan 321
11. TheLastMockEpic?Heine’sAttaTroll 370
12. Epilogue:AFutureforMockEpic?Spitteler,Kafka,Joyce 416
SelectBibliography 426
Index 442
Abbreviations
B Lord Byron, The Complete Poetical Works, ed. Jerome J. McGann, 7 vols.
(Oxford:ClarendonPress,1980–93)
G JohannWolfgangGoethe,Sa¨mtlicheWerke:Briefe,Tagebu¨cherundGespra¨che,
ed.FriedmarApelandothers,40vols.(Frankfurta.M.:DeutscherKlassiker
Verlag,1986–2000)
H Heinrich Heine, Sa¨mtliche Schriften, ed. Klaus Briegleb, 6 vols. (Munich:
Hanser,1968–76)
P Œuvresd’E´varisteParny,4vols.(Paris,1808)
W Christoph Martin Wieland, Werke, ed. Fritz Martini and Hans Werner
Seiffert,5vols.(Munich:Hanser,1964–8)
Aen. TheAeneid
DJ DonJuan
FQ TheFaerieQueene
GL LaGerusalemmeLiberata
GS WielandsGesammelteSchriften,ed.theDeutscheKommissionderKo¨niglich
PreußischenAkademiederWissenschaften,23vols.(Berlin:Weidmannsche
Verlagsbuchhandlung,laterAkademie-Verlag,1909–69)
Il. TheIliad
LJ Byron’s Letters and Journals, ed. Leslie A. Marchand, 13 vols. (London:
Murray,1973–94)
OCV Les Œuvres comple`tes de Voltaire/The Complete Works of Voltaire, 135 vols.
(Geneva: Institut et Muse´e Voltaire; Toronto: University of Toronto Press;
laterOxford:VoltaireFoundation,1968–)
Od. TheOdyssey
OF OrlandoFurioso
PL ParadiseLost
TE The Twickenham Edition of the Poems of Alexander Pope, ed. John Butt, 11
vols.(London:MethuenandNewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,1939–69)
VT PaulScarron,LeVergiletravesti,ed.JeanSerroy(Paris:Garnier,1988)
Moland Œuvrescomple`tesdeVoltaire,ed.LouisMoland,50vols.(Paris,1877–83)
DVjs DeutscheVierteljahresschriftfu¨rLiteratur-undGeistesgeschichte
JDSG JahrbuchderDeutschenSchiller-Gesellschaft
MLR ModernLanguageReview
OGS OxfordGermanStudies
PEGS PublicationsoftheEnglishGoetheSociety
PMLA PublicationsoftheModernLanguageAssociationofAmerica
SVEC StudiesinVoltaireandtheEighteenthCentury
Introduction
Thisbookdidnothaveasinglepointoforigin.Instead,itbeganfromanumber
of long-standing interests which gradually came together. The last of the texts
discussed here, Heine’s Atta Troll, has long been one of my favourite works in
German, and when I was asked to contribute to a symposium on ‘Heine and
World Literature’, I took the opportunity to explore its relation to earlier
humorous epics. That led me to read Voltaire’s La Pucelle—in a single day, it
wassoriveting;toacquaintmyselfwiththeverse-narrativesofWieland,amajor
writerwhostrangelyhasonlyamarginalplaceinthemoderncanon;and,overa
rather longer period, to explore the world of Ariosto, initially in Harington’s
Elizabethan translation. A well-disposed reviewer of the volume in which the
essaywaspublisheddescribedmeas‘arguingwithsomeingenuitybeyondwhat
weknowofHeine’sreadingandevaluations’,1andIrealizedthattoanswerthis
objectionIhadtomakeclearthatIwasnotchieXyinterestedinsource-study,but
rather in the history of literary genres. I therefore needed to reconstruct the
historyofthegenretowhichAttaTrollbelonged,andthatwouldrequireabook.
Meanwhile, my interest in the Austrian Enlightenment gave rise to studies of
AloysBlumauer’stravestyoftheAeneid,andofJosephFranzRatschky’sMelchior
Striegel, which found homes respectively in the Festschriften for two great
scholarsofAustrianliterature,W.E.YatesandEdwardTimms.
However, it was clear that a book conWned to humorous epics in German
would neither Wnd a wide readership nor tell a coherent story. A full-length
study of La Pucelle, in the context of Voltaire’s reXections on epic poetry and
his own serious epic, the Henriade, was therefore required. The other chapter
´
on French literature, dealing with the largely forgotten Evariste Parny, was
prompted by a reference to Parny in a contemporary attack on Heine and by
thesurprisingpresenceofaparagraphonParnyinHegel’sAesthetics.Thisproject
gave me the impetus to follow up these references, and to discover that Parny’s
work required a lengthy study. A chapter on Byron’s Don Juan was always
envisaged,butitwasonlyatalatestagethatIrealizedhowcrucialPope’sDunciad
wastothestory.
1 JeVreyL.Sammons,reviewofT.J.ReedandAlexanderStillmark(eds.),HeineunddieWeltliteratur
(Oxford:Legenda,2000),inMLR97(2002),228–9(p.228).Myessaywas‘‘‘AworldofWnefabling’’:
EpicTraditionsinHeine’sAttaTroll’(pp.64–76).