New York University

OTTENDORFER MEMORIAL SERIES OF
GERMANIC MONOGRAPHS

No. 3

TIECK'S ESSAY

ON THE

BOYDELL SHAKSPERE GALLERY

BY

GEORGE HENRY DANTON

INDIANAPOLIS

EDWARD J. HECKER, PRINTER

1912

This Paper Is Dedicated

To the Memory

of

Oswald Ottendorfer

PREFACE

The material which was originally pland for my monograf in the Ottendorfer series has since been independently publisht by Steinert in his dissertation and book on Tieck's color sense and by O. Fischer in an article, "Ueber Verbindung von Farbe und Klang" in the Zeitschrift fuer Æsthetik. These three works renderd the publication of my material superfluous, made a change of plan necessary and the result is that my monograf has been very much delayd in appearing.

As far as I know, there is no other study of Tieck's first critical paper. I found it worth while to do this monograf because the comparison with the original engraving brought out so many interesting facts, threw light on Tieck's erly critical method, explaind his taste, showd his use of sources and above all, contradicted the positiv assertion of Haym that Lessing's influence is nowhere discernible. The meny interesting facts about the gallery itself that came to light in the course of the paper, the meny questions about it which I was unable to solv, may perhaps become the matter of another article.

The "Gallery" is for us now a revenant of a past and somewhat impossible generation. A certain air of English commercial roastbeefism clings to it. It is an England, the art of which knows nothing of Constable and still less of Turner, an England which loves Shakspere without reading him—as Tieck suspected—and whose gallofobia does not recognize the det to France and the French elements in this very series. As an interpretation of Shakspere, it is no more than on a plane with Colly Cibber. Tieck saw this and felt it, but could not make clear to himself what was wrong with it. The plates belong in parlors of the haircloth age, where indeed, they may still often be found. It is before the day of the painted snowshovel and the crayon portrait, but the delicacy of the Adams' decorations has gone out and the new strength of Romanticism has not come in. There is surely no tuch of the Elizabethan or Jacobean spirit.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank the various members of the staffs of the Stanford University and the Columbia University Libraries, of the Congressional and New York Public Libraries for their aid; especially to thank Mr. Weitenkampf for his very great help on technical matters. Mr. L. L. Mackall also furnisht me with very valuable information. The paper underwent a most searching criticism at the hands of Professor Wilkens, of New York University and I wish to express my especial indetedness to him for his assistance in the matter. To Professor McLouth my thanks are due for a constant kindly interest in me as Ottendorfer fellow. Finally, it is a plesant duty to express my appreciation of the benefits derived from that Fellowship and to thank the Committee for having made me its third incumbent.                  G. H. D.

    Indianapolis, Ind., September, 1911.

TIECK'S ESSAY ON THE BOYDELL

SHAKSPERE GALLERY

Tieck's attack[1] on the Boydell Shakspere Gallery[2] was his first publisht critical production. It is significant to note that this first essay in criticism delt both with Shakspere and with art, that is, with the ruling passion of Tieck's life and with one of the strongest of his secondary interests. The passion for Shakspere with the concomitant sense of close personal relationship with him, came to be a major part of Tieck's being and is clearly indicated even before this article.[3] Tieck's decided aversion to the English national standpoint toward Shakspere is strongly exprest in the essay. The man who later vainly tried to convert Coleridge to a point of view with respect to the dramatist that was opposed to all that was national and English, does not, as a mere lad, hesitate to venture his douts as to whether the English nation is equal to the task of illustrating its greatest poet.[4]

These illustrations are known as the Boydell Shakspere Gallery. They were the idea of the engraver, Alderman John Boydell,[5] who wisht to set up a great national monument to the genius of Shakspere and, at the same time, to foster a school of historical painting in a land where heretofore the portrait alone had attaind to any degree of excellence.[6] The "Gallery" was begun in 1789 and was completed in 1803. At no sparing of expense to himself—the entire cost was upward of £100,000—Boydell commissiond some of the best artists and engravers of the time to portray scenes from all of Shakspere's plays. The oil paintings, about 100 in number, were to be permanently housd in a gallery bilt for the purpose in London and were to be bestowd on the nation as a perpetual memorial to the great playwright's genius. The Napoleonic wars, "that Gothic and Vandalic revolution," and the deth in poverty of Boydell, renderd necessary the disposal of the collection by lottery (1804). The lucky ticket was held by a London connoisseur named Tassie. At his deth the collection was scatterd, tho subsequently a few of the pictures were recollected and are now in the Shakspere Memorial in Stratford.[7]

The plates from these pictures are, all in all, no better and no worse than engravings of the day are likely to be. It is illustration work in which the story interest is the predominant feature. Interpretation of Shakspere takes precedence over art, and even Boydell places the painter below the poet and speaks disparagingly of the ability of the former to understand and to portray. The purposes of the "Gallery" harmonize with Tieck's point of view and his predilection for the interpretativ in criticism minimizes the esthetic aspects of his discussion.

Tieck's essay is in the form of four letters, and was written while he was a student at the University of Göttingen. It had the approval of his teacher, Johann Dominik Fiorillo, (himself afterward well-known as the author of an extensiv history of