s selected for
discussion, were chosen because they represent distinct types, under
which probably all other poets of Weltschmerz may be classified, or to
which they will at least be found analogous; and to the extent to which
such is the case, the treatise may be regarded as exhaustive. In the
case of each author treated, the development of the peculiar phase of
Weltschmerz characteristic of him has been traced, and analyzed with
reference to its various modes of expression. Hoelderlin is the idealist,
Lenau exhibits the profoundly pathetic side of Weltschmerz, while Heine
is its satirist. They have been considered in this order, because they
represent three progressive stages of Weltschmerz viewed as a
psychological process: Hoelderlin naive, Lenau self-conscious, Heine
endeavoring to conceal his melancholy beneath the disguise of
self-irony.

It is a pleasure to tender my grateful acknowledgments to my former
Professors, Calvin Thomas and William H. Carpenter of Columbia
University, and Camillo von Klenze and Starr Willard Cutting of the
University of Chicago, under whose stimulating direction and
never-failing assistance my graduate studies were carried on.

CONTENTS

Chapter I--Introduction 1

Chapter II--Hoelderlin 9

Chapter III--Lenau 35

Chapter IV--Heine 59

Chapter V--Bibliography 85

CHAPTER I

=Introduction=

The purpose of the following study is to examine closely certain German
authors of modern times, whose lives and writings exemplify in an
unusually striking degree that peculiar phase of lyric feeling which has
characterized German literature, often in a more or less epidemic form,
since the days of "Werther," and to which, at an early period in the
nineteenth century, was assigned the significant name "Weltschmerz."

With this side of the poet under investigation, there must of necessity
be an enquiry, not only into his writings, his expressed feelings, but
also his physical and mental constitution on the one hand, and into his
theory of existence in general on the other. Psychology and philosophy
then are the two adjacent fields into which it may become necessary to
pursue the subject in hand, and for this reason it is only fair to call
attention to the difficulties which surround the student of literature
in discussing philosophical ideas or psychological phenomena. Intrepid
indeed would it be for him to attempt a final judgment in these bearin