II, p. 175.]

[Footnote 68: Briefe, p. 404.]

[Footnote 69: Werke, Vol. II, p. 68.]

[Footnote 70: Werke, Vol. II, p. 100.]

[Footnote 71: Werke, Vol. II, p. 68.]

[Footnote 72: Werke, Vol. II, p. 85.]

[Footnote 73: Werke, Vol. II, p. 181.]

[Footnote 74: Werke, Vol. I, p. 253.]

CHAPTER III

=Lenau=

If Hoelderlin's Weltschmerz has been fittingly characterized as
idealistic, Lenau's on the other hand may appropriately be termed the
naturalistic type. He is par excellence the "Pathetiker" of Weltschmerz.

Without presuming even to attempt a final solution of a problem of
pathology concerning which specialists have failed to agree, there seems
to be sufficient circumstantial as well as direct evidence to warrant
the assumption that Lenau's case presents an instance of hereditary
taint. Notwithstanding the fact that Dr. Karl Weiler[75] discredits the
idea of "erbliche Belastung" and calls heredity "den vielgerittenen
Verlegenheitsgaul," the conclusion forces itself upon us that if the
theory has any scientific value whatsoever, no more plausible instance
of it could be found than the one under consideration. The poet's
great-grandfather and grandfather had been officers in the Austrian
army, the latter with some considerable distinction. Of his five
children, only Franz, the poet's father, survived. The complete lack of
anything like a systematic education, and the nomadic life of the army
did not fail to produce the most disastrous results in the wild and
dissolute character of the young man. Even before the birth of the poet,
his father had broken his marriage vows and his wife's heart by his
abominable dissipations and drunkenness. Lenau was but five years old
when his father, not yet thirty-five, died of a disease which he is
believed to have contracted as a result of these sensual and senseless
excesses. To the poet he bequeathed something of his own pathological
sensuality, instability of thought and action, lack of will-energy, and
the tears of a heartbroken mother, a sufficient guarantee, surely, of a
poet of melancholy. Even though we cannot avoid the reflection that the
loss of such a father was a blessing in disguise, the fact remains that
Lenau during his childhood and youth needed paternal guidance and
training even more than did Hoelderlin. He became the idol of his mother,
who in her blind devotion did not hesitate to show him the utmost
partiality in all things. This important fact