medical studies, but much more, we think, to his
morbid imagination, which led him, on more than one occasion, to play
the madman in so realistic a manner that strangers were frightened out
of their wits and even his friends became alarmed, lest it might be
earnest and not jest which they were witnessing.

Lenau was not without a certain sense of humor, grim humor though it
was, and here and there in his letters there is an admixture of levity
with the all-pervading melancholy. An example may be quoted from a
letter to Kerner in Weinsberg, dated 1832: "Heute bin ich wieder bei
Reinbecks auf ein grosses Spargelessen. Spargel wie Kirchthuerme werden
da gefressen. Ich allein verschlinge 50-60 solcher Kirchthuerme und
komme mir dabei vor, wie eine Parodie unserer politisch-prosaischen,
durchaus unheiligen Zeit, die auch schon das Maul aufsperrt, um alles
Heilige, und namentlich die guten glaeubigen Kirchthuerme wie
Spargelstangen zu verschlingen." The letter concludes with the
signature: "Ich umarme Dich, bis Dir die Rippen krachen. Dein
Niembsch."[85] Not infrequently this humor was at his own expense,
especially when describing an unpleasant condition or situation, as for
example in a letter to Sophie Loewenthal in the year 1844: "Jetzt lebe
ich hier in Saus und Braus,--d. h. es saust und braust mir der Kopf von
einem leidigen Schnupfen."[86] Again, on finding himself on one occasion
very unwell and uncomfortable in Stuttgart, he writes as follows:
"Bestaendiges Unwohlsein, Kopfschmerz, Schlaflosigkeit, Mattigkeit,
schlechte Verdauung, Rhabarber, Druckfehler, und Aerger ueber den traegen
Fortschlich meiner Geschaefte, das waren die Freuden meiner letzten
Woche. Emilie will es nicht gelten lassen, dass die Stuttgarter Luft
nichts als die Ausduenstung des Teufels sei.--Ich schnappe nach Luft, wie
ein Spatz unter der Luftpumpe.--In vielen der hiesigen Strassen riecht
es am Ende auch lenzhaft, naemlich pestilenzhaft, und die guten
Stuttgarter merken das gar nicht; 'suess duftet die Heimat.'"[87] In his
fondness for bringing together the incongruous, for introducing the
element of surprise, and in the fact that his humor is almost always of
the impatient, disgruntled, cynical type, Lenau reminds us not a little
of Heine in his "Reisebilder" and some other prose works. Hoelderlin, on
the other hand, may be said to have been utterly devoid of humor.

Lack of self-control, perhaps the most characteristic trait among men of
geniu