"WURM," IN MODERN GERMAN—PASSAGE IN SCHILLER'S "WALLENSTEIN."
(Vol. viii., pp. 464. 624.; Vol. ix., p. 63.)
I believe Mr. Keightley is perfectly right in his conjecture, so far as Schiller is concerned. Wurm, without any prefix, had the sense of serpent in German. Adelung says it was used for all animals without feet who move on their bellies, serpents among the rest. Schiller does not seem to have had Shakspeare in his thoughts, but the proverb quoted by Adelung:
"Auch das friedlichste Würmchen beiszt, wenn man es treten will."
In this proverb there is evidently an allusion to the serpent, as if of the same nature with the worm; which, as we know, neither stings nor bites the foot which treads on it. Shakspeare therefore says "will turn," making a distinction, which Schiller does not make. In the translation Coleridge evidently had Shakspeare in his recollection; but he has not lost Schiller's idea, which gives the worm a serpent's sting. Vermo is applied both by Dante and Ariosto to the Devil, as the "great serpent:"
"... I' mi presi
Al pel del vermo reo, che 'l mondo fora."
Inferno, C. XXXV.
"Che al gran vermo infernal mette la briglia."
Orlando furioso, C. XLV. st. 84.
E. C. H.
With deference to C. B. d'O., I consider that Wurm is used, in poetry at least, to designate any individual of the tribe of reptiles. In the Kampf mit dem Drachen, the rebuke of the "Master" is thus conveyed:
"Du bist ein Gott dem Volke worden,
Du kommst ein Feind zurück dem Orden,
Und einen schlimmern Wurm gebar.
Dein Herz, als deiser Drache war,
Die Schlange die das Herz vergiftet,
Die Zwietracht und Verderben stiftet!"
The monster which had yielded to the prowess of the disobedient son of the "Order" is elsewhere called "der Wurm:"
"Hier hausete der Wurm und lag,
Den Raub erspähend Nacht und Tag;"
while the "counterfeit presentment" of it—"Alles bild ich nach genau"—is delineated in the following lines:
"In eine Schlange endigt sich,
Des Rückens ungeheure Länge
Halb Wurm erschien, halb Molch und Drache."
The word in question is in this passage applicable perhaps to the serpent section, but we have seen that it is used to denote the entire living animal.
A. L.
Middle Temple.