The sixth volume, the Nachlese zu Sineds Liedern compiled and edited by Joseph von Retzer, contains but little that demands our attention. It includes several religious songs, a few translations, and a number of occasional poems. Some of the poems were written prior to Denis’s acquaintance with Ossian, and these of course do not concern us here, but even the bardic songs contain little that is Ossianic, only now and then do we meet with a trace of the bard’s influence, as e. g., in “Der Heldentempel Oesterreichs” (p. 54): “Aus jeder Brust gedrängte Seufzer steigen,” reminding us of Ossian’s “The crowded sighs of his bosom rose.”[275]
The edition of 1791–2 is virtually identical with that of 1784. Testimony to the high rank the poems of Ossian still occupied in the minds of the German people is given in the preface, where we read: “Auch nur ein Wort von dem Werthe der Werke, ... zu sagen, wäre von mir eine unverzeihliche Kühnheit. Ossians Gesänge haben das Alter äherner Denkmaale überlebt, ...”
A cursory perusal of the facts collected above will at once lead us to the conclusion that Ossian meant much more to Denis than he did either to Klopstock or to Gerstenberg. When we consider the fact that Denis became wholly saturated with Ossian while working on his well–known translation, we no longer marvel at the circumstance that the characteristics of Ossian took such firm hold of him in the composition of his own songs. Again, it requires but a glance to see that at no time was Ossian’s influence stronger than during the years in which the translation was under way and those immediately following, that is, the influence is more noticeable in the poems contained in the edition of 1772 than in those written between 1772 and 1784. While the majority of his productions are of a mediocre character, they nevertheless furnish an extremely interesting picture of the extent to which the imitation of the old bard could be carried. And when we compare his original poems with his translation—instead of with Macpherson’s original—the similarity will appear even more pronounced. As Klopstock later on turned to the Revolution, as Gerstenberg found solace in the study of Kant, so Denis later in life became engrossed in bibliographical labors, and his Ossianic poetry fell into neglect.
§4. Karl Friedrich Kretschmann.[276]
In the same year that the first two volumes of Denis’s translation made their appearance and created such a stir in the literary world of Germany, another prominent example of bardic literature loomed up in a different quarter, “Der Gesang Rhingulphs des Barden als Varus geschlagen war,” which was published in the autumn of 1768, although the title–page bears the date 1769. This is the first instance we have of the employment of a bardic pseudonym. Kretschmann tells us that he received his impulse through Gerstenberg, whose “Gedicht eines Skalden” had appeared two years previously, and we can easily see that the form and conception of Kretschmann’s song are borrowed from Gerstenberg’s poem. The “Gesang” was followed in 1771 by “Rhingulphs Klage,” which served to establish firmly the contemporary fame the “Gesang” had gained for its author. In both of these poems the influence of Klopstock goes hand in hand with that of Ossian, just as is the case in so much of Denis’s poetry. But while Denis’s original poetic efforts were confined almost exclusively to vers d’ occasion, Kretschmann tried his hand not only at bardic and lyric poetry, but also at epigrams, fables, allegories, and even dramas and tales. The bardic fever thus forms a mere episode in Kretschmann’s poetic activity, and, although stray pieces in the bardic vein appear later, the influence of Ossian did not last much beyond the middle of the seventies. As it was, Kretschmann borrowed fewer poetic motifs and expressions from Ossian than Denis did and, on the whole, was influenced less by him. He was extremely sensitive to the opposition that the Bardengebrüll evoked, and he turned his attention into other channels just about the time that Denis began to devote most of his time to bibliographical researches.
Kretschmann’s epigrams, fables, dramas and tales do not, of course, concern us here, nor do the hymns, in which Klopstock’s influence predominates, and, although in his lyric poetry Gleim’s influence reigns supreme, the latter’s anacreontic tone occasionally appears side by side with Ossianic machinery and Klopstockian grandeur. We have, therefore, in addition to the bardic songs to consider mainly his lyric productions.[277] Most of that portion of Kretschmann’s work in which the influence of Ossian is traceable is contained in the first volume of his collected writings. The poetical productions in the volumes are preceded by a sketch “Ueber das Bardiet.” It goes without saying, that Kretschmann was a firm believer in the authenticity of the poems of Ossian, and his admiration for the Celtic bard is apparent, when, in the strife over the priority of the bardic work of Klopstock, Gerstenberg, and himself, he takes the stand that “Vater Ossian war doch eher, denn wir alle!”[278] His theories as to the characteristics of the old Germanic bardic songs are based largely upon Ossian. “Vater Ossian, ein Kelte so gut als die Barden Germaniens,” he says, “überzeugt uns, dass dieses wirklich der Charakter der teutschen Bardenlieder gewesen seyn müsse.”[279] Ossian’s great success he attributes largely to the combination of the epic and lyric elements in his poems. Of course the venerable Ossianic fragments must be regarded as the great models of the new Bardiet. While he opposes the hexameter as the form in which the Bardiet shall be cast, yet, because of the beauty of the verse–structure, he cannot condemn Denis’s translation. Of Ossian’s fame in the days that are to come he is assured.[280]
The first poetic production in the volume is “Der Gesang Rhingulphs,” to some of the Ossianic touches in which attention will be called. Norse mythology is introduced in the song, but not to the same extent as in Gerstenberg’s or Klopstock’s synchronous work along similar lines. The bardic paraphernalia, the moon, the grove, the oak, the echo, the harp, and so forth, meet us here as they do in Denis, and it will not be necessary to point them out. Laying aside these bardic properties, there really is little in the song that can be traced directly back to Ossian. In the first four cantos as well as in “Rhingulphs Klage” and other poems of Kretschmann, we meet with the form Tohro for Thor.[281] Scheel is no doubt correct in attributing this odd form to the frequency of names in –o found in Saxo Grammaticus and to the fondness of Ossian for similar forms,[282] e. g., Aldo, Artho, Branno, Brumo, etc., etc.
A real bardic scene is presented in the following lines of the first song (p. 51):
Der mächtge Wohlklang füllte den Hain,
Da brausten die Eichen,
Da rauschten die Tannen
Holdselig darein.