W. R. Wilde.
Dublin.
TIECK'S "COMŒDIA DIVINA."
(Vol. viii., p. 126.)
The title-page of this work is: Comœdia Divina, mit drei Vorreden von Peter Hammer, Jean Paul, und dem Herausgeber, 1808. The absence of publisher's name and place of publication leaves little doubt that the name W. G. H. Gotthardt, and the date "Basel, Mai 1, 1808," are both fictitious.
But for finding the passage cited by M. M. E. at p. 38., I should have supposed that the Munich critic had referred to some other book with the same title. No one who has read this can suppose it was written by Tieck. The Catholic-romantic school, of which he was the most distinguished member, furnishes the chief objects of the author's ridicule. Novalis, Görres, and F. Schlegel are the most prominent; but at p. 128. is an absurd sonnet "an Tieck."
The Comœdia Divina is a very clever and somewhat profane satire, such as Voltaire might have written had he been a German of the nineteenth century. It opens with Jupiter complaining to Mercury of ennui (eine langweilige Existenz), and that he is not what he was when young. Mercury advises a trip to Leipzig fair, where he may get good medical advice for his gout, and certainly will see something new. They go, and hear various dealers sing the catalogues of their goods. The lines quoted by M. M. E. are sung by a young man with a puppet-show and barrel-organ to the burden:
"Orgelum Orgelei,
Dudeldum Dudeldei."