were, by a considerable period, the predecessors of the Germans in a national literature, and the latter owe much to the former. The Gallic element was not readily assimilated by the more northern peoples, but it had a powerful influence, and in time produced a unique school. At first its effect was to make the sturdy German a very sickly sentimentalist, a character which did not at all become him. Wertherism was the result, against which native character rebelled and asserted itself in “ The Robbers," and the Sturm and Drang school. More refinement of culture produced a more thorough incorporation of this valuable ingredient, and the development of French influence appeared in the best dramas of Schiller, and in the exquisite lyrics, ballads, and romances of Ludwig Uhland. Modern German and French writers have been classed as belonging to the classic and the romantic schools, and a fierce warfare has been waged between the adherents of the two. Uhland is generally placed in the list of the latter, whose Teutonic founder was F. Schlegel, among whose illustrious disciples were Novalis and Tieck. We prefer a wider classification which shall include many in both the former categories, and what seems to us a more significant designation—the Gothic school. This literature, like Gothic architecture, grew out of the needs of the people, and was chiefly the product of the prevailing religion. It is distinguished by a profusion of ornament, and a great variety of forms which were to some extent moulded by classical taste. It lacks the severe simplicity of Grecian art; it is more gorgeous and better adapted to the tastes and wants of modern times. Gothic literature was partly a product of chivalry, or at least owed its origin to the same prevailing spirit, and possesses the romantic characteristics of that movement. Its early manifestations are exhibited in the ballad poetry of Great Britain and Germany. Walter Scott was one of the most illustrious examples of this school; Uhland was another. Uhland was to a large extent the product of a reaction 1.spiration to in hot egregion after the order and Drän against the barbaric Teutonism of the Stürmer and Dränger. He is a sentimentalist, but not after the order of Werther; he is fastidious, but not egregiously unnatural. He went for his inspiration to the very fountain of latter-day literature, the lays of the Troubadours and the early balladists. Heine says that Uhland " was not the father of a new school, but the last disciple of an old.” He is not a great poet, he is not a powerfully natural or original one, but he is a fine specimen of a writer who tones down the impulses of excessive sentimentalism by the study of models and the assimilation of a spirit which both restrains and directs his native exuberance. He is a good example of the Gothic school of poetry, and as a man and a patriot excites our warmest admiration. Johann Ludwig Uhland was born at Tübingen, the university town of Würtemberg, April 26, 1787, and was the son of the theologian, Ludwig Joseph Uhland. He received his early education at the gymnasium of his native town, and in 1802 matriculated at the university of Tübingen, where he attended lectures on philosophy and jurisprudence, preparatory to a course of law, for which profession he was destined. In 1820 he received the degree of Doctor of Laws, on which occasion he produced a juridical treatise, and supported his thesis at a public discussion in the university theatre. In the spring of the same year he went to Paris to study old French literature and the manuscripts of the middle ages in the Imperial Library. The results of this study, so congenial to his tastes, appeared in some adaptations from the old French, and in his work on early poetry published several years later. His journey and his occupation at Paris show the bent of Uhland's mind towards the romance poetry of the middle ages. Whether at this time he had already become interested in this literature, and travelled to Paris to gratify his tastes in that branch of study, or whether his casual readings introduced him, almost unawares, into a new and delightful realm, we do not know. Certain it is that these studies determined the whole cast of his future writings, and tinged his public and private character. In 1811 Uhland returned to Tübingen, and commenced practice as an advocate. He removed in 1812 to Stuttgart, where he continued the practice of his profession, and was also employed in the bureau of the minister of justice (Justizministerium). Although our poet declares that his law studies “ did his nature grievous wrong," we may venture a doubt as to the correctness of that declaration. We may believe that his mind and character were strengthened by his career as an advocate, and that he may not have been less of a poet for being a man of strength and influence in the affairs of his day and country. He had by nature rather too much of fineness and sensitiveness, which, abnormally developed by luxurious dreams and entirely congenial pursuits, would have made him less effective as a poet of humanity-would have removed him too far from the world of reality into a cloudland of unpractical and unhealthy phantasy. Uhland commenced writing poetry in 1804, but did not appear in print until 1806–7, when some of his effusions were published in Seckendorf's “ Musenalmanach.” He also contributed to Kerner's “Deutscher Dichterwald,” Fouqué's “Musen," etc. The liberation war, commenced in 1813, aroused Uhland's patriotic soul to the utmost. He gave vent to his feelings in impassioned lyrics, which, inspired by the public spirit, reacted powerfully upon it, and did much to fan the flame of national enthusiasm. His first collected volume was published in 1815, by Cotta, at Leipzig. * Additions were made to the subsequent editions, the seventeenth being reached in 1846. Poetic feeling at this time began to fade in the glare of the more strongly-moving occurrences of the day. Uhland became a politician, producing only occasional poems having reference to the events which inspired them. Friederich II. (Wilhelm Karl) succeeded to the ducal throne of Würtemberg in 1797. He first espoused the cause of Austria and England, and was raised to the dignity of an elector; • Pierer's Universal Lexikon. but this did not satisfy his ambition, as he wished to be king. In 1805 he united with Napoleon, and received accessions of territory and the royal title. · He then destroyed the constitution of Würtemberg, and made great alterations in the church and state. These innovations roused much indignation, to the expression of which Uhland contributed in his patriotic songs, such as that of " The Good Old Right": “Whene'er to quaff their good old wine Shall be the Good Old Right.* The chambers met in February, 1815, when the king presented a sketch of a new constitution, which he intended as a concession to and a compromise with the opposition. The chambers, however, rejected the king's proposal almost unanimously, and insisted upon the restoration of the old constitution. On the 18th October, 1815, the first anniversary of the battle of Leipzig was celebrated. Uhland attended, and contributed his poem on the occasion of the presentation of a silver cup to Burgomaster Klüpfel. The next year the same event was again celebrated, when Uhland's poem, “Wenn heut ein Geist herniederstiege,” was recited, as he was unavoidably absent. Friederich died in 1816, and was succeeded by his son Wilhelm, who proved to be more conciliatory, but not sufficiently so to satisfy a powerful opposition, of which Uhland soon became one of the acknowledged leaders. The new constitution was signed September 25, 1819. In the same year Uhland was elected, and the next took his seat as member for Tübingen among the representatives convened for the first time under the new order. He soon distinguished himself as one of the extreme left. Though so actively engaged in politics our poet did not neglect literature. Besides his patriotic lyrics, he published, in 1817, his drama, “ Herzog O“ Woje bei altem gutem Wein Der Würtemberger zecht, Ernst von Schwaben,” at Heidelberg, and in 1817, that of “ Ludwig der Baier," at Berlin. In 1822, while a member for Stuttgart, appeared his dissertation, “Uber Walther von der Vogelweide," published in that city. Uhland's literary admirers, and the list included some of the foremost writers of the day, were fearful that the politician would destroy the poet; and there was reason for this apprehension, notwithstanding his efforts to keep alive his interest in letters. Göthe writes : “Mark me, the politician will swallow up the poet. To be a member of parliament, and live in daily excitement and irritation, is not fitted for the tender nature of a poet. His song will soon sound its last note, and that is certainly not a subject for 'indifference. Swabia has many men sufficiently eloquent and intelligent to conduct public business; but she has only one such poet as Uhland."* Heine, who devotes a chapter to Uhland, says of the long silence of his muse at a later period : “ The elegiac poet who sang so beautifully the glories of the ancient catholico-feudalistic times, the Ossian of the middle ages, has now become a member of the Würtemberg Chambers, and has distinguished himself as a bold advocate of civil equality and freedom of thought.” And, speaking further of Uhland's chivalric Pegasus being laid up in idleness, he says: “Like his colleague, Boiardo, he possesses every possible virtue and only one fault -he is dead.”+ Indeed, from this time forth, Uhland produced nothing of importance in the line of poetry. Whether the poetic fire had burned out for want of fuel, and would have done so in any circumstances, or whether it was extinguished by politics, we can only conjecture, and consequently cannot determine how much cause, if any, we have to regret this silence. The romantic vein which he struck in youth we believe he nearly, if not quite, exhausted. It was, to too great an extent, a dis • Göthe's Gespräche mit Eckermann, vol. i. + Die Romantische Schule, p. 306. |