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The Historical Content of Stefan George’s Algabal

1948; Routledge; Volume: 23; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/19306962.1948.11786363

1930-6962

Victor A. Oswald,

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size NotesStefan George, Hymnen, Pilgerfahrten, Algabal, Berlin: Georg Bondi, 1934. Hereafter cited as HPA..Freya Hobohm, Die Bedeutung französischer Dichter im Werk und Weltbild Stefan Georges, Marburg, 1931; Marie-Luise Sior, Stefan George und der französische Symbolismus, Gießen (Dissertation), 1932; Enid Lowrie Duthie, L’influence du symbolisme français dans le renouveau poétique de l’ Allemagne, “Bibliothèque dela Revue_de Littérature Compareé,” Tome 91, Paris: Champion, 1933.H. J. Meessen, “Stefan Georges Algabal und die französische Décadence,” Monatshefte, XXXIX (May, 1947), 304-321. lt is regrettable that Meessen failed to consult Duthie, whose monograph discusses all of the parallels he cites and various others as well. Many of the parallels are also mentioned by Sior, whose work Meessen also overlooked.In Villiers’ L’Eve future. Cf. Duthie, op. cit., p. 252 f.In Villiers’ Contes cruels. Cf. Duthie, op. cit., p. 251.In Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal. Cf. Duthie, op. cit., p. 231 f.In Huysmans’ Ä Rebours. Cf. Duthie, op. cit., p. 254 f.In Mallarmé’s “Hérodiade.” Cf. Duthie, op. cit., p. 239 f.Wolfgang Heybey, Glaube und Geschichte im Werk Stefan Georges (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1935), p. 62: “Darum kann man die Algabal-Dichtung schwerlich eine geschichtliche nennen. George benutzt hier die historischen Namen und Ankl änge nur dazu, um seine eigenen Seelenkräfte als überpersönliche, als ewige, als Urtriebe zu verherrlichen…. Der promethische Drang des Dichters, alles neugestalten zu wollen, findet hier seinen äußersten Ausdruck: Algabal ist nicht Heliogabal.”.Friedrich Gundolf, George, Berlin: Georg Bondi, 1920.Gundolf, op. cit., pp. 81–82: “Selbstverständlich hat George dies rundum gemäße Symbol sich nicht erblättert, sondern die symbolreife und formtr ächtige Seele schlug wünschelrutenhaft an, als es ihr begegnete.”Ibid., p. 81: ”… . gerade konkr et genug um keine leere Allegorie zu bleiben, und unbestimmt genug um von dem neuen Wesen seine Form zu empfangen, ohne daß immer eine unvergeßbar deutliche Geschichtsfigur störend durchschimmert.”.Ibid., loc. cit.: ” … .ein einheitliches Gleichnis der Allmacht, der Weihe, der Schönheit und der Traumfreiheit.”.Friedrich Wolters, Stefan George, Berlin: Georg Bondi, 1930.Wolters, op. cit., p. 38: “Ob das geschichtliche Bild des spätrömischen Kaisers Heliogabalos dem so geschaffenen Sinnbild des Dichters mehr oder weniger oder gar nicht entspricht, ist nicht von Belang.”.Eduard Lachmann, Die ersten Bücher Stefan Georges, Berlin: Georg Bondi, 1933.Lachmann, op. cit., p. 44: “Von dem spätrömischen Kaiser schiebt die Überlieferung kein scharf umrissenes Bild vor des Dichters Gestalt. Mehr aufgerufen von der Sage denn von geschichtlichem Wissen blicken wir auf Algabal hin.”.Cf. note 26.Sior, op. cit., p. 47: “Die Begegnung mit den Decadents war sicher nicht ganz ohne Einfluß auf die Wahl dieses Stoffes, der zwar nur die Anregung zu einer höchst eigenartigen Dichtung gab, aber den damaligen Lebensraum Georges doch deutlich kennzeichnet.”.Duthie, op. cit., p. 276: “La couleur’ spéciale de ce recueil vient pourtant en partie, évidemment, de sa source historique. La pluie de roses qui étouffe les convives, les desputes avec la reine-merè, la mariage avec la Vestale-tous ces épisodes appartiennent a la legende … . de l’empereur romain, Héliogabale.”.Ibid., pp. 245–246: “Le fond historique c’est la cour d’un empereur romain à la findela décadence. La partie de la tradition n’y est pas très importante, car il ne s’agit pas encore pour George de revivre l’histoire, mais de se créer un monde nouveau.”.Will Scheller, Stefan George, Leipzig: Hesse und Becker, 1918.For instance, he finds in Algabal a devotion to earthly passions rather than to transcendental ideals. Cf. Scheller, op. cit., p. 87.Ibid., loc. cit.: “Der letztgenannte Zyklus balanciert um die halb-mythische Figur des spätrömischen Kaisers Heliogabalus, von dessen geschichtlichem Dasein soviel übernommen ist, als dem inneren Zweck dieser Dichtung zuträglich war.”.Secondary accounts of the years 218-222 A.D. in the Roman Empire are not exactly abundant even today, but in 1892, when Algabal was first printed, they were decidedly more sparse both in scope and number (even if one allows for George’s command of French, Italian, Spanish, Danish, and English, in addition to German), for the great wave of historiography in the nineteenth century all but ignored the late Roman Empire, and thc “attempt ….to rescue the memory of Elagabalus” to which Gooch refers (G. P. Gooch, History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century [London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1913], p. 472) dates from early years of the twentieth (Georges Duviquet, Héliogabale, Paris: Société du Mercure de France, 1903; Giacomo Pasciucco, Elagabalo, Feltre, 1905; John Stuart Hay, The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus, London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1911). I have been able to discover only two works devoted solely to Heliogabalus prior to 1892: one is a novel of such sensational insipidity that it is incredible that George should have read it (Pierre Jean Baptiste Chaussard, Héliogabale, Paris: Dentu, 1802), the other a pamphlet of such obscurity that it hasgone undiscovered even by modern historians and biographers of Heliogabalus (Robert Salzer, “Heliogabalus und Alexander Severus, Erste Abteilung, Heliogabalus,” Jahresbericht über daa Grossh. Lyceum zu Heidelberg, Heidelberg: Avenarius, 1866). In any case, these two works could not have sufficed to furnish George with all the thematic material that occurs in Algabal, to say nothing of phraseological parallels. Of histories proper, there are accounts of Heliogabalus worthy of our consideration only in the following: Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, London, 1783-1790; Le Nain de Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, Paris, 1690; M. Crevier, Histoire des Empereurs Romains, Paris, 1754; Victor Duruy, Histoire des Romains depuis les tempa les plus recules jusqu’a l’invasion des Barbares, Paris, 1875-1889; and Herman Schiller, Geschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit, Gotha, 1883-87. Again, none of these works alone, nor any combination of them, could have supplied George with all the historical material and phraseological parallels with original sources to be found in Algabal. In fact the only combination that would come near to satisfying the requirements would be Duruy, Crevier, Salzer (cf. pp.198f.) and Chaussard, and even this unlikely combination would not account for one motif tobe found only in the original text of Lampridius (cf. p. 199). To round out the search through the secondary sources, I also consulted the following encyclopedias and handbooks: Pauly, Real-encyclopädie der classischen Alterthumskunde, Bd. III, E-H, Stuttgart: J-B. Metzler, 1844; Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines, Paris: Hachette, 1892; Lübker, Reallexikon des klassischen Altertums für Gymnas, Leipzig: Teubner, 1882; Baumeister, Denkmäler des klassischen Altertums, München und Leipzig: R. Oldenbourg, 1885; and a delightful old work, Henricii Kippingii, Antiquitatum Romanorum Ubri Quatuor, Lugdunum Batavorum: apud Petrum Vander, 1713. The result of this research was negative for our purpose, except for one detail. Of all the sources, primary and secondary, none could possibly have supplied George with the variant cognomen “Algabal” but Daremberg-Saglio and old Kippinger. Daremberg-Sagio lists the name as a variant cognomen for the god, not the emperor, and refers to two inscriptions which my curiosity impelled me to look up in the Corpus (Gulielmus Henzen et Johannes Baptista de Rossi, Inscriptiones Urbis Romae Latinae, Pars Prima, Berolini: apud Georgium Reimerum, 1876). Sinec George might have come across these inscriptions, I given them herein full: TI·IULLO·BALBILLO·S·SOL-ALAGABALI·E UDE MON·LIB·PATRONO·O PT I MO (CIL, VI, 226 < ), Rome); and AQUILA-SO LI·ALAGABALO·IULIUS·BALBILLUS (CIL, VI, 708, Rome). George thus might have derived the otherwise very rare form “Algabal” either from Daremberg-Saglio, or from the Corpus through the Daremberg-Saglio reference, or directly from the Corpus. As for Kippinger, although it would be preposterous to attempt to prove that George consulted him, it is nevertheless remarkable that his work is the only source whatsoever that applies the variant cognomen, not to the god, but to the emperor. After a reference to the god, he writes: “Numinis huius sacris initiatus fuit Caesar ille, quem Alagabalum vocant Inscriptiones apud Petrum Appianum, Gruterum….” (Op. cit., p. 73). This is, of course, an erroneous statement in an obscure handbook, but it ought to be taken into account as one remotely possible source for the name “Algabal.”.I have not attempted to determine whether George read them in the original Latin and Greek or in translations into one or another of the modern vernaculars of which he had a command. Excellent editions of all three primary sources were available to him, as well as a more than ample store of translations, especially for a polyglot. As a graduate of the Ludwig-Georg-Gymnasium in Darmstadt, George’s Latin would have been quite adequate for Lampridius, and his Greek probably capable of taking him through Dio and Herodian. There is, of course, evidence of an interest on his part, during the Algabal period, in documenta of the late Roman Empire (“Wir wissen auch noch welchen starken eindruck die schriften der Byzantiner und Spätlateiner in uns hinterliessen….” George, “Lobreden”: “Mallarme,” Xage und Taten [Berlin: Georg Bondi, 1925], p. 53), and a strong case could be made for his having read Lampridius in the original on the basis of various striking verbal parallels (cf. especially pp. 201 f., notes 54, 55, and pp. 203 f., note 70), but it would be impossible to demonstrate that he actually consulted the original texts in all cases. The following list of editions of originals and translatione available in 1892, which is not meant to be complete, will suggeet the wealth of material on which he could have drawn for his knowledge of the contents of the primary sources: Scriptores Historiae Augustae, iterum recensuit….Hermannus Peter, Lipsiae: in aedibue B. G. Teuberni, 1884; Les Écrivains de l’ Histoire Auguste, traduits par G. de Moulines, Paris, 1806; Idem, Éraduits par T. Baudement, Paris, 1845; Idem, traduits par Laass d’Augen, etc., Paris: Pancoucke, 1844–47; Dionis Cassii Cocceiani Historia Romarw., Lipsiae: in aedibue B. G. Teubner, 1863–65; Dio Cassius, Histoire Romains, traduite en français avec … . le texte en regard, par E. Gros et V. Boissée, Paris: Firmin-Didot frères, 1845–1870; The History of Dio Cassius, translated by Mr. Manning, London: A. J. Churchill, 1704; Dio Cassius, Römische Geschichte, aus dem griechischen übersetzt von Johann A. Wagner, Frankfurt a/M.: Hermann, 1783–1796; Cassius Dio’s römische Geschichte übersetzt von D. Leonard Tafel, Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1831–39; Herodiani ab excessu Divi Marci libri octo, ab Immanuele Bekkero recogniti, Lipsiae: sumptibus et typis B. G. Teubner, 1855; Idem, edidit L. Mendelssohn, Lipsiae: in aedibus B. G. Teubner, 1883; Histoire d’ Hérodien, traduite du grec en françois par L’Abbé N-H. Mongault, Paris: Barbin, 1700; Idem, Paris: Barrois, 1784; Hérodien, Histoire des successeurs de Marc-Aurèle, traduction par M. J. L. Garnier, Paris: Thomine, 1840; Hérodien, Histoire romaine, traduite du grec par Leon Halévy, Paris: Firmin-Didot frères, 1860; Herodians Lebensbeschreibung der römischen Kaiser, verdeutscht durch J. G. Cunradi, Frankfurt a/M.: J. C. Hermann, 1784; Herodiani Historie udi otte bøger, oversaat paa da.n.sk …. med en curieuse forberedelse ved L. Holberg, Kjøbenhaven, 1746.The editions cited below are those I personally consulted. They will also be, on the whole, those best convenient for most readers of this article. Editions available to George are listed in note 26.Scriptores Historiae Augustae (“The Loeb Classical Library,” New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1924), II, 104–177. Hereafter cited as SH A. Latin text with parallel translation into English by David Magie. Quotations in this article are from Magie’s English version.S H A, pp. 67-71.Dio’s Roman History (“The Loeb Classical Library,” New York: G. Putnam’s Sons, 1927), IX, 409–479. Hereafter cited as Dio. Greek text with parallel English translation by Earnest Cary. Quotations in this article are from Cary’s English version.Herodiani Historiarum Romanorum Lilm Octo (Lipsiae: sumtibus [sic] et typis Car. Tauchnitii, 1829), pp. 147-168. Hereafter cited as Herodian. Since there is no handy English translation of Herodian, I have supplied parallel references to a convenient French version: Herodien, Histoire Romaine, traduite du grec par Leon Halévy, Paris: Firmin-Didot fréres, 1860. Hereafter cited as Halévy. Quotations in this article were rendered from Halévy, with one eye on the original Greek and the other on the Liddell and Scott Greek-English lexicon.Cf. Duviquet, op. cit., pp. 191–214, for a French version of the passages from these authors that pertain to Heliogabalus.HPA, p.’118.Cf. note 25.Dio, P· 459.Cf. pp. 201 f., 202, 203, 204, and notes.HPA, p. 119.S H A, p. 171.In the poem about the marriage to the Vestal, George has Algabal say “Ich riss die priesterin von dem altar” (HPA, p. 118). Herodian’s phrase is: απoσπασαs αυτην τηs ‘Eστιαs και τoυ ιϵρoυ παϵθενωεos γυεαικα εθετo (Herodian, p. 160), which Halévy translates as: “Il l’arracha du temple même, de ce saint asile de vierges, et la prit pour seconde épouse” (Halévy, p. 187). Duruy writes: “II ravit la seconde, Julia Aquila Severa, à l’autel de Vesta ….” (Duruy, op. cit., VI, 281).Historically not Heliogabalus’ brother but his cousin, Alexianus Bassianus, the later emperor Alexander Severus.H P A, p. 103.Note that George has shifted responsibility to the grandmother, historically the redoubtable Julia Maesa., who did, in fact, govern the destinies of Heliogabalus and Alexander Severus.Herodian, p. 164; Halévy, pp. 191-192.The requisite combination would be Duruy, Crevier, and Chaussard.S H A, p. 145.Meessen so prints the line, op. cit., p. 320.Cf. Meessen, ibid..H PA, pp. 100–101.Herodian, pp. 161–163; Halévy, pp. 188–190.S H A, p. 107.S H A, p. 111.S H A, p. 119.Herodian, p. 162; Halévy, p. 189.S H A, p. 169.S H A, p. 145.S H A, p. 153.Ernst Morwitz, Die Dichtung Stefan Georges (Berlin: Georg Bondi, 1934), p. 37: “Als oberster Priester opfert er dem segnenden Gott, der als Symbol der Ewigkeit und der unversiegbaren Fruchtbarkeit doppelgeschlechtlich gestaltet ist.”.Herodian, p. 152; Halévy, p. 177.H P A, p. 102.Dio, pp. 427–429.Herodian, p. 155; Halévy, p. 181.H P A, p. 107.S H A, p. 171.Dio, p. 463.H P A, p. 110.S H A, p. 171.S H A, p. 135; Dio, p. 477; Herodian p. 166, and Halévy, p. 194.H P A, pp. 98–99.S H A, p. 157.S H A, p. 156.Duthie, op. cit., p. 284.H P A, p. 105.S H A, pp. 147–149.S H A, p. 117; Dio, p. 459; Herodian, p. 160, and Halévy, p. 187.Cf. p. 198.Cf. p. 199 and note 39.H P A, p. 118.Dio, pp. 457–459.Dio, p. 461.Cf. p. 199.H P A p. 114.H P A, pp. n 6–117.S H A, p. 67.Herodian, p. 152; Halévy, p. 177.