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( 151 )
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XXY.—BETTINA. BY A GERMAN LADY.
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«> ^ In one of our late numbers we gave ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
( 151 )
( 151 )
Xxy.—Bettina. By A German Lady.
XXY . —BETTINA . BY A GERMAN _LADY . _^ _ta—•
«> ^ In One Of Our Late Numbers We Gave ...
_«> _^ In one of our late numbers we gave a brief sketch of Goethe ' s
mother . We now propose to speak of Bettina , a friend of Frau Rath and her son . In so doingwe feel that it will be no easy task
, to interest our English readers in a woman whose heroic fancies and thoroughly German mind are perhaps incompatible with
Enin glish German taste and literature manners . . Her And letter yet s B are ettina the l is yric a striking effusions phenomenon of a highly
poetic soul ; their chief element is a musical one . They remind us of Mendelssohn ' s songs without words . Like these , they are a
repetition of simple themes in varied forms ; like these , they express a deep-felt longing , without allowing it to assume a distinct shape .
In judging Bettina , we must request our readers to divest their minds of all conventional standards . She is more of an elf than anything
else ; more a dream than a reality . But to a thinker , character only is of importance . Individuality is to him as a work of art , and he
bears the same relation to the creative power of nature which a critic does to a poet . A merely practical man makes use of his powers and
senses in a merely practical way . The life of the intellectual man is twofold , he fulfils the claims of his profession , position , and
outward relations , while at the same time he gives himself up to the hiher life of his mindhis ideas and experiences . The first is
governed g by what surrounds , him , while the second appeals to the universe and his own soul ; and , according to the form these two
lives assume in him , they neutralise , pervade , or elevate each other . Herr Brentano and his wife , the beautiful Maximiliane of Goethe ' s
Werther , lived in Frankfort . Both being amiable , intelligent , well connected , and possessing a considerable fortune , their house was
frequented by the best educated and most cultivated people of the day . The familBrentano was of Italian origin ; of seven children ,
Bettina was the y youngest and the pet of the family . She was born in 1785 and early evinced symptoms of that fanciful love of nature
which characterises , her whole life . Her mother died when she was seven years old . "With the fervor of an Italian , Herr Brentano
gave himself up to his grief , and while avoided by all his other childrenBettinathe pefcclung to him and begged him not to cry .
Soon , afterwards , the children , were sent to be educated in a nunnery at Fritzlar , whence , our heroine wrote the following laconic
letter to her father . ( A " hand Dear drawn Papa , " in pencil ) " the left rests on ' s heart" ( another
papa , hand to ) ? " the right round papa ' s neck . Having no hands , how can I write you Bettina
" , "
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1859, page 151, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051859/page/7/
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