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Others, of whom he only heard, he viewed with respect, unless they
were known to be fools or rogues. His attitude toward the English
as a nation cooled progressively, the longer the continental war
lasted. We noticed, too, that Seume’s description of Englishmen is
largely traditional. He follows the eighteenth-century view, so prev-
alent in Europe, of regarding the English as eccentric, notwith-
standing his own personal meetings with them.
NOTES
1. The Works of Laurence Sterne, ed. George Saintsbury (London, 1894),
IV, 31.
2. The author of this study has previously dealt with Seume in the fol-
lowing essays: “Seume’s Knowledge of the English Language,” The Germanic
Review, XXIX (1954), 131-145; “Seume’s Knowledge of English Literature,”
Symposium, VIII (1954), 249-272; “Seume’s Reception in England and Ameri-
ca,” The Modern Language Review, LII (1957), 65-71.
3. Jubilaums-Ausgabe, XXXVII, 210. Translations from the German are
by the author unless otherwise indicated.
4. E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Siimtliche Werke, Serapions-Ausgabe (Berlin and
Leipzig, n.d.), I, ii, 118.
5. Gesammelte Reden und Aufsatze (Vienna and Leipzig, 1903), p. 50.
6. Cf. Horst-Joachim Willimsky, Johann Gottfried Seume als Reise-
Schriftsteller, (diss. Greifswald, 1936), Part VII: uParallelen zu Forsters
Reisebesehreibungen," pp. 69-85.
7. Spaziergang nach Syrakus im Jahre 1802 (Braunschweig and Leipzig,
1803)—hereafter cited as Spaziergang—in J. G. Seume’s Siimmtliche Werke,
Sechste rechtmaβige Gesammtausgabe in acht Banden (Leipzig: Johann
Friedrich Hartknoch, 1863)—hereafter referred to as W, followed by volume,
and page number—W, I, 157.
8. For a listing of these, see my article “Seume’s Reception in England
and America,” The Modern Language Review, LII (1957), 70-71.
9. Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson,
selected and edited by Thomas Sadler (London, 1869), I, v, 107.
10. Jubilaums-Ausgabe, XXX, 407.
11. Prosaische und poetische Werke von J. G. Seume (Berlin: Gustav
Hempel, n. d.)—hereafter cited as HW, followed by volume and page num-
ber—HW, X, 176.
12. Oskar Planer and Camillo Reiβmann, Johann Gottfried Seume, Ge-
schichte seines Lebens und seiner Schriften (first edition: Leipzig, 1898)—
hereafter cited as PR—p. 470; Leipzig, January 16.
13. This remark resembles Thomas Jefferson’s statement, “England is a
nation which nothing but views of interest can govern” (letter to James
Madison, 1785). For an impartial statement on the German view of England
at the beginning of the nineteenth century see one of Robinson’s letters to
his brother which reads in part: “I found indeed throughout and particularly
in the trading Town a strong dislike to the English Government with a
decided, rather insinuated than avowed, attachment to the french C. 1 This
arises from the imagined despotism as it is called, of the English in com-