68
RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES
1783; formerly Regiment Steyn, 1778) is listed among the Hessian troops
from February 28, 1774, and as a colonel from 1778 (p. 316).
19. Vol. II (1789), pp. 362-381, dated Halifax, 1782.
20. Several officers by the name of Munchhausen (with various spellings)
are listed in von Eelking, op. cit., on pp. 291, 293, 298, 308, none exceeding
the rank of captain. The Baron H. von Miinchhausen who rose to become a
colonel in the Regiment Bose (p. 324) was his brother. He himself rose to
become an “Oberstleutnant” with the Hessian army in the French wars
1792-1793. In 1807 he was made an “ Oberforster" in the service of King
Jerome of Westphalia, and in 1809 he was acquitted of participating in
Dornberg’s rebellion. Subsequently he retired to his estate Lauenau. Apart
from Seume, his literary friends included L. G. Kosegarten (1758-1818),
F. D. Grater (1768-1830), and F. Ch. Horn (1781-1837). In 1791 he pub-
lished a drama, Sympathie der Seelen (Cassel), in 1798 a romance, Der
neue Schiffer (Marburg), in 1801 a collection of poems entitled Versucke
(Neustrelitz). Together with Grater he edited the Bardenalmanach der
Deutschen auf 1802, and he also participated in some of the later issues of
the Gottinger Musenalmanach, In conjunction with Seume he published
Eiickerinnerungen von Seume und Milnchhausen (Frankfurt am Main, 1797 ;
reprinted in 1823), p. 96. They thus started a friendship in Halifax which
lasted until Seume’s death in 1810. Among the small group of officers that
gathered around these two men, Seume mentions a certain young man by
the name of Buttler whose great interest in camp life was to bake and
cook for his friends (W, I, 80). In the previously mentioned list appended
to von Eelking, op. cit., a Friedrich von Buttler is listed in the Regiment
Dittfurth (1778-1783) as a second lieutenant, having risen from the rank
of ensign; a Carl von Buttler is listed as an ensign, and so is a plain Buttler
(ρ. 306). No further information could be obtained on various other recruits
and friends whom Seume remembers in his account of his Halifax days.
21. 1793, Vol. Ill, pp. 255 ff.
22. Leipzig, 1806, pp. 105-120.
23. Of added interest in this connection is a letter which Seume wrote
on Mme. de StaeTs Corinne ou L’Italie, in the years 1804-1805, to the pre-
viously mentioned Johanna Christiana Devrient née Loth (1784-1857). He
says: “The fact that she has drawn the Scotsman so undecided and uncer-
tain can be justified by his 'Seelenstimmung'; for most passions have some-
thing uncertain about them. The English women will not be very grateful
to the authoress; and she certainly has done them wrong. Everyone will
agree to that who knows even a little about English national culture. One
would believe that all art and all graciousness had been banished from the
circle of English ladies” ("Ungedruckte Briefe und Gedichte von Seume,” ed.
by Luise Devrient, in Unsere Zeit. Deutsche Revue der Gegenwart, ed. by
Rudolf von Gottsehall !Leipzig, 18801, Vol. II, pp. 68-69). The allusion
is to Livre XIV of the book in which Corinne tells of her experiences in
England. The statement shows Seume’s sympathy for "a circle of English
ladies," and perhaps for only one of these a long time ago.
24. It is even quoted as late as 1826 by Prince Hermann von Piickler-
Muskau (1785-1871) in his letters on England (Briefe eines Verstorbenen
C1830-18311, passim, particularly the First and Second Letters).