8/12/2019 Kleist, Thoughts

1/5

HEINRICH

VON

KLEIST

SELECTED

WRITINGS

Edited and translated

by

DAVID

CONSTANTINE

Uniuersity

f Oxford

Hackett Ptrblishing Ot>rtrpany,tr c

Indianapolis/(

:urtbriclge

8/12/2019 Kleist, Thoughts

2/5

ANECDOTES

found

shot dead;

suspicion

ell naturally

on the one

who had

uttered lrt.

threats

against

him. He

was

arrested,

brought

to trial,

further pr.'ls

were

assembled

nd

eleven

of those

sitting

in

judgment

condemned

hirl

to death;

but

the twelfth

obstinately

refused

to

join

them,

saying hc

thought him

innocent.

His

colleagues

begged

him

to

give

them

the reasons

why

he thoughr

this; but he would not, and stuck to his opinion. It was already late ar

night

and the

judges

were

sorely plagued

by hunger.

At last

one rose and

declared

hat it

was better

to

acquit

one

guilty

man than to

allow eleverr

innocents

to

starve to

death.

Accordingly,

they moved

to

pardon

hinr

but

presented

at

the same

ime

the circumstances

which

had forced

tht.

court to

do

so. The public

were wholly

against

he obstinate

odd marr

out;

the matter

even

came

before

the King,

who

asked

o speak o him.

The gentleman

appeared

and

having got

the

King

to

promise

that hc

would

not

suffer

any ill

consequences

y being

honest

he told

thc

monarch

that,

coming

home

in

the dark

from hunting

and

6ring

off

his

gun,

it had

unfortunately

killed

the nobleman

in question

who

was

standing behind a bush. 'Since here were,' he continued, 'no witnesses

of my deed

nor

of my innocence

decided

to keep

silent; but

when

I

heard that

an innocent

man

had been

accused

did

everything could

t

8/12/2019 Kleist, Thoughts

3/5

40 6

ESSAYS

because

do

have

some

dim

conception

at

the

outset,

one

distantry

related

to

what

I

am looking

for,

if

I boldly

make

a start

with

rhat.

rrry

mind,

even

as my

speech

roceeds,

nder

he

necessity

f f inding

an crr,l

for

that

beginning,

will

shape

my

first

confused

idea

into

clompl.r,.

clarity

so

that,

to

my

amazement,

understancing

s

arrived

at

as thr.

sentence

nds.

put

in a

few

unarticulated

sounds,

dwell

lengthily

on

rlrr.

conjunctions,perhapsmake useof apposition where it is not necesrury,

and

have

recourse

o

other

tricks

which

will

spin

out

my

speech,

ail

r'

gain

time

for

the

fabrication

of my

idea

in the

workshop

of

the mintl.

And

in

this process

nothing

helps

me

more

than

if my

sister

makes ,r

move

suggesting

she

wishes

to interrupt;

for

such

an

attempt

fr.rrr

outside

to wrest

speech

rom

its

grasp

still

further

excites

my

alreacly

hard-worked

mind

and,

like

a

general

when

circumstances

press,

lrs

powers

are raised

a

further

degree.

This,

in

my view,

was

how

Molidrc,

used

his

maid;

for

to allow

her

judgement

to

correcr

his,

as he

said

hr,

did,

would

show

more

modesty

than

I

can

believe

he

had.

It is

rr

strangely

nspiring

thing

to

have

a human

face

before

us

as

we

speak:

and often a look announcing hat a half-expressedhought is aliea,ly

grasped

gives

us its

other

half's

expression.

I

believe

-"rry

u

e...,

speaker

o

have

been

gnorant

when

he

opened

his

mouth

oi *hit

h.

was

golng

to

say.

But

the

conviction

that

he

would

be able

to

draw

all

the

ideas

he

needed

from

the circumstances

hemselves

and

from

the

mental

excitement

hey generated

made

him

bold

enough

o trust

to luck

and

make

a

start.

I

think

of

the 'thunderbolt 'with

which

Mirabeau,,

dismissed

he

Master

of

Ceremonies

who,

after

the

meeting

of z3

June,

the

last

under

the

ancien

r1gime,

when

the King

had

o.de..d

th.irtut.,

to

disperse,

eturned

o

the

hall

in

which

they

were

sti l l

assembled

nd

asked

them

had

they

heard

the

King's

command.

.yes,'

Mirabeau

replied, 'we have heard the King's command.' - I am certain thar

beginning

thus

humanely

he

had

not yet

thought

of the

bayonets

with

which

he would

finish.

Yes,

my

dear

sir, '

he

repeated,

we

have

heard

it. '-

As

we

see'

he s

not yet

exactly

sure

what

he ntends.

But

by what

r ight

. . . 'he

cont inues,

nd

suddenly

source

fcolossal

deas

s

opened

up

to

him,

'do

you

give

us

orders

here?

we

are the

representativ.,

f

,h.

nation.'

-

That

was

what

he

needed

'The

nation

does

not

take

orders.

It

gives

them.'

-

lfhich

launches

him

there

and

then

to

the

highest

pitch

of

boldness. 'And

to

make

myself

perfectly

plain

to

you.. . ' -

And

only

now

does

he

f ind

words

to express

ow

iul lv

hi s

soul

has

armed

itself

and

stands

ready

to

resist

-

;T.ll

you.

king

we

shall not move from here unless orced to by bayons15.'- wheretrlp.r.r,

well

content

with

himself,

he sat

down.

-

As

to the

Master

of

ES SAYS

407

Ceremonies,

we must imagine him bankrupted by this encounter

of

all

ideas. For a law applies

rather similar to the

law

which says hat if a

body having no

electricity of its own enters he zone of a

body which

has

been electrified at

once he latter's electricity will be

produced

n it. And

just

as in

the electrified body, by a reciprocal effect,

a strengtheningof

the innate

electricity then occurs, so our speaker's confidence, as he

annihilated his opponent, was converted nto an inspiredand extraordi-

nary

boldness. n this way it was

perhaps

he twitching of

an upper

lip

or

an equivocal ugging at the cuffs that brought about

the overthrow of

the order

of

things

in France. We read that Mirabeau as

soon as the

Master

of Ceremonies had withdrawn stood up

and

proposed

(i)

that

they constitute themselves

a national assemblyat

once, and

(ii)

declare

themselves nviolable.

For having, l ike a Kleistian

jar,"'

discharged

himself now he was

neutral again. Returning from boldness, peedilyhe

made way for

caution and fear of the

Chltelet.o

-

We have here a

remarkable congruence

between he phenomena

of the

physical

world

and those

of the moral world

which,

if we were

to

pursue

t, would hold

good in the subsidiary circumstances oo. But I shall leave my

comparison

and return to the matter in hand. La Fontaine

also, in his

fable'Les

animaux malades

de

la peste'," 'where

he

fox

is obliged o

justify

himself

to the lion

and does not

know

what material to

draw on,

gives

us a remarkable

xampleof the

gradual

completionof

thought out

of

a beginningmade under pressure.

he fable s well known. Plague s

raging among the

animals, the l ion summons

the

grandees

of the

kingdom and

informs them that heaven, f it is to

be

propitiated,

must

have a

sacrif ice. here

are

many

sinners mong he

people,

he death

of

the

greatest

must

save the rest from destruction. Accordingly,

he bids

them make him

a candid confession

f

all their

crimes.He, for his

part,

admits hat, drivenby hunger,he hascut short he ivesof many a sheep;

dogs ikewise,when they

came oo

near; ndeed,

n deliciousmoments

he has

evenbeenknown to eat

he shepherd.

f

no one s

guilty

of worse

weaknesseshan these

hen he, the l ion, wil l

gladly

be the one to die.

'Sire,'

says he fox,

wishing to ward the l ightning

off

himself, in

your

zeal

and

generosity

you

have

gone

too far. What if

you

have done a

sheep

r two to death?

Or a dog, a vile creature? nd: quant

au berger,'

he continues,

or this is the chief

point,

'on

peut

dire,'

though he sti l l

doesnot

know what, 'qu'i l

m6ritoit out mal, ' trusting o luck,

and with

that

he has embroiled

himself,

6tant, '

a

poor

word

but

which

buys him

time, 'de cesgens

i, ' and only

now

doeshe hit

upon the

thought that

getshim out of his difficulty, 'qui sur les animaux se ont un chim6rique

empire.'

-

And

he

goes

on to

prove

that the donkey, the

bloodthirsty

8/12/2019 Kleist, Thoughts

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40 8

ESSAYS

donkey

(devourer

of grass

and

plants)

is the

most fitting

sacrifice.And

with that they

fall on him

and

tear him to pieces.

Speech f

that kind

is truly

a thinking aloud.

The

ideas n

succession

nd the

signs or them

proceed

side

by side and

the

mental

acts entailed

by both convergc.

Speech hen is not

at all

an impediment;

it is not,

as one might

say,

a

brake

on

the mind

but rather

a secondwheel

running

along parallel

on

the same axle. It is a quite different matter when the mind, before any

utterance

of speech,has

completed

its

thought.

For then it is

left with

the

mere expression

of that

thought,

and this

business, ar

from exciting

the mind, has,

on the contrary,

only a relaxing

effect. Thus

if

an idea is

expressed

onfusedly

we should

by

no means

assume

hat it was thought

confusedly

oo; on the,contrary,

it might

well be

the case

hat the most

confusedly

expressed

deas

are the

clearest

hought. In

any

gathering

where by

a

lively

conversation

a continuous

nsemination

of

minds

with

ideas

s

under way

you

will

ofren seepeople

who,

not feeling

n control

of language,

have usually

held

back,

all of a sudden,

with

a

convulsive

movement,

take fire,

seize

a chance

to speak

and

bring something

incomprehensible into the world. Indeed, having drawn the whole

company's

attention

upon

themselves,

hey

seem hen

by embarrassed

gestures

o indicate

that

they themselves

o

longer quite

know

what it

was

they wanted

to say. It

is probable

that

such

a

person

has

thought

something

very

apt, and very

clearly.

But the

sudden

shift of activity,

the

mind's

transition

rom

thinking to

expression,

aused

he lapsing

of all

its excitement,

which it

needed

both to hold

on to the thought

and then

to

utter it. In

such cases t

is all

the more

necessary

hat we have

language

eadily

at our

disposal o

hat the

things

we

have

hought of all

at

once but have not

all at

once been

able to

utter we may

as

quickly

as

possible

delivel in

sequence.

And in general

f two men

have the

same

clarity of thought the faster speakerwill alwayshave an advantagesince

he

brings, so to

speak,more

forces

o the

battle than

his opponent.

That

a

certain excitement

of

the intelligence

s necessary

ven o revivify

ideas

we have

alreadyhad

is amply

demonstrared

henever

pen-minded

nd

knowledgeable

people

are

being examined

and without

any

preamble

are asked such questions

as:

rWhat

is the

state?

Or: flhat is property?

Things

of

that kind. If

these

young

people

had been

n company

and for

a while

the subject

of conversarion

had been

he state

or

property

they

would

by a process

f

comparison,

iscrimination

nd summaryperhaps

with

easehave

arrived

at the

definit ion. But

being

wholly

deprived

of

any suchpreparation

hey are

seen o

falter

and only

an obtuseexaminer

will conclude from this that they do not hnow. For it is not we who

know

things but pre-eminently

a certain condition

of ours

which knows.

ES SAYS

40 9

Only

very

commonplace

intellects,

people who

yesterday learned by

heart

what the state

s

and

today have

forgotten

it

again,

will

have their

answers

pat in an examination.

Indeed,

there

may be no

worse

opportunity

in the world for

showing

oneself

o

advantage

han a

public

examination.

Besides he fact

that it offends

and wounds

our senseof

decency

and incites us to recalcitrance

o have

some earnedhorsedealer

looking into how many things we know who then, depending on

whether

they are five or six,

either buys

us or

dismissesus:

it is so

difficult

to play upon a human

mind

and induce it to

give

forth

its

peculiar

music, t so

easilyunder clumsy

hands

goes

out of tune,

that

even the

most practised connoisseur

of human beings,

a real master

tn

what Kant calls the

midwifery

of thinking,o

even he,

not being

acquainted with the one

whose

labour he

is assisting at, may

make

mistakes. And if such

young peop le, even

the most ignorant

among

them,

do most often achieve

good

marks

this

is

because

he minds of

the

examiners, f the examination

is in

public, are themselves

oo

embar-

rassed o deliver a true

judgement.

For

not only do

they themselves

ee l

the indecencyof the whole procedure:we should be ashamed o ask a

person

to

tip

out

the contents

of his

purse before us,

let alone

his

soul:

but their own

intelligencescome

under dangerous

appraisal

and

they

may count themselves

ucky if

they manage

to leave the examination

without having revealed

more shameful

weaknesses han the

young

finalist

himself has whom they

have been

examining.

(To

be continued.)"

8/12/2019 Kleist, Thoughts

5/5

44 0

Hospital

Incident/

Charit6-vorfal/;

Published

13

october

rgro.

The

charit

was

(and

s)

a hospital

n Berlin.

Anecdote

(capuchin

and

swabian)

/ Anekdote (Kapuziner):3o

November

rgro.

Anecdote

(Two

English

boxers)

Anekdote

(Baxer):

zz

November

rgro.

A Latter-day

(and

more

fortunate)

'werrher

/ Der neuere

(gliicklichere)

'werther:

7

January

8rr.

Goethe's'Werther,

ero

of the

novel

published

n

1774,

shot

himself

for love

of the

married

Lotte.

Strange

Court

Case/Sonderbarer

Rechtsfall

n

England:9

February

rgrr.

Essays

I have

translated

three

of the

dozen

or

so important

essays

Kleist

wrote

on

literary

and philosophical

ubjects.

on the

Gradual Production

of

Thoughts

I

jber

die

allmiihliche

verfertigung

der

Gedanken

beim Reden:

Probably

wrinen

in r8o5-6.

Ir was

not published

till

r 878.

p. 4o5 Riihle von Lilienstern: An old friend. He and Kleist were in the army

together.

p.

4o5

I'app6tit

vienr

en mangeant:

'Appetite

comes

whilsr

eating.,

As Kleist

parodies

t:

' Ideas

come

whilst

speaking.'

p.4o5

Euler:

Leonhard

Euler

(r7o7-83),

a Swiss

mathematician

nd physicist.

Kistner:

Abraham

Gorthelf

Kdstner

(r7r9-rgoo),

professor

of

mathe_

matics

at Leipzig

and

at

Gcittingen.

p.

4o6

Molidre:

He is said

o

have r ied

his

lokes

out

on his

maid

to see f

sh e

found

them

funny.

p.

4o6

Mirabeau:

Though

an aristocrat

he

went

as a representative

f the

Third

Estate

o the

meeting

of the

Esrates

General

n May

- '7g9.He

was a

formidable

orator.

p.

4o7

Kleistian

ar:

A condenser.

was

invenred

lmost

simultaneously

n

rh e

mid

eighteenth

century

by Ewald

Georg

vo'r

Kleist

and

by

cunaeus

of Leyden

(hence

ts

commoner

name:

a Leyden

ar).

p.

4o7

Chitelet:

The

ancient

court

and pr ison

of

paris.

p.

4o7

Les

animaux

malades

de la

peste:

The

animals

sick with

rhe plague',

La

Fontaine,

Fables,

VII,i.

The

French,

translared,

eads:

And

as

for

the shepherd

.. ' it

mav be

said .. that

he

deserved

l l possib le

ll

luck . . .

being

..

oneof rhose

people...

who imagine

hey

have

a r ight

ro rule

over

the animals. '

p.

4o9

midwifery

of thinking:

Kant

(in

Metaphysik

der Sitten,

1797)

says hat

the teacher, by skilful questioning,acts as midwife to the pupil,s thoughts.

N OTES

44 1

p.

4o9

To be continued:

No

continuation

has

been

found.

Reflection

lVon

der Oberlegung.

Eine

Paradoxe

Published

in the Berliner

Abendbliitter

7

December

r8ro.

The Prince

of

Homburg acts

6rst; then

in a long

reflection

perhaps

regulates

his feelings

or

other occasions

n the future.

The

Puppet Theatre/

IJber

das

Marionettentbeater

Published

n th e Berliner

Abendbliitter

rz-I5

December

r8ro.

This

is Kleist's

best-known

and most

influential

essay.

he argument

hat

we cannot

return

to a

state

of

grace

but

must seek

o recover

t

(in

a new

form) by

advancing

was

well

establishedbefore

Kleist. Schiller,

Novalis,

Holderlin

had all

thought

that

way.

Bur

Kleist gives he stfucture

a novel

imagery

and

the tone

of his

essay

s

quite

unique.

Many rwentieth-century

authors

have

admired

The

Puppet

Theatre-

t

influenced

Rilke in his

Duino Elegies,

especially

he fourth.

Experts

have found

Herr C.

unconvincing

on the

workings of

marionettes

and

the argument,

within

a familiar structure,

takes some

odd

turns; but

the

entirety,

with

its component

anecdotes,

s deeply ntr iguing.

p. 4rr M.: Mainz? Metz?

Herr C.:

It is not known

who,

if anyone,

Kleist

had

in mind.

Teniers: David

Teniers the

Younger

(16ro-9o\, Flemish

genre

painter.

p.

4r3

Vestr is: Several amous

dancers

had

this name.

Kleist

probably

means

Marie-Jean-Augustin

Vestris-Allard

(r76o--1842\,

soloist

at

the Paris

Opera.

p.

4I3

vrs

motr ix:

The moving

power.

Daphne: Pursued

by Apollo

she

escaped

him by

metamorphosing

nto

a

laurel tree.

naiade

i la Bernini: A

naiade s

a nymph

of the

water

sources.

Bernini

(r598-r58o),

chief representative

f Italian

high

Baroque.

The

poses and

gestures f his sculptures

re notably

expressive

or

affected).

Paris: Son of

Priam of Troy.

Asked

to

decide

who of

Hera,

Athene

and

Aphrodite

was the most beautiful

he chose

he last and gave her the golden

Apple of

Discord as

prize.

'Who

P. and

F. are is not

known.

p.

4r4

Third chapter of Genesis:

There the

story

of the

Fall and

of

man's

expulsion rom the Garden

of Eden

s

told.

p.

4r4-r5

youth pulling a thorn

out of

his foot:

The

statue

(a

Roman

bronze),

was

in the Louvre for a

time

(Napoleon

stole

t from

Italy)

and

Kleist may

well

have seen t. The statue's

pose, however

- seated,

he

left

foot drawn

up

-

does

not much resemble

hat of the

youth in the

anecdote.

p.

4r5

Livland:

Or

Livonia, a Baltic

province

south

of Estonia'

NOTES