508 GERMANIC LITERATURE 



interests in America in things German after the Revolution, as attested by many 

 publications. A short bibliography of works exhibiting the German influence in 

 American literature closed the paper. 



A SHORT paper was read before this Section by Professor Otto Heller of Wash- 

 ington University on "Ahasver in der Kunstdichtung." He said in part that 

 there is hardly another literary theme so pregnant with motives, moral, philo- 

 sophical, romantic and fantastic as the legend of the Wandering Jew. Accordingly 

 it would be difficult to find any theme that poetry and fiction have so often seized 

 upon. The modern versions, so far as they have any claim to be taken seriously, 

 have yielded one and all to the attraction of the story's latent psychological 

 possibilities, and, pressing beyond the crude facts presented in the chap-books, 

 have introduced some adequate reason for the fateful crime of Ahasverus. The 

 probable originator of this variation was Goethe, who imputed to the culprit an 

 originally loyal disposition towards the Saviour and explained the sacrilegious 

 act as the culmination of mistaken patriotism. Among the writers of the nine- 

 teenth century there are even those who openly side with Ahasverus as a man 

 innocently punished, or, at any rate, one suffering far beyond his deserts. Some 

 writers mirror in the story of the defiant Jew their own resentment of divine 

 despotism. On the other hand, there are many proofs of a desire to harmonize 

 the cruel judgment with the Christian belief in the infinite mercy of the Son of 

 Man, which pious intent leads to the postulation of an educative purpose in the 

 curse. 



On its mythographical side the subject is generally thought to have received 

 exhaustive and final treatment. The speaker called attention, however, to two 

 extremely ancient legends pointed out by a Japanese Orientalist as analogous to 

 the story of the Wandering Jew, which bid fair to overthrow the existing the- 

 ories as to the origin of the saga. Professor Heller then surveyed the present 

 status of research concerning the evolution of Ahasverus's character in modern 

 literature. He deplored the defectiveness of the bibliography of the subject and 

 showed that no great amount of critical scholarship has as yet been brought to 

 bear on a study of the varied conceptions of the " Evil Wanderer" type. 



In the second part of his discourse Professor Heller proceeded to dispel some 

 prevailing errors of opinion regarding the Ahasverus literature. Not in France 

 has the figure of its hero shown the greatest multiformity, but in Germany and 

 England. The surprising number and great importance of English Ahasverus 

 versions have heretofore not been properly appreciated. The poems by the 

 Scotchmen Aytoun and Buchanan for perfection of form and significance of con- 

 tent must be reckoned among the noblest works inspired by the theme. Yet in 

 the existing German treatises they are not even mentioned. The belief that the 

 venerable wanderer is rarely caricatured is contradicted by a sufficiently long 

 list of satirical and humorous versions. In conclusion, the most recent contribu- 

 tions to Wandering Jew literature are enumerated to show that the theme still 

 continues to agitate the poetic imagination. 



