GESSNEK AND THU CULMINATION OP THIO I'AHTOHAL rj)VL. 43 



of the fourty-two idyls no dialogue occurs at all, and what di;i- 

 logue there is, is lacking in drnniatic life, being either descriptive 

 or narrative. The conversation of the shepherds which ought to 

 bring out the difference of character only shows how exactly alike 

 they are,' most of what is said would be ecjually appropriate in 

 the mouth of either shepherd. This sameness is necessarily fatal 

 to any continued interest in the characters. Their calm dialogue 

 cannot move us even when it, as in the idyl Der Sturm, describes 

 a storm at sea and a shipwreck. As Goethe says: "Voltaire kann 

 zu Lausanne aus seinem Bette dem Sturm des Genfer Sees im 

 Spiegel nicht ruhiger zugesehen haben als die Leute auf dem 

 Felsen, um die das Wetter wiitet, sich vice versa detailliren was 

 sie beide sehen." 



Two of Gessners idyls, however, deserve special mention as 

 differing from the others, and showing an approach toward 

 realism. 



Der Faun (idyl 20) has some of the spirit of Theocritus, and 

 excellently characterizes two different types; the love-sick Faun, 

 whose suit has been rejected, gives way to despair, while his friend 

 banters him on account of his passion and eventually induces him 

 to join the merry procession in honor of Lyaeus. 



In only one idyl does Gessner leave the dream-world of an 

 Arcadian existence and descend to terra iirma; in only one does he 

 foreshadow the realistic idyl, which was so soon to appear, descri- 

 bing characters and scenes of the native soil. Das holzerne Bein, 

 eine Schweizer-idjlle portrays in the old invalid soldier a charac- 

 teristic figure with the grand mountains of Switzerland as a 

 background. The veteran describes in animated words to an 



1 Goethe says: "Zeigt das nicht den grossten Mangel dichterischer Empfind- 

 ung, dass in keiner einzigen dieser Idyllen die handlenden Personeu wahres 

 Interesse an und mit einander haben? Entweder ist es kalter,erzahlenderMonolog 

 Oder was eben so schlimni ist, Erzahlimg und ein Vertrauter der seine paar 

 Pfennige quer liinein dialogisiert, und wenn denn einnial zwei was zusammen 

 finden, empfindet's einer wie der andre. und da ist's vor wie nacli." See Goethe's 

 excellent review ol Moralische Erzahlungen und Idyllen von Diderot und S. 

 Gessner in Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen 8, 273 (1772). 



