Zeydel: Storm and Stress 
21 
On July 22, 1776, Nicolai gets from his friend Petersen a 
lurid description of young Klinger, who is said to use opium 
and overheat his room for the sake of firing his imagination. 56 
Klinger himself lost no time in turning nway from his 
Storm and Stress mood. As early as 1780 the satirical Piim- 
plamplasko der hohe Geist (heut Genie) appeared, usually 
ascribed to Klinger alone, 57 but described recently by F. Lo- 
wenthal 5S as being chiefly the work of Klinger and secondarily 
that of Lavater and Sarasin. In this skit, Plimplamplasko, 
the “Genie/’ temporarily dethrones Puro Senso (common 
sense) and rules with “hoch und gross Geisterey,” establish- 
ing “die neu Kraftgesaze, die gestimmt thaten seyn nach dem 
Ideali.” But soon he is ousted and Puro Senso takes up the 
reins again. In a review in the AUgemeine Deutsche BibUo- 
thek 59 Musaeus describes the work as: 
. . . die Spottschrift gegen die schwindelkopfigen Dunse jenes Jahr- 
zehnts, die sogenannten Genies oder Kraftmanner. 
Primarily it is directed against Kaufmann. In 1785, in the 
preface to his Theater , published at Riga, Klinger has drifted 
so far away from his old moorings that he is able to say of 
the characters in his early plays: 60 
Freylich sind es individuelle Gemahlde einer jugendlichen Phantasie, 
eines nach Thatigkeit und Bestimmung strebenden Geistes, die in das 
Reich der Traume gehoren, mit dem sie so nah verwandt zu seyn 
scheinen. Wer aber gar kein Licht in diesen Explosionen des jugend- 
lichen Geists und Unmuths sieht, ist nie in dem Fall gewesen, etwas 
davon in sich selbst zu fiihlen. Ich kann heute so gut dariiber lachen, 
als einer; aber so viel ist wahr, dass jeder junge Mann die Welt, mehr 
oder weniger, als Dichter und Traumer ansieht. 
In a letter to his friend Kayser, dated April, 1785, he also 
looks upon his early works as being youthful dreams. 61 In 
an aphorism, finally, he speaks of “Genieverschneider” and 
calls the literary output of his younger days 
. . . die so kiihn-genialischen Produkte der Dichtkunst . 62 
56 Sommerfeld, op. cit., p. 276. 
57 See Goedeke Grundriss ; also L. Hirschberg, Der Taschcngoedeke, Berlin and Frank- 
furt, 1924. 
58 Beitrdge zur Entstehung und Wurdigung der Satire Plimplamplasko, Euphorion, 
XXII, 2 (1919), pp. 287 ff. Erich Schmidt (Lenz und Klinger, Berlin, 1878, p. 102) 
believed it to be the joint work of Klinger, Lavater, Sarasin, and Pfeffel. 
59 Vol. 51, No. 1, p. 299. 
60 Berendt and Wolff, op. cit., Ill, 349-350. 
01 Ibid., II, 428. 
152 E. Schmidt, op. cit., 105. Cf. also Klinger’s letter of 1814 to Goethe, quoted above. 
