Criticism about FPG & FrL

Greve/Grove & Else v. Freytag-Loringhoven


Felix Paul Greve's first & last Translations, 1898 & 1909:
Dante's Vita Nuova & Swift's "Modest Proposal"
by
Gaby Divay, UM Archives
Table of Contents

3. FPG (Greve/Grove) & Swift
Grove's Swift ed. in 12 v. by Temple Scott extant in his Library
Temple Scott acknowledged in Greve's 4 v. ed. of Swift's Prose Works
Grove's annotations of "A Modest Proposal"
Greve's translation used by Brecht & reprinted many times by Insel Publishers


While Grove's Dante-annotations and references are relatively tenuous, his on-going preoccupation with Swift is quite consistent. Possibly the greatest, if unacknowledged, tribute to Swift is Grove's excellent satirical novel-fragment Consider Her Ways, in which ants provide a critical evaluation of man's civilization.[28] On one memorable occasion, a proud memory concerning Swift nearly blew Grove's carefully fabricated cover. Based on personal communications by Grove, the Canadian Bookman claimed that he had been responsible for the first complete, critical edition of Gulliver's Travels. In a hasty disclaimer, Grove said in the next issue in April, 1926:

"I did not, in my non-age, edit the first complete edition of Gulliver's Travels: that honour goes to Mr. Temple Scott. It was he who first saw clearly that the text must have been altered after it had left Swift's hands. My own work was restricted to a re-collation of early editions and the South Kensington Ford MSS. As a result of these labours, I was instrumental (though not directly engaged) in bringing about the publication of two, perhaps three, continental editions of Gulliver's Travels, my aim being to rescue the work from dying as a literary masterpiece to become a "children's classic" (Letters, pp. 38-39).

Grove reveals here an impressive and detailed knowledge of Swift-scholarship. Grove owned and Greve used Temple Scott's edition. In his last substantial translation in four volumes of Swift's Prose Works, Greve acknowledged his debt to Scott in glowing colours at the end of a lengthy introduction to the first volume which contained some of the short satires:

"Zum Schluss möchte der gegenwärtige Herausgeber...vor allem seine Verbindlichkeiten gegenüber Herrn Temple Scott und den Mitarbeitern an seiner trefflichen Taschenausgabe Swifts in vollstem Umfang anerkennen...Sie [ist] wissenschaftlich...ausgezeichnet fundiert und ...[kann] geradezu als grundlegend bezeichnet werden." [29]

Gulliver's Travels were not to appear until v. 4, and, so to speak posthumously, since Greve was not officially among the living any longer in 1910. Even though, it was proudly advertised as an unprecedented complete and critical version based on Scott's text, and it included an identical knowledge of Ford's South Kensington papers as well as the rescue mission from juvenile literature appropriation which Grove expounded:

\"1905 veröffentlichte Temple Scott seine Ausgabe, die den Gulliver zum ERSTEN Male so brachte, wie Swift ihn geschrieben hat. Die vorliegende deutsche Ausgabe bringt im Jahre 1909 diesen korrekten und vollständigen Text (von den hunderttausend Bearbeitungen ganz zu schweigen) als überhaupt erste vollständige eines in der ganzen Welt berühmten Buches in irgendeine fremde Sprache!"[30]

The Swift-venture is likely to have precipitated Greve's sudden departure from Berlin in September, 1909. In a master-piece of epistolary rhetoric, Insel-publisher Anton Kippenberg defends himself point by point against impertinent, and evidently exploitative allegations brought against him by Greve's "grieving widow" Else: if Greve had not been overworked, underpaid, and furthermore unfairly criticized by the Insel, he would not have taken a boat to Sweden with the intention never to arrive. Kippenberg calmly retorts that Greve took on far too many assignments in order to pay off considerable financial obligations, that his exceptional gifts were only hampered by the time and work pressures he voluntarily imposed on himself, that on occasion, criticism had been at order in the interest of quality control for the Insel's reputation; and that, IF Greve really had intended to commit suicide, his financial ruin was the main reason. But perhaps, the fact that he had recently drawn payment from two publishers for one and the same translation -- that is most probably the Swift -- might have hastened his desperate decision. [31]

This final argument shows that Greve was taking fraudulent steps once again, and that he was risking another prison term. And knowing that Else was must have been well informed about Greve's plans since she followed him within less than a year, her emotional accusations against Kippenberg amount to an extortion attempt which was probably successful.[32] Encouraged by this previous success, she practiced similar tactics again in the early twenties, when she drafted or sent outrageous and demanding blackmail attempts to the Freytag-Loringhoven family, former husband Endell, and old lovers or friends.[33] It looks like she and Greve were two birds of a feather, and that means in the context of Greve's 1909/10 disappearance act, a couple of con-artists.

The first Swift volume came out in 1909 with Oesterheld Verlag imprint, the remaining three volumes followed a year later with Reiss publishers. More recent editions have been by the Insel,[34] and new introductions to these all tend to acknowledge Greve's merit in introducing Swift to the German public in style. Apparently, Greve/Grove's claim that only much deformed, juvenile versions of Gulliver's Travels had been enjoying great success prior to his own translations is duly appreciated even today, and a parallel to Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is drawn at times.[35]

It certainly is curious to observe, how the expression "having a swelled head" appears on several occasions in Grove's correspondence,[36] and also in Freytag-Loringhoven's autobiography -- there, as having been said of her by Greve on account of her dislike for his new idol Flaubert, and her budding literary attempts which not long afterwards saw the light of day as HIS novels.[37] Pacey (Letters, p. 114, n. 8) believes this image to be a reference to the swollen-headed Aeolists in the Tale of the Tub which was among Greve's translations in the first published volume.


As already mentioned, Grove was, like Greve, openly enthusiastic Temple Scott's edition which is extant in all twelve volumes in his archives. Most do not show signs of having been read. A particularly striking exception concerns the short satire "A Modest proposal..." in volume 7, which is entitled Historical and Political tracts, Irish, and was published in 1905. It is heavily marked and underlined, and throughout, each paragraph receives furthermore a circled numbering.

In Swift's outrageous text, the narrator proposes in sly humbleness to solve with one strike a serious economic and social dilemma for both Dublin's destitute parents and the state alike by marketing plump toddlers of poor descent for the culinary delights of the more fortunate classes. He revels in detailed descriptions of how to prepare these children into various culinary delicacies, all the while accounting with scientific exactitude and petty considerations for the demographic, monetary and pragmatic advantages of his scheme. He calculates, for instance, the cost of gestation-time and the relatively cheap period of breast-feeding, and correlates it to the ultimate benefit of feeding a family with several square meals. Or, with mock-humanitarian concern, he points out that these children are unlikely to arrive at a decent standard of living through their only vocation of stealing before the age of six, so that slaughtering them at age one means sparing them a torturous and pointless existence.

It is a mean document, and Greve's translation of it in his first volume of Swift's Prose Works is simply sparkling. Here are seven examples:


1.
Title: A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents or Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick (1729). .
(Swift, Prose Works, p. 205)

Ein bescheidener Vorschlag, wie man die Kinder der Armen hindern kann, ihren Eltern oder dem Lande zur Last zu fallen, und wie sie vielmehr eine Wohltat für die Öffentlichkeit werden können.
(Swift, Prosa Werke, Bd. 1, 1909, S. 321)

2.
"It is true a child, just dropped from its dam, may be supported by her milk for a solar year...and it is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them, in such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding and partly to the clothing of many thousands."
(Swift, Prose Works, p. 208)

"Freilich läßt sich ein eben geborenes Kind ein Sonnenjahr lang mit der Milch der Mutter ernähren...und eben nach Vollendung des ersten Jahres gedenke ich für die Kinder in einer Weise zu sorgen, daß sie, statt ihren Eltern oder der Gemeinde zur Last zu fallen und statt für den Rest ihres Lebens an Nahrung und Kleidung Mangel zu leiden, im Gegenteil vielmehr zu der Ernährung und teilweise auch der Kleidung vieler Tausender beitragen werden."
(Swift, Satiren, p. 22)

3.
"...Children of poor parents... can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing till they arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly parts."
(Swift, Prose Works, p. 209)

"Höchst selten können sie sich vor ihrem sechsten Jahr durch Stehlen ihren Lebensunterhalt sichern, es sei denn, die Veranlagung ist besonders günstig."
(Swift, Satiren, p. 23)

4.
"I have been assured by a very knowing American...that a young, healthy child  well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled, and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout. ... A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish..."
(Swift, Prose Works, p. 209-210)

"Mir ist von einem sehr unterrichteten Amerikaner ... versichert worden, daß ein junges, gesundes, gutgenährtes einjähriges Kind eine sehr wohlschmeckende, nahrhafte und bekömmliche Speise ist, einerlei, ob man es dämpft, brät, bäckt oder kocht, und ich zweifle nicht, daß es auch in einem Frikassee oder einem Ragout in gleicher Weise seinen Dienst tun wird... Ein Kind wird bei einem Essen für Freunde zwei Gänge ergeben, und wenn die Familie allein speist, so wird das Vorder- oder Hinterteil ganz ausreichen."
(Swift, Satiren, p. 23-24)

5.
"I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration, that of the 120.000 children already computed, 20.000 may be reserved for breed,  whereof only one fourth part to be males, which is more than we allow for to sheep, black-cattle, or swine..."
(Swift, Prose Works, p. 209)

"Ich unterbreite also der öffentlichen Erwägung demütigst den Vorschlag, daß von den 120.000 bereits berechneten Kindern 20.000 für die Zucht zurückbehalten werden; von ihnen soll nur ein Viertel aus Knaben bestehen, was immerhin schon mehr ist, als wir bei Schafen, Hornvieh oder Schweinen erlauben." (Swift, Satiren, p. 24)

6.
"Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass; the skin of which, artificially dressed, will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen."
(Swift, Prose Works, p. 210)

"Wer wirtschaftlicher ist, (und ich muß gestehen, die Zeiten verlangen es), kann den Körper häuten; die Haut wird, kunstvoll gegerbt, wundervolle Damenhandschuhe und Sommerstiefel für elegante Herrn ergeben."
(Swift, Satiren, p. 25)

7.
"Sixthly, This would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards, or enforced by law and penalties. It would increase the care and tenderness of mothers toward their children...We should see an honest emulation among the married women, which of them could bring the fattest child to the market, men would become as fond of their wives, during the time of pregnancy, as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, or sows when they are ready to farrow, nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practise) for fear of a miscarriage." ]
(Swift, Prose Works, p. 214)

"Sechstens würde mein Vorschlag ein grosser Ansporn zur Eheschließung sein, wie ja alle weisen Nationen entweder durch Belohnung zu ihr ermuntert oder sie durch Gesetze und Strafen erzwungen haben. Es würde die Sorgfalt und Zärtlichkeit der Mütter ihren Kindern gegenüber steigern...Wir würden unter den verheirateten Frauen bald einen ehrlichen Wettstreit erleben, welche von ihnen das fetteste Kind auf den Markt bringen könnte; die Männer würden gegen ihre Frauen während der Zeit ihrer Schwangerschaft so liebevoll werden, wie sie es jetzt gegen ihre trächtigen Stuten, Kühe und Sauen sind, und sie würden sie aus Furcht vor einer Fehlgeburt nicht mehr schlagen noch mit Füßen treten, wie es jetzt nur zu häufig der Brauch ist."
(Swift, Satiren, p. 28-29)


Given the inspired quality of Greve's translation, it is understandable that he remembered it fondly, and that this brief satire and some similarly well-translated pieces enchanted a vast audience, which is why they are still in demand and print today. The original edition of the "Modest Proposal..." is known to have delighted Brecht as a schoolboy who years later drew on it in his Tui-fragment. "Tui" stands for an inverted abbreviation of intellectuals (Tellekt-Uell-In), the "Kopfarbeiter" who inadvertently allow fascism to rise.  It is a vicious satire of equal quality, directed at the dismal conditions of the Weimar Republic in "Chimese" disguise (a deliberate "Verfremdung of "Chinese"). Fascism, for instance, is presented in the guise of "Denkism" which is a brilliant word play with the typically German tradition of idealistic thought ("denken"/"to think"),[38] the intellectual predilection for creating abstract "isms" out of just about anything, and the contemporary case of a mass-murderer whose name, Karl Denke, again invited to exploit the thought-metaphor. Over a ten-year period, meak and unobtrusive Denke had murdered and consumed a fair number of neighbourhood children. What he couldn't eat, he processed and sold as "goat-meat", and he offered the occasional leather by-product, like suspenders and sturdy shoe-laces, as well. In this context, Brecht cleverly integrated the eloquent invectives of his highly admired model Swift in general, and the "Modest Proposal" in particular.[39] The Germans, "das Volk der Dichter und Denker", has been given by Karl Denke another "idea" (ein Gedanke), and after the consequences, there only remains the belated reflection on a desastrous past, "das Nachdenken". 

Brecht was a fervent Marxist, Swift was a Tory, and the kindred-spirited Voltaire was an enlightenment aesthete who prided himself for his eminently boring and rightfully forgotten tragedies more than for his timeless and still much admired satires. The common motivation for satirical expression -- with its typical expressiveness -- is believed to be the intense, moral indignation about obviously unjust conditions, and the painful realization that a superior set of values is utterly insufficient in changing unfortunate, but definitely prevailing givens -- that is, the experience of utter helplessness in the face of reality.


Notes 28-39

[28] The ants resemble the noble horses, the Houyhnhnms, in Gulliver's last voyage. Given Greve/Grove's literary horizon, there are definitely multiple intertextual references involved here, and they range from classical to modern satires of all kinds. Nevertheless, the Swiftian model is acknowledged repeatedly and pervasively with regard to the fragment's genesis, one of which allows to link its original conception closely to the time of Greve's last translation: "I believe it is the most laboriously-produced book of mine, the plan of which reaches back to 1892 [speak: 1912, gd]...And perhaps there is as much laughter in it as I shall ever evoke." (25. 3., 1940, Letters, p. 382).

[29]  Swift, Prosawerke, Bd. 1, p. 27; also, 11.

[30] Swift, Prosawerke, Bd. 4, p. 19. Reference to Ford appears on the same page; the juvenile debasement is much harped on throughout the introduction, so, for instance, on p. 23: "Auch Erwachsene haben es als Kinderbuch gelesen...".

[31] Else's apparently hysterical letter is not extant; Kippenberg's reply is published in German and English in Grove's Letters, p. 548-552.

[32] Kippenberg assures her of financial support towards the end of his letter.

[33] A response from her father-in-law's lawyer from Weimar is extant in her papers, and indicates that her Berlin charge had been precedented from New York. If she ever mailed the letter to Endell is unknown, but it may not be a coincidence that Endell suffered a heart-attack in 1924 from the consequences of which he died in Berlin in April, 1925 (Reichel, p. 98). Else had been back in Berlin since April, 1923.

[34] Very recently, Ullstein seems to have re-issued them.

[35] A. Schlösser, p. 70; on p. 71, he mentions as first serious edition Greve's "ungekürzte Ausgabe nach dem Swift'schen Text", and on p. 14, he credits Greve with having actively introduced Meredith, Wilde, Wells, Browning and Swift, adding "Greve...zählt zweifellos zu den literarisch gebildeten Übersetzern." Martin Walser says (Satiren, half-title): "Lange Zeit gehörte Swift zu den verkannten, das heißt eben auch zu den nicht übersetzten Schriftstellern. Eine Ausnahme bildete allerdings sein Werk Gullivers Reisen. Dieses Buch wurde alsbald zur Jugendlektüre in verkürzten Ausgaben verniedlicht. Dabei handelt es sich hier um eine hochkarätige Satire im Kleid einer exotischen Reisebeschreibung..."

[36] Letters, p. 17, 113, 248.

[37] Her autobiography, p. 105.

[38] In spite of Hegel's dialectics, he is squarely placed within the idealist tradition because of the priority he accords to subjective thought over reality. This is particularly well persiflaged in the following aphorism: "Bevor es den Kopf gab, gab es den Gedanken. Der Gedanke brauchte, um hervorgebracht zu werden, nur noch den Kopf. Der Kopf fügte sich dieser Notwendigkeit und entstand." Brecht, GW, Bd. 12, p. 650).

[39] The Tui-Fragment was composed over a period of years from 1930 onwards, and consists of an agglomerate of notes, stories, aphorisms, and dialogues; see Brecht, Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 12, Der Tui-Roman, pp. 589-727; "Eine Ehrenrettung" for Denke, p. 612. Also, Jan Knopf, pp. 399-422, on Swift und Denke, p. 418-420.


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