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OJ 11/42, [A] - Handwritten letter from Maximilian Harden to Schenker, undated [probably October or November 1894]


⇧ DIE ZUKUNFT
HERAUSGEBER: MAXIMILIAN HARDEN.
[decorative rule]


⇧ Sehr geehrter Herr, 1

Minnas Zofe sagt daß man am liebsten von den Eigenschaften spricht, die man nicht hat. 2 Warum also soll Herr Bahr, dieses routinirte Nichts, nicht von „Empfindung“ und „Leidenschaft“ schwärmen und die Routine verdammen? Dabei ist nichts zu verwundern. Franziska, 3 noch besser Dortchen Lakenreißer 4 hat ihn charakterisirt. („Weil Ihr einer armen Hure u.s.w.“) 5

Ich fürchte, ich werde Ihrem Artikel 6 nicht leicht Raum schaffen können. Wenn Sie aber die Güte haben, ihn zu senden, will ich Ihnen gleich meine Ansicht sagen


Mit besten Grüßen aus qualvoller Hitze
[signed:] Harden

© Transcription William Pastille, 2006

⇧ DIE ZUKUNFT
EDITOR: MAXIMILIAN HARDEN
[decorative rule]


⇧ Dear Sir, 1

Minna's chambermaid says that people most enjoy talking about qualities they don't possess. 2 So why shouldn't Herr Bahr, that proficient non-entity, extol "sensibility" and "passion" and condemn proficiency? There is nothing remarkable in it. Franziska, 3 or even better, Doll Tearsheet 4 sketched his character well. ("For [...] a poor whore's etc.") 5

I'm afraid I won't easily be able to make space for your article. 6 If you would be so kind as to send it, however, I will give you my opinion straight away.


With best regards from the depths of distraction,
[signed:] Harden

© Translation William Pastille, 2006

⇧ DIE ZUKUNFT
HERAUSGEBER: MAXIMILIAN HARDEN.
[decorative rule]


⇧ Sehr geehrter Herr, 1

Minnas Zofe sagt daß man am liebsten von den Eigenschaften spricht, die man nicht hat. 2 Warum also soll Herr Bahr, dieses routinirte Nichts, nicht von „Empfindung“ und „Leidenschaft“ schwärmen und die Routine verdammen? Dabei ist nichts zu verwundern. Franziska, 3 noch besser Dortchen Lakenreißer 4 hat ihn charakterisirt. („Weil Ihr einer armen Hure u.s.w.“) 5

Ich fürchte, ich werde Ihrem Artikel 6 nicht leicht Raum schaffen können. Wenn Sie aber die Güte haben, ihn zu senden, will ich Ihnen gleich meine Ansicht sagen


Mit besten Grüßen aus qualvoller Hitze
[signed:] Harden

© Transcription William Pastille, 2006

⇧ DIE ZUKUNFT
EDITOR: MAXIMILIAN HARDEN
[decorative rule]


⇧ Dear Sir, 1

Minna's chambermaid says that people most enjoy talking about qualities they don't possess. 2 So why shouldn't Herr Bahr, that proficient non-entity, extol "sensibility" and "passion" and condemn proficiency? There is nothing remarkable in it. Franziska, 3 or even better, Doll Tearsheet 4 sketched his character well. ("For [...] a poor whore's etc.") 5

I'm afraid I won't easily be able to make space for your article. 6 If you would be so kind as to send it, however, I will give you my opinion straight away.


With best regards from the depths of distraction,
[signed:] Harden

© Translation William Pastille, 2006

Footnotes

1 This letter is undated. From the references to Hermann Bahr, it may be datable to October or November 1894.

2 Minna is the title character in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's 1767 comedy Minna von Barnhelm. The passage Harden has in mind occurs in Act II, Scene 1, where the maid says to her mistress, "Man spricht selten von der Tugend, die man hat; aber desto öftrer von der, die uns fehlt." ("We seldom talk about virtue we possess, but more often about the virtue we lack.")

3 Franziska is the name of Minna's maid in Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm.

4 Dortchen Lakenreißer is the German equivalent of Doll Tearsheet in the translation of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part II by August Wilhelm Schlegel (1867-1845).

5 The passage indicated by Harden, from Henry IV, Part II, Act II, Scene 4, lines 1398-1406, is Doll Tearsheet's response to Mistress Quickly's use of the title "captain" in reference to the scoundrel Pistol:

Doll Tearsheet. Captain! thou abominable damned cheater, art thou not ashamed / to be called captain? An captains were of my mind, they would / truncheon you out, for taking their names upon you before you / have earned them. You a captain! you slave, for what? for tearing / a poor whore's ruff in a bawdy-house? He a captain! hang him, / rogue! he lives upon mouldy stewed prunes and dried cakes. A / captain! God's light, these villains will make the word as odious / as the word "occupy;" which was an excellent good word before it / was ill sorted: therefore captains had need look to't.

6 The article in question is uncertain.

Commentary

Format
1p letter, 1/2-sheet horizontal, printed letterhead, holograph salutations, message and signature
Provenance
Schenker, Heinrich (document date-1935)--Schenker, Jeanette (1935-c.1942)--Ratz, Erwin (c.1942-c.1945)--Jonas, Oswald (c.1945-1978)--University of California, Riverside (1978--)
Rights Holder
Heirs of Maximilian Harden, deemed to be in the public domain
License
All reasonable steps have been taken to locate the heirs of Maximilian Harden. Any claim to intellectual rights on this document should be addressed to the Schenker Documents Online, at schenkercorrespondence (at) mus (dot) camc (dot) uk

Digital version created: 2014-12-12
Last updated: 2012-09-26