HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Heinrich Heine
parties of Germany, the Repubhcans and the Absolutists.^
A year earlier, this periodical had reviewed
his poems at great length. It did not hide
its horror at his poetic packages of poison, at his
infamous tone which rivalled Macchiavelli and
Voltaire at their worst. But it did admire his allembracing
humor. It found his prose racy, sparkling,
and far surpassing Goethe's in force, rapidity
of thought, and transparent clearness of style.
Though the curse of the sneerer was upon him, it
saw him rising at times to supreme heights and
giving sublime renderings to themes of devotion,
of chivalrous heroism, or of bruised affection,
themes that others, with purer intentions, only succeeded
in making ridiculous. Because of the melancholy
misdirection of his glorious faculties, he
was more deserving of pity than condemnation.
He must be regarded as the German Byron, since
he possessed to the full Byron's faults and Byron's
genius.^
Two articles in Eraser's Magazine, a leading organ
of English opinion, illustrate the gradual ebbing
of hostility towards Heine during the Eighteen-
Forties. The earher remarks on the poet appeared
in April, 1840.* Heine was introduced as a German
author who spent a life of exile in comical
[34]