Charon and Der Kleiderschrank Author(s): Henry C. Hatfield Reviewed work(s): Source: Modern Language Notes, Vol.

65, No. 2 (Feb., 1950), pp. 100-102 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2909218 . Accessed: 11/12/2011 22:00
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would have servedhis purposeat least equally well, and that the alliteration fifwithfif of was at once given.5 Riddles playingwithlettersused to be common. In Aldhelm's enigma 30 Elementumthe lettersof the alphabetare represented and 6 illegitimate by tworelatedgroups, 17 legitimate, by sisters.6 The Old Englishriddle42 Hana and Hcen (Cock and Hen) and its in play withrunesmayalso be mentioned this context.
ERIKA VON ERHARDT-SIEBOLD Vassar College

CHARON AND DER KLEIDERSCHRANK That the sinisterfigureof Charon appears, in the guise of a gondolier, Thomas Mann's Der Tod in Venedighas long been in recognized;but his appearancein the much earlierDer Kleiderschrank(1899) may not have been rnoted. that story, In Albrecht van der Qualen (his surnameis of coursesignificant) appears as one of Mann's characteristically diseased and isolatedheroes. We knowlittle about him exceptthat he has aroundhis eyesthe dark shadowstypicalof Mann's decadents,1 and that he has not many monthsleft to live.2 Feverishand largelyout of touch with externalreality,he decides,in responseto some undefined impulse, on to interrupt journey the Berlin-Rome his express.It seemschars See cicceno in Lindisfarne, Mt. 23, 37. ciccenu is the ancestor of NE chicken. The development seems to run thus: *jiuc'n-with -in dimin. suff., and, because of smoothing in the Anglian dialects, cicen, see ciken in R. 1 (cf. Sievers-Brunner ? 119, A. 3; ? 162; Luick-Wild-Koziol ? 192; Girwan ? 97; Biulbring?? 195, 382, 434). The originally long middle vowel i was shortened > i> e at an early date, it could either be dropped before an unstressed syllable or be retained with secondary stress thus giving either ? 162). Before double cicnes or, especially before u, bcInu (Sievers .... consonants i was shortened > i: ct,ones. In the Northumbrian dialect the doubling of consonants is quite a common feature (Biulbring ? 546), also before n no palatalization of the second c occurs (Luick .. . . ? 689, A 2), thereforethe writing csiccenuand NE chicken. I owe several of these referencesto the kindness of Professor Max F6rster. 1 AIdhelmi Opera, ed. R. Ehwald, MGH AA xv, Berlin, 1919. '1Die erzdhlendenSchriften,ges.ammelt(Berlin: S. Fischer, 1928), ii, 441.
2 Ibid.

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acteristic him that he knowsneither of the exact time of the year nor the name of the Germancity at which he leaves the train. On his first walk through this city,he crossesa bridge.
Eiimlanger, morscher Kalhn kam vorbei, an dessen Hinterteil ein Mann mit einer langen Stange ruderte. Van der Qualen blieb ein weniig stehen und beugte sich iiber die Bruistung. Sieh da, dachte er, ein Fluss; der Fluss. Angenehm,dass ich seinen ordinairenNamen nicht weiss.3

Under the circumstances, seems more than probablethat the it " oarsmanis Charon, ferryman thedead; theriver, ein Fluss, of the der Fluss," is the Styx-its " ordiniirer Name " is indeedirrelevant. On whatotherbasis can the introduction the " langer,morscher of and the riverbe explained? Kahn," the boatman, Corroborative evidenceis found in the prose dialogue Fiorenza The dyingLorenzode' Medici tellshis friends: (1904).
. . .Mir traumte so schwer von einem glatzkopfigen Alten, der mich in seinen morschenNachen ziehen wollte . . .4 Poliziano, erschiittert: Charon . . .5

In viewof thisparallelit seemsbestto interpret der Qualen's van encounter withthe boatmanalso as a dreamwitha vividpremoni6 tion of death. The hint in the last paragraphof the story gives one an added rightto do so. With that reading,the wholecryptic van der Qualen and the maiden,whichin any case actionbetween is rich in dreamlike qualities,is movedone step further into the realmof the fantastic. To myknowledge, is Mann's first of classicalmythology. this use It may be significant that in certain later works where Mann exsimilarly evokesa non-rational elementtranscending ordinary he perience, also turnsback to the Hellenic world. In additionto Der Tod in Venedig,7 thinksof the chapter" Schnee" in Der one
3 Ibid., p. 442. 4 Italics mine. 5 Ibid., p. 677.

erster Klasse verblieb . . . ? " 7 For the more obvious referenceto the symbol of Charon in this story,

" Wer weiss auch nur, ob iiberhaupt Albrecht van der 6 Ibid., p. 449. Qualen an jenem Nachmittage wirklich erwachte und sich in die unbekannte Stadt begab; ob er nicht vielmehr schlafend in seinem Coupi6 and the cf. ibid., pp. 758-761. Here the gondola is compared to a coffin, " house of Hades " is mentioned.

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Zauberberg and of the veiledallusionto HermesPsychopompos in Joseph.8

THREE NOTES ON DONNE'S POETRY WITH A SIDE GLANCE AT OTHELLO I a and In " The Triple Fool " Donne establishes rhetorical logical trope. resolution his loveagonyon thebasis of a scientific of
Then as th'earths inward narrow crooked lanes Do purge sea waters fretfullsalt away I thought, if I could draw my paines Through Rimes vexation, I should them allay....

givena further The troubadoric toneof the verseitselfis, I think, fromthe mediaevalemphasisby the factthat the tropeis brought through comsame age and was knownto the Renaissancechiefly finding this pendiumsof mediaevalcharacter. One has difficulty thinknotionin what mightbe called booksof advancedscientific of ing; the gloss is found in Caxton's translation the Image du Monde:
Alle watres come of the see; as wel the swete as the salt, what somever they be, alle come out of the see and theder agayn alle retorne. Wherupon somme may demande: " Syth the see is salt, how is it that somme water is fresshe and swete? Herto answerth one of tha auctours and sayth that the water that hath his cours by the swete erthe is fresshe and swete, and becometh swete by the swetnes of therthe whiche taketh a way from it his saltnes and his bytternes by her nature; fforthe water whiche is salt & bytter, whan it renneth thrugh the swete erthe, the swetnes of therthe reteynethhis bytternesand saltnes.1

thinking This idea, so much a part of the combinedscientific in of the Middle Ages,was clearlyout-of-date the Renaissance. It turns up, for instance, in Pierre de la Primaudaye's French
8 Cf. Mann's letter of February 20, 1934 in Karl Ker4nyi, Roman,dichtung und Mythologie (Ziirich: Rheinverlag, 1945), p.. 19. 1Op. cit., Ed. 0. H. Prior, BETAS, es cx (1913), pp. 109-10. The " auctour " is Honorius Augustodunensis whose Imago Mundi is followed here.