Cecilie (Brentano)

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Clemens Brentano
(1778-1842)

Cecilie is a fragment of a drama by Clemens Brentano that was written before 1802. Holtei and Kemp call it "Italian drama".

content

Marchiali, an accountant for the Florentine merchant Pietro Velli, looks full of resentment at Cecilie, who is loved by Antonio, a son of the Velli family. Cecilie, a foundling, was taken in by Antonio's mother. Now that her mother has died, bad times are ahead for Cecilie, especially since Pietro Velli has absolutely nothing to do with the young girl. The father has forbidden his two sons - Antonio and Francesco - to have contact with the girl. The accountant Marchiali, on the other hand, would like to see his daughter Coelestine marry the young businessman Antonio Velli. The fiction writer Gerni willingly lets himself be harnessed to Marchialis Karren, also because the intrigue will certainly provide plenty of material for fiction texts. Cecilie, a child of love, should be sent to a monastery, the esthete suggests to the master of the house, Pietro Velli. The intrigue does not go unnoticed. Antonio regrets Cecilie and finds an ally in the Venetian Baron Vaudremont. The nobleman identifies himself to the young Velli as his childhood friend Benvolta.

The father is willing to listen to Gerni's suggestion. Pietro Velli likes to have Coelestine around. Marchiali goes on the offensive. He suggests Antonio marry Coelestine. Antonio, who knows Coelestine's "ignoble character", initially rejects the suggestion, but is not averse to it. The merchant Pietro Velli then appoints the obedient son Antonio as his successor. Antonio names the brother Francesco, who should also be considered. The father refuses. He loves and does not appreciate his son, the painter Francesco.

Francesco Velli and Cecilie are in love. Francesco condemns the father. He didn't love the mother. Cecilie exhorts the lover to be kind to the father. Francesco promises Cecilie that, in the worst case, he will kidnap her from the convent. Cecilie has to go to the monastery. Before that, you confess his love to Antonio. Cecilie carefully rejects Antonio. Lonely and alone, Antonio realizes that the honorable path ahead of him as the successor to his father is "terribly made up nonsense."

Francesco takes courage and asks his father for Cecilie's hand. Pietro Velli brusquely refuses and angrily adds that the painter should feed himself. Francesco stands by Cecilie.

Poetry

Cecilie, waiting for her lover on the wall of the monastery garden, sings:

The sun doesn't want to go down
She stopped on the mountain, curious,
Then came the night gone ...

When Francesco finally approaches, Cecilie is happy:

The angels shine through the field
The high grain brightens golden ...

reception

  • Truth and poetry

Schultz suspects that the merchant Pietro Velli could be an image of Brentano's father . His son Antonio has features of Franz Brentano . Clemens Brentano portrayed himself with the second son Francesco. Cecilie's story is reminiscent of Brentano's sister Bettina . After her mother's death, she had to go to the monastery for a few years. Schultz goes much further in speculating. Brentano could have processed a brother-sister relationship that touches the incestuous - carefully coded - literary. However, none of this can be proven. Brentano has covered the tracks. Brentano painted a picture of Johann Isaak von Gerning with the esthete Gerni .

  • fragment

Schultz emphasizes the unfinished nature of the play and asks: What coup does Vaudremont have in view for the brothers that would give the story a happy ending? Where does the foundling Cecilie come from? Where is Pietro Velli going? Why should Pietro Velli marry again? The question also arises: why does Benvolta dress up as Vaudremont?

  • research

Cecilie, Antonio and Francesco appear in Godwi . Schultz examines the relationship between the drama fragment and the novel.

literature

Quoted text edition

Individual evidence

“Source” means the quoted text output in the spelling (page, line from above).

  1. ↑ Feilchenfeldt, p. 34 entry "shortly before January 11th" 1802.
  2. ^ Riley, p. 126, 8. Zvu
  3. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, p. 156, 13. Zvo
  4. ↑ Source, p. 324, 19th line.
  5. ↑ Source, p. 321, 19th line.
  6. ↑ Source, p. 338, 5th line.
  7. ↑ Source, p. 338, 20. Z.
  8. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, pp. 156–158 middle
  9. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, p. 158, 5. Zvo
  10. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, p. 157, 5th Zvu
  11. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, p. 158 middle
  12. ↑ Source, p. 293, 6th line; P. 305, line 18; P. 307, 8th line.
  13. ↑ Source, p. 332 below
  14. ^ Source, p. 299, 9th line.
  15. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, p. 158 middle to 159