Hall (Achim von Arnim)
| Data | |
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| Title: | Hall |
| Genus: | A student game in three acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Achim von Arnim |
| Literary source: | Andreas Gryphius : Cardenio and Celinde (1657) |
| Publishing year: | 1811 |
| Place and time of the action: | Hall and surroundings. |
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Halle is the first half of Achim von Arnim's double drama Halle and Jerusalem , which appeared in print in 1811. The plot unfolds in the university town of Halle , where Arnim studied law, mathematics and physics between 1798 and 1800. As Arnim himself states in a preliminary remark, the plot, including the names of the main characters, was taken from Andreas Gryphius ' tragedy Cardenio and Celinde (1657), which in turn takes up the material of an Italian novella. The dialogues of the piece are in prose, but partly with iambic rhythm. Arnim called this technique the “indefinite iamb line”.
content
first act
The market square in Halle: A crowd of students is grouped around the stand of a cherry seller. Ahasuerus appears, looking for Cardenio, but does not find him. Only later does Cardenio, a young private lecturer, appear and talk to some students; the language is rough for students. They rave about a young woman, Olympie, whom Cardenio meets shortly afterwards and falls in love with her.
But first there is a disputation, Cardenio opposes the philosopher Wagner. This, a representative of rationalism and critic of religion, dies during the disputation after the argumentative defeat against Cardenio, or, as it says in the play: “He died because of his own greatness, because of his conclusions with enormous consequences, because of a minor point stayed who should close everything ”(5th appearance). Wagner's corpse is brought onto the stage in a doctor's coat and doctoral hat - a kind of public funeral of the Enlightenment .
Olympie confesses to her brother, the Baron Virus, that Cardenio made a great impression on her. Meanwhile, Cardenio and his best friend Pamphilio move to Olympie's house. The latter has hired a band of musicians. They play under their window and there is also a mask game. Olympie gratefully accepts the gift and then wants to go to rest. Shortly before, however, Lysander - with the help of Olympie's servant Doris - hid in a closet in Olympie's bedroom. He had kept an eye on her for a long time, but his interest had not been returned, so that he has now decided to take a drastic step.
As Olympie approaches the closet, Lysander jumps out, quickly extinguishes the candlelight, gives Olympie a kiss, poses as Cardenio and disappears. Because of Olympie's screams of fear, Cardenio enters the house and Olympie's room, where he finds her passed out. Baron Viruses and Olympie at first believe that it was Cardenio who attacked Olympie and kissed her. With the help of the musicians, Cardenio can reject the guilt. When this is clarified, Baron Virus wants to shake hands with his sister Cardenio in order to prevent any rumors about what happened. Olympie is deeply offended by the idea of being given Cardenio without their consent and quasi "out of pity" (16th appearance). Cardenio, in turn, curses the circumstances and leaves the scene. He appears briefly at a student party, but immediately disappears sadly. A short time later Ahasuerus appears, who is still looking for him.
Second act
After reading together some verses of Gryphius from the literary model of the play, the tragedy Cardenio and Celinde , Baron Viruses and Olympie talk about the future. Olympie tells of a dream in which she saw how she did not bring Cardenio to her late mother, but Lysander. When Lysander then appears himself, Olympie turns to him. After she promised him her hand, he admits that it was he who hid in her closet and stole the kiss from her. But this does not change anything about Olympie's decision. The wedding of both should take place as soon as possible.
To get money for the wedding, Lysander wants to borrow 1,000 thalers from Nathan, a Jewish trader. He adds nine percent interest and is just pouring out his economic success when Pamphilio arrives. He also needs money at short notice because his best friend Cardenio has just lost a game. In an argument with Nathan, however, Pamphilio leaves the scene without having achieved anything. Shortly afterwards, Cardenio also arrives at the now drunk Nathan. In his condition, he does not notice that it is Cardenio, not Lysander, who is taking the 1000 thalers with him. In addition, Cardenio confessed in his monologue that last night he stabbed Captain Volte, whom he caught cheating.
When Lysander returns to get his money, the mistake is noticed. After Lysander left the house in a rage, Ahasuerus appears again. He introduces himself to Nathan and his wife as an "eternal Jew", "who is compelled to travel around the globe for the tenth time to improve you, to convert, that you will learn to believe in the true Savior out of my misery" - that is, in Christ ( 9th appearance). After Ahasuerus has resigned, Nathan suddenly dies. (Overall, the Jewish satire in this second act by Halle is more than just “an unpleasant accompaniment to the play.” The anti-Semitic passages have often been tapped by researchers for their political content.)
Cardenio now meets for the first time in the play Ahasuerus. Facing the two dead, he asks him whether he has no heart. Cardenio makes bitter comments and drives Ahasuerus away.
At the wedding of Lysander and Olympie there is a mask game with Cardenio as the Moorish Prince, Pamphilio as the White Prince and a princess. In the game for the favor of the princess, the Moorish prince gets so excited that he stabs first the white prince, then the princess. Olympie is happy when the allegorical game is over, which she interprets as a warning "of the evil consequences of wild passion" (12th appearance).
For his part, Baron Virus is in love with Celinde and goes to Celinde's house immediately after his sister's wedding. The annoying guest is chased away by Cardenio, who is also arriving soon. Celinde confesses to Cardenio that she was forced into a relationship by the preacher Lyrer. When Lyrer appears and sees Cardenio, he challenges him to a fencing match. Celinde intervenes to the disadvantage of Lyrers, he is fatally hit. The dying preacher asks Cardenio to be carried into his house.
Third act
The act begins with a jousting on the Saale , organized by Lysander for the wedding celebration with Olympie. Cardenio has crept in, in the garb of the Halloren . He wins a fight and receives a gold chain from the hand of Olympies, who also recognizes him. Then Cardenio meets Olympie's former servant Doris, who Lysander helped into the house. She has since been released and regrets helping Lysander. Doris describes the connections of the unlucky night to Cardenio. In the meantime, he seems to have lost interest in Celinde.
In a cutscene Cardenio then dissolves his secret order, to which some students belonged. The previous dispute between Kümmermann and the renegade striker, whom Cardenio later joined, shows that the latter has developed further compared to the original means of gaining knowledge, to which the order was committed.
Cardenio deliberately falls out with Pamphilio, because he wants to carry out his next plan alone and kill Lysander in revenge. Ahasuerus suddenly reappears to warn Cardenio that the police are now looking for the murderer of the cheat, Captain Volte.
Celinde quarrels with her situation and Cardenio's cold interest. Her mother, the war councilor Tyche, appears and encourages her. She advises her to use an unusual means to regain Cardenio's affection: "In order to win his love you must try to teach him Lyrer's heart burned to light ashes in wine, in food." (6th appearance)
Night has fallen and Cardenio has gone to Olympie's house to wait for Lysander to return. But before this appears, Cardenio is led away by a veiled figure that he believes is Olympia. Finally the figure disappears again, Cardenio falls asleep inside a church. In the same church, Celinde appears, under the guidance of her mother, to open the coffin of the preacher Lyrer and to tear his heart away. When she thinks the dead preacher is waking up, she gives a startled scream and wakes Cardenio. Both are surprised to meet here. Celinde then pulls Cardenio away. You meet Ahasuerus. He advises the guilty Celinde to make a pilgrimage to the tomb of Jesus in order to atone. Cardenio, who is much more guilty with the four dead that he has directly or indirectly on his conscience, also declares himself ready to make a pilgrimage to the grave of the Lord. Since they hear voices, they hide in a rock cave.
As Lysander and Olympie take their night walk past the rock, Cardenio rushes towards Lysander. However, he no longer wants to kill him, but is ready for reconciliation. Cardenio describes how the figure kept him from his original murderous plan - it turns out that the figure was the ghost of Olympie's late mother. In the presence of Ahasuerus, all are reconciled and Cardenio and Celinde set off. For his part, Baron Virus is inconsolable when he receives news of Celinde's departure, his sister and Lysander want to take care of the funeral home.
Pamphilio appears and wants to make sure that Cardenio is up and away. Lysander says yes and Pamphilio is reassured. When the captors arrive, Cardenio and Celinde have already disappeared across the national borders and are on their way to Jerusalem - the second part of the double drama is about this pilgrimage.
expenditure
- First edition (1811) in Google Book Search
- Hall at Zeno.org
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marco Puschner: Anti-Semitism in the context of political romanticism. Constructions of the "German" and the "Jewish" in Arnim, Brentano and Saul Ascher. Tübingen: Niemeyer 2008. pp. 338–341.