Aspects of Romantic Mentality: Ludwig Tieck

Bychkov Victor Doctor of Philosophy Chief Scientific Associate at Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences 109240, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Goncharnaya, 12, str. 1, Institut filosofii RAN vbychkov48@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Wackenroder's friend and one of the active early romantics Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853) ^[1-4] expressed his main aesthetic views in his works of art. At the same time, he did not hide the fact that often his ideas about art coincided with Wackenroder's thoughts, because they were born in joint discussions of topics of interest to them. Tick published the texts of a friend who passed away early, adding some of his opuses to them, and in the first edition he did not even indicate his authorship, his ideas were so close to the views of Wackenroder. For the early romantics, the exchange of thoughts, their borrowing from each other was commonplace. Many of the aesthetic ideas of the Schlegel brothers are an example. Therefore, we will not be surprised if in this work we find thoughts close to the views of Wackenroder ^[5-6], and the sublime pathos in the approach to art of both thinkers is almost the same. They were in love with art and were not shy about expressing it in their texts.

The apology of painting

In the year of Wackenroder's death, Tick^[1] publishes his unfinished novel The Wanderings of Franz Sternbald (1798) ^[7], in the Afterword to the First part of which he reports that it includes some thoughts about art in common with his friend. The hero of the novel is a young German artist, the best student of Albrecht Durer, who travels from Nuremberg to Italy through most of Germany and the Netherlands. On the way, he studies works of art, meets and talks with different people, most often with painters and art lovers, he paints paintings for various customers, talks a lot and reflects on painting and art in general. From the conversations of the novel's characters and their judgments about art, a holistic and multidimensional aesthetic concept of Teak is built, filled with the spirit of romanticism.

The inner world of the artist

Tick pays a lot of attention to understanding the essence of the artist and his place in the world. The artist, he is convinced, differs from ordinary people, because he is engaged in a business that, in the opinion of many, exceeds human abilities. Artists constantly feel their detachment from the rest of the human race. They "live only in sounds and signs, as if in airy spheres, like fairies and kobolds, it only seems that they are treading on sinful ground" ^{[8, p. 171]}. The artist, especially in the evenings, awakens desires and forebodings incomprehensible to himself, he "feels with excitement that another, a hundred times more beautiful, lies beyond this life, and the genius hidden in him often beats his wings in anguish, striving to free himself and fly to that country behind the golden sunset clouds" ^{[8, p. 15]}. Franz, contemplating the moon at night, imagines that it is on it that the beautiful country to which the artist's spirit aspires is located: "there, his inner voice screamed, there is the homeland of all our desires, love lives there, happiness lives there" – everything that a person lacks in this world ^{[8, p. 48]}. Sternbald often sees the beautiful worlds to which the artist's soul is drawn in a dream, and then his spirit "spreads its gigantic wings and enjoys heavenly freedom, infinity, in which nothing shackles or torments him" ^{[8, p. 48]}.

The artist's soul, Tick is convinced, is filled with bizarre fantasies; every object in nature, be it a flower or a cloud, evokes memories or hopes in the creator; many visions float before his eyes, inaccessible to ordinary mortals ^[9]. The play of fantasy is especially bizarre for a poet who is not bound by any material, like a painter or sculptor. The poet is the most free in his work, "he is given to clothe his images in the moonlight and the glow of sunset and extract hitherto unheard sounds from an invisible harp, and angels and gentle spirits descend on the wings of these sounds" ^{[8, p. 36]}, which ordinary people do not hear and do not feel. The life of an artist, Franz feels from his own experience, is like a dream. And it is often difficult for an artist to understand where the dream is, his fantasies, and where the real world in which he seems to live and act is. Franz had the ability to remember everything he saw down to the smallest detail, and then reproduce these pictures in his memory, and then he could not determine exactly where reality was and where the pictures of his own imagination were. And the artist, Franz admits, lives with great pleasure in an imaginary world. He is always in search and expectation and strives to "keep in his chest delight and admiration for beauty, for beautiful madness is a wonderful life" ^{[8, p. 41]}. Franz himself constantly looked at the world through the eyes of an artist. He tried on any object he saw, any person or any event to the picturesque space - how it would look in the picture. Throughout the world around him, he was looking for answers to artistic questions, art has always lived in him and guided him.

Having imbued his inner world with contemplation of the reality transformed in his soul and the fruits of fantasy and imagination, the artist tries to translate all this into his works. At the same time, in the "pure soul" of the artist, even those impressions that are not preserved in memory are left and reflected, but they also "secretly nourish the artistic spirit and are not wasted" ^{[8, p. 107]}. In general, the spiritual world of the painter seems to Tick (he expresses this in Franz's thoughts and statements) to be a bottomless whirlpool in which waves of various impressions foam, crowd and overlap each other, then converge, then diverge, without stopping or calming down. It is not rest and movement that fill the artist's soul; "a seething, raging mystery, endless, inescapable fury of an angry, falling element" boils in it ^{[8, p. 197]}.

Spirituality of Art

The inner world of the artist is multifaceted, and the "raging mystery" is often replaced in him by the expectation of something amazing and wonderful. "You are completely at the mercy of a dream," his fellow traveler and poet Rudolf shares his thoughts with Franz, "and you expect that everyday life will suddenly take some completely unexpected and unusual turn. It is as if the spirit of Ariosto's creations will blow on us, drawing us into its crystal whirlpool; and we will wake up and wait for something new, waiting for the appearance of spirits that will pass in front of us in a bright magical sequence." Then the bizarre languages of natural phenomena will become available to us, the sounds of a distant flute will fill our souls with love and the luminous moments of our lives will come. "Magical forces will close us into their harmonious circle, and like a mysterious moonlight, some new, enlightened life will be shed into our everyday existence" ^{[8, p. 119]}. It is this life that the artist lives in the process of creativity, forgetting about what surrounds him in everyday life.

In his letter to his friend Sebastian, also a disciple of Durer, who remained with the master in Nuremberg, Franz informs about the idea of the painting "Evangelism to the Shepherds", which should express the state of blissful peace of his soul and evoke similar feelings in the audience. "Peaceful flocks, gray–haired shepherds in the glow of sunset, and angels in the distance, they go to them across the field to announce the birth of the Savior, the redeemer of sins." Shepherds are not afraid of a miraculous phenomenon, "in joyful expectation they turned their eyes to the angels, and the children with gentle hands point to the golden radiance emanating from the heavenly messengers." Franz would like everyone watching this painting to strive to get into her world and forget for a while about all the hardships of life ^{[8, p. 18; cf. a more detailed author's description of the finished painting – 34]}. Sternbald painted this painting for the church in the village where he spent his childhood, and during the church service in honor of the new image, he felt a pious prayerful delight from contemplating his painting in the context of the entire church action. The singing splashed in waves under the arches of the church, the majestic sounds of the organ "fell upon the listeners like a melodic storm"; everyone's eyes were riveted to the new image. Looking at it, Franz himself was struck by its beauty and the significance of the depicted event. The painting no longer seemed to the artist to be his property, it belonged to another higher world and inspired the master with "respectful timidity and prayerful worship." And it seemed to him that the depicted figures themselves participate in the divine service, and the trees and bushes in the cemetery outside the window join them, and the deceased themselves sing along with the solemn sounds of the organ with ghostly voices, and the rays of the sun pour in through the window and enliven the stone statues in the temple.

The perception of the complex of church arts, which included his own work, together with a prayerful mood led Franz to harmony with the universe: "Unspeakable bliss overwhelmed Sternbald, for the first time in his life all the forces of his soul, all feelings merged in harmonious harmony, the spirit that rules the world, maintaining a wise order in it, overshadowed him and he became his protection, and he clearly understood that prayerful worship is the highest and purest enjoyment of art, accessible to the imperfect human soul only in its most beautiful, greatest hours. The whole world, all the variety of events, sorrow and joy, the low and the high – everything seemed to merge together, settling in accordance with the artistic measure" ^{[8, p. 37]}. It seems to Tick that painting, embedded in the synthesis of ecclesiastical arts, contributes to the harmonization of the world in accordance with artistic laws [cf.: 8, p. 10]. The idea that Russian symbolists would later develop into the concept of theurgy is the transformation of the world according to aesthetic principles with divine help.

In Teak's aesthetics, such a high status of art, and in particular painting, is quite understandable, because he is convinced of the divine principle of art – the artist's hand is moved by unearthly forces, he is a conductor of heavenly light. Tick likens the artist to God himself, who tries to communicate with people with the help of natural phenomena. "An artist does almost the same thing: an amazing, alien, unknown light shines from him (the artist. – V.B.), and he passes magic rays through the crystals of art so that other people would not be afraid of them, but through the medium of art would perceive and understand them. The artist's work is over, and an immense world opens up to the initiate in all the diversity of human lives, a world consecrated by heavenly radiance, and flowers grow in it secretly, which the artist himself does not know about, their seeds are thrown by a divine hand, and, fragrant with the aromas of the unearthly, they invisibly testify to us that the artist is God's chosen one" ^{[8, p. 138]}. The artist in his work most often unconsciously rises to divine revelations and brings them to people in the works of his hands. Through art, he and everyone who knows how to perceive his works ascend to the heavenly worlds. Franz uncomplicatedly conveys these feelings to his friend Sebastian in verse form:

Away with doubts! Away with the worries!

The muse pointed the way

To heaven, where the gods are

They'll meet us someday.

…………………………………………..

The sky in timid daring

Only the artist achieves.

^{[8, c. 44]}

An exalted old artist tells Franz about his inspiration. At moments of special contact with nature, early in the morning or after sunset, the faces of the holy martyrs suddenly appear to him in the crowns of the trees; he prays to them, and they seem to appeal to him to capture them in painting. And the inspired artist gets to work. In his opinion, an artist cannot work without inspiration. And inspiration in his understanding is when everything that he is going to portray seems to be a reality to him. At these moments, his spirit becomes like a stream, "shaking his inner world to the ground, and then the motley confusion, organizing itself, develops into great images that he reveals to his fellow men" ^{[8, p. 140]}. This is how inspiration arises, and it is an amazing phenomenon that cannot be explained in any way. It comes and goes unpredictably, like the first radiance of spring, unexpectedly peeking through the clouds and immediately disappearing, not allowing us to enjoy it.

Franz quite agrees with the old painter about the sublime inspiration guiding the artist's work. In a polemic with the sculptor Boltz, who belittles the meaning and significance of painting, Sternbald excitedly proves that painting, along with other outstanding phenomena of human life, occupies its high place in the world order. What the sage shows by his wisdom, what the hero proves by his self–sacrifice, what the holy martyr testifies to by his death, the artist achieves the same with the help of his brush. "Nothing but a ray of light from heaven takes away artists' idleness, encouraging them to magnificent activities. And therefore, the hours that the master spends in front of his creation are the most beautiful, the most sublime; he invests in it with the help of images the love with which he is ready to press the whole world to his chest, the original beauty, the sublime image of divinity, before which he worships" ^{[8, p. 95]}. The artist feels the uplift of the spirit in his chest, remembers all the beautiful and great things that ever worried him; and now it is no longer the earthly picture that he seems to depict on the canvas that delights him, but "sweet shadows fall into his soul from heaven, evoking in it a motley world of euphony and harmony" [ibid.]. The amazing nature, the beautiful sight of the morning, the flickering of the fading evening, the beauty of man – all this art of painting strives to make even more valuable and meaningful for us; coordinates us with ourselves and with the outside world; gives us "heavenly pleasure". The artist, in his obsession with art, weaves the whole world and all the sensations of his heart into it.

Appreciating the painting in this novel, Tick often emphasizes, as we have partly seen, that other types of art play an equally important role in human life, especially poetry and music. At the same time, they actively contribute to the work of the painter himself. It is no coincidence that the novel is filled with poems and songs, which are performed by the characters on almost every occasion, and music, the German romantic is convinced, is a necessary element of the artist's creativity. Therefore, Franz often paints to music, which elevates his spirit and strengthens his hand, makes it more confident. "Every time, I feel," Franz reveals his soul to a friend, "music elevates the soul, and exultant sounds, like angels, drive away earthly desires and desires with heavenly innocence." Music excites pleasure in us, which can probably be experienced only on the eve of paradise. Even in dance music, dancers experience "spiritual pleasure" ^{[8, p. 109]}. Sternbald agrees with his friend Rudolf, a poet and musician, that music conveys the world of dreams very well, and that it is she who can most fully express something significant of all the arts, but not conveyed in words. Franz admits that it was often not so much the plot and composition that captured him when working on a painting, as the special musicality of painting. In general, he is convinced, "poetry, music and painting often turn out to be equal, moreover, each achieves the same thing by its own means" ^{[8, p. 153]}.

Rudolf, meanwhile, dreams of plotless painting, close to the one that was called abstract in the twentieth century. This idea is suggested by the stunning picture of the sunset sky. Pointing it out to Franz, he argues that if artists could depict such a thing on canvas, then he would not need any plot painting. "My soul would enjoy these harsh colors without connection and meaning, these visions with gold inlay, and I don't need any plot, no pathos, no composition and whatever else you have come up with, if only you could open to me with a pink key, as the kind mother nature is doing now, the homeland of childhood premonitions, brilliant a country where golden dreams frolic in the green and azure sea, where bright images wander between fiery flowers, stretch out their hands to us, which we so want to press to our hearts" ^{[8, p. 153]}. However, artists, he laments, do not have such colors, and the meaning in its ordinary meaning is the most important thing for painters. Agreeing with a friend about the impossibility of depicting the feast of the sunset sky on canvas, Sterbald is convinced that painting without any plot is still possible - this is landscape painting.

The aesthetic significance of the landscape

The beauty and aesthetic significance of the natural landscape were revealed to Franz during his journey, when he got out into nature from the city walls. The splendor of nature appeared to him in a peculiar way, almost like in a picturesque painting – in the reflection in the water of a pond. "For the first time he contemplated the landscape with such pleasure, in the mirror of clear water, for the first time he truly discovered nature - the variety of its colors and shades, the sweetness of peace and the beauty of foliage. Most of all, he liked the amazing perspective created at the same time, and the sky, a delicate azure floating among curly clouds and trembling foliage" ^{[8, p. 27]}. Franz even tried to sketch this landscape, but nothing worked. The beauty of nature is not given to the painter immediately. Previously, Franz knew the landscape only as an additional means to the historical picture, and during his journey through nature he realized the intrinsic value of the landscape as an aesthetic object.

Meanwhile, the natural landscape constantly aroused in him an extraordinary spiritual delight, which he did not experience when contemplating works of art. Here he is from the top of a hill surveying the valley with a river, forests, meadows, and copses that opened before his eyes, and "his heart was ready to burst at the sight of this boundless, infinitely diverse nature that opened to him, she seemed to call out to him with a penetrating voice, looked at him with the fiery eyes of heaven and river, stretched out her arms to him gigantic hands." Clouds float across the blue sky on the horizon, their shadows run across the meadows below them, and unknown magical sounds spread from the mountain. With his arms outstretched as if to embrace all this luxurious boundless world, "Franz froze as if enchanted, as if a magical force prevented him from moving from his place and escaping from the invisible circle outlined by it" ^{[8, p. 136]}.

Art appeared to Sternbald as impotent childish babble in front of the greatness and beauty of nature; in front of a "full-sounding organ", "powerful harmonic chords of which sound from the deepest bowels of the earth, from mountains and valleys, and forests, and rapids." Franz hears how "the eternal world spirit strikes the strings of a terrifying harp with masterly perfection, giving birth to all the variety of phenomena that spread throughout nature on the wings of the spirit." Painting can give only a faint idea of nature, "while nature itself gives us an idea of the deity"; nature shows us "a hieroglyph denoting the highest – God himself" [ibid.]. Because of human weakness, God cannot speak directly to people, so he communicates with them through nature, each of its creatures. Art, even the highest, explains only itself.

Nevertheless, Franz, constantly being in nature, comes to understand that it is a picturesque landscape in itself, without any figures and historical plot, that can approach the natural landscape and evoke special feelings in a person. He begins to become convinced that "a good landscape in itself can express something amazing, and just its desolation (i.e. the absence of any figures in the landscape. - V.B.) it especially enhances the impression" ^{[8, p. 154]}. Art, through Sternbald, Tick convinces readers, is an "incomprehensible miracle," and landscape painting plays an important role in it. Franz paints a verbal picture of an uncomplicated landscape in front of Rudolf and claims that "this very solitude, not disturbed by any living being, will awaken in you an incomprehensible sad feeling" [ibid.]. Another time, Sternbald and his fellow traveler, the sculptor Boltz, are enjoying the golden moonscape, and Franz regretfully tells Boltz that it is unlikely to be possible to convey all this in the painting, but if it were possible to preserve the mood that we are experiencing now for the entire time of working on the painting and it would be possible to convey it to the viewer, then "we could often do without plot and composition and still achieve a great and wonderful effect on the viewer" ^{[8, p. 188]}. Landscape painting occupied a prominent place in the aesthetics of romantics, and Tick puts a romantic understanding of the picturesque landscape into the mouths of his heroes, who lived long before the appearance of the landscape genre itself.

At the same time, it is impossible, of course, not to pay attention to the fact that Franz turns to the landscape in painting from the natural landscape, which leads him to indescribable delight. In painting, he would only like to capture this landscape or convey the mood it evokes. With all the admiration for art by the heroes of the novel ("paintings delight the human eye and soul, they multiply the glory of the Lord, support faith" ^{[8, p. 13]} – Franz) and by Tick himself, respectively, a kind of artistic imitation of nature is in the first place for them.

At the origins of realistic painting

It is no coincidence that Tick made the hero of his novel a pupil of Durer, whose art is significantly close to nature, he stands at the origins of realistic painting. And Franz often emphasizes this ability of his teacher and idol to depict people and objects close in appearance to their natural originals. In general, Sternbald is convinced that contemporary art is much closer to nature, the images are more similar to living people than those of the old masters. Moreover, Durer's student believes that modern artists should not only depict historical subjects, but also the simplest everyday life of people. Being in the shopping area among a large crowd, Franz wonders: "Why did no one think to sit down at an easel among such a relaxed crowd and present this nature to us exactly as it is?" ^{[8, p. 32]}. Romantics already knew such art, at least the Dutch of the XVII century, and contrasted it with the dominance of classicism and academicism in contemporary art. Franz, as a character from the beginning of the XVI century, sees the trends of such art in Durer and the Dutchman Luke of Leiden, for the sake of acquaintance with whom he made a detour to the Netherlands. Durer also came to visit Luca, and they had a conversation about art, in which Luca especially insisted on the role of imitation of nature in painting. "Nature," says Luke, "is who creates, she transmits to all the arts the jewels of her great treasury; we only imitate nature" ^{[8, p. 59]}. However, this imitation is creative, because everything that arises in the artist's head and is embodied in art is also natural, because it is born in a work of nature – man. Durer agrees with his colleague.

Other topics of art are also touched upon in the conversation of famous painters. Durer, for example, praises the character in Lukoy's portrayal of Thiel Ulenspiegel. "You portrayed the notorious rogue-commoner the way he probably should have looked, oblique eyes and a crooked nose perfectly express the strangeness of his nature, in these lips you put a hint of his wit, sometimes very caustic, and I really like that you did not make his ugly face too ugly, suggestive disgust, but very skillfully achieved that it is still pleasant to look at" ^{[8, p. 56]}.

Luca, meanwhile, is very unhappy that Durer allowed his student to go to Italy. In his opinion, neither German nor Dutch artists need to go to study with Italians. They can't learn anything worthwhile from them, because each country has its own art, and a German will always look at the world in German, and an Italian in Italian. Of those Dutch artists who visited Italy and tried to adopt the creative manner of the Italians, nothing worthwhile turned out. The best German and Dutch artists have not been to Italy and create beautiful paintings. Durer holds a different point of view, believing that there is always something to learn from good masters, and there are many outstanding painters in Italy. That's why he advised Franz to visit Italy, believing that he could make a good artist.

The conversation of the painters also concerns the topic of the value and significance of the painting. Durer believes that it is impossible to create something completely new in art. Each artist relies on the experience of previous masters, and the very first master relied on what was already in his experience, thoughts, memories, what he read and heard. At the same time, each work of a genuine painter is unique and inimitable in its own way: "Every good painting occupies its own special place, in fact, it is irreplaceable, even if there are many paintings that are the best in other respects, and they express things that are not in that first painting" ^{[8, p. 63]}.

There is also a conversation about another topic interesting for the art of painting, that Durer depicts historical characters in modern or invented clothes, and does not try to clothe them in the robes of their time and place. Durer replies that he does this consciously, because the artist's task is not to introduce the viewer to long-forgotten clothes, but to bring the depicted plot closer to his perception by a modern viewer, which happens when he sees characters in robes close to him: "I bring a biblical or pagan plot closer to to the eyes of my viewer, presenting to him my figures in the same clothes that he himself wears. Then the subject of the painting ceases to be alien to him" ^{[8, p. 61]}. Moreover, modern clothes, Durer is convinced, are very picturesque in themselves and it is convenient to write them, because the artist sees them on the people around him. Ancient robes, on the other hand, have to be depicted guided only by imagination, which often deadens the characters dressed in them; the real truth, Durer is convinced, cannot be achieved in the picturesque reconstruction of old clothes anyway. Luca completely agrees with him.

Indirectly, these thoughts of Durer are confirmed some time later in the novel by one of the lovers of painting, who became a traveling companion of Franz for a while. It is the figures close to modern clothes that especially attract him in a painting approaching realistic: "The noble masters of the art of painting ... are able to show me objects and people so that they appear before me in all the charm of their colors, in all authenticity, as if alive, so that the eye... it costs nothing to instantly grasp and understand everything at once": and the more often I see these figures, the closer they become to me; I perceive them as living people ^{[8, p. 75]}. German and Dutch artists are focused on such a perception of painting in the novel, which probably appeals to the author of the book. At the same time, we are not talking about a literal copy of reality, but about the "truthfulness" and artistic expressiveness of painting. Comparing the writing manners of Durer and Luke, Franz shows their closeness and difference, which are not limited to naked copying of samples. Sternbald saw the same thoroughness and accuracy of drawing in both masters, "although Luke did not, as it seemed to Franz, have the rigor of drawing that distinguished Durer, the contours were not so boldly and confidently outlined; but in the poses of the figures, and in the coloring, Luke had a certain soft charm that Durer lacked" ^{[8, p. 49]}. But in spirit, both artists seemed very close to each other to Franz. Yes, they showed this in conversation with each other.

Franz contrasts Renaissance German and Dutch painting, which tends to realism, with old medieval painting, believing that the latter is much less artistic ^[11]. Invited to one of the monasteries to renovate an ancient painting, Sternbald argues with the abbess of the monastery, who demands not to disturb the old painting with new artistic techniques. He especially insists that he keep the tapes coming from the mouths of the characters, including the animals, with the texts of their statements. Franz convinces her that these labels spoil the entire artistic image of the painting, they are completely inappropriate there, to which he listens to the maxim of medieval, and above all ecclesiastical, aesthetics: in a painting, what is important is not beauty and artistic expressiveness, but spiritual benefit. I am convinced, she chastises the artist, "that a spiritual touching story should in no way be expressed in a worldly way; charm, and what you artists call beauty, does not belong in a painting whose purpose is edification and the awakening of pious thoughts." The painting should preserve the Old German rigidity of writing, which contributes to the elevation of the spirit. The inscriptions just need to be updated, because they explain the essence of what is depicted, which cannot be conveyed in any way by facial expressions. Ancient painting retains some mystery inexplicable in words, and the moral maxims written out by the artists will keep them within the bounds of good morals ^{[8, p. 195-196]}. Franz does not share this outdated aesthetic of the ecclesiastical benefits of painting, but is forced to partially accept the demands of the customer.

The Sublimity of art

As he travels, Sternbald meets with various people related to art in one way or another, and participates in conversations and debates about painting. In one Dutch society, he vehemently entered into a polemic with an old man who argued that art is harmful to human society, because it does not bring any benefit, but only what is useful for a person, society or the state is valuable. Franz agrees with him that art has no practical use, but considers it his merit. Art is higher than ordinary reality, and "the truly high cannot and should not be useful; this usefulness is completely alien to its divine nature, and to demand it means trampling the sublime into the mud, reducing it to the base needs of man" ^{[8, p. 94]}. The great and the beautiful have never stooped to be useful. Art is strong because in it the divine nature and the greatness of the human spirit manifest themselves in the purest and most direct way and this is why they are valuable to humanity ^[12]. However, not all people understand this meaning of art; many of them are so driven by life, they are tormented by poverty, envy, greed, that "they do not have the spirit to see something divine in art and poetry, in heaven and in nature" ^{[8, p. 40]}, which alone can make people happy and blissful. Only children, real artists and some art lovers have such a vision. However, many artists are overloaded with excessive scholarship, and understanding the divine in art and nature requires simplicity, which children and peasants possess. It is necessary for an artist to go to them from time to time for training, "so that his heart opens up again for simplicity, which alone constitutes genuine art" ^{[8, p. 18]}.

Simplicity is simplicity, but in art it is a special simplicity that is combined with the symbolic (allegorical – in the novel) meaning of a work of art, both poetry and painting. In a conversation with an old artist, Franz comes to understand that art allegorically conveys the essential foundations of nature and human life. "All art is allegorical," said the old man, "no matter how you understand it. Is it possible to depict anything by itself, separately and forever divorced from the rest of the world, as we see real objects in front of us? Yes, art should not strive for this: we combine, we try to express a generalizing meaning in a single one, and so an allegory is born. This word means nothing more than true poetry, striving for the sublime and noble, and it can only be found on the path of allegory" ^{[8, pp. 140-141]}. In landscape painting, Sternbald adds, allegory means that the artist should not strive to literally copy every leaf, every blade of grass. His task is to express his soul, his mood, through all the natural objects he has seen, in the power of which the artist is at the moment.

In another conversation with the poet Rudolf, Franz develops his thoughts on the allegorical meaning of painting. He is not convinced that all art is allegorical, but allegorism forms the basis of many paintings. And in them, "the artist can discover the full power of his imagination, his ability to magic art: here he can, as it were, go beyond his art and compete with the poet. The event, the figures for him are only something secondary, but at the same time they represent a picture, here there is peace and vivacity, fullness and emptiness, and the boldness of thought, the boldness of composition are fully manifested here." In these paintings, "it is not man who is expressed – humanity, not an incident – sublime peace... general concepts are expressed here in material figures with such serious significance." Here, as in life, one cannot exist without the other, nothing can be torn out of the overall picture. All this seems to Franz to be "extraordinarily sublime" ^{[8, pp. 154-155]}. In his characters' judgments about allegorism in painting, Tick actually raises the question of what modern aesthetics understands by artistic symbolism, and connects this with both plot painting and landscape. In the most romantic painting of the first third of the 19th century, Friedrich's landscapes and some of Runge's works were filled with similar symbolism.

Not only poetry and painting, in the eyes of Tick, have artistic symbolism ("allegorism" in his terminology), but also architecture, especially Gothic in full. Sternbald acts as a defender of the Strasbourg Cathedral from classicists and academicians who condemn it in the novel, uttering an eloquent apology for the masterpiece of Gothic architecture ^[11]. "The sublimity of this giant cannot be expressed by comparison with something equally sublime; the perfection of symmetry, the most daring allegorical poetry of the human spirit, this enormous extension in breadth and into the celestial heights without end, without edge; infinity and at the same time inner orderliness." Everything in the cathedral is correlated with each other and forms a harmonious integrity, expresses "Gothic grandeur and splendor", an exalted spiritual principle. The mighty stone masses of the cathedral "express something more sublime, something incomparably more ideal. This is the human spirit itself, its versatility fused into a visible unity, its bold titanic aspiration to heaven, its immeasurable strength and mystery" ^{[8, p.117; cf. variant: p. 254]}. In this highly symbolic assessment of the cathedral, the sculptor Boltz agrees with Franz, who has polemicized with him on many other issues of art. Gothic architecture was first highly appreciated by Romantics in the context of their aesthetics of raising the human spirit through art to heavenly, divine heights.

The search for a romantic ideal

Like any romantic work, Tika's novel cannot do without the feminine ideal, which nourishes the soul and creativity of the artist. Here it is a stranger-a girl to whom the six-year-old Franz gave a bouquet of wildflowers and whose angelic image he remembered for the rest of his life, becoming a kind of guiding star. Novalis had a similar role played by a blue flower – the beautiful face of his stranger shone from it. Franz, already at a young age, in which he appears in the text of the novel, once again caught a glimpse of his stranger and identified her later from an album she had lost, where a dried bouquet of his childhood flowers was kept. From this, he concluded that the stranger also remembers him, and with even more love he rushed in search of his ideal. Later, he discovered her picturesque portrait from an old artist, and at the end of the novel he finally meets her in Rome, the ultimate goal of his journey, and everything ends with mutual love.

The stranger who lived in the imagination of the young artist was embodied in his work. In the painting "The Holy Family", which he painted in Strasbourg for a customer, he gave the features of his unknown Madonna and claims that it was she who inspired him to create the painting, which made it especially successful and valuable for Franz. "In the image of the Madonna," he writes to his friend Sebastian, "I tried to imagine the one that illuminates my soul, the spiritual light in whose rays I see myself and everything that is in me –its sweet reflection adorns everything and makes everything sparkle." Franz believes that every artist of the past had a similar ideal in his soul, which he aspired to in his life and work. Sternbald judges this from his own experience, arguing that "the remoteness from her ("beloved", as the stranger is called by Franz – V.B.), this desire of my spirit to remember her and spiritually master her, inspired me when I painted the picture" ^{[8, p. 108]}. This ideal guided the artist in his meetings with young women during his journey. They were, as it were, illuminated by his ideal and seemed to Franz so beautiful that he fell in love with them.

In general, the beauty and charm of girls and young women occupies a prominent place in the novel. Sternbald falls in love with some of them, and his fellow travelers do not forget to describe the beauty of their lovers in enthusiastic tones. One of them, Ludovico, who later turned out to be Franz's brother, tells about his stranger, whom he met in Rome and fell in love with her even before Sternbald arrived there and met her personally. "All this sweet mysterious charm that envelops her figure, the sanctity that you meet in the gaze of those enlightened azure eyes; innocence, alluring playfulness imprinted on her cheeks, in her charming lips – no, I cannot describe it... A certain line between her beautiful smooth eyebrows respectfully silences fantasy, and yet these eyebrows and long eyelashes are nothing but the golden nets of the god of love," and so on in the same spirit ^{[8, p. 179]}.

His friend Roderigo tells about his beloved young countess, from whom he ran away on the wedding day, fearing that marriage would limit his desire for travel and adventure, and Franz was later in love with her, working on her portrait. However, since then, Roderigo has been constantly thinking about her, cherishing her image in his soul and can do nothing about his love. He often conjures up her image as a vision, and then the whole of nature appears to him more beautiful than it was before. "I tell you, friend Ludovico, once you see her, all your senses will follow her like obedient slaves; only beautiful music can convey her every movement, in all its softness and charm; when she walks through the forest, and her light clothes, clinging to her leg, hip They repeat their outlines when she rides a horse, and her dress rises and falls to the beat of the holop, or when she soars like a goddess in a dance – everything about her is euphony itself, and you don't want to see her different than she is, but her every new movement overshadows the previous one. There is more voluptuousness in one contemplation of her than in the possession of another" ^{[8, p. 181]}.

The sculptor Boltz also sees in the beautiful girl he likes, both inner sanctity and sensual gorenje. Franz, while working on a painting at the monastery, fell in love with a novice, whom his parents decided to take the veil as a nun. He told the sculptor about her beauty, and he, it turns out, is already delighted with her. "You are right to call her a saint, I have never seen a figure who so fully expressed the idea of the sublime, unearthly. And now imagine this chaste chest naked, the struggle of shame and love on these cheeks, these lips burning in kisses, these big eyes surrendered to passion, everything unearthly in this woman in a struggle with herself, .. her lover has no equal in happiness and bliss in the whole wide world!" ^{[8, p. 200]}. Teak's feminine beauty consists of virgin spiritual charm and sensual charm, which together make his characters, usually related to art, fall in love with the bearers of this beauty.

Raphael's High Mission

Tick sees something similar in Italian art, which is more refined and sensual, in his view, than the art of the Germans or the Dutch of that time. Many of the novel's storylines seem to be directed towards this soulful sensuality of Italian painting. On the way to Italy, Franz's traveling companion, the poet Rudolf, describes to him the depiction of the story of Cupid and Psyche by Raphael at the Villa Farnesina in Rome. "The plot itself is so delightful and tender, it is a symbol of undying, enduring youth, written by the eternally young and prophetic Sanzio in his most beautiful inspiration, the apotheosis of love and the charm of flowers, sublime charm. The whole composition as a whole is ... a kind of poetic revelation, in which the very nature of charm and charm is revealed to us, and when looking at the picture, this nature becomes understandable and close to the human heart" ^{[8, p. 110]}. In one of the versions of this text, Tick also adds the pleasure of Raphael's Galatea in the fresco "The Triumph of Galatea": "And in the next room – the dream of the sweetest lust, Galatea in the sea, floating on her shell!" ^{[8, p. 251]}. To today's sophisticated eye, accustomed to seeing frank and even hypertrophied sensuality in the subsequent history of art and in Modern Times, the naked figures of Raphael, like other Renaissance artists, do not seem so sensual, but Tick looked at them through the eyes of a man at the beginning of the XVI century. and wanted to show that sensuality is beautiful in art.

In Raphael, Tika is also admired for the high spiritual imagery and symbolic significance of his work; he pays special attention to the last work of the Italian artist – "Transfiguration", which is lovingly described by one of Franz's fellow travelers. He considers this painting to be one of his most sublime and perfect creations. "The Savior soars above in heavenly glory, next to him are Elijah and Moses, who broke away from the earth: radiance emanates from the figure of the Savior, and his beloved disciples, blinded by this radiance, prostrate themselves, and the apostles stand below the mountain, in them is faith and power, which is destined to transform and enlighten the earth in the future But for now they are surrounded by a dark earthly life, and they cannot help the terrible and sad human fate, personified by an obsessed boy who is brought to them in the hope of healing. In this painting, everything that is holy, human and terrible is wonderfully combined, the bliss of the saved and the sorrows of this world, light and shadow, body and spirit, faith, hope and despair make this heartfelt, touching and sublime creation truly the most beautiful and perfect" ^{[8, p. 253]}. Everyone who saw this picture shed tears, the narrator emphasizes. The versatility of not only Raphael's art, but also of all Italian painting is constantly emphasized by the author of the novel; it seems to him richer and more sublime than the German or Dutch art of that time.

Having learned from one of his fellow travelers that Raphael had already died, and his coffin stood in the workshop next to the Transfiguration, Sternbald inspiringly convinces his listeners that high masters of art never die, they remain alive in their works, their spirit constantly communicates with us through their creativity. Moreover, they turn their eyes to our descendants, because they left in their works thoughts and ideas that inspired them to create. Every figure of Raphael is already stretching out his hands to his unborn descendants, welcoming them into the world. "In each painting, Raphael seems to press an admiring viewer to his heart, and he feels how the artist's spirit lovingly embraces and warms him, he seems to feel his breath, hears the voice of his greetings, and this hour gives him strength for life" ^{[8, p. 115]}.

Italian painting

In Florence, Franz himself began to get acquainted with Italian painting, and most of all he liked Titian and Correggio, especially the latter for the amazing depiction of the "sensual world", which was not revealed to anyone "in such a glow of glory"; the god of love himself probably drove the artist's brush. Everything that Petrarch's love sonnets evoke to us, what attracts our passion "the fiery genius of Ariosto," Sternbald writes to his friend in Nuremberg, quickly flows away like water from our soul, and in Correggio's paintings "all this in its most real charm stands before our eyes. This has a stronger effect than if Venus herself and Cupid had visited us; the enjoyment of these paintings is a high school of love." Those who do not understand these paintings, do not enjoy them, are not able to truly love ^{[8, p. 204]}. There is a special voluptuousness in Correggio's paintings, which is different from low sensuality – it is inherent in chaste human nature during its spring heyday: "This is human nature in all its bright purity, and it is not ashamed, because there is nothing shameful in it, it finds bliss in itself. I would call it the spring of human nature, the time of its flowering: in everything there is wealth, abundant generosity of pleasure, the beautiful is emphasized in all its fullness of splendor" ^{[8, p. 205]}. And this applies not only to paintings on ancient mythological subjects, but also works of Christian content – they also reflect the "loving soul" of the artist; "and here the Venus belt is hidden, you just don't know which of the figures secretly wears it" [ibid.].

Sensuality for Tick is one of the essential engines of life and art. In the novel "The Story of William Lovell", the German romantic develops, along with other "philosophies" and "philosophy of sensuality", which is well confirmed by the works of Correggio and other Italians. In fact, Tick anticipates Freud's aesthetics by almost a century, at least in the following maxim: "Nothing but sensuality is the main wheel of our machine; it moves our existence from its place and fills it with life and joy, a lever that enters us and lifts huge weights with low weight. Everything that we think is beautiful and noble starts from here. Sensual luxury is the spirit of music, painting, all the arts, this is the pole around which people's desires fly like moths around a burning candle. And the sense of beauty and artistic taste are just another dialect and accent, because they mean only one thing – the craving for pleasure; the intoxicated gaze enjoys the charm of forms, images of the poet, paintings in front of which an enthusiastic person kneels – just a preface to sensual pleasure, every sound, beautiful drapery – everything calls there; that is why the greatest poets are Boccaccio and Ariosto, and Titian and the daring Correggio rise above Dominicino and the pious Raphael" ^{[8, p. 353]}.

In his novel, Tick does not ignore Michelangelo either, while showing contradictory views in the then intellectual community on his work. The sculptor Boltz considers him the highest genius, after which artists have nothing to look for in painting, but must move along the path they have discovered. Michelangelo cannot talk about certain beauties, the beauty and power of his art as a whole are absolute. Other artists only prepared the path that Buonarotti completed. Before him, Boltz is convinced, there was no art at all; art began with Michelangelo. Now no one will ask what art is, all artists will become its followers. The art will be beautiful and meaningful, no one will resort to various tricks to please the viewer.

One of Sternbald's fellow travelers, an art lover of Castellani, skeptical of Michelangelo's "Last Judgment", put forward a whole program that the artist should follow in order to create a highly artistic work of art. He must, first of all, answer the question, "what is he able to say to reasonable people using his own means?"; then choose a suitable plot, think it over so as not to err against its truthfulness; comprehend what moment of action to portray so that it is the main and interesting moment; and do not take on the fact that that it is impossible to depict by means of painting. Before taking up the brush, the artist must accumulate a lot of observations about people and his own soul, cultivate his taste so that his painting can "create an illusion, as well as captivate and touch the viewer" ^{[8, p. 218]}. He does not find anything like this in modern artists, therefore, he advocates that all the conditions he expressed for painters should be recorded and presented to them as a necessary guide to creativity. So is Michelangelo. He was not guided by anything like this in his "Last Judgment", so he not only did not advance art forward, but threw it back a few steps. "What good is the correct drawing of his individual figures, in his extensive knowledge of the structure of the human body, if the painting itself is nothing?" His huge fresco is filled with many figures that are in no way connected with each other, so it does not make any impression on the viewer. "The purpose of his image is alien to beauty, the plot is not a plot, it cannot be seen, it cannot be visualized, it cannot even be told – these are thousands of separate events that are not connected in any way into a single whole. Figures floating in the air, reclining figures of the saved and the damned – there are angels, the Mother of God. The eye does not find support for itself, it asks: What am I supposed to do here?.. The painting seems unfinished, and this was especially affected by the fact that the artist did not think it through enough." There is nothing in it that I could enjoy ^{[8, pp. 218-219]}.

Such a rationalistic approach by Castellani to Michelangelo's masterpiece, tending towards the aesthetics of classicism, outrages the elderly Camillo, and he angrily turns to Castellani and his associates: "Do you really think that the purpose of the great, greatest Buonarotti, when he conceived his titanic creation, was your pleasure? Oh, you myopic ones, you who set out to scoop out the sea with glasses, you who want to put a limit to the flow of beauty, what evil spirit possessed you, pushing you to such audacity? You imagine that you are explaining art, but in fact you are only explaining your own spiritual narrowness and want the spirit of God, who dwells in artists – the sublime likenesses of the creator, to be tried on it" ^{[8, p. 219]}. Angrily, Camillo leaves the meeting, in which there are many like-minded Castellani, because they met the old man's speech with laughter. An indignant Sternbald runs out after him, confessing to Camillo that he completely agrees with him. The old man silently leads Franz to the Sistine Chapel and leaves him alone with Michelangelo's great creation. "In peace and solitude, Sternbald looked with respectful eyes at the sublime creation. Huge figures seemed to move from top to bottom, and the unspeakable horror of the depicted world engulfed the viewer. He stood and begged forgiveness from these figures, from the spirit of Michelangelo for turning on the wrong path... the stormy vision of the "Last Judgment" overshadowed everything before Franz's eyes; he felt that his soul had changed, as if it were being reborn, art had never possessed him with such powerful force. –Here he is, your apotheosis, Buonarotti, a seer, a participant in the greatest mysteries," said Franz. "Here are the terrifying riddles created by you, and you don't care whether they are intelligible to us or not" ^{[8, pp. 219-220]}. With this insight of Sternbald, Thicke's unfinished novel ends. He could not continue it further, although he took it up several times during the forty years of his later life. Wackenroder also paid great attention to Michelangelo's "Last Judgment", emphasizing its sublime character, picturesque power and "allegorical" meaning ^{[5, pp. 136-138]}.

Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" became a kind of apotheosis of the picturesque aesthetics of the German romantic, his ideas about genuine art. From Durer's painting close to realism through Franz's acquaintance with many facets of fine art, including a special predilection for sensual art, Tick led his hero to the sublimely symbolic "Last Judgment" of Michelangelo, the artistic meaning of which cannot be expressed in any words. It is essential that Tick's ideas about art are expressed in a figurative artistic form, which especially reveals their romantic character. For the reader of the novel, Sternbald's journey turns into a journey along the edges of romantic aesthetics.

The poetics of drama

Ludwig Tieck owns an interesting short story "The Life of a Poet" (1824), which reveals different facets of the romantic understanding of poetic creativity ^[13-16]. They appear in the conversations of the main characters of the novella – three English poets and playwrights of the last third of the XVI century, Christophe Marlowe, Robert Green, who appear in the text as friends of Tick, and the young Shakespeare. Marlowe and Green are shown by the author as already famous poets, revelers and ladies-in-waiting, treating with arrogance a stranger who accidentally fell into their company, whom they disparagingly nicknamed the scribe, believing that he serves in this position with some lawyer. Shakespeare did not give out his name, although it would not have told his interlocutors anything, since he was still completely unknown in professional circles. In the novel, he is brought out by a modest young man who does not reveal to his colleagues, whom he treats with respect, that he is also a poet.

Aspects of poetic creativity

Marlowe sets the tone in conversations about poetry. In particular, he admits that he composes only by inspiration, when he is, as it were, controlled by some external mind. "I can only compose," he confides, "when something excites me and I am irresistibly attracted to poetry and fantasies. Sometimes it even seems to me, in a sweet enchantment, as if an alien, higher mind is controlling my pen. When this sublime frenzy leaves me, I am even surprised at what I have written" ^{[17, p. 325]}. And Marlowe does not believe that it is possible to create a tragedy in a different state of mind, because the poet, he is convinced, is unable to express the superhuman unless he is out of his mental balance. A genuine work of poetic art, according to Marlowe, expresses something beyond human understanding on a rational level, and the poet in the act of creativity is in a special state, close to insanity from the point of view of ordinary consciousness. "In such a trembling state of prophetic madness, he perceives with his immortal eyes things that remain forever hidden from his earthly gaze" [ibid.].

Through the mouth of Marlowe, Tick expresses one of the main ideas of romantic aesthetics: the poet creates his works in a state of special prophetic trance, when a higher mind reveals to him truths inaccessible to his own understanding in the ordinary state of consciousness. Famous lines from Pushkin's The Poet (1827) immediately come to mind: "But only the divine verb // It will touch the sensitive ear, / / The poet's soul will start up, / / Like an awakened eagle." Marlowe seems to envy his friend Green that he can "compose at will," but for himself considers this method unacceptable. Green, in turn, admires Marlowe's spontaneous creativity, believing that it may be true "that the eagle of inspiration spreads its wings most willingly in the blessed hours when the sky of our soul is cloudless and azure," but he himself is deprived of this gift and can write at any time without much higher inspiration, relying on reason, order, perseverance and firmness of character ^{[17, pp. 325-326]}. This creative order, Green is convinced, could also help his friend in working with his inspiration, which is subject to all sorts of whims and changeable moods. Green admits that he is always "in a tender poetic mood," and this helps him to create at any time of his own volition, because his external and internal life, reality and fantasy are not as disconnected as Marlo and many other people. This allows him to achieve, in particular, gaiety and jokes completely freely in any place where necessary, which Marlo completely lacks.

Another character in the novel intervenes in the conversation – a certain nobleman, a fan of Marlowe's works and a patron of the arts. He believes that the inspired work of his idol perfectly conveys the heroic, the great, the terrible, where excessive gaiety is completely inappropriate. In general, in his opinion, it belongs to a lower level of poetic creativity, therefore it does not require the exertion of all the forces of the soul as the art of his favorite. "A giant," he asserts, "who uproots trees, cannot at the same time be an elegant dancer" ^{[17, p. 326]}. Shakespeare objects to Esquire, who believes that man is more than just a giant. And it gives him joy when in poetry "a giant is defeated by a nobler force." He is inclined to assume, probably referring to his own poetic experience, that there is poetry that "unites absolutely everything" ^{[17, p. 327]}.

Meanwhile, the "irrationalist" Marlowe does not always refuse to rely on reason in his work. For example, he is convinced that the play should always end with something new, which was not expressed in the text of the work itself; the tragedy should be completed with "great thoughts, feelings and shocks that did not manifest themselves even before in the tragedy itself and yet constitute its essence"; create a picture of "sublime fear", which "after all the excitement, it turns over the whole soul and seems to break the heart" ^{[17, p. 320]}. Such a completion of the work, of course, does not arise spontaneously – here it is necessary to think soberly, and Marlo's mind comes to the aid of inspiration.

The nobleman reminded the poets of the ongoing debate by their contemporaries about the immorality of poetry, arguing that it is quite appropriate in poetic creativity, but "a pious lifestyle, civic virtue and purity are incompatible with poetry" ^{[17, p. 327]}. Marlowe, whom "good-natured" readers just reproached for the inconsistency of many of his passages with the norms of morality, burst into a lengthy monologue about the fact that there are many negative and immoral phenomena in society and poetry. And they are not something foreign in the structures of both, but they are completely natural. Without them, both human society and authentic poetry would simply collapse. Similarly, Marlowe is convinced, "just as in the great dismemberment of human society it is impossible to remove from the whole the apparent imperfections, poverty, oppression, violence and vices, because thereby not only virtue would be destroyed, but the entire edifice of majestic wisdom would collapse, so a similar phenomenon is noticed in poetry" ^{[17, c. 327]}. The "sensual delight", which is most strongly manifested in poetry, seems to be superfluous, but it cannot be destroyed, because then every sense of life in a poetic work would perish along with it. Poetry should be full of life in all its luxurious and sweet manifestations. When the consciousness of life awakens in the poet's chest and there is a desire to express it in images, beautiful sounds and chords, he encloses it in a special shell and "raises it to the limits of comprehension, to splendor, charm and voluptuousness, to where the purest and burning flame of life burns" ^{[17, p. 328]}. In this flame, "the spirit of poetry boldly ascends, manifesting itself in all colors and images." All that is heavenly, pure and wondrous, which the poet's soul lives by, is expressed in his works in sensual excitement and bodily luxury. Whoever blames me for the sensual extremes of my poetry, declares Marlowe, scolds poetic inspiration itself, which, in his understanding, is a vital force, "which wakes up in the secluded darkness of the soul, looks around, comprehends the miracle of its purpose with a clear, ever-glowing gaze and lovingly takes with it this sweet, world-stirring attraction to express in images and forms, that which would forever remain dead and unembodied" [ibid.].

Among the phenomena requiring poetic embodiment, Marlowe refers, in particular, to the "passionate desire for pain and suffering" inherent, in his opinion, in man. In the depths of the human soul, the English poet is convinced, there is a hidden attraction to the terrible, so the soul satisfies its "terrible hunger", bloodlust and cruelty lurking in the chest, with pictures of blood and murder. And poetry is called upon to give such pictures, awakening in man his wild nature, triumphant in its greatness amid horror and shudder. "And this urge, which elevates both in reality and in poetry a person high above himself, is in the deepest way akin to fiery voluptuousness and in reality is the same magical desire to create and destroy, destroy at the apogee of love and revel in thirst for blood to the finest fibers of the soul" [ibid.]. Therefore, according to Marlowe, both love and cruel tyranny are necessary in tragedy; they are the ones that awaken the souls of the audience from sleep.

In the concept of Marlowe, Tick deduces one of the most significant lines of poetic creativity in culture, when sensual drives, bodily intuitions, and the unconscious experience of primitive archetypes are brought to the first place in a work of art. All this was characteristic of folk art, German folklore, in particular, and was actively used by playwrights of that time when creating works designed for the widest circles of readers and viewers. In the twentieth century, well-known psychoanalysts also revealed the deep psychophysiological mechanisms of this artistic concept, rooted in the distant past, which manifested itself, as Tick shows, in English drama and poetics of the XVI century.

Shakespeare, involved in the controversy, paying tribute to Marlowe's poetry, agrees that the "sensual delight" in life and poetry cannot be denied. However, he is not sure whether sensuality, as Marlowe claims, forms the weft of our lives and the basis of the poetic fabric that blossomed on it. He doubts that the sensual urge, even if it is very strong, constitutes "the task for poetry or even its crown." Since all creativity, Shakespeare is convinced, is a transformation, then "the poet's goal should be, and always has been, to develop this urge to heavenly clarity, to longing for the invisible.. and to combine the corporeal with the spiritual in the most intimate way, the eternal with the earthly, Cupid with Psyche" ^{[17, p. 330]}. Shakespeare's interlocutors did not yet know his work and in general that he was a poet, but Tick already knows all this and puts into Shakespeare's mouth in fact the concept of his own work, as romantics themselves understood it: to use a sensual foundation to create on it a sublime poetic work that directs the perceiver to the invisible and heavenly. Marlowe, of course, does not agree with this, he is convinced that in this way the passion and fervor that inspire the poet, sensual delight, will turn into nothing and dissipate. Whoever tries to unravel life in this way will only find death. "This will be the opposite of poetry and will degenerate into lifeless allegories, like empty schemes sobering every heart with cold" ^{[17, p. 330]}.

The universality or patriotic rootedness of poetry

Marlo considers his concept of sensual delight to be universal, unrelated to any particular people, time, or fatherland. Therefore, he is against patriotism in poetry. In his understanding, the poet is above his fatherland, he is not tied to the piece of land on which he was born. Anyone who, in his work, cannot do without references to his homeland, to its heroes and incidents, who weaves childhood memories into his works, etc. specific phenomena connecting him with his native land, cannot be called a poet, according to Marlowe. For the true poet stands above all this, "the whole realm of fantasy, south and north, and the world of spirits beyond that are open to him, his power is submissive" ^{[17, p. 334]}. He endows the heroes of his "historical" tragedies with "greater beauty and greatness" than they could have in reality, due to their removal from the context of the real events of their time. That is why, Marlo proudly declares, "my latest tragedy, the tale of the German wizard Faust, is so dear to me that here horror, fear and everything amazing, alternating with caricatured, comical incidents, are played out completely independently, revolve in their own element and do not need the customs of our time or the city. In his “Edward” I also dispensed with the participation of the so-called fatherland or political oppression, the people and the like" [ibid.]. Marlowe is convinced that a genuine work of poetry does not require a specific socio-political context. Everything about him is a work of poetic imagination.

Shakespeare completely disagrees with him. He is convinced that the poet cannot renounce the element that nurtured him. Just as childhood is a fulcrum for human manhood, so patriotism should be the basis of poetic creativity, it represents a fulcrum for building any poetic world. "Love for the fatherland is a natural feeling developed by education and upbringing, an instinct transformed into the noblest consciousness" ^{[17, p. 335]}. It is possible, according to Shakespeare, only in a genuine state, where a noble sovereign rules and time-tested laws are observed. He considers England with its cult of the queen to be such a state and gives many examples of outstanding figures and events in English history that can be worthy examples for high poetic creativity. A poet who strives to do only "himself" without relying on his homeland, a specific time in its history, can turn into nothing and disappear. Without waiting for Marlowe's objections, Shakespeare bows out and leaves the company.

Meanwhile, Marlowe continues to insist on the self-sufficiency of the poetic world. A true poet is above not only patriotism, but also everything that nature can give to a person, he is not attracted by either her joys or her sorrows. His gaze is directed only into the depths of his soul, where he finds eternal spring in the middle of winter, blooming with all colors; here he "sees a stormy sea and singing sirens, there is an earthquake and flames and sparkling through chaos, the changeable radiance of love", he completely abandons the laws of nature and plunges into the world of his imagination, "creates his own kingdom, a new world" ^{[17, p. 357]}. A hermit poet in the everyday world, Marlowe paints the image of an ideal poet, which he himself hardly follows – "he died for what people call happiness, he built himself a house and garden in the depths of madness; by a voluntary decision he condemned himself to underground, mysterious forces; secret charms serve him" [ibid.]. But after a certain period of time, like Faust in fairy tales, he will belong to these chthonic forces, and no human language can describe what they will do to him. But at this price, the poet gives humanity a renewed, enlightened nature, which is brighter and richer than everything that surrounds an ordinary person in his world. The poet himself, relying on the "underworld force", carouses "with the immortal band of Jupiter", enjoys to madness "in a mysterious love affair" with Elena herself, but the ordinary world is no longer available to him; he cannot return to it, because he is alien to it. In this passage, Marlowe actually examines the poet from the perspective of the mythological Faust, on which he was working on a play at that time. And this, of course, is one of the essential aspects of romantic aesthetics that the Jena romantics followed at the time – Tick occupied a prominent place among them.

For all his fascination with "sensual delight", Marlowe, as we can see, is far from a simplified, ordinary understanding of sensuality as related exclusively to matter. He also sees a spiritual component in matter itself, since he understands it as a certain hypostasis of the spirit, for it is something in which the creative spirit manifests, obeys him and, therefore, "is spirit itself" ^{[17, p. 361]}. In general, Marlowe philosophizes, it is possible that all phenomena and events of the material world are only manifestations of a certain spiritual activity (mental movements, fantasies, specific thoughts) of a person – and a poet, above all. Perhaps everything in the universe is a projection of human consciousness, and it is possible that "current affairs, thoughts and moments of inspiration take root in the future, grow and turn green and centuries later, like cuttings, germinate in new beautiful creations and songs that belong, in essence, to me" – sums up Marlo [ibid].

Poetic beauty as the basis of artistic creativity

Judging by the aesthetic statements given by Marlowe, he considers his poetry beautiful and has no doubt that poetic creativity is based on beauty. Romantics revered beauty in art as a matter of course, but they also judged natural beauty adequately. In this novel, Tick put some arguments about youthful and male beauty into the mouth of Shakespeare, who notes the diversity of beauty. We observe one beauty in a young man, another in a mature man, because "beauty has its degrees, is subject to infinitely diverse changes, has more or less significance, but assuming one or another character, it still remains beauty" ^{[17, p. 379]}. Beauty manifests itself with special brilliance where it is combined with an exalted character and majestic expression. Shakespeare sees such beauty in his young friend Southampton, arguing that "the old tales about Narcissus and Adonis want to shine the truth in him" ^{[17, p. 380]}. The poet is obliged to glorify earthly beauty, because in it he finds a reflection of the unearthly, to which he dedicates his work.

It was this artistic beauty in all its manifestations that Marlowe soon saw in the work of Shakespeare himself and finally learned his true name, got acquainted with his work. Having been invited to Lord Gunsdon's noble society for a play, Marlowe hoped that one of his tragedies had been staged there and was preparing to receive well-deserved honors. However, it turned out that the play was played by the very "scribe" whom Marlowe treated so arrogantly. The tragedy of "Romeo and Juliet" made an indelible, stunning impression on Marlo. He realized that neither he, nor his friend Green, nor any other poet in England had created or could create anything similar in power, strength, and beauty. The proud man admits that he was destroyed by this play; he realized that his life was wasted, but this feeling of his creative insignificance, this sorrow, was combined with the bliss and enjoyment of Shakespeare's play. And Tick puts into Marlowe's mouth an eloquent description of the merits of Shakespeare's creation, behind which we hear the combined impression of the Jena romantics from the work of the great Englishman, whom they considered one of their forerunners, practically also a romantic. Actually, this admiration for Shakespeare's work is the essence of the novel. It was towards him that the entire aesthetic conversation of the heroes of the story was moving.

"What truthfulness and naturalness," exclaims Marlowe, "from the very first appearances, what an amazing ability to consistently perceive things and characters in this way and not otherwise, and color it all with the most brilliant wit! And everything–the very passion, the poetry of serious scenes, love and all feelings, mysterious, wonderful, like the full moon shining over fields, meadows and forests–is brought to the extreme limit of the possible; and then everything is so artfully brought back to the smooth path of truth, naturalness and ordinariness, to amaze with miracles again". All our creativity, concludes Marlowe, is "just a mess in front of these full–sounding lips, inspired by the sweetest kiss of the divine muse!" ^{[17, p. 406]}. Here, Mercutio's secondary face, his jokes, his mind, his story about the fairy queen Meb are worth more, Marlo sadly states, of all that you and I, friend Green, have ever written and will be able to write. Marlowe especially admires Shakespeare's language: "Where did this lucky man find light shades in our gloomy language? The most alien, unusual and meaningful words, like obedient children, run towards him, and he caresses them and carries them away in a gentle round dance. Even the heavenly spirits should envy a person who is able to create something like this or enjoy it with delight" ^{[17, pp. 406-407]}.

He admires Marlowe and the compositional structure of the play. "How his grief and joy are connected with each other; how meanness and nobility contrast and at the same time form a unity, conditioning and explaining each other; how vital enthusiasm, frivolity, high, divine passion and wise reason and rashness – everything, everything, as if by the hand of providence, is brought, in the end into the tomb, where the fiery ruby of the inflamed heart flickers even more magically in the darkness of horror; how, finally, death and reconciliation, supreme sorrow and oblivion of all earthly sorrow merge together!" ^{[17, p. 408]}. What Marlowe saw in his dreams: true tragedy and true love, turned out to be embodied in Shakespeare's play. Having obtained the text of the tragedy from the butler, who played the role of prompter, Marlowe read and reread it all night, becoming more and more convinced of the greatness and artistic power of the play.

In his short story, Tick presented three facets of poetic creativity, one of which – the rationally balanced, pragmatic approach to creativity presented by Green – he clearly does not support as a romantic. Therefore, Green, having expressed his understanding of creativity, practically does not participate in the conversation, but is only present at it. The debate is between Marlowe, a proponent of irrational creativity and sensual delight in art, and Shakespeare, who complements and elevates Marlowe's bodily approach to a more balanced, artistically illuminated understanding of poetry. By putting an enthusiastic speech about Shakespeare's play into Marlowe's mouth, Thicke shows that his own understanding of poetry is closest to Shakespeare's aesthetics. Having presented, meanwhile, Marlowe's aesthetic concept in sufficient detail, Tick thereby argues that she is not alien to romantic pursuits, which were often clothed in practice in various and even counterdirectional forms.

Romantic irony

Romanticism, among other things, is also known in culture for bringing irony to a new level as an artistic principle, called romantic irony. Ludwig Tieck has a work that is permeated with irony. This is a small play "Puss in Boots". Its design is relatively simple: This is a theater within a theater. In the German theater of the late XVIII century, there is a fairy tale play "Puss in Boots". The main characters of Tick's play are Puss with Boots (on the stage of the theater) and the theatrical audience who came to watch the fairy tale play "Puss in Boots". She is personified in several spectators – theater regulars who sit in the stalls, discuss among themselves certain moments of the play being played out in front of them, talk and polemize with the actors, argue with the poet – author of the fairy tale play, stomp, clap, etc. They are actively supported by the rest of the theater's audience, designated by the Tick as "everything". In fact, we have an interactive action in front of us, which the most advanced modern directors can envy. The audience is so active in this action that it influences the course and some moments of the fairy tale play itself, the author of which is forced to appear on stage from time to time and try to somehow calm the audience, who are very skeptical of him even before the performance begins.

The content of Tick's play actually consists of a multilevel irony, which we find both in the fairy tale itself going on stage, and in the auditorium, and in the polemic of actors with the public, and in Tick's attitude to the theatrical audience itself and to theatrical authors, i.e., and to himself, first of all. The play "Puss in Boots" repeats the famous plot of the fairy tale by Charles Perrault, but the roles of the characters are filled with not at all childish and not fabulous content. The irony begins to manifest itself already in the very composition of the characters of the fairy tale, where a character is bred under the name "The Law, or his master's offspring." This is how the negative hero of Perrault's fairy tale is designated by a Tick, the Ogre Giant, whose castle and all the lands Puss in Boots will pass on to his master with the help of cunning. In his very naming of the Tick, with reference to the naming of the duke by his subjects, the German romantic denotes his ironic and satirical attitude towards the gentlemen who oppress their subordinates. The innkeeper explains to foreigners that the people simply speak of their master as "the lord's brat", and his name is probably the Law, since every decree begins with the words: "For the benefit of the public, the Law establishes ..." ^{[18, Act 1]}.

The play is a fairy tale

And the whole fairy tale, creaking on the stage of the theater, is riddled with ironic maxims. Ginz, as Tick called Puss in Boots, explains to his master Gottlieb that cats can speak humanly, but do not speak, because communicating with people in their language inspires them with "disgust for language." And when asked why they hide these abilities, Ginz answers: "In order not to take on unnecessary responsibility" ^{[18, Act 1]} and not to obey all the whims of a person. Dogs and horses have shown their intelligence, so a person mercilessly exploits them, and considers cats incomprehensible and does not bother them with any upbringing. Cats therefore still remain a free tribe.

Talking about how to help his master, who was left without means of support after his father's death – only with a cat, Ginz suggests that Gottlieb could publish a magazine or newspaper called "Homo sum" ("I am a man") or "roll up a novel" in which the Cat would become a co–author, but "it's all very troublesome," he summarizes ^{[18, Act 1]} and comes up with another plan, which he does not even tell Gottlieb about, considering him to be simple, with which Gottlieb himself agrees. To implement this plan, Ginz needs boots, which the Cat asked Perrault to avoid running his feet on thorns in the forest. At the Tick, Ginz explains to the owner that it is the boots, and not the shoes offered by Gottlieb, that he needs for nothing else but "for solidity, for impressiveness, in short, to give himself a certain masculinity. And you can't get it in shoes to gray hair" ^{[18, Act 1]}. On the assumption of the owner that the shoemaker will be surprised at the cat's whim to have boots, Ginz convinces him that he will not be surprised at all if he pretends that walking in boots is the most common thing for a cat. "People get used to everything." And so it turned out, the shoemaker was not surprised, just as Gottlieb is no longer surprised that he is talking to a cat. Later, he admitted that he himself had the "deepest respect" for the Cat "because of these boots" ^{[18, Act 2]}, and the king's valet concluded from the boots that the Cat was a wealthy character, "it looks like a hunter" ^{[18, Act 2]}. They meet you by your clothes, which the wise Cat foresaw, but the simple–minded man did not immediately understand. The sophisticated theater audience does not understand this either: "Fischer. What kind of nonsense is this? Muller. What the hell are boots for? To make it easier to walk? What nonsense!" ^{[18, Act 1]}.

The Tick in the fairy tale ironically refers to family relations, to marriage. The princess cannot choose a groom from the many princes who are courting her, because she believes that "marriage without love is a living hell on earth" ^{[18, Act 1]}. The King fully agrees with her, referring to his bitter experience. The late queen performed her royal duties with dignity, but she did not give her husband rest day or night. Constant quarrels and quarrels: "I've suffered so much! – the king complains to his daughter, – Not a day without a quarrel, you won't fall asleep at night, you won't do business during the day, you won't think about anything calmly, or read a book - she always interrupted" ^{[18, Act 1]}. At the same time, the king is skeptical about love marriage. Apparently, he is convinced by hearsay that he is also fraught with danger. By persuading the princess to choose her fiance, he at the same time keeps her from this step himself: "It makes me shudder to think about the dangers that threaten you! After all, even if you fall in love, my daughter, oh, you should see what thick books wise people have written about it! – your very passion can make you unhappy again. The happiest, most blissful feeling can destroy us; love is like a magician's glass: instead of nectar, poison is slipped to you, and now your bed is soaked with tears, and goodbye to all hope, all consolation" ^{[18, Act 1]}.

The fact that a love marriage also does not make people happy is shown by Tick in another place. A couple of lovers come out into the clearing where the Cat hunts rabbits and partridges. A nightingale is singing in the bushes, which the Cat, after listening to the singing, would still like to "taste". The nightingale in this case is a necessary attribute of the ironically described scene of young people explaining their love. "He. Oh, my heart is ready to burst with delight when I see all this harmonious nature around me, when every sound only repeats the confession of my love, when the sky itself bends over me to pour out its ether on me" ^{[18, Act 2]}, etc. A rather large dialogue of loving hearts. After a while, the couple reappears in the clearing where the Cat is hunting. Now they are already husband and wife, and their dialogue is just a scolding of people who are tired of each other, who blame the "bonds of marriage" and each other for everything and gladly agree to divorce ^{[18, Act 3]}. The insert with lovers has nothing to do with the plot of the fairy tale, but Tick needs to express his ironic attitude to marriage, even for love.

Tick ironically shows that a scientist at court has to grovel before both the king and the princess. For the king, he, like the jester, is simply the subject of his Majesty's entertainment. And the scientist teaches the princess sciences, but is forced to praise all her rather banal writing, sometimes only correcting grammatical errors. She never learned to write correctly. "The princess. It's terrible how difficult it is to compose poetry. You can't write five lines without making a mistake. Leander. Yes, these are all quirks of language" ^{[18, Act 1]}. The learned man enthusiastically approves of all the "creative" plans of the princess, praising her: "Oh, you are moving further and higher!" ^{[18, Act 1]}.

Actors in a fairy tale play often step out of their roles and react one way or another to the audience. Here, the king is talking to a foreign prince about his country, while showing his stupidity in talking about the prince's country (here they are both far from wise men), and in a strange question:

"But one more thing," tell me, for God's sake, "you live so far away, but why do you speak our language so glibly?

Nathanael. Hush!

King. What's quieter?

Nathanael. Be quiet!

King. I don't understand.

Nathanael (softly to the king). Well, don't shout about it! Otherwise, the public will eventually notice that it's really not very natural.

King. I don't care! She was just clapping, and we can afford something here.

Nathanael. You see, it's all in the interests of the play. If I don't speak your language, it will be incomprehensible" ^{[18, Act 1]}.

The king's simplicity is also supported by one of the most seemingly enlightened theatergoers, Leitner: "Everything should be portrayed naturally in the theater. The prince must speak his foreign language and have an interpreter with him, the princess must speak with mistakes, since she herself admits that she does not know how to write correctly" ^{[18, Act 1]}.

Elsewhere, the Cat's reasoning is that the nightingale tastes, of course, a delicacy, the audience begins to stomp, which the Cat has to pay attention to already as an actor: "The nightingale has a strong nature, since he is not embarrassed by this warlike music" ^{[18, Act 2]}. But in response to the outpouring of feelings from the audience about the sentimental scene of the lovers (their first appearance), Ginz proclaims: "Whatever you say, such a sensitive people will do something else! So they hit the lyrics again and even stopped stomping" ^{[18, Act 2]}.

In the fairy tale play, the main bearers of ironic maxims are the Cat as a wise being and the king as a simple-minded and stupid person. So Gottlieb, at lunch with Ginz, asks where he got such a rich life experience, to which he wisely answers: "Do you think I shouldn't be lying behind the stove all day with my eyes closed? I replenish my education in silence. The power of the mind grows gradually, imperceptibly. You fall behind in life just when you succumb to the temptation to stretch your neck and look back at the path you have traveled" ^{[18, Act 2]}. The simple-minded king is also not without the gift of philosophizing. He loves to eat rabbits, and the cook has long deprived him of this pleasure and feeds him only suckling pigs, with which, the king is angry, he is "fed up" ^{[18, Act 2]}. The king claims with pathos that the good of the whole country is on his neck, so everyone should work to keep him in a good mood, because the king's bad mood will immediately lead to tyranny, the king will turn into a monster. "And so, I ask you, in whose power is it to preserve the good disposition of the monarch's spirit, who is more convenient than the cook? What could be more innocent than a rabbit? My favorite dish is humble little animals, thanks to which I would probably never tire of giving happiness to my country and my subjects – and these rabbits are in short supply, villain!" ^{[18, Act 2]}. The cook justifies himself that the rabbits have disappeared all over the country and the surrounding area, and meanwhile by this time the Cat is just bringing the king a rabbit as a gift from his master, the Marquis de Carabas, which causes the king's favor to the pseudo-marquis.

The king immediately calls his historiographer and dictates a new entry "for world history" that on such and such a day and hour the Marquis de Carabas sent him a very tender rabbit as a gift. And within a short time, almost an entire volume of the king's history was filled with such records. Tick is also ironic about the fact that the king does not know that bread is baked from rye, which is mowed by a peasant who met him on the way: "No, just think, my daughter, they bake bread from it! So guess what! Yes, great nature is full of wonders!" ^{[18, Act 3]}. The king rejoices at the large numbers and asks the scientist questions about astronomical distances, to which Leander, without hesitation, pours millions and trillions of versts at him, which causes the king's joy: "One hundred thousand million! Passion how I love to listen when big numbers are called! Millions, trillions – there is something to think about! After all, it's a lot after all - a thousand million" ^{[18, Act 2]}. Leander praises him for this: "The human spirit increases with numbers" ^{[18, Act 2]}. Tick treats the educational illusions about the omnipotence of science with irony. "Why don't I hear cultural table talk? I can't get a bite down my throat when the spirit doesn't get enough food. The court scholar! Are you slurping soup with a shoe today?" ^{[18, Act 2]} – the King is indignant.

The scientist, meanwhile, dislikes the jester and tries to convince the king that the jester is not needed at court at all. The king is angry at the "learned clever man" and declares that both he and the fool are on an equal footing in the palace: "The fool talks nonsense at the table, and you have an intelligent conversation at the table; both help me pass the time and excite my appetite – is there a big difference? And then it's nice to see a fool who is stupider than us, who does not have such talents; you feel more confident and praise heaven for that. For this reason alone, I am pleased to be in the company of a fool" ^{[18, Act 2]}.

Meanwhile, the fool Ganswoort is not at all a fool in the play, but quite even a reasonable, and sometimes witty man – it's just that his role at court is to make the king and courtiers laugh. At the same time, he complains about the Germans, being a German himself: they "got so smart that they banned all sorts of jokes under threat of punishment" ^{[18, Act 2]}. The fool had to move to another country, into exile, where he is still tolerated. In particular, Ganswurst plays a major role in an ironic episode with a dispute that he had with a scientist in front of the king. The winner was rewarded with a jeweled hat hung for viewing on a high pole. The dispute was about the play "Puss in Boots" between its actors. Leander (the scientist) claims that the play is good, but the fool disputes this statement. Both – without giving any arguments in favor of their opinions. And then a curious polylogue develops, in which the voices of some viewers are intertwined.

Leitner. What is it again? This is the play we're watching right now, isn't it?

Muller. She is the one.

Schlosser. For God's sake, tell me–am I awake or daydreaming?

Leander. If this play is not entirely excellent, it is praiseworthy in many ways.

Ganswurst. Not in any way.

Leander. I say she's witty.

Ganswurst. I claim that not at all.

Leander. You're a fool, how can you judge wit?

Ganswurst. And you're a scientist–what do you know about wit?

Leander. There are many lively characters in the play.

Ganswurst. Not a single one.

Leander. For example, even apart from everything else, the audience is well depicted in it.

Ganswurst. But the public never has a character.

Leander. I can only marvel at this audacity.

Ganswurst (turning to the stalls). Isn't he a strange man? We are on the same page with each other, and our views on matters of taste largely coincide; however, contrary to my opinion, he tries to assert that in "Cat in Boots" at least the audience is depicted successfully.

Fisher. The audience? There's no audience in the play!

Ganswurst. Even cleaner! So there's no audience in the play at all?

Muller. God forbid! Unless he means those fools who are bred there.

Ganswurst. Well, you see, scientist? What the gentlemen in the audience are saying is probably true.

Leander. I'm kind of confused.… But I'm not conceding the victory to you yet!^{[18, Act 3]}

Nevertheless, the fool wins by simply asking Ginza, for which he had to take off his boots for a while to climb the pole, bring him a hat and referring to the support of the public. To this, Leander bitterly states: "It only saddens me that I am defeated by a buffoon, that scholarship is forced to lay down its arms in front of stupidity" ^{[18, Act 3]}. Ganswurst, meanwhile, admits to Ginz that he called the play disgusting, which he had not read or seen. And the Cat, left alone, philosophically reflects: "Well, I was overcome by melancholy. I myself helped the fool triumph over the play in which I play the main role. Oh, fate, fate! How cruelly you sometimes play with mortals!" ^{[18, Act 3]}.

In this polylogue, Tick creates a tense ironic space, ironizing both the poet, the creator of the fairy tale play, and scholarship, and the public. A similar situation arises elsewhere, when Gottlieb steps out of the role, reacting to Ginz's phrase that he will make him happy.

Gottlieb. It's about time, it's about time. Otherwise it will be too late: it's already half past seven, and at eight the comedy ends.

Ginz. What the hell is this?

Gottlieb. Oh, I was just thinking... of course, I wanted to say: look, dear Ginz, what a beautiful dawn! But that damned prompter is muttering to himself, so you can't make out anything, and when you start improvising, you always get into a mess.

Ginz (quietly, to Gottlieb). Pull yourself together, otherwise the play will go to hell!

Schlosser. Explain to me, for God's sake, what's the matter! My head is completely spinning.

Fisher. Now my mind is going beyond my mind ^{[18, Act 3]}.

Theatrical audience

Tick constantly makes fun of the audience, showing that not only do they not feel the irony in the fairy tale play, but in general, as we have already partially seen, they do not really understand theatrical conventions. In the Prologue, even before the beginning of the fairy tale play, the audience is already skeptical about it, although they came "out of curiosity" to the performance, but someone from the audience is sure that it will be a farce and it is necessary to start stomping before the beginning. Another viewer assumes that this will be a family drama, and the cat is just an author's prank. The third one convinces everyone that "all sorts of ideas" will begin to be dragged through the play, "this is a play about the revolution." Everyone agrees that putting a cat in a play is nonsense and bad taste, so they start stomping, explaining that this is how they "save good taste", art and its rules. To the words of the poet, the author of the fairy-tale play, that it is about to begin, and asks to stop stomping, they shout from the audience: "No plays! We don't need your play there – we need good taste... give us a performance at the level of our good taste, and not some kind of farce" ^{[18, Prologue]}. When asked what they mean by "good taste", the audience answers: "Family dramas, kidnappings, "Rural children", i.e. plays with petty-bourgeois plots.

Already at the first phrase of the fairy tale, where the elder brother distributes the father's property between the brothers, Leitner in the stalls is outraged by this "exposition": "what has dramatic art come to!". And to the neighbor's remark that he understood everything, Leitner says: "Yes, that's exactly the miscalculation! It is necessary to give everything to the viewer by a hint, gradually, and not to thump right in the forehead"; everything should not be clear immediately in the performance; "it is necessary that you delve into it gradually – this is the most relish" ^{[18, Act 1]}. In general, this is a true maxim, but expressed completely out of place, and creates an ironic situation.

And further along the course of the play, which is just beginning, the audience constantly exchanges remarks, criticizing one or another course of the play and thereby revealing their theatrical ignorance. One of the spectators calls the fact that the Cat started talking quackery and vows to go to such plays more. At the very first conversation between Ginz and Gottlieb, a reaction follows from the audience:

Fisher. Well, friends? Goodbye to the hope of family drama!

Leitner. Yes, that's the devil knows what it is.

Schlosser. I'm just like in a dream ^{[18, Act 1]}.

At the end of the First Act, during the Intermission, there is a discussion of what he saw. The audience considers the last scene with the Innkeeper, the deserter and the Hussars to be completely unnecessary. Leitner claims that all this was introduced into the play in order to "make more nonsense", which is why "the whole performance dispersed" ^{[18, Intermission 1]}. Another viewer is "dizzy from all this, as if drunk."

Some "experts" of the theater especially liked the Hussars in the last scene due to the fact that real horses were brought on stage.

The Visener. I especially liked the Hussars. The directors rarely decide to bring horses on stage — and why, actually? They sometimes have more sense than humans. For me, it's better to look at a good horse than at some modern heroes.

Neighbour. Yes, that's like Kotzebue's in The Moors. After all, a horse is also something of a moor.

The Visener. Do you know which regiment the Hussars were?

Neighbour. I didn't have time to see it. It's a pity that they left so quickly. I would agree that there were only Hussars in the play. I love cavalry ^{[18, Intermission 1]}.

But a lover of ancient authors, Boetticher, referring to them in place and out of place, draws everyone's attention to the fact that Ginz is not from the breed of black cats, he is almost white with black spots, "and this perfectly reflects his good-naturedness – in this fur, as if the whole course of the play, all the feelings are already predetermined which it is designed to awaken" ^{[18, Intermission 1]}. In the second Intermission, Boetticher, who considers himself a greater connoisseur of art than all the spectators present around him, explains to others the genius of the actor playing the Cat. He understands his boots as another evidence of acting genius. At first, he explains, the Cat appears in his feline form and everyone perceives him that way, but then he becomes a hunter, as he is accepted already in the palace. And instead of putting on a hunting outfit over a cat's skin, the Cat shows off only boots, which hints at a hunting costume. "Such hints are highly dramatic in nature," as the experience of the ancients brilliantly proves... The neighbors do not allow him to continue further. Nevertheless, Boetticher does not stop talking about the genius of the actor, seeing it in the fact that he holds the rabbit by the ears, as it should be held, but the stupid king immediately grabbed him by the belly ^{[18, Intermission 2]}. When, in the Third Act, Boetticher draws everyone's attention to "how gracefully the cat holds his stick", the patience of others bursts and they expel him from the hall for his "boredom" ^{[18, Act 3]}.

To the Cat's statement that in the real world everything is done slowly, a knowledgeable reaction immediately arises in the hall:

Fisher. No, just listen to this: the cat has the audacity to talk about the real world! Shouldn't we get out of here before we go completely crazy?

Leitner. The author seems to be counting on this.

Muller. But I must say that going crazy on the basis of art is a rare, incomparable pleasure! ^{[18, Act 2]}.

Muller is later supported by Schlosser, who, after a dispute between a scientist and a buffoon about a play in which they are the actors, declares that he simply went crazy, and adds to this: "But didn't I say from the very beginning that this is the true enjoyment of art?" ^{[18, Act 3]}.

Tick often puts almost aesthetically objective judgments into the mouth of one or another viewer, but puts them in a context where they sound ironic. This applies, in particular, to the reaction of the audience to a rather banal and ironically constructed scene with lovers, which has already been mentioned in a different context. Most of the audience took it with delight. Leitner was moved, considering the scene a classic ("Nightingale, lovers, this last tirade is not, in some places the play is simply magnificent"), Schlosser burst into tears, and the audience burst into applause. She, like Leitner, was particularly delighted by the monologue of the Cat, which concludes this scene, which was called for an encore to repeat it. Ginz caught the first rabbit: "Welcome, my friend! Here comes the game–and in some way from my cousins. Yes, that's the way the world is nowadays – son against father, brother against brother; if you want to break through in it, push others. (He takes the rabbit out of the bag and puts it in the satchel.) I really need to keep myself in check so that I don't eat this game myself. I'll tie up my satchel as soon as possible to curb my feelings. Fie! Shame on you, Ginz! Is it not the duty of noble hearts to sacrifice themselves and their inclinations to the happiness of their loved ones? Isn't that what we live for? And if someone is not capable of this, oh, it would be better if he were not born into the world!" ^{[18, Act 2]}.

There are many ironic allusions to the postulates of classical aesthetics in Tick's fairy tale play. So, one of the viewers considers the scene with the cooing of lovers to be truly classic. But is it really necessary for unity of action? – The other one asks. "I don't care about unity. If I cry, I cry, and that's it. The scene was divine!" ^{[18, Act 2]} – exclaims the third spectator, thereby in one fell swoop dismissing the rule of three unities.

Tick is also ironic about the Roussoist idealization of natural nature. When the king climbs a tree to explore the surroundings, he discovers with fear and disgust that it is full of caterpillars, and quickly climbs down. "That's what imperfect nature means! She must first be ennobled by fantasy" ^{[18, Act 3]}, the Princess remarks. When, in the course of the action, one of the audience says that he has long dreamed of watching an opera without music, another objects to him: "Without music, it's gone, my friend, because we have long done away with such childishness, with such superstitions – enlightenment has borne fruit" ^{[18, Prologue]}.

An interesting role in Tick's play is played by a Pacifier with a musical instrument. He is the protagonist of a fairy tale play, is in the royal retinue and is called upon to bring the king to his senses when some kind of attack happens to him. In the play, he appears when the king loses his temper over a burnt rabbit, the gift of a Cat. Most of the audience does not accept the scene with the king and the burnt rabbit – they stomp, make noise, shout. Then the poet, whom the audience did not even want to listen to, pushes the Pacifier out to her, so that he, having subdued the king, subdued her too. The pacifier begins to play and sing an uncomplicated song, at the sign of his hand, monkeys, bears, two elephants, two lions appear on the stage, eagles and other birds fly in, a ballet and a choir appear. They all begin to dance an intricate quadrille around the king and the courtiers. This causes a standing ovation, the audience is "ecstatic." The public needs spectacles, not an ordinary performance, Tick shows with this scene. Despite all the assurances of the audience at the beginning of the performance that they needed high-quality plays, that they had good taste, etc., most of all they liked the hectic show. Today we can even say with some surprise: modern theatrical performances for the most part are similar spectacles, which Tick treated with irony.

At the end of the performance, the poet has to call the Pacifier to the audience again, because there is an incredible noise and hubbub in the hall, who stomps, who claps, who shouts something. The audience bursts into applause at the Pacifier's song, and at this time the scenery changes and a magnificent spectacle appears again. "Meanwhile, the scenery on the stage is changing, fire and water appear, as in the Magic Flute, the temple of the Sun is visible in the depths, the heavens open, on which Jupiter sits, hell opens below with Terkaleon, devils and witches; rockets soar, the audience goes wild, the general hubbub" ^{[18, Act 3]}.

The fool Ganswurst repeatedly appears between the actors and the audience in the play, trying to explain something to them, but at the same time does not particularly praise the play in which he plays, due to the fact that the poet paid little attention to him in it. Once again, he enters the stage at the beginning of the Third Act, when the curtain was raised ahead of time (Tick is ironic about theatrical overlays) and showed how in Gottlieb's hut the poet persuades the machinist to do something extravagant with the scenery in order to affect the audience. The driver does not agree, and the public begins to murmur again about the absurdity of the situation. Ganswurst tries to explain that the scene just shown does not relate to the play at all:

Ganswurst. The curtain was raised too soon. It was a private conversation. Of course, nothing like this would have happened in our theater if it hadn't been so terribly crowded backstage. If you have already succumbed to a stage illusion, then this is really bad; then be so kind and shake it off – this illusion does not count, but from the moment I leave – do you understand? – the action is just about to begin. Between you and me, everything that has happened so far is not relevant at all. But you won't be left out – soon there will be a lot of things that are very relevant; I talked to the author himself, and he swore to me about it.

Fisher. Yes, just listen to your author.

Ganswurst. That's it! It's an empty place, isn't it? Well, I'm very glad that someone shares my tastes.

Voices from the stalls. We are all, we are all!

Ganswurst. Thank you very much. It is a great honor for me. Yes, God knows, he's a poet–ugh. Well, at least here's an example: what a pathetic role he gave me! Where does he make me look witty, funny? I appear generally somewhere in the background, and I have a suspicion that if I hadn't come out to you by a lucky chance now, I wouldn't have appeared in the play at all. ^{[18, Act 3]}

Then the poet jumps on stage, and there is a quarrel between him and the buffoon. At the end, Ganswurst again addresses the audience, persuading them: "Let them play this burden to the end today. Pretend you don't even notice how much shit she is. As soon as I get home, I'll sit down at the table and write a play for you that you'll lick your fingers" ^{[18, Act 3]}.

If the poet, the author of the fairy tale play, really paid little attention to the jester in his composition, then the Tick in the play paid tribute to him, bringing out an intelligent mediator between the actors, the poet and the public. The poet is represented by Tick as a rather pathetic creature, dependent on the public. Feeling the initial and unjustified dislike of the audience for his play, he is forced to regularly go to the forefront and ingratiate himself with the audience, persuading them to first watch the play, and then judge it. "Just give me a minute's attention before you deliver. I know that the most honorable public has the right to judge the poet, and your verdict is not subject to appeal, but I also know how the most honorable public loves justice, and I am sure that she will not threaten to push me off the path where I so need her benevolent guidance.… I am ashamed to present the fruit of my muse's inspiration to the court of such enlightened connoisseurs, and only the art of our actors comforts me to some extent, otherwise I would have plunged into the abyss of despair without unnecessary words" ^{[18, Prologue]}. The audience feels sorry for the poet, she applauds him and calms down for a while, starting to watch the play.

At the end of the Second Act, the poet is again forced to go on stage and calm the dissatisfied audience, humiliating himself in front of them: "Love my poor play, at least out of compassion – the richer I am, the gladder; yes, it will end soon. I'm so scared and confused that I can't say anything else" ^{[18, Act 2]}. After that, he pushes the Pacifier onto the stage with the words: "pacify this crazy element if you can" ^{[18, Act 2]}. As we remember, he directed the energy of the audience in the right direction. In the Epilogue, the poet again addresses the audience, trying to convey his idea to her: he sought to resurrect in the audience their forgotten impressions of childhood, so that they would become children again for a couple of hours, forgetting about all their knowledge, their education. The audience does not agree with this at all, she does not want to understand the poet, to which he already proudly declares: "The public, so that your court is at least a little useful to me, // First show yourself that you understand me at least a little" ^{[18, Epilogue]}.

The performance ends with the audience calling for an encore of the last set, on behalf of which the fool Ganswurst again performs, and throws rotten apples and pears at the poor poet. And the irony of the Tick triumphs over everything banal, stupid, arrogant and biased.

In general, in his works of art, Tick expressed and partially formulated many principles of romantic aesthetics, showing that it is multifaceted and multifaceted, like art itself in the understanding of romantics.