330
PARTISAN REVIEW
Durch die sendung durch den segen
Tauscht ihr sippe stand und namen
Vater miitter sind nicht mehr ...
Aus der sohnschaft der erlosten
Kiir ich meine herren der welt.*
The use here of the phrase "herren der welt"-reminiscent of
Nietzsche's "Herren der Erde"-helps us to an understanding of
Gundolf's remark that Stefan George was the most powerful man
in the world.
Stefan George belongs to a group of writers-Thomas Car·
lyle, Friedrich Nietzsche, D. H. Lawrence are others-who in their
study of perfection rejected democracy. All were extreme non·
conformists and would have been miserable under any despotism
but their own. Carlyle, the earliest of the group, was the most
realistic in that he actually approved of existing tyrannies like that
of Bismarck. Nietzsche was slightly less realistic for, though he
definitely intended his theories to apply to the objective world, he
hated Bismarck and all wars which took place in his lifetime.
Stefan George and D. H. Lawrence are never closer to politics than
literary clubs. Theirs is a sort of fascism of the fancy.
A writer in a recent
Kenyon Review
spoke of the ambivalent
heritage of Richard Wagner. The ambivalence is that of Carlyle,
Nietzsche, Lawrence, and George. All took up the traditional posi·
tion of the satirist in a relatively democratic society, viz, the posi·
tion of devil's advocate. Many of their positions imply the demo·
cratic organisation which they end in denouncing. Further, their
fervors lay them open to many plausible but unfair charges, for
instance, the charge of antiquarianism. For Nietzsche, Lawrence,
and George (as for T. S. Eliot and W. B. Yeats, also enemies of
democracy) the past is a symbol of present potentiality. Their
denunciation of the modern world is a denunciation of ever-present
vulgarity and failure; their hope for the future is not Malraux's
hope for a revolutionary change in the human condition but the
old faith in the superior few. Like Plato, Stefan George left few
instructions for the realisation of his ideals.
*"This is an empire of the spirit: reflected light [i.e. reflected from George] is
the
court and sacred grove of
my
realm. Here every man is reborn in a new shape; tht
place of his birth and his homeland are now but a tinkling sound out of a fairy talt.
Because you have found a mission in life, because you are ·consecrated, you changt
kin, rank, and name. Mothers and fathers are no more. From the
brotherhoo~
[literally, 'sonship'] of the men of destiny, I choose my world rulers." (From
Der
Stem des Bundes.)
