Produced by Delphine Lettau, Clive Pickton, Matthew Wheaton and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net SELECT WORKS OF LUDWIG TIECK. Tales from the "Phantasus," Etc. LONDON: PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, Great New Street, Fetter Lane. [Illustration: Ludwig Tieck.] Tales From the "Phantasus," etc. of Ludwig Tieck. London James Burns mdcccxlv. CONTENTS. I. PREFACE. II. THE RECONCILIATION. III. THE FRIENDS. IV. THE ELVES. V. THE WHITE EGBERT. VI. THE FAITHFUL ECKART. VII. THE TANNENHÄUSER. VIII. THE RUNENBERG. IX. THE MYSTERIOUS CUP. X. THE LOVE-CHARM. XI. THE BROTHERS. PREFACE. Goethe says of himself, that the first sight of a work of genuine art was always displeasing to him. There was no correspondence between his own mind and the object he was contemplating. It would not fit--became galling. He was made conscious of a deficiency in himself; and the result was, a feeling of annoyance and irritation at the cause of it. Yet if he could overcome this aversion, and set himself to work to understand it, in faith that ultimately he would find himself repaid, he never failed to make the most delightful discoveries; new powers developed themselves in himself, and beauty after beauty came out in the object. It is to this cause that we attribute the comparatively small success which the works of Ludwig Tieck have hitherto met with in England--just because they are genuine; and we venture to affirm, with some confidence, that if people will take the same pains, they will find their efforts attended with a similar result to that above mentioned. There is nothing strange in all this: there is a deep gloomy earnestness about Tieck, an unprepossessing sternness, which makes people feel uncomfortable, without exactly knowing why. They cannot make out his way of thought. They feel it is deep and strong; but as they do not start with any confidence in him as a teacher, it serves only to make them painfully conscious of their own dimensions, and afraid of what the strong man may do with them. For all they know, he may be a tyrant, using his powers only for destruction; breaking in and wasting all their beautiful gardens, and leaving them nothing but ashes, and torn-off leaves, and withering flowers.