an Gustav Kolb; Werke, Karpeles ed. Vol. IX, p. 378.)]

[Footnote 11: "Confession d'un enfant du siècle." Oeuvres compl. Paris,
1888 (Charpentier). Vol. VIII, p. 24.]




CHAPTER II

=Hölderlin=


A case such as that of Hölderlin, subject as he was from the time of his
boyhood to melancholy, and ending in hopeless insanity, at once suggests
the question of heredity. Little or nothing is known concerning his
remote ancestors. His great-grandfather had been administrator of a
convent at Grossbottwar, and died of dropsy of the chest at the age of
forty-seven. His grandfather had held a similar position as
"Klosterhofmeister und geistlicher Verwalter" at Lauffen, to which his
son, the poet's father, succeeded. An apoplectic stroke ended his life
at the early age of thirty-six. In regard to Hölderlin's maternal
ancestors, our information is even more scant, though we know that both
his grandmother and his mother lived to a ripe old age. From the poet's
references to them we judge them to have been entirely normal types of
intelligent, lovable women, gifted with a great deal of good practical
sense. The only striking thing is the premature death of Hölderlin's
great-grandfather and father. But in view of the nature of their
stations in life, in which they may fairly be supposed to have led more
than ordinarily sober and well-ordered lives, there seems to be no