Friedrich Schlegel, Coleridge, and the Ethics of Amathonte

Abstract

Chapter seven discusses Robinson’s final attempt at making a living as a professional comparatist, or intercultural ‘literator’, to use his own term – his translation and critical transmission of Christian Leberecht Heyne’s ‘Persian tale’ Amathonte (published by Longman under the title Amatonda in 1811). Amathonte, in all its humour and playfulness characteristic of Heyne, is a scathing satirical attack on the habitual indifference with which one imbibes, from familial and social authorities, motives for decision-making. Robinson, in the preface to his translation, hence praises the book as ‘a picture of moral excellence and domestic felicity’, not least for its abolitionist appeal and advocation of emancipated communal life. This chapter hence argues that Robinson undertook the transmission of the work, encompassing his critical introduction of Friedrich Schlegel to his readers as well as appended samples from Jean Paul, according to his pioneering approach of ‘Free Moral Discourse’. Amathonte subsequently caught the attention of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who discussed and praised it in a letter to Robinson of March 1811. Chapter seven therefore also recapitulates Robinson’s ‘intimate acquaintance’ with, and ‘enthusiasm for’ (Diana Behler), the critical school of the Schlegel brothers, in particular their Athenaeum.