so "As Urged by Schelling" "As Urged by Schelling": Coleridge, Poe and the Schellingian Refrain Sean Moreland and Devin Zane Shaw 'Tis mine anditis likewise yours; Butan ifthis willnot do; Let itbe mine, good friend! for I Amthe poorer ofthe two. - Coleridge What may not an ingenious man make out against another, ifhe will put his owndefinitions on the other's words? - Coleridge "As urged by Schelling..." Judging by citations alone, itwould appear that Poe had relatively little interest in thework of German idealist philosopher F.W.J. Schelling. In TheGerman Face of Edgar AllanPoe ( 1 995), ThomasHansenandBurton Pollin dispense with Schelling's importance toPoe cursorily, writing that Poe mentionsFriedrich Schelling (1775-1854) five times inall. Two passages are significant. The reference in "Morella" to "thedoctrines of Identity as urgedby Schelling" is a good example of Poe's use of German ideas to lend a toneof high intellectual seriousness to his tales. His true attitude toward Schelling, however, can be inferred from an allusion to the same idea in Poe's note tomaterial subsequently excisedfrom "Loss of Breath" (1835). There he stresseshis mistrust of German philosophic rhetoric.1 Hansen explainsthat, despite his praise of Schelling as critic elsewhere, Poe's invocations of Schelling are ultimately mocking anddismissive (80). Further, it has been pointed out by critics that despite Poe's pretensions to a broad familiarity with German literature and philosophy, his actual knowledge ofsuchwas almost entirely second-hand and extremely limited. Probably thefirst of thesewas George Woodberry, who over a century ago wrote that Poe "knewno moreof Tieck than he might have derived from Carlyle, or of Schelling thanwas told in Coleridge, and Schlegel Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/edgar-allan-poe/article-pdf/13/2/50/1312447/edgallpoerev_13_2_50.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022