Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

development. Goethe's earliest and latest works of creation are animated by the spirit of his culture; every flight of his imagination was illuminated by the lamp of criticism. While approaching Shakspeare in several of his dramatic works nearer than any other poet since the Elizabethan constellation, his originality is of a secondary, not a primary order, and his powers far less spontaneous in their action than those evinced in the dramatic universe of the being on whom Coleridge so appropriately bestows the title Murionous, or the Thousand Souled. It was from intense study of Shakspeare, indeed, whose immense superiority to himself Goethe reverently acknowledged, that his genius first developed, like that of the most perfect poets of this later period; and to the inspiration thus derived is attributable much of the peculiar excellence and charm we find in his first dramatic composition, "Faust," in which the speculative philosophy of a Hamlet and the witch element of Macbeth united, give such effect to the tenor of the legend. In the same way his subsequent classical studies inspired him to imitate the spirit and forms of antiquity-as that of Greece, not very perfectly, in his "Iphigenia" and "Tasso;" and that of the Sicilian and Roman elegy, in a surpassing manner, in his "Roman Elegies," and "Herman and Dorothea." In a word, Goethe seems always to have placed a model before him in the composition of his works, great and small, from the drama and elegy to the song and epigram; but then, his interpretation and grasp of the special spirit of such ancient or modern, classic or Gothic subjects, which he studied, and his embodiment of the subjects with which they kindled his eclectic imagination, was able and admirable indeed. On the other hand, Shakspeare, with less literature but vaster power and more independent capacity, trusted solely to the mine of nature and genius within him: hence the superior originality of his ideally real conceptions. Thus, the relative proportions of their respective genius, and their position as regards civilization, rendered the one par excellence the poet of nature, the other the poet of culture. The first part of "Faust"-which, as translated by Anster, is not only the finest reflection of the work we possess,

but the best poetic rendering of any of the great works of modern continental literature which has appeared — was one of his earliest conceptions; and the continuation of the theme constantly occu pied the most prominent position in the horizon of his mind during his long life, just at whose close the second part, or Hellena," was completed. The Faust fable, which first appeared in a printed form in 1588, had previously been selected for dramatization by many writers, few subjects being more attractive than that which represented the ambitious human intelligence aspiring to supernatural power by the aid of the demoniac world, and even at the hazard of the soul itself. The old marionette play, by an anonymous author, took the lead; then followed Calderon's sacramental auto, "Il Magico Prodigioso," a work displaying much of the richness of the Spanish poetic genius, and several fine scenes has been for some time accessible by English readers in M'Carthy's admirable translation. Of Marlowe's "Life and Death of Doctor Faustus," which appeared in 1589, it is enough to say, that while written with great poetic power throughout, it contains a couple of the most striking situations and exquisite passages in British or any dramatic literature; while, perhaps, not the least interesting of its merits is the vigorous and majestic blank verse in which it is written, and which appears to have formed the model of that of Shakspeare. Marlowe follows closely the old tradition; and his drama has all the air of being an imitation of the miracle plays of the middle ages. Lessing contemplated a work on this subject, and wrote some scenes; and it is unnecessary to add, the theme has been treated in a dramatic and romance form by many writers, Müller, Klingler, Loroz, Chunisso, Schink, Grabbe, Holter, Klongerman, Seybold, Bechstein, Gerle, and others.

Goethe's "Faust," as he tells us, had its origin in a somewhat dark state of his mind, of which it represented the second poetic phase, the speculative; the first. involving the over sensitive, culminating in a distaste for life, from being placed in antagonistic positions, having already been developed in Werther. Into "Faust" Goethe threw a peculiar phase of his nature and intellect, much, very likely, in the same way as Shakspeare, in

*

"Hamlet," which character " Faust resembles in its ideal, though placed in a frame so different. Deutchland ist Hamlet, as Freilingrath has said; and in embodying this conception, Goethe not only reflected himself, but the generic spiritual character of the German nation, among whom the popularity of the poem, apart from its literary merit, is doubtless largely attributable to the delineation of the intellectual "Faust," the local traditions, and the inner meaning underlying several of its dramatic scenes and colloquies which is so attractive to Germans, and characterizes so much of their objective or lyric poetry. Taken as a whole, the first part of "Faust" is perhaps the most imaginative and generally attractive dramatic poem since Shakspeare; no other certainly unites so many elements, natural and supernatural, striking delineations of character, variety of scene, human and artistic interest, diversities of poetic form-heaven, earth, hell, with their be ings, embraced within its circuit, conform to the stimulating and final effect. From the melancholy dedication to the last tragic scenes, the poem is in the highest degree original and unique.

In the prefatory dialogue between poet and manager, we have the ideal and practical prose spirit of life brought into juxtaposition. Then comes the daring prologue in heaven-derived from the opening of Job-and commencing with the hymn of the Archangels, the most sublime Miltonic lyric which Goethe has produced, and into which he has thrown the full sonorous music of the homogeneous Teutonic tongue

"Die Sonne tōnt, nach alter Weise
In Brudersphären wettgesang,
Und ihre vorgeschriebne reise
Vollendet sie mit donnergang."

Easter morning, just as Faust is about to commit suicide, the charming intervalling scenes of town life, the appearance and character of Mephistopheles, and the new view of interest thus opened; the scenes between Faust and Marguerite, and the terrible results to which they lead; the change, then, from human to supernatural interest in the flight to the witch sabbath in the Hartz Mountains, and the pathetic and powerful dramatic and poetic scene with which the poem terminates, combine, as we have said, a series of elements artistically conceived and worked out, which we might seek for in vain in any other masterpiece of modern times. While the interest attaching to the human characters is accumulative throughout, the rapidity and range of the scenes resemble the beautiful sublime and fantastic pictures thrown by a magic lantern. Goethe, the light worshipper, is always most grandly poetic when the sun is his subject; and the song in the prologue, referred to, Faust's evening meditation, and the song of Ariel, in the second part, in which the sound of the majestic orb rising in space is announced in the hymn of the spirit, are among his supremest imaginative passages.

As a dramatic work, the first part of Faust is complete in itself; destiny and divinity have controlled the action up to the catastrophe and close. In this he worked out the middle age legend and his youthful poetic mood; the religious and philosophical principle which constituted its ideal and dramatic end was satisfied in its dramatic evolution. In the second part we again see reflected Goethe himself, no longer the aspiring enthusiast, but the mature man of culture; and here the idea is not moral philosophy, but that of art; here the universalist's life poem reflects not indiwea-viduality, but society.

The opening soliloquy of Faust, ried with life, from having exhausted the As the first part was turned to shape fruitless domain of human knowledge; under the spontaneous influence of a true the appearance of the spirit, the conver- creative mood, so the second part of sation with Wagner, the mere man of Faust is a poem embodied under the di acquirement, contrasted with the ambi-rection of the critical spirit-as it appears tious dreamer; the chorus of spirits on

* German artists have surpassed all others, not only in illustrating Faust, which is but natural, but also Shakspeare and Dante. Retche's outlines are to Faust what Lock's music is to Macbeth.

to us, a series of sketches whose personages range through the antique and middie ages, thrown off at various periods of Goethe's career, and strung together at intervals on some ideal principle, which he possibly did not consecutively

Helena. He is overpowered with the
beauty of Helena, and, in a fit of jeal-
ousy with Paris, in some way violates
the conditions under which she is to re-
main visible, so that she disappears. Me-
phistopheles then takes Faust to his old
college chamber, and scenes of modern
university life are produced, in which
Wagner reäppears as a reputed alche-
mist, in whose study we are introduced to
Homeniculus, a singular conception rep-
resenting pure intelligence. He proposes
to take Faust to the valley of Peneios,
whither he leads him and Mephistoph-
eles. The scene changes to Greece,
and here commences his famous classical
Walpurgis night, which forms so fine a
feature in the
poem, and where numer-
ous figures-witches, griffins, sphinxes,
sirens, pigmies, Lamiæ, nereides, tritons,
and famous spirits of old-
appear in
different regions, such as the Pharsa-
lian plains, the lower and Upper Peneios,
and the Egean sea-shore. The travels
of the trio are through the land of fable,
where, among other singular scenes, we
have a festival of the Ocean, in which
Galatea appears. The colloquies and
songs of those classical beings are
throughout conceived with the purest
antique taste.

comprehend, and which, in parts, despite | demon recognizes, calls up the spirit of the luminous analysis of various commentators, remains delightfully vague to German and less pleasingly so to foreign readers. Taken in its entirety, it rather resembles the radiant phantasmagoria of a poetic kaleidoscope than an organic conception of nature and imagination; and, we are inclined to think, will attract perusal now, as always, less for its allegory or dramatic interest, scenic or in dividual, than from the exquisite strains of poetry, dramatic, descriptive, and lyric, with which it abounds. The variety of elements concentrated in the poem are still more numerous than those in the first part; but, from their very range, the effect is devoid of the homogeneity which characterizes the latter. As a dramatic work, it is perhaps the most purely ideal ever produced, in its remoteness, marvellousness: its muse is truly the spirit of magic, and all ages are made to resuscitate their forms at the incantations of its phantast genius. In the first part of the poem Mephistopheles had promised to show Faust the great world, and in the second he proceeds so to do. In the first scene we find the aspiring spirit matured and calmed; and, while less individual, he is made to take a less prominent part in the action of the piece. The first scene opens with a twilight The object of Faust in this journey Swiss landscape, Faust lying on a flow- was to find Helena; and the third act ery grass plot, trying to sleep, with Ariel of the drama opens with the portion of and a group of fairies hovering round the poem so designated, a work whose him, chanting songs representative of composition engaged Goethe at intervals scenic effects, and presently one descrip- many years. The act opens with the tive of sunrise; at which period he appearance of Helena before the palace awakes, with soul tranquillized, oblivious of Menelaus, to which she has just reof the past, and hopeful of the future. turned after the siege of Troy and subThe next scene is in the imperial palace sequent wanderings; here she announces of the Kaiser, in which Mephistopheles to the chorus the hideous spectre she appears as court fool; and in which pres- had beheld on entering the palace — a ently a masque is held, in which a num- scene suggested by the opening of the ber of figures play a part-garden girls," Furies" of Eschylus. Conversations punchinelloes, poets, mythologic forms; between her and Phoreyas, whose form all of whom are characterized with pro- Mephistopheles has taken, follow; in priety and beauty of discrimination-a which the manner of the Greek dramseries of ideals partly taken from nature, atists is accurately imitated; and the partly from Goethe's Greek and other chorus sings a magnificent song, destudies. With the assistance of Mephis- scriptive of the fall of Troy. Helena, topheles, who has enriched the Emperor conscious that preparations are being by a scheme of paper money, Faust, who made for the sacrifice of a victim, fears holds a complex position at court, after that she will be chosen; and just as the a visit to the realm of the Mothers, pow- trumpet announces the approach of Menerful goddesses, who exist in a sphere of elaus, she is saved, a magic mist enpreexistent forms, whose sway the arch-velops her, and she is wafted to the

would convey an adequate idea, it remains to allude briefly to the manner in which it has been rendered into English by Dr. Anster. Some Frenchman has said that an original work is a creation; a translation, a resurrection-not, how

Gothic castle of Faust. Arrived she | no extracts compatible with our space expresses her devotion to him in a fine scene, and forthwith follow a number of others in which the Gothic and classic elements are strangely, yet finely contrasted. The next scene is in Arcadia, where Faustus, Helena, and the fruit of their amour, Euphorion, make their ap-ever, in the sense of its thus appearing pearance. The latter is said to represent the union of ancient and modern poetry; but this charming conception seems rather intended to embody the joyous spirit of youth, with its versatile desires and aspiring aims. Space does not admit of our indicating seriatim the series of conversations which follow, or the meaning which critics suppose to underlie them. Suffice to say that Euphorion dies, and is lamented in a beautiful dirge; and Helena vanishes, leaving her robes behind her, which take the form of clouds, on which Faust is wafted away to a high mountain, where he meets Mephistopheles, who volunteers to satisfy his new-born passion for fame, power, and glory. Then come scenes at the court of the Emperor, for whom Faustus raises a battle of magic, and is recompensed by him, being awarded the seashore as a feoff. In the fifth act Faustus is still conceiving new plans of activity, and after the representation of various scenes of violence and outrage, the life of Faust, now purified by suffering and exertion, tends to its end. The scene of his death, and those which follow, in which Mephistopheles and the angels contend for his soul, which is saved by the latter, are among the most powerfully written in the poem, which concludes with a magnificent philosophic religious hymn. His body rests on the earth, his soul ascends, a chorus of penitent saints, headed by Marguerite, appear, and invoke the protection of the Virgin for the spirit which, after its pilgrimage of sin and sorrow, is finally received into the bosom of Divinity, whence it emanated.

Having thus indicated the structural outline of the second part of "Faust," a work which, full of varied meaning, as it is of profuse beauty of conception and depth of thought, requires not to be perused merely, but studied, if the reader would possess himself of the spirit with which it is impregnated, and of which, from its extent, tenor, and unity,

--

in a more glorified form. And so it is with respect to the greater number of such efforts as have been made to naturalize the great compositions of antiquity, and of Europe, middle-aged and modern, in British literature, in which we find that, though the skeleton has been reproduced, and the meaning rendered prosaically intelligible, all those indefinable beauties of diction, cognate with the action of the original writer's imagination, and the genius of his language, have evaporated during the transformation. To account for this phenomena is simple, many of our renderings, especially from the classic authors, having been mere matters of task-work ; but the great and obvious cause is to be found in the fact of the inferiority of the mind of the translator to that of the original writer. Whereas, to produce a translation approximating perfection for the differences of languages, even those most closely filiated, render absolute perfection impossible the genius of the one should equal that of the other. It rarely occurs that such affinities and adaptabilities exist; but even apart from such conditions, the admirable German translations of Shakspeare, and some others of the great English poets, demonstrate how much can be done by that love of subject, assiduity, and taste, of which we have had so few examples in British literature. Much of the verisimilitude attaching to similarity of form also has been lost, by writers arbitrarily adopting species of verse and metre different from the original; of which we find an instance in Carey's "Dante," one of our best works of this class, but which, despite its literalness and truth, is rendered intolerably stiff from being rendered in Miltonic hexameter.

It is pleasing and hopeful to turn from the long array of indifferent English poetic translations-in most of which a caput mortuum is all that remains of the foreign author, and some of the best of

which but resemble wax as compared to natural flowers, in which though the meaning is represented, the spirit has flown to those of Dr. Anster, who, to the secondary advantages of a thorough familiarity with the language of Goethe, superadds the rare and primary one of being a poet himself. Of his rendering of the second part of the great work, in which the supremest of German poets embodied his philosophy of life and art, it is enough to say that its merits are fully equal to those displayed in his rendering of the first portion - a work which, uniting the rare elements of literality with poetic spirit, the universal verdict of cultivated criticism has long indicated as the most complete poetic translation in English literature. Throughout the feeling and spirit of the original is represented with sympathetic power the dramatic portions are rendered with truth and force, the lyric with harmonic vigor and animation. As we have above stated, the very nature of the poem renders it difficult to make adequate extracts, yet if space admitted we might make very many, as illustrations of the admirable manner in which it has been executed as-from the classical Walpurgis night-the soliloquy of Helena, her description of the phantom, the song in which the chorus depicts the destruction of Troy, etc. As a specimen of the lyric portion, however, take the sunrise song of Ariel:

"Hearken! hark! the storm of sunrise-
Sounding but to spirits' ears—
As the hours fling wide the portals
Of the East, and day appears.
How the rock-gates, as the chariot
Of the Sun bursts through, rebound!
Roll of drum and wrath of trumpet,
Crashing, clashing, flashing round.
Unimaginable splendor-
Unimaginable sound!

Light is come, and in the tumult
Sight is deadened-hearing drowned."

St. James's Magazine.

IN THE SHADOW.

COME the shadows deepening slowly,
Come the night winds singing lowly,
Come the meinories overcast
Of the unforgotten past.

Comes there to my listless seeming,
In between my doubt and dreaming,
Flinging back the folds of night,
One sweet vision crowned with light.

For a little gracious minute
Heaven is opened, and within it
Sings a white and saintly maiden,
Lost to me, but found to Aidenn.

Ah! when she kept her tryst with me
The blossoms budded on the tree;
As whisperingly she told her love
The sunlight kissed her from above;
The sun set crimson on the sea,
The silver mists came o'er the lea,
And still we told the sweet tale o'er,
And dreamed upon the silent shore.
But the glorious summer light
Is blotted grimly by the night;
And the sweetest flowers that blow
Lie buried underneath the snow.
I remember, in my sorrow,
One to-day without a morrow,
When the angels called her sister,
Took her in their arms, and kissed her.

In the silence memories taunt me,
In the gloom these dead dreams haunt me;
But amidst the shades of night
Sings a maiden, robed in light.

-Frederick R. Nugent.

British Quarterly.

WILLIAM OF NORMANDY.*

THE name of Sir Francis Palgrave deservedly holds high place among our writers of English history. In his own especial department - inquiry into the rise and progress of our legal and political institutions during the earlier portion of the middle ages-there are few, indeed, who could be compared with him, either for wide range of historical knowledge, or for careful discrimination in selecting his authorities, and deducing his views. Like all independent writers he occasionally indulges in paradox, and his narrative-mostly so lucid and pictorial - sometimes becomes perplexing by its discursiveness; but, with these slight drawbacks, his works are a most

*The History of Normandy and of England. By Sir FRANCIS PALGRAVE, K.B., (late) Deputy Keeper of her Majesty's Public Records. Vols. III. and IV. Macmillan & Co.

« AnteriorContinuar »