Song. FREEDOM AND RIGHT. grave *O SAY not, believe not, the gloom of the 363 Und vor Allem germanisches Eichengeflecht! -Die Freiheit! das Recht! Wohl ruhn dann schon manche, die Doch ihr Schlummer ist süss, und ihr Und licht an den Gräbern stehen die Die wir ihnen auch danken-die Frei- Unterdess hebt die Gläser! Ihr Wohl, die da stritten! Die da stritten, und muthig in's Elend drum schritten! Die das Recht uns verfochten, und Unrecht drum litten! Hoch ewig das Recht-und die Freiheit durch's Recht! -Die Freiheit durch's Recht! Let us not be by partial defeats disconcerted; They will make the grand triumph more signal and bright; Thus whetted, our zeal will be doubly exerted, And the cry be raised louder of Freedom and Right! Where there's Right be ye sure there are freemen, and ever And let this thought, too, cheer us,-more proudly defiant Never breathed forth a spirit more joyous and buoyant, And battle they still, where the voice of earth's sorrow Fear ye not, in the end they will conquer outright. With the oak-leaf, proud emblem of Germany's might! But There are sore aching bosoms and dim eyes of weepers Drink to them, to the Right, and to Freedom through Right! These lines and a translation of Burns's brave song, 'A man's a man for a' that,' were absolutely prohibited for reasons which we cite as a curiosity in their way. They are as follows: "The fundamental notions from which both poems proceed are in their clear and pure conception and application perfectly true, and may even be uttered and extolled in a poetical form. But such a turn and import is given them in the said poems that a provocative appeal is thereby made to the tendencies in conflict with the existing social and political order of things, the first poem, namely, addressing itself to false Poetry and Politics. 365 ideas of freedom, the second to the mutually hostile opposition of the several ranks of society: wherefore these poems are manifestly at variance with the principles of the censorship as laid down in the fourth article of the Instructions."* And it is in the teeth of such damning evidence as this that here and there some crotchety Englishman can affect to mourn over the poet's descent into the ignoble region of political strife! As if freedom were not the living breath of all true poetry, or as if there could be found champion more fit than the poet himself to defend the dignity and the existence of his noble art. Shut up your poet in a cage, a golden one if you will, give him a court censor for a singing master, and forbid him to warble his native notes as his own tuneful instincts prompt him, and then rejoice as you may in his performance. If he obeys, you will have mere tricks of sound, suited to tickle the ear of a Sybarite, but from which every manly hearer will turn away disgusted. But, thank heaven, the true poet will not, cannot obey; his voice will be heard indignantly protesting, warning, chiding, or it will be silent for ever. "Poetry," forsooth," ought not to be degraded to common tasks." So says a contemporary: but is it a common task to rouse the mighty heart of a whole people, to put a living soul into the unformed mass of popular feeling, a voice into the inarticulate moanings of a nation's woe, to send forth winged words that shall pierce the despot's ear, despite his triple guard of pomp, custom, and authority? What powers were too great for a task like this; or what gift can the patriot deem too precious to bestow on his suffering country? "Rougher weapons may suffice for this strife;" but weapons must be wielded by strong hands, and hands are nothing without hearts. Music, like poetry, is an incorporeal thing; yet men ply the rude trade of war to its invigorating strains. No great poet, from Homer downwards, has ever been indifferent to the social and civil interests of his own times; not a few have drawn their noblest inspirations from the battle between right and might, waged before their own eyes. True it is, that Germany has been much infested of late by a tribe of political poetasters, journalists run mad, who write volumes of newspaper diatribes and leading articles in rhyme but these Die Grundgedanken, von welchen beide Gedichte ausgehen, sind bei klarer und reiner Auffassung und Anwendung vollkommen wahr, und mögen auch in poetischer Form ausgesprochen und verherrlicht werden. Es ist aber denselben in vorliegenden Gedichten eine solche Wendung und Beziehung gegeben, dass damit den gegen die bestehende, sociale und politische, Ordnung der Dinge ankämpfenden Tendenzen-in dem ersten den falschen Freiheits-Ideen, in dem andern der feindlichen Entgegensetzung der verschiedenen Stände—in aufregender Weise das Wort geredet wird, wesshalb die Censurwidrigkeit dieser Gedichte nach Artikel iv. der Censur-Instruction sich klar herausstellt. BERLIN, den 13 Februar, 1844. Das königl. Ober-Censurgericht, BORNEMANN. men mistake their vocation; Poetry disowns them; the man whom she marks for her own will not dishonour his high calling, whatever be the field in which he is pleased to exercise it. Let us, then, deal trustingly with Genius; it can walk safely by its own transcendent light, and needs not the farthing candle held up to it by critical pedantry. Revenons à nos moutons. In a parallel between the character of Hamlet, and that of the Germans in general, Freiligrath places bodily before his countrymen that cardinal defect to which their political degradation is before all things ascribable. HAMLET. Deutschland ist Hamlet!-Ernst und DEUTSCHLAND is Hamlet. stumm round Nightly His walls doth buried Freedom stalk; With mute appeal, in woe profound, In seinen Thoren jede Nacht Geht die begrabene Freiheit um, Crossing the warders on their walk. Wacht. "Sei mir ein Rächer, zieh' dein Schwert! Man hat mir Gift in's Ohr getraüfelt!" Deutschland is Hamlet. So trägt er träumerisch sein Weh' Doch eine That? Behüte Gott! Bis endlich er die Klinge packt, Liegt er entseelt, und Fortinbras Gottlob, noch sind wir nicht so weit! Mach' den Moment zu Nutze dir! Schwert, Eh' mit französischen Rapier Aufsteht die Nur ein Entschluss! Tritt in die Schranken kühn und dreist! 367 Thank God, we're not yet come to that, Even to the end the likeness run! O for one proof of manhood! Haste Strike while 'tis time; strike bravely Ere treacherous Laertes come Be foully slain; ere trump and drum Heirs of thy spoils;-as for the region Tread valiantly the path before thee! Why all this quibbling sophistry? Thou evermore unready dreamer! We had marked several other pieces for translation, but their length obliges us to omit them all but one; this we have chosen as well for its hopeful spirit as for the ingenious manner in which it moralises a local phenomenon, somewhat perhaps as Jaques might have done if ever his habitual melancholy was |