Bohemian legends and other poems/Introduction
INTRODUCTION
TO THE SECOND EDITION.
Bohemian literature is hardly known; indeed, many people do not even know that such a literature exists at all. Of late some praiseworthy efforts have heen made by Mr. Wratislaw, M.A. (late fellow of Christ College, Cambridge), and some French writers, to rescue from oblivion at least something of Bohemian literature. In his own words (Literature of Bohemia, George Bell Co. 1878), he says: “And at the present time the people of Great Britain are for the most part in a similar state of ignorance with regard to the literature of Bohemia, scarcely believing indeed that it has any literature at all, and utterly at a loss to account for that great intellectual and religious revolution, which, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, shook the power of Rome to its foundation, and animated a Slavonic people of only four millions to maintain successfully a single-handed conflict against the Papacy and the German empire for full two hundred years. And if it yielded at length to overwhelming numbers and weight, it was not until it had been undermined for nearly a century by the crafty and cruel policy of scions of the Hapsburg dynasty upon its throne. * * * It is a very unfortunate circumstance that so much of Bohemian literature has been lost, or rather ruthlessly destroyed by the emissaries and agents of the Church of Rome. * * * It mattered little to such barbarians whether any work that fell into their clutches was of Catholic or Protestant tendency, if it were but in the detested Bohemian tongue, and one Jesuit boasted on his death-bed that he had destroyed with his own hands no less than sixty thousand volumes in that language.” I would also mention a very valuable collection of translations made from the Bohemian by the celebrated English linguist, Dr. John Bowring (Výbor z básnictví Českého, Cheskian Anthology). Being a history of the poetical literature of Bohemia, with translations by Dr. John Bowring (London, 1832: Rowland Hunter). He also in his introduction explains why Bohemia has so little literature, and also, in a way, why it never can have. Writing of the battle of Bílá Hora, he says: “Though the battle of the White Mountain, in 1620, was fatal only to the reformers of Bohemia, yet its consequences were terrible to the whole Bohemian people. Civil war in its worse shape devastated the land, and so fierce were its visitations that the Jesuit Balbin, in one of his letters, expresses his surprise that after so many proscriptions, exiles, flights, and suffering, a single inhabitant should remain. The language of Bohemia was abandoned—its literature fell into decay. The taint of heresy had so deeply stained the works of more than two centuries, that they were all recklessly condemned to the flames. Banishment was the portion of the most illustrious among the Bohemians, and equal, undistinguishing malediction pursued everything which bore a Slavonian character. Legends of the saints, trumpery discussions about trumpery dogmas and all those streams of pitiful and useless learning, in which civil and religious despotism seek to engage and exhaust inquiry, were poured over Bohemia.” * * * “An ingenuous criticism on the popular poetry of the Bohemians may be seen in the Prague Monthly Periodical (August, 1827), written by M. Müller, the aesthetic professor, in that capital. There is truth in the observation, that history and heroism have furnished few subjects for the Bohemian national songs, and, he says, is the more remarkable when they are compared or contrasted with those of other Slavonian races, especially the Servian and the Russian. But how should such songs exist or rather if they ever existed, how should they be long preserved in a state of society where no man dares to be a Bohemian? That freedom of thought and expression which opens to the poet the great expanse of space and time the whole field of the past and the future which allows him to revel in all that is delightful in recollection, and in all that is beautiful in anticipation is denied to the minstrel of Bohemia. He may neither record the struggles of his ancestors for liberty, nor dream of the day when self-government shall give to his country whatever of happiness she is capable of enjoying. Love, of all the passions which he is permitted to sing, is that which allows the widest scope to his imagination and love is the ever-ruling subject of his verse. And surely their popular poets have treated this subject with exquisite tenderness and effect.” These are the opinions and words of two Englishmen, who trod before me the thorny path of Bohemian literature. Had their works been published in Austria, the same fate that met my book, “Bohemian Legends and Ballads,” would have met them. They would have been confiscated. Dr. John Bowring, speaking of poor Hanka, says: “It is to be hoped that no impediment will be thrown in his way, which one cannot but fear, from the arbitrary suppression of the fifth volume of his collection. It is not much to allow, that those who have no hope of the future may be permitted to indulge in the memories of the past.” This sin I committed, and so my poor little book was confiscated. I can only say that the publishers, Jansky & Co, placed it before the proper authorities and received permission to publish it; about three months after, when it had been publicly sold all over Austria, it was suddenly confiscated on the 22d of June, 1890. At first I was told it was on account of the poem “John Huss,” but in about two weeks I received the written explanation that it was on account of “The Patriots.” The Austrian government did not confiscate my poem because it was historically untrue, but because they said that, “one could think that Ferdinand had acted on the advice of his father confessor” Here I beg to say that such a thought never entered my head, and that I agree with William Coxe, F.R.S., F.A.S. (Coxe’s House of Austria, Bohn’s Standard Library, p. 181, Pelzel, pp. 731–742): “Several native and Catholic writers endeavor to extenuate the cruelty of Ferdinand, by declaring that he was with difficulty induced to make these dreadful examples; and was overborne by the representations of his ministers and the Jesuits. Admitting this fact, it is no exculpation of his conduct to assert that he acted unjustly by the advice of his ministers. But the preceding and subsequent transactions, as well as the general character, the relentless disposition, and the deep-rooted prejudices of Ferdinand, furnish ample evidence that he wanted no external impulse to commit acts of persecution and cruelty against the Protestants.” There is also another poem that may want an explanation, and that is, Kryspek’s “Goblet.” It will be found in Coxe’s House of Austria, Vol. II., p. 180. “Three months elapsed without the slightest act of severity against the insurgents of Bohemia. Many, lulled into security by the dreadful calm, emerged from their hiding places, and the greater part remained quiet at Prague. But in an evil hour all the fury of the tempest burst upon their heads. Forty of the principal insurgents were arrested in the night of the 21st of January, 1621, and after being imprisoned four months, and tried before an imperial committee of inquiry, twenty-three were publicly executed, their property confiscated, the remainder either banished or condemned to perpetual imprisonment. Nor were these examples confined only to those who had been openly concerned in the rebellion, for a mandate of more than inquisitorial severity was issued, commanding all landholders who had participated in the insurrection to confess their delinquencies, and threatening the severest vengeance if they were afterward convicted. This dreadful order spread general consternation; not only those who had shared in the insurrection acknowledged their guilt, but even the innocent were driven by terror to self-accusation; and above seven hundred nobles and knights, almost the whole body of the landholders, placed their names on the list of proscription. By a mockery of the very name of mercy, the emperor granted to these unfortunate victims their lives, and honors, which they were declared to have forfeited by their own confession; but gratified his vengeance and rapacity by confiscating the whole or part of their property, and thus reduced many of the most loyal and ancient families to ruin, or drove them to seek a refuge from their misfortunes in exile or death.” The bodies of the Kryspek family can still be seen in Kralovice. They were among those who preferred to die rather than wait to be perhaps tortured or driven from their country as beggars. As to the interview between Ferdinand and his confessor, it is historically true, and the whole account can be found in Histoire Guerre de Trente Ans, 1618 and 1648, par E. Charvériat Tome premier, p. 251, Paris, 1878. “Ferdinand passa sans repos la nuit qui précéda la signature. Le lendemain matin, il demand a a son confesseur, le Père Lamormain, s’it pouvait, sans blesser sa conscience condamner ou faire grâce. Lamormain lui ayant répondu qu’il avait le droit de faire l’un et l’autre, l’Empereur signa l’arrêt de mort de vingt-huit des condamnés, la plupart anciens directeurs.” My own poem is founded on an old chronicle published in Amsterdam. To those who, having read my poor book, may feel an interest in Bohemian history, I take the liberty to name the works from which I drew my information: Grube Geschichtsbilder, p. 195, Leipzig; Coxe’s House of Austria, Bohn’s Standard Library, London, 1877; Persécutions des Patriotes Bohêmes, 1621; D’aprês la Chronique, Amsterdam, 1648, p.48; Histoire Guerre de Trente Ans, 1618 and 1648, par E. Charvériat, Paris, 1878; History of Germany, by Markham, London, 1876; The Weltgeschichte von Moritz Heger and Moritz Schlimpert, Dresden, 1856, p. 502; Geschichte des Dreissigjährigen Kriegs, Schiller, Leipzig, 1868, p. 61; La Bohême, par Joseph Friez and Louis Leger, Paris, 1867 (this work is also forbidden in Austria); Chants Heroiques et Chansons, Populaires des Slaves de Bohême, par Louis Leger, Paris, 1866; The Native Literature of Bohemia in the Fourteenth Century, by A. B. Wratislaw, M.A., London, 1878.[1]
Trusting that my book may do something toward making Bohemian literature better known, I send my poor little book out into the wide world of intellectual thought, feeling sure that all will sympathize with my effort, and that some may even feel pleasure in reading the songs of long ago.
- ↑ There is also a translation of some Bohemian songs by a Mrs. Robinson, New York, 1850 (I have never been able to get the book); Chansons populaires de la Bohême, Prague, 1854, by Karel Erben; Bodianski, Moscow, 1887; Ludevit Stúr, Prague, 1853.