No More Learning

I
Our Saxon colleague, Herr von Nostitz, inspires in me less
confidence. It seems to me that he has at bottom a traditional
inclination toward Prussia and its political system, which is
nourished in part by a Protestantism that is more rationalistic
than orthodox, and by his fear of Ultramontane tendencies.
believe, however, and I should be glad to find that I do him an
injustice,— that on the whole, personal interests take precedence
with him over political interests, and that the suppleness of his
character permits him to view the latter in whatever light best
suits the former. His economic position is dependent upon his
place, aside from the salary, by reason of the fact that he owns a
house here in which he lives, which he bought before 1848 at a
high price, and which he has vainly attempted to rent for the
last five years.
His political course is therefore controlled by his
desire of remaining in his official position under every contin-
gency; and with the present tendency of the Saxon government,
Austria has certainly more opportunity to help him in keeping
his place than has Prussia. This circumstance indeed does not
prevent Herr von Nostitz from avoiding, as far as his instruc-
tions will allow, any patent injury to Prussia; but with his great
capacity for labor, his intelligence, and his long experience, he
constitutes the most effective support of all Austria's efforts in
the federal assembly. He is particularly adroit in formulating
reports and propositions in awkward controversial questions; he
knows how to give his draught a color of compromise without
the least sacrifice of any Austrian interest, as soon as the correct
interpretation comes to the aid of the apparently indeterminate
expression. When his draughts become the basis of subsequent
discussion, it is then usually discovered for the first time that the
real purpose for which they were drawn is contained in what
seemed to be casual and incidental words. If the current in
Dresden should shift in the Prussian direction, the valuable per-
sonal assistance which Herr von Nostitz is able to render by
means of his sense, his experience, and the credit both have
won him, would be thrown on the Prussian side with the same
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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1950
certainty as now on the Austrian, unless too strong a tie were
found in the fact that one of his sons is being educated in the
Austrian Naval School, while another is already an officer in the
imperial service.
Herr von Bothmer returned to this place a few days ago as
representative of Hanover; I learn from him, however, with
regret, that his further stay here is in no wise assured. Not
only is his a straightforward character that awakens confidence,
but he is also the only one of my colleagues who has sufficient
independence to give me anything more than passive assistance
when I am obliged to protest against the conduct of the Chair.
His opposite is found in Herr von Reinhard. While Herr
von Bothmer is thorough, clear, and objective in his produc-
tions, those of the Würtemberg envoy bear the stamp of super-
ficiality and confused thinking. His removal from the federal
assembly might justly be regarded as a great gain for us. I do
not know whether his departure from Berlin was connected with
circumstances which have left in him a lasting dislike of Prus-
sia, or whether confused political theories (regarding which he
expresses himself with more ease and with greater interest than
regarding practical affairs) have brought him to believe that the
Prussian influence in Germany is deleterious: but at all events
his antipathy to us exceeds the degree which, in view of the
political situation of Würtemberg, can be supposed to exist in
the mind of his sovereign; and I have reason to assume that his
influence upon the instructions which are sent him, and his activ-
ity, so far as this is independent of instructions, are exerted, as a
matter of principle, to the disadvantage of Prussia.
In
his bearing towards me personally there is nothing which would.
justify the conclusion that his feelings are of the sort I have
indicated; and it is only rarely that a point is reached in our
debates at which, moderated by a certain timidity, his suppressed
bitterness against Prussia breaks out. I may remark incident-
ally that it is he who invariably appears at our sessions last,
and too late; and who, through want of attention and through
subsequent participation in the discussion on the basis of misap-
prehensions, occasions further repetitions and waste of time.
The envoy from Baden, Herr von Marschall, is not without
sense and fitness for affairs, but is scrupulously careful to avoid
the responsibility of an independent opinion, and to discover in
the least dubitable matter an intermediate point of view from


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1951
which it may be possible to agree with both sides, or at least to
disagree with neither. If there is no escape, he inclines, either
for family reasons or because his government is more afraid of
Vienna than of Berlin, to the Austrian side rather than to ours.
Support against the Chair-as, for example, in the matter of the
order of business, upon which he is charged with a report - I
can hardly expect from him.
Our colleague from the Electorate, Herr von Trott, takes as
little part as possible in the affairs of the Diet; especially avoids
reports and committee work; and is frequently absent, making
the representative from Darmstadt his proxy. He prefers country
life and hunting to participation in assemblies, and gives the
impression rather of a jovial and portly squire than of an envoy.
He confines himself to announcing his vote, briefly and in the
exact language of his instructions; and while the latter are
invariably drawn by the Minister, Hassenpflug, in accordance
with the directions received from Austria, it does not appear to
me that either Austria or the States of the Darmstadt coalition
enjoy the personal support of Herr von Trott any more than we
do an impartiality which is rendered easy to the Hessian envoy
as much by his distaste for affairs, and I like to think by the
revolt of his essentially honorable nature against all that savors
of intrigue, as by his formerly indubitable sympathy for Prussia's
interests.
We find a more inimical element in the Grand-Ducal Hes-
sian envoy, Baron von Münch-Bellinghausen. While this gentle-
man is attached from the start to the interests of Austria by his
family connections with the former presidential envoy of the
same name, his antagonism to Prussia is considerably intensified.
by his strong, and I believe sincere, zeal for the Catholic Church.
In private intercourse he is a man of agreeable manners; and as
regards his official attitude, I have to this extent no cause of
complaint that beyond the degree of reserve imposed upon him.
by the anti-Prussian policy of his government, I have observed in
him no tendency towards intrigue or insincerity. For the rest,
he is a natural opponent of the Prussian policy in all cases where
this does not go hand in hand with Austria and the Catholic
Church; and the warmth with which he not infrequently sup-
ports his opinion against me in discussion, I can regard only as
a proof of the sincerity of his political convictions. It is cer-
tainly, however, an anomalous thing that a Protestant sovereign,
―


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1952
who at this moment is in conflict with Catholic bishops, is repre-
sented in the Confederacy by Herr von Münch.
One of our trustiest allies is Herr von Scherff, who person-
ally is altogether devoted to the Prussian interests, and has
moreover a son in our military service; he is experienced in
affairs, and prudent to the point of timidity. This latter trait,
as well as the sort of influence which his Majesty the King of
the Netherlands exercises upon the federal instructions, often
prevents him from giving me, in the sessions of the Diet, that
degree of support which I should otherwise receive from him.
Outside of the sessions I have always been able to count on him
with confidence, whenever I have called upon him for advice,
and whenever it has been a question of his aiding me through
his influence upon some other envoy or through the collection of
information. With his Royal Highness the Prince of Prussia,
Herr von Scherff and his family justly stand in special favor.
Nassau and Brunswick are represented by the Baron von
Dungern, a harmless character, who has neither the personal
capacity nor the political credit requisite to give him influence in
the Federal Assembly. If the difference that exists in most
questions between the attitude of Brunswick and that of Nassau
is settled in most cases in favor of the views held by Nassau,
(i. e. , by Austria,) this is partly due indeed to the connection of
Herr von Dungern and his wife with families that are in the
Austrian interest, and to the fact that the envoy, who has two
sons in the Austrian military service, feels more dread of Austria's
resentment than of Prussia's; but the chief mistake lies in the
circumstance that Brunswick is represented by a servant of the
Duke of Nassau, who lives here in the immediate neighborhood
of his own court,- -a court controlled by Austrian influences,-
but maintains with Brunswick, I imagine, connections so closely
restricted to what is absolutely necessary that they can hardly be
regarded as an equivalent for the five thousand florins which his
Highness Duke William contributes to his salary.
The Mecklenburg envoy, Herr von Oertzen, justifies in all
respects the reputation of an honorable man which I had heard
attributed to him before he assumed his present position. In the
period immediately following the reopening of the Federal Diet,
he, like a large number of his fellow-countrymen, showed an


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1953
unmistakable leaning to Austria; but it seems to me indubitable
that his observation for two years of the methods which Austrian
policy employs here through the organ of the Chair has aroused
in Herr von Oertzen's loyal nature, in spite of the fact that he
too has a son in the Austrian army, a reaction which permits me
to count fully upon him as far as his personal attitude is con-
cerned, and upon his political support as far as his instructions—
of the character of which, on the whole, I cannot complain — in
any wise permit. In any case I can depend upon his pursuing,
under all circumstances, an open and honorable course.
His attitude in the debates is always tranquil, and in favor of
compromise.
The representative of the Fifteenth Curia is Herr von Eisen-
decher, a man whose ready sociability, united with wit and viva-
city in conversation, prepossesses one in his favor.
He was
formerly an advanced Gothaite, and it seems that this tendency
of his has shaded over into a lively sympathy for the develop-
ment of the Confederation as a strong, unified, central power;
since in this way, and with the help of Austria, he thinks that a
substitute will be discovered for the unsuccessful efforts towards
unity in the Prussian sense. The Curia, it is reported, is so
organized that the two Anhalts and the two Schwarzburgs, if
they are united among themselves, outvote Oldenburg.
It is in a simpler way and without stating his reasons that the
representative of the Sixteenth Curia, Baron von Holzhausen,
throws his influence on the Austrian side of the scales. It is
said of him that in most cases he draws up his own instructions,
even when he has ample time to send for them, and that he
meets any protest raised by his principals by holding his peace,
or by an adroit use of the large number of members of his
Curia and the lack of connection between them. To this it is to
be added that the majority of the little princes are not disposed
to spend upon their federal diplomacy the amount that would be
required for a regular and organized chancelry and correspond-
ence; and that if Herr von Holzhausen, who after the departure
of Baron von Strombeck obtained the place as the lowest asker,
should resign from their service, they would hardly be able, with
the means at their disposal, to secure so imposing a representa-
tive as this prosperous gentleman, who is decorated with sundry
grand-crosses and the title of privy councillor, and is a member
of the oldest patrician family of Frankfort. The nearest relations
IV-123


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1954
OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
of Herr von Holzhausen, who is himself unmarried and childless,
are in the service of Austria. Moreover, his family pride, which
is developed to an unusual degree, points back with all its mem-
ories to the imperial city patriciate that was so closely associated
with the glorious era of the Holy Roman Empire; and Prussia's
entire position seems to him a revolutionary usurpation, which
has played the most material part in the destruction of the
privileges of the Holzhausens. His wealth leads me to assume
that the ties that bind him to Austria are merely ambitious tend-
encies such as the desire for an imperial order or for the ele-
vation of the family to the rank of Austrian counts- and not
pecuniary interests, unless his possession of a large quantity of
[Austrian] mining shares is to be regarded in the latter light.
If your Excellency will permit me, in closing, to sum up the
results of my report, they amount to what follows:
The only envoys in the Federal Diet who are devoted to our
interests as regards their personal views are Herren von Fritsch,
von Scherff, and von Oertzen. Herein the first of these follows
at the same time the instructions of the government which he
represents. Personally assured to Austria, on the other hand,
without it being possible to make the same assertion as regards
the governments they represent, are Herren von Eisendecher
and von Holzhausen, and von Dungern as representing Bruns-
wick. On the Austrian side, besides these, are almost always, in
accordance with the instructions of their governments, Herr von
Nostitz, Herr von Reinhard, Herr von Münch, Herr von Trott
(who, however, displays greater moderation than his Darmstadt
colleague), and Herr von Dungern as representing Nassau.
A position in part more independent, in part more mediatory,
is assumed by Herren von Schrenk, von Bothmer, von Bülow,
von Marschall, and by the representatives of the Free Cities;
and yet in the attitude of these envoys also, Austrian influences
are not infrequently noticeable.


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
FROM A SPEECH ON THE MILITARY BILL
IN THE GERMAN IMPERIAL DIET, FEBRUARY 6TH, 1888
1955
HEN I say that we must constantly endeavor to be equal to
WHEN all contingencies, I mean by that to claim that we must
make greater exertions than other powers in order to
attain the same result, because of our geographical position. We
are situated in the middle of Europe. We have at least three
fronts of attack. France has only its eastern frontier, Russia
only its western frontier, on which it can be attacked.
We are,
moreover, in consequence of the whole development of the
world's history, in consequence of our geographical position, and
perhaps in consequence of the slighter degree of internal cohes-
ion which the German nation as compared with others has thus
far possessed, more exposed than any other people to the risk
of a coalition. God has placed us in a situation in which we
are prevented by our neighbors from sinking into any sort of
indolence or stagnation. He has set at our side the most war-
like and the most restless of nations, the French; and he has
permitted warlike inclinations, which in former centuries existed
in no such degree, to grow strong in Russia.
Thus we get a
certain amount of spurring on both sides, and are forced into
exertions which otherwise perhaps we should not make. The
pikes in the European carp-pond prevent us from becoming carps,
by letting us feel their prickles on both our flanks; they con-
strain us to exertions which perhaps we should not voluntarily
make; they constrain us Germans also to a harmony among our-
selves that is repugnant to our inmost nature: but for them, our
tendency would rather be to separate. But the Franco-Russian
press in which we are caught forces us to hold together, and by
its pressure it will greatly increase our capacity for cohesion, so
that we shall reach in the end that state of inseparableness
which characterizes nearly all other nations, and which we still
lack. But we must adapt ourselves to this decree of Providence
by making ourselves so strong that the pikes can do no more
than enliven us.
The bill gives us an increase in troops trained to arms -a
possible increase: if we do not need it, we need not call for it;
we can leave it at home. But if we have this increase at our
disposal, and if we have the weapons for it,
then this


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1956
OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
new law constitutes a reinforcement of the guarantees of peace,
a reinforcement of the league of peace, that is precisely as strong
as if a fourth great power with an army of 700,000 men and
this was formerly the greatest strength that existed-had joined
the alliance. This powerful reinforcement will also, I believe,
have a quieting effect upon our own countrymen, and lessen in
some degree the nervousness of our public opinion, our stock-
market, and our press. I hope it will act upon them as a sed-
ative when they clearly comprehend that from the moment at
which this law is signed and published the men are there. The
armament too may be said to be ready, in the shape of what is
absolutely necessary: but we must procure a better, for if we
form an army of triarians of the best human material that we
have,― of the men above thirty, the husbands and fathers,— we
must have for them the best weapons there are. We must not
send them into the fight with an outfit that we do not regard as
good enough for our young troops of the line.
The solid men,
the heads of families, these stalwart figures that we can still
remember from the time that they held the bridge of Versailles,
- these men must have the best rifles on their shoulders, the
completest armament, and the amplest clothing to protect them
from wind and weather. We ought not to economize there. -
But I hope it will tranquilize our fellow-citizens, if they are
really thinking of the contingency (which I do not expect to
occur) of our being attacked simultaneously on two sides,- of
course, as I have pointed out in reviewing the events of the last
forty years, there is always the possibility of any sort of coali-
tion, I hope it will tranquillize them to remember that if this
happens, we can have a million good soldiers to defend each
of our frontiers. At the same time we can keep in the rear
reserves of half a million and more, of a million even, and we
can push these forward as they are needed. I have been told,
"That will only result in the others going still higher. ” But
they cannot. They have long ago reached their limits.
In numbers they have gone as high as we, but in quality they
cannot compete with us. Bravery, of course, is equal among all
civilized nations; the Russian and the Frenchman fight as bravely
as the German: but our men, our 700,000 new men, have seen
service; they are soldiers who have served their time, and who
have not yet forgotten their training. Besides and this is a
point in which no people in the world can compete with us
-
-


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1957
we have the material for officers and under-officers to command
this enormous army. It is here that competition is excluded,
because it involves a peculiarly broad extension of popular cult-
ure, such as exists in Germany and in no other country.
If we
There is a further advantage that will result from the adop-
tion of this law: the very strength at which we are aiming
necessarily makes us peaceful. That sounds paradoxical, but it
is true. With the powerful machine which we are making of
the German army no aggression will be attempted.
If I saw
fit-assuming a different situation to exist from that which in
my conviction does exist to come before you here to-day and
say to you, "We are seriously menaced by France and Russia;
the prospect is that we shall be attacked: such at least is my
conviction, as a diplomatist, on the basis of the military informa-
tion that we have received; is to our advantage to defend
ourselves by anticipating the attack, and to strike at once; an
offensive war is a better one for us to wage, and I accordingly
ask the Imperial Diet for a credit of a milliard or half a mill-
iard, in order to undertake to-day the war against our two
neighbors,”—well, gentlemen, I do not know whether you would
have such confidence in me as to grant such a request.
I hope
not. But if you did, it would not be enough for me.
in Germany desire to wage a war with the full effect of our
national power, it must be a war with which all who help to
wage it, and all who make sacrifices for it with which, in a
word, all the nation-must be in sympathy. It must be a people's
war; it must be a war that is carried on with the same enthu-
siasm as that of 1870, when we were wickedly attacked.
I re-
member still the joyful shouts that rang in our ears at the
Cologne station; it was the same thing from Berlin to Cologne;
it was the same thing here in Berlin. The waves of popular
approval bore us into the war, whether we liked it or not. So
it must be, if a national force like ours is to be brought fully
into operation. It will be very difficult, however, to make it
clear to the provinces, to the federal states and to their people,
that a war is inevitable, that it must come. It will be asked:
"Are you so sure of it? Who knows? " If we finally come to
the point of making the attack, all the weight of the impon-
derables, which weigh much more than the material weights,
will be on the side of our antagonist whom we have attacked.
"Holy Russia" will be filled with indignation at the attack.


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1958
OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
The same
France will glisten with weapons to the Pyrenees.
thing, will happen everywhere. A war into which we are not
borne by the will of the people—such a war will of course be
carried on, if in the last instance the established authorities con-
sider and have declared it to be necessary. It will be carried
on with energy and perhaps victoriously, as soon as the men
come under fire and have seen blood; but there will not be back
of it, from the start, the same dash and heat as in a
which we are attacked.
war in
I do not believe-to sum up-that any disturbance of the
peace is in immediate prospect; and I ask you to deal with the
law that lies before you, independently of any such idea or
apprehension, simply as а means for making the great force
which God has lodged in the German nation completely available
in the event of our needing it. If we do not need it, we shall
not call for it. We seek to avoid the chance of our needing it.
This effort on our part is still, in some degree, impeded by
threatening newspaper articles from foreign countries; and I
wish to address to foreign countries especially the admonition
to discontinue these threats. They lead to nothing. The threat
which we receive, not from the foreign government, but in the
press, is really a piece of incredible stupidity, if you think what
it means -that by a certain combination of words, by a certain
threatening shape given to printer's ink, a great and proud
power like the German Empire is assumed to be capable of
intimidation. This should be discontinued; and then it would
be made easier for us to assume a more conciliatory and obli-
ging attitude toward our two neighbors. Every country is re-
sponsible in the long run, somehow and at some time, for the
windows broken by its press; the bill is presented some day or
other, in the ill-humor of the other country. We can easily be
influenced by love and good-will,- too easily perhaps,- but most
assuredly not by threats. We Germans fear God, but nothing
else in the world; and it is the fear of God that makes us love
and cherish peace.
But whoever, despite this, breaks it, will find
that the warlike patriotism that in 1813, when Prussia was weak,
small, and exhausted by plunder, brought her whole population
under her banners, has to-day become the common heritage of
the whole German nation; and whoever attacks the German
nation will find it united in arms, and in every soldier's heart
the firm faith "God will be with us. "


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1959
BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
(1832-)
BY WILLIAM M. PAYNE
F THE two great writers who have, more than any others,
made it possible for Norway to share in the comity of intel-
lectual intercourse so characteristic of the modern literary
movement, it must be granted that Björnson is, more distinctly than
Ibsen, the representative of their common nationality.
Both are
figures sufficiently commanding to belong, in a sense, to the literature
of the whole world, and both have had a marked influence upon the
ideals of other peoples than that from which they sprung; but the
wider intellectual scope of Ibsen has been
gained at some sacrifice of the strength
that comes from taking firm root in one's
native soil, and speaking first and foremost
to the hearts of one's fellow-countrymen.
What we may call the cosmopolitan stand-
point of the greater part of his work has
made its author less typically a Norwegian
than Björnson has always remained. It is
not merely that the one writer has chosen
to spend the best years of his life in
countries not his own, while the other has
never long absented himself from the scar-
red and storm-beaten shores of the land,
rich in historic memories and "dreams of the saga-night," that gave
him birth and nurture. Tourguénieff lived apart from his fellow-
countrymen for as many years as Ibsen has done, yet remained a
Russian to the core. It is rather a difference of native intellectual
bent that has left Björnson to stand as the typical representative of
the Norwegian spirit, while the most famous of his contemporaries
has given himself up to the pursuit of abstractions, and has been
swept along by a current of thought resulting from the confluence of
many streams. The intensely national character of Björnson's mani-
fold activity is well illustrated by a remark of Georg Brandes, to
the effect that mention of Björnson's name in the presence of any
gathering of Norwegians is like running up the national flag. And
it seems, on the whole, that the sum total of his literary achieve-
ment must be reckoned the greatest to be set down to the credit
of any one Norwegian since Norway began to develop a literature
BJÖRNSON



## p. 1960 (#150) ###########################################

1960
BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
of her own. Far nobler and finer than that of either Wergeland
or Welhaven, the two most conspicuous of his predecessors, this
achievement is challenged by that of Ibsen alone, and even then in
but a single aspect. It is only as dramatists that suspense of judg-
ment between the two men is for a moment admissible; as a poet
the superiority of Björnson is unquestionable, while his rank as the
greatest of Norwegian novelists is altogether beyond dispute.
The chief facts of Björnson's life may be briefly set forth. The
son of a parish priest, he was born December 8th, 1832, at Kvikne.
When the boy was six years of age, his family removed to the Roms-
dal, and a few years later Björnstjerne was sent to school at Molde.
His childhood was thus passed in the midst of the noblest scenery of
Norway, and in regions of the richest legendary association. The
austere sublimity of the Jötunheim - the home of the frost-giants—
first impressed his childish sensibilities, but was soon exchanged for
the more varied and picturesque but hardly less magnificent scenery
of the western fjords. At the age of seventeen the boy was sent to
school in Christiania, and in 1852 entered the University. Instead of
devoting himself to his studies, he wrote a play called 'Valborg,'
which was actually accepted by the management of the Christiania
Theatre. The piece was, however, never printed or even performed;
for the author became so conscious of its imperfections that he with-
drew it from rehearsal. But it gave him the entrée of the playhouse,
a fact which did much to determine the direction of his literary
activities. He left the University with his course uncompleted, and
for two or three years thereafter supported himself by journalism.
In 1857, at the age of twenty-four, his serious literary career began
with the publication of Synnöve Solbakken,' his first novel, and
'Mellem Slagene' (Between the Battles), his first printed dramatic
work. In this year also, upon the invitation of Ole Bull, he went to
Bergen, where he remained for two years as director of the theatre.
In 1860 he secured from the government a traveling stipend, and
spent the greater part of the next two years abroad, mostly in Rome,
busily writing all the time. Returning to Norway, he has since
remained there for the most part, although his winters have fre-
quently been spent in other countries. For a long time he lived
regularly in Paris several months of each year; one winter (1879-80)
he was the guest of the Grand Duke of Meiningen; the following
(1880-81) he spent in the United States, lecturing in many cities.
Since 1874 his Norwegian home has been at Aulestad in the Gausdal,
where he has an estate, and occupies a capacious dwelling — half
farm-house, half villa-whose broad verandas look out upon the
charming open landscape of Southern Norway. For the last twenty
years he has been almost as conspicuous a figure in the political


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BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
1961
as in the literary arena, and the recognized leader of the Norwe-
gian republican movement. Numerous kinds of social and religious
controversy have also engaged his attention, and made his life a
stirring one in many ways.
In attempting to classify Björnson's writings for the purpose of
rendering some critical account of the man's work, the first impulse
is to group them into the three divisions of fiction, lyric, and drama.
But the most obvious fact of his long literary life is after all not so
much that he has done great work in all three of these fundamental
forms, as that the whole spirit and method of his work, whatever the
form, underwent a radical transformation about midway in his career.
For the first twenty years of his active life, roughly speaking, he
was an artist pure and simple; during the subsequent twenty years,
also roughly speaking, he has been didactic, controversial, and ten-
dencious. (The last word is good Spanish and German and ought to
be good English. ) For the purpose of the following summary analy-
sis, I have therefore thought it best to make the fundamental group-
ing chronological rather than formal, since the plays and the novels
of the first period have much more in common with one another than
either the plays or the novels of the first period have in common
with the plays or the novels of the second.
Björnson's work in lyrical and other non-dramatic poetry belongs
almost wholly to the first period. It consists mainly of short pieces
scattered through the idyllic tales and saga-plays that nearly make
up the sum of his activity in its purely creative and poetic phase.
Some of these lyrics strike the very highest and purest note of song,
and have secured lasting lodgment on the lips of the people. One of
them, indeed, has become pre-eminently the national song of Nor-
way, and may be heard wherever Norsemen are gathered together
upon festal occasions. It begins in this fashion:
-
«Ay, we love this land of ours,
Crowned with mountain domes;
Storm-scarred o'er the sea it towers
With a thousand homes.
Love it, as with love unsated
Those who gave us birth,
While the saga-night, dream-weighted,
Broods upon our earth. »
Another patriotic song, hardly less popular, opens with the following
stanza:-
"There's a land where the snow is eternally king,
To whose valleys alone come the joys of the spring,
Where the sea beats a shore rich with lore of the past,
But this land to its children is dear to the last. "


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1962
BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
The fresh beauty of such songs as these is, however, almost utterly
uncommunicable in another language. Somewhat more amenable to
the translator is the song 'Over de Höje Fjelde' (Over the Lofty
Mountains), which occurs in Arne,' and which is perhaps the best
of Björnson's lyrics. An attempt at a version of this poem will be
found among the illustrative examples appended to the present essay.
The scattered verses of Björnson were collected into a volume of
'Digte og Sange' (Poems and Songs) in 1870, and in the same year
was published Arnljot Gelline,' the author's only long poem not
dramatic in form. This uneven and in passages extraordinarily
beautiful work is a sort of epic in fifteen songs, difficult to read, yet
simple enough in general outline. Arnljot Gelline was a sort of free-
booter of the eleventh century, whose fierce deeds were preserved in
popular tradition. The 'Heimskringla' tells us how, grown weary of
his lawless life, he joined himself to Olaf the Holy, accepted baptism,
and fell at Stiklestad fighting for Christianity and the King. From
this suggestion, the imagination of the poet has worked out a series
of episodes in Arnljot's life, beginning with his capture of the fair
Ingigerd whose father he slew, and who, struggling against her
love, took refuge in a cloister - and ending with the day of the
portentous battle against the heathen. It is all very impressive, and
sometimes very subtle, while occasional sections, such as Ingigerd's
appeal for admission to the cloister, and Arnljot's apostrophe to the
sea, must be reckoned among the finest of Björnson's inspirations.
Since 1870 Björnson has published little verse, although poems of an
occasional character and incidental lyrics have now and then found
their way into print. Lyset' (The Light), a cantata, is the only
recent example of any magnitude.
Björnson first became famous as the delineator of the Norwegian
peasant.
He felt that the peasant is the lineal descendant of the
man of the sagas, and that in him lies the real strength of the
national character. The story of Synnöve Solbakken' (1857) was
quickly followed by Arne' (1858), 'En Glad Gut' (A Happy Boy:
1860), and a number of small pieces in similar vein. They were at
once recognized both at home and abroad as something deeper and
truer of their sort than had hitherto been achieved in the Scandina-
vian countries, and perhaps in Europe. In their former aspect, they
were a reaction from the conventional ideals hitherto dominant in
Danish literature (which had set the pace for most of Björnson's
predecessors); and in their latter and wider aspect they were the
Norwegian expression of the tendency that had produced the Ger-
man and French peasant idyls of Auerbach and George Sand. They
embodied a return to Nature in a spirit that may, with a difference,
be called Wordsworthian. They substituted a real nineteenth-century
-


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BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
1963
pastoral for the sham pastoral of the eighteenth century. They re-
produced the simple style of the sagas, and reduced life to its prim-
itive elements. The stories of 'Fiskerjenten' (The Fisher Maiden:
1868), and 'Brude Slaaten' (The Bridal March: 1873), belong, on the
whole, with this group; although they are differentiated by a touch
of modernity from which a discerning critic might have prophesied
something of the author's coming development. These stories have
been translated into many languages, and have long been familiar
to English readers. It is worth noting that 'Synnöve Solbakken,'
the first of them all, appeared in English a year after the publica-
tion of the original, in a translation by Mary Howitt. This fact
seems to have escaped the bibliographers; which is not surprising,
since the name of the author was not given upon the title-page, and
the name of the story was metamorphosed into Trust and Trial. '
(
The inspiration of the sagas, strong as it is in these tales, is still
more evident in the series of dramas that run parallel with them.
These include 'Mellem Slagene' (Between the Battles: 1858), Halte
Hulda' (Lame Hulda: 1858), 'Kong Sverre' (1861), 'Sigurd Slembe'
(1862), and 'Sigurd Jorsalfar (Sigurd the Jerusalem-Farer: 1872).
The first two of these pieces are short and comparatively unim-
portant. 'Kong Sverre is a longer and far more ambitious work;
while in Sigurd Slembe,' a trilogy of plays, the saga-phase of
Björnson's genius reached its culmination. This noble work, which
may almost claim to be the greatest work in Norwegian literature, is
based upon the career of a twelfth-century pretender to the throne
of Norway, and the material was found in the 'Heimskringla. ' There
are few more signal illustrations in literature of the power of genius
to transfuse with its own life a bare mediæval chronicle, and to
create from a few meagre suggestions a vital and impressive work
of art.
One thinks instinctively, in seeking for some adequate par-
allel, of what Goethe did with the materials of the Faust legend,
or of what Shakespeare did with the indications offered for 'King
Lear and Cymbeline by Holinshed's chronicle-history. And the
two greatest names in modern literature are suggested not only by
this general fact of creative power, but also more specifically by
certain characters in the trilogy. Audhild, the Icelandic maiden
beloved of Sigurd, has more than once been compared with the gra-
cious and pathetic figure of Gretchen; and Earl Harald is one of the
most successful attempts since Shakespeare to incarnate once again
the Hamlet type of character, with its gentleness, its intellectuality,
its tragic irony, and the defect of will which forces it to sink be-
neath the too heavy burden set upon its shoulders by fate. 'Sigurd
Jorsalfar,' the last of the saga-plays, was planned as the second
part of a dramatic sequence, of which the first was never written.


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1964
BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
Another work in this manner, having for its protagonist the great
national hero, Olaf Trygvason, was also planned and even begun;
but the author's energy flagged, and he felt himself irresistibly
impelled to devote himself to more modern themes dealt with in
a more modern way. But before leaving this phase of Björnson's
work, mention must be made of 'Maria Stuart i Skotland' (1864),
chronologically interjected among the saga-plays, and dealing with
the more definite history of the hapless Queen of Scots in much of
the saga-spirit. Björnson felt that the Scots had inherited no little
of the Norse blood and temper, and believed that the psychology of
his saga-heroes was adequate to account for the group of men whose
fortunes were bound up with those of Mary Stuart in Scotland. He
finds his key to the problem of her career in the fact that she was
by nature incapable of yielding herself up wholly to a man or a
cause, yet was surrounded by men who demanded of her just such
whole-souled allegiance. Bothwell and Knox were pre-eminently men
of this stamp; as were also, in some degree, Darnley and Rizzio.
The theory may seem fanciful, but there is no doubt that Björnson's
treatment of this fascinating subject is one of the strongest it has
ever received, and that his play takes rank with such European
masterpieces as Scott's novel, and Alfieri's tragedy, and Swinburne's
great poetic trilogy.
The late sixties and the early seventies were with Björnson a
period of unrest and transformation. His previous work had been
that of a genius isolated, comparatively speaking, and concentrated.
upon a small part of human life. His frequent journeys abroad and
the wider range of his reading now brought him into the full current
of European thought, and led to a substitution of practical ideals for
those of the visionary. He felt that he must reculer pour mieux sauter,
and for nearly a decade he produced little original work. Yet his
first attempt at a modern problem-play, 'De Nygifte' (The Newly
Married Pair), curiously enough, dates from as far back as 1865.
This work was, however, a mere trifle, and has interest chiefly as a
forerunner of what was to come. It was not until 1874 that Björn-
son became conscious that his new thought was ripe enough to bear
fruit, and that he began with 'Redaktören' (The Editor) the series of
plays dealing with social problems that have been the characteristic
work of his second period. It is interesting to note, for comparison,
the fact that the similar striking transformation of energy in Ibsen's
case dates from 1877, when Samfundet's Stötter' (The Pillars of
Society) was produced, and that this work had, like Björnson's 'Re-
daktören,' a forerunner in 'De Unges Forbund' (The League of
Youth), published in 1869. The list of Björnson's problem-plays —
many of which have been extraordinarily successful upon the stage,


## p. 1965 (#155) ###########################################

BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
1965
both in the Scandinavian countries and in Germany - includes in
addition to 'Redaktören,' seven other pieces. They are: 'En Fallit'
(A Bankruptcy: 1875), Kongen' (The King: 1877), 'Leonarda' (1879),
'Det Ny System' (The New System: 1879), 'En Hanske' (A Glove:
1883), Over Evne' (Beyond the Strength: 1883), and 'Geografi og
Kjærlighed' (Geography and Love: 1885). A sequel to 'Over Evne'
has also recently appeared. The most noteworthy of these works,
considered as acting plays, are 'Redaktören' and 'En Fallit. ' The
one has for its subject the degradation of modern journalism; the
other attacks the low standard of commercial morality prevailing in
modern society. En Hanske' plants itself squarely upon the propo-
sition that the obligations of morality are equally binding upon both
sexes; a problem treated by Ibsen, after a somewhat different
fashion, in Gengangere (Ghosts). This play has occasioned much
heated discussion, for its theme is of the widest interest, besides
being pivotal as regards Björnson's sociological views. Over Evne'
is a curiously wrought and delicate treatment of religious mysticism,
fascinating to read, but not very definite in outcome. 'Kongen' is
probably the most remarkable, all things considered, of this series of
plays, and Björnson told me some years ago that he considered it
the most important of his works. Taking frankly for granted that
monarchy, whether absolute or constitutional, is an outworn institu-
tion, the play discusses the question whether it may not be possible
so to transform the institution as to fit it for a prolongation of exist-
ence. The interest centres about the character of a king who is pro-
foundly convinced that the principle he embodies is an anachronism
or a lie, and who seeks to do away with the whole structure of
convention, and ceremonial, and hypocrisy, that the centuries have
built about the throne and its occupants. But his dearest hopes are
frustrated by the forces of malice, and dull conservatism, and invin-
cible stupidity; the burden proves too heavy for him, the fight too
unequal, and he takes his own life in a moment of despair. The
terrible satirical power of certain scenes in this play would be diffi-
cult to match were our choice to range through the whole literature
of Revolt. Its production brought upon the author a storm of
furious denunciation. He had outraged both throne and altar, and
his sacrilegious hand had not spared things the most sacrosanct.
But a less passionate judgment, while still deprecating something of
the author's violence, will recognize the fact that the core of the
work is a noble idealism in both politics and religion, and will
justify the hot indignation with which the author assails the shams
that in modern society stifle the breath of free and generous souls.
During all these years of writing for the stage Björnson did not,
however, forget that he was also a novelist; and it is in fiction that


## p. 1966 (#156) ###########################################

1966
BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
he has scored the greatest of his recent triumphs. But the world of
'Synnöve' and 'Arne' is now far behind him. The transition from his
earlier to his later manner as a novelist is marked by two or three
stories delicate in conception but uncertain of utterance, and rela-
tively unimportant. These books are 'Magnhild' (1877), 'Kaptejn
Mansana (1879), and 'Stöv' (Dust: 1882). They were, however, sig-
nificant of a new development of the author's genius, for they were
the precursors of two great novels soon thereafter to follow. 'Det
Flager i Byen og paa Havnen' (Flags are Flying in Town and Har-
bor) appeared in 1884, 'Paa Guds Veje' (In God's Way) was published
in 1889. These books are experiments upon a larger scale than their
author had previously attempted in fiction, and neither of them ex-
hibits the perfect mastery that went to the simpler making of the
early peasant tales. They are somewhat confused and turbulent in
style, and it is evident that their author is groping for adequate
means of handling the unwieldy material brought to his workshop
by so many currents of modern thought. The central theme of 'Det
Flager (in its English translation called, by the way, The Heritage
of the Kurts') is the influence of heredity upon the life of a family
group.
The process of rehabilitation, resulting from the introduction
of a healthy and vigorous strain into a stock weakened by the vices
and passions of several generations, and aided by a scientific system
of education, is carried on before our eyes, and the story of this
process is the substance of the book. Regeneration is not wholly
achieved, but the end leaves us hopeful for the future; and the flags
that fly over town and harbor in the closing chapter have a symbol-
ical significance, for they announce a victory of spirit over sense, not
alone in the case of certain individuals, but also in the case of the
whole community with which they are identified. If this book comes
to be forgotten as a novel (which is not likely), it will have a fair
chance of being remembered, along with 'Levana' and 'Emile,' as a
sort of educational classic. Paa Gud's Veje,' the last great work of
Björnson, is also strongly didactic in tone, yet it attains at its highest
to a tranquillity of which the author seemed for many years to have
lost the secret. The struggle it depicts is that between religious
bigotry and liberalism as they contend for the mastery in a Nor-
wegian town; and the moral is that "God's way" is the way of peo-
ple who order their lives aright and keep their souls sweet and pure,
rather than the way of the Pharisee who pins his faith to observances
and allows the letter of his religion to overshadow the spirit. Not
an unchristian inculcation, surely; yet for it and for similar earlier
utterances Björnson has been held up as Antichrist by the ministers
of a narrow Lutheran orthodoxy, very much as the spokesmen of an
antiquated caste-system of society have esteemed his ideas to be


## p. 1967 (#157) ###########################################

BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
1967
those of the most ruthless and radical of iconoclasts. But he is a
stout fighter, and attacks of this sort only serve to arouse him to
new energy.
And so he toils manfully on for the enlightenment of
his people, knowing that his cause is the cause of civilization itself—
of a rational social organization, an exalted ethical standard, and a
purified religion.
Since the period when Björnson began to merge the artist in the
thinker and prophet, his work has given a strong impetus to progress
in religious, educational, and political affairs. As regards the first of
these matters, it must be remembered that the sort of intolerance
with which he has had to contend more resembles that of eighteenth-
century New England puritanism than anything we are familiar with
in our own time. As for the second matter, all of his work may in
a sense be called educational, while such a book as 'Det Flager'
shows how closely he has considered the subject of education in its
special and even technical aspects. Finally, as a political thinker, he
has identified himself indissolubly with the movement for the estab-
lishment of an independent Norwegian Republic, although he is not
sanguine of the near realization of this aim. But if time should
justify his prophetic attitude and give birth to a republic in the
north of Europe, however remote may be the event, the name of
Björnson will be remembered as that of one of the founders, although
as the Mazzini rather than as the Cavour of the Norse Risorgimento.
And whatever may be the future of the land that claims him for her
own, his spirit will walk abroad long after he has ceased to live
among men. His large, genial, optimistic personality is of the sort
that cannot fail to stamp itself upon other generations than the one
that actually counts him among its members.
[The following selections are given in translations of my own, excepting
"The Princess,' which was made by Mr. Nathan Haskell Dole, and the last
two, for which I am indebted to the edition of Björnson's novels translated
by Professor Rasmus B. Anderson, and published by Messrs. Houghton,
Mifflin & Co. The extracts from Sigurd Slembe' are taken from my trans-
lation of that work published by the same firm. -W. M. P. ]
E
M Payser


## p. 1968 (#158) ###########################################

1968
BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
OVER THE LOFTY MOUNTAINS
(From 'Arne')
FTEN I wonder what there may be
Over the lofty mountains.
Here the snow is all I see,
OFT
Spread at the foot of the dark green tree;
Sadly I often ponder,
Would I were over yonder.
Strong of wing soars the eagle high
Over the lofty mountains;
Glad of the new day, soars to the sky,
Wild in pursuit of his prey doth fly;
Pauses, and, fearless of danger,
Scans the far coasts of the stranger.
The apple-tree, whose thoughts ne'er fly
Over the lofty mountains,
Leaves when the summer days draw nigh,
Patiently waits for the time when high
The birds in its bough shall be swinging,
Yet will know not what they are singing.
He who has yearned so long to go
Over the lofty mountains —
He whose visions and fond hopes grow
Dim, with the years that so restless flow
Knows what the birds are singing,
Glad in the tree-tops swinging.
Why, O bird, dost thou hither fare
Over the lofty mountains?
Surely it must be better there,
Broader the view and freer the air;
Com'st thou these longings to bring me—
These only, and nothing to wing me?
Oh, shall I never, never go
Over the lofty mountains?
Must all my thoughts and wishes so
Held in these walls of ice and snow
Here be imprisoned forever?
Till death shall escape be never?


## p. 1969 (#159) ###########################################

BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
1969
Hence! I will hence! Oh, so far from here,
Over the lofty mountains!
Here 'tis so dull, so unspeakably drear;
Young is my heart and free from fear-
Better the walls to be scaling
Than here in my prison lie wailing.
One day, I know, shall my free soul roam
Over the lofty mountains.
O my God, fair is thy home,
Ajar is the door for all who come;
Guard it for me yet longer,
Till my soul through striving grows stronger.
THE CLOISTER IN THE SOUTH
From Arnljot Gelline'
would enter so late the cloister in ? »
"A maid forlorn from the land of snow. "
"What sorrow is thine, and what thy sin? »
"The deepest sorrow the heart can know.
I have nothing done,
Yet must still endeavor,
Though my strength is none,
To wander ever.
Let me in, to seek for my pain surcease;
I can find no peace. "
"WHO
-
"From what far-off land hast thou taken flight? "
"From the land of the North, a weary way. "
"What stayed thy feet at our gate this night? "
"The chant of the nuns, for I heard them pray,
And the song gave peace
To my soul, and blessed me;
It offered release
From the grief that oppressed me.
Let me in, so if peace to give be thine,
I may make it mine. »
"Name me the grief that thy life hath crossed. "
"Rest may I never, never know. "
"Thy father, thy lover, thou hast then lost ? »
"I lost them both at a single blow,
IV-124


## p. 1970 (#160) ###########################################

1970
BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
T
And all I held dear
In my deepest affection,
Ay, all that was near
To my heart's recollection.
Let me in, I am failing, I beg, I implore,
I can bear no more. "
"How was it that thou thy father lost? "
"He was slain, and I saw the deed. "
"How was it that thou thy lover lost? "
"My father he slew, and I saw the deed.
I wept so bitterly
When he roughly would woo me,
He at last set me free,
And forbore to pursue me.
Let me in, for the horror my soul doth fill
That I love him still. "
CHORUS OF NUNS WITHIN THE CHURCH
Come child, come bride,
To God's own side.
From grief find rest
On Jesus' breast.
Rest thy burden of sorrow
On Horeb's height;
Like the lark, with to-morrow
Shall thy soul take flight.
Here stilled is all yearning,
No passion returning,
No terror come near thee
Where the Saviour can hear thee!
For He, if in need be
Thy storm-beaten soul,
Though it bruised as a reed be,
Shall raise it up whole.


## p. 1971 (#161) ###########################################

BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
1971
"B
THE PLEA OF KING MAGNUS
From 'Sigurd Slembe>
UT once more let me the heavens see,
When the stars their watch are keeping,"
Young Magnus begged, and fell on his knee;
It was sad to see,
And the women away turned weeping.
"Let me once more the mountains see,
And the blue of the ocean far-reaching,
Only once more, and then let it be! »
And he fell on his knee,
While his friends were for pity beseeching.
"Let me go to the church, that the sacred sight
Of the blood of God may avail me;
That my eyes may bathe in its holy light,
Ere the day take flight,
And my vision forever shall fail me! "
But the sharp steel sped, and the shadows fell,
As the darkness the day o'erpowers.
"Magnus our king, farewell, farewell! "
"So farewell, farewell,
All my friends of so many glad hours. "
Copyrighted by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston.
SIN AND DEATH
From Sigurd Slembe
SIN Day, day,
Spoke together with bated breath;
Marry thee, sister, that I may stay,
Stay, stay,
In thy house, quoth Death.
IN and Death, at break of day,
Death laughed aloud when Sin was wed,
Wed, wed,
And danced on the bridal day;
But bore that night from the bridal bed,
Bed, bed,
The groom in a shroud away.


## p. 1972 (#162) ###########################################

1972
BJÖRNSTJERNE BJORNSON
Death came to her sister at break of day,
Day, day,
And Sin drew a weary breath;
He whom thou lovest is mine for aye,
Aye, aye,
Mine he is, quoth Death.
Copyrighted by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston.
THE PRINCESS
HE Princess sat lone in her maiden bower,
THE
The lad blew his horn at the foot of the tower.
"Why playest thou alway? Be silent, I pray,
It fetters my thoughts that would flee far away,
As the sun goes down. "
In her maiden bower sat the Princess forlorn,
The lad had ceased to play on his horn.
"Oh, why art thou silent? I beg thee to play!
It gives wings to my thoughts that would flee far away,
As the sun goes down. "
In her maiden bower sat the Princess forlorn,
Once more with delight played the lad on his horn.
She wept as the shadows grew long, and she sighed :
"Oh, tell me, my God, what my heart doth betide,
Now the sun has gone down. "
Copyrighted by T. Y. Crowell and Company.


## p. 1973 (#163) ###########################################

BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
1973
SIGURD SLEMBE'S RETURN
The scene is at first empty. Then Sigurd Slembe enters, climbing over a
rock; he comes forward in silence, but powerfully agitated.
THE
HE Danes forsake me! The battle is lost! Thus far-and
no farther!
Escape to the mountains to-night!
Exchange my ships
for freedom! There are herds of horses on the mountains: we
will climb up there and then fall upon the valleys like a snow.
storm.
But when winter comes? To begin at the beginning: the out-
law's life-never more! I have made my last effort; had it been
successful, men would have wondered at me. It has failed, and
vengeance is loose.
I cannot gather another force in Norway!
All over? Thus far and no farther? No! The Danes sail,
but we will sail with them! This night, this very night we will
raise our yards and follow them to the open sea.
We
But whither shall we turn our prows? To Denmark?
may raise no third force in Denmark. Start out again as mer-
chant? No! Serve in foreign lands? No! Crusade ? No!
Hither and no farther! Sigurd, the end has come!
[Almost sobbing. ] Death! The thought sprang up in my mind.
as a door swings open, clashing upon its hinges; light, air, re-
ceive me! [He draws his sword. ] No; I will fall fighting in the
cause I have lived for- my men shall have a leader!
Is there no chance of victory? no trick? Can I not get them
ashore ? Can I not get them in the toils? try them in point-
blank fight, man to man, all the strength of despair fighting
with me? Ah, could they but hear me, could I but find some
high place and speak to them; tell them how clear as the sun is
my right, how monstrous the wrongs I have borne, what a crime
is theirs in withstanding me! You murder not me alone, but
thousands upon thousands of thoughts for my fatherland's wel-
fare; I have carried nothing out, I have not sown the least
grain, or laid one stone upon another to witness that I have
lived. Ah, I have strength for better things than strife; it was
the desire to work that drove me homewards; it was impatience
that wrought me ill! Believe me, try me, give me but half what
Harald Gille promised me, even less; I ask but very little, if I
may still live and strive to accomplish something! Jesus, my


## p. 1974 (#164) ###########################################

1974
BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
God, it was ever the little that thou didst offer me, and that I
ever scorned!
Where am I? I stand upon my own grave, and hear the
great bell ring. I tremble as the tower beneath its stroke, for
where now are the aims that were mine? The grave opens its
mouth and makes reply. But life lies behind me like a dried-up
stream, and these eighteen years are lost as in a desert. The
sign, the sign that was with me from my birth! In lofty flight
I have followed it hither with all the strength of my soul, and
here I am struck by the arrow of death. I fall, and behold the
rocks beneath, upon which I shall be crushed. Have I, then,
seen a-wrong? Ah, how the winds and currents of my life stood
yonder, where it was warm and fruitful, while I toiled up where
it grew ever colder, and my ship is now clasped by the drifting
icebergs; a moment yet, and it must sink.