He belongs to the middle of the sixth century; and in
his art shows the influence both of Alcman and Stesichorus on the one
hand, and on the other of the Æolian school of Lesbos.
his art shows the influence both of Alcman and Stesichorus on the one
hand, and on the other of the Æolian school of Lesbos.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v26 to v30 - Tur to Zor and Index
” Thus Archilochus
was the predecessor of Pindar in the dithyramb of Bacchic festivities,
as he was also in the songs of victory sung at Olympia. Even in
Pindar's day exultant friends still sang the “Hail Victor) refrain
of Archilochus's hymn to Heracles, as they led the conquering hero
to the shrine of Zeus.
It is not, however, as an elegiac or love poet, as an inventor of
varied forms of verse, as a fable-writer or singer of hymns and songs
of victory, that Archilochus is best remembered: it is as the fore-
runner of the great Aristophanes, of Lucilius, Horace, and Juvenal,
of Swift and Pope, of Molière and Voltaire, and as the most potent
wielder in antiquity of the shafts of personal satire by means of
what Hadrian called his «frenzied iambi”; for, as Quintilian says,
compressed into his “short and quivering sentences was the maxi-
mum of blood and sinew. ” In this sphere his surpassing great-
ness has completely overshadowed later iambic writers of no little
intrinsic merit; such as Simonides of Amorgus, the unsparing reviler
of womankind, and the caustic Hipponax of Ephesus, whose crippled
lines (for Hipponax was the inventor of the so-called “limping
iambics”) present vivid and homely pictures of daily life among the
Asiatic Greeks of those remote times.
The iambic measure, having been found a fitting vehicle for per-
sonal and satiric effusions, afterwards enjoyed the great distinction of
being adopted as the ordinary verse of dialogue in the Attic drama.
Greek elegy, too, being applicable to the most heterogeneous subjects,
especially to epigrammatic composition, continued an independent
existence not only till the glory of Greece herself had departed, but
even till after the fall of the Roman empire.
In contrast with this Ionic poetry, let us turn to that which was
first brought to perfection by the Æolian and Dorian tribes, and
which alone was regarded by the Greeks as lyric. If we cared to
employ a term used by the Greeks themselves, we might distin-
guish Æolian and Dorian lyric by the term melic, because such poetry
was always set to some melos or melody. The Æolian lyric was
cultivated chiefly in the Æolian island of Lesbos, the Dorian in the
Dorian Peloponnesus and Sicily. The former was sung in the Æolic
dialect, the latter chiefly in the traditional epic dialect, but included
1
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a sparing admixture of Doric forms. The two schools differ materi-
ally in every respect, - in style, subject, and form.
The Æolic was intended to be sung by a single voice, the singer
accompanying himself on a stringed instrument, with suitable gest-
ures. It was essentially personal, expressing the singer's own emo-
tion. Political feeling is, to be sure, prominent in Alcæus; but this
is due to the poet's identifying his personality so completely with
a political party. As to form, Æolic lyrics are very simple, either
consisting of a series of short lines of equal length, or of stanzas
in which shorter line marks the separation from one another. The
four-lined stanza is the commonest form. The Alcaic and Sapphic
odes of Horace are illustrations familiar to the Latin student.
On the other hand, Dorian lyric poetry was sung by a number in
chorus, accompanied by dancing and musical instruments. For the
most part it was of public importance, and when it was performed
in private the occasion was one of general interest. Hence choral
poetry is found connected with the sacred and festal gatherings
of the people, or the marriages and funerals of private life. The
structure of a choral poem is often very elaborate and artificial; but
the movements of the dance, appealing to the eye, assisted the ear in
unweaving the intricacies of the rhythm.
Let it always be borne in mind that Greek dancing was very dif-
ferent from the modern art. Dancing to our mind simply implies
tripping it on the light fantastic toe”; and often with little reason
and less grace.
But in Greece the term dancing applied to all move-
ments of the body which were intended to aid in the interpretation
of poetry or the expression of emotion. Thus gestures, postures, and
attitudes were most important forins of dancing, and in dance move-
ments the hands and arms played a much larger part than the feet.
Aristotle tells us that dancers imitate actions, characters, and passions
by means of gestures and rhythmical motion. Thus the spirit which
animates Greek mythology and Greek art — the desire to give form
and body to mental conceptions — is characteristic of Greek dancing.
Various attempts have been made in recent years to reproduce the
graceful and rhythmical movements of ancient dancing. One of the
most successful of these was that of the young
of Vassar
College, who in May 1893 rendered Sophocles's Antigone in the
original Greek, adhering as closely as possible to the ancient mode
of representation. The lyrics, sung to Mendelssohn's fine music, were
accompanied by expressive and artistic dance evolutions. The beau-
tiful imitative and interpretative movements of the choristers were
in striking contrast with the ludicrous and meaningless feats of the
spinning ballet-girls, with their scant muslin skirts and painted ex-
pressionless faces.
mo
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1
As to Greek music, it too was very different from ours; but in this
sphere the advantage certainly lies with the modern art.
And yet
the music of the Greeks, as illustrated by the few extant remains,
especially by the Apollo hymns found at Delphi in 1893, has its own
peculiar beauties, which can arouse the sympathy and interest of a
cultivated audience even to-day,
In the best period of Greek poetry, the only musical instruments
employed were practically the lyre, a string instrument, and the flute,
a wind instrument; the former being much preferred because it al-
lowed the same person to sing and play. Other string instruments,
such as the cithara, phorminx, psaltery, chelys, barbiton, and pectis,
were all mere variations of the lyre, and depended on the same
principle. Instruments with a large number of strings were known,
as the magadis and trigon; but these, though commonly used by pro-
fessional musicians, were unhesitatingly condemned by Plato and
Aristotle, as pandering to perverted tastes. As to wind instruments,
the flute was originally imported from Lydia, and was still unfamiliar
to the Greeks in Homer's time. This flute must not be confounded
with the one used in our modern orchestras, for it resembled rather
the clarionet or oboe. It was also stronger and shriller than our
modern Aute. Flutes varied in length; and a double flute was often
used. The syrinx, or Pan's pipe, had seven reeds of different length,
giving the seven notes of the scale. For special effect the trumpet
or horn was introduced: also the tympanum or drum, and cymbals.
The question is often asked whether the Greeks employed har-
mony or not. Part-singing was unknown among them, as were also
the elaborate harmonies of the modern art. Yet they did understand
and employ harmonies; though with the exception of octave singing,
these were confined to instrumental music. In the best days of
Greek song, however, harmony seems to have been little more than a
matter of octaves, fourths, and fifths, – the only concords, it is said,
that the Japanese have to-day. Pythagoras on theory rejected the
third, which we regard as the most pleasing of intervals; but it was
apparently used in practice.
Yet if the Greeks were far inferior to us in harmony, it would
appear that they developed melody to an extraordinary degree.
Quarter-tones, used it is true as merely passing notes, were sung by
the voice and played on strings; and as there was no bowing, as with
our violin, this was done without sliding from one note to another.
Yet this sort of playing, when well done, aroused the greatest enthu-
siasm.
In Greek lyric, the three sister arts of poetry, music, and dance
formed a trinity in unity, whereas with us they are quite distinct.
Poetry and music may be united artificially on occasion; but in an-
tiquity the great poets were musicians as well, and wrote their own
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.
1
-
music, perhaps simultaneously with their poetry. As for the dance,
that too was an important element of Greek lyric; though nowadays
it is very poor poetry indeed that we should care to marry to the
art of romping:
After what has just been said, it will not be thought remarkable
that the first name in the history of Greek melic, or lyric poetry
proper, is noteworthy also in the history of music. Terpander, who
was the first to add three strings to the primitive four-stringed lyre,
and who thus gave a great impetus to musical development, was born
in the Æolian island of Lesbos. He is said to have won the victor's
prize on the occasion when the festival of Apollo Carneus was first
established at Sparta in 676 B. C. His consequent fame gave him
great influence with the music-loving Lacedæmonians, among whom
he introduced his melodies or nomes, which received the sanction of
State authority. These nomes, which were sacred hymns sung by a
single voice, were composed chiefly in the stately dactylic and solemn
spondaic verses. Only long syllables are used in a hymn to Zeus
which begins in this simple but weighty language: “Zeus, of all things
the beginning, of all things leader: Zeus, to thee I offer this beginning
of hymns. ”
That the Æolian Terpander should have practiced his art in a
Dorian State is but one illustration of the way in which the vari-
ous streams of Greek artistic activity tended to intermingle. In the
seventh century, however, Sparta was the greatest power in Greece;
and it was but natural that she should act as a magnet, drawing
within her borders the leading artists of every State. Thus Terpan-
der the Lesbian was followed by Tyrtæus a reputed Athenian, Clonas
the Theban, Thaletas the Cretan, and Alcman the Lydian. These
were the poets who laid the foundations of choral poetry, which was
destined to have so magnificent a future.
Meanwhile in Terpander's native isle, the wealthy and luxurious
Lesbos, that form of song which embodied purely personal sentiment
was being gradually developed. We know nothing of the immediate
predecessors of the great Lesbian poets; but the fact that Terpander
was entering upon his career at the beginning of the seventh cen-
tury is sufficient proof that at time Lesbos was already a centre
of music and poetry. At the end of this same century, suddenly and
without warning, we come face to face in Lesbos with the very per-
fection of lyric art.
The greatest names in Æolian lyric are Alcæus and Sappho. The
former was a Lesbian noble, a proud and fiery cavalier, who sang of
love and wine or poured forth passionate thoughts on politics and
philosophy. The scanty fragments of Sappho's songs fully bear out
the verdict of antiquity, that her verse was unrivaled in grace and
sweetness. She was «the poetess," as Homer was «the poet ”; and
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>
1
Plato added her to the choir of Muses nine. ” (See the special
articles on these two poets. With the Æolian poets of Lesbos,
Anacreon, an Ionian, must be classed, because he too sings simple
songs of personal feeling. But Anacreon is not to be compared
with Alcæus and Sappho in inspiration and genuine emotion. He has
plenty of grace, plenty of metrical charm and polish; but the fire
of genius is lacking. Anacreon is a mere courtier who adorns the
palaces of princes, and free from deep or absorbing passion, sings
lightly and sweetly of youths and maidens, of love and wine and
pleasure. This very absence of real seriousness of purpose ely
accounts for the great popularity of Anacreon's verse, which in more
prosaic days was freely imitated. The admiration bestowed by the
modern world upon Anacreon is founded almost entirely upon a col-
lection of odes which pass under his name, but which have long
since been proven spurious. These Anacreontics, most familiar to us
in Thomas Moore's translation, are of unequal merit; some of them
being very graceful and pleasing, while others are feeble and puerile.
Æolic song, besides being limited in local sphere, was very short-
lived. As the expression of purely personal, individual emotion,
apart from the sentiments of one's associates and fellow-citizens,
song did not play that part in the Greek world with which we are
so familiar to day. As a race, the Greeks were not sentimental and
introspective; but were distinguished for their practical, objective
manner of looking upon the world. The Greek could never forget
that he was a member of a community; and even in the expression
of his joys and sorrows he would not stand aloof from his fellow-
Hence, we find that in the creative period of Greek poetry,
the song to be sung by a single voice, and setting forth the feelings
of the individual heart, was never wide-spread, but limited to the
small field of the Lesbian school; and however remarkable its brill-
iance, flourished in splendor for little more than a single generation.
Not so with the poetry which voiced the sentiments and emo-
tional life of a whole community. Lyric poetry of this popular and
general character is found from early days in connection with the
festivals and institutions of the various Greek States. More particu-
larly did it suit the genius of the Dorian tribes, among whom civic
and communal life was more pronounced than elsewhere. After
undergoing a rich artistic development, this Dorian lyric became
panhellenic in the range of its acceptance; and being adopted in
Attica in the service of the gods, it enjoyed a glorious history in the
evolution of Athenian greatness, and more particularly in the remark-
able development of the Attic drama.
Let us first note the various forms which this public poetry
assumed. The very earliest lyric poetry of Greece is connected with
the worship of nature, such as the Linus-song, incidentally mentioned
men.
11
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TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
by Homer (Iliad, xviii. 570) and sung at the vintage as an elegy on
the death of a beautiful youth who symbolized the passing of sum-
mer. Similar songs were the lament for Hyacinthus and that for
Adonis, subjects which often found artistic treatment in the poets of
later times.
A fruitful source of lyric song was the worship of the nature-god
Dionysus or Bacchus. Like our Christmas festival, the Bacchic fes-
tivities had two sides, a sacred and a secular. Characteristic of the
latter was the so-called phallic song, the seed from which was to
spring Attic comedy. In the Acharnians) of Aristophanes we have
a mosaic of such a song, not without much of its primitive coarse-
ness. To the more reverential side belongs the invocation of the
god, the dithyrambic hymn, first mentioned by Archilochus. The
dithyramb became popular at luxurious Corinth; and here it was that
in the beginning of the sixth century B. C. , Arion, a Lesbian, first
gave it artistic form, adapted it to a chorus, and set it on the path of
development, which was to lead to the tragic drama. Only one such
poem has come down to us in any completeness; and that is a beau-
tiful dithyramb of Pindar's, composed for a chorus of fifty voices.
(An English rendering is given by Campbell, 'Greek Tragedy,' page
50. )
The hymns sung in honor of other deities were probably less pop-
ular and general in character; being mainly connected with local
cults and often with hereditary priesthoods. Delos and Delphi were
the peculiar homes of the worship of Apollo, and there it was that
the Apollo hymns chiefly flourished. The most important variety of
these was the Pæan, which glorified Apollo as the giver of health
and victory. In a lyrical monody of Euripides's "Ion,' we have what
is probably the burden of one of these solemn old Delphian chants,
“O Pæan, Pæan, blessed be thou, O son of Leto! »
Processional hymns, sung by a chorus to instrumental accompani-
ment, were a common feature of solemn festivals. These prosodia, as
they were called, were composed by the greatest poets of the day,
such as Alcman, Stesichorus, and Pindar. Processional hymns, when
sung by girls only, were called parthenia. What beauty and splendor
these processions of youths and maidens could lend to civic celebra-
tions, may be inferred from those glorious pictures in marble adorn-
ing the frieze of the famous Parthenon.
Still another occasion when the noblest sentiments of Greek civic
life found utterance in lyric song, was the celebration of victory in
the national games. In this matter-of-fact age, notwithstanding our
devotion to athletics and manly sports, we find it very difficult to
comprehend the lofty idealism with which in days of old the con-
tests on the banks of the Alpheus, and at other noted centres, were
invested. And yet unless we realize how intense was the national
1
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15177
and spiritual exaltation which characterized these games, we shall
never regard Pindar as more than an idle babbler of meaningless
words, whereas in reality he is one of the most sublime and creative
geniuses in all literature.
Other occasions for the use of lyric were funeral solemnities and
wedding festivities. Even as early as Homer, laments for the dead
were sung by professional mourners; and with the growth of the
poetic art, dirges became an important form of artistic song. Simon-.
ides and Pindar were both distinguished in this field; and in the lyri-
cal part of tragedy the dirge is a prominent element.
The hymenaus, or joyous wedding song, is also known to Homer.
In one of the cities represented on the shield of Achilles were de-
picted bridal feasts, “and with blazing torches they were leading
brides from their chambers through the city, and the hymenæus
swelled high. And youths were whirling in the dance, while among
them flutes and harps resounded; and the women, standing at their
several doors, marveled thereat. ” (Iliad, xviii. 491. ) The songs sung
in chorus before the bridal chamber were called epithalamia, and were
deemed worthy of the attention of the greatest lyric artists. Sappho
was particularly famous for her epithalamia; but only fragments
have survived, and we must form our conception of a Sapphic epi-
thalamium from Catullus's beautiful imitation
((
Vesper adest, iuvenes, consurgite.
Greek drinking-songs belong to the borderland between personal
and popular verse. Some of the so-called scolia or catches were
patriotic songs; an interesting specimen of which is the ode by Cal-
listratus in honor of those idols of the Athenian people, Harmodius
and Aristogeiton, who slew the tyrant Hipparchus:-
With leaves of myrtle I'll wreathe iny sword,
Like Harmodius of yore and his comrade brave,
What time they slew the tyrant lord
And equal laws to Athens gave.
Beloved Harmodius, thou hast not died!
The isles of bliss hold thee, 'tis said;
There Achilles the fleet is by thy side,
And Tydeus's son, famed: Diomed.
With leaves of myrtle I'll wreathe my sword,
Like Harmodius of yore and his comrade brave,
What time at Athene's festal board
Through tyrant Hipparchus the sword they drave.
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For aye will men sing with one accord
Of thee, loved Harmodius and thy comrade brave;
For ye did slay the tyrant lord
And equal laws to Athens gave.
Another of these songs, written by Hybrias, a Cretan, was doubt-
less popular with those proud young cavaliers who adopted arms as
a profession, and served in various lands and under various leaders.
The sentiment recalls to our minds Archilochus. Here is a spirited
translation by the poet Thomas Campbell:-
MY WEALTH's a burly spear and brand,
And a right good shield of hides untanned
Which on my arm I buckle:
With these I plow, I reap, I sow,
With these I make the sweet vintage flow,
And all around me truckle.
But your wights that take no pride to wield
A massy spear and well-made shield,
Nor joy to draw the sword –
Oh, I bring those heartless, hapless drones
Down in a trice on their marrow-bones,
To call me king and lord.
Most pleasing of the forms of popular poetry are the songs of
children. The so-called flower song ran thus: “Where are my roses?
Where are my violets? Where are my beautiful parsley-leaves ? ”
«Here are your roses; here are your violets; here are your beautiful
parsley-leaves. ” The children of Rhodes had a pretty custom. On
a day in early spring they would go round the town seeking presents
from door to door, and singing the advent of the swallow:
>
She is here, she is here, the swallow!
Fair seasons bringing, fair years to follow!
Her belly is white,
Her back black as night!
From your rich house
Roll forth to us
Tarts, wine, and cheese:
Or if not these,
Oatmeal and barley-cake
The swallow deigns to take.
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What shall we have? Or must we hence away ?
Thanks, if you give; if not, we'll make you pay!
The house-door hence we'll carry;
Nor shall the lintel tarry.
From hearth and home your wife we'll rob;
She is so small
To take her off will be an easy job!
Whate'er you give, give largess free!
Up! open, open to the swallow's call!
No grave old men, but merry children we!
Translation of J. A. Symonds.
1
Choral poetry of a definite artistic type seems to have been first
cultivated in Sparta by Alcman about the middle of the seventh cen-
tury B. C. Alcman composed hymns to the gods, marching-songs and
choral songs for men and boys; but his best-known compositions
were choruses for girls, which were largely dramatic in character
(see special article). A pupil of Alcman's was Arion the Lesbian,
who in Corinth first gave a literary form to the dithyramb. Well
known is the pretty story of Arion and the dolphin. The poet had
traveled through Magna Græcia, and having made a large fortune by
his songs, again took ship at Tarentum for Corinth. But the sailors,
who coveted his wealth, forced him to jump overboard; whereupon to
their amazement a dolphin bore him safely to land.
In Stesichorus (630–550 B. C. ) we meet for the first time a Sicilian
poet, and one of great power. His original name was Tisias, which
he resigned for another that indicated his profession as a trainer of
choruses. His native city Himera was a Dorian settlement, but had
a large Ionic element in the population. Catana was the scene of his
death.
According to Quintilian, Stesichorus sustained in lyric form the
weight of epic verse. By this is meant that the poet made use of
epic material; taking such subjects as the exploits of Hercules, the
tale of Orestes, or the story of Helen. But recitation was supplanted
by song; and the verse of Stesichorus was such that it could be
sung by choruses. It was he who permanently established the triple
division of choral odes into strophes, antistrophes, and epodes. In the
performance of hymns to the gods, the choristers would first dance
to the right, chanting a metrical period called a strophe; then to the
left through an antistrophe which corresponded in metrical detail to
the strophe; while through the after-song, the dissimilar epode, they
remained in their original position near the altar. The triad of
strophe, antistrophe, and epode formed one artistic whole. Corre-
spondence of strophe and antistrophe seems to have been known to
1
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Alcman; but to Stesichorus must be given the credit for first reveal-
ing the capabilities of the choral ode, through the addition of the
epode and the elaboration of artistic details. Herein he is the fore-
runner not only of Pindar, but also of the great dramatists.
In addition to being an originator in the structure of choral verse,
Stesichorus seems to have been the first to give literary standing to
two important spheres of poetry. A single surviving line, -
When in springtime twitters the swallow,-
and his references to Cydonian apples, myrtle leaves, roses, and vio-
lets, are an indication of his affinity to Theocritus and Bion. His
pastoral on Daphnis was probably based on a form of Sicilian pop-
ular poetry; and his love idyls — which were utterly unlike the erotic
poems of the Lesbian school, and which also, we may well believe,
have a popular origin — are the beginning of Greek romantic poetry.
One of these, called Rhadina,' told the sad story of a brother and sis-
ter who were put to death by a tyrant; and another, Calyce,' set
forth the unhappy end of “love's sweet dream. ”
>
When thus her lover passed away,
From her too passed the light of day.
A peculiarly interesting figure in the history of lyric poetry is
Ibycus, who hails from the Italian Rhegium, another half-Dorian, half-
Ionian city.
He belongs to the middle of the sixth century; and in
his art shows the influence both of Alcman and Stesichorus on the one
hand, and on the other of the Æolian school of Lesbos. In form his
verse belongs wholly to the Dorian lyric; but in giving free scope to
the personal element' he resembles Alcman, and when indulging his
passionate erotic sentiment he is evidently under the spell of Sappho
and his contemporary Anacreon. His career was divided between
Sicily and distant Samos. In Sicily he followed in the steps of his
master Stesichorus; producing odes of elaborate structure, based
largely on epic and mythological material. But at the invitation of
Polycrates, Ibycus left western Greece, and crossed the seas to adorn
the court of the great tyrant of Samos.
The rule of the tyrants was a transitional period in the develop-
ment of democratic life in Greece. It came after the overthrow of
oligarchic power, when the people were still unprepared to assume
the responsibility of government. But it was a period of great com-
mercial progress, industrial activity, and national ambition.
The seva
eral tyrants, vying with one another in their display of wealth,
adorned their cities and courts with all the embellishments and lux-
uries that riches and art could provide. It was thus that the poets
found a home with princes. Henceforth the courts of tyrants, whether
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1
at Syracuse, Athens, or Samos, are thronged with sculptors, musicians,
painters, and poets; and art, which had heretofore been largely local
in sphere, comes to have more and more of a panhellenic character.
By Ibycus the forms of Dorian lyric are planted in Ionian Samos, even
as through Arion's career at Corinth they take up their home at
Ionian Athens.
The love poetry of Ibycus, though clearly expressive of personal
emotion, exhibits a choral structure, and was apparently sung on pub.
lic occasions. Its tone may be inferred from the following frag-
ment:
IN SPRING Cydonian apple-trees,
Watered by fountains ever flowing
Through crofts unmown of maiden goddesses,
And young vines, 'neath the shade
Of shooting tendrils, tranquilly are growing.
Meanwhile for me, Love, never laid
In slumber, like a north wind glowing
With Thracian lightnings, still doth dart
Blood-parching madness on my heart,
From Kupris hurtling, stormful, wild,
Lording the man as erst the child.
Translation of John Addington Symonds.
>
Here as in other fragments of Ibycus we can detect an almost
romantic sentiment for external nature, as evidenced by fruits and
flowers, nightingales, running brooks, and starry nights. For the con-
ception of love in the above passage, we may compare another
where love looks upon the poet “from under deep-dark brows,” and
Ibycus “trembles at his onset like a valiant chariot-horse which in
old age must once more enter the race. ” The love of Ibycus, as of
Sappho, was a mighty, terrible creature, not the mischievous baby
Cupid cf later times.
The panhellenic range of choral lyric, first seen in the career of
Ibycus, is manifested most clearly by the two greatest masters in this
sphere of art, Simonides and Pindar. Both of these poets enjoyed a
national reputation, and both lived through the most glorious period
in Hellenic existence, the period when Greece was engaged in her
life-or-death struggle with her Persian foe.
Simonides, born in the Ionian island of Ceos, became like Ibycus a
court poet, and enjoyed the friendship and hospitality of the Athenian
Pisistratidæ, of the powerful Aleuadæ and Scopadæ of Thessaly, and
of Hiero the lordly tyrant of Syracuse. So too Pindar, born a The-
ban aristocrat, became famous and popular throughout the length
and breadth of the whole Greek world. He was intimate with the
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TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
kings of Macedon, and with the tyrants of Thessaly, Syracuse, and
African Cyrene. He sings of Ægina, Corinth, Argos, and the vari-
ous cities of Sicily. His heroes hail from all parts of the Hellenic
domains, and win their laurels in those great centres of national
unity, the sacred seats of Pythian Apollo, Isthmian Poseidon, Nemean
and Olympian Zeus. At Lindos, in the island of Rhodes, the seventh
Olympian was set up on the walls of Athene's temple in letters of
gold. Especially at Athens was Pindar held in high esteem. Not
only did he receive a gift of money, but his statue was erected
near the temple of Ares, and he was made Athenian proxenus, or
State representative at Thebes. A century after his death, when
Alexander the Great destroyed Thebes, the only private house left
standing was that of Pindar, and among the few citizens who were
spared a life of slavery were the descendants of Pindar. Pindar, like
Euripides, was more than a mere citizen of a single State: his Muse
and his fame were panhellenic.
On Simonides and Pindar, however, we have no right to dwell, as
they will be found treated in separate articles; but a word may be
spared for Bacchylides, the nephew and disciple of Simonides, who
was numbered by the Greeks among their nine great lyric writers.
He too was intimate with Hiero, and most of his poetry was writ-
ten to grace the refined and luxurious life of a court. Bacchylides
followed closely in the steps of his uncle, and was an elegant and
finished writer; but his personality and fame are almost lost in those
of his more distinguished relative. * He appears to have given a
choral character to banqueting-songs and songs of love, though the
following ode shows how closely he is allied in thought to Anacre-
on's school: -
When the wine-cup freely flows,
Soothing is the mellow force,
Vanquishing the drinker's heart,
Rousing hope on Love's sweet course.
Love with bounteous Bacchus joined
All with proudest thoughts can dower;
Wallèd towns the drinker scales,
Dreams of universal power.
Ivory and gold enrich his home:
Corn-ships o'er the dazzling sea
Bear him Egypt's untold wealth:
Thus he soars in fancy free.
* A. number of complete poems by Bacchylides have recently been discov-
ered, but at the time of writing have not yet been published. Some account
of them is given in the London Athenæum for December 26th, 1896, page 907.
## p. 15183 (#123) ##########################################
TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
15183
No
But Bacchylides was no optimist. «'Tis best for mortals,” he cries,
«not to have been born, or to look upon the light of the sun.
mortal is happy all his days. ” In one of the pæans of Bacchylides
we have a foretaste of Aristophanes, who in the lyric songs of his
Peace) dwells upon the same theme.
TO MORTAL men Peace giveth these good things:
Wealth, and the flowers of honey-throated song;
The flame that springs
On carven altars from fat sheep and kine,
Slain to the gods in heaven; and all day long,
Games for glad youths, and flutes, and wreaths, and circling
wine.
Then in the steely shield swart spiders weave
Their web and dusky woof;
Rust to the pointed spear and sword doth cleave;
The brazen trump sounds no alarms;
Nor is sleep harried from our eyes aloof,
But with sweet rest my bosom warms:
The streets are thronged with lovely men and young,
And hymns in praise of boys like flames to heaven are flung.
Translation of J. A. Symonds.
Pindar is the last of the great writers whose poetry was exclus-
ively lyric. With the rise of the drama, lyric poetry came to be
regarded mainly as the handmaid of tragedy and comedy; and though
a few forms, such as the dithyramb, continued to enjoy an independ-
ent existence, still these either failed to attract real genius, and so
fell into decline, or they suffered from the tendency to magnify the
accompaniments of music and dance, and thus lost the virtue of a
high poetical tone.
It is however a peculiarity of Greek poetry that none of the earlier
forms are completely lost, but are absorbed in the later. When
we reach the drama, we find that this splendid creation of Hellenic
genius gathers up in one beautiful and harmonious web the various
threads of the poetic art.
The drama, as is well known, originated in the songs which were
sung in the festivals of Bacchus. Tragedy is literally the goat-ode;
that is, the choral song chanted by satyrs, the goat-footed attendants
of Bacchus. At first, then, tragedy was of a purely lyric character, --
a story in song with expressive dance and musical accompaniment.
The further history of tragedy and comedy is, in brief, the develop-
ment of dialogue and the harmonizing of the lyric and dramatic
elements. The greatest impetus was given to dialogue in Attica
## p. 15184 (#124) ##########################################
15184
TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
through the recitations of Homeric poetry by professional bards.
Epic metre, however, was unsuited to dramatic dialogue, which, after
essaying the lighter trochaic line, finally adopted the more conver-
sational iambic verse which Archilochus had used so effectively for
satire.
Already at the end of the sixth century B. C. , the drama presents
the twofold character which in Greece it never lost, the chorus and
the dialogue, the former due to Dorian lyric poetry, the latter to the
Ionic verse-forms of Archilochus. With the full development of dra-
matic form the lyric was reduced from its supreme position to an
inferior station, in which it should no longer be the controlling ele-
ment, but merely the efficient and beautiful handmaid of dramatic
dialogue. In Æschylus the lyric still assumes undue proportions; in
Sophocles the lyric and dramatic are blended in perfect harmony;
but. in Euripides the work of disintegration has set in, and the lyric
tends to become a mere artistic appendage.
All works on Greek literature treat this subject more
or less
fully. Flach's "Geschichte der Griechischen Lyrik (Tübingen: 1883)
is the most complete work on the whole field. Symonds's Greek
Poets) and Jebb's Classical Greek Poetry) are both excellent. The
Greek student finds Bergk's Poetæ Lyrici Græci' (Leipzig: 1882)
indispensable. An attractive and convenient edition of the Poeta
Lyrici Græci Minores) is that by Pomtow (Leipzig: 1885). Farnell's
(Greek Lyric Poetry (Longmans: 1891) is confined to the “melic
writers. The most popular treatment of Greek music will be found
in Naumann's History of Music,' edited by Sir F. Gore Ouseley
(Cassell & Co. ). Chappell's History of Music' (London: 1874) is a
standard work. Monro's (The Modes of Ancient Greek Music) (Clar-
endon Press : 1894) is intended for the specialist.
(
(
tRushton
Faurelough
## p. 15184 (#125) ##########################################
1
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.
## p. 15184 (#126) ##########################################
LUDWIG UHLAND
## p. 15184 (#127) ##########################################
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## p. 15184 (#128) ##########################################
ET
## p. 15185 (#129) ##########################################
15185
JOHANN LUDWIG UHLAND
(1787-1862)
BY CHARLES HARVEY GENUNG
OHANN LUDWIG UHLAND was born on April 26th, 1787, at Tü-
bingen, where now his statue stands. Although the place
itself is a dull little university town, the region round about
is filled with romantic associations. Near by are the ancestral castles
of the Hohenstaufens and Hohenzollerns, of the family that domi-
nated the brilliant period of Walther von der Vogelweide and of that
under which the German empire regained her ancient lustre. Through
the valley runs the highway along which swept the armies of the
Suabian emperors to their new dominions in Italy. It was amid
these romantic memories that Uhland's genius grew to maturity. In
Tübingen he was educated, and there in 1810 he took his degree in
law. For two years he practiced in the ministry of justice at Stutt-
gart. When in 1815 the question of a constitution was precipitated
by the King of Würtemberg, Uhland burst into patriotic verse, and
in that year he published his first collection of poems. He sprang at
once into unbounded popularity. Goethe, who recognized that such
popular enthusiasm implied merit somewhere, found it in the ballads;
and when Uhland went into politics oethe remonstrated: there
vere many men in Suabia, he said, capable of serving the State, but
there was only one such poet as Uhland. Nevertheless the political
career which the poet began in 1819, when he was elected to the
assembly, was continued at intervals throughout his life. He received
in 1829 the coveted professorship of German language and literature
at the University of Tübingen; but since he was not permitted to
take his seat in the Assembly at the same time, he resigned from his
congenial post in 1833. He was one of the most prominent of the
opponents to the royal Constitution. In 1839 he refused re-election;
and lived in retirement until in 1848 he was elected to the National
Assembly at Frankfort.
Aside from politics and poetry, Uhland was, like Rückert, a distin-
guished scholar. Schérer regarded him as one of the founders of the
science of Romance philology; and his contributions to Germanistic
studies are of permanent value. One exquisite monograph, in which
the qualities of poet and of scholar are equally manifest, is still a
XXVI–950
## p. 15186 (#130) ##########################################
15186
JOHANN LUDWIG UHLAND
T
standard classic: the essay on Walther von der Vogelweide, published
in 1821, and dealing with the most fascinating theme in the whole
range of German studies, — the greatest of the minnesingers, from
whom descended the fairest traditions of that golden age to the
wooden age of the mastersingers, to be at last rejuvenated and once
more made fruitful by the Romantic poets, and chief among them
by Uhland himself. If the politician, as Goethe feared, threatened to
consume the poet, these scholarly pursuits served only to sustain and
stimulate the genius of the singer. All these publications relating
to old German and Romance philology have since appeared in eight
volumes, under the collective title of (Schriften zur Geschichte der
Dichtung und Sage' (Contributions to the History of Poetry and
Legend).
But it is the poet Uhland that the world knows and loves. He
wrote some three hundred and fifty poems, fully half of them master-
pieces, which have become an essential part of German culture. It
is inconceivable,” wrote Herman Grimm, “that they should ever grow
old. The first collection of poems, of 1815, was gradually enlarged
in the subsequent editions. In 1875 they had reached their sixtieth
edition,, and this average of one edition annually has since been in-
creased. His two plays, Ernst, Herzog von Schwaben? (Ernest, Duke
of Suabia) and (Ludwig der Bayer' (Louis the Bavarian), although
spirited examples of the historical drama, could not retain their foot-
hold on the stage. Uhland is probably the most popular German
poet after Schiller. In him Professor Francke sees united the fine
spirit of Walther von der Vogelweide and the epic impressiveness
of the Nibelungenlied. He revealed to Germany her better self mir-
rored in her shining past.
As a lyric poet, Uhland stands in the foremost rank among the
many singers of his tuneful race. After Goethe, he is with Eichen-
dorff and Heine the favorite of the composers; and this is one of the
surest tests of a poet's lyric quality. The constant temptation which
he offers to translators, only to lure them on to half-successes, is
another test. No lyrics except Heine's, and not excepting Goethe's,
have ever been so often attempted in English as Uhland's. Through
these innumerable versions, as well as through the universal medium
of music, his poetry has become a part of the world's lyric reper-
toire. Among the Romantic poets he occupies a peculiar place;
he is as far removed from the intellectual kite-flying of Novalis and
Brentano as he is from the massive might of Kleist and the austerity
of Platen: but like Kleist he brought order into the lawlessness of
Romanticism, and turned it from caprice to poetry”; like Platen
he insisted upon finished form and faultless measures. He rescued
stately figures for us from the knightly past, and summoned spirits
## p. 15187 (#131) ##########################################
10
1
1
JOHANN LUDWIG UHLAND
15187
from the dreamland of ancient legend. Solemn haunting echoes
of the past are borne to us in his verse across the centuries, and
all these quaint and shadowy recollections of the age of wonders he
has made a permanent part of our modern culture. His idea of the
romantic may be inferred from his saying, "A region is romantic
when spirits walk there. " But it is as if he saw the spirits and
their legendary train pass over from afar, as one watches the play
of changing color on the floating clouds of sunset; his feet the while
are firmly planted on the earth. He never loses his foothold in
reality. Nor does he glorify the past to the point of despising the
present. He is genuine and sane. In him the romantic elements
as we find them in Goethe are more perfectly manifest than in any
other poet of the Romantic group. With fewest exceptions, his bal-
lads and lyrics are little masterpieces of dramatic narrative and inusi-
cal form. Uhland's position in the history of German poetry is best
defined in the apt paradox of David Strauss, who called him the
classic of Romanticism. "
lawa-bawang
Grun
THE SHEPHERD'S SONG ON THE LORD'S DAY
TH
HE Lord's own day is here!
Alone I kneel on this broad plain:
A matin-bell just sounds; again
'Tis silence, far and near.
Here kneel I on the sod:
Oh, deep amazement, strangely felt!
As though, unseen, vast numbers knelt
And prayed with me to God.
Yon heaven, afar and near,
So bright, so glorious seems its cope
As though e'en now its gates would ope;-
The Lord's own day is here!
Translation of W. W. Skeat.
## p. 15188 (#132) ##########################################
15188
JOHANN LUDWIG UHLAND
THE LUCK OF EDENHALL
0
F EDENHALL the youthful lord
Bids sound the festal trumpet's call;
He rises at the banquet board,
And cries, 'inid the drunken revelers all,
“Now bring me the Luck of Edenhall! »
The butler hears the words with pain, -
The house's oldest seneschal,-
Takes slow from its silken cloth again
The drinking-glass of crystal tall:
They call it The Luck of Edenhall.
Then said the lord, “This glass to praise,
Fill with red wine from Portugal! ”
The graybeard with trembling hand obeys:
A purple light shines over all;
It beams from the Luck of Edenhail.
Then speaks the lord, and waves it light:-
« This glass of fashing crystal tall
Gave to my sires the Fountain-Sprite;
She wrote in it, If this glass doth fall,
Farewell then, 0 Luck of Edenhall!
« 'Twas right a goblet the fate should be
Of the joyous race of Edenhall!
We drink deep draughts right willingly;
And willingly ring, with merry call.
Kling! klang! to the Luck of Edenhall! »
First rings it deep, and full, and mild,
Like to the song of a nightingale,
Then like the roar of a torrent wild;
Then mutters at last, like the thunder's fall,
The glorious Luck of Edenhall.
“For its keeper, takes a race of might
The fragile goblet of crystal tall:
It has lasted longer than is right:-
Kling! klang! with a harder blow than all
Will I try the Luck of Edenhall! ”
As the goblet, ringing, flies apart,
Suddenly cracks the vaulted hall;
1
## p. 15189 (#133) ##########################################
JOHANN LUDWIG UHLAND
15189
And through the rift the flames upstart:
The guests in dust are scattered all
With the breaking Luck of Edenhall!
In storms the foe, with fire and sword !
He in the night had scaled the wall;
Slain by the sword lies the youthful lord,
But holds in his hand the crystal tall,
The shattered Luck of Edenhall.
On the morrow the butler gropes alone,
The graybeard, -- in the desert hall
He seeks his lord's burnt skeleton;
He seeks in the dismal ruin's fall
The shards of the Luck of Edenhall.
“The stone wall,” saith he, doth fall aside;
Down must the stately columns fall:
Glass is this earth's Luck and Pride;
In atoms shall fall this earthly ball,
One day, like the Luck of Edenhall. ”
Translation of H. W. Longfellov.
THE MINSTREL'S CURSE
HERE stood in former ages a castle high and large;
Above the slope it glistened far down to ocean's marge;
Around it like a garland bloomed gardens of delight,
Where sparkled cooling fountains, with sun-bow glories dight.
THE
There sat a haughty monarch, who lands in war had won;
With aspect pale and gloomy he sat upon the throne:
His thoughts are fraught with terrors, his glance of fury blights;
His words are galling scourges, with victims' blood he writes.
Once moved towards this castle a noble minstrel pair,
The one with locks all golden, snow-white the other's hair:
With harp in hand, the graybeard a stately courser rode;
In flower of youth, beside him his tall companion strode.
was the predecessor of Pindar in the dithyramb of Bacchic festivities,
as he was also in the songs of victory sung at Olympia. Even in
Pindar's day exultant friends still sang the “Hail Victor) refrain
of Archilochus's hymn to Heracles, as they led the conquering hero
to the shrine of Zeus.
It is not, however, as an elegiac or love poet, as an inventor of
varied forms of verse, as a fable-writer or singer of hymns and songs
of victory, that Archilochus is best remembered: it is as the fore-
runner of the great Aristophanes, of Lucilius, Horace, and Juvenal,
of Swift and Pope, of Molière and Voltaire, and as the most potent
wielder in antiquity of the shafts of personal satire by means of
what Hadrian called his «frenzied iambi”; for, as Quintilian says,
compressed into his “short and quivering sentences was the maxi-
mum of blood and sinew. ” In this sphere his surpassing great-
ness has completely overshadowed later iambic writers of no little
intrinsic merit; such as Simonides of Amorgus, the unsparing reviler
of womankind, and the caustic Hipponax of Ephesus, whose crippled
lines (for Hipponax was the inventor of the so-called “limping
iambics”) present vivid and homely pictures of daily life among the
Asiatic Greeks of those remote times.
The iambic measure, having been found a fitting vehicle for per-
sonal and satiric effusions, afterwards enjoyed the great distinction of
being adopted as the ordinary verse of dialogue in the Attic drama.
Greek elegy, too, being applicable to the most heterogeneous subjects,
especially to epigrammatic composition, continued an independent
existence not only till the glory of Greece herself had departed, but
even till after the fall of the Roman empire.
In contrast with this Ionic poetry, let us turn to that which was
first brought to perfection by the Æolian and Dorian tribes, and
which alone was regarded by the Greeks as lyric. If we cared to
employ a term used by the Greeks themselves, we might distin-
guish Æolian and Dorian lyric by the term melic, because such poetry
was always set to some melos or melody. The Æolian lyric was
cultivated chiefly in the Æolian island of Lesbos, the Dorian in the
Dorian Peloponnesus and Sicily. The former was sung in the Æolic
dialect, the latter chiefly in the traditional epic dialect, but included
1
## p. 15172 (#112) ##########################################
15172
TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
a sparing admixture of Doric forms. The two schools differ materi-
ally in every respect, - in style, subject, and form.
The Æolic was intended to be sung by a single voice, the singer
accompanying himself on a stringed instrument, with suitable gest-
ures. It was essentially personal, expressing the singer's own emo-
tion. Political feeling is, to be sure, prominent in Alcæus; but this
is due to the poet's identifying his personality so completely with
a political party. As to form, Æolic lyrics are very simple, either
consisting of a series of short lines of equal length, or of stanzas
in which shorter line marks the separation from one another. The
four-lined stanza is the commonest form. The Alcaic and Sapphic
odes of Horace are illustrations familiar to the Latin student.
On the other hand, Dorian lyric poetry was sung by a number in
chorus, accompanied by dancing and musical instruments. For the
most part it was of public importance, and when it was performed
in private the occasion was one of general interest. Hence choral
poetry is found connected with the sacred and festal gatherings
of the people, or the marriages and funerals of private life. The
structure of a choral poem is often very elaborate and artificial; but
the movements of the dance, appealing to the eye, assisted the ear in
unweaving the intricacies of the rhythm.
Let it always be borne in mind that Greek dancing was very dif-
ferent from the modern art. Dancing to our mind simply implies
tripping it on the light fantastic toe”; and often with little reason
and less grace.
But in Greece the term dancing applied to all move-
ments of the body which were intended to aid in the interpretation
of poetry or the expression of emotion. Thus gestures, postures, and
attitudes were most important forins of dancing, and in dance move-
ments the hands and arms played a much larger part than the feet.
Aristotle tells us that dancers imitate actions, characters, and passions
by means of gestures and rhythmical motion. Thus the spirit which
animates Greek mythology and Greek art — the desire to give form
and body to mental conceptions — is characteristic of Greek dancing.
Various attempts have been made in recent years to reproduce the
graceful and rhythmical movements of ancient dancing. One of the
most successful of these was that of the young
of Vassar
College, who in May 1893 rendered Sophocles's Antigone in the
original Greek, adhering as closely as possible to the ancient mode
of representation. The lyrics, sung to Mendelssohn's fine music, were
accompanied by expressive and artistic dance evolutions. The beau-
tiful imitative and interpretative movements of the choristers were
in striking contrast with the ludicrous and meaningless feats of the
spinning ballet-girls, with their scant muslin skirts and painted ex-
pressionless faces.
mo
## p. 15173 (#113) ##########################################
TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
15173
1
As to Greek music, it too was very different from ours; but in this
sphere the advantage certainly lies with the modern art.
And yet
the music of the Greeks, as illustrated by the few extant remains,
especially by the Apollo hymns found at Delphi in 1893, has its own
peculiar beauties, which can arouse the sympathy and interest of a
cultivated audience even to-day,
In the best period of Greek poetry, the only musical instruments
employed were practically the lyre, a string instrument, and the flute,
a wind instrument; the former being much preferred because it al-
lowed the same person to sing and play. Other string instruments,
such as the cithara, phorminx, psaltery, chelys, barbiton, and pectis,
were all mere variations of the lyre, and depended on the same
principle. Instruments with a large number of strings were known,
as the magadis and trigon; but these, though commonly used by pro-
fessional musicians, were unhesitatingly condemned by Plato and
Aristotle, as pandering to perverted tastes. As to wind instruments,
the flute was originally imported from Lydia, and was still unfamiliar
to the Greeks in Homer's time. This flute must not be confounded
with the one used in our modern orchestras, for it resembled rather
the clarionet or oboe. It was also stronger and shriller than our
modern Aute. Flutes varied in length; and a double flute was often
used. The syrinx, or Pan's pipe, had seven reeds of different length,
giving the seven notes of the scale. For special effect the trumpet
or horn was introduced: also the tympanum or drum, and cymbals.
The question is often asked whether the Greeks employed har-
mony or not. Part-singing was unknown among them, as were also
the elaborate harmonies of the modern art. Yet they did understand
and employ harmonies; though with the exception of octave singing,
these were confined to instrumental music. In the best days of
Greek song, however, harmony seems to have been little more than a
matter of octaves, fourths, and fifths, – the only concords, it is said,
that the Japanese have to-day. Pythagoras on theory rejected the
third, which we regard as the most pleasing of intervals; but it was
apparently used in practice.
Yet if the Greeks were far inferior to us in harmony, it would
appear that they developed melody to an extraordinary degree.
Quarter-tones, used it is true as merely passing notes, were sung by
the voice and played on strings; and as there was no bowing, as with
our violin, this was done without sliding from one note to another.
Yet this sort of playing, when well done, aroused the greatest enthu-
siasm.
In Greek lyric, the three sister arts of poetry, music, and dance
formed a trinity in unity, whereas with us they are quite distinct.
Poetry and music may be united artificially on occasion; but in an-
tiquity the great poets were musicians as well, and wrote their own
## p. 15174 (#114) ##########################################
15174
TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
.
1
-
music, perhaps simultaneously with their poetry. As for the dance,
that too was an important element of Greek lyric; though nowadays
it is very poor poetry indeed that we should care to marry to the
art of romping:
After what has just been said, it will not be thought remarkable
that the first name in the history of Greek melic, or lyric poetry
proper, is noteworthy also in the history of music. Terpander, who
was the first to add three strings to the primitive four-stringed lyre,
and who thus gave a great impetus to musical development, was born
in the Æolian island of Lesbos. He is said to have won the victor's
prize on the occasion when the festival of Apollo Carneus was first
established at Sparta in 676 B. C. His consequent fame gave him
great influence with the music-loving Lacedæmonians, among whom
he introduced his melodies or nomes, which received the sanction of
State authority. These nomes, which were sacred hymns sung by a
single voice, were composed chiefly in the stately dactylic and solemn
spondaic verses. Only long syllables are used in a hymn to Zeus
which begins in this simple but weighty language: “Zeus, of all things
the beginning, of all things leader: Zeus, to thee I offer this beginning
of hymns. ”
That the Æolian Terpander should have practiced his art in a
Dorian State is but one illustration of the way in which the vari-
ous streams of Greek artistic activity tended to intermingle. In the
seventh century, however, Sparta was the greatest power in Greece;
and it was but natural that she should act as a magnet, drawing
within her borders the leading artists of every State. Thus Terpan-
der the Lesbian was followed by Tyrtæus a reputed Athenian, Clonas
the Theban, Thaletas the Cretan, and Alcman the Lydian. These
were the poets who laid the foundations of choral poetry, which was
destined to have so magnificent a future.
Meanwhile in Terpander's native isle, the wealthy and luxurious
Lesbos, that form of song which embodied purely personal sentiment
was being gradually developed. We know nothing of the immediate
predecessors of the great Lesbian poets; but the fact that Terpander
was entering upon his career at the beginning of the seventh cen-
tury is sufficient proof that at time Lesbos was already a centre
of music and poetry. At the end of this same century, suddenly and
without warning, we come face to face in Lesbos with the very per-
fection of lyric art.
The greatest names in Æolian lyric are Alcæus and Sappho. The
former was a Lesbian noble, a proud and fiery cavalier, who sang of
love and wine or poured forth passionate thoughts on politics and
philosophy. The scanty fragments of Sappho's songs fully bear out
the verdict of antiquity, that her verse was unrivaled in grace and
sweetness. She was «the poetess," as Homer was «the poet ”; and
## p. 15175 (#115) ##########################################
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15175
>
1
Plato added her to the choir of Muses nine. ” (See the special
articles on these two poets. With the Æolian poets of Lesbos,
Anacreon, an Ionian, must be classed, because he too sings simple
songs of personal feeling. But Anacreon is not to be compared
with Alcæus and Sappho in inspiration and genuine emotion. He has
plenty of grace, plenty of metrical charm and polish; but the fire
of genius is lacking. Anacreon is a mere courtier who adorns the
palaces of princes, and free from deep or absorbing passion, sings
lightly and sweetly of youths and maidens, of love and wine and
pleasure. This very absence of real seriousness of purpose ely
accounts for the great popularity of Anacreon's verse, which in more
prosaic days was freely imitated. The admiration bestowed by the
modern world upon Anacreon is founded almost entirely upon a col-
lection of odes which pass under his name, but which have long
since been proven spurious. These Anacreontics, most familiar to us
in Thomas Moore's translation, are of unequal merit; some of them
being very graceful and pleasing, while others are feeble and puerile.
Æolic song, besides being limited in local sphere, was very short-
lived. As the expression of purely personal, individual emotion,
apart from the sentiments of one's associates and fellow-citizens,
song did not play that part in the Greek world with which we are
so familiar to day. As a race, the Greeks were not sentimental and
introspective; but were distinguished for their practical, objective
manner of looking upon the world. The Greek could never forget
that he was a member of a community; and even in the expression
of his joys and sorrows he would not stand aloof from his fellow-
Hence, we find that in the creative period of Greek poetry,
the song to be sung by a single voice, and setting forth the feelings
of the individual heart, was never wide-spread, but limited to the
small field of the Lesbian school; and however remarkable its brill-
iance, flourished in splendor for little more than a single generation.
Not so with the poetry which voiced the sentiments and emo-
tional life of a whole community. Lyric poetry of this popular and
general character is found from early days in connection with the
festivals and institutions of the various Greek States. More particu-
larly did it suit the genius of the Dorian tribes, among whom civic
and communal life was more pronounced than elsewhere. After
undergoing a rich artistic development, this Dorian lyric became
panhellenic in the range of its acceptance; and being adopted in
Attica in the service of the gods, it enjoyed a glorious history in the
evolution of Athenian greatness, and more particularly in the remark-
able development of the Attic drama.
Let us first note the various forms which this public poetry
assumed. The very earliest lyric poetry of Greece is connected with
the worship of nature, such as the Linus-song, incidentally mentioned
men.
11
## p. 15176 (#116) ##########################################
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TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
by Homer (Iliad, xviii. 570) and sung at the vintage as an elegy on
the death of a beautiful youth who symbolized the passing of sum-
mer. Similar songs were the lament for Hyacinthus and that for
Adonis, subjects which often found artistic treatment in the poets of
later times.
A fruitful source of lyric song was the worship of the nature-god
Dionysus or Bacchus. Like our Christmas festival, the Bacchic fes-
tivities had two sides, a sacred and a secular. Characteristic of the
latter was the so-called phallic song, the seed from which was to
spring Attic comedy. In the Acharnians) of Aristophanes we have
a mosaic of such a song, not without much of its primitive coarse-
ness. To the more reverential side belongs the invocation of the
god, the dithyrambic hymn, first mentioned by Archilochus. The
dithyramb became popular at luxurious Corinth; and here it was that
in the beginning of the sixth century B. C. , Arion, a Lesbian, first
gave it artistic form, adapted it to a chorus, and set it on the path of
development, which was to lead to the tragic drama. Only one such
poem has come down to us in any completeness; and that is a beau-
tiful dithyramb of Pindar's, composed for a chorus of fifty voices.
(An English rendering is given by Campbell, 'Greek Tragedy,' page
50. )
The hymns sung in honor of other deities were probably less pop-
ular and general in character; being mainly connected with local
cults and often with hereditary priesthoods. Delos and Delphi were
the peculiar homes of the worship of Apollo, and there it was that
the Apollo hymns chiefly flourished. The most important variety of
these was the Pæan, which glorified Apollo as the giver of health
and victory. In a lyrical monody of Euripides's "Ion,' we have what
is probably the burden of one of these solemn old Delphian chants,
“O Pæan, Pæan, blessed be thou, O son of Leto! »
Processional hymns, sung by a chorus to instrumental accompani-
ment, were a common feature of solemn festivals. These prosodia, as
they were called, were composed by the greatest poets of the day,
such as Alcman, Stesichorus, and Pindar. Processional hymns, when
sung by girls only, were called parthenia. What beauty and splendor
these processions of youths and maidens could lend to civic celebra-
tions, may be inferred from those glorious pictures in marble adorn-
ing the frieze of the famous Parthenon.
Still another occasion when the noblest sentiments of Greek civic
life found utterance in lyric song, was the celebration of victory in
the national games. In this matter-of-fact age, notwithstanding our
devotion to athletics and manly sports, we find it very difficult to
comprehend the lofty idealism with which in days of old the con-
tests on the banks of the Alpheus, and at other noted centres, were
invested. And yet unless we realize how intense was the national
1
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15177
and spiritual exaltation which characterized these games, we shall
never regard Pindar as more than an idle babbler of meaningless
words, whereas in reality he is one of the most sublime and creative
geniuses in all literature.
Other occasions for the use of lyric were funeral solemnities and
wedding festivities. Even as early as Homer, laments for the dead
were sung by professional mourners; and with the growth of the
poetic art, dirges became an important form of artistic song. Simon-.
ides and Pindar were both distinguished in this field; and in the lyri-
cal part of tragedy the dirge is a prominent element.
The hymenaus, or joyous wedding song, is also known to Homer.
In one of the cities represented on the shield of Achilles were de-
picted bridal feasts, “and with blazing torches they were leading
brides from their chambers through the city, and the hymenæus
swelled high. And youths were whirling in the dance, while among
them flutes and harps resounded; and the women, standing at their
several doors, marveled thereat. ” (Iliad, xviii. 491. ) The songs sung
in chorus before the bridal chamber were called epithalamia, and were
deemed worthy of the attention of the greatest lyric artists. Sappho
was particularly famous for her epithalamia; but only fragments
have survived, and we must form our conception of a Sapphic epi-
thalamium from Catullus's beautiful imitation
((
Vesper adest, iuvenes, consurgite.
Greek drinking-songs belong to the borderland between personal
and popular verse. Some of the so-called scolia or catches were
patriotic songs; an interesting specimen of which is the ode by Cal-
listratus in honor of those idols of the Athenian people, Harmodius
and Aristogeiton, who slew the tyrant Hipparchus:-
With leaves of myrtle I'll wreathe iny sword,
Like Harmodius of yore and his comrade brave,
What time they slew the tyrant lord
And equal laws to Athens gave.
Beloved Harmodius, thou hast not died!
The isles of bliss hold thee, 'tis said;
There Achilles the fleet is by thy side,
And Tydeus's son, famed: Diomed.
With leaves of myrtle I'll wreathe my sword,
Like Harmodius of yore and his comrade brave,
What time at Athene's festal board
Through tyrant Hipparchus the sword they drave.
## p. 15178 (#118) ##########################################
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TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
For aye will men sing with one accord
Of thee, loved Harmodius and thy comrade brave;
For ye did slay the tyrant lord
And equal laws to Athens gave.
Another of these songs, written by Hybrias, a Cretan, was doubt-
less popular with those proud young cavaliers who adopted arms as
a profession, and served in various lands and under various leaders.
The sentiment recalls to our minds Archilochus. Here is a spirited
translation by the poet Thomas Campbell:-
MY WEALTH's a burly spear and brand,
And a right good shield of hides untanned
Which on my arm I buckle:
With these I plow, I reap, I sow,
With these I make the sweet vintage flow,
And all around me truckle.
But your wights that take no pride to wield
A massy spear and well-made shield,
Nor joy to draw the sword –
Oh, I bring those heartless, hapless drones
Down in a trice on their marrow-bones,
To call me king and lord.
Most pleasing of the forms of popular poetry are the songs of
children. The so-called flower song ran thus: “Where are my roses?
Where are my violets? Where are my beautiful parsley-leaves ? ”
«Here are your roses; here are your violets; here are your beautiful
parsley-leaves. ” The children of Rhodes had a pretty custom. On
a day in early spring they would go round the town seeking presents
from door to door, and singing the advent of the swallow:
>
She is here, she is here, the swallow!
Fair seasons bringing, fair years to follow!
Her belly is white,
Her back black as night!
From your rich house
Roll forth to us
Tarts, wine, and cheese:
Or if not these,
Oatmeal and barley-cake
The swallow deigns to take.
## p. 15179 (#119) ##########################################
TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
15179
What shall we have? Or must we hence away ?
Thanks, if you give; if not, we'll make you pay!
The house-door hence we'll carry;
Nor shall the lintel tarry.
From hearth and home your wife we'll rob;
She is so small
To take her off will be an easy job!
Whate'er you give, give largess free!
Up! open, open to the swallow's call!
No grave old men, but merry children we!
Translation of J. A. Symonds.
1
Choral poetry of a definite artistic type seems to have been first
cultivated in Sparta by Alcman about the middle of the seventh cen-
tury B. C. Alcman composed hymns to the gods, marching-songs and
choral songs for men and boys; but his best-known compositions
were choruses for girls, which were largely dramatic in character
(see special article). A pupil of Alcman's was Arion the Lesbian,
who in Corinth first gave a literary form to the dithyramb. Well
known is the pretty story of Arion and the dolphin. The poet had
traveled through Magna Græcia, and having made a large fortune by
his songs, again took ship at Tarentum for Corinth. But the sailors,
who coveted his wealth, forced him to jump overboard; whereupon to
their amazement a dolphin bore him safely to land.
In Stesichorus (630–550 B. C. ) we meet for the first time a Sicilian
poet, and one of great power. His original name was Tisias, which
he resigned for another that indicated his profession as a trainer of
choruses. His native city Himera was a Dorian settlement, but had
a large Ionic element in the population. Catana was the scene of his
death.
According to Quintilian, Stesichorus sustained in lyric form the
weight of epic verse. By this is meant that the poet made use of
epic material; taking such subjects as the exploits of Hercules, the
tale of Orestes, or the story of Helen. But recitation was supplanted
by song; and the verse of Stesichorus was such that it could be
sung by choruses. It was he who permanently established the triple
division of choral odes into strophes, antistrophes, and epodes. In the
performance of hymns to the gods, the choristers would first dance
to the right, chanting a metrical period called a strophe; then to the
left through an antistrophe which corresponded in metrical detail to
the strophe; while through the after-song, the dissimilar epode, they
remained in their original position near the altar. The triad of
strophe, antistrophe, and epode formed one artistic whole. Corre-
spondence of strophe and antistrophe seems to have been known to
1
## p. 15180 (#120) ##########################################
15180
TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
Alcman; but to Stesichorus must be given the credit for first reveal-
ing the capabilities of the choral ode, through the addition of the
epode and the elaboration of artistic details. Herein he is the fore-
runner not only of Pindar, but also of the great dramatists.
In addition to being an originator in the structure of choral verse,
Stesichorus seems to have been the first to give literary standing to
two important spheres of poetry. A single surviving line, -
When in springtime twitters the swallow,-
and his references to Cydonian apples, myrtle leaves, roses, and vio-
lets, are an indication of his affinity to Theocritus and Bion. His
pastoral on Daphnis was probably based on a form of Sicilian pop-
ular poetry; and his love idyls — which were utterly unlike the erotic
poems of the Lesbian school, and which also, we may well believe,
have a popular origin — are the beginning of Greek romantic poetry.
One of these, called Rhadina,' told the sad story of a brother and sis-
ter who were put to death by a tyrant; and another, Calyce,' set
forth the unhappy end of “love's sweet dream. ”
>
When thus her lover passed away,
From her too passed the light of day.
A peculiarly interesting figure in the history of lyric poetry is
Ibycus, who hails from the Italian Rhegium, another half-Dorian, half-
Ionian city.
He belongs to the middle of the sixth century; and in
his art shows the influence both of Alcman and Stesichorus on the one
hand, and on the other of the Æolian school of Lesbos. In form his
verse belongs wholly to the Dorian lyric; but in giving free scope to
the personal element' he resembles Alcman, and when indulging his
passionate erotic sentiment he is evidently under the spell of Sappho
and his contemporary Anacreon. His career was divided between
Sicily and distant Samos. In Sicily he followed in the steps of his
master Stesichorus; producing odes of elaborate structure, based
largely on epic and mythological material. But at the invitation of
Polycrates, Ibycus left western Greece, and crossed the seas to adorn
the court of the great tyrant of Samos.
The rule of the tyrants was a transitional period in the develop-
ment of democratic life in Greece. It came after the overthrow of
oligarchic power, when the people were still unprepared to assume
the responsibility of government. But it was a period of great com-
mercial progress, industrial activity, and national ambition.
The seva
eral tyrants, vying with one another in their display of wealth,
adorned their cities and courts with all the embellishments and lux-
uries that riches and art could provide. It was thus that the poets
found a home with princes. Henceforth the courts of tyrants, whether
## p. 15181 (#121) ##########################################
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15181
1
at Syracuse, Athens, or Samos, are thronged with sculptors, musicians,
painters, and poets; and art, which had heretofore been largely local
in sphere, comes to have more and more of a panhellenic character.
By Ibycus the forms of Dorian lyric are planted in Ionian Samos, even
as through Arion's career at Corinth they take up their home at
Ionian Athens.
The love poetry of Ibycus, though clearly expressive of personal
emotion, exhibits a choral structure, and was apparently sung on pub.
lic occasions. Its tone may be inferred from the following frag-
ment:
IN SPRING Cydonian apple-trees,
Watered by fountains ever flowing
Through crofts unmown of maiden goddesses,
And young vines, 'neath the shade
Of shooting tendrils, tranquilly are growing.
Meanwhile for me, Love, never laid
In slumber, like a north wind glowing
With Thracian lightnings, still doth dart
Blood-parching madness on my heart,
From Kupris hurtling, stormful, wild,
Lording the man as erst the child.
Translation of John Addington Symonds.
>
Here as in other fragments of Ibycus we can detect an almost
romantic sentiment for external nature, as evidenced by fruits and
flowers, nightingales, running brooks, and starry nights. For the con-
ception of love in the above passage, we may compare another
where love looks upon the poet “from under deep-dark brows,” and
Ibycus “trembles at his onset like a valiant chariot-horse which in
old age must once more enter the race. ” The love of Ibycus, as of
Sappho, was a mighty, terrible creature, not the mischievous baby
Cupid cf later times.
The panhellenic range of choral lyric, first seen in the career of
Ibycus, is manifested most clearly by the two greatest masters in this
sphere of art, Simonides and Pindar. Both of these poets enjoyed a
national reputation, and both lived through the most glorious period
in Hellenic existence, the period when Greece was engaged in her
life-or-death struggle with her Persian foe.
Simonides, born in the Ionian island of Ceos, became like Ibycus a
court poet, and enjoyed the friendship and hospitality of the Athenian
Pisistratidæ, of the powerful Aleuadæ and Scopadæ of Thessaly, and
of Hiero the lordly tyrant of Syracuse. So too Pindar, born a The-
ban aristocrat, became famous and popular throughout the length
and breadth of the whole Greek world. He was intimate with the
## p. 15182 (#122) ##########################################
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TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
kings of Macedon, and with the tyrants of Thessaly, Syracuse, and
African Cyrene. He sings of Ægina, Corinth, Argos, and the vari-
ous cities of Sicily. His heroes hail from all parts of the Hellenic
domains, and win their laurels in those great centres of national
unity, the sacred seats of Pythian Apollo, Isthmian Poseidon, Nemean
and Olympian Zeus. At Lindos, in the island of Rhodes, the seventh
Olympian was set up on the walls of Athene's temple in letters of
gold. Especially at Athens was Pindar held in high esteem. Not
only did he receive a gift of money, but his statue was erected
near the temple of Ares, and he was made Athenian proxenus, or
State representative at Thebes. A century after his death, when
Alexander the Great destroyed Thebes, the only private house left
standing was that of Pindar, and among the few citizens who were
spared a life of slavery were the descendants of Pindar. Pindar, like
Euripides, was more than a mere citizen of a single State: his Muse
and his fame were panhellenic.
On Simonides and Pindar, however, we have no right to dwell, as
they will be found treated in separate articles; but a word may be
spared for Bacchylides, the nephew and disciple of Simonides, who
was numbered by the Greeks among their nine great lyric writers.
He too was intimate with Hiero, and most of his poetry was writ-
ten to grace the refined and luxurious life of a court. Bacchylides
followed closely in the steps of his uncle, and was an elegant and
finished writer; but his personality and fame are almost lost in those
of his more distinguished relative. * He appears to have given a
choral character to banqueting-songs and songs of love, though the
following ode shows how closely he is allied in thought to Anacre-
on's school: -
When the wine-cup freely flows,
Soothing is the mellow force,
Vanquishing the drinker's heart,
Rousing hope on Love's sweet course.
Love with bounteous Bacchus joined
All with proudest thoughts can dower;
Wallèd towns the drinker scales,
Dreams of universal power.
Ivory and gold enrich his home:
Corn-ships o'er the dazzling sea
Bear him Egypt's untold wealth:
Thus he soars in fancy free.
* A. number of complete poems by Bacchylides have recently been discov-
ered, but at the time of writing have not yet been published. Some account
of them is given in the London Athenæum for December 26th, 1896, page 907.
## p. 15183 (#123) ##########################################
TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
15183
No
But Bacchylides was no optimist. «'Tis best for mortals,” he cries,
«not to have been born, or to look upon the light of the sun.
mortal is happy all his days. ” In one of the pæans of Bacchylides
we have a foretaste of Aristophanes, who in the lyric songs of his
Peace) dwells upon the same theme.
TO MORTAL men Peace giveth these good things:
Wealth, and the flowers of honey-throated song;
The flame that springs
On carven altars from fat sheep and kine,
Slain to the gods in heaven; and all day long,
Games for glad youths, and flutes, and wreaths, and circling
wine.
Then in the steely shield swart spiders weave
Their web and dusky woof;
Rust to the pointed spear and sword doth cleave;
The brazen trump sounds no alarms;
Nor is sleep harried from our eyes aloof,
But with sweet rest my bosom warms:
The streets are thronged with lovely men and young,
And hymns in praise of boys like flames to heaven are flung.
Translation of J. A. Symonds.
Pindar is the last of the great writers whose poetry was exclus-
ively lyric. With the rise of the drama, lyric poetry came to be
regarded mainly as the handmaid of tragedy and comedy; and though
a few forms, such as the dithyramb, continued to enjoy an independ-
ent existence, still these either failed to attract real genius, and so
fell into decline, or they suffered from the tendency to magnify the
accompaniments of music and dance, and thus lost the virtue of a
high poetical tone.
It is however a peculiarity of Greek poetry that none of the earlier
forms are completely lost, but are absorbed in the later. When
we reach the drama, we find that this splendid creation of Hellenic
genius gathers up in one beautiful and harmonious web the various
threads of the poetic art.
The drama, as is well known, originated in the songs which were
sung in the festivals of Bacchus. Tragedy is literally the goat-ode;
that is, the choral song chanted by satyrs, the goat-footed attendants
of Bacchus. At first, then, tragedy was of a purely lyric character, --
a story in song with expressive dance and musical accompaniment.
The further history of tragedy and comedy is, in brief, the develop-
ment of dialogue and the harmonizing of the lyric and dramatic
elements. The greatest impetus was given to dialogue in Attica
## p. 15184 (#124) ##########################################
15184
TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
through the recitations of Homeric poetry by professional bards.
Epic metre, however, was unsuited to dramatic dialogue, which, after
essaying the lighter trochaic line, finally adopted the more conver-
sational iambic verse which Archilochus had used so effectively for
satire.
Already at the end of the sixth century B. C. , the drama presents
the twofold character which in Greece it never lost, the chorus and
the dialogue, the former due to Dorian lyric poetry, the latter to the
Ionic verse-forms of Archilochus. With the full development of dra-
matic form the lyric was reduced from its supreme position to an
inferior station, in which it should no longer be the controlling ele-
ment, but merely the efficient and beautiful handmaid of dramatic
dialogue. In Æschylus the lyric still assumes undue proportions; in
Sophocles the lyric and dramatic are blended in perfect harmony;
but. in Euripides the work of disintegration has set in, and the lyric
tends to become a mere artistic appendage.
All works on Greek literature treat this subject more
or less
fully. Flach's "Geschichte der Griechischen Lyrik (Tübingen: 1883)
is the most complete work on the whole field. Symonds's Greek
Poets) and Jebb's Classical Greek Poetry) are both excellent. The
Greek student finds Bergk's Poetæ Lyrici Græci' (Leipzig: 1882)
indispensable. An attractive and convenient edition of the Poeta
Lyrici Græci Minores) is that by Pomtow (Leipzig: 1885). Farnell's
(Greek Lyric Poetry (Longmans: 1891) is confined to the “melic
writers. The most popular treatment of Greek music will be found
in Naumann's History of Music,' edited by Sir F. Gore Ouseley
(Cassell & Co. ). Chappell's History of Music' (London: 1874) is a
standard work. Monro's (The Modes of Ancient Greek Music) (Clar-
endon Press : 1894) is intended for the specialist.
(
(
tRushton
Faurelough
## p. 15184 (#125) ##########################################
1
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## p. 15184 (#126) ##########################################
LUDWIG UHLAND
## p. 15184 (#127) ##########################################
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## p. 15184 (#128) ##########################################
ET
## p. 15185 (#129) ##########################################
15185
JOHANN LUDWIG UHLAND
(1787-1862)
BY CHARLES HARVEY GENUNG
OHANN LUDWIG UHLAND was born on April 26th, 1787, at Tü-
bingen, where now his statue stands. Although the place
itself is a dull little university town, the region round about
is filled with romantic associations. Near by are the ancestral castles
of the Hohenstaufens and Hohenzollerns, of the family that domi-
nated the brilliant period of Walther von der Vogelweide and of that
under which the German empire regained her ancient lustre. Through
the valley runs the highway along which swept the armies of the
Suabian emperors to their new dominions in Italy. It was amid
these romantic memories that Uhland's genius grew to maturity. In
Tübingen he was educated, and there in 1810 he took his degree in
law. For two years he practiced in the ministry of justice at Stutt-
gart. When in 1815 the question of a constitution was precipitated
by the King of Würtemberg, Uhland burst into patriotic verse, and
in that year he published his first collection of poems. He sprang at
once into unbounded popularity. Goethe, who recognized that such
popular enthusiasm implied merit somewhere, found it in the ballads;
and when Uhland went into politics oethe remonstrated: there
vere many men in Suabia, he said, capable of serving the State, but
there was only one such poet as Uhland. Nevertheless the political
career which the poet began in 1819, when he was elected to the
assembly, was continued at intervals throughout his life. He received
in 1829 the coveted professorship of German language and literature
at the University of Tübingen; but since he was not permitted to
take his seat in the Assembly at the same time, he resigned from his
congenial post in 1833. He was one of the most prominent of the
opponents to the royal Constitution. In 1839 he refused re-election;
and lived in retirement until in 1848 he was elected to the National
Assembly at Frankfort.
Aside from politics and poetry, Uhland was, like Rückert, a distin-
guished scholar. Schérer regarded him as one of the founders of the
science of Romance philology; and his contributions to Germanistic
studies are of permanent value. One exquisite monograph, in which
the qualities of poet and of scholar are equally manifest, is still a
XXVI–950
## p. 15186 (#130) ##########################################
15186
JOHANN LUDWIG UHLAND
T
standard classic: the essay on Walther von der Vogelweide, published
in 1821, and dealing with the most fascinating theme in the whole
range of German studies, — the greatest of the minnesingers, from
whom descended the fairest traditions of that golden age to the
wooden age of the mastersingers, to be at last rejuvenated and once
more made fruitful by the Romantic poets, and chief among them
by Uhland himself. If the politician, as Goethe feared, threatened to
consume the poet, these scholarly pursuits served only to sustain and
stimulate the genius of the singer. All these publications relating
to old German and Romance philology have since appeared in eight
volumes, under the collective title of (Schriften zur Geschichte der
Dichtung und Sage' (Contributions to the History of Poetry and
Legend).
But it is the poet Uhland that the world knows and loves. He
wrote some three hundred and fifty poems, fully half of them master-
pieces, which have become an essential part of German culture. It
is inconceivable,” wrote Herman Grimm, “that they should ever grow
old. The first collection of poems, of 1815, was gradually enlarged
in the subsequent editions. In 1875 they had reached their sixtieth
edition,, and this average of one edition annually has since been in-
creased. His two plays, Ernst, Herzog von Schwaben? (Ernest, Duke
of Suabia) and (Ludwig der Bayer' (Louis the Bavarian), although
spirited examples of the historical drama, could not retain their foot-
hold on the stage. Uhland is probably the most popular German
poet after Schiller. In him Professor Francke sees united the fine
spirit of Walther von der Vogelweide and the epic impressiveness
of the Nibelungenlied. He revealed to Germany her better self mir-
rored in her shining past.
As a lyric poet, Uhland stands in the foremost rank among the
many singers of his tuneful race. After Goethe, he is with Eichen-
dorff and Heine the favorite of the composers; and this is one of the
surest tests of a poet's lyric quality. The constant temptation which
he offers to translators, only to lure them on to half-successes, is
another test. No lyrics except Heine's, and not excepting Goethe's,
have ever been so often attempted in English as Uhland's. Through
these innumerable versions, as well as through the universal medium
of music, his poetry has become a part of the world's lyric reper-
toire. Among the Romantic poets he occupies a peculiar place;
he is as far removed from the intellectual kite-flying of Novalis and
Brentano as he is from the massive might of Kleist and the austerity
of Platen: but like Kleist he brought order into the lawlessness of
Romanticism, and turned it from caprice to poetry”; like Platen
he insisted upon finished form and faultless measures. He rescued
stately figures for us from the knightly past, and summoned spirits
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JOHANN LUDWIG UHLAND
15187
from the dreamland of ancient legend. Solemn haunting echoes
of the past are borne to us in his verse across the centuries, and
all these quaint and shadowy recollections of the age of wonders he
has made a permanent part of our modern culture. His idea of the
romantic may be inferred from his saying, "A region is romantic
when spirits walk there. " But it is as if he saw the spirits and
their legendary train pass over from afar, as one watches the play
of changing color on the floating clouds of sunset; his feet the while
are firmly planted on the earth. He never loses his foothold in
reality. Nor does he glorify the past to the point of despising the
present. He is genuine and sane. In him the romantic elements
as we find them in Goethe are more perfectly manifest than in any
other poet of the Romantic group. With fewest exceptions, his bal-
lads and lyrics are little masterpieces of dramatic narrative and inusi-
cal form. Uhland's position in the history of German poetry is best
defined in the apt paradox of David Strauss, who called him the
classic of Romanticism. "
lawa-bawang
Grun
THE SHEPHERD'S SONG ON THE LORD'S DAY
TH
HE Lord's own day is here!
Alone I kneel on this broad plain:
A matin-bell just sounds; again
'Tis silence, far and near.
Here kneel I on the sod:
Oh, deep amazement, strangely felt!
As though, unseen, vast numbers knelt
And prayed with me to God.
Yon heaven, afar and near,
So bright, so glorious seems its cope
As though e'en now its gates would ope;-
The Lord's own day is here!
Translation of W. W. Skeat.
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15188
JOHANN LUDWIG UHLAND
THE LUCK OF EDENHALL
0
F EDENHALL the youthful lord
Bids sound the festal trumpet's call;
He rises at the banquet board,
And cries, 'inid the drunken revelers all,
“Now bring me the Luck of Edenhall! »
The butler hears the words with pain, -
The house's oldest seneschal,-
Takes slow from its silken cloth again
The drinking-glass of crystal tall:
They call it The Luck of Edenhall.
Then said the lord, “This glass to praise,
Fill with red wine from Portugal! ”
The graybeard with trembling hand obeys:
A purple light shines over all;
It beams from the Luck of Edenhail.
Then speaks the lord, and waves it light:-
« This glass of fashing crystal tall
Gave to my sires the Fountain-Sprite;
She wrote in it, If this glass doth fall,
Farewell then, 0 Luck of Edenhall!
« 'Twas right a goblet the fate should be
Of the joyous race of Edenhall!
We drink deep draughts right willingly;
And willingly ring, with merry call.
Kling! klang! to the Luck of Edenhall! »
First rings it deep, and full, and mild,
Like to the song of a nightingale,
Then like the roar of a torrent wild;
Then mutters at last, like the thunder's fall,
The glorious Luck of Edenhall.
“For its keeper, takes a race of might
The fragile goblet of crystal tall:
It has lasted longer than is right:-
Kling! klang! with a harder blow than all
Will I try the Luck of Edenhall! ”
As the goblet, ringing, flies apart,
Suddenly cracks the vaulted hall;
1
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JOHANN LUDWIG UHLAND
15189
And through the rift the flames upstart:
The guests in dust are scattered all
With the breaking Luck of Edenhall!
In storms the foe, with fire and sword !
He in the night had scaled the wall;
Slain by the sword lies the youthful lord,
But holds in his hand the crystal tall,
The shattered Luck of Edenhall.
On the morrow the butler gropes alone,
The graybeard, -- in the desert hall
He seeks his lord's burnt skeleton;
He seeks in the dismal ruin's fall
The shards of the Luck of Edenhall.
“The stone wall,” saith he, doth fall aside;
Down must the stately columns fall:
Glass is this earth's Luck and Pride;
In atoms shall fall this earthly ball,
One day, like the Luck of Edenhall. ”
Translation of H. W. Longfellov.
THE MINSTREL'S CURSE
HERE stood in former ages a castle high and large;
Above the slope it glistened far down to ocean's marge;
Around it like a garland bloomed gardens of delight,
Where sparkled cooling fountains, with sun-bow glories dight.
THE
There sat a haughty monarch, who lands in war had won;
With aspect pale and gloomy he sat upon the throne:
His thoughts are fraught with terrors, his glance of fury blights;
His words are galling scourges, with victims' blood he writes.
Once moved towards this castle a noble minstrel pair,
The one with locks all golden, snow-white the other's hair:
With harp in hand, the graybeard a stately courser rode;
In flower of youth, beside him his tall companion strode.
