"Even in death this woman
triumphs
over me," she said
slowly.
slowly.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v08 - Dah to Dra
Thrusting the little hammer into the belt
## p. 4270 (#32) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4270
that fastened the leather apron over the blue tunic, he poured
from a small flask a few drops of oil on a woolen cloth, and
carefully rubbed the inscription upon the marble with it until
it was as smooth as a mirror; then turning his head a little
on one side, like a bird that wants to examine something
closely, with an approving nod he read aloud the words on
the slab:-
"Hic habitat Felicitas.
Nihil mali intret. "
"Yes, yes! Here dwells happiness: my happiness, our hap-
piness so long as my Felicitas lives here, happy herself and
making others happy. May misfortune never cross this thresh-
old! may every demon of ill be banished by this motto! The
house has now received a beautiful finish in these words. But
where is she? She must see it and praise me. Felicitas," he
called, turning towards the house, "come here! "
Wiping the perspiration from his brow, he stood erect-a
pliant youthful figure of middle height, not unlike the Mercury
in the garden, modeled by Crispus according to the ancient tra-
ditions of symmetry; dark-brown hair, cut short, curled closely,
almost like a cap, over his uncovered round head; a pair of
dark eyes, shaded by heavy brows, laughed merrily out into
the world; his bare feet and arms were beautifully formed,
but showed little strength,-it was only in the right arm that
the muscles stood forth prominently; the brown leather apron
was white with scrapings from the marble. He shook off the
dust and called again in a louder tone, "Felicitas! "
A white figure, framed like a picture between the two pilas-
ters of the entrance, appeared on the threshold, pushing back
the dark yellow curtain suspended from a bronze pole by mova-
ble rings. A very young girl-or was it a young wife? Yes,
this child, scarcely seventeen, must have already become a wife,
for she was undoubtedly the mother of the infant she pressed to
her bosom with her left arm; no one but a mother holds a child
with such an expression in face and attitude.
The young wife pressed two fingers of her right hand, with
the palm turned outward, warningly to her lips. "Hush," she
said; "our child is asleep. "
And now the slender figure, not yet wholly matured, floated
down the four stone steps leading from the threshold to the
garden, carefully lifting the child a little higher and holding it
## p. 4271 (#33) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4271
still more closely with her left arm, while her right hand raised
her snowy robe to the dainty ankle; the faultlessly beautiful oval
head was slightly bent forward: it was a vision of perfect grace,
even more youthful, more childlike than Raphael's Madonnas,
and not humble, yet at the same time mystically transfigured,
like the mother of the Christ-child; there was nothing compli-
cated, nothing miraculous, naught save the noblest simplicity
blended with royal grandeur in Felicitas's unconscious innocence
and dignity. The movements of this Hebe who had become a
mother were as measured and graceful as a perfect musical
harmony. A wife, yet still a maiden; purely human, perfectly
happy, absorbed and satisfied by her love for her young husband
and the child at her breast; so chaste in coloring was the per-
fect beauty of her form and face that every profane desire van-
ished in her presence as though she were a statue.
She wore no ornaments; her light-brown hair, gleaming with
a gold tinge where the sun kissed it, was drawn back in natural
waves from the beautiful temples, revealing the low forehead, and
was fastened in a loose knot at the nape of the neck; a milk-
white robe of the finest wool, fastened on the left shoulder by
an exquisitely shaped but plain silver clasp, fell in flowing folds.
around her figure,- revealing the neck, the upper part of the
swelling bosom, and the still childish arms which seemed a little
too long, and reached to the ankles, just touching the dainty
scarlet leather sandals; beneath the breast one end of the robe
was drawn through a bronze girdle a hand's-breadth wide.
So she glided noiselessly as a wave down the steps and up to
her husband. The narrow oval face possessed the marvelous,
almost bluish, white tint peculiar to the daughters of Ionia, which
no Southern noonday sun can brown; the semi-circular eyebrows,
as regular as if marked by a pair of compasses, might have
given the countenance a lifeless, almost statuesque expression,
had not under the long low-curling lashes the dark-brown ante-
lope eyes shone with the most vivid animation as she fixed them
on her beloved husband.
The latter rushed towards her with elastic steps; carefully
and tenderly taking the sleeping child from her arm, he laid it
under the shade of a rose-bush in the oval shallow straw lid of
his work-basket; one full-blown rose waving in the evening
breeze tossed fragrant petals on the little one, who smiled in
sleep.
## p. 4272 (#34) ############################################
4272
FELIX DAHN
The master of the house, throwing his arm around his young
wife's almost too slender waist, led her to the slab just completed
for the threshold of the entrance, saying:-
"The motto I have kept secret—which I have worked so
hard to finish-is now done; read it, and know, and feel” —
here he tenderly kissed her lips-"you you yourself are the
happiness; you dwell here. "
―――――――――
Translation of Mary J. Safford.
THE VENGEANCE OF GOTHELINDIS
From The Struggle for Rome ›
THE
HE slave silently opened a door in the marble walls. Amalas-
wintha entered, and stood in the narrow gallery which ran
around the basin. Just in front, low steps led into the
magnificent bath, from which already warm delicious odors were
rising. Light fell in from above through an octagonal dome of
finely cut glass. At the entrance was a flight of steps of cedar
wood, which led up twelve stairs to a spring-board. Round
about the marble walls of the gallery, as well as of the basin,
countless friezes hid the mouths of the pipes needed for the
water-works and the hot air.
Silently the bath-woman spread the bathing accessories over
the soft cushions and carpets that covered the floor of the gal-
lery, and turned toward the door.
"Why is it that I feel that I know you? " asked the princess,
looking at her thoughtfully. "How long have you been here ? »
"Since eight days. " And she took hold of the door.
"How long have you served Cassiodorus? "
"I have always served the Princess Gothelindis. "
With a cry of terror Amalaswintha started up at this name.
She turned and grasped at the garment of the woman - too late!
She was gone, the door fell to. Amalaswintha heard the key
drawn out of the lock.
-
In vain her eye sought for another place of exit. Then an
immense unnamable fear overcame the queen. She felt that
she had been terribly deceived, that here was hidden a disastrous
secret. Fear, nameless fear, fell upon her. Flight, flight out of
this chamber was her one thought.
## p. 4273 (#35) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4273
But flight seemed impossible; the door from this side was
now only a thick marble slab, like those at the right and the
left. Not even a pin could penetrate through the seams. In
despair her eyes traveled around the wall of the gallery. Only
the tritons and dolphins stared back at her.
At last her gaze
rested on the snake-enwreathed head of the Medusa just opposite,
and she uttered a cry of terror. The face of the Medusa was
pushed aside, and the oval space under the snaky hair was filled
by a human countenance!
Was a human countenance?
Trembling, she clutched the marble railing, and leaning far
forward peered over: yes, those were the features of Gothelindis,
drawn to a grimace; and a hell of hatred and scorn flamed in
her eyes.
Amalaswintha sank on her knees and hid her face.
"You-you here! "
Hoarse laughter answered her.
"Yes, Amelung woman! I am here, and to your ruin! This
island, this house, is mine! It shall be your grave! Dolios and
all slaves of Cassiodorus are mine, sold to me a week ago. I
have lured you hither. I have followed you as your shadow.
Through long days and long nights I have borne within me
burning hatred, at length to taste here full revenge. For hours
I will enjoy your mortal agony, will witness miserable, moaning
terror shake as in fever that proud body and cover that haughty
face! Oh, I will drink a sea of revenge! "
Amalaswintha rose, wringing her hands:-"Revenge, Gothe-
lindis! Wherefore? Whence this deadly hatred of me? "
"Ha, and you ask? To be sure, decades have passed by, and
the heart of the happy soon forgets. But hatred has a more
faithful memory. Have you forgotten how once upon a time
two young girls played beneath the plantains on the meadows of
Ravenna? Both were chief among their playmates.
Both were
young, beautiful, and charming; the one daughter of a king, the
other daughter of the Baltha. And the girls had to choose a
queen for their games: and they chose Gothelindis, for she was
yet more beautiful than you, and not as imperious; and they
chose her once, twice in succession. But the daughter of the
king stood by, consumed by wild untamable pride,- pride and
envy; and when they chose me for the third time, she took up
the sharp-pointed garden scissors->
VIII-268
## p. 4274 (#36) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4274
"Stop! oh, hush, Gothelindis! "
-And flung it at me. And it hit its mark, and crying out
and bloody I fell to the ground, my whole cheek a gaping
wound, and my eye, my eye pierced. Ah, how that hurts, even
now! "
«<
-
"Pardon, forgive, Gothelindis! " moaned the prisoner. "You
had forgiven me long ago. "
"Forgiven? I forgive you? That you robbed my face of its
eye, and my life of its beauty, shall I forgive that? You had
got the better of me for life; Gothelindis was no longer danger-
ous; she mourned in silence, the disfigured one fled the eyes of
men. And years passed. Then out of Spain came to the court
of Ravenna the noble Eutharich, the Amaler with the dark eye
and the tender heart: he, ill himself, took pity on the ill, half-
blind one; and he talked with her kindly and compassionately,
with the ugly one, whom all else avoided. Oh, how that
refreshened my thirsting soul! And it was decided in order to
bury the old hatred between the two houses, to wipe away old
and recent guilt,- for the Duke of the Baltha, Alarich, had
likewise been executed on secret, unproved accusation,- that the
poor maltreated daughter of the Baltha should become the wife.
of the noblest of the Amaler. When you heard that, you who
had disfigured me! you decided to take my lover from me-
not from jealousy, not because you loved him! no, from pride;
because you wanted as your own the chief man in the Gothic
Kingdom, the next male heir to the crown. You decided on
that, and you achieved it. Your father could not deny you any
wish; and Eutharich forgot at once his pity for the one-eyed
one, as soon as the hand of the beautiful daughter of the king
beckoned to him. For compensation or was it for scorn?
they gave to me likewise an Amaler-Theodahad, the miserable.
coward! "
―――
-
-
"Gothelindis, I swear to you, I never imagined that you loved
Eutharich! How could I-”
"To be sure, how could you think that the ugly one would
lift her thoughts so high? Oh, you cursed one! And if you
had loved him, and had made him happy-I would have for-
given you everything. But you did not love him, you can love
only the sceptre! You made him miserable. For years I saw
him at your side, bowed down, unloved, frozen to the marrow by
your coldness.
Sorrow because of your chilling pride soon killed
## p. 4275 (#37) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4275
him! You, you have robbed me of my lover, and sent him to
the grave! Revenge, revenge for him! "
And the deep vault re-echoed the cry, "Revenge! Revenge! "
"Help, ho! ” cried Amalaswintha. She ran in despair along
the circle of the gallery, beating her hands against the marble.
slab.
"Yes, cry out! No one hears you now but the god of ven-
geance. Do you think that for months I have curbed in my
hatred in vain? How often, how easily, could I even in Ravenna
have reached you with poniard or poison! But no, I have lured
you hither.
At the petition of my cousins, at your bed an hour
ago I restrained my uplifted arm from the stroke. Yes, for you
shall die slowly, inch by inch! for hours I will watch your mor-
tal agony increase. »
"Terrible one! "
"Oh, what are hours, compared to the decades through which
you have tortured me with my disfigurement, with your beauty,
with the possession of my lover? What are hours compared to
decades? But you shall pay for it. "
"What will you do? " cried the tortured one, again and again
looking for an escape along the walls.
"Do? I will drown you, slowly, slowly-in the water-works
of this bath-which your friend Cassiodorus built! You do
not know the pangs of jealousy and impotent fury I have suf-
fered in this house, when you shared the couch with Eutharich,
and I was among your followers and obliged to serve you.
this bath, you haughty one, I have loosened your sandals and
dried the proud limbs. In this bath you shall die. "
In
Gothelindis pressed a button. The floor of the basin of the
upper story, the circular metal plate, divided into two semicir-
cles. They disappeared to the right and left in the wall; the
prisoner in terror looked from the narrow gallery into the abys-
mal depth at her feet.
"Remember my eye! " cried Gothelindis, and then of a sud-
den the sluices at the bottom opened and the waters of the lake
rushed in, gurgling and foaming, and rose higher and higher
with terrible swiftness.
Amalaswintha saw certain death before her. She knew the
impossibility of escaping, or of softening with prayers her dev-
ilish enemy.
But her old proud Amelung courage returned;
composedly she awaited her fate. Near her, to the right of the
## p. 4276 (#38) ############################################
4276
FELIX DAHN
entrance, she saw among the many friezes of Greek mythology
a representation of the death of Christ; that refreshed her soul.
She knelt down before the marble crucifix, clasped it with both
hands and prayed calmly with closed eyes, while the waters rose
and rose.
Now they dashed against the steps of the gallery.
"You are going to pray, are you, murderess? " cried Gothe-
lindis furiously. «< Away from the crucifix! Remember the three
dukes! "
Of a sudden all the dolphins and tritons on the right side of
the octagon began to spout streams of hot water; white smoke
puffed out of the pipes.
Amalaswintha sprang up and rushed to the other side of the
gallery. "Gothelindis, I forgive you! Kill me, but do you like-
wise forgive my soul. "
And the water rose and rose. Already it surged over the
upper step and pushed slowly on to the floor of the gallery.
"I forgive you? Never! Think of Eutharich! " And from
the left the boiling streams of water hissed toward Amalaswin-
tha. She now fled toward the center, just opposite the head of
the Medusa, the only place where no stream from the pipes.
I could reach her.
If she mounted the springboard placed here, she could for a
little yet prolong her life. Gothelindis seemed to expect this, in
order to enjoy the prolonged agony. The water already foamed
on the marble floor of the gallery and moistened the feet of the
prisoner. Quickly she bounded up the brown shimmering steps,
and leaned against the railing of the bridge.
"Hear me, Gothelindis! my last prayer! not for myself,— for
my people, for our people. Petros intends to despoil it and
Theodahad. "
"Yes, I know, this realm is the uppermost care of your soul!
Despair! It is lost! These foolish Goths, who for centuries
preferred the Amaler to the Baltha, are sold and betrayed by
the house of the Amaler. Belisarius draws near, and there is
none to warn them. "
"You are mistaken, fiend! They are warned.
I their queen
have warned them. Hail to my people! Ruin to its enemies
and mercy to my soul! " And with a quick leap she threw her-
self from the platform into the waters. Foaming they closed
over her.
Gothelindis stared at the place where her victim had stood.
## p. 4277 (#39) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4277
"She has disappeared," she said.
Then she looked down into the water; the kerchief of Amala-
swintha was swimming on the surface.
"Even in death this woman triumphs over me," she said
slowly. "How long lasted the hatred! and how short was re-
venge! "
Translated for A Library of the World's Best Literature,' by R. H. Knorr.
## p. 4278 (#40) ############################################
4278
OLOF VON DALIN
(1708-1763)
BY WILLIAM H. CARPENTER
LOF
VON DALIN, "the father of modern Swedish poetry,”
was born at Vinberga, in Halland, Sweden, August 29th,
1708. He was one of the most important figures in Swedish
literature during a transitional period, which in consequence of the
influence he exercised has been called the "Dalin age. " He was the
son of a clergyman, and studied at the University of Lund, where
under the instruction of Rydelius he particularly devoted himself to
French and English literature. At the age of twenty he went to
Stockholm in the capacity of tutor, and in 1731 he entered the gov-
ernment service.
His talents, brilliancy, and adaptability made him a universal
favorite, and his career was singularly unobstructed. He was the
embodiment of the vital new spirit which flashed upon the dullness
of the time, breaking up formalism and dead tradition and introdu-
cing into literature an element which was destined to transform it.
In 1732 there appeared in Stockholm a weekly paper, edited anony-
mously, devoted to literary topics and to the discussion of the questions.
of the day. The publication of this little sheet was the immediate
result of Dalin's English proclivities. His studies in English litera-
ture had formed his mind upon a new model, and the Svenska
Argus (1732-1734) was the Swedish counterpart of the English Spec-
tator and a direct imitation of the example of Addison.
The appear-
ance of the Argus was a revelation. The public, accustomed to the
monotonous dullness of its predecessors, was taken by storm by the
wit, piquancy, and verve of the new periodical. Its first issue already
relegated such publications as the Sedolärande Mercurius, itself only
two years older, to the limbo of things outgrown. The paper at
once attained universal popularity; and when the identity of the
young editor became known he was acclaimed as the foremost writer
of the land, and was overwhelmed with favors from every side.
His next work was 'Tankar om Kritiker' (Thoughts about Criti-
cisms), and the dramas 'Den Afundsjuke' (The Jealous Man), a com-
edy in imitation of Holberg, and Brynhild,' a tragedy. Returning
from a tour, he created great enthusiasm by his 'Saga om Hästen'
(The Story of the Horse), 1739; a witty prose narrative, in which, in
## p. 4279 (#41) ############################################
OLOF VON DALIN
4279
(
the character of a horse, he related in a highly humorous manner
the history of Sweden. This was followed by the satire, strongly
suggestive of Swift, Aprilverk om vår Herrliga Tid' (April-work of
Our Glorious Time), a piece of writing which delighted the public.
In 1742 appeared what was regarded by his contemporaries as the
attainment of his highest poetic efforts, Svenska Friheten' (Swedish
Freedom), a didactic allegorical poem.
Dalin was ennobled in 1751, and the youthful Queen of Sweden,
Louise Ulrika, sister of Frederick the Great, appointed him to the
double office of tutoring the young crown prince Gustav and writing
a complete history of Sweden. These compulsory duties, and the
frequent "festal" poems which in his capacity as court poet it de-
volved upon him to write, robbed him of the leisure to attempt any
sustained effort; and from this time, aside from his History, the only
products of his pen are "occasional" poems, of which a large num-
ber have been preserved.
Dalin was the chief founder of the "Vitterhets-Akademie» (Acad-
emy of Arts and Sciences), established by Queen Louise Ulrika in
1753, which in 1786, under Gustav III. , was transformed into the
"Vitterhets-, Historie-, och Antiquitäts-Akademie. " He was appointed
privy councilor in 1753, and subsequently being suspected of revolu-
tionary intrigues, he was banished from the court. He returned in
1761. During the period of the exile he worked upon his 'Svearikes
Historia (History of the Kingdom of Sweden), which he ultimately
brought down to the period of Charles IX. This appeared in four
volumes, 1747-62. His collected works were published in 1767. He
died at Drottningholm, August 12th, 1763.
The immense influence of Dalin upon his age was disproportionate
to the merits of his writings, and must be ascribed to his personal-
ity and to the new elements which he introduced, rather than to his
creative genius. He was the force which opened new channels, the
power which directed the new tendencies of his day. He broke
away from the traditions of the German cult, which until his time
had been the ruling power, and brought into Swedish the potent ele-
ments of French and English literature. Together with Madame
Nordenflycht and other followers of his school, and aided by the
French influence of the court, he completely transformed the char-
acter of the national literature.
WmSt. Carpenter
## p. 4280 (#42) ############################################
4280
OLOF VON DALIN
FROM THE SWEDISH ARGUS, NO. XIII. 1733
Cupias non placuisse nimis
I
HOPE you know me now, my reader, so that you will pardon
me if I write but little, since that happens merely in order
that I may set down the truth. I too am not my own mas-
ter; for my offspring have now taken it upon themselves to shut
off their speakers with that blow which makes for a creditable
piece of writing, but afflicts the truth. In which respect I for
the most resemble the fifth wheel of a wagon, and trouble
myself no more about it than many a town councilor or juryman
bothers his head about the verdicts which he signs and approves,
without making it my business to prove it true, and as if asleep,
give in my vote. You must also yourself admit, my just reader,
that it is necessary in our time to lie the truth in among the
people.
Our father Adam and mother Eve, it happened a short time
since, came up out of their graves and were at their estate Tiel-
kestad, where they presently proclaimed over the whole land a
diet, or assemblage, at which all their dear children of both
sexes should appear in person or by duly qualified substitute, in
order that their universal parents might see and rejoice in their
Northern seed, might learn how apt was each and how he had
improved his talent, and admonish him to do honor to his
creation.
Here was gathered together a considerable assembly of people.
Each one, from the greatest to the least, went forward to kiss
grandpapa's and grandmamma's hand. They bent and they
bowed, and most of the inhabitants of the land now vied with
each other with all their might of soul and body, with internal
and external senses, to see who should most please their first
parents. For it may be believed it was no joke to be able to
joice them with their excellence, now, some five thousand years
after their death, and to put in their minds the thought, "See,
Adam, what a son you have! " "See, Eve, what a daughter! " etc.
Adam, who honored the first creation, and loved nature's
activity, which tolerates no compulsions or additions, was amazed
when he saw his children, for he did not know half of them.
"Where have they come from? " said he. "They are never
mine, unless forsooth there shall have been a new creation, in
## p. 4281 (#43) ############################################
OLOF VON DALIN
4281
the overseeing of which neither God nor I has had a part. " Eve
had indeed been proud of so many offspring, but was somewhat
abashed at these words, and said, "I should fear, sire, that you
made me out an indifferent, woman, if all did not know that we
were alone in our conjugal state. " "Well enough is it web of
my weft," he answered, "but the children so disguise themselves
in their attempt to please, that they lose all the charm which a
spontaneous activity should otherwise most easily possess. Yet
what am I saying? I readily see that our fall is the reason of
this and of many disorders. " "It seems to me," said Eve, "that
you should have a review, and teach the poor children how they
should conduct themselves so as not to continue in so monstrous
a condition. "
Well, this was arranged, and all were now to pass before
the eye of Adam, whether they had changed themselves or not.
He had seated himself on a wall of earth, and all the liberal
arts stood round about him. "Dear children," said he to his
offspring, "come forward now, in order that I may see how
you conduct yourselves. The inordinate desire of honor is the
reason for this new creation,- which does not however seek the
honor of the great Creator, but your own. " When any of his
children came forward who without affectation lisped their ten-
der thoughts, they were kissed with tears by the old man and
matron, who said that nature in them was not restrained, and
wished that they might henceforth continue in such freedom.
"Behold, this," said they, "produces pleasure, without you your-
selves knowing it; and this is the kernel of the art of pleasing. '
Many court worshipers and people of the upper ranks of life,
where ambition takes firmest hold of the body, also went for-
ward, who for the most part had so well exercised themselves in
appearances that they seemed neither in action nor word to be
affected. These too won tolerably well, in this way, the com-
mendation of the old people. Yet there were some of them who
particularly thought to please kings and princes, who took upon
themselves a more zealous appearance than they had inherited,
and bore their bodies in greater state than birth had given them,
beneath costly garments arrayed in precise order, so that they
by this means spoiled all their beauty; for Adam had only aver-
sion for such artificial figures.
>>
But what he did not have in them, he did have in a part of
those who followed. These were people of ordinary condition
## p. 4282 (#44) ############################################
4282
OLOF VON DALIN
in
who vied with the first, indeed with their own natures,
acquiring charm. When these latter had noticed that the people
of rank had some fault or peculiar manner, then straightway
seized by this wretched desire of honor, they wished at least to
resemble the great in bagatelles. Some set one or two wrinkles
on their foreheads; some, a particular expression about the
mouth; some lisped or stammered purposely, and introduced
extraordinary sounds into their speech; some affected strange
laughter; some had a wonderful bend of the shoulders; some a
simulated walk; some gave themselves political or statistical
features, etc. , etc. ; and all directly opposed to their otherwise
natural manner. "Yes, I can tell you right straight out," said
Adam; "I have not a little esteem for you: but listen, I will
tell you a little story. It has been told me that my famous son,
Alexander the Great, once upon a time twisted his neck out of
joint, so that he was obliged to walk with his head somewhat
awry. Straightway were all of his lords and his courtiers moved
to walk in the same manner, especially before his eyes, with the
thought of pleasing him exceedingly. But among those who,
whether out of zeal for their master or of love for themselves,
would particularly be like the king, one twisted his neck so
badly that his valiant prince, grown angry at such buffoonery,
gave him so heavy a blow that the cuff set the heads right
again of the whole court and army. If I were able now, I
would certainly deal out many an affectionate blow to remedy
all the evil habits with which you think to please me. "
(I wish that Argus had to-day the same smart as a box on
the ear, for we saw this morning many affected cripples as
sound and active as when they came into the world. )
"A part of you," continued Adam, "I notice, compel your-
selves to limp and stoop very seriously and with great discom-
fort on canes, as if twenty-year-old legs were already afflicted
with the rich man's sickness. But if some one took the canes
and taught the young to spring, he would do rightly. Do you
think it is no advantage to have good legs? If you think in
this manner to imitate celebrated people, as has been said, then
you shall know that it often offends him who is aped as much
as it disfigures the ape himself. ”
Many of our women who daily vie with each other for
the possession of the greatest charm came forward, with the
idea that the old people's hearts would be rejoiced with their
## p. 4283 (#45) ############################################
OLOF VON DALIN
4283
comeliness. But that did not fall out well, since the one made
a grimace by setting her mouth in a churchly manner; the other
changed her features in that she wished to show her beautiful
teeth; the third turned her eyes so strangely that she both
blinked and squinted; the fourth had given herself a beautiful
skin with ingredients from the apothecary's shop; the fifth as-
sumed a fatigued gait; the sixth purposely appeared somewhat
ill and languid. A pastor's wife forced her mild countenance
into a scornful mien; a burgher's wife sweetened her mouth
with ill-pronounced French words, and kept her body immovable
because of her beautiful clothes; a merchant's daughter could
think of nothing else than to bow; another maiden twisted her
face over both shoulders with a stiff glance, etc. , etc. : so that
Eve said: "What is this? Will you please me with force? Ah,
foolish women, if you wish truly to please, then you should not
think of it. Such a thing must come to you unwittingly. "
When Eve said this, some men lamented the vanity and ele-
gant frivolity of a part of the women; but they were brought
up sharply, for Adam said:-"Will you now again transform
nature, and make that into heaviness which is created for your
pleasure and refreshing help? It befits you, it may be, better
than that to be ill-favored. If any of you are born to serious-
ness, then it well becomes that one that she is so; but if you
desire that others shall be like you and bother themselves with
your thoughts, then is that ill-conceived. For example, a woman
may indeed amuse herself with books and little acts of clever-
ness; but if she makes study her trade, then she becomes a
pedant. "
The malcontents, however, complained again that their mis-
tresses desired that men should resemble them in all things
except in sex, and hold them otherwise wholly as women. But
Adam replied:-"If you are such fools, then shall you have
advice. I see many gallants who readily undergo such a trans-
formation, but that accords with their nature as does clay with
straw, and surely an intelligent woman does not like it herself. "
Further, Adam said:-"Now I must laugh! Look at that
bashful youth yonder in the crowd, who is so fearful of sinning
against the customs of affectation that he does not know how he
shall hold his hands. Now he sticks them here, and now there.
When he bows, he looks back with perplexity at all to see if he
did rightly. "
## p. 4284 (#46) ############################################
4284
OLOF VON DALIN
At that moment there came forward some scholars and poets,
who with references presented their works and verses, some of
which they read. But Adam said:-"Children, you were born.
to be shoemakers. You had understood awls better than pens.
At a trade you had wrought out profit and pleasure, but not
in study. Endowments are of many kinds, and every one must
consider which of them he has received. "
Thereupon some of the clergy came forward with soft steps,
wholly assured that they would receive a caress from the old
man for every time they had named him in their sermons. But
when the pretended pious went along, he became straightway
displeased. What should there avail the measured-out words, and
the forced high-flown delivery, filled with roses without fragrance!
Suppose that he had seen some of them in the pulpit with their
comedian affectations, or how unbecomingly they threw them-
selves and moved about there! Adam said shortly to them.
"Such nonsense is unnecessary in your sacred office. " In this
consisted the whole caress.
It is impossible for me to remember or to be able to describe
all of those who at this time disgraced themselves before father
Adam and mother Eve. This I know, that Japhet's grandsire
pronounced this word of admonition:- "My descendants," said
he, "let it be fairly seen that you do not so badly disfigure your-
selves as you have hitherto done. Let not the one take the
other's talent and decry his own. Prove yourselves what char-
acter you own and abide with it; so shall you mark in each
other that there is not one who is not made pleasing in his way,
if it be rightly used. A surly man may be agreeable even in
his surliness, and so on. Moreover, everyone shall give himself
to the service in the state to which he is fallen, and shall not,
eager of honor, offer violence to nature, of which I see among
you so many examples that I just now Coughing deprived
the old man of words, so that he stopped short, and straightway,
as may be believed, the whole crowd made grimace upon grimace
and laughed at him. The poor old couple were glad to get away
from Tielkestad and lay themselves in their graves. So it went
with the assemblage. Yes, believe me, surely. He who will tell
the truth appears at times like a hen on a perch in windy
weather.
>>>
-
Translation of William H. Carpenter.
## p. 4285 (#47) ############################################
4285
RICHARD HENRY DANA, SENIOR
(1787-1879)
ICHARD HENRY DANA the elder, although he died less than
twenty years ago, belonged to the first generation of
American writers; he was born in 1787, in Cambridge, four
years after Washington Irving. He came of a distinguished and
scholarly family: his father had been minister to Russia during the
Revolution, and was afterwards Chief Justice of Massachusetts;
through his mother he was descended from Anne Bradstreet. At the
age of ten he went to Newport to live with his maternal grand-
father, William Ellery, one of the signers
of the Declaration of Independence, and
remained until he entered Harvard. The
wild rock-bound coast scenery impressed
him deeply, and ever after the sea was one
of his ruling passions. Only one familiar
with all the moods of the ocean could have
written The Buccaneer. ' After quitting
college he studied law, and was admitted
to the Boston bar. Literature however
proved the stronger attraction, and in 1818
he left his profession to assist in conducting
the then newly founded North American
Review. The critical papers he contributed
to it startled the conservative literary circles by their audacity in
defending the new movement in English poetry, and passing lightly
by their idol Pope. Indeed, his unpopularity debarred him from suc-
ceeding the first editor. He withdrew, and began the publication of
The Idle Man in numbers, modeled on Salmagundi and the Sketch-
Book. His contributions consisted of critical papers and his novel-
ettes Paul Felton, Tom Thornton,' and 'Edward and Mary. ' Not
finding many readers, he discontinued it after the first volume. He
then contributed for some years to the New York Review, conducted
by William Cullen Bryant, and to the United States Review. In
1827 appeared 'The Buccaneer and Other Poems'; in 1833 the same
volume was enlarged and the contributions to The Idle Man were
added, under the title 'Poems and Prose Writings. ' Seventeen years
later he closed his literary career by publishing the complete edi-
tion of his 'Poems and Prose Writings,' in two volumes, not having
RICHARD H. DANA
## p. 4286 (#48) ############################################
4286
RICHARD HENRY DANA, SENIOR
materially added either to his verse or fiction. After that time he
lived in retirement, spending his summers in his seaside home by
the rocks and breakers of Cape Ann, and the winters in Boston. He
died in 1879.
Dana's literary activity falls within the first third of this century.
During that period, unproductive of great work, he ranked among the
foremost writers. His papers in the North American Review, as the
first original criticism on this side of the Atlantic, marked an era in
our letters. He was
one of the first to recognize the genius of
Wordsworth and of Coleridge; under the influence of the latter he
wrote the poem by which he is chiefly known, The Buccaneer. ' He
claimed for it a basis of truth; it is in fact a story out of 'The
Pirate's Own Book,' with the element of the supernatural added to
convey the moral lesson. His verse is contained in a slender vol-
ume. It lacks fluency and melody, but shows keen perception of
Nature's beauty, especially in her sterner, more solemn moods, and
sympathy with the human heart. Dana was not so much a poet
born with the inevitable gift of song (he would otherwise not have
become almost silent during the last fifty years of his life), as a man
of strong intellect who in his youth turned to verse for recreation.
Though best known by his poems, he stands out strongest and
most original as novelist. 'Paul Felton,' his masterpiece in prose, is
a powerful study of a diseased condition of mind. In its searching
psychologic analysis it stands quite apart from the more or less flac-
cid production of its day. He indeed could not escape the influence
of Charles Brockden Brown, whom he greatly admired, and he in
turn reached out forward toward Poe and other writers of the
analytic school. One powerful story of Poe's, indeed, seems to have
been suggested by Dana's work: the demon horse in Metzenger-
stein' is a superior copy of the Spectre Horse in The Buccaneer. '
These stories were not popular in his day: they are too remote from
ordinary life, too gloomy and painful; they have no definite locality
or nationality; their characters have little in common with every-day
humanity. His prose style however is clear, direct, and strong.
Even after he ceased to write, he had an important influence on
American letters by the independence of his opinions, his friendships
with literary men, chief among whom was Bryant, and his live
interest in the younger literature produced under conditions more
favorable and more inspiring than he had known.
## p. 4287 (#49) ############################################
RICHARD HENRY DANA, SENIOR
4287
THE ISLAND
From The Buccaneer
HE Island lies nine leagues away,
Along its solitary shore
Of craggy rock and sandy bay,
No sound but ocean's roar,
Save where the bold wild sea-bird makes her home,
Her shrill cry coming through the sparkling foam.
THE
But when the light winds lie at rest,
And on the glassy, heaving sea,
The black duck with her glossy breast
Sits swinging silently,
How beautiful! no ripples break the reach.
And silvery waves go noiseless up the beach.
And inland rests the green, warm dell;
The brook comes tinkling down its side;
From out the trees the Sabbath bell
Rings cheerful, far and wide,
Mingling its sound with bleatings of the flocks
That feed about the vale among the rocks.
Nor holy bell nor pastoral bleat
In former days within the vale;
Flapped in the bay the pirate's sheet;
Curses were on the gale;
Rich goods lay on the sand, and murdered men:
Pirate and wrecker kept their revels then.
But calm, low voices, words of grace,
Now slowly fall upon the ear;
A quiet look is in each face,
Subdued and holy fear.
Each motion gentle; all is kindly done -
Come, listen how from crime this Isle was won.
## p. 4288 (#50) ############################################
4288
RICHARD HENRY DANA, SENIOR
THE DOOM OF LEE
From The Buccaneer
HO'S sitting on that long black ledge
Which makes so far out in the sea,
Feeling the kelp-weed on its edge?
Poor idle Matthew Lee!
WHO'S
So weak and pale? A year and little more.
And bravely did he lord it round this shore!
And on the shingles now he sits,
And rolls the pebbles 'neath his hands;
Now walks the beach; then stops by fits,
And scores the smooth wet sands;
Then tries each cliff and cove and jut that bounds
The isles; then home from many weary rounds.
They ask him why he wanders so,
From day to day, the uneven strand?
"I wish, I wish that I might go!
But I would go by land;
And there's no way that I can find -I've tried
All day and night! " He seaward looked, and sighed.
It brought the tear to many an eye
That once his eye had made to quail.
"Lee, go with us; our sloop is nigh;
Come! help us hoist her sail. "
He shook. -"You know the Spirit Horse I ride!
He'll let me on the sea with none beside! "
He views the ships that come and go,
Looking so like to living things.
## p. 4270 (#32) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4270
that fastened the leather apron over the blue tunic, he poured
from a small flask a few drops of oil on a woolen cloth, and
carefully rubbed the inscription upon the marble with it until
it was as smooth as a mirror; then turning his head a little
on one side, like a bird that wants to examine something
closely, with an approving nod he read aloud the words on
the slab:-
"Hic habitat Felicitas.
Nihil mali intret. "
"Yes, yes! Here dwells happiness: my happiness, our hap-
piness so long as my Felicitas lives here, happy herself and
making others happy. May misfortune never cross this thresh-
old! may every demon of ill be banished by this motto! The
house has now received a beautiful finish in these words. But
where is she? She must see it and praise me. Felicitas," he
called, turning towards the house, "come here! "
Wiping the perspiration from his brow, he stood erect-a
pliant youthful figure of middle height, not unlike the Mercury
in the garden, modeled by Crispus according to the ancient tra-
ditions of symmetry; dark-brown hair, cut short, curled closely,
almost like a cap, over his uncovered round head; a pair of
dark eyes, shaded by heavy brows, laughed merrily out into
the world; his bare feet and arms were beautifully formed,
but showed little strength,-it was only in the right arm that
the muscles stood forth prominently; the brown leather apron
was white with scrapings from the marble. He shook off the
dust and called again in a louder tone, "Felicitas! "
A white figure, framed like a picture between the two pilas-
ters of the entrance, appeared on the threshold, pushing back
the dark yellow curtain suspended from a bronze pole by mova-
ble rings. A very young girl-or was it a young wife? Yes,
this child, scarcely seventeen, must have already become a wife,
for she was undoubtedly the mother of the infant she pressed to
her bosom with her left arm; no one but a mother holds a child
with such an expression in face and attitude.
The young wife pressed two fingers of her right hand, with
the palm turned outward, warningly to her lips. "Hush," she
said; "our child is asleep. "
And now the slender figure, not yet wholly matured, floated
down the four stone steps leading from the threshold to the
garden, carefully lifting the child a little higher and holding it
## p. 4271 (#33) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4271
still more closely with her left arm, while her right hand raised
her snowy robe to the dainty ankle; the faultlessly beautiful oval
head was slightly bent forward: it was a vision of perfect grace,
even more youthful, more childlike than Raphael's Madonnas,
and not humble, yet at the same time mystically transfigured,
like the mother of the Christ-child; there was nothing compli-
cated, nothing miraculous, naught save the noblest simplicity
blended with royal grandeur in Felicitas's unconscious innocence
and dignity. The movements of this Hebe who had become a
mother were as measured and graceful as a perfect musical
harmony. A wife, yet still a maiden; purely human, perfectly
happy, absorbed and satisfied by her love for her young husband
and the child at her breast; so chaste in coloring was the per-
fect beauty of her form and face that every profane desire van-
ished in her presence as though she were a statue.
She wore no ornaments; her light-brown hair, gleaming with
a gold tinge where the sun kissed it, was drawn back in natural
waves from the beautiful temples, revealing the low forehead, and
was fastened in a loose knot at the nape of the neck; a milk-
white robe of the finest wool, fastened on the left shoulder by
an exquisitely shaped but plain silver clasp, fell in flowing folds.
around her figure,- revealing the neck, the upper part of the
swelling bosom, and the still childish arms which seemed a little
too long, and reached to the ankles, just touching the dainty
scarlet leather sandals; beneath the breast one end of the robe
was drawn through a bronze girdle a hand's-breadth wide.
So she glided noiselessly as a wave down the steps and up to
her husband. The narrow oval face possessed the marvelous,
almost bluish, white tint peculiar to the daughters of Ionia, which
no Southern noonday sun can brown; the semi-circular eyebrows,
as regular as if marked by a pair of compasses, might have
given the countenance a lifeless, almost statuesque expression,
had not under the long low-curling lashes the dark-brown ante-
lope eyes shone with the most vivid animation as she fixed them
on her beloved husband.
The latter rushed towards her with elastic steps; carefully
and tenderly taking the sleeping child from her arm, he laid it
under the shade of a rose-bush in the oval shallow straw lid of
his work-basket; one full-blown rose waving in the evening
breeze tossed fragrant petals on the little one, who smiled in
sleep.
## p. 4272 (#34) ############################################
4272
FELIX DAHN
The master of the house, throwing his arm around his young
wife's almost too slender waist, led her to the slab just completed
for the threshold of the entrance, saying:-
"The motto I have kept secret—which I have worked so
hard to finish-is now done; read it, and know, and feel” —
here he tenderly kissed her lips-"you you yourself are the
happiness; you dwell here. "
―――――――――
Translation of Mary J. Safford.
THE VENGEANCE OF GOTHELINDIS
From The Struggle for Rome ›
THE
HE slave silently opened a door in the marble walls. Amalas-
wintha entered, and stood in the narrow gallery which ran
around the basin. Just in front, low steps led into the
magnificent bath, from which already warm delicious odors were
rising. Light fell in from above through an octagonal dome of
finely cut glass. At the entrance was a flight of steps of cedar
wood, which led up twelve stairs to a spring-board. Round
about the marble walls of the gallery, as well as of the basin,
countless friezes hid the mouths of the pipes needed for the
water-works and the hot air.
Silently the bath-woman spread the bathing accessories over
the soft cushions and carpets that covered the floor of the gal-
lery, and turned toward the door.
"Why is it that I feel that I know you? " asked the princess,
looking at her thoughtfully. "How long have you been here ? »
"Since eight days. " And she took hold of the door.
"How long have you served Cassiodorus? "
"I have always served the Princess Gothelindis. "
With a cry of terror Amalaswintha started up at this name.
She turned and grasped at the garment of the woman - too late!
She was gone, the door fell to. Amalaswintha heard the key
drawn out of the lock.
-
In vain her eye sought for another place of exit. Then an
immense unnamable fear overcame the queen. She felt that
she had been terribly deceived, that here was hidden a disastrous
secret. Fear, nameless fear, fell upon her. Flight, flight out of
this chamber was her one thought.
## p. 4273 (#35) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4273
But flight seemed impossible; the door from this side was
now only a thick marble slab, like those at the right and the
left. Not even a pin could penetrate through the seams. In
despair her eyes traveled around the wall of the gallery. Only
the tritons and dolphins stared back at her.
At last her gaze
rested on the snake-enwreathed head of the Medusa just opposite,
and she uttered a cry of terror. The face of the Medusa was
pushed aside, and the oval space under the snaky hair was filled
by a human countenance!
Was a human countenance?
Trembling, she clutched the marble railing, and leaning far
forward peered over: yes, those were the features of Gothelindis,
drawn to a grimace; and a hell of hatred and scorn flamed in
her eyes.
Amalaswintha sank on her knees and hid her face.
"You-you here! "
Hoarse laughter answered her.
"Yes, Amelung woman! I am here, and to your ruin! This
island, this house, is mine! It shall be your grave! Dolios and
all slaves of Cassiodorus are mine, sold to me a week ago. I
have lured you hither. I have followed you as your shadow.
Through long days and long nights I have borne within me
burning hatred, at length to taste here full revenge. For hours
I will enjoy your mortal agony, will witness miserable, moaning
terror shake as in fever that proud body and cover that haughty
face! Oh, I will drink a sea of revenge! "
Amalaswintha rose, wringing her hands:-"Revenge, Gothe-
lindis! Wherefore? Whence this deadly hatred of me? "
"Ha, and you ask? To be sure, decades have passed by, and
the heart of the happy soon forgets. But hatred has a more
faithful memory. Have you forgotten how once upon a time
two young girls played beneath the plantains on the meadows of
Ravenna? Both were chief among their playmates.
Both were
young, beautiful, and charming; the one daughter of a king, the
other daughter of the Baltha. And the girls had to choose a
queen for their games: and they chose Gothelindis, for she was
yet more beautiful than you, and not as imperious; and they
chose her once, twice in succession. But the daughter of the
king stood by, consumed by wild untamable pride,- pride and
envy; and when they chose me for the third time, she took up
the sharp-pointed garden scissors->
VIII-268
## p. 4274 (#36) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4274
"Stop! oh, hush, Gothelindis! "
-And flung it at me. And it hit its mark, and crying out
and bloody I fell to the ground, my whole cheek a gaping
wound, and my eye, my eye pierced. Ah, how that hurts, even
now! "
«<
-
"Pardon, forgive, Gothelindis! " moaned the prisoner. "You
had forgiven me long ago. "
"Forgiven? I forgive you? That you robbed my face of its
eye, and my life of its beauty, shall I forgive that? You had
got the better of me for life; Gothelindis was no longer danger-
ous; she mourned in silence, the disfigured one fled the eyes of
men. And years passed. Then out of Spain came to the court
of Ravenna the noble Eutharich, the Amaler with the dark eye
and the tender heart: he, ill himself, took pity on the ill, half-
blind one; and he talked with her kindly and compassionately,
with the ugly one, whom all else avoided. Oh, how that
refreshened my thirsting soul! And it was decided in order to
bury the old hatred between the two houses, to wipe away old
and recent guilt,- for the Duke of the Baltha, Alarich, had
likewise been executed on secret, unproved accusation,- that the
poor maltreated daughter of the Baltha should become the wife.
of the noblest of the Amaler. When you heard that, you who
had disfigured me! you decided to take my lover from me-
not from jealousy, not because you loved him! no, from pride;
because you wanted as your own the chief man in the Gothic
Kingdom, the next male heir to the crown. You decided on
that, and you achieved it. Your father could not deny you any
wish; and Eutharich forgot at once his pity for the one-eyed
one, as soon as the hand of the beautiful daughter of the king
beckoned to him. For compensation or was it for scorn?
they gave to me likewise an Amaler-Theodahad, the miserable.
coward! "
―――
-
-
"Gothelindis, I swear to you, I never imagined that you loved
Eutharich! How could I-”
"To be sure, how could you think that the ugly one would
lift her thoughts so high? Oh, you cursed one! And if you
had loved him, and had made him happy-I would have for-
given you everything. But you did not love him, you can love
only the sceptre! You made him miserable. For years I saw
him at your side, bowed down, unloved, frozen to the marrow by
your coldness.
Sorrow because of your chilling pride soon killed
## p. 4275 (#37) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4275
him! You, you have robbed me of my lover, and sent him to
the grave! Revenge, revenge for him! "
And the deep vault re-echoed the cry, "Revenge! Revenge! "
"Help, ho! ” cried Amalaswintha. She ran in despair along
the circle of the gallery, beating her hands against the marble.
slab.
"Yes, cry out! No one hears you now but the god of ven-
geance. Do you think that for months I have curbed in my
hatred in vain? How often, how easily, could I even in Ravenna
have reached you with poniard or poison! But no, I have lured
you hither.
At the petition of my cousins, at your bed an hour
ago I restrained my uplifted arm from the stroke. Yes, for you
shall die slowly, inch by inch! for hours I will watch your mor-
tal agony increase. »
"Terrible one! "
"Oh, what are hours, compared to the decades through which
you have tortured me with my disfigurement, with your beauty,
with the possession of my lover? What are hours compared to
decades? But you shall pay for it. "
"What will you do? " cried the tortured one, again and again
looking for an escape along the walls.
"Do? I will drown you, slowly, slowly-in the water-works
of this bath-which your friend Cassiodorus built! You do
not know the pangs of jealousy and impotent fury I have suf-
fered in this house, when you shared the couch with Eutharich,
and I was among your followers and obliged to serve you.
this bath, you haughty one, I have loosened your sandals and
dried the proud limbs. In this bath you shall die. "
In
Gothelindis pressed a button. The floor of the basin of the
upper story, the circular metal plate, divided into two semicir-
cles. They disappeared to the right and left in the wall; the
prisoner in terror looked from the narrow gallery into the abys-
mal depth at her feet.
"Remember my eye! " cried Gothelindis, and then of a sud-
den the sluices at the bottom opened and the waters of the lake
rushed in, gurgling and foaming, and rose higher and higher
with terrible swiftness.
Amalaswintha saw certain death before her. She knew the
impossibility of escaping, or of softening with prayers her dev-
ilish enemy.
But her old proud Amelung courage returned;
composedly she awaited her fate. Near her, to the right of the
## p. 4276 (#38) ############################################
4276
FELIX DAHN
entrance, she saw among the many friezes of Greek mythology
a representation of the death of Christ; that refreshed her soul.
She knelt down before the marble crucifix, clasped it with both
hands and prayed calmly with closed eyes, while the waters rose
and rose.
Now they dashed against the steps of the gallery.
"You are going to pray, are you, murderess? " cried Gothe-
lindis furiously. «< Away from the crucifix! Remember the three
dukes! "
Of a sudden all the dolphins and tritons on the right side of
the octagon began to spout streams of hot water; white smoke
puffed out of the pipes.
Amalaswintha sprang up and rushed to the other side of the
gallery. "Gothelindis, I forgive you! Kill me, but do you like-
wise forgive my soul. "
And the water rose and rose. Already it surged over the
upper step and pushed slowly on to the floor of the gallery.
"I forgive you? Never! Think of Eutharich! " And from
the left the boiling streams of water hissed toward Amalaswin-
tha. She now fled toward the center, just opposite the head of
the Medusa, the only place where no stream from the pipes.
I could reach her.
If she mounted the springboard placed here, she could for a
little yet prolong her life. Gothelindis seemed to expect this, in
order to enjoy the prolonged agony. The water already foamed
on the marble floor of the gallery and moistened the feet of the
prisoner. Quickly she bounded up the brown shimmering steps,
and leaned against the railing of the bridge.
"Hear me, Gothelindis! my last prayer! not for myself,— for
my people, for our people. Petros intends to despoil it and
Theodahad. "
"Yes, I know, this realm is the uppermost care of your soul!
Despair! It is lost! These foolish Goths, who for centuries
preferred the Amaler to the Baltha, are sold and betrayed by
the house of the Amaler. Belisarius draws near, and there is
none to warn them. "
"You are mistaken, fiend! They are warned.
I their queen
have warned them. Hail to my people! Ruin to its enemies
and mercy to my soul! " And with a quick leap she threw her-
self from the platform into the waters. Foaming they closed
over her.
Gothelindis stared at the place where her victim had stood.
## p. 4277 (#39) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4277
"She has disappeared," she said.
Then she looked down into the water; the kerchief of Amala-
swintha was swimming on the surface.
"Even in death this woman triumphs over me," she said
slowly. "How long lasted the hatred! and how short was re-
venge! "
Translated for A Library of the World's Best Literature,' by R. H. Knorr.
## p. 4278 (#40) ############################################
4278
OLOF VON DALIN
(1708-1763)
BY WILLIAM H. CARPENTER
LOF
VON DALIN, "the father of modern Swedish poetry,”
was born at Vinberga, in Halland, Sweden, August 29th,
1708. He was one of the most important figures in Swedish
literature during a transitional period, which in consequence of the
influence he exercised has been called the "Dalin age. " He was the
son of a clergyman, and studied at the University of Lund, where
under the instruction of Rydelius he particularly devoted himself to
French and English literature. At the age of twenty he went to
Stockholm in the capacity of tutor, and in 1731 he entered the gov-
ernment service.
His talents, brilliancy, and adaptability made him a universal
favorite, and his career was singularly unobstructed. He was the
embodiment of the vital new spirit which flashed upon the dullness
of the time, breaking up formalism and dead tradition and introdu-
cing into literature an element which was destined to transform it.
In 1732 there appeared in Stockholm a weekly paper, edited anony-
mously, devoted to literary topics and to the discussion of the questions.
of the day. The publication of this little sheet was the immediate
result of Dalin's English proclivities. His studies in English litera-
ture had formed his mind upon a new model, and the Svenska
Argus (1732-1734) was the Swedish counterpart of the English Spec-
tator and a direct imitation of the example of Addison.
The appear-
ance of the Argus was a revelation. The public, accustomed to the
monotonous dullness of its predecessors, was taken by storm by the
wit, piquancy, and verve of the new periodical. Its first issue already
relegated such publications as the Sedolärande Mercurius, itself only
two years older, to the limbo of things outgrown. The paper at
once attained universal popularity; and when the identity of the
young editor became known he was acclaimed as the foremost writer
of the land, and was overwhelmed with favors from every side.
His next work was 'Tankar om Kritiker' (Thoughts about Criti-
cisms), and the dramas 'Den Afundsjuke' (The Jealous Man), a com-
edy in imitation of Holberg, and Brynhild,' a tragedy. Returning
from a tour, he created great enthusiasm by his 'Saga om Hästen'
(The Story of the Horse), 1739; a witty prose narrative, in which, in
## p. 4279 (#41) ############################################
OLOF VON DALIN
4279
(
the character of a horse, he related in a highly humorous manner
the history of Sweden. This was followed by the satire, strongly
suggestive of Swift, Aprilverk om vår Herrliga Tid' (April-work of
Our Glorious Time), a piece of writing which delighted the public.
In 1742 appeared what was regarded by his contemporaries as the
attainment of his highest poetic efforts, Svenska Friheten' (Swedish
Freedom), a didactic allegorical poem.
Dalin was ennobled in 1751, and the youthful Queen of Sweden,
Louise Ulrika, sister of Frederick the Great, appointed him to the
double office of tutoring the young crown prince Gustav and writing
a complete history of Sweden. These compulsory duties, and the
frequent "festal" poems which in his capacity as court poet it de-
volved upon him to write, robbed him of the leisure to attempt any
sustained effort; and from this time, aside from his History, the only
products of his pen are "occasional" poems, of which a large num-
ber have been preserved.
Dalin was the chief founder of the "Vitterhets-Akademie» (Acad-
emy of Arts and Sciences), established by Queen Louise Ulrika in
1753, which in 1786, under Gustav III. , was transformed into the
"Vitterhets-, Historie-, och Antiquitäts-Akademie. " He was appointed
privy councilor in 1753, and subsequently being suspected of revolu-
tionary intrigues, he was banished from the court. He returned in
1761. During the period of the exile he worked upon his 'Svearikes
Historia (History of the Kingdom of Sweden), which he ultimately
brought down to the period of Charles IX. This appeared in four
volumes, 1747-62. His collected works were published in 1767. He
died at Drottningholm, August 12th, 1763.
The immense influence of Dalin upon his age was disproportionate
to the merits of his writings, and must be ascribed to his personal-
ity and to the new elements which he introduced, rather than to his
creative genius. He was the force which opened new channels, the
power which directed the new tendencies of his day. He broke
away from the traditions of the German cult, which until his time
had been the ruling power, and brought into Swedish the potent ele-
ments of French and English literature. Together with Madame
Nordenflycht and other followers of his school, and aided by the
French influence of the court, he completely transformed the char-
acter of the national literature.
WmSt. Carpenter
## p. 4280 (#42) ############################################
4280
OLOF VON DALIN
FROM THE SWEDISH ARGUS, NO. XIII. 1733
Cupias non placuisse nimis
I
HOPE you know me now, my reader, so that you will pardon
me if I write but little, since that happens merely in order
that I may set down the truth. I too am not my own mas-
ter; for my offspring have now taken it upon themselves to shut
off their speakers with that blow which makes for a creditable
piece of writing, but afflicts the truth. In which respect I for
the most resemble the fifth wheel of a wagon, and trouble
myself no more about it than many a town councilor or juryman
bothers his head about the verdicts which he signs and approves,
without making it my business to prove it true, and as if asleep,
give in my vote. You must also yourself admit, my just reader,
that it is necessary in our time to lie the truth in among the
people.
Our father Adam and mother Eve, it happened a short time
since, came up out of their graves and were at their estate Tiel-
kestad, where they presently proclaimed over the whole land a
diet, or assemblage, at which all their dear children of both
sexes should appear in person or by duly qualified substitute, in
order that their universal parents might see and rejoice in their
Northern seed, might learn how apt was each and how he had
improved his talent, and admonish him to do honor to his
creation.
Here was gathered together a considerable assembly of people.
Each one, from the greatest to the least, went forward to kiss
grandpapa's and grandmamma's hand. They bent and they
bowed, and most of the inhabitants of the land now vied with
each other with all their might of soul and body, with internal
and external senses, to see who should most please their first
parents. For it may be believed it was no joke to be able to
joice them with their excellence, now, some five thousand years
after their death, and to put in their minds the thought, "See,
Adam, what a son you have! " "See, Eve, what a daughter! " etc.
Adam, who honored the first creation, and loved nature's
activity, which tolerates no compulsions or additions, was amazed
when he saw his children, for he did not know half of them.
"Where have they come from? " said he. "They are never
mine, unless forsooth there shall have been a new creation, in
## p. 4281 (#43) ############################################
OLOF VON DALIN
4281
the overseeing of which neither God nor I has had a part. " Eve
had indeed been proud of so many offspring, but was somewhat
abashed at these words, and said, "I should fear, sire, that you
made me out an indifferent, woman, if all did not know that we
were alone in our conjugal state. " "Well enough is it web of
my weft," he answered, "but the children so disguise themselves
in their attempt to please, that they lose all the charm which a
spontaneous activity should otherwise most easily possess. Yet
what am I saying? I readily see that our fall is the reason of
this and of many disorders. " "It seems to me," said Eve, "that
you should have a review, and teach the poor children how they
should conduct themselves so as not to continue in so monstrous
a condition. "
Well, this was arranged, and all were now to pass before
the eye of Adam, whether they had changed themselves or not.
He had seated himself on a wall of earth, and all the liberal
arts stood round about him. "Dear children," said he to his
offspring, "come forward now, in order that I may see how
you conduct yourselves. The inordinate desire of honor is the
reason for this new creation,- which does not however seek the
honor of the great Creator, but your own. " When any of his
children came forward who without affectation lisped their ten-
der thoughts, they were kissed with tears by the old man and
matron, who said that nature in them was not restrained, and
wished that they might henceforth continue in such freedom.
"Behold, this," said they, "produces pleasure, without you your-
selves knowing it; and this is the kernel of the art of pleasing. '
Many court worshipers and people of the upper ranks of life,
where ambition takes firmest hold of the body, also went for-
ward, who for the most part had so well exercised themselves in
appearances that they seemed neither in action nor word to be
affected. These too won tolerably well, in this way, the com-
mendation of the old people. Yet there were some of them who
particularly thought to please kings and princes, who took upon
themselves a more zealous appearance than they had inherited,
and bore their bodies in greater state than birth had given them,
beneath costly garments arrayed in precise order, so that they
by this means spoiled all their beauty; for Adam had only aver-
sion for such artificial figures.
>>
But what he did not have in them, he did have in a part of
those who followed. These were people of ordinary condition
## p. 4282 (#44) ############################################
4282
OLOF VON DALIN
in
who vied with the first, indeed with their own natures,
acquiring charm. When these latter had noticed that the people
of rank had some fault or peculiar manner, then straightway
seized by this wretched desire of honor, they wished at least to
resemble the great in bagatelles. Some set one or two wrinkles
on their foreheads; some, a particular expression about the
mouth; some lisped or stammered purposely, and introduced
extraordinary sounds into their speech; some affected strange
laughter; some had a wonderful bend of the shoulders; some a
simulated walk; some gave themselves political or statistical
features, etc. , etc. ; and all directly opposed to their otherwise
natural manner. "Yes, I can tell you right straight out," said
Adam; "I have not a little esteem for you: but listen, I will
tell you a little story. It has been told me that my famous son,
Alexander the Great, once upon a time twisted his neck out of
joint, so that he was obliged to walk with his head somewhat
awry. Straightway were all of his lords and his courtiers moved
to walk in the same manner, especially before his eyes, with the
thought of pleasing him exceedingly. But among those who,
whether out of zeal for their master or of love for themselves,
would particularly be like the king, one twisted his neck so
badly that his valiant prince, grown angry at such buffoonery,
gave him so heavy a blow that the cuff set the heads right
again of the whole court and army. If I were able now, I
would certainly deal out many an affectionate blow to remedy
all the evil habits with which you think to please me. "
(I wish that Argus had to-day the same smart as a box on
the ear, for we saw this morning many affected cripples as
sound and active as when they came into the world. )
"A part of you," continued Adam, "I notice, compel your-
selves to limp and stoop very seriously and with great discom-
fort on canes, as if twenty-year-old legs were already afflicted
with the rich man's sickness. But if some one took the canes
and taught the young to spring, he would do rightly. Do you
think it is no advantage to have good legs? If you think in
this manner to imitate celebrated people, as has been said, then
you shall know that it often offends him who is aped as much
as it disfigures the ape himself. ”
Many of our women who daily vie with each other for
the possession of the greatest charm came forward, with the
idea that the old people's hearts would be rejoiced with their
## p. 4283 (#45) ############################################
OLOF VON DALIN
4283
comeliness. But that did not fall out well, since the one made
a grimace by setting her mouth in a churchly manner; the other
changed her features in that she wished to show her beautiful
teeth; the third turned her eyes so strangely that she both
blinked and squinted; the fourth had given herself a beautiful
skin with ingredients from the apothecary's shop; the fifth as-
sumed a fatigued gait; the sixth purposely appeared somewhat
ill and languid. A pastor's wife forced her mild countenance
into a scornful mien; a burgher's wife sweetened her mouth
with ill-pronounced French words, and kept her body immovable
because of her beautiful clothes; a merchant's daughter could
think of nothing else than to bow; another maiden twisted her
face over both shoulders with a stiff glance, etc. , etc. : so that
Eve said: "What is this? Will you please me with force? Ah,
foolish women, if you wish truly to please, then you should not
think of it. Such a thing must come to you unwittingly. "
When Eve said this, some men lamented the vanity and ele-
gant frivolity of a part of the women; but they were brought
up sharply, for Adam said:-"Will you now again transform
nature, and make that into heaviness which is created for your
pleasure and refreshing help? It befits you, it may be, better
than that to be ill-favored. If any of you are born to serious-
ness, then it well becomes that one that she is so; but if you
desire that others shall be like you and bother themselves with
your thoughts, then is that ill-conceived. For example, a woman
may indeed amuse herself with books and little acts of clever-
ness; but if she makes study her trade, then she becomes a
pedant. "
The malcontents, however, complained again that their mis-
tresses desired that men should resemble them in all things
except in sex, and hold them otherwise wholly as women. But
Adam replied:-"If you are such fools, then shall you have
advice. I see many gallants who readily undergo such a trans-
formation, but that accords with their nature as does clay with
straw, and surely an intelligent woman does not like it herself. "
Further, Adam said:-"Now I must laugh! Look at that
bashful youth yonder in the crowd, who is so fearful of sinning
against the customs of affectation that he does not know how he
shall hold his hands. Now he sticks them here, and now there.
When he bows, he looks back with perplexity at all to see if he
did rightly. "
## p. 4284 (#46) ############################################
4284
OLOF VON DALIN
At that moment there came forward some scholars and poets,
who with references presented their works and verses, some of
which they read. But Adam said:-"Children, you were born.
to be shoemakers. You had understood awls better than pens.
At a trade you had wrought out profit and pleasure, but not
in study. Endowments are of many kinds, and every one must
consider which of them he has received. "
Thereupon some of the clergy came forward with soft steps,
wholly assured that they would receive a caress from the old
man for every time they had named him in their sermons. But
when the pretended pious went along, he became straightway
displeased. What should there avail the measured-out words, and
the forced high-flown delivery, filled with roses without fragrance!
Suppose that he had seen some of them in the pulpit with their
comedian affectations, or how unbecomingly they threw them-
selves and moved about there! Adam said shortly to them.
"Such nonsense is unnecessary in your sacred office. " In this
consisted the whole caress.
It is impossible for me to remember or to be able to describe
all of those who at this time disgraced themselves before father
Adam and mother Eve. This I know, that Japhet's grandsire
pronounced this word of admonition:- "My descendants," said
he, "let it be fairly seen that you do not so badly disfigure your-
selves as you have hitherto done. Let not the one take the
other's talent and decry his own. Prove yourselves what char-
acter you own and abide with it; so shall you mark in each
other that there is not one who is not made pleasing in his way,
if it be rightly used. A surly man may be agreeable even in
his surliness, and so on. Moreover, everyone shall give himself
to the service in the state to which he is fallen, and shall not,
eager of honor, offer violence to nature, of which I see among
you so many examples that I just now Coughing deprived
the old man of words, so that he stopped short, and straightway,
as may be believed, the whole crowd made grimace upon grimace
and laughed at him. The poor old couple were glad to get away
from Tielkestad and lay themselves in their graves. So it went
with the assemblage. Yes, believe me, surely. He who will tell
the truth appears at times like a hen on a perch in windy
weather.
>>>
-
Translation of William H. Carpenter.
## p. 4285 (#47) ############################################
4285
RICHARD HENRY DANA, SENIOR
(1787-1879)
ICHARD HENRY DANA the elder, although he died less than
twenty years ago, belonged to the first generation of
American writers; he was born in 1787, in Cambridge, four
years after Washington Irving. He came of a distinguished and
scholarly family: his father had been minister to Russia during the
Revolution, and was afterwards Chief Justice of Massachusetts;
through his mother he was descended from Anne Bradstreet. At the
age of ten he went to Newport to live with his maternal grand-
father, William Ellery, one of the signers
of the Declaration of Independence, and
remained until he entered Harvard. The
wild rock-bound coast scenery impressed
him deeply, and ever after the sea was one
of his ruling passions. Only one familiar
with all the moods of the ocean could have
written The Buccaneer. ' After quitting
college he studied law, and was admitted
to the Boston bar. Literature however
proved the stronger attraction, and in 1818
he left his profession to assist in conducting
the then newly founded North American
Review. The critical papers he contributed
to it startled the conservative literary circles by their audacity in
defending the new movement in English poetry, and passing lightly
by their idol Pope. Indeed, his unpopularity debarred him from suc-
ceeding the first editor. He withdrew, and began the publication of
The Idle Man in numbers, modeled on Salmagundi and the Sketch-
Book. His contributions consisted of critical papers and his novel-
ettes Paul Felton, Tom Thornton,' and 'Edward and Mary. ' Not
finding many readers, he discontinued it after the first volume. He
then contributed for some years to the New York Review, conducted
by William Cullen Bryant, and to the United States Review. In
1827 appeared 'The Buccaneer and Other Poems'; in 1833 the same
volume was enlarged and the contributions to The Idle Man were
added, under the title 'Poems and Prose Writings. ' Seventeen years
later he closed his literary career by publishing the complete edi-
tion of his 'Poems and Prose Writings,' in two volumes, not having
RICHARD H. DANA
## p. 4286 (#48) ############################################
4286
RICHARD HENRY DANA, SENIOR
materially added either to his verse or fiction. After that time he
lived in retirement, spending his summers in his seaside home by
the rocks and breakers of Cape Ann, and the winters in Boston. He
died in 1879.
Dana's literary activity falls within the first third of this century.
During that period, unproductive of great work, he ranked among the
foremost writers. His papers in the North American Review, as the
first original criticism on this side of the Atlantic, marked an era in
our letters. He was
one of the first to recognize the genius of
Wordsworth and of Coleridge; under the influence of the latter he
wrote the poem by which he is chiefly known, The Buccaneer. ' He
claimed for it a basis of truth; it is in fact a story out of 'The
Pirate's Own Book,' with the element of the supernatural added to
convey the moral lesson. His verse is contained in a slender vol-
ume. It lacks fluency and melody, but shows keen perception of
Nature's beauty, especially in her sterner, more solemn moods, and
sympathy with the human heart. Dana was not so much a poet
born with the inevitable gift of song (he would otherwise not have
become almost silent during the last fifty years of his life), as a man
of strong intellect who in his youth turned to verse for recreation.
Though best known by his poems, he stands out strongest and
most original as novelist. 'Paul Felton,' his masterpiece in prose, is
a powerful study of a diseased condition of mind. In its searching
psychologic analysis it stands quite apart from the more or less flac-
cid production of its day. He indeed could not escape the influence
of Charles Brockden Brown, whom he greatly admired, and he in
turn reached out forward toward Poe and other writers of the
analytic school. One powerful story of Poe's, indeed, seems to have
been suggested by Dana's work: the demon horse in Metzenger-
stein' is a superior copy of the Spectre Horse in The Buccaneer. '
These stories were not popular in his day: they are too remote from
ordinary life, too gloomy and painful; they have no definite locality
or nationality; their characters have little in common with every-day
humanity. His prose style however is clear, direct, and strong.
Even after he ceased to write, he had an important influence on
American letters by the independence of his opinions, his friendships
with literary men, chief among whom was Bryant, and his live
interest in the younger literature produced under conditions more
favorable and more inspiring than he had known.
## p. 4287 (#49) ############################################
RICHARD HENRY DANA, SENIOR
4287
THE ISLAND
From The Buccaneer
HE Island lies nine leagues away,
Along its solitary shore
Of craggy rock and sandy bay,
No sound but ocean's roar,
Save where the bold wild sea-bird makes her home,
Her shrill cry coming through the sparkling foam.
THE
But when the light winds lie at rest,
And on the glassy, heaving sea,
The black duck with her glossy breast
Sits swinging silently,
How beautiful! no ripples break the reach.
And silvery waves go noiseless up the beach.
And inland rests the green, warm dell;
The brook comes tinkling down its side;
From out the trees the Sabbath bell
Rings cheerful, far and wide,
Mingling its sound with bleatings of the flocks
That feed about the vale among the rocks.
Nor holy bell nor pastoral bleat
In former days within the vale;
Flapped in the bay the pirate's sheet;
Curses were on the gale;
Rich goods lay on the sand, and murdered men:
Pirate and wrecker kept their revels then.
But calm, low voices, words of grace,
Now slowly fall upon the ear;
A quiet look is in each face,
Subdued and holy fear.
Each motion gentle; all is kindly done -
Come, listen how from crime this Isle was won.
## p. 4288 (#50) ############################################
4288
RICHARD HENRY DANA, SENIOR
THE DOOM OF LEE
From The Buccaneer
HO'S sitting on that long black ledge
Which makes so far out in the sea,
Feeling the kelp-weed on its edge?
Poor idle Matthew Lee!
WHO'S
So weak and pale? A year and little more.
And bravely did he lord it round this shore!
And on the shingles now he sits,
And rolls the pebbles 'neath his hands;
Now walks the beach; then stops by fits,
And scores the smooth wet sands;
Then tries each cliff and cove and jut that bounds
The isles; then home from many weary rounds.
They ask him why he wanders so,
From day to day, the uneven strand?
"I wish, I wish that I might go!
But I would go by land;
And there's no way that I can find -I've tried
All day and night! " He seaward looked, and sighed.
It brought the tear to many an eye
That once his eye had made to quail.
"Lee, go with us; our sloop is nigh;
Come! help us hoist her sail. "
He shook. -"You know the Spirit Horse I ride!
He'll let me on the sea with none beside! "
He views the ships that come and go,
Looking so like to living things.
