No More Learning

A heavier sorrow could scarcely have befallen you. To lose
such an amiable and a so-happily-thriving child in such a way,
and to bury along with him all the hopes which were to be the
joys of your old days,- sorrow over such a loss will not depart
from you as long as you live on this earth; this I feel with you,
with deep and painful sympathy. We are powerless and help-
less in God's mighty hand, so far as he will not himself help us,
and can do nothing but bow down in humility under his dispen-
sations. He can take from us all that he gave, and make us
utterly desolate; and our mourning for it will be all the bit-
terer, the more we allow it to run to excess in contention and
rebellion against his almighty ordinance. Do not mingle your
just grief with bitterness and repining, but bring home to your-
self that a son and a daughter are left to you, and that with
them, and even in the feeling of having possessed another be-
loved child for fifteen years, you must consider yourself blessed
in comparison with the many who have never had children nor
known a parent's joy.
I do not want to trouble you with feeble grounds for consola-
tion, but only to tell you in these lines how I, as friend and
brother, feel your suffering like my own, and am moved by it
to the very core. How all small cares and vexations, which
daily accompany our life, vanish at the iron appearance of real
misfortune! and I feel like so many reproaches the reminiscences
of all complaints and covetous wishes, over which I have so
often forgotten how much blessing God gives us, and how much
danger surrounds us without touching us. We are not to attach
ourselves to this world, and not regard it as our home. Another


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1941
twenty, or in happiest case thirty years, and we are both of us
beyond the cares of this life, and our children have reached our
present standpoint, and find with astonishment that the freshly
begun life is already going down hill. It would not be worth
while to dress and undress if it were over with that.
Do you still remember these words of a fellow-traveler from
Stolpemünde? The thought that death is the transition to an-
other life will certainly do little to alleviate your grief; for you.
might think that your beloved son might have been a true and
dear companion to you during the time you are still living in this
world, and would have continued, by God's blessing, the memory
of you here. The circle of those whom we love contracts itself
and receives no increase till we have grandchildren.
At our
time of life we form no fresh bonds which are capable of repla-
cing those that die off. Let us therefore keep the closer together
in love until death separates us from one another, as it now sep-
arates your son from us. Who knows how soon? Won't you
come with Malle to Stolpmünde, and stay quietly with us for a
few weeks or days? At all events I shall come to you at Kröch-
lendorf, or wherever else you are, in three or four weeks. I
greet my dearest Malle with all my heart. May God give her,
as well as you, strength to bear and patiently submit.
TO HIS WIFE
BIARRITZ, August 4th, 1862.
I
AM afraid I have caused some confusion in our correspondence,
as I induced you to write too soon to places where I have
not yet arrived. It will be better for you to address your
letters to Paris, just as though I were there; the embassy then
sends them after me, and I can more quickly send word there if
I alter my route. Yesterday evening I returned from St. Sebas-
tian to Bayonne, where I slept, and am now sitting here in a
corner-room of the Hôtel de l'Europe, with charming view on
the blue sea, which drives its white foam through the curious
cliffs against the lighthouse. I have a bad conscience for seeing
so many beautiful things without you. If one could transport
you here through the air, I would go directly back again to St.
Sebastian, and take you with me. Fancy the Siebengebirge with
the Drachenfels placed by the sea; close by, Ehrenbreitstein, and


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1942
between the two, pushing its way into the land, an arm of the
sea, somewhat broader than the Rhine, and forming a round bay
behind the mountains. In this you bathe in transparently clear
water, so heavy and so salt that you swim on the top of it by
yourself, and look through the broad gate of rocks into the sea,
or landward where the mountain chains top each other, always
higher, always bluer.
The women of the middle and lower classes are strikingly
pretty, occasionally beautiful; the men surly and uncivil; and the
comforts of life to which we are accustomed are missing. The
heat is not worse here than there, and I do not mind it; find
myself, on the contrary, very well, thank God. The day before
yesterday there was a storm, such as I have never seen anything
like. I had to take a run three times before I could succeed in
getting up a flight of three steps on the jetty; pieces of stone
and large fragments of trees were carried through the air. Un-
fortunately, therefore, I countermanded my place in a sailing
vessel to Bayonne, for I could not suppose that after four hours
all would be quiet and cheerful. I lost thus a charming sail
along the coast, remained a day more at St. Sebastian, and left.
yesterday in the diligence, rather uncomfortably packed between
nice little Spanish women, with whom I could not talk a syllable.
So much Italian, however, they understood that I could demon-
strate to them my satisfaction with their exterior. I looked
to-day at a railway guide to see how I could get from here-
that is, from Toulouse-by railway over Marseilles to Nice, then
by boat to Genoa; from there over Venice, Trieste, Vienna,
Breslau, Posen, Stargard to Cöslin! If it were only possible to
go over Berlin! I cannot very well pass through there just now.
TO HIS WIFE
HOHENMAUTH, Monday, July 9th, 1866.
DⓇ
o you still remember, my heart, how nineteen years ago we
passed through here on the way from Prague to Vienna?
No mirror showed the future, neither when, in 1852, I
went along this line with the good Lynar. Matters are going
well with us; if we are not immoderate in our demands, and do
not imagine that we have conquered the world, we shall acquire
a pace which will be worth the trouble.
But we are just as


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1943
quickly intoxicated as discouraged, and I have the ungrateful
task of pouring water in the foaming wine, and making them.
see that we are not living alone in Europe, but with three neigh-
bors still. The Austrians are in Moravia, and we are already so
bold that their positions to-day are fixed for our headquarters to-
morrow. Prisoners are still coming in, and one hundred and
eighty guns since the 3d up to to-day. If they call up their
southern army, with God's good help we shall beat them again.
Confidence is universal. I could hug our fellows, each facing
death so gallantly, so quiet, obedient, well-behaved, with empty
stomachs, wet clothes, wet camp, little sleep, the soles of their
boots falling off, obliging to everybody, no looting, no incendi-
arism, paying where they can, and eating moldy bread. There
must after all abide in our man of the soil a rich store of the
fear of God, or all that would be impossible. News of acquaint-
ances is difficult to obtain; people are miles apart from one
another; no one knows where the other is, and nobody to send;
men enough, but no horses. I have had Philip searched for, for
four days; he is slightly wounded in the head by a lance, as
G
-wrote to me, but I cannot find out where he is, and now
we are already forty miles farther on.
The King exposed himself very much indeed on the 3d, and
it was a very good thing that I was with him; for all warnings
on the part of others were of no avail, and no one would have
ventured to speak as I allowed myself to do the last time, and
with success, after a heap of ten men and fifteen horses of the
Sixth Regiment of cuirassiers were wallowing in their blood near
us, and the shells whizzed round the sovereign in the most un-
pleasant proximity. The worst luckily did not burst. But after
all I like it better than if he should err on the other side. He
was enchanted with his troops, and rightly, so that he did not
seem to remark all the whistling and bursting about him; as
quiet and comfortable as on the Kreuzberg, and kept constantly
finding battalions that he wanted to thank and say good evening
to, until there we were again under fire. But he has had to
hear so much about it, that he will leave it alone for the future,
and you can be at ease; besides, I hardly believe in another real
battle.
If you have no news of a person, you can all implicitly believe
that he lives and is well, as all casualties occurring to one's
acquaintances are known in twenty-four hours at the longest.


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1944
OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
We have not come at all into communication with Herwarth and
Steinmetz, but know that they are both well. G- quietly leads
his squadron with his arm in a sling. Good-bye, I must go on
duty.
YOUR MOST TRUE V. B.
TO HIS WIFE
Note. This letter did not reach its destination, but, together with the
entire post, was captured by franc-tireurs and published by a French news-
paper.
VENDRESSE, 3 September [1870].
My Dear Heart:
I
LEFT my present quarters before early dawn the day before
yesterday, came back to-day, and have in the mean time wit-
nessed the great battle of Sedan, in which we made about
thirty thousand prisoners, and threw the remainder of the French
army, which we have been pursuing since Bar-le-Duc, into the
fortress, where they had to surrender themselves, along with the
Emperor, prisoners of war. Yesterday morning at five o'clock,
after I had been negotiating until one o'clock A. M. with Moltke
and the French generals about the capitulation to be concluded,
I was awakened by General Reille, with whom I am acquainted,
to tell me that Napoleon wished to speak with me. Unwashed
and unbreakfasted, I rode towards Sedan, found the Emperor in
an open carriage, with three aides-de-camp and three in attend-
ance on horseback, halted on the road before Sedan. I dis-
mounted, saluted him just as politely as at the Tuileries, and
asked for his commands. He wished to see the King; I told
him, as the truth was, that his Majesty had his quarters fifteen
miles away, at the spot where I am now writing. In answer
to Napoleon's question where he should go to, I offered him, as I
was not acquainted with the country, my own quarters at Don-
chéry, a small place in the neighborhood, close by Sedan. He
accepted, and drove, accompanied by his six Frenchmen, by me
and by Carl (who in the mean time had ridden after me) through
the lonely morning towards our lines. Before coming to the
spot, he began to hesitate on account of the possible crowd, and
he asked me if he could alight in a lonely cottage by the way-
side; I had it inspected by Carl, who brought word that it was
mean and dirty. "N'importe," said N. , and I ascended with him.


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1945
a rickety, narrow staircase. In an apartment of ten feet square,
with a deal table and two rush-bottomed chairs, we sat for an
hour; the others were below. A powerful contrast with our last
meeting in the Tuileries in 1867. Our conversation was a diffi-
cult thing, if I wanted to avoid touching on topics which could
not but affect painfully the man whom God's mighty hand had
cast down. I had sent Carl to fetch officers from the town and
to beg Moltke to come. We then sent one of the former to
reconnoitre, and discovered two and one-half miles off, in Fres-
nois, a small château situated in a park. Thither I accompanied
him with an escort of the cuirassier regiment of life-guards,
which had meantime been brought up; and there we concluded
with the French general-in-chief, Wimpffen, the capitulation by
virtue of which forty to sixty thousand Frenchmen,—I do not
know it accurately at present,- with all they possess, became
our prisoners. Yesterday and the day before cost France one
hundred thousand men and an Emperor. This morning the
latter, with all his suite and horses and carriages, started for
Wilhelmshöhe, near Cassel.
It is an event of great weight in the world's history, a victory
for which we will humbly thank the Almighty, and which decides
the war, even if we have to carry it on against France shorn of
her Emperor.
I must conclude. With heartfelt joy I learnt from your and
Maria's letters that Herbert has arrived among you. Bill I spoke
to yesterday, as already telegraphed, and embraced him from
horseback in his Majesty's presence, while he stood motionless in
the ranks. He is very healthy and happy. I saw Hans and
Fritz Carl, both Bülows, in the Second dragoon guards, well and
cheerful.
Good-by, my heart; love to the children.
TO HIS WIFE
Your
V. B.
OFEN, June 23d, 1852.
I
HAVE just come from the steamer, and do not know how
better to employ the moment I have at my disposal before
Hildebrand follows with my things, than by sending you a
little sign of life from this very easterly but very beautiful


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1946
OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
world. The Emperor has been graciously pleased to assign me
quarters in his castle; and here I am in a large vaulted hall,
sitting at an open window through which the evening bells of
Pesth are pealing. The outlook is charming. The castle stands
high; beneath me, first, the Danube, spanned by the suspension
bridge; across it, Pesth; and further off the endless plain beyond
Pesth, fading away into the purple haze of evening. To the left
of Pesth I look up the Danube; far, very far away on my left,—
that is, on its right bank,- it is first bordered by the town of
Ofen; back of that are hills, blue and still bluer, and then comes
the brown-red in the evening sky that glows behind them.
Between the two towns lies the broad mirror of water, like that
at Linz, broken by the suspension bridge and a wooded island.
The journey here, too, at least from Gran to Pesth, would have
delighted you. Imagine the Odenwald and the Taunus pushed
near to each other, and the space between filled with the waters
of the Danube. The shady side of the trip was its sunny side;
it was as hot as if Tokay was to be grown on the boat: and the
number of tourists was great, but-only think of it—not an
Englishman! They cannot yet have discovered Hungary. There
were, however, odd customers enough, of all races, oriental and
occidental, greasy and washed. A very amiable general was my
chief traveling companion; I sat and smoked with him nearly the
whole time, up on the paddle-box.
I am growing impatient as to what has become of Hilde-
brand; I lean out of the window, partly mooning and partly
watching for him as if he were a sweetheart, for I crave a clean
shirt if you could only be here for a moment, and if you too
could now see the dull silver of the Danube, the dark hills on a
pale-red background, and the lights that shine up from below in
Pesth, Vienna would go down a good way in your estimation as
compared with "Buda-Pesth," as the Hungarians call it. You
see that I too can go into raptures over nature. Now that
Hildebrand has really turned up, I shall calm my fevered blood
with a cup of tea, and soon after go to bed.


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1947
JUNE 24TH: Evening.
Α
S YET I have had no opportunity to send this off. Again the
lights are gleaming up from Pesth; on the horizon, in the
direction of the Theiss, there are flashes of lightning; above
us the sky is clear and the stars are shining. I have been a
good deal in uniform to-day; presented my credentials, in formal
audience, to the young ruler of this country, and received a very
agreeable impression. After dinner the whole court made an
excursion into the hills, to the "Fair Shepherdess "-who, how-
ever, has long been dead; King Matthias Corvinus loved her
several hundred years ago.
There is a view from there (over
wooded hills, something like those by the Neckar) of Ofen, its
hills, and the plain. A country festival had brought together
thousands of people; they pressed about the Emperor, who had
mingled with the throng, with ringing shouts of "eljen" [vive];
they danced the csardas, waltzed, sang, played music, climbed
into the trees, and crowded the court. On a grassy slope there
was a supper table for some twenty persons, with seats on one
side only, while the other was left free for the view of forest,
castle, city, and country. Above us were tall beeches, with
climbing Hungarians on the branches; behind and quite near
us, a closely crowded and crowding mass of people; further off,
music from wind instruments, alternating with song-wild gipsy
melodies. Illumination-moonlight and sunset-red, with torches
scattered through the forest. It might all be produced without
a change as grand scenic effect in a romantic opera. Next to
me sat the white-haired Archbishop of Gran, in a black silk
gown with a red hood; on the other side a very amiable, trig
cavalry general. You see the picture was rich in contrasts.
Then we drove home in the moonlight with an escort of
torches.
It is very quiet and comfortable up here now; I hear nothing
but the ticking of a clock on the wall, and the distant rumble of
carriages below. May angels watch over you; over me, a gren-
adier in a bearskin does it, six inches of whose bayonet I see
projecting above the window-sill, a couple of arm's-lengths from
me, and reflecting a ray of light. He is standing above the
terrace on the Danube, and thinking perhaps of his Nancy.


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1948
OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE
FRANKFORT DIET
Confidential Dispatch to Minister Von Manteuffel, May 30th, 1853
IN
IN CONNECTION with my report of to-day regarding the attitude
of certain envoys in the Kettenburg affair, I take the liberty
of making some confidential remarks regarding the personal
traits of my colleagues in general, in case it should interest your
Excellency to have the information.
Herr von Prokesch is probably well enough known in Ber-
lin to make further indications of his personal characteristics un-
necessary; at the same time, I cannot refrain from remarking that
the calmness and ease with which he advances false statements
of fact, or contests true statements, surpass my expectations, al-
though I have been led to expect a good deal in this direction.
These qualities are supplemented by a surprising degree of cool-
ness in dropping a subject or making a change of front, as soon
as the untruth which he has taken as his point of departure is
identified beyond the possibility of evasion. In case of necessity
he covers a retreat of this sort by an ebullition of moral indig-
nation, or by an attack, often of a very personal character, which
transfers the discussion to a new and quite different field. His
chief weapons in the petty war which I am obliged to wage
with him, as often as the interests which we represent diverge,
are: (1) Passive resistance, i. e. , a dilatory treatment of the
affair, by which he forces upon me the rôle of a tiresome dun,
and not infrequently, by reason of the nature of the affair, that
of a paltry dun. (2) In case of attack, the fait accompli, in the
shape of apparently insignificant usurpations on the part of the
Chair. These are commonly so calculated that any protest on
my part cannot but seem like a deliberate search for points of
controversy or like captious verbal criticism. It is therefore
scarcely possible for me to avoid, in my dealings with him, the
appearance of quarrelsomeness, unless I am willing to sacrifice
the interests of Prussia to a degree which every concession would
increase.
The Bavarian envoy, Herr von Schrenk, I place among the
best elements in the assembly, as regards both his capacity and
his character. He is a thorough and industrious worker, and
practical in his views and opinions; although his predominantly


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1949
juristic training and mode of thinking make him at times dispu-
tatious, and tend to impede the progress of affairs. In official
intercourse he is frank and obliging, so long as his [Bavarian]
patriotism, which is high-strung and extremely irritable, is treated
with consideration; a foible for which I take particular pains to
make allowance.
I
Our Saxon colleague, Herr von Nostitz, inspires in me less
confidence. It seems to me that he has at bottom a traditional
inclination toward Prussia and its political system, which is
nourished in part by a Protestantism that is more rationalistic
than orthodox, and by his fear of Ultramontane tendencies.
believe, however, and I should be glad to find that I do him an
injustice,— that on the whole, personal interests take precedence
with him over political interests, and that the suppleness of his
character permits him to view the latter in whatever light best
suits the former. His economic position is dependent upon his
place, aside from the salary, by reason of the fact that he owns a
house here in which he lives, which he bought before 1848 at a
high price, and which he has vainly attempted to rent for the
last five years.
His political course is therefore controlled by his
desire of remaining in his official position under every contin-
gency; and with the present tendency of the Saxon government,
Austria has certainly more opportunity to help him in keeping
his place than has Prussia. This circumstance indeed does not
prevent Herr von Nostitz from avoiding, as far as his instruc-
tions will allow, any patent injury to Prussia; but with his great
capacity for labor, his intelligence, and his long experience, he
constitutes the most effective support of all Austria's efforts in
the federal assembly. He is particularly adroit in formulating
reports and propositions in awkward controversial questions; he
knows how to give his draught a color of compromise without
the least sacrifice of any Austrian interest, as soon as the correct
interpretation comes to the aid of the apparently indeterminate
expression. When his draughts become the basis of subsequent
discussion, it is then usually discovered for the first time that the
real purpose for which they were drawn is contained in what
seemed to be casual and incidental words. If the current in
Dresden should shift in the Prussian direction, the valuable per-
sonal assistance which Herr von Nostitz is able to render by
means of his sense, his experience, and the credit both have
won him, would be thrown on the Prussian side with the same
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1950
certainty as now on the Austrian, unless too strong a tie were
found in the fact that one of his sons is being educated in the
Austrian Naval School, while another is already an officer in the
imperial service.
Herr von Bothmer returned to this place a few days ago as
representative of Hanover; I learn from him, however, with
regret, that his further stay here is in no wise assured. Not
only is his a straightforward character that awakens confidence,
but he is also the only one of my colleagues who has sufficient
independence to give me anything more than passive assistance
when I am obliged to protest against the conduct of the Chair.
His opposite is found in Herr von Reinhard. While Herr
von Bothmer is thorough, clear, and objective in his produc-
tions, those of the Würtemberg envoy bear the stamp of super-
ficiality and confused thinking. His removal from the federal
assembly might justly be regarded as a great gain for us. I do
not know whether his departure from Berlin was connected with
circumstances which have left in him a lasting dislike of Prus-
sia, or whether confused political theories (regarding which he
expresses himself with more ease and with greater interest than
regarding practical affairs) have brought him to believe that the
Prussian influence in Germany is deleterious: but at all events
his antipathy to us exceeds the degree which, in view of the
political situation of Würtemberg, can be supposed to exist in
the mind of his sovereign; and I have reason to assume that his
influence upon the instructions which are sent him, and his activ-
ity, so far as this is independent of instructions, are exerted, as a
matter of principle, to the disadvantage of Prussia.
In
his bearing towards me personally there is nothing which would.
justify the conclusion that his feelings are of the sort I have
indicated; and it is only rarely that a point is reached in our
debates at which, moderated by a certain timidity, his suppressed
bitterness against Prussia breaks out. I may remark incident-
ally that it is he who invariably appears at our sessions last,
and too late; and who, through want of attention and through
subsequent participation in the discussion on the basis of misap-
prehensions, occasions further repetitions and waste of time.
The envoy from Baden, Herr von Marschall, is not without
sense and fitness for affairs, but is scrupulously careful to avoid
the responsibility of an independent opinion, and to discover in
the least dubitable matter an intermediate point of view from


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

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

## p. 1953 (#143) ###########################################

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

## p. 1954 (#144) ###########################################

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

## p. 1955 (#145) ###########################################

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

## p. 1956 (#146) ###########################################

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

## p. 1957 (#147) ###########################################

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

## p. 1958 (#148) ###########################################

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

## p. 1959 (#149) ###########################################

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



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

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

## p. 1961 (#151) ###########################################

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

## p. 1962 (#152) ###########################################

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

## p. 1963 (#153) ###########################################

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

## p. 1964 (#154) ###########################################

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

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

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1966
BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON
he has scored the greatest of his recent triumphs. But the world of
'Synnöve' and 'Arne' is now far behind him. The transition from his
earlier to his later manner as a novelist is marked by two or three
stories delicate in conception but uncertain of utterance, and rela-
tively unimportant. These books are 'Magnhild' (1877), 'Kaptejn
Mansana (1879), and 'Stöv' (Dust: 1882). They were, however, sig-
nificant of a new development of the author's genius, for they were
the precursors of two great novels soon thereafter to follow. 'Det
Flager i Byen og paa Havnen' (Flags are Flying in Town and Har-
bor) appeared in 1884, 'Paa Guds Veje' (In God's Way) was published
in 1889.