Oldalképek
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

and such curios as "The Bubble Ghost | scribing adventures supposed to be reand his Son," a "Throw for a Throne," ferred to in the " Tempest; an early maintaining that Shakespeare's words jest-book possibly used by Shakespeare; show Claudius to have been innocent of a collection of the plays and romances murder. from which he may have drawn, entitled 66 Macbeth," too, has its numerous for- " Shakespeare's Library ;" and a rare book eign translations, its operas and travesties, known as "Beware the Cat," published in its studies of the original source in Holins- 1570. Then there is quite a list of books hed's chronicles, and its ingenious com- and articles on his art and work, his prementators. There was a Russian edition decessors, contemporaries, and succesas early as 1837, one published at "Der- sors. We have his "mental photographs," venter in 1845, another at Posen in 1857, his "garden of girls," his "England," his and one at "Jassi" in 1864. Madrid had "Altenengland," his "morality," his "relian edition in 1818, and Stockholm in gion," his self-knowledge, his genius, his 1838. "Romeo and Juliet," is popular, humor, his folk-lore, and so on. We but not nearly so much so as might have have " Shakespeare's Heroines," the very been expected. "Othello," "King Lear," "Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines; " the "Merchant of Venice," the "Merry we have the "Learning of Shakespeare," Wives of Windsor," the "Midsummer the "Law in Shakespeare,' 99.66 Shakespeare Night's Dream," the "Tempest," are all and the Bible," "Shakespeare and Shortfairly well represented in translation; so hand," essays on the varieties of mania is "Julius Cæsar," but none so well as exhibited in some of his characters, the "Hamlet" and "Macbeth,' or even as "Animal Lore of Shakespeare's Time," "Romeo and Juliet." There was a trans- the "ornithology" of Shakespeare, the lation of the "Merry Wives" at Wilno in "Natural History of the Insects mentioned 1842, a Bulgarian one of " Cæsar "in 1879, in his Plays" (a gruesome subject), “Unand a Greek one of "Lear" in 1870. The der the Stars," or his work in the light of English historical plays, as might be sup- astronomy, the "Flowers of Shakespeare." posed, are not well represented by trans- Many have puzzled over the question of lations, if we except "King Richard III." his calling as demonstrated by his writA translation of "King Henry VI." ap- ings, and hence we have such books as peared at "Bánfalván" in 1862. There"Was Shakespeare ever a Soldier? are very few of "Measure for Measure,' "Was Shakespeare a Lawyer? "Shakeand still fewer of "Love's Labor Lost." speare as a Physician," "Shakespeare as Of "Pericles" there is, of course, a Ger- an Angler," as though a man following man translation (1838), for the Germans one craft, especially literature or acting, appear to excel all other nations in trans- could not learn something of another. lating, especially in the case of Shake- Then we have such works as "Shakespeare. Under the head of "Pericles," speare and his Times," the "Rural Life of too, there is an Anglo-Saxon version of Shakespeare," Shakespeare in Germany, in the story of Apollonius of Tyre, on which America, "in Griechenland," and "West the play is founded. Indian Illustrations." Of course, there are "Tales" and "Stories" from Shakespeare, and equally of course, the irrepressible apologist with his "Shakespeare not an Impostor."

[ocr errors]

The doubtful plays of Shakespeare also claim a considerable space in the catalogue, and have been translated, at least by the Germans, and republished by the Americans. Such are "The Two Noble Kinsmen," "The London Prodigal," "Thomas Lord Cromwell," "Sir John Oldcastle," "The Puritan," "Locrine," "The Yorkshire Tragedy," "The Fifth of November," and so on. Of the sonnets, there are a variety of translations and a large number of "Selections."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Comparisons are another ordeal which the great writer has to bear, and hence we have Shakespeare and Dante, Marlowe, Bacon, Molière, Goethe, Voltaire, Scott, Chateaubriand, and so on. We have his errors pointed out, his obscure passages expounded, his obsolete words, the pronunciation of English in his day, and one The miscellaneous literature of Shake- gentleman has investigated the position speare is very voluminous. With regard of the English adjective in his language. to the sources of his plays there are, in Some person discovers that he wrote baladdition to some mentioned above, trea- lads on the Spanish Armada; another tises on the lives of Plutarch and the exposes the forgeries at Bridgewater passages of Aristotle and others which House; a third pens an imaginary conver illustrate his writings, together with Rich's sation between him and the Earl of Southtract "News from Virginia" (1610), de-ampton; a fourth treats of his "curse;"

a fifth supposes his ghost to address the | British army in the '45 to the tune of "Britons, Strike Home;" and a sixth ingeniously fabricates a series of double acrostics from his plays.

indeed, the other great poets. Thus we have the "Influence of his Poems on the Greek Nation," "Tales from Homer," the origin and growth of the poems, the “True Nature and Design of the Iliad," "Ulysses as delineated by Homer," "Homeric Flora "and Mineralogy," ""The Sense of Color in Homer," the topography of Troy, the age of Homer, the original genius of Homer, his post-epic or imitative words, an "Apology for Homer," Homer and Virgil, Homer and Dante, Homer and Goethe, "Homeric Doubts," the "Pretended Tomb of Homer," and so forth.

The doubters are also in their place, some asking "Who wrote Shakespeare? or "Was Shakespeare Snapleigh?" and others, more bold, discoursing on the Shakesperean Myth," or the "Great Cryptogram."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

His birth, life, and death is another fruitful source of literature. We have books on his pedigree, his coat-of-arms, his birthplace, school, and home, the rogues and vagabonds" of his youth. Shaxpere or Shakespeare? Was A ap Roberts that butcher's son of Stratfordupon-Avon who is recorded by Aubrey as having been an acquaintance of Shakespeare in the early days of the great poet? And was Shakespeare an apprentice to G ap Roberts?" We have fac-similes of his indentures, his coat-of-arms, his will, the traditional history of his crab-tree, the "actors of his time," and descriptions of his house; his last days, his grave, his death-mask, busts and portraits, his monuments and centennial celebrations, with odes and lines commemorative of his genius. Lastly, we have an account of how his skull was stolen and found, and of an interview between his ghost and David Garrick.

We may liken Shakespeare to one of those prodigious trees, the giants of the tropical forest, rearing its lofty crown high over its fellows, and spreading wide its enormous branches, encumbered with an airy wilderness of creepers, parasites, and winged tenants, some of which tend to support and beautify their foster-parent, and others only harboring in its shade to blight and strangle, or to ravage and destroy.

Dante has a fraction of one volume to his share, but the entries being all in close type, it does not compare well with the written and printed lists of Shakespeare and Homer. There are many translations of the "Divina Commedia," including one in the Catalan tongue, printed at Barcelona, one in modern Greek, and another in Hebrew; but apparently not so many as in the case of "Hamlet" and the Iliad.

Molière has about half a volume, written and printed. His plays have been translated into most of the European languages; but there are comparatively few comments upon them in the catalogue. Some of the English adaptations have rather curious titles; for example, "The Irish Doctor, or the Dumb Lady Cured," from "Le Médecin malgré lui." Charles Reade, we know, translated the "Malade Imaginaire" into "The Robust Invalid."

Corneille has a good many pages and a variety of translations. Goethe has about half a volume, printed, including translations and a miscellaneous literature which reminds us of Shakespeare. "Faust" is the leading work, and has been translated into most European tongues, including Servian, Greek, Ruthenian, Hungarian, and Hebrew, with selections in Romaic. Tales, operas, legends, and parodies, in English, French, and Italian have sprung from "Faust," and a flourishing literature of comment.

Schiller, a voluminous writer, has two volumes, but not yet printed, as in the case of Goethe. There are not so many translations of any of his plays as there are of "Faust; " but the "Song of the Bell appears to be popular; and " Don Carlos has appeared in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Hungarian.

[ocr errors]

Homer has two volumes of the catalogue to himself, and has apparently been translated into a greater diversity of languages than Shakespeare. There is, for instance, an edition of the Iliad in Gaelic, of 1813, and Books 1 to 8 in the Irish Ogamic character, dating from 1844. A Romaic edition dates as early as 1640; and there is one published at Liptzk in 1504. Of the Odyssey there is a French edition dated "Lutetiæ, 1566," and another "Parisus, 1582." An Erse transla tion was brought out in 1866; but the Milton, like Schiller, has two volumes Iliad appears to be the more widely ap- of the catalogue, chiefly written. preciated of the two. The comments" Paradise Lost" has appeared in the upon Homer run in much the same principal European languages; and there grooves as those upon Shakespeare and, is a Welsh translation of 1865, and a Manx

The

66

Evangeline" is a favorite work, which, besides its many European editions, has been published in Portuguese at Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, in German at Milwaukee, and French at Quebec; while "Hiawatha" has found its way into Russian and Dutch, amongst other tongues. Victor Hugo, however, is more polyglot still, and occupies fifty pages of the catalogue. Scott, as poet and novelist, has two volumes to himself, and has appeared in most of the European languages.

one, dated Douglas, 1796. Milton does | space, and a greater variety of translations. not seem to invite many commentators; but the comparison between him and the Dutch Vondel is worthy of note. Chaucer has twelve printed columns of the catalogue, and Spenser some forty written pages. Byron has twenty-seven closely printed columns and more; their wellthumbed condition attesting the poet's popularity. Indeed, the dirtiness of the pages is the best indication of an author's fame; and in looking at the edges of the catalogue one can generally tell whether a volume contains a popular writer. Selections from Byron have appeared in most of the European tongues, including Polish, Bohemian, Dutch, Icelandic, and Roumanian.

[ocr errors]

Dickens has twenty printed columns, well thumbed, and a great variety of translators, including Hungarian, Dutch, Ruthenian, and others. Thackeray has thirtytwo written pages, and some scattered Burns, in spite of his rustic dialect, has German, French, Italian, and Danish thirteen closely printed columns, well translations; but "Vanity Fair ” in Spanthumbed, like Byron's; with several Ger-ish has appeared in Mexico (Las Feria man and French translations, and a Swed- de las Vanidadas), and there is a Schieish, published at Helsingfors. dam edition of the "Virginians.' BulwerLytton has fourteen printed columns and many European translations of novels or plays, including certain in Greek and Hungarian; in France he appears to be particularly popular, perhaps because of his official connection with the country. George Eliot has three printed columns, and a translation or two in German, French, and Italian. "Silas Marner," too, appears as "A Raveloei Takacs" at Buda-Pesth. Charles Kingsley has only some twentyfour written pages, and but one transla[tion, namely the "Heroes," in Greek.

Shelley has some forty written pages well thumbed, but few or no translators. Tom Moore, on the contrary, is well translated, especially "Lalla Rookh," one published at Jönköping. Wordsworth, though occupying five well-thumbed pages, is apparently innocent of foreign translation, if we may judge from the catalogue. Tennyson has fifty written pages, and some of his poems, notably the "Idylls," have appeared in the leading European languages, including Hungarian, Spanish, Dutch, and Danish. Longfellow has nearly as much

THE first discovery of remains of cave- spot where the fireplace had been, a grave dwellers in Scandinavia has been made in a metres in length, 2 metres in width, and cave in the Great Carl's Island, in the Baltic, 32 metres in depth. There are alternate a couple of miles west of the Island of Goth-layers of ashes and charcoal, interspersed with land. Last year a farmer, while digging for remains of the animals named above. The mould for a plantation, discovered in a cave bones of "domestic" animals decrease in or grotto layers of ashes and charcoal mixed quantity downwards, whilst those of seals inwith bones. The latter, having been for- crease. The explorer found, at a depth of warded to the Royal Museum at Stockholm, 24 decimetres, fragments of coarse pottery of were found to be the bones of horses, bul-a primitive kind and some chips of flint; at a locks, pigs, birds, and fishes. In consequence of this discovery, Professor G. Lindström commissioned Dr. L. Kolmodin to carry out excavations in this cave in a scientific manner; and the result is that indubitable remains of cave-dwellers have been found. The cave is situated about 20 metres above the sealevel, and consists of two parts, an outer one, about 12 metres long and 7 metres wide at the mouth, and an inner one, about 9 metres long and 1 metres wide; the latter leading into a transverse gallery running south-west and north-east. Dr. Kolmodin began by excavating the layers at the mouth of the cave, and here he encountered, almost in the exact

depth of 28 decimetres an implement of flint; and in the lowest layer, at 32 decimetres depth, two small drills of bone. Several of the fragments of pottery found below a depth of 24 decimetres bore traces of simple ornamentation. Everywhere in the layers were found bits of granite and chalk, clearly showing that they had been split by fire. Most of the bones had been split or crushed, and the marrow extracted. Among the remains was part of a human cranium. It may be added that the island on which the discovery was made is only a couple of hundred acres in extent, and uninhabited.

Nature.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage

Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co.

Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents.

[blocks in formation]

III.

When Summer, lingering half-forlorn,
On Autumn loves to lean,
And fields of slowly yellowing corn
Are girt by woods still green;
When hazel-nuts wax brown and plump,
And apples rosy-red,

And the owlet hoots from hollow stump,
And the dormouse makes its bed;
When crammed are all the granary floors,
And the hunter's moon is bright,
And life again is sweet indoors,
And logs again alight;

Ay, even when the houseless wind
Waileth through cleft and chink,
And in the twilight maids grow kind,
And jugs are filled and clink;

When children clasp their hands and pray,
"Be done Thy heavenly will! "
Who doth not lift his voice, and say,

"Life is worth living still?"

IS LIFE WORTH LIVING?

BY ALFRED AUSTIN.

I.

Is life worth living? Yes, so long
As Spring revives the year,
And hails us with the cuckoo's song,
To show that she is here;
So long as May of April takes

In smiles and tears farewell,
And windflowers dapple all the brakes,
And primroses the dell;
And children in the woodlands yet
Adorn their little laps
With ladysmock and violet,

And daisy-chain their caps; While over orchard daffodils

Cloud-shadows float and fleet, And ouzel pipes and laverock trills, And young lambs buck and bleat; So long as that which bursts the bud, And swells and tunes the rill, Makes springtime in the maiden's blood, Life is worth living still.

II.

Life not worth living! Come with me,
Now that, through vanishing veil,
Shimmers the dew on lawn and lea,

And milk foams in the pail;

Now that June's sweltering sunlight bathes
With sweat the striplings lithe,

As fall the long straight scented swathes
Over the rhythmic scythe;

Now that the throstle never stops
His self-sufficing strain,

And woodbine-trails festoon the copse,
And eglantine the lane;
Now rustic labor seems as sweet

As leisure, and blithe herds
Wend homeward with unweary feet,
Carolling like the birds;
Now all, except the lover's vow,
And nightingale, is still;
Here, in the starlit hour, allow,

Life is worth living still.

IV.

Is life worth living? Yes, so long
As there is wrong to right,
Wail of the weak against the strong,
Or tyranny to fight;

Long as there lingers gloom to chase,
Or streaming tear to dry,

One kindred woe, one sorrowing face
That smiles as we draw nigh;
Long as at tale of anguish swells

The heart, and lids grow wet,
And at the sound of Christmas bells
We pardon and forget;

So long as Faith with Freedom reigns,
And loyal Hope survives,

And gracious Charity remains
To leaven lowly lives;

While there is one untrodden tract
For Intellect or Will,

And men are free to think and act,
Life is worth living still.

V.

Not care to live while English homes
Nestle in English trees,

And England's Trident-Sceptre roams
Her territorial seas!

Not live while English songs are sung
Wherever blows the wind,

And England's laws and England's tongue
Enfranchise half mankind!

So long as in Pacific main,
Or on Atlantic strand,

Our kin transmit the parent strain,
And love the Mother-land;
So long as in this ocean realm,

Victoria and her line

Retain the heritage of the helm,

By royalty divine;

So long as flashes English steel,
And English trumpets shrill,

He is dead already who doth not feel
Life is worth living still.

English Illustrated Magazine.

« ElőzőTovább »