Chapter 27
(To August Varnhagen von Ense)
"Heavens! where, dear Ludoviso, Did you steal this crazy stuff?" With these words did Cardinal D'Este Ariosto greet
When that poet read his work On Orlando's madness. This He unto His Eminence Humbly sought to dedicate.
Yes, Varnhagen, dear old friend, Yes, I see these very words Tremble on thy lips, that same Faint and devastating smile.
Sometimes o'er a book thou laughest, Then again in earnestness Thy high forehead wrinkles o'er As old memories come to thee.
Hark unto the dreams of youth! Such Chamisso dreamed with me, And Brentano, Fouqué, too, In blue nights beneath the moon.
Comes no sound of saintly chimes From that vanished forest fane, And no tinkling of the gay Unforgotten cap-and-bells?
Through the choir of nightingales Rumbles now the growl of bears, Low and fierce, and changes then To the gibbering of ghosts!
Madness in the guise of sense, Wisdom with a broken spine! Dying sobs which suddenly Into hollow laughter pass!
Aye, my friend, such strains arise From the dream-time that is dead, Though some modern trills may oft Caper through the ancient theme.
Spite of waywardness thou'lt find Here and there a note of pain;-- To thy well-proved mildness now Do I recommend my song!
'Tis, perchance, the final strain Of the pure and free Romance:-- In to-day's wild battle-clash, Miserably it must end.
Other times and other birds! Other birds and other songs! What a chattering as of geese That had saved a capitol!
What a chirping!--sparrows these Penny tapers in their claws, Yet have they assumed the ways Of Jove's eagle with the bolt.
What a cooing! Turtle-doves, Cloyed with love, now long to hate, And thenceforth in place of Venus' They would drag Bellona's car!
What a buzz that shakes the skies!-- These must be the great May-beetles Of the nation's dawning Spring, With a Viking fury seized!
Other times and other birds! Other birds and other songs;-- These, perchance, might yield delight Were I blest with other ears!
NOTES TO "ATTA TROLL"
BY DR. OSCAR LEVY
PREFACE
THE GOD OF SCHELLING. The German philosopher Schelling (1775-1854) was at first a follower of Spinoza, and had published in his youth a pantheistic philosophy which had made him famous. In later life he began to doubt his former beliefs, and promised to the world another and more Christian explanation of God and the universe. The promised book, however, never appeared.
The gap, thus left by Schelling, has since been filled up by a host of more courageous, if less conscientious, investigators.
"SEA-SURROUNDED SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN" OYSTERS. "Schleswig-Holstein Meerumschlungen (sea-surrounded)" was the German Marseillaise after 1846 and again in 1863-64.
ARNOLD RUGE (1802-1880) was the leader of the New Hegelian school, and published certain famous annuals for art and science at Halle. In 1848 he was elected to the Parliament at Frankfort, but was forced to flee to London, where he struck up a fast friendship with Mazzini. In the Revolutionary Committee of London he represented Germany, as Ledru-Rollin represented France and Mazzini Italy.
CHRISTIAN-GERMANIC. One of the favourite phrases and shibboleths of the Romantic School, which may still be heard in the Germany of to-day.
FERDINAND FREILIGRATH (1810-1876). A well-known poet and skilful translator of French and English poets, such as Burns, Byron, Thomas Moore, and Victor Hugo. His own poems betray his dependence upon Hugo. Frederick William IV, King of Prussia, bestowed a pension upon him in 1842. When his friends, however, charged him with having sold himself to the Government, the poet refused the pension. Thereafter he devoted himself more and more to the democratic party and wrote many political poems. In 1848 he went abroad, living in London the greater part of the time. He returned to Germany in 1868, and in 1870 published several patriotic poems which met with great acclaim.
The sudden conversion from international Democracy to Nationalism is easily explained. Modern states have become democratic, and democrats--but they alone--find it easy to feel comfortable and patriotic in such a milieu.