William Richard Morfill

“ Dostoievskiy, Pisemskiy, Turgeniev, Goncharov, Ostrovskiy and Saltikov followed each other to the grave in rapid succession. Leo Tolstoy alone remained, a veritable patriarch, whose views on life gave him a world-interest beyond even the contributions of his great prose fiction. ”

“ It is a great pity that this work has not been translated into English. As yet we have been too content to learn about the Bohemians from people who are interested only in depreciating them, but the valuable work of Count Lützow previously alluded to will no doubt do much to dissipate the prejudices of ignorance. As I have not space on the present occasion to give a complete sketch of Bohemian literature, I am obliged to pass over many other valuable works. ”

“ Gordon was a perfect type of the military adventurer of the seventeenth century, a brave, capable man, full of resources, but ready to transfer his services to the cause which paid the best. Even in the case of Russia he cannot be considered to have shown any devotion to her as an adopted country, for he several times tried to leave the czar's service, and only died in it by accident. His diary contains much valuable material, but its interest is rather Russian than English ”

“ In the second cycle the legends group themselves round the celebrated Prince Vladimir of Kiev. The chief hero is Ilya Muromets, who performs prodigies of valour, and is of gigantic stature and superhuman strength. The cycle of Novgorod deals with the stories of Vasilii Buslaevich and Sadko, the rich merchant. The fourth cycle deals with the autocracy; already Moscow has become the capital of the future empire. We are told of the taking of Kazan, of the conquest of Siberia by Yermak, of Ivan the Terrible and his confidant Maliuta Skurlatovich. ”

“ For his first acquaintance with the literature of his country the future novelist was indebted to a serf of the family, who used to read to him verses from the Rossiad of Kheraskov, a once celebrated poet of the eighteenth century. Turgueniev's early attempts in literature, consisting of poems and trifling sketches, may be passed over here; they were not without indications of genius, and were favourably spoken of by Bielinski, then the leading Russian critic, for whom Turgueniev ever cherished a warm regard. ”

“ The Cossack songs, written in the Little Russian language, dwell upon the glories of the sech, the sufferings of the people from the invasions of the Turks and Mongols, the exploits of the Haidamaks and, lastly, the fall of the Cossack republic. Besides these, the Russians can boast of large collections of religious poems, many of them containing very curious legends. In them we have a complete store of the beliefs of the Middle Ages. A rich field may be found here for the study of comparative mythology and folk-lore. ”

“ Both Kollár and Schafarik were Slovaks, and the writings of Holly, Sladkovič, and Chalupka are perfectly familiar to their Bohemian brethren, although they used the Slovakish dialect.
It is much to be regretted that attempts should have been made to develop it as a literary language; the Slovaks are thereby only playing into the hands of their enemies.
It would be impossible in this Introduction to enumerate more than the most prominent of the Bohemian authors. In the early period we get the so-called Chronicle of Dalimil, which dates from the beginning of the fourteenth century. ”

“ Talhaiarn enjoyed a considerable reputation among his countrymen as a president at their eisteddfodau, but he became most celebrated as a writer of Welsh words to the old Welsh airs. The latter are now more often sung with Talhaiarn's words than with those of any other writer. His lighter lyrical pieces are vigorous and racy, and deserve their popularity. But he took great liberties with the Welsh language, both by the copious introduction of English words and by the use of English syntax. ”

“ Russian writers have not often devoted themselves to the political and social conditions of other countries, but an exception must be made in the case of the books by Professor Vinogradov, formerly of Moscow, notably his Investigations into the Social History of England in the Middle Ages (1887) . The learned author, who was called to Oxford as Corpus professor of jurisprudence, also prepared an edition of this work for the English public. In fiction no new writers appeared of equal calibre to Gogol, Turgeniev, Dostoievskiy and Tolstoy. ”

“ His studies of human nature are profound, and he has the wide sympathies which are essential to genius of the highest order. A melancholy, almost pessimist, feeling pervades his writings, a morbid self-analysis which seems natural to the Slavonic mind. The closing chapter of “A Nest of Nobles” is one of the saddest and at the same time truest pages in the whole range of existing novels.
The writings of Turgueniev have been made familiar to persons unacquainted with Russian by French translations. ”

“ Peacock was a man of rare attainments, and left little by which the world can form a judgment of his powers. According to the ‘Levantine Herald,’ as quoted by the ‘Athenæum,’ he wrote a book on the Caucasus which was not approved by the foreign office, but his widow promised to publish it. It has not yet appeared. Travellers in the Caucasus found a hearty welcome at his house at Batoum. ”

“ It was printed at Pilsen in 1468, and was one of the first books which issued from the Bohemian Press. We now come to the great name of Hus, a man whose life is too well known to need a detailed account. I shall confine myself to his influence upon Bohemian literature. During the latter part of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth the University of Prague was at the height of its splendour. ”

“ Very little of merit has been produced since the great trilogy (1866–69) of Alexis Tolstoy dealing with the reign of Ivan the Terrible—full of picturesque horrors for the dramatist—and the bourgeois comedies of Ostrovskiy.
If we turn to history, in which the Russians have always shown considerable talent, we can cite some really good work. We cannot here find room to discuss the memoirs and other documents which appear in the Russian Antiquary (Russkaya Starina) , the Historical Messenger (Istoricheskiy Viestnik) and other journals, the name of which is legion. ”

“ The accent in Bohemian is always on the first syllable of a word. Prepositions of one syllable take the accent with a substantive, being considered compounded with the word, but the accent has nothing to do with the length of a vowel. Even in words of four and five syllables the accent is on the first, so that in the accentuation of a word of four syllables there is another accent on the penult, as velebený, praised ”

“ GREIG, ALEXIS SAMUILOVICH (1775–1845) , admiral in the Russian service, son of Sir Samuel Greig [q. v.] , was born at Cronstadt on 18 Sept. 1775. As a reward for the services of his father, he was enrolled at his birth as a midshipman in the Russian navy. He first distinguished himself in the war between Russia and Turkey in 1807, at which time he had attained the rank of rear-admiral. After the engagement off Lemnos in that year, in which the Turks suffered a severe defeat, he was sent by Admiral Seniavin in pursuit of some ships which had escaped to the gulf of Monte Santo ”

“ Besides the byliny or legendary poems, the Russians have large collections of skazki or folk-tales, which have been gathered together by Sakharov, Afanasiev and others. They also are full of valuable materials for the study of comparative mythology.
Leaving, the popular and oral literature, we come to what has been committed to writing. The earliest specimen of Earliest written literature. Russian, properly so called, must be considered the Ostromir Codex, written by the diak Gregory at the order of Ostromir, the posadnik or governor of Novgorod. ”

“ Langbaine says 'this play is commended by some for an excellent comedy.' Genest says the humour is 'of the lowest species.' Howard's second comedy, 'The English Mounsieur,' published in 4to in 1674, was first acted at the Theatre Royal 8 Dec. 1666. Nell Gwyn seems to have taken the part of Lady Wealthy, Lacy that of Frenchlove, and Hart of Wellbred. Pepys was present, and described the piece as 'a mighty pretty play, very witty and pleasant: and the women do all very well; but above all, little Nelly.' Pepys saw the comedy again performed on 7 April 1668 (Pepys. Diary, iii. 25, 420) . ”

“ He is more remarkable, however, as a translator than as an original poet. With him Romanticism began in Russia. He became reader to the empress and afterwards tutor to her children. In 1802 he published his version of Gray's Elegy, which at once became a highly popular poem in Russia. Zhukovskiy translated many pieces from the German (Goethe, Schiller, Uhland) and English (Byron, Moore, Southey) . One of his original productions, “The Poet in the Camp of the Russian Warriors,” was on the lips of every one at the time of the War of the Fatherland (Otechestvennaia Voina) in 1812. ”

“ He introduced the writings of Comenius, and his charity to poor scholars was so profuse that it brought him into actual want. In 1644 Milton addressed to him his treatise on education; the pamphlet is full of praise of Hartlib. In the same year he was summoned as a witness on an unimportant point against Laud (Laud, Works, iv. 314) . He published a great number of pamphlets at this time upon education and industrial matters. In 1646 a pension of 100l. a year was conferred upon him by the parliament for his valuable works upon husbandry. ”

“ The consonant h, as Holomuc, used by the common people for Olomuc.
(3) The consonant j, as jíti, to go, originally iti (see Gebauer, i. 570) .
The liquids l and r, between two consonants, have a vocalic sound, as vlk, a wolf, pronounce vŭlk (the u as in but) ; prst, a finger, pronounce pŭrst; krk, the neck, pronounce kŭrk.
Both in English and German this brief e occurs in syllables, and is not pronounced ; cf. silber, silver, with Bohemian brzo, soon ; fackel, a torch, with řekl, he spake ; fächert, with chrt, a greyhound. Cf. ”

“ Among the better known productions of Lazhechnikov are The Heretic and The Palace of Ice. A flashy but now forgotten writer of novels was Thaddeus Bulgarin (1789–1859) author of Ivan Vyshigin, a work which once enjoyed considerable popularity.
The first Russian novelist of great and original talent was Nicholai Gogol (1809–1852) (q.v.) . In his Dead Souls he satirized all classes of society, some of the portraits being wonderfully vivid. Being a native of Little Russia, he describes its scenery and the habits of the people, especially in such stories Gogol. ”

“ Gogol was also the, author of a good comedy, The Reviser, wherein the petty pilfering of Russian municipal authorities are satirized. In his Memoirs of a Madman and Portrait, he shows a weird and fantastic power which proves him to have been a man of strong imagination. The same may be said of The Cloak, and the curious tale Vii (“The Demon”) , where he gives us a picture of Kiev in the old days. ”

“ A daughter was born after his death. There is a portrait of him engraved by his elder son after a drawing by Sharpies, and a tablet to his memory in Bishopstone church bears an inscription in verse composed by Hayley. Hurdis is at best a pale copy of Cowper, a poet who does not furnish a powerful original to an imitator. The blank verse in which most of the poetry of Hurdis is written is flaccid and monotonous. Still, here and there we come upon elegant lines, and the poet shows a feeling for nature. ”

“ Here may be mentioned a Bohemian version of the History of the Trojan War, composed by Guido of Colonna, from Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius, which, to judge from the number of MSS. in existence, must have been very popular. ”

“ Count A. Tolstoy (1817–1875) , also famous as a dramatist; and greater than all these Ivan Turgeniev (1819–1883) , and Count L. Tolstoy (1828–1910) , the last of whom ranks as much more than a man of letters.
In Vissarion Belinski the Russians produced their best critic. For thirteen years (1834–47) he was the Aristarchus of Russian literature and exercised a healthy influence. In his later days he addressed a withering epistle to Gogol on the newly adopted reactionary views of the latter.
Since the time of Karamzin the study of Russian history has made great strides. ”

“ Hartlib was an indefatigable writer, a man of honourable and benevolent character, and highly esteemed by the most illustrious of his contemporaries. His ingenious works, chiefly pamphlets on education and husbandry, illustrate the economic and social condition of his English contemporaries. The abridged titles are: 1.‘Conatuum Comenianorum Præludia ex Bibliotheca S. H. Oxoniæ,’ 1637. 2. ‘Reverendi et Clarissimi Viri Johannis Amos Comenii Pansophiæ Prodromus,’ 1639. 3. ‘A Briefe Relation of that which hath been lately attempted to procure Ecclesiasticall Peace among Protestants,’ 1641, 4to. 4. ”

“ Up to this time the Russians had acted only religious plays, such as those written by Simeon Polotzki. The reign of Catherine II. (1762–96) , herself a voluminous writer, saw the rise of a whole generation of court poets. Everything in Russia was to be forced like plants in a hot-house; she was to have Homers, Pindars, Horaces and Virgils. Michael Kheraskov (1733–1807) wrote besides other poems two Kheraskov. ”

“ In the third declension of feminine nouns in the dative and locative cases of the singular, the mutations of h, ch, k, and r into z, š, c, ř, also take place; thus učiti se uloze, to learn a lesson from uloha ”

“ In moral and mental philosophy the Russians have produced but few authors. We meet with some good mathematicians, Lobachevskiy among others, and in natural science the publications of the Society for Natural History at Moscow have attracted considerable attention.
Recent Literature.—The death of Nekrasov in 1877 deprived Russia of her most eminent poet since the days of Pushkin and Lermontov. During the last generation of the 19th century most of the Titans of her literature departed, and cannot be said to have left successors of equal merit. ”

“ Certainly few foreigners were better acquainted than he with the languages and customs of the mountaineers of the Caucasus, among whom he had established such friendly relations that he was admitted into their most remote fastnesses. ”

“ Mourek, of Prague, from the MS. preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (Kronika Dalimilova podle Rukopisu Cambridgeského. Prague, 1892) . To the fourteenth century also belongs the Alexandreis, which is a free adaptation from the Latin. Jireček assigns it to a period as early as the thirteenth century. ”

“ An excellent Tolkovi Slovar Velikorusskago Yazîka (“Explanatory Dictionary of the Great Russian Language”) was compiled by Vladimir Dahl. Alexander Hilferding published some valuable works on ethnology and philology, among others on the Polabs, an extinct Slavonic tribe who once dwelt on the banks of the Elbe. The Russians have not exhibited many works in the field of classical or other branches of philology. ”

“ His funeral oration was pronounced by Tricoupi, the future historian of the war. Finlay speaks of him as the best foreign officer who embarked in the Greek cause, and declares that he was the only foreigner in whose character and deeds there were the elements of true greatness. ”

“ He first became popular among the Greek sailors by saving the corvette of Tombazes off Cape Baba, to the north of Mitylene, which had accidentally got within range of the Turkish fire. When the naval campaign was concluded, Hastings joined the troops engaged in the siege of Nauplia, and assisted in the defence of the little port of Burdzi, which was held by the Greeks. The town fell into their hands on 12 Dec. 1822. About this time Hastings raised a company of fifty men, whom he armed and equipped at his own expense. ”

“ The scholars who have given their attention to these compositions have made the following division of them into cycles: (1) that of the older heroes; (2) that of Vladimir, prince of Kiev; (3) that of Novgorod; (4) that of Moscow; (5) that of the Cossacks; (6) that of Peter the Great; (7) the Peasant songs. modern period. These poems, if they may be so styled, are not in rhyme; the ear is satisfied with a certain cadence which is observed throughout. For a long time they were neglected, and the collection of them began only towards the conclusion of the 17th century. ”

“ They embrace a great variety of subjects, including scenes from the bible, historical pictures, maps, portraits of his chief contemporaries, views of cities, flower and fruit pieces, and various illustrations to books. His clever sketches of costume, his views of old London and other cities are invaluable to the historian. His engravings are executed with much spirit and carefully finished. They have steadily risen in value. An exhibition of them was held in London in 1875 at the Burlington Fine Arts Club.
The following are Hollar's more characteristic works: 1. ”

“ Apollon Maikov (1821–1847) at one time enjoyed great popularity as a poet; he is a kind of link with Pushkin, of whose elegance of versification he is an imitator. Another poet of a past generation was Prince Viazemskiy (1792–1878) . Graceful lyrics were written by Mei, Fet (whose name would apparently prove Dutch extraction, Veth) , Stcherbina, and, going a little further back, Yazykov, the friend of Pushkin, and Khomiakov, celebrated for his Slavophile propensities. To these may be added Mdlle Zhadovskaya, Benediiktov, Podolinskiy and Tiutchev. ”

“ The family is now extinct in Bohemia, and no clear traces of it are to be found after 1643, but a house still standing in the Neustadt, Prague, is said to have belonged to them. It has undergone considerable alterations. ”

“ During his short life (1799–1837) Alexander Pushkin produced many celebrated poems, which will be found enumerated in the article devoted to him (see Pushkin) . In Alexander Griboyedov (1795–1829) (q.v.) the Russians saw the writer of one of their most clever comedies (Gore ot Uma) , which may perhaps be translated “The Misfortune of being Too Clever” (lit. “Grief out of Wit”) . Ivan Kozlov (1774–1838) was author of some pretty original lyrics, and some translations from the English, among others Burns’s Cottar's Saturday Night. ”

“ After he got into trouble (with Kostomarov and Shevchenko) for his political views, the late works of this author show him to have undergone a complete change. Other writers using the Little Russian language are Marko-Vovchok (that is, Madame Eugenia Markovich) and Yuri Fedkovich, who employs a dialect of Bukovina. Fedkovich, like Shevchenko, sprang from a peasant family, and served as a soldier in the Austrian army against the French during the Italian campaign. Naturally we find his poems filled with descriptions of life in the camp. ”

“ During the latter years of his life he suffered a great deal from gout and an internal disease. In 1869, finding that his ailments were incurable, he made an attempt upon his life, from the effects of which he died on 13 Oct. ”

“ From the commencement of the reign of Elizabeth Russian literature made great progress, the French furnishing models. Alexander Sumarokov (1718–1777) wrote prose and verse in abundance—comedies, tragedies, idyls, satires and epigrams. He is, perhaps, best entitled to remembrance Sumarokov.
Kniazhnin. for his plays, which are rhymed, and in the French style. His Dmitri Samozvanets (“Demetrius the Pretender”) is certainly not without merit. Some of the pieces of Kniazhnin had great success in their time, such as The Chatterbox, The Originals and especially The Fatal Carriage. ”

“ Paul's,’ and Stapleton's ‘Juvenal.’ About 1654 he was employed in the house of Faithorne the engraver, and also by Stent and Overton the printsellers, who, according to Vertue, gave him very small pay, it seems about fourpence an hour ‘at his usual method by the hour-glass.’ Vertue tells us that he had it on the best authority that for the view of Greenwich, a large engraving in two plates, Hollar received from Stent only thirty shillings. The hour-glass by which the artist worked is constantly represented in his portraits. ”