” He then states,” One evening, a few weeks after his brother’s death, as Lefevre was sitting with Douglas, busy in the pursuits of literature, Wallis came in, exclaiming with an air of victory, Well, Charles, what say you to Methodism now ? There’s Mr. L. and your favorite Mr. F. have been playing off ” nicely, haven’t they?” I notice this passage, most solemnly to aver that it is a fiction altogether. In fact, there is no one to answer to the character of Wallis, as I shall satisfactorily prove; and if there is, let Mr. Reed give the key. The initials to these letters, are very artfully contrived, to give scope to animadversion among the young of his flock, to the neglect of more suitable or rational employment, by which they find pleasure and amusement in scanda Digitized by Google j lous, if not criminal remarks, upon persons of the greatest worth and respectability, and whose feelings and conduct deserve the highest praise. As to the reflections of my friend on the defects and characters of popular preachers, nothing ever transpired to ground the remarks of this writer, or give auy existence to these conversations ; they are purely ideal, the vagrant effusions of his distempered imagination. But had any of my friends made observations on any popular preachers who had “dishonoured religion,” it would not have been on such men as Mr. F. or Mr. L. but on such men as the Rev. Mr. C. and the Rev. Dr. D. who were u popular preachers,” and who had not only “woefully dishonoured religion,” but disgraced human nature by their conduct. These, however he has not only passed over in tenderness and mercy, but has absolutely recommended me to go and hear the preaching of the latter, as may be seen in his letter to me, Memoirs, vol. u p. . But the whole of Mr. Reed’s remarks from this page to the end of the chapter is a complete fabrication. He never was in company ten minutes with any friend of mine in London in his life, until I was appointed to the Orphan Asylum, in . The dialogue is replete with internal evidence, sufficient to destroy its au Digitized by Google j thenticity. My friends, by their education awl knowledge of the world, have acquired enough polish, to preterit them from committing such an offence to good manners, especially in the instance given.
Archive for October, 2011
The dialogue is replete with internal evidence.
Sunday, October 30th, 2011Where his regard for the safety of the rising generation ?
Friday, October 28th, 2011We say to the introduction of this charge i Will the reader conceive it possible, that Mr. Reed, for the edification and improvement of the rising generation, could introduce a crime of the most indelicate and destructive nature, to give colouring and effect tp the tale!a crime which oughtnot to be named, but with just indignation, and merited abhorrence, and which is seldom mentioned, except by the daring profligate and openly profane! And that the commitment of the said crime is charged upon afriend, upon whom he lavishes the most singular expressions of affection, at the very moment of commitment; and for the commission of which he has not a tittle of evidence to produce: at one time acknowledging he was mistaken, and at another, asserting that he had reason to think it true; yet dwelling upon it as a favourite topic, as the very climax of his admiration ! All this is done for the gratification of a mysterious purpose, an object which the reader cannot discover, and which Mr. Reed dare not attempt to reveal. Let the reader review with caution the pages which embellish and detail the charge or crime; and observe the cool, the flippant manner in which f Digitized by Google it is introduced and finally discussed ; and tbeii let him ask, for he will ask in vain, Where is the piety of the writer ?where the purity of his religion?where his regard for the safety of the rising generation ? To give him fair play, I will go on from the time we returned from KnaresJjorough and greeted each other in London; and pass over this ” period of nearly two years,” and begiu together, according to his own desire, which of course he cannot deny, as he states, ” about the close of this period circumstances arose, which materially interrupted our intercourse,” p. , ‘ and says, ” Duty called Mr. Douglas from the capital; and as in future, he will pass many months of each year in distant parts of the three kingdoms, he must be regarded rather as its visitor than its residentand in p. , he makes Douglas take his departure, accompanied by Lefevre; so that granting him, what he claims, the dropping these nearly two years, his narrative commences again about August, , as it was in September, , we greeted each other in London.
The poetry, which we sought among the French, the English, the Greeks, and all nations, it is in the midst of us.
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011When the sentimental novels began to become frivolous, even the frivolous ones became sentimental. Werter, however, has exercised an evil influence in another way. Intelligent, educated, and moral youths have been seduced by it to that selfgallantry which is completely opposed to a mas Digitized by POETRY.SENTIMENTALITY. culine disposition; therefore, though the work became fashionable, it must be looked upon as a national calamity. A Narcissus, who sees a mirror in everything he takes into his hand, in every object upon which he looks, and who, when practising this ogling, must either become womanish or perish, is a bad example to place before our German youth. The egotism of noble minds, who desire to be loved and worshipped for their own sake, without having deserved aught of the world or of their country, is the most dangerous disease which can attack the German youth. The socalled Werterfever, has, it is true, given but few the deathstroke ; but many others who have been infected by it, have found it the more easy to disseminate the infection,the courtesy of the heart, the desire to become better, the unhappiness, the sickness produced by the prose of the world, the eternal assumption of right by highbred men, and the neglect of every manly duty, the exposing of the pettiest personal vanity, and the contempt of their country, which would undoubtedly perish were such fops to get their own way. It is well known that Napoleon carried Werter about with him, as the favourite novel of the Germans; and in his opinion, not the German nation, it is true, but the generation with which he had to do, judged very correctly. The constitution of the empire afforded but few safeguards ; yet the politics of external nations would never have been able to have bent us to the French yoke, had not our spirit become paralyzed, had not Herr von Goethe taught our youth, by Digitized by Google GERMAN LITERATURE. in contempt of the nobles, to boast that his Philistinelike love of domestic life was the essence of all poetry. This was enough to raise a rebellion in the whole Philistine world. Every one now cried out,Home, sweet home, family, grandpapa, nightcap, dear mother, greenroom, we have found it! The poetry, which we sought among the French, the English, the Greeks, and all nations, it is in the midst of us.
The fruitful novelist Belani also errs in this way.
Monday, October 24th, 2011The Jesuit; MossRoses : The Natural Son; c.,c.,c. Stiftsf dhig. One who was eligible to the office of the eanon of a chapterwith sixteen quarters on his shield. POETRY.NEW ANGLOMANIA. they wish to see polished like those of Van der Werf, and they cannot pardon a man for having dust upon his shoes, even though he had travelled from the far distant land of romanticism. The reading public, on the contrary, however fond they may be of Spindler’s works, cannot pay homage to his true charms; they, therefore, are more pleased with the faulty portions than with the tender traits of true poetry, which smile upon us out of his works, strange and wonderful as the countenance of an angel out of the noise and throng of a foolish feast, or out of the dark obscurity of a murder hole. In what kind of the historical novel do we find this unassuming charm of an unconscious beauty, amidst descriptions which do not lead us to expect its presence ? I am acquainted with many classical, philosophical, and polished novels, especially English ones, but in none of them do I find this savage yet beautiful splendour of single descriptions, and this sweet foreign charm of little traits, which gain the heart. Never, it is plain, never will the moving figure, whose look sometimes chains so wonderfully, step forth from the picture; it soon vanishes behind variegated and, as it were, noisy pictures, which awaken no melancholy within us. But is not this the truest charm of poetry ? I should value Spindler less if he made more use of his gift, if he described beauties which he only hints at. Bechstein bears a great resemblance to Spindler in poetical warmth; but this amiable poet is also distinguished as a lyric poet by the magic euphony of his verses, and by the noblest feelings, as, for t Digitized by Google GERMAN LITERATURE. example, in his poem Luther. Like Van der Velde, he chooses popular legends as the subjects of his novels, and series of romantic ballads. Storcb is as rich in figures as Spindler, but there are in him vulgarities which are never seemly. The fruitful novelist Belani also errs in this way. While these authors incline to romantic extravagancies, others have paid particular attention to the truth of history and fidelity of costume. Of this kind is Tromlitz. The majority of his novels have their scenes laid during the era of the Reformation.
The Hohenstauffen, vols., dramatized lives of all the members of the House.
Friday, October 21st, 2011The tragic stage is become a masquerade, so that there is more need of the exertions of a stagemanager, who will, for the sake of the wardrobe, travel like an enthusiast through the world for the purpose of everywhere taking costumes, and views from nature, in order to picture them as truly as possible upon the stage; of an antiquary, who can, from engravings and sketches, prove the correctness of a costume of the middle ages; or, of the exertions of a tailor, than of those of the poet. Since Schiller, no tragic poet has been so successful on the stage as Raupach; and, since Kot Ernst Benjamin Salomon Raupach, born at Straupitz, in Digitized by THE MIXTURE OF ALL TASTES. zebue, none has written so many plays. At present he produces about a dozen every year. He, doubtless, possesses a great acquaintance with the stage, a graceful manner of treating his subject, and an acute perception of what will be effective ; to attain this last, however, he is always ready to sacrifice poetical truth and dignity. His failing is, that he writes only pieces for effect; yet is always attempting to write plays of character. His comedies are better than his tragedies, because the comic is better suited for this hunting after effect. Yet even here he uses too many means to produce a less effect than he might with more economy produce. His struggle to be effective is everywhere visible. There is a designedness, which is almost offensive, in all his works. Nowhere do we see any naivete of genius, any traces of that divine negligence, without which no poem can please us; because a work of art must be exactly like a work of nature, if it be intended to have a proper effect upon us. In addition to all this he borrows his effects, so that it is impossible to find in him, as in other great tragic poets, a spark of originality. In tragedy, he employs sometimes the solemn declamatory style of Schiller, sometimes the humorous luxuriance of similes which characterizes Sliakspere; at one time the stiff and cold formality of Silesia, May st, : dramas,Raffaelle; Robert the Devil; Genoveva; The Hohenstauffen, vols., dramatized lives of all the members of the House; c. Comedies, The Hostile Brothers, c.; School of Life. Digitized by Google POETRY.SENTIMENTALITY. to defend modern customs, to become enthusiastic for them, and to nourish effeminacy in the most comfortable way, both in life and poetry.
Nicht ungeriicht sterb eurer W’alder Sohn Zum Zeitvertreib des Volks der sieben Hiigel!
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011One of his noblest poems is that wrathful one, composed after seeing the Dying Gladiator, the celebrated statue in the Capitol at Rome. Who art thou, Fighter ? that so nobly diest, And with each posture thy lithe limbs command, For the weak Roman’s gold thy labour pliest, Where, with thy blood, life streams upon the sand ? How every eye with tears of joy is winking, As thy bowed head is slowly, beautifully sinking! O shame of slavery ! to mankind a stain! Barbarians, up! on the storm’s pinions come ! Not unavenged your woods’ wild son is slain, A pastime for the folk of sevenhill’d Rome ! See, he expires! Hear, from each quarter flying, The cruel shout of joy that for revenge is crying! As these lines must, of course, remind every one of Byron’s Dying Gladiator, from which the idea, and even many of the expressions are borrowed, I subjoin the original, to show the Digitized by Google PATRIOTIC AND POLITICAL POETRY. So must every German feel when looking at this statue. Friedrich August von Stagemann®, whose classic measure was not very well calculated to gain great popularity, is also distinguished among the patriotic poets. This poet looked upon the struggle for liberty, which was carried on by the Germans against Napoleon, only as a Prussian and an aristocrat ; he directed, therefore, the cannons of his fiery zeal against that national convulsion, which, perhaps, manifested some dissatisfaction with the state into which affairs had gradually come. In fine, he sung against the poor Poles, a course of conduct, which, in comparison with the proud German scholar that the resemblance is not in the translation merely; indeed the translator has avoided the phrases of Byron as far as he possibly could. I do not know in what year they were published, but they are either copied from Byron, or Byron copied from them: Wer bist du, Fechter der so zierlich stirbt, Der mit der Glieder Stellung und Geberde Um weicher Romer schnodes Gold noch wirbt, Da mit dem Blut das Leben stromt zur Erde ? Wie lustberauscht jetzt aller Augen blinken Bei deines Haupts schon abgestuftem Sinken I O Schmach der Knechtschaft, zu der Menscheit Hohn! Barbaren, auf eilt mit des Sturmes Fliigel! Nicht ungeriicht sterb eurer W’alder Sohn Zum Zeitvertreib des Volks der sieben Hiigel!
Every one who knows Schiller is told by his feelings more than can be here told him.
Sunday, October 16th, 2011From its softest charmfrom the first mutual glancefrom the first gentle beating of the heart, to the tempest of feeling, which shakes the whole heart,to the awestriking heroic deed of virgin valourto the sublime sacrifice of two loving souls, love here unfolds before us the boundless richness of its beauty, like a holy music, which rises gradually from the softest tones to the full tempest of pealing chords. The glow of an enthusiastic heart in Schiller communicates its influence to everything that can benefit humanity; and here his genius is armed with the flaming sword of heaven: here is began the strife between that warlike angel and the spirits of the deep. Schiller’s pure soul could suffer no unrighteousness ; he therefore stept forth panoplied into the lists to fight for eternal right. Like an inspired prophet he announces the holy doctrine of that blessing which dwells in right, and of that curse which inevitably follows wrong. The truth of his piercing judgment is never clouded by the glow of sensibility, or by the blinding garniture of his language; on the contrary, they only give it a more striking and glorious prominence. Freedom, which is inseparable from right, was GERMAN LITERATURE. the dearest jewel of his heart. But that unbridled freedom which proceeds from and tends to injustice, is one of the demoniac powers against which his genius wages a deadly war. We possess no poet who has represented right and freedom with such a fiery zeal, with such a noble adornment of poetry ; neither have we any who knew so well how to shun both extremes, tempering his enthusiasm with moderation, and marching onward in the triumphal path of truth. His genius belongs to mankind. The rights of man were never advocated on higher and nobler principles than by his Marquis Posa. The Maid of Orleans steps into the lists to protect the rights of the people ; Wilhelm Tell maintains the rights of the individual. And in all his other heroes we see right and freedom waging an interminable war with arbitrary power and violence, so that Schiller is as much the poet of liberty as of love. This may suffice, in so far as a few leading ideas can, to give us some general notion of the spirit of Schiller’s poetry. Every one who knows Schiller is told by his feelings more than can be here told him. And these feelings will never be lost,coming generations and distant lands will participate in them; and to them it will.
Lu Xun took a lessthansanguine view of the actual capacity of satirical literature to effect change.
Thursday, October 13th, 2011But even literature that clearly did concern itself with matters of importance to the national political agenda was liable to being attacked for the mode in which its author chose to treat the subject. Satire in particular was viewed with suspicion. A fullblown debate on satire erupted following the discovery in that a translation of Zhang Tianyi’s short story “Hua Wei xiansheng” Mr. Hua Wei, which pointedly satirized the ineffectual wartime bureaucracy, had been used by the Japanese in the course of a propaganda campaign. Lin Lin tttt, for example, argued that such works, however true a picture of social ills they painted, were detrimental to the national morale; at the very least, they should not be disseminated abroad or to Hong Kong, where they might fall into unfriendly hands. The critical, pessimistic nature of satire had in fact been noticed years earlier, during the Revolutionary Literature debate, in connection with Lu Xun’s satirical stories. The essayist Lin Yutang had also broached the subject in the early s, when he declared his preference for a rational, humanistic humor youmo over an embittered, restrictive satire. Lin’s suggestion that authors adopt a tone of amused detachment had infuriated Lu Xun, who in wrote two short essays in which he defended the satirist as possessed of both the “good intentions” and the “warm feelings” of wanting to change the world. Moreover, he wrote, satire served the purpose of calling attention to “irrational, ridiculous, disgusting, or even detestable” truths that are commonplace but frequently passed over. Typically, however, Lu Xun took a lessthansanguine view of the actual capacity of satirical literature to effect change: “By the time a satirist . Lan Hai discusses the satire debate in Zhongguo kangzhan wenyi shiy pp. . . In this connection see, for example, the defense of Lu Xun’s satire written by Cheng Wenying “Fengci wenxue yu shehui gaige” «J £ f jft Satirical literature and social reform, Mengya yuekan , no. May : . . See Lin Yutang “Lun youmo” On humor, Parts , Lunyu, gwfg The analects, no. : ; i Copyrighted material May Fourth Theories of Realism appears in a group, that group is already doomed; certainly writing cannot save it.” Many of Lu Xun’s arguments though not his cynical afterthought were repeated by critics and authors who spoke in defense of “Mr. Hua Wei.”
No other term has had such a decisive influence on modern Chinese criticism and fiction.
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011“Lun xiaoshuo yu gailiang shehui zhi guanxi” jjrj; On the relationship of fiction to social reform, in Zhongguo jindai wenlun xuan :, here p. . . Di Chuqing JgJJgfl Di Pingzi pseud., “Lun wenxue shang xiaoshuo Copyrighted material i Introduction paign of terror against the left wing of the alliance. The period that produced the new literature was thus a frankly traumatic one, during which repeated shocks and dislocations were visited on individuals and on the nation at large. Although in retrospect both faces of the Chinese revolutionpolitical and literaryhave taken on an aura of inevitability, it is worth remembering that the militancy of those days was bred in the frustration of repeated historical reversals. Of course, modern Chinese literature did more than just mirror the chaotic condition of its age, for it had been burdened from birth with an enormous responsibility. Chinese intellectuals resolved to remake their literary culture only after their efforts at political reform had failed, and they did so with a specific purpose in mind. They reasoned that literature could reach a deeper level of cultural response than political manipulation had succeeded in doing; a new literature, by altering the very worldview of its readers, would, they hoped, pave the way for a complete transformation of Chinese society. Increasingly challenged by the West, they scanned Europe’s diverse cultural weave for the strand that held the secret of its “wealth and power”; in their haste they eagerly seized on the isms by which Westerners categorized their own tradition. These offered a necessary grid through which to view the vast quantity of new ideas and new information that suddenly became available when the doors to the West were opened. May Fourth intellectuals did not have the luxury to slowly explore the philosophical and social ramifications of each system of thought or artistic genre they encountered. A sense of national crisis mandated their borrowing, and they approached their task with a keen sense of urgency, believing that China’s future rested on the models they chose. Of the terms that Lu Xun mockingly defines in the passage quoted above, realism came to carry the profoundest burden of hope for cultural transformation. And realism generated the largest body of literature in the years that followed, a corpus that has since been recognized as the crowning achievement of twentiethcentury Chinese literature both by Chinese critics and by such scholars in the West as Jaroslev Prusek and C. T. Hsia. No other term has had such a decisive influence on modern Chinese criticism and fiction.
In retrospect, of course, her revolutionary persona is itself revealed as purely theatrical.
Sunday, October 9th, 2011“How is it that I, Jiuye, should have given you a dollar? What kind of debt have I contracted? Tell me in front of everyone here, and I’ll immediately give you another dollar in exchange” . That he has violated her is an open secret, but he knows that any public appeal for justice on her part would, in the eyes of the world, be tantamount to admitting she had prostituted herself. Fa Xin Sao clearly finds the enforced dramatization of her humiliation more agonizing than the rape itself. In “Revenge” and “Smile” power is asserted nakedly, that is, without accompanying moral rationale. In both cases sex is not in itself the motivation for the male’s violence but rather the means by which he avenges his bruised ego and asserts his authority. This authority arises, however, not just from his financial clout or physical strength but also from the sexual double standard; it is thus supported by the whole weight of a social order that sanctions, indeed mandates, certain kinds of hypocritical behavior. The bullying male may act the puppeteer in these ritual acts of aggression, but the social order with its conventions has provided the script. Stories such as “Revenge” and “Smile” pit villains against victims in brutal power plays; ideologythe intellectual manipulation of the grounds for social conventionshas no place in the lives of these characters or in their stories. As we have already seen in our discussion of “Mr. Jing Ye” and “The Bulwark,” however, Zhang Tianyi was frequently concerned with the nature and efficacy of ideological commitment. But his ideologically engaged characters, whether conservative defenders of conventional morality or selfstyled reformers, typically discover, to their comic surprise, that their own behavior is working to undermine the belief system that they profess. Ideological explanations somehow never provide the fixed perspective on the social hierarchy that they are intended to provide. Ideology may serve a tactical purpose in a character’s project of social ascent, but to the extent that beliefs are sincerely held, they serve only to hinder the climb. In “Yihang” A hyphenated story, , the protagonist, Copyrighted material The Social Impediments to Realism Sanghua sent by her revolutionary friends to wheedle funds for the cause from a wealthy industrialist, is herself enticed by the industrialist’s opulent lifestyle and marries him. She becomes trapped in her own performance. In retrospect, of course, her revolutionary persona is itself revealed as purely theatrical.