Books: The Interdependence of Literature
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Georgina Pell Curtis >> The Interdependence of Literature
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In this we can trace a similarity to the life's history and death
of Christ. In the Middle Ages a passionate love of poetry
developed in the Teutonic race, and caused them to embody
Christianity in verse. The South Germans, and the Saxons in
England, tried to copy the old heroic poems.
In the time of Theodoric, the Goths began to influence the Roman
language and literature; and it is at this period that Roman
antiquity comes to an end and the Roman writers from that time
are classed as belonging to the Middle Ages.
The whole history of literature during the Middle Ages was of a
twofold character. The first, Christian and Latin, was found all
over Europe, and made the protection and extension of knowledge,
its chief object. The other was a more insular literature for
each nation, and always in the language of the people. Theodoric
the Goth, Charlemagne, and Alfred the Great, the chief patrons of
the literature of their age, sought to carry on, side by side,
and to improve, these two literatures, the Latin and the
vernacular. They aimed to refine and educate man by the Latin,
and to increase the national spirit by preserving their national
poetry. While these old heroic poems of the different races are
full of interest and charm for us, we must not forget that the
Latin kept alive and preserved from extinction the whole of
classical and Christian antiquity.
The Middle Ages, so inaptly called "dark," are in truth little
understood. A German writer of the nineteenth century, Friedrich
von Schlegel, says:
"The nations have their seasons of blossoming, as well as
individuals. The age of the Crusades, of chivalry, romance and
minstrelsy, was an intellectual spring among all the nations of
the West. In literature the time of invention must precede the
refinements of art. Legend must go before history, and poetry
before criticism. Vegetation must precede spring, and spring must
precede the maturity of fruit.
"The succeeding ages could have had no such burst of intellectual
vigor, if the preparing process had not been going on in the
Middle Ages. They sowed and we reaped."
Hence, it will be seen that what is looked on as a period of
stagnation and ignorance, was in truth, the waiting time, during
which the inner process of development was going on, soon to
blossom into glorious fruit.
CHIVALROUS AND ROMANTIC LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
From the time of the first Crusade, A.D. 1093, to the end of the
twelfth century, was the golden age of chivalry in Europe. Hence
the poetry of this period partook of the spirit that was abroad
in the world. Of this chivalrous poetry of the Middle Ages there
are three classifications: The first, taken from old legends,
shows a style of verse peopled with the Gothic, Frankish and
Burgundian heroes who flourished in the time of the great
Northern emigrations; and for these there is usually some
historical foundation, while they are also closely knit to the
traditions of the old heathenish mythology of the Gothic Nations.
The second subject of chivalrous verse was Charlemagne, the
Saracens and Roncesvalle. These were chiefly composed by the
Normans, who, after the Crusades, gave a new direction to
literature. Marked changes were introduced by them, not only into
France, but throughout Europe. They were filled with the spirit
of adventure and enthusiasm, and in their onward march conquered
England and Sicily, and took the lead in the next Crusade.
Essentially a poetic people, the wonderful was the object of all
their admiration and desire. Hence they sang old war songs,
especially of the battle of Roncesvalles in which Roland dies
when the Franks are conquered by the Spaniards and Turks.
In the tale of a fabulous Crusade, invented in the ninth century,
and which was embodied in poetry by the Normans, the true history
of the Empire became so bewilderingly mixed up with magicians,
genii, sultans, Oriental fables, and comical characters, who met
with astonishing adventures, that it was difficult to distinguish
the true from the false. There was nothing of the romantic and
wonderful in the history of the East, which did not find its way
into the poetry that treated of Charlemagne and Roland, until it
lost all traces of the real wars and achievements of Charlemagne.
The third subject of chivalric verse was Arthur of the Round
Table; but this, at the time, was also invested with Oriental
wonders and attachments. Other chivalric poetry of this epoch had
to do with Godfrey of Bouillon, the Crusades, and old French
tales and fabliaux which were brought into Europe by the oral
narratives of the Crusaders.
The Northern mythology always abounded with mountain spirits,
mermaids, giants, dwarfs, dragons, elves and mandrakes. These
reappear in the songs of the Crusades, and are elements of the
old Northern and Persian superstitions. All that the East
contributed to the song of the chivalric period was a Southern
magic, and a brilliance of Oriental fancy with which some of the
poems were clothed.
A Persian poem that became very popular in Europe in the Middle
Ages was Ferdusi's Book of Heroes. It has had a marked influence
on the Arabian "Thousand and One Nights." In this poem of
Ferdusi's we note the contest between light and darkness (an idea
nowhere found in Greek poetry). It seemed to touch the poetical
thought of the age of chivalry; for we find it reproduced in
their songs, mingled with Scriptural and love scenes.
Next to Chivalric poetry, the age of the Crusaders was
essentially a period of love songs. They attained their greatest
perfection in Provence, whence they spread over the whole of
France, and from there into Germany in the twelfth century.
Love poetry in Italy failed to attain any degree of perfection
until the time of Petrarch in the fourteenth century; and its
real era in Spain was not until a century later. Love poetry
developed in different ways in Europe, and, as we have seen, at
different times. Except among the Italians it was not so much
borrowed from one nation to another as had been the case with
other branches of literature.
It is different with Chivalric poetry, which was considered the
common property of all. The form of poetical composition also
varied in each country, and the only thing common to all the
nations was rhyme. Almost all the love poems seem to have been
written to be sung, and this was carried to such lengths that in
the reign of Lewis the Pious of Germany, an edict had to be sent
to the nuns of the German Cloisters by their Bishops, forbidding
them to sing their love songs, or Mynelieder.
THE DRAMA.
The history of the drama may be divided into two classes, the
Christian, which began with the Mystery and Morality plays; and
the Greek, which was eminently classic. These two types were the
foundation of all that came after them.
The first dawn of the drama was in Greece; for although the
Hindus also had dramatic poetry, it did not arise until there had
been a lengthened intercourse between Greece and India, so that
the latter undoubtedly borrowed from the former. The learned
writers of ancient times agree that both tragedy and comedy were
originally choral song. It has been said that poetry and song are
divided into three periods of a nation's history, that the Epic
has to do with the first awakening of a people, telling of their
legends, or of some great deeds in remote antiquity. This is
followed by the second stage, which embraces elegiac and lyric
poetry and arose in stirring and martial times, during the
development of new forms of government, when each individual
wanted to express his own thoughts and wishes; and the third is
the drama, which can only be born in a period of civilization,
and which, it has been said, implies a nation.
Hence Greek drama arose at the height of Grecian civilization and
splendor. It originated in the natural love of imitation, of
dancing and singing, especially at the Bacchic feasts. The
custom at these feasts of taking the guise of nymphs and satyrs,
and of wearing masks while they danced and sang in chorus, seems
to have been the beginnings of the Greek drama.
Ancient tragedy was ideal, and had nothing to do with ordinary
life; it arose from the winter feasts of Bacchus, while comedy
was the outcome of the harvest feasts, and the accompanying
Bacchanalian processions, which were more in the nature of a
frolic than of real acting. The influence of the Middle and New
Greek comedy, especially, that of Menander, on the Roman comedy
of Terence is well defined. Under Ennius and Plautus the Roman
comedy was fairly original; but Terence wrote for the fashionable
set, like Caecilius and Scipio Africanus, and consequently
imitated Greek models very carefully. The drama in Rome never
attained any noteworthy height although the French tragic poets
took Seneca for their model.
In the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent there was a great revival
in Italy of the ancient classic drama, of which Poliziano was the
most successful exponent. Both he and the later writers, however,
made no attempt to found any National Italian drama--their works
are entirely an imitation of the tragedies of Sophocles and
Euripides, and the comedies of Plautus and Terence.
The Melodrama, which arose in the seventeenth century, is
distinctly Italian and national, and has been extensively
produced all over the civilized world. Alfieri, in the eighteenth
century, is the greatest and most patriotic of the Italian
tragedians, and he did as much to revive the national character
in modern times as Dante did in the fourteenth century.
In France we have the dramatic representation of the Mysteries in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, introduced by the pilgrims
who had returned from the Crusades. At first these performances
were given in the street, but later a company was formed, called
the "Confraternity of the Passion," the suffering of Christ being
its chief representation. This Mystery is the most ancient
dramatic work of modern Europe, and gives the whole Gospel
narrative from the birth of our Saviour until His death. Being
too long for a play of one act, it was continued from day to day.
What would seem irreverent on a modern stage was regarded as
perfectly simple and natural in the Middle Ages, and it was a
potent factor in teaching the masses the truths of their faith.
Following these Mysteries of the Passion came a host of other
plays taken from the Old Testament, or from the lives of the
Saints. The earliest "Miracle" on record is the Play of St.
Catherine, which was represented at Dunstable about 1119, written
in French; it was in all probability a rude picture of the
miracles and martyrdom of the saint.
The stage was divided into three different floors, with Heaven on
top, hell on the ground floor, and the earth between. Frequently
the play would proceed in all three divisions at once, with
angels and devils ascending and descending by means of ladders,
as their help was needed in the different worlds.
The Devil generally played the part of clown or jester. The
modern puppet play of Punch is a tradition handed down from these
ancient miracles, in which the Evil One was alternately the
conqueror or victim of the human Buffoon; who was also called by
the names of Jester or Vice.
These early miracle plays were generally written in mixed prose
and verse.
The oldest manuscript of a miracle play in English is The
Harrowing of Hell, believed to have been written in 1350.
The Morality plays were the outcome of the Mysteries; they were
either allegorical or else taken from the Parables, or from the
historical events in the Bible. The chief Moralities were
Everyman, Lusty Juventus, Good Counsel, and Repentance. The
oldest English Morality play now extant is The Castle of
Perseverance, written about 1450. It is a dramatic allegory of
human life representing the many conflicting influences that
surround man on his way through the world. Lusty Juventus depicts
in a vivid and humorous way the extravagances and follies of a
young heir surrounded by the virtues and vices, and the misery
which follows a departure from the path of religion and virtue.
Gradually these Moralities were corrupted and became mixed with a
species of comedy called Interludes, a merry and farcical
dialogue. The Four P's, one of the best of these early
Interludes, was written by John Heywood, an entertainer at the
Court of Henry VIII. It turns upon a dispute between a Peddler, a
Palmer, a Pardoner and a Poticary, in which each tries to tell
the greatest lie; plays of this kind are seen in France at the
present day. In the fifteenth century the drama in France became
more secularized and included political events and satire, but
the French were undoubtedly the fathers of drama in the Middle
Ages. Their plays were known a whole century before Spain or
Italy had any theater, while the romantic drama in other
countries of Europe was founded on the early French drama.
Modern drama in France during the time of Corneille, Racine and
Voltaire was almost entirely classic. The French regarded the
Greek standard as the highest art; and sought to imitate it
faithfully, so much so that the French Academy, criticizing a
tragedy of Corneille, said "that the poet, from the fear of
sinning against the rules of art, had chosen rather to sin
against the rules of nature."
Comic drama in France from the end of the sixteenth to the middle
of the seventeenth century was borrowed from Spain, and had to do
with a multiplication of trap doors, dark lanterns, intrigues,
and puzzling disguises, until Moliere, in his "Precieuses
Ridicules" successfully attacked these follies of his age.
The Romantic drama, which arose in the second quarter of the
nineteenth century, holds at present the first place in France.
Its chief exponents have been Victor Hugo, the two Dumases,
Sardou and Octave Feuillet. Between them and the followers of the
Classic School there was for some time a lively war. The latter
wanted to exclude the Romanticists from the Theatre Francais, but
without success. In spite of the beauty of its French, and the
polish of its style, this latest form of the drama in France
frequently offends strongly against morality. In Spain the drama
was at all times thoroughly national. Even when they introduced
mythological, Greek or Roman characters, it was always in a
Castilian dress. In this respect Spain stands alone among the
nations of Europe, as it borrowed nothing from France, Italy or
England. Its earliest plays were the Mysteries, which it is
supposed to have obtained from Constantinople, where the ancient
theatre of Greece and Rome was kept up, in a grosser form, far
into the Middle Ages. In later times this Eastern drama became so
corrupt that the Christian Church tried to offset it by
introducing the Mysteries, and it became a common custom every
year at Christmas, for the Manger at Bethlehem, the Worship of
the Shepherds, and the Adoration of the Magi, to be exhibited
before the Altar, just as the Mysteries of the Passion were
introduced during Lent. The Passion Play at Oberammergau and the
Creche, representing the Manger at Bethlehem, as seen in Catholic
Churches at Christmas, are the sole survivals of these ancient
Mysteries.
The second dramatic period in Spain was pastoral and satirical.
Nothing worthy of note adorns this period in the fifteenth
century. In the sixteenth century de Rueda and Lope de Vega
founded the true national drama of Spain. It was unlike anything
of an earlier period, and yet, resting faithfully on tradition,
it gave a vivid picture of the National Spanish life in all
classes of society. From the gallantries of the "dramas of the
Cloak and Sword," to the historical plays in which Dings and
Princes figure; down to the manners and incidents of common life,
all is essentially Spanish. A fourth class still represented
Scriptural and sacred scenes. Calderon wrote at the height of the
Spanish drama during the reign of Philip II; and after his time
the drama in Spain declined until, in the eighteen century, it
was at its lowest ebb. At this time plays were still held in open
courtyards, and in the daytime, as in the earlier ages. Efforts
were made to subject it to French and Italian rule, but this had
only a limited success; stiff, cold translation from the French
could not please a people who always found in the Spanish drama
an essentially popular entertainment.
In Germany traces of the drama first appeared in the thirteenth
century, when rude attempts to imitate the Mystery plays were
conducted in churches by the priests. But when the populace tried
to introduce the Burlesque, the performances were banished to the
open fields. Students in the universities took part in them, and
they continued until after the Reformation. Brought into Europe
from Constantinople by the Crusaders and pilgrims, the Mystery
plays became the chief amusement of an illiterate age.
Christianity was first thoroughly impressed on the mind of
Northern Europe by means of them; and the first missionaries
familiarized the rude Goths and Huns with Biblical incidents at a
time when reading was unknown outside of the Cloister. No change
in German drama occurred until the seventeenth century, when
operas after the Italian superseded the Mysteries and Moralities.
The production of this age, however, were characterized by bad
taste and pedantry; and it was not until Goethe brought his
genius to bear on the subject, that the Germans acquired any
drama worthy of the name. Whether in his national play Gotz von
Berlichingen or in his classical drama of Iphigenia, this great
German master stands at the summit of his art. Lessing attacked
French drama as enacted in Germany prior to Goethe, and brought
forward the Shakespearian plays as a model.
Schiller's Wallenstein obtained a worldwide reputation, and among
the Romantic dramatists Werner's Attila and Grillparzer's
Ancestress are the best examples of the extravagant and fertile
mind of the German romanticist.
Modern German drama has found the highest art it has ever
attained in the compositions of Richard Wagner, whose operas are
entirely German and National, and mostly founded on the old
German legends. Tannhauser is taken from the epic poem of
"Parzifal," written by Wolfram von Eschenbach in the Middle Ages.
Lohengrin, which is touched on in the "Parzifal," Wagner also
found in the poem of an obscure Bavarian poet; and a more
complete account of the celebrated "Swan Knight" appears in a
collection of stories edited by the brothers Grimm. Lohengrin is
a Knight of the Holy Grail, so part of the legend is borrowed
from ancient Britain.
All dramatic effort in England before the sixteenth century was
so rude as to be of little account. The Miracle and Mystery plays
were introduced into England in the reign of Henry VI, and many
of them had a personage called "Iniquity," a coarse buffoon,
whose object was to amuse the audience. After the Reformation the
Protestant Bishop Bale wrote plays on the same plan as the
Mysteries, intended to instruct the people in the supposed errors
of Popery. These plays, which deal largely in satire, became
popular and after the era of Henry VIII were known as Interludes.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century real comedy and tragedy
began to exist in a rude form. The oldest known English comedy,
Ralph Royster Doyster, was written by Nicholas Udall, and
describes a character whose comic misadventures are somewhat akin
to Don Quixote.
The earliest tragedy, Gorboduc, known also Ferrex and Porrex, was
played in the Lower Temple. It is founded on the legends of
fabulous British history. The tragedies of Marlowe and the
legendary plays of Greene come next in order, followed by the
golden age of English drama, from the dawn of the Shakespeare
plays in 1585 until the closing of the theatre in 1645 on the
breaking out of the Civil war in England. For a period of sixty
years the splendid genius of the world's greatest dramatist gave
to mankind a series of plays that have no equal in the literature
of any country or age.
Contemporaneous with Shakespeare, or coming after him, were
Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Massinger, Ford, and Shirley;
these Elizabethan dramatists took their subjects from the stories
and legends of all countries and ages--or else they depicted the
national life. For this reason English drama has been called
Irregular, in contrast to the Greek, which is called the Regular,
and that of modern France, founded upon the Greek. The chief rule
of the Regular is the Unity of Time, Place and Action. In the
Greek, the time of action was allowed to extend to twenty-four
hours, and the scene to change from place to place in the same
city; but Shakespeare and his contemporaries acknowledged no
fixed limit either of time, place or action. The operation of
their plays covered many different countries, and the time
extended over many years; but the rule that laid down in the
Greek drama the principle that there should be unity of action
(everything being subordinate to a series of events, which form
the thread of the plot), was adopted by Shakespeare and his
contemporaries. It has been called "unity of impression," as
opposed to unity of time and place.
ARABIAN.
The rise and development of Arabian literature occurs at an epoch
when the rest of Europe was struggling through a period of
transition. From the middle of the sixth to the beginning of the
eleventh century, at a time when the Roman dominions were overrun
by Northern hordes, and the Greek Nation was groaning under the
Byzantine power, when both Greek and Latin literature was exposed
to the danger of extinction, the splendor of Arabian literature
reached its zenith and through the mingling of the Troubadours
with the Moors of the Peninsula, and of the Crusaders with the
Arabs, it began to influence the literature of Europe.
Arabia, peopled by wandering tribes, had no history other than
the songs of the national bards, until after the rise of Mohammed
in the sixth century. The desire of the prophet was to bring his
people back from idolatry and star worship to the primitive and
true worship of God. He studied the Old and New Testament, the
legends of the Talmud and the traditions of Arabian and Persian
mythology, then he wrote the Koran, which became the sacred book
of the Arabians, and in which is traced in outline the true plan
of man's salvation--Death, Resurrection, the Judgment, Paradise
and the place of torment. Good and evil spirits, the four
archangels, Gabriel, Michael, Azrael and Izrafeel, are all found
in the Koran; but clothed with a true Oriental fancy. Besides the
angels there are creatures, partly human and partly spiritual,
called Genii, Peris (or fairies) and Deev (or giants). The Genii
have the power of making themselves seen or invisible at
pleasure. Some of them delight in mischief, and raise whirlwinds,
or lead travellers astray. The Arabians used to say that shooting
stars were arrows shot by the angels against the Genii when they
approached too near the forbidden regions of bliss.
This fairy mythology of the Arabians was introduced into Europe
by the Troubadours in the eleventh century, and became an
important factor in the literature of Europe. From it, and the
Scandinavian mythology spring all the fairy tales of modern
nations. And these romances of the Koran form the groundwork of
the fabliaux of the Trouveres, and of the romantic epics of
Boccaccio, Tasso, Ariosto, Spenser and Shakespeare. Mohammed's
teaching unified the different tribes of Arabia, and fostered a
feeling of national pride, and a desire for learning. So rapidly
did this develop that in less than a century the Arabian power
and religion, as well as its language, had gained the ascendency
over nearly half of Africa, a third of Asia, and a part of Spain;
and from the ninth century to the sixteenth, the Arabian
literature surpassed that of any nations of the same period.
This people, who, in a barbarous state had tried to abolish all
cultivation in science and literature, now became the masters of
learning, and they drew from the treasure houses of the countries
that they had acquired by conquest, all the riches of knowledge
at their command.
The learning of the Chaldeans and of the Magi, the poetry and
fine arts of Asia Minor, the eloquence and intellect of Africa,
all became theirs.
Greece counts nearly eight centuries from the Trojan war to the
summit of her literary development. From the foundation of Rome
till the age of Augustus the same number of centuries passed over
the Roman world; while in French literature the age of Louis XIV
was twelve centuries removed from the advent of Clovis; but in
Arabian literature, from the time of the family of the Abassides,
who mounted the throne in 750--and who introduced a passionate
love for poetry, science and art--until the time of Al Mamoun,
the Augustus of Arabia, there elapsed only one hundred and fifty
years, a rate of progress in the development of literature among
a nation that has no parallel in history.
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