FOOTNOTES:
See infra, p. 45.
Page 100.
Page 121.
Volsklieder der Serben, übersetzt von Talvj, Halle 1825-26, 2 vols.
Versach einer geschichtlichen Charakteristik der Volkslieder germanischer Nationen, etc. von Talvj, Leipzig 1840.
See Schlegel's Sprache und Weisheit der Indier, Heidelb. 1808. Von Hammer's Fundgruben des Orients, Vol. II. p. 459 sq. Murray's History of the European Languages, Edinb. 1823. F.G. Eichhoff, Histoire de la Langue et de la Literature des Slaves etc. considerées dans leur origins Indienne, etc. Paris, 1839.—Frenzel, who wrote at the close of the seventeenth century, took the Slavi for a Hebrew tribe and their language for Hebrew. Some modern German and Italian historians derive the Slavic language from the Thracian, and the Slavi immediately from Japhet; some consider the ancient Scythians as Slavi. See Dobrovsky's Slovanka, VII. p. 94,
Krivitshi. The Greek is Krobuzoi, Herodot 4. 49. Comp. Strabo VII. p. 318, 319. Plin. H.N. IV. 12.
The first writers, who mention the Slavi expressly, are Jordan or Jornandes, after A.D. 552; Procopias A.D. 562; Menander A.D. 594; and the Abbot John of Biclar before A.D. 620. See Schaffarik's Geschichte der Slavischen Sprache und Literatur, Buda, 1826. Dobrovsky's Slovanka, V.p. 76-84.—Schaflarik, in his more recent work on Slavic Antiquities, 1838, and in his Slavic Ethnography, 1842, supposes he has found the first Slavi already three centuries B.C. in the Veneti or Wendi on the Baltic. But as every connecting link between them and the historical Slavi is wanting, the fact seems of little importance.
Schaffarik in his work on Slavic Antiquities attempts to prove that the Sarmatae were no Slavi, but a Perso-Median nation; remnants of which, he thinks, he has discovered in the Alanes and Osetenzes in the Caucasus.
The name of the Slavi has generally been derived from slava, glory, and their national feelings have of course been gratified by this derivation. But the more immediate origin of the appellation, is to be sought in the word slovo word, speech. The change of o into a occurs frequently in the Slavic languages, (thus slava comes from slovo) but is in this case probably to be ascribed to foreigners, viz. Byzantines, Romans, and Germans. In the language of the latter, the o in names and words of Slavic origin in many instances becomes a. The radical syllable slov is still to be found in the appellations which the majority of the Slavic nations apply to themselves or kindred nations, e.g. Slovenzi, Slovaci, Slovane, Sloveni, etc. The Russians and Servians did not exchange the o for a before the seventh century. See Schaffarik's Geschichte, p. 5. n. 6. The same writer observes, p. 287. n. 8, "It is remarkable that, while all the other Slavic nations relinquished their original national names, and adopted specific names, as Russians, Poles, Silesians, Czekhes, Moravians, Sorabians, Servians, Morlachians, Czernogortzi, Bulgarians; nay, when most of them imitating foreigners altered the general name Slovene into Slavene, only those two Slavic branches, which touch each other on the banks of the Danube, the Slovaks and the Slovenzi, have retained in its purity their original national name."—According to Schaffarik's later opinion, as expressed in his Antiquities, the appellation Slavi, Slaveni, or Slovenians, is derived from one of their seats, that is, the country on the Upper Niemen, where the Stloveni or Sueveni of Ptolemy lived. It is said to be called by the Finns Sallo (like every woodland); by the Lithuanians, Sallawa, Slawa; in old Prussian, Salava; by the neighbouring Germans, Schalauen; in Latin, Scalavia. But it seems a more natural conclusion, that vice versa the name of the district was rather derived from Slavic settlers living in the midst of a German, Russian, and Finnish population—For the derivation from slovo, word, speech, the circumstance seems to speak, that in most Slavic languages the appellation for a German (and formerly for all foreigners) is Njemetz, i.e. one dumb, an impotent, nameless, speechless person. What more natural, in a primitive stage of culture, than to consider only those as speaking, who are understood; and those who seem to utter unmeaning sounds, as dumb, impotent beings?
The earliest Slavic historian is the Russian monk Nestor, born in the year 1056. See below, in the History of the Old Slavic and of the Russian languages. The reader will there see, that even the authority and age of this writer has been in our days attacked by the hypercritical spirit of the modern Russian Historical school.
See Görres' Mythengeschichte der Asiatischen Welt, Heidelb. 1810. Kayssarov's Versuch einer Slavischen Mythologie, Götting. 1804. Dobrovsky's Slavia, new edit. by W. Hanka, Prague 1834, p. 263-275. Durich Bibliotheca Slavica, Buda 1795. J. Potocki's Voyages dans quelques parties de la Basse Saxe pour la recherche des antiquités Slaves, Hamb. 1795. J.J. Hanusch, Wissenschaft des Slavischen Mythus. Lemberg, 1842.
Glagolita Clozianus, Vindob. 1836.
Vol. II. p. 1610 sq.
Schaffarik in his Slavic Ethnography, published nearly twenty years after his "History of the Slavic Language and Literature," omits the word "North," and divides the Slavi into the "Western," and "South-Eastern" nations. He must mean the Western, and the Southern AND Eastern.
We acknowledge, however, that even this latter appellation admits of some restriction in respect to the Slovenzi or Windes of Carniola and Carinthia; who, notwithstanding their rather Western situation, belong to the Eastern race.
By Kopitar; see the Wiener Jahrbücher, 1822, Vol. XVII. Kastanica, Sitina, Gorica, and Prasto, are Slavic names. There is even a place called [Greek: Sklabochôri], Slavic village. Leake in his Researches observes that Slavic names of places occur throughout all Greece.
The affinity of the Slavic and Greek languages it has recently been attempted to prove in several works. Dankovsky in his work, Die Griechen als Sprachverwandte der Slaven, Presburg 1828, contends that a knowledge of the Slavic language is of the highest importance for the Greek scholar, as the only means by which he may be enabled to clear up obscure passages and to ascertain the signification of doubtful words. Among the historical proofs, he furnishes a vocabulary containing 306 Slavic and Greek words of striking analogy. "Of three sisters," he observes, "one kept faithful to her mother tongue—the Slavic language; the second gave to that common heritage the highest cultivation—the Greek language; and the third mixed the mother tongue with a foreign idiom—the Latin language." A work of the same tendency has been published in the Greek language, by the Greek priest Constantine, Vienna 1828. It contains a vocabulary of 800 pages of Russian and Greek words, corresponding in sound and meaning.—That these views are not new, is generally known; although they hardly ever have been carried so far, except perhaps by the author of the History of Russia, Levesque, who considers the Latins as a Slavic colony; or by Solarich, who derived all modern languages from the Slavic. Gelenius in his Lexicon Symphonum, 1557, made the first etymological attempt in respect to the Slavic languages. In modern times, great attention has been paid to Slavic etymology by Dobrovsky, Linde, Adelung, Bantkje, Fritsch, and others. An Etymologicon Universale was published in 1811, at Cambridge in England, by W. Whiter.—Galiffec, in his Italy and its Inhabitants, 1816 and 1817, started the opinion, that the Russian was the original language, and that the Old Slavonic and all the rest were only dialects.
Or rather some writers in Lusatia and the Austrian provinces comprised in the kingdom of Illyria.
The t' signifies the Yehr, or soft sign of the Russians in addition to the t. This letter not existing in the English language, we have endeavoured to supply it in the best possible way by the aspirate of the Greek language, which when it follows [Greek: t], is not very unlike it; e.g. [Greek: nukht êmeron], written [Greek: nuchthhêmeron]. The real sound, however, is more like the German soft ch after t, as in Städtchen, Hütchen.
They are to be compared with the Latin verbs frequentative, as factitare instead of facere, cursitare instead of currere, etc.
With the exception of the Slovakish dialect.
Pronounce the i as in the word machine.
To make, in writing, the different shades in the pronunciation of the same letters in Polish, is absolutely impossible. They must be caught with the ear; and, even then, cannot be imitated by the tongue of a foreigner.
The English a in father.
Like the English e in they.
Compare the smooth breathing of the Greeks, and the Shemitish Aleph or Elif.
There is e.g. a single letter in Old Slavonic and Russian for shish. The Pole writes szez.
Schaffarik in his Geschichte, p. 40 sq.
We abstain here from giving any historical references, as it would swell the volume beyond all due proportion; and historical notices, with the exception of those circumstances in immediate connection with the language, cannot properly be expected. All philological sources have been faithfully mentioned.
See below in the History of the Russian Language, and the so called Improvement of the Bible and church books.
In modern times this view has been defended principally by Russian philologists, the Metropolitan Eugene, Kalajdovitch, etc.
See his Kyrill und Method, Prague, 1823. Schlözer considers likewise the Old Slavic as a Bulgarian dialect of the ninth century. See his Northern History, p. 330. In another place he calls it the mother of the other Slavic languages; see his Nestor, I. p. 46.
In his Grammar of the Slavic Language in Carniola, Carinthia, and Stiria.
Jahrbücher der Literatur, Vienna, 1822, Vol. XVII. Grimm is of the same opinion; see the Preface to his translation of Vuk Stephanovitch's Servian Grammar.
See above, p. 11.
This view Schaffarik takes in his work on Slavic Antiquities, and in his Slavic Ethnography. Palacky, a distinguished Bohemian scholar, adopted the same opinion in his History of Bohemia, Prague 1836. Both were combatted in a furious review by Kopitar, in Chmel's Oestr. Geschichtsforscher,
III. 1838; printed separately under the title: Der Pannonische Ursprung der
Slavischen Liturgie. etc.
Dobrovsky's Entwurf zu einer allgemeinen Slavischen Etymologie, Prague 1812. See also the Slovanka of this celebrated scholar.
Schlözer's Nestor, III. p. 224.
Rakoviecky, in his edition of the Pravda Russka, Warsaw 1820-22. Katancsich, Specimen Philologiæ et Geographiæ, etc. 1795. See also Frähn's publication, "Ueber die alteste Schrift der Russen," St. Petersb. 1835; where a specimen is given of the form of writing which the Arabian author Ibn Abi Jakub el Nedim ascribes to the Russians. This writer lived at the close of the tenth century. He quotes as his authority an envoy sent from some Caucasian prince to the king of the Russians.
As in modern Greek; see also Bullmann's Gram. § 3. 2.
See Rees' Cyclopedia, art. Khazares; where however it is incorrectly said, that they were a Turkish tribe.
Posadnik is about the same as mayor.
In the Slavic version of the Chronicle of Dalmatia, the Epistles instead of the Palter are named.
That the Glagolitic alphabet, as has been affirmed, was the one invented by Cyril, and was gradually changed into that afterwards known as the Cyrillic, is an untenable position; partly, because no form of writing could change in such a degree in one or two centuries; and partly, because in some early manuscripts both alphabets appear mixed, or rather are used alternately.
Glagolita Clozianus, Vindeb. 1836.
In his essay On the Old Slavic Language. See the Russian periodical: Treatises of a Society of Friends of Russian Literature, No. XVII. Mosc. 1820.
Extracts from it may be seen in the valuable collection of Documents prepared by P. von Köppen: Sobranie Slovenzki Pamjatnikov, St. Petersburg 1827. See also Hanka's Edition of Dobrovsky's Slavia, Prague 1834.
This remarkable manuscript was not known until 1738, when it was discovered in the chronicles of Novogorod. It has since been published in six different editions, the first prepared by Schlözer, 1767; the last by the Polish scholar Rakowiecky, enriched with remarks and illustrations. See note 10, above.
Aktu Sobrannyje etc. i.e. Collection of Acts and Documents found in the Libraries and Archives of the Russian Empire, by the Archæographical Commission of the Academy, etc. 4 vols. St. Petersburg, 1836, 1837. The oldest of these documents does not go farther back than A.D. 1294.
On the remarkable Slavic manuscript called "Texte du Sacre," which was first re-discovered on this expedition, see Glagolitic Literature, in Part II. Chap. II.
According to Vostokof, the dialects of all the Slavic nations deviated not only much less from each other at the time of Cyril's translation than they now do; but were even in the middle of the eleventh century still so similar, that the different nations were able to understand each other, about as well as the present inhabitants of the different provinces of Russia understand each other. The difference of the Slavic dialects was then almost exclusively limited to the lexical part of the language; the grammatical varieties, which exist among them at the present day, had not then arisen. The principal features which distinguish the Russian of the present day from the Old Slavic, are exhibited in an article on Russian Literature in the Foreign Quarterly Review, Vol. I. p. 602.
We learn that P. von Köppen several years ago discovered a Slavic work printed in 1475; but being unacquainted with the details, we are unable to give a particular notice of it.
See above p. 36.
The first two editions are described above. The third edition did not appear till nearly a century later, after the revision of the text had been completed, Moscow 1751, fol. Subsequent editions are as follows: Moscow 1756, fol. ib. 1757, fol. St. Petersb. 1756, fol. Kief 1758, fol. St. Petersb. 1759, fol. Moscow 1759, 3 vols. 8vo. ib. 1762, fol. ib. 1766, fol. ib. 1778, 5 vols. 8vo. Kief 1779, fol. Mosc. 1784, fol. Kief 1788, 5 vols. 8vo. Mosc. 1790, fol. ib. 1797, fol. ib. 1802, fol. Ofen (Buda) 1804, 5 vols. 8vo. Mosc. 1806, 4 vols. 8vo. ib. 1810, fol. ib. 1813, 5 vols. 8vo. ib. 1815, 8vo. St. Petersb. 1816, 8vo. stereotype edition, issued sixteen times up to 1824. Also in 4to, stereotype edition, issued five times from 1819 to 1821.
In the work of J. Lewicky, Grammatik der ruthenischen oder kleinrussischen Sprache in Galizien, Przinysl 1836, to which is annexed a short history of the Ruthenian Literature, the Russinian and White-Russian dialects seem to be wholly confounded.
Schaffarik mentions that an Old Slavic Grammar and a Dictionary were prepared and ready in manuscript, by Vostokof, in 1826. Whether these works have been since printed we are not informed.
Very valuable and detailed notices on all the subjects in immediate connection with the Old Slavic and modern Russian Bible, are to be found in Henderson's Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia, Lond. 1826. As this book is accessible in this country, and our limits are narrow, we abstain from giving more than a general reference to it, as containing the best information on Slavic matters ever written in the English language. The reader will find there too a table of the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet, taken from Dobrovsky's Institutiones.
Also called Ivan I.
See more on this subject in Part IV.
See Schaffarik, Geschichte p. 178, note 4.
Sviatoslav, Jaropulk, Jaroslav, etc.
The chronographic manuscript in which the above poem was found, entitled Slowa o polku Igora, literally Speech on Igor's Expedition, is said to have also contained several other pieces of poetry. By an unpardonable carelessness, the manuscript, after Igor was copied, was lost again. We hear too of an old poetical tale, History of the wicked Tzar Mamai; but have no means of ascertaining its age or value, nor even its existence.
Pravda Russka, Jus Russorum. See above, p. 40, n. 19.
See above, p. 41.
These valuable chronicles were continued under different titles, but without interruption, until the reign of Alexis, father of Peter I.
The Mongols and Tartars have been frequently confounded by historical writers; they are however two races perfectly distinct from each other, the first a North-Eastern, the second a South-Western Asiatic nation. The Mongols, however, between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, conquerors of the Tartars as well as of half Asia, and of Europe as far as Silesia, and comparatively not numerous, amalgamated gradually with the subjugated Tartars among whom they settled. The present Mongols are partly under the sovereignty of China in the ancient Mongolia, the country whence Jenghis Khan came; partly Russian subjects, scattered through the government of Irkutzk, and mixed with Kalmucks and other Asiatic tribes.
Also called Ivan II, and Ivan the Cruel; by modern historians the Russian Nero.
See above, p. 51.
Most of these dramas are extant in manuscript in the synodal library at Moscow. A selection has been printed in the Drewn. Rossisk. Bibliotheka, i.e. Old Russian Library, Moscow 1818.
The above mentioned chronicles, and another series of annals of a genealogical character, known under the title Stepennaja Knigi, mutually supply each other. Simon of Suzdal, the metropolitan Cyprian a Servian by birth, and Macarius metropolitan of Moscow a clergyman of great merits, are to be named here. Another old chronicle called Sofiiskii Wremenik was first published in 1820 by Stroyef. A chronicle of Novogorod referring to the sixteenth century was found by the same scholar in the library at Paris.
There is, however, in the style of Nestor and his immediate successors, a certain effort towards animation. Speeches and dialogues are introduced, and pious reflections and biblical sentences are scattered through the whole.
Known under the title Nikonov spisok, published St. Petersburg 1767-92, 8 vols. For the Improvement of the Slavonic Bible, Nikon alone, by applying to the Patriarch of Constantinople and other Greek dignitaries, obtained 500 Greek MSS. of the whole or portions of the N. Test. Some of them contained also the Septuagint. These were mostly from Mount Athos, and are now the celebrated Moscow MSS. collated by Matthæi. See Henderson, p. 52, 53.
Joseph Sanin, a monk, wrote a history of the Jewish heresy, so called, in the fifteenth century, and a series of sermons against it. This last was also done by the bishop of Novogorod, Gennadius
A part of the O.T. Prague 1517-19; the Acts and Epistles, Vilna 1525. Skorina, in one of his prefaces, found it necessary to excuse his meddling with holy things by the example of St. Luke, who, he says, was of the same profession. The dialect of this translation is the White Russian; and the book of Job contains the first specimen of Russian rhymed poetry.
The Russians, however, out of the forty-six characters of the Slavonic alphabet, could make use only of thirty-five; the Servians, according to Vuk Stephnanovitch, only of twenty-eight.
Or Kopiyevitch, the same whom we have mentioned as having improved the appearance of the alphabet.
The same Glück had translated the Gospels into Lettonian, and made also an attempt to furnish the Russians with a version of the Scriptures in their vulgar tongue. The detail may be read in Henderson's Researches, p. 111. The Russian church had a zealous advocate in the archbishop Lazar Baranovitch, ob. 1693.
Kirsha Danilof's work was first published at Moscow, 1804, with the title Drevniya Ruskiya Stichotvoreniya, Old Russian Poems. A more complete edition, by Kaloidovitch, appeared in 1818.—A valuable little work in German by C.v. Busse, Fürst Vladimir und seine Tafelrunde, Leipzig 1819, was probably founded on that of Danilof.
As a characteristic of this poet, we mention only that the empress Catharine, in her social parties, used to inflict as a punishment for the little sins against propriety committed there, e.g. ill humour, passionate disputing, etc. the task of learning by heart and reciting a number of Trediakofsky's verses.
Lomonosof's works were first collected and published by the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, 1803, 6 vols. in several editions.
His masterpiece, Nedorosl, "Mama's Darling," literally the Minor, published 1787, presents an incomparable picture of the manners, habits, etc. of the Russian country gentry. Potemkin, who was Von Wisin's patron, felt so enchanted once after a theatrical representation of this comedy, that he advised the author to die now. "Die, Denis!" he cried, "thou canst not write any thing better! do not survive thy glory." A posthumous drama by the same author has recently been found and printed.
Also into Japanese, according to Golovnin's account, and suspended in like manner in the temple of Jeddo. See Bowring's Russian Anthol. I. p. 3.
This was a monthly periodical, first published 1755. The list of Germans whose labours have proved of the highest importance to Russia is very long; among them are those of Pallas, Schlözer, Frähn, Krug, etc. The department of statistics has been exclusively cultivated by Germans, Livonians, etc. and all that the Russians have done in the philological and historical departments, rests on the preceding solid and profound labours of German scholars.
To the honour of the Russians it must be said, that it is still so. Dershavin and Dmitrief were ministers of state; Griboyedof was an ambassador; Karamzin occupied, and Shishkof and Shukovski still occupy, high offices of the empire.
His Summary of Christian Divinity has been translated by Dr. Pinkerton, and published in his "Present state of the Greek Church in Russia."
A survey of the number and general classification of the universities and schools in Russia at this period, is to be found in the American Quarterly Observer for Jan. 1834, Vol. II. No. 1.
On all that relates to the Russian Bible Society, Henderson's Biblical Researches contain most interesting details. The active part, however, which he ascribes to the Jesuits in effecting the suppression of the Society, is far from being historically ascertained.
See Backmeister's Russische Bibliothek, Riga 1772-87.
Of Karamzin's Istorija Gosudarstva Rossissavo, History of the Russian Empire, (extending only to the reign of the house of Romanof, A.D. 1613,) in eleven volumes, a second edition was published in 1818. His other works have been collected in nine volumes, of which a third edition was published in 1820. This great historical work has been translated twice into German, first by Hauenschild and Oertel, and later by Tappe; and twice into French, St. Pet. 1818, and by St. Thomas and Jauffort, Paris 1820.
The Foreign Quarterly Review contains under the head Critical Sketches, a review of Batjushkof's works and a Specimen of his poetry. Vol. IX. p.218.
Executed as involved in the conspiracy of 1825.
He was sent as Russian ambassador to Persia; and was there slaughtered by a mob in 1829.
Bursak, Malorossiiskaja powiest, Mosk. 1824.
This venerable missionary, who resided at Pekin from 1807 to 1821, published after his return to his own country a series of valuable and instructive works, a catalogue of which, as they have met with general acknowledgment in foreign countries, will not be unacceptable to the American reader.—1. Sapiski o Mongolii, Account of Mongolia, St. Pet. 1828, 2 vols. It contains a part of his travels, a description of the country and people, and a translation of the Mongol code of laws.—2. Opisanie Tibeta, i.e. Description of Thibet in its present state, translated from the Chinese, with remarks and illustrations, St. Pet. 1828. This work has been translated into French and published by Klaproth under the title: Description du Tubet partiellement du Chinois en Russe, par le P. Hyacinth Bitchourin, et du Russe en Francois par M.... etc. Accompagnée de Notes par M. Klaproth, Paris 1831.—3. Description of Dshongary and Eastern Turkestan, in 2 vols. under the title: Opisanie Dshongarii i vostotchnavo Turkestana, etc. St. Pet. 1829.— 4. Istorija pervyck tchetyrech Chanov, i.e. History of the first four Khans of the House of Jenghis, St. Pet. 1829. This and the preceding work are not properly translations, but original works drawn from Chinese sources, all of which are specified. Besides these works, Hyacinth has published some of less importance, translations from the Chinese, etc. etc.
The reputation of this clergyman rests however more on his publications in the department of bibliographical and literary history, than on his own theological works.
The etymological tables, published since 1819 by Shishkof, as a specimen of the labours of the Academy, are highly interesting. We see here the words reduced to the first elements of the language; and in some cases more than 3000 words springing from a single root.
This view seems to have been taken by Count Adam Gurowski, now in this country, the author of the European Pentarchy, Leipzig 1839; a work in which a great deal of mental power and an admirable acuteness is employed to defend the despotic claims of Russia, and to shake the independence of Germany.
O mnimoi drewnosti etc. i.e. On the pretended age, the original form, and the sources of our History; first printed in the periodical, "The Library," in 1835.
O Russkich Letopisiach, etc. i.e. On the Russian Chronicles and their writers, Petersb. 1836.
It appeared in a German translation as early as 1840.
Sto Literaturow, etc., edited by Smirdin, Petersb. 1840, etc.
See in Part IV.
In connection with this work stands the Grammar by the same writer, written in French: Elémens de la Langue Georgienne, 1838.
There are a few honourable exceptions. The work Essais philosophiques sur l'homme, publiés par De Jakob, Halle 1818, although written in French, was the production of a Russian, the late writer Poletika, brother of the former Russian ambassador of that name in this country.
According to official reports, more than seven millions of volumes of Russian books were printed in the ten years from 1833 to 1843; and four and a half millions of foreign books were imported. During the same ten years 784 new schools were established. In 1842, there were in the Russian empire 2166 schools of all kinds; among them six universities.
F. Otto, History of Russian Literature, with a Lexicon of Russian Authors. Translated from the German by the late G. Cox. Oxford 1839.
See above, p. 51.
This was Ludolf's Grammatica Russica et manuductio ad linguam Slavonicam, Oxon. 1696.—ENGLISH Russian Grammars are, Novaya ross. Gram. dlja Anglitshani, 'Russian Grammar for Englishmen,' St. Petersburg, 1822. Heard's Practical Grammar of the Russian Language, St. Pet. 1827. 2 vols. 8vo.—GERMAN Russian Grammars are: Heym's Russ. Sprachlehre für Deutsche, Riga, 1789, 1794, 1804. Vater's Prakt. Gramm. der russ. Sprache, Leipz. 1808, 1814. Tappe's Neue russ. Sprachlehre für Deutsche, St. Pet. 1810, 1814, 1820. Schmidt's Prakt. russ. Grammattk, Leipz. 1813. Puchmayer's Lehrgebäude der russ. Sprache, last edit. Prague 1843. Gretsch, Grundregeln der russ. Sprache, from the Russian by Oldekop, 1828. The newest German-Russian Grammars are: J.E. Schmidt's Russische Sprachlehre, und Leitfaden zur Erlernung, etc. Leipz. 1831. Noakovski Grammatica Rossiiskaya, Lipsk. 1836. A Malo-Russian Grammar, Mala-Ross. Grammatica, was published by Pawlofski, St. Pet. 1818.—FRENCH Russian Grammars are: Maudru's Elémens raisonnés de la langue Russe, Paris 1802. Langan's Manual de la langue Russe, St. Pet. 1825. Charpentier's Elémens de la langue Russe, St. Pet. 1768 to 1805, five editions. Gretsch, Grammaîre raisonnée de la langue Russe, par Reiff, St. Pet. 1828.
DICTIONARIES.—ENGLISH. Parenoga's Lex. Anglinsko-ross. and Russian-English Lexicon, 4 vols. 1808-17. Zdanof's Angl.-ross. and Russian-Engl, Dict. St. Pet. 1784. Constantinon's Russian Grammar and Dict. 3 vols. 8vo. Lond. A Russian-Engl. and Engl.-Russ. Dict. 18mo. Leipz. Tauchn. 1846.—GERMAN. Heyne's Russisch-Deutsch und Deutsch-Russ. Wörterb, Riga 1795-98. The same writer's Russ. Deutsch and Frauz. Wörterb. in several forma and editions, Riga 1796 to 1812; also Moscow 1826; last improved edit. Leipz. Tauchn, 1844. Oldekop's Russ.-Deutsch und Deutsch-Russ. Wörterb. St. Pet. 1825. J.A.E. Schmidt's Russ.-Deutsch und Deutsch-Russ. Wörterb. Leipz. Tauchn, 1841. The same writer's Poln. Russ. Deutsch. Wörterb. 2 vols. 8vo. Breslau 1834-6.—FRENCH. Tatishtchefs Nouveau Dict. Franc.-Russe, etc. 2 vols. 8vo. Moscow 1832.
This portion of the Slavic race was formerly more commonly known under the general appellation of Illyrians. With the exception of the Bulgarians, who never have been comprehended under it, this name has alternately been applied to the Southern Slavic nations; sometimes only to the Dalmatians and Slavonians; sometimes to them together with the Croatians and Vindes; by others again to the Turkish Servians and Bosnians, etc. The old Illyrians, i.e. the inhabitants of the Roman province Illyricum, were not Slavi, but a people related to the old Thracians, the forefathers of the present Albanians; see Schaffarik Gesch. p. 33, n. 2. Illyricum Magnum comprised in the fourth century nearly all the Roman provinces of eastern Europe. Napoleon affected to renew the names and titles of the ancient Roman empire, and called the territory ceded to him by Austria in 1809, viz. Carniola and all the country between the Adriatic, the Save, and the Turkish empire, his Illyrian provinces, and their inhabitants Illyrians. In the year 1815 a new kingdom of Illyria was founded as an Austrian province, comprehending Carniola, Carinthia, and Trieste with its territory. It was partly on account of this indefiniteness, that the name of Illyrians had been entirely relinquished by modern
philologists; until it was quite recently again token up by some Croatian and
Dalmatian writers. In its stead the name of Servians, or more properly Serbians, Serbs, has been adopted as a general appellation by the best authorities. See below in § 1, on the Literature of the Servians of the Greek Church. The word Srb, Serb, Sorab, has been alternately derived from Srp, scythe; from Siberi, Sever, north; from Sarmat; from Serbulja, a kind of shoe or sock; from servus, servant, etc. The true derivation has not yet been settled. See Dobrovsky's History of the Bohemian Language, 1818; and also his Inst. Ling. Slav. 1822.
See above, p. 9 sq. and the preceding note.
The Servians, however, under the government of their own energetic countryman, Prince Milosh, for some years enjoyed a certain degree of freedom, which no doubt has had good results for the mental life of the nation. A good view of their country, constitution, and literature, is given in a modern German work: Reise nach Serbien im Spätherbst 1829, by Otto von Pirch, Berlin 1830. See also Servia und Belgrade in 1843-44, by A.A. Paton, Lond. 1845.
See Schaffarik Gesch. p. 217.
These statutes were first printed by Raitch, in his great work on Slavic history (see Note 8); and translated by Engel in his History of Hungary and the adjacent Territories, Vol. 2, p. 293.
See above, in the History of the Old Slavic Language, p. 44.
There is however still another Cyrillic printing office attached to an Armenian convent in Vienna. Since the printing of Vuk's second edition of the Servian popular songs at Leipsic, several other Servian books have also been printed there. The Vladika of Montenegro has also established a printing office at his residence of Tzetinja. Vuk's "Proverbs" have been printed there.
The complete title of this valuable work is: Istorja raznich Slavenskich narodov nairatchvedshe Chorvatov, Bolgarov, i Srbov, Vienna 1792-95, 4 vols.
The writings of this very productive philologist and historian are however more remarkable for boldness and singularity of assertion, than for depth. In his Rimljani slavenstvovavshii, Buda 1818, he undertakes to derive the entire Latin language from the Slavic. In an earlier work, written 1809, he contends that the German language was a corruption of the Slavic dialects spoken on the Elbe.
The reader will find a more complete catalogue of the Servian writers and their works, in O.v. Birch's Travels; see above, p. 107, n. 3.
Narodne Serpske Poslovitze, Zetinya 1836.
See below in §2.b, Dalmatian Literature.
See more on Servian popular poetry in Part IV. The title of Vuk's collection, a part of which appeared 1814-15 at Vienna, in two small volumes, is Narodm Srpske pjesme, Lpzg 1823-24, three volumes. A fourth volume was published at Vienna 1833, with a very instructive preface. Some of these remarkable songs have been made known to the English public in Bowring's Servian Popular Poetry, London 1827. This little collection contains also an able and spirited introduction, which serves to give a clear view not only of the state of the Servians in particular, but also of the relation of the Slavic nations to each other in general; with the exception of some mistakes in respect to classification.—In Germany a general interest for Servian national poetry was excited by Goethe; see his Kunst und Alterthum, Vol. V. Nos. I and II. German translations are: Volkslieder der Serben, by Talvj, 2 vols. Halle 1825-26; from which work Bowring seems chiefly to have translated. Die Wila, by Gerhardt, 2 vols. Lpzg. 1828. These two works contain nearly all the songs published by Vuk, in his first three volumes; but only half of those he has collected. Serbische Volkslieder, by v. Götze, St. Pet. and Lpzg. 1827. Serbische Hochzeitlieder, by Eugen Wesely, 1826. A French translation of these songs does not yet exist, although they have excited a deep interest among the literati of France. The work la Guzla, published at Paris in 1827 and purporting to contain translations of Dalmatian national songs, is not genuine; it was written by the French poet Mérimée, with much talent indeed, but without any knowledge of the Servian language.
That is: Wolf, son of Stephan, belonging to the family of the Karadshians, inhabitants of a certain district or village. The Servians in Servia proper and Bosnia have not yet any family names. Those who emigrated in early years to other countries mostly adopted their fathers' names with the suffix of vitch as a family name; for instance Markovitch, Gregorovitch, i.q. Markson, Gregorson, etc. The Servian subjects of Turkey, who settle in other parts of the country, still mostly follow this rule. Vuk neglected this; and acquired therefore his literary fame under his Christian name of Vuk. But, as a father of a family and an Austrian citizen, he is called Karadshitch after his tribe; which for reasons we do not know he seems to have preferred to the name of Stephanovitch.
We must correct here a mistake made by Dr. Henderson in his Biblical Researches, in respect to the Servian New Testament. He says, p. 263, "A version of the (Servian) New Testament was indeed executed some years ago, but its merits were not of such a description as to warrant the committee of the Russian Bible Society to carry it through the press; yet, as they were deeply convinced of the importance of the object, they were induced to engage a native Servian, of the name of Athanasius Stoïkovitch to make a new translation, the printing of which was completed in the year 1825, but owing to the cessation of the Society's operations, the distribution of the copies has hitherto been retarded." Dr. Henderson probably received his information at St. Petersburg, and felt himself of course entitled to depend on it, being very likely not acquainted with the great schism in modern Servian literature above mentioned. If we may confide in our own recollections, the translation, the merits of which the committee of the Russian Bible Society was so little disposed to acknowledge, was made by Vuk Stephanovitch, who knew better than any one else the wants of the Servian people, and who presented in the above mentioned Gospel of St. Luke a specimen to the learned world, which received the approbation of all those Slavic scholars entitled to judge of the subject. The committee of St. Petersburg, however, was probably composed of gentlemen of the opposite party; as indeed the Russian Servians are, in general, advocates of the mixed Slavo-Servian language, in which for about fifty years all books for the Servians were written, and which we have described above in Schaffarik's words; see p. 108. According to their ideas of the Servian language, the mere use of the common dialect of the people was sufficient to inspire doubts of the competency of the translator; although it was for the people, the unlearned, that the translation was professedly made. They engaged in consequence Professor Stoïkovitch, the author of several Russian and Slavo-Servian books (see above p. 112), and who had been for more than twenty years in the Russian service, to make a new translation. This person, who, to judge from our personal acquaintance with him, probably on this occasion read the Gospels for the first time in his life with any attention, took the rejected version for his basis; altered it, according to his views of the dignity of the Servian language, into the customary mixed Slavo-Servian Russian idiom; and received the reward from the Society. Whether this is the version afterwards printed at Leipsic and distributed in Servia by the English Bible Society, we are not informed. From private letters we know, that in the year 1827, that Society proposed to Vuk Stephanovitch to allow him £500, if after obtaining appropriate testimonies for the correctness of his version, he would print one thousand copies in Servia; and also authorized its correspondent in Constantinople, Mr. Leeves, to arrange the matter finally with Vuk. From M. Kopitar's remark however, that the translation for the Dalmatian Roman Catholics needed only to be transcribed with Cyrillic letters to come into use among the eastern Servians, we are entitled to conclude that the version now circulated, is not such as it ought to be; and a correct one, for that part of the nation, is still a desideratum. It would seem therefore that Vuk Stephanovitch cannot have accepted the offer in question. See Kopitar's Letter to the Editor of the Bibl. Repos. Vol. III. 1833, p. 186.
The Serbianka of Milutinovitch was published at Leipsic, 1826; his History at the same place, 1837.
Pjevanija Tzernogorska i Herzegovatshka etc. izdana Josifom Milowukom, Ofen 1833—Pjevanija Tzernogorska i Herzegovatshka sabrana i izdana Tshubrom Tshoikovitckom, etc. Leipz. 1839.
Montenegro, properly Montenero, is the Italian translation of Tzernagora, Black Mountain, a name which is applied to these ranges on account of the dark colour of the rocks and woods.
More on the Vladika and on Montenegro in general, see in the recent work of Sir J.G. Wilkinson, Dalmatia and Montenegro, 2 vols. Lond. 1848. Also an article in the British and Foreign Review, July 1840, by Count Krasinski. A full and very interesting account of the country and people, is found in the little work of Vuk Stephanovitch Karadshich, Montenegro und die Montenegriner, 8vo. Stuttg. u. Tüb. 1837; published in Cotta's "Reisen u. Landerbeschreibungen der ältern u. neuern Zeit."
See above, p. 37 sq.
Kopitar, Glagolita Clozianus, Vindob. 1836.
See above, p. 41.
On the still earlier Glagolitie manuscript discovered at Trent, there was also found a note written by one of its former noble owners, that "dises puech hat Sant Jeronimuss mit aigner hant geschriben in krabatischer sprach."
A fine copy of the above splendid work is now on sale by the publisher of this volume.
Razgovor ugodni naroda slavinskoga, Venice 1759. A new edition appeared in the year 1811.
Letter of Kopitar to the Editor, Bibl. Repos. 1833, p. 136.
F. Verantii Dictionarium quinque nobiliss. Eur. Ling. Lat. Ital. Germ. Dalm. et Ung. Venice 1595. Micalia Thesaurus linguae Illyricae, etc. Ancona 1651. Delia Bella Dizionario It. Lat. Illyr. Venice 1728; later edit. Ragusa 1785. Voltiggi Riesosbronik illyriesiskoga, ital. i nimacsk, Vienna 1803. Stulli Lexicon Lat. Ital. Illyr. etc, Buda and Ragusa 1801-10, 6 vols. Prefixed to the four last works, are also grammars. Other Dalmatian grammars are: Cassii Institutiones linguae Illyricae, Rome, 1604. Appendini Grammatik der illyrischen Sprache, Ragusa 1608. Starchsevich Nuova Gramm. Illyrica, Trieste 1012. Babukich Illyrische Grammatik, Wien 1839.
See above, p. 116, 117.
See above in § 1. p. 108.
See p. 128 above.
See p. 131.—As dictionaries and grammars of this dialect are to be mentioned: Relcovich Deutsch illyrisches and illyr. deutsches Wörterb. Vienna 1796. By the same: Neue Slawonisch-deutche Grammatik, Agram 1767. Vienna 1774. Buda 1789. Lanossovich Einleitung zur Slav. Sprache, several editions from 1778-1795.
See the second volume of Engel's History of Hungary etc. Katanesich Specimen phil. et geogr. Pannon. etc. 1795. Schaffarik's Geschichte, etc. p. 226-31, 235, 265.
These two divisions of Military and Provincial Croatia constitute the modern Austrian kingdom of Croatia, which is united with that of Hungary. See For. Quart. Review, Vol. VII. p. 423 sq.
See p. 128 above.
Croatian philological works are: Einleitung zur croat. Spracklehre, Varasdin 1783. Kornig's Croat. Sprachlehre, Agram 1795. Gyurkovshky's Croat. Grammatik, 1825. Rukevina v. Liebstadt Kroatische Sprachformen, etc. Trieste 1843. Habdelich Dictionarium croat. lat. Grätz 1670. Belloszlenecz Gazophylacium s. Latino-Illyricor. etc. Agram 1740. Jambressich's Lex. Lat. interpr. illyrica, germ. etc. Agram 1742.
See Engel, etc. III p. 469.
See the Wiener Jahrbücher, 1822, Vol. XVII. See too the Glagolita Clozianus, and the article "On the Pannonian Origin of the Slavic Liturgy." See above, pp. 28, 39.
Schaffarik observes, Geschichte, p. 283, "The public library in the state-house was delivered to the Jesuits, who had just been introduced. The books which these did not commit to the flames on the spot, perished in the great conflagration in 1774, together with the edifice of their college. In all Carniola only two copies of Bohorizh's grammar are known to exist"
Grammatik der Slavischen Sprache in Krain, Kärnthen, und Steyermark, Laibach 1808.
These are: V. Vodnik's Pismenost ali gramm. saperve shole, Laib. 1811. Metelko's Lehrgelaude der Slovenischen Sprache, 1825. Schmigoz Theor. pract. wind. Sprachlehre, Gratz 1812. P. Dainko Lehrbuch der wind. Sprache, Gratz 1825. Mali Bezedniak Slovenskich, Laibach 1834.
Slovenske pjesmi Krajnskiga Naroda, Laibach 1839.
See above, pp. 27, 28.
Wiener Jahrbucher der Literatur, 1822, Vol. XVII.
More generally contracted into Böhmen.
The country along the banks of the Upper Vistula. According to other writers, Belo-Chrobatia was the name of the country on both sides of the Carpathian chain. In some old chronicles the Czekhes are said to have come from Croatia, which induced more modern historians to suppose them to have emigrated from the present Croatia; others conclude that under this name Chrobatia was understood, as these names were frequently confounded.
In his essay Ueber den Ursprung des Namen Czech, Prague and Vienna, 1782. In his later works he confirms this opinion; see Geschichte der böhmischen Sprache und alten Literatur, Prague, 1818, p. 65.
See above, pp. 6, 30.
In writing Russian and Servian names, we have adapted our orthography to the English rules of pronunciation, so far namely as English letters are able to express sounds partly unknown to all but Slavic nations. The Poles and Bohemians however, who use the same characters as the English, have a right to expect that in writing their national names in the English language, their orthography should be preserved; just as it is in the case of the French, Spaniards, Italians, etc. No English writer would change French or Spanish names according to the English principles of pronunciation. We consequently alter letters only in cases where otherwise a foreigner, unacquainted with the Bohemian language, would find an absolute impossibility of pronouncing them correctly.—In both Polish and Bohemian c is in every case pronounced like ts; hence Janocky must be pronounced Janotsky; Rokycana, Rokytsana; Ctibor, Tstibor, etc. The Bohemian cz is equivalent to the English ch in check; so in their national name, Czekhes. The vowels a, e, i, y, are every where to be pronounced as in father, they, machine, frisky.
See above, pp. 33, 34.
On the fate of the Old Slavic liturgy and language in Bohemia, see Dobrovsky's Geschichte der bohm. Sprache, etc. pp. 46-64.
According to the Pole Soltykowiez, Casimir the Great laid the foundation of the high school of Cracow as early as A.D. 1347; but it is certain, that this institution was not organized before 1400; whilst the papal privilege granted for the University of Prague is dated A.D. 1347, and the imperial charter in A.D. 1348. Jerome of Prague, one of its most celebrated professors, was invited to Cracow in 1409, to assist in the organization of that institution
See above, p. 17
See p. 21.
First communicated in the periodical Krok, Vol. I. Pt. III. p.48-61. Rokawiccki, Hanka, Czelakowsky, and Schaffarik, maintain their authenticity.
This manuscript, which was sent in anonymously at the founding of the Museum in 1818, and which Dobrovsky was at first very much inclined to think a forgery, has since been published (1840) in the first volume of a collection of the most ancient documents of the Bohemian Language, edited by Palacki and Schaffarik.
In a chamber attached to the church of Königinhof or Kralodwor. It was published by Hanka in 1819, with a translation in modern Bohemian and in German, under the title Rukopis Kralodworsky, Manuscript of Königinhof. According to Dobrovsky, who formed his judgment from the writing, this remarkable manuscript belongs to the interval from about A.D. 1290 to A.D. 1310. By the numbering of the chapters and books into which it is divided, it appears that the collection comprised three volumes; and that the manuscript thus accidentally rescued from oblivion, is only a small part of the third volume. Goethe honoured it with his peculiar attention and applause. Bowring has given some pleasing specimens of it, in his essay on Bohemian literature in the Foreign Quarterly Review, Vol. II. p. 151-153
It was first published by Jeshin, A.D. 1620; later by Prochazka, Prague 1786. The author spurned no means to reach his patriotic object, viz. to inspire his nation with hatred against the Germans. The most absurd fables came through him into the early history of Bohemia. During the late rule of prince Metternich, this work was considered by the censors as too ultra-national, and was put on the list of the forbidden books. It is only quite recently (1849), that Hanka has been allowed to publish a new edition, carefully prepared by himself after the collation of several manuscripts.
The History of Troy was one of the first works which issued from the Bohemian press, about A.D. 1476 according to Dobrovsky; and again A.D. 1488, and 1603. It was published for the fourth and last time by Kramerius in 1790. Even before it was printed, it appears to have been multiplied in a great many copies, as being a favourite book among the Bohemian knights and damsels. Its author was Guido di Colonna. See Dobrovsky's Geschichte der böhm. Sprache, p. 155. Another remarkable production of the fourteenth century is Tkadleczek, the Little Weaver, the manuscript of which is extant in several copies; but it has been printed only in an ancient German translation; see Dobrovsky, ibid. p. 157.
This work was printed in 1542; it was put into the renowned Index librorum prohibitorum first printed in 1629, and the Bohemian part last in 1767; the original author of which was the famous Jesuit Koniash, one of the most violent book-destroyers who ever lived. Not only all books written by the Hussites or their immediate predecessors, but even many catholic writers also of that period were put upon this list; e.g. the historian Hagek, translations of Æneas Sylvius, etc.
Ann, queen of England, sister to king Wenceslaus of Bohemia, possessed a Bible in Latin, German and Bohemian; to which circumstance Wickliffe alluded in one of his writings, quoted by Huss in his reply to Stockes, Tom. I. p.108. See Dobrovsky's Gesch. der böhm. Sprache, p.142.
The Bohemians, like the Germans, adopted the Latin alphabet; but the former, receiving it from the Germans, adopted it in the corrupted form of these latter, viz. they imitated the Gothic letters, so called, in which also all ancient Bohemian books are printed. In modern times the genuine Roman letters have nearly supplanted them; to which several different signs are added to adapt them to the Slavic sounds. The Bohemian alphabet can only be said to have forty-two letters, in so far as the same letter with or without a sign can be considered as two different letters. The English alphabet would be almost without number, if all the three or four modes of pronunciation connected with one and the same letter in that language, were indicated by certain signs, and these signs made three or four letters out of one.
The Bohemian writings of Huss are extant partly in manuscript, partly in single printed pamphlets, but have never been collected. They consist of sermons, hymns, letters to his friends, postillae, and other interpretations of the Scriptures, etc. His complete Latin works were first printed in Wittenberg 1558, and repeatedly afterwards. They contain many pieces which were originally written in Bohemian; as were also the letters which Luther caused to be printed with a preface of his own, Wittenberg 1536. Luther translated several of his hymns. The letters written by Huss from the prison at Constance are the expressions of a pure and elevated mind, and present the best evidence of his spotless Christian character. Some of them might serve as beautiful specimens of the sublime.
These interesting letters, containing all the circumstances of Jerome's last days and death, his eloquent speeches before the Council and a full account of the despicable conduct of his accusers, may be found at large in Shepherd's Life of Poggio Bracciolini.
See Dobrovsky's Geschichte der böhm, Sprache, p. 201.
In a polemic satirical pamphlet the question was started: "Master, tell me what birds are the best, those which eat and drink, or those which eat and do not drink? and why are those which eat but do not drink, enemies to those which eat and drink?" A Latin pamphlet which decided for those which do not drink, was followed by a Bohemian refutation.
This manuscript, one of the most remarkable of the age, is in the library of Jena. It has not less than eighty-eight pictures, partly on paper, partly on parchment; and besides this forty-one smaller figures, scattered through the text itself. See Dobrovsky's Reise nach Schweden, p. 7; also his Geschichte der böhm. Sprache. p. 235.
By whole Bibles are here intended also those manuscripts, of which, although in their present state incomplete, it is presumed that the missing parts were lost accidentally. The New Testaments also are not all of them perfect. Of single biblical books, manuscripts of the Psalms are found the most frequently. See Dobrovsky's Lit. Magazin für Böhmen. Reise nach Schweden, p. 57. Geschichte der böhm. Spracke, p. 211.
Vict. Cornelius of Wshehrd composed in 1495 a work in nine books, "On the Statutes, Courts of justice, and Legislature (Landtafel) of Bohemia," which is the most celebrated among several similar works of this period, and was in its time indispensable to the Bohemian lawyer. It has since been published, 1841. The same learned individual translated Cyprian, Chrysostom, etc. See Dobrovsky's Geschicte der böhm, Sprache.
See his Historie literatury Czeske, Prague 1825, p 49, 68. Schaffarik agrees with him. Pelzel presumed that the letter of Huss, of 1459, was printed in some foreign country by a travelling Bohemian.
Other Bohemian Bibles are: Venice 1506, fol. Prague 1527, fol. ib. 1537, fol. Nürnberg 1540, fol. Prague 1549, fol. ib. 1556-57. ib. 1561. fol. the same edition with a new title, ib. 1570, fol. Kralicz 1579-98, 6 vols. sm. fol. prepared by the United Brethren, the first from the original languages. Without place 1596, 8vo. by the same. Without place 1613, fol. by the same. Prague 1613, fol. for the Utraquists. Prague N. Test. 1677. Old Test. 1712-15, 3 vols. fol. for Roman Catholics. Halle 1722, 8vo. for Protestants. Halle 1745, 8vo. for the same. Halle 1766, 8vo. for the same. Prague 1769-71, 3 vols. fol. for Roman Catholics. Prague 1778-80, 2 vols. 8vo. for the same. Pressburg 1786-87, 8vo for Protestants. Prague 1804, 8vo. for Roman Catholics. Berlin 1807, 8vo. by the Bible Society. Pressburg 1808, 8vo. for Protestants. Berlin 1813, by the Bible Society.
At Venice; see the preceding note. Dobrovsky calls it a splendid edition, and thinks the reason why the Bohemians had it printed at Venice was, that it could not have been executed so well in Bohemia. Gesch. der böhm. Sprache, p. 343.
The Picardites, or Picards, who are also called Adamites, existed as early as 1491, when Zhizhka crushed them, without annihilating them entirely; the Utraquists detested them because they denied the doctrine of transubstantiation, although they agreed with them in their general principles. They were frequently confounded with the Taborites, among whom at last the remnants of them became lost. The Grubenheimer were the remnants of the Waldenses, who fled to Bohemia in the middle of the 14th century; where, under persecution and ridicule, they used to hide themselves in caves and pits, Gruben; hence their name. Under the shield of the Reformation they thought themselves safe; but met only with new oppressors and persecutors. There were numerous other sects, and still more different names of one and the same sect. A sect of the Taborites, for instance, founded by Nicholas Wlasenicky, were alternately called Miculassenci (i.e. Nicolaites, the Bohemian form for Nicholas being Miculass), or Wlasenitzi, from his name; Pecynowshi, from the place of their meetings; and Plachtiwi, i.e. the crying, from their manner. See Dobrovsky's Gesch. der böhm. Sprache, p. 234. It may be the place here to remark, that the Calixlins or Utraquists, although at first decidedly against the infallibility of the pope, nevertheless in forming the compact of Basle, submitted in the main to the doctrine of Rome, with these four conditions; viz. the free distribution of the Bible to the people; the administration of the sacrament in both kinds; reform of the clergy after the pattern of the Apostles; and punishment for "mortal sins" in proportion to their enormity.
His full name was George Hruby Gelenshky. This patriotic and active individual translated and published a whole series of valuable books; among which we mention only Petrarch's Letters, Cicero's Lælius and Paradoxa, several works of Jovian, etc. Nicholas Konacz followed in the same path. He translated the Bohemian History of Æneas Sylvius, two dialogues of Lucian, and wrote, edited, and printed other meritorious and elaborate works.
This venerable man was ten years president or bishop (Zprawce) of the United Brethren; and his whole life appears to have been devoted to religious purposes. He prepared the hymn-book in use among all the congregations of the Brethren; wrote an interpretation of the Apocalypse, 1501; of the Psalms, 1505; a treatise on Hope, 1503; on Oaths, etc. His writings, most of which are replete with erudition, are enumerated in Dobrovsky's Gesch. der böhm. Sprache, pp. 238, 239, 372, 378, 379.
See page 189.
The five last named were banished in 1621.
Simon Lomnicky of Budecz, was court poet; and in addition to the poetical crown, his talents procured him a patent of nobility. He wrote twenty-eight volumes, most of which are printed. For more general information respecting his works, and those of the other writers here mentioned, we must refer our readers to Jungmann's Historie Literatury Czeske, Prague, 1825, and Schaffarik's often cited work.
See the two works named in the preceding note.
Balbin was professor of rhetoric at Prague. His works are of importance for the literary history of Bohemia: Epitome rer. Bohem. Prague 1677. Miscellanea hist rer. Bohem. Prague 1680-88. After his death Unger edited in 1777-80 his Bohemia docta, and Pelzel in 1775 his Dissertatio apologetica pro lingua Slavonica, præcipue Bohemica. See below under the fifth period of Bohemian literature, near the beginning.
One of Comenius's works: Labirynt swieta a rag srdce, i.e. the World's Labyrinth and the Heart's Paradise, reminds us strongly of Bunyan's celebrated Pilgrim's Progress. It was first published at Prague, 1631, in 4to; and after several editions in other places, it was last printed at the same city in 1809, 12mo. His Latin works were printed at Amsterdam in 1657, under the title Opera didactica.
See above p. 154.
See above, p. 197.
J. Negedly translated the Iliad, and also Young's Night Thoughts under the name of Kwileni, Lamentations. He and his brother Adalbert are also favourably known as lyric poets. A series of new translations of the Classics in their original measures has recently been prepared; in which a Bohemian version of the Iliad by J. Wlckowski (Prague 1842), forms the first volume.
In the year 1795; the fifth and last volume appeared in 1804. Bowring has given several specimens of this collection in the For. Quart. Review, Vol. II. p. 145.
For. Quart. Review, Vol. II. p. 167.
The celebrated manuscript of Königinhof; see above, pp. 157, 158.
Dobrovsky's principal works are the following: Script. rer. Bohem. (with Pelzel) Prague 1784. Böhm. und Mähr. Literatur, Prague 1779-84. Lit. Magazin fur Böhmen und Mähren, 1786-87. Lit. Nachricten von einer Reise nach Scheweden und Russland, Prague 1796. Geschichte der böhm. Sprache und Lit. Prague 1792; new edition much altered, ib. 1818. Slavin, Prague 1808; new improved edition by W. Hanka, Prague 1834. Slovanka, Prague 1814-15. Lehrgebäude der böhm. Sprache, Prague 1809, 1819. Etymologican, Prague 1813. Deutsch-böhm. Wörterb. 1802-21. Institutiones Linguae Slav. Vienna 1822. Kyrill und Method, Prague 1823. Also a great number of smaller treatises, essays, reviews, either printed separately or in periodicals.
A collection of poems by this author recently appeared under the title Pownenky no cestach Zivota, od Waclawa Stulce, Prague 1845, which has been translated into German: Errinnerungsblumen auf dem Lebenswege, aus den Neuczechischen, von J. Wenzig, Prague 1846.
Grundzüge der Böhmischen Alterthumskunde, Prague 1845. Jordan's History of Bohemia is also written in German.
Victorina Kornelia ze Wshehrd, Knitry dewatery prawiech o siediech i o dskoch zeme Céké, Prague 1841, edited by W. Hanka. It is the work mentioned above, p.180, n.25.
For several beautiful specimens of this poet, see Bowring's Essay on Bohemian Literature, in the Foreign Quart. Rev. Vol. II.
See p. 86 above.
Schaffarik's principal works are: A Collection of Bohemian Poems, published at Leutschau 1814; also another of Slovakian Popular Poetry, printed at Pesth 1833. Along with Palacky he published: Ansangsgründe der Böhmischen Dichtkunst, Pressburg 1818. His Geschichte der Slav. Sprache und Literatur appeared at Ofen 1826; and two years later at the same place a work Ueber die Abkunst der Slaven, 1828; also Serbische Lesekörner, 1833. The title of his great work on Slavic Antiquities is Slovanske Starozitnosti, Prague 1837. A German translation appeared under the title, Schaffarik's Slavische Alterthümer, aus dem Böhm. von Aehrenfeld, herausgeg. v. Wutke, Leipzig 1844. See a notice of this work in For. Quart. Rev. Vol. XXVI. No. 51.
Palacky's Bohemian works, besides the various productions of his youth, and many valuable articles in the Journal of the Museum both in German and Bohemian, are the following: Aelteste Documente der Böhmischen Sprache, Prague 1840. Literärische Reise nach Italien in 1837, with Schaffarik, Prague 1838. Geschichte von Böhmen, Th. I. Prague 1836; in Bohemian, Dejing narodu Czeského, I. Prague 1848.
For more complete information in respect to Bohemian literature, a knowledge of one of the Slavic idioms or of the German language is absolutely required; we know of nothing written on this subject in the English language, except the article of Bowring already cited. This gives an able survey of the poetical part of the literature, but does not profess to cover the whole ground.—The grammatical and lexical part of the Bohemian literature is uncommonly rich, and exhibits no small mass of talent. We confine ourselves to citing the titles of those written in German or Latin. No helps in English or French for learning the Bohemian language, so far as we know, ever existed.—GRAMMARS. Kurze, Unterweisung beyder Sprachen, teutsch und bömisch, Pilsen 1531, and several later editions. Klatowsky Bömisch-deutche Gespräche, Prague 1540, and several later editions. B. Optat Anleitung zur böhm. Orthogr. etc, 1533, Prague 1588 and 1643. Beneshowsky Gram. Bohem. Prague 1577. Benedict a Nudhozer Gram. Bohem. Prague 1603. Drachowsky Gramm. Bohem. Olmütz 1660. Constantin's Lima linguae Bohem. Prague 1667. Principia linguae Bohem. 1670-80; new edition 1783. Jandit Gramm. ling. Bohem. Prague 1704, seven new editions to 1753. Dolezal Gramm. Slavico-bohem. Pressburg 1746. Pohl Böhmische Sprachkunst, Vienna 1756, five editions to 1783. Tham Böhm. Sprachlehre, Prague 1785; also his Böhm. Grammatik, 1798-1804. Pelzel Grandsätze der böhm. Sprache, Prague 1797-98. Negedly Böhm. Grammatik, Prague 1804, fourth edition 1830. Dobrovsky's Lehrgebdude der böhm. Sprache, Prague 1809, second edition 1819. Koneczny Anleitung zur Erlernung der Böhm. Sprache, Prague 1846.—DICTIONARIES. Of these we mention only such as would aid persons who wish to learn the language so far as to read Bohemian books; referring the reader for an enumeration of the others to Schaffarik's Gesch. p. 301. Weleslawin Sylva quadrilinguis, Prague 1598. Gazophylacium bohem. lat. graec. germ. Prague 1671. Rohn Böhmisch-lat. deutscher Nomenclator, Prague 1764-68. Tham Böhmisch-deutsches National-lexicon Prague 1805-7. Also his Deutsch-böhmisches und Bohmisch-deutsches Taschenwörterbuch, Prague 1818. Tomsa Böhm. deutsch-lat. Wörterbuch, Prague 1791. Palkowicz Böhmisch-deutsch-lateinisches Wörterbuch, Pressburg 1821. Koneczny Böhmish-Deutsches und Deutsch-Böhm. Taschenwörterbuch, Prague 1846. The same, Handbuch der Böhmischen Sprache, Prague 1847.
We have seen in the history of the Old Slavic language, that on account of the great similarity of the old Slavic and the Slovakish dialects, both in respect to form and grammatical structure and in the meaning of words, it has been maintained by several philologists, that the language of Cyril's translation of the Bible was in the translator's time the Moravian Slovakian dialect. See above, p. 27.
See above, p. 143.
Geschichte der slavischen Sprache, etc. p. 377. G. Palcowicz, who bought this manuscript, has inserted a large number of Slovakish provincialisms in his Bohemian dictionary.
See the same work, p. 381.
More modern Slovakish popular songs are to be found in Czelakowsky's collection, Slowanske narodni pisne, Prague 1822, 1827; also in Pisnie swietske lidu slowenskeho w Uhrich, Pesth 1823, edited by Schaffarik. The little work Slavische Volkslieder, by Wenzig, Halle 1830, contains sixteen Slovakish songs, mostly taken from Czelakowsky's work, in a German translation. A large collection of Slovakish popular poetry was made in 1834 by the distinguished poet J. Kollar. It is said to contain 2300 pieces.
See Schlözer's edition of Nestor, Vol. II. p. 76, 97. Jazyk signifies in Slavic, lingua, tongue.
See Geschichte der sl. Spr. p. 383.
Pages 199, 205.
The same individual who caused the Dalmatian Bible to be printed; see p. 131 above.
These two individuals of the same baptismal and family names, George Palkowicz, both following the same pursuits, and both not without desert in respect to their countrymen, but nevertheless serving opposite interests according to their different views, must not be confounded. Professor Palkowicz prepared a new edition of the Bohemian Bible for the Slovaks; see p. 205 above. Canon Palkowicz translated the Scriptures into the Slovakian dialect. Professor P. published a Bohemian dictionary, see pp. 205, 212; Canon P. the fourth volume of Bernolak's Slovakian lexicon, as said in the text above.
See pp. 199, 205.
There does not yet exist a philological work, from which a complete knowledge of the Slovakian language, in its different dialects, could be obtained. The following works of Bernolak regard chiefly the Slovakish-Moravian dialect: Grammatica Slavica, Posonii 1790. Dissertatio de literis Slavorum, Posonii 1783. Etymologia vocum Slavicarum, Tyrnau 1791. Lexicon Slav. Lot. Germ. Hung. Buda 1825.
On the origin of these tribes, which seem to have been kindred nations with the ancient Livonians, Esthonians, and Borussians, many hypotheses have been started, but the truth has not yet been sufficiently ascertained. It seems evident to us, that they are not of Slavic origin; although this has been maintained by many historians, who were misled by local circumstances. Even Schaffarik in his Antiquities regards them as originally a Slavic race. See Parrot's Versuch einer Entwickelung der Sprache, Abstammung, etc. der Liven, Letten, etc. The Foreign Quarterly Review contains an interesting essay on Lettish popular poetry, Vol. VIII. p. 61.
Kopitar, in his review of Schaffarik's Geschichte, declares this etymological derivation to be a mistake; without however giving any other explanation of the name Lekh. Wiener Jahrbücher, Vol. XXXVII. 1827. According to Schaffarik in his Slav. Antiquities, Lekh, like Czekh, means a leader, a high officer.
See pp. 36, 43.
See Bentkowski's Hist. literatury Polsk. Warsaw 1814.
The statistical information respecting the Russian-Polish provinces is very imperfect, and contains the most striking contradictions. Benken gives the number of inhabitants at four millions; Wichmann in 1813, at 6,380,000; Arsenjef at seven millions. According to Brömsen's Russland und das rüssische Reich, Berl. 1819, there are not more than 850,000 Poles among them, nearly all noblemen; the lower classes are Russniaks and Lithuanians. In our statement of the number of Poles in these provinces, we have followed Schaffarik.
See above, p. 51; also, pp. 59, 60, n. 17.
These statements seem to disagree with those of Hassel, which rest on the authority of the returns of 1820. He states that Austrian Poland has 4,226,969 inhabitants; Prussian Poland, 2,584,124. The population of the former consists however of a large proportion of Russniaks, and more especially of Jews; the latter has a similar proportion of German inhabitants.
Other private estimates make them not more than seven millions.
We doubt whether any but Slavic organs would be able to pronounce the name of the place, to which the college of Zamose was removed. It is written Szczebrzeszyn.
Zaluski and Minasovrez wrote verses with counted not measured syllables, without rhyme; Przybylski's and Staszye's translations of Homer are in hexameters. That rhyme is not natural to the Polish language, is evident from the ancient popular poetry of the other Slavic nations; which are all without rhyme. The author of the work Volkslieder der Polen, assumes the absence of rhyme in some of them as a proof of their antiquity. Of Slavic popular songs only those of the Malo-Russians or Ruthenians are rhymed; and none of these lay claim to great antiquity.
This song, called Boga Rodzica, can be named a war-song, only because the Poles used to sing it when advancing to battle. It is rather a prayer to the Virgin, ending with a sixfold Amen. In a poetical respect it has no value. It is printed in Bowring's Specimens of the Polish Poets, p. 12; together with the music, copied from a manuscript which is said to be from the twelfth century. No translation is added. It is remarkable that this hymn is still sung, or at least was so in the year 1812, in the churches of the places where St. Adalbert lived and died, viz. at Kola and Gnesen. Niemcewicz, who published it, states that he himself heard it at that time at the latter place.
See Schaffarik's Geschichte der Slav. Sprache, p. 421.
A History of the University of Cracow was recently published by Prof. Muczkowski, under the modest title: Mieszkania i postepowanie, etc. i.e. 'On the dwellings and the conduct of the Students of the University of Cracow in former centuries,' Cracow 1842. Vol. I. The work was planned for ten volumes.
Aelteste Denkmäler der Polnischen Sprache, Wien 1838.
Dobrovsky's Slovanka, Vol. II. p. 237.
His Chronicon Polonorum was reprinted at Warsaw in 1824; together with Vincent Kadlubeck's Res gestae principum ac regum Poloniae.
Among these sects were the Unitarians, called also Anti-trinitarians, modern Arians, and afterwards Socinians. They called themselves Polish Brethren. Their principal school and printing office was at Racow; several of their teachers were distinguished for learning, their communities were wealthy and flourishing, and not a few of the highest families of Poland belonged to them. The doctrines of the two exiled Italians, Lelio and Fausto Socini, uncle and nephew, found among them only a conditional approbation; most of them were unwilling to receive Fausto, who developed his views more openly than his uncle, into their community. Internal dissensions were the result, and the establishment of new and smaller congregations. A disturbance among the Students at Racow in 1638, gave to the Catholics and to the other Protestants a welcome pretext for persecuting them; in 1658 their denomination was ultimately suppressed, and the choice left to them between the adoption of the Roman Catholic religion or exile within three years. A part of them emigrated to Germany, where they were soon merged in other Protestant denominations; others went to Transylvania, where the Unitarians, about fifty thousand in number, belonged and still belong to the denominations acknowledged by the state, and enjoy all civil rights. They have two high schools, at Klausenburg and at Thoarda; but are far from being distinguished for learning. See Meusel's Staatengeschicte, p. 555. Lubienieci Historia Reformationis Polanicae, etc. etc.
An enumeration of the Polish versions of the Bible may be acceptable to the reader. The New Testament was first translated by the Lutheran Seklucyan, who was a Greek scholar, and printed at Königsberg 1551, three times reprinted before 1555. Afterwards for Catholics by Leonard, from the Vulgate, reviewed by Leopolita, Cracow 1556. Of the Old Testament, the Psalter alone was several times translated and repeatedly printed. The whole Bible was first translated for the Catholics by Leonard, from the Vulgate, and reviewed by Leopolita, Cracow 1561, reprinted in 1575 and 1577. Two years later by an anonymous translator from the original languages, for Calvinists, Brzesc 1563. Again from the original languages by Budny, an Unitarian clergyman, 1570, reprinted in 1572. From the Vulgate by the Jesuit Wuiek, Cracow 1599, reprinted at Breslau in 1740 in 8vo, and 1771 in 4to, with the Latin text. From the original languages by Paliurus, Wengiersciua, and Micolaievius, for Calvimsts, Dantzic 1632, the first Bible in 8vo, all the former being in fol. or 4to; reprinted at Amsterdam 1660, at Halle 1726, at Königsberg 1738, 1779, and at Berlin 1810, by the Bibie Society. See Ringeltaube's Nachricht von den polnischen Bibeln, Danz. 1744. Bentkowski's Hist, liter. Pol. Vol. II. p. 494. Slovanka Vol. I. p. 141. Vol. II. p. 228. Schaffarik's Geschichte der Slav. Spr. p. 424.
The Polish senate was not a body, the members of which were elected for a certain term; as those not acquainted with the Polish constitution might be disposed to believe. It was composed of all the archbishops and bishops, the waiwodes and castellans, i.e. the titled nobility, and the principal ministers of the king. It was thus in some measure the organ of the government and of the clergy, in opposition to the national representatives or the mass of the nobility. This body was not established until towards the close of the fifteenth century. Before 1466-70, every nobleman who chose, made his personal appearance in the senate at the summons of the king; but Casimir, the son of Jagello, in his frequent want of money and men, repeated these summons so often, that the nobility found personal appearance inconvenient, and selected in their provincial conventions nuntii, to represent the nation, or rather the nobility; without however giving up the right of personal attendance. The nuntii, whose number was not fixed, were bound to appear, had the right to grant or to refuse duties, and to act as the advisers of the king. In 1505 the law was passed, that without their consent the constitution could not be changed. At the diet in A.D. 1652 it occurred for the first time, that a single nuntius opposed and annulled by his liberum veto the united resolutions of the whole convention. On this example a regular right was very soon founded and acknowledged. Deputies of cities were occasionally invited to the diet, but only in extraordinary cases.
Preface to Vuk's Servian Grammar, p. xxiii.
See Schaffarik, Geschichte, p. 414, Bautkie's Geschichte der Krakauer Buchdruckereyen.
It was afterwards reinstated in the form of a large gymnasium by one of chancellor Zamoyski's descendants, and removed to Szczebrzeszyn. See Letter on Poland, Edinb. 1823, p. 95.
See Schaffarik, Geschichte, p. 426.
Whether Copernicus is to be called a Pole or a German has been and is still a matter of dispute, and has been managed on the side of the Poles with the utmost bitterness and passion. The Poles have recently given expression to their claim upon him by erecting to him a monument at Cracow, and celebrating the third centennial anniversary of the completion of his system of the world, which took place in A.D. 1530. Let the question respecting Copernicus be decided as it may, Poland may doubtless lay claim to many other eminent natural philosophers as her sons; e.g. Vitellio-Ciolek, who was the first in Europe to investigate the theory of light, in the beginning of the thirteenth century; Brudzewski, the teacher of Copernicus; Martinus of Olkusz, the proper author of the new or Gregorian calendar, which was introduced sixty-four years after him, etc.
See Macherzynski's Geschichte der Luteinischen Sprache in Polen, Cracow 1833. Dr. Connor in his History of Poland, 1698, speaking of the following period, says, that even the common people in Poland spoke Latin, and that his servant used to speak with him in that language. See Letters on Poland, Edinb. 1823 p 108.
De originibus et rebus gestis Polonorum, lib. XXX.
Psalterz Dawidow s modlitwami, 1555.
The Polish works of this poet, who is still considered as the chief ornament of the Polish Parnassus, were first collected in four volumes, Cracow 1584-90. After going through several editions, they have recently been printed at Breslau, 1894, in a stereotype edition. Bowring gives among his 'Specimens' some of the sweetest pieces of Kochanowski.
The oldest edition extant of his Polish pastorals, was printed at Zamosc, 1614, under the title Sielanki. They were last printed, together with other eclogues, in the collection of Mostowski, Sielanki Polskie, Warsaw 1805. There are some specimens of his poetry in Bowring's work.
This latter was honoured by his countrymen with the title of the Sarmatian Ovid; but his pieces, according to Bowring, are not only licentious, but also vulgar. See Specimen of the Polish Poets, p. 29.
The same individual has been mentioned as a Bohemian writer; see above, p. 193.
32, 33, 34: See above, p. 237, 238, n. 18.
This work was first printed at Cracow in 1597, under the title Kronika Polska. The first part of it was republished at Warsaw in 1832, forming the sixth volume of the great collection of ancient Polish authors published by the bookseller Galezowski.
For more complete information respecting the writers of this period, see Bentkowaki's Hist. lit. Pol Vol. I. Schaffarik's Gechichte, etc.
We mean the direct male descendants of Jagello; for descendants by the female and collateral lines occupied the throne after Stephen Bathory. Poland had never been by law an hereditary kingdom; but in most cases one of the sons or brothers of the last king was elected.
These pacta conventa, to which numerous articles were afterwards added, not only limiled the king in his quality as king, but even also as a private man, in a degree to which no freeman would willingly submit. For example, he was not allowed to marry except with the consent of the diet; and as each single nuntius had the right to oppose and render void the resolutions of the united estates by his liberum veto, the king could not marry whenever it occurred to any one of them to withhold his consent. In 1669 it was resolved, that no king should be allowed to abdicate.
Korona Polska, Lemberg 1728-1743.
In 1764; it was the first periodical ever published in Poland.
See page 227 above.
The Polish serfs were indeed never regular slaves; but merely glebae adscripti, i.e. they could not be sold separately as mere things, but only with the soil they cultivated, which they had no right to leave. They were not reduced even to this state before the fifteenth or sixteenth century; for one of the statutes of Casimir the Great allows them the privilege of selling their property and leaving whenever they were ill treated. Of the present state of the Polish peasantry, the author of "Poland under the dominion of Russia," (Bost. 1834,) says: "The Polish peasant might perhaps be about as free as my dog was in Warsaw; for I certainly should not have prevented the animal from learning, had he been so inclined, some tricks by which he could earn the reward of an extra bone. The freedom of the wretched Polish serfs is much the same as the freedom of their cattle; for they are brought up with as little of human cultivation," etc. p. 165. And again: "The Polish serf is in every part of the country extremely poor, and of all the living creatures I have met with in this world, or seen described in books of natural history, he is the most wretched." p. 176.
Lemberg indeed can hardly be called a Polish university. All its professors are Germans, and the lectures are delivered in Latin or German. It has only three faculties, viz. the philosophical, theological, and juridical. For medicine it has only a preparatory school, the course being finished at Vienna. Among the 65 medical students of 1832, there were 41 Jews. The university had in that year, in all, 1291 students. For the theological and juridical courses, which, according to law, comprise each four years, a previous preparation of two years spent in philosophical studies is required by the government. Thus the regular course of an Austrian student lasts six years. The same measures were taken to Germanize Cracow during the Austrian administration; but when in 1815 Cracow became a free city, it parted with all its German professors, and became again a genuine Polish university.
From the account given of the state of the Polish common people in note 42 above, we must conclude that this number is very small. Mr. Ljach Szyrma, the author of Letters on Poland, (Edinb. 1823,) says: "The lower classes, unfortunately, do not enjoy the advantage of being proportionally benefited by the learning requisite to their social condition. The parish schools are not sufficient to improve them in this respect; and the village schools, upon which their hopes chiefly rest, are not numerous."
Witwicki in Wieczory pielgrzyma, Paris 1837.
P. 254.
His works, which have never been collected, are enumerated in Bentkowski's History of Polish literature. Konarski was the first who ventured publicly to assail the liberum veto.
Nancy 1733.
This celebrated library was transferred to St. Petersburg at the dismemberment of Poland, and had not yet been restored.
The Czartoryskis may justly be called the Polish Medici, from the liberal patronage which the accomplished members of this family have ever given to talent and literary merit. Their celebrated seat, Pulawi, the subject of many songs, and also of an episode in Delille's Jardins, was destroyed by the Russians in the late war, and its literary treasures are said to have been carried to St. Petersburg.
The title of the former work is O wymowie i stylu, Warsaw 1815-16. Another work is Pochwaly, mowy i rozprowy, i.e. Eulogies, Speeches, and Essays, among which are nine on Polish literature, Warsaw 1816. Stanislaus Potocki was also the principal mover in the publication of the splendid work Monumenta regum Poloniæ Cracoviensia, Warsaw 1822. Stanislaus Kostka P. must not be confounded with Stanislaus Felix P. his cousin, one of the most obstinate advocates of the ancient constitution and its corruptions, who sold his country to Russia.
His complete works are to be found in the great collection of count Mostowski, Warsaw 1804-5, 12 volumes. They appeared in 1824 at Breslau in a stereotype edition, in six volumes. Poetical works, Warsaw 1778.
Lelewel is the author of quite a number of historical productions of importance; and some others he published or translated. A catalogue of his works cannot be expected here. The most celebrated are his volume on the primitive Lithuanians (Wilna 1808); on the condition of Science and Arts in Poland before the invention of printing; on the Geography of the Ancients; on the Commerce of the Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Romans; on the history of the ancient Indians; on the discoveries of the Carthaginians and Greeks (Warsaw 1829), etc. Also a Polish Bibliography (Warsaw 1823-1826); Monuments of the language and constitution of Poland, Warsaw 1824, etc.
See the preceding note.
O Slawianach i ich pobratymcach, Warsaw 1816.
Bentkowski's Historya literatury Polsk. Warsaw 1814, contains a catalogue of all works published on Polish literature, to 1814; sec Vol. I p. 1-73.
Krasicki's complete works were published by Dmochowski, Warsaw 1803-4. A stereotype edition appeared at Breslau in 1824.
P. 221 Niemcewicz'a works have not yet been collected. Of his Spiewy historyene, or 'Historical Songs,' Warsaw 1819, Bowring gives
some specimens. These songs were set to music by distinguished Polish composers,
especially ladies; and, on account of their deep patriotic interest, have reached a higher degree of popularity than any other Polish work. They were written at the instigation of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Science. Besides his two historical works, Dzicie panowania Zygmunta III, or Reign of Sigismund III, Warsaw 1819, and Zbior pamietnikow, etc. a collection of imprinted documents, Warsaw 1822; and his large historical novel Jan z Teczyna, Warsaw 1825; Niemcewicz published Leyba i Szora, or Letters of Polish Jews, Warsaw 1821, presenting an illustration of their situation. His most recent production, an elegiac poem, was published at Leipzig 1833. See below, p. 286.
The fourth volume appeared at Paris; where also his earlier poetry was reprinted in 1828 under the title Poezye Adama Mickiewicza.
Author of the work Die Philosophie in ihrem Verhaltnisse zum Leben ganzer Võlker, Erlangen 1822.
The first wrote Grundlage der universellen Philosophie, Karlsruh 1837; the second, Prolegomena zur Historiosophie, Berlin 1838.
See Dr. Connor's History of Poland, 1698. Even as late as the close of the seventeenth century, the Poles were barbarians enough to look upon the profession of a physician with contempt. They had however in earlier times some very celebrated physicians, as Martin of Olkusc, Felix of Lowicz, and Struthius, who was called to Spain to save the life of Philip II, and even to the Turkish sultan Suliman II.
Page 278.
This code is frequently called the code of Leo Sapieha, the sub-chancellor of Lithuania, who in A.D. 1588 translated it from the White Russian into the Polish language.
See Revue Encyclopédique, Oct. 1827, p. 219.
See Letters on Poland, p. 103.
Breslau 1821. The same author published John Sobieski's Letters, a work read throughout all Europe in its French translation by count Plater and Salvandy. A whole series of Memoirs, among which are some of great importance for Polish history, for instance those of Passek, of Wybicki, of Kolontaj, etc. owe their publication to the generous liberality of this true nobleman.
We do not know exactly from what point the Polish literary historians after Bentkowski date the period of the present literature; as we have not been able to get a view of Wiszniewski's Historya literatury Polskiej, Cracow 1840. We are even not certain, whether the works on literary history, which J.B. Rakowiecki and Prof. Aloys Osinski were said to be preparing about the same time, have ever appeared.
Historya prawodawstw Slowanskich, Warsaw 1832-1835.
Pamietniki o djezach, pismiennictwie i prawodawstwie Slowian, Warsaw 1838. A German translation appeared in 1842, at St. Petersburg: Denkwürdigkeiten über die Begebnisse, das Schriftwesen, und die Gesetzgebung der Slaven.—The same author published more recently a work on the ancient history of Poland and Lithuania: Pierwotne dzieje Polski i Litwy, etc. Warsaw 1846.
Najdawniejsze pomniki praw Slowianskich, Warsaw 1838.
Muczkowski's valuable History of the University of Cracow has been mentioned above, p. 232.
Starozytnosci historyczne Polskie, Cracow 1840.
Starozytnosci Gallicyiskie, Cracow 1841.
Rzut okana zrodta Archæologii Krajowej, Wilna 1842.
Published at the same time in French: Meduilles de Pologne etc., Posen 1838; a splendid work.
Kodex diplomatyczny Polski, Warsaw 1847.
This is the appellation of the Lutherans in Poland.
Historical Sketch of the rise, progress, and decline of the Reformation in Poland, and of the influence which the Scriptural doctrines have exercised on that country in literary, moral, and political respects. By Count Valerian Krasinski. Vol. I. Lond. 1838.
Wiadamosci o Syberyi przcz J.K. 1838.
O Literaturze Polskiey w wieku dziewietnastym, Warsaw 1830; published a few days before the outbreak of the Revolution.
Wizerunki Duszy narodowej, Paris 1847.
Wieczory pielgrzyma, Paris 1837.
This work appeared at the same time in German, accompanied with a preface by the author, written expressly for the German edition. The German title is Vorlesungen über Slavische Literatur und Zustände in den Jahren 1840-1844. 4 vols. Leipzig 1843-44.
Marya, first published at Warsaw 1825; after wards in several different editions, among which may be mentioned here one prepared by Bielowski, Lemb. 1838; and one by Brockhaus and Avenarius, Leipz. and Paris 1844. A beautiful German translation appeared in the same year at Leipzig: Maria, aus dem Polnischen des A. Malczeski von K.R. Vogel.
Powiesci Kosackie, Par. 1837. A German translation by Minsberg, Glogau 1838.
Paris 1838; a German translation, Leipz. 1841.
The two latter appeared at Paris in 1838 and 1841, and were translated into French and German.
See above, p. 290.
"Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht."
Nieboska Komedya, Paris 1835; ed. 2,1837; Germ. Die ungöttliche Komödie, aus dem Polnischen von K. Batornicki, Leipz. 1841.—Irydion, Par. 1836. This latter has been twice translated into German, Leipz. 1839, and Berlin 1846.
Starozytney wiessci z XI go XVI go i XVII go wieko. The author had published a similar work before. Polish proverbs have also been collected by Knapski and Rysinski.
Zarysy domowe, Warsaw 1841; and Niewasty Polskie, Wars. 1844.
Klechdy, Starozytnye powviesci i podania ludu Polskigo i Rusi, Warsaw 1837.
Piesni ludu bielachrobatow, Mazurow i Rusiz nad Buga, Lemb 1838.
Duma, Dumka, means thought, and is the name of the elegaic, mostly historical, ballads of the Malo-Russian people.
See more on this subject in Part IV.
The title is Spiewy historyczne Cesarstwa Rossyiskiego, i.e. Historical songs of the Russian emperors.
The English reader will find further information on Polish literature in Bowring's Introduction to his Polish Anthology, Lond. 1827; in Ljach Szyrma's Letters on Poland, published in London; and in an article on Polish Literature in the Foreign Quarterly Review, Vol. XXV. No. 49. These are the only sources in the English language with which we are acquainted.
In grammatical and lexical works the Polish language is very rich; but the interest which the English have recently shown for the fate of the Poles seems not to extend to their language. The following are the principal works.
GRAMMARS: in German, Krumholz Polnische Grammatik, Breslau 1797, 6th edit. Auszug aus Kopczynski's Grammatik, von Polsfuss, Breslau 1794, Mrongovius Poln. Sprachlehre, Königsb 1794, and in several altered editions, under different titles; last edition Danzig 1836. Szumski's Poln. Gramm. Posen 1830. Vater's Grammatik der Poln. Sprache, Halle 1807. Bantkie Poln. Grammatik attached to his Dictionary, Breslau 1808-1824. Szrzeniawa Wortforschungslehre der polnischen Sprache, Lemberg and Lemgo 1842-43. Poplinski Polnische Grammatik, Lissa 1836; last edition 1840. Stostakowskiego Polska Gramm. Trzemeszne 1846. Schieweck Grammatik der. Polnischen Sprache, Fraustadt and Neustadt 1847. In French, Kopczynski Essai d'une grammaire Polonaise, Wars. 1807. Trambczynski Grammatique raisonnée de la langue Polonaise, new edit. Warsaw 1793.
DICTIONARIES, in German and French. The most useful are, Mrongovius Handwörterbuch der Poln. Sprachte, latest edit. Danz. 1823. Troc Franz-poln.-deutsches Wörterbuch in several editions from 1742 to 1821. J.V. Bantkie Taschenwörterbuch der Poln. Sprache, (German and French,) Breslau and Wars. in several editions from 1805 to 1819. Slownik Francusko-Polski, Dictionaire Polonais Français, Berlin and Leipzig 1839-45. Dict. Polonais-Francais, 2 vols. 18mo. Paris 1844. J.A.E. Schmidt, Nouveau Dictionaire portatif Francais et Polonais, Zerbst 1817. Polnisch-Deutsches Taschenwörterbuch, von Jordan, Leipzig 1845.—Standard works for the language are the etymological dictionaries: G.S. Bantkie Slownik dokladny iez. pol. i. niem. Breslau 1806, and Linde's Slownik iez. pol. Wars. 1807-14. For other philological works, see Schaflarik's Geschichte der Slav. Spr. p 410.
Herder, in his Volkslieder, communicated a popular ballad from this dialect. See Literatur und Kunst, Vol. VII. p. 126, edit. of 1827-30.
"On a certain day all the inhabitants of Kief were assembled on the banks of the Dnieper, and on a signal from the monarch, all plunged into the river, some to the waist, others to the neck; parents held their children in their arms while the ceremony was performed by the priests in attendance. Thus a nation received baptism, not only without murmuring, but with cheerfulness; for all were convinced that a religion, embraced by the sovereign and boyards, must necessarily be the best in the world" Foreign Quart. Review, Art. on Karamsin's History of Russia, Vol. III. p. 160. Compare Henderson's Travels in Russia, p. 191.
See Cramer's Pommersche Kirchen Historie, L I. c. 29.
Among others the peasants of the duchy of Altenburg, who are highly respectable through a certain degree of cultivation rare among German peasants, and distinguished for their wealth and prosperous condition. Although long since perfectly Germanized, certain Vendish usages have been kept up among them, more especially at weddings and similar festivals, the details of which are very interesting.
Principia linguae Vandalicae seu Wendica, Prague 1679-1682.
Didascalia sive Orthographia Vandalica, Bautzen 1689.
De Originibus linguae Sorabicae M. Abrah. Frencelij, Budiss. et Zwickau 1693-96.
Kurzgefasste Grammatik der Sorben-Wendischen Sprache, Bautzen 1828.
Grammatik der wendisch-sorbischen Sprache in der Ober Lausitz. Im Systeme Dubrovsky's abgefasst, von J.P. Jordan, Prague 1841. Here may be mentioned also, Maly Sserb, i.e. der kleine Serbe, wendische-deutsche Gesprache etc. mit einem wendisch-deutschen und deutsch-wendischen Würterbuch, etc. von J.E. Schmaler, Bautzen 1841.—There exists besides this only one Sorabian Dictionary, and this in Latin, Vocabularium latino-sorbicum, by G.A. Swotlik, Bautzen 1721.
Volkslieder der Wenden in der Ober und Nieder Lausitz, und mit den Sangweisen, deutsher Uebersetzung, etc. herausgegeben von Leopold Haupt und J.E. Schmaler, Grimma 1841, 2 vols. The second volume contains the songs in the dialect of Lower Lusatia.
Philological works on this dialect are the following: Hauptmann's Wendische Sprachlehre, Lübben 1761. Kurze Anleitung zur Wend. Sprache, 1746. Megiseri Thesaurus Polyglottus, Frankf. 1603; including the Lower Lusatian. Several vocabularies of this dialect are extant in manuscript; see Schaffarik's Geschichte, p. 486.
Volks und Meisterlieder, Frankf. a.M. 1817.
De Bello Gothico, lib. iii. c. 14.
Vol. I. p. 69.
Geschichte der Slavischen Sprache und Literatur, p. 52.
This song is among the few, which Russian critics think as ancient as the sixteenth century. See Karamzin's History of Russia, Vol. X, p. 264.
Bowring'a translation.
The piece to which we allude was in the possession of the Cardinal Albani, at Rome; but has since been carried to England. A fine copy in plaster is in the Museum at Paris; from which numerous drawings have been taken, now scattered all over Europe.
Kunst und Alterthum, Vol. II. p. 49.
9 Narodne Srpske Pjesme skup. i izd. Vuk etc. Leipz. 1824. Vol. I. p. 55. Volkslieder der Serben, von Talvj, Halle 1825. Vol. I. p. 46.
Pronounced Yelitza.
The whole of this tale is translated in Bowring's little volume of "Servian Popular Poetry."
The Greek ballad is entitled "The Journey by Night," and begins thus:
The Greek ballad is entitled "The Journey by Night," and begins thus:
Manna, me tous ennea sou uious, kai me tên mia sou korê.
'O mother, thou, with thy nine sons, and with thine only daughter.'
A Russian ballad also begins very similarly:
"At Kief, in that famous town,
Resided a rich widow;
Nine sons the widow of Kief had,
The tenth was a daughter dear."
The story however is essentially different.
See above p. 306, n. 2.
This remarkable fact is mentioned by all Russian historians, on the good authority of the ancient annalist Nestor.
"The Tshuvashes have a Penate, which they call Erich. This Erich is nothing but a bundle of broom, cytisus, tied together in the middle with the inner bark of the linden. It consists of fifteen branches of equal size, about four feet long; above is a piece of tin attached to it. Each house has such an Erich, which usually stands in a corner of the entry. Nobody ventures to touch it. When it becomes dry, a new Erich is tied together, and the old one placed in running water with great reverence." See Stimmen des Russ. Volks, von P.v. Goetze, Stuttg. 1828, page 17.—The Tshuvashes, however, are not a Slavic, but a Finnish race, living under the Russian dominion.
Dobrovsky's Slavin, 1834, p. 113.
Werke, Ausgabe letzter Hand, Vol. XLVI. p. 332.
In those four of our Russian specimens marked P, the translation is by J.G. Percival.
Page 323.
See above, p. 64.
We say, 'to judge from the language.' But their coincidence with Bohemian ballads of the thirteenth century, and various other indications (e.g. their frequent mention of the Danube), seem to vindicate, for their groundwork at least, a very high antiquity.
Stimmen des Russischen Volkes, von P.v. Goetze, Stuttg. 1848.
Slavery in Russia is comparatively of modern date.
Pjesni Russkawo Naroda, St. Petersb. 1837-39, Vol. IV. p. 29.—We would remark here, that all our specimens are translated, not by means of the German, but from the original languages, and that all the originals are (or have been) in our possession. It would have been easy to embellish these simple songs by little additions or omissions, the rhymeless ones by rhyme, and the rhymed ones by more regularity; but we could not possibly have done it without impairing the fidelity of such a version.
Both these are bad omens for a Russian girl.
Names of the street and gate in Moscow, through which formerly criminals were led to execution.
Buinaya golowushka, that is, the fierce, rebellious, impetuous head, and mogutshiya pletsha, or strong shoulders, are standing expressions in Russia, in reference to a young hero; the former, especially, when there is allusion to some traitorous action.
Sacharof's Collection, Vol. IV. p. 218; see p. 346.
That is, the Russian governments Kief, Pultava, Tshernigof, Kharkof, and Yekatrinoslav. The latter, the cradle of the present population of Malo-Russia, belongs, according to the present geographical division of the Russian empire, to Southern Russia.
The Polish poet Bogdjanski is said to have collected in the government of Pultava alone towards 8000! A great many of these consist, of course, only in variations of the same theme, owing to the failing memory of the singer. Maximovitch's Collection contains several thousand pieces.
Volkslieder der Polen gesammelt und übersezt, von W.P. Leipzig 1833. It ought to have been called Songs of the Ruthenian people in Poland.
The origin of this polite appellation is its rise in the Ivanovskoi Lake.
Towards the close of the eighteenth century, Catharine II induced great numbers of the Zaporoguean Kozaks to move to the northern shore of the Kuban, east of the Black Sea or Tshernayamora, in order to protect the border against the Circassians. They are hence called Tshernomorskii, or Black Sea Kozaks.
These affectionate feelings were gradually extended towards all the rivers of their ancient establishments. Their ballads express a tender attachment to Mother Wolga, Mother Kamyshenka, Mother Tsarytzina, etc.
See above, p. 297.
Yessaul is the name of that officer among the Kozaks, who stands immediately under the Hetman. The ballad refers to an incident which happened before 1648. It is from Sreznevski's Starina Zaporoshnaya, i.e. History of the Zaporoguean Kozaks, Kharkof 1837.
Probably John Wihowski, Hetman after Chmielnicki. After the death of this latter, he fell off from Russia, and led the Kozaks back to Poland. It seems it was he who occasioned Pushkar's death.
Manuscript.
From Czelakowski's Collection; see above, p. 216, n. 58.
From Sacharof's Collection, St. Petersb. 1839. Vol. IV. p. 497.
The reader will find an elaborate essay on the popular poetry of the Ukraine in the Foreign Quarterly Review, Vol. XXVI. No. 51. It was evidently written by one of the Polish exiles in England. In it, however, a singular mistake is made as to the derivation of the appellation of the Zaporoguean Kozaks. Porog does not mean "Island" in any Slavic language.
See a description of this national dance in Wilkinson, Dalmatia and Montenegro, I, p. 399.
A Servian woman never would sit down in the presence of her husband. At table she stands behind him, and waits on him and his guests. Even the wife of prince Milosh did so; only with the restriction that she confined her services to her husband. The Morlachians—who seem indeed to be the rudest part of the Servian population—do not mention their wives to a stranger without adding: "With your permission."
The reader will find a description of a Morlachian wedding in Wilkinson, Vol. II. p. 164 sq. For a fuller account, see Volkslieder der Serben, von Talvj, Vol. II. Introduction.
Servian popular poetry has properly no rhymes; but wherever a rhyme occasionally occurs, it appears to be welcome; so in this little piece, which is faithfully conformed to the original. All our specimens of the Servian "female" songs are taken from the first volume of Vuk's Collection. See above, p. 115.
For more specimens see Bowring's Servian Popular Poetry, Lond. 1827. These little songs are there made much more attractive by giving them an English dress with rhymes, and accommodating them to the English way of feeling and expressing feelings; a proceeding which we have purposely avoided, because our only object is a faithful translation. Dr. Bowring has moreover translated mainly from our German translation.
A mountainous region in the vicinity of Montenegro.
See the similar beginning of "Hassan Aga," p. 324 above.
See an account of this remarkable custom, from the Abbate Fortia, in Wilkinson, II. p. 178 sq.
This beautiful poem see in Vuk, III. p. 299 sq. Transl. by Talvi, II. p. 245.
As the best illustration of this remark we recommend, among other examples, the poem on the death of Meho Orugditch, Vuk, III. p. 333 sq, Transl. by Talvi, II. p. 279 sq.
From Czelakowsky's Collection; see above, p. 216, n. 58.
From Slowanske narodnj pjsne sebran. F.L. Czelakowskym, Prague 1822-27. The collection of Carniolan ballads by Achazel and Korytko, which appeared in 1839, we have not yet seen.
From Rukopis Kralodworsky, etc. wydan od W. Hanky, Prague 1835, p. 106.
Ibid. pp. 107 sq. 197 sq. 131 sq.
Taken down by Vuk from the lips of a peasant girl.
In the original, she was buried last week. The lover could hardly expect to find a new grave, if she had been buried long ago.
All our Bohemian and Slovakian specimens are taken from Czelakowsky's Collection, as we happened not to be in possession of Kollar's and Erben's later work of that kind. For the full title see p. 385, note.
See above p. 297.
Pjesni ludu Bialo Chrobatow, Mazurow i Russinow z nad Bugu zebr. przez K.W. Wojcickiego, i.e. Songs of the White Chrobatians, Masovians, and Russinians on the Bug, collected by K.W. Woicicki, Warsaw 1836. Vol. I. p. 85. See above, p. 297.
We have also two most exquisite Lithuanian ballads which treat of the same subject; one of them being the lament of a fatherless boy.
Pjesni ludu Polskiego w Galicyi zebr. Zegoia Pauli, Lemberg 1838, p. 57. See above, p. 297.
Pjesnicki hornich i delnich Luziskich Serbow, i, e, Songs of the Servians of Upper and Lower Lusatia, published by L. Haupt and J.E. Schmaler, Grimma 1844. Comp. p. 304, above.
A similar naïvete we find in a little Servian elegy. A poor girl sings: "Our Lord has of every thing his fill; but of poor people he seems to have greater plenty than of any thing else!"
There is only one letter in the Slavish Alphabet for V and W. In the personal names of those nations, which use the Cyrillic alphabet, we have written it V, according to the English pronunciation; in those belonging to nations which have adopted the Latin alphabet, we of course did not feel justified in making any alteration. The Slavic W is always pronounced like the English V.