Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations Part 14

The times indeed are somewhat changed, since Jungmann called the present literature of Bohemia "the produce of a few enthusiasts, who, exposing themselves to the hatred of their enemies and the ingrat.i.tude of their countrymen, have devoted themselves to the resuscitation of a language, neither living nor dead." Twenty-five years have brought on a great revolution; and those enthusiasts are no longer "a few." But they have still a hard combat to fight. It may be doubtful whether their strength will hold out to struggle against the torrent of time; which, in its resistless course, overwhelms the nations, and only throws their vestiges in scattered fragments on the banks, as feeble memorials to show to an inquiring posterity that they once existed.[52]

SECTION II.

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF THE SLOVAKS.

The northwestern part of Hungary is inhabited by the Slovaks, a Slavic nation, who appear to be the direct descendants of the original Slavic settlers in Europe. Numerous colonists of the same race are scattered all over the other parts of that country. The Byzantine historians, and, somewhat later, the Russian annalist Nestor, speak of the region on the north of the Danube as being the primitive seat of the Slavi.

In early times the _Sarmatae limigantes_ or _Jazyges metanastae_, nomadic tribes between the Danube and the Theiss, whose name indicates incontestably their having been Slavi,[53] are mentioned as having troubled the Byzantine empire. But they soon disappeared entirely from history, and it is not before the ninth century, when they were already Christians, that we meet them again. At that time Slovakia, in Slavic _Slovansko_, viz. the regions adjacent to the two rivers Waag and Gran, reappears as an ingredient part of the ephemeral kingdom of great Moravia. The rest of Pannonia was inhabited by other Slavic tribes, by Bulgarians, Rumelians and Khazares. In A.D. 894, the Magyars conquered Pannonia, drove back the Slovaks into the mountains, and made them tributary; whilst they themselves settled on the plains.

But although the Slovaks appear to have submitted to their fate, and to have thenceforth lived on good terms with their conquerors, it cannot unconditionally be said that the two nations were merged in each other; since, even after nearly a thousand years have pa.s.sed, they still speak different languages. The Magyars learned the arts of peace from the Slavi; who, besides being already Christians, had built many cities, and were mechanics, traders, agriculturists. All words and terms relating to these occupations, the Magyars had to obtain from them. The Slovaks on their side lost their national existence in that of their Asiatic conquerors, entered into their ranks as soldiers, and partic.i.p.ated thence-forward in all their fortunes; but the influence of the Magyars on their language could be only inconsiderable, since the circle of new ideas which the Slovaks had to receive in exchange from them, barbarians as they were, could be only very limited. The language however is the only remnant of their national existence which the Slovaks have preserved; in every other respect they belong to the Hungarian nation, of which they form an ingredient part, as the Magyars form another; and on the glory of whose valiant deeds they have an equal claim.

Hungary, traversed by two large rivers, the Danube and the Theiss, is divided into four great districts, usually called this side the Danube and beyond the Danube, this side the Theiss and beyond the Theiss. The district this side the Theiss is the princ.i.p.al seat of the Slovaks.

The counties Trencsin, Thurocz, Arva, Liptau, and Sohl, are entirely inhabited by them, amounting to about 550,000 in number. In the other counties of the same district they live more mingled with Russniaks and Magyars; and, together with the numerous Slovakish settlements which are scattered over all Hungary, are computed in all at about 1,800,000. About 1,300,000 of them are Roman Catholics, and the remaining 500,000 Protestants.

The Slovakish language, exposed through the geographical situation of the nation, to the influence of various other Slavic idioms--as the Polish, Bohemian, Malo-Russian, Servian, and Vindish--is more broken up into different dialects than perhaps any living tongue. In its original elements it is very nearly related to the Old Slavic language;[54] a fact which is easy to be explained, when we consider that the development of this language must have been the result of the primitive cultivation of the Slavi; and that the region about the Carpathian mountains, the seat of the ancient as well as of the present Slovaks, was the cradle of all the Slavic nations which are now spread over the whole of eastern Europe. Of all living Slavic tongues, the Bohemian is the nearest related to the Slovakish, especially as it appears in the oldest Bohemian writers; a circ.u.mstance which induced Dobrovsky at first to consider both languages as essentially the same; or rather to maintain, that the Slovakish was nothing more than Old Bohemian. But after entering more deeply into the subject, he found reason to regard the Slovakish idiom as a separate dialect, which forms the link of connection between the Bohemian and Croatian-Vindish dialects, or between the two princ.i.p.al divisions, the Eastern and Western stems, of the great Slavic family.[55]

To enumerate the features by which the Slovakish dialects are distinguished from the other Slavic languages, would oblige us to enter more into detail than would be acceptable to persons not acquainted with any of them; as we may suppose to be the case with most of our readers. Besides, most of the peculiarities which could be alleged as _general_ characteristics, are contradicted by so many single cases, that all general rules would be in danger of being rendered void by a plurality of exceptions. The only thing which belongs to the Slovaks alone, and is not common to any of the other Slavic tongues, is a variety of diphthongs where all the rest have simple vowels; e.g. _kuon_, horse, for _kon; lieucz_, light, for _lucz_, etc. In the counties situated on the frontiers of Galicia, the Slovakish language partic.i.p.ates in many of the peculiarities of the Polish tongue; on the frontier of Moravia, the dialect of the people approaches nearer to the vernacular idiom of that province, and consequently to the Bohemian; which has been adopted as their own literary language. On the Slovaks who live more in the interior of the country, the influence of the Magyars, or of the Transylvanian-Germans, or of the Russniaks, or of the Servians, is more or less prominent, according to their locality. The less exposed to the influence of other races, the purer of course has the proper Slovakian idiom been preserved, But even in its purest state, it has, as we mentioned above, a strong and decided resemblance to the Bohemian tongue; from which it is however distinguished by a more harmonious and pleasing sound; its vowels being fuller and occurring more frequently. But a peculiarity which distinguishes it more materially, is a treasure of words and phrases obsolete or entirely unknown in the present Bohemian language; although they were to be found in the old Bohemian, and are so still, in part, in the Old Slavic, Russian, and Vindish dialects.

Schaffarik mentions that G. Rybay, a minister in the county of Bacz, who possessed many valuable ma.n.u.scripts, had collected 15,000 words for a Slovakish _Idioticon_, and that it would be easy to enlarge this number.[56]

The Slovakish language has never been a literary language; the first attempt to render it so, with a few trifling exceptions, was made about forty years ago; but the opposition which it met with from the literati who had already adopted the kindred Bohemian tongue for their literary language, together with the political obstacles which it had to encounter from the jealousy of the Magyars, seems to have been too strong to be conquered. Indeed, in consequence of this jealousy of the Magyars, the Slovakish language is so far oppressed, that even in the higher schools of the Slovaks themselves this language is not permitted to const.i.tute a branch of instruction, like the Hungarian and Latin. Schaffarik thinks it probable, that in ancient times the vernacular tongue of the counties inhabited by Slovaks was used in public doc.u.ments and similar writings; and that such historical monuments must be buried in the libraries and archives of the catholic archbishops, n.o.blemen, and cities.[57] But this subject has never been sufficiently examined. The historical popular songs, which nearly a hundred years ago were familiar to the Slovakian peasants, and some of which appear to have been derived even from the pagan period, have perished, with the exception of a few initial verses.[58]

There is no trace known to be left of the mental existence of this nation of nearly two millions of souls, until the middle of the fifteenth century. At that time a great body of Hussites, who were exiled from Bohemia, broke into Upper Hungary, and, under the conduct of Giskra von Brandeis, were hired by the queen Elizabeth against the rival Polish-Hungarian monarch Vladislaus, afterwards king of Bohemia.

The Bohemian soldiers were accompanied by their wives and children, and settled finally in different parts of Hungary, Other Taboritic colonists followed them, and amalgamated gradually with the Slovaks, among whom they princ.i.p.ally established themselves. It is probable, that at this time the Slovaks became familiar with the Bohemian as a literary language; which from its kindred genius and its similarity of forms was perfectly intelligible, and must have been highly acceptable to them. When the doctrines of the German Reformers penetrated into Hungary, they found the Slovaks already so well prepared, that those doctrines were at once spread among the people by numerous books written by Slovakian clergymen in the Bohemian language. The Bible and the liturgical books were written and printed in Bohemian; and many Bohemians and Moravians came into Hungary as preachers and teachers.

Thus the dominion of the Bohemian language over the pulpit, and, since _all_ the Slovakian writers of this period were clergymen, in the republic of letters also, was established among the Slovaks without struggle. There is nothing known of any catholic Slovakish writers at this period; if there were any, they probably followed the beaten track, and wrote also in Bohemian or in Latin. But the produce of the literary cultivation of the Slovaks during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is at most but small: for the times appear to have been too heavy, and men's minds too much oppressed, for a free development of their powers. The civil wars, the devastations of the Turks, the religious controversies, and after the battle at the White Mountain, religious oppression and persecution, chased the peaceful muses from Pannonia, and put the genius of the people in chains. All the productions of these two centuries, with a few exceptions, are confined to theology, and are mostly sermons, catechisms, devotional exercises, or religious hymns. Schaffarik observes, that from these latter there speaks a melancholy gloomy spirit, crying for divine aid and deliverance.[59] Among the clergymen who during the first half of the eighteenth century exerted themselves for the diffusion of biblical knowledge, were Matth. Bel and D. Krman, who prepared a new edition of the Bible; G. Ambrosius and G. Babyl, authors of theological commentaries, etc. Those Slovakian writers who in any measure distinguished themselves, have been enumerated under their proper heads in our sketch of the Bohemian literature.[60]

The Bohemian dialect, as we have mentioned repeatedly, is perfectly _intelligible_ to the Slovaks. But as it is not to them the language of common conversation, it cannot be _familiar_ to their minds. If, in listening to their preachers in the churches, the people succeed in straining up their minds sufficiently to enable them to follow the course of the sermons and devotional exercises, it still seems rather unnatural, that even their prayer books, destined for private use, should not be written in their vernacular tongue; but that even their addresses to the Most High, which, more than any thing else, should be the free and natural effusions of their inmost feelings, should require such an intellectual exertion and an artificial transposition into a foreign clime. It is a singular fact, that, whilst every where else Protestantism and the friends of the Bible have advocated and attempted to raise the dialect of the people, in opposition to a privileged idiom of the priesthood, among the Slovaks the vindication of the vernacular tongue has been attempted by the Romanists, and has met with strong opposition from the Protestants. In the year 1718, Alex Macsay, a catholic clergyman, published sermons at Tyrnau, written in the common Slovakian dialect. The Jesuits of Tyrnau followed his example, in publis.h.i.+ng books of prayers and several other religious works, in a language which is rather a mixture of the dialect of the people and the literary Bohemian language. During the last ten years of the eighteenth century, a more successful attempt was made to elevate the Slovakian dialect spoken on the frontiers of Moravia, and which approaches the Bohemian language most, to the rank of a literary language. At the head of this undertaking were the Roman catholic curates Bajza, Fandli, and Bernolak, especially the last. A society was formed, the members of which bound themselves to buy the books written in Slovakish by Bernolak and his friends. The Romanists proceeded in the work with great zeal and activity, and were patronized by the cardinal Rudnay, primate of Hungary; who himself published some of his orations held in the Slovakian dialect, and caused a voluminous Slovakish dictionary, a posthumous work of Bernolak's, to be printed.[61] A version of the Bible in the same dialect, made by the canon G. Palkowicz, who is also the author of the fourth volume of the above dictionary, was printed in the year 1831.

The Protestant Slovaks, who several centuries ago had already acquired by their own contributions the right of citizens in the Bohemian republic of letters,--especially during the course of the seventeenth century, when most of the native Bohemians had been banished from it,--feared to endanger the cause of literature itself by innovations of this kind. They too united themselves into a society, and founded a professors.h.i.+p of Bohemian-Slovakian literature at the Lyceum of Pressburg, which was occupied by another G. Palkowicz, honorably mentioned in our History of Bohemian literature.[62] The number of Protestant Slovaks being comparatively small, this inst.i.tution was not sustained longer than ten years. To the names of the princ.i.p.al Slovakish-Bohemian writers during this and the last century, which have been given above,[63] we add here those of Bartholomaeides, Tablicz, Lovich, and Moshotzy, themselves writers of merit, or promoters of literature and science.

Many among the Slovaks, like many of their brethren the Magyars, and among other Slavi the Bohemians and Illyrians, have received a German education, and have that language at command. For the sake of more fame, or a larger field of influence, these mostly prefer to write in German. Among them was Schaffarik; until, from a principle of patriotism, he adopted the Bohemian.[64]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: More generally contracted into _Bohmen._]

[Footnote 2: 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.]

[Footnote 3: In his essay _Ueber den Ursprung des Namen Czech_, Prague and Vienna, 1782. In his later works he confirms this opinion; see _Geschichte der bohmischen Sprache und alten Literatur_, Prague, 1818, p. 65.]

[Footnote 4: See above, pp. 6, 30.]

[Footnote 5: In writing Russian and Servian names, we have adapted our orthography to the English rules of p.r.o.nunciation, 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 p.r.o.nunciation. We consequently alter letters only in cases where otherwise a foreigner, unacquainted with the Bohemian language, would find an absolute impossibility of p.r.o.nouncing them correctly.--In both Polish and Bohemian _c_ is in every case p.r.o.nounced like _ts_; hence Janocky must be p.r.o.nounced _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 p.r.o.nounced as in _father, they, machine, frisky_.]

[Footnote 6: See above, pp. 33, 34.]

[Footnote 7: On the fate of the Old Slavic liturgy and language in Bohemia, see Dobrovsky's _Geschichte der bohm. Sprache_, etc. pp.

46-64.]

[Footnote 8: 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 inst.i.tution 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 a.s.sist in the organization of that inst.i.tution]

[Footnote 9: See above, p. 17]

[Footnote 10: See p. 21.]

[Footnote 11: First communicated in the periodical _Krok_, Vol. I. Pt.

III. p.48-61. Rokawiccki, Hanka, Czelakowsky, and Schaffarik, maintain their authenticity.]

[Footnote 12: This ma.n.u.script, 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 doc.u.ments of the Bohemian Language, edited by Palacki and Schaffarik.]

[Footnote 13: In a chamber attached to the church of Koniginhof or Kralodwor. It was published by Hanka in 1819, with a translation in modern Bohemian and in German, under the t.i.tle _Rukopis Kralodworsky_, Ma.n.u.script of Koniginhof. According to Dobrovsky, who formed his judgment from the writing, this remarkable ma.n.u.script 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 ma.n.u.script 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]

[Footnote 14: It was first published by Jes.h.i.+n, 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 ma.n.u.scripts.]

[Footnote 15: 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 bohm. Sprache_, p.

155. Another remarkable production of the fourteenth century is _Tkadleczek_, the Little Weaver, the ma.n.u.script of which is extant in several copies; but it has been printed only in an ancient German translation; see Dobrovsky, ibid. p. 157.]

[Footnote 16: 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 aeneas Sylvius, etc.]

[Footnote 17: Ann, queen of England, sister to king Wenceslaus of Bohemia, possessed a Bible in Latin, German and Bohemian; to which circ.u.mstance Wickliffe alluded in one of his writings, quoted by Huss in his reply to Stockes, Tom. I. p.108. See Dobrovsky's _Gesch. der bohm. Sprache_, p.142.]

[Footnote 18: 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 p.r.o.nunciation 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.]

[Footnote 19: The Bohemian writings of Huss are extant partly in ma.n.u.script, 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.]

[Footnote 20: These interesting letters, containing all the circ.u.mstances 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.]

[Footnote 21: See Dobrovsky's _Geschichte der bohm, Sprache_, p. 201.]

[Footnote 22: 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.]

[Footnote 23: This ma.n.u.script, 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 bohm. Sprache_.

p. 235.]

[Footnote 24: By whole Bibles are here intended also those ma.n.u.scripts, 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, ma.n.u.scripts of the Psalms are found the most frequently. See Dobrovsky's _Lit. Magazin fur Bohmen. Reise nach Schweden, p. 57.

Geschichte der bohm. Spracke_, p. 211.]

[Footnote 25: 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 bohm, Sprache_.]

[Footnote 26: 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.]

[Footnote 27: Other Bohemian Bibles are: Venice 1506, fol. Prague 1527, fol. ib. 1537, fol. Nurnberg 1540, fol. Prague 1549, fol. ib.

1556-57. ib. 1561. fol. the same edition with a new t.i.tle, 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.]