A \ B \ C \ D \ E \ F \ G \ H \ I \ J \ K \ L \ M \ N \ O \ P \ R \ S \ T \ U \ V \ W \Z

Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic by Therese Albertine Louise von Jacob Robinson

T >> Therese Albertine Louise von Jacob Robinson >> Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic




[Footnote 22: 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.]

[Footnote 23: Lomonosof's works were first collected and published by
the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, 1803, 6 vols. in several
editions.]

[Footnote 24: 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.]

[Footnote 25: 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.]

[Footnote 26: 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, Schloezer, Fraehn,
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.]

[Footnote 27: 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.]

[Footnote 28: His _Summary of Christian Divinity_ has been translated
by Dr. Pinkerton, and published in his "Present state of the Greek
Church in Russia."]

[Footnote 29: 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.]

[Footnote 30: 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.]

[Footnote 31: See Backmeister's _Russische Bibliothek_, Riga 1772-87.]

[Footnote 32: 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.]

[Footnote 33: 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.]

[Footnote 34: Executed as involved in the conspiracy of 1825.]

[Footnote 35: He was sent as Russian ambassador to Persia; and was
there slaughtered by a mob in 1829.]

[Footnote 36: _Bursak, Malorossiiskaja powiest_, Mosk. 1824.]

[Footnote 37: 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. Accompagnee 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.]

[Footnote 38: 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.]

[Footnote 39: 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.]

[Footnote 40: 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.]

[Footnote 41: _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.]

[Footnote 42: _O Russkich Letopisiach, etc._ i.e. On the Russian
Chronicles and their writers, Petersb. 1836.]

[Footnote 43: It appeared in a German translation as early as 1840.]

[Footnote 44: _Sto Literaturow, etc._, edited by Smirdin, Petersb.
1840, etc.]

[Footnote 45: See in Part IV.]

[Footnote 46: In connection with this work stands the Grammar by the
same writer, written in French: _Elemens de la Langue Georgienne_,
1838.]

[Footnote 47: There are a few honourable exceptions. The work _Essais
philosophiques sur l'homme, publies 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.]

[Footnote 48: 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.]

[Footnote 49: F. Otto, _History of Russian Literature, with a Lexicon
of Russian Authors. Translated from the German by the late G. Cox_.
Oxford 1839.]

[Footnote 50: See above, p. 51.]

[Footnote 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 fuer Deutsche_, Riga, 1789,
1794, 1804. Vater's _Prakt. Gramm. der russ. Sprache_, Leipz. 1808,
1814. Tappe's _Neue russ. Sprachlehre fuer Deutsche_, St. Pet. 1810,
1814, 1820. Schmidt's _Prakt. russ. Grammattk_, Leipz. 1813.
Puchmayer's _Lehrgebaeude 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 _Elemens raisonnes de la
langue Russe_, Paris 1802. Langan's _Manual de la langue Russe_, St.
Pet. 1825. Charpentier's _Elemens de la langue Russe_, St. Pet. 1768
to 1805, five editions. Gretsch, _Grammaire raisonnee 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. Woerterb_, Riga 1795-98. The same writer's _Russ.
Deutsch and Frauz. Woerterb_. 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. Woerterb._ St. Pet. 1825.
J.A.E. Schmidt's _Russ.-Deutsch und Deutsch-Russ. Woerterb_. Leipz.
Tauchn, 1841. The same writer's _Poln. Russ. Deutsch. Woerterb_. 2
vols. 8vo. Breslau 1834-6.--FRENCH. Tatishtchefs _Nouveau Dict.
Franc.-Russe_, etc. 2 vols. 8vo. Moscow 1832.]

* * * * *



CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF THE ILLYRICO-SERVIAN LANGUAGE.

SECTION I.

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF THE ILLYRICO-SERVIANS PROPER.

The literature of the western Slavo-Servians has hitherto been
altogether separated from that of their brethren of the oriental
church, and treated as a distinct branch.[1] Their language, however,
being essentially the same, we do not see why the rather accidental
circumstance, that the former use the Roman letters, while the latter
adhere to the Cyrillic alphabet, should be a sufficient reason for
such a separation. The literature of neither of them has as yet
treasures enough, to renounce willingly the claims which their mutual
and naturally rich though uncultivated language gives to the one upon
the productions of the other. We now proceed, in a short historical
introduction, to show the origin of this separation; after making a
few preliminary remarks on the character of the language as a whole,
unaffected by its division into different dialects, not more distinct
indeed from each other than is the case in almost every other living
idiom.

The Servian language is spoken by about five millions of people. It
extends, with some slight variations of dialect, over the Turkish and
Austrian provinces of Servia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, and
Dalmatia; over Slavonia and the eastern part of Croatia. It is further
the property of several thousands, who emigrated from their own
country on account of the Turkish oppression, and are now settled as
colonists along the south-western bank of the Danube, from Semlin to
St. Andre near Buda. The southern sky, and the beauties of natural
scenery existing throughout nearly all these regions, so favourable in
general to the development of poetical genius, appear also to have
exerted a happy influence on the language. While it yields to none
of the other Slavic dialects in richness, clearness, and precision,
it far surpasses all of them in euphony. The Servian has often been
called the _Italian_ among the other Slavic idioms. Comparisons of
this sort are always superficial, and tend to give a false view of the
character of an object. Be this as it may, the Servian is decidedly
the most melodious of the Slavic languages, rich in vowels, and
abounding alike in soft and powerful accents. The accumulation of
consonants, with which the other dialects are so often reproached, is
rarely, if ever, to be met with in Servian. The reader may compare the
Servian _wetar_ with _wjtr_, _krilo_ with _krzydlo_ or _skrzydlo, pao_
with _padl_, etc. Those who ascribe this mildness of the Servian
language to the Italian neighbourhood of Dalmatia, forget that the
eastern Servians are remote from Italy. It is true that the dialects
of these latter are at the same time full of Turcisms; but these are
mere excrescences, which may easily be removed without touching the
essential structure of the language. The Turkish words adopted into
the Servian, are mostly nouns, and verbs derived from them; and may
naturally be explained by their political relation to the Turks during
so many centuries. If we may confide in a remark of the profound
philologist J. Grimm, _some_ foreign ingredients are useful and even
necessary to languages. They act as a cement, and fill up gaps; nay,
they not seldom serve to give to the expression colouring and pliancy.
The attention of the civilized world, although directed at the
beginning of the present century to the Servians and their heroic
struggles, has only recently been excited in respect to their
language; and this through the efforts of a single individual. We
shall have more to say on this point in the section devoted to the
literature of the Servians of the eastern church.

The ancient Illyricum comprised all the countries situated between the
Adriatic and the Black Sea, and along the Danube and Save.[2]
Towards the middle of the seventh century, we find this vast country
mostly occupied by a Slavic people of one and the same race,
alternately called Bulgarians, Croatians, and Servians. We find also
six kingdoms gradually established by them: Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia
(Rama), Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia; some of them powerful and of
great influence in their time, but now and long since sunk into ruin,
and existing only as Turkish or Austrian provinces. An impenetrable
night rests on the early history of these regions; and if the
judicious criticism of modern philologists has thrown comparatively
some light on this general topic, still, their investigations have
been of little consequence for the history of the language. All that
it concerns us to note here, is, that as early as the seventh century
a part of these nations were already Christians, converted by Romish
priests. Among the remainder, Christianity as taught by Greek
missionaries found a welcome reception in the eighth and ninth
centuries, and soon was fully established. The oriental Servians had
the chief seat of their power in the present Turkish province of
Serf-Vilayeti; and governed by princes called _Shupans_, we see them
in a constant war of resistance against the Greek emperors, and during
several centuries also against the powerful Khans of Bulgaria; now
conquered, subjugated, destroyed almost to annihilation, but
recovering with effort and rising again in power, with such energy as
to enable them under the great Tzar, Stephan Dushan, not only to hold
all their neighbours in awe, but to take a menacing position towards
Byzantium itself, and dictate conditions of peace to the imploring
envoys of that proud imperial court. But this brilliant point of
Servian glory, which even now after five hundred years still lives in
the hearts of the people, and is the subject of a thousand legends and
songs, was only a meteor. It vanished in almost the same moment that
it appeared. Stephan's immediate successors, enfeebled by their
domestic dissensions, sunk under the superior forces of the Turks, who
had broken into Europe thirty-four years earlier. They soon became the
conquerors of the Servians, though not without fierce and bloody
struggles; and they still remain their masters and oppressors.[3]

The western Servians were early divided into small states, some of
which adopted an aristocratic republican form of constitution. Among
these, only the republic of Ragusa requires to be mentioned here, as
the cradle of the Dalmatian branch of Servian literature. The local
situation of these western states made them dependent on Hungary; and
thus Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, sometimes under the title of
kingdoms, and now as dukedoms, became at length mere provinces of that
larger kingdom, and ultimately of the Austrian empire. Bosnia and
Herzegovina, which form the boundary between the Servians of the East
and West, were subject to the influence of both; and are to the
present day divided in religion and in language.


1. _Literature of the Servians of the Oriental or Greek Church_.


However small the circuit of country, properly called Servia, is in
proportion to the whole extent over which the southern Slavi are
spread, the name of Servians nevertheless appears to modern
philologists as the best adapted for being employed as the common name
of them all. Dobrovsky thinks it even appropriate to become the
general appellation for all Slavic nations. Although of obscure
derivation, it is at least sufficiently ascertained that it is of pure
Slavic origin; glorious associations are attached to it; it is
moreover still a living name, while the learned appellation of
_Illyrians_, formerly more in use, is dead; and that of _Bosnians_,
preferred by some Dalmatian writers, rests upon no satisfactory
grounds. The name of Servians, however, was never, till recently,
applied to the Dalmatians. It is indeed still rejected by themselves;
and they continue to call themselves _Illyrians_.

Under the present head, besides the Servians proper, of whom great
numbers have emigrated in early times to Hungary, are also strictly
comprised the Bosnians, the greater portion of the inhabitants of
Herzegovina, the Montenegrins or Czernogortzi, and the Slavonians of
the Greek Church. These all use the same language and alphabet; but
the four latter have no distinct literature, except some collections
of popular poetry.

The literature of the eastern Servians, the result of their
intellectual life as a nation, does not yet date back a hundred years;
nay, if regarded from another point of view, it is not yet forty years
old. Up to that time, all the Servians belonging to the Greek Church,
notwithstanding the honourable example of Russia to the contrary, had
written in the Old or Church Slavonic; or, in more modern times, in a
language mixed up from this latter and several other dialects.
Schaffarik remarks, that out of about 400 Servian books printed
between the years 1742, or more properly 1761, and 1826, about one
eighth part are written in Old Slavic; another eighth in the common
dialect of the people; while all the rest vary between these two in
innumerable shades and degrees.[4] This eighth part written in
ordinary Servian, and essentially the same language which the
Dalmatians and the greater part of the Croats speak, are all of very
recent date. Indeed, with the exception of a single writer,
Obradovitch, who found no immediate followers, the dialect of the
people was in general despised by the clergy and those who laid claim
to education, as being wholly unfit for books, and (as Vuk
Stephanovitch strongly expresses himself) only proper for "cowherds
and swineherds." How the once flourishing literature of Ragusa could
ever have sunk into oblivion to such a degree, is hardly to be
conceived; as indeed, in general, the division so sharply drawn in
respect to literature between those two branches of the same people,
while they were still bound together by the strong ties of one and the
same language of common life and in part also of the same government,
belongs among the most remarkable facts in literary history.

The most ancient document of the Servian Old Slavic language, is out
of the middle of the thirteenth century, viz. the Hexaemeron of
Basilius, with a preface by John, exarch of Bulgaria. Then follow the
"Acts of the Apostles," written by the hieromonach Damian, A.D. 1324.
Of higher historical importance are some secular writings from the end
of the thirteenth to the middle of the fourteenth century, viz. a
genealogical register of the Servian princes and the events of their
reigns, called _Radoslov_, written by archbishop Daniel; a similar
work called the _Tzarostavnick_; and above all the statutes of Tzar
Dushan the Powerful, A.D. 1336-56. These statutes, dated from the year
6837, or A.D. 1349, not only afford us a good survey of the
constitution of the Servian kingdom, but are a remarkable contribution
to the history of its moral state at that early period, The
philanthropist cannot but perceive, with satisfaction, the rare union
that reigns in these laws of stern justice and true Christian
benevolence, attempting to alleviate those evils which it was not in
the power of an individual to abolish,--thehardships of slavery, the
insecurity of property peculiar to those barbarous times, and those
rash and bloody acts of self-protection, which are preferred by the
powerful all over the world to the slower steps of avenging justice.
It is indeed remarkable to observe, how these statutes not only
counteracted the grosser vices and crimes, (which for the most part is
the only object of laws,) but also favoured the characteristic virtues
of the times, for instance hospitality. One statute ordains, that when
a traveller asked for night-quarters at the dwelling of a landed
proprietor and was not admitted, he had the right to take lodgings in
his village wherever he pleased; and did he lose any thing, not his
host, but the proprietor who had refused to harbour him, was bound to
remunerate the loss.[5]

The monks of this and the following centuries must have written a
great deal; as is proved by the many manuscripts that still lie
accumulated in the numerous Servian and Macedonian monasteries,--the
mere remnant of those which perished in the long tempests of bloody
wars and desolating conflagrations. About fifty years after the
invention of printing, some of the church books from time to time were
published in Servia and Syrmia. The earliest Servian print extant is
from the year 1493, viz. an Octateuch, published at Zenta in
Herzegovina. In Russia they did not begin to print until sixty years
later. In 1552 the Gospels were printed in Belgrade; in 1562 another
edition in Negromont. But these faint signs of life soon became
extinct; and we hear no longer of the least trace of literature among
the Servians of the Turkish empire. Among the Austrian Servians also,
literature seems to have been equally dead; with the exception of a
History of Servia, written and left in manuscript by George
Brankovitch, the last despot of that country, towards the close of the
seventeenth century. A genealogical work published by Dshefarovitch at
Vienna in 1742, had to be engraved, for the want of proper types. In
the year 1755, under the reign of Maria Theresa, when some attention
began to be paid to the schools of her Illyrian provinces, the
archbishop of Carlovitz was compelled to have Smotrisky's Grammar[6]
printed in Walachia, because no Slavic types were to be found in the
whole Austrian empire. Some years afterwards, A.D. 1758, a private
Slavic press was founded at Venice. In Austria, Cyrillic-Slavonic
books could not be printed earlier than A.D. 1771, when a printing
office was established at Vienna; the monopoly of which for all
Slavo-Servian scientific works throughout the empire, was given to the
university of Buda. From this one point, therefore, the whole literary
cultivation of the Servians of the oriental church in the Austrian
empire, could alone proceed.[7]

After the partial revival of Servian literature in 1758, a
considerable number of works were composed; and there are among them
not a few, which, notwithstanding the mixed and unsettled idiom in
which they are written, attest the general capacity of the nation, and
may serve as imperfect specimens of the mass of talent buried there.
Among the historical writers, we must name above all J. Raitch. He
wrote on many different subjects; and also left behind him a whole
library of theological manuscripts. His 'History of the Slavic
Nations'[8] has given him a lasting reputation. Other historical
writers of some merit, are, Kengelatz, Magarashevitch, Julinatz,
Solaritch.[9] Writers on different subjects of natural philosophy and
medicine, are, Orphelin, Stoikovitch, Beritch, Jankovitch, P.
Hadshitch, etc. On statistics and geography the above-mentioned
Solaritch, Vuitch, Bulitch, Popovitch, and others. In the department
of theology, we hardly meet with a single book of a doctrinal
character; but there are quite a number on ethics. The principal
writers of the language, therefore, may perhaps be more properly
arranged under the heads of philosophy (comprehending logic),
rhetoric, ethics, etc. as Obradovitch, Raitch, Terlaitch, Lazarevitch,
Vuitch, Davidovitch, Masovitch, etc.[10]

Poetry and belles-lettres being more dependent on the state of the
language than purely scientific works, we can proceed no further,
without first making our readers acquainted with the recent
innovations of a few patriotic individuals.

It was Dosithei Obradovitch, born A.D. 1739 in the Banat of Temeswar,
who first among the eastern Servians ventured to write books in the
despised language of the country. The fortunes of this person are, in
several respects, of uncommon interest. Brought up in a monastic
school, he became monk when he was only fourteen years old. After
several years of severe struggles, he fled. For twenty-five years he
travelled over all Europe; and then returned to his comparatively
barbarous native land, where he died in 1811, as inspector of the
schools, and the instructor of the children of the celebrated Kara
George. He left several works.

Copyright (c) 2007. bestextbooks.com. All rights reserved.

Jean Levesque de Burigny - "The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius"

Joseph A. Altsheler - "The Hosts of the Air"

Algot Lange - "In The Amazon Jungle"

Ellen Glasgow - "Life and Gabriella"