The cordiality with which “Hyperion” was received was due partly to the love story supposed to be implied in it, and largely to the new atmosphere of German life and literature which it opened to 125 Americans. It must always be remembered that the kingdom in which Germany then ruled was not then, as now, a kingdom of material force and business enterprise, but as Germans themselves claimed, a kingdom of the air; and into that realm Hyperion gave to Americans the first glimpse. The faults and limitations which we now see in it were then passed by, or visible only to such keen critics as Orestes A. Brownson, who wrote thus of it in “The Boston Quarterly Review,” then the ablest of American periodicals except “The Dial:” “I do not like the book. It is such a journal as a man who reads a great deal makes from the scraps3 in his table-drawer. Yet it has not the sincerity4 or quiet touches which give interest to the real journals of very common persons. It is overloaded5 with prettinesses, many of which would tell well in conversation, but being rather strown over than woven into his narrative6, deform7 where they should adorn8. You cannot guess why the book was written, unless because the author were tired of reading these morceaux to himself, for there has been no fusion9 or fermentation to bring on the hour of utterance10. Then to me the direct personal relation in which we are brought to the author is unpleasing. Had he but idealized his tale, or put on the veil of poetry! But as it is, we are embarrassed by his extreme communicativeness, 126 and wonder that a man, who seems in other respects to have a mind of delicate texture11, could write a letter about his private life to a public on which he had as yet established no claim.... Indeed this book will not add to the reputation of its author, which stood so fair before its publication.”[41] This is the criticism of which Longfellow placidly12 wrote, “I understand there is a spicy13 article against me in the ‘Boston Quarterly.’ I shall get it as soon as I can; for, strange as you may think it, these things give me no pain.”[42]
Mr. Howells, in one of the most ardent14 eulogies15 ever written upon the works of Longfellow, bases his admiration16 largely upon the claim “that his art never betrays the crudeness or imperfection of essay,”—that is, of experiment.[43] It would be interesting to know whether this accomplished17 author, looking back upon “Hyperion” more than thirty years later, could reindorse this strong assertion. To others, I fancy, however attractive and even fascinating the book may still remain, it has about it a distinctly youthful quality which, while sometimes characterizing even his poetry, unquestionably marked his early prose. A later and younger 127 critic says more truly of it, I think, “Plainly in the style of Richter, with all the mingled18 grandeur19 and grotesqueness20 of the German romanticists, it is scarcely now a favorite with the adult reader; though the young, obedient to some vague embryonic21 law, still find in it for a season the pleasure, the thrilling melancholy22, which their grandfathers found.”[44] But Professor Carpenter, speaking from the point of view of the younger generation, does not fail to recognize that Paul Flemming’s complaints cease when he reads the tombstone inscription23 which becomes the motto of the book; and I recall with pleasure that, being a youth nurtured24 on “Hyperion,” I selected that passage for the text of my boyish autobiography25 written in the Harvard “Class Book” at the juvenile26 age of seventeen. Dozens of youths were perhaps adopting the motto in the same way at the same time, and it is useless to deny to a book which thus reached youthful hearts the credit of having influenced the whole period of its popularity.
Apart from the personal romance which his readers attached to it, the book had great value as the first real importation into our literature of the wealth of German romance and song. So faithful and ample are its local descriptions that a cheap edition of it is always on sale at 128 Heidelberg, and every English and American visitor to that picturesque27 old city seems to know the book by heart. Bearing it in his hand, the traveller still climbs the rent summit of the Gesprengte Thurm and looks down upon the throng28 in the castle gardens; or inquires vainly for the ruined linden-tree, or gives a sigh to the fate of Emma of Ilmenau, and murmurs29 solemnly,—as a fat and red-faced Englishman once murmured to me on that storied spot,—“That night there fell a star from heaven!” There is no doubt that under the sway of the simpler style now prevailing30, much of the rhetoric31 of “Hyperion” seems turgid, some of its learning obtrusive32, and a good deal of its emotion forced; but it was nevertheless an epoch-making book for a generation of youths and maidens33, and it still retains its charm. The curious fact, however, remains—a fact not hitherto noticed, I think, by biographers or critics—that at the very time when the author was at work on “Hyperion,” there was a constant reaction in his mind that was carrying him in the direction of more strictly34 American subjects, handled under a simpler treatment. He wrote on September 13, 1838, “Looked over my notes and papers for ‘Hyperion.’ Long for leisure to begin once more.” It is impossible to say how long a preparation this implies; it may have been months or years. Yet 129 the following letter to a young girl, his wife’s youngest sister, shows how, within less than a year previous, his observation had been again turned towards the American Indians as a theme.
Cambridge, October 29, 1837.
My Dear Margaret,—I was very much delighted with your present of the slippers35. They are too pretty to be trodden under foot; yet such is their destiny, and shall be accomplished, as soon as may be. The colors look beautifully upon the drab ground; much more so than on the black. Don’t you think so? I should have answered your note, and sent you my thanks, by Alexander on Wednesday last; but when I last saw him, I had not received the package. Therefore you must not imagine from my delay, that I do not sufficiently36 appreciate the gift....
There is nothing very new in Boston, which after all is a gossiping kind of Little Peddlington, if you know what that is; if you don’t, you must read the story. People take too much cognizance of their neighbors; interest themselves too much in what no way concerns them. However, it is no great matter.
There are Indians here: savage37 fellows;—one Black-Hawk and his friends, with naked shoulders and red blankets wrapped about their 130 bodies:—the rest all grease and Spanish brown and vermillion. One carries a great war-club, and wears horns on his head; another had his face painted like a grid-iron, all in bands:—another is all red, like a lobster38; and another black and blue, in great daubs of paint laid on not sparingly. Queer fellows!—One great champion of the Fox nation had a short pipe in his mouth, smoking with great self-complacency as he marched out of the City Hall: another was smoking a cigar! Withal, they looked very formidable. Hard customers....
Very truly yours
H. W. L.[45]
Note, again, how this tendency to home themes asserts itself explicitly39 in Longfellow’s notice of Hawthorne’s “Twice-Told Tales” at about the same time in “The North American Review,” (July, 1837):—
“One of the most prominent characteristics of these tales is, that they are national in their character. The author has wisely chosen his themes among the traditions of New England; the dusty legends of ‘the good Old Colony times, when we lived under a king.’ This is the right material for story. It seems as natural to make tales out of old tumble-down 131 traditions, as canes40 and snuff-boxes out of old steeples, or trees planted by great men. The puritanical41 times begin to look romantic in the distance. Who would not like to have strolled through the city of Agamenticus, where a market was held every week, on Wednesday, and there were two annual fairs at St. James’s and St. Paul’s? Who would not like to have been present at the court of the Worshipful Thomas Gorges42, in those palmy days of the law, when Tom Heard was fined five shillings for being drunk, and John Payne the same, ‘for swearing one oath’? Who would not like to have seen the time, when Thomas Taylor was presented to the grand jury ‘for abusing Captain Raynes, being in authority, by thee-ing and thou-ing him;’ and John Wardell likewise, for denying Cambridge College to be an ordinance43 of God; and when some were fined for winking44 at comely45 damsels in church; and others for being common-sleepers there on the Lord’s day? Truly, many quaint46 and quiet customs, many comic scenes and strange adventures, many wild and wondrous47 things, fit for humorous tale, and soft, pathetic story, lie all about us here in New England. There is no tradition of the Rhine nor of the Black Forest, which can compare in beauty with that of the Phantom48 Ship. The Flying Dutchman of the Cape49, and the Klabotermann 132 of the Baltic, are nowise superior. The story of Peter Rugg, the man who could not find Boston, is as good as that told by Gervase of Tilbury, of a man who gave himself to the devils by an unfortunate imprecation, and was used by them as a wheelbarrow; and the Great Carbuncle of the White Mountains shines with no less splendor50, than that which illuminated51 the subterranean52 palace in Rome, as related by William of Malmesbury. Truly, from such a Fortunatus’s pocket and wishing-cap, a tale-bearer may furnish forth53 a sufficiency of ‘peryllous adventures right espouventables, bryfefly compyled and pyteous for to here.’”
We must always remember that Longfellow came forward at a time when cultivated Americans were wasting a great deal of superfluous54 sympathy on themselves. It was the general impression that the soil was barren, that the past offered no material and they must be European or die. Yet Longfellow’s few predecessors55 had already made themselves heard by disregarding this tradition and taking what they found on the spot. Charles Brockden Brown, although his style was exotic and Godwinish, yet found his themes among American Indians and in the scenes of the yellow fever in Philadelphia. It was not Irving who invested the Hudson with romance, but the Hudson that inspired Irving. 133 When in 1786, Mrs. Josiah Quincy, then a young girl, sailed upon that river in a sloop56, she wrote, “Our captain had a legend for every scene, either supernatural or traditional or of actual occurrence during the war, and not a mountain reared its head unconnected with some marvellous story.” Irving was then but three years old, yet Ichabod Crane and Rip Van Winkle or their prototypes were already on the spot waiting for biographers; and it was much the same with Cooper, who was not born until three years later. What was needed was self-confidence and a strong literary desire to take the materials at hand. Irving, Cooper, Dana, had already done this; but Longfellow followed with more varied57 gifts, more thorough training; the “Dial” writers followed in their turn, and a distinctive58 American literature was born, this quality reaching a climax59 in Thoreau, who frankly60 wrote, “I have travelled a great deal—in Concord61.”
And while thus Longfellow found his desire for a national literature strengthened at every point by the example of his classmate Hawthorne, so he may have learned much, though not immediately, through the warning unconsciously given by Bryant, against the perils62 of undue63 moralizing. Bryant’s early poem, “To a Water-Fowl,” was as profound in feeling and as perfect in structure as anything of Longfellow’s, up to 134 the last verse, which some profane64 critic compared to a tin kettle of moralizing, tied to the legs of the flying bird. Whittier’s poems had almost always some such appendage65, and he used to regret in later life that he had not earlier been contented66 to leave his moral for the reader to draw, or in other words, to lop off habitually67 the last verse of each poem. Apart from this there was a marked superiority, even on the didactic side, in Longfellow’s moralizing as compared with Bryant’s. There is no light or joy in the “Thanatopsis;” but Longfellow, like Whittier, was always hopeful. It was not alone that he preached, as an eminent68 British critic once said to me, “a safe piety,” but his religious impulse was serene69 and even joyous70, and this under the pressure of the deepest personal sorrows.
It is also to be observed that Longfellow wrote in this same number of “The North American Review” (July, 1837) another paper which was prophetic with regard to prose style, as was the Hawthorne essay in respect to thought. It was a review of Tegner’s “Frithiof’s Saga” which showed a power of description, brought to bear on Swedish life and scenery, which he really never quite attained71 in “Hyperion,” because it was there sometimes vitiated by a slightly false note. A portion of it was used afterwards as a 135 preface to his second volume of poems (“Ballads72 and Other Poems”), a preface regarded by some good critics as Longfellow’s best piece of prose work. It was, at any rate, impossible not to recognize a fresh and vigorous quality in a descriptive passage opening thus; and I can myself testify that it stamped itself on the memories of young readers almost as vividly73 as the ballads which followed:—
“There is something patriarchal still lingering about rural life in Sweden, which renders it a fit theme for song. Almost primeval simplicity74 reigns75 over that northern land,—almost primeval solitude76 and stillness. You pass out from the gate of the city, and, as if by magic, the scene changes to a wild, woodland landscape. Around you are forests of fir. Overhead hang the long, fan-like branches, trailing with moss77, and heavy with red and blue cones78. Under foot is a carpet of yellow leaves; and the air is warm and balmy. On a wooden bridge you cross a little silver stream; and anon come forth into a pleasant and sunny land of farms. Wooden fences divide the adjoining fields. Across the road are gates, which are opened by troops of children. The peasants take off their hats as you pass; you sneeze, and they cry, ‘God bless you.’ The houses in the villages and smaller towns are all built of hewn 136 timber, and for the most part painted red. The floors of the taverns79 are strewn with the fragrant80 tips of fir boughs81. In many villages there are no taverns, and the peasants take turns in receiving travellers. The thrifty82 housewife shows you into the best chamber83, the walls of which are hung round with rude pictures from the Bible; and brings you her heavy silver spoons,—an heirloom,—to dip the curdled84 milk from the pan. You have oaten cakes baked some months before; or bread with anise-seed and coriander in it, or perhaps a little pine bark.”
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1
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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overloaded
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| a.超载的，超负荷的 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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deform
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| vt.损坏…的形状；使变形，使变丑；vi.变形 | |
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adorn
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| vt.使美化，装饰 | |
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fusion
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| n.溶化；熔解；熔化状态，熔和；熔接 | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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spicy
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| adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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eulogies
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| n.颂词，颂文( eulogy的名词复数 ) | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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grotesqueness
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embryonic
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| adj.胚胎的 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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nurtured
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| 养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长 | |
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autobiography
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juvenile
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| n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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murmurs
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| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
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prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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rhetoric
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| n.修辞学，浮夸之言语 | |
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obtrusive
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| adj.显眼的；冒失的 | |
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maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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lobster
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| n.龙虾，龙虾肉 | |
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explicitly
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| ad.明确地，显然地 | |
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canes
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| n.（某些植物，如竹或甘蔗的）茎( cane的名词复数 )；（用于制作家具等的）竹竿；竹杖 | |
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puritanical
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| adj.极端拘谨的；道德严格的 | |
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gorges
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| n.山峡，峡谷( gorge的名词复数 )；咽喉v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的第三人称单数 )；作呕 | |
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ordinance
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| n.法令；条令；条例 | |
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winking
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| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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comely
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| adj.漂亮的，合宜的 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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48
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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49
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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50
splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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51
illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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52
subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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53
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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54
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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55
predecessors
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| n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身 | |
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56
sloop
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| n.单桅帆船 | |
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57
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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58
distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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59
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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60
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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concord
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| n.和谐；协调 | |
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perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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63
undue
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| adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的 | |
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64
profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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65
appendage
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| n.附加物 | |
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66
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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68
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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69
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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70
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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71
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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72
ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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73
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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74
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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reigns
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| n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 )；君主统治时期；任期；当政期 | |
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76
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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77
moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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78
cones
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| n.（人眼）圆锥细胞；圆锥体( cone的名词复数 )；球果；圆锥形东西；（盛冰淇淋的）锥形蛋卷筒 | |
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79
taverns
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| n.小旅馆，客栈，酒馆( tavern的名词复数 ) | |
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80
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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81
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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82
thrifty
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| adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的 | |
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83
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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84
curdled
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| v.（使）凝结( curdle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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