Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations With a Sketch of Their Popular Poetry — Reading Companion

HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

Origin of the Russians, 47.--Periods, 49.--Language and dialects, 49.--Russian Proper, 49.--Malo-Russian, 50.--White Russian, 51.--FIRST PERIOD, 52.--SECOND PERIOD, 60.--Energy of Peter the Great, 60.--THIRD PERIOD, 65.--Lomonosof, 66.--FOURTH PERIOD, 72.--The emperor Alexander and his influence, 72.--Russian Bible Society, 74.--Karamzin, 76.--FIFTH PERIOD, 85.--The emperor Nicholas and his measures, 85--Panslavism, 86.--Pushkin, 95--Works on the Russian language, 101.

HISTORY OF THE ILLYRICO-SERVIAN LANGUAGE.

_Language and Literature of the Illyrico-Servians Proper._

Language written with different alphabets, 103.--Characteristics, 104.--History, 105.

_Servians of the Greek Church._

Their extent, 107.--Earlier literature, 108--Modern writers, 112--Vuk Stephanovitch, 113.--His collection of popular songs, 114.--His arrangement of the alphabet, 116.--- Recent poets, 118.--Montenegro, the Vladika, 119.

_Servians of the Romish Church._

GLAGOLITIC LITERATURE, 123.--Manuscripts, _Text du Sacre_, 124.--Earliest works and writers, 126.

SECULAR LITERATURE, 127.--_Dalmatia Proper_, 128.--Ragusa and its literature, 128.--Orthography, 131.--Dr. Gaj, 133.--_Catholic Slavonians_, 133.

_Language and Literature of the_ CROATIANS, 135.--Relation of the Croats to other Slavi, 135.--Orthography, etc. 136.

_Language and Literature of the_ VENDES _or_ SLOVENZI, 138.--Their home, 138.--Efforts of Truber, 139.--Orthography, etc. 140.--Literature, 142.

LANGUAGE OF THE BULGARIANS.

Corruptions, 144.--No trace of early literature, 145.--Present state, 146.

CZEKHO-SLOVAKIAN BRANCH.

_History of the Czekhish or Bohemian Language and Literature._ Bohemian literature distinguished, 147.--Early history, 149.--Moravians, 151.--Note on pronunciation, 151.--Characteristics of the language, 154.--Periods, 156.--FIRST PERIOD, 157.--SECOND PERIOD, 163.--John Huss and Jerome of Prague, 167.--Their martyrdom, 170.--Consequences, 174.--THIRD PERIOD, 182.--Golden age of Bohemian literature, 183--Events, 184,--Literary activity, 188.--Desolations of the thirty years' war, 195.--FOURTH PERIOD, 196.--Paralysis of literature, 196.--Emigrants, Comenius, 197.--Slovak writers, 199.--FIFTH PERIOD, 200.--State of the language, 201.--Writers, 202.--Dobrovsky, 204--Kollar, 206.--Panslavism, 207--Schaffarik, 207.--Palacky, 209.--Works on the Bohemian language, 211.

_Language and Literature of the Slovaks._

Home of the Slovaks, 212.--Their language, 214.--Earliest traces of a literature, 217.--Understand the Bohemian dialect, 218--- Writers in German, 220.--Grammars, etc. 221.

HISTORY OF THE POLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

Origin of the Lekhes, or Poles, 222.--Periods, 225.--Extent of the Polish language, 225.--Its ancient character, 227.--FIRST PERIOD, 229.--SECOND PERIOD, 231.--THIRD PERIOD, 235.--Rapid progress of literature, 235.--Toleration, 236.--Dissidents, Unitarians, etc. 236.--Culture of the language, 240.--Printing offices and schools, 241.--Degradation of the peasantry, 241.--Copernicus, 243,--Writers, 244.--FOURTH PERIOD, 250.--Perversion of taste, 251.--Theological controversy and persecution, 252.--The Jesuits prevail, 253.--Poets, 255--FIFTH PERIOD, 256.--Revival, French influence, 257.--Political struggles, 258.--Schools and cultivation, 259.--The peasantry were serfs, etc. 260.--Literary activity, 262.--Effect of French influence, 263.--Writers, 264.--Czartoryski, 265.--The family Potocki, 266.--Lelewel, 268--Niemcewicz, 275.--SIXTH PERIOD, 285.--Causes of the revolution in 1830, 285.--Results upon literature, 286.--Russian efforts to destroy Polish nationality, 287.--Historical researches, 288.--Literature of Polish emigrants, 291.--Lelewel, 292.--Mickiewicz, 293.--Recent poetry, 297--Works on the Polish language, etc. 298.

LANGUAGES OF THE SORABIAN-VENDES IN LUSATIA, AND OF OTHER. VENDISH TRIBES NOW EXTINCT.

History, 298.--Branches: The Obotrites, 300.--The Wiltzi, or Pomeranians, 302.--The Ukern in Brandenburg, 303.--The Sorabians or Vendes in Lusatia, 304.

1. _Vendes in Upper Lusatia._

Language, 308.--Influence of the Reformation, 308.--Two systems of orthography, 310.--Literary efforts, 311.

2. _Vendes in Lower Lusatia._

Language, 313.--Literature mostly religious, 313.--Philological works, 314.

SKETCH OF THE POPULAR POETRY OF THE SLAVIC NATIONS.

SLAVIC POPULAR POETRY: Difficulties of the subject, 315.--Still flourishes only among Slavic nations, 317.--Its antiquity and prevalence, 318.--Nothing in it of romance, 319.--Different moral standard, 320.--Nothing dramatic, 322.--Sometimes allegorical, 323--_Elegy_, 323.--Antithesis, 324.--Standing epithets, 325.--Plastic, 325.--Personifications, 327.--Superstitions, 328.--_Jelitza and her Brothers_, 329.--Moral characteristics, 332.--Love and heroism, 334.--Hopeless love, 336.--_The Farewell_, 336.--A mother's and sister's love, 338.

RUSSIAN POPULAR POETRY, 339.--Character and antiquity, 339.--Tenderness, 342.--_The Postilion_, 343.--Diminutives, 344.--Melancholy, 344.--Hopeless love, 344.--_Parting Scene_, 346.--_The Dove_, 347--_The Faithless Lover_, 349.--Veneration for the Tzar, 350.--_The Boyar's Execution_, 350.--_The storming of Azof_, 353.--Malo-Russian songs, 354.--The Kozaks, 355.--Their history, 356.--Their ballads, 358--_The murder of Yessaul Tshural_, 359.--_Lament for Yessaul Pushkar_, 360--_Song of the Haidamack_, 362.--_Sir Sava and the Leshes_, 363.--_The Love-sick Girl_, 365.--_The Dead Love_, 366.

SERVIAN POPULAR POETRY, 366.--Only recently known, 367.--Characteristics, the Guslè, 369.--Cheerfulness, 369.--Roguery, 370.--Passion, 371.--_Parting Lovers_, 371.--_Rendezvous, St. George's Day_, 372.--_United in Death_, 373.--_Household Matters_, 374.--Heroic poems, 374.--Ravens ill boding, 376.--Subjects, 377.--Rite of brotherhood, 378.--Modern heroic poems, 379.--Vuk Stephanovitch as collector, 381.--Music, the Guslè, 382.--In what parts of the country prevalent, 383.--BULGARIAN Ballads, 383--_The Slave Gangs_, 384.

POPULAR POETRY OF THE SLOVENZI, 384.--_The Dovelet_, 385.

BOHEMIAN POPULAR POETRY, 386.--Ancient Bohemian songs compared with Servian and Russian ballads, 386.--German, influence, 388.--_The Forsaken Maiden_, 389.--_Liberal Pay_, 389.--_Happy Death, The Lying Bird_, 300.--_The Dead Love_, 391.

SLOVAKIAN Ballads, 392.--_The Mother's Curse_, 392--_Sun and Moon_, 394.

POLISH POPULAR POETRY, 394.--Formerly neglected, 395--Ancient hymn, 396.--Ballads, characteristics, 396.--_Invasion of the Tartars_, 397.--Orphan ballads, 399.--_Poor Orphan Child_, 399.

POPULAR POETRY OF THE VENDES, 400.--Characteristics, 401.--_The Orphan's Lament_, 401.--_Good Advice for Lads_, 402.--Dying out, 404.

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS, 405.

INDEX OF SLAVIC AUTHORS, 407.

On the Orthography and Pronunciation of Slavic proper names, see the note on p. 151; also the note under the letter V in the Index.

The earliest history of the Slavic nations is involved in a darkness, which all the investigations of diligent and sagacious modern historians and philologians have not been able to clear up. The analogy between their language and the Sanscrit, seems to indicate their origin from India; but to ascertain the time at which they first entered Europe, is now no longer possible. Probably this event took place seven or eight centuries before the Christian era, on account of the over-population of the regions on the Ganges.[1] Herodotus mentions a people which he called Krovyzi, who lived on the Ister. There is even now a tribe in Russia, whose name at least is almost the same.[2] Strabo, Pomponius Mela, Pliny, Tacitus, and several other classical and a few oriental writers, allude to the Slavic nations occasionally. But the first distinct intelligence we have of them, is not older than the middle of the sixth century.[3] At this period we see them traversing the Danube in large multitudes, and settling on both the banks of that river. From that time they appear frequently in the accounts of the Byzantine historians, under the different appellations of the Slavi, Sarmatae,[4] Antae, Vandales, Veneti, and Vendes, mostly as involved in the wars of the two Roman empires, sometimes as allies, sometimes as conquerors; oftener, notwithstanding their acknowledged valour and courage, as vassals; but chiefly as emigrants and colonists, thrust out of their own countries by the pressing forward of the more warlike German or Teutonic tribes. Only the first of the above mentioned names is decidedly of Slavic origin;[5] the second is ambiguous; and the last four are later and purely geographical, having been transferred to Slavic nations from those who had previously occupied the territory where the Romans first became acquainted with them.

It results from the very nature of this information, that we cannot expect to get from it any satisfactory knowledge of their political state or the degree of their civilization. In general, they appear as a peaceful, industrious, hospitable people, obedient to their chiefs, and religious in their habits. Wherever they established themselves, they began to cultivate the earth, and to trade in the productions of the country. There are also early traces of their fondness for music and poetry; and some circumstances, of which we shall speak in the sequel, seem to justify the supposition of a very early cultivation of the language.

All the knowledge we have respecting the ancient history of the Slavic race, as we have seen, is gathered from foreign authors; the earliest of their own historians did not write before the second half of the eleventh century.[6] At this time the Slavic nations were already in possession, partly as masters, partly as servants, of the whole vast extent of territory, which they now occupy; and if we assume that at the present time about seventy or eighty millions speak the Slavic language in its different dialects, we must calculate that at the above mentioned period, and in the course of the next following centuries, before the Slavic was by degrees supplanted in the German-Slavic provinces by the German idiom, the number of those who called that language their mother tongue was at least the fifth part greater. Schlözer observes, that, with the exception of the Arabians, no nation on the globe had extended themselves so far. In the South, the Adriatic, the range of the Balkan, and the Euxine, are their frontiers; the coasts of the Icy Ocean are their limits in the North; their still greater extent in an Eastern and Western direction reaches from Kamtschatka and the Russian islands of the Pacific, where many of their vestiges are to be found among scattered tribes, as far as to the Baltic and along the banks of the rivers Elbe, Muhr, and Raab, again to the Adriatic. It is this immense extent, which adds greatly to the difficulties of a general survey of the different relations and connections of nations, broken up into so many parts. The _history of the language_ is our object, not the history of the people; we therefore give of statistic and political notices only so much, as seems to be requisite for the illustration of our subject.

The earliest data for the history of the civilization of the Slavic race, we find in their mythology; and here their oriental origin again appears. The antithesis of a good and evil principle is met with among most of their tribes; and as even at the present time in some Slavic dialects every thing good, beautiful, praiseworthy, is to them synonymous with the purity of the white colour, they call the good Spirit _Bielo Bòg_, the white god; the evil Spirit _Tcherno Bôg_, the black god. The _Div_ of the old Russians seem to be likewise akin to the _Dev_ of the Hindoo; the goddess of life, _Shiva_, of the Polabae, to the Indian _Shiva_; as the names of the Slavic personification of death, _Morjana_, _Morena_, _Marzana_, evidently stand in connection with the Indian word for death, _Marana_. Strabo describes some of the idols of the Rugians, in which we meet again the whole significant symbolization of the East. The custom prevalent among many Slavic nations, of females burning themselves with the corpses of their husbands, seems also to have been brought from India to Europe.

There are, however, other features of their mythology which belong to them exclusively, and which remind us rather of the sprightly and poetical imagination of the Greeks. We allude to their mode of attributing life to the inanimate objects of nature, rocks, brooks and trees; of peopling with supernatural beings the woods which surrounded them, the mountains between which they lived. The _Rusalki_ of the Russians, the _Vila_ of the southern Slavic nations, the _Leshie_ of several other tribes, nymphs, naiads, and satyrs, are still to be found in many popular tales and songs. If, however, we have compared them to the poetical gods of the Greeks, we must not forget to add, that their character has less resemblance to these gods, (who indeed appear only as ordinary men with higher powers, more violent passions, and less limited lives.) than it has to the northern Elf; and the German Nix and mountain Spirit--without heart and soul themselves, but always intermeddling with intrusive curiosity in human affairs, however void of real interest in them; revengeful towards the most trifling offence or the least neglect; and beneficent only to favourites arbitrarily chosen.[7]

The earliest historians mention the Slavi as divided into several tribes and as speaking different dialects. There are no very ancient remains of their language, except those words or phrases, which we find scattered through the works of foreign writers; and these mostly perverted by their want of knowledge. Besides these we have the names of places, of festivals, partly still existing, and of some dignitaries, _Knes_, _Zupan_, etc. There are, indeed, among the popular songs of the Bohemians, Servians, Russians, and several other tribes, many which are evidently derived from the pagan period; but as they have been preserved only by tradition, we must of course assume, that their diction, has been changed almost in the same proportion as the language of common life. Hence, national songs, before they have been fixed by letters, are always to be considered as much safer proofs for the genius than for the language of a people.

It is, however, probable that at least _one_ Slavic idiom was cultivated to a certain degree in very ancient times; for from the single circumstance, that Cyril's translation of the Bible, written in the middle of the ninth century, bears the stamp of uncommon perfection in its forms, and of great copiousness, it is sufficiently evident, that the language must have been the means of expression for thinking men several centuries before. There is, indeed, no doubt that the state of the language, as it appears in that translation, required no short interval of preparation.

The first attempts to convert portions of the Slavic race to Christianity were probably made before the seventh century; but it was only at the beginning of the ninth that their partial success became of importance to their language and literature. It is true, that by the last investigations of the late great Slavist, B. Kopitar, the fact has been ascertained, that a portion of the Slavic race was already in possession of an alphabet _before_ Cyril;[8] but as this fact appears to have had no further result, we must still consider the ninth century and Cyril's translation of the Gospels as the beginning of their literary history, the dawn at least of a brighter day.

Before we enter upon our examination of the different branches, we must not neglect to direct the attention of the reader to the whole great trunk, which in the most ancient times appears to have ramified into two principal stems.

A boundless confusion indeed reigns in the classification of the Slavic nations among the earlier historians and philologists. It was the learned Dobrovsky of Prague, who first brought light into this chaos, and established a classification, founded on a deep and thorough examination of all the different dialects, and acknowledged by the equally great authority of Kopitar. Adelung, in his Mithridates,[9] has adopted it. The specific names, however, Antes and Slavi, which Adelung applies to the great divisions, and which were first used by Jornandes, are arbitrary, and less distinct than those adopted by Dobrovsky, Kopitar, and Schaffarik; who divide all Slavic nations, according to certain philological affinities and differences, into the _North-Western_ and _South-Eastern_ Stems.[10]

Far better would have been the terms 'Northern _and_ Western,' 'Southern _and_ Eastern,' divisions; which indeed can be the only proper meaning of those appellations. The Slovaks in Hungary, for instance, who belong to the first division, can in no way be called a _North_-Western people; and the Russians, who belong to the second, still less a _South_-Eastern nation. The _origin_ from the South is common to all the Slavic tribes; hence the appellation of Northern and Southern can be applied to them only in a relative sense; and that portion of the Slavic race, which inhabits Russia, is not known to have ever lived in a more southern region than their Bohemian brethren. We adopt, therefore, the division of the Slavi into EASTERN and WESTERN Stems; which seems indeed to be the only strictly proper one.[11]

The following enumeration of the still existing distinct nations of the Slavic race, may serve to give a clearer view of them.

1. RUSSIANS. The Russians of Slavic origin form the bulk of the population of the European part of Russia. All the middle provinces of this vast empire are occupied almost exclusively by a people of purely Slavic extraction. The numerous Slavi who are scattered through Asiatic Russia, are of the same race. They belong to the Greek Church. To ascertain the exact numbers of the different races of one and the same nation, is exceedingly difficult. The statistical tables of the government afford little help; since it is the policy of the latter to annihilate as much as possible the difference of races. Schaffarik, in his Slavic Ethnography, gives the number of the Russians proper at 38,400,000. We follow him, as the most diligent and most consistent investigator of this matter; but we also feel bound to remark, that his statistical assertions have occasioned surprise, and met with contradiction.

2. RUSSNIAKS or RUTHENIANS, also called _Russinians_ and _Malo-Russians_. These are found in Malo-Russia, the South of Poland, Galicia, Ludomeria or Red Russia, the Bukovina, also in the north-eastern part of Hungary, and scattered over Walachia and Moldavia. The Kozaks, especially the Zaporogueans, belong chiefly to this race; while the Kozaks of the Don are more mixed with pure Russians. Their number is given at more than thirteen millions. They all belong to the Oriental Church; though a portion of them are Greek-Catholics, or adherents of the United Church.

II. ILLYRICO-SERVIAN BRANCH.

1. The ILLYRICO-SERVIANS proper, frequently called _Rascians_ or _Raitzi_, comprising five subdivisions.

a) The SERVIANS in Servia, lying between the rivers Timock, Drina, Save, the Danube, and the Balkan mountains; and, as a Turkish province, called Serf Vilayeti. Their number is at least a million. In earlier times, and especially at the end of the seventeenth century, many of them emigrated to Hungary; where even now between three and four hundred thousand of them are settled; exclusive of their near relatives, the Slavonians, in the kingdom of Slavonia so called.

b) BOSNIANS, between Dalmatia, the Balkan mountains, and the rivers Drina, Verbas, and Save; from four to five hundred thousand in number. Most of them belong, like their brethren the Servians, to the Greek Church; about 100,000 are Roman Catholics. There are of late many Muhammedans among them, who still retain their language and most of their Slavic customs.

c) MONTENEGRINS (Czernogortzi). The national name of the Montenegrins, here given as _Czernogortzi_, is better written _Tzernogortzi_; see p. 119, n. 17. Their number is given by Sir J.G. Wilkinson at 80,000, or more. These are the Slavic inhabitants of the Turkish province Albania, among the mountains of Montenegro. They have spread themselves from Bosnia to the sea-coast as far as Antivari. This remarkable people the Turks never have been able to subjugate completely. They enjoy a sort of military-republican freedom: their head chief being a Bishop with very limited power. They amount to nearly 60,000 souls, belonging to the Eastern Church.

d) SLAVONIANS. These are the inhabitants of the Austrian kingdom of Slavonia and the duchy of Syrmia, between Hungary on the north and Bosnia in the south, about half a million in number. A small majority belongs to the Romish Church; the rest to the Greek Church.

e) DALMATIANS. The country along the Adriatic, between Croatia and Albania, together with the adjacent islands, is called the kingdom of Dalmatia, and belongs likewise to the Austrian empire. It has, together with the Istrian shore north of it, towards 600,000 inhabitants; of whom 500,000 belong to the Slavo-Servian race. They are all Roman Catholics; with the exception of about 80,000 who belong to the Greek Church.

2. The Austrian kingdom of CROATIA in our time, between Styria, Hungary, Slavonia, Bosnia, Dalmatia, and the Adriatic, is not the ancient Croatia of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Together with the Croatian colonists in Hungary, and the inhabitants of the Turkish Sandshak Banialouka, it contains about 800,000 souls. Of these less than 200,000 belong to the Greek Church; the great majority are Catholics. We shall see further on that the Croats are divided in respect to their language into two parts: one of them having affinity with the Servians and Dalmatians, the other with the Slovenzi of Carniola and Carinthia.

3. SLOVENZI or VINDES. These names comprise the Slavic inhabitants of the duchies of Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, (the two latter forming the kingdom of Illyria,) and also those of the banks of the rivers Raab and Muhr in Hungary. Their number is over one million. With the exception of a few Protestants, they are all Catholics. They call themselves _Slovenzi_; but are known by foreign writers under the name of _Vindes_.

III. BULGARIAN BRANCH

The BULGARIANS occupy the Turkish province Sofia Vilayeti, between the Danube, the Euxine, the Balkan, and Servia; they are about three and a half millions in number, the remnant of a great nation. About 80,000 more are scattered through Bessarabia and the other provinces of South Russia. Schaffarik enumerates seven thousand as Austrian subjects, living in that great receptacle of nations, Hungary. Most of them belong to the Greek Church.

I. CZEKHO-SLOVAKIAN BRANCH.

1. BOHEMIANS and MORAVIANS (Czekhes). These are the Slavic inhabitants of the kingdom of Bohemia and the Margravate of Moravia, both belonging to the Austrian empire. They are about four and a half millions in number; of whom 100,000 are Protestants, the rest Catholics. Schaffarik includes also 44,000 of the Slavic inhabitants of Prussian Silesia in this race.

2. SLOVAKS. Almost all the northern part of Hungary is inhabited by Slovaks: besides this they are scattered through the whole of that country, and speak different dialects. They are reckoned at between two and three millions.

II. POLISH OR LEKHIAN BRANCH.