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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77238 ***
+
+
+
+
+  THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS
+  IN LITERATURE
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of The American-Scandinavian Foundation_
+
+ALFRED NOBEL]
+
+
+
+
+  THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS
+  IN LITERATURE
+  _By_ ANNIE RUSSELL MARBLE
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+  D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+  NEW YORK :: MCMXXVII :: LONDON
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY
+  D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+
+  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+
+
+
+  TO
+  PAUL AND ANNA
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+These studies of Nobel Prize Winners in Literature have been the
+result of research for several years and lectures upon the subject in
+University Extension courses, before college clubs and other groups.
+The vast scope of the subject suggests temerity in one who attempts
+to treat it in such limited space. The writer realizes the inadequacy
+of the book and possible conflicting statements because of diverse
+authorities that have been consulted. After careful “siftings,” it is
+offered as an incentive to further study, as a roadmap to many paths
+of literary research. Biographical data and brief criticism of the
+authors’ works are followed by a bibliography which is suggestive
+rather than exhaustive.
+
+The writer of these chapters has been, in large measure, the recorder
+of research by many individuals and educational institutions, with
+personal deductions from wide reading. Among many books that have been
+stimulating are _Creative Spirits of the Nineteenth Century_ by Georg
+Brandes, _Studies from Ten Literatures_ by Ernest Boyd, books upon the
+drama and translations by John Garrett Underhill, Ludwig Lewisohn and
+Barrett H. Clark, and studies of Knut Hamsun by Josef Wiehr and Hanna
+Arstrup Larsen. Other specific books of interpretation are emphasized
+in text and footnotes, as well as in bibliography.
+
+Gratitude that defies fitting words would be here expressed to Miss
+Anna C. Reque of the Bureau of Information of the American-Scandinavian
+Foundation, to the Svenska Akademien Nobelinstitut of Stockholm, to
+Mrs. Velma Swanston Howard, Miss Svea Boson and Thekla E. Hodge for
+translations, to Mr. R. F. Sharp of the British Museum, to Eugen
+Diederichs Verlag in Jerla, to The Danish National Library, Copenhagen,
+to Prof. Josef Wiehr, Prof. Kuno Francke, Francis Rooney, Esq., to
+Mr. Theodore Sutro, Mr. Rupert Hughes, Miss Harriet C. Marble, and to
+librarians of the Widener Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Miss Grace
+W. Wood, Mrs. Helen Abbott Beals, and to librarians of the Widener
+Library, Cambridge, Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Free
+Public Library of Worcester and many other sources of encouragement and
+coöperation.
+
+Appreciation of permission to quote extracts from printed works and
+to use illustrations is acknowledged to Sir Edmund Gosse, Mr. Rudyard
+Kipling and his agents, A. P. Watt & Son, to editors of _The Atlantic
+Monthly_, _The Bookman_, _The Edinburgh Review_, and the publishing
+houses of American-Scandinavian Foundation, D. Appleton & Co., Boni &
+Liveright, The Century Co., Thomas Y. Crowell Company, Dodd, Mead &
+Company, Inc., Doubleday, Page & Company, Ginn and Company, Henry Holt
+and Company, Houghton Mifflin Company, B. W. Huebsch, Inc., Alfred
+A. Knopf, Inc., Little, Brown & Company, J. B. Lippincott Company,
+Longmans, Green & Co., The Macmillan Company, Oxford University Press,
+American Branch, The Pilgrim Press, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Charles
+Scribner’s Sons, Thomas Seltzer, Inc., Leonard Scott Publication
+Company, Herman Struck, W. P. Trumbauer, The University of Pennsylvania
+and Yale University Press.
+
+  ANNIE RUSSELL MARBLE
+
+  Worcester, Massachusetts,
+  September, 1925
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                              PAGE
+
+  PREFACE                                                      vii
+
+  CHAPTER
+
+     I. ALFRED NOBEL: THE CONDITIONS OF HIS WILL AND LITERARY
+        RESULTS                                                  1
+
+    II. POETS OF FRANCE AND PROVENCE                            21
+
+        Sully-Prudhomme (1901)                                  21
+
+        Frédéric Mistral (1904)                                 31
+
+   III. TWO GERMAN SCHOLARS                                     42
+
+        Theodor Mommsen (1902)                                  42
+
+        Rudolf Eucken (1908)                                    48
+
+    IV. BJÖRNSON: NORWEGIAN NOVELIST AND PLAYWRIGHT (1903)      58
+
+     V. GIOSUÈ CARDUCCI--ITALIAN POET (1906)                    72
+
+    VI. THE WRITINGS OF RUDYARD KIPLING BEFORE AND AFTER THE
+        AWARD (1907)                                            85
+
+   VII. SELMA LAGERLÖF--SWEDISH REALIST AND IDEALIST (1909)    104
+
+  VIII. PAUL HEYSE (1910)--GERHART HAUPTMANN (1912)            124
+
+    IX. MAETERLINCK--BELGIAN SYMBOLIST AND POET-PLAYWRIGHT
+        (1911)                                                 148
+
+     X. RABINDRANATH TAGORE--BENGALESE MYSTIC-POET (1913)      159
+
+    XI. ROMAIN ROLLAND AND _JEAN-CHRISTOPHE_ (1915)            175
+
+   XII. A GROUP OF WINNERS--NOVELISTS AND POETS                189
+
+        Verner Von Heidenstam (1916)                           189
+
+        Henrik Pontoppidan (1917)                              197
+
+        Karl Gjellerup (1917)                                  201
+
+        Carl Spitteler (1919)                                  205
+
+  XIII. KNUT HAMSUN AND HIS NOVELS OF NORWEGIAN LIFE (1920)    213
+
+   XIV. ANATOLE FRANCE--VERSATILE STYLIST IN FICTION AND
+        ESSAYS (1921)                                          224
+
+    XV. TWO SPANISH DRAMATISTS                                 239
+
+        José Echegaray (1904)                                  239
+
+        Jacinto Benavente (1922)                               247
+
+   XVI. W. B. YEATS AND HIS PART IN THE CELTIC REVIVAL
+        (1923)                                                 253
+
+  XVII. HONORS TO POLISH FICTION                               264
+
+        Henryk Sienkiewicz (1905)                              264
+
+        Ladislaw Stanislaw Reymont (1924)                      269
+
+  CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS IN LITERATURE      277
+
+  BIBLIOGRAPHY                                                 279
+
+  INDEX                                                        301
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                    FACING
+                                      PAGE
+
+  ALFRED NOBEL              _Frontispiece_
+
+  FRÉDÉRIC MISTRAL                      32
+
+  BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON                 58
+
+  RUDYARD KIPLING                       86
+
+  SELMA LAGERLÖF                       104
+
+  GERHART HAUPTMANN                    134
+
+  MAURICE MAETERLINCK                  148
+
+  RABINDRANATH TAGORE                  160
+
+  ROMAIN ROLLAND                       176
+
+  KNUT HAMSUN                          214
+
+  ANATOLE FRANCE                       224
+
+  JACINTO BENAVENTE                    248
+
+  WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS                 254
+
+  HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ                   264
+
+
+
+
+THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS IN LITERATURE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ALFRED NOBEL: THE CONDITIONS OF HIS WILL AND LITERARY RESULTS
+
+
+_Nobilius_ was the ancestral name, by tradition, of that family
+whose representative, Alfred Nobel, has left a name synonymous with
+inventiveness and large benefactions to humanity. The grandfather,
+Imanuel, an army surgeon, is accredited with changing the family
+name to _Nobel_. His son, Emanuel, father of Alfred, taught science
+in Stockholm, as a young man. With inventive ability he experimented
+with explosives, submarine mines, and other destructive forces and,
+by paradox, became designer of surgical appliances and India-rubber
+cushions to relieve suffering. He was interested in ship construction
+and spent some time in Egypt. To his sons he transmitted his spirit of
+scientific research, with all the dangers as well as the inspiration of
+such ambition. Two explosions, during experiments with nitroglycerine
+and other chemicals, caused severe loss. The first, occurring about
+1837 in Stockholm, shattered the nerves of the people as well as their
+windows, so that Emanuel went to Russia, on the advice of friends
+prominent in affairs of industry and government. Here he was employed
+by the Russians to continue his experiments with submarine mines; with
+his family, he remained here until after the Crimean War, contributing
+to naval warfare by his inventions. An older son, Ludwig, remained in
+Russia when his family returned to Sweden. This son gained repute as
+an engineer and discovered the petroleum springs at Baku.[1] A second
+explosion in one of the factories of Sweden, in 1864, caused the death
+of a younger son of Emanuel Nobel and shocked the father so severely
+that he was an invalid physically for the rest of his life.
+
+Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born at Stockholm in 1833. He was less
+robust than his brothers; he was sensitive and nervous, suffering from
+headaches all his life. His mother, Karoline Henriette Ahlssell, was
+his devoted comrade from the early days when he would lie on the couch
+while she read to him or told him sagas and hero-stories. She was wise
+and happy by nature, confident that Alfred would become “a great man,”
+in spite of poor physique and moods of depression. He never married,
+although he loved a young girl who died in her youth, but he was
+devoted to his mother to the end of her life. Letters and frequent
+visits to her in Sweden, in his later life, kept alive his affectionate
+nature and his idealism.
+
+Like his father he showed studious interest in chemistry, physics,
+and mechanical engineering. Shipbuilding attracted his attention for
+a time and, when he was about seventeen, he was sent to the United
+States to increase his knowledge of mechanics, as applied to ships, by
+association with John Ericsson. At the home of the latter on Franklin
+Street, New York, where a tablet has been placed to commemorate the
+services of this inventor in the Civil War, young Nobel lived for a
+time. His father sent him to John Ericsson in order to investigate an
+invention of his, an engine which was supposed to work by heat from
+the sun. He stayed several months, probably not more than a year.
+Ericsson was passing through a period of fluctuating fortunes. At
+the end of 1849 his balance was only $132.32--his total receipts for
+the year had been but $2,000. Two years later he recorded a balance
+of $8,690.10. In the interval he had sold several patents and had
+received congratulations from the King of Sweden upon the great future
+for his “test caloric engine.” This was the goal of his experiments
+during these years; its success was to be tested in the trial trip of
+_The Ericsson_, February 11, 1853. A squall came up as the boat was
+launched and making headway, and it sank, carrying with it hopes of
+the inventor after years of experiment, and half a million dollars of
+invested capital. Ericsson was crushed for a few weeks. How pluckily he
+recovered his courage, made his plans for _The Monitor_, offered that
+to the United States government and won success for the cause of the
+North, is familiar history.[2]
+
+Upon Alfred Nobel, with his quick, impressionable temperament, this
+direct contact with Ericsson must have left strong influences. Perhaps
+he decided then that, should fortune favor him, he would leave a fund
+to aid scientists in their experiments and to protect them against
+financial duress during periods of discouragement. When he returned
+to Sweden and Russia, he coöperated with his father and brothers in
+manufacturing nitroglycerine and other explosives; he was constantly
+seeking for a compound which would be more powerful and less dangerous.
+In 1857, at St. Petersburg, he had taken out a patent for a gasometer.
+It has been said that the discovery of what was later known as dynamite
+came by accident to Alfred Nobel, during an experiment about 1865-66.
+Some nitroglycerine had escaped into the siliceous sand of the packing
+and this brought about a partial solution of his problem. Dynamite,
+which was composed of 75 per cent nitroglycerine and 25 per cent
+kieselguhr, or infusorial earth, was produced. He applied for patents
+in several countries, and sought for funds to start factories which he
+believed would make a fortune by manufacture of this new explosive. It
+was sometimes called “Nobel’s blasting-oil.” He told French bankers
+that he had invented “an oil that would blow up the world”; a facetious
+commentator declared, “French bankers thought it for their interest to
+leave the globe undisturbed” and refused him credit.[3]
+
+Napoleon III became interested and arranged for funds for Nobel’s
+factories in France. With some samples of dynamite in his hand bag,
+Alfred Nobel came to the United States on the same commercial mission.
+New York hotels received him with suspicion because of rumors about
+the “deadly explosive”; he went to California where, through the aid
+of Dr. Bandman, a friend of Nobel’s brother, a factory was started
+near Los Angeles. In a few years manufactories were in operation in
+Italy, Spain, France and Scotland, as well as England and Sweden.
+When Alfred Nobel was forty years old he was making his fortune out
+of this “giant powder.” For several years he lived in Paris where he
+had laboratories for further experiments with gelatin, balastite, and
+forms of smokeless powder. In his later home, in San Remo, he carried
+on developments and took out more patents in petroleum and artificial
+gutta-percha. He received the tribute of scientists and educators but
+the ignorant people regarded him with a mixture of awe and fear--“he
+had put the long hammer of Thor to work again among the giants.”
+
+In spite of his inspiring life-work and many successes, in spite of
+his wealth and honors, Alfred Nobel was a lonely man. His health
+was unstable; he often worked with bandaged head and in intense
+pain, accentuated by the gaseous fumes of his laboratory. He was
+self-distrustful and fearful that people were attracted to him _only_
+by his wealth. One of the few individuals who gained and kept his
+confidence was Baroness Bertha von Suttner. In her _Memoirs_ the
+personality of Alfred Nobel is revealed in comments and letters. She
+came to him in response to an advertisement in a Paris newspaper,
+asking for a secretary for “a very wealthy, cultured gentleman.”
+She remained only a few days in her joint capacity of secretary and
+housekeeper, for a happy solution of her interrupted romance with the
+Baron von Suttner eventuated in her speedy marriage. She exchanged
+letters and visits with Alfred Nobel for many years and was devoted
+to him in life and in memory. She describes him as somewhat below
+average height, without physical attractiveness but in no sense
+“repulsive,” as he imagined himself to be. He was a fine linguist,
+somewhat of a philosopher, a good conversationalist and entertaining
+as a story-teller. He allowed her to read a long philosophical poem
+which he had written in English and she found it “simply splendid.”
+He was critical of the shallow, false-hearted people, especially
+those who importuned him with low motives; but he had faith in a
+better development of humanity as education progressed. One of his few
+intellectual companions in Paris was Madame Juliette Adams, author and
+editor of the _Nouvelle Revue_; at her salon in Rue Juliet, Nobel would
+meet, occasionally, men of science and letters.
+
+In the _Memoirs_ of Baroness von Suttner may be located the first
+intimations of Nobel’s motives which led to the Nobel prizes,
+especially the specific form which was known as “the Peace Prize.” It
+will be recalled that the Baroness von Suttner was one of the early
+winners of this prize by her widely-read romance, _Die Waffen nieder_
+(_Lay Down Your Arms!_). In 1890, after the publication of this story,
+advocating world peace, Nobel wrote letters of high commendation. On
+another occasion he said to her, “I wish I could produce a substance or
+a machine of such frightful efficacy for wholesale devastation that
+wars should thereby become altogether impossible.”[4] He contended,
+with the mind of a prophet, that a day might come when “two army corps
+may mutually annihilate each other in a second”; then he believed
+that “all civilized nations will recoil and disband their troops.” On
+January 7, 1893, three years before his death, he wrote to the Baroness
+from Paris.[5] “I should like to dispose of a part of my fortune by
+founding a prize to be granted every five years--say six times, for
+if in thirty years they have not succeeded in reforming the present
+system they will infallibly relapse into barbarism.... If the Triple
+Alliance, instead of comprising only three states, should enlist all
+states, the peace of the centuries would be assured.” Affirming his
+belief in “reasonable Socialism,” he deplored the custom of leaving
+large fortunes to heirs; too often the results were lapses in mental
+ambitions and industry.
+
+On December 10, 1896, Alfred Nobel died suddenly in his workshop at
+San Remo. For a long time he had realized his condition of reduced
+vitality. He consulted doctors unwillingly and heeded their counsel
+with reluctance. He kept a record of his own pulse and heart action
+but he never desisted from a full day’s work in his laboratory. His
+last letters have a sad note that is sometimes sarcastic yet he
+kept faith in and with humanity to the last. He had been carefully
+considering the disposal of his fortune, determined that it should
+contribute to progress in science and literature, for the welfare of
+mankind and the education towards world peace. His will startled the
+civilized world by its originality and idealism. The man who had been
+most successful in inventing elements of destruction, by a paradox, had
+left most of his large fortune to constructive, creative purposes.
+
+Because he distrusted many lawyers he had been his own legal adviser
+in large measure; sometimes he had acted as his own secretary, lest an
+outsider might abuse his confidence. In appointing M. Ragnar Sohlmann
+as executor, he explained that here “was a man who had never asked
+anything of me.” (Later the manager of the factory at Bergen became
+associate executor.) He left legacies of five thousand pounds each
+to his nephews but some efforts to “break the will” were threatened.
+Emanuel, then head of the family, refused to sanction such interference
+and, after many complications and delays, the will was allowed, and
+varied equivocal, or impractical, conditions were interpreted by “Code
+of Statutes,” issued by the King of Sweden, June 29, 1900.
+
+From this pamphlet is quoted here the extract from the will:[6]
+“Extract from the Will and Testament of Dr. Alfred Bernhard Nobel,
+Engineer, which was drawn on the 27th day of November, 1895: ‘With
+the residue of my convertible estate I hereby direct my executors to
+proceed as follows: They shall convert my said residue of property into
+money, which they shall then invest in safe securities; the capital
+thus secured shall constitute a fund, the interest accruing from
+which shall be annually awarded in prizes to those persons who shall
+have contributed most materially to benefit mankind during the year
+immediately preceding. The said interest shall be divided into five
+equal amounts, to be apportioned as follows: one share to the person
+who shall have made the most important discovery or invention in the
+domain of Physics; one share to the person who shall have made the most
+important chemical discovery or improvement; one share to the person
+who shall have made the most important discovery in the domain of
+Physiology or Medicine; one share to the person who shall have produced
+in the field of Literature the most distinguished work of an idealistic
+tendency; and finally, one share to the person who shall have most
+or best promoted the Fraternity of Nations and the Abolishment or
+Diminution of Standing Armies and the Formation and Increase of Peace
+Congresses.’”
+
+In further details the will provides: “The prizes for Physics and
+Chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Science in
+Stockholm; the one for Physiology or Medicine by the Caroline Medical
+Institute in Stockholm; the one for Literature by the Academy in
+Stockholm (_i.e._ Svenska Akademien) and that for Peace by a Committee
+of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storthing. I declare
+it to be my express desire that in the awarding of prizes, no
+consideration whatever be paid to the nationality of the candidates,
+that is to say, that the most deserving be awarded the prize, whether
+of Scandinavian origin or not.”
+
+Because of difficulties in interpreting certain sections and
+elucidating other phrases, this Code of Statutes was drawn up “in
+consultation with a representative, nominated by Robert Nobel’s family,
+and submitted to consideration of the King.” After adjustments of
+interests had been “amicably entered into” by the testator’s heirs,
+June 5, 1898, it was decreed that “The instructions of the will above
+as set forth shall serve as a criterion for the administration of the
+Foundation (Nobel) in conjunction with the elucidations and further
+stipulations contained in this Code.” One “stipulation” was that “each
+of the annual prizes founded by the said will shall be awarded at least
+once during each ensuing five-year period after the year in which the
+Nobel Foundation comes into force.” The phrase used by Nobel in the
+words relating to the prize in Literature, “the Academy at Stockholm,”
+was interpreted “as understood to be the Swedish Academy--Svenska
+Akademien.” Another significant explanation was--the “term,
+‘Literature,’ used in the will shall be understood to embrace not only
+works falling under the category of Polite Literature, but also other
+writings which may claim to possess literary value by reason of their
+form or their mode of exposition.” This last provision, which seems
+elastic and somewhat vague, has not led thus far to undue difficulties
+and criticisms.
+
+The phrase “during the preceding year,” as applied to scientific and
+literary achievements alike, was a strange, impractical provision which
+was well interpreted broadly in the Code thus: “only such works or
+inventions shall be eligible as have appeared ‘during the preceding
+year’ is to be understood, that a work or invention for which a reward
+under the terms of the will is contemplated, shall set forth the _most
+modern results_ of work being done in that of the departments as
+defined in the will to which it belongs; works or inventions of older
+standing to be taken into consideration only in case their importance
+has not previously been demonstrated.”
+
+Two other stipulations were made that have been applied to the awards
+in literature, as elsewhere, “The amount allotted to one prize may be
+divided equally between two works submitted, should each of such works
+be deemed to merit a prize.” Thus, in 1904, the prize was divided
+between José Echegaray, the Spanish dramatist, and Frédéric Mistral,
+the poet of Provence; again, in 1917, it was divided between two Danish
+writers, Gjellerup and Pontoppidan. On the other hand, if all of the
+“works under examination fail to attain to the standard of excellence”
+required, no award need be given that year, the “amount added to the
+main fund or may be set aside to form a special fund for that of one of
+the sections to promote the object of the testator.” In 1914 and 1918
+there were no awards in literature.
+
+To facilitate impartial judgment it was directed that each of the
+four sections of the Swedish corporation of award “shall appoint a
+committee--their Nobel Committee--of three or five members to make
+suggestions with reference to the award.” To be a member of this
+Nobel Committee one need not be “a Swedish subject or member of the
+Corporation.” “How are these candidates for prizes nominated?” is a
+frequent question. It is stated explicitly in this Code of Statutes,
+section 7: “It is essential that every candidate for a prize under
+the terms of the will, be proposed as such in writing by some duly
+qualified person. A direct application for a prize will not be taken
+into consideration.” Further explanations are given of “qualifications
+entitling a person to propose another for the receipt of a prize”--he
+must be “a representative, whether Swedish or otherwise, of the domain
+of Science, Literature, etc. in question and the grounds for the award
+must be stated in writing.” In this same Code of Statutes, in a later
+section (p. 23) there is expanded information regarding “The right to
+nominate a candidate for the prize-competition”--this shall “belong to
+Members of the Swedish Academy and the Academies in France and Spain
+which are similar to it in constitution and purpose; members also of
+the humanistic classes of other Academies and of those humanistic
+institutions and societies that are on the same footing as academies,
+and teachers of æsthetics, literature and history at universities and
+colleges.” For publicity it was provided that these “regulations shall
+be publicly announced at least every five years in some official or
+widely circulated journals in each of the three Scandinavian countries
+and in the chief countries of the civilized world.” The names of
+candidates must be presented by February first of each year.
+
+Although the successful candidates for the various prizes are
+usually “broadcasted,” in these days of shrewd journalism, sometime
+in November, the official announcements of the awards are made on
+“Founder’s Day,” the tenth of December, the anniversary of the death
+of the testator. “At this time the adjudicators shall make known the
+result of their award and shall hand over to the winners of the prizes
+a cheque for the amount of the same, together with a diploma and a
+medal in gold, bearing the testator’s effigy and a suitable legend.”
+The last word may be more freely translated, _inscription_. In further
+explanation the Code of Statutes decrees: “It shall be incumbent on
+a prize winner, whenever feasible, to give a lecture on the subject
+treated of in the work to which the prize has been awarded, such
+lecture to take place within six months of the Founder’s Day at which
+the prize was won, and to be given at Stockholm or, in the case of the
+Peace prize, at Christiania.” This feature of the award has not often
+been “feasible” in literature, although a few of the winners have
+received the prizes in person at Stockholm and made fitting responses,
+as we shall note in later chapters. The decree is final:[7] “Against
+the decision of the adjudicators in making their award no protest can
+be lodged. If differences of opinion have occurred they shall not
+appear in the minutes of the proceedings, nor in any other way be made
+public.” To assist in their investigations and to further the “aims
+of the Foundation, the adjudicators shall possess powers to establish
+scientific institutes and other organizations. The institutes so
+established and belonging to the Foundation, shall be known under the
+name of Nobel Institutes.”
+
+While the general administration of the funds and awards rests with
+the Nobel Foundation, consisting of five persons (“one of whom, the
+President, shall be appointed by the King and the others by the
+delegates of the adjudicating corporations”) the specific work of
+investigation and judgment rests with the organization cited in the
+will. In literature, the “prizes are assigned” by the Swedish Academy,
+after careful investigation by its members, and the assistance of the
+Nobel Institute and Librarian. A large collection of books, mostly of
+modern writings, forms the Library. In all languages, translations,
+when necessary, are found here, also reports concerning works of
+recent publication. The Swedish Academy was founded by King Gustavus
+III in 1786. It has devoted itself to “the arts of elocution and
+poetry, to the preservation of purity, force and elevation of diction
+in the Swedish language both in scientific works and products of pure
+literature.” Annual prizes have been offered, for scores of years, in
+elocution and poetry. Eighteen members, all Swedes, comprise this
+Academy, of which the King is patron. He appoints the Inspector of the
+Nobel Institute of the Swedish Academy but its “immediate management is
+by a member of the Academy, chosen by that body.”
+
+Two conditions of the will of Alfred Nobel have been faithfully
+followed--the recipients in all branches have done something (if not
+“most”) “to benefit humanity”; in the second place, “no consideration
+whatever has been paid to the nationality of the candidates,” in
+the way of favoritism. The most reasonable criticism of the awards,
+especially in literature, has been a failure to carry out what seems
+to have been the assumed, but not expressed, desire of the donor,
+namely, to _stimulate_ work as well as to _reward_ past achievements.
+Otherwise, why that puzzling phrase about “the year preceding”? Not
+wholly without foundation is the comment that too many of the awards
+in literature have been “tombstones rather than stepping-stones.” Many
+of the earlier recipients were past seventy, with productive faculties
+low, before the honor. It is a satisfaction to the public to know that
+a worthy writer has had world recognition before he dies, and that
+his last days may have many comforts possible through the financial
+award of about $40,000--but such conditions do not seem in accord with
+the spirit of the Nobel will and the attitude of the donor toward
+creative work. The awards have been too often retroactive rather than
+stimulating to further writing. Other winners, as will be noted later,
+have accomplished vigorous literature, _after_ the award as well as
+_before_ the honor.
+
+During the years from 1901, when the first prizes were given, to 1925,
+twelve nationalities have been represented in literature. Germany
+and France have had the largest percentages in awards: Spain, Italy,
+Poland, Norway, Sweden have had two winners each. Great Britain
+(including the awards to Rabindranath Tagore and to Yeats as well as
+Kipling) has been thrice honored. Denmark divided the prize one year;
+Switzerland came into the lists with her poet, Carl Spitteler. In
+science and “promotion of peace,” America has such names on the roster
+of honor as A. A. Michelson in physics, T. W. Richards in chemistry,
+Dr. Alexis Carrel in medicine, and Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root and
+Woodrow Wilson in the “peace prize.”
+
+What have been the influences of the will of Alfred Nobel and the
+awards upon international literature? An unquestioned result has been
+to arouse both curiosity and aspiration among writers and readers. No
+other prizes, among any peoples, have caused such widespread interest.
+The announcement of the Nobel prizes each year has become an event
+of outstanding significance. Journals enter into competition, in
+recent years, to get the first word over the wires and to publish the
+most informing articles upon the winners. Tense interest precedes and
+follows the awards. Whatever may be one’s individual opinion about the
+justice in every instance, the fact remains that the chosen writer
+becomes the center of study and discussion for the current season and
+later years. To some critics this method of appreciation is offensive;
+sometimes it may seem to be a sensational “thrust into the limelight”
+of an insignificant or mediocre writer. In the majority of cases, the
+result is like that of a strong telescope which can distinguish the
+“fixed stars from the meteors” in the literary horizon.
+
+The second influence is upon writers of every nationality--an incentive
+to produce “a distinguished work of an idealistic tendency,” some book
+which will prove of “benefit to humanity.” This term, idealistic,
+is difficult to render in all languages. In the French explanation
+of the will, it is explicit, “le plus remarquable dans le sens de
+l’idéalisme.” It is not easy to justify the prizes in literature, in
+several cases, if one emphasizes the usual meaning of “idealistic.”
+Occasionally, the award was given for some less recent work, some
+hitherto unappreciated note of idealism in an earlier writing. Two
+examples, among many, are Björnson’s tales of peasant life, with
+interwoven sagas and poetry, _Arne_ and _A Happy Boy_, or Mistral’s
+_Mireio_, the pastoral poem of Provence which was written more than
+forty years before the prize was given. In these two cases, as will
+be noted later, there was appreciation of efforts to rescue a dialect
+or language from literary desuetude. Upon both writers and readers,
+the influence of the Nobel awards in literature has been to promote
+broader interests and sympathies, more earnest study of standards and
+aspirations in widely separated races.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] _Westminster Review_, 156, 642.
+
+[2] _The Life of John Ericsson_ by William Conant Church, 2 Vols., New
+York, 1901.
+
+[3] Vance Thompson, in _Cosmopolitan_, September, 1906.
+
+[4] _Memoirs of Bertha von Suttner; Records of an Eventful Life_, Vol.
+I, p. 210, New York, 1910. By permission of Ginn & Co.
+
+[5] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 438.
+
+[6] Nobel Stiftelson, The Nobel Foundation, Code of Statutes given
+at the Royal Palace in Stockholm on June 29, 1900 (Stockholm, 1901).
+Objects of the Foundation. From copy in Library of Congress.
+
+[7] _Ibid._, section 10.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+POETS OF FRANCE AND PROVENCE
+
+
+  The prize of 1901 has been awarded:
+
+  Sully-Prudhomme, René François Armand, member of the French Academy,
+  born 1839, died September 7, 1907: “as an acknowledgment of his
+  excellent merit as an author, and especially of the high idealism,
+  artistic perfection, as well as the unusual combination of qualities
+  of the heart and genius to which his work bears witness.”[8]
+
+There has been a steadily cumulative interest in the Nobel prizes,
+during the last twenty-five years. Proof is found by comparing journals
+of 1901 and 1925, with reference to data and discussion of prize
+winners of the respective years. That the will of Alfred Nobel was
+an epochal document, in the history of science and literature, was a
+slowly recognized truth. What is idealism in literature? What writers
+will be candidates with books “of idealistic tendency”? How important
+will be the influence of such awards? Such were queries in many minds.
+The meaning of idealism is elastic in interpretation, as examples among
+the winners will testify. A general principle holds, however, in past
+and present standards--the idealistic writer sees _beyond_ nature and
+externals; he sees “with the eye of the spirit.” The difference has
+been expressed in fitting analogy, by contrast between a photograph
+and a portrait of the same individual--if the latter is painted by an
+intuitive artist, with vision and insight, as well as artistic technic.
+
+René François Armand Sully-Prudhomme, the first author to win the
+prize in literature, in 1901, received adulatory comments from French
+journals and several pages of _personalia_ and criticism in literary
+magazines of England, Germany, Scandinavia, and America. For more than
+forty years he had been recognized as one of the greatest living poets,
+the philosophical poet of the nineteenth century in France, about whose
+life and work there was inadequate information in English translations;
+the inadequacy is still apparent. The French Academy was happy that
+one of its members should have been chosen for this honor, the first
+on the list of international candidates. Born in Paris, May 16, 1839,
+this French poet evidently belonged to the nineteenth century, in its
+middle and later decades, rather than to the twentieth century and its
+productive or prophetic writers.
+
+In the poetry of Sully-Prudhomme are found, almost always, two elements
+sometimes in conflict, wistful tenderness and serious, challenging
+reflection. This combination of traits may be explained, in part, by
+the circumstances of his inheritance and childhood. For ten years his
+mother had waited to marry her lover, the father of the poet; four
+years after their marriage, he died. Devoted to her son and believing
+that he had marked skill in science, she gave him every possible chance
+for education; but his home life was lacking in gayety or lighter
+interests. At the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, René Sully-Prudhomme
+excelled in mathematical sciences and his future seemed assured as a
+scholar and teacher. Then an illness affected his eyes so seriously
+that he had to abandon concentrated study and he began to write poems
+of philosophic trend, questioning the meaning of life yet vibrating
+with emotion.
+
+The first collection of his poems, _Stances et poèmes_, appeared when
+he was twenty-six years old. It was received with encomiums from
+critics and sold so well that he determined to relinquish the hope
+of ever becoming either a scientist or a lawyer and decided that he
+would devote his time to poetry. In this collection is found “Le vase
+brisé,” one of the most familiar of his poems, with the extended
+analogy between the broken vase, the verbena, and the heart; here is
+the echoing refrain,
+
+    Il est brisé, n’y touchez pas.
+
+The next year _Les Epreuves_, translated as _The Test_, was
+published, followed by _Les Solitudes_ three years later, and _Les
+vrais tendresses_, in 1875. In these poetic meditations he showed the
+conflict, ever present in his own nature, between the reason and the
+emotions,
+
+                le combat sans vainqueur
+    Entre la foi sans preuve et la raison sans charme.
+
+Even more pronounced was this motif of disharmony in the two later
+poems, _La Justice_ and _Le Bonheur_. By his countrymen he was hailed
+as successor to Victor Hugo and was elected to membership in the French
+Academy in 1881. In the long and best known poem by Sully-Prudhomme,
+_La Justice_, there are strong traces of the influence of Lucretius,
+the classic poet whom he admired and translated with felicitous skill.
+A Prologue and an Epilogue and eleven “Vigils” comprise the structure
+of this poetic search for the element of _Justice_. There are two
+divisions; Part I is entitled “Silence au cœur,” rendered into English
+as “Heart, Be Silent!” and Part II, “Appel au cœur.” The chosen medium
+of expression is dialogue between two symbolic characters, “The
+Seeker,” who analyzes all things with metaphysical exactness, and “A
+Voice” which proclaims the “divine aspect in all things.” Justice
+cannot be located in the Universe; it may be found in the heart of man,
+“which is its inviolable and sacred temple.”
+
+As _La Justice_ exemplified the search for Justice in Universal Nature,
+so _Le Bonheur_, the second long poem published in 1888, was a symbolic
+epic, a progress towards supreme Happiness by three routes--curiosity,
+sensuousness and science, virtue and sacrifice. The three Parts have
+been called, in one translation, “Intoxication,” “Thought,” “The
+Supreme Flight” (“Le suprème essor”). There are lines that are strained
+in effect, far less convincing and harmonious than the arguments in _La
+Justice_; by contrast there are passages of poetic beauty. Faustus and
+Stella are the two seekers after Happiness. In a climax--which might
+be more dramatic--they “take flight” spiritually from the temptations
+and disillusionments of earth to seek, in sacrifice, their fruition of
+possible happiness.
+
+One of the colleagues of Sully-Prudhomme, who has written frankly of
+his personality and poetry, is Anatole France. In the biography of the
+latter, _Anatole France: the Man and His Work_ by James Lewis May,[9]
+among the vignettes written of the group of poet-friends who discussed
+life and literature, is a typical sketch of Sully-Prudhomme, at the age
+of thirty-six, “mathematical and even geometrical in his sonnets.” He
+stressed his intellectuality, as well as his handsome face and wealth.
+More illumining, and far more sympathetic, is the analytic study of
+Sully-Prudhomme, in the chapter entitled “Three Poets” in Anatole
+France’s critiques _On Life and Letters_, first series, translated
+by A. W. Evans.[10] Comparing Sully-Prudhomme, François Coppée and
+Frédéric Plessis, the critic finds in the first poet, “in his favour,
+not only the mysterious gifts of the poet but, in addition, an absolute
+sincerity, an inflexible gentleness, a pity without weakness, and a
+candour, a simplicity that lift his philosophical scepticism, as it
+were on wings, into the lofty regions whither formerly the mystics
+were exalted by faith.” As a friend and confidant, he extols this
+man of gentle melancholy, sentimental yet reflective, romantic yet
+philosophical.
+
+Edward Dowden, in his essay on “Some French Writers of Verse,”[11]
+attributes the seeming unhappiness, or melancholy of Sully-Prudhomme,
+reflected in some of his poetry, to the lack of a creed or a loyalty
+to which he can give absolute devotion. He calls him “an eclectic”
+and finds an analogy in the tale of _Merlin_, the poetical romance
+by Edgar Quinet. He stresses the almost feminine sensitiveness of
+this poet, a woman’s tenderness which in no way diminishes his manly
+vigor. An individual of “harder or narrower personality” would not
+have been so disturbed by the conflicts between reason and emotion, by
+the deterrents to perfect happiness. Ill health for many years was a
+contributory factor, doubtless, to many moods of introspective sadness.
+He suffered from partial paralysis in later years. Francis Grierson
+in _Parisian Portraits_[12] gives a graphic, intimate picture of this
+“typical Academician” with grace of manners and intuitive insight into
+people, waging war against his illusions with the part of his mind that
+was scientific, and maintaining his poetic vision by his sensitive
+emotions. At his home in the rue de Faubourg he always welcomed younger
+poets. He seldom went into society, although he was often found at
+the salons of Countess Diane de Beausacq, the author of _Maximes de
+la vie_. This woman of independent spirit and beautiful hair, who was
+dressed in tones of lavender, was an inspiration to the poet. Together
+they discussed philosophy and art; Sully-Prudhomme emphasized “the
+aristocracy of the mind,” the eternal quality of poetry, music, taste,
+and judgment.
+
+After the Franco-Prussian War, which was a great strain upon the
+physical and spiritual endurance of the poet, Sully-Prudhomme wrote
+_Impressions_ that awakened political discussion and revealed his
+pervasive idealism. _Essays upon the Fine Arts_, _The Art of
+Versification_ and _Le testament poétique_ were expressions of his
+poetic studies and theories. On the other hand, _Que sais-je?_ which
+appeared in 1895 was another index to his scientific inquiries into
+natural science, philosophy, and metaphysics. A commentator upon these
+queries, well entitled _What Do I Know?_, has said that his last words
+might be summarized as “peut-être.” Doubts, yet never bitterness of
+despair, characterize his speculative poetry. Four years after he
+received the Nobel prize and two years before his death, at the age of
+sixty-six, he wrote _La vraie religion selon Pascal_, a last record of
+his profound search for spiritual values in life and literature.
+
+Several of the shorter poems by Sully-Prudhomme, chosen from the five
+volumes of his verse, have been translated into English by such poets
+as Arthur O’Shaughnessy, E. and R. Prothero, and Dorothy Frances
+Guiney. These metrical interpretations are found in anthologies of
+French poetry by H. Carrington and Albert Boni. The latter has included
+a few of the most representative and musical of Sully-Prudhomme’s poems
+in _The Modern Book of French Verse_. A wistful love poem is here
+entitled “A Supplication,” translated by I. O. L.:[13]
+
+    Oh! did you know how the tears apace
+      Fall by a lonely heart, alas!
+    I think that before my dwelling place
+      Sometimes you did pass.
+
+    And did you know of the hopes that arise
+      In wearied soul from a pure young glance,
+    Maybe to my window you’d lift your eyes
+      As if by chance....
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    But if you knew of the love that enwraps
+      My soul for you, and holds it fast,
+    Quite simple over my threshold, perhaps,
+      You’d step at last.
+
+More typical of this scientist-poet is the verse-picture entitled “The
+Appointment,” translated by Arthur O’Shaughnessy.[14]
+
+    ’Tis late; the astronomer in his lonely height,
+    Exploring all the dark, descries afar
+    Orbs that like distant isles of splendor are,
+    And mornings whitening in the infinite.
+
+    Like winnowed grain the worlds go by in flight,
+    Or swarm in glistening spaces nebular;
+    He summons one disheveled wandering star,--
+    Return ten centuries hence on such a night.
+
+    The star will come. It dare not by one hour
+    Cheat Science, or falsify her calculation;
+    Men will have passed, but watchful in the tower
+    Man shall remain in sleepless contemplation;
+    And should all men have perished there in turn,
+    Truth in their place would watch that star’s return.
+
+Not all of the verses by Sully-Prudhomme are as pictorial as these
+selections. There is an unevenness more than usual in his meditative
+stanzas. While his popularity waned with the years and new rivals, he
+was long the honored bard of France, with name linked with that of
+Victor Hugo in his meditative poetry. The Nobel prize stimulated new
+interest among world readers; more translations and critical estimates
+appeared--and are still being issued. Maurice Baring in a recent book
+of criticism, _Punch and Judy and Other Essays_, has written words of
+succinct analysis of this French poet: he distinguishes him as “a poet
+who thinks and not a thinker who merely uses poetry for recreation.” He
+adds, of his simple yet fastidious form, “Other poets have had a more
+glowing imagination; his verse is neither exuberant in colour nor rich
+in sonorous combinations of sound. The grace of his verse is one of
+outline and not of colour; his compositions are distinguished by his
+subtle rhythm; his verse is as if carved in ivory, his music is like
+that of a unison of stringed instruments.”[15]
+
+
+FRÉDÉRIC MISTRAL
+
+Poet of Provence
+
+  The prize of 1904 has been awarded, one half to:
+
+  Mistral, Frédéric, born 1830, died March 25, 1914: “for reason of
+  the fresh originality, rich genius, and true artistry in his poetry
+  that faithfully mirrors the nature and life of the people of his
+  native country; and also with respect to his significant activity as
+  Provençal philologist.”[16]
+
+Three years after the first Nobel prize in literature had been awarded
+to Sully-Prudhomme, it came again to a writer who is ranked among
+French authors, although he is distinctively of Provence, Frédéric
+Mistral. This poet of _Mireio_, a pastoral epic, if one may use the
+term, and the preserver of the Provençal language from literary
+oblivion, shared the financial award and the honor for 1904 with
+Echegaray, the Spanish dramatist, who is discussed in another chapter
+of this book. Mistral was seventy-four years old when this recognition
+came to him; he lived for ten years longer, wielding influence upon
+world literature and receiving reverential homage in his own Provence.
+His home in later years was in the same quiet town of Maillane, in the
+Bouches-du-Rhône where he was born in 1830.
+
+His father was a wealthy farmer who had aspirations to make his son
+a lawyer. The boy was sent to school at Avignon and, later, took his
+degree at Nîmes University and studied at Aix. One of the teachers
+at Avignon was Joseph Roumanille who had a large share in restoring
+interest in the language. He compiled a fixed orthography of the
+Provençal forms and revived racial sentiment in the schools. Like his
+pupil, Mistral, he was a firm advocate of classic poetry. Twenty years
+before, a famous barber, Jacques Jasmin of Agen, had recited troubadour
+songs throughout the villages and had preserved, by voice, many native
+legends and folk ballads. It is said that he gave his receipts in money
+to charity and that, within a few years, he had gathered $300,000. The
+school-teacher formed a society of young men at Avignon, including
+“seven poets and dreamers,” among whom were numbered Roumanille,
+Mistral, Aubaniel, Mathieu, and Brunet. They pledged allegiance to
+Poetry, Love, and Provence. There has been general acceptance of
+the statement that Mistral gave to this group of poets the name of
+Félibres, originally called “The Seven Félibres” or Scribes of the Law.
+They agreed to write in their native language of Provence, to extend
+its knowledge and use, so that it might be more than a dialect. They
+maintained that it was similar to that of the medieval troubadours,
+that it came from the language of Rome and thus was the parent
+tongue of Italy, France, and Spain. Although some of these statements
+have been seriously questioned by orthographers, the enthusiasm of
+these Félibres was acclaimed and literary masterpieces followed; the
+celebrations of the Félibres are still noteworthy festivals.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of The New York Public Library_
+
+FRÉDÉRIC MISTRAL]
+
+Another story is that Mistral, who was very fond of his mother, began
+to write his verses in French and brought them to her, assured of her
+encouragement and praise. Alas! his mother could not read French,
+although she was confident that her son was a poet of rare genius. “Let
+us sing in the language of our mother!” was the determination of the
+youth. He collected legends, folk-tales, and romantic episodes from
+every possible source near his home in Provence. In 1858 was published
+the first edition of _Mireio_, the pastoral epic which has held its
+literary rank, with increasing appreciation, for more than sixty
+years. Roumanille was sponsor for this work; the next year a French
+translation was made by Mistral and the book amazed Parisians by its
+poetic charm. It was dedicated to Lamartine. Mistral was compared, by
+enthusiastic critics, to Vergil, Theocritus, and Ariosto.
+
+Into the twelve Cantos of his poem Mistral wove many local customs and
+personal memories. The _mas_, or farmstead, was modeled from his own
+home and Ramoun, the wealthy _mas_-dweller, had many traits of his
+own father. Familiar to him from boyhood had been the festivals and
+daily tasks here portrayed--the wheat-threshing, the snail-gathering,
+the fireside meals, the dance of the farandole on the eve of harvest
+day. In outline it is a simple, somewhat conventional theme. Mireio,
+daughter of a “farmer-prince,” loved the son of a poor basket-weaver;
+their romance had days of joy and nights of deep sorrow; the epical
+climax of the death of Mireio at the Church of the Holy Maries is
+relieved of its grim tragedy by the words of hope on the lips of the
+dying heroine.
+
+There is a gayety of spirit, a zest of life in the opening lines of
+Invocation, the poet’s promise to tell the life story of this lovely
+girl of fifteen and her innocent, ardent passion:
+
+    I sing the love of a Provençal maid;
+    How through the wheat-fields of La Crau she strayed
+    Following the fate that drew her to the sea.
+    Unknown beyond remote La Crau was she;
+    And I, who tell the rustic tale of her,
+    Would fain be Homer’s humble follower.
+
+    What though youth’s aureole was her only crown?
+    And never gold she wore, nor damask gown?
+    I’ll build her up a throne out of my song,
+    And hail her queen in our despis’d tongue.
+    Mine be the simple speech that ye all know,
+    Shepherds and farmer-folk of lone La Crau.
+
+The romantic episodes are told in the cantos, “The Suitors,” “The
+Battle,” “The Witch,” “The Saints,” “Death.” Graphic pictures of local
+customs and setting are suggested by the subtitles “Lotus Farm,”
+“Leaf-Picking,” “The Cocooning,” and “the Camargue” (or salty marshes
+of the Rhône). Exquisite songs are interspersed like this in Canto III,
+“The Cocooning”:
+
+    If thou the moon wilt be,
+    Sailing in glory,
+    I’ll be the halo white
+    Hovering every night
+    Around and o’er thee.
+
+    If thou become a flower,
+    Before thou thinkest,
+    I’ll be a streamlet clear,
+    And all the waters bear
+    That thou, love, drinkest.
+
+_Mireio_ was made familiar to American readers of the last generation
+by the translation of Harriet Waters Preston (Boston, 1872). Several
+excerpts from her verse-interpretations of this and Mistral’s later
+poems are to be found in _Library of the World’s Best Literature_,
+edited by Charles Dudley Warner; an excellent sketch of the poet is
+found here. With unique, virile words George Meredith has rendered
+into verse some stanzas from Canto X, “The Mares of Camargue”:[17]
+
+    A hundred mares, all white! their manes
+    Like mace-reed of the marshy plains
+    Thick-tufted, wavy, free o’ the shears:
+    And when the fiery squadron rears
+    Bursting at speed, each mane appears
+    Even as the white scarf of a fay
+    Floating upon their necks along the heavens away.
+
+When the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of _Mireio_ was
+celebrated at Arles, Calvé sang the “Song of Magali” and noted French
+actors and opera artists rendered Gounod’s _Mireille_, which is based
+upon Mistral’s pastoral. The most dramatic canto is the eighth, the
+flight of the heroine across the rocky plains of La Crau, finding
+shelter at the shrine of the Holy Maries. The maiden’s prayer for help
+in her hour of need, for understanding of her love for her “handsome
+Vincen,” is wistful and appealing. Two cantos have been devoted to
+revival of these old legends of the Holy Maries. Disciples of Jesus,
+driven from Palestine after his crucifixion, according to tradition,
+were set afloat in a barque by their persecutors. They had neither
+sail nor oars. They were washed ashore on the sacred soil where now
+stands the village of Les Saintes Maries. Among these disciples were
+Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, their servant Sarah (who was
+the patron saint of gypsies), Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathea, and
+Trophine, one of the oldest and wisest of the disciples who converted
+to Christianity the town of Arles.
+
+Two long narrative poems followed _Mireio_--_Calendau_ and _Nerto_.
+The former, published in 1867, is more potent in dramatic skill than
+the earlier pastoral. It has lines of emotional intensity, when the
+heroine, a Princess who lost her rank because of love for a humble
+suitor, inspires him by her fine spirit and tales of prowess and
+chivalry. “The Scaling of Ventour” is a dramatic episode in this poem.
+Two stanzas, translated by Harriet Waters Preston, indicate the action
+and colorful quality; this is a description of “the catch”:[18]
+
+    Yet had we brave and splendid sport, I ween,
+    For some with tridents, some with lances keen,
+    Fell on the prey. And some were skilled to fling
+    A winged dart held by a slender string.
+    The wounded wretches, ’neath the wave withdrew,
+    Trailing red lines along the mirror blue.
+
+    Slowly the net brimful of treasures mounted;
+    Silver was there, turquoise and gold uncounted,
+    Rubies and emeralds million-rayed. The men
+    Flung them thereon like eager children when
+    They stay their mother’s footsteps to explore
+    Her apron bursting with its summer store
+    Of apricots and cherries.
+
+There is less atmosphere in _Nerto_, an epic tale of the last days of
+the Popes at Avignon and “the miraculous burial-place,”
+
+    The Aliscamp of history
+      Far below Arles.
+
+The legend of this spot is one of the best portions of _Nerto_:
+
+                  out of the heaven came,
+    Our Lord himself to bless the spot,
+    And left, if the tale erreth not
+    The impress of his bended knee,
+    Rock-graven. Howso this may be,
+    Full oft a swarm of angels white
+    Bends hither, on a tranquil night,
+    Singing celestial harmonies.[19]
+
+Among the collections of lyrics of love and patriotism by Mistral the
+earlier volume in 1875, entitled _Les Isles d’Or_, contained songs in
+many moods. Lamartine listened to recital of these and other verses
+“in the sweet nervous idiom of Provence, which combines the Latin
+pronunciation with the grace of Attica and the serenity of Tuscany.”
+He adds, “The verses of Mistral were liquid and melodious, they pleased
+without intoxicating me.”[20] The later collection, issued in 1912,
+was entitled _Les Olivades_. Mistral thus explained the title: “The
+days that grow chill and the swelling seas--all things tell me that
+the winter of my life has come, and that I must without delay gather
+_my_ olives and offer the virgin-oil on the altar of God.” At this time
+the poet was eighty-two years old. He had written an autobiography,
+_Mes origines_, with reminiscences of his youth, which was translated
+as _Memoirs of Mistral_ by Constance Elisabeth Maud; the lyrics of
+Provence were rendered into English here by Alma Strettell (Mrs.
+Lawrence Harrison).
+
+Few writers have had more intensive love of country than Mistral. He
+refused the offer of a chair in the French Academy because it would
+necessitate leaving Provence; he was given prizes by the Academy and
+badges of the Legion. Late in mature years he married a beautiful young
+woman of Arlesian family; she has been crowned Queen of the Félibres,
+in a yearly festival of contests and songs. Towards the close of the
+nineteenth century Mistral began collecting specimens of Provençal
+flowers, rocks, and archeological relics for a museum at Arles; he
+called this his “last poem.” In a typical _mas_, or farmstead, he
+placed these collections and equipment of varied kinds, showing
+the customs of the land. He represented, also, certain feasts and
+traditions by wax figures. Among others, here is the Arlesian legend
+of the feast of Noël and the visit of three women to a mother and her
+first-born; one brings a match that the child’s body may be straight,
+another brings an egg, that his life may be full, and a third brings
+salt, symbol of wisdom.[21] A large part of the Nobel prize money was
+used by Mistral for the housing and equipment of this Museum.
+
+Alphonse Daudet, like Mistral, is a native of Provence. The natives
+admire the literary grace and wit of the former, “even if he may laugh
+at us occasionally,” they say, but they _love_ Mistral. For ten years
+the latter worked upon his _Comprehensive Lexicon of Ancient and Modern
+Provençal_, which was published in two large volumes in 1886. He was
+honored by the educated classes and loved by the peasantry, landowners,
+and boatmen of the Rhône. In 1897 he incorporated into his narrative
+in verse, _Le poème du Rhône_, many customs and songs of the days
+before steamships had increased the speed of travel and reduced its
+picturesqueness. In twelve cantos he celebrated this famous river and
+its border towns. A dramatic scene recalled the flight of Napoleon
+across the border from Russia. As poetic art this poem is inferior
+to _Mireio_ or _Calendau_; it lacks spontaneity yet it has musical
+measures.
+
+Poet of the soil was Mistral, akin in his simplicity and loyalty to
+Burns and Whittier, although more of a scholar and technician than
+either of these writers of verse. Like them, however, he created anew
+the life of his rural people; he touched daily incidents with poetic
+beauty. He received many distinguished visitors from every country in
+his later years and treasured letters from scholars of every land.
+Among the latter was a letter from Theodore Roosevelt written when he
+was President and had received a copy of a new edition of _Mireio_;
+to the poet he acknowledged his indebtedness of many years for the
+delights that he had found in this wistful love poem of Provence, which
+mirrored so perfectly the traditions and life of the people.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1901.
+
+[9] London and New York, 1924.
+
+[10] London and New York, 1922, pp. 133-144. By permission of Dodd,
+Mead & Co.
+
+[11] _Studies in Literature_, London, 1892.
+
+[12] London, 1913, pp. 66-81.
+
+[13] _The Modern Book of French Verse_, edited by Albert Boni, New
+York, 1920. By permission of Boni & Liveright.
+
+[14] _Ibid._
+
+[15] _Punch and Judy and Other Essays_ by Maurice Baring, New York,
+1924, pp. 216-219. By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.
+
+[16] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1904.
+
+[17] _Poems_ by George Meredith, New York, 1897, 1898. By permission of
+Charles Scribner’s Sons, and the heirs of George Meredith.
+
+[18] By permission of the Atlantic Monthly Co.
+
+[19] Translated by Harriet Waters Preston. By permission of Atlantic
+Monthly Co.
+
+[20] _Cours familier de littérature._
+
+[21] “Frédéric Mistral: Poet of the Soil” by Vernon Loggins, _Sewanee
+Review_, March, 1924.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TWO GERMAN SCHOLARS: THEODOR MOMMSEN--RUDOLF EUCKEN
+
+
+  The prize of 1902 has been awarded:
+
+  Mommsen, Theodor, Professor of History at the University of Berlin,
+  born 1817, died November 1, 1903: “the greatest living master of the
+  age in the art of representing history, taking into especial regard
+  his monumental work, _Römische Geschichte_.”[22]
+
+France was the first country to be honored by the Nobel prize in
+literature; Germany was the second. In 1902, Theodor Mommsen, whose
+records of scholarship included history, law and archeology, was
+the chosen candidate. He was eighty-four years old and lived for
+only a year after the award. While there was gratification among his
+countrymen and friends in other lands, at his recognition and this high
+honor, yet there were adverse comments in several journals about the
+perversion of the intent of Nobel’s will. The recipient had finished
+his work; the award could never quicken him to further research or
+expression of idealism. This choice showed the intention of the
+Swedish Academy to consider “literature” in a broad sense, including
+contributions of scientific value as well as those of artistic merit.
+
+Garding, in Schleswig, was the birthplace of Mommsen; his school days
+were spent at Kiel. Before he was thirty years old he had been employed
+by the Berlin Academy to decipher and examine Roman inscriptions in
+Italy and France, because of marked accuracy and zest in research. He
+combined the reading of law with that of history and, in 1848, was
+called to the department of law at Leipzig University. Always fearless
+in political convictions and ardent in Liberalism, he was obliged
+to retire from this University because of active participation in
+the political issues of 1848-1849. Two years later he was called to
+professorship of Roman law at Zürich; after service here for two years
+he accepted a similar position at Breslau. In all these places he
+was recognized as magnetic in the classroom and inspirational in his
+contact with University students from all parts of the civilized world.
+In 1858, he went to the University of Berlin as Professor of Ancient
+History and there extended his influence among scholars and lay readers.
+
+Although specific in his interests and a student of deep earnestness,
+he had read and traveled widely; as conversationalist he excelled,
+informed upon topics in almost every branch of learning and activity.
+To him has been attributed the oft quoted sentence, “Each student must
+choose his special field of labour but he must not imprison himself
+within its confines.”[23] He was called “the modern Erasmus” because
+of his versatile knowledge. He wrote with facility and grace, as well
+as vigor, whether his theme was a monumental _History of Rome_, or
+a journalistic discussion of current affairs. In political creed he
+belonged to the National Liberal Party. He was, however, never partisan
+in his ultimate purposes and hopes for future union of factions. He
+opposed Bismarck in his tenets and sometimes won over him in courts of
+law and in the Prussian House of Delegates, by his keen, logical mind.
+At the same time, he admired the Chancellor very much and said, “What a
+calamity it is for us all that political animosity should deprive us of
+the privilege of mixing socially with such a man!” On principle, he was
+opposed to British attitude towards the Boers, and gave his allegiance
+to the revolutionists. Again, he deplored the strained relations at
+times between his country and England and asserted, “What a pity that
+two great nations of kindred race should remain at loggerheads!”[24] He
+detested slavery and considered the Civil War in the United States “a
+holy crusade.”[25]
+
+More than one hundred volumes of original writing and translations
+from the Latin and Germanic languages are listed under Mommsen’s name
+in large German libraries. Edward A. Freeman, a critic and historian
+of international repute, has called Mommsen “the greatest scholar
+of our times, well-nigh the greatest scholar of all times.” His
+writings show mastery of law, languages, customs, archeology, coins,
+inscriptions and monuments, that are of inestimable value to students.
+He was editor of _Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_ which was issued
+by the Berlin Academy of which he was secretary for many years. To
+the average reader, however, the name of Theodor Mommsen will always
+be associated with his _History of Rome_, written 1854-1856, which
+still maintains its authenticity and popularity. As a writer, Mommsen
+was always illumining, with a vivid style; he was often dramatic. He
+touched descriptive scenes with grace and color but he was convincingly
+realistic in his portrayal of events and characters. He unfolded a
+large canvas but he kept a true focus and threw a strong light upon
+both individuals and group-pictures, from the early days of Rome to the
+death of Julius Cæsar.
+
+Although his masterwork was entitled _History of Rome_, he explained,
+in the Introductory Chapter, that he intended “to relate the history
+of Italy, not simply the record of the city of Rome.” While the Romans
+represented the most powerful branch of the Italian stock, yet they
+were only a branch--but this civic community of Rome gained sovereignty
+over Italy and the world of its day. Like the historian Freeman,
+Mommsen insisted upon “the unity of history,” the similarity of human
+nature from 1800 B. C. to modern times. Few writers have surpassed him
+in revivifying historical characters. He had strong likes and dislikes,
+prejudices which he could impress upon the reader, although he was
+generally justified in his statements and balanced in his estimates.
+The portrait of Cicero, which “was bitten with vitriolic energy,” as
+Mr. Buchan has said, in _Some Eighteenth Century Byways and Other
+Essays_, has been most widely quoted; it is less impartial than his
+characterizations of Hannibal, Sully, and Cæsar. By temperament and
+political bias, Mommsen was an admirer of Julius Cæsar; he has given to
+him a living portraiture.
+
+The pictorial Chapter IV in Book III, descriptive of Hannibal’s Passage
+of the Alps, is a world-famous extract from this _History of Rome_.
+In the same chapter is the analysis of Hannibal’s character, so often
+quoted: “He was primarily marked by that inventive craftiness, which
+forms one of the leading traits of the Phœnician character; he was
+fond of taking singular and unexpected routes: ambushes and stratagems
+of all sorts were familiar to him; he studied the character of his
+antagonists with unprecedented care.... The power which he wielded
+over men is shown by his incomparable control over an army of various
+natives and many tongues.... He was a great man; wherever he went, he
+riveted the eyes of all.”[26]
+
+There is history of dramatic incident, written with pictorial skill,
+in such passages as the Battle of Cannæ, the story of the Gracchi, and
+the Crossing of the Rubicon. The breadth of Mommsen’s interests are
+suggested by such later chapters as those on Roman Religion, Manners,
+and Literature and Art. While he was deeply interested in the past,
+and informed about its aspects and personalities, he was alert in all
+movements of the present and their trends. He looked to the future
+with prevision and optimism. In the Introductory Chapter to his famous
+_History of Rome_ he contrasts modern history with past cycles of
+culture which will be repeated and adds: “And yet this goal will only
+be temporary: the grandest system of civilization has its orbit, and
+may complete its course; but not so the human race, to which, just
+when it seems to have reached its goal, the old task is ever set anew,
+with a wider range and with a deeper meaning.”[27] In spirit, Mommsen
+was entitled to rank as an idealist, a worker “to benefit mankind.”
+In literary achievements he richly deserved the Nobel prize; his
+researches had enriched human knowledge beyond those of other scholars;
+his writings appealed to the reader of ordinary mentality as well as
+to the more intellectual; his vision and faith in human progress were
+undimmed.
+
+
+RUDOLF EUCKEN
+
+German Philosopher
+
+  The prize of 1908 has been awarded:
+
+  Eucken, Rudolf, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Jena,
+  born 1846: “because of the sincerity of his search for truth, the
+  penetrating power of thought, the clarity of vision, the warmth and
+  force of interpretation with which he has, in his numerous works,
+  cultivated and developed an ideal world philosophy.”[28]
+
+In 1908, six years after the Nobel prize came to Mommsen, it was again
+awarded to a German scholar, Rudolf Eucken. By translation and lectures
+in countries other than his own, this recipient was no stranger to
+readers of current literature. Born in 1846, in Aurich, East Friesland,
+Eucken was younger than the majority of the earlier winners; he
+accomplished much writing and lecturing after the honor had been given.
+His mature life was devoted to a struggle against the materialistic
+philosophy of his day. He was a worthy winner of a prize for “the most
+distinguished work of an idealistic tendency” in his country. His
+incessant purpose was expressed in his autobiography: “My reminiscences
+tell about all of the struggle to prevent the externalization of life.
+This externalization is not, it is true, the defect or fault of one
+particular nation; it is found in every nation and a radical change is
+needed in each.... Every man who shares the conviction that a spiritual
+reformation is needed will follow with a kindly sympathy the modest
+efforts which are recorded in my reminiscences.”[29]
+
+His native province, East Friesland, is an agricultural and trading
+region in Germany, near Holland, with occasional fisheries as industry.
+His birth town, Aurich, is the commercial and social center. The boy’s
+childhood was somewhat sad; he was the first child born to his parents
+after ten years of marriage, and his father died when the lad was five
+years old. He had a series of misfortunes in his infancy and youth: his
+throat was badly torn in the effort to extricate a curtain-fastener
+which he nearly swallowed as a baby; he had scarlet fever and wrong
+treatment, so that he was threatened with blindness for a time but
+recovered; a younger brother’s death added to the family gloom.
+
+Rudolf Eucken inherited studious inclinations. His father, spending
+his days in the postal service, was a fine mathematician. His mother
+(daughter of a clergyman who was a leader of Radicalism) was well-read
+in science and ambitious for her son; the latter records that she
+was, also, a practical housewife. After the father’s death their
+finances were low and the mother took lodgers to add to her income.
+She was determined that Rudolf should be well educated, that he should
+become a philosopher or scientist. He recalls his debt to her in
+his reminiscences. At the gymnasium at Aurich he showed interest in
+mathematics and in music. A strong influence of those plastic days
+was his teacher, Reuter, who was forced to retire by the bureaucracy
+because of his liberalism. Other professors who left traces upon his
+development were Letze and Teichmüller. For a time he was at the
+University of Berlin. After experimental teaching he was called to
+Basel as professor of philosophy. His mother went with him but their
+plans for happy years together were shattered by her death.
+
+Basel was at this time a small University with about one hundred
+and fifty students; Eucken came into close contact with these in
+the classroom and outside activities. Already he had begun to write
+studies upon philosophers of classic days, Aristotle and others. In
+1873 he accepted a call to Jena University where he was brought into
+comradeship with such brilliant associates as Kuno Fischer, Haeckel and
+Hildebrand. The issue, in 1878, of Eucken’s book, _Fundamental Ideas of
+the Present Day_ (or _The Fundamental Concepts of Modern Philosophic
+Thought_) aroused sudden interest among scholars of every country in
+this daring, idealistic philosopher of Jena University. The basic idea
+was to emphasize the harmonious relations of history and criticism. At
+the request of President Noah Porter of Yale University, a translation
+of this book into English was made by Professor M. Stuart Phelps; thus
+American readers became acquainted with this German scholar who was to
+enter later into friendly contact with academic organizations here.
+
+By his marriage, in 1882, to Irene Passow, Eucken increased his
+prestige among intellectual and social leaders. He says that his wife
+“was not one of the learned women,” but that she had intellectual
+interests, gifts in art, and fine administrative ability. Her
+mother was the daughter of the noted archeologist, Ulrich, born in
+Athens; thus Eucken’s circle of friends widened among scientists and
+historians. He continued to write books with cumulative power, like
+_The Life of the Spirit_, _Contributions to the History of Modern
+Philosophy_, _The Problem of Human Life as Viewed by the Great
+Thinkers_, _Life’s Basis and Life’s Ideals_, _Christianity and the
+New Idealism_.[30] Many of his own countrymen, who were materialistic
+philosophers or monistic evolutionists, criticized Eucken severely;
+he declared the German press “ignored him.” He popularized religious
+philosophy, especially under such titles as _The Truth of Religion_,
+and _Can We Still Be Christians?_ He was invited to deliver lectures in
+Holland, France, England, and America.
+
+Some of these later books followed the award of the Nobel prize
+in 1908. He was called “the winning dark horse of that year”; he
+said that the honor came as “a great surprise” to him. As further
+recognition he was made a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences.
+The comments in the German press were noticeably restrained beside
+the enthusiastic tributes in France, Holland, and England. In 1911 he
+went to England and, later, to America as academic lecturer; he was
+“exchange professor” and gave lectures at Harvard University, Columbia
+University, the Lowell Institute at Boston, and Smith College. His wife
+and daughter came with him to America and were guests in the homes
+of Professors Moore and Münsterburg at Cambridge. The reader of his
+Reminiscences will smile at some of the comments upon Americans and his
+reception here. In Germany, with the arrival of “an exchange professor”
+and his first lecture, there is a demonstration of welcome, with formal
+program and the presence of notables in statescraft as well as letters.
+He found no such condition at Harvard University. He presented himself
+to President Lowell and was told, “You may begin at once.”[31] By
+contrast he says, with naïveté, President Butler of Columbia University
+gave a banquet in honor of Eucken and Bergson, who were lecturing in
+New York at the same time.
+
+Among Americans whom the German scholar met with friendly contact were
+Andrew Carnegie and Roosevelt. He says of the latter, “With Roosevelt I
+had a very spirited conversation on American idealism and its future,
+in which he gave proof of considerable historical knowledge.”[32] He
+found Americans, as a class, alert but not well informed on European
+affairs, especially German history. After he returned from America,
+he planned a trip to Japan and China, hoping to carry into the Orient
+his principles of idealistic philosophy; he sought coöperation of
+all nations in “solving problems of life.” The war interfered with
+this project and caused him deep depression. He tried in every way to
+appeal to the less materialistic traits of his people. In 1915, he
+wrote _The Bearers of German Idealism_, a book which sold copies by the
+tens of thousands and supplemented, in a way, his earlier volume, _The
+Historical Significance of the German People_. He found the war “the
+saddest moment in German history”; he felt the nations were disloyal to
+themselves and sentiments of honor. His daughter, a musician of rare
+gifts, lost her lover during the war. In his sons, one a physician
+and another a political economist, Eucken saw examples of many of his
+idealistic influences.
+
+The writings of Eucken, especially those of religious trend, have been
+popular in America, as well as England. Several of his essays have been
+collected and translated by Meyrick Booth. _In the Harper’s Library
+of Living Thought_ is the translation by Lucy Judge Gibson and W. R.
+Boyce Gibson of his _Christianity and the New Idealism_ (1909 and
+1912). _The Meaning and Value of Life_ had one of the same translators;
+Joseph McCabe, who translated the autobiography, has rendered, also,
+_Socialism: an Analysis_ (1922). Among other books in constant demand
+at libraries are _Religion and Life_, the lectures which he gave in
+London, Oxford, and elsewhere, 1911, and _Ethics and Modern Thought: a
+Theory of their Relations_, which were the Deems lectures, delivered
+in 1913 at New York University. These are translated by Margaret von
+Seydewitz from the German manuscript. _Can We Still Be Christians?_
+with its challenging title (1914) is a careful, tolerant study of
+historic Christianity, an advocacy of a religion which will adapt
+itself to the demands of daily life. Spirituality and morality must
+combine to form a high level of progress and the Church must become “a
+repository of the facts and tasks of life itself.”
+
+Comparisons have often been made between Eucken and two other modern
+thinkers and writers on philosophy of kindred motive--Adolf Harnack
+and Henri Bergson. The former, who has been professor at Leipzig and
+Berlin, author of such stirring books as _What Is Christianity?_ and
+_History of Dogma_, has the German background while Bergson, in his
+_Creative Philosophy_ has written an epoch-making book with dissimilar
+but potent deductions. The two men, Eucken and Bergson, have been
+discussed in a discriminating essay by E. Hermann who thus summarizes
+the message of the Nobel prize winner in philosophy: “Eucken stands
+before us today as perhaps the greatest thinker of our age and the
+protagonist of a new idealism which satisfies our demands for moral
+reality as no idealistic philosophy has ever done, and as the teacher
+who has most fully and boldly developed the religious implications
+of ethical idealism. His philosophy of life is an insistence upon
+the supremacy of the spiritual. His defence of freedom is a doctrine
+of spiritual liberty rooted in the saving initiative of God and
+our dependence on Him. His vindication of our personality is the
+rescue of the free, God-centered personality from the thralldom of a
+self-centered individuality.”[33]
+
+Especially interesting is the Nobel Lecture, delivered at Stockholm,
+March 27, 1909, by Eucken, translated by Alban G. Widgery, Cambridge,
+1912 (W. Heffer and Sons). As an introductory thought, Eucken
+emphasizes that we are living in an age when tradition has become a
+subject of doubt and new ideas are struggling to guide our lives.
+The two terms, “_Naturalism or Idealism_,” which form the title of
+this Nobel address, have become confused in meaning and have caused
+misunderstandings. To Eucken, Naturalism means “faith in man’s
+relation to Nature”; Idealism accepts this faith but asks if this is
+the whole of life or if there is not another kind of life, also. He
+pleads for domination of “The True, the Good and the Beautiful” in
+life, not merely utilitarian aspects. Life is not just a reflection of
+a given reality but a striving upward; it does not _find_ another world
+but “it may _produce_ one.” Idealism which deals with such expansion
+of daily life has no new aims to-day beyond that of classic times but
+it is emphasized, because “we have been driven beyond the standards
+of Naturalism.” The task before literature is coöperation in this
+effort to reach a higher level, “to purify and confirm, to make the
+fundamental problems of our spiritual existence _impressive_ to us,
+to raise life above the mere transient culture, by the realization of
+something eternal.” This, as he interprets it, was the idea of Alfred
+Nobel in his will and awards; this has been the life purpose of Eucken
+as teacher and writer.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[22] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1902.
+
+[23] _Bookman_, 18: 346.
+
+[24] _Ibid._ 346-348, December, 1903, article on Mommsen. By permission
+of the Editor of _The Bookman_.
+
+[25] _Some Eighteenth Century Byways and Other Essays_ by John Buchan,
+Edinburgh and London, 1908, William Blackwood & Sons.
+
+[26] _History of Rome_ by Theodor Mommsen, translated by William P.
+Dickson, New York, 1908, Vol. II, pp. 244, 245. By permission of
+Charles Scribner’s Sons.
+
+[27] By permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons.
+
+[28] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1908.
+
+[29] _Rudolf Eucken: His Life, Work and Travels_ by himself, translated
+by Joseph McCabe, New York, 1922. By permission of Charles Scribner’s
+Sons.
+
+[30] For further titles, see bibliography and list of translators.
+
+[31] _Rudolf Eucken: His Life, Work and Travels_ by himself, translated
+by Joseph McCabe, New York, 1922, p. 162. By permission of Charles
+Scribner’s Sons.
+
+[32] _Ibid._, p. 167.
+
+[33] _Eucken and Bergson: Their Significance for Christian Thought_, by
+E. Hermann, Boston, 1912, p. 87. By permission of The Pilgrim Press.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+BJÖRNSON: NORWEGIAN NOVELIST AND PLAYWRIGHT
+
+
+  The prize of 1903 has been awarded:
+
+  Björnson, Björnstjerne, born 1832, died April 26, 1910: “as a tribute
+  acknowledging his noble, splendid and varied works of art which have
+  always been distinguished by freshness of inspiration, and, at the
+  same time, by unusual purity of soul.”[34]
+
+One of the five members elected by the Norwegian Storthing, to select
+the winners of the prize for the promotion of peace, under terms of
+Nobel’s will, was Björnstjerne Björnson. It was a fitting choice for
+he was a vigorous advocate of world peace, an ardent worker in all
+causes for “the benefit of mankind.” When the award in literature for
+1903 was given to him, he was already known as “Norway’s Father.” As
+writer of novels and plays, he had been read more widely than almost
+any other Scandinavian of his day, at that time surpassing Ibsen in
+translated works. As publicist and orator, as manager of theatres and
+civic legislator, he exerted national influence. In giving him the
+Nobel prize the adjudicators had in memory, especially, his earlier
+tales of peasant life which intermingled poetic idealism with sagas
+and realistic pictures of Norwegian life. His plays of later years,
+_Beyond Human Power_, _The Editor_, and _Sigurd Slembe_, were problem
+plays that awakened discussion in many countries; they were more
+universal and realistic in tone than the earlier fiction. Björnson had
+a remarkable combination of virility and gentleness. He was a Viking
+clansman, as he often averred, but he was also a poet, loving the
+folk songs and pictorial delights of rugged Norway with deep, ardent
+affection. The symbol of his strength, represented twice in the lingual
+root of his name--Björn, a bear--was fitting for his large, fearless
+mind and spiritual energy. He was a warrior when occasion demanded
+resistance to evil; he was a skald when he wrote tales of peasantry.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of The American-Scandinavian Foundation_
+
+BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON]
+
+He was born in 1832 at Kvikne, in the valley of the Dovre Mountains.
+He lived seven years after the Nobel prize was given to him, keeping
+his mentality alert until almost the end of his seventy-eight years.
+His father was pastor in this small place, without beauty of scenery
+or fertility of soil. When the boy was six years old the family moved
+to a region of marked contrasts, in Romsdale. His memories of this
+picturesque scenery and his delights in the valleys, hills, and fjord,
+were commemorated in his poem, “Over the Lofty Mountains.” His school
+days at Molde were busy and happy; he read with insatiable appetite for
+sagas and history, and became devoted to the Swedish poet, Wergeland.
+At seventeen he went to Christiania to prepare for the University.
+Here he was a schoolmate of Ibsen; with typical humor he wrote--and
+treasured--this doggerel of these early days:
+
+    Overstrained and lean, of the colour of gypsum,
+    Behind a beard, huge and black, was seen Henrik Ibsen.
+
+The two families cemented their friendship of many years by the
+marriage of Björnson’s daughter, Bergliot, a singer of much talent, to
+the son of Ibsen.
+
+At Christiania, Björnson became much interested in Danish literature,
+especially drama, and he began his play, _The Newly-married Couple_,
+which was not finished until a decade later. He completed, however, a
+one-act play, _Between the Battles_, which was staged in Christiania
+with only moderate success. For a time he abandoned drama and devoted
+himself to the peasant tales, to characters of types familiar to him,
+against a background of Norwegian folklore. He was proud to recall
+that his forefathers were peasants; he knew the common people and
+sympathized with their customs and ambitions. He sought to blend sagas
+and scenes from modern life, with mutual interpretation. Those early
+stories of simple life, _Arne_, _The Fisher Maiden_, _A Happy Boy_,
+and _Synnöve Solbakken_, were well received in Denmark and Germany, as
+well as his own country. Soon they were translated into English and
+commended for their simplicity, poetry, and national spirit. Sir Edmund
+Gosse, writing in the late 1880’s, said of Björnson: “His spirit was as
+masculine as a Viking’s and as pure and tender as a maiden’s. Through
+these little romances there blows a wind as fragrant and refreshing as
+the odour of the Trondhjem balsam willows, blown out to sea to welcome
+the newcomer; and just as this rare scent is the first thing that tells
+the traveller of Norway, so the purity of Björnson’s _novelettes_
+is usually the first thing to attract a foreigner to Norwegian
+literature.”[35]
+
+Mr. Georg Brandes, in his excellent study of Björnson in _Creative
+Spirits of the Nineteenth Century_, affirms that the popularity of
+these peasant tales was not so great throughout Norway as one is
+inclined to believe from later reports. “People loved the peasant
+in the abstract” but they did not know him, nor were they deeply
+interested in his welfare or his aspirations. Moreover, the critics
+found them sentimental and failed to appreciate the legends and
+parables which were often interspersed, like the beautiful symbolism
+in the opening paragraphs of _Arne_ with the several trees--juniper,
+oak, birch, and heather--seeking to clothe the mountain. In the two
+tales, _Synnöve Solbakken_ and _Arne_, Björnson represented two heroes
+of Norwegian life; Thorbjörn of the first story was the youth of
+physical virility, developed by contact with gentler influences; Arne,
+by contrast, was dreamy and poetic, in need of more robust experiences.
+There are wistful strains of melody in this story of _Arne_--this
+yearning for the ideal. Sir Edmund Gosse has translated one of these
+lyrics in rhymed couplets:
+
+    Through the forest the boy wends all day long,
+    For there he has heard such a wonderful song.
+
+    He carved him a flute of the willow tree,
+    And tried what the tune within it might be.
+
+    The tune came out of it sad and gay,
+    But while he listened it passed away.
+
+    He fell asleep, and once more it sung,
+    And over his forehead it lovingly hung.
+
+    He thought he would catch it and wildly woke,
+    And the tune in the frail night faded and broke.
+
+    “Oh God, my God, take me up to Thee,
+    For the tune Thou hast made is consuming me.”
+
+    And the Lord God said, “’Tis a friend divine,
+    Though never one hour shalt thou hold it thine.
+
+    Yet all other music is poor and thin
+    By the side of this which thou never shalt win.”[36]
+
+The character of Arne, the poetic, restless boy who tries to break
+away from the rock-ribbed confines of Norway, is an individual and a
+national type; his mother, Marit, is one of the most real, appealing
+women of Norwegian fiction. In these two peasant tales, and the
+lighter, more joyful romance of _A Happy Boy_, is found some of the
+best poetry by Björnson. Many of these verses are found in _Poems
+and Songs_, translated by Arthur Hubbell Palmer from the Norwegian
+in the original meters.[37] “Synnöve’s Song,” “The Day of Sunshine,”
+and “Ballad of Tailor Nils,” from _Arne_, are typical examples of his
+lyrics. Included in this anthology are patriotic poems. One of these,
+entitled “Song of Norway,” from _Synnöve Solbakken_ (1859) is one of
+the most familiar of National Songs, beginning,
+
+    Yes, we love this land that towers
+        Where the ocean foams;
+    Rugged, stormswept, it embowers
+        Many thousand homes.
+
+    Love it, love it, of you thinking,
+        Father, mother dear,
+    And that night of saga sinking
+        Dreamful to us here.[38]
+
+Thirty years later, for the silver wedding anniversary of Herman Anker
+and his wife, Björnson wrote another poem of patriotic and idealistic
+strains, beginning,
+
+        Land That Shall Be!
+    Thither, when thwarted our longings, we sail,--
+    Sighs to the clouds, that we breathe when we fail,
+    Form a mirage of rich valley and mead
+        Over our need,--
+    Visions revealing the future until
+        Faith shall fulfill,--
+        The land that shall be![39]
+
+Ever after a visit to Upsala University and a longer residence in
+Copenhagen, Björnson had cravings to write and to direct plays. In the
+latter position he served for a time, 1857-1859, at Bergen. His first
+plays were of saga heroes and chieftains, like Halvard of _Between
+the Battles_ and _Sigurd Slembe_ or _Sigurd the Bad_. They possess
+militant virtues and moral integrity but they are driven to misdeeds
+and despair by opposition to their good intentions. Thus Sigurd seeks
+to make peace with his half-brother, Harold Gille, but is betrayed
+into revenge and murder. Mr. Brandes suggests that in these plays the
+spiritual sufferings of Björnson--who would elevate and harmonize the
+Norwegian people but finds himself misunderstood and rejected in his
+idealism--are revealed by analogy. He stresses the difference between
+Björnson and Ibsen in this respect and others; the former seeks
+comradeship and unity; the latter is “solitary by nature.” Björnson
+portrays all aspects of nature; Ibsen seldom uses such descriptions.
+With fine distinctions between the two men, in nature and literature,
+Mr. Brandes writes: “Henrik Ibsen is a judge, stern as one of the
+judges of Israel of old; Björnson is a prophet, the delightful herald
+of a better age. In the depths of his nature, Ibsen is a great
+revolutionist.... Björnson’s is a conciliatory mind; he wages warfare
+without bitterness. His poetry sparkles with the sunshine of April,
+while that of Ibsen, with its deep earnestness, seems to lurk in dark
+shadows.” Ibsen loved the idea; Björnson loved humanity.[40]
+
+Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, in his study of Björnson, in _Adventures
+in Criticism_[41] divides his writings into three periods which he
+calls “simplicity, confusion and dire confusion.” The first group of
+tales are those of idyllic type, already considered in _Arne_ and _A
+Happy Boy_; the second represent a transition towards the realistic
+and self-conscious, exampled in _The Fisher Maiden_ and _Magnhild_;
+the third, showing more complications of thought and style, are like
+_The Heritage of the Kurts_ (originally entitled _Flags Are Flying_)
+and _In God’s Way_. The influence of German and French realists may be
+traced in these later novels, especially the former with its portrayal
+of polygamous conditions. Other critics consider _Magnhild_ an advance
+in characterization over any previous fiction by Björnson, especially
+in the musician Tande and the relationship between him and Magnhild. If
+the author intends to show that a woman may be happy in other ways than
+love, he does not “get the message over” until it is interpreted by
+Mr. Brandes or other critics. Rationalism mingles with idealism in the
+first scenes of _In God’s Way_.
+
+As the years passed, Björnson traveled on the continent, in England
+and to America for a visit in 1881. He sharpened his outlook upon life
+but he never lost his “passion for truth,” his hatred of oppression
+in any form, his belief that individuals and nations might be joined
+by friendship rather than separated by antagonisms. He was deeply
+impressed by certain forms of hypocrisy which he witnessed in Norway
+and he attacked such abuses in the problem plays, _The King_, _The
+Editor_, and _The Bankrupt_. Unlike the traditional patriot who says,
+“My country--right or wrong--but my country!” Björnson adopted as his
+slogan, “Norway must be right at all cost!” His plays, which revealed
+innate evils, made him unpopular with politicians and brought about
+threats of violence. He used to tell, with humor, of the visit of
+some aggressive opponents among the young men who threw stones at his
+windows but went away singing the refrain of his National Song,
+
+    Yes, we love this land that towers, etc.
+
+As dramatist, Björnson attained a skill which is being recognized by
+students of to-day. _The Newly-married Couple_, which was, probably,
+the first play to be written in original draft but held for later
+publication, has a psychological theme, well constructed--the
+adjustment necessary between the love of a maiden for her parents and
+the new, strange love for her husband. The characters are vital and
+the lines effective. Another early play, _Lame Hulda_ (_Halta Hulda_),
+was more emotionally intense; the heroine, lame for twenty-four years,
+experiences a brief, tragic passion for a man whose love is pledged
+elsewhere. There is lack of those elements of comedy that lighten
+the lessons of _The Newly-married Couple_. To the earlier period of
+play writing belongs, also, _Maria Stuart in Scotland_, a brilliant
+retelling of the familiar romance but lacking dramatic situations at
+the close; Björnson was always at his best in Scandinavian background;
+nevertheless John Knox is a commanding personality in this play. In
+this time of mental conflict between the ideal and the realities in
+life as they affected his development, he wrote that vigorous novel,
+_The Fisher Maiden_, with vivid characterization, and one of his most
+pictorial poems, _The Young Viking_.
+
+Truth is the demand of the dramatist, in every crisis in life, as
+depicted in his problem plays, from _The Bankrupt_ to _A Gauntlet_.
+With skill he shows The King, thwarted in his high ideals and his
+love, trying to “serve the freedom of the spirit,” to be a true
+“citizen-king” but ending his life in despair because of the deceit
+of others. _The Bankrupt_ has a strong character in Berent, the
+lawyer; the “problem” centers about the merchant’s temptation to use
+the money of others. _The Editor_ aroused much controversy, because
+it was claimed that Björnson had here satirized a Swedish editor but
+the charge was unfounded; rather the editor and his victims, Halvadan
+and Harald, typify journalistic conditions in every land. Mr. Brandes
+suggests that the dramatist may have been modeling these two brothers
+from the older poet, Wergeland and himself, in their struggles to
+create love for truth and freedom. In _Leonarda_, with lyrical as well
+as dramatic qualities, Björnson spoke a message of more tolerance and
+historical significance through three generations of Norwegian society.
+Two excellent translators of his plays have been Edwin Björkman and R.
+Farquharson Sharp (_see_ bibliography).
+
+By translation and inclusion in selected plays of merit from many
+languages, _Beyond Human Control_ has become one of the most familiar
+of Björnson’s social dramas. It is one of the chosen plays in _Chief
+Contemporary Dramatists_, Series I, by Thomas H. Dickinson. There
+are two parts to this drama, with differing _motifs_--the first in
+chronology and most widely read and staged is _Beyond Human Power_
+(or _Beyond Our Power: Over Ævne_ I, 1883) dealing with problems of
+religious faith and fanaticism; the second part (_Over Ævne_ II,
+1895) treats of differences of opinion between labor and capital. The
+first part, a complete play, has been given throughout Europe and
+was performed in New York in 1902, with Mrs. Patrick Campbell in the
+leading rôle. The characters are strongly balanced in interest; the
+wife of the self-sacrificing, impractical pastor, Clara Sang, is a
+masterly delineation of wifely loyalty and maternal responsibility.
+The Bishop is well drawn in antithesis to Pastor Sang. _A Gauntlet_
+created discussion in Norway because of its daring theme--the advocacy
+of the same standards of social purity for men and women. It is less
+effective dramatically but morally it is vigorous.
+
+Björnson’s later work in drama includes such good reading-plays as
+_Laboremus_, _Daglannet_, and _When the New Wine Blooms_.[42] As
+examples of literary work after the age of seventy, to which may
+be added the story, _Mary_,[43] with emotional power, they stand
+as testimonials to the vigor, mental and spiritual, of this worthy
+“Viking” of our day. After he received the Nobel prize, in accord with
+the proviso of the Code of Statutes, he made a noteworthy address upon
+the theme, “Poetry As a Manifestation of the Sense of Vital Surplus.”
+His own vitality and zest in life never lapsed. He declared that the
+possession of a new pair of trousers in his old age gave him a sense
+of delight like that of a child and he would get up an hour earlier
+“to get full enjoyment of these clothes.” Edwin Björkman, one of the
+most intuitive of his many translators, tells, in his _Voices of
+Tomorrow_[44] incidents in the later life of Björnson that verify his
+childlike nature, combined with serious, passionate efforts for human
+betterment. His wife, an actress by training, was his amanuensis and
+critic; between husband and wife existed a rare bond of sympathy: at
+formal dinners, and on social occasions of varied kinds, Björnson
+insisted that his wife should sit at his right hand, in spite of other
+conventions. As writer, speaker, “lay preacher,” and civic adviser,
+Björnson has an assured rank among “The Creative Spirits of the
+Nineteenth Century.”
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[34] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1903.
+
+[35] _Northern Studies_ by Edmund Gosse, Walter Scott, London, 1890. By
+permission of Sir Edmund Gosse.
+
+[36] _Ibid._, p. 32. By permission of Sir Edmund Gosse.
+
+[37] American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1915. By permission of
+translator and publisher.
+
+[38] This has been adapted to song by Nordraak; another, “Forward,” has
+been set to music by Grieg.
+
+[39] _Poems and Songs_ by Björnstjerne Björnson, translated by Arthur
+Hubbell Palmer, from the Norwegian in the original meters, London 1915.
+By permission of the American-Scandinavian Foundation.
+
+[40] _Creative Spirits of the Nineteenth Century_ by Georg Brandes,
+translated by Rasmus B. Anderson, New York, 1923, p. 345. By permission
+of Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
+
+[41] London and New York, 1925. New edition.
+
+[42] Translated by Lee M. Hollander, _Poet Lore_, 1911.
+
+[43] Translated by Mary Morison, 1910.
+
+[44] New York, 1913.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+GIOSUÈ CARDUCCI--ITALIAN POET
+
+
+  The prize of 1906 has been awarded:
+
+  Carducci, Giosuè, Professor in the History of Literature at the
+  University of Bologna, born 1835, died February 16, 1907: “in
+  consideration not only of his wide learning and critical research,
+  but, in the first place, as homage to the plastic energy, the
+  freshness of style, and the lyric strength that distinguish his
+  poetry.”[45]
+
+In 1906, when he was seventy years old, Giosuè Carducci, the greatest
+of living Italian poets of that time, for more than two score years
+professor at the University of Bologna, was announced the winner of the
+Nobel prize in literature. As in the case of Mistral, the choice had
+fallen upon a poet of patriotic influence, although the Italian was
+far more independent in spirit, with less sentimental devotion to his
+country. At different periods he had been a critic of both the Liberal
+and the Monarchial parties; sometimes he had seemed to be vacillating
+in his political convictions but he had always been an ardent patriot
+for Italy of the past, with hopes for a future of greater freedom and
+world influence.
+
+Carducci was born at Val di Castello, July 27, 1835. His father, of a
+Florentine family, was a country doctor who had been imprisoned for
+political activities before the son was born. When Giosuè was three
+years old, the family moved to Bolgheri, in Tuscan Maremma; here the
+boy roamed about the hills and valleys for eleven years; he recalled
+some of his childhood memories in “Crossing the Tuscan Maremma.” He was
+educated, in the first place, at home; his father taught him Latin and
+his mother read to him from the poems of Alfieri. After the turbulent
+conditions of 1848 the family moved to Florence and he was sent to the
+Scuole Pie; at eighteen, he was writing _Sapphics and Alcaics_, in
+which he urged a return to classic meters and early ideals of Italy.
+His vein of satire was shown in mild attacks upon the church and
+its restrictions upon progress. Schiller, Byron, and Scott were his
+favorite authors during a part of this formative period.
+
+In 1856 he was nominated as Professor of Rhetoric at the Gymnasium
+of San Miniato al Tedesco but he became involved in political and
+literary controversies. He was refused government sanction to teach in
+a position offered at Arezzo, so he returned to Florence. He was poor
+and lived in extreme self-denial, frequenting libraries, storing his
+mind with Greek and Latin literature and finding some employment with
+the publisher, Barbèra, for whom he wrote prefaces, notes, etc., for
+Italian classics. Two griefs came within a year--the suicide of his
+brother, Dante, and the death of his father. In memory of his brother
+he wrote the lines “Alla memoria di D. C.” Happier days came when he
+married the gifted daughter of his relative and friend, Menicucci. His
+home life was stimulating and sympathetic. He had four children; to a
+daughter he gave the symbolic name of “Liberty.” Again death came to
+crush his spirit; his little boy, Dante, three years old, died the same
+year as Carducci’s mother. The latter, of fine Florentine family, had
+been a loved comrade to her son; and although he was reconciled to her
+death in old age, he rebelled, in deep grief, at the loss of the little
+boy, declaring “three parts of his life” had departed. The elegiac
+stanzas, “Funere mersit acerbo,”[46] written in a mood of longing for
+the child, are pathetic.
+
+His poems, as collected previous to 1870, showed political agitation
+and frequent bitterness and satire; many of these had appeared in the
+periodical, _Il Poloziano_. In 1860 he went to Pistoia as Professor of
+Greek and Latin; there he wrote his poem, “Sicilia e la rivoluzione,”
+celebrating Garibaldi’s Sicilian Expedition of that time. During the
+next ten years he passed through political changes of allegiance;
+when his _Hymn to Satan_[47] appeared, and “made him famous in a day,”
+(republished in 1869 over signature of “Enotrio Romano”) extolling the
+advance of Liberalism over the reactionary influences of both monarchy
+and church, he was declared to be an unqualified Republican. It was
+a daring _motif_ that the poet chose for his voice of “Revolt”; it
+required courage, at that time, to summon as witnesses to the progress
+of the “lord of the feast, Satan,” such names as Savonarola and Luther,
+Huss and Wycliffe. One reason for the immediate popularity of this poem
+may have been the flowing, almost lilting, form of four-line stanzas.
+
+Seven years before the publication of _Hymn to Satan_, Carducci had
+become identified, as professor, with the University of Bologna; here
+he remained until his death--a period of forty-six years of educational
+service. The first offer from Mamiani, as Minister of Education, was
+to the Turin Lycée but the poet was unwilling to leave Tuscany. After
+a little delay the chair of elocution--and later of literature--was
+open to him at Bologna. His influence upon students of all types was
+stimulating, always conducive to individual expression and ambition.
+After the appearance of _Hymn to Satan_ he was in marked disfavor with
+the government. His liberal ideas were in high favor with the students,
+however, so that it seemed wise to “make a change” by offering him
+a position to teach Latin at Naples. Carducci refused on the ground
+that he was not qualified to teach Latin. He was prohibited from
+continuing classroom instruction at Bologna, on the ground of “constant
+opposition to the acts of the Government.” Affairs were quieted by a
+change of ministers and the poet, wisely, refrained from promulgating
+political doctrines in the University, or from giving dominance to
+them in his later volumes of poems, like _Levia grandia_, in 1867,
+and _Nuove poesie_, in 1873. Mr. Bickersteth has emphasized duly the
+more restrained, tender note in the later volume, following soon after
+the loss of his mother and his son. So different were the lyrics from
+his previous type, so surely did they show the influence of Goethe,
+Schiller, and Heine, in romanticism, that some critics accused Carducci
+of being a mere imitator, or even a plagiarist. This challenge aroused
+his ever-present spirit and he wrote the prose defense, with broad as
+well as personal comment, _Critica ed arte_.
+
+As lecturer, he became yearly more popular and students from distant
+places hastened to come under his inspiration. He was one of the
+noteworthy exponents of Dante. When Rome established a chair of Dante
+Exigesis, Carducci was appointed as professor. Although sorry to lose
+him at Bologna, the whole country applauded the honor. He hesitated,
+because he was not in accord with those who interpreted Dante by
+contemporary political conditions, those who had founded the chair at
+Rome. Later he became one of “four leading Dante scholars” who gave
+short courses of lectures each year. At his first lecture there was
+an effort to make a political demonstration by the anti-Papal party.
+Among his sentences at this first discourse he said, “Papacy and
+Empire, their discord and their power, were passing away when Dante was
+born--Dante who does not pass away.” In an earlier sonnet, published in
+essays in 1874, he had interpreted what he believed were Dante’s views
+and the reason for his immortal fame:[48]
+
+    Dante, whence comes it that my vows and voice,
+    Adoring thy proud lineaments I raise;
+    That, o’er thy verse, which made thee lean and wan,
+    The sun may set, the new dawn finds me still?
+
+    I hate thy Holy Empire; with my sword
+    I should have thrust the crown from off the head
+    Of thy good Frederick in Olona’s vale.
+    O’er church and Empire, both now ruins sad,
+    Thy song soars up, and high in heaven resounds--
+    Though Jove may die, the poet’s hymn remains.
+
+With one of those marked changes in his impulses and convictions which
+ever characterized Carducci, he broke away from tendencies towards
+German Romanticism and declared a “literary revolution” as his purpose
+in writing his most familiar odes, _Odi barbare_, 1873-1877. Back to
+the poetry of Greece and Rome he would lead the people, away from the
+romanticists and “sickly sentimentalism.” To his friends, Chiarini
+and Targioni, who were critics of these odes, he declared that the
+world’s greatest poets had been Homer, Pindar, Theocritus, Sophocles,
+and Aristophanes.[49] There was a great variety of meter in this
+collection; several poems that lacked rhymes seemed, to the hackneyed
+critics, unconventional in form. Mr. Bickersteth has informing comments
+upon Carducci’s _Metres in the Barbarian Odes_ and other poems, in his
+Introduction to his _Selection of Poems_, already cited. Among the
+examples of the Italian poet at his best, his most simple, flexible,
+and musical lines, one recalls from this collection such verses as
+“The Ideal,” “The Mother,” and “By the Urn of Percy Bysshe Shelley.”
+Addressing one of his imaginary Greek women, Lalage, he unfolds his
+own deep, loving appreciation of the English poet in such couplets as
+these:[50]
+
+    Vain are the joys of the present, they come and they fade like a
+      blossom,
+    Only in death dwells the truth and loveliness but in past days.
+
+    Lo, on the mount of the centuries Clio hath nimbly descended,
+    And bursts into song as she spreads her magnificent wings to the
+      sky.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    O heart of hearts, o’er this urn, thy cold, uncongenial prison,
+    The warm spring blossoms again with the fragrance of flower and
+      fruit.
+
+    O heart of hearts, thy divine great father, the Sun, hath arisen,
+    And lovingly bathes thee in light, poor heart that forever art mute.
+
+This poem, inspired by the grave of Shelley, is one of the most
+beautiful and appealing of the odes; to him the English poet was, in
+truth, “Poet of liberty,” with a “spirit Titanic.” In spite of the
+simplicity and directness of Carducci’s diction his poems have defied
+many translators, especially in English. It is interesting to note that
+two of his German translators have been winners of the Nobel prize in
+literature, Paul Heyse and Theodor Mommsen.
+
+In this same volume, _Odi barbare_, was a poem which attracted wide
+attention in Italy and aroused some indignation among the former
+friends of Carducci who had Republican principles. It was the tribute
+entitled “To the Queen,” dated November 20, 1878. While it was
+essentially an effusion to the grace, beauty, and literary gifts of
+Queen Marguerite as an individual, it resounded with the Hail! (“Long
+Live!”) which has come down from Hebrew days for king and queen.
+Although a Liberal to the end of his life, Carducci relinquished his
+antagonism to monarchy as he grew older and gentler in spirit. The
+influence of his friend in political life, Crispi, caused a reaction
+in Carducci from alliance with Republicanism, which veered towards
+Socialism, and an alignment again with the monarchical party. The final
+pledge of this political change was chronicled in the tribute to King
+Albert Charles in the poem, “Piedmonte,” in 1890. In the same year the
+poet was elected as senator and served for a brief time. To him Liberty
+now became an ideal for art, literature and religion, as well as for
+the State.
+
+Although the more serious interpreters of Carducci’s political
+fluctuations trace the gradual, and reasonable, steps from hatred
+of monarchy to acceptance and even poetic homage, there are other
+commentators who give a romantic flavor to the change of attitude. They
+declare that the new allegiance may be explained by a visit that the
+King and Queen made to Bologna. Carducci was lame and disinclined to
+meet people socially; he was immersed in his books and a few friends,
+outside his University classes. The story runs that Queen Marguerite,
+who was a literary critic and sponsor of the arts, invited the poet
+to an audience. Such an invitation is a summons but Carducci went
+unwillingly. He came away, however, from the visit inspired by the
+Queen’s appreciative sympathy and her literary insight. Thenceforward
+she was to him “Eterno femminino Regale.” Letters passed between the
+Queen and the poet. Their friendship has been compared to that of
+Michelangelo and Vittoria Colonna, in inspirational quality.
+
+As the years passed the Queen was able to serve both the poet and
+her country, for Carducci’s health and finances became impaired. In
+1899 he suffered a stroke of paralysis which crippled him somewhat
+but he continued his work at the University, assisted by his favorite
+pupil, the poet Severino Ferrari. That he might not be obliged to sell
+his valuable library the Queen purchased this, with the arrangement
+that he might use it during his life. After his death she purchased
+his home, also, and gave this to the Italian people as a memorial,
+“Casa Carducci,” with a beautiful garden, adorned with statuary that
+symbolizes some of his poems. In 1904 the government gave him a pension
+and the University students honored him with a celebration. The next
+year the sudden death of his assistant, Ferrari, was a terrible loss to
+him and left him enfeebled in body and spirit. When the Nobel prize was
+awarded the next year, he was unable to leave his chair to receive it;
+the King of Sweden sent a deputy to Bologna to give the testimonial in
+person to the aged poet. He lived only two months after this honor; his
+funeral at Bologna was attended by thousands. Because of his Florentine
+descent and his literary rank, the city of Florence offered for him a
+tomb in Sta. Croce, the Italian Pantheon, but his family preferred a
+burial place just outside Bologna.
+
+As a poet Carducci mingled vigor and grace to an unusual degree. He was
+an artist both in his conceptions and his forms; he never left a poem
+unfinished. His historical odes, resultant from his classical studies,
+are less impressive than such lyrics as “Night,” “Fiesole,” “Idyll of
+the Maremma,” “Before San Guido,” “Virgil,” and “Primo Vere” which
+are found in translations by Mrs. Maud Holland.[51] A wistful sadness
+is found in many of his poems of nature and life, a sensitiveness to
+insincerity, a change from a mood of hopefulness to that of longing and
+question. Such poetic traits are marked in the poem, “Primo Vere,” a
+delicate spring-song with gentle sadness;
+
+    Behold! from sluggish winter’s arms
+    Spring lifts herself again;
+    Naked before the steel-cold air
+    She shivers, as in pain,
+    Look, Lalage, is that a tear
+    In the sun’s eye that shines so clear?
+    Today my spirit sleeps and dreams,
+    Where do my far thoughts fly?
+    Close to thy beauty’s face we stand
+    And smile, the spring and I:
+    Yet, Lalage, whence come those tears?
+    Has Spring, too, felt the doom of years?[52]
+
+In his old age Carducci declared that “his guiding principles had
+been three--in politics, Italy before all things; in art, classical
+poetry before all things; in life, sincerity and strength before all
+things.”[53] As he mellowed in his political opinions, so he became
+less vehement against the church and Christianity in later writings.
+In truth, it was not Christianity but asceticism and bigotry which he
+combated. Like many poets he regretted the loss of some of the best
+marks of pure paganism; he found in it truth and freedom, in contrast
+with many evidences of falsehood and slavery in the Christian world
+of his day. He did not always get a vision of life as a whole, only
+a segment which was sometimes distorted in perspective. He was more
+interested in historical and poetic figures than in creative types.
+Italy of the past and her classic literature were his ideals in his
+later writings. Rejecting romanticism as exotic, he pleaded for “the
+representation of reality with truth.” In summary of his aim and its
+fulfillment, Mr. Bickersteth has written with lucidity: “Carducci’s
+conception of reality, considered from the artistic point of view,
+controls his treatment of all the chief themes of his poetry, as will
+at once become apparent if we examine any of these at all closely. Man,
+Nature, Liberty, for instance--he held it incumbent upon the poets
+of his own time to deal mainly with these three, and they constitute
+accordingly a large portion of the subject-matter of his own verse.”
+It is difficult to identify the word idealism with much of Carducci’s
+poetry about women--for he was strongly realistic in his love poems, in
+general, often compared to Walt Whitman in his emphasis of the physical
+attractiveness of woman. Again, he too often failed in his efforts
+to adapt old Latin forms to modern themes and reflections. In spite
+of such defects, however, Carducci’s poetry at his best, his earnest
+patriotism and his hopes for Italy, reflects his country, says Mr.
+Bickersteth, “in her purest and serenest aspect, and her ideals linked
+on to many, if not all, the most cherished traditions of her past.”[54]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[45] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1907.
+
+[46] Found in original and translation in _Carducci: a Selection of His
+Poems_, etc. by G. L. Bickersteth, London, 1913, p. 141.
+
+[47] _Ibid._, p. 8.
+
+[48] _Italian Influences: Carducci and Dante_ by Eugene Schuyler, New
+York, 1901, p. 24. By permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons.
+
+[49] _Impressioni e ricordi_ by Chiarini, p. 237.
+
+[50] _Carducci: a Selection of His Poems_ by G. L. Bickersteth,
+Copyright by Longmans, Green & Co., London and New York, 1913. By
+permission of Longmans, Green & Co.
+
+[51] _Poems by Giosuè Carducci_: with an introduction and translations
+by Maud Holland, New York, 1907.
+
+[52] _Edinburgh Review_, April, 1909. By permission of Leonard Scott
+Publication Co.
+
+[53] _Ibid._, “The Poetry of Carducci.”
+
+[54] _Carducci: a Selection of His Poems_ by G. L. Bickersteth, London
+and New York, 1913. By permission of Longmans, Green & Co.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE WRITINGS OF RUDYARD KIPLING BEFORE AND AFTER THE AWARD
+
+
+  The prize of 1907 has been awarded:
+
+  Kipling, Rudyard, born 1865: “in consideration of the power of
+  observation, originality of imagination, and also the manly strength
+  in the art of perception and delineation that characterize the
+  writings of this world-renowned author.”[55]
+
+Six years passed after the first prizes were given in literature
+from the Nobel fund; the countries honored thus far had been France,
+Germany, Norway, Spain, Italy, and Poland. “Where is Great Britain
+on the literary map?” asked certain speakers and writers. Names of
+British authors had been sent to the Committee of the Nobel Foundation
+and the Swedish Academy, with ardent commendation by individuals and
+academic circles. Prominent among such names, suggested in the press,
+had been Swinburne, George Meredith, John Morley, Thomas Hardy, Barrie,
+and Robert Bridges. One journal asked, “Why not Kipling?” The answer
+came in the announcement that the award for 1907 was given to Rudyard
+Kipling, poet and story-teller. Again the issue, “What is Idealism?”
+was raised and challenged by some opponents of this choice yet, on the
+whole, it met with wide favor. Kipling’s type of robust idealism was
+defended; said W. B. Parker, “His idealism needs no other evidence than
+the enthusiastic following he has had from boys.”[56]
+
+Combined with this _robust idealism_ are two other qualities of
+Kipling as writer, that have given him “the enthusiastic following of
+boys”--his virility and courage. For adolescents and college youths
+he has upheld the ideals of vigorous action, of honor and bravery, of
+daring in speech and deed. In his dynamic poems and tales of _The Day’s
+Work_, _Kim_, _Life’s Handicap_, and the other volumes so familiar,
+he reflects his “gospel” of fearlessness, that does not hesitate
+to shock some who abide by the conventional standards of speech.
+Gilbert K. Chesterton has said forceful truths about this trait of
+Kipling in _Heretics_: he affirms that credit is due to Kipling for
+his appreciation of _slang_ and _steam_. He expands the thought thus:
+“Steam may be, if you like, a dirty by-product of science. Slang may
+be, if you like, a dirty by-product of language. But at least he has
+been among the few who saw the living parentage of these things and
+knew that where there is smoke, there is fire--that is, wherever
+there is the foulest of things there, also, is the purest.”[57] Mr.
+Chesterton declares that Kipling’s type of courage is not that of
+war, nor valor of the battle-field, but “that interdependence and
+efficiency which belongs quite as much to engineers, or sailors, or
+mules, or railway engineers.” Recurrent in memory are such tales as
+“The Bridge-Builders,” “The Ship That Found Herself,” “.007,” “With the
+Night Mail” and “Wireless.”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of Doubleday, Page & Co._
+  _Photograph by E. O. Hoppe_
+
+RUDYARD KIPLING]
+
+One trait sharply differentiates Kipling from some of his colleagues
+among the Nobel prize winners. He is a patriot-poet but with less
+ardent tribute than is found in the verse of Mistral and Björnson
+and Heidenstam. Perhaps his open criticism of his country in certain
+political crises has barred him from the laureateship. His frank,
+democratic attitude in later years, somewhat in contrast with earlier
+utterances of imperialism, finds expression in every stanza of “A
+Pilgrim’s Way.” Few poets, however, have written such magnetic lines in
+urgence of “fitness,” honor and service for country as has Kipling, in
+the familiar words of “If,” “For All We Have and Are,” “The Children’s
+Song,” and the refrain in the poem in _Land and Sea Tales for Scouts
+and Scoutmasters_--
+
+    Be fit--be fit--for honour’s sake be fit!
+
+He is patriotic with the world knowledge of a traveled man; two
+examples in proof are found in “The Return” and “The English Flag,”
+with the pertinent query--
+
+    And what should they know of England who only England know?
+
+In recent years it has been a “fad” in certain journals to depreciate
+Kipling and to charge against him faults of narrowness in outlook and
+lack of modernism. Especially during the years of the war and its
+immediate aftermath one found tones of sad, somewhat cynical writing.
+In large measure this was due to the personal trials of the time and
+the loss of his son. That elegiac poem, “My Boy Jack; 1914-1918,” will
+live as a heart-gripping memorial. In his speech at the Sorbonne,
+November 19, 1921, he gave evidences of spiritual recovery; he said,
+“One cannot resume a broken world as easily as one can resume a broken
+sentence. But before long our sons who have spent themselves in
+suffering and toiling to abolish the menace of barbarism will recover
+also from the menace of moral lassitude.” With old-time sprightliness
+and vigor he wrote, in the spring of 1924, the stanzas “A Song of the
+French Roads,” after a visit to France and the joyful experience of
+finding the roads to the border, that had been laid out by Napoleon
+and devastated by the war, were now repaired and open to traffic.[58]
+
+It was the Kipling of the earlier years of writing who received the
+Nobel prize. He was forty-two years old, one of the youngest winners.
+He had already published volumes of prose and verse that would be
+creditable to a writer of twice his age. Born at Bombay, December 30,
+1865, he inherited intellectual promise from both parents. His father,
+John Lockwood Kipling, an artist, was at that time Director of the
+Lahore School of Industrial Art. He was a delightful story-teller and
+expertly trained in technical and artistic knowledge. He illustrated
+some of his son’s earlier tales; a book by him, entitled _Beast and Man
+in India_, with unusual drawings, was attributed to Rudyard Kipling
+(London, 1891). Alice MacDonald, the mother, gave to her son a keen
+zest in life and a rare sense of humor. Her devotion has had many lines
+of commemoration, notably in such a poem as “Mother O’ Mine.”
+
+The boy was named Joseph Rudyard but he seldom used the first name.
+The second, in memory of a lake in England where his father and mother
+had met, is so arresting and unique that it has been called one of the
+causes of his first appeal to the curious public. After his early
+boyhood in India, leaving with him strong impressions and love for
+the land, he was sent to Southsea, Devonshire, to school and later to
+the United Services College at Westward Ho. He was homesick for his
+mother and found it difficult to mix well with the English-born boys.
+_Stalky & Co._ is largely autobiographical of this period. In 1880 he
+returned to India, anxious to enter journalism and know the native
+people, especially in the army. The story runs that once, when Kipling
+was doing journalistic work in Lahore, the Duke of Connaught visited
+the place and asked the young man what he would prefer to do in India.
+The reply came promptly, “I would like, sir, to live with the army for
+a time, and go to the frontier to write up Tommy Atkins.” The request
+was granted and the literary results in later years are listed in
+_Department Ditties_, _Soldiers Three_, _Under the Deodars_, and many
+more stories in volumes, from _Plain Tales from the Hills_ to _Eyes of
+Asia_.
+
+Much discussion has been rife about the truth or exaggeration of
+Kipling’s pictures of India, especially types of army men and
+officers’ wives. Many critics, who have traveled in India, affirm
+the photographic quality of the tales and verse but some raise the
+issue of the tone--is it sincere or sardonic? Others, who claim to
+have talked with certain “natives,” condemn both the spirit and the
+characterizations. To the charge of insincerity or disloyalty there
+seems to be a firm answer in the friendly Prelude to _Departmental
+Ditties_, which has a prominent place in the Inclusive Edition of
+_Rudyard Kipling’s Verse_. He lays stress, in the last stanza, upon
+“the jesting guise” but he emphasizes, also, his loyalty to these
+people, especially in the second stanza:
+
+    Was there aught that I did not share
+      In vigil or toil or ease,--
+    One joy or woe that I did not know,
+      Dear hearts across the seas?[59]
+
+During these years from 1882 to 1889, while he was doing journalistic
+work and associating with civil and military representatives in Lahore,
+Bombay, and Mandalay, he was writing stories and verses which appeared
+in the newspaper columns of India. The first issue in book form was by
+A. H. Wheeler & Co. of Allahabad, a little book in gray paper covers
+which was sold at railway stations. In his own hand and with striking
+illustrations, Kipling edited some of his early tales; one such, “Wee
+Willie Winkie,” dedicated to his mother, with others that formed “an
+illustrated set,” found a purchaser in J. Pierpont Morgan, in recent
+years at a price stated to be $17,000.[60]
+
+When Kipling was twenty-five years old, with his memory packed with
+scenes of adventure and characters in India, and his pockets filled
+with unpublished tales and verse, he decided to try his literary fate
+in England. He traveled by way of the Pacific to California and reached
+New York with hopes of editorial encouragement because he had letters
+of introduction. He was not received with cordiality; perhaps in later
+years some of these editors and publishers regretted their lost chance
+to launch a new genius. In London, he attracted attention slowly but,
+with influence from family and officials, he won recognition by critics
+and reading-public. One of the first to appreciate Kipling’s unique
+work was Andrew Lang; later he was severe in criticism of certain
+faults. One of his essays upon Kipling of the earlier _Tales_ is
+included in _Essays in Little_ (Scribner’s, 1891). It has a prophetic
+note, an emphasis of “the brilliance of colour,” the strange, varied
+themes, the “perfume of the East.”
+
+The Nobel prize was given to Kipling because of these qualities of
+his earlier work, as well as his more mature, potent messages. He
+had, from the first, rare ability to revivify, to secure for future
+generations of readers the real and the romantic in Anglo-India of the
+later nineteenth century. He preserved the landscapes, the customs, the
+ideals, the intrigues, the foibles, even the slang of the natives and
+the British soldiers. Just as Mistral saved the language and romances
+of Provence from oblivion, in his _Mireio_ and other poems; just as
+Björnson recorded the almost forgotten sagas of Norway and blended
+these with modern, peasant life; so Kipling made literary use of this
+unfamiliar material of India. His idealism converted the ordinary,
+often petty and rough aspects of life, into stories and verses of
+undying flavor, like “The Phantom Rickshaw,” _Soldiers Three_, “Drums
+of the Fore and Aft,” “On the City Wall,” “M’Andrew’s Hymn,” “Danny
+Deever,” “Mandalay,” and “The Lover’s Litany.” Here are recorded days
+of adventure and danger, nights of memory and longing. In 1902, more
+than ten years after he left India, he wrote one of his most appealing
+poems, “The Broken Men,” the exiles from England with their pluck and
+their pathos, which grips the sympathies like those tales of O. Henry
+about the American self-imposed “exiles” in Central America.
+
+The later visit that Kipling made to the United States cheered his
+heart, in contrast to the earlier reception. He had met Caroline
+Balestier, sister of Wolcott Balestier, a young man with whom Kipling
+became intimate in London and with whom he collaborated in the novel,
+_The Naulahka_. Their home was in Brattleboro, Vermont. In 1892 Miss
+Balestier was married to Kipling in All Soul’s Church, Portland Place,
+London. They came to Vermont to live for a few years in the unique
+house, which Kipling built for his bride overlooking Brattleboro. Sir
+Arthur Conan Doyle accredits him with “chivalrous devotion” to his
+wife, which caused him to come to America lest she might miss her
+home and friends.[61] Before coming to America they took a journey
+“round the world,” or a segment of it. The death of Wolcott Balestier
+was a deep grief to his friend and a loss to American literature. In
+dedicatory elegy (_Barrack-Room Ballads_) Kipling wrote the lines of
+noble characterization:
+
+    E’en as he trod that day to God so walked he from his birth,
+    In simpleness and gentleness and honour and clean mirth.[62]
+
+For the little daughter, who died at an early age, Kipling wrote his
+first _Jungle Book_. In this American home he wrote, also, many of
+the poems collected in _The Seven Seas_ and the short stories, _Many
+Inventions_. In the latter book were the daring pictures of life like
+“The Disturber of Traffic,” the haunting tale of “The Lost Legion,”
+and the tragic “Love o’ Women.” The inspiration of Mrs. Kipling, her
+perfect appreciation of her husband’s gifts and moods, and her gracious
+influence have been attested by him in many tender words, as well as
+in the more impersonal tributes to womanhood of brains and heart, which
+one finds expressed in _From Sea to Sea_ or “His Chance in Life.” The
+world will never forget the persistent story that Mrs. Kipling saved,
+from the wastebasket, that grand hymn of all time, “The Recessional.”
+In some of his tales he antagonized Americans, notably in _The Light
+That Failed_ and “An Habitation Enforced” in _Actions and Reactions_;
+as compensation one recalls “An Error of the Fourth Dimension” from
+_Plain Tales_, the story of Wilton Sargent, American.
+
+The writing of Kipling showed advance in form during the decade from
+1890 to 1900. There was gradual elimination of the jingoism and
+cynicism which tainted some of his earlier work. In 1897 he visited
+South Africa again. He recounted an actual experience in riding on
+a Cape Government Railway in his tale “.007,” among the stories in
+_The Day’s Work_, published in 1898. In this same collection is found
+“The Brushwood Boy,” a masterpiece of mystic idealism which will
+stand beside his more poetic allegory, “They.” The year 1899 has been
+regarded sometimes as a crisis in the life of Kipling which affected
+his later writing. On his arrival in New York, in the late autumn
+of that year, he was attacked by a severe case of pneumonia and was
+desperately ill for many weeks. The press of America, England, and
+the Continent awaited the bulletins with anxiety. He recovered but
+some critics have affirmed that he lost his vigor and literary power.
+Looking over the dates of his poems, and recalling the books which have
+appeared since this crisis, such a surmise is not warranted. One could
+scarcely expect that any author could continue to write, on a level
+or ascending scale, many more books about India than he had already
+written or many more poems of vital spell like “If,” “When Earth’s Last
+Picture is Painted,” and “M’Andrew’s Hymn.”
+
+He had already proved his ability to write for children and
+adolescents. Few books among juveniles surpass, in visualization and
+imaginative skill, _The Jungle Books_, _Just So Stories_, and that
+pioneer sea tale that has gained favor with the years, _Captains
+Courageous_. In the years that followed his serious illness, he wrote
+tales of clever inventiveness collected in _Puck of Pook’s Hill_,
+_Rewards and Fairies_, and _Kim_. To this period belong, also, many
+of the poems collected in the volume, _The Five Nations_. Who will
+say that there was decadence of literary power, any lapse of dramatic
+skill, in that story of _Kim_, or Kimball O’Hara, the orphan boy of
+Lahore? The boys of to-day--and normal girls--have wholesome “thrills”
+at this lad’s story, his pilgrimages over India with the Tibetan
+lama, and his final adoption by the regiment to which his father had
+belonged. Humor, adventure, vivid photographs of places and people--all
+are mingled in this tale. When it appeared in the London edition
+of 1901, the father of Kipling contributed some of the striking
+illustrations.
+
+_The Five Nations_ of this later period gave permanence in form to such
+vital poems as “White Horses,” “Our Lady of the Snows” (the beautiful
+ode to Canada), “The Dykes,” “The Feet of the Young Men,” “Boots,”
+“The Explorer,” and “The Recessional.” “Buddha at Kamakura,” which
+first appeared in _Kim_, should be listed in this collection. Are there
+here traces of lapse in form or spontaneity compared with the earlier,
+less restrained verses in _Departmental Ditties_ or _Barrack-Room
+Ballads_? In _Traffics and Discoveries_, published in 1904, are found
+such literary achievements as “Wireless,” “They,” and “The Army of a
+Dream.” Kipling had shown his keen observation, humor, and appreciation
+of varied beauties of Nature in his volumes of travel-sketches and
+letters, _From Sea to Sea_ and _Letters of Travel_. “In Sight of
+Monadnock” contains a brief, fine description of that distant New
+Hampshire peak. With his long experience in travel and adjustment to
+diverse conditions of life, Kipling has ever been a poet of home,
+national and domestic. His poem, “Sussex,” written in 1902, has deep
+feeling as well as notable lines of description and a rhythmic swing.
+
+New poets and story-writers came into prominence with the twentieth
+century. Although Kipling was in his full maturity and vigor when the
+Nobel prize was awarded, with years of promising, creative work before
+him, he had been so long before the public that it became the fashion,
+in some brilliant, cynical groups, to speak of him as belonging to the
+older generation. His volumes attracted less attention in competition
+with those of mere “modernism.” The announcement of the Nobel prize,
+in 1907, aroused interest anew in every country. In looking over the
+Kipling bibliographical cards, in the Widener Library at Harvard
+University, it is interesting to find records of translations of his
+books into Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish,
+Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish. The journals took occasion to
+review what he had accomplished in literature before 1907, to commend
+or reprove the decision of the Swedish Academy in giving him a prize
+for “idealistic” literature. Some cited his imperialistic “complex”
+and quoted “The Man Who Would Be King.” In _Current Literature_ for
+October, 1908, are quotations from diverse opinions: Said the _London
+Nation_: “There is hardly any English writer more closely identified
+with the doctrine of force or a firmer believer that the Deity is
+to be found on the side of the big battalions.” The _New York World_
+declared, “He sings of blood-lust, with a schoolboy’s disregard of
+consequences.” The _Chicago Post_ believed that his idealism was “the
+idealization of might” but it praised his strong, Biblical English.
+
+Comments of this kind fail to recognize the _two_, paradoxical traits
+in Kipling’s nature and writings. There is stark realism, sometimes
+relentless, as in “The Courtship of Dinah Shadd,” “The Gate of a
+Hundred Sorrows,” “My Son’s Wife,” or poems like “The Galley-Slave,”
+“Danny Deever,” and “Kitchener’s School.” Close beside this realism,
+penetrating and often sordid, sounds a note of idealism, a promise
+of “a happy issue out of all troubles,” a vision that comes to an
+idealist. Recall that in _The Day’s Work_, there is the tense,
+realistic tale of “The Devil and the Deep Sea,” and, within a few
+pages, the idyll of “The Brushwood Boy.”
+
+Since the Nobel prize was received, Kipling has written with less
+frequency and more unevenness of form. Some of the prose and verse
+reflects the war, like “Fringes of the Fleet,” “Sea Warfare,” “France,”
+and the “History of the Irish Guards.” Not soon forgotten will be that
+tribute to Roosevelt, tender and virile, “Great-Heart” (1919). In the
+collected poems, _The Years Between_, there are challenging war poems,
+“For All We Have and Are,” an appeal to England, and “The Choice, or
+The American Spirit Speaks,” for the United States. The elegy to “Lord
+Roberts,” less militant in tone, is true poetry in emotion and measure.
+Some stanzas are touched by irony, and have the sermonic quality which
+is characteristic--“The Sons of Martha,” “En-Dor” and “Russia to the
+Pacifists.” The juvenile of 1923, _Land and Sea Tales for Boys and
+Girls_ (or _for Scouts and Scoutmasters_) is uneven in quality but it
+has two dramatic sketches. _Eyes of Asia_, portraits of Europeans as
+seen by Oriental eyes, is more comparable to mediocre pages in _Actions
+and Reactions_ than it is to the more vital stories in _Plain Tales_
+and _The Day’s Work_. “Fumes of the Heart” is the best of these later
+tales.
+
+Mr. Kipling is reaping honors in educational and civic life. His
+reserve, which is sometimes rated as coldness, keeps him far from the
+limelight of publicity. He cannot be persuaded to “come to America”
+as lecturer or reader, in the train of many of his compatriots of far
+less worth or fame. In his Sussex home, with family and a few friends
+about him, he is a delightful _raconteur_ or conversationalist upon
+topics of world-wide politics. He is more amused than angered at some
+of the petty criticisms upon his writing, like the recent attack upon
+“Mandalay” for its anachronisms in geography, not unlike the charges
+against Shakespeare in _The Tempest_ and _The Winter’s Tale_. Arnold
+Bennett, in _Books and Persons_,[63] has some comments upon Kipling’s
+flaws in _Actions and Reactions_ and his “prejudices and clayey
+ideals,” but he ends with tribute to him as a painstaking artist,
+devoted to his craft.
+
+Philip Guedalla, brilliant journalist and ironist, in his essays, _A
+Gallery_, under caption of “Mandalay,” says “much in little” about the
+“remoteness and antiquity” of Kipling; he finds him so “antiquated”
+that the “Dinosaurus” might give him “points in modernity.” Despite
+such witty extravagances, however, the critic admits that Kipling “has
+sharpened the English language to a knife-edge and with it has cut
+brilliant patterns on the surface of our prose literature.”[64] In
+both his prose and poetry he has “sharpened the English language to
+a knife-edge.” His verses may seem “antiquated” to the reader whose
+exclusive tastes welcome only “new poetry” and sneer at “lilting
+rhymes” and conventional meters. To broader minds, however, there is
+appreciation of the vibrant messages of spiritual courage, the bold and
+graphic excerpts from real life, in both the verse and the fiction of
+Kipling at his best.
+
+One of the honors that came to this writer recently was an invitation
+to give the Rectorial Address at St. Andrews University, in 1923.
+This has been published in book form as _Independence_, similar in
+format to that of Barrie’s address, on a kindred occasion, entitled
+_Courage_. Mr. Kipling urges here the fundamental duty of developing
+one’s individuality: “After all,” he says, “yourself is the only person
+you can by no possibility get away from in this life, and maybe, in
+another. It is worth a little pains and money to do good to him.”[65]
+
+His idealism is not that of mere sentiment, much less of
+sentimentality. It is the idealism of work, of action, of
+responsibility. It is the idealism even in the midst of misjudgments,
+of carrying “The White Man’s Burden,” of training youth towards clean,
+productive manhood. One grants that some of his writings, both prose
+and verse, might be eliminated from collections and memory, with an
+increase in his literary rank. He is uneven and was prone, in his
+earlier days, to mistake coarseness for vigor, yet he has been able to
+make his readers both _listen_ and _see_. Perhaps he has not maintained
+the almost unanimous favoritism among college youths that he had two
+decades ago--there have been competitors with “college stories” of
+rank realism--but it may be questioned if any author of our day is more
+often quoted among both educated and unlettered adults. Mr. Kipling has
+never been tempted to lower his standards for commercial ends; with
+fearless truth, he has spoken messages of uprightness and service. “A
+Song of the English” is national, perhaps imperialistic, but it has,
+like scores of his other stanzas, a catholic message to Christian
+nations everywhere:
+
+    Keep ye the Law--be swift in all obedience--
+    Clear the land of evil, drive the road and bridge the ford.
+        Make ye sure to each his own
+        That he reap where he hath sown;
+    By the peace among our peoples let men know we serve the Lord![66]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[55] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1907.
+
+[56] _World’s Work_, February, 1908.
+
+[57] _Heretics_ by Gilbert K. Chesterton, London and New York, 1915,
+1919. By permission of Dodd, Mead & Co.
+
+[58] _Literary Digest_, July 5, 1924.
+
+[59] _Rudyard Kipling’s Verse_: Inclusive Edition, Garden City, N. Y.,
+1924, p. 3. By permission of Mr. Kipling and Doubleday, Page & Co.
+
+[60] _Bookman_, 25: 561.
+
+[61] _Memories and Adventures_ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Boston, 1924.
+
+[62] By permission of Mr. Kipling.
+
+[63] George H. Doran, New York, 1917.
+
+[64] _A Gallery_ by Philip Guedalla, New York, 1924. By permission of
+G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
+
+[65] _Independence_: Rectorial Address at St. Andrews by Rudyard
+Kipling, New York, 1924. By permission of Mr. Kipling and Doubleday,
+Page & Co.
+
+[66] _Rudyard Kipling’s Verse_: Inclusive Edition, Garden City, N. Y.,
+1924. By permission of Mr. Kipling and Doubleday, Page & Co.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SELMA LAGERLÖF--SWEDISH REALIST AND IDEALIST
+
+
+  The prize of 1909 has been awarded:
+
+  Lagerlöf, Selma, born 1858: “because of the noble idealism, the
+  wealth of fancy and the spiritual quality that characterize her
+  works.”[67]
+
+“I declare it to be my express desire that in the awarding of the
+prizes no consideration whatever be paid to the nationality of the
+candidates, that is to say, that the most deserving be awarded the
+prize, whether of Scandinavian origin or not.” These words from the
+will of Alfred Nobel had been faithfully obeyed during the first
+eight years of the awards in literature. Only once had the prize
+been given to a Scandinavian, to Björnson, the Norwegian, in 1903.
+When the announcement came that the winner for 1909 was the Swedish
+writer, Selma Lagerlöf, the most severe critics of the Nobel Foundation
+Committee in former years were either commendatory or silently
+acquiescent. Here was an author who richly deserved the prize, for
+she was already known throughout Europe and America for her unique
+fiction, in which photographic realism was always blended with a
+dominant note of idealism. The juvenile book which combined geography,
+fancy, humor, and fascination for old and young, _The Wonderful
+Adventures of Nils_, and other books had followed the strange tale
+of folklore and character study, _The Story of Gösta Berling_; these
+writings were outstanding evidences of her literary gifts. It was an
+honor to womanhood everywhere that the Nobel prize was given to Selma
+Lagerlöf, first of the countrymen of Nobel to be thus immortalized in
+literature. In her years of teaching and her later messages from the
+press, she had shown her sincere purpose “to benefit mankind.”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of The American-Scandinavian Foundation_
+
+SELMA LAGERLÖF]
+
+It is interesting to note that the family name of this woman means
+“laurel leaf,” a symbol of her fame. In _Mårbacka_, one of her later
+books to be translated into English, the reader finds detached
+photographs of the home and environment of this author’s girlhood. Mrs.
+Velma Swanston Howard, who has been so successful as translator of Miss
+Lagerlöf’s books, knows perfectly the languages of both Sweden and
+England; she is a friend of the author, with kinship in her traditions
+and spirit, and thus has sustained that indefinable but pervading
+“atmosphere” which characterizes all of Miss Lagerlöf’s fiction. The
+setting of _Mårbacka_ is alive with elements of Nature and humanity,
+with folklore and “wonderful tales of old Varmland” which became the
+basis for many of her later books. The spacious manor house, where
+Selma Lagerlöf was born sixty-seven years ago, becomes familiar to
+readers of this autobiography. The nursery chairs, with individual
+names and portraits of Johan, Anna, and little Selma Ottiliana Louisa,
+were treasured heirlooms; the beds that “parted company,” perhaps,
+in the night and the old owl in the lumber-loft above the bedroom,
+contributed infantile “thrills” and memories.
+
+A gay-hearted, courageous, popular man was her father, Lieutenant
+Lagerlöf, retired from the army but entertaining former associates in
+his home and recounting, for his daughter’s education, tales of earlier
+history of Sweden and his family. The germ-idea of Gösta Berling,
+hero of her first romance, came after a reminiscence that her father
+had told her one morning after breakfast, his memory of “the most
+fascinating of men,” one who could sing, write poetry, dance so that
+all feet moved in unison, and could bend everyone’s will to his own
+mood--and yet one who lacked certain qualities of manly strength. The
+mother of Selma Lagerlöf came from two generations of ministers; she
+was quiet, practical, intuitive, a fine administrator of her large
+household and frequent guests. Aunt Lovisa gave a touch of romance to
+the family circle by a sad chapter in her past that is recounted in
+“The Bridal Crown,” the tragic result (according to legend) of the
+substitution of whortleberry for myrtle in the wreath for the bride’s
+hair. The nurse, Back-Kaisa, large and stern yet devoted to the family,
+was another interesting character at Mårbacka; from the old housekeeper
+and the grandmother the children learned stories, sagas, and bits of
+family histories.
+
+When Selma Lagerlöf was three and a half years old, after bathing in
+a fresh-water pond with her father, she developed a form of infantile
+paralysis. Months of inactivity followed; some lasting results of
+this disease have been handicaps of the author throughout her life.
+With humor and realistic portrayal of a child’s point of view of this
+period, she tells in _Mårbacka_, the chapter “Grand Company,” how
+she increased in social importance in the family, having exclusive
+attention of the grim nurse, and dainties to eat in place of the usual
+food, much to the jealous disgust of her brother and sister. A sojourn
+at Stromstead by the sea brought new vigor and recovery of motion to
+the little girl; with amazement to herself and her family she walked to
+investigate a brilliant, stuffed “bird of paradise.” The sprightly zest
+in living, which characterizes the author’s personality, is reflected
+in all her books. Animals as pets, poultry of the farmyard, and birds
+and flowers are vital factors in her earlier and later tales.
+
+Among important influences of her childhood was the singing of Bellman
+Ballads, with their humor, pathos, and haunting music. One day when
+Miss Lagerlöf had won a place among twenty-five chosen candidates at
+Teachers’ College in Stockholm, and had been listening to a lecture
+about Bellman and Runeberg and their ballads, she had her “flash of
+inspiration.” She determined to tell stories about her own Varmland;
+she would become narrator of her “Cavaliers” and would incorporate
+into her tales the legends, folklore and real characters of the home
+district. She had cherished ambitions to write verse and even plays,
+from the days when, as a young girl, she visited her uncle in Stockholm
+and went to the theatre with the old housekeeper, becoming impressed
+by peasant plays and scenes from Nosselt’s _History_. She had lain
+awake at night, composing rhymes and neglecting the sleep which would
+have fitted her for the tasks of the next day in “composition and
+arithmetic.”[68]
+
+After graduation she taught at Landskrona, in the province of Skåne,
+always hoping to find time to write, always meeting disappointments
+because of the demands of the classroom, often telling orally some of
+her tales to her pupils after school hours, always returning to her old
+home, Mårbacka, in vacations and gaining new impetus for her literary
+aspirations. Her first chapter of _The Story of Gösta Berling_ was
+composed on a Christmas holiday evening when she, with members of her
+family, was returning from a party at a distant neighbor’s house. A
+blizzard was raging and she sat in the sleigh, covered with furs, while
+the old horse, urged by the aged coachman, tried to plough through the
+drifts, in defiance of the wild winds. In her mind was formulated that
+chapter of the Christmas night at the smithy, which is an arresting
+episode in the complete novel. She made first a metrical version;
+then she tried it in dramatic form and, finally, wrote it as a short
+story. Later she wrote other episodes--that of the flood at Ekeby and
+another of the ball. In 1890, at the urgence of her sister, she sent
+some of these episodic stories to a prize competition, offered by the
+magazine, _Idun_, for the best novelette of one hundred pages. A few
+weeks later the journal announced that some of the manuscripts were “so
+confusedly written that they could not be considered for the prize”;
+Miss Lagerlöf was sure that hers was among this rejected class. Then
+came a telegram, signed by three classmates, with the words, “Hearty
+Congratulations.”
+
+The editor offered to publish the novel, in expanded form, if Miss
+Lagerlöf could have it ready in a short time. Again, she was in despair
+when a friend, Baroness Aldersparre, arranged financial matters so that
+the teacher could be given a year’s leave of absence--and “the miracle
+happened.” When she had completed this initial story, combining Swedish
+legend, history of the days of the Cavaliers and the pensioners and
+the old forges, with humor and delicate idealism, she was dissatisfied
+because it seemed to her “wild and disjointed.” There are passages
+where the sentences are detached, places where the links in her chain
+of plot are weak. In structure she has gained skill, as is evident
+by a comparison of her earlier fiction with such masterworks as the
+first part of _Jerusalem_ and _The Emperor of Portugallia_. With this
+improved technic, she has kept her spontaneity, her vital realism and
+intuition, her spiritual insight. After the publication of one of her
+novels, the _London Times_ said, with true emphasis upon her unusual
+combination of qualities: “She is an idealist pure and simple in a
+world given over to realism, yet such is the perfection of her style
+and the witchery of her fancy that a generation of realists worship
+her.” An optimism which defies apparent failures, akin to that of
+Browning, brings about the redemption of her characters from Gösta
+Berling, drunken poet-preacher and fascinating vagabond, and flighty
+Marianne Sinclair to Lilliecrona, the restless violinist, and Glory
+Golden Sunnycastle, heroine of _The Emperor of Portugallia_.
+
+Mrs. Velma Swanston Howard said, in a recent interview with the writer
+of this book, that Miss Lagerlöf, like her translator, considers this
+story of Jan, who calls himself “The Emperor of Portugallia,” and his
+daughter, Glory, as her best work in fiction. Thousands of readers will
+echo the preference. To the incisive, ruthless realism in this tale she
+has added sympathy that grips the heart, poetic setting and sagas, and
+a message that is more impressive because it is dramatic rather than
+sermonic. The threads of this story are seldom tangled; the pattern
+stands out with distinctness and artistry.
+
+_Invisible Links_, a collection of short stories, was published in
+1894, with peasants, fisherfolk, children, and animals all “linked”
+in interrelations of spirit; Miss Lagerlöf then received a yearly
+stipend for her services to literature, through the friendly interest
+of the Swedish Academy and King Oscar and his son, Prince Eugen. With
+a friend she went to Italy and Sicily, gaining impressions that bore
+harvest in _Miracles of Antichrist_, issued in 1897 and translated
+into English two years later by Pauline Bancroft Flach, who had done
+the same service for _The Story of Gösta Berling_ and _Invisible
+Links_. Mingling traditions and poetry of old Sicily with reactions
+to modern socialism and its effects upon established religion, Miss
+Lagerlöf wrote with deep fervor and colorful imagination. The slight
+plot is evolved about the ruse of the Englishwoman who coveted an image
+of Christ as a child, in a church in Rome, and substituted an image,
+seemingly the same but with the legend upon the crown, “My Kingdom
+is only of this World.” By a miracle, a few weeks later, the false
+image is cast down and the true Christchild stands in the doorway. The
+Antichrist is taken away to Sicily where miracles of helpfulness are
+recorded by its agnostic followers. Miss Lagerlöf seeks to preach,
+through the words of the Pope to Father Gondo, the ideal of unity
+between Christianity and antichristianity: “You could take the great
+popular movement in your arms, while it is still lying like a child
+in its swaddling clothes, and you could bear it to Jesus’ feet; and
+Antichrist would see that he is nothing but an imitation of Christ, and
+would acknowledge him his Lord and Master.”[69]
+
+_From a Swedish Homestead_, which was published in 1899, contains the
+strong, mystical novelette, “The Story of a Country House.” A student
+at Upsala University loses his reason as a result of seeing his flock
+of sheep frozen to death in a storm when, by his forethought, the
+tragedy might have been averted. Known as “The Goat,” he wanders about
+the countryside, selling toys and trinkets, until his redemption and
+sanity are achieved through his love for a girl of noble character.
+Among the other short tales in this same volume is “Santa Catarina
+of Siena,” a reflection of the Italian trip, and “The Emperor’s
+Money Chest,” which is allegorical yet photographic of Belgium in an
+industrial crisis.
+
+Two other books preceded the award of the Nobel prize--_Jerusalem_
+and _The Wonderful Adventures of Nils_, with its sequel. In 1899,
+the Swedish government gave to Miss Lagerlöf a commission to go to
+Palestine. She was to report, on her return, upon conditions which she
+might discover there in the Swedish colony which had migrated from Nås,
+a parish of Dalecarlia, a few years previously. Urged by promoters
+of missionary enterprise, among them Mrs. Edward Gordon of Chicago,
+scores of peasants and householders had sold their homesteads and left
+their families to join this colony in the Holy Land. Rumors had come to
+Sweden of direful conditions there--of disease and hunger, of depleted
+morale and bickerings among colonists and missionaries. “Jerusalem
+kills!” became a common phrase of the day. Miss Lagerlöf undertook
+investigation and made a report on existent evils and exaggerated
+rumors. She accomplished a far more important work for literature than
+this report. She gathered material for one of her most emotional,
+graphic books, _Jerusalem_. Against the background of facts, both in
+Dalecarlia and Palestine, she wove a story of intense feeling, with
+folklore, psychological insight, and characterization of a fine type.
+The portrayals of the Ingmarsson family and the women, Brita, Karin,
+and Gertrude, whose fates were interlinked with those of the later
+generation of the ancestral family of Dalecarlia, are vivid.
+
+Humor relieves the tragic intensity of this book, so well rendered
+into English by Mrs. Howard who has, says Mr. Henry Goddard Leach in
+the Introduction, been able “to reproduce the original in essence as
+well as verisimilitude.” An example of the descriptive style of this
+story of Swedish life under religious tension is found in the opening
+sentences of the chapter, “The Departure of the Pilgrims” of Part
+I.[70] “One beautiful morning in July, a long train of cars and wagons
+set out from the Ingmar Farm. The Hellgumists had at last completed
+their arrangements, and were now leaving for Jerusalem--the first stage
+of the journey being the long drive to the railway station.
+
+“The procession, in moving towards the village, had to pass a wretched
+hovel which was called Mucklemire. The people who lived there were a
+disreputable lot--the kind of scum of the earth which must have sprung
+into being when our Lord’s eyes were turned, or when he had been too
+busy elsewhere.
+
+“There was a whole horde of dirty, ragged youngsters on the place, who
+were in the habit of running loose all day, shrieking after passing
+vehicles, and calling the occupants bad names; there was an old crone
+who usually sat by the roadside, tipsy; and there were a husband and
+wife who were always quarrelling and fighting, and who had never been
+known to do any honest work. No one could say whether they begged more
+than they stole, or stole more than they begged.
+
+“When the Jerusalem-farers came alongside this wretched hovel, which
+was about as tumbledown as a place can become when wind and storm
+have, for many years, been allowed to work havoc, they saw the old
+crone standing erect and sober at the roadside, on the same spot where
+she usually sat in a drunken stupor ... and with her were four of the
+children. All five were now washed and combed, and as decently dressed
+as it was possible for them to be....
+
+“All the Jerusalem-farers suddenly burst into tears, the grown-ups
+crying softly, while the children broke into loud sobs and wails....
+When they had all passed by, Beggar Lina also began to weep.
+
+“‘Those people are going to Heaven to meet Jesus,’ she told the
+children. ‘All those people are going to Heaven, but we are left
+standing by the wayside.’”
+
+Another literary outcome of the visit of Miss Lagerlöf to Palestine
+was a renewed interest in legends about Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
+Always deeply religious, with an unusual ability to blend worship with
+tradition and never lose the distinctive flavor of each element, she
+wrote the tales that were collected as _Christ Legends_, translated
+by Mrs. Howard in 1908. Here are new, impressive versions of such old
+myths as “The Wise Men’s Well,” “Saint Veronica’s Kerchief,” and “Robin
+Redbreast.”
+
+The Swedish school authorities wished for a good geography which should
+be popular with the children and satisfy the teachers. The National
+Teachers’ Association appealed to Miss Lagerlöf for such a book and the
+results were _The Wonderful Adventures of Nils_ and _Further Adventures
+of Nils_, appearing in 1906 and 1907. These books, so widely read in
+schools and homes in every civilized country to-day, are worthy a place
+on the shelves beside _Alice in Wonderland_ of the past and _Doctor
+Doolittle_ of the present type of juveniles. The boy, Nils Holgersson,
+and his “goosey-gander,” with companions on the earth and in the air,
+appeal to the imagination of all ages, while the information about
+Sweden’s outlines and landmarks is both accurate and entertaining.
+
+Such had been the literary output of Miss Lagerlöf before she was
+chosen for the Nobel winner of 1909. Already she had been given a gold
+medal for her work by the Swedish Academy and the degree of LL.D. by
+the University of Upsala. Five years after the award she was elected
+to membership in the Swedish Academy, “the eighteen immortals”--the
+first woman to be thus honored. When the prize was given to her, with
+a grand fête at Stockholm, she was the guest of honor at a banquet at
+the Grand Hotel, given by King Gustav V. Her acceptance was in the form
+of a unique speech, a story, briefly told, of her summons to her father
+to aid her in saying the right words, this father who, long dead, had
+been her inspiration for her first work in literature and her spiritual
+guide in many crises. Wistful beauty and delicate humor were blended in
+the closing words:[71] “Father sits and ponders a while; then he wipes
+away the tears of joy, shakes himself, and strikes his fist on the arm
+of the chair. ‘I don’t care to sit here any longer and muse on things
+which no one, either in heaven or on earth, can answer!’ he says.
+‘If you have received the Nobel Prize, I shan’t trouble myself about
+anything but to be happy.’
+
+“Your Royal Highness--Ladies and Gentlemen--since I got no better
+answer to all my queries, it only remains for me to ask you to join
+me in a toast of gratitude, which I have the honour to propose to the
+Swedish Academy.”
+
+Miss Lagerlöf was fifty-one years old when this honor came to her; in
+the years since then she has exemplified, in spoken and written words,
+“the noble idealism, the wealth of imagination, the soulful quality
+of her style.” Her speech, in 1911, when the International Suffrage
+Congress was held in Stockholm, was widely read and translated. In
+this, as in so many of her stories, she stressed the idea of home and
+its influence throughout every avenue of betterment in the world. This
+year marked, also, the publication of _Lilliecrona’s Home_, translated
+in English three years later by Anna Barwell. The setting was Varmland
+and the hero’s home, Lövdalla, closely resembles the home of the
+author, Mårbacka. This is, perhaps, the most poetic and mystical of
+all her stories. The violinist who found in “music and music alone his
+home, his place of rest,” is a haunting character, sharing many traits
+with Gösta Berling. His life-passage is turbulent, often dramatic,
+sometimes melancholy, ending in a happy romance for him and Maia Lisa,
+the pastor’s daughter. There are scenes of emotional vigor, like “The
+Bride’s Dance” and “The Accusation.” These are comparable to the more
+familiar chapters in _The Story of Gösta Berling_, like that where
+the autocratic Mistress of Ekeby is driven forth by her pensioners
+because they discover that she has vowed a soul each year to the devil
+(in expiation for her secret sin) or the redemptive power of Countess
+Elizabeth in reclaiming Gösta’s manhood. Beautiful descriptions of
+apple orchards in bloom are found in the later book, interwoven with
+romantic legends like the excitement for the pastor’s daughter when
+young Lilliecrona comes forward in her dream and offers her water
+“after the magic pancake,” a sure prophecy that he will be her husband.
+
+Against the same background of her girlhood home is placed the later,
+strong story of _The Emperor of Portugallia_. This is less episodic
+and more unified than some of her other fiction. Jan, the dull,
+plodding man with no zest in life until he holds in his arms his little
+daughter, whom he calls Glory Goldie Sunnycastle, is a vital character;
+we share his pride in the beauty and charm of Glory, his faith in her
+even when rumors would smirch her moral character, not without basis,
+as she goes out into the world to save the home for Jan and his wife,
+Katrina, his final act of self-sacrifice when, with clouded mind but
+spiritual vision, he would save her from the demons of “Pride and
+Hardness, Lust and Vice.” This story has been well called in France “an
+epic of fatherhood--a Swedish _Père Goriot_.”
+
+In 1922 appeared in the United States _The Outcast_, the English
+version of _Bannlyst_, as its title was in Swedish when it was
+published in 1918. The World War entered as a motif in the latter part
+of the story, sometimes with strained effects. As a work of artistic
+fiction it seems inferior to _The Story of Gösta Berling_ or _The
+Emperor of Portugallia_. It has virility however, and much intensity
+of feeling. Although she lived in a neutral country Miss Lagerlöf was
+deeply stirred by the war and the terrible sacrifices of life. She
+resented all evidences of brutal humanity. The sacredness of human
+life forms her keynote in _The Outcast_. Sven Elversson, who had lived
+through a fearful experience upon an Arctic expedition and had been
+accused of eating human flesh in an hour of imminent famine, returns
+to his mother and his home to find himself denounced by the villagers
+and even by the minister. To save his mother from further torture of
+spirit, after he has tried in vain to overcome the prejudice of the
+people by his charity and Christlike deeds, he goes away to the woods
+of the Far North. Here he wanders, and is called “The Outcast,” until
+he meets the beautiful wife of the bigoted minister who had preached
+against Sven, the man who, in unfounded jealousy, had cast off his
+wife. The love scenes in this book are elemental in their simplicity,
+yet have poetic touches. Then comes the Battle of Jutland and the
+frightful scenes when the bodies of the dead are washed upon the shores
+of his home town. Sven returns and organizes a group of men to bury
+the dead; in the pocket of one of the victims is found a letter which
+exonerates Sven from the false charge of cannibalism. It is a daring,
+grotesque tale in parts, with local color and superstition interwoven
+with good character-drawing and a dominant message of faith.
+
+An early folk story which has been recently translated by Arthur
+G. Chater, is entitled _The Treasure_. It is slight in volume and
+literary value compared with such major books as _Jerusalem_ and _The
+Emperor of Portugallia_. It has features of the spectacular with
+restrained dramatic power. It lends itself to scenario effects because
+of the pictorial background and the brilliant contrasts in characters
+and sentiments. In Sweden of the sixteenth century, in the days of
+Frederick II of Denmark (who was also ruler of Sweden), occurred this
+legendary tale. It mingles the sea, with its galleys and its wild
+storms, with the parsonage and the hidden treasure chest which was
+looted. All the family had been murdered by these mysterious robbers
+except a foster child, Elsalill. The supernatural element is used with
+fine effects; this girl is haunted by the ghost and messages from her
+foster sister who was killed. Elsalill is in anguish of spirit because
+she loves the bold, persuasive, and richly apparelled Sir Archer,
+although she finds that he is one of the robber-murderers. How her body
+becomes his shield from the sheriff, even to her death and his escape,
+forms the romantic climax of this tale.
+
+Miss Lagerlöf’s early ambition to become a dramatist has never wholly
+died; she has written a few plays that have been staged with success
+in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Among these has been a dramatization
+of _The Girl from the Marshcroft_; this story has been shown as a film
+in many places in America as well as abroad. The setting in rural
+picturesqueness, with tragic and romantic notes mingled, affords
+dramatic opportunities. Mrs. Howard says that _The Story of Gösta
+Berling_ has been shown at the cinema in Sweden and elsewhere in
+Europe. “Will Miss Lagerlöf ever come to the United States?” we ask her
+friend and translator. The reply is a probable negative. She is deeply
+interested in America and reads many books by our authors, especially
+those of mystical or informing trend. She had an uncle who lived in
+Seattle and, on the walls of her dining-room, are found landscapes
+of Western America. She is not very strong, although never lacking
+in energy of mind and purpose. The freedom and vivacity of American
+women impress her as she receives many visitors, either at her summer
+home at Mårbacka or in the winter at Falun, close to the scenes of the
+first part of _Jerusalem_. She reads six languages with ease and is
+conversant with the major interests of every country. She has a keen
+humor and rare graciousness.
+
+Miss Lagerlöf is intensely racial and national in her literary
+reflections; she is international in her sympathies and insight into
+problems of life. Love of home is one of the primal qualities of her
+personality and writing. She has applied her creed of “keeping the
+imagination young” by never losing her own delight in sagas, hero
+tales, and “belief in fairies” that will enhearten and redeem humanity.
+Edwin Björkman, in _Voices of Tomorrow_, has stressed her ability
+and courage “to dream and feel and aspire.” Her literary work varies
+in excellence; sometimes it is weak in structure and ineffective in
+artistry; in other and major portions she has clothed the commonplace
+incidents of life with original, new vitality and revealed their
+meanings with imaginative beauty. Her characters and settings are
+racial but her impulses and messages are universal, unconfined by land
+or age.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[67] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1909.
+
+[68] _Selma Lagerlöf; The Woman, Her Work, Her Message_ by Harry E.
+Maule, Garden City, N. Y., 1917. By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.
+
+[69] _Miracles of Antichrist_ by Selma Lagerlöf, translated by Pauline
+Bancroft Flach, Garden City, N. Y., 1899. By permission of Doubleday,
+Page & Co.
+
+[70] _Jerusalem_ by Selma Lagerlöf, translated by Velma Swanston
+Howard, Garden City, N. Y., 1916. By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.
+
+[71] _Selma Lagerlöf: The Woman, Her Work, Her Message_ by Harry E.
+Maule, Garden City, N. Y., 1917. By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+PAUL HEYSE (1910)--GERHART HAUPTMANN (1912)
+
+
+  The prize of 1910 has been awarded:
+
+  Heyse, Paul, born 1830, died April 2, 1914: “as a mark of esteem of
+  an artistry, finished and marked by an ideal conception, which he has
+  shown during a long and significant activity as lyric dramatist, and
+  as an author of romances and famous short stories.”[72]
+
+Two German scholars had been winners of the Nobel prize in literature
+in 1904 and 1908--Theodor Mommsen and Rudolf Eucken. Two more
+distinguished authors with international reputations were added in 1910
+and 1912, making four awards to German literature within eight years.
+Paul Heyse, the versatile author of the year 1910 has been difficult
+to classify, because he is dramatist, poet, novelist, and writer of a
+form of short story known as the _Novelle_. More than one hundred and
+fifty of these tales are accredited to him, in addition to prodigious
+industry in other literary forms. The _Novelle_ bears some resemblance
+to the short stories of Hoffmann, Tieck, Alfred de Musset, and the
+American masters of this type, Poe, Hawthorne, and O. Henry. In more
+definite method than some of these _conteurs_, Heyse developed a
+principle which he applied and explained, in part, in his Introduction
+to his _Deutscher Novellenschatz_; he stresses the fact that the
+essential foundation of this form is “what children call the story” but
+he adds, “A strong silhouette should not be lacking.” The “silhouette
+will be a brief summary of conditions which underlie the focal scene
+or incident.” Thus Heyse became creator, or developer, of this form of
+fiction, with a wide range of incidents and characters, in which keen
+observation of life and faithful recital were blended with idealism of
+a distinctive motive--that of “glorifying nature,” human and inanimate.
+
+Johann Ludwig Paul Heyse was born in Berlin, March 15, 1830; he was
+eighty years old when the Nobel honor was received. His father, Karl
+Ludwig Heyse, with a firm, Teutonic nature, was a famous philologist
+and professor at the University of Berlin. His mother came from a
+Jewish family of wealth and social rank. In his _Memoirs_, her son
+recalls her as “passionate and imaginative”; from her he inherited his
+bent toward story-telling and delight in the sensuous which mingled
+with the rationalistic trend of mind, bequeathed by his father. In
+the home of the Heyses gathered scholars, authors, and artists. The
+atmosphere fostered the natural precocity of the boy, Paul. One
+of his older friends was Kugler, the historian of art, who had an
+inspirational influence upon the youth; in manhood, Heyse married the
+gifted daughter of this friend.
+
+At the University of Bonn, where Heyse went from Berlin, he showed
+much interest in Romance languages. He was fascinated with Spanish,
+especially the writings of Cervantes and Calderon. In 1849, and again
+in 1852, he traveled in Italy, adding Dante, Boccaccio, and Leopardi
+to his list of literary heroes. The homes of artists were open to him
+and he found Italy an ideal land of “colour and grace.” Shakespeare
+received his tribute throughout his literary life. He began to write
+dramas and lyric poems, tales in verse and prose with youthful zest and
+marks of great promise. In 1854, King Max of Bavaria offered to him a
+position at the Court of Munich, at a salary of 1500 florins. Munich
+was an environment sure to awaken his talent and satisfy his love of
+beauty. Under Louis I it had been favored with some fine buildings; an
+atmosphere of culture was pervasive. Among the poets and scholars, with
+whom Heyse became associated here, were Geibel, Bodenstedt, Wilbrandt,
+Luogg, and Schack, the historian. In 1868, when Louis II, successor to
+King Max, insulted Geibel, the poet, and caused him to leave the city,
+Heyse was depressed although he stayed in Munich, living in a charming
+villa there until his death in 1914.
+
+From the early years of his authorship, Heyse showed an aristocratic
+culture which did not dim his interest in fisherfolk, peasants, and
+rural characters. Although family sorrows came upon him, and he
+suffered, from 1880 to 1900, from attacks by the ardent followers
+of Zola and Ibsen, yet he never lost his serenity of character and
+his belief in individualistic expression. “Instinct” was his guide,
+as he has exemplified in scores of his tales and dramas. The “child
+of nature,” or the man or woman of inherent nobility, was incapable
+of any low or mean action according to his belief. In _Salamander_,
+which Mr. Georg Brandes regards as his best _Novelle_ in versified
+form,[73] he expresses his creed of the vigorous life, of allegiance to
+nature, in spite of failings and adverse judgments against him by the
+“naturalistic school”:
+
+    I never yet of virtue or of failing
+    Have been ashamed, nor proudly did adorn
+    Myself of one, nor thought my sins of veiling.
+
+    Beyond all else, betwixt the nobly born
+    And vulgar herd, this marks the separation,--
+    The cowards whose hypocrisy we scorn.
+
+    Him I call noble, who, with moderation,
+    Carves his own honor, and but little heeds
+    His neighbors’ slander or their approbation.[74]
+
+Another character, familiar to readers of Heyse, Toinette of _Kinder
+der Welt_ (_Children of the World_) speaks words of similar trend often
+quoted; “There is but _one_ genuine nobility; to remain true to one’s
+self.... He who bears within himself the true rank, lives and dies
+through his own grace, and is, therefore, sovereign.”
+
+To Italy, Heyse turns for sensuous delights in many of his tales.
+_L’Arrabiata_, probably the best known of any of his _Novellen_ by
+students of German in colleges and classes, written when he was
+twenty-three, has an interesting history.[75] Paul Heyse as a young
+man, and his friend, Joseph Victor Scheffel, were at an inn at
+Sorrento. They had been together at Capri and had planned to hold a
+“literary joust,” to read to each other, at Sorrento, some new tale or
+poem. Scheffel contributed the poem, _Der Trumpeter von Gättingen_;
+Heyse read _L’Arrabiata_. Piquant is this tale of the maiden’s love
+for Antonio, the boatman, and her maidenly pride and resistance to his
+love until the injury to his arm and his plea to her, in memory of her
+mother, brings about a romantic sequel. Twenty-five years later Heyse
+was again at Sorrento; he sent a greeting, in rhyme, to this friend of
+earlier days and later life. He told him that he had seen again his
+model, “Laurella,” on the street but she did not recognize him; she was
+far removed from the “madcap” of fifteen, the “cross-patch,” with her
+youthful charm and wistful appeal. The background of this tale, against
+Naples and Vesuvius, is painted with that vivid photography which
+characterizes Heyse’s scenes in drama and fiction. Unlike Balzac or
+Turgenieff, he wrote few words of description but “created atmosphere”
+that was alive. Striking examples are the familiar tales, “Barbarossa,”
+“At the Ghost Hour” and “The Dead Lake.”
+
+In the later _Novellen_, as well as the novels and plays of other
+years, Heyse showed tendencies towards realism and less romanticism.
+On the other hand, he never lost his urge for sensuous beauty, his
+determination “to follow one’s bent” (“sich gehen zu lassen”). He
+would not compel himself to irksome writing; he would yield to
+impulse and mood. “The real sin is against nature” was his keynote,
+reiterated from the short tale of “Reise nach dem Glück” (“Journey
+After Happiness”) to the longer novels, _Kinder der Welt_ (_Children
+of the World_) and _Im Paradiese_ (_In Paradise_). In philosophy he
+has been called both fatalistic and epicurean. The conflicts between
+restraint and self-surrender, especially in women, are germ-ideas
+in such diverse writings as _L’Arrabiata_, _The Sabine Women_ (with
+the heroine, Tullia) and _In Paradise_, with the forceful character
+of Irene. In the dialogue, in _Children of the World_, between
+Balder, the invalid-idealist and Franzel, the socialist-printer, the
+author’s convictions are unfolded. Balder declares that life is full
+of enjoyment to him, in spite of outward sufferings, because “he can
+experience past and future,” because he can “conjure up” all the
+periods of his life and find a totality, a completeness of enjoyment.
+So the young baron in the novel, _In Paradise_, which has been
+vehemently discussed for two generations, sins against his own nature
+and his friend and, for a time, his “inner harmony” is destroyed but
+after sufferings, portrayed with analytical skill, harmony is restored.
+The city of Munich, in its varied aspects as related to society and
+the arts, forms the “chorus” and subtle influence in this dramatic
+story.[76]
+
+Heyse has written more than sixty dramas yet too few of them are
+translated adequately into English; too often they have failed in stage
+presentation. Many are historical; _The Sabine Women_ is erotic and
+less consistent in development than _Hans Lange_, _Hadrian Colberg_,
+and _Mary of Magdala_; the last play has been translated by William
+Winter and by Lionel Vale. The old philologist, Zipfel, in _Colberg_,
+may have been modeled, in part, from Heyse’s father. His speech,
+relating the story of Leonidas and the Persian War, reaches a climax
+of courage and self-sacrifice, with an application to later days of
+struggle between the French and Germans. In Henning, the old servant in
+_Hans Lange_, the author emphasizes his belief in the redemptive power
+of nobler nature, in spite of incentives to revenge against the young
+squire.
+
+There is unevenness of workmanship among the many _Novellen_. _Felice_,
+the tale of the peasant girl who “listened to reason rather than the
+call of passion,” is a vital expression of the author’s creed of
+obedience to “impulse of the heart.” The later tales are more keen
+and realistic than the photographic, romantic scenes laid in Italy
+and Southern Germany. Heyse became more of an analyst of all kinds of
+humanity, with their conflicting “impulses,” but he never acquiesced
+in the scenes of squalor and moral slime that delighted some of his
+contemporaries of the “naturalistic school.” By contrast, he was an
+idealist with a strong vein of poetry. One of his best stories of
+later period, _The Last Centaur_, expresses his revolt against the
+materialistic spirit of his age. The creature who represents the age
+of myths and imagination is driven back into the wood by the evil
+ways and heartless gibes of the modern villages; in turn, he scorns
+their opposition with “an exhalted humor.” It seems almost a modern
+version of the old tale of _Baucis and Philemon_. In another tale, _The
+Incurable_, the hero keeps faith in the ideal, in spite of the “rabble
+in kid gloves.” _Die Blinden_ (_The Blind_) is an appealing story, with
+colorful pictures of garden and ravens and flocks, and two children,
+Clement and Marlene, waiting with tense emotion for the doctors to
+restore their sight. The stern father, obsessed with his idea of
+“duty,” is a strong character. “Nils mit der offenen Hand” is a fairy
+tale that defies adequate translation into English but has situations
+of dramatic skill, notably that of the gulls biting the rope at the
+execution of Nils, and the brave deed of Stina, the princess who loves
+Nils.
+
+Heyse was more successful in portraying women than men. He was long
+called “the favorite of maidens.” He had insight to see fairly and to
+balance well the traits of normal maidenhood--beauty, coyness, love
+of prowess and adventure, ardent but concealed love until the lover
+came to whom she would yield her “maidenly pride” (“Mädschenstoltz”).
+There are traces of the influence of Goethe in certain passages in
+_Kinder der Welt_, and such _Novellen_ as _The Broiderer of Treviso_,
+_The Prodigal Son_, and _The Spell of Rothenburg_. In the last story,
+there are comments upon art, interwoven with humor and irony as the
+characters journey from Ausbach to Würzburg. Originality, however,
+marks his drama and his fiction--that “ideal conception and fine
+literary craftsmanship” which won for him the Nobel inscription.
+
+Mr. Georg Brandes believes that Heyse was, primarily, a pupil of
+Eichendorf, as his poetry indicates.[77] The poems by Heyse are less
+familiar than his prose, although he wrote both epics and lyrics.
+“Salamander” ranks among his best long poems; “The Fury” and “The
+Fairy Child” are examples of his lyrics. He delighted to translate--or
+transpose--troubadour lays, folk songs from the Spanish and the
+Italian. Like Mendelssohn, to whom he has been compared in temperament,
+he lacked dynamic force but he was sensitive, artistic, and idealistic
+in his basic character.
+
+
+GERHART HAUPTMANN (1912)
+
+  The prize of 1912 has been awarded:
+
+  Hauptmann, Gerhart, born 1862: “principally for his rich, versatile,
+  and prominent activity in the realm of the drama.”[78]
+
+During the quarter century since the first Nobel prize was awarded,
+it has happened, at intervals, that two representatives of the same
+nation but different generations, are found on the lists in literature.
+Thus Björnson and Hamsun, among Norwegian novelists, Echegaray
+and Benavente in Spanish Drama, and Heyse and Hauptmann in German
+literature of the imagination, are exponents of succeeding generations
+of thought and expression. Heyse stood for the older, more poetic
+and romantic forms; he decreed a philosophy of nobleness in man and
+contentment in life. Gerhart Hauptmann, who received the prize only two
+years later than Heyse, in 1912, was ranked by some critics with the
+realists of the modern, restless type, whose criticism of society in
+general was world-disturbing. After 1900 the fame of Heyse had declined
+among the younger, more progressive writers. His award, at eighty
+years, revived interest in his writings, especially the _Novellen_;
+translations and articles about his personality were widely printed in
+current journals.
+
+One of the authors whom Heyse had censured for his naturalism and
+depressing dramas had been Gerhart Hauptmann. When the announcement
+was made that the prize of 1912 was again given to a German novelist
+and playwright, racial pride ran high but critics of other countries
+asked, “How could idealism be perverted in meaning so that it would
+apply to the author of _Before Dawn_, _Lonely Lives_, _The Weavers_
+and _Michael Kramer_?” Unfairly, the name of Hauptmann was linked
+constantly with that of Sudermann by the most bitter malcontents with
+this award. Such an attitude was biassed and unjust. That Hauptmann has
+written some of the most photographic, haunting dramas of industrial
+strife and social vices is true; but it is as true that he has produced
+two, possibly three, of the really poetic, symbolic plays in modern
+German literature--_The Assumption of Hannele_, _The Sunken Bell_, and
+_Parsival_.
+
+[Illustration: _From an original etching by Hermann Struck. Reproduced
+by permission of the artist and courtesy of the New York Public Library_
+
+GERHART HAUPTMANN]
+
+There are two distinctive, but not wholly contradictory, personalities
+in Hauptmann as he reveals himself to his readers. It was as author
+of _The Sunken Bell_, especially, that he was chosen for the Nobel
+prize; it had certain autobiographical suggestions of this conflict
+between the material and the spiritual in the nature of its author.
+Recognizing that he is often associated with Sudermann, the brilliant,
+relentless novelist and dramatist, it is interesting to find these two
+writers well differentiated by Otto Heller in _Studies in Modern German
+Literature_ (Boston, 1905). He compares the nervous, sensitive mind of
+Hauptmann, “possessed of a reproductive, feminine talent,” in contrast
+with the masculine personality of Sudermann, less subtle, more virile
+and coarse, with broader knowledge of life but lacking the intuitive
+perceptions of Hauptmann. One may question some of these adjectives
+used by Mr. Heller, but the general contrast is well phrased,
+especially as applied to the poetic dramas by Hauptmann, like _The
+Sunken Bell_, _And Pippa Dances_, and _Parsival_.
+
+Before Hauptmann conceived any of this work that entitles him to rank
+among the idealists, he had written grim tragedies, similar in trend to
+those by Ibsen, Zola, Tolstoy, Max Nordau, and Arno Holz. As realist
+he has been censured as weak in plots and sometimes strained in his
+social tenets: there are such defects in _The Beaver Coat_, _Rose
+Bernd_, and _The Conflagration_. That he had a poetic instinct, a true
+lyric quality, was acknowledged from occasional lines in such gloomy
+plays as _Lonely Lives_, _Colleague Crampton_, and _The Weavers_. Among
+the plays of industrial upheaval and suffering, _The Weavers_ has
+tense feeling, with lines of irony and suppressed aspirations. It was
+dedicated to Robert Hauptmann, father of the author, in affectionate
+words that express the source of its inspiration and the allegiance
+of Gerhart Hauptmann to his forefathers: “You, dear father, know what
+feelings lead me to dedicate this work to you, and I am not called upon
+to analyze them here. Your stories of my grandfather, who in his young
+days sat at the loom, a poor weaver like those here depicted, contained
+the germ of my drama. Whether it possesses the vigor of life or is
+rotten at the core, it is the best ‘so poor a man as Hamlet is,’ can
+offer.”
+
+While this grandfather had been a poor weaver, he met with better
+fortunes in later life, and the father of Gerhart Hauptmann was owner
+of three hotels. The boy was born at Salzbrunn, a seaside town in
+Silesia, in 1862; thus he was thirty-two years younger than Heyse--a
+full generation in time and standards of literature. His mother was
+“one of the people.” The boy was inclined to study sculpture and he
+was sent to art schools in Breslau, Jena, and in Italy. He was a slow
+pupil; his brother, Carl, seemed almost the only person who expressed
+faith in his gifts or future success. With his art studies he combined
+agriculture and history. After a brief apprenticeship as modeler, he
+decided that he would be an actor; he had a lisp that interfered with
+the continuance of this histrionic hope. He married a woman of wealth
+and moved to Berlin, in 1885, where he became identified with “The Free
+Stage” movement and began to write plays. Byron had been one of his
+earlier literary heroes; in _The Fate of the Children of Prometheus_,
+he recorded some impressions of travel along the same route as _Childe
+Harold’s Pilgrimage_.
+
+In 1889 “The Free Stage Society” was formed in Berlin; it was, in a
+way, “an imitation of Antoine’s Free Theatre, organized two years
+before,” says Barrett H. Clark in _A Study of the Modern Drama_.[79]
+Among the founders were Otto Brahm, Maximilian Harden, Theodor Wolff
+and others who wished to produce plays of varied types, especially
+the work of naturalistic writers. Hauptmann came under the influences
+of Bruno Wille, the socialist, and Arno Holz, the dramatist; certain
+reactions from this companionship of minds may be traced in his plays
+_Before Dawn_, _Colleague Crampton_, and _Florian Geyer_. Brahm was the
+director of this Free Stage Society which, in 1894, after fulfilling
+its mission for Germany, was merged into the Deutsches Theatre. Among
+the plays by Hauptmann written under this stimulus, in addition to the
+three mentioned above, were _The Festival of Peace_, _Lonely Lives_,
+_The Weavers_, _The Beaver Coat_, and _The Assumption of Hannele_.
+_Before Dawn_, written in the Silesian mountains and staged in Berlin,
+in 1889, was a haunting tragedy with loose construction. The ribald
+father and his low associates, and the daughter, who kills herself to
+escape assault at their hands, combine to make a gripping, repulsive
+story with certain dramatic possibilities that are not fulfilled.
+
+_The Weavers_ showed progress in technic and characterization of a
+group. Here no single individual plays the leading part; the group
+of weavers, the mob at the time of crisis, are the principal actors.
+There are marked contrasts in setting between the home of the rich
+capitalist and the poverty of the weavers, between the government’s
+indifference and the industrial slavery of the victims of rapacity. One
+of the most poignant passages is the monologue of old Ansorge, in Act
+II; he cannot believe that the King will fail to help them, if word is
+sent to him of their needs. When Jaeger assures him it is futile, that
+the rich people are as “cunning as the devil,” his lament for the home
+that must be sacrificed, where his father sat at the loom for more than
+forty years, is pathetic and dramatic.
+
+_The Assumption of Hannele_, which appeared in 1893 and had a germ-idea
+not unlike that of _Before Dawn_, created sharp discussion in Germany.
+There was protest against its performance. The next year it was brought
+to the United States, to be staged at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New
+York. It was translated into English by William Archer and by Charles
+Henry Meltzer. Reformers of many kinds denounced the play without a
+hearing. They threatened the author, who had come to this country to
+see the performance and to advise with his publisher, with arrest; the
+same fate was to fall upon the translator, Charles Henry Meltzer, and
+the actress who was to play the leading rôle. “Some representatives
+of the press, with critics and authors, were bidden to a private
+performance and the next day the newspapers, with a few impenitent
+exceptions, published eulogies of _Hannele_! No one was arrested. And
+the public performance took place.”[80]
+
+The American translator of both _The Assumption of Hannele_ and _The
+Sunken Bell_, Mr. Charles Henry Meltzer, has described Hauptmann at
+this period, in the Foreword to _The Sunken Bell_. He had expected to
+meet an aggressive, self-satisfied man. On the contrary, he found one
+who seemed like a student, with shy, boyish manners; he might have
+been classified as a curate or a teacher; “A painful, introspective,
+hunted earnestness was stamped upon his face--the face of a thinker, a
+dreamer, a genius” (Foreword). _Hannele_ was not a success theatrically
+in New York. _The Weavers_, at the Irving Place Theatre, attracted
+somewhat more attention but the time was too indifferent to such plays
+in America; one could not forecast the cordial reception for problem
+plays and grim tragedies, with mystic elements, three decades later.
+
+It was eighteen years before the Swedish Academy gave world recognition
+and honor to Hauptmann. A few men and women of literary insight--or
+foresight--proclaimed a future for the creator of such a “dream-poem”
+as _Hannele_. Gradually, readers became interested and stirred by this
+strange play based upon the weird apparitions of the fevered brain
+of the little waif, the poetic chorus of the angels, the comfort of
+her mother and Pastor Gottwald, in contrast with the terrifying fear
+of her father’s return, the stormy December evening in this mountain
+almshouse, and the poems of “The Stranger” which cast a spell of
+religious peace upon the reader, as the mystic, green light fell upon
+the face of dying Hannele. This “dream-poem,” as Hauptmann called it,
+won for him the Grillparzer prize in Germany. Two years later, after
+the failure of _Florian Geyer_ to win plaudits of dramatic critics,
+he wrote another play of symbolism and anapestic meters, combining
+the realities of life with mystic allurements, and he called it “A
+Fairy-Tale Play,” _Die versunkene Glocke_. His most severe critics were
+convinced of his lyrical quality and dramatic power.
+
+The basic material for this play, _The Sunken Bell_, says its
+translator, Mr. Meltzer, is found in Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology. Here
+are the characters of the bell maker, his wife, the elfish spirit,
+the schoolmaster and the vicar, and other factors interwoven with the
+allegorical and mystical. Hauptmann visualized these characters with
+consummate skill. Heinrich, the bell forger, who seeks the sun and a
+new, marvellous chime of bells, Magda, his faithful wife eager to
+free him from domestic toils, Rautendelein, the spirit of nature that
+lures him away and stirs his soul to unfulfilled aspirations, and
+Wittikin, the wise woman, the village priest and barber--all are alive
+and convincing. The evasive and mystical element becomes a part of the
+atmosphere of this “fairy-tale play”; the dramatic unities are well
+maintained.
+
+What is the meaning of _The Sunken Bell_? Each reader may make his own
+answer, for several are possible. It is as futile to analyze it, as
+it is to destroy the fantasy and mystery of _Peter Pan_ or _The Blue
+Bird_ or _Dear Brutus_. It is too subtle, too delicate to be treated by
+rigid rules of criticism. However, Mr. Meltzer makes three pertinent
+explanations; it may be a parable, the effort of all artists to reach
+their ideals; it may be the effort of a reformer to remold society by
+visionary ambitions; or Heinrich may embody any human being, striving
+for the goal of truth and light. As Rautendelein symbolizes Nature
+which offers freedom, so Wittikin expresses the eternal philosophy of
+life, opposed to the conventional creeds of the world, like those of
+the barber and the vicar, that are stumbling-blocks in the path of
+lofty idealism. Heinrich fails to attain his ideal; he cannot weld the
+pagan and Christian truths into one gospel, because he is _human_, with
+limitations. He cannot stay on the pinnacle of the mountain, with its
+mystic light and its new sun-bells, but he has not lost the influence
+of these in his life. When the vicar rejoices that “the old Heinrich”
+has returned, he answers:
+
+    That man am I, and yet ... another man.
+    Open the windows--Light and God stream in.[81]
+
+This play proved a moderate success, especially when played by Sothern,
+and has been repeated in academic circles, although it has not been
+so popular in America as have been the plays by Ibsen, Rostand, and
+Maeterlinck. It is one of the dramas that yields more of its beauty
+and symbolic message to the reader than to the spectator. The play,
+_Henry of Aue_, or _Der arme Heinrich_, which was called a fable
+(1902) has sometimes been listed as a sequel to _The Sunken Bell_
+but they are unlike in setting and theme. Heinrich, the crusader, is
+attacked with leprosy at the summit of his glory--a punishment for his
+insolence to God. The healing begins when he purges his soul of despair
+and hatred and begins to recognize “Beneficence” in Nature and Life.
+There are well drawn characters, especially Heinrich, Hartmann von
+Aue, Gottfried, Brigitta, and Ottegebe, the farmer’s daughter, whose
+influence is strong in the “cure” for the hero. As dramatic art this
+play is inferior to _Hannele_ or _The Sunken Bell_, but the reader’s
+interest is sustained in the leading character, from his tragic
+condition as an outcast, with a wooden clapper to warn people of his
+approach, to the last scene of his redemption by love.
+
+During the years since he received the Nobel prize, Hauptmann has
+written several plays and novels that continue to reveal his dual
+traits as realist and idealist. The writings during the World War
+have a tang of bitterness. Ludwig Lewisohn has edited eight volumes
+of Hauptmann’s _Dramatic Works_ (Huebsch, New York, 1915-1925). The
+introductions are informing and the translations are clear and strong.
+In the series are included several Social and Domestic Plays as well
+as “Symbolic and Legendary Dramas.” _Parsival_, a play translated by
+Oakley Williams, has an ethical or religious tone with sympathetic
+insight into humanity. “Heartache” was the name of Parsival’s mother;
+said her creator, “I should hate to make anyone sad, but I believe we
+might call every mother, at any rate, very, very, many mothers by this
+name.”[82] There are symbolism and poetic sermonizing in this drama of
+Parsival, “Bearer of Burdens”; his development from a care-free youth
+to later responsibilities for world burdens is well portrayed. Traces
+of irony and humor are found. The setting of the play, _And Pippa
+Dances_, is picturesque, in the Silesian mountains. Wann is a grotesque
+element and the tales of “the Wild Huntsman” are entertaining; Pippa,
+the fair-haired daughter of the glass blower, is the persuasive
+character. There is a lack of dramatic unity in certain scenes.
+Translations of this play, and of _Elga_, have been made by Mary Harned
+in _Poet Lore_ (Boston, 1906-1909). _And Pippa Dances_ is included in
+Volume V of the plays edited by Mr. Lewisohn.
+
+Among interesting, intensive studies of Hauptmann as dramatist, is
+the thesis by Walter H. P. Trumbaeur, on _Gerhart Hauptmann and John
+Galsworthy; a Parallel_ (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
+1917).[83] The parallelism is traced, with occasional excess of effort,
+between their careers, their themes, and certain plays like _Hannele_
+and _The Little Dream_, _Michael Kramer_ and _A Bit o’ Love_, and
+_The Weavers_ and _Strife_. Both dramatists, says the critic, seek to
+escape social bondage; both are vitally concerned in social problems;
+both are realists temperamentally; both have a purpose to enlighten
+rather than to delight; both see moral values and, also, _the irony of
+things_. Hauptmann is more interested in characters while Galsworthy’s
+main interest lies in the _relations_ between characters. In both
+writers, there is a strain of idealism, seeking _truth_, material and
+spiritual. Another interesting thesis is by Mary Ayres Quimby, on
+_Nature Background in the Dramas of Gerhart Hauptmann_ (University of
+Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1918). Among later plays _A Winter Ballad_
+and _The Festival Play_ register the fearless assault of this dramatist
+upon vices and the exaltation of an idealism which is “union with
+Nature.”
+
+The best work of Hauptmann in fiction has been attracting attention
+and becoming familiar to English readers. _The Fool in Christ:
+Emanuel Quint_ has been translated by Thomas Seltzer (Huebsch, 1911);
+_Atlantis_, translated by Adele and Thomas Seltzer (1912), and
+_Phantom_ and _The Heretic of Soana_, both translated by Bayard Quincy
+Morgan (1922-1923). The characterizations are forceful, with humor that
+is sometimes broad and, again, subtle. Daring satire and exposition
+of modern social problems are qualities that arrest the interest of
+the reader and attest the brilliant mind of the writer, in the recent,
+neo-romantic novel, _The Island of the Great Mother_, translated this
+year by Willa and Edwin Muir (Huebsch). The leaders in this “Women’s
+State” are delineated with shrewd, ironical skill. Phaon, the solitary
+“masculine” on the island, passes through strange adventures before he
+reaches maturity and finds his “ideal woman.” In his keen, illumining
+analysis of Hauptmann’s poetic plays, _Hannele_ and _The Sunken Bell_,
+in _A Study of the Modern Drama_ (New York, 1925), Barrett H. Clark
+accepts the statement of other critics that these are not “well-made
+plays,” but he finds in them the qualities which are high lights in
+this writer’s masterpieces--“psychological interest, dramatic as
+distinguished from purely lyrical poetry, a fairly well constructed
+plot and an atmosphere of beauty.”[84]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[72] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1910.
+
+[73] _Creative Spirits of the Nineteenth Century_ by Georg Brandes, New
+York, 1924.
+
+[74] _Gesammelte Werke_: Vol. III, p. 300, translated in _Creative
+Spirits of the Nineteenth Century_ (by Georg Brandes) by Rasmus B.
+Anderson, New York, 1924. By permission of Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
+
+[75] Introduction by Mary A. Frost to edition of _L’Arrabiata_,
+published by Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1896.
+
+[76] An excellent study of Heyse is by Professor von Klenze in _German
+Classics_ edited by Kuno Francke, German Publication Society.
+
+[77] _Creative Spirits of the Nineteenth Century_ by Georg Brandes, New
+York, 1924, Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
+
+[78] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1912.
+
+[79] D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1925.
+
+[80] _The Sunken Bell_: a Fairy Play in Five Acts by Gerhart Hauptmann,
+freely rendered into English verse by Charles Henry Meltzer, New York,
+1913, Foreword. By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.
+
+[81] _The Sunken Bell_ by Gerhart Hauptmann, freely rendered into
+English verse by Charles Henry Meltzer, New York, 1913, Act III. By
+permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.
+
+[82] _Parsival_, a play by Gerhart Hauptmann, translated by Oakley
+Williams, New York, 1915. By permission of The Macmillan Co.
+
+[83] By permission of the University of Pennsylvania Press.
+
+[84] P. 82. By permission of D. Appleton & Co.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+MAETERLINCK--BELGIAN SYMBOLIST AND POET-PLAYWRIGHT (1911)
+
+
+  The prize of 1911 has been awarded:
+
+  Maeterlinck, Maurice, born 1862: “because of his many-sided literary
+  activity and especially because of his dramatic creations which are
+  marked by wealth of fancy and poetic idealism that sometimes, in the
+  fairy play’s veiled form, reveals deep inspiration and, also, in a
+  mysterious way, appeals to the reader’s feeling and imagination.”[85]
+
+The first decade of the Nobel prizes was over and a new group of
+candidates was coming into the literary limelight in 1911. There
+was hopeful speculation that the award might go to either Russia or
+America, the two larger countries that have not yet been included.
+There was, however, a new type of poetry and drama, and a writer of
+unique personality, that were attracting widespread interest--namely,
+the mystical and symbolic plays by Maurice Maeterlinck. The
+announcement that he was the winner for 1911 caused much pride to the
+little kingdom of Belgium. Maeterlinck wrote most of his plays in
+French so they gained readers more quickly than those of his Belgian
+predecessors and contemporaries. _On the Scent_, the drama by Charles
+Van Lerberghe, has been compared to Maeterlinck’s earlier work by
+Barrett H. Clark in _A Study of the Modern Drama_.[86] Other Belgian
+playwrights commended by Mr. Clark are Henri Maubel and Edmond Picard.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of Dodd, Mead & Co._
+
+MAURICE MAETERLINCK]
+
+Maeterlinck was not quite fifty years old when the Nobel honor came to
+him. He was born in Ghent, in 1862, of good ancestry. He recalled the
+surroundings of his early life--the gardens and the sea and the ships
+in sight. Especially was he interested in the Flemish peasants as they
+sat, in quiet, stolid attitudes, in the doorways of their cottages
+or by the smoking lamps. One group impressed his boyhood memory, as
+he saw them on his way from school--seven toothless brothers and a
+sister. Their lethargy and inert lives awakened him, in young manhood,
+to psychological curiosity; their strange traditions and unreasoning
+fears are reflected in some of his plays. His father was anxious to
+have him study law, so he read and practised for a little time in
+Ghent--long enough “to lose a case or two,” he said with humorous
+reminiscence. He spent seven years at a Jesuit College, and showed a
+mind of philosophical trend. He thought that in Paris he might come
+into contact with men of literary rank and scholars. Villiers was
+his especial influence there; another inspirational friend was Octave
+Mirabeau to whom Maeterlinck dedicated his first published plays,
+_Princess Maleine_ and _Pelléas and Mélisande_. In too extravagant
+praise Mirabeau hailed Maeterlinck as “the Belgian Shakespeare” and
+Maeterlinck became the victim of flattery, on one hand, and ridicule
+on the other. He bore himself with calm dignity then as he has all his
+life; his serene manner and low voice, in contrast with his muscular
+physique, have been noted by many acquaintances.
+
+Before the death of his father, in 1889, he returned to Belgium and
+lived there for seven years, continuing his studies of nature and
+metaphysics, writing marionette plays, and more serious dramas, and
+making translations from authors of other tongues, including English,
+that left impressions upon his mind. He declared that the three
+writers who exerted the strongest influence during these formative
+years were Emerson, Novalis, and Ruysbroeck, the medieval mystic whose
+writings were translated by Maeterlinck when he was a student at the
+Jesuit College. To visitors from America he delights to show his worn
+copy of Emerson. In his collected studies, _On Emerson and Other
+Essays_, translated by Montrose J. Moses, he summarizes the Concord
+philosopher’s thoughts about “the greatness of man’s spiritual nature,
+about the forces of the soul.” In conclusion of his vital influence,
+he writes: “Emerson has come to affirm simply this equal and secret
+grandeur of our life. He has encompassed us with silence and with
+wonder. He has placed a shaft of light beneath the feet of the workman
+as he leaves the workshop. He has shown us all the powers of heaven and
+earth, at the same time intent on sustaining the threshold on which
+two neighbors speak of the rain that falls or the wind that blows. And
+above these two passers-by who accost each other, he has made us see
+the countenance of God who smiles with the countenance of God. He is
+nearer than any other to our common life. He is the most attentive,
+the most assiduous, the most honest, the most scrupulous, and probably
+the most human of guides. He is the sage of commonplace days, and
+commonplace days are, in sum, the substance of our being.”[87]
+
+In 1896 Maeterlinck returned to Paris and there he has made his home.
+He refused to renounce his Belgian citizenship, however, that he might
+become a member of the French Academy; during the war he did valiant
+service in many ways for his native country. In his home town to-day,
+and at Brussels, the visitor is told of Belgian pride in Maeterlinck;
+the people say, “You know he has lived in Paris almost all his life but
+he is a true patriot, just the same.” To the years in Belgium, between
+1889 and 1896, belong such plays as _The Blind_, _The Intruder_,
+_The Seven Princesses_, _Alladine and Palomides_ and _The Death of
+Tintagiles_. It is a question whether he has surpassed, in dramatic
+vigor combined with mystic beauty, that play of earlier period,
+_Pelléas and Mélisande_. Like the story of _Paolo and Francesca_, which
+it resembles in theme, it has an appealing quality both on the stage
+and in the book. The tragic death of Mélisande, after the murder of her
+lover and the birth of her daughter, reflects a high-light of dramatic
+power. The lines are simple in diction, masterly in structure and
+suggestion.
+
+One of the first translators of Maeterlinck into English was Richard
+Hovey, the brilliant American poet who died in his prime. In two
+decorative volumes, first issued in Chicago (Stone & Kimball) in
+1894-1896, he interpreted, as well as translated, these earlier plays
+already cited. The Introduction in the first volume is informing
+for all students of modern drama. Mr. Hovey defined Symbolism, as
+distinguished from Realism and Expressionism; he joined with the name
+of Maeterlinck, such other exponents of Symbolism as Mallarmé, Gilbert
+Parker, and Bliss Carman. Two traits distinguished the Belgian from
+other symbolists of his day, according to this interpreter--“the
+peculiarity of his technique, and the limitation of his emotional
+range.” The use of reiteration is cited as a French characteristic
+for effective emphasis. “The danger-border between the tragic and
+the ridiculous” is a menace to Maeterlinck. More true of his earlier
+than his later plays is another restriction noted by Mr. Hovey: “His
+master-tone is always terror--terror, too, of one type--that of the
+churchyard.... He is the poet of the sepulchre, like Poe--as masterly
+in his own methods as Poe was in his, and destined, perhaps, to exert
+the same wide influence.”[88] _Premonition_ plays a large part in the
+plays of Maeterlinck from _The Blind_ and _Home_ to _Joyzelle_.
+
+In Paris, under the stimulus of literary associates and the comradeship
+of Georgette Le Blanc (the actress who became his wife), Maeterlinck
+wrote three plays that register his dramatic climax--_Joyzelle_, _Monna
+Vanna_ (1903) and _The Blue Bird_ (1908). Probably, the last symbolic
+drama was the primal cause of the Nobel award. The idealism, the
+delicate fancy, the imaginative charm, the fascinating characters in
+every scene, real or fantastic, and the pervasive message for every
+age and land, give to this play a perennial appeal. As Maeterlinck
+affirmed, this play, like others of the type, may lose some of its
+“mystic transparency” and symbolism on the stage but it has been
+alluring both as acted play and as a film. Why there should have been
+“a sequel” to such a perfect, complete play as _The Blue Bird_ is a
+question that has troubled many a critic. Resentment against _The
+Betrothal_, the continuance of this fairy-tale play, however, gives way
+before appreciation of its fine passages and strong message. At the
+same time, the impression lingers that Tyltyl, like Peter Pan, should
+“never have grown up.” Alexander Teixeira de Mattos has made a fine
+translation of _The Betrothal_ and Edith Wynne Mattison was a charming
+“Fairy Berylune,” when the play was given in New York. Here Maeterlinck
+ventured almost too near the borderland between fantasy and farce,
+especially in Act II, where the girls, who would marry Tyltyl, reveal
+their lower natures.
+
+The versatility of Maeterlinck is evidenced by comparing such plays,
+within ten years, as _Joyzelle_ and _The Blue Bird_, _Monna Vanna_
+and _Mary Magdalene_. _Joyzelle_ has elements of dramatic ecstasy
+with a tragic undertone. Professor William Lyon Phelps has summarized
+well the salient qualities of this play and its heroine in _Essays on
+Modern Dramatists_ (New York, 1921). _Monna Vanna_, written especially
+for Maeterlinck’s wife, is a rare blend of intense emotionalism and
+convincing characters with a crisis which challenges the reason.
+Giovanna, or Monna Vanna, wife of Guido Colonna, commander of the
+garrison at Pisa, will remain as Maeterlinck’s most vital heroine.
+Prinzivalle, general of the Florentines and her boyhood lover, is an
+idealized hero for his age but convincing in his chivalry. Medieval
+atmosphere and dramatic action accentuate the strong dialogue of this
+play. Ten years later, in 1913, appeared _Mary Magdalene_. In his
+Introduction, Maeterlinck relates, with some feeling, his effort to
+win cordial response from Paul Heyse, who had written a play on the
+same theme and with certain situations that the Belgian wished to
+use. Meeting with a refusal, “none too courteous I regret to say,”
+he decided to take his privilege of using Biblical words and his
+previously conceived situation. He gives to Mary Magdalene a few
+masterly lines; to Joseph of Arimathea, she says, “We save those whom
+we love; we listen to them afterwards.” To the Roman Verus, who would
+have her save Jesus by yielding herself to him, she replies: “I should
+perhaps sin against all that he loves, to save what I love. I could
+save him in spite of himself; but no longer in spite of myself. If I
+bought his life at the price which you offer, all that he wished, all
+that he loved, would be dead. I cannot plunge the flame into the mire
+to save the lamp.”[89]
+
+The war left deep scars upon Maeterlinck’s spirit; they are reflected
+in such essays and plays as _The Wrack of the Storm_, _Belgium at
+War_, _The Burgomaster at Stilemonde_, _The Cloud that Lifted_, and
+_The Power of the Dead_. Some of the essays, or chapters, in the
+book first mentioned, deal with psychometry, the interest which is
+expanded in other books like _The Great Secret_, _Our Eternity_, _The
+Unknown Guest_, and _The Light Beyond_. That man is the product of
+unseen forces, that he is molded by “hidden powers,” that humanity
+and nature are always closely linked, were tenets that underlay such
+books as _Treasure of the Humble_, _Life and Flowers_, and _The Life
+of the Bee_. He became a beekeeper that he might study at first-hand
+the traits of these workers and apply their analogy to humanity--much
+as Dallas Lore Sharp has done more recently in _The Spirit of the
+Hive_. In the beehives and the garden, Maeterlinck finds the same
+complications and conflicts, the same “domination of the spirit of the
+race,” as among men. In an essay in his earlier book, _Treasure of the
+Humble_, he expressed a surety which has been verified with the passing
+of the years: “A time may come perhaps--and many things herald its
+approach--a time will come, perhaps, when our souls will know each
+other without the intermediary of the senses.”
+
+To penetrate beyond the tangible things of life requires courage but
+brings light to the spirit. In his plays, _Ariadne and Blue Beard_
+and _Sister Beatrice_, translated by Bernard Miall into English verse
+(1916), and _The Miracle of Saint Anthony_, translated by Alexander
+Teixeira de Mattos (1918), Maeterlinck has suggested the neglected but
+magic “key” which may gain for us new adventures into “the prohibitions
+of the tangible world.” The _premonition_ of his earlier plays has
+become the _intuition_ which penetrates the unknown and supernatural.
+Life has been symbolized by him as “a garden,” as an “inner temple,” as
+analogous to the world of plants and “the swarm” of the bees. He seldom
+reveals passionate feeling in his writings, but he exemplifies search
+for truth, “care for moral stoic beauty.”[90] Intuition, as interpreted
+by Bergson, he has expanded into the “raison mystique” by which one
+may penetrate the unknown and the mystic. There are shades of gloom
+and sadness in many of his plays; his characters are sometimes weak in
+conflict with the forces about them; there are hints of fatalism in
+plays like _The Intruder_, _The Death of Tintagiles_, and _Interior_,
+but the keynote of Maeterlinck, in his maturity, has been that of
+spiritual progress and mystic idealism.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[85] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1911.
+
+[86] New York, 1925, p. 161.
+
+[87] _On Emerson and Other Essays_ by Maurice Maeterlinck, translated
+by Montrose J. Moses, New York, 1912. By permission of Dodd, Mead & Co.
+
+[88] _The Plays of Maurice Maeterlinck_, translated by Richard Hovey,
+Chicago, 1894-96.
+
+[89] _Mary Magdalene_ by Maurice Maeterlinck, translated by Alexander
+Teixeira de Mattos, New York, 1910, Act IV. By permission of Dodd, Mead
+& Co.
+
+[90] _Some Modern Belgian Writers_ by Turquet Milnes, New York, 1917.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+RABINDRANATH TAGORE: BENGALESE MYSTIC-POET
+
+
+  The prize for the year 1913 has been awarded:
+
+  Rabindranath Tagore, born 1861: “For reason of the inner depth and
+  the high aim revealed in his poetic writings; also for the brilliant
+  way in which he translates the beauty and freshness of his Oriental
+  thought into the accepted forms of Western _belles-lettres_.”[91]
+
+As a Bengalese, Rabindranath Tagore, to whom the Nobel prize was given
+in 1913, is a British subject. Thus, for the second time, the honor
+came to Great Britain through the writings of one whose formative
+years, like those of Kipling, had been spent in India and whose typical
+writings were associated with that country. On the contrary, the
+words and thoughts of this mystic-poet are so exotic, sometimes so
+unlocalized in form and spirit, that they belong to world literature,
+rather than to a distinctive country. Possibly no other prize winner
+has been so idealistic, so international in his appeal as this author
+of _The Gardener_, _Sadhana_, and _The King of the Dark Chamber_.
+
+In his biographical study,[92] Ernest Rhys suggests that the award was
+given to Tagore because of the enthusiasm of a Swedish Orientalist
+for his writings before they were known in English. The year before
+the award, however, Yeats had praised the poems of Tagore[93] and
+other poet-critics had found him an inspirational influence. To the
+winner, the announcement gave mingled gratitude and regret; the latter
+he expressed in his sentence, “They have taken away my refuge.”[94]
+His life had been so untouched by external struggles that he was, in
+truth, “a child of Nature.” In _My Reminiscences_, he writes: “From
+my earliest years I enjoyed a simple and intimate communion with
+Nature. Each one of the cocoanut trees in our garden had for me a
+distinct personality.... On opening my eyes every morning, the blithely
+awakening world used to call me to join it like a playmate.”[95]
+
+Born in Calcutta, May 6, 1861, he came into a rare inheritance for
+his later work as religious leader and writer. Like all children of
+the higher social classes in India, he was environed from his birth
+with poetic atmosphere. His blessing, as a newborn babe, was spoken
+in verse; as he grew older many of his studies were in poetic form.
+The family name was Thakur, Anglicized into Tagore; his father and
+grandfathers had been identified with education and civil reforms. Raja
+Sir Sourindra Mohun Tagore was founder of the Bengal Music School;
+another, Abanindranath Tagore, was a noted painter and leader in
+art-movements. His father might have been a Maharaja (a great king) but
+he preferred to be Maharshi (a great sage), thus he was more closely
+linked with the people than with nobility. He insisted upon paying
+debts which his father, a prince, had left. He would have made himself
+a pauper but the creditors refused to accept such sacrifices, so he had
+a certain amount of property. He devoted himself to spiritual teachings
+and traveled through India on such missions, gaining the respect of all
+classes.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y._
+
+RABINDRANATH TAGORE]
+
+The son who won this Nobel prize was the youngest in a family of seven
+brothers and three sisters. He was lonely as a child, for his mother
+died when he was young and he was often left with men-servants for
+days. The return of his father marked the “gala-days”--_his_ presence
+pervaded the whole house. Nature was the boy’s comrade and he would
+often dig with a bamboo stick in the ground to find any possible
+“mysteries.” Perfumes affected his senses and left vivid memories, as
+he tells in his _Reminiscences_. The school life, after he was six
+years, was a brief period of unhappiness. He was, perhaps, stubborn to
+a degree and was ranked as the lowest in his class because he refused
+to answer orally, but he thought out problems so well, in written work,
+that he amazed his teachers and was given first place. The Oriental
+Seminary, the Normal School, the Bengal Academy--all seemed to him
+“prison-houses.” At home he studied, with a tutor, history, sciences,
+and English literature. At first, he laughed, somewhat scornfully, at
+English poetry because of the unusual sounds.
+
+An influence of this formative age was his nephew--older than he was,
+Jyotiprokash, who read _Hamlet_ to the lad and urged him to write
+verses and poetic imaginings. He saw a future for this boy with his
+fancies and love of Nature. A teacher at the Normal School, also,
+inspired him to write, asking him to complete lines or stanzas which
+had been begun by another. Although his father was often separated from
+the boy, he realized the child’s promise and his sensitive nature;
+he gave him a vacation trip into the Himalayas, stopping at Bolpur,
+the Peace Cottage, where his father often retired and where the son
+was to have his own home later. In his “blue blank-book,” that he
+carried always with him, were written poems suggested by scenery and
+incidents of this trip. His father taught him botany and astronomy, as
+well as English, Sanskrit, and Bengali. Back in Calcutta he “played
+truant from school,” sometimes, and caused his older sister to write
+in despair of the fulfillment of their hopes for him; that he would be
+“the only unsuccessful man in the family.”[96] For a year he went to
+London to study law but he was homesick and returned to Bengal.
+
+In his _Reminiscences_ at fifty, he recalled the years between sixteen
+and twenty-three as those of unrest and “extreme wildness.” He was the
+victim of the impulses of strong, young manhood; for a time he was an
+epicure rather than a mystic. He delighted in silk robes and luscious
+foods and romances in love. An expression of this time may be found
+in the poem, “The Gleaming Vision of Youth,” in _The Gardener_. Other
+reflections are in _Sandhya Sangit_ and _The Songs of Sunrise_, more
+philosophical. Two poems, “The Eternity of Life” and “The Eternity
+of Death,” indicate the period of transition from this time to the
+years of religious meditation. At twenty-three he married happily; at
+the request of his father, he went to oversee the family estate at
+Shilaida, on the Ganges. Here, with intervals of travel, he remained
+for seventeen years, living close to the people and to Nature, and
+writing some of his tales and poems. One of his most famous love
+poems, showing mingled sensuous and spiritual strains, is “The Beloved
+at Noon and in the Morning.”
+
+In a house boat on the Padma he often spent hours of meditation, long
+evenings of reverie, that were pictured in the background of his
+idyllic song, “Golden Bengal.” He studied the poverty, trials, and
+simple idealism of the people; he knew elementary medicine and cared
+for the sick; he was saddened by the loss of rice crops in destructive
+rains; he was determined that tenants should not suffer unduly from
+tax-gatherers. He brought upon himself the jealous criticism of
+British magistrates in the district and was called a revolutionary
+and visionary disturber. He had already formulated his ideas of both
+a small republic and the school at Bolpur when he was interrupted in
+his plans by domestic sorrows. He journeyed to England and the United
+States for recuperation and inspiration.
+
+The first grief was the death of his wife for whom he had a deep
+love. Within a few months his daughter died of tuberculosis. Shortly
+afterwards came another poignant sorrow in the loss of his youngest
+son. With the serenity of a mind that recognizes Nature as mother and
+friend, he turned toward more intimate relations with spiritual and
+religious thoughts. These are revealed especially in _Gitanjali_, the
+first book by which he became well known to English readers. It was
+written in English with vigor and grace, with distinctive structure.
+In 1912-13 he came to the United States, partly for a change of
+scene, partly to add to his knowledge of industrial improvements and
+agricultural equipment, that he might apply this information in his
+school at Bolpur. His older son was with him, to learn methods of
+harvesting. In his biographical study of Tagore, Basanta Koomar Roy[97]
+tells interesting facts about the visit to this poet and discussion,
+with him, of the possibilities that he might win the Nobel prize. He
+was then at Urbana, Illinois, with his son. He was impressed with the
+sunshine of our climate--“enchanted American days” he called them. He
+liked the superior engineering and business abilities of Americans but
+he deplored their lack of culture. He was urged to translate more of
+his writings into English and was assured that, should he win the Nobel
+prize, it would increase international brotherhood and world peace, as
+well as raise India among the nations. Sceptical of the probability
+he said, should it come to him, he would use the money to start an
+industrial department in his school at Bolpur.
+
+Ten months later the award was made to Tagore. Some of his compatriots
+were his most severe critics, complaining that he “dabbled” in too
+many forms of literature. He admitted the charge but averred that
+poetry represented “the deep truth” of his life. As a poet he has
+revived the work, in kind, of the Vaishnava poets of the fifteenth and
+sixteenth centuries, of mystic writers like the Upanishads who lived
+between 2000 and 1000 B. C. He adapted the beauties of these poets to
+modern interpretation. He was indebted, also, to Kabir, the mystic of
+the fifteenth century, and to Ramprosad of Bengal, of the eighteenth.
+In his form and spiritual progress he has shown marked originality,
+following the work of Bengalese like Raja Ram Mohun Roy and Bankim,
+who had cleared away many obstacles of British domination over native
+expression.
+
+Much has been written about the school at Bolpur to which, true to his
+promise, he has devoted funds from his award. In his essays, _Sadhana,
+or the Realization of Life_, are found several of the “student
+addresses” made here; the war caused changed conditions and frustrated
+some of the founder’s hopes. This school was started in 1902, approved
+by his father, and with the goal, “To revive the spirit of our ancient
+system of education ... to make the students feel that there is a
+higher and a nobler thing in life than practical efficiency.” At first,
+such a venture met with curiosity and some scorn. Parents sent here
+unmanageable or backward boys. They had simple surroundings and lived
+and slept outdoors; they sang chants as the birds begin their morning
+songs; they had time for individual prayer and thought, clad in white
+silk robes. They enjoyed games and long walks, simple food, no wine or
+meat, music in the evening and plays, written by Rabindranath Tagore;
+they wrote and illustrated school papers. There was self-government and
+close, brotherly relations between boys and teachers. Their scholastic
+work became satisfactory to the University at Calcutta. The boys were
+happy, often refusing to go home for their vacations, unless compelled
+to do so by their parents.
+
+In addition to his work as educator for boys, Rabindranath Tagore has
+been a strong influence for more training and freedom for the women
+of India. He believes that the life of woman, in a generic sense,
+is more full and harmonious than that of man. He found the ideas of
+both Hindu teachers and Christian missionaries were extreme, as he
+viewed them, but he advocated education and broadened opportunities.
+As an Oriental he has poetized the love of the home, the coming of
+the woman at the end of the day, “with a pitcher of nectar,” to bring
+comfort to the home. His poetic play, _Chitra_, much discussed and
+puzzling in passages to a Western mind, is a frank exposition of
+his philosophy regarding the sensuous and spiritual qualities of
+women. Other expressions are in _The Home and the World_ (1919) and
+_Personality_ (1917) and in plays like _Sanyas_, and _The King and the
+Queen_ (in _Sacrifice and Other Plays_, New York, 1917). That he is a
+lover of children, and able to interpret their thoughts and fancies
+with unmatched beauty, is evident to all readers of Sir Rabindranath
+Tagore’s writings (he was knighted in 1915). His own simplicity of
+nature and life, his imagination in its purity and freedom, make him
+an intimate comrade for boys and girls. The year after he received the
+Nobel prize, the original, unrhymed poems, _The Crescent Moon_, were
+translated, with effective illustrations in color. _Stray Birds_, with
+frontispiece in color by Willy Pogany (1921), is another appealing and
+typical book, but more mature and philosophical.
+
+The periods of childhood, from babyhood to school days and
+letter-writing, are unfolded in _The Crescent Moon_ in delightful
+pictures. Especially intuitive are “Baby’s World,” “Paper Boats,” “The
+Little Big Man,” and “The First Jasmines.” Humor enlivens many of
+these fancies and questions of the child, as in “Twelve O’Clock” and
+“Authorship”; the latter raises a query--_why_ the mother allows father
+to waste “heaps of paper” without a protest, while a single sheet,
+taken for a paper boat, may bring a remonstrance to the child. There
+is emotional beauty and Oriental philosophy in “The Beginning.” “Where
+have I come from?” asks the child, and the mother:
+
+    She answered half crying, half laughing, and clasping the baby to
+      her breast,--
+    You were hidden in my heart as its desire, my darling....
+    In all my hopes and my loves, in my life, in the life of my mother
+      you have lived.
+    In the lap of the deathless Spirit who rules our home you have been
+      nursed for ages....
+    As I gaze on your face, mystery overwhelms me; you who belong to all
+      have become mine.[98]
+
+During the twelve years since the Nobel award, Tagore has translated
+several of his earlier poems, plays and tales and has written _My
+Reminiscences_, one of the most illumining autobiographies of the
+last decade. He has expanded his ideas on government, education and
+religion in books like _Nationalism_ and _Creative Unity_. He has
+written _Prayers for Mother India_--that she may be raised from her
+chronic want to a place of influence and success. He has urged united
+action by the people of England and those of India to bring about this
+material union. He has said, “One section of the human race cannot
+be permanently strong by depriving another section of its inherent
+rights.” Taking as his text that mooted line from Kipling,
+
+    Oh, East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet--
+
+Tagore said, at a banquet in London: “I have learned that, though our
+tongues are different and our habits dissimilar, at the bottom of our
+hearts we are one.... East is East and West is West--God forbid that it
+should be otherwise--but the twain must meet in amity, peace and mutual
+understanding; their meeting will be all the more fruitful because of
+their differences; it must lead both to holy wedlock before the common
+altar of Humanity.”
+
+In the sympathetic, analytical study of _Mahatma Gandhi_ by Romain
+Rolland, there are some excellent sentences of comparison of these
+two religious leaders of modern India. “Tagore looked upon Gandhi as
+a saint,” says M. Rolland, and he deplored his political activities,
+especially his non-coöperation doctrine. Tagore seeks and finds harmony
+in coöperation. He wrote, “My prayer is that India may represent the
+coöperation of all the peoples of the world. For India, unity is truth,
+and division evil.” In summary, the French writer says, “To my mind
+Gandhi is as universal as Tagore, but in a different way. Gandhi is a
+universalist through his religious feeling; Tagore is intellectually
+universal. While venerating him, (Gandhi) we understand and approve
+Tagore.”[99] In _Creative Unity_, Tagore has included an essay upon
+“The Nation” in which he stresses “the fight” to-day between “the
+living spirit of the people” and the methods of organizing nations.
+
+If one were to prophesy which type of Sir Rabindranath Tagore’s
+writings will survive among many peoples, the chances are in favor of
+his mystical prose-poems and his national songs. The latter have kept
+alive the love of home-country and faith in India. They are sung by
+boatmen on the Ganges, by the peasants in the fields, by students and
+groups at all kinds of festivals and conferences. These songs are of
+two kinds; one is a wistful idealization of the “Motherland,” with
+graphic pictures of scenery, homes, and religion; the second type is
+the “Song of Consecration,” of sacrifice and valor, exampled in “Follow
+the Gleam,” to which many young Nationalists have marched and died.
+Bitterness is absent from nearly every line by this poet-patriot; there
+is spiritual excitation, strong appeal to love of home and broader
+idealism. It has been said that contradiction is evident between some
+of these national songs and the broad humanism of many other writings,
+notably those in the _Gitanjali_. Those who know the man personally,
+and who are familiar with the tenets of Hindu philosophy which he
+embodies, as well as the spiritual ideals of the Upanishads, do not
+find it difficult to reconcile the two creeds, as he has united them in
+his “Ode to the Earth” and some of the essays in _Sadhana_.
+
+While it is gratifying to note that Rabindranath Tagore, as prize
+winner, found incentive to write more idealistic literature, yet it is
+evident that he never has surpassed the earlier books of distinctive
+quality, books that maintained the classic traditions of his native
+literature but gave them new form and significance, as _The Gardener_,
+_The Post Office_, _King of the Dark Chamber_, _Gitanjali_, and _The
+Elder Sister_. When he was in the United States he read, at colleges
+and other places, many passages from _The Gardener_ and _Gitanjali_.
+The two books have similar tone and melody; both are difficult to
+translate into adequate English because much of the mysticism is lost
+in concrete words--the same is true of his plays when they are staged
+without sustaining the “illusion” of the Oriental atmosphere. In native
+language the rhythm and music surpass and interpret the words; the
+swaying movement accompanies many odes and invocations. A song that may
+be chanted with the music of the flute, and thus appreciated, is one of
+the mystical lyrics beginning:
+
+    I am restless, I am athirst for far-away things,
+    My soul goes out in a longing to touch the skirts of the dim
+      distance.
+    O Great Beyond, O the keen call of my flute!
+    I forget, I ever forget, that I have no wings, that I am bound in
+      this spot, evermore.[100]
+
+_Gora_, a so-called “novel” by Rabindranath Tagore, has been issued
+this current year. It tells the story of a Hindu youth, a Brahmin,
+whose full name is Gourmohan Babu. He cherishes a large-souled
+ambition to “unify” India but he cannot break down the barriers of his
+religious fanaticism enough to consent to the marriage of his younger
+brother, Binoy Babu, to a girl of a lower Brahmin caste. The romantic
+interest vibrates from the love affairs of Gora to that of his brother.
+The chief merit of the book is not its art as fiction, for that is
+negative, but the graphic presentation of religious tenets and native
+customs. The author seems, at times, to be seriously concerned about
+the development of his hero and the more tolerant brother; in other
+places, he introduces an element of whimsical humor and kindly irony
+as in the unexpected sequel of Gora’s parentage. Poetry and essays or
+short tales, rather than fiction of long-sustained plot, are the forms
+of writing best adapted to his gifts.
+
+As _The Gardener_ represents the youth of Rabindranath Tagore, with
+normal desires fused with spiritual longings, so _Gitanjali_ is the
+expression of the mature philosopher-poet, still responsive emotionally
+but seeking for “joy eternal.” He has preserved for world literature,
+the philosophy and poetry of earlier teachers like Chaitanya Deva,
+usually called “Nimäi,” the Hindu poet, who lived near Bolpur, the home
+of Tagore. In addition to these revivals of the earlier tenets and
+aspirations in poetry, Rabindranath Tagore has become an international
+humanist. He has never lost his joy in Nature and in solitude but
+he has walked forward into the vision of a united brotherhood and a
+spiritual commonwealth.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[91] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1913.
+
+[92] _Rabindranath Tagore_ by Ernest Rhys, New York, 1915.
+
+[93] _Gitanjali_, with Introduction by W. B. Yeats, London and New
+York, 1913.
+
+[94] _Rabindranath Tagore: a Biographical Study_ by Ernest Rhys, New
+York, 1915, Preface, xiv. By permission of the Macmillan Co.
+
+[95] _My Reminiscences_ by Rabindranath Tagore, New York, 1917, p. 225.
+By permission of the Macmillan Co.
+
+[96] _Rabindranath Tagore_ by Basanta Koomar Roy, New York, 1915, p. 52.
+
+[97] _Ibid._, pp. 189-193.
+
+[98] _The Crescent Moon: Child-Poems_ by Rabindranath Tagore,
+translated from the original Bengali by the author, New York, 1913,
+1916. By permission of the Macmillan Co.
+
+[99] _Mahatma Gandhi: The Man Who Became One with the Universal Being_,
+by Romain Rolland, translated by Catherine D. Groth, New York, 1924. By
+permission of the Century Co.
+
+[100] _Gitanjali: Song-Offerings_ by Rabindranath Tagore, New York,
+1916. By permission of the Macmillan Co.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ROMAIN ROLLAND AND _JEAN-CHRISTOPHE_
+
+
+  In 1916 the prize of 1915 has been awarded:
+
+  Rolland, Romain, born 1866: “as homage to the exalted idealism in
+  his authorship, and also to the sympathy and truth with which he has
+  drawn different types of people.”[101]
+
+There was no prize money awarded in literature for 1914. The
+announcement that the winner for 1915 was Romain Rolland, author of
+_Jean-Christophe_, was generally approved. Here was an instance when
+a single book had focussed attention of readers and the judges; this
+masterpiece, which had appeared in France at intervals from 1904 to
+1912, had been translated into many languages and much discussed. It
+was a mirror of the conditions of society, especially in France and
+Germany at the junction of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; it
+was an exhaustive, vital life story of a musician with aspirations,
+struggles, loves, defeats, revolts, friendships, and tragic, but
+triumphant, end. In the biography of Rolland by Stefan Zweig, emphasis
+is laid upon the period of nearly fifty years of the author’s life
+as a quiet scholar and musician, “an artist working without serious
+interruption or serious recognition,” and then a sudden, disturbing
+publicity which followed in the wake of this novel.[102]
+
+Clamecy, a little town of the Morvan on the Nivernais canal, was the
+birthplace of Romain Rolland, January 29, 1866. His father was a
+notary; his mother was daughter of a magistrate; she was musical and
+religious, devoted to her son and the younger child, Madelaine. Their
+happy home life is reflected in pages of the section, “Antoinette,”
+in _Jean-Christophe_. When he was young, Romain Rolland showed taste
+for music and his mother taught him and told him stories about great
+musicians. When his school days ended at the Communal College in his
+native town, his father, with rare self-sacrifice, gave up his law
+practice in Clamecy and went to Paris, becoming clerk in a bank that
+the boy might be educated in the best schools. After attendance at
+the Lycée Louis-le-Grand until he was twenty, he entered the Ecole
+Normale Supérieure where he specialized in history. Gabriel Monod was
+a teacher of surpassing influence over the minds and characters of his
+students. Rolland was enthusiastic about Tolstoy, both as reformer
+and writer.[103] For Shakespeare he had ardent admiration, especially
+for the historical plays and sonnets.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of Henry Holt & Co._
+
+ROMAIN ROLLAND]
+
+Another friend of these tentative years was Paul Claudel, the author of
+books with mystical tendencies upon the history of Catholicism. Already
+Rolland had expressed a fugitive, recurrent wish to write a romance,
+“the history of a single-hearted artist who bruises himself against
+the rocks of life.” Such was the norm of _Jean-Christophe_. He was
+surprised, and not wholly pleased, when he was told that he had won a
+traveling scholarship from the Normal School and could go to the French
+School of Archeology and History at Rome. For two years he stayed in
+this city, making contacts with some of the vital influences of his
+life, notably the friendship with Fräulein Malwida von Meysenburg;
+she was many years his senior but still alert and inspiring. She knew
+intimately scores of statesmen, writers, and artists, as references
+in her book, _Mémoires d’une idéaliste_, testify. She took a profound
+interest in this young Frenchman with his musical gifts and visionary
+hopes. In his essay, “To the Undying Antigone,” Rolland speaks of his
+gratitude to two women--his mother and Fräulein von Meysenburg. With
+the latter he went to visit Wagner at Bayreuth and increased his
+musical enthusiasm and knowledge. One day, as he was walking on the
+Janiculum, the germ-idea and plan of his epic novel, _Jean-Christophe_,
+formed in his mind but its writing was delayed for many years.
+
+Back in Paris as lecturer at the Normal School, and at the Sorbonne,
+he determined to attack indifference to the fine arts. His thesis
+had a title of arresting words for that time, “The Origins of the
+Modern Lyrical Drama.” While in Rome he had written a few plays that
+were not made public, _Orsino_, _Caligula_, and _Niobe_. He was eager
+to increase interest in music at the Normal School and elsewhere.
+He attended musical festivals at Bonn and Strasburg and began that
+series of biographies published later as _Musicians of Former Days_,
+_Musicians of Today_, _Beethoven_, _Handel_, and other volumes. He
+married the daughter of Michael Bréal, the philologist, at whose home
+he met noted men of letters, science, and art. His wife was cultured
+and sympathetic with his aspirations to extend knowledge of music and
+art among the people. He rebelled against educational restrictions,
+as well as political reactions; in such moods he wrote plays such as
+_Danton_, _Fourteenth of July_, _Triumph of Reason_, and _Saint Louis_,
+a heroic legend. He urged popularizing of the theatre and lamented the
+dominance of “the aristocratic theatre.” Some of the articles which he
+wrote at different times on this theme have been translated by Barrett
+H. Clark as _The People’s Theatre_ (New York, 1918). He looked to the
+theatre as beneficial to the people in three ways: “(1) as a source of
+joy; (2) as a source of energy; (3) as a source of guiding light to the
+intelligence.”
+
+Before Rolland had really “found himself” in literature, the Dreyfus
+case racked his sensitive soul. In almost all his later writings there
+are references, direct or implied, to this “welter of feeling” which
+divided families and shattered friendships. At the time of the trial
+he wrote, “He who can see injustice without trying to combat it,
+is neither entirely an artist nor entirely a man.”[104] He wrote a
+dramatic parable, _Les Loups_ (_Wolves_) under the pseudonym of “Saint
+Just,” in which he lifted “the problem from the realm of time into
+that of the eternal.” As the political strife became more personal
+and bitter, Rolland retired from public attention and devoted himself
+to writing lives of artists like _Michael Angelo_ and _Millet_ and
+musicians. He contributed the first chapters of _Jean-Christophe_ to
+the literary magazine, _Cahiers de la Quinzaine_, known to students
+_only_ for many years. In two small rooms on the fifth floor of a
+Parisian house, above the boulevard Montparnasse, Rolland wrote and
+read, seeing a few friends, taking walks, and playing the piano for
+recreation. Outwardly, he was serene; inwardly, he was seething with
+indignation at the falsities and hypocrisy of life, at the disdain
+shown for spiritual values, at “the world dying of asphyxia in its
+prudent and vile egoism,” as he expressed it in _Jean-Christophe_.
+
+Slowly, without any aids of publicity, the real value of
+_Jean-Christophe_ became apparent to critics and discriminating
+readers, as the last volumes appeared in the magazine. German
+journalists called attention to its unique merits. Paul Seippel,
+the Swiss writer, related the life and earlier work of Rolland. In
+June, 1913, Rolland was given the Grand Prix of the French Academy.
+Translation of _Jean-Christophe_ was made into English by Gilbert
+Cannan and critics awakened. The same year Rolland republished some of
+the plays written in his student days, under the title, _Les tragedies
+de la foi_; by examples of such heroes as “Saint Louis” and “Aërt,” he
+would inspire the people of the twentieth century to a new idealism.
+His play, _Wolves_, has been staged in Yiddish in New York, has been
+translated into English by Barrett H. Clark, and has been performed at
+the University of Minnesota.
+
+In his epic story of a musician and his associates, Rolland was a
+preacher of aspiration and harmony to the whole world, in spite of
+localized atmosphere. He recalled the words of Goethe, “National
+literature now means very little; the epoch of world literature is
+at hand”; and he urged, “Let us make Goethe’s prophecy a living
+reality.”[105] His hero was to have a long, circuitous journey in his
+search for expression of his aspirations; he was to meet many kinds
+of people and races; he was to have some of the tragic experiences
+of musicians of real life, Beethoven, Wagner, and Hugo Wolf; he was
+to keep aloft the banner of idealism, of faith in humanity. Like the
+author, he was to be victimized by the hard realities of life and
+disillusionments. The book was to have many themes and varied notes but
+was to be blended, at the last, into a perfect symphony. The preludes
+were written in 1895-1897; the last chords were played in October,
+1912. Parts were written in France and Italy; others, in Switzerland
+and England.
+
+No work of fiction of such prodigious length, totaling more than 1550
+pages, in the three-volume edition translated by Gilbert Cannan, could
+be written without many lapses, many passages of uneven merit. Some
+of the characters are vital and haunting to the memory, like Olivier,
+Grazia, Antoinette, Sabine, Jacqueline, Emmanuel, Dr. Braun, besides
+the hero; others flit across the pages and are forgotten. Condensation
+of some chapters would add to their effectiveness but the author’s
+discursive, intuitive comments make a valuable asset of the book. It
+may be reread in parts with enjoyment, just as a musical program, for
+an evening, has selected movements in a fugue or a symphony. When it
+was suggested to Rolland that he seemed to show enmity towards Germany,
+by some of the reproaches of her false standards, his reply was, “I
+am not in the least an enemy of Germany”; in proof, he cited that he
+had rated soundly as many faults in France, in Volume V, as he had in
+Germany in Volume IV. He contended that Germany had creative energy and
+moral vigor but that she was “sick” in this twentieth century, just
+as France was diseased and needed to be purged to restore her noble
+qualities. Heroic souls are found in both countries but the people, as
+a whole, fail to interpret each other aright. Unless such understanding
+can be established in _friendship_, war will sunder the nations--such
+was the prophetic message of _Jean-Christophe_ which was fulfilled two
+years later. His book was intended as a “common heritage for all” of
+Europe.
+
+Time will fix the exact status of this epic novel and its lasting
+influence upon international thought. It may be classified as allegory,
+romance, psychological study, or idealistic vision; it has sincerity,
+inspiration, and imaginative intensity. The author’s statement that
+he always thought of the life of his hero as analogous to a river, is
+significant; he sustains the imagery from the first Dawn, Morning,
+Youth, and Revolt in Germany to the very end of the journey “across the
+border,” to the final act where “Saint Christopher” hears the roar of
+the torrent but also, the “tranquil voice of the Child” as the Angelus
+sounds forth The New Day. Gilbert Cannan has compared the phases of
+life, explored by _Jean-Christophe_, to the tortuous channel of an
+uncharted river. His judgment that this novel is “the first great book
+of the twentieth century,” is more stable than the prophecy of other
+critics that would leave out the word “first.” It has many passages
+of artistic perfection, like “Antoinette,” “The House,” and “The New
+Dawn.” With emotional fervor the author, in the closing volume, speaks
+his message to the future, apostrophizing the young men; “You men of
+today, march over us, trample us under your feet, and press onward. Be
+ye greater and happier than we.... Life is a succession of deaths and
+resurrections. We must die, Christophe, to be born again.”[106]
+
+And since the award, what has Romain Rolland written? _Colas
+Breugnon_, the tale of a Burgundian artist, translated in 1919 by
+Katherine Miller, is less intense, much more free and diverting than
+his long novel. It was a work of relaxation for the author during
+the summer months in Switzerland, 1913. He had recently visited his
+birth town and modeled the hero, in part, from a resident, a wood
+carver there, “an artist of the vanished type.” He has his struggles
+and defeats but he never loses his optimism. The next year the
+war began, with its devastating, soul-searing effects upon Romain
+Rolland. He had seen its black shadow and had forewarned the people
+in _Jean-Christophe_ but the actual conflict overwhelmed his spirit.
+Like Olivier, in his story (whom he resembles in many ways), he had
+feared such a war from boyhood; it had been “a nightmare to him; it
+had poisoned his childhood days.” He was at Vevey, on Lake Geneva,
+when the war broke out and he decided to stay there; he longed for
+France but he could not fight without blighting his soul. He would
+suffer as a pacifist, loving his country, rather than yield to hate.
+He did secretarial work for the Red Cross and assisted in welfare
+measures of many kinds. When the Nobel prize money came, he gave it “to
+the mitigation of the miseries of Europe.”[107] He wrote some of the
+papers that were collected in _Above the Battle_; his friendly letter
+to Hauptmann, appealing for amity, and the German’s reply, are given
+here. In spite of the aggressive tone of the German’s note, Rolland
+refused to believe that the ideals of human brotherhood had been
+destroyed; they were suffering eclipse temporarily but would relive
+in “The New Dawn.” To Woodrow Wilson, in the later months of the war,
+Rolland made an appeal to “be the arbiter of the free peoples.” On
+the day of the armistice he issued a manifesto, _L’Humanité_, a call
+to “brain workers,” comrades all through the world, to reconstruct
+a fraternal union. The play, _The Montespan_, translated by Helena
+van Brugh de Kay, is called a “sequel to _Above the Battle_.” He had
+written, during these days of seclusion and thought, his study and
+appreciation of _Mahatma Gandhi: the Man Who Became One with the
+Universal Being_ (translated by Catherine D. Groth), which has been
+quoted in the previous chapter upon Rabindranath Tagore.
+
+As relaxation, he wrote _Liluli_, a comedy with the “goddess of
+illusion” as its heroine. There are some lines of satire and some
+of burlesque, as the combatants wrestle. It was symbolic of France
+during the war years, as _he_ viewed his country, scorning Truth and
+heaping up ruins of past greatness. This has been illustrated with
+thirty-two wood engravings by Frans Masereel (New York, 1920). While
+Rolland was exercising his ironical wit upon this picture of war, he
+was writing _Clerambault: the Story of an Independent Spirit during
+the War_, a sad portrayal of a pacifist. This has been translated by
+Katherine Miller (New York, 1921). It is a dissertation more than
+a story, a presentation of the author’s own sentiments, with much
+philosophy about life and conflicts. The man, Clerambault, passes
+through strange spiritual experiences. The early scenes of his rural
+home life, peaceful and happy, are contrasted with his fanaticism when
+he reaches Paris and urges his son, Maxime, to enter the army; then
+come reactions, after the death of the son and his own probings of
+conscience. The author interprets the tale as a tragedy for the man
+and his wife, but a triumph of freedom for his soul. There are many
+autobiographical touches in this psychological story.
+
+In 1922 there appeared in Paris, from the pen of Rolland, the first
+volumes of _L’âme enchantée_ which is now appearing in English
+version, by Ben Ray Redman, as _Annette and Sylvie: The Prelude_ and
+a second volume, _Summer_, translated by Eleanor Stimson and Van Wyck
+Brooks. In his Foreword the author tells his readers that they are
+starting with him upon a new journey which will not be so long as
+that of _Jean-Christophe_ but will include more than one stage. He
+asks suspension of judgment until the tale is finished, quoting the
+old adage, “La fin loue la vie, et le soir le jour.” He expresses the
+domination that his characters gain over him--Jean, Colas, Annette--so
+that he becomes no more “than the secretary of their thoughts.” No
+thesis nor theory is in this story but it is another life history,
+struggling to find Truth, to reach harmony of spirit amid many kinds
+of buffetings and joys. Two girls, half sisters, Annette and Sylvie,
+afford him scope for sharp antitheses in character-drawing. Annette
+is a girl of fine health and brain, educated at the Sorbonne. She had
+adored her father but, because of some letters which she found after
+his death, she realizes his infidelities to her mother and understands
+his secretive smiles. She locates her half sister who never bore his
+name--Sylvie, pretty, uneducated, capricious, gay, unmoral. The deep
+passions of Annette, her reserves and independence, her repugnance to
+any “possessiveness” on the part of her lover, Roger Brissot, and his
+family, lead to a scene of erotic realism. This is followed by words of
+the author’s own creed, his Search for Truth: “I am not one of those
+who fear the fatigues of the road.... I am seeking.... I am convinced
+that it is possible to love one’s child, loyally perform one’s domestic
+task, and still keep enough of oneself, as one ought to--for the most
+essential thing ... one’s soul.”[108] The second volume reveals the
+material and spiritual conflicts of Annette, as a mother and teacher,
+and Sylvie’s experiences in marriage and business.
+
+In his latest book, as in his earlier plays and fiction, M. Rolland
+has revealed that idealism which, in his philosophy, means harmony and
+freedom, of both aspiration and action. His form is often careless
+and sometimes crude; but it has high lights of great beauty and
+true art. In his own life he has waged many battles that have left
+scars upon his sensitive temperament and fine soul. They have never
+shattered his spiritual creed, his faith in humanity. He has written
+ardently in behalf of international friendship and intellectual unity.
+In the future he may be ranked as a prophet as well as a scholar,
+a seer as well as a writer. Amid the turmoil of his generation he
+has been a force, making for peace; he has held high the banner of
+world-fellowship and sounded the challenge against racial jealousies.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[101] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1915.
+
+[102] _Romain Rolland: the Man and His Work_ by Stefan Zweig,
+translated by Eden and Cedar Paul, New York, 1921. By permission of
+Thomas Seltzer.
+
+[103] See his _Tolstoy_, translated by Bernard Miall, London and New
+York, 1911.
+
+[104] _Century Magazine_, August, 1913, article on Rolland by Alvan V.
+Sanborn.
+
+[105] _Romain Rolland: the Man and His Work_ by Stefan Zweig,
+translated by Eden and Cedar Paul, New York, 1915. By permission of
+Thomas Seltzer.
+
+[106] _Jean-Christophe_ by Romain Rolland, translated by Gilbert
+Cannan, Vol. III, p. 348, New York and London, 1913. By permission of
+Henry Holt & Co.
+
+[107] _Romain Rolland: the Man and His Work_ by Stefan Zweig, New York,
+1921, p. 270.
+
+[108] _Annette and Sylvie: Being Volume One of the Soul Enchanted_ by
+Romain Rolland, translated from the French by Ben Ray Redman, New York,
+1925. By permission of Henry Holt & Co.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A GROUP OF WINNERS--NOVELISTS AND POETS
+
+  HEIDENSTAM OF SWEDEN (1916)
+  PONTOPPIDAN AND GJELLERUP OF DENMARK (1917)
+  CARL SPITTELER OF SWITZERLAND (1919)
+
+
+  The prize of 1916 has been awarded:
+
+  Heidenstam, Verner von, born 1859: “in recognition of his
+  significance as spokesman of a new epoch in our literature.”[109]
+
+“Sweden’s Laureate” is the name often given to Verner von Heidenstam
+who won the prize in 1916. By public, competitive vote of his
+countrymen he had been chosen as the most popular poet before he was
+accorded this world honor. He is less familiar, by translation in
+English, than his compatriot who preceded him in recognition by the
+Swedish Academy, Selma Lagerlöf. His plays, novels, and poems are
+gaining new appreciation through the translations in recent years by
+Charles Wharton Stork, Arthur J. Chater, and Karoline M. Knudsen. He
+was born of aristocratic family at the manor house of Olshammar in
+Närke, July 6, 1859. As a boy he was never strong; he was shy and
+loved to read, especially poetry and hero stories. When he was in
+early adolescence, he developed such a condition that lung-disease was
+feared and he was sent to the south of Europe for a milder climate.
+For eight years he was away from Sweden, spending time in Italy,
+Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. Some of his ancestors had
+been in governmental positions in the Orient; he was lured by the
+picturesqueness and freedom of these lands.
+
+His first ambition was to be a painter; for a time he was a student
+of Gêrome in Paris. Critics have often recognized this quality of
+the painter’s skill in his poems, in selection of objects and colors
+and in reproduction of life in Paris, in Italian carnival days, and
+at Damascus. While Heidenstam was still a young man, he fell in love
+with a Swiss girl of the people and married her. At an old castle of
+Brunegg, estranged for a time from his parents, he lived in seclusion,
+seeing few people except his wife and August Strindberg who had become
+deeply interested in the young poet. Already he had decided that
+literature, not art, must be his profession. He wrote many poems that
+were gathered later as _Pilgrimages and Wander-Years_. In _Thoughts in
+Loneliness_ one may read expressions of his moods of longing for home,
+mingled with resentment against injustice. “Childhood Scenes” is an
+example, beginning:
+
+    I’ve longed for home these eight long years, I know.
+    I long in sleep as well as through the day!
+        I long for home!
+    I seek where’er I go, not men-folk, but the fields
+        Where I would stray,
+    The stones where as a child I used to play.[110]
+
+There are sundry references to his mother; a line that will arouse
+sympathy reads,
+
+    She prayed my life might have a worthy goal![111]
+
+In the poem, “Fame,” he is melancholy and laments:
+
+    You seek for fame but I would choose another
+    And greater blessing:
+      So to be forgotten
+    That none should hear my name;
+    No, not my mother.[112]
+
+The death of his father, in 1887, called him back to Sweden; here,
+with intervals of travel, has been his residence through his mature
+life. A volume of his _Poems_, following those of _Pilgrimages and
+Wander-Years_, increased his reputation among his countrymen. They
+were of diverse types; some were emotional like “A Man’s Last Word to a
+Woman”; others were scenic and dramatic narratives, like “The Forest of
+Tiveden” and “The Burial of Gustaf Fröding.” The lyrical quality in his
+songs adapts them to community singing; his “Sweden” is most familiar
+and has been compared by Mr. Stork to John Masefield’s “August, 1914.”
+The vibrant quality is strong; the patriotism is appealing:
+
+    Oh, Sweden, Sweden, Sweden, native Land!
+    Our earthly home, the haven of our longing!
+    The cow-bells ring where heroes used to stand,
+    Whose deeds are song, but still with hand in hand
+    To swear the eternal troth thy sons are thronging!
+
+In later poems, as well as prose essays, Heidenstam has shown ardent
+liberalism and a spirit of brotherhood. “Singers in the Steeple”
+emphasizes
+
+    Not joy to the rich, to the poor men care;
+    Our toil and our pleasure alike we share.
+
+_Poems_, published in 1902, contain appeals for democracy and universal
+suffrage, in the verses, “Fellow-Citizens,” and other lines. Like
+his predecessor, Björnson, he is both national and universal in his
+idealism. With honor and love he has written the elegy of Björnson as
+“Norway’s Father,” with the closing lines:
+
+    Yet the soul of the people deep within
+    Still breathes the eternal brother-song,
+    We stand and gaze at the sunset long
+    And grieve for thee as one of our kin.[113]
+
+Verner von Heidenstam must be included on the lists of novelists as
+well as poets. In 1889 he published his first romance, _Endymion_, a
+new treatment of an old theme. With a painter’s glow of fancy he sought
+to depict, through a love story of moderate interest, the atmosphere of
+the East, when it is clouded by restraints of Western civilization. He
+had registered rebellion against the growth of naturalism in fiction:
+in _Pepita’s Wedding_ (1890) he urged idealism, and search for inner
+truth. The term, “imaginative realist,” which has been used to classify
+Heidenstam, is especially applicable to the fantastic, emotional
+tale, _Hans Alienus_ (1892). As writer of fiction, however, the name
+of Heidenstam will always be linked most closely with _The Charles
+Men_ (_Karolinern_)--stories of Charles XII and his wars--a series of
+prose-poems depicting Swedish heroism, written with fervor and artistic
+finish. A translation by Charles Wharton Stork, with introduction
+by Fredrik Böök, has been added to the _Scandinavian Classics_
+(American-Scandinavian Foundation, New York, 1920). Among the best of
+several dramatic tales are “French Mons,” “The Fortified House,” and
+“Captured.” Like Rolland, Heidenstam is a pacifist yet he has written
+a vigorous tribute to this “King who lived his whole life in the field
+and died in a trench,” the man who was a genius in war but, like his
+heroic men, gentle as well as brave, with lofty visions.
+
+Other romances followed this major work, _The Charles Men_--tales
+and folklore, sagas and modern applications in _Saint George and the
+Dragon_, _Saint Briggitta’s Pilgrimage_, and _Forest Murmurs_. In
+fiction and essays the writer has attacked naturalism that “lets the
+cellar air escape through the house.” Some of his significant essays
+are collected as _Classicism and Teutonism_. It is unfortunate that
+so few of his works are adequately rendered into English. He has
+contributed to liberal and reform journals. In 1900, marrying for a
+third time, he bought a home near Vadstena, the place of his childhood,
+and with his wife, a woman of broad culture and social charm, he has
+exerted a wide influence upon Swedish life. In 1912 he was elected a
+member of the Swedish Academy which honored itself, as well as him, by
+the award of the Nobel prize four years later, after his candidacy had
+been urged throughout Scandinavia and elsewhere.
+
+Among his verses had been delightful “Cradle Songs”; he had written,
+also, juvenile stories. He was asked by the Swedish educational
+authorities to write a Reader for school use. He calls this “a work of
+love.” Without the originality and glamour of Miss Lagerlöf’s books,
+_The Wonderful Adventures of Nils_ and its sequel, this Reader contains
+some absorbing tales of heroism, and poems and scenes of descriptive
+merit. For older youths and adults he has embodied poetic legends with
+modern teachings in two plays, translated into English by Karoline M.
+Knudsen, _The Soothsayer_ and _The Birth of God_ (Boston, 1919, 1920).
+The first play is located upon “An Arcadian Plain” with Apollo, the
+Soothsayer, the Fates, and Erigone, wife of the Soothsayer, as leading
+characters. There are sentences of subtle humor about “a man in love,”
+and more serious counsel of Apollo, with modern meaning:
+
+        Son of dust!
+    Thou didst try to serve two gods; therefore, thy power became thy
+      doom!
+
+_The Birth of God_ is founded upon Egyptian mythology, with symbolism
+in the words of Dyskolus, an Ancient, to a modern merchant, A Stranger,
+comparing “the altar-fire and the sacred hymn,” when “divine destiny
+had not been forgotten,” with humanity of less pure standards.
+
+_The Tree of the Folkungs_, translated from the Swedish into English
+by Arthur J. Chater (New York, 1925), is a romance, mingling history,
+sagas, fantasy, pageantry, action, and modern interpretation of some
+of the deeds and ideals of the Vikings. It has been compared to _Peer
+Gynt_. Two distinctive parts of the book, welded into one story, are
+“Folke Filbyter” and “The Bellbo Heritage.” The elemental character
+that gives title to the first part is Earl Birger, sacrificing to all
+gods in adversity and pulling down all altars in days of prosperity.
+He opposes the dynasty of the Folkungs but he ends his days in squalor
+and piteous craving for the love denied him by his sons and grandsons,
+a lesson to moderns of the futility of material miserliness. The second
+section of the strange, impressive tale deals with the fortunes of the
+Folkungs two hundred years later and the conflict between two brothers
+and their differing standards, King Valdemar and Junker Magnus. The
+latter considers his older brother a “good-hearted, sunny-eyed fool,”
+compared with his own masterful ways. This legendary romance-pageant
+has scenes of dramatic power--the battle between Valdemar and Magnus,
+the love of the minstrel for an outcast maiden, and many customs of
+historical and imaginative past. It is an elaborate, well constructed
+revelation of Heidenstam’s imaginative insight and vigor, united with
+his skill in interpreting the _past_, in history and sagas, to the
+problems of the _present hour_. He is, in truth, “the herald of a new
+epoch in our literature.”
+
+
+HENRIK PONTOPPIDAN
+
+  The prize of 1917 has been awarded one half to:
+
+  Pontoppidan, Henrik, born 1857: “for his profuse descriptions of
+  Danish life of today.”[114]
+
+The Swedish Academy had sprung several surprises in the awards of
+the first fifteen years but they surpassed all previous records, in
+1917, when the honor was divided between Henrik Pontoppidan and Karl
+Gjellerup of Denmark. Danish writers, in general, were less known by
+translation in France, Italy, England, and America than their neighbors
+of Sweden and Norway. Outstanding exceptions are Hans Christian
+Andersen and Georg Brandes. The Danish Royal Theatre was recognized
+in contemporary life as an educational force; such playwrights of
+earlier and later days as Holberg, Oehlenschlager, and Edward Brandes
+had been studied by dramatic scholars in many countries. Bergström’s
+play, _Karen Borneman_, translated by Edwin Björkman, is discussed by
+Barrett H. Clark in _A Study of the Modern Drama_.[115] Another play
+by Bergström, _Thora van Deken_ (1915) was a dramatization of a novel
+by Pontoppidan.
+
+An interesting note, regarding the reaction to this joint award
+of 1917, is found in the _American-Scandinavian Review_.[116] The
+first comment is upon the ages of the recipients--both were past
+sixty--“another veteran medal” for writers whose productivity is
+past. In addition, says the editorial writer, “Neither has mastering
+genius that would entitle him to the prize.” Pontoppidan is the better
+known; he stands for progress that will not forget tradition. Vilhelm
+Anderson, literary historian, has said of Pontoppidan’s writings,
+“Modern Denmark could be reconstructed entire from his books.” The
+family had scholars, among them a bishop, Eric Pontoppidan, of the
+seventeenth century, who published the oldest Danish grammar in Latin.
+
+Henrik Pontoppidan was born at Frederica in Jutland, in 1857. His
+grandfather and father had been clergymen. While he was a schoolboy the
+family moved to Randers where he remained until he went to Copenhagen,
+to the Polytechnic Institute, to study engineering. He made a visit
+to Switzerland where he had his first love affair and wrote his early
+sketches. In 1881, in Denmark, appeared _Clipped Wings_, a collection
+of stories of which “The Church Ship” excels in imagination and
+dramatic concentration, the mystical mingling with the realistic. In
+1891 he lived for a time at Ostby but a few years later, after his
+second marriage, he moved to Copenhagen where he has been a noted
+leader in educational and literary life, a friend of Brandes and an
+adviser of the younger dramatists and novelists. He has been called
+an imitator of Ibsen; an echo of some of the melancholic effects of
+_Brand_ and _Ghosts_ may be seen in Pontoppidan’s tales but he is
+distinctive in his methods of portrayal. He is criticized sometimes as
+narrow and localized, without spiritual vision.
+
+A trilogy of novels (1892-1916) presents scenes and characters in
+the rural life of Denmark. The first book, _The Promised Land_, is
+depressing, strongly realistic in its hero, Emanuel, called by some
+critics “a prose Brand.” It is a tale of disillusionment, a revelation
+of the struggle of idealists in this world of material ambitions. It
+is written with care--three years was devoted to it--and the note of
+sincerity is marked. The second novel, _Lucky Peter_, to which the
+author devoted four years, is partly subjective. The hero, like his
+author, was son of a clergyman and studied as an engineer. _The Kingdom
+of the Dead_, written during the war years, reflects such influences
+with a stronger tone of patriotism than is dominant in the author’s
+other tales; it is loosely constructed but it gives clear glimpses
+of Copenhagen, both in city streets and outlying districts. _The
+Apothecary’s Daughter_ has been translated by G. Nielsen (London, 1890).
+
+In an English edition of Pontoppidan’s stories, _The Promised Land_
+and _Emanuel, or Children of the Soil_, translated by Mrs. Edgar
+Lucas, with several illustrations by Nelly Erichsen (London, 1896),
+the illustrator explains the author’s purpose in the chapters of _The
+Evolution of the Danish Peasant_. He has chosen a disturbing period in
+educational and religious life after the Danish peasant was transformed
+from a slave to a citizen, by the act of 1849. Political parties, “The
+National-Liberal” and “Friends of the Peasants,” were formed and high
+schools were established. Then, by a revision of 1866, the liberties of
+the peasants were again threatened and despair settled on their minds.
+In two remote villages, Veilby and Skibberup, prototypes of the places
+where the author had lived and taught for a time and knew the people,
+he has portrayed their customs and revolts in a vivid, descriptive
+style.
+
+In some of his short stories, like “Eagle’s Flight” and “Mimosas,”
+Pontoppidan reveals himself at his best as narrator. He is deeply
+interested in educational progress for his people; he urges freedom
+from hypocrisy and weak compromises. Idealist in his aspirations and
+photographer of Danish life in town and country, he is an author whose
+writings will be appreciated as the years add to their interpretations
+and translations.
+
+
+KARL GJELLERUP
+
+  The prize of 1917 has been awarded, one half to:
+
+  Gjellerup, Karl, born 1857, died October 13, 1919: “for his
+  many-sided, rich, and inspired writing with high ideals.”[117]
+
+Like Pontoppidan, Karl Adolf Gjellerup was the son of a clergyman. He
+was born at Roholte in 1857. To please his father he studied for the
+ministry, and took examinations in theology, but he was not willing to
+accept any parish. He was deeply interested in “modernist doctrines”
+and became a disciple of Darwin, Georg Brandes, and Spencer. Later he
+recanted from some of these teachings and became less radical and more
+historical in his studies. He delighted in the Eddas and had a natural
+flair for literature even before he became a professional writer. He
+has lived much of his life in Dresden, where his popularity seems to be
+greater than in his home country. Said the commentator on Gjellerup, in
+the _American-Scandinavian Review_,[118] after the prize was divided
+between him and Pontoppidan in 1917, “his appointment has been
+received with marked coolness in Scandinavia.”
+
+As a writer, Gjellerup has traveled far afield for his subjects. He
+has written books on art and music; he is an ardent Wagnerian and
+has studied many aspects of this influence, as his writings testify.
+He has tried his hand at plays in which he sought to reconcile the
+modern spirit of Christianity with the Greek love of beauty. It is not
+a new theme--nor is there much distinction in his treatment. He has
+translated, in modern Danish language, several tales of the Eddas and
+old Norse sagas. By translation into English he is known especially by
+two stories, _The Pilgrim Kamanita_ and _Minna_; other novels, typical
+of his style are _An Idealist_ and _Pastor Mons_, with satirical and
+photographic passages.
+
+_The Pilgrim Kamanita_, translated by John E. Logie (London and New
+York, 1912), is subtitled _A Legendary Romance_. It is laid on the
+banks of the Gunga, when Lord Buddha visits the “City of Five Hills”;
+there is graphic description of locusts and coral trees and blossoms
+in the grove of Krishna. The text is from Byron’s _Don Juan_--“This
+narrative is not meant for narration”--an indication of its imaginative
+quality. The opening pages are brilliant with colorful passages,
+“billowy clouds of purest gold,” blossoming gardens and terraces and “a
+long line of rocky eminences, rivaling in colour the topaz, amethyst,
+and the opal, were resolved into an enamel of incomparable beauty at
+this City of the Five Hills.” Kamanita was the son of a merchant in
+the land of Avanti, among the mountains. He was rich, well educated,
+could sing and draw, could color crystals and “tell whence any jewel
+came.” At twenty he was sent on an embassy of business to King Udena in
+Kosambi. Here began his “Pilgrimage” in love and memories that form the
+trail of this story. Mysticism, and esoteric philosophy are _mixed_,
+rather than _blended_, with realism.
+
+_Minna_, the novel translated into English by C. L. Nielsen (London,
+1913), has Dresden for its background. There are songs from Wagner and
+music by Chopin and Beethoven, interspersed with the tale of Minna
+and her tragic life, after her _mariage de convenance_. In a note,
+dated Dresden, August, 1912, the author confesses, “I have often
+felt a homesick feeling for the Danish _sund_.” He adds that he has
+been reading Thomas Moore’s _Irish Melodies_, bequeathed to him by
+his deceased friend, Harald Fenger. This love story, in manuscript
+form, was entrusted to Gjellerup before Fenger died in London, after
+he had lost “Minna” and developed a fatal illness of the chest. With
+these memories before him, he narrates this romance of the hero who
+comes into the country, near the Elbe and, crossing the ferry, meets
+a pretty governess and Lisbeth, whose chief distinction was that
+of wearing a veil, “at a time when veils are out of fashion.” The
+character of Minna is revealed largely through letters with emotional
+tones. There are disillusionments as well as emotional joys in this
+tale, justifying the motto chosen from Moore’s line, “To live with them
+is far less sweet than to remember them.”
+
+The Nobel honor to Gjellerup was appreciated much in Germany because
+his influence upon art and literature had been strong, especially
+in Dresden. He interpreted, to Danish readers, certain factors in
+German life and philosophy. While his Danish compatriots recognize
+his scholarly work, his literary insight, and subtle wit, they do not
+rank him as a genius nor essentially as a Danish writer. Some leaders
+in that country would have much preferred to be represented, among
+Nobel prize winners, by a versatile, world-honored writer like Georg
+Brandes, or a playwright like Bergström (before his death in 1914)
+or a poet like Drachmann (before his death in 1908) or a writer of
+localized scenes but broad vision like J. V. Jensen. There are elements
+of poetic insight and analytical skill in the romances by Gjellerup;
+and translation into English will increase appreciation of his literary
+influence.
+
+
+CARL SPITTELER
+
+  The prize of 1919 has been awarded:
+
+  Spitteler, Carl, Switzerland, born 1845; died 1925; “having
+  especially in mind his mighty epic _Olympischen Frühling_.”[119]
+
+Another small country and an author, little known outside France and
+Germany and his own land, was the choice for the award of 1919--Carl
+Spitteler of Switzerland. There was no prize given in 1918, in
+literature. In spite of the fact that Nietzsche had written of
+Spitteler as “perhaps the most subtle æsthetic writer of Germany,”[120]
+his name was not familiar to international readers. Born in Liestal,
+a canton of Basel in 1845, he was nearly seventy-five years old. His
+work had been idealistic in trend, thus fulfilling one condition of the
+prize; his epic for which he was honored had been completed fourteen
+years before--_Olympian Spring_. He had suffered from disappointments
+and lack of appreciation by critics until his later years. He had never
+lost his zeal for literature and desire to promulgate ideals of truth
+and freedom.
+
+He was fortunate in opportunities for travel and study as a youth.
+His father was in the post-office service at Basel and later was
+Secretary of the Treasury at Berne. While at Basel University, Carl
+Spitteler came under two influences of lasting results on his life
+and writing--Wilhelm Wackernagel, the German philologist, and Jacob
+Burckhardt, the historian of the Italian Renaissance. He loved
+music, especially Beethoven, and showed taste for art. Later he went
+to the Universities of Zürich and Heidelberg, to study history and
+jurisprudence. He took courses in theology--thinking he might be a
+minister--but decided wisely that his bent was towards philosophy
+and literature. His ambition was to become an epic poet; he essayed
+to write _John of Abyssinia_, _Atlantis_, _Theseus and Heracles_ but
+he pushed aside these pioneer efforts as puerile. For eight years
+he was tutor in Russia, in the family of a Russian general. While
+there, he was writing slowly the poem that he had planned in student
+days at Heidelberg, _Prometheus and Epimetheus_. It was issued first
+under the pseudonym of “Felix Tandem” and ten years later with his
+own signature.[121] His Prometheus is “an exalted soul,” suffering
+rather than proving untrue to his spiritual ideals. By contrast is his
+brother, Epimetheus, receiving Pandora’s gifts and material honors but
+losing his soul until he recalls Prometheus from exile, to drive away
+“the powers of evil.” There is depth of philosophy mingled with modern
+ideas in this poem of grace and beauty. He was charged with imitating
+Nietzsche’s _Also sprach Zarathustra_ so he wrote a pamphlet, _My
+Relations with Nietzsche_, emphasizing his ignorance of the latter’s
+work when he wrote his poem on Prometheus.
+
+He continued his teaching in Switzerland at Berne and at Neuenstadt,
+spending thirty hours a week in the classroom; then he did some
+journalistic work at Basel. In 1883 he married and soon after
+published _Extramundana_, in which he told, in verse, cosmic myths of
+the history of creation. A collection of his lyrics, _Butterflies_
+(_Schmetterlinge_), excel in rhythm and love of nature. In 1891, he
+inherited a small fortune; from that time he was relieved from routine
+teaching and writing; he went to Lucerne where the scenic beauty
+increased his literary inspiration. He experimented in various forms--a
+series of essays known as _Laughing Truth_ (_Lachende Wahrheiten_),
+with irony and earnestness mingled, a prose idyl, _Gustav_, and
+a juvenile _Mädchenfeinde_, translated by Mme. la Vicomtesse Le
+Roquette-Buisson as _Two Little Misogynists_ (New York, 1922). There
+are clever illustrations by A. Helene Carter. This is an amusing tale,
+perhaps more appealing to adults than to children readers by its
+subtle wit and modern educational problems; but it is entertaining
+and lively. Two boys, aged ten and nine, Gerold and Hänsli, “fine,
+healthy boys,” are returning to a military school after a vacation.
+If only some great event might save them--a flood or earthquake or
+epidemic among the teachers, or “a declaration of war.” Their feelings
+towards the girls, Theresa and Marianelli, are natural and amusing.
+There is irony in the warning given to Gerold lest “he should think
+for himself,” a process that is both popular and unpatriotic, as many
+people consider.
+
+After the publication of some poems as _Balladen_ in 1905, Carl
+Spitteler wrote _Imago_, which he declared was “an explanation of
+Prometheus and Epimetheus--what really happened.” “Prometheus shows
+what a poet made of it.”[122] Autobiography, as in many of his books,
+reappears in the young man, Victor, the poet in _Imago_; in the
+discussion or analysis of Frau Doktor and German womanhood, the author
+has shown the _provincial_ attitude, in many conditions of life outside
+Germany as well as within.
+
+_Der olympische Frühling_, which is known by translation as _Olympian
+Spring_, was the mature expression of Spitteler as poet. It appeared
+from the press at intervals from 1900 to 1905. It has five parts,
+with more than thirty cantos, written in iambic couplets. Four lines,
+describing Apollo, from _Olympian Spring_, have been freely translated
+by Thekla E. Hodge:
+
+    Threefold is thy royal crown of fame:
+    Thou hast conceived it: that shows thy lofty aim.
+    Thou hast dared it: that tells the hero’s valor.
+    Thou hast achieved it: from thousands thou art chosen.
+
+The poem mingles classic mythology with satire, contemporary problems,
+humor and idealism. With high praise, it has been called “The Divine
+Comedy of the New Century.”[123] It has been compared to Shelley’s
+_Prometheus Unbound_, to Keats’ _Endymion_ and other epical poems.
+Ananke, ruler of the universe, is a vitalized character from mythology
+who imprisons the gods in Erebus. He permits them to start on a journey
+to visit the distant world while Moira, daughter of Ananke, gives
+springtime and peace to the world. Their joy is turned into discord and
+suffering as they come near;--
+
+    And from the yawning cleft the echoes’ thunder rolled,
+    For aye no spot on earth but witnessed grief untold.
+
+The blue flower of Memory has a vital part to play. The angels chant
+their message of hope, their assurance of “a coming morn” when cocks
+will crow at the advent of a Saviour, and Part I ends in a climax of
+idealism. The “Winning of Hera,” Queen of the Amazons, and the choice
+of Herakles as wanderer on the earth, suffering any tortures for the
+sake of Truth, are larger themes in Part II. Marguerite Münsterberg has
+made an interpretive translation of parts of this epic poem which won
+for its author the Nobel prize.[124] There is drollery and satire, as
+in the plan of Aphrodite to lead mankind away like children, and the
+frustration by rain and burlesque features. The poetic climaxes are
+vigorous and the complete work is masterly and epical.
+
+Spitteler is often ranked as representative of German literature in
+Switzerland, in company with Gottfried Keller, Conrad Meyer, author
+of _The Monk’s Marriage_, and Joseph Victor Widman, author of _Saints
+and Beasts_. He showed influences, in prose and verse, of Goethe and
+Schiller but he had originality in his approach to his subject and
+its treatment. He endured much loneliness of spirit from neglect of
+his literary messages and from political bitterness. During the war
+he urged the neutrality of German Switzerland and so lost favor with
+the people who had stimulated and encouraged him; in return he gained
+popularity in France and was given the greeting of the French Academy
+when he was seventy years old. His poems vary much in tones and
+measures; there are musical _Bell Songs_ (_Glockenlieder_, 1906) and
+light, joyful _Butterflies_ of earlier years. In the later _Ballads_
+he often struck a note against commercialism, with a ring of robust
+idealism in behalf of spiritual values, and denunciation of those
+“Prudes to the bone”--
+
+    For what of old our fathers virtues made
+    They’ve chaffered for in markets or betrayed.
+
+The death of Carl Spitteler at Lucerne, in the current year,
+revived interest in his life and writings, and evoked recognition
+of his influence towards revival of the best in classicism, and his
+aspirations for freedom and sincerity in modern life and letters.
+
+Among many tributes to the work of this poet a few may be cited from
+the monograph, compiled by Eugen Diederichs Verlag in Jena, translated
+for this book by Thekla E. Hodge. Michael Georg Conrad, often compared
+with Spitteler as a leading exponent of modern German literature,
+writes: “The marked superiority of Spitteler over his contemporaries
+in the realm of _belles-lettres_ is due to his brilliant creative
+genius, and the rare combination of deep feeling and keen humor.”
+Widman, another author-critic, writes of _Prometheus_: “In this poem
+he blends poetry with religion (mythology) and thought (philosophy).
+Unfortunately, we can draw no comparison for nothing like it is found
+in literature.” The same critic is enthusiastic about the poems,
+_Butterflies_ (_Schmetterlinge_). “The fate of these wondrous little
+creatures, whose transformation has ever brought to the human mind a
+mysterious and touching symbolism, was wrought by the poet’s touch into
+scenes of dramatic tragedy, and irresistible charm.”
+
+Several commentators have stressed the qualities of vigor and
+grotesqueness, combined with idyllic poetry in the epics and lyrics by
+Spitteler. One of the most sincere tributes was that of Romain Rolland,
+written soon after he had received the Nobel prize and before that
+honor was given to Carl Spitteler. He regrets that it was not bestowed
+upon the Swiss writer and adds: “Spitteler is to my mind the greatest
+European poet, the only one today who approaches the most famous names
+of the past.... Strange blindness of the world to pass by the living
+flame of the genius of the most inspired poet without even divining its
+splendour.” The award of 1919 was the fulfilment of Rolland’s desire.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[109] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1916.
+
+[110] _Sweden’s Laureate: Selected Poems_ translated by Charles Wharton
+Stork, New Haven, 1919. By permission of Yale University Press.
+
+[111] _Ibid._, “Mother.”
+
+[112] By permission of Yale University Press.
+
+[113] _Sweden’s Laureate: Selected Poems_, translated by Charles
+Wharton Stork, New Haven, 1919. By permission of Yale University Press.
+
+[114] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1917.
+
+[115] New York, 1925, p. 27.
+
+[116] Vol. VI, p. 109.
+
+[117] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1917.
+
+[118] Vol. VI, 1918.
+
+[119] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1918.
+
+[120] _Carl Spitteler_; monograph compiled by Eugen Diederichs Verlag
+in Jena.
+
+[121] _Studies from Ten Literatures_ by Ernest Boyd, New York, 1925.
+
+[122] _The German Classics_, edited by Kuno Francke, New York, 1914,
+_Carl Spitteler: Life and Works_, Vol. XIV, pp. 493-515.
+
+[123] _Contemporary Review_, January, 1920, article by J. G. Robertson.
+
+[124] _The German Classics_, edited by Kuno Francke, New York, 1914,
+Vol. XIV, p. 515.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+KNUT HAMSUN AND HIS NOVELS OF NORWEGIAN LIFE
+
+
+  The prize of 1920 has been awarded:
+
+  Hamsun, Knut, Norway, born 1859: “for his monumental work, _The
+  Growth of the Soil_.”[125]
+
+It was characteristic of a type of journalism in the United States
+that the announcement of the Nobel award in literature for 1920, to
+Knut Hamsun, should have been featured in a digest of news thus: “The
+Horse-Car Conductor Who Wins the Nobel Prize.” A passing incident
+in the life of this author--a few months of service on street cars
+in Chicago--but they loom large in minds that cherish trivialities.
+His works in fiction and drama, more than twenty-five in number,
+have been translated into a score of dialects; he is an outstanding
+and unique figure in the literary life of to-day; his development of
+personality and fame vies in interest with the challenging quality of
+his writings. Few authors have been so self-revelatory as he has been
+in his plays and novels. Except for statistical facts and side lights,
+to be found in other sources, one can make almost a complete picture
+of his background, his early struggles and revolts, his innate poetry
+and growing idealism, by reading in succession _Hunger_, _Mysteries_,
+_Pan_, and _Munken Vendt_, followed by _Dreamers_, _Benoni_, _Children
+of the Age_, and _Growth of the Soil_.
+
+Although Knut Hamsun’s parents were of peasant stock, the boy, born
+August 4, 1860, at Lom, in Gudbrandsdalen, in eastern Norway, inherited
+strains of artistic craftsmanship. His grandfather was a worker in
+metals (sometimes called a blacksmith) but fortunes were low and, when
+the lad was four years old, the family moved from the Gudbrandsdalen
+mountain valley to the Lofoden Islands, Nordland. Here, amid wild,
+awesome scenery and simple fisherfolk with sordid tasks, the youth
+grew to young manhood. For a time he lived with an uncle who was a
+preacher, of the state church; he was a severe man. In his short
+story, “A Spook,” Hamsun recalls those days with their floggings and
+work and hours of escape to the cemetery or the woods.[126] Before he
+could satisfy his cravings for an education, he was apprenticed to a
+shoemaker in Bodö, in Nordland. He managed to get his first writings
+published; in 1878 appeared the serious poem, that showed appreciation
+of the glowing colors and wild aspects of nature, _Meeting Again_,
+and the story _Björger_ with the pseudonym, Knud Pederson Hamsund.
+While there were interesting bits of autobiography, this initial
+fiction was imitative of Björnson and has not been revived by its
+author among his books.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc._
+
+KNUT HAMSUN]
+
+Restless and unwilling to spend his days at Bodö as a shoemaker, he
+worked for a short while as coal heaver, and later as road-maker and
+school-teacher and sheriff’s assistant. Then, like so many Scandinavian
+youths, he decided to emigrate to America. Some of these earlier
+experiences are recalled in his novels, _A Wanderer Plays on Muted
+Strings_ and _Under the Autumn Star_ (in the English edition united as
+_Wanderers_). In the United States he drifted from one occupation to
+another and covered a wide range of pursuits as street-car conductor,
+farm laborer, clerk in grocery store and lecturer. He cherished
+hopes of literary chances in this country but the lack of them, and
+the misfortunes that came upon him, made him bitter for a time,
+in retrospect. Those who recalled him on the Halstead street-car
+line in Chicago, and later on a cable line, affirmed that he had “a
+perpetual stare into the horizon,” that he was “out-at-elbows” and
+had small volumes of classic poets sticking out of his pockets.[127]
+They add that he would forget to ring the bell for passengers or
+would fall over their feet in his reverie. One is skeptical of such
+detailed memories of famous men. In the summer of 1885, he was back in
+Christiania, doing some journalistic work and lecturing. Hanna Arstrup
+Larsen in her authoritative study of Knut Hamsun[128] says that he had
+been at the University of Christiania, before he went to America; but
+that he found he was a misfit and went back to his “old life on the
+road.”[129]
+
+In 1886, says Professor Josef Wiehr,[130] he returned to the United
+States as correspondent for _Current Events_ (_Verdens Gang_) but
+he was obliged to undertake manual work to get a living wage; for a
+time he was with a Russian fishing vessel off the Newfoundland banks.
+For about a year he was secretary to Kristoffer Janson, a Norwegian
+clergyman in Minneapolis; he was then twenty-eight years old, and had
+been working on a farm in North Dakota. He wanted a chance to lecture
+in Minneapolis on literary topics but his ambitions were unrealized
+and he left America with some bitter feelings and the manuscript
+of his satirical book, _The Spiritual Life of Modern America_ (or
+_Intellectual Life in Modern America_), sometimes entitled _Of American
+Culture_. In a copy of this book, owned by Edwin Björkman, Hamsun
+wrote an inscription, dated 1905, thus, “A youthful work. It has ceased
+to represent my opinion of America.”[131] He scoffs at “American
+patriotism, engendered by means of tinfifes”; he asserts, “There is
+an enormous gap in American liberty, a chasm which is kept open by
+the thick-headed democracy”; he finds no cultural life but coarse
+materialism and “prudishness” and “self-satisfied ignorance.”[132]
+The book justifies a critic’s comment that it is “a masterpiece of
+distorted criticism.”[133] His short story, “Woman’s Victory,” in the
+collection, _Struggling Life_, is based on his experiences in Chicago;
+in the Preface, he tells of his life as car conductor. “Zacchæus,” in
+the collection, _Brushwood_ (1903), is reminiscent of the days upon the
+North Dakota farm.
+
+In Copenhagen, on his return from America, he enlisted the interest
+of Edward Brandes, then editor of a daily newspaper there. Through
+his influence, place was found for the manuscript of _Hunger Sult_ in
+a Copenhagen magazine, _New Soil_, in 1888, to appear anonymously;
+two years later it came out as a book, with the author’s name on the
+title-page. It was immature and subjective, but it gripped readers
+everywhere by its sincerity and whimsicality. Miss Larsen makes a true
+criticism of this book when she says it is “without beginning and end
+and without a plot but it has a series of climaxes.” Antithetical
+to such passages of poetic and dramatic power there are pages of
+naturalism that cause a revulsion of emotion and seem to some readers
+an insult to taste. It is absolutely true and relentless; perhaps,
+as Professor Wiehr suggests, “By the production of this work, Hamsun
+sought to free his mind from terrible memories of the past that were
+haunting him” (p. 13). Two years later the same mixture of poetic high
+lights and crass realism characterized _Mysteries_. Johan Nagel is the
+restless hero who falls in love with Dagny Kielland, daughter of the
+pastor, and meets with tragic experiences and suicide. Like his author,
+“Nagel is at odds with life” and finds peace only in nature. Like
+Hamsun he tries vainly to adapt himself to conventions of society and
+becomes embittered. “The Hamsun ego,” as Miss Larsen calls the _motif_
+of these earlier tales, recurs in _Editor Lynge_, the drama, _Sunset_,
+and _Pan_ (1894). Lieutenant Glahn, the hunter in this last book,
+is happy in his hut and outdoors but is proudly unhappy in contact
+with humanity; the tale ends in tragedy. Edvarda, the woman of this
+story, is erotic and capricious to the point of disgust yet she has a
+pathetic element in her nature.
+
+_Victoria_ shows an advance away from the “Hamsun ego” of revolt and
+naturalism towards that of poetry: Johannes, the hero, the miller’s
+son, is in harmony with nature; even loss in love cannot blight his
+soul. There are sentences of poetic diction in this novel and in
+_Munken Vendt_ (1902), the dramatic poem which embodies the character
+of a lovable, simple vagabond. One recalls the words of Edwin Björkman,
+in the Introduction to his translation of _Hunger_; “The artist and the
+vagabond seem equally to have been in the blood of Hamsun from the very
+start.”[134] Before he attained to the second type of novel--the less
+subjective and more idealistic group--(if idealism may be so expanded
+in meaning) Hamsun wrote a trilogy of plays, beginning with _At the
+Gates of the Kingdom_ (1895) with Kareno, a philosophical student
+and writer, as hero, and a wife of sexual domination. The author’s
+tenets about life and government are voiced by Kareno in this drama
+and _Life’s Play_, ten years later in setting; the third in the cycle,
+_Sunset_ (1898) shows Kareno at fifty, full of scientific doubts and
+reactions from earlier aspirations for liberty and truth. The author
+indulges his satire against professional “moralists” in these plays;
+sometimes, he indulges, also, his unvarnished frankness of sensual
+portrayals, and his lack of deference for old age. The play, _In the
+Grip of Life_, was translated by Graham and Tristan Rawson and issued
+in 1924 (Knopf). The women in his plays are, generally, animalistic, or
+erotic, lacking diversity in types.
+
+With the appearance of _Children of the Age_ (or _Children of the
+Times_) in 1909, followed by _Segelfoss Town_ and _Growth of the Soil_,
+the reader of persistent interest in Hamsun realized that the author
+had orientated himself, that he was “finding his place” in literature.
+He was still defying society, “the group,” still disclaiming belief
+in democracy, but he had gained “a social vision.” In method
+characteristic of many novelists, he has chosen a family, with strong
+racial traits, the family of Willatz Holmsen, for the expression of
+his sociological ideas. The despotic, anxious Willatz III, a retired
+Lieutenant, is a character that lingers in memory; he is vitally real
+in his relations with his wife, of higher social rank, and with his
+son, the musicianly boy; he is dramatic and pathetic in his defiance
+of Tobias Holmengraa, the industrial “king” from South America. The
+last days of stubborn pride and loneliness are scenes of artistic
+fiction. _Segelfoss Town_, written before _The Growth of the Soil_,
+but translated afterwards by J. S. Scott (Knopf, 1925), continues the
+story of this family and the departure of Holmengraa, after a financial
+collapse, leaving behind his daughter, Mariane, half Mexican in blood,
+who marries the commercial “leader of the small town. Segelfoss Town
+has been called a ‘Norwegian Main Street.’” There is much irony and
+reiterated sordidness in the tale. The telegraph operator, Baardsen, is
+a daring, strong character.
+
+In the Introduction to _Dreamers_, W. W. Worster (New York, 1922) calls
+_The Growth of the Soil_ Hamsun’s “greatest triumph.” It is the _one_
+book thus far appearing in American edition, that seems to win wide
+reading. It is localized in setting, objective in theme, and universal
+in human appeal. Isac (or Isak) is a convincing character of elemental
+type. He symbolizes man, when face to face with nature. Inger is a
+coarse Lapp woman in her physical nature yet she seeks expression for
+finer feelings, even as she strangles the third baby girl that would
+bear, through life, the mother’s curse of a hair lip. “Back to the
+soil!” is the message of this masterpiece of Norwegian fiction. It has
+a large group of Norwegian characters, and a challenging tone regarding
+many moral issues, but it maintains artistic unity.
+
+That Knut Hamsun has grown steadily in literary skill, that he has
+written novels of vigor and photographic effects, cannot be denied.
+That he has a philosophical attitude towards humanity and the driving
+forces behind society (especially as applied to Norway), is also
+evident. His self-education, his persistence, and his assimilated
+judgment, together with caustic wit and grotesque humor, are other
+qualities that must be accounted to his credit. On the other hand, he
+is often slothful and diffuse in structure and offensive to æsthetic
+minds because of his stress of sexual impulses and his coarseness.
+He does not condone immorality but he seems indifferent to its
+existence. In his personal convictions, however, he realizes the need
+of a basic morality. Says Professor Wiehr: “It is just this absence
+of ‘the triumph of a moral idea’ which will stand most in the way of
+any popularity of Hamsun’s works with the great majority of American
+readers.” Other explanations of Hamsun’s attitude towards Christianity
+and “constructive ideas” are given in this excellent study by Professor
+Wiehr.[135] He thinks that his countrymen, and “all backward nations,”
+are in a much better position to follow his advice than the millions
+that populate the countries leading the world in industries. Some
+critics affirm that Hamsun’s compatriot, Johan Boyer, in his condensed,
+dramatic novels, _The Great Hunger_, _The Last of the Vikings_, _A
+Pilgrimage_, and _The Emigrants_ is more gifted as a novelist and
+shows more evidences of idealistic vision. In his personal life,
+Hamsun has revealed the traits of the wanderer, “vagabond” if you
+will, combined with the deep-rooted love of home and devotion to his
+countrymen in their industrial needs and their educational struggles.
+He is not an optimist but he advocates persistent work and the
+preservation of spiritual freedom and courage.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[125] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1920.
+
+[126] _Knut Hamsun: His Personality and His Outlook upon Life_ by Josef
+Wiehr, _Smith College Studies in Modern Languages_, Vol. III, Nos. 1
+and 2, pp. 2, 3.
+
+[127] _Literary Digest_ 67: 35, November 20, 1920.
+
+[128] _Knut Hamsun: A Study_ by Hanna Arstrup Larsen, Knopf, New York,
+1922.
+
+[129] _Ibid._, p. 19.
+
+[130] _Knut Hamsun: His Personality and His Outlook upon Life_,
+Northampton, 1922.
+
+[131] Introduction to _Hunger_ by Knut Hamsun, translated by Edwin
+Björkman, New York, 1920. By permission of Alfred A. Knopf.
+
+[132] _Knut Hamsun: His Personality and His Outlook upon Life_ by Josef
+Wiehr, Northampton, 1922, pp. 8, 9. By permission of Prof. Wiehr.
+
+[133] Introduction to _Hunger_, translated by Edwin Björkman.
+
+[134] _Hunger_, translated by George Egerton, New York, 1920. By
+permission of Alfred A. Knopf.
+
+[135] _Knut Hamsun: His Personality and His Outlook upon Life_ by Josef
+Wiehr, Northampton, 1922.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ANATOLE FRANCE--VERSATILE STYLIST IN FICTION AND ESSAYS
+
+
+  The prize of 1921 has been awarded:
+
+  Anatole France (Thibault, Jacques Anatole), Paris, born 1844; died
+  1924: “in recognition of his splendid activity as an author,--an
+  activity marked by noble style, large-hearted humanity, charm and
+  French _esprit_.”[136]
+
+When Anatole France, who had been the Nobel prize winner of 1921, died
+in the autumn of 1924, there was scarcely a journal of standing in any
+country that did not summarize his influence upon letters and life in
+France and other nations. Distinctly Parisian in traits and expression,
+this writer was broadly international in his analysis of humanity, in
+his genial mockery of life, in his dreamy idealism which coexisted
+with a ruthless realism. He had lived the full span of life--and
+_lived_ it to the end of his eighty years. He had written in moods of
+biting satire and emotional intensity; he had found themes in history,
+current topics, and the future. As he neared the close of his life,
+the emphasis was more upon the genial, kindly aspects of humanity;
+his later literary expressions were memories of his boyhood and youth,
+the completion of that cycle of intuitive memories that began with _My
+Friend’s Book_ (1885) and _Pierre Nozière_, and ended with _Little
+Pierre_ and _The Bloom of Life_ (1922).
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _Copyright, 1925, by J. B. Lippincott Company._
+  _Photograph by Choumoff, Paris_
+
+ANATOLE FRANCE]
+
+Between these volumes of imaginative and reminiscent delights, which
+form a better biography of his mind and spirit than has otherwise been
+written, Anatole France produced such diverse literary types, such
+books of ironic and cynical flavor as _The Red Lily_, _Thaïs_, _The
+Revolt of the Angels_, _The Amethyst Ring_, _At the Sign of the Reine
+Pédauque_, _Crainquebille_, _The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife_, _The
+Elm Tree on the Mall_, _Penguin Island_, _The Gods Are Athirst_, _The
+Life of Jeanne d’Arc_, _The Human Comedy_, and volumes of critical
+essays and poems. To the books of more reminiscent flavor, with wistful
+idealism, he was indebted, especially, for the honor of the Nobel
+prize. These had already won the tributes--and critical estimates--of
+readers of European countries, of Canada, United States and South
+America. Few writers have had such diverse judgments passed upon them;
+in many cases, the temperamental traits of the critic influence his
+reactions to this author; in other instances, most effusive tributes,
+like those by James Lewis May and Paul Gsell, of recent years (1924),
+have brought natural reactions in more unvarnished truth, tinged
+with wit and naturalism, like the biography by Jean-Jacques Brousson:
+_Anatole France Himself_ which has been called facetiously _Anatole
+France in Bed-Slippers_ (the French title reads _Anatole France en
+pantouffles_, 1925). Mr. May has written as a friend and warm admirer;
+Paul Gsell, as a disciple; M. Brousson, as private secretary and
+fearless narrator.
+
+It might be said that Anatole France was _born_ into the inheritance of
+books in 1844, for his father, François Noël Thibault, was a bookseller
+of repute throughout Paris and its environs. Son of a shoemaker in
+Anjou, this elder Thibault had taught himself to read and write while
+he had been in military service as a young man. At his bookshops in
+the Quai Malaquais and Quai Voltaire gathered scholars and authors,
+iconoclasts in politics and letters and religion; the shopkeeper was
+a Royalist and a fervent Catholic. In the character of Dr. Nozière,
+in _Pierre Nozière_, his son “has taken away the bookshop,” as he
+confesses, but he has revealed many traits of his father’s character.
+In the Epilogue to _The Bloom of Life_ are other memories that may be
+“capricious,” as he admits, but are none the less true “records” of his
+childhood. Here his father’s lack of business instincts is suggested
+as elsewhere--he would often prefer to _read_ his books rather than to
+_sell_ them. The influence of these boyhood days in this bookshop,
+with contact directly with thinkers and writers, with wits and critics,
+must have been vital and permeating in the later development of Anatole
+France as psychologist and stylist.
+
+In his last hours, we are told, this famous writer who had been “a
+genial mocker at life,” an epicurean and scoffer, a scholar of wide
+culture, called upon the name of his mother. She had been the first,
+and one of the most significant factors in his life-development. There
+are passages of less deferential tone about her in _Anatole France
+Himself: a Boswellian Record_, by Jean-Jacques Brousson (Philadelphia,
+1925). She was of good Flemish family, with unfailing _esprit_ and
+optimism, practical and able to “attend to the gears of household
+management that got loose sometimes,” with an absent-minded father.
+She was, however, a rare story-teller and devoted to her boy with
+the unusual gifts which she alone, in his boyhood, could foresee and
+encourage. How happy he was at home is revealed in many chapters of
+his books--not alone those of acknowledged reminiscence but others
+like _The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard_ and an occasional essay _On Life
+and Letters_. By contrast with the joys of home--the delicate table
+linen and decanters, the “tranquil faces,” the easy talk--he disliked
+the classrooms and the restrictions of school life, declaring, “Ah,
+Home is a famous school.” A sense of humor and a keen interest in
+humanity made the life at the Collège Stanislas endurable but he loved
+solitude; he resented the gibes of instructors and students, and he
+stole away to the quays along the Seine at the hour of noon recess to
+eat his luncheon--or to forget to eat it--and returned too late for the
+afternoon session and his chance to recite.
+
+It was his mother’s faith and intuition that refused to be severe with
+him, even when the professor’s report of his school work was “progress
+nil--conduct bad,” even when his father accepted the verdict of M.
+Dubois, the professor, that the boy would never accomplish anything in
+arts or sciences. Then his mother whispered words that he never forgot:
+“Be a writer, my son; you have brains and you will make the envious
+hold their tongues.” If his mother was the first vital influence in
+making her son a world-famous writer, the second was the city of Paris
+that he loved, studied and photographed on his memory from boyhood
+to old age. The parks and avenues, the Louvre and the Trocadéro, the
+sidewalk cafés and the bookshops beyond beautiful Notre-Dame, the
+vivacious men and women, the workers on the streets and the children
+in the playgrounds, the stately palaces and the tiny rooms above a
+publishing shop--all these aspects of Paris form a panoramic picture in
+his books.
+
+In 1868, when Anatole France was an unknown, dreamy, book-browsing
+young man of twenty-four, there appeared an _Etude_ of Alfred de
+Vigny which was _his_ tribute to the poet who was “the exemplar of a
+beautiful life, which gave beautiful work to the world.” The author was
+known as one of a group of young men who gathered in the rue de Condé
+to discuss poetry and other forms of writing. Two years later he was
+serving in the army, trying to forget the shells that dropped in front
+of him by reading Vergil or playing his flute.[137] In the years that
+followed he wrote political satires, prefaces, read manuscripts for the
+publisher Lemerre, collaborated in Larousse’s dictionary and did other
+“odds and ends” of an editorial kind.
+
+After the Franco-Prussian War, Lemerre published the small book of
+verse to which Anatole France had devoted his leisure and zest,
+_Poèmes après_. In spite of some stanzas of lyrical beauty they
+attracted little attention. Better known is _The Bride of Corinth_ that
+appeared three years later and revealed the author’s keen analysis of
+paganism and early Christianity. It is translated with other plays
+and poems by Wilfrid Jackson and Emilia Jackson, 1920. For a time
+he was assistant to Leconte de Lisle in the Senate Library.[138]
+As a witty conversationalist and brilliant companion, he was a
+favorite in the salons of Catulle Mendes and Mme. Nina de Callias,
+the would-be poet. At the home of M. de Bonnières, where gathered
+actors, writers, and musicians, Anatole France was always welcomed. In
+1881 appeared the book which registered the beginning of his popular
+acclaim, _The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard_; one may say that it is
+_the book_ by which, during the last forty years, the author has been
+familiar to international readers, old and young. It is a simple
+tale, sentimental, without much plot but with two marked qualities of
+lasting appeal--sincerity and charm. Ten years later he laughed at its
+continued popularity, especially the claim that it was “a masterpiece,”
+saying “it was a masterpiece of platitudinousness,” adding that he
+wrote it for a prize and won it.[139]
+
+Predictions of future fame were expressed in reviews of this book and,
+four years later, the public responded to _My Friend’s Book_, the first
+of the cycle of youthful memories, vignettes of life which reveal the
+author’s poetic reveries and friendly humanity. They differ from _The
+Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard_ as the author gives here photographic
+pictures of his boyhood, adolescence, and young manhood while in
+Sylvestre Bonnard, the aged, lovable book-collector and Academician,
+he gives an imaginative picture of what the author _may be_. He is
+lonely and dominated by his cat, Hamilcar, and his housekeeper,
+cherishing the romantic memories of Clementine, and is urged by these
+sentiments to his sacrifice for her daughter. A few of his boyhood
+memories, however, are incorporated into the early chapters of this
+book--the craving for a doll, the silhouette of the uncle, Captain
+Victor, and other pages of wistfulness and humor. Lafcadio Hearn, in
+his Introduction to the translation of this classic _roman_, says
+words that may be applied to the cycle of memories (for they all have
+hall-marks of the author’s superb paradoxical genius). “If by Realism
+we mean Truth, which alone gives value to any study of human nature,
+we have in Anatole France a very dainty realist;--if by Romanticism we
+understand that unconscious tendency of the artist to elevate truth
+itself beyond the range of the familiar, and into the emotional realm
+of aspiration, then Anatole France is at times a romantic.... It is
+because of his far rarer power to deal with what is older than any art,
+and withal more young, and incomparably more precious: the beauty of
+what is beautiful in human emotion, that this story will live.”[140]
+
+After 1886 the weekly “Causerie,” which Anatole France contributed _On
+Life and Letters_ to the Paris _Temps_, increased his literary fame and
+established his rank as critic. Here appeared such diverse, stimulating
+judgments upon writers of the day, as Maupassant and Dumas, Balzac and
+Marie Bashkirtseff, François Coppée (compared with Sully-Prudhomme and
+Frédéric Plessis), Renan and George Sand; among topics of more general
+interest were “Prince Bismarck,” “The Young Girl of the Past and the
+Young Girl of the Present,” and “Virtue in France.” Four volumes of
+these essays, _On Life and Letters_, have been translated into English.
+It was nine years after _The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard_ that another
+book appeared to rivet attention upon this industrious, progressive
+author. He once declared that he wrote the earlier book “to please
+the public” but that he wrote the later, _Thaïs_, to please himself.
+In development of skill in fiction it is superior; it has been well
+described as “an epic of eternal struggle between the spirit and the
+senses.”[141] The author had passed through some emotional crises since
+he wrote his earlier books of reminiscence, notably _My Friend’s Book_,
+with its reflections of his happy home life and the whimsical domestic
+discussions between the wife of his youth and himself about their
+daughter, Susanne. He had traveled and become imbued with sensuous
+beauty of southern lands; he had been annoyed, to the verge of anger,
+by reactionists, represented in _Thaïs_ by Palaemon, “who would banish
+joy and beauty from the world.” He made Nicias, often a skeptic in
+his surface sentiments, his spokesman. The poet and the realist are
+commingled in this tale of disillusionment, even as they are found
+in the later, more vehement books of the novelist-satirist, _The Red
+Lily_, _At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque_ (considered by many critics
+his masterwork), _The Amethyst Ring_, _The Gods Are Athirst_, _The
+Wicker-Work Woman_, _Penguin Island_, _The Revolt of the Angels_, and
+shorter stories like _Crainquebille_, _The White Stone_, _The Seven
+Wives of Bluebeard_, and _Tales from a Mother of Pearl Casket._
+
+Fresh memories of the Dreyfus Case were awakened by his poignant satire
+in _Penguin Island_ with its elements of burlesque. The author’s
+historical research, which bore ripe fruits in _The Life of Jeanne
+d’Arc_, is revealed in _The Gods Are Athirst_, with sardonic wit and
+dramatic passages between Evariste, his mother, and his mistress.
+Julie, his beautiful sister, appeals to the reader’s sympathy. The
+ex-farmer of taxes, whose livelihood is now made by cutting out
+cardboard dancing dolls, is a haunting character. He voices, perhaps,
+the author’s attitude to life at this period--that is was full of
+disillusionment and defeats but was not worth the cost of one’s anxiety
+to the point of despair. In some of these satiric tales of life,
+notably _The Revolt of the Angels_ when they come to Paris and behold
+certain social conditions, there are passages so naturalistic that they
+offend tastes of less “sophisticated” readers. Some of the books by
+Anatole France were tabooed in libraries before the award of the Nobel
+prize; the year after that was given, all of his works, without due
+discrimination, were “placed on the Index” by the Roman Curia because
+of excess of utterances that were communistic and anti-clerical in
+tone. When he went to Stockholm to receive this prize in person he
+was reported to have said, regarding the Treaty of Versailles, “the
+most horrible of wars was followed by a treaty which was not a treaty
+of peace but a prolongation of the war. The downfall of Europe is
+inevitable unless at long last the spirit of reason is imported into
+its councils.”[142]
+
+In contrast to these fearless words that brought him the condemnation
+of French journals, he made more urbane response to the literary honor
+conferred upon him, adding to his personal gratitude, tribute to the
+Swedish Academy: “Its decisions possess an international value,
+and I rejoice in it, for it is a confirmation of what is, for me,
+the principal lesson of the war, the beneficent influence exerted
+by intellectual intercourse with other countries.” There had been
+rumors, well attested, that the young men of France had repudiated
+Anatole France as a leader, seeking other exponents of philosophy and
+echoing the adverse comments upon him by Maurice Barrès and Henri
+Massis, editor of _La Revue Universelle_. They contended that he
+failed to give them a constructive philosophy in the hour of need.
+He never claimed to be a philosopher; he was an observer of life, a
+commentator, a poet-dreamer, a lover of justice, an ironist, a stylist
+rather than a thinker. He was not widely read in other languages and
+philosophies as were Georg Brandes or Sainte-Beuve. He bore some
+relationship to Brotteaux of his story, _The Gods Are Athirst_, who was
+condemned to death because of his lack of reverence for great political
+revolutionists. Anatole France saw the world as a subject for keen
+wit that is often sardonic but seldom bitter. He found life sadly in
+contrast with some of his visions as a youth but he did not despair of
+a future of more equality of conditions, more tolerance in creeds. Paul
+Gsell, one of his hero-worshipers, in his records of conferences at the
+Villa Saïd, the Paris home of “the Master,” has recalled significant
+thoughts uttered by him upon “The Credo of a Skeptic,” “Politics in
+the Academy,” and other themes.[143]
+
+In his _Boswellian Record_ by Jean-Jacques Brousson (Lippincott,
+1925) there are frank confessions of his “show conversations” and his
+“contradictory ideas” which caused shyness and lack of clarity of
+mind. He recalls “the almond icing” which he put on his first version
+of _The Life of Jeanne d’Arc_, to be “picturesque” and to please “the
+sanctimonious.” These “snap-shots” of Anatole France “en pantouffles,”
+in moods of relaxation, are even less interesting than some of the
+quotations of serious sort from the words of this master of style. Two
+significant sentences will be often quoted; “You become a good writer
+just as you become a good joiner; by planing down your sentences.”...
+“People take me for a juggler, a sophist, a droll fellow. In reality I
+have passed my life twisting dynamite into curl-papers.”[144]
+
+Without question the return of Anatole France to the spirit and mode
+of his earlier books, to the idealism, combined with photographic
+vividness in _The Bloom of Life_, influenced the decision of the
+Swedish Academy in his favor, in 1921. He was, in his old age,
+living again the scenes of his youth--discussing with his schoolmate,
+Fontanet, “People Who Do Not Give Enough”; playing truant from the
+ferule of Monsieur Crottu whose rule “was a tissue of injustices”;
+recalling “Days of Enchantment” when he went to his first play;
+photographing “Monsieur Dubois, the Quiz,” and plucky Phillipine
+Gobelin; and yielding again to the spell of Vergil and the Sixth
+Eclogue, with its wonder and beauty. The stinging irony disappeared
+from these later pages--irony which motivated such books (or portions
+of them) as _Histoire contemporaine_ and _The Revolt of the Angels_ or
+“A Mummer’s Tale” in _Histoire comique_.
+
+Dual personality which resides in all persons was most marked in this
+writer of charm and force, this exponent of his race, and of his age
+among _all_ races. “Compassionate idealism” is the phrase chosen by
+James Lewis May to explain the polemical essays and radical criticisms
+of governments and religions, that are expressed or implied in many
+of his writings. James Huneker calls him “a true humanist”; he thinks
+he loved humanity and learning; he loved words, also, but he was “a
+modern thinker, who has shed the despotism of the positivist dogma
+and boasts the soul of a chameleon.”[145] He stresses his irony which
+is “Pagan” and his pity which is “Christian.” Sisley Huddlestone, in
+_Those Europeans_, devotes a chapter to Anatole France as “Ironist
+and Dreamer.” The phrases are well chosen; the interpretation of
+his salient traits is condensed but convincing: “In his irony one
+constantly catches glimpses of beauty. By showing us life as it is,
+though without bitterness, he indicates life as it should be. He
+teaches tolerance and placidity in an age in which even the reformers
+add to the confusion by their reckless energy.”[146]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[136] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1921.
+
+[137] _Anatole France: the Man and His Work_ by James Lewis May, London
+and New York, 1923, p. 72.
+
+[138] _Studies from Ten Literatures_ by Ernest Boyd, New York, 1925.
+
+[139] _Anatole France Himself_ by Jean-Jacques Brousson, Philadelphia,
+1925.
+
+[140] London, Bodley Head, Crown Edition, 1924, pp. v and ix. By
+permission of Dodd, Mead & Co.
+
+[141] _Anatole France: the Man and His Work_ by James Lewis May,
+London, 1924, p. 120. By permission of Dodd, Mead & Co.
+
+[142] _Ibid._, p. 108. By permission of Dodd, Mead & Co.
+
+[143] _The Opinions of Anatole France_, recorded by Paul Gsell; in
+American edition, _The Conversations_, etc., New York, 1924.
+
+[144] _Anatole France Himself: a Boswellian Record_, by Jean-Jacques
+Brousson, pp. 95, 347, Philadelphia, 1925. By permission of J. B.
+Lippincott Co.
+
+[145] _Egoists_ by James Huneker, New York, 1909, p. 143. By permission
+of Charles Scribner’s Sons.
+
+[146] _Those Europeans_ by Sisley Huddlestone, New York, 1924. By
+permission of G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+TWO SPANISH DRAMATISTS--ECHEGARAY (1904), BENAVENTE (1922)
+
+
+  The prize of 1904 was awarded one half to:
+
+  Echegaray, José, member of the Spanish Academy, born 1833, died
+  September 14, 1916: “in appreciation of his comprehensive and
+  intellectual authorship which, in an independent and original way,
+  has brought to life again the great traditions of the Spanish
+  drama.”[147]
+
+Until recent years, Spanish literature has been less accessible by
+translation than that of many other European countries. Fiction by
+Galdós, Valera, Valdes, and Ibañez have given to English and American
+readers somewhat adequate impressions of the realistic power and poetic
+undertones of some of these latter-day novelists. In drama, three of
+Galdós’ plays, nine by Martínez-Sierra, a dozen more by Echegaray,
+and several by Benavente have been rendered into excellent English
+by such gifted translators as John Garrett Underhill, James Graham,
+Charles Nirdlinger, Hannah Lynch, Ruth Lansing, and others.[148] In
+the awards to Spanish dramatists of the Nobel prize in 1904 and 1922,
+two generations with their differing standards and literary methods,
+have been represented--Echegaray and Benavente. In German literature,
+as exampled by Heyse and Hauptmann, and in Polish fiction, with its
+representatives, Sienkiewicz and Reymont, one finds the same recurrent
+recognition in successive generations.
+
+José Echegaray, who shared the honor of 1904 with Frédéric Mistral,
+was born in Madrid in 1833; that city was his home until his death in
+1916, except for periods of travel or retirement because of political
+friction. As Sully-Prudhomme found his first impulse towards science,
+so Echegaray studied mathematics “ferociously, ravenously.” He made
+researches, also, in geology and philosophy. Under the republican
+government he held public offices, like Ministers of Agriculture,
+Industry, and Commerce, President of the Council of Education, and
+Senator for Life. After teaching at the National Technical School,
+where he had been educated, he became identified with the University of
+Madrid.
+
+At first the writing of plays seems to have been a pastime for this
+mathematician and politician. _The Wife of the Avenger_, _At the Hilt
+of the Sword_, and _The Gladiator of Ravenna_, which appeared between
+1874 and 1876, were popular in Spain but are little known by English
+translation. In 1877 he wrote a drama that has been much discussed,
+since it was translated as _Madman or Saint_ by Ruth Lansing (Poet
+Lore, Boston, 1912); another translation by Hannah Lynch (Boston, 1895)
+bore the title, _Folly or Saintliness_. Still another translation by
+Mary Serrano is used in _Library of the World’s Best Literature_. It
+is a strong play emotionally, with that touch of idealism and romance
+which were traits of the author, blended with his keen analysis. Don
+Lorenzo, a wealthy man of Madrid, finds that he has been deceived
+regarding his parentage; he is not the son of a rich mother of noble
+family, as he and the world supposed, but the child of his nurse,
+Juana, who dies after she tells him the tale. No longer young, with his
+daughter engaged to a son of the Duchess of Almonte, he is determined
+to tell the truth and so defy his family. A specialist in mental
+disease is called with the physician to examine him; at the same time
+he sends for a notary to record his renunciation of his name and
+estate. His final monologue is dramatic, beginning with the lines:
+“What! is a man to be declared mad because he is resolved to do his
+duty. It cannot be! Humanity is neither so blind nor so bad as that!”
+
+These earlier plays by Echegaray, which called forth such ardent praise
+from his countrymen, who would rank him with Calderon and Lope de
+Vega of the past centuries, are trivial in literary value beside two
+of later years, _The Great Galeoto_ and _The Son of Don Juan_. Eleven
+years separated these two strong dramas (1881-1892) during which the
+author continued to write plays, some with historical setting like
+_Harold the Norman_ and _Lysander the Bandit_; others were of romantic
+type, some tragedies and more comedies. In general, he sought to
+revive romantic drama, to proclaim the sharp conflicts in life between
+passion and duty. His motives were often more pronounced than his
+characterization; his men and women were sometimes mere mechanisms,
+fighting their battles for honor and truth. There was a chivalrous
+note in his lines where domestic fidelity formed the keynote of the
+emotional struggle. Soliloquy was much used by this dramatist.
+
+When _The Son of Don Juan_ and _Mariana_ were translated, and linked in
+the memory of English readers with _The Great Galeoto_, world-critics
+gave study to this forceful Spanish dramatist who had grown in favor
+during the decade from 1890 to 1900. Two characteristics of _The Great
+Galeoto_ were noted: the fearless, vigorous portrayal of the evil of
+gossip and resultant tragedy; the fact that the chief personage in
+the play exercised occult influence and did not appear on the stage.
+He is the “busybody,” who creates all the troublesome situations,
+who directs the characters (or suggests their words) but he is not
+present. Elizabeth Wallace, in an article of value in the _Atlantic
+Monthly_, September, 1908, on “The Spanish Drama of Today,” says: “This
+vanishing hero is the cruel, careless world, hastening eagerly to cast
+the first stone, and, so soon tired of the sport, hurrying on to find
+some new excitement, leaving death and destruction in its wake.”[149]
+This culprit is the city of Madrid (or society anywhere). There are
+individualized characters like Theodora and Don Julian; Don Severo, the
+plotter, may well be compared to Iago.
+
+Even more virile than this romantic tragedy is _The Son of Don Juan_;
+it suggests Ibsen’s _Ghosts_, both in germ-idea and _dénouement_,
+although it has distinctive merit. Echegaray borrowed the words of the
+Norwegian dramatist for the lines of Lazarus, “Mother, give me the
+sun!” In the Prologue the Spanish author expands these symbolic words
+to “enfold a world of ideas, an ocean of sentiments, a hell of sorrows,
+a cruel lesson, a supreme warning to society and to the family circle.”
+Society is, again, at the bar of justice, as in _The Great Galeoto_;
+the offense this time is lax morality of parent, and the lunacy which
+falls, in retribution, on the child. The mother of Lazarus is a
+convincing character. In _Mariana_ are found some of the strongest
+delineations in Echegaray’s dramas, notably Clara, wife of Don Castulo,
+the grotesque archeologist, and Mariana, the widow, with riches in
+America, described by Clara (in a touch of jealousy, yet appreciation)
+as “a widow who is hardly a widow and is almost a child.” The latter
+woman is capricious, disdainful, yet passionate in her relations with
+her lover, Daniel. Melodrama enters somewhat into the closing scenes of
+intrigue and excitement. James Graham has translated both _Mariana_ and
+_The Son of Don Juan_.
+
+Echegaray continued to write plays, stimulated by the recognition
+and the honors of 1904. When the award was made, there was a popular
+demonstration in Madrid; the king presided and presented the prize,
+while speeches were made by Galdós, Valera, and Mendenez Palayo, who
+had once been his bitter critic. On this occasion Palayo said: “For
+thirty years Echegaray has been the dictator, arbiter and idol of the
+multitude, a position impossible to attain without the strength of
+genius, which triumphs in literature as everywhere.”[150] He was much
+honored in France and called “a second Victor Hugo.” It has not been
+easy for American students to interpret the plays by Echegaray; they
+fail to understand fully, especially on the stage, the situations
+and sentiments of the Spanish dramatist. Many of the keen, brilliant
+lines, both of analysis and wit, suffer in translation into English.
+For Drama League readings, or group study and discussion, his plays
+lend themselves to interpretation and study. This is true, not alone
+the longer and familiar dramas already noted but such short plays as
+_Always Ridiculous_, translated by T. W. Gilkyson,[151] and _The Street
+Singer_, translated by John Garrett Underhill[152] and included in
+Frank Shay’s _25 Short Plays_ of international selection (New York,
+1925). Irony and wistfulness are mingled in this dramatic picture of
+the little beggar-girl, Suspiros, of Augustias, the street singer, and
+her lover, Pepe. Suspiros, sixteen and pretty but sickly, speaks to
+Coleta, a professional beggar of fifty years:[153]
+
+  _Coleta._ You don’t know how to beg.
+
+  _Suspiros._ Yes, sir, I know how to beg; the trouble is, people don’t
+  know how to give. I say, “A penny for my poor mother who is sick.”
+  And you ought to see how sick she is! She died two years ago. Well,
+  I get nothing. Or else I say, “A penny for God’s sake, for my mother
+  who is in the hospital, in the name of the Blessed Virgin! I have two
+  baby brothers.” No one gives, either.
+
+  _Coleta._ They don’t, eh? And how many brothers are you going to have
+  to-night?
+
+  _Suspiros._ Ay, Signor Coleta! I had two and nobody gave me anything.
+  Last night I tried four and I got sixpence, so to-night I mean to
+  have five and see what they give me, or whether I just get the cuff
+  from my mother.
+
+  _Coleta._ Just in the family, how many brothers have you, really?
+
+  _Suspiros._ Really, I had two. But they died, like my mother. Ay!
+  they died because of the way my stepmother treated them--as she does
+  me--and I am dying! Listen! If I can make two or three dollars I am
+  going to run away to Jativa, and live with my aunt.
+
+Echegaray was seventy-two years old when he gained the prize; he
+was already called by some critics a “representative of the older
+generation.” Interest in his plays, however, has gained rather than
+waned, among critical scholars in every country, and his rank is
+assured among the romantic dramatists of this century. His seriousness,
+combined with keen wit and insight, has been compared with similar
+traits of Tolstoy. Both writers have emphasized the “dignity of
+suffering” for the sake of spiritual freedom. This is exampled in
+Echegaray’s _Madman or Saint_, already cited. Conscientious and sincere
+in his work, this Spanish dramatist has left a few plays of strong
+characterization and potent message to society, a message that has an
+element of idealism, flashing out amid the grim realities of life.
+
+
+JACINTO BENAVENTE
+
+  The prize of 1922 has been awarded:
+
+  Benavente, Jacinto, dramatic writer, Madrid, born 1866: “for the
+  happy way in which he has pursued the honored traditions of the
+  Spanish drama.”[154]
+
+Jacinto Benavente, to whom the Nobel prize was given in 1922, was
+acclaimed as especially worthy by those who sought for a representative
+of “the new generation” in Spanish drama--what was known as “the
+generation of 1898” which decried past methods and urged modern themes
+and viewpoints. Benavente was born in Madrid in 1866, a generation
+younger than Echegaray. His father was a prominent physician and the
+boy had stimulating home environment. He studied law for a brief time
+but he inclined towards writing and the theatre. He had some actual
+experiences “on the road” with theatrical troupes and with a circus,
+thus gaining first-hand information about theatrical devices and the
+needs of both actors and audiences. His first venture in print was as
+a poet, in 1893, but the next year he published a play, _Thy Brother’s
+House_. This and other immature plays received scanty notice until,
+in 1896, appeared _In Society_. Two years later _The Banquet of Wild
+Beasts_ focussed attention upon this daring, brilliant playwright. He
+became a leader among young professional men in Madrid who, following
+the Spanish-American War, were eager to renounce tradition and to
+revolutionize society by exposing its vices and weaknesses. They would
+punctuate “modernism” in thought and expression with ideals of poetry.
+A summary of this is found in _A Study of the Modern Drama_ by Barrett
+H. Clark (New York, 1925).
+
+Benavente is less radical than some of his literary associates in
+Spain, France, and Russia. He does not disdain “traditions,” if they
+ring true to life and art. He is graceful and versatile, writing plays
+of manner and characterization, satires on aristocracy and sympathetic
+scenes of peasant life. He compels his readers or spectators to
+_think_, if they will get stimulus from his plays like _The Truth_,
+_Autumnal Roses_, _The Magic of an Hour_, and _Field of Ermine_.
+
+In 1913, Benavente was elected to membership in the Spanish Academy.
+He is widely quoted on educational and political, as well as literary
+affairs. He has ideals for a greater freedom than now exists in Spain
+and other European countries. He has traveled widely, seeing his plays
+performed and making friends in Russia, England, South America, and
+the United States. _The Passion Flower_ (_La Malquerida_), the tragedy
+of peasant life with colorful setting and tense emotion, has been
+popular in America, as a film, and as a play with Nance O’Neil as
+actress. The Theatre Guild of New York and the Jewish Art Theatre gave
+careful study to the interpretation of _The Bonds of Interest_. As in
+many of his plays the serious lesson is not stressed to interfere with
+the artistry. One of his best characterizations is Nevé, heroine of
+_El Hombrecito_, often compared to Ibsen’s Nora of _A Doll’s House_.
+Benavente believes that the inner meaning of a play must be revealed
+by the mind or emotions of the spectator or reader. He is deeply
+indebted--a debt which English and American readers share--for the
+intuitive, careful translations and editing of several series of his
+plays by John Garrett Underhill (Scribner’s, New York, 1917-1925).
+Only in such interpretation can one fully appreciate the strength and
+fineness of character-drawing, the satirical thesis, the fantasy and
+poetry blended in such plays as _The Governor’s Wife_, _The Prince
+Who Learned Everything out of Books_, _Saturday Night_, _The Other
+Honor_, and _The Necklace of Stars_, with its fanciful charm and
+sermonic lesson of love to one’s neighbor. In Ernest Boyd’s _Studies
+from Ten Literatures_ there is a good summary of his life and work
+which includes 144 plays. Mr. Boyd raises the question, “Has he been
+overestimated?” Possibly it is an echo of French criticism. Valuable
+material is found, also, in Storm Jameson’s _Modern Drama in Europe_
+and _A Study of the Modern Drama_ by Barrett H. Clark (New York,
+1925). A new intensive study is _Jacinto Benavente_ by Walter Starkie
+(New York, 1925).
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y._
+
+JACINTO BENAVENTE]
+
+_Expressionism_ classifies the work of dramatists like Benavente,
+Molnar, and Capek. The methods used by the Spanish playwright to embody
+this principle are to “generalize” both the action and his characters,
+so that they become symbols of real life, appealing to the subjective
+element in readers. He has declared that, henceforth, he intends to
+write plays for publication and not for the theatre.... “The only way
+in which a play may be appreciated thoroughly is by being read,” he
+says. “I have written more than a thousand parts, yet of that number
+I can recall perhaps five which I have recognized as being truly the
+characters I had conceived, when they stepped upon the stage. I have
+not even seen some of my plays.”[155] This stress upon the futility
+of staging plays that should be interpreted by the reader’s own
+imagination and mind, is not unlike that by Maeterlinck, already noted
+in a previous chapter.
+
+Benavente not infrequently uses puppets in place of real characters
+to convey his inner meanings. Sometimes they are given real names but
+they are not the _true_ characters he wishes the reader to discover
+in them, as in the first scenes of _The Bonds of Interest_. In a
+brief parable-play, _The Magic of an Hour_,[156] he has two symbolic
+characters, “A Merveilleuse” and “An Incroyable,” two porcelain
+figures upon columns that converse about life and love, books and
+flowers, poetry and music. In this adroit, short comedy the author has
+interwoven some thoughts that express that peculiar idealism which is
+his, that contrast between weak humanity and the craving “for something
+which is not ourselves, and yet which is the breath of living.” The
+nearest approach to this ideal is love, which can transform, “by the
+magic of an hour,” evil, men-beasts, cowards, “devils in crime,” into
+“spirits of light, luminous with a divine wisdom through all instincts
+of the beast.”[157] In sentences of such groping faith, such idealism
+of the “inner eye,” scattered through the hundred and more plays by
+Jacinto Benavente, one may establish, in a measure, his right to the
+Nobel prize. With this is blended what Storm Jameson calls his “divine
+sanity.” On the score of literary achievement, he is an artist,
+versatile and sincere, delicate and yet vigorous in his workmanship.
+His plays vary in value for the student of drama; some of the later
+titles, like _A Pair of Shoes_ or _Doubtful Virtue_, indicate the
+types of psychological plays among Continental playwrights. In his
+finer, more characteristic plays, however, there are vital expressions
+of idealism. Mr. John Garrett Underhill (in a letter to the author of
+this book) says, “Benavente is an idealist of the highest type and
+his philosophy is best and most explicitly stated in _The School of
+Princesses_ and _Field of Ermine_--service and sacrifice.”
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[147] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1904.
+
+[148] See _A Study of Modern Drama_ by Barrett H. Clark, New York,
+1925, and _Modern Drama in Europe_ by Storm Jameson, New York, 1920.
+
+[149] By permission of the Atlantic Monthly Company.
+
+[150] _Review of Reviews_, 31: 613.
+
+[151] _Poet Lore_, Boston, 1908.
+
+[152] _Drama_, 25, 62-76.
+
+[153] By permission of John Garrett Underhill.
+
+[154] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1922.
+
+[155] _Plays_; fourth series, xix, edited by John Garrett Underhill. By
+permission of Mr. Underhill and Charles Scribner’s Sons.
+
+[156] _Ibid._
+
+[157] _Ibid._, _Magic of an Hour_, p. 125.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+W. B. YEATS AND HIS PART IN THE CELTIC REVIVAL
+
+
+  The prize of 1923 has been awarded:
+
+  Yeats, William Butler, born 1865: “for his consistently emotional
+  poetry, which in the strictest artistic form expresses a people’s
+  spirit.”[158]
+
+In the book, _Ideals in Ireland_, edited by Lady Gregory (London and
+New York, 1901), the editor speaks of the various contributors to this
+revival of letters including George Moore, Æ (George Russell), Douglas
+Hyde and W. B. Yeats as “candle-stick makers.” Unlike the “butcher and
+the baker,” who have their daily newspaper and appointed tasks that are
+appreciated, this type of worker, who makes and holds the candle, is
+not so well served. He is the _idealist_ who finds himself, too often,
+ignored or maligned; he searches out the “dark places of the earth”;
+he is the seer, seeking for truth, aspiration, idealism. This analogy
+holds good for many of the winners of the Nobel prizes--Björnson,
+Mistral, Tagore, Maeterlinck, Selma Lagerlöf, Heidenstam, Rolland. By
+universal consent of readers the name of W. B. Yeats would be added to
+this list, the winner of 1923. With delicate imagery Lady Gregory has
+expressed the subtle gift of this Irish poet-dramatist, his ability to
+catch “the will o’ the wisp fire, miscalled evanescent,” which is the
+mark of universal idealism. In his paper, contributed to this book,
+_Ideals in Ireland_, Mr. Yeats writes a brief “History of the Literary
+Movement” in his country and asks whether this revival of folklore and
+poetry of the soil, which is called the Celtic revival, will become a
+part of the intellectual and social development of Ireland. These words
+were written in 1899; the quarter century since then has answered the
+question in the affirmative and has accorded to Mr. Yeats a large share
+in this appreciation of simple beauty, love, and chivalry. The names of
+Donn Byrne and Padraic Colum, James Stephens and Winifred Letts, Lord
+Dunsany and St. John Ervine, suggest some of the poets and playwrights,
+“the candle-holders,” who have followed the inspiring leadership of
+Lady Gregory, John Synge, Dr. Douglas Hyde, and W. B. Yeats, weaving
+their romances and poems about old ballads and folklore of the
+“sage-cycles” of Irish literary history. In this Gaelic literature are
+songs of battles and of love, legends of saints and heroes, that have
+the simplicity and musical vigor of old Greek odes and plays.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _Photograph by Bain News Service_
+
+WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS]
+
+As dramatist, certain critics will aver, with reason, that Synge was
+greater than Mr. Yeats; as researcher among the peasantry for folk
+tales and forgotten poetry, Lady Gregory and Dr. Douglas Hyde may
+deserve higher rank. In the writings of Mr. Yeats, however--lyrics,
+ballads, and plays--there are three distinctive qualities: lyrical
+beauty, mystical strains, blended wistfulness, and merriment. These
+poetic distinctions are found in many of his ballads, notably in “The
+Host of the Air,” “The Stolen Child,” and “The Fiddler of Dooney”; they
+form the literary warp of such plays as _The Land of Heart’s Desire_,
+_The Hour-Glass_, and _On Baile’s Strand_. In every edition of his
+plays Mr. Yeats has emphasized his indebtedness to Lady Gregory for
+assistance as well as inspiration. In his Notes to _Plays in Prose and
+Verse_ (New York, 1924) he acknowledges the sources of “the greater
+number of his stories,” as those found in Lady Gregory’s _Gods and
+Fighting Men_ and _Cuchulain of Muirthemne_. He affirms that these
+two books have made the legendary tales of Ireland as familiar as
+are the stories of Sir Arthur and his Knights. Again, he records his
+gratitude to Lady Gregory for introducing him to firesides where he
+might get “the true countenance of country life.” A third form of
+helpfulness was the skill of this friend in her mastery of dialect and
+her generous work in revising the lines of Mr. Yeats in this detail
+of form. His own ability to evoke music and poetry from dreams and
+traditions, and to portray the simple, domestic incidents of peasant
+life, was coördinated with Lady Gregory’s aspiration and background of
+folklore.
+
+The father of William Butler Yeats was a well-known artist, John Butler
+Yeats, R.H.A. The son, named for his paternal grandfather, was born
+at Sandymount, Dublin, June 15, 1865. His father’s family had been
+identified with the church; the grandfather of the poet was Rector of
+Tullylish Down. His mother’s father was a merchant and shipowner at
+Sligo. The boy passed much time with these grandparents in the old
+town by the sea. When he was of school age, he was living with his
+parents in London and went to the Godolphin School, Hammersmith. At
+fifteen he returned to Dublin, attending the Erasmus Smith School and
+living with his relatives at Sligo. Memories of these early days are
+interwoven with legends and fancies in _The Celtic Twilight_, and the
+novel of autobiographical trend, _John Sherman_, which appeared under
+the pseudonym of “Gauconagh.” Like his hero of this tale, Yeats was
+homesick in London and longed to return to the environment of Sligo (or
+Ballah), to the familiar streets, the rows of tumble-down cottages
+with thatched roofs, the wharves covered with grass and the walls of
+the garden where, it was said, the gardener used to see the ghost of
+the former owner in the form of a rabbit.[159] In his poems he recalled
+the waves dashing upon the cliffs, the island of Innisfree, and the
+distant hills at sunset.
+
+His father hoped he would become an artist and so continue the family
+profession; the youth studied art for a brief time but he was restless
+and unproductive. He preferred to browse in libraries, reading
+translations--or making them--from Gaelic tales and poems. Even more he
+liked to sit by the turf fires in old Connaught and listen to the folk
+tales of the peasantry. The first poem in his collection of 1906, is
+addressed “To Some I Have Talked With By the Fire.” Here he saw again,
+in reverie, the ghostly companions and heard the weird tales of
+
+                  the dark folk who lived in souls
+    Of passionate men, like bats in the dead trees.
+
+When he was nineteen his first poem, “The Island of Statues,” was
+published in the _Dublin University Review_. With other young men at
+the University he became interested in a Brahmin, who was in London;
+on their invitation he came to Dublin to teach his philosophy. This
+yearning towards the occult was natural for a temperament like that
+of Yeats. He recalled that they fed the Brahmin a plate of rice or an
+apple every day and listened to his expositions.
+
+Mrs. Katherine Tynan Hinkson, a friend of Yeats in young manhood
+and later life, in her _Twenty-Five Years; Reminiscences_ has given
+interesting stories of his zest in reciting his poems, even in the
+middle of the night and of his dreamy, gentle nature. In 1889, _The
+Wanderings of Oison_ established the fame of the young Irish lyrist.
+Besides the title-poem here were “The Stolen Child” and “The Madness
+of King Goll.” Influences of Tom Moore were traceable in a poem, with
+lilting rhymes, like “Down by the Salley Gardens,” pictorial and
+sentimental. In London, after the poems were published, Yeats was
+still homesick, although he made congenial friends at the Cheshire
+Cheese--Arthur Symons, Lionel Johnson, and W. E. Henley, who obtained
+for him a commission to write some topics about Ireland for Chambers’
+_Encyclopedia_. His interest was strong in varied “cults” and forms of
+symbolism which he revealed in his poems, _The Wind Among the Reeds_,
+and the essays, _Ideas of Good and Evil_.
+
+Mr. Yeats is both lyrist and playwright; to the latter type of writing
+he owes his recognition by students of the drama in every country;
+the two qualities are interwoven in his plays. George Moore, Lady
+Gregory, Forrest Reid, his critic and biographer, and others have
+stressed his large part in the success, as well as the inception, of
+the Abbey Theatre, “a gift of immense and national importance upon
+Ireland.”[160] One would not minimize the work of Lady Gregory and
+Douglas Hyde, of William Fay and Florence Farr and Miss Horniman, who
+contributed as actors, playwrights, and financial supporters. The
+assurance of this theater for performance of his plays gave incentive
+to the dramatic impulse of Yeats. He created new plots and utilized
+folk tales interwoven with fantasy and poetry. With the aid of Lady
+Gregory and Edward Martyn, he won success with plays like _The Pot of
+Broth_, _Cathleen ni Hoolihan_, _The King’s Threshold_, _The Land of
+Heart’s Desire_, _Deirdre_ and _The Hour-Glass_. This last play, first
+in prose, later in verse, is a masterpiece of the morality-play; the
+Wise Man, faced with death within an hour, goes desperately in search
+for “one person who believes in God and Heaven,” so that he may go
+to Paradise. Only in Teague, the fool, who has learned his lessons,
+_not_ in the schools of the Wise Men but in the _woods_, can he find
+such assurance. In later versions of this play the author introduced a
+strange Gaelic ballad.
+
+In his Notes to the volume of _Plays in Prose and Verse_, recently
+reissued (New York, 1924), Mr. Yeats gives credit for the first use
+of correct dialect to Synge’s _Riders to the Sea_ and Lady Gregory’s
+_Spreading the News_. In this same Note he declares that his words
+“never flow freely but when people speak in verse”: it need not be
+rhymed verse, for some of the finest lines in _Deirdre_ and _The
+King’s Threshold_ are _rhythmical_ but not in rhyme. In _The Land of
+Heart’s Desire_ the poet-playwright’s words all “flow freely.” This
+is a general favorite among his plays with professionals and amateurs
+upon the stage. Forrest Reid may be extreme in praise when he calls
+it “the most beautiful thing that has been done in our time,” for it
+invites comparison with _The Sunken Bell_, _Peter Pan_, and _The Blue
+Bird_ among poetic, fanciful plays. It lingers in memory, however, as
+pictorial and dramatic, simple and beautiful in May Eve legends and
+“fairy spell,” in the natural characters, well contrasted, of Maire
+Bruin and her husband, Shawn, of Father Hart and the old parents by the
+fireside. That is an exquisite couplet that Maire speaks to her sturdy
+husband, when the fairy calls,
+
+    O you are the great door-post of this house,
+    And I the red nasturtium climbing up.[161]
+
+_The Shadowy Waters_ is another symbolic play, with an undertone of
+idealism. Begun when Yeats was young, it changed form often before the
+poet was satisfied. Into this he has introduced varied types--the magic
+harpist, the sailors, and Dectora, the restless, craving woman. The
+king, Forgel, who cares not for gold or fame, voices some tenets of the
+author’s creed in the lines:
+
+                        All would be well
+    Could we but give us wholly to the dreams,
+    And get into their world that to the sense
+    Is shadow, and not linger wretchedly
+    Among substantial things; for it is dreams
+    That lift us to the flowing, changing world
+    That the heart longs for.[162]
+
+Mr. Yeats has ever been a dreamer-poet; he said once that, if our
+dreams could all come true, there might not be any poetry to be
+written; so we are told by his biographer, Forrest Reid. Many of
+his dreams are embodied in his lyrics, his plays, his short stories
+and sketches, and his essays, _Ideas of Good and Evil_. _The Celtic
+Twilight_ and _The Secret Rose_ contain some of his most fanciful,
+poetic tales; “The Binding of the Hair” is an example of his highest
+art in this form. Dreams of love and service are found in the volumes
+of poems, like _The Wind Among the Reeds_, _In the Seven Woods_,
+_The Wild Swans at Coole_, and _Responsibilities_. These separate
+collections are now appearing in the uniform edition of his _Works_
+(Macmillan). Like Keats and William Blake, Mr. Yeats has been
+criticized for the lack of human contacts; he has been accused of
+more interest in and sympathy with waves and winds, with trees and
+fairy-lore than with deep human emotions. His absorption emotionally
+seems to be in lyrical and spiritual rhapsodies. In reading a love
+lyric, like “A Poet to His Beloved,” one feels that the dreams and
+the words are more ardent than the passion of love. One of the best
+interpretive essays ever written upon Shelley is found in _Ideas of
+Good and Evil_; these two poets were alike in many moods, in their
+delicate, elusive fancies. In the exquisite diction of some of his
+lines, and the fluctuating moods that affect his themes and modes of
+expression, Mr. Yeats seems to me comparable to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+and such delicate lyrics, as “Nocturne” and “A Mood.”
+
+In these later years Mr. Yeats has carried his ideals into more
+active life; he has undertaken _Responsibilities_ other than poetic
+expression. He has been deeply concerned about the future of Ireland
+and has been a member of the Senate of the Irish Free State. He has
+become a leader in political and educational, as well as literary,
+movements. Through the _Daily Express of Dublin_, he entered the lists
+of combatants against Bernard Shaw and his adherents who maintained
+that “poetry is a criticism of life.” In expanded thought upon this
+idea, in _Literary Ideals in Ireland_, Mr. Yeats has prophesied that,
+as the years pass, the function of poetry as _criticism_ will be
+discarded; for it, will be substituted poetry as _revelation_ of life,
+sometimes in tangible forms, more often in idealistic spirit.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[158] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1923.
+
+[159] John Sherman, pp. 88-90, and _W. B. Yeats: a Critical Study_ by
+Forrest Reid, New York, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1915.
+
+[160] _Op. cit._, p. 151.
+
+[161] _Land of Heart’s Desire_ by W. B. Yeats, copyright by W. B.
+Yeats, New York, 1911; also in _Plays and Controversies_, New York,
+1925. By permission of the Macmillan Co.
+
+[162] _Poems_ by W. B. Yeats, copyright by W. B. Yeats, New York, 1911,
+1919, pp. 206, 207. By permission of the Macmillan Co.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+HONORS TO POLISH FICTION--SIENKIEWICZ (1905), REYMONT (1924)
+
+
+  The prize of 1905 has been awarded:
+
+  Sienkiewicz, Henryk, born 1846, died November 16, 1916: “because of
+  his splendid merits as an author of historical novels.”[163]
+
+As has been noted in previous chapters, in the Nobel prizes in
+literature, exponents of the same kind of writing in a country have
+been honored in successive generations. Björnson and Knut Hamsun, Heyse
+and Hauptmann, Echegaray and Benavente, Anatole France and Rolland,
+Henryk Sienkiewicz and Ladislaw Reymont are examples of such awards.
+Another inference from the lists of winners is that the adjudicators
+wish to recognize the aspirations and achievements of small countries
+that are too often overlooked upon the map of world literature. Thus
+Denmark and Switzerland, Ireland and Belgium have shared with the
+so-called “great nations” of Europe. Twice has Poland been selected
+for recognition. The very name suggests struggle and oppression on
+one hand, hope and faith in ultimate right on the other. In spite of
+tragic sadness, the messages of Poland in art and literature have been
+vital and lofty in idealism. Some of the melancholy and passionate
+yearning of later Poland has been expressed in the poets Michievicz
+and Slowacki, who are allied in their moods with Chopin; the “Funeral
+March” was described by Liszt as “the murmuring plaint of a whole
+nation following the bier of its dearest hopes.”[164] In his book,
+_Poland Reborn_, with keen analysis of advance in education and
+literary opportunities, Roy Devereux says, “Henceforward there will not
+be need for Polish men of letters like Henryk Sienkiewicz, who belongs
+as much to Western Europe as to Poland, to seek the protection of a
+foreign flag for their literary labours.”[165] To Sienkiewicz came
+the Nobel award in 1905, a surprise to European critics and a blow to
+Russian aspirants for the honor.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _Copyright, 1912, by Little, Brown and Company_
+
+HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ]
+
+Born in Lithuania, at Wola Okrzejska, in 1846, he was sixty when
+he received the prize; he was already known by translation to
+international readers. He belonged to a patrician family and was
+educated at the University of Warsaw until political conditions,
+following the revolution of 1863, caused him to leave Poland for
+Russia, where he edited a journal at St. Petersburg. He wanted to know
+more of the world so he traveled, in gypsy or Bohemian fashion, in
+Southern Europe; in 1876 he came to America, to Los Angeles, seeking
+to found there a Polish Commonwealth of Utopian type. He had written
+tales and travel sketches under the pseudonym of “Litwos”--_Nobody
+is a Prophet in his own Country_ and _From the Notebook of a Posen_.
+He wrote impressions of America for a Warsaw newspaper; among these
+earlier sketches were “Janko, the Musician,” “Across the Prairies,”
+and “In Tartar Captivity.” A later tale, “The Old Bell-Ringer,” was
+patriotic and wistful.
+
+In 1880 he returned to Poland where he faced sadness in the death
+of his wife with the panacea of work upon his trilogy of historical
+romances of Poland. For eight years he worked winters in Warsaw at
+libraries and in his study, in summers in the Carpathian mountains.
+The results were the long, imaginative but strictly historical tales
+of _With Fire and Sword_, relating events from 1647 to 1651, _The
+Deluge_, from 1652 to 1657, and _Pan Michael_, dealing with the Turkish
+invasion and incidents from 1670 to 1674. This cycle of romances showed
+scholarship and dramatic ability, especially in the first and third
+stories of the trilogy. The background is panoramic; the dialogue is
+natural in most places. The author visualized individuals and the
+Polish people, under sentiments of distress, fear, love, conflict,
+and aspiration. The qualities of honor, patriotism, and faith are
+emphasized in these portrayals of Poland, under successive invasions of
+Cossacks, Swedes, and Turks. He idealized Poland and gave hope to his
+people.
+
+Modern Poland was the setting for his next series of tales, _Without
+Dogma_ and _Children of the Soil_. The former is pathological and
+tragic, the diary of Leon Ploszowski, aristocrat and bore, and his love
+for his cousin, Aneila. The vices of modern society and self-indulgent
+forces are in sharp contrast with the heroes of the trilogy. For many
+years he had studied early Christianity with its opposing force,
+Paganism. In 1896 he wrote his masterpiece, _Quo Vadis_, which has
+been called “an epochal book.” In many translations it was familiar to
+readers before the Nobel prize was given to its author. Of somewhat
+similar trend was the later brief message, _Let Us Follow Him_, which
+appeared in a single book and is included in the collection of stories
+and sketches, _Hania_, in translations by C. W. Dynicwicz, Jeremiah
+Curtin, and Casimir Gonski.[166]
+
+The confessed purpose of _Quo Vadis_ was to show “how God’s truth,
+because it is the only Truth, conquered pagan might.” The sustained
+interest in this religio-historical novel is not gained by melodrama
+or sensational intrigues. It has breadth and dignity. The characters
+vary in vividness but among the outstanding photographs are Paul
+and Petronius, Ursus and Chilo, and the girl captive, Ligeia. He
+called the tale “A Narrative of the Time of Nero.” The background was
+convincing but Nero was not successfully drawn; even such a master
+of characterization as Sienkiewicz could not make the Roman emperor
+vitally real to modern readers but he introduced several dramatic
+situations that center about his baffling personality. The question
+of the title, “Whither goest thou?” was asked of the modern world of
+unrest and discord, even as it was asked in the days of the apostles;
+the author felt the need of guides of to-day to hold up the banner of
+faith and service.
+
+Sympathy and spirituality were qualities found, not alone in _Quo
+Vadis_ but in many other works in fiction by this Polish writer.
+_Knights of the Cross_, recounting the struggle between the Poles and
+Lithuanians against the Teutons, is a favorite with many readers.
+_After Bread: a Story of Polish Emigrant Life in America_ (also
+entitled, _For Daily Bread_ and _Peasants in Exile_) is typical of his
+tales of emigration. _On the Field of Glory_ celebrates Sobieski’s
+rescue of Vienna. Few authors have been so fortunate in English
+translators as this Polish novelist. Jeremiah Curtin, S. A. Binion,
+and S. C. de Soissons are among the best known; they have given
+fine interpretations to his historical trilogy, his religious novel,
+and such other stories as _On the Field of Glory_, _On the Bright
+Shore_, _In Desert and Wilderness_, _That Third Woman_, and _In Vain_.
+Sienkiewicz lived until 1916, alert and productive, ever exemplifying
+the word that he used in a criticism of Zola, “The novel should
+strengthen life, not undermine it; ennoble it, not defile it; bring
+good tidings, not evil.”
+
+
+LADISLAW STANISLAW REYMONT
+
+  The prize of 1924 has been awarded:
+
+  To Reymont, Ladislaw, born 1868: “For his great epic, _The
+  Peasants_.”[167]
+
+Again, a new generation has come “to hold the candle to light the dark
+corners of the earth” in Poland, since Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote his
+novels of historical and religious potency. A new group of authors
+had come forward, many of them scarcely known outside their racial
+confines. Among the better known of the representatives of “Young
+Poland” is Ladislaw Reymont to whom the Nobel prize was given in
+1924. A few weeks before this award was made public there appeared a
+translation of the first part of the four-volume novel, _The Peasants_
+by Reymont, with the title, _Autumn_ (Knopf, New York, 1925). The
+translator was Michael H. Dziewicki, Professor of English Literature
+at the University of Cracow. The book attracted meager attention
+until the Nobel prize was announced; then a furor of interest was
+aroused in this first volume and those to appear since then--_Winter_,
+_Spring_, and _Summer_. Reymont had visited America twice but escaped
+much publicity. He had been translated into English as author of _The
+Comedienne_ (1920), the tale of a girl who sought to be beautiful and
+famous on the stage but ended in “philisticism.” Some of his short
+stories had been included in a collection of Polish tales, in the
+Oxford University series of _World Classics_ (1921). An extract from
+his industrial novel, _The Promised Land_, was used in the _Anthology
+of Modern Slavonic Literature_, edited by Paul Selver, in 1921. He has
+written more than a score of novels, and is well known and commended in
+Germany. Comparisons to Sienkiewicz reveal more pictorial skill, more
+dramatic vigor like that of Dumas, in the older writer, but a realistic
+force of surpassing effects in Reymont.
+
+His family was of the lower middle class. His father was a windmill
+owner in Kobiala Wielka, then in Russian Poland, where the author was
+born in 1868. He went to the village school and attended to the cattle
+and farm work. One of the interpreters of Reymont to Americans has
+been Rupert Hughes; in the translation of his Preface to the German
+edition of _The Peasants_ we read,[168] “Reymont was born to be the
+epic poet of the Polish village. He is, in spite of his foreign name,
+a child of that strange, uncouth world where he began his life among
+goose boys and cowherders, where he drove the herds of his father, the
+village organist, and whence he has climbed to the rank of a beloved
+and recognized poet, spending a large part of his life in Paris, the
+centre of modern culture.” Reymont attended some of the gymnasiums, or
+High Schools, but he was defiant to the Russian demand _not_ to speak
+in Polish; sometimes he was expelled.[169]
+
+Several trades and occupations gave Reymont experiences which he
+has used in some of his fiction. He was a clerk in a store, railway
+employee, telegraph operator, and longed to travel like the hero
+of _The Dreamer_. For a time he was actor in a small company whose
+reflections are found in _The Comedienne_ and _Lilly_. He was, also,
+a novitiate with the Paulist Fathers for a time at Czenstochowa.
+_The Promised Land_, with scenes laid at Lotz and indications of
+revolt against the capitalists and landowners (on the part of the
+proletariat) was a forerunner of his agrarian novel, _The Peasants_.
+The earlier book has been compared with Zola’s _Germinal_ in intense
+naturalism. In this long story, _The Peasants_, Reymont became the
+“mouthpiece of the peasant and rural elements.” Combined with Reymont’s
+devotion to the peasant village as “protagonist,” is his passion for
+Nature in her varied aspects; hence he made his divisions of the book
+to show the four seasons. Like Thomas Hardy and George Meredith he uses
+Nature as a vital personality in his story, aiding or restraining the
+development of his leading characters, especially Yagna, who has been
+called “a Polish Tess.” The English author is superior in condensation
+and dramatic sympathy.
+
+To use the Polish peasant as literary material is no exclusive trait of
+Reymont; he has been portrayed by other writers like Ladislaw Orkan,
+Jan Kasprowicz, and Stanislaw Prybyszewsski. In _The Peasants_ the slow
+movement is varied by scenes of intense emotion, like the marriage
+festival in _Autumn_, or the death of Kuba, like the passionate quest
+of Yagna and Antek in _Winter_, and the bitter fight between father and
+son, husband and lover of Yagna, or the tragic, gruesome scene of the
+death of the father, old Boryna, in the last pages of _Spring_. The
+mob-attack upon Yagna, at the close of _Summer_, grips the reader and
+makes a strong climax to the epical story. In addition to specific,
+haunting situations, there are interwoven customs and legends and
+a wonderful collection of Polish proverbs (a mine of literature!).
+Passions of love and hate and revenge, the constant excess of vodka
+and clouded minds, fear of landlord and slumbering revolt against the
+loss of forest lands and oncoming industrial domination--such are
+significant factors in this panoramic novel. In the background is the
+dull color of the soil, the rank smells and fragrant odors of farmyards
+and woods, sunsets of splendor, and terrifying storms. One of the
+most poetic, idealistic passages is the last chapter in _Autumn_, the
+passing of the soul of faithful Kuba, after his long years of service
+and keen suffering:
+
+  And higher yet it flew, and higher, yet higher, higher--yea, till it
+  set its feet--
+
+  Where man can hear no longer the voice of lamentation, nor the
+  mournful discords of all things that breathe--
+
+  Where only fragrant lilies exhale balmy odours, where fields of
+  flowers in bloom waft honey-sweet scents athwart the air; where
+  starry rivers roll over beds of a million hues; where night comes
+  never at all--[170]
+
+Many passages in this novel are repugnant to Anglo-Saxon æsthetic
+tastes, if one is unable to assimilate the raw sordidness of many
+modern stories of the soil, with the passages of emotional vigor and
+poetic beauties. Reymont has revealed, in panoramic form, the life of
+the Polish peasant, typified in the family and associates of Boryna;
+he has treated his big theme with psychological insight, realistic
+photography, and robust idealism. The first and second volumes seem
+more spontaneous and dramatic than the later. He lacks condensation and
+incisiveness. An excellent review of the four volumes by Vida Scudder
+is in _The Atlantic Monthly_, August, 1925.
+
+Reymont knows America far better than Americans know him or his books,
+but the discrepancy is being remedied. He enjoys friendship with many
+men of affairs and letters here, including Rupert Hughes, whose story,
+_What Will People Say?_ has been translated by Mme. Reymont, a fine
+linguist, and published serially in the Warsaw _Gazeta_. Many critics
+have noted the sincerity of Reymont as man and artist.
+
+In Chapter III, “Naturalism and Nationalism,” of the collected
+lectures, on _Modern Polish Literature_, by Roman Dyboski, Professor at
+Cracow University,[171] there are interesting comments upon Reymont’s
+earlier work and his tendencies. His attempt at historical fiction,
+following the lead of Sienkiewicz, was recorded in _The Year 1794_ but
+it was, says Professor Dyboski, a failure, the “bewildering mass of
+details obscured the outlines of the historical picture.” More adapted
+to his analytical skill are the earlier novels, _Ferments_ and _The
+Dreamer_ (largely autobiographical in background), and the later, more
+impersonal tales that deal with anarchists and political conditions,
+_The Vampire_ and _Opium Smokers_. Like other critics Professor
+Dyboski ranks Stephen Zeromski as “supreme in the Polish novel
+today.” He compares him to Sienkiewicz; he has the dramatic power and
+concentration which Reymont lacks. Zeromski is “a social pessimist”;
+like Sienkiewicz he was a short-story writer at first, then turned
+to history for fictional themes, like _Lay of the Leader_ and has
+written more recently of contemporaneous conditions. With his faults of
+diffuseness and unevenness of structure, Reymont is gifted in depicting
+the small and large interests of the Polish peasant, in revealing their
+aspirations and dormant passion for freedom.
+
+As an example of “the novel of the soil,” so close to earth that
+the reader often finds his senses are keen and that other faculties
+are almost dormant, this epic by Reymont proclaims him a masterful
+interpreter of peasant life. In every volume there are lapses of
+interest and diffuseness. In retrospect, however, the many monotonous
+pages will be forgotten and the outstanding scenes of passionate love,
+hatred, suffering, and primitive ecstasy will remain in memory as
+tributes to this second Polish novelist who is listed among the Nobel
+prize winners in literature.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[163] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1905.
+
+[164] _Poland Reborn_ by Roy Devereux, London, 1922, p. 237.
+
+[165] _Ibid._, p. 225.
+
+[166] Chicago, 1898; Philadelphia, 1898.
+
+[167] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in 1924.
+
+[168] By permission of Rupert Hughes.
+
+[169] Interview with Dr. A. M. Nawench in _New York Times Review_,
+November 30, 1924.
+
+[170] _The Peasants: Autumn_ from the Polish of Ladislaw St. Reymont,
+New York, 1924. By permission of Alfred A. Knopf.
+
+[171] Given at King’s College; Oxford University Press, 1924. By
+permission of _Oxford University Press_.
+
+
+
+
+CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS IN LITERATURE
+
+
+                                                 PAGE
+
+  1901. SULLY-PRUDHOMME, RENÉ FRANÇOIS ARMAND      21
+
+  1902. MOMMSEN, THEODOR                           42
+
+  1903. BJÖRNSON, BJÖRNSTJERNE                     58
+
+  1904. MISTRAL, FRÉDÉRIC, shared with             31
+
+  1904. ECHEGARAY, JOSÉ                           239
+
+  1905. SIENKIEWICZ, HENRYK                       264
+
+  1906. CARDUCCI, GIOSUÈ                           72
+
+  1907. KIPLING, RUDYARD                           85
+
+  1908. EUCKEN, RUDOLF                             48
+
+  1909. LAGERLÖF, SELMA                           104
+
+  1910. HEYSE, PAUL                               124
+
+  1911. MAETERLINCK, MAURICE                      148
+
+  1912. HAUPTMANN, GERHART                        133
+
+  1913. TAGORE, RABINDRANATH                      159
+
+  NO AWARD IN 1914
+
+  1915. ROLLAND, ROMAIN                           175
+
+  1916. HEIDENSTAM, VERNER VON                    189
+
+  1917. PONTOPPIDAN, HENRIK, shared with          197
+
+  1917. GJELLERUP, KARL                           201
+
+  NO AWARD IN 1918
+
+  1919. SPITTELER, CARL                           205
+
+  1920. HAMSUN, KNUT                              213
+
+  1921. FRANCE, ANATOLE                           224
+
+  1922. BENAVENTE, JACINTO                        247
+
+  1923. YEATS, WILLIAM BUTLER                     253
+
+  1924. REYMONT, LADISLAW                         269
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY OF “NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS IN LITERATURE”
+
+
+The compiler of this bibliography has not attempted to make an
+exhaustive list of writings of the several prize winners; the aim is
+to suggest an adequate reading list, to supplement the studies of
+individual authors and to stimulate further research. As this book is
+intended, especially, for English and American readers, the foreign
+editions are not cited, if there is any adequate translation available;
+in a few cases, the works must be read in the original language.
+
+The bibliography has been compiled largely with the assistance of
+librarians at the Widener Library of Harvard University, so that the
+books listed will be found in the card catalogue there, and at the
+Library of Congress. In isolated cases, the _data_ have been furnished
+by individual writers and translators. The authors are here listed in
+the order of the awards, with dates appended; in the Index they are
+given alphabetically.
+
+
+SULLY-PRUDHOMME (1901)
+
+  _Œuvres_: 5 Vols. (Paris, 1869-1901).
+
+  Selected poems in _Anthology of French Poetry_, edited by H.
+    Carrington (London and New York, 1900).
+
+  Selected poems in _The Modern Book of French Verse_, edited by Albert
+    Boni (New York, 1920).
+
+  _Journal Intime_ (Paris, 1922).
+
+  _Le testament poétique_, 4th ed. (Paris, 1901).
+
+  _La vraie religion selon Pascal_ (Paris, 1905).
+
+  _Que sais-je? Examen de conscience_ (Paris, 1896).
+
+  _On Life and Letters_ by Anatole France (“Three Poets”), translated
+    by A. W. Evans, first series (London and New York, 1922).
+
+  _Punch and Judy and Other Essays_ by Maurice Baring (New York, 1924).
+
+  _Studies in Literature_: “Some French Writers of Verse” by Edward
+    Dowden (London, 1892).
+
+
+MOMMSEN (1902)
+
+  _The History of Rome_, translated with the author’s sanction and
+    additions by Rev. William P. Dickson (London, 1862, 1885; New York,
+    1869, 1908); (_Everyman’s Library_, London and New York, 1911,
+    1916); 5 Vols. (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1903).
+
+  _Rome, from Earliest Time to 40 B. C._, edited by Arthur C. Howland
+    (Philadelphia, 1906).
+
+  _The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Cæsar to Diocletian_,
+    translated with the author’s sanction and additions by Rev. William
+    P. Dickson (New York, 1887; London and New York, 1909).
+
+  _Historical Essays_ by E. A. S. Freeman, second series, 3rd ed. (New
+    York and London, 1889).
+
+  _Some Eighteenth Century Byways and Other Essays_ by J. Buchan
+    (London, 1908).
+
+  _Theodor Mommsen: His Life and Work_ by Wm. W. Fowler (Edinburgh,
+    1909).
+
+
+BJÖRNSON (1903)
+
+  _Novels_, in 13 Vols., edited by Edmund Gosse (London and New York,
+    1895-1909).
+
+  _Novels_, in 3 Vols., translated by R. B. Anderson, American edition
+    (Boston, 1881).
+
+  _Plays_, 2 series, translated by Edwin Björkman (New York, 1913,
+    1914).
+
+  _Plays_, 2 Vols., translated by R. Farquharson Sharp (_Everyman’s
+    Library_, London and New York, 1912).
+
+  _Poems and Songs_, translated from the Norwegian in the original
+    meters, by Arthur Hubbell Palmer (New York, 1915).
+
+  _Arne_, and _The Fisher Maiden_, translated by Walter Low, with
+    introduction (London and New York, 1894).
+
+  _Mary_, translated by Mary Morison (London and New York, 1910).
+
+  _Mary, Queen of Scots_, translated by August Sahlberg (Chicago, 1912).
+
+  _When the New Wine Blooms_, translated by Lee M. Hollander (_Poet
+    Lore_, Boston, 1911).
+
+  _The Heritage of the Kurts_, translated by Cecil Fairfax (London,
+    1908).
+
+  _The Wise Knut_, translated by Bernard Stahl (New York, 1909).
+
+  _Adventures in Criticism_ by A. T. Quiller-Couch, rev. ed. (New York,
+    1924).
+
+  _Björnstjerne Björnson_ by William Morton Payne (Chicago, 1910).
+
+  _Creative Spirits of the Nineteenth Century_ by Georg Brandes, rev.
+    ed. (New York, 1924).
+
+  _Northern Studies_ by Edmund Gosse (London, 1890).
+
+
+MISTRAL (1904; shared with Echegaray)
+
+  _Œuvres de Frédéric Mistral, texte et traduction_ (Paris, 1887-1912).
+
+  _Le poème du Rhône, xii chants, texte, provençal et traduction
+    française_ (Paris, 1897).
+
+  _Mireille, poème provençal, illustré par Jean Droit_ (Paris, 1923).
+
+  _Mireio: a Provençal Poem_, translated by Harriet Waters Preston
+    (Boston, 1872; London, 1890).
+
+  _Mireio_, from the original Provençal, under the author’s sanction,
+    translated by C. H. Grant: “An English Version of Mr. Frédéric
+    Mistral’s _Mireio_” (Avignon, 1867).
+
+  _Mireille; a Pastoral Epic of Provence_, translated by H. Crichton
+    (London, 1868).
+
+  _Memoirs of Mistral_, rendered into English by Constance Elisabeth
+    Maud; lyrics from the Provençal by Alma Strettell (Mrs. Lawrence
+    Harrison) (New York, 1907).
+
+  Selections from _Mireio_, _Calendau_, and _Nerto_, translated by
+    Harriet Waters Preston, in _Library of the World’s Best Literature_,
+    edited by C. D. Warner, Vol. 17.
+
+  _Frédéric Mistral, Poet and Leader in Provence_, by C. A. Downer (New
+    York, 1901).
+
+
+ECHEGARAY (1904; shared with Mistral)
+
+  _The Great Galeoto: Folly or Saintliness_, translated with
+    introduction by Hannah Lynch (Boston, 1895).
+
+  _Madman or Saint_, translated by Ruth Lansing (_Poet Lore_, Boston,
+    1912).
+
+  _Mariana_, translated by James Graham (Boston, 1895).
+
+  _Mariana_, translated by F. Sarda and C. D. S. Wupperman (New York,
+    1909).
+
+  _The Son of Don Juan_, translated by James Graham (Boston, 1895).
+
+  _The Street Singer_, translated by John Garrett Underhill (_Drama_,
+    Chicago, 1917); included in
+
+  _25 Short Plays_, edited by Frank Shay (New York, 1924).
+
+  _Always Ridiculous_, translated by T. W. Gilkyson (_Poet Lore_,
+    Boston, 1916).
+
+  _The World and His Wife_ (an American adaptation of _The Great
+    Galeoto_) by C. F. Neidlinger (New York, 1908).
+
+  _Representative Continental Dramas_, edited by Montrose J. Moses
+    (Boston, 1924).
+
+  _Masterpieces of Modern Spanish Drama_, edited by Barrett H. Clark
+    (London and New York, 1917).
+
+  _A Study of the Modern Drama_ by Barrett H. Clark (London and New
+    York, 1925).
+
+  _The Modern Drama in Europe_ by Storm Jameson (London and New York,
+    1920).
+
+  _Main Currents of Spanish Literature_ by J. D. M. Ford (New York,
+    1919).
+
+  _The Drama of Transition_ by Isaac Goldberg (Cincinnati, 1922).
+
+  _Masques and Mummers_ by C. F. Neidlinger (New York, 1899).
+
+  _Dramatic Opinions and Essays_ by G. Bernard Shaw (London and New
+    York, 1907).
+
+  _The Modern Drama_ by Ludwig Lewisohn (New York, 1915).
+
+
+SIENKIEWICZ (1905)
+
+  Authorized and unabridged translations from the Polish by Jeremiah
+    Curtin: _With Fire and Sword_; _The Deluge_; _Pan Michael_; _Quo
+    Vadis_; _Without Dogma_; _In Desert and Wilderness_ (Little, Brown
+    & Co., Boston, 1890-1912).
+
+  _Quo Vadis_, translated by S. A. Binion and S. Malevsky
+    (Philadelphia, 1897).
+
+  _Hania_, short tales, translated by Jeremiah Curtin (Boston, 1897).
+
+  _Let Us Follow Him_, translated by Jeremiah Curtin (Boston, 1897).
+
+  _On the Field of Glory_, translated by Jeremiah Curtin (Boston, 1906).
+
+  _On the Bright Shore_, translated by Jeremiah Curtin (Boston, 1898).
+
+  _On the Bright Shore_, translated by S. C. de Soissons (New York,
+    1897).
+
+  _Pan Michael_, translated by S. A. Binion (New York, 1898, 1905).
+
+  _The Irony of Life_ (_Children of the Soil_), translated by N. M.
+    Babad (New York, 1900).
+
+  _In Desert and Wilderness_, translated by Max A. Drezmal (Boston,
+    1912, 1923).
+
+  _After Bread (For Daily Bread: Peasants in Exile)_ translated by
+    Vatslaf Z. Hlasko and Thomas H. Bullick (New York, 1897).
+
+  _The Third Woman_, translated by N. M. Babad (New York, 1898).
+
+  _Lillian Morris and Other Stories_, translated by Jeremiah Curtin
+    (Boston, 1895).
+
+  _Modern Polish Literature_, lectures by Roman Dyboski, Ch. II (Oxford
+    University Press, 1924).
+
+
+CARDUCCI (1906)
+
+  _Carducci: a Selection of his Poems_, with three introductions, etc.,
+    translated by G. L. Bickersteth (London, 1913).
+
+  _Poems by Carducci_, translated with an introduction by Maud Holland
+    (New York, 1907).
+
+  _Poems of Giosuè Carducci_, with verse translations, notes and
+    introduction by Frank Sewall (New York, 1892).
+
+  _Poems of Italy_, selections from the odes of Giosuè Carducci,
+    translated by M. W. Arms (New York, 1906).
+
+  _Italy from the Poems of Joshua Carducci_, translated by E. A. Tribe
+    (Florence, 1912).
+
+  _A Selection from the Poems of Giosuè Carducci_, translated with
+    biographical introduction by Emily A. Tribe (London and New York,
+    1921).
+
+  _Selections from Carducci_, prose and poetry, with introductory notes
+    and vocabulary by A. Marinoni (New York, 1913).
+
+  _The Rime Nuove_ of Giosuè Carducci, translated from the Italian by
+    Laura Fullerton Gilbert (Boston, 1916).
+
+  _Italian Influences_ by Eugene Schuyler (New York, 1901).
+
+  _Italica; Studies in Italian Life and Letters_ by William Roscoe
+    Thayer (Boston, 1908).
+
+  _Giosuè Carducci_ by Orlo Williams (London, 1914).
+
+  “The Poetry of Carducci,” (_Edinburgh Review_, April, 1909).
+
+
+KIPLING (1907)
+
+  _Kipling’s Collected Works_, 23 Vols., Outward Bound Edition (Charles
+    Scribner’s Sons; New York, 1897-1923).
+
+  _Writings in Prose and Verse_, 28 Vols., Pocket Edition (Doubleday,
+    Page & Co., Garden City, New York, 1898-1923).
+
+  The New World Edition, 13 Vols. (Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City;
+    Toronto).
+
+  _Rudyard Kipling’s Verse_; Inclusive Edition (Garden City, New York,
+    1924).
+
+  _The Years Between_ (New York, 1919).
+
+  _American Notes_ (Boston, 1899).
+
+  _Independence_, Rectorial Address at St. Andrews (London and New
+    York, 1925).
+
+  _Letters of Travel_ (London and New York, 1920).
+
+  _Land and Sea Tales for Boys and Girls (for Scouts and Scoutmasters)_
+    (London and New York, 1923).
+
+  _The Irish Guards in the Great War_ (London and New York, 1923).
+
+  _The Fringes of the Fleet_ (London and New York, 1915).
+
+  _The Second Jungle Book_, decorated by John Lockwood Kipling (New
+    York, 1914).
+
+  _Selected Stories from Kipling_, edited by William Lyon Phelps (New
+    York, 1919, 1921).
+
+  _The Eyes of Asia_ (Garden City; New York, 1923).
+
+  _Mine Own People_, introduction by Henry James (New York, 1899).
+
+  _Essays in Little_ by Andrew Lang (London and New York, 1899).
+
+  _Heretics_ by Gilbert K. Chesterton (London and New York, 1919).
+
+  _Rudyard Kipling: a Criticism_ by Richard Le Gallienne (London and
+    New York, 1900).
+
+  _Shelburne Essays_, series II, by Paul Elmer More (New York, 1906).
+
+
+EUCKEN (1908).
+
+  _Fundamental Concepts of Modern Philosophic Thought_, critically
+    and historically considered, translated by M. Stuart Phelps, with
+    introduction by Noah Porter (New York, 1880).
+
+  _Can We Still Be Christians?_ translated by Lucy Judge Gibson (New
+    York, 1914).
+
+  _Christianity and the New Idealism_, translated by Lucy Judge Gibson
+    and W. R. Boyce Gibson (London and New York, 1909, 1912).
+
+  _Collected Essays of Rudolf Eucken_, translated and edited by Meyrick
+    Booth (New York and London, 1914).
+
+  _Intellectual Movements of the Present Day_, translated by Meyrick
+    Booth (London, 1912).
+
+  _Knowledge and Life_, translated by Tudor Jones (London and New York,
+    1913).
+
+  _The Truth of Religion_, translated by Tudor Jones (New York, 1911).
+
+  _The Meaning and Value of Life_, translated by Lucy Judge Gibson and
+    W. R. Boyce Gibson (London and New York, 1909, 1911).
+
+  _The Problem of Human Life, as Viewed by the Great Thinkers from
+    Plato to the Present Time_, translated by W. S. Hough and W. R. B.
+    Gibson (New York, 1909, 1914).
+
+  _Life’s Basis and Life’s Ideal_, translated by Alban G. Widgery
+    (London, 1912).
+
+  _Naturalism or Idealism?_ (Nobel lecture) translated by Alban G.
+    Widgery (Cambridge, England, 1912).
+
+  _Deems Lectures_, delivered in 1913 at New York University,
+    translated by Margaret von Seidewitz (New York, 1913), English
+    edition by W. Tudor Jones (London, 1913), entitled, _Present-Day
+    Ethics in their Relation to the Spiritual Life_.
+
+  _Main Currents of Modern Thought_, translated by Meyrick Booth
+    (London, 1912).
+
+  _Socialism; an Analysis_, translated by Joseph McCabe (London and New
+    York, 1922).
+
+  _Rudolf Eucken: His Life, Work and Travels_ by himself; translated by
+    Joseph McCabe (London and New York, 1921, 1922).
+
+  _Rudolf Eucken: His Philosophy and Influence_ by Meyrick Booth (New
+    York, 1913).
+
+  _Eucken and Bergson; Their Significance for Christian Thought_ by E.
+    Hermann (Boston, 1912).
+
+
+SELMA LAGERLÖF (1909)
+
+  The Northland Edition of Selma Lagerlöf’s _Works_, 11 Vols.
+    (Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, New York).
+
+  _Christ Legends_, translated by Velma Swanston Howard (New York,
+    1908).
+
+  _Gösta Berling’s Saga_, or _The Story of Gösta Berling_, translated
+    by Pauline Bancroft Flach (London; New York, 1910, 1918).
+
+  _Invisible Links_, translated by Pauline Bancroft Flach (Boston,
+    1899; New York).
+
+  _From a Swedish Homestead_, translated by Jessie Brochner (London and
+    New York, 1901).
+
+  _Jerusalem_, translated by Velma Swanston Howard (Garden City, New
+    York, 1915, 1918).
+
+  _Jerusalem_, translated by Jessie Brochner (London, 1903).
+
+  _Holy City: Jerusalem II_, translated by Velma Swanston Howard
+    (Garden City, New York, 1918).
+
+  _Liliecrona’s Home_, translated by Anna Barwell (New York, 1914).
+
+  _Mårbacka_, translated by Velma Swanston Howard (Garden City, New
+    York, 1924).
+
+  _Miracles of Antichrist_, translated by Pauline Bancroft Flach
+    (Boston, 1899, Garden City, New York).
+
+  _The Emperor of Portugallia_, translated by Velma Swanston Howard
+    (Garden City, New York, 1916).
+
+  _The Girl from the Marshcroft_, translated by Velma Swanston Howard
+    (New York, 1916).
+
+  _The Outcast_, translated by W. W. Worster (Garden City, New York,
+    1922).
+
+  _The Treasure_, translated by Arthur G. Chater (Garden City, New
+    York, 1925).
+
+  _The Wonderful Adventures of Nils_; _Further Adventures of Nils_,
+    translated by Velma Swanston Howard (Garden City, New York, 1907,
+    1911, 1920).
+
+  _Selma Lagerlöf: The Woman, Her Work, Her Message_ by Harry E. Maule
+    (Garden City, New York, 1917).
+
+  _Voices of Tomorrow_ by Edwin Björkman (New York, 1913).
+
+
+PAUL HEYSE (1910)
+
+  _Deutschen Novellenschatz_, 24 Vols., edited by Max Lentz (New York,
+    1899).
+
+  _L’Arrabiata_, edited by Mary A. Frost with notes and introduction
+    (New York, 1896).
+
+  _L’Arrabiata_, translated by Vivian Elsie Lyon (New York, 1916).
+
+  _L’Arrabiata_, edited by W. W. Flower (Ann Arbor, 1922).
+
+  _At the Ghost Hour_ and _The Fair Abigail_, translated by Frances A.
+    Van Santford (New York, 1894).
+
+  _A Divided Heart and Other Stories_, translated by Constance S.
+    Copeland (New York, 1894).
+
+  _Mary of Magdala_, translated by W. Winter (New York, 1904).
+
+  _Barbarossa and Other Tales_ by L. C. S. (London, 1874).
+
+  _Mary of Magdala_, an historical and romantic drama in 5 acts;
+    adapted in England by Lionel Vale (New York, 1902).
+
+  _Tales from the German of Paul Heyse_ (D. Appleton & Co., New York,
+    1879).
+
+  Study of Paul Heyse in _German Classics_, edited by Kuno Francke
+    (German Publishing Co., New York).
+
+  _Creative Spirits of the Nineteenth Century_ by Georg Brandes (New
+    York, new ed., 1925).
+
+
+MAETERLINCK (1911)
+
+  _Works of Maurice Maeterlinck_, 27 Vols., in two editions, cloth and
+    leather (Dodd, Mead & Co.; London and New York) includes essays,
+    plays, poems, children’s books; interpreted by several translators,
+    including Alfred Sutro, Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, Bernard Miall,
+    Montrose J. Moses.
+
+  _Plays of Maurice Maeterlinck_, translated and edited with
+    introduction, by Richard Hovey (Chicago, 1894, 2 vols.; New York,
+    1911).
+
+  _Joyzelle_, translated by Charlotte Porter (_Poet Lore_, xv, iii,
+    Boston).
+
+  _Three Little Dramas for Marionettes_, translated by Alfred Sutro and
+    William Archer (Chicago and London, 1899).
+
+  _Life and Writings of Maurice Maeterlinck_ by Jethro Bithell (London,
+    1913).
+
+  _Maurice Maeterlinck: Poet and Philosopher_ by MacDonald Clark (New
+    York, 1916).
+
+  _The Symbolist Movement in Literature_ by Arthur Symons (London and
+    New York, 1899; New York, 1917).
+
+  _Maurice Maeterlinck: A Study_ by Montrose J. Moses (New York, 1911).
+
+  _Dramatists of Today_ by E. E. Hale, Jr. (New York, 1905).
+
+  _Iconoclasts_ by James Huneker (New York, 1905).
+
+  _Varied Types_ by Gilbert K. Chesterton (New York, 1905).
+
+  _Essays on Modern Dramatists_ by William Lyon Phelps (New York, 1921).
+
+  _A Study of the Modern Drama_ by Barrett H. Clark (New York, 1925).
+
+  _The Modern Drama_ by Ludwig Lewisohn (New York, 1915).
+
+
+HAUPTMANN (1912)
+
+  _The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann_, 8 Vols., edited by Ludwig
+    Lewisohn, translations by Lewisohn and others (Huebsch, New York,
+    1906-1925).
+
+  _Hannele_, translated by William Archer (London, 1894).
+
+  _Hannele_, translated by Charles Henry Meltzer (New York, 1908).
+
+  _The Assumption of Hannele_, translated by G. S. Bryan (_Poet Lore_,
+    Boston, 1909).
+
+  _The Sunken Bell_, translated with introduction by Charles Henry
+    Meltzer (New York, 1899; Garden City, 1914).
+
+  _The Sunken Bell_; _Elga_; _And Pippa Dances_, all translated by Mary
+    Harned (_Poet Lore_, Boston, 1898, 1906, 1909).
+
+  _The Weavers_, translated by Mary Morison (included in _Chief
+    Contemporary Dramatists_ edited by Thomas H. Dickinson; Boston,
+    1915).
+
+  _Parsival_, translated by Oakley Williams (New York, 1915).
+
+  _The Coming of Peace_, translated by Janet A. Church and C. E.
+    Wheeler (Chicago and London, 1900).
+
+  _The Fool in Christ: Emanuel Quint_, a novel, translated by Thomas
+    Seltzer (New York, 1911).
+
+  _Phantom_, a novel translated by Bayard Quincy Morgan (New York,
+    1922).
+
+  _Atlantis_, a novel translated by Adele and Thomas Seltzer (Huebsch,
+    New York, 1912).
+
+  _The Island of the Great Mother_, translated by Willa and Edwin Muir
+    (Huebsch, The Viking Press, New York, 1925).
+
+  _Gerhart Hauptmann: His Life and His Work_ by Karl Holl (London,
+    1913).
+
+  _Studies in Modern German Literature_ by Otto Heller (Boston and New
+    York, 1905).
+
+  _Glimpses of Modern German Culture_ by Kuno Francke (New York, 1898).
+
+  _Naturalism in the Recent German Drama_, with special reference to
+    Gerhart Hauptmann, by Alfred Stoeckius (New York, 1903).
+
+  _Gerhart Hauptmann and John Galsworthy: a Parallel_ by W. R.
+    Trumbauer (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1917).
+
+  _Nature Background in the Dramas of Hauptmann_, by Mary Agnes Quimby
+    (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1918).
+
+  _A Study of the Modern Drama_ by Barrett H. Clark (New York, 1925).
+
+
+RABINDRANATH TAGORE (1913)
+
+  _Writings of Rabindranath Tagore_, 20 Vols. (The Macmillan Co.,
+    London and New York).
+
+  _Gitanjali_, translated by author, with introduction by W. B. Yeats
+    (London and New York, 1913, 1916).
+
+  _The Crescent Moon: Child-Poems_ translated from original Bengali by
+    author (New York, 1913, 1916).
+
+  _Japan; a Lecture_ (London and New York, 1916).
+
+  _Nationalism in the West and Japan_ (London and New York, 1917).
+
+  _My Reminiscences_ (London and New York, 1917).
+
+  _Rabindranath Tagore: a Biographical Study_ by Earnest Rhys (New
+    York, 1915).
+
+  _Rabindranath Tagore: the Man and His Poetry_ by B. K. Roy (New York,
+    1915).
+
+  _Glimpses of Bengal_, selected from letters of Rabindranath Tagore
+    (London and New York, 1921).
+
+  _Mahatma Gandhi: The Man Who Became One with the Universal Being_
+    (comparison of Tagore and Gandhi) by Romain Rolland, translated by
+    Catherine D. Groth (New York, 1924).
+
+  _The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore_ by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
+    (London, 1918).
+
+
+ROMAIN ROLLAND (1915: no award in 1914)
+
+  Many of the novels and studies by Rolland are published by Henry Holt
+    and Co., (New York).
+
+  _Jean-Christophe_, 3 Vols., translated by Gilbert Cannan (London and
+    New York, 1910, 1916).
+
+  _The Fourteenth of July and Danton_, authorized translation by
+    Barrett H. Clark (New York, 1918).
+
+  _Pierre and Luce_, translated by Charles De Kay (New York, 1922).
+
+  _Tolstoy_, translated by Bernard Miall (London and New York, 1911).
+
+  _The People’s Theatre_, translated by Barrett H. Clark (London and
+    New York, 1918, 1919).
+
+  _The Wolves; a Play_, translated by Barrett H. Clark (Drama, 1917,
+    No. 32).
+
+  _The Life of Michael Angelo_, translated by Frederic Lees (London and
+    New York, 1912).
+
+  _Colas Breugnon_, translated by Katherine Miller (New York, 1919).
+
+  _Clerambault: the Story of an Independent Spirit during the War_,
+    translated by Katherine Miller (London and New York, 1921).
+
+  _Liluli_, with wood engravings by Frans Masereel (New York, 1920).
+
+  _Above the Battle_, translated by C. K. Ogden (Chicago, 1916).
+
+  _Above the Battlefield_, with introduction by G. L. Dickinson
+    (Cambridge, England, 1914).
+
+  _The Forerunner_, a sequel to _Above the Battle_, translated by Eden
+    and Cedar Paul (New York, 1920).
+
+  _Some Musicians of Former Days_, translated by Mary Blaiklock (London
+    and New York, 1915).
+
+  _Annette and Silvie_ (_The Soul Enchanted: L’âme enchantée_)
+    translated by Ben Ray Redman (New York, 1925).
+
+  _Summer_, translated by Eleanor Strinson and Wyck Brooks (New York,
+    1925).
+
+  _Mahatma Gandhi: The Man Who Became One with the Universal Being_,
+    translated by Catherine D. Groth (London and New York, 1924).
+
+  _Romain Rolland: the Man and His Work_ by Stefan Zweig, translated by
+    Eden and Cedar Paul (New York, 1921).
+
+
+HEIDENSTAM (1916)
+
+  _Sweden’s Laureate: Selected Poems_, translated with introduction by
+    Charles Wharton Stork (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1919).
+
+  _The Charles Men_, translated by Charles Wharton Stork, with
+    introduction by Fredrik Böök (New York, 1920).
+
+  _A King and His Campaigners_, translated by Axel Tegnier (London,
+    1902).
+
+  _The Soothsayer_, translated by Karoline M. Knudsen (Boston, 1919).
+
+  _The Birth of God_, translated by Karoline M. Knudsen (Boston, 1920).
+
+  _The Tree of the Folkungs_, translated by Arthur G. Chater (New York,
+    1925).
+
+
+HENRIK PONTOPPIDAN (1917)
+
+  _Reisebilder aus Dänemark_ (1890).
+
+  _The Apothecary’s Daughter_, translated into English by C. L. Nielson
+    (London, 1890).
+
+  _Emanuel or Children of the Soil_, From the Danish, translated by
+    Mrs. Edgar Lucas (London, 1896).
+
+  _The Promised Land_, From the Danish, translated by Mrs. Edgar Lucas
+    (with illustrations by Nellie Ericsen) (London, 1896).
+
+  _Hans Im Glück_, Ein Romane, ubersetzung von Mathilde Mann: I, II
+    (Leipzig, 1906).
+
+  _Der alte Adam_, zwei Roman, ubersetzung von Rich. Guttmann (München,
+    1912).
+
+  _Aus jungen Tagen_, ubersetzung von Mathilde Mann (Leipzig, 1913).
+
+
+KARL GJELLERUP (1917)
+
+  _Die Opferfeuer_, Ein Legenden-Stück (Leipzig, 1903).
+
+  _Der Pilger Kamanita_, Ein Legendenroman (Frankfurt, 1907).
+
+  _The Pilgrim Kamanita_, a legendary romance, translated by John E.
+    Logie (London, 1911).
+
+  _Das Weib des Vollendeten_, Ein Legendenroman (Frankfurt, 1907).
+
+  _Reif für das Leben_ (Jena, 1916).
+
+  _Der goldene Zweig_, Dichtung und Novellenkranz aus der Zeit des
+    Kaisers Tiberius (Leipzig, 1917).
+
+  _Minna_, a novel, translated by C. L. Neilson (London, 1913).
+
+  _Die Gottesfreundin_ (Leipzig, 1918).
+
+  _An der Grenze_, Roman (Leipzig, 1919).
+
+  _Romulus_; ubersetzung von Margarete Böttger (Leipzig, 1924).
+
+NOTE: the bibliographical lists above on Pontoppidan and Gjellerup
+have been prepared for the compiler through the courtesy of the Royal
+Library (the Danish National Library) of Copenhagen.
+
+
+CARL SPITTELER (1919: no award in 1918)
+
+  _Prometheus und Epimetheus_ (Jena 1881, 1924).
+
+  _Balladen_ (Zürich, 1906).
+
+  _Imago_ (Jena, 1906, 1919).
+
+  _Olympian Spring_ (_Olympischer Frühling_) (Jena, 1900, 1911, 1920).
+
+  _Two Little Misogynists_, translated by Mme. la Vicomtesse Le
+    Roquette-Buisson, with decorations by A. Helene Carter (New York,
+    1922).
+
+  _Meine Frühesten Erlebnisse_: or _My Earliest Experiences_ (Jena,
+    1914, 1920).
+
+  Study of Carl Spitteler in _The German Classics_, edited by Kuno
+    Francke (Vol. XIV: New York, 1914). With some translations.
+
+  _Studies from Ten Literatures_ by Ernest Boyd (New York, 1925).
+
+  _Carl Spitteler_: Monograph (in German) by Eugen Diederichs Verlag in
+    Jena.
+
+  _Contemporary Review_, January, 1920.
+
+
+KNUT HAMSUN (1920)
+
+  The writings of Hamsun, in American edition, are issued largely by
+    Alfred A. Knopf (New York).
+
+  _Hunger_, translated by George Egerton (pseudonym) with introduction
+    by Edwin Björkman (London, 1899, New York, 1920).
+
+  _Pan_, translated by W. W. Worster (New York, 1921).
+
+  _Victoria_, translated by Arthur G. Chater (New York, 1923).
+
+  _Children of the Time_, translated by J. S. Scott (New York, 1924).
+
+  _Dreamers_, translated by W. W. Worster (New York, 1921). (English
+    title, _Mothwise_, London, 1921).
+
+  _Shallow Soil_, translated by Carl Christian Hylested (London and New
+    York, 1914).
+
+  _Growth of the Soil_, translated by W. W. Worster (London and New
+    York, 1921).
+
+  _Segelfoss Town_, translated by J. S. Scott (London, 1921, New York,
+    1925).
+
+  _In the Grip of Life_ (play), translated by Graham and Tristam Rawson
+    (New York, 1924).
+
+  _Knut Hamsun: a Study_ by Hanna Astrup Larsen (New York, 1922).
+
+  _Knut Hamsun; His Personality and His Outlook upon Life_ by Josef
+    Wiehr, _Smith College Studies in Modern Languages_ (Northampton,
+    1922).
+
+
+ANATOLE FRANCE (1921)
+
+  The writings of Anatole France are appearing, in the Tours Edition,
+    issued by Dodd, Mead & Co., New York.
+
+  Another edition, already complete, by the same publishers, is the
+    Library Edition (31 Vols.).
+
+  Other volumes by same publishers, include:
+
+  _At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque_, illustrated by Frank C. Pape
+    (New York).
+
+  _Honey Bee; a Fairy Story for Children_, translated by Mrs. John
+    Lane, illustrated by Florence Lundborg.
+
+  _Joan of Arc_, translated by Winifred Stephens; 2 Vols.
+
+  _On Life and Letters_, Series I and II translated by A. W. Evans,
+    Series III translated by D. B. Stewart, Series IV translated by
+    Bernard Miall (London and New York, 1923-25).
+
+  _Anatole France; the Man and His Work_ by James Lewis May (London and
+    New York, 1924).
+
+  _The Opinions of Anatole France_, recorded by Paul Gsell (London and
+    New York, 1924).
+
+  _Anatole France Himself: a Boswellian Record_ by Jean-Jacques
+    Brousson (Philadelphia, 1925).
+
+  _French Novelists of Today_ by Winifred Stephens (London and New
+    York, 1908).
+
+  _Egoists_ by James Huneker (New York, 1909).
+
+  _Studies in Ten Literatures_ by Ernest Boyd (New York, 1925).
+
+  _Those Europeans_ by Sisley Huddlestone (London and New York, 1924).
+
+
+BENAVENTE (1922)
+
+  _Plays_ by Jacinto Benavente, translated with introduction by John
+    Garrett Underhill; four series, including his best plays (Charles
+    Scribner’s Sons, New York: 1917, 1925).
+
+  _The Bonds of Interest_ is reprinted in _Chief Contemporary
+    Dramatists_, Series II, edited by Thomas H. Dickinson (Boston,
+    1921), and, also, in _Representative Continental Dramas_, edited by
+    Montrose J. Moses (Boston, 1924).
+
+  _His Widow’s Husband_, translated by John Garrett Underhill, is
+    reprinted in _Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays_, edited by Shay and
+    Loving (Cincinnati, 1920).
+
+  _Nobody Knows What He Wants_, or _The Dancer and the Doer_ (1925).
+
+  _The Smile of Mona Lisa_, translated by John Armstrong Herman,
+    _Contemporary Dramatists_ Series (Boston, 1915, 1919).
+
+  _Jacinto Benavente_ by Walter Starkie (Oxford University Press, 1925).
+
+  _Modern Drama in Europe_ by Storm Jameson (New York, 1920).
+
+  _The Drama of Transition_ by Isaac Goldberg (Cincinnati, 1922).
+
+  _Main Currents of Spanish Literature_ by J. D. W. Ford (New York,
+    1919).
+
+  _A Study of the Modern Drama_ by Barrett H. Clark (New York, 1925).
+
+
+YEATS (1923)
+
+  The writings of Yeats; plays, poems, essays and “controversies” are
+    issued in varied editions by the Macmillan Co., London and New York.
+
+  _John Sherman and Dhoya_, by Ganconagh (pseudonym) (London and New
+    York, 1891).
+
+  _Reveries over Childhood and Youth_ (New York, 1916).
+
+  _Plays in Prose and Verse_, written for the Irish Theatre, and
+    generally with the help of a friend (London, 1922; New York, 1924).
+
+  _The Land of Heart’s Desire_ (London, 1894; Boston, 1894; Chicago,
+    1894; Portland, Maine, 1913).
+
+  _Responsibilities_ (London and New York, 1916).
+
+  _Selected Poems_ (New York, 1921).
+
+  _William Butler Yeats; a Critical Study_ by Forrest Reid (New York,
+    1915).
+
+  _Twenty-Five Years; Reminiscences_ by Katherine Tynan Hinkson (New
+    York, 1914).
+
+  _William Butler Yeats and the Irish Literary Revival_ by Horatio
+    Sheafe Kraus (London, 1905).
+
+  _Studies in Prose and Verse_ by Arthur Symons (London, 1904).
+
+  _William Butler Yeats; a Literary Study_ by C. Wrenn (London, 1920).
+
+
+REYMONT (1924)
+
+  _The Peasants: Autumn; Winter; Spring; Summer_, translated by Michael
+    H. Dziewicki (Knopf, New York, 1924-1925).
+
+  _The Comedienne_, translated by Edmund Obecuy (Putnams, New York,
+    1920).
+
+  Tales by Reymont in Oxford University _World’s Classics_ (1921).
+
+  Extracts from _The Promised Land_ in _Modern Slavonic Literature_,
+    edited by Paul Selver (London, 1921).
+
+  _Modern Polish Literature_; A Course of Lectures at King’s College,
+    London, by Roman Dyboski Ch. III (Cambridge, England, 1924).
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Abbey Theatre, The, 259
+
+  _Above the Battle_, 185
+
+  _Across the Prairies_, 266
+
+  _Actions and Reactions_, 95, 101
+
+  Adams, Mme. Juliette, 7
+
+  _Adventures in Criticism_, 65, 66
+
+  _After Bread_, 268
+
+  Ahlsell, Karoline Henriette, 2
+
+  Aix, 32
+
+  Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 262
+
+  _Alladine and Palomides_, 152
+
+  _Always Ridiculous_, 245
+
+  _Ame Enchantée, L’_, 186
+
+  American-Scandinavian Foundation, 193
+
+  _American-Scandinavian Review_, 198, 201, 202
+
+  _Amethyst Ring, The_, 225, 233
+
+  Anatole France, 25, 224-238, 264
+
+  _Anatole France Himself_, 226, 227, 230
+
+  _Anatole France: The Man and His Work_, 25, 229
+
+  _And Pippa Dances_, 136, 145
+
+  Andersen, Hans Christian, 197
+
+  Anderson, Vilhelm, 198
+
+  _Annette and Sylvie_, 186
+
+  _Anthology of Modern Slavonic Literature_, 270
+
+  _Appointment, The_, 29
+
+  Archer, William, 139
+
+  _Ariadne and Blue Beard_, 157
+
+  Ariosto, 33
+
+  Arles, 36, 37, 39
+
+  _Arme Heinrich, Der_, 143
+
+  _Arne_, 20, 61, 62, 66
+
+  _Arrabiata, L’_, 128, 130
+
+  _Art of Versification, The_, 27
+
+  _Assumption of Hannele, The_, 135, 139
+
+  _Atlantis_, 146, 206
+
+  _At the Gates of the Kingdom_, 219
+
+  _At the Ghost Hour_, 129
+
+  _At the Hilt of the Sword_, 240
+
+  _At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque_, 225, 233
+
+  _August_, 1914, 192
+
+  _Autumn_, 270, 272, 273
+
+  _Autumnal Roses_, 248
+
+  Avignon, 32
+
+
+  Baku, 2
+
+  Balestier, Caroline, 93
+
+  Balestier, Wolcott, 93, 94
+
+  _Balladen_, 208
+
+  Balzac, 129
+
+  _Bankrupt, The_, 67, 68
+
+  _Banquet of Wild Beasts, The_, 247
+
+  Baring, Maurice, 30
+
+  Barrès, Maurice, 235
+
+  Barwell, Anna, 118
+
+  Basel, 205, 206, 207
+
+  _Baucis and Philemon_, 132
+
+  _Bearers of German Idealism, The_, 54
+
+  Beethoven, 173, 181, 203, 206
+
+  _Before Dawn_, 134, 138
+
+  _Belgium at War_, 156
+
+  _Bellman Ballads_, 108
+
+  _Bell Songs_, 211
+
+  Benavente, Jacinto, 240, 247-252, 264
+
+  Bennett, Arnold, 101
+
+  _Benoni_, 214
+
+  Bergson, Henri, 55, 157
+
+  _Betrothal, The_, 154
+
+  _Beyond Human Power_, 59, 69
+
+  Bickersteth, G. L., 74, 75, 76, 84
+
+  _Binding of the Hair, The_, 261
+
+  Binion, S. A., 268
+
+  _Birth of God, The_, 195
+
+  Bismarck, 44
+
+  Björkman, Edwin, 69, 70, 132, 197, 217, 219
+
+  Björnson, Björnstjerne, 19, 20, 58-71, 87, 93, 193, 215, 253, 264
+
+  Blake, William, 262
+
+  _Blind, The_, 132, 152, 153
+
+  _Bloom of Life, The_, 225
+
+  _Blue Bird, The_, 153
+
+  Bodö, 214, 215
+
+  Bojer, Johan, 222
+
+  Bologna, 72, 75, 82
+
+  Bolpur, 162, 164, 174
+
+  _Bonds of Interest, The_, 249, 251
+
+  _Bonheur, Le_, 24, 25
+
+  Boni, Albert, 28
+
+  Boyd, Ernest, 206, 249
+
+  Brahm, Otto, 138
+
+  _Brand_, 199
+
+  Brandes, Edward, 197, 199, 217
+
+  Brandes, Georg, 61, 127, 133, 197, 201, 235
+
+  Brattleboro, 93, 94
+
+  Bréal, Michael, 178
+
+  Breslau, 137
+
+  _Broken Men, The_, 93
+
+  Brooks, Van Wyck, 186
+
+  Brousson, Jean-Jacques, 226, 236
+
+  _Brushwood_, 217
+
+  _Brushwood Boy, The_, 95
+
+  Buchan, John, 45, 46
+
+  Burckhardt, Jacob, 206
+
+  _Burgomaster at Stilemonde, The_, 156
+
+  Burns, Robert, 41
+
+  _Butterflies_, 207, 211, 212
+
+  _By the Grave (or Urn) of Shelley_, 78
+
+  Byrne, Donn, 254
+
+
+  _Cahiers de la Quinzaine_, 179
+
+  Calderon, 126, 242
+
+  _Calendau_, 37
+
+  _Caligula_, 178
+
+  _Can We Still Be Christians?_, 52, 55
+
+  Cannan, Gilbert, 180, 181, 183
+
+  _Captains Courageous_, 96
+
+  _Captured_, 194
+
+  Carducci, Giosuè, 72-84
+
+  Carman, Bliss, 152, 153
+
+  Carrington, H., 28
+
+  Carter, A. Helene, 207
+
+  _Cathleen ni Hoolihan_, 259
+
+  Celtic revival, 253, 254
+
+  _Celtic Twilight, The_, 261
+
+  Chaitanya Deva, 174
+
+  _Charles Men, The_, 193, 194
+
+  Chater, Arthur G., 121, 189, 196
+
+  Cheshire Cheese Club, 258
+
+  Chesterton, Gilbert K., 86
+
+  _Children of the Age_, 214, 220
+
+  _Children of the Soil_, 267
+
+  _Chitra_, 167
+
+  Chopin, 265
+
+  Christiania, 15, 60, 216
+
+  _Christianity and the New Idealism_, 54
+
+  _Christ Legends_, 116
+
+  Clamecy, 176
+
+  Clark, Barrett H., 138, 147, 179, 197, 239, 250
+
+  _Classicism and Teutonism_, 194
+
+  Claudel, Paul, 177
+
+  _Clerambault_, 186
+
+  _Clipped Wings_, 198, 199
+
+  _Cloud that Lifted, The_, 156
+
+  _Code of Statutes_, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14
+
+  _Colas Breugnon_, 184
+
+  _Colberg_, 131
+
+  _Colleague Crampton_, 136, 138
+
+  Colum, Padraic, 254
+
+  Columbia University, 53
+
+  _Comedienne, The_, 270
+
+  _Comprehensive Lexicon of Ancient and Modern Provençal_, 40
+
+  Conrad, Michael Georg, 211
+
+  Copenhagen, 198, 199, 200, 217
+
+  Coppée, François, 26, 232
+
+  _Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_, 45
+
+  _Cradle Songs_, 195
+
+  _Creative Philosophy_, 55
+
+  _Creative Spirits of the Nineteenth Century_, 61, 65, 127, 128, 133
+
+  _Creative Unity_, 169, 171
+
+  _Crescent Moon, The_, 168, 169
+
+  _Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard, The_, 227-231
+
+  _Critica ed arte_, 76
+
+  _Cuchulain of Muirthemne_, 255
+
+  Curtin, Jeremiah, 267, 268
+
+
+  Dalecarlia, 114
+
+  Danish Royal Theatre, 197
+
+  Dante, 76, 77, 126
+
+  _Danton_, 178
+
+  Darwin, Charles, 201
+
+  Daudet, Alphonse, 40
+
+  _Day’s Work, The_, 86, 95, 99
+
+  _Death of Tintagiles_, The, 152, 158
+
+  _Deirdre_, 259, 260
+
+  _Deluge_, The, 266
+
+  _Departmental Ditties_, 90, 91
+
+  Devereux, Roy, 265
+
+  _Doll’s House, A_, 249
+
+  _Don Juan_, 202
+
+  _Doubtful Virtue_, 251
+
+  Dowden, Edward, 26
+
+  Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, 94
+
+  _Dreamer, The_, 275
+
+  _Dreamers, The_, 214, 221
+
+  Dresden, 201, 203, 204
+
+  Dreyfus case, 179, 233
+
+  Dublin, 256, 257, 258
+
+  Dunsany, Lord, 254
+
+  Dyboski, Roman, 274, 275
+
+  Dynamite, 4, 5
+
+  Dynicwicz, C. W., 267
+
+  Dziewicki, M. H., 270
+
+
+  “Eagle’s Flight,” 200
+
+  Echegaray, José, 13, 31, 239-246, 264
+
+  _Eddas, The_, 201, 202
+
+  _Editor Lynge_, 218
+
+  _Editor, The_, 59, 67
+
+  _Emanuel, or Children of the Soil_, 267
+
+  _Emanuel Quint_, 146
+
+  Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 150
+
+  _Emigrants, The_, 223
+
+  _Emperor of Portugallia, The_, 110, 111, 119
+
+  _Endymion_, 193, 209
+
+  _English Flag, The_, 88
+
+  Erichsen, Nelly, 200
+
+  Ericsson, John, 3, 4
+
+  Ervine, St. John, 254
+
+  _Essays in Little_, 92
+
+  _Essays on Modern Dramatists_, 154
+
+  _Essays upon the Fine Arts_, 27
+
+  _Ethics and Modern Thought_, 55
+
+  Eucken, Rudolf, 48-57
+
+  Eugen Diederichs Verlag in Jena, 205, 211
+
+  Evans, A. W., 26
+
+  Expressionism, 250
+
+  Extramundana, 207
+
+  _Eyes of Asia_, 90, 100
+
+
+  Farr, Florence, 259
+
+  Fay, William, 259
+
+  Fenger, Harald, 203
+
+  Félibres, The, 32
+
+  _Felice_, 131
+
+  “Felix Tandem,” 206
+
+  _Ferments_, 275
+
+  _Field of Ermine_, 248, 252
+
+  Fischer, Kuno, 51
+
+  _Fisher Maiden, The_, 61, 66, 68
+
+  _Five Nations, The_, 97
+
+  Flach, Pauline Bancroft, 112
+
+  _Florian Geyer_, 138, 141
+
+  _Folly or Saintliness_, 241
+
+  _For Daily Bread_, 268
+
+  _Forest Murmurs_, 194
+
+  Founder’s Day, 15
+
+  France, Anatole (_see_ Anatole France)
+
+  Francke, Kuno, 208
+
+  Freeman, E. A., 45, 46
+
+  French Academy, 22, 24, 39, 151, 211
+
+  _French Mons_, 194
+
+  _From a Swedish Homestead_, 112, 113
+
+  _From Sea to Sea_, 195
+
+  _From the Notebook of a Posen_, 266
+
+  Frost, Mary A., 128
+
+  _Fundamental Ideas of the Present Day_, 51
+
+  _Further Adventures of Nils_, 116, 117
+
+
+  Galdós, Pérez-, 239, 244
+
+  _Gallery, A_, 101
+
+  Galsworthy, John, 145, 146
+
+  _Gandhi, Mahatma_, 185
+
+  _Gardener, The_, 159, 163, 172, 174
+
+  _Gauntlet, A_, 69
+
+  _German Classics_, 208
+
+  _Germinal_, 272
+
+  Ghent, 149
+
+  _Ghosts_, 199, 243
+
+  Gibson, Lucy Judge, 54
+
+  Gibson, W. R. Boyce, 54
+
+  Gilkyson, T. W., 245
+
+  _Girl from the Marshcroft, The_, 122
+
+  _Gitanjali_, 164, 165, 172, 174
+
+  Gjellerup, Karl, 13, 201-204
+
+  _Gods and Fighting Men_, 255
+
+  _Gods Are Athirst, The_, 233
+
+  Goethe, 76, 132, 181, 210
+
+  Gonski, Casimir, 267
+
+  _Gora_, 173
+
+  Gosse, Sir Edmund, 61, 62
+
+  _Governor’s Wife, The_, 249
+
+  Graham, James, 244
+
+  _Great Galeoto, The_, 242, 243
+
+  Gregory, Lady, 253, 254, 255, 256, 259, 260
+
+  Groth, Catherine D., 185
+
+  _Growth of the Soil_, 214, 220, 221
+
+  Gsell, Paul, 225, 235
+
+  Guedalla, Philip, 101
+
+  Guiney, Dorothy Frances, 28
+
+  _Gustav_, 207
+
+
+  _Hadrian_, 131
+
+  _Halta Hulda_, 67
+
+  Hamsun, Knut, 213-223, 264
+
+  _Hania_, 267
+
+  _Hannele_, 139, 141
+
+  Hannibal, 46, 47
+
+  _Hans Alienus_, 193
+
+  _Hans Lange_, 131
+
+  _Happy Boy, A_, 20, 61, 63, 66
+
+  Hardy, Thomas, 85, 272
+
+  Harnack, Adolf, 55
+
+  Harned, Mary, 145
+
+  Harvard University, 53, 98
+
+  Hauptmann, Gerhart, 133-147, 185, 240, 264
+
+  Hearn, Lafcadio, 231
+
+  Heidelberg, 206
+
+  Heidenstam, Verner von, 87, 189-196, 254
+
+  Heine, 76
+
+  Heller, Otto, 135
+
+  Henley, W. E., 258
+
+  _Henry of Aue_, 143, 144
+
+  _Heretic of Soana, The_, 146
+
+  _Heretics_, 86, 87
+
+  Hermann, E., 55
+
+  Heyse, Paul, 124-133, 155, 240, 264
+
+  Hinkson, Katherine Tynan, 258
+
+  _Histoire comique_, 237
+
+  _Histoire contemporaine_, 237
+
+  _Historical Significance of the German People, The_, 54
+
+  _History of Rome_, 44, 45, 46
+
+  Hodge, Thekla E., 209, 211
+
+  Holland, Maud, 82
+
+  _Hombrecito, El_, 249
+
+  _Hour-Glass, The_, 255, 259
+
+  Hovey, Richard, 152, 153
+
+  Howard, Velma Swanston, 105, 106, 111, 114, 122
+
+  Huddlestone, Sisley, 238
+
+  Hughes, Rupert, 271, 274
+
+  Hugo, Victor, 24, 30, 244
+
+  _Human Comedy, The_, 225
+
+  Huneker, James, 237
+
+  _Hunger_, 214, 217, 219
+
+  Hyde, Douglas, 253, 254, 255, 259
+
+  _Hymn to Satan_, 75
+
+
+  Ibsen, Henrik, 58, 60, 65, 136, 199, 243, 249
+
+  Idealism in literature, 10, 19, 21, 22, 49, 86, 105, 133, 205, 246,
+        251, 253
+
+  _Ideals in Ireland_, 253, 254
+
+  _Ideas of Good and Evil_, 258, 261
+
+  _If_, 87
+
+  _Imago_, 208
+
+  _Im Paradiese_, 129, 130
+
+  _Independence_, 102
+
+  _In Desert and Wilderness_, 269
+
+  _In God’s Way_, 66
+
+  _In Tartar Captivity_, 266
+
+  _In the Grip of Life_, 220
+
+  _In the Seven Woods_, 262
+
+  _Intruder, The_, 152, 158
+
+  _In Vain_, 269
+
+  _Invisible Links_, 111, 112
+
+  _Irish Melodies_, 203
+
+  _Island of the Great Mother_, 146
+
+  _Isles d’or, Les_, 38
+
+  _Italian Influences_, 77
+
+
+  Jameson, Storm, 239, 249, 251
+
+  _Janko, the Musician_, 266
+
+  Jasmin, Jacques, 32
+
+  _Jean-Christophe_, 175, 177, 178, 180, 181, 182, 184
+
+  Jena University, 51
+
+  _Jerusalem_, 113, 114
+
+  _John of Abyssinia_, 206
+
+  _John Sherman_, 256
+
+  Johnson, Lionel, 258
+
+  _Joyzelle_, 153, 154, 155
+
+  _Jungle Books, The_, 94, 96
+
+  _Justice, La_, 24
+
+  _Just So Stories_, 96
+
+
+  _Karen Borneman_, 197
+
+  Kasprowicz, Jan, 272
+
+  Keats, John, 262
+
+  Keller, Gottfried, 210
+
+  _Kim_, 86, 96
+
+  _Kinder der Welt_, 128, 132
+
+  _Kingdom of the Dead, The_, 199
+
+  _King of the Dark Chamber_, 172
+
+  _King, The_, 67
+
+  Kipling, Alice MacDonald, 89
+
+  Kipling, Caroline Balestier, 94, 95
+
+  Kipling, John Lockwood, 89, 97
+
+  Kipling, Rudyard, 18, 85-103
+
+  _Knights of the Cross_, 268
+
+  Knudson, Karoline M., 189, 195
+
+  _Knut Hamsun; A Study_, 216
+
+  _Knut Hamsun: His Personality and His Outlook upon Life_, 214, 216,
+        218, 222
+
+  Kvikne, 59
+
+
+  Lady Gregory (_see_ Gregory)
+
+  Lagerlöf, Selma, 104-123, 254
+
+  Lahore, 89, 90, 91
+
+  Lamartine, 33, 38
+
+  _Lame Hulda_, 67
+
+  _Land and Sea Tales for Scouts_, etc., 87, 100
+
+  _Land of Heart’s Desire, The_, 255, 259, 260
+
+  Lang, Andrew, 92
+
+  Lansing, Ruth, 239, 241
+
+  Larsen, Hanna Arstrup, 216, 218
+
+  _Last Centaur, The_, 131, 132
+
+  _Last of the Vikings, The_, 223
+
+  _Laughing Truth_, 207
+
+  _Lay Down Your Arms_, 7
+
+  _Lay of the Leader_, 275
+
+  _Legendary Romance, A_, 202
+
+  Letts, Winifred, 254
+
+  _Let Us Follow Him_, 267
+
+  _Library of the World’s Best Literature_, 35, 241
+
+  _Life of Jeanne d’Arc, The_, 225, 233, 236
+
+  _Life of the Bee, The_, 156
+
+  _Life of the Spirit, The_, 52
+
+  _Life’s Basis and Life’s Ideals_, 52
+
+  _Life’s Handicap_, 86
+
+  _Life’s Play_, 219
+
+  _Liliecrona’s Home_, 118, 119
+
+  _Liluli_, 185
+
+  _Literary Ideals in Ireland_, 263
+
+  _Little Pierre_, 225
+
+  “Litwos,” 266
+
+  Lofoden Islands, 214, 215
+
+  _Lonely Lives_, 134, 136
+
+  _Loups, Les_, 179
+
+  Lowell Institute, 53
+
+  Lucas, Mrs. Edgar, 200
+
+  Lucerne, 207
+
+  _Lucky Peter_, 199
+
+  Lucretius, 24
+
+  Lynch, Hannah, 239, 241
+
+
+  _Mädchenfeinde_, 207, 208
+
+  _Madman or Saint_, 241
+
+  Madrid, 240, 243, 248
+
+  Maeterlinck, Maurice, 148-158, 250
+
+  _Magic of an Hour, The_, 248, 251
+
+  _Magnhild_, 66
+
+  _Mahatma Gandhi_, 170
+
+  _Malquerida, La_, 248
+
+  _Many Inventions_, 94
+
+  _Mårbacka_, 105
+
+  _Mariana_, 242, 244
+
+  _Mary_, 70
+
+  _Mary of Magdala_, 131
+
+  _Mary Magdalene_, 154, 155
+
+  Masereel, Frans, 186
+
+  Massis, Henri, 235
+
+  Mattos, Alex. Teixeira de, 157
+
+  Maubel, Henri, 149
+
+  Maud, Constance Elizabeth, 39
+
+  May, James Lewis, 25, 225, 237
+
+  McCabe, Joseph, 49, 55
+
+  _Meaning and Value of Life, The_, 54
+
+  Meltzer, Charles Henry, 139
+
+  _Mémoires d’une idéaliste_, 177
+
+  _Memoirs of Mistral_, 39
+
+  Meredith, George, 35, 36, 85
+
+  _Merlin_, 26
+
+  _Mes origines_, 39
+
+  Meyer, Conrad, 210
+
+  Meysenburg, Malwida von, 177
+
+  Miall, Bernard, 157, 177
+
+  _Michael Kramer_, 135
+
+  Michelson, A. A., 18
+
+  Miller, Katherine, 184, 186
+
+  Milnes, Turquet, 157
+
+  “Mimosas,” 200
+
+  _Minna_, 202, 203
+
+  Mirabeau, Octave, 150
+
+  _Miracles of Antichrist_, 111
+
+  _Mireio_, 20, 31, 33-36, 93
+
+  Mistral, Frédéric, 13, 20, 31-41, 72, 87, 93, 240, 253
+
+  _Modern Book of French Verse, The_, 28, 29
+
+  _Modern Drama in Europe_, 239, 249
+
+  _Modern Polish Literature_, 274
+
+  Mommsen, Theodor, 42-48, 79
+
+  _Monna Vanna_, 155
+
+  Monod, Gabriel, 176
+
+  _Montespan, The_, 185
+
+  Moore, George, 253, 259
+
+  Moore, Thomas, 203, 204, 258
+
+  Morgan, Bayard Quincy, 146
+
+  Moses, Montrose J., 150, 151
+
+  Muir, Edwin, 146
+
+  Muir, Willa, 146
+
+  Munich, 126, 130
+
+  _Munken Vendt_, 219
+
+  Münsterberg, Marguerite, 210
+
+  _Musicians of Former Days_, 178
+
+  _Musicians of Today_, 178
+
+  _My Friend’s Book_, 225, 230, 232
+
+  _My Reminiscences_, 160, 169
+
+  _Mysteries_, 214, 218
+
+
+  Napoleon III, 5
+
+  _Naturalism or Idealism?_, 56, 57
+
+  _Naulahka, The_, 93
+
+  Nawench, A. M., 271
+
+  _Necklace of Stars, The_, 249
+
+  _Nero_, 268
+
+  _Nerto_, 31, 38
+
+  _Newly-Married Couple, The_, 67, 68
+
+  _New Soil_, 217
+
+  Nielson, C. L., 203
+
+  _Nietzsche_, 205, 207
+
+  _Nimäi_, 174
+
+  _Niobe_, 178
+
+  Nirdlinger, Charles, 239
+
+  Nobel, Alfred, 1-20
+
+  Nobel, Emanuel, 2, 3, 9
+
+  Nobel Foundation, 10, 11, 12, 16
+
+  Nobel, Ludwig, 2
+
+  Nobel, Robert, 11
+
+  Nobel, will of, 10-16, 17, 18, 21, 42, 57, 104
+
+  _Nobody is a Prophet_, etc., 266
+
+  _Northern Studies_, 60
+
+  Norwegian Storthing, 11, 58
+
+  _Nouvelle Revue_, 7
+
+  Novalis, 150
+
+  _Novellen_, 124, 125
+
+  _Nuove poesie_, 76
+
+
+  _Odi barbare_, 78, 79
+
+  _Of American Culture_, 216
+
+  _Old Bell-Ringer, The_, 266
+
+  _Olivades, Les_, 39
+
+  _Olympian Spring_, 205, 208, 209, 210
+
+  _On Baile’s Strand_, 255
+
+  _On Emerson and Other Essays_, 150, 151
+
+  _On Life and Letters_, 26, 227, 232
+
+  _On the Bright Shore_, 269
+
+  _On the Field of Glory_, 268, 269
+
+  _On the Scent_, 149
+
+  _Opium Smokers_, 275
+
+  Orkan, Ladislaw, 272
+
+  Orsino, 178
+
+  O’Shaughnessy, Arthur, 28, 29
+
+  _Our Eternity_, 156
+
+  _Outcast, The_, 120, 121
+
+  _Over the Lofty Mountains_, 60
+
+  Oxford University, 270
+
+
+  _Pair of Shoes, A_, 251
+
+  Palayo, Mendenez, 244
+
+  Palmer, Arthur Hubbell, 63
+
+  Pan, 214, 218
+
+  _Pan Michael_, 266
+
+  _Parisian Portraits_, 27
+
+  Parker, Gilbert, 152
+
+  Parker, W. B., 86
+
+  _Parsival_, 135, 136, 144, 145
+
+  _Passion Flower, The_, 248
+
+  Passow, Irene, 51
+
+  _Pastor Mons_, 202
+
+  _Peasants in Exile_, 268
+
+  _Peasants, The_, 269-272
+
+  _Peer Gynt_, 198
+
+  _Pelléas and Mélisande_, 150
+
+  _Penguin Island_, 225, 233
+
+  _People’s Theatre, The_, 178, 179
+
+  _Pepita’s Wedding_, 193
+
+  _Peter Pan_, 142, 260
+
+  Phelps, M. Stuart, 51
+
+  Phelps, William Lyon, 154
+
+  Picard, Edmund, 149
+
+  _Piedmont_, 80
+
+  _Pierre Nozière_, 225, 226
+
+  _Pilgrimage, A._, 223
+
+  _Pilgrimages and Wander Years_, 190, 191
+
+  _Pilgrim Kamanita, The_, 202
+
+  _Pilgrim’s Way, A._, 87
+
+  _Plain Tales from the Hills_, 90
+
+  _Plays in Prose and Verse_, 255, 260
+
+  Plessis, Frédéric, 26
+
+  _Poème du Rhône, Le_, 40
+
+  _Poems and Songs_, 63
+
+  _Poland Reborn_, 265
+
+  Polish Literature, 264, 265
+
+  Pontoppidan, Henrik, 13, 197-200
+
+  Porter, Noah, 51
+
+  _Post Office, The_, 172
+
+  _Pot of Broth, The_, 259
+
+  _Power of the Dead_, 156
+
+  _Prayers for Mother India_, 169
+
+  Preston, Harriet Waters, 35, 37
+
+  _Primo Vere_, 82, 83
+
+  _Princess Maleine_, 150
+
+  _Prometheus and Epimetheus_, 206
+
+  _Prometheus Unbound_, 209
+
+  _Promised Land, The_, 199, 270, 271
+
+  _Puck of Pook’s Hill_, 96
+
+  _Punch and Judy and Other Essays_, 30
+
+
+  Quai Malaquais, 226
+
+  _Que sais-je?_, 28
+
+  Quiller-Couch, Arthur, 65
+
+  Quimby, Mary Ayres, 146
+
+  _Quo Vadis_, 267, 268
+
+
+  _Recessional, The_, 95, 97
+
+  _Red Lily, The_, 225, 233
+
+  Redman, Ben Ray, 186
+
+  Reid, Forrest, 257, 259, 260
+
+  _Religion and Life_, 55
+
+  _Reminiscences_, 258
+
+  _Responsibilities_, 262
+
+  _Revolt of the Angels, The_, 225, 233, 237
+
+  _Revue Universelle, La_, 235
+
+  _Rewards and Fairies_, 96
+
+  Reymont, Ladislaw, 240, 264, 269-276
+
+  Rhys, Ernest, 160
+
+  Richards, T. W., 18
+
+  _Riders to the Sea_, 260
+
+  Rolland, Romain, 170, 175-188, 212, 254, 264
+
+  Romsdale, 59
+
+  Roosevelt, Theodore, 18, 41, 53
+
+  Root, Elihu, 18
+
+  Roumanille, Joseph, 32
+
+  Roy, Basanta Koomar, 165
+
+  Ruysbroeck, 150
+
+
+  _Sacrifice and Other Plays_, 168
+
+  _Sadhana_, 150, 166, 172
+
+  _Saint Briggitta’s Pilgrimage_, 194
+
+  _Sainte-Beuve_, 235
+
+  _Saint George and the Dragon_, 194
+
+  _Saint Louis_, 178
+
+  _Salamander_, 127
+
+  Sanborn, Alvan V., 179
+
+  _Sandhya Sangit_, 163
+
+  _Sapphics and Alcaics_, 73
+
+  _Saturday Night_, 249
+
+  Scheffel, Joseph Victor, 128, 129
+
+  Schiller, 76, 210
+
+  _School of Princesses, The_, 252
+
+  Scudder, Vida D., 274
+
+  _Segelfoss Town_, 220, 221
+
+  Seltzer, Adele, 146
+
+  Seltzer, Thomas, 146
+
+  Selver, Paul, 270
+
+  Serrano, Mary, 241
+
+  _Seven Princesses, The_, 152
+
+  _Seven Seas, The_, 94
+
+  _Shadowy Waters, The_, 261
+
+  Shakespeare, 101, 126, 177
+
+  Shaw, George Bernard, 263
+
+  _Shay’s 25 Short Plays_, 245
+
+  Shelley, 78, 262
+
+  Sienkiewicz, Henryk, 240, 264-269
+
+  _Sigurd Slembe_, 59, 64
+
+  _Sister Beatrice_, 157
+
+  Sligo, 256
+
+  Smith College, 53
+
+  _Socialism; an Analysis_, 55
+
+  Sohlmann, Ragnar, 9
+
+  Soissons, S. C. de, 268
+
+  _Soldiers Three_, 90, 93
+
+  _Solitudes, Les_, 24
+
+  _Some Eighteenth Century Byways_, etc., 45, 46
+
+  _Song of the English, A_, 103
+
+  _Song of the French Roads, A_, 88
+
+  _Songs of Sunrise_, 163
+
+  _Son of Don Juan, The_, 242, 243
+
+  _Soothsayer, The_, 195
+
+  Spanish Academy, 239, 248
+
+  _Spiritual Life of Modern America, The_, 216
+
+  Spitteler, Carl, 205-212
+
+  _Spreading the News_, 260
+
+  _Spring_, 270, 272
+
+  _Stalky & Co._, 90
+
+  _Stances et poèmes_, 23
+
+  Starkie, Walter, 250
+
+  Stephens, James, 254
+
+  Stimson, Eleanor, 186
+
+  _Stolen Child, The_, 255
+
+  Stork, Charles Wharton, 189, 191, 192, 193
+
+  _Story of Gösta Berling, The_, 105, 109, 110, 112, 119
+
+  _Stray Birds_, 168
+
+  Strettell, Alma, 39
+
+  Strindberg, August, 190
+
+  _Struggling Life_, 217
+
+  _Studies from Ten Literatures_, 206, 249
+
+  _Studies in Literature_, 26
+
+  _Studies in Modern German Literature_, 135
+
+  _Study of the Modern Drama, A_, 138, 197, 239, 249
+
+  Sully-Prudhomme, René, 21-30, 240
+
+  _Summer_, 186, 187, 270, 272
+
+  _Sunken Bell, The_, 135, 140, 141, 142, 260
+
+  _Sunset_, 219
+
+  _Supplication, A_, 28, 29
+
+  Suttner, Bertha von, 6, 7, 8
+
+  _Sweden’s Laureate_, 189
+
+  Swedish Academy, 11, 12, 16, 17, 43, 194, 197, 234, 236
+
+  Symbolism, 152
+
+  Symons, Arthur, 258
+
+  Synge, John, 254, 255, 260
+
+  _Synnöve Solbakken_, 61, 62, 63
+
+
+  Tagore, Rabindranath, 18, 159-174, 254
+
+  _Tales from a Mother of Pearl Casket_, 233
+
+  _Test, The_, 23
+
+  _Thaïs_, 225, 232, 233
+
+  _That Third Woman_, 269
+
+  _Theseus and Heracles_, 206
+
+  _They_, 95
+
+  Thibault, François Noël, 226
+
+  Thibault, Jacques Anatole, 224
+
+  Thompson, Vance, 5
+
+  _Thora van Deken_, 198
+
+  _Those Europeans_, 238
+
+  _Thoughts in Loneliness_, 190
+
+  _Three Poets_, 27
+
+  _Thy Brother’s House_, 247
+
+  _Tolstoy_, 177, 246
+
+  _Traffics and Discoveries_, 97
+
+  _Tragedies de la foi, Les_, 180
+
+  _Treasure of the Humble, The_, 156
+
+  _Treasure, The_, 121, 122
+
+  _Tree of the Folkungs, The_, 196
+
+  Trumbauer, Walter H. P., 145
+
+  _Truth of Religion, The_, 52
+
+  _Truth, The_, 248
+
+  _Twenty-five Years_, 258
+
+  _Two Little Misogynists_, 207, 208
+
+
+  Underhill, John Garrett, 239, 245, 249, 250
+
+  _Under the Autumn Star_, 215
+
+  _Under the Deodars_, 90
+
+  _Unknown Guest, The_, 156
+
+  Upanishads, 166, 172
+
+  Upsala, 64, 117
+
+  Urbana, 165
+
+
+  Valdes, 239
+
+  Valera, 239, 244
+
+  Varmland, 106, 108, 118
+
+  Vega, Lope de, 242
+
+  _Versunkene Glocke, Die_, 141, 142
+
+  _Victoria_, 219
+
+  Vigny, Alfred de, 229
+
+  _Voices of Tomorrow_, 70, 132
+
+  _Vraie religion selon Pascal, La_, 28
+
+  _Vrais tendresses, Les_, 24
+
+  Wackernagel, Wilhelm, 206
+
+  Wagner, 178, 181, 202, 203
+
+  Wallace, Elizabeth, 243
+
+  _Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings, A_, 215
+
+  Warsaw, 265, 266
+
+  _Weavers, The_, 136, 138, 139
+
+  _Wee Willie Winkie_, 91
+
+  _What Do I Know?_, 28
+
+  _What Will People Say?_, 274
+
+  _When the New Wine Blooms_, 70
+
+  _White Stone, The_, 233
+
+  Whittier, J. G., 41
+
+  _Wicker-Work Woman, The_, 233
+
+  Widgery, Alban G., 56
+
+  Widman, Joseph Victor, 210, 211
+
+  Wiehr, Josef, 214, 216, 218, 222
+
+  _Wife of the Avenger_, 240
+
+  Williams, Oakley, 144
+
+  Wilson, Woodrow, 18, 185
+
+  _Wind among the Reeds, The_, 258, 261
+
+  _Winter_, 270, 272
+
+  _Winter Ballad, A_, 146
+
+  _With Fire and Sword_, 266, 267
+
+  _Without Dogma_, 267
+
+  Wolf, Hugo, 181
+
+  _Woman’s Victory_, 217
+
+  _Wonderful Adventures of Nils, The_, 105, 113, 117, 195
+
+  Worster, W. W., 221
+
+  _Wrack of the Storm, The_, 156
+
+
+  Yagna, 272, 273
+
+  _Years Between, The_, 99, 100
+
+  _Year 1794, The_, 275
+
+  Yeats, William Butler, 18, 160, 253-263
+
+  Young Poland, 269
+
+
+  _Zacchæus_, 217
+
+  Zeromski, Stephen, 275
+
+  Zola, 272
+
+  Zürich, 43, 206
+
+  Zweig, Stefan, 175, 176, 181
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s note
+
+
+Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice.
+Hyphenization was standardized where appropriate. Italization, and
+spelling of proper nouns were also standardized.
+
+In this version, the illustrations are placed differently on the page
+than in the original.
+
+Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following
+changes:
+
+  Page 65:  “is a concilatory mind”        “is a conciliatory mind”
+  Page 178: “Original of the Modern”       “Origins of the Modern”
+  Page 180: “falsit es and hypocrisy”      “falsities and hypocrisy”
+  Page 180: “days, under title”            “days, under the title”
+  Page 201: “accept my parish”             “accept any parish”
+  Page 294: “zwie Roman, ubersetzung”      “zwei Roman, ubersetzung”
+  Page 295: “_goldens Zweig_, Dichtung     “_goldene Zweig_, Dichtung
+               und Novellenkrauz”             und Novellenkranz”
+  Page 295: “_Frühesten Erlebmisse_”       “_Frühesten Erlebnisse_”
+  Page 298: “Years; Reminiscencs”          “Years; Reminiscences”
+  Page 311: “Vrai religion selon”          “Vraie religion selon”
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77238 ***