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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/77755-0.txt b/77755-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d8d65d --- /dev/null +++ b/77755-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6420 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77755 *** + + + + + Transcriber’s Note + + +This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text and =equals= to +indicate bold text. Small capitals changed to all capitals. + + + + + THE WANDERING JEW + + + BY + MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY + AUTHOR OF “DEMONOLOGY AND DEVIL-LORE” + + + NEW YORK + HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + 1881 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1881, + BY + MONCURE D. CONWAY. + + + + + PREFACE. + + +It might be offered as a sufficient reason for writing this book that +no other treatise on the same subject exists in our language. But to +this it may be added, that in pamphlets that have appeared in other +languages, the relations of the Legend with Eastern mythology have +been little considered, and its connection with Hebrew and Christian +mythology almost ignored. Furthermore, those studies of the Legend +which I have read consider it mainly as a curiosity. But the subject, +as it appears to me, possesses a larger significance. Even the poems +and romances it has suggested fail to render the still sad music of +humanity pervading the variations of the folk-tale itself. + +The Legend of the “Wandering Jew” is an example of how the folk-tale +may sometimes be a mirror brought by Truth from the bottom of her +well--the heart of the child-like world--wherein may be seen by +reflection things that few eyes can look upon directly. The splendours +now gathered around a triumphant Christ conceal from many the face +of the changeling really there. But children, fools, and folk-lore +speak the truth. The modern French song says, “Jesus, who is goodness +itself, sighing said, Thou shalt march till Judgment Day.” There is +a touch of sceptical sophistication here. But among the many earlier +songs, ballads, stories, there is not one which betrays the faintest +suspicion of anything in the curse on the Wanderer not characteristic +of Jesus. No one tried to soften the case. Another widespread legend +relates that once when Jesus begged bread of a baker, the dough +prepared for him was reduced, before being placed in the oven, by the +baker’s daughter; whereupon Jesus taught her the beauty of kindness by +changing her into a deathless owl. Ophelia murmurs: “They say the owl +was a baker’s daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we +may be.” These last words would not have been inappropriate for the owl +to address to a Christ whose transformation her own reflected. Is this +only a fantastic tale? It is coinage of the creed that a human word +or action may find its fair measure in ages of penalty. In it is the +fictitious equation of every theology which unites ancient divinities +not subject to moral laws with human ideals. The sacerdotal sorcery +which for the lover of enemies substituted a curser of enemies is +discoverable in the earliest Christian theology; but the working out of +it among the masses is not told in histories. The true record remains +to be written, and the materials for it are indestructibly preserved in +such legendary lore as this of the Wandering Jew. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + I. THE LEGEND 3 + + II. THE UNDYING ONES 29 + + III. SOURCES OF THE MYTH 38 + + IV. THE LEGENDS GENERALISED 52 + + V. TRANSFIGURATION 56 + + VI. MANTLES OF THE IMMORTALS 65 + + VII. THE MARK OF CAIN 71 + + VIII. THE JEW IN THEOLOGY 80 + + IX. THE JEW IN FOLK-LORE 87 + + X. THE WEIRD OF THE WANDERER 93 + + XI. “THE VERY DEVIL INCARNATION” 104 + + XII. THE WANDERING RACE 109 + + XIII. THE POUND OF FLESH 118 + + XIV. THE WANDERING JEW IN FOLK-LORE 150 + + XV. THE NEW AHASUERUS IN GERMANY 166 + + XVI. THE NEW AHASUERUS IN FRANCE 204 + + XVII. THE NEW AHASUERUS IN ENGLAND 225 + + XVIII. AHASUERUS VINCTUS 249 + + XIX. AHASUERUS DELIVERED 269 + + XX. THREE WITNESSES 281 + + + + + THE WANDERING JEW. + + + + + I. + + THE LEGEND. + + +In the year 1228, an Armenian bishop visited England; and the purport +of his conversation is recorded in the _Historia Major_, begun by +Roger de Wendover and completed (anno 1259) by Matthæus Parisius. +The interviews between the monks and the Armenian took place at St. +Albans, through Henri Spigurnel, a French interpreter, a native of +Antioch and servant of the bishop; and if the replies of the Eastern +prelate were rightly rendered, his tendency to the marvellous was +sufficiently strong. He was asked, for instance, whether he had seen +Noah’s Ark, said to be still preserved on an Armenian mountain, and +he replied “Yes.” He was also asked whether he knew anything of “the +famous Joseph,” so much discussed, said to have been preserved from +the time of the crucifixion of Christ, as a witness of that event. +The interpreter said that the personage in question had dined with +his master shortly before they left Armenia, and then gave the story +as follows. The name of the wonderful Jew was originally Cartaphilus, +and he was Pilate’s doorkeeper at the time of Christ’s trial. When +the young men were leading Jesus out from the hall of judgment, this +doorkeeper struck him on the neck, and said, “Go, Jesus; go on faster: +why dost thou linger?” Jesus turned, and answered, “I will go, but thou +shalt remain waiting until I come.” (Here is quoted Matt. xxvi. 24: +“The Son of man goeth as it is written of Him; but woe unto that man +by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if +he had not been born.”) Thenceforth Cartaphilus has been waiting. He +was thirty years when he insulted Christ, and whenever he reaches the +age of one hundred he faints; on his recovery he finds himself as young +as when his doom was pronounced. (Which, again, reminds the Chronicler +of a text, Ps. ciii. 5: “Thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s;” and +no doubt he was coming near a myth to which this item of the story is +related, that of the Phœnix.) It was further related that Cartaphilus +had been baptized by Ananias (who baptized Paul) under the name of +Joseph. He lives among eminent Christians in Armenia as a holy man; +relates to them and to others who visit him, sometimes from great +distances, much concerning the Apostles: he never smiles, but sometimes +weeps; refuses gifts, is frugal, and talks little. He hopes for final +forgiveness, because he knew not what he did. The Chronicle adds that +this story was attested by Richardus de Argentomio, who visited the +East. + +The same archbishop is quoted for the story told in the _Chronique +rimée_ of Philippe de Mousket, born 1220, Bishop of Tournai in 1682. +When the Jews were leading Jesus to execution, “this man” (no name is +given) said, “Wait for me: I also am going to see the false prophet +fastened to the cross.” Jesus turned upon him and said, “They will not +wait for thee, but thou shalt wait for me.” This man would seem to have +been a Jew, whereas Cartaphilus was a Roman. + +These are the earliest written records of the legend of the Wandering +Jew. From that time no trace of it appears until the year 1547, when +an individual seems to have appeared in Hamburg, pretending to be the +Wandering Jew himself. The legend and its representative appeared +in German annals simultaneously. The fullest account is in a work +published 1613: _Newe Zeitung von einem Juden von Jerusalem, Ahasuerus +genannt, welcher die Creutzigung unsers Herrn Jhesu Christi gesehen, +und noch am leben ist, aus Dantzig an einem guten Freund geschrieben_. +The name appended to this narrative is “Herr Chrysostomus Duduläus +Westphalus,” which Grässe believes a pseudonym. The author, however, +embodies statements made in an earlier work: _Strange Report of a Jew, +born at Jerusalem, named Ahasuerus, who pretends he was present at the +crucifixion of Christ. Newly printed at Leyden, Leipzig, 1602._ From +the same source came, _True likeness of the whole form of a Jew, seen +by all, from Jerusalem, who pretends, etc. First printed at Augspurg, +1619._ The narrative of Westphalus is as follows: + +“Paulus von Eizen, Doctor and Bishop of Schleswig, related to me, some +years ago, that at the time he was studying at Wittenberg, while on +a visit to his parents at Hamburg, in 1547, he had seen in church, +placed near the chancel, a very tall man, with hair falling on his +shoulders, barefoot, who listened to the sermon with great attention; +and whenever the name of Jesus was mentioned, bowed humbly, smote his +breast, and sighed. His only clothing was a pair of trousers, ragged +at the ends, and a coat tied with a cord which fell to his feet. He +appeared to be fifty years of age. There seem to have been many of the +nobility and gentry who have seen this man, in England, France, Italy, +Hungary, Persia, Spain, Poland, Moscow, Lieffland, Sweden, Denmark, +and Scotland, and in other regions. Everyone has marvelled much at +him. And the aforenamed Doctor, having made inquiries as to where he +could converse with this man, and having found him, asked him whence +he came, and how long he had been there during that winter. On this +the man very humbly told him that he was by birth a Jew of Jerusalem, +named Ahasuerus, his occupation that of a shoemaker; that he had been +present at the crucifixion of Christ, since which time he had been +alive; that he had travelled through many countries and cities; and +to prove that he was telling the truth, he had knowledge of various +events which had occurred since that time, as well as of all the events +which had happened to Christ when he was brought before Pilate and +Herod and finally crucified. He told even more than we know through +the evangelists and historians; and he narrated the many changes of +government, especially in Eastern countries, which had occurred at +one time or another during those many centuries. Then he related most +minutely the life, sufferings, and death of the holy Apostles. And +now, when Dr. Paulus of Eizen, with great interest and astonishment, +had heard these things, in order to obtain more thorough knowledge, +he asked him to relate exactly all that happened. Thereupon this man +answered that, at the time of the crucifixion, he resided in Jerusalem, +and like others he regarded Christ as a heretic; he had not thought of +him otherwise than as a misleader of the people; and that with others +he had endeavoured to get one who in his eyes was a rebel out of the +world. Soon after the sentence had been pronounced by Pilate, they +led Jesus past his house. Knowing that he would be led that way, he +(Ahasuerus) had gone home, and told all in his house that they might +see Jesus pass by and would know what kind of man he was. Just as Jesus +was passing, he took a child in his arms and stood before his own door. +Christ, bearing a very heavy cross on his shoulders, stopped a little +before the shoemaker’s door and leaned against the wall. Then the +shoemaker, full of sudden anger, and also desirous of public applause, +told Christ to move on whither he was ordered. Upon this, Christ looked +sternly upon him, and said, ‘I will stand here and rest, but thou shalt +move until the last day!’ Upon this, he put the child down quickly on +the floor, and could stay there no longer. He followed Jesus, saw him +miserably crucified, tortured, and slain. After all had been fulfilled, +it was impossible for him to enter Jerusalem. He never saw his wife +and child again, but as a sad pilgrim has wandered through foreign +countries one after another. When after many years he returned once +more to Jerusalem, he found everything sacked and destroyed, so that he +could recognise nothing: not one stone was left upon another, nor any +trace of the former magnificence visible. What God now intended to do +with him, in leaving him in this miserable life wandering about in such +wretchedness, he could not explain otherwise than that God wished him +to remain until the Day of Judgment as a living sign against the Jews, +by which the unbelieving and the godless might be reminded of Christ’s +death and be turned to repentance. For his part he would be very happy +if God would take him to heaven out of this vale of tears. + +“After this report and conversation, Dr. Paulus of Eizen asked, as +also did the School-Inspector of Hamburg, who was learned in ancient +histories, the right account of all sorts of things which had occurred +in Eastern countries after Christ’s birth and crucifixion. This man +gave a very good and exact report of all these ancient events: so that +people were obliged to believe in him and his story, and went away +astonished, and saying, that with God all things are possible--but with +man they are inscrutable. + +“As to this Jew’s life it was very quiet and retired. He did not talk +much, and only when asked a question; and when invited into a house, he +did not eat or drink much, being abstemious. He never stayed long in +one place. At Hamburg, Dantzig, and elsewhere, when money was offered, +he only accepted two shillings, which soon after he gave to the poor, +with the remark that he did not need any money; that the good God would +provide for him because he was penitent for his sin; and what he had +ignorantly done he would submit to God. None ever saw him laugh. In +whatever country he entered he knew the language at once. At that time +he spoke the Saxon language as one born there. Many people came to +Hamburg, from neighbouring and even distant places, to see and listen +to this man, and believed that something marvellous was indicated by +him, because he was not only attentive to the Word of God but showed +great reverence, and sighed whenever the name of God or Christ was +pronounced. He could never hear anyone utter a curse. Whenever the +name or torture or sufferings of God were connected by any excited +person with a curse, he would sigh deeply, and say, ‘Miserable man, +miserable creature! wilt thou take lightly the name of thy Lord and +God, and of his great suffering and torture? Hadst thou seen it as I +did, hadst thou seen how hard the wound of thy Saviour was for thee and +me, thou wouldst rather do a great harm to thyself than pronounce his +name lightly.’ All these things Dr. Paulus of Eizen told me with truth +and sincerity, with many other true circumstances, which, since then, +I have heard from several old friends who also saw the same man at +Hamburg with their own eyes. Which things, also, Paul of Eizen saw, and +has told with truth and earnestness. + +“Anno 1575. The Secretary Christoph Krause and Magistrate Jacobus von +Holstein had been sent as ambassadors to the Royal Court of Spain, and +afterwards to the Netherlands, in order to pay the soldiers who served +in the royal [army]; and when they had returned home again, being near +Schleswig, they solemnly related that they had seen this wonderful man +in Spain, with the identical appearance, costume, manners, and mode of +life. They had spoken to him personally; and said that at the same time +many besides themselves heard him speak good Spanish. + +“Anno 1599. In Christ’s month, a very trustworthy person wrote from +Brunswick to Strasburg that this wonderful man was then in Vienna, +in Austria, and that he intended to go from thence into Poland and +Dantzig, and after that to Moscow. This Ahasuerus has been at Lubeck in +1601. And also at Reffel in Lieffland, and in Cracow, Poland. He was +seen and spoken to by many people in Moscow. + +“What now sensible men shall think of all this I leave to themselves. +The providences of God are marvellous, inscrutable, inexplicable; as +time goes on they will become more so; and they will only be revealed +to us at the last day. + +“_Dated at Reffel, the first of August, 1613._--CHRYSOSTOMUS DUDULÄUS +WESTPHALUS.” + +Other notices of the Wandering Jew are as follows. Nicolas Heldvaler +(_Sylva Chronol. Circuli Baltici_) says: + +“This year (1604) there has appeared a fable of a Jew who is said to +have been a shoemaker in Jerusalem in the time of Christ, and having +on Good Friday struck Jesus with his shoe-last, cannot die, but must +wander about the world till the last day.” + +Rodolphe Bouthrays (Botereius), Parliamentary Advocate of Paris (in his +_Commentarii de Rebus Historicis in Gallia et toto pene Orbe gestis_, +Lib. xi., 1604), mentions the report as wide-spread in his time. The +following is a translation from his Latin: + +“I am afraid that some may charge me with anile trifling, if I insert +in this page the story which is told in the whole of Europe, concerning +a Jew, a contemporary of the Saviour Christ. Nothing, however, is more +widely-spread, and the vernacular history of our own countrymen has not +blushed to declare it. Thus I have, as witnesses, those who formerly +wrote our Annals ... that he, not in one century [only] had been seen +and recognised in Spain, Italy and Germany, but that this year it was +he himself who was seen at Hamburg, anno 1564. Many other things the +vulgar imagine about him, as it is prone to rumours; which I relate, +lest anything should remain untold.” + +The following is a translation from the Latin of Julius Cæsar Bulenger +(_Historiarium sui Temporis Libri_, Leyden, 1619): + +“It was reported at that time that a Jew, a contemporary of Christ, +who for more than a thousand years had been a vagrant and a wanderer +over the whole world, was still wandering about without meat and +drink, having been condemned to that punishment by God, because he +was the first of the dregs of the circumcised to cry out that Christ +should be fixed to the Cross, and that Barabbas the robber should be +released from the hook and the terror of the Cross. Afterwards, when +Christ, panting from the weight of the Cross, would have rested at +his workshop, for he was a mechanic, he ordered Him off with bitter +words. To whom Christ said, Because thou begrudgest me so little +rest, I will rest; and thou without rest shalt wander. And it is +told that presently, in less time than the telling occupies, the man +wandered frantic and aimless throughout the whole city, that thence +his wanderings continue over the whole world even to this present day, +and that it was the very man who was seen at Hamburg in the year 1564. +‘Credat Judæus Apella.’ I did not see the man at that time, since I +was occupied at Paris, nor did I hear about him from sufficiently +trustworthy authorities.” + +Louvet mentions seeing him in 1604 at Beauvais, surrounded by a crowd +of children, speaking of the Passion of Christ. He expresses regret +that his contempt for the fellow prevented his interrogating. He asked +and received alms at a certain house. + +S. H. Bangert (_Commentatio de ortu vita et excessu Coleri +Jurisconsulti Lubecensis_, Lubeck, 1644) mentions that Coler left a +memorandum in his diary to the effect that “that immortal Jew, who +asserted that he had been present at the crucifixion of Christ, was at +Lubeck on the 14th January, 1603.” + +Martin Zeiler (_Historici Chronologi et Geographi Celebres Collecti_, +Ulm, 1653) mentions the Wandering Jew. Among his Letters Zeiler cites +one by Westphalus, substantially the same as his account (1613) already +quoted, as having been written to one of his (Westphalus’) friends. + +In the year 1644 the ‘Turkish Spy’ writes from Paris (Book III. Letter +I.) to Ibraham Haly Cheik, a Man of the Law, as follows: + +“There is a man come to this city, if he may be called a man, who +pretends to have lived above these sixteen hundred years. They call him +the Wandering Jew. But some say he is an impostor. He says of himself +that he was Usher of the Divan in Jerusalem (the Jews call it the +Court of Judgment), where all criminal causes were tried, at the time +when Jesus, the Son of Mary, the Christian’s Messias, was condemned by +Pontius Pilate, the Roman President. That his name was Michob Ader; and +that for thrusting Jesus out of the Hall with these words, ‘Go, why +tarriest thou?’ the Messias answered him again, ‘I go, but tarry thou +till I come;’ thereby condemning him to live till the Day of Judgment. +He pretends to remember the Apostles that lived in those days, and +that he himself was baptized by one of them; that he has travelled +through all the regions of the world, and so must continue to be a +vagabond till the Messias shall return again. They say that he heals +all diseases by touching the part affected. Divers other miracles are +ascribed to him by the ignorant and superstitious; but the learned, the +noble, the great, censure him as a pretender or a madman. Yet there +are who affirm that ’tis one convincing argument of the reality of his +pretence that he has hitherto escaped a prison, especially in those +countries where the authors of all innovations are severely punished. +He has escaped the Inquisitions at Rome, in Spain, and in Portugal, +which the vulgar will have to be an evident miracle. + +“One day I had the curiosity to discourse with him in several +languages; and I found him master of all those that I could speak. +I conversed with him five or six hours together in Arabic. He told +me there was scarce a true history to be found. I asked him what he +thought of Mahomet, the Prophet and Lawgiver of the Mussulmans? He +answered that he knew his father very well, and had often been in his +company at Ormus in Persia; that Mahomet was a man full of light and a +divine spirit, but had his errors as well as other mortals, and that +his chiefest was in denying the crucifixion of the Messias; ‘for,’ said +he, ‘I was present, and saw Him hang on the Cross, with these eyes of +mine.’ He accused the Mussulmans of ‘imposture’ in making the world +believe that the tomb of their Prophet hangs miraculously between +heaven and earth, saying that he himself had seen it, and that it was +built after the manner of other sepulchres. Thou who hast been at the +Holy Place knowest whether this be true or false. He upbraids the +Persian Mahometans with luxury, the Ottomans with tyranny, the Arabians +with robbery, the Moors with cruelty, and the Mussulmans of the Indies +with atheism. Nor does he spare to reproach the Christian churches: he +taxes the Roman and Grecian with the pompous idolatry of the heathens; +he accuses the Æthiopian of Judaism, the Armenian of heresy; and says +that the Protestants, if they would live according to their profession, +would be the best Christians. + +“He told me he was in Rome when Nero set fire to the city and stood +triumphing on the top of a hill to behold the flames. That he saw +Saladin’s return from his conquests in the East, when he caused his +shirt to be carried on the top of a spear, with this proclamation: +‘_Saladin, lord of many rich countries, Conqueror of the East_, ever +victorious and happy, when he dies shall have no other memorial left of +all his glories, but only this poor shirt.’ + +“He relates many remarkable passages of Soliman the Magnificent, +whereof our histories are silent, and says he was in Constantinople +when Soliman built that royal mosque which goes by his name. He knew +Tamerlane the Scythian, and told me he was so called because he halted +on one leg. He pretends also to have been acquainted with Scander-Beg, +the valiant and fortunate Prince of Epirus. He seemed to pity the +insupportable calamity of Bajazet, whom he had seen carried about in a +cage by Tamerlane’s order. He accuses the Scythian of too barbarous an +insult on the unfortunate Sultan. He remembers the ancient Caliphs of +Babylon and Egypt, the empire of the Saracens, and the wars in the Holy +Land. He highly extols the valour and conduct of the renowned Godfrey +de Bouillon. He gives an accurate account of the rise, progress, +establishment and subversion of the Mamelukes in Egypt. He says he has +washed himself in the two head-springs of the river Nile, which arise +in the southern part of Æthiopia. That its increase is occasioned by +the great rains in Æthiopia, which swell all the rivers that fall into +the Nile, and cause that vast inundation to discover whose origin has +so much puzzled philosophy. He says that the river Ganges in India is +broader and deeper than the Nile; that the river Niger in Africa is +longer by some hundreds of miles; and that he can remember a time when +the river Nile overflowed not till three months after the usual season. + +“Having professed himself an universal traveller, and that there was no +corner of the earth where he had not been present, I began to comfort +myself with the hopes of some news from the Ten Tribes of Israel that +were carried into captivity by Salmanasar, King of Assyria, and could +never be heard of since. I asked him several questions concerning +them, but found no satisfactory answer. Only, he told me that in Asia, +Africa, and Europe he had taken notice of a sort of people who (though +not Jews in profession) yet retained some characteristics whereby one +might discover them to be descended of that nation. In Livonia, Russia, +and Finland he had met with people of languages distinct from that +of the country, having a great mixture of Hebrew words; that these +abstained from swine’s flesh, blood, and things strangled; that in +their lamentations for the dead they always used these words: _Jeru, +Jeru, Masco, Salem_. By which, he thought, they called to remembrance +Jerusalem and Damascus, those two famous cities of Palestine and Syria. +In the Circassians also he had traced some footsteps of Judaism: their +customs, manner of life, feasts, marriages, and sacrifices being not +far removed from the institutions of Mosaic Law. But, what is most +remarkable, he said that he had conversed with professed Jews in +the north part of Asia who never so much as heard of Jesus, the son +of Mary, or of the revolutions of Judea after his death, the siege +and destruction of Jerusalem, or any other matters wherewith all +histories abound concerning that nation. He said, moreover, that these +Jews had only the Pentateuch, not having heard of the rest of those +Books which compose the greatest part of the Old Testament; and that +this Pentateuch was written in a sort of Hebrew far different from +that which is now commonly spoken by the rest of the Jews dispersed +throughout the world. That the number of these Jews was infinite. And, +finally, he thought that these (if any) were the true posterity of +those Ten Captive Tribes. + +“Having mentioned the destruction of Jerusalem, I asked him where he +was at that time? He told me, in the Court of Vespasian at Rome; and +that he had heard the emperor say, when he understood the Temple of +Solomon was burnt to ashes, ‘he had rather all Rome had been set on +fire.’ Here the old man fell a-weeping himself, lamenting the ruin of +that noble structure, which he described to me as familiarly as if he +had seen it but yesterday. He says that Josephus wrote partially of the +seditions in the city, being related to one of the chief ringleaders, +whom therefore he spared, being loth to stain the reputation of his own +family to all posterity. + +“I tell thee, sage Cheik, if this man’s pretences be true, he is +so full of choice memoirs, and has been witness to so many grand +transactions for the space of sixteen centuries of years, that he may +not unfitly be called ‘A living Chronology,’ the ‘Protonotary of the +Christians’ Hegira,’ or principal recorder of that which they esteem +the last _epocha_ of the world’s duration. By his looks one would take +him for a relic of the Old World, or one of the long-lived fathers +before the Flood. To speak modestly, he may pass for the younger +brother of Time. + +“It would be endless to tell thee how many other discourses we had of +his travels and memoirs; till, tired with his company, and judging all +to be a cheat, I took my leave. I assure thee, he seems to be a man +well versed in all histories, a great traveller, and one that affects +to be counted an extraordinary person. The common people are ready to +adore him; and the very fear of the multitude restrains the magistrates +from offering any violence to this impostor. + +“Live thou in the exercise of thy reason, which will not permit thee to +be seduced into errors by the subtle insinuations of men. Continue to +love Mahomet, who honours thee without a fiction. + +“Paris, 4th of the 1st Moon of the Year 1644.” + + * * * * * + +In, or about, the year 1645 there was published in German at Augsburg +the _Strange Report of a Jew who claims to have been present at the +crucifixion, and to have been kept alive from that time. A theological +warning to the Christian reader, illustrated and enlarged by +trustworthy histories and examples._ On this book there is a picture +representing a village, with trees; on the right the sun emerging from +clouds; in the centre Jesus crowned with thorns, his arms stretched +out; in front, the Wandering Jew kneeling with clasped hands, his hat +and the Bible lying before him. On both sides, in horizontal line, runs +the sentence: _From Chrysostomo Dudulæo Westphalo, written to his good +friend_. On the back are some verses, the first two lines being in +Latin: + + “Nubibus in altis crucifixum cernit Jesum + Asverus, dignum clamitat ante cruce.” + +In 1681 there appeared a publication, written by Pastor J. Georg +Hadeck: _Nathanieli Christiano. Relation concerning a hermit named +Ahasuerus, a Jew who was present at the crucifixion, etc._ + +M. Magnin in an essay prefixed to the _Ahasuerus_ of Edgar Quinet +(Paris edition of 1843, p. 24) says “In 1641 an Austrian baron, and in +1643 a physician returned from Palestine, related that a certain Turk +had pointed out ‘Joseph’ to a Venetian nobleman named Bianchi. The poor +Jew was then under close guard at the bottom of a crypt in Jerusalem; +he was dressed in his ancient Roman costume, exactly that of the time +of Christ. He did nothing but walk about the room without saying a +word, and strike his hand against the wall, or sometimes his breast, to +testify his sorrow for having struck the holy face of the Lord. I find +these details in an anonymous German work of the middle of the 17th +century, bearing the singular title of _Relation_, or _Brief account of +two living witnesses of the Passion of our Saviour_.” This was no doubt +a version of the work of Droscher, _De duobus testibus vivis passionis +dominicæ_, Jena, 1688. M. Gaston Paris believes this to have been a +tale suggested by the Matthew Paris Chronicle, printed in London in +1571, at Zurich in 1586. + +An important work appeared with the following title: _Dissertatio +historica de Judæo non mortali_, etc. _Certaminis publ. argum. f. Præs. +Schultz. Regiom. Pruss. respondens Martin Schmid Slavio. Pomer._ A.D. +_26 Jan. Ann. 1689_. This work contains a curious account of the Twelve +Tribes, sent by a Jewish physician to his co-religionists in Mantua; +also a “trustworthy” copy of the judgment which Pilate pronounced on +Christ, stating his motives, subscribed by all members of his council +and officers of the Sanhedrim; with the full Notes of the Prosecutor; +these having been “found in a marble rock in the city of Aquila.” (This +idea was used by A. W. Schlegel, in his romance on the subject.) + +In 1697 a book was published at Wolffenbüttel, entitled _Description +of a Hermit, a Jew_ (etc.), _who brings near the evidence of Joseph +concerning Christ; the history of the death of Christ; the Letter of +Lentulus to the Roman Council; the condemnation of Christ; history of +the broken stone; Letter of Pilate to the Emperor Tiberias; of Pilate’s +punishment said to have been inflicted on the Twelve Tribes of Israel +for the crucifixion of Christ. With an addition concerning a Jew, +a sorcerer, who gave himself out for the Messias. Collected out of +respectable old histories and most trustworthy testimonies._ + +In the French language there was published at Bordeaux (1609) the _True +History of the Wandering Jew taken from his own lips_. The legend seems +hardly to have been known in Spain, and but little in Italy, at any +early date. There was printed at Bruges (where the _Chronique rimée_ +of Philippe de Mousket had prepared the soil for it) early in the +seventeenth century (probably) a folkbook entitled _Wonderful History +of the Wandering Jew, who since the year 33 to this time has only +wandered_. + +In the English language the only early story of the Wandering Jew, +after that in the Chronicle of Matthew of Paris, is the ballad +contained in _Percy’s Reliques_. This ballad is in black-letter in the +Pepys’ collection; it follows the Hamburg legend, and was probably +written early in the 17th century. That the legend was well known in +England in the seventeenth century appears from a satire, in which +it is utilised, without being narrated, entitled _The Wandering Jew +telling Fortunes to Englishmen. A Jew’s Lottery._ _London_: printed by +John Raworth, for Nathaniel Butter, 1640. + +It should also be stated that there were a number of treatises written +against the story, such as--1. _De duobus testibus vivis passionis +Christi._ _Jena_, 1668 (written by S. Niemann); 2. _Meletea historia +de Judæo immortali_, 1668 (written by J. Freutzel); 3. _Diss. hist. de +Judæo non mortali_, 1689 (written by Martin Schmid). In the following +century (1723) an anonymous pamphlet was printed, in Frankfort and +Leipzig, “concerning the Immortal Jew, in which it is shown throughout +that in the nature of things he never existed.” In 1756 was published +C. Anton’s _Diss. in qua lepidam fabulam de Judæo immortali examinet_; +followed by _An Alewife’s letter to Anton, that there is a Wandering +Jew_. (Halle, 1756.) + +This earlier bibliography of the Wandering Jew is mainly condensed +from the most important work on the antiquarian features of the +legend:--_Die Sage vom Ewigen Juden, historisch entwecklt mit +verwandter Mythen verglichen und beleuchtet_. Von Dr. J. G. Th. Grässe. +Dresden u. Leipzig, 1844. + +In following Grässe, M. Schœbel (_La legende du Juif Errant_, Paris, +1877), and M. Gaston Paris (_Le Juif Errant_, Paris, 1880) have added +important points and criticisms. + +From the various books mentioned are gathered the following notes: + +S. Grosse (in his “History of Leipzig”) says that the Wandering Jew +appeared there as a beggar in 1642, and accepted gifts, some of high +value. Other traditions report that he refused presents. + +It is a tradition of Matterberge, under the Matterhorn, that formerly +a great city stood there; and it is said that when the Wandering Jew +first came there he said: “When I come again I shall find a forest +where now are houses; and when I come the third time all will be snow +and ice: and this has been fulfilled.” + +It is said that at Naumburg (Thuringia) he could neither sit nor stand +still. Even when listening to a sermon he was always moving. He said he +had “no rest by day or night, and was kept alive without food or drink, +sleep or rest, for many years in a miraculous manner.” It is said that, +in 1640, two citizens of Brussels, walking in a wood, met a grey old +man, in shabby and antique garb. They invited him to an inn, where he +drank with them, standing. Before leaving, he told them of things that +happened centuries before. They gathered that he was Isaac Laquedem, +the Jew who forbade his Lord to rest at his door, and left him in +terror. + +The presence in England of a man pretending to be the Wandering Jew is +stated in a letter of Madame de Mazarin to Madame de Bouillon (Calmet, +_Dict. de la Bible_, ii. 472). In England he assumed the character of +one who had been an official of high rank in Jerusalem. His statements +to the English noblemen and University professors who conversed with +him (many of whom believed his story) were so precisely those which +were given to the Turkish Spy in Paris that there is no need to +reproduce them here. It is probable that the same man had journeyed +from Paris to England, as it is difficult to believe that two such +clever and learned impostors could appear at the same time. + +It is notable that an account of the first appearance of a personal +representative of the legend should only have been published more than +fifty years (certainly) after his visit to Hamburg; and then just after +the death of the witness said to have conversed with him, Paul of +Eizen. This prelate was born at Hamburg, 1522, and died in 1598. His +alleged testimonies to the Wandering Jew were reported subsequently by +the pseudonymous Duduläus. It is further remarkable that in the story +as told by Duduläus, already given, nothing is said of a _blow_ dealt +Jesus by Ahasuerus. He evidently desires to soften the story for the +Wandering Jew, and adduce him as a witness to the Christian legend. He +tries in one of his pamphlets to recommend the story to sceptics by +relating another of three pious miners of Bohemia, who fell into a pit +at Kuttenberg. They remained there for seven years, their provisions +and lamp holding out miraculously. One prayed that he might again see +the light of day; another, that he might once more eat with his family; +the third, that he might live one more year with his wife and children. +The prayers were answered, but each died suddenly immediately after his +wish was fulfilled. + +The _animus_ of the revival of the legend is shown by instances in +which the Jews’ quarters were invaded under rumours that they were +concealing the Wanderer. + + + + + II. + + THE UNDYING ONES. + + +The myth of the Wandering Jew belongs, essentially, to a class which +has great antiquity, and is found in every part of the world. + +At a period before Animism had been embodied in clear conceptions of a +life beyond the grave, the human heart and mind had to adapt themselves +as well as they could to the King of Terrors, which destroyed the +greatest as well as the humblest. The first that were ideally wrested +from Death were saints and heroes; and it was necessary to find for +these an earthly immortality. Many myths and legends of the undying +ones are no doubt variants of each other; but they are found among +races so separate in origin and history, that we may be content to +find their common root in human nature. Men cannot bear to think that +their leaders, heroes, saviours are really dead. They resolutely repel +the unwelcome fact as long as they can. They easily credit any rumour +that the reported death is some fiction of the enemy, or possibly a +stratagem of their own party-leaders. It is said that after the death +of General Jackson, a President of the United States, many democrats +still voted for him at the following election, denouncing the report +of his death as “another Whig lie.” The story if not true is _ben +trovato_; and there are facts enough like it even in modern history. +Sceptics were found in France who but slowly credited the tidings of +the death of Napoleon III.: their transient suspicions were echoes of +Beranger’s cry when he heard of the first Napoleon’s death: “God, I can +scarce believe Thee without him!”[1] + +It is recorded in the _Heimskringla_ that, after the death of King +Odin, “the Swedes believed that he often showed himself to them +before any great battle. To some he gave victory, others he invited +to himself; and they reckoned both of these to be well off in their +fate.” Thus, the Wild Huntsman began his career. This tendency in the +popular mind was utilised by courtiers of the next popular monarch. +This was Freyr, second monarch after Odin, who probably lived in +the first century of our era, and built the great temple at Upsal. +It is recorded: “Then began, in his days, the Frode-peace; and then +there were good seasons in all the land, which the Swedes ascribed +to Freyr, so that he was more worshipped than the other gods, as the +people became much richer in his days by reason of the peace and good +seasons.... Freyr fell into a sickness; and as his illness took the +upper hand, his men took the plan of letting few approach him. In +the meantime they raised a great mound, in which they placed a door +with three holes in it. Now when Freyr died they bore him secretly +into the mound, but told the Swedes he was alive; and they kept watch +over him for three years. They brought all the taxes into the mound; +and through the one hole they put in the gold, through the other the +silver, and through the third the copper money that was paid. Peace +and good seasons prevailed.... When it became known to the Swedes +that Freyr was dead, and yet peace and good seasons continued, they +believed that it must be so as long as Freyr remained in Sweden; and +therefore they would not burn his remains, but called him the god of +this world, and afterwards offered continually blood sacrifices to +him, principally for peace and good seasons.”[2] Here we have one +chapter in the genesis of these immortals. Men have been executed in +Portugal for professing to be Sebastian returned. In the time of James +II., country-people in England believed that Monmouth had not really +died on the scaffold, but “would suddenly appear, would lead them on +to victory, and would tread down the King and the Jesuits under his +feet.”[3] Some believed him to be the Man in the Iron Mask. + +On the death of King Arthur all hope of finding the Holy Graal seemed +to vanish. On the “Morte d’Arthur” it is written: “This of King Arthur, +I find no more written in my copy of the certainty of his death; but +thus he was led away in a barge, wherein were three Queens; and one +was King Arthur’s sister, Queen Morgan le Fay, and there was Nimue, +the chief Lady of the Lake. More of the death of King Arthur, could I +never find. But that ladies brought such a one unto burials, that he +was buried here, that the hermit bare witness that sometime was Bishop +of Canterbury and dwelled that time in a chapel beside Glastonbury. +But yet the hermit knew not, of a certain, that it was verily the body +of King Arthur. Some men yet say in many parts of England that King +Arthur is not dead, but had, by the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, +into another place. And men say that he will come again, and he shall +win the Holy Cross.”[4] That King Arthur is in the Vale of Avalon +(of Apples) attended by fairies; that in some regions he has been +found by shepherds slumbering, like Barbarossa, with his knights in +a subterranean castle (at Sewingshields especially); that in others +he has been seen, like Wodan, at the head of a ghostly hunt by night: +these are legends found far and wide in British and Breton folklore. +Tennyson makes Arthur repose in-- + + “The island-valley of Avilion + Where falls not hail, nor rain, nor any snow, + Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies + Deep-meadowed, happy, fair, with orchard lawns, + And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea.” + +Germany has many corresponding myths, chief of which is that of +Frederick I., or Barbarossa, believed to be sleeping under Raven’s +Hill at Kaiserlautern, ready to come forth in the last emergency (or +glory and unity) of his country. There, in his palace (or grotto) +underground, a shepherd once found him surrounded by his sleeping +knights, all in armour; the horses near by in harness. The red beard, +which gave the hero his name, had grown through the stone table before +him, and taken root in the floor. As the shepherd entered, Barbarossa +awoke and asked: + +“Are the ravens still flying round the hill?” + +“Yes.” + +“Then must I sleep another hundred years.” + +On the evening when the present Emperor of Germany had reviewed his +troops, after his late war with France, this legend was represented +before him in a series of marvellous tableaux which I witnessed. In +the last it was shown that the hour had arrived for Frederick the Red +Beard to come forth, and it need hardly be said that he bore a striking +resemblance to the Emperor William. In some regions it is said that +Frau Holda stands beside the slumbering Barbarossa: this may have +helped to give us our familiar variant _The Sleeping Beauty_. + +It is said that after Pope Paschal III. had made Charlemagne a saint, +Otho III. (anno 997) opened that Emperor’s tomb and found him seated +on his throne, with his crown, imperial robe, and sceptre, and on his +knees a copy of the Gospels. Beside him was his sword Joyeuse, and his +pilgrim’s pouch. So Charlemagne was added to the list of holy sleepers. + +In another work I have spoken of these Sleepers, and also of the +Wanderers.[5] The list of such, too long to be given here, includes +Tell, in Switzerland; Boabdil of Spain; Sebastian of Portugal; +Olger Dansk; Thomas of Ercildoune, and many another, down to such +præternatural if not perpetual sleepers as Rip Van Winkle, and the +Abbot Cormac of Killarney, who listened two hundred years to the +singing of a nightingale. The Abbot had doubted if he would not find +the singing of heaven tiresome; he supposed he had listened to the bird +a few moments only in the wood, but returned to find all changed. The +legend has inspired one of Allingham’s beautiful ballads, “The Abbot +of Inisfalen.” Herodotus (iv. 94) relates the tale of Zalmoxis, the +Thracian, who, disgusted with the uncivilised life around him, had a +subterranean hall built and there resided. Some presently believed +that Zalmoxis never died; others regarded him as a god; and ultimately +it became a custom of the Getans to despatch a messenger, every fifth +year, to him, by hurling some man into the air and catching him on +javelins. If the victim dies Zalmoxis is propitious. Plutarch relates a +story similar to this (De Defect. Orac.), as told by one Cleombrotus, +concerning an Oriental personage who appeared among his fellow-men only +once a year. The rest of his life was passed among friendly nymphs +and demons, and as these are said to have rendered him proof against +disease it may be supposed that he was one of the undying. + +Similar legends are indeed found among the aboriginal races of North +America. Such heroes as Booin (Nova Scotia) and Hiawatha were supposed +never to have died. Booin was carried to a happy land inside a friendly +whale, whom he compensated with the tobacco which the Micmacs still +see smoking in the spout of that animal; and Hiawatha “sailed into the +purple sunset.” To these good Indians migrate when they die. The Incas +of Peru also were found believing that the founder of their kingdom +never died, but would return to restore its ancient splendours. The +Muyscas of Bogota relate that the first lawgiver of Bochica lived +among their tribe 2000 years, then “withdrew,” and he is now known as +Idacanzas.[6] + +It is interesting to compare such primitive forms of the myth with +those assumed by it amid the advanced phases of Animism. Tithonus, for +whom Eos obtained the gift of immortality but not that of perpetual +youth, whom divine pity changed into a grasshopper, became the +proverbial title of a decrepit old man, and represents the nearest +approach to an earthly immortal in Greek mythology. The immortals exist +indeed, but in changed forms, or even if the human powers be preserved +it must be in Hades, as in the case of Teiresias. The Glaucus-myth, +running through several variants, shows the evolution of this class of +myths. Surviving all ordeals in Crete--the sea, the cask of honey, the +serpent’s bite--he becomes on the Corinthian coast an evil ghost, and +in Bœotia a marine deity. In classic ages every hero has his vulnerable +point where he is sure to be touched at last. + + + + + III. + + SOURCES OF THE MYTH. + + +Although, as we have seen, the myths of the undying ones are found +among races so widely separate that they must often be of independent +origin, many of them are ethnically related. This is the case with a +series of such, now to be considered, which bear upon the fable of the +Wandering Jew. + +The earliest myth of this character is probably that of the Iranian +Yima, King of the Golden Age in Persia. This beautiful myth is found in +the Zendavesta, and in the Vendidad which Haug traces, in its earlier +parts, to an antiquity not far short of Zoroaster himself, not less +than a thousand years before our era. In the Zendavesta it is declared: +“During the happy reign of Yima there was neither cold nor heat, +neither decay nor death, nor malice produced by the demons; father and +son walked forth, each fifteen years old in appearance.” With Yima +was Armaiti, the divine woman, genius of the earth, who by promoting +culture, recovering wildernesses and converting nomadic tribes to +peaceful cultivators, expanded the earth to thrice its original size; +and over this paradise Yima reigned nine hundred years. After the evils +of winter had come over his country Yima led a select number of his +friends to a secluded spot, where they enjoy perfect happiness.[7] +Armaiti still, in Parsî faith, remained at her work, upholding the +earth in her maternal arms, ever working against the powers of evil; +and when she shall have prevailed, Yima is to come back again and lead +in the Golden Year. + +It is an instance of the unconscious poetry of humanity that this +Iranian Yima is one with Yama, the Vedic King of the Dead! The idea +may have originally been the declining sun;[8] but there are other +characters than darkness about the sunset; there are splendours also, +and often the western horizon is painted with radiant islets which to +primitive man seemed a part of his planet. It may even have been that +the westward course of human migration was guided by this permanent +pillar of Fire which every evening lit up the Hesperian Gardens and +Isles of the Blest. + +This migration on earth and sea corresponds with a mental and spiritual +migration. Exploration of the Edens, Gan-Edens, Avalons, Hesperides, +Atlantises, turns them to parts of the prosaic world while it raises +the ideals that hovered over them to rosy cloud-lands which cannot +yet be explored. No Yima found anywhere on earth! And so it begins +to be sung of him that he has passed to some region not exactly upon +earth. Now it is said, this time in the Rigveda (x. 14, 1, 2): “Yama, +the king, the gatherer of the people, has descried a path for many, +which leads from the depths to the heights; he first found out a +resting-place from which nobody can turn out the occupants; on the way +the forefathers have gone, the sons will follow them.” Finally, as +Haug remarks: “This happy ruler of the blessed in Paradise has been +transformed, in the modern Hindu mythology, into the fearful god of +death, the inexorable judge of men’s doings, and the punisher of the +wicked.” + +For a long time after their constitution as a people, the Jews had no +definite faith in the immortality of the soul, and there is no text +in the Old Testament which clearly teaches that doctrine. It has been +thought by some that their adoption of that doctrine was coincident +with their decline from greatness as a nation.[9] Jehovah still walked +amid the pleasant shade-trees of Paradise, and there Enoch walked with +him. Out of this belief in an earthly immortality grew the earlier +form of belief in the life after death, which insisted on corporeal +resurrection. As time went on, and the numbers for whom immortality +was claimed grew, and as exploration discovered no earthly Eden in +which these resided, paradise necessarily ascended to an aerial realm. +But its earthly characteristics were preserved. Thence angels passed +to earth and back on a ladder, and thence came the chariot and horses +which appeared when Elias was borne away by a sufficiently strong +whirlwind. That he was ‘carried to the sky’ marks, however, a step away +from the earthly abode, in the direction taken by the myth which turned +Yima to Yama. + +But the Jews introduced into their belief in certain undying ones an +important feature, drawn from their imported dualistic philosophy, +which marshalled everything and every being, small or large, on one +side or the other of the great war between Ormuzd and Ahriman. Beside +the hero, too holy to die, is seen the man of sin, to whom the +repose of the grave is forbidden. The books of our Bible were written +after ancient traditions, and gathered together when other ideas were +predominant; and it is rather by intimations there found, and by +references to rabbinical and Arabian folk-lore, that we can get at +these primitive fables. + +In the first epoch we find counterparts in Cain and Seth. Even the +Biblical narrative seems to point to a primitive myth, in which these +two were good and evil immortals, which had gone to pieces before the +book of Genesis was compiled.[10] At any rate at an early age the +pieces had been put together by the Semitic imagination. It is said +(Gen. iv. 25) that Eve called this her third son Seth (_scion_ or +_germ_): “for,” she said, “God hath appointed me another seed in place +of Abel, whom Cain slew.” The Talmudic book, _Shene Luchôth_, says that +the soul of Abel (_breath_) passed into Seth, and again into Moses. +Josephus (_Ant._ i. 2) shows that Seth was venerated as one possessed +of great knowledge, which he engraved on two pillars. Suidas says Seth +was the first to hear the name of God. In the fourth century there was +a sect of Sethians, who, according to Epiphanius, identified Seth with +the Messiah (Adv. Hær. i. 3, 39). In the line of Seth were born the +long-lived beings, some of whom lived above nine hundred years, and one +of whom was Enoch, who did not die at all. Many of the names resemble +those in the line of Cain--and were no doubt taken from it--Cain-an, +Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech. It is evident that the +Seth legend was introduced to avoid having the human race descend from +the first murderer and type of evil--Cain. + +Cain was the first Wandering Jew. His name, signifying a spear, and +Tubal-Cain, “son of a spear,” first artificer in brass and iron, +suggest the possibility that his doom may have been that of a Semitic +Prometheus. At any rate the curse pronounced upon him (“a fugitive and +a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth”); the mark (token, or perhaps +_weird_) fixed upon him, that none should slay him; the land to which +he wandered, itself meaning flight (Nod)--supplied ample materials for +the mother-myth of eternal Wanderers. Of Cain, however, more will be +said at a further stage of our inquiry. + +Enoch represents the first personage of Biblical record clearly +corresponding to Yima. “Enoch walked with Elohim and was no more +[seen among men], for Elohim took him.” With regard to the solar +character of the Enoch-myth we cannot concern ourselves here. As his +name indicates Enoch is the Beginner, like Yima, of whom Ahuramazda +says, “with him I conversed first among men” (Vendidad, ii. 2). It is +especially noticeable that Enoch “walks” with Elohim, whom we before +find “walking in the garden” (Gen. iii. 8). A heavenly abode is not yet +imagined. Even the Koran, when it speaks of Enoch (Erdris), hesitates +to affirm his translation to heaven, but says, “We exalted him to a +high place.” + +The evil counterpart of Enoch is Lamech, who, although his death at the +age of 777 is recorded in the later Sethite line, identifies himself +as a deathless wanderer with Cain in the lines which, as Ewald thinks, +probably gave rise to the Cain story itself: + + Adah and Zillah, hear my voice! + Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech! + For the man I slew for my own wound, + The child I struck dead on account of my own hurt! + Was Cain avenged seven times? + Lamech will be seven and seventy times! + +In the third epoch we find Esau a restless evil wanderer, fulfilling +the destiny pronounced by his father, gradually personifying Edom, +the antagonist of Israel. The corresponding immortal is Judah, from +whose hand the sceptre was not to depart till Shiloh come. The death +of neither of these is mentioned; Edom and Judah remained to carry on +their phantasmal war to the last--as Satan and Jahve, as Sammaël and +Michael. + +The mysterious account, in Deut. xxxiv., of the death of Moses, +suggests the existence at some period of a popular belief that he did +not die in the ordinary sense. It is said, by one rendering, that he +died “on the mouth of Jahve”; “his eye was not dim nor his natural +strength abated”; Jahve knew him “face to face,” and himself buried him +in a valley, in a place unknown to this day. According to the Talmud, +Enoch, Moses, and Elias, are brought up by Michael to be changed into +angels. (Kalisch, Comm. on O. T., II. p. 307.) This association of +Moses with the two who notoriously had not died is significant. In the +Book of “The Assumption of Moses” the demon who tried to get the body +of Moses, as mentioned in Jude ix., is called Sammaël. This had long +been the name for Esau-Edom; and there is also in this coincidence +the intimation of an early legend which brought Moses slumbering +in his Moabite cave into mythological relation with restless Esau, +ever wandering amid the dark mountains. The presence of Moses at the +transfiguration of Jesus in company with Elias, who never died, would +alone show that belief in his earthly immortality had prevailed. In +addition, there are intimations of such a tradition among the Arabs. +The Moslems make pilgrimages to Neby Musa, near Jericho, as the +sepulchre of Moses, and their legend is as follows: God had promised +to leave Moses in this world until he should voluntarily descend into +a tomb. After Moses had lived 120 years, he was one day walking and +saw four men (angels) excavating a chamber in a rock, as, they said, +a hiding-place for their king’s most precious treasure. The cavern +offered a tempting retreat from the sun’s rays, and Moses reclined in +it. One of the workmen gave him a delicious apple. No sooner had he +inhaled its scent than “he fell asleep.”[11] + +An evil counterpart of Moses may be found in the tradition--very +important to the legend of the Wandering Jew, as we shall presently +see--that the maker of the Golden Calf was doomed to a fate much like +that of Cain. There arose a proverb among the Jews that “no punishment +befalleth the Israelites in which there is not an ounce of this calf.” +Although in the Bible the fashioning of this idol is distinctly +ascribed to Aaron, he was not among the three thousand slain on +account of it, but was pardoned. Moses says, “The Lord was very angry +with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron at the same +time” (Deut. ix. 20). Semitic Folk-lore has been still more merciful +to Aaron’s reputation, at cost of the Samaritans, and made it out that +the Golden Calf was fashioned by one Samiri, or Al Sâmeri. “The devil,” +says Jonathan, “got into the metal and fashioned it into a calf.” The +Koran says the calf lowed, and in Arabian tradition Al Sâmeri took some +dust from the footsteps of the horse of Gabriel, who rode at the head +of Israel, and threw it in the calf’s mouth, which began to low. + +Now, many of the Samaritans themselves, about the first century of +our era, gathered about one Dositheus as their Messiah (Origen, _De +Princ._ iv. c. 17; Epiphanius, _Hæres._ xiii.). His pretensions brought +upon Dositheus an order for his arrest from the Samaritan high-priest, +from which he escaped and hid in a cave. There, according to some, he +starved to death; but his followers continued to believe that he was +alive and would reappear. It is possible that Al Sâmeri means “the +Samaritan”--_i.e._ Dositheus or Dûsis--and that he thus became the +mythical scapegoat for Aaron’s offence. G. Weil (_The Bible, the Koran, +and the Talmud_) says: “Moses then summoned Samiri, and would have put +him to death instantly, but Allah directed that he should be sent into +banishment. Ever since that time he roams like a wild beast throughout +the world; everyone shuns him and purifies the ground on which his +feet have stood; and he himself, whenever he approaches men, exclaims: +‘Touch me not!’” + +In the Koran (Sale, xx.) it is declared that Moses said to Al Sâmeri, +“Get thee gone; for thy punishment in this life shall be that thou +shalt say unto those who shall meet thee, Touch me not!” Al Beidâwi is +quoted by Sale as interpreting this to mean that infection would follow +the touch, but to Al Sâmeri; ultimately, however, the fear was on the +other side. It was believed that Al Sâmeri repaired to an island in +the Red Sea, where his wretched descendants dwell, and whence issue +plagues. Whenever a ship comes near the inhabitants raise the warning +cry, “Touch me not!” + +Al Beidâwi also says that Al Sâmeri’s real name was Moses, or Mûsa Ebn +Dhafar, which seems to suggest that he was regarded as the counterpart +of Moses; and also as a source of pestilence he would be the opposite +of Moses, whose medical skill was famous. + +Although it may anticipate somewhat the later developments of our myth, +it may be well to suggest here the probability that the traditional +idea, preserved in the romance of Eugene Sue and elsewhere, that the +Wandering Jew carried the plague from city to city, may have been +connected with this legendary Red Sea Island. Its real origin may have +been in the actual diseases bred in the wretched quarters in which Jews +were crowded by a suicidal inhumanity, and from which every Jewish +traveller and trader had to go. + +The next undying one is Elias. The idea of Jahve’s earthly abode had +grown dim, at least, and Eden had begun to ascend amid the roseate +clouds when this legend was formed. The terrestrial chariot and horses +are present, but a whirlwind is needed to carry them with the prophet +to heaven. The narrative seems meant to admit of either theory--a +heavenly or an earthly paradise. There Elias remained as a kind of +Æolus, literally as on earth a weather-prophet; and to this day in +Greece, and many parts of the East, when a severe storm with lightning +arises, the peasants say, “Elias goes forth in his chariot!”[12] + +In folk-lore Elias unites in himself characteristics both of the +Sleepers and Wanderers. In some regions he is supposed to have employed +his leisure in paradise with writing a book. In Moslem legend he is a +Wanderer. A powerful sheikh, they say, wished to utilise the miraculous +gifts of Elias, and had him chained. The tyrant led him over his lands +because his “footsteps were blessed,” but at the prophet’s every step +the fields withered. The sheikh was about to slay Elias, when the +prophet asked permission to quench his thirst at what is now called +the “sealed fountain,” near Bethlehem. The tyrant held the chain +which, however, elongated itself: the bonds fell off, the rock closed +behind him, and since then Elias “has continued to travel over the +whole world, rendering every place verdant on which he treads.” The +“sealed fountain” of the rains, which only Elias could unseal in the +time of drouth, would appear in this myth to feel its relation with +the Sun. One need not wonder that Dr. Schliemann found a Greek church +consecrated to Elias on the site of a temple of Helios.[13] + +The Dualism which in the Semitic Mythology divided the undying ones +into good and evil, is generally found in the corresponding traditions +of other regions. We find good and evil counterparts in Barbarossa and +Wodan; in the Wild Huntsman, and faithful Eckhardt who warns of his +approach; in King Arthur wandering as a raven, contrasted with Merlin, +bound for ever in his prison of air by the spell of Vivien; in the +German Monk Felix (who, like Abbot Cormac, listened for centuries to +the singing bird, W. Grimm, _Altdeutsche Walder_, ii. 70), with King +Herla, who was similarly bewitched by the evil dwarf to whose wedding +he went; in Siegfried, with Van der Decken, who swore his ship should +round the Cape, “despite God or Devil, if it took till judgment,” and +is now the Flying Dutchman; in Tannhäuser, with Lohengrin; in Ogier +among the fairies of Morgana, with the Gros Veneur; in the Seven +Sleepers of Tours, with Hugo wandering beside their grotto. + + + + + IV. + + THE LEGENDS GENERALISED. + + +If we examine well the account in the Zendavesta of the paradise +wherein Yima walked with Ahuramazda, and that in Genesis of Eden where +Enoch walked with Elohim, we can hardly fail to recognise in them +the germ of the Messianic dream. The visions of the renovated earth +described by Philo, and in the Sibylline Oracles, and in the Apocalypse +of Baruch, are but realistic expansions of those happy retreats of +the holy ones who were not supposed to taste corruption.[14] In this +idealised earth were gathered the beauties and joys of many Gulistans. + +And, similarly, he who was to reign over the imparadised in this +perfected earth was to be an immortal king returning from his Avalon, +invested with the attributes of all the incorruptible. These had been +gradually raised into an abstract personality--the “Angel-Messiah,” to +which Mr. Ernest de Bunsen has given such patient research with many +interesting results--who, however, was purely a terrestrial being, a +Son of Man. + +The phrase “Ancient of Days,” used three times in Daniel vii., and +the snow-white hair there ascribed to that being, who gives dominion +to the Son of Man brought before him, convey the idea of a being that +has lived through all changes, a memory and consciousness in which the +ages broken up to mortal eyes are knit together, and therefore able to +be a providence and a retributive judge. Viceroy of this Ancient of +Days is the immortal man in whose unbroken consciousness all history +is embodied: he is the earthly providence. Before Abraham was, he is. +He abides with the Ancient in his earthly dwelling, but goes forth +at appointed periods for certain purposes. He is the “Son of Man” as +distinguished from the sons of Kings; reigns not by succession but by +election of the Deity manifested in signs and marvels, such as the +carrier dove bringing the divine sanction to emperors who break the +order of legitimacy. No incarnation was imagined; the avatars of this +Son of Man are the Apparitions of one always in the earth, but able +to render himself invisible, or who assumes an humble disguise. This +disguise may be thrown off occasionally in some solitary place, for a +select few who are charged with secresy. + +This Messiah gathered up in his person the powers and glories of past +saints and heroes, and it was expected that these would attend him at +the supreme scene of his coronation on earth. Elias was to appear as +his herald. In Seder ’Olam Rabbah it is said, “In the second year of +the reign of Ahaziah, Elias became hidden, [to be] seen no more until +King Messiah shall come, when he will be again seen, and hidden a +second time, and not seen again until Gog and Magog come. And now he +writes down the work of all the generations.” It was asked of John the +Baptist “Art thou Elias?” and next “Art thou that prophet?” Who was +this prophet popularly thus associated with Messianic expectations? +Professor Drummond suggests that it was Jeremiah, and cites the vision +of Judas Maccabæus, in which he saw, beside Onias the high-priest, +“a man with grey hairs and exceeding glorious,” who was declared to +be Jeremiah, “who offers many prayers for the people and the holy +city.” Jeremiah gave Judas a golden sword, and told him to wound the +adversaries. + +On the nether side of this Messianic dream we find a pit or +underworld--some region which could not mar the fair face of the +perfect earth--which is an outcome of the wilderness of Dendain, +Cain’s Land, every weird desolation. And the king of this region +sums up in himself the line of eternal evil wanderers--Cain, Lamech, +Esau, Samuel--in a personification of hostility to the Messiah. This +generalised Opposition--called Armillus among the Jews, Al Dajjail by +the Mussulmans--corresponds exactly with Antichrist among the early +Christians. It was said Armillus was to be born out of a marble statue +in a church at Rome (the _ne plus ultra_ of earthly infernalism to +a race detesting graven images and victimised by Rome), and that +Christendom would worship him until the true Messias (Ben David) should +appear, and, as says the Targum (Isa. xi. 4) “By the word of his mouth +the wicked Armillus shall die.” + + + + + V. + + TRANSFIGURATION. + + +Though the alleged longevity of the Jewish patriarchs temporarily made +up for the absence of the conception of immortality, this idea arrived. +The representatives of Seth live above an average of nine centuries +each, with one remarkable exception: Enoch, the best of them, lives +less than half the years of the least. Whatever may have been the +original reason for this exception, the explanation was that Enoch +really outstripped even the 969 years of Methuselah, having never died +at all. In paradise he would have access to the Tree of Life. In the +farther development of Israel other “beginners”--as Moses representing +Law, and Elias Prophecy--might eclipse Enoch, and wear “by authority” +his mantle of immortality; but in popular faith and folk-lore Enoch +held his own. He was said to have invented writing, arithmetic, and +astronomy; to have filled 300 volumes with the knowledge acquired by +long residence among the angels; his first being a book predicting the +Deluge, which was preserved by Noah in the Ark. In many respects Enoch +resembles Teiresias, to whom Zeus granted a life on earth of seven +or nine generations, and who even in Hades was said by Homer to have +retained his human perception, while those around him were mere shades +(Plato, Meno, 100).[15] His fame as a soothsayer, both on earth and +in Hades, grew out of the belief in his long experience, and no doubt +this was the case with Enoch also. Most folk-sayings and predictions +were connected with Enoch as forged runes and verses are now attributed +to Mother Shipton. (It will be remembered that the first English book +on this theme was entitled _The Wandering Jew telling fortunes to +Englishmen_, 1640.) It might have been supposed that Enoch would be +present at the Transfiguration of Jesus. Paul had spoken of him with +honour; Jude quoted from him; and it is probable that he was meant as +one of the “two witnesses” alluded to in Rev. xi. 3. In the Gospel of +Nicodemus the “two witnesses” are Enoch and Elias, who welcome those +arriving in Paradise. + +That Moses was substituted for Elias at the Transfiguration was +probably due to the strong hold which the “Book of Enoch” had taken +on the Jewish mind. In this work there are indications that among +some Jews Enoch himself had become connected with the Messianic hope. +The writer, personating Enoch and speaking in his name, describes +his journey through heaven and hell; thus, in the second century +B.C. anticipating the journeys and visions of Lucian, Mohammed, Arda +Viráf, Dante, and Swedenborg. He is attended by an angel, and he +is named and appointed the Son of Man. “That angel came to me, and +with his voice greeted me and said, Thou art the Son of Man who is +born to righteousness; and righteousness dwells over thee, and the +righteousness of the Head of Days leaves thee not.” That a claim for +Enoch’s Messiaship is intended appears in the event then described. +Enoch’s body melts away, and his spirit is transformed into a heavenly +body. Enoch had described the glory of the renovated earth; but he +himself, assuming him alive, would be some 2000 years old. No legend +said he had been endowed with perpetual youth; consequently to reign +over a rejuvenated earth he must be rejuvenated himself. Such a +notion could only, at that time, have survived among the ignorant; but +it is to them that new “schools” have to make their appeal, and in +the transfiguration of Enoch the old idea, though spiritualised, is +regarded. + +The phrase of the _Book of Enoch_, “Head of Days,” is a remarkable +modification of Daniel’s “Ancient of Days.” It almost looks as +if,--assuming Ewald’s theory that Enoch (Beginner) was a god of the +New Year,--this earliest of the immortals were still invested with +more than patriarchal sanctity. As a Janus or Ganêça (with whom Ewald +compares him) Enoch would himself be the Head of Days, thus as it were +the Ancient of Days dialed on time. The idea of co-eternal existence is +suggested, but also of an Unchangeable and a Changeable. + +It must be remembered that we are considering ideas which, however +poetical, are based on fancies of the world’s childhood. The +transformation of Enoch under the angel’s spell belongs to the same +class as the transformations which Yuletide evokes for the delight of +the young from our own German Mythology, in which deforming spells are +broken, handsome princes step forth from bears or dwarfs, decrepit +crones become fair maidens, and Cinderellas rise from their ashes and +rags in shining raiment and beauty. + +When the Jewish legends were transferred to the Gentile world this +incident (of transfiguration) was detached from the patriarch and +connected with the generalised type of Israel which represented +the popularisation of its faith among other races. Probably the +Transfiguration, concerning which secrecy was demanded, was first +whispered about in the Jewish quarters of Rome. In the New Testament +narrative the Transfiguration comes as a tableau at the end of a +conversation immediately bearing upon the subject of the undying ones. +After being told, in answer to his question, that some thought he was +John the Baptist (in whose death probably his followers refused to +believe), others thought him Elias, others Jeremiah, Jesus asked, “But +whom say ye that I am?” Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of +the living God.” This was the Christian equivalent of the address of +the Angel to Enoch, quoted above. Jesus then assumes the Messiaship; +founds his church, declares his future course and office, and ends by +transferring to the patriarchs of the new kingdom the mantle of earthly +immortality worn by the Jewish patriarchs. “Verily I say unto you, +There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they +see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” The next thing related is +the Transfiguration. “His face did shine as the sun, and his raiment +was white as the light.” Luke says, “The fashion of his countenance +was altered, and his face was white and glistering.” Beside him are +Moses and Elias, whose office as surviving witnesses is falling +upon their successors--James (here the brother of Jesus), who was +miraculously supported without food from the crucifixion until after +the resurrection, and after death rose again for an important legendary +career; and John, who was to “tarry” till Christ should come.[16] +Peter could only survive by proxy: it would have been inconvenient to +have him often interfering with the arrangements of his successor, as +in the one case of his reappearance, when he supplanted a Bishop in +consecrating the first Abbot of Westminster, leaving the Deans thereof +perilously independent ever since. As Enoch was omitted from the scene +because he was a rival Messiah, Peter received no mantle of immortality +because he might become an invisible rival Vicar. + +The transfigured representative of the “Head of Days” was there, but +not the transfigured world. The event was as a rehearsal; the actual +performance had to be postponed for a thousand years. The hopes of +those who had expected to see the thorn-crown changed to a coronet +and the crucified Jew appearing, resplendent with the aureole of +Moses and the chariot of Elias, to enter on his kingdom, faded away. +It was replaced by the rumours that Jesus and a few chosen friends +were invisibly moving near, and would befriend the faithful unto the +millennial hour. Then they should all awaken from what, for believers +who had eaten the vitalising body and blood of Christ, would be but a +sleep. + +Animistic philosophy in the second century was such as to admit of the +transient death of a Messiah provided his body was not supposed to be +left long enough under ground to taste corruption. The Psalm (xvi. 10) +said, “Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption;” but, as in +the case of Alcestis, a human being might live again if wrested from +death by the third day. In the case of Lazarus the miracle consisted +in the recovery of life after the body had been buried four days. The +resurrection of Christ, so far from being a proof of human immortality, +manifestly means that Jesus did not die in the ordinary sense, but +recovered in the sepulchre the ghost he had breathed out on the cross. +In theological statement he might be thought of as dwelling in heaven; +but for a long time his ascension into heaven was as much an excursion +as his descent into hell; in both he but went through the _rôle_ of +Enoch, and in Christian folk-tales he was still “always with them,” +moving near, as when he met Peter near Rome, where his foot-prints are +still worshipped.[17] + +That which was Job’s aspiration had become the humble Christian’s +faith. Unable amid perishing nature to believe that one who died could +live again, Job wishes that he could be hid “in the under-world,” +concealed for “an appointed time, then remembered.” All the days of +his hard time there he would await his “change.” And finally he does +believe that his Vindicator will secure something like this; not that +he expects to live for ever, but, however wasted his body, he will live +long enough to see Elohim no longer an adversary, but on his side. With +Paul this belief has arrived at the phase of comparing the human body +to a seed which rises to a flower. After the alleged resurrection of +Jesus it was evidently important to show that it was the same body, +even to its wounds, but at the same time so transformed that it was +with difficulty recognised, and was mistaken for a spirit. In the +_Gospel according to the Hebrews_ (Nicholson, p. 68) it is written, +after the story of James living without food until he saw Jesus risen +from the dead, that “when he (Jesus) came to those about Peter, he said +to them, ‘Take, feel me, and see that I am not a bodiless dæmon.’” +Ignatius, who preserved this, says (_Ep. ad Smyrnæos_, c. iii.), “I +both know that he was in the flesh after the resurrection and believe +that he is [in it].... And straightway they touched him and believed, +being constrained by his flesh and spirit Because of this they thought +lightly even of death, and were found superior to death. And after the +resurrection he ate and drank with them as one in the flesh though +spiritually united to the Father.” + +The main difficulty about earthly immortality, presented in the +shrivelled form of Tithonus, solved in Enoch’s case by transfiguration, +was settled in later mythologies by the theory of a fountain of +Perpetual Youth. When Ponce de Leon heard of the New World he hastened +thither to find this Fountain: in the depths of luxuriant Florida he +searched, and never reappeared. + + + + + VI. + + MANTLES OF THE IMMORTALS. + + +We have already seen that in the Gospel of Nicodemus (xxv.), Enoch and +Elias are represented as welcoming those who arrive in Paradise. In an +Arabian legend Grässe finds an important form of this tradition. It is +said that Enoch and Elias came to the Land of Darkness, and there drank +of the fountain of Perpetual Youth; and thenceforth, one on land, the +other on sea, they went about to watch over pilgrims, much the same +as Castor and Pollux, who guarded wanderers. In the intervals of such +services they rest in gardens amid all earthly joys. Towards the end of +the world they will appear to prepare the way for the Messiah. But in +the sixteenth year of the Hegira, Elias had not yet found the Fountain. +When the Arabians had conquered a certain city they rested between two +mountains of Syria. At night when Fadilah, their commander, began to +pray, “Allah Akbar,” a voice pronounced the words and continued to the +end of the prayer. Fadilah at first thought it an echo, but presently +knew it could not be such, and appealed to him who had spoken, if man +and not a ghost, to appear. Then an aged man with a staff appeared, +and said, “I am here by command of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has left +me in this world until his second coming. Therefore I await this Lord +who is the source of all happiness.” He gave his name as Zerib Ben Bar +Elia. Fadilah having asked if the end of the world were near or far, +Elia answered, “When there shall be no difference in sex between men +and women; when the blood of innocents shall be shed; when abundance of +food shall not lessen its price; when the poor beg alms without finding +anything to live on; when love to man shall be lost; when the Holy +Scriptures shall be put into songs; when temples dedicated to the true +God are filled with idols--then be sure that the Day of Judgment is +near!” Whereupon the old man disappeared.[18] + +Occasionally the cant of persons pretending to be the Wandering Jew has +faintly echoed this Eastern specimen. As for the “two witnesses,” it +may be remembered that we have already noticed (I.) efforts made in +the seventeenth century to prove that two survivors from the time of +the Crucifixion existed. This could be done by regarding Cartaphilus +(‘the famous Joseph’) and Ahasuerus as different persons. Or it may +have been that Joseph and Malchus were thought of, especially in Italy, +where these seem to have been the corresponding figures. + +Jewish superstitions of this character were reinforced from another +direction. The Greeks had their legend of the long sleep of Epimenides +on the Isle of Knossus. Epimenides being one of the Seven Sages, there +might easily grow from his legend that of the Seven Sleepers. + +The familiar form of this legend is that given by Gibbon (xxxiii.), who +follows Gregory of Tours, as an incident of the Decian persecution. It +is also in the Koran (xviii.). Goethe follows the Koran mainly in his +poem on the subject, but assigns the legend to a pre-Christian period, +no doubt on good grounds. According to this version the Sleepers were +youths of Cæsar’s household who refused to worship that emperor when he +proclaimed himself a god; saying they would worship him alone who had +created the sun, moon, and stars. Thereupon they departed, but Cæsar +pursued them; and when they had taken refuge in a cavern near Ephesus, +the emperor walled up the entrance, so that they could not escape. +After the lapse of some centuries the wall gave way, and one of them +entered Ephesus to buy bread. He offered an ancient coin; was suspected +of having found treasure; but by telling of various things hidden +about the city, unknown before, the story of the miraculous slumber +was confirmed. When the king and others went out to visit the youths, +the Angel Gabriel appeared, closed the cavern, and led the Seven into +Paradise. According to the version which Goethe used, one of the Seven +was a faithful dog which had accompanied the six young men, and passed +into paradise with them.[19] + +The tale of the Wanderings of Odysseus would appear to have touched the +Spanish variant of the Seven Sleepers myth, which probably influenced +the mind of Columbus. According to this story, Seven Bishops, flying +from persecution, sailed westward and reached a beautiful island where +they built seven splendid cities. This was dreamed of as the ‘Island of +the Seven Cities’ (Baring-Gould, _Curious Myths_, ii. 277). A legend +told by Washington Irving relates that Don Fernando was wafted to +this island, where he dwelt in great happiness, until he one day sank +into unconsciousness. When he awakened from this Circe spell, he found +himself on his ship near the Iberian coast. He repaired to the house of +a lady to whom he was affianced; she disclaimed all knowledge of him; +and when he addressed her by name it appeared that he was thinking of +her great-grandmother, whom she closely resembled.[20] + +These mingled Greek and Jewish traditions came into Christendom mainly +through the words Jesus is reported to have said concerning John, “If +I will that he tarry till I come.” It was on St. John that the mantle +of the undying saints first fell in the Christian period. The place of +his slumber was located beside that of the Seven Sleepers, at Ephesus. +The story stands well-framed in the fossil English of the fourteenth +century traveller, Sir John Maundeville. + +“From Pathmos men gon unto Ephesim, a fair citie, and nyghe to the +see. And there dyede Seynte Johne and was buryed behynde the highe +Awtiere, in a Toumbe. And there is a fair Chirche. For Christene Mere +weren wont to holden that place aiweyes. And in the Tombe of Seynt John +is noughte but Manna, that is clept Angeles Mete. For his Body was +translated in to Paradys. And Turkes holden now alle that Place and the +citee and the Chirche. And ail Asie the lesse is y cleped Turkye. And +zee shulle undrestonde, that Seynt Johne leet make his Grave there in +his Lyfe, and leyd him self there inne alle quyk. And therefore somme +Men seyn, that he dyed noughte, but that he restethe there till ten Day +of Doom. And forsothe there is a gret Marveyle: For Men may see there +the Erthe of the Tombe apertly many tymes steren and meven, as there +weren quykke thinges undre.” + +The legends concerning Saint John given by St. Hippolyte, followed by +Eusebius, and Augustine, and the ordeals he survived--such as drinking +hemlock--were suggestive of the potency of the words spoken by Christ, +however casually, “Tarry till I come.” The same formula spoken to the +Wandering Jew made him as indestructible as the disciple “whom Jesus +loved.” Despite the ingenuity of the theory, one can hardly doubt that +M. Schoebel is right in supposing that the Wanderer’s early name, +Cartaphilus, is formed of the Greek κάρτα φίλος, signifying “the +Beloved.” + + + + + VII. + + THE MARK OF CAIN. + + +In the Oberammergau Passion Play, where scenes from the New Testament +are preceded by tableaux from the Old, Cain killing Abel is made to +foreshadow Judas betraying Jesus. In some Eastern lands Cain has +always been regarded as a Wanderer still living; and to this day the +Bedouin recognises his presence in the hot Khamseen (Cain-wind), as +in the destructive hurricane the Picardy peasant exclaims, “_C’est le +Juif errant qui passe_.” For a long time, indeed, Cain was supposed +to be the Wandering Jew, and possibly this belief was thought of by +Shakspeare (_King Richard II._, v. 6) in the words of Bolingbroke to +Exton: + + “With Cain go wander through the shade of night, + And never show thy head by day nor light.” + +In _Tabari_ (i. 30), Adam says: + + “We one have had in the midst of us whom death hath not + yet found. + No peace for him, no rest for him, treading the blood-drenched + ground.” + +The so-called ‘mark’ of Cain was conceived to be a physical sign, +and this appears in the legend of the Wandering Jew: he was said to +have the mark of a blood-red cross on his forehead. Xeniola says +the Inquisition sought to secure him by this sign, but the Wanderer +concealed it under a black bandage. + +In Rabbinical superstition Cain was not the son of Adam but of Sammaël, +the later demon derived from wandering Esau. He (Cain) was banished +to the Wilderness of Dendain, where his companions are Behemoth and +Leviathan, who harm him not, though they are ever fattened by devouring +wicked mortals in order that they may supply food for the righteous +amid the desolations preceding the last day. + +As Cain wandered in a wilderness to the east of Eden, in distinction +from Seth, who dwelt in a fair region of the west, so while St. John +was bodily alive in his paradise, Judas “went to his own place.” As +Cain was son of Sammaël, Satan “entered into” Judas. + +The obvious evil counterpart of John was Judas. The two had sat +nearest Jesus at the Last Supper, and had come in contact with his +immortalising flesh--one by leaning on his breast, the other by a +treacherous kiss. A more potent security against death lay in the +immediate way in which Jesus gave to both the bread and wine, of which +he said, “he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood shall never +die.” This was indeed given to all of the disciples, and it was--still +is--the Christian theory that they who partake of the Eucharist do not +die, but “fall asleep.” But there were always degrees of quickening +effect in this communion. Thus, the Seven Sleepers of Tours, who came +to that city to receive the benediction of St. Martin, received from +him the Eucharist, and afterwards sank into an unconsciousness from +which they never awoke. Their bodies remained, with all the external +appearance of life in their seven graves, still shown in front of their +grotto.[21] + +It is doubtful whether any such person as Judas ever lived. The name is +the Greek form of Judah, and the traitor may be a personification of +the kingdom which refused to part with the sceptre at the demand of the +Christian’s “Shiloh,” before whom alone, in the words of Jacob, Judah +was to surrender. It may also be that this hostility was assigned the +form of treachery, because of a real Judas who, according to Josephus, +betrayed a fortress of Jerusalem to the army of Titus. However this +may be, even the circumstantial account in the New Testament of his +death could not save Judas from becoming one of the evil wanderers. + +But this fate of Judas was postponed because of circumstances which +brought a more important agent of Antichrist to the front. While Rome +was yet pagan, and the Christians suffering there, the Man of Sin +confronting the Son of Man would naturally be visible there. The mark +of Cain is seen as the mark of the Beast, and the forehead of the +Beast was Nero. It so happened that among the Romans themselves there +prevailed, for some time after his death, a belief that Nero had not +really died. The fears of some, the pride of others, forbade them to +believe that this powerful representative of the throne of the Cæsars +was no more, and they looked for his return to give battle to the +rising kingdom of the Nazarene.[22] + +But when Rome had been converted to Christianity, it became necessary +to transfer the _rôle_ of Antichrist to some race which still refused +to surrender to the new kingdom. + +The one unconquerable race--outside Rome, where the poor Jews had found +their need of an immediate revolution too strong for their sufferance +and loyalty to old traditions--was the Jewish. This people could be +tortured, driven from land to land under the curse of Cain, but not +converted to Christianity. Then attention returned from Nero to Judas. + +There was an ancient story about Cain, reproduced in the Koran, but no +doubt following the much earlier rabbinical tradition before mentioned, +that the Devil came to Eve in a dream, when she was pregnant with her +first son, and persuaded her to call the child by a name which meant +“servant of Satan.” In the course of time a somewhat similar legend +grew around the phantasmal Judas. It was said that the mother of Judas +had a dream shortly before his birth, in which it was disclosed to her +that her son would murder his father and sell his God. She and her +husband thereupon resolved that the child should not live, and at his +birth he was enclosed in a chest and cast into the sea. But the sea +cast him on shore, and he was found by a king and queen, who adopted +him. But they had another son, whom Judas slew during a quarrel over +a game of chess. Thereupon he fled to Judea, and entered the service +of Pilate as his page. Having committed other predestined crimes, +including the murder of his father, Judas learned from his mother the +secret of his birth, and of the dream that preceded it. In terror and +contrition, Judas hears of a prophet who has power to forgive sins; he +seeks out Jesus, throws himself at his feet; and Jesus, recognising +his predestined betrayer, accepts him as a disciple, and entrusts +him with the purse, so that Judas’s avarice might be cultivated and +this peculiarly divine scheme should not fail. Judas was thus made a +retrospective Wanderer. + +In old Greek and Russian pictures, Judas is represented on the knees +of Satan as his beloved son, beside the serpent which appears to be +the dove in this infernal trinity; but this Christian fable about +Judas would seem to show Satan indebted to Jesus for his beloved son’s +training in wickedness. + +That, according to the New Testament, Judas had grief and remorse, +and expiated his offence by death, might naturally have awakened +some compassionate feeling for him, or sense of his humanity. But +in the mediæval faith this grief and remorse were not in him, they +were Furies sent to torment him. In the old Passion Plays Remorse is +a real personage, who torments Judas until he invokes Despair, who +lays before him poison, a dagger, and a rope to choose from. Nor was +Christian logic equal to the consistency of Disraeli’s contention that, +according to the faith, the betrayal and crucifixion, being essential +to salvation, were compulsory on Judas and the Jews. + +It will be remembered that the earliest recorded Wandering Jew, +Cartaphilus, informed the Armenian Bishop that he had been Pilate’s +doorkeeper. By this item he is linked with the legendary Judas, who is +said to have been a page in Pilate’s palace. It may now be remarked +that Pilate also was the subject of a somewhat similar legend. There +are two classes of legends concerning him. In the Abyssinian Church +Pilate became a martyr and a saint, his calendar day being June 25. But +in the south of Europe the story ran that Pilate became a remorseful +Wanderer. He committed suicide by drowning himself in a tarn on Mount +Pilate, near Lucerne. It is a myth, as Professor Sayce has shown, +evolved from the old name of the mountain--“Pileatus,” meaning capped +(either with foliage or cloud[23]). That little lake has lost all its +natural picturesqueness. It is called the “infernal lake.” Now and +then, in the dusk, a man is seen to emerge and wash his hands in it as +in a basin; when he disappears a hurricane follows. + +The curse of Cain came upon yet another name,--Malchus. This servant +of Caiaphas, whose ear cut off by Peter was healed by Jesus, had no +reason to be thankful, it would appear by the legend; this relates that +he struck Christ with an iron gauntlet, and was doomed to walk around +a column underground, against which he vainly dashes his head, until +Judgment Day. We have already seen (I.) that the Wandering Jew, under +the name of Joseph, was reported as undergoing a similar punishment +in Jerusalem, in 1641. The story of Malchus seems to blend that of +Ahasuerus with the Talmudic myth of Cain, which is related in Mr. +Baring-Gould’s _Curious Myths_ (ii. p. 116). When Seth sought the Tree +of Knowledge in order to plant a scion of it in the grave of Adam, (see +VIII.), he saw its roots in Hell, and Cain trying to climb thereby +into Paradise. The roots laced themselves around Cain and pierced him +through and through, holding him bound in living agony for ever. + +According to Christian and Jewish revelations Cain must have +discovered that, in his fratricide, he had been unsophisticated in the +art of punishing an offender against one’s will. The divine method is +more ingenious. In the romance of Huon de Bordeaux (13th Cent.) by Huon +de Villeneuve, the writer reports having seen a cask, with serpents +and iron prongs inside, rolling rapidly along. Cain is shut in it, +and therein must roll on till the end of the world. This rolling cask +would appear to be the prison and punishment of Malchus, adapted to the +idea of perpetual wandering. Al Sâmeri was also called _Al kharaïti_, +“the turner.” Professor D’Ancona (_Nuova Antologia_, Oct., 1880, “La +Leggenda dell’ Ebreo Errante”) shows that the story of Malchus is +Italian. M. Gaston Paris ascribes it great antiquity, identifying the +name and idea with the legend of Marcus the Leper, which is old enough +to be represented in early Italian proverbs. This Marcus, having been +cured by Jesus, afterwards struck him, and the curse laid upon him was +held to explain the incurability of leprosy. M. Paris finds in this +legend the idea of the blow given Jesus. If with this are combined the +legend of Joseph of Arimathea (thrown into prison by the Jews, where +his life was miraculously preserved), and the words to St. John, we +have, he thinks, the story of Cartaphilus. + + + + + VIII. + + THE JEW IN THEOLOGY. + + +The fable concerning Judas is one of many which indicate the formation +of a special Christian doctrine concerning the Jewish race. + +After the ruin of their Temple at Jerusalem and desolation of their +city, the Jews made repeated efforts--like that led by Bar-Cocheba--to +recover their independence. As the possibility of recovering their +city and rebuilding their Temple faded away they managed, even in +their dispersed condition, to constitute an _imperium in imperio_ +under an officer called Resh Gelutha, or “Prince of the Captivity.” +As was natural, they never lost an opportunity of opposing the new +empire, of which Jesus had been made General. In the fourth century +they joined the Arians. When Julian was called the Apostate he gave +them leave to rebuild their Temple at Jerusalem, their hope of doing +which was suddenly quenched by that Emperor’s death. These great +events, of which the most typical can alone be mentioned here, were +steadily constituting a definite creed concerning the Jewish race, a +creed afterwards to be written upon all Europe in their blood, and +illustrated in the flames that consumed them. + +The Christians believed that the Jews, as a race, gave themselves up +to be the devil’s agent for the crucifixion of Christ. Even the idea +of converting them seems hardly to have occurred to any Christian +before the Reformation--unless the Holy Cross Day torture at Rome +be called such--and, justly as the Jews now resent the efforts of +conversionists, the existence of a Society of that kind is a result of +the tardy recognition of their humanity. The scenes of the Passion--so +long preached, pictured, acted on the stage--cast upon the Jews a +shadow never relieved, and were a perpetual instruction in horror of +that people. The supernatural character ascribed to them by Christians +as well as themselves, implied, since they had rejected Christ, +infranatural wickedness. They were to Christendom the chosen people +still, but now chosen of Satan. + +While the sacred names and superstitions of the Jewish people +were preserved, a deadly hatred of those who had really founded +Christianity, and furnished its Messiah, was carefully fostered. The +connection of Christianity with Judaism was reduced to a series of +fairy-tales. Characteristic of these was that about the True Cross. +Seth receives from the Archangel Michael a branch of the Tree of +Knowledge to plant in Adam’s grave, and is told that when it should +bear fruit Adam would recover. Out of Adam’s grave grows the Tree, +which Solomon hews down for the Temple. The workmen cannot so adapt it, +and it is used as a bridge over a lake. The Queen of Sheba, crossing +it, beholds a vision of Christ on the Cross, and informs Solomon +that when a certain person shall be suspended on that wood the fall +of the Jewish nation would be at hand. Solomon in alarm buries the +wood, and then springs over it the pool of Bethesda. Shortly before +the crucifixion the tree floated on the water, and ultimately, as a +cross, bore its fruit. The Jews concealed the Cross, while pagans +built a Temple of Venus on the spot where it stood. Helena, mother of +Constantine, having sentenced a Jew to torture and death, remits the +punishment on condition that he will inform her where the Cross is. Out +of the three found the true one manifests itself by performing cures. +Thus the Cross itself was a holy immortal Wanderer, with the branded +Jew ever beside it, seeking to destroy or bury it. + +Race-hatred had much to do with the shaping of this theology, which +anathematised the race from whose primitive superstitions it was +chiefly borrowed, without discrimination or comprehension. + +The “anti-Semitic” venom crept for ages through the veins of +Christendom. Fed by millions of pulpits the deadly stream percolated +through the world, and a consistent theory concerning the Jews was +formed, not very different from that which at length appeared in +Swedenborg’s pious phantasmagoria. In the history of Israel, says +Mr. White, Swedenborg “sees nothing but selfish Jacob over and over +again; and throughout the _Arcana Celestia_ he pursues the Jews with +one whip of epithets as the basest of mankind.”[24] The Jewish race +was “chosen” by God not because of their excellence, but for their +baseness: their lack of interior religion made them fit actors in a +drama where literalness was needed; their sensuality adapted them to be +the instrument of incarnation; and Jesus was born of a Jewish mother +because he could go no lower! “In that body, whose every faculty was +an avenue to the Hells, he met as on a battle-field the Powers of Evil +and Darkness and subdued them.” A fine offset this to the late Lord +Beaconsfield’s proud reflection that the majority of Christendom hold +a Jewess to be Queen of Heaven! It is true that Mary was excepted by +Christendom from the general curse which it saw resting upon the Jewish +race; but her exaltation, in the fifth century, was largely due to +legends of the Jews, which represented her as an unchaste woman. Her +apotheosis among Christians was the other side of her condemnation +by the Jews; their vision of her in Hell was replied to in the story +of her Assumption. The Jews were never benefited by any of the holy +personages transmitted from their race for the homage of Christendom. +They were held to be the official persecutors and crucifiers of such as +were divinely sent unto them: whatever the light seen in their history, +the only credit of the Jews was to lie under the shadow it cast. + +It was largely through the Miracle Plays that hatred of the Jews, +diffused by mediæval homilies, gained the shape which proved so fatal +to the Jews. On the stage the holy drama represented a great struggle +between the hosts of Heaven and Hell, of which the scene was on earth. +In that drama the Jewish race was not merely the “heavy villain,” it +was the incarnation of all devils. It would appear that for a thousand +years no Christian regarded any Jew as a man at all. In those excesses +of cruelty too wild to be now comprehensible--when every European +river ran red with Jewish blood, when Jews’ eyes and teeth were plucked +out and their bodies burnt as torches in saturnalia beside which those +of Nero with his Christian martyrs were trivial--it is plain that +there was an epidemic possession wrought by the long education of the +people in the belief that the Jews, from a supernatural, had become an +infranatural people. + +They from whose ears the reported denunciations of the Jews by +Jesus--as “of their Father the Devil,” as “vipers,” “children of +Hell”--were never suffered to die out, and who avenged the crucifixion +of one man by the crucifixion of a race for centuries, are condemned +for inhumanity. But the charge is inexact. They were as charitable as +are their posterity to those whom they regarded as human beings. Their +theology had dehumanised the Jews, and its progress was traced in +Christian inhumanities wrought in pious zeal for the Trinity. It was +not a suspicion admitted into any mind, thus sophisticated, that it was +a man against whom Judas and the Jews had raised their hand. It was +against the Eternal Majesty. That they saw as the obvious functional +work of Satan. It was the culminating attack in an eternal war against +God. Hence those perpetual dooms beheld overhanging all concerned in +the crucifixion, which denoted the unpardonable and everlasting nature +of the offence against the eternal Avenger of his honour. It is only +the God of Theology whose vengeance never sleeps nor ends with any +generation, whose wrath is fresh every day, and his hell eternal. Only +when man has had his human heart dexterously removed, and has become +the changeling of some vampyre Phantasm he coweringly adores, could he +be the instrument of the crimes that Christianity has committed against +humanity. + +Seven times shall Cain be avenged, seventy and seven times Lamech, ran +the old song; but Jesus said, seventy times seven shalt thou forgive. +The human Jesus was speedily overlaid and lost beneath the myths that +gathered around the passive Jesus--the babe, the dead body. No holiday +was appointed for the Sermon on the Mount, nor was there any Festival +of the Golden Rule. + + + + + IX. + + THE JEW IN FOLK-LORE. + + +It is related in the _Legenda Aurea_ of John Capgrave that St. +Brendain, on his famous voyage, came to an island filled with beautiful +birds whose music entranced the souls of listeners. The birds told the +saint that they had been angels; when the rebel angels plotted their +designs in heaven they had been tempted by the Archfiend to join his +party; they did not yield, but dallied with the temptation, and when +the wicked beings were cast into the sea of fire, they were transformed +into birds. They sang hymns of joy, awaiting their release. + +On the other hand, the ill-omened “Seven Whistlers” or “Seven Plovers,” +of English superstition are said to have been Jews who assisted in the +crucifixion of Jesus. + +These birds are types of the fables that flitted about the world +in the Middle Ages, each the transformation and diminution of their +like which had been set free by the decay of both European and Jewish +mythology. Christianity had preserved both with care. The Jewish +mythology it had disintegrated and recombined for its own supernatural +authentication; to the European deities it had given a new lease of +life by degrading them to devils, affirming their power to haunt and +harm their former worshippers. If there had been any kindly attributes +or pleasant tales associated with these deities they were transferred +to the Christian saints; if any evils had been told of such, they were +intensified under the sweeping anathema of the new religion. + +Into this miasmatic atmosphere anti-Semitic prejudice and theology were +diffused. The same process as that just mentioned concerning “paganism” +presently overtook the Jews. When all hope of changing or exterminating +it had passed away the theological theory was naturally formed by which +all the good in the Jewish system was transferred to Christianity, +and everything repulsive was diabolised. Unfortunately for the Jews +their anathema came later than that which had degraded the deities and +beliefs of pagan Europe; their sacred forms, rites, superstitions were +the more vivid; so that the fading phantoms of European mythology +were able to acquire new life by union with the fresher ones imported +from the East. In this way the demons, gnomes, witches, which, from +representing the majesty as well as the menace of nature, had been +doomed to bear responsibility for all its cruelties, now came to nestle +with the Jews. These were already the normal scapegoat for the fall of +man and martyrdoms of Christians; now there entered into them a troop +of imaginary horrors worse than any known to their most barbarous days. +Of these a few characteristic examples may be selected from the very +large number known to every student of folk-lore. + +The periodical assemblies of witches believed to occur in various wild +places were called “Witches’ Sabbaths,” because Jews were supposed +to be the chief attendants at them. They there received their wages +for supporting the kingdom of Antichrist. They celebrated a grand +mass before the Devil. The blood of Christian children was said to be +essential to their sacrifices. In some regions where, under the ancient +religion, the effigy of winter had been burnt on one or another day +of spring, it became the custom to burn it on Good Friday and under +the name of Judas. The ceremony of scourging and burning Judas still +takes place annually in the London Docks. In Spain it is considered +necessary to spit after pronouncing the word “Jew;” and from that +country the paganised effigies of that people have spread through +distant regions of the world. In some regions (as Oldenberg) the +birthday of poor everlasting Judas is said to be February 14, in others +(as Franconia) it is fixed as April 1, and these days are unlucky. +The stigma of Iscariot passed upon certain trees, as the aspen, which +was said to tremble perpetually because he hung upon it; and the +Judas-tree, with its blood-drop blossoms. In the Bergstrasse, or high +road between Darmstadt and Heidelberg, the peasantry still believe that +every Jew possesses the “evil eye,” and that if a sick person wishes +to die swiftly he must get a Rabbi to pray for his convalescence. In +sundry places Jews are believed able to foretell the weather by means +of dividing a loaf of bread, putting the parts together again, and +shoving it with a mysterious word into an oven. They are also believed +to spread diseases by spells written in Hebrew on bits of paper, and +to deal in such charms. In some regions noises heard in mines were +indifferently attributed to kobolds, or to the ghosts of Jews believed +to have been made to work in them as slaves by the Romans. In East +Friesland it is considered very unlucky to meet a Jew first in the +morning; if a Jew is the first to enter one’s house on Monday, or +even to look into the window, it renders the whole week unlucky to the +house, and was once an offence that might be prosecuted.[25] Other +Jews impaled in the ever-repeated Christian legend took on, in the +popular imagination, the diabolical forms into which the pagan deities +had been degraded by missionaries. In storms Herod was said still to +hunt the Innocents. The Perigord peasant names the fierce thunderstorm +“la chasse Herode.” This was probably an ingenious development of the +Herr-Rote, or Haar-Rote, the red-haired demon-huntsman. Associated +with him was Herodias. Grimm says that the Italians sometimes identify +their misshapen fairy Befana--a terror to children, who has sprung out +of Epiphania--as Herod’s daughter (Salome); so that both mother and +daughter were made into evil wanderers.[26] Herodias, who prompted her +daughter to demand the head of John the Baptist, was associated with +Diana and Holda in the nocturnal expeditions of demons and witches. +She was at the head of an aerial host of such. Only from midnight to +cockcrow can she rest, and then sits upon oaks and hazel-trees. She was +said to have an unrequited passion for John, and when his head was +brought in on a charger would have kissed it, but it recoiled and blew +upon her, and she was whirled into the air, where she wanders. In Lower +Saxony whirlwinds are accounted for by the dancing of Herodias, as +elsewhere to that of the devil. Herod and Herodias are said by Josephus +to have been banished to Lyons, and eventually to have died in Spain; +perhaps this may account for the special prominence she holds in the +folk-lore of Spanish America. In Mexico the puppet Herodias dances in +a kind of Punch and Judy show in Holy Week, to the music of rattles +made of “Judas bones.” In Eugene Sue’s _Wandering Jew_ Herodias appears +in Arctic America. M. Gaston Paris cites several Italian proverbs in +which Judas and Malchus are united (as in Sicily, _lu Juda--Marcu_) to +characterise an ugly or unpleasant countenance. It has been thought +(though I have not investigated the matter) that our puppet-show, +_Punch and Judy_, is a distant outcome of an old play, _Pontius cum +Judæis_, in which the Jews were severely handled by the pro-consul. + + + + + X. + + THE WEIRD OF THE WANDERER. + + +There is one class of survivals from the fatalistic ideas of all +so-called paganisms which have always been very strong in the popular +mind of Europe. It was a creed in which all ancient faiths converged, +that an irresistible power was lodged in any officially-uttered curse. +The word once solemnly spoken, became the weird, the fatum, and not +even the tongue that spake could revoke it. Oftenest the dooms that +represented this belief in the Middle Ages were supposed to come +from Heaven in response to some defiant invocation, or blasphemous +challenge like that of the Flying Dutchman. It is a notable fact for +the antiquarian that in the year 1881 the courts of England should be +trying a case involving the question of whether a lecturer took out his +watch and gave the deity, whose existence he denied, five minutes to +strike him dead. That is an old myth normally fixed on misbelievers; +and it is probable that the motives for selecting that particular +slander for judicial denial, if traced out, would be found connected +with the ancient superstition that such words must have the eternal +effect of real natural forces. From the ancient patriarchalism, which +has so many political and social survivals in Europe, came the idea +that a father’s curse (or blessing) carried with it the fatal forces of +the universe. More universal still was the potency supposed to attend +the word of a priest, however casual. This notion is still met with in +the many stories of persons said to have died soon after ridiculing the +proceedings of “revivalists.” + +Grässe has collected some examples of such superstitions in Europe, +beginning so far back as the legend of Domitilla, the grand-daughter of +Domitian. In her room, after she had become a Christian, her husband +introduced dancers to win her back to the world and to himself: he +began showing them how to dance, but could not stop; and after dancing +two days and nights, died. Such “dances” are now familiar in folk-lore, +and are associated with some of the stone circles of England. In +Kolbeck, near Halbustadt, there is a legend that, in the year 1012, +a peasant named Albrecht and fifteen others who danced before the +Church on Christmas while Mass was going on, were ordered by the priest +to dance for a year. The Bishop of Cologne had to come and release +these dancers, who had worn a deep hole in the ground. In the same +vein is the story of “the merry smith of Jüterbogk,” a small survival +of Sisyphus. A remarkable story of this kind is that of Freiburg (A. +Müller, _Theatr. Freiburg Chron._, 1633). An irritable father, Lorent +Richter, ordered his son of fourteen years to do something: the boy +hesitated, standing in the middle of the room. “Cursed boy,” cried +the father, “may you stand there for ever!” The boy remained standing +there, propped by supports, and after many years the priests, by many +prayers, could only secure the small commutation of a removal to a +corner where he would not be so much in the way of the household. “At +last the kind God a little altered the punishment by allowing him +to sit during the last six months of the year, and also to lie in +a bed placed near him. When asked what he did, he answered that he +was punished by God the Lord for his sins; that he left all to His +will; and trusted in the merits of Christ to obtain final happiness.” +After seven years--a number associated with many famous sleepers--the +boy “was relieved, 11th Sept., 1552.” His footprints were pointed +out on the floor for a hundred years. The father had wished to +obliterate this memento of his anger, but the authorities decided that +the footprints should remain as a warning to wrathful parents and +disobedient children. + +The great majority of “dooms” known to Northern paganism have exchanged +connotations with the legend of the Wandering Jew. The sentence +pronounced upon such royal huntsmen or robber-knights as Dyterbjernat +of Danzig, Diedrick of Bern, Duke Abel the fratricide (Schleswig), and +others, is usually of this character. In the Netherlands it is the +story of a son who refused to listen to his father’s Christian advice, +but called his dogs into the wood: the father cried, “Hunt, then, for +ever!” and so he hunts on, and his voice, mingled with the baying of +dogs, is heard in the woods about the Castle of Wynedal. In Thuringia, +it is Hakelnberg who would not listen to the priest, who bade him “hunt +until the last day.” These formulas of the curse are related to that +of the Jew legend: the primitive pagan legend is different, _e.g._ the +hunt long known as the Horlething, on the banks of the Wye. It was said +King Herla went to the marriage feast of a dwarf: when he returned to +his palace he found that he had been in the mountain with the dwarf +two hundred years, and was under a doom to ride on until the day of +judgment. The visit to the dwarfs festival simply meant a relapse into +paganism. + +That the myth of the Wandering Jew was interwoven with that of the +Demon Huntsman of Germany (which is called Aaskarreya in Norway), there +can be no doubt. “Perhaps,” says Karl Blind, “one of the clearest +proofs of the phantom figure of the Wandering Jew having been grafted +upon that of the great Wanderer and World-hunter, Wodan, is to be +found in a tale of the Hartz Mountains. There it is said that the Wild +Huntsman careers ‘over the seven mountain-towns every seven years.’ +The reason given for his ceaseless wanderings is, that ‘he would not +allow our Lord Jesus Christ to quench his thirst at a river, nor at a +water-trough for cattle, from both of which he drove him away, telling +him that he ought to drink from a horse-pond.’ For this reason the Wild +Huntsman must wander about for ever, and feed upon horseflesh. And +whoever calls out after him, when his ghostly chase comes by, will see +the Wild Huntsman turn round, and be compelled by him to eat horseflesh +too. No allusion whatever is made in this tale to a Jew, though the +name of Christ is pressed into it in a way very like the Ahasuerus +legend. We seem to get here a mythic rendering of the struggle between +the old Germanic faith and the Christian religion. The ‘horse-pond’ +and the ‘horseflesh’ are, to all appearances, references to our +horse-worshipping, horse-sacrificing, horseflesh-eating forefathers, +who came to Britain under the leadership of Hengist and Horsa. To call +out after the eternal Huntsman entails the danger of being forced by +him to eat horseflesh--that is, to return to the old creed. The Holy +Supper of the Teutonic tribes consisted of horseflesh and mead. When +Christianity came in, the eating of horseflesh was abolished as a +heathen custom. But at German witches’ banquets--in other words, at +secret festive ceremonies in which the pagan traditions were still +kept up--there continued for a long time a custom of drinking from +horse-shoes.”[27] + +We have in this sentence last quoted from Mr. Blind’s able article +a suggestion of the probable origin of the horse-shoe as a charm +against witches. To the pagan Teuton it was as sacred an emblem as to +the Christian his cross. While the Christians still believed in the +power of the Wild Huntsman and his train to work them mischief, they +might naturally show this symbol of pagan orthodoxy over their doors +to induce the witches to pass on and visit their wrath on the openly +disloyal. + +This article in _The Gentleman’s Magazine_ contains an original +speculation and theory concerning two remarkable problems connected +with our legend. How is it that the name Cartaphilus was replaced by +Ahasuerus? How did the “doorkeeper” of the thirteenth century become +the “shoemaker” of the sixteenth century legend? Mr. Blind, with a +creditable caution, suggests that the name may have been a modification +of As-Vidar. This god (_As_) Vidar was in the Scandinavian mythology +the symbol of everlasting force: he was the deity who was alone to +survive the universal destruction of Ragnarök, “Twilight of the Gods.” +In the Prose Edda it is written: “The Wolf (Fenris) swallows Odin, but +at that instant Vidar advances, and setting his foot on the monster’s +lower jaw, seizes the other with his hand, and thus tears and rends him +till he dies. Vidar is able to do this because he wears shoes for which +stuff has been gathering in all ages, namely, the shreds of leather +which are cut off to form the toes and heels of shoes; and it is on +this account that those who would render a service to the Æsir (gods) +should take care to throw such shreds away.” It is said there are (or +were) preserved in the Government Library at Berne traditional relics +left by the Wandering Jew, his staff and pair of shoes. These shoes are +said, by an early local authority, to be “uncommonly large and made of +a hundred snips--a shoemaker’s master-piece, because patched together +with the utmost labour, diligence, and cleverness out of so many shreds +of leather.” A similar pair of shoes are said to have also been left by +Ahasuerus at Ulm. + +It may be remarked that the name given to the Wandering Jew in the +_Praxis Alchymine_ of Libavius, viz., Buttadæus, may possibly refer to +the boot (A. S. _butte_) of the Wanderer, and it may have been that +_deus_ was added. Whether it meant the “booted god,” or the man who +struck God with a boot, or _bouter dieu_ (to push God), must remain +doubtful. It is a striking coincidence, if no more, that, in Talmudic +legend, Enoch also was a shoemaker, who with every stitch exclaimed, +“The Lord and His Majesty be praised!” + +The names of the Wandering Jew are characteristically various, not to +say vagarious; they are also sometimes puzzling. Cartaphilus is pretty +certainly κάρτα φίλος, in allusion to the “beloved” disciple; Ahasuerus +is perhaps the Hebrew form of Xerxes, though there is nothing in the +history of that king to connect him with the Wandering Jew. Several +give his name as Gregorius, through a mistake, as M. Paris has pointed +out, as to the meaning of Botoreius, who wrote that Jesus stopped “ante +tabernam gregorii illius;” the Turkish Spy names him Michob Ader. +One name popularly ascribed to him in Brussels is “Isaac Laquedem.” +Concerning this Grässe has a note in which he says, “I asked for an +explanation of the word, and my friend Dr. Böttcher, the celebrated +expert in Hebrew, gave me the following answer, ‘If the name Laquedem +is written and pronounced in French (Walloon) “Lakedem,” and is derived +from the Hebrew, it can scarcely be anything else but la-kĕdem, _i.e._, +“the former world” [belonging to an anterior world], in which case we +must say the use of the prefix “la” is without a parallel in names +of later Jews, and therefore the “la,” the French article, may be +considered due to a half-learned inventor of names (_vide_ Lacroix, +Lamarque, La Loresh. Wolf, _Bibl. Hebr._ iv. 812).’” + +As for the name “Joseph,” given by the Armenian Bishop as the baptismal +name of Cartaphilus, there is evidence in the old Chronicle itself that +it was derived by association with Joseph of Arimathea, who is said to +have wandered through a large part of the world and to have come to +Britain in the year 66, where his blossoming staff fixed the site of +Glastonbury Abbey. + +It is an indication of the steadiness with which every being, however +exalted originally, was degraded by coming under the supposed +preternatural fate of the Jewish race, that this Joseph of Arimathea, +by giving a baptismal name to Cartaphilus, gave the English populace +their epithet for the beggars or impostors who were supposed to be the +Wandering Jew. He was called “Poor Joe!” Of him, as representing the +dregs of the myth, more must be said hereafter. Another example of this +degradation is shown in the fact that in various parts of Europe the +storm-demon is called _Maccabee_. The process by which this was brought +about has not, to my knowledge, been traced, but the following facts +seem to bear on it. + +In 2 Maccabæus, v. 2–4, it is written--“Then it happened that through +all the city, for the space almost of forty days, there were seen +horsemen running in the air, in cloth of gold, and armed with lances +like a band of soldiers.... Wherefore every man prayed that that +apparition might turn to good.” These apparitions, resembling those +said by Josephus to have reappeared at the siege of Jerusalem, were +adopted as good Christian omens. Judas Maccabæus also records his +vision of the prophet Jeremiah giving him a golden sword to defend the +holy people. It is probable that this was the germ of the superstition +which proved so fatal to the Christians at the siege of Constantinople +(1453). After the capture of the city, men, women and children rushed +into the Church of St. Sophia for protection, because of a prophecy +that “one day the Turks would enter Constantinople and pursue the +Romans as far as the column of Constantine in the square before St. +Sophia; but that this would be the term of their calamities; that an +angel would descend from heaven with a sword in his hand, and would +deliver the empire, with that celestial weapon, to a poor man seated +at the foot of the column. ‘Take this sword,’ would he say, ‘and +avenge the people of the Lord.’ At these animating words the Turks +would instantly fly.... While they expected the descent of the tardy +angel, the doors were broken with axes; and, as the Turks encountered +no resistance, their bloodless hands were employed in selecting and +securing the multitude of their prisoners” (Gibbon, ch. lxviii.). + +It looks as if the association of the wild aerial chase with +_Maccabee_, in France and other southern regions, might have resulted +from the diffusion of the superstition which drew such a thunderbolt +upon the Christians of Constantinople, and its gradual subjection to +the demonising doom which rested upon even the brightest figures of +Jewish history not wearing the Christian uniform. + + + + + XI. + + “THE VERY DEVIL INCARNATION.” + + +“Enter Launcelot Gobbo!” So begins Scene ii. of Act II. in the +_Merchant of Venice_. Or as the original stage-direction ran, “Enter +the Clown!” His very name suggests the glutton and knave, yet it seems +to be from him some Shakspearian guides derive their chief light on the +great poet’s picture of Shylock! + +Gobbo does indeed cast light upon the Jew, but it comes from the mob +which he represented. To say “my master is a very Jew,” and “the Jew +... is the devil himself,” are equivalent phrases in the capacious +mouth of Gobbo. He speaks for his gaping herd, and their breed is not +unknown. Judenhetze is able to turn out such men in the latter days of +the nineteenth century. + +Bochart, in his _Hierozoicon_ (seventeenth century), says there was +a Sea-monster called “The Old Jew;” with the white-bearded face of +a man he had the hairy body of an ox, otherwise calf-shaped. This +monster always appeared the night before Saturday on the surface of the +sea, and one could see him until sunset next day leaping and diving +like a frog, and following ships. This monster, no doubt a variety +of Al-Sâmeri, elsewhere considered, is a fair type of what every Jew +was, for many centuries, in the eyes of the multitudinous Gobbites. +What stood for religion in them was the vulgar ribaldry of the Miracle +Plays, under which those holy farces presently perished. In them Judas, +still the buffeted Wanderer, was the one figure-head of the Jewish +race, with the devil for his familiar. + +In ancient Persian pictures Ahriman and his host have flame for hair. +After the introduction of Christianity the deities of Europe, which +it degraded to devils, were described and painted with fiery hair and +beard; as it stands in the German saying, “Roter Bart, Teufelsart.” In +the early Miracle Plays Judas was made up with red hair and beard to +show the fiery abode to which he belonged. This feature survived also +in the “yellow bonnet” which the Jews were compelled to wear, which +replaced the scarlet or red bonnets which the “Scarlet Woman” found too +like her own.[28] The significant costume, and the ideas it expressed, +passed to the conventional stage-Jew. Barabas, in Marlowe’s _Jew of +Malta_, and after him, Shylock, were represented with the “orange-tawny +bonnet,” and fiery red hair and beard. + +In keeping with this the crimes popularly ascribed to the Jews, for +which they suffered so terribly, were not human crimes. They were +utterly without motive--such as no man, however vile, could have +committed. For one example out of many, the Jews of Lincoln were +charged with having fattened a Christian child of eight years on white +bread and milk, then scourged him, crowned him with thorns, crucified +him, giving him gall. For that impossible crime 112 eminent Jews were +tortured and slain. It was rumoured that the earth would not receive +the body of that child, yet for years Christian pilgrims visited its +grave. + +Such wild, popular notions were faithfully reflected in Marlowe’s +_Jew of Malta_. “Barabas,” says Charles Lamb, “is a mere monster, +brought in with a large painted nose, to please the rabble. He kills in +sport--poisons whole nunneries--invents infernal machines. He is just +such an exhibition as, a century or two earlier, might have been played +before the Londoners, _by the Royal command_, when a general pillage +and massacre of the Hebrews had been previously resolved on in the +cabinet.” + +It will be now apparent to those who have followed the travels of +this Jew-myth that it had carried about in its endless wanderings +the belief in which it originated, and of whose development it was a +type--the infranatural, finally the infernal, nature of the Jewish +race. It inevitably blended with all the superstitions about uncanny +phantoms, bringing the most evil and ominous shapes haunting the +popular imagination in every locality into connection with the detested +race. Demons from the air, goblins from their caves, birds of ill-omen, +fearful gales, betokening the proximity of the Wandering Phantom, +brought an ever-accumulating mass of fear, suspicion and hatred upon +the race of which its supposed doom was a too faithful emblem. This +vast cesspool of vulgar superstition mirrored the dogmas of a theology +ever developing downward. It was not permitted the masses to look upon +the alleged offences of Judas or Ahasuerus in comparison with offences +familiar to them. As we have seen, the offence thought of was the +wrong and insult done to a God; it was an intensification of the same +feeling that regarded theft from a church as worse than theft from the +poorest widow, or a slight untruth under oath as more wicked than the +most malicious lie not sworn to. Out of such a principle of unreason +naturally came the doom of a race through many centuries to realise +every ingenuity of torture fabled in the Greek Hades, with Gehenna +added. Every revolving century was their Ixion-wheel, and every stream +their Phlegethon. + + + + + XII. + + THE WANDERING RACE. + + +Professor Child, of Harvard University, has remarked that, “in the +second form of the legend, the punishment of perpetual existence, which +gives rise to the old names, _Judæus non mortalis_, _Ewiger Jude_, is +aggravated by a condemnation to perpetual change of place, which is +indicated by a corresponding name, _Wandering Jew_, _Juif Errant_, +etc.”[29] In this change a great deal of history is represented. The +Jewish race under persecution steadily became a wandering race. They +were compelled to “move on” by the remorseless police of Christendom. +One after another the laws of nations detached them from the soil, from +the trade-guilds, from civic position, and they became a nation without +a country. + +This process went on for a long time before it was represented in any +myth or legend. Mohammed said, “The Jews are the People of the Book.” +Joshua ben Siras ben Eliezer, a priest in Jerusalem two hundred years +before the burning of the Second Temple (quoted by Heine), wrote, “All +this is the Book of the Covenant made with the Most High God, namely, +the Law which Moses commanded as a precious treasure to the House of +Jacob. Wisdom floweth therefrom as the water of Pison when it is great, +and as the water of Tigris when it overfloweth its banks in spring. +Instruction floweth from it as the Euphrates when it is great, and as +Jordan in the harvest. Correction cometh forth from it as the light, +and as the water of the Nile in autumn. There is none that hath made +an end of learning it, there is none that will ever find out all its +mystery, for its wisdom is richer than any sea and its word deeper than +any abyss.” + +So spake the genius of Israel, and, so speaking, itself uttered its +first doom. A people to whom a book had become their Fatherland, which +had come to see in it their Jordan, their Tigris, their Nile, had +already given up their hold upon the territories of this world and +become a wandering colony of Jahve, governed by a code unrelated to +the vices or the aims of other races. This abstract country, whose +geography was books and texts, was fenced around and fortified +as strongly as the territory of any nation. Its fortresses were +ceremonies, customs, national traditions, and a perfect patience +derived from faith in the God of their fathers. The Cain whom they +abhorred was not more effectually “cursed from the earth,” prohibited +from tillage of the ground than this race which had taken Jahve for +their portion and his law for their habitation. + +In such a system there could be no compromise. And as a matter of +fact there never was any compromise with the enemies of their faith. +These people, who have shown ingenuity and cleverness of every kind, +have never developed any sort of Jesuitism. I was astonished lately +at learning of an instance in which a Jew outwitted his persecutors +in true Christian style, for I never heard of another. This Jew was a +pedlar, and he was wandering in France in the neighbourhood of one of +those districts where the Virgin Mary is still continually opening new +water-cure establishments. This Jew, having heard the latest miracle +which had evoked a new fountain, smiled, and even made light of it. +Thereon the innkeepers excited a mob, and they resolved to hang the +_miscreant_--that is, the unbeliever--faggots being old-fashioned. They +seized the poor pedlar and bore him off pallid with terror. As they +passed near the new fountain, the Jew begged permission to moisten his +lips thereat; this was conceded, but no sooner had the water touched +his lips than he leaped about with joy, and declared that the fountain +had healed a severe rheumatism which he had suffered from for many +years. “A miracle! a miracle!” shouted the crowd; the Jew suddenly +became a hero, and was carried before the priest, who appointed +the next day to baptize him before all the people and make a grand +demonstration. The Jew, however, disappeared during the night. + +This story, which I found in a recent number of the _Jewish World_, is +a modern appendage to the old legend mentioned by Mr. Baring-Gould, +that the gipsies were said to wander under a doom pronounced on them +because they refused to shelter the Virgin and child in the flight +into Egypt. But this witty pedlar is not a fair representative of the +race. “Sufferance is the badge of all our tribe,” said Shylock. Though +Shylock has been regarded by many as a type of avarice and extortion, +yet even he cannot be tempted by money when his struggle with the +Merchant becomes a religious issue. Shakspeare rightly shows Shylock +unyielding; many times the money due to him cannot bribe him from the +blow he feels empowered to strike for his despised Israel. And when, +in the beginning of this century, Nathan Rothschild started as the +great banker of London, no temptations could induce him, shrewd as he +was, to lend money or enter into any contracts for the benefit of Spain +or its colonies. The Israelite was never lost in the banker, and showed +his supremacy when it came to a race which had banished his own from +the Iberian Peninsula; though at the same time his charities and those +of his house have included Christians hardly less than Jews. The same +unyielding religious spirit was shown when thirty-three years ago Baron +Lionel de Rothschild was elected Member of Parliament for the City of +London. The honour of being the first Jew in that body could not induce +him to swear his allegiance “on the true faith of a Christian,” and on +the New Testament. He remained out of his seat for eleven years--and +with him David Salomons, who paid the penalty of £500 for voting in the +House without being duly sworn--when Parliament yielded to men who did +not yield, and the oath was changed for Jews. + +It has sometimes excited wonder why this wanderer among the races, +uncompromising amid the hatred of ages, was not exterminated. It must +often have appeared to them that, like the bush in their own legend, +they were burnt without being consumed, because their God was in the +bush. But no miraculous force need be sought in the case, nor any +exceptional tenacity of life in them as a race; their circumstances +developed in them special faculties adapted to the commerce and +civilisation of the world. Heine said truly “the Jews were legally +condemned to become rich.” The populace generally believed that Jewish +wealth was got from the Devil, their wages for maintaining the kingdom +of Antichrist in the world. The Jewish banker, Samuel Bernard, who died +in 1789, leaving a large property, had a black cock which was popularly +believed to be connected with his wealth. The suspicion was confirmed +when the bird died a day or two before its master. + +As a matter of fact the Jews were driven to deal in money and +jewellery--a word supposed by some to be derived from “Jew”--by the +general exclusion of them from the possession of land and from the +acquisition of property by handicraft. Gold and silver alone were left +for their enterprise. + +And there were good causes why they amassed wealth. The first was +that they did not spend it on Gentile baubles. They cared not for the +pomps and luxuries of a world to which they did not belong. Why then +did they want to accumulate it? Why were they so thrifty and unwearied +in their pursuit of gold? To ascribe this to avarice is to accept a +popular fallacy refuted by the history of that people, who are even +lavish in their charities and in their support of public enterprises +(as in England and America) where they are free and equal citizens. +In their earlier days the Jews’ hope of recovering their country and +re-establishing their Theocracy under the Messiah was a passionate +aspiration, it was as sincere as any patriotism; every Jew held his +wealth and his life as a trust for that end. All their wealth they +hoped one day to lay at the Messiah’s feet. So it began, and then a new +factor re-enforced it. The wealth of the Jews became the main means +of their survival as a people. Kings and Popes protected them for the +money they could get out of them. But for this they would certainly +have been exterminated. From them chiefly was extorted the money for +Henry the Second’s Crusade in their own Holy Land. Mainly by their +labour and wealth Westminster Abbey was built. By such protective +extortions there was established a certain force of natural selection +and evolution, based on their wealth, which gradually made them the +financial princes of Europe and bankers of the world. + +Whatever German bigots may say, the financial supremacy of the Jews +has been well and wisely exercised. The nations not included under it +have fared according to their folly. When Queen Isabella of old wished +to protect the Jews because of such advantages, she was confronted by +the fanatic who said, “Judas sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver; +will you sell Him for thirty millions?” So the Jews suffered in Spain; +but what did Spain suffer? What did Holland and England gain by the +Spanish Jews, first tolerated, then welcomed in their cities? This +Germany will be able to answer if the jealous bigots there let loose on +the Jews should succeed in driving them out of the country. + +“Thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the +time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be +increased.” So early did the compulsory tendencies of the Jews reveal +themselves. Their alienation among other peoples made them close up +in their ceremonial law as in a shell; their book was sealed amid +inferior ‘revelations’ swarming around them, and themselves sealed in +it: but, meanwhile, detached from the soil and the guilds of every +country, forced to be exchangers, pedlars, they must travel to and +fro, and their knowledge was increased. They became so well acquainted +with the lore of different lands, with the medical and other knowledge +of various countries, that they were supposed to possess occult +powers. Occasionally, this reputation might be of service to them, as +in the instance where Queen Elizabeth employed a Jewish physician for +his supposed occult knowledge; but more often it harmed them, as in +the evil fate that overtook that same physician, whom jealous rivals +accused of an attempt to poison the Queen. For many centuries they +presented the most remarkable instance of a people who had largely +outgrown their primitive superstitions, and acquired a religious and +intellectual enlightenment beyond the rest of the world, who yet kept +all this culture within the hard walls of their barbaric stronghold, +their ancient forms and formulas, from which they did not dare to +venture. + + + + + XIII. + + THE POUND OF FLESH. + + +Passing out of Rome by the Via Appia, one comes to many places +of antiquarian interest, but presently arrives at a spot whose +significance increases with time. This is the church called _Domine +quo vadis_. There, says the legend, St. Peter, once more flying +from danger, met Jesus, and said, “Lord, whither goest thou?” Jesus +answered, ‘_Venio Romam iterum crucifigi._’ Whereupon Peter returned, +and met his fate--that hard one of a mythical martyrdom, followed +by resurrection as a Pontifical Jupiter, wielding his keys as +thunderbolts. A fac-simile of the holy footprints of Jesus is here in +the church, the originals, sunk in marble, being preserved in Saint +Sebastian’s Church. + +Goethe had perhaps seen the worshippers around these footprints (near +by the Jewish catacomb with its seven-branch candlestick), when there +arose in him the idea of a poem which, alas, never got farther than +the outline given in a further chapter. Writing from Terni, October +27th, 1786, he says: “Yesterday I felt inspired to undertake a work +which at present would be ill-timed. Approaching nearer and nearer +to the centre of Romanism, surrounded by Roman Catholics, boxed up +with a priest in a sedan, and striving anxiously to observe and to +study without prejudice true nature and noble art, I have arrived at a +vivid conviction that all traces of original Christianity are extinct +here. Indeed, while I tried to bring it before my mind in its purity, +as we see it recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, I could not help +shuddering to think of the shapeless, not to say grotesque, mass of +heathenism which heavily overlies its benign beginnings. Accordingly, +the ‘Wandering Jew’ again occurred to me as having been a witness of +all this wonderful development and envelopment, and as having lived to +experience so strange a state of things, that Christ himself, when he +shall come a second time to gather his harvest, will be in danger of +being crucified a second time. The legend _Venio iterum crucifigi_ was +to serve me as the material of this catastrophe.”[30] + +Perhaps Goethe also witnessed “Holy-Cross Day” in Rome, when the Jews +were “compelled to come in” and hear the annual sermon--“haled,” as one +said, “as it were by the head and hair, and against their obstinate +hearts, to partake of the heavenly grace.” Had the two visionary +Wanderers--Jesus and Ahasuerus--once more encountered each other in +sight of the crosses, they could only have hung side by side; he who +gave the blow in Jerusalem, now conceivably the one person in Rome +able to recognise the freshly-crucified from a cross of his own--the +cross of his race. From another poet have come the words which typical +Ahasuerus might, after the experience of so many centuries, speak to +the fellow-sufferer he once had insulted: + + “Thou art the judge. We are bruised thus, + But, the judgment over, join sides with us! + Thine too is the cause! and not more Thine + Than ours is the work of these dogs and swine, + Whose life laughs through and spits at their creed, + Who maintain Thee in word, and defy Thee in deed! + + “We withstood Christ then? be mindful how, + At least we withstand Barabbas now! + Was our outrage sore? but the worst we spared. + To have called these--Christians, had we dared! + Let defiance of them pay mistrust of Thee, + And Rome make amends for Calvary! + + “By the torture prolonged from age to age, + By the infamy, Israel’s heritage, + By the Ghetto’s plague, by the garb’s disgrace. + By the badge of shame, by the felon’s place, + By the branding tool, the bloody whip, + And the summons to Christian fellowship-- + + “We boast our proof that at least the Jew, + Would wrest Christ’s name from the Devil’s crew. + Thy face took never so deep a shade, + But we fought them in it, God our aid! + A trophy to bear, as we march, Thy band, + South, east, and on to the Pleasant Land!”[31] + +Holy-Cross Day was appropriate for this work of striking the Jewish +race in the face, as they fainted at the Christian door, and showing +them now themselves the crucified, by a High Priest Christ taught +to hate his enemies and pierce them with nail and spear. For it was +about the time of the alleged discovery of the True Cross, already +noticed, that this fable of the Wandering Jew probably first began its +career.[32] Already at that time it was shown on the walls of imperial +Christendom that Jesus and Ahasuerus, as types of Humanity, had changed +places--the nails and the thorn-crown transferred from one to the +other; and, what is more, the cruel dogmas and superstitions abandoned +by the one made by the other into the established religion of Europe. + +In the familiar legend of the True Cross, Helena is for a time baffled +by a certain Judas, who has occult sources of knowledge, and warns the +Jews that the empress is coming to find what, if found, will cause +the downfall of their religion. But she having threatened a general +massacre, the Jews inform her that this Judas can alone reveal the +place of the cross. He refuses; is starved at the bottom of a dry well +for six days; on the seventh, consents. When the cross appears, Judas +is converted by its miracles and baptized. + +In a paper read to the New Shakspeare Society, April 9th, 1875, Miss +Toulmin Smith announced her discovery that the story of the “Pound of +Flesh” is contained in the thirteenth century English poem, “_Cursor +Mundi_,” there interwoven with the legend of the Finding of the Holy +Cross. A Christian goldsmith, in the service of Queen Helena, owes a +sum of money to a Jew; if he cannot pay it at a certain time he is +to render the weight of the wanting money in his own flesh. The bond +is forfeit; the Jew prepares to cut the flesh; but the judges decide +that no drop of blood must be shed. The Jew being thus defeated, Queen +Helena declares that he must give up all his goods to the State and +lose his tongue. This sentence is remitted on his agreeing to tell her +where the Holy Cross is hidden,--which he did. + +It might easily arise, as a saga on this Jew’s knowledge, that he had +personally participated in the hiding of the Cross, just after the +crucifixion, and had been miraculously preserved through centuries as +“a witness” to reveal its place of concealment, and thereby also to +be “a witness” to the truth of the Christian legend. This might even +have been in the minds of those who gave him the name of Judas, though +perhaps that is merely a token of homage to the True Cross, as potent +enough to convert a Judas. It is in harmony with the endless plots +and counterplots of the True Cross Tale that the traitor of Christ +should live to become traitor to Antichrist. At the same time there +is a suggestion in it of precise retribution in kind which naturally +combines with the story of the “Pound of Flesh.” It is highly probable +that Shylock and the Eternal Jew are twins of the True Cross Mythology, +though Ahasuerus be a later name and figure. + +But this Holy Cross itself was, and is, a perpetual symbol of the +pound-of-flesh principle which lay at the foundation of the ancient +Jewish system, and from it, after that foundation had crumbled for the +Jews, was adopted as the chief corner-stone of Christianity. This I +have demonstrated elsewhere,[33] and the history of the legend, with +the conclusions based on it, though they may appear here as an episode, +will be found closely related to the development of our subject. + +Mr. Swinburne speaks of Marlowe’s Jew as the real man, while +Shakspeare’s is a mouthpiece for the finest poetry.[34] A surprising +criticism! The genesis of the conventional stage-Jew in England has +already been given in this work (XI.), and my reader will do well to +refer to it at this point. + +It is sufficiently remarkable that, in this year 1881, London should +have witnessed on the stage, as acted by two eminent Shakspeare +interpreters, the two stage-Jews which competed for popular favour +in the time of Marlowe and Shakspeare. The “Shylock” of Mr. Booth is +an odious, avaricious, bloodthirsty villain; that of Mr. Irving is a +fatal, powerful and pathetic character. The fine acting of Mr. Booth +cannot strive against the art of Shakspeare, who at no point could +have raised sympathy with a man he meant should be utterly repulsive. +Mr. Booth’s personation rests too much on the traditional make-up of +Shylock, which is really that of Barabas. When Edmund Kean, as a poor +unknown actor, first went to play Shylock at Drury Lane, he raised +some laughter behind the scenes by taking from his small bundle a +black wig! Black it was, not red; human, not diabolic: the smiling +company said, “_That_ will be a failure”; but it was not. One after +another the outside traits of Shylock, costume borrowed from Barabas, +have disappeared; not a word of Shakspeare’s text has had to disappear +with them; the character which the poet conceived has been largely +unsheathed by Mr. Irving. + +We know that no such figure as that at the Lyceum appeared on +Shakspeare’s own stage at the Globe. Shylock, as acted by Shakspeare’s +friend Burbage, was a comic figure. His make-up consisted of +exceedingly red hair and beard, a false nose preternaturally long and +hooked, and a tawny petticoat. Such a figure must have been largely +meant to make fun for the pit and gallery, of which Shakspeare was +rarely oblivious, and Burbage never. + +But a conventional stage-figure is generally an evolution, and this +farcical Shylock was no exception. The famous Isaac of Norwich was a +typical Jew in his time. A thirteenth century caricature, preserved in +the Pell Office, shows us the popular notion of him. He is pictured +as a three-faced idol surrounded by devils. The three faces are not +especially ugly or comical, but repulsive enough; and we may detect +in the figure the reflection of a period when the diabolical theory +of the Jew was serious, and no laughing matter. Similarly, in the old +Miracle Plays, Satan was a serious figure, though he gradually became +a mere laughing-stock, like Pantaloon in the pantomimes. The stage-Jew +shared the same decline as the stage-devil--his supposed inspirer. In +his malignant and formidable aspect he was, indeed, in Shakspeare’s +day, the main figure of Marlowe’s popular play; but even he had the +long nose and sundry grotesque features; and it can hardly be doubted +that, in the still more ludicrous make-up of Shylock, the Globe Theatre +followed the popular feeling. + +Perhaps there may be hidden in the name Shylock the idea of a +lock-shearer, shaver of the last hair from his victim; at any rate +“the shearer sheared” would include the whole significance of the +story which Shakspeare took in hand. In the character of Shylock, he +retained the grotesquerie which might please the rabble, at the same +time turning their scowl to laughter. Even now, while Mr. Irving is +giving his pathetic impersonation, the occasional laugh reminds us +how easily some parts of the text would lend themselves to a farcical +interpretation, if the painted nose and comic gestures were present. +But it is more remarkable to observe how rare and superficial are +these ludicrous incidents. The farcical Shylock has passed away from +the English stage through force of the more real character which +Shakspeare drew. Shakspeare may not have intended all the far-reaching +moral belonging to the ancient legend of the pound of flesh, but surely +no one can carefully compare his Shylock with the Barabas of his +contemporary without recognising a purpose to modify and soften the +popular feeling towards the Jew, to picture a man where Marlowe had +painted a monster, if not indeed to mirror for Christians their own +injustice and cruelty. + +Let us take our stand beside Portia when she summons the Merchant and +Shylock to stand forth. The two men have long legendary antecedents and +have met many times before. There are eleven versions of the bond story +in the early literature of Europe. In four of these versions no Jew +appears. Karl Simrock believes that it is an ancient law-anecdote--an +illustration of the law of retaliation pressed to an extreme. The +evidences he gives of its use for this purpose are interesting, +and it appears to me probable that it might have been in this way +that the Jew was first introduced into the story. Where a Jew and a +Christian confronted each other in any issue it might be assumed that +all mitigations of the _summum jus_ were removed from the question; +only the naked technical terms of the law could then be conceived as +restraining either from doing the utmost injury he could to the other. +There is an old Persian version of the tale, in which, perhaps for a +similar reason, a Moslem and an Armenian confront each other; and in +this case the failure of the bond is not because of the blood, but +because of the extreme exactness of weight demanded by the court. An +Egyptian form of the story has a similar end. + +Side by side, in all ages and races, have struggled with each other +the principle of Retaliation and that of Forgiveness. In religion +the vindictive principle has euphemistic names: it is called law and +justice. The other principle, that of remission, has had to exist by +sufferance, and in nearly all religions has been recognised only in +subordinate alliance with its antagonist. An eye for an eye, a tooth +for a tooth, blood for blood, is primitive law. Projected into heaven, +magnified in the divine majesty, it becomes the principle that a deity +cannot be just and yet a justifier of offenders. “Without the shedding +of blood there is no remission of sins.” Since finite man is naturally +assumed to be incapable of directly satisfying an infinite law, all +religions, based on the idea of a divine lawgiver, are employed in +devising schemes by which commutations may be secured and vicarious +satisfactions of divine law obtained. Nature never forgives. No deity +inferred from the always relentless forces of nature has ever been +supposed able to forgive the smallest sin until it was exactly atoned +for. For this reason the divine mercifulness has generally become a +separate personification. The story of the “Pound of Flesh” is one of +the earliest fables concerning these conflicting principles. + +The following legend was related to me by a Hindu, as one he had been +told in his childhood. The chief of the Indian triad, Indra, pursued +the god Agni. Agni changed himself to a dove in order to escape; but +Indra changed himself to a hawk, to continue the pursuit. The dove took +refuge with Vishnu, second person of the triad, the Hindu Saviour. +Indra flying up, demanded the dove; Vishnu, concealing it in his bosom, +refused to give up the dove. Indra then took an oath that if the dove +were not surrendered he would tear from Vishnu’s breast an amount of +flesh equal to the body of the dove. Vishnu still refused to surrender +the bird, but bared his breast. The divine hawk tore from it the exact +quantity, and the drops of blood--the blood of a Saviour--as they fell +to the ground wrote the scriptures of the Vedas. + +Among the various versions of this story in India I have not been able +to find any in accepted sacred books preserving with the simplicity +of this folk-tale the ancient moral antagonism between the deities +afterwards found in alliance as a triad. Hindu orthodoxy has outgrown +the phase of faith which could sanction that probably provincial +legend. Its spirit survives in one of Vishnu’s titles, Yadjña Varâha, +“the boar of sacrifice,” derived from Vishnu’s third incarnation, by +which he saved the world from demons by becoming himself a victim. +We may see in the fable reflection of a sacrificial age, an age in +which the will and word of a god became inexorable fate, but also the +dawning conception of a divineness in the mitigation of the law, which +ultimately adds saving man-gods or demi-gods to nature-gods that cannot +be appeased. + +The earliest version, probably B.C. 300, is the story in the +Mahábhárata (_Vana parva_) of the trial of the best of mankind, King +Usinára. Indra and Agni, wishing to test his fidelity to the laws +of righteousness, assume the forms of falcon and pigeon. The latter +(Agni) pursued by the former (Indra) seeks and receives the king’s +protection. The falcon demands the pigeon, and is refused on the ground +that it is written that to kill a twice-born man, to kill a cow, and to +abandon a being that has taken refuge with one, are equal sins. This +is a quotation from the Laws of Manu. The falcon argues that it is the +law of nature that it shall feed on pigeons, and a statute against +nature is no law. He (the falcon) will be starved, consequently his +mate and little ones must perish, and thus in preserving one the king +will slay many. The falcon is offered by Usinára other food--a boar, +bull, gazelle--but the falcon declares that it is not the law of its +nature to eat such things. The king then declares that he will not +give up the pigeon, but he will give anything else in his power which +the falcon may demand. The falcon replies that he can only accept a +quantity of the king’s own flesh equal in weight to the pigeon’s body. +Usinára gladly accedes to this substitution. Balances are produced, and +the pigeon is placed in one scale. The king cuts off a piece of his +flesh that appears large enough, but is insufficient; he cuts again and +again, but still the pigeon outweighs his piled-up flesh. Finally, all +his flesh gone, the king gets into the scale himself. The two gods then +resume their divine shape, announce to Usinára that for the sacrifice +he has made he will be glorified in all worlds throughout eternity, +and the king ascends transfigured into heaven. + +This legend is repeated under the title _Syena-Kapotiyam_ (Dove and +Hawk) in the _Purana Sarvasvan_ in the Bodleian Library, where it is in +Bengali characters. There is another version in the _Markandêyâ Purâna_ +(ch. iii.), in which Indra appears to the sage Vipulasvan in the form +of a large famished bird. Finding that this bird can only be nourished +by human flesh, the sage appeals to his sons to give it some of their +flesh; and on their refusal he curses them, and tells the bird that +after he has performed certain funeral ceremonies his body shall be for +its nourishment. Whereupon Indra bids the sage abandon his body only +by the power of contemplation, reveals his divine nature, and offers +Vipulasvan whatever he may ask. + +Indra here says, “I eat no living creature,” which shows a moral +advance. Perhaps his conversion may have been in some measure due to +the teaching of Buddha. It is instructive to compare the Mahábhárata +legend with an early Buddhist version cited by M. Focaux from the +_Dsang-loung_,[35] a version all the more significant because the hero +of it, Sivi, was traditionally the son of Usinára and had already +appeared in the fourth book of Mahábhárata as tried in the same way +with his father, and with the same results. Sivi had become a popular +type of self-sacrifice. According to the Buddhist legend, Indra, +perceiving that his divine existence was drawing to a close, confided +to Visvakarman[36] his grief at not seeing in the world any man who +would become a Buddha. Visvakarman declared King Sivi such a man. The +falcon and pigeon test is then applied. But the Buddhist Sivi does +not, like his Brahman prototype, offer to compensate the falcon with +the flesh of other animals. He agrees to give his own flesh. The gods +descend and weep tears of emotion at seeing the king as a skeleton +outweighing the dove which all of his flesh could not equal. Nor is the +Buddhist saint caught up to heaven. He is offered the empire and throne +of Indra himself, but refuses it; he desires only to be a Buddha. +Sivi’s body is restored to greater beauty than before, and he becomes +the Buddha amid universal joy. + +Other versions show the legend further detached from brahmanic ideas, +and resting more completely upon Buddha’s compassionateness to all +creatures. Of this description is one in the “Sermons” by Asphagosha, +for the translation of which I am indebted to Professor Beal. Sakra +(a name of Indra) tempted by a heretic to believe that the teaching +of Buddha was false, and that men followed it from motives of +self-interest, sought for a perfect man who was practising austerities +solely for the sake of becoming a Buddha. Finding one, Sivaka Raja, he +agreed with Visvakarman to tempt him. All happens as in the old legend, +except that Sivaka rests his refusal not upon the law of Manu, nor upon +the sanctity of asylum, but upon his love of all living things. To this +his mercifulness the falcon appeals, reminding him of its own young, +and Sivaka calls for a knife and cuts off a piece of his flesh, not +caring whether it is more or less than the body of the dove. He then +faints. All living creatures raise lamentations, and the deities, much +affected, heal the wound. + +The influence of Buddhism is traceable in the modifications of the +original legend, which show the sacrifice not accepted as it was in the +case of Vishnu, and to some extent in that of Usinára, whose earthly +life terminates. With Buddha the principle of remission supersedes that +of sacrifice. His argument against the Brahmanic sacrifice of life +was strong. When they pointed to these predatory laws of nature in +proof of their faith that the gods approved the infliction of pain and +death, he asked them why they did not sacrifice their own children; +why they did not offer to the gods the most valuable lives. The fact +was that they were outgrowing direct human sacrifices--preserving +self-mortifications--and animals were slain in commutation of +costlier offerings. This moral revolution is traceable in the gradual +constitution of Vishnu as a Saviour. There is a later legend that +Vishnu approached Sivi in the form of a Brahman in want of food, but +would accept none except the flesh of Sivi’s son Vrihad-Garbha. The +king killed and cooked his son and placed the food before the Brahman, +who then bade him eat it himself. Sivi prepared to do so, when Vishnu +stayed his hand, revealed himself, restored the son to life, and +vanished. This legend belongs to a transitional period. Its outcome is +found in several Hindu folk-tales, one of which has been told by the +charming story-teller, Mr. W. R. S. Ralston. The king of a country is +dying, and a poor man is informed of the fact by a disguised “fate.” +He asks if there is no way to save the king’s life, and is told there +is but one way; if a child should be sacrificed, with its own consent, +that would save the king. The man returns home and proposes to his wife +to slay their beautiful little boy. She consents; the boy having also +consented, the knife is about to descend on the child, when the fates +appear, announcing that they only wished to try his loyalty to his +king, who had already recovered. + +We may feel pretty certain that originally that king was a deity, +though not so certain that the knife was arrested without killing +anything at all. In several popular fables we find the story preserved +essentially in the old sacrificial form, to teach the rewards of +self-sacrifice, though, in order to escape the scandal of a human +sacrifice, the self-devotion is ascribed to animals. Thus, in the +_Panchatantra_, a pigeon roasts itself to save a famished bird-catcher, +who had just captured his mate; and the bird-catcher presently seeing +its radiant form rising to heaven, spends his life consuming his flesh +in the fire of devotion, in order that he also may ascend there. + +In the Hebrew story corresponding to that of Vishnu and Sivi, the Hindu +Abraham, we may see that where a god is concerned the actual sacrifice +cannot be omitted. That may do in the case of a dying king or hungry +hawk, but not for a deity. In the case of Abraham and Isaac the demand +is not remitted but commuted. The ram is accepted instead of Isaac. +But even so much concession could hardly be recognized by the Hebrew +priesthood as an allowable variation from a direct demand of Jahve, and +so the command is said to have been given by Elohim, its modification +by Jahve. The cautious transformation is somewhat in the spirit of the +disguises of the Aryan deities, who may partially revoke as gods the +orders they gave as hawks. It would indicate a more advanced idea if +we found Jahve remitting a claim of his own instead of one made by the +Elohim. + +It is worthy of a remark that in some regions where this change of +names in the story of Abraham’s sacrifice is overlooked or unknown +by Semitic religionists, there has sprung up a tradition that the +sacrifice was completed, and the patriarch’s son miraculously +restored to life. Thus, in another branch of the Jewish religion we +find Mohammed flinching at the Biblical story. He does not like to +admit that Allah altered his word and purpose except for a serious +consideration, so he says, “We ransomed him with a noble victim.” +The Moslems believe that Isaac was not then born, and that it was +Ishmael across whose throat Abraham actually drew the knife, which was +miraculously kept from killing the lad, according to some, but others +say resulted in a death and resurrection. + +In the year 1879 the highly educated State of Massachusetts was +thrilled with horror by the tidings that a man named Freeman had +offered up his beautiful and only child, Edith Freeman, as a sacrifice +to God. It occurred in the historical town of Pocasset. A thousand +years ago the Northmen who first discovered America wintered there, and +possibly they there offered human sacrifices to their god Odin--that +is, if they got hold of one or two red men; for there has been a +notable tendency among men in such cases to prefer other victims than +themselves for their gods. Since that first landing of white men in +America the religion of Odin had yielded to that of Christ; Pocasset +and all New England had been converted to Christianity; the Bible +had found its way into every home. Yet this well-to-do citizen, Mr. +Freeman, and his wife, had learned in Sunday School about Abraham’s +touching proof of his faith. They had pondered the lesson until they +heard the voice of Abraham’s God summoning them to a similar sacrifice, +and they committed a deed which probably would have shocked even those +rude Vikings who wintered at Pocasset a thousand years before. So much +might the worship of a pitiless primitive deity arrest the civilisation +of a household in the land of Channing and Parker. They prayed over +the little girl, then the knife was plunged into her heart. Little +Edith is now in her grave. The God of Abraham and Isaac got his pound +of flesh this time. The devout priest of that horrible altar has just +passed from his prison to an asylum. To the many who have visited him +he puts questions hard to be answered. “Do you believe the Bible or +not?” he says. “If you do, and have read the account of Abraham, why +should you deny that God could require a man to sacrifice his child? He +so required of me. I _did_ hope and believe that he would stay my hand +before the blow fell. When he did not I still believed he would raise +my child to life. But that is his own affair. I have given that which I +loved most to God because He commanded me.” The American people waited +to see whether a Christian community which trains up children to admire +the faith of Abraham would hang them when they grow up to imitate that +faith so impressed upon them. The embarrassing dilemma was escaped +after eight months, by getting Freeman into an asylum for the insane, +without trial. A rather mean way of confessing that theocratic piety is +republican insanity! + +I observed, soon after the occurrence of this tragedy, a picture of +it in the _Police News_ exposed in the shop windows of London. The +designer had placed a crucifix near the little victim’s head. It is +probable that Freeman and his wife never saw a crucifix in their lives; +they belong to the hardest, baldest dogmatic Protestantism. The rude +artist perhaps placed the crucifix in his picture because the Abrahamic +sacrifice was supposed to be typical of a holier one--a sacrifice in +which a Son was offered up to satisfy the fatal law of a Father. In +the human sacrifice symbolised by that crucifix culminated all these +sacrifices of which mention has been made; and there was embodied that +principle which has maintained through the ages that though to forgive +may be human, to avenge is divine. + +Let us return now to Shylock and the Merchant whose life is forfeit. +Shylock is a primæval Jew; he represents the law, the letter and rigour +of it. He is Indra tearing Vishnu’s breast; Elohim demanding Isaac’s +death; the First Person exacting the Second Person’s atoning blood. +His bond, his oath registered in heaven, its sanction by Venetian law, +are by him identified with eternal justice. It is the irrevocable +“thing spoken,” _fatum_, weird, or word. Portia is exact in telling him +that he represents that “justice” in whose course, “none of us should +see salvation.” The Jew personates his ancient god precisely. Nor is +there wanting a certain majesty in his position. There is nothing mean +about Shylock now, whatever there may have been at first. He has been +called avaricious. But, as we have already seen (XII.), the wealth +of the Jews was the main factor in their survival. There is, indeed, +an illustration of this in the only version of the Bond legend which +makes any pretension to be considered historical. A Jew named Cenéda +forfeited a pound of his flesh to a Christian merchant, on a wager; +the case was brought before the Pope, Sixtus V., who decided that the +Christian must pay two thousand scudi to his treasury for attempting +manslaughter, and the Jew pay in an equal sum for having hazarded his +life, that being a taxable property belonging to the Pope. Balzac tells +us of a mediæval seneschal in France who declared the Jews to be the +best taxgatherers in his region. It was his custom to let them gain +money as bees collect honey: then he would swoop down on their hive and +take it all away. The Jews were driven by oppressive statutes to the +dealings in money which brought opprobrium upon them; and in hating +Antonio because he lent money without interest, and so lowered the +rate of usance in Venice, Shylock was hating him for undermining the +existence of his tribe. Shylock scorns thrice his principal. For now +he has been summoned by his own woes, the taking away of his daughter +and his property, including that ring mourned because given by his +lost Leah--artfully contrasted with the surrender by the Christian +lovers of the rings they had vowed never to part with--to stand forth +as an avenger of the ages of wrong heaped upon his race. That is an +Elohistic moment for Shylock, and ducats become dross in its presence. +When the full tidings of his woes and wrongs are told him he cries, +“The curse never fell upon our nation till now: I never felt it till +now.” Thenceforth we may see in Shylock the impersonation of the +divine avenger of a divinely chosen people, and the majesty of his law +confronting an Edomite world. + +On the other hand stands Antonio, representing rather feebly, until +he too is summoned from being a mere rich merchant to become a shorn +victim, the opposite principle. He stands for the Christ, the Forgiver, +the Sufferer. In the course of its travels the legend had combined with +one told by Hyginus. The patriot Moros having conspired to rid his +country of its tyrant, falls into the hands of that tyrant, Dionysius +of Sicily, who orders him to be crucified. But Moros is allowed a +respite and absence of three days to visit his sister, his friend +Selenuntius having agreed to become his hostage. On his way back, +Moros is impeded by a swollen river, and when he reaches the place of +execution finds his friend on the point of being nailed to the cross. +The two friends now insist each on being crucified for the other, at +which sight Dionysius is so affected that he releases both, resolves to +be a more humane king, and asks the friends to take him as “the third +in their bond of friendship.” It is remarkable that this legend (which +suggested to Schiller his ballad _Die Bürgschaft_, the Suretyship) +should have been a popular one at the beginning of the Christian era, +introducing as it does an exactor of vicarious suffering--that too +by a cross--and ending with the tyrant becoming one in a trinity of +friendship. + +Shakespeare has brought this vicarious feature into a prominence it +never had in any version he could ever have seen, and his art, creating +as it must in organic consistency, has dramatised the psychological +history of mankind. + +Antonio, the merchant called on to suffer, is the man who gained +nothing at all from the bond. He has incurred the danger and penalty +in order that his rather worthless friend Bassanio may get the money +necessary to secure a rich marriage which shall free him from his +debts. It is the just suffering for the unjust. Antonio is the man who +gives, hoping for nothing again; in low simplicity he lends out money +gratis; and, when Shylock agrees to lend the three thousand ducats, the +merchant says, “This Hebrew will turn Christian; he grows kind.” At the +trial, Antonio speaks like the predestined victim: + + I am a tainted wether of the flock, + Meetest for death. + +And, when the trial is over, Antonio is the only man who offers to +relax his hold on the Jew’s property. He gives up his own half, and +takes the other only to give it away to Shylock’s daughter and her +husband. + +To be kind Antonio calls Christian; but it was not that spirit which +finally brought Shylock into the same fold with his judges. His life is +spared on condition of his becoming a Christian. Professor Morley and +other critics say that was harsh. But Shylock is no longer a genuine +Jew, and Shakespeare properly relieves that race of his connection. +The Jews had indeed, in primitive ages, begun with the eye-for-an-eye +principle, but fiery trials had long taught them patience under injury. +Shylock, reminding Antonio, when he asks help, of his outrages, says: + + Still have I borne it with a patient shrug, + For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe. + +So had it been for many ages, and the Jew had relegated the principle +of vengeance to his fossil theology, practically becoming the patient +victim; while, on the other hand, Christianity, reaching the throne, +had antiquated Christ’s principle of mercy, and was dealing out the +rigours of the Judaic law which Israel had outgrown by suffering. +Shylock had grandly asserted the humanity of the Jew, in the first +words of that kind ever heard in Europe; but he had gone on to assert +his _Christianized_ nature. “If we are like you in the rest, we will +be like you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? +revenge; if a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be +by Christian example? why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will +execute.” But when Shylock thus repairs back to the old eye-for-an-eye +spirit, when he draws from the armoury of the ancient law the old +weapon of retaliation, it is only to find that the sacrificial knife +grown rusty for a Jew is bright and keen enough in Christian hands. In +pressing to practise the blood-atonement and vicarious principle he +enters upon Christian ground, and Shakspeare rightly baptizes him a +Christian. + +We may naturally question whether Shakspeare meant this irony. Did +he intend any subtle hit when he made these Christians claim as a +co-religionist, ripe for baptism, a man who had just attempted to +take a fellow-man’s life? That cannot be affirmed; but it is notable +that there should be in the play another passage liable to that +construction. Shylock’s enemies have just converted his daughter +Jessica into a good Christian; and the first sign of the work of grace +in her heart is the facility with which she steals and squanders her +father’s money. Shakspeare does not fail to connect with this pious +robbery the Christian customs of the time towards Jews. When the +robbery and elopement have been planned, the Jew’s Christian servant, +Lancelot, says to Jessica: + + There will come a Christian by + Will be worth a Jewess’ eye. + +That seems to be a play upon the then familiar phrase “worth a Jew’s +eye”--a Jew having often to pay an enormous sum in order to avoid +having his eye put out. With that Christian usage the poet apparently +connects the robbery of Shylock’s treasure. So by adopting the +Christian usage of the time, by saying to Antonio what King John said +to the Jews--“Your money or your flesh”--Shylock had given evidence of +a change of heart, and his right place was in the Christian fold. + +But among all these representative figures of the Venetian court-room, +transformations from the flying doves and pursuing hawks, bound victims +and exacting deities of ancient mythology, there is one who possesses +a significance yet to be considered. That is Portia. Who is this +gentle woman in judicial costume? She is that human heart which in +every age, amid hard dogmatic systems and priestly intolerance, has +steadily appealed against the whole vindictive system--whether Jewish +or Christian--and, even while outwardly conforming, managed to rescue +human love and virtue from it. With his wonted yet ever-marvellous +felicity, Shakspeare has made the genius of this human sentiment +slipping through the technicalities of priest-made law a woman. In the +mythology of dooms and spells it is often that by the seed of the woman +they are broken: the Prince must remain a Bear till Beauty shall offer +to be his bride; the Flying Dutchman shall find repose if a maiden +shall voluntarily share his sorrow. It is, indeed the woman-soul which +has silently veiled the rude hereditary gods and laws of barbarism--the +pitiless ones--with a host of gentle saints and intercessors, until the +heartless systems have been left to theologians. Inside the frowning +buttresses of dogmatic theology the heart of woman has built up for the +home a religion of sympathy and charity. + +Portia does not argue against the technique of the law. She agrees to +call the old system justice--so much the worse for justice. In the +outcome she shows that this so-called justice is no justice at all. +And when she has shown that the letter of “justice” kills, and warned +Shylock that he can be saved from the fatal principle he has raised +only by the spirit that gives life, she is out of the case, save for a +last effort to save him from the blind law he has invoked. The Jew now +sues before a Christian Shylock. And Portia--like Mary, and all sweet +interceding spirits that ever softened stern gods in human hope--turns +from the judicial Jahves of the bench to the one forgiving spirit +there. “What mercy can you render him, Antonio?” The Christian Gratiano +interposes, “A halter gratis: nothing else, for God’s sake.” A natural +appeal for the victim-loving God; but the forgiving Christ is heard, +however faintly, above the Christian, and Antonio forgives his part of +Shylock’s penalty. + +“Vengeance is mine,” says the deity derived by fear from the +remorseless course of sun and star, ebb and flow, frost and fire. +Forgiveness is the attribute of man. We may reverse Portia’s statement, +and say that, instead of Mercy dropping as the gentle rain from heaven, +it is projected into heaven from compassionate human hearts beneath. +And heavenly power doth then show likest man’s when mercy seasons the +vengeance of nature. From the wild forces above not only droppeth +gentle rain, but thunder and lightning, famine and pestilence; it is +man with his lightning-rod, his sympathy, his healing art, who turns +them from their path and interposes a shield from their fury. When, +as the two walked together in the night, Leigh Hunt looked up to the +heaven of stars, and said, “God, the Beautiful,” Carlyle looked, and +said, “God, the Terrible.” It was the ancient worshipper of the +Laws of Nature beside Abou ben Adhem, who loving not the Lord, yet +loved his fellow men, and sees a human sweetness in the stars. All +religions, beginning with trembling sacrifices to elemental powers +personified--powers that never forgive--end with the worship of an +ideal man, the human lover and Saviour. That evolution is invariable. +Criticism may find this or that particular deified man limited and +imperfect, and may discard him. It may take refuge in pure theism, +as it is called. But it amounts to the same thing. What it worships +is still a man--an invisible, vast man, but still a man. To worship +eternal love, supreme wisdom, ideal moral perfection, is still to +worship man, for we know such attributes only in man. Therefore +the Shylock-principle is non-human nature, hard natural law moving +remorselessly on its path from cause to effect; the Portia-principle, +the quality of Mercy, means the purely human religion, which, albeit +for a time using the terms of ancient nature-worship and alloyed with +its spirit, must be steadily detached from these, and on the ruins of +every sacrificial altar and dogma build the temple whose only services +shall be man’s service to man. + + + + + XIV. + + THE WANDERING JEW IN FOLK-LORE. + + +In the East and South, beneath climes that suggest an ideal paradise +of repose or idle felicity, the undying saints were represented as +dwelling in enchanted islands far from the toiling world, or slumbering +in secret grottoes, while those whose immortality was a doom were +compelled to roam restlessly over the earth. But when these myths +had migrated into the active regions of Europe they were steadily +transformed. It was felt to be hardly a satisfactory distribution of +parts for the saintly immortals to be sleeping or enjoying themselves +with fairies while the evil ones were so busy careering through earth +and air. So, gradually the saintly sleepers awake. The Seven Sleepers +sally forth as the Seven Champions of Christendom. Joseph of Arimathea +cannot lie down in his sacred sepulchre which he had given for the body +of Jesus, and becomes a holy wanderer. St. James emerges from the rock +which had closed around his body like soft wax, and leads Spain against +the Moors. St. John does not rest in his grotto at Ephesus, but makes +pilgrimages, on one of which he asks alms of Edward the Confessor, +near Westminster Abbey, who gives to the mendicant a gold ring, +afterwards sent him from the East, with the saint’s benediction. St. +Peter goes abroad also. When the first Abbot of Westminster is about +to be ordained in the Abbey, St. Peter appears in the night, crosses +the Thames in a boat, himself ordains the Abbot, and leaves a wondrous +fish to convince the Archbishop next day that the consecration has +been performed, rendering the future Deans of Westminster responsible +to Peter alone, and able to preach what heresies they like, without +episcopal interference. Popular superstition is sometimes good-hearted, +and liberated even the sorcerer Merlin from his prison of air, as +appears in the lines of Southey: + + “In his crystal ark + Whither sail’d Merlin with his band of bards, + Old Merlin, master of the mystic lore; + Belike his crystal ark, instinct with life, + Obedient to the mighty Master, reached + The land of the Departed.”[37] + +But while Merlin thus finds freedom again ending in repose, Arthur +comes forth from his subterranean palace to lead the hunt, or from his +Avalon to wing his way in form of a raven. + +Thus the doomed Wandering Jew, under whatever name, finally +found himself wandering in good company. This opens the way for +human compassion to proffer those little mitigations of divine +remorselessness which, as they gradually appear in folk-lore, are such +severe, because unconscious, satires upon the deity of theology. The +sentence of the deity, or of the sadly deified Jesus, once uttered +cannot be revoked; but the human heart is no such victim of its own +egotism or passionate impulse. Thus, Kuhn (2, 32) mentions the belief +in Westphalia that the Jew may obtain a night’s repose if there be left +in a field two harrows with the teeth downward. If one wishes to do +the god-like thing he must leave the teeth of his harrow upward; then +the Jew must wander on. In some other regions of Germany (Wüttke, 759) +the Jew can find rest at any place where two oaks grow together in +such a way as to form a cross. In Oldenburg it is said he can rest from +the middle of May to the end of July, which is also the time when the +Wild Huntsman may find repose. An old Metz picture shows the Jew with +Wodan’s flying hair and mantle, but with a kindly countenance. It is +only in a recent instance that anything diabolical has been associated +with him pictorially, this being in a Lorraine engraving of 1842, where +he has the hat and feather of Fra Diavolo. + +There is a tone of pity in the old verses which spread abroad the fable +in Flanders, and has thence gone through many lands as _The Wandering +Jew’s Complaint_, though with many variations. I find them quoted in +Mr. Hoffman’s book, referred to elsewhere. The burgesses of Brabant +address the Wanderer: + + “We used to think your story + Was but an idle dream; + But when thus wan and hoary + And broken down you seem, + The sight can not deceive + And we the tale believe. + + “Are you that man of sorrow + Of whom our authors write-- + Grief comes with every morrow, + And wretchedness at night; + Oh, let us know are you + Isaac, the Wandering Jew? + + “Then he replied, ‘Believe me, + I suffer bitter woe; + Incessant travels grieve me-- + No rest’s for me below; + A respite I have never, + But onward MARCH forever! + + “’Twas by my rash behaviour + I wrought this fearful scathe: + As Christ our Lord and Saviour + Was passing to the grave, + His mild request I spurned, + His gentle pleading scorned. + + “A secret force expelled me + That instant from my home, + And since the Doom hath held me + Unceasingly to roam-- + But neither day nor night + Must check my onward flight. + + “I have no home to hide me, + No wealth can I display; + Yet Unknown Powers provide me + Five farthings every day; + This always is my store, + ’Tis never less nor more.’” + +I may here mention an extremely important work, _Histoire de l’Imagerie +Populaire, par Champfleury_ (Paris: Dentu, 1869), which contains +a number of pictures taken from the old ballads and folk-books +concerning the Wandering Jew. The early pictures represent the Jew +as a man of noble form, and generally of a handsome and melancholy +countenance. The only picture in the volume which betrays anti-Jewish +feeling is a modern one from Sweden (where the Wandering Jew is still +believed in), which represents him in semi-caricature, carrying +top-boots at his back. In most of the pictures the boots worn +constitute a prominent feature. This work of Champfleury is of value +beyond its pictorial representations, on account of the curiosities +which the author has discovered concerning the adventures of the legend +among rustic populations. The author does not give us his authority +for saying that the Wandering Jew appeared in some of the mediæval +miracle-plays, but he shows that he was introduced into a French +ballet, _Mariage de Pierre de Provence et de la belle Maguelonne, dancé +par son Altesse Royale dans la Ville de Tours, le 21, en son Hostel_, +and at Paris in 1638. There may also be found in this work the Breton +ballad of the Wandering Jew, consisting of 180 verses, sung at country +fairs, to the popular air _Güerz, Santez Anna_. This ballad is very +ancient, and much more interesting than that in _Percy’s Reliques_. The +Wanderer calls himself Boudedeo, and tells of the many countries he has +visited. He has always five sous in his pocket, and is never disturbed +by sickness or hunger. The ballad ends, + + “Chrétiens, priez Dieu pour le malheureux Boudedeo!” + +Champfleury describes a Wissembourg picture which shows a beggar +raising his hat to the Wanderer and the latter drops his five sous into +the beggar’s cap. This incident tells much of the popular sympathy +felt for persons believed to be the doomed man, and is remembered by +Béranger in his poem: + + “Plus d’un pauvre vient implorer + Le denier que je puis répandre, + Qui n’a pas le temps de serrer + La main qu’au passant j’aime à tendre.” + +Champfleury remarks that, in popular belief, it was always for +inhumanity that Ahasuerus was punished; and the meaning of this +Wissembourg picture is that as he was punished for lack of charity, +he is saved by his charity. The picture shows a citizen giving the +Wanderer a glass of beer. It is all a lesson of humanity, but is +pictured on a background of such inhumanity on the part of Christ, that +Ahasuerus, giving away his sous, seems to have taken the place in human +sympathy of the Jew who cursed him. + +Dr. Coremans, in his _Bulletin de la Commission royale d’histoire de +Belgique_ (X., No. 1) says that most of the Belgian villages have their +legend of the passage of the Wandering Jew through them, and that there +is a general notion that he rejuvenates old women. + +The Man in the Moon with his thornbush--if, as some think, he +represents the doom of a Jew, who picked up fire-wood on the Sabbath, +doomed to go on picking up sticks forever, and be bayed at by Gabriel’s +hounds--might typify the shrivelling up in English folk-lore of the +great myths of earthly immortals, including Ahasuerus. + +Mr. William Henderson gives the following example from the +North-country: “An old woman of the North Riding once asked a friend of +mine whether it was wrong to wash on Good Friday. ‘I used to do so,’ +she said, ‘and thought no harm of it, till once, when I was hanging +out my clothes, a young woman passed by (a dressmaker she was, and a +Methodist); and she reproved me, and told me this story. While our Lord +Jesus was being led to Calvary, they took him past a woman who was +washing, and the woman “blirted” the thing she was washing in his face; +on which he said, “Cursed be everyone who hereafter shall wash on this +day!” And never again,’ added the old woman, ‘have I washed on Good +Friday.’ Now it is said in Cleveland that clothes washed and hung out +to dry on Good Friday will become spotted with blood; but the Methodist +girl’s wild legend reminds me more of one which a relation of mine +elicited from a poor Devonshire shoemaker. She was remonstrating with +him for his indolence and want of spirit, when he astonished her by +replying, ‘Don’t ’ee be hard on me. We shoemakers are a poor slobbering +race, and so have been ever since the curse that Jesus Christ laid on +us.’ ‘And what was that?’ she asked. ‘Why,’ said he, ‘when they were +carrying him to the cross, they passed a shoemaker’s bench, and the +man looked up and spat at him; and the Lord turned and said, “A poor +slobbering fellow shalt thou be, and all shoemakers after thee, for +what thou hast done to me.”’”[38] + +Such, by the blessing of Protestantism, is the outcome of the great +legends of Veronica and Ahasuerus! Tithonus, outliving his time, is +changed to a grasshopper. Another instance of the chirpings to which +great myths are reduced may be heard from our above-mentioned “Seven +Whistlers,” of which ingenious use is made by the authoress of “That +Lass o’ Lowrie.” Mr. James Pearson contributed to “Notes and Queries” +(September 30, 1871) the following: “One evening, a few years ago, when +crossing one of our Lancashire moors, in company with an intelligent +old man, we were suddenly startled by the whistling overhead of a +covey of plovers. My companion remarked that when a boy the old people +considered such a circumstance a bad omen, ‘as the person who heard +_the Wandering Jews_’--as he called the plovers--‘was sure to be +overtaken with some ill luck.’ On questioning my friend on the name +given to the birds, he said, ‘There is a tradition that they contain +the souls of those Jews who assisted at the crucifixion, and in +consequence were doomed to float in the air forever.’ When we arrived +at the foot of the moor, a coach, by which I had hoped to complete my +journey, had already left its station thereby causing me to finish the +distance on foot. The old man reminded me of the omen.” + +This superstition is connected with the Gabriel-hounds, believed in +Yorkshire to be human-headed dogs, or sky-yelpers, as Wordsworth calls +them. That poet tells of an aged peasant-- + + “With ample sovereignity of eye and ear; + Rich were his walks with supernatural cheer; + He the seven birds hath seen that never part, + Seen the Seven Whistlers on their nightly rounds, + And counted them! And oftentimes will start, + For overhead are sweeping Gabriel’s hounds, + Doomed with their impious lord the flying hart + To chase for ever on aërial grounds.” + +I may quote here part of the interesting account of superstitions +concerning the Wandering Jew contributed to “Notes and Queries” (vol. +xii. p. 503) by Mr. V. T. Sternberg. “Sometimes, during the cold winter +nights, the lonely cottager will be awoke by a plaintive demand for +‘Water, good Christian! water, for the love of God!’ And if he looks +out, he will see a venerable old man in antique raiment, with grey +flowing beard and a tall staff, who beseeches his charity with the most +earnest gesture. Woe to the churl who refuses him water or shelter! +My old nurse, who was a Warwickshire woman, and, as Sir Walter Scott +said of his grandmother, ‘a most _awfu’ leer_,’ knew a man who boldly +cried out, ‘All very fine, Mr. Ferguson, but you can’t lodge here!’ +And it was decidedly the worst thing he ever did in his life, for +his best mare fell dead lame, and corn went down I am afraid to say +how much per quarter. If, on the contrary, you treat him well, and +refrain from indelicate inquiries respecting his age--on which point +he is very touchy--his visit is sure to bring good luck. Perhaps, +years afterwards, when you are on your death-bed, he may happen to +be passing, and if he should, you are safe; for three knocks with his +staff will make you hale, and he never forgets any kindnesses. Many +stories are current of his wonderful cures, but there is one to be +found in Peck’s _History of Stamford_ which possesses the rare merit +of being written by the patient himself. Upon Whitsunday, in the year +of our Lord 1658, ‘about six of the clock, just after evensong,’ one, +Samuel Wallis, of Stamford, who had been long wasted with a lingering +consumption, was sitting by the fire, reading in that delectable book +called _Abraham’s Suit for Sodom_. He heard a knock at the door, and, +as his nurse was absent, he crawled to open it himself. What he saw +there Samuel shall say in his own style: ‘I beheld a proper, tall, +grave old man. Thus he said, “Friend, I pray thee, give an old pilgrim +a cup of small beere?” And I said, “Sir, I pray you, come in and +welcome.” And he said, “I am no sir, therefore call me not sir; but +come in I must, for I cannot pass by thy doore.” After finishing the +beere, “Friend,” he said, “thou art not well?” I said, “No, truly, sir, +I have not been well this many years.” He said, “What is thy disease?” +I said, “A deep consumption, sir; our doctors say, past cure: for +truly, I am a very poor man, and not able to follow doctor’s counsel.” +“Then,” said he, “I will tell thee what thou shalt do; and, by the +help and power of Almighty God above, thou shalt be well. Tomorrow, +when thou risest up, go into thy garden, and get there two leaves of +red sage and one of bloodworte, and put them into a cup of thy small +beere. Drink as often as need require, and when the cup is empty, fill +it again, and put in fresh leaves every fourth day, and thou shalt +see, through our Lord’s great goodness and mercy, before twelve dayes +shall be past, thy disease shall be cured and thy body altered.”’ After +this simple prescription, Wallis pressed him to eat. But he said, ‘No, +friend, I will not eat; the Lord Jesus is sufficient for me. Very +seldom doe I drinke any beere neither, but that which comes from the +rocke. So, friend, the Lord God be with thee.’ So saying, he departed, +and was never more heard of; but the patient got well within the given +time, and for many a long day there was war hot and fierce among the +divines of Stamford, as to whether the stranger was an angel or a +devil. His dress had been minutely described by honest Sam. His coat +was purple, and buttoned down to the waist; ‘his britches of the same +couler, all new to see to;’ his stockings were very white, but whether +linen or jersey, deponent knoweth not; his beard and head were white, +and he had a white stick in his hand. The day was rainy from morning +to night, ‘but he had not one spot of dirt upon his clothes.’ Aubrey +gives an almost exactly similar relation, the scene of which he places +in the Staffordshire moorlands. He there appears in a purple shag gown, +and prescribes balm-leaves.” + +Brand mentions having seen one of these ‘impostors’ going about +Newcastle-on-Tyne, followed by a crowd, and murmuring to himself “Poor +Jack all alone!” Probably Brand did not hear the phrase rightly, +since the cry of the Wanderer was “Poor Joe all alone!” There was a +crossing-sweeper near St. Paul’s Churchyard, who murmured the same, +of whom there is an engraving in the British Museum. A picture of +the Newcastle man was made for the Musgraves of Eden Hall, which +has beneath it “Poor Joe all alone!” My friend Mr. W. B. Scott, who +once resided at Newcastle, writes that he remembers hearing of him. +“He seemed to have left an impression of a somewhat respectful kind, +but from what cause I never heard; probably he had a history of a +melancholy kind, and had been left alone by some calamity.” + +This, so far as I can learn, was the last appearance in the world +of any man pretending to be the Wandering Jew, if indeed he did so +pretend, and the honour was not thrust upon him by the superstitious +crowd. There had been advantages enough in earlier times to entice +Ahasuerus, or “the famous Joseph,” to make his appearance. He came as a +“witness” for Christ; he was generally a pious Christian; a tradition +tells of his gambling in Naples, but, as the people there invoke +their saints for luck in gambling, the exception is not considerable. +Jurisconsult Louvet heard him preaching to street crowds in a French +province like a revivalist friar. But in England common sense gradually +chilled the Wandering Jew. When it was found that he was not above +receiving sixpences to support his imperishable existence the public +lost interest in him. + +A question addressed by me a few weeks ago to the _Newcastle Weekly +Chronicle_ elicited the following answer: + + “It is quite true that a man who was known as ‘The Wandering Jew’ + lived in Newcastle during the latter part of last century. He left + a son, who I believe has lived in Hull the greater part of this + century, and who is now a very old man indeed, keeping a small + public-house named the Cricketers’ Arms. He is very eccentric, is + known as ‘Topper, the Newcastle Fossil,’ and attracts a deal of + attention on account of his appearance and the condition of his + house. He is a very peculiar-looking man, with features of a decided + Jewish cast. His clothes appear to be as old as himself. He has never + been known to be clean: and old people in Hull do not remember the + counter or floor of his house to have been washed. He is supposed to + be emulating ‘Dirty Dick’ of London in this respect. + + “GEORGE COOPER.” + + _Hull._ + +This may be regarded as the epitaph upon an ancient dream which +branched into a vast and various mythology, and, in its time, bore +for millions their hopes of a renovated earth, and their visions of +resurrection from the sleep of death! + + + + + XV. + + THE NEW AHASUERUS IN GERMANY. + + +Having, as a figure of popular faith, gathered to him all related +elements of mould and decay, and found fit extinction in the Newcastle +“fossil” just mentioned, Ahasuerus rises for new wanderings as a poetic +ideal. + +The Germans were the first to deal seriously with our legend, and +their literature of the Wandering Jew is indicated in this chapter. +The subject attracted the unhappy DANIEL FRIEDRICH SCHUBART during his +imprisonment. Carlyle, in the notes to his _Life of Schiller_, says +the idea of making old _Joannes a temporibus_, the ‘Wandering,’ or, as +Schubart’s countrymen denominate him, the ‘Eternal Jew,’ into a novel +hero was a mighty favourite with him. “In this antique cordwainer, as +on a raft at anchor in the stream of time, he would survey the changes +and wonders of two thousand years: the Roman and the Arab were to +figure there, the Crusader and the Circumnavigator, the Eremite and +the Thebaid, and the Pope of Rome. Joannes himself, the Man existing +out of Time and Space--Joannes, the unresting and undying--was to be a +deeply tragic personage. Schubart warmed himself with this idea, and +talked about it in his cups, to the astonishment of simple souls. He +even wrote a certain rhapsody connected with it, which is published in +his poems. But here he rested; and the project of the Wandering Jew, +which Goethe likewise meditated in his youth, is still unexecuted. +Goethe turned to other objects, and poor Schubart was surprised by +death in the midst of his schemes, on the 10th of October, 1791.” But +the project, as we shall see, is not unexecuted. + +Schubart’s _Rhapsody_ appeared in his “Poems, Frankfort, 1787.”[39] His +Ahasuerus has retired into the wild solitudes of Mount Carmel. There +he is seen, with frantic laughter, casting away the dry skulls of his +relatives, which break to pieces, crying, “That is my father! Those are +my wives! these my children! They could die, but I--outcast--cannot +die!” And again, “Jerusalem fell; I crushed the babe, I rushed into +the flames, cursed the Roman!--Rome fell, whole nations perished, +and--I remained!” He tries to kill himself in different ways, but in +vain. He feels pain acutely, but has to endure every variety of it, +even to the agonies of the moment of death, without this moment ever +arriving. The snake bites him, the dragon tortures, the burning forest +blisters him. He says to himself, “Under my feet the mine exploded and +threw me high into the air; senseless I fell down, and found myself +roasted amidst blood, and brains, and bones.” He is obliged to carry +on a corpse-like body, infirm, smelling of the grave; and through +thousands of years he must see, like a yawning monster, an everlasting +sameness. The rhapsody brings the Wanderer to a peaceful end. Ahasuerus +throws himself down from the top of Carmel into the abyss, “and +night covers his bushy eyelids. An angel carries him into a recess +in the rocks. ‘There mayest thou sleep now,’ says the angel; ‘sleep, +Ahasuerus, sleep soundly! God’s anger does not last for ever.’” + +In 1807 appeared the ballad of _The Eternal Jew_, by ALOYS SCHREIBER. +The torture of this Ahasuerus consists in his not being able to enjoy +life and nature, open to all other men, on account of his restlessness. +He cannot drink the water of the fountain, he cannot rest in the +shade of a tree, he cannot break a flower to enjoy its smell, for +which he longs; he must start, he must wander. In this he differs +from Schubart’s Ahasuerus, who had long been weary of life. Being +continually obliged to renounce everything, he at last becomes timid, +shy; he flies all men and hurries on heedlessly. Finally he observes +a crucifix by the wayside; about to rush on, an impulse brings him to +his knees, imploring the Crucified for forgiveness. Christ answers him +from the cross, “Whoever has failed may repent; and none who loves and +believes in me shall need to shun my countenance.” The Wanderer is +found dead, kneeling before the cross. + +WILHELM MÜLLER, in his _Wanderlieder_ (published in his works, 1830) +has a poem on “The Eternal Jew,” which pictures the desolation and +loneliness that torture a life satiated to disgust, longing for +rest and death. It is pervaded by melancholy. “Although I have seen +everything I am never allowed to rest!” All around him has an end: the +river in the ocean, the eagle on the Alps, the cloud in the falling +rain, and also “to the tired wanderer a certain limit has been fixed. +What, does he complain of his day’s misery?--before night death will +have taken him home.” The end of the poem is a wish of the poor +Wanderer that those who have finished their earthly pilgrimage might, +ere they go to sleep for ever, ask of God one hour’s rest for him. + +NIKOLAUS LENAU has treated the subject in a similar manner. The scenery +of his poem, _Ahasuerus, the Eternal Jew_, is a lonely heath. In a +distant meadow shepherds are seen surrounding and weeping over the +corpse of a beloved youth. Whilst they are thus standing a Wanderer +passes that way: his hair is grey, his countenance pale, cold, deeply +wrinkled; his beard long and white, his fiery eyes in dark sockets. +He walks on to the bier, and calls out, with mingled mockery and +mournfulness, “Suppress your ungrateful tears; his rest is good; oh +yes, his rest is good! Though fools like you complain, his heart is +still; while mine beats on by night and day, in restless longing to +find its sabbath in the grave!” The Wanderer utters the philosophy of +Schopenhauer, explaining that the earth is only the lie of Paradise, +that it is always the same old delusion of Time--all flowering to its +destruction: a philosophy which terminates in a marriage with Madness, +personified in Lenau himself. + +Meanwhile, says the poem, the shepherds cover the coffin. Suddenly the +stranger gets sight of the crucifix on the lid of the coffin. He is +frightened, and tears come to his eyes. Now the Lenau-Schopenhauer +turns out to be Ahasuerus. He tells the story of his life in the +usual form of the myth. He tells the different kinds of death he had +vainly sought. Then he wanders on, on--on; above his head you hear the +whizzing of the birds; a long shadow walks behind him; the shepherds +tremble and make the sign of the cross. + +Although ADALBERT VON CHAMISSO was by birth French, his life and +culture were German; his mixed origin is shown in his subjective poem, +the “New Ahasuerus” (1836), where the Wanderer is simply a lover whose +mistress has married another! This rejected lover compares himself to +Ahasuerus, who cannot die or rest until the Day of Judgment, while the +faithless lady represents the fallen city of Jerusalem. Ahasuerus says, +“Time stands still before me; the age of man is as one moment, and +the moments ages. Every hundred years I come once more to Jerusalem, +mourning over its cold ashes, trying to put the ruins in their old +place again, but nobody takes notice of me; evermore I come to the same +thing--a grave!” Ahasuerus is “the son of sorrow turned into stone.” + +The poem of A. W. SCHLEGEL, “The Eternal Jew,” follows the old myth, +with nothing new. His Ahasuerus, on account of his unbelief, wanders +through the world as a solace for all those who are miserable, until +the reappearance of Christ releases him. + +JULIUS MOSEN is the first who treated the subject in a fuller and more +independent way. His “Ahasuerus” (1838) is an epic. In the notes it +is stated that the myth belongs to the poet’s earliest recollections, +the supposed Wandering Jew having passed through his birthplace, +and that a shepherd had spoken to him. The poem carries this idea +out with poetical realism. Mosen’s idea of the myth is human nature +imprisoned by an earthly existence. Ahasuerus symbolises the spirit of +Tradition embodied in an individual being, who, at first in unconscious +obstinacy, but at length deliberately, opposes himself to the God of +Christendom. Mosen gives his Ahasuerus from the first a human trait. +His deceased wife has left him two beautiful children, Eve and Reuben. +A young Roman prince, living at Jerusalem, likes these children, and he +wishes to take them with him to Rome. He applies to Pilate, who orders +Ahasuerus to part with the children. The father in his desperation +implores the assistance of Jesus, the new prophet. He will believe +in him and his new doctrine, if he can save his children. Jesus will +not grant such private wishes, but goes on to prophesy the fall of +Jerusalem. Upon this Ahasuerus tears his clothes into pieces, and +in pain and wrath accuses Jesus of falsehood and imposture: “Thou +art our God? And yet to save thou hast no power! If man or God, thou +hast deceived the people!” When the Roman prince comes to fetch the +children, Ahasuerus has slain them. In his despair he becomes more and +more a disbeliever. What, he asks himself, did Israel commit to become +so wretched? “Through its piety it has been led to misery. Why, then, +does man crowd after this haughty God? I will cast off his memory; +death to this Nazarene, to God, to everything!” In this excitement +Ahasuerus scornfully forbids Jesus to rest at his door when he asks +that favour. Jesus pronounces his sentence in these words, “Thou shalt +live without rest thy immortality upon earth!” + +The Archangel Michael appears and gives Ahasuerus a hope that mercy +may be obtained at three different times of trial. The trials follow. +Ahasuerus has married again and has once more two children, Eve and +Reuben. Rome declares war against Judea, Titus surrounds Jerusalem; +Ahasuerus is full of resentment against God, who declines to help, and +in his anger sets the temple on fire. During the conflagration, with +his children at his side, he enters the flames, which do not touch him. +Eve’s lover, Matthias, who has become a Christian, for that reason +rejected by Ahasuerus, serves in the Roman army and comes rushing +through the flames to save his beloved. Ahasuerus bids him welcome as +a suitor, and pushes him into the flames. His children shriek with +terror, and Ahasuerus throws them both after him, crying, “Here, +heartless God! now thou canst rejoice!” + +The first trial thus passes without redemption for Ahasuerus, and the +second comes. Ahasuerus, having tried all possible ways of suicide, +at last addresses Death with an appeal for pity. Death replies that +he has orders to pass him by until he shall believe in God. Ahasuerus +refuses. He is once more father of two beautiful children, Leah +and Reuben. He enjoys the purest happiness, when all at once, in a +thunderstorm, the God of the Jews appears to renew the old league +with him against Christ. Ahasuerus consents, and is sent to Julian +the Apostate as the great adversary of Christendom. Ahasuerus arrives +there in the very moment when the wounded Julian, under a night-vision +of Christ, begins to doubt his pagan faith. Ahasuerus gains him back +to his former antagonism, and obtains permission to rebuild the temple +at Jerusalem. But during the building, a dispute breaks out among +the workmen. All order is gone, the work is interrupted; one looks +at another in amazement, when suddenly a prophet announces that for +the reconstruction of the temple, the God of Judea and the God of the +Christians were contending; and that the latter could only be made to +yield if the blood of two innocent children should soak the ground. +Ahasuerus offers his own children. Before the sacrifice is finished, +Christ invisibly takes the children to Himself. Then the earth is rent +asunder; flames dart out and consume the new building. + +The second trial having passed without saving Ahasuerus, twice a +murderer of his own children, the third trial advances. In this Death +passes, with souls that have found repose, before Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus +is in mortal agony; his soul has nearly departed, but one point still +remains, which no effort of his will can destroy. This point begins to +assume a shape, a form once more. It is the same point of life which +goes through all organic nature, and nowhere admits of destruction +or state of rest. So our Wanderer, too, is once more filled with the +wish to live. Again the God of Judea animates him to struggle against +the doctrine of Christ. Again he follows his advice. He is now sent +to Arabia, where Mohammed leads on the nations against the Cross. +Ahasuerus allies himself with Mohammed to conquer Jerusalem; he calls +his people together, but they will not hear him, they have only stones +to throw at him who suffered so much for their sake. Then, with tears +in his eyes, Ahasuerus leaves them for ever, and bestows henceforth his +love upon Humanity. + +Mosen’s Ahasuerus thus becomes a hero of Humanity, and his aims rise +high above his first purpose. He is at the head of Mohammed’s warriors, +driving away the defenders of the Holy Sepulchre, menacing death to +all who approach it. All fly away; two children only remain--his own. +Ahasuerus embraces them, and rejoices to have found them at last. Then +Mohammed reminds him that he has sworn death to whomsoever should +approach the sepulchre. Ahasuerus now cries out in his grief. For the +third time he falls under the curse of his disbelief. He calls for +some one to slay him, and the third trial so releases him of his vow. +Arrows dart through the air: the children fall; he, too, sinks down, +to awake once more for fulfilment of his real mission. “One thing has +been ended; another begins, that neither time nor dark eternity can +end. Loosed from Him and His mercy, henceforth I begin a long struggle +until I have saved mankind from Him.” Ahasuerus declares an everlasting +war against Christ, “in the name of all forces and powers, all sighs, +all sorrows, shed tears and blood, broken spirits and crushed hearts.” +Christ accepts the combat: “Thou facest Me, Thought against Thought. +Wrestle on and on, until at last, the circle ended, the Day of Judgment +shall decide!” + +There the poem ends, or rather, as Helbig remarks, “does _not_ end;” +the end is put off to the day of the last Judgment. The struggle now +only begins, never to end, between Ahasuerus and Christ, between +Humanity and Christendom, between Earth and Heaven. + +LUDWIG KÖHLER, too, makes the Wanderer a type of human tendency. His +_New Ahasuerus_ (1845) is a prophet of freedom. The sufferer he has +derided says to him: “March on then for eternities, until veracity has +found its residence on earth, filling it with purest brightness! until +a golden Dawn as of springtide breaks, and Liberty awakes the light now +hidden in night!” Often the Wanderer thinks this morning has come, and +exults in his hope of rest; but his joy, his hopes are vain. Napoleon +crushes the French Revolution, “the Burschenschaft” leads to the errors +of Sand; the rebellious Greeks are betrayed, and so on. Everywhere is +oppression of conscience and thought. Ahasuerus despairs, and complains +that he cannot die, when suddenly Jesus addresses him with a rebuke: he +tells Ahasuerus that he is unworthy of the longed-for liberty, so long +as he has not mastered self and sacrificed his egotism. “Thy grave, +not humanity, was thine aim, so thou hast striven in vain. Liberty +shall be aim, not instrument to thee. Whilst thou wert complaining of +Destiny, it went its way, and Liberty began its heavenly progression. +’Tis no dream and delusion; ere thou thinkest, it sunders hell and +displays its light. The world gets free. Already in the vale a stir is +heard. Its reign is near!” With this vision of hope for the future the +poet leaves us. + +FRANZ HORN (1818) published in Fouqué’s _Frauentaschenbuch_ his novel +“_The Eternal Jew_.” His Ahasuerus is a rich Jew in Jerusalem, who only +believes in Christ’s external mission. He thinks that Jesus, though for +the time full of humility, will rule with a commanding sceptre when +clad in purple, and by his healing power will extirpate disease and +death from the earth. In this he is disappointed: Jesus is laughed at, +despised, ill-treated, and endures all unresistingly. Mistaken in his +dearest hopes, Ahasuerus conceives a deep hate against Jesus. So, when +the latter, fallen under the burthen of his cross, asks for a moment’s +rest at his door, Ahasuerus drives him on without compassion. Then +Christ rises, and says: “Well, receive then what thou wishest; live, +live on, as never man before; die not till thou hast become worthy to +die!” + +And so it came: all around him died; everything became strange to +him; only the sky above him remained the same. He comes to understand +that Christ by his death has sealed death, and that he (Ahasuerus) by +his life has to represent the insufficiency and misery of mere life. +He moves on with aimless strides, his form as of iron, his visage +weather-beaten like lichened stone, a nameless grief upon his features. +The scene of the novel is laid at the end of the Thirty Years’ War. +Ahasuerus has saved a young count in the tumult of battle, and +afterwards, by telling him the story of his life, converts him from the +blasphemy and despair into which he had fallen by the sudden death of +his family--a misfortune attributed to the appearance of Ahasuerus. + +From this novel, AUGUST KLINGEMANN (1827) took the subject of his +tragedy, _Ahasuerus_. The Wanderer was a favourite character with the +distinguished actor Ludwig Devrient. With Klingemann the myth signifies +purification by suffering in order to obtain an imperishable liberty. +Christ appears as the mediator between natural and supernatural +things, and points the wandering man to his coming empire. The hero of +Klingemann’s drama is the murderer of Gustavus Adolphus, the Count of +Werth, a fanatical Catholic, who, in disguise of a Protestant, has +assassinated the champion of Protestantism. The deed weighs heavily on +his soul, drives him to melancholy and despair, and he finally drowns +his conscience in Atheism. The son of Gustavus Adolphus enters his +family as a visitor; and in his presence, and that of his family, the +guilty Count speaks of the deed with abhorrence. Only one person knows +of his guilt--the mysterious man who saved him out of the battle. To +get rid of him the assassin challenges him; but his lance breaks on +the breast of the stranger--for it is Ahasuerus, he who has blasphemed +his Lord, like the now atheistical Count of Werth. The curse upon +him is that which strikes the Denier of God. Ahasuerus, after the +fruitless combat, reveals to the count his story, and his longing to +die, imploring him no longer to blaspheme God. The Count after this +discovery acknowledges the existence of God, and confesses his murder +of Gustavus Adolphus. He then kills himself, and so finds rest; but +Ahasuerus wanders on--on! + +THEODOR OELKERS has treated the subject in a novel, _Princess Mary +of Oldenhoff, or the Wandering Jew_, (Leipzig, 1848). Oelkers adds a +curse upon Ahasuerus: in order to reconcile Christ he must sacrifice +what is dearest to him, but his sacrifices are always ineffectual. He +takes from time to time a wife, he has children; he survives each +wife, slays his children; he is driven to do this by necessity, while +conscious that the offerings will be in vain. He has the fearful gift +of reading the future: foresees all that shall happen to himself and +his beloved ones. In bitterness of heart he says: “Let men see in me +how vain is their hope for divine love and mercy!” But at length he +finds reason to hope for release at a very distant period. “I am only,” +he says, “condemned in Time: Eternity belongs to me, as it belongs to +all when Time shall end. Then shall I be free to move about in endless +regions, breathing the air of heaven; then the partial tyranny of Grace +shall be dethroned; Justice will occupy the throne, sharing it with her +sister, Love.” + +Oelkers thinks that before this time comes there will also appear a +Wandering Moslem and a Wandering Christian. + +LEVIN SCHÜCKING, too, brings our hero before us in an episode, full +of imagination, called “The Three Suitors” which belongs to his novel +_The Peasant Prince_, 1851. In the hotel of “The Three Moors,” at +Augsburg, during the twelve nights after Christmas in the year 1700, +three strangers met together. One was a weary half-decayed Jew, with +a long dirty gown, who next morning changes into a handsome young +Armenian Prince, Isaac Laquedam. The second was the Dutch admiral Van +der Decken, who arrives in a carriage with four horses. The third was +his Excellency the Master of Chase _en chef_, Herr von Rodenstein, with +a large suite. These individuals have a rendezvous in this inn every +hundred years, and pass one year together in revelling, after which +they disappear. They lose their human form and wander as spectres, one +over the earth, one over the sea, the third in the air, as the Eternal +Jew, the Flying Dutchman, the Wild Huntsman; all in bond and service +of Satan, except for this one year, wherein he has no power over them. +Whenever one century is passed, Ahasuerus-Laquedam is seized by a +burning fever, after which his body resumes the appearance it had when +he raised his hand against Jesus. + +All three do a great deal of mischief during that year in quiet +Augsburg, especially in the hearts of the young women. Among these is +one distinguished by great beauty, but also by her haughtiness and +disdain towards the male sex. All three try to win her proud and frosty +heart, which unfortunately has been chained to an ugly, paralytic +husband. She once says to them that she is not proud of her beauty, +but that she would take a pride in standing a danger or conquering a +difficulty of which, centuries later, the world would say, _a man +would have been unable to subdue it_. + +The handsome Armenian prince takes her at her word and invites her to +follow him one whole year: she promises it, and gives him as pledge of +her word a ring. The two others obtain similar promises. At the end +of the year she accompanies the Armenian. Suddenly she sees his youth +disappear, a musty smell comes from him, and a third shadow walks at +their side. “Who are you,” she cries aghast. “I am Ahasuerus!” She +tries to fly, but Ahasuerus holds her with an iron hand. In her despair +she sells her soul to the third shadow (the Devil) who promises her +deliverance. But first, she has to keep her word to the Rodensteiner. +With him, the Wild Huntsman, she rides through the air, and from aloft +beholds the depravity of human life. From what she has seen, and from +the wild ride, her soul and body are tormented, she is unable to go +any farther, and again implores deliverance of the Devil. Already the +Flying Dutchman has come to claim fulfilment of her promise to him. The +Devil agrees to save her if she will pledge him, besides her own, the +soul of her child. + +“No, never my child, never!” the tortured woman cries; she prefers +another year’s ride, over the sea. “Take her, she longs still for a +third trial,” says the laughing Devil to the Dutchman; but he replies: +“The trial was great enough, she is released. Her force was superior to +that of a man. _A man would not have spared the soul of his child more +than he did his own._” She wakes to find her child sleeping sweetly in +its cradle; she finds also the three rings; but from the dream of a +night her beautiful hair was grey. + +JOSEPH VON ZEDLITZ, an Austrian poet, in his _Wanderings of Ahasuerus_ +(1844), transfers the end of the Jew’s life to the Golden Age, when the +reign of eternal Peace has begun. Ahasuerus has long been buried on +Golgotha, when an angel awakes him, and bids him wander until Noah’s +white dove, the messenger of peace, comes back, bringing peace on +earth and songs of joy, dispersing all wrath and hatred, uniting the +nations under the sceptre of Humanity. Ahasuerus, lying in his grave, +half-dreaming, sees history pass before his eyes; he awaits the time +that shall come. Whenever he thinks this moment has arrived, he rises +from his grave, and wanders about to see the world. It seems to him +that the Golden Age is near, when the Roman Empire sinks and the star +of Christendom rises; when the cherub’s song of peace strikes his ear, +he begins his pilgrimage. He expected to find peace, but he finds +ruins, ashes, death. He meets Attila’s wild bands on his way. When +Ahasuerus, 1300 years later, rises once more, he finds another Attila, +who wants to bend a whole world under his sceptre. Terror-stricken, +Ahasuerus cries: “Who can say Attila will not return a third time?” and +returning to his grave, he asks: “Jehovah, how long must I still sleep?” + +HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN’S _Ahasuerus_ is the angel of Doubt, who comes +upon earth to live with men, whom he resembles, for like them he denies +and doubts. He is born on earth at the same moment with Jesus, and now, +as a human being, bears the name Ahasuerus. As a man he grows wiser and +better, like his fellow-men, whose increasing perfection will, in many +thousands of years, lead them to heaven. Then Ahasuerus too will return. + +After this Prologue Ahasuerus is seen as a Jewish shoemaker; he is +at the same time a favourite narrator of the stories of the Bible. +Merry children, as well as serious Pharisees, come to his workshop, +and listen to his words. He becomes conceited, and complains that he +is only a shoemaker, and not allowed to sit among the Scribes. Among +his auditors is young Veronica, who is enchanted with the new prophet +from Nazareth, who had just made his appearance. Ahasuerus counts Jesus +amongst the false prophets; he also regards him as the cause of the +death of his mother and sister, who had been slain by the agents of +Herod. But when he hears Jesus preach in the desert, he changes his +mind, and shares the admiration of Veronica. Now, he thinks, the days +of splendour will come, according to the prophets, and the reign of +David in all its magnificence. Judas, the friend of Ahasuerus, and the +enthusiastic disciple of Jesus, is the first to doubt him. He thinks +Jesus does not show enough energy in his proceedings, calls him a +loiterer; at length decides to test whether he is really the Messias. +If so, legions of angels will certainly assist him at his call; if not, +he may perish. Judas betrays Jesus, in order to give him an opportunity +to show his power--an idea suggested by Goethe. The hope of Judas is +not realised. Jesus consents to be made a prisoner. “Man he was, and +not Messiah!” says Ahasuerus, turning apostate; “how could I imagine +that the son of a carpenter was a prophet? He feels the cold, suffers +hunger, thirst, needs sleep.” + +After the usual scene on the way to Golgotha, a voice from above says +to the disbelieving Ahasuerus: “Ahasuerus, Ahasuerus! thou art the type +of mankind; thou disputest and deniest God himself. Ye are all alike; +so thou mayest wander until we shall meet once again!” + +It is not real Atheism, but a rigid Judaism that will not surrender to +what the author deems the unfolding purposes of God, which appears in +this Ahasuerus. + +The first person whom Ahasuerus meets in his wanderings is Barabbas, +who lives as an hermit in Lebanon, repenting his sins. He has already +been mentioned in the poem as a profligate who only knows the god of +his senses; but the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ, which +he has witnessed, have converted him. He receives his friend with the +words, “Blessed be Jesus Christ.” Ahasuerus answers with a curse. +Full of wrath, not believing in the resurrection, he takes his leave +of Barabbas. He trusts in the strength of Israel, but soon after he +is told of Jerusalem’s fall. He travels to Rome, where Domitian is +persecuting the Christians. He rejoices when he sees the burning pyres +and the Christian martyrs. He stands at the side of executioners who +torture some Christians. Among these is Veronica. He cannot convert +her, and tries therefore to slay her. He does not succeed in so saving +her from torture, but is suspected and (apparently) killed by the +executioners. Ahasuerus awakes to find beside him the dead Veronica, +and many other bodies of martyred Christians. He starts forth in terror +to flee the kingdom of the Crucified, which he sees consisting only of +“graves laden with the smell of Pestilence.” + +Having passed through distant parts of the world, Ahasuerus, at the +end of three centuries, returns to Rome. He finds that the doctrine +of Christ has conquered heathendom. The Emperor and his people are +kneeling with Christ’s name on their lips. “The spirit of Jehovah has +left the earth; his people is lost in this world-chaos. The old is all +dead; the new is vain and empty! Jehovah! my breast is Thy temple, the +last in this ruined world!” + +Ahasuerus passes the Alps. The Huns sweep by. He inspires Attila to +attack Rome and crush Christendom. But he--he wanders on, farther on, +to the region of the Northern Light. On his return he finds thick in +the forests the symbols of Christ; he finds Christ now worshipped in +Gaul, and in Rome the first Pope. Compelled now to believe in the power +of the Christian faith, he yet persists in his belief that a still +greater God will come, the true Messiah promised to Israel. The poet +then describes the small communities of Jews, with their quiet and +secret worship, still awaiting their Messiah. Some think he has come in +the person of Mohammed, and to him Ahasuerus now goes. He advances with +him to Jerusalem; there he is about to set the temple on fire, when +Veronica appears and prevents him. He journeys on. In Rome Charlemagne +has been made emperor; the Jews have become slaves of the Christians. +The hate of this inflexible believer in Jehovah increases. By a vast +leap the poet brings Ahasuerus to Canossa, where, full of astonishment, +he sees the emperor, barefooted and in tears, standing before the +Vicar of Christ. Before such evidence of the Majesty of Christendom, +Ahasuerus, too, stands with bended head. He cannot escape this new +kingdom, for he is in the closed yard of the world which it fills. “The +emperor stood for nights; my nights are millenniums!” + +And now for the first time the idea rises in him that he is not only +the Opposing Jew, but that he represents everything earthly in conflict +with the divine. + +The time of the Crusades comes. From all parts of the world the nations +rush to Jerusalem, where once the altar of Jehovah stood. They are +impelled by many selfish motives: no single thought or aim unites the +warriors, and so they struggle in vain. Ahasuerus now learns to doubt +the progress of mankind. In vain a master-builder beside his work +instructs him that in the structure of the world God is the builder. +“He does not die; each century is a stone block added to the rest: so +mankind gradually ascends.” “But,” Ahasuerus says, “often the work +stands still.” “It does,” answers the stonemason, “but only to gather +new strength.” To this Ahasuerus answers that all the blood that has +been shed in the Crusades was of no use to Europe; but the guildmaster +replies that they formed a vast step in human progress, because they +brought the different nations closer together, and brought “liberty” +into the world. Many knights sold their estates, which passed into the +hands of the commons; the supremacy of nobles was destroyed, new life +sprang up in sciences and art. Then suddenly the cry of battle rings +through the air, robber knights menace the peaceful citizens; the +tocsin sounds; the workmen rush to the battlefield; the building stops. +Full of mockery and derision at this new retrogradation in place of the +vaunted human evolution, Ahasuerus walks on. + +The errors of the age, the doings in the convents, the excesses of the +Hussites, the mad demeanour of King Wenceslas, only increase Ahasuerus’ +disbelief in the progress of mankind. An angel leads him to Mayence, +where Gutenberg’s printing-press is seen. Ahasuerus does not believe +in the importance of this invention. He also thinks Columbus a fool, +but, nevertheless, follows him to the deep whirlpools of the sea, +which he hopes will swallow him. But Columbus is spared by the waves, +he reaches land--the New World is discovered. There the god of the +primeval forest complains like Ahasuerus, because he has been roused +from his rest and deep silence and is dragged into the history of men. +The all-pervading Spirit of the Universe addresses him, “Oh, might the +discovery of this new hemisphere come also to thee, that thou mightst +see the divine wisdom, take comfort, and know that in the future of +Humanity there shall be One people, One mind, Unity and Reason!” + +Amid the New World, and with this vision over it, Ahasuerus gains +Belief. He now sees that “it was the ruin of Israel, once as rich a +land as America, to reject the New, which comes from God.” In human +evolution the Old always denies the New: “God is born, crucified, +and--lives.” The wave of each century brings the accumulated treasures +of the Past nearer to the shores of Perfection. + +Then Ahasuerus stretches out his hands towards the endless Ocean, +and in the chaos of his mind he begins to understand what _once_ he +was and what has become of him. In his own life he sees the progress +of mankind, and so the wings grow that bring him back to Heaven. But +the time has not yet come, only a day of Eternity has elapsed; and +Andersen’s Muse tells us in the last words of her song that “the myth +of Ahasuerus is only an echo of the endless tide of Time; a better +Scald will come and tell the meaning of that other pilgrimage.” + +HELLER imitates Andersen in his poem, _The Wanderings of Ahasuerus_. +In his introduction he says that Ahasuerus shall lead us through all +nations to the modern world: from God becoming human to Humanity +becoming God. In the first edition (1865) the poet did not bring his +theme to its end. But in a later edition (1868) he continued his +work, and leads his hero on to the days of Goethe. The conception and +execution of his poem are exactly like those of Andersen, but Heller +presents more historical details, and his ideas and suggestions are +full of interest. His Ahasuerus is an adversary of Jesus, as one who +does not comprehend his high mission and his own doctrine. A wealthy +shoemaker, his workshop full of workmen, he is ugly and deformed; his +wife, however, is beautiful. He is an old schoolfellow of the new +prophet, who in former days has often been protected by him when people +asked him tauntingly his father’s name. Ahasuerus’s own son bears the +name of Jesus. But now Ahasuerus calls Jesus an adventurer, who had +always been a favourite of women, on account of his fine looks. He says +Jesus has learned the black art in Egypt, which enables him to win the +multitude with miracles; that he misleads poor fishermen to leave +their work and homes; that he poisons the pure fountain of the Bible, +deriving from it that he is the Son of Man. He, Ahasuerus, will unmask +this dangerous impostor. So, when he is told by some children that a +fine-looking man much like Jesus has sat down to take some rest at his +door, he scornfully bids him move on, and not bring a curse upon his +house by touching his threshold. Peter intervenes, but Ahasuerus laughs +at him. Then Jesus rising, he answers, “Unhappy man! the feelings that +so violently move thy heart come from a misled but believing mind. +Sincere as is thy anger, even now thy heart is kind. If thou couldst +only understand me, no one would shed his blood for me like thou. The +time will come when thou shalt know me. Until the day when all the +world shall have accepted Christianity thou shalt wander through the +earth with thy people, spared by Death. Nations shall come and go, but +ye shall remain until the day of the last trumpet.” + +Ahasuerus re-enters his house speechless. On the day of the Passover, +Saul comes to him, and is told what happened. He declares Jesus one +of those fanatics who rise everywhere and disappear like meteors; the +streets of Rome are crowded with them. “Men,” says Saul, “are bending +under the burthen of their sins and long for forgiveness, which they +do not find in their Ancient Law. Love, the only thing that brings +release, must be delivered from the chains of the old institutions.” +Unconsciously, Saul is already of the new belief, and is soon after +formally converted. Peter and James try to convert Ahasuerus also, but +they succeed only in engaging him to hear Saul, now Paul, who preaches +in Athens of Christ’s resurrection. Ahasuerus finds out that this +doctrine is not in the Scriptures: Paul must be deceived. He returns +to Jerusalem, in his old disbelief. Jerusalem is conquered, destroyed; +Ahasuerus joins in the combat; at length all whom he has loved are +buried, he leaves the ancient city in ruins: his wanderings begin. + +We find him again, with other fugitive Jews, in a cavern, gathered +about an old Rabbi. They mourn for Jerusalem, but their master reminds +them of the Law; he exhorts them to adhere firmly to that--it is +stronger than that of Christ’s apostles, which is sealed only by a man, +not by God. As Jewish apostles they go forth into the world. The war +begins between Paganism, Christianity, and Judaism. Ahasuerus tries +to win over the pagans, to bring back those that turn apostate. The +wild movements and anomalies of the world gradually lead Ahasuerus to +the hope of a kingdom not of this world. He is now seen longing for +Jesus; he flies the noisy world and arrives at the Lake of Tiberias. +There Christ appears to him, and Ahasuerus implores forgiveness. He +has already lost something of his rigid Jewish faith. When Constantine +has become a Christian, and when Rome falls, he believes that his +new idea will be realised: but no, straightway begin the disputes of +Christian sects. Ahasuerus turns his back on the contending Gnostics, +Simonians, Arians, and the rest, and comes to the desert, where he +finds Anthony, the hermit. Anthony has delivered himself from the world +and its controversies to find peace amid nature. They exchange their +experiences and thoughts. Ahasuerus acknowledges that Christ’s doctrine +has spread a kingdom of love over the earth, but that his great work +has been degraded to a mere fable. “I did not find the kingdom of +God, but of men. Here I will rest until some Angel wakes me from my +dream to begin once more my earthly pilgrimage.” Anthony has the same +faith; he will struggle on patiently and imitate the life that was so +full of suffering and love. Henceforth the two live together in a long +brotherhood. + +This was the end of Heller’s first edition. In the second he enlarged +and transformed the entire poem. He separates the whole in three +different wanderings. He calls the first, which we have already +described, _Ahasuerus’s Error of Faith_; the second, _Picture of +the Universe_; the third, _Humanity_. During his first pilgrimage, +Ahasuerus moves still in the restricted horizon of a Pharisee, but he +loses much of that in his intellectual intercourse with Anthony. In +his second pilgrimage, although the whole scene of history lies open +before him, he persists still in his hope of a coming Messias. At +last he doubts that his hope will ever be realised; he frees himself +from his rigid belief. The discovery of the New World, the invention +of typography, and the Reformation, he now regards as contributing +to a free evolution of mankind, leading to the only true religion: +Humanity. Ahasuerus, like Faust, sees in this the high destiny of +mankind. History unfolds itself before Man; he moves after it, +observing, investigating, looking forward to the fulfilment of his +desire. The movement of mankind over the Old World goes on; new gods +replace the old; contrasts of all kinds meet together--nowhere is room +for God’s empire of peace. Mohammed, too, is not the right prophet. +Under Charlemagne and Leo the empire of God’s majesty on earth is +founded, but this is not the real empire of God for which Ahasuerus +looks. Besides, it does not prove to be everlasting. Priesthood, to +which all nations blindly submit, degenerates; whilst in Germany, under +the Saxon emperors strong conventional worldly power arises. Then a +new Messias seems to appear in Hildebrand, this monk so possessed of +worldly wisdom; but his empire is only maintained by the strong reins +of obedience, not by love. The Crusades do not satisfy Ahasuerus. +New persons come before us, one forming a contrast to the other. +Jehuda Levita, who praises the sublime inheritance of Adam against +the “original sin” of Christendom; then the pious buffoon, Francis +d’Assisi, contrasting with Tannhäuser, whom Ahasuerus meets in Rome, +and whose longing for the fresh and natural world of his heathen land, +amid the helpless ossification of the Christian priesthood, he can well +understand; Dante, who tries at least to harmonise the contrasts in +poetry; Rienzi, a political fool, who makes a step backwards into the +old Roman time; Huss, who, a second saviour, a martyr of the old pure +Christian doctrine, expires on the pyre. + +Then Ahasuerus begins to doubt of the duration of God’s empire. When +he sees how Christ is always vanquished, and has now been crucified +so often, a deep melancholy overcomes him; he longs for death, he is +disgusted with seeing the world any longer. Then Faust appears to him, +his congenial brother; Faust, the realist, who enjoys the life and +liberty given to him, who, though a true friend of Christendom, does +not join the theological disputes, but with a happy mind prefers the +fresh hearts of the people to the musty churches with their endless +supplications. With Faust’s appearance a change of mind comes over +Ahasuerus. Both have still a third mythical brother, the Spaniard, +Don Juan. Ahasuerus, the first-born, is continually occupied with +the highest problems; he takes no notice of life, and awaits the day +when his faith will be one with that of Jesus. In sharp contrast +with this, the Spaniard enjoys life and its pleasures, with all his +natural enthusiasm. Between these two, as a mediator, stands Faust, +susceptible of high and noble things as of the pleasures of the world. +He opens Ahasuerus’ heart to the love of humanity; he teaches his dim +eyes to look around him in the world; he shows him all the productions +of industry and art. In his house he shows him the wonders and first +performances of typography; he leads him to magnificent Florence, +residence of the Medicis; and, escaping the Spanish Inquisition, they +voyage with Columbus to America. Ahasuerus, who until now thought the +earth to be miserable and small, wishes to remain on it. + +In the third part of the poem, Ahasuerus leaves the New World and +returns to the Old, to follow there the evolution of human thought. +He goes to Rome, and rejoices to see the flourishing state of sciences +and arts; he finds there the great master, Raphael, who exalts +Christianity into Humanity. There also he meets Luther, who, beholding +the corruptions of the Church, conceives the idea of the Reformation. + +ROBERT HAMERLING is the last German poet who has paid his respects to +our myth. The hero of his poem, _Ahasuerus in Rome_ (1867), however, +is Nero, and not Ahasuerus. The latter is only, as by Klingemann and +Horn, a kind of Nemesis in the piece, a supernatural power intervening +in human actions. He presents a sharp contrast with Nero, who resembles +Faust in his immense love of life, whilst Ahasuerus has come to Rome +longing for death. He intends to accomplish Nero’s fate, for in +spite of their different natures, their mission is the same; both +are fulfilling and advancing the evolution of mankind. Especially +in a place where the decayed past struggles with new forms of life, +history needs such Titans of destruction as Nero, in order to hasten +the crisis of events and advance human progress. Ahasuerus therefore +makes Nero his unconscious instrument; he pushes him on and on in +his monstrous attempts. The supposed god, who can only operate by +destruction, Ahasuerus treats as the indestructible, and by this very +faith prepares the way of Nero’s humiliation. Ahasuerus animates Nero +to burn Rome, and swings the first torch; but he comes himself unharmed +out of the flames, spared by the fire, to show Nero that there is still +something on earth which to destroy is beyond his power; something like +a phœnix rising out of ashes--the immortal humanity. For a moment Nero +thinks himself equal to this new adversary. “I, too,” he cries, “am +indestructible: life in me is firmly anchored: nothing can ever change +me! I am I! I cope with you: our combat will show if my intellectual +indestructibility balances not thy bodily indestructibility!” + +Ahasuerus accepts the combat with the certainty that the hour of death +has come for Nero. It arrives in the curse of satiety and disgust +which overcomes Nero. He has enjoyed the pleasures of earth, and +Olympus; they have no more for him; only one thing further remains +for him--Hades. By force of magic he summons the dead; his own +victims start up before him, and, smitten with horror, he falls. Now, +forsaken by his favourites and subjects, Nero escapes at the hand of +the only one remaining--a devoted German--under the secret guidance +of Ahasuerus, into the catacombs. He there finds a congregation of +Christians, his mortal enemies. He offers his head to their revenge, +and is told that they do not know such a sensation, that their hearts +obey the law of love, a law which did not exist for him, because he did +not feel anything above him, whither he could look with a longing eye. +For the first time Nero finds a God who, instead of being worshipped +and feared is beloved. He also understands that not pleasure but pain +saves the world, and cries: “I see that the ever-creating womb of the +human Mind is not exhausted! The outworn world falls to dust: the human +heart ever brings it forth anew.” Thus Nero pronounces the inner secret +of the Ahasuerus-myth (according to this poem). And although unable to +submit to the new doctrine, he consecrates himself to the god of the +infernal world, exchanging his longing for life with the ardent longing +for death, according to Ahasuerus’ prophecy. Ahasuerus himself appears +in the hour of his adversary’s death among the Christians, and the +poet, in an original conception, makes him assume towards the end of +his poem a gigantic shape. + +According to this, Ahasuerus, who once despised Jesus, was already on +earth since time immemorial. For he is the first-born of the unborn, +the first of the created beings; he is the first child of man, the +first rebel, Cain, the murderer of his brother. Ahasuerus first +brought Death into the world, who now at the same time rewards and +punishes him by sparing him. + +It is greatly to be regretted that the great brain which carried the +legend of _Faust_ to such noble fruit did not fulfil its design of +giving poetic expression to that of the Wandering Jew. In his _Dichtung +und Wahrheit_, GOETHE has sketched the design of this unwritten poem. +A clever shoemaker with whom he once lodged in Dresden was to be a +model for Ahasuerus. The shoemaker of Jerusalem was to be a character; +in his open workshop he talks with passers-by, and, after the Socratic +fashion, touches up everyone in his own way. Even Pharisees and +Sadducees like to talk with him, and Jesus with his disciples often +stop there. The shoemaker is a firm secularist, but he feels a special +affection for Jesus, whom he tries to persuade to give up his visions, +and leave off drawing people away from their work into the wilderness. +Jesus, on the other hand, tries to persuade his friend to his way of +thinking. When Jesus has become a public character, Ahasuerus warns him +that tumult will follow, and that he (Jesus) will have to place himself +at the head of a party. Finally, when things have gone their course, +Judas rushes into the shoemaker’s shop, in despair, declaring that in +endeavouring to hasten his master’s triumph he had only ruined him. +Ahasuerus is in great excitement about his friend, and when he sees him +passing his door reminds him of his warnings. Jesus does not answer, +but just then the loving Veronica covers his face with a napkin, on +which, as she raises it, Ahasuerus sees depicted the features of +Christ, not as a sufferer, but transfigured and radiant. As he turns he +hears the words: ‘Over the earth shalt thou wander till thou shalt once +more see me in this form!’ When the shoemaker comes to himself he finds +that everyone has gone to the execution. Through the empty streets he +moves, and begins his wanderings. + +The way in which Goethe would have dealt with the theme is indicated by +the fact he elsewhere mentions, that he had meant to bring Ahasuerus to +a meeting with Spinoza. It will be seen, however, in this chapter, that +a number of the best pens which have dealt with this subject have been +spiritually moved by Goethe. + + + + + XVI. + + THE NEW AHASUERUS IN FRANCE. + + +In the year 1833 Edgar Quinet published his “Mystery” entitled +_Ahasuerus_. It seems an amazing fact that a work of this importance +should never have been translated into English. It was well appreciated +in France, and was the subject of the excellent review (_Revue des Deux +Mondes_, Dec., 1833) which has already been referred to in this work. +It is an epic in prose. Amid the stately Miltonic forms of Biblical +and other mythology, and through a mist of mysticism, may be seen +Edgar Quinet himself bent under the doom of turning the faith of his +childhood, the illusions of all he loved, into mere conventionalised +foliations of a frame around the reality of a creature moving about +amid worlds for ever dead. + +His early faith having suffered what he fondly hoped might prove to be +transient eclipse, he started upon those restless journeyings through +Europe and the East, which were still less restless than his spiritual +wanderings; but at no point could he see any faintest arc of a sun +returning from its eclipse. The old light had for ever gone down. As he +wandered there arose before him this other self, this doomed Ahasuerus. +Through ten years he was writing it; it was written, he has told us, on +foot, on horseback, in the gondola, at sea; in cathedrals of Germany, +basilicas of Rome, in the convent of Bron, in the villas of Naples, +and the almshouses of Morea. “Its aim is to reproduce some scenes of +the universal tragedy played between God, Man, and the World.” In the +end Quinet married a German lady, Rachel by name, who appears in his +dramatic epic also as the saviour of Ahasuerus. + +The work is divided into four “Days,” with three interludes, a +prologue, and an epilogue. The first day is “The Creation;” the +second, “The Passion,” discussed by the devils as a rather poor +comedy. Ahasuerus appears in this second “Day.” He is seated on his +bench in an open door as Jesus passes with his cross, followed by a +crowd which praises Barabbas and Pilate. Ahasuerus believes Jesus a +magician, and when he says, “Is it thou, Ahasuerus?” the latter says, +“I know thee not.” “I thirst; give me a little water from thy spring.” +“My well is empty.” “Reach thy cup--thou wilt find it full.” “It is +broken.” “Help me to bear my cross along this hard path?” “I am not thy +cross-porter; call a griffin from the desert.” “Let me sit on thy bench +at thy house door?” “My bench is full; there is no room for another.” +“On thy threshold?” “It is empty, but the door is shut and bolted.” +“Touch it, and you can enter to get a stool.” “Go thy way!” “If thou +wilt, thy bench may become a golden seat in the house of my Father.” +“Go, blaspheme where thou wilt! Thou hast already withered with thy +footsteps my vine and fig-tree; do not set foot on my stairway, it +will crumble under thy speech. Thou wouldst bewitch me.” “I wish to +save thee.” “Diviner, leave my shadow! Thy road is before thee. March, +march!” “Why hast thou said that, Ahasuerus? It is thou who shalt +march, even till the Last Judgment, more than a thousand years. Go take +thy sandals and travelling raiment; wherever thou passest thou shalt be +known as the Wandering Jew. It is thou who shalt find no seat whereon +to rest, no mountain-spring to slake thy thirst. In my place thou shalt +bear the burthen which I leave on the cross. For thy thirst thou shalt +drink what I have left at the bottom of my cup. Others shall take my +coat, thou shalt inherit my eternal pain. Hyssop shall germinate in +thy staff, wormwood increase in thy leather bottle; despair shall +cling as the leather girdle about thy loins. Thou shalt be the man +that dies not. Thy age shall be mine. To see thee pass the eagles +shall perch on their barn. The little birds shall half hide themselves +under the crest of the rocks. The star shall bend beneath the cloud to +watch thy tears falling drop by drop in the abyss. I go to Golgotha; +thou shalt journey on from ruins to ruins, from kingdoms to kingdoms, +without finding thy Calvary.” + +This is about half of the sentence pronounced upon Ahasuerus. A hand +had written on his house, “The Wandering Jew.” Ahasuerus finds himself +alone, and calls for Jesus to return; he would speak only one word +more! After his sad soliloquy the angel Michael appears, and bids him +travel onward. Ahasuerus enters his house once more and attempts to +rest and eat with his father and children, but he cannot; he must go, +despite their pleadings. + +After a long and pathetic farewell to his family and his home, +Ahasuerus passes out to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Here, he says, he +would build his hut upon the rock could he only find some water. The +Valley bids him journey on: “I have neither well nor cistern; those who +dwell in my vale never thirst.” “Where are thy date-trees planted?” “I +have none. They who sojourn in my hill never hunger.” “Find in thy +brushwood some herb to heal this wound in my heart, which is like a +point of iron?” “My simples heal all pains, but not that of the heart +in which a thorn rests.” + +After much converse the Valley bids him adieu. “Talk no more where the +dead sleep. I am silent.” After that, whatever Ahasuerus says, Echo +alone replies. His requests are successively in the words Jesus had +addressed to him at his door, and Echo repeats his own refusals. + +The third “Day” is called DEATH. Death is represented under the name of +Mob. And now a human spirit comes upon the scene--Rachel. As we have +seen the tender Jesus passing out of life to blend with the remorseless +elements, uttering the curses which find their echo in the heartless +hills, and the winds whistling in the Valley of Death; so now, on the +other hand, we see a heart leaving the heavenly realm that smiles above +human agony to share the earthly sorrow. In the presence of God and +Christ, and the heavenly host, one angel has forgotten the wrongs of +Christ so far as to shed a tear for Ahasuerus. For that she is cast out +of heaven, banished to the earth, and made to dwell in the house of Mob +(Death). Rachel and Ahasuerus meet, neither knowing anything of the +other for a long time; they are in love with each other; and for a time +the drama somewhat resembles that of Margaret and Faust, Mob taking +the part of Mephistopheles. There is a very beautiful scene in which +the Angel of Death (Mob) leads Ahasuerus and Rachel into the cathedral +at Strasburg. There the mighty shades, royal and papal, demand of +Ahasuerus his name. He will not utter it; but Christ speaks from the +stained window and declares him to be the Wandering Jew. The dead curse +Ahasuerus, the cathedral curses him; but Rachel pleads for him. While +demons flash their flames around, Rachel cries: “Be blessed, Ahasuerus! +Mercy for him, Lord; open Thy heaven! Are these the angels that watch +at the gate of Paradise? Angels, angels, open for me the gate; there +is also a place for Ahasuerus, is there not? Oh, how flaming are their +swords! Oh, how heavy their bolts! Come, come, Ahasuerus: the stars of +Paradise are rising beyond the threshold!” + +Another _motif_ from Goethe’s Faust rises in the fourth “Day,” the Day +of Judgment, where Rachel and Ahasuerus (whom she calls Joseph) are +seen in a desert, beside a waste ocean in the distance, and a ruin +emblematic of the world now in ruins. Ahasuerus has exhausted every +experience, except that of being loved by Heaven. Rachel tells him +that her Christ is a divine sea of love, into which they may together +plunge and lose all memories and all longings. As Faust’s contract with +Mephistopheles holds the latter to bring him to an hour when he shall +desire nothing beyond, an hour to which he shall say, “Stay, thou art +fair!” so Ahasuerus is moved only by the pledge of his angel Rachel +that no desire can arise beyond the divine Love. There is no water +near; so there in the desert Ahasuerus kneels, and Rachel baptizes him +with her tears. + +As the world comes up before the seat of Judgment--cities, ages, +continents, islands--curses fall on Ahasuerus. Rome, Babylon, Athens, +the Highway, repeat the sentences of his doom in Jerusalem; the +Mountain offers to be his Calvary; the Forest proffers him a Cross, +and the Rivers would give him gall. But Christ speaks more kindly. Of +all the universe Ahasuerus and Rachel now only remain. Christ offers +now to give him his home in the East; but Ahasuerus says he does not +desire it. “I ask life, not repose. Instead of the steps of my house of +Calvary, I wish to ascend without pause the stairway of the Universe.” +“Art thou not weary from thy first journey?” “Thy hand, rising over +me, has already dried my sweat. With thy benediction, I depart this +evening towards those future summits where thou already dwellest.” “But +who will follow thee?” A voice of the Universe breaks in, “Not we! If +thou wilt, we will return on our steps; but we cannot mount higher. +Our wild steeds, our waves, our tempests are weary.” Rachel says, “I! +I will follow him; my heart is not weary.” Whereon the Universe cries, +“A woman has lost me, a woman has saved me!” “Yes,” declares Christ, +“this voice has saved thee, Ahasuerus. I bless thee, the pilgrim of +coming worlds, and the second Adam. Return me the burden of the Earth’s +pains.... Journey thou from life to life, world to world, from one +divine city to another; and when, after eternity, thou shalt have +arrived at circle on circle of the infinite summit whither all things +move, whither tend the souls and the years, the peoples and the stars, +thou shalt cry to star, to people and universe, if they would pause, +_Climb on, climb for ever: it is here!_” + +The epic closes with an impressive Epilogue. Christ is alone in the +vault of the firmament. “Since the hour when Ahasuerus returned my Cup, +the wound has come again to my side; my tears fall into the abyss.... +The heavens are empty; in the firmament I am alone. One after another +the angels have all folded their wings, like the eagle when it is old. +My mother Mary is dead: my father Jehovah has said from his couch, +‘Christ, my age is on me. I have lived enough of the ages; the worlds +burthen me to lift.... I am cold.... I am weary.... I thirst. My age +is too great; I see no more the light of thy aureole. Go! thy father +is dead.’... The firmament has cast its god from its branch, as the +fig-tree its leaves.... Farewell, worlds, stars, dews of the morning +and evening, which have saluted me by name when I was a child.... +Is it true? in the night, in the day, afar, near, is there no one?’ +Echo answers, ‘None.’ ‘Life, truth, falsehood, love, hate, gall and +vinegar mingled in my pyx--yes, the universe was I. I am a shadow; a +shadow that for ever passes; I am the tear that ever trickles, the +sigh ever renewed, the death that ever agonises; I am the Nothing that +ever doubts of its doubt, the Negation that ever re-denies itself.’” +Eternity alone hears the sorrow of Christ, but it cannot aid him to +weep, its eyes are dry; it cannot promise love to the orphan-worlds +he is leaving, for in its breast is neither love nor hate. ‘All is +finished!’ cries the universe-wanderer, who has no Rachel’s tear to +baptize him. ‘Lay me in the tomb of my Father. Be it so!’ Eternity +speaks: ‘For the Father and the Son I have digged a grave in a frozen +star which rolls companionless, without light. The Night, beholding +that pale star, shall say, ‘This is the tomb of some god.’” + +Then Eternity crumbles the worlds, the sphinx, and even the void, +ending with a triumphant _Moi_. + + =Icy Finit le mystère d’Ahasuérus.= + =Priez pour celui qui l’écribit.= + +The romance of _The Wandering Jew_, by Eugene Sue (1844), from which +the majority of people have derived what impressions they may have +of the legend, is so “sensational” that its value as an illustration +of the myth is concealed. Whether intentionally or not, this novel, +so far as the Jew appears in it, reproduces very nearly the spirit +of an Arabian legend which belongs to the class discussed in this +work. The story of Al Khedr will be found in the Koran (xviii.). It +is said that Moses, having boasted of his knowledge, was told by God +of one wiser than himself; and having found out this man (Al Khedr), +he (Moses) journeyed with him. But the aged man had exacted from +Moses a promise that he would not ask any question, whatever he might +see. Al Khedr commits various crimes, and Moses cannot contain his +indignation. Al Khedr then reveals to him that each apparent wrong he +had done was a retribution, or a blessing in disguise, telling him +the story of each person who had apparently suffered injustice. The +Arabs have identified Al Khedr with both Elias and St. George (who +they say, recovered life after being thrice slain). The wisdom of Al +Khedr therefore lies in his continuity of existence. He represents +the primitive conception of a particular providence, seeing the end +of events from the beginning. They who have perused the history +of a single family whose records have been preserved for several +generations, may sometimes feel, with Browning’s Luria, + + “The only fault’s with time: + All men become good creatures--but so slow!” + +It takes the life of a family to round out and complete the events and +incidents which its individual members often find so out of joint, and +which have baffled the efforts of this or that generation to set them +right. And since the general pressure of the aggregate members of the +family, in all its generations, is toward the better conditions, the +tendency is such as to suggest a providential guidance by the Sleepless +and Eternal. This is reflected in Al Khedr; and the Eternal Jew of +Eugene Sue is related to him. In the drama built of this novel, which +I saw well performed recently as “All for Gold” in the Surrey Theatre, +the tableaus of the Wanderer were quite impressive. He appears on a +peak of Arctic snow, with the Northern Light behind him; his doom, +as that of his race, was recalled in a certain reddish hue of beard +and raiment, and he speaks of the children--who, seeming so helpless, +are struggling successfully as unconsciously for their bequest with +the hidden powers of Jesuitism--as representatives of a family which +represents the history of humanity. + +Wherever Ahasuerus moves he leaves the sign of the cross on his +track--the last departing glimpse of the mark of Cain. Herodias, his +fellow-sufferer, comes up to the Arctic region on the American side--a +notable incident when it is remembered (see IX.), that her myth is +mainly Spanish and survives chiefly in Spanish America. Eugene Sue +brings both of the Wanderers to rest. Herodias enters the Abbey of +“St. John the Beheaded;” exhausted she sinks before his image. Weary, +footsore, as she had never felt before, even when passing over fiery +lava, sandy desert, or Arctic icefields, athirst, and in pain, she +looks into a fountain and observes the traces of age in her features. +Her youth, which had seemed endless, has passed. Her expiation ends at +the feet of the image of him her guilt had destroyed. She implores the +forgiveness of God for Ahasuerus also. The Wandering Jew, meanwhile, +has climbed Calvary and sits down at the feet of an image of Jesus +there. Suddenly he perceives that the face looks upon him as if it were +alive, with gentleness and compassion. Ahasuerus prays and is pardoned. +Ahasuerus and Herodias are finally seen together, under a shelter, at +peace, awaiting longed-for and approaching death. + +In Ahasuerus, Sue represents the Workingman, an outcast from heaven +under sentence of drudgery, finding at last release from oppression. +Herodias is Woman, delivered at last from her political slavery. + +So, in their widely differing spheres, have Quinet and Eugene Sue given +a nineteenth-century refrain to the seventeenth century song: + + “Mais toujours le soleil se lève, + Toujours, toujours. + Tourne la terre où moi je cours, + Toujours, toujours, toujours, toujours!” + +M. Pierre Dupont has written a poetical version of our legend to +accompany G. Doré’s designs (published by Michel Lévy in 1856). But, +as Champfleury says, the imaginatively created Jew of M. Doré, and the +modernised narrative of M. Dupont, are very uninteresting compared +with the rude pictures of the folk-books, and the quaint simplicity +of the folk ballads. The figure of the Wandering Jew which Kaulbach +introduced into his picture of the siege of Jerusalem might, as a +painting, be regarded as somewhat related to the New Ahasuerus of the +poets, but it is a subject that still invites artistic treatment. +And how suggestive of artistic effects the legend is may be judged +by the next and last French work to be considered here: _La Mort du +Juif-Errant. Par Edouard Grenier._ + +This poem was first published, separately, in 1857, but afterwards +included in its author’s _Petits Poëmes_, of which the fourth edition +is before me. It is a beautiful and pathetic poem, and treats the story +subjectively. The poet describes himself as having escaped from the +haunts of men, and built a little hermitage far away in the mountain +solitudes. One evening, when he had been watching the fading splendours +of sunset, the signs of a storm appeared. The labourers had hastened +homeward, the herds sought their shelter, the birds their nests. He +then beheld a solitary wayfarer moving on, and asked him to enter, +informing him that, in the direction he was going, he could reach no +house until morning, and pointing to the increasing menaces of the +storm. The traveller turned upon him a burning eye and said, “Thou +knowest not the wayfarer whose steps thou wouldst stay. Why, detained +by thy request, should I enter with thee thy hospitable door, if my +name, when pronounced, must freeze thy welcome, and force me to repass +thy threshold?” “Whatever thy name or lot, yet must this roof shelter +thee this night.” The Wanderer accepts. The poet draws a striking +picture of his guest’s strange and noble appearance. The traveller is +shown a fountain where he may bathe; a repast is then spread before +him. Afterwards the poet inquires the name and country of his guest, +who turns pale, and with a sigh answers, “I am called Ahasuerus; I am +the Wandering Jew.” Seeing the poet’s shudder, the Wanderer rises, +thanks him for his hospitality, and says, “The cursed one blesses +thee,” then starts up to resume his journey. But the poet holds him. +“It is not I who am charged with thy punishment.” He forbids Ahasuerus +to go out into the storm. The Wanderer says, “The beasts of the +field and the birds of the air have their retreats from the rain and +lightning, but the Proscribed One hath not where to lay his head.” He +heeds not the storm, but the voice which above it cries, “Still march! +For thee alone neither repose nor death. March for ever! The justice of +God has not had its full course.” But when the poet has detained him, +and as they sit together, this harsh voice for the first time is not +heard. He asks if the divine justice can have become weary? The poet +bids him hope. The lamp is lit, and the poet entreats Ahasuerus to +instruct his youth. He who has explored so many regions, seen so many +peoples, traversed the earth--what a sublime destiny!--can tell much to +him who, bound to one little spot, can only dream of such far realms, +which he has longed to see. Ahasuerus tells him the earth is so small, +his desire would soon be calmed, could he explore it. Each corner of +nature offers the universe as in miniature. With the blue heaven above, +and a soul within, he may unite the image of the real with the infinite +dream. Earth, air, heaven, man, are everywhere the same. But, the poet +says, life is so short; man does but begin to peruse the universe when +death closes his eyes; while for him--the Wanderer--length of days have +opened the treasures of knowledge; man, time, lands and ages, have no +secrets for him. Ahasuerus bids the poet undeceive himself: each man +receives in his mind what his forerunners have traced. “Step by step, +day by day, century by century, along with humanity, I have wearily +climbed the painful ladder on whose last rung God has placed thee.” +They have journeyed the same road, but he--the Wanderer--as a pioneer, +has had to travel for ages on foot, over stones, the course which the +man of the present passes in his chariot in a day. + +In the third canto the Wanderer gives the poet an account of his +wanderings. At first he had not believed in his doom; then, when he +began to contemplate the possibility of it, he entered into all manner +of dissipation to forget himself. Finally, in the mournful Valley of +Jehoshaphat, he turned upon the pursuing phantom and faced it. “Is it +then such a terrible thing to live for ever? What have I lost? Death. +What everybody is trying to do! Are not all aiming to live eternally as +God in heaven?” He is elated at his prospect; he will have glory, gold, +bend nations under his sceptre. Perhaps he will be the Messiah himself! + +But the Wanderer’s wife, passionately loved, slowly parts from his +heart, withers of age, and dies in his young arms. The torture of that +gradual decay of the one he loved is portrayed. His sons, as they grow +in years, dread him, hate him, try to poison him; and then leave him +in horror or remorse for other lands. Of his family one alone remains, +a beloved son. But this last child’s heart even grows cold to him. Its +life sinks; its colour departs; its face becomes thin, corpse-like. +O horror! he sees before him, in the dying child, the very face of +Jesus, whom he had insulted! The child dies on the day and hour of the +anniversary of Christ’s death. + +After many wanderings Ahasuerus finds himself in the Colosseum at +Rome, there seated in the moonlight. He had seen that great edifice +built by Jews, stone by stone, while their own beloved Jerusalem +fell to dust. As in the great Roman ruin he is meditating upon the +vicissitudes he has witnessed, the _Angelus_ sounds forth; the stars, +the dew, all nature started in chorus, and said, “Repent!” He looks +upon the crucifix amid that circle--triumphantly raised there, where +he had seen Christians torn by lions. As he was looking upon that +figure a well-remembered voice came to him from it, “Why fly from +me? Thy sole refuge is in my love.” Then he there knelt, crying, “O +Christ! thou hast conquered me!” Then his first relief came in tears, +and an ineffable peace descended in his heart. From that time he did +not suffer as one disinherited; he even felt a delicious pain in his +expiation; he lived, suffered and loved along with humanity. He now +comprehended the enormity of his crime, which God had pursued so +relentlessly: it was not his insult to Divinity, but his lese-humanity. +He now felt that he might hope that his expiation would be complete, +and in the last day he would find repose in the love of Christ. + +In the fifth and last Canto the poet entreats the Wanderer to give him +a description of Jesus personally, of whom he has so long dreamed--his +look, manner, voice. When he has ended this appeal there is a knock at +his door, and a stranger enters. Ahasuerus at once recognises him, and +kneels, clasping his feet and bathing them with his tears. Jesus says +to him, “Friend! weep no more! Since thy touched heart comprehends its +sin and washes it away in tears; since the man outraged by thee as much +as the God is now thy brother; since thy heart loves, I bring pardon, +the reward of repentance. Be happy! Now, thou canst at last die.” + +In the morning a shepherd coming to the poet’s hermitage found two +forms lying prostrate, both apparently dead. The poet was slowly +brought to life, but Ahasuerus was dead. On his face was a smile of +celestial sweetness and calm felicity. On a bier made of larches the +poet and the shepherd bore the dead body of the Wanderer to its place +of rest. They bore it to the summit of the highest mountain. Beyond the +trees they passed, beyond the bushes, and where the grass became scant. +Into a cloud they entered, upward and onward bore him, till they came +to the blue foot of a glacier. On a little couch of moss they laid the +body while they dug a grave; as they covered the Wanderer’s form their +last vision was of the smile still shining, or even happier, upon his +face. + + “Ce vieux corps, fatigué par vingt siècles d’effort, + Goûtait encore mieux le bienfait de la mort. + Et c’est là qu’il repose, inconnu, solitaire, + Perdu dans la nuée au-dessus de la terre! + Nul monument funèbre attirant le regard, + Ne révèle sa tombe au pas du montagnard. + Le glacier qui défend cette gorge isolée + En est le seul gardien et le seul mausolée. + Nulle épouse, nul fils n’y sanglote sur lui, + Et la seul rosée y vient pleurer la nuit. + Nul mortel ne connaît sa demeure dernière, + Personne, excepté moi, n’y versa de prière, + Et seul l’aigle se pose à la cime où ses os + Savourent dans mort un éternel repos. + +It is interesting to contrast this peaceful end of Grenier’s Ahasuerus +with the invincible Wanderer of Shelley. Nevertheless, the Ahasuerus of +this poem yields only to a tender appeal from Christ--himself the bound +victim of an eternal curse. Another poem may yet be written which shall +show Jesus not to have pronounced the doom upon the poor shoemaker, but +to have known so much of Jahve’s vindictive disposition as to foretell +it, and ultimately coming to an understanding with Ahasuerus as the +fellow-victim of an eternal curse. They might be shown buried together +by the compassionate poet and shepherd where the foiled eagle of Jove, +surviving from its feast on Prometheus, could not reach them, and the +glacier-heart of deified power could freeze and crush them no more. +This, for one of the two, would be a happier fate than survival in the +satirical song still sung in France-- + + “Jésus la bonté même + Lui dit en soupirant, + Tu marcheras toi-même + Au moins pour trois milles ans, + Tu finiras tes peines + Au dernier jugement.” + + + + + XVII. + + THE NEW AHASUERUS IN ENGLAND. + + +The old Ahasuerus had his day in England. While he was personally +wandering about the world, however, in the guise of the pious +pretender, pouring his cant into every long ear he could find, clever +English writers began to utilise him. The earliest work (1640), _The +Wandering Jew telling Fortunes to Englishmen_, was a fair satire upon +some features of London in that time. The name of the Jew is Gad +Ben-Arod Ben-Balaam Ben-Alimoth Ben-Baal Ben-Gog Ben-Magog. The next +work that followed (1797) was an amusing drama. It is entitled _The +Wandering Jew, or Love’s Masquerade_, by Andrew Franklin. A surly old +guardian, disgusted with the young beaux seeking his ward’s hand, +has vowed that he will give her to the most aged man to be found in +England. The lover most favoured by the young lady conspires with her +to have an announcement of the presence of the Wandering Jew in London, +and then presents himself in that disguise as Mr. Mathusalem. He is +attended by his equally aged servant, Juba, in whose anachronisms the +fun mainly consists. Juba, despite all efforts on Mr. Mathusalem’s part +to make him more reticent, is voluminous in his reminiscences; among +other things, he tells about Romulus and Remus, and relates that, when +he was at the baptism of the twins, their mother threw a basin of tea +at him for saying that Remus was the prettier of the two. + +In 1799 appeared the novel _St. Leon_, by William Godwin. It is not a +very interesting work now, whatever it may have been at the time. The +plot of it is, that a gentleman, who, through gambling, has sunk into +poverty and plunged his family in distress, obtains from an uncanny +old man the secret of recovering youth and obtaining money whenever +he needs it. But he has vowed secrecy. He returns to his family, but +is not recognised. He is cut off from the old sympathies. The novel +speedily carries interest away from St. Leon to other persons, and ends +without any account of his end, nor does it even carry St. Leon beyond +the lives of his children. The romance might have been suggested by any +traditional type of longevity, such as the Hindu Dnyaneshvar, found in +his tomb reading his Commentaries 300 years after apparent death; or +Artesius, the Arabian alchemist, said to have, by his art, prolonged +his life 1025 years, or Alkazwini, who also lived præternaturally long. +The preface, however, contains an interesting citation, which gives its +actual origin:--“The following passage from a work, said to be written +by the late Dr. John Campbel, and entitled _Hermippus Redivivus_, +suggested the first hint of the present performance: ‘There happened in +the year 1687 an odd accident at Venice, that made a very great stir +then, and which I think deserves to be rescued from oblivion. The great +freedom and ease with which all persons who make a good appearance live +in that city is known sufficiently to all who are acquainted with it; +such will not, therefore, be surprised that a stranger, who went by the +name of Signor Gualdi, and who made a considerable figure there, was +admitted into the best company, though nobody knew who or what he was. +He remained at Venice for some months, and three things were remarked +in his conduct. The first was, that he had a small collection of fine +pictures, which he readily showed to anybody that desired it; the +next, that he was perfectly versed in all arts and sciences, and spoke +on every subject with such readiness and sagacity as astonished all +who heard him; and it was, in the third place, observed that he never +wrote or received any letter, never desired any credit, or made use of +bills of exchange; but paid for everything in ready money, and lived +decently, though not in splendour. + +“‘This gentleman met one day at the coffee-house with a Venetian +nobleman, who was an extraordinary good judge of pictures; he had +heard of Signor Gualdi’s collection, and in a very polite manner +desired to see them, to which the other very readily consented. After +the Venetian had viewed Signor Gualdi’s collection, and expressed his +satisfaction by telling him he had never seen a finer, considering the +number of pieces of which it consisted--he cast his eye by chance over +the chamber-door, where hung a picture of this stranger. The Venetian +looked upon it, and then upon him. “This picture was drawn for you, +sir,” says he to Signor Gualdi, to which the other made no answer +but by a low bow. “You look,” continued the Venetian, “like a man of +fifty, and yet I know this picture to be of the hand of Titian, who +has been dead one hundred and thirty years. How is this possible?” “It +is not easy,” said Signor Gualdi gravely, “to know all things that are +possible; but there is certainly no crime in my being like a picture +drawn by Titian.” The Venetian easily perceived, by his manner of +speaking, that he had given the stranger offence, and therefore took +his leave. He could not forbear speaking of this in the evening to some +of his friends, who resolved to satisfy themselves by looking upon the +picture the next day. In order to have an opportunity of doing so, they +went to the coffee-house about the time that Signor Gualdi was wont to +come thither; and not meeting him, one of them, who had often conversed +with him, went to his lodgings to inquire after him, when he heard that +he had set out an hour before for Vienna. This affair made a great +noise, and found a place in all the newspapers of that time.’” + +It is probable that not only _St. Leon_, but the _Bassevilliana_ of +Vincenzo Monti had influence in exciting the English imagination with +legends of this character. A translation of this Italian poem, by the +Rev. Henry Boyd, was published in London in 1805. It is the story +of a “Soul’s Doom,” founded on the murder of the French minister, +Basseville, in Rome, near the end of the last century. The soul of +Basseville is condemned to wander over the French provinces, and behold +the desolations caused by the revolution and its retributions. The +Spirit of the Abyss is forbidden to clutch Basseville. An angel says to +the soul: + + “Fear not; thou art not doomed to sip the wave + Of black Avernus, which who tastes, resigned + All hope of change, becomes the demon’s slave; + But Heaven’s high justice, nor in mercy blind, + Nor in security scrupulous to gauge + Each blot, each wrinkle, of the human mind, + Has written on the adamantine page, + That thou no joys of paradise mayst know, + Till punished be of France the guilty rage.” + +Both _St. Leon_ and “The Soul’s Doom” might have been read by those +comrades in distress, Shelley and Medwin, for whom seventy years ago +Oxford Christianity, and homes inspired by it, had nothing better than +wanderings about London under a curse. They took up the subject, Medwin +says, when Shelley was fifteen. Of the poem, as it now stands, in the +edition of Chatto and Windus, Shelley wrote but a few lines; but I +think that amidst its rhapsodical rubbish a scholarly expression or +illustration may here and there be found traceable to Shelley. There +is evidence of Shelley’s divining-rod in the allusions to some of the +more significant legends concerning Ahasuerus which had attracted +the attention of several German poets. There is in the opening some +resemblance to the scene in Southey’s _Curse of Kehama_. Where, in +the latter, the young Hindu woman is brought forward to perish on the +funeral-pyre, in Shelley’s poem a sinning novice is dragged to the +“fatal shrine,” from which she is rescued by the mysterious traveller. +This horseman, hastening to Padua, + + “Wraps his mantle around his brow, + As if to hide his woes.” + +In his tale, he says: + + “A burning cross illumed my brow, + I hid it with a fillet grey.” + +This Cross enables him to command fiends. To Paulo, who has rescued +her, Rosa the novice has given herself. Victorio, her lover, summons +a witch-demon, and to her consigns his soul to obtain a philtre which +will secure Rosa’s love. But when he has administered it she dies. + +Is the resemblance mentioned between this _Wandering Jew_ and the +_Curse of Kehama_ accidental? The Medwin-Shelley poem was unable to +reach the light for which it struggled in 1810. It was published in +_Frazer’s Magazine_ in 1831. But soon after it was written, Shelley +shows great eagerness to get Southey’s poem, which had been announced, +and twice writes to the bookseller, Stockdale, for it in December, +1810. In 1812, while at Keswick with his young wife, Shelley made the +acquaintance of Southey, if not before. In the poem of Southey, the +young Indian casts down the idol before which the woman is about to be +burned, which corresponds to the blow given to Christ by Ahasuerus. +The curse is artificially modified, and may have been suggested by the +sentence on Cain, “Behold now art thou cursed from the earth.” The doom +on the iconoclast is that on him shall fall neither the rain nor the +sunshine, nor any of the influences of nature. + +There would seem to be little doubt that _St. Leon_ inspired Shelley’s +_St. Irvyne, the Rosicrucian_, or rather Ginotti, with his elixir of +life, whose only “survival” is in Bulwer’s _Zanoni_. The “gigantic +Ginotti” dies through the wicked Wolfstein; but Shelley was particular +in pointing out that “he did not die by Wolfstein’s hand, but by the +influence of that natural magic which, when the secret was imparted +to the latter, destroyed him.” The longevity is here not a doom. But +once, as Shelley was walking through Lincoln’s Inn Fields, he picked +up a “dirty and torn” work, which contained Schubart’s “Rhapsody” of +Ahasuerus, elsewhere mentioned. Hogg was quite mistaken in affirming +that Shelley’s account was an invention. Full information on this +point may be found in Rossetti’s Shelley (vol. i. p. 434). The German +poem had appeared in a magazine called the _German Museum_, in +1802. The Wandering Jew thus became a type in Shelley’s mind, and +repeatedly appears in his works. In Alastor he uses the Wanderer as an +illustration. + + “Oh that God, + Profuse of poisons, would concede the chalice + Which but one living man has drained, who now, + Vessel of deathless wrath, a slave that feels + No proud exemption in the blighting curse + He bears, over the world wanders for ever, + Lone as incarnate death!” + +It is, however, in _Queen Mab_ that we find the real form which arose +before Shelley out of Schubart’s small casket, fished up from the muddy +ocean of London. Schubart’s Ahasuerus whines and is pardoned. Shelley’s +Ahasuerus is a Titan, who prefers the sharp vulture-beak and the chain +to any surrender to the Christian Jove. Believing as I do that Cain was +originally a Semitic Prometheus,--as first of those who began removal +of Jahve’s curse on the earth by agriculture and working in metals,--I +find it remarkable that Shelley, outcast from college and home in early +youth because of his atheism, should recognise this feature in the +distant successor of Cain. + + “A strange and woe-worn wight, + Arose beside the battlements, + And stood unmoving there: + His inessential figure cast no shade + Upon the golden floor; + His port and mien bore mark of many years, + And chronicles of untold ancientness + Were legible within his beamless eye: + Yet his cheek bore the mark of youth; + Freshness and vigour knit his manly frame; + The wisdom of old age was mingled there + With youth’s primeval dauntlessness; + And inexpressible woe, + Chastenéd by fearless resignation, gave + An awful grace to his all-speaking brow. + + _Spirit._--Is there a God? + + _Ahasuerus._--Is there a God!--ay, an Almighty God, + And vengeful as almighty! Once his voice + Was heard on earth: earth shudder’d at the sound; + The fiery-visaged firmament expressed + Abhorrence, and the grave of nature yawn’d, + To swallow all the dauntless and the good, + That dared to hurl defiance at his throne, + Girt as it was with power. None but slaves + Survived--cold-blooded slaves, who did the work + Of tyrannous Omnipotence; whose souls + No honest indignation ever urged + To elevated daring, to one deed + Which gross and sensual self did not pollute. + These slaves built temples for the omnipotent fiend, + Gorgeous and vast: the costly altars smoked + With human blood, and hideous pæans rang, + Through all the long-drawn aisles. + * * * * * + “O Spirit! centuries have set their seal, + On this heart of many wounds, and loaded brain, + Since the Incarnate came: humbly he came, + Veiling his horrible godhead + In the shape of man; scorn’d by the world, his name unheard, + Save by the rabble of his native town, + Even as a parish demagogue. He led + The crowd; he taught them justice, truth, and peace, + In semblance; but he lit within their souls + The quenchless flame of zeal, and blest the sword + He brought on earth, to satiate with the blood + Of truth and freedom his malignant soul + At length his mortal frame was led to death. + I stood beside him: on the torturing cross + No pain assailed his unterrestrial sense; + And yet he groaned. Indignantly I summ’d + The massacres and miseries which his name + Had sanction’d in my country, and I cried, + ‘Go! go!’ in mockery. + A smile of godlike malice reillumined + His fading lineaments,--‘I go,’ he cried, + ‘But thou shalt wander o’er the unquiet earth, + Eternally.’--The dampness of the grave, + Bathed my imperishable front. I fell, + And long lay tranced upon the charméd soil. + When I awoke hell burned within my brain, + Which stagger’d on its seat; for all around + The mouldering relics of my kindred lay, + Even as the Almighty’s ire arrested them, + And in their various attitudes of death, + My murder’d children’s mute and eyeless skulls, + Glared ghastlily upon me. + + But my soul, + From sight and sense of the polluting woe + Of tyranny, had long learn’d to prefer + Hell’s freedom to the servitude of heaven. + Therefore I rose, and dauntlessly began + My lonely and unending pilgrimage, + Resolved to wage unweariable war + With my almighty tyrant, and to hurl + Defiance at his impotence to harm, + Beyond the curse I bore. The very hand + That barr’d my passage to the peaceful grave + Has crush’d the earth to misery, and given + Its empire to the chosen of his slaves. + * * * * * + “Thus have I stood--through a wild waste of years + Struggling with whirlwinds of mad agony, + Yet peaceful, and serene, and self-enshrined, + Mocking my powerless tyrant’s horrible curse + With stubborn and unalterable will; + Even as the giant oak, which heaven’s fierce flame + Had scathed in the wilderness, to stand + A monument of fadeless ruin there; + Yet peacefully and movelessly it braves + The midnight conflict of the wintry storm, + As in the sunlight’s calm it spreads + Its worn and wither’d arms on high, + To meet the quiet of a summer’s morn. + + The Fairy waved her hand: + Ahasuerus fled + Fast as the shapes of mingled shade and mist, + That lurk in the glens of a twilight grove, + Flee from the morning beam: + The matter of which dreams are made + Not more endowed with actual life + Than this phantasmal portraiture + Of wandering human thought.” + +This Ahasuerus is not only the fellow Titan of Prometheus, but he is +the New Ahasuerus-Prometheus who had his fire to bring and his doom to +suffer in England. The events of Shelley’s life between 1812, when he +probably wrote this part of _Queen Mab_, and the latter part of 1814, +added new curses to the eternal wanderings of the Jew. These appear in +that sufficiently wild fragment entitled _The Assassins_, written in +Switzerland, 1814, from which the subjoined passage is selected: + +“A young man named Albedir, wandering in the woods, was startled by +the screaming of a bird of prey, and, looking up, saw blood fall, drop +by drop, from among the intertwined boughs of a cedar. Having climbed +the tree, he beheld a terrible and dismaying spectacle. A naked human +body was impaled on the broken branch. It was maimed and mangled +horribly--every limb bent and bruised into frightful distortion, and +exhibiting a breathing image of the most sickening mockery of life. +A monstrous snake had scented its prey from among the mountains--and +above hovered a hungry vulture. From amidst the mass of desolated +humanity two eyes, black and excessively brilliant, shone with an +unearthly lustre. Beneath the blood-stained eyebrows their steady rays +manifested the serenity of an immortal power, the collected energy of +a deathless mind, spell-secured from dissolution. A bitter smile of +mingled abhorrence and scorn distorted his wounded lip--he appeared +calmly to observe and measure all around--self-possession had not +deserted the shattered mass of life. + +“The youth approached the bough on which the breathing corpse was hung. +As he approached, the serpent reluctantly unwreathed his glittering +coils, and crept towards his dark and loathsome cave. The vulture, +impatient of his meal, fled to the mountain, that re-echoed with his +hoarse screams. The cedar-branches creaked with their agitating weight, +faintly, as the dismal wind arose. All else was deadly silent. + +“At length a voice issued from the mangled man. It rattled in hoarse +murmurs from his throat and lungs--his words were the conclusion of +some strange, mysterious soliloquy. They were broken and without +apparent connection, completing wide intervals of inexpressible +conceptions. + +“‘The great tyrant is baffled, even in success. Joy, joy to his +tortured foe! Triumph to the worm which he tramples under his feet! +Ha! his suicidal hand might dare as well abolish the mighty frame of +things! Delight and exultation sit before the closed gates of death! +I fear not to dwell beneath their black and ghastly shadow. Here thy +power may not avail! Thou createst--’tis mine to ruin and destroy. I +was thy slave--I am thy equal, and thy foe. Thousands tremble before +thy throne, who, at my voice, shall dare to pluck the golden crown +from thy unholy head.’ He ceased. The silence of noon swallowed up +his words. Albedir clung tighter to the tree--he dared not for dismay +remove his eyes. He remained mute in the perturbation of mute and +creeping horror. + +“‘Albedir,’ said the same voice--‘Albedir, in the name of God, +approach! He that suffered me to fall watches thee. The gentle and +merciful spirits of sweet human love delight not in agony and horror. +For pity’s sake, approach! In the name of thy good God, approach, +Albedir!’ The tones were mild and clear as the responses of Æolian +music. They floated to Albedir’s ear like the warm breath of June that +lingers in the lawny groves, subduing all to softness. Tears of tender +affection started into his eyes.” + +The “Assassins” are something like Schiller’s “Robbers,” outlaws better +than the laws that have branded them. In _Hellas_, Ahasuerus, though +still appropriately responding to a summons from the Moslem Antichrist, +is an impersonation of human thought as raised by long experience to a +prophetic power. The idea is substantially the same as that which we +have seen underlying the myths of Enoch and Teiresias, while it goes +beyond them in its suggestion that knowledge, living over the ages +past, and imagination attaining to the farthest outcome of present +tendencies, can make for the being of a day an eternal existence. +Ahasuerus says to Mahmud: + + “All is contained in each. + Dodona’s forest to an acorn’s cup + Is that which has been, or will be, to that + Which is--the absent to the present. Thought + Alone, and its quick elements, Will, Passion, + Reason, Imagination, cannot die; + They are, what that which they regard appears, + The stuff whence mutability can weave + All that it hath dominion o’er, worlds, worms, + Empires, and superstitions.” + +With true Shelleyan felicity Hassan describes this Jew-- + + “From his eye looks forth + A life of unconsumed thought which pierces + The present, and the past, and the to come ... + Some feign that he is Enoch.” + +In the year 1820 appeared the novel in four volumes, _Melmoth, +the Wanderer_, by the Rev. Robert Charles Maturin, author also of +_Bertram_, a respectable play, and several novels. Melmoth is a man who +has sold himself to Satan for the advantage of a vast length of life, +to which is added a power of passing instantaneously, at will, from +place to place. The terms of his bond are that he may escape the final +doom of his soul, which is to pay for these advantages, provided he +can find anyone willing to take the contract, with its benefits and +penalty, off his hands. The author’s purpose appears to be to show that +no one would deliberately damn himself to all eternity for any temporal +advantage; though this would seem to be rather “Irish,” since his hero +is just that man. However, the hero is an exception that proves the +rule, for he goes about the world vainly tempting the poor and needy +to take his place. Even a beautiful Indian maiden, who has fallen +desperately in love with him, will not surrender her soul. Failing +with all, he is carried off by the Devil. The supposed date of this +catastrophe is toward the close of the eighteenth century. + +The next work to be noticed at this point, and one which the perusal of +Shelley may have suggested, is more distinctly based upon the legend +of the Wandering Jew; this is the Rev. George Croly’s _Salathiel: A +Story of the Past, the Present, and the Future_. This novel, in three +volumes, appeared anonymously in 1828. The spirit in which the legend +is treated in this work will sufficiently appear by the following +passages: + +“Every sterner passion that disturbs our nature was to rule in +successive tyranny over my soul. + +“Fearfully was the decree fulfilled. + +“In revenge for the fall of Jerusalem, I traversed the country to seek +out an enemy of Rome. I found in the Northern snows a man of blood: I +stirred up the soul of Alaric and led him to the sack of Rome. + +“In revenge for the insults heaped upon the Jew by the dotards and +dastards of the city of Constantine, I sought out an instrument of +compendious ruin: I found him in the Arabian sands, and poured ambition +into the soul of the enthusiast of Mecca. + +“In revenge for the pollution of the ruins of the Temple, I roused the +iron tribes of the West, and at the head of the Crusaders, expelled the +Saracens. I fed full on revenge, and I felt the misery of revenge! + +“A passion for the mysteries of nature seized me. I talked with the +Alchemist. I wore away years in the perplexities of the schoolmen; and +I felt the guilt and emptiness of unlawful knowledge. + +“A passion for human fame seized me. A passion for gold!... + +“I found a bold Genoese. I led him to discover the New World; with its +metals I inundated the Old; and to my own misery added the misery of +two hemispheres.” + +At length the eternal World-wanderer stands beside the newly discovered +Printing Press; again he pays homage to Luther at his rise, and he +attains a faith in the progress of mankind. “At this hour I see the +dawn of things to whose glory the glory of the Past is but a dream!” + +Quite another Ahasuerus than Shelley’s is represented in Wordsworth’s +“_Song of the Wandering Jew_,” which somewhat resembles the idea of +Müller, already quoted, as indeed both do the old saying, “The foxes +have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath +not where to lay his head.” + + “Though the torrents from their fountains + Roar down many a craggy steep, + Yet they find among the mountains + Resting-places calm and deep. + + “Clouds that love through air to hasten, + Ere the storm its fury stills, + Helmet-like themselves will fasten + On the heads of towering hills. + + “What if through the frozen centre + Of the Alps the chamois bound, + Yet he has a home to enter + In some nook of chosen ground. + + “If on windy days the raven + Gambol like a dancing skiff, + Not the less she loves her haven + In the bosom of the cliff. + + “Though the sea-horse in the ocean + Own no dear domestic cave, + Yet he slumbers--by the motion + Rocked of many a gentle wave. + + “The fleet ostrich, till day closes, + Vagrant over desert sands, + Brooding on her eggs reposes + When chill night that care demands. + + “Day and night my toils redouble, + Never nearer to the goal; + Night and day, I feel the trouble + Of the Wanderer in my soul.” + +It would be interesting to know at just what period of his life, or in +which of his two lives, Wordsworth wrote this “Song.” Was it a memory +of his dead self, the radical that fell in the French Revolution? Or +did he write it when the sceptical wanderings of other minds around +him had become to his peaceful soul, with no doom heavier than the +liturgical round of Grasmere Church, as imaginary as the “seven +whistlers on their nightly rounds,” which his peasant-friend heard, +while overhead were heard those “Gabriel’s hounds” by ears that little +knew they too were fabled of Jews doomed by the Crucified? All around +Wordsworth in his home amid the Lakes were the real wanderers. Before +nearly every fine mind living at the beginning of the last generation, +this Ahasuerus had risen as a spiritual type. Seven times did Shelley +evoke this form, and it was with him when he wandered unrecognised past +Rydal Mount. Southey had known the meaning of it. Byron had taken the +side of Cain against him who in Paradise permitted “the Serpent to +creep in,” and seen in Prometheus, with “the wretched gift Eternity,” +the symbol of man’s fate and force. De Quincey had made acquaintance +with such doomed wanderers of rabbinical legend as “The Widow of +Hebron.” From afar the sighings of “L. E. L.” were heard in fitful +dreams of “The Undying One.” + +There came a terrible day when the children of the Revolution +recognised the inexorable Mother of whom they were born. The old +beliefs and ideas in which good and honest people had lived so +comfortably were shrivelled up. It was not the half-way heresy of the +earlier time which believed it was attaining a purer Christianity and +a more glorious immortality. These children of the Revolution found +the whole fabric of faith fallen to black ruins. The youth went off +light-hearted to college: he came back heavy-hearted. Beside the old +fireside he sat once more, with the dear faces around him and exile +in his heart. He listened to the old Bible, and knelt; but his mind +was far away, and had left him amid the innocent, a guilty, kneeling, +assenting phantasm. Then there began this Age of Wandering; for the +new mind could not yet get a new heart, and could only wander about +like the night-raven of folk-lore, that ever seeks the Holy Sepulchre +for rest. Their voices may be heard in most of the literature of the +last generation, pathetic as the appeal of deserted brides going about +the street asking, “Saw ye my Beloved?”--the only answer being endless +echoes of the question. Intellect seemed to them a curse. By it they +were at one stroke deprived alike of faith in future and hope of +present joys. Unfit for usual avocations, unable to enter pulpits and +professions tainted with the discredited superstitions, how well could +they understand the doom of every wanderer! + +In the same year (1833) that Edgar Quinet--after ten years of +wandering in the effort to find some point where he could catch a +least ray of the old faith that made his early home so sweet, only +to discover that his faith was gone out, not eclipsed--published his +_Ahasuerus_, Carlyle also, after like wanderings, published his _Sartor +Resartus_, with its story of the “Sorrows of Teufelsdröckh.” It was +in that same year, too, that Ralph Waldo Emerson, unable to rest +even in his Unitarian pulpit, escaping from the clinging arms of his +devoted congregation, came across the ocean to converse with Carlyle, +Coleridge, and Wordsworth, and find if they could show him any light +on the great problems. Coleridge had taken refuge with opium and +orthodoxy. Wordsworth entertained the young American Wanderer with +lamentations over the excess of intellectual above moral culture in +the modern world. But it was in the far solitude of Nithsdale that +he hoped to find what he sought; for Carlyle had written an essay in +which he spoke of standing amid night, yet seeing the faint signs of a +new day-spring. “Here, straight uprose that lone wayfaring man,” wrote +Carlyle afterwards; but, alas, it was only to find at Craigenputtoch +(Hawk Hill) one preyed upon by the same remorseless doubts. The +personal hospitality was beautiful. But when the young American, just +bereaved of his wife, sought some vision beyond the grave, there was +no help for him. He asked Carlyle to what religious development those +sentences about a new day-spring pointed? The answer was that he could +not state that even to himself. Everyone, he said, must find out his +own path, and walk in it. + +When Emerson parted from Carlyle and returned to the New World, he +found in its new life more than his vanished faith: to emancipate +slaves, and human minds, and the moral genius of woman, and give +the People their opportunity to build the New World into beauty and +happiness--this he found was a religion with eternal vistas opening +from it, hopes fairer than his faded heaven, a providence better than +the Syrian deity who had led the Old World into Red Seas, but never +through them to any Promised Land. But Carlyle remained to wander to +the last amid the wrecks of his lost worlds. + +“Poor Teufelsdröckh! Flying with Hunger always parallel to him, and a +whole Infernal Chase in his rear; so that the countenance of Hunger +is comparatively a friend’s! Thus must he, in the temper of ancient +Cain, or of the modern Wandering Jew, save only that he feels himself +not guilty and but suffering the pains of guilt--wend to and fro with +aimless speed. Thus must he, over the whole surface of the earth (by +footprints) write his _Sorrows of Teufelsdröckh_; even as the great +Goethe, in passionate words, must write his _Sorrows of Werther_, +before the spirit freed itself and he could become a Man. Vain, truly, +is the hope of your swiftest runner to escape from his own shadow!” + +Among all the Wanderers only one seemed to have found a new heart +atwin with his new intellect--he alone loved and welcomed the new, and +preferred the vulture-beak that tears Prometheus, the loneliness of +Ahasuerus, to the favour of Jove, Jahve or Jesus. Shelley alone was +heard singing his matin of the lark above ruins sadder than all the +rest. + + + + + XVIII. + + AHASUERUS VINCTUS. + + +Here before me is a formidable array of large--one might almost say +fat--volumes, which I have hardly known whether to assign to England or +Germany, but conclude that they belong to both, and also to America, +and to the night-side of Protestantism everywhere. They are entitled: +_Chronicles, selected from the originals, of Cartaphilus, the Wandering +Jew, embracing a period of nearly XIX. centuries. Now first revealed +to and edited by David Hoffman, Hon. J. U. D. of Göttingen. In two +series, each of three volumes. London: Thomas Bosworth, 1853._ This +book contains a dedication, dated March 10, 1851, Upper Brook Street, +Grosvenor Square, to the author’s brother, Samuel Hoffman, Esq., of +Baltimore, U. S. A. It contains also a dedication, dated September, +1852, Austin Friars, London, from Cartaphilus himself: “To the Children +of the Dispersion--Jehovah’s favoured people during so many ages, +Christ’s scattered flock during so many more--these chronicles are +affectionately inscribed,” etc. + +There is nothing in these volumes which bear upon the legendary +Wandering Jew, except a tradition, incidentally mentioned, that in +1539 he visited Cornelius Agrippa, and was shown the face of Rebecca, +whom he had loved fifteen centuries before, in a magic mirror. +But the existence of such a book, embodying the vulgar Protestant +superstitions about the “dispersion” and the gathering of the “chosen +people;” the fact that so much labour can be expended on these notions +by a man otherwise educated, the author apparently of several legal +works, are phenomena to excite reflections. There is a good deal of +suggestiveness, too, in the link between Austin Friars and Grosvenor +Square. Cartaphilus, going his eternal round with cry of “O’ clo’!” +has finally, it would appear, discovered that he need only have his +Judaism baptized to be one of “Christ’s flock,” pastured as richly in +the fashionable Square. + +But even more significant just now is the fact that Germany is ready +to supply the hand that can write of the Jews as for ages “Jehovah’s +favoured people,” and in the next moment be clenched to smite them as +an accursed race. So much this union of Cartaphilus and Austin Friars +with the Hon. Mr. Hoffman and Grosvenor Square may mean for us, as we +bid them farewell, finding nothing further in their voluminous sermons +pertinent to our present inquiry or purpose. + +Here are two pregnant facts. In various parts of the East Jews manifest +a superstitious dread of a Christian’s curse. On the other hand, for a +long time there prevailed among Christians a belief that an oath taken +in a Jewish synagogue was more binding and efficient than one taken +elsewhere.[40] Add these two facts together, and their sum is in the +following third fact: on Wednesday, April 13, 1881, a petition against +the Jews was presented to the German Chancellor, in twenty-six volumes, +14,000 sheets, and with 255,000 signatures. + +Every signature to that most shameful document which the nineteenth +century has witnessed was set there by--Judaism itself. It was Israel +that taught Christendom its black art of cursing. The Christian idea of +a Chosen People of Christ, commissioned to make war upon other peoples +as heathen, infidels, hosts of Antichrist, is a precise transcript of +the Judaic idea of a Chosen People of Jahve, with commission to put +Gentiles to the edge of the sword. In the darkest ages, when holocausts +of Jews were offered in sacrifice to a deified member of their race, +the Christian might have addressed his victim with a paraphrase of +Shylock’s words, “If a Baalite disagreed with a Jew, what was his +humility? Slaughter. If a Jew disagree with a Christian, what should +his sufferance be by Jewish example? Why, slaughter. The intolerance +your Testament teaches me I will execute, and it shall go hard but, +with the aid of my Testament, I will better the instruction!” + +When Moses Mendelssohn was asked, “When will the Jews become +Christians?” he answered, “When the Christians cease to be Jews.” + +After Shakspeare had startled the world with a suspicion that the Jew +is a man, it still required a hundred and fifty years, or thereabout, +to awaken the further suspicion that a Jew might be a good, even a +religious man. This revelation came through Lessing. When he was +coming of age, Lessing recognised the injustice done to the Jews +of Germany. Every Jew entering Berlin was compelled to pay toll at +Brandenburg Gate. The meanest Christian might gain credit by insulting +or assaulting a Jew. Frederick the Great could write, “Jesus was a +Jew, yet we persecute the Jews,” but his wide toleration left that +people unprotected. Lessing wrote an early drama, _Die Juden_, which +touched gently on the matter. In it a wealthy Jew of high character +saves the life of a Christian baron and his daughter. The baron desires +the youth to marry his daughter, but finding to what race and religion +he belongs, that, of course, is impossible. So the drama ends. Why +impossible? The answer to that question had to be postponed. There are +some evils in this world which are like the birth-mark in Nathaniel +Hawthorne’s story: the chemist succeeded in extracting the birth-mark +from his wife’s face, but the wife lay dead. When the mark of the +cross disappears from the Wanderer’s brow, so that the Christian who +has branded him shall no longer say as he passes, “He is a Jew,” nor +for that part from his daughter’s lover, Christianity will be dead. +The flower of Lessing’s great heart and mind was _Nathan the Wise_. +The apologue of “The Three Rings,” in which the Jew, the Moslem, the +Christian Templar, raised above their bigotry by mutual human service +are seen in a tableau of charity, shone like the star of a new religion +over Germany. It is the “Ideal of Religious Liberty,” said Schwartz, +Historian of Modern Theology at Halle; “Truly can Deity be said to +pervade every line of Nathan,” said Kuno Fischer, of Jena University; +while in it Strauss sees one advancing the “Kingdom of God on +earth.”[41] Yet even Lessing was still not equal to the idea of having +the Jewess marry the Christian. Just as we are listening to hear the +marriage-bells ring out for the lovers, lo, they turn out to be brother +and sister! So, the religious equality having been proclaimed a hundred +and fifty years after Shakspeare had proclaimed the human equality, +Lessing leaves it to a like time to establish the social equality of +Jew and Christian. + +But was this line drawn altogether by the Christian? Lessing’s +friendship with Moses Mendelssohn had taught him otherwise. When +Michaelis, the theologian, read his early play, “The Jews,” he wrote +a criticism in which he expressed a doubt whether an oppressed and +despised race could produce such a man as the hero. Mendelssohn +replied, and Lessing, enclosing this reply to Michaelis, wrote +concerning its author: “He really is a Jew, a man of five-and-twenty, +who, without any instruction, has acquired great attainments in +languages, in mathematics, in philosophy, in poetry. I foresee in +him an honour to our nation, if he is allowed to come to maturity +by his co-religionists, who have always displayed an unfortunate +spirit of persecution towards men like him.” The confirmation of this +apprehension on the part of the Jews’ earliest champion in Germany may +be found in the enthusiasm which the next eminent Mendelssohn put into +his oratorio of “St. Paul.” + +Goethe tells us that he had intended to bring his Wandering Jew to a +meeting with Spinoza. The great German had met with two illustrations +of the legend he did deal with, of Faust carried off by demons. One was +in the case of Lessing, who, for his defence of Jews and his attack on +historic Christianity, had been piously impaled by a rumour that Satan +had appeared at his death-bed. The other was in a tract he picked up in +which Spinoza was denounced as an infidel, and upon which was a picture +of the noble man, giving him diabolical features. But, alas! Spinoza +had been more a martyr among his own people than among Christians. +Ahasuerus with the red cross on his brow would have found Spinoza also +a lonely wanderer, outcast from his people, but not under any Christian +doom. + +Were Goethe alive, he would find Spinoza still in Europe, and +still a lonely wanderer amid the scowling hatred of both Jew and +Christian. He would find in England, certainly, a steady tendency of +synagogue-Judaism to find its ally and support in the Christianity +which alone represents its ancient superstition and bigotry. It is +the orthodox Jew who on Saturday sets the model of a Sabbath for +the Christian to copy on Sunday. When the parliamentary oath--half +Romish, half Jewish--is questioned, Jew and Christian stand side by +side in its defence, and together seek to impose upon Englishmen of +the nineteenth century the theological test of belief in an oath-bound +and oath-guaranteeing deity in which no educated man can possibly +believe. The orthodox male Jew thanks Jahve in his liturgy that he was +not made a woman; and the male Christian responds by excluding women +from political rights. While in Germany the Christian persecutes the +Jew as Antichrist, in England the Jew persecutes the Antichristian +as Armillus. The Jew recognises a believer in the Trinity as a true +theist, and the Christian accepts the Jewish worshipper of Jahve as a +theist; and they make common cause against the disbeliever in both as +a “miscreant,” an “atheist.” Some influential Jews recently made an +effort to “Boycott” the _Jewish World_ newspaper for its criticisms on +Christianity. From another “Jewish” quarter there came a sharp cry of +distress and anger because a scholar attempted to prove that Jesus was +not of the Jewish race! + +It is a significant fact that the man of whom the Jews of recent +times have been proudest, the statesman whom every Israelite in +Europe was glad to aid with his information and his wealth, was a Jew +whose circumcision had been subordinated to Christian baptism. This +combination of auspices--the heart of an ancient Jew with the political +advantages of a Christian--made Lord Beaconsfield a symbolical figure. +It is only in its Christianised form that Judaism can ever behold +even a partial fulfilment of its ancient dreams of worldly power. The +theocracy of Jahve is henceforth dependent for every shred of its +authority upon the golden sceptre of Christ. + +Christ is for the present a monarch--in England the last surviving +sovereign whose rule is at all theocratic. The Jews, as we have seen, +were really saved from extermination by powerful rulers who only +hungered for their money while the mob thirsted for their blood. Fear +of the populace was part of the heritage of the Jew, transmitted +by heredity. However bravely the modern Jew--at least up to this +generation--might begin with the radicalism of his prophets, he was +pretty sure to develop into a supporter of strong government; and there +has hitherto, in most countries, been always sufficient Christian +intolerance to enable that evolution to pass its embryonic phases +without arrest. Heine begins with revolutionism and atheism; ends +with worshipping Napoleon I. (whom he sees protecting Jews along the +Rhine), and God (of whose existence he was convinced by the sense of +smell while mingling with the atheistical _ouvriers_ in their Paris +clubs). Benjamin Disraeli begins with poetical eulogy of regicide, +and ends with turning a queen into an empress. So far as this ancient +reactionism can survive into the immediate future, it must necessarily +be the ally of Christianity. The English Jews who paid so large a sum +to bring back Charles II. to his throne, were represented by those who +gathered to the support of the Christian Lord Beaconsfield. + +Lord Beaconsfield was for the Jews a triumph for their race, but a +humiliation for their religion. They must needs find their leader +in a family of apostates! But the orthodox Jews knew well that this +humiliation was more than compensated to them in the new resource +which their christened leader opened for them against their party of +progress. Disraeli the Elder had fled from the dry bones of Judaism to +find intellectual freedom. Disraeli the Younger, sent by his father +into the Christian Church, found there the dry bones all turned into +armed men. + +Isaac Disraeli made an earnest effort to be at once a man of letters +and a member of the synagogue. When his effort had proved vain, and he +must follow Spinoza and Mendelssohn on the path of exile, he wrote to +the wardens of Bevis Marks synagogue: “Many of your members are already +lost; many you are losing! Even those whose tempers and feelings would +still cling to you are gradually seceding. But against all this you are +perpetually pleading your existing laws, which you would enforce on all +the brethren alike. It is of these obsolete laws so many complain. They +were adapted by fugitives to their peculiar situation, quite distinct +from their own, and as foreign to us as the language in which they were +written. For the new circumstances which have arisen you are without +laws.” + +Soon after his separation from the synagogue he wrote his work _The +Genius of Judaism_. In it is the following passage: “The religious +Judaism of the Theocracy degenerated into Rabbinical Judaism by +fabulous traditions and enslaving customs. Dictators of the human +intellect, the Rabbins, like their successors, the papal Christians, +attempted to raise a spurious Theocracy of their own. A race of +dreaming schoolmen contrived to place an avowed collection of mere +human decisions among the hallowed verities and the duties of devotion, +to graft opinions of men on the scion of divine institutions; nay, +even to prefer the gloss in direct opposition to the divine precept, +whenever, as they express it, ‘the tradition is not favoured;’ that +is, when the oral tradition absolutely contradicts the written law. The +Jews live according to their laws, and according to their traditions +and customs; for their traditions have become an integral part of their +written law, and their customs have been converted into rites. The +Judaic superstitions have been substituted for the code of Revelation. +We may ask, by what enthralling witchcraft, by what perverse ingenuity, +has such a revolution been brought about?” + +In reading this I am reminded of the Russian folk-tale of “The +Devouring Sister.” The Vampire born into a family devours each member +of it successively, to the last--a brother who slays her. After she is +dead, he hears her voice gently entreating him to think with compassion +on her hard doom, and to preserve some bit of her remains. Moved by +this appeal, the brother folds one drop of her blood in a leaf and +carries it in his bosom. When he reaches home he falls dead; the one +drop of Vampire blood had devoured his heart. The fatal drop which +Isaac Disraeli carried away from his dead Judaism was folded in the +fine passage just quoted, as in a green leaf: it is in the phrase, +“scion of divine institutions.” + +There is enough in that brief creed to sustain every persecution of +reason and conscience the world ever saw. The Sanhedrim is in it; +the Inquisition is in it. The belief that the God of the universe +established the institutions of ancient Judea is enough to eat the +human heart out of every generation that presses it, with whatever +sentiment, to its breast. + +It was perfectly logical for Isaac Disraeli to have his son baptized +a Christian. Seeing in the so-called “religion” of his race a “scion +of divine institutions,” he rightly saw in Christianity the natural +expansion and historic development of that “scion.” He had said to the +synagogue, “For the new circumstances which have arisen you are without +laws.” Christianity supplied those laws. The same voice spake again +when, thirty-seven years ago, his son reminded Christendom that it was +obeying the laws and saturated in the literature of the Jewish race; +when he claimed that Moses was summoned by Jahve “to be the organ of an +eternal revelation of the divine will.” + +The freethinker owes a certain debt to Lord Beaconsfield for his +logical treatment of Christianity. That unanswerable argument of his +in “A Political Biography,” that the Jews deserved gratitude for +prevailing on the Romans to crucify Jesus, so securing the Atonement; +that it was a sublime act and sacrifice, Jews being the ordained +immolators, securing the salvation of the world; that no one has +ever been permitted to write under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost +but a Jew; that all Christians acknowledge that the only medium of +communication between themselves and God is the Jewish race; that the +Mother of God was a Jewess; that, indeed, is a _reductio ad absurdum_, +which cannot be unwelcome to the age of common sense. But every nail he +thus drove into the coffin of Christianity was one which had pierced +the hands and feet of humanity from Canaan to Calvary, and from Calvary +to Smithfield. + +The devotion of Lord Beaconsfield to the Jewish people was a fearful +retribution on the synagogue that drove out his father. His kiss was +as fatal as it was sincere. He taught the Jewish youth that the path +to power and glory, not merely for themselves but for their race, lay +in the direction of Christianity. His spirit may yet survive as the +Moses of a journey through the baptismal sea to the Promised Land. He +confirmed them in every error--in all their race-egoism, in all their +indifference to the progressive enlightenment of the world, and gave +their bigotry a new lease of life by a Christian confirmation. The +most eloquent passage he ever wrote is in _Tancred_, in the “Feast of +Tabernacles,” which the _Jewish World_, in quoting it after his death, +said might have been uttered by a _Chasid_ in a moment of inspiration: +“The vineyards of Israel have ceased to exist, but the eternal law +enjoins the children of Israel still to celebrate the vintage. A race +that persist in celebrating their vintage, although they have no fruits +to gather, will regain their vineyards. What sublime inexorability in +the law! But what indomitable spirit in the people! It is easy for +the happier Sephardim, the Hebrews who have never quitted the sunny +regions that are laved by the Midland Ocean; it is easy for them, +though they have lost their heritage, to sympathise in their beautiful +Asian cities or in their Moorish and Arabian gardens, with the graceful +rites that are, at least, an homage to a benignant nature. But picture +to yourself the child of Israel in the dingy suburb or the squalid +quarter of some bleak northern town, where there is never a sun that +can at any rate ripen grapes. Yet he must celebrate the vintage of +purple Palestine! The law has told him, though a denizen in an icy +clime, that he must dwell for seven days in a bower, and that he must +build it of the boughs of thick trees; and the Rabbins have told him +that these thick trees are the palm, the myrtle, and the weeping +willow. Even Sarmatia may furnish a weeping willow. The law has told +him that he must pluck the fruit of goodly trees, and the Rabbins +have explained that goodly fruit on this occasion is confined to the +citron. Perhaps, in his despair, he is obliged to fly to the candied +delicacies of the grocer. His mercantile connections will enable him, +often at considerable cost, to procure some palm-leaves from Canaan, +which he may wave in his synagogue while he exclaims, as the crowd +did when the divine descendant of David entered Jerusalem, ‘Hosannah +in the highest!’ There is something profoundly interesting in this +devoted observance of Oriental customs in the heart of our Saxon and +Sclavonian cities; in these descendants of the Bedoueens, who conquered +Canaan more than three thousand years ago, still celebrating that +success which secured their forefathers, for the first time, grapes and +wine. Conceive a being born and bred in the Judenstrasse of Hamburg or +Frankfort, or rather in the purlieus of our Houndsditch or Minories, +born to hereditary insult, without any education, apparently without +a circumstance that can develop the slightest taste, or cherish the +least sentiment for the beautiful, living amid fogs and filth, never +treated with kindness, seldom with justice, occupied with the meanest, +if not the vilest, toil--bargaining for frippery, speculating in +usury, existing for ever under the concurrent influence of degrading +causes which would have worn out, long ago, any race that was not of +the unmixed blood of Caucasus, and did not adhere to the law of Moses; +conceive such a being, an object to you of prejudice, dislike, disgust, +perhaps hatred. The season arrives, and the mind and heart of that +being are filled with images and passions that have been ranked in all +ages among the most beautiful and the most genial of human experience; +filled with a subject the most vivid, the most graceful, the most +joyous, and the most exuberant; a subject which has inspired poets, and +which has made gods--the harvest of the grape in the native regions +of the vine. He rises in the morning, goes early to some Whitechapel +market, purchases some willow-boughs for which he has previously +given a commission, and which are brought, probably, from one of the +neighbouring rivers of Essex, hastens home, cleans out the yard of his +miserable tenement, builds his bower, decks it, even profusely, with +the finest flowers and fruits he can procure, the myrtle and the citron +never forgotten, and hangs its roof with variegated lamps. After the +service of his synagogue, he sups late with his wife and his children +in the open air, as if he were in the pleasant villages of Galilee, +beneath its sweet and starry sky.” + +“What sublime inexorability in the law!” Nay, what binding, paralysing, +mercilessness in the self-imposed law that holds the eyes of a race +for ever at the back of its head instead of in the forehead! In the +great and grievous error of those words is repeated once more the doom +of the Wandering Race. In them Jesus says again to Ahasuerus, “As thou +hast refused to go out in the general vineyard of humanity, to toil and +gather with the true and earnest of all races and religions, be this +thy sentence: Keep thy small province of mouldered faith; go on, and +on, and for ever, celebrating vineyards that do not exist, pressing +dead grapes that yield no wine, waving dead palm-leaves before a +Messiah that can never arrive, bound in thine everlasting Houndsditch +round by dreams of myrtle-bowers in a barbarian paradise long ago +turned to a Valley of Jehoshaphat!” + +Lord Beaconsfield also dealt his blow to Spinoza. He defended the +rights of the Jews in Parliament on the ground that they were all Jews, +all believers in Moses and the Prophets; and that the alternative +of this was belief in Hume and Gibbon. The day of his burial was +solemnised by the party he had led with an effort to drive out of +Parliament an Englishman who preferred Hume and Gibbon to Moses and the +Prophets. + +This is the doom of Judaism. This is Ahasuerus bound. There is a +nobility in the Ahasuerus that Shelley evokes in _Queen Mab_, a Semitic +Prometheus bound for ever on Time and its desolations, as a rock, with +bigotry and intolerance feeding vulture-like upon his heart because +he will not bend to tyrannical Jove, either in the form of Jahve or +of Jesus; suffering as the friend of a Humanity also groaning beneath +a celestial despotism, but cringing as he will not. But there is +nothing Promethean in the mere preference for the chains of one tyrant +over those of another. There is nothing noble in a sect accepting its +rock and vulture through servility to a deity of whose indifference +or impotence or non-existence the history of his worshippers is a +sufficient proof. There is no majesty in martyrdom unless it is endured +for the deliverance and welfare of all mankind. There was a time when +the Jews suffered nobly; they stood almost alone in preserving the +protest of the human mind against priestly impostures, which could not +be maintained by the thinking Greeks and Romans--who no doubt knew +the facts as well as Lucian and Celsus--against imperial decrees. +But that time passed when thought became free. The emancipation of +the Jews politically brought to their side Herakles--a human-hearted +deliverer--who cut their outward cords. Judaism, remaining on its +Caucasus, apart from the evolution of humanity, is bound only by inward +chains. Its doom, in free countries, comes only from within. + +It is forbidden that any man or race shall find strength and happiness +in isolation, and this race is withheld by its traditional system +and its dogmas from co-operation with mankind in its nobler aims +and tendencies. Their fundamental error is to regard the God of +Israel as different from the Gods of other people. Upon that rests +the wild superstition that the Jews, in some sense or other, are “a +chosen people” or “a peculiar people.” It is the doctrine alike of +Christianity and Judaism; but as in the dreary past it has been the +dogma most fatal to the Jews--their accepted supernatural eminence +logically leading to their supernatural doom--it must be equally fatal +in their future of freedom, in an intellectual sense. So long as they +are marked off in the human world in this way they will not find rest; +for that can be found only when their genius--earning such wreaths as +adorn the brow of Spinoza and Heine, or those which came from every +capital to lie on the grave of Offenbach--is identified with the +general work and play of the world, and their religious aims such as +are common to all who acknowledge allegiance to reason and pursue the +equal welfare of mankind. + + + + + XIX. + + AHASUERUS DELIVERED. + + +There are certain races of mankind whose history or whose character +has made them the tests of civilisation. In one direction the negro +has been such. In the development of English self-government, on both +sides of the Atlantic, there came a time when its fine theories of +liberty were put to the test. In America the poor ignorant negro knelt +chained before the genius of the Republic. His slavery represented many +millions of money, his freedom must cost many thousands of lives; but +Justice said, “There is that lowly man--helpless, of alien race from +you, too poor to pay you anything: if you can do justice to him, can +make him a citizen, the world will know that you are really a republic.” + +In another direction the Jewish race has been the test and register +of civilisation. It was the one visible embodiment of Antichrist +in Christendom. While missionaries were going through the world +to convert the world, the Jew also went through the world--moral, +religious, learned--a compulsory wanderer and missionary, in whose +scars might always be read the spirit of the Church he opposed, and +the meaning of a vicarious atonement, whose corollary was the unending +crucifixion of a race for the offence of three or four of their +ancestors. This Wandering Jew knocked at the doors of law-courts. +“Who art thou?” said the judges. “I am Antichrist.” “Come in and be +burnt,” said they. He came in and was burnt. But ever rising from +his ashes, the Wanderer marched on. Again, after some centuries, he +knocked at the door marked Justice. “Who art thou?” asked the judges. +“I am Antichrist,” he said. “Stay out and be mobbed,” said they. And +so he wandered until he reached the century when England opened the +door and said, “Enter and receive thy right.” Even Judge Jeffreys, in +the time of James II., would not accept the old law which disabled a +Jew from prosecuting a Christian. “Pay him his money,” he cried to the +defendant. “His action is not against a Christian: you are more a Jew +than he is!” At many doors this unconquerable Antichrist had to knock +in this land: slowly, against frantic attempts to bar them, they swung +open, one after the other; and it was proved that English justice, +confronting what Christendom called a devil, was ultimately equal +to giving that devil his due--in society, in the law-court, in the +Parliament. + +The English have managed to hold superstition more in order in their +smaller territory than it is held in Eastern Europe, yet they must +not take for their own race all the credit for the equality that has +been accorded the Jew in England. The credit is mainly due to himself. +Some forty years ago, when wild stories reached Great Britain from +Damascus and Rhodes of how Jews were suffering horrible outrages on +account of absurd accusations--such as sacrificing Christian priests +and children--the entire English community joined to support Sir Moses +Montefiore in his mission to repress that fanaticism. But when England +had sent Sir Moses on his noble mission, it turned to consider its own +relation to the Jews, and found on its statute-book laws which still +bore witness of the ages when Jewish blood had mingled with Christian +sacrifices. The laws were even then--forty years ago--not all obsolete. +But some of them were, and others have since become so, largely through +the fact that the Jews had made themselves useful to the country. + +Just now England is again called to look abroad though nearer home, +and consider the outbreak of fanaticism in Germany. + +Dr. Carl Vogt, the naturalist, recently expressed his belief that the +present persecution of Jews in Germany is a recurrence of ancient +Teutonic barbarism. He explains Judenhetze scientifically, on the +principles of Atavism. Every now and then there must be a recrudescence +of suppressed barbarism. Those who have read, in _A Tramp Abroad_, +those accounts of the duels witnessed by imperturbable Mark Twain in +that country--duels in which students cut and slash each other in a +friendly way, in the intervals of drinking beer together, and flaunt +their facial gashes upon the street with pride, will suspect that the +barbarism in coming back had not far to travel. Nevertheless, we must +remember that Germany has not yet completed that revolution which +shall bring the people under the influence of their best heads; its +great science, art, and literature are still carried on as it were in +cloisters. The throne of Germany’s noble Reason is usurped by heartless +pretenders in politics and hypocrites in religion. Barbarossa will +awake presently, and when he comes forth from his cave it will not be +in the guise of Emperor William or Prince Bismarck, nor yet as the +priest-ridden Jew-hater, but as a cultured and courageous People, with +their feet alike on titled despotism and parochial barbarism. + +As, however, in the outrages on Jews at Damascus and Rhodes, in the +last generation, England caught a glimpse, as in a mirror, of certain +features from her own hideous past still surviving in her laws, so one +can hardly turn from the Judenhetze of Germany without a consciousness +that there are still certain scandals in the attitude of English +Christianity towards the Jews. The chief scandal is that there should +be an organised society for converting them--as if they were savages. + +The existence of such a society in London will one day be quoted to +show how much pious preadamitism survived amid our telegraphs and +telephones. It is not civilised for men to suppose that a good Jew is +inferior to a good Christian. It is scandal that the learned clergy +should permit the people to suppose that Christian churches and sects +have any moral or spiritual advantage over those who attend the +synagogue. How many mothers who teach their children the precepts of +the Sermon on the Mount, or rehearse to them the parables of the New +Testament, pity the children of Jewish mothers as knowing nothing of +those beautiful and tender sayings? How many of them even realise that +the Golden Rule is in the Pentateuch; and that every Jewish child +learns those sweet sayings and parables where Jesus learned them--at +his Jewish mother’s knee? + +It is a great misfortune that religious liberalism, in its revolt from +the primitive Judaism which Protestantism and Puritanism restored, and +which survives now chiefly among Sabbatarian and dogmatic Christians, +has kept before the world only that ancient Jahvism under which +Canaanites were exterminated. It has thus indirectly fostered the +fallacy which regards as Judaism much that even strict Jews have long +ago outgrown. The Jews themselves, however, as we have seen, are +largely to blame for the persistence of this vulgar delusion; indeed, +even many of their liberal thinkers have obstinately preserved their +new wine in ceremonial bottles, with the ancient labels, and helped to +convey the popular impression that their religion is unchanged. But +it _is_ changed. Even the strictest Jews are to-day less Sabbatarian, +and more emancipated from the barbarism of sacrificial superstitions, +than Christians. When Moses Mendelssohn said that the Jews would +become Christians “when the Christians cease to be Jews,” he no doubt +recognised that Christians are preserving as dogma the Judaism which +Jews keep as a shell, but inwardly have outgrown; and that a conversion +of the Jews to Christianity would really carry them back to Levitical +beliefs long replaced by the modern ideas prevailing inside the +hereditary and patriotic walls from which they fear to venture. + +Spinoza was as representative a Jew as ever lived, and never more than +when the synagogue disowned him. The history of his race for a thousand +years had been to him an instruction in fidelity and independence. That +there is a vigorous Left among the Jews is apparent in every direction; +not only in Jewish scholarship, which is assisting in the work of +detaching from their Bible and other sacred books a Hebrew Mythology, +but also in the political and social influence of Jews. The outbreak +of Judenhetze in Germany is a bad enough symptom for the Teutons, but +a hopeful sign for the Jews. Socially they have excited jealousy by +the extent to which, having become men and women of the world, they +are able to support that character by their wealth. Politically, +they would appear to have so completely entered into those liberal +and popular movements which they so long eschewed, that the Imperial +Power is under the necessity of reminding them that, as in the past +they suffered from the mob, and were protected by princes, so it may +be again. The retention of the Rev. Mr. Stoecker as Court Chaplain, +while he is leading this agitation so unscrupulously, is a confession +that the anti-Semitic movement has the encouragement of the Emperor +and his Chancellor. To awaken Teutonic jealousy of Jewish wealth, just +beginning to be displayed in the enjoyment of Gentile luxuries; to +arouse Christian fanaticism against the growing freethought of a race +ceasing to expect any Messiah: such are the obvious methods by which +the German Government hope to separate Jewish means and radicalism from +the masses, and drive Jews to their ancient refuge--the strong central +power always purchasable by money and servility. What success will +crown this imperial effort remains to be seen. But that there should be +a necessity for it is a confirmation of what the late Lord Beaconsfield +asserted, and such good judges as Herr Eydmann and Karl Blind attest, +that the Jews are very extensively concerned in popular movements on +the Continent. + +That these liberal tendencies might be expected among the Jews +generally when and where they feel assured of freedom and security, +is suggested by the history of their race in America. It is certain +that the leading Rabbins of that country would be regarded as +perilously latitudinarian by their strict co-religionists of Europe. +It is a significant unique fact that the high family of Adlers has +produced a President of the Free Religious Association, which is +made up of theists and agnostics developed out of Unitarianism and +Transcendentalism. But, furthermore, the leading Rabbins, Lilienthal, +Wise, and Sonnenschein, are instances of the advanced Rationalism which +pervades the Jewish body in America. These scholarly and eloquent +Rabbins freely fraternise with the anti-supernaturalistic teachers +of other antecedents than their own. It is pretty certain that they +do not look for the advent of any personal Messiah, and never dream +of any restoration of their race to power in Palestine. They are not +theocratic in politics, but republican, and regard America as the real +Jerusalem of their race. Such is my conviction, based not only upon the +works of the gentlemen I have mentioned, but upon personal acquaintance +with them; and I cannot doubt that, whatever may be their dissent from +much that is written in these pages, they would confirm my opinion as +to the tendency of the people of Jewish origin in America. Jews of +the Old World are somewhat in the condition of the rich man who, when +reproached for a stinted charity, said that he began life poor, and had +never got the chill of poverty out of his bones; these Jews have vivid +traditions of persecution, and have not yet got the chill of fear out +of their bones. Recent events in Germany and Russia may even prolong +this timidity; the ferocious reply to their attempt to mingle in the +society and politics of the world may set back for a little their +liberation. But the free heart and mind of Europe is with them, and +will be felt not only in England but on the Continent. The unbinding of +Ahasuerus is part of the civilised revolution which can never really go +backward. + +Shakspeare was the first to show the Jew to be a man. Lessing was the +first to show that a Jew might be as good a man as a Christian, the +indispensability of Christ to excellence being quite ignored. Thus the +seventeenth century had its gospel for the Jew, and the eighteenth +century had its gospel. But in essence the gospel according to Lessing +was not so high as that of the master at whose feet he learned it. +Shakspeare had raised up the standard of Manhood, and in its light +Judaism and Christianism are seen to be comparatively small things, +and their contentious tempers proof that they are no longer religious +in any pure sense. Lessing, even in his famous apologue of the Three +Rings which a father gave to his equally beloved sons--similitudes of +the Jewish, Moslem and Christian religions--makes the wise judge end +the dispute as to which is the true ring by consecrating all three. +The true ring, which the fond father had caused to be copied in two +others, so that neither son might be disappointed, had the power to +draw the love of all on its owner. But it also carried the right to +sovereignty; and this advantage so overbore the former virtue that each +son, with his ring, was found to love himself alone. The Judge advises +them to be each content with his ring: + + “Let each of you comport him in such wise + As love unbribed commands; let each resolve + To show the world that in the ring he wears + He holds the prize, its virtues being shown + To Man in acts of justice, meekness, mercy, + To God in thoughts of love and heartfelt trust.” + +But the nineteenth century should transmit to the twentieth a nobler +gospel for Jew, Moslem, and Christian than that. Let each of them see +that his ring is a survival from the ancient chain that fettered him +to his several rock of superstition; that so long as he holds faith in +it, no transmutation of it into gold, no decoration with opal, can make +it other than a talisman to bind him, and isolate him from the real +work of creating a Man able to be the providence of this world. Let +the rings, not only of Israel, but of Christianity, and of all sects, +be thrown into the flames of human love, that there may be formed a +coronet for the Mother whose patient all-loving face poetry and science +are revealing. “In this principle,” said Clifford, of the evolution of +organic from inorganic things, “we must recognise the mother of life, +and especially of human life, powerful enough to subdue the elements, +and yet always working gently against them; biding her time in the +whole expanse of heaven, to make the highest cosmos out of inorganic +chaos; the actor, not of all the actions of living things, but only of +the good actions; for a bad action is one by which the organism tends +to be less organic, and acts for a time as if inorganic. To this mother +of life, personifying herself in the good works of humanity, it seems +to me we may fitly address a splendid hymn of Mr. Swinburne’s: + + “Mother of man’s time-travelling generations, + Breath of his nostrils, heart-blood of his heart, + God above all Gods worshipped of all nations, + Light above light, law beyond law, thou art. + + “Thy face is as a sword smiting in sunder + Shadows and chains and dreams and iron things; + The sea is dumb before thy face, the thunder + Silent, the skies are narrower than thy wings. + + * * * * * + + “All old grey histories hiding thy clear features, + O secret spirit and sovereign, all men’s tales, + Creeds woven of men thy children and thy creatures, + They have woven for vestures of thee and for veils. + + “Thine hands, without election or exemption, + Feed all men fainting from false peace or strife, + O thou, the resurrection and redemption, + The godhead, and the manhood, and the life!” + + + + + XX. + + THREE WITNESSES. + + +In Prague there is an ancient Synagogue, the interior of which is black +with the mould and dust of seven centuries. There is a tradition that +at some unknown point in it the holy name of Jahve is written, and, for +fear of its obliteration, no cleansing or sweeping, however slight, +has been permitted, until now the Synagogue has become a show-place +of accumulated dirt, which tourists pass through with torches. This +ancient structure is but a too faithful symbol of temples which +preserve the superstitions of ages through fear that, if some holy name +or creed be touched, religion and morality will suffer. + +Early in the last generation three Jewish boys--Israel, Jacob, and +Henoch--were seated together in this Synagogue on a Saturday morning, +awaiting the beginning of service. They were of different families, but +playmates. No person was near them, and, oblivious of the traditional +prohibitions, they began to amuse themselves by scraping off with their +knives an inch of the black mould, here and there, to see what wood or +stone was beneath. The Rabbi, happening to pass at the time, cried out +with horror at the sacrilege, and said, “The curse of Heaven may fall +on you for that act!” + +The terrified lads put up their knives. Some neighbours who heard the +voice of the angry Rabbi, but not his exact words, reported that he +had said, “May the curse of Heaven fall on you for that act!” And this +was the form in which the story was whispered about. Gradually a small +saga grew up among the Jews of Prague about these three boys. They +were regarded with an evil eye, under which their prospects suffered +blight; they were supposed to be under some mysterious doom, they were +avoided, and their families suffered much distress. The venerable +Rabbi, repenting of his hasty words, tried to disabuse the minds of his +congregation as to what he had said; but he was unable to undo what +had been done. As the three advanced towards youth, the prejudices +against them, and the belief that a doom overhung them, made their +lives so miserable, that they desired to leave Prague altogether, and +their parents thought this the best course. The families were in good +circumstances, and the young men went off fairly well educated and +with some means. They resolved to emigrate to different regions. + +Jacob went to Northern Germany. He entered a university there and +succeeded in his studies. Animated by the hope of doing so well in +life that his parents might ultimately have the happiness of seeing +the prejudices of their neighbours disappear, he presently excelled +all other students. He became a favourite with the professors. But +this excited the jealousy of other students. These conspired against +him, and one of their best swordsmen was appointed to pick a quarrel +with him. The quarrel came; Jacob was challenged; in the duel he +received an ugly wound, which deprived him of one eye, disfigured him, +and injured his health. These troubles gradually affected his nerves +to such an extent that his mind was partially affected. He began to +suspect that there might be some truth in the belief of the neighbours +in Prague, that he had fallen under a divine curse for having cleaned +an inch of the old Synagogue-wall. This dread grew upon him to such +an extent that, from having been a courageous youth, he became timid. +Whenever he went out at night he seemed to be confronted by the student +with whom he had fought the duel. He began to be looked upon as an +uncanny person by the common people in the city where he dwelt. Some +even hustled him on the street, and the Christian boys sometimes threw +refuse at the miserable man. He was one evening purposely tripped by +some one and suffered a severe fall, which lamed him. Amid the shadows +that darkened his room, which had gradually become dingy through +poverty, he imagined that, like the patriarch after whom he was named, +he had wrestled with a dark phantom, which, however, had prevailed +against him. The curse seemed to be fixed upon him irremissibly. The +accumulated filth of the old Synagogue of Prague had carried with +it the accumulated superstitions of ages; his childish attempt to +clear away a little of that visible mould had been vain, and he was +now equally helpless to free any smallest space of his own mind from +hereditary beliefs in dooms, spectres, spells. Thus he wandered, +limping, miserable, amid Christian scoffs and Jewish suspicions, and so +he wanders this day. + +The second of the lads that left Prague, Israel, came to England, where +he was well educated. He thought over this Prague incident carefully, +and came to feel a certain contempt for a Synagogue which so jealously +cherished all its dirt. He found it written in the Talmud that “next +to godliness is cleanliness,” and began to perceive that the filth +he had tried to scrape off was a type of the irrational usages and +petty exactions which had overlaid the religion of his race. He had +united himself to a Synagogue in London which was kept fair and +beautiful; but, as time wore on, he found that around the good hearts +and fine minds of the English Jews there were walls on which had +gathered the repulsive dust and dirt of ages transmitted from ancient +Syria. So Israel resolved that he would make good the promise of his +boyish knife, and clear away some of the spiritual mould from English +Judaism. His attempts at reform awakened the ire of Wardens, the +hostility of Rabbins, and the opposition of a wealthy Semitic caste. +Israel still believed in Jahve, and in the fundamental doctrines of +the Jewish faith; he believed that if Judaism could be freed from its +antiquarian walls it must lead the world. But he struggled in vain for +years to secure from the chiefs of the Synagogues any modification +of their usages. Furthermore, his efforts in this direction began to +tell seriously upon his personal prospects. He had studied law, been +admitted to the bar, and for a time found some employment from his +co-religionists; but after it was discovered that he was endeavouring +to interfere with the traditional usages of the Synagogue, he soon +found himself without clients, and with but a few friends--these being +of Christian families. + +One evening Israel went to a theatre in London to witness the +performance of the _Merchant of Venice_. He was much impressed by an +incident of the Bible used by Shylock as a parable, wherein Jacob stuck +wands before the ewes in breeding-time, and secured parti-coloured +lambs, which, according to Laban’s agreement, were all to fall to his +(Jacob’s) part. Shylock says: + + “This was a way to thrive, and he was blest; + And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not.” + +The Christian Antonio must needs accept the “holy witness” of a book +infallible to him and Shylock alike, and says that the result so good +for Jacob was “sway’d and fashioned by the hand of Heaven.” Israel went +away from the theatre to his poor room, and bethought him that, great +as was the wealth and power of a few Jews, the parti-coloured lambs had +somehow fallen to the Christian lot. Was the “hand of Heaven” in this? +If the declaration of Jahve of old that his approval should be manifest +in blessings, his disapproval in cursings, were faithful, could there +be any doubt where the divine approbation rested in England? Was +Houndsditch the seal of Jahve’s benediction on his people? or was not +Belgravia rather the expression of his smile? Houndsditch and Belgravia +alike appealed to Jahve; to which had he sent the multitude of spring +lambs and the plenteous wool? + +The germ that fell into Israel’s mind at the theatre gradually grew. +He presently found that the traditions of Judaism attained their +real power and glory in Christianity. In the end he was baptized; he +was speedily surrounded by troops of friends. He possessed brilliant +powers, and became eminent in literary and political life. Even his +former co-religionists were inclined to utilise him, now that he no +longer attempted to use his pen-knife on their mouldy customs. He +was able to serve them in many ways, they were willing to repay his +services; and, thus, assisted by the race which gained prestige through +his genius without the danger of it, and by the Christian community +which saw in him a triumph of Christ, he became a great minister of +State and a favourite in Palaces. And such he is to this day. + +The third of the three youths who left Prague, Henoch, wandered +restlessly through Asia and Europe--then came to France. He also was a +man of brilliant powers, and for some time kept up his friendship with +young Israel in London. In the course of their correspondence, the idea +arose in him also of trying to reform the Synagogue to which he had +attached himself in Paris. He failed in the same way, but the effect on +his mind was different. He could not recognise a direction from Jahve +in the superior thrift of Christendom. He had heard that in America the +Jews were in every way more liberal and progressive, and he resolved to +emigrate thither. For this purpose he engaged a passage, and repaired +to Havre to take his steamer. + +On his way to the wharf in Havre, Henoch was passing a small +book-stall, when his attention was arrested by the appearance of the +bookseller. This was an extremely aged Jew, with long white beard, +deep-set eyes, and a queer, antique figure. He sat beside his little +stand of dingy fourth-hand books, holding a small volume in his +bony fingers, which he perused attentively. Henoch approached him +and, speaking in Hebrew, asked him what books he had suitable for a +traveller. The old man asked him whither he was travelling, and having +received the reply, said: “Ah, that, too, was my dream; but I never got +farther than this. I am too old now--too old and too poor--and must +leave the New World hope for our younger men. But I sit here, and read +about that land of promise, and my dim old eyes follow every ship that +sails that way.” Henoch asked to look at the book the aged Jew had +been reading. It was an old Spanish book--Herrera’s _History of the +Indies_. Israel knew the language, and proposed to buy the book. The +aged bookseller was somewhat reluctant but finally said: “It is the +story of the discovery of the New World to which you are going; take +it, with an old man’s good will; and may you carry to America something +better than those Spaniards did, who tried to plant there every evil +the Old World had produced!” + +On board the steamer Henoch read this book, and one narrative in it +haunted his memory. It related that when the Spaniards had taken +possession of the newly-discovered island they called Hispaniola--now +Cuba--they began to trade in the Indians, who were shipped off as +slaves to various regions. The island found itself in want of Indians, +and having heard that the neighbouring Lucayan Isles were full of +them, asked permission of King Ferdinand to allow them to bring these +Lucayans over to Hispaniola, “that they might enjoy the preaching and +political customs” which they (the Spaniards) had introduced. Having +received this permission, the Spaniards went over to the Lucayans and +told those simple islanders that they had come from the paradise of +their ancestors; they said that all whom they (the Lucayans) had loved +and lost by death were now in a happy abode, enjoying perfect repose +and every felicity; and that their ships were ready to bear them to +that happy land. The poor Lucayans crowded with laughter and joy to the +Spanish ships; the light of the Blessed Isle shone upon their faces. +They sailed away from their island home, where they had known only +peace and friendship, and were soon all working in dark mines under the +slave-driver’s scourge. The kid was seethed in its mother’s milk. + +Henoch read and re-read this tragic history, and looked out over the +sea westward. What a fearful fate was that of hearts that followed a +dream of paradise which led them into slavery and despair! But slavery, +what is it? Is it only the subjection of one will to another? or +bondage of the body to toil for others? May there not be islanders, +even amid continents, following dreams of paradise, and of clasping +their ancestral dead, into spiritual slavery, into a living entombment +among skeletons and simulacra of things for ever turned to dust? + +In the vision of Henoch there arose a memory of the ancient Synagogue +at Prague. His eyes filled with tears as he recalled the dear and +tender faces that he had seen there. His kind father, his gentle +mother, the good-hearted neighbours, the once happy circle of +playmates--how fair and peaceful that Lucaya had been! But it was all +at the mercy of a bit of dirt come down from the thirteenth century, +consecrated by awe of four letters of a dead language. Under that spell +kindly hearts had turned to stone, suspicions arisen, fear and dread, +and from the ruin of a happy home he had been sent to wander through +the world. The dream of an ancestral paradise had made that blackened +Synagogue as dark a mine as any in which the discoverers of the New +World set the islanders to toil; it had imprisoned the Jewish genius +and chained the Jewish heart. + +One morning, when his thought was full of these reflections, and the +book received from the ancient Jew at Havre was open before him, Henoch +caught his first sight of the New World, radiant in the sunshine. He +resolved that into that land of fresh opportunity he would carry no +dogma or custom which rested upon tradition or authority. In that land +he saw the human race given a fresh opportunity, and he also would +begin again. The Old World had followed its dreams of heaven through +massacres and martyrdoms into a dreary and endless routine of wrong, +which found its fit symbol in that fable his experience could well +interpret, of an eternal Wanderer. + +His own race had been mainly responsible for that fatal misdirection of +the energies and enthusiasm of the Old World which, had it not sought +a Paradise among the dead, might have made the earth a paradise for +the living. Now he would consecrate his powers to persuade the people +of the human race, to which in America he might belong, to burn behind +them all these holy ships of Zion in which the Past might be imported, +and to receive the Past only as it might be able to minister to +science, or might come in confessions of the moral ruin it had wrought, +as a warning for the new Age. + +In the New World, Henoch began his work of founding societies whose +religion is to perform divine service for mankind, to make every day +eternal, and to steadily transfigure man with the shining light of +science and pure raiment of a renovated world. The wanderings of Henoch +have changed to unhasting, unresting progressions, traceable in fair +transformations. His eloquence, which has learned every sweet and +subtle tone of the Past, and caught the brave accents of hope, wins +the Christian from his cross and the Jew from his altar. He is still a +welcome Voice in the cities, sierras, savannas, eldorados, crying THE +KINGDOM OF MAN IS AT HAND. + + + THE END. + + + + + FOOTNOTES: + + +[1] Some excellent remarks on this subject, and historical +illustrations, are contained in an article in the late _Theological +Review_ (July, 1871) on the “Nero Saga,” by W. M. W. Call. + +[2] The _Heimskringla_. Translated by Samuel Laing. Longmans, 1844. +Vol. i., p. 225. + +[3] Macaulay’s “History of England,” ch. viii. Fourth edition. + +[4] “La Morte d’Arthur.” Compiled by Sir Thomas Mallory (Conybeare’s +edition). Moxon, 1868, p. 404. The Cornish legend was that Arthur would +return to drive the Saxons from Britain. Similar stories are told of +Sir Gawaine, Ogier, and others. + +[5] “Demonology and Devil-lore.” (Index.) See Sir G. W. Cox, “Mythology +of the Aryan Nations.” Keightley, “Fairy Mythology,” i. 74, _sq._ +Folk-lore Record, ii. 1, _sq._ + +[6] Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, i. 318. + +[7] Haug’s Essays, etc., p. 277. + +[8] Max Müller’s _Science of Language_, vol. ii. p. 563. + +[9] See the statement by one of the interlocutors in Dr. Kalisch’s +admirable work _Path and Goal_, p. 348. (Longmans, 1880.) + +[10] See Ewald’s _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_, i. 353 (Russell +Martineau’s Translation, p. 264, _sq._). For traditions concerning +Seth, see also my _Demonology and Devil-lore_, as per Index. + +[11] Pierotti; _Customs and Traditions of Palestine_. + +[12] When the abyss between biblical and other mythology has ceased to +be so convenient, perhaps there may be traced some connection between +the ravens that fed Elias and those birds of Odin that circle around +Raven’s Hill where Barbarossa sleeps; and also between Elias and our +folk-tales of Æolus. + +[13] It would be an interesting question, but one that cannot be +discussed here, to consider how far the idea of eternal Wanderers may +have been primarily connected with the ever-returning heavenly bodies. +Ewald and Goldziher agree that the years of Enoch’s visible life, 365, +indicate the solar year. Ewald thinks he was probably a god of the New +Year. + +[14] See Professor Drummond’s “The Jewish Messiah,” etc. In Haug’s +_Essays_ will be found a full account of Yima and his earthly paradise. + +[15] The blindness ascribed to Teiresias presents a curious coincidence +with that attributed to Lamech in Legendary Art, which leads to his +accidentally killing Cain with an arrow. In both cases the significance +probably is that of one who is blind to immediate consequences while +seeing or carrying out the decrees of Fate. + +[16] Mrs. Jameson (_Sacred and Legendary Art_, i., 208) has given fully +the legend of St. James. In the year 936 he appeared to King Ramirez +in Spain promising him a victory over the Moors, and, on the following +day, he (St. James) appeared at the head of the army on a milk-white +horse, when sixty thousand Moors were slain; hence the Spanish war-cry +“Santiago.” + +[17] The sacred footprints of Christ are also pointed out on the Mount +of Olives, and at Poitiers, Arles, Fécamp, Rheims, and Soissons. + +[18] Herbelot: _Bibl. Orient._ iii. p. 607 (ref. by Grässe). + +[19] A curious instance of the supremacy of the artist over the +man, when Goethe’s horror of dogs is remembered. Goethe threw up +his connection with Weimar Theatre because Carl August insisted on +admitting, to ‘perform’ on the stage, the animal which this poem +introduces into Paradise. + +[20] This legend may, in turn, have helped to create the figure of Don +Juan, the unsaintly Wanderer whose story is possibly related to the +mythology we are considering. There are interesting suggestions in Le +Sage’s _Diable Boiteux_, but the figure of Don Juan awaits further +study. + +[21] The present grotto was built in 1879. The old one, which I saw +the year before, had on its ceiling faint frescoes of the sun, moon, +and stars--recalling the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus who +turned their backs on Divus Cæsar, saying they would worship him alone +who made the sun, moon, and stars. The angel Gabriel, who led them into +Paradise, guided them mythologically to Touraine, of old called “the +Paradise of France.” + +[22] This legend has been discussed by Mr. Call, in an essay already +referred to (p. 30). From references kindly supplied by him, I incline +to believe it of Eastern origin. It is mentioned by Tacitus (Hist. ii. +81), and by the Sibylline Oracles (iv.), at nearly the same period. +Suetonius, Commodianus, Victorious, and Sulpicias Severus, were +familiar with the story that Nero was still alive. Neander, Merivale, +and Canon Farrar, connect the legend with the formation of the theory +of an Antichrist. + +[23] _Introduction to the Science of Language_, vol. ii. p. 246. “It +is remarkable,” adds Professor Sayce, “that a French range of hills in +the neighbourhood of Vienne bears the same name as the Swiss mountain, +and from the same cause. Vienne, however was actually the place to +which Pilate was banished; and the accidental coincidence is a striking +example of the impossibility of our discovering historic truth in a +myth, although we may know from other sources that it has accidentally +attached itself to a real event. Close to Vienne is a ruin called the +‘Tour de Mauconseil,’ from which, it is said, Pilate threw himself in +despair. But the value of the legend may be easily estimated when we +learn that the tower is really a _tête-du-pont_ built by Philippe de +Valois.” + +[24] _Emanuel Swedenborg; his Life and Writings._ By William White. +(Simpkin, Marshall and Co., 1868.) P. 197, _sq._ + +[25] _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart._ Dr. Adolf Wuttke. +Berlin, 1869. + +[26] _Deutsche Mythologie_, xiii. 5, 6. (Tr. by J. S. Stallybrass. +Sonnenschein and Allen, 1880.) + +[27] _The Gentleman’s Magazine_, July, 1880. _Wodan, the Wild Huntsman, +and the Wandering Jew._ + +[28] See Knight’s _Shakspeare_, notes to the _Merchant of +Venice_.--Blanco White, in his _Letters from Spain_ (1806), speaking +of the Passion Week shows, says: “The dress of the Apostle John is +green, that of Judas yellow; and so intimately associated is this +circumstance with the idea of the traitor, that it has brought that +colour into universal discredit.... The Inquisition has adopted it for +the _Sambeníto_, a coat of infamy, which persons convicted of heresy +are compelled to wear. The red hair of Judas, like Peter’s baldness, +seems to be agreed upon by all the painters and sculptors of Europe. +_Judas’ hair_ is a usual name in Spain; and a similar appellation, +it should seem, was used in England in Shakspeare’s time. ‘His hair’ +says Rosalind, ‘is of the dissembling colour.’ To which Celia answers +‘Something browner than Judas’s.’” + +[29] _English and Scottish Ballads_, viii. 78. + +[30] Morrison’s translation (Bohn). + +[31] Robert Browning: “Holy-Cross Day.” + +[32] “Quel est donc l’origine et la date de cette légende? Je la +crois, comme celle du voile de sainte Véronique et généralement comme +toutes les histoires relatives à la Passion, née vers le quatrième +siècle, à Constantinople, et contemporaine de sainte Hélène et de +la découverte de la vraie croix. Mais ces traditions sont restées +longtemps orales.”--_Revue des Deux Mondes_, Dec. 1, 1833. Published as +introduction to Quinet’s “Ahasuerus.” Goethe connects Saint Veronica +with Ahasuerus in the plan of his intended work elsewhere given. +Veronica, whose name means the _true portrait_ (_i.e._ of Christ +which was retained on the apron with which she wiped the sweat from +his face), would be a natural counterpart of the man who refused all +succour to the fainting sufferer. In enthusiasm about the _true cross_ +might be born a myth of the _true image_, and of a “witness” to both. + +[33] _Nineteenth Century_, May, 1880. + +[34] “_Study of Shakspeare._” (Chatto and Windus.) + +[35] _Le Mahabarata_, p. 241. + +[36] The ‘omnificent,’ who offered up all worlds in a general +sacrifice, and ended by sacrificing himself. + +[37] _Madoc_, xi. This, however, is contrary to Welsh orthodoxy. I +remember being present at a dinner-company in Wales, given to Ralph +Waldo Emerson, when a gentleman present was sceptical enough to assure +the eminent American that though he had often passed the traditional +spot of Merlin’s aërial prison, he had never heard any voice from the +air, and did not believe the story. Emerson answered: “You must be a +bold man.” + +[38] _Folk-lore of the Northern Counties._ Published for the Folk-lore +Society by Satchell, Peyton and Co. 1879. P. 82. + +[39] The outlines of German poems that follow, are condensed from +a pamphlet entitled:--_Die Sage vom ‘Ewigen Juden,’ ihre poetische +Wandlung und Fortbildung_. Von Friedrich Helbig. Berlin, 1874. For this +pamphlet and assistance in its translation I am indebted to Fräulein +Almata Jacobi (Bremen). + +[40] _Superstition and Force._ By Henry C. Lea, p. 26. Philadelphia, +1878. + +[41] _Nathan the Wise._ From the German, with an introduction, by R. +Willis, M.D. London: Williams and Norgate. + + + + + Transcriber’s Note + + +Some inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have +been retained. + +This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text and =equals= to +indicate bold text. Small capitals changed to all capitals. + +p. 5: changed “rimće” to “rimée” (the Chronique rimée of Philippe de +Mousket) + +p. 44: changed “prononnced” to “pronounced” (destiny pronounced by his +father) + +p. 79: changed “nside” to “inside” (serpents and iron prongs inside) + +p. 121 (footnote 32): changed “généralment” to “généralement” (et +généralement comme toutes) + +p. 148: changed “Shylook’s” to “Shylock’s” (his part of Shylock’s +penalty) + +p. 230: changed “guage” to “gauge” (Nor in security scrupulous to gauge) + +p. 254: changed “taughthim” to “taught him” (had taught him otherwise) + +p. 269: changed “rest” to “test” (the test and register of civilisation) + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77755 *** diff --git a/77755-h/77755-h.htm b/77755-h/77755-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16ebb75 --- /dev/null +++ b/77755-h/77755-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8781 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <title> + The Wandering Jew | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.png" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} +.title-spaced { line-height: 150%; } +.title-xs { font-size: 65%; } +.title-small { font-size: 85%; } +.title-large { font-size: 125%; } +.titleh2 { font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: bold; } + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 0.25em; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + +blockquote { + margin-top: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + +figcaption {font-weight: bold;} +figcaption p {margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: .2em; text-align: inherit;} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +/*.poetry-container {text-align: center;}*/ +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + + +/* indent paragraphs */ +p { text-indent: 1em; } +p.noindent { text-indent: 0; } + +/* de-emphasize page numbers */ +.pagenum { color: #bbbbbb; } + +/* TN styling */ +.transnote { + background-color: inherit; + border: 1px dashed #bbbbbb; + margin-top: 3em; + page-break-before: always; +} + +/* don't visibly style abbr */ +abbr { + border: none; + text-decoration: none; + font-variant: normal; +} +/* abbrs that should be read letter-by-letter */ +abbr.spell { speak: spell-out; } + +/* don't wrap; better than invisible word joiner char? */ +.nowrap { white-space: nowrap; } + + +/* Poetry indents */ +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3.0em;} +.poetry .indent1 {text-indent: -2.5em;} +.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2.0em;} +.poetry .indent3 {text-indent: -1.5em;} +.poetry .indent6 {text-indent: 0.0em;} +.poetry .indent7 {text-indent: 0.2em;} +.poetry .indent8 {text-indent: 1.0em;} +.poetry .indent10 {text-indent: 2.0em;} +.poetry .indent12 {text-indent: 3.0em;} +.poetry .indent14 {text-indent: 2.0em;} +.poetry .indent16 {text-indent: 3.5em;} +.poetry .indent17 {text-indent: 4.5em;} +.poetry .indent20 {text-indent: 5.0em;} +.poetry .indent26 {text-indent: 8.0em;} +.poetry .star {margin-left: 3em;} + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illowe8 {width: 5em;} + +.nonitalic { font-style: normal; } + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77755 ***</div> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</span></p> + + +<h1> +<span class="title-xs">THE</span><br> +WANDERING JEW +</h1> + + +<p class="center p2 title-spaced"><span class="title-small">BY</span><br> +<span class="title-large">MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY</span><br> +<span class="title-small">AUTHOR OF “DEMONOLOGY AND DEVIL-LORE”</span></p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowe8" id="i_logo"> + <img class="w100 p2" src="images/i_logo.png" alt="The publisher's logo, depicting an owl perched atop two books"> +</figure> + +<p class="center p2 title-spaced">NEW YORK<br> +<span class="title-large">HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY</span><br> +1881</p> + + +<p class="center p2"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</span> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1881,<br> +by</span><br> +MONCURE D. CONWAY.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE"> + PREFACE. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">It</span> might be offered as a sufficient reason for writing this +book that no other treatise on the same subject exists in +our language. But to this it may be added, that in pamphlets +that have appeared in other languages, the relations of +the Legend with Eastern mythology have been little considered, +and its connection with Hebrew and Christian +mythology almost ignored. Furthermore, those studies of the +Legend which I have read consider it mainly as a curiosity. +But the subject, as it appears to me, possesses a larger significance. +Even the poems and romances it has suggested +fail to render the still sad music of humanity pervading the +variations of the folk-tale itself.</p> + +<p>The Legend of the “Wandering Jew” is an example of +how the folk-tale may sometimes be a mirror brought by +Truth from the bottom of her well—the heart of the child-like +world—wherein may be seen by reflection things that +few eyes can look upon directly. The splendours now +gathered around a triumphant Christ conceal from many +the face of the changeling really there. But children, fools, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</span>and folk-lore speak the truth. The modern French song +says, “Jesus, who is goodness itself, sighing said, Thou shalt +march till Judgment Day.” There is a touch of sceptical +sophistication here. But among the many earlier songs, +ballads, stories, there is not one which betrays the faintest +suspicion of anything in the curse on the Wanderer not characteristic +of Jesus. No one tried to soften the case. Another +widespread legend relates that once when Jesus begged bread +of a baker, the dough prepared for him was reduced, before +being placed in the oven, by the baker’s daughter; whereupon +Jesus taught her the beauty of kindness by changing +her into a deathless owl. Ophelia murmurs: “They say +the owl was a baker’s daughter. Lord, we know what we +are, but know not what we may be.” These last words +would not have been inappropriate for the owl to address to +a Christ whose transformation her own reflected. Is +this only a fantastic tale? It is coinage of the creed +that a human word or action may find its fair measure in +ages of penalty. In it is the fictitious equation of every +theology which unites ancient divinities not subject to +moral laws with human ideals. The sacerdotal sorcery +which for the lover of enemies substituted a curser of +enemies is discoverable in the earliest Christian theology; +but the working out of it among the masses is not told in +histories. The true record remains to be written, and the +materials for it are indestructibly preserved in such legendary +lore as this of the Wandering Jew.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS"> + CONTENTS. + </h2> +</div> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="1">I.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">THE LEGEND</a></td> +<td class="tdr">3</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="2">II.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">THE UNDYING ONES</a></td> +<td class="tdr">29</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="3">III.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">SOURCES OF THE MYTH</a></td> +<td class="tdr">38</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="4">IV.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">THE LEGENDS GENERALISED</a></td> +<td class="tdr">52</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="5">V.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">TRANSFIGURATION</a></td> +<td class="tdr">56</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="6">VI.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">MANTLES OF THE IMMORTALS</a></td> +<td class="tdr">65</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="7">VII.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">THE MARK OF CAIN</a></td> +<td class="tdr">71</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="8">VIII.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">THE JEW IN THEOLOGY</a></td> +<td class="tdr">80</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="9">IX.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">THE JEW IN FOLK-LORE</a></td> +<td class="tdr">87</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="10">X.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">THE WEIRD OF THE WANDERER</a></td> +<td class="tdr">93</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="11">XI.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">“THE VERY DEVIL INCARNATION”</a></td> +<td class="tdr">104</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="12">XII.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">THE WANDERING RACE</a></td> +<td class="tdr">109</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="13">XIII.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">THE POUND OF FLESH</a></td> +<td class="tdr">118</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="14">XIV.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">THE WANDERING JEW IN FOLK-LORE</a></td> +<td class="tdr">150</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="15">XV.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">THE NEW AHASUERUS IN GERMANY</a></td> +<td class="tdr">166</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="16">XVI.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">THE NEW AHASUERUS IN FRANCE</a></td> +<td class="tdr">204</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="17">XVII.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">THE NEW AHASUERUS IN ENGLAND</a></td> +<td class="tdr">225</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="18">XVIII.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">AHASUERUS VINCTUS</a></td> +<td class="tdr">249</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="19">XIX.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">AHASUERUS DELIVERED</a></td> +<td class="tdr">269</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"><abbr title="20">XX.</abbr></td> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">THREE WITNESSES</a></td> +<td class="tdr">281</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a><a id="Page_3"></a>[Pg 3]</span> + <p class="center titleh2" id="THE_WANDERING_JEW_1"> + THE WANDERING JEW. + </p> + <h2 class="nobreak p2" id="CHAPTER_I"> + <abbr title="1">I.</abbr><br> + THE LEGEND. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">In</span> the year 1228, an Armenian bishop visited +England; and the purport of his conversation is +recorded in the <cite lang="la">Historia Major</cite>, begun by Roger de +Wendover and completed (anno 1259) by Matthæus +Parisius. The interviews between the monks and the +Armenian took place at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Albans, through Henri +Spigurnel, a French interpreter, a native of Antioch +and servant of the bishop; and if the replies of the +Eastern prelate were rightly rendered, his tendency +to the marvellous was sufficiently strong. He was +asked, for instance, whether he had seen Noah’s Ark, +said to be still preserved on an Armenian mountain, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span>and he replied “Yes.” He was also asked whether +he knew anything of “the famous Joseph,” so much +discussed, said to have been preserved from the time +of the crucifixion of Christ, as a witness of that +event. The interpreter said that the personage in +question had dined with his master shortly before +they left Armenia, and then gave the story as +follows. The name of the wonderful Jew was +originally Cartaphilus, and he was Pilate’s doorkeeper +at the time of Christ’s trial. When the young +men were leading Jesus out from the hall of judgment, +this doorkeeper struck him on the neck, and +said, “Go, Jesus; go on faster: why dost thou linger?” +Jesus turned, and answered, “I will go, but thou shalt +remain waiting until I come.” (Here is quoted <abbr title="Matthew">Matt.</abbr> +<abbr title="26">xxvi.</abbr> 24: “The Son of man goeth as it is written of +Him; but woe unto that man by whom the Son of +man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if +he had not been born.”) Thenceforth Cartaphilus +has been waiting. He was thirty years when he +insulted Christ, and whenever he reaches the age of +one hundred he faints; on his recovery he finds +himself as young as when his doom was pronounced. +(Which, again, reminds the Chronicler of a text, <abbr title="Psalm">Ps.</abbr> +<abbr title="103">ciii.</abbr> 5: “Thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s;” +and no doubt he was coming near a myth to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span>which this item of the story is related, that of the +Phœnix.) It was further related that Cartaphilus +had been baptized by Ananias (who baptized Paul) +under the name of Joseph. He lives among eminent +Christians in Armenia as a holy man; relates to +them and to others who visit him, sometimes from +great distances, much concerning the Apostles: he +never smiles, but sometimes weeps; refuses gifts, is +frugal, and talks little. He hopes for final forgiveness, +because he knew not what he did. The Chronicle +adds that this story was attested by Richardus de +Argentomio, who visited the East.</p> + +<p>The same archbishop is quoted for the story told +in <span id="TN1">the <cite lang="fr">Chronique rimée</cite> of Philippe de Mousket</span>, born +1220, Bishop of Tournai in 1682. When the Jews +were leading Jesus to execution, “this man” (no name +is given) said, “Wait for me: I also am going to see +the false prophet fastened to the cross.” Jesus turned +upon him and said, “They will not wait for thee, but +thou shalt wait for me.” This man would seem to +have been a Jew, whereas Cartaphilus was a Roman.</p> + +<p>These are the earliest written records of the legend +of the Wandering Jew. From that time no trace of it +appears until the year 1547, when an individual +seems to have appeared in Hamburg, pretending to +be the Wandering Jew himself. The legend and its +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span>representative appeared in German annals simultaneously. +The fullest account is in a work published +1613: <cite lang="de">Newe Zeitung von einem Juden von Jerusalem, +Ahasuerus genannt, welcher die Creutzigung unsers +Herrn Jhesu Christi gesehen, und noch am leben ist, +aus Dantzig an einem guten Freund geschrieben</cite>. The +name appended to this narrative is “Herr Chrysostomus +Duduläus Westphalus,” which Grässe believes +a pseudonym. The author, however, embodies statements +made in an earlier work: <cite>Strange Report of a +Jew, born at Jerusalem, named Ahasuerus, who pretends +he was present at the crucifixion of Christ. +Newly printed at Leyden, Leipzig, 1602.</cite> From the +same source came, <cite>True likeness of the whole form of +a Jew, seen by all, from Jerusalem, who pretends, <abbr>etc.</abbr> +First printed at Augspurg, 1619.</cite> The narrative of +Westphalus is as follows:</p> + +<p>“Paulus von Eizen, Doctor and Bishop of Schleswig, +related to me, some years ago, that at the time +he was studying at Wittenberg, while on a visit to +his parents at Hamburg, in 1547, he had seen in +church, placed near the chancel, a very tall man, with +hair falling on his shoulders, barefoot, who listened to +the sermon with great attention; and whenever the +name of Jesus was mentioned, bowed humbly, smote +his breast, and sighed. His only clothing was a pair +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span>of trousers, ragged at the ends, and a coat tied with +a cord which fell to his feet. He appeared to be fifty +years of age. There seem to have been many of the +nobility and gentry who have seen this man, in England, +France, Italy, Hungary, Persia, Spain, Poland, +Moscow, Lieffland, Sweden, Denmark, and Scotland, +and in other regions. Everyone has marvelled much +at him. And the aforenamed Doctor, having made +inquiries as to where he could converse with this +man, and having found him, asked him whence he +came, and how long he had been there during that +winter. On this the man very humbly told him +that he was by birth a Jew of Jerusalem, named +Ahasuerus, his occupation that of a shoemaker; that +he had been present at the crucifixion of Christ, since +which time he had been alive; that he had travelled +through many countries and cities; and to prove that +he was telling the truth, he had knowledge of various +events which had occurred since that time, as well as +of all the events which had happened to Christ when +he was brought before Pilate and Herod and finally +crucified. He told even more than we know through +the evangelists and historians; and he narrated the +many changes of government, especially in Eastern +countries, which had occurred at one time or another +during those many centuries. Then he related most +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span>minutely the life, sufferings, and death of the holy +Apostles. And now, when <abbr>Dr.</abbr> Paulus of Eizen, with +great interest and astonishment, had heard these +things, in order to obtain more thorough knowledge, +he asked him to relate exactly all that happened. +Thereupon this man answered that, at the time of the +crucifixion, he resided in Jerusalem, and like others +he regarded Christ as a heretic; he had not thought +of him otherwise than as a misleader of the people; +and that with others he had endeavoured to get one +who in his eyes was a rebel out of the world. Soon +after the sentence had been pronounced by Pilate, +they led Jesus past his house. Knowing that he +would be led that way, he (Ahasuerus) had gone +home, and told all in his house that they might see +Jesus pass by and would know what kind of man he +was. Just as Jesus was passing, he took a child in +his arms and stood before his own door. Christ, +bearing a very heavy cross on his shoulders, stopped +a little before the shoemaker’s door and leaned +against the wall. Then the shoemaker, full of sudden +anger, and also desirous of public applause, told +Christ to move on whither he was ordered. Upon +this, Christ looked sternly upon him, and said, ‘I will +stand here and rest, but thou shalt move until the last +day!’ Upon this, he put the child down quickly on +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span>the floor, and could stay there no longer. He followed +Jesus, saw him miserably crucified, tortured, +and slain. After all had been fulfilled, it was impossible +for him to enter Jerusalem. He never saw his +wife and child again, but as a sad pilgrim has wandered +through foreign countries one after another. +When after many years he returned once more to +Jerusalem, he found everything sacked and destroyed, +so that he could recognise nothing: not one stone +was left upon another, nor any trace of the former +magnificence visible. What God now intended to do +with him, in leaving him in this miserable life wandering +about in such wretchedness, he could not explain +otherwise than that God wished him to remain until +the Day of Judgment as a living sign against the +Jews, by which the unbelieving and the godless +might be reminded of Christ’s death and be turned +to repentance. For his part he would be very happy if +God would take him to heaven out of this vale of tears.</p> + +<p>“After this report and conversation, <abbr>Dr.</abbr> Paulus of +Eizen asked, as also did the School-Inspector of +Hamburg, who was learned in ancient histories, the +right account of all sorts of things which had occurred +in Eastern countries after Christ’s birth and crucifixion. +This man gave a very good and exact report of all +these ancient events: so that people were obliged +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>to believe in him and his story, and went away +astonished, and saying, that with God all things are +possible—but with man they are inscrutable.</p> + +<p>“As to this Jew’s life it was very quiet and retired. +He did not talk much, and only when asked a question; +and when invited into a house, he did not eat or +drink much, being abstemious. He never stayed +long in one place. At Hamburg, Dantzig, and elsewhere, +when money was offered, he only accepted +two shillings, which soon after he gave to the poor, +with the remark that he did not need any money; +that the good God would provide for him because he +was penitent for his sin; and what he had ignorantly +done he would submit to God. None ever saw him +laugh. In whatever country he entered he knew the +language at once. At that time he spoke the Saxon +language as one born there. Many people came to +Hamburg, from neighbouring and even distant places, +to see and listen to this man, and believed that something +marvellous was indicated by him, because he +was not only attentive to the Word of God but showed +great reverence, and sighed whenever the name of +God or Christ was pronounced. He could never +hear anyone utter a curse. Whenever the name or +torture or sufferings of God were connected by any +excited person with a curse, he would sigh deeply, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>and say, ‘Miserable man, miserable creature! wilt +thou take lightly the name of thy Lord and God, and +of his great suffering and torture? Hadst thou seen +it as I did, hadst thou seen how hard the wound of +thy Saviour was for thee and me, thou wouldst rather +do a great harm to thyself than pronounce his name +lightly.’ All these things <abbr>Dr.</abbr> Paulus of Eizen told +me with truth and sincerity, with many other true +circumstances, which, since then, I have heard from +several old friends who also saw the same man at +Hamburg with their own eyes. Which things, also, +Paul of Eizen saw, and has told with truth and +earnestness.</p> + +<p>“Anno 1575. The Secretary Christoph Krause +and Magistrate Jacobus von Holstein had been sent +as ambassadors to the Royal Court of Spain, and +afterwards to the Netherlands, in order to pay the +soldiers who served in the royal [army]; and when +they had returned home again, being near Schleswig, +they solemnly related that they had seen this wonderful +man in Spain, with the identical appearance, +costume, manners, and mode of life. They had +spoken to him personally; and said that at the same +time many besides themselves heard him speak good +Spanish.</p> + +<p>“Anno 1599. In Christ’s month, a very trustworthy +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span>person wrote from Brunswick to Strasburg +that this wonderful man was then in Vienna, in +Austria, and that he intended to go from thence into +Poland and Dantzig, and after that to Moscow. This +Ahasuerus has been at Lubeck in 1601. And also at +Reffel in Lieffland, and in Cracow, Poland. He was +seen and spoken to by many people in Moscow.</p> + +<p>“What now sensible men shall think of all this I +leave to themselves. The providences of God are +marvellous, inscrutable, inexplicable; as time goes +on they will become more so; and they will only +be revealed to us at the last day.</p> + +<p>“<i>Dated at Reffel, the first of August, 1613.</i>—<span class="smcap">Chrysostomus +Duduläus Westphalus.</span>”</p> + +<p>Other notices of the Wandering Jew are as follows. +Nicolas Heldvaler (<cite lang="la">Sylva <abbr title="Chronologica">Chronol.</abbr> Circuli Baltici</cite>) says:</p> + +<p>“This year (1604) there has appeared a fable of +a Jew who is said to have been a shoemaker in +Jerusalem in the time of Christ, and having on Good +Friday struck Jesus with his shoe-last, cannot die, +but must wander about the world till the last day.”</p> + +<p>Rodolphe Bouthrays (Botereius), Parliamentary +Advocate of Paris (in his <cite lang="la">Commentarii de Rebus Historicis +in Gallia et toto pene Orbe gestis</cite>, <abbr lang="la" title="Liber">Lib.</abbr> <abbr title="11">xi.</abbr>, 1604), +mentions the report as wide-spread in his time. The +following is a translation from his Latin:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span></p> + +<p>“I am afraid that some may charge me with anile +trifling, if I insert in this page the story which is told +in the whole of Europe, concerning a Jew, a contemporary +of the Saviour Christ. Nothing, however, is +more widely-spread, and the vernacular history of our +own countrymen has not blushed to declare it. Thus +I have, as witnesses, those who formerly wrote our +Annals ... that he, not in one century [only] had +been seen and recognised in Spain, Italy and Germany, +but that this year it was he himself who was +seen at Hamburg, anno 1564. Many other things +the vulgar imagine about him, as it is prone to rumours; +which I relate, lest anything should remain +untold.”</p> + +<p>The following is a translation from the Latin of +Julius Cæsar Bulenger (<cite lang="la">Historiarium sui Temporis +Libri</cite>, Leyden, 1619):</p> + +<p>“It was reported at that time that a Jew, a contemporary +of Christ, who for more than a thousand +years had been a vagrant and a wanderer over the +whole world, was still wandering about without meat +and drink, having been condemned to that punishment +by God, because he was the first of the dregs of +the circumcised to cry out that Christ should be fixed +to the Cross, and that Barabbas the robber should be +released from the hook and the terror of the Cross. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>Afterwards, when Christ, panting from the weight of +the Cross, would have rested at his workshop, for he +was a mechanic, he ordered Him off with bitter words. +To whom Christ said, Because thou begrudgest me so +little rest, I will rest; and thou without rest shalt +wander. And it is told that presently, in less time +than the telling occupies, the man wandered frantic +and aimless throughout the whole city, that thence +his wanderings continue over the whole world even to +this present day, and that it was the very man who +was seen at Hamburg in the year 1564. ‘<span lang="la">Credat +Judæus Apella.</span>’ I did not see the man at that time, +since I was occupied at Paris, nor did I hear about +him from sufficiently trustworthy authorities.”</p> + +<p>Louvet mentions seeing him in 1604 at Beauvais, +surrounded by a crowd of children, speaking of the +Passion of Christ. He expresses regret that his contempt +for the fellow prevented his interrogating. He +asked and received alms at a certain house.</p> + +<p>S. H. Bangert (<cite lang="la">Commentatio de ortu vita et excessu +Coleri Jurisconsulti Lubecensis</cite>, Lubeck, 1644) mentions +that Coler left a memorandum in his diary to +the effect that “that immortal Jew, who asserted that +he had been present at the crucifixion of Christ, was +at Lubeck on the <abbr>14th</abbr> January, 1603.”</p> + +<p>Martin Zeiler (<cite lang="la">Historici Chronologi et Geographi +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span>Celebres Collecti</cite>, Ulm, 1653) mentions the Wandering +Jew. Among his Letters Zeiler cites one by Westphalus, +substantially the same as his account (1613) +already quoted, as having been written to one of his +(Westphalus’) friends.</p> + +<p>In the year 1644 the ‘Turkish Spy’ writes from +Paris (Book <abbr title="3">III.</abbr> Letter <abbr title="1">I.</abbr>) to Ibraham Haly Cheik, a +Man of the Law, as follows:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>“There is a man come to this city, if he may be +called a man, who pretends to have lived above these +sixteen hundred years. They call him the Wandering +Jew. But some say he is an impostor. He says +of himself that he was Usher of the Divan in +Jerusalem (the Jews call it the Court of Judgment), +where all criminal causes were tried, at the time +when Jesus, the Son of Mary, the Christian’s Messias, +was condemned by Pontius Pilate, the Roman President. +That his name was Michob Ader; and that +for thrusting Jesus out of the Hall with these words, +‘Go, why tarriest thou?’ the Messias answered him +again, ‘I go, but tarry thou till I come;’ thereby +condemning him to live till the Day of Judgment. +He pretends to remember the Apostles that lived in +those days, and that he himself was baptized by one +of them; that he has travelled through all the regions +of the world, and so must continue to be a vagabond +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>till the Messias shall return again. They say that he +heals all diseases by touching the part affected. +Divers other miracles are ascribed to him by the +ignorant and superstitious; but the learned, the noble, +the great, censure him as a pretender or a madman. +Yet there are who affirm that ’tis one convincing +argument of the reality of his pretence that he has +hitherto escaped a prison, especially in those countries +where the authors of all innovations are severely +punished. He has escaped the Inquisitions at Rome, +in Spain, and in Portugal, which the vulgar will have +to be an evident miracle.</p> + +<p>“One day I had the curiosity to discourse with him +in several languages; and I found him master of all +those that I could speak. I conversed with him five +or six hours together in Arabic. He told me there was +scarce a true history to be found. I asked him what he +thought of Mahomet, the Prophet and Lawgiver of +the Mussulmans? He answered that he knew his +father very well, and had often been in his company +at Ormus in Persia; that Mahomet was a man full +of light and a divine spirit, but had his errors as well +as other mortals, and that his chiefest was in denying +the crucifixion of the Messias; ‘for,’ said he, ‘I was +present, and saw Him hang on the Cross, with these +eyes of mine.’ He accused the Mussulmans of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span>‘imposture’ in making the world believe that the tomb +of their Prophet hangs miraculously between heaven +and earth, saying that he himself had seen it, and +that it was built after the manner of other sepulchres. +Thou who hast been at the Holy Place knowest +whether this be true or false. He upbraids the +Persian Mahometans with luxury, the Ottomans with +tyranny, the Arabians with robbery, the Moors with +cruelty, and the Mussulmans of the Indies with +atheism. Nor does he spare to reproach the Christian +churches: he taxes the Roman and Grecian with the +pompous idolatry of the heathens; he accuses the +Æthiopian of Judaism, the Armenian of heresy; and +says that the Protestants, if they would live according +to their profession, would be the best Christians.</p> + +<p>“He told me he was in Rome when Nero set fire to +the city and stood triumphing on the top of a hill to +behold the flames. That he saw Saladin’s return +from his conquests in the East, when he caused his +shirt to be carried on the top of a spear, with this +proclamation: ‘<i>Saladin, lord of many rich countries, +Conqueror of the East</i>, ever victorious and happy, +when he dies shall have no other memorial left of all +his glories, but only this poor shirt.’</p> + +<p>“He relates many remarkable passages of Soliman +the Magnificent, whereof our histories are silent, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span>says he was in Constantinople when Soliman built +that royal mosque which goes by his name. He +knew Tamerlane the Scythian, and told me he was so +called because he halted on one leg. He pretends +also to have been acquainted with Scander-Beg, the +valiant and fortunate Prince of Epirus. He seemed +to pity the insupportable calamity of Bajazet, whom +he had seen carried about in a cage by Tamerlane’s +order. He accuses the Scythian of too barbarous an +insult on the unfortunate Sultan. He remembers +the ancient Caliphs of Babylon and Egypt, the +empire of the Saracens, and the wars in the Holy +Land. He highly extols the valour and conduct of +the renowned Godfrey de Bouillon. He gives an +accurate account of the rise, progress, establishment +and subversion of the Mamelukes in Egypt. He +says he has washed himself in the two head-springs +of the river Nile, which arise in the southern part of +Æthiopia. That its increase is occasioned by the +great rains in Æthiopia, which swell all the rivers +that fall into the Nile, and cause that vast inundation +to discover whose origin has so much puzzled +philosophy. He says that the river Ganges in India +is broader and deeper than the Nile; that the river +Niger in Africa is longer by some hundreds of miles; +and that he can remember a time when the river +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span>Nile overflowed not till three months after the usual +season.</p> + +<p>“Having professed himself an universal traveller, +and that there was no corner of the earth where he +had not been present, I began to comfort myself with +the hopes of some news from the Ten Tribes of Israel +that were carried into captivity by Salmanasar, King +of Assyria, and could never be heard of since. I +asked him several questions concerning them, but +found no satisfactory answer. Only, he told me that +in Asia, Africa, and Europe he had taken notice of a +sort of people who (though not Jews in profession) +yet retained some characteristics whereby one might +discover them to be descended of that nation. In +Livonia, Russia, and Finland he had met with people +of languages distinct from that of the country, having +a great mixture of Hebrew words; that these +abstained from swine’s flesh, blood, and things +strangled; that in their lamentations for the dead +they always used these words: <i>Jeru, Jeru, Masco, +Salem</i>. By which, he thought, they called to remembrance +Jerusalem and Damascus, those two famous +cities of Palestine and Syria. In the Circassians also +he had traced some footsteps of Judaism: their +customs, manner of life, feasts, marriages, and sacrifices +being not far removed from the institutions of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span>Mosaic Law. But, what is most remarkable, he said +that he had conversed with professed Jews in the +north part of Asia who never so much as heard of +Jesus, the son of Mary, or of the revolutions of Judea +after his death, the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, +or any other matters wherewith all histories abound +concerning that nation. He said, moreover, that these +Jews had only the Pentateuch, not having heard of +the rest of those Books which compose the greatest +part of the Old Testament; and that this Pentateuch +was written in a sort of Hebrew far different from that +which is now commonly spoken by the rest of the +Jews dispersed throughout the world. That the +number of these Jews was infinite. And, finally, he +thought that these (if any) were the true posterity of +those Ten Captive Tribes.</p> + +<p>“Having mentioned the destruction of Jerusalem, +I asked him where he was at that time? He told +me, in the Court of Vespasian at Rome; and that he +had heard the emperor say, when he understood the +Temple of Solomon was burnt to ashes, ‘he had +rather all Rome had been set on fire.’ Here the old +man fell a-weeping himself, lamenting the ruin of +that noble structure, which he described to me as +familiarly as if he had seen it but yesterday. He says +that Josephus wrote partially of the seditions in the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>city, being related to one of the chief ringleaders, +whom therefore he spared, being loth to stain the +reputation of his own family to all posterity.</p> + +<p>“I tell thee, sage Cheik, if this man’s pretences be +true, he is so full of choice memoirs, and has been +witness to so many grand transactions for the space +of sixteen centuries of years, that he may not unfitly +be called ‘A living Chronology,’ the ‘Protonotary of +the Christians’ Hegira,’ or principal recorder of that +which they esteem the last <i>epocha</i> of the world’s +duration. By his looks one would take him for a +relic of the Old World, or one of the long-lived fathers +before the Flood. To speak modestly, he may pass +for the younger brother of Time.</p> + +<p>“It would be endless to tell thee how many other +discourses we had of his travels and memoirs; till, +tired with his company, and judging all to be a cheat, +I took my leave. I assure thee, he seems to be a man +well versed in all histories, a great traveller, and one +that affects to be counted an extraordinary +person. The common people are ready to adore +him; and the very fear of the multitude restrains the +magistrates from offering any violence to this impostor.</p> + +<p>“Live thou in the exercise of thy reason, which +will not permit thee to be seduced into errors by the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span>subtle insinuations of men. Continue to love Mahomet, +who honours thee without a fiction.</p> + +<p>“Paris, <abbr>4th</abbr> of the <abbr>1st</abbr> Moon of the Year 1644.”</p> +</blockquote> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>In, or about, the year 1645 there was published in +German at Augsburg the <cite>Strange Report of a Jew who +claims to have been present at the crucifixion, and to have +been kept alive from that time. A theological warning +to the Christian reader, illustrated and enlarged by trustworthy +histories and examples.</cite> On this book there is +a picture representing a village, with trees; on the +right the sun emerging from clouds; in the centre +Jesus crowned with thorns, his arms stretched out; in +front, the Wandering Jew kneeling with clasped +hands, his hat and the <cite class="nonitalic">Bible</cite> lying before him. On +both sides, in horizontal line, runs the sentence: +<i>From Chrysostomo Dudulæo Westphalo, written to his +good friend</i>. On the back are some verses, the first +two lines being in Latin:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry" lang="la"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Nubibus in altis crucifixum cernit Jesum</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Asverus, dignum clamitat ante cruce.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In 1681 there appeared a publication, written by +Pastor J. Georg Hadeck: <i><span lang="la">Nathanieli Christiano</span>. +Relation concerning a hermit named Ahasuerus, a Jew +who was present at the crucifixion, <abbr>etc.</abbr></i></p> + +<p><abbr title="Monsieur" lang="fr">M.</abbr> Magnin in an essay prefixed to the <cite>Ahasuerus</cite> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span>of Edgar Quinet (Paris edition of 1843, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 24) says +“In 1641 an Austrian baron, and in 1643 a physician +returned from Palestine, related that a certain Turk +had pointed out ‘Joseph’ to a Venetian nobleman +named Bianchi. The poor Jew was then under close +guard at the bottom of a crypt in Jerusalem; he was +dressed in his ancient Roman costume, exactly that +of the time of Christ. He did nothing but walk about +the room without saying a word, and strike his hand +against the wall, or sometimes his breast, to testify +his sorrow for having struck the holy face of the Lord. +I find these details in an anonymous German work of +the middle of the <abbr>17th</abbr> century, bearing the singular +title of <cite>Relation</cite>, or <cite>Brief account of two living witnesses +of the Passion of our Saviour</cite>.” This was no +doubt a version of the work of Droscher, <cite lang="la">De duobus +testibus vivis passionis dominicæ</cite>, Jena, 1688. <abbr title="Monsieur" lang="fr">M.</abbr> +Gaston Paris believes this to have been a tale suggested +by the Matthew Paris Chronicle, printed in +London in 1571, at Zurich in 1586.</p> + +<p>An important work appeared with the following title: +<cite lang="la">Dissertatio historica de Judæo non mortali</cite>, <abbr>etc.</abbr> <i lang="la">Certaminis +<abbr title="publici argumentum factum">publ. argum. f.</abbr> <abbr title="Præside">Præs.</abbr> Schultz. <abbr title="Regiomonti Prussiæ">Regiom. Pruss.</abbr> +respondens Martin Schmid <abbr title="Slavius Pomeranus">Slavio. Pomer.</abbr></i> <abbr class="allsmcap spell">A.D.</abbr> <i lang="la">26 <abbr title="Januarii">Jan.</abbr> +<abbr title="Anno">Ann.</abbr> 1689</i>. This work contains a curious account of +the Twelve Tribes, sent by a Jewish physician to his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span>co-religionists in Mantua; also a “trustworthy” copy +of the judgment which Pilate pronounced on Christ, +stating his motives, subscribed by all members of his +council and officers of the Sanhedrim; with the full +Notes of the Prosecutor; these having been “found in +a marble rock in the city of Aquila.” (This idea was +used by A. W. Schlegel, in his romance on the subject.)</p> + +<p>In 1697 a book was published at Wolffenbüttel, +entitled <cite>Description of a Hermit, a Jew</cite> (<abbr>etc.</abbr>), <i>who +brings near the evidence of Joseph concerning Christ; +the history of the death of Christ; the Letter of +Lentulus to the Roman Council; the condemnation of +Christ; history of the broken stone; Letter of Pilate +to the Emperor Tiberias; of Pilate’s punishment said +to have been inflicted on the Twelve Tribes of Israel for +the crucifixion of Christ. With an addition concerning +a Jew, a sorcerer, who gave himself out for the Messias. +Collected out of respectable old histories and most trustworthy +testimonies.</i></p> + +<p>In the French language there was published at +Bordeaux (1609) the <cite>True History of the Wandering +Jew taken from his own lips</cite>. The legend seems hardly +to have been known in Spain, and but little in Italy, +at any early date. There was printed at Bruges +(where the <cite lang="fr">Chronique rimée</cite> of Philippe de Mousket +had prepared the soil for it) early in the seventeenth +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>century (probably) a folkbook entitled <cite>Wonderful +History of the Wandering Jew, who since the year 33 +to this time has only wandered</cite>.</p> + +<p>In the English language the only early story of the +Wandering Jew, after that in the Chronicle of +Matthew of Paris, is the ballad contained in <cite>Percy’s +Reliques</cite>. This ballad is in black-letter in the Pepys’ +collection; it follows the Hamburg legend, and was +probably written early in the <abbr>17th</abbr> century. That the +legend was well known in England in the seventeenth +century appears from a satire, in which it is utilised, +without being narrated, entitled <cite>The Wandering Jew +telling Fortunes to Englishmen. A Jew’s Lottery.</cite> +<i>London</i>: printed by John Raworth, for Nathaniel +Butter, 1640.</p> + +<p>It should also be stated that there were a number +of treatises written against the story, such as—1. <cite lang="la">De +duobus testibus vivis passionis Christi.</cite> <i>Jena</i>, 1668 +(written by S. Niemann); 2. <cite lang="la">Meletea historia de Judæo +immortali</cite>, 1668 (written by J. Freutzel); 3. <cite lang="la"><abbr title="Dissertatio historica">Diss. +hist.</abbr> de Judæo non mortali</cite>, 1689 (written by Martin +Schmid). In the following century (1723) an anonymous +pamphlet was printed, in Frankfort and Leipzig, +“concerning the Immortal Jew, in which it is shown +throughout that in the nature of things he never +existed.” In 1756 was published C. Anton’s <cite lang="la"><abbr title="Dissertatio">Diss.</abbr> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span>in qua lepidam fabulam de Judæo immortali examinet</cite>; +followed by <cite>An Alewife’s letter to Anton, that there +is a Wandering Jew</cite>. (Halle, 1756.)</p> + +<p>This earlier bibliography of the Wandering Jew is +mainly condensed from the most important work on +the antiquarian features of the legend:—<cite lang="de">Die Sage vom +Ewigen Juden, historisch entwecklt mit verwandter +Mythen verglichen und beleuchtet</cite>. Von <abbr>Dr.</abbr> J. G. Th. +Grässe. <span lang="de">Dresden <abbr title="und">u.</abbr> Leipzig</span>, 1844.</p> + +<p>In following Grässe, <abbr title="Monsieur" lang="fr">M.</abbr> Schœbel (<cite lang="fr">La legende du +Juif Errant</cite>, Paris, 1877), and <abbr title="Monsieur" lang="fr">M.</abbr> Gaston Paris (<cite lang="fr">Le +Juif Errant</cite>, Paris, 1880) have added important points +and criticisms.</p> + +<p>From the various books mentioned are gathered +the following notes:</p> + +<p>S. Grosse (in his “History of Leipzig”) says that the +Wandering Jew appeared there as a beggar in 1642, +and accepted gifts, some of high value. Other +traditions report that he refused presents.</p> + +<p>It is a tradition of Matterberge, under the +Matterhorn, that formerly a great city stood there; +and it is said that when the Wandering Jew first came +there he said: “When I come again I shall find a forest +where now are houses; and when I come the third time +all will be snow and ice: and this has been fulfilled.”</p> + +<p>It is said that at Naumburg (Thuringia) he could +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span>neither sit nor stand still. Even when listening to a +sermon he was always moving. He said he had “no +rest by day or night, and was kept alive without food +or drink, sleep or rest, for many years in a miraculous +manner.” It is said that, in 1640, two citizens of +Brussels, walking in a wood, met a grey old man, in +shabby and antique garb. They invited him to an inn, +where he drank with them, standing. Before leaving, +he told them of things that happened centuries +before. They gathered that he was Isaac Laquedem, +the Jew who forbade his Lord to rest at his door, +and left him in terror.</p> + +<p>The presence in England of a man pretending to +be the Wandering Jew is stated in a letter of Madame +de Mazarin to Madame de Bouillon (Calmet, <cite lang="fr"><abbr title="Dictionnaire">Dict.</abbr> de +la Bible</cite>, <abbr title="2">ii.</abbr> 472). In England he assumed the character +of one who had been an official of high rank in Jerusalem. +His statements to the English noblemen and +University professors who conversed with him (many of +whom believed his story) were so precisely those which +were given to the Turkish Spy in Paris that there is +no need to reproduce them here. It is probable that +the same man had journeyed from Paris to England, +as it is difficult to believe that two such clever and +learned impostors could appear at the same time.</p> + +<p>It is notable that an account of the first appearance +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span>of a personal representative of the legend should +only have been published more than fifty years (certainly) +after his visit to Hamburg; and then just after +the death of the witness said to have conversed with +him, Paul of Eizen. This prelate was born at Hamburg, +1522, and died in 1598. His alleged testimonies +to the Wandering Jew were reported subsequently by +the pseudonymous Duduläus. It is further remarkable +that in the story as told by Duduläus, already +given, nothing is said of a <em>blow</em> dealt Jesus by +Ahasuerus. He evidently desires to soften the story +for the Wandering Jew, and adduce him as a witness +to the Christian legend. He tries in one of his pamphlets +to recommend the story to sceptics by relating +another of three pious miners of Bohemia, who fell +into a pit at Kuttenberg. They remained there for +seven years, their provisions and lamp holding out +miraculously. One prayed that he might again see +the light of day; another, that he might once more +eat with his family; the third, that he might live one +more year with his wife and children. The prayers +were answered, but each died suddenly immediately +after his wish was fulfilled.</p> + +<p>The <i lang="la">animus</i> of the revival of the legend is shown by instances +in which the Jews’ quarters were invaded under +rumours that they were concealing the Wanderer.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II"> + <abbr title="2">II.</abbr> + <br> + THE UNDYING ONES. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">The</span> myth of the Wandering Jew belongs, essentially, +to a class which has great antiquity, and is found in +every part of the world.</p> + +<p>At a period before Animism had been embodied +in clear conceptions of a life beyond the grave, the +human heart and mind had to adapt themselves as +well as they could to the King of Terrors, which +destroyed the greatest as well as the humblest. The +first that were ideally wrested from Death were +saints and heroes; and it was necessary to find for +these an earthly immortality. Many myths and +legends of the undying ones are no doubt variants of +each other; but they are found among races so separate +in origin and history, that we may be content to +find their common root in human nature. Men +cannot bear to think that their leaders, heroes, +saviours are really dead. They resolutely repel the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span>unwelcome fact as long as they can. They easily +credit any rumour that the reported death is some +fiction of the enemy, or possibly a stratagem of their +own party-leaders. It is said that after the death of +General Jackson, a President of the United States, +many democrats still voted for him at the following +election, denouncing the report of his death as +“another Whig lie.” The story if not true is <i lang="it">ben +trovato</i>; and there are facts enough like it even in +modern history. Sceptics were found in France who +but slowly credited the tidings of the death of Napoleon +<abbr title="the Third">III.</abbr>: their transient suspicions were echoes of +Beranger’s cry when he heard of the first Napoleon’s +death: “God, I can scarce believe Thee without +him!”⁠<a id="FNanchor_1_1" href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>It is recorded in the <cite>Heimskringla</cite> that, after the +death of King Odin, “the Swedes believed that he +often showed himself to them before any great battle. +To some he gave victory, others he invited to himself; +and they reckoned both of these to be well off +in their fate.” Thus, the Wild Huntsman began his +career. This tendency in the popular mind was +utilised by courtiers of the next popular monarch. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>This was Freyr, second monarch after Odin, who +probably lived in the first century of our era, and +built the great temple at Upsal. It is recorded: +“Then began, in his days, the Frode-peace; and then +there were good seasons in all the land, which the +Swedes ascribed to Freyr, so that he was more +worshipped than the other gods, as the people became +much richer in his days by reason of the peace and +good seasons.... Freyr fell into a sickness; and +as his illness took the upper hand, his men took the +plan of letting few approach him. In the meantime +they raised a great mound, in which they placed a +door with three holes in it. Now when Freyr died +they bore him secretly into the mound, but told the +Swedes he was alive; and they kept watch over him +for three years. They brought all the taxes into the +mound; and through the one hole they put in the +gold, through the other the silver, and through the +third the copper money that was paid. Peace and +good seasons prevailed.... When it became known +to the Swedes that Freyr was dead, and yet peace +and good seasons continued, they believed that it +must be so as long as Freyr remained in Sweden; +and therefore they would not burn his remains, but +called him the god of this world, and afterwards +offered continually blood sacrifices to him, principally +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span>for peace and good seasons.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_2_2" href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Here we have one +chapter in the genesis of these immortals. Men have +been executed in Portugal for professing to be +Sebastian returned. In the time of James <abbr title="the Second">II.</abbr>, +country-people in England believed that Monmouth +had not really died on the scaffold, but “would suddenly +appear, would lead them on to victory, and would +tread down the King and the Jesuits under his feet.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_3_3" href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> +Some believed him to be the Man in the Iron Mask.</p> + +<p>On the death of King Arthur all hope of finding +the Holy Graal seemed to vanish. On the +“Morte d’Arthur” it is written: “This of King +Arthur, I find no more written in my copy of the +certainty of his death; but thus he was led away in +a barge, wherein were three Queens; and one was +King Arthur’s sister, Queen Morgan le Fay, and +there was Nimue, the chief Lady of the Lake. More +of the death of King Arthur, could I never find. But +that ladies brought such a one unto burials, that he +was buried here, that the hermit bare witness that +sometime was Bishop of Canterbury and dwelled that +time in a chapel beside Glastonbury. But yet the +hermit knew not, of a certain, that it was verily the +body of King Arthur. Some men yet say in many +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span>parts of England that King Arthur is not dead, but +had, by the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, into +another place. And men say that he will come +again, and he shall win the Holy Cross.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_4_4" href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> That +King Arthur is in the Vale of Avalon (of Apples) +attended by fairies; that in some regions he has been +found by shepherds slumbering, like Barbarossa, with +his knights in a subterranean castle (at Sewingshields +especially); that in others he has been seen, like +Wodan, at the head of a ghostly hunt by night: +these are legends found far and wide in British and +Breton folklore. Tennyson makes Arthur repose in—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“The island-valley of Avilion</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Where falls not hail, nor rain, nor any snow,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Deep-meadowed, happy, fair, with orchard lawns,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Germany has many corresponding myths, chief of +which is that of Frederick <abbr title="the First">I.</abbr>, or Barbarossa, believed +to be sleeping under Raven’s Hill at Kaiserlautern, +ready to come forth in the last emergency (or glory +and unity) of his country. There, in his palace (or +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>grotto) underground, a shepherd once found him surrounded +by his sleeping knights, all in armour; the +horses near by in harness. The red beard, which gave +the hero his name, had grown through the stone table +before him, and taken root in the floor. As the shepherd +entered, Barbarossa awoke and asked:</p> + +<p>“Are the ravens still flying round the hill?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Then must I sleep another hundred years.”</p> + +<p>On the evening when the present Emperor of Germany +had reviewed his troops, after his late war with +France, this legend was represented before him in a +series of marvellous tableaux which I witnessed. In +the last it was shown that the hour had arrived for +Frederick the Red Beard to come forth, and it need +hardly be said that he bore a striking resemblance to +the Emperor William. In some regions it is said that +Frau Holda stands beside the slumbering Barbarossa: +this may have helped to give us our familiar variant +<i>The Sleeping Beauty</i>.</p> + +<p>It is said that after Pope Paschal <abbr title="the Third">III.</abbr> had made +Charlemagne a saint, Otho <abbr title="the Third">III.</abbr> (anno 997) opened +that Emperor’s tomb and found him seated on his +throne, with his crown, imperial robe, and sceptre, +and on his knees a copy of the Gospels. Beside +him was his sword Joyeuse, and his pilgrim’s pouch. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span>So Charlemagne was added to the list of holy +sleepers.</p> + +<p>In another work I have spoken of these Sleepers, +and also of the Wanderers.⁠<a id="FNanchor_5_5" href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The list of such, too long +to be given here, includes Tell, in Switzerland; Boabdil +of Spain; Sebastian of Portugal; Olger Dansk; +Thomas of Ercildoune, and many another, down to +such præternatural if not perpetual sleepers as Rip +Van Winkle, and the Abbot Cormac of Killarney, +who listened two hundred years to the singing of a +nightingale. The Abbot had doubted if he would +not find the singing of heaven tiresome; he supposed +he had listened to the bird a few moments only in +the wood, but returned to find all changed. The +legend has inspired one of Allingham’s beautiful +ballads, “The Abbot of Inisfalen.” Herodotus (<abbr title="4">iv.</abbr> 94) +relates the tale of Zalmoxis, the Thracian, who, disgusted +with the uncivilised life around him, had a subterranean +hall built and there resided. Some presently +believed that Zalmoxis never died; others regarded him +as a god; and ultimately it became a custom of the +Getans to despatch a messenger, every fifth year, to +him, by hurling some man into the air and catching +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span>him on javelins. If the victim dies Zalmoxis is propitious. +Plutarch relates a story similar to this (<span lang="la">De +<abbr title="Defectu">Defect.</abbr> <abbr title="Oraculorum">Orac.</abbr></span>), as told by one Cleombrotus, concerning +an Oriental personage who appeared among his +fellow-men only once a year. The rest of his life was +passed among friendly nymphs and demons, and as +these are said to have rendered him proof against +disease it may be supposed that he was one of the +undying.</p> + +<p>Similar legends are indeed found among the +aboriginal races of North America. Such heroes as +Booin (Nova Scotia) and Hiawatha were supposed +never to have died. Booin was carried to a happy +land inside a friendly whale, whom he compensated +with the tobacco which the Micmacs still see smoking +in the spout of that animal; and Hiawatha “sailed +into the purple sunset.” To these good Indians +migrate when they die. The Incas of Peru also +were found believing that the founder of their +kingdom never died, but would return to restore its +ancient splendours. The Muyscas of Bogota relate +that the first lawgiver of Bochica lived among their +tribe 2000 years, then “withdrew,” and he is now +known as Idacanzas.⁠<a id="FNanchor_6_6" href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>It is interesting to compare such primitive forms of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span>the myth with those assumed by it amid the advanced +phases of Animism. Tithonus, for whom Eos obtained +the gift of immortality but not that of perpetual +youth, whom divine pity changed into a grasshopper, +became the proverbial title of a decrepit old +man, and represents the nearest approach to an +earthly immortal in Greek mythology. The immortals +exist indeed, but in changed forms, or even if the +human powers be preserved it must be in Hades, as +in the case of Teiresias. The Glaucus-myth, running +through several variants, shows the evolution of this +class of myths. Surviving all ordeals in Crete—the +sea, the cask of honey, the serpent’s bite—he +becomes on the Corinthian coast an evil ghost, and +in Bœotia a marine deity. In classic ages every +hero has his vulnerable point where he is sure to be +touched at last.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III"> + <abbr title="3">III.</abbr> + <br> + SOURCES OF THE MYTH. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">Although</span>, as we have seen, the myths of the +undying ones are found among races so widely +separate that they must often be of independent +origin, many of them are ethnically related. This is +the case with a series of such, now to be considered, +which bear upon the fable of the Wandering Jew.</p> + +<p>The earliest myth of this character is probably +that of the Iranian Yima, King of the Golden Age in +Persia. This beautiful myth is found in the Zendavesta, +and in the Vendidad which Haug traces, in +its earlier parts, to an antiquity not far short of +Zoroaster himself, not less than a thousand years +before our era. In the Zendavesta it is declared: +“During the happy reign of Yima there was neither +cold nor heat, neither decay nor death, nor malice +produced by the demons; father and son walked +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>forth, each fifteen years old in appearance.” With +Yima was Armaiti, the divine woman, genius of the +earth, who by promoting culture, recovering wildernesses +and converting nomadic tribes to peaceful +cultivators, expanded the earth to thrice its original +size; and over this paradise Yima reigned nine +hundred years. After the evils of winter had come +over his country Yima led a select number of his +friends to a secluded spot, where they enjoy perfect +happiness.⁠<a id="FNanchor_7_7" href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Armaiti still, in Parsî faith, remained at +her work, upholding the earth in her maternal arms, +ever working against the powers of evil; and when +she shall have prevailed, Yima is to come back again +and lead in the Golden Year.</p> + +<p>It is an instance of the unconscious poetry of +humanity that this Iranian Yima is one with Yama, +the Vedic King of the Dead! The idea may have +originally been the declining sun;⁠<a id="FNanchor_8_8" href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> but there are +other characters than darkness about the sunset; +there are splendours also, and often the western +horizon is painted with radiant islets which to +primitive man seemed a part of his planet. It may +even have been that the westward course of human +migration was guided by this permanent pillar of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span>Fire which every evening lit up the Hesperian +Gardens and Isles of the Blest.</p> + +<p>This migration on earth and sea corresponds with +a mental and spiritual migration. Exploration of +the Edens, Gan-Edens, Avalons, Hesperides, Atlantises, +turns them to parts of the prosaic world +while it raises the ideals that hovered over them to +rosy cloud-lands which cannot yet be explored. +No Yima found anywhere on earth! And so +it begins to be sung of him that he has passed +to some region not exactly upon earth. Now +it is said, this time in the Rigveda (<abbr title="10">x.</abbr> 14, 1, 2): +“Yama, the king, the gatherer of the people, has +descried a path for many, which leads from the +depths to the heights; he first found out a resting-place +from which nobody can turn out the occupants; +on the way the forefathers have gone, the sons will +follow them.” Finally, as Haug remarks: “This +happy ruler of the blessed in Paradise has been +transformed, in the modern Hindu mythology, into +the fearful god of death, the inexorable judge of +men’s doings, and the punisher of the wicked.”</p> + +<p>For a long time after their constitution as a people, +the Jews had no definite faith in the immortality of +the soul, and there is no text in the Old Testament +which clearly teaches that doctrine. It has been +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span>thought by some that their adoption of that doctrine +was coincident with their decline from greatness as a +nation.⁠<a id="FNanchor_9_9" href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Jehovah still walked amid the pleasant +shade-trees of Paradise, and there Enoch walked with +him. Out of this belief in an earthly immortality +grew the earlier form of belief in the life after death, +which insisted on corporeal resurrection. As time +went on, and the numbers for whom immortality +was claimed grew, and as exploration discovered no +earthly Eden in which these resided, paradise necessarily +ascended to an aerial realm. But its earthly +characteristics were preserved. Thence angels passed +to earth and back on a ladder, and thence came the +chariot and horses which appeared when Elias was +borne away by a sufficiently strong whirlwind. That +he was ‘carried to the sky’ marks, however, a step +away from the earthly abode, in the direction taken +by the myth which turned Yima to Yama.</p> + +<p>But the Jews introduced into their belief in certain +undying ones an important feature, drawn from their +imported dualistic philosophy, which marshalled +everything and every being, small or large, on one +side or the other of the great war between Ormuzd +and Ahriman. Beside the hero, too holy to die, is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span>seen the man of sin, to whom the repose of the grave +is forbidden. The books of our <cite class="nonitalic">Bible</cite> were written +after ancient traditions, and gathered together when +other ideas were predominant; and it is rather by +intimations there found, and by references to rabbinical +and Arabian folk-lore, that we can get at these +primitive fables.</p> + +<p>In the first epoch we find counterparts in Cain and +Seth. Even the Biblical narrative seems to point to +a primitive myth, in which these two were good and +evil immortals, which had gone to pieces before the +book of Genesis was compiled.⁠<a id="FNanchor_10_10" href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> At any rate at an +early age the pieces had been put together by the +Semitic imagination. It is said (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="4">iv.</abbr> 25) that Eve +called this her third son Seth (<i>scion</i> or <i>germ</i>): “for,” +she said, “God hath appointed me another seed in +place of Abel, whom Cain slew.” The Talmudic book, +<cite lang="he">Shene Luchôth</cite>, says that the soul of Abel (<i>breath</i>) +passed into Seth, and again into Moses. Josephus +(<cite><abbr title="Antiquities">Ant.</abbr></cite> <abbr title="1">i.</abbr> 2) shows that Seth was venerated as one +possessed of great knowledge, which he engraved on +two pillars. Suidas says Seth was the first to hear +the name of God. In the fourth century there was a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>sect of Sethians, who, according to Epiphanius, identified +Seth with the Messiah (<cite lang="la" class="nonitalic"><abbr title="Adversus Hæreses">Adv. Hær.</abbr></cite> <abbr title="1">i.</abbr> 3, 39). In +the line of Seth were born the long-lived beings, some +of whom lived above nine hundred years, and one of +whom was Enoch, who did not die at all. Many of the +names resemble those in the line of Cain—and were +no doubt taken from it—Cain-an, Mahalaleel, Jared, +Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech. It is evident that the +Seth legend was introduced to avoid having the +human race descend from the first murderer and type +of evil—Cain.</p> + +<p>Cain was the first Wandering Jew. His name, +signifying a spear, and Tubal-Cain, “son of a spear,” +first artificer in brass and iron, suggest the possibility +that his doom may have been that of a Semitic Prometheus. +At any rate the curse pronounced upon +him (“a fugitive and a wanderer shalt thou be in the +earth”); the mark (token, or perhaps <i>weird</i>) fixed +upon him, that none should slay him; the land to +which he wandered, itself meaning flight (Nod)—supplied +ample materials for the mother-myth of eternal +Wanderers. Of Cain, however, more will be said at a +further stage of our inquiry.</p> + +<p>Enoch represents the first personage of Biblical +record clearly corresponding to Yima. “Enoch +walked with Elohim and was no more [seen among +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span>men], for Elohim took him.” With regard to the +solar character of the Enoch-myth we cannot concern +ourselves here. As his name indicates Enoch is the +Beginner, like Yima, of whom Ahuramazda says, “with +him I conversed first among men” (Vendidad, <abbr title="2">ii.</abbr> 2). +It is especially noticeable that Enoch “walks” with +Elohim, whom we before find “walking in the garden” +(<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="3">iii.</abbr> 8). A heavenly abode is not yet imagined. +Even the <cite class="nonitalic">Koran</cite>, when it speaks of Enoch (Erdris), +hesitates to affirm his translation to heaven, but says, +“We exalted him to a high place.”</p> + +<p>The evil counterpart of Enoch is Lamech, who, +although his death at the age of 777 is recorded in the +later Sethite line, identifies himself as a deathless +wanderer with Cain in the lines which, as Ewald +thinks, probably gave rise to the Cain story +itself:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Adah and Zillah, hear my voice!</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For the man I slew for my own wound,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The child I struck dead on account of my own hurt!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was Cain avenged seven times?</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Lamech will be seven and seventy times!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In the third epoch we find Esau a restless evil +wanderer, fulfilling the <span id="TN2">destiny pronounced by his +father</span>, gradually personifying Edom, the antagonist +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span>of Israel. The corresponding immortal is Judah, +from whose hand the sceptre was not to depart till +Shiloh come. The death of neither of these is mentioned; +Edom and Judah remained to carry on their +phantasmal war to the last—as Satan and Jahve, as +Sammaël and Michael.</p> + +<p>The mysterious account, in <abbr title="Deuteronomy">Deut.</abbr> <abbr title="34">xxxiv.</abbr>, of the +death of Moses, suggests the existence at some period +of a popular belief that he did not die in the ordinary +sense. It is said, by one rendering, that he died “on +the mouth of Jahve”; “his eye was not dim nor his +natural strength abated”; Jahve knew him “face to +face,” and himself buried him in a valley, in a place +unknown to this day. According to the <cite class="nonitalic">Talmud</cite>, +Enoch, Moses, and Elias, are brought up by Michael +to be changed into angels. (Kalisch, <cite class="nonitalic"><abbr title="Commentary">Comm.</abbr> on <abbr class="nowrap" title="Old Testament">O. T.</abbr></cite>, +<abbr title="2">II.</abbr> <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 307.) This association of Moses with the two +who notoriously had not died is significant. In the +Book of “The Assumption of Moses” the demon who +tried to get the body of Moses, as mentioned in Jude +<abbr title="9">ix.</abbr>, is called Sammaël. This had long been the name +for Esau-Edom; and there is also in this coincidence +the intimation of an early legend which brought Moses +slumbering in his Moabite cave into mythological +relation with restless Esau, ever wandering amid the +dark mountains. The presence of Moses at the transfiguration +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span>of Jesus in company with Elias, who never +died, would alone show that belief in his earthly immortality +had prevailed. In addition, there are intimations +of such a tradition among the Arabs. The Moslems +make pilgrimages to Neby Musa, near Jericho, as the +sepulchre of Moses, and their legend is as follows: +God had promised to leave Moses in this world until +he should voluntarily descend into a tomb. After +Moses had lived 120 years, he was one day walking +and saw four men (angels) excavating a chamber in a +rock, as, they said, a hiding-place for their king’s most +precious treasure. The cavern offered a tempting +retreat from the sun’s rays, and Moses reclined in it. +One of the workmen gave him a delicious apple. No +sooner had he inhaled its scent than “he fell +asleep.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_11_11" href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>An evil counterpart of Moses may be found in the +tradition—very important to the legend of the +Wandering Jew, as we shall presently see—that the +maker of the Golden Calf was doomed to a fate much +like that of Cain. There arose a proverb among the +Jews that “no punishment befalleth the Israelites in +which there is not an ounce of this calf.” Although +in the <cite class="nonitalic">Bible</cite> the fashioning of this idol is distinctly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span>ascribed to Aaron, he was not among the three +thousand slain on account of it, but was pardoned. +Moses says, “The Lord was very angry with Aaron to +have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron at the +same time” (<abbr title="Deuteronomy">Deut.</abbr> <abbr title="9">ix.</abbr> 20). Semitic Folk-lore has been +still more merciful to Aaron’s reputation, at cost of +the Samaritans, and made it out that the Golden Calf +was fashioned by one Samiri, or Al Sâmeri. “The +devil,” says Jonathan, “got into the metal and +fashioned it into a calf.” The <cite class="nonitalic">Koran</cite> says the calf +lowed, and in Arabian tradition Al Sâmeri took some +dust from the footsteps of the horse of Gabriel, who +rode at the head of Israel, and threw it in the calf’s +mouth, which began to low.</p> + +<p>Now, many of the Samaritans themselves, about the +first century of our era, gathered about one Dositheus +as their Messiah (Origen, <cite lang="la">De <abbr title="Principiis">Princ.</abbr></cite> <abbr title="4">iv.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter">c.</abbr> 17; Epiphanius, +<cite lang="la"><abbr title="Hæreses">Hæres.</abbr></cite> <abbr title="13">xiii.</abbr>). His pretensions brought upon +Dositheus an order for his arrest from the Samaritan +high-priest, from which he escaped and hid in a cave. +There, according to some, he starved to death; but +his followers continued to believe that he was alive +and would reappear. It is possible that Al Sâmeri +means “the Samaritan”—<i><abbr>i.e.</abbr></i> Dositheus or Dûsis—and +that he thus became the mythical scapegoat for +Aaron’s offence. G. Weil (<i>The <cite>Bible</cite>, the <cite>Koran</cite>, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span>the <cite>Talmud</cite></i>) says: “Moses then summoned Samiri, +and would have put him to death instantly, but Allah +directed that he should be sent into banishment. +Ever since that time he roams like a wild beast +throughout the world; everyone shuns him and purifies +the ground on which his feet have stood; and he +himself, whenever he approaches men, exclaims: +‘Touch me not!’”</p> + +<p>In the <cite class="nonitalic">Koran</cite> (Sale, <abbr title="20">xx.</abbr>) it is declared that Moses +said to Al Sâmeri, “Get thee gone; for thy punishment +in this life shall be that thou shalt say unto +those who shall meet thee, Touch me not!” Al +Beidâwi is quoted by Sale as interpreting this to mean +that infection would follow the touch, but to Al +Sâmeri; ultimately, however, the fear was on the other +side. It was believed that Al Sâmeri repaired to an +island in the Red Sea, where his wretched descendants +dwell, and whence issue plagues. Whenever a ship +comes near the inhabitants raise the warning cry, +“Touch me not!”</p> + +<p>Al Beidâwi also says that Al Sâmeri’s real name +was Moses, or Mûsa Ebn Dhafar, which seems to +suggest that he was regarded as the counterpart of +Moses; and also as a source of pestilence he would be +the opposite of Moses, whose medical skill was +famous.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p> + +<p>Although it may anticipate somewhat the later +developments of our myth, it may be well to suggest +here the probability that the traditional idea, preserved +in the romance of Eugene Sue and elsewhere, +that the Wandering Jew carried the plague from city +to city, may have been connected with this legendary +Red Sea Island. Its real origin may have been in +the actual diseases bred in the wretched quarters in +which Jews were crowded by a suicidal inhumanity, and +from which every Jewish traveller and trader had to go.</p> + +<p>The next undying one is Elias. The idea of +Jahve’s earthly abode had grown dim, at least, and +Eden had begun to ascend amid the roseate clouds +when this legend was formed. The terrestrial chariot +and horses are present, but a whirlwind is needed to +carry them with the prophet to heaven. The narrative +seems meant to admit of either theory—a heavenly +or an earthly paradise. There Elias remained as a +kind of Æolus, literally as on earth a weather-prophet; +and to this day in Greece, and many parts of +the East, when a severe storm with lightning arises, +the peasants say, “Elias goes forth in his chariot!”⁠<a id="FNanchor_12_12" href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span></p> + +<p>In folk-lore Elias unites in himself characteristics +both of the Sleepers and Wanderers. In some regions +he is supposed to have employed his leisure in paradise +with writing a book. In Moslem legend he is a +Wanderer. A powerful sheikh, they say, wished to +utilise the miraculous gifts of Elias, and had him +chained. The tyrant led him over his lands because +his “footsteps were blessed,” but at the prophet’s every +step the fields withered. The sheikh was about to +slay Elias, when the prophet asked permission to +quench his thirst at what is now called the “sealed +fountain,” near Bethlehem. The tyrant held the chain +which, however, elongated itself: the bonds fell off, +the rock closed behind him, and since then Elias “has +continued to travel over the whole world, rendering +every place verdant on which he treads.” The +“sealed fountain” of the rains, which only Elias could +unseal in the time of drouth, would appear in this +myth to feel its relation with the Sun. One need not +wonder that <abbr>Dr.</abbr> Schliemann found a Greek church +consecrated to Elias on the site of a temple of +Helios.⁠<a id="FNanchor_13_13" href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span></p> + +<p>The Dualism which in the Semitic Mythology divided +the undying ones into good and evil, is generally +found in the corresponding traditions of other regions. +We find good and evil counterparts in Barbarossa and +Wodan; in the Wild Huntsman, and faithful Eckhardt +who warns of his approach; in King Arthur wandering +as a raven, contrasted with Merlin, bound for +ever in his prison of air by the spell of Vivien; in +the German Monk Felix (who, like Abbot Cormac, +listened for centuries to the singing bird, W. Grimm, +<cite lang="de">Altdeutsche Walder</cite>, <abbr title="2">ii.</abbr> 70), with King Herla, who +was similarly bewitched by the evil dwarf to whose +wedding he went; in Siegfried, with Van der Decken, +who swore his ship should round the Cape, “despite +God or Devil, if it took till judgment,” and is now +the Flying Dutchman; in Tannhäuser, with Lohengrin; +in Ogier among the fairies of Morgana, with +the Gros Veneur; in the Seven Sleepers of Tours, +with Hugo wandering beside their grotto.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV"> + <abbr title="4">IV.</abbr> + <br> + THE LEGENDS GENERALISED. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">If</span> we examine well the account in the Zendavesta +of the paradise wherein Yima walked with Ahuramazda, +and that in Genesis of Eden where Enoch +walked with Elohim, we can hardly fail to recognise +in them the germ of the Messianic dream. The +visions of the renovated earth described by Philo, +and in the Sibylline Oracles, and in the Apocalypse +of Baruch, are but realistic expansions of those +happy retreats of the holy ones who were not supposed +to taste corruption.⁠<a id="FNanchor_14_14" href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> In this idealised earth +were gathered the beauties and joys of many +Gulistans.</p> + +<p>And, similarly, he who was to reign over the imparadised +in this perfected earth was to be an immortal +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span>king returning from his Avalon, invested with +the attributes of all the incorruptible. These had +been gradually raised into an abstract personality—the +“Angel-Messiah,” to which <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Ernest de Bunsen +has given such patient research with many interesting +results—who, however, was purely a terrestrial being, +a Son of Man.</p> + +<p>The phrase “Ancient of Days,” used three times in +Daniel <abbr title="7">vii.</abbr>, and the snow-white hair there ascribed to +that being, who gives dominion to the Son of Man +brought before him, convey the idea of a being that +has lived through all changes, a memory and consciousness +in which the ages broken up to mortal eyes are +knit together, and therefore able to be a providence +and a retributive judge. Viceroy of this Ancient of +Days is the immortal man in whose unbroken consciousness +all history is embodied: he is the earthly +providence. Before Abraham was, he is. He abides +with the Ancient in his earthly dwelling, but goes +forth at appointed periods for certain purposes. He +is the “Son of Man” as distinguished from the sons +of Kings; reigns not by succession but by election of +the Deity manifested in signs and marvels, such as the +carrier dove bringing the divine sanction to emperors +who break the order of legitimacy. No incarnation +was imagined; the avatars of this Son of Man are the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span>Apparitions of one always in the earth, but able to +render himself invisible, or who assumes an humble disguise. +This disguise may be thrown off occasionally +in some solitary place, for a select few who are charged +with secresy.</p> + +<p>This Messiah gathered up in his person the powers +and glories of past saints and heroes, and it was expected +that these would attend him at the supreme scene of +his coronation on earth. Elias was to appear as his +herald. In Seder ’Olam Rabbah it is said, “In the +second year of the reign of Ahaziah, Elias became +hidden, [to be] seen no more until King Messiah shall +come, when he will be again seen, and hidden a +second time, and not seen again until Gog and Magog +come. And now he writes down the work of all the +generations.” It was asked of John the Baptist “Art +thou Elias?” and next “Art thou that prophet?” +Who was this prophet popularly thus associated with +Messianic expectations? Professor Drummond suggests +that it was Jeremiah, and cites the vision of +Judas Maccabæus, in which he saw, beside Onias the +high-priest, “a man with grey hairs and exceeding +glorious,” who was declared to be Jeremiah, “who +offers many prayers for the people and the holy city.” +Jeremiah gave Judas a golden sword, and told him to +wound the adversaries.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span></p> + +<p>On the nether side of this Messianic dream we find +a pit or underworld—some region which could not +mar the fair face of the perfect earth—which is an +outcome of the wilderness of Dendain, Cain’s Land, +every weird desolation. And the king of this region +sums up in himself the line of eternal evil wanderers—Cain, +Lamech, Esau, Samuel—in a personification +of hostility to the Messiah. This generalised Opposition—called +Armillus among the Jews, Al Dajjail +by the Mussulmans—corresponds exactly with +Antichrist among the early Christians. It was said +Armillus was to be born out of a marble statue in a +church at Rome (the <i lang="fr">ne plus ultra</i> of earthly infernalism +to a race detesting graven images and victimised +by Rome), and that Christendom would +worship him until the true Messias (Ben David) +should appear, and, as says the Targum (<abbr title="Isaiah">Isa.</abbr> <abbr title="11">xi.</abbr> 4) +“By the word of his mouth the wicked Armillus shall +die.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V"> + <abbr title="5">V.</abbr> + <br> + TRANSFIGURATION. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">Though</span> the alleged longevity of the Jewish patriarchs +temporarily made up for the absence of the +conception of immortality, this idea arrived. The +representatives of Seth live above an average of +nine centuries each, with one remarkable exception: +Enoch, the best of them, lives less than half +the years of the least. Whatever may have been +the original reason for this exception, the explanation +was that Enoch really outstripped even the +969 years of Methuselah, having never died at +all. In paradise he would have access to the Tree +of Life. In the farther development of Israel other +“beginners”—as Moses representing Law, and Elias +Prophecy—might eclipse Enoch, and wear “by +authority” his mantle of immortality; but in popular +faith and folk-lore Enoch held his own. He was said +to have invented writing, arithmetic, and astronomy; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span>to have filled 300 volumes with the knowledge acquired +by long residence among the angels; his first being a +book predicting the Deluge, which was preserved by +Noah in the Ark. In many respects Enoch resembles +Teiresias, to whom Zeus granted a life on earth of +seven or nine generations, and who even in Hades +was said by Homer to have retained his human +perception, while those around him were mere shades +(Plato, Meno, 100).⁠<a id="FNanchor_15_15" href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> His fame as a soothsayer, both +on earth and in Hades, grew out of the belief in his +long experience, and no doubt this was the case with +Enoch also. Most folk-sayings and predictions were +connected with Enoch as forged runes and verses +are now attributed to Mother Shipton. (It will be +remembered that the first English book on this theme +was entitled <cite>The Wandering Jew telling fortunes to +Englishmen</cite>, 1640.) It might have been supposed +that Enoch would be present at the Transfiguration +of Jesus. Paul had spoken of him with honour; +Jude quoted from him; and it is probable that he +was meant as one of the “two witnesses” alluded +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span>to in <abbr title="Revelation">Rev.</abbr> <abbr title="11">xi.</abbr> 3. In the Gospel of Nicodemus the +“two witnesses” are Enoch and Elias, who welcome +those arriving in Paradise.</p> + +<p>That Moses was substituted for Elias at the Transfiguration +was probably due to the strong hold which +the “Book of Enoch” had taken on the Jewish mind. +In this work there are indications that among some +Jews Enoch himself had become connected with the +Messianic hope. The writer, personating Enoch and +speaking in his name, describes his journey through +heaven and hell; thus, in the second century <abbr class="allsmcap spell">B.C.</abbr> +anticipating the journeys and visions of Lucian, +Mohammed, Arda Viráf, Dante, and Swedenborg. +He is attended by an angel, and he is named and +appointed the Son of Man. “That angel came to +me, and with his voice greeted me and said, Thou art +the Son of Man who is born to righteousness; and +righteousness dwells over thee, and the righteousness +of the Head of Days leaves thee not.” That a claim +for Enoch’s Messiaship is intended appears in the +event then described. Enoch’s body melts away, and +his spirit is transformed into a heavenly body. Enoch +had described the glory of the renovated earth; but +he himself, assuming him alive, would be some 2000 +years old. No legend said he had been endowed with +perpetual youth; consequently to reign over a rejuvenated +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span>earth he must be rejuvenated himself. Such +a notion could only, at that time, have survived among +the ignorant; but it is to them that new “schools” +have to make their appeal, and in the transfiguration +of Enoch the old idea, though spiritualised, is regarded.</p> + +<p>The phrase of the <cite>Book of Enoch</cite>, “Head of Days,” +is a remarkable modification of Daniel’s “Ancient of +Days.” It almost looks as if,—assuming Ewald’s +theory that Enoch (Beginner) was a god of the New +Year,—this earliest of the immortals were still invested +with more than patriarchal sanctity. As a Janus +or Ganêça (with whom Ewald compares him) Enoch +would himself be the Head of Days, thus as it were +the Ancient of Days dialed on time. The idea of co-eternal +existence is suggested, but also of an Unchangeable +and a Changeable.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered that we are considering +ideas which, however poetical, are based on fancies +of the world’s childhood. The transformation of +Enoch under the angel’s spell belongs to the same +class as the transformations which Yuletide evokes +for the delight of the young from our own German +Mythology, in which deforming spells are broken, +handsome princes step forth from bears or dwarfs, +decrepit crones become fair maidens, and Cinderellas +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span>rise from their ashes and rags in shining raiment and +beauty.</p> + +<p>When the Jewish legends were transferred to the +Gentile world this incident (of transfiguration) was +detached from the patriarch and connected with the +generalised type of Israel which represented the +popularisation of its faith among other races. +Probably the Transfiguration, concerning which +secrecy was demanded, was first whispered about +in the Jewish quarters of Rome. In the New Testament +narrative the Transfiguration comes as a +tableau at the end of a conversation immediately +bearing upon the subject of the undying ones. +After being told, in answer to his question, that +some thought he was John the Baptist (in whose +death probably his followers refused to believe), +others thought him Elias, others Jeremiah, Jesus +asked, “But whom say ye that I am?” Peter said, +“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” +This was the Christian equivalent of the address of +the Angel to Enoch, quoted above. Jesus then assumes +the Messiaship; founds his church, declares +his future course and office, and ends by transferring +to the patriarchs of the new kingdom the mantle of +earthly immortality worn by the Jewish patriarchs. +“Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span>which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of +Man coming in his kingdom.” The next thing related +is the Transfiguration. “His face did shine as the +sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” Luke +says, “The fashion of his countenance was altered, +and his face was white and glistering.” Beside him +are Moses and Elias, whose office as surviving witnesses +is falling upon their successors—James (here the +brother of Jesus), who was miraculously supported +without food from the crucifixion until after the +resurrection, and after death rose again for an important +legendary career; and John, who was to +“tarry” till Christ should come.⁠<a id="FNanchor_16_16" href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> Peter could only +survive by proxy: it would have been inconvenient to +have him often interfering with the arrangements of +his successor, as in the one case of his reappearance, +when he supplanted a Bishop in consecrating the first +Abbot of Westminster, leaving the Deans thereof +perilously independent ever since. As Enoch was +omitted from the scene because he was a rival Messiah, +Peter received no mantle of immortality because he +might become an invisible rival Vicar.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span></p> + +<p>The transfigured representative of the “Head of +Days” was there, but not the transfigured world. +The event was as a rehearsal; the actual performance +had to be postponed for a thousand years. The +hopes of those who had expected to see the thorn-crown +changed to a coronet and the crucified Jew +appearing, resplendent with the aureole of Moses and +the chariot of Elias, to enter on his kingdom, faded +away. It was replaced by the rumours that Jesus +and a few chosen friends were invisibly moving near, +and would befriend the faithful unto the millennial +hour. Then they should all awaken from what, for +believers who had eaten the vitalising body and +blood of Christ, would be but a sleep.</p> + +<p>Animistic philosophy in the second century was +such as to admit of the transient death of a Messiah +provided his body was not supposed to be left long +enough under ground to taste corruption. The +Psalm (<abbr title="16">xvi.</abbr> 10) said, “Thou wilt not suffer thy holy +one to see corruption;” but, as in the case of Alcestis, +a human being might live again if wrested from death +by the third day. In the case of Lazarus the miracle +consisted in the recovery of life after the body had +been buried four days. The resurrection of Christ, so +far from being a proof of human immortality, manifestly +means that Jesus did not die in the ordinary +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span>sense, but recovered in the sepulchre the ghost he had +breathed out on the cross. In theological statement +he might be thought of as dwelling in heaven; but +for a long time his ascension into heaven was as +much an excursion as his descent into hell; in both +he but went through the <i lang="fr">rôle</i> of Enoch, and in +Christian folk-tales he was still “always with them,” +moving near, as when he met Peter near Rome, where +his foot-prints are still worshipped.⁠<a id="FNanchor_17_17" href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>That which was Job’s aspiration had become the +humble Christian’s faith. Unable amid perishing +nature to believe that one who died could live +again, Job wishes that he could be hid “in the +under-world,” concealed for “an appointed time, then +remembered.” All the days of his hard time there he +would await his “change.” And finally he does believe +that his Vindicator will secure something like this; +not that he expects to live for ever, but, however +wasted his body, he will live long enough to see +Elohim no longer an adversary, but on his side. +With Paul this belief has arrived at the phase of +comparing the human body to a seed which rises to a +flower. After the alleged resurrection of Jesus it was +evidently important to show that it was the same +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span>body, even to its wounds, but at the same time so +transformed that it was with difficulty recognised, and +was mistaken for a spirit. In the <cite>Gospel according to +the Hebrews</cite> (Nicholson, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 68) it is written, after the +story of James living without food until he saw Jesus +risen from the dead, that “when he (Jesus) came +to those about Peter, he said to them, ‘Take, feel +me, and see that I am not a bodiless dæmon.’” +Ignatius, who preserved this, says (<cite lang="la"><abbr title="Epistola">Ep.</abbr> ad Smyrnæos</cite>, +<abbr title="chapter">c.</abbr> <abbr title="3">iii.</abbr>), “I both know that he was in the flesh after +the resurrection and believe that he is [in it].... +And straightway they touched him and believed, being +constrained by his flesh and spirit Because of +this they thought lightly even of death, and were +found superior to death. And after the resurrection +he ate and drank with them as one in the flesh +though spiritually united to the Father.”</p> + +<p>The main difficulty about earthly immortality, presented +in the shrivelled form of Tithonus, solved in +Enoch’s case by transfiguration, was settled in later +mythologies by the theory of a fountain of Perpetual +Youth. When Ponce de Leon heard of the New +World he hastened thither to find this Fountain: in +the depths of luxuriant Florida he searched, and +never reappeared.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI"> + <abbr title="6">VI.</abbr> + <br> + MANTLES OF THE IMMORTALS. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">We</span> have already seen that in the Gospel of Nicodemus +(<abbr title="25">xxv.</abbr>), Enoch and Elias are represented as welcoming +those who arrive in Paradise. In an Arabian legend +Grässe finds an important form of this tradition. It is +said that Enoch and Elias came to the Land of Darkness, +and there drank of the fountain of Perpetual +Youth; and thenceforth, one on land, the other on sea, +they went about to watch over pilgrims, much the same +as Castor and Pollux, who guarded wanderers. In the +intervals of such services they rest in gardens amid all +earthly joys. Towards the end of the world they will +appear to prepare the way for the Messiah. But in the +sixteenth year of the Hegira, Elias had not yet found +the Fountain. When the Arabians had conquered a +certain city they rested between two mountains of +Syria. At night when Fadilah, their commander, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span>began to pray, “Allah Akbar,” a voice pronounced +the words and continued to the end of the prayer. +Fadilah at first thought it an echo, but presently knew +it could not be such, and appealed to him who had +spoken, if man and not a ghost, to appear. Then an +aged man with a staff appeared, and said, “I am here +by command of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has left +me in this world until his second coming. Therefore +I await this Lord who is the source of all happiness.” +He gave his name as Zerib Ben Bar Elia. Fadilah +having asked if the end of the world were near or far, +Elia answered, “When there shall be no difference +in sex between men and women; when the blood of +innocents shall be shed; when abundance of food +shall not lessen its price; when the poor beg alms +without finding anything to live on; when love to +man shall be lost; when the Holy Scriptures shall be +put into songs; when temples dedicated to the true +God are filled with idols—then be sure that the Day +of Judgment is near!” Whereupon the old man disappeared.⁠<a id="FNanchor_18_18" href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p>Occasionally the cant of persons pretending to be +the Wandering Jew has faintly echoed this Eastern +specimen. As for the “two witnesses,” it may be +remembered that we have already noticed (<a href="#CHAPTER_I"><abbr title="1">I.</abbr></a>) efforts +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span>made in the seventeenth century to prove that two +survivors from the time of the Crucifixion existed. +This could be done by regarding Cartaphilus (‘the +famous Joseph’) and Ahasuerus as different persons. +Or it may have been that Joseph and Malchus were +thought of, especially in Italy, where these seem to +have been the corresponding figures.</p> + +<p>Jewish superstitions of this character were reinforced +from another direction. The Greeks had their +legend of the long sleep of Epimenides on the Isle of +Knossus. Epimenides being one of the Seven Sages, +there might easily grow from his legend that of the +Seven Sleepers.</p> + +<p>The familiar form of this legend is that given by +Gibbon (<abbr title="33">xxxiii.</abbr>), who follows Gregory of Tours, as an +incident of the Decian persecution. It is also in the +<cite class="nonitalic">Koran</cite> (<abbr title="18">xviii.</abbr>). Goethe follows the <cite class="nonitalic">Koran</cite> mainly in +his poem on the subject, but assigns the legend to a +pre-Christian period, no doubt on good grounds. +According to this version the Sleepers were youths of +Cæsar’s household who refused to worship that emperor +when he proclaimed himself a god; saying they would +worship him alone who had created the sun, moon, +and stars. Thereupon they departed, but Cæsar pursued +them; and when they had taken refuge in a +cavern near Ephesus, the emperor walled up the entrance, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span>so that they could not escape. After the +lapse of some centuries the wall gave way, and one of +them entered Ephesus to buy bread. He offered an +ancient coin; was suspected of having found treasure; +but by telling of various things hidden about the city, +unknown before, the story of the miraculous slumber +was confirmed. When the king and others went out +to visit the youths, the Angel Gabriel appeared, +closed the cavern, and led the Seven into Paradise. +According to the version which Goethe used, one of +the Seven was a faithful dog which had accompanied +the six young men, and passed into paradise +with them.⁠<a id="FNanchor_19_19" href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>The tale of the Wanderings of Odysseus would +appear to have touched the Spanish variant of the +Seven Sleepers myth, which probably influenced the +mind of Columbus. According to this story, Seven +Bishops, flying from persecution, sailed westward and +reached a beautiful island where they built seven +splendid cities. This was dreamed of as the ‘Island +of the Seven Cities’ (Baring-Gould, <cite>Curious Myths</cite>, +<abbr title="2">ii.</abbr> 277). A legend told by Washington Irving +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span>relates that Don Fernando was wafted to this +island, where he dwelt in great happiness, until he one +day sank into unconsciousness. When he awakened +from this Circe spell, he found himself on his ship +near the Iberian coast. He repaired to the house of +a lady to whom he was affianced; she disclaimed all +knowledge of him; and when he addressed her by +name it appeared that he was thinking of her great-grandmother, +whom she closely resembled.⁠<a id="FNanchor_20_20" href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p>These mingled Greek and Jewish traditions came +into Christendom mainly through the words Jesus is +reported to have said concerning John, “If I will that +he tarry till I come.” It was on <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> John that the +mantle of the undying saints first fell in the Christian +period. The place of his slumber was located beside +that of the Seven Sleepers, at Ephesus. The story +stands well-framed in the fossil English of the fourteenth +century traveller, Sir John Maundeville.</p> + +<p>“From Pathmos men gon unto Ephesim, a fair +citie, and nyghe to the see. And there dyede Seynte +Johne and was buryed behynde the highe Awtiere, in +a Toumbe. And there is a fair Chirche. For Christene +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span>Mere weren wont to holden that place aiweyes. And +in the Tombe of Seynt John is noughte but Manna, +that is clept Angeles Mete. For his Body was translated +in to Paradys. And Turkes holden now alle +that Place and the citee and the Chirche. And ail +Asie the lesse is y cleped Turkye. And zee shulle +undrestonde, that Seynt Johne leet make his Grave +there in his Lyfe, and leyd him self there inne alle +quyk. And therefore somme Men seyn, that he dyed +noughte, but that he restethe there till ten Day of +Doom. And forsothe there is a gret Marveyle: For +Men may see there the Erthe of the Tombe apertly +many tymes steren and meven, as there weren quykke +thinges undre.”</p> + +<p>The legends concerning Saint John given by <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> +Hippolyte, followed by Eusebius, and Augustine, and +the ordeals he survived—such as drinking hemlock—were +suggestive of the potency of the words spoken +by Christ, however casually, “Tarry till I come.” The +same formula spoken to the Wandering Jew made +him as indestructible as the disciple “whom Jesus +loved.” Despite the ingenuity of the theory, one can +hardly doubt that <abbr title="Monsieur" lang="fr">M.</abbr> Schoebel is right in supposing +that the Wanderer’s early name, Cartaphilus, is formed +of the Greek <span lang="grc">κάρτα φίλος</span>, signifying “the Beloved.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII"> + <abbr title="7">VII.</abbr> + <br> + THE MARK OF CAIN. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">In</span> the Oberammergau Passion Play, where scenes +from the New Testament are preceded by tableaux +from the Old, Cain killing Abel is made to foreshadow +Judas betraying Jesus. In some Eastern lands Cain +has always been regarded as a Wanderer still living; +and to this day the Bedouin recognises his presence in +the hot Khamseen (Cain-wind), as in the destructive +hurricane the Picardy peasant exclaims, “<i lang="fr">C’est le Juif +errant qui passe</i>.” For a long time, indeed, Cain was +supposed to be the Wandering Jew, and possibly this +belief was thought of by Shakspeare (<cite>King Richard <abbr title="the Second">II.</abbr></cite>, +<abbr title="5">v.</abbr> 6) in the words of Bolingbroke to Exton:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“With Cain go wander through the shade of night,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And never show thy head by day nor light.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In <cite>Tabari</cite> (<abbr title="1">i.</abbr> 30), Adam says:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“We one have had in the midst of us whom death hath not yet found.</div> + <div class="verse indent1">No peace for him, no rest for him, treading the blood-drenched ground.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span></p> + +<p>The so-called ‘mark’ of Cain was conceived to be +a physical sign, and this appears in the legend of the +Wandering Jew: he was said to have the mark of a +blood-red cross on his forehead. Xeniola says the +Inquisition sought to secure him by this sign, but the +Wanderer concealed it under a black bandage.</p> + +<p>In Rabbinical superstition Cain was not the son +of Adam but of Sammaël, the later demon derived +from wandering Esau. He (Cain) was banished to the +Wilderness of Dendain, where his companions are +Behemoth and Leviathan, who harm him not, though +they are ever fattened by devouring wicked mortals +in order that they may supply food for the righteous +amid the desolations preceding the last day.</p> + +<p>As Cain wandered in a wilderness to the east of +Eden, in distinction from Seth, who dwelt in a fair +region of the west, so while <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> John was bodily alive +in his paradise, Judas “went to his own place.” As +Cain was son of Sammaël, Satan “entered into” Judas.</p> + +<p>The obvious evil counterpart of John was Judas. +The two had sat nearest Jesus at the Last Supper, and +had come in contact with his immortalising flesh—one +by leaning on his breast, the other by a treacherous kiss. +A more potent security against death lay in the immediate +way in which Jesus gave to both the bread and +wine, of which he said, “he that eateth my flesh and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span>drinketh my blood shall never die.” This was indeed +given to all of the disciples, and it was—still is—the +Christian theory that they who partake of the Eucharist +do not die, but “fall asleep.” But there were always +degrees of quickening effect in this communion. Thus, +the Seven Sleepers of Tours, who came to that city to +receive the benediction of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Martin, received from him +the Eucharist, and afterwards sank into an unconsciousness +from which they never awoke. Their bodies +remained, with all the external appearance of life in +their seven graves, still shown in front of their grotto.⁠<a id="FNanchor_21_21" href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p>It is doubtful whether any such person as Judas ever +lived. The name is the Greek form of Judah, and the +traitor may be a personification of the kingdom which +refused to part with the sceptre at the demand of the +Christian’s “Shiloh,” before whom alone, in the words +of Jacob, Judah was to surrender. It may also be that +this hostility was assigned the form of treachery, because +of a real Judas who, according to Josephus, +betrayed a fortress of Jerusalem to the army of Titus. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span>However this may be, even the circumstantial account +in the New Testament of his death could not save +Judas from becoming one of the evil wanderers.</p> + +<p>But this fate of Judas was postponed because of circumstances +which brought a more important agent of +Antichrist to the front. While Rome was yet pagan, +and the Christians suffering there, the Man of Sin confronting +the Son of Man would naturally be visible +there. The mark of Cain is seen as the mark of the +Beast, and the forehead of the Beast was Nero. It so +happened that among the Romans themselves there +prevailed, for some time after his death, a belief that +Nero had not really died. The fears of some, the pride +of others, forbade them to believe that this powerful +representative of the throne of the Cæsars was no more, +and they looked for his return to give battle to the +rising kingdom of the Nazarene.⁠<a id="FNanchor_22_22" href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>But when Rome had been converted to Christianity, +it became necessary to transfer the <i lang="fr">rôle</i> of +Antichrist to some race which still refused to surrender +to the new kingdom.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span></p> + +<p>The one unconquerable race—outside Rome, where +the poor Jews had found their need of an immediate +revolution too strong for their sufferance and loyalty +to old traditions—was the Jewish. This people could +be tortured, driven from land to land under the curse +of Cain, but not converted to Christianity. Then +attention returned from Nero to Judas.</p> + +<p>There was an ancient story about Cain, reproduced +in the <cite class="nonitalic">Koran</cite>, but no doubt following the much earlier +rabbinical tradition before mentioned, that the Devil +came to Eve in a dream, when she was pregnant with +her first son, and persuaded her to call the child by a +name which meant “servant of Satan.” In the course +of time a somewhat similar legend grew around the +phantasmal Judas. It was said that the mother of +Judas had a dream shortly before his birth, in which it +was disclosed to her that her son would murder his +father and sell his God. She and her husband thereupon +resolved that the child should not live, and at his +birth he was enclosed in a chest and cast into the sea. +But the sea cast him on shore, and he was found by a +king and queen, who adopted him. But they had +another son, whom Judas slew during a quarrel over a +game of chess. Thereupon he fled to Judea, and entered +the service of Pilate as his page. Having committed +other predestined crimes, including the murder of his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span>father, Judas learned from his mother the secret of his +birth, and of the dream that preceded it. In terror +and contrition, Judas hears of a prophet who has power +to forgive sins; he seeks out Jesus, throws himself at +his feet; and Jesus, recognising his predestined betrayer, +accepts him as a disciple, and entrusts him with +the purse, so that Judas’s avarice might be cultivated +and this peculiarly divine scheme should not fail. +Judas was thus made a retrospective Wanderer.</p> + +<p>In old Greek and Russian pictures, Judas is represented +on the knees of Satan as his beloved son, +beside the serpent which appears to be the dove in +this infernal trinity; but this Christian fable about +Judas would seem to show Satan indebted to Jesus +for his beloved son’s training in wickedness.</p> + +<p>That, according to the New Testament, Judas had +grief and remorse, and expiated his offence by death, +might naturally have awakened some compassionate +feeling for him, or sense of his humanity. But in the +mediæval faith this grief and remorse were not in him, +they were Furies sent to torment him. In the old +Passion Plays Remorse is a real personage, who +torments Judas until he invokes Despair, who lays +before him poison, a dagger, and a rope to choose +from. Nor was Christian logic equal to the consistency +of Disraeli’s contention that, according to the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span>faith, the betrayal and crucifixion, being essential to +salvation, were compulsory on Judas and the Jews.</p> + +<p>It will be remembered that the earliest recorded +Wandering Jew, Cartaphilus, informed the Armenian +Bishop that he had been Pilate’s doorkeeper. By +this item he is linked with the legendary Judas, who +is said to have been a page in Pilate’s palace. It may +now be remarked that Pilate also was the subject of a +somewhat similar legend. There are two classes of +legends concerning him. In the Abyssinian Church +Pilate became a martyr and a saint, his calendar day +being June 25. But in the south of Europe the story +ran that Pilate became a remorseful Wanderer. He +committed suicide by drowning himself in a tarn on +Mount Pilate, near Lucerne. It is a myth, as Professor +Sayce has shown, evolved from the old name of the +mountain—“Pileatus,” meaning capped (either with +foliage or cloud⁠<a id="FNanchor_23_23" href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a>). That little lake has lost all its +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span>natural picturesqueness. It is called the “infernal +lake.” Now and then, in the dusk, a man is seen to +emerge and wash his hands in it as in a basin; when +he disappears a hurricane follows.</p> + +<p>The curse of Cain came upon yet another name,—Malchus. +This servant of Caiaphas, whose ear cut +off by Peter was healed by Jesus, had no reason to be +thankful, it would appear by the legend; this relates +that he struck Christ with an iron gauntlet, and was +doomed to walk around a column underground, +against which he vainly dashes his head, until Judgment +Day. We have already seen (<a href="#CHAPTER_I"><abbr title="1">I.</abbr></a>) that the +Wandering Jew, under the name of Joseph, was reported +as undergoing a similar punishment in Jerusalem, +in 1641. The story of Malchus seems to blend +that of Ahasuerus with the Talmudic myth of Cain, +which is related in <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Baring-Gould’s <cite>Curious Myths</cite> +(<abbr title="2">ii.</abbr> <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 116). When Seth sought the Tree of Knowledge +in order to plant a scion of it in the grave of Adam, +(see <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><abbr title="8">VIII.</abbr></a>), he saw its roots in Hell, and Cain trying +to climb thereby into Paradise. The roots laced +themselves around Cain and pierced him through and +through, holding him bound in living agony for ever.</p> + +<p>According to Christian and Jewish revelations Cain +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span>must have discovered that, in his fratricide, he +had been unsophisticated in the art of punishing an +offender against one’s will. The divine method is more +ingenious. In the romance of Huon de Bordeaux +(<abbr>13th</abbr> <abbr title="Century">Cent.</abbr>) by Huon de Villeneuve, the writer reports +having seen a cask, with <span id="TN3">serpents and iron prongs +inside</span>, rolling rapidly along. Cain is shut in it, and +therein must roll on till the end of the world. This +rolling cask would appear to be the prison and punishment +of Malchus, adapted to the idea of perpetual +wandering. Al Sâmeri was also called <i>Al kharaïti</i>, +“the turner.” Professor D’Ancona (<cite lang="it">Nuova Antologia</cite>, +<abbr title="October">Oct.</abbr>, 1880, “<span lang="it">La Leggenda dell’ Ebreo Errante</span>”) shows +that the story of Malchus is Italian. <abbr title="Monsieur" lang="fr">M.</abbr> Gaston Paris +ascribes it great antiquity, identifying the name and +idea with the legend of Marcus the Leper, which is old +enough to be represented in early Italian proverbs. +This Marcus, having been cured by Jesus, afterwards +struck him, and the curse laid upon him was held to +explain the incurability of leprosy. <abbr title="Monsieur" lang="fr">M.</abbr> Paris finds +in this legend the idea of the blow given Jesus. +If with this are combined the legend of Joseph of +Arimathea (thrown into prison by the Jews, where his +life was miraculously preserved), and the words to <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> +John, we have, he thinks, the story of Cartaphilus.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII"> + <abbr title="8">VIII.</abbr> + <br> + THE JEW IN THEOLOGY. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">The</span> fable concerning Judas is one of many which +indicate the formation of a special Christian doctrine +concerning the Jewish race.</p> + +<p>After the ruin of their Temple at Jerusalem and +desolation of their city, the Jews made repeated efforts—like +that led by Bar-Cocheba—to recover their +independence. As the possibility of recovering their +city and rebuilding their Temple faded away they +managed, even in their dispersed condition, to constitute +an <i lang="la">imperium in imperio</i> under an officer called +Resh Gelutha, or “Prince of the Captivity.” As was +natural, they never lost an opportunity of opposing +the new empire, of which Jesus had been made +General. In the fourth century they joined the +Arians. When Julian was called the Apostate he +gave them leave to rebuild their Temple at Jerusalem, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span>their hope of doing which was suddenly quenched by +that Emperor’s death. These great events, of which +the most typical can alone be mentioned here, were +steadily constituting a definite creed concerning +the Jewish race, a creed afterwards to be written upon +all Europe in their blood, and illustrated in the flames +that consumed them.</p> + +<p>The Christians believed that the Jews, as a race, +gave themselves up to be the devil’s agent for the +crucifixion of Christ. Even the idea of converting +them seems hardly to have occurred to any Christian +before the Reformation—unless the Holy Cross Day +torture at Rome be called such—and, justly as the +Jews now resent the efforts of conversionists, the +existence of a Society of that kind is a result of the +tardy recognition of their humanity. The scenes of +the Passion—so long preached, pictured, acted on +the stage—cast upon the Jews a shadow never relieved, +and were a perpetual instruction in horror of that +people. The supernatural character ascribed to them +by Christians as well as themselves, implied, since +they had rejected Christ, infranatural wickedness. +They were to Christendom the chosen people still, +but now chosen of Satan.</p> + +<p>While the sacred names and superstitions of the +Jewish people were preserved, a deadly hatred of those +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span>who had really founded Christianity, and furnished +its Messiah, was carefully fostered. The connection +of Christianity with Judaism was reduced to a series +of fairy-tales. Characteristic of these was that about the +True Cross. Seth receives from the Archangel Michael +a branch of the Tree of Knowledge to plant in Adam’s +grave, and is told that when it should bear fruit Adam +would recover. Out of Adam’s grave grows the Tree, +which Solomon hews down for the Temple. The +workmen cannot so adapt it, and it is used as a bridge +over a lake. The Queen of Sheba, crossing it, beholds +a vision of Christ on the Cross, and informs Solomon +that when a certain person shall be suspended on that +wood the fall of the Jewish nation would be at hand. +Solomon in alarm buries the wood, and then springs +over it the pool of Bethesda. Shortly before the +crucifixion the tree floated on the water, and ultimately, +as a cross, bore its fruit. The Jews concealed +the Cross, while pagans built a Temple of Venus on +the spot where it stood. Helena, mother of Constantine, +having sentenced a Jew to torture and death, +remits the punishment on condition that he will inform +her where the Cross is. Out of the three found the +true one manifests itself by performing cures. Thus +the Cross itself was a holy immortal Wanderer, with +the branded Jew ever beside it, seeking to destroy or +bury it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span></p> + +<p>Race-hatred had much to do with the shaping of +this theology, which anathematised the race from +whose primitive superstitions it was chiefly borrowed, +without discrimination or comprehension.</p> + +<p>The “anti-Semitic” venom crept for ages through the +veins of Christendom. Fed by millions of pulpits the +deadly stream percolated through the world, and a +consistent theory concerning the Jews was formed, +not very different from that which at length appeared in +Swedenborg’s pious phantasmagoria. In the history +of Israel, says <abbr>Mr.</abbr> White, Swedenborg “sees nothing +but selfish Jacob over and over again; and throughout +the <cite lang="la">Arcana Celestia</cite> he pursues the Jews with one +whip of epithets as the basest of mankind.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_24_24" href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> The +Jewish race was “chosen” by God not because of +their excellence, but for their baseness: their lack of +interior religion made them fit actors in a drama +where literalness was needed; their sensuality adapted +them to be the instrument of incarnation; and Jesus +was born of a Jewish mother because he could go +no lower! “In that body, whose every faculty was an +avenue to the Hells, he met as on a battle-field the +Powers of Evil and Darkness and subdued them.” +A fine offset this to the late Lord Beaconsfield’s proud +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span>reflection that the majority of Christendom hold a +Jewess to be Queen of Heaven! It is true that Mary +was excepted by Christendom from the general curse +which it saw resting upon the Jewish race; but her +exaltation, in the fifth century, was largely due to +legends of the Jews, which represented her as an +unchaste woman. Her apotheosis among Christians +was the other side of her condemnation by the Jews; +their vision of her in Hell was replied to in the +story of her Assumption. The Jews were never benefited +by any of the holy personages transmitted from +their race for the homage of Christendom. They were +held to be the official persecutors and crucifiers of +such as were divinely sent unto them: whatever the +light seen in their history, the only credit of the Jews +was to lie under the shadow it cast.</p> + +<p>It was largely through the Miracle Plays that hatred +of the Jews, diffused by mediæval homilies, gained the +shape which proved so fatal to the Jews. On the +stage the holy drama represented a great struggle +between the hosts of Heaven and Hell, of which the +scene was on earth. In that drama the Jewish +race was not merely the “heavy villain,” it was the +incarnation of all devils. It would appear that for a +thousand years no Christian regarded any Jew as a +man at all. In those excesses of cruelty too wild to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span>be now comprehensible—when every European river +ran red with Jewish blood, when Jews’ eyes and teeth +were plucked out and their bodies burnt as torches +in saturnalia beside which those of Nero with his +Christian martyrs were trivial—it is plain that there +was an epidemic possession wrought by the long +education of the people in the belief that the Jews, from +a supernatural, had become an infranatural people.</p> + +<p>They from whose ears the reported denunciations +of the Jews by Jesus—as “of their Father the Devil,” +as “vipers,” “children of Hell”—were never suffered +to die out, and who avenged the crucifixion +of one man by the crucifixion of a race for centuries, +are condemned for inhumanity. But the +charge is inexact. They were as charitable as are +their posterity to those whom they regarded as human +beings. Their theology had dehumanised the Jews, +and its progress was traced in Christian inhumanities +wrought in pious zeal for the Trinity. It was not a +suspicion admitted into any mind, thus sophisticated, +that it was a man against whom Judas and the Jews +had raised their hand. It was against the Eternal +Majesty. That they saw as the obvious functional +work of Satan. It was the culminating attack in an +eternal war against God. Hence those perpetual +dooms beheld overhanging all concerned in the crucifixion, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span>which denoted the unpardonable and everlasting +nature of the offence against the eternal Avenger +of his honour. It is only the God of Theology whose +vengeance never sleeps nor ends with any generation, +whose wrath is fresh every day, and his hell eternal. +Only when man has had his human heart dexterously +removed, and has become the changeling of some +vampyre Phantasm he coweringly adores, could he be +the instrument of the crimes that Christianity has +committed against humanity.</p> + +<p>Seven times shall Cain be avenged, seventy and +seven times Lamech, ran the old song; but Jesus +said, seventy times seven shalt thou forgive. The +human Jesus was speedily overlaid and lost beneath +the myths that gathered around the passive Jesus—the +babe, the dead body. No holiday was appointed +for the Sermon on the Mount, nor was there any +Festival of the Golden Rule.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX"> + <abbr title="9">IX.</abbr> + <br> + THE JEW IN FOLK-LORE. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">It</span> is related in the <cite lang="la">Legenda Aurea</cite> of John Capgrave +that <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Brendain, on his famous voyage, came to an +island filled with beautiful birds whose music entranced +the souls of listeners. The birds told the +saint that they had been angels; when the rebel +angels plotted their designs in heaven they had been +tempted by the Archfiend to join his party; they did +not yield, but dallied with the temptation, and when +the wicked beings were cast into the sea of fire, they +were transformed into birds. They sang hymns of +joy, awaiting their release.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, the ill-omened “Seven Whistlers” +or “Seven Plovers,” of English superstition are +said to have been Jews who assisted in the crucifixion +of Jesus.</p> + +<p>These birds are types of the fables that flitted about +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span>the world in the Middle Ages, each the transformation +and diminution of their like which had been set free +by the decay of both European and Jewish mythology. +Christianity had preserved both with care. +The Jewish mythology it had disintegrated and recombined +for its own supernatural authentication; to +the European deities it had given a new lease of life +by degrading them to devils, affirming their power to +haunt and harm their former worshippers. If there +had been any kindly attributes or pleasant tales associated +with these deities they were transferred to the +Christian saints; if any evils had been told of such, +they were intensified under the sweeping anathema of +the new religion.</p> + +<p>Into this miasmatic atmosphere anti-Semitic prejudice +and theology were diffused. The same process +as that just mentioned concerning “paganism” +presently overtook the Jews. When all hope of +changing or exterminating it had passed away the +theological theory was naturally formed by which all +the good in the Jewish system was transferred to +Christianity, and everything repulsive was diabolised. +Unfortunately for the Jews their anathema came later +than that which had degraded the deities and beliefs +of pagan Europe; their sacred forms, rites, superstitions +were the more vivid; so that the fading phantoms +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span>of European mythology were able to acquire +new life by union with the fresher ones imported from +the East. In this way the demons, gnomes, witches, +which, from representing the majesty as well as the +menace of nature, had been doomed to bear responsibility +for all its cruelties, now came to nestle with the +Jews. These were already the normal scapegoat for +the fall of man and martyrdoms of Christians; now +there entered into them a troop of imaginary horrors +worse than any known to their most barbarous days. +Of these a few characteristic examples may be +selected from the very large number known to every +student of folk-lore.</p> + +<p>The periodical assemblies of witches believed to +occur in various wild places were called “Witches’ +Sabbaths,” because Jews were supposed to be the chief +attendants at them. They there received their wages +for supporting the kingdom of Antichrist. They +celebrated a grand mass before the Devil. The blood +of Christian children was said to be essential to their +sacrifices. In some regions where, under the ancient +religion, the effigy of winter had been burnt on one or +another day of spring, it became the custom to burn it on +Good Friday and under the name of Judas. The ceremony +of scourging and burning Judas still takes place +annually in the London Docks. In Spain it is considered +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span>necessary to spit after pronouncing the word +“Jew;” and from that country the paganised effigies +of that people have spread through distant regions +of the world. In some regions (as Oldenberg) the +birthday of poor everlasting Judas is said to be +February 14, in others (as Franconia) it is fixed as +April 1, and these days are unlucky. The stigma +of Iscariot passed upon certain trees, as the aspen, +which was said to tremble perpetually because he +hung upon it; and the Judas-tree, with its blood-drop +blossoms. In the Bergstrasse, or high road +between Darmstadt and Heidelberg, the peasantry +still believe that every Jew possesses the “evil eye,” +and that if a sick person wishes to die swiftly he must +get a Rabbi to pray for his convalescence. In sundry +places Jews are believed able to foretell the weather +by means of dividing a loaf of bread, putting the +parts together again, and shoving it with a mysterious +word into an oven. They are also believed to spread +diseases by spells written in Hebrew on bits of paper, +and to deal in such charms. In some regions noises +heard in mines were indifferently attributed to +kobolds, or to the ghosts of Jews believed to have +been made to work in them as slaves by the Romans. +In East Friesland it is considered very unlucky to meet +a Jew first in the morning; if a Jew is the first to enter +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span>one’s house on Monday, or even to look into the window, +it renders the whole week unlucky to the house, +and was once an offence that might be prosecuted.⁠<a id="FNanchor_25_25" href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> +Other Jews impaled in the ever-repeated Christian +legend took on, in the popular imagination, the diabolical +forms into which the pagan deities had been degraded +by missionaries. In storms Herod was said still +to hunt the Innocents. The Perigord peasant names +the fierce thunderstorm “<span lang="fr">la chasse Herode</span>.” This +was probably an ingenious development of the <span lang="de">Herr-Rote</span>, +or <span lang="de">Haar-Rote</span>, the red-haired demon-huntsman. +Associated with him was Herodias. Grimm says that +the Italians sometimes identify their misshapen fairy +Befana—a terror to children, who has sprung out of +Epiphania—as Herod’s daughter (Salome); so that both +mother and daughter were made into evil wanderers.⁠<a id="FNanchor_26_26" href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> +Herodias, who prompted her daughter to demand the +head of John the Baptist, was associated with Diana +and Holda in the nocturnal expeditions of demons +and witches. She was at the head of an aerial host +of such. Only from midnight to cockcrow can she +rest, and then sits upon oaks and hazel-trees. She +was said to have an unrequited passion for John, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span>and when his head was brought in on a charger would +have kissed it, but it recoiled and blew upon her, and +she was whirled into the air, where she wanders. In +Lower Saxony whirlwinds are accounted for by the +dancing of Herodias, as elsewhere to that of the devil. +Herod and Herodias are said by Josephus to have +been banished to Lyons, and eventually to have died +in Spain; perhaps this may account for the special +prominence she holds in the folk-lore of Spanish +America. In Mexico the puppet Herodias dances in +a kind of Punch and Judy show in Holy Week, to the +music of rattles made of “Judas bones.” In Eugene +Sue’s <cite>Wandering Jew</cite> Herodias appears in Arctic +America. <abbr title="Monsieur" lang="fr">M.</abbr> Gaston Paris cites several Italian proverbs +in which Judas and Malchus are united (as in +Sicily, <i>lu Juda—Marcu</i>) to characterise an ugly or unpleasant +countenance. It has been thought (though +I have not investigated the matter) that our puppet-show, +<cite>Punch and Judy</cite>, is a distant outcome of an old +play, <i lang="la">Pontius cum Judæis</i>, in which the Jews were +severely handled by the pro-consul.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X"> + <abbr title="10">X.</abbr> + <br> + THE WEIRD OF THE WANDERER. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">There</span> is one class of survivals from the fatalistic +ideas of all so-called paganisms which have always +been very strong in the popular mind of Europe. It +was a creed in which all ancient faiths converged, +that an irresistible power was lodged in any officially-uttered +curse. The word once solemnly spoken, became +the weird, the fatum, and not even the tongue +that spake could revoke it. Oftenest the dooms that +represented this belief in the Middle Ages were +supposed to come from Heaven in response to some +defiant invocation, or blasphemous challenge like that +of the Flying Dutchman. It is a notable fact for the +antiquarian that in the year 1881 the courts of England +should be trying a case involving the question of +whether a lecturer took out his watch and gave the +deity, whose existence he denied, five minutes to strike +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span>him dead. That is an old myth normally fixed on +misbelievers; and it is probable that the motives for +selecting that particular slander for judicial denial, if +traced out, would be found connected with the ancient +superstition that such words must have the eternal +effect of real natural forces. From the ancient +patriarchalism, which has so many political and social +survivals in Europe, came the idea that a father’s +curse (or blessing) carried with it the fatal forces of +the universe. More universal still was the potency +supposed to attend the word of a priest, however +casual. This notion is still met with in the many +stories of persons said to have died soon after ridiculing +the proceedings of “revivalists.”</p> + +<p>Grässe has collected some examples of such superstitions +in Europe, beginning so far back as the legend +of Domitilla, the grand-daughter of Domitian. In +her room, after she had become a Christian, her husband +introduced dancers to win her back to the world +and to himself: he began showing them how to dance, +but could not stop; and after dancing two days and +nights, died. Such “dances” are now familiar in +folk-lore, and are associated with some of the stone +circles of England. In Kolbeck, near Halbustadt, +there is a legend that, in the year 1012, a peasant +named Albrecht and fifteen others who danced before +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span>the Church on Christmas while Mass was going on, +were ordered by the priest to dance for a year. The +Bishop of Cologne had to come and release these +dancers, who had worn a deep hole in the ground. In +the same vein is the story of “the merry smith of +Jüterbogk,” a small survival of Sisyphus. A remarkable +story of this kind is that of Freiburg (A. Müller, +<cite lang="la"><abbr title="Theatrum">Theatr.</abbr> Freiburg <abbr title="Chronicon">Chron.</abbr></cite>, 1633). An irritable father, +Lorent Richter, ordered his son of fourteen years to +do something: the boy hesitated, standing in the +middle of the room. “Cursed boy,” cried the father, +“may you stand there for ever!” The boy remained +standing there, propped by supports, and after many +years the priests, by many prayers, could only secure +the small commutation of a removal to a corner where +he would not be so much in the way of the household. +“At last the kind God a little altered the punishment +by allowing him to sit during the last six months of +the year, and also to lie in a bed placed near him. +When asked what he did, he answered that he was +punished by God the Lord for his sins; that he left +all to His will; and trusted in the merits of Christ to +obtain final happiness.” After seven years—a number +associated with many famous sleepers—the boy “was +relieved, <abbr>11th</abbr> <abbr title="September">Sept.</abbr>, 1552.” His footprints were +pointed out on the floor for a hundred years. The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span>father had wished to obliterate this memento of his +anger, but the authorities decided that the footprints +should remain as a warning to wrathful parents and +disobedient children.</p> + +<p>The great majority of “dooms” known to Northern +paganism have exchanged connotations with the legend +of the Wandering Jew. The sentence pronounced +upon such royal huntsmen or robber-knights as +Dyterbjernat of Danzig, Diedrick of Bern, Duke Abel +the fratricide (Schleswig), and others, is usually of this +character. In the Netherlands it is the story of a son +who refused to listen to his father’s Christian advice, +but called his dogs into the wood: the father cried, +“Hunt, then, for ever!” and so he hunts on, and his +voice, mingled with the baying of dogs, is heard in +the woods about the Castle of Wynedal. In Thuringia, +it is Hakelnberg who would not listen to the priest, +who bade him “hunt until the last day.” These formulas +of the curse are related to that of the Jew +legend: the primitive pagan legend is different, <i><abbr>e.g.</abbr></i> +the hunt long known as the Horlething, on the banks +of the Wye. It was said King Herla went to the +marriage feast of a dwarf: when he returned to his +palace he found that he had been in the mountain +with the dwarf two hundred years, and was under a +doom to ride on until the day of judgment. The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span>visit to the dwarfs festival simply meant a relapse +into paganism.</p> + +<p>That the myth of the Wandering Jew was interwoven +with that of the Demon Huntsman of Germany (which +is called Aaskarreya in Norway), there can be no +doubt. “Perhaps,” says Karl Blind, “one of the +clearest proofs of the phantom figure of the Wandering +Jew having been grafted upon that of the great +Wanderer and World-hunter, Wodan, is to be found +in a tale of the Hartz Mountains. There it is said +that the Wild Huntsman careers ‘over the seven +mountain-towns every seven years.’ The reason +given for his ceaseless wanderings is, that ‘he would +not allow our Lord Jesus Christ to quench his thirst +at a river, nor at a water-trough for cattle, from both +of which he drove him away, telling him that he ought +to drink from a horse-pond.’ For this reason the +Wild Huntsman must wander about for ever, and feed +upon horseflesh. And whoever calls out after him, +when his ghostly chase comes by, will see the Wild +Huntsman turn round, and be compelled by him to +eat horseflesh too. No allusion whatever is made in +this tale to a Jew, though the name of Christ is pressed +into it in a way very like the Ahasuerus legend. We +seem to get here a mythic rendering of the struggle +between the old Germanic faith and the Christian +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span>religion. The ‘horse-pond’ and the ‘horseflesh’ +are, to all appearances, references to our horse-worshipping, +horse-sacrificing, horseflesh-eating forefathers, +who came to Britain under the leadership of Hengist +and Horsa. To call out after the eternal Huntsman +entails the danger of being forced by him to eat +horseflesh—that is, to return to the old creed. The +Holy Supper of the Teutonic tribes consisted of horseflesh +and mead. When Christianity came in, the +eating of horseflesh was abolished as a heathen custom. +But at German witches’ banquets—in other +words, at secret festive ceremonies in which the pagan +traditions were still kept up—there continued for a +long time a custom of drinking from horse-shoes.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_27_27" href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + +<p>We have in this sentence last quoted from <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Blind’s +able article a suggestion of the probable origin of the +horse-shoe as a charm against witches. To the pagan +Teuton it was as sacred an emblem as to the Christian +his cross. While the Christians still believed in the +power of the Wild Huntsman and his train to work +them mischief, they might naturally show this symbol +of pagan orthodoxy over their doors to induce the +witches to pass on and visit their wrath on the openly +disloyal.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span></p> + +<p>This article in <cite>The Gentleman’s Magazine</cite> contains +an original speculation and theory concerning two +remarkable problems connected with our legend. +How is it that the name Cartaphilus was replaced by +Ahasuerus? How did the “doorkeeper” of the thirteenth +century become the “shoemaker” of the sixteenth +century legend? <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Blind, with a creditable +caution, suggests that the name may have been a +modification of As-Vidar. This god (<i>As</i>) Vidar was +in the Scandinavian mythology the symbol of everlasting +force: he was the deity who was alone to survive +the universal destruction of Ragnarök, “Twilight +of the Gods.” In the Prose Edda it is written: “The +Wolf (Fenris) swallows Odin, but at that instant +Vidar advances, and setting his foot on the monster’s +lower jaw, seizes the other with his hand, and thus +tears and rends him till he dies. Vidar is able to do +this because he wears shoes for which stuff has been +gathering in all ages, namely, the shreds of leather +which are cut off to form the toes and heels of shoes; +and it is on this account that those who would render +a service to the Æsir (gods) should take care to +throw such shreds away.” It is said there are (or +were) preserved in the Government Library at Berne +traditional relics left by the Wandering Jew, his staff +and pair of shoes. These shoes are said, by an early +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span>local authority, to be “uncommonly large and made +of a hundred snips—a shoemaker’s master-piece, because +patched together with the utmost labour, diligence, +and cleverness out of so many shreds of leather.” +A similar pair of shoes are said to have also been left +by Ahasuerus at Ulm.</p> + +<p>It may be remarked that the name given to the +Wandering Jew in the <cite lang="la">Praxis Alchymine</cite> of Libavius, +<abbr lang="la" title="videlicet">viz.</abbr>, Buttadæus, may possibly refer to the boot (<abbr class="nowrap" title="Anglo-Saxon">A. S.</abbr> +<i>butte</i>) of the Wanderer, and it may have been that +<i lang="la">deus</i> was added. Whether it meant the “booted god,” +or the man who struck God with a boot, or <i lang="fr">bouter dieu</i> +(to push God), must remain doubtful. It is a striking +coincidence, if no more, that, in Talmudic legend, +Enoch also was a shoemaker, who with every stitch +exclaimed, “The Lord and His Majesty be praised!”</p> + +<p>The names of the Wandering Jew are characteristically +various, not to say vagarious; they are also +sometimes puzzling. Cartaphilus is pretty certainly +<span lang="grc">κάρτα φίλος</span>, in allusion to the “beloved” disciple; +Ahasuerus is perhaps the Hebrew form of Xerxes, +though there is nothing in the history of that king to +connect him with the Wandering Jew. Several give +his name as Gregorius, through a mistake, as <abbr title="Monsieur" lang="fr">M.</abbr> Paris +has pointed out, as to the meaning of Botoreius, who +wrote that Jesus stopped “<span lang="la">ante tabernam gregorii</span> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span><span lang="la">illius</span>;” the Turkish Spy names him Michob Ader. +One name popularly ascribed to him in Brussels +is “Isaac Laquedem.” Concerning this Grässe has +a note in which he says, “I asked for an explanation +of the word, and my friend <abbr>Dr.</abbr> Böttcher, the +celebrated expert in Hebrew, gave me the following +answer, ‘If the name Laquedem is written and +pronounced in French (Walloon) “Lakedem,” and is +derived from the Hebrew, it can scarcely be anything +else but <span lang="he">la-kĕdem</span>, <i><abbr>i.e.</abbr></i>, “the former world” +[belonging to an anterior world], in which case we +must say the use of the prefix “<span lang="fr">la</span>” is without a parallel +in names of later Jews, and therefore the “<span lang="fr">la</span>,” the +French article, may be considered due to a half-learned +inventor of names (<i lang="la">vide</i> Lacroix, Lamarque, +La Loresh. Wolf, <cite lang="la"><abbr title="Bibliotheca Hebraea">Bibl. Hebr.</abbr></cite> <abbr title="4">iv.</abbr> 812).’”</p> + +<p>As for the name “Joseph,” given by the Armenian +Bishop as the baptismal name of Cartaphilus, there is +evidence in the old Chronicle itself that it was derived +by association with Joseph of Arimathea, who is said +to have wandered through a large part of the world +and to have come to Britain in the year 66, where his +blossoming staff fixed the site of Glastonbury Abbey.</p> + +<p>It is an indication of the steadiness with which +every being, however exalted originally, was degraded +by coming under the supposed preternatural fate of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span>the Jewish race, that this Joseph of Arimathea, by +giving a baptismal name to Cartaphilus, gave the +English populace their epithet for the beggars or +impostors who were supposed to be the Wandering +Jew. He was called “Poor Joe!” Of him, as representing +the dregs of the myth, more must be said +hereafter. Another example of this degradation is +shown in the fact that in various parts of Europe the +storm-demon is called <i>Maccabee</i>. The process by which +this was brought about has not, to my knowledge, +been traced, but the following facts seem to bear on it.</p> + +<p>In 2 Maccabæus, <abbr title="5">v.</abbr> 2–4, it is written—“Then it happened +that through all the city, for the space almost +of forty days, there were seen horsemen running in the +air, in cloth of gold, and armed with lances like a band +of soldiers.... Wherefore every man prayed that that +apparition might turn to good.” These apparitions, +resembling those said by Josephus to have reappeared +at the siege of Jerusalem, were adopted as good +Christian omens. Judas Maccabæus also records his +vision of the prophet Jeremiah giving him a golden +sword to defend the holy people. It is probable that +this was the germ of the superstition which proved so +fatal to the Christians at the siege of Constantinople +(1453). After the capture of the city, men, women +and children rushed into the Church of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Sophia for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span>protection, because of a prophecy that “one day the +Turks would enter Constantinople and pursue the +Romans as far as the column of Constantine in the +square before <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Sophia; but that this would be the +term of their calamities; that an angel would descend +from heaven with a sword in his hand, and would +deliver the empire, with that celestial weapon, to a +poor man seated at the foot of the column. ‘Take +this sword,’ would he say, ‘and avenge the people of +the Lord.’ At these animating words the Turks +would instantly fly.... While they expected the +descent of the tardy angel, the doors were broken +with axes; and, as the Turks encountered no resistance, +their bloodless hands were employed in selecting +and securing the multitude of their prisoners” (Gibbon, +<abbr title="chapter">ch.</abbr> <abbr title="68">lxviii.</abbr>).</p> + +<p>It looks as if the association of the wild aerial chase +with <i>Maccabee</i>, in France and other southern regions, +might have resulted from the diffusion of the superstition +which drew such a thunderbolt upon the Christians +of Constantinople, and its gradual subjection to +the demonising doom which rested upon even the +brightest figures of Jewish history not wearing the +Christian uniform.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI"> + <abbr title="11">XI.</abbr> + <br> + “THE VERY DEVIL INCARNATION.” + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent">“<span class="smcap">Enter</span> Launcelot Gobbo!” So begins Scene <abbr title="2">ii.</abbr> of +Act <abbr title="2">II.</abbr> in the <cite>Merchant of Venice</cite>. Or as the original +stage-direction ran, “Enter the Clown!” His very +name suggests the glutton and knave, yet it seems to +be from him some Shakspearian guides derive their +chief light on the great poet’s picture of Shylock!</p> + +<p>Gobbo does indeed cast light upon the Jew, but it +comes from the mob which he represented. To say +“my master is a very Jew,” and “the Jew ... is the +devil himself,” are equivalent phrases in the capacious +mouth of Gobbo. He speaks for his gaping herd, and +their breed is not unknown. Judenhetze is able to +turn out such men in the latter days of the nineteenth +century.</p> + +<p>Bochart, in his <cite lang="el">Hierozoicon</cite> (seventeenth century), says +there was a Sea-monster called “The Old Jew;” with +the white-bearded face of a man he had the hairy body +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span>of an ox, otherwise calf-shaped. This monster always +appeared the night before Saturday on the surface of +the sea, and one could see him until sunset next day +leaping and diving like a frog, and following ships. +This monster, no doubt a variety of Al-Sâmeri, +elsewhere considered, is a fair type of what every Jew +was, for many centuries, in the eyes of the multitudinous +Gobbites. What stood for religion in them was +the vulgar ribaldry of the Miracle Plays, under which +those holy farces presently perished. In them Judas, +still the buffeted Wanderer, was the one figure-head +of the Jewish race, with the devil for his familiar.</p> + +<p>In ancient Persian pictures Ahriman and his host +have flame for hair. After the introduction of Christianity +the deities of Europe, which it degraded to +devils, were described and painted with fiery hair and +beard; as it stands in the German saying, “Roter +Bart, Teufelsart.” In the early Miracle Plays Judas +was made up with red hair and beard to show the +fiery abode to which he belonged. This feature survived +also in the “yellow bonnet” which the Jews +were compelled to wear, which replaced the scarlet or +red bonnets which the “Scarlet Woman” found too +like her own.⁠<a id="FNanchor_28_28" href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> The significant costume, and the ideas +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span>it expressed, passed to the conventional stage-Jew. +Barabas, in Marlowe’s <cite>Jew of Malta</cite>, and after him, +Shylock, were represented with the “orange-tawny +bonnet,” and fiery red hair and beard.</p> + +<p>In keeping with this the crimes popularly ascribed +to the Jews, for which they suffered so terribly, were +not human crimes. They were utterly without motive—such +as no man, however vile, could have committed. +For one example out of many, the Jews of +Lincoln were charged with having fattened a Christian +child of eight years on white bread and milk, then +scourged him, crowned him with thorns, crucified him, +giving him gall. For that impossible crime 112 +eminent Jews were tortured and slain. It was +rumoured that the earth would not receive the body +of that child, yet for years Christian pilgrims visited +its grave.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span></p> + +<p>Such wild, popular notions were faithfully reflected +in Marlowe’s <cite>Jew of Malta</cite>. “Barabas,” says Charles +Lamb, “is a mere monster, brought in with a large +painted nose, to please the rabble. He kills in sport—poisons +whole nunneries—invents infernal machines. +He is just such an exhibition as, a century or two +earlier, might have been played before the Londoners, +<em>by the Royal command</em>, when a general pillage and +massacre of the Hebrews had been previously resolved +on in the cabinet.”</p> + +<p>It will be now apparent to those who have followed +the travels of this Jew-myth that it had carried about +in its endless wanderings the belief in which it +originated, and of whose development it was a type—the +infranatural, finally the infernal, nature of the +Jewish race. It inevitably blended with all the superstitions +about uncanny phantoms, bringing the most +evil and ominous shapes haunting the popular +imagination in every locality into connection with the +detested race. Demons from the air, goblins from +their caves, birds of ill-omen, fearful gales, betokening +the proximity of the Wandering Phantom, brought +an ever-accumulating mass of fear, suspicion and +hatred upon the race of which its supposed doom was +a too faithful emblem. This vast cesspool of vulgar +superstition mirrored the dogmas of a theology ever +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span>developing downward. It was not permitted the +masses to look upon the alleged offences of Judas or +Ahasuerus in comparison with offences familiar to +them. As we have seen, the offence thought of was +the wrong and insult done to a God; it was an intensification +of the same feeling that regarded theft from +a church as worse than theft from the poorest widow, +or a slight untruth under oath as more wicked than +the most malicious lie not sworn to. Out of such a +principle of unreason naturally came the doom of a +race through many centuries to realise every ingenuity +of torture fabled in the Greek Hades, with Gehenna +added. Every revolving century was their Ixion-wheel, +and every stream their Phlegethon.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII"> + <abbr title="12">XII.</abbr> + <br> + THE WANDERING RACE. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">Professor Child</span>, of Harvard University, has remarked +that, “in the second form of the legend, the +punishment of perpetual existence, which gives rise to +the old names, <i lang="la">Judæus non mortalis</i>, <i lang="de">Ewiger Jude</i>, is +aggravated by a condemnation to perpetual change of +place, which is indicated by a corresponding name, +<i>Wandering Jew</i>, <i lang="fr">Juif Errant</i>, <abbr>etc.</abbr>”⁠<a id="FNanchor_29_29" href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> In this change a +great deal of history is represented. The Jewish race +under persecution steadily became a wandering race. +They were compelled to “move on” by the remorseless +police of Christendom. One after another the +laws of nations detached them from the soil, from the +trade-guilds, from civic position, and they became a +nation without a country.</p> + +<p>This process went on for a long time before it was +represented in any myth or legend. Mohammed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span>said, “The Jews are the People of the Book.” Joshua +ben Siras ben Eliezer, a priest in Jerusalem two hundred +years before the burning of the Second Temple +(quoted by Heine), wrote, “All this is the Book of +the Covenant made with the Most High God, namely, +the Law which Moses commanded as a precious treasure +to the House of Jacob. Wisdom floweth therefrom +as the water of Pison when it is great, and as the +water of Tigris when it overfloweth its banks in +spring. Instruction floweth from it as the Euphrates +when it is great, and as Jordan in the harvest. Correction +cometh forth from it as the light, and as the +water of the Nile in autumn. There is none that +hath made an end of learning it, there is none that +will ever find out all its mystery, for its wisdom is +richer than any sea and its word deeper than any +abyss.”</p> + +<p>So spake the genius of Israel, and, so speaking, +itself uttered its first doom. A people to whom a +book had become their Fatherland, which had come +to see in it their Jordan, their Tigris, their Nile, had +already given up their hold upon the territories of +this world and become a wandering colony of Jahve, +governed by a code unrelated to the vices or the aims +of other races. This abstract country, whose geography +was books and texts, was fenced around and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span>fortified as strongly as the territory of any nation. +Its fortresses were ceremonies, customs, national +traditions, and a perfect patience derived from faith +in the God of their fathers. The Cain whom they +abhorred was not more effectually “cursed from the +earth,” prohibited from tillage of the ground than this +race which had taken Jahve for their portion and his +law for their habitation.</p> + +<p>In such a system there could be no compromise. +And as a matter of fact there never was any compromise +with the enemies of their faith. These people, +who have shown ingenuity and cleverness of every +kind, have never developed any sort of Jesuitism. I +was astonished lately at learning of an instance in +which a Jew outwitted his persecutors in true Christian +style, for I never heard of another. This Jew +was a pedlar, and he was wandering in France in the +neighbourhood of one of those districts where the +Virgin Mary is still continually opening new water-cure +establishments. This Jew, having heard the latest +miracle which had evoked a new fountain, smiled, and +even made light of it. Thereon the innkeepers excited +a mob, and they resolved to hang the <em>miscreant</em>—that +is, the unbeliever—faggots being old-fashioned. They +seized the poor pedlar and bore him off pallid with +terror. As they passed near the new fountain, the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span>Jew begged permission to moisten his lips thereat; +this was conceded, but no sooner had the water +touched his lips than he leaped about with joy, and +declared that the fountain had healed a severe rheumatism +which he had suffered from for many years. +“A miracle! a miracle!” shouted the crowd; the Jew +suddenly became a hero, and was carried before the +priest, who appointed the next day to baptize him +before all the people and make a grand demonstration. +The Jew, however, disappeared during the +night.</p> + +<p>This story, which I found in a recent number of +the <cite>Jewish World</cite>, is a modern appendage to the old +legend mentioned by <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Baring-Gould, that the +gipsies were said to wander under a doom pronounced +on them because they refused to shelter the Virgin +and child in the flight into Egypt. But this witty +pedlar is not a fair representative of the race. +“Sufferance is the badge of all our tribe,” said +Shylock. Though Shylock has been regarded by +many as a type of avarice and extortion, yet even he +cannot be tempted by money when his struggle with +the Merchant becomes a religious issue. Shakspeare +rightly shows Shylock unyielding; many times the +money due to him cannot bribe him from the blow he +feels empowered to strike for his despised Israel. And +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span>when, in the beginning of this century, Nathan Rothschild +started as the great banker of London, no +temptations could induce him, shrewd as he was, to +lend money or enter into any contracts for the benefit +of Spain or its colonies. The Israelite was never lost +in the banker, and showed his supremacy when it +came to a race which had banished his own from the +Iberian Peninsula; though at the same time his +charities and those of his house have included Christians +hardly less than Jews. The same unyielding +religious spirit was shown when thirty-three years ago +Baron Lionel de Rothschild was elected Member of +Parliament for the City of London. The honour +of being the first Jew in that body could not induce +him to swear his allegiance “on the true faith of a +Christian,” and on the New Testament. He remained +out of his seat for eleven years—and with him David +Salomons, who paid the penalty of £500 for voting in +the House without being duly sworn—when Parliament +yielded to men who did not yield, and the oath +was changed for Jews.</p> + +<p>It has sometimes excited wonder why this wanderer +among the races, uncompromising amid the hatred of +ages, was not exterminated. It must often have +appeared to them that, like the bush in their own +legend, they were burnt without being consumed, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span>because their God was in the bush. But no miraculous +force need be sought in the case, nor any exceptional +tenacity of life in them as a race; their circumstances +developed in them special faculties adapted to +the commerce and civilisation of the world. Heine +said truly “the Jews were legally condemned to +become rich.” The populace generally believed that +Jewish wealth was got from the Devil, their wages for +maintaining the kingdom of Antichrist in the world. +The Jewish banker, Samuel Bernard, who died in +1789, leaving a large property, had a black cock which +was popularly believed to be connected with his +wealth. The suspicion was confirmed when the bird +died a day or two before its master.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact the Jews were driven to deal in +money and jewellery—a word supposed by some to be +derived from “Jew”—by the general exclusion of +them from the possession of land and from the acquisition +of property by handicraft. Gold and silver +alone were left for their enterprise.</p> + +<p>And there were good causes why they amassed +wealth. The first was that they did not spend it on +Gentile baubles. They cared not for the pomps and +luxuries of a world to which they did not belong. +Why then did they want to accumulate it? Why +were they so thrifty and unwearied in their pursuit of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span>gold? To ascribe this to avarice is to accept a popular +fallacy refuted by the history of that people, who are +even lavish in their charities and in their support of +public enterprises (as in England and America) where +they are free and equal citizens. In their earlier days +the Jews’ hope of recovering their country and re-establishing +their Theocracy under the Messiah was a +passionate aspiration, it was as sincere as any +patriotism; every Jew held his wealth and his life as a +trust for that end. All their wealth they hoped one +day to lay at the Messiah’s feet. So it began, and +then a new factor re-enforced it. The wealth of the +Jews became the main means of their survival as a +people. Kings and Popes protected them for the +money they could get out of them. But for this they +would certainly have been exterminated. From them +chiefly was extorted the money for Henry the Second’s +Crusade in their own Holy Land. Mainly by their +labour and wealth Westminster Abbey was built. +By such protective extortions there was established a +certain force of natural selection and evolution, based +on their wealth, which gradually made them the +financial princes of Europe and bankers of the +world.</p> + +<p>Whatever German bigots may say, the financial +supremacy of the Jews has been well and wisely exercised. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span>The nations not included under it have fared +according to their folly. When Queen Isabella of old +wished to protect the Jews because of such advantages, +she was confronted by the fanatic who said, “Judas sold +his Lord for thirty pieces of silver; will you sell Him for +thirty millions?” So the Jews suffered in Spain; but +what did Spain suffer? What did Holland and +England gain by the Spanish Jews, first tolerated, +then welcomed in their cities? This Germany will be +able to answer if the jealous bigots there let loose on +the Jews should succeed in driving them out of the +country.</p> + +<p>“Thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the +book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to +and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” So early +did the compulsory tendencies of the Jews reveal +themselves. Their alienation among other peoples +made them close up in their ceremonial law as in a +shell; their book was sealed amid inferior ‘revelations’ +swarming around them, and themselves sealed in it: +but, meanwhile, detached from the soil and the guilds +of every country, forced to be exchangers, pedlars, +they must travel to and fro, and their knowledge was +increased. They became so well acquainted with the +lore of different lands, with the medical and other +knowledge of various countries, that they were supposed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span>to possess occult powers. Occasionally, this +reputation might be of service to them, as in the instance +where Queen Elizabeth employed a Jewish +physician for his supposed occult knowledge; but +more often it harmed them, as in the evil fate that +overtook that same physician, whom jealous rivals +accused of an attempt to poison the Queen. For +many centuries they presented the most remarkable +instance of a people who had largely outgrown their +primitive superstitions, and acquired a religious and +intellectual enlightenment beyond the rest of the world, +who yet kept all this culture within the hard walls of +their barbaric stronghold, their ancient forms and +formulas, from which they did not dare to venture.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII"> + <abbr title="13">XIII.</abbr> + <br> + THE POUND OF FLESH. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">Passing</span> out of Rome by the <span lang="la">Via Appia</span>, one comes +to many places of antiquarian interest, but presently +arrives at a spot whose significance increases with +time. This is the church called <i lang="la">Domine quo vadis</i>. +There, says the legend, <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Peter, once more flying +from danger, met Jesus, and said, “Lord, whither +goest thou?” Jesus answered, ‘<i lang="la">Venio Romam iterum +crucifigi.</i>’ Whereupon Peter returned, and met his +fate—that hard one of a mythical martyrdom, followed +by resurrection as a Pontifical Jupiter, wielding +his keys as thunderbolts. A fac-simile of the holy +footprints of Jesus is here in the church, the originals, +sunk in marble, being preserved in Saint Sebastian’s +Church.</p> + +<p>Goethe had perhaps seen the worshippers around +these footprints (near by the Jewish catacomb with +its seven-branch candlestick), when there arose in him +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span>the idea of a poem which, alas, never got farther than +the outline given in a further chapter. Writing from +Terni, October <abbr>27th</abbr>, 1786, he says: “Yesterday I felt +inspired to undertake a work which at present would +be ill-timed. Approaching nearer and nearer to the +centre of Romanism, surrounded by Roman Catholics, +boxed up with a priest in a sedan, and striving +anxiously to observe and to study without prejudice +true nature and noble art, I have arrived at a vivid +conviction that all traces of original Christianity are +extinct here. Indeed, while I tried to bring it before +my mind in its purity, as we see it recorded in the +Acts of the Apostles, I could not help shuddering to +think of the shapeless, not to say grotesque, mass of +heathenism which heavily overlies its benign beginnings. +Accordingly, the ‘Wandering Jew’ again +occurred to me as having been a witness of all this +wonderful development and envelopment, and as +having lived to experience so strange a state of things, +that Christ himself, when he shall come a second time +to gather his harvest, will be in danger of being +crucified a second time. The legend <i lang="la">Venio iterum +crucifigi</i> was to serve me as the material of this +catastrophe.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_30_30" href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<p>Perhaps Goethe also witnessed “Holy-Cross Day” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span>in Rome, when the Jews were “compelled to come in” +and hear the annual sermon—“haled,” as one said, +“as it were by the head and hair, and against their +obstinate hearts, to partake of the heavenly grace.” +Had the two visionary Wanderers—Jesus and Ahasuerus—once +more encountered each other in sight +of the crosses, they could only have hung side by side; +he who gave the blow in Jerusalem, now conceivably +the one person in Rome able to recognise the freshly-crucified +from a cross of his own—the cross of his +race. From another poet have come the words which +typical Ahasuerus might, after the experience of so +many centuries, speak to the fellow-sufferer he once +had insulted:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Thou art the judge. We are bruised thus,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">But, the judgment over, join sides with us!</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Thine too is the cause! and not more Thine</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Than ours is the work of these dogs and swine,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Whose life laughs through and spits at their creed,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Who maintain Thee in word, and defy Thee in deed!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“We withstood Christ then? be mindful how,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">At least we withstand Barabbas now!</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Was our outrage sore? but the worst we spared.</div> + <div class="verse indent1">To have called these—Christians, had we dared!</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Let defiance of them pay mistrust of Thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And Rome make amends for Calvary!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“By the torture prolonged from age to age,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">By the infamy, Israel’s heritage,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">By the Ghetto’s plague, by the garb’s disgrace.</div> + <div class="verse indent1">By the badge of shame, by the felon’s place,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> <div class="verse indent1">By the branding tool, the bloody whip,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And the summons to Christian fellowship—</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“We boast our proof that at least the Jew,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Would wrest Christ’s name from the Devil’s crew.</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Thy face took never so deep a shade,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">But we fought them in it, God our aid!</div> + <div class="verse indent1">A trophy to bear, as we march, Thy band,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">South, east, and on to the Pleasant Land!”⁠<a id="FNanchor_31_31" href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Holy-Cross Day was appropriate for this work of +striking the Jewish race in the face, as they fainted at +the Christian door, and showing them now themselves +the crucified, by a High Priest Christ taught to hate +his enemies and pierce them with nail and spear. +For it was about the time of the alleged discovery of +the True Cross, already noticed, that this fable of the +Wandering Jew probably first began its career.⁠<a id="FNanchor_32_32" href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span>Already at that time it was shown on the walls of imperial +Christendom that Jesus and Ahasuerus, as types +of Humanity, had changed places—the nails and the +thorn-crown transferred from one to the other; and, +what is more, the cruel dogmas and superstitions +abandoned by the one made by the other into the +established religion of Europe.</p> + +<p>In the familiar legend of the True Cross, Helena +is for a time baffled by a certain Judas, who has +occult sources of knowledge, and warns the Jews that +the empress is coming to find what, if found, will +cause the downfall of their religion. But she having +threatened a general massacre, the Jews inform her +that this Judas can alone reveal the place of the +cross. He refuses; is starved at the bottom of a dry +well for six days; on the seventh, consents. When +the cross appears, Judas is converted by its miracles +and baptized.</p> + +<p>In a paper read to the New Shakspeare Society, +April <abbr>9th</abbr>, 1875, Miss Toulmin Smith announced her +discovery that the story of the “Pound of Flesh” is +contained in the thirteenth century English poem, +“<cite lang="la">Cursor Mundi</cite>,” there interwoven with the legend of the +Finding of the Holy Cross. A Christian goldsmith, +in the service of Queen Helena, owes a sum of money +to a Jew; if he cannot pay it at a certain time he is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span>to render the weight of the wanting money in his own +flesh. The bond is forfeit; the Jew prepares to cut +the flesh; but the judges decide that no drop of blood +must be shed. The Jew being thus defeated, Queen +Helena declares that he must give up all his goods to +the State and lose his tongue. This sentence is +remitted on his agreeing to tell her where the Holy +Cross is hidden,—which he did.</p> + +<p>It might easily arise, as a saga on this Jew’s knowledge, +that he had personally participated in the hiding +of the Cross, just after the crucifixion, and had been +miraculously preserved through centuries as “a witness” +to reveal its place of concealment, and thereby also to +be “a witness” to the truth of the Christian legend. +This might even have been in the minds of those who +gave him the name of Judas, though perhaps that is +merely a token of homage to the True Cross, as potent +enough to convert a Judas. It is in harmony with +the endless plots and counterplots of the True Cross +Tale that the traitor of Christ should live to become +traitor to Antichrist. At the same time there is a +suggestion in it of precise retribution in kind which +naturally combines with the story of the “Pound of +Flesh.” It is highly probable that Shylock and the +Eternal Jew are twins of the True Cross Mythology, +though Ahasuerus be a later name and figure.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span></p> + +<p>But this Holy Cross itself was, and is, a perpetual +symbol of the pound-of-flesh principle which lay at +the foundation of the ancient Jewish system, and from +it, after that foundation had crumbled for the Jews, +was adopted as the chief corner-stone of Christianity. +This I have demonstrated elsewhere,⁠<a id="FNanchor_33_33" href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> and the history +of the legend, with the conclusions based on it, though +they may appear here as an episode, will be found +closely related to the development of our subject.</p> + +<p><abbr>Mr.</abbr> Swinburne speaks of Marlowe’s Jew as the real +man, while Shakspeare’s is a mouthpiece for the +finest poetry.⁠<a id="FNanchor_34_34" href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> A surprising criticism! The genesis +of the conventional stage-Jew in England has already +been given in this work (<a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><abbr title="11">XI.</abbr></a>), and my reader will do +well to refer to it at this point.</p> + +<p>It is sufficiently remarkable that, in this year 1881, +London should have witnessed on the stage, as acted +by two eminent Shakspeare interpreters, the two +stage-Jews which competed for popular favour in the +time of Marlowe and Shakspeare. The “Shylock” of +<abbr>Mr.</abbr> Booth is an odious, avaricious, bloodthirsty villain; +that of <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Irving is a fatal, powerful and pathetic +character. The fine acting of <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Booth cannot strive +against the art of Shakspeare, who at no point could +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span>have raised sympathy with a man he meant should be +utterly repulsive. <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Booth’s personation rests too +much on the traditional make-up of Shylock, which +is really that of Barabas. When Edmund Kean, as +a poor unknown actor, first went to play Shylock at +Drury Lane, he raised some laughter behind the +scenes by taking from his small bundle a black wig! +Black it was, not red; human, not diabolic: the +smiling company said, “<em>That</em> will be a failure”; but +it was not. One after another the outside traits of +Shylock, costume borrowed from Barabas, have disappeared; +not a word of Shakspeare’s text has had to +disappear with them; the character which the poet +conceived has been largely unsheathed by <abbr>Mr.</abbr> +Irving.</p> + +<p>We know that no such figure as that at the Lyceum +appeared on Shakspeare’s own stage at the Globe. +Shylock, as acted by Shakspeare’s friend Burbage, +was a comic figure. His make-up consisted of exceedingly +red hair and beard, a false nose preternaturally +long and hooked, and a tawny petticoat. +Such a figure must have been largely meant to make +fun for the pit and gallery, of which Shakspeare was +rarely oblivious, and Burbage never.</p> + +<p>But a conventional stage-figure is generally an +evolution, and this farcical Shylock was no exception. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span>The famous Isaac of Norwich was a typical Jew in +his time. A thirteenth century caricature, preserved +in the Pell Office, shows us the popular notion of him. +He is pictured as a three-faced idol surrounded by +devils. The three faces are not especially ugly or +comical, but repulsive enough; and we may detect in +the figure the reflection of a period when the diabolical +theory of the Jew was serious, and no laughing +matter. Similarly, in the old Miracle Plays, Satan +was a serious figure, though he gradually became a +mere laughing-stock, like Pantaloon in the pantomimes. +The stage-Jew shared the same decline as the stage-devil—his +supposed inspirer. In his malignant and +formidable aspect he was, indeed, in Shakspeare’s +day, the main figure of Marlowe’s popular play; but +even he had the long nose and sundry grotesque +features; and it can hardly be doubted that, in the +still more ludicrous make-up of Shylock, the Globe +Theatre followed the popular feeling.</p> + +<p>Perhaps there may be hidden in the name Shylock +the idea of a lock-shearer, shaver of the last hair +from his victim; at any rate “the shearer sheared” +would include the whole significance of the story +which Shakspeare took in hand. In the character +of Shylock, he retained the grotesquerie which might +please the rabble, at the same time turning their scowl +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span>to laughter. Even now, while <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Irving is giving +his pathetic impersonation, the occasional laugh reminds +us how easily some parts of the text would +lend themselves to a farcical interpretation, if the +painted nose and comic gestures were present. But +it is more remarkable to observe how rare and superficial +are these ludicrous incidents. The farcical +Shylock has passed away from the English stage +through force of the more real character which +Shakspeare drew. Shakspeare may not have intended +all the far-reaching moral belonging to the +ancient legend of the pound of flesh, but surely no one +can carefully compare his Shylock with the Barabas +of his contemporary without recognising a purpose to +modify and soften the popular feeling towards the +Jew, to picture a man where Marlowe had painted a +monster, if not indeed to mirror for Christians their +own injustice and cruelty.</p> + +<p>Let us take our stand beside Portia when she summons +the Merchant and Shylock to stand forth. The +two men have long legendary antecedents and have +met many times before. There are eleven versions of +the bond story in the early literature of Europe. In +four of these versions no Jew appears. Karl Simrock +believes that it is an ancient law-anecdote—an illustration +of the law of retaliation pressed to an extreme. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span>The evidences he gives of its use for this purpose are +interesting, and it appears to me probable that it +might have been in this way that the Jew was first +introduced into the story. Where a Jew and a Christian +confronted each other in any issue it might be +assumed that all mitigations of the <i lang="la">summum jus</i> were +removed from the question; only the naked technical +terms of the law could then be conceived as restraining +either from doing the utmost injury he could to the +other. There is an old Persian version of the tale, in +which, perhaps for a similar reason, a Moslem and an +Armenian confront each other; and in this case the +failure of the bond is not because of the blood, but +because of the extreme exactness of weight demanded +by the court. An Egyptian form of the story has a +similar end.</p> + +<p>Side by side, in all ages and races, have struggled +with each other the principle of Retaliation and that of +Forgiveness. In religion the vindictive principle has +euphemistic names: it is called law and justice. The +other principle, that of remission, has had to exist by +sufferance, and in nearly all religions has been recognised +only in subordinate alliance with its antagonist. +An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, blood for blood, +is primitive law. Projected into heaven, magnified in +the divine majesty, it becomes the principle that a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span>deity cannot be just and yet a justifier of offenders. +“Without the shedding of blood there is no remission +of sins.” Since finite man is naturally assumed to be +incapable of directly satisfying an infinite law, all +religions, based on the idea of a divine lawgiver, are +employed in devising schemes by which commutations +may be secured and vicarious satisfactions of divine law +obtained. Nature never forgives. No deity inferred +from the always relentless forces of nature has ever +been supposed able to forgive the smallest sin until it +was exactly atoned for. For this reason the divine +mercifulness has generally become a separate personification. +The story of the “Pound of Flesh” is one of the +earliest fables concerning these conflicting principles.</p> + +<p>The following legend was related to me by a Hindu, +as one he had been told in his childhood. The chief +of the Indian triad, Indra, pursued the god Agni. +Agni changed himself to a dove in order to escape; +but Indra changed himself to a hawk, to continue the +pursuit. The dove took refuge with Vishnu, second +person of the triad, the Hindu Saviour. Indra flying +up, demanded the dove; Vishnu, concealing it in his +bosom, refused to give up the dove. Indra then took +an oath that if the dove were not surrendered he +would tear from Vishnu’s breast an amount of flesh +equal to the body of the dove. Vishnu still refused to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span>surrender the bird, but bared his breast. The divine +hawk tore from it the exact quantity, and the drops of +blood—the blood of a Saviour—as they fell to the +ground wrote the scriptures of the Vedas.</p> + +<p>Among the various versions of this story in India I +have not been able to find any in accepted sacred +books preserving with the simplicity of this folk-tale +the ancient moral antagonism between the deities afterwards +found in alliance as a triad. Hindu orthodoxy +has outgrown the phase of faith which could sanction +that probably provincial legend. Its spirit survives in +one of Vishnu’s titles, Yadjña Varâha, “the boar of +sacrifice,” derived from Vishnu’s third incarnation, by +which he saved the world from demons by becoming +himself a victim. We may see in the fable reflection +of a sacrificial age, an age in which the will and word +of a god became inexorable fate, but also the dawning +conception of a divineness in the mitigation of the +law, which ultimately adds saving man-gods or demi-gods +to nature-gods that cannot be appeased.</p> + +<p>The earliest version, probably <abbr class="allsmcap spell">B.C.</abbr> 300, is the story +in the Mahábhárata (<cite>Vana parva</cite>) of the trial of the +best of mankind, King Usinára. Indra and Agni, +wishing to test his fidelity to the laws of righteousness, +assume the forms of falcon and pigeon. The +latter (Agni) pursued by the former (Indra) seeks and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span>receives the king’s protection. The falcon demands +the pigeon, and is refused on the ground that it is +written that to kill a twice-born man, to kill a cow, +and to abandon a being that has taken refuge with +one, are equal sins. This is a quotation from the +Laws of Manu. The falcon argues that it is the law +of nature that it shall feed on pigeons, and a statute +against nature is no law. He (the falcon) will be +starved, consequently his mate and little ones must +perish, and thus in preserving one the king will slay +many. The falcon is offered by Usinára other food—a +boar, bull, gazelle—but the falcon declares that it is +not the law of its nature to eat such things. The +king then declares that he will not give up the pigeon, +but he will give anything else in his power which the +falcon may demand. The falcon replies that he can +only accept a quantity of the king’s own flesh equal in +weight to the pigeon’s body. Usinára gladly accedes +to this substitution. Balances are produced, and the +pigeon is placed in one scale. The king cuts off a +piece of his flesh that appears large enough, but is insufficient; +he cuts again and again, but still the +pigeon outweighs his piled-up flesh. Finally, all his +flesh gone, the king gets into the scale himself. The +two gods then resume their divine shape, announce to +Usinára that for the sacrifice he has made he will be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span>glorified in all worlds throughout eternity, and the +king ascends transfigured into heaven.</p> + +<p>This legend is repeated under the title <i>Syena-Kapotiyam</i> +(Dove and Hawk) in the <cite>Purana Sarvasvan</cite> in +the Bodleian Library, where it is in Bengali characters. +There is another version in the <cite>Markandêyâ +Purâna</cite> (<abbr title="chapter">ch.</abbr> <abbr title="3">iii.</abbr>), in which Indra appears to the sage +Vipulasvan in the form of a large famished bird. +Finding that this bird can only be nourished by +human flesh, the sage appeals to his sons to give it +some of their flesh; and on their refusal he curses +them, and tells the bird that after he has performed +certain funeral ceremonies his body shall be for its +nourishment. Whereupon Indra bids the sage abandon +his body only by the power of contemplation, reveals +his divine nature, and offers Vipulasvan whatever he +may ask.</p> + +<p>Indra here says, “I eat no living creature,” which +shows a moral advance. Perhaps his conversion may +have been in some measure due to the teaching of +Buddha. It is instructive to compare the Mahábhárata +legend with an early Buddhist version cited by +<abbr title="Monsieur" lang="fr">M.</abbr> Focaux from the <cite>Dsang-loung</cite>,⁠<a id="FNanchor_35_35" href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> a version all the +more significant because the hero of it, Sivi, was traditionally +the son of Usinára and had already appeared +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span>in the fourth book of Mahábhárata as tried in the +same way with his father, and with the same results. +Sivi had become a popular type of self-sacrifice. +According to the Buddhist legend, Indra, perceiving +that his divine existence was drawing to a close, confided +to Visvakarman⁠<a id="FNanchor_36_36" href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> his grief at not seeing in the +world any man who would become a Buddha. Visvakarman +declared King Sivi such a man. The falcon +and pigeon test is then applied. But the Buddhist +Sivi does not, like his Brahman prototype, offer to +compensate the falcon with the flesh of other animals. +He agrees to give his own flesh. The gods descend +and weep tears of emotion at seeing the king as a +skeleton outweighing the dove which all of his flesh +could not equal. Nor is the Buddhist saint caught up to +heaven. He is offered the empire and throne of Indra +himself, but refuses it; he desires only to be a Buddha. +Sivi’s body is restored to greater beauty than before, +and he becomes the Buddha amid universal joy.</p> + +<p>Other versions show the legend further detached +from brahmanic ideas, and resting more completely +upon Buddha’s compassionateness to all creatures. +Of this description is one in the “Sermons” by +Asphagosha, for the translation of which I am indebted +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span>to Professor Beal. Sakra (a name of Indra) +tempted by a heretic to believe that the teaching of +Buddha was false, and that men followed it from +motives of self-interest, sought for a perfect man who +was practising austerities solely for the sake of becoming +a Buddha. Finding one, Sivaka Raja, he agreed +with Visvakarman to tempt him. All happens as in +the old legend, except that Sivaka rests his refusal +not upon the law of Manu, nor upon the sanctity of +asylum, but upon his love of all living things. To this +his mercifulness the falcon appeals, reminding him of +its own young, and Sivaka calls for a knife and cuts +off a piece of his flesh, not caring whether it is more +or less than the body of the dove. He then faints. +All living creatures raise lamentations, and the deities, +much affected, heal the wound.</p> + +<p>The influence of Buddhism is traceable in the +modifications of the original legend, which show the +sacrifice not accepted as it was in the case of Vishnu, +and to some extent in that of Usinára, whose earthly +life terminates. With Buddha the principle of remission +supersedes that of sacrifice. His argument +against the Brahmanic sacrifice of life was strong. +When they pointed to these predatory laws of nature +in proof of their faith that the gods approved the infliction +of pain and death, he asked them why they did +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span>not sacrifice their own children; why they did not offer +to the gods the most valuable lives. The fact was that +they were outgrowing direct human sacrifices—preserving +self-mortifications—and animals were slain in +commutation of costlier offerings. This moral revolution +is traceable in the gradual constitution of Vishnu +as a Saviour. There is a later legend that Vishnu +approached Sivi in the form of a Brahman in want of +food, but would accept none except the flesh of Sivi’s +son Vrihad-Garbha. The king killed and cooked his +son and placed the food before the Brahman, who +then bade him eat it himself. Sivi prepared to do so, +when Vishnu stayed his hand, revealed himself, restored +the son to life, and vanished. This legend belongs +to a transitional period. Its outcome is found +in several Hindu folk-tales, one of which has been +told by the charming story-teller, <abbr>Mr.</abbr> W. R. S. +Ralston. The king of a country is dying, and a poor +man is informed of the fact by a disguised “fate.” +He asks if there is no way to save the king’s life, and +is told there is but one way; if a child should be +sacrificed, with its own consent, that would save the +king. The man returns home and proposes to his +wife to slay their beautiful little boy. She consents; +the boy having also consented, the knife is about to +descend on the child, when the fates appear, announcing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span>that they only wished to try his loyalty to +his king, who had already recovered.</p> + +<p>We may feel pretty certain that originally that king +was a deity, though not so certain that the knife was +arrested without killing anything at all. In several +popular fables we find the story preserved essentially +in the old sacrificial form, to teach the rewards of self-sacrifice, +though, in order to escape the scandal of a +human sacrifice, the self-devotion is ascribed to +animals. Thus, in the <cite>Panchatantra</cite>, a pigeon roasts +itself to save a famished bird-catcher, who had just +captured his mate; and the bird-catcher presently +seeing its radiant form rising to heaven, spends his +life consuming his flesh in the fire of devotion, in +order that he also may ascend there.</p> + +<p>In the Hebrew story corresponding to that of +Vishnu and Sivi, the Hindu Abraham, we may see +that where a god is concerned the actual sacrifice cannot +be omitted. That may do in the case of a dying +king or hungry hawk, but not for a deity. In the case +of Abraham and Isaac the demand is not remitted +but commuted. The ram is accepted instead of Isaac. +But even so much concession could hardly be recognized +by the Hebrew priesthood as an allowable +variation from a direct demand of Jahve, and so the +command is said to have been given by Elohim, its +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span>modification by Jahve. The cautious transformation +is somewhat in the spirit of the disguises of the Aryan +deities, who may partially revoke as gods the orders +they gave as hawks. It would indicate a more advanced +idea if we found Jahve remitting a claim of his +own instead of one made by the Elohim.</p> + +<p>It is worthy of a remark that in some regions where +this change of names in the story of Abraham’s +sacrifice is overlooked or unknown by Semitic religionists, +there has sprung up a tradition that the +sacrifice was completed, and the patriarch’s son +miraculously restored to life. Thus, in another branch +of the Jewish religion we find Mohammed flinching at +the Biblical story. He does not like to admit that +Allah altered his word and purpose except for a +serious consideration, so he says, “We ransomed him +with a noble victim.” The Moslems believe that Isaac +was not then born, and that it was Ishmael across +whose throat Abraham actually drew the knife, which +was miraculously kept from killing the lad, according +to some, but others say resulted in a death and +resurrection.</p> + +<p>In the year 1879 the highly educated State of +Massachusetts was thrilled with horror by the tidings +that a man named Freeman had offered up his beautiful +and only child, Edith Freeman, as a sacrifice to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span>God. It occurred in the historical town of Pocasset. A +thousand years ago the Northmen who first discovered +America wintered there, and possibly they there +offered human sacrifices to their god Odin—that is, if +they got hold of one or two red men; for there has +been a notable tendency among men in such cases to +prefer other victims than themselves for their gods. +Since that first landing of white men in America the +religion of Odin had yielded to that of Christ; Pocasset +and all New England had been converted to +Christianity; the <cite class="nonitalic">Bible</cite> had found its way into every +home. Yet this well-to-do citizen, <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Freeman, +and his wife, had learned in Sunday School about +Abraham’s touching proof of his faith. They had +pondered the lesson until they heard the voice of +Abraham’s God summoning them to a similar sacrifice, +and they committed a deed which probably would +have shocked even those rude Vikings who wintered +at Pocasset a thousand years before. So much might +the worship of a pitiless primitive deity arrest the +civilisation of a household in the land of Channing +and Parker. They prayed over the little girl, then the +knife was plunged into her heart. Little Edith is now +in her grave. The God of Abraham and Isaac got +his pound of flesh this time. The devout priest of that +horrible altar has just passed from his prison to an +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span>asylum. To the many who have visited him he puts +questions hard to be answered. “Do you believe the +<cite class="nonitalic">Bible</cite> or not?” he says. “If you do, and have read +the account of Abraham, why should you deny that +God could require a man to sacrifice his child? He +so required of me. I <em>did</em> hope and believe that he +would stay my hand before the blow fell. When he +did not I still believed he would raise my child to life. +But that is his own affair. I have given that which I +loved most to God because He commanded me.” +The American people waited to see whether a Christian +community which trains up children to admire the +faith of Abraham would hang them when they grow +up to imitate that faith so impressed upon them. +The embarrassing dilemma was escaped after eight +months, by getting Freeman into an asylum for the +insane, without trial. A rather mean way of confessing +that theocratic piety is republican insanity!</p> + +<p>I observed, soon after the occurrence of this tragedy, +a picture of it in the <cite>Police News</cite> exposed in the shop +windows of London. The designer had placed a crucifix +near the little victim’s head. It is probable that Freeman +and his wife never saw a crucifix in their lives; +they belong to the hardest, baldest dogmatic Protestantism. +The rude artist perhaps placed the crucifix +in his picture because the Abrahamic sacrifice was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span>supposed to be typical of a holier one—a sacrifice in +which a Son was offered up to satisfy the fatal law of +a Father. In the human sacrifice symbolised by that +crucifix culminated all these sacrifices of which mention +has been made; and there was embodied that +principle which has maintained through the ages that +though to forgive may be human, to avenge is divine.</p> + +<p>Let us return now to Shylock and the Merchant +whose life is forfeit. Shylock is a primæval Jew; he +represents the law, the letter and rigour of it. He is +Indra tearing Vishnu’s breast; Elohim demanding +Isaac’s death; the First Person exacting the Second +Person’s atoning blood. His bond, his oath registered +in heaven, its sanction by Venetian law, are by him +identified with eternal justice. It is the irrevocable +“thing spoken,” <i lang="la">fatum</i>, weird, or word. Portia is +exact in telling him that he represents that “justice” +in whose course, “none of us should see salvation.” +The Jew personates his ancient god precisely. Nor +is there wanting a certain majesty in his position. There +is nothing mean about Shylock now, whatever there may +have been at first. He has been called avaricious. +But, as we have already seen (<a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><abbr title="12">XII.</abbr></a>), the wealth of the +Jews was the main factor in their survival. There is, +indeed, an illustration of this in the only version of +the Bond legend which makes any pretension to be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span>considered historical. A Jew named Cenéda forfeited +a pound of his flesh to a Christian merchant, on a +wager; the case was brought before the Pope, +Sixtus <abbr title="the Fifth">V.</abbr>, who decided that the Christian must pay +two thousand <span lang="it">scudi</span> to his treasury for attempting +manslaughter, and the Jew pay in an equal sum for +having hazarded his life, that being a taxable property +belonging to the Pope. Balzac tells us of a +mediæval seneschal in France who declared the Jews +to be the best taxgatherers in his region. It was his +custom to let them gain money as bees collect honey: +then he would swoop down on their hive and take +it all away. The Jews were driven by oppressive +statutes to the dealings in money which brought +opprobrium upon them; and in hating Antonio +because he lent money without interest, and so +lowered the rate of usance in Venice, Shylock was +hating him for undermining the existence of his tribe. +Shylock scorns thrice his principal. For now he has +been summoned by his own woes, the taking away of +his daughter and his property, including that ring +mourned because given by his lost Leah—artfully +contrasted with the surrender by the Christian lovers +of the rings they had vowed never to part with—to +stand forth as an avenger of the ages of wrong heaped +upon his race. That is an Elohistic moment for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span>Shylock, and ducats become dross in its presence. +When the full tidings of his woes and wrongs are told +him he cries, “The curse never fell upon our nation +till now: I never felt it till now.” Thenceforth we +may see in Shylock the impersonation of the divine +avenger of a divinely chosen people, and the majesty +of his law confronting an Edomite world.</p> + +<p>On the other hand stands Antonio, representing +rather feebly, until he too is summoned from being a +mere rich merchant to become a shorn victim, the +opposite principle. He stands for the Christ, the +Forgiver, the Sufferer. In the course of its travels +the legend had combined with one told by Hyginus. +The patriot Moros having conspired to rid his country +of its tyrant, falls into the hands of that tyrant, Dionysius +of Sicily, who orders him to be crucified. But +Moros is allowed a respite and absence of three days +to visit his sister, his friend Selenuntius having agreed +to become his hostage. On his way back, Moros is +impeded by a swollen river, and when he reaches the +place of execution finds his friend on the point of +being nailed to the cross. The two friends now insist +each on being crucified for the other, at which sight +Dionysius is so affected that he releases both, resolves +to be a more humane king, and asks the friends to +take him as “the third in their bond of friendship.” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span>It is remarkable that this legend (which suggested to +Schiller his ballad <cite lang="de">Die Bürgschaft</cite>, the Suretyship) +should have been a popular one at the beginning of +the Christian era, introducing as it does an exactor of +vicarious suffering—that too by a cross—and ending +with the tyrant becoming one in a trinity of friendship.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare has brought this vicarious feature into +a prominence it never had in any version he could +ever have seen, and his art, creating as it must in +organic consistency, has dramatised the psychological +history of mankind.</p> + +<p>Antonio, the merchant called on to suffer, is the +man who gained nothing at all from the bond. He +has incurred the danger and penalty in order that his +rather worthless friend Bassanio may get the money +necessary to secure a rich marriage which shall free +him from his debts. It is the just suffering for the +unjust. Antonio is the man who gives, hoping for +nothing again; in low simplicity he lends out money +gratis; and, when Shylock agrees to lend the three +thousand ducats, the merchant says, “This Hebrew +will turn Christian; he grows kind.” At the trial, +Antonio speaks like the predestined victim:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I am a tainted wether of the flock,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Meetest for death.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>And, when the trial is over, Antonio is the only man +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span>who offers to relax his hold on the Jew’s property. He +gives up his own half, and takes the other only to give +it away to Shylock’s daughter and her husband.</p> + +<p>To be kind Antonio calls Christian; but it was not +that spirit which finally brought Shylock into the +same fold with his judges. His life is spared on +condition of his becoming a Christian. Professor +Morley and other critics say that was harsh. But +Shylock is no longer a genuine Jew, and Shakespeare +properly relieves that race of his connection. The +Jews had indeed, in primitive ages, begun with the +eye-for-an-eye principle, but fiery trials had long +taught them patience under injury. Shylock, reminding +Antonio, when he asks help, of his outrages, says:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>So had it been for many ages, and the Jew had relegated +the principle of vengeance to his fossil theology, +practically becoming the patient victim; while, on the +other hand, Christianity, reaching the throne, had +antiquated Christ’s principle of mercy, and was +dealing out the rigours of the Judaic law which Israel +had outgrown by suffering. Shylock had grandly +asserted the humanity of the Jew, in the first words of +that kind ever heard in Europe; but he had gone on +to assert his <em>Christianized</em> nature. “If we are like +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span>you in the rest, we will be like you in that. If a Jew +wrong a Christian, what is his humility? revenge; if +a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance +be by Christian example? why, revenge. The villainy +you teach me I will execute.” But when Shylock +thus repairs back to the old eye-for-an-eye spirit, when +he draws from the armoury of the ancient law the old +weapon of retaliation, it is only to find that the +sacrificial knife grown rusty for a Jew is bright and +keen enough in Christian hands. In pressing to +practise the blood-atonement and vicarious principle +he enters upon Christian ground, and Shakspeare +rightly baptizes him a Christian.</p> + +<p>We may naturally question whether Shakspeare +meant this irony. Did he intend any subtle hit when +he made these Christians claim as a co-religionist, +ripe for baptism, a man who had just attempted to +take a fellow-man’s life? That cannot be affirmed; +but it is notable that there should be in the play +another passage liable to that construction. Shylock’s +enemies have just converted his daughter Jessica into +a good Christian; and the first sign of the work of +grace in her heart is the facility with which she steals +and squanders her father’s money. Shakspeare does +not fail to connect with this pious robbery the +Christian customs of the time towards Jews. When +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span>the robbery and elopement have been planned, the +Jew’s Christian servant, Lancelot, says to Jessica:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There will come a Christian by</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Will be worth a Jewess’ eye.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>That seems to be a play upon the then familiar +phrase “worth a Jew’s eye”—a Jew having often to +pay an enormous sum in order to avoid having his +eye put out. With that Christian usage the poet +apparently connects the robbery of Shylock’s treasure. +So by adopting the Christian usage of the time, by +saying to Antonio what King John said to the Jews—“Your +money or your flesh”—Shylock had given +evidence of a change of heart, and his right place was +in the Christian fold.</p> + +<p>But among all these representative figures of the +Venetian court-room, transformations from the flying +doves and pursuing hawks, bound victims and exacting +deities of ancient mythology, there is one who +possesses a significance yet to be considered. That is +Portia. Who is this gentle woman in judicial +costume? She is that human heart which in every +age, amid hard dogmatic systems and priestly intolerance, +has steadily appealed against the whole +vindictive system—whether Jewish or Christian—and, +even while outwardly conforming, managed to rescue +human love and virtue from it. With his wonted yet +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span>ever-marvellous felicity, Shakspeare has made the +genius of this human sentiment slipping through the +technicalities of priest-made law a woman. In the +mythology of dooms and spells it is often that by the +seed of the woman they are broken: the Prince must +remain a Bear till Beauty shall offer to be his bride; +the Flying Dutchman shall find repose if a maiden +shall voluntarily share his sorrow. It is, indeed +the woman-soul which has silently veiled the +rude hereditary gods and laws of barbarism—the +pitiless ones—with a host of gentle saints and intercessors, +until the heartless systems have been left to +theologians. Inside the frowning buttresses of +dogmatic theology the heart of woman has built up +for the home a religion of sympathy and charity.</p> + +<p>Portia does not argue against the technique of the +law. She agrees to call the old system justice—so +much the worse for justice. In the outcome she +shows that this so-called justice is no justice at all. +And when she has shown that the letter of “justice” +kills, and warned Shylock that he can be saved from +the fatal principle he has raised only by the spirit +that gives life, she is out of the case, save for a +last effort to save him from the blind law he has invoked. +The Jew now sues before a Christian Shylock. +And Portia—like Mary, and all sweet interceding +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span>spirits that ever softened stern gods in human hope—turns +from the judicial Jahves of the bench to the +one forgiving spirit there. “What mercy can you +render him, Antonio?” The Christian Gratiano interposes, +“A halter <span lang="la">gratis</span>: nothing else, for God’s +sake.” A natural appeal for the victim-loving God; +but the forgiving Christ is heard, however faintly, above +the Christian, and Antonio forgives <span id="TN5">his part of Shylock’s +penalty.</span></p> + +<p>“Vengeance is mine,” says the deity derived by +fear from the remorseless course of sun and star, ebb +and flow, frost and fire. Forgiveness is the attribute +of man. We may reverse Portia’s statement, and say +that, instead of Mercy dropping as the gentle rain +from heaven, it is projected into heaven from compassionate +human hearts beneath. And heavenly power +doth then show likest man’s when mercy seasons the +vengeance of nature. From the wild forces above not +only droppeth gentle rain, but thunder and lightning, +famine and pestilence; it is man with his lightning-rod, +his sympathy, his healing art, who turns them +from their path and interposes a shield from their +fury. When, as the two walked together in the night, +Leigh Hunt looked up to the heaven of stars, and +said, “God, the Beautiful,” Carlyle looked, and said, +“God, the Terrible.” It was the ancient worshipper +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span>of the Laws of Nature beside Abou ben Adhem, who +loving not the Lord, yet loved his fellow men, and sees +a human sweetness in the stars. All religions, beginning +with trembling sacrifices to elemental powers personified—powers +that never forgive—end with the worship of +an ideal man, the human lover and Saviour. That +evolution is invariable. Criticism may find this or +that particular deified man limited and imperfect, and +may discard him. It may take refuge in pure theism, +as it is called. But it amounts to the same thing. +What it worships is still a man—an invisible, vast +man, but still a man. To worship eternal love, +supreme wisdom, ideal moral perfection, is still to +worship man, for we know such attributes only in +man. Therefore the Shylock-principle is non-human +nature, hard natural law moving remorselessly on its +path from cause to effect; the Portia-principle, the +quality of Mercy, means the purely human religion, +which, albeit for a time using the terms of ancient +nature-worship and alloyed with its spirit, must be +steadily detached from these, and on the ruins of every +sacrificial altar and dogma build the temple whose +only services shall be man’s service to man.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV"> + <abbr title="14">XIV.</abbr> + <br> + THE WANDERING JEW IN FOLK-LORE. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">In</span> the East and South, beneath climes that suggest +an ideal paradise of repose or idle felicity, the undying +saints were represented as dwelling in enchanted +islands far from the toiling world, or slumbering in +secret grottoes, while those whose immortality was a +doom were compelled to roam restlessly over the +earth. But when these myths had migrated into the +active regions of Europe they were steadily transformed. +It was felt to be hardly a satisfactory +distribution of parts for the saintly immortals to be +sleeping or enjoying themselves with fairies while the +evil ones were so busy careering through earth and +air. So, gradually the saintly sleepers awake. The +Seven Sleepers sally forth as the Seven Champions +of Christendom. Joseph of Arimathea cannot lie +down in his sacred sepulchre which he had given for +the body of Jesus, and becomes a holy wanderer. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span><abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> James emerges from the rock which had closed +around his body like soft wax, and leads Spain against +the Moors. <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> John does not rest in his grotto at +Ephesus, but makes pilgrimages, on one of which he +asks alms of Edward the Confessor, near Westminster +Abbey, who gives to the mendicant a gold ring, afterwards +sent him from the East, with the saint’s +benediction. <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Peter goes abroad also. When the +first Abbot of Westminster is about to be ordained in +the Abbey, <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Peter appears in the night, crosses the +Thames in a boat, himself ordains the Abbot, and +leaves a wondrous fish to convince the Archbishop +next day that the consecration has been performed, +rendering the future Deans of Westminster responsible +to Peter alone, and able to preach what heresies they +like, without episcopal interference. Popular superstition +is sometimes good-hearted, and liberated even +the sorcerer Merlin from his prison of air, as appears +in the lines of Southey:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent20">“In his crystal ark</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whither sail’d Merlin with his band of bards,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Old Merlin, master of the mystic lore;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Belike his crystal ark, instinct with life,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Obedient to the mighty Master, reached</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The land of the Departed.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_37_37" href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span></p> + +<p>But while Merlin thus finds freedom again ending +in repose, Arthur comes forth from his subterranean +palace to lead the hunt, or from his Avalon to wing +his way in form of a raven.</p> + +<p>Thus the doomed Wandering Jew, under whatever +name, finally found himself wandering in good company. +This opens the way for human compassion to +proffer those little mitigations of divine remorselessness +which, as they gradually appear in folk-lore, +are such severe, because unconscious, satires upon the +deity of theology. The sentence of the deity, or of +the sadly deified Jesus, once uttered cannot be +revoked; but the human heart is no such victim of +its own egotism or passionate impulse. Thus, Kuhn +(2, 32) mentions the belief in Westphalia that the Jew +may obtain a night’s repose if there be left in a field +two harrows with the teeth downward. If one wishes +to do the god-like thing he must leave the teeth of +his harrow upward; then the Jew must wander on. +In some other regions of Germany (Wüttke, 759) the +Jew can find rest at any place where two oaks grow +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span>together in such a way as to form a cross. In Oldenburg +it is said he can rest from the middle of May to +the end of July, which is also the time when the Wild +Huntsman may find repose. An old Metz picture +shows the Jew with Wodan’s flying hair and mantle, +but with a kindly countenance. It is only in a recent +instance that anything diabolical has been associated +with him pictorially, this being in a Lorraine engraving +of 1842, where he has the hat and feather of <span lang="it">Fra +Diavolo</span>.</p> + +<p>There is a tone of pity in the old verses which +spread abroad the fable in Flanders, and has thence +gone through many lands as <i>The Wandering Jew’s +Complaint</i>, though with many variations. I find them +quoted in <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Hoffman’s book, referred to elsewhere. +The burgesses of Brabant address the Wanderer:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“We used to think your story</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Was but an idle dream;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">But when thus wan and hoary</div> + <div class="verse indent3">And broken down you seem,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">The sight can not deceive</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And we the tale believe.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Are you that man of sorrow</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Of whom our authors write—</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Grief comes with every morrow,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">And wretchedness at night;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Oh, let us know are you</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Isaac, the Wandering Jew?</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Then he replied, ‘Believe me,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">I suffer bitter woe;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Incessant travels grieve me—</div> + <div class="verse indent3">No rest’s for me below;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">A respite I have never,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">But onward <span class="allsmcap">MARCH</span> forever!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“’Twas by my rash behaviour</div> + <div class="verse indent3">I wrought this fearful scathe:</div> + <div class="verse indent1">As Christ our Lord and Saviour</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Was passing to the grave,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">His mild request I spurned,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">His gentle pleading scorned.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“A secret force expelled me</div> + <div class="verse indent3">That instant from my home,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And since the Doom hath held me</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Unceasingly to roam—</div> + <div class="verse indent1">But neither day nor night</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Must check my onward flight.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“I have no home to hide me,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">No wealth can I display;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Yet Unknown Powers provide me</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Five farthings every day;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">This always is my store,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">’Tis never less nor more.’”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>I may here mention an extremely important work, +<cite lang="fr">Histoire de l’Imagerie Populaire, par Champfleury</cite> +(Paris: Dentu, 1869), which contains a number of +pictures taken from the old ballads and folk-books +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span>concerning the Wandering Jew. The early pictures +represent the Jew as a man of noble form, and +generally of a handsome and melancholy countenance. +The only picture in the volume which betrays anti-Jewish +feeling is a modern one from Sweden (where +the Wandering Jew is still believed in), which represents +him in semi-caricature, carrying top-boots at his +back. In most of the pictures the boots worn constitute +a prominent feature. This work of Champfleury +is of value beyond its pictorial representations, on +account of the curiosities which the author has discovered +concerning the adventures of the legend +among rustic populations. The author does not give +us his authority for saying that the Wandering Jew +appeared in some of the mediæval miracle-plays, but +he shows that he was introduced into a French ballet, +<i>Mariage de Pierre de Provence et de la belle Maguelonne, +dancé par son Altesse Royale dans la Ville de +Tours, le 21, en son Hostel</i>, and at Paris in 1638. +There may also be found in this work the Breton +ballad of the Wandering Jew, consisting of 180 verses, +sung at country fairs, to the popular air <i>Güerz, Santez +Anna</i>. This ballad is very ancient, and much more +interesting than that in <cite>Percy’s Reliques</cite>. The +Wanderer calls himself Boudedeo, and tells of the +many countries he has visited. He has always five +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span><span lang="fr">sous</span> in his pocket, and is never disturbed by sickness +or hunger. The ballad ends,</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry" lang="fr"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Chrétiens, priez Dieu pour le malheureux Boudedeo!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Champfleury describes a Wissembourg picture which +shows a beggar raising his hat to the Wanderer and +the latter drops his five <span lang="fr">sous</span> into the beggar’s cap. +This incident tells much of the popular sympathy +felt for persons believed to be the doomed man, and +is remembered by Béranger in his poem:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry" lang="fr"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Plus d’un pauvre vient implorer</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Le denier que je puis répandre,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Qui n’a pas le temps de serrer</div> + <div class="verse indent1">La main qu’au passant j’aime à tendre.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Champfleury remarks that, in popular belief, it was +always for inhumanity that Ahasuerus was punished; +and the meaning of this Wissembourg picture is that +as he was punished for lack of charity, he is saved by +his charity. The picture shows a citizen giving the +Wanderer a glass of beer. It is all a lesson of +humanity, but is pictured on a background of such +inhumanity on the part of Christ, that Ahasuerus, +giving away his <span lang="fr">sous</span>, seems to have taken the place +in human sympathy of the Jew who cursed him.</p> + +<p><abbr>Dr.</abbr> Coremans, in his <cite lang="fr">Bulletin de la Commission +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span>royale d’histoire de Belgique</cite> (<abbr title="10">X.</abbr>, <abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 1) says that most +of the Belgian villages have their legend of the +passage of the Wandering Jew through them, and +that there is a general notion that he rejuvenates old +women.</p> + +<p>The Man in the Moon with his thornbush—if, as +some think, he represents the doom of a Jew, who +picked up fire-wood on the Sabbath, doomed to go on +picking up sticks forever, and be bayed at by Gabriel’s +hounds—might typify the shrivelling up in English +folk-lore of the great myths of earthly immortals, including +Ahasuerus.</p> + +<p><abbr>Mr.</abbr> William Henderson gives the following example +from the North-country: “An old woman of the +North Riding once asked a friend of mine whether +it was wrong to wash on Good Friday. ‘I used to do +so,’ she said, ‘and thought no harm of it, till once, +when I was hanging out my clothes, a young woman +passed by (a dressmaker she was, and a Methodist); +and she reproved me, and told me this story. While +our Lord Jesus was being led to Calvary, they took +him past a woman who was washing, and the woman +“blirted” the thing she was washing in his face; on +which he said, “Cursed be everyone who hereafter +shall wash on this day!” And never again,’ added +the old woman, ‘have I washed on Good Friday.’ +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span>Now it is said in Cleveland that clothes washed and +hung out to dry on Good Friday will become spotted +with blood; but the Methodist girl’s wild legend +reminds me more of one which a relation of mine +elicited from a poor Devonshire shoemaker. She was +remonstrating with him for his indolence and want of +spirit, when he astonished her by replying, ‘Don’t +’ee be hard on me. We shoemakers are a poor slobbering +race, and so have been ever since the curse that +Jesus Christ laid on us.’ ‘And what was that?’ she +asked. ‘Why,’ said he, ‘when they were carrying him +to the cross, they passed a shoemaker’s bench, and the +man looked up and spat at him; and the Lord +turned and said, “A poor slobbering fellow shalt thou +be, and all shoemakers after thee, for what thou hast +done to me.”’”⁠<a id="FNanchor_38_38" href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<p>Such, by the blessing of Protestantism, is the outcome +of the great legends of Veronica and Ahasuerus! +Tithonus, outliving his time, is changed to a grasshopper. +Another instance of the chirpings to which +great myths are reduced may be heard from our +above-mentioned “Seven Whistlers,” of which ingenious +use is made by the authoress of “That Lass o’ +Lowrie.” <abbr>Mr.</abbr> James Pearson contributed to “Notes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span>and Queries” (September 30, 1871) the following: +“One evening, a few years ago, when crossing one of +our Lancashire moors, in company with an intelligent +old man, we were suddenly startled by the whistling +overhead of a covey of plovers. My companion remarked +that when a boy the old people considered +such a circumstance a bad omen, ‘as the person +who heard <em>the Wandering Jews</em>’—as he called the +plovers—‘was sure to be overtaken with some ill +luck.’ On questioning my friend on the name given +to the birds, he said, ‘There is a tradition that they +contain the souls of those Jews who assisted at the +crucifixion, and in consequence were doomed to float +in the air forever.’ When we arrived at the foot of +the moor, a coach, by which I had hoped to complete +my journey, had already left its station thereby +causing me to finish the distance on foot. The old +man reminded me of the omen.”</p> + +<p>This superstition is connected with the Gabriel-hounds, +believed in Yorkshire to be human-headed +dogs, or sky-yelpers, as Wordsworth calls them. That +poet tells of an aged peasant—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“With ample sovereignity of eye and ear;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Rich were his walks with supernatural cheer;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">He the seven birds hath seen that never part,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Seen the Seven Whistlers on their nightly rounds,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span> <div class="verse indent1">And counted them! And oftentimes will start,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">For overhead are sweeping Gabriel’s hounds,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Doomed with their impious lord the flying hart</div> + <div class="verse indent1">To chase for ever on aërial grounds.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>I may quote here part of the interesting account of +superstitions concerning the Wandering Jew contributed +to “Notes and Queries” (<abbr title="volume">vol.</abbr> <abbr title="12">xii.</abbr> <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 503) by +<abbr>Mr.</abbr> V. T. Sternberg. “Sometimes, during the cold +winter nights, the lonely cottager will be awoke by a +plaintive demand for ‘Water, good Christian! water, +for the love of God!’ And if he looks out, he will see +a venerable old man in antique raiment, with grey +flowing beard and a tall staff, who beseeches his +charity with the most earnest gesture. Woe to the +churl who refuses him water or shelter! My old +nurse, who was a Warwickshire woman, and, as Sir +Walter Scott said of his grandmother, ‘a most <i>awfu’ +leer</i>,’ knew a man who boldly cried out, ‘All very fine, +<abbr>Mr.</abbr> Ferguson, but you can’t lodge here!’ And it was +decidedly the worst thing he ever did in his life, for +his best mare fell dead lame, and corn went down I am +afraid to say how much per quarter. If, on the contrary, +you treat him well, and refrain from indelicate +inquiries respecting his age—on which point he is very +touchy—his visit is sure to bring good luck. Perhaps, +years afterwards, when you are on your death-bed, he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span>may happen to be passing, and if he should, you are +safe; for three knocks with his staff will make you +hale, and he never forgets any kindnesses. Many +stories are current of his wonderful cures, but there is +one to be found in Peck’s <cite>History of Stamford</cite> which +possesses the rare merit of being written by the patient +himself. Upon Whitsunday, in the year of our Lord +1658, ‘about six of the clock, just after evensong,’ one, +Samuel Wallis, of Stamford, who had been long +wasted with a lingering consumption, was sitting by +the fire, reading in that delectable book called <cite>Abraham’s +Suit for Sodom</cite>. He heard a knock at the +door, and, as his nurse was absent, he crawled to open +it himself. What he saw there Samuel shall say in +his own style: ‘I beheld a proper, tall, grave old man. +Thus he said, “Friend, I pray thee, give an old +pilgrim a cup of small beere?” And I said, “Sir, I +pray you, come in and welcome.” And he said, “I +am no sir, therefore call me not sir; but come in I +must, for I cannot pass by thy doore.” After finishing +the beere, “Friend,” he said, “thou art not well?” I +said, “No, truly, sir, I have not been well this many +years.” He said, “What is thy disease?” I said, “A +deep consumption, sir; our doctors say, past cure: +for truly, I am a very poor man, and not able to +follow doctor’s counsel.” “Then,” said he, “I will tell +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span>thee what thou shalt do; and, by the help and power +of Almighty God above, thou shalt be well. Tomorrow, +when thou risest up, go into thy garden, and +get there two leaves of red sage and one of bloodworte, +and put them into a cup of thy small beere. Drink +as often as need require, and when the cup is empty, +fill it again, and put in fresh leaves every fourth day, +and thou shalt see, through our Lord’s great goodness +and mercy, before twelve dayes shall be past, thy +disease shall be cured and thy body altered.”’ After +this simple prescription, Wallis pressed him to eat. +But he said, ‘No, friend, I will not eat; the Lord +Jesus is sufficient for me. Very seldom doe I drinke +any beere neither, but that which comes from the +rocke. So, friend, the Lord God be with thee.’ So +saying, he departed, and was never more heard of; +but the patient got well within the given time, and for +many a long day there was war hot and fierce among +the divines of Stamford, as to whether the stranger +was an angel or a devil. His dress had been minutely +described by honest Sam. His coat was purple, and +buttoned down to the waist; ‘his britches of the same +couler, all new to see to;’ his stockings were very +white, but whether linen or jersey, deponent knoweth +not; his beard and head were white, and he had a +white stick in his hand. The day was rainy from +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span>morning to night, ‘but he had not one spot of dirt +upon his clothes.’ Aubrey gives an almost exactly +similar relation, the scene of which he places in the +Staffordshire moorlands. He there appears in a +purple shag gown, and prescribes balm-leaves.”</p> + +<p>Brand mentions having seen one of these ‘impostors’ +going about Newcastle-on-Tyne, followed by a crowd, +and murmuring to himself “Poor Jack all alone!” +Probably Brand did not hear the phrase rightly, +since the cry of the Wanderer was “Poor Joe all +alone!” There was a crossing-sweeper near <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Paul’s +Churchyard, who murmured the same, of whom there +is an engraving in the British Museum. A picture of +the Newcastle man was made for the Musgraves of +Eden Hall, which has beneath it “Poor Joe all alone!” +My friend <abbr>Mr.</abbr> W. B. Scott, who once resided at Newcastle, +writes that he remembers hearing of him. +“He seemed to have left an impression of a somewhat +respectful kind, but from what cause I never +heard; probably he had a history of a melancholy +kind, and had been left alone by some calamity.”</p> + +<p>This, so far as I can learn, was the last appearance +in the world of any man pretending to be the Wandering +Jew, if indeed he did so pretend, and the honour +was not thrust upon him by the superstitious crowd. +There had been advantages enough in earlier times +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span>to entice Ahasuerus, or “the famous Joseph,” to +make his appearance. He came as a “witness” for +Christ; he was generally a pious Christian; a tradition +tells of his gambling in Naples, but, as the +people there invoke their saints for luck in gambling, +the exception is not considerable. Jurisconsult Louvet +heard him preaching to street crowds in a French +province like a revivalist friar. But in England common +sense gradually chilled the Wandering Jew. When +it was found that he was not above receiving sixpences +to support his imperishable existence the public lost +interest in him.</p> + +<p>A question addressed by me a few weeks ago to +the <i>Newcastle Weekly Chronicle</i> elicited the following +answer:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>“It is quite true that a man who was known as +‘The Wandering Jew’ lived in Newcastle during the +latter part of last century. He left a son, who I +believe has lived in Hull the greater part of this +century, and who is now a very old man indeed, +keeping a small public-house named the Cricketers’ +Arms. He is very eccentric, is known as ‘Topper, +the Newcastle Fossil,’ and attracts a deal of attention +on account of his appearance and the condition of his +house. He is a very peculiar-looking man, with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span>features of a decided Jewish cast. His clothes appear +to be as old as himself. He has never been known to +be clean: and old people in Hull do not remember +the counter or floor of his house to have been washed. +He is supposed to be emulating ‘Dirty Dick’ of +London in this respect.</p> + +<p class="right"> + “<span class="smcap">George Cooper.</span>” +</p> + +<p><cite>Hull.</cite></p> +</blockquote> + +<p>This may be regarded as the epitaph upon an +ancient dream which branched into a vast and +various mythology, and, in its time, bore for millions +their hopes of a renovated earth, and their visions of +resurrection from the sleep of death!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV"> + <abbr title="15">XV.</abbr> + <br> + THE NEW AHASUERUS IN GERMANY. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">Having</span>, as a figure of popular faith, gathered to him +all related elements of mould and decay, and found fit +extinction in the Newcastle “fossil” just mentioned, +Ahasuerus rises for new wanderings as a poetic +ideal.</p> + +<p>The Germans were the first to deal seriously with our +legend, and their literature of the Wandering Jew is +indicated in this chapter. The subject attracted the +unhappy <span class="smcap">Daniel Friedrich Schubart</span> during his +imprisonment. Carlyle, in the notes to his <cite>Life of +Schiller</cite>, says the idea of making old <i lang="la">Joannes a temporibus</i>, +the ‘Wandering,’ or, as Schubart’s countrymen +denominate him, the ‘Eternal Jew,’ into a novel hero +was a mighty favourite with him. “In this antique +cordwainer, as on a raft at anchor in the stream of +time, he would survey the changes and wonders of +two thousand years: the Roman and the Arab were +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span>to figure there, the Crusader and the Circumnavigator, +the Eremite and the Thebaid, and the Pope of Rome. +Joannes himself, the Man existing out of Time and +Space—Joannes, the unresting and undying—was to +be a deeply tragic personage. Schubart warmed himself +with this idea, and talked about it in his cups, to the +astonishment of simple souls. He even wrote a certain +rhapsody connected with it, which is published in +his poems. But here he rested; and the project of +the Wandering Jew, which Goethe likewise meditated +in his youth, is still unexecuted. Goethe turned to +other objects, and poor Schubart was surprised by +death in the midst of his schemes, on the <abbr>10th</abbr> of +October, 1791.” But the project, as we shall see, is not +unexecuted.</p> + +<p>Schubart’s <cite>Rhapsody</cite> appeared in his “Poems, +Frankfort, 1787.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_39_39" href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> His Ahasuerus has retired into +the wild solitudes of Mount Carmel. There he is +seen, with frantic laughter, casting away the dry skulls +of his relatives, which break to pieces, crying, “That +is my father! Those are my wives! these my children! +They could die, but I—outcast—cannot die!” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span>And again, “Jerusalem fell; I crushed the babe, I +rushed into the flames, cursed the Roman!—Rome +fell, whole nations perished, and—I remained!” He +tries to kill himself in different ways, but in vain. He +feels pain acutely, but has to endure every variety of +it, even to the agonies of the moment of death, without +this moment ever arriving. The snake bites +him, the dragon tortures, the burning forest blisters +him. He says to himself, “Under my feet the mine +exploded and threw me high into the air; senseless +I fell down, and found myself roasted amidst +blood, and brains, and bones.” He is obliged to carry +on a corpse-like body, infirm, smelling of the grave; +and through thousands of years he must see, like a +yawning monster, an everlasting sameness. The +rhapsody brings the Wanderer to a peaceful end. +Ahasuerus throws himself down from the top of +Carmel into the abyss, “and night covers his bushy +eyelids. An angel carries him into a recess in the +rocks. ‘There mayest thou sleep now,’ says the +angel; ‘sleep, Ahasuerus, sleep soundly! God’s +anger does not last for ever.’”</p> + +<p>In 1807 appeared the ballad of <cite>The Eternal Jew</cite>, by +<span class="smcap">Aloys Schreiber</span>. The torture of this Ahasuerus +consists in his not being able to enjoy life and nature, +open to all other men, on account of his restlessness. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span>He cannot drink the water of the fountain, he cannot +rest in the shade of a tree, he cannot break a flower to +enjoy its smell, for which he longs; he must start, he +must wander. In this he differs from Schubart’s +Ahasuerus, who had long been weary of life. Being +continually obliged to renounce everything, he at last +becomes timid, shy; he flies all men and hurries on +heedlessly. Finally he observes a crucifix by the wayside; +about to rush on, an impulse brings him to his +knees, imploring the Crucified for forgiveness. Christ +answers him from the cross, “Whoever has failed +may repent; and none who loves and believes in me +shall need to shun my countenance.” The Wanderer +is found dead, kneeling before the cross.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wilhelm Müller</span>, in his <cite lang="de">Wanderlieder</cite> (published +in his works, 1830) has a poem on “The Eternal Jew,” +which pictures the desolation and loneliness that +torture a life satiated to disgust, longing for rest and +death. It is pervaded by melancholy. “Although I +have seen everything I am never allowed to rest!” +All around him has an end: the river in the ocean, +the eagle on the Alps, the cloud in the falling rain, +and also “to the tired wanderer a certain limit has +been fixed. What, does he complain of his day’s +misery?—before night death will have taken him +home.” The end of the poem is a wish of the poor +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span>Wanderer that those who have finished their earthly +pilgrimage might, ere they go to sleep for ever, ask +of God one hour’s rest for him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Nikolaus Lenau</span> has treated the subject in a +similar manner. The scenery of his poem, <cite>Ahasuerus, +the Eternal Jew</cite>, is a lonely heath. In a distant +meadow shepherds are seen surrounding and weeping +over the corpse of a beloved youth. Whilst they are +thus standing a Wanderer passes that way: his hair is +grey, his countenance pale, cold, deeply wrinkled; his +beard long and white, his fiery eyes in dark sockets. +He walks on to the bier, and calls out, with mingled +mockery and mournfulness, “Suppress your ungrateful +tears; his rest is good; oh yes, his rest is good! +Though fools like you complain, his heart is still; +while mine beats on by night and day, in restless +longing to find its sabbath in the grave!” The +Wanderer utters the philosophy of Schopenhauer, +explaining that the earth is only the lie of Paradise, +that it is always the same old delusion of Time—all +flowering to its destruction: a philosophy which terminates +in a marriage with Madness, personified in +Lenau himself.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, says the poem, the shepherds cover the +coffin. Suddenly the stranger gets sight of the +crucifix on the lid of the coffin. He is frightened, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span>tears come to his eyes. Now the Lenau-Schopenhauer +turns out to be Ahasuerus. He tells the story +of his life in the usual form of the myth. He tells the +different kinds of death he had vainly sought. Then +he wanders on, on—on; above his head you hear the +whizzing of the birds; a long shadow walks behind +him; the shepherds tremble and make the sign of the +cross.</p> + +<p>Although <span class="smcap">Adalbert von Chamisso</span> was by birth +French, his life and culture were German; his mixed +origin is shown in his subjective poem, the “New +Ahasuerus” (1836), where the Wanderer is simply a +lover whose mistress has married another! This rejected +lover compares himself to Ahasuerus, who cannot +die or rest until the Day of Judgment, while the +faithless lady represents the fallen city of Jerusalem. +Ahasuerus says, “Time stands still before me; the +age of man is as one moment, and the moments ages. +Every hundred years I come once more to Jerusalem, +mourning over its cold ashes, trying to put the ruins +in their old place again, but nobody takes notice of +me; evermore I come to the same thing—a grave!” +Ahasuerus is “the son of sorrow turned into stone.”</p> + +<p>The poem of <span class="smcap">A. W. Schlegel</span>, “The Eternal Jew,” +follows the old myth, with nothing new. His Ahasuerus, +on account of his unbelief, wanders through the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span>world as a solace for all those who are miserable, +until the reappearance of Christ releases him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Julius Mosen</span> is the first who treated the subject +in a fuller and more independent way. His “Ahasuerus” +(1838) is an epic. In the notes it is stated that +the myth belongs to the poet’s earliest recollections, +the supposed Wandering Jew having passed through +his birthplace, and that a shepherd had spoken to him. +The poem carries this idea out with poetical realism. +Mosen’s idea of the myth is human nature imprisoned +by an earthly existence. Ahasuerus symbolises the +spirit of Tradition embodied in an individual being, +who, at first in unconscious obstinacy, but at length +deliberately, opposes himself to the God of Christendom. +Mosen gives his Ahasuerus from the first a +human trait. His deceased wife has left him two +beautiful children, Eve and Reuben. A young Roman +prince, living at Jerusalem, likes these children, and he +wishes to take them with him to Rome. He applies +to Pilate, who orders Ahasuerus to part with the children. +The father in his desperation implores the +assistance of Jesus, the new prophet. He will believe +in him and his new doctrine, if he can save his children. +Jesus will not grant such private wishes, but +goes on to prophesy the fall of Jerusalem. Upon +this Ahasuerus tears his clothes into pieces, and in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span>pain and wrath accuses Jesus of falsehood and imposture: +“Thou art our God? And yet to save thou +hast no power! If man or God, thou hast deceived +the people!” When the Roman prince comes to +fetch the children, Ahasuerus has slain them. In his +despair he becomes more and more a disbeliever. +What, he asks himself, did Israel commit to become +so wretched? “Through its piety it has been led to +misery. Why, then, does man crowd after this +haughty God? I will cast off his memory; death to +this Nazarene, to God, to everything!” In this excitement +Ahasuerus scornfully forbids Jesus to rest at his +door when he asks that favour. Jesus pronounces his +sentence in these words, “Thou shalt live without rest +thy immortality upon earth!”</p> + +<p>The Archangel Michael appears and gives Ahasuerus +a hope that mercy may be obtained at three different +times of trial. The trials follow. Ahasuerus has +married again and has once more two children, Eve +and Reuben. Rome declares war against Judea, Titus +surrounds Jerusalem; Ahasuerus is full of resentment +against God, who declines to help, and in his anger +sets the temple on fire. During the conflagration, +with his children at his side, he enters the flames, +which do not touch him. Eve’s lover, Matthias, who +has become a Christian, for that reason rejected by +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span>Ahasuerus, serves in the Roman army and comes +rushing through the flames to save his beloved. +Ahasuerus bids him welcome as a suitor, and pushes +him into the flames. His children shriek with terror, +and Ahasuerus throws them both after him, crying, +“Here, heartless God! now thou canst rejoice!”</p> + +<p>The first trial thus passes without redemption for +Ahasuerus, and the second comes. Ahasuerus, having +tried all possible ways of suicide, at last addresses +Death with an appeal for pity. Death replies that he +has orders to pass him by until he shall believe in +God. Ahasuerus refuses. He is once more father +of two beautiful children, Leah and Reuben. He +enjoys the purest happiness, when all at once, in a +thunderstorm, the God of the Jews appears to renew +the old league with him against Christ. Ahasuerus +consents, and is sent to Julian the Apostate as the +great adversary of Christendom. Ahasuerus arrives +there in the very moment when the wounded Julian, +under a night-vision of Christ, begins to doubt his +pagan faith. Ahasuerus gains him back to his former +antagonism, and obtains permission to rebuild the +temple at Jerusalem. But during the building, a +dispute breaks out among the workmen. All order +is gone, the work is interrupted; one looks at another +in amazement, when suddenly a prophet announces +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span>that for the reconstruction of the temple, the God of +Judea and the God of the Christians were contending; +and that the latter could only be made to yield if the +blood of two innocent children should soak the +ground. Ahasuerus offers his own children. Before +the sacrifice is finished, Christ invisibly takes the +children to Himself. Then the earth is rent asunder; +flames dart out and consume the new building.</p> + +<p>The second trial having passed without saving +Ahasuerus, twice a murderer of his own children, the +third trial advances. In this Death passes, with souls +that have found repose, before Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus +is in mortal agony; his soul has nearly departed, but +one point still remains, which no effort of his will can +destroy. This point begins to assume a shape, a form +once more. It is the same point of life which goes +through all organic nature, and nowhere admits of +destruction or state of rest. So our Wanderer, too, +is once more filled with the wish to live. Again the +God of Judea animates him to struggle against the +doctrine of Christ. Again he follows his advice. He +is now sent to Arabia, where Mohammed leads on the +nations against the Cross. Ahasuerus allies himself +with Mohammed to conquer Jerusalem; he calls his +people together, but they will not hear him, they have +only stones to throw at him who suffered so much for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span>their sake. Then, with tears in his eyes, Ahasuerus +leaves them for ever, and bestows henceforth his love +upon Humanity.</p> + +<p>Mosen’s Ahasuerus thus becomes a hero of +Humanity, and his aims rise high above his first +purpose. He is at the head of Mohammed’s warriors, +driving away the defenders of the Holy Sepulchre, +menacing death to all who approach it. All fly away; +two children only remain—his own. Ahasuerus embraces +them, and rejoices to have found them at last. +Then Mohammed reminds him that he has sworn +death to whomsoever should approach the sepulchre. +Ahasuerus now cries out in his grief. For the third +time he falls under the curse of his disbelief. He +calls for some one to slay him, and the third trial so +releases him of his vow. Arrows dart through the air: +the children fall; he, too, sinks down, to awake once +more for fulfilment of his real mission. “One thing +has been ended; another begins, that neither time nor +dark eternity can end. Loosed from Him and His +mercy, henceforth I begin a long struggle until I have +saved mankind from Him.” Ahasuerus declares an +everlasting war against Christ, “in the name of all +forces and powers, all sighs, all sorrows, shed tears +and blood, broken spirits and crushed hearts.” Christ +accepts the combat: “Thou facest Me, Thought +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span>against Thought. Wrestle on and on, until at last, +the circle ended, the Day of Judgment shall +decide!”</p> + +<p>There the poem ends, or rather, as Helbig remarks, +“does <em>not</em> end;” the end is put off to the day of the +last Judgment. The struggle now only begins, never +to end, between Ahasuerus and Christ, between +Humanity and Christendom, between Earth and +Heaven.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ludwig Köhler</span>, too, makes the Wanderer a type +of human tendency. His <cite>New Ahasuerus</cite> (1845) is a +prophet of freedom. The sufferer he has derided says +to him: “March on then for eternities, until veracity +has found its residence on earth, filling it with purest +brightness! until a golden Dawn as of springtide breaks, +and Liberty awakes the light now hidden in night!” +Often the Wanderer thinks this morning has come, and +exults in his hope of rest; but his joy, his hopes are +vain. Napoleon crushes the French Revolution, “the +Burschenschaft” leads to the errors of Sand; the +rebellious Greeks are betrayed, and so on. Everywhere +is oppression of conscience and thought. +Ahasuerus despairs, and complains that he cannot +die, when suddenly Jesus addresses him with a +rebuke: he tells Ahasuerus that he is unworthy of the +longed-for liberty, so long as he has not mastered self +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span>and sacrificed his egotism. “Thy grave, not humanity, +was thine aim, so thou hast striven in vain. Liberty +shall be aim, not instrument to thee. Whilst thou +wert complaining of Destiny, it went its way, and +Liberty began its heavenly progression. ’Tis no dream +and delusion; ere thou thinkest, it sunders hell and +displays its light. The world gets free. Already in +the vale a stir is heard. Its reign is near!” With this +vision of hope for the future the poet leaves us.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franz Horn</span> (1818) published in Fouqué’s +<cite lang="de">Frauentaschenbuch</cite> his novel “<cite>The Eternal Jew</cite>.” His +Ahasuerus is a rich Jew in Jerusalem, who only +believes in Christ’s external mission. He thinks +that Jesus, though for the time full of humility, +will rule with a commanding sceptre when clad in +purple, and by his healing power will extirpate +disease and death from the earth. In this he is disappointed: +Jesus is laughed at, despised, ill-treated, +and endures all unresistingly. Mistaken in his dearest +hopes, Ahasuerus conceives a deep hate against +Jesus. So, when the latter, fallen under the burthen +of his cross, asks for a moment’s rest at his door, +Ahasuerus drives him on without compassion. Then +Christ rises, and says: “Well, receive then what thou +wishest; live, live on, as never man before; die not +till thou hast become worthy to die!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span></p> + +<p>And so it came: all around him died; everything +became strange to him; only the sky above him +remained the same. He comes to understand that +Christ by his death has sealed death, and that he +(Ahasuerus) by his life has to represent the insufficiency +and misery of mere life. He moves on with +aimless strides, his form as of iron, his visage weather-beaten +like lichened stone, a nameless grief upon his +features. The scene of the novel is laid at the end +of the Thirty Years’ War. Ahasuerus has saved a +young count in the tumult of battle, and afterwards, +by telling him the story of his life, converts him from +the blasphemy and despair into which he had fallen +by the sudden death of his family—a misfortune +attributed to the appearance of Ahasuerus.</p> + +<p>From this novel, <span class="smcap">August Klingemann</span> (1827) +took the subject of his tragedy, <i>Ahasuerus</i>. The +Wanderer was a favourite character with the distinguished +actor Ludwig Devrient. With Klingemann +the myth signifies purification by suffering +in order to obtain an imperishable liberty. Christ +appears as the mediator between natural and supernatural +things, and points the wandering man to his +coming empire. The hero of Klingemann’s drama is +the murderer of Gustavus Adolphus, the Count of +Werth, a fanatical Catholic, who, in disguise of a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span>Protestant, has assassinated the champion of Protestantism. +The deed weighs heavily on his soul, drives +him to melancholy and despair, and he finally drowns +his conscience in Atheism. The son of Gustavus +Adolphus enters his family as a visitor; and in his +presence, and that of his family, the guilty Count +speaks of the deed with abhorrence. Only one person +knows of his guilt—the mysterious man who saved +him out of the battle. To get rid of him the assassin +challenges him; but his lance breaks on the breast of the +stranger—for it is Ahasuerus, he who has blasphemed +his Lord, like the now atheistical Count of Werth. +The curse upon him is that which strikes the Denier +of God. Ahasuerus, after the fruitless combat, reveals +to the count his story, and his longing to die, imploring +him no longer to blaspheme God. The Count +after this discovery acknowledges the existence of +God, and confesses his murder of Gustavus Adolphus. +He then kills himself, and so finds rest; but Ahasuerus +wanders on—on!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Theodor Oelkers</span> has treated the subject in a +novel, <cite>Princess Mary of Oldenhoff, or the Wandering +Jew</cite>, (Leipzig, 1848). Oelkers adds a curse upon +Ahasuerus: in order to reconcile Christ he must +sacrifice what is dearest to him, but his sacrifices are +always ineffectual. He takes from time to time a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span>wife, he has children; he survives each wife, slays his +children; he is driven to do this by necessity, while +conscious that the offerings will be in vain. He has +the fearful gift of reading the future: foresees all that +shall happen to himself and his beloved ones. In +bitterness of heart he says: “Let men see in me how +vain is their hope for divine love and mercy!” But +at length he finds reason to hope for release at a very +distant period. “I am only,” he says, “condemned in +Time: Eternity belongs to me, as it belongs to all when +Time shall end. Then shall I be free to move about +in endless regions, breathing the air of heaven; then +the partial tyranny of Grace shall be dethroned; +Justice will occupy the throne, sharing it with her +sister, Love.”</p> + +<p>Oelkers thinks that before this time comes there +will also appear a Wandering Moslem and a Wandering +Christian.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Levin Schücking</span>, too, brings our hero before us +in an episode, full of imagination, called “The +Three Suitors” which belongs to his novel <cite>The +Peasant Prince</cite>, 1851. In the hotel of “The Three +Moors,” at Augsburg, during the twelve nights after +Christmas in the year 1700, three strangers met +together. One was a weary half-decayed Jew, with a +long dirty gown, who next morning changes into a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span>handsome young Armenian Prince, Isaac Laquedam. +The second was the Dutch admiral Van der Decken, +who arrives in a carriage with four horses. The third +was his Excellency the Master of Chase <i lang="fr">en chef</i>, Herr +von Rodenstein, with a large suite. These individuals +have a rendezvous in this inn every hundred years, and +pass one year together in revelling, after which they +disappear. They lose their human form and wander +as spectres, one over the earth, one over the sea, the +third in the air, as the Eternal Jew, the Flying Dutchman, +the Wild Huntsman; all in bond and service of +Satan, except for this one year, wherein he has no +power over them. Whenever one century is passed, +Ahasuerus-Laquedam is seized by a burning fever, +after which his body resumes the appearance it had +when he raised his hand against Jesus.</p> + +<p>All three do a great deal of mischief during that +year in quiet Augsburg, especially in the hearts of the +young women. Among these is one distinguished by +great beauty, but also by her haughtiness and disdain +towards the male sex. All three try to win her proud +and frosty heart, which unfortunately has been +chained to an ugly, paralytic husband. She once +says to them that she is not proud of her beauty, +but that she would take a pride in standing a danger +or conquering a difficulty of which, centuries later, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span>the world would say, <i>a man would have been unable +to subdue it</i>.</p> + +<p>The handsome Armenian prince takes her at her +word and invites her to follow him one whole year: +she promises it, and gives him as pledge of her word +a ring. The two others obtain similar promises. At +the end of the year she accompanies the Armenian. +Suddenly she sees his youth disappear, a musty smell +comes from him, and a third shadow walks at their +side. “Who are you,” she cries aghast. “I am +Ahasuerus!” She tries to fly, but Ahasuerus holds +her with an iron hand. In her despair she sells her +soul to the third shadow (the Devil) who promises her +deliverance. But first, she has to keep her word to the +Rodensteiner. With him, the Wild Huntsman, she +rides through the air, and from aloft beholds the +depravity of human life. From what she has seen, +and from the wild ride, her soul and body are tormented, +she is unable to go any farther, and again +implores deliverance of the Devil. Already the Flying +Dutchman has come to claim fulfilment of her +promise to him. The Devil agrees to save her if she +will pledge him, besides her own, the soul of her +child.</p> + +<p>“No, never my child, never!” the tortured woman +cries; she prefers another year’s ride, over the sea. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span>“Take her, she longs still for a third trial,” says the +laughing Devil to the Dutchman; but he replies: +“The trial was great enough, she is released. Her +force was superior to that of a man. <em>A man would +not have spared the soul of his child more than he did his +own.</em>” She wakes to find her child sleeping sweetly +in its cradle; she finds also the three rings; but from +the dream of a night her beautiful hair was grey.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Joseph von Zedlitz</span>, an Austrian poet, in his <cite>Wanderings +of Ahasuerus</cite> (1844), transfers the end of the +Jew’s life to the Golden Age, when the reign of eternal +Peace has begun. Ahasuerus has long been buried on +Golgotha, when an angel awakes him, and bids him +wander until Noah’s white dove, the messenger of +peace, comes back, bringing peace on earth and songs +of joy, dispersing all wrath and hatred, uniting the +nations under the sceptre of Humanity. Ahasuerus, +lying in his grave, half-dreaming, sees history pass +before his eyes; he awaits the time that shall come. +Whenever he thinks this moment has arrived, he rises +from his grave, and wanders about to see the world. +It seems to him that the Golden Age is near, when +the Roman Empire sinks and the star of Christendom +rises; when the cherub’s song of peace strikes his ear, +he begins his pilgrimage. He expected to find peace, +but he finds ruins, ashes, death. He meets Attila’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span>wild bands on his way. When Ahasuerus, 1300 +years later, rises once more, he finds another Attila, +who wants to bend a whole world under his sceptre. +Terror-stricken, Ahasuerus cries: “Who can say +Attila will not return a third time?” and returning to +his grave, he asks: “Jehovah, how long must I still +sleep?”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hans Christian Andersen’s</span> <i>Ahasuerus</i> is +the angel of Doubt, who comes upon earth to live +with men, whom he resembles, for like them he denies +and doubts. He is born on earth at the same moment +with Jesus, and now, as a human being, bears the +name Ahasuerus. As a man he grows wiser and +better, like his fellow-men, whose increasing perfection +will, in many thousands of years, lead them to heaven. +Then Ahasuerus too will return.</p> + +<p>After this Prologue Ahasuerus is seen as a Jewish +shoemaker; he is at the same time a favourite narrator +of the stories of the <cite class="nonitalic">Bible</cite>. Merry children, as well as +serious Pharisees, come to his workshop, and listen to +his words. He becomes conceited, and complains +that he is only a shoemaker, and not allowed to sit +among the Scribes. Among his auditors is young +Veronica, who is enchanted with the new prophet +from Nazareth, who had just made his appearance. +Ahasuerus counts Jesus amongst the false prophets; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span>he also regards him as the cause of the death of his +mother and sister, who had been slain by the agents +of Herod. But when he hears Jesus preach in the +desert, he changes his mind, and shares the admiration +of Veronica. Now, he thinks, the days of splendour +will come, according to the prophets, and the reign of +David in all its magnificence. Judas, the friend of +Ahasuerus, and the enthusiastic disciple of Jesus, is +the first to doubt him. He thinks Jesus does not +show enough energy in his proceedings, calls him a +loiterer; at length decides to test whether he is really +the Messias. If so, legions of angels will certainly +assist him at his call; if not, he may perish. Judas +betrays Jesus, in order to give him an opportunity to +show his power—an idea suggested by Goethe. The +hope of Judas is not realised. Jesus consents to be +made a prisoner. “Man he was, and not Messiah!” says +Ahasuerus, turning apostate; “how could I imagine +that the son of a carpenter was a prophet? He feels +the cold, suffers hunger, thirst, needs sleep.”</p> + +<p>After the usual scene on the way to Golgotha, a +voice from above says to the disbelieving Ahasuerus: +“Ahasuerus, Ahasuerus! thou art the type of mankind; +thou disputest and deniest God himself. Ye +are all alike; so thou mayest wander until we shall +meet once again!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span></p> + +<p>It is not real Atheism, but a rigid Judaism that +will not surrender to what the author deems the +unfolding purposes of God, which appears in this +Ahasuerus.</p> + +<p>The first person whom Ahasuerus meets in his +wanderings is Barabbas, who lives as an hermit in +Lebanon, repenting his sins. He has already been +mentioned in the poem as a profligate who only +knows the god of his senses; but the crucifixion and +the resurrection of Christ, which he has witnessed, +have converted him. He receives his friend with the +words, “Blessed be Jesus Christ.” Ahasuerus answers +with a curse. Full of wrath, not believing in the +resurrection, he takes his leave of Barabbas. He trusts +in the strength of Israel, but soon after he is told of +Jerusalem’s fall. He travels to Rome, where Domitian +is persecuting the Christians. He rejoices when he +sees the burning pyres and the Christian martyrs. +He stands at the side of executioners who torture +some Christians. Among these is Veronica. He +cannot convert her, and tries therefore to slay her. +He does not succeed in so saving her from torture, +but is suspected and (apparently) killed by the executioners. +Ahasuerus awakes to find beside him the +dead Veronica, and many other bodies of martyred +Christians. He starts forth in terror to flee the kingdom +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span>of the Crucified, which he sees consisting only +of “graves laden with the smell of Pestilence.”</p> + +<p>Having passed through distant parts of the world, +Ahasuerus, at the end of three centuries, returns to +Rome. He finds that the doctrine of Christ has +conquered heathendom. The Emperor and his people +are kneeling with Christ’s name on their lips. “The +spirit of Jehovah has left the earth; his people is lost +in this world-chaos. The old is all dead; the new is +vain and empty! Jehovah! my breast is Thy temple, +the last in this ruined world!”</p> + +<p>Ahasuerus passes the Alps. The Huns sweep by. +He inspires Attila to attack Rome and crush Christendom. +But he—he wanders on, farther on, to the +region of the Northern Light. On his return he finds +thick in the forests the symbols of Christ; he finds +Christ now worshipped in Gaul, and in Rome the first +Pope. Compelled now to believe in the power of the +Christian faith, he yet persists in his belief that a still +greater God will come, the true Messiah promised to +Israel. The poet then describes the small communities +of Jews, with their quiet and secret worship, still +awaiting their Messiah. Some think he has come in +the person of Mohammed, and to him Ahasuerus now +goes. He advances with him to Jerusalem; there he +is about to set the temple on fire, when Veronica +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span>appears and prevents him. He journeys on. In +Rome Charlemagne has been made emperor; the +Jews have become slaves of the Christians. The +hate of this inflexible believer in Jehovah increases. +By a vast leap the poet brings Ahasuerus to Canossa, +where, full of astonishment, he sees the emperor, barefooted +and in tears, standing before the Vicar of +Christ. Before such evidence of the Majesty of Christendom, +Ahasuerus, too, stands with bended head. +He cannot escape this new kingdom, for he is in the +closed yard of the world which it fills. “The emperor +stood for nights; my nights are millenniums!”</p> + +<p>And now for the first time the idea rises in him +that he is not only the Opposing Jew, but that he +represents everything earthly in conflict with the +divine.</p> + +<p>The time of the Crusades comes. From all parts of +the world the nations rush to Jerusalem, where once +the altar of Jehovah stood. They are impelled by +many selfish motives: no single thought or aim unites +the warriors, and so they struggle in vain. Ahasuerus +now learns to doubt the progress of mankind. In +vain a master-builder beside his work instructs him +that in the structure of the world God is the builder. +“He does not die; each century is a stone block +added to the rest: so mankind gradually ascends.” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span>“But,” Ahasuerus says, “often the work stands still.” +“It does,” answers the stonemason, “but only to gather +new strength.” To this Ahasuerus answers that all the +blood that has been shed in the Crusades was of no +use to Europe; but the guildmaster replies that they +formed a vast step in human progress, because they +brought the different nations closer together, and +brought “liberty” into the world. Many knights sold +their estates, which passed into the hands of the commons; +the supremacy of nobles was destroyed, new +life sprang up in sciences and art. Then suddenly +the cry of battle rings through the air, robber knights +menace the peaceful citizens; the tocsin sounds; the +workmen rush to the battlefield; the building stops. +Full of mockery and derision at this new retrogradation +in place of the vaunted human evolution, Ahasuerus +walks on.</p> + +<p>The errors of the age, the doings in the convents, +the excesses of the Hussites, the mad demeanour of +King Wenceslas, only increase Ahasuerus’ disbelief in +the progress of mankind. An angel leads him to +Mayence, where Gutenberg’s printing-press is seen. +Ahasuerus does not believe in the importance of this +invention. He also thinks Columbus a fool, but, +nevertheless, follows him to the deep whirlpools of the +sea, which he hopes will swallow him. But Columbus +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span>is spared by the waves, he reaches land—the New +World is discovered. There the god of the primeval +forest complains like Ahasuerus, because he has been +roused from his rest and deep silence and is dragged +into the history of men. The all-pervading Spirit of +the Universe addresses him, “Oh, might the discovery +of this new hemisphere come also to thee, that thou +mightst see the divine wisdom, take comfort, and +know that in the future of Humanity there shall be +One people, One mind, Unity and Reason!”</p> + +<p>Amid the New World, and with this vision over it, +Ahasuerus gains Belief. He now sees that “it was +the ruin of Israel, once as rich a land as America, to +reject the New, which comes from God.” In human +evolution the Old always denies the New: “God is +born, crucified, and—lives.” The wave of each century +brings the accumulated treasures of the Past +nearer to the shores of Perfection.</p> + +<p>Then Ahasuerus stretches out his hands towards +the endless Ocean, and in the chaos of his mind he +begins to understand what <em>once</em> he was and what has +become of him. In his own life he sees the progress +of mankind, and so the wings grow that bring him +back to Heaven. But the time has not yet come, +only a day of Eternity has elapsed; and Andersen’s +Muse tells us in the last words of her song that “the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span>myth of Ahasuerus is only an echo of the endless tide +of Time; a better Scald will come and tell the meaning +of that other pilgrimage.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heller</span> imitates Andersen in his poem, <cite>The +Wanderings of Ahasuerus</cite>. In his introduction he +says that Ahasuerus shall lead us through all nations +to the modern world: from God becoming human to +Humanity becoming God. In the first edition (1865) +the poet did not bring his theme to its end. But in a +later edition (1868) he continued his work, and leads +his hero on to the days of Goethe. The conception +and execution of his poem are exactly like those of +Andersen, but Heller presents more historical details, +and his ideas and suggestions are full of interest. +His Ahasuerus is an adversary of Jesus, as one who +does not comprehend his high mission and his own +doctrine. A wealthy shoemaker, his workshop full of +workmen, he is ugly and deformed; his wife, however, +is beautiful. He is an old schoolfellow of the +new prophet, who in former days has often been protected +by him when people asked him tauntingly his +father’s name. Ahasuerus’s own son bears the name of +Jesus. But now Ahasuerus calls Jesus an adventurer, +who had always been a favourite of women, on account +of his fine looks. He says Jesus has learned the black +art in Egypt, which enables him to win the multitude +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span>with miracles; that he misleads poor fishermen to +leave their work and homes; that he poisons the pure +fountain of the <cite class="nonitalic">Bible</cite>, deriving from it that he is the Son +of Man. He, Ahasuerus, will unmask this dangerous +impostor. So, when he is told by some children that +a fine-looking man much like Jesus has sat down to +take some rest at his door, he scornfully bids him +move on, and not bring a curse upon his house by +touching his threshold. Peter intervenes, but Ahasuerus +laughs at him. Then Jesus rising, he answers, “Unhappy +man! the feelings that so violently move thy +heart come from a misled but believing mind. Sincere +as is thy anger, even now thy heart is kind. If thou +couldst only understand me, no one would shed his +blood for me like thou. The time will come when +thou shalt know me. Until the day when all the +world shall have accepted Christianity thou shalt +wander through the earth with thy people, spared by +Death. Nations shall come and go, but ye shall +remain until the day of the last trumpet.”</p> + +<p>Ahasuerus re-enters his house speechless. On the +day of the Passover, Saul comes to him, and is told +what happened. He declares Jesus one of those +fanatics who rise everywhere and disappear like +meteors; the streets of Rome are crowded with them. +“Men,” says Saul, “are bending under the burthen of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span>their sins and long for forgiveness, which they do not +find in their Ancient Law. Love, the only thing that +brings release, must be delivered from the chains of +the old institutions.” Unconsciously, Saul is already +of the new belief, and is soon after formally converted. +Peter and James try to convert Ahasuerus also, but +they succeed only in engaging him to hear Saul, now +Paul, who preaches in Athens of Christ’s resurrection. +Ahasuerus finds out that this doctrine is not in the +Scriptures: Paul must be deceived. He returns to +Jerusalem, in his old disbelief. Jerusalem is conquered, +destroyed; Ahasuerus joins in the combat; at +length all whom he has loved are buried, he leaves the +ancient city in ruins: his wanderings begin.</p> + +<p>We find him again, with other fugitive Jews, in a +cavern, gathered about an old Rabbi. They mourn +for Jerusalem, but their master reminds them of the +Law; he exhorts them to adhere firmly to that—it is +stronger than that of Christ’s apostles, which is sealed +only by a man, not by God. As Jewish apostles they +go forth into the world. The war begins between +Paganism, Christianity, and Judaism. Ahasuerus tries +to win over the pagans, to bring back those that turn +apostate. The wild movements and anomalies of the +world gradually lead Ahasuerus to the hope of a +kingdom not of this world. He is now seen longing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span>for Jesus; he flies the noisy world and arrives at the +Lake of Tiberias. There Christ appears to him, and +Ahasuerus implores forgiveness. He has already lost +something of his rigid Jewish faith. When Constantine +has become a Christian, and when Rome falls, +he believes that his new idea will be realised: but no, +straightway begin the disputes of Christian sects. +Ahasuerus turns his back on the contending Gnostics, +Simonians, Arians, and the rest, and comes to the +desert, where he finds Anthony, the hermit. Anthony +has delivered himself from the world and its controversies +to find peace amid nature. They exchange +their experiences and thoughts. Ahasuerus acknowledges +that Christ’s doctrine has spread a kingdom of +love over the earth, but that his great work has been +degraded to a mere fable. “I did not find the kingdom +of God, but of men. Here I will rest until some +Angel wakes me from my dream to begin once more +my earthly pilgrimage.” Anthony has the same faith; +he will struggle on patiently and imitate the life that +was so full of suffering and love. Henceforth the two +live together in a long brotherhood.</p> + +<p>This was the end of Heller’s first edition. In the +second he enlarged and transformed the entire poem. +He separates the whole in three different wanderings. +He calls the first, which we have already described, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span><i>Ahasuerus’s Error of Faith</i>; the second, <i>Picture of +the Universe</i>; the third, <i>Humanity</i>. During his +first pilgrimage, Ahasuerus moves still in the restricted +horizon of a Pharisee, but he loses much of that in his +intellectual intercourse with Anthony. In his second +pilgrimage, although the whole scene of history lies +open before him, he persists still in his hope of a coming +Messias. At last he doubts that his hope will +ever be realised; he frees himself from his rigid belief. +The discovery of the New World, the invention of +typography, and the Reformation, he now regards as +contributing to a free evolution of mankind, leading to +the only true religion: Humanity. Ahasuerus, like +Faust, sees in this the high destiny of mankind. +History unfolds itself before Man; he moves after it, +observing, investigating, looking forward to the fulfilment +of his desire. The movement of mankind over +the Old World goes on; new gods replace the old; +contrasts of all kinds meet together—nowhere is room +for God’s empire of peace. Mohammed, too, is not +the right prophet. Under Charlemagne and Leo the +empire of God’s majesty on earth is founded, but this +is not the real empire of God for which Ahasuerus +looks. Besides, it does not prove to be everlasting. +Priesthood, to which all nations blindly submit, degenerates; +whilst in Germany, under the Saxon +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span>emperors strong conventional worldly power arises. +Then a new Messias seems to appear in Hildebrand, +this monk so possessed of worldly wisdom; but his +empire is only maintained by the strong reins of +obedience, not by love. The Crusades do not satisfy +Ahasuerus. New persons come before us, one forming +a contrast to the other. Jehuda Levita, who +praises the sublime inheritance of Adam against +the “original sin” of Christendom; then the pious +buffoon, Francis d’Assisi, contrasting with Tannhäuser, +whom Ahasuerus meets in Rome, and whose longing +for the fresh and natural world of his heathen land, +amid the helpless ossification of the Christian priesthood, +he can well understand; Dante, who tries at +least to harmonise the contrasts in poetry; Rienzi, a +political fool, who makes a step backwards into the old +Roman time; Huss, who, a second saviour, a martyr +of the old pure Christian doctrine, expires on the +pyre.</p> + +<p>Then Ahasuerus begins to doubt of the duration of +God’s empire. When he sees how Christ is always +vanquished, and has now been crucified so often, +a deep melancholy overcomes him; he longs for +death, he is disgusted with seeing the world any +longer. Then Faust appears to him, his congenial +brother; Faust, the realist, who enjoys the life and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span>liberty given to him, who, though a true friend of +Christendom, does not join the theological disputes, +but with a happy mind prefers the fresh hearts of the +people to the musty churches with their endless +supplications. With Faust’s appearance a change +of mind comes over Ahasuerus. Both have still a +third mythical brother, the Spaniard, Don Juan. +Ahasuerus, the first-born, is continually occupied with +the highest problems; he takes no notice of life, and +awaits the day when his faith will be one with that +of Jesus. In sharp contrast with this, the Spaniard +enjoys life and its pleasures, with all his natural +enthusiasm. Between these two, as a mediator, stands +Faust, susceptible of high and noble things as of the +pleasures of the world. He opens Ahasuerus’ heart +to the love of humanity; he teaches his dim eyes to +look around him in the world; he shows him all the +productions of industry and art. In his house he +shows him the wonders and first performances of +typography; he leads him to magnificent Florence, +residence of the Medicis; and, escaping the Spanish +Inquisition, they voyage with Columbus to America. +Ahasuerus, who until now thought the earth to be +miserable and small, wishes to remain on it.</p> + +<p>In the third part of the poem, Ahasuerus leaves +the New World and returns to the Old, to follow there +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span>the evolution of human thought. He goes to Rome, +and rejoices to see the flourishing state of sciences and +arts; he finds there the great master, Raphael, who +exalts Christianity into Humanity. There also he +meets Luther, who, beholding the corruptions of the +Church, conceives the idea of the Reformation.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert Hamerling</span> is the last German poet +who has paid his respects to our myth. The hero of +his poem, <cite>Ahasuerus in Rome</cite> (1867), however, is +Nero, and not Ahasuerus. The latter is only, as by +Klingemann and Horn, a kind of Nemesis in the +piece, a supernatural power intervening in human +actions. He presents a sharp contrast with Nero, +who resembles Faust in his immense love of life, +whilst Ahasuerus has come to Rome longing for +death. He intends to accomplish Nero’s fate, for in +spite of their different natures, their mission is the +same; both are fulfilling and advancing the evolution +of mankind. Especially in a place where the decayed +past struggles with new forms of life, history needs +such Titans of destruction as Nero, in order to hasten +the crisis of events and advance human progress. +Ahasuerus therefore makes Nero his unconscious +instrument; he pushes him on and on in his +monstrous attempts. The supposed god, who can +only operate by destruction, Ahasuerus treats as the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span>indestructible, and by this very faith prepares the way +of Nero’s humiliation. Ahasuerus animates Nero to +burn Rome, and swings the first torch; but he comes +himself unharmed out of the flames, spared by the +fire, to show Nero that there is still something on +earth which to destroy is beyond his power; something +like a phœnix rising out of ashes—the immortal +humanity. For a moment Nero thinks himself equal +to this new adversary. “I, too,” he cries, “am indestructible: +life in me is firmly anchored: nothing can +ever change me! I am I! I cope with you: our +combat will show if my intellectual indestructibility +balances not thy bodily indestructibility!”</p> + +<p>Ahasuerus accepts the combat with the certainty +that the hour of death has come for Nero. It arrives +in the curse of satiety and disgust which overcomes +Nero. He has enjoyed the pleasures of earth, and +Olympus; they have no more for him; only one +thing further remains for him—Hades. By force of +magic he summons the dead; his own victims start +up before him, and, smitten with horror, he falls. +Now, forsaken by his favourites and subjects, Nero +escapes at the hand of the only one remaining—a +devoted German—under the secret guidance of +Ahasuerus, into the catacombs. He there finds a +congregation of Christians, his mortal enemies. He +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span>offers his head to their revenge, and is told that they +do not know such a sensation, that their hearts obey +the law of love, a law which did not exist for him, +because he did not feel anything above him, whither +he could look with a longing eye. For the first time +Nero finds a God who, instead of being worshipped +and feared is beloved. He also understands that not +pleasure but pain saves the world, and cries: “I see +that the ever-creating womb of the human Mind is +not exhausted! The outworn world falls to dust: the +human heart ever brings it forth anew.” Thus Nero +pronounces the inner secret of the Ahasuerus-myth +(according to this poem). And although unable to +submit to the new doctrine, he consecrates himself +to the god of the infernal world, exchanging his +longing for life with the ardent longing for death, +according to Ahasuerus’ prophecy. Ahasuerus himself +appears in the hour of his adversary’s death among +the Christians, and the poet, in an original conception, +makes him assume towards the end of his poem a +gigantic shape.</p> + +<p>According to this, Ahasuerus, who once despised +Jesus, was already on earth since time immemorial. +For he is the first-born of the unborn, the first of the +created beings; he is the first child of man, the first +rebel, Cain, the murderer of his brother. Ahasuerus +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span>first brought Death into the world, who now at the +same time rewards and punishes him by sparing +him.</p> + +<p>It is greatly to be regretted that the great brain +which carried the legend of <i>Faust</i> to such noble fruit +did not fulfil its design of giving poetic expression to +that of the Wandering Jew. In his <cite lang="de">Dichtung und +Wahrheit</cite>, <span class="smcap">Goethe</span> has sketched the design of this +unwritten poem. A clever shoemaker with whom he +once lodged in Dresden was to be a model for +Ahasuerus. The shoemaker of Jerusalem was to be a +character; in his open workshop he talks with passers-by, +and, after the Socratic fashion, touches up everyone +in his own way. Even Pharisees and Sadducees +like to talk with him, and Jesus with his disciples often +stop there. The shoemaker is a firm secularist, but +he feels a special affection for Jesus, whom he tries to +persuade to give up his visions, and leave off drawing +people away from their work into the wilderness. +Jesus, on the other hand, tries to persuade his friend +to his way of thinking. When Jesus has become a +public character, Ahasuerus warns him that tumult +will follow, and that he (Jesus) will have to place +himself at the head of a party. Finally, when things +have gone their course, Judas rushes into the shoemaker’s +shop, in despair, declaring that in endeavouring +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span>to hasten his master’s triumph he had only +ruined him. Ahasuerus is in great excitement about +his friend, and when he sees him passing his door +reminds him of his warnings. Jesus does not answer, +but just then the loving Veronica covers his face with +a napkin, on which, as she raises it, Ahasuerus sees +depicted the features of Christ, not as a sufferer, but +transfigured and radiant. As he turns he hears the +words: ‘Over the earth shalt thou wander till thou +shalt once more see me in this form!’ When the +shoemaker comes to himself he finds that everyone +has gone to the execution. Through the empty +streets he moves, and begins his wanderings.</p> + +<p>The way in which Goethe would have dealt with +the theme is indicated by the fact he elsewhere +mentions, that he had meant to bring Ahasuerus to a +meeting with Spinoza. It will be seen, however, in +this chapter, that a number of the best pens which +have dealt with this subject have been spiritually +moved by Goethe.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI"> + <abbr title="16">XVI.</abbr> + <br> + THE NEW AHASUERUS IN FRANCE. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">In</span> the year 1833 Edgar Quinet published his “Mystery” +entitled <cite>Ahasuerus</cite>. It seems an amazing fact +that a work of this importance should never have been +translated into English. It was well appreciated in +France, and was the subject of the excellent review +(<cite lang="fr">Revue des Deux Mondes</cite>, <abbr title="December">Dec.</abbr>, 1833) which has already +been referred to in this work. It is an epic in prose. +Amid the stately Miltonic forms of Biblical and other +mythology, and through a mist of mysticism, may be +seen Edgar Quinet himself bent under the doom of +turning the faith of his childhood, the illusions of +all he loved, into mere conventionalised foliations of +a frame around the reality of a creature moving +about amid worlds for ever dead.</p> + +<p>His early faith having suffered what he fondly +hoped might prove to be transient eclipse, he started +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span>upon those restless journeyings through Europe and +the East, which were still less restless than his spiritual +wanderings; but at no point could he see any faintest +arc of a sun returning from its eclipse. The old light +had for ever gone down. As he wandered there arose +before him this other self, this doomed Ahasuerus. +Through ten years he was writing it; it was written, +he has told us, on foot, on horseback, in the gondola, +at sea; in cathedrals of Germany, basilicas of Rome, +in the convent of Bron, in the villas of Naples, and +the almshouses of Morea. “Its aim is to reproduce some +scenes of the universal tragedy played between God, +Man, and the World.” In the end Quinet married a +German lady, Rachel by name, who appears in his +dramatic epic also as the saviour of Ahasuerus.</p> + +<p>The work is divided into four “Days,” with three +interludes, a prologue, and an epilogue. The first day +is “The Creation;” the second, “The Passion,” discussed +by the devils as a rather poor comedy. +Ahasuerus appears in this second “Day.” He is +seated on his bench in an open door as Jesus passes +with his cross, followed by a crowd which praises +Barabbas and Pilate. Ahasuerus believes Jesus a +magician, and when he says, “Is it thou, Ahasuerus?” +the latter says, “I know thee not.” “I thirst; give +me a little water from thy spring.” “My well is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span>empty.” “Reach thy cup—thou wilt find it full.” +“It is broken.” “Help me to bear my cross along +this hard path?” “I am not thy cross-porter; call a +griffin from the desert.” “Let me sit on thy bench at +thy house door?” “My bench is full; there is no +room for another.” “On thy threshold?” “It is +empty, but the door is shut and bolted.” “Touch it, +and you can enter to get a stool.” “Go thy way!” “If +thou wilt, thy bench may become a golden seat in the +house of my Father.” “Go, blaspheme where thou +wilt! Thou hast already withered with thy footsteps +my vine and fig-tree; do not set foot on my stairway, +it will crumble under thy speech. Thou wouldst bewitch +me.” “I wish to save thee.” “Diviner, leave +my shadow! Thy road is before thee. March, +march!” “Why hast thou said that, Ahasuerus? It +is thou who shalt march, even till the Last Judgment, +more than a thousand years. Go take thy sandals +and travelling raiment; wherever thou passest thou +shalt be known as the Wandering Jew. It is thou +who shalt find no seat whereon to rest, no mountain-spring +to slake thy thirst. In my place thou shalt +bear the burthen which I leave on the cross. For thy +thirst thou shalt drink what I have left at the bottom +of my cup. Others shall take my coat, thou shalt +inherit my eternal pain. Hyssop shall germinate in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span>thy staff, wormwood increase in thy leather bottle; +despair shall cling as the leather girdle about thy +loins. Thou shalt be the man that dies not. Thy age +shall be mine. To see thee pass the eagles shall perch +on their barn. The little birds shall half hide themselves +under the crest of the rocks. The star shall +bend beneath the cloud to watch thy tears falling drop +by drop in the abyss. I go to Golgotha; thou shalt +journey on from ruins to ruins, from kingdoms to +kingdoms, without finding thy Calvary.”</p> + +<p>This is about half of the sentence pronounced upon +Ahasuerus. A hand had written on his house, “The +Wandering Jew.” Ahasuerus finds himself alone, and +calls for Jesus to return; he would speak only one +word more! After his sad soliloquy the angel +Michael appears, and bids him travel onward. +Ahasuerus enters his house once more and attempts +to rest and eat with his father and children, but he +cannot; he must go, despite their pleadings.</p> + +<p>After a long and pathetic farewell to his family and +his home, Ahasuerus passes out to the Valley of +Jehoshaphat. Here, he says, he would build his hut +upon the rock could he only find some water. The +Valley bids him journey on: “I have neither well +nor cistern; those who dwell in my vale never thirst.” +“Where are thy date-trees planted?” “I have none. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span>They who sojourn in my hill never hunger.” “Find +in thy brushwood some herb to heal this wound in my +heart, which is like a point of iron?” “My simples +heal all pains, but not that of the heart in which a +thorn rests.”</p> + +<p>After much converse the Valley bids him adieu. +“Talk no more where the dead sleep. I am silent.” +After that, whatever Ahasuerus says, Echo alone +replies. His requests are successively in the words +Jesus had addressed to him at his door, and Echo +repeats his own refusals.</p> + +<p>The third “Day” is called <span class="smcap">Death</span>. Death is +represented under the name of Mob. And now a +human spirit comes upon the scene—Rachel. As we +have seen the tender Jesus passing out of life to blend +with the remorseless elements, uttering the curses +which find their echo in the heartless hills, and the +winds whistling in the Valley of Death; so now, on +the other hand, we see a heart leaving the heavenly +realm that smiles above human agony to share the +earthly sorrow. In the presence of God and Christ, +and the heavenly host, one angel has forgotten the +wrongs of Christ so far as to shed a tear for Ahasuerus. +For that she is cast out of heaven, banished to the +earth, and made to dwell in the house of Mob (Death). +Rachel and Ahasuerus meet, neither knowing anything +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span>of the other for a long time; they are in love +with each other; and for a time the drama somewhat +resembles that of Margaret and Faust, Mob taking +the part of Mephistopheles. There is a very beautiful +scene in which the Angel of Death (Mob) leads +Ahasuerus and Rachel into the cathedral at Strasburg. +There the mighty shades, royal and papal, demand of +Ahasuerus his name. He will not utter it; but +Christ speaks from the stained window and declares +him to be the Wandering Jew. The dead curse +Ahasuerus, the cathedral curses him; but Rachel +pleads for him. While demons flash their flames +around, Rachel cries: “Be blessed, Ahasuerus! +Mercy for him, Lord; open Thy heaven! Are these +the angels that watch at the gate of Paradise? +Angels, angels, open for me the gate; there is also a +place for Ahasuerus, is there not? Oh, how flaming +are their swords! Oh, how heavy their bolts! Come, +come, Ahasuerus: the stars of Paradise are rising +beyond the threshold!”</p> + +<p>Another <i lang="fr">motif</i> from Goethe’s Faust rises in the +fourth “Day,” the Day of Judgment, where Rachel +and Ahasuerus (whom she calls Joseph) are seen in a +desert, beside a waste ocean in the distance, and a +ruin emblematic of the world now in ruins. Ahasuerus +has exhausted every experience, except that of being +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span>loved by Heaven. Rachel tells him that her Christ +is a divine sea of love, into which they may together +plunge and lose all memories and all longings. As +Faust’s contract with Mephistopheles holds the latter +to bring him to an hour when he shall desire nothing +beyond, an hour to which he shall say, “Stay, thou +art fair!” so Ahasuerus is moved only by the pledge +of his angel Rachel that no desire can arise beyond +the divine Love. There is no water near; so there +in the desert Ahasuerus kneels, and Rachel baptizes +him with her tears.</p> + +<p>As the world comes up before the seat of Judgment—cities, +ages, continents, islands—curses fall on +Ahasuerus. Rome, Babylon, Athens, the Highway, +repeat the sentences of his doom in Jerusalem; the +Mountain offers to be his Calvary; the Forest proffers +him a Cross, and the Rivers would give him gall. +But Christ speaks more kindly. Of all the universe +Ahasuerus and Rachel now only remain. Christ +offers now to give him his home in the East; but +Ahasuerus says he does not desire it. “I ask life, not +repose. Instead of the steps of my house of Calvary, +I wish to ascend without pause the stairway of the +Universe.” “Art thou not weary from thy first +journey?” “Thy hand, rising over me, has already +dried my sweat. With thy benediction, I depart +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span>this evening towards those future summits where +thou already dwellest.” “But who will follow thee?” +A voice of the Universe breaks in, “Not we! If +thou wilt, we will return on our steps; but we cannot +mount higher. Our wild steeds, our waves, our +tempests are weary.” Rachel says, “I! I will follow +him; my heart is not weary.” Whereon the Universe +cries, “A woman has lost me, a woman has saved +me!” “Yes,” declares Christ, “this voice has saved +thee, Ahasuerus. I bless thee, the pilgrim of coming +worlds, and the second Adam. Return me the burden +of the Earth’s pains.... Journey thou from life to +life, world to world, from one divine city to another; +and when, after eternity, thou shalt have arrived at +circle on circle of the infinite summit whither all +things move, whither tend the souls and the years, the +peoples and the stars, thou shalt cry to star, to people +and universe, if they would pause, <i>Climb on, climb +for ever: it is here!</i>”</p> + +<p>The epic closes with an impressive Epilogue. Christ +is alone in the vault of the firmament. “Since the +hour when Ahasuerus returned my Cup, the wound has +come again to my side; my tears fall into the abyss.... +The heavens are empty; in the firmament I am alone. +One after another the angels have all folded their wings, +like the eagle when it is old. My mother Mary is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span>dead: my father Jehovah has said from his couch, +‘Christ, my age is on me. I have lived enough of the +ages; the worlds burthen me to lift.... I am cold.... +I am weary.... I thirst. My age is too great; +I see no more the light of thy aureole. Go! thy father +is dead.’... The firmament has cast its god from +its branch, as the fig-tree its leaves.... Farewell, +worlds, stars, dews of the morning and evening, which +have saluted me by name when I was a child.... Is +it true? in the night, in the day, afar, near, is there no +one?’ Echo answers, ‘None.’ ‘Life, truth, falsehood, +love, hate, gall and vinegar mingled in my pyx—yes, the +universe was I. I am a shadow; a shadow that for +ever passes; I am the tear that ever trickles, the sigh +ever renewed, the death that ever agonises; I am the +Nothing that ever doubts of its doubt, the Negation +that ever re-denies itself.’” Eternity alone hears the +sorrow of Christ, but it cannot aid him to weep, its +eyes are dry; it cannot promise love to the orphan-worlds +he is leaving, for in its breast is neither love +nor hate. ‘All is finished!’ cries the universe-wanderer, +who has no Rachel’s tear to baptize him. +‘Lay me in the tomb of my Father. Be it so!’ +Eternity speaks: ‘For the Father and the Son I +have digged a grave in a frozen star which rolls +companionless, without light. The Night, beholding +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span>that pale star, shall say, ‘This is the tomb of some +god.’”</p> + +<p>Then Eternity crumbles the worlds, the sphinx, and +even the void, ending with a triumphant <i lang="fr">Moi</i>.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry" lang="fr"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><strong>Icy Finit le mystère d’Ahasuérus.</strong></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><strong>Priez pour celui qui l’écribit.</strong></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The romance of <cite>The Wandering Jew</cite>, by Eugene +Sue (1844), from which the majority of people have +derived what impressions they may have of the legend, +is so “sensational” that its value as an illustration of +the myth is concealed. Whether intentionally or not, +this novel, so far as the Jew appears in it, reproduces +very nearly the spirit of an Arabian legend which +belongs to the class discussed in this work. The story +of Al Khedr will be found in the <cite class="nonitalic">Koran</cite> (<abbr title="18">xviii.</abbr>). It +is said that Moses, having boasted of his knowledge, +was told by God of one wiser than himself; and +having found out this man (Al Khedr), he (Moses) +journeyed with him. But the aged man had exacted +from Moses a promise that he would not ask any +question, whatever he might see. Al Khedr commits +various crimes, and Moses cannot contain his indignation. +Al Khedr then reveals to him that each apparent +wrong he had done was a retribution, or a blessing in +disguise, telling him the story of each person who had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span>apparently suffered injustice. The Arabs have identified +Al Khedr with both Elias and <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> George (who +they say, recovered life after being thrice slain). The +wisdom of Al Khedr therefore lies in his continuity of +existence. He represents the primitive conception +of a particular providence, seeing the end of events +from the beginning. They who have perused the +history of a single family whose records have been +preserved for several generations, may sometimes feel, +with Browning’s Luria,</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent12">“The only fault’s with time:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All men become good creatures—but so slow!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>It takes the life of a family to round out and complete +the events and incidents which its individual +members often find so out of joint, and which have +baffled the efforts of this or that generation to set +them right. And since the general pressure of the +aggregate members of the family, in all its generations, +is toward the better conditions, the tendency is +such as to suggest a providential guidance by the +Sleepless and Eternal. This is reflected in Al Khedr; +and the Eternal Jew of Eugene Sue is related to him. +In the drama built of this novel, which I saw well performed +recently as “All for Gold” in the Surrey +Theatre, the tableaus of the Wanderer were quite impressive. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span>He appears on a peak of Arctic snow, with +the Northern Light behind him; his doom, as that of +his race, was recalled in a certain reddish hue of beard +and raiment, and he speaks of the children—who, seeming +so helpless, are struggling successfully as unconsciously +for their bequest with the hidden powers of +Jesuitism—as representatives of a family which represents +the history of humanity.</p> + +<p>Wherever Ahasuerus moves he leaves the sign of +the cross on his track—the last departing glimpse of +the mark of Cain. Herodias, his fellow-sufferer, +comes up to the Arctic region on the American side—a +notable incident when it is remembered (see <a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><abbr title="9">IX.</abbr></a>), +that her myth is mainly Spanish and survives +chiefly in Spanish America. Eugene Sue brings both +of the Wanderers to rest. Herodias enters the Abbey +of “<abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> John the Beheaded;” exhausted she sinks +before his image. Weary, footsore, as she had never +felt before, even when passing over fiery lava, sandy +desert, or Arctic icefields, athirst, and in pain, she +looks into a fountain and observes the traces of age +in her features. Her youth, which had seemed endless, +has passed. Her expiation ends at the feet of +the image of him her guilt had destroyed. She implores +the forgiveness of God for Ahasuerus also. +The Wandering Jew, meanwhile, has climbed Calvary +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span>and sits down at the feet of an image of Jesus there. +Suddenly he perceives that the face looks upon him +as if it were alive, with gentleness and compassion. +Ahasuerus prays and is pardoned. Ahasuerus and +Herodias are finally seen together, under a shelter, +at peace, awaiting longed-for and approaching +death.</p> + +<p>In Ahasuerus, Sue represents the Workingman, an +outcast from heaven under sentence of drudgery, +finding at last release from oppression. Herodias is +Woman, delivered at last from her political slavery.</p> + +<p>So, in their widely differing spheres, have Quinet +and Eugene Sue given a nineteenth-century refrain to +the seventeenth century song:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry" lang="fr"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Mais toujours le soleil se lève,</div> + <div class="verse indent7">Toujours, toujours.</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Tourne la terre où moi je cours,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Toujours, toujours, toujours, toujours!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><abbr title="Monsieur" lang="fr">M.</abbr> Pierre Dupont has written a poetical version +of our legend to accompany G. Doré’s designs (published +by Michel Lévy in 1856). But, as Champfleury +says, the imaginatively created Jew of <abbr title="Monsieur" lang="fr">M.</abbr> Doré, and +the modernised narrative of <abbr title="Monsieur" lang="fr">M.</abbr> Dupont, are very +uninteresting compared with the rude pictures of the +folk-books, and the quaint simplicity of the folk +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span>ballads. The figure of the Wandering Jew which +Kaulbach introduced into his picture of the siege of +Jerusalem might, as a painting, be regarded as somewhat +related to the New Ahasuerus of the poets, but +it is a subject that still invites artistic treatment. +And how suggestive of artistic effects the legend is +may be judged by the next and last French work to +be considered here: <cite lang="fr">La Mort du Juif-Errant. Par +Edouard Grenier.</cite></p> + +<p>This poem was first published, separately, in 1857, +but afterwards included in its author’s <cite lang="fr">Petits Poëmes</cite>, +of which the fourth edition is before me. It is a +beautiful and pathetic poem, and treats the story +subjectively. The poet describes himself as having +escaped from the haunts of men, and built a little +hermitage far away in the mountain solitudes. One +evening, when he had been watching the fading +splendours of sunset, the signs of a storm appeared. +The labourers had hastened homeward, the herds +sought their shelter, the birds their nests. He then +beheld a solitary wayfarer moving on, and asked him +to enter, informing him that, in the direction he was +going, he could reach no house until morning, and +pointing to the increasing menaces of the storm. +The traveller turned upon him a burning eye and said, +“Thou knowest not the wayfarer whose steps thou +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</span>wouldst stay. Why, detained by thy request, should +I enter with thee thy hospitable door, if my name, +when pronounced, must freeze thy welcome, and +force me to repass thy threshold?” “Whatever thy +name or lot, yet must this roof shelter thee this +night.” The Wanderer accepts. The poet draws a +striking picture of his guest’s strange and noble +appearance. The traveller is shown a fountain where +he may bathe; a repast is then spread before him. +Afterwards the poet inquires the name and country of +his guest, who turns pale, and with a sigh answers, +“I am called Ahasuerus; I am the Wandering Jew.” +Seeing the poet’s shudder, the Wanderer rises, thanks +him for his hospitality, and says, “The cursed one +blesses thee,” then starts up to resume his journey. +But the poet holds him. “It is not I who am charged +with thy punishment.” He forbids Ahasuerus to go +out into the storm. The Wanderer says, “The beasts +of the field and the birds of the air have their retreats +from the rain and lightning, but the Proscribed One +hath not where to lay his head.” He heeds not the +storm, but the voice which above it cries, “Still +march! For thee alone neither repose nor death. +March for ever! The justice of God has not had its +full course.” But when the poet has detained him, +and as they sit together, this harsh voice for the first +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</span>time is not heard. He asks if the divine justice can +have become weary? The poet bids him hope. The +lamp is lit, and the poet entreats Ahasuerus to +instruct his youth. He who has explored so many +regions, seen so many peoples, traversed the earth—what +a sublime destiny!—can tell much to him who, +bound to one little spot, can only dream of such far +realms, which he has longed to see. Ahasuerus tells +him the earth is so small, his desire would soon be +calmed, could he explore it. Each corner of nature +offers the universe as in miniature. With the blue +heaven above, and a soul within, he may unite the +image of the real with the infinite dream. Earth, air, +heaven, man, are everywhere the same. But, the poet +says, life is so short; man does but begin to peruse +the universe when death closes his eyes; while for +him—the Wanderer—length of days have opened the +treasures of knowledge; man, time, lands and ages, +have no secrets for him. Ahasuerus bids the poet +undeceive himself: each man receives in his mind +what his forerunners have traced. “Step by step, +day by day, century by century, along with humanity, +I have wearily climbed the painful ladder on whose +last rung God has placed thee.” They have journeyed +the same road, but he—the Wanderer—as a pioneer, +has had to travel for ages on foot, over stones, the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</span>course which the man of the present passes in his +chariot in a day.</p> + +<p>In the third canto the Wanderer gives the poet an +account of his wanderings. At first he had not believed +in his doom; then, when he began to contemplate +the possibility of it, he entered into all manner +of dissipation to forget himself. Finally, in the +mournful Valley of Jehoshaphat, he turned upon the +pursuing phantom and faced it. “Is it then such a +terrible thing to live for ever? What have I lost? +Death. What everybody is trying to do! Are not +all aiming to live eternally as God in heaven?” He is +elated at his prospect; he will have glory, gold, bend +nations under his sceptre. Perhaps he will be the +Messiah himself!</p> + +<p>But the Wanderer’s wife, passionately loved, slowly +parts from his heart, withers of age, and dies in his +young arms. The torture of that gradual decay of +the one he loved is portrayed. His sons, as they +grow in years, dread him, hate him, try to poison him; +and then leave him in horror or remorse for other +lands. Of his family one alone remains, a beloved +son. But this last child’s heart even grows cold to +him. Its life sinks; its colour departs; its face becomes +thin, corpse-like. O horror! he sees before +him, in the dying child, the very face of Jesus, whom +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</span>he had insulted! The child dies on the day and hour +of the anniversary of Christ’s death.</p> + +<p>After many wanderings Ahasuerus finds himself in +the Colosseum at Rome, there seated in the moonlight. +He had seen that great edifice built by Jews, +stone by stone, while their own beloved Jerusalem fell +to dust. As in the great Roman ruin he is meditating +upon the vicissitudes he has witnessed, the +<i lang="la">Angelus</i> sounds forth; the stars, the dew, all nature +started in chorus, and said, “Repent!” He looks +upon the crucifix amid that circle—triumphantly +raised there, where he had seen Christians torn by +lions. As he was looking upon that figure a well-remembered +voice came to him from it, “Why fly +from me? Thy sole refuge is in my love.” Then he +there knelt, crying, “O Christ! thou hast conquered +me!” Then his first relief came in tears, and an ineffable +peace descended in his heart. From that time +he did not suffer as one disinherited; he even felt a +delicious pain in his expiation; he lived, suffered and +loved along with humanity. He now comprehended +the enormity of his crime, which God had pursued so +relentlessly: it was not his insult to Divinity, but his +<span lang="fr">lese-humanity</span>. He now felt that he might hope that +his expiation would be complete, and in the last day +he would find repose in the love of Christ.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</span></p> + +<p>In the fifth and last Canto the poet entreats the +Wanderer to give him a description of Jesus personally, +of whom he has so long dreamed—his look, +manner, voice. When he has ended this appeal there +is a knock at his door, and a stranger enters. Ahasuerus +at once recognises him, and kneels, clasping his +feet and bathing them with his tears. Jesus says to +him, “Friend! weep no more! Since thy touched +heart comprehends its sin and washes it away in +tears; since the man outraged by thee as much as +the God is now thy brother; since thy heart loves, I +bring pardon, the reward of repentance. Be happy! +Now, thou canst at last die.”</p> + +<p>In the morning a shepherd coming to the poet’s +hermitage found two forms lying prostrate, both apparently +dead. The poet was slowly brought to life, +but Ahasuerus was dead. On his face was a smile of +celestial sweetness and calm felicity. On a bier made +of larches the poet and the shepherd bore the dead +body of the Wanderer to its place of rest. They +bore it to the summit of the highest mountain. Beyond +the trees they passed, beyond the bushes, and +where the grass became scant. Into a cloud they +entered, upward and onward bore him, till they came +to the blue foot of a glacier. On a little couch of +moss they laid the body while they dug a grave; as +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</span>they covered the Wanderer’s form their last vision +was of the smile still shining, or even happier, upon +his face.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry" lang="fr"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Ce vieux corps, fatigué par vingt siècles d’effort,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Goûtait encore mieux le bienfait de la mort.</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Et c’est là qu’il repose, inconnu, solitaire,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Perdu dans la nuée au-dessus de la terre!</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Nul monument funèbre attirant le regard,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Ne révèle sa tombe au pas du montagnard.</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Le glacier qui défend cette gorge isolée</div> + <div class="verse indent1">En est le seul gardien et le seul mausolée.</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Nulle épouse, nul fils n’y sanglote sur lui,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Et la seul rosée y vient pleurer la nuit.</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Nul mortel ne connaît sa demeure dernière,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Personne, excepté moi, n’y versa de prière,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Et seul l’aigle se pose à la cime où ses os</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Savourent dans mort un éternel repos.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>It is interesting to contrast this peaceful end of +Grenier’s Ahasuerus with the invincible Wanderer of +Shelley. Nevertheless, the Ahasuerus of this poem +yields only to a tender appeal from Christ—himself +the bound victim of an eternal curse. Another poem +may yet be written which shall show Jesus not to +have pronounced the doom upon the poor shoemaker, +but to have known so much of Jahve’s vindictive disposition +as to foretell it, and ultimately coming to an +understanding with Ahasuerus as the fellow-victim of +an eternal curse. They might be shown buried together +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</span>by the compassionate poet and shepherd where +the foiled eagle of Jove, surviving from its feast on +Prometheus, could not reach them, and the glacier-heart +of deified power could freeze and crush them no +more. This, for one of the two, would be a happier +fate than survival in the satirical song still sung in +France—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry" lang="fr"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Jésus la bonté même</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Lui dit en soupirant,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Tu marcheras toi-même</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Au moins pour trois milles ans,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Tu finiras tes peines</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Au dernier jugement.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII"> + <abbr title="17">XVII.</abbr> + <br> + THE NEW AHASUERUS IN ENGLAND. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">The</span> old Ahasuerus had his day in England. While +he was personally wandering about the world, however, +in the guise of the pious pretender, pouring his +cant into every long ear he could find, clever English +writers began to utilise him. The earliest work (1640), +<cite>The Wandering Jew telling Fortunes to Englishmen</cite>, +was a fair satire upon some features of London in +that time. The name of the Jew is Gad Ben-Arod +Ben-Balaam Ben-Alimoth Ben-Baal Ben-Gog Ben-Magog. +The next work that followed (1797) was an +amusing drama. It is entitled <cite>The Wandering Jew, +or Love’s Masquerade</cite>, by Andrew Franklin. A surly +old guardian, disgusted with the young <span lang="fr">beaux</span> seeking +his ward’s hand, has vowed that he will give her to +the most aged man to be found in England. The +lover most favoured by the young lady conspires with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</span>her to have an announcement of the presence of the +Wandering Jew in London, and then presents himself +in that disguise as <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Mathusalem. He is attended +by his equally aged servant, Juba, in whose anachronisms +the fun mainly consists. Juba, despite all +efforts on <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Mathusalem’s part to make him more +reticent, is voluminous in his reminiscences; among +other things, he tells about Romulus and Remus, and +relates that, when he was at the baptism of the twins, +their mother threw a basin of tea at him for saying +that Remus was the prettier of the two.</p> + +<p>In 1799 appeared the novel <cite><abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Leon</cite>, by William +Godwin. It is not a very interesting work now, whatever +it may have been at the time. The plot of it is, +that a gentleman, who, through gambling, has sunk +into poverty and plunged his family in distress, +obtains from an uncanny old man the secret of recovering +youth and obtaining money whenever he +needs it. But he has vowed secrecy. He returns to +his family, but is not recognised. He is cut off from +the old sympathies. The novel speedily carries +interest away from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Leon to other persons, and +ends without any account of his end, nor does it even +carry <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Leon beyond the lives of his children. The +romance might have been suggested by any traditional +type of longevity, such as the Hindu Dnyaneshvar, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</span>found in his tomb reading his Commentaries 300 +years after apparent death; or Artesius, the Arabian +alchemist, said to have, by his art, prolonged his life +1025 years, or Alkazwini, who also lived præternaturally +long. The preface, however, contains an +interesting citation, which gives its actual origin:—“The +following passage from a work, said to be +written by the late <abbr>Dr.</abbr> John Campbel, and entitled +<cite lang="la">Hermippus Redivivus</cite>, suggested the first hint of the +present performance: ‘There happened in the year +1687 an odd accident at Venice, that made a very +great stir then, and which I think deserves to be +rescued from oblivion. The great freedom and ease +with which all persons who make a good appearance +live in that city is known sufficiently to all who are +acquainted with it; such will not, therefore, be surprised +that a stranger, who went by the name of +Signor Gualdi, and who made a considerable figure +there, was admitted into the best company, though +nobody knew who or what he was. He remained at +Venice for some months, and three things were remarked +in his conduct. The first was, that he had a +small collection of fine pictures, which he readily +showed to anybody that desired it; the next, that he +was perfectly versed in all arts and sciences, and spoke +on every subject with such readiness and sagacity as +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</span>astonished all who heard him; and it was, in the third +place, observed that he never wrote or received any +letter, never desired any credit, or made use of bills of +exchange; but paid for everything in ready money, +and lived decently, though not in splendour.</p> + +<p>“‘This gentleman met one day at the coffee-house +with a Venetian nobleman, who was an extraordinary +good judge of pictures; he had heard of Signor +Gualdi’s collection, and in a very polite manner desired +to see them, to which the other very readily +consented. After the Venetian had viewed Signor +Gualdi’s collection, and expressed his satisfaction by +telling him he had never seen a finer, considering the +number of pieces of which it consisted—he cast his +eye by chance over the chamber-door, where hung a +picture of this stranger. The Venetian looked upon +it, and then upon him. “This picture was drawn for +you, sir,” says he to Signor Gualdi, to which the other +made no answer but by a low bow. “You look,” continued +the Venetian, “like a man of fifty, and yet I +know this picture to be of the hand of Titian, who has +been dead one hundred and thirty years. How is this +possible?” “It is not easy,” said Signor Gualdi +gravely, “to know all things that are possible; but +there is certainly no crime in my being like a picture +drawn by Titian.” The Venetian easily perceived, by +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</span>his manner of speaking, that he had given the stranger +offence, and therefore took his leave. He could not +forbear speaking of this in the evening to some of his +friends, who resolved to satisfy themselves by looking +upon the picture the next day. In order to have an +opportunity of doing so, they went to the coffee-house +about the time that Signor Gualdi was wont to come +thither; and not meeting him, one of them, who had +often conversed with him, went to his lodgings to inquire +after him, when he heard that he had set out +an hour before for Vienna. This affair made a great +noise, and found a place in all the newspapers of that +time.’”</p> + +<p>It is probable that not only <cite><abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Leon</cite>, but the +<cite lang="it">Bassevilliana</cite> of Vincenzo Monti had influence in +exciting the English imagination with legends of this +character. A translation of this Italian poem, by the +<abbr title="Reverend">Rev.</abbr> Henry Boyd, was published in London in 1805. +It is the story of a “Soul’s Doom,” founded on the +murder of the French minister, Basseville, in Rome, +near the end of the last century. The soul of Basseville +is condemned to wander over the French provinces, +and behold the desolations caused by the +revolution and its retributions. The Spirit of the +Abyss is forbidden to clutch Basseville. An angel +says to the soul:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</span></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Fear not; thou art not doomed to sip the wave</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Of black Avernus, which who tastes, resigned</div> + <div class="verse indent1">All hope of change, becomes the demon’s slave;</div> + <div class="verse indent3">But Heaven’s high justice, nor in mercy blind,</div> + <div class="verse indent1" id="TN6">Nor in security scrupulous to gauge</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Each blot, each wrinkle, of the human mind,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Has written on the adamantine page,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">That thou no joys of paradise mayst know,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Till punished be of France the guilty rage.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Both <cite><abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Leon</cite> and “The Soul’s Doom” might have +been read by those comrades in distress, Shelley and +Medwin, for whom seventy years ago Oxford Christianity, +and homes inspired by it, had nothing better +than wanderings about London under a curse. They +took up the subject, Medwin says, when Shelley +was fifteen. Of the poem, as it now stands, in the +edition of Chatto and Windus, Shelley wrote but a +few lines; but I think that amidst its rhapsodical +rubbish a scholarly expression or illustration may +here and there be found traceable to Shelley. There +is evidence of Shelley’s divining-rod in the allusions +to some of the more significant legends concerning +Ahasuerus which had attracted the attention of +several German poets. There is in the opening some +resemblance to the scene in Southey’s <cite>Curse of +Kehama</cite>. Where, in the latter, the young Hindu +woman is brought forward to perish on the funeral-pyre, +in Shelley’s poem a sinning novice is dragged to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</span>the “fatal shrine,” from which she is rescued by the +mysterious traveller. This horseman, hastening to +Padua,</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Wraps his mantle around his brow,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As if to hide his woes.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In his tale, he says:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“A burning cross illumed my brow,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">I hid it with a fillet grey.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>This Cross enables him to command fiends. To +Paulo, who has rescued her, Rosa the novice has +given herself. Victorio, her lover, summons a witch-demon, +and to her consigns his soul to obtain a philtre +which will secure Rosa’s love. But when he has +administered it she dies.</p> + +<p>Is the resemblance mentioned between this +<i>Wandering Jew</i> and the <cite>Curse of Kehama</cite> accidental? +The Medwin-Shelley poem was unable to reach the +light for which it struggled in 1810. It was published +in <cite>Frazer’s Magazine</cite> in 1831. But soon after +it was written, Shelley shows great eagerness to get +Southey’s poem, which had been announced, and +twice writes to the bookseller, Stockdale, for it in +December, 1810. In 1812, while at Keswick with his +young wife, Shelley made the acquaintance of Southey, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</span>if not before. In the poem of Southey, the young +Indian casts down the idol before which the woman +is about to be burned, which corresponds to the blow +given to Christ by Ahasuerus. The curse is artificially +modified, and may have been suggested by the +sentence on Cain, “Behold now art thou cursed from +the earth.” The doom on the iconoclast is that on +him shall fall neither the rain nor the sunshine, nor +any of the influences of nature.</p> + +<p>There would seem to be little doubt that <cite><abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Leon</cite> +inspired Shelley’s <cite><abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Irvyne, the Rosicrucian</cite>, or rather +Ginotti, with his elixir of life, whose only “survival” +is in Bulwer’s <cite>Zanoni</cite>. The “gigantic Ginotti” dies +through the wicked Wolfstein; but Shelley was +particular in pointing out that “he did not die by +Wolfstein’s hand, but by the influence of that natural +magic which, when the secret was imparted to the +latter, destroyed him.” The longevity is here not a +doom. But once, as Shelley was walking through +Lincoln’s Inn Fields, he picked up a “dirty and torn” +work, which contained Schubart’s “Rhapsody” of +Ahasuerus, elsewhere mentioned. Hogg was quite +mistaken in affirming that Shelley’s account was an +invention. Full information on this point may be +found in Rossetti’s <cite class="nonitalic">Shelley</cite> (<abbr title="volume">vol.</abbr> <abbr title="1">i.</abbr> <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 434). The German +poem had appeared in a magazine called the <cite>German +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</span>Museum</cite>, in 1802. The Wandering Jew thus became +a type in Shelley’s mind, and repeatedly appears in +his works. In Alastor he uses the Wanderer as an +illustration.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent26">“Oh that God,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Profuse of poisons, would concede the chalice</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which but one living man has drained, who now,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Vessel of deathless wrath, a slave that feels</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No proud exemption in the blighting curse</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He bears, over the world wanders for ever,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lone as incarnate death!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>It is, however, in <cite>Queen Mab</cite> that we find the real +form which arose before Shelley out of Schubart’s +small casket, fished up from the muddy ocean of +London. Schubart’s Ahasuerus whines and is pardoned. +Shelley’s Ahasuerus is a Titan, who prefers +the sharp vulture-beak and the chain to any surrender +to the Christian Jove. Believing as I do that Cain +was originally a Semitic Prometheus,—as first of those +who began removal of Jahve’s curse on the earth by +agriculture and working in metals,—I find it remarkable +that Shelley, outcast from college and home in +early youth because of his atheism, should recognise +this feature in the distant successor of Cain.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent8">“A strange and woe-worn wight,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Arose beside the battlements,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">And stood unmoving there:</div> + <div class="verse indent6">His inessential figure cast no shade</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</span> <div class="verse indent8">Upon the golden floor;</div> + <div class="verse indent6">His port and mien bore mark of many years,</div> + <div class="verse indent8">And chronicles of untold ancientness</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Were legible within his beamless eye:</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Yet his cheek bore the mark of youth;</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Freshness and vigour knit his manly frame;</div> + <div class="verse indent6">The wisdom of old age was mingled there</div> + <div class="verse indent8">With youth’s primeval dauntlessness;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">And inexpressible woe,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Chastenéd by fearless resignation, gave</div> + <div class="verse indent6">An awful grace to his all-speaking brow.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>Spirit.</i>—Is there a God?</div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>Ahasuerus.</i>—Is there a God!—ay, an Almighty God,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And vengeful as almighty! Once his voice</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was heard on earth: earth shudder’d at the sound;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The fiery-visaged firmament expressed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Abhorrence, and the grave of nature yawn’d,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To swallow all the dauntless and the good,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That dared to hurl defiance at his throne,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Girt as it was with power. None but slaves</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Survived—cold-blooded slaves, who did the work</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of tyrannous Omnipotence; whose souls</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No honest indignation ever urged</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To elevated daring, to one deed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which gross and sensual self did not pollute.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">These slaves built temples for the omnipotent fiend,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Gorgeous and vast: the costly altars smoked</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With human blood, and hideous pæans rang,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Through all the long-drawn aisles.</div> + <div class="verse indent0"><span class="star">*</span><span class="star">*</span><span class="star">*</span><span class="star">*</span><span class="star">*</span></div> + <div class="verse indent0">“O Spirit! centuries have set their seal,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On this heart of many wounds, and loaded brain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Since the Incarnate came: humbly he came,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Veiling his horrible godhead</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the shape of man; scorn’d by the world, his name unheard,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Save by the rabble of his native town,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Even as a parish demagogue. He led</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The crowd; he taught them justice, truth, and peace,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In semblance; but he lit within their souls</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The quenchless flame of zeal, and blest the sword</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He brought on earth, to satiate with the blood</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of truth and freedom his malignant soul</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At length his mortal frame was led to death.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I stood beside him: on the torturing cross</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No pain assailed his unterrestrial sense;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And yet he groaned. Indignantly I summ’d</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The massacres and miseries which his name</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had sanction’d in my country, and I cried,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Go! go!’ in mockery.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A smile of godlike malice reillumined</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His fading lineaments,—‘I go,’ he cried,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘But thou shalt wander o’er the unquiet earth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Eternally.’—The dampness of the grave,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bathed my imperishable front. I fell,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And long lay tranced upon the charméd soil.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When I awoke hell burned within my brain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which stagger’d on its seat; for all around</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The mouldering relics of my kindred lay,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Even as the Almighty’s ire arrested them,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And in their various attitudes of death,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My murder’d children’s mute and eyeless skulls,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Glared ghastlily upon me.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent26">But my soul,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From sight and sense of the polluting woe</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of tyranny, had long learn’d to prefer</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hell’s freedom to the servitude of heaven.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Therefore I rose, and dauntlessly began</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My lonely and unending pilgrimage,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Resolved to wage unweariable war</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With my almighty tyrant, and to hurl</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Defiance at his impotence to harm,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Beyond the curse I bore. The very hand</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That barr’d my passage to the peaceful grave</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Has crush’d the earth to misery, and given</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Its empire to the chosen of his slaves.</div> + <div class="verse indent0"><span class="star">*</span><span class="star">*</span><span class="star">*</span><span class="star">*</span><span class="star">*</span></div> + <div class="verse indent0">“Thus have I stood—through a wild waste of years</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Struggling with whirlwinds of mad agony,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet peaceful, and serene, and self-enshrined,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mocking my powerless tyrant’s horrible curse</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With stubborn and unalterable will;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Even as the giant oak, which heaven’s fierce flame</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had scathed in the wilderness, to stand</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A monument of fadeless ruin there;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet peacefully and movelessly it braves</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The midnight conflict of the wintry storm,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As in the sunlight’s calm it spreads</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Its worn and wither’d arms on high,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To meet the quiet of a summer’s morn.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent14">The Fairy waved her hand:</div> + <div class="verse indent14">Ahasuerus fled</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fast as the shapes of mingled shade and mist,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That lurk in the glens of a twilight grove,</div> + <div class="verse indent14">Flee from the morning beam:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The matter of which dreams are made</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Not more endowed with actual life</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than this phantasmal portraiture</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of wandering human thought.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>This Ahasuerus is not only the fellow Titan of Prometheus, +but he is the New Ahasuerus-Prometheus +who had his fire to bring and his doom to suffer in +England. The events of Shelley’s life between 1812, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</span>when he probably wrote this part of <cite>Queen Mab</cite>, and +the latter part of 1814, added new curses to the +eternal wanderings of the Jew. These appear in that +sufficiently wild fragment entitled <i>The Assassins</i>, +written in Switzerland, 1814, from which the subjoined +passage is selected:</p> + +<p>“A young man named Albedir, wandering in the +woods, was startled by the screaming of a bird of prey, +and, looking up, saw blood fall, drop by drop, from +among the intertwined boughs of a cedar. Having +climbed the tree, he beheld a terrible and dismaying +spectacle. A naked human body was impaled on the +broken branch. It was maimed and mangled horribly—every +limb bent and bruised into frightful distortion, +and exhibiting a breathing image of the most sickening +mockery of life. A monstrous snake had scented +its prey from among the mountains—and above +hovered a hungry vulture. From amidst the mass of +desolated humanity two eyes, black and excessively +brilliant, shone with an unearthly lustre. Beneath the +blood-stained eyebrows their steady rays manifested +the serenity of an immortal power, the collected +energy of a deathless mind, spell-secured from dissolution. +A bitter smile of mingled abhorrence +and scorn distorted his wounded lip—he appeared +calmly to observe and measure all around—self-possession +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</span>had not deserted the shattered mass of +life.</p> + +<p>“The youth approached the bough on which the +breathing corpse was hung. As he approached, the +serpent reluctantly unwreathed his glittering coils, +and crept towards his dark and loathsome cave. The +vulture, impatient of his meal, fled to the mountain, +that re-echoed with his hoarse screams. The cedar-branches +creaked with their agitating weight, faintly, +as the dismal wind arose. All else was deadly +silent.</p> + +<p>“At length a voice issued from the mangled man. +It rattled in hoarse murmurs from his throat and lungs—his +words were the conclusion of some strange, +mysterious soliloquy. They were broken and without +apparent connection, completing wide intervals of +inexpressible conceptions.</p> + +<p>“‘The great tyrant is baffled, even in success. Joy, +joy to his tortured foe! Triumph to the worm which +he tramples under his feet! Ha! his suicidal hand +might dare as well abolish the mighty frame of things! +Delight and exultation sit before the closed gates of +death! I fear not to dwell beneath their black and +ghastly shadow. Here thy power may not avail! +Thou createst—’tis mine to ruin and destroy. I was +thy slave—I am thy equal, and thy foe. Thousands +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</span>tremble before thy throne, who, at my voice, shall dare +to pluck the golden crown from thy unholy head.’ +He ceased. The silence of noon swallowed up his +words. Albedir clung tighter to the tree—he dared +not for dismay remove his eyes. He remained mute +in the perturbation of mute and creeping horror.</p> + +<p>“‘Albedir,’ said the same voice—‘Albedir, in the +name of God, approach! He that suffered me to fall +watches thee. The gentle and merciful spirits of sweet +human love delight not in agony and horror. For +pity’s sake, approach! In the name of thy good God, +approach, Albedir!’ The tones were mild and clear +as the responses of Æolian music. They floated to +Albedir’s ear like the warm breath of June that lingers +in the lawny groves, subduing all to softness. Tears +of tender affection started into his eyes.”</p> + +<p>The “Assassins” are something like Schiller’s +“Robbers,” outlaws better than the laws that have +branded them. In <cite>Hellas</cite>, Ahasuerus, though still +appropriately responding to a summons from the +Moslem Antichrist, is an impersonation of human +thought as raised by long experience to a prophetic +power. The idea is substantially the same as that +which we have seen underlying the myths of Enoch +and Teiresias, while it goes beyond them in its suggestion +that knowledge, living over the ages past, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</span>imagination attaining to the farthest outcome of present +tendencies, can make for the being of a day an +eternal existence. Ahasuerus says to Mahmud:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent16">“All is contained in each.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dodona’s forest to an acorn’s cup</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is that which has been, or will be, to that</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which is—the absent to the present. Thought</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Alone, and its quick elements, Will, Passion,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Reason, Imagination, cannot die;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They are, what that which they regard appears,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The stuff whence mutability can weave</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All that it hath dominion o’er, worlds, worms,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Empires, and superstitions.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>With true Shelleyan felicity Hassan describes this +Jew—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent17">“From his eye looks forth</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A life of unconsumed thought which pierces</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The present, and the past, and the to come ...</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Some feign that he is Enoch.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In the year 1820 appeared the novel in four +volumes, <cite>Melmoth, the Wanderer</cite>, by the <abbr title="Reverend">Rev.</abbr> Robert +Charles Maturin, author also of <cite>Bertram</cite>, a respectable +play, and several novels. Melmoth is a man +who has sold himself to Satan for the advantage of +a vast length of life, to which is added a power of +passing instantaneously, at will, from place to place. +The terms of his bond are that he may escape the +final doom of his soul, which is to pay for these +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</span>advantages, provided he can find anyone willing to +take the contract, with its benefits and penalty, off +his hands. The author’s purpose appears to be to +show that no one would deliberately damn himself to +all eternity for any temporal advantage; though this +would seem to be rather “Irish,” since his hero is just +that man. However, the hero is an exception that +proves the rule, for he goes about the world vainly +tempting the poor and needy to take his place. +Even a beautiful Indian maiden, who has fallen +desperately in love with him, will not surrender her +soul. Failing with all, he is carried off by the Devil. +The supposed date of this catastrophe is toward the +close of the eighteenth century.</p> + +<p>The next work to be noticed at this point, and one +which the perusal of Shelley may have suggested, is +more distinctly based upon the legend of the +Wandering Jew; this is the <abbr title="Reverend">Rev.</abbr> George Croly’s +<cite>Salathiel: A Story of the Past, the Present, and the +Future</cite>. This novel, in three volumes, appeared +anonymously in 1828. The spirit in which the +legend is treated in this work will sufficiently appear +by the following passages:</p> + +<p>“Every sterner passion that disturbs our nature +was to rule in successive tyranny over my soul.</p> + +<p>“Fearfully was the decree fulfilled.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</span></p> + +<p>“In revenge for the fall of Jerusalem, I traversed +the country to seek out an enemy of Rome. I found +in the Northern snows a man of blood: I stirred up +the soul of Alaric and led him to the sack of Rome.</p> + +<p>“In revenge for the insults heaped upon the Jew +by the dotards and dastards of the city of Constantine, +I sought out an instrument of compendious +ruin: I found him in the Arabian sands, and poured +ambition into the soul of the enthusiast of Mecca.</p> + +<p>“In revenge for the pollution of the ruins of the +Temple, I roused the iron tribes of the West, and at +the head of the Crusaders, expelled the Saracens. I +fed full on revenge, and I felt the misery of revenge!</p> + +<p>“A passion for the mysteries of nature seized me. +I talked with the Alchemist. I wore away years in +the perplexities of the schoolmen; and I felt the +guilt and emptiness of unlawful knowledge.</p> + +<p>“A passion for human fame seized me. A passion +for gold!...</p> + +<p>“I found a bold Genoese. I led him to discover +the New World; with its metals I inundated the +Old; and to my own misery added the misery of two +hemispheres.”</p> + +<p>At length the eternal World-wanderer stands beside +the newly discovered Printing Press; again he +pays homage to Luther at his rise, and he attains a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</span>faith in the progress of mankind. “At this hour +I see the dawn of things to whose glory the glory of +the Past is but a dream!”</p> + +<p>Quite another Ahasuerus than Shelley’s is represented +in Wordsworth’s “<cite>Song of the Wandering +Jew</cite>,” which somewhat resembles the idea of Müller, +already quoted, as indeed both do the old saying, +“The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, +but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Though the torrents from their fountains</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Roar down many a craggy steep,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Yet they find among the mountains</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Resting-places calm and deep.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Clouds that love through air to hasten,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Ere the storm its fury stills,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Helmet-like themselves will fasten</div> + <div class="verse indent3">On the heads of towering hills.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“What if through the frozen centre</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Of the Alps the chamois bound,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Yet he has a home to enter</div> + <div class="verse indent3">In some nook of chosen ground.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“If on windy days the raven</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Gambol like a dancing skiff,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Not the less she loves her haven</div> + <div class="verse indent3">In the bosom of the cliff.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Though the sea-horse in the ocean</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Own no dear domestic cave,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Yet he slumbers—by the motion</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Rocked of many a gentle wave.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“The fleet ostrich, till day closes,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Vagrant over desert sands,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Brooding on her eggs reposes</div> + <div class="verse indent3">When chill night that care demands.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Day and night my toils redouble,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Never nearer to the goal;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Night and day, I feel the trouble</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Of the Wanderer in my soul.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>It would be interesting to know at just what period +of his life, or in which of his two lives, Wordsworth +wrote this “Song.” Was it a memory of his dead +self, the radical that fell in the French Revolution? +Or did he write it when the sceptical wanderings of +other minds around him had become to his peaceful +soul, with no doom heavier than the liturgical round +of Grasmere Church, as imaginary as the “seven +whistlers on their nightly rounds,” which his peasant-friend +heard, while overhead were heard those +“Gabriel’s hounds” by ears that little knew they too +were fabled of Jews doomed by the Crucified? All +around Wordsworth in his home amid the Lakes +were the real wanderers. Before nearly every fine +mind living at the beginning of the last generation, +this Ahasuerus had risen as a spiritual type. Seven +times did Shelley evoke this form, and it was with +him when he wandered unrecognised past Rydal +Mount. Southey had known the meaning of it. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</span>Byron had taken the side of Cain against him who in +Paradise permitted “the Serpent to creep in,” and +seen in Prometheus, with “the wretched gift Eternity,” +the symbol of man’s fate and force. De Quincey +had made acquaintance with such doomed wanderers +of rabbinical legend as “The Widow of Hebron.” +From afar the sighings of “<abbr class="spell nowrap">L. E. L.</abbr>” were heard in +fitful dreams of “The Undying One.”</p> + +<p>There came a terrible day when the children of the +Revolution recognised the inexorable Mother of +whom they were born. The old beliefs and ideas +in which good and honest people had lived so comfortably +were shrivelled up. It was not the half-way +heresy of the earlier time which believed it was +attaining a purer Christianity and a more glorious +immortality. These children of the Revolution +found the whole fabric of faith fallen to black +ruins. The youth went off light-hearted to college: +he came back heavy-hearted. Beside the old fireside +he sat once more, with the dear faces around +him and exile in his heart. He listened to the old +<cite class="nonitalic">Bible</cite>, and knelt; but his mind was far away, and +had left him amid the innocent, a guilty, kneeling, +assenting phantasm. Then there began this Age of +Wandering; for the new mind could not yet get a +new heart, and could only wander about like the night-raven +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</span>of folk-lore, that ever seeks the Holy Sepulchre +for rest. Their voices may be heard in most of the +literature of the last generation, pathetic as the +appeal of deserted brides going about the street asking, +“Saw ye my Beloved?”—the only answer being endless +echoes of the question. Intellect seemed to them +a curse. By it they were at one stroke deprived alike +of faith in future and hope of present joys. Unfit for +usual avocations, unable to enter pulpits and professions +tainted with the discredited superstitions, +how well could they understand the doom of every +wanderer!</p> + +<p>In the same year (1833) that Edgar Quinet—after +ten years of wandering in the effort to find some point +where he could catch a least ray of the old faith +that made his early home so sweet, only to discover +that his faith was gone out, not eclipsed—published +his <cite>Ahasuerus</cite>, Carlyle also, after like wanderings, +published his <cite lang="la">Sartor Resartus</cite>, with its story of +the “Sorrows of Teufelsdröckh.” It was in that +same year, too, that Ralph Waldo Emerson, unable +to rest even in his Unitarian pulpit, escaping +from the clinging arms of his devoted congregation, +came across the ocean to converse with Carlyle, Coleridge, +and Wordsworth, and find if they could show +him any light on the great problems. Coleridge had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</span>taken refuge with opium and orthodoxy. Wordsworth +entertained the young American Wanderer +with lamentations over the excess of intellectual +above moral culture in the modern world. But it was +in the far solitude of Nithsdale that he hoped to find +what he sought; for Carlyle had written an essay in +which he spoke of standing amid night, yet seeing +the faint signs of a new day-spring. “Here, straight +uprose that lone wayfaring man,” wrote Carlyle afterwards; +but, alas, it was only to find at Craigenputtoch +(Hawk Hill) one preyed upon by the same +remorseless doubts. The personal hospitality was +beautiful. But when the young American, just bereaved +of his wife, sought some vision beyond the +grave, there was no help for him. He asked Carlyle +to what religious development those sentences about +a new day-spring pointed? The answer was that he +could not state that even to himself. Everyone, he +said, must find out his own path, and walk in it.</p> + +<p>When Emerson parted from Carlyle and returned to +the New World, he found in its new life more than +his vanished faith: to emancipate slaves, and human +minds, and the moral genius of woman, and give the +People their opportunity to build the New World into +beauty and happiness—this he found was a religion +with eternal vistas opening from it, hopes fairer than +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</span>his faded heaven, a providence better than the Syrian +deity who had led the Old World into Red Seas, but +never through them to any Promised Land. But +Carlyle remained to wander to the last amid the +wrecks of his lost worlds.</p> + +<p>“Poor Teufelsdröckh! Flying with Hunger always +parallel to him, and a whole Infernal Chase in his +rear; so that the countenance of Hunger is comparatively +a friend’s! Thus must he, in the temper of +ancient Cain, or of the modern Wandering Jew, save +only that he feels himself not guilty and but suffering +the pains of guilt—wend to and fro with aimless +speed. Thus must he, over the whole surface of the +earth (by footprints) write his <i>Sorrows of Teufelsdröckh</i>; +even as the great Goethe, in passionate words, +must write his <cite>Sorrows of Werther</cite>, before the spirit +freed itself and he could become a Man. Vain, truly, +is the hope of your swiftest runner to escape from +his own shadow!”</p> + +<p>Among all the Wanderers only one seemed to have +found a new heart atwin with his new intellect—he +alone loved and welcomed the new, and preferred the +vulture-beak that tears Prometheus, the loneliness of +Ahasuerus, to the favour of Jove, Jahve or Jesus. +Shelley alone was heard singing his <span lang="fr">matin</span> of the +lark above ruins sadder than all the rest.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"> + <abbr title="18">XVIII.</abbr> + <br> + AHASUERUS VINCTUS. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">Here</span> before me is a formidable array of large—one +might almost say fat—volumes, which I have hardly +known whether to assign to England or Germany, but +conclude that they belong to both, and also to America, +and to the night-side of Protestantism everywhere. +They are entitled: <cite>Chronicles, selected from the +originals, of Cartaphilus, the Wandering Jew, embracing +a period of nearly <abbr title="19">XIX.</abbr> centuries. Now first +revealed to and edited by David Hoffman, <abbr title="Honorary">Hon.</abbr> <abbr class="spell nowrap">J. U. D.</abbr> +of Göttingen.</cite> <i>In two series, each of three volumes. +London: Thomas Bosworth, 1853.</i> This book contains +a dedication, dated March 10, 1851, Upper Brook +Street, Grosvenor Square, to the author’s brother, +Samuel Hoffman, <abbr title="Esquire">Esq.</abbr>, of Baltimore, <abbr class="spell nowrap">U. S. A.</abbr> It +contains also a dedication, dated September, 1852, +Austin Friars, London, from Cartaphilus himself: +“To the Children of the Dispersion—Jehovah’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</span>favoured people during so many ages, Christ’s scattered +flock during so many more—these chronicles +are affectionately inscribed,” <abbr>etc.</abbr></p> + +<p>There is nothing in these volumes which bear upon +the legendary Wandering Jew, except a tradition, incidentally +mentioned, that in 1539 he visited Cornelius +Agrippa, and was shown the face of Rebecca, whom +he had loved fifteen centuries before, in a magic mirror. +But the existence of such a book, embodying the +vulgar Protestant superstitions about the “dispersion” +and the gathering of the “chosen people;” the fact +that so much labour can be expended on these +notions by a man otherwise educated, the author +apparently of several legal works, are phenomena to +excite reflections. There is a good deal of suggestiveness, +too, in the link between Austin Friars and Grosvenor +Square. Cartaphilus, going his eternal round +with cry of “O’ clo’!” has finally, it would appear, discovered +that he need only have his Judaism baptized +to be one of “Christ’s flock,” pastured as richly in the +fashionable Square.</p> + +<p>But even more significant just now is the fact that +Germany is ready to supply the hand that can write +of the Jews as for ages “Jehovah’s favoured people,” +and in the next moment be clenched to smite them as +an accursed race. So much this union of Cartaphilus +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</span>and Austin Friars with the <abbr title="Honourable">Hon.</abbr> <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Hoffman and +Grosvenor Square may mean for us, as we bid them +farewell, finding nothing further in their voluminous +sermons pertinent to our present inquiry or purpose.</p> + +<p>Here are two pregnant facts. In various parts of +the East Jews manifest a superstitious dread of a +Christian’s curse. On the other hand, for a long time +there prevailed among Christians a belief that an oath +taken in a Jewish synagogue was more binding and +efficient than one taken elsewhere.⁠<a id="FNanchor_40_40" href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> Add these two +facts together, and their sum is in the following third +fact: on Wednesday, April 13, 1881, a petition +against the Jews was presented to the German Chancellor, +in twenty-six volumes, 14,000 sheets, and with +255,000 signatures.</p> + +<p>Every signature to that most shameful document +which the nineteenth century has witnessed was set +there by—Judaism itself. It was Israel that taught +Christendom its black art of cursing. The Christian +idea of a Chosen People of Christ, commissioned to +make war upon other peoples as heathen, infidels, +hosts of Antichrist, is a precise transcript of the Judaic +idea of a Chosen People of Jahve, with commission to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</span>put Gentiles to the edge of the sword. In the darkest +ages, when holocausts of Jews were offered in sacrifice +to a deified member of their race, the Christian might +have addressed his victim with a paraphrase of Shylock’s +words, “If a Baalite disagreed with a Jew, what +was his humility? Slaughter. If a Jew disagree with +a Christian, what should his sufferance be by Jewish +example? Why, slaughter. The intolerance your +Testament teaches me I will execute, and it shall go +hard but, with the aid of my Testament, I will better +the instruction!”</p> + +<p>When Moses Mendelssohn was asked, “When will +the Jews become Christians?” he answered, “When +the Christians cease to be Jews.”</p> + +<p>After Shakspeare had startled the world with a +suspicion that the Jew is a man, it still required a +hundred and fifty years, or thereabout, to awaken the +further suspicion that a Jew might be a good, even a +religious man. This revelation came through Lessing. +When he was coming of age, Lessing recognised the +injustice done to the Jews of Germany. Every Jew +entering Berlin was compelled to pay toll at Brandenburg +Gate. The meanest Christian might gain credit +by insulting or assaulting a Jew. Frederick the Great +could write, “Jesus was a Jew, yet we persecute the +Jews,” but his wide toleration left that people unprotected. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</span>Lessing wrote an early drama, <cite lang="de">Die Juden</cite>, +which touched gently on the matter. In it a wealthy +Jew of high character saves the life of a Christian +baron and his daughter. The baron desires the youth +to marry his daughter, but finding to what race and +religion he belongs, that, of course, is impossible. So +the drama ends. Why impossible? The answer to +that question had to be postponed. There are some +evils in this world which are like the birth-mark in +Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story: the chemist succeeded +in extracting the birth-mark from his wife’s face, but +the wife lay dead. When the mark of the cross disappears +from the Wanderer’s brow, so that the +Christian who has branded him shall no longer say +as he passes, “He is a Jew,” nor for that part from +his daughter’s lover, Christianity will be dead. The +flower of Lessing’s great heart and mind was <cite>Nathan +the Wise</cite>. The apologue of “The Three Rings,” in +which the Jew, the Moslem, the Christian Templar, +raised above their bigotry by mutual human service +are seen in a tableau of charity, shone like the star of +a new religion over Germany. It is the “Ideal of +Religious Liberty,” said Schwartz, Historian of +Modern Theology at Halle; “Truly can Deity be +said to pervade every line of Nathan,” said Kuno +Fischer, of Jena University; while in it Strauss sees +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</span>one advancing the “Kingdom of God on earth.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_41_41" href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> Yet +even Lessing was still not equal to the idea of having +the Jewess marry the Christian. Just as we are +listening to hear the marriage-bells ring out for the +lovers, lo, they turn out to be brother and sister! So, +the religious equality having been proclaimed a +hundred and fifty years after Shakspeare had proclaimed +the human equality, Lessing leaves it to a +like time to establish the social equality of Jew and +Christian.</p> + +<p>But was this line drawn altogether by the Christian? +Lessing’s friendship with Moses Mendelssohn <span id="TN7">had +taught him otherwise</span>. When Michaelis, the theologian, +read his early play, “The Jews,” he wrote a criticism +in which he expressed a doubt whether an oppressed +and despised race could produce such a man as the +hero. Mendelssohn replied, and Lessing, enclosing +this reply to Michaelis, wrote concerning its author: +“He really is a Jew, a man of five-and-twenty, who, +without any instruction, has acquired great attainments +in languages, in mathematics, in philosophy, +in poetry. I foresee in him an honour to our nation, +if he is allowed to come to maturity by his co-religionists, +who have always displayed an unfortunate +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</span>spirit of persecution towards men like him.” The +confirmation of this apprehension on the part of the +Jews’ earliest champion in Germany may be found in +the enthusiasm which the next eminent Mendelssohn +put into his oratorio of “<abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Paul.”</p> + +<p>Goethe tells us that he had intended to bring his +Wandering Jew to a meeting with Spinoza. The +great German had met with two illustrations of the +legend he did deal with, of Faust carried off by +demons. One was in the case of Lessing, who, for +his defence of Jews and his attack on historic +Christianity, had been piously impaled by a rumour +that Satan had appeared at his death-bed. The +other was in a tract he picked up in which Spinoza +was denounced as an infidel, and upon which was a +picture of the noble man, giving him diabolical +features. But, alas! Spinoza had been more a martyr +among his own people than among Christians. +Ahasuerus with the red cross on his brow would have +found Spinoza also a lonely wanderer, outcast from his +people, but not under any Christian doom.</p> + +<p>Were Goethe alive, he would find Spinoza still in +Europe, and still a lonely wanderer amid the scowling +hatred of both Jew and Christian. He would find in +England, certainly, a steady tendency of synagogue-Judaism +to find its ally and support in the Christianity +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</span>which alone represents its ancient superstition +and bigotry. It is the orthodox Jew who on Saturday +sets the model of a Sabbath for the Christian to +copy on Sunday. When the parliamentary oath—half +Romish, half Jewish—is questioned, Jew and +Christian stand side by side in its defence, and +together seek to impose upon Englishmen of the +nineteenth century the theological test of belief in an +oath-bound and oath-guaranteeing deity in which no +educated man can possibly believe. The orthodox +male Jew thanks Jahve in his liturgy that he was not +made a woman; and the male Christian responds by +excluding women from political rights. While in +Germany the Christian persecutes the Jew as Antichrist, +in England the Jew persecutes the Antichristian +as Armillus. The Jew recognises a believer in +the Trinity as a true theist, and the Christian accepts +the Jewish worshipper of Jahve as a theist; and they +make common cause against the disbeliever in both +as a “miscreant,” an “atheist.” Some influential +Jews recently made an effort to “Boycott” the <cite>Jewish +World</cite> newspaper for its criticisms on Christianity. +From another “Jewish” quarter there came a sharp +cry of distress and anger because a scholar attempted +to prove that Jesus was not of the Jewish race!</p> + +<p>It is a significant fact that the man of whom the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</span>Jews of recent times have been proudest, the statesman +whom every Israelite in Europe was glad to aid +with his information and his wealth, was a Jew whose +circumcision had been subordinated to Christian +baptism. This combination of auspices—the heart of +an ancient Jew with the political advantages of a +Christian—made Lord Beaconsfield a symbolical +figure. It is only in its Christianised form that +Judaism can ever behold even a partial fulfilment of +its ancient dreams of worldly power. The theocracy +of Jahve is henceforth dependent for every shred of +its authority upon the golden sceptre of Christ.</p> + +<p>Christ is for the present a monarch—in England the +last surviving sovereign whose rule is at all theocratic. +The Jews, as we have seen, were really saved from extermination +by powerful rulers who only hungered for +their money while the mob thirsted for their blood. +Fear of the populace was part of the heritage of the +Jew, transmitted by heredity. However bravely the +modern Jew—at least up to this generation—might +begin with the radicalism of his prophets, he was +pretty sure to develop into a supporter of strong +government; and there has hitherto, in most countries, +been always sufficient Christian intolerance to enable +that evolution to pass its embryonic phases without +arrest. Heine begins with revolutionism and atheism; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</span>ends with worshipping Napoleon <abbr title="the First">I.</abbr> (whom he sees +protecting Jews along the Rhine), and God (of whose +existence he was convinced by the sense of smell while +mingling with the atheistical <i lang="fr">ouvriers</i> in their Paris +clubs). Benjamin Disraeli begins with poetical eulogy +of regicide, and ends with turning a queen into an +empress. So far as this ancient reactionism can +survive into the immediate future, it must necessarily +be the ally of Christianity. The English Jews who +paid so large a sum to bring back Charles <abbr title="the Second">II.</abbr> to his +throne, were represented by those who gathered to +the support of the Christian Lord Beaconsfield.</p> + +<p>Lord Beaconsfield was for the Jews a triumph for +their race, but a humiliation for their religion. They +must needs find their leader in a family of apostates! +But the orthodox Jews knew well that this humiliation +was more than compensated to them in the new +resource which their christened leader opened for them +against their party of progress. Disraeli the Elder had +fled from the dry bones of Judaism to find intellectual +freedom. Disraeli the Younger, sent by his father into +the Christian Church, found there the dry bones all +turned into armed men.</p> + +<p>Isaac Disraeli made an earnest effort to be at once +a man of letters and a member of the synagogue. +When his effort had proved vain, and he must +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</span>follow Spinoza and Mendelssohn on the path of exile, +he wrote to the wardens of Bevis Marks synagogue: +“Many of your members are already lost; many you +are losing! Even those whose tempers and feelings +would still cling to you are gradually seceding. But +against all this you are perpetually pleading your +existing laws, which you would enforce on all the +brethren alike. It is of these obsolete laws so many +complain. They were adapted by fugitives to their +peculiar situation, quite distinct from their own, and +as foreign to us as the language in which they were +written. For the new circumstances which have arisen +you are without laws.”</p> + +<p>Soon after his separation from the synagogue he +wrote his work <cite>The Genius of Judaism</cite>. In it is the +following passage: “The religious Judaism of the +Theocracy degenerated into Rabbinical Judaism by +fabulous traditions and enslaving customs. Dictators +of the human intellect, the Rabbins, like their successors, +the papal Christians, attempted to raise a +spurious Theocracy of their own. A race of dreaming +schoolmen contrived to place an avowed collection of +mere human decisions among the hallowed verities +and the duties of devotion, to graft opinions of men +on the scion of divine institutions; nay, even to prefer +the gloss in direct opposition to the divine precept, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</span>whenever, as they express it, ‘the tradition is not +favoured;’ that is, when the oral tradition absolutely +contradicts the written law. The Jews live according +to their laws, and according to their traditions and +customs; for their traditions have become an integral +part of their written law, and their customs have been +converted into rites. The Judaic superstitions have +been substituted for the code of Revelation. We may +ask, by what enthralling witchcraft, by what perverse +ingenuity, has such a revolution been brought +about?”</p> + +<p>In reading this I am reminded of the Russian +folk-tale of “The Devouring Sister.” The Vampire +born into a family devours each member of it successively, +to the last—a brother who slays her. After +she is dead, he hears her voice gently entreating him +to think with compassion on her hard doom, and to +preserve some bit of her remains. Moved by this +appeal, the brother folds one drop of her blood in a +leaf and carries it in his bosom. When he reaches +home he falls dead; the one drop of Vampire blood +had devoured his heart. The fatal drop which Isaac +Disraeli carried away from his dead Judaism was +folded in the fine passage just quoted, as in a green +leaf: it is in the phrase, “scion of divine institutions.”</p> + +<p>There is enough in that brief creed to sustain every +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</span>persecution of reason and conscience the world ever +saw. The Sanhedrim is in it; the Inquisition is in it. +The belief that the God of the universe established +the institutions of ancient Judea is enough to eat the +human heart out of every generation that presses it, +with whatever sentiment, to its breast.</p> + +<p>It was perfectly logical for Isaac Disraeli to have +his son baptized a Christian. Seeing in the so-called +“religion” of his race a “scion of divine institutions,” +he rightly saw in Christianity the natural expansion +and historic development of that “scion.” He had +said to the synagogue, “For the new circumstances +which have arisen you are without laws.” Christianity +supplied those laws. The same voice spake again +when, thirty-seven years ago, his son reminded +Christendom that it was obeying the laws and +saturated in the literature of the Jewish race; when +he claimed that Moses was summoned by Jahve “to +be the organ of an eternal revelation of the divine will.”</p> + +<p>The freethinker owes a certain debt to Lord Beaconsfield +for his logical treatment of Christianity. +That unanswerable argument of his in “<cite class="nonitalic">A Political +Biography</cite>,” that the Jews deserved gratitude for prevailing +on the Romans to crucify Jesus, so securing +the Atonement; that it was a sublime act and +sacrifice, Jews being the ordained immolators, securing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</span>the salvation of the world; that no one has ever been +permitted to write under the inspiration of the Holy +Ghost but a Jew; that all Christians acknowledge +that the only medium of communication between +themselves and God is the Jewish race; that the +Mother of God was a Jewess; that, indeed, is a <i lang="la">reductio +ad absurdum</i>, which cannot be unwelcome to the age +of common sense. But every nail he thus drove into +the coffin of Christianity was one which had pierced the +hands and feet of humanity from Canaan to Calvary, +and from Calvary to Smithfield.</p> + +<p>The devotion of Lord Beaconsfield to the Jewish +people was a fearful retribution on the synagogue +that drove out his father. His kiss was as fatal as it +was sincere. He taught the Jewish youth that the +path to power and glory, not merely for themselves +but for their race, lay in the direction of Christianity. +His spirit may yet survive as the Moses of a journey +through the baptismal sea to the Promised Land. +He confirmed them in every error—in all their race-egoism, +in all their indifference to the progressive +enlightenment of the world, and gave their bigotry a +new lease of life by a Christian confirmation. The +most eloquent passage he ever wrote is in <cite>Tancred</cite>, +in the “Feast of Tabernacles,” which the <cite>Jewish +World</cite>, in quoting it after his death, said might +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</span>have been uttered by a <i lang="he">Chasid</i> in a moment of +inspiration: “The vineyards of Israel have ceased +to exist, but the eternal law enjoins the children of +Israel still to celebrate the vintage. A race that +persist in celebrating their vintage, although they +have no fruits to gather, will regain their vineyards. +What sublime inexorability in the law! But what +indomitable spirit in the people! It is easy for the +happier Sephardim, the Hebrews who have never +quitted the sunny regions that are laved by the Midland +Ocean; it is easy for them, though they have +lost their heritage, to sympathise in their beautiful +Asian cities or in their Moorish and Arabian gardens, +with the graceful rites that are, at least, an homage +to a benignant nature. But picture to yourself the +child of Israel in the dingy suburb or the squalid +quarter of some bleak northern town, where there is +never a sun that can at any rate ripen grapes. Yet +he must celebrate the vintage of purple Palestine! +The law has told him, though a denizen in an icy +clime, that he must dwell for seven days in a bower, +and that he must build it of the boughs of thick +trees; and the Rabbins have told him that these thick +trees are the palm, the myrtle, and the weeping +willow. Even Sarmatia may furnish a weeping +willow. The law has told him that he must pluck +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</span>the fruit of goodly trees, and the Rabbins have +explained that goodly fruit on this occasion is confined +to the citron. Perhaps, in his despair, he is +obliged to fly to the candied delicacies of the grocer. +His mercantile connections will enable him, often at +considerable cost, to procure some palm-leaves from +Canaan, which he may wave in his synagogue while +he exclaims, as the crowd did when the divine +descendant of David entered Jerusalem, ‘Hosannah +in the highest!’ There is something profoundly +interesting in this devoted observance of Oriental +customs in the heart of our Saxon and Sclavonian +cities; in these descendants of the Bedoueens, who +conquered Canaan more than three thousand years +ago, still celebrating that success which secured their +forefathers, for the first time, grapes and wine. Conceive +a being born and bred in the <span lang="de">Judenstrasse</span> of +Hamburg or Frankfort, or rather in the purlieus of +our Houndsditch or Minories, born to hereditary +insult, without any education, apparently without a +circumstance that can develop the slightest taste, or +cherish the least sentiment for the beautiful, living +amid fogs and filth, never treated with kindness, +seldom with justice, occupied with the meanest, if not +the vilest, toil—bargaining for frippery, speculating +in usury, existing for ever under the concurrent +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</span>influence of degrading causes which would have worn +out, long ago, any race that was not of the unmixed +blood of Caucasus, and did not adhere to the law of +Moses; conceive such a being, an object to you of +prejudice, dislike, disgust, perhaps hatred. The +season arrives, and the mind and heart of that being +are filled with images and passions that have been +ranked in all ages among the most beautiful and the +most genial of human experience; filled with a subject +the most vivid, the most graceful, the most +joyous, and the most exuberant; a subject which +has inspired poets, and which has made gods—the +harvest of the grape in the native regions of the vine. +He rises in the morning, goes early to some Whitechapel +market, purchases some willow-boughs for +which he has previously given a commission, and +which are brought, probably, from one of the neighbouring +rivers of Essex, hastens home, cleans out the +yard of his miserable tenement, builds his bower, +decks it, even profusely, with the finest flowers and +fruits he can procure, the myrtle and the citron never +forgotten, and hangs its roof with variegated lamps. +After the service of his synagogue, he sups late with +his wife and his children in the open air, as if he +were in the pleasant villages of Galilee, beneath its +sweet and starry sky.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</span></p> + +<p>“What sublime inexorability in the law!” Nay, +what binding, paralysing, mercilessness in the self-imposed +law that holds the eyes of a race for ever at +the back of its head instead of in the forehead! +In the great and grievous error of those words is +repeated once more the doom of the Wandering +Race. In them Jesus says again to Ahasuerus, “As +thou hast refused to go out in the general vineyard +of humanity, to toil and gather with the true and +earnest of all races and religions, be this thy sentence: +Keep thy small province of mouldered faith; go on, +and on, and for ever, celebrating vineyards that do not +exist, pressing dead grapes that yield no wine, waving +dead palm-leaves before a Messiah that can never +arrive, bound in thine everlasting Houndsditch round +by dreams of myrtle-bowers in a barbarian paradise +long ago turned to a Valley of Jehoshaphat!”</p> + +<p>Lord Beaconsfield also dealt his blow to Spinoza. +He defended the rights of the Jews in Parliament on +the ground that they were all Jews, all believers in +Moses and the Prophets; and that the alternative of +this was belief in Hume and Gibbon. The day of his +burial was solemnised by the party he had led with +an effort to drive out of Parliament an Englishman +who preferred Hume and Gibbon to Moses and the +Prophets.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</span></p> + +<p>This is the doom of Judaism. This is Ahasuerus +bound. There is a nobility in the Ahasuerus that +Shelley evokes in <cite>Queen Mab</cite>, a Semitic Prometheus +bound for ever on Time and its desolations, as a rock, +with bigotry and intolerance feeding vulture-like upon +his heart because he will not bend to tyrannical Jove, +either in the form of Jahve or of Jesus; suffering +as the friend of a Humanity also groaning beneath a +celestial despotism, but cringing as he will not. +But there is nothing Promethean in the mere preference +for the chains of one tyrant over those of another. +There is nothing noble in a sect accepting its rock and +vulture through servility to a deity of whose indifference +or impotence or non-existence the history of his +worshippers is a sufficient proof. There is no majesty +in martyrdom unless it is endured for the deliverance +and welfare of all mankind. There was a time when +the Jews suffered nobly; they stood almost alone in +preserving the protest of the human mind against +priestly impostures, which could not be maintained by +the thinking Greeks and Romans—who no doubt +knew the facts as well as Lucian and Celsus—against +imperial decrees. But that time passed when thought +became free. The emancipation of the Jews politically +brought to their side Herakles—a human-hearted +deliverer—who cut their outward cords. Judaism, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</span>remaining on its Caucasus, apart from the evolution +of humanity, is bound only by inward chains. Its +doom, in free countries, comes only from within.</p> + +<p>It is forbidden that any man or race shall find +strength and happiness in isolation, and this race is +withheld by its traditional system and its dogmas +from co-operation with mankind in its nobler aims +and tendencies. Their fundamental error is to regard +the God of Israel as different from the Gods of other +people. Upon that rests the wild superstition that +the Jews, in some sense or other, are “a chosen people” +or “a peculiar people.” It is the doctrine alike of +Christianity and Judaism; but as in the dreary past +it has been the dogma most fatal to the Jews—their +accepted supernatural eminence logically leading +to their supernatural doom—it must be equally +fatal in their future of freedom, in an intellectual sense. +So long as they are marked off in the human world in +this way they will not find rest; for that can be found +only when their genius—earning such wreaths as +adorn the brow of Spinoza and Heine, or those which +came from every capital to lie on the grave of Offenbach—is +identified with the general work and play of +the world, and their religious aims such as are +common to all who acknowledge allegiance to reason +and pursue the equal welfare of mankind.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIX"> + <abbr title="19">XIX.</abbr> + <br> + AHASUERUS DELIVERED. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">There</span> are certain races of mankind whose history or +whose character has made them the tests of civilisation. +In one direction the negro has been such. In +the development of English self-government, on both +sides of the Atlantic, there came a time when its fine +theories of liberty were put to the test. In America +the poor ignorant negro knelt chained before the +genius of the Republic. His slavery represented +many millions of money, his freedom must cost many +thousands of lives; but Justice said, “There is that +lowly man—helpless, of alien race from you, too poor +to pay you anything: if you can do justice to him, +can make him a citizen, the world will know that you +are really a republic.”</p> + +<p>In another direction the Jewish race has been <span id="TN8">the +test and register of civilisation</span>. It was the one visible +embodiment of Antichrist in Christendom. While +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</span>missionaries were going through the world to convert +the world, the Jew also went through the world—moral, +religious, learned—a compulsory wanderer and +missionary, in whose scars might always be read the +spirit of the Church he opposed, and the meaning of a +vicarious atonement, whose corollary was the unending +crucifixion of a race for the offence of three or four +of their ancestors. This Wandering Jew knocked at +the doors of law-courts. “Who art thou?” said the +judges. “I am Antichrist.” “Come in and be burnt,” +said they. He came in and was burnt. But ever +rising from his ashes, the Wanderer marched on. +Again, after some centuries, he knocked at the door +marked Justice. “Who art thou?” asked the judges. +“I am Antichrist,” he said. “Stay out and be +mobbed,” said they. And so he wandered until he +reached the century when England opened the door +and said, “Enter and receive thy right.” Even Judge +Jeffreys, in the time of James <abbr title="the Second">II.</abbr>, would not accept +the old law which disabled a Jew from prosecuting a +Christian. “Pay him his money,” he cried to the +defendant. “His action is not against a Christian: +you are more a Jew than he is!” At many doors this +unconquerable Antichrist had to knock in this land: +slowly, against frantic attempts to bar them, they +swung open, one after the other; and it was proved +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</span>that English justice, confronting what Christendom +called a devil, was ultimately equal to giving that +devil his due—in society, in the law-court, in the +Parliament.</p> + +<p>The English have managed to hold superstition +more in order in their smaller territory than it is held in +Eastern Europe, yet they must not take for their own +race all the credit for the equality that has been accorded +the Jew in England. The credit is mainly due +to himself. Some forty years ago, when wild stories +reached Great Britain from Damascus and Rhodes of +how Jews were suffering horrible outrages on account +of absurd accusations—such as sacrificing Christian +priests and children—the entire English community +joined to support Sir Moses Montefiore in his mission +to repress that fanaticism. But when England had sent +Sir Moses on his noble mission, it turned to consider +its own relation to the Jews, and found on its statute-book +laws which still bore witness of the ages when +Jewish blood had mingled with Christian sacrifices. +The laws were even then—forty years ago—not all +obsolete. But some of them were, and others +have since become so, largely through the fact +that the Jews had made themselves useful to the +country.</p> + +<p>Just now England is again called to look abroad +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</span>though nearer home, and consider the outbreak of +fanaticism in Germany.</p> + +<p><abbr>Dr.</abbr> Carl Vogt, the naturalist, recently expressed +his belief that the present persecution of Jews in +Germany is a recurrence of ancient Teutonic +barbarism. He explains Judenhetze scientifically, +on the principles of Atavism. Every now and then +there must be a recrudescence of suppressed barbarism. +Those who have read, in <cite>A Tramp Abroad</cite>, those +accounts of the duels witnessed by imperturbable +Mark Twain in that country—duels in which students +cut and slash each other in a friendly way, in the +intervals of drinking beer together, and flaunt their +facial gashes upon the street with pride, will suspect +that the barbarism in coming back had not far to +travel. Nevertheless, we must remember that Germany +has not yet completed that revolution which +shall bring the people under the influence of their best +heads; its great science, art, and literature are still +carried on as it were in cloisters. The throne of +Germany’s noble Reason is usurped by heartless +pretenders in politics and hypocrites in religion. +Barbarossa will awake presently, and when he comes +forth from his cave it will not be in the guise of +Emperor William or Prince Bismarck, nor yet as the +priest-ridden Jew-hater, but as a cultured and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</span>courageous People, with their feet alike on titled +despotism and parochial barbarism.</p> + +<p>As, however, in the outrages on Jews at Damascus +and Rhodes, in the last generation, England caught +a glimpse, as in a mirror, of certain features from her +own hideous past still surviving in her laws, so one +can hardly turn from the Judenhetze of Germany +without a consciousness that there are still certain +scandals in the attitude of English Christianity +towards the Jews. The chief scandal is that there +should be an organised society for converting them—as +if they were savages.</p> + +<p>The existence of such a society in London will one +day be quoted to show how much pious preadamitism +survived amid our telegraphs and telephones. It is +not civilised for men to suppose that a good Jew is +inferior to a good Christian. It is scandal that the +learned clergy should permit the people to suppose +that Christian churches and sects have any moral or +spiritual advantage over those who attend the +synagogue. How many mothers who teach their +children the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount, or +rehearse to them the parables of the New Testament, +pity the children of Jewish mothers as knowing +nothing of those beautiful and tender sayings? How +many of them even realise that the Golden Rule is in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</span>the Pentateuch; and that every Jewish child learns +those sweet sayings and parables where Jesus learned +them—at his Jewish mother’s knee?</p> + +<p>It is a great misfortune that religious liberalism, in +its revolt from the primitive Judaism which Protestantism +and Puritanism restored, and which survives now +chiefly among Sabbatarian and dogmatic Christians, +has kept before the world only that ancient Jahvism +under which Canaanites were exterminated. It +has thus indirectly fostered the fallacy which regards +as Judaism much that even strict Jews have long ago +outgrown. The Jews themselves, however, as we have +seen, are largely to blame for the persistence of this +vulgar delusion; indeed, even many of their liberal +thinkers have obstinately preserved their new wine in +ceremonial bottles, with the ancient labels, and helped +to convey the popular impression that their religion +is unchanged. But it <em>is</em> changed. Even the strictest +Jews are to-day less Sabbatarian, and more emancipated +from the barbarism of sacrificial superstitions, +than Christians. When Moses Mendelssohn said that +the Jews would become Christians “when the +Christians cease to be Jews,” he no doubt recognised +that Christians are preserving as dogma the Judaism +which Jews keep as a shell, but inwardly have outgrown; +and that a conversion of the Jews to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</span>Christianity would really carry them back to Levitical +beliefs long replaced by the modern ideas prevailing +inside the hereditary and patriotic walls from which +they fear to venture.</p> + +<p>Spinoza was as representative a Jew as ever lived, +and never more than when the synagogue disowned him. +The history of his race for a thousand years had been +to him an instruction in fidelity and independence. That +there is a vigorous Left among the Jews is apparent +in every direction; not only in Jewish scholarship, +which is assisting in the work of detaching from their +<cite class="nonitalic">Bible</cite> and other sacred books a Hebrew Mythology, +but also in the political and social influence of Jews. +The outbreak of Judenhetze in Germany is a bad +enough symptom for the Teutons, but a hopeful sign +for the Jews. Socially they have excited jealousy by +the extent to which, having become men and women +of the world, they are able to support that character +by their wealth. Politically, they would appear to +have so completely entered into those liberal and +popular movements which they so long eschewed, +that the Imperial Power is under the necessity of +reminding them that, as in the past they suffered +from the mob, and were protected by princes, so it +may be again. The retention of the <abbr title="Reverend">Rev.</abbr> <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Stoecker +as Court Chaplain, while he is leading this agitation so +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</span>unscrupulously, is a confession that the anti-Semitic +movement has the encouragement of the Emperor +and his Chancellor. To awaken Teutonic jealousy of +Jewish wealth, just beginning to be displayed in the +enjoyment of Gentile luxuries; to arouse Christian +fanaticism against the growing freethought of a race +ceasing to expect any Messiah: such are the obvious +methods by which the German Government hope to +separate Jewish means and radicalism from the +masses, and drive Jews to their ancient refuge—the +strong central power always purchasable by money +and servility. What success will crown this imperial +effort remains to be seen. But that there should be a +necessity for it is a confirmation of what the late Lord +Beaconsfield asserted, and such good judges as Herr +Eydmann and Karl Blind attest, that the Jews are very +extensively concerned in popular movements on the +Continent.</p> + +<p>That these liberal tendencies might be expected +among the Jews generally when and where they feel +assured of freedom and security, is suggested by the +history of their race in America. It is certain that +the leading Rabbins of that country would be +regarded as perilously latitudinarian by their strict +co-religionists of Europe. It is a significant unique +fact that the high family of Adlers has produced a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</span>President of the Free Religious Association, which is +made up of theists and agnostics developed out of +Unitarianism and Transcendentalism. But, furthermore, +the leading Rabbins, Lilienthal, Wise, and +Sonnenschein, are instances of the advanced +Rationalism which pervades the Jewish body in +America. These scholarly and eloquent Rabbins +freely fraternise with the anti-supernaturalistic +teachers of other antecedents than their own. It is +pretty certain that they do not look for the advent of +any personal Messiah, and never dream of any restoration +of their race to power in Palestine. They +are not theocratic in politics, but republican, and +regard America as the real Jerusalem of their race. +Such is my conviction, based not only upon the works +of the gentlemen I have mentioned, but upon personal +acquaintance with them; and I cannot doubt that, +whatever may be their dissent from much that is +written in these pages, they would confirm my opinion +as to the tendency of the people of Jewish origin in +America. Jews of the Old World are somewhat in +the condition of the rich man who, when reproached +for a stinted charity, said that he began life poor, and +had never got the chill of poverty out of his bones; +these Jews have vivid traditions of persecution, and +have not yet got the chill of fear out of their bones. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</span>Recent events in Germany and Russia may even prolong +this timidity; the ferocious reply to their +attempt to mingle in the society and politics of the +world may set back for a little their liberation. But +the free heart and mind of Europe is with them, and +will be felt not only in England but on the Continent. +The unbinding of Ahasuerus is part of the civilised +revolution which can never really go backward.</p> + +<p>Shakspeare was the first to show the Jew to be +a man. Lessing was the first to show that a Jew +might be as good a man as a Christian, the indispensability +of Christ to excellence being quite ignored. +Thus the seventeenth century had its gospel for the +Jew, and the eighteenth century had its gospel. But +in essence the gospel according to Lessing was not so +high as that of the master at whose feet he learned it. +Shakspeare had raised up the standard of Manhood, +and in its light Judaism and Christianism are seen to +be comparatively small things, and their contentious +tempers proof that they are no longer religious in +any pure sense. Lessing, even in his famous apologue +of the Three Rings which a father gave to his equally +beloved sons—similitudes of the Jewish, Moslem and +Christian religions—makes the wise judge end the +dispute as to which is the true ring by consecrating +all three. The true ring, which the fond father had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</span>caused to be copied in two others, so that neither son +might be disappointed, had the power to draw the +love of all on its owner. But it also carried the +right to sovereignty; and this advantage so overbore +the former virtue that each son, with his ring, was +found to love himself alone. The Judge advises them +to be each content with his ring:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Let each of you comport him in such wise</div> + <div class="verse indent1">As love unbribed commands; let each resolve</div> + <div class="verse indent1">To show the world that in the ring he wears</div> + <div class="verse indent1">He holds the prize, its virtues being shown</div> + <div class="verse indent1">To Man in acts of justice, meekness, mercy,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">To God in thoughts of love and heartfelt trust.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>But the nineteenth century should transmit to the +twentieth a nobler gospel for Jew, Moslem, and Christian +than that. Let each of them see that his ring is +a survival from the ancient chain that fettered him to +his several rock of superstition; that so long as he +holds faith in it, no transmutation of it into gold, no +decoration with opal, can make it other than a talisman +to bind him, and isolate him from the real work +of creating a Man able to be the providence of this +world. Let the rings, not only of Israel, but of +Christianity, and of all sects, be thrown into the flames +of human love, that there may be formed a coronet +for the Mother whose patient all-loving face poetry +and science are revealing. “In this principle,” said +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</span>Clifford, of the evolution of organic from inorganic +things, “we must recognise the mother of life, and +especially of human life, powerful enough to subdue +the elements, and yet always working gently against +them; biding her time in the whole expanse of heaven, +to make the highest cosmos out of inorganic chaos; +the actor, not of all the actions of living things, but +only of the good actions; for a bad action is one by +which the organism tends to be less organic, and +acts for a time as if inorganic. To this mother of +life, personifying herself in the good works of humanity, +it seems to me we may fitly address a splendid hymn +of <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Swinburne’s:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Mother of man’s time-travelling generations,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Breath of his nostrils, heart-blood of his heart,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">God above all Gods worshipped of all nations,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Light above light, law beyond law, thou art.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Thy face is as a sword smiting in sunder</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Shadows and chains and dreams and iron things;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">The sea is dumb before thy face, the thunder</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Silent, the skies are narrower than thy wings.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><span class="star">*</span><span class="star">*</span><span class="star">*</span><span class="star">*</span><span class="star">*</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“All old grey histories hiding thy clear features,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">O secret spirit and sovereign, all men’s tales,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Creeds woven of men thy children and thy creatures,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">They have woven for vestures of thee and for veils.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Thine hands, without election or exemption,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">Feed all men fainting from false peace or strife,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">O thou, the resurrection and redemption,</div> + <div class="verse indent3">The godhead, and the manhood, and the life!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XX"> + <abbr title="20">XX.</abbr> + <br> + THREE WITNESSES. + </h2> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">In</span> Prague there is an ancient Synagogue, the interior +of which is black with the mould and dust of seven +centuries. There is a tradition that at some unknown +point in it the holy name of Jahve is written, and, for +fear of its obliteration, no cleansing or sweeping, +however slight, has been permitted, until now the +Synagogue has become a show-place of accumulated +dirt, which tourists pass through with torches. This +ancient structure is but a too faithful symbol of +temples which preserve the superstitions of ages +through fear that, if some holy name or creed be +touched, religion and morality will suffer.</p> + +<p>Early in the last generation three Jewish boys—Israel, +Jacob, and Henoch—were seated together in +this Synagogue on a Saturday morning, awaiting the +beginning of service. They were of different families, +but playmates. No person was near them, and, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</span>oblivious of the traditional prohibitions, they began +to amuse themselves by scraping off with their knives +an inch of the black mould, here and there, to see +what wood or stone was beneath. The Rabbi, happening +to pass at the time, cried out with horror at +the sacrilege, and said, “The curse of Heaven may fall +on you for that act!”</p> + +<p>The terrified lads put up their knives. Some neighbours +who heard the voice of the angry Rabbi, but not +his exact words, reported that he had said, “May the +curse of Heaven fall on you for that act!” And this +was the form in which the story was whispered about. +Gradually a small saga grew up among the Jews of +Prague about these three boys. They were regarded +with an evil eye, under which their prospects suffered +blight; they were supposed to be under some mysterious +doom, they were avoided, and their families +suffered much distress. The venerable Rabbi, repenting +of his hasty words, tried to disabuse the minds of +his congregation as to what he had said; but he was +unable to undo what had been done. As the three +advanced towards youth, the prejudices against them, +and the belief that a doom overhung them, made their +lives so miserable, that they desired to leave Prague +altogether, and their parents thought this the best +course. The families were in good circumstances, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</span>the young men went off fairly well educated and with +some means. They resolved to emigrate to different +regions.</p> + +<p>Jacob went to Northern Germany. He entered a +university there and succeeded in his studies. Animated +by the hope of doing so well in life that his +parents might ultimately have the happiness of seeing +the prejudices of their neighbours disappear, he presently +excelled all other students. He became a +favourite with the professors. But this excited the +jealousy of other students. These conspired against +him, and one of their best swordsmen was appointed +to pick a quarrel with him. The quarrel came; Jacob +was challenged; in the duel he received an ugly +wound, which deprived him of one eye, disfigured +him, and injured his health. These troubles gradually +affected his nerves to such an extent that his mind +was partially affected. He began to suspect that +there might be some truth in the belief of the neighbours +in Prague, that he had fallen under a divine +curse for having cleaned an inch of the old Synagogue-wall. +This dread grew upon him to such an +extent that, from having been a courageous youth, he +became timid. Whenever he went out at night he +seemed to be confronted by the student with whom +he had fought the duel. He began to be looked upon +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</span>as an uncanny person by the common people in the +city where he dwelt. Some even hustled him on the +street, and the Christian boys sometimes threw refuse +at the miserable man. He was one evening purposely +tripped by some one and suffered a severe fall, +which lamed him. Amid the shadows that darkened +his room, which had gradually become dingy through +poverty, he imagined that, like the patriarch after +whom he was named, he had wrestled with a dark +phantom, which, however, had prevailed against him. +The curse seemed to be fixed upon him irremissibly. +The accumulated filth of the old Synagogue of +Prague had carried with it the accumulated superstitions +of ages; his childish attempt to clear away a +little of that visible mould had been vain, and he was +now equally helpless to free any smallest space of his +own mind from hereditary beliefs in dooms, spectres, +spells. Thus he wandered, limping, miserable, amid +Christian scoffs and Jewish suspicions, and so he +wanders this day.</p> + +<p>The second of the lads that left Prague, Israel, came +to England, where he was well educated. He thought +over this Prague incident carefully, and came to feel +a certain contempt for a Synagogue which so jealously +cherished all its dirt. He found it written in the +<cite class="nonitalic">Talmud</cite> that “next to godliness is cleanliness,” and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</span>began to perceive that the filth he had tried to scrape +off was a type of the irrational usages and petty +exactions which had overlaid the religion of his race. +He had united himself to a Synagogue in London +which was kept fair and beautiful; but, as time wore +on, he found that around the good hearts and fine +minds of the English Jews there were walls on which +had gathered the repulsive dust and dirt of ages +transmitted from ancient Syria. So Israel resolved +that he would make good the promise of his boyish +knife, and clear away some of the spiritual mould +from English Judaism. His attempts at reform +awakened the ire of Wardens, the hostility of +Rabbins, and the opposition of a wealthy Semitic +caste. Israel still believed in Jahve, and in the +fundamental doctrines of the Jewish faith; he believed +that if Judaism could be freed from its antiquarian +walls it must lead the world. But he struggled in +vain for years to secure from the chiefs of the +Synagogues any modification of their usages. Furthermore, +his efforts in this direction began to tell seriously +upon his personal prospects. He had studied law, +been admitted to the bar, and for a time found some +employment from his co-religionists; but after it was +discovered that he was endeavouring to interfere with +the traditional usages of the Synagogue, he soon +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</span>found himself without clients, and with but a few +friends—these being of Christian families.</p> + +<p>One evening Israel went to a theatre in London to +witness the performance of the <cite>Merchant of Venice</cite>. +He was much impressed by an incident of the <cite class="nonitalic">Bible</cite> +used by Shylock as a parable, wherein Jacob stuck +wands before the ewes in breeding-time, and secured +parti-coloured lambs, which, according to Laban’s +agreement, were all to fall to his (Jacob’s) part. +Shylock says:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“This was a way to thrive, and he was blest;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The Christian Antonio must needs accept the +“holy witness” of a book infallible to him and Shylock +alike, and says that the result so good for Jacob was +“sway’d and fashioned by the hand of Heaven.” +Israel went away from the theatre to his poor room, +and bethought him that, great as was the wealth and +power of a few Jews, the parti-coloured lambs had +somehow fallen to the Christian lot. Was the “hand +of Heaven” in this? If the declaration of Jahve of +old that his approval should be manifest in blessings, +his disapproval in cursings, were faithful, could there be +any doubt where the divine approbation rested in England? +Was Houndsditch the seal of Jahve’s benediction +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</span>on his people? or was not Belgravia rather the +expression of his smile? Houndsditch and Belgravia +alike appealed to Jahve; to which had he sent the +multitude of spring lambs and the plenteous wool?</p> + +<p>The germ that fell into Israel’s mind at the theatre +gradually grew. He presently found that the +traditions of Judaism attained their real power and +glory in Christianity. In the end he was baptized; +he was speedily surrounded by troops of friends. He +possessed brilliant powers, and became eminent in +literary and political life. Even his former co-religionists +were inclined to utilise him, now that he +no longer attempted to use his pen-knife on their +mouldy customs. He was able to serve them in many +ways, they were willing to repay his services; and, +thus, assisted by the race which gained prestige +through his genius without the danger of it, and by +the Christian community which saw in him a triumph +of Christ, he became a great minister of State and a +favourite in Palaces. And such he is to this day.</p> + +<p>The third of the three youths who left Prague, +Henoch, wandered restlessly through Asia and Europe—then +came to France. He also was a man of brilliant +powers, and for some time kept up his friendship with +young Israel in London. In the course of their correspondence, +the idea arose in him also of trying to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</span>reform the Synagogue to which he had attached himself +in Paris. He failed in the same way, but the +effect on his mind was different. He could not recognise +a direction from Jahve in the superior thrift of +Christendom. He had heard that in America the +Jews were in every way more liberal and progressive, +and he resolved to emigrate thither. For this purpose +he engaged a passage, and repaired to Havre to take +his steamer.</p> + +<p>On his way to the wharf in Havre, Henoch was +passing a small book-stall, when his attention was +arrested by the appearance of the bookseller. This +was an extremely aged Jew, with long white beard, +deep-set eyes, and a queer, antique figure. He sat +beside his little stand of dingy fourth-hand books, +holding a small volume in his bony fingers, which he +perused attentively. Henoch approached him and, +speaking in Hebrew, asked him what books he had +suitable for a traveller. The old man asked him +whither he was travelling, and having received the +reply, said: “Ah, that, too, was my dream; but I never +got farther than this. I am too old now—too old and +too poor—and must leave the New World hope for our +younger men. But I sit here, and read about that +land of promise, and my dim old eyes follow every +ship that sails that way.” Henoch asked to look at +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</span>the book the aged Jew had been reading. It was an +old Spanish book—Herrera’s <cite>History of the Indies</cite>. +Israel knew the language, and proposed to buy the +book. The aged bookseller was somewhat reluctant +but finally said: “It is the story of the discovery of +the New World to which you are going; take it, with +an old man’s good will; and may you carry to America +something better than those Spaniards did, who tried to +plant there every evil the Old World had produced!”</p> + +<p>On board the steamer Henoch read this book, and +one narrative in it haunted his memory. It related +that when the Spaniards had taken possession of the +newly-discovered island they called Hispaniola—now +Cuba—they began to trade in the Indians, who were +shipped off as slaves to various regions. The island +found itself in want of Indians, and having heard that +the neighbouring Lucayan Isles were full of them, +asked permission of King Ferdinand to allow them to +bring these Lucayans over to Hispaniola, “that they +might enjoy the preaching and political customs” +which they (the Spaniards) had introduced. Having +received this permission, the Spaniards went over to +the Lucayans and told those simple islanders that they +had come from the paradise of their ancestors; they +said that all whom they (the Lucayans) had loved and +lost by death were now in a happy abode, enjoying +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</span>perfect repose and every felicity; and that their ships +were ready to bear them to that happy land. The +poor Lucayans crowded with laughter and joy to the +Spanish ships; the light of the Blessed Isle shone +upon their faces. They sailed away from their island +home, where they had known only peace and friendship, +and were soon all working in dark mines under +the slave-driver’s scourge. The kid was seethed in +its mother’s milk.</p> + +<p>Henoch read and re-read this tragic history, and +looked out over the sea westward. What a fearful +fate was that of hearts that followed a dream of paradise +which led them into slavery and despair! But +slavery, what is it? Is it only the subjection of one +will to another? or bondage of the body to toil for +others? May there not be islanders, even amid +continents, following dreams of paradise, and of +clasping their ancestral dead, into spiritual slavery, +into a living entombment among skeletons and +simulacra of things for ever turned to dust?</p> + +<p>In the vision of Henoch there arose a memory of +the ancient Synagogue at Prague. His eyes filled +with tears as he recalled the dear and tender faces that +he had seen there. His kind father, his gentle mother, +the good-hearted neighbours, the once happy circle of +playmates—how fair and peaceful that Lucaya had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</span>been! But it was all at the mercy of a bit of dirt +come down from the thirteenth century, consecrated +by awe of four letters of a dead language. Under +that spell kindly hearts had turned to stone, suspicions +arisen, fear and dread, and from the ruin of a happy +home he had been sent to wander through the world. +The dream of an ancestral paradise had made that +blackened Synagogue as dark a mine as any in which +the discoverers of the New World set the islanders to +toil; it had imprisoned the Jewish genius and chained +the Jewish heart.</p> + +<p>One morning, when his thought was full of these +reflections, and the book received from the ancient +Jew at Havre was open before him, Henoch caught +his first sight of the New World, radiant in the sunshine. +He resolved that into that land of fresh opportunity +he would carry no dogma or custom which +rested upon tradition or authority. In that land he +saw the human race given a fresh opportunity, and he +also would begin again. The Old World had followed +its dreams of heaven through massacres and martyrdoms +into a dreary and endless routine of wrong, +which found its fit symbol in that fable his experience +could well interpret, of an eternal Wanderer.</p> + +<p>His own race had been mainly responsible for that +fatal misdirection of the energies and enthusiasm of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</span>the Old World which, had it not sought a Paradise +among the dead, might have made the earth a paradise +for the living. Now he would consecrate his +powers to persuade the people of the human race, to +which in America he might belong, to burn behind +them all these holy ships of Zion in which the Past +might be imported, and to receive the Past only as it +might be able to minister to science, or might come in +confessions of the moral ruin it had wrought, as a +warning for the new Age.</p> + +<p>In the New World, Henoch began his work of +founding societies whose religion is to perform divine +service for mankind, to make every day eternal, and +to steadily transfigure man with the shining light of +science and pure raiment of a renovated world. The +wanderings of Henoch have changed to unhasting, unresting +progressions, traceable in fair transformations. +His eloquence, which has learned every sweet and +subtle tone of the Past, and caught the brave accents +of hope, wins the Christian from his cross and the +Jew from his altar. He is still a welcome Voice in the +cities, sierras, savannas, eldorados, crying <span class="smcap">The Kingdom +of Man is at hand</span>.</p> + + +<p class="center p2">THE END.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES"> + FOOTNOTES + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_1" href="#FNanchor_1_1" class="label">[1]</a> Some excellent remarks on this subject, and historical +illustrations, are contained in an article in the late <cite>Theological +Review</cite> (July, 1871) on the “Nero Saga,” by W. M. W. Call.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_2" href="#FNanchor_2_2" class="label">[2]</a> The <cite>Heimskringla</cite>. Translated by Samuel Laing. Longmans, +1844. <abbr title="volume">Vol.</abbr> <abbr title="1">i.</abbr>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 225.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_3" href="#FNanchor_3_3" class="label">[3]</a> Macaulay’s “<cite class="nonitalic">History of England</cite>,” <abbr title="chapter">ch.</abbr> <abbr title="8">viii.</abbr> Fourth edition.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_4" href="#FNanchor_4_4" class="label">[4]</a> “<cite lang="fr" class="nonitalic">La Morte d’Arthur</cite>.” Compiled by Sir Thomas Mallory +(Conybeare’s edition). Moxon, 1868, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 404. The Cornish +legend was that Arthur would return to drive the Saxons from +Britain. Similar stories are told of Sir Gawaine, Ogier, and +others.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_5" href="#FNanchor_5_5" class="label">[5]</a> “<cite>Demonology and Devil-lore</cite>.” (Index.) See Sir G. W. +Cox, “<cite>Mythology of the Aryan Nations</cite>.” Keightley, “<cite>Fairy +Mythology</cite>,” <abbr title="1">i.</abbr> 74, <i><abbr title="and following">sq.</abbr></i> <cite>Folk-lore Record</cite>, <abbr title="2">ii.</abbr> 1, <i><abbr title="and following">sq.</abbr></i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_6" href="#FNanchor_6_6" class="label">[6]</a> Tylor, <cite>Primitive Culture</cite>, <abbr title="1">i.</abbr> 318.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_7" href="#FNanchor_7_7" class="label">[7]</a> Haug’s <cite class="nonitalic">Essays</cite>, <abbr>etc.</abbr>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 277.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_8" href="#FNanchor_8_8" class="label">[8]</a> Max Müller’s <cite>Science of Language</cite>, <abbr title="volume">vol.</abbr> <abbr title="2">ii.</abbr> <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 563.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_9" href="#FNanchor_9_9" class="label">[9]</a> See the statement by one of the interlocutors in <abbr>Dr.</abbr> Kalisch’s +admirable work <cite>Path and Goal</cite>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 348. (Longmans, 1880.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_10" href="#FNanchor_10_10" class="label">[10]</a> See Ewald’s <cite lang="de">Geschichte des Volkes Israel</cite>, <abbr title="1">i.</abbr> 353 (Russell +Martineau’s Translation, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 264, <i><abbr title="and following">sq.</abbr></i>). For traditions concerning +Seth, see also my <cite>Demonology and Devil-lore</cite>, as per Index.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_11" href="#FNanchor_11_11" class="label">[11]</a> Pierotti; <cite>Customs and Traditions of Palestine</cite>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_12" href="#FNanchor_12_12" class="label">[12]</a> When the abyss between biblical and other mythology has +ceased to be so convenient, perhaps there may be traced some +connection between the ravens that fed Elias and those birds +of Odin that circle around Raven’s Hill where Barbarossa sleeps; +and also between Elias and our folk-tales of Æolus.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13_13" href="#FNanchor_13_13" class="label">[13]</a> It would be an interesting question, but one that cannot be +discussed here, to consider how far the idea of eternal Wanderers +may have been primarily connected with the ever-returning +heavenly bodies. Ewald and Goldziher agree that the years +of Enoch’s visible life, 365, indicate the solar year. Ewald +thinks he was probably a god of the New Year.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14_14" href="#FNanchor_14_14" class="label">[14]</a> See Professor Drummond’s “<cite class="nonitalic">The Jewish Messiah</cite>,” <abbr>etc.</abbr> +In Haug’s <cite>Essays</cite> will be found a full account of Yima and his +earthly paradise.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_15_15" href="#FNanchor_15_15" class="label">[15]</a> The blindness ascribed to Teiresias presents a curious +coincidence with that attributed to Lamech in Legendary Art, +which leads to his accidentally killing Cain with an arrow. In +both cases the significance probably is that of one who is blind +to immediate consequences while seeing or carrying out the +decrees of Fate.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_16_16" href="#FNanchor_16_16" class="label">[16]</a> <abbr>Mrs.</abbr> Jameson (<cite>Sacred and Legendary Art</cite>, <abbr title="1">i.</abbr>, 208) has +given fully the legend of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> James. In the year 936 he appeared +to King Ramirez in Spain promising him a victory over the +Moors, and, on the following day, he (<abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> James) appeared at +the head of the army on a milk-white horse, when sixty thousand +Moors were slain; hence the Spanish war-cry “Santiago.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_17_17" href="#FNanchor_17_17" class="label">[17]</a> The sacred footprints of Christ are also pointed out on the +Mount of Olives, and at Poitiers, Arles, Fécamp, Rheims, and +Soissons.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_18_18" href="#FNanchor_18_18" class="label">[18]</a> Herbelot: <cite lang="fr"><abbr title="Bibliothèque Orientale">Bibl. Orient.</abbr></cite> <abbr title="3">iii.</abbr> <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 607 (<abbr title="referenced">ref.</abbr> by Grässe).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_19_19" href="#FNanchor_19_19" class="label">[19]</a> A curious instance of the supremacy of the artist over the +man, when Goethe’s horror of dogs is remembered. Goethe +threw up his connection with Weimar Theatre because Carl +August insisted on admitting, to ‘perform’ on the stage, the +animal which this poem introduces into Paradise.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_20_20" href="#FNanchor_20_20" class="label">[20]</a> This legend may, in turn, have helped to create the figure +of Don Juan, the unsaintly Wanderer whose story is possibly +related to the mythology we are considering. There are +interesting suggestions in Le Sage’s <cite lang="fr">Diable Boiteux</cite>, but the +figure of Don Juan awaits further study.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_21_21" href="#FNanchor_21_21" class="label">[21]</a> The present grotto was built in 1879. The old one, which +I saw the year before, had on its ceiling faint frescoes of the +sun, moon, and stars—recalling the legend of the Seven +Sleepers of Ephesus who turned their backs on Divus Cæsar, +saying they would worship him alone who made the sun, moon, +and stars. The angel Gabriel, who led them into Paradise, +guided them mythologically to Touraine, of old called “the Paradise +of France.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_22_22" href="#FNanchor_22_22" class="label">[22]</a> This legend has been discussed by <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Call, in an essay +already referred to (<abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 30). From references kindly supplied by +him, I incline to believe it of Eastern origin. It is mentioned +by Tacitus (<cite class="nonitalic"><abbr title="Histories">Hist.</abbr></cite> <abbr title="2">ii.</abbr> 81), and by the <cite class="nonitalic">Sibylline Oracles</cite> (<abbr title="4">iv.</abbr>), at +nearly the same period. Suetonius, Commodianus, Victorious, +and Sulpicias Severus, were familiar with the story that Nero +was still alive. Neander, Merivale, and Canon Farrar, connect +the legend with the formation of the theory of an Antichrist.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_23_23" href="#FNanchor_23_23" class="label">[23]</a> <cite>Introduction to the Science of Language</cite>, <abbr title="volume">vol.</abbr> <abbr title="2">ii.</abbr> <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 246. “It +is remarkable,” adds Professor Sayce, “that a French range of +hills in the neighbourhood of Vienne bears the same name as +the Swiss mountain, and from the same cause. Vienne, however +was actually the place to which Pilate was banished; and +the accidental coincidence is a striking example of the impossibility +of our discovering historic truth in a myth, although +we may know from other sources that it has accidentally +attached itself to a real event. Close to Vienne is a ruin called +the ‘<span lang="fr">Tour de Mauconseil</span>,’ from which, it is said, Pilate threw +himself in despair. But the value of the legend may be easily +estimated when we learn that the tower is really a <i lang="fr">tête-du-pont</i> +built by Philippe de Valois.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_24_24" href="#FNanchor_24_24" class="label">[24]</a> <cite>Emanuel Swedenborg; his Life and Writings.</cite> By +William White. (Simpkin, Marshall and <abbr title="Company">Co.</abbr>, 1868.) <abbr title="page">P.</abbr> 197, <i><abbr title="and following">sq.</abbr></i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_25_25" href="#FNanchor_25_25" class="label">[25]</a> <cite lang="de">Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart.</cite> <abbr>Dr.</abbr> Adolf +Wuttke. Berlin, 1869.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_26_26" href="#FNanchor_26_26" class="label">[26]</a> <cite lang="de">Deutsche Mythologie</cite>, <abbr title="13">xiii.</abbr> 5, 6. (<abbr title="Translated">Tr.</abbr> by J. S. Stallybrass. +Sonnenschein and Allen, 1880.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_27_27" href="#FNanchor_27_27" class="label">[27]</a> <cite>The Gentleman’s Magazine</cite>, July, 1880. <i>Wodan, the Wild +Huntsman, and the Wandering Jew.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_28_28" href="#FNanchor_28_28" class="label">[28]</a> See Knight’s <cite>Shakspeare</cite>, notes to the <cite>Merchant of Venice</cite>.—Blanco +White, in his <cite>Letters from Spain</cite> (1806), speaking of +the Passion Week shows, says: “The dress of the Apostle John +is green, that of Judas yellow; and so intimately associated +is this circumstance with the idea of the traitor, that it has +brought that colour into universal discredit.... The Inquisition +has adopted it for the <i lang="es">Sambeníto</i>, a coat of infamy, which +persons convicted of heresy are compelled to wear. The red +hair of Judas, like Peter’s baldness, seems to be agreed upon by +all the painters and sculptors of Europe. <i>Judas’ hair</i> is a usual +name in Spain; and a similar appellation, it should seem, was +used in England in Shakspeare’s time. ‘His hair’ says Rosalind, +‘is of the dissembling colour.’ To which Celia answers +‘Something browner than Judas’s.’”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_29_29" href="#FNanchor_29_29" class="label">[29]</a> <cite>English and Scottish Ballads</cite>, <abbr title="8">viii.</abbr> 78.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_30_30" href="#FNanchor_30_30" class="label">[30]</a> Morrison’s translation (Bohn).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_31_31" href="#FNanchor_31_31" class="label">[31]</a> Robert Browning: “Holy-Cross Day.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_32_32" href="#FNanchor_32_32" class="label">[32]</a> “<span lang="fr">Quel est donc l’origine et la date de cette légende? Je la +crois, comme celle du voile de sainte Véronique <span id="TN4">et généralement +comme toutes</span> les histoires relatives à la Passion, née vers le +quatrième siècle, à Constantinople, et contemporaine de sainte +Hélène et de la découverte de la vraie croix. Mais ces traditions +sont restées longtemps orales.</span>”—<cite lang="fr">Revue des Deux Mondes</cite>, +<abbr title="December">Dec.</abbr> 1, 1833. Published as introduction to Quinet’s “Ahasuerus.” +Goethe connects Saint Veronica with Ahasuerus in the plan of +his intended work elsewhere given. Veronica, whose name +means the <em>true portrait</em> (<i><abbr>i.e.</abbr></i> of Christ which was retained on the +apron with which she wiped the sweat from his face), would be +a natural counterpart of the man who refused all succour to the +fainting sufferer. In enthusiasm about the <em>true cross</em> might be +born a myth of the <em>true image</em>, and of a “witness” to both.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_33_33" href="#FNanchor_33_33" class="label">[33]</a> <cite>Nineteenth Century</cite>, May, 1880.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_34_34" href="#FNanchor_34_34" class="label">[34]</a> “<cite>Study of Shakspeare.</cite>” (Chatto and Windus.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_35_35" href="#FNanchor_35_35" class="label">[35]</a> <cite lang="fr">Le Mahabarata</cite>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 241.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_36_36" href="#FNanchor_36_36" class="label">[36]</a> The ‘omnificent,’ who offered up all worlds in a general +sacrifice, and ended by sacrificing himself.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_37_37" href="#FNanchor_37_37" class="label">[37]</a> <cite>Madoc</cite>, <abbr title="11">xi.</abbr> This, however, is contrary to Welsh orthodoxy. +I remember being present at a dinner-company in Wales, given +to Ralph Waldo Emerson, when a gentleman present was +sceptical enough to assure the eminent American that though +he had often passed the traditional spot of Merlin’s aërial +prison, he had never heard any voice from the air, and did not +believe the story. Emerson answered: “You must be a bold +man.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_38_38" href="#FNanchor_38_38" class="label">[38]</a> <cite>Folk-lore of the Northern Counties.</cite> Published for the +Folk-lore Society by Satchell, Peyton and <abbr title="Company">Co.</abbr> 1879. <abbr title="Page">P.</abbr> 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_39_39" href="#FNanchor_39_39" class="label">[39]</a> The outlines of German poems that follow, are condensed +from a pamphlet entitled:—<cite lang="de">Die Sage vom ‘Ewigen Juden,’ ihre +poetische Wandlung und Fortbildung</cite>. Von Friedrich Helbig. +Berlin, 1874. For this pamphlet and assistance in its translation +I am indebted to Fräulein Almata Jacobi (Bremen).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_40_40" href="#FNanchor_40_40" class="label">[40]</a> <cite>Superstition and Force.</cite> By Henry C. Lea, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 26. Philadelphia, +1878.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_41_41" href="#FNanchor_41_41" class="label">[41]</a> <cite>Nathan the Wise.</cite> From the German, with an introduction, +by R. Willis, <abbr class="spell">M.D.</abbr> London: Williams and Norgate.</p></div> + +<div class="transnote"> +<h2 class="nobreak">Transcriber’s Note</h2> + +<p> +Some inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been +retained. +</p> + +<ul> +<li> +<abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 5: changed “rimće” to “rimée” (<a href="#TN1">the Chronique rimée of Philippe de Mousket</a>) +</li> +<li> +<abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 44: changed “prononnced” to “pronounced” (<a href="#TN2">destiny pronounced by his father</a>) +</li> +<li> +<abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 79: changed “nside” to “inside” (<a href="#TN3">serpents and iron prongs inside</a>) +</li> +<li> +<abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 121 (footnote 32): changed “généralment” to “généralement” (<a href="#TN4">et généralement comme toutes</a>) +</li> +<li> +<abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 148: changed “Shylook’s” to “Shylock’s” (<a href="#TN5">his part of Shylock’s penalty</a>) +</li> +<li> +<abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 230: changed “guage” to “gauge” (<a href="#TN6">Nor in security scrupulous to gauge</a>) +</li> +<li> +<abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 254: changed “taughthim” to “taught him” (<a href="#TN7">had taught him otherwise</a>) +</li> +<li> +<abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 269: changed “rest” to “test” (<a href="#TN8">the +test and register of civilisation</a>) +</li> +</ul> +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77755 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/77755-h/images/cover.png b/77755-h/images/cover.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3c4d1e --- /dev/null +++ b/77755-h/images/cover.png diff --git a/77755-h/images/i_logo.png b/77755-h/images/i_logo.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e19a04d --- /dev/null +++ b/77755-h/images/i_logo.png diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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