Page:EB1911 - Volume 23.djvu/891

 poetry for inspiration. He collected Rumanian popular songs and

ballads (Doine, 1844) (Lǎcrǎmioare, 1853). In Pasteluri (1867) he introduced admirable pictures of popular life into Rumanian poetry. In Legende (1871) and Ostaşii nostrii (1877) he strikes the patriotic note. His fame rests on his lyrical poetry alone, which retains some of the charm of popular poetry. Alecsandri is less successful in his dramas, most of which are adaptations from French originals; the only merit of his novels is that amidst the phonetic and philological turmoil he kept to the purer language of the people.

From Alecsandri there is a natural transition to his great rival, who was also his superior in depth of thought and in mastery of

form and language, the great poet of pessimism, (q.v.). Mention may also be made of Matilde Cugler Poni (b. 1853), who published some admirable short poems in the Rumanian reviews (Poesii, 1888). Veronica Micle (1853-1889) belongs to the same circle of gifted Moldavian women (Poesii, 1887). But all these men or women disappear with the appearance of Eminescu, who, like Bolintineanu, started a new school of poetry and left a deep and growing influence upon the new generation. His best follower, though possessing originality of his own, is A. Vlahuţǎ (b. 1859). G. Coşbuc, who has risen more recently to fame, is the poet of the unfortunate Rumanian peasant, emancipated only in name and on paper, and a prey to greedy landowners and to a medieval administration. The poets of this school drew their inspiration from popular poetry, and all of them were sons of the lower middle class or of peasants, who by dint of heavy work and great hardship were able to rise above the narrow social conditions in which they were born.

Somewhat different has been the development of the Rumanian prose writers. They suffered in consequence of the philological

confusion brought about by Eliade and his assistants, mostly men who after 1848 immigrated from Transylvania and brought with them their own prejudices and narrow intolerance. Too great influence was accorded to them, and the result was that for a long time scarcely a single Rumanian novelist or historian can be mentioned. It was only after N. Bǎlcescu had undertaken the edition of the ancient Walachian chronicles, and had found in them admirable prose writers, that he ventured on a continuous history (1851-52) of the Rumanians under Michael the Brave, written not as a didactic treatise but as a poem in prose—full of colour and of energy. A. Odobescu, the friend and literary executor of Bǎlcescu, was a consummate scholar of ancient and medieval antiquities, and wrote a history of ancient art. His Pseudkynegetikos is an unsurpassed model of elegant writing and of fine irony. What Alecsandri was for verse, Odobescu was for prose. He also created the Rumanian historical novel, by his Mihnea Vodǎ (1858) and Doamna Kiajna (1860). The first novel describing human nature in everyday life is the Ciocoii vechi şi noi (1863) of Nicolae Filimon (1819-1865). In Moldavia where the knowledge of the old chroniclers had not entirely died out and disturbing philological influences were not so acutely felt, we find the vigorous writings of Mihail Cogǎlniceanu—one of the leading spirits of the 19th century, the greatest mind and the real founder of Rumania. Cogǎlniceanu published various reviews, some of a political, others of a more literary character, such as the Dacia literarǎ (1840) and Archiva româneasca (1845-46); he has also the great merit of having published for the first time a collection of the Moldavian chronicles. G. Asaki (1788-1871), a second Eliade, helped to inaugurate a literary reform in Moldavia; but the result was disappointing, until the literary society known as the Junimea was started, in the 'seventies, by Titu Maiorescu (b. 1839), who was then a professor at Jassy. Titu Maiorescu put a stop to the prevailing Latinism, and turned the current of Rumanian literature into a more healthy channel, by the publication of his Critice (1874).

Ioan Ghica, a contemporary of the revolutionaries of 1848, gathered his recollections of those agitated times into two volumes, Amintiri (1890) and Scrisori cǎtre V. Alecsandri (1887), which besides their historical value have become a model of Rumanian prose. Among writers of fiction three names stand out prominently: Ion Slavici (b. 1848) describes the life of the people, notably of the Transylvanian peasants, in short stories, Nuvele din popor. Barbu Stefǎnescu de la Vrancea (b. 1858) also wrote short popular stories characterized by a wealth of imagery and richness of language; but the characters are all mostly unreal and exaggerated. The best known collections are Sultǎnica (1885) and Trubadurul (1887). Ioan Caragiali (b. 1852), the most popular Rumanian dramatist of modern times, who has brought on the stage living types of the lower and middle classes, and has skilfully portrayed the effect of modern veneer on old customs, is also the author of the powerful short novel Faclia de paşte. Dobrogeanu Gherea (b. 1853) has in his Studii critice (1890 sqq.) been a ruthless but none the less judicious critic.

Curiously enough, there is not a single novel in the Rumanian literature with a sustained plot; none which presents a study of the development of human character amid the multifarious vicissitudes of life. The reason for this deficiency is perhaps the unsettled conditions of Rumanian life, and the lack of a profound and long-established civilization; or it may be found in the unstable and

fickle character of the people. Whatever the cause may be, while Rumanian poetry could well compare with that of any Western nation, in the domain of prose writing, and of novels in particular, one must look to the future to fill up the gap now existing.

There existed in Rumania another set of literary monuments at least as old as any of the books hitherto enumerated,

but which appealed to a wider circle. Rumanian folk-literature contains both popular written books and oral songs, ballads, &c. It is advisable to group the material in three sections: (1) the romantic and secular literature; (2) the religious literature;—both of these being written—and (3) the modern collections of ballads, songs, tales, &c.

To the first belong the oldest books, such as the History of Alexander the Great, which was known in Rumania in the 17th century. It rests mostly upon a Sloveno-Greek text and is of the utmost interest for the study of this cycle of legends. The first printed copy appeared in 1794, and has been reprinted in innumerable editions. Next comes the legend of Constantine, of his town and his exploits—a remarkable collection of purely Byzantine legends. In addition to these there is the history of St Sylvester and the conversion of Constantine, &c., all still in MS. The History of Barlaam and Ioasaf (see ) may also be mentioned here, for it appealed to the people not so much for its religious interest as for the romantic career of the hero. The parables and apologues contained in the legend were incorporated into the Teachings of Prince Neagoe, and were also circulated separately; they are found in many old MSS. Udrişte (Uriil) Nǎsturel translated the History from the Slavonic in 1640. One of its episodes, the farewell song of the prince departing into the forest, has since become one of the most widespread popular songs. Of similar oriental origin is the Dream of Mamer, the interpretation of which goes back to the Panchatantra, and must have reached Rumania early in the 18th century, probably in Slavonic. The history of Syntippa and the Seven Masters has also become a popular book. It was translated from the Greek version. To the same cycle of oriental tales belongs the Halima, already described, which G. Gorjeanu printed (3 vols., 1835-37) as his own work. The History of Arkir and Anadam, printed by Anton Pann from older MSS., is the now famous Old Testament apocryphon of Akyrios the Wise, mentioned in Tobit and found in many languages. In Rumanian it rests on an older Greek-Slavonic text, and owes its great popularity to the wise and witty proverbs it contains. “Esop,” whose wonderful biography (by Planudes) agrees in many points with Arkir, has also become one of the Rumanian popular books. The history of Bertoldo, which, though of Italian origin, reached Rumania through a Greek translation, belongs to the same cycle of rustic wisdom and cunning, and is the last representative of an old series of legends clustering round the figures of Solomon and Ashmodai, or Solomon and Markolph. These books are of course anonymous, most of them being translations and adaptations. One man, however, stands out prominently in this section of romantic and secular folk-literature. This was Anton Pann, who was born in 1797 at Slivden, of Bulgarian parentage, and died at Bucharest in 1854. Carried away by the Russians in his early youth, he settled in Rumania, learned Church music, and became one of its best exponents, married four times, had an adventurous life, but lived among the people for whom he wrote and composed his tunes. In about twenty years he published no less than fifty books, all of them still popular. Besides his edition of the Rumanian Church service-books with musical notation, he published a series of tales, proverbs and songs either from older texts or from oral information; and he made the first collection of popular songs, Spitalul amorului, “The Hospital of Love” (1850-53), with tunes either composed by himself or obtained from the gipsy musicians who alone performed them. Of his numerous writings two or three are of the greatest interest to folklore. His Povestea vorbii (first ed. 1 vol., 1847; 2nd ed. 3 vols., 1851-53) is a large collection of proverbs ingeniously connected with one another and leading up to or starting from a popular tale exemplifying the proverb. The Fabule şi istorioare (2 vols., 1839-41) is a collection of short popular stories in rhyme; Sezştoarea la tarǎ (1852-53) is a description of the Rumanian Spinnstube, for which the peasants gather in one of their houses on a winter's night, the girls and women spinning and working, the young men telling tales, proverbs, riddles, singing songs, &c. Pann also collected the jokes of the Turkish jester, Nasreddin, under the title of Nǎsdrǎvǎniile lui Nastratin Hogea (1853), also in rhyme. He also published a collection of Christmas carols, set to music by himself; these are still sung by boys on Christmas night.

Far larger than the secular is the religious popular literature; it comprises many apocryphal tales from the Old and the New Testaments, and not a few of the heretical tales circulated by the various sects of Asia Minor and Thracia, which percolated into Rumania through the medium of Slavonic. A brief enumeration of the