They meet the situation bravely however, tell the truth, and are rewarded by the generous spirit in which it is received on the other side; where in every instance it is overlooked in consideration of the honesty with which it is avowed. So they live it down, and are happy to the end in the humble position which was their earliest refuge in misfortune, and perhaps when next we look from the window of the shrieking express-train, and see in a flash of vision, the signalman drawn up by the side of the line, holding with automatic rigidity the staff with its square of red or white bunting, we may feel drawn to him by a closer bond of human sympathy for having read the story of Auerbach's convict hero. We may, perhaps, better realise how he will feel when the train has passed, and he can return to his wife and children, and to the cares and interests of his pretty rose-bowered home, from the peep which our author has given us into the inner life of such another" Nest by the Railway.' This power of investing the lowliest lives with a high poetic charm, and the most common-place characters with a strong human interest, irrespective of all accessories of sensational incidents or pretentious elaboration of style, is what constitutes Auerbach's claim to rank with geniuses of the first order, and has gained for his works their merited and world-wide celebrity. The impression produced by them cannot be better summed up than in the pretty apostrophe addressed to their author by Ferdinand Freiligrath, and which is as applicable to these later "Dorfgeschichten," as to the earlier series which called it forth : "From the pine shadow of Black Forest glades The homespun vest and hanging braids restore. "A wondrous book! I can but tell in part The feelings roused by every page in turn; How this stirred high my loudly beating heart, And that made breath come short and temples burn; How here I bit my lips for sheer delight, And there again was forced to laugh outright. "The magic of its pages lies in this That thought has there matured what life made known; 374 ART. III.-BULGARIAN LITERATURE. 1. Bulgarski Narodni Sbornik (Bulgarian National Miscellany). By V. CHOLAKOV. Bolgrad: 1873. 2. Dejiny Bulgarského Národa (History of the Bulgarians). By K. J. JIRECEK. Prague: 1874. 3. Chansons Populaires Bulgares (Bulgarian National Songs). By A. DOZON. Paris: 1875. 4. Bulgarski Narodni Pesni (Bulgarian National Songs). Collected by the Brothers MILADINOV. Agram: 1861. OW that it is an ascertained fact that one of the results of the Congress of Berlin will be the establishment of a quasiindependent Bulgarian nationality, although somewhat mutilated, a few remarks on Bulgarian history, literature, and manners may not appear unseasonable. And the more so because little or nothing has as yet been written in English upon the subject. While a great deal of calumny has been heaped upon this unfortunate people by ignorant scribblers and superficial tourists, unacquainted with their language, there has been but little inclination among us to study soberly their history. And yet they have done much for self-culture, in spite of very great impediments. Even under Turkish rule, before the terrible orgies of Batak and the blood-bath of Philippopolis, schools were abundant in the country, and travellers have borne witness to the intelligence and spirit of the pupils. Among the boys of the Robert College at Constantinople, conducted by American missionaries, none are pointed out as showing so much ability as the Bulgarians. Ample testimony in this direction is given by the interesting little work of Mr. Jasper More, entitled "Under the Balkans." We will not write further on this subject, being anxious to escape from the heated atmosphere of politics, and will give our readers some slight sketch of the past condition of the Bulgarians, before proceeding to what is the chief business of our article their literature, oral and written. In the short notice which Gibbon has devoted to the Bulgarians in the fifteenth chapter of his great work, he has spoken with philosophic contempt of the swarms of savages who between the seventh and twelfth centuries descended from the plains of Scythia, either making occasional inroads, or definitely establishing themselves in more southern regions. "Their names," he adds, "are uncouth, their origins doubtful, their actions obscure, their superstition was blind, their valour brutal, and the uniformity of their public and private lives was neither softened by innocence nor refined by policy." In spite of the severe language of the eminent historian, we shall hope that some account of the Bulgarians, who must be included among these invaders, will not be found wholly devoid of interest. M. Jirecek, in his new "History of the Bulgarians," cited at the commencement of our article, and which, let us say once for all, is at present the most complete account of this people, incorporating the most recent ethnological and philosophical researches, begins his investigations with the earliest settlements of the Slavs south of the Danube. In the second chapter he completely overthrows the wild theory that the Thrako-Illyrians were Slavs. We have seen this opinion set forth in some English publications, but it must be added that the few Thracian words. which have come down to us cannot be traced to any Slavonic roots. This subject has been fully handled by Professor Drinov, a born Bulgarian, but now a professor in Russia, in his work, "Settlement of the Balkan Peninsula by the Slavs," and let us hope that with his exhaustive treatment the windbag will have collapsed. Already at the commencement of the third century A.D. we find Slavs settled between the Danube and the Balkan. A constant immigration was going on till the middle of the seventh century, as these hordes were more and more pushed southwards by new invaders from the East. In 681 these Slavonic settlers fell under the power of a tribe of Bulgariaus, a Ugro-finnish race, if we follow the opinion of Schafarik, Drinov, and the best authorities. The origin of these Bulgarians is one of the vexatissima quæstiones of ethnology. Some have made them Tatars: Raic held them to have been Slavs, and this view has lately been resuscitated by Professor Ilovaiski, the Russian historian, who seems never to take so much delight as in breaking a lance against all the orthodox and well-grounded decisions of Slavistic. Kerstovich, a native Bulgarian writer, of whom more anon, makes them also to have been Slavonians, but he puts the Huns under the same classification, and thus produces a veritable olla podrida of ethnology, for which we must confess we have no relish. History tells us that Kubrat, a Bulgarian prince, shook off the yoke of the Avars, and that on his death his possessions were divided among his five sons. The eldest remained in the ancient settlement on the Volga, where the ruins of their former capital, Bolgari, are still pointed out to travellers. The third son, named Asparukh, crossed the Dniester and the Dnieper, and first settled in a place called Onklos, a word in which Scha * "Zaselenie balkanskago poluostrova Slavyanami." Moscow, 1873. [Vol. CX. No. CCXVIII.]-NEW SERIES, Vol. LIV. No. II. BB farik sees the old Slavonic ongl, angulus, between the Transylvanian Alps and the Danube. From this place the Bulgarians pushed further south, as previously mentioned, till they reached the localities which they have ever since occupied, where they became mixed with the original Slavonic settlers. Drinov compares this fusion and importation of a new nomenclature to the mixture of the German Franks and the Gauls, and the adoption of a branch of the Slavonians of the Finnish name of their conquerors, whence the appellation Russian.* Our sketches of the history of this people must be very brief: we shall simply take the most salient periods, and send our readers to the pages of M. Jirecek, of whose work an excellent German translation exists. They received Christianity in the time of Boris, called by the Byzantines Bogoris, who was baptised under the name of Michael, A.D. 864. A great instrument in his conversion is said to have been his sister, who had been thirty-eight years a captive at Constantinople. He extirpated idolatry among his subjects with much cruelty, and as soon as he had accepted Christianity, seems to have been anxious to enter into relations with the Latin Church, led probably to do so by the hereditary antipathies existing between the Bulgarians and Greeks. He accordingly sent his brother to Rome, and submitted one hundred and six points to the pope, embracing every question of discipline, ceremony, and morals.+ It was about this time that Cyril and Methodius are said to have invented the Cyrillic alphabet, and to have translated the Bible into the old Slavonic tongue, but the whole question as to the nationality of these excellent men, whether they were born Slavonians or Greeks, who had learned Slavonic, what claims they have to be considered the inventors of the alphabet, and what country was the sphere of their labours, is beset with perplexities. We certainly should not think of fatiguing our readers with discussing these points in our present article. They had better be left to the specialist. We must make, however, a short, allusion to Simeon, the son of Boris, who ruled from 892 to 927, because his was the golden age of the old Bulgarian literature. Many theological and historical works were then produced, but it must be confessed that in most instances they were of but little merit. The Greek writers of the period, who served *See this subject fully discussed in Professor Thomsen's work, "Origin of the Ancient Russ." Oxford, 1877. The absurd derivation of the name Russian from a word in the Septuagint, which is found in some respectable English works, must be at once dismissed. See Milman's "Latin Christianity," vol. v. p. 250. The answers of Nicholas (who occupied the papal chair from 858 to 867) are exceedingly curious. as models, were themselves engaged in making epitomes and anthologies it was not an age of great original production. We must therefore look amongst the Bulgarian copyists for translations chiefly, and such works as these will be found, composed in the turgid and bombastic style which then characterised Byzantine literature. It is a pity that when the young and rising nation looked to a type upon which to mould its culture, it could find nothing nearer at hand than the farragos of ecclesiastical rubbish which the effete society of Constantinople could furnish. The Byzantine emperors were constantly coming into collision with the Bulgarian sovereigns, and on many occasions suffered severe defeats. Their losses, however, were destined to be avenged by Basil II., who earned the epithet of slayer of the Bulgarians, Boulyapoктóvoç. This ferocious tyrant, who concealed the most detestable vices under the mask of a rigid pietism, succeeded in completely destroying the Slavonic kingdom, owing to its internal dissensions. He is reported to have found a treasure of four hundred thousand pounds in the palace of Lychnidus, or Ochrida, a fact which makes one less inclined to pay attention to the sneers of Gibbon about the paltry splendours of Bulgarian royalty. The story is well known of Basil sending back to their Tzar, Simeon, fifteen thousand Bulgarian prisoners blinded, every hundredth captive being suffered to retain one eye, so as to act as a guide to his unfortunate companions. The Bulgarian prince is said to have died of grief, on account of this detestable act of barbarity. With the year 1019 the existence of the Bulgarian monarchy ceased for upwards of 170 years their nationality was crushed by the Greeks, but reasserted itself in the reign of the weak Isaac Angelus (1185-1195). Two brothers, Asen and Peter,* became the leaders of their nation: the feeble emperor attempted in vain to resist their efforts, and was ultimately compelled to acknowledge their independence with the best grace he could. A modern Bulgarian writer, Rakovski,† has dwelt with pleasure upon the terror inspired in the effeminate Byzantine Court by the vigorous measures of these two patriots, and quotes the words of Nicetas Choniatas, who querulously exclaims-""Оσа dè ката Ρωμαίων οἱ ἀνοσιουργοὶ οὗτοι καὶ μιαροὶ διεπράξαντο, τὶς ἄν ἔφίκοιτο λόγος, ἤ ποια διήγησις τοσαύτας κακῶν ̓Ιλιάδας συμπεριλήψεται ;" The reign of Asen the First only lasted nine years, from 1186 to 1195; he was succeeded by his brother John. We may con They were grandsons of Gabriel, the son of Samuel, the last Tzar. + See his work entitled "A few words concerning Asen the First, the great Bulgarian Tzar, and his son, Asen the Second." Published at Belgrade in 1860. |