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No. 446, October 9 ^ 185^j
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ICitmittttt
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LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, &d
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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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MR CAItLYLE'S LIFE OF FREDERICK. THE GRE...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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No. 446, October 9 ^ 185^J
No . 446 , October 9 ^ 185 ^ j
THE LEADER .
1067
Icitmittttt
ICitmittttt ,
Literature, Science, Art, &D
LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , & d
Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and V ^ c of literature . They do not make laws—they interpre and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
Mr Caitlyle's Life Of Frederick. The Gre...
MR CAItLYLE'S LIFE OF FREDERICK . THE GREAT .
History of Friedrich the Second , called Frederick the Great . By Thomas Carlyle . Chapman and Hall . The expectation which has so long possessed the public mind for the appearance of this Book , the greatness of its hero , the importance of the historic epoch in which lie was long the most distinguished actor , equally with the high esteem in which Mr . Carlyle is held as a writer and thinker , render it impossible to do full justice to its merits within the space of one short notice . We believe , tben , that we shall best fulfil- our purpose , and shall best succeed in performing what our readers have a right to expect from us , by devoting two articles to . the subject the one with the mere preliminary intent of telling what the book is and giving an idea of its contents , the other undertaking the higher oftice of recording our opinions as to its merits and ¦¦
value . ¦ ' Mr . Carlyle ' s dislike of the eighteenth century is well known by all who have read him . His sympathies are only affected by what we may call , to borrow a metaphor from one of his early contributions to the Edinburgh liecieto , a dynamical age , an epoch of great forces concentrated in few great men . The antipodes of his hatred is a -mechanical age , in which changes are worked out by the cogs and wheels of machines , or bodies of men , rather
than by the direct blow and instantaneous effort of great minds . But Mr . Carlyle thinks that-he has found in the hero of this book a man in , but not of , the eig hteenth century . Voltaire , he tells us , he takes as the exponent of its valuable thought , and Frederick as the representative of its only heroic energy- And doubtless in addition to the attractiveness of that great actor \ ipon the historic stage , whose life and genius he has undertaken to narrate and expound , the circumstance of Voltaire being his correspondent , first his friend and then detractor , so that he can thereby bring upon the stage . together his two representative men of the century , lias been to him an additional inducement to undertake this work .
As might have been fairly expected from his previous performances ( and we have aright to measure an author in the maturity of his power , at least , by the standard elevated by him in his early writings ) , the whole work bears the mark of the most assiduous labour . You sec at . once that every pamphlet , every despatch , every letter bearing upon the subject , has been studied and mustered . The acts of every performer in the drama have been carefully weighed and reflected upon , every man arid woman ' s portrait studiously looked upon , the eye of * every speaker and actor carefully looked into .
lho beginning of the book is consummately artistic . Ho presents the figure of Frederick the Great eighty years ago , by this time regarded by Europe as its greatest general and most kingly ruler , pacing about before Sims-Souci ; nnd tficu having at once given you a poop of the goal to which he is to lead you through his volumes , ho dexterously prepares your mind for the surprise and zest which must bo immediately entertained when you turn over a few pnges to loam the ciroumslnnccs of the birth and training of tho " Princckin" whom you have just soon , with military bearing , nnd keen and ardent ; physiognomy , furrowed , with the wrinklos of thought and notion . Ho sots to his work in earnest , having so successfully gained your oar . Tho opening paragraph to which wo allude , wo lay before our readers , as a partial corrobonUion of what , wo havo said : —
About foursporo yoars ngo there-used to bo scon satin , toring on tho torrnooa of Sans-So " u " oi , for a shaft time in tho afternoon , or you might huvo met him elsewhere at an earlier hour , riding or driving in ft rapid business manner on tho open roads or through tho aoraggy wooda and avenues of tliut intricate amphibious Potsdam region , a highly interesting loan little old , man . of alert
though slightly stooping figure , whose name among strangers was King Friedrich the Second , or Frederick the Great of Prussia , and at home among the common people , who much loved and esteemed him , was Voter Fritz I _ Father Fred , —a name of familiarity which , had not bred contempt in that instance . He is a King £ very inch of him , though without the trappings of a King . Presents himself in a Spartan simplicity of vesture : no crown but an old military cocked-hat—generall y old , or trampled and kneaded into absolute softness , if new ;— - no sceptre but one like Agamemnon ' s , £ walking-stick
cut from the woods , which serves also as a riding-sticR ( with which he hits the horse " between the ears , say authors ) ; and for royal robes , a mere soldiers blue coat with red facings , coat likely to be old , and sure , to have a good deal of Spanish snuff on the breast of it ; rest ot the apparel dim , unobtrusive in colour or cut , ending m high over-knee military boots , which may be brushed (" and , I hope , kept soft with an underhand suspicion of oil ) , but are not permitted to be blackened or varnished ; Day and Martin with their soot-pots forbidden to
approach . . In the remaining portions of the proem we have a repetition , in a few sentences , of Mr . Carlyle s views of the eighteenth century , to which we have alluded ; a very fair and reasonable statement of the current English view of Frederick and his position , which view we explicitly learn at once Mr . Carlyle is going to assail ; and a summary of the encouragements and discouragements which the subject has given in its progress . Then we are introduced to the incidents of Frederick ' s birth , and expect tne . work
regularly to commence . But the travellertarnes long ere be fairly begins his journey . To . our surprise , nearly a whole volume consists ot _ an historical recapitulation , leading us back to _ the earliest origin , three centuries before the birth ot Christ , of what now constitutes the Prussian people ; and before that we even reach this early starting-point , we are conducted backwards over a generation or two of Frederick ' s immediate ancestors . , , We travel in company with successive Brandeatnr mtui i
burner Jdohcnzollerns , ougn cemurv .- ^ .-tury ; now fairly leaping the broad ditch of a dull era or two , again lingering by the way , where historic interest is more than usual and heroic prowess above the average . Margraves , Electors , Kaisers , in succession rise before us in a rapidly evolving panorama . We breathe for a time the spirit and atmosphere of the early days of Europe s primeval energy . Gradually the middle ages dawn upon us , only to enable us to discover how t . linrrmo-hlv sui acneris Brandenburg was , and how
is , in a very surprising manner !— . •• To shed some new light upon the formation of Frederick ' s character , we travel ten years back , ta the' time when his fat her was valorously engaged in the dramatically famous siege of Stralsund .. Like a comet , the Czar Peter crosses the horizon , —in a chapter—on his way back from his famous foreign travels . Then a chapter , entitled " Crown . Prince put to his schooling , " reverts , with obvious and conscientious reluctance , to proceed in the work until the foundation has been thoroughly laid , to his early days again . We learn what his tutors did for his literary culture , and what his father ' s captains and drill sergeants did for his military bearing . The retracing of our steps is so > frequent , tho transitions by ten or twenty years so instantaneous , that , until we re-read and reconsider , we are singularly apt to lose the exact sequence and tho real causal connexion of events *
but he did not , now or afterwards , ever learn to spell-He spells indeed dreadfully ill , at hi 3 first appearance on the writing stage , as we shall see by-and ^ - by ; and he continued , to the last , one of the bad spellers of his day . A circumstance which I never can fully account for , and . will leave to the reader ' s study . Ill order to show the force of the antithesis , we again append some sentences from , the " German element" chapter . So that , as we said , there are two elements for young Fritz , and highly diverse ones , | from both of which he i 3 to draw nourishment , and assimilate what he can . Besides that Edict-of-Nantes French element , and in continual contact and contrast with it , which prevails chiefly in the female quarters of the PHacjpthere is the native German element for young Fritz , of which the
centre is Papa , now come to be King , and powerfullymanifesting himself as such . An abrupt peremptory young King ; and German to the bone * Along with whom , companions to him in his social hours , and fellow-workers in his business , are a set of very rugged German sons of Nature ; differing much from the French sons of Art . Baron Grumkow , Leopold Prince of Anhalt-Dessau ( not yet called the " Old Dessauer , " being under forty yet ) , General Glasenap , Colonel Derschau , General Flans ; these , and the other nameless generals and officials , are a curious counterpart to the Camases , the Hautcharmoys and Forcades , with their nimble tongues and rapiers ; still more to the Beausobres , Achards , full of ecclesiastical logic , made of Bayle and Calvin kneaded " together ; and to the high-frizzled ladies rustling in stiff silk , with the shadow of VersailTes and of the Dragonades
alike present to them . Born Hyperboreans these others ; rough as hemp , and stout of fibre as hemp ; native products of the rigorous North . Of whom , after all _ our reading , we know little . O Heaven , they have had long lines of rugged ancestors , cast in the same rude stalwart mould , and leading their rough life there , of whom we know absolutely nothing ! Dumb all those preceding busy generations ; and this of Friedrich Wilhelm is grown almost dumb . Grim , semi-articulate Prussian men ; gone all to pipeclay arid moustache for us . Strange blond-complexioned , not unbeautiful Prussian honourable women , in hoops , brocades , and unintelligible head-gear and hair-towers- — ach Gott , they too are gone ; and their musical talk , h > the French or German language , tbat . also is gone ; and the hollow Eternities have swallowed it , as their wont
long it was before it came under the operation of general European influences . We emerge into the light of generally known history , at the era of the Thirty Years' War , which first brought the Electorate prominently forward in the system of European policy , then under formation and being consolidated . Kapidry > with almost pyrotechnic quickness , we tread with seven-league Ijoots from battle-field to battle-field , listening to the harsh clanging of trusty swords upon burgher-soldiers' armour ; and then , with equal celerity , travelling over a half century , we again land at'the point whence wo had
which nevertheless by Mr . Carlyle have been stead * fastly regarded . It is a mundane loss when a great man has left tho world without , leaving his credible physiognomic portrait behind him , This Mr . Carlyle well knows ,, and ho has searched the German galleries which contain the portraits of his characters no less as * siduously than the archives which contain the records of their acts . It is still better , if you have a succession of portraits of illustrious men , taken at different stages of their lives . Mr . Carlyle , with a zest most obvious and sincere , ever and again leaves for a time tho thread of his narrative , to tell us descriptively how Frederick looked at each successive leading step of his life . Thebook contains a series of portraits , and wo thereby learn how nianv of what wo found to bo Ins
journeyed backwards . Frederick's childhood and training arc laid boforo us under the Carlylosquo appellation of his apprenticeship , and the leading idea evolved is , that ho was subjected to two separate nnd , distinct educational influences , tho " French clement" and the " Gorman oloment ; " tho latter supplying strength and vigour , tho former the culture and polish which Frederick in his aftor literary asnects and correspondence displayed . From tho division of the chapter which explains this concomitant duality of training , wo quote the following as an illustration : —
From this Kdlct-of-Nimtos environment , which taught our young Fritz his ilrst Ivmsoiih of human behaviour—a polite sharp little Hoy , wo do hope nnd understand—ho learnud also to clothe hit * bits of notions , emotions , and garrulous uttorahilitles , in the French dialect . Lonrned to speak , and likewise , what is more important , to think , in French ^ which was otherwise quite domesticated in the Palace , and became his second mother-tongue . Not a bad dialect ; yet also none of , tho best . Very lean and shallow , if very olour and convouient ; leaving much in poor Fritz uiiuttercd , unthought , unpractised , which might otherwise have come into activity in tho course of hia life . Ito loaniod to road very soon , I presume ;
characteristics at starting , last out his life , and thereby prove themselves to have boon aoen ima genuine s and how many have bpcu ruboo . c oil uy the turmoil and trouble of his oourso . thereby proving themselves to have been accidental , and not of that doon-feulod character wluoU is * burned in than rubbed of by external omnun * stances , however cogent . From all early » torn of tho narrative wo make an oxtraofc , iu illustration ok what we lmvo said : —
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 9, 1858, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09101858/page/19/
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