An Essay Toward a History of Shakespeare in Norway - Martin Brown Ruud (book club reads .TXT) 📗

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the risk of being called an eccentric. Modern languages then offered no

avenue to preferment, and why, forsooth, did men attend lectures and

take examinations except to gain the means of earning a livelihood? He

justifies his interest, however, by the seriousness and industry with

which Shakespeare is studied in Germany and England. With the founts of

this study he is apparently familiar, and with the influence of

Shakespeare on Lessing, Goethe, and the lesser romanticists. It is

interesting to note, too, that two scholars, well known in widely

different fields, Monrad, the philosopher--for some years a sort of Dr.

Johnson in the literary circles of Christiania--and Unger, the scholarly

editor of many Old Norse texts, assisted him in his work.

 

The character of Hauge's work is best seen in his notes. They consist of

a careful defense of every liberty he takes with the text, explanations

of grammatical constructions, and interpretations of debated matters.

For example, he defends the witches on the ground that they symbolize

the power of evil in the human soul.

 

  Man kan sige at Shakespeare i dem og deres Slæng har givet de

  nytestamentlige Dæmoner Kjød og Blod.

 

(We may say that Shakespeare in them and their train has endowed the

demons of the New Testament with flesh and blood). Again, he would

change the word _incarnadine_ to _incarnate_ on the ground that _Twelfth

Night V_ offers a similar instance of the corrupt use of _incardinate_

for _incarnate_. The word occurs, moreover, in English only in this

passage.[13] Again, in his note to Act IV, he points out that the

dialogue in which Malcolm tests the sincerity of Macduff is taken almost

verbatim from Holinshed. "In performing the play," he suggests, "it

should, perhaps, be omitted as it very well may be without injury to the

action since the complication which arises through Malcolm's suspicion

of Macduff is fully and satisfactorily resolved by the appearance of

Rosse." And his note to a passage in Act V is interesting as showing

that, wide and thorough as was Hauge's acquaintance with Shakespearean

criticism, he had, besides, a first-hand knowledge of the minor

Elizabethan dramatists. I give the note in full. "_The way to dusty

death--_

 

  Til dette besynderlige Udtryk, kan foruden hvad Knight og Dyce

  have at citere, endnu citeres af Fords _Perkin Warbeck_, II, 2,

  "I take my leave to travel to my dust."

 

    [13. This is, of course, incorrect. Cf. Macbeth, Variorum

    Edition. Ed. Furness. Phila. 1903, p. 40. Note.]

 

Hauge was a careful and conscientious scholar. He knew his field and

worked with the painstaking fidelity of the man who realizes the

difficulty of his task. The translation he gave is of a piece with the

man--faithful, laborious, uninspired. But it is, at least, superior to

Rosenfeldt and Sander, and Hauge justified his work by giving to his

countrymen the best version of _Macbeth_ up to that time.

 

Monrad himself reviewed Hauge's _Macbeth_ in a careful and well-informed

article, in _Nordisk Tidsskrift for Videnskab og Literatur_, which I

shall review later.

 

 

D

 

One of the most significant elements in the intellectual life of modern

Norway is the so-called Landsmaal movement. It is probably unnecessary

to say that this movement is an effort on the part of many Norwegians to

substitute for the dominant Dano-Norwegian a new literary language based

on the "best" dialects. This language, commonly called the Landsmaal,

is, at all events in its origin, the creation of one man, Ivar Aasen.

Aasen published the first edition of his grammar in 1848, and the first

edition of his dictionary in 1850. But obviously it was not enough to

provide a grammar and a word-book. The literary powers of the new

language must be developed and disciplined and, accordingly, Aasen

published in 1853 _Prøver af Landsmaalet i Norge_. The little volume

contains, besides other material, seven translations from foreign

classics; among these is Romeo's soliloquy in the balcony scene.[14]

(Act II, Sc. 1) This modest essay of Aasen's, then, antedates Hauge's

rendering of _Macbeth_ and constitutes the first bit of Shakespeare

translation in Norway since the _Coriolanus_ of 1818.

 

    [14. Ivar Aasen--_Skrifter i Samling_--Christiania. 1911, Vol. 11,

165. Reprinted from _Prøver af Landsmaalet i Norge, Første

    Udgave_. Kristiania. 1853, p. 114.]

 

Aasen knew that Landsmaal was adequate to the expression of the homely

and familiar. But would it do for belles lettres?

 

  Han lær aat Saar, som aldri kende Saar.--

  Men hyst!--Kvat Ljos er dat dar upp i glaset?

  Dat er i Aust, og Julia er Soli.

  Sprett, fagre Sol, og tyn dan Maane-Skjegla,

  som alt er sjuk og bleik av berre Ovund,

  at hennar Taus er fagrar' en ho sjølv.

  Ver inkje hennar Taus; dan Ovundsykja,

  so sjukleg grøn er hennar Jomfru-Klædnad;

  d'er berre Narr, som ber han. Sleng han av!

  Ja, d'er mi Fru, d'er dan eg held i Hugen;

  aa, giv ho hadde vist dat, at ho er dat!

  Ho talar, utan Ord. Kvat skal ho med dei?

  Ho tala kann med Augom;--eg vil svara.

  Eg er for djerv; d'er inkje meg ho ser paa,

  d'er tvo av fegste Stjernom dar paa Himlen,

  som gekk ei Ærend, og fekk hennar Augo

  te blinka i sin Stad, til dei kem atter.

  Enn um dei var dar sjølve Augo hennar.

  Kinn-Ljosken hennar hadde skemt dei Stjernor,

  som Dagsljos skemmer Lampen; hennar Augo

  hadd' straatt so bjart eit Ljos i Himmels Høgdi,

  at Fuglar song og Trudde, dat var Dag.

  Sjaa, kor ho hallar Kinni lint paa Handi,

  Aa, giv eg var ein Vott paa denne Handi

  at eg fekk strjuka Kinni den.--Ho talar.--

  Aa tala meir, Ljos-Engel, med du lyser

  so klaart i denne Natti kring mitt Hovud,

  som naar dat kem ein utfløygd Himmels Sending

  mot Folk, som keika seg og stira beint upp

  med undrarsame kvit-snudd' Augo mot han,

  naar han skrid um dan seinleg-sigand' Skyi

  og sigler yver høge Himmels Barmen.

 

It was no peasant jargon that Aasen had invented; it was a literary

language of great power and beauty with the dignity and fulness of any

other literary medium. But it was new and untried. It had no literature.

Aasen, accordingly, set about creating one. Indeed, much of what he

wrote had no other purpose. What, then, shall we say of the first

appearance of Shakespeare in "Ny Norsk"?

 

First, that it was remarkably felicitous.

 

  Kinn-Ljosken hadde skemt dei Stjernor

  som Dagsljos skemmer Lampen, hennar Augo, etc.

 

That is no inadequate rendering of:

 

  Two of the fairest stars in all the Heaven, etc.

 

And equally good are the closing lines beginning:

 

  Aa tala meir, Ljos-Engel med du lyser, etc.

 

Foersom is deservedly praised for his translation of the same lines, but

a comparison of the two is not altogether disastrous to Aasen, though,

to be sure, his lines lack some of Foersom's insinuating softness:

 

  Tal atter, Lysets Engel! thi du straaler

  i Natten saa høiherlig over mig

  som en af Nattens vingede Cheruber

  for dødeliges himmelvendte Øine, etc.

 

But lines like these have an admirable and perfect loveliness:

 

  naar han skrid um dan seinleg-sigand' Skyi

  og sigler yver høge Himmels Barmen.

 

Aasen busied himself for some years with this effort to naturalize his

Landsmaal in all the forms of literature. Apparently this was always

uppermost in his thoughts. We find him trying himself in this sort of

work in the years before and after the publication of _Prøver af

Landsmaalet_. In _Skrifter i Samling_ is printed another little fragment

of _Romeo and Juliet_, which the editor, without giving his reasons,

assigns to a date earlier than that of the balcony scene. It is

Mercutio's description of Queen Mab (Act I, Sc. 4). This is decidedly

more successful than the other. The vocabulary of the Norwegian dialects

is rich in words of fairy-lore, and one who knew this word treasure as

Aasen did could render the fancies of Mercutio with something very near

the exuberance of Shakespeare himself:

 

  No ser eg vel, at ho hev' vore hjaa deg

  ho gamle Mabba, Nærkona aat Vettom.

  So lita som ein Adelstein i Ringen

  paa fremste Fingren paa ein verdug Raadsmann,

  ho kjøyrer kring med smaa Soldumbe-Flokar

  paa Nasanna aat Folk, dan Tid dei søv.

  Hjulspikann' henna er av Kongleføter,

  Vognfelden er av Engjesprette-Vengjer,

  og Taumann' av den minste Kongleveven.

  Av Maanestraalanne paa Vatn er Selen,

  og av Sirissebein er Svipeskafted

  og Svipesnerten er av Agner smaa.

  Skjotskaren er eit nett graakjola My

  so stort som Holva av ein liten Mòl,

  som minste Vækja krasa kann med Fingren.

  Til Vogn ho fekk ei holut Haslenot

  av Snikkar Ikorn elder Natemakk,

  som altid var Vognmakarann' aat Vettom.[15]

 

    [15. Ivar Aasen: _Skrifter i Samling_. Christiania. 1911, Vol. I,

166.]

 

The translation ends with Mercutio's words:

 

  And being thus frightened, swears a prayer or two,

  And sleeps again.

 

In my opinion this is consummately well done--at once accurate and

redolent of poesy; and certainly Aasen would have been justified in

feeling that Landsmaal is equal to Shakespeare's most airy passages. The

slight inaccuracy of one of the lines:

 

  Av Maanestraalanne paa Vatn er Selen,

 

for Shakespeare's:

 

  The colors of the moonshine's watery beams,

 

is of no consequence. The discrepancy was doubtless as obvious to the

translator as it is to us.

 

From about the same time we have another Shakespeare fragment from

Aasen's hand. Like the Queen Mab passage, it was not published till

1911.[16] It is scarcely surprising that it is a rendering of Hamlet's

soliloquy: "To be or not to be." This is, of course, a more difficult

undertaking. For the interests that make up the life of the

people--their family and community affairs, their arts and crafts and

folk-lore, the dialects of Norway, like the dialects of any other

country, have a vocabulary amazingly rich and complete.[17] But not all

ideas belong in the realm of the every-day, and the great difficulty of

the Landsmaal movement is precisely this--that it must develop a

"culture language." To a large degree it has already done so. The rest

is largely a matter of time. And surely Ivar Aasen's translation of the

famous soliloquy proved that the task of giving, even to thought as

sophisticated as this, adequate and final expression is not impossible.

The whole is worth giving:

 

  Te vera elder ei,--d'er da her spyrst um;

  um d'er meir heirlegt i sitt Brjost aa tola

  kvar Styng og Støyt av ein hardsøkjen Lagnad

  eld taka Vaapn imot eit Hav med Harmar,

  staa mot og slaa dei veg?--Te døy, te sova,

  alt fraa seg gjort,--og i ein Sømn te enda

  dan Hjarteverk, dei tusend timleg' Støytar,

  som Kjøt er Erving til, da var ein Ende

  rett storleg ynskjande. Te døy, te sova,

  ja sova, kanskje drøyma,--au, d'er Knuten.

  Fyr' i dan Daudesømn, kva Draum kann koma,

  naar mid ha kastat av dei daudleg Bandi,

  da kann vel giv' oss Tankar; da er Sakji,

  som gjerer Useldom so lang i Livet:

  kven vilde tolt slikt Hogg og Haad i Tidi,

  slik sterk Manns Urett, stolt Manns Skamlaus Medferd,

  slik vanvyrd Elskhugs Harm, slik Rettarløysa,

  slikt Embæt's Ovmod, slik Tilbakaspenning,

  som tolug, verdug Mann fær av uverdug;

  kven vilde da, naar sjølv han kunde løysa

  seg med ein nakjen Odd? Kven bar dan Byrda

  so sveitt og stynjand i so leid ein Livnad,

  naar inkj'an ottast eitkvart etter Dauden,

  da uforfarne Land, som ingjen Ferdmann

  er komen atter fraa, da viller Viljen,

  da læt oss helder ha dan Naud, mid hava,

  en fly til onnor Naud, som er oss ukjend.

  So gjer Samviskan Slavar av oss alle,

  so bi dan fyrste, djerve, bjarte Viljen

  skjemd ut med blakke Strik av Ettertankjen

  og store Tiltak, som var Merg og Magt i,

  maa soleid snu seg um og strøyma ovugt

  og tapa Namn av Tiltak.

 

    [16. _Skrifter i Samling_, I, 168. Kristiania. 1911.]

 

    [17. Cf. Alf Torp. _Samtiden_, XIX (1908), p. 483.]

 

This is a distinctly successful attempt--exact, fluent, poetic. Compare

it with the Danish of Foersom