CHAPTER X.
NIGHT THE SIXTH.
THE BEAUTIFUL RHINE.--COBLENTZ.--A ZIGZAG TO WEIMAR.--GOETHE AND SCHILLER.--THE STRANGE STORY OF FAUST.--FAUST IN ART.--THE SEVEN MOUNTAINS.--THE DRACHENFELS.--THE STORY OF THE DRAGON.--STORIES OF FREDERICK THE GREAT.--THE UNNERVED HUSSAR.
Mr. Beal occupied much of the time this evening. He thus continued thenarrative of travel:--
* * * * *
"From St. Goar to Boppard, two stations at which the Rhine boats call,is about an hour's run; but the journey is an unfailing memory. Therocky walls of the river, the continuous villages, the quaint churchesamid the vineyards and cherry orchards, the mossy meadows about themountains, the white-kerchiefed villagers, present so many varied anddelightful objects, that the eye feasts on beauty, and wondersexpectantly at what the next turn of the river will reveal. The rockshadows in the water contrast with the bright scenes above the river,and add an impression of grandeur to the effect of the whole, likeshadows on the cathedral walls that heighten the effect of therose-colored windows. Beautiful, beautiful, is the Rhine.
"Grand castles, perched on high cliffs and mountain walls, surpriseus, delight us, and vanish behind us, as the boat moves on;--theBrother Castles, Marksburg, the mountain palace Solzenfels, with theirlofty, gloomy, and barbaric grandeur, reminding one always of timeswhose loss the mind does not regret.
"And now a beautiful city comes in view, nestled at the foot of thehills, and protected by a stupendous fortress on the opposite side ofthe river. The fortress is Ehrenbreitstein, the Gibraltar of theRhine, capable of holding an army of men. It is a great arsenal now,well garrisoned in peace as in war; in short, it may be called thewatch on the Rhine.
EHRENBREITSTEIN.]
"The lovely city under its guns, on the opposite side of the river, isCoblentz. It is a gusset of houses, a V-shaped city, at the confluenceof the Rhine and Moselle. The Romans called it the city of theConfluence, or Confluentia; hence, corrupted, it is known as Coblentz.
GOETHE'S PROMENADE.]
"It is the half-way city between Cologne and Mayence, and a favoriteresting place of tourists. The summer residence of the King ofGermany is here.
"From Coblentz we made a detour into the heart of Germany, going byrail to Weimar, once called the Athens of the North. It was once theliterary centre of Germany. Here lived Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, andHerder. What the English Lake District, in the days of Wordsworth,Southey, Coleridge, Christopher North, and De Quincey was once toEngland, what Cambridge and Concord have been to America in the bestdays of its authors and poets, Weimar was to Germany at the beginningof the present century. We went there to visit the tombs and statuesof Goethe, and to gain a better knowledge of the works of these poetsfrom the associations of their composition.
"Weimar is a quaint provincial-looking town on the river Ilm. It hassome sixteen thousand inhabitants, and is the residence of the GrandDuke of Saxe-Weimar. The grounds of the palace are wonderfullybeautiful. They extend along the river, and communicate with a summerpalace called Belvedere.
"We visited the tombs of the two great poets. They are found beneath asmall chapel in the Grand Ducal burial vault. The Grand Duke CharlesAugustus desired that the bodies of the two poets should be interredone on each side of him: but this was forbidden by the usages of thecourt.
"In the old Stadtkirche, built in 1400, are the tombs of the ancientdukes, now forgotten. Among them is that of Duke Bernard, who died in1639. He was the friend of Gustavus Adolphus, and one of the mostpowerful of the leaders of the Reformation.
"Goethe, the most gifted of the German poets, and the mostaccomplished man of his age, was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in1749. In 1775 he made the intimate acquaintance of Charles Augustus,Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who induced him to take up his residence atWeimar, the capital. Here he held many public offices, and at lastbecame minister of state. He died at the age of eighty-four.
"Goethe's most popular work is a novel called _The Sorrows ofWerther_, but his great and enduring work is _Faust_, a dramatic poem,in which his great genius struggles with the problems of good andevil.
"His life was full of beautiful friendships. In 1787 Schiller, thesecond in rank of great German poets, was invited to reside at Weimar.Goethe became most warmly attached to him, and the two pursued theirhigh literary callings together. The literary circle now consisted ofGoethe, Schiller, Wieland, Herder, and the Grand Duke. It was thegolden age of German literature.
THE STRANGE STORY OF FAUST.
No myth of the Middle Ages has had so large a growth and so long a life as this.
It has been made the subject of books, pamphlets, and articles almost without number. The Faust literature in Germany would fill a library.
In painting, especially of the Holland school, the dark subject as prominently appears. It is also embodied in sculpture.
But it is in poetry and music that it found a place that carried it over the world. It was made the subject of Marlowe's drama, of Goethe's greatest poem, and it is sung in three of the greatest operas of modern times.
But to the legend.
About the year 1490 there was born at Roda, in the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar, a child whose fame was destined to fill the world of superstition, fable, and song. He was named John Faustus, or Faust.
He studied medicine, became an alchemist, and was possessed with a consuming desire to learn the secrets of life and of the spiritual world.
He studied magic, and his thirst for knowledge of the occult sciences grew. He wished to know how to prolong life, to change base metals to gold, to do things at once by the power of the will.
One night, as he was studying, the Evil One appeared before him.
"I will reveal to you all the secrets you are seeking, and will enable you to do anything you wish by the power of the will alone--"
Dr. Faustus was filled with an almost insane delight.
"--On one condition."
"Name it."
"That I shall have your soul in return."
"When?"
"At the end of twenty-four years--at this time of night--midnight."
"I shall have pleasure?"
FAUST SIGNING.]
"Pleasure."
"Gold?"
"Gold."
"I shall know the secrets of nature?"
"The secrets of nature."
"I may do what I like at will?"
"At will."
"I will sign the compact."
"Sign!"
Faust signed his name to a compact that was to give the Evil One his soul for twenty-four years of pleasure, gold, and knowledge, that were to come to an end at midnight.
"I will give you an attendant," said the Evil One, "to help you."
He caused a dark but very elegant gentleman to appear, whom he presented to Faust as Mephistopheles.
Dr. Faustus and Mephistopheles now began to travel into all lands, performing wonders to the amazement of all people wherever they went.
In a wine-cellar at Leipsig, where he and Mephistopheles were drinking, some gay fellows said,--
"Faust, make grapes grow on a vine on this table."
"Be silent."
There was dead silence.
FAUST AND MEPHISTOPHELES.]
A vine began to grow from the table, and presently it bore a bunch of grapes for each of the revellers.
"Take your knives and cut a cluster for each."
There was an explosion. Faust and Mephistopheles were seen flying out of the window; the _window_ is still shown in Leipsig. The vine had disappeared, and each of the revellers found himself with his knife over his nose, about to cut it off, supposing it to be a cluster of grapes.
The wonders that it is claimed that Dr. Faustus did in the twenty-four years fill volumes. The Faust marvels have gathered to themselves the fables of centuries.
&nbs
p; The twenty-four years came to an end at last. Faust became gloomy, and retired to Rimlich, at the inn, among his old friends.
The fatal night came.
"Should you hear noises in my chamber to-night, do not disturb me," he said, on parting from his companions to go to his room.
Near midnight a tempest arose,--a wild, strange tempest. The winds were like demons. It thundered and the air was full of tongues of lightning.
At midnight there was heard a fearful shriek in Faust's chamber.
The next morning the room was found bespattered with blood, and the body of Faust was missing. The broken remains of the alchemist were discovered at last in a back yard on a heap of earth.
This was the village story. It grew as such a dark myth would grow in the superstitious times in which it started. Goethe created the character of Marguerite and added it to the fable. The transformation of Faust from extreme old age to youth was also added. The opera makers have greatly enlarged even the narrative of Goethe; in the latest evolution, Mephistopheles is summoned into the courts of heaven and sent forth to tempt Faust, and Faust is shown visions of the Greek vale of Tempe and Helen of Troy.
Faust has come to be a synonym of the great problem of Good and Evil; the contest between virtue and vice, temptation and ruin, temptation and moral triumph. It is not a good story in any of its evolutions, but it is one that to know is almost essential to intelligence.
"Returning to Coblentz, we passed our sixth night on the Rhine. Wethere hired a boatman to take us to Bonn. Between Coblentz andAndernach we passed what are termed the Rhine Plains. These are someten miles long, and are semicircled by volcanic mountains, whose fireshave long been dead.
"We now approached the Seven Mountains, among which is theDrachenfels, famous in fable and song. These are called: Lohrberg,1,355 feet; Neiderstromberg, 1,066 feet; Oelberg, 1,429 feet;Wolkenberg, 1,001 feet; Drachenfels, 1,056 feet; Petenberg, 1,030feet; Lowenberg, 1,414 feet.
"The Drachenfels is made picturesque by an ancient ruin, and it isthese ancient ruins, and associations of old history, that make theRhine the most interesting river in the world. Apart from its castlesand traditions, it is not more beautiful than the Hudson, the UpperOhio, or the Mississippi between St. Paul and Winona. But the Rhinedisplays the ruined arts of two thousand years.
"The Drachenfels has its wonderful story. It is said that Siegfriedkilled the Dragon there. The so-called Dragon Cave or Rock is there,and of this particular dragon many curious tales are told.
"In the early days of Christianity the cross was regarded as somethingmore than a mere emblem of faith. It was believed to possessmiracle-working power.
"In a rocky cavern of the Drachenfels, in ancient times, there lived aDragon of most hideous form. He had a hundred teeth, and his head wasso large that he could swallow several victims at a time. His body wasof enormous length, and in form like an alligator's, and he had a taillike a serpent.
"The pagans of the Rhine worshipped this monster and offered to himhuman sacrifices.
"In one of the old wars between rival princes, a Christian girl wastaken captive, and the pagan priest commanded that she should be madean offering to the Dragon.
"It was the custom of the pagans to bind their sacrifices to theDragon alive to a tree near his cave at night. At sunrise he wouldcome out and devour them.
"They led the lovely Christian maiden to a spot near the cave, andbound her to a tree.
"It was starlight. Priests and warriors with torches had conducted themaiden to the fatal spot, and stood at a little distance from thevictim, waiting for the sunrise.
A CLEFT IN THE MOUNTAINS.]
"The priests chanted their wild hymns, and the light at last beganto break and to crown the mountains and be scattered over the blueriver.
"The roar of the monster was heard. The rocks trembled, and heappeared. He approached the maiden, bound to an oak.
"Her eyes were raised in prayer towards heaven.
"As the Dragon approached the victim, she drew from her bosom acrucifix, and held it up before him.
"As soon as he saw it, he began to tremble. He fell to the earth as ifsmitten. He lost all power and rolled down the rocks, a shapelessmass, into the Rhine.
"The pagans released the girl.
"'By what power have you done this?' they asked.
"'By this,' said the maiden, stretching out the cross in her hand. 'Iam a Christian.'
"'Then we will become Christians,' said the pagans, and they led thelovely apostle away to be their teacher. Her first convert was one ofthe rival princes, whom she married. Their descendants were among themost eminent of the early Christian families of the Seven Mountains ofthe Rhine.
"Such is the fable as told by the monks of old. The figure of thepower of the cross over the serpent, employed in early Christianwritings, undoubtedly was its origin, but how it became associatedwith the story of the captive maiden it would be hard to tell."
* * * * *
Master Lewis introduced the story-telling of the evening by anecdotepictures of
FREDERICK THE GREAT.
Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, was born in 1712. He was a wilful youth, and his father subjected him to such severe discipline that he revolted against it, and, like other boys not of royal blood, formed a plan of running away from home. His father discovered the plot, and caused his son's most intimate friend, who had assisted him in it, to be put to death, and made the execution as terrible as possible. He early came to hate his father, his father's religion, and everything that the old king most liked. His father was indeed a hard, stern man, of colorless character; but he managed the affairs of state so prudently that he left his undutiful son a powerful army and a full treasury, and to these as much as to any noble qualities of mind or soul the latter owed the resources by which he gained the title THE GREAT.
His mother was a daughter of George I. Frederick loved her, and from her he inherited a taste for music and literature, like many of the family of the Georges. He formed an intimate friendship with Voltaire, the French infidel writer, and interested himself in the French infidelity of the period, which was a reaction against the corrupt and degenerate French church.
He entered the field as a soldier in 1741, and was victorious again and again in the two Silesian wars. The Seven Years' War, begun in 1756, gained for him a position of great influence among the rulers of Europe. He was prudent, like his father; his government was wise, well ordered, and liberal, and he left to his successor a full treasury, a great and famous army, enlarged territory, and the prestige of a great name.
The family affairs of kings during the last century were in rather a queer state, as the following story of Frederick's marriage will show.
The prince was told that his father was studying the characters of the young ladies of the courts of Europe in order to select a suitable wife for him. He admired talent, brilliancy, wit, and he said in substance to the Minister of State,--
"Influence my father if you can to obtain for me a gifted and elegant princess. Of all things in the world I would hate to have a dull and commonplace wife."
His father made choice of the Princess Elizabeth Christine of Brunswick, a girl famous for her awkwardness and stupidity.
The prince did everything in his power to prevent the marriage. But the old king declared that he should marry her, and the wedding ceremony was arranged, Frederick in the mean time protesting that he held the bride in utter detestation.
Frederick had a sister whom he dearly loved, Wilhelmina. Two days after his marriage, he introduced the bride to her, and said,--
"This is a sister whom I adore. She has had the goodness to promise that _she_ will take care of you and give you good advice. I wish you to do nothing without her consent. Do you understand?"
VOLTAIRE.]
The young bride, scarcely eighteen, was speechless.
She expected "care" and "advice" from her husband, and not from his sister.
Wilhelmina embraced her tenderly.
Frederick waited for an answer to his question. But she stood dumb.
"Plague take the _blockhead_!" he at last exclaimed, and with this compliment began the long and sorrowful story of her wedded life.
She was a good woman and bore her husband's neglect with patience. Strangely enough, in his old age Frederick came to love her; for he discovered, after a prejudice of years, that she had a noble soul.
Frederick died in 1786. In his will he made a most liberal allowance for his wife, and bore testimony to her excellent character, saying that she never had caused him the least discontent, and her incorruptible virtue was worthy of love and consideration.
She survived the king eleven years.
Willie Clifton related a true story.
THE UNNERVED HUSSAR.
A man once entered the vaults of a church by night, to rob a corpse of a valuable ring. In replacing the lid he nailed the tail of his coat to the coffin, and when he started up to leave, the coffin clung to him and moved towards him.
Supposing the movement to be the work of invisible hands, his nervous system received such a shock that he fell in a fit, and was found where he fell, by the sexton, on the following morning.
Now, had the fellow been honestly engaged, it is not likely that the blunder would have happened; and even had it occurred, he doubtless would have discovered at once the cause.
But very worthy people are sometimes affected by superstitious fear, and run counter to the dictates of good sense and sound judgment.
A magnificent banquet was once given by a lord, in a very ancient castle, on the confines of Germany. Among the guests was an officer of hussars, distinguished for great self-possession and bravery.
Many of the guests were to remain in the castle during the night; and the gallant hussar was informed that one of them must occupy a room reputed to be haunted, and was asked if he had any objections to accepting the room for himself.
He declared that he had none whatever, and thanked his host for the honor conferred upon him by the offer. He, however, expressed a wish that no trick might be played upon him, saying that such an act might be followed by very serious consequences, as he should use his pistols against whatever disturbed the peace of the room.
He retired after midnight, leaving his lamp burning; and, wearied by the festivities, soon fell asleep. He was presently awakened by the sound of music, and, looking about the apartment, saw at the opposite end, three phantom ladies, grotesquely attired, singing a mournful dirge.
The music was artistic, rich, and soothing, and the hussar listened for a time, highly entertained. The piece was one of unvarying sadness, and, however seductive at first, after a time lost its charm.
THE UNNERVED HUSSAR.]
The officer, addressing the musical damsels, remarked that the music had become rather monotonous, and asked them to change the tune. The singing continued in the same mournful cadences. He became impatient, and exclaimed,--
"Ladies, this is an impertinent trick, for the purpose of frightening me. I shall take rough means to stop it, if it gives me any further trouble."
He seized his pistols in a manner that indicated his purpose. But the mysterious ladies remained, and the requiem went on.
"Ladies," said the officer, "I will wait five minutes, and then shall fire, unless you leave the room."
The figures remained, and the music continued. At the expiration of the time, the officer counted twenty in a loud, measured voice, and then, taking deliberate aim, discharged both of his pistols.
The ladies were unharmed, and the music was uninterrupted. The unexpected result of his violence threw him into a state of high nervous excitement, and, although his courage had withstood the shock of battle, it now yielded to his superstitious fears. His strength was prostrated, and a severe illness of some weeks' continuance followed.
Had the hussar held stoutly to his own sensible philosophy, that he had no occasion to fear the spirits of the invisible world, nothing serious would have ensued. The damsels sung in another apartment, and their figures were made to appear in the room occupied by the hussar, by the effect of a mirror. The whole was a trick, carefully planned, to test the effect of superstitious fear on one of the bravest of men.
In no case should a person be alarmed at what he suspects to be supernatural. A cool investigation will show, in most cases, that the supposed phenomenon may be easily explained. It might prove a serious thing for one to be frightened by a nightcap on a bedpost, for a fright affects unfavorably the nervous system, but a nightcap on a bedpost is in itself a very harmless thing.
The sixth evening closed with an original poem by Mr. Beal.
Zigzag Journeys in Northern Lands; Page 12
