SCHILLER'S POEM ON THE ARMADA. ITERARY history has, like political
history, its unsolved
riddles and mysteries, its Caspar Hausers, its Men with the Iron Masks, although of a more harmless kind. The source of many a drama, and the simultaneous treatment of the same literary topics in various countries, have long puzzled the inquisitive literary historian ; and this has also been the case with Schiller's brilliant poem, "Die liniiberwindliche Flotte." This poem, which will be well known to many of our readers in the original, or in some translation, gives a vivid description of the " formidable array of the Invincible Fleet, sent against this blessed island, the Empress of the Sea, to crush the free- born people who have framed the wisest of the laws, the Magna Charta. All noble souls tremble at the threatening fall of large-hearted Britannia; but the Almighty *Lord ordained that this paradise of freedom, this bulwark of human dignity, shall never perish ; and- " Gott der Allmtichtige blies,
Und die Armada flog nach alien Winden."
This magnificent ode, which is perhaps the finest poetical effusion on the subject, and especially deserves to be even more popular in this country at the present moment than it is, was written by Schiller in 1786, and headed by the remark that "it was the production of a contemporary poet of the Armada;" and it was this statement which greatly puzzled the literary historians. In order to understand fully their perplexity, it is necessary to be made acquainted with the external cir- cumstances of the publication of the poem. It did not appear as an independent production, but was appended in a note—in Part II. of Schiller's literary journal " Thalia " (p. 76, &c.)—to his translation of L. S. Mercier's " Precis Historique," which forms the historical introduction to the French writer's curious drama, Portrait de Philippe II., Rai d'Espagne. On p. vii. of his " Précis Historique," Mercier says :—" B [i.e., Philip II.] medita In conquete de l'Angleterre, comme s'il eiit en horreur de tout ce qui tenoit ii la liberte. Sans Drake qui brhla cent de sea vaisseaux, dans le port de Calla, sans la, tempete qui dispersa cet armement formidable, connu sons le nom de l'invincible armada, cette precieuse repub- lique etoit effacee de deans le globe." To this passage Mercier appends the following note : — " Voici de quelle maniere un pone a peint cet evenement : line flotte for-
midable fait mugir lea flots. C'est plutot une armee de chitea.ux flothns ; on l'appelle rinvincible, et in terreur qu'elle inspire, consacre ce nom ; l'ocean qui tremble sons son poids, paroit °bare). sa marche lente et majestneuse; elle avance, cette flotte terrible, eomme un orage qui grossit ; elle est prate a fondre sur
genereuse que le Ciel regarde d'un coil d'amour, sur ride fortune dont les nobles habitans ont le droit d'être libres, et l'emportent en dig,nite gar tons les habitans de la terre, parce gulls out en faire des loin qui enchainent depths le roi jusqu'au citoyen ; ils out voulu etre libres, Rs le sont devenus ; le genie et le courage maintiennent leers augustes privileges. 'Tamale cette isle si there aux Brands emirs, aux ennemis de In tyrannie, ne parut si pres de sa mine. Les hommes genereux qui d'un pole it l'autre s'interessent ii cette majestueuse repnblique, croyoient sa deliverance impossible; teals le Tout- Puissant voulut conserver le noble rempart de la liberte, cet asyle inviolable de In dignite humaine ; it souffle, et cette flotte invincible fat brisee et dispersee," &c. To this quotation Mercier adds, by way of explanation :—" Ces moth du pate, le Tout-Puissant Bonilla, sont allusion 1 la medaille que in reine Elisabeth fit frapper en memoire de ce grand evenement. On voyoit au revers une flotte fracassee par la terapete, avec cette legende : Afflavit Deus et dissipati aunt." Schiller, in his translation of Mercier's " Precis Historique," makes in a foot- note the above-mentioned statement that " it was the pro- duction of a poet who lived in the times of the Armada," which statement was subsequently altered into the remark that it was composed " nach einem iiltern Dichter," which is more in accordance with Mercier's own statement.
When the busy host of commentators came and set about in- terpreting Schiller's poems, they were sorely puzzled regarding the source of his " Uniiberwindliche Flotte." Dutch, English, and French libraries were ransacked in order to discover the original of the French paraphrase, and when all researches proved futile, some ingenious critics confidently expressed their conjecture that Schiller was himself the author of the poem, and that in order to smuggle it with impunity into publicity, he attributed the original of the liberty-inspired strains to another author. Such a supposition was quite unworthy of the poet, who had the courage of his opinions. It is true that a number of German writers, but more especially journalists, were in former years often obliged to have recourse to that subterfuge, for fear of the relentless "Censor of the Press ;" but Schiller would never have stooped to that "pious fraud." Fortunately, subsequent researches conclusively proved that he attributed bond fide the original composition to another poet. It was, we believe, the eminent literary historian, Karl Goedeke,* who first hit upon the simple expedient of com- paring Schiller's translation of Mercier's " Precis Historique" with the original French. There he found the above-quoted note with the paraphrase in poetical prose, and so at least half of the riddle was solved. Schiller had simply used the French paraphrase as a basis for his magnificent lines in com- memoration of the glorious event of the Armada, which were intended to serve at the same time as an indirect apotheosis of Freedom. This circumstance only heightens the poetical merit of Schiller's ode, as it is, perhaps, a unique instance of the successful versification of a prose paraphrase of an original poem, and it is for this reason that we have given the former in extenso. We have yet to add that Mercier's explanation of the expression, " Le Tout-Puissant souffle," is somewhat freely translated by Schiller,—" Die zween letztern Verse Bind eine Anspielung auf die Medallic, welche Elisabeth zum Andenken ihres Sieges schlagen liess. Es wird auf derselben eine Flotte vorgestellt, welche im Sturm untergeht, mit der bescheidenen Inschrift : Affiavit, lee." Goedeke, in his interesting note on the subject, expresses the opinion that Mercier's mention of the medal and the inscription is based on the well-known passage in Addison's Spectator (No. 293, February 5th, 1711) ; but it seems more likely that he got the information about the medal, wrongly attributed to Queen Elizabeth, from some other source, and the more so as the Spectator has—which was well known to Goedeke—the version dissipantur, instead of dissipati aunt. It also seems probable that Mercier's prose paraphrase is based on some Dutch poem. Internal evidence tends to show that it was not French, and if it had been English, we should think that the original would have been discovered long ago. At any rate, one half of the riddle has
• Cf. his Historische Ausgabe of "Schiller's Schriften„" Vol. IV., pp. vi., 110, &v.
been solved—Schiller's source is now clearly established—and there only remains the other half of the literary mystery to be unravelled,—viz., the source of Mercier's prose paraphrase.
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