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4P t'fi*t*rt'ritt«iV iLIIFlUTlIFw *
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Few literary questions require more thorough sifting than the question of Plagiarism . It is constantly being raised . Much bad blood is excited , wild accusations are made , and innocent men stigmatised , because there are no clear decisive principles laid down by which each case can be judged . This week we have received froni a correspondent an article which appeared in the National Intelligencer ( U . S . ) on Longfellow ' s " Hiawatha ; " our correspondent himself , an admirer of Longfellow's poem , being evidently somewhat distressed at finding the poet in what he considers to be a very equivocal position . We will first print the accusation : — TO THE EDITORS . Gentlemen , —Few of your readers , I imagine , have ever heard of , much less read , the " Kalewala , " the great national epie of the Finns . The name of its author ( if , indeed , it be the work of one and not of many minds ) is altogether unknown . After floating for ages among the people , passing from mouth to mouth and from generation to generation , like the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer before the time of Pisistratus , the fragments of this wonderful poem have at length been brought together , and stand before the world in a form almost complete . The latest version ( that of Dr . Lonnrot ) appeared in the year 1849 , and contains fifty songs , or runes , and twenty-two thousand seven hundred and ninety- three verses . High praise ia awarded to Mr . Alexander Castren for his excellent translation into the Swedish language , and the zeal that led him to make extensive journeys through all Finland in order to take down the original from the lips of those who recited it , as their custom is , by alternate chanting , at their firesides , during the long evenings of a northern winter . A French translation by Leouzon le Due was published in 1845 . Another'in German , made by Anton Schiemer , under the auspices of Castren , to whoni it was also dedicated , and printed at Helsiugfors in the year 1852 , is lying before me . My object in writing this present brief notice is to call the attention of the literary public to the astounding fact that Professor Longfellow , in his new poem , " Hiawatha , " has transferred the entire form , spirit , and many of the most striking incidents of the old Finnish epic to the . North American Indians . The resemblance is so close that it cannot be accidental , and yet the only approach to an acknowledgment of the source of his inspiration is found in the beginning of his first note , where he says , " This Indian Edda , if I may so call it . ' ' Compare , for example , the prelude of " Hiawatha" with the following extract from that of the " Kalewala , " done ( from the German ) translation into English of the same metre , which is also that of the original : —
"HIAWATHA . " Shoiildyouask mo , whence thesostories ? I repeat them as I heard them Whence these legends and traditions , From the lips of Nawadalia , With the odours of ( ho forest , The musician , the sweet-singer . " With the dew and damp of mea-lows , Should you ask me where Nawadalia With the curling smoke of wigwams , p ouna the songs , so wild and wayward , With the rushing of great rivers , Found those legends and traditions ? With their frequent repetiti > U 3 j ; sllouia answer , 1 should tell you , And their wild reverberations , « j n tlle ku-d . i' nests of the forest , As of thunder in the mountains ? [ Iu tbe louves of the beaver , —I should anrA-er , I should tell you , j In the hoof-prints of the bison / " From the forests and the prairies , | In the eyry of the eagle ! From the great Iuke 3 of the Northland , i All tha wildfowl sang them to him , From the land of the Ojibways , j In the moor-lancls and the fen-lauds , From the land of the Daootah .-i , i In tho melancholy marshes ; From the mountain * , moors , and feu- \ Chut-o waik , the plover , sang them , land . * , . | Mahug , the loon , the wild-goose , Wawa , Where the her . u , the Shnh-shuh-gith , j Tho blue heron , the Shuh-skuh-gah , Feeda among tho roods ami rushes . ' And the grouse , the Mnsh-kodasa !"
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The new number of the Revue cles Deux Mondes contains an article on Michel Lattas , better known all over Europe and Asia under the title of Omau Pacha , in which the career of the " little pet lion" is sketched by one who , to personal knowledge of the hero , adds great knowledge of contemporary history . Tho writer is very impartial , and by no means willing to overlook ' the hero ' s faults . In the same Revue the biography of La Duckesse de Cheoretise , by Victor Cousin , is brought to a close ; and M . Eauuikor contributes another of bis interesting papers on Holland .
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MAC A UL AY , The tr ^ ry aJ ^ j lanJ . Fran . 0 * Action of . W . II . By T . j ^ auia ^ Vol . Ik anV of ' our readers have not yet pounced upon these lon B - expected , mucli-Julketl of volumes , we may allay their impatience by assuring them that , al o -b ve . V interesting , they have by no means the interesto the volume * wliiol " preceded them , " instead of flopping throii B li them almost brcathm " n " mLl they will Cud it very easy , and Indeed somewhat necessary to walk Surely to the end- " . skipping" a considerable quantity , i they arc noffoml of cLellin , upon commonplace-, and of seeing how much rhetone think it desirable to expend argument
d llui atioVa writer can upon an wich he himself pronounces to be " evident . " Indeed , no sooner does Mucaul V is " the words " tbe reason of this is obvious , " tl . au we prepare to sk » 3 e " thy paragraphs , knowing of oUl that what . * " so obvioiw , " he wUl le certain to exhaust himself in proving . No tWogian is more rheto ia V Spansivc over an evidence of « dd . i u » than Mocauhw n . over a nioruI roninonplace . He delight * in it ., swells with it , und like Virgil » « &i ^^ - ^^ Trr 9 ? S % S ; & ! FJ ^ ? & 3 ^ J 5 & 2 ^ i-uduiMlant rhetoric . It is enough to note the latt oi l >
intimate the excuse for skipping . . . , . mUM jv ( . tendency The bulk of them * volumes ... ntermlly ihc « cnsc >> y U - proportion in the writer , and by hw conn ant ™ l * " ™' mhZo itfthoiitfh ciff ht Ltirrin | r to the Riibject matter . The ei K ht yoiin , tl ey cm naix . a I o « K c J eontuinc 5 In the previous volumes . 1 u . ^ w * nttraf . , . Such chapters as necessarily a very coubhc-ru , h , dim r tior ^ . ^ ^ ^ u , the incomparable n . tro . h . « toiykctUi m | jril , ilMlt , v touched , or as ssra&s ; " - ^^ ruL ^ - *» new n *—
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December 29 , 1855 . ] THE LEADER . 1251
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Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws-they interpret and try to enforce them . — £ Uinburgh liectew .
4p T'Fi*T*Rt'ritt«Iv Iliiflutlifw *
mtxmim .
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THE "KA . LEWALA . "
These the words we have received , These tho songs we do inherit , Are of Wuiniimoinon ' s girdle , From tho forge of Ilnuu-iiieu , i Of tho sword of Kank . unieli , ; Of tho bow of Voukohainoii , Of the borders of tho North-fieldH , Of tho plaiun of Kalowula . Thoso lay father . sung afore time , Ah ho chipped tho hatchet ' s baudlo ; TUcaoworo taught mo by my mother , Assbo twirlud her Hying spindles ; When I ou Iho floor \ v ; is sporting , Bound her knoo wa .-i gaily daneiuy , Ab a pitublo wu . ikliugs As a weakling annul of Ktuturo ; Novov failed these wuml ' roun ritorion , Told of Sanipo , told of Louhi ; Old grow Stimpo in tho Htork-B ; Loulii vaniwhod with hor magic ; Iu tho HongH Wiunon porirfho < l ; In tho play diod Luuiiiuiikuiiiui ) .
! ! | ! Thero are many other atones , Magic sayings , which I learned . Which I gathered by the wayside , Culled amid the hcalher-blossoniH , Riflod from tho bushy copses ; From tho bonding twigs I plucked them , Plucked them from the tender grasses , When a shepherd boy I Hauntorod , Asa lad upon tho pastures , On the bonoy-bcaring meadowH , On tho gold-illuminud hillock , Following black Miuu-ikki At tho side of spottod Kiimno , Songs tho very coldne , s « gave me , Mvirtic fouud I in tlio rain flrop . i ; Other songH tho winds brought to mo , j Oilier songs , the ocean billowri ; ! IJirds by singing in tho branches , And the troo top spoko in wliisi'Oi's .
Aa a full and dol . uiled comparison of tho two poems cannot , bo hero given , a Simple outline of I . ho " Kulowala ' s" plot must for the present , huOiw . Tho horo of tho opie is Wiiiuiliiioinou , a mythological jwnsonugo , son of tho Daughter of tho Air , who lot herself down from hoavon into tho son , and was theTwoood by tho Storm Wind . Aflor roaming through tho waters ior uniiuinborod a os ho at length reaohos tho land and begins his career as a benolacl or ol mankind . ' Then follows a description of his exploits and adventures , extending through forty-nine muea . When at last his mission upon earth w aooomphshod the agod Wiliuliraoinon outers Iuh copper-bound skifl , talcos loavo . of the pooplo o tho shore , aud ^ ails away far over tho blue sea toward tho distant horizon , until tho barque is aeon hanging in tho clouds between earth and hoavon . Ho he departed ; and so departed Hiawatha ,. , ,, , . Thoso who may desire to learn more of tho " Kalewalu" 1 would refer to tho last
edition of the " Gonversation ' s Lexicon . " A faithful and spirited translation would be an acquisition to our literature . No living English poet is better fitted to make such a one than the author of Hiawatha . Had he done this at first I feel confident he would have achieved more real fame ; for tho Indian Epic ia only an imitation , not a creation . T . C . P . Pennsylvania , Nov . 21 , 1855 .
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As a question of fact , it is clear that Longfellow has adopted the Indian legends collected by Sciioolcraft and others , and has fully avowed hi& obligations . As a question of principle , it is clear to any one familiar with the history of poetry , that had he taken the legends from the " Kalewala , " just as they stand there , he would have been guilty of no plagiarism—in the disreputable sense of the word—but would have done what poets have from all time been privileged to do . Homer did not invent his stories ; the Greek dramatists did not invent theirs ; Shakespeare and our dramatists never thought of inventing their stories ; Goethe did not invent " Faust , " Iphigenia , " " Hermann und Dorothea , " " Reineche Fuchs ; " yet , who ever thought of mentioning the word plagiarism in these cases ? Is the invention of a story ° the claim which the poet makes for our applause ? Not in the least . . Let him invent a good story if he can , it is a very rare and precious faculty ; but his poetic genius can display itself in taking up and presenting in
new forms the inventions of others quite as potently as in inventing' the stories himself . No one can read " Hiawatha" and not perceive that it is original ; it is the work of a poet , who has given new life to old legends , given a new music to the old songs . If America is not proud of her greatest poet , and cannot defend him against paltry charges of plagiarism , let us hope that EnMand will be more dignified in her recognition of genuine worth .
turning to what Lonof-jbllow himself has said . In the notes to " Hiawatha ' no claim of originality is set up , as regards the legends ; on the contrary , Longfellow most explicitly states that he is indebted for them to the writings of Mr . Schoolcraft , who has collected the Indian legends ; and several other sources are referred to . Now , why should Longfellow have passed in silence over the " Kalewala" if he had really taken his legends from it ? He does not pretend that his stories are original ; and , if he acknowledge where he got them from , why is a doubt to be thrown on his word , because similar legends are found in a work he has not named ? As to the asserted resemblance between the " Kalewala" and " Hiawatha , " if that resemblance exist , it will only be one among many of the singular family likenesses in mythologies .
The reader , on coming to the end of this article , doubtless feels that a strong case has been made out against Longfellow . In justice to that delightful poet we must prove that no case whatever is made out . It is characteristic of the alacrity some men feel to catch others tripping—an alacrity which prevents their first ascertaining what are the facts—that T . C . P . has made an accusation which can be shown to be utterly futile by merely
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 29, 1855, page 1251, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2121/page/15/
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