“Who looks into the shadowy realm of my heart?”
A. V. CHAMISSO.
In the former chapter we heard mention made of a young student, Otto
Thostrup, a clever fellow, with nine prae caeteris, as his comrades
said, but also of a proud spirit, of which he must be broken. Not at
the disputations, which have been already mentioned, will we make his
acquaintance, although there we must be filled with respect for the good
Latin scholar; not in large companies, where his handsome exterior and
his speaking, melancholy glance must make him interesting; as little in
the pit of the Opera although his few yet striking observations there
would show him to be a very intellectual young man; but we will seek
him out for the first time at the house of his friend, the young Baron
Wilhelm. It is the beginning of November: we find them both with their
pipes in their mouths; upon the table lie Tibullus and Anacreon, which
they are reading together for the approaching philologicum.
In the room stands a piano-forte, with a number of music-books; upon the
walls hang the portraits of Weyse and Beethoven, for our young Baron is
musical, nay a composer himself.
“See, here we have again this lovely, clinging mist!” said Wilhelm. “Out
of doors one can fairly taste it; at home it would be a real plague to
me, here it only Londonizes the city.”
“I like it!” said Otto. “To me it is like an old acquaintance from
Vestervovov. It is as though the mist brought me greetings from the sea
and sand-hills.”
“I should like to see the North Sea, but the devil might live there!
What town lies nearest to your grandfather’s estate?”
“Lernvig,” answered Otto. “If any one wish to see the North Sea
properly, they ought to go up as far as Thisted and Hjörring. I have
travelled there, have visited the family in Börglum-Kloster; and,
besides this, have made other small journeys. Never shall I forget one
evening; yes, it was a storm of which people in the interior of the
country can form no conception. I rode--I was then a mere boy, and a
very wild lad--with one of our men. When the storm commenced we found
ourselves among the sand-hills. Ah! that you should have seen! The sand
forms along the strand high banks, which serve as dikes against the sea;
these are overgrown with sea-grass, but, if the storm bursts a single
hole, the whole is carried away. This spectacle we chanced to witness.
It is a true Arabian sand-storm, and the North Sea bellowed so that
it might be heard at the distance of many miles. The salt foam flew
together with the sand into our faces.”
“That must have been splendid!” exclaimed Wilhelm, and his eyes
sparkled. “Jutland is certainly the most romantic part of Denmark.
Since I read Steen-Blicher’s novels I have felt a real interest for that
country. It seems to me that it must greatly resemble the Lowlands of
Scotland. And gypsies are also found there, are they not?”
“Vagabonds, we call them,” said Otto, with an involuntary motion of the
mouth. “They correspond to the name!”
“The fishermen, also, on the coast are not much better! Do they
still from the pulpit pray for wrecks? Do they still slay shipwrecked
mariners?”
“I have heard our preacher, who is an old man, relate how, in the first
years after he had obtained his office and dignity, he was obliged to
pray in the church that, if ships stranded, they might strand in his
district; but this I have never heard myself. But with regard to what
is related of murdering, why, the fishermen--sea-geese, as they are
called--are by no means a tender-hearted people; but it is not as bad
as that in our days. A peasant died in the neighborhood, of whom it was
certainly related that in bad weather he had bound a lantern under
his horse’s belly and let it wander up and down the beach, so that the
strange mariner who was sailing in those seas might imagine it some
cruising ship, and thus fancy himself still a considerable way from
land. By this means many a ship is said to have been destroyed. But
observe, these are stories out of the district of Thisted, and of an
elder age, before my power of observation had developed itself; this was
that golden age when in tumble-down fishers’ huts, after one of these
good shipwrecks, valuable shawls, but little damaged by the sea, might
be found employed as bed-hangings. Boots and shoes were smeared with the
finest pomatum. If such things now reach their hands, they know better
how to turn them into money. The Strand-commissioners are now on the
watch; now it is said to be a real age of copper.”
“Have you seen a vessel stranded?” inquired Wilhelm, with increasing
interest.
“Our estate lies only half a mile from the sea. Every year about this
time, when the mist spreads itself out as it does to-day and the storms
begin to rage, then was it most animated. In my wild spirits, when I
was a boy, and especially in the midst of our monotonous life, I truly
yearned after it. Once, upon a journey to Börglum-Kloster, I experienced
a storm. In the early morning; it was quite calm, but gray, and we
witnessed a kind of Fata Morgana. A ship, which had not yet risen above
the horizon, showed itself in the distance, but the rigging was turned
upside down; the masts were below, the hull above. This is called the
ship of death, and when it is seen people are sure of bad weather and
shipwreck. Later, about midday, it began to blow, and in an hour’s time
we had a regular tempest. The sea growled quite charmingly; we travelled
on between sand-hills--they resemble hills and dales in winter time, but
here it is not snow which melts away; here never grows a single green
blade; a black stake stands up here and there, and these are rudders
from wrecks, the histories of which are unknown. In the afternoon arose
a storm such as I had experienced when riding with the man between
the sand-hills. We could not proceed farther, and were obliged on this
account to seek shelter in one of the huts which the fishermen hail
erected among the white sand-hills. There we remained, and I saw the
stranding of a vessel: I shall never forget it! An American ship lay not
a musket-shot from land. They cut the mast; six or seven men clung fast
to it in the waters. O, how they rocked backward and forward in the
dashing spray! The mast took a direction toward the shore; at length
only three men were left clinging to the mast; it was dashed upon land,
but the returning waves again bore it away; it had crushed the arms and
legs of the clinging wretches--ground them like worms! I dreamed of this
for many nights. The waves flung the hull of the vessel up high on the
shore, and drove it into the sand, where it was afterward found. Later,
as we retraced our steps, were the stem and sternpost gone: you saw two
strong wooden walls, between which the road took its course. You even
still travel through the wreck!”
“Up in your country every poetical mind must become a Byron,” said
Wilhelm. “On my parents’ estate we have only idyls; the whole of Funen
is a garden. We mutually visit each other upon our different estates,
where we lead most merry lives, dance with the peasant-girls at the
brewing-feast, hunt in the woods, and fish in the lakes. The only
melancholy object which presents itself with us is a funeral, and the
only romantic characters we possess are a little hump-backed musician,
a wise woman, and an honest schoolmaster, who still firmly believes, as
Jeronimus did, that the earth is flat, and that, were it to turn round,
we should fall, the devil knows where!”
“I love nature in Jutland!” exclaimed Otto. “The open sea, the
brown heath, and the bushy moorland. You should see the wild moor in
Vendsyssel--that is an extent! Almost always wet mists float over its
unapproachable interior, which is known to no one. It is not yet fifty
years since it served as an abode for wolves. Often it bursts into
flames, for it is impregnated with sulphuric gas,--one can see the fire
for miles.”
“My sister Sophie ought to hear all this!” said Wilhelm. “You would make
your fortune with her! The dear girl! she has the best head at home, but
she loves effect. Hoffman and Victor Hugo are her favorites. Byron rests
every night under her pillow. If you related such things of the west
coast of Jutland, and of heaths and moors, you might persuade her to
make a journey thither. One really would not believe that we possessed
in our own country such romantic situations!”
“Is she your only sister?” inquired Otto.
“No,” returned Wilhelm, “I have two--the other is named Louise; she
is of quite an opposite character: I do not know of which one ought to
think most. Have you no brothers or sisters?” he asked of Otto.
“No!” returned the latter, with his former involuntary, half-melancholy
expression. “I am an only child. In my house it is solitary and silent.
My grandfather alone is left alive. He is an active, strong man,
but very grave. He instructed me in mathematics, which he thoroughly
understands. The preacher taught me Latin, Greek, and history: two
persons, however, occupied themselves with my religious education--the
preacher and my old Rosalie. She is a good soul. How often have I teased
her, been petulant, and almost angry with her! She thought so much of
me, she was both mother and sister to me, and instructed me in religion
as well as the preacher, although she is a Catholic. Since my father’s
childhood she has been a sort of governante in the house. You should
have seen her melancholy smile when she heard my geography lesson, and
we read of her dear Switzerland, where she was born, and of the south
of France, where she had travelled as a child. The west coast of Jutland
may also appear very barren in comparison with these countries!”
“She might have made you a Catholic! But surely nothing of this still
clings to you?”
“Rosalie was a prudent old creature; Luther himself need not have been
ashamed of her doctrine. Whatever is holy to the heart of man, remains
also holy in every religion!”
“But then, to erect altars to the Madonna!” exclaimed Wilhelm; “to pray
to a being; whom the Bible does not make a saint!--that is rather too
much. And their tricks with burning of incense and ringing of bells!
Yes, indeed, it would give me no little pleasure to cut off the heads of
the Pope and of the whole clerical body! To purchase indulgence!--Those
must, indeed, be curious people who can place thorough faith in such
things! I will never once take off my hat before the Madonna!”
“But that will I do, and in my heart bow myself before her!” answered
Otto, gravely.
“Did I not think so? she has made you a Catholic!”
“No such thing! I am as good a Protestant as you yourself: but
wherefore should we not respect the mother of Christ? With regard to the
ceremonials of Catholicism, indulgence, and all these additions of the
priesthood, I agree with you in wishing to strike off the heads of all
who, in such a manner, degrade God and the human understanding. But in
many respects we are unjust: we so easily forget the first and greatest
commandment, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself!’ We are not tolerant.
Among our festivals we have still one for the Three Kings--it is yet
celebrated by the common people; but what have these three kings done?
They knelt before the manger in which Christ lay, and on this account we
honor them. On the contrary, the mother of God has no festival-day; nay,
the multitude even smile at her name! If you will only quietly listen to
my simple argument, we shall soon agree. You will take off your hat and
bow before the Madonna. Only two things are to be considered--either
Christ was entirely human, or He was, as the Bible teaches us, a divine
being. I will now admit the latter. He is God Himself, who in some
inexplicable manner, is born to us of the Virgin Mary. She must
therefore be the purest, the most perfect feminine being, since God
found her worthy to bring into the world the Son, the only one; through
this she becomes as holy as any human being can, and low we must bow
ourselves before the pure, the exalted one. Take it for granted that
Christ was human, like ourselves, otherwise He cannot, according to my
belief, call upon us to imitate Him; neither would it be great, as God,
to meet a corporeal death, from which He could remove each pain. Were He
only a man, born of Mary, we must doubly admire Him; we must bow in the
dust before His mighty spirit, His enlightening and consoling doctrine.
But can we then forget how much the mother has must have influenced the
child, how sublime and profound the soul must have been which spoke to
His heart? We must reverence and honor her! Everywhere in the Scriptures
where she appears we see an example of care and love; with her whole
soul she adheres to her Son. Think how uneasy she became, and sought for
Him in the temple--think of her gentle reproaches! The words of the Son
always sounded harsh in my ears. ‘Those are the powerful expressions of
the East!’ said my old preacher. The Saviour was severe, severe as
He must be! Already there seemed to me severity in His words! She
was completely the mother; she was it then, even as when she wept at
Golgotha. Honor and reverence she deserves from us!”
“These she also receives!” returned Wilhelm; and striking him upon
the shoulder he added, with a smile, “you are, according to the Roman
Catholic manner, near exalting the mother above the Son! Old Rosalie has
made a proselyte; after all, you are half a Catholic!”
“That am I not!” answered Otto, “and that will I not be!”
“See! the thunder-cloud advances!”
resounded below in the court: the sweet Neapolitan song reached the
ears of the friends. They stepped into the adjoining room and opened the
window. Three poor boys stood below in the wind and rain, and commenced
the song. The tallest was, perhaps, fourteen or fifteen years old, his
deep, rough voice seemed to have attained its strength and depth more
through rain and bad weather than through age. The dirty wet clothes
hung in rags about his body; the shoes upon the wet feet, and the hat
held together with white threads, were articles of luxury. The other two
boys had neither hat nor shoes, but their clothes were whole and clean.
The youngest appeared six or seven years old; his silvery white hair
formed a contrast with his brown face, his dark eyes and long brown
eyelashes. His voice sounded like the voice of a little girl, as fine
and soft, beside the voices of the others, as the breeze of an autumnal
evening beside that of rude November weather.
“That is a handsome boy!” exclaimed the two friends at the same time.
“And a lovely melody!” added Otto.
“Yes, but they sing falsely!” answered Wilhelm: “one sings half a tone
too low, the other half a tone too high!”
“Now, thank God that I cannot hear that!” said Otto. “It sounds sweetly,
and the little one might become a singer. Poor child!” added he gravely:
“bare feet, wet to the very skin; and then the elder one will certainly
lead him to brandy drinking! Within a month, perhaps, the voice will
be gone! Then is the nightingale dead!” He quickly threw down some
skillings, wrapped in paper.
“Come up!” cried Wilhelm, and beckoned. The eldest of the boys flew up
like an arrow; Wilhelm, however, said it was the youngest who was meant.
The others remained standing before the door; the youngest stepped in.
“Whose son art thou?” asked Wilhelm. The boy was silent, and cast down
his eyes in an embarrassed manner. “Now, don’t be bashful! Thou art of
a good family--that one can see from thy appearance! Art not thou thy
mother’s son? I will give thee stockings and--the deuce! here is a pair
of boots which are too small for me; if thou dost not get drowned in
them they shall be thy property: but now thou must sing.” And he seated
himself at the piano-forte and struck the keys. “Now, where art thou?”
he cried, rather displeased. The little one gazed upon the ground.
“How! dost thou weep; or is it the rain which hangs in thy black
eyelashes?” said Otto, and raised his head: “we only wish to do thee a
kindness. There--thou hast another skilling from me.”
The little one still remained somewhat laconic. All that they learned
was that he was named Jonas, and that his grandmother thought so much of
him.
“Here thou hast the stockings!” said Wilhelm; “and see here! a coat with
a velvet collar, a much-to-be-prized keepsake! The boots! Thou canst
certainly stick both legs into one boot! See! that is as good as having
two pairs to change about with! Let us see!”
The boy’s eyes sparkled with joy; the boots he drew on, the stockings
went into his pocket, and the bundle he took under his arm.
“But thou must sing us a little song!” said Wilhelm, and the little one
commenced the old song out of the “Woman-hater,” “Cupid never can be
trusted!”
The lively expression in the dark eyes, the boy himself in his wet,
wretched clothes and big boots, with the bundle under his arm; nay, the
whole had something so characteristic in it, that had it been painted,
and had the painter called the picture “Cupid on his Wanderings,” every
one would have found the little god strikingly excellent, although he
were not blind.
“Something might be made of the boy and of his voice!” said Wilhelm,
when little Jonas, in a joyous mood, had left the house with the other
lads.
“The poor child!” sighed Otto. “I have fairly lost my good spirits
through all this. It seizes upon me so strangely when I see misery and
genius mated. Once there came to our estate in Jutland a man who played
the Pandean-pipes, and at the same time beat the drum and cymbals: near
him stood a little girl, and struck the triangle. I was forced to weep
over this spectacle; without understanding how it was, I felt the misery
of the poor child. I was myself yet a mere boy.”
“He looked so comic in the big boots that I became quite merry, and not
grave,” said Wilhelm. “Nevertheless what a pity it is that such gentle
blood, which at the first glance one perceives he is, that such a pretty
child should become a rude fellow, and his beautiful voice change into
a howl, like that with which the other tall Laban saluted us. Who knows
whether little Jonas might not become the first singer on the Danish
stage? Yes, if he received education of mind and voice, who knows? I
could really have, pleasure in attempting it, and help every one on in
the world, before I myself am rightly in the way!”
“If he is born to a beggar’s estate,” said Otto, “let him as beggar live
and die, and learn nothing higher. That is better, that is more to be
desired!”
Wilhelm seated himself at the piano-forte, and played some of his own
compositions. “That is difficult,” said he; “every one cannot play
that.”
“The simpler the sweeter!” replied Otto.
“You must not speak about music!” returned the friend “upon that you
know not how to pass judgment. Light Italian operas are not difficult to
write.”
In the evening the friends separated. Whilst Otto took his hat, there
was a low knock at the door. Wilhelm opened it. Without stood a poor old
woman, with pale sharp features; by the hand she led a little boy--it
was Jonas: thus then it was a visit from him and his grandmother.
The other boys had sold the boots and shoes which had been given him.
They ought to have a share, they maintained. This atrocious injustice
had induced the old grandmother to go immediately with little Jonas to
the two good gentlemen, and relate how little the poor lad had received
of flint which they had assigned to him alone.
Wilhelm spoke of the boy’s sweet voice, and thought that by might make
his fortune at the theatre; but then he ought not now to be left running
about with bare feet in the wind and rain.
“But by this means he brings a skilling home,” said the old woman.
“That’s what his father and mother look to, and the skilling they can
always employ. Nevertheless she had herself already thought of bringing
him out at the theatre,--but that was to have been in dancing, for they
got shoes and stockings to dance in, and with these they might also run
home; and that would be an advantage.”
“I will teach the boy music!” said Wilhelm; “he can come to me
sometimes.”
“And then he will, perhaps, get a little cast-off clothing, good sir,”
said the grandmother; “a shirt, or a waistcoat, just as it happens?”
“Become a tailor, or shoemaker,” said Otto, gravely, and laid his hand
upon the boy’s head.
“He shall be a genius!” said Wilhelm.