THE Lithuanian nation, formed out of the tribes of the Litwini, Prussians
and Leti, not very numerous, settled in an inextensive country, not very
fertile, long unknown to Europe, was called, about the thirteenth century,
by the incursions of its neighbours, to a more active part. When the
Prussians submitted to the swords of the Teutonic knights, the
Lithuanians, issuing from their forests and marshes, annihilated with
sword and fire the neighbouring empires, and soon became terrible in the
north. History has not as yet satisfactorily explained by what means a
nation so weak, and so long tributary to foreigners, was able all at once
to oppose and threaten all its enemies—on one side, carrying on a constant
and murderous war with the Teutonic Order; on the other, plundering
Poland, exacting tribute from Great Novgorod, and pushing itself as far as
the borders of the Wolga and the Crimean peninsula. The brightest period
of Lithuanian history occurs in the time of Olgierd and Witold, whose rule
extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea. But this monstrous empire,
having sprung up too quickly, could not create in itself internal
strength, to unite and invigorate its differing portions. The Lithuanian
nationality, spread over too large a surface of territory, lost its proper
character. The Litwini subjugated many Russian tribes, and entered into
political relations with Poland. The Slavs, long since Christians, stood
in a higher degree of civilisation, and although conquered, or threatened
by Lithuania, gained by gradual influence a moral preponderance over their
strong, but barbarous tyrants, and absorbed them, as the Chinese their
Tartar invaders. The Jagellons, and their more powerful vassals, became
Poles; many Lithuanian princes adopted the Russian religion, language, and
nationality. By these means the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ceased to be
Lithuanian; the nation proper found itself within its former boundaries,
its speech ceased to be the language of the court and nobility, and was
only preserved among the common people. Litwa presents the singular
spectacle of a people which disappeared in the immensity of its conquests,
as a brook sinks after an excessive overflow, and flows in a narrower bed
than before.
The circumstances here mentioned are covered by some centuries. Both
Lithuania, and her cruellest enemy, the Teutonic Order, have disappeared
from the scene of political life; the relations between neighbouring
nations are entirely changed; the interests and passions which kindled the
wars of that time are now expired; even popular song has not preserved
their memory. Litwa is now entirely in the past: her history presents from
this circumstance a happy theme for poetry; so that a poet, in singing of
the events of that time, objects only of historic interest, must occupy
himself with searching into, and with artfully rendering the subject,
without summoning to his aid the interests, passions, or fashions of his
readers. For such subjects Schiller recommended poets to seek.
“Was unsterblich im Gesang will leben,
Muss im Leben untergehen.”