and ruins of the Castle. Looked down upon the grey-roofed Town, with its
Cathedral running parallel with the river Neckar, over which, by a fine
bridge, we had crossed on entering; boats shooting curiously over the
rapids; vines, hanging gardens climbing up the hill, clothing the rocks,
and creeping into their crevices, on every side of us, and up to the
very point where we stood. The Town, with its squares and fountains, its
narrow long streets, with arched gateways, towers, and spires, courts,
and quaint flower gardens, fill the deep valley. The river disappears,
winding away among the hills to the right. Before us it holds a direct
course--through a widening tract of the same prolific country--to the
Rhine, seen in the distance.... 27th... The passage through the bridge
being somewhat dangerous, those who accompany the rafts, as they
approach, fall down upon their knees to pray, then raise their voices
and sing an appropriate anthem till the peril is past." (Mrs.
Wordsworth's Journal.)
"Friday, 28th July. Heidelberg.--The River flows beside it calmly
(though with strong motion as all these large rivers do), but after that
point, to the Bridge, the channel is rocky, and therefore the stream
turbulent. While passing under the garden-wall, the peasant sailor,
before he trusts his boat or timber-raft to the rocks and rapids, kneels
down and prays for protection from danger, and a safe passage through
the arches of the Bridge. An Image of Jesus on the cross is the visible
object of his worship, which Mr. Pickford, when he rebuilt his
garden-wall, replaced in its station, out of respect to the piety or
superstition of past and present times. During the passage an
appropriate hymn is chaunted--the thought touched our poet's fancy, and
he has since composed the following verses for the Heidelberg boatmen."
(From Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, vol. i.)
In the edition of 1822 a sonnet followed this Hymn, entitled _The
Jung-Frau--and the Rhine at Shauffhausen_. In the edition of 1827 it was
transferred to the series of "Ecclesiastical Sonnets," under the title
of its first line, "Down a swift Stream, thus far, a bold design," which
place it retained in all subsequent editions (see Part III. No. xii.)
The following note accompanied the sonnet in the edition of 1822:--"This
Sonnet belongs to another publication, but from its fitness for this
place is inserted here also.
'Voilà un énfer d'eau,' cried out a German Friend of Ramond, falling on
his knees on the scaffold in front of this Waterfall. See Ramond's
Translation of Coxe."--W. W.--ED.]
X
THE SOURCE OF THE DANUBE
Not, like his great Compeers, indignantly
Doth DANUBE spring to life![490] The wandering Stream
(Who loves the Cross, yet to the Crescent's gleam
Unfolds a willing breast)[HH] with infant glee
Slips from his prison walls: and Fancy, free 5
To follow in his track of silver light,
Mounts on rapt wing, and with a moment's flight
Hath reached the encincture of that gloomy sea[491][HI]
Whose waves the Orphean lyre[HJ] forbad to meet
In conflict; whose rough winds forgot their jars[492] 10
To waft the heroic progeny of Greece;
When the first Ship sailed for the Golden Fleece--
ARGO--exalted for that daring feat
To fix in heaven her shape distinct with stars.[493][HK]
_Not (like his great Compeers) indignantly
Doth Danube spring to light!_
Before this quarter of the Black Forest was inhabited, the source of the
Danube might have suggested some of those sublime images which Armstrong
has so finely described; at present the contrast is most striking. The
Spring appears in a capacious Stone Basin upon the front of a Ducal
palace, with a pleasure-ground opposite; then, passing under the
pavement, takes the form of a little, clear, bright, black, vigorous
rill, barely wide enough to tempt the agility of a child five years old
to leap over it,--and, entering the Garden, it joins, after a course of
a few hundred yards, a Stream much more considerable than itself. The
_copiousness_ of the Spring at _Doneschingen_ must have procured for it
the honour of being named the Source of the Danube.--W. W. 1822.
"Monday, 31st July.--... We drew towards the town of Villingen, a
foreign-looking place standing in the descent, and lifting up its
metallic dome-like spires, without the accompaniment of a single
tree.... The Church with its two-fold spire glittered in the hot
sunshine, like pewter in a melting state. Our guide had told us that
near this place the Danube took its rise; but not so.... At
_Doneschingen_ changed horses again. _Here_ we laved in the water which
flowed from the source of the majestic Danube, a little, clear, bright,
black rill, that issuing from a capacious stone fountain, into which it
springs, crosses the road, and glides rapidly along the side of a
beautiful pleasure-ground.... We washed, drank, and luxuriated in the
cool and pure waters of this rill, unwilling to quit what we were not
again to see--a reality very different from the stately Danube, so long
an image to the imagination." (Mrs. Wordsworth's Journal.)
"Tuesday, 1st August. Villingen.--The landlord seemed to entertain high
ideas of this his native place--its modern improvements in gardens and
its former grandeur--and told us that one of his servants should conduct
us to the palace, the gardens, the baths, and last of all, though most
the object of our curiosity, to the source of the DANUBE....
"But I seem to have forgotten the source of the Danube, which truly _was
'another'_[HL] Danube after we had seen it; or, more properly speaking,
after we had seen the moor-land country surrounding the Town of
Doneschingen, where we knew we should meet with the source of that
famous river; and it is not only _there_ (in that Hollow wild without
grandeur), but actually within the walls of the Duke's courts adjoining
the trim flower garden. The bountiful spring is received by a large
square stone basin, and thence flows through the gardens in a narrow
stream like a vigorous mill-race. Had an active boy been by our side he
would have over-leapt it. That streamlet, after the course of a few
hundred yards, falls into the bed of the united rivers the P---- and the
P---- which take their rise in the _moorish_ hills seen on the right in
the road from Villingen, and which we looked upon from the gardens at
the same time that we saw the new-born streamlet (called the source of
the Danube) gush into their channel. I suppose it must be the remarkable
strength of the spring which has caused it to be dignified with its
title; for certainly those other two streams (united a little above the
gardens) are the primary sources (of this branch at least) of the
Danube." (From Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, vol. i.)
What Dorothy Wordsworth mentions in reference to the Danube occurs in
many other rivers; _e.g._ the source of the Clyde, in Scotland, is a
tiny burn in Lanarkshire, which, after a short moorland course, falls
(near Elvanfoot) into the large stream of the Daur--the latter having
come down for many miles from the Lead Hills district. The P---- and
P---- is probably a mistake for B---- and B----. The mountain torrent of
the Bregé in the Schwartzwald is joined by the Bregach, and when the
stream receives the waters from the spring in the Castle Garden of
Doneschingen it becomes the Danube.--ED.
VARIANTS:
[Footnote 490: 1822.
But in the note to the poem the reading is "light."
]
[Footnote 491: 1840.
Reaches, with one brief moment's rapid flight,
The vast Encincture of that gloomy sea 1822.
]
[Footnote 492: 1827.
Whose rough winds Orpheus soothed; whose waves did greet
So skilfully that they forgot their jars-- 1822.
]
[Footnote 493: 1837.
Argo exalted by that daring feat
To a conspicuous height among the stars! 1822.
Argo, exalted for that daring feat
To bear in heaven a shape distinct with stars. 1827.
]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote HH: Referring to the circumstance that the Danube rises in a
country where the Catholic religion prevails, and flows eastwards
through lands where the faith of Islam is professed.--ED.]
[Footnote HI: The Black Sea. Orpheus accompanied the Argonauts in their
expedition to Colchis. In the earlier form of the legend, this lyre
subdued the winds and waves, and fixed the Symplegades firm in the sea,
so that the Argo passed through unharmed. (See the legends in Ovid and
Virgil, and in the _Argonautica_ of Apollonius Rhodius, 1. 23.)--ED.]
[Footnote HJ: See _Paradise Lost_, book iii. l. 17.--ED.]
[Footnote HK: According to the Greek astronomers, the lyre of Orpheus
was placed by Zeus amongst the stars.--ED.]
[Footnote HL:
For when we're there, although 'tis fair,
'Twill be another Yarrow.
(See vol. ii. p. 413).--ED.]
XI
ON APPROACHING THE STAUBBACH, LAUTERBRUNNEN
Uttered by whom, or how inspired--designed
For what strange service, does this concert reach
Our ears, and near the dwellings of mankind!
'Mid fields familiarized to human speech?--
No Mermaids warble--to allay the wind 5
Driving some vessel toward a dangerous beach--
More thrilling melodies; Witch answering Witch,
To chaunt a love-spell, never intertwined[494]
Notes shrill and wild with art more musical:
Alas! that from the lips of abject Want 10
Or[495] Idleness in tatters mendicant
The strain should flow-free Fancy to enthral,[496]
And with regret and useless pity haunt
This bold, this bright,[497] this sky-born, WATERFALL!
The Staubbach is a narrow Stream, which, after a long course on the
heights, comes to the sharp edge of a somewhat overhanging precipice,
overleaps it with a bound, and, after a fall of 930 feet, forms again a
rivulet. The vocal powers of these musical Beggars may seem to be
exaggerated; but this wild and savage air was utterly unlike any sounds
I had ever heard; the notes reached me from a distance, and on what
occasion they were sung I could not guess, only they seemed to belong,
in some way or other, to the Waterfall--and reminded me of religious
services chaunted to Streams and Fountains in Pagan times.--W. W. 1822.
Mr. Southey has thus accurately characterised the peculiarity of this
music: "While we were at the Waterfall, some half-score peasants,
chiefly women and girls, assembled just out of reach of the Spring, and
set up--surely, the wildest chorus that ever was heard by human ears,--a
song not of articulate sounds, but in which the voice was used as a mere
instrument of music, more flexible than any which art could
produce,--sweet, powerful, and thrilling beyond description." (See Notes
to _A Tale of Paraguay_.)--W. W. 1837.
"Thursday, 10th Aug....--Walked to the Staubbach, the thin veil-like
mist-besprinkled waterfall, that slips over the edge of an immensely
high perpendicular rock--which, when we saw it by the morning light, was
accompanied by a beautiful rainbow; spanning, like the arch of a bridge,
the vapour at the base of the rock. Singing Girls. But I must not
neglect to speak of the beauty of the _early_ morning, in the
magnificent pass between Interlachen and Lauterbrunnen. The river from
Jungfrau bounding down with great force, bringing a very cold air from
the snowy regions. Cottages with their green summer plots climbing up in
all directions, to the very skirts of these icy regions. Two that
looked so beautiful in the sunshine. Women and children busy with their
little lot of hay. Men mowing." (Mrs. Wordsworth's Journal.)
"Thursday, 10th August. Interlachen.--The Staubbach is a narrow stream,
which, after a long course on the heights, comes to the sharp edge of a
somewhat overhanging precipice, overleaps it with a bound, and, after a
fall of 930 feet, forms again a rivulet, that passing through a green
sloping pasture crosses the road, and thence through the heaving
grounds, takes its clear waters to the grey torrent of the Leutshen.
When tracking with my young guide the rivulet to its momentary
resting-place, a small basin at the foot of the cataract, two women
appeared before me singing a shrill and savage air; the tones were
startling, and in connection with their wild yet quiet figures strangely
combined with the sounds of dashing water and the silent aspect of the
huge crag that seemed to reach the sky! The morning sun falling on this
side of the valley, a circular rainbow was seen when we were there,
between the Fall and the Rock, the space being several yards, and you
stand within that space in a bath of dew. I was close to the women when
they began to sing, and hence, probably, it was that I perceived nothing
of _sweetness_ in their tones. I cannot answer for the impression on the
rest of the party except my brother, who being behind, heard the carol
from a distance; and the description he gives of it is similar to Mr.
Southey's in his Journal." (From Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, vol.
i.)--ED.
VARIANTS:
[Footnote 494: 1837.
Tracks let me follow far from human-kind
Which these illusive greetings may not reach;
Where only Nature tunes her voice to teach
Careless pursuits, and raptures unconfined.
No Mermaid warbles (to allay the wind
That drives some vessel tow'rds a dangerous beach)
More thrilling melodies! no caverned Witch
Chaunting a love-spell, ever intertwined 1822.
... tow'rd a dangerous beach) 1827.
]
[Footnote 495: 1837.
And ... 1822.
]
[Footnote 496: 1832.
They should proceed--enjoyment to enthral, 1822.
The strain should flow--enjoyment to enthral, 1827.
]
[Footnote 497: 1837.
... this pure, ... 1822.
]
XII
THE FALL OF THE AAR-HANDEC
From the fierce aspect of this River, throwing
His giant body o'er the steep rock's brink,
Back in astonishment and fear we shrink:
But, gradually a calmer look bestowing,
Flowers we espy beside the torrent growing; 5
Flowers that peep forth from many a cleft and chink,
And, from the whirlwind of his anger, drink
Hues ever fresh, in rocky fortress blowing:
They suck--from breath that, threatening to destroy,
Is more benignant than the dewy eve-- 10
Beauty, and life, and motions as of joy:
Nor doubt but HE to whom yon Pine-trees nod
Their heads in sign of worship,[HM] Nature's God,
These humbler adorations will receive.
"Saturday, Aug. 12.--It is now half-past twelve o'clock, and I am
sitting upon a sort of myrtle bed under a pine grove among the rocks,
down which the headlong Aar cleaves its way, having dined in the cabin
at Handeck, in close neighbourhood with our steeds. All that we have
hitherto seen seemed at the moment but a faint preparation for the
delights of this day. The beautiful valley we left behind us, the
groves, the forest of oak and pine, the glades, the one particularly in
which we met that 'Hoifer,' as we called him, with his heron's crest
proudly reared upon his head, a little page carrying his accoutrements.
He with many others, but none like this Hero, there was repairing to
shoot for a prize at Meyringen. Then, those lovely vales, that circular
one, the pride of them all, which led us to the savage Pass and giant
Pines, where lurks this King of Waterfalls. What delicious couches to
rest upon. Here to linger out a long summer's day would be a luxury. A
more sober passage home--our spirits a little, but very little, damped
by the stretch of enjoyment." (Mrs. Wordsworth's Journal.)
"Saturday, 12th August. Meyringen.--Crossed the stream, and _re_-crossed
it, and from a stony hollow, uninhabited, came into the gloom of a pine
forest, which led us, by a steep ascent, to the rocks surrounding the
Fall of the Aar. Long before our approach, we heard the roaring, while
that sound was deadened by the intermediate rocks and trees; but when
standing on a bank, in front of the cataract, I could have believed at
the first moment, that it was louder even than that of the Rhine at
Schaffhausen. This impression, no doubt, was owing chiefly to its being
confined within a narrow space. The pine-clad precipices, especially on
the opposite side, are very lofty, rising from the rocks of the Pass,
kept bare by continual wetting. The gloom of the forest-mountains, in
harmony with the sombrous hue of the water, would, of itself, make this
first view of this cataract much more impressive than that of the
Reichenbach; but again we looked in vain--not for delicate passages in
the stream;--those could not be thought of;--but for some of those
minute graces, and those overgrowings that detain us in admiration
beside our own pellucid waterfalls.[HN] There is a grey furnace-like
smoke of water, and a desperate motion and ferment, that make the head
dizzy and stun the ears." ... "We clambered upon other rocks; and, at
leisure, noticed the variety of shrubby plants and flowers, which here
(being higher than the stream) grew securely, nursed by perpetual dews.
Luxuriant tufts of a very large sedum were lodged on the ledges, or hung
from dark crevices; those tufts, in form and motion, as they waved and
fluttered in the breeze of the cataract, resembling the plumes of a
hearse, were an ornament well suited to the pine-clad steeps, and the
heavenly beauty of the rainbow." (From Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal,
vol. i.)--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote HM: Compare Coleridge's _Hymn before Sunrise, in the Vale of
Chamouni_.--ED.]
XIII
MEMORIAL,
NEAR THE OUTLET OF THE LAKE OF THUN
_"DEM
ANDENKEN
MEINES FREUNDES
ALOYS REDING
MDCCCXVIII"_
Aloys Reding, it will be remembered, was Captain-General of the Swiss
forces, which, with a courage and perseverance worthy of the cause,
opposed the flagitious and too successful attempt of Buonaparte to
subjugate their country.--W. W. 1822.
Around a wild and woody hill
A gravelled pathway treading,
We reached a votive Stone that bears
The name of Aloys Reding.
Well judged the Friend who placed it there 5
For silence and protection;
And haply with a finer care
Of dutiful affection.
The Sun regards it from the West;
And, while in summer glory 10
He sets, his sinking yields a type[498]
Of that pathetic story:
And oft he tempts the patriot Swiss
Amid the grove to linger;
Till all is dim, save this bright Stone 15
Touched by his golden finger.
"Aug. 7th. We reached this place, Thun. Walked or sate in the groves at
the foot of the Lake, then crossed the river by a boat, and wandered in
delightful pleasure groves on the other side. Then, passing a gravelled
path, which is carried round the woody hill, we found among many
interesting objects, one that was very impressive, a plain oval slab,
raised upon a stone seat, directly fronting the setting sun, which at
that moment was shedding his latest rays upon it. It was this
inscription which spoke more than an elaborate panegyric:--
_DEM
ANDENKEN
MEINES FREUNDES
ALOYS REDING
MDCCCXVIII."_
(Mrs. Wordsworth's Journal.)
"Monday, 7th August. Berne.--One of the inscriptions (which I did not
see) was to the memory of Aloys Reding, a Friend of the possessor of
these grounds. A happy chance led my Companions to the spot; and here is
the inscription copied by one of them:--
_DEM
ANDENKEN
MEINES FREUNDES
ALOYS REDING
MDCCCXVIII."_
The other bore away a store of interesting recollections which gave
birth to the following little Poem:--
MEMORIAL VERSES
Around a wild and woody hill, etc."
(From Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, 1820, vol. i.)
It will be observed from the dates given in the Journals, that the poet
did not keep to the chronological order of the Journey, in arranging
these "Memorials" of their Continental Tour. In the strict order of
time, this memorial to Aloys Reding should have preceded the sonnet _On
approaching the Staubbach_.--ED.
VARIANTS:
[Footnote 498: 1837.
Sinking in summer glory;
And, while he sinks, affords a type 1822.
]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote HN: Compare Wordsworth's remarks on Waterfalls, in his
_Description of the Scenery of the Lakes_.--ED.]
XIV
COMPOSED IN ONE OF THE CATHOLIC CANTONS[499]
Doomed as we are our native dust[500]
To wet with many a bitter shower,[501]
It ill befits us to disdain[502]
The altar, to deride the fane,
Where simple[503] Sufferers bend, in trust 5
To win a happier hour.
I love, where spreads the village lawn,
Upon some knee-worn cell to gaze:
Hail to the firm unmoving cross,
Aloft, where pines their branches toss! 10
And to the chapel far withdrawn,
That lurks by lonely ways!
Where'er we roam--along the brink
Of Rhine--or by the sweeping Po,
Through Alpine vale, or champain[HO] wide, 15
Whate'er we look on, at our side
Be Charity!--to bid us think,
And feel, if we would know.
The second stanza of this poem, entitled _Composed in one of the
Catholic Cantons_, was in the original edition of 1822, a part of the
poem entitled _The Church of San Salvador, seen from the Lake of
Lugano_. The other stanzas were first published in 1827.
Numerous references to "the firm unmoving cross," and to
the chapel far withdrawn,
That lurks by lonely ways,
occur both in Mrs. Wordsworth's and in Dorothy's Journal. _E.g._
(Crossing the St. Gotthard Pass) "Aug. 24.--... Gained the top by a
steep pull; snow before and behind; a crucifix, and oratories thicken
upon our course as we draw near to the Hospice. 'Gales from Italy' blow
fresh around. Snow on the roadside. Farther on a little cross under a
rock.... We yesterday noticed five of these crosses, two placed under
one rock, and three under another." "Aug. 15. (Engelberg.)--... Counted
the wayside upright oratories; found no less than sixteen before we
reached the house, where we resumed our _char-à-bancs_." "Aug. 8. (At
Interlachen.)--... The view that takes in the length of the Vale,
following the snaky river with its islands, through those croft-like,
woody, orchard meadows to Unterseen, with its weir, church, bridges,
cottages, and that spiral edifice in the midst: Lake of Thun beyond,
girt by mountains: Neissen, a pyramidal giant, predominant. Turning to
the left towards Brientz, Ringenberg old Church tower rising from a high
woody knoll. William and I came to it. (I write on the spot. Wm.
asleep.) No entrance into the ruin, good view of Brientz Lake, and a
little Loughrigg Tarn above, close under where we are seated among
groves of limes, hazels, beeches, etc.; clanking hammers, singing girl.
'Will no one tell me what she sings?'[HP] A little further on, among
those sylvan crofts, a scattered group of day or summer-deserted
cabins; plots of hemp spread in the sunshine tell us dwellers sometimes
come here. Hence steps of rock led us to a temple of Nature's own
framing, roofed with ancient beech trees. Under one was firmly fixed in
the ground a little upright stone, about a span in width, and three
times that length. Upon it was roughly chisled a cross, not exactly a
Christ-cross, but something like this.... I could not but feel that it
might have been placed there by the Peasants, as a point to meet from
their scattered sheds for worship. Natural seats, mossy or bare, like
those in our own sylvan parlour (upon Rydal Lake), all around in the
rocks, kept up the idea; and a more lovely and silent spot could not
have been selected for a holy purpose: the little Tarn too in sight, in
time of drought, ready to supply their rocky font with fresh water."
"Friday, 14th September. Martigny.--Passing the turn of the ascent, we
come to another Cross, (placed there to face the Traveller ascending
from the other side), and, from the brow of the eminence, behold! to our
left, the huge Form of Mont Blanc--pikes, towers, needles, and wide
wastes of everlasting snow in dazzling brightness. Below is the river
Arve, a grey-white line, winding to the village of Chamouny, dimly seen
in the distance. Our station, though on a height so commanding, was on
the lowest point of the eminence; and such as I have sketched (but how
imperfectly!) was the scene uplifted and outspread before us. The higher
parts of the mountain in our neighbourhood are sprinkled with brown
Chalets. So they were thirty years ago, as my Brother well remembered;
and he pointed out to us the very quarter from which a Boy greeted him
and his companion with an Alpine cry--
The stranger seen below, the boy
Shouts from the echoing hills with savage joy."[HQ]
(From Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, vol. ii.) See also note to
_Engelberg, the Hill of Angels_, p. 317, and to _Our Lady of the Snow_,
p. 320.--ED.
VARIANTS:
[Footnote 499: 1837.
... Cantons of Switzerland. 1822.
]
[Footnote 500: 1827.
O Life! without thy chequered scene
Of right and wrong, of weal and woe,
Success and failure, could a ground
For magnanimity be found?
For faith, 'mid ruined hopes, serene?
Or whence could virtue flow?
Yet are we doomed our native dust 1832.
The edition of 1837 returns to the text of 1827.]
[Footnote 501: 1827.
... fruitless shower, 1832.
The edition of 1837 returns to the text of 1827.]
[Footnote 502: 1827.
And ill it suits us to disdain 1832.
The edition of 1837 returns to the text of 1827.]
[Footnote 503: 1832.