Da quelle vivificanti contemplazioni uscii sempre rinvigorito e migliore." So wird man auch nicht leicht vom dauernden Bestandteil der literaischen Kritik die Hauptwerke: "Roma nella memoria e nelle immaginazioni del medio evo," "Miti, leggende e superstizioni del medio evo" hinweg denken können; ein intimer Reiz liegt in diesen Fragmenten und Exkursen, und etwas von der Fabulirlust unserer Ahnen befängt uns wenn wir, von diesem hellsichtigen Geiste geleitet, mit ihrem Sehnen und Sinnen so gründlich vertraut werden. Ein Wunderbares für unsere Phantasie, und für den Forscher von Legenden und Mythen eine Quelle immerwährender Anregung. Nur trete man nicht mit einem Gefühl der Voreingenommenheit an diese Blätter heran, und harre geduldig auf die kleinen Entdeckungen. So fand ich selbst zu meiner Beschämung beim Wiederlesen der mit Unrecht vernachlässigten Studie "Nel Deserto" eine Fülle der feinsten Beobachtungen, die mir früher entgingen, und die sich auch der bewandertste Kenner mittelalterlicher Askese zu Nutze machen könnte. Bescheidenheit war Grundzug des Wesens dieses Dichters, und nichts konnte ihn mehr anwidern als die Sucht einiger Modernen, um jeden Preis originell, geistreich, verblüffend erscheinen zu wollen. So wenig wie er sich zu einem Verkündiger eines alleinseligmachenden Evangeliums der Poesie und der Kritik berufen fühlte, so gering war auch seine Teilnahme für die orakelsprechenden Dutzendkritiker und improvisirten Genies unserer Tage und ihr leichtfertiges Hinrichten, Segnen und Verdammen. Und was in seiner Aestetik als fremdes Beiwerk, die beständige Rüchsichtsnahme auf ethische Grundsätze, störend wirkte, gereichte seinem Charakter zur Zierde. Keine Handlung, die nicht von der reinsten Stimme des Gewissens geboten wäre, kein heisserer Wunsch in dem einsamen Manne als eine moralische Erhebung und eine gestärktere Geisteserziehung der Menschheit. In den Verordnungen der Hochschulen suchte man bloss eine Stütze für das äussere Leben, das sich aller Kräfte bemächtigte, und er trat in einer denkwürdigen Rede energisch für die Rechte des Innenlebens ein; Erziehungsanstalten sollten in keine Beamtenfabriken umgewandelt werden, einem höheren Zwecke sollten sie dienen; "tutelare, aiutare, incitare, liberare la personalità." Hinab in den reissenden Strom der Menschheit liess er sich nicht ziehen; wenn es aber Not tat, hat er sein Scherflein zur Linderung der Qualen seiner Mitleidenden beigesteuert, bereitwillig, grossmütig; unbesorgt wenn er auch seine Einsiedelei mit einer Theatertribüne vertauschen musste, wo er einmal vor Tausenden,-es war seine letzte Rede die weise Mahnung, das zertrümmerte Messina ja nicht wiederaufzubauen in die Luft erschallen liess. Er konnte, so tief sich oft die Stacheln des Schmerzes und des Lebensüberdrusses in seine Brust senkten, nur Milde, nur Güte, nur Wohlwollen von sich ausstrahlen. Nie suchte und holte man bei ihm vergebens Rat. “È uno dei' miei poeti . . . uno dei miei maestri . . da lui ebbi conforto e consiglio," so ein Dichter von unsagbarer Innigkeit und Gemütstiefe Giovanni Pascoli. Vieles von seinem Lebenswerke wird wohl der Vergänglichkeit verfallen, nicht unsonst aber, still und sanft, glomm und verglomm sein Lebensstern. University of Turin, Italy ARTURO FARINELLI THE VERB FORMS CIRCUMSCRIBED WITH THE PERFECT PARTICIPLE IN THE BEOWULF The purpose of this investigation is to study the Verb Forms circumscribed with the perfect participle in the Beowulf as to their State, Origin and Use. A glance at our bibliography will show that in the past a number of investigators have tried to explain the verb forms circumscribed with the perfect participle in various periods of the English language. Their method of procedure has usually been as follows. First, they counted instances of the use of the inflected and uninflected participles; and, finding that the same participle occurred sometimes with and sometimes without inflection they concluded, that the presence or the absence of inflection of the perfect participle did not involve a difference in meaning. It was merely an arbitrary matter depending upon the proximity or the relative position of the perfect participle to the word which it modified. (Smith § 138, Note) Second, by grouping the circumscribed forms over against the simple forms i. e. the perfect and pluperfect vs. preterit, they tried to explain the use of the circumscribed forms. The result was they found that the circumscribed forms in the period of the English language they were investigating corresponded in the most cases to the modern English circumscribed forms. However, there were some instances that could not be explained (Anglia xviii, 389). Thorough as these investigations are and as useful as they are, their results are not satisfactory. As to the inflection of the perfect participle, we find the same participle in the same relative position to the object or the subject, inflected in the one case and unflected in the other. As to the uses the method indicated above fails to explain a number of them. The reasons why these investigations could not arrive at any satisfactory results are: 1) they did not try to explain the origin of these circumscribed forms and thus arrive at the underlying principle that governs them. They proceeded in a merely statistical manner. 2) disregarding the element of time and place, they treated authors who lived in different parts of England and in different centuries, as if the English language had been stagnant in the use of its tenses from the 9th. to the 12th. century (Anglia, xviii) and as if all the people in England spoke absolutely in the same manner. This method is particularly pernicious in this case, since the written documents were not numerous and, therefore, the authors, not being bound to any literary traditions, could exercise great freedom and borrow freely from the ordinary spoken language. 3) they limited their investigation merely to the circumscribed past tenses (Perf. and Pluperf.) and did not take into consideration the present and the preterit tense circumscribed with the perfect participle. In the present investigation we shall not make much use of statistics; nor shall we try to include many authors who lived in different parts of England and in different centuries. Statistics, it seems to us, would merely indicate whether an author had a preference for one form of expression or another. They could not help us determine the origin or the use of the circumscribed forms. The question of tenses is to a great extent a subjective question, reflecting the author's point of view. Therefore we must interpret rather than count instances. And since this is a subjective question it seems to us that to include many authors, especially if they were separated in locality and time would only confuse the issue. Therefore we have confined this investigation to the Beowulf alone. Since, however, the Beowulf per se does not enable us to solve our question, we determined upon the following method of procedure. The circumscribed verb forms are much clearer in the Old-Saxon Heliand and cast much more light upon their origin and original use, than do those in the Beowulf. Hence we decided to study the circumscribed verb forms in the Heliand first; and then to apply the results obtained to the Beowulf and make comparisons. The validity of this method will become apparent as we proceed. PART I OLD SAXON I. State of verb forms circumscribed with the perfect participle in Old-Saxon. A. Method of formation. In Old-Saxon we find circumscribed verb forms consisting of the inflected and the uninfected perfect perticiple and the present and preterit of the verbs: hebbian, uuesan, uuerdan, In the active voice, therefore, transitive verbs take hebbian, while intransitive verbs take hebbian, uuesan or uuerdan. In the passive voice uuesan and uuerdan are used to form circumscriptions. B. Position of the perfect participle. The position of the perfect participle is not determined by any syntactical rule. It occurs both before and after the subject or object, both before and after the auxiliary. 1) Before subject: 5919 gimerrid uuarun iro thes muodgithahti C 4400 oft uurdun mi kumana tharod helpa fan iuuun bandun |