9921 excesses.19 They are rebuked for their "untrew"20 and they are called "die spanisch sew und hund." The Protestant songs of the period around 1550 are full of such references.22 Earlier than this, Hutten, too, in Die Anschawenden, trying to be impartial, lets Sol say to Phaethon of the Spanish warriors:23 "Sůn, vor allen seindt es fleissige dieb, aber im feld redlich, wie yemant ander. Denn sye seind geübt, des kryegs erfaren unnd über das hertzhafftig und trotzig" and later in the same work24 he charges them again with "dieberey." 25 The sinking of the Spanish Armada was an occasion which Fischart particularly seized for the purpose of pouring forth his venemous hatred of the Spaniards, whom he conceived as tyrannical, arrogant and rapacious. Immediately after the event, in 1588, he wrote his Gantz gedenckwürdige und eygentliche Verzeichnuss, wie die mächtig und Prächtig von vielen Jahren her zugeruste Spanische Armada ... .. abgefahren und getrent, erlegt, verjagt und mehrtheils zu grund gerichtet worden. . . . The work is a scathing condemnation of the Spanish and of their maladministration of the Netherlands. The sinking, says Fischart, is a righteous work of God. A minute description of the incident follows, in which the chief credit is given to the English and not to unfavorable weather conditions, which, according to Fischart, set in only after the victory had been achieved. Depositions of Spanish prisoners concerning the size and cost of the Spanish fleet follow, and finally Fischart bursts into verse, first presenting a Latin eulogy of Queen Elizabeth, and then the German Siegdanck oder Triumpffs pruch, zu Ehren der vortrefflichen Königin in Engellandt. Here Fischart uses a veritable volley of nouns and epithets descriptive of his opinion of the Spaniards. He says that they were tempted by "Ehrsucht" and "Geitz," "Weltgeitz," "Geltgeitz," "Hoffart" 19 Liliencron, Op. cit., No. 524, line 63; No. 526, strophe 33; No. 530, strophe 10; No. 587, strophe 11. 20 Ibid., No. 530, strophes 10 and 11; No. 570. 21 Ibid., No. 527, strophe 10. 22 Wander, Op. cit., sub Spanier, quotes proverbs which charge the Spaniards with faithlessness (entries 3, 21, 37), thievery (45), obstinacy (49), haughtiness (50, 56), braggadocio (54), and mendacity (55, 57). 23 Kürschner, Op. cit., 172, p. 301. " Ibid., p. 318. 25 Kleinere Schriften, 1848, pp. 1047-1122. "Ehrgir," "Hochmut," and they are "auffgeblasene gsellen" and "unersättlich Räuber"; they have no "Gottsforcht," he adds. Subsequently, when Spanish power waned, these prejudices against the Spanish character seem to have died out in Germany, until they were revived during the Thirty Years' War. The expedition of Marquis Spinola, an Italian leader in the services of Spain at this time, who at the head of a Spanish army plundered and pillaged in Germany, probably contributed to this revival. But, as is correctly noted in the Grimm Wörterbuch article, the connotation referring to objectionable traits of character is rather rare in the seventeenth century, making way once more for the element of strangeness and exoticalness. This was doubtless due to the reports of travelers, as Wander says, and to the fantastic ideas about Spain and the Spaniards prevailing at that time more than ever before and nurtured by the wandering actors, who presented exaggerated versions of Spanish plays of horror, pomp and bombast, and by the "Schelmenroman," in which Spain is depicted as a land of beggars and adventurers. Works of literature of the better class, such as the imitations of Spanish poetry by members of the "Blumenhirtenorden," of course, never reached the general public. We may, therefore, sum up by saying that during the earliest period-in the time of Brant-"Spanisch" was considered from the point of view of the Grimm definition (2), namely, "strange," "unfamiliar." Next there developed definitions (1) and (3), "proud" and "haughty," also with the connotation of moral depravity26 frequent during the sixteenth century. Then, in the seventeenth century, definition (2) came into usage again, and with it the proverb itself (4), while (1) and (3) became subordinate. Definition (5) probably developed from (4), on the analogy of "böhmische Dörfer." The explanation which A. W. Schlegel gives of Voss' verses:27 Fremd wie Böhmen und Spanien Sahe das Mädchen mich an, * The implication of moral depravity passed out of modern High German, but it is still contained in the Low German "dat küemt mi ganz spanisk vüör," for which compare Wander sub Spanisch. 27 Grimm's Wörterbuch, sub Spanisch, column 1888. (he sees in the "fremd wie . . . Spanien" a reference to the rigid war discipline which Duke Alba wished to introduce in Germany) seems hardly to be apt. The very fact that the text has both "Böhmen" and "Spanien" would lead one to believe that Voss had in mind only the strange, foreign, unusual element of definition (2), with possibly an admixture of (3), which he wished to express by his reference to the two proverbially exotic countries. EDWIN H. ZEYDEL Washington, D. C. A SOURCE FOR "ANNABEL LEE" "Annabel Lee," one of the most admired and widely known of Edgar Allan Poe's poems, was first published October 9, 1849, two days after the poet's death. Much has been written about the circumstances of its publication, particularly as to the rights of rival publishers, and also about supposed references in the poem to Poe's wife, Virginia Clemm, to Mrs. Whitman, and to others. But although Mrs. Whitman was convinced that the poem was composed in response to her "Stanzas for Music," and Professor W. F. Melton has revealed a close analogue of the poem in Poe's prose tale of "Eleonora," no real source of "Annabel Lee" appears to have been found. I. In the Charleston Courier of December 4, 1807, over a year before Poe's birth, were printed these lines, together with the modest introduction: "Messrs. Editors, I will trouble you with an occasional trifle, if you can spare it a corner." THE MOURNER How sweet were the joys of my former estate! And contentment ne'er envy'd the pomp of the great With my Anna I past the mild summer of love 'Till death gave his cruel decree, And bore the dear angel to regions above From the cot by the side of the sea! In the evening edition of The New York Tribune. See Campbell, The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (1917), p. 294. The original manuscript is reproduced in facsimile in Woodberry's Life of Edgar Allan Poe, revised edition (1909), vol. ii, facing p. 352. This MS. was submitted by Poe to John R. Thompson, editor of The Southern Literary Messenger, in September, 1849. 2 Such views are summarized concisely by Campbell, opus cit., p. 295. 'These Byronic lines, also termed "Our Island of Dreams," together with Mrs. Whitman's liberal claims stated in her own language, may be found conveniently in Caroline Ticknor's Poe's Helen (1916), pp. 129-130. South Atlantic Quarterly (1912), XI, 175 ff. But the smile of contentment has never return'd And for many long years I've unceasingly mourn'd And her sweet recollections shall live in the mind And seeks the repose which it never can find In the cot by the side of the sea! D. M. C. For comparison let us quote in full the familiar lines of Poe: ANNABEL LEE It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought She was a child and I was a child, In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love I and my Annabel Lee With a love that the winged seraphs of Heaven And this was the reason that, long ago, A wind blew out of a cloud by night So that her highborn kinsmen came To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, Yes! that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud, chilling But our love, it was stronger by far than the love Of many far wiser than we And neither the angels in Heaven above |