【国外英文文学】Appendix to History of Friedrich II of Prussia.doc

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1、【国外英文文学】Appendix to History of Friedrich II of PrussiaAppendix to History of Friedrich II of Prussiaby Thomas CarlyleThis Piece, it would seem, was translated sixteen years ago; some four or five years before any part of the present HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH got to paper. The intercalated bits of Comment

2、ary were, as is evident, all or mostly written at the same time:-these also, though they are now become, in parts, SUPERFLUOUS to a reader that has been diligent, I have not thought of changing, where not compelled. Here and there, especially in the Introductory Part, some slight additions have crep

3、t in;-which the above kind of reader will possibly enough detect; and may even have, for friendly reasons, some vestige of interest in assigning to their new date and comparing with the old. (NOTE OF 1868.)A DAY WITH FRIEDRICH. (23d July, 1779.)OBERAMTMANN (Head-Manager) Fromme was a sisters son of

4、Poet, Gleim,-Gleim Canon of Halberstadt, who wrote Prussian grenadier- songs in, or in reference to, the Seven-Years War, songs still printed, but worth little; who begged once, after Friedrichs death, an OLD HAT of his, and took it with him to Halberstadt (where I hope it still is); who had a Templ

5、e-of-Honor, or little Garden-house so named, with Portraits of his Friends hung in it; who put Jean Paul VERY SOON there, with a great explosion of praises; and who, in short, seems to have been a very good effervescent creature, at last rather wealthy too, and able to effervesce with some comfort;-

6、Oberamtmann Fromme, I say, was this Gleims Nephew; and stood as a kind of Royal Land-Bailiff under Frederick the Great, in a tract of country called the RHYN-LUCH (a dreadfully moory country of sands and quagmires, all green and fertile now, some twenty or thirty miles northwest of Berlin); busy the

7、re in 1779, and had been for some years past. He had originally been an Officer of the Artillery; but obtained his discharge in 1769, and got, before long, into this employment. A man of excellent disposition and temper; with a solid and heavy stroke of work in him, whatever he might be set to; and

8、who in this OBERAMTMANNSHIP became highly esteemed. He died in 1798; and has left sons (now perhaps grandsons or great-grandsons), who continue estimable in like situations under the Prussian Government.One of Frommes useful gifts, the usefulest of all for us at present, was his wonderful talent of

9、exact memory. He could remember to a singular extent; and, we will hope, on this occasion, was unusually conscientious to do it. For it so happened, in July, 1779 (23d July), Friedrich, just home from his troublesome Bavarian War, Had arrived at Berlin May 27th (Rodenbeck, iii. 201). and again looki

10、ng into everything with his own eyes, determined to have a personal view of those Moor Regions of Frommes; to take a days driving through that RHYN-LUCH which had cost him so much effort and outlay; and he ordered Fromme to attend him in the expedition. Which took effect accordingly; Fromme riding s

11、wiftly at the left wheel of Friedrichs carriage, and loudly answering questions of his, all day.-Directly on getting home, Fromme consulted his excellent memory, and wrote down everything; a considerable Paper, -of which you shall now have an exact Translation, if it be worth anything. Fromme gave t

12、he Paper to Uncle Gleim; who, in his enthusiasm, showed it extensively about, and so soon as there was liberty, had it printed, at his own expense, for the benefit of poor soldiers children. Gleims edition, brought out in 1786, the year of Friedrichs death, is now quite gone,-the Book undiscoverable

13、. But the Paper was reprinted in an ANEKDOTEN- SAMMLUNG (Collection of Anecdotes, Berlin, 1787, 8tes STUCK, where I discover it yesterday (17th July, 1852) in a copy of mine, much to my surprise; having before met with it in one Hildebrandts ANEKDOTEN-SAMMLUNG (Halberstadt, 1830, 4tes STUCK, a rathe

14、r slovenly Book), where it is given out as one of the rarest of all rarities, and as having been specially furnished by a Dr. W. Korte, being unattainable otherwise! The two copies differ slightly here and there,-not always to Dr. Kortes advantage, or rather hardly ever. I keep them both before me i

15、n translating (MARGINALE OF 1852).The RHYN or Rhin, is a little river, which, near its higher clearer sources, we were all once well acquainted with: considerable little moorland river, with several branches coming down from Ruppin Country, and certain lakes and plashes there, in a southwest directi

16、on, towards the Elbe valley, towards the Havel Stream; into which latter, through another plash or lake called GULPER SEE, and a few miles farther, into the Elbe itself, it conveys, after a course of say 50 English miles circuitously southwest, the black drainings of those dreary and intricate Peatb

17、og-and-Sand countries. LUCH, it appears, signifies LOCH (or Hole, Hollow); and Rhyn-Luch will mean, to Prussian ears, the Peatbog Quagmire drained by the RHYN.-New Ruppin, where this beautiful black Stream first becomes considerable, and of steadily black complexion, lies between 40 and 50 miles nor

18、thwest of Berlin. Ten or twelve miles farther north is REINSBERG (properly RHYNSBERG), where Friedrich as Crown-Prince lived his happiest few years. The details of which were familiar to us long ago,-and no doubt dwell clear and soft, in their appropriate pale moonlight, in Friedrichs memory on this

19、 occasion. Some time after his Accession, he gave the place to Prince Henri, who lived there till 1802. It is now fallen all dim; and there is nothing at New Ruppin but a remembrance.To the hither edge of this Rhyn-Luoh, from Berlin, I guess there may be five-and-twenty miles, in a northwest directi

20、on; from Potsdam, whence Friedrich starts to-day, about, the same distance north-by-west; at Seelenhorst, where Fromme waits him, Friedrich has already had 30 miles of driving,-rate 10 miles an hour, as we chance to observe. Notable things, besides the Spade- husbandries he is intent on, solicit his

21、 remembrance in this region. Of Freisack and Heavy-Peg with her didactic batterings there, I suppose he, in those fixed times, knows nothing, probably has never heard: Freisack is on a branch of this same Rhyn, and he might see it, to left a mile or two, if he cared.But Fehrbellin (Ferry of BellEEN)

22、, distinguished by the shining victory which the Great Elector, Friedrichs Great-Grandfather, gained there, over the Swedes, in 1675, stands on the Rhyn itself, about midway; and Friedrich will pass through it on this occasion. General Ziethen, too, lives near it at Wusterau (as will be seen): Old Z

23、iethen, a little stumpy man, with hanging brows and thick pouting lips; unbeautiful to look upon, but pious, wise, silent, and with a terrible blaze of fighting-talent in him; full of obedience, of endurance, and yet of unsubduable silent rage (which has brooked even the vocal rage of Friedrich, on

24、occasion); a really curious old Hussar General. He is now a kind of mythical or demigod personage among the Prussians; and was then (1779), and ever after the Seven-Years War, regarded popularly as their Ajax (with a dash of the Ulysses superadded),-Seidlitz, another Horse General, being the Achille

25、s of that service.The date of this drive through the moors being 23d July, 1779, we perceive it is just about two months since Friedrich got home from the Bavarian War (what they now call POTATO WAR, so barren was it in fighting, so ripe in foraging); victorious in a sort;-and that in his private th

26、ought, among the big troubles of the world on both sides of the Atlantic, the infinitesimally small business of the MILLER ARNOLDS LAWSUIT is beginning to rise now and then. Supra 415, 429. Preuss, i. 362; &c. &c.Friedrich is now 67 years old; has reigned 39: the Seven-Years War is 16 years behind u

27、s; ever since which time Friedrich has been an old man,-having returned home from it with his cheeks all wrinkled, his temples white, and other marks of decay, at the age of 51. The wounds of that terrible business, as they say, are now all healed, perhaps above 100,000 burnt houses and huts rebuilt

28、, for one thing; and the ALTE FRITZ, still brisk and wiry, has been and is an unweariedly busy man in that affair, among others. What bogs he has tapped and dried, what canals he has dug, and stubborn strata he has bored through,-assisted by his Prussian Brindley (one Brenkenhof, once a Stable-boy a

29、t Dessau);-and ever planting Colonies on the reclaimed land, and watching how they get on! As we shall see on this occasion,-to which let us hasten (as to a feast not of dainties, but of honest SAUERKRAUT and wholesome herbs), without farther parley.Oberamtmann Fromme (whom I mark Ich) LOQUITUR: Maj

30、or-General Graf von Gortz, whom Fromme keeps strictly mute all day, is a distinguished man, of many military and other experiences; much about Friedrich in this time and onwards. Supra, 399. Introduces strangers, &c.; Bouille took him for Head Chamberlain, four or five years after this. He is ten ye

31、ars the Kings junior; a Hessian gentleman;-eldest Brother of the Envoy Gortz who in his cloak of darkness did such diplomacies in the Bavarian matter, January gone a year, and who is a rising man in that line ever since. But let Fromme begin:- Anekdoten und Karakterzuge aus dem Leben Friedrich des Z

32、weyten (Berlin, bei Johann Friedrich Unger, 1787), 8te Sammlung, ss. 15-79.On the 23d of July, 1779, it pleased his Majesty the King to undertake a journey to inspect those mud Colonies in the Rhyn- Luch about Neustadt-on-the-Dosse, which his Majesty, at his own cost, had settled; thereby reclaiming

33、 a tract of waste moor (EINEN ODEN BRUCH URBAR MACHEN) into arability, where now 308 families have their living.His Majesty set off from Potsdam about 5 in the morning, in an open carriage, General von Gortz along with him, and horses from his own post-stations; travelled over Ferlaudt, Tirotz, Wust

34、ermark, Nauen, Konigshorst, Seelenhorst, Dechau, Fehrbellin, See Reimanns KREIS-KARTEN, Nos. 74,73. and twelve other small peat villages, looking all their brightest in the morning sun,- to the hills at Stollen, where his Majesty, because a view of all the Colonies could be had from those hills, was

35、 pleased to get out for a little, as will afterwards be seen.-Therefrom the journey went by Hohen-Nauen to Rathenau: a civilized place, where his Majesty arrived about 3 in the afternoon; and there dined, and passed the night.- Next morning, about 6, his Majesty continued his drive into the Magdebur

36、g region; inspected various reclaimed moors (BRUCHE), which in part are already made arable, and in part are being made so; came, in the afternoon, about 4, over Ziesar and Brandenburg, back to Potsdam,-and did not dine till about 4, when he arrived there, and had finished the Journey. His usual din

37、ner- hour is 12; the STATE hour, on gala days when company has been invited, is 1 P.M.,-and he always likes his dinner; and has it of a hot peppery quality!Till Seelenhorst, the Amtsrath Sach of Konigshorst had ridden before his Majesty; but here, at the border of my Fehrbellin district, where with

38、one of his forest-men I was in waiting by appointment, the turn came for me. About 8 oclock A.M. his Majesty arrived in Seelenhorst; had the Herr General Graf von Gortz in the carriage with him, Gortz, we need nt say, sitting back foremost:-here I, Fromme, with my woodman was respectfully in readine

39、ss. While the horses were changing, his Majesty spoke with some of the Ziethen Hussar-Officers, who were upon grazing service in the adjoining villages all Friedrichs cavalry went out to GRASS during certain months of the year; and it was a LAND-TAX on every district to keep its quota of army-horses

40、 in this manner,- AUF GRASUNG; and of me his Majesty as yet took no notice. As the DAMME, Dams or Raised Roads through the Peat-bog, are too narrow hereabouts, I could not, ride beside him, and so went before? or BEHIND, with woodman before? GOTT WEISS! In Dechau his Majesty got sight of Rittmeister

41、 von Ziethen, old Ajax Ziethens son, to whom Dechau belongs; and took him into the carriage along with him, till the point where the Dechau boundary is. Here there was again change of horses. Captain von Rathenow, an old favorite of the Kings, to whom the property of Karvesee in part belongs, happen

42、ed to be here with his family; he now went forward to the carriage:-CAPTAIN VON RATHENOW. Humblest servant, your Majesty! UNTERTHANIGSTER KNECHT, different from the form of ending letters, but really of the same import.KING. Who are you?CAPTAIN. I am Captain von Rathenow from Karvesee.KING (clapping

43、 his hands together). Mein Gott, dear Rathenow, are you still alive! LEBT ER NOCH, is HE still alive?-way of speaking to one palpably your inferior, scarcely now in use even to servants; which Friedrich uses ALWAYS in speaking to the highest uncrowned persons: it gives a strange dash of comic emphas

44、is often in his German talk: I thought you were long since dead. How goes it with you 7 Are you whole and well?CAPTAIN. O ja, your Majesty.KING. Mein Gott, how fat He has (you are) grown!CAPTAIN. Ja, your Majesty, I can still eat and drink; only the feet get lazy wont go so well, WOLLEN NICHT FORT.K

45、ING. Ja! that is so with me too. Are you married?CAPTAIN. Yea, your Majesty.KING. Is your wife among the ladies yonder?CAPTAIN. Yea, your Majesty.KING. Bring her to me, then! TO HER, TAKING OFF HIS HAT I find in your Herr Husband a good old friend.FRAU VON RATHENOW. Much grace and honor for my husba

46、nd!KING. What were YOU by birth? WAS SIND SIE, the respectful word, FUR EINE GEBORNE?FRAU. A Fraulein von Krocher.KING. Haha! A daughter of General von Krochers?FRAU. JA, IHRO MAJESTAT.KING. Oh, I knew him very well.-TO RATHENOW Have you children too, Rathenow?CAPTAIN. Yes, your Majesty. My sons are

47、 in the service, soldiering; and these are my daughters.KING. Well, I am glad of that (NUN, DAS FREUT MICH). Fare HE well. Fare He well.The road now went upon Fehrbellin; and Forster, Forester, Brand, as woodkeeper for the King in these parts, rode along with us. When we came upon the patch of Sand-

48、knolls which lie near Fehrbellin, his Majesty cried:-Forester, why arent these sand-knolls sown?FORESTER. Your Majesty, they dont belong to the Royal Forest; they belong to the farm-ground. In part the people do sow them with all manner of crops. Here, on the right hand, they have sown fir-cones (KIENAPFEL).KING. Who sowed them?FORESTER. The Oberamtmann Fromme here.THE KING (TO ME). Na! Tell my Geheimer-Rath Michaelis that the sand-patches must be so