The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 12
General
The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 12
German literature -- 19th century -- Translations into English; German literature -- 20th century -- Translations into English
to individual soldiers, and the loyalty of his army, traveled hundreds
of miles. How, in danger of death, he played the flute in his tent,
how his wounded soldiers sang chorals after the battle, how he took
off his hat to a regiment--he has often been imitated since--all this
was reported on the Neckar and the Rhine, was printed, and listened to
with merry laughter and tears of emotion. It was natural that poets
should sing his praise. Three of them had been in the Prussian army:
Gleim and Lessing, as secretaries of Prussian generals, and Ewald von
Kleist, a favorite of the younger literary circles, as an officer,
until the bullet struck him at Kunersdorf. But still more touching for
us is the loyal devotion of the Prussian people. The old provinces,
Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Westphalia, were suffering
unspeakably by the war, but the proud joy of having a share in the
hero of Europe often lifted even humble men above their own
sufferings. Citizens and peasants took the field as militiamen again
and again for years. When a number of recruits from the province of
Cleves and the county of Ravensberg deserted after a lost battle and
returned home, the deserters were declared perjurers by their own
fellow-countrymen and relatives, were excluded from the villages and
driven back to the army.
Foreign opinion was no less enthusiastic. In the Protestant cantons of
Switzerland there was as warm sympathy with the King's fate as if the
descendants of the Rütli men had never been separated from the German
empire. There were people there who were made ill by vexation when the
King's cause was in a bad way. It was the same in England. Every
victory of the King aroused wild joy in London. Houses were
illuminated and pictures and laudatory poems offered for sale. In
Parliament Pitt announced with admiration every new deed of the great
ally. Even at Paris, in the theatres and salons, people were rather
Prussian than French. The French derided their own generals and the
clique of Madame de Pompadour. Whoever was on the side of the French
arms, so Duclos reports, hardly dared to give expression to his views.
In St. Petersburg, the grand duke Peter and his party were such good
Prussians that they grieved in secret at every reverse of Frederick's
cause. The enthusiasm penetrated even to Turkey and to the Khan of
Tartary; and this respectful admiration of a whole continent outlasted
the war. When Hackert, the painter, was traveling through the interior
of Sicily, a gift of honor of wine and fruit was offered him by the
city council because they had heard that he was a Prussian, a subject
of the great King for whom they wished thereby to show their
reverence; and Muley Ismail, the emperor of Morocco, released without
any ransom the crew of a ship belonging to a citizen of Emden, whom
the Berbers had brought prisoner to Mogador, sent them in new clothes
to Lisbon, and assured them that their King was the greatest man in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account