The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth CenturyWiener, Leo
History
The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century
Wiener, Leo
Yiddish literature -- History and criticism
Ten years later Goldfaden returned to the allegory of his 'Aristocratic
Marriage,' completing it, after the example of Abramowitsch, in a poem
of about six hundred lines, entitled 'Schabssiel, a Poem in Ten Chapters
(Thoughts after the Riots in Russia).' The master's influence on this
poem is not to be mistaken, for it serves as a pendant to the previous
work; it is as it were a continuation of it. Abramowitsch's poem ends
with the futile attempt of Mephistopheles to tempt Judel to a course of
vice, when he discovers Judel's wife, _i.e._ the Law, faithfully by his
side. In Schabssiel, the sufferings of the Jew are ascribed to his
having departed from the Law, to his having desecrated the Sabbath.
Though somewhat fantastic in its plot, and far from reaching his
predecessor's philosophic grasp of the Jew's history, his work is full
of fine passages and may be counted among the best of his productions.
At about the same time, another young writer, M. Lew, made use of the
form of 'Judel' in a poem whose title 'Hudel' seems to indicate its
obligation to the prototype. There is in this even less of a
philosophical background than in the verses just mentioned, and by its
subject-matter it clearly belongs to the following period, for it
describes not a purely Jewish theme, but one of a more general
character, namely the fall of an orphan who is left to shift for herself
in the world. It is, however, given in this place as being, at least in
outward form, a direct descendant of Abramowitsch's 'Judel.' While not
of the highest poetic value, it is written in a good style and gives
promise of better things should the author choose to proceed in his
poetic career. Mention must here also be made of a versified story,
'Lemech, the Miracle Worker,' by M. Epstein, to which we shall return
later.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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