"Thus lion, dragon, driver, all plunge down.""Thus lion, dragon, driver, all plunge down."
Rafael:Praise be to God! Upon your knees300Fall down and worship Him! O Lucifer,Ah! where now is that fickle confidence?In what strange shape shall I, alas! beholdThee soon? Where now are thy proud splendors, thatAll other pomp so easily outshone?Uriel:Even as bright day to gloomy night is changed,Whene'er the sun forgets his golden glow,So in his downward fall his beauty turnedTo something monstrous and most horrible:Into a brutish snout his face, that shone310So glorious; his teeth into large fangs,Sharpened for gnawing steel; his hands and feetInto four various claws; into a hideOf black that shining skin of pearl; while fromHis bristled back two dragon wings did sprout.Alas! the proud Archangel, whom but nowAll Angels honored here, hath changed his shapeinto a hideous medley of seven beasts,As outwardly appears: A lion proud;A greedy, gluttonous swine; a slothful ass;320A fierce rhinoceros, with rage inflamed;An ape, in every part obscene and vile,By nature lewd and most lascivious;A dragon, full of envy; and a wolfOf sordid avarice. His beauteous formIs now a monster execrable, by GodAnd Spirit and man e'er to be cursed. That beastDoth shrink to view its own deformity,And veils with darkling mists its Gorgon face.Rafael:Thus shall Ambition learn how vain to tilt330For God's own crown. Where stayed Apollion?Uriel:He saw his tide ebb when his star declined,And fled: so fled they all. Then, from above,The celestial ordnance pours forth shot on shot,With lightning flash and rolling thunders loud,Causing the monsters that into the lightHave crawled to swell the rout; and pleased are all.With God's array, to aid in such pursuit!O! what a whirl of storms in one resolved!And what a noisy tumult rises round!340What floods sweep by! Our legions, blessed by God,Advance, and strike and crush whatever they meet.What cries of pain now burst forth everywhere,As from the fleeing hordes one hears, amidThis wild confusion and this change of formIn limbs and shapes, their roars and bellowings.Some yell, and others howl. What fearful frownsThose Angel faces wear, the mirrors dreadOf Hell's infernal horrors. Hark! I hearMichael return, triumphant, to display,350Here in the light, the spoil from Angels reft.The choristers now greet him with their songsOf praise, with sound of cymbal, pipe, and drum.They come in front, and strew their laurel leaves'Mid those celestial harmonies around.CHORUS OF ANGELS. MICHAEL.Chorus:Hail! to the hero, hail!Who the wicked did assail;And in the fight, o'er his might and his standard.Triumphant did prevail.Who strove for God's own crown,360From his high and splendid throne,Into night, with his might, hath been driven.How dazzling God's renown!Though flames the tumult fell,The valiant MichaelWith his hand the fierce brand can extinguish:All mutiny shall quell.God's banner he doth rear:Come, wreathe his brow austere.Now, in peace, shall increase Heaven's Palace:370No discord now we hear.Then to the Godhead raise.In His deathless courts, your praise.Glory bring to the King of all Kingdoms:His deeds inspire our lays.Michael:Praise be to God! The state of things aboveHas changed. Our Grand Foe has met his defeat;And in our hands he leaves his standard, helm,And morning-star, and shield and banners bold.Which spoil, gained in pursuit, even now doth hang,380'Mid joys triumphant, honors, songs of praise,And sounds of trump, on Heaven's axis bright,The mirror clear of all rebelliousness,Of all ambition that would rear its crest'Gainst God, the stem immovable—grand fount,Prime source, and Father of all things that are,Which from His hand their nature did receive,And various attributes. No more shall weBehold the glow of Majesty SupremeDimmed by the damp of base ingratitude.390There, deep beneath our sight and these high thrones,They wander through the air and restlesslyMove to and fro, all blind and overcastWith shrouding clouds, and horribly deformed.Thus is his fate, who would assail God's Throne.Chorus:Thus is his fate, who would assail God's Throne.Thus is his fate, who would, through envy, man,In God's own image made, deprive of light.GABRIEL. MICHAEL. CHORUS.Gabriel:Alas! alas! alas! how things have changed!Why triumph here? Our triumph is in vain:400Ah! vain display, these plundered flags and arms!Michael:What hear I, Gabriel?Gabriel:Oh! Adam's fallen:The father and the stem of all mankind,Most pitiful and sad! brought to his fallSo soon. He is undone.Michael:That bursts even likeA sudden thunder-peal upon our ears.Although I shudder, yet I long to hearThis overthrow described. Doth then the ChiefAccursed, also on Earth his warfare wage?Gabriel:The battle o'er, he called his scattered host410Unto his side, though first his chieftains bold,Who to each other turned abhorring gaze;And then, to shun the swift, all-searching raysOf the all-seeing Eye, he veiled them roundWith gloomy mists, that formed a hollow cloud,A dark, obscure, and gruesome lair of fog,Where shone no light, where gleamed no glow of fireSave what did shine from their own blazing eyes.And in that dim, infernal consistory,High-seated 'mid his Councillors of State,420With bitter rage 'gainst God he thus began:"Ye Powers, who for our righteous cause have borne,With such fierce pride, this injury, 'tis timeTo be revengèd for our wrongs: with hateIrreconcilable and furious craftThe Heavens to persecute and circumventIn their own chosen image, man, and himTo smother at his birth, in his ascent,Ere that his sinews gain their promised strengthAnd ere he multiply. 'Tis my design,430Both Adam and his seed now to corrupt.I know how, through transgression of the lawHim first enjoined, to stain him with a blotIndelible; so that he with his seed,In soul and body poisoned, never shallUsurp the throne from which ourselves were thrust:Though it may be that some shall yet ascendOn high, a number small and slight; and theseAlone through thousand deaths and sufferingAnd labor shall attain the state and crown440To us denied. Lo! miseries forthwithShall follow aft in Adam's wake, and spread,From age to age, throughout the whole wide world.Even Nature shall, attainted by this blow,Almost decay, and wish again to turnTo chaos and its primal nothingness.I see mankind, in God's own image made,From God's similitude debased, estranged,And tarnished, even in will and memoryAnd understanding, while the holy light450Within created is obscured and dimmed:Yea, all yet in their mother's anxious womb,That wait with sorrow for their natal hour,I now, forsooth, behold a helpless preyTo Death's relentless jaws. I shall exaltMy tyranny with e'er-increasing pride,While you, my sons, I then shall see adoredAs Deities, on altars and in fanesInnumerable that tower to Heaven, where burnsThe sacrificial victim, 'mid the smoke460Of censers and the dazzling sheen of gold,In praise most reverential. I see hostsOf men, whose multitudes are even beyondThe power of tongue to name—yea, all that springFrom Adam's loins—for all eternityAccursed by their deeds abominable,Done in defiance of God's name. So dearTo Him the cost of triumph o'er my crown."Michael:Accursèd one, even yet to be so boldIn thy defiance 'gainst thy God! Ere long470Thou shalt from us this blasphemy unlearn.Gabriel:Even thus spake Lucifer, and then he sentPrince Belial down, that he forthwith might causeMankind to fall: who took upon himselfThe form of that most cunning of all beasts,The Serpent, type of wickedness itself,That he might with a gloss of words adornHis luring snares, which then those creatures pureIn guileless innocence even thus received,As, swinging from the tempting bough of knowledge,480That lone forbidden tree, he hung aloft:"Hath God, upon the pain of death, with suchSeverity and at so high a price,Deprived you of the freedom of this fruit?—The taste of even the choicest tree of all?Nay, Eve, thou simple dove, indeed thou dostMistake. But once behold this apple, pray!Aye! see how glows this radiant fruit with goldAnd crimson mingled! An alluring feast!Yea, daughter, nearer draw; no venom lurks up490In this immortal leaf. How tempts this fruit!Yea, pluck; yea, freely pluck: I promise theeAll light and knowledge. Come, why shouldst thou shrinkFor fear of sin? Aye, taste, and thus becomeEqual to God Himself in cognizance,Honor and wisdom, truth and majesty:Even though He much may wish thee to deny.Thus must distinctions be discerned in things.Their nature, entities, and qualities."Forthwith begins the heart of the fair bride500To burn and to enkindle, till she flamesTo see the praised fruit, which first alluresThe eye: the eye the mouth, that sighs to taste.Desire doth urge the hand, all quivering,To pluck. And thus she plucks, and tastes and eats(Oh! how this shall afflict her progeny!)With Adam, and as soon as then their eyesAre opened and they see their nakedness,They deck themselves with leaves—with leaves of fig,Their shame, disgrace, and taint original—510And in the trees and shadows hide themselves;But hide in vain from the all-piercing Eye.Then gradually the sky grows black. They seeThe rainbow, as a warning messengerAnd portent of God's plagues, stretched o'er the Heavens,That weep, in mourning clad. Nor wringing hands,Nor sad lament, nor cries avail the pair.Alas! the lightnings gleam, with flash on flash,And shaking thunders roll there, peal on peal.And naught is heard but sighs, and naught is seen520But fright and gloom. They even their shadows flee;But ne'er can 'scape that dread heart-cankering worm,The sting of conscience. Thus, with knees that knockTogether, step by step they stumble on,Their faces ghastly pale, and eyes, o'er-brimmedWith tears, blind to the light. How spiritless,They who but now their heads so proudly held!The sound of rustling leaf or whispering brook,The faintest noise, doth them confound; the whileA pregnant cloud descends, that bursts and bears,530By slow degrees, a light and radiant glow,Wherein the great Supreme appears in shapeImpressive, thundering with His Voice, that fellsThem to the earth.
—"Nor wringing hands, Nor sad lament, nor cries avail the pair.""Nor wringing hands,Nor sad lament, nor cries avail the pair."
Chorus:Oh! oh! 'twere better far,Had mankind ne'er been made. This teaches themBy such a juicy fruit to be beguiled.Gabriel:"O Adam," thunders God, "where art thou hid?""Forgive me. Lord; I flee thy countenance,Naked and all ashamed." "Who taught thee thus,"Asks God, "thy shame and nakedness to know?540Didst dare profane thy lips with the forbiddenFruit?" "Aye, my bride, my wife, alas! did tempt."She says, "The wily Serpent hath deceivedMe with this lure." Thus each the charge deniesOf being the cause of their sad wretchedness.Chorus:Mercy! What penalty hangs o'er their crime?Gabriel:The woman, who hath Adam thus seduced,God threatens with the pains of tears and travail,And her subjection, and the man with careAnd labor, sweat and arduous slavery;550The soil, where man, at last, shall find his grave,With noxious weeds and great calamities;The Serpent, for the sly misuse thus madeOf his most subtle tongue, shall, o'er the ground,Upon his belly creep, and live aloneOn dust and earth. But as a comfort sure,In such a misery, to poor mankindGod promises, in truth, out of the seedAnd blood of the first woman, to raise upThe Strong One, who shall crush the Serpent's head,560This Dragon vile, through deadly hate, by timeNor yet eternity to be removed.And though this raging monster make attemptTo bite His heel, yet shall the Hero win;And from the strife shall come with honors crowned.I come, in the name of Him, the Highest One,To thee this sad disaster to reveal.Forthwith all things in wonted order place,Ere they, for us, shall further mischief brew.Michael:Come, Uriel, armor-bearer, who dost guard570The Right divine and punishest the Wrong:Take up thy flaming sword: fly down below,And drive the twain from Eden, who have daredTransgress, so rash and blind, the primal law.Go, guard the gate of the Paradise profaned,And forcibly the exiles drive awayFrom this rare food, this tree, prolonging life.Permit not that they pluck the immortal fruit,Nor their abuse of heavenly gifts allow.Thou art placed, as sentinel, the garden over,580And o'er this tree. Then see that Adam shallBe driven out, and that from morn to eveHe plough the field, and till the clayey groundFrom which, the breath of God once fashioned him,Ozias, to whose hand once God HimselfWith honor did entrust the ponderous hammerOf bright-hewn diamond made, also the chainsOf ruby and the clamps so sharp of teeth,Go hence, and capture and securely bindThe host of the infernal animals,590Also the lion and the dragon fell,That furiously against our standards rage.Sweep from the sky these hordes accursed, and bindThem neck and claw, and chain them forcibly.This key of the black bottomless abyssAnd all its dungeons is unto your care,Azarias, enjoined. Go hence, and lockAll that our power assail within those vaults.Maceda, take this torch, to you this flameIs given: go light the deep lake sulphurous.600Down in the centre of the Earth, and thereTorment thou Lucifer, who hath brought forthSuch numerous horrors, in the eternal fireUnquenchable, with chilling frosts commingled:There Grief and Horror and Obduracy,And Hunger, Thirst, and comfortless Despair,The sting of Conscience, Wrath implacable,The punishments given for this mad attempt,Amid the smoke from God's deep glow concealed,Bear witness to the blasting curse of Heaven,610Passed on this Spirit impious, the whileShall come the promised Seed, the Reconciler,Who shall appease the blazing wrath of God,And in His wondrous love to man restoreAll that by Adam's trespass has been lost.
—"The eternal fire Unquenchable, with chilling frosts commingled."—"The eternal fireUnquenchable, with chilling frosts commingled."
Chorus:Deliverer, who thus the Serpent's headShalt bruise, and who, at the appointed time,Shalt fallen mankind cleanse from the foul taintOriginal, from Adam's loins derived;And who again, for frail Eve's offspring, shalt620Ope here, on high, a fairer Paradise,"We shall with longing tell the centuriesTill the year, day, and hour when shall appearThy promised Mercy, which its pristine bloomTo pining Nature shall restore, and placeUpon the throne whereout the Angels fellThe souls and bodies Thou hast glorified.627
"I consider your version of the Lucifer the most notable literary achievement in American letters in the decade from 1890 to 1900."—Richard Watson Gilder.
"It takes a master to translate a master, and the Lucifer of Leonard Van Noppen is a re-creation of the original work; masterful, comprehensive and in every sense a finished production. Full of poetic fire and the magic of the fitting word, it has the imprint of creative genius in every line and is weighted with the personality of a powerful and vivid imagination."—Francis Grierson.
"Leonard Charles Van Noppen, the translator of Vondel's Lucifer, is a poet of extraordinary power and beauty."—Edwin Markham.
Comparing the author with George Sterling, says Mr. Markham, in his "California, the Wonderful." "In recent poetry only Mr. Leonard Van Noppen's verse is kindred in lavish word-work and ornate architecture to 'The Wine of Wizardry.' Both men create their poesies with large movement and breadth of treatment—with amplitude of sky and prodigiousness of field, with wash of sunset and rainbow, with march of stars."
"I feel glad that any sparks of mine have served to enkindle the cassia, nard and frankincense which so prodigally enrich your own altar. Continue, now, to feed their flames with all those resources which the translator of Vondel showed me so plainly that he possessed. Take up your own creative work while in your prime, and in the end you will gain more nobly won, though none more royally couched, tributes of speech than those you offer me."—Edmund C. Stedman.
"I congratulate you upon your success in the accomplishment of this very interesting piece of work and hope that it will meet with that recognition among scholars which it deserves. I think there is a large culture for the writer."—Henry Van Dyke.
"I received with much pleasure your Vondel's Lucifer, and as I read it, I was much delighted. It is a pleasure to read the English version of this work."—Josef Israels.
"I am much indebted to you for the gift of your very handsome translation of the 'Lucifer,' and I am not a little struck by the evidence of literary ability spread over all parts of the volume. I hope your spirited and scholarly enterprise may meet to the full with the success it deserves."—Edmund Gosse.
"Worthy the genius of Vondel."—Dr. Jan Ten Brink, Professor of Literature, University of Leiden.
"A beautiful book. It is almost like discovering a new Homer."—Nathan Haskell Dole.
"A grand yet exquisite work. It is no flattery to say that the issue of this book is one of the most notable events of the age, yet is it not better than praise of one's effort to feel its significance as a centre of spreading thought and inquiry! To think that you are the first to give Vondel's Lucifer to the English reading world!"—Mary Mapes Dodge.
"I was reading your translation of Vondel last year, and I was very much struck with the resemblance to Milton in form and spirit. The conception of the mental attitude of the fallen angels is one which is certainly very interesting from a psychological as well as a literary point of view."—A. Lawrence Lowell.
"The Lucifer has greatly interested me as a revelation of one at least of the main sources from which Milton gained his ideas. Your preliminary work to me seems to be admirable, and you have certainly rendered a real service both to history and literature."—Andrew D. White.
"I wish to thank you for your translation of Vondel's Lucifer. Shall I confess it? It was long ago since I read that great poet, and your work afforded me all the pleasure of an original. As for your splendid chapter, 'Life and Times of Vondel,' and your thorough and searching Lucifer's Interpretation, they cannot fail to awaken the keenest interest in the English speaking literary world."—Baron Gevers, Minister from the Netherlands to Washington.
"Mr. Van Noppen is a man of great literary power, an authority in Dutch literature and is achieving fame as a translator of the masterpieces of the Dutch language."—Edwin A. Alderman.
"Your book duly came to hand. I was delighted to see the extraordinary attention it got in 'Literature,' and I congratulate you on the wide interest it has awakened."—W.D. Howells.
"Many thanks for your curious and interesting volume, my only chance of making acquaintance with the Batavian author."—Andrew Lang.
"I want to add my small words to the panegyric and tell you with what intense interest and pleasure I have followed your astonishing success. I say astonishing because I wonder how long it is since any one has been able to stir up such keen and general interest over a classic written long ago and in a foreign tongue? How long ago has it been since any classic was so much talked of? When, pray, has a young man made such a contribution to English letters and so interested thinking and scholarly people?"—Willa Cather.
"It has become a matter of literary tradition, in Holland and out of it, that the choral drama of 'Lucifer' is the great masterpiece of Dutch literature. * * * An era of translation was sure to set in, and it is a matter of significance that its herald has even now appeared. The translation into English of Vondel's 'Lucifer' is not only in and for itself an event of more than ordinary importance in literary history, but it cannot fail to waken among us a curiosity as to what else of supreme value may be contained in Dutch literature."—William H. Carpenter, Professor of Germanic Philology, Columbia University.
"We heartily rejoice that Vondel's drama has been translated into English by an American for Americans. Were this translation an inferior one, or were it only mediocre, we should have no reason to be glad, but in this case it is otherwise. Although no translation can entirely compensate for the lack of the original it is, however, possible for the original to be followed very closely. This is well shown by this rendering, which to a high degree possesses the merit of accuracy, while, at the same time, the spirit and the character of Vondel's tragedy are felt, understood and interpreted in a remarkable manner. Whoever is in a position, by the comparison of the translation with the original, to form an individual opinion of Van Noppen's superb work, will probably be convinced, even as I have been, that here an extraordinarily difficult task has been magnificently done."—G. Kalff, Professor of Dutch Literature, University of Utrecht.
"This version of Vondel bridges the gap in the Miltonic Criticism."—Francis B. Gummere.
"Much Esteemed Sir and Friend:
The distinguished octogenarian poet and author, Nicolaas Beets, of Utrecht, Holland, wrote to Mr. Van Noppen as follows:
'Much Esteemed Sir and Friend:
* * * I have furthermore compared your translation in many a striking passage with the original, which I always held in my hand. * * * Whatever was attainable you not only tried to reach most earnestly, but you have even most excellently succeeded in attaining. You have absolutely understood and perfectly rendered the meaning, the action, the spirit and the power of the sublime original. In splendid English verse we read Vondel's soul. Whoever knows Vondel will admit this, and whoever does not at present know him will learn to know and appreciate him from your translation. * * * It is also very plain, from the essays preceding the translation, that you have made a most thorough and comprehensive study of Vondel and of his poetry in connection with the entire field of the literature and history of his time. Though having myself read, and even written, in prose as well as poetry, so much concerning Vondel, I was often so impressed by criticisms and observations in your essays that I felt impelled to revise and complete my own conceptions."
The American Press.
"Mr. Van Noppen has produced a text which, so far as mere suppleness and naturalness go, might be taken for an original production, and his editorial labors have been considerable."—New York Tribune.
"There is reason enough for the publication in English of such a classic as the Lucifer, and it is fortunate that the work could be so artistically done."—Review of Reviews.
"To compare the two poems—Milton's Paradise Lost and Vondel's Lucifer—is as if one should contrast a great chorale by Bach or Mendelssohn with a magnificent hymn-tune by Sir Arthur Sullivan or William Henry Monk. The epic and the drama are both triumphs of skill. Why make comparisons? Rather let the world rejoice in two such possessions."—Philadelphia Record.
"It is particularly fortunate that the first English rendering of the great poem is so ably and conscientiously done. * * * Finally, the poem is illustrated by fifteen drawings in black and white by the famous Dutch artist, John Aarts, which are printed with the text."—The Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer.
"If only as a literary, or as a human document, shedding light upon the methods of the greatest of English epic poets, Mr. Van Noppen's work would be of infinite value to all students. But the book which he has translated possesses, besides these adventitious claims to respect, a supreme intrinsic value. It is a drama that is everywhere great, and in passages sublime. * * * That the present translation is a good one he who reads can discern. It is strong, nervous, and rhythmical. It is, above all, good English, not a Teutonized hybrid."—New York Herald.
Mr. Van Noppen's translation is spirited and dignified, and there is a distinct lyric charm, which he has managed to preserve—a rare feat with a translator."—Charleston News and Courier.
"For the reader who desires merely the artistic comment of the pictures that thoroughly illustrate this famous old poem we might add that Mr. Aarts has caught the spirit—the pictorial beauty—of Lucifer as perhaps no other artist of the day could have done. The man himself is a poet, and he has translated into these drawings the majestic tragedy of Lucifer even as Mr. Van Noppen has translated it into stately English verse."—Brooklyn Citizen.
"Literary societies, university extension circles, and reading clubs are all here furnished with a fresh winter theme whose stages are already plotted out for the worker."—Philadelphia Inquirer.
"Vondel's Lucifer is one of the most important contributions ever made to the catholic literature of the English-speaking world. * * * As a specimen of book-making the volume is a model."—St. Louis Church Progress.
"We may consider Mr. Van Noppen's translation as a key that has unlocked a literary treasure and put within our reach a classic of Teutonic literature."—Detroit Free Press.
"The English-speaking literary world is under great obligations to the translator and publisher of this uniquely printed, illustrated, and bound volume."—Richmond Dispatch.
"The present rendering of Lucifer is by Leonard C. Van Noppen, who has made a translation which will link his name with that of the master as Edward Fitzgerald has bound his up with that of Omar Khayyam."—Buffalo News.
"A most meritorious translation of the Dutch poet's sublime tragedy, with a great deal of critical and biographical matter in the introductory sections."—Philadelphia Press.
"This careful translation of the great masterpiece of Dutch literature is one of the important books of the year."—Chicago Tribune.
"As Lucifer is the greatest work of the Dutch poet's, the fine translation and its elegant setting in the beautiful book is most gratifying."—Chicago Inter-Ocean.
"The translation is as literal as it can be made, and the sonorous tongue of its original author is heard through it all"—Chicago Times-Herald.
"The translation is an earnest and faithful rendering of the poet's ideas, and the verse is technically excellent; in fact, the translation may bid for the exalted place of the original in many libraries."—Times-Union, Albany.
"The stately sweep of the original verse has not been lost in the transference from one tongue to another. Mr. Van Noppen has, in addition to his translation of the poem, furnished a sympathetic and interesting memoir of the Life and Times of Vondel, and an elaborate, critical and scholarly Interpretation of the Lucifer."—Brooklyn Times.
"This delightfully printed book is a real work of art, and is a worthy contribution to the history of literature."—Boston Globe.
"Leonard Charles Van Noppen, the translator, has given to English literature another great classic."—Dramatic Magazine, Chicago.
"It is a very interesting event that we have Vondel's Lucifer in a scholarly, an accurate, and an admirable rendering into English."—Wilmington (N.C.) Messenger.
"If we were asked to give our opinion of this version we should express it in one word—'masterly.' The powers of expression and the richness of Vondel's thought, together with the rhythmical beauty of the poem, have been preserved in full. It is a masterpiece, and should have a place in every library."—De Grondwet (Dutch paper), Holland, Mich.
"In the essay on Vondel's Life and Times we have a singularly able and deeply interesting account of the conditions under which Vondel developed. * * * For the poem itself, like many more of the writings of Vondel, it has been recognized as a classic. Nobody can read it and not feel the sublimity of the inspiration that produced it."—San Francisco Chronicle.
"The whole thing is new and interesting—introduction, biography and poem. It opens up Dutch literature, the society of the Eglantine, a social field of poets and writers."—Baltimore Sun.
"Translator, artist and publishers are to be highly commended for the handsome and satisfactory manner in which they have combined to present this celebrated Dutch classic to American readers."—New Orleans Times-Democrat.
"The translator is Leonard Charles Van Noppen, and he is a poet himself in English. This intellectual and temperamental tendency enabled him to make a literal rendering that is not only highly accurate, but that also most admirably conserves the spirit of the original. The book is beautifully illustrated by the Dutch artist, John Aarts. From Mr. Van Noppen's interesting introductory essay on Vondel—a clear, comprehensive, and convincing exposition, as admirable in style as it is valuable in matter—we learn many interesting things concerning this old poet, this unknown Titan, whom the ablest students of literature place on the same plane with Milton, Dante, and Æschylus."—The Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia.
"In almost every, if not in every individual particular, the book is a model of what such a book should be. Intelligent and scholarly editing, thoughtful consideration for all the several needs of students as well as readers, liberal and judicious provision in the matter of accessories, a cultivated and refined taste in decoration, and a true feeling for typographical elegance in each respect of paper, type, margins, edgings, illustrations and binding unite to give this volume a character of genuine excellence and an aspect of chaste elegance such as are not often seen in a single example. The total is a result of such importance and value that we shall describe it item by item."—The Literary World, Boston.
"Mr. Van Noppen's introductory study of the Life and Times of Vondel is masterly in knowledge of the whole literary atmosphere of the day, with its grand galaxy of writers. * * * Therefore this book will serve another purpose besides that of introducing Anglo-Saxon readers to the beauties of Vondel's masterpiece: it will unfold to them as well the history of Holland's great literary period in all its wealth and beauty. In this translation of the drama itself, which is strictly faithful to the original in spirit, he has succeeded in reproducing to a considerable extent the virility, the majesty, of the original."—The Critic,
From Signed Reviews.
"Mr. Van Noppen has laid the student of Milton as well as the student of Dutch literature under weighty obligations by a translation of the drama of Lucifer which is not only true to the sense of its original, but also not unworthy of its fame."—Mayo W. Hazeltine, in New York Sun.
"Vondel's Lucifer is just as readable to-day as it was two hundred and fifty years ago, and in this translation the energetic simplicity of it abides."—George W. Smalley, in New York Herald.
"We prefer to accept Mr. Van Noppen's translation as he offers it for the worth of the poem itself, and that is sufficient for many a century."—George Henry Payne, in The Criterion.
"Mr. Van Noppen's translation of the Lucifer in this book is one for which he claims literalness to a close extent; but its fluency is not the less to be noted. Some of the best and most brilliant passages scarcely seem like a translation, so naturally and choicely do the words proceed."—Joel Benton, in The New York Times' "Review of Books."
"I spent one whole evening comparing Mr. Van Noppen's translation with the original. As far as exactness goes, as far as intimate verbal interpretation of Vondel's verse is concerned, it equals Andrew Lang's wonderful prose translation of the Iliad. By far the most difficult part of this translation must have been that of the lyrics and choral passages (after the Greek mode) with which the drama abounds. Mr. Van Noppen has preserved (at what pains) not only the metre and the rhythm, but also the rhymes, often involute and curiously doubled."—Vance Thompson, in Musical Courier.
"The work evinces not only a mastery of seventeenth century Dutch, but an insight into metrical effects and facility in reproducing them in English. This version could not have come from one who had not drilled himself for years in the theory and practice of English verse. We bespeak for the handsome volume before us a wide circulation. That such a translation has been sorely needed every student of comparative literature knows. That this need has been adequately met every impartial student of Mr. Van Noppen's version will, we believe, readily admit."—Prof. C. Alphonso Smith, Ph.D., in Modern Language Notes, Baltimore, Md., Dec, 1898.
"The intrinsic value of the work makes the publication of Mr. Van Noppen's translation an event of peculiar literary interest."—John D. Barry, in Boston Literary World.
The London Press.
"The dramatic masterpiece of the great Dutch poet of the seventeenth century has found a skilled and vigorous translator in Mr. Leonard Charles Van Noppen, and the sustained volume is further enriched by a careful memoir of the author of Lucifer and by an elaborate critical Interpretation of the poem. Justice is thus at last rendered to a poet of unquestionable genius and inspiration, of whom everything like a fair estimate has hitherto been hardly possible to an English reader. * * * There is no appeal to the groundlings in the style and quality of the verse, which in Mr. Van Noppen's spirited translation has a march of sustained, or, at least, of rarely failing dignity throughout, and in its intercalated choric passages is by no means wanting in lyrical charm. * * * But after half a dozen, a dozen, a score, of similar parallelisms the odds against chance and in favor of design become so overwhelming that the least mathematically minded of men will reject the former hypothesis. The 'long arm of coincidence' is not so long as all that. And, most assuredly, it is not long enough to cover the fact that Milton's Samson Agonistes followed in due course on Vondel's Samson, and that it abounds in evidences that in the matter of dramatic construction, at any rate, to leave the poetry out of the question, he was content to take his Dutch contemporary as his closely followed model."—London Literature.
"It is interesting that the first English translation of Vondel's famous play should be made in America and put forth in the old Dutch city of New York. The volume is a handsome one, elaborately gotten up."—London Daily Chronicle.
"Lucifer is a large, majestic drama, and adorned with several beautiful choric odes."—W.L. Courtney, in London Daily Telegraph.
* * * Milton undoubtedly behaved in a light-fingered fashion at the expense of Vondel, not once or twice, but often. * * * After a long lapse of time this matter is reopened by Mr. Leonard Charles Van Noppen, whose volume in praise and explanation of Vondel is a book of quite uncommon merit and charm, and one absolutely indispensable to students of Milton. * * * Of Mr. Van Noppen's success as a translator there can be only one opinion. We have read his version with surprise and delight. Vondel's Lucifer, in nearly all respects, will prove a veritable treasure for the genuine book-lover."—The London Literary World.
GENTLEMEN:
We, members of the "Board of the Queen Wilhelmina Lectureship, Columbia University," Professor Doctor G. Kalff, of the University of Leiden; Member Royal Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam; Leiden. President; J. Heldring, of Heldring & Pierson, Bankers, the Hague; J.W. IJzerman, President of the Royal Netherland Geographical Society at Amsterdam, the Hague; Wouter Nijhoff, President of the Dutch Publishers' Association, the Hague; Doctor H.J. Kiewiet de Jonge, President of the General Dutch Alliance, Dordrecht, Hon. Secretary, herewith plead for your co-operation with our endeavors to spread in America a knowledge of our civilization and institutions. Notwithstanding the tremendous influence of Holland upon England and the American Colonies—an influence as yet hardly guessed—the study of the Dutch and their history in the colleges and universities of America is still universally neglected. So little in fact is known of this subject and of Holland's part in civilization that there is even among scholars but little appreciation of the importance of this subject. Only at Columbia University is there any evidence of interest. Here our literary representative, Leonard C. Van Noppen, whom we have selected as the pioneer to blaze the way, has inaugurated several courses in Dutch Literature and given besides lectures on the various periods of its development. Since Columbia has been the first to co-operate with us, will not your institution be the second? If so, will you kindly address Prof. Leonard C. van Noppen, Queen Wilhelmina Lecturer, Columbia University, N.Y.? Mr. Van Noppen will be glad at any time to introduce you to this subject and to lecture on such phases of it as you may deem the most interesting.
We invite your students to our universities. Here is a field which will enrich scholarship with many discoveries. The selection of the Hague as the Capital of Peace has given Holland a new international importance. Your universities have established chairs in Icelandic, Chinese and Russian, subjects whose importance and value are incalculably less than that of Dutch. Is it not time that a beginning be made in this direction? Not even the study of the Spanish, the Italian and the French is so fertile of results as that of the civilization of the Netherlands, which, as the mother of the Teutonic Renaissance, influenced the civilization of the English-speaking world so largely. Prof. Butler will, upon application, be glad to give Mr. van Noppen leave of absence to lecture at your university. Mr. Van Noppen has given courses of lectures on this subject at the Lowell Institute, Brooklyn Institute, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Cincinnati and many other colleges and universities.
We add the following notice of his lecture at Davidson College, N.C.:
"Davidson, April 20.—It is altogether too seldom that our Southern colleges, certainly it is true of Davidson, are privileged to have with them a lecturer of the type seen in Professor Leonard Charles van Noppen of the Queen Wilhelmina Chair of Dutch Literature in Columbia University, who spoke last evening in Shearer Hall and who speaks again this evening and to-night.
"Doctor van Noppen was introduced by Professor Thomas W. Lingle, who in a brief speech told of the lecturers right by virtue of birth and training to speak on the topic selected and for a few minutes in an instructive way pointed out what Holland had contributed to Western civilization and particularly to American life and history, an introduction so full of facts marked with such accurate historical perspective that the Columbia lecturer in making acknowledgment said he felt inclined to take his seat and let Doctor Lingle continue, so familiar did he seem with the subject he himself was to present.
"To say that Doctor van Noppen's lecture was popular, in the ordinary sense of the word, would do it great injustice. It was too comprehensive in its reach, and strong in its grasp, too scholarly, too suggestive of research and prolonged investigation and study, too elaborate in phrase and too masterful in its discriminating use of choice English and ornate diction for any one to call it popular. Its purpose and its value is not of this order. Rather, after listening to such a paper, the scholar is glad that it is doubtless to appear in permanent or book form, where he can study it at leisure. To the college student it serves as a stimulus, an inspiration, an ideal to show him that in his daily routine of class room work he is only laying a foundation on which to build and with which he may begin the higher intellectual life, may start out for himself to read, to investigate and in time reduce to consistent and articulated form the results of his own weeks and months not to say years of patient toil in the great libraries.
"In a very strict sense Doctor van Noppen's first lecture was scholarly and showed clearly that it breathes a university atmosphere and is intended primarily and ultimately for the lecture hall of the Johns Hopkins University, where he is soon to deliver the series. He is just now returning from a lecture tour in the West.
"Beginning with a clever characterization of the people of Holland as a practical one, first reclaiming from the sea a land to live on, and then anchoring it to the continent, in rapid review he showed what a wonderful contribution this little country, less than Maryland, and small in everything but in history, has made to modern Christian civilization. Washed out of the soil of Germany on toward the sea—and no wonder that Germany looks with envious eyes upon it—it is the richest country imaginable. It has a per capita wealth of $12,000 as against America's $4,000. In proportion to population it has done more for civilization than any other nation, not even Greece excepted. Then followed in rapid review the facts of history in substantiation of the claim.
"Conspicuous in the claims and seemingly substantiated was in the influence of Holland in spreading abroad, notably in America, the doctrines of the equality of all men, separation of Church and State, religious freedom, freedom of the press, local self-government.
"Fine was the description of Philip of Spain, of William the Silent. Interesting was the portrayal of the work of the Chamber of Eglantine of Amsterdam, of the men of letters of Leiden and the intellectual forces leading up to and resulting in the great University in Leiden.
"Most striking of all was his brilliant description of the life and work of the great Dutch poet Vondel and the story of how Milton, the greatest of English Epic poets, has been content to follow, imitate and copy from Vondel in his Lucifer where Vondel has shown himself the great dramatist."
The "Baltimore Sun" writes of his lecture at Johns Hopkins:
"Very frequently since the day when Geoffrey Chaucer fashioned his immortal 'Canterbury Tales' upon Bocaccio's 'Decameron,' English poets have been subject to the impeachment of having borrowed (usually without proper acknowledgment) from foreign sources —borrowed material, plot, episodes, characters and, sometimes, language, embodied in whole phrases and sentences. The Elizabethan Age, pre-eminent though it was in creative literary excellence, has not escaped the challenge of its originality. French and Italian influences and writers exercised a strongly formative power upon Drayton, Sidney, Spenser and others of the elect, and even the great Bard of Stratford did not scruple at transmuting the clay of less gifted molders into the gold of his superb coinage.
"But it has not been generally recognized that Milton was such an appropriator. Accordingly, Dr. L.C. van Noppen's lecture showing that the great Puritan poet was indebted to the 'Lucifer' of Vondel, the Dutch author, for the theme, the treatment, the description and even some of the finest passages in 'Paradise Lost,' is a surprise. Yet Dr. Van Noppen makes out a very strong case. The appearance of 'Lucifer' a short time before Milton's Continental tour, which was cut short by the breaking out of the great civil war in England; the strong likelihood that Milton had heard of Vondel and his work through Roger Williams, whose sojourn in Europe had made him acquainted with 'Lucifer,' and who had instructed Milton in modern languages; Milton's association in Paris with Hugo Grotius, one of the most eminent scholars of his time, a countryman and an enthusiastic admirer of Vondel—all combine into a strong chain of circumstantial evidence, which, reinforced by the undeniable similarity and the many parallel passages in the two great works, make a conclusion which is almost imperative.
"But the conceding of Milton's debt to Vondel does not cancel our debt to Milton, whose sublime epic has given pleasure and comfort to scores of readers to whom Vondel's drama has been a sealed volume. Neither does it release our obligation to 'render unto Caesar the things that are Cæsar's.'"
Furthermore, we hope that you will consider the establishment of a chair in Dutch Literature or History and that you, in anticipation of this foundation, will from time to time send us such students as desire to make this subject their specialty. Hoping that you, after a consideration of this matter, will co-operate with us, I am
Respectfully yours for the Board ofthe Queen Wilhelmina Lectureship,H.J. Kiewiet de Jonge,Hon. Secretary.
DORDRECHT (Holland), November, 1915.
Since Mr. Edmundson's book is out of print, we have been asked to give a list of his parallelisms between the "Lucifer" and Milton. This will give the student the benefit of his comparisons.
LUCIFER, ACT I.Line 13.PARADISE LOST.—Book III., line 741.Line 22.P.L.—{V., 266-272.{II., 1012.Line 35.P.L.—V., 426.Line 52.P.L.—{VIII., 107.{X., 85.Line 57.P.L.—II., 104-105.Line 61.P.L.—IV., 227.Line 63.P.L.—IV., 233.Line 64.P.L.—III., 554.Line 73.P.L.—IV., 225.Line 78.P.L.—VII., 577.Line 85-95.P.L.—{VII., 317.{VII., 333.{IV., 644.Line 107.P.L.—IV., 340.Line 115.P.L.—{V., 7.{IV., 642.{IV., 238.Line 131.P.L.—{IV., 360-365.{IX., 457.Line 134.P.L.—VII., 505-511.Line 158.P.L.—{V., 137.{IV., 689.Line 174.P.L.—{IV., 288-306.{IV., 496.Line 180.P.L.—IX., 450-460.Line 192.P.L.—IX., 489.Line 193-195.P.L.—IX., 460-470.Line 199.P.L.—IV., 304-306.Line 203.P.L.—VIII., 40-50.Line 260.P.L.—III., 276-290.Line 268.P.L.—{III., 313-317.{III., 323-333.Line 280.P.L.—V., 602.Line 326.P.L.—V., 429.Line 330.P.L.—X., 660-670.Line 364.P.L.—III., 382.LUCIFER ACT II.Line 22.P.L.—V., line 787-792.Line 108.P.L.—{I., 94-98.{I., 106-111.Line 110.PARADISE REGAINED (P.R.).—III., 201-211.Line 118.P.L.—I., 261-263.Line 176-180.P.L.—{III., 380-382.{VIII., 65-67.{VIII., 71-75.{VIII., 168-170.Line 197.P.L.—V., 810-825.Line 343.P.L.—IV, 1010-1012.Line 367.P.L.—II., 188-191.Line 377.P.L.{—II., 188-191.{II., 343-346.{V., 254.Line 405.P.L.—{II., 110-112.{I., 490.LUCIFER ACT III.Line 120.P.L.—X., 1045.Line 238.P.L.—V., 617-627.Line 572.P.L.—V., 708-710.LUCIFER ACT IV.Line 10.P.L.—V., 708-710.Line 43.P.L.—VI., 56-59.Line 120-155.P.L.—V., 722-802.Line 186.P.L.—III., 383-389.Line 207.P.L.—III., 648.Line 251.P.L.—IV., 393.Line 258.P.L.—II., 188-194.Line 351.P.L.—IV., 391-394.Line 370.P.R.—IV., 518-520.Line 410.P.R.—III., 204.Line 421.P.L.—VI., 540.LUCIFER ACT V.Line 3.P.L.—VI., 200-206.Line 4.P.L.—VI., 305.Line 7.P.L.—VI., 320-323.Line 8.P.L.—VI., 250-253.Line 29.P.L.—IV., 556-557.Line 43.P.L.—VI., 44-53.Line 54.P.L.—VI., 61-63.Line 65.P.L.—VI., 85-87.Line 70.P.L.—IV., 977-980.Line 85-88.P.L.—I., 533-540.Line 94-100.P.L.—VI., 99-110.Line 97.P.L.—XI., 240-241.Line 101.P.L.—VI., 754-755.Line 103.P.L.—VI., 848-849.Line 105.P.L.—I., 286.Line 111.P.L.—{I., 84-87.{I., 588-590.Line 114.P.L.—V., 833-845.Line 115.P.L.—{I., 68-71.{VI., 105-107.Line 124.P.L.—{VI., 203-219.{VI., 546.Line 128.P.L.—VI., 310-315.Line 155-161.P.R.—IV., 18-25.Line 164.P.L.—VI., 200-205.Line 195.P.L.—IV., 1000.Line 235.P.L.—VI., 246-255.Line 255.P.L.—VI., 275-278.Line 269.P.L.—VI., 324.Line 275.P.L.—VI., 390.Line 290.P.L.—I., 305.Line 308.P.L.—{X., 449-454.{X., 511-529.Line 320.P.L.—X., 510-520.Line 328.P.L.—539-545.Line 345.P.L.—X., 510-520.Line 347.P.R.—IV., 423.Line 353.P.L.—VI., 884-886.Line 410.P.L.—I., 300-310.Line 412.P.L.—538-545.Line 416.P.R.—I., 39-42.Line 417.P.L.—I., 192-195.Line 419.P.L.—II., 1-5.Line 426.P.L.—{I., 120-122.{I., 178-189.Line 431.P.L.—{II., 362-375.{III., 90-96.Line 433.P.L.—IX., 130-134.Line 455.P.L.—X., 637.Line 448.P.L.—XI., 500-513.Line 457.P.L.—I., 367-373.Line 461.P.L.—I., 381-390.Line 488.P.L.—IX., 575-581.Line 492.P.L.—IX., 716-732.Line 494.P.L.—IX., 685-687.Line 499.P.L.—IX., 679-683.Line 500.P.L.—IX., -732-743.Line 509.P.L.—IX., 1090-1095.Line 519.P.L.—{IX., 780-783.{IX., 1000-1003.Line 537-545.P.L.—Last of Book IX.Line 553.P.L.—X., 1051-1055.Line 560.P.L.—X., 498-499.Line 564.P.L.—XII., 386.Line 604.P.L.—II., 595-600.Line 604.P.L.—I., 56-63.Line 606.P.L.—X., 112.Line 616-627.—Suggestion of Paradise Regained.
Note.—(1) The wordfeather, line 370, Act I., is here used by Vondel in the old sense ofpen.
(2) The wordtreasonin the epode of the chorus of angels at the end of Act III. more literally meanstreasonable ambition.