Poet Lore/Volume 27/Number 1/Jaroslav Kvapil

by Šárka B. Hrbková

Layout 2

JAROSLAV KVAPIL

 

By Šárka B. Hrbkova

 

TO the American public the world of Bohemian literature of the present day is practically a closed book, hence to presuppose an intimate acquaintance with the dramatic writers of the nation of Čechs is an unwarranted presumption.

It is only since 1848 when the nation awakened from its two hundred year swoon resulting from the almost mortal wound inflicted at the Battle of Bilá Hora, that the truly wonderful literary energy of the people has displayed itself. It would be a misappellation to designate the few efforts during the period of the nation’s lethargy as literature. A nation which, at the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War—that long agony which had its inception in Bohemia—lost by exile thirty-six thousand of its most progressive and best educated citizens and its liberty at the same time could hardly be expected to recover at once.

Physically speaking, it would have been preposterous to look for a literary impetus or development at a time when it was possible for a certain Jesuit priest to boast that he alone had burned sixty thousand Bohemian books.

The quivering throes of the nation during the generations preceding 1830 could hardly be looked upon as anything else but the reflex shudders of a corpse. But the blood, apparently con gealed, began once more to course through the stiff veins when the breath of freedom and democracy at first wafted, then like a mighty gale, fairly rushed through the land in 1848, revivifying, renewing, inspiring everywhere.

In the land of the westernmost Slavs—Bohemia—the long suppressed Čechs arose to assert themselves not alone as Čechs—sturdy Slavs and troublesome obstacles in the path of the All-Deutsch policy of their northern neighbors but as men, as citizens of the world demanding their human rights and insisting on the equality of privileges and freedom of thought and expression.

It was at the high tide of reaction that Karel Havliček, the patriot editor of the National News (Národni Noviny) became the leader of the new spirit in Bohemia and set high the standard of literary virility, courage and worth. Mawkish sentimentality in patriotism or letters was so bitterly scored by the forceful statesman-editor that the very causticity of his arraignment fairly seared the edges of maudlin pseudo-patriotism and insured the growth of healthy tissue in place of the old and useless.

Since that time the cuticle of Bohemian literature has many times needed the beneficial cauterizing of a fearless Havliček. Yet, on the whole, it has had an unusually wholesome and virile development so that few nations indeed can boast of so many productions of relatively high merit as are shown by the literary annals of Bohemia in the latter half of the nineteenth century and in the first decade of the present century.

Each field of literary endeavor has been tilled and well tilled by these awakened dreamers of the Slavic race who have been cradled in the heart of Europe since the fifth century.

František Palacky whose monumental history of Bohemia has been ranked by W. S. Monroe in “Bohemian Language and Literature” as on a par with the works of Freeman in England and Motley in America; Jan Kollar, seer of the Slavonian, poet of “The Daughter of Sláva” and projector of Panslavism; Pavel Šafařik, student of antiquities, working also for Slavonic brotherhood; Hanka, Čelakovsky, Erben, folklorists and earlier poets; Bozena Némcova, Caroline Světla, Alois Jirasek, Julius Zeyer, Karel Rais in the field of fiction; Vítězslav Hálek, Svatopluk Čech, Julius Zeyer, Joseph V. Sládek, Jaroslav Vrchlicky^[1], Joseph S. Machar, Fr. X . Svoboda among the poets who have earned and won renown in later times; Joseph K. Tyl, Václav Klicpera, Emanuel Bozděch, František A. Šubert, Joseph Štolba and Jaroslav Kvapil among the dramatic writers—all these are names of men and women who have produced lasting and valuable literature.

When a man has been occupied in one or more divisions of literary endeavor it is always a little difficult to properly classify him. So, in the case of Jaroslav Kvapil who has been an indefatigable literary worker, who has produced several volumes of lyric poetry, a number of dramatic works and also several librettos and translations, it appears a dubitable question to some whether Kvapil should be counted as a poet, as a dramatist or as both.

Jaroslav Kvapil was born in September, 1868 in Chudenice in Bohemia. He completed the Gymnasium in Pilsen and then went to the University of Prague where he studied law. Since the beginning of his university studies he has continuously resided in Prague in Bohemia, making only occasional visits to surrounding European countries.

In his twenty-first year he published a small volume of lyric poems under the title of “Falling Stars” (Padajici Hvězdy). This collection was republished in 1897. Soon after the first appearance of Kvapil in his books of lyrics, other collections of lyrical compositions followed, “The Reliquary” (Reliquie) (1890); “The Diary of a Poet” (Básnikuv Dennik) (1890); “Above the Ruins of Charles’ Bridge,” (Nad Zřiceninou Karlova Mostu) (1890); “The Rose Bush” (Ruzový Ker) (1800); “Silent Love” (Tichá Láska) (1891); “Liber Aureus” (1893); “Devotion,” (Oddanost) (1896); “{{lang|cs|The Ruins of the Cathedral” (Trosky Chrámu) (1899); “Andante” (1903); and a cycle, “Veils” (Závoje) (1907). In 1907 the collected poems of Kvapil were published, representing chronologically the growth of his view point between the years 1886 and 1906.

The earlier collections are poems more or less echoing in form and spirit the French lyric poetry of the day, being distinctly erotic with a strong inclination towards melancholy dreaminess. From the stage in which he puts on the mask of blase weariness he advances to a grateful and devoted love full of joy and happiness; then, experiencing the period of quiet resignation, warming the wounded heart in the glow of the home-circle hearth, he passes to fervent elegiac verse.

Through all these phases, however, he preserves two strong and well defined tendencies. These developed more fully only at a much later date, when he had ceased to produce poetry, after he had left journalism which he had entered through the door of Hlas Národu and Národni Listy, both Prague publications, and had connected himself permanently with the stage in the capacity of a dramatic writer and collaborator with his gifted wife, the renowned actress, Hana Kvapilova. These two marks of power were his strong inclination towards the poetic tale—really towards the new romanticism and a rare faculty for the symmetrical decoration of the artistic whole.

As a dramatist Kvapil began with the sententious “Twilight” (Přítmí) in 1895 and the following year produced the drama of artist life in Prague “The Will o’ the Wisp” (Bludička). The influence of Maeterlinck is clearly shown in his next work, a lyrical trilogy “Memento” finished towards the close of 1896.

Most happily did he combine the fascinating humor of fanciful lore with lyric melancholy and delicacy in his fairy drama “Princess Dandelion” (Princezna Pampeliška), published in 1897. Seven years elapse before another play is produced, the beautiful drama Clouds (“Oblaka”) being completed in 1904. The last named is the first of Kvapil’s plays to appear in English dress, having been translated by Charles Recht and printed in Poet Lore, December, 1910. In 1906 Kvapil wrote his national fairy tale “The Orphan” (Sirotek) in which he unites not so successfully as in Princess Dandelion allegorical types with genre sketches from life.

In addition to this original work, Kvapil within very recent years has become strongly interested in Henrik Ibsen whose satirical social plays had been given presentation on the Bohemian stage since 1883. Practically all of Ibsen’s dramas had been translated into the Bohemian at this time but within the last ten years Kvapil has prepared new translations of these works of the great Scandinavian which especially appealed to him.

In 1906 Kvapil translated “The Lady from the Sea” following it up soon after (1908) with a translation of “Ghosts” whose title, however, he gives as “Spectres.” Although G. Eim had translated “Pillars of Society” as early as 1879,—this version being in common use in the Bohemian theaters,—Kvapil in 1910 prepared an exceptionally faithful translation of the same satire. “Hedda Gabler” had twice been translated into the Čech, but Kvapil’s version made in 1911 is looked upon as the best. His most recent translation is “The Master Builder” done in 1912.

Mr. Kvapil is publishing those translations in the “World Library” (Svetova Knihovna), a very superior series of world-classics which he has been editing since 1897 for the J. Otto Publishing Company of Prague, Bohemia.

Kvapil has also written a number of successful librettos, among them “The Peasants’ Rebellion” for Lošťák, “Perdita,” “Debora” and “The Water-Sprite” ( (Rusalka).

He has been assistant to Gustav Schmoranz, director of the Bohemian National Opera, for a number of years, being drawn to this work through the great artistic successes of his wife Hana Kvapilová who for many years (1860–1907) played the leading roles in the chief playhouse of the Čech nation. Kvapilová played Helen in “Will o’ the Wisp,” Hedda in “Hedda Gabler,” Nora in the “Doll’s House” as well as the regular leads in Shakespeare and other classic dramas.

The Memoirs of this gifted and much beloved Bohemian actress were prepared and published by Kvapil. In recent years, Mr. Kvapil has been acting as editor of Zlatá Praha (“Golden Prague”) the leading art and literary journal of Bohemia.

 

1. Vrchlicky ranks also among Dramatists. Readers of Poet Lore will recall the translations given of “At the Chasm,” and “The Witness,” and the account of his work by Charles Recht.