第 12 节
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竹水冷 更新:2021-02-20 05:39 字数:9322
inous and entangled matter; but it is not unique amongst martial records as 〃Eothen〃 is unique amongst books of travel: it is through 〃Eothen〃 that its author has soared into a classic; and bids fair to hold his place。 And; apart from the merit of style; great campaigns lose interest in a third; if not in a second generation; their historical consequence effaced through lapse of years; their policy seen to have been nugatory or mischievous; their chronicles; swallowed greedily at the birth like Saturn's progeny; returning to vex their parent; relegated finally to an honourable exile in the library upper shelves; where they hold a place eyed curiously; not invaded:
〃devoured As fast as they are made; forgot as soon As done。 。 。 。 To have done; is to hang Quite out of fashion; like a rusty mail; In monumental mockery。〃
CHAPTER V … MADAME NOVIKOFF
THE Cabinet Edition of 〃The Invasion of the Crimea〃 appeared in 1877; shortly after the Servian struggle for independence; which aroused in England universal interest and sympathy。 Kinglake had heard from the lips of a valued lady friend the tragic death…tale of her brother Nicholas Kireeff; who fell fighting as a volunteer on the side of the gallant Servian against the Turk: and; much moved by the recital; offered to honour the memory of the dead hero in the Preface to his forthcoming edition。 He kept his word; made sympathetic reference to M。 Kireeff in the opening of his Preface; but passed in pursuance of his original design to a hostile impeachment of Russia; its people; its church; its ruler。 This was an error of judgment and of feeling; and the lady; reading the manuscript; indignantly desired him to burn the whole rather than commit the outrage of associating her brother's name with an attack on causes and personages dear to him as to herself。 Kinglake listened in silence; then tendered to her a CRAYON ROUGE; begging her to efface all that pained her。 She did so; and; diminished by three…fourths of its matter; the Preface appears in Vol。 I。 of the Cabinet Edition。 The erasure was no slight sacrifice to an author of Kinglake's literary sensitiveness; mutilating as it did the integrity of a carefully schemed composition; and leaving visible the scar。 He sets forth the strongly sentimental and romantic side of Russian temperament。 Love of the Holy Shrines begat the war of 1853; racial ardour the war of 1876。 The first was directed by a single will; the second by national enthusiasm; yet the mind of Nicholas was no less tossed by a breathless strife of opposing desires and moods than was Russia at large by the struggle between Panslavism and statesmanship。 Kinglake paints vividly the imposing figure of the young Kireeff; his stature; beauty; bravery; the white robe he wore incarnadined by death…wounds; his body captured by the hateful foes。 He goes on to tell how myth rose like an exhalation round his memory: how legends of 〃a giant piling up hecatombs by a mighty slaughter〃 reverberated through mansion and cottage; town and village; cathedral and church; until thousands of volunteers rushed to arms that they might go where young Kireeff had gone。 Alexander's hand was forced; and the war began; which but for England's intervention would have cleared Europe of the Turk。 We have the text; but not the sermon; the Preface ends abruptly with an almost clumsy peroration。
The lady who inspired both the eulogy and the curtailment was Madame Novikoff; more widely known perhaps as O。 K。; with whom Kinglake maintained during the last twenty years of life an intimate and mutual friendship。 Madame Olga Novikoff; NEE Kireeff; is a Russian lady of aristocratic rank both by parentage and marriage。 In a lengthened sojourn at Vienna with her brother…in… law; the Russian ambassador; she learned the current business of diplomacy。 An eager religious propagandist; she formed alliance with the 〃Old Catholics〃 on the Continent; and with many among the High Church English clergy; becoming; together with her brother Alexander; a member of the REUNION NATIONALE; a society for the union of Christendom。 Her interest in education has led her to devote extensive help to school and church building and endowment on her son's estate。 God…daughter to the Czar Nicholas; she is a devoted Imperialist; nor less in sympathy; as were all her family; with Russian patriotism: after the death of her brother in Servia on July 6/18; 1876; she became a still more ardent Slavophile。 The three articles of her creed are; she says; those of her country; Orthodoxy; Autocracy; Nationalism。 Her political aspirations have been guided; and guided right; by her tact and goodness of heart。 Her life's aim has been to bring about a cordial understanding between England and her native land; there is little doubt that her influence with leading Liberal politicians; and her vigorous allocutions in the Press; had much to do with the enthusiasm manifested by England for the liberation of the Danubian States。 Readers of the Princess Lieven's letters to Earl Grey will recall the part played by that able ambassadress in keeping this country neutral through the crisis of 1828…9; to her Madame Novikoff has been likened; and probably with truth; by the Turkish Press both English and Continental。 She was accused in 1876 of playing on the religious side of Mr。 Gladstone's character to secure his interest in the Danubians as members of the Greek Church; while with unecclesiastical people she was said to be equally skilful on the political side; converting at the same time Anglophobe Russia by her letters in the 〃Moscow Gazette。〃 Mr。 Gladstone's leanings to Montenegro were attributed angrily in the English 〃Standard〃 to Madame Novikoff: 〃A serious statesman should know better than to catch contagion from the petulant enthusiasm of a Russian Apostle。〃 The contagion was in any case caught; and to some purpose; letter after letter had been sent by the lady to the great statesman; then in temporary retirement; without reply; until the last of these; 〃a bitter cry of a sister for a sacrificed brother;〃 brought a feeling answer from Mrs。 Gladstone; saying that her husband was deeply moved by the appeal; and was writing on the subject。 In a few days appeared his famous pamphlet; 〃Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East。〃
Carlyle advised that Madame Novikoff's scattered papers should be worked into a volume; they appeared under the title 〃Is Russia Wrong?〃 with a preface by Froude; the moderate and ultra…prudent tone of which infuriated Hayward and Kinglake; as not being sufficiently appreciative。 Hayward declared some woman had biassed him; Kinglake was of opinion that by studying the ETAT of Queen Elizabeth Froude had 〃gone and turned himself into an old maid。〃
Froude's Preface to her next work; 〃Russia and England; a Protest and an Appeal;〃 by O。 K。; 1880; was worded in a very different tone and satisfied all her friends。 The book was also reviewed with highest praise by Gladstone in 〃The Nineteenth Century。〃 Learning that an assault upon it was contemplated in 〃The Quarterly;〃 Kinglake offered to supply the editor; Dr。 Smith; with materials which might be so used as to neutralize a PERSONAL attack upon O。 K。 Smith entreated him to compose the whole article himself。 〃I could promise you;〃 he writes; 〃that the authorship should be kept a profound secret;〃 but this Kinglake seems to have thought undesirable。 The article appeared in April; 1880; under the title of 〃The Slavonic Menace to Europe。〃 It opens with a panegyric on the authoress: 〃She has mastered our language with conspicuous success; she expostulates as easily as she reproaches; and she exhibits as much facility in barbing shafts of satire as in framing specious excuses for daring acts of diplomacy。〃 It insists on the high esteem felt for her by both the Russian and Austrian governments; telling with much humour an anecdote of Count Beust; the Prime Minister of Austria during her residence in Vienna。 The Count; after meeting her at a dinner party at the Turkish Embassy; composed a set of verses in her honour; and gave them to her; but she forgot to mention them to her brother…in…law。 The Prime Minister; encountering the latter; asked his opinion of the verses; and the ambassador was greatly amazed at knowing nothing of the matter。 (23) From amenities towards the authoress; the article passes abruptly to hostile criticism of the book; declares it to be proscribed in Russia as mischievous; and to have precipitated a general war by keeping up English interest in Servian rebellion。 It sneers in doubtful taste at the lady's learning:
〃sit non doctissima conjux; Sit nox cum somno; sit sine lite dies;〃
denounces the Slavs as incapable of being welded into a nation; urging that their independence must destroy Austria…Hungary; a consummation desired by Madame Novikoff; with her feline contempt for 〃poor dear Austria;〃 but which all must unite to prevent if they would avert a European war。
How could one clear harp; men asked themselves as they read; have produced so diverse tones? The riddle is solved when we