Leguate which was published forty years later in order to be impressed with this fact. Though it is hardly possible that the author of the latter knew the German story we find in it several incidents which were presaged by Grimmelshausen. Even the motifs not arising from the similar situation do not necessarily point toward a dependence. The writing on the bark of trees we find, for instance, in Simplicissimus, Leguat, Texel, Selkirk, and Robinson Crusoe, to mention only the Robinsonades. Other similarities may be accounted for by common sources. "Bois de fer, à cause de sa grande dureté" is already mentioned by Dutertre'; in the Isle of Pines the island is compared to a garden; etc. Yet is it really likely that two stories so much alike in general outline, in practically all details, and even in some verbal expressions could be written independently of each other? Such a strange coincidence is hard to believe, and we would inevitably infer that Defoe must have read Grimmelshausen if it could be established that Defoe knew German or that a translation was in existence.

8

A contemporary translation into any of the languages which Defoe is supposed to have known has not come to light yet. An English translation was advertised for Baldwin in 1688, but whether it was ever published we do not know. We agree with A. H. Nethercot that it is pleasant to imagine that Defoe might have seen the manuscript of the translation in the hands of one of the Grub street publishers, but that the scholar can not make use of such hypothetical evidence.

We are likewise in doubt as to Defoe's possible knowledge of German. According to William Lee's biography he knew only Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and some Dutch but this evidence does not seem conclusive. Although we would ordinarily not suspect an Englishman of the 17th or 18th century of having mastered the German language we have Defoe's own testimony that exceptions could be found. The hero of his Memoirs of a Cavalier has to resort to Latin in order to converse with Frenchmen but freely uses "High Dutch" immediately upon his arrival in Ger

6 Originally published in London 1708. Reprinted in Bibliothèque d'Aventures et de Voyages (Paris 1883) and in Publications of the Hakluyt Society (London 1891).

7 R. P. Dutertre, Histoire Générale des Antilles (Paris, 1667).

8 Charlotte Morgan, Rise of the English Novel of Manners (New York, 1911). Quoted by Nethercot, op. cit.

• William Lee, Daniel Defoe (London 1869).

many. We find in Defoe's writings a clearly traceable interest in German affairs particularly after 1714. With the fall of Oxford Defoe found himself in straitened circumstances and he eagerly solicited the favor of the new king from Hanover. We have, however, no proof that he learned German in order to please the new ruler though in 1717 he published, according to William Lee, a book entitled A short Narrative of the Life and Death of John Rhinholdt, Count Patkul, a Nobleman of Livonia . . . Faithfully translated out of a High Dutch Manuscript.

Finally attention must be called to a curious etymological connection which may have some bearing upon our problem. William Lee suggests that the title of Defoe's other great novel, Moll Flanders, may have been taken from a book title, The history of Flanders, with Moll's Map, an advertisement of which appeared in a London paper a few months previous to the publication of the novel. I may be allowed to propose a similar theory for the title of the novel here in question. Robinson Crusoe, the son of a German merchant, bore originally the name Kreutznaer. Now, the island on which Simplicissimus lived was called Creutzinsel by the Dutch captain who was supposed to have transmitted Simplicissimus' memoir to Grimmelshausen. If we may assume that Defoe actually knew the German story, the report of the captain may have suggested to him the name Kreutznaer. In connection with this we should also remember that the first German Robinsonade of 1722 bears the title Der deutsche Robinson oder Bernhard Creutz.

THE INFLUENCE OF OSSIAN IN SPAIN

By E. ALLISON PEERS

The University, Liverpool, England.

It has generally been assumed that the Ossian poems, which attracted so much attention in Great Britain from 1760 onwards, and influenced to a surprising extent the Romantic literature not only of France, but of other continental nations also, had little or no vogue in Spain,-that, in Juan Valera's words, Ossianism was absorbed there in small doses which scarcely took effect.1 How far this was due to Spanish ignorance of the English language, as Valera suggests, is a moot point: Cesarotti's Italian translation was accessible enough, and there were many French channels of popularization. Further it can be shown that other English works of less merit and reputation had a greater vogue in pre-Romantic Spain than had Ossian. A likelier cause for Ossian's comparatively restricted Spanish vogue may be suggested: namely, the small part which the theme of world-weariness, and even the tone of melancholy, play in eighteenth and nineteenth century Spanish literature, and the consequently small appeal which the mournful songs of Ossian would make to the writers by whom that literature was produced.

Yet Ossian did penetrate into Spain, and the influence of the "Gaelic Fragments," though certainly not widespread, cannot be neglected in any serious study of the foreign influences upon Modern Spanish literature. A chronological survey of the field, therefore, and an estimate of its extent will be attempted in the following pages. Some little known Spanish Ossianic imitations are added in foot-notes, together with bibliographical indications for the use of workers on similar ground.

1 Florilegio de poesías castellanas del siglo XIX, 1902, Vol. I, pp. 55-6. Though this essay deals with literature and not language, I add for curiosity the words which follow his statement: "El cantar melancólico del padre de Oscar se oyó muy poco en España":-El entusiasmo y la imitación de Ossián han dejado, no obstante, cierta huella en una que me parece manía, aunque el Diccionario de la Academia la disculpa y casi la autoriza: la de llamar a los poetas bardos; lo cual, en mi sentir, equivale a llamar druidas a nuestros clérigos y frailes.

2 As I hope shortly to do in a study on Minor English Influences on Spanish Romanticism.

When Macpherson claimed of his poems in 1773 that "all the polite nations of Europe have translated them into their respective languages' he apparently classed Spain among those nations which were deficient in politeness. For it was not (so far as I have discovered) until 1788 that the first translation appeared there, apart possibly from the rendering of some fragments, which, however, were not published, by the Mexican friar Agustín de Castro.

4

The author of this translation was Alonso Ortiz, a native of Valladolid, who with aptitude as a lawyer combined a taste for literature, and purposed to translate the whole of the Ossian poems. He never got beyond the first volume, however, which contained Carthon and Lathmon. The versions are preceded by a somewhat lengthy translator's preface, which has several points of interest. Ortiz himself, while giving an unbiassed account of the conflict which was still raging round the poems, is clearly inclined to believe in their authenticity. His immediate concern, however, is to let the Spanish public read the poems as they stand, as other nations can do, and although his translation is "rough

3 Preface dated Aug. 15, 1773. Poems, Vol. I, p. xl.

4 Obras de Ossian, | poeta | del siglo tercero en las montañas | de Escocia. Traducidas del idioma y verso | Gálico-Céltico al Inglés por el célebre Jaime Macpherson; y del Inglés a la prosa y verso Castellano por el Lic. D. Joseph Alonso Ortiz: Con la ilustración de varias Notas Históricas. Tomo I. Con licencia: | En Valladolid en la Imprenta de la Viuda e Hijos de Santander, | Año MDCCLXXXVIII. |

The volume is in the Biblioteca Menéndez Pelayo, Santander.

5 See N. Alonso Cortes' pamphlet: El Primer traductor español del falso Ossian y los Vallisoletanos del siglo XVIII, Valladolid, 1920.

• For details regarding Ortiz, v. ibid. pp. 10-12.

7 Llegaron en fin estas obras á mis manos, y no acerté á defraudar al Público de una parte tan preciosa de las antiguedades Caledonicas. Traduxelas al Castellano del idioma Inglés en que lo estaban por el erudito Jaime Macpherson: el qual habia hecho su version en prosa del lenguage, y verso Celtico en que en su original fueron recitadas por Ossian. (p. xx). It may be noted that Spanish writers still continued to treat the question of authenticity as an open one long after it had been considered as settled elsewhere. Cf., for example, Milá y Fontanals, Obras, Vol. IV, 1892, pp. 407-8.

8¿Por qué unas obras como las de Ossian, cuyo merito Poetico, cuya antiguedad, y cuya autenticidad, ó suplantacion, han sido, y son en nuestros dias puntos de unas discordias tan agitadas en Inglaterra, Francia, é Italia por un Blair, un Shaw, un Clark, un Kames, un Andres, y un Cesarotti, no han de ocupar también el debido lugar en la atencion Critica de nuestros Eruditos? Tan autorizados se hallan estos para juzgar de aquellas, y dar su parecer sobre los puntos controvertidos, como los ingenios mas elevados de las otras Naciones; y su literatura, gusto y aplicacion en nada debe ceder a la Extrangera. (pp. ii-iii).

and quite literal," he believes that it will be welcomed by his countrymen.

Besides translating the poems into prose he gives a rendering of each in lyric verse, and as his book is rare it may not be amiss to give two specimens of his versions, so that its quality may be judged by the reader:

A. The opening paragraphs of Carthon.

Macpherson.

A tale of the times of old! The deeds of days of other years! The murmur of thy streams, O Lora! brings back the memory of the past. The sound of thy woods, Garmallar, is lovely in mine ear. Dost thou not behold, Malvina, a rock with its head of heath? Three aged pines bend from its face; green is the narrow plain at its feet; there the flower of the mountain grows, and shakes its white head in the breeze. The thistle is there alone, shedding its aged beard. Two stones, half sunk in the ground, shew their heads of moss. The deer of the mountain avoids the place, for he beholds a dim ghost standing there. The mighty lie, O Malvina! in the narrow plain of the rock.

A tale of the times of old! the deeds of days of other years!

Ortiz (prose)

Hazañas de

¡Ah, historia de los tiempos de la antigüedad! los días de otros años! El murmullo de tus arroyos, oh Lora, vuelve a traer la memoria de lo pasado. El zumbido de tus bosques, Garmállar, resuena dulcemente en mis oídos. ¿No miras, oh Malvina, una roca con su cabeza coronada de yerbas? Tres viejos pinos se doblan inclinados desde su faz; verde está el estrecho llano a sus pies; allí la flor de la montaña crece, y sacude su blanca cabeza a los soplos del aura. El cardo está allí solo, y arroja sus barbas envejecidas. Dos piedras, medio clavadas en tierra, descubren sus cabezas de moho. El gamo del monte huye del sitio, porque mira el pardo Espíritu que le guarda; porque el Poderoso yace, oh Malvina, en el estrecho llano de la roca. ¡Ah, historia de los tiempos de la antigüedad! Hazañas de los días de otros años !10

"lo espinoso de una traducción tosca, y puramente literal.'' 10 Pp. 3-4.