The suppleness of Asia and the energy of
Europe, the passive fatalism of the Turk and the active religion of
the Christian, the revengeful spirit of the oppressed, and the
child-like resignation of him who cheerfully submits,--all these
seeming contradictions find an expressive organ in Slavic popular
poetry. Even in respect to his moral feelings, the reader will
frequently have to adopt a different standard of right and wrong.
Actions, which a Scotch ballad sometimes shields by a seductive
excuse,--as for instance in the case of "Lady Barnard and Little
Musgrave," where we become half reconciled to the violation of
congujal faith by the tragic end of the transgressors,--are detestable
crimes in the eyes of the Servian poet. On the other hand, he
relates with applause deeds of vengeance and violence, which all
feelings of Christianity teach us to condemn; and even atrocious
barbarities, which chill our blood, he narrates with perfect
composure. This latter remark refers, in fact, chiefly to the ancient
epics of the Servians. Much less of barbarism and wild revenge meets
us in their modern productions, namely, the epic poems relating to the
war of deliverance in the beginning of the present century; although
their oppressors had given them ample cause for a merciless
retaliation.
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