Hans Christian Andersen

6it FRAGILE DOES NOT CIRCULATE BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Hcnrg m. Sage 1S91 AllSJia ^.s/h/.(s<f<?.. 7673-2 OLIN library-circul^«5n DATSodUE r~*^ ,^<'1'> PRINTED IN U.S. A Cornell University Library PT 8119.B16 Hans Christian Andersen: FRAGILE PAPER 3 1924 026 288 674 Please handle this book with care, as the paper is brittle. The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924026288674 HANS CHEISTIAN ANDERSEN \^^^r-l^^-/\-^SlT Andersen, ^tat. 50 HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN A BIOGRAPHY BY K NISBET BAIN "i/.. ''<^IS:\ Un esprit de femme dans un camctere d'enfant. —Amiel '( ' NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY LONDON LAWRENCE AND BULLBN 16, HENRIJ]TTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN 1895 ^H^ff>"^ A. 11 -5710 (k ; INTRODUCTION A LIFE of Hans Christian Andersen will, I venture to think, not be unwelcome in England. He is the one foreign author whom we can never regard as an alien ; whom, from long familiarity and association, we have come to look upon as one of ourselves. His stories have been the delight of our children for three generations, and their popularity among us increases rather than diminishes as time goes on scarcely a year passes without bringing with it a new edition or translation of the incomparable " Fairy Tales." But even if Andersen had not written a single line of a single fairy tale he would stiU remain a tempting subject for a biographer. In practical Hfe he was essentially a shrewd, observant man of the world, who saw more than most people, because he took the trouble to keep his eyes open. Half his life was spent in travelling up and down Europe ; he was more or less intimately acquainted with most of the vi INTRODUCTION leading men of letters of his day; he had at his finger ends the literatures of half a dozen languages, and he was as much at home in the prince's palace as in the peasant's hut. Such a man can teU us a good deal, and is well worth listening to. The materials available for a life of Andersen are copious, not to say complete, as no appreciable addition thereto is to be anticipated. I will now set out the principal documents, which are, briefly, as follows : ( ) Breve fra H. C. Ander- — i sen, udgivne of C A. S. Bille of N. Bogh, 2 vols., Copenhagen, 1878, This collection contains 479 original letters of Andersen's, extending over a period of more than forty years, and filling nearly 1 500 pages. (2) Breve til H. C Andersen (same editors), Copenhagen, 1877, containing 329 letters to Andersen from literary colleagues or contem- poraries and private friends in Denmark and out of it. (3) H. C. Andersen og det Collinshe Hus (" H. C. Andersen and the Collin Family "), Copen- hagen, 1882. The first 518 pages of this notable book consists of some scores of Andersen's most characteristic letters, addressed to his intimate friends the Collins, interspersed with numerous original documents relating, principally, to his literary INTRODUCTION vii cai^eer, with very valuable explanatory and illus- trative notes. It goes back as far as his student days, but breaks off somewhat abruptly at the year 1855. It is on these three documents that the ensuing narrative is mainly based. —Next (4) comes. Andersen's own autobiography, entitled, Mit Livs Eventyr ("The Story of My Life "), first published in 1855, a bulky volume containing, with its supple- ment, nearly 700 pages. This autobiography, which has never been translated into English, is an ampli- fication of the earlier Das Miirchen meines Lehens, Englished anonymously in 1852, and is a document which should only be used with the utmost caution. Herr Edward Colhn, Andersen's oldest and most intimate friend, has, severely but not unjustly, called it " that production of daily shifting moods," and certainly a more misleading book can scarcely be imagined. It is mainly responsible for what I have elsewhere called " The Ugly Duckling Theory of Andersen's Life," I mean that widely received but perfectly gratuitous idea of him as the constantly misunderstood and mercilessly persecuted victim of captious and malicious critics. As a matter of fact, whenever his critics are concerned, it is impossible for Andersen to be I will not say fair and — viii INTRODUCTION , just, but even reasonable and coherent. At least one-third of Mit Livs Eventyr is taken up with Andersen's literary squabbles, nearly another third of it relates to matters of considerable interest to Danes, but to Danes only, while in the remainder the facts are often too obviously grouped with an eye to dramatic effect. Nevertheless, though of somewhat doubtful value as a historical document, Mit Livs Eventyr is, psychologically, of immense importance, as showing, better perhaps than anything else, the peculiar bent and bias of the author's mind. It naturally abounds, too, with entertaining anec- dotes not to be met with elsewhere, and conse- quently furnishes a goodly supply of those piquant seasoning ingredients which no biography can dis- pense with. Finally, it gives us the only detailed account we possess of Andersen's infancy and youth, in some respects the most interesting period of his life. Very important also to Andersen's biographer are his four great travel books or itineraries (5) the Shyggehilleder ("Silhouettes"), 1831, (6) EnDigter's Bazar ("A Poet's Bazaar"), 1842, (7) / Sverrig (" In Sweden"), 1852, and (8) I Spanien ("In Spain"), 1863, poetic but perfectly veracious expansions of the diaries which he so conscientiously INTRODUCTION ix kept during his principal continental tours. Many- biographical data, too, are scattered up and down Andersen's novels, notably in (9) 0. T., (10) Kun en Spillemand ("Only a Fiddler"), and (11) At vcBre eller ikhe vcere ("To Be, or not to Be "), which a diligent student of his correspondence can detect at once, though, of course, extreme care is necessary in disengaging them from their environ- ment of fiction. Finally, I am indebted for many interesting particulars to various Danish monographs and essays. Thus in (12) J. M. Thiele's Af mit Liv's Aarhoger (" From my Life's Diaries "), I find a vivid description of Andersen in his gawky hobble- dehoy days by one who knew him personally; (13) Orsted's Breve, Samml. ii. (" Letters," 2nd collection), and (14) Sibbern's Breve, edited by Mynster, a literary supply few details ; (15) Brandes' Kritiker og Portreter (" Critiques and Portraits "), contains the best critical estimate of Andersen's Tales existing or conceivable ; and it would have been quite impossible to have told the story of Andersen's last days without the valuable assistance of (16) Dr. Wilhelm Block's Om H. C. Andersen ("About H. C. Andersen") in NcBr og Fjern, and (17) Herr Nicholas Bogh's H. C. Andersen's sidste Dager X INTRODUCTION ("H. C. Andersen's Last Days") in the Illustreret Tidende. I have also gleaned a few odd facts from (i8) Mrs. Howitt's Autobiography, and from (19) X. Marmier's Histoire de la Litterature en Dane- marc. E. NisBET Bain. Bkjtish Museum, July 1894, — CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. ODENSE . I II. THE UGLY DUCKLING AT COPENHAGEN . 34 III. THE "tyrant" MEISLING . 51 IV. EARLY WORKS . 69 " — " V. " AGNETE —ITALY " IMPROVISATOREN . 102 VI. THE FIRST FAIRY TALES—MORE NOVELS . 137 VII. "THE MULATTO" AND "THE MOORISH GIRL" ANDERSEN IN THE EAST, AND ON THE DANUBE . 180 VIII. PROGRESS OF THE FAIRY TALES—DRAMATIC " TRIUMPHS AND DISASTERS—" THE LONG POET A EUROPEAN CELEBRITY . 22g IX. ANDERSEN IN ENGLAND 258 " X. " AHASUERUS —WAR—IN SWEDEN .... 29O XI. Andersen's religious philosophy—"to be, or NOT TO be"—the cholera .... 32O XII. the "HISTORIER"—fresh excursions—LOSS OF FRIENDS . 344 XIII. IN SPAIN . 363 XIV. DARK DAYS—AT HOME—GROWING OLD . 385 XV. THE LAST DAYS OF "THE GOOD OLD POET" . 413 CONTENTS APPENDICES PAGK I. EXTRACT FROM ANDERSEN's LETTER OF APOLOGY TO HIS RECTOR, SIMON MEISLING . 443 11. EXTRACTS FROM ANDERSEN's EARLIEST PRINTED " "- WORK : FODREJSE TIL AMAGER . 444 III. EXTRACTS FROM ANDERSEN's FIRST FAIRY TALE : " DODNINGEN " (THE CORPSE), THE ORIGINAL OF " THE TRAVELLING COMPANION," WITH HERR BRANDES'S COMMENTS 446 IV. ANDERSEN AND HIS TRANSLATORS .... 448 453 — HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN CHAPTER I ODENSE The city of Odense— Its antiquity—Grows up round St. Knud's shrine —Birth of Andersen—The one little room—Andersen's mother Her character—His father, the contemplative cobbler—The Devil's marks—The adventure of the dancing slippers—The old grandmother—The dangerous lunatic—The spinning-room—The mad grandfather—Early pastimes—The comet of 1811—The Dame's school—The little Philistine—Death of Andersen's father—Andersen's strong dramatic bent—Juvenile pieces—Day dreams—Andersen at 14—Attracts attention of local gentry—His pride and laziness—At the Ragged School—His confirmation The pair of new boots—His mother's neglectful indulgence—Hans Christian resolves to go to Copenhagen to try his fortune on the stage—Gets letter of introduction to the premiere danseuse— Departure from his native place. Thebe is no more venerable place in Scandinavia than the little city of Odense. Its antiquity is so remote that Odin himself is popularly believed to have been its first burgomaster, though it was the murder there, in 1086, of King Canute at the altar of St. Alban's church, whither he had fled from his pagan pursuers, that first gave the place a name in history.

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