Prague in Black and Gold: Scenes from the Life of a European City (67 page)
Read Prague in Black and Gold: Scenes from the Life of a European City Online
Authors: Peter Demetz
BOOK: Prague in Black and Gold: Scenes from the Life of a European City
3.35Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
In practice, Havlí
ek selected two victims to demonstrate what he had in mind, the popular playwright and novelist Josef Kajetán Tyl and the young Jewish student Siegfried Kapper, who had dared to write poetry in Czech (Havlí
ek’s anti-Jewish arguments showed the limits of his
liberalism). Tyl had just published
Poslední
ech
(
The Last Czech
, 1845), a novel of sentimental twists and highfalutin political oratory; Havlí
ek challenged most of the Prague Czech literati, saying that “it was high time that our patriotic talk moved from our mouth to our head and to our body,” for, constantly talking about patriotism, people “forgot the education of the nation.” It was certainly easier, he added, and “more sweet to die for the nation than to read all these kitschy books about being patriotic.” Opening the way for a down-to-earth literature rather than mere sentimentalism even before the revolution, Havlí
ek had high praise for his compatriot Mrs. Božena N
mcová, who had written “true pristine poetry,” and he encouraged her to continue in her admirable way.
ek selected two victims to demonstrate what he had in mind, the popular playwright and novelist Josef Kajetán Tyl and the young Jewish student Siegfried Kapper, who had dared to write poetry in Czech (Havlíek’s anti-Jewish arguments showed the limits of hisliberalism). Tyl had just published
Poslední
ech(
The Last Czech
, 1845), a novel of sentimental twists and highfalutin political oratory; Havlí
ek challenged most of the Prague Czech literati, saying that “it was high time that our patriotic talk moved from our mouth to our head and to our body,” for, constantly talking about patriotism, people “forgot the education of the nation.” It was certainly easier, he added, and “more sweet to die for the nation than to read all these kitschy books about being patriotic.” Opening the way for a down-to-earth literature rather than mere sentimentalism even before the revolution, Havlíek had high praise for his compatriot Mrs. Božena Nmcová, who had written “true pristine poetry,” and he encouraged her to continue in her admirable way.Havlí
ek’s brash criticism offended many of the older generation but not the more thoughtful conservatives and liberals, among them the historian Palacký, who quickly recognized the critic’s unusual gifts. With their recommendation, twenty-four-year-old Havlí
ek, to his own surprise, was appointed editor in chief of the government-sponsored
Pražské Noviny
(
Prague News
) and its literary supplement, where he continued to startle his audience with provocative articles; even his friends spoke of his “somersaults.” One piece, “Slovan a Cech” (“A Slav and a Czech,” 1846), created a political sensation. He disliked Poland, he declared, and his Russian experience had extinguished in him the last spark of all-Slav enthusiasm; when he returned to Prague he came no longer as a dreaming Slav but as an adamant Czech who believed that Czechs were living in a powerful realm (
mocná
ství
) which, in time of need, would defend Czech interests. His Austro-Czech sentiment may have pleased Palacký and the more liberal statesmen in Vienna, but the Austrian authorities were less pleased by Havlí
ek’s articles about Ireland and Daniel O’Connell’s opposition to London centralism (an allegory of Czech problems which had provided the Prague radicals with their Repeal slogan).
ek’s brash criticism offended many of the older generation but not the more thoughtful conservatives and liberals, among them the historian Palacký, who quickly recognized the critic’s unusual gifts. With their recommendation, twenty-four-year-old Havlíek, to his own surprise, was appointed editor in chief of the government-sponsoredPražské Noviny
(
Prague News
) and its literary supplement, where he continued to startle his audience with provocative articles; even his friends spoke of his “somersaults.” One piece, “Slovan a Cech” (“A Slav and a Czech,” 1846), created a political sensation. He disliked Poland, he declared, and his Russian experience had extinguished in him the last spark of all-Slav enthusiasm; when he returned to Prague he came no longer as a dreaming Slav but as an adamant Czech who believed that Czechs were living in a powerful realm (
mocná
ství) which, in time of need, would defend Czech interests. His Austro-Czech sentiment may have pleased Palacký and the more liberal statesmen in Vienna, but the Austrian authorities were less pleased by Havlí
ek’s articles about Ireland and Daniel O’Connell’s opposition to London centralism (an allegory of Czech problems which had provided the Prague radicals with their Repeal slogan).During the spring and summer of 1848, Havlí
ek was among the reformists; he disliked armed revolutions, preferring “revolutions of the head and the heart,” and he joined Palacký, who was defending legality, on the St. Wenceslas Committee and as a member of the imperial Austrian parliament, bitterly opposing the elections to the Frankfurt Assembly. In April he decided to establish an opposition newspaper,
Národní Noviny
(
National News
), and in his declaration of his program demanded “the real equality of the nations, the union of the Bohemian crown lands, the abolition of feudal privileges, … a general national parliament, and an incisive reform of all schools and state offices.” He was appalled by the June insurrection and the Bakunin conspiracy, accusing them of “playing
a lottery game with the future of the nation”—though in his articles he himself became more radical in defining the civil and constitutional liberties that the counterrevolution diminished. He quickly ran into difficulties with the government; the Vienna and the Prague authorities wanted to silence his voice and accused him of defaming the constitution, but two juries declared him not guilty, and when a military court sentenced him to prison, he walked away free, since five Bohemian regions had elected him to represent them in the imperial parliament. The new absolutism, emerging from the defeat of the revolution, used other means. On December 13, 1851, young Emperor Franz Josef I signed a cabinet order to exile Havlí
ek, and in the early morning of December 16, the police agent Franz Dedera, accompanied by constables and local officials, knocked at Havlí
ek’s door at N
mecký Brod (Deutsch Brod, later called Havlí
k
v Brod), where he had taken refuge with his wife, Julie, and their daughter, Zdenka. He was formally charged and taken in a special coach, which the police had brought from Prague to N
mecký Brod by railway, on a long trip to picturesque Brixen, in the Tyrol, selected as his place of confinement.
ek was among the reformists; he disliked armed revolutions, preferring “revolutions of the head and the heart,” and he joined Palacký, who was defending legality, on the St. Wenceslas Committee and as a member of the imperial Austrian parliament, bitterly opposing the elections to the Frankfurt Assembly. In April he decided to establish an opposition newspaper,Národní Noviny
(
National News
), and in his declaration of his program demanded “the real equality of the nations, the union of the Bohemian crown lands, the abolition of feudal privileges, … a general national parliament, and an incisive reform of all schools and state offices.” He was appalled by the June insurrection and the Bakunin conspiracy, accusing them of “playing
a lottery game with the future of the nation”—though in his articles he himself became more radical in defining the civil and constitutional liberties that the counterrevolution diminished. He quickly ran into difficulties with the government; the Vienna and the Prague authorities wanted to silence his voice and accused him of defaming the constitution, but two juries declared him not guilty, and when a military court sentenced him to prison, he walked away free, since five Bohemian regions had elected him to represent them in the imperial parliament. The new absolutism, emerging from the defeat of the revolution, used other means. On December 13, 1851, young Emperor Franz Josef I signed a cabinet order to exile Havlí
ek, and in the early morning of December 16, the police agent Franz Dedera, accompanied by constables and local officials, knocked at Havlíek’s door at Nmecký Brod (Deutsch Brod, later called Havlíkv Brod), where he had taken refuge with his wife, Julie, and their daughter, Zdenka. He was formally charged and taken in a special coach, which the police had brought from Prague to Nmecký Brod by railway, on a long trip to picturesque Brixen, in the Tyrol, selected as his place of confinement.Other books
Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh
Back to Reality by Danielle Allen
Wake: A Novel by Hope, Anna
Driving Mr. Dead by Harper, Molly
The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by A. Lee Martinez
Dirty Heat by Cairo
Running From Fate by Rose Connelly
The Dog and the Wolf by Poul Anderson
Hyper-chondriac by Brian Frazer
Bed and Breakfast by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
