550 



GREECE. (iMODERN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.) 



of the minor princess, Victoria. It is hardly neces- 

 sary, however, to look for motives beyond the dis- 

 [>tr which a man of good feelings would naturally 

 i'rt'l to assuming the government of a nation contrary 

 to their will, and becoming, as he must become in 

 such a case, a tyrant. After the resignation of Leo- 

 pold, several princes were proposed as candidates for 

 the throne, and at length Otlio, a Bavarian prince, was 

 nominated, and accepted the trust. Otho, therefore, is 

 at present king of Greece, but how long he may hold 

 his unstable honour, it would be rash to predicate. 



By the protocol of Feb. 3, 1830, the boundary of 

 Greece was settled as follows : On the north, begin- 

 ning at the mouth of the Aspropotamos (Achelous), 

 it runs up the southern bank to Angelo Castro ; 

 thence Uirough the middle of the lakes Sacarovista 

 and Vrachori to mount Artoleria ; thence to mount, 

 Axiros, and along the valley of Culouri and the top 

 of QGta to the guff of Zeitun. Acarriania and a great 

 part of ;tolia and Thessaly are thus excluded from 

 the Greek state, 'and a Turkish barrier interposed 

 between Greece and the Ionian Islands. Candia, 

 Samos, Psarra, &c., are not included. The popula- 

 tion of the state is estimated at about 635,000: 

 280,000 in the Peloponnesus ; 175,000 in the islands; 

 180,000 on the Greek main-land.* 



Modern Greek Language (called Romaic) and Li- 

 terature. The manly attitude, assumed by the 

 Greeks since 1821, has attracted attention to their 

 language, which, even in its degeneracy, recalls the 

 beauties of the ancient tongue. Grateful for the 

 culture bestowed on it, the Greek language seems to 

 have preserved its purity longer than any other 

 known to us ; and even long after its purity was lost, 

 the echo of this beautiful tongue served to keep 

 alive something of the spirit of ancient Greece. All 

 the supports of this majestic and refined dialect 

 seemed to fail, when the Greeks were enslaved by the 

 fall of Constantinople (A. D. 1453). All the culti- 

 vated classes, who still retained the pure Greek, the 

 language of the Byzantine princes, either perished in 

 the conflict, or took to flight, or courted the favour 

 of their rude conquerors, by adopting their dialect. 

 In the lower classes only, did the common Greek sur- 

 vive (the *a/D, Snuulin;, aarXw, diariKti S/aXsjeraf) the 

 vulgar dialect of the polished classes, the traces of 

 which occur, indeed, in earlier authors, but which 

 first appears distinctly in the sixth century. This 



* See Anderson's Observations on the Peloponnesus and 

 Greek Islands, made in 1829(1830). For further informa- 

 tion, we refer the reader to Greece in 1823 and 1824, by 

 colonel Leicester Stanhope (1825) ; also, the Picture of 

 Greece in 1825 (2 vols. 1826) ; the History of Modern 

 Greece, with a view of the Geography, Antiquities and pre- 

 sent Condition of that Country (.Boston, 1827); the Histori- 

 cal Sketch of the Greek Revolution, by Samuel G. Howe 

 (New York, 1828); Travels in Greece, by J. P. Miller, 

 (Boston, 1818); Visit to Greece and Constantinople, in the 

 years 1827 and 1828, by H. A. V. Post (New York, 1830); 

 KafTenel's (editor of the Spectateur Oriental at Smyrna, 

 continued afterwards by Tricorni) Histoire des Evenemens 

 de la Grece (Paris, 1822); Considerations sur la Guerre 

 actuelle entre les Grecs et les Turks, par un Grec (Paris, 

 1821) ; colonel Voutier's (who fought, in 1821 and 1822, in 

 Greece) Memoires sur la Guerre actuelle des Grecs (Paris, 

 1822) ; Agratis' Precis des Operations de la Flotte Grecque, 

 durant la Rfevolution de 1821 et 1822 (Paris, 1822), (chiefly 

 after the log-book of the Hydriot Jacob Tumbasis, who com- 

 manded a fleet, and fell in an engagement, in 1822) ; sev- 

 eral publications by eve-witnesses, interesting as historical 

 memoirs, by Muller, Lieber, &c. Ed. Blaqui&re wrote, ou 

 the spot, the Greek Revolution, its Origin and Progress, 

 together with some Remarks on the Religion, &c., in Greece 

 (London, 1824), with plates. Maxime Raybaud, an officer 

 in the corps of Philhellenes, published Memoires sur la 

 Grce pour servir a 1'Histoire de la Guerre de 1'Independ- 

 ance, 1821 et 1822, with topographical maps, (Paris, 1825, 

 2 vols.). See, also,Pouqueville'8 Hisloire de la Regenera- 

 tion de la Grce, &c., or the History from 1740 to 1824, with 

 maps (Paris, 1824,2.1 ed., 182G, 4 vols.); Villemain's Las- 

 earis (Paris, 1826) ; La Grece en 1821 et 1322; Correspond- 

 ence iiolitiquc, publieepar un Grec (Paris, 1823.) 



Greek patois departed still more from the purity of 

 the written language, which took refuge at court, in 

 the tribunals of justice, and the halls of instruction, 

 when the Frank crusaders augmented it by their own 

 peculiar expressions, and the barbarians in the neigh- 

 bourhood engrafted theirs also upon it. This popular 

 dialect first appears as a complete written language 

 in the chronicles of Simon Sethos, in 1070 80. 

 After the Ottomans had become masters of the coun- 

 try, all the institutions which had contributed to pre- 

 serve a better idiom perished at once. The people, 

 left to themselves, oppressed by the most brutal des- 

 potism, would finally have abandoned their own dia- 

 lect, which became constantly more corrupt, had not 

 the Greeks possessed a sort of rallying point in their 

 church. Their patriarch remaining to them at the 

 conquest of their capital (Panagiotacchi, who was 

 appointed, in 1500, interpreter of the sultan), they 

 turned to him as their head, and saw, in the synod 

 of their church, his senate, and in the language of 

 the works of the fathers of the church, and the Old 

 and New Testaments, a standard which tended to 

 give a uniform character to the different dialects. 

 Neglected and exposed to the vicissitudes of fortune, 

 destitute of a creed which could elevate their moral 

 sentiments, thwarted in all their pursuits, urged by 

 the state of things around them to indolent voluptu- 

 ousness or vindictive malice, the impoverished insti- 

 tutions for instruction were of little efficiency. As 

 the proper guardians of morality and education, the 

 clergy and monks were themselves ignorant and cor- 

 rupt. The debasement of this fine dialect continued 

 till the middle of the last century ; for the few writ- 

 ers of that period disdained to use the language of 

 the people, and resorted to the ancient Greek, then, 

 unhappily, an extinct dialect. The Greek spirit, not 

 yet extinguished by all the adversities the nation had 

 undergone, finally revived with increased vigour ; for 

 the, mildest of climates, ever maintaining and cher- 

 ishing a serenity of feeling, the imperishable heritage 

 of hallowed names and associations, and even the love 

 of song, kept alive some sparks of patriotic senti- 

 ment. With Rhizos, we may divide this revival into 

 three distinct periods. The first, from 1700 to 1750, 

 gave the Fanariots influence and efficiency in the ser- 

 aglio, especially after Mavrocordato (Alex.) became 

 dragoman of the Porte, and his son first hospodar of 

 Moldavia and Walachia. During the second period, 

 from 1750 to 1800, the Greeks resorted for instruc- 

 tion to the universities of the west, and returned 

 thence to their native country. Naturally inclined to 

 commerce, they soon manifested a dexterity and 

 shrewdness, which enabled many to amass consider- 

 able wealth. Kept together by external pressure, it 

 became necessary for them to rely on their own coun- 

 trymen. Necessity taught them the value of educa- 

 tion, and their admission to the administration of the 

 government of Moldavia and Walachia raised their 

 views to political life. They became desirous of mak- 

 ing nearer approaches to the more civilized nations 

 of Europe, so as not to remain behind in the general 

 progress. The Greeks began to pay more attention 

 to their mother tongue, and this tendency was in- 

 creased by intercourse with the more refined West, 

 by means of more frequent visits from intelligent 

 men of that quarter to the ruins of Grecian greatness. 

 The patriarch (Samuel Eugene Bulgaris Theotocos) 

 of Corfu, and the unfortunate Rhigas, may be men- 

 tioned as eminent at this period. But in the third 

 period, from 1800 to the present time, this increase of 

 the means of education first exerted a powerful influ- 

 ence on the nation, which, favoured by external cir- 

 cumstances, now really began to be conscious of the 

 oppression under which they suffered. Schools were 

 formed at Odessa, Venice, Vienna, Jassy, Bucharest, 



