Citation: George MacDonald, Twelve of the Spiritual Songs of Novalis (Arundel: Mitchell & Son, Christmas Day, 1851).
Twelve of the Spiritual Songs of Novalis. Done into English by George MacDonald. Christmas Day, 1851.
Imprint on last page: Arundel: printed by Mitchell & Son, High Street.
9 in. x 54 in.: pp. i-iv + (3) – 27 + (1).
This was the first book MacDonald printed—though he issued it privately as a Christmas gift to his friends. It is exceedingly rare, the only copy I know being that in the possession of Dr. Greville MacDonald; some of the pages have coloured decorations of flowers by George MacDonald’s wife.
The booklet is very interesting as showing the mystical bent of MacDonald’s mind from the first. The preface, dated Arundel, Dec. 25, 1851, says that he had “the distant hope of one day offering the works of Novalis in an English garb to English readers.” Only twelve of the Songs are given, all except one in the rhythm and rhyme of the original. He hopes the shadow which he has attempted to cast from these poems “by lighting my lamp behind them” may induce any one to look upon and love their real form. Dr. Greville MacDonald adds that the songs found in his father more than a mere “lamp lit behind them,” for “the songs are made to shine with anew by a light that is brotherly-kin to that of the mourning lover Dr. MacDonald also suggests (“George MacDonald,” p. 171) that the complaint in 1852 by his Arundel congregation that MacDonald was “tainted with German theology,” probably originated in his Novalis translations.
- 1876. Six of the Twelve Songs were reprinted in “Exotics” (q.v.).
- 1897. The selection in “Exotics” were reprinted in “Rampolli ” (q.v.).
Hymns to the Night (text).
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