Charles XII of Sweden - Literature

Literature

Charles fascinated many in his time; Voltaire, who could be very sardonic, stopped in front of Charles and took off his hat. Samuel Johnson, a devoted anti-militarian, wrote in his poem "The Vanity of Human Wishes":

“

On what Foundation stands the warrior's pride,
 How just his hopes let Swedish Charles decide;
 A frame of adamant, a soul of fire,
 No dangers fright him, and no labours tire;
 O'er love, o'er fear, extends his wide domain,
 Unconquered lord of pleasure and of pain;
 No joys to him pacific sceptres yield;
 War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field;
 Behold surrounding kings their power to combine,
 And one capitulate, and one resign;
 Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain;
 "Think nothing gained", he cries, "till nought remain,
 On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly,
 And all be mine beneath the polar sky."
 The march begins in military state,
 And nations on his eye suspended wait;
 Stern Famine guards the solitary coast,
 And Winter barricades the realms of Frost;
 He comes, not want and cold his course delay; -
 Hide, blushing Glory, hide Pultowa's day:
 The vanquished hero leaves his broken bands,
 And shows his miseries in distant lands;
 Condemned a needy supplicant to wait,
 While ladies interpose, and slaves debate.
 But did not Chance at length her error mend?
 Did no subverted empire mark his end?
 Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound?
 Or hostile millions press him to the ground?
 His fall was destined to a barren strand,
 A petty fortress, and a dubious hand;
 He left the name, at which the world grew pale,
 To point a moral or adorn a tale.

 ”

Swedish author Frans G. Bengtsson and Professor Ragnhild Hatton have written noted biographies of Charles XII of Sweden, as did Voltaire in 1731.

Read more about this topic:  Charles XII Of Sweden

Famous quotes containing the word literature:

    “But it is fit that the Past should be dark; though the darkness is not so much a quality of the past as of tradition. It is not a distance of time, but a distance of relation, which makes thus dusky its memorials. What is near to the heart of this generation is fair and bright still. Greece lies outspread fair and sunshiny in floods of light, for there is the sun and daylight in her literature and art. Homer does not allow us to forget that the sun shone,—nor Phidias, nor the Parthenon.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!”
    —Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

    “The use of literature is to afford us a platform whence we may command a view of our present life, a purchase by which we may move it.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)