Ludovic Dauș ( – November 17, 1954)Naghiu, pp. 527, 528 was a Romanian novelist, playwright, poet and translator, also known for his contributions as a politician and theatrical manager. He was born into a cosmopolitan family, with a Czech father and a boyaress mother, but his formative years were marked by life in the small boroughs of Western Moldavia. Trained as a lawyer and employed for a while as a publisher, Dauș joined the body of experts at the Ministry of Royal Domains, climbing through the bureaucratic ranks. In parallel, he advanced his literary career: a noted dramatist, he was an unremarked poet and historical novelist prior to World War I. His translation work covered several languages, and includes Romanian versions of The Kreutzer Sonata, Madame Bovary, and Eugénie Grandet.
As a youth, Dauș was primarily interested in reviving neo-romanticism, which became the core stylistic influence in his novels and plays. After being welcomed into the literary salon headed by Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, he moved between literary clubs. By 1918, he had adopted a Romanian nationalist discourse in his poetry and, increasingly, in his political career. He had several new commissions in Greater Romania, and in particular Bessarabia, where he is remembered as the first chairman of Chișinău National Theater. Dauș went on to serve in the Assembly of Deputies and Senate, where he affirmed the interests of Bessarabian peasants and advocated radical land reform; initially a member of the local Independent Party, he later caucused with the National Liberals.
During the interwar, Dauș was loosely affiliated with the modernist circle Sburătorul. He matured as a writer, earning praise and drawing controversy with works of political fiction which bridged a neo-romantic, quasi-traditionalist, subject matter with elements of the psychological novel; he also shocked theatergoers with his explicit play about Vlad Țepeș. He continued to work for the stage during World War II. Also then, he became a confidant of, and apologist for, his fellow novelist Liviu Rebreanu, becoming a personal witness to Rebreanu's final days, which they spent together at Valea Mare. In his seventies, Dauș was manager of Caragiale Theater, but retired shortly before the inauguration of a communist regime. He died in Bucharest at the age of 81.
Biography Early life Ludovic Dauș's exact birthplace was his family's home on Sfinții Voievozi Street of Botoșani.Ștefan Cervatiuc, "De la A la Z. 22. Dauș Ludovic", in Clopotul, June 24, 1973, p. 2 He was the son of Alfred Dauș (also Dausch, Dousa, Dușa, or Bouschek).Călinescu, p. 920; Gancevici, p. 364 An engineer of Czech ethnicity,Ion Simuț, "Dauș Ludovic", in Aurel Sasu (ed.), Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române, Vol. I, pp. 457–458. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. Gancevici, p. 364; Naghiu, p. 527 the latter had been born at Dolní Lochov, Bohemia in 1845, and baptized a Catholic."Desbaterile Adunării Deputaților", in Monitorul Oficial, Issue 39/1896, pp. 569–570 Dauș Sr had settled in the United Principalities and taken up various activities in his field of expertise. According to various records, he had participated in the January Uprising, supporting the Polish National Government;Gancevici, p. 364. See also Naghiu, p. 527 other sources note that he had lived for a while in Ottoman Bosnia.Călinescu, p. 920 In 1880, he helped establish an iron foundry for Botoșani's apprentice smiths. By 1897, he was Botoșani County's official surveyor, and, as a protégé of its Prefect, Ion Arapu, stood accused of having mistreated government employees working under his watch."Din țară. Bătaie între funcționarĭ", in Epoca, July 2, 1897, p. 2; "Un fel de falș în acte publice", in Epoca, August 1, 1897, p. 3 Ludovic's mother was Maria Negri, a niece of the Moldavian writer Costache Negri, reportedly educated in Lviv. Through her, Dauș was a member of the boyar aristocracy.Gancevici, p. 364
The future writer was baptized into the Romanian Orthodox Church, to which his mother belonged. Though Alfred had been fully naturalized in February 1886, Ludovic only took Romanian citizenship in 1899.Călinescu, p. 920; Naghiu, p. 528 He finished primary school in his native town, afterwards enlisting at the local A. T. Laurian National College, where he studied in 1884–1887. He prepared for a career in the Romanian Land Forces, enlisting at the Military School of Iași, but disliked the conditions there and moved to Fălticeni. There, he studied for a while under Eugen Lovinescu, before returning to his home city, and finally to Bucharest, where he attended Sfântu Gheorghe High School—a private school managed by Anghel Demetriescu and George Ionescu-Gion. During the period, he had his very first poems appear in Ioniță Scipione Bădescu's Botoșani paper, Curierul Român.Gancevici, pp. 364, 365; Naghiu, pp. 527, 528 According to his own recollections, he was heavily inspired by the elegiac poetry of Vasile Alecsandri and Heinrich Heine. From such beginnings, he switched to writing "naive, stupid" works, including a dramatic poem "where the protagonist was the head of a decapitated man."Naghiu, p. 528 Botoșani and Fălticeni, as prototypes of the Western Moldavian târg, would later form the backdrop for his prose, which includes specific allusions to his school years.Gancevici, pp. 364, 365–366
After taking his baccalaureate in June 1892, Dauș entered the civil service as a copyist at the Ministry of Royal Domains.Călinescu, p. 920; Colesnic, p. 210 In 1894, and again in 1897, he and poet Radu D. Rosetti published the literary weekly Doina, named after the singing style. For a while in 1903, with Emil Conduratu, he put out another magazine, Ilustrațiunea Română ("Romanian Illustration").Naghiu, p. 529 In October 1895, the National Theater Bucharest took up his translation of François Coppée's Les Jacobites. Ioan Bacalbașa gave the play a poor review, noting that Dauș had spent his efforts on prosody rather than ensuring that the play was watchable.Ioan Bacalbașa, "Cronică teatrală. Teatrul Național: Noblețea nouă și Noblețea veche—reluare.—Steaua, dramă într'un act în versuri de A. Gill și I. Richepin, tradusă de d. Radu D. Rosetti.—Iacobițiǐ, dramă în 5 acte în versurĭ de Fr. Copée, tradusă de d. Ludovic Dauș", in Lupta, October 24, 1895, p. 1 According to researcher Ștefan Cevratiuc, his first published volume was a novella collection, appearing in 1897 as Spre moarte ("Unto Death"). He subsequently earned a law degree from the University of Bucharest (1897)Călinescu, p. 920; Naghiu, p. 527 and practiced in various legal professions. He was a bailiff at the Ilfov County tribunal until being demoted in July 1903."Mișcare în magistratură", in Voința Națională, July 4 (17), 1903, p. 2
Neo-romantic affiliations While still pursuing his career in the national bureaucracy, Dauș entered the publishing business as co-manager of Alcaly publishers, coordinating their serial Biblioteca pentru toți; the nominal owner, Leon Alcaly, was illiterate.Călinescu, p. 920. See also Colesnic, p. 210 He married Margot Soutzo, of the Soutzos clan, then divorced and, in 1910, remarried to the Frenchwoman Ecaterina Thiéry.Călinescu, p. 920. See also Naghiu, p. 528 He continued to publish poetry, some of it in Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu's Revista Nouă—an "obscure", "entirely impersonal" endeavor, according to historian George Călinescu.Călinescu, pp. 592, 919. See also Colesnic, p. 211 He debuted as a translator in 1896, with Antoine François Prévost's Manon Lescaut, later publishing renditions of Molière (The Imaginary Invalid, 1906), Ivan Turgenev (The Duelist, 1907), Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels, 1908), E. T. A. Hoffmann (Stories, 1909), Leo Tolstoy (The Kreutzer Sonata, 1909), and Arthur Conan Doyle (1909).Naghiu, p. 531 During those years, as a protege of Ionescu-Gion's, he frequented Hasdeu's literary salon at Editura Socec, where he met and befriended the fellow poet and dramatist Haralamb Lecca.Ludovic Dauș, "Amintiri despre Haralamb Lecca", in Universul Literar, Issue 36/1929, p. 363 He was also noted as a court poet of the Romanian Queen-consort, Elisabeth, writing her a poem for her anniversary in December 1901."Scirile d̦ileĭ. Serbarea aniversăreĭ regineĭ Românieĭ", in Gazeta Transilvaniei, Issue 281/1901, p. 2
Dauș followed up with more dramatic poems of his own, usually performed at the National Theater. The series began with plays inspired by Lithuanian history: Akmiutis, in 1898; and, in 1903, the five-act Eglà.Călinescu, pp. 919, 1026; Gancevici, p. 366. See also Colesnic, p. 211; Crohmălniceanu, p. 340 This work earned him a prize from the Romanian Academy,Gancevici, p. 366 but he was by then ridiculed in independent circles. Poet Ștefan Petică, who was also an animator of the Romanian Symbolist movement, described Akmiutis as an "unbearably lamentable melodrama",Valeriu Cristea, "O conștiință nouă", in România Literară, Issue 33/1981, p. 11 while philologist Nerva Hodoș urged Dauș to quit writing altogether, after seeing Eglà.Mihăilescu, p. 62 Eglà was also covered by the National Liberal Party's newspaper, Voința Națională, which was criticizing the selection of plays made by the National Theater: "In a two-month program, they only hand us a single original [Romanian] creation, and it is one of the weakest".Regist., "Voința și direcția Teatruluĭ Național. — Lucrurĭ nostime", in Adevărul, December 1, 1903, p. 3
In 1902, Dauș returned with Patru săbii ("Four Swords"); followed in 1904 by Blestemul ("The Curse"); in 1906 by Doamna Oltea ("Lady Oltea"), dramatizing the lives of Prince Bogdan and Stephen the Great; and in 1912 by Cumpăna ("The Watershed"). Such works were alternated by novels and novellas: Străbunii ("The Forefathers", 1900); Dușmani ai Neamului ("Enemies of the Nation", 1904); and Iluzii ("Illusions", 1908).Călinescu, p. 1026; Crohmălniceanu, p. 340; Gancevici, pp. 365–367 Most such contributions focused on the legendary period before and during the Founding of Moldavia.Gancevici, p. 365 They were all panned by critic Ovid Crohmălniceanu, who sees Dauș's early career as "quite fecund, but producing only countless illegible works."Crohmălniceanu, p. 340 In Cumpăna, the aging landowner Iorgu Ralea (played by Petre Sturza) marries a young lady, and is then forced to observe the passionate love that his son develops for his stepmother; torn between the two, she ends up suicidal. The play was reviewed by Petre Locusteanu, who suggested that it resembled "a glass of water with quicksilver poured into it"—in that "a load of colorless, banal water has been pushed up. Whoever wishes to get to the quicksilver should pour out the water first."Petre Locusteanu, "Cronica teratrală", in Flacăra, Vol. I, Issue 49, September 1912, pp. 391–392
Throughout this period, Dauș remained adamantly committed to the neo-romantic school, shunning literary realism. This became explicit in early 1899, when L'Indépendance Roumaine hosted his overview of Romanian theatrical life: as noted by the literary scholar Dan C. Mihăilescu, Dauș had tied its evolution to Hasdeu and Lecca, without even mentioning the realist doyen, Ion Luca Caragiale.Mihăilescu, p. 60 The young author was instead loosely affiliated with Literatorul magazine, which reunited Romanian Symbolists with poets who had left the Hasdeu circle. According to historian Nicolae Iorga, at that stage Dauș was still a "literary dilettante".Iorga (1934), p. 13 His various works were by then carried by publications of many hues, including Familia, Luceafărul, Vatra, and Literatură și Știință.Colesnic, p. 211; Naghiu, p. 529 In Adevărul daily, he published several popular translations in feuilleton, using the pen name "Adrian Daria";Naghiu, pp. 529, 531 other pseudonyms he used for such work include "Adina G." and "Ludovic D." (the latter used for George Ranetti's Zeflemeaua).Colesnic, p. 211
World War I and Bessarabian stay