Lamartine was a great and sympathetic figure who inherited from Chiteaubriand an infinite tenderness of entrancing melodious ness. Of gentle birth, a happy boyhood, and an ephemeral love cut short by premature death we have an insight of his life and character in his 'Meditations.' The title itself is an index to his nature. He was vague, uncertain, rhythmical. The soul of this poet beautiful and compassionate is comparable to the nerveless somnolence of a light hearted child. No fixed picture, no precise fact. Read 'Isolement) in which we have 'tine montagne,) vieux chene.) No name, but a couple which is the couple. Everything of a circumstantial order, of realism, of a visible form of nature, is ef faced. He was musical and from that stand point will live. Less musical but more pro found was Alfred de Vigny. Inflexible but stoical his soldier's uniform served to restrain his heart throbs. His domain was solitude. He knew men as indifferent or hostile with natures either fine or disdainful. There was an un doubted trace of Pascal in Vigny. His was a beautiful mind, a noble figure the brilliancy of which is apparent in his writings. Every fact engendered an idea to him and every idea he transformed into a symbol to which he gave an intense precision. He is considered the most classical of the romantic authors. Alfred de Musset was the most charming. But was he, strictly speaking, a romantic writer? He would seem to be but a semi-convert to the ranks. His works were often of a realistic order. His romanticism merely consisted in passion and suffering. His poesy was easy and fluent, he enhanced a small fact to a symbolical height. He was indifferent to nature. He was a citizen, as a matter of fact Parisian. When he wrote of the night it was not that of October or May or December, it was the night from an atmospheric point of view—the night of his heart. Decidedly he is the most delightful of the romantic authors. Theophile Gautier was the most conscientious. He was a painter and remained so when he took up the pen. Not particularly lyrical his style was hampered, his imagination poor with a horror of the common place. He can be defined as a man for whom the exterior world existed. He copied rather than expounded, but he copied with choice and taste. His 'Emaux et Camees' takes its rank among the artistic works. His reserve was a salutary example to his too-wildly enthused group. On quite a different footing was the muse of the times, Marcelline Desbordes-Val more. She was supposed to be antiquated on account of her advancing age and her penchant for the amorous. The originality of her ideas and rhythm had however to be admitted to the extent that they influenced Verlaine—perhaps even were the making of him. She wrote de lightful romances of an infinite sadness which leave a deep impression on the reader. Men tion should also be made of Beranger with his sensitiveness of the coquettish, his works be ing both pleasing and pertinent although of only average quality. These are the principal names which have survived the times.
Romantic
The romantic theatre possessed the qualities and defects common to the epoch. Neither rules nor limits were ob served. In order to understand it thoroughly it is necessary to determine what it actually was and what it desired to be. It was melo drama in verse. It was a crisis and not a conflict. It was more a profuse use of words than an analysis of an evil. It pretended to be symbolical and comprise in a single type the character of a caste, of an epoch. Philosophical abstraction, a definition of morality, degradation of the races, servitude personifying fatality, sovereignty personifying. Providence. No psy chology, an excessive simplification swelled by false erudition and local color, one gigantic salmagundi where we are shown man, reality, fiction, nature, the king, the pauper, the buffoon. Such was Hugo's theatre in its numerous and tumultuous dramas, alone saved by its wonder fully lofty tone. He formulated his curious ideal in the preface to 'Marie
The theatre was to consist of laughter, tears, the good and the bad, the high and the low, fatal ity, Providence, genius, chance, society, the world nature, life. Casimir Delavigne, who followed this style but with infinitely less genius, exposed all the defects, of the inno vation while making no allowance for its qualities. Ponsard in prose followed in a simi lar strain. A saving clause existed for Alex andre Dumas the elder by virtue of his pro digious imagination. His 25 volumes devoted to the theatre are an orgy of local color wherein we witness the play of bourgeois pas sions, personal ambition and vested interests. Here are exposed necromancy, imprecations, acrobatics, duelling—it was just one multiplic ity of drawn swords, not however without its amusing side. Alfred de Vigny bestowed on his theatre the charming qualities of his poems; while conserving the romantic spirit he pos sessed a sobriety of style and means which saved him. He was primarily a student of souls and not situations as is borne out in his masterpiece
Musset endowed the theatre with an impressive and elaborate imagination. His was the art of creating a plot with a sad or joyous note in which per sonality alone is expressed. Besides its trage dies, Romanticism possessed its comedies, of which Scribe was the ideal author. During 50 years he supplied the pleasure-loving public witli that for which it clamored. His plays were well constructed, clear, and above all had a happy ending; they might be likened to pup pets without a soul, as witness his masterpiece (Bataille de dames.) The Romantic
A curious con dition during this feverish period was, that men tried their skill at the divers branches of literary art without confining themselves to a single effort. Literature was not parceled out or apportioned. As has been seen, quite a number of poets were dramatists, and we shall further see that many were novelists. Victor Hugo who at first was an apostle and reformer gave in (Les Miserables,)
Lamartine wrote the immortal (Graziella,) and Musset his tales which are pure masterpieces. Charles Nodier wrote in a gamin and laughable style which saves his work from oblivion. As an example of an isolated mind we have Senan court, whose disconcerting works suggest Baudelaire. Here we are treated to delirious ennui, socialism, exotism, the use of stimulants, a curious determination of the value of divers sensations, the sketch of a symbolism of color and perfume. Senancourt possessed an ex asperating sensibility, a troubled mind. He de sired to know everything and with knowledge thus acquired to act. He wanted to stand on a pedestal by himself. But virtue, like happi ness, consists in conserving, concentrating and cultivating self i it is self will which governs one's actions, it is the effort toward order which organizes one's force It will be seen how fertile in development was this work which in unostentatious manner was the fore runner of modern psychology. George Sand was more completely and more deliberately epochal. A pupil of Rousseau she started her literary career in a humanitarian style. Re turning afterward to her native land she wrote intimate, simple rustic pieces such as