POEM for his military talents. Joseph de Ségur was made maréchal de camp in 1790, and from that time till his death, in 1805, occupied himself exclusively in writing. He has left several novels and operas. The most important of his works is "Les Femmes," which he published in 1802. Some of his songs abound in wit. XLIX. MARC ANTOINE DÉSAUGIERS (1772-1827) forms, with Collé and Béranger, the triad of French chansonniers. Besides his witty and really sparkling songs, he has left some vaudevilles, which obtained the greatest success when first performed. Let us name Les Petites Danaïdes, M. Vautour, and Je fais mes farces, as the best specimens. L. Line 7. M'amour, for mon amour.-Line 26. Saint Germain l'Auxerrois, a church in Paris, situated behind the Louvre.-Line 33. Bouracan, a kind of cloth.-Line 45. La (fête de) Saint-Jean. LI. CHARLES NODIER, born at Besançon in 1783, died 1844. This writer has exercised his talents in many different ways, and has left behind him works on history, philology, bibliography, besides novels and poetry. His auvres complètes, published by himself, have appeared in twelve Svo volumes. His "Souvenirs" contain very interesting details on his life. LII. AUGUSTIN EUGÈNE SCRIBE, born in Paris, December 24, 1791, was left an orphan at the age of fifteen years, with very slender means. The efforts of M. Bonnet, an avocat, to whose care he was entrusted, to inspire himn with a love of the study of the law, were all in vain. To compose pieces for the stage was his great ambition, and becaine his sole occupation. At first he was not suc cessful, but soon became eminently so; and in every quarter of the globe his comic operas and genteel comedies are known and admired. In 1827 M. Scribe received the decoration of the Légion d'Honneur, and in 1837 succeeded M. Arnault in the French Academy. He died in 1861. LIII. ALFRED DE MUSSET (1810-1857) may be called the Byron of France; but his poetry, amidst much that is objectionable, contains ennobling thoughts and religious aspirations which Childe-Harold never knew. Better than any other writer we are acquainted with, he embodies that strange mixture of materialism, scepticism, and yearning after higher things, which is so characteristic of modern French literature. LVII. AMÉDÉE DE BEAUPLAN has composed many delightful romances, but none equal to the one we quote here. LIX. The name MOREL appears in a collection of French songs at the end of the piece we have transcribed for our Lyre Française; we know nothing, however, about his life. LX. EUGÈNE DE PLANARD (1783-1853), like many other writers, devoted to literature the spare time which more D D POEM important duties left him, and composed several dramatic works in the style of Sédaine. The comic opera Marie has supplied us with this barcarolle. It was set to music by FERDINAND HEROLD (1792-1833), the well-known author of Zampa, Le Pré aux Clercs, &c., and brought out for the first time in 1826. LXIII. FRÉDÉRIC Bérat (1800-1855), one of the most agreeable of modern Romance-writers. The song we give here from his voluminous répertoire has deservedly enjoyed an im mense success. BOOK IV 1. Line 24. Louis XII., King of France, was the son of the Duke of Orleans. 11. CLÉMENT MAROT (1495-1544). In the ode, the madrigal, IV. MATHURIN REGNIER (1573-1613), one of the best Heureux si ses écrits, craints du chaste lecteur, V. ISAAC DE BENSERADE (1612-1691), a true court-poet, POEM VI. PAUL SCARRON (1610-1660), the Homer of grotesque literature. His Roman Comique is really an excellent work, and in his Virgile travesti there are some capital parodies of the Æneid. Thus the famous Quos ego becomes Par la mort... il n'acheva pas, Car il avait l'âme trop bonne. Scarron, whose infirmities authorized him to call himself un raccourci des misères humaines, was, as everybody knows, the first husband of Madame de Maintenon. VIII. ÉTIENNE PAVILLON (1632-1705), nephew of a Jansenist prelate, who incurred the displeasure of Louis XIV. for his religious opinions. Has composed some poetry in the style of Voiture. IX. Line 4. Clopiner, to walk lame. The continuator of the "Roman de la Rose," Jean de Meung, was surnamed Clopinel on account of his having that defect. X. FATHER BOUHours (1628—1702) is still known as a good critic, though he too often fell into a pretentious style of writing. XII. ANTOINE BAUDERON DE SÉNECÉ (1643-1737), little read except by professed littérateurs: his works are, however, excellent models of style and imagination. He composed tales, songs, epigrams, &c. He has also left a critique of the memoirs of De Retz. XIII. This ode was severely handled by Vauvenargues, in his Réflexions Critiques sur quelques Poètes. (See Gilbert's edit. vol. i. p. 255.) XV. JEAN CÉSAR ROUSSEAU DE LA PARISIÈRE was Bishop of Nîmes between 1711 and 1733. A note in the Journal de l'Avocat Barbier (vol. ii. p. 131, Charpentier's edition) describes him as "de moeurs fort suspectes, d'une conduite équivoque, et criblé de dettes." XVII. Baugé (Balgium), a small town in the department of Maine-et-Loire. The English were defeated there by the French in 1421. We can find no biographical particulars about BARRATON. XVIII. CHARLES FRANÇOIS PANARD (1694-1765) has been surnamed "le La Fontaine de la chanson." He composed with extreme facility, and left nearly one hundred comic operas. Favart only expressed the truth, when he said of him: Line 88. Il chansonna le vice et chanta la vertu. The wood of Vincennes near Paris was celebrated then for picnics and other pleasure-parties. XIX. These stanzas, intended as a satire against the opera, form part of a one-act piece, entitled Le Départ de l'Opéra-Comique, which was brought out for the first time in 1733. POEM XX. Line 35. Comp. Boileau's lines: L'honneur est une île escarpée et sans bords; Line 71. VAN ROBES, or ROBAIS, a well-known cloth manufacturer This well-known chanson is taken from Panard's La Répétition interrompue. XXI. ANTOINE HOUDARD DE LA MOTTE (1672–1731) said once : L'ennui naquit un jour de l'uniformité; and certainly he did his best to justify his motto. There is scarcely a style of writing which he left unattempted. The song we quote is "his only comic song," and an excellent one it is.-Line 47. The abbey of Longchamps, situated in the Bois de Boulogne, near Paris, was founded in 1252 or 1260, by Isabel, sister of Saint-Louis. The sacred concerts given there on the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in Passion Week, always attracted a large crowd-Line 52. Comp. Molière: "Toute l'excellence de l'art des médecins consiste en un pompeux galimatias, en un spécieux babil, qui vous donne des mots pour des choses, et des promesses pour des effets." -(Le Malade imag. iii. 3.) XXII. GABRIEL CHARLES DE LATTAIGNANT (1697–1779), to oblige his family, and utterly against his own will, entered the ecclesiastical state, and became canon of the cathedral at Rheims. His life was spent in the pursuit of literature and pleasure. Some time before his death he retired into a convent, where he spent his few remaining days in exercises of piety. Line 13. "Au bois," i.e. the Bois de Boulogne.-Line 22. Que vouliez-vous qu'il fit contre trois?-Qu'il mourût ! JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE (1639–1696), the celebrated author of the Caractères. ALEXIS PIRON (1689-1773). Although in a moment of humour he wrote the famous couplet Ci-git Piron, qui ne fut rien, Pas même Académicien ! we may assuredly class him amongst the good writers of the eighteenth century.-CLAUDE NIVELLE DE LA CHAUSSÉE (1692-1754), author of a great many melodramas, or Comédies larmoyantes. Voltaire said of him: "Il est un des premiers après ceux qui ont du génie." XXVI. We have not given the whole of this curious piece, but the greater part of it is inserted here as a kind of satirical account of Voltaire's literary life.- Line 17. Allusion to La Henriade, published in 1723.-Line 29. Histoire de Charles XII. (1731).-Line 28 Le Temple du Goût (1733). -Line 35. Le pauvre Diable (1760).-Line 42. Elements de la Philosophie de Newton (1738).—Line 93. The charnier, or Cimetière des Innocents, was situated in Paris, rue Saint Honoré, near the Pont-Neuf.-Line 99. Montfaucon, a hill near Paris, where the public gallows used formerly to stand. XXVII. FRANÇOIS MARIE AROUET DE VOLTAIRE (1694-1778). What can we say of that celebrated man? All our readers are no doubt perfectly well acquainted with the character of his works, and the smallest biographical account we could give here would be necessarily incomplete. XXVIII. Line 18. The Chaussée d'Antin was a hundred years ago the favourite place of residence for bankers, rich specu lators, &c.-Line 30. Panier, a hoop. XXIX. Line 20. Voltaire was sent to the Bastille in the year 1716, on the accusation of having composed against Louis XIV. a violent satire, the last line of which was : J'ai vu ces maux, et je n'ai pas vingt ans. Line 55. Né instead of nez, on account of the rhyme.Line 62. PRADON (1632-1698), one of Boileau's victims, and the rival of Racine, lives in history as the embodiment of mediocrity, brought into notice by intrigue and cabal. XXXI. This vaudeville, which we have borrowed from the Journal de l'Avocat Barbier, refers to one of the numerous. episodes connected with the Bull Unigenitus. Council of Embrun was held in 1727. The XXXII. PHILIPPE NÉRICAULT DESTOUCHES (1680-1754), author of several agreeable comedies. XXXIII. DENIS DIDEROT (1713-1784), one of the collaborateurs of the Encyclopédie, and a writer gifted with remarkable brilliancy of imagination. XXXIV. All that we know of M. FESTEAU, who has composed both the words and the music of Asmodée, is that he is one of the best modern French chansonniers. Asmodée, name of the diable boiteux in Le Sage's novel.-Line 32. CLAIRE LEYRIS DE LA TUDE, better known as Mademoiselle CLAIRON (1723-1803), a celebrated tragic actress. Dorat has said of her : Tout, jusqu'à l'art, chez elle a de la vérité. Lines 47, 48. AUGUSTE RICARD and CHARLES PAUL DE Kock are responsible for a number of novels written in the grivois style, and of which we must say :— La mère en défendra la lecture à sa fille. |