and French of the earlier nineteenth century. It was certainly due to 79
If any proper moral reader is disturbed at this conjunction of
80
In the Radcliffian-literary not the Robespierrean-political sense. For the Wertherism,
81
He was four years older than Nodier, but did not begin to write fiction nearly so early. The
82
The prudent as well as judicious poet who wrote these lines provided a variant to suit those who, basing their position on "Ramillies
83
Nodier, who had been in Scotland and, as has been said, was a philologist of the better class, is scrupulously exact in spelling proper names as a rule. Perhaps Loch Fyne is not exactly "Le Lac Beau" (I have not the Gaelic). But from Pentland to Solway (literally) he makes no blunder, and he actually knows all about "Argyle's Bowling Green."
84
If phonetics had never done anything worse than this they would not be as loathsome to literature as they sometimes are.
85
On the other hand, compared with its slightly elder contemporary,
86
Two little passages towards the end are very precious. A certain bridegroom (I abridge a little) is "perfectly healthy, perfectly self-possessed, a great talker, a successful man of business, with some knowledge of physics, chemistry, jurisprudence, politics, statistics, and phrenology; enjoying all the requirements of a deputy; and for the rest, a liberal, an anti-romantic, a philanthropist, a very good fellow – and absolutely intolerable." This person later changes the humble home of tragedy into a "school of mutual instruction, where the children learn to hate and envy each other and to read and write, which was all they needed to become detestable creatures." These words "please the soul well."
87
The description is worth comparing with that of Gautier's
88
89
Note, too, a hint at a never filled in romance of the captain's own.
90
I must ask for special emphasis on "beauty." Nothing can be
91
As Rossetti saw it in "Sibylla Palmifera":
"Under the arch of Life, where Love and Death,
92
Perhaps there are few writers mentioned in this book to whose lovers exactly the same kind of apology is desirable as it is in the case of Nodier. "Where," I hear reproaching voices crying, "is
93
Mr. Swinburne's magnificent pæans are "vatical" certainly, but scarcely critical, save now and then. Mr. Stevenson wrote on the Romances, but not on "the whole."
94
See note in Vol. I. p. 472 of this
95
These crazes were not in origin, though they probably were in influence, political: Hugo held more than one of them while he was still a Royalist.
96
She is of course not really Spanish or a gipsy, but is presented as such at first.
97
Stated in the Preface to
98
It is scarcely excessive to say that this mixture of wilful temper and unbridled theorising was the Saturnian influence, or the "infortune of Mart," in Hugo's horoscope throughout.
99
Unless anybody chooses to say that the gallows and the guillotine are Hugo's monsters here.
100
The failure of the riskiest and most important scene of the whole (where her surrender of herself to Phœbus is counteracted by Frollo's stabbing the soldier, the act itself leading to Esmeralda's incarceration) is glaring.
101
102
It must be four or five times the length of Scott's average, more than twice that of the longest books with which Dickens and Thackeray used to occupy nearly two years in monthly instalments, and very nearly, if not quite, that of Dumas' longest and most "spun-out" achievements in
103
I am not forgetting or contradicting what was said above (page 26) of René. But René
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The "Je ne sais pas lire" argument has more than once suggested to me a certain historical comparison. There have probably never been in all history two more abominable scoundrels for cold-blooded cruelty, the worst of all vices, than Eccelino da Romano and the late Mr. Broadhead, patron saint and great exemplar of Trade-Unionism. Broadhead could certainly read. Could Ezzelin? I do not know. But if he could not, the Hugonic belief in the efficacy of reading is not strongly supported. If he could, it is definitely damaged.
105
106
After the lapse of more than half a century some readers may have forgotten, and more may never have heard, the anecdote connected with this. It was rashly and somewhat foolishly pointed out to the poet-romancer himself that the air of "Bonny Dundee" was the very reverse of melancholy, and that he must have mistaken the name. His reply was the most categoric declaration possible of his general attitude, in such cases, "Et moi, je l'appelle 'Bonny Dundee.'"
107
I do not know whether any one has ever attempted to estimate his actual debt to Scott. There are better classics of inquiry, but in the class many worse subjects.
108
In the opening scene she is something worse. If her writing "Gilliatt"
