'L'Aventurière,' a comedy in five acts; 'Gabrielle,' a comedy in five acts; 'Le Joueur de Flûte,' a comedy in one act; 'Diane,' a play in five acts, and some others, besides several dramas in prose. His collection of fugitive pieces, entitled simply 'Poésies,' was published in 1856. He is connected as a contributor with the 'Revue des Deux Mondes,' and was made a member of the French Academy in 1858.
Page 268.
A Lover's Wish. Théodore De Banville is essentially a lyrical poet. He distinguished himself early. His first volume, 'Les Cariatides,' was published in 1842, when he was only twenty-one. Since then he has published 'Les Stalactites,' 'Les Odelettes,' 'Les Odes Funambulesques,' and a number of dramas, besides a treatise on French poetry.
Page 269.
Cheval et Cavalier. Gustave Nadaud, born at Roubaix in 1821, is a 'chansonnier.' He composes his own music, and sings his own songs, which have great merit, and delight the poor in their gatherings on the fields, as well as the rich in their decorated salons. Light, pleasant, often witty, never tiresome, sometimes with a dash of pathos, what more need one require of songs? M. Charles Alexandre, commenting upon them, says, 'L'esprit est le fond, le sol de cette muse positive; le sentiment flotte sur elle comme la vapeur bleue sur les montagnes.' If there is no depth of thought, no passion, no sub1imity,—ah! it is because the 'chansonnier' has his 'rôle fatal.' He must please. This poesy, which lives only in the present, cannot wait for the future. The chanson aspires only to a fugitive success, the light popularity of the salons and the streets. And the public is like the Sultan of the Arabian Nights. It must be amused,—amused under any circumstances,—amused under pain of death; and it would never pardon the 'chansonnier' if he were to tire it by poesy pure, or poesy of a high order, or poesy with a moral.
Page 271.
Sonnet.—The Broken Bell. Charles Baudelaire, the author of this sonnet, is a poet and critic of considerable eminence; but he borrows, without acknowledgment, too much from English and German sources. Look for instance at a little piece of his, entitled 'Le Guignon,' consisting of fourteen lines,—not put in the legitimate form of the sonnet. First you find the line,
'L'art est long et le temps est court.'
Well! say, 'Art is long and time is fleeting' is a proverbial expression, and Baudelaire has as much right to use it as Longfellow, but then come the lines—
'Mon cœur comme un tambour voilé
Va battant des marches funèbres.'
Does not that remind one rather too strongly of Longfellow's
