Part 7 (1/2)
Qui sert bien son pays n'a pas besoin d'ayeux.
Thunders of applause proceeded from those who applied it to Napoleon. At the line:
Est il d'autre parti que celui de nos rois?
a loud shout and clapping proceeded from the Royalists; but I fancy if hands had been shown these last would have been in a sad minority. I have often amused myself with comparing the _Merope_ of Voltaire with that of Maffei and am puzzled to which to give the preference. Maffei has made Polyphonte a more odious and perhaps on that account a more theatrical character, while Voltaire's Polyphonte is more in real life. In the play of Voltaire he is a rough brutal soldier, void of delicacy of feeling and not very scrupulous, but not that praeternatural deep designing villain that he is represented in the piece of Maffei. In fact Maffei's Polyphonte appears too _outre_; but then on the stage may not a little exaggeration be allowed, just as statues which are destined to be placed in the open air or on columns appear with greater effect when larger than the natural size?
Alfleri seems to have given the preference to the Merope of Voltaire.
I have seen Talma a second time in the part of Nero in the Britannicus of Racine; Mlle Georges played the part of Agrippina. Talma was Nero from head to foot; his very entry on the stage gave an idea of the fiery and impatient character of the tyrant, and in the scene between him and his mother Agrippina nothing could be better delineated. The forced calm of Agrippina, while reproaching her son with his ingrat.i.tude, and the impatience of Nero to get rid of such an importunate monitress, were given in a style impossible to be surpa.s.sed. Talma's dumb show during this scene was a masterpiece of the mimic art. If Talma gives such effects to his roles in a French drama, where he is shackled by rules, how much greater would he give on the English or German stages in a tragedy of Shakespeare or Schiller!
Blank verse is certainly better adapted to tragedy than rhymed alexandrines, but then the French language does not admit of blank verse, and to write tragedies in prose, unless they be tragedies in modern life, would deprive them of all charm; but after all I find the harmonious pomp and to use a phrase of Pope's ”The long majestic march and energy divine”
of the French alexandrine, very pleasing to the ear. I am sure that the French poets deserve a great deal of credit for producing such masterpieces of versification from a language, which, however elegant, is the least poetical in Europe; which allows little or no inversion, scarce any poetic license, no _enjambement_, compels a fixed caesura; has in horror the hiatus; and in fine is subject to the most rigorous rules, which can on no account be infringed; which rejects hyperbole; which is measured by syllables, the p.r.o.nunciation of which is not felt in prose; compels the alternative termination of a masculine or feminine rhyme; and with all this requires more perhaps than any other language that cacophony be sedulously avoided. Such are the difficulties a French poet has to struggle with; he must unite the most harmonious sound with the finest thought. In Italian very often the natural harmony of the language and the music of the sound conceal the poverty of the thought; besides Italian poetry has innumerable licenses which make it easy to figure in the Tuscan Parna.s.sus, and where anyone who can string together _rime_ or _versi sciolti_ is dignified with the appellation of a poet; whereas from French poetry, a mediocrity is and must be of necessity banished. Neither is it sufficient for an author to have sublime ideas; these must be filed and pruned. Inspiration can make a poet of a German, an Italian or an Englishman, because he may revel in unbounded license of metre and language, but in French poetry inspiration is by no means sufficient; severe study and constant practise are as indispensable as poetic verve to const.i.tute a French poet. The French poets are sensible of this and on this account they prefer imitating the ancients, polis.h.i.+ng their rough marble and fitting it to the national taste, to striking out a new path.
The Abbe Delille, the best poet of our day that France has produced, has gone further; he had read and admired the best English poets such as Milton, Pope, Collins and Goldsmith, and has not disdained to imitate them; yet he has imitated them with such elegance and judgment that he has left nothing to regret on the part of those of his countrymen who are not acquainted with English, and he has rendered their beauties with such a force that a foreigner Versed in both languages who did not previously know which was the original, and which the translation, might take up pa.s.sages in Pope, Thomson, Collins and Goldsmith and read parallel pa.s.sages in Delille and be extremely puzzled to distinguish the original: for none of the beauties are lost in these imitations. And yet, in preferring to imitate, it must not be inferred that he was deficient in original thoughts.
To return to the theatre, I have seen Mlle Mars in the _role_ of Henriette in the _Femmes Savantes_ of Moliere. Oh! how admirable she is! She realizes completely the conception of a graceful and elegant Frenchwoman of the first society. She does not act; she is at home as it were in her own salon, smiling at the silly pretensions of her sister and at the ridiculous pedantry of Trissotin; her refusing the kiss because she does not understand Greek was given with the greatest _naivete_. In a word Mlle Mars reigns unrivalled as the first comic actress in Europe.
I have seen too, _Les Plaideurs_ of Racine and _Les fourberies de Scapin_ of Moliere, both exceedingly well given; particularly the scene in the latter wherein it is announced to Geronte that his son had fallen into the hands of a Turkish corsair, and his answer ”Que diable allait-il faire dans la galere?”
I have seen also _Andromaque_, _Iphigenie_ and _Zare_. Mlle Volnais did the part of Andromaque; but the monotonous plaintiveness of her voice, which never changes, wearies me. In _Iphigenie_ I was more gratified; for Mlle Georges did the part of Clytemnestre, and her sister, a young girl of seventeen, made her debut in the part of Iphigenie with great effect. The two sisters supported each other wonderfully well, and Lafond did Agamemnon very respectably.
Mlle Georges the younger, having succeeded in _Iphigenie_, appeared in the part of Zare, a bold attempt, and tho' she did it well and with much grace, yet it was evidently too arduous a task for her. The whole onus of this affecting piece rests on the _role_ of Zare. In the part where _naivete_ was required she succeeded perfectly and her burst: ”Mais Orosmane m'aime et j'ai tout oublie” was most happy; but she was too faint and betrayed too little emotion in portraying the struggle between her love for Orosmane and the unsubdued symptoms of attachment to her father and brother and to the religion of her ancestors. In short, where much pa.s.sion and pathos was required, there she proved unequal to the task; but she has evidently all the qualities and dispositions towards becoming a good actress, and with more study and practise I have no doubt that three or four years hence, she will be fully equal to the difficult task of giving effect to and portraying to life, the exquisitely touching and highly interesting _role_ of Zare. She was not called for to appear on the stage after the termination of the performance, tho' frequently applauded during it. The actor who did the part of Orosmane, in that scene wherein he discovers he has killed Zare unjustly, gave a groan which had an unhappy effect; it was such an awkward one, that it made all the audience laugh; no people catch ridicule so soon as the French.
What I princ.i.p.ally admire on the French stage is that the actors are always perfect in their parts and all the characters are well sustained; the performance never flags for a moment; and I have experienced infinitely more pleasure in beholding the dramas of Racine and Voltaire than those of Shakespeare, and for this reason that, on our stage, for one good actor you have the many who are exceedingly bad and who do not comprehend their author: you feel consequently a _hiatus valde deflendus_ when the princ.i.p.al actor or actress are not on the stage. I have been delighted to see Kemble, and Mrs Siddons and Miss O'Neil, and while they were on the stage I was all eyes and ears; but the other actors were always so inferior that the contrast was too obvious and it only served to make more conspicuous the flagging of interest that pervades the tragedies of Shakespeare, _Macbeth_ alone perhaps excepted. I speak only of Shakespeare's faults as a dramaturgus and they are rather the faults of his age than his own; for in everything else I think him the greatest litterary genius that the world ever produced, and I place him far above any poet, ancient or modern; yet in allowing all this, I do not at all wonder that his dramatic pieces do not in general please foreigners and that they are disgusted with the low buffoonery, interruption of interest and want of arrangement that ought of necessity to const.i.tute a drama; for I feel the same objections myself when reading Shakespeare, and often lose patience; but then when I come to some sublime pa.s.sage, I become wrapt up in it alone and totally forget the piece itself. In order to inspire a foreigner with admiration for Shakespeare, I would not give him his plays to read entire, but I would present him with a _recueil_ of the most beautiful pa.s.sages of that great poet; and I am sure he would be so delighted with them that he would readily join in the ”All Hail” that the British nation awards him. Thus you may perceive the distinction I make between the creative genius who designs, and the artist who fills up the canvas; between the Poet and the Dramaturgus. I am probably singular in my taste as an Englishman, when I tell you that I prefer Shakespeare for the closet and Racine or Voltaire or Corneille for the stage: and with regard to English tragedies, I prefer as an acting drama Home's _Douglas_[46] to any of Shakespeare's, _Macbeth_ alone excepted; and for this plain reason that the interest in _Douglas_ never flags, nor is diverted.
In giving my mite of admiration to the French stage, I am fully aware of its faults, of the long declamation and the _fade galanterie_ that prevailed before Voltaire made the grand reform in that particular: and on this account I prefer Voltaire as a tragedian to Racine and Corneille. The _Phedre_ and _Athalie_ of Racine are certainly masterpieces, and little inferior to them are _Iphigenie, Andromaque_ and _Britannicus_, but in the others I think he must be p.r.o.nounced inferior to Voltaire; as a proof of my argument I need only cite _Zare, Alzire, Mahomet, Semiramis, l'Orphelin de la Chine, Brutus_. Voltaire has, I think, united in his dramatic writings the beauties of Corneille, Racine and Crebillon and has avoided their faults; this however is not, I believe, the opinion of the French in general, but I follow my own judgment in affairs of taste, and if anything pleases me I wait not to ascertain whether the ”master hath said so.”
It shows a delicate attention on the part of the directors of the _Theatre Francais_, now that so many foreigners of all nations are here, to cause to be represented every night the masterpieces of the French cla.s.sical dramatic authors, since these are pieces that every foreigner of education has read and admired; and he would much rather go to see acted a play with which he was thoroughly acquainted than a new piece of one which he has not read; for as the recitation is extremely rapid it would not be so easy for him to seize and follow it without previous reading.
Of Moliere I had already seen the _Avare_, the _Femmes savantes_ and the _Fourberies de Scapin_. Since these I have seen the _Tartuffe_ and _George Dandin_ both inimitably performed; how I enjoyed the scene of the _Pauvre homme!_ in the _Tartuffe_ and the lecture given to George Dandin by M. and Mme de Sotenville wherein they recount the virtues and merits of their respective ancestors. Of Moliere indeed there is but one opinion throughout Europe; in the comic line he bears away the palm unrivalled and here I fully agree with the ”general.”
I must not quit the subject of French theatricals without speaking of the _Opera comique_ at the _Theatre Faydeau_. It is to the sort of light pieces that are given here, that the French music is peculiarly appropriate, and it is here that you seize and feel the beauty and melody of the national music; these little _chansons_, _romances_ and _ariettas_ are so pleasing to the ear that they imprint themselves durably on the memory, which is no equivocal proof of their merit. I cannot say as much for the tragic singing in the _Opera seria_ at the Grand French Opera, which to my ear sounds a perfect psalmody. There is but one language in the world for tragic recitative and that is Italian. On the other hand, in the _genre_ of the _Opera comique_, the French stage is far superior to the Italian. In the French comedy everything is graceful and natural; the Italians cannot catch this happy medium, so that their comedies and comic operas are mostly _outre_, and degenerate into downright farce and buffoonery.
[42] Major James Grant, of the 18th Light Dragoons, was made a Brevet Lieutenant Colonel on 18th June, 1815.--ED.
[43] A phrase in prose, often quoted as a verse, from Voltaire's preface to the _Enfant Prodigue: Tous les genres sont bons, hors le genre ennuyeux_.--ED.
[44] A tragedy often acted by Talma, the work of Antoine d'Aubigny de Lafosse (1653-1708).--ED.
[45] Thomas Otway's once celebrated tragedy, 1682.--ED.
[46] _The Tragedy of Douglas_, by John Home (1722-1808).--ED.
CHAPTER V
From Paris to Milan through Dijon, Chalon-sur-Saone, Lyons, Geneva and the Simplon--Auxerre--Dijon--Napoleon at Chalon-sur-Saone--The army of the Loire--Macon--French _grisettes_--Lyons--Monuments and theatricals-- Geneva--Character and opinions of the Genevois--Voltaire's chateau at Ferney--The chevalier Zadera--From Geneva to Milan--Crossing the Simplon--Arona--The theatres in Milan--Rossini--Monuments in Milan--Art encouraged by the French--Mr Eustace's bigotry--Return to Switzerland-- Clarens and Vevey--Lausanne--Society in Lausanne--Return to Paris--The Louvre stripped--Death of Marshal Ney.
I left Paris on the 17th Sept., in the diligence of Auxerre, The company was as follows: a young Genevois who had served in the National Guard at Paris, and had been wounded in a skirmish against the Prussians near that city; a young Irish Templar; a fat citizen of Dijon and an equally fat woman going to Dole. We arrived the following day at 11 o'clock at Auxerre, a town situated on the banks of the Seine. Water conveyance may be had from Paris to Auxerre, price 12 francs the person: the price in the diligence is 28 francs. We had during our journey much political conversation; the Bourbons and the English government were the objects of attack, and neither my friend the barrister nor myself felt the least inclined to take up their cause. The Genevois had with him Fouche's expose of the state of the nation, wherein he complains bitterly of the conduct of the Allies. All France is now disarmed and no troops are to be seen but those in foreign uniform. The face of the country between Paris and Auxerre is not peculiarly striking; but the soil appears fertile and the road excellent.
After breakfast we started from Auxerre and stopped to sup and sleep the same night at Avallon. At Semur, which we pa.s.sed on the following day, there is a one arched bridge of great boldness across the river Armancon.