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1240 THB LEADED ,pjo. 405, Decembe* »« i...
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BERANGER'S BIOGRAPHY. Ma JBiographie, ou...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Fairytales. Four-And-Twextiy Fairy Tales...
than real Elysian Fields , in the vanished days when life itself was heroic , and the world hardly less a fairy domain tban the gorgeous realms of the storyteller ! But in those times we had not such a trustworthy guide as Mr . Planche . Our Cmderellas were , so to speak , disguised with sundry cosmetics , the work of translators who took upon themselves to edit , as well as to render one language into another . Our Beauties were shorn of their fair proportions ; our Beasts were not allowed to present themselves in the fulness of their beasthood . Mr . Planche has set this matter right ; and the young ones , who religiously hold that a fairy tale cannot be too long , will thank him . . But his volume also possesses a literary value for older readers . It contains the writings of persons whose lives spread over about a century , and therefore presents a chronological view of the progress of a very interesting species of romance-writing from its first fresh budding to its somewhat overwrought and faded decline . Mr . Planche observes in his Preface : —
The reader will by this arrangement observe , in a clearer way than probably he has yet had an opportunity of doing , the rise , progress , and decline of the genuine Fairy Tale—so thoroughly French in its origin , so specially connected with the age of that ' Grand Monarque' whose reign presents us , in the graphic pages of St . Simon and Dangeau , -with innumerable pictures of manners and customs , dresses and entertainments , the singularity , magnificence , profusion , and extent of which scarcely require the fancy of a D'Aulnoy to render fabulous . In my introduction to the tales of that ' lively and ingenious lady , ' I have already shown the progress of the popularity of this class of composition ; but in the present volume it will be seen how , in the course of little than half
more a century , the Fairy Tale , from a fresh , sparkling , simple , yet arch version of a legend as old as the monuments of that Celtic rac « by whom they were introduced into Gaul , became first elaborated into a novel , comprising an ingenious plot , with an amusing exaggeration of the manners of the period ; next , inflated into a preposterous and purposeless caricature of its own peculiarities ; and finally , denuded of its sportive fancy , its latent humour , and its gorgeous extravagance , subsided into the dull , common-place moral story , -which , taking less hold of the youthful imagination , was , however laudable in its intention , a very ineffective substitute for the merry monitors it vainly endeavoured to supersede . Too much like a lesson for the child , it was too childish for the man .
Still , notwithstanding their varieties , there is , we think , a marked tone of courtliness , derived from the time of Louis Quartorze , running through all these fictions . They are the productions of writers who sought to amuse ' the polite circles , and are singular specimens of that fashion which long prevailed , not only in France , where it originated , but almost all over Europe , of combining the extreme of court artificiality with a certain assumed simplicity and gentlemanly idealism . The incidents are those of the most wild and marvellous enchantment ; the manners , the style of speech , the turn of
thought , the whole tone and complexion of the stories , are those of aTrench court . In the same way that in their architecture the satellites of the Grand Monarque brought back the elements of the Greek and Koman styles combined with modern prettinessss , and in their poetry introduced the gods and goddesses of antiquity into modish drawing-rooms among bewigged gentlemen and hooped ladies—in the same way that in their porcelain they dressed shepherds and shepherdesses in the costliest costumes of the palace —so , in these fairy fictions , they and their successors held the winged and volatile loveliness of the lands of enchantment within the circle of
Versailles . Never were supernatural beings so well-bred as these ; never were benignant fays so instructed in the rules of politesse . They show the fashions of the time as well as if they were real folk ; they bring with them the perfumed airs of the boudoir . You see at a glance—you hear in every word they utter—where those gallant young princes and adorable princesses learnt their incomparable address . The scent of the pouncet-box is over all . Yet this very absurdity forms part of the gay fascination of the whole . The most impressive and truly poetical elements of the fairy world are undoubtedly not reached ; but a brilliant and fantastic rainbow is thrown over the page , deli g hting us partly by its fanciful beauty , partly by the strange glimpses it gives of a vanished phase of human nature . Who does not admire the quaint , bright figures of the Dresden china pastorals , where over-civilized ladies and gentlemen are seea making desperate , almost pathetic , efforts to be natural and simple ? Who does not perceive a strange charm in those delicate little poems of Prior—and , to a certain extent , of Waller too—iu which "Venus and the Loves flutter ia the scented air of the
drawing-room , and speak the language of repartee and the thoughts of modern life ? Analogous to the pleasure we take in those productions is the delight given by these French tales of Faery . When Madame Vestris introduced into one of Mr . Planch 6 ' s extravaganzas a dance of shepherds and shepherdesses dressed in the costume of lust century , yet appearing in the midst of fairyland , and when , last year at the Olympic , in the same writer ' s latest burlesque , a similar scene was presented , the real central principle of these novellettes was hit . Mr . Planche is the veritable king of this sparkling world ; and we heartily recommend his volume as one of the pleasantcst of Christmas books .
1240 Thb Leaded ,Pjo. 405, Decembe* »« I...
1240 THB LEADED , pjo . 405 , Decembe * »« irk *
Beranger's Biography. Ma Jbiographie, Ou...
BERANGER'S BIOGRAPHY . Ma JBiographie , ouvrage poathume de P . J . Beranger . Paris , 1857 . Perrotin . M . Pebhotin did wisely in reserving the publication of this volume until after the appearance of the Dernieres Chansons—which were decidedly a check for the reputation of their author . In the remarks we recently made on those songs , as lenient as the struggle of justice with affection would allow , it would appear literary opinion in France entirely concurs . The volume sells , however—and would sell even if it were not patronized by advertising tailors who give it as a prize to their customers ; and the crowd reads and admires , partly from want of critical power , but chiefly because of its favourable disposition towards the poet .
For B 6 ranger ia certainly the most popular and most national poet of France . He Degan as a chansonnier—which , means far less than our * songster '—at a time when Rouget de L'lle disdained that appellation and instated on having the ' Marseillaise * styled an Ode . For a long while the humility of hia pretensions prevented him from obtaining real literary recognition . " It was by the English , " as he says himself , " that I was first given the title at poet—in the Edinburgh Review" His productions were popular , however , long before liia real merit was acknowledged . By tho tune that power thought of persecuting him he was identified with the sympathies of
h £ & 2 u S -T ^ AP * 8 Ome Polish protests from the ptfriUaT his fame has widened and deepened-so much that he himself seemed SS what star led , and was often inclined to protest against so universaS enthusiastic a verdict . " = > v uuiversai and TJc h t ? UtU ' l * , B 6 ran . ge * was not only a true poet , but a true imm This ' Biographie' shows it . Of its kind 'tis a model of excellence A > first its brevity , the absence of detail , especially of scandalous dS £ t careful avoidance of any attempt to startle the reader by ' revdauL' * which usually , it . » true , start e no one-produce a feeling of diaaSSnT JTi H v ' , - inclined t 0 ask vtuat a man of ? our WSTt tell the world about his career , at a time when far inferior men , even dS their lifetime , think it necessary to blot oceans of paper with records 13 only of the most indifferent actions of their lives , bat even of the first dp i , m < ™ ? f * he - P hysical passions ? Two hundred and fifty-seven p ^ only ! Well , it is enough . This example of modest brevity was worth giving , even at the sacrifice of many narratives and anecdotes which woiil . scarcely have increased our knowledge of the author . ¦ We have him here from top to toe—sketched , it is true , by himself in out line , like Charlet ' s full-length portrait in the title-pa-re—and as it wp ™ ?„
mimature , but sufficiently complete to leave a lasting impression . It were to be wished that every eminent writer who wins the applause and love of the public would take care to leave behind him a narrative so full and so reserved . ; Beranger does not write the history of his times nor of his contemporaries . He writes a history of himself , his struggles with fortune his private adventures , the development of his mind , the origin of his works ' tie manner of their success , the friendships they brought him and the persecutions ; and the reasons and form of his retirement from the literary contest The reflections , " he observes , with charming appreciative power , but too great modesty , " which will mingle with my narrative , will savour of the existence ! have led near the around . Let great men have their great recitals ! This is nothing hut the story of a maker of songs . "
No matter ; the story is most interesting . We would abridge it , if it were possible to abridge , an epitome . The reader , though satisfied not to know more than Beranger chooses to tell , will certainly not be satisfied to know less . We shall merely remind him , therefore , that Be ' ranger was the grandson of a tailor , whose daughter married a grocer's book-keeper , who pretended to be of an aristocratic family ; that the first books he heard read , before he could read himself , were the novels of PreVot and the works of Voltaire and Raynal ; that he -was early deserted hy his father , and grew up in the midst of a precarious dependence on various relatives- —on the old tailor , for example , and his aunt , who lived at Peronne . The latter
sheltered him until the verge of manhood , instilling Jacobinism and piety—a curious mixture—into his mind ; but above all , sentiments of patriotism and violent prejudices , not wonderful at that time of invasion , against ' the foreigner . * AH Beranger ' s theories , if he can be said to have had any theories , were formed during his residence in Picardy . It was there he learned to love the Republic , whilst deploring its excesses ; but it -was tUcro alao lie learned to substitute sometimes for true liberality a sort of patriotism which is very common in France , and which is compounded of a feeling of military honour and a love for the soil , that is peculiarly characteristic of the peasant and the savage .
As a boy . at Peronne , Beranger was a member of a sort of school-club , delighted to sing Republican songs , and , showing early a talent for composition , was charged on great occasions with the task of drawing up addresses to the Convention and Maximilian llobespierre . Soon afterwards he entered a printing establishment , but made little progress in the art . Here , however , he learned something of the principles of versification , and began to develop a taste for poetry which he had long before exhibited . When he was twelve years of age , he used to draw two parallels down a piece of paper , fill them up with rhymed lines , and fancy he was making verses , as regular as those of Racine ! When Be ' ranger was fifteen , in 1795 , his father fetched him away from
Peronne and took him to Paris , where he wanted his assistance in certain banking operations in which he was engaged . Here he came in contact with various Koyalist conspirators—for Be ' ranger the elder , as in duty bound by his supposed noble extraction , was a staunch Legitimist ; but he carefully avoided the contagion of example . His picture of those fine gentlemen , who when they wanted money sometimes helped his father at his toilette , is amusing , and bears every mark of truth . One of them believed that tlie rightful heir to the throne was a M . de Vernon , who professed to be descended from the Man with the Iron Mask ; and was much disappointed that Bonaparte did not make himself the Monk of this pretender . In 1798 Beranger ' s bank failed , and the son bade adieu to financial operations for
ever . For some time he was poor . This is the period to which he refers so often with regret , more literary than poignant , when he knew the Lisettes and the Hoses whom he has immortalized . But he says nothing of them ; and , though our curiosity may be disappointed , we must commend his silence , What could he have told us that would not have dimmed or stained the picture he has left us elsewhere ? " Though ugly and weakly in appearance , I had never occasion to spend money . " Enough ; his poverty and cheerfulness softened hearts which were otherwise adamant , except to the generous . We know what sort of liaisons he means ; and , if there could be any doubt , that jarring line in ' Dans un grenicr , ' would informs us—J ' ai su depuis qui payait sa toilette .
Be ' ranger had no sentimental episode to record . With the exception or some kind allusions to the ' friendly hand' that mended his shirts , when ce had only three , he lms nothing more to say about his early loves than this : — There was , nevertheless , something pleasant in my poverty . I inhabited a mansarde on tho sixth story , looking on tho Uoulevard St . Martin . What a boautiful view I enjoyed ! How I loved , iti tho evening , to gaze over tho immense city ( when -with the noisen that ceaselessly uprise from it was mingled tho clamour of some grout atorm ! I lind installed myself in this gurret ¦ with inexpressible satisfaction , withoHt money , without certainty na to the future , but happy to be at last delivered from all those troublesome affaira which , since my return to Paris , had constantly offended my sentiments and my taatca . To Hvo alone and make veraea as I pleaae *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 26, 1857, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26121857/page/16/
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