480 A GLANCE AT OUR PARfSIAN CONTEMPORARIES. 



eternity, by the hands of the " deathsman," as our ancestors forcibly 

 designated the executioner. The excruciating agony and horror with 

 which a guilty man might count the fleeting seconds between him 

 and dissolution the despair with which he might hear each toll of 

 the bell, and the frenzy in which he might curse the too rapid flight 

 of time, are, we think, admirably expressed. It did not enter into 

 the author's plan that the unhappy being should enjoy the solace 

 either of philosophy or religion : he deprives him of all hope and 

 comfort ; and with the desire of rendering the picture as excruciating 

 as possible, he takes away from its force and reality, and renders his 

 hero despicable. A man who cannot meet with firmness and resig- 

 nation the fate which he knows to be inevitable, loses all that hold 

 upon our pity or esteem which his misfortunes might otherwise have 

 entitled him to ; and a rigid critic may very justly accuse the author 

 of a want of tact and discrimination in handling his difficult subject. 

 The same remarks may, in some measure, apply to his other 

 novels : they have some faults and many beauties, but are all what 

 the French designate outre. 



In his dramas he laughs Aristotle to scorn, and transgresses conti- 

 nually upon all the unities : in that, however, he is not singular, 

 though his classic opponents consider it a grievous fault ; but they 

 can in nowise derogate from his talent as a dramatist ; and his plays, 

 though partaking of the faults of his romances, are undoubtedly the 

 work of a master mind. 



Victor Hugo, as a poet, is one in every sense of the term ; and it 

 argues much for his powers, that he has given to the naturally un- 

 poetical language of the French a ductility and a grace which former 

 writers have in vain endeavoured to impress upon it : he twists and 

 he turns it into every attitude to suit the wild freaks of his luxuriant 

 fancy. If we had never read his poetry, we could never have sus- 

 pected that the French language could have been made so musical, 

 so rich, and so varied. He takes a pleasure in showing you what he 

 can do, and succeeds in measures and rhymes which, before him, no 

 writer ever attempted. His style of poetry is singularly bold and 

 original, though there is more scenic description in it than knowledge 

 of the human heart. " Les Orientales," in which he describes the 

 manners of the eastern nations, in a series of songs and ballads, is, 

 perhaps, one of his happiest efforts. We need only cite " Les Fan- 

 tomes," a wild and beautiful poem, and " Grenade," a Moorish ballad, 

 to prove that, as a poet, he is capable of more than he has ever yet 

 attempted. We have lately seen a publication of his, entitled, 

 " Feuilles d'Automne," in which there is more real feeling and true 

 nature than in any of his works that ever came under our notice, and 

 we are impressed with the firm conviction that he is one of the most 

 talented and original writers that France ever produced. 



