374 SANSCULLOTISED LITERATURE IN FRANCE. 



])oem soiretimc^- verges on the sublime ; take for instance, tlli> 

 stanza : — 



" Anie.ur sacre de la patrie 



Coaiduis, sotitiens nos bras vengeurs 

 Liberie, liberte cherie 

 Combats avec tes defenseurs !" 



Or this, which is so appropriate in our days : 



" Entendez-vous dans nos campagnes 

 ^lugir ces feroces soldats? 

 lis viennent jusf|ue dans vos bras 

 Egorger vos fils, vos compagnes ! . . •" 



As for the tune of the " Marseillaise," it is extremely 

 original. The opening bars sound like the echo of the ste]) o'f 

 soldiers charging at quick time, and this impression becomes 

 gradually more accentuated as the Hoes roll on ; and when the 

 burden in its sim])le grandeur rings out Hke the report of a big 

 gun, the soul of the " d. )ux rays de France " and of the Republic 

 vibrate in unison with these high-sounding notes. Rouget is 



the only poet that has produced a masterpiece, directly due to 

 the powerful blast of the Re\"olution. This does not take away 

 a whit from the fame of Andre Chenier. who was really a great 

 poet, which RoUiret was certainly not, but who owes his glory 

 not to his revolutionary jjoetry, but to his incomparable 

 " Elegies."' To conclude, we find still some of that specifically 

 plebian poetry which, without caring about any rules or regula- 

 tions, is enthusiastic, satirical, and sometimes rich in lucky hits. 

 It 13 the typically French ditty, the " chanson." In b>ance, even 

 nowadays, every feeling is ventilated, everything is rendered and 

 voiced in " chansons." There appeared chansons on the Con- 

 stitution, en the civic oath, on the rights of women, on the king, 

 on the new calendar ; even the scurvy Pere Duchesne resuscitated 

 singing his " chansons bougrement patrioticjues," full of lively 

 picturesqueness and unexpected images. Neither Marat nor 

 Ro'bespierre have escaped the tricks, sleig'hts, and arrows of the 

 popular Muse. The chanson pounced upon everybody and every- 

 thing; even under the hatchet of the guillotine, sarcastic refrains 

 were hissed forth. The poetical inheritance of the Revolution 

 that has come down to us is immense in 'bulk, A-ariegated in 

 substance, and trifling in its intrinsic value. It seems that pow^er- 

 ful, social shocks tend to dull and disconcert the inspiration of 

 the poets, in the same manner as the Iformidable voice of the 

 tempest drowns the chirp of the cricket. 



" L'esprit gouverne, et la matiere est orouvernee," says 

 Thiers in one of those lapidary sentences of his, in which he 

 meant to sum up his co'nception of philosophy. An assertion 

 as dogmatic as this may find a place in a treatise on pure psy- 

 chology ; in a history of the French Revolution, it seems to be 

 singularly out of season. It is a conclusion diametrically o])- 

 posed to the one which Thiers vsnuld have arrived at if he had 



