1880.] Mr. W. 77. Pollock on Dumas Pcre. 383 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, April 23, 1880. 



George Busk, Esq. F.R.S. Treasurer and Vice-President, 



in the Chair. 



Walter Herries Pollock, Esq. M.A. 

 Dumas Pere. 



Mr. Pollock began by stating that Alexandre Dumas, the elder and 

 greater of that name, has been, perhaps, more persistently underrated, 

 in England at least, than any modern writer of his calibre. His only 

 English biographer devoted his feeble powers to the depreciation of 

 his subject, and swallowed all the malevolent stories invented or 

 exaggerated by a pamphleteer whose real name was Jacquot, and who 

 assumed the better-sounding name of De Mirecourt. Thackeray, 

 however, in the ' Eoundabout Papers,' has constantly given praise, not 

 more high than deserved, to a writer who, in the 1880 group, came 

 second only, Mr. Pollock thought, to the genius who towered far 

 above all his companions — Victor Hugo. 



A number of interesting details were then given respecting the 

 life and works of Dumas, selected from his ' Souvenirs Dramatiques ' 

 and ' Memoires,' which have scarcely a dull i^age, except when they 

 deal with j^olitics. 



Dumas came of a distinguished family, and had Creole blood. 

 When very young he was a clerk in a public office, and was impelled 

 by his innate genius to endeavour to enlarge his moderate income 

 by writing dramas, having been much excited thereto through witness- 

 ing the performance of ' Hamlet ' by English actors. Idolizing Shake- 

 speare, he aimed at copying him. The rejection of his first piece, 

 ' Christine,' through the opposition of the aged Mademoiselle Mars 

 and the jealousy of the Classicists, has been humorously described by 

 himself; but his 'Henri III. et sa Cour ' was highly successful at 

 the Theatre Fran(;ais. After giving an analysis of this striking play, 

 j^roduced when its author was only twenty-six years of age, Mr. 

 Pollock commented on its effect in leading the way to the decisive 

 victory which Victor Hugo gained over the Classicists by his 

 ' Hernani.' 



Dumas' generous appreciation of his contemporaries was then men- 

 tioned, as well as his quarrel with his coUaboratcur, Gaillardet, in 



