LITERATURE, CONTINEIs 7 TAL, IN 1873. 



429 



the Palace of the Tnileries, and shared with 

 Talleyrand both the favor and ultimately the 

 suspicions of Bonaparte. 



Melin (le Sainct-Gelays, one of the most dis- 

 tinguished members of the Pleiad, deserved 

 the honors of a new edition, although his 

 poetry seems to me rather spoilt by the concetti 

 which at a later period disfigured the composi- 

 tion of Voiture and Sarrasin. MM. R. Dezei- 

 ineris, Th. Beaulieu, and Blanchemain, have 

 joined together their learning, their taste, and 

 their acquaintance with the sixteenth century, 

 for the purpose of producing this edition, and 

 they have given it in the " Bibliotheqne Elze- 

 virienne." The notes left by La Monnoye are 

 made good use of at their proper places, and 

 three modern commentators leave no passage 

 unexplained which can enable us to understand 

 better the political and literary history of the 

 sixteenth century. Melin de Sainct-Gelays be- 

 longed to the earlier part of the Reformation 

 era, and represented chiefly its political side. 

 With Agrippa d'Aubign6 we have to consider 

 principally the political and religions aspect 

 of that busy era. Recent editors may be named 

 to whose zeal we are indebted for reprints of 

 some of D'Aubigne's principal works ; thus, 

 M. Lndovic Lalanne has given us the memoirs 

 and the " Tragiques," while " Les Aventures 

 dn Baron de Fceneste " was published by M. 

 Prosper Merim6e, but no one had yet thought 

 of giving an edition of the Hugnenot leader's 

 complete works, and yet they are well worth 

 the trouble which a competent annotator might 

 be inclined to bestow upon them. A writer 

 whom M. Th. Lavall6e describes as une det 

 gloire* litterairet de la France, and of whose 

 productions M. Michelet says that they are une 

 ceutre cvpitale de la langve, should appear 

 before the public in a proper guise, and not 

 merely in the costume of two centuries ago. 

 80 have thought MM. Reaume and De Caus- 

 sade ; these gentlemen's first volume comprises 

 D'Aubignfi's correspondence chiefly of an ine- 

 dit character, and arranged in eight different 

 series. 



There can scarcely be a French novel con- 

 ceivable, of course, which does not derive its 

 interest from a love-intrigue between a mar- 

 ried woman and gome gay Lothario. MM. Zola 

 and Belot go farther still, and manage to be so 

 revolting that, compared with "Le Ventre de 

 Paris" and "La Femme de Fen," even M. 

 Th6ophile Gauticr's tales are decency itself. 

 We have, it is true, M. Jules Sandean's "Jean 

 de Thommeray," MM. Erckmann-Chatrian's 

 "Deux Freres," and half a dozen others, but 

 these are mere exceptions. The "Enchante- 

 ments de Prudence," written by a certain 

 Madame de Saman, and eulogized in a Preface 

 by Madame George Sand, are a curious in- 

 stance of that mixture of high-flown philoso- 

 phy and passion which rendered "Indiana," 

 " Valentine," and " Jacqnes," so popular forty 

 years ngo. 



GERMANY. In 1871 there were published 



in Germany not less than 10,669 works alto- 

 gether. In 1872, the number rose to 11,127, 

 and probably 1873 will show a further in- 

 crease. Whether the quality of German pub- 

 lications continues to improve as the quantity 

 to increase, is a point there would be some 

 difficulty in deciding. 



To Belles-Lettres there belonged about 950 

 works in 1871, in the following year 998 ; and 

 in these numbers are included, especially as 

 regards plays and novels, an exceedingly large 

 number of translations from the French and 

 the English. Lyrical poetry is the portion of 

 imaginative literature that is most free from 

 foreign influences, but it is also the portion in 

 which noteworthy productions have this year 

 been fewest. The most original, one such as 

 is possible only in Germany, the land of home 

 and family life, proceeds from a dead man, and 

 is dedicated to dead people. It is the collec- 

 tion, now first published, of "Kindertodten- 

 lieder," four hundred and twenty-eight in 

 number, by the late Friedrich Ruckert. At 

 home in the literature of the whole world, and 

 in his own home the ideal of a German father, 

 he composed this volume in memory of two of 

 his darlings snatched away at an early age 

 his little daughter Louise (died December 31, 

 1833), and the "beautiful boy" Ernst (died 

 January 16, 1834). Upon the whole, the col- 

 lection is a fresh proof that the atmosphere of 

 the whole of wedded life in Germany is per- 

 vaded by a poetical spirit, such as in other 

 countries is pretty well confined to the honey- 

 moon. The Buddhistic view of life has found 

 a gloomy and imposing expression in the 

 poems, recently collected, of Dranmor (Ferdi- 

 nand Schmidt, of Paris). A Byronic tone is 

 visible in him as of others; but he has tliis 

 advantage, that he is no mere (esthetic mask. 

 The Austrian nobility that already counts 

 among its members several poets, such men as 

 Anastasius Grnn (Count Auersperg) and Fr. 

 Halm (Baron Munch), and Indies like the 

 Countess Wickenbnrg and Madame M. v. 

 Eschenbach (the Baroness Ebner), lias, this 

 year, furnished in the persons of the husband 

 of Countess Wickenburg, Count Albert Wick- 

 enburg, and the Baroness Sephine Knorr, a 

 regnforcement to the army of German lyrists, 

 which both in point of matter and in point of 

 form can claim a respectable place. Count 

 Albert's translations, especially from the verses 

 of the English Radicals, which are little known 

 in Germany, are like the imitation of Dray- 

 ton's " Nymphidia," which he and his wife 

 published together last year, remarkable for 

 fidelity and skill. 



Neither among plays for the boards nor plays 

 for the closet can this year boast of any striking 

 production. It would almost seem as if our 

 dramatic literature were falling off in quality 

 as the rewards offered for its encouragement 

 are getting more numerous. There are at pres- 

 ent in Germany two great prizes for plays, that 

 instituted in honor of Schiller at Berlin, and 



