IH (JO 



ssa 



drama in prone, and the admirable lyrism ot / 

 ('/unit* <lit <',;-inix>-nli- ; in IN.'tti /../ /.\,/i. rnliln ( an 



opeia for Millie. I'.ertilli; ill \^1 , Ltt \" 



111 \\hich, as in l.f.s l-'finllis it'. \ nl, mini', 

 the poet's genius of diction is held by some to 



ha\e foUIld its noblest expression; ill -JifflL JtlOL 



Ilia*, after Ilfrmnii the motfl fumon* of liin ntjure 

 rliap.si>d|e.s: and in 1&40. Li's Jin i/ti. v it /.-.v (>mlir<s, 

 \>>t aiiot her collection of brilliant and sonorous 

 ; after which the prodigious aflluence of 

 creati\cnc-s to which all those were due appeals 



to have ! n momentarily exhausted. Certain it 



i- that Hugo published no more until 184.'*, when 

 he auain failed at the Francais with tliat ponderous 

 trilogy of /. v /tin-graves, surcharged with as it 

 were an /Eschylean sentimentalism. His next 

 essay in pure art was not put forth till 1H56, the 

 do/en or fifteen years bet.wfln being very jargoly 



given ov<" 



tici' of oratorv. 



ie pursuit 

 journalisi 



if politic 

 i, and pa 



prose ana verse. 

 Puttin__ii, nrngfr 



llo\ alist , and \\ orshi 

 1830 andl848 he w 



IBW i 



nd liel, \vp.en 



Napole 



Najx)lgoniai,,^It]| n t--i"t-- 

 for rnmranitarianisin. but more or legs resolntf; in 

 the cause of order and law. In this latter capacity 

 it was Tifiat he sat for the city of Paris in the 

 Assemblee Constituante. There he voted now 

 with the Right and now with the Left, so that, 

 when on his election to the Assemblee Legislative 

 he threw in his lot with the democratic republicans, 

 the reproach of apostasy was by no means un- 

 founded. It is not clear that lie would have been 

 finally content with any change in the condition of 

 things at this time always excepting such a turn 

 of the wheel as would have brought himself to the 

 top and kept him there as a kind of emperor by 

 the grace of genius and the democracy. But it is 

 plain that he was bitterly dissatisfied with things 

 as they were, even as it is plain that he could 

 neither endure the eminence of Montalembert nor 

 consider with patience and dignity the fact of the 

 popularity of the prince-president. In 1852, after 

 the am/I '/'< ff, he withdrew to Jersey, whence he 

 issued nis Napoleon fe Petit, perhaps the most 

 mannered and the least literary of all his works, 

 and in 1853 Les Chdthnents, which is certainly the 

 greatest achievement in the fusion of pure poetry 

 with political and personal satire in all literature. 

 Three years after appeared Lea Contemplations, a 

 gathering of poems elegiacal, reflective, and lyrical, 

 remarkable for beauty of expression and compara- 

 tive simplicity of style ; and three years after that 

 the wonderful and 'of ten bewildering Legende des 

 Siecles (1859). Still another silence of three years 

 was broken by the publication (in ten languages) 

 of Les Mist rubles (1862), a panoramic romance of 

 modern life, mannered beyond measure in style and 

 abounding in absurdities and longueurs, but includ- 

 ing also not a little of Hugo's sincerest and most 

 touching invention and achievement; and this in 

 >ts turn was followed by the extraordinary rhapsody 

 :alled HV///V//// 8katuptan( 1864). and by l.,:i < 'lun't- 

 .-, ,n.i ili'.i l!in i ct den Bois (1865), a book of verses 

 w iich is at the same time a little gallery of achieve- 

 ments in style; by Les Travailleurs de la Mer, an 

 idyll of passion, adventure, and self-sacrifice ; by 

 L'tioiniHi (jiii Itit, a piece of fiction whose purpose 

 and tenor are intended to tie historical, and whose 

 etlect is -om.-times to overwhelm the reader, often 

 to weary him, and still more often to amuse. 

 Retaining to 1'aris after the Fourth of Septem- 

 ber, Hugo at once distinguished himself bv -urn 

 moning the Gerpmna **\ withdraw from France 

 and proclaim I he ( ierman Republic. Some five 

 or~~Bhc months rcfteT * Tie" "was chosen to repre- 

 sent the Seine, but soon rescued his seat on the 

 ground that one of his speeches was interrupted 



h\ the Kixln. II.- -ia\e,| ,,n through the rule of 



the ( '. 



( '.immune, and di-|.-||de<| the VfM'I'.me <'. 

 while he could ; ami t hen, depaj till;.' fin 

 he protested publicly a^'uinst the action of tin- Jli-l- 

 -ian government in respect of tin- In-aten Com 

 iminists, the eflects of which proceeding were that 

 the populace rose against him, and that he was 

 expelled the kingdom. Again he stood for 1'ariit, 

 but WJLS beaten by a nnijoiity of 27,000 on a 

 ter of i 1,000. In 187'.' he 'published I.' Annie 

 Tii-ri/,/r, a s.-iies of pictures of the war, diulrilieM 

 against C.ermany, and eulogiew of France, whi.-li 

 are often eloquent and are sometimes poetrv ; in 

 1874 his last romance in prose, the much debated 

 Quatre-Vinyt-Treize ; in 1H7"> 70 a complete collec 

 (ion of his speeches and addresses. In 1H76 he wa 

 made a senator, and published the second part of 

 the Legende; 1877 was the year of the aittoin 

 <fun Crime, which has l>een fairly enough described 

 as ' the apotheosis of the Special Correspondent,' 

 and of L'Art iFStrc (irand-pere, wherein, with much 

 charming verse, are good store of conceits and 

 no small amount of what some one has called 

 'the pedantry of sentimentalism ; ' 1878 and 1*79 

 enriched us with Lc J'<(/>e a piece humanitarian, 

 anti-clerical, and above all theatrical, which they 

 may praise who can and J.n 1'itif >'"///'///<;, the 

 effect of which is much the same, and which like 

 L'Ane (1880), and a great deal of Les Quutre Vents 

 de r Esprit (1881), and Torquemada (1882) is 

 merely- Hugo in decay. His niasterv of words 

 remains invariable, his accomplishment is always 



imleji_the delusion 



ideas lur parades all mantiei i.f 



Mi^Bul^^^^^^Bm^HI^^MM9lMBV"""fV".V" 



the air of one reviewing a lenth 



atlv ne produces anti- 

 tnat he is expressing 

 eolations >TTtn 



2OUd 



continu- 

 ally mistakes preposteronsness foi_gtaiiiieuj: ; he 

 talk a prey to any of the eternal iinveracities lie 

 may chance to encounter ; hia ' philosophy ' y - 

 " f ft iTtBf* t ' t:A i -"-nd 'as alwaya niB de- 

 jeero, laife 



api 

 In, 



Tffessing lack of Ruinonr js ' HoT 

 eveii a frightful mum* i|iiaiitity, so that he 

 abides in error with a seriousness ridiculous indeed. 

 But genius is always genius^ and temperament 

 never CKaswy Irom being temperament ; 

 if 



final inmression is one of unsur 



on. 



m 



ment and .luninding iiienta 



activity. So that Hugo died 



of letters of his time, and they were few indeed 



accomplish- 

 _ and emotional 

 the foremost man 



who grudged him the public funeral with which he 

 was dignified, and in which the pauper's hearse 

 that bore him tombwards (the invention was 

 wholly his own) was followed by the best and the 

 worst of living France. 



Hugo's work is vitiated as an expression of life 

 by the presence of an alxninding insincerity in 

 combination with a quality of self-suniciency so 

 inordinate as scarce to be distinguished now ami 

 then from an immense stupidity. In truth he does 

 but seem to create: his personages- Cimourdain, 

 Josiane, Didier, Ursus, Ruy (iome/ de Silva, Claude 

 Frollo, Lantenac, Lucrece Borgia, Javert, and 

 Myriei, the very jneitvre of Les Trarailleiirs <!< In 

 Mi i\ are all expressions not of humanity but of Victor 

 Hugo. .You \yonld believe in the"! and \\\ |t ; *" 

 if you could ; but you cannot, for he takes care to 



sometui 



make belief impossii>le~ Mis plays are sometimes 

 Well made, are always heavily <iecorat<M- arp "U 

 jiiagniru'ently written^ and have all had their 

 "chance ot riiimortantyT' I'.ut their author is Victor 

 ITugn, ami Hit 1 s'ltllal fons are abnormal, the person- 

 ages peculiar, the interests remote from experience, 

 and such motive ~UH is llyVelopM IS too Individual 

 and strange to te felt Iteyond the footlights. Much 

 the same is true of his prose romance : but while 

 the level of style is nothing like so high as in 

 the plays, it has merits of invention, pathos and 



