LITERARY NOTES

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2331, 18 June 1887, Page 6 (Supplement)

LITERARY NOTES

[FIIOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Parts,- April 23. Alexandre Ditmas pere was married, in 1840, to Marguerite Ferrand, age 29, the illegitimate daughter of' Mathias Ferrand, owner of a posting establishment at Met/.. _ She was .legitimised _by her parents in 1830, and was permitted to come to Paris in 1830,. to,study for--the' stage. Under the professional name of Mdlle Ida, Bhe.acquired .celebrity at the second-class theatres, at a salary of 50 fr.. ! a nionth.,'"Dumas then brought but his Teresa, arid gave the role' of Amelia, a kind of Miranda character, to Mdlle Ida,, who now added Feurierto her name. She had a ? great success, and meeting Dumas in the sides, threw herself in his arms, ; exclaiming "you have made one famous," 'Dumas invited hbr ' to supper—and'a liaison, followed. It was the common gossip in Paris in' 1836, that Ida and Dutnas constantly quarrelled ; she ruined /him by her'.extravagance, and beat' him when he protested. / She created other' roles in his new pieces. ''~ ' . In October 1537, Mdlle'lda 1 was/eri/gag'ed at 1 the Comedie Francaise, for secondary'parts', at a salary 'of 4,000 a year. Dumas then resided at 30 rue Bleu ; his apartment had a notoriety for elegance and taste. Thus the bedroom, following M. Glirieli was hung in chamois; silk, with embroided border ; the cbjlirig 1 consisted;of a single mirror ; the curtains .were in' blue velvet, : ' the furniture in citt'on wbodi arid lion's .skins &c., replaced carpets. /Ida was small, very stout, but; ; handsome. Th'ebphileG/autier .includes her in his "Beautiful Women .'.'of Paris," that ,he • published, iri ' 1839 ;' her; hands were remarkably elegant, and .her skin very white. Her hajr was as blond. ,as, Yenus's, with "eyes mild' arid .penetrating, and 'the rhouth'/graceful , and smiling. It was accident that compelled Dumas to marry his mistress. One day he brought.her to a, ball,'given by/ the Duke, of Orleans.. "I am charmed," said the Duke, "to make the acquaintance of your wife. I hope you will, later, present her to, my family." , To escape from the dilemma Dumas was compelled; to wed Ida.. This was in February, IS4O. She brought as fortune 120,000fr. Among the witnesses to the marriage contract were M.M.Chateaubriand and "Villemain. The : religious ceremony took place at the chapel of S. Roch.. The visions, of glory of the actress had now vanished. No children came to serve as a bond of union between the spouses. She went frequently to Italy, to Florence above all, where she was occasionally rejoined by Dumas. "Far froih the eye, far from the heart,", says the. proverb. A coldness between the couple soon crept in, marked without any disguise on either side, and when r Madame-, Dumas demanded, in December, 1547, a judical separation of property—her husband being in debt— there was no necessity to include that of body, ; which already existed. They were '. happy, , however, / from; IS4O to 1845 ; but after Dumas .thought,more of his fetes at S. Germain, his voyages .in Spain and Africa, and his Monte Cristo Chateau—which ruined him. He worked at literature like a horse all the same. When his castle of Monte Christo was seized to pay otf a mortgage of a quarter of a million francs, it only realised, on being put up for public auction at Versailles, 30,000fr. In Jauuary, 1852, Dumas declared insolvent. It was to wipe off his debts springing from his wife's squandered jointure of 125.000fr, and his chateau, that condemned him to roll the stone of Sisyphus till the end of his life. Madame Dumas died in March, 1859, at Genoa, aged 47. "Since the deaths," said Theophile Gautbier, "of Madame Girardin (Sophie Gay) and Madame Dumas (Ida Fourier) there are no more witty ladies." Dumas took his widowerhood as cool as a cucumber—with philosophical lightness. His son, Alexandre Dumas, fds is illegitimate. His mother was a laundress, but when seduced by Dumas—in his up-hill days—was a semptress. In his book,;" Before the Battle," M, Barthelemy, contrary to what the title might suggest, does not treat at all of battles. It is a calm and impartial resume of the power and resources of Germany for attacking or resisting any enemy. It treats ,iii; a very luminous manner the.social, political and military institutions of the " thirty-seven fragments which make up United Germany ; where nothing is extenuated, nor aught ,set down in malice. Of the five milliards of the French war indemnity, after vepaying the Treasury of War, indemnifying, the victims of victory, fortifying weak places, and strengthening strong ones, the Emperor has one milliard of hard cash iu his military chest and absolutely at his free disposal. This explains how His Majesty can declare and commence a war without seeking beforehand subsidies from the; Reichstag; or United Parliament. Thus the •Imperial Government has been able to fabricate repitetion and. magazine rifles without demanding a Parliamentary credit. . ;•■■>:;

The war and the ; navy are the two institutions which escape the omnipotence of-.Prince Bismarck.* The Emperor being the .head: of .both services, frequently nominates officers -knowingly . hostile to the Chancellor's- authority, and the latter is neve,r ; informed about naval or; military matters, only-.when it,is- indispensable to do so. This, : putting aside—relatively— of the Prince .is due to the. fact that ' militarism hasl the pas before every other institution. Not that such has its origin in the army; nq, militarism springs from the school, permeates the family before entering the ranks, but by then it is trained to an inflexible discipline, and an absolute,,imposed respect for the head,of the nation.," Discipline in the German Army is a chain which tends, not to repress individual initiation, but to break it, especially in the case of subordinate officers aud privates. At the same time that iron discipline scrupulously respects, the personality of : .the officers!, The .latter in truth constitute the force of the German army, Every : military officer, without exception has free access at,', Court, while only 'the superior, functionaries',of the ; Civil Service can claim that honour. .The , commander of a , corps d':,arm6c takes' precedence of Ministers,' . Speakers of'both Houses, of Parliament;, ancLthe High' Judges.,' Even .a. major "takes rank before . a, member of Parliament. •'• This explains why the military service is. so much run aftery.'and why. it, enjoys so much social distinction in the Empire. " Laufrey, hi his "History of Napoleon," does not hesitate- to,strike the Emperor blows,' in comparison with which those of Messrs deSybel and Taine are but fleabites. . Laufrey viewed the march of the French troops across the plains, of Tusr cany as an ambush and an iniquity. The hiomentary occupation of Leghorn in 1796 by the French has never been examined with precision. Yet the English colony there was mercilessly devasted by Napoleon, who had ; just commenced to reap his Italian laurels, having been, at 27 years of age, given by Bar,ras the comm.and-in-chief of the, army of Italy— 40,000 men, wanting in everything— plus'his" Josephine de Beauharnais already ' on the threshold of declining years, M. Pellet describes the sack o! the .English merchants atLeghorn by the rapacity,of .General Bonaparte, and in defiance, of, alj, the usages'of all the rules of honourable War connected therewith. .The English, were not ..absolutely unprepared for'the.surprise, and so' got off as-mirch o.f'their goods as possible. On the,morning of the. 27th of June, 1796,' Mur'at's advanced cavalry; was admitted into the city as "friends'" to help the Grand Duke to repress the alleged "insolence of the English." Admitted, the last of the British ships, some forty in number,-lifted anchor and set sail. Only a warship of 74 gun's, of. Nelson's squadron, wasat hand to reply to the cannons of the forts., In the evening Bonaparte arrived-; he addressed the citizens that he was "Come to deliver them from English slavery"; he promised protection for all. No one responded, The

Governor of the city arrived, but being treated as an impertinent by the general remained, leaning on his cane, as solid as a rock, and as ..cool, as ice, Gradually more troops entered.the -pity: during the night; all were=rag|ed, and took ./clothes where they cbuldv obtain them... The generals had to cut their meat on the tables with their swords. Next dayiNapoleanharaugued the public against the English; "those proud Islanders who have found at last their Scipio to tame them." He ordered seals to be put on-all the English merchants ; officers. The resident.Jews made common cause,, with ,the French. Those of the inhabitants who£ould, fled ; those who icould.not, burned .tapers to the Madpuna ,fpr protection, The English having been expelled, such of their merchandise as icould be had was sold by .public auction, ,and fetched, twelve million francs. The property,pf Neapolitiau, traders was, by a wilful,error, also seized as British, and realised ten millions. They were " pro- , mised" at would seem the proceeds, but got nothing more solid in the way of payment. -~ ... • .- , A Stuttgard periodical publishes a few .final scraps—the last; fruit from an admired tree—rby Heinrich Heine. He -was then slew, death-striken, unable to see or to walk. This was in Febuary 1848; he crawled from the hospital—where he .was a paying patient—for a few hours to feci himself iin touch with the outer wprJd., On returning, his cab was overturned by some workmen, who required it for barricade material. ,He deplored to have to witness a revolution in his state of health.; *'I ought to be dead, or at least quite living." It was, an event he ardently looked forward to, and he contributed much to promote the revolutionary movement not .only in France—, his adopted country,' but iu his own ; — .Germany. ..This was in.a sense strange, as he was pensioned, by, Louis Philippe, so in aiding tb overthrow his majesty, he displayed ..the usual; independence of j heart, while cutting off his own.supplies. Wracked and wrecked by his incurable spinal malady, Heine npt.the less hailed therevplution asone looks forward to the corning of Spring, or the arrival of a love. His republicanism was of the poetical type, but at the same time his enthusiasm was sobered by his usual penetration, and that agreeable satire which partook at once of mildness; and affection. He-wrote thus thirty-nine years ago what is equally appropriate to-day ; the French have passed the age of the poetic livery of royalty, of the romantic scarlet uniform and gold lace. That uniform fits them no longer, arid cracks at all the . seams. They have exchanged it for the republican blouse, which ,is too baggy for them, but it allows them greater freedom of movement.- They have the republic now, it is but little matter whether they like it or not, they possess it as one does some; coveted, tenacious object—like Vaterland. The Frenoh are, he says, condemned to the republic for life. They really had no other clothing iu which to drape, themselves, .and it was not to be expected they were to appear naked. Besides propriety necessitated some cos: tume as quickly as possible. Each will now see what he has to do, and each commences to be accustomed to his fate. We have a heart as if we were all Brutuses by birth, aud every person you j meet looks content as if he had been listening to a nursery tale : "There was once upon a time a king," &c.

Heine gives a curious sketch of Lamartine, and his republican circular to the European powers. How wonderful that manifesto by Lamartine ! In its phraseology there is a spirit of gravity, of religion, of conciliation, which refreshes the wounds of the present, and banishes the terrors of the future ! The man has the language and the look of a prophet. It is an astonishment, a vertigo, when we look up at that tall figure, which, since a twelve month has taken under our eyes such monumental proportions. At first he was only a poet, of the first order certainly, but not surpassing by much the statute of his contemporaries. "In perfection of form and harmonious unity of his sentiments and his thoughts—and which are necessary to ensure immorality—such are absolutely wanting iu his rival, Victor Hugo." Heine ,adds that since the " History of the Revolution," by Thiers, and the "Mysteries of ■Paris,"'by EugiSue 'Siio, no book made-so much noise as Lamartine's " Girondins." ' It celebrates the noble martyrs of the Gironde; is a magnificent sarcophagus, decorated after the manner of the ancients, where the crowd is depicted drunk with a divine frenzy, at once terrible and destructive. The book was received with a '-'bacchanal of applause," for its author had held high, and faithfully defended the tricolour banner when the effort was made to thrust into his hands the " red flag; against which may heaven long preserve us." . ".. , Comte Leon Tolstoi's new work, " What to do "is disappointing. His cure for : thej miseries of the miserable of large cities is to suppress the towns and parcel out all the lands to the unfortunate. He has not yet led; the way with his own domains. It is a question if that poetic world would be a perfect cure in his own country—Russia. - The count may be the apostle:of a new, departure;for the solution of the redoubtable social question; but the conversion of the wealth of millionairs into centimes, to.be given to " have nots," would ■ :not be. : even a drop in the ocean of human misery amelioration. Charity is not reform. ,-•■