PERSONAL AND MISCELLANEOUS.
In private life and character, it is well known that Victor Hugo was one
of the noblest and most unselfish of men. Numberless are the anecdotes
related of his generosity and kindliness of disposition. His children's
repasts at Hauteville House, Guernsey, and his hospitality to the
suffering and distressed in Paris, I have already alluded to. He had a
special talent for organizing Christmas parties, and was never happier
than when surrounded by his grandchildren. He mingled in all their
games, and even shared their troubles and their punishments. When his
favourite little grandchild was put on dry bread for bad conduct, the
grandfather was so unhappy that he would take no dessert. His pleasures
were as simple as his mind was great. The writer who furnishes me with
these details warmly contradicted the statement that Victor Hugo was an
infidel; on the contrary, he was a firm believer in God and in a future
state; and this, as we have seen, the poet himself confirmed. Even when
in his octogenarian period it was the poet's habit to rise with the day,
summer and winter, and to work until nine. He then allowed himself an
hour's rest for breakfast and his morning constitutional, after which he
again sat at his desk, mostly pursuing his intellectual labours, till
five in the afternoon. Work being concluded, he dined at half-past six,
and invariably retired to rest at ten. On one occasion, speaking of his
future works, the poet said, 'I shall have more to do than I have
already done. One would think that with age the mind weakens; with me it
appears, on the contrary, to grow stronger. The horizon gets larger, and
I shall pass away without having finished my task.'
On one occasion, a poor old woman was so delighted with the poetry of
her grandson, aged eighteen, that in the fulness of her heart she sent
his verses to Victor Hugo. The poet thus spoke of this incident to a
friend--'In spite of myself, I must hurt this worthy woman's feelings
by not replying to her letter; the verses of her grandson are simply
mine, taken from _Les Contemplations_. I can't anyhow write to say I
find my own verses beautiful--I can't encourage plagiarism; and I won't
tell the grandmother that her grandson is a liar.'
Much has been written concerning Hugo's skill as a draughtsman. It
appears that this own discovery of his powers in this direction was made
in a little village near Meulan, where he stopped to change horses, when
travelling with a lady in a diligence. He went inside the village
church, and was so struck by the graceful beauty of the apse that he
made an attempt to copy some of the details, using his hat as an easel.
He obtained a fair _souvenir_ of the place, and for the first time
realized how beneficially copying from nature might be combined with his
literary pursuits. After that he always delighted in sketching
architectural peculiarities of fabrics which remained in the original
design, and had not been 'improved' by modern handling.
He never took artistic lessons, but by constant practice he acquired
considerable facility in representing a certain class of subjects,
ruined castles with deep shadows, gloomy landscapes, stormy skies, etc.
M. Ph. Burty and several writers and artists of the first class have
expressed their admiration of his artistic work, and its striking
effects. His drawings were chiefly illustrative of his own thoughts.
They were employed either to develop his poems, or to serve as pictorial
commentaries upon his own literary creations. Theophile Gautier wrote:
'M. Hugo is not only a poet, he is a painter, and a painter whom Louis
Boulanger, C. Roqueplan, or Paul Huet would not refuse to own as a
brother in art. Whenever he travels he makes sketches of everything that
strikes the eye. The outline of the hill, a break in the horizon, an old
belfry--any of these will suffice for the subject of a rough drawing,
which the same evening will see worked up well-nigh to the finish of an
engraving, and the object of unbounded surprise even to the most
accomplished artists.' M. Castel collected many of Hugo's early drawings
into an album, and published them with the object of furthering the
poet's work among poor children. Theophile Gautier supplied an
introduction to the album, and it had an excellent sale. A number of
land and sea pieces, bearing Hugo's signature, passed into the
possession of M. Auguste Vacquerie. The poet prepared a set of
illustrations for his _Les Travailleurs de la Mer_, and a second album,
consisting of miscellaneous illustrations by Hugo, has also been
prepared. Many of his sketches were left in Hauteville House, and M.
Paul Meurice, Madame Lockroy, and Madame Drouet came into possession of
others. Victor Hugo himself sat for a great number of portraits between
his twenty-fifth and his seventy-seventh year, and he was likewise the
subject of numerous caricatures. These portraits and caricatures were
edited and published by M. Bouvenne. A very sumptuous volume is M.
Blemont's _Livre d'Or_ of Victor Hugo, containing beautiful
illustrations by eminent artists, suggested by his poems and romances.
During the latter years of his life Victor Hugo resided in the quarter
already mentioned, the Avenue d'Eylau (near the Bois de Boulogne), whose
name, out of compliment to the poet, has been changed by the
Municipality of Paris into the Avenue Victor Hugo. The house is
semi-detached, and adjoins that occupied by M. and Madame Lockroy and
Georges and Jeanne. A communication between the two residences,
however, brought the whole of the family practically under the same
roof. The house is three stories high, and the poet's study was on the
first floor, where he lived in a kind of bower, looking out upon one
side in the direction of the Avenue, and on the other towards a pleasant
garden, with a lawn surrounded by flowers and shaded by noble trees. The
daily post to Hugo's house was an important matter, for he had a stream
of communications from all parts of the world. If a poetaster in America
or Australia thought he possessed immortal genius he could not rest
content until he had received, or at least attempted to obtain, Victor
Hugo's imprimatur. There were many things the kindly veteran would
smooth over in order not to wound sensitive minds bitten with the
_cacoethes scribendi_. The poet was also very accessible to personal
callers, so much so that it was said you had only to put on a black
coat, pull at his bell, and there you were. Sometimes his good-nature
was imposed upon, as will happen with all men, little or great. An
amusing story is told of a cabman who, after driving the poet one day,
refused to take the fare, on the ground that the honour of having Victor
Hugo in his vehicle was a sufficient reward. The author of _Notre-Dame_
asked his admiring Jehu to dinner; but when the meal was over, and Hugo
might naturally have thought they could cry quits, the guest drew a
manuscript from his pocket with the ominous words, 'I also am a poet!'
Greatness is thus not without its penalties.
A good deal of interest attaches to Victor Hugo's manuscripts. Madame
Drouet was the poet's literary secretary for thirty years, and during
all that period she copied with her own hand the manuscripts of his
various works as he wrote them. This was done to guard against the
danger of the originals being lost, or mangled by printers. A writer in
the _Pall Mall Gazette_ has furnished some interesting details
respecting the manuscripts, which will be valuable as showing how the
poet worked. What he effaced, he says, was so covered with ink, applied
in a horizontal direction, that nobody will ever be able to make it out.
When he wanted to get a subject well into his mind's eye he drew it
sometimes with great finish of detail on the margin. There is something
in several of the manuscripts reminding one of Dore's illustrations of
the _Contes Drolatiques_; while others bring to mind Albert Duerer's
orfevrerie. All Victor Hugo's important manuscripts have been bequeathed
to the Bibliotheque Nationale.
The writer to whom I have just referred further adds these personal
details respecting the poet and his habits: 'Victor Hugo occupied the
room looking on the garden in which he died. The window of his chamber
is framed with ivy, and opens on an ivy-clad balcony. A vast
old-fashioned four-post bed, with a flat, short drapery of antique
brocade round the roof, stands in an alcove. The poet's body lay on it
after death. A dressing-room is at the head, and a small closet used as
a wardrobe at the foot. The desk is massive, and made with shelves, on
which precious books are placed. One of them is the volume of the
_Contemplations_, paid for by public subscription when Victor Hugo was
in exile, and presented to Madame Victor Hugo. The vignettes and other
illustrated portion of the work were done by the artists who had known,
admired, and loved her husband. Between every second page there was a
blank sheet, upon which a literary celebrity wrote a thought, good wish,
or sentiment. Michelet led off; Louis Blanc, Jules Janin, Theophile
Gautier, Dumas pere, and other celebrities of the time filled blank
pages. Lamartine shines by his absence. He was always jealous of Victor
Hugo, and querulously attacked _Les Miserables_ soon after that strange
_chef d'oeuvre_ was published. There is also a tall desk in Victor
Hugo's bedroom. It was the one that he most used. He was up every
morning at six, when he washed in cold water, and then took a cup of
black coffee and a raw egg. This refection kept up strength and did not
draw blood from the brain, as must a less easily digested one. If ideas
did not come rapidly he went to the window, which was all day open,
winter and summer, sought inspiration by gazing thence, returned to the
desk, sketched, and then wrote. If his "go" slacked, he walked about,
and again looked out and drew. At eleven he breakfasted. His Pegasus, he
used to say, was the knifeboard (imperial) of an omnibus, and he
generally mounted it early in the afternoon. If he had nothing
particular to do he did not get down till he had been to the terminus
and back again. The objective faculties were not more active in these
rides than the subjective. He used to observe, reflect, and dream
simultaneously.' When not riding, Hugo was equally fond of walking
about Paris, revisiting old sites associated with personal or historic
events.
It will have been seen in the course of this volume that Victor Hugo was
much tried by domestic affliction. Both his sons died young, Charles
leaving the two children, Georges and Jeanne, of whom their grandfather
was so fond. Madame Charles Hugo, the mother of these children, married
afterwards, as already stated, M. Lockroy, the Extremist Deputy and
journalist. The poet's second daughter, Adele Hugo, fifty years of age,
is in an asylum in the neighbourhood of Paris; and from the Paris
correspondent of the _Times_, and other sources, I glean the following
information concerning her: Thirty years ago she married an officer of
the English Navy, while her father was living at Guernsey. The marriage
was contrary to the wishes of Victor Hugo, who refused to have further
intercourse with his daughter. She went to India with her husband. Some
years afterwards she came back to Europe insane, under the care of a
negro woman, who had become attached to her. Her father secured her
admission to an asylum, and visited her there every week. On these
journeys to St. Mande to see his daughter, he would take the
Muette-Belville omnibus, with a correspondence to Vincennes, and every
Christmas he sent 500 francs to the conductors of these lines. His
pockets were stuffed with bonbons and little articles of finery which it
gave Adele pleasure to receive. It is stated that her madness takes the
gentle and childish form. She would always know Victor Hugo, but did not
understand why he did not take her to live with him. He placed her under
the guardianship of his and her old friend Vacquerie, and made no
attempt to evade the law, in virtue of which she comes, as alleged, into
a fortune of L120,000, and half the income which may be derived from the
copyright of Victor Hugo's works. The poet is said to have regretted
during his later years his harshness in connection with his daughter's
marriage, and her melancholy history cast over him one of the few
sorrowful shadows that visited his life.
Hugo possessed one valuable piece of landed property, a plot of ground
bought by him for 337,365 francs in the Avenue which bears his name. It
is covered with trees, which surround a bright patch of lawn, and throw
deep shadows over the ground, grateful to the eyes of those accustomed
to the dusty streets of Paris. It says not a little for his vigour and
apparent hold upon life, that after he had passed his eighty-second year
he intended to superintend the erection of his new house, which was to
be built entirely from his own designs. A large portion of Hugo's
fortune--which was estimated altogether at about four million
francs--was invested in Belgian National Bank shares, English Consols,
and French Rentes.
For several years before his death Victor Hugo had renounced public
speaking, his latest efforts in this direction having brought on an
indisposition which obliged him to go to Guernsey for rest and quiet. He
had also ceased to issue political appeals and manifestoes, though
agitators of all shades of opinion (including the Irish Nationalists)
endeavoured to enlist his sympathies. Occasionally he would give the
weight of his name to a movement with whose ramifications he was not
very familiar; but it was only for a time that he yielded to such
blandishments. He attended the Senate periodically until the very last,
although his deafness prevented him from following the course of the
discussions.
The relation of the poet's life begun by Madame Hugo, has been
completed by M. Paul Meurice, who includes in his work reprints of early
poems and criticisms by Hugo, which are useful as strengthening the view
taken in the earlier part of this narrative of his youthful political
opinions. The poet is stated to have bequeathed his theatrical
copyrights to M. Meurice, and the copyrights of his other works to M.
Vacquerie. A magnificent national edition of the whole of Victor Hugo's
works is now being issued in Paris. When completed, the work will
contain etchings executed from original designs by fifty-seven of the
chief French painters of the day, including Bonnat, Boulanger, Baudry,
Cabanel, Constant, Comerre, Cormon, Gerome, Harpignies, Henner, Moreau,
and Rochegrosse. There will also be no fewer than 2,500 ordinary
illustrations. The edition, which will extend to forty volumes, will
contain unpublished, as well as all the published, works of the poet,
and it will be completed by the opening day of the Universal Exhibition
of 1889. No other monument could more fitly, or more worthily,
commemorate this distinguished writer.