rather disappointed at not finding any tribute to the glory of Poussin,
nor any object which could recal his name.--The great master of the
French school was born at Andelys, in 1594, of poor but noble parents.
The talents of the painter of the _Deluge_ overcame all obstacles. Young
Poussin, with barely a sufficiency to buy his daily bread, found means
of making his abilities known in the metropolis to such advantage, as
enabled him to proceed to Rome, where the patronage of the Cavaliere
Marino smoothed his way to that splendid career, which terminated only
with his life.--And yet I doubt if the example of Poussin has, on the
whole, been favorable to the progress of French art. Horace Walpole, in
his summary of the excellencies and defects of great painters, observed
with much justice, that "Titian wanted to have seen the antique; Poussin
to have seen Titian." The observation referred principally to the
defective coloring, which is admitted to exist in the greater part of
the works of the painter of Andelys. But Poussin, considered as a model
for imitation, and especially as a model for the student, is liable to a
more serious objection.--He was a total stranger to real
nature:--classical taste, indeed, and knowledge, and grace, and beauty,
pervade all his works; but it is a taste, and a knowledge, and a grace,
and a beauty, formed solely upon the contemplation of the antique.
Horace's adage, that "decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile," has been
remarkably verified in the case of Poussin; and I am mistaken, if the
example set by him, which has been rigorously followed in the French
school, even down to the present day, has not contributed more than any
thing else to that statuary style in forms, and that coldness in
coloring, which every one, who is not born in France, regrets to see in
the works of the best of their artists.--The learned Adrian Turnebus was
also a native of Andelys; and the church is distinguished as the
burial-place of Corneille.
[Illustration: Distant View of Château Gaillard]
I doubt, however, whether we should have travelled hither, had we not
been attracted by the celebrity of the castle, called _Château
Gaillard_, erected by Richard Coeur-de-Lion, in the immediate vicinity
of Le Petit Andelys.--Our guide, a sturdy old dame, remonstrated
strongly against our walking so far to look at a mere heap of stones,
nothing comparable to the fine statue of Clotilda, of which, if we would
but have a little patience, we might still procure a sight.--Our
expectations respecting the castle were more than answered. Considered
as to its dimensions and its situation, it is by far the finest
castellated ruin I ever saw. Conway, indeed, has more beauty; but
Château Gaillard is infinitely superior in dignity. Its ruins crown the
summit of a lofty rock, abruptly rising from the very edge of the Seine,
whose sinuous course here shapes the adjoining land into a narrow
peninsula. The chalky cliffs on each side of the castle, are broken into
hills of romantic shape, which add to the impressive wildness of the
scene. The inclosed sketch will give you an idea, though a very faint
one, of the general appearance of the castle at a distance. Towards the
river, the steepness of the cliff renders the fortress unassailable: a
double fosse of great depth, defended by a strong wall, originally
afforded almost equal protection on the opposite side.
The circular keep is of extraordinary strength; and in its construction
it differs wholly from any of our English dungeon-towers.--It may be
described as a cylinder, placed upon a truncated cone. The massy
perpendicular buttresses, which are ranged round the upper wall, from
which they project considerably, lose themselves at their bases in the
cone from which they arise. The building, therefore, appears to be
divided into two stories. The wall of the second story is upwards of
twelve feet in thickness. The base of the conical portion is perhaps
twice as thick.--It seldom happens that the military buildings of the
middle ages have such a _talus_ or slope, on the exterior face, agreeing
with the principles of modern fortification, and it is difficult to
guess why the architect of Château Gaillard thought fit to vary from the
established model of his age. The masonry is regular and good. The
pointed windows are evidently insertions of a period long subsequent to
the original erection.
The inner, ballium is surrounded by a high circular wall, which consists
of an uninterrupted line of bastions, some semi-circular and others
square.--The whole of this part of the castle remains nearly perfect.
There are also traces of extensive foundations in various, directions,
and of great out-works. Château Gaillard was in fact a citadel,
supported by numerous smaller fortresses, all of them communicating with
the strong central hold, and disposed so as to secure every defensible
post in the neighborhood. The wall of the outer ballium, which was built
of a compact white and grey stone, is in most places standing, though in
ruins. The original facing only remains in those parts which are too
elevated to admit of its being removed with ease.--Beneath the castle,
the cliff is excavated into a series of subterraneous caverns, not
intended for mere passages or vaults, as at Arques and in most other
places, but forming spacious crypts, supported by pillars roughly hewn
out of the living rock, and still retaining every mark of the workman's
chisel.
It will afford some satisfaction to the antiquary to find, that the
present appearance of the castle corresponds in every important
particular with the description given by Willelmus Brito, who beheld it
within a few years after its erection, and in all its pride. Every
feature which he enumerates yet exists, unaltered and unobliterated:--
"Huic natura loco satis insuperabile per se
Munimeu dederat, tamen insuperabiliorem
Arte quidem multa Richardus fecerat illum.
Duplicibus muris extrema clausit, et altas
Circuitum docuit per totum surgere turres,
A se distantes spatiis altrinsecus æquis;
Eruderans utrumque latus, ne scandere quisquam
Ad muros possit, vel ab ima repere valle.
Hinc ex transverso medium per planitiei
Erigitur murus, multoque labore cavari
Cogitur ipse silex, fossaque patere profunda,
Faucibus et latis aperiri vallis ad instar;
Sic ut quam subito fiat munitio duplex
Quæ fuit una modo muro geminata sequestro.
Ut si forte pati partem contingeret istam
Altera municipes, queat, et se tuta tueri.
Inde rotundavit rupem, quæ celsior omni
Planitie summum se tollit in aera sursum;
Et muris sepsit, extremas desuper oras
Castigansque jugi scrupulosa cacumina, totum
Complanat medium, multæque capacia turbæ
Plurima cum domibus habitacula fabricat intus.
Umboni parcens soli, quo condidit arcem.
Hic situs iste decor, munitio talis honorem
Gaillardæ rupis per totum prædicat orbem."
The keep cannot be ascended without difficulty. We ventured to scale
it; and we were fully repaid for our labor by the prospect which we
gained. The Seine, full of green willowy islands, flows beneath the rock
in large lazy windings: the peninsula below is flat, fertile, and well
wooded: on the opposite shores, the fantastic chalky cliffs rise boldly,
crowned with dark forests.
I have already once had occasion to allude to the memorable strife
occasioned by the erection of Château Gaillard, which its royal founder
is reported to have so named by way of mockery. In possession of this
fortress, it seemed that he might laugh to scorn the attacks of his
feudal liege lord.--The date of the commencement of the building is
supposed to have been about the year 1196, immediately subsequent to the
treaty of Louviers, by which, Richard ceded to Philip Augustus the
military line of the Epte, and nearly the whole of the Norman Vexin. By
an express article of the treaty, neither party was allowed to repair
the fortifications of Andelys; and Philip was in possession of Gisors,
as well as of every other post that might have afforded security to the
Normans. Thus the frontiers of the duchy became defenceless; but
Richard, like other politicians, determined to evade the spirit of the
treaty, adhering nevertheless to its letter, by the erection of this
mighty bulwark.--The building arose with the activity of fear. Richard
died in 1199, yet the castle must have been completely habitable in his
life-time, for not a few of his charters are dated from Château
Gaillard, which he terms "his beautiful castle of the rock."--Three
years only had elapsed from the decease of this monarch, when Philip
Augustus, after having reduced another castle, erected at the same time
upon an island opposite the lesser Andelys, encamped before Château
Gaillard, and commenced a siege, which from its length, its horrors, and
the valor shewn on either side, has ever since been memorable in
history.--Its details are given at great length by Father Daniel; and Du
Moulin briefly enumerates a few of the stratagems to which the French
King was obliged to have recourse; for, as the reverend author observes,
"to have attempted to carry the place by force, would have been to have
exposed the army to certain destruction; while to have tried to scale
the walls, would have required the aid of Dædalus, with the certainty of
a fall, as fatal as that of Icarus;" and without the poor consolation of
".... vitreo daturus
Nomina ponto."--
The castle, commanded by Roger de Lacy, defied the utmost efforts of
Philip for six successive months.--So great was its size; that more than
two thousand two hundred persons, who did not form a part of the
garrison, were known to quit the fortress in the course of the siege,
compelled to throw themselves upon the mercy of the besiegers. But they
found none; and the greater part of these unfortunate wretches,
alternately suppliants to either host, perished from hunger, or from the
weapons of the contending parties. At length the fortress yielded to a
sudden assault. Of the warriors, to whose valor it had been entrusted,
only thirty-six remained alive. John, ill requiting their fidelity, had
already abandoned them to their fate.
Margaret of Burgundy, the queen of Louis Xth, and Blanche, the consort
of his brother, Charles le Bel, were both immured in Château Gaillard,
in 1314. The scandalous chronicle of those times will explain the causes
of their imprisonment. Margaret was strangled by order of her husband.
Blanche, after seven years' captivity, was transferred to the convent of
Maubuisson, near Pontoise, where she continued a recluse till her
death--In 1331, David Bruce, compelled to flee from the superior power
of the third Edward, found an asylum in Château Gaillard; and here, for
a time, maintained the pageantry of a court.--Twenty-four years
subsequently, when Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, was sent as a
captive from Rouen to Paris, he was confined here, during one night, by
order of the dauphin, who had made him his prisoner by treachery, whilst
partaking of a banquet.--In the following century Château Gaillard
braved the victorious arms of Henry Vth; nor was it taken till after a
siege of sixteen months. The garrison only consisted of one hundred and
twenty men; yet this scanty troop would not have yielded, had not the
ropes, by which they drew up their water-buckets[31], been worn out and
destroyed.--During the same reign, it was again taken and lost by the
French, into whose hands it finally fell in 1449, when Charles VIIth
commanded the siege in person. Even then, however it stood a long siege;
and it was almost the last of the strong-holds of Normandy, which held
out for the successors of the ancient dukes. After the re-union of the
duchy, it was not destroyed, or suffered to fall into decay, like the
greater number of the Norman fortresses: during the religious wars, it
still continued to be a formidable military post, as well as a royal
palace; and it was honored by the residence of Henry IVth, whose father,
Anthony of Bourbon, died here in 1562.--Its importance ceased in the
following reign.--The inhabitants of the adjacent country requested the
king to order that the castle should be dismantled. They dreaded, lest
its towers should serve as an asylum to some of the numerous bands of
marauders, by whom France was then infested. It was consequently
undermined and reduced to its present state of ruin.
We did not again attempt to pay our devotions at the shrine of Saint
Clotilda, and we found no interesting object in the church of Andelys
which could detain us. We therefore proceeded without delay to Ecouis,
where we were assured that the church would gratify our curiosity.--This
building has an air of grandeur as it is seen rising above the flat
country; and it is of a singular shape, the ground-plan being that of a
Greek cross. The exterior is plain and offers nothing remarkable: the
interior retains statues of various saints, which, though not very
ancient or in very good taste, are still far from being inelegant. Saint
Mary, the Egyptian, who is among them, covered with her tresses, which
may easily be mistaken for a long plaited robe, is a saint of unfrequent
occurrence in this part of France. In the choir are several tomb-stones,
with figures engraved upon them, their faces and hands being inlaid with
white marble.--In this part of the building also remains the tomb of
John Marigni, archbishop of Rouen, with his effigy of fine white marble,
in perfect preservation. The face is marked with a strong expression of
that determined character, which he unquestionably possessed. When he
was sent as an ambassador to Edward IIIrd, in 1342, he made his
appearance at the English court in the guise of a military man, and not
as a minister of peace; and we may doubt whether his virtues qualified
him for the mitre. If even a Pope, however, in latter days, commanded a
sculptor to pourtray him with a sword in his hand, the martial tendency
of an archbishop may well be pardoned in more turbulent times. The
following distich, from his epitaph, alludes to his achievements:--
"Armis præcinctus, mentisque charactere cinctus,
Dux fuit in bellis, Anglis virtute rebellis."
The unfortunate Enguerrand de Marigni, brother of the archbishop, and
lord treasurer under Philip the Fair, was the founder of this church. At
the instigation of the king's uncle, Enguerrand was hanged without
trial, and his family experienced the most bitter persecution. His body,
which had at first been interred in the convent of the Chartreux, at
Paris, was removed hither in 1324; and his descendants obtained
permission, in 1475, to erect a mausoleum to his memory. But the king,
at the same time that he acceded to their petition, added the express
condition[32], that no allusion should be made to Marigni's tragical
end. The monument was destroyed in the revolution; but the murder of the
treasurer is one of those "damned spots," which will never be washed out
of the history of France.--Charles de Valois soon felt the sting of
remorse; and within a year from the wreaking of his vengeance, he caused
alms to be publicly distributed in the streets of Paris, with an
injunction to every one that received them, "to pray to God for the
souls of Enguerrand de Marigni, and Charles de Valois, taking care to
put the subject first[33]."--In the church at Ecouis, was formerly the
following epitaph, whose obscurity has given rise to a variety of
traditions:--
"Ci gist le fils, ci gist la mere,
Ci gist la soeur, ci gist le frère,
Ci gist la femme, et le mari;
Et ci ne sont que deux ici[34]."
Other inscriptions of the same nature are said to have existed in
England. Goube[35] supposes that this one is the record of an incestuous
connection; but we may doubt whether a less sinful solution may not be
given to the enigma.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 28: Andelys is also called in old deeds _Andeleium_ and
_Andeliacum_.]
[Footnote 29: "Seculo septimo, cum pauca essent in regione Anglorum
monasteria, hunc morem in illâ gente fuisse, ut multi ex Britanniâ,
monastiae conversationis gratiâ, Francorum monasteria adirent, sed et
filias suas eisdem erudiendas ac sponso coelesti copulandas mitterent,
maximè in Brigensi seu S. Farae monasterio, et in Calensi et in
_Andilegum_ monasterio."--_Bede, Hist_. lib. III. cap. 8.]
[Footnote 30: _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, plate
15.--In a future portion of his work, Mr. Cotman designs devoting a
second plate exclusively to the oriel in the east front of this
building.]
[Footnote 31: _Monstrelet, Johnes' Translation_, II. p. 242.]
[Footnote 32: The letter of this stipulation appears to have been
attended to much more than its spirit for at the top of the monument
were five figures:--Our Savior seated in the centre, as if in the act of
pronouncing sentence; on either side of him, an angel; and below,
Charles de Valois and Enguerrand de Marigni; the former on the right of
Christ, crowned with the ducal coronet; the other, on the opposite side,
in the guise and posture of a suppliant, imploring the divine vengeance
for his unjust fate.--_Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, II. p. 338.]
[Footnote 33: _Montfaucon, Monumens de la Monarchie Française_, II. p.
220.]
[Footnote 34: In a collection of epitaphs printed at Cologne, 1623,
under the title of _Epitaphia Joco-seria_, I find the same monumental
inscription, with the observation, that it is at Tournay, and with the
following explanation.--"De pari conjugum, posteà ad religionem
transeuntium et in eâ præfectorum. Alter fuit Franciscanus; altera verò
Clarissa."]
[Footnote 35: _Histoire du Duché de Normandie_, III. p. 15.]
LETTER XVIII.
EVREUX--CATHEDRAL--ABBEY OF ST. TAURINUS--ANCIENT HISTORY.
(_Evreux, July_, 1818.)
Our journey to this city has not afforded the gratification which we
anticipated.--You may recollect Ducarel's eulogium upon the cathedral,
that it is one of the finest structures of the kind in France.--It is
our fate to be continually at variance with the doctor, till I am half
inclined to fear you may be led to suspect that jealousy has something
to do with the matter, and that I fall under the ban of the old Greek
proverb,--
"Îsαι ϰεÏαμεÏ...Ï, ϰεÏαμει ΦÏ'ονεει ϰαι Ï,,εϰÏ,,ονι Ï,,εϰÏ,,Ï?ν."--
[English. Not in Original: The potter is jealous of the potter, as the
builder is jealous of the builder.]
As for myself, however, I do hope and trust that I am marvellously free
from antiquarian spite.--And in this instance, our expectations were
also raised by the antiquity and sanctity of the cathedral, which was
entirely rebuilt by Henry Ist, who made a considerate bargain with
Bishop Audinus[36], by which he was allowed to burn the city and its
rebellious inhabitants, upon condition of bestowing his treasures for
the re-construction of the monasteries, after the impending
conflagration. The church, thus raised, is said by William of
Jumieges[37], to have surpassed every other in Neustria; but it is
certain that only a very small portion of the original building now
remains. A second destruction awaited it. Philip Augustus, who desolated
the county of Evreux with fire and sword, stormed the capital, sparing
neither age nor sex; and all its buildings, whether sacred or profane,
were burnt to the ground. Hoveden, his friend, and Brito, his
enemy, both bear witness to this fact--the latter in the following
lines:--
"... irarum stimulis agitatus, ad omne
Excidium partis adversæ totus inardens,
Ebroicas primò sic incineravit, ut omnes
Cum domibus simul ecclesias consumpserit ignis."--
The church, in its present state, is a medley of many different styles
and ages: the nave alone retains vestiges of early architecture, in its
massy piers and semi-circular arches: these are evidently of Norman
workmanship, and are probably part of the church erected by Henry.--All
the rest is comparatively modern.--The western front is of a debased
Palladian style, singularly ill adapted to a Gothic cathedral. It is
flanked with two towers, one of which ends in a cupola, the other in a
short cone.--The central tower, which is comparatively plain and
surmounted by a high spire, was built about the middle of the fifteenth
century, during the bishopric of the celebrated John de Balue, who was
in high favor with Louis XIth, and obtained from that monarch great
assistance towards repairing, enlarging, and beautifying his church. The
roof, the transept towards the palace, the sacristy, the library, and a
portion of the cloisters, are all said to have been erected by
him[38].--The northern transept is the only part that can now lay claim
to beauty or uniformity in its architecture: it is of late and bastard
Gothic; yet the portal is not destitute of merit: it is evidently copied
from the western portal of the cathedral at Rouen, though far inferior
in every respect, and with a decided tendency towards the Italian style.
Almost every part of it still appears full of elaborate ornaments,
though all the saints and bishops have fled from the arched door-way,
and the bas-relief which was over the entrance has equally disappeared.
Ducarel[39] notices four statues of canons, attached to a couple of
pillars at the back of the chancel.--We were desirous of seeing
authentic specimens of sculpture of a period at least as remote as the
conquest; and, as the garden belonging to the prefect, the Comte de
Goyon, incloses this portion of the church, we requested to be allowed
to enter his grounds. Leave was most obligingly granted, and we received
every attention from the prefect and his lady; but we could find no
traces of the objects of our search. They were probably destroyed during
the revolution; at which time, the count told us that the statues at the
north portal were also broken to pieces. At Evreux, the democrats had
full scope for the exercise of their iconoclastic fury. Little or no
previous injury had been done by the Calvinists, who appear to have been
unable to gain any ascendency in this town or diocese, at the same time
that they lorded it over the rest of Normandy. Evreux had been fortified
against heresy, by the piety and good sense of two of her bishops: they
foresaw the coming storm, and they took steps to redress the grievances
which were objects of complaint, as well as to reform the
church-establishment, and to revise the breviary and the
mass-book.--Conduct like this seldom fails in its effect; and the
tranquil by-stander may regret that it is not more frequently adopted by
contending parties.
The interior of the cathedral is handsome, though not peculiar. Some
good specimens of painted glass remain in the windows; and, in various
parts of the church, there are elegant tabernacles and detached pieces
of sculpture, as well in stone as in wood. The pulpit, in particular, is
deserving of this praise: it is supported on cherubs' heads, and is well
designed and executed.
The building is dedicated to the Virgin: it claims for its first bishop,
Taurinus, a saint of the third century, memorable in legendary tale for
a desperate battle which he fought against the devil. Satan was sadly
drubbed and the bishop wrenched off one of his horns[40]. The trophy was
deposited in the crypt of his church, where it long remained, to amuse
the curious, and stand the nurses of Evreux in good stead, as the means
of quieting noisy children.--The learned Cardinal Du Perron succeeded to
St. Taurinus, though at an immense distance of time. He was appointed by
Henry IVth, towards whose conversion he appears to have been greatly
instrumental, as he was afterwards the principal mediator, by whose
intercession the Pope was induced to grant absolution to the monarch.
The task was one of some difficulty: for the court of Spain, then
powerful at the Vatican, used all their efforts to prevent a
reconciliation, with a view of fomenting the troubles in France.--Most
of the bishops of this see appear to have possessed great piety and
talent.