1797-1863.
One of the great poets of the century. He surpassed most, if not all,
of his fellow Romanticists in the intellectual quality of his verse.
His lyrics are not merely the product of a moment of passion or of a
passing emotion; the strings of his lyre were not set vibrating by
every breeze that blew. The personal emotion from which the lyric
springs was with him subjected to the action of an intellectual
solvent, was generalized and made almost impersonal before it was
given form and expression. For this reason partly the bulk of his
poetry is small, not exceeding the limits of one small volume. But
there are few poems that one would be content to lose. One should
read, besides the two given here, _Moïse, la Maison du Berger_ and _la
Mort du loup_. De Vigny's influence on the poetry of the latter half
of the century has been considerable.
Works: _Poèmes_, 1822; _Poèmes antiques et modernes_, 1826; _les
Destinées_, 1864; in the Oeuvres complètes_, of which several editions
have appeared, the _Poésies_ make one volume.
For reference : Sainte-Beuve, _Portraits contemporains_, vol. II; E.
Caro, _Poètes et romanciers_, 1888 ; E. Faguet, _Études littéraires
sur le dix-neuvième siècle_, 1887 ; F.Brunetière, _Évolution de la
poésie lyrique_, vol. ii ; Dorison, Alfred de Vigny, poète philosophe,
1891 ; M. Paléologue, _Alfred de Vigny_, 1891.
86. LE COR. 1828. The story of the surprise of the rearguard of
Charlemagne by the Moors and of the death of Roland (Orlando in the
Italian poems) is told in the Chanson de Roland (end of the eleventh
century), the finest of the old French heroic poems. 19. FRAZONA ;
this name is not found on ordinary maps or in descriptions of this
region. MARBORÉ, a mountain of the Pyrenees. 21. GAVES, name given in
the Pyrenees to streams that descend from the mountains.
87. 11. RONCEVAUX, a Spanish village at the entrance to one of the
passes of the Pyrenees. 14. OLIVIER, Oli- ver, like Roland and Turpin
mentioned later, one of the twelve peers of Charlemagne, standard
figures in the old French poems that deal with Charlemagne.
88. 4. LUZ, ARGELÈS, villages in the department of Hautes- Pyrénées.
6. ADOUR, a river of France rising in the Pyrenees and flowing into
the Bay of Biscay. 15. SAINT Denis is the patron saint of France. 24.
Obéron, king of the fairies in mediaeval folk-lore; cf. _A
Midsummernight's Dream_.
89. LA BOUTEILLE À LA MER, 1853. Bears the sub-title: _Conseil à un
jeune homme inconnu_. 19. Chatterton (1752-1770), the precocious
English poet who, failing to get recognition for his talents, was
reduced to destitution and ended his life by poison. Wordsworth wrote
of him in
_The Leech-Gatherer_:
"I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous Boy,
The sleepless Soul that perished in his pride."
For de Vigny he stood almost as the type of the poet; he used his
career as literary material in the narrative _Stello_ (1832) and in
the drama _Chatterton_ (1835). Gilbert, see p. 320. He is also brought
into _Stello_. MALFILÂTRE (1732-1767), a French poet who was tempted
by the praise given to his ode, _le Soleil fixe au milieu des
planètes_, to try a literary career at Paris and died in great
poverty. He has passed wrongly for an unappreciated genius.
9O. 27. TERRE-DE-FEU, Terra del Fuego.
91. 6. CES PICS NOIRS, _les pics San-Diego, San-Ildefonso_. (Author's
note.) 13. Reims, a city in Champagne, the center of the champagne
trade. 25. Aï, a town in Champagne, near Reims, noted for its wine;
the name is also applied to the wine.
8. DES FLORIDES; in speaking of both coasts of Florida the French
formerly used the plural.