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thentic costuming. Lastly, Shakespeare, Goethe, and
Schiller are the masters to imitate, not Corneille and
Racine. This resounding preface was foUowcil by a
succession of works in which the authors endeavoured
to apply its theories. There is " Henri III et sa four "
(1829), by Alexandre Dumas, pire, full of animation,
but infantile in its psychology and written in a bad,
melodramatic style; Alfred de Vigny contributes "Le
More de Venise" (1829) and "La Mar6chale d'Ancre"
(1830) ; last comes Victor Hugo's own series of dramas
in verse and prose, "Hernani" (1830), "Marion de
Lorme" (1831),"Lerois'amuse" (1832), "Ruy Bias"
(1838), "Les Burgraves" (1843). These pieces are
characterized by a wealth of extraordinary incident —
by dark intrigues, duels, assassinations, poisonings,
ambuscades, abductions; their historical setting,
above all, is a feast for the eyes. Solid foundation
there is none; historical truth and logical action are
utterly lacking. The dramas of Victor Hugo survive
and still bear staging only because the author has lav-
ished upon them all the resources of his astounding
lyricism.
As for comedy, it was neglected by the Romantics — for Musset's delicious, and often profound, little pieces were not made to be acted. From 1820 to 1850 the comic stage was dominated by an author who was altogether outside of the Romantic movement. Scribe, a prolific writer of vaudevilles with no power of vital observation, but a great command of sustained plot.
The romance, which had been neglected by the great writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in this period takes a foremost place in lit- erature. Here again we find the influence of Ro- manticism, though that influence clashes with other tendencies. In the historical romance, imitated from Walter Scott, it is supreme. Alfred de Vigny's "Cinq Mars" (1826) and Victor Hugo's '_' Notre-Dame de Paris" (1831) are distinctly Romantic in the local colour which their authors employ and the violently dramatic character of their plots. The same charac- teristics appear in the innumerable romances of Alex- andre Dumas, ptVe, which, although by no means strong in literary quality, give pleasure by their fe- cundity of invention (Les Trois Mousquetaires, 18-1'1). Again, the romances of George Sand, at least those written in her first manner, are of the Romantic school by virtue of their lyrical exaltation of the Ego, their elaborate display of sentiment, and of passion exag- gerated to the decree of paroxysm (" Indiana", 1832). Her heroines are possessed by the restlessness, the unsatisfied longings, the anguish of soul which Ren^ suffered. George Sand, however, was to abandon Romanticism at a later period, in her romances of country life (" La Mare au Diable ", " Francois le Champi", etc., from 1844 to 18.')0), idealized pictures of peasant life and true masterpieces of their class.
But if George Sand's career was half finished before she parted with Romanticism, otlier writers in this de- partment altogether escapefl its influence, abiding by the traditions of the eighteenth century. Benjamin Constant, in " Adolphe", carries on the line of roman- ces of psj^chological analysis. Stendhal, too, who in- herited his ideas and his precise, dry style from the philosophes of the eighteenth century, is a subtile psy- chologist, sometimes penetrating, often affected. Little appreciated in his own day, he will exert a great influence in the second half of the nineteenth century. M^rim^e very much resembles Stendhal; he excels m the art of fitting into the frame of a short novel a fin- isherl picture of his scene of action with clean-cut, vigorous indications of liis characters. And Balzac, the great tnasler of tlie romance in this period, owes .alnidsf, nothing to Hcniiiinticism. A peer of (he crea- tive geniuses — 1hcShal<cs)ioaresniKl Mdliercs— Balzac could set in nKjtion, in liis "Comedie llmnaine", an imaginary world of beings as truly living as the flesh- and-blood beings who people the actual world. Cer-
tain of his characters, while animated with an in-
tensely individual life, present, at the same time, so
universal a portraiture as to constitute veritable types
corresponding to the great passions and sentiments of
humanity.
Among the great branches of literature which were restored between 1820 and 1850 history and criticism must be reckoned. At the beginning of the nine- teenth century_ history could hardly be said to exist. The philosophical tendencies which it had acquired from the eighteenth century were prejudicial to its exactitude, but what it lacked in a still more marked degree was the power of realizing the past — in other words, the power of imagination — combined with the critical spirit. Romanticism supplied it with the former of these requisites; the latter it borrowed from the sciences, which developed so rapidly in the first half of the nineteenth century and impressed the mind of that age with their vigorous methods. Of the his- torians of this period, some attach the greater impor- tance to critical study and interpretation of facts, others devote themselves to reconstructing the fea- tures of the past, with all its colour and picturesque quality. To the former school belong Guizot, who traces the concatenation of facts, showing what causes — political, social, and religious — produced them; Thiers, who, in his "Le Consulat et I'Empire", lays bare Napoleon's policy and strategy with remarkable lucidity; Mignet, who excels in the art of singling out the essential features of an epoch. Augustin Thierry and Michelet belong to the other school. Thierry pos- sessed in a rare degree the sense of historical verity, and his "Rdcits des Temps Merovingiens " (1838) is the first example in French literature of a picturesque history which is at the same time founded upon exact erudition. Lastly, with Michelet history becomes in very truth a resurrection of the past. Powerfully imaginative, indeed a poet by instinct, Michelet rather conjures up history than relates it. His " Histoire de France " is a canvas upon which he has in marvellous fashion caused persons, feelings, and manners to live again.
Concurrently with history, and under the same in- fluences, literary criticism puts on a new physiognomy. It is no longer theoretic; henceforth its principal con- cern is not to judge the merits of literary works, but to determine the conditions in which they have been elaborated. It is personified in Sainte-Beuve (1804- 69) , who traces a detailed biography and a careful por- trait of each writer and, reconstructing his appearance and character in a thousand scrupulously verified par- ticulars, seeks thus to explain his works.
Lastly, the religious renascence which took place at the beginning of the century, after the revolutionary frenzy, and which, in profane literature, gave Chateau- briand and Lamartine their inspiration, had the effect of giving back its force and its brilliancy to sacred literature, so impoverished in the eighteenth century. Theological controversy reappeared with Lamennais, a remarkable writer with a violent imagination and a style characterized by its strong reliefs ("Essai sur I'indiff^rence en matiere de religion", 1817; "Paroles d'un croyant", 1834). At the same time Pere Lacor- daire lifted the multitude out of itself with his fiery discourses, and imported into pulpit eloquence the burning lyricism of the Romantics.
From 1850 to the End of the Century. — This period seems confused to our present view, which, with its necessarily sliort focus, can hardly ilistinguish all the dominant tendencies. Still, speaking very generally, it may be said that the peiiod was marked by a reac- tion against the lyricism of t lie Romantics, a return to the study of reality, and, lastly, the coming of Positiv- ism, through the influence of Kenan and Taine, two philosophers who acted |H)\verfully upon most writers of their time.
In poetry these tendencies have expressed them-
