See also:

• ALFRED

ALFRED DE See also:

• ALFRED DE VIGNY (1797-1863)

VIGNY (1797-1863)  , See also:

• FRENCH
• FRENCH, DANIEL CHESTER (1850– )
• FRENCH, NICHOLAS (1604-1678)

French poet, was See also:

• BORN, IGNAZ, EDLER VON (1742–1791)

born at See also:

• LOCHES

Loches (See also:

• INDRE

Indre-et-See also:

• LOIRE

Loire) on the 27th of See also:

• MARCH
• MARCH (1) (from Fr. marcher, to walk; the earliest sense in French appears to be " to trample," and the origin has usually been found in the Lat. marcus, hammer; Low Lat. marcare, to hammer; hence to beat the road with the regular tread of a soldier: cf.
• MARCH, AUZIAS (c. "1395-1458)
• MARCH, EARLS OF
• MARCH, FRANCIS ANDREW (1825– )

March 1797 . Sainte-Beuve, in the rather See also:

• ILL

ill-natured See also:

• ESSAY, ESSAYIST (Fr. essai, Late Lat. exagium, a weighing or balance; exigere, to examine; the term in general meaning any trial or effort)

essay which he devoted to See also:

• VIGNY, ALFRED DE (1797-1863)

Vigny after his See also:

• DEATH

death, expresses a doubt whether the See also:

• TITLE (0. Fr. title, mod. titre, from Lat. titulus)

title of See also:

• COUNT (Lat. comes, gen. comitis, Fr. comte, Ital. conte, Span. conde)

count which the poet See also:

• BORE

bore was well authenticated, and hints that no very See also:

• ANCIENT
• ANCIENT (also spelt ANTIENT; derived, through the Fr. ancien, old, from the late Lat. antianum, from ante, before)

ancient proofs of the See also:

• NOBILITY

nobility of the See also:

• FAMILY

family were forthcoming; but it is certain that in the 18th See also:

• CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century persons of the name occupied positions which were not open to any but men of See also:

• NOBLE, SIR ANDREW (1832- )

noble See also:

• BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

birth . For generations the ancestors of See also:

• ALFRED

Alfred de Vigny had been soldiers, and he himself joined the See also:

• ARMY
• ARMY (from Fr. armee, Lat. armata)

army, with a See also:

• COMMISSION (from Lat. commissio, committere)

commission in the See also:

• HOUSEHOLD, ROYAL

Household Troops, at the See also:

• AGE (Fr. age, through late Lat. aetaticum, from aetas)

age of sixteen . But the Revolutionary and See also:

• NAPOLEONIC

Napoleonic See also:

• WARS

wars were over, and after twelve years of See also:

• LIFE

life in See also:

• BARRACKS (derived through the French from the Late Lat. barra, a bar)
• BARRACKS, CAMP

barracks he retired, preserving, however, a very high estimate of the duties and career of the soldier . While still serving he had made his VIGNY 61 See also:

• MARK
• MARK, CARL (1858– )
• MARK, GOSPEL OF ST
• MARK, ST

mark, if as yet unrecognized, by the publication in 1822 of a See also:

• VOLUME

volume of poems, and in 1826 by another, together with the famous See also:

• PROSE

prose See also:

• ROMANCE

romance of Cinq-See also:

• MARS
• MARS (MAYORS, MARMAR, MARSPITER GA MASPITER)
• MARS, MLLE [ANNE FRANCOISE HYPPOLYTE BOUTET] (1779-1847)

Mars . Sainte-Beuve asserts that the poet antedated some of his most remarkable See also:

• WORK

work . This may or may not be the See also:

• CASE
• CASE, JOHN (d. 1600)

case; he certainly could not ante-date the publication . And it so happens that some of his most celebrated pieces—Eloa, Dolorida, Moise—appeared (1822-23) before the work of younger members of the Romantic school whose productions strongly resemble these poems . Nor is this originality limited to the point which he himself claimed in the See also:

• PREFACE (Med. Lat. prefatia, for classical praefatio, praefari, to speak beforehand)

Preface to his collected Poems in 1837—that they were " the first of their See also:

• KIND (O. E. ge-cynde, from the same root as is seen in " kin," supra)

kind in See also:

• FRANCE
• FRANCE, ANATOLE (1844– )

France, in which philosophic thought is clothed in epic or dramatic See also:

• FORM (Lat. forma)

form." Indeed this claim is disputable in itself, and has misled not a few of Vigny's See also:

• RECENT

recent critics . It is in poetic, not philosophic quality, that his See also:

• IDIOSYNCRASY (Gr. Ibwavyspavia, peculiar habit of body or temperament; 'lbws, one's own, and viryKpao , blending, tempering, from o-vyiepavvvoOat, to put together, compound, mix)

idiosyncrasy and precursorship are most remarkable . It is quite certain that the other Alfred—Alfred de See also:

• MUSSET, LOUIS CHARLES ALFRED DE (1810-18S7)

Musset—See also:

• FELT (cognate with Ger. Filz, Du. vilt, Swed. and Dan. fill; the root is unknown; the word has given Med. Lat. filtrum, " filter ")

felt the See also:

• INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence of his See also:

• ELDER (0. Eng. ellarn; Ger. Holunder; Fr. sureau)
• ELDER (Gr. 1rpev(3iTepos)

elder namesake, and an impartial critic might discern no insignificant marks of the same effect in the work of See also:

• HUGO, GUSTAV VON (1764–1844)
• HUGO, VICTOR MARIE (1802-1885)

Hugo himself . Even Lamartine, considerably Vigny's elder and his predecessor in See also:

• POETRY

poetry, seems rather to have been guided by Vigny than Vigny by him .

No one can read Doloride or Le See also:

• COR

Cor without seeing that the author had little to learn from any of his French contemporaries and much to See also:

• TEACH [THATCH OR THACH], EDWARD (d. 1718)

teach them . At the same See also:

• TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
• TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
• TIME, STANDARD

time Vigny, from whatever cause, hardly made any further public See also:

• APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

appearance in poetry proper during the more than See also:

• THIRTY

thirty years of his life, and his entire poems, including See also:

• POSTHUMOUS

posthumous fragments, form but one very small See also:

• POCKET

pocket volume . Cinq-Mars, which at least equalled the poems in popularity, will hardly stand the See also:

• JUDGMENT

judgment of posterity so well . It had in its favour the support of the Royalist party, the immense See also:

• VOGUE, EUGENE MELCHIOR, COMTE DE (1848- )

vogue of the novels of See also:

• WALTER, HUBERT (d. 1205)
• WALTER, JOHN (1738/9-1812)

Walter See also:

• SCOTT, ALEXANDER (fl. 1550)
• SCOTT, DAVID (18o6-1849)
• SCOTT, MICHAEL (1789-1835)
• SCOTT, ROBERT (1811-1887)
• SCOTT, SIR GEORGE GILBERT (1811-1878)
• SCOTT, SIR WALTER, BART
• SCOTT, WILLIAM BELL (1811-1890)
• SCOTT, WINFIELD (1786-1866)

Scott, on which it was evidently modelled, the advantages of an exquisite See also:

• STYLE
• STYLE (from Gr. a-6'1ms, a column; a different word from that used in literature, see below)

style, and the See also:

• TASTE (from Lat. taxare, to touch sharply; tangere, to touch)

taste of the See also:

• DAY (O. Eng. dreg, Ger. Tag; according to the New English Dictionary, " in no way related to the Lat. dies")
• DAY, JOHN (1574-1640?)
• DAY, THOMAS (1748-1789)

day for the romance as opposed to the novel of See also:

• ANALYSIS (Gr. avci and Meta, to break up into parts)

analysis . It therefore gained a See also:

• GREAT

great name both in France and abroad . But any one who has read it critically must acknowledge it to be disappointing . The See also:

• ACTION

action is said to be dramatic; if it be so, it can only be said that this proves very conclusively that the action of See also:

• DRAMA (literally "action," from Gr. Snail, act or do)

drama and the action of the novel are two quite different things . To the reader who knows Scott or See also:

• DUMAS, ALEXANDRE
• DUMAS, ALEXANDRE [" DUMAS FILS"] (1824-1895)
• DUMAS, GUILLAUME MATHIEU, COUNT (1753-1837)
• DUMAS, JEAN BAPTISTE ANDRE (1800-1884)

Dumas the See also:

• STORY, JOHN (c. 1510-1571)
• STORY, JOSEPH (1779-1845)
• STORY, ROBERT HERBERT (1835-1907)
• STORY, WILLIAM WETMORE (1819—1895)

story is singularly uninteresting (far less interesting than as told in See also:

• HISTORY

history); the characters want life; and the See also:

• BOOK

book generally stagnates . Its author, though always as a kind of outsider (the phrase constantly applied to him in French See also:

• LITERARY

literary essays and histories being that he shut himself up in a tour d'ivoire), attached himself more or less to the Romantic See also:

• MOVEMENT

movement of 1830 and the years immediately preceding and following it, and was stimulated by this movement both to drama and to novel-See also:

• WRITING
• WRITING (the verbal noun of " to write," O. Eng. writan, to inscribe)

writing . In the See also:

• YEAR

year before the revolution of See also:

• JULY

July he produced at the See also:

• THEATRE (BEarpov, " a place for seeing," from OeacOae)

Theatre See also:

• FRANCAIS, ANTOINE, COUNT (1756-1836)

Francais a See also:

• TRANSLATION

translation, or rather See also:

• PARAPHRASE (Gr. irapa¢pavis, from rrapa4p4av, to relate something in different words, 'raga, beside, and ¢pai"eav, speak, tell)

paraphrase, of Othello, and an See also:

• ORIGINAL

original piece, La Marechale d'Ancre . In 1832 he published the curious book Stello, containing studies of unlucky youthful poets—See also:

• GILBERT
• GILBERT (KINGSMILL) ISLANDS
• GILBERT (or GYLBERDE), WILLIAM (1544-1603)
• GILBERT, ALFRED (1854– )
• GILBERT, ANN (1821-1904)
• GILBERT, GROVE KARL (1843– )
• GILBERT, J
• GILBERT, JOHN (1810-1889)
• GILBERT, MARIE DOLORES ELIZA ROSANNA [" LOLA MONTEZ "] (1818-1861)
• GILBERT, NICOLAS JOSEPH LAURENT (1751–1780)
• GILBERT, SIR HUMPHREY (c. 1539-1583)
• GILBERT, SIR JOSEPH HENRY (1817-1901)
• GILBERT, SIR WILLIAM SCHWENK (1836– )

Gilbert, See also:

• CHATTERTON, THOMAS (1752-1770)

Chatterton, See also:

• CHENIER
• CHENIER, ANDRE DE (1762-1794)

Chenier—and in 1835 he brought out his drama of Chatterton, which, by the See also:

• HERO (Gr. open)
• HERO, THE YOUNGER

hero's See also:

• SUICIDE (from Lat. sui, of oneself, and cidium, from cued ere, to kill)

suicide, shocked French taste even after five years of Romantic See also:

• EDUCATION

education, but had a considerable success . The same year saw the publication of See also:

• SERVITUDE (Lat. servitus, from service, to serve)

Servitude et grandeur militaires, a singular collection of sketches rather than a connected work in which Vigny's military experience, his See also:

• IDEA (Gr. Ibia, connected with i&eiv, to see; cf. Lat. species from specere, to look at)

idea of the soldier's duties, and his rather poetical views of history were all worked in .

The subjects of Chatterton and Othello naturally suggest a certain familiarity with See also:

• ENGLISH

English, and in fact Alfred de Vigny knew English well, lived in See also:

• ENGLAND
• ENGLAND, THE CHURCH OF

England for some time and married in 1828 an Englishwoman, See also:

• LYDIA

Lydia See also:

• BUNBURY
• BUNBURY, HENRY WILLIAM (1750-1811)

Bunbury . His See also:

• FATHER

father-in-See also:

• LAW
• LAW (0. Eng. lagu, M. Eng. lawe; from an old Teutonic root lag, " lie," what lies fixed or evenly; cf. Lat. lex, Fr. loi)
• LAW, JOHN (1671—1729)
• LAW, WILLIAM (1686-1761)

law was, according to French See also:

• GOSSIP (from the O.E. godsibb, i.e. God, and sib, akin, standing in relation to)

gossip, so conspicuous an example of insular eccentricity that he never could remember his son-in-law's name or anything about him, except that he was a poet . By this fact, and the kindness of casual Frenchmen who went through the See also:

• LIST (O.E. lisle, a Teutonic word, cf. Dut. lust, Ger. Leiste, adapted in Ital. lista and Fr. lisle)
• LIST, FRIEDRICH (1789-1846)

list of the See also:

• CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief living poets of their See also:

• COUNTRY (from the Mid. Eng. contre or contrie, and O. Fr. cuntree; Late Lat. contrata, showing the derivation from contra, opposite, over against, thus the tract of land which fronts the sight, cf. Ger. Gegend, neighbourhood)

country, he was sometimes able to discover his daughter's See also:

• HUSBAND

husband's designation . In 1845 Alfred de Vigny was elected to the See also:

• ACADEMY, GREEK
• ACADEMY, ROYAL

Academy, but made no See also:

• COMPROMISE (pronounced compromize; through Fr. from Lat. compromittere)

compromise in his " discourse of reception," which was unflinchingly Romantic . Still, he produced nothing See also:

• SAVE, or SAVA (Ger. Sau; Hungarian Szdva; Lat. Savus)

save a few scraps; and, beyond the work already enumerated, little has to be added except his See also:

• JOURNAL
• JOURNAL (through Fr. from late Lat. diurnalis, daily)

Journal d'un poete and the poems called See also:

• LES

Les Destinies, edited, with a few fragments, by See also:

• LOUIS
• LOUIS (804–876)
• LOUIS (893–911)
• LOUIS, JOSEPH DOMINIQUE, BARON (1755-1837)
• LOUIS, or LEWIS (from the Frankish Chlodowich, Chlodwig, Latinized as Chlodowius, Lodhuwicus, Lodhuvicus, whence-in the Strassburg oath of 842-0. Fr. Lodhuwigs, then Chlovis, Loys and later Louis, whence Span. Luiz and—through the Angevin kings—Hungarian

Louis See also:

• RATISBONNE, LOUIS GUSTAVE FORTUNE (1827-1900)

Ratisbonne after his death . Among his dramatic work, however, should be mentioned Quitte pour la peur and an See also:

• ADAPTATION (from Lat. adaptare. to fit to)

adaptation of the See also:

• MERCHANT (O. Fr. marcheant, modern marchand; from Lat. mercari, to trade, merx, goods, merchandise)

Merchant of See also:

• VENICE
• VENICE (continued)
• VENICE (Venezia)

Venice called Shylock . Les Destinies excited no great admiration in France, but they contain some exceedingly beautiful poetry of an austere kind, such as the magnificent speech of Nature in " La Maison du berger " and the remarkable poem entitled " La Colere de See also:

• SAMSON (1135-1211)
• SAMSON (cf. Heb. shemesh, " sun ")
• SAMSON, JOSEPH ISIDORE (1793-1871)

Samson." Vigny died at See also:

• PARIS
• PARIS (also called ALEXANDROS)
• PARIS, ALEXIS PAULIN (1800-x881)
• PARIS, BRUNO PAULIN GASTON (1839-1903)
• PARIS, FRANCOIS DE (169o-1727)
• PARIS, LOUIS PHILIPPE ALBERT
• PARIS, TREATIES OF (1814-1815)

Paris on the 17th of See also:

• SEPTEMBER (Lat. septem, seven)

September 1863 . His later life was almost wholly uneventful, and for the most See also:

• PART

part, as has been said, spent in retirement . His reputation, however, is perfectly secure . It may, and probably will, See also:

• REST (O. Eng. rest, reste, bed, cognate with other Teutonic forms, e.g. Ger. Rast, Riiste, rest, and probably Gothic Rasta, league, i.e. resting or stopping place)

rest only on his small volume of poems, though it will not be lessened, as far as qualified literary See also:

• CRITICISM
• CRITICISM (from the Gr. KpiTrlS, a judge, Kpivew, to decide, to give an authoritative opinion)

criticism is concerned, should the reader proceed to the rest of the work . The whole of his non-dramatic See also:

• VERSE (from Lat. versus, literally a line or furrow drawn by turning the plough, from vertere, and afterwards signifying an arrangement of syllables into feet)

verse does not amount to 5000 lines; it may be a See also:

• GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good See also:

• DEAL

deal less . But the range of subject is comparatively wide, and extraordinary felicity of See also:

• EXECUTION (from Lat. ex-sequor, exsecutus, follow or carry out)

execution, not merely in See also:

• LANGUAGE (adapted from the Fr. langage, from langue, tongue, Lat. lingua)

language, but in thought, is evident throughout .

Vigny, as may be seen in the speech of Nature referred to above, had the See also:

• SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

secret—very uncommon with French poets—of attaining solemnity without grandiosity, by means of an almost classical precision and gravity of form . The defect of volubility, of never leaving off, which mars to some extent his great contemporary Hugo, is never See also:

• PRESENT

present in him, and he is equally See also:

• FREE

free from the looseness and disorders of form which are sometimes blemishes in Musset, and from the effeminacy of Lamartine, while once more his nobility of thought and plentifulness of See also:

• MATTER

matter save him from the reproach which has been thought to rest on the technically perfect work of See also:

• THEOPHILE

Theophile See also:

• GAUTIER
• GAUTIER, EMILE THEODORE LEON (1832-1897)
• GAUTIER, THEOPHILE (1811-1872)

Gautier . The dramatic work is, perhaps, less likely to See also:

• INTEREST

interest English than French readers, the See also:

• LOCAL

local See also:

• COLOUR (Lat. color, connected with celare, to hide, the root meaning, therefore, being that of a covering)

colour of Chatterton being entirely false, the sentiment conventional in the extreme, and the real pathos of the story exchanged for a See also:

• COMMONPLACE

commonplace devotion on the poet's part to his See also:

• HOST

host's wife . In the same way, the finest passages of Othello simply disappear in Vigny's version . In his remaining See also:

• WORKS

works the defect of skill in managing the See also:

• PLOT
• PLOT, ROBERT (164o-1696)

plot and characters of prose fiction, which has been noticed in Cinq-Mars, reappears, together (in the case of the Journal d'un pate and elsewhere) with signs of the fastidious and slightly affected See also:

• TEMPER (from Lat. temperare, to mingle or compound in due proportion, to qualify, rule, regulate, to be moderate, formed from tempos, time, fit or due season)

temper which was Vigny's chief See also:

• FAULT (Mid. Eng. faute, through the French, from the popular Latin use of fallere, to fail; the originallof the Latin being replaced in English in the 15th century)

fault as a See also:

• MAN
• MAN, ISLE OF (anc. Mona)

man . In his poems proper none of these faults appears, and he is seen wholly at his best . It should be said that of his posthumous work not a little had previously appeared piecemeal in the Revue See also:

• DES

des deux mondes, to which he was an occasional contributor . The prettiest of the See also:

• COMPLETE

complete See also:

• EDITIONS

editions of his works (of which there are several) is to be found in what is called the Petite bibliothigueCharpentier . For many years the See also:

• CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

critical See also:

• ATTENTION (from Lat. ad-tendo, await, expect; the condition of being " stretched " or " tense ")

attention paid to him was not great . Recently there has been a revival of interest as shown by mono-graphs: M . Paleologue's " Alfred de Vigny " in the Grands ecrivains francais (1891); L . Dorison's Alfred de Vigny, poete-philosophe (1892) and Un symbole social (189g); G .

Asse's Alfred de Vigny et les editions originates de sa poesie (1895); E . See also:

• DUPUY, CHARLES ALEXANDRE (1851– )
• DUPUY, PIERRE (1582-1651)

Dupuy's La Jeunesse des Romantiques (1905) ; and E . Lauvnere's Alfred de Vigny (Paris, 1910) . But in most of these rather excessive attention has been paid to the " See also:

• PHILOSOPHY (Gr. gthos, fond of, and vo4 (a, wisdom)

philosophy " of a pessimistic kind which succeeded Vigny's See also:

• EARLY
• EARLY, JUBAL ANDERSON (1816-1894)

early See also:

• CHRISTIAN
• CHRISTIAN, WILLIAM (1608-1663)

Christian Romanticism . This, though not unnoteworthy, is separable from his real poetical quality, and concentration on it rather obscures the latter, which is of the rarest kind . It should be added that an interesting sidelight has been thrown on Vigny by the publication (1905) of his Fragments inedits sur P. et T . See also:

• CORNEILLE, PIERRE (1606–1684)
• CORNEILLE, THOMAS (1625-1709)

Corneille . (G .