Page:A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields.djvu/397

364 for chords the heart-strings of thirty-six millions of men exalted or melted;' and about the second, Béranger's own lines are worthy to be committed to memory:

A Page from the Bible. Arsène Houssaye cannot be called a great poet, but his descriptions of rural scenery have a freshness that is charming. He has written some pieces about Greece which are admired, but his strength lies in pastoral France.

Omnia Vincit Amor. The Marquis de Belloy was born in Waterloo year. Possessed of great wealth, like his friend and countryman, the Count F. de Gramont, and like Lord Byron and Rogers in England, he might have well kept himself aloof from the struggles of the literary arena, and simply patronised men of letters and received their homage, but he preferred to enter the lists himself, and he has done his devoir like a gallant knight and true gentleman.

An idea may be formed of his extensive patronage of poor and unknown but meritorious authors by the number of books, good, bad, and indifferent, dedicated to him. M. De Balzac inscribed his name at the beginning of the best of his contes philosophiques, and thought himself honoured to be permitted thus to hang up his ex-voto to one, who was at once a munificent patron of literature and a poet and scholar of consummate ability.

The Marquis de Belloy's works are 'Karl Dujardin,' a play in one act, of which Théophile Gautier said, it was worth 'the trouble of a Journey by post through the snow and sleet from any part of France to the Odéon;' 'Pythias et Damon; ou, l'Oreille de Denys,' a drama of great merit; a volume of fugitive poems mingled with the biography of an imaginary personage, le chevalier d'Ar, and then his principal work, the 'Légendes Fleuries,' consisting of five poems, of which 'Orpha' (the Orpha of the book of 'Ruth') is the best.

M. de Belloy has also translated into verse some of the comedies of Terence, and published a satirical poem.

Sonnet. Le Comte F. de Gramont is one of the best of the modern poets of France. He has written many sonnets in Italian.