Page:A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields.djvu/402

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Dormez, Dormez. The readers of Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' will remember this piece. Its chief charm is in its music; the words are commonplace.

The History of a Soul. M. Eugène Manuel is a Parisian by birth, and the author of three collections of verse: 'Pages Intimes' (1866), 'Poems Populaires' (1872), and 'Pendant la Guerre' (1872). He has also written a drama, 'Les Ouvriers,' which was acted in 1870 at the Théâtre Français with the most brilliant success. His poetry is full of thought. Judging from his style as well as matter, he must have read the English poets a good deal. His mind has many of the traits of Longfel1ow's.

Lights. Louis Bouilhet is a great poet of the order of Victor de Laprade, only not so religious. His two principal works are 'Melænis' and 'Les Fossiles.' 'Melænis' is a Roman story, which in a small frame gives ample scope to the author for the display of his high classical knowledge, as well as his intimacy with the human heart and the springs of human action. The scene is in Rome, the time the reign of Commodius, 'when Roman society had become rotten to the core.' A tone of light irony pervades the book and pleasantly replaces the ordinary indignation of satires. The 'Fossiles' is a work on the creation. Science enters largely into it, but without spoiling it. The combats of the antediluvian animals classed in the two families of the plesiosaures and the pterodactyles are described with a scientific precision and a poetical vigour which is simply wonderful. M. Bouilhet has also written two dramas: 'Madame de Montarcy,' a historical picture, and 'Hélène Peyron,' a picture of contemporary Parisian life. Both the dramas are strong in situations and characters, and are written with great care in his masterly style, but they never attained popularity. Between the intervals of these dramas M. Bouilhet published another volume of lyrical poetry under the simple title of 'Poesies.' This volume contains a great diversity of subjects, and is rich in descriptions of nature.

The piece we cite here is taken from the 'Poesies.' The last stanza is not in the original, but has been added by the translator to suit the taste of the English reader, to whom a satire, however keen may be the irony, on an age long gone by, without a modern application or a latent significance, would appear unmeaning and unnecessary.

The Plesiosaurus. The Plesiosaurus is an antediluvian animal. Although a Frenchman would faint away at the idea of blank verse, which is not allowed in French poetry, we have not hesitated to render this piece in that form as well as some others.