Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/541

Rh by her extravagance, dissipated his patrimony. He was educated in bis native town by the Fathers of the Oratory, into whose congregation he entered ; but feeling the restraints on his liberty too severe, he left it at the age of twenty-five, and repaired to Paris, where he married, and was admitted an advocate in. He soon, however, quitted the bar, separated from his wife, to whom he gave up the little he possessed, and went to reside with the President de Maisons, in the capacity of tutor to his son. He was afterwards successively tutor to the son of Law, the projector, and the son of the Marquis de Baufremont. It was during this last period that he published tbe results of his grammatical investigations, which were received with great indifference. On terminating his engagement with the Marquis de Baufremont he opened an establishment for education in the faubourg St Victor, which scarcely afforded him the means of subsistence. He strove to eke out his scanty income by contributions to the Encyclopaedia, but his last years were spent in very straitened circumstances. He died at Paris on the llth June, at the age of eighty. Dumarsais possessed no ordinary talents. His researches are distinguished alike by their accuracy, ingenuity, and depth. As a man, he combined the greatest purity of morals and simplicity of character with a rare degree of manly fortitude in the midst of his misfortunes ; yet during the greater part of his rife he was left to languish in obscurity, and his merits scarcely attracted any notice until nearly half a century after his death. His works on philosophy and general grammar, however, are worthy of attention. Of these, the best are his Principes de Gram- maire and his Histoire des Tropes. D Alembert and Voltaire both paid a just and discriminating tribute to the merits of Dumarsais. An edition of his works was collected by Duchosal and Millon, and published at Paris in, in seven vols. 8vo. In, the French Institute proposed a prize for an eloye on Dumarsais, which was gained by De Ge&amp;gt;ando, whose work was published at Paris in, in Svo. An earlier eloge by D Alembert is to be found in the Melanges de Literature, and prefixed to the above-mentioned edition of the works of Dumarsais.  DUMAS, (–), one of the most remarkable characters that the has produced, was the son of General Dumas and of Marie Labouret, an innkeeper s daughter. His father was an officer of remarkable gallantry, who for his dashing exploits had obtained the odd title of the &quot; Horatius Codes of the Tyrol.&quot; He was a Creole, the illegitimate son of the Marquis Davy de la Pailleterie, and of Louise Dumas, a black woman of St Domingo. Long after, his grandson was to excite the laughter of Paris by claiming this title, and assuming the family arms. The general had an insubor dinate temper, and excited the dislike and suspicion of Napoleon, who sent him back from Egypt to languish in obscurity, and die of disappointment at Villers-Cotterets in. Alexandre Dumas was born on July 4,, at Villers-Cotterets, where he was brought up under the care of an affectionate and pious mother. Some of the most graceful passages of autobiography are to be found in those pages of his memoirs which are devoted to an account of his boyhood, and which present an excellent picture of French country town life. He seems to have been an idle and a troublesome youth, and, though places were found for him with notaries and other functionaries, he could not settle to business. The family means were slender. They were soon almost reduced to poverty ; and in Alexandre set off for Paris to seek his fortune, where he was to make such good use of his slender opportunities, that his name became famous. Within a few s of his arrival, an old friend of his father's, General Foy, obtained a clerk's place for him in the duke of Orleans s establishment, worth only 50 a year, but it seemed a fortune. A friend, De Leuven, and he now joined their talents in a light farce called Le Chasse et I Amour (produced September 22, ). This was succeeded by a dramatic piece, written with the assistance of one of his friends, and called La Noce et VEnterrement (November 21, ), known in England as the amusing Illustrious Stranger. Meanwhile the visit of Macreacly and other English players to Paris had introduced him to Shakespeare, and had set him to work on a grand romantic and historical drama which he called Christine. The young clerk had the boldness to look forward to having it presented on the boards of the first theatre in France, and, with an energy and spirit that should encourage every friendless aspirant, set every resource he could command at work. Charles Nodier introduced him to Baron Taylor, the literary director of the theatre, who, if we are to credit Dumas, was so enchanted with the work that he accepted it and submitted it to the company at once. It is more probable that, from the rather corrupt fashion which then regulated such matters, the privilege was secured by the influence of the duke of Orleans. But it happened that another Christine was supported by even greater influence, and Dumas s had to be withdrawn. In a short time he had written Henri III. which was produced (February 11, ) with the most extraordinary results. This piece was important as being the first success of the well known &quot;Romantic school.&quot; Henri III., it is said, brought its author about 2000. But the revolution of July now broke out and interrupted every literary scheme. It was, however, welcomed by the Creole s son, who flung himself with ardour into the struggle. And here begins that double interest in his life, which was as adventurous as that of some of his own heroes, and suggests the career of Benvenuto Cellini. He has, of course, made his own share in the exciting scenes of the Three Days as conspicu ous as possible ; and his expedition to Soissons, and almost single-handed capture of a powder magazine, a general, and officers were heartily laughed at and wholly dis believed. Allowing, however, for embellishment, it is due to him to say that his narrative seems to be true in the main. He was, however, unlucky enough to have cast his lot with the more violent party, which found itself opposed to the Orleans family, and never recovered their favour ; and King Louis Philippe always treated him with a good humoured contempt. He now returned to his dramatic labours, and produced Antony, one of the earliest of those gross outrages on public morality which have helped to make conjugal infidelity the favourite theme of the French drama. But by this time he had found that the slow production of dramas scarcely offered a profitable field for his talents. The successful founding of the Revue des Deux Mondes tempted him into trying his skill on historical romances, professedly in imitation of Sir Walter Scott. And this would seem to be the first opening of that seam which was to be worked later with such extraordinary profit. Here he introduced that daring system of working up the ideas of others, which he had already carried out in his dramatic labours, his successful pieces of Henri III. and Christine proving to consist of whole scenes stolen from Schiller and other writers almost without changing a word, though the arrangement of the plot and situations are masterly and original. A piece of his, called the Tour de Nesle (produced in ), which caused a perfect furore in Paris, led, however, to a more serious charge of plagiarism. In consequence of a duel he was directed to leave France for a time, and set off in July on a tour through 