Page:French Poets and Novelists.djvu/62

Rh here. He had, of course, his likes and dislikes; and, as the poet of the luxuries of life, he naturally preferred those paternal governments which pay heavy subventions to opera-houses, order palace frescos by the half-mile, and maintain various picturesque sinecures. He was sensuously a conservative; although, after all, as an observer and describer, he was the frankest of democrats. He had a glance for everything and a phrase for everything on the broad earth, and all that he asked of an object, as a source of inspiration, was that it should have length, breadth and colour. Much of Gautier's poetry is of the same period as "Mademoiselle de Maupin," and some of it of the same quality; notably the frantically picturesque legend of "Albertus," written in the author's twenty-first year, and full of the germs of his later flexibility of diction. "Émaux et Camées," the second volume of his collected verses, contains, evidently, his poetic bequest. In this chosen series every poem is a masterpiece; it has received the author's latest and fondest care; all, as the title indicates, is goldsmiths' work. In Gautier's estimation, evidently, these exquisite little pieces are the finest distillation of his talent; not one of them but ought to have outweighed a dozen Academic blackballs. Gautier's best verse is neither sentimental, satirical, narrative, nor even lyrical. It is always