By Victor Hugo

1888

CONTENTS

ORIGINAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

MEMOIR OF VICTOR MARIE HUGO.

EARLY POEMS.

ENVY AND AVARICE.

ODES.—1818-28.

KING LOUIS XVII.

THE FEAST OF FREEDOM.

TO YE KINGS.

GENIUS.

THE GIRL OF OTAHEITE.

NERO'S INCENDIARY SONG.

REGRET.

THE MORNING OF LIFE.

BELOVED NAME.

THE PORTRAIT OF A CHILD.

BALLADES.—1823-28.

THE GRANDMOTHER

THE GIANT IN GLEE.

THE CYMBALEER'S BRIDE.

BATTLE OF THE NORSEMEN AND THE GAELS.

MADELAINE.

THE FAY AND THE PERI.

THE PERI.

LES ORIENTALES.—1829.

THE SCOURGE OF HEAVEN.

PIRATES' SONG.

THE TURKISH CAPTIVE.

MOONLIGHT ON THE BOSPHORUS.

THE VEIL.

THE SISTER

THE FAVORITE SULTANA.

THE PASHA AND THE DERVISH.

THE LOST BATTLE.

THE GREEK BOY.

ZARA, THE BATHER

EXPECTATION.

THE LOVER'S WISH.

THE SACKING OF THE CITY.

NOORMAHAL THE FAIR.{1}

THE DJINNS.

THE OBDURATE BEAUTY.

DON RODRIGO.

CORNFLOWERS.

MAZEPPA.

THE DANUBE IN WRATH.

OLD OCEAN.

MY NAPOLEON.

LES FEUILLES D'AUTOMNE.—1831.

THE PATIENCE OF THE PEOPLE.

DICTATED BEFORE THE RHONE GLACIER.

THE POET'S LOVE FOR LIVELINESS.

INFANTILE INFLUENCE.

THE WATCHING ANGEL.

SUNSET.

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

II.

LES CHANTS DU CRÉPUSCULE.—1849.

PRELUDE TO "THE SONGS OF TWILIGHT."

THE LAND OF FABLE.

THE THREE GLORIOUS DAYS.

TRIBUTE TO THE VANQUISHED.

ANGEL OR DEMON.

THE ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS.

MARRIAGE AND FEASTS.

THE MORROW OF GRANDEUR.

THE EAGLET MOURNED.

INVOCATION.

OUTSIDE THE BALL-ROOM.

PRAYER FOR FRANCE.

TO CANARIS, THE GREEK PATRIOT.

POLAND.

INSULT NOT THE FALLEN.

MORNING.

SONG OF LOVE.

SWEET CHARMER.{1}

MORE STRONG THAN TIME.

ROSES AND BUTTERFLIES.

THE POET TO HIS WIFE.

LES VOIX INTÉRIEURES.—1840.

THE BLINDED BOURBONS.

TO ALBERT DÜRER.

TO HIS MUSE.

THE COW.

MOTHERS.

TO SOME BIRDS FLOWN AWAY.

MY THOUGHTS OF YE.

THE BEACON IN THE STORM.

LOVE'S TREACHEROUS POOL

THE ROSE AND THE GRAVE.

LES RAYONS ET LES OMBRES.—1840.

HOLYROOD PALACE.

THE HUMBLE HOME.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

STILL BE A CHILD.

THE POOL AND THE SOUL.

YE MARINERS WHO SPREAD YOUR SAILS.

ON A FLEMISH WINDOW-PANE.

THE PRECEPTOR.

GASTIBELZA.

GUITAR SONG.

COME WHEN I SLEEP.

EARLY LOVE REVISITED.

SWEET MEMORY OF LOVE.

THE MARBLE FAUN.

BABY'S SEASIDE GRAVE.

LES CHÂTIMENTS.—1853.

INDIGNATION!

IMPERIAL REVELS.

POOR LITTLE CHILDREN.

APOSTROPHE TO NATURE.

NAPOLEON "THE LITTLE."

FACT OR FABLE?

NO ASSASSINATION.

THE DESPATCH OF THE DOOM.

THE SEAMAN'S SONG.

THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW.

THE OCEAN'S SONG.

THE TRUMPETS OF THE MIND.

AFTER THE COUP D'ÊTAT.

PATRIA.{1}

THE UNIVERSAL REPUBLIC.

LES CONTEMPLATIONS.—1830-56.

THE VALE TO YOU, TO ME THE HEIGHTS.

CHILDHOOD.

SATIRE ON THE EARTH.

HOW BUTTERFLIES ARE BORN.

HAVE YOU NOTHING TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?

INSCRIPTION FOR A CRUCIFIX.{1}

DEATH, IN LIFE.

THE DYING CHILD TO ITS MOTHER.

EPITAPH.

ST. JOHN.

THE POET'S SIMPLE FAITH.

LA LÉGENDE DES SIÈCLES.

CAIN.

BOAZ ASLEEP.

SONG OF THE GERMAN LANZKNECHT

KING CANUTE.

II.

THE BOY-KING'S PRAYER.

EVIRADNUS.

THE SOUDAN, THE SPHINXES, THE CUP, THE LAMP.

SEA-ADVENTURERS' SONG.

THE SWISS MERCENARIES.

THE CUP ON THE BATTLE-FIELD.

HOW GOOD ARE THE POOR.

LA VOIX DE GUERNESEY.

MENTANA. {1}

LES CHANSONS DES RUES ET DES BOIS.

LOVE OF THE WOODLAND.

SHOOTING STARS.

L'ANNÉE TERRIBLE.

TO LITTLE JEANNE.

TO A SICK CHILD DURING THE SIEGE OF PARIS.

THE CARRIER PIGEON.

TOYS AND TRAGEDY.

MOURNING.

THE LESSON OF THE PATRIOT DEAD.

THE BOY ON THE BARRICADE.

TO HIS ORPHAN GRANDCHILDREN.

TO THE CANNON "VICTOR HUGO."

L'ART D'ÊTRE GRANDPÈRE.

THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR.

THE EPIC OF THE LION.

LES QUATRE VENTS DE L'ESPRIT.

ON HEARING THE PRINCESS ROYAL{1} SING.

MY HAPPIEST DREAM.

AN OLD-TIME LAY.

JERSEY.

THEN, MOST, I SMILE.

THE EXILE'S DESIRE.

THE REFUGEE'S HAVEN.

VARIOUS PIECES.

TO THE NAPOLEON COLUMN.

CHARITY.

SWEET SISTER.

THE PITY OF THE ANGELS.

THE SOWER.

OH, WHY NOT BE HAPPY?{1}

FREEDOM AND THE WORLD.

SERENADE.

AN AUTUMNAL SIMILE.

TO CRUEL OCEAN.

ESMERALDA IN PRISON.

LOVER'S SONG.

LORD ROCHESTER'S SONG.

THE BEGGAR'S QUATRAIN.

THE QUIET RURAL CHURCH.

DRAMATIC PIECES.

THE FATHER'S CURSE.

PATERNAL LOVE.

THE DEGENERATE GALLANTS.

THE OLD AND THE YOUNG BRIDEGROOM.

THE SPANISH LADY'S LOVE.

THE LOVER'S SACRIFICE.

THE OLD MAN'S LOVE.

THE ROLL OF THE DE SILVA RACE.

THE LOVERS' COLLOQUY.

CROMWELL AND THE CROWN.

MILTON'S APPEAL TO CROMWELL.

FIRST LOVE.

THE FIRST BLACK FLAG.

THE SON IN OLD AGE.

THE EMPEROR'S RETURN.

CONTENTS.

Memoir of Victor Marie Hugo

EARLY POEMS.

Moses on the Nile—Dublin University Magazine Envy and Avarice—American Keepsake

ODES.—1818-28.

King Louis XVII—Dublin University Magazine The Feast of Freedom—"Father Prout" (F.S. Mahony) Genius—Mrs. Torre Hulme The Girl of Otaheite—Clement Scott Nero's Incendiary Song—H.J. Williams Regret—Fraser's Magazine The Morning of Life Beloved Name—Caroline Bowles (Mrs. Southey) The Portrait of a Child—Dublin University Magazine

BALLADES.—1823-28.

The Grandmother—"Father Prout" (F.S. Mahony) The Giant in Glee—Foreign Quart. Rev. (adapted) The Cymbaleer's Bride—"Father Prout" (F.S. Mahony) Battle of the Norsemen and the Gaels Madelaine The Fay and the Peri—Asiatic Journal

LES ORIENTALES.—1829

The Scourge of Heaven—I.N. Fazakerley Pirates' Song The Turkish Captive—W.D., Tait's Edisiburgh Mag. Moonlight on the Bosphorus—John L. O'Sullivan The Veil—"Father Prout" (F.S. Mahony) The Favorite Sultana The Pasha and the Dervish The Lost Battle—W.D., Bentley's Miscel., 1839 The Greek Boy Zara, the Bather—John L. O'Sullivan Expectation—John L. O'Sullivan The Lover's Wish—V., Eton Observer The Sacking of the City—John L. O'Sullivan Noormahal the Fair The Djinns—John L. O'Sullivan The Obdurate Beauty—John L. O'Sullivan Don Rodrigo Cornflowers—H.L. Williams Mazeppa—H.L. Williams The Danube in Wrath—Fraser's Magazine Old Ocean—R.C. Ellwood My Napoleon—H.L. Williams

LES FEUILLES D'AUTOMNE.—1831.

The Patience of the People—G.W.M. Reynolds Dictated before the Rhone Glacier—Author of "Critical Essays" The Poet's Love for Liveliness—Fraser's Magazine Infantile Influence—Henry Highton, M.A. The Watching Angel—Foreign Quarterly Review Sunset—Toru Dutt The Universal Prayer—Henry Highton, M.A. The Universal Prayer—C., Tait's Magazine

LES CHANTS DU CRÉPUSCULE.—1849.

Prelude to "The Songs of Twilight"—G.W.M. Reynolds The Land of Fable—G.W.M. Rrynolds The Three Glorious Days—Elizabeth Collins Tribute to the Vanquished—Fraser's Magazine Angel or Demon—Fraser's Magazine The Eruption of Vesuvius—Fraser's Magazine Marriage and Feasts—G.W.M. Reynolds The Morrow of Grandeur—Fraser's Magazine The Eaglet Mourned—Fraser's Magazine Invocation—G.W.M. Reynolds Outside the Ball-room—G.W.M. Reynolds Prayer for France—J.S. Macrae To Canaris, the Greek Patriot—G.W.M. Reynolds Poland—G.W.M. Reynolds Insult not the Fallen—W.C.K. Wilde Morning—W.M. Hardinge Song of Love—Toru Dutt Sweet Charmer—H.B. Farnie More Strong than Time—A. Lang Roses and Butterflies—W.C. Westbrook A Simile—Fanny Kemble-Butler The Poet to his Wife

LES VOIX INTÉRIEURES.—1840.

The Blinded Bourbons—Fraser's Magazine To Albert Dürer—Mrs. Newton Crosland To his Muse—Fraser's Magazine The Cow—Toru Dutt Mothers—Dublin University Magazine To some Birds Flown away—Mrs. Newton Crosland My Thoughts of Ye—Dublin University Magazine The Beacon in the Storm Love's Treacherous Pool The Rose and the Grave—A. Lang

LES RAYONS ET LES OMBRES.—1840.

Holyrood Palace—Fraser's Magazine The Humble Home—Author of "Critical Essays" The Eighteenth Century—Author of "Critical Essays" Still be a Child—Dublin University Magazine The Pool and the Soul—R.F. Hodgson Ye Mariners who Spread your Sails—Author of "Critical Essays" On a Flemish Window-Pane—Fraser's Magazine The Preceptor—E.E. Frewer Gastibelza—H.L. Williams Guitar Song—Evelyn Jerrold Come when I Sleep—Wm. W. Tomlinson Early Love Revisited—Author of "Critical Essays" Sweet Memory of Love—Author of "Critical Essays" The Marble Faun—William Young A Love for Winged Things Baby's Seaside Grave

LES CHÂTIMENTS.—1853.

Indignation! Imperial Revels—H.L.W. Poor Little Children Apostrophe to Nature Napoleon "The Little" Fact or Fable—H.L.W. A Lament—Edwin Arnold, C.S.I. No Assassination The Despatch of the Doom The Seaman's Song The Retreat from Moscow—Toru Dutt The Ocean's Song—Toru Dutt The Trumpets of the Mind—Toru Dutt After the Coup d'État—Toru Dutt Patria The Universal Republic

LES CONTEMPLATIONS.—1830-56.

The Vale to You, to Me the Heights—H.L.W Childhood—Nelson R. Tyerman Satire on the Earth How Butterflies are Born—A. Lang Have You Nothing to Say for Yourself?—C.H. Kenny Inscription for a Crucifix Death, in Life The Dying Child to its Mother—Bp. Alexander Epitaph—Nelson R. Tyerman St. John—Nelson R. Tyerman The Poet's Simple Faith—Prof. E. Dowden I am Content

LA LÉGENDE DES SIÈCLES.

Cain—Dublin University Magazine Boaz Asleep—Bp. Alexander Song of the German Lanzknecht—H.L.W. King Canute—R. Garnett King Canute—Dublin University Magazine The Boy-King's Prayer—Dublin University Magazine Eviradnus—Mrs. Newton Crosland The Soudan, the Sphinxes, the Cup, the Lamp—Bp. Alexander A Queen Five Summers Old—Bp. Alexander Sea Adventurers' Song The Swiss Mercenaries—Bp. Alexander The Cup on the Battle-Field—Toru Dutt How Good are the Poor—Bp. Alexander

LA VOIX DE GUERNESEY.

Mentana—Edwin Arnold, C.S.I.

LES CHANSONS DES RUES ET DES BOIS.

Love of the Woodland Shooting Stars

L'ANNÉE TERRIBLE.

To Little Jeanne—Marwaod Tucker To a Sick Child during the Siege of Paris—Lucy H. Hooper The Carrier Pigeon Toys and Tragedy Mourning—Marwood Tucker The Lesson of the Patriot Dead—H.L.W. The Boy on the Barricade—H.L.W. To His Orphan Grandchildren—Marwood Tucker To the Cannon "Victor Hugo"

L'ART D'ÊTRE GRANDPÈRE.

The Children of the Poor—Dublin University Magazine The Epic of the Lion—Edwin Arnold, C.S.I.

LES QUATRE VENTS DE L'ESPRIT.

On Hearing the Princess Royal Sing—Nelson R. Tyerman My Happiest Dream An Old-Time Lay Jersey Then, most, I Smile The Exile's Desire The Refugee's Haven

VARIOUS PIECES.

To the Napoleon Column—Author of "Critical Essays" Charity—Dublin University Magazine Sweet Sister—Mrs. B. Somers The Pity of the Angels The Sower—Toru Dutt Oh, Why not be Happy?—Leopold Wray Freedom and the World Serenade—Henry F. Chorley An Autumnal Simile To Cruel Ocean Esmeralda in Prison Lover's Song—Ernest Oswald Coe A Fleeting Glimpse of a Village—Fraser's Magazine Lord Rochester's Song The Beggar's Quatrain—H.L.C., London Society The Quiet Rural Church A Storm Simile

DRAMATIC PIECES.

The Father's Curse—Fredk. L. Slous Paternal Love—Fanny Kemble-Butler The Degenerate Gallants—Lord F. Leveson Gower The Old and the Young Bridegroom—Charles Sherry The Spanish Lady's Love—C. Moir The Lover's Sacrifice—Lord F. Leveson Gower The Old Man's Love—C. Moir The Roll of the De Silva Race—Lord F. Leveson Gower The Lover's Colloquy—Lord F. Leveson Gower Cromwell and the Crown—Leitch Ritchie Milton's Appeal to Cromwell First Love—Fanny Kemble-Butler The First Black Flag—Democratic Review The Son in Old Age—Foreign Quarterly Review The Emperor's Return—Athenaum

MEMOIR OF VICTOR MARIE HUGO.

Towards the close of the First French Revolution, Joseph Leopold Sigisbert Hugo, son of a joiner at Nancy, and an officer risen from the ranks in the Republican army, married Sophie Trébuchet, daughter of a Nantes fitter-out of privateers, a Vendean royalist and devotee.

Victor Marie Hugo, their second son, was born on the 26th of February, 1802, at Besançon, France. Though a weakling, he was carried, with his boy-brothers, in the train of their father through the south of France, in pursuit of Fra Diavolo, the Italian brigand, and finally into Spain.

Colonel Hugo had become General, and there, besides being governor over three provinces, was Lord High Steward at King Joseph's court, where his eldest son Abel was installed as page. The other two were educated for similar posts among hostile young Spaniards under stern priestly tutors in the Nobles' College at Madrid, a palace become a monastery. Upon the English advance to free Spain of the invaders, the general and Abel remained at bay, whilst the mother and children hastened to Paris.

Again, in a house once a convent, Victor and his brother Eugène were taught by priests until, by the accident of their roof sheltering a comrade of their father's, a change of tutor was afforded them. This was General Lahorie, a man of superior education, main supporter of Malet in his daring plot to take the government into the Republicans' hands during the absence of Napoleon I. in Russia. Lahorie read old French and Latin with Victor till the police scented him out and led him to execution, October, 1812.

School claimed the young Hugos after this tragical episode, where they were oddities among the humdrum tradesmen's sons. Victor, thoughtful and taciturn, rhymed profusely in tragedies, "printing" in his books, "Châteaubriand or nothing!" and engaging his more animated brother to flourish the Cid's sword and roar the tyrant's speeches.

In 1814, both suffered a sympathetic anxiety as their father held out at Thionville against the Allies, finally repulsing them by a sortie. This was pure loyalty to the fallen Bonaparte, for Hugo had lost his all in Spain, his very savings having been sunk in real estate, through King Joseph's insistence on his adherents investing to prove they had "come to stay."

The Bourbons enthroned anew, General Hugo received, less for his neutrality than thanks to his wife's piety and loyalty, confirmation of his title and rank, and, moreover, a fieldmarshalship. Abel was accepted as a page, too, but there was no money awarded the ex-Bonapartist—money being what the Eaglet at Reichstadt most required for an attempt at his father's throne—and the poor officer was left in seclusion to write consolingly about his campaigns and "Defences of Fortified Towns."

Decidedly the pen had superseded the sword, for Victor and Eugène were scribbling away in ephemeral political sheets as apprenticeship to founding a periodical of their own.

Victor's poetry became remarkable in La Muse Française and Le Conservateur Littéraire, the odes being permeated with Legitimist and anti-revolutionary sentiments delightful to the taste of Madam Hugo, member as she was of the courtly Order of the Royal Lily.

In 1817, the French Academy honorably mentioned Victor's "Odes on the Advantages of Study," with a misgiving that some elder hand was masked under the line ascribing "scant fifteen years" to the author. At the Toulouse Floral Games he won prizes two years successively. His critical judgment was sound as well, for he had divined the powers of Lamartine.

His "Odes," collected in a volume, gave his ever-active mother her opportunity at Court. Louis XVIII. granted the boy-poet a pension of 1,500 francs.

It was the windfall for which the youth had been waiting to enable him to gratify his first love. In his childhood, his father and one M. Foucher, head of a War Office Department, had jokingly betrothed a son of the one to a daughter of the other. Abel had loftier views than alliance with a civil servant's child; Eugène was in love elsewhere; but Victor had fallen enamored with Adèle Foucher. It is true, when poverty beclouded the Hugos, the Fouchers had shrunk into their mantle of dignity, and the girl had been strictly forbidden to correspond with her child-sweetheart.

He, finding letters barred out, wrote a love story ("Hans of Iceland") in two weeks, where were recited his hopes, fears, and constancy, and this book she could read.

It pleased the public no less, and its sale, together with that of the "Odes" and a West Indian romance, "Buck Jargal," together with a royal pension, emboldened the poet to renew his love-suit. To refuse the recipient of court funds was not possible to a public functionary. M. Foucher consented to the betrothal in the summer of 1821.

So encloistered had Mdlle. Adèle been, her reading "Hans" the exceptional intrusion, that she only learnt on meeting her affianced that he was mourning his mother. In October, 1822, they were wed, the bride nineteen, the bridegroom but one year the elder. The dinner was marred by the sinister disaster of Eugène Hugo going mad. (He died in an asylum five years later.) The author terminated his wedding year with the "Ode to Louis XVIII.," read to a society after the President of the Academy had introduced him as "the most promising of our young lyrists."

In spite of new poems revealing a Napoleonic bias, Victor was invited to see Charles X. consecrated at Rheims, 29th of May, 1825, and was entered on the roll of the Legion of Honor repaying the favors with the verses expected. But though a son was born to him he was not restored to Conservatism; with his mother's death all that had vanished. His tragedy of "Cromwell" broke lances upon Royalists and upholders of the still reigning style of tragedy. The second collection of "Odes" preluding it, showed the spirit of the son of Napoleon's general, rather than of the Bourbonist field-marshal. On the occasion, too, of the Duke of Tarento being announced at the Austrian Ambassador's ball, February, 1827, as plain "Marshal Macdonald," Victor became the mouthpiece of indignant Bonapartists in his "Ode to the Napoleon Column" in the Place Vendôme.

His "Orientales," though written in a Parisian suburb by one who had not travelled, appealed for Grecian liberty, and depicted sultans and pashas as tyrants, many a line being deemed applicable to personages nearer the Seine than Stamboul.

"Cromwell" was not actable, and "Amy Robsart," in collaboration with his brother-in-law, Foucher, miserably failed, notwithstanding a finale "superior to Scott's 'Kenilworth.'" In one twelvemonth, there was this failure to record, the death of his father from apoplexy at his eldest son's marriage, and the birth of a second son to Victor towards the close.

Still imprudent, the young father again irritated the court with satire in "Marion Delorme" and "Hernani," two plays immediately suppressed by the Censure, all the more active as the Revolution of July, 1830, was surely seething up to the edge of the crater.

(At this juncture, the poet Châteaubriand, fading star to our rising sun, yielded up to him formally "his place at the poets' table.")

In the summer of 1831, a civil ceremony was performed over the insurgents killed in the previous year, and Hugo was constituted poet-laureate of the Revolution by having his hymn sung in the Pantheon over the biers.

Under Louis Philippe, "Marion Delorme" could be played, but livelier attention was turned to "Nôtre Dame de Paris," the historical romance in which Hugo vied with Sir Walter. It was to have been followed by others, but the publisher unfortunately secured a contract to monopolize all the new novelist's prose fictions for a term of years, and the author revenged himself by publishing poems and plays alone. Hence "Nôtre Dame" long stood unique: it was translated in all languages, and plays and operas were founded on it. Heine professed to see in the prominence of the hunchback a personal appeal of the author, who was slightly deformed by one shoulder being a trifle higher than the other; this malicious suggestion reposed also on the fact that the quasi-hero of "Le Roi s'Amuse" (1832, a tragedy suppressed after one representation, for its reflections on royalty), was also a contorted piece of humanity. This play was followed by "Lucrezia Borgia," "Marie Tudor," and "Angelo," written in a singular poetic prose. Spite of bald translations, their action was sufficiently

dramatic to make them successes, and even still enduring on our stage. They have all been arranged as operas, whilst Hugo himself, to oblige the father of Louise Bertin, a magazine publisher of note, wrote "Esmeralda" for her music in 1835.

Thus, at 1837, when he was promoted to an officership in the Legion of Honor, it was acknowledged his due as a laborious worker in all fields of literature, however contestable the merits and tendencies of his essays.