covered, for an instant, all his wonted elastic- | courtesan, with the fantastic and half-crazed ity, dashing gallantly and almost naked into "Hernani," joint productions of Hugo's drathe deadly strife, and turning the tide of matic muse, the latter written in eight, the battle by such deeds as alone can speak home former in twenty-seven days' time. These, to the breasts of the fatalist Mussulmen. with Alfred de Vigny's almost literal transA picture commemorative of the scene was lation of "Othello," were the startling foreto be painted by Gorodet, wherein the gene- runners of the portentous change contemral was to figure as the leading character, plated in the hitherto tame and classic drama and with all the pictorial deference due to of France, by these bold disciples of the his complexion and athletic form. The pic- English Shakspeare, the man who, in Dumas's ture was painted; the terrific game of revolt, reckless language," has next to God created with its rush, and shock, and bloodshed, was most largely." The temperament of Dumas, admirably simulated, but with a shameless savoring so remarkably of those well-fed violation of historic truth, General Dumas conditions advocated by Cassius in his first was omitted—at whose intimation or request memorable dialogue with Brutus, enabled it is by no means difficult to divine. The him to take as well as keep the lead in the republican general (thus is Dumas, senior, dramatic race; while certain ungallant ferocever designated by his dutiful son) hence- ities evinced in his flirtings with the historical forth stood aloof, sharing in none of the muse, and summed up in the following coarse glories of the imperial campaigns. The truth and brutal apology: Qu'il est toujours peris, he remained unemployed and unpensioned, mis de violer l'histoire pourvu qu'on lui fasse maugre his early services to the state; thus un enfant, at once supply us with a key to maintaining, perforce, no doubt, those pre- his peculiar process, as well as mode of suctensions to unflinching republicanism on cess. His sentiments on poetical training, as which his son dwells with such ostentation, drawn out in connection with the humorous and to which, ever and anon, even he lays portrait of one of his fellow-laborers in the such ludicrous claims. Thus descended and romantic vineyard, are too preciously sugorganized, blessed, that is, with a constitu- gestive to be omitted in so personal a sketch tion and animal spirits which have fallen to as this. "De Vigny," says Dumas, in the the lot of few writers, Dumas's first and ear- 14th volume of his " Memoirs," date of remliest feat was the high dramatic position he iniscence, 1829, "had not much imaginawon by his historical drama of "Henri III.," tion, but great correctness of style. He was performed on the 13th February, 1829, on known by the romance of Cinq Mars,' the highest stage in Paris, and in presence which would have met with slender success, of his patron, the Duke of Orleans, with if it appeared now, but which, at that time a whole knot of diplomatists and titled of literary dearth, had great vogue. Bepersonages. Up to this date, and for a year sides Cinq Mars,' De Vigny had written or two longer, Dumas held the very subor- delightful little poems, five or six, among dinate situation of copying clerk in the office which Eloa' and 'Dolorida.' In short he of the Palais Royal, a situation to which he had just published a very moving elegy on had been preferred by reason of an excellent two hapless youths who had committed suihandwriting, which, in the language of Ham- cide at Montmorency, within earshot of the let, did him most yeomanly service, the ball music. De Vigny was a singular man, more so, as he then had no other staff or polite, affable, affecting the most complete reed to lean upon for support, being burden- immateriality, which was in perfect harmony ed with a mother, but poorly bred, and most with his charming, small-featured, and intelimperfectly educated. His triumph on the lectual face, and head of curling fair hair. first stage, the Theatre Français, was shortly De Vigny never touched the ground but after repeated on the second, the Theatre de when absolutely necessary; when his wings l'Odéon; while the sale of the manuscript were folded, and he happened to take his of "Henri III." for six thousand francs, and stand on the craggy peak of some mountain, that of "Christine" for twelve thousand, nat- it was a piece of condescension on his part urally struck our adventurous dramatist as towards humanity. What particularly surtwo very remarkable achievements. The prised Hugo and myself was, that Vigny banner of the romantic host now flutters in seemed not in the slightest degree subthe breeze, and bore, within a few months ject to those coarse necessities of our naafter, the additional emblazonments of "Mar- ture which certain amongst us (Hugo and ion Delorme," the first of the lamentable myself were among these) satisfied not series of dithyrambic plays in honor of the merely without shame, but even with a certain sensuality. ed it to the poet, with a bon pour l'exécution. None of us had ever detected De Vigny at table. Dorval, who for seven years of his life had spent several hours a-day in his company, confessed to us, with an astonishment almost bordering on terror, that he had never seen him eat any thing but a radish!" Dumas's visible preference of the showy or slapdash process, so perfectly in unison with his instincts, is so cleverly worded in the onslaught he makes on Casimir Delavigne as a successful poet and dramatist, that we can not forbear giving the passage almost in extenso. It is has a subsidiary value besides, being, like the preceding quotation, indirectly illustrative of our author's constitutional creed in all questions of literary power or produce. "I knew C. Delavigne well as a man, and have studied him a good deal as a poet. I never felt much admiration for the poet, though I entertained the highest esteem for the man. As an individual, and barring indisputable and undisputed literary honesty, C. Delavigny was a man of mild, nay, polite address. His head, much too large for his small person, struck one as disagreeable at first sight; though his large forehead, intelligent eyes, and the benevolent expression about his mouth, soon obliterated first impressions. Though a man of much wit, he was of those whose wit flows only pen in hand. His conversation, gentle and affectionate, was tepid and colorless; as he had nothing grand about his gestures, nothing powerful in the tones of his voice, so he was deficient in power and grandeur of language. Standing in a drawing room, he attracted no attention; to have noticed him at all, one would have required to know he was C. Delavigne. One of his special characteristics, and in our opinion a most unfortunate one, was his submission to the ideas of others, which could only proceed from want of confidence in his own. He had (rather a strange fact) created round him a sort of Admonition Office, or Checking Committee, whose business it was to see that his imagination should not go astray! a somewhat superfluous precaution, as Delavigne's fancy stood more in need of the spur than the bridle. The consequence of such dereliction of his own will was, that Delavigne, when his talent was in all its strength, and his fame at its highest, could venture on nothing either of or by himself. The idea hatched in his brain was submitted to the committee before assuming either shape or plan. The plan again, when terminated, was "La pile de Volta, ce minerai qu'on a second time laid before the committee, which trouve dans les entrailles de la terre !" This commented, discussed, corrected, and return-blundering excess of information, Buloz | states, he had the singular good fortune to dear a gem, too costly a pearl, to be won or disparagers could perform the like? The 1855.] ALEXANDER DUMAS. seem to cloy the appetite of his admirable guests. Page upon page, volume upon volume of his memoirs appear, and are swallowed like savory morsels. It is true, the culinary artist spares neither sauce nor condiment; and when the pieces de resistance, namely, his own joints, hot or cold, threaten to become either too tough for public mastication, or too stale for the public nostrils, he throws in a variety of sweet-smelling hors d'œuvre, in the shape of made dishes from Byron, or Scott, or Goethe, with a world of garnish in the way of flourishing table-talk, concerning battles, campaigns, revolutions, adventures, and hairbreadth escapes by flood or field, all tending to his own honor and personal glorification; for, be it remarked, Dumas, deeming himself a model of a man, thinks, with Terence, that nothing human he may choose to introduce into his memoirs, however remotely connected with himself, can be styled irrelevant. Nevertheless, in the midst of much that is utterly vapid in these memoirs, there is much also of life, and The portraits of his bustle, and movement. early literary contemporaries, those at least dashed off at a sitting-we except the frothy attempts at apotheosis in the case of romantic associates are sometimes graceful, often humorous, always captivating. His indiscretions are not at all times of a very enor mous nature, unless, indeed, he shows up His own idiosyncrasy peculiarities of others. is best gathered from the general tone of the narrative, and from his braggadocio habits of thought and expression, rather than from any real wish to initiate bis reader into the more offensive arcana of his physical or moral experiences when these are decidedly nauseous, the author drops a speaking hint, etches a tell-tale line, and the intelligent reader, whether suffused with shame or pale with disgust, can still fancy he detects, despite the affectedly abrupt retreat, the consequential delinquent's thick-lipped smile of complacency. Dumas is eminently an improvisatore. From the most chance medley of dates, from the most insignificant face, the most unmeaning character, he can extemporise reminiscenses, extract colors for his pållet, matter for his page, and amusement for Death itself can neither shroud nor shield its victim. He invades the silence of the tomb, evokes the sullen or consenting shade, extorts or exorcises his secret, and again remands him to his frightful durance. The painter or the engraver Johannot, we know not which (both brothers are now deceased), was the first of our contemporary VOL. XXXIV.—NO. III. his reader. the 353 dead to instance this resurrectional faculty. It is an observation of Franklin's, 23 terous in honor of those who have won the palm of political martyrdom. Not that he ever attempts publicly to advocate their opinions. This, he well knows, would be overshooting the mark, as it would be immediately followed by an official call for silence, from a quarter his promptly quiescent submission to which would be but a lamentable index of the nature of his status, and the value of his personal utterings. He has, therefore, recourse to rhetorical fence; and, as he is not unskilled in the art of playing off politics for sentiment, so he very naturally, when necessary, reverses the process, playing off sentiment for politics. Thus, by indulging in the loudest of pæans possible, whenever the name of the exiled poet Hugo crosses his pen, he maintains with the most perfect impunity as regards the powers in being his swashbuckler look, while in the case of his banished friend he evinces the greatest generosity, showing how firm and unshaken he can be in all his attachments. This, in the eyes of the undiscerning, ever in the majority, enables him to assume a rather becoming attitude, on the graces of which he can afford to speculate, for the time being, with tolerable decency. Should the tide of democracy once more rise, such devotedness empowers him to take it at its very first swell, and ride majestically into port with the air of one whose political party is again in the ascendant. From Tait's Magazine. THE JEWISH SUBJECTS OF THE CZAR. MUCH interest was awakened, a short time ago, by an account in the daily papers of a visit paid by Sir Moses Montefiore to what were called his Russian co-religionists among the prisoners of war brought home by our ships. The interest felt would no doubt have been greater still, had the history of the Jewish communities to which these individuals belong been better known. This history, in a consecutive form and in a philosophical spirit, remains to be written; but in the meanwhile a few jottings relative to the past and present condition of the Jews among whom Russia recruits her fleets and her armies, may prove acceptable. lowed to sojourn for any length of time in Russia proper; and it was not until Poland was brought under subjection to the Russian Tzars, that the latter ever counted any Jewish communities among their subjects. Poland, on the contrary, may be considered the home of the Jews in Europe; for in that country their numbers amount to that of a nation, and they hold a position which, however degraded it be, gives them a certain weight in the State, and could under present circumstances be filled by no other class. In every town throughout the countries which once constituted the independent kingdom of Poland, all handicrafts, with the exception of The indiscriminate application of the name that of the smith and the carpenter, all of Russian to the various peoples under the branches of trade, be it en gros or en détail, dominion of the Tzar, is one among the many are in the hands of the Jews; and no busiindications of how imperfect a knowledge we ness, be it of the most important or the most have hitherto had of the true constitution of insignificant nature, can be transacted without the colossal empire with which we are at their aid. Through the mediation of a Jew present engaged in so close a struggle. In the nobleman sells the corn grown on his no case is the denomination more inapplicable estate to the skipper who exports it; and than in that of the Israelites who live under through the mediation of a Jew the serf the sceptre of the Tzars, but who have never sells his pigs and his fowls to the consumer been tolerated on Russian soil. From the in the town. Through the mediation of a early times this people was denied the right Jew the upper classes engage their servants, of establishing themselves in the Russian and sometimes even the tutors and governdominions, and to this day they are not al- esses for their children; and through the |