By the Parnassian laws, it seems to be decreed that an epic poen must have machinery: neither the danger of becoming profane by resorting to sacred images, nor unintelligible by ransacking the stores of Hindû faith, nor wearisome by the school-boy recurrence to the mythology of the Greeks, (which can only be amusive or instructive when its occult meanings are rendered obvious by the torch of science,) can dispense from the observance of this formidable injunction;-our author shall however speak for himself upon this subject, which he appears to have maturely considered: "L'anathème prononcé par Boileau contre la religion chrêtienne comme peu propre à la poème épique, m'a toujours paru injuste et plus digne de l'auteur des Satires que de celui de l'Art Poétique; car il est plus propre à découra ger les poètes qu'à les éclairer sur la route qu'ils doivent suivre. Par la raison même que la mythologie est plus variée, elle me semble moins dramatique et moins épique que la religion véritable. La poésie légère aime la multiplicité des accessoires: mais la haute poésie dont le but est d'élever l'homme au dessus de lui-même, doit préférer l'unité d'une morale touchante et sublime à la variété frivole de quelques ornemens et de quelques allégoires souvent supposées par les commentateurs. Le critique Clément, dans sa septième lettre à Voltaire, donne des apperçus profonds sur l'épopée chretienne, que l'on chercherait en vain dans l'Art Poétique de Boileau. "Sans doute," dit il, "l'intervention de Dieu, des anges et des saints ne doit pas être employée pour égayer nos poésies, comme Homère employait Mars, Junon, Vulcain, Vénus et sa ceinture. Le merveilleux de notre religion qui tend au grand et au sublime ne doit pas être prodigué et ne saurait être employé avec trop de sagesse et de précaution; mais dans notre systême, ainsi que dans celui des anciens, il faut que le merveilleux anime toute l'épopée ; il faut que le poète qui se dit inspiré, et qui doit l'être, soit saisi, pour ainsi dire, de l'esprit divin comme les anciens prophètes; qu'il lise dans le ciel les décrets de la Providence; qu'il voie la chaîne qui lie les evènements de ce monde à la volonté divine, et les hommes conduits et dirigés par les agents surnaturels. L'action entière du poème doit être liée au merveilleux; que le ciel veuille et que les hommes se conduisent selon cette volonté. Du commencement jusqu'à sa fin, on doit voir les agents surnaturels donner l'impulsion aux acteurs et toujours l'homme sous la main de Dieu." Pref. p. xiii. The selection of such a sensible passage as the preceding extract, leads us to augur well of the piety and good moral taste of the writer of Charlemagne, not forgetting, however, the wide difference between the tact which discriminates excellence and the genius which creates it. The stanza chosen, we believe we may say invented, for the poem under our consideration, does not appear to us to possess any peculiar advantages, but for a long composition it is perhaps preferable to what is termed in English heroic measure. A short, but rather intricate detail of the state of the continent of Europe during the eighth century, and anterior to the commencement of the action of the piece, is prefixed to the poem. The hero, Charlemagne, does not appear to us in a very engaging or respectable point of view, since he is represented to have been drawn in to marry the daughter of Didier, King of the Lombards, although he was already provided with an unexceptionable wife of his own choice, in order that he might assist the attacks of his heretical father-in law, against the see of Rome, and the orthodox Christian princes. Charlemagne, having been left by his father and predecessor King Pepin, (of whom the readers of this poem must learn to speak with respect,) joint heir with his brother Carloman to the throne of France, takes an early opportunity of quarrelling with his co-partner in authority, who survives the displeasure of a powerful rival about as long as might have been expected in those barbarous ages, and the widow and her two sons, proscribed by the usurper, find a refuge at the holy see. We will not crowd our pages with the obscure titles of all the infe rior agents who are mentioned in the preliminary exposé, but commence our analysis of the first Canto. The time is fixed for the beginning of September, and comprehends six days, but the year is not specified. The argument runs thus: ARGUMENT. Réunion des Lombards et des Grecs sous les murs de Spoléte. Sacrilége de Spléte; fuite des catholiques vers Rome. L'Eglise de St. Pierre; tapisseries sacrées; cérémonies des cendres, le Paradis: oracle. We present our readers with the narrative of the murder of Vilfrid, Bishop of Spoletum, a passage highly interesting, and capable of being insulated from the body of the poem, without sustaining injury from want of connexion with preceding details. "Vilfrid sacrifiait au milieu des latins. Son front est prosterné devant le sanctuaire ; C'est l'image du Christ souffrant pour les mortels, Ils s'approchaient déjà de la marche sacrée ; "Quel horrible spectacle offrez-vous à mes yeux ? Dit alors le pasteur d'une voix inspirée; Son front calme et sévère, et ses cheveux blanchis, This description does not suffer by a comparison with the forci ble entry of the Gauls among the conscript Fathers. Our limits do not allow us to insert two stanzas descriptive of the vacillations of the minds of the soldiery, between pity, reverence, and ferocity; the latter of which prevails, and the venerable prelate expires with peace and forgiveness on his lips. It may, perhaps, be expedient to remind some of our readers, that at the period of history at which the action of the poem begins, there prevailed in Constantinople a fanatical sect, known by the title of Iconoclasts, or breakers of images. They looked upon the representation of our Saviour upon the cross as an abomination: such were the assassins of Vilfrid. In the second Canto, which begins at the close of the seventh day, we find ourselves at Paris, at a splendid fete given by the royal lover in honor of his bride Armélie, alias Hermengarde, alias Berthe, alias Désidérade, for we learn from the Notes that the lady was entitled to all these names; and we have the opportunity of renewing our acquaintance with our former sovereign Egbert, of whose abolition of the Heptarchy honorable mention is made by Lucien; and also with the celebrated Orlando, who appears as mad, and as heroic, as in the amusing pages of Ariosto, and is by far the most interesting figure upon the canvas. He espouses warmly the cause of the repudiated queen, and of course makes himself many enemies among the admirers of the reigning goddess of Charlemagne's idolatry. In the Third Canto we touch upon holy ground; the argument fearlessly announces, "Cantique des tribus célestes. Les douze disciples. Message d'Elie. Cloître du mont Cassin." The peculiar tenets of the Popish faith are clearly discernible in many passages, and especially in the high station and influence allotted to the Virgin Mary. The sacrilege of Didier is engraved upon the eternal records, and the prophet Elias chosen the messenger from heaven, to touch and turn the heart of Charlemagne. So far all is well; but how shall we translate the description of the attire of the sainted messenger. "La laine à plis épais forme ses vêtemens, Surely this minute detail of the woollen garb of the embodied spirit is in very bad taste; the dress of heroic personages in a poem should be what it is in a first-rate historical picture, drapery and nothing but drapery; any accurate discrimination of the quality of the stuff destroys the sublimity of the general effect. The Fourth Canto begins with the night of the seventh day, and opens with some very fine imagery. Charlemagne, touched with compunction at his adulterous league with the enemies of his faith, determines on visiting the tombs of his ancestors, a pious observance which he had long neglected. He found that "L'herbe du péristile a couvert les degrés, Semble lui reprocher son long éloignement. Can. IV. p. 99, viii. The holy Adelard finds the king in these pious dispositions, and the royal penitent abjures his errors with all the enthusiasm of a heart made for virtue, and led away by ardent passions. The party of Armelia nevertheless continues strong; but the loyal and generous Orlando lends of course the prowess of his arm to the support of the injured queen, whose partizans are aided by the lover of the young Emma, daughter to Charlemagne and Adelinde, and who is introduced to the notice of the reader in some very pretty lines. The Fifth Canto. takes in the time from the eighth to the tenth day, and relates the Derniers efforts d'Armélie: incertitudes de Charlemagne triomphe de L'Hymen adieux d'Armélie. Le dloitre d'Adelinde. The adieus of guilty lovers are sometimes highly pathetic; witness the parting of Margaret, queen to Henry the Sixth, and her paramour the Duke of Suffolk, as given by Shakespeare. But our author, who, to do him justice, never loses sight of la haute morale, has taken care not to make his usurping beauty too interesting: a lady who presumptuously raises to heaven, "Des regards enflammés de haine et de vengeance," Cán. V. p. 136, xxx. excites little sympathy for her sorrows. Some traits of nature, however, awaken pity, when she bewails her inconstancy to her first love, Rodamir, the son of Vitikind, Can. V. p. 137, xxxIII. Adelinde is re-instated on the throne of France, and in the heart NO. I. Aug. Rev. VOL. I. B of Charlemagne, whose wanderings she forgives as good wives must do when they can. Charlemagne is all tenderness and devotion; and, with what may appear to the peaceable followers of the gospel, a monstrous anomaly of images and feelings, takes up the sword and shield, and undertakes, in the name of God, a war of extermination against the enemies of the Holy See. Argument of the Sixth Canto:-Tardes délivrée par Roland. Fuite des Maures. Trahison de Théodebert duc de Gascogne. Songe de Rémistan. Vallée de Roncevaux. In this warlike Canto, Stanza XLV. p. 169, describes the missile warfare, and stones and rocky fragments, to which Ruggiero, Orlando, Oliver, and the rest of the noble Paladins, are exposed in the pass of the Pyrenees. These brothers in arms at last perish together in the Valley of Roncevalles. The argument of the seventh canto announces the Conseil des chefs alliés. Chaumière des laboureurs. Départ de Laurence et de ses fils. Jonction de Didier et d'Ezelin. Ármelia, sent back to her father, who is more intent upon avenging the affront offered to his house, than on consoling her sorrows, finds a champion in her former lover, the paladin Rodamir, who promises to her vengeance the head of Charlemagne. The eighth canto extends in point of time from the thirty-sixth to the thirty-ninth day, and advances the history by the following steps. Propositions de paix repoussées par les Lombards. Marche des Français. Dénombrement des preux. Solitaire du mont Jove. Passage et combat des Alpes. The opening possesses a considerable degree of descriptive merit. The principal part of this division of the poem is occupied by a catalogue raisonnée of the chiefs who fight under the banners of Charlemagne. The ninth canto begins the thirty-ninth day, and bears for its argument merely this tremendous word, L'Enfer. As might have been expected, the finest traits in this canto are drawn directly from the source of the Inspired Writings; it is not however disfigured by the jumble of sacred and profane story, which disgraces the Divina Commedia of Dante; the historical details present salutary warnings, and the punishment of Judas is not more disgusting than the fiero pasto of Ugolino, who makes his eternal dinner off the reeking head of his persecutor! We are glad ❝ evadere ad auras," and to be conducted from Hell, by the tenth canto, into La forêt d'Eresbourg. Le culte d'Irmensul. Les captifs suèves à l'autel des druides. Some critics might object to the following lines, their plagiarism of Milton, but we must in charity observe that it would have been very difficult to avoid it. |