was

covered, for an instant, all his wonted elastic- | courtesan, with the fantast ity, dashing gallantly and almost naked into the deadly strife, and turning the tide of battle by such deeds as alone can speak home to the breasts of the fatalist Mussulmen. A picture commemorative of the scene to be painted by Gorodet, wherein the general was to figure as the leading character, and with all the pictorial deference due to his complexion and athletic form. The picture was painted; the terrific game of revolt, with its rush, and shock, and bloodshed, was admirably simulated, but with a shameless violation of historic truth, General Dumas was omitted-at whose intimation or request it is by no means difficult to divine. The republican general (thus is Dumas, senior, ever designated by his dutiful son) henceforth stood aloof, sharing in none of the glories of the imperial campaigns. The truth is, he remained unemployed and unpensioned, maugre his early services to the state; thus maintaining, perforce, no doubt, those pretensions to unflinching republicanism on which his son dwells with such ostentation, and to which, ever and anon, even he lays such ludicrous claims. Thus descended and organized, blessed, that is, with a constitution and animal spirits which have fallen to the lot of few writers, Dumas's first and earliest feat was the high dramatic position he won by his historical drama of “Henri III.," performed on the 13th February, 1829, on the highest stage in Paris, and in presence of his patron, the Duke of Orleans, with a whole knot of diplomatists and titled personages. Up to this date, and for a year or two longer, Dumas held the very subordinate situation of copying clerk in the office of the Palais Royal, a situation to which he had been preferred by reason of an excellent handwriting, which, in the language of Hamlet, did him most yeomanly service, the more so, as he then had no other staff or reed to lean upon for support, being burdened with a mother, but poorly bred, and most imperfectly educated. His triumph on the first stage, the Theatre Français, was shortly after repeated on the second, the Theatre de❘ l'Odéon; while the sale of the manuscript of "Henri III." for six thousand francs, and that of "Christine" for twelve thousand, naturally struck our adventurous dramatist as two very remarkable achievements. The banner of the romantic host now flutters in the breeze, and bore, within a few months after, the additional emblazonments of " Marion Delorme," the first of the lamentable series of dithyrambic plays in honor of the

Hernani," joint producti matic muse, the latter wri former in twenty-seven da with Alfred de Vigny's al lation of "Othello," were runners of the portentous plated in the hitherto tame of France, by these bold English Shakspeare, the ma reckless language," has ne most largely." The temper savoring so remarkably of conditions advocated by C memorable dialogue with him to take as well as kee dramatic race; while certain ities evinced in his flirtings w muse, and summed up in the and brutal apology: Qu'il mis de violer l'histoire pouri un enfant, at once supply his peculiar process, as well cess. His sentiments on po drawn out in connection wi portrait of one of his fellow romantic vineyard, are too gestive to be omitted in so p as this. "De Vigny," says 14th volume of his "Memoi iniscence, 1829, "had not tion, but great correctness o known by the romance o which would have met with if it appeared now, but wh of literary dearth, had gre sides Cinq Mars,' De Vig delightful little poems, five which Eloa' and Dolorid had just published a very two hapless youths who had cide at Montmorency, within ball music. De Vigny was polite, affable, affecting the immateriality, which was in with his charming, small-fea lectual face, and head of De Vigny never touched when absolutely necessary; were folded, and he happ stand on the craggy peak of it was a piece of condescer towards humanity. What prised Hugo and myself seemed not in the slighte ject to those coarse necess ture which certain amongs myself were among thes merely without shame, b

soon

certain sensuality. None of us had ever ed it to the poet, with a bon pour l'exécution.
detected De Vigny at table. Dorval, who The plan transformed into a play was read,
for seven years of his life had spent several | always in presence of the same assembly;
hours a-day in his company, confessed to us, and one with a pencil, another with scissors,
with an astonishment almost bordering on a third with a compass, a fourth with a ruler,
terror, that he had never seen him eat any set about the work of emasculation, so that
thing but a radish!" Dumas's visible pref- the comedy, drama, or tragedy, was pruned,
erence of the showy or slapdash process, so clipped, and cut on the spot, not according
perfectly in unison with his instincts, is so to the author's notions, but in accordance
cleverly worded in the onslaught he makes with those of Messrs. So-and-so, very con-
on Casimir Delavigne as a successful poet scientious folks, no doubt, all men of note
and dramatist, that we can not forbear giving and wit among themselves, good professors,
the passage almost in extenso. It is has a honest men of science, respectable philolo-
subsidiary value besides, being, like the pre- gists, but sorry poets; who, instead of allow-
ceding quotation, indirectly illustrative of our ing their friend to soar aloft under the influ-
author's constitutional creed in all questions ence of a powerful afflatus, clung desperately
of literary power or produce. "I knew C. to his legs, lest he should take his flight into
Delavigne well as a man, and have studied regions beyond the ken of their purblind
him a good deal as a poet. I never felt much vision." Were our author's statements at all
admiration for the poet, though I entertained times trustworthy, it would be no uninterest-
the highest esteem for the man. As an in- ing study to mark the dawn of his own
dividual, and barring indisputable and undis- expanding intellect, to witness, above all, by
puted literary honesty, C. Delavigny was a what obstinate and persevering labor he con-
man of mild, nay, polite address. His head, trived to break through all but the Cimme-
much too large for his small person, struck rian ignorance under which, even by his own
one as disagreeable at first sight; though his avowal, he suffered at the outset. Here,
large forehead, intelligent eyes, and the ben- however, we are compelled to think, from
evolent expression about his mouth, what we know of his mental tendencies, and
obliterated first impressions. Though a man despite his ever-recurring assertion on the
of much wit, he was of those whose wit flows question of deep and sustained application,
only pen in hand. His conversation, gentle that his studies were pursued for the nonce,
and affectionate, was tepid and colorless; as and that his acquirements, be they of what
he had nothing grand about his gestures, seeming order or magnitude they might,
nothing powerful in the tones of his voice, so he sometimes fell short of, though they also
was deficient in power and grandeur of lan- occasionally outstripped, the exigencies of the
guage. Standing in a drawing room, he moment. Of this latter assertion we possess
attracted no attention; to have noticed him a rather burlesque confirmation, furnished by
at all, one would have required to know he a late courteous passage-at-arms between our
was C. Delavigne. One of his special char- dramatist and the respectable editor of that
acteristics, and in our opinion a most unfor- widely-known periodical, La Revue des du
tunate one, was his submission to the ideas Mondes. At a period when Dumas was still
of others, which could only proceed from thought a literary chieftain, and while his
want of confidence in his own. He had
name yet enjoyed that share of literary influ-
(rather a strange fact) created round him a ence it has since so justly forfeited, M. Buloz,
sort of Admonition Office, or Checking Com- (the name of the above-mentioned editor,)
mittee, whose business it was to see that his aware of that gentleman's ready and un-
imagination should not go astray! a some- questioned powers of handling, supplied him
what superfluous precaution, as Delavigne's with certain learned notes on Palestine, re-
fancy stood more in need of the spur than questing he would therefrom gather and get
the bridle. The consequence of such derelic-up for his review a series of attractive and
tion of his own will was, that Delavigne, | interesting articles, by the title of "Impress-
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
a second time laid before the committee, which

ions de Voyage au Sinai." This our author set about digesting with his usual celerity, sending in, among other imprimatur proofsheets, one containing rather a novel piece of information, couched in the following terms:

"La pile de Volta, ce minerai qu'on trouve dans les entrailles de la terre!" This

rance.

dear a gem, too costly a worn by one in a hurry splendor. Not Falstaff's for sack were more insu climbing the heights of mas's love of opulence an his breasting the steeps cordingly we see him sto surer quarry-the place caterer for the pleasure The situation was vacan functions at once, and en fold duties of the office v cility, and fertility of res paralleled. It is true the nay, even contemners of then? The official snappe face of the hypercritical braggart air, challenged conclusions. He could b up a five act play in less while thus employed, eat sleep, besides supplying papers with feuilletons, ha

states, he had the singular good fortune to remark in time, and kindly erase, in expectation of the writer's everlasting gratitude. To the editor's unmitigated surprise, M. Dumas, instead of testifying thankfulness for such timely interference, warmly protested against the irreparable injury done to bis mineralogical discovery-so amazingly and so amus ingly did he, Dumas, ignore even the existence of the naturalist Volta; so ingeniously did he expound, or rather impound, that philosopher's pile or galvanic battery! When reminded by Buloz, in a late angry discussion, of this most unlucky trespass on the domains of science, Dumas indignantly repelled the charge, as far as the obnoxious fact was concerned, though he had no hesitation in admitting the general reproach of uncommon ignoThe admission had its advantages; what it took from the extent of his information, it added to that of his intellect; thereby superinducing among groundlings the flattering belief, that if Dumas stood so high in the rolls of fame, the secret must lie, not in the nature of things, but in the independent qual-ing, to order. Which of ities of his indomitable personality. The disparagers could perform seven or eight hundred volumes which bear office had its disagreeabl his name attest the wonderful fact, that, as greeables involving the tw some men eat and drink, so does Alexandre kindred and cognate facu Dumas write; nay, they may be adduced as buffoon. What then? an argument in favor of velocity being as heart and soul to the pe much a criterion of power in the sphere of ple's cause? And where mind, as steam in that of mechanics. This ness, if not in self debasen celerity, however, this most agile skimming the idol? But let this se of the streams of fiction, says but little in of the multitude speak fo favor of depth. It may tell magnificently of mount the stage, and exp continuous speed, but it is the speed of the part at least of the paran swallow-sixteen hours on the wing-a pro- office. " Lamartine," says digious exertion of the muscular power, Hugo, a thinker, 1 a vulga unquestionably, but then unfortunately dis- subtle in the dream of t played in the pursuit and capture of flies! which sometimes prevents Dumas must have long since awakened from what is too deep in the th the glorious dreams of excellence which at a depth which prevents its one time allured his aim and animated his I take possession of, I pen. He must be painfully conscious of the give body to the drear grovelling level to which he has brought his give perspicuity to the once aspiring faculties. Yet who will assure other; I serve the publ us of this? Who will assert that the man dish, a dish which from th has any such consciousness, or that the indis- would not, from its exces tinct and occasional glimmerings he has of been sufficiently nutritious his debasement are aught else but so many the second, owing to its dim yet useful lights enabling him to discern would have given the pu more surely the primary and earthly point- which, seasoned and ings of his nature; the better to collect, mass, agrees with the generalit and centre the remains of a once divine affl- weakest as well as the st tus in the pursuit of notoriety, in the gratifi- thus skilful in cooking a cation of necessities whose princely propor- friends for the public dige tions are but a miserable offset to their more eminently so in serving up than plebeian meanness? Originality is too the extent to which he ca

seem to cloy the appetite of his admirable dead to instance this resurrectional faculty. guests. Page upon page, volume upon Dumas accidentally mentions the name, and volume of his memoirs appear, and are swal- straightway feels it incumbent upon him to lowed like savory morsels. It is true, the tell the story of the artist's life. He thereculinary artist spares neither sauce nor con- fore summons him from the regions of shade, diment; and when the pieces de resistance, and, when the first mist naturally attendant namely, his own joints, hot or cold, threaten upon all unearthly visitants has partially to become either too tough for public masti- cleared away, and given the pale face of the cation, or too stale for the public nostrils, he spectre to view, Dumas adjures him to listen throws in a variety of sweet-smelling hors while he, in wizard guise, re-weaves the d'œuvre, in the shape of made dishes from chequered web of his destiny. The spectre Byron, or Scott, or Goethe, with a world of stands calm and voiceless; Dumas pompously garnish in the way of flourishing table-talk, recapitulates the items of the sorrowful past, concerning battles, campaigns, revolutions, throws them into shape; and when the fancy adventures, and hairbreadth escapes by flood portrait is finished, gravely calls upon the or field, all tending to his own honor and per- spirit to signify assent, which it is said to do sonal glorification; for, be it remarked, by gathering its cold and tiny breath into a Dumas, deeming himself a model of a man, long, dismal, and whistling oui; whereupon thinks, with Terence, that nothing human he the poor ghost is unceremoniously dismissed may choose to introduce into his memoirs, to the realms of the dead, and the picture however remotely connected with himself, confidently held up to the admiring gaze of can be styled irrelevant. Nevertheless, in the idiot multitude-the conjurer so seemthe midst of much that is utterly vapid in ingly unconscious all the while, with what these memoirs, there is much also of life, and indescribable ease he can merge into the bustle, and movement. The portraits of his thaumaturge, the worker of miracles; how early literary contemporaries, those at least admirably nature has gifted him for the part dashed off at a sitting-we except the frothy of a literary Cagliostro-a character he might attempts at apotheosis in the case of roman- not unwillingly assume, did not the temper tic associates-are sometimes graceful, often of the times and the public mind sufficiently humorous, always captivating. His indis- warn him of the impossibility of clearing excretions are not at all times of a very enor- penses. It is an observation of Franklin's, mous nature, unless, indeed, he shows up the that, in reading the life of any great man, you peculiarities of others. His own idiosyncrasy are sure to meet with a greater than he; one is best gathered from the general tone of the endowed, that is, with every element of narrative, and from his braggadocio habits of grandeur, but unfortunately either stranded thought and expression, rather than from any or mercilessly struck down by fate. The rereal wish to initiate bis reader into the more mark will hardly apply to the memoirs of offensive arcana of his physical or moral ex- Dumas, whose great or greater men do but periences when these are decidedly nau- swell his train, or, in more intelligible lanseous, the author drops a speaking hint, guage, usefully increase the bulk and numetches a tell-tale line, and the intelligent ber of his volumes. Hugo is, it must be alreader, whether suffused with shame or pale lowed, the object of much fulsome adulation. with disgust, can still fancy he detects, de- The details even of his nonage are dwelt and spite the affectedly abrupt retreat, the conse- expatiated upon with most lackadaisical tenquential delinquent's thick-lipped smile of derness. But this proceeds from another complacency. Dumas is eminently an im- motive than that of getting up a foil to the provisatore. From the most chance medley advantage or disadvantages of his own greatof dates, from the most insignificant face, the ness; a motive which brings out one of the most unmeaning character, he can extempo- least heroic features of this roystering comerise reminiscenses, extract colors for his pal- dian. With all his boasted love of opposilet, matter for his page, and amusement for tion, and despite the lion's skin, from the his reader. Death itself can neither shroud folds of which he has occasionally affected nor shield its victim. He invades the silence to peep with a certain fierceness on public of the tomb, evokes the sullen or consenting men and measures, Dumas has never been shade, extorts or exorcises his secret, and able to attract from any body of individuals, again remands him to his frightful durance. his creditors perhaps excepted, that degree The painter or the engraver Johannot, we of attention necessary to constitute the reknow not which (both brothers are now de-ally serious opponent. To mask this grievous

From Tait's Magazine.

THE JEWISH SUBJECTS OF THE