George Edward Bateman Saintsbury

“ The defect of volubility, of never leaving off, which mars to some extent his great contemporary Hugo, is never present in him, and he is equally free from the looseness and disorders of form which are sometimes blemishes in Musset, and from the effeminacy of Lamartine, while once more his nobility of thought and plentifulness of matter save him from the reproach which has been thought to rest on the technically perfect work of Théophile Gautier. ”

“ Sainte-Beuve, in the rather ill-natured essay which he devoted to Vigny after his death, expresses a doubt whether the title of count which the poet bore was well authenticated, and hints that no very ancient proofs of the nobility of the family were forthcoming; but it is certain that in the 18th century persons of the name occupied positions which were not open to any but men of noble birth. ”

“ Vigny died at Paris on the 17th of September 1863.
His later life was almost wholly uneventful, and for the most part, as has been said, spent in retirement. His reputation, however, is perfectly secure. It may, and probably will, rest only on his small volume of poems, though it will not be lessened, as far as qualified literary criticism is concerned, should the reader proceed to the rest of the work. The whole of his non-dramatic verse does not amount to 5000 lines; it may be a good deal less. ”