James Thomson

“ Gods, who look on while they rob me asleep, In which of you now can men have any faith, Now that Bacchus has betrayed Saint-Amant ? " What a nobly pathetic indignation ! Bacchus has SAINT-AMANT 59 betrayed Saint- Amant ! The god has rendered his most ardent worshipper into the hands of his foes ! It is ineffably humiliating, not so much even for the god as for the mortal with his firm faith in the god. ”

“ Who laughs with nose up and foreshortened face. How much this one-eyed better friends must be With Fortune than those alchemists we see From wise becoming mad, from rich quite poor ! They find at length their health and strength decay. ”

“ In Le Soleil Levant ("The Sunrise") there is a charming SAINT-AMANT 7I touch of fancy, not unworthy of young Heine himself, which shows what delicate chords vibrated in this stout reveller (the original is much daintier than my rather free version) : — ' ' The pretty butterfly comes then, Its tremulous pinions rise, And seeing the sun shines again, From flower to flower it flies, To tell the good news of the time — That day returns to bless our clime. There in our gardens rich and bright, Where many a rare thing grows, It carries from the lily white A kiss unto the rose ”

“ Your verse is fine when you declaim, But, when I read it, very tame : You can't continually recite ; So such as I can read, pray write." But we must not accept an epigram au pied de la lettre, as our neighbours say. We are told that three times in his youth he was nearly drowned in the Seine ; and he certainly had a holy horror of fresh water ever after. While yet quite young he became distinguished as a passionate lover of good eating, and yet more of good drinking ; and his society was much sought after by the jolly nobles of Louis XIII., not yet cowed by the stern discipline of Richelieu. ”

“ The language of poetry was pliant and flexible under SAINT-AMANT 6g his pen, as the fusible matter which twists and curls at the breath of the glass-blower : he knew much of men and things." And Theophile Gautier, a com- petent judge in this matter, if ever there was one, writes : " Saint- Amant is assuredly a very great and very original poet, worthy to be named among the best of whom France can boast. ”

“ That last touch is exceed- ingly characteristic. In fact, Saint-Amant was never irreligious. Born a Huguenot, he became a Catholic ; and one of his earliest poems, written in the Belle- Isle days — which is, perhaps, the finest of his serious pieces — "The Contemplator," was addressed to the Bishop of Nantes, Philippe Cospeau, a man of great talent and profound piety, who took extreme interest in the young poet and gave him much excellent advice. We are apt to sneer at the ease with which Continental Roman Catholics conciliate devout faith with im- morality ”

“ Assis sur un fagot, une pipe a la main, Tristement accoude centre une cheminee, Les yeux fixes vers terre, et I'ame mutinee, Je songe aux cruautes de mon sort inhumain, L'espoir, qui me remet du jour au lendemain, Essaye a gaigner temps sur ma peine obstinee, Et me venant promettre une autre destinee. Me fait monter plus haut qu'un empereur romain. ”

“ The Queen of Poland, in consideration of my constant praise of the poems of Saint-Amant and because she had listened to some of his serious pieces with much pleasure, appointed him one of the gentlemen of her household, with a pension of three thousand /ivres, which she assured to him by warrant, and which she caused to be sent to him expressly. ”

“ The publisher of the Custode de la JReine, a satire of that time, was hanged, and the printer would have been hanged too, if caught. It is a pity that, in what are pleasantly termed civilised nations, poor poets can no longer hope to see such extreme justice done to those concerned in bringing out their works ! II In this same year of 1643, our poet went with the Comte d'Harcourt to England, on the mission already mentioned. ”

“ What matters it, friend, whence our glory may swell? I can acquire it with trouble scant, For, thanks to my God, I already drink well, And I have been on the spree with Saint-Amant." " See him at the cabaret," writes M. Livet, " draped in his careless security. It is there that he finds that 52 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES genius which Boileau accords him for works of de- bauch and extravagant satire. Considering, in effect, the time and the place in which the 'Cabarets' and the ' Chamber of the Debauchee ' were composed, these poems are the masterpieces of their kind. ”

“ As a transition from his love of nature to his love of nature's best fruit, we have in La Pluye^ from which I have already quoted : — " The heavens are black from base to top, And their influence benign Pours so much water on the vine. That we need never drink a drop." ”

“ The poet lived at Belle-Isle several years. He there composed a great part of his D 50 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES works, and especially his ' Solitude,' which is the best of all. His sonnet which commences, Assis sur un fagot, une pipe ci la main (' Seated upon a faggot, pipe in hand ') , was written in a wine shop {cabaret) , in the borough of Sauzon, in Belle-Isle, kept by a man named La Plante, whose posterity still exist. Saint-Amant was a debauchee. Nature alone had made him a poet ; wine gave him enthusiasm. ”

“ For there is a good deal of human nature in man (and certainly not less in woman) , whether Catholic SAINT-AMANT dj or Protestant, Christian or heathen ; and where all live in glass houses none should throw stones. It is recorded that his landlord, who had long known and loved him, never spoke to him about the rent. And then we read : "The Thursday, 29th December 1661, day of St. Thomas of Canterbury, died in the house of M. Monglas, long his host, who had died eight days before, the Sieur Saint-Amant, aged 73 or 75 [probably 67] , after an illness of two days. ”

“ Now the Dauphin was born ist November 1661, and Saint- Amant died on the 29th December, so that the death certainly came soon after the birth. But, on the one £ 66 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES hand, is it credible that the most joyous of men, a veteran of sixty-seven, after all his various experiences of life, would be broken-hearted because one par- ticular poem failed of success? and, on the other, is it credible that a man perishing in neglect and misery would have access to the king, and to such a king as Louis XIV. had become in 1661? ”

“ It is done ; " as if he would say, with the most savage energy, " I have finished and anni- hilated this infamous England, in which they not only rebel against their anointed sovereign, but also sacrilegiously rob Saint-Amant when he is divinely drunk." In 1645 we find him again at Paris, Montreuil hav- ing succeeded d'Harcourt as ambassador to England. This brings us to his connection with the famous Marie de Gonzague, daughter of the Duke of Mantua, who became so singularly the wife of two successive kings of Poland, these being brothers. It is not here the place to recount her life ”

“ Mais, quoi ! las de trainer une vie importune, II engagea ce rien pour chercher la fortune ; Et tout charge de vers qu'il devait mettre au jour, Conduit d'un vain espoir il parut a la cour." Ask me not to try to translate. You remember Byron's very just characterisation of this species of verse (" Childe Harold," iv. 38) :— "And Boileau, whose rash envy could allow No strain which shamed his country's creaking lyre, That whetstone of the teeth — monotony in wire ! " ”

“ It should be remarked that this employment, and even the work- ing in the factory, was not considered derogatory to a gentleman ; the injurious and often dangerous nature of the work, as well as the beauty of the product, being held to lift it from among menial labours. At this time Adam Billault, jolly Master Adam, who, according to Baillet, does more credit to carpenters than to poets, visiting Paris, would first of all be pre- sented to Saint-Amant. The next year he rejoined d'Harcourt, then in Piedmont ”

“ He remarks —
' Whatever's the custom in any nation Is always sure of approbation." And to prove this he shows the real and manifold absurdity of the fashion then prevailing in France. The elaborate description of costume is a master- piece of graphic satire, full of the most piquant details. Having commenced his " Moses Saved," which he terms the Idyll heroic, he set out for Warsaw to show it to the Queen of Poland, to whom it was to be dedicated but, as he tells the Queen in the letter of dedication, he was arrested at St. ”

“ Silence in love bewrays more woe Than words, though ne'er so witty ; A beggar that is dumb, you know, Doth merit double pity." He was, therefore, quite capable of writing the sonnet 78 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES in question ; and, as Saint-Amant visited England in 1 63 1, Sir Robert might then have shown him it in MS. But, on the other hand, Saint-Amant published his first volume of poems in 1627 or 1629 (I find both dates given, and have no means of deciding) ; and these two sonnets seem to have been included in it, both referring to his Belle-Isle period. ”