LAMARTINE

(1790-1869)

BY ALCÉE FORTIER

HE eighteenth century in France was not fruitful in poets; for in order to be a poet it is not sufficient to write elegant, witty, and correct verses. There must be real inspiration in a great poem; and that indispensable quality was lacking in the works of Voltaire, of J. B. Rousseau, of Gilbert, and of their contemporaries. There was only one true poet in France in that century,André Chénier, who fell a victim to the Revolution on July 25th, 1794, two days before the 9th Thermidor, which put an end to Robespierre's life and to the Reign of Terror. Chénier's brief works are charming; they were inspired by the poets of Greece, and are graceful and tender. They were little known at the time of the author's death, however, and a complete edition was published only in 1819, one year before the world was delighted with the Méditations' of Lamartine. The latter poet, however, owes nothing to Chénier, who is essentially a classic animated with true lyric passion.

If we wish to find precursors to Lamartine, we must go back to prose writers: to J. J. Rousseau, whose works are so full of human passion and at the same time of love of nature; to Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, whose 'Paul and Virginia' is so simple and charming; to Madame de Staël, who made known to the French the great German bards, Goethe and Schiller; finally to Châteaubriand, whose 'Atala,' 'René,' and 'Martyrs' are more poetic than all the verses written in the eighteenth century except those of André Chénier. The great writers just mentioned had prepared the way for a new Renaissance in the beginning of the nineteenth century; and Lamartine was fortunate in striking a new chord with which vibrated in unison the hearts of all who read the tender, melancholy, and harmonious words of the 'Méditations.'

It was the first time in French literature that poetry was so subjective. The works of Rousseau, of Madame de Staël, of Châteaubriand, were permeated with the personality of the authors; but such had not been the case with André Chénier and with the poets of the seventeenth century. Lamartine's 'Méditations' resembled nothing which had yet been published in France, and for that reason the

manuscript was rejected by the great publishing firm of Firmin Didot. The poet expressed his own feelings in such melodious language, and those feelings were so natural and human, that all the readers of the 'Méditations' took a personal interest in sentiments which were their own as well as those of the poet. A critic has said of Lamartine, "He was not a poet, but poetry itself." This is eminently true; for there had not been in the French language for nearly two centuries such touching, such musical lines as those of the 'Méditations.' Racine's verses alone could be compared with them. It was in 1820 that the Méditations' were published; after their rejection by Didot the author read 'Le Lac' in the parlor of Madame de Saint-Aulaire, and created a deep impression. The volume of 'Méditations' soon

found a publisher, and he became speedily famous.

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Alphonse de Prat de Lamartine was born on October 21st, 1790, at Mâcon, on the Saône. The country watered by this river is picturesque and fertile, and the Saône itself is a pretty stream which meets the Rhône at Lyon, and is merged into the impetuous river claimed as their own by the men of Provence. In his Confidences' and his 'Raphael' Lamartine gives us his autobiography; somewhat idealized, perhaps, but correct in the main. He speaks with veneration of his father, who lived long enough to see his son become an illustrious man; but he has a perfect devotion for his mother, who was beautiful, noble, and pious, and who communicated to him that sensibility, that generosity, which have inspired his poetical works. His father, however, was an austere soldier, and transmitted to his son that courage which enabled him later to quell the surging masses by his manly eloquence.

Lamartine's early years were free and happy; he spent some time at a Jesuit college, but when he returned home it seemed to him that in the poetry of Creation, "he read Greek and Latin verses translated by God himself into grand and living images." His favorite authors were Tasso, Dante, Petrarch, Milton, Shakespeare, Châteaubriand, and above all "Ossian," the mythical Homer of the Gaels, whose alleged poem was so popular in the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Lamartine relates to us in his 'Confidences' his innocent love for Lucy, when both he and the young girl were sixteen years old. Then comes that most charming episode of the poet's life, his voyage to Italy and his love for Graziella, the Neapolitan fisherman's daughter. The simple girl gives her heart to the young stranger: but the latter is obliged to return to France, and a few months later he receives a letter and a small package; it is the last farewell of the dying girl, and her beautiful black locks sent as a memento. M. Edmond Biré, who is a true iconoclast, wishes to prove that Graziella