apparently, of the original commoners, had each during the summer the right of so many leazes (i. e., pasture for so many head of cattle). These leazes were bought up by the proprietor of the estate, who, keeping it still as a principally pasture-farm, spent a few years' rent on draining and improvements, and tripled its annual produce. On the whole, it may be laid down. as a conclusion, that so far as regards the problem of feeding the greatest number of mouths from a given district, the decision of history, after a trial lasting through many ages, is being given for individual as against communistic possession of land.

ART. VII.-1. Mémoires d'Alexandre Dumas. Tomes 16. 2. Mémoires d'Alexandre Dumas. Deuxième Series.

BACON

Tomes 8.

ACON never gave stronger proof of his knowledge of mankind than when he left his name and memory to foreign nations and the next ages.' A whole host of proverbs might be cited in justification of this bequest; and Lord Russell has felicitously described a proverb as the wisdom of many and the wit of one. No man is a prophet in his own country.' 'No man is a hero to his valet de chambre.' 'Familiarity breeds contempt.' What are these but so many variations of the same familiar tune, so many modes of expressing the same universally recognized truth, that it is vain to hope for a just and fair appreciation from our contemporaries. We may be unduly exalted as well as unduly lowered by them, for a brief period or for a set purpose; but that they should hold the scales. even, and pronounce impartially on the merits or demerits of a living rival or associate, would seem to border on a moral impossibility. In conversation with James Smith, Crabbe expressed great astonishment at his own popularity in London, adding, 'In my own village they think nothing of me.' If people cannot bring themselves to contemplate as a real genius the quiet unobtrusive character whom they see moving amongst them like any other ordinary mortal, how can they be expected to recognize, as a duly qualified candidate for the character, one who is mixed up in a succession of literary or party intrigues and contests, who is alternately wounding their prejudices or flattering their self-love, whose fame or notoriety resembles the shuttlecock, which is only kept from falling by being struck from side to side in rivalry.

In England, of late years, political acrimony has been nearly banished from the higher regions of criticism; but an infinity

of

of disturbing forces have been unceasingly at work to prevent the fair estimate of a popular writer in France, and there never was a popular writer who had better reason than Alexander Dumas to protest against the contemporary judgment of his countrymen, or to appeal, like Bacon, to foreign nations and the next ages. This could hardly have been his own opinion when he commenced the publication of his autobiography, which was far from mitigating the spirit of detraction he had provoked; but his death may be accepted as an atonement for his manifold offences; and the most cursory glance at his career will show that its irregularities were indissolubly connected with its brilliancy. It was an adventurous one, in every sense of the term. From its commencement to its close he threw reflection overboard, and cast prudence to the winds. He is one of the most remarkable examples of fearless self-reliance, restless activity, and sustained exertion, we ever read or heard of. His resources of all sorts, mental and bodily, proved inexhaustible till six months before his death, although he had been drawing upon them from early youth with reckless prodigality. Amongst his many tours de force was the composition of a complete five-act drama within eight days, and the editorship of a daily journal. Le Mousquetaire, upon a distinct understanding with his subscribers, faithfully observed, that the contents should be supplied by his pen. It was towards the end of the second month of the satisfactory performance of this task that he received the following letter:

MY DEAR DUMAS,

'You have been informed that I have become one of your subscribers (abonnés), and you ask my opinion of your journal. I have an opinion on things human: I have none on miracles: you are superhuman. My opinion of you! It is a note of exclamation! People have tried to discover perpetual motion. better you have created perpetual astonishment. other words, write: I am there to read.

'Paris, 20th December, 1853.'

You have done Adieu; live; in

'LAMARTINE.

He set up a theatre-Le Théâtre Historique-for the representation of his own plays, as he set up a journal for his own contributions. He has not written quite as many plays as Lope de Vega, but he has written four times as many romances as the author of 'Waverley;' and he has done quite enough in both walks to confute the theory that a successful dramatist must necessarily fail as a novelist and vice versâ; a theory, it will be remembered, maintained and exemplified by Sir Walter Scott, and plausibly supported by

the

the illustrious examples of Fielding, Smollett, Cervantes and Le Sage. Postponing for a moment the questions of morality and originality, it can no longer be denied in any quarter that Dumas' influence, whether for good or evil, has been immense on both sides of the Channel. Indeed, we are by no means sure that his romances have not been more read by the higher class in this country than in his own. Nor, in glancing over his multifarious claims to rank amongst the leading spirits of his age must we forget his numerous Voyages' and Impressions de Voyages,' constituting altogether between twenty and thirty most amusing and instructive volumes of travels. But they are wholly unlike what are commonly called Travels, and constitute an entirely new style of writing. He has a prodigious memory, filled to overflowing with the genuine romance of history; he lights instinctively upon every local tradition that is worth recording; he has a quick eye for the picturesque and (above all) an exquisite perception of the humorous. He is about the best possible storyteller in print, and he rarely dwells too long on a ludicrous incident, nor forces us to keep company with his laughable characters till they grow wearisome.

The wonder at his unprecedented fertility and versatility had led at one time to a very general belief that most of his publications were concocted by a set of 'prentice hands or journeymen, whom he paid at so much a sheet; and that the utmost he contributed to their handiwork was a masterly touch here and there and his name on the title-page. One of these, named Macquet, boldly laid claim to a lion's share in the composition of the best, and was strenuously supported by critics of authority. But Macquet was avowedly employed by Dumas for twenty years to hunt up subjects, supply accessories, or do for him what eminent portrait painters are wont to leave to pupils, namely, the preparation of the canvas, the mixing of the colours, the rough outline of the figures, or the drapery. That Macquet was capable of nothing better or higher, was proved by his utter failure as a novelist, whenever, both before and after the alleged partnership, he set up for himself. A curious attempt was then made to show by calculation that the number of pages which Dumas, according to his own account, must have composed

* Fabrique de Romans: Maison Dumas et Compagnie. Par Eugène de Mirecourt. Paris, 1845. Les Supercheries littéraires dévoilées. Par J. M. Quérard. Troisième Edition. Paris, 1859. Article Dumas' (Alexander Davy). This article, containing 152 pages of close print in double columns, is a collection of all the criticisms and attacks founded or unfounded, ever levelled against Dumas ; and although invaluable as a fund of information, it carries little weight as an authority by reason of its obvious exaggeration and injustice.

during his literary life, was more than the most practised penman could have copied in the same space of time at the rate of sixty pages a day. But as his literary life lasted more than forty years, the required quantity per day is quadrupled or quintupled in this estimate; and the production of twelve or fourteen widely-printed pages, on the average, for a series of years is by no means a physical impossibility. This rate of composition was often exceeded by Sir Walter Scott; who wrote or dictated the Bride of Lammermoor' whilst suffering from cramp in the stomach to an extent that often compelled him to break off and throw himself on a sofa to writhe in agony. Lope de Vega is known to have written five full-length dramas in fifteen days, and his dramatic compositions, published or unpublished, have been computed to exceed two thousand.* Edgeworth states, in his 'Memoirs,' as an ascertained fact on which heavy bets were laid and won, that a man could run faster with a carriage-wheel, which he propelled with the bare hand as a child trundles a hoop, than when he was entirely unencumbered, provided the prescribed distance were sufficient for the impetus or adventitious motion thus acquired to tell. This sounds more paradoxical and open to doubt than a statement made in our hearing by Dumas, that, when he warmed to his work, he can supply original matter faster than it could be transcribed by the readiest penman. His mode of life was thus described in the Siécle :'

He rises at six: before him are laid thirty-five sheets of paper of the largest size; he takes up his pen and writes in a hand that M. de Saint-Omer would envy till eleven. At eleven he breakfasts, always in company the author of " Monte Christo" is the most hospitable of men of letters: during this meal, in which he plays a good knife and fork, his spirits and his wit never flag. At twelve, he resumes the pen not to quit it again till six in the evening. The dinner finds him what he was in the morning, as lively, as lighthearted, as ready at repartee. If by chance he has not filled the allotted number of sheets, a momentary shade passes over his face, he steals away, and returns two or three hours later to enjoy the pleasures of the soirée. The year has three hundred and sixty-five days: we have described three hundred and sixty-five days of the famous novelist and dramatist.'

We have now before us (received from Dumas) the original manuscript of a chapter of the 'Mémoires d'un Médecin,' obviously dashed off at a heat. The handwriting is large, round, and free, bearing a strong resemblance to that of Scott; who, according to Lockhart, rose at the same hour, and whenever (as was frequently the case) there was a distinguished company at

* Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature,' vol. ii. p. 204.

Abbotsford,

Abbotsford, completed his allotted task before breakfast, so as to be free to attend to the amusement of his guests.

The charge of plagiarism is one easily brought, and not easily parried except by showing that there is nothing new under the sun, and that the most inventive minds have not disdained to borrow from their predecessors. Virgil borrowed from Homer; Racine, from Euripides; Corneille (for his Cid), from a Spanish dramatist. 'Je prends mon bien ou je le trouve,' was the

unabashed avowal of Molière. Evil betide those who have said or written our good things before us,' was the half-comic, half-serious exclamation of a truly original wit. Shakespeare drew largely on chronicles, popular histories and story-books for his characters and plots: his Greeks and Romans frequently speak the very words placed in their mouths by Plutarch: Julius Cæsar' was preceded by a Latin play on the same subject, and (amongst other things) the famous Et tu, Brute? (which rests on no classical authority) was taken from it. Voltaire sedulously ran down Shakespeare to throw dust in the eyes of the French public and prevent them from discovering his obligations to the barbarian, as they designated the author of 'Hamlet.' 'L'Ermite' in 'Zadig' is a mere paraphrase of Parnell's poem, 'The Hermit;' and the fable (Voltaire's) of Le Lion et le Marseillais' is borrowed from Mandeville. The framework and all the solid portions of Mirabeau's best speeches were notoriously supplied by Dumont; little being left for the orator but to infuse the Promethean fire and vivify the mass.

In a recent notice of Talleyrand, we mentioned a note in the handwriting of his brother to the effect that the only breviary used by the ex-bishop was 'L'Improvisateur Français,' a voluminous collection of anecdotes and jests; the fraternal inference being that his conversational brilliancy was partly owing to this repository. Pascal copies whole pages from Montaigne without quoting him. Sheridan confessedly acted on Molière's principle or no-principle: he was indebted to Farquhar for the 'Trip to Scarborough:' the most admired bit of dialogue between Joseph Surface and Lady Teazle is the recast of a fine reflection in Zadig': * and consciously or unconsciously, Tom Jones and Bifil must have influenced the conception of Charles and Joseph Surface. With regard to the charges about the Shipwreck,' wrote Lord Byron to Mr. Murray, 'I think that I told you and Mr. Hobhouse years ago that there was not a single circumstance of it not

·

6

* Astarté est femme; elle laisse parler ses regards avec d'autant plus d'imprudence qu'elle ne se croit pas encore coupable. Malheureusement rassurée sur son innocence, elle néglige les dehors nécessaires. Je tremblerai pour elle tant qu'elle n'aura rien à se reprocher.'-Zadig.

Vol. 131.-No. 261.

taken