From Macmillan's Magazine. SOME ENGLISH CHARACTERS IN FRENCH FICTION. mist is never weary of repeating, England and France have been rivals only in the work of progress and civilization. THACKERAY somewhere said that he By way of preface our author would once thought of collecting together all have to remark that the traditional idea the lies which the French had propa- of the brutal and perfidious Saxon, with gated about the British and the British his morgue, his hauteur, his flegme, and about the French during the period of his many other unpleasant qualities, the Napoleonic wars. Very curious was in full force at this epoch, quickand diverting we can imagine such a ened by innumerable caricatures. Be narrative would have been from the fore long, however, our neighbors pen, and doubtless the pencil also, of discovered that the Englishman might our great satirist; not without value be used as well as abused. Being a too as an historical document, for surely great traveller, he took advantage of our sober, truth seeking chroniclers the peace to visit a country in which he have somewhat neglected the impor- gave himself somewhat the airs of a tance of the lie as in one form or an- conqueror, an assumption naturally gallother it has affected the destinies of ing to the inhabitants, yet not without Europe. Apart, however, from so its compensations. For the conqueror grave a work—which might be styled scattered his money right royally, taking indifferently "The History of Misrep- no thought for the change, and made resentation " ΟΙ "The Misrepresenta- the fortunes of countless tradesfolk and tion of History," and which, to be innkeepers. Every Briton in those adequate, ought (in the case of the good Restoration days was Milord, and aforesaid nations) to begin at least as pretty dearly he paid for the honor. early as the Hundred Years' War- Do you know the story of the Englishapart from this there remains the ques- man and the dog, an exception which tion of international appreciation as ex- may be quoted to prove the rule? He pressed in purely unpolitical literature. was staying, this countryman of ours, Here of course the field is immensely in a small provincial town not a hunnarrowed; indeed, by eliminating pol-dred miles from Paris, when his fancy itics we seem (as Aristotle would have was taken by a dog (of what species we said) to be cutting ourselves off from are not told) which was wandering the perennial source of lies. And even about the hotel. By inquiry from the with this restriction it would be neces- landlord he ascertained that the animal sary, lest the subject should reach an belonged to a young lad of the place, impracticable size, to set aside the who would doubtless be willing to part works of all those foreigners who, with him for a consideration. So a whether as residents in England or as messenger was despatched to summon intelligent visitors, deliver their opin- the boy, who on entering found the ious upon us with the real or presumed visitor, a large and florid person, reauthority of specialists. Nevertheless, clining in an easy-chair beside a table though thus limited to the humbler whereon lay the fragments of a meal sphere of professed fiction, we fancy that might apparently have served for that the diligent compiler might amass, six hungry people. Then a dialogue even in the lightest of literature and ensued in which the Englishman in his most peaceful of periods, a store of own style of French intimated his desire obiter dicta worthy to be placed on per- to purchase the dog. Pyrame's owner manent record. Let us indicate in was quite agreeable, and indeed pressed brief the course which he would have him as a free gift upon the stranger. to take. The latter of course would not hear of Suppose, for example, that a begin- this, and proposed various handsome ning were made with the Peace of prices which the generous boy refused Paris; a date as unimpeachable as the as far too high. Eventually a calcula Equator itself, since when, as the opti-tion was made based on the probable milord," he said. customed to your cost of keep for two years (the time any existence? Nor were his henchduring which the dog had belonged to men behind him in similar efforts. his present owner), and five napoleons Every one will remember that Dumas was settled as the figure, much to the (to mention that great man once more). disgust of mine host of the Boule d'Or, made the hero of his most celebrated. who had assisted at the bargain expect- novel assume at one stage the alias of ing his own commission and intimating an English nobleman, a character, by various winks and frowns that now which served equally well to explain. if ever was the time to fleece the for- both the count's reserved air and his eigner. One difficulty alone marred magnificent horses. Other persons and harmony of this transaction. "Ho! | scenes of our country are to be found Pyrame, bong chien, suivez-moa," cried in the pages of Dumas' historical the Englishman; but Pyrame did not novels; he had an affection for us budge. The boy, however, was equal which sometimes outstripped his knowlto the occasion. "It is the accent, edge, as when on one occasion he de"He is not yet ac-spatched a young couple, seeking peace accent, but he will and seclusion, to a cottage in Piccasoon get into it." Bong!" replied dilly. But nothing in this way is so the other. "Ce chien est à moa; "remarkable as the characters with and the affair was concluded. which he enriched dramatic literature. We have mentioned the name of the Who can forget how, at a borough in dog. Let us add that the ingenuous Northumberland,' " called Darlington, youth was none other than the great Richard of that name met at the hustAlexandre Dumas at the age of four-ings his rival "Sir Stanson"! How, teen, and that our report of the transaction is (perhaps needless to say) his And it is manifest that from this little episode certain characteristics may be deduced which went to compose in the eyes of Frenchmen a very familiar type of the Englishmen of that period, -a large eater, a wealthy and openhanded sportsman, a fearless advenTP turer in an alien tongue. own. 66 while the issue of the voting was still 66 From this point it is no long step to the literary movement of 1830. Nothing was more natural or creditable than that the leaders of that movement, professing so great a debt to English literature, should desire to initiate their countrymen into the manners and customs d'outre-manche. Did not the master himself employ a drama taken from our history as the means of publishing the principles of the new school? Did he not search "Franc Baronum," and we know not how many other strange authors, in order to ensure an accurate presentment of "Marie Tudor"? And did he not finally in that marvellous romance of "L'Homme qui Rit" devote all his erudition and all his poetic fancy to the invention of try. English names and the description of After "Richard Darlington came English customs which have never had "Kean," with its appropriate sub-title 1 of " Désordre et Génie ; " with its select | going chronometers of Madrid." He and fashionable circle headed by the was a man of wide possessions also, Prince of Wales; with that all-powerful and he pictured to his Spanish bride official of whom Dumas was so fond, le how delightful it would be, as a change constable; with the great actor himself from Almack's and Hyde Park, “to through whose erratic personality we pass the summer (!) in my villa at Calmake acquaintance with Mr. Peter Patt cutta, or at the Cape of Good Hope of 66 The Coal Hole," John Cooks le where I have a cottage.' "And she on boxeur, Ketty la blonde, and other hum- her side was charmed with the vista of ble friends. But of "Kean" it would "powdered domestics, a four-in-hand, be impertinent to speak, remembering porcelaines de Wegwood, a country house in what masterly fashion it has already with deer on the lawn, and perhaps one been handled in "The Paris Sketch or two rosy children who will look so Book ;" nor do we propose to consider here the Englishman of the French stage who (except he be taken from history) is for the most part a commonplace and stereotyped figure, an accusation which certainly cannot be brought against either Richard Darlington or Kean. nice, you know, when seated in the carriage side by side with a genuine King Charles." travels and represented in the glowing pages of the story-tellers, became a model of fashionable deportment; and thus arose that sincere form of flattery which has become so marked a feature of Parisian language and habits to-day. But the age of pleasantry is gone. That of realists, naturalists, and egotists has succeeded; and the glory of Romance is extinguished forever. The most that a serious generation can say But let us not forget, in mention- in favor of these obsolete authors is ing Hugo and Dumas, to express our that by their enthusiasm for our literagratitude to Théophile Gautier for in- ture and by their portraits (however troducing us (in "Militona") to that fancifully colored) of our countrymen, 66 spruce, clean-shaved Englishman," they possess the merit" (as a learned with his white cravat, his waterproof professor once handsomely observed and macintosh, l'expression suprême de about his predecessor)" of having at ia civilisation.' Sir Edwards was his any rate created an interest in the name, and it was partly by the elegance subject.” Henceforward the French and multiplicity of his travelling appa- public became more curious about ces ratus that he won the heart of Doña | insulaires. "Milord," as seen on his Feliciana, who was dazzled by "the pen-knife which would also serve as a razor or corkscrew or spoon or fork; by the inkstand from which you could evolve candles, wafers, sealing wax; by the walking-stick which could be converted at pleasure into a chair; and It was, we fancy (speaking subject by a thousand other patent inventions to correction), somewhere in the forof a similar sort which the sons of per- ties that the word excentrique first came fidious Albion (the people who of all into the French vocabulary, an epithet others require the most utensils for which has since then done the most living) carry about with them in well- comprehensive duty as applied to Enappointed trunks from the Arctic Pole glish personages in French fiction. to the Equator." No less elaborate Eccentricity, however, must not be un(though of course the lady could not derstood in a wholly uncomplimentary know this) was the baronet's toilet- sense; on the contrary, it implied charequipment,"compared to which the acteristics worthy of more serious inunited instrument-cases of a surgeon, a vestigation than they had yet received. dentist, and a chiropodist would have Hence those treatises on England unseemed insignificant." Moreover Sir dertaken by scholars like M. Taine or Edwards was a model of punctuality, by journalists like M. Hector Malot; "keeping his appointments with a reg- hence those international exhibitions ularity which put to shame the easy-designed to clear away prejudice and di misunderstanding; hence the whole | contact with members of our aristocarray of "studies" and "revelations," | racy. On the first occasion the scene instructive, humorous, or spiteful. We was the Rigi Kulm hotel where, among do not, as we said at the first, include the miscellaneous company whose glumthis species of literature under fiction, ness the president of the C.A. so sucthough there is at times an obvious cessfully dissipated, was a middle-aged temptation to do so; but we refer to Anglais of correct and supercilious it solely because it serves as a link mien, accompanied by a very charming between the Englishman of the pre- young lady. The visitors'-book indiscientific age and him of to-day; her we cated "Lord Chipendale, member of should perhaps add, for it is not the the Jockey Club, and his niece," an least glory of modern France to have entry which the sceptical Tartarin qualdiscovered and admired (with some ified by a mental hum! hum! We will reservations) la jeune demoiselle An- not pursue the question of relationship, glaise. It is true that so long as half a for we get but a passing glance of “le century ago the author of "Colomba " Lord Chipendale avec sa nièce - hum! depicted in Lydia Nevil as lovable a hum!" but we must pause to congratspecimen of English girlhood as may ulate M. Daudet on a happiness of anywhere be found; but Prosper Méri- nomenclature rare among his brother mée dwelt by himself apart in many novelists. "Chipendale is unquesways, and not least in his exceptional tionably good, combining as it does a acquaintance with English life. For in suggestion of blue blood and elegance those days, as we know, it was com- with a certain flavor of horsiness which monly believed that all young ladies of amateurs of the turf will not fail to recthis country wore spectacles and had ognize. Of Lord William Plantagenet, either red or straw-colored hair descend- commander of the Tomahawk, that ing in long ringlets to the waist. That ship on which the ill-fated founder of is quite different now; and the beauty Port Tarascon was brought back to Euof Albion's daughters, their health, rope and durance vile, what can be said their activity, their independence, have except that it is a very noble name? become an axiom with all reasonable Yet we like not the Plantagenet; for foreigners. he was a cold, unappreciative man, whom indifference alone prevented from stigmatizing Tartarin as Mr. Pickwick on a famous occasion stigmatized Mr. Winkle. Her ladyship it is true (who was also on board the Tomahawk) was more sympathetic as she reclined in her hammock on deck and listened to the tale poured into her ear by this other Napoleon on board this second Northumberland. From Chipendale and Plantagenet it is a long descent to Mr. J. Tom Levis, who was not indeed an Englishman but passed himself off for one on the score of his ability as universal provider and manager in especial to the requirements of exiled royalty. Then there was that affable scoundrel Dr. Jenkins l'Irlandais, founder of the It is a pleasure at the outset to ob- Bethlehem Hospital and dispenser of serve that, despite the ravages of democ-arsenical globules, the gentleman who racy, the British nobleman still persists. plays so important a part in the story Twice in his career, if we mistake not, of the Nabob. How far Jenkins was the hero of Tarascon was brought into modelled from the life (arraché des We accept this tribute with the greater satisfaction because now more than ever the French novelist is in a position to speak with authority. Not only has more constant intercourse between the two nations given him opportunities of observation which his predecessors did not enjoy; but also he is himself (under whatever variety he be classed) a proclaimed patron of the truth and nothing but the truth. It follows that our compatriots, when they appear in the modern French novel, must not be considered a creation of the unchastened fancy, but a faithful and exact reflection of ourselves as others see us. We turn therefore with the most lively interest to the masters of present fiction. whose heir he is. But here a rival to our Isabella appears in the person of Mademoiselle Isabelle d'Alpujaras, a maiden of purest Castilian blood, a fair and delicate creature just fresh from entrailles mêmes de la vie, as the author|bre gallery of "La Bête Humaine;" has vigorously phrased it) we know we recognize them for our sisters, and not; but on the face of the matter it we wish we had been there to help is obvious to remark that the vices of them through the snow. this heartless schemer are just those An even more enterprising damsel is which appear to be most conspicuously Miss Isabella Griffitt as described by an absent from the Irish character. So author separate by a whole hemisphere far M. Alphonse Daudet, and no apol- from M. Zola. Since the beautiful Isaogy is needed for putting in the first bella resides in Paris on her own account place an author with so large a follow- and supports herself by teaching Ening in this country. Of English wom-glish, we are not surprised that one of ankind we can recall no more prominent her pupils, Jacques Ferrier, should fall example from his works than the rather in love with her, and should propose a dim figure of Mademoiselle, the govern- little trip together in Spain; but we ess who has charge of Rose and Ni- confess to some amazement that Isabella nette, and who (being as we are told a (who is the daughter of an English salutiste enragée) regards their father, clergyman) should be so remarkably the dramatist, as a direct agent of evil. free from the usual British prudery, Certainly the idea of a "red-hot Salva- not to say propriety, as readily to contionist " governess is not without nov-sent to this plan. The young gentleman elty, and shows that M. Daudet is then proceeds to Lormières to raise the abreast of the times; but this Made- necessary funds from a wealthy aunt moiselle is really a very disagreeable person, and we should have preferred something more flattering from the creator of Désirée Delobelle, of Hortense, of Felicia Ruys, and Queen Frederica. For further illustrations we must her convent school. The affections of seek elsewhere. Take, for instance, the hero are now divided between the the uncompromising M. Zola, who does present Isabelle, and the absent Isanot as a rule favor us with much atten- bella whose portrait he carries about in tion. What a pretty picture that is of his portmanteau. He feels that he the two fair young English girls in the could be happy with either. Each has snowstorm that blocked the express her points; yet the contrast between from Havre ! When the train had the two is very marked, especially at come to its final standstill, amid the luncheon-time, when Jacques observes tears of the women and the angry tones that Isabelle merely plays with her of the men, these sisters alone preserved food, while he remembers that the their gaiety. To them the accident comely Isabella has a healthy appetite was a capital joke; they were très of her own, taillant son ros-bif i amusées. When the guard came round grosses tranches et l'avalant d'un tour to reassure the frightened travellers, the de gosier. With this reflection comes younger of the two, putting her head the beginning of wisdom, and Jacques out of the window, and speaking in resolves to give up Isabella and the good French but with a slight zézaiement Spanish expedition. From the difficulty Britannique, inquired playfully," Alors, of announcing this breach of promise monsieur, c'est ici qu'on s'arrête ?" he is spared by the arrival of a teleAnd then, while the passengers gram from Miss Isabella herself, in ploughed their way to take refuge in which that independent young lady inthe signalman's cottage, how merrily forms him that she is tired of waiting those young ladies laughed at the fun for him and has gone off with somebody of extricating mamma from the snow else. Such, then, is Miss Isabella into which that stout lady kept sinking Griffitt who figures in the pages of M. down! Thank you, M. Zola, for those Ferdinand Fabre's whimsical story two bright, natural faces amid the som- "Le Roi Ramire; " and we trust, for |