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Chapter III
The French in Poe's Essays and Literary Criticisms
The average student of American literature thinks of Poe as the poet and short story writer. Poe, however, made rich contributions to the field of literary criticisms and it was largely this work that gained him his early reputation.(1) One finds more French references in the essays and critical reviews than in his tales. This was probably because Poe compared writers in these selections. As Poe wrote so many scathing remarks against plagiarism he attempted to justify certain passages he used by referring to writers and giving them the credit.
The words, phrases and references are tabulated as in Chapter II. Because of Poe's connection with so many periodicals some of his reviews appeared more than one time. Duplication of reviews have been checked so that French expressions and references in each review will be listed only once. [page 46:]
“Pinakidia” [[— Southern Literary Messenger, August 1836]]
(speaks of) Balzac, author of “La Manière de Bien Penser”, and Rochefoucauld.
“Bibliothlque des Memorabilia Literaria.”
“Recueil des Bons Pensees”
“Lettres Edifiates et Cucieuses”
“Literary Memoir,” of Sallengre,
“Melanges Literaires” of Suard and Andre
“Pieces Interressantes et peu Connues” of La Place.
Corneille's celebrated, Moi of Medea is borrowed from Seneca. Racine, in Phoedra, has stolen nearly the whole scene of the declaration of love from the same puerile writer.
Corneille has these lines in one of his tragedies; Pleurez, pleurez, mes yeux, et fondez volis en eau — La moitie de ma vie a mis l'autre au tombeau.’”
“Hedelin”
(“Under a portrait of Tiberic Fiurelli, who invented the character Scaraouche, are these verses:
‘Cet illustre Comèdien
De son a rt trapa la carrière;
Il fut la maître de Molière,
Et la Nature fut le sien!’” [page 47:]
Marmontel in the “Encyclopedie”
Andre Chenier, imprisoned during the French Revolution, began thus some lines on his unhappy situation:
Peut-htre avant que l'heure en cercle promenee
Ait pose sur l'email brillant
Dans les soixante pas ou sa route est bornoe
Son pied sonore et vigilant,
Le sommeil du tombeau pressera ma paupiere.’”
“(These lines were written over the closet-door of M. Menard,)
Las d’esperer, et de me plaindre
De l'amour, des grands, et du sort
C'est ici que J’attends la mort
Sans la desirer ou la craindre
An extract from the “Mystery of St. Denis” is in the “Bibliotheque du Theatre Francois, depuis son origine, Dresde. 1768.”
(“Statua Stature” was an inscription handed about at Paris for the equestrian statue of Louis XV, begun by Bouchardon and finished by Pigal. The following also,
Bouchardon est un animal
Et son ouvrage fait pitié (probably meant fût):
II place les vices h cheval
Et les vertus i pied. [page 48:]
(and another)
Voila notre roi commnie il est h Versailles
Sans foi, sans loi, et sans entrailles.
(speaks of) “Bechart”
(The learned Menage has this epitaph on Sannazariu
Ci git, dont l'esprit fut si beau,
Sannazar, ce poete habile,
Qui par ses vers divins approche de Virgile,
Plus encore que par son tombeau;”
(mentions “Mercier, in “L'an deux mille quatre cents quarante”
(says) “Boileau is mistaken in saying that Petrarch’qui est regarde conmme le pere du sonnet’ borrowed it from the French or Provencal writers.”
“Tickell's lines —— are evidently borrowed from those of Boileau,
‘En vain contre’ Le Cid’ un ministre se ligue;
Tout Paris pour Chimene a les yeux de Rodrigue.’”
“The ‘Satyre Menippee’ of the French is, in prose, the exact counterpart of Hudibras in rhyme.”
(“An epigram upon the subject of Francois (de Bassompiere being released from the Bastille upon the death of Richlieu, is a strange mixture of lofty thought and puerile conceit: [page 49:]
Enfin dans l'arriere saison
La fortune d’Armand s’accorde avec la mienne:
France, Je sors de mla prison
Quand son ame sort de la sienne.
(The line, ‘France, Je sors de ma prison,’ is the anagram of François de Bassompiere.)”
——— “French writer dedicated a book to Richelieu —— wrote a second edition, and re-dedicated his volume ‘a Jesus Christ.’”
“Voltaire's ignorance of antiquity is laughable. In his Essay on Tragedy, prefixed to Brutus, he actually boasts of having introduced the Roman senate on the stage in red mantles. “The Greeks,” as he asserts, “font paraitre ses acteurs (tragic) sutir des especes d’echasses, le visage couvert d’un masque quti exprime la douleur d’un cotd et la joye de l'autre.’”
“La Bibliotheque des Bibliotheques by Pere Labbe, a Jesuit.
“In Racine's Berenice Antiochus says to the queen:
‘Je me suis tu cinq ans
Madame, et vais encore me taire plus long temps —— ‘”
In Voltaire's scruples about unity of place he has [page 50:] committed a thousand blunders. In the Mort deCaesar the scene is in the Capitol, but the people seem not to know their precise situation. On one occasion Cesar exclaims, ‘Courons au Capitole’”
“‘Journal des Scavans,’ in 1665 may be considered as the origin of Literary Journals or Reviews.”
“Sans ce tombeau git Le Sage abattu
Par le cisean de la Parque importune,
S’il ne fut pas ami de la fortune
I fut toujours ami de la vertu,
(was Le Sage's epitaph)
(“The lines although extremely French are forcible,
“‘Et comme un jeune caur est bientot enflan-me
Il me vit, il m’aiula, je le vis, je l'aimai.’”
(On Cardinal Richelieu, Benserade made the following epitaph:)
Cy gist — ouy gist par la mort bleu
Le Cardinal de Richelieu,
Et ce qui cause mon ennuy
Ma pension avec lui.”
(mentions) “Crebillon”
(“The Count Bielfeld's definition of poetry is’ L'art d’exprimer les pensees par la fiction.’” [page 51:]
(“The following Vaudeville is one of the drollest of its kind:
Quand un bon vina meuble mon estomac
Plus sage que Pibrac.
Mon bras seul faisant l'attaque
De la nation Cossaque
La mettroit au sac.
De Charon Je passerois le lac
En dormant dans sonr bac.
J’irois au fier Eac
Sans que mon coeur fit tic ni tac
Presenter du tabac.’”
“Peter Snook” [[— Southern Literary Messenger, October 1836]]
“beau ideal”
“mal a propes”
“Literary Small Talk” [[— American Museum, January-February, 1839]]
“The Life of Julian” by the Abbe de la Breterie.
(criticizes) Voltaire
“naïvete”
“The Philosophy of Furniture” [[— Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, May, 1840]]
“A Few Words on Secret Writing” [[— Graham's Magazine, July-December, 1841]]
“au fait”
“Berryer”
“Le gouvernement proviscire”
“billet-doux”
“chiffre quarre (of the) French Academy”
“Byron and Miss Chaworth” [[— Columbian Magazine, December 1844]]
“Madame Dudevant says ‘ne sont plus pures que le cœur d’un jeune homme qui aime en vérité.”
“Anastatic Printing” [[— Broadway Journal, April 12, 1845]]
“ennuye”
“physique”
“morale”
“Some Secrets of the Magazine Prison-House” [[— Broadway Journal, February 15, 1845]]
“esprit de patrie”
“comme il faut”
“Fifty Suggestions” [[— Graham's Magazine, May and June 1849]]
“Rabelais’ ‘Gargantua’ the chapter ‘de ce qui est signife par les couleurs blanc et bleu.’”
“couleurs”
“Mon cousin, voici une belle occasion pour apprendre a lire!”
“Mirabeau”
(“What these philosophers call ‘argument,’ is a way they have ‘de nier ce qui est et d’expliquer [page 53:] ce qui n’est pas’.”
(From Nouvelle Heloise)
“La Jeune France”
“mes deserts”
“Le plus fou toujours est le plus satisfait,
— ‘toujours’ in place of “souvent.” (From Boileau)
“plus Arabe qu’en Arabie.”
“Literati of New York City” [[— Godey's Lady's Book, May-October, 1846]]
“(It might be hinted, too, in reference as well to Professor Bush as to his opponents,) “que la plupart del sectes ont raison dans une bonne partie de ce qu’elles avancent, mais non pas en ce qu’elles nient.”
“nom de plume”
“forte”
“mal à propos”
“litterateur”
“petite”
“forte”
(compares him to) Rabelais
“mediocres”
“resume”
“jeux d’esprit”
“insouciance”
“belles lettres”
“eclat”
“embonpoint”
“spirituelle”
“hauteur” [page 55:]
“litterateurs”
“recherches”
“litterateurs”
“nom de plume”
“spirituelle”
“Chapter on Autography” [[— Southern Literary Messenger, February and August, 1836 and Graham's Magazine, Nov. 1841]]
“beau ideal”
“bizarre”
“il parle par tout”
“petite”
“tout ensmble”
“Journal des Scavens”
“esprit de corps”
“imprimatur”
“Marginalia”
Marginalia, a collection of reviews and criticisms extended over a period of five years from 1844-1849. [page 56:]
I. Text: Democratic Review, Nov. 1844
“Ce qui je mets sur papier,” says Bernardin de St. Pierre, “je remets de ma mémoire, et par consequence je l'oublie.”
“abandonnement”
“ennui”
“recherche”
“traduit”
“farrage”
“tintamarre”
“en masse”
(“One of the most deliberate tricks of Voltaire, is where he renders, by): ‘Soyez justes, mortels, et ne craignez qu’un Dieu’” . . . . . ..,
“Sirene”
“Pour savoir ce qu’est Dieu,” says the Baron de Bielfeld, “il faut être Dieu mêmê.”
“en homme ordinaire”
“Mais moi, qui, dans le fond, sais bien ce que jen crois,
Qui compte, tous les jours, leurs larcins par mes points,
Je ris — etc
“faible”
“forte” [page 57:]
II. Text: Democratic Review, Dec. 1844
“conge d’elire”
“Rochefoucauld”
“Balzac” (author of) “La Maniere de Bien”
“Penser”
“La Harpe”
“Racine”
(attacks) Michel Masson, author of “Le Coeur d’une Jeune Fille.”
(also attacks) Mercier's “L'an deux Mille Quatre Cent Quarente”
“Voltaire”
“exposes”
“En vain contre ‘Le Cid’ un ministre se ligue;
Tout Paris pour Chimene a les yeux de Rodrique.”
“Jesuits, Le Sueur and Jacquier”
“French advocate ‘Linguet’”
(quotes from) “The Palais Royal” by Mancur.
IV. Text: Godey's Lady's Book, September 1845
“(Montfleury perished of the ‘Andromache.’ The author of the ‘Parnasse Réformé’ makes him thus speak in Hades) — “L'homme donc qui voudrait [page 58:] savoir ce dont je suis mort, qu’il ne demande pas s’il fût de fievre on de podagre ou d’autre chose, mais qu’il entende que ce fut de L'Andromache.”
“Voltaire”
“Boileau”
“Freneau” author of “Outre-mer”
“Berryer”
V. Text: Graham's Magazine, March 1846
“Montaigne”
“Bielfeld, the author of ‘Les Premiers Traits de L'Erudition Universelle,’ defines poetry as ‘l'art d'exprimer les pensées par la fiction.’ ”
VI. Text: Democratic Review, April 1846
“Hotel D'Angleterre”
(quotes from) “Voltaire”
“selon les regles”
“un homme du monde”
VII. Text: Graham's Magazine, Nov. 1846
“gaucherie”
(reviews) “Mysteries of Paris”
“gueux fini”
“Il est un guenx fini et un assaut ne l'intimidera pas.”
“un — oui!” dit la veuve. [page 59:]
“desagremens” (probably meant desagrements)
“Gringulet et Coupe en Deux” (related by) Pique-Vinaigre in “La Force”
“The Paris Charivari” (French magazine that copied the Rue Morgue in April 1841)
“raisonnee”
VIII. Text: Graham's Magazine, January 1848
“Pour savoir ce qu’est Dien, says Bielfeld, (although nobody listens to the solemn truth,) il faut être Dieu même.”
XI. Text: Southern Literary Messenger, April 1849
“abandonnement”
“De Beranger”
“Revue Francaise” and “Revue des Deux Mondes” (French magazines)
XII: Text: Southern Literary Messenger, May 1849
“Dumas”
[[XIII: Text: Southern Literary Messenger, June 1849]]
“protege”
“bouleversement”
“debauche”
Si demain, oubliant d’ éclore,
Le jour manquait, eh bien! demain
Quelque fou trouverait encore
Un flambeau pour le genre humain.
(De Beranger) [page 60:]
“II y a à parier,” says Chamfort — one of the Kankars of Mirabeau — “que toute idée publique — toute convention reçue — est une sottise; car elle a convenue au plus grand nombre.”
XIV. Text: Southern Literary Messenger, July 1849
“Dupin” (French orator)
“outre”
“d'où on ne peut se tirer par des periphrases — par des quemadmodums et des verumenimveros.” (Using words of Victor Hugo in regard to American letters)
“que le ministre de L'Instruction Publique doit lui-même savoir parler Francis.”
“Que dindon tu es”
Early Criticisms
Confessions of a Poet [[by Laughton Osborn — Southern Literary Messenger, April 1835]]
“Ce n’est pas par affectation que j’aie mis en Français ces remarques, mais pour les détourner de la connoissance du vulgaire.”
I Promessi Sposi translated from the Italian [[Complete Works, 8:12-19]]
Norman Leslie: A Tale of the Present Times [[Complete Works, 8:51-62]]
“par excellence”
“denouement”
“sans ceremonie”
“bel esprit”
The Hawks of Hawk-Hollow [[by Robert M. Bird]] [[Complete Works, 8:63-73]]
“tout ensemble”
“critique”
“embouchure”
“sobriquet”
“protege”
“chef d’oeuvre”
“outre”
The Heroine: Or Adventures of Cherubina [[by Eaton Stnnard Barett]] [[Complete Works, 8:76-81]]
“naivete”
“debauche”
“A marveille”
Zinzendorff and Other Poems [[by Lydia H. Signourney]] [[Complete Works, 8:122-142]]
“marchand des modes”
“morceau”
Poems: Translated and Original by Mrs. E. F. Ellet [[Complete Works, 8:122-142]]
The Partisan [[by William G. Simms]] [[Complete Works, 8:143-158]]
“haut ton”
“en masse”
“denouement”
“un peu passes”
Tales and Sketches by Miss Sedgwick [[Complete Works, 8:160-162]]
“‘St. Catherine's Eve’ is ‘une histoire touchante qui montre à quel point l'enseignement religieux pouvoit étre perverti, et combien le Clergé étoit loin d’etre le gardien des mæurs publiques’”
Paris and the Parisians by Frances Trollope [[Complete Works, 9:17-22]]
“Louvre”
“toques”
“chaussures”
“Tuileries”
“Ce sei a la Porte St. Martin —— J’y serei.”
“chere memen”
“bonne”
“emeutes”
England in 1835 [[by von Raumer]] [[Complete Works, 9:53-64]]
“juste milieu”
“la commencement de la fin” [page 63:]
Madrid in 1835 by a Resident Officer [[Complete Works, 9:157-158]]
“a la Trollope”
“un connaisseur”
Address delivered at the annual commencement of Dickinson College, July 21, 1836, by S. A. Roszel [[Complete Works, 9:158-159]]
“qui ne le doivent pas être.”
Review of A Dissertation on the Importance of Physical Signs in the Various Diseases of the Abdomen and Thorax by Robert W. Haxall [[Complete Works, 9:164-166]]
“Je n’enseigne pas”
“Je raconte”
Memorials of Mrs. Hemans by Henry F. Chorley [[Complete Works, 9:195-204]]
(In her copy of Corinne the following passage was underscored, and the words “C'est moi!” written in the margin.)
“De toutes mes facultés la plus puissante est la faculté de souffrir. Je suis née pour le bonheur. Mon caractère est confiant, mon imagination est ammée; mais la peine excite en moi je ne sais quelle impètuosité qui peut troubler ma raison, ou me donner de la mort. Je vous le répète encore, menagez-moi; la gaité, la mobililé ne me servent qu’en apparence: mais il y a dans mon âme des abymes de tristesse dont Je ne pouvais me défendre qu’en me préservant de l'amour.”
Astoria by Washington Irving [[Complete Works, 8:207-243]]
“voyageure”
“coureurs des bois” [page 64:]
Criticisms of Middle Period
Review of Stephen's Arabic Petraea [[Complete Works, 10:1-25]]
“Merier”
“Chateaubriand”
“Lamartine”
Hyperion: A Romance [[by H. W. Longfellow]] [[Complete Works, 10:39-40]]
“Rabelais”\
“Callöt”
The Canons of Good Breeding [[Complete Works, 10:45-49]]
“Rochefoucauld” (Poe often spelled this with a “t” instead of a “d”)
“Bielfeld”
“Lettres Edifiantes et Curieues”
“Pieces Interessantes et peu Connuses” of LaPlace.
“A Notice of William C. Bryant” [[Complete Works, 10:85-91]]
“jeu d’esprit”
“Messieurs Verplanck and Sands”
Night and Morning [[by Bulwer-Lytton]] [[Complete Works, 10:114-133]]
“chef d’oeuvre”\
“C'est juste; buvez donc, cher ami.”
“C'est juste; buvez donc, vieux renard”
“Ce n’est pas vrai”
“Monsieur Favort”
“mechant” [page 65:]
Sketches of Conspicuous Living Characters of France, translated by R. M. Walsh [[Complete Works, 10:133-139]]
“un homme de rien”
“un homme de beaucoup” (not good French)
“Chateaubriand”
“biographies . . . of Thiers, Chateaubriand, Laffitte, Guizot, Lamartine, Soult, Berryer, De La Mennais, Hugo, Dupin, Béranger, Odillon Barrot, Arago, George Sand, and the Duke De Broglie.”
“Academy of Aix”
“Vauvenargues”
“Monsieur Tonson”
“Moi qui, toujours fuyant les cités et les cours,
De trois lustres à peine ai vu finir le cours.”
“M. Raynouard”
“Berryer”
“Le gouvernement provisoire”
“Madame Dudevant”
“Monsieur, les dames ne passent pas par ici.”
Corse de Leon or The Brigand [[by G. P. R. James]] [[Complete Works, 10:160-162]]
“Bernard de Rohan”
“Isabel de Brienne”
“Count de Meyrand”\
“Messeran” [page 66:]
A Grammar of English Language in a Series of Letters [[by Hugh A. Pue]] [[Complete Works, 10:167-171]]
“piquant”
“tournure”
“Lamartine”
“Chenier”
“L'homme Calembour”
The Quacks of Helicon: A Satire by L. A. Wilmer [[Complete Works, 10:182-195]]
“cliques”
“ceteries”
“litterateurs”
“Belier, mon ami, commences au commencement”
“a nos moutons”
“finale”
(“Mr. Wilmer must read the chapter in Rabelais’ “Gargantua,” “de ce qui est signifié par les couleurs blanc et bleu”
“Talleyrand”
Life of Petrach by Thomas Campbell [[Complete Works, 10:202-206]]
“Abbe de Sade”
“en masse”
(“We cannot say with Crébillon —
“un dessein si funeste,
S’il n’est digne d’Atrée, est digne de Thyeste.”
The Pic-Nic Papers [[edited by C. Dickens]]
“Côtes du Rhöne”
“De Grave” [page 67:]
“Exordium” [[Complete Works, 11:1-8]]
“valet-de-cahmbre”
“coteries”
(speaks of) French Review
“critiques raisonnees”
The Vicar of Wakefield [[by Oliver Goldsmith]] [[Complete Works, 11:8-10]]
“etourderie”
“naivete”
“protege”
Stanley Thorn [[by Henry Cockton]] [[Complete Works, 11:10-15]]
“utile”
“Ecarte” or the “Salons of Paris”
“rôle”
Wakondah: The Master of Life [[by C. Mathews]] [[Complete Works, 11:25-38]]
“avec l'air d’un homme qui sauve sa patrie.” (quotes from Victor Hugo)
“Fontainebleau”
“mes deserts”
(quotes from) M. Timon
Zanoni [[by Bulwer-Lytton]] [[Complete Works, 11:115-123]]
“denouement”
“Robespierre” [page 68:]
The Poetry of Rufus Dawes [[Complete Works, 11:131-147]]
“elite”
“systeme de la Nature”
“fete champetre”
Our Amateur Poets [[— Flaccus (Thomas Ward)]] [[Complete Works, 11:160-174]]
“clique”
“jeu d’esprit”
Our Contributors [[— Fitz-Greene Halleck]] [[Complete Works, 11:190-204]]
“bon homie”
“naivete”
“insouicance”
Wyandotte [[by James Fenimore Cooper]] [[Complete Works, 11:205-220]]
“Gil Blas”
Barnaby Rudge [[by Charles Dickens]] [[Complete Works, 11:38-64]]
“protege”
“parvenue”
“denouement”
“enceinte”
(“may say as Talleyrand said of some cockney's bad French), ‘que s’il n’est pas Français, assurément donc il le doit être ——” [page 69:]
Later Criticisms
The Drama of Exile [[by Elizabeth Barrett Barrett]] [[Complete Works, 12:1-35]]
(speaking of the poet), “la patience angelique de genie.” (Balzac)
“critique”
“bizarrerie”
American Prose Writers [[ — N. P. Willis]] [[Complete Works, 12:36-40]]
“critique”
“Melanges of Suard and Andre”
[[The Longfellow War]] [[Complete Works, 12:41-106]]
“bon ton”
“qui vive”
“avec l'air d’un Romain qui sauve sa patrie — ”
“coterie”
The New Comedy by Mrs. Mowatt [[“Fashion”]] [[Complete Works, 12:112-121]]
“Millinette”
“femme de chambre”
“equivoques”
“denouement”
“restaurateur”
“piquant”
The Drama [[Complete Works, 12:184-188 and 12:210-212]]
The American Drama [[Complete Works, 13:33-73]]
(“A biographist of Berryer calls him) ‘l'homme qui dans ses decriptions, demande la plus grande quantité possible d’antithèse.”
(speaking of the decline of the drama) “de nier ce qui est, et d’expliquer ce qui n’est pas.”
“Ce qui n’est pas: — (for the drama has not declined)
“tableau”
“cul-de-sac”
“que le vrai n’est pas toujours le vraisemblable”
“debutant”
“prononcee”
“roue”
“equivoques”
“degages”
“eclaircissement”
[[Prose and Verse by]] Thomas Hood [[Complete Works, 12:213-222]]
“jeu d’espirit”
“chevalier d’industrie”
A Wreath of Wild Flowers from New England [[by Mrs. F. S. Osgood]] [[Complete Works, 13:105-125]]
“bandiage”
“espieglerie”
A Fable for Critics [[by J. R. Lowell]] [[Complete Works, 13:165-175]]
“dessous des cartes” [page 71:]
“About Critics and Criticism”
“n'est pas si sage qu'il croit”
The Songs of Our Land
“Seul, cherchant dans l'espece un point qui me réponde.”
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 45:]
1. Harrison, James A. Vol. I and II, Introduction, p. ix. Published by Thomas Y. Crowell and Co., New York, 1902.
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Notes:
None.
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[S:0 - RCT27, 1827] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Articles - A French Language and French Influence in the Works of Edgar Allan Poe (R. C. Tansil) (Chapter III)