BIOGRAPHY

Proaper Mérimée, novelist, archsologist, historian, tinguist, and scholar (bom September 28, 1803; dîed September 23, 1870), is best known as the author of several excellent stories and short novels.

Mérimée was of a good family of Parisian bourgeoisie and was reared in cotnfoit. His grandfather was a hamster in Rouen, and his father was well known as an artist and man of letters. On his mother's side there was English blood, and by many he was thought to look more like an Englishman than like a Frenchman.

As a child he was happy in a life of peace and industry ; his parents were intelligent and artistic, and enjoyed the friendship of many noted and excellent people. Love of home, early fostered, always clung to Mérimée, and af ter his travels he retumed home to the same quarter in Paris, endeared to him by his early recollections.

There is a story told of him. when he was seven or eight years of âge. In itself it is not important, but so much has been made of it that it deserves répétition though it is misleading. The incident described in it is supposed to hâve had great influence in determîning Mérimée's attitude toward the world. The anecdote is as follows :

Reproved for some childish fault and dismissed from the drawing-room, he stood immediately outside the door pleading for readmission and suffering the mental agony of a child

who thinks his wrong beyond atonement. Hère he heard a half-pitying laugh at his expansé, acconipanied by the cruel comment, " Il se croit bien criminel." In a moment, so the story runs, he had determined never to give credence to the Etalements of others ; and to be forever on his guard, especially against his own kindly impulses. Be that as it may, he was always clothed in that cold réserve which is the sign of a wary man; but it is altogether probable that those who attribute this excéss of caution to a childish expérience overlook the fundamentals of his character. The tendency to mistrust was there long before his heartless elders wounded his young sensibîlities.

His éducation at the Collège d'Henri IV in Paris was adéquate. After leaving collège he studied law and was admitted to practice, but he never engaged actively in the profession. About the time when he was admitted to the bar, he joined a small cîrcle of celebrities which met once a week at the house of Etienne Delécluze, painter and art critic. Hère Ampère, Sainte-Beuve, Stapfer, Victor Cousin, Marc Girardin, Violletle-Duc, and other well-known writers held literary discussions, and Mademoiselle Monod taught her Hlustrious pupils the beauties of English poetry. Mérimée was most punctual and assiduous at thèse sessions — he never stopped on any road to learning. Such were the beginnings of his membership in that brilliant génération of literary men of which Thiers and Guizot were the last. It was hère also that he fell under the pessimistic influence of Henri Beyle (Stendhal), from which little good came.

Mérimée in his earlier years held several cabinet positions. But in 1833 his patron, the Duc de Broglie, left the cabinet, and Mérimée was transferred to a more congenial work. His new duties were to examine and inspect the vestiges of the past found on French soil, such as ruins and other remains left from

INTRODUCTION xi

the tiroe of the Roman occupation and from the time of earlier peoples. He also gave much attention to chuich antiquitios, and was instrumental in preserving many a building or Other architectural monument in its original form. Archseology owes much to his affectionate care for thèse priceleas memorials.

In his seaich for materials for his archœological reports and for his historiés he traveled extensively, traversîng France and a large part of Spain, and visi ting the Orient.

From this work it was only a step to the wrïting of history. He wrote historiés of the Conspiracy of Catiline, of the War of the Italian Provincials agaînst Rome, and of Don Pedro the Cruel, King of Spain. He began a Life of Julius Cœsar, which we now hâve — only under the name of Napoléon III. He also wrote two semi-historical books, A Chronicle of the Rtign of Charles IX and The Jacquerie, which were designed to give a séries of historical scènes. Naturally history in such a form would lack organization and nnity.

In 1844 he was made a member of the French Academy, and a year later of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles- Lettres.

Mérimée's great lînguistic attainments equipped him well for his archœological and historical work. He knew six foreign languages, besides speaking several gypsy dialects with a facility which surprised the gypsies themselves. He introduced Russian literature to French readers through a number of excellent translations.

On one of his rambles in Spain he met a certain Count de Moniijo whose guest he became. Later it came in Mérimée's way to return the hospitality when the Montijo family came to Paris. He took spécial delight in conducting about the city the four-year-old daughter — la petite Eugénie — who had to be amnsed, and who amused Mérimée as well. He told her "many a fine taie," bought her confections, and made peace

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for her when she had been naughty. They were inséparable comrades. Some years later he introduced Madame de Montijo and her beautiful daughter into the lettered and artistic colony at Passy. In due time he wrîtes : " The other day this little girl told me that she was to be married to the Emperor [Napoléon III]." When this mairiage was settled, it was Mérimée who fumished the necessary information for writing the contract. His petite Eugénie — through his instrumentality — had become the Empress of the French. The friendship thus begun and continuée! Iasted till Mérimée's death; and when ail Europe was speaking of him, it was as much to his crédit as to her own that he was always her old friend, always the " Monsieur Mérimée " of her earlier years. One of Napoleon's first acts was to appoint Mérimée a senator. Thereupon Mérimée wrote to Madame de Montijo, " I am told that the Empress kissed her husband when he told her of this appointment ; this little détail, I assure you, gave me more pleasure than the appointment itself." Madame de Montijo's influence on his literary work was considérable. She suggested that he write the Life of Don Pedro, and told him the story of Carmen.

The rest of Mérimée's career is comparative!}- unimportant. Circumstances forced him to take a larger part in the amusements and frivolities of a gay court than were suited to his inclinations and declining years. Renan aptly says of him, "He was the Petronius of his âge,"

His death occurred on the eve of the unfortunate Franco- Prussian War, and was doubtless hastened by his forebodings over the outcome of that contest. Mérimée was a true patriot.

His wri tings may be divided into three groups : the historical works already alluded to, his stories, and lastly his letters. Thèse last hâve been the subject of many a magazine article, partly because of his high hterary and social position, partly

INTRODUCTION xiii

because of the interest attaching to a mari of bis unusual and peculiarly attractive character.

Mérimée was not handsome. He had a sly and sneering expression whicb ruade him look like a peasant. He was often mistaken for an Englishman — which again calls to mind-his English descent. He knew the woild, walked on a footing of equality with ail, and knew bow to make himself respected. A contemporary, David d'Angers, thus describes him in company : — " Mérimée talks little. He plays with an album, care less of what he says, affecting the manners of a skeptic and man completely bored, but none the less obscrving détails with extrême shrewdness. A certain timidity, a restreint contrasting strangely with bis self- possession, forms the basis of bis character." He was réticent about himself. He deligbted in mystification and conceit of the innocent sort. Nothing pleased him better than to assume a seriousness whicb he did not feel, and which was really foreîgn to him — for the ludîcrous side of things was always uppermost with him. He had an immense fund of wit and drollery, and told the most laugbable stories without the least change of countenance or the gbost of a smile. He said, " One must not laugh — it is not good form, it smacks of the populace. . . . When in earaest, satirists are declaimers ; when j oyons, they are merely buffoons. We may ridicule if we do not seem to do so, and jeer if we préserve our serious demeanor." He carefully collected human follies for the mère pleasure of contemplât in g them.

Quite in keeping with his enjoyment of mystification was the pleasure which it gave him to be misjudged. Though he was an excellent man, a sure friend, and a patriot, it was his delight to be taken for a bad man, a treacherous friend, and a disdainful cosmopolitan. The pleasure lay in the consciousness of the mistake. His delight in having the world misînformed about him extended even to his writing. He tried to D.-j.izcdLvCooyle

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give the impression that he wrote without consciously striving mi for literary results, that he wrote as the minstrel of old coin- « posed and sang ■ — t>

Ich singe, wie. der Vogel skigt,

Der in den Zweigen wohnet — ^

without striving for effect, without pioducing a work of art, il exactly as one writes a letter. "Write," he said, "at least when you begin, in such a way that nobody will say that youi work is différent frora that of other writers."

There was a trait in Mérimée's character which many hâve » criticised. He was outwardly skeptical and cynical; he was ! ; considered indiffèrent, sarcastic, cold, distant, hard-hearted, » and disdainful. Some one who knew him said, " M. Mérimée's i handshake would give one the shivers were it not for the fact m that he never grows cordial enough to shake hands." ft

If the motto 1t.tfi.vat7' àmiTrâv was not merely in the ring j he wore but in his daily life as well ; if he said " Il faut être » honnête homme et douter," he was right in many sensés.