THÈME XI
Voyageant en Italie, dans sa jeunesse, Milton vit re- Travelling in Jtaly hts Milton saw re-
présenter à Milan une comédie intitulée : Adam , ou le presented at Milan entitlcd Adam or
péché originel, écrite par un certain Andriûi. Le sujet de • written by Andrini . •
• *cette comédie était la chute de l’homme. Lgs acteurs this was ' characters
étaient, Dieu le père , les diables, les anges, Adam, Év«* were devils ' angels Eve ■
le serpent, lamort et les’péchésmortels. Milton découvrit, dealh dis'covered
«'travers l’absurdité de l’ouvrage, la sublimité cachée in work sublimity hiddert
du sujet. Il y a souvent dans les choses où tout parait There is often in which ail appears
ridicule au vulgaire , un coin de grandeur qui ne se fait
a trait which is not
apercevoir qu’aux hommes de ge'nie. Les sept pèches perceived but by of genius
-mortelsdansantaveclediable,sonlassurémentlecomble dancing are certainly the height
de l’extravagance et de la sottise ; mais l’univers rendu
nonsense rendered
^malheureux par la faiblesse, d’un homme, les bontés misérable by ’ goodness
•et les vengeances du Créateur, la source de nos malheurs vengeance source our misery
et de nos crimes , sont des objets dignes du pinceau ie our are worthy
-plus hardi. Il y a surtout, dans ce sujet, je ne sais boldest There is above ail this I do not know •quelle horreur ténébreuse , un sublime sombre et triste, what sublime
qui ne convient pas mal à l’imagination anglaise. which does not ill suit with english
Milton conçut le dessein de faire une. tragédie de la
conccived of making
farce d’Andrini. Il en composa même un acte et demi, He compose d even a half
Mais la sphère de ses idées s’élargissant à mesure qu’il
enlarging as he
-travaillait, il imagina , au lieu d’une tragédie, un poème advanced imagined in' place of
-épique .Cepoèmeamille défauts .Les diables qui , de géans This has tt 'ho
qu’ils étaient , se transforment en pygmées, pour tenir that were transform themselves into to lake up
moins de place au conseil, dans une grande salle toute less room in the ' ail
d’or, bâtie dans l’air; les canons qu’on tire dans le ■of built which are fired in
ciel; les montagnes qu’on s’y jette à la tête; les that they throw at one anothers heads anges à cheval, que l’on coupe en deux, et dont les on horsc-back who • are eut in l\vo * whose
jo5
parties se rejoignent soudain; la longue description delà parts rejoin suddcnly
manière dont la terre , les animaux et l’homme furent in which were
formés, etc.
fomied
THÈME XII (i).
Tlie subject of Henriade is the triumph of Henry Jburth over the arms ojleague. This poem is subject to botli tlie defects tliat we find in Lucan’s Pliarsalia ; it is founded wholly on civil wars, and is of too recent date, and cornes toomuch witliin bounds of well known liistory. To remedy this defect, Voltaire lias chosen to mix fiction, with the truth. Poem, for instance, opens with an. voyage of Henry to England ; though every one knows tliat Henry never was in the England , and that he and queen Elizabeth never met. In facts of such. public notoriety, a fiction like this shocks the reader, and forms a unnatural and ill-sorted mixture with /7ie historical truth.
In order to embellish subject, poet lias chosen a great deal of machinery ; but it is of the worst kind, and the least suited to an epic poem. Àllegorical beings, the Discord, the Cunning, and the Love , appear as personage, inixt with human actors , and make considérable figure in intrigue of the poem. This is contrary to every rule of rational criticism. The Ghosts, the Angels, and the Devils may be conceived as cxislings ; b u t e ve ry one knows, that allegorical beings are no more than représentations of * human dispositions and passions.They may be employ ed like the other personifications or figures of speech ; or in €tn poem , that is wholly allegorical , they may occupy the chief place : but, in an poem which relates to human transactions , wlien such beings are described as acting with of the men , imagination is confounded; it is divided between of the phantasms and of the realities , and knows not on what to rest.
In justice, however, toauthor, we must observe, that machinery oî St. Louis, which he also employs, is of the
(i) Les mots en italiques indiquent les fautes que l'e'colicr doit corriger avant de faire sa traduction.
io6 GRAMMAIRE ANGLAISE.
better kind, and possesses real dignity. Finest passage in the Henriade , indeed oneof Jîncst in anypoem, is prospect of the invisible world, which St. Louis gives to Henry in a dream in seventh canto .The Death bringing soûls of the dead in succession before God ; their asto— nislunent, wlien, arriving from ail different countries and religious sects, tliey are bronght into divine présence ; wben they find their superstitions to be false, and hâve truth unveiled to lliem ; palace of the destinies opened to Henry, and prospect of his successors which is there given him, are of the striking and magnificent objects , and do honour to the genius of Voltaire.
It is worthy to be remarked, thatthisauthor has acted very differently, in different times , towards thé holy king St. Louis. In his panegvric on the saint, lie lias made him at least equal to the God; in the Henriade, he has placed him in the heaven; and in Pucelle , he hasplunged him down into the hell. However Voltaire may merit our admiratiôn as a author, we must ever despise him as an man.
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