THE MILTON AND GALILEO LETTERS
« to the editor of the Daily News.
„ sir, — After having read your two excellent leaders on the Milton and Galileo Letters presented to the French Institute by M. Chasles, and after having studied carefully and attentively the article published by Professor Owen in Frazer's^ Magazine, with that wise and characteristic prudence which induced him to refrain from expressing an opinion on the genuineness of the papers, I intended to communicate to your readers, with your permission, in two or three letters, the resuit of my observations on thèse audacious literary forgeries. Though it might be considered presumptuous in a foreigner to oppose the opinion of such men as M. Chasles and M. Elie de Beaumont, I was not deterred by thèse words of the lalter : - « The authors of thèse several letters and notices let their pen run naturally; they relain strictly llieir
respeclive proper styles It is not in the power
of any one to put himself in the position of Galileo, of Milton, of Louis XIV. . . . to write ad libitum, in harmony
with the circumstances Le style c'est tout
l'homme. « For myself, sir, I was perfectly convinced, after having read a few lines of each of the documents, that no man in the seventeenth century could hâve made use of such
très-bon article de M. A. Leroy, professeur de philosophie à l'université de Liège, dans la Meuse du 8 avril 1870.
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extraordinary Frencli plirascology. M. Elie de Beaumont is an eminent geologist, but if lie rccognisrs in thèse letters tlie style of the Grand siècle, he mnst liave a very superficial knowledge of liis own motlier tonguc. I began my studies by the supposed letter of Milton to Louis XIV, having first ascerlained that ail the facts concerning Milton's Iravels in France and in Italy liad been borrowed froni the account given by him, in self-defence, in the admirable and éloquent tract translated from Latin into English by Robert Fellowes, A. M., under the title of « The Second Defence of the People of England » . I stopped, pondered, and admired, when I came to the following passage of Millons's supposed letter to Louis XIV, which I give hère at full length :
« Je quittay donc Florence pour de là me rendre à Sienne où je reslay peu. De là j'allay à Rome, où je fus parfaitement accueilli de tous les scavans et principalement de Monseigneur le Cardinal Barberini, qui m'admettait à ses concerls. Ce fut là que j'entendis la fameuse musicienne Léonora. Je fus tellement charmé de ses chants et de sa beauté, que jen'ay pu m'empécher de faire ses louanges dans un sonnet : après un séjour assez long dans la capitale du monde chrétien, je
m'en allay à Naples
J'y fis connaissance du très-illustre marquis de Villa, vieillard plein d'esprit, ingénieux et enthousiaste, qui avoit esté l'amy et l'admirateur du Tasse, et qui parloit de luy avec cette abondance de souvenirs que laisse ordinairement dans la mémoire l'intimité d'un homme illustre et malheureux. Je me sentis comme inspiré en escoutant les beaux récits de cet amy du Tasse.
« Now, sir, this is very good, very pure, very élégant French ; but it is not French of the i 7tli century, nor such
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as Milton, or any French writer could hâve then penned. It struck me that I had read sometliing of the kind before, and suddenly, by one of those liappy and unaccountable effects of memory, I recollected tlie following passage of M. Villemain's Notice sur Milton, published in his Mélanges, and in the new édition of the Biograpliie Universelle de Michaud : . .... Milton visita Rome . . où il fut très favorablement accueilli par le Cardinal Barberini, et admis à ses concerts, où il entendit Léonora, musicienne fameuse, dont il a célébré la voix et la beauté dans quelques vers anglais et dans un sonnet italien. . . Mais son ambition était de polir sa langue maternelle. Il était dès lors tourmenté de l'espérance d'élever quelque grand monument à la gloire de son pays. A Naples, il fortifia cette pensée par les entretiens qu'il eut avec le marquis de Villa, vieillard ingénieux et enthousiaste, qui avait connu et beaucoup aimé le Tasse et qui parlait de lui avec cette abondance de souvenirs que laisse dans la mémoire l'intimité d'un homme illustre et malheureux. Milton se sentait inspiré en écoutant l'ami de Tasse.
• After having thus detected the impudent forger, la main dans le sac, as our witty neighbours say, I need not bestow any more lime on those worlhless documents, nor inflicl another letter on you and your readers. I hope thaï M. Chasles will at last open his eyes, and recover from that infatuation which makes him, with such unaccountable credulity and literary ignorance, persist in believing in the authenticity of documents on the origin of which he still obstinately refuses to give any explanation to the French Institute.
« I am, etc.
(Daily News, 10 mars 18G9.)
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(Page 135.) LÉOPOLD I e
Lettre de Lord Broughlon.
« Tedworth-House, 11 december 186b.
« My dear M. Van de Weyer,
« Most deeply, and most sincerely do I condole with you on tlie irréparable loss which your nation, and llie whole of civilised Europe, hâve sustained. — He was almost tlie only instance with which I was acquainted, of the combination of very great virtues with very great intcllectual qualilies — and I do not at ail agrée with his otherwise fair eulogist, that he was not a great monarch ; I say he was a great monarch ; unless in order to be a great monarch it is necessary to be a great criminal.
« Itwas once the fashion to deny that our Queen Elizabeth was a great sovereign, and in order to account for lier marvellous success, it wasacknowledged that she had wise advisers. Whereupon,asyou recollect, a great contemporary remarked, « did you ever know a foolish monarch that had wise advisers ?
« Again, and again, I condole with you, and if it were not at variance with court étiquette, I would ask you to convey this heart felt regret to my own Queen.
» Ever sincerely yours.
« Broughton. »
