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Leader (1850-1860), 6th December 1856, Edition 2 of 2, Page 17, AURORA LEIGH. Aurora Leiyk. By Elizabeth...

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      _ Uut A V Jr Re Tue Aior The.^ .. . "^ C...

      peasant class in France sufficiently rich to form the "basis of two useful and interesting volumes . His picture of the feudal system is one of the most complete that "we have seen , while to the histoi-ical student his narrative of the changes which since the twelfth century have slowly crept over the social state of France ¦ will be of the highest value . Nothing could be more remarkable than the contrast suggested by the first and last chapters of this work , which is written in a picturesque and varied style , and displays at once much learning , and a keen critical insight . The history of theFrench peasant is the history of degradation and

      _ suffering . N obles , priests , citizens , preyed upon him . He was their sport , their instrument , their property . They robbed him of his money , of his wife and child . To-day he renders service to the lord of the estate , to-morrow he watches on the border ; then lie labours to pay the crown dues ; again , he is pressed into the unpaid employment of the Church , and while he is absent , some despicable soldier robs his cottage of all that is dear to him , morally or otherwise . To outrages of this kind he was exposed , not only in the days when Jeanne d'Arc died by fire , but to the end of the seventeenth century and later . M . Bonneincre gives a singular narrative in illustration

      . A sergeant took lodgings with a Provencal peasant named Lebre . This peasant -was young , and bad a beautiful wife . The soldier , accustomed to success , lost no time before insulting her , and when Lebre resented his insolence , struck him in the face . The peasant insisted upon reparation , and proposed to ^ fight his offender ; btt a clown had no right to revenge himself , so he was driven from his own cottage by a number of ruffians , who laughed at his impotent indignation . But he had formed his plans . Conducting his pretty wife to the home whence he had taken her , he said , < e Father , I bring you back your daughter , a man does not deserve to have a wife who cannot protect her , she has been insulted , and I could not help it , but was turned out of my own habitation . I have no longer a home , and I have no longer

      a wife . Take her back , then , until I come again to claim her , and then you may safely restore her to me , for I swear that she shall be revenged , and that I shall know in future how to defend her . " Neither the tears of his wife nor the beseechings of her father could turn him from his resolution ; he left the country , and for a long time nothing was heard of him . He had overcome the habitual repugnance of the Provencal to a military life . He had enlisted ; by military service ^ alone could he be set free from the servitude of the soil , and he was determined to rise to an equality with the man who had struck hiin . Nothing should stand in bis way ; he would and must obtain his object . He had been taught nothing , he now learned everything necessary . Within eight years Lebre Avas a sergeant . JSut that was not enough . He must now find out his insulter—not a very difficult task , since the number of officers of that grade was then very few , the soldier who . wore a sergeant ' s epaulette considering himself not far from the dignity of a field-marshal . One day , lLebre met at

      accordingy , Strasbourg the man he sought , and invited him to dinner with all the sergeants of the garrison . After dinner , he rose and said , " Comrades , if one of you had received a blow , what would you do ? Answer me , sir , " addressing his enemy . " Give another blow in return today , and fight to-morrow . " " Very well , " he continued ; " you remember a peasant whom you struck , eight years ago , for endeavouring to protect bis wife against you V " Not the peasant , indeed , but the lady and the blow perfectly , " the sergeant answered ; the consequence being that Lebre discovered himself , struck him twice , claimed the privilege of a duel , and before a quarter of an hour had passed , had stabbed his antagonist mortally . Not many weeks after , with the rank of sub-lieutenant , he obtained leave of absence , and rejoined and recovered his young wife . This was the early history of M . Ldbre , one time governor of Montelimart , near Bayonne . We do not remember having seen it romanticized or dramatized ; but it suggests a stage-piece richer in situations than The Lady of Lyons .

      With such passages M . Bonncmcre ' s volumes abound . But their chief value consists in the broad and luminous narration in which be describes the several epochs of peasant history in France .

      December 6,1856.] The Leader. 1169

      December 6 , 1856 . ] THE LEADER . 1169

      Aurora Leigh. Aurora Leiyk. By Elizabeth...

      AURORA LEIGH . Aurora Leiyk . By Elizabeth Barrett Browning . Chapman and Hall-Second Notice . Last week we considered Aurora Leigh solely as a novel , which to many wi ll have seemed a very severe test , and one applicable to no other poem . Could we now speak of the poem with requisite detail we should occupy many columns , and extract many pages . The poem itself , however , will surely be in the hands of all poetical leaders ere long , and we may content ourselves with indicating a few points only , and extracting a few passages .

      Every one will be struck in Aurora Leigh with the afliuence and effluence of mind , the exquisite and easy utterance of a spirit penetrating , reflective , and high-thoughtcd . The rich experience of a life is garnered up in these verses . Instead of presenting us with a mere play of fancy , the idle combinations of images , Mrs . Browning gives us her meditations and her feelings , expressed in imagery and musical phrase , but not sacrificed to these ornaments . Various , also , are the chords she strikes : beauty find wisdom , humour and satire , description and pathos , by turns delight us ; and throughout there is felt the constant presence of u noble nature uttering its thoughts . The song is the song of a mind one feels to he purer and larger than that of ordinary men , or oven more than ordinary poets . And the influence of the poem sinks deep into your mind , making you feel stronger and better .

      Had we the privilege of knowing Mrs . Browning , and bad she suffered us to see the proof-sheets of her poem , we should havo begged her to remove one blemish , the iteration of which is particularly offensive—we mean the prodigality with which she employs the name of God , and the jarring introduction of Christ . The poets of the . ' Spasmodic School' make fireworks of the stars , and drag the name of' God into every dozen lines , because it is easy to produce effects by such means , and they only think of effects . In a poet everyway so superior ns Mrs . Browning , we nre distressed to see this trick of iteration . It as not weakness in her , but mannerism .

      Another and more deeply-seated fault is the occasional lapse into what we should call « approximative writing . ' After pages of concrete picturesque , direct verse , such as only poets ever write , we are suffered to toil through ^ pages without concreteness or picture of any kind ; reflective without ^ distinctness ; mere vague preluding , and , to use a physiological illustration , organi ^ able lymph in lieu of organized tissue . More than twothirds of the poetry of the present day is of this merorganic nature . You get scarcely any of it in Tennyson or Browning : the first because he elaborates , the second because he thinks concretely whatever he thinks . Mrs . Browning i s so genuine a poetess , and so prodigal in power , that the fault we speak of is the more surprising . It" is as if a great writer wrote on when his brain was weary . Here ends our fault-finding . To substantiate our praises we must send our readers to the book itself , or even to the extracts given last week . Longpassages display the beauties best , for they exhibit the ' largo of her style , which is not broken up into unattached effects , but swells with organbreathing roll , and exquisite modulations . There are lines and phrases which sparkle like jewels on the robe ; but the grace of the robe is not caught from them . Thus fancy itself borrows some deep expression , as when , yearning for Italy , Aurora asks the hills if they are conscious of her yearning : — - Do you feel to-night , The urgency and yearning of my soul , As sleeping mothers feel the sucking babe And smile ? ' .. ' - We shall cull a nosegay from this garden , and leave the reader to enjoy the fragrance :- — I could not sleep last night , and , tired Of turning on my pillow and harder thoughts , . Went out at early morning , when , the air ' . ' Is delicate with some last starry touch , To wander through the Market-place of Flowers . - .. ' ¦ ¦ "It ' s the way With these light women of a thrifty vice , My Marian ,- —always haid upon the rent In any sister ' s virtue ! "while they keep Their chastity so darned with perfidy , That , though a rag itself , it looks as well Across a street , in balcony or coach , As any stronger stuff might . For my part , I'd rather take the wind-side of the stews Than touch such women with my finger-end ! They top the poor street-walker by their lie , And look the better for being so much worse : . The devil ' s most devilish when , respectable . " How sure it is , That , if '• we say a true word , instantly We feel His God ' s , not ours , and pass it on As bread at sacrament , sve taste and pass . Nor handle for a moment , as indeed We dared to set up any claim to such ! " A man may love a woman perfectly , And yet by no means ignorantly maintain A thousand "women have not larger ej-es : Enough that she alone has looked at him With eyes that , large or small , have won bis soul . " " That makes libertines : That slurs our cruel streets from end to end With eighty thousand women in one smile , Who only smile at night beneath the gas : The body ' s satisfaction and no more , Being used for argumeat against the soul's . " • • • • . ' " The sadness of your greatness fits you well : As if the plume upon a hero ' s casque Should nod a shadow upon his victor face . " • • * * " There ' s too much abstract willing , purposing , In this poor world . We talk by aggregates , And think by systems ; and , being used to face Our evils in statistics , are inclined 'To cap them with unreal remedies Drawn out in haste on the other side the slate . " " A woman cannot do the thing she ought , Which means whatever perfect thing she can , In life , in art , in science , but she fears To let the perfect action take her part And rest there : she must prove what she can do Before she does it , —prate of woman ' s rights , Of woman ' s mission , woman ' s function , till The men ( who are prating , too , on their side ) cry , 1 A woman ' s function plainly is . . to talk . ' Poor souls , they are very reasonably vexed ! They cannot hear each , other speak . " And you , An artist , judge so ?" "I , an artist , —yes , Because , precisely , I ' m an artist , sir , And woman , —if another sate in sight , I'd whisper , —Soft , my sister ! not a word ! Uy speaking we prove only we can spoak ; " Which he , the man here , never doubted . What He doubts , is whether wo can do the thing With decent grace , we ' ve not yet done at all s Now , do it ; bring your statue , —you have room ! He'll see it even by the starlight hero 5 And if ' tis o ' er so little like the god

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 6, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06121856/page/17/