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The Christine of Frédéric Soulié

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Harold M. March
Harold M. March*
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Extract

Christine à Fontainebleau (Odéon, October 13, 1829), by Frédéric Soulié, has been called “le premier effort de l‘école romantique.” The statement must of course be taken as referring only to the movement in the theatre, and even then needs qualification; but it contains a certain amount of truth. Christine was a “drame historique en cinq actes et en vers,” written in accordance with the principles of the Romantic school. At the time of its production, Cromwell had not been played; Amy Robsart, besides being merely a dramatic adaptation of a novel of Scott, was in prose; so was Henri III et sa cour; Vigny's translation of Othello, Hernani, and Dumas’ Christine were yet to come. The failure of Soulié's Christine was complete, and the excitement of its stormy first night was effaced by the subsequent and more spectacular première of Hernani. As a consequence this early romantic tragedy is practically forgotten, though it is mentioned, with varying degrees of accuracy, by several of Soulié's contemporaries, notably Dumas père and Jules Janin, and is occasionally referred to by modern scholars.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , September 1930 , pp. 897 - 917
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1930

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References

1 Le Voleur, Aug. 20, 1838, p. 158.

2 Mes Mémoires, Paris, 1868-1883, IV, 281-283; V, 75-78, 285-291; VI, 21-24.

3 Histoire de la littérature dramatique, Paris, 1853-1858, V, 57-63.

4 See particularly J. Marsan, La Bataille romantique [Ire sér.], Paris, 1912, pp. 195-198.

5 Cf. Figaro, Oct. 13, 1829.

6 Janin, op. cit., V, 21. See also Soulié's poems Millevoye and La Nuit de douleur, in Amours françaises, pp. 151 and 179.

7 Paris, Ladvocat, 1824.

8 Autobiographical letter of Soulié, La Presse, Sept. 27, 1847; Th. Gautier, Portraits contemporains, Paris, 1898, p. 29.

9 Dumas, op cit., III, 223; IV, 267.

10 Moreau, in Courrier français, June 16, 1828.

11 Soulié, op. cit.

12 Op. cit., IV, 281-283.

13 The dedication of the first edition of Soulié's Christine is as follows: “A mon ami CHARLES DAVID, avocat à la cour royale de Paris. Mon ami, Lorsque quelques personnes promettaient un grand succès à ce drame, je comptais te le dédier et je te le dédie, aujourd'hui que l‘évenement a trompé ces espérances. C'est un droit de notre amitié. Frédéric Soulié.” Soulié received the cross of the Legion of Honor in 1845.

14 Dumas, op. cit., V, 75-77.

15 Cf. Ibid., V, 285, and Courrier français, Oct. 15, 1829, review by Moreau of Soulié's Christine.

16 Dumas, op. cit., V, 286.

17 Soulié, op. cit.

18 Janin, op. cit., V, 58.

19 Victor Hugo raconté par un témoin de sa vie (Oeuvres complètes, Paris, 1885), II, 259.

20 Dumas, op. cit., V, 285.

21 II, 8.

22 Soulié, op. cit.

23 II, 8.

24 IV, 1.

25 Janin, op. cit., V, 60.

26 Ibid., V, 57.

27 F. Soulié, Christine à Fontainebleau, Paris, 1829, p. xxi.

28 These articles, and those of the following day, are unsigned. Their authorship is attested by references in Soulié's preface (pp. xxv-xxvi), and in Janin, op. cit., V, 59, confirmed by marginal notations in the Bibliothèque Nationale copies of the newspapers.

29 Janin, op. cit., V, 59.

30 Ibid., V, 59.

31 Autobiographical letter, La Presse, Sept. 27, 1847.

32 Cf. particularly Courrier français of Oct. 15, 1829.

33 Revue de Paris, 1829, VII, 103. For this article and the stir it created, see L. Séché, Le Cénacle de Joseph de Lorme. I. Victor Hugo et les Poètes… . Paris, 1912, chap. vi.

34 Un Grand Méconnu: Henri da Latouche, Mercure de France, 15 fév., 1924; Latoucke réhabilité, ibid., 1er oct., 1928.

35 It is apparently to this quarrel that Dumas refers: “Les amitiés de Soulié, à cette époque (ca. 1824), étaient, en littérature, Jules Lefèvre et Latouche—Latouche, avec lequel il se brouilla si cruellement depuis, à propos de Christine” (op. cit., III, 240). Latouche's statement “je n'ai pas l'honneur d‘être connu de vous” seems to invalidate Dumas’ earlier dating of a friendship between Soulié and Latouche. The quarrel is also referred to in Maurice Champion's wholly inadequate biography of Soulié, Frédéric Soulié, sa vie et ses ouvrages, Paris, 1847, p. 13, where Soulié's sarcastic shaft about “tombé dans vos bras” is given in a much garbled form, and the occasion of the incident is said to be Roméo et Juliette. Champion is apparently merely passing on the mistake made by Charles de Matharel in his article on Soulié, Le Siècle, 27 sept., 1847.

36 A Racot, Portraits d'hier, Paris, 1887, p. 215.

37 Autobiographical letter, La Presse, 27 sept., 1847. This letter is undated, but internal evidence places its composition in 1834. Janin (op cit., V, 59) confuses the date of writing with the date of publication, and says that Soulié made this declaration about Christine twenty years after the failure.

38 Lemoine, 1829. Bibliographie de la France, 19 déc., 1829.

39 Cf. J. Marsan, op. cit., p. 197.

40 p. iv.

41 p. v.

42 p. xiii.

43 p. xiv.

44 p. xv.

45 p. xv, xvi.

46 Des Salons littéraires, Oeuvres complètes, Lévy ed., XXII, 195.

47 p. xvi.

48 p. xvi, xvii.

49 p. xxiii.

50 Sainte-Beuve, letter to Hugo, 27 oct., 1829; Revue de Paris, 1904, VI, 759. Hugo, letter to Sainte-Beuve, 12 juin, 1832; Victor Hugo, Correspondance, Paris, 1896, p. 290.

51 For l'Europe littéraire, its policies and contributors, see T. R. Palfrey, L'Europe littéraire, Paris, 1927.

52 Le Magnétiseur, Paris, 1834, I, 154, 156.

53 Ed. of Gossenlin, 1841, p. 48.

54 Constitutionnel ed., 1857, I, 168.

55 Les Français peints par eux-mêmes, Paris, 1840, I, 309.

56 P. xxvii.

57 Op. cit., V, 289-291, and VI, 21-24; and in a letter to Charles Matharel, Le Siècle, 28 sept., 1847.

58 Echo de la littérature et des beaux-arts, 1847, VIII, 316.

59 Dumas, op. cit., V, 290.

60 See Bottin for 1828, 1829, and 1830. The Bottin appeared in January of its year.

61 Op. cit., VI, 24.