Livre VII

. iv.

L. 255. For the metaphor compare 'la fausse clef du fatal gouffre bleu', l. 37, and the following passage in _L'Ane_ about the prison of life:--

La porte en est massive et la voûte en est dure; Tu regardes parfois au trou de la serrure, Et tu nommes cela science; mais tu n'as Pas de clef pour ouvrir le fatal cadenas.

L. 273. Cf. the well-known line in _Les Contemplations: Ce que dit la Bouche d'Ombre_:--

Le fauve univers est le forçat de Dieu.

Man is likened to a convict, in that he is undergoing punishment, not in that he deserves it.

_Allioth_, a star of the first magnitude in the Great Bear.

_J'en arrive_: 'Tis from there I come.

_la pesanteur_. Gravity symbolizes the forces which keep man down.

_guèbres_, fire-worshippers, i.e. the Persians, who still adhere to the ancient religion of Zoroaster. The word itself is Persian.

_Thalès_ (English Thales), one of the seven wise men of Greece.

L. 317. An allusion to the well-known doctrine of the music of the spheres, enunciated by Plato.

_chouette_. The owl, as a bird of darkness, was to Hugo suggestive of evil things. Cf. _La Confiance_.

_frisson des roseaux_, i.e. a trembling like that of reeds.

_Spinosa_ (English Spinoza) (1632-77), the Jewish philosopher, whose rationalistic views would be evidence to Hugo of his need of faith.

_Hobbe_. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), the famous English philosopher, is best known by his defence of absolute monarchy. In ethics he held that man is swayed only by the desire for pleasure and the fear of pain. Either of these views would be to Hugo a system of despair.

_Erèbe_ (Erebus) was originally one of the Titans who was cast by Zeus into Tartarus. The word is thus used as a synonym for the lower world, especially those regions where evil deeds are expiated.

_fatalité_. See note on l. 245.

_géhenne_. Gehenna was the valley near Jerusalem where crimmals were executed. In the New Testament it is used as a synonym for hell.

Nimrod is again the embodiment of the spirit of war. Aaron typifies ecclesiastical resistance to progress.

_Beccaria_ was an Italian publicist (1738-94) who worked for the reform of the penal law. His principal work was a small volume called _Treatise on Crime and Punishment_, which was translated into nearly every language in Europe. His opposition to the use of torture, to the infliction of the death penalty, and to arbitrary arrest no doubt appealed specially to Hugo.

_Dracon_, i.e. Draco, the Athenian legislator, the memory of the excessive severity of whose laws lingers in our adjective _draconian_.

_Empédocle_. Empedocles was a Greek philosopher who was born in Sicily about 450 B.C. He is best remembered from the tradition that he threw himself down Etna in despair at his incapacity to solve the problem of its action.

_Prométhée_. Prometheus was the Titan who stole fire from heaven and gave it to men, for which Zeus chained him to a rock in the Caucasus. In legend and poetry he figures as the benefactor and civilizer of mankind.

_pesanteur_. See note on l. 305.

_l'antique idéal_, the ancient visions, as for instance those of Isaiah and Virgil, of a golden age.

_farouche_, i. e. that has never been realized.

L. 473. i. e. leaving the old humanity farther and farther behind.

LA TROMPETTE DU JUGEMENT. (PAGE 138.)

_buccin_. See note on LA CONFIANCE.

_blanchissant l'absolu_, i.e. lighting up infinite space.

_urne_, used as the symbol of Destiny. See notes on PLEIN CIEL.

L. 117. i.e. entered the immeasurable and infinite.

_gehennam_, another form of _géhenne_, closer to the Hebrew _geia Hinnom_, the valley of Hinnom. See note on PLEIN CIEL.

_avernes_. Avernus was a lake in Campania, which the popular Roman belief held to be an entrance to the lower regions. Hence comes _averne_, used as a synonvm for hell.

L. 165. See note under PUISSANCE ÉGALE BONTÉ.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I.

WORKS OF VICTOR HUGO.

_Odes et Poésies diverses_. Paris, 1822. The volume contains several poems not found in subsequent editions. _Han d'lslande_, novel. Paris, 1823. _La Muse française_, begun in 1823, ended in July, 1824. It contains several articles by Hugo. _Odes et Ballades_, 2nd volume. Paris, 1824. _Relation d'un voyage au Mont Blanc_. Paris, 1825. The MS. was sold to a publisher, but never published. _Bug-Jargal_, novel. Paris, 1826. _Odes_, 3rd volume. Paris, 1826. _Cromwell_, drama. Paris, 1827. _Les Orientales_. Paris, 1828 (December). _Le Dernier Jour d'un condamné_. Paris, 1829 (January). _Marion Delormé_. Paris, 1829. Not acted until 1830. _Hernani, ou l'honneur castillan_, drama. Paris, 1829. Acted for the first time on February 26, 1830. _Notre-Dame de Paris_. Paris, 1831 (March 15). _Les Feuilles d'automne_. Paris, 1831. _Le Roi s'amuse_, drama. Paris, 1832. _Lucrèce Borgia_, drama. Paris, 1833. _Marie Tudor_, drama. Paris, 1833. _Les Chants du crépuscule_. Paris, 1835. _Angelo_, drama. Paris, 1835. _Les Voix intérieures_. Paris, 1837. _Ruy Blas_, drama. Paris, 1838. _Les Rayons et les Ombres_. Paris, 1840. _Le Rhin_. Paris, 1842. It is divided into three parts: _Les Lettres_, _La Légende du beau Pécopin et de la belle Bauldour_, _Conclusion politique_. _Les Burgraves_, trilogy. Paris, 1843. _Napoléon le Petit_. Brussels, 1852. _Les Chátiments_. Geneva, 1853. _Les Contemplations_. Paris, 1856. _La Légende des siécles_. First Series. Paris, 1859. _Les Misérables_. Paris, 1862. _William Shakespeare_. Paris, 1864. _Les Chansons des rues et des bois_. Paris, 1865. _Les Travailleurs de la mer_. Paris, 1866. _L'Homme qui rit_, novel. Paris, 1869. _L'Année terrible_. Paris, 1872. _Quatre-vingt-treize_, novel. Paris, 1873. _La Légende des siécles_. Second Series. Paris, 1877. _L'Art d'être grand-père_. Paris, 1877. _L'Histoire d'un crime_. Paris, 1877. It was written at Brussels soon after the _coup d'état_ of 1851, but not published until 1877, when the Republic was in danger. _Le Pape_. Paris, 1878. _La Pitié suprême_. Paris, 1879. _L'Ane_. Paris, 1880. _Religions et Religion_, poems. Paris, 1880. _Les Quatre Vents de l'Esprit_. Paris, 1881. _Torquemada_. Paris, 1882. _La Légende des siècles_. Third Series. Paris, 1883.

II

POSTHUMOUS WORKS.

_Le Théâtre en liberté_. Paris, 1886. _La Fin de Satan_, poem. Paris, 1886. _Choses vues_, a sort of diary. Paris, 1887. _Toute la Lyre_. Paris, 1888. _Extraits de la correspondance de Victor Hugo_. Paris, 1888.

III

Besides these works Hugo wrote many articles, some of which appeared subsequently in complete editions of his works. The most remarkable of these are _Journal des idées, des opinions et des lectures dun jeune Jacobite_. 1819.

_Les Destins de la Vendée_. 1819. _Sur Walter Scott_. 1823. _Sur Lord Byron_ (à propos de sa mort). 1824. _Guerre aux démolisseurs_. 1825-32. _Journal des idées et des opinions d'un révolutionnaire de 1830_. _Sur Mirabeau_. 1834. _La Libération du territoire_. 1873. Many political articles, speeches, and prefaces.

IV

STUDY AND CRITICISM.

The studies and criticisms on Hugo form a large and ever-increasing library. The most remarkable among them are the following:

SAINTE-BEUVE. _Critiques et Portraits littéraires_. Articles on Victor Hugo. 1832. GUSTAVE PLANCHE. _Nouveaux portraits littéraires_. Studies and criticisms on some of Hugo's plays. 1832-8. _Revue des Deux Mondes_, passim. Articles by Gustave Planche, A. Fontaney, and Charles Magnin. CHARLES ASSELINEAU. _Mélanges d'une bibliothèque romantique_. 1867. LEONARD DE LOMÉNIE. _Galerie des contemporains illustres_. Vol. I. 1879. GUSTAVE DESSOFFY (le comte). _Discours sur la vie littéraire de Victor Hugo_. 1845. ELISA CHEVALIER. _La Vérité sur Victor Hugo_. 1850. EUGÈNE DE MIRECOURT. _Victor Hugo_. 1854. HIPPOLYTE CASTILLE. _Victor Hugo_. A. MAZURE. _Les Poètes contemporains_. ERNEST HAMEL. _Victor Hugo_. 1860. ALFRED NETTEMENT. _Victor Hugo_. 1862. MADAME VICTOR HUGO. _Victor Hugo, raconté par un témoin de sa vie_. 2 vols. 1863. PAUL DE SAINT-VICTOR. _Victor Hugo_. 1885. E. Dupuis. _Victor Hugo, l'homme et le poète_. 1897. PETIT DE JULLEVILLE. _Histoire de la littérature française_. 1894-1900. CH. RENOUVIER. _Victor Hugo, le Poète et le philosophe_. 2 vols. 1900. A. SLEUMER. _Die Dramen von Hugo_. Berlin, 1901. GASTON DESCHAMPS. _Conférences sur Victor Hugo_. 1898. ÉMILE FAGUET. _Histoire de la littérature française_. 1900.

And a host of articles by such critics as Émile Montégut, Émile Augier, Edmond Scherer, without speaking of the innumerable notes and criticisms which have appeared on Hugo and his work in daily papers and periodicals both in France and in foreign countries.

V.

PORTRAITS.

These are extremely numerous, but previously to 1851, that is, before Hugo left France, they all represent him as a clean-shaven man. After his exile Hugo grew a beard, hence the alteration so noticeable in the portraits subsequent to 1851.

The portrait chosen represents Hugo in his youth, at the time of the first appearance of _Notre-Dame de Paris_.