371

LITERARY FIRMS.

Les

WHOEVER has not read "Les Soirées de Neuilly," has still to read one of the pleasantest productions of the modern school of French literature; light, yet philosophical,-humorously, not sarcastically illustrative of living manners. Soirées de Neuilly are given in that dramatic form, so suited to the genius of the French: for what nation dialogues like the French? The common conversation of the country, with its brilliancy, brevity, and epigrammatic turns, requires but little arrangement, to be fit for the scene; and hence it is, that its lighter literature is so well supplied with what Monsieur Duval, in the elevation of classic genius, calls, "les fabricants de Vaudevilles."

BB 2

On the occasion of the first literary dinner, that was made for us at Paris,* for the purpose of bringing us acquainted with some of the many young and talented authors who have sprung into note since our last residence in Paris, I heard the names of Cavé and Dittemar (the authors of the Soirées de Neuilly) read from the list of the invited, with a sort of heart-bounding pleasure, which it is so natural to feel, when the opportunity occurs of know

* At Monsieur Prosper Duvergier Hauranne's, the gifted son of one of the most upright Members of the Chamber of Deputies. I shall always number this delightful dinner party among the proudest recollections of my visit to Paris. In recalling this dinner, I may notice, also, another dinner, to which I had the honour of being invitedthe monthly assemblage of the contributors to the Revue Encyclopedique. On this occasion, nearly one hundred individuals of almost every European country, with some Americans, (North and South,) met to exchange the cour tesies of society, to communicate information, and to propagate sentiments of benevolence. Nothing could be more exciting than this assemblage of the talents and virtues. of far distant countries; while the kindness and hospitality of our excellent host, (the Redacteur,) and the flattering attentions of his convives, added considerably to our gratification.

ing those personally, with whom one has previously enjoyed a pleasant intellectual acquaintance. The conversation of Monsieur Dittemar kept the promise which his works had made; but we had to regret the absence of Monsieur Cavé, his distinguished collaborateur, who could not attend.

This style of literary partnership, this incorporation of talent, is a thing I never could understand. As to the improvement of details by the superintendence of a superior judgment, I have benefited too largely by that advantage, to be ignorant of its possibility: but in the formation of a plan, and the distribution of parts, to be afterwards amalgamated into one whole, (excepting only in the case of purely scientific works,) all such cooperations, (from that of Beaumont and Fletcher, to that of the gentlemen above-named,) have offered to my imagination difficulties that it passed my comprehension to solve. When such men as Messieurs Barthélemi and Méry* talk of

"MM. Barthélemy et Méry, célèbres à leur adolescence par une rare fraternité de gloire et de talent, cé

"being constantly together, to put the last finish to their work," and express a hope that their constant efforts to obtain from the public the same encouragement which was bestowed on their former productions," the circumstance sounds so like the affiche of a trading or a mercantile partnership,

that I know not what to make of it. Genius lies so much in the power of concentration, the summing up of all intellectual force into one individual idea, that this jointstock community of mental effort seems at utter variance with the attainment of success. Shakspeare, Milton, Molière, and Voltaire, probably would not, or could not, have thus written : nor, truth to tell, are many of the clever actionnaires of modern speculation, worthy of being ranked amongst those super-eminent beings,

lèbres aussi par le courage avec lequel ils avaient attaqué, au fort de leur puissance, des ministres qui se sont trop long-temps joués de la bonté du monarque, avaient publié Napoléon en Egypte, poème étincelant de sublimes beautés et de sentimens généreux: noble monument élevé à l'honneur d'une époque que les étrangers apprécient mieux que nous."

whom nature produces at such long intervals, to illustrate a nation. The light and minor talents may combine to place their little funds to advantage in the same adventure; and, with hope" at the prow, and pleasure at the helm," may pilot their little bark, as profit and amusement direct, without the ambition of that higher order of fame, which leads to immortality: and such, perhaps, are the adventurers whom Monsieur Duval contemns as the fabricants de Vaudevilles, and whom Monsieur Scribe has honoured with the title of "mes collaborateurs," in his dedication of the last edition of his "Theatre."

Apropos to this prolific and popular writer!-whoever would know the mot d'ordre for throwing a classicist into disorder, has only to pronounce the word Scribe! The fecundity, the popularity, the wealth of Scribe, his contempt for the laws of the old theatre, his supremacy in the new, and his wide-spreading, but unambitious fame, have excited a due proportion of rage and indignation in those who are still the devoted disciples and unrecompensed adherents of Aristotle and Boi