The Golden Verses of Pythagoras — with commentary (1917)

Roule, gronde, delate et n'est plus; Le soleil reparatt, et la cime brillante Des coteaux verdoyants, sourit h. ses rayons.

Son of the secret cell! dost thou deUght in songs?

Hear the battle of Lora.

The sound of its steel is long since past.

So thunder on the darkened hill roars, and is no more.

The sun returns with his silent beams.

The glittering rocks, and green heads of the mountains smile.

This example serves to prove that eumolpique lines might easily adapt themselves to the dithyramb.

The Essence and Form of Poetry 103 proud nation had assumed over public opinion.' Notwithstanding the efforts of Comeille, of Racine, and of MoU^re, the Th6&tre Frangais retained always the romanesque tone that it had originally received. All that these three men could do was, by lofty sentiments, by purity of forms, by regularity of the customs and characters, to pass over what was, in reality, defective. They came thus to give to modem dramatic art all the perfection of which it was susceptible. Shakespeare had been in London the successor of ^schylus; Corneille received in France the inspiration of Sophocles; Racine, that of Euripides; and MoliSre united as in a sheaf the spirit of Menander, of Terence, and of Plautus.

When I compare Shakespeare with ^schylus, I want to make it clearly understood that I regard him as the regenerator of the theatre in Europe, and superior to Comeille and Racine as to dramatic essence, although he may be assuredly much inferior to them as to form, .^schylus,

' The tragedy of the Cid, given by Pierre Comeille in 1626, upon which were based the grandeur and dominant character of the Theatre Frangais, as weU as the renown of the author, is taken from a Spanish ballad very celebrated in Spain. The Cid, who is tllie hero of it, Uved towards thfe close of the eleventh centtuy. He was a type of the paladins and knights errant of thle romanesque traditions. He enjoyed a wide reputation and attained a high degree of fortune. Voyez Monte-Mayor, Diana, 1. ii.; et Voltaire, Essai sur les Mceurs, t. iii., st^rdotype, p. 86.

In the course of the sijrteenth century, the Spanish held a marked superiority over the other peoples : their tongue was spoken at Paris, Vienna, Milan, Turin. Their customs, their manners of thought and of writing, subjugated the minds of the Italians, and from Charles V. to the commencement of the reign of Philip III., Spain enjoyed an importance that the other peoples never had. Voyez Robertson, Introduction d, I'Histoire de Charles-Quint.

It would be necessary to overstep considerably the ordinary limits of a footnote, if I should explain how it happens that Spain has lost this supremacy acquired by her, and why her tongue, the only one capable of rivalling and perhaps effacing the French, has sdelded to it in all ways, and by which it was eclipsed. This explanation would demand for itself alone a very lengthy work. Among the writers who have sought for the cause of the decadence of the Spanish monarchy, some have beUeved to discover it in the increase of its wealth, others, in the too great extent of its colonies, and the greater part.

I04 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras

in Greek, was inspired by Homer; while, on the contrary, it was Shakespeare who inspired Milton. It is known that Paradise Lost was at first conceived as the subject of a tragedy, and that it was only after reflection that the English poet saw therein the material for an epic poem. I will tell later on, in speaking of the Messiah of Klopstock, what has prevented these two subjects, which appear equally epics, from attaining wholly to the majesty of epopoeia. As many of the motives that I have to offer apply to the two works, I will thus avoid useless repetition. I shall begin by translating the exposition and invocation of Milton, by imitating its movement and its harmony, as I have done with the other poets.

De rhomme, viens chanter la disgrace, et la fruit De cet arbre fatal, dont le gofit homicide Livra le Monde au crime, k la mort, aux malheurs, Et nous ravit Eden, jusqu'au moment qu'un Homme Plus grand, par son tr^pas, racheta le s^jour