tandards and a complete expression of their own
personalities. Hugo, as he says in the famous preface to Cromwell, was
tearing down the plaster which hides the facade of the fair temple of
art; Dumas had just demolished Racine; Gericault and Delacroix, by
their daring conceptions, were founding our modern school of painting.
Into this maelstrom of revolution, Berlioz--he of the flaming locks,
"that hairy Romantic" as Thackeray calls him--flung himself with
temperamental ardor; for he was a born fighter and always in
opposition to someone. The audacity and dramatic energy of his
compositions are but the natural result of the tendencies of the
period. Berlioz's early career is of extreme interest to us
English-speaking people, because the first strong stimulus to his
imagination came from his acquaintance with the dramas of Shakespeare.
In 1827, some of the dramas, (such as Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet)
were played in Paris by an English company, and their effect upon
Berlioz was overwhelming. He would wander about the streets raving of
Shakespeare; he promptly fell in love with the most beautiful actress
in the troupe--Henrietta Smithson, whom he later married[226]--and
then began the frenzied period of composing and concert giving, which
came to a climax in the _Fantastic Symphony_ first performed in 1830.
Berlioz's courage and perseverance are shown by his winning the Prix
de Rome, after four failures! His two years in Italy (his picture may
still be seen at the Villa Medici), replete with amusing and thrilling
incidents, were, on the whole the happiest period of his stormy life.

[Footnote 226: For a convincing account of this tragic marriage see
the volume of _Recollections_ by Ernest Legouve.]

But we must pass to some brief comments upon the characteristics, pro
and con, of his style. In the first place it was extremely original;
showed little or no connection with former composers; has had no
imitators, and cannot be parodied. Berlioz likewise possessed great
range of emotion--though he rarely touched the sublime; a power of
laying out works on a vast scale, and, in general, of achieving with
unerring certainty the effects desired. The poet Heine said that much
of Berlioz's music reminded him of "primeval monsters and fabulous
empires." And what a master he was of rhythm!--one of the greatest in
music! Prior to his work, and that of Schumann among the Germans, the
classic rhythms were becoming rather stereotyped;