untry. Madame Desbordes-Valmore
was born in 1787, and died in 1859. Her first volume of poems was
published in 1819, and, as in all the verse of this time, the note of
sentiment dominates. She continued to publish volumes at intervals until
1843, and another was added after her death. Great sweetness and pathos,
with a total absence of affectation, distinguish her work. Perhaps her
best piece is the charming song, in a kind of irregular rondeau form,
_S'il avait su_. Jean Polonius, whose real name was Labenski, was a
Russian, who contributed frequently to the _Annales Romantiques_, and
subsequently published two volumes of French poetry. Emile and Antoni
Deschamps were the translators of the Romantic movement. Antoni
accomplished a complete translation of Dante, Emile translated from
English, German, and Italian poets indifferently. They also published
original poems together, and separately. Madame Tastu was also a
translator, or rather a paraphraser, and an author of original poems of
a sentimental kind. Lastly, Jean Reboul, a native of Nimes, and born in
a humble situation, deserves a place among these.

Three poets deserving of all but the first rank, and belonging to the
generation of 1830 itself, require each a somewhat longer notice.

[Sidenote: Alfred de Vigny.]

Alfred de Vigny was born at Loches, on the 27th of March, 1799. He was a
man of rank, and his marriage in 1826 with an Englishwoman of wealth
gave him independence. He left the army, in which he had served for some
years, in 1828, and spent the rest of his life, until his death in 1864,
in literary ease. He had been for some time a member of the Academy. His
poetical career was peculiar. Between 1821 and 1829 he produced a small
number of poems of the most exquisite finish, which at once attained the
popularity they deserved, and were repeatedly reprinted. But for
thirty-five years he published hardly anything else in verse, his
_Poemes Philosophiques_ not appearing (at least as a volume) until after
his death. Yet he was by no means idle. He had written and published in
1826 the prose romance of _Cinq Mars_, and he followed this up, though
at considerable intervals, with others, as well as with dramas, of which
_Chatterton_ is the best and best known. He also translated _Othello_
and _The Merchant of Venice_. Alfred de Vigny may perhaps be best
described as a link between Andre Chenier and the Romantic poets. He is
not much of a lyrist, his best and