e had made him possible; he had extracted
some "tragedies" from him; Ducis impressed one as being a man who could
chisel an Apollo out of Moloch. It was the time when Iago was called
Pezare; Horatio, Norceste; and Desdemona, Hedelmone. A charming and very
witty woman, the Duchess de Duras, used to say: "Desdemona, what an ugly
name! Fie!" Talma, Prince of Denmark, in a tunic of lilac satin trimmed
with fur, used to exclaim: "Avaunt! Dread spectre!" The poor spectre, in
fact, was only tolerated behind the scenes. If it had ventured to put
in the slightest appearance M. Evariste Dumoulin would have given it a
severe talking to. Some Genin or other would have hurled at it the first
cobble-stone he could lay his hand on--a line from Boileau: _L'esprit
n'est point emu de ce qu'il ne croit pas_. It was replaced on the stage
by an "urn" that Talma carried under his arm. A spectre is ridiculous;
"ashes," that's the style! Are not the "ashes" of Napoleon still
spoken of? Is not the translation of the coffin from St. Helena to the
Invalides alluded to as "the return of the ashes"? As to the witches
of Macbeth, they were rigorously barred. The hall-porter of the
Theatre-Francais had his orders. They would have been received with
their own brooms.

I am mistaken, however, in saying that I did not know Shakespeare. I
knew him as everybody else did, not having read him, and having treated
him with ridicule. My childhood began, as everybody's childhood begins,
with prejudices. Man finds prejudices beside his cradle, puts them from
him a little in the course of his career, and often, alas! takes to them
again in his old age.

During this journey in 1825 Charles Nodier and I passed our time
recounting to each other the Gothic tales and romances that have taken
root in Rheims. Our memories and sometimes our imaginations, clubbed
together. Each of us furnished his legend. Rheims is one of the most
impossible towns in the geography of story. Pagan lords have lived
there, one of whom gave as a dower to his daughter the strips of land in
Borysthenes called the "race-courses of Achilles." The Duke de Guyenne,
in the fabliaux, passes through Rheims on his way to besiege Babylon;
Babylon, moreover, which is very worthy of Rheims, is the capital of
the Admiral Gaudissius. It is at Rheims that the deputation sent by
the Locri Ozolae to Apollonius of Tyana, "high priest of Bellona,"
"disembarks." While discussing this disembarkation we argued con