His
literary success opened to him the doors of diplomacy. He was
successively attache of the Legation at Florence, Secretary of
Embassy at Naples and at London, Charge d'Affaires in Tuscany.
When the Revolution of 1830 broke out, he had just been named
Minister Plenipotentiary to Greece.
Victor Hugo published his Odes et Ballades from 1822 to 1828. "La
Vendee," "Les Vierges de Verdun," "Quiberon," "Louis XVII," "Le
Retablissement de la Statue de Henri IV.," "La Mort du due de
Berry," "La Naissance du duc de Bordeaux," "Les Funerailles de
Louis XVIII.," "Le Sacre de Charles X.," are true royalist songs.
Alexandre Dumas, FILS, in receiving M. Leconte de Lisle at the
French Academy, recalled "the light of that little lamp, seen
burning every night in the mansard of the Rue Dragon, at the
window of the boy poet, poor, solitary, indefatigable, enamoured
of the ideal, hungry for glory, of that little lamp, the silent
and friendly confidant of his first works and his first hopes so
miraculously realized." Who knows? without the support of the
government of the Restoration the light of that little lamp might
less easily have developed into the resplendent star that the
author of La Dame aux Camelias indicated in the firmament.
The author of Meditations Poetiques and the author of the Odes et
Ballades were sincere in the expression of their political and
religious enthusiasm.
Pages:
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250