Scott et sa maniere. L'habit et le collier de cuivre d'un serf du
moyen age sont plus facile a decrire que les mouvements du coeur
humain. . . . N'oublions pas un autre avantage de l'ecole de Sir Walter
Scott: la description d'un costume et la _pose_ d'un personnage . . .
prennent au moins deux pages. Les mouvements de l'ame fourniraient a
peine quelques lignes. Ouvrez au hazard un cies volumes de la 'Princesse
de Cleves,' prenez dix pages au hasard, et ensuite comparez les aux dix
pages d'Ivanhoe' ou de 'Quentin Durward': ces derniers ouvrages ont un
_merite historique_. Ils apprennent quelques petites choses sur
l'histoire aux gens qui l'ignorent ou qui le savent mal. Ce merite
historique a cause un grand plaisir: je ne le nie pas, mais c'est ce
merite historique qui se fanera le premier. . . . Dans 146 ans, Sir
Walter Scott ne sera pas a la hauteur ou Corneille nous apparait 146 ans
apres sa mort." "To write a modern romance of chivalry." says Jeffrey,
in his review of "Marmion" in the _Edinburgh_, "seems to be much such a
phantasy as to build a modern abbey or an English pagoda. . . .
[Scott's] genius, seconded by the omnipotence of fashion, has brought
chivalry again into temporary favor. Fine ladies and gentlemen now talk,
indeed, of donjons, keeps, tabards, 'scutcheons, tressures, caps of
maintenance, portcullises, wimples, and we know not what besides; just as
they did, in the days of Dr. Darwin's popularity, of gnomes, sylphs,
oxygen, gossamer, polygynia, and polyandria. That fashion, however,
passed rapidly away, and Mr. Scott should take care that a different sort
of pedantry," etc.

[41] For an exhaustive review of Scott's influence on the evolution of
historical fiction in France, consult Maigron, "Le Roman Historique,"
etc. A longish passage from this work will be found at the end of the
present chapter. For English imitators and successors of the Waverley
Novels, see Cross, "Development of the English Novel," pp. 136-48. See
also De Quincey's "Literary Reminiscences," vol. iii., for an amusing
account of "Walladmor" (1824), a pretended German translation of a
non-existent Waverley novel.

[42] "Racine et Shakespeare."

[43] "Don Quixote."

[44] "Sir Walter Scott."

[45] "Dix ans d'etudes historiques": preface.

[46] Walter Bagehot says that "Ivanhoe" "describes the Middle Ages as we
should have wished them to be," ignoring their discomforts and harsh
barbarism. "Every boy has heard o