hardly noticed, although containing poetry since become important to the
evolution of French verse: 'La Neige, le Coy, le Deluge, Elva, la
Frigate', etc., again collected in 'Poemes antiques et modernes' (1826).
Other poems were published after his death in 'Les Destinies' (1864).

Under the influence of Walter Scott, he wrote a historical romance in
1826, 'Cinq-Mars, ou une Conjuration sans Louis XIII'. It met with the
most brilliant and decided success and was crowned by the Academy.
Cinq-Mars will always be remembered as the earliest romantic novel in
France and the greatest and most dramatic picture of Richelieu now
extant. De Vigny was a convinced Anglophile, well acquainted with the
writings of Shakespeare and Milton, Byron, Wordsworth, Shelley, Matthew
Arnold, and Leopardi. He also married an English lady in 1825--Lydia
Bunbury.

Other prose works are 'Stello' (1832), in the manner of Sterne and
Diderot, and 'Servitude et Grandeur militaire' (1835), the language of
which is as caustic as that of Merimee. As a dramatist, De Vigny produced
a translation of 'Othello--Le More de Venice' (1829); also 'La Marechale
d'Ancre' (1832); both met with moderate success only. But a decided "hit"
was 'Chatterton' (1835), an adaption from his prose-work 'Stello, ou les
Diables bleus'; it at once established his reputation on the stage; the
applause was most prodigious, and in the annals of the French theatre can
only be compared with that of 'Le Cid'. It was a great victory for the
Romantic School, and the type of Chatterton, the slighted poet, "the
marvellous boy, the sleepless soul that perished in his pride," became
contagious as erstwhile did the type of Werther.

For twenty years before his death Alfred de Vigny wrote nothing. He lived
in retirement, almost a recluse, in La Charente, rarely visiting Paris.
Admitted into L'Academie Francaise in 1845, he describes in his 'Journal
d'un Poete' his academic visits and the reception held out to him by the
members of L'Institut. This work appeared posthumously in 1867.

He died in Paris, September 17, 1863.

CHARLES DE MAZADE
de l'Academie Francaise.

PREFACE

Considering Alfred de Vigny first as a writer, it is evident that he
wished the public to regard him as different from the other romanticists
of his day; in fact, in many respects, his method presents a striking
contrast to theirs. To their brilliant facility, their prodigious