Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Journal entries: December 1838
December 23.—We went last night to a literary soirée given by Messrs. Henry Chorley and Henry
Reeve, authors and sub-editors. Count Alfred de Vigny was presented to me, and I said all sorts
of things en gracieux on his
“Cinq Mars;” he
talks well, and is high bred. I joked a little about the present state of
literature in France, and its melodramatic character, du plus
beau noir. He said “Oui, mais croyez moi milady le
fonds du caractère Français est la tristesse.” I
gave a little soirée for him, very pleasant. He
said, in answer to my observation on the bright, ![]()
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gay
literature of the eighteenth century in France, “La jeune
France prend pour model Byron, et
puis Napoleon.” This was too pleasant. The one an
Englishman, and the other an Italian. Voltaire called the French, “les singes tigres.” It was
the doctrinaires who upset the throne
of Louis Phillippe, and now they are
“les singes
Anglais” and very agreeable monkeys they are.
Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808-1872)
Of a Quaker family, from 1830 he became a writer and staff member for the
Athenaeum; he wrote
Memorials of Mrs Hemans,
2 vols (1836) and
Autobiography, Memoir, and Letters, 2 vols
(1873).
Louis Philippe, king of the French (1773-1850)
The son of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans; he was King of France 1830-48; he
abdicated following the February Revolution of 1848 and fled to England.
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
Henry Reeve (1813-1895)
The son of Henry Reeve (1780–1814); educated at Norwich School under Edward Valpy, he was
editor of the
Edinburgh Review (1855-95) and edited the
Greville Memoirs (1865). His mother, Susan Taylor Reeve, was the
sister of the translator Sarah Austin.
Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863)
French romantic poet, dramatist, novelist, and translator of Shakespeare.
Voltaire (1694-1778)
French historian and man of letters; author of, among many other works,
The Age of Louis XIV (1751) and
Candide (1759).
