NAPOLEON ON ENGLISH LITERATURE.
[COMMUNICATED.]
WE have heard of late what Englishmen of letters think of Napoleon. It is interesting to remember what wereNapoleon's own opinions about English literature. Bonaparte, in spite of his hatred of England—a hatred entirely justified from his point of view, since but for England he could have ruled the world—was in his earlier years an eager student of English poetry and fiction. In his youth he raved over Ossian—a poet whose work and name are in our day more familiar and famous through the hard sayings of Dr. Johnson than by his own vers libie. Familiar, too, is Wordsworth's noble and mysterious couplet :- "In this still place, remote from men, Sleeps Ossian in the Narrow Glen."
It is a curious fact that the bearing of the name of Oscar by the Swedish royal family is directly attributable to Napoleon's love of the poet. Oscar is one of the dim warriors of the Highland Epic. The story goes that when Mme. Bernadotte was expecting her first baby, Napoleon and General Bernadotte were on strained terms. That, indeed, was their normal condition. In order to heal the breach of the moment the First Consul was asked to be sponsor to the child. He consented, claiming, however, the right to choose the name, and at his behest the baby was baptized Oscar.
As a young man Napoleon also read the works of Richardson, and here he used his literary knowledge to pay a graceful compliment at a reception held after the Peace of Amiens at the Tuileries. A great many smart people attended and were presented to Napoleon, among them a Mr. Grandison. Napoleon at once said to him, Are you any relation to Sir Charles ? " He was not, however, always so gracious with regard to English literature. Thibaudeau in his Memoirs reports him as having said :— " They [i.e., the French] were enthusiastic over England and English on mere hearsay. Shakespeare was steeped in oblivion for two hundred years oven in England. Suddenly it pleased Voltaire, who lived at Geneva and saw many Englishmen, to praise that author in order to ingratiate himself with them. The word went round that Shakespeare was the foremost writer of the world. I haw read him. There is nothing in him that can touch Corneille and Racine. It is impossible to read one of his plays. They are pitiable."
Napoleon's acquaintance with our literature was of course through the medium of translations, and Shakespeare's plays are of all things the most difficult to translate. There is an ill-natured story that in a certain French trans- lation of Macbeth, the warning of the " Apparition of an armed head," which cried from the witch's cauldron, " Macbeth 1 Macbeth Macbeth I beware Macduff 1 " was translated "Bon jour, Monsieur Macbeth; prenez garde de Monsieur Macduft ! " In these words it would cer- tainly impart no thrill ; but the . story must surely be apocryphal because " prenez garde de " would not be an idiomatic translation of " Beware ! "
Napoleon never could understand that the Press of England was not subsidized. During the time that he was First Consul he was exceedingly angry (the conver- sation is reported by Stanislas de Girardin) because the English Prime Minister would be no party to an arrange- ment by which a law should be passed in France and in England prohibiting newspapers and the members of the Government from expressing either good or ill of foreign governments. " He could not," answered Girardin.
Why ? " asked Bonaparte. " Because," answered Girardin, " an agreement of that sort would have been opposed to the fundamental law of the country." " I have a very poor opinion of a government," concluded the Consul, which is not strong enough to interdict things objectionable to foreign governments." Bonaparte was particularly angry with the leading journal of London. " The Times," he objected, " which they say is officially inspired, abounds in continual invec- tives against France. Two of its four precious pages are daily used in order to disseminate the most stupid calumnies.
Everything that the imagination can conjure up of what is base, vile, wicked, this miserable sheet ascribes to the French Government. Who pays it ? What is its object ? " His own plans for the regulation of the Press were very elaborate. He complained to Fouche, " It seems to me that the papers do not sufficiently stir up public opinion. Our papers are read everywhere—above all in Hungary. See to it that articles are inserted which may let the Germans and Hungarians know how thoroughly they are the dupes of England, and that the Emperor of Germany sells his people for gold."
In spite of his hatred for England, it is well known that after Waterloo he would have liked to have taken refuge in this country. Meneval tells a story of a conversation that he had in the garden at Malmaison in the first bitter- ness of defeat. " He told me," says he, " that his first intention had been to go to America, but, as there were some obstacles in the way of the realization of this plan, he intended to go and live in England, and added that he meant to insist on the rights which were enjoyed by every English citizen." One wonders what were the obstacles in the way of his going to America. A curious " link with the past " comes to the present writer with regard to Napoleon through the memory of a story often told by a lady of the mid-Victorian era. As a child she was passing the door of her father's library when he called her in, and there she found him talking to a short, dark, stout gentleman whom he called the Comte de Survilliers. Her father kept her there for some time, and when the gentleman had gone said to her, " Now, remember, you are never to forget this gentleman. He is the ex-King Joseph of Spain, Napoleon's elder brother." Her father told her, she used to say, that after a eulogy of Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph had expressed the opinion that he was " pita& bon hamme que grand h,ornme." What an instance of fraternal loyalty ! Z.
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