THE LETTERS OF VICTOR HUGO.
[To ass EDITOR OP 221 "SPECTATOR:]
— In your interesting article in the Spectator of :January 9th on the "Letters of Victor Hugo," you mention his visiting the Castle of Chambord, and that "he cut his name on the top of the highest tower with all the gusto of a Cockney tourist. He committed an even worse folly than this; for he took away from the tower a little stone and moss, and a piece of the framework of the window on which Francis L wrote these two lines :—
Souvent femme vane Bien fol qui s'y fie."
Now, Sir, Victor Hugo in his awful tragedy of "Le Rol s'amuse" gives us the scene—Act V., scene 3—in which the King is represented as crossing the stage singing these oft-
-quoted lines :— " Souvent femme vane
Bien fol est qui s'y fie."
Naturally, he makes the King sing his own language cor- rectly; besides, the omission of the word " est " spoils the metre for singing. Having been well acquainted with Victor Hugo's writings, and especially his dramas, I feel confident he could not at any time have made Francis L utter such slip- shod French as the quotation given in your notice.—I am, Sir, &c., The Terrace, Hampton Court. B. E. KENNEDY.
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