NAPOLEON AND POPE PIUS VII
NAPOLEON AND POPE PIUS VII
BY ALFRED VICTOR, COMTE DE VIGNY
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In 1835, “in one of the most distinguished books of modern literature,” as Edmund Gosse says, De Vigny exemplified the illusion of military glory in three episodes. The story here given is the great scene in the third episode which mocks the illusion of active glory.Alfred de Vigny was born at Loches in 1799. In 1828 he resigned his commission in the army, where he had been fighting and writing since 1815, having already published his masterly poem “Möise,” and the historical novel “Cinq-Mars,” after the manner of Walter Scott. His one dramatic success was “Chatterton.” His last days were passed in solitude, and he died at Paris in 1863.De Vigny rings the changes on the stupidity of men, the impassibility of nature, the silence of God; so careful and laborious a writer that he has produced only some forty works, a few of these of the very flower of French literature. De Vigny is an idealist, but, as it has lately been discovered, whenever he says “I” his statements are true.
In 1835, “in one of the most distinguished books of modern literature,” as Edmund Gosse says, De Vigny exemplified the illusion of military glory in three episodes. The story here given is the great scene in the third episode which mocks the illusion of active glory.
Alfred de Vigny was born at Loches in 1799. In 1828 he resigned his commission in the army, where he had been fighting and writing since 1815, having already published his masterly poem “Möise,” and the historical novel “Cinq-Mars,” after the manner of Walter Scott. His one dramatic success was “Chatterton.” His last days were passed in solitude, and he died at Paris in 1863.
De Vigny rings the changes on the stupidity of men, the impassibility of nature, the silence of God; so careful and laborious a writer that he has produced only some forty works, a few of these of the very flower of French literature. De Vigny is an idealist, but, as it has lately been discovered, whenever he says “I” his statements are true.
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