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[294] Merchant of Venice, V, i, 1 ff.
GEORGE SAND
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[295] Reprinted from the Fortnightly Review for June, 1877, in Mixed Essays, Smith, Elder & Co., 1879. ~Amandine Lucile Aurore Dudevant~, née ~Dupin~ (1804-76), was the most prolific woman writer of France. The pseudonym ~George Sand~ was a combination of George, the typical Berrichon name, and Sand, abbreviated from (Jules) Sandeau, in collaboration with whom she began her literary career.
[296] ~Indiana~, George Sand's first novel, 1832.
[297] ~Nohant~ is a village of Berry, one of the ancient provinces of France, comprising the modern departments of Cher and Indre. The ~Indre~ and the ~Creuse~ are its chief rivers. ~Vierzon, Châteauroux, Le Châtre~, and ~Ste.-Sévère~ are towns of the province. ~Le Puy~ is in the neighboring department of Haute-Loire, and ~La Marche~ is in the department of Vosges. For the ~Vallée Noire~ see Sand's The Miller of Angibault, chap. III, etc.
[298] ~Jeanne~. The first of a series of novels in which the pastoral element prevails. It was published in 1844.
[299] The ~Pierres Jaunâtres~ (or ~Jomâtres~) is a district in the mountains of the Creuse (see Jeanne, Prologue). ~Touix Ste.-Croix~ is a ruined Gallic town (Jeanne, chap. I). For the druidical stones of ~Mont Barlot~ see Jeanne, chap. VII.