For reference : Sainte-Beuve, Portraits contemporains, vol. II; E. Caro, Poètes et romanciers, 1888 ; E. Faguet, Études littéraires sur le dix-neuvième siècle, 1887 ; F.Brunetière, Évolution de la poésie lyrique, vol. ii ; Dorison, Alfred de Vigny, poète philosophe, 1891 ; M. Paléologue, Alfred de Vigny, 1891.
86. LE COR. 1828. The story of the surprise of the rearguard of Charlemagne by the Moors and of the death of Roland (Orlando in the Italian poems) is told in the Chanson de Roland (end of the eleventh century), the finest of the old French heroic poems. 19. FRAZONA ; this name is not found on ordinary maps or in descriptions of this region. MARBORÉ, a mountain of the Pyrenees. 21. GAVES, name given in the Pyrenees to streams that descend from the mountains.
87. 11. RONCEVAUX, a Spanish village at the entrance to one of the passes of the Pyrenees. 14. OLIVIER, Oli- ver, like Roland and Turpin mentioned later, one of the twelve peers of Charlemagne, standard figures in the old French poems that deal with Charlemagne.
88. 4. LUZ, ARGELÈS, villages in the department of Hautes- Pyrénées. 6. ADOUR, a river of France rising in the Pyrenees and flowing into the Bay of Biscay. 15. SAINT Denis is the patron saint of France. 24. Obéron, king of the fairies in mediaeval folk-lore; cf. A Midsummernight's Dream.
89. LA BOUTEILLE À LA MER, 1853. Bears the sub-title: Conseil à un jeune homme inconnu. 19. Chatterton (1752-1770), the precocious English poet who, failing to get recognition for his talents, was reduced to destitution and ended his life by poison. Wordsworth wrote of him in
The Leech-Gatherer:
"I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous Boy,
The sleepless Soul that perished in his pride."
For de Vigny he stood almost as the type of the poet; he used his career as literary material in the narrative Stello (1832) and in the drama Chatterton (1835). Gilbert, see p. 320. He is also brought into Stello. MALFILÂTRE (1732-1767), a French poet who was tempted by the praise given to his ode, le Soleil fixe au milieu des planètes, to try a literary career at Paris and died in great poverty. He has passed wrongly for an unappreciated genius.
9O. 27. TERRE-DE-FEU, Terra del Fuego.
91. 6. CES PICS NOIRS, les pics San-Diego, San-Ildefonso. (Author's note.) 13. Reims, a city in Champagne, the center of the champagne trade. 25. Aï, a town in Champagne, near Reims, noted for its wine; the name is also applied to the wine.