New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-04-18
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
IN A FAMOUS FRENCH PROVINCE.

responsible, and they have the merits and demerit
of their class. Their merits traceable chiefly
as they are apt be in such cases. to the characte
of their subject Touraine is one of those ancen
French provinces, primitive and slumbcring.' d
Matthew Arnold wrote Of Berry when he made th
pilgrimage apprecatively celebrated in his essol
on George Sand, whose every corner and recon-
invite the traveller and the student OF history
Slumberng still save in Tours. which Is recover
ing year by year the prestige it lost as manu-
featuring town when the Edict of Nantes wa
revoked and the Huguenots who compord the
majority Of the population went into exile. It is
nevertheless, the province in which the heart Of
France throbbed more passionately and tumul
tuously than anywhere else in the land. from the
DAYS of the Angevine counts, with the chronicle
of whose doings Mr. Cooks book properly begins
TO the DAYS when " LIE Roi Soleil" chose to shine
upon other portions of his dominions and required
his satellites to revolve internationally around
Paris, Versailles and Fontainebleau Touraine has
given to history scores of it's most splendid figures
At the very threshold of the busy life of the
province stands Charles Martel. The third OF
the Counts of Anjou, whom we meet two hundred
years later, is the cruel heroic Fuk Nerra, whose
only fair parallel in the record of strong men
struggling to build up family and state Is
the Count Roger who founded the Nngdoh
of Sicily. The descendants of Fulk Nerra were
worthy Of him. Among them were the Planta-
gehets most patrcian and valiant OF all the rulers
of England For centuries Touraine was the
theatre for drama in which France, Italy
and England were deeply involved, and upon
which all Europe looked with intense interest.
In the ghostly company of actors that throngs the
valley of the Loire at the bidding of memory,
Rabelais and the Maid Of Orleans Agnes Sorel and
Caesar Borgia, Louis XI and Marie Stuart.
Charles d'Oreans and Catherine de Medics.
II Moro and LIE Balafre Francis / and Benvenuto
Cellini Diana and Coligny Villon and Du Bellay,
all these and many more pass IN promlscuous
array To evoke these shades in the chateaux where
they would be most at home, to make them flesh
and blood for the modern reader this is task
of no small difficulty. Prosper Merimee, per-
hans. was the man who could have accomplished
IL most successfully. Merimee, with his lncOm-
parable gift of literary cameo-cutting and his in
innate acquaintance with old France, an acquaint-
ance that makes his "Chronique du Resnc de
Charles TX, one of the most instructive, as il is
one Of the most fascinating of books; Mcrimee,
with his deep archaeology, his Imagination, and
his supreme literary style, could have framed
within the walls Of Chinon, Locbes, Langeais.
Chaumont ChenonceauX. Amboise and Blois, pict !
ures of the life that flowed through them of
equalled by their finish and beauty as works of
art.
Mr.. Cook is not another Merimee This is to
be in his failure to rise to the situation when
q great pageant is to be dealt with. as for ex- |
ample, Caesar Borgia's famous entry into Chinon |
in 14es: but it is realized most strongly in the
lack of finish in his vignettes, in his inability |
10 so preserve the balance Of his design in
All ~ hat ar
Impression might be conveyed in unqualified ac-
,ordance with the facts they have been placed
IN larger canvasses. In describing the meeting
II Piero de Medici and Charles VIII az the time
of the latter's invasion of Italy in 1894, the
hort passage which he devotes to that event. one
II the most curious in Franco-Italian history. |
gives very different idea from that which |
any one Of Mr.. Cooks authorities might |
have shown him to be the true one |
Mr.. Cooks portrait of the unfortunate Duke OF |
Milan is also unsatisfactory because il is too win
ming. though this may have been unintcntional IL
is hard to sympathze with Ludovico. His long
captivity in Loches q fearful punishment, no
doubt, but if remember how inimic'l he had
made himself to what little peace Italy had hel
engaging in conspiraces whenever possible and
breathing with most enjoy the air Of malicious
ntrigue-and IL we forget sentiment for awhile
we are likely to decide that he was given 10 more
than he deserved Mr.. Cook certainly gives
Francis I no more than he deserves, but neither |
does he give him altogether his due. We do not |
blame him for condemning the young Kings |
politics, but it is little unfair TO quote, in
footnote. Louis's description of Francis as lie |
grand garcon qui gatera tout" Mr.. Cook rIsonts, |
as so many critics have resented before him. the en-
thusiasm of Francis for Italian art and because |
the King made much of Cellini, Primaticcio and |
ii Rosso be would have it that he neglected native |
genius AS matter of fact Francis was too good |
q judge of art to care overmuch where it came
from. Ceini's autobiography is not document
upon which implicit reliance can he placed vet that |
is very plausible passage in which he tells Of the
visit of Francis and the Duchesse d Etampes to
bis studio to inspect his Jupiter and of the
Kings spirited defence of the bronzes of his own
time against the bronzes of antiquity which his
opposed to the Italian sculptor's work
As Sir Frederick Leighton has observed in a speech
which is reprinted in part in Mr. Cooks appendix |
he Italian influence. strong as it was could never
nave kept down any very marked personality
rad that personality been there to assert
tself. Indeed. did not the Cloucts flourish
q spite of foreign influence? Was not Azay
e-Rideau built during the reign of Francis l.
md is not Azay-le-Rideau, on Mr.. Cooks
'wn showing, one Of the most purely
french chateaux ON the Indre? Is Chenon-
;caux any the less French for having been
'uilt while Francis was on the throne, or is the
wing of Francis ! at Blois thing to regret? The
ruth is that Mr.. Cook would better have avoided
my remarks upon Francis as an art patron. for
writer who calmly brackets Mr. j. L. Petit and
L. Violet lie Duo as architectural authorities and
hen remarks that Mr.. Mark Pattisons notes on
he architecture Of the Touraine gracefully supply
ia in hair |
writer to touch questions Of art with mpunity.
ir. Cook Is much safer where he confines himself
o the narration of historical occurrences, and
here, although as we have shown lac is not flaw
ess he is at any rate picturesque and amusing.
& times he is dramatic The story Of the ascasri |