The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-01-17


| Of his brothers and sisters. iHrabeau's
\ twisted foot. gigantic head and tied
tongue gave him from the first the
| distinction of extreme uglinessA says
his biographor
His SCHOOL and army career, begin
| ming in the household Mt Versailles of
! M. dc Sigrais. contain ut the outset
the remarkably unflntterng testi-
monials with which tho senior Mira
beau launched his son in life. by char
acterizing him as an "artful scoun-
drel, Knavc, a hypocritc and n liar;
untractable and insubordinate." with
such an Introduction. a key Is fur
nished to much that would else be In
comprehensive in the boys wildness
and INSTRUMENTATION during n time
when he seemed otherwise to be chief
~ changing prisons or fighting Corsi-
cans.
His return from the Corscan war
and his oscillations between the home
of his uncle near AK. that of his faith
!, er at Blgnon, and the court at Ver-
saillcs, preceded his marriage to Emf.
lie. the daughter OF the Marquis de-
Marlgnane. at AK, on juno 90. 17T2.
| The marriage speedily plunged him
| into financial difficulties eliminating
in his imprisonment at the Chateau
| DIFF, an island fortress just outside of
| Marseilles. The part played in his
| life by Sophie de, Mounler. their flight
! and the misfortunes which overlook
them come next Then the varying
scenes which are followed by Mira
! beau's appearance at the meeting OF
! the states-Genera1 in 1889. and his
| French Revolution reach climax OF
L n matt To trfa IN "a
the author Of a secret Interview with
| Queen Marie-Antoinette on July 2,
| 1890.
an a summerehouse," writes Tallen-
1 tyre, "in the highest part of the gar
dens of Saint-Cloud. Mirabeau met
the Queen alone"
at was nineteen years since he had
first seen her when. as boy of two
and-twenty, his father had introduced
him to the court of Louis XIV. Then
she had been very young, giddy,
charming and irresponsible girl, whose
worst trouble was the long face that
tiresone Mercy-Argenteau pulled over
her escapades. She was 1ve-and-
thirty years old now, with her beauty
dinmed by many cares and terrors
But her high and brave spirit re-
sponded to that of Mirabeau. Before
they parted, 1t is said that he raised
her hand to his lips and exclaimed:
Madame. the monarchy is saved"
Not long did Afirabcau survive the
full measure of his glory which he
is believed by his biographers to have
attained in 1871. The poison OF his
evil living corrupted his system. and
q bad orgy in the home OF an opera
|, dancer gave him his death blow. In
the chapter which dwells eloquently
upon. his passing. the author says:
TT has been seen that Mirabeau was
for France and for his own genera
i tion-the bold and able driver of that
chariot of Revolution, whose wild
team, had he lived. he might yet have
taken safely past the precipice Of
anarchy, straight to the broad high
way of order and liberty"
The conception of Mirabeau present.
ed in Tallentyre's Life is considered
by American and foreign critics as a
mastery portrait of one of the most
mastery figures in history, portrait
at once subtle and strikingly dra-
matte.
.I,omanticism and the Romantic School
in Germany"
BY Robert NJ. wernaer. D. Appleton
& Co.. OF New York. 50.
In the introduction to this interest
ing work, Mr.. Wernaer says: since
every age must interpret the past
from the new point of vantage that
. it has reached, and since every critic
must be the exponent OF his age.
motive for writing this book is found
in renewed interest In romanticism
which has arisen during the last de-
cades." "A part of the subject matter
OF the book was delivered In the form
of lectures before an academic audi
ence at Harvard, during the spring
of 1908. and several chapters of the
book connect themselves in particular
with these lectures.
Romantic leaders are referred to as
wackenroder Tieck, the Schlegels'
Novalis and Dorothea and Caroline,