We must not suppose that an analysis of the literature of the
_demi-monde_ will give us all the elements of the French character.
It has been both grave and profound; nay, it has even contrived to be
wise and lively at the same time, a combination so incomprehensible
by the Teutonic races that they have labelled it levity. It puts them
out as nature did Fuseli.
[293] Taste must be partially excepted. It is remarkable how little
eating and drinking there is in the "Faery Queen." The only time he
fairly sets a table is in the house of Malbecco, where it is
necessary to the conduct of the story. Yet taste is not wholly
forgotten:--
"In her left hand a cup of gold she held,
And with her right the riper fruit did reach,
Whose sappy liquor, that with fulness sweld,
Into her cup she scruzed with dainty breach
Of her fine fingers without foul impeach,
That so fair wine-press made the wine more sweet."
B. II c. xii. 56.
Taste can hardly complain of unhandsome treatment!
[294] Had the poet lived longer, he might perhaps have verified his
friend Raleigh's saying, that "whosoever in writing modern history
shall follow truth too near the heels, it may haply strike out his
teeth.
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