But, considering his obvious
familiarity with French literature, and the rarity of his
'obligations to the ancients,' it is not unlikely that, as
suggested by a writer in the 'Academy' for Oct. 30, 1886, his
source of suggestion is to be found in the following passage of
an Ode addressed by Chapelain (1595-1674) to Richelieu:--
Dans un paisible mouvement
Tu t'eleves au firmament,
Et laisses contre toi murmurer cette terre;
Ainsi le haut Olympe, a son pied sablonneux,
Laisse fumer la foudre et gronder le tonnerre,
Et garde son sommet tranquille et lumineux.
Or another French model--indicated by Mr. Forster ('Life', 1871,
ii. 115-16) by the late Lord Lytton--may have been these lines
from a poem by the Abbe de Chaulieu (1639-1720):--
Au milieu cependant de ces peines cruelles
De notre triste hiver, compagnes trop fideles,
Je suis tranquille et gai.
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