Horace ou Naissance de l'homme. by Louis HerlandReview by: H. Carrington LancasterModern Language Notes, Vol. 68, No. 6 (Jun., 1953), pp. 430-431Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3043145 .

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430 MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES, JUNE, 1953

Horace ou Naissance de l'homme. Par Louis HIERLAND. [IParis]: Les Editions de nminuit, 1952. Pp. 213.

Corneille's Horace has, according to M. Herland, two plots, eventually connected, one concerned with Camille, the other with Horace. The first is the older type of tragedy resulting in the death of heroine or hero, exemplified by Sophonisbe, Miariane, Lucrece, M1ort de Cesar. It gives the first example in the history of French tragedy of a girl as heroine rather than a married woman. The other and major plot is distinctly Cornelian, the " tragedie de l'epreuve."

The protagonist has been misunderstood by actors, audiences, and professors, even, perhaps, by Corneille himself. Horace is not a brutal fanatic. He is at first presented as " la plus pure et la plus sainte figure de heros " (p. 146) with " les sentiments les plus delicats envers sa sceur." He is devoted to Curiace and seeks to make him rejoice with him in the honor that has been conferred on them of cutting each other's throat. It is because Curiace is incapable of rising to his moral height that he renounces him in " Albe vous a nomme, je ne vous connais plus." But he suffers deeply. His show of bravado is assumed in order to cover up his emotion. After he has killed his friend, he suffers more than Camille (p. 168). So much is this the case that he seeks to put away all thought of Curiace, but she names him and at the same time belittles Rome. Can she be right? If so, Horace has killed his friend in an evil cause. He must not think such things. She must not make him doubt. She must be out of his way. " Va dans les enfers plaindre ton Curiace."

He never admits that he has done wrong. He merely leaves the matter to his father and to his king:

Et le plus innocent devient soudain coupable Quand aux yeux de son prince il parait condamnable.

This is interpreted as an ironical attack upon the principle of monarchy, but Tullus fails to get the point and pardons this " guerrier trop magnanime," who now, through suffering, has become a m-nan, the first protagonist in French tragedy to be a man rather than a hero, hence the sub-title of the book.

M. Herland has read Corneille with great care, but he has ileglected his contemporaries. To claim that Camille is the first girl heroine is to forget Iole in Rotrou's Hercule mourant, the title-role in his Antigone, Lydie in Du Ryer's Alcionee, etc. To present as a noble hero a man who rejoices in being called upon to fight against his friend and who not only kills his sister but is not displeased with himself for having done so recalls the exaltation of force that we used to hear from the Nazis. Yet M. Herland cannot himself hold their doctrines, for no Nazi would

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REVIEWS 431

give an ironical interpretation to the words spoken by Horace to his king. They appear in a play dedicated to Richelieu, no place for irony at the expense of monarchs, especially from a dramatist who declared that he was " entierement redevable " to the Cardinal for his reputation. Nor do I think that Horace is the first French protagonist to become a man through suffering. llerode, who kills his wife as Horace kills his sister and is certainly a man rather than a hero, had appeared in two French tragedies before Horace.

I must add, however, that M. Herland presents his interpretation of the play with force and subtlety. His book is well worth the attention even of those whose academic training prevents their agreeing with him.

H3. CARRINGTON LANCASTER

Elements of Critical Theory (Perspectives in Criticism: 1). By WAYNE SHUMAKER. Berkeley: University of California Press: 1952. Pp. x + 131. $2.75.

The outcome of this brief study of critical theory is that one's system of values is intimately connected with one's basic philosophy and that one's basic philosophy is a development of a " root- metaphor," a term invented by Professor S. C. Pepper of the University of California. According to Mr. Pepper there are only four root-metaphors which eventuate in four systems of meta- physics: mechanism, formism, organism, and contextualism. Organistic and formistic philosophies emphasize the formal proper- ties of art; mechanistic and contextualistic philosophies emphasize "the ability of art to evoke sensations" (p. 99). For further details, one should consult Mr. Pepper's World Hypotheses. Since Mr. Shumaker does not believe that a critic need be aware of his basic philosophy, it is difficult to see just what good it does to spend time elaborating it. In what sense of the word an uncon- scious assumption is an element in a theory deserves some clarifica- tion, for logically it is possible that a statement be implied by two or more contrary propositions. And when one is trying to discover the unconscious ideas which a man may or may not hold, one is by the very nature of the problem forced to work backwards from conclusion to premises.

Mr. Shumaker, moreover, wastes a good deal of space on diction- ary definitions of the word " criticism." Such definitions are bound to lead to greater and greater confusion for the simple reason that dictionaries present collections of the various ways in which a termn is used and nothing more. In a study of this type, however, an author has simply to tell his readers how he proposes to use the

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