It is by mistake that this edition was announced as augmented by manynew chapters. The word should have been unpublished. In fact, if by new,newly made is to be understood, the chapters added to this edition arenot new. They were written at the same time as the rest of the work;they date from the same epoch, and sprang from the same thought, theyhave always formed a part of the manuscript of "Notre-Dame-de-Paris."Moreover, the author cannot comprehend how fresh developments could beadded to a work of this character after its completion. This is not tobe done at will. According to his idea, a romance is born in a mannerthat is, in some sort, necessary, with all its chapters; a drama is bornwith all its scenes. Think not that there is anything arbitrary in thenumbers of parts of which that whole, that mysterious microcosm whichyou call a drama or a romance, is composed. Grafting and solderingtake badly on works of this nature, which should gush forth in a singlestream and so remain. The thing once done, do not change your mind, donot touch it up. The book once published, the sex of the work, whethervirile or not, has been recognized and proclaimed; when the child hasonce uttered his first cry he is born, there he is, he is made so,neither father nor mother can do anything, he belongs to the air andto the sun, let him live or die, such as he is. Has your book been afailure? So much the worse. Add no chapters to an unsuccessful book. Isit incomplete? You should have completed it when you conceived it.Is your tree crooked? You cannot straighten it up. Is your romanceconsumptive? Is your romance not capable of living? You cannot supply itwith the breath which it lacks. Has your drama been born lame? Take myadvice, and do not provide it with a wooden leg.
Hence the author attaches particular importance to the public knowingfor a certainty that the chapters here added have not been madeexpressly for this reprint. They were not published in the precedingeditions of the book for a very simple reason. At the time when"Notre-Dame-de-Paris" was printed the first time, the manuscript ofthese three chapters had been mislaid. It was necessary to rewrite themor to dispense with them. The author considered that the only two ofthese chapters which were in the least important, owing to their extent,were chapters on art and history which in no way interfered with thegroundwork of the drama and the romance, that the public would notnotice their loss, and that he, the author, would alone be in possessionof the secret. He decided to omit them, and then, if the whole truthmust be confessed, his indolence shrunk from the task of rewriting thethree lost chapters. He would have found it a shorter matter to make anew romance.
Now the chapters have been found, and he avails himself of the firstopportunity to restore them to their place.
This now, is his entire work, such as he dreamed it, such as he made it,good or bad, durable or fragile, but such as he wishes it.
These recovered chapters will possess no doubt, but little value inthe eyes of persons, otherwise very judicious, who have sought in"Notre-Dame-de-Paris" only the drama, the romance. But there areperchance, other readers, who have not found it useless to study theaesthetic and philosophic thought concealed in this book, and who havetaken pleasure, while reading "Notre-Dame-de-Paris," in unravellingbeneath the romance something else than the romance, and in following(may we be pardoned these rather ambitious expressions), the systemof the historian and the aim of the artist through the creation of thepoet.
For such people especially, the chapters added to this edition willcomplete "Notre-Dame-de-Paris," if we admit that "Notre-Dame-de-Paris"was worth the trouble of completing.
In one of these chapters on the present decadence of architecture, andon the death (in his mind almost inevitable) of that king of arts, theauthor expresses and develops an opinion unfortunately well rooted inhim, and well thought out. But he feels it necessary to say here that heearnestly desires that the future may, some day, put him in the wrong.He knows that art in all its forms has everything to hope from the newgenerations whose genius, still in the germ, can be heard gushing forthin our studios. The grain is in the furrow, the harvest will certainlybe fine. He merely fears, and the reason may be seen in the secondvolume of this edition, that the sap may have been withdrawn from thatancient soil of architecture which has been for so many centuries thebest field for art.
Nevertheless, there are to-day in the artistic youth so much life,power, and, so to speak, predestination, that in our schools ofarchitecture in particular, at the present time, the professors, whoare detestable, produce, not only unconsciously but even in spite ofthemselves, excellent pupils; quite the reverse of that potter mentionedby Horace, who dreamed amphorae and produced pots. _Currit rota, urcensexit_.
But, in any case, whatever may be the future of architecture, inwhatever manner our young architects may one day solve the question oftheir art, let us, while waiting for new monument, preserve the ancientmonuments. Let us, if possible, inspire the nation with a love fornational architecture. That, the author declares, is one of theprincipal aims of this book; it is one of the principal aims of hislife.
"Notre-Dame-de-Paris" has, perhaps opened some true perspectives on theart of the Middle Ages, on that marvellous art which up to the presenttime has been unknown to some, and, what is worse, misknown by others.But the author is far from regarding as accomplished, the task which hehas voluntarily imposed on himself. He has already pleaded on more thanone occasion, the cause of our ancient architecture, he has alreadyloudly denounced many profanations, many demolitions, many impieties. Hewill not grow weary. He has promised himself to recur frequently to thissubject. He will return to it. He will be as indefatigable in defendingour historical edifices as our iconoclasts of the schools and academiesare eager in attacking them; for it is a grievous thing to see intowhat hands the architecture of the Middle Ages has fallen, and in what amanner the botchers of plaster of the present day treat the ruin of thisgrand art, it is even a shame for us intelligent men who see them atwork and content ourselves with hooting them. And we are not speakinghere merely of what goes on in the provinces, but of what is done inParis at our very doors, beneath our windows, in the great city, in thelettered city, in the city of the press, of word, of thought. We cannotresist the impulse to point out, in concluding this note, some ofthe acts of vandalism which are every day planned, debated, begun,continued, and successfully completed under the eyes of the artisticpublic of Paris, face to face with criticism, which is disconcerted byso much audacity. An archbishop's palace has just been demolished, anedifice in poor taste, no great harm is done; but in a block with thearchiepiscopal palace a bishop's palace has been demolished, a rarefragment of the fourteenth century, which the demolishing architectcould not distinguish from the rest. He has torn up the wheat withthe tares; 'tis all the same. They are talking of razing theadmirable chapel of Vincennes, in order to make, with its stones, somefortification, which Daumesnil did not need, however. While the PalaisBourbon, that wretched edifice, is being repaired at great expense,gusts of wind and equinoctial storms are allowed to destroy themagnificent painted windows of the Sainte-Chapelle. For the last fewdays there has been a scaffolding on the tower of Saint Jacques de laBoucherie; and one of these mornings the pick will be laid to it. Amason has been found to build a little white house between the venerabletowers of the Palais de-Justice. Another has been found willing to pruneaway Saint-Germain-des-Pres, the feudal abbey with three bell towers.Another will be found, no doubt, capable of pulling down Saint-Germainl'Auxerrois. All these masons claim to be architects, are paid by theprefecture or from the petty budget, and wear green coats. All the harmwhich false taste can inflict on good taste, they accomplish. Whilewe write, deplorable spectacle! one of them holds possession of theTuileries, one of them is giving Philibert Delorme a scar across themiddle of his face; and it is not, assuredly, one of the least of thescandals of our time to see with what effrontery the heavy architectureof this gentleman is being flattened over one of the most delicatefacades of the Renaissance!
PARIS, October 20, 1832.
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