And from this masterpiece of simple and direct emotion, which to me has always seemed the high-water mark of Hugo's lyrical achievement as well as the most human of his utterances, one might pass on to masterpieces of another inspiration: to the luxurious and charming graces of _Sara la Baigneuse_; to the superb crescendo and diminuendo of _les Djinns_; to 'Si vous n'avez rien a me dire,' that daintiest of songlets; to the ringing rhymes and gallant spirit of the _Pas d'Armes du Roi Jean_: 'Sus, ma bete, De facon Que je fete Ce grison! Je te baille Pour ripaille Plus de paille, Plus de son, Qu'un gros frere, Gai, friand, Ne peut faire, Mendiant Par les places Ou tu passes, De grimaces En priant!'-- to the melodious tenderness of 'Si tu voulais, Madelaine'; to the gay music of the _Stances a Jeanne_: 'Je ne me mets pas en peine Du clocher ni du beffroi. Je ne sais rien de la reine, Et je ne sais rien du roi.'-- to the admirable song of the wind of the sea: 'Quels sont les bruits sourds? Ecoutez vers l'onde Cette voix profonde Qui pleure toujours, Et qui toujours gronde, Quoiqu'un son plus claire Parfois l'interrompe . . . Le vent de la mer Souffle dans sa trompe.'-- to the _Romance Mauresque_, to the barbaric fury of _les Reitres_, to the magnificent rodomontade of the _Romancero du Cid_. 'J'en passe, et des meilleurs,' as Ruy Gomez observes of his ancestors. Here at any rate are jewels enough to furnish forth a casket that should be one of the richest of its kind! The worst is, they are most of them not necessaries but luxuries. It is impossible to conceive of life without Shakespeare and Burns, without _Paradise Lost_ and the _Intimations_ ode and the immortal pageant of the _Canterbury Tales_; but (the technical question apart) to imagine it wanting Hugo's lyrics is easy enough. The largesse of which he was so prodigal has but an arbitrary and conventional value. Like the magician's money much has changed, almost in the act of distribution, into withered leaves; and such of it as seems minted of good metal is not for general circulation. HEINE The Villainy Translation.