HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Martyr of Montmartre
long tending of the swine.' It is dehghtful to go
home to God, even after a tending of the sheep.
Poor Heine had Hved a sort of living death for
years, quite deprived of his limbs, and suffering tortures
to boot, I understand." ^^
It is thus obvious that even before Heine's death
the pre-Victorian picture of him as the Beelzebub
among the poets was gradually yielding to a greater
admiration for his unique talents. The first English
legend of him as blackguard and apostate never
faded wholly, but it was modified by the E^rly
Victorians to include a higher appraisal of his genius.
He thus became in their eyes the wit among the
poets, the most lucid of German prose writers, the
most brilliant of Satan's brood, the Teutonic counterpart
of Byron and Voltaire. To quote from an
epigram by Clement Mansfield Ingleby:
"Three Lyric Poets, in three generations
Were born and flourished in three rival nations.
The first in mockery and wit surpassed:
The next in intellect: in both the last.
Spent Nature rested when she'd made the pair,
Then Heine formed from Byron and Voltaire." "
And before long the mid-Victorians were destined
to elevate the poet to dizziest heights and to super-
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