But his beat lies in France, Spain, and Italy. It is the romance
of the Continent, and not that of England, which inspires him. It is the
ruddy light upon the vines and the scraps of old _chansons_ which
enliven and decorate his pilgrimage, and through all his literary life
they have not lost their fascination. While Irving sketches "Rural Life
in England," Longfellow paints "The Village of Auteuil"; Irving gives us
"The Boar's Head Tavern," and Longfellow "The Golden Lion Inn" at Rouen;
Irving draws "A Royal Poet," Longfellow discusses "The Trouveres," or
"The Devotional Poetry of Spain." It is delightful to trace the charming
resemblance between the books and the writers, widely different as they
are. There is the same geniality, the same tender pathos, the same
lambent humor, the same delicate observation of details, the same
overpowering instinct of literary art. But Geoffrey Crayon is a
humorist, while the Pilgrim beyond the Sea is a poet. The one looks at
the broad aspects of English life with the shrewd, twinkling eye of a
man of the world; the other haunts the valley of the Loire, the German
street, the Spanish inn, with the kindling fancy of the scholar and
poet.
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