A Short History of French Literature

152

Ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, viii. 1-259.

153

Villon sut le premier, dans ces siècles grossiers,Débrouiller l'art confus de nos vieux romanciers. Art Poét. Ch. 1.

154

Ed. P. L. Jacob. Paris, 1854. Villon's life has been the subject of numerous elaborate investigations, the latest and best of which is that of A. Longnon. Paris, 1877. Dr. Bijvanck, a Dutch scholar, has dealt since with the MSS.

155

One of these anecdotes makes him patronised by Edward the Fifth of England. But the very terms of it are unsuitable to that king.

156

The reader may be reminded that the Testament was a recognised mediaeval style. It was satirical and allegorical, the legacies which it gave being mostly indicative of the legatee's weaknesses or personal peculiarities.

157

Ed. Chantelauze. Paris, 1881. Also usefully in Michaud et Poujoulat.

158

Ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove. 2 vols. Brussels, 1867-8.

159

Ed. Héricault. 2 vols. Paris, 1857.

160

Edited in part by J. Quicherat. Paris, 1856.

161

Martial d'Auvergne had the exceptional good luck to be reprinted in the 18th century (Vigilles 1724, Arrêts 1731), but he has not recently found an editor, though an edition of the Amant rendu Cordelier has been for some time due from the Société des Anciens Textes. The notice by M. de Montaiglon (the promised editor of the edition just mentioned) in Crepet's Poètes Français, i. 427, has been chiefly used here for facts.

162

Ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, as previously cited. For the remainder of the poets reviewed in this paragraph, few of whom have found modern editors, see Crepet, Poètes Français, vol. i.

163

iii. 21.

164

Paris, 1876.

165

De Belges, though the less usual, is the more accurate form. We are at length promised a complete edition of him in the admirable series of the Belgian Academy, one of the best in appearance and editing, and by far the cheapest of all such series. He was born in 1475, held posts in the household of the Governors of the Netherlands, was historiographer to Louis XII., and died either in 1524 or in 1548.

166

See Poètes Français, i. 532. It is perhaps well to say that M. C. d'Héricault, though a very agreeable as well as a very learned writer, is particularly open to the charge that his geese are swans.

167

Ed. C. d'Héricault. Paris, 1855.

168

See Poètes Français, vol. i. ad fin., for the poets mentioned in this paragraph and others of their kind.

169

He was in his old age conspicuous among the enemies of Étienne Dolet. See Étienne Dolet, by R. C. Christie. London, 1880.

170

Ed Jannet et C. d'Héricault. 4 vols. Paris, 2nd ed. 1873. M. d'Héricault has prefixed a much larger study of Marot than is to be found here to his edition of the 'beauties' of the poet, published by Messrs. Garnier. The late M. Guiffrey published two volumes of a costly and splendid edition, which his death interrupted.

171

The blason (description) was a child of the mediaeval dit. Marot's examples, Le beau Tétin and Le laid Tétin, were copied ad infinitum. The first is panegyric, the second abuse.

172

Ed. Frank. 4 vols. Paris, 1873-4.

173

i. 651.

174

Ed. Tross. Paris, 1871.

175

Ed. Blanchemain, 3 vols. Paris, 1873.

176

This great collection, which awaits its completion of glossary, etc., was published between 1855 and 1878, and is invaluable to any one desiring to appreciate the general characteristics of the poetical literature of the time.

177

Much help has been received in the writing of this chapter, and indeed of this book, from the excellent work of MM. Hatzfeld and Darmesteter, Le Seizième Siècle en France (Paris, 1878), one of the best histories extant in a small compass of a brief but important period of literature. We may hope for a still more elaborate study of the same subject in English from Mr. Arthur Tilley, of King's College, Cambridge. An introductory volume to this study appeared in 1885.

178

Among these may be mentioned the charming story of Jehan de Paris (ed. Montaiglon, Paris, 1874), which M. de Montaiglon has clearly proved to be of the end of the fifteenth century. It is a cross between a Roman d'aventures and a nursery tale, telling how the King of France as 'John of Paris' outwitted the King of England in the suit for the hand of the Infanta of Spain.

179

Ed. Jannet and Moland. 7 vols. (2nd ed.) Paris, 1873. Also ed. Marty-Laveaux, vols. 1-4. Paris, 1870-81.

180

The question has been again discussed since the text was written by M. Paul Lacroix (Paris, 1881), whose facts and arguments fully bear out the view taken here. The other side is taken, though not very decidedly, in the fourth volume of M. Marty-Laveaux' edition. The two contain a tolerably complete survey of the question.

181

The best general commentary on Rabelais is that of M. J. Fleury. 2 vols. St. Petersburg, 1876-7.

182

For an excellent account of Folengo, see Symonds' Renaissance in Italy, vol. v. chap. 14.

183

Ed. Lacour. 2 vols. Paris, 1866.

184

Ed. Leroux de Lincy. 3 vols. Paris, 1855.

185

She was born in 1492, and was thus two years older than her brother Francis I. She married first the Duke d'Alençon, then Henri d'Albert King of Navarre. Her private character has been most unjustly attacked. She died in 1549. Marguerite is spoken of by four surnames; de Valois from her family; d'Angoulême from her father's title; d'Alençon from her first husband's; and de Navarre from that of her second. In literature, to distinguish her from her great-niece, the first wife of Henri IV., Marguerite d'Angoulême is the term most commonly used.

186

Ed. La Borderie. Paris, 1878. The bibliography of this book is very curious.

187

Ed. Hippeau. 2 vols. Paris, 1875.

188

Ed. Roybet. Paris. In course of publication.

189

Ed. Tricotel. 2 vols. Paris, 1879.

190

Ed. Ristelhuber. 2 vols. Paris, 1879.

191

Ed. Jacob. Paris, 1868. It is possibly not Béroalde's.

192

The list is sometimes given rather differently; instead of Jodelle and Pontus de Tyard, Scévole de St. Marthe and Muretus are substituted. But the enumeration in the text is the accepted one.

193

Ed. Blanchemain. 8 vols. Paris, 1857-67.

194

The term usually applied to him by contemporaries.

195

Ed. Marty-Laveaux. 2 vols. Paris, 1866-7.

196

Ed. Gouverneur. 3 vols. Paris, 1866.

197

Not recently re-edited in full. In selection by Becq de Fouquières. Paris, 1874.

198

Recently edited in 5 vols. by Courbet. Paris, v. d.

199

Ed. Blanchemain. 2 vols. Geneva, 1869.

200

Du Bartas, always unjustly treated in France, probably from a curious tradition of mingled sectarian and literary jealousy, has not been reprinted of late years. The edition used is that of 1610-1611. Paris, 2 vols, folio.

201

Ed. Réaume and de Caussade. Vols. 1-4. Paris, 1873-7. There is another volume to follow.

202

Here are these celebrated lines: —

Ronsard, qui le suivit, par une autre méthode

Réglant tout, brouilla tout, fit un art à sa mode,

Et toutefois longtemps eut un heureux destin.

Mais sa muse en Français parlant Grec et Latin

Vit dans l'âge suivant, par un retour grotesque,

Tomber de ses grands mots le faste pédantesque.

Ce poète orgueilleux, trébuché de si haut,

Rendit puis retenus Desportes et Bertaut.

Art Poét., Chant i.

203

Ed. Michiels. Paris, 1858.

204

He was not a courtier for nothing. He held numerous abbacies, and Charles IX. is said to have given him 800 gold pieces, Henri III. 10,000 crowns of silver, in each case for a poetical offering of very small bulk.

205

Ed. Héricault, Montaiglon, and Rothschild. 2 vols. Paris. 1858-1877.

206

Ancien Théâtre Français, vol. iv.

207

A good modern edition has appeared by Förster. Heilbronn, 1882.

208

Ancien Théâtre Français, vol. vi. vii.

209

Cauvin or Chauvin is the more correct form, but the Latinised Calvinus made Calvin more usual. Calvin's works are voluminous. The Institution was published in convenient shape at Paris in 1859.

210

Most of Amyot is accessible only in the old editions. A beautiful edition of the Daphnis and Chloe has been published by L. Glady. London, 1878.

211

Dolet's works are not easily to be found except in public libraries. The standard book on him is that of Mr. R. C. Christie (London, 1880), one of the best monographs on French literary history to be found in any language.

212

2 vols. Paris, 1849.

213

The standard edition until recently has been that of Le Clerc (4 vols. Paris, 1866). That of Louandre in the Bibliothèque Charpentier is handy and useful. MM. Courbet and Roger have begun a handsome edition.

214

The references are to the edition of Louandre.

215

De la Sagesse. 2 vols. Paris, 1789.

216

Ed. 1641.

217

Ed. 1578.

218

Ed. Feugère. Paris, 1846.

219

Ed. Buchon. 2 vols. Paris, 1839. The Société de l'Histoire de France has a voluminous edition on hand. Mérimée, who was a great admirer of Brantôme, began an edition for the Bibliothèque Elzévirienne, but left it unfinished.

220

Montluc's Memoirs, as well as most of those mentioned below, will be found in the collection of Michaud and Poujoulat.

221

The earlier editions of this writer are not complete. In 1875 a full reprint was begun.

222

Ed. Labitte. Paris, 1869.

223

Ed. Courbet. Paris, 1875. In this edition some of the dates and statements in the text, which have been generally accepted, are contested.

224

Ed. Lalanne. 5 vols. Paris, 1862 67; also (poems only) conveniently by Jannet. Paris, 1874. Besides his verse Malherbe wrote some translations of Seneca and Livy, and a great number of letters, including many to Peiresc, a savant of the time who is best known from Gassendi's Life of him.

225

Ed. Latour. 2 vols. Paris, 1857.

226

Ed. Alleaume. 2 vols. Paris, 1855.

227

Ed. Ubicini. 2 vols. Paris, 1855.

228

Ed. Livet. 2 vols. Paris, 1855.

229

This is in reality the beginning of the second line of the poem, though it is often quoted as if it were the first.

230

Ed. Moland. 7 vols. Paris, 1879. Also ed. Regnier, vol. i. Paris, 1883.

231

In previous editions this date was, by an oversight, wrongly printed as 1662. M. Scherer in correcting it has himself made a probable mistake in giving '1665.' That date is on the title-page, but the achevé d'imprimer is dated Dec. 10, 1664, and as a second edition was finished by Jan. 10, 1665, it is practically certain that the book was out before the end of the year.

232

Ed. Fournier. Paris, 1873.

233

Ed. Stengel. 5 vols. Marburg, 1884. Cf. Rigal, Alexandre Hardy. Paris, 1889.

234

This singular work has been published in vol. 8 of the Ancien Théâtre Français in the Bibliothèque Elzévirienne. It consists of two parts (or, as the author calls them, days), and fills some two hundred pages. The traditions of the classical drama are thrown to the winds in it, and the liberty of action, the abundance of personages, the bustle and liveliness of the presentation are almost equal to those of the contemporary English theatre.

235

Ed. Viollet-le-Duc. Also in a convenient selection of his best plays, by L. de Ronchaud. Paris, 1882.

236

It is pretty generally known that Richelieu himself (besides other dramatic work) composed the whole, or nearly the whole, of a play Mirame, which he had sumptuously performed, and which was fathered by Desmarest. It possessed no merit.

237

Ed. Marty-Laveaux. 12 vols. Paris, 1862-67.

238

Ed. Mesnard. 8 vols. Paris, 1867.

239

The work of (or attributed to) this singular and obscure person has been edited by M. G. Aventin in 2 vols, of the Bibliothèque Elzévirienne (Paris, 1858). The name was certainly assumed, and the date and history of the bearer are quite uncertain. The third decade of the seventeenth century seems to have been his most flourishing time. He was the most remarkable of a class of charlatans, others of whom bore the names of Gaultier-Garguille, Gros-Guillaume, etc., and the work which goes under his name is typical of a large mass of facetiae. It consists of dialogues between Tabarin and his master, of farcical adventures in which figure Rodomont (the typical hero of romance) and Isabelle (the typical heroine), etc., etc.

240

These will be found in the dramatic collection of the Bibliothèque Elzévirienne already cited, as well as other pieces, of which the most remarkable is the Corrivaux of Troterel (1612). Saint-Evremond among his earlier works produced a Comédie des Académistes, satirising the then young Academy.

241

Ed. Moland. 7 vols. Paris, 1863. Ed. (in 'Grands Ecrivains' series) Despois, Regnier, and Mesnard. Paris (in progress).

242

Not du Tendre, as it is often erroneously cited in French and English works.

243

The learned editor of Tallemant des Réaux calls her Marie Hortense. She also wrote verses and plays. There were many other romance writers of the period now forgotten, or remembered only for other things, such as the Abbé d'Aubignac.

244

I cannot boast of an intimate or exhaustive acquaintance with the 'heroic' romances; but I have taken care to satisfy myself of the accuracy of the statements in the text.

245

Ed. Dillaye. 2 vols. Paris, 1881.

246

The full title is Histoire Comique des États de la Lune et du Soleil. Cyrano's works have been edited by P. L. Jacob. 2 vols. Paris, 1858.

247

Ed. Colombey. Paris, 1877.

248

Ed. Jannet. 2 vols. Paris, 1878.

249

Ed. Garnier. Paris, 1864.

250

Madame de la Fayette also wrote La Comtesse de Tende, and interesting Memoirs of Henrietta of England. Zaïde was published under the name of Segrais, who was a nouvelle-writer of no great merit, though a pleasant poet.

251

See H. Bonhomme, Le Cabinet des Fées.

252

Ed. Lefèvre. Paris, 1875. Ed. Lang. Oxford, 1888.

253

The following paragraph contains, except as far as Mézeray is concerned, chiefly second-hand information. I have hitherto been unable to devote the time necessary to enable me to speak at first hand of these books, which are very bulky, not as a rule interesting or important in manner, and for the most part long obsolete in matter.

254

The legend, familiar probably to most readers, is that Vertot required documents for his account of a certain military operation. Tired with waiting for them, he constructed the history out of his own head, and when they arrived made the ejaculation in the text.

255

This, with some other of the pieces here mentioned, will be found in two volumes of the Collection Didot, entitled Petits Chefs d'œuvre Historiques.

256

Ed. Feillet, Gourdault and Chantelauze. Paris (in progress).

257

Ed. Gilbert et Gourdault. Paris, 1868-81.

258

Ed. Feuillet de Conches. 19 vols. Paris, 1854-61.

259

Memoirs, ed. Chéruel. 20 vols. Paris, 1873. Now being re-edited by M. de Boislisle. Miscellaneous works are also appearing.

260

Ed. Bertrand et de Cosnac. Vol. i. Paris, 1882.

261

Ed. Monmerqué. 14 vols. Paris, 1861-66, to which must be added 2 vols. of Lettres Inédites discovered and published by M. Capmas.

262

A full and excellently edited selection has been given by A. Geffroy. 2 vols. Paris, 1887.

263

10 vols. Paris, 1855-63.

264

10 vols. in 5. Ed. Monmerqué. Third edition. Paris, n. d.

265

He has not recently been re-edited, but a selection was published in 1822.

266

Editions of Pascal are numerous, but a complete and definite one is still wanting. Of the Pensées, etc., the editions of Faugère, Havet, and Rocher may be mentioned; of the Provinciales, the edition of 1867.

267

Ed. Giraud. 3 vols. Paris, 1866. (A selection only, but containing almost everything of importance.)

268

Perhaps Anthony Hamilton should be added, as a channel of communication with Saint Evremond and some of the seventeenth century coterie-writers.

269

Ed. as before noticed. The Maxims have been constantly reprinted by themselves.

270

Ed. Servois. Paris, 1865-1882.

271

Under the head of this chapter, in an exhaustive history, not a few classes of writers might be ranged. Such are, besides great numbers of miscellaneous writers of criticism from Corneille in his Examens downwards, the classical commentators, editors, and translators. Few of these have left a very enduring reputation. In the earlier part of the century Perrot d'Ablancourt, a fertile translator, may be mentioned. His work was so free that his versions were called 'les belles infidèles,' but Boileau himself admitted that he was a master of French style. In the latter part the best-known and perhaps the most remarkable name is that of the still famous Madame Dacier. Many of the early members of the Academy, and some who never attained to its ranks, have left a reputation more anecdotic than strictly literary, such as Ménage (a representative of the class), Cotin, Costar, Bautru, etc. But they can only be alluded to here. Law also contributed in the person of Patru, a writer for the most part on professional topics, but occasionally on literature, who is ranked by Boileau with Perrot d'Ablancourt in respect of style.

272

Not fully edited yet. Cousin's edition is the fullest, but the important French works figure in many popular collections and are easily accessible.

273

He was 'as restless as a hyæna,' says De Quincey, not unjustly.

274

Professor Mahaffy, Descartes. Blackwood, 1880.

275

'La philosophie donne moyen de parler vraisemblablement de toutes choses, et se faire admirer des moins savants.'

276

Sainte-Beuve, Port Royal. 6 vols. Paris, 1859-61.

277

These men, such as Saint Ibal, Bardouville, Desbarreaux, and others, figure largely in the anecdotic history of the time. In the persons of Théophile and Saint Evremond they touch on literature: but for the most part they were chiefly distinguished by revolting coarseness and blasphemy of expression, and by a childish delight in outraging religious sentiment, which was often changed into abject terror or hypocritical compliance as death approached. They were commonly called philosophes, a degradation of the word which was not much mended in the next century, though it then acquired a more strictly literary meaning.

278

Ed. Simon. 1854.

279

Bossuet's works are extremely voluminous. The most important of them are easily obtainable in the Collection Didot and similar libraries.

280

There is a fairly representative edition of Fénelon in five vols. large 8vo. Didot. Separate works are easily accessible.

281

Edition as in Fénelon's case. Selections of all the orthodox sermon-writers are abundant.

282

This was an album to which the poets of the day, from Corneille downwards, contributed verses, each on a different flower.

283

p. 267.

284

Editions of almost all authors of any merit from the beginning of the eighteenth century are common and accessible enough. They will, therefore, not be specially indicated henceforward unless there is some special reason for the citation, such as the peculiar elegance or literary merit of a particular edition, or else the comparative rarity of the book in any form.

285

Chénier has been somewhat unfortunate in his editors. The only complete and accurate edition (though it is far from perfect) is that of M. Gabriel de Chénier. 3 vols. 1879.

286

Excellent selections from many of these lighter poets have recently been put forth under the editorship of M. Octave Uzanne.

287

Rouget de L'Isle, the author of the famous Marseillaise, deserves mention for that only. He published poems, but their singular difference from, and inferiority to, his masterpiece were the chief causes of the scepticism (apparently ill-founded) which has sometimes been displayed as to his authorship of it.